http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LRJMu38p0fk

Mark Islam - host, acoustic guitar, vocal Dudley Saunders - vocal Ron Finn - electric guitar Jeff Kossack - percussion Mark Pocket Goldberg - upright bass Grassroots Acoustica #18: 2nd Annual Lotta Love Edition Family, Friends & Fans Remember Nicolette Larson [1952-1997] Saturday, Dec 13, 2008 Talking Stick, Venice

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6iMxnCulyL0

Grassroots Acoustica #18: 2nd Annual Lotta Love Edition Saturday, Dec 13, 2008 Talking Stick, Venice Rosemary Butler - lead vocal Andrew Gold - rhythm guitar, harmony vox Gary Stockdale - keyboard Robert Martin - saxophone Jeff Kossack - percussion Bob Carpenter - harmony vox, shaker Freebo - bass

[VENICE, CALIFORNIA] – For its first show of the new year, Grassroots Acoustica's 2nd Annual Auld Lang Syne Edition fetes guitargod, songwriter, Bum Steers bandmate & prolific producer Edward Tree to raise contributions for San Pedro-based women's substance dependence treatment center House of Hope at The Talking Stick Coffee Lounge on Saturday, January 10th with a 7 pm start time.

One Degree To Edward Tree, whose roster has doubled since last year's, brings together a short list of performers who've logged considerable hours in control rooms & on concert stages with the mild-mannered Mississippian whose chops from fretboard to mixing console have made him a local hero to many coffeehouse colleagues including the returning Spencer Davis, David Serby, Karen Tobin, Jane Bolduc, Lisa O'Kane, Jeff Kossack, Wendy Conrad & bassist Taras Prodaniuk as well as first-time Grassroots Acoustica visits by Brad Colerick, Ben Carr, & John Stowers, all of whom the guest of honor plans to sit in with.

In keeping with the Auld Lang Syne theme, resident duo Tom Gramlich & Byron Pfeifer reunite with Dan Raziel, the only guest ever to bring a b-bender guitar to the Grassroots Acoustica stage, to perform as a trio on the series for the first time in over a year, while host/curator Mark Islam will likely horn in on harmony vocals behind anyone who'll let him.

Since 1955, House of Hope has provided a safe, clean and sober environment for substance abusing and substance dependent women with a sincere desire to stop drinking & using. Licensed and certified by the California Department of Alcohol and Drug Programs and nondiscriminatory in its admission process, House of Hope's 6-month primary care residential program offers individual & group counseling, 12-step meetings, relapse prevention, & anger management, and a substance-free living community provides a bridge between a structured setting and independent living for 37 women who graduate from the primary program.

For further information regarding House of Hope and its programs, volunteer opportunities and wish list, or to make a secure donation, please visit www.houseofhopesp.org.

Now bounding towards its second anniversary thanks to finding a permanent home at the new Lincoln location of The Talking Stick, Grassroots Acoustica has raised $11,435 in purely voluntary donations which have, over the span of 18 monthly shows, brailled books for the visually impaired, bought shoes for Southland schoolkids, given marching orders to a team of Alzheimer's awareness walkers, contributed toward laptops for kids in transitional housing, supported efforts to preserve riparian habitat, provided vocational & avocational scholarship for senior citizens & at-risk youth, sprung a few pups from the pound, and even helped to rescue teenagers from human trafficking rings.

Venice's Talking Stick Coffee Lounge is located at 1411C Lincoln Blvd (@ California). Starting at 7 p.m., the 3-hour event is free & open to the public, and while there is no cover charge or suggested minimum, 100% of any donations to collection baskets will benefit House Of Hope.

2008
12 audiences
6 venues from Valley to Venice
1 new home at the Talking Stick Coffee Lounge
$0 cover charge
$8,034 raised in 2008 alone
$11,435 combined 18 editions
100% donated
countless paths intersecting
1 Happy New Year to everyone
manymanymany more to come.

In the year of our lord 2008, the following merrymakers, organized iTunes-style by first name, entered into a noble repertory pact to play. Real good. For free. And in doing so, brailled books, bought shoes for Southland schoolkids, gave marching orders to a team of Alzheimer's awareness walkers, contributed toward laptops for kids in transitional housing, supported efforts to preserve riparian habitat, provided vocational & avocational scholarship for senior citizens & at-risk youth, and even, we have learned, helped to rescue teenagers from human trafficking rings.

Looking forward to '09.

Alan O'Day
Alfred Johnson
Andrea Ross-Greene
Andrew Gold
Bob Carpenter
Bret Pfeifer
Bryan Tysinger
Byron Pfeifer
Chris Rael
Cliff Eberhardt
Cydney Robinson
Dafni
Dan Raziel
Daniel McFeeley
David Serby
Deborah Pearl
Debra Davis
Dudley Saunders
Edward Tree
Elsie May Larson-Kunkel
Freebo
Gary Popenoe
Gary Stockdale
Gene Lippmann
Harriet Schock
Jamie Drake
Jane Bolduc
Jeff Daniels
Jeff Kossack
Jeff Silbar
Jodi Siegel
Joe Lomanno
Johnny Townsend
Karen Tobin
Kelly Simmons
Larry John McNally
Lauren Adams
Lauren Wood
Lauri Reimer
Lisa Nemzo
Lisa O'Kane
Lisa Turner
Lois Blaisch
Lorie Doswell
Marc Francoeur
Mare Lennon
Mark Fosson
Mark Islam
Mark Pocket Goldberg
Merrily Weber
Nicole Gordon
Pam Maclean
Paul Zollo
Randy Sharp
Richard Rique Patire
Rick Cunha
Robert Martin
Ron Finn
Rosemary Butler
Royce Nelson
Ryan Guggenheim
Severin Browne
Shira Kreitenberg
Spencer Davis
Steve Seskin
Stewart Lewis
Tom Gramlich
Tracy Newman
Wendy Conrad

