Hi! Hope you’re all doing well. It’s been a busy week and right now, I’m getting ready to go see Bob Dylan at Bethel Woods, so this week’s is gonna be an abbreviated column. We’ll do the live music picks and I do have one bit of very cool news, which I’ll get to first.

Starting September 17^th, I will be a regular guest on John Madeo’s Little Delaware Jamboree radio show, which is broadcast every other Monday night at 8 PM on WIOX, 91.3 FM, and on the web at www.wioxradio.org. Basically, what John and I will be doing, is bringing this column to the airwaves. We’ll talk about the latest news from the music world and then discuss upcoming live shows. We might even play some music! It should be a lot of fun and I’m looking forward to it with much anticipation. I hope y’all will tune in.

So that’s it for now. I gotta go see Bob, so let’s get right to this week’s live music picks.

Wednesday, September 5 – Tonight is an easy choice, but don’t expect the rest of the week to be like tonight. There’s a lot going on this week. Tonight, if you’re in the city, you gotta go see THE VERNON REID TRIO at The Iridium. Vernon was the guitar player, founder, and principal songwriter in the two time GRAMMY winning, platinum selling band, Living Color (Cult of Personality), amongst a long list of impressive “A” list credits, not the least of which is that The Rolling Stones wanted to sign him to a record deal! And in Woodstock, The Grateful Dead’s, MICKEY HART, will bring some sort of percussion driven ensemble into The Bearsville Theater.
Thursday, September 6 – My old pals, THE NEW RIDERS OF THE PURPLE SAGE, will be riding in to BB King’s. My other pal, Federico Pereda, who almost single handedly carries the torch for Rock n Roll in Chile, his native country, will be making a very special appearance with his band, DINAMITA, at Bowery Electric. And my childhood musical heroes, THE YARDBIRDS, will be at City Winery. All shows tonight in Manhattan.
Friday, September 7 – This is an awesome week for music! Look what we’ve had in just the first two days, and we haven’t even gotten to the weekend yet! With all this great music happening this week, you may be surprised that my Pick of the Week is a band you may never have heard of. A band who probably will never be famous. They’re called THE DUKE MCVINNIE BAND, and they are the most interesting, original, exciting, new band I’ve seen in a long while, maybe ever! Two vintage guitars, two old tube amps, an electric cello, Manuel Quintana on drums and percussion, they drive the rhythm in a haunting mix of Latin, Rock, Jazz, and a few other genres that I can’t quite put my finger on! They’re fascinating and you won’t want to miss a note! And BTW, no cover! Come out and support these guys. They’re amazing! Way down yonder in NYC, BOB MOULD, formerly of the very influential punk band, Husker Du, and the writer of the music that is used as the theme for The Daily Show, is at Williamsburg Park in Brooklyn. Later tonight, Bob will be D.J.ing at The Highline Ballroom with his partner RICHARD MOREL, under the name THE BLOWOFF. And at The Gramercy Theater is something billed as METAL MASTERS 4, and what it is, is various members of Anthrax and Slayer, teamed up with Phil Anselmo of Pantera, and Billy Sheehan of David Lee Roth and Mr. Big, in an all star hard rock and heavy metal extravaganza! I don’t even really like Anthrax or Slayer, but this is gonna rock, and hard! And at the newly reopened Capitol Theatre in Port Chester, NY, BOB WEIR and THE ROOTS team up for a benefit for HeadCount.
Saturday, September 8 – Big happenings today. There’s a BENEFIT FOR THE WOODSTOCK GOOD NEIGHBOR FOOD PANTRY, which is a good and worthy cause, at Andy Lee Field on Rock City Road, and the line up is amazing! LARRY CAMPBELL, TERESA WILLIAMS, JERRY MAROTTA, JIM WEIDER, HAPPY TRAUM, JAY UNGAR AND MOLLY MASON, MARC BLACK, MICHAEL ESPOSITO, THE DHARMA BUMS, RENNIE CANTINE, and more with possible surprise guests! Reservoir Music will be closed today as I will be acting as stage manager for this event. Later tonight, BOB WEIR brings his solo acoustic act into The Bearsville Theater. This show is sold out, so good luck getting tickets. And in The Bronx, MADONNA brings her over the top circus to Yankee Stadium. Now, I’m not a huge Madonna fan, but she’s got more than a few good songs, and you have to respect what she’s accomplished. Plus, if you have a good seat, you’ll get to walk on the field at Yankee Stadium!
Sunday, September 9 – The great STEVE VAI will be at The Egg in Albany, and guess what? Second Pick of the Week!
Monday, September 10 – It’s your day off. No shows today.
Tuesday, September 11 – I’m almost not counting this, because almost nobody will get in, but BOB DYLAN is playing a special show at the tiny Café Wha tonight! Good luck getting a ticket, if they exist. For those of you in the real world, Dwight Yokam’s guitarist and producer, PETE ANDERSON, will be twangin’ away at Hill Country Barbecue, STEVE VAI is at Best Buy Theater in Times Square, and THE BRECKER BROTHERS REUNION starts a six night run at The Blue Note in The Village. Now, this is big! The Brecker Brothers Band consisted of the cream of the cream of New York studio musicians in a jazz funk fusion rock stew that tasted mighty good in the 1970’s! Michael Brecker passed away in 1982, but his brother, Randy Becker is still with us, and as far as I know, this is the band’s first reunion since then, so this is huge!
Wednesday, September 12 – Great shows everywhere tonight! In the city, the immortal ZZ TOP return to The Beacon Theater! These guys are always great, especially when you least expect it! And the Americana singer/songwriter, SLAID CLEAVES is at Hill Country Barbecue. Upstate, JORMA KAUKONEN makes a very rare and special appearance at The Bearsville Theater, and the vastly underrated punk band, THE OFFSPRING is at The Mid-Hudson Civic Center. These guys write intelligent, hook laden, rockin’ hit songs! Why are they so under appreciated?
Thursday, September 13 – COHEED AND CAMBRIA rock into UPAC in Kingston with opening act, 3. Both these bands have local ties, and they should rock it up pretty good.

BTW, I wrote the second half of this column after I returned from the Bob Dylan show at Bethel Woods, so here’s my mini-review: His voice is shot! He should retire and let people beg him to play for million dollar pay checks. Overall, the concert was enjoyable, but some songs were pretty terrible. For those of you who don’t know, Dylan never plays a song the same way twice, and often has no set arrangement. From what I understand, he just starts playing and the musicians are supposed to follow him. That said, there’s bound to be some clunkers, and there were, but there was also some real good stuff, but his voice is S-H-O-T, shot! And it ain’t comin’ back! But I do wish him the best and I love his work.

Have a great week!

Fred Perry is the owner of Reservoir Music Center on Route 28 in Kingston, and founding member of Alt-Country supergroup, The Brooklyn Cowboys, is from a 3rd generation musical family and lives in the Hudson Valley, where he does what he can to promote live music.