tonight in NYC
* Scorpions @ Jones Beach
* Cross-Pollination @ Pianos
* 50 Cent @ Hammerstein Ballroom
* Ana Lola Roman, YOU @ Glasslands
* Steel Train, Hymns @ Mercury Lounge
* Eddie Palmieri Y La Perfecta II @ Soundview Park
* Drumadics, Ed Vallance, Neckbeard Telecaster @ The Cameo
* Baby Gramps, Peter Stampfel, Sour Mash Hug Band @ Zebulon
* The Field Recordings, Animals Hands, Dixon, Hyperpotamus @ Pianos
* Holiday Band, AcHT(eN), Kate Ferencz, Emilyn Brodsky @ Death By Audio
* Balene, Pearl & The Beard, Carl Hauck, Tricia Scully @ Knitting Factory
* Adrian Belew's One Man Electric Show Painting with a Guitar @ Joe's Pub
* Darwin Deez, Scary Mansion, Mixel Pixel, Gordon Voidwell @ Santos Party House

"Atlantic recording artist Phil Collins has revised the schedule for his upcoming series of concerts at New York City's Roseland Ballroom. Due to scheduling and production difficulties, the first show, originally slated for June 22, has been cancelled. The remaining shows, on June 23, 24 & 25, will go on as scheduled. Tickets purchased for the June 22 show can either be refunded or will be good for one of the other shows. Those wishing refunds or exchanges should go to their point of purchase or call 800-745-3000."

João Gilberto canceled his CareFusion Jazz Festival show tonight at Carnegie Hall because of "international travel restrictions."

Cyndi Lauper is signing autographs at J&R at 12:30pm.

Baby Gramps is (still) in town

Darwin Deez, who is at Santos tonight, has a new video for "Up in the Clouds". Check it out below...

Suckers' new video for "Black Sheep", also below...

What else?a

Continue reading "What's going on Tuesday?"

by Andrew Frisicano

Download: Baby Gramps - Shake It 'n' Break It (MP3)
Download: Baby Gramps - St. James Infirmary (MP3)
Download: Baby Gramps - Teddy Bears' Picnic (MP3)

[Baby Gramps] plays his songbook of old-timey songs with the dexterity of an, erm, old-timer (he plays what he calls "stunt guitar" and what others have termed "extraordinary"). No longer "knee-high to a tootsie-wootsie" (as he would say), he's officially grown into his geezer status. Some date Gramps' beginnings on the Seattle music scene as far back as the early '60s. "Before that, I was in Texas by way of Arkansas by way of Alabama," he told Patrick Ferris in an interview reprinted on Gramps' website. And though you might be inclined to file Gramps under roots -- blues and folk in particular -- he's also found a niche among the rock crowd as a street performer and opening act. I recollect seeing him on every trip I've ever taken to Seattle that involved entering a nightclub. I asked my friend, Seattle-based author and journalist Charles R. Cross, for the hometown perspective on Baby Gramps: "He is a Seattle institution, along the lines of the Space Needle, Pioneer Square, and the Pike Place Market." [Crawdaddy]

Baby Gramps fingerpicks an old National steel guitar and shares at least a few similarities with Tom Waits: his outward appearance borders on hobo chic, his voice growls like a idling Buick, and his origins are purposefully mysterious in a way that transcends age. It's hard to place Baby Gramps in a specific context other than "America" and a time other than "somewhere in the past." He's never put out a studio record, despite playing consistently for the last 40-plus years. The samples above come from 2003's Same Ol' Timeously, one of Gramps's three live CDs released on his own Grampophone label.

Baby Gramps occasionally leaves his Pacific Northwest homebase for jaunts around the North East. That's what he'll do this June, as he plays Upstate New York before coming to NYC for a five-night run. Starting with a Friday, June 12th show at Terra Blues, Gramps will play Barbes on June 13th (Sat), Jalopy Theatre on June 14th (Sun), the Kitchen Club on June 15th (Mon) and finish with a show at Zebulon on June 16th (Tues).

His song "Cape Cod Girls" opened the Hal Willner-compiled Rogue's Gallery: Pirate Ballads, Sea Songs and Chanteys collection, which came out on Anti in 2007.

A video of Gramps performing "Cape Cod Girls" with Akron/Family on Letterman (a venue that doesn't do his full-on vaudeville act justice), with all tour dates, below...

Continue reading "Baby Gramps - 2009 tour dates w/ 5 NYC shows in June "