2008 NON-PROFIT ORGS
A New Way Of Life Reentry Project
Echo Park Film Center
Showing People Learning & Technology
Friends Of The Los Angeles River
School On Wheels
The Celebration Theatre
Children Of The Night
Shoes That Fit
Alzheimer's Association California Southland Chapter - Memory Walk
WeSpark
Braille Institute
The Nicolette Larson Pediatric Endowment at Mattel Children's Hospital/UCLA

THE VENUES
Synergy Cafe & Lounge, Culver City
Lulu's Beehive, Studio City
Vinoteque, Culver City
UnUrban Coffeehouse, Santa Monica
The Spot Cafe & Lounge, Culver City
The Talking Stick Coffee Lounge, Venice

LOOKING AHEAD TO 2009

Saturday, January 10, 2009
Grassroots Acoustica 19: 2nd Annual Auld Lang Syne Edition -
One Degree to Edward Tree
to benefit House Of Hope
www.houseofhopesp.org

Saturday, February 14, 2009
Grassroots Acoustica 20: Puppy Love Edition
to benefit the Mimi LaRue Fund for sick & injured animals at Much Love Animal Rescue
http://www.muchlove.org/doc/indexX.php?doc=mimilarue

Saturday, March 14, 2009
Grassroots Acoustica 21: Hootmasters' Edition
to benefit National Multiple Sclerosis Society Southern California Chapter
http://cal.nationalmssociety.org/site/PageServer?pagename=CAL_homepage

Saturday, April  11, 2009
Grassroots Acoustica 22: The Catch-Up Edition
to benefit Showing People Learning & Technology
http://splatcharity.wordpress.com/

Saturday, May 9, 2009
Grassroots Acoustica 23: The Motown Edition - mid-year reunion of The National InChoir
to benefit The ALS Association Greater Los Angeles Chapter
http://webgla.alsa.org/site/PageServer?pagename=GLA_homepage

Saturday, June 13, 2009
Grassroots Acoustica 24: 2nd Annual Pride Edition
to benefit This Way Out
http://www.qrd.org/qrd/www/media/radio/thiswayout/

Saturday, July 11, 2009
Grassroots Acoustica 25: Second Anniversary Edition
to benefit Children of The Night
(www.childrenofthenight.org)

2ND ANNUAL LOTTA LOVE EDITION –
FAMILY, FRIENDS & FANS REMEMBER NICOLETTE LARSON [1952-1997]
Saturday, December 13, 2008
7-10 p.m.
Talking Stick Coffee Lounge
1411C Lincoln Blvd
Venice, CA
310/450-6052
www.thetalkingstick.net




[VENICE, CALIFORNIA] – Family, friends & fans of the late Nicolette Larson [1952-1997] assemble at The Talking Stick Coffee Lounge on Saturday, December 13th, three days shy of the singer's death, for Grassroots Acoustica 18: 2nd Annual Lotta Love Edition, a Rhino-worthy retrospective raising donations for the Nicolette Larson Pediatric Endowment at Mattel Children's Hospital.


Elsie May Larson-Kunkel, May, 2008, photo by Stephen Paley

Guest of honor Elsie May Larson-Kunkel, the late musician's daughter who's now a college freshman & performing songwriter clearly carrying on the family tradition (her dad just so happens to be legendary rock'n'roll drummer/producer Russ Kunkel), returns as resident rhumba grrrl to commemorate her mother's catalog that boasts 8 studio releases, 1 credible best-of, 1 posthumously released live album, 1 tribute album, 9 charting singles including 1 pop top 10 & 1 country top 10, and a Zelig-like array of guest appearances on treasured tracks ranging from the Doobie Brothers to the Dirt Band, Little Feat to Linda Ronstadt, Neil Young to No Nukes, Emmylou Harris to Hoyt Axton.


Rosemary Butler, photo by Stephen Paley (10/2008)

Opening the 3-hour Lotta Love-fest at 7 p.m. sharp with the song that turned Nicolette into a 1979 NARAS nominee for Best New Artist, special guest Rosemary Butler joins an ever-expanding Lotta Lovetrain whose coachcars of collaborators & colleagues, acquaintances & aficionados will feature host & curator Mark Islam, artist-in-residence Byron Pfeifer; first-time appearances by Lisa Nemzo, Randy Sacks, Mark Pocket Goldberg, Paul Zollo, who himself spearheads similar single-artist survey tributes, and Andrew Gold, producer of Larson's 1982 LP All Dressed Up & No Place To Go and onetime fiance as well; and, from the repertory stable of strummers, return visits from Freebo, Severin Browne, Debra Davis, Dudley Saunders, Lois Blaisch, Lisa Turner, and, trekking in from the Twin Cities, Mare Lennon.


artist-in-residence Byron Pfeifer, photo by Stephen Paley

The pass-the-hat hootenanny presented on the second Saturday of every month by Islam, Pfeifer & a team of virtuoso vaudevillians & behind-the-scenes elves has raised $9,810 in sofacushion sparechange, 100% contributed to L.A.-area non-profits – without ever charging a cover.



