Greetings! Well, it’s been a pretty uneventful week for me. I tried to go to the Rosendale Zombie Festival, but we got rained out, so I spent the night eating chili with my friend Jeff. Didn’t make it to any of the shows I recommended, but I hope to make up for it this week and next. We’ve got some great music coming your way!

But first, one of the 35 friends who told me they’d give or send me the Keith Richards autobiography, “Life”, finally did, and I just finished reading it. It’s a fabulous, fast, addicting (no pun intended), read, and I heartily recommend it! I discovered that Keith and I share some of his strange idiosyncrasies. Such as “only eating when I feel like it” and “quite solitary eating habits at odd hours”. LOL. There are some others, but I can’t tell you about them because they’re all illegal. JUST KIDDING! Some jokes at Keith’s expense are hard to resist! There were some other quirky traits we share, but I can’t remember them. Anyway, once you get past his childhood, it’s hard to put it down! It’s in paperback now, so you can probably buy it on the internet for 2 cents. LOL.

I did my first guest spot on John Madeo’s “Little Delaware Jam” radio show, and I think it went very well. John kept me on for a half hour, and I could have gone another half hour. For now, I’ll be on every other Monday night, but John has been asked to go to a weekly show. Call or email him at the station and tell him he should do it! The show is broadcast on WIOX, 91.3 FM and www.wioxradio.org. The next one will be October 1.

The Love for Levon benefit is coming up at the end of the week, on October 3. The line up is too extensive to list in detail and always subject to new additions, so if you want more information, go to www.loveforlevon.com.

And now for this week’s live music picks.

Wednesday, September 26 – DAVID BYRNE, the force behind Talking Heads, concludes a two day engagement at The Beacon Theater in Manhattan.
Thursday, September 27 – DAVID GRAY makes his first appearance at the newly reopened Capitol Theatre in Port Chester, NY.
Friday, September 28 – My first Pick of the Week arrives in the form of LARRY CAMPBELL AND TERESA WILLIAMS at The Bearsville Theater. Larry, as everybody knows, has been Levon’s musical director, multi-instrumentalist, co-producer, and friend, for many years. Before that, he served the same function for Bob Dylan (minus the friend part). During his stint with Levon, he also found the time to tour with Phil Lesh, and E Street Band member, Patti Scialfa, Bruce Springsteen’s wife. And produced CD’s for Jorma, Hot Tuna, and 3 GRAMMY winners for Levon! And that just scratches the surface of Larry’s long, brilliant, musical career! Teresa is also a Levon Band, and Phil and Friends band member, a wonderful, powerful singer, and Larry’s wife. Adding icing on this cake is the opening act, MIKE AND RUTHY, another married couple who make beautiful music together! See you there!

However, if you can’t make it, there is another amazing show tonight. RORY BLOCK, pulls into the extremely intimate Rosendale Café tonight. Ms. Block is a 5 time WC Handy award winner in the Traditional Blues Female Artist category, and a 3 time winner in the Acoustic Blues Album of the Year category. She is widely regarded as the top female interpreter and authority on traditional Country Blues worldwide! This is also gonna be an amazing show!

Further north, Big Easy guitarslinger, LANGHORNE SLIM, is at Club Helsinki in Hudson. In Manhattan, the highly recommended NORTH MISSISSIPPI ALL STARS are at Irving Plaza, and something billed as “PATTI SMITH, ANDY WARHOL” is at the Grace Rainey Rogers Auditorium at 1000 Fifth Avenue. That’s gonna be a neat trick, if Andy shows up! Tickets are $218, so I suppose it’s gonna be a ritzy affair!
Saturday, September 29 – At The Andes Hotel tonight, ESQUELA and WHITEY MORGAN AND THE 78’S hold court! Esquela is a band put together by Chico Finn, who throws the best party of the year, Livestock, on his spread in Bovina. Guest appearances have been made with members of The Georgia Satellites and others. Whitey Morgan and The 78’s recorded their CD at Levon Helm Studios with Larry Campbell producing! That right there tells you something about this band! This’s gonna be a goodun! This is an afternoon gig that starts at 2 o’clock. RORY BLOCK makes another area appearance in the lobby of The Ritz Theater in Newburgh, roots rockers, THE BODEANS, ride into The Bearsville Theater in Woodstock, and STEVE EARLE is at Bethel Woods Center for the Arts. In the city, JACK WHITE of The White Stripes is at Radio City Music Hall, DAVID BYRNE is at Williamsburgh Park, original British punk band, THE VIBRATORS are at Bowery Electric, and there’s an insane line up in Central Park tonight – NEIL YOUNG, FOO FIGHTERS, THE BLACK KEYS, and BAND OF HORSES. These bands need no introduction! Will Neil jam with Foo Fighters? Go and find out! This has to be my second Pick of the Week! Tickets range from free to $390!
Sunday, September 30 – The only show in town tonight is STEVE EARLE at The Bardavon Opera House in Poughkeepsie, but this ain’t a default show! First of all, The Bardavon is a beautiful, centuries old building, that has the best sound around. There’s a reason Bob Dylan rented the place to rehearse for a week, twice! And Steve is always one of the year’s best shows, so that all kind of makes it a no brainer!
Wednesday, October 3 – Tonight the LOVE FOR LEVON benefit is at the IZOD Center in East Rutherford, NJ! More information about the star studded line up can be found at www.loveforlevon.com. They just added ROGER WATERS!

In Brooklyn, JAY-Z opens the brand new Barclay Center. Jay is one of the more sophisticated and musical rappers, this is his house, and he’s gonna rock it!
And upstate, the hilarious Margaret Cho is at The Egg.
Thursday, October 4 – Up and coming new band, THE ALABAMA SHAKES, make their first Manhattan appearance at Terminal 5.

That’s it. 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.