Down On The Corner
· Michael Schroeder, mandolinist with New Horizon and the Buzzard Rock String Band, and director of the Louisville Mandolin Orchestra, is taking a different turn on the mandolin. He will travel down to Knoxville, Tenn., to perform with the Knoxville Symphony Orchestra, which will be doing Mahler's 8th Symphony. The symphony has a mandolin part. Performances will be on April 23 and 24.
· Bob Ramsey has gotten a great summer job: keyboard player with Leon Russell's new tour band. Ramsey got the gig this way: Russell described the keyboard player he wanted to Jack Wessel, his bass and harmony vocalist. Wessel, who is from Louisville, was nearly in the band Mr. Charlie with Hank Linderman (now living in LA and doing well) and Ramsey. Wessel called Ramsey to see if he was interested. Ramsey took Lonnie Mack's drummer Jeff McAllister with him to Nashville to audition, figuring that he didn't really have a chance but would get to met Russell and visit some friends.
A couple of weeks later came the phone call. Ramsey will join the tour May 28, either in Dallas or Houston, with Danny Darling from Joe Ely's tour as drummer. He will take a leave of absence from his job at Phil Copeland Productions and says he really hates giving up his job with the Redbirds, especially after just being on national TV on Ed Bradley's Street Stories.
· It's hard to believe that Jim Porter's Goodtime Emporium is two years old already (under the current ownership, that is), but it's true. Congrats to the Rogers family.
· Over in Jeffersonville at the Village Pub, things just keep improving – that's why there's always construction dust around. Owner Kamran Javid consistly books the best country in Southern Indiana – at least Coyote swears it's so. Would Coyote lie to us?
· Then there's the Golden Nugget in Hikes Point – thirty years in the Steier family and still booking live music.
· How Could I Forget Dept. Last month I meant to write up Talleywacker's, the new club on Frankfort Avenue. Mark Talley, the owner thereof, reminded me that I didn't. Sorry, guy. Anyway, whenever there is a new club booking live music, it's a noteworthy event, so pack up your ears and scoot on over or out or in to Talleywacker's, 3220 Frankfort. Call Mark at 895-4747 ask for his schedule of live music, which runs Wednesdays through Sundays.
· Somebody call and give me a report on the Music Maker Cafe, Jackie Johnson's place waaay out south. (Okay, I live waaay out east.) Jackie is a pretty good songwriter and singer and he's modelled the MMC after Amy Kurland's Bluebird Cafe down in Nashville.
· Gary Falk has added "Author" to his list of credits. In addition to his studio and performing activities, he wrote a lengthy piece for the March 1992 issue of Recording Engineering Production Magazine. The article, entitled "The Falk Recording Console," was about the construction of his new recording studio console, which Gary designed and built.
· Kentucky Headhunter Fred Young won the Modern Drummer magazine for the best country drummer. Yeah!
· Two local bands made the charts last month. Both Uncle Pecos and John Allen charted in American Bullet, one of the bigger independent charts. The Uncle Pecos boys knew it was coming, but Charlie Walls, owner of Music Man Records, John Allen's label, was completely surprised when I called him about it. He drove right up from Springfield to get a copy.
· Last month's LMN feature band, Bride, won a Dove for Metal Song of the Year, for "Everybody Knows My Name." Way to go, guys.
· Finally, congrats to Cosmo, who is celebrating thirty years in the Biz this month. Read about him in Jean Metcalfe's feature story this month.
· Once More With Relish Dept. David La Duke writes to report that he has another couple of tracks on the Caprice Radio Singles Sampler. Caprice is the distributor for La Duke's SB records.
· They Come and They Go Dept. A couple of Louisville-area bands are calling it quits. Fire Dept., the Toy Tiger stalwart, is wrapping it up in mid-May. As a good-bye, the roup will stage a week-long series of jams from May 18 to May 23. They'll be giving away all many of things, as well as bringing back as many former members of Fire Dept. as possible. FD says they're calling it quits for financial reasons.
Spanky Lee is also disbanding. Citing the ever-present "artistic differences," Mark and Max Maxwell, Chip Adams and Chuck Mingis are taking a different direction with their songwriting and performing. It's a rough business.