Opening in 2008, the child-centered & family-friendly Mattel Children's Hospital/UCLA, designed by I.M. Pei & Didi Pei, is a model of medical technology & scientific progress where UCLA pediatricians bring the best possible care to seriously ill & injured children. Private donations ensure that its future as a leading pediatric care center.

Grassroots Acoustica 18: 2nd Annual Lotta Love Edition is free & open to the public. While there is no admission charge, any voluntary donations into collection baskets will be donated directly to the Nicolette Larson Pediatric Endowment at Mattel Children's Hospital/UCLA.

To learn more about Nicolette Larson's career & commitment to children's causes, or to make a donation to the pediatric fund bearing her name, please visit: http://www.nicolettelarson.com/main.html

LOOKING AHEAD:
SAT, JAN 10, 2009
Grassroots Acoustica 19: 2nd Annual Auld Lang Syne Edition – One Degree To Edward Tree
FEATURING: Karen Tobin, Ben Carr, John Stowers, Jeff Kossack, Wendy Conrad, Brad Colerick, Spencer Davis, Jane Bolduc, Byron Pfeifer, et al TBD
SPECIAL GUEST Lisa O'Kane
GUEST OF HONOR Edward Tree
To benefit House of Hope

GRASSROOTS ACOUSTICA
NON-PROFITS TO DATE
Children Of The Night
The Blank Theatre Company
Project Angel Food
WeSpark
The Linda Blair WorldHeart Foundation for Animal & Human Welfare
The Nicolette Larson Pediatric Endowment at Mattel Children's Hospital/UCLA
A New Way Of Life Reentry Project
Echo Park Film Center
Friends Of The Los Angeles River
Showing People Learning & Technology
School On Wheels
The Celebration Theatre
Shoes That Fit
Alzheimer's Association California Southland Chapter - Memory Walk
Braille Institute

PRIDE ON PICO: CELEBRATION CELEBRATION LANDS AT UNURBAN

[SANTA MONICA] Grassroots Acoustica 12: The Pride Edition earmarks its offering to The Celebration Theatre when the songcraft soiree lands for the very first time in the 50-seat listening room of Pico Boulevard's UnUrban Coffeehouse smackdab in the middle of Los Angeles Pride weekend on Saturday, June 7th.

A vanguard of contemporary gay & lesbian theatre in Los Angeles for over a quarter of a century, The Celebration Theatre joins 11 other hometown orgs who've received among them $6,419 in contributions raised by audiences of the nomadic never-a-cover-charge concert series.

Whether gay, straight or decline-to-state, the dozenth Capra-esque coffeehouse curated by Mark Islam culls what its host calls "not so much a lineup as an only-in-L.A. alignment," including Red House recording artist Cliff Eberhardt, resident of Massachusetts, first US state to legalize same-sex unions without civilization imploding, who swings through through California on the eve of it becoming the second and bookends the benefit appearance between headlining engagements at Altadena's Coffee Gallery Backstage & a privately-produced local house concert, all part of a neverending tour supporting seven titles' worth of discography.

Stewart Lewis, who coincidentally once recorded a cover of Eberhardt's My Father's Shoes, visits from New York as last-minute addition -- er, edition: the first artist signed to Here! TV's music venture Here!Tunes launches album In Formation earlier in the week and preorders for second novel Relative Stranger start shipping in early July, which means that Lewis won't exactly be a stranger to the Southland this summer.

With a tireless itinerary of dates herself, Tracy Newman, joined by The Reinforcements, performs original songs from her CD A Place In The Sun and just so happens to be an Emmy- AND Peabody-winning co-writer of Ellen's coming out episode; while playwright Deborah Pearl, whose Wendie Malick-starring Waiting For Yvette won an audience award at the Palm Springs Short Film Festival and was a selection in The Miami Gay and Lesbian Film Festival, The Cleveland Film Fesitval & the Hollywood Shorts Festival, returns for her third Grassroots Acoustica appearance, this time bringing character monologues from her lesbian-themed play Making Love To Louise.

Making a name for himself at Hollywood's venerated Hotel Cafe, Christopher Dallman makes his long lobbied debut on Grassroots Acoustica; and artists-in-residence Tom & Byron raise the roof while raising money as they do come the first Saturday of every month, their musical outreach having so far extended to hometown arts, cultural, educational, medical research, social services, preservation & animal rescue organizations as the show nears its first anniversary.

Special guest Marc Francoeur opens the three-hour program at 8 p.m. with the unofficial theme song, Guy Clark & Verlon Thompson's Boats To Build.

Grassroots Acoustica 12: The Pride Edition is free & open to the public. 100% of purely voluntary contributions will benefit The Celebration Theatre.

The UnUrban Coffeehouse is located at 3301 Pico Blvd, Santa Monica, CA, 90404 (310) 315-0056.

