Smokey Robinson

July 24th Tonight we went to see Smokey Robinson at Coney Island. We arrived an hour early but already there was a long queue but we managed to get good seats about 20 rows back. The New Stylistics were meant to be opening the show but in their absence Smokey performed for nearly 2 hours! From the beginning he had the audience in the palm of his hand. He began with Going to a Go Go and then ran through all his big hits and a few lesser known tunes. The songs that got a huge response were Ooh baby baby, Just to see her, Tears of a clown, Tracks of my tears, I second that emotion, You've really got a hold on me, My girl and Cruisin' his final song in which he had the audience in two sections competing for who could sing the loudest! As is the norm these days he had a ten piece band with 3 backing singers and two dancers. John thought that maybe he would have lost popularity as he's now 68 but I think that there was an even bigger crowd than for Brian Wilson last week and clearly he's a crowd favourite! The weather had improved and it was a perfect night for the concert.

Brian Wilson

There was a huge crowd so we were much too late to get one of the $5 seats in front of the stage but we found a few people we knew and just enjoyed the nostalgia as he played all his old hits plus some new material with a ten piece band. He got a great reception. Some tunes sounded better than the originals! Brian Wilson and his band worked their way through `Wouldn't it be nice' `Fun fun fun' `I get around' `Surfin' USA' `Surfer girl' `Barbara Ann' ``Help me Rhonda' `In my room' and `God only knows' `Kokomo'
`California girls' and ` Good vibrations'. Until you hear all these tunes you forget just how many hits they had and how good this band were.

Luther Guitar Junior Johnson

July 17th During the Summer there is so much free entertainment in New York that sometimes it's hard to decide what to do. Tonight there were at least three open air concerts which sounded promising. We decided to try to go to two. At Prospect Park Chicago bluesman Luther Guitar Junior Johnson was performing with his band followed by Dobro specialist from Nashville, Jerry Douglas. Locally at Coney Island Brian Wilson of Beach Boys fame was the star attraction. We caught the subway up to Park Slope and caught the set by Luther. Most of the audience weren't familiar with him but he soon won them over with renditions of blues classics plus a few originals. We were able to get a seat right at the front. When the bigger names are playing it's impossible to get a seat without arriving really early which is not what you want to do in the heat. We would have liked to have seen Jerry Douglas but decided to dash down to Coney Island to catch the second half of the Brian Wilson concert.

Jimme Vaughan and Lou Ann Barton

July 14th Tonight we went down to Times Square to see Jimmie Vaughan. We got there early and managed to get good seats near the stage which was lucky as later it really filled up. Everything we go to in New York is like that. there's no reserved seating so its first come first served. For most shows beginning at 8pm it's recommended that you arrive at 6 to get a good seat! All the venues offer dinner and drinks so it seems sensible to spend that time eating and drinking. The only problem is that you end up eating and drinking too much!
Anyway, Jimmie was great. He played mostly his old hits. Lou Ann Barton, a vocalist from Texas who has sung with him for years sang on some numbers . She has a very strong voice and does vocal duets with Jimmie. Usually in New York performers don't sign autographs but I bought one of Jimmie's CD's in case and luckily he did some signings. I bought a cool T Shirt too. He was very friendly and posed for a photo w

Freddie McGregor

July 10th Today we did our shopping and later headed to Prospect Park to see Freddie McGregor, a fantastic Jamaican born roots reggae artist. He had a full band with backing singers. There's obviously a large Jamaican community in Brooklyn and it seemed as if they all turned out for this concert. It was again reminiscent of Womadelaide! Freddie sang for about an hour and covered all his hits including `Big ship'. The lightning bugs were out again in full force and everyone enjoyed themselves.

Les Paul

July 7th Just after 6 we set off for the city to see Les Paul at the Iridium Jazz Club. Les Paul is of course a pioneer of the electric guitar and inventor of numerous recording techniques, such as reverb and multi-track recording. He is now unbelievably 93 years old (or should I say young?). The club was packed to capacity as so many people want to see this legendary guitarist play. Many famous guests have also appeared at these Monday night sessions. Les has a quartet featuring Aussie double bass player Nicki Parrot, Lou Pallo on rhythm guitar and .John Colianni, piano. Their repertoire is mainly jazz standards interspersed with interesting anecdotes from Les. With song a long career in music he has plenty of stories to tell. On this night his special guest was Steve Miller who played some of his hits with his band. Then Norton Buffalo the harp player showed off his versatility with a beautiful rendition of `Autumn leaves'. Unfortunately we didn't manage to get any autographs as patrons were queuing already for the second performance Apparently after that show Les does appear to sign autographs so next time we'll know. Lets hope he can continue until he's 100!




John Earl with his Les Paul!

Dr Lonnie Smith

July 3rd In the early evening we set off for Smoke, a jazz club way uptown to see Dr Lonnie Smith and his trio. I've been a fan of Lonnie's for many years. We got there early and to our delight Dr Lonnie arrived early and began chatting with the patrons. When he came to our table he chatted to me about his music for a while and we took some photos and he signed an album I'd brought with me. He played with guitarist Peter Bernstein who I'd seen at the Monterey Jazz Festival in 1996 and they were really smokin' It turned out to be Dr Lonnie's birthday and the club presented him with a large cake to his (I think) surprise! .