For further information, please visit the following websites:
http://celebrationtheatre.com
www.grassrootsacoustica.org
www.myspace.com/markislam
www.myspace.com/tomandbyron
www.cliffeberhardt.net
www.myspace.com/christopherdallman
www.myspace.com/tracynewman1
www.myspace.com/stewartlewis
www.myspace.com/marcfrancoeur

NON-PROFITS TO DATE
Children Of The Night
The Blank Theatre Company
Project Angel Food
cancers support center WeSpark
the Linda Blair WorldHeart Foundation for Animal & Human Welfare
the Nicolette Larson Pediatric Endowment
A New Way Of Life Reentry Project
Echo Park Film Center
Showing People Learning & Technology
Friends of the Los Angeles River
School On Wheels

This past weekend brought a pair of Close Encounters of the Carly Kind, the first - and least likely - an in-store performance at Borders Books & Music in Westwood. Not just The Sharpie Tour? Performance? Carly Simon? Had spent the prior week, and by that I mean the sum total of all non-working hours from Sunday until that moment, in the throes of a sudden random liaison that intrigued as it enthralled & deepened but by week's end'd be distance-doomed (y'know, the usual) - an entanglement I'm sure Carly Simon of all people would've approved wholeheartedly, inherent complications of such messy curiosities be damned (see: Boys In The Trees, whose album cover you might as well photoshop my head onto).


A small-ish crowd of, I don't know, 150-200 people assembled, and she arrived about 20 minutes late, perfectly acceptable, every inch a rockstar, and opened her 5-song set with Island from her new album and it was about as tender a performance of a song as any singer could muster at noontime on a Saturday while traffic whizzed down below. Next came Hold Out Your Heart and encouraged mothers to buy the song for their children, a reverse of the Mothers Day tradition, and revealed that it's a true story about her own children and that it appears on her new album, which she'd described as having "an attractive blond on its cover. Pay no attention to her," then 3 of her hits which she, with Ben Taylor & David Saw & Peter Calo & a percussionist and background singer all around her, reworked & readapted into the whole Brazilian motif consistent with the new album. These songs were reinvented and in fact, I wouldn't be surprised if the Starbucks people commissioned a whole album's worth of her own greatest hits all done so. Fascinating watching them because it didn't exactly have a rehearsed sheen to it but was a glimpse into the creative process as it was unfolding - how to cover when suddenly everyone was in popquiz mode but never derailed for long. You're So Vain was done nothing like its record but as a rousing pub rendition, rebuilt from the studs, while a lilting Anticipation, with an added opening chant of, "We can never, we can never know," resonated at that precise moment in light of the circumstances of the week's misadventures which were just about to culminate in an LAX international departures dropoff in just a matter of hours, so that verse about not being a prophet kind of hit me where I live. "So I'll try and see into your eyes right now/Stay right here/These are the good old days." Daresay so.


And speaking of misadventures, and just for the sake of documentation, author Dennis Hensley attended the Border's signing and I reminded him when we chatted that the last time we'd seen each other it was in that very Border's and You're So Vain had also been sung (by Jann Arden, of whom the Misadventures In The 213 & Screening Party author is a screaming fan, as am I.) The woman behind us wasn't even trying to hide her eavesdropping as we made our way through the autograph line and it was one of those beautiful only-in-L.A. moments when I clocked her coming to attention when he'd mentioned being on a reality show for a season (Kathy Griffin's Bravo show).

Canadian Jann Arden, sunburned from only one hour around the hotel pool, sings You're So Vain at Borders Books & Music, Westwood, September 2007, photograph by Mark Islam.


The next night Ben Taylor was playing at the Hotel Cafe, where I'd seen him the last time he was in Los Angeles. Sunday was Mothers' Day. And Ben's mother was in town? Would she show up? I'd pay the $12 day-of-show price to find out.

Carly Simon & Ben Taylor, Mother's Day 2008 at the Hotel Cafe, Hollywood, CA, photographs by Stephen Paley.


Ben summoned the rest of his band onstage before he'd wanted to have Carly join them, but Carly hadn't understood the cue at all and came out nonetheless. "Wait? I'm not singing on this one?" she asked, a bit confused. On the mic. And then she shyly left the stage which put the awwwww back into awkward, but David Saw saved the moment with, "There's no way I'm following Carly Simon so she's last." They gave her a proper introduction after the entire band'd played a few of Ben's & David's respective songs first. With her singing lead, they did Island from her new disc, and then a raucously guttural, throaty You're So Vain which was another great only-in-L.A. moment to avail itself. These being, after all, the good old days.

Again for the sake of historical record, Ben Taylor wasn't the only act on the lineup whose mom was in the cheering section: Sissy Spacek had come to spend Mothers' Day with daughter Schuyler Fisk whose set directly followed Ben Taylor & David Saw's.

Schuyler Fisk at the Hotel Cafe, Hollywood CA, 5/11/2008, photograph by Stephen Paley.

NOTE: The below was originally posted in the Linda Ronstadt Fans' Forum [http://ronstadt-linda.com/v-web/bulletin/bb/viewtopic.php?p=23000#23000]

Saturday, April 21, 5 a.m., Palo Alto, CA
Awaken an hour before the alarm in a guest house at Stanford University, having just spent two days assisting radio producer Stephen Paley who's covering a symposium on pre-WW1 phonograph recordings & player piano rolls for a show commissioned by WFMT-FM/Chicago. It's a summit of titan musicologists exchanging ideas about the discrepancies between what a composer writes on the page & how those transcriptions have been interpreted differently by pianists. Tittered every time one of these erudite professor-types [think: ridiculous combovers or even better, Ryan O'Neal's coterie in What's Up Doc] pronounces the word pianist with deliberate laziness. There's one exceptionally absurd debate over how long to hold a dotted eighth note in a certain Brahms concerto, but I'm pleased to see Scott Joplin included in the canon. As Paley drives me to SFO, he comments, "You know who'd have loved this Stanford conference? Linda Ronstadt," more a statement than a question, then recounts interviewing her at length in the mid-80's for an NPR piece he did on Nelson Riddle in her home that he claims was once owned by Cole Porter.

When we cloverleaf into the airport campus, I exhale. My vacation has now officially begun. Dayjob on The Amazing Race has wrapped for hiatus. Fulfilled my own performance commitment in San Francisco a few nights earlier co-headlining a queer lit event along with Max Valerio Wolf, a female-to-male trans who read from his published memoir The Testosterone Files, which engaged this audience more than my own mini-set of songs about people with raging sex drives.


Photo c Stephen Paley

8:40 a.m.
As the plane pushes out from the gate, first bound for Denver, the chirpy chubby Christian girl next to me enquires if I'm pushing through to Nashville like she & her girlfriend, who's even chirpier, are. Noting the title on the spine of the book unopened in her lap, The Reluctant Fundamentalist, I become ashamedly self-conscious about the memoir that sits in my own, a sex odyssey manifesto that one of the authors from Wednesday night's GLBT lit event gave me (which puts the "trade" back into trade paperback). "Wichita," I nod. "What's bringing you to Wichita?" she persists, and I tell her about the Fox Diamand Gala Celebration. Because she's in her early twenties, I deliberately don't tell her whom I'll be seeing. Which doesn't slip her notice. She's all, "Oh? Who are you seeing?" And I'm like, "Linda Ronstadt?" more a question than a statement. Not one trace of name recognition in her face. I think I hear crickets. I drop a few song titles. "Blue Bayou? Somewhere Out There?" -- again, form of a question. Because unlike these two reluctant fundamentalists sitting next to me, I'm not inclined to expect any miracles. The word "vacancy" strobes in her pupils. "You've heard her," I tell her, "you just don't know you have."

1:25 p.m., changing planes in Denver
Just hours away from the concert I've been planning around ever since it was postponed last October. And on hiatus to boot so it's not even like I'm playing hookey. A weight lifts & for the first time in recent memory, I feel (wink) unfettered & alive. Board the small aircraft that's taking us to Wichita behind a mother who informs the flight attendant, "My 3 year-old & I are somehow sitting in separate sections," then deadpans, "which is perfectly alright with me." I stop laughing when I notice the only seat left – mine – is itself half-occupied by a 300+ pound man (reciprocally, he gasps as he sees me coming in his direction). The two biggest beefcakes in an already-small airplane. Arm rest? Forget about it. Unable to fit shoulder-to-shoulder, I spend the next hour hunched over like a human question mark. Am missing the chirpy Christian girl.

3:42 p.m., Wichita airport [ICT]
Flight arrives on time & I am immediately romanticizing Wichita, particularly after learning from the 300+ pound Boeing engineer that one can buy a four bedroom house for $130,000. Consider buying a house in Wichita & becoming a barista at Starbucks should CBS not renew The Amazing Race for a twelfth season. Provided, of course, Wichita even HAS a Starbucks. Pick up the rental car, whose radio's set to Hutchinson's country station. Despite Linda's show being a mere hours away, there's not one mention of her coming to town. Not since L.A.'s mainstay station changed formats have I heard any contemporary country at all, and it's even worse than I remember – cloying reminiscences of childhoods spent riding bicycles without helmets, praying after the Pledge of Allegiance in school, & occasionally getting whacked with Daddy's belt for stepping out of line.

4:20 p.m., Wichita, KS
Check into the Holiday Inn & begin ritual ablutions for the evening's gala celebration.

5:40 p.m., Wichita, KS
Am in the final stages of shaving when the cell phone rings. Caller ID screen says "unknown," so my hunch tells me that it's FrenchFan. "Hello, Mark? It's Jean-Claude," the voice announces on the other end. After welcoming him to America, I recommend meeting at the Fox Theatre in about an hour since that's about how long it'll take me to schlep the 52 miles out to Hutchinson. Excited as I am to hear Linda singing tonight -- these in particular, as they're her first since postponing due to surgery in the autumn of last year --  I'm equally looking forward to matching a few faces to usernames, particularly FrenchFan who's made the journey to a destination as unlikely as Hutchinson, Kansas – not to mention, Little Rock a few nights before where he saw her for the very first time.

6:45 p.m. Hutchinson, Kansas
Park in front of the Fox & immediately begin snapping pictures with the new pocket-sized digital camera I'd just bought.

Jean-Claude introduces himself & just as I'm asking him about Linda's Thursday evening performance in Little Rock, he produces a handwritten setlist & I notice Heart Like a Wheel in the mix as an encore, which I'm hoping she'll include tonight at the Fox. With fifteen minutes before they open doors to ticketholders, I suggest we walk around the block to take a look at the main street. Just as I'm mentioning that KevinT's coming from Wisconsin, Jean-Claude points out a license plate from there. "Are you Kevin?" I ask its driver. Turns out to be Marc-with-a-C in a rental car, who introduces himself as an infrequent contributor to the discussion forum who has made the trip from Florida. Marc shows us a black-&-white photo of Linda with Nelson Riddle which he hopes either to give to her or have her autograph. Jean-Claude points out another car's license plate, & I ask the occupant of the car if I may photograph it:


7:00 p.m.
Jean-Claude stops at his rental car to get the flowers he has brought – one bouquet for the staff of the Fox in celebration of their 75th year; the other arrangement, for Linda. A plastic shopping back carries the Lush Life LP.



7:05 p.m.
Enter Fox Theatre. Handing me a program, an elderly volunteer usher asks if I'll be attending the post-concert "GAY-la," then immediately corrects her pronunciation in a sitcom manner worthy of Bea Arthur.



Flowers in hand, Jean-Claude seeks out the theater's managing director, Mary. The staffers – ambassadors, all of them -- are heartened by Jean-Claude's bouquets. Either Mary or Betsy (can't remember) tells me that it was originally built for $400,000 & restored for $4.5 million. Having gotten "wanded" at SFO & then having spent the balance of the day in airports where overhead announcements have informed me that the Terror Alert level is orange (whatever THAT means), I appreciate their warm welcome extended to a guy whose last name's Islam & being hospitable to the French -- apparently in Kansas it's still September The Tenth.  Mary tells Jean-Claude that she'll take the second bouquet backstage to Linda's dressing room. [For those who are going to ask why Jean-Claude didn't keep the flowers to give to Linda directly, there is an orchestra pit that's walled off from the audience, which would make the stage inaccessible. And I'm sure he didn't want to THROW them at her. Particularly since they came with a vase.]

7:20 p.m.
Amble about the auditorium, taking in the deco grandeur of the place & feeling the palpable excitement of the townsfolk, one of whom cruises me in the men's room. Walk back to the lobby & talk further with Marc-with-a-C. We exchange Stevie Nicks stories & continue our discussion about various facets of Linda's career & catalogue as well as reveal a little about our professional lives.

7:45 p.m.
Having lost sight of Jean-Claude entirely, I make my way to my seat, which is in the front row/center. Scan the auditorium & wonder if the event has sold out. (It has, all but a handful of tickets.) I look for Jean-Claude, whom I locate in row G off the right-hand aisle and suggest that we trade seats. I'm not sure he hears my proposal at first. "You've come all the way from France," I says to 'im, "If anyone needs to be in the front row, it's you."

8:10 p.m
Nearing showtime, Jean-Claude takes me up on my offer. We swap seats.

8:20 p.m.
Theater director Mary welcomes the audience to the Diamond Gala celebration & introduces a video clip concerning the history of the Fox. The video is exceptionally well-done, looking as though it had a budget behind it; I don't know why this surprises me, but it does. A narrator tells us that the theatre was built in 1931 when the average annual salary was $1300 (the amount of my tax refund this year, which has financed this trip) and the unemployment rate hovered at 25%. For years it was one of Kansas' grand movie palaces, the first air conditioned movie theater in town, which served as the venue for premieres of two films that were shot on location in Kansas, earning the state some short-lived notoriety as The New Hollywood. The narrator tells us that the Fox managed to survive competition from television as well as the drive-in era, but couldn't compete with the miltiplexes springing up in shopping malls in the 1980's. So the theatre sat abandoned for a number of years before a group of preservation-minded citizens banded together to restore the Fox to its original deco glory, which was cheaper than knocking it down & erecting another building. Most of the renovation work was done by inmates from the nearby correctional facility (who have done an amazing job). Its marquee is one of the few operable neon marquees still surviving in this country. Since reopening in the 90's, the venue has hosted many performers. When the narrator namedrops Linda Ronstadt among them, there's huge response from the audience. Once the film clip's over, the managing director informs us that there'll be a fifteen minute intermission before Linda Ronstadt comes out to celebrate 75 years of the Fox. She muses, "And in 25 years from now when we're celebrating our 100th, maybe Linda will come back to help us celebrate again." Even bigger applause.

8:50 p.m.
Notice that there're still two empty seats next to Jean-Claude in the front row next to my original seat, so I reason that chances are good that they'll remain unoccupied if, in fact, they were ever sold at all. I go & sit next to Jean-Claude, who asks me how I snagged front row, and I try to tell him it's just dumb luck in rusty French, "J'ai de la bonne chance." We discuss the video clip we just watched & he points out how air conditioning is so much of a consideration in America, which it's not so much in Europe. I point out John Boylan single-mindedly focused on prompter-related console concerns on the stage & in the wings. Also point out John Gilutin. A woman who works for the Fox instructs us to seek her out after the performance to make sure we get to the front of the meet-&-greet line.

9-ish
Glowing, Linda Ronstadt & band take the stage with What's New.  Before she segues into Bewitched Bothered & Bewildered, she remarks on the beauty of Kansas, commenting that as they crossed the Arkansas River coming from Wichita it surprised her to see there was actually water in it, quite unlike Tucson where she's from. She asserts that preservation of such places as the Fox is important in continuing development of artistic expression, noting in particular that ancient Greeks designed the proscenium (or, stage) to focus the audience's attention on the performer instead of the hot dog stand. (Audience laughs). She continues, "I started out in the clubs & hoped one day I'd work my way up to being a concert singer, but instead they put me in boxing arenas where the audience would be looking at these huge screens, which always struck me like watching TV. And I always wondered, Why would people come to watch a giant TV screen when they can just watch TV at home?" She then informs the audience that she'll first be doing the standards recorded with Nelson Riddle but would close with her hits from the 70's, 80's & 90's. Bewitched Bothered & Bewildered finds her unrushed, & along with the next several tunes, she is centered in this material, having even become more subtle about glancing at the prompters.  She's often adjusting knobs on the hand-held gadget controlling her ear monitors.  Dedicates Straighten Up & Fly Right to Alberto Gonzales, which receives a polite chuckle but nothing that really registers as a response/reaction.

9:30-ish?
Am by now beginning to wonder if that hand-held device is not in fact emitting a frequency that mesmerizes. I go into a deep trance, a meditation that doesn't get interrupted until Little Girl Blue, second to last song in the Nelson Riddle set-let. Either my mind's drifted or her focus has shifted. Or perhaps it's merely anticipation of the era's changing at the conclusion of Lush Life.

9:40-ish?
Bring out the background singers for a little doo-wop! Linda lets us know we're moving on to the rock and roll era, introducing Too Soon To Know as being deemed by music historians as the first rock & roll song to be played on the radio, adding, "It's hard to think that rock & roll is now old enough to have a history but it does." During one of the "ooh-eee-oohs", Arnold McCuller spots me in the front row. We make eye contact & he gives me an index finger wave.

Tempo changes, at least momentarily, with Just One Look. The audience, though not music historians, is relieved to recognize a tune they more closely identify as Linda Ronstadt's. I take note of Bob Mann's guitar riffs & hear lines articulated that I'd never picked out before. And no wonder: he's too loud. The fluctuations & inconsistencies in the soundmix overlooked in the Nelson Riddle segment are in this song irritatingly distracting. Because I can't hear her. Even Marlene Jeter gets in on the act, gesturing to the sound mixer to turn Bob Mann's guitar down & the vocal mics up. Linda cites the lack of a formal soundcheck.

In all the times I've seen Ronstadt live, I've never seen her phone in Ooh Baby Baby, and Hutchinson was no exception. My only thought on Adios is the lyric change to "I miss California," which I've always found viscerally clunky – turns out I too miss the bloodred sunsets.

Before launching into Feels Like Home, Professor Ronstadt, mic stand-cum-lecturn, says she's frequently asked if there're any composers in the second part of the 20th century that compare with those in the first. "And I always say," she tells us, "we made better songs in the first half of the century & better records in the second," continuing, "but Randy Newman –" which elicits more audience response than her earlier Alberto Gonazles dedication. Addresses the Randy Newman fans directly. "I know. I love everything he's done," then relays the story of Faust, sneaking in a Bush dig when she talks about how James Taylor was cast as a God who's dazzlingly brilliant but too absentminded & befuddled to get around to fixing anything. "Katrina," she throws out the side of her mouth so quickly that I don't know if it even registers. She says Faust goes before God & owns up to his sins but rationalizes that he didn't enjoy committing them. "Isn't that just like a Protestant?" Linda editorializes. Declares herself a "roaming Catholic."

10-ish
Marlena leaves the stage & microphones come off their stands, which can only mean that Arnold's going to duet on Somewhere Out There, which they perform arm-in-arm. Arnold improvises a very subtle variation at the end, & Linda telegraphs her approval (then ZAPS him with that hand-held gadget! Kidding).

Boylan comes out to play acoustic on Poor Poor Pitiful Me, which I know means that we're racing – rushing – for the finish line. The cowbells harsh the mellow established by the preceding four tunes. Would have preferred Heart Like a Wheel at this point.

Crowd recognizes Blue Bayou's beginning bass line & yes, as has been noted above, she indeed performs the final tag in English. If I'm remembering correctly – can anyone corroborate? – when she lands on The Money Note at the end, Arnold & Marlene are couching her voice. In other words, she's not singing that final note solo, which is how I always remember it.

Leaves stage. Comes back. From the wings, a cute little girl with waist-length blonde hair comes out & presents her with a bouquet of roses. (Not Jean-Claude's, since some of you might ask.) She embraces the flowergirl. [Then she ZAPS her! Kidding.] John Boylan comes out to take the flowers from her.

"This is a song I learned from my father when I was a little girl," she says, introducing Quiereme Mucho, after which she calls it a night. No Heart Like a Wheel.

10:15-ish?
We adjourn through an alley to a big second level reception room. (Respecting the no photography rule, I don't use my new camera inside the auditorium EXCEPT to shoot some video of people filing out of rows at the end just to show what the interior of the theater looks like. Will try to post it once I figure out how to upload video.)

Jean-Claude & I reconnect with Marc & also meet another Forum member, lowercase lance, who's driven from Oklahoma, which he tells me is about three hours away. I insist on a photo:

l-r: markislam, Marc, lowercase lance, FrenchFan

We're wrangled by the woman who asked Jean-Claude to seek her out so that we can be first in line. Sounds like Linda's only staying for x-amount of time & won't be in any danger of wearing out her welcome. We in attendance from this forum know that she hates this & throughout different parts of the evening, we've discussed her arm's length relationship with the public. And I don't blame her. Am suddenly reminded of All About Eve where the Celeste Holm character wants to introduce superfan Eve Harrington to the indomitable Margo Channing, who's dismissive of The Great Unwashed that gathers around the backstage doors after her performances. "AUTOGRAPH HOUNDS!" Bette Davis barks, "They're nobody's 'fans'." My skin starts to crawl.

Just then, Margo Ronstadt enters the building, which I know because someone squeals, "OH MY GOD! SHE'S HERE!" I look around just to make sure it wasn't me.

We're among the first to meet her. Try to snap a picture of Jean-Claude, but am not fast enough nor am I in a suitable location to take an adequate photo. A deep regret, not being able to capture the moment in megapixels since it took considerable doing on his part to get there -- twice, if we count the October trip that was postponed.

I try to think of something not-stupid to say. Y'know, like, I might suggest a remake of Let It Be Me should the long-rumored (and perhaps most likely of prospects, I suspect) compilation of Aaron Neville duets warrant any newly-recorded bonus material. (Betty Everett & Jerry Butler anyone?) Instead, I boneheadedly tell her I've seen every tour since Get Closer & mention that I'm a friend of Rosemary Butler's. "Oh, I'll tell her I ran into you," she tells me sunnily as we shake hands. [And then she ZAPS me! Kidding.]

And that was it. Sum total. The line keeps moving in succession, and we're pushed out of it to make way for those behind.

The line pushes me in John Boylan's vicinity. "You look familiar," he says to me. Can't tell if he's joking. "Did you take my class?" [At UCLA – yes] Still can't tell if he's joking. He excuses himself saying that he has to look after Linda & that's the last I see of him. If I may continue with the All About Eve motif, Boylan's Birdie.

Linda's surrounded by fans, but not chaotically so. I notice cameras aimed at her. I don't take any photos of her because I usually like to ask permission first & thought doing so might be intrusive & menacing.

"Arnold told me backstage you were here," John Gilutin tells me, but we see no sign of Arnold anywhere. Gilutin gets out his cell phone, presumably to call Arnold, who suddenly appears. Arnold asks why my hair looks different, which disorients me further in light of my exchange with John Boylan mere moments before. The Wichita wind apparently deactivated my gel. I introduce Arnold to Jean-Claude, who tells him he saw him singing behind James Taylor.

In the above photo, Jean-Claude observes Linda meeting & greeting the punters. In a few moments, she'll be whisked through the exit behind her while there is still a lengthy line of people waiting to meet her. This is not an idictment; just a modest statement of the literal truth. Arnold's like, "Oop, gotta go." And they're gone.

Reconvene with lowercase lance & Marc-with-a-C, who shows us the silver signature on his Round Midnight poster, which she consented to sign after he presented her with the b&w picture of her & Nelson Riddle. "I don't have any pictures with Nelson," I believe is what she told him. (Before zapping him. LOL.) Jean-Claude didn't have his Lush Life LP signed.

Excusing myself momentarily to find some water at the bar I meet the driver of the personalized license plate, which Jean-Claude told me there's no such concept of in France, who's driven from Ohio with his high school age daughter who's active in music & theater & tells me she earns nearly straight A-s & is college-bound. I counsel her to apply to USC, NYU & Northwestern when she tells me she might pursue writing programs.

Say goodbye to lowercase lance & Marc-with-a-C, who're leaving early the next day. Had hoped I might run into KevinT but we somehow managed to miss each other. Jean-Claude & I talk with the Fox staffers. I make sure to tell managing director Mary that I especially enjoyed the video presentation. Which really was well-done. I tell her that I work in television so I know good video pieces when I see them. She loves hearing this because they'd worked so hard on it. She asks me what show I work on, & when I tell her The Amazing Race, she tells me that a girl from Hutchinson raced on the show a few seasons ago [Lori & Dave, the geeks]. The Lori & Dave season was my first as an associate producer.

10:54
I walk Jean-Claude to his rental car (which I mistakenly think is mine at first) and I wish him a great trip to Tupelo the next day, then I stay behind to take some pics of the marquee:

one of the few flashing functioning neon marquees in the country

Monday, April 23, 6:40 a.m., Becks Motor Lodge, San Francisco
Am awakened from a light sleep when I see a hand coming through the window I'd cracked open a few hours earlier. The rustling of the curtains wakes me. Am frozen but not paralyzed only because I know the window has a safety stop that'll only allow it to open wide enough for a fist to squeeze through. Still, it's unsettling. Like the final scene of Carrie when Amy Irving lays flowers on Carrie White's grave. The curtain swings open & I catch a brief glimpse of the tweaked-out wretch attempting to extricate his forearm through the 3-inch gap. I'm definitely NOT in Kansas anymore.