Midwest Guest

Midwest Guest Bookshelf, October 2017

Al Franken: Giant of the Senate

This account of Al Franken's time campaigning for, and eventually becoming, a United States Senator from Minnesota was fascinating and oddly inspiring.

I started out many years ago as a political activist, and I headed to college at Detroit's Wayne State University with the idea that I would major in Political Science and aim for a career in political campaign management.

Time has a way of changing your idealist conceptions about your chosen career and early ideals.

I met Tim somewhere along the way...he ran (and lost) for State Representative...with me as his campaign manager in what was always seen as a seat that was not a winning proposition for a changer at that time...but our original enthusiasm and dedication turned to disgust as we saw the field become a sharply divided field where "the other side" became dreaded enemies and horrible people in the eyes of "our side".

We always enjoyed campaigns and jawing with folks we really considered as friends, in spite of any political differences we might have had.

But...when politics became a hateful and adversarial thing where you became suspect even if you said "hello" to a neighbor who held different political views than you...it was time to get out.

I found a lot of Franken's book engaging, and even inspiring, in expressing his obvious love for politics and his job in representing his constituents in Minnesota.

Franken did not have a smooth ride to the Senate. His background as a comedian led many to immediately discount him, his abilities, his seriousness and his sincerely. His initial race was a real "nail-biter". It was one of the closest races in history, and a re-count dragged on for months before he finally officially took a seat as a Senator.

Franken seems to have won over many of his doubters and handily won his re-election campaign for Senator in 2016.

He has a lot of misgivings about the future ahead in a really sharply divided political system...but he also has a lot of hope about working with his colleagues and love for the people he represents.

This one is definitely worth reading for the secret political wonk, for those who miss seeing Franken's humor on bold display and for those who wish we could all be civil again in politics. 

The Other Alcott

This novel is a deft imagining of the story of the youngest sister of Louisa May Alcott, whose real-life adventures were just a tiny part of the canvas that made up the older Louisa's classic story of Little Women.

I knew just a hint of the real-life back-story of Louisa May Alcott's younger sister "Amy", the real-life Louisa's prickly personality (imagined as "Jo" in the classic "Little Women" books), and the sisters' father's stubborn clinging to his precious principles of transcendentalism even as the family faced pressing poverty and the women in the family tried to keep them all afloat with their own work during an era of a definite restriction of rights and opportunities for women.

This novel is a debut effort by author Elise Hooper that takes the little-known story of Louisa's younger sister as a background for a fascinating story about a young woman finding her way out from under the shadow of her sister, the famous author, through the tough and competitive art world to find success and happiness in her own life.

May Alcott's story was already compelling and interesting, especially as it was set against the backdrop of Europe with events like the Siege of Paris in the early 1870s and the rise of the rebellious Impressionists and their re-making of the art world at the time.

Cooper's book references to other real-life figures like the sister's father Bronson Alcott, Ralph Waldo Emerson and artist Mary Cassatt who really did played some sort of real-life roles in the real-life stories of the Alcott sisters' lives.

Having read Louisa's books, starting during my own childhood and continuing through the present-day and having much admired the Impressionists throughout my own interest in art and painting, I found "The Other Alcott" fascinating.

Hooper's novel echoed some of my own long-held feelings about the Alcotts and their family situation, but the story added to my understanding and enjoyment of the life stories of the youngest Alcott sister.

"Amy" became a real and admirable figure for me that went well beyond her imagined role as the youngest sister of the famous family.  

Chief Engineer: Washington Roebling, The Man Who Built the Brooklyn Bridge

Bridge enthusiasts know the Roebling name, with many mistakenly entirely crediting John Roebling with designing and engineering this beautiful span and many others to the early 19th century engineer.

Those of us in the Midwest know about the beautiful Roebling bridge spanning the Ohio River between Cincinnati, Ohio and Covington, Kentucky. It was the Ohio/Kentucky span that first captured my attention and much of my fascination with bridges and led me to read David McCullough's book about the Brooklyn Bridge several years ago, so seeing Wagner's newly published take on the bridge and its background made it a must-read for me.

I did understand that John A. Roebling initially designed the bridge at Cincinnati, and that bridge bears his name, but I also knew a bit about the important work Washington Roebling did during the decade-plus construction projects involved with both seeing the John A. Roebling and Brooklyn Bridges to completion.

Wagner's book represents an even deeper look at the Roebling family and the complicated bond that led them to create and build such lasting monuments to their work during the late 19th and very early 20th centuries.

John A. Roebling died well before the completion of either span, and his brilliance and reputation worked to overpower the achievements of the rest of his family.

Wagner's does no real favors to the elder Roebling's reputation when it came to being the family patriarch, though.

She delves into the truth of his unyielding and abusive personality, so beware if you are not ready to see the story of the family warts and all.

Especially interesting to me was the largely unsung, and essential, role Emily, Washington Roebling's wife, played in the completion of the bridge at Brooklyn throughout her husband's prolonged illnesses brought about by his work on the bridge. This was at a time when women usually did not become as involved with such complex work, especially as an untrained engineer.

Like McCullough's book that I read nearly a decade ago, Wagner's book is a technical look at the technology, society and politics of the time. It benefits from newer research into the bridge and the Roebling family, but do be prepared to sometimes learn more than the casual reader might like to know about the history of the people behind the story.     

Who Built That? :Bridges

This is a kid's book, but offers an easy way to look at some of the most notable spans in the world and the people who built them.

It includes a short chapter about the Brooklyn Bridge and the part that John Roebling, Washington Roebling and Emily Warren Roebling played in the design, building and seeing the bridge to completion.

The book features ten well-known spans with easy to understand-explanations and illustrations showing some of the technical construction methods used to create these spans.

Fun look at the subject that does not seem to talk down to younger readers that might be interested in architecture or building as a possible career choice.

Foo Fighters: Learning to Fly

Most folks seem to most readily associate Dave Grohl with the Seattle rock scene and as a member of Nirvana, and some long-time fans remember him as coming out of the Washington DC area and Virginia, where he grew up after moving there as a child with his then-single mother...but some Midwest fans take it as a point of pride that Grohl actually was born in Warren, Ohio!

I've read about Dave Grohl Alley there in Warren where they honor him with a display of the "world's largest drumsticks"! This is a place that has long been on my "Midwest bucket list" as a destination!

The story of the Alley and its transformation into a tribute to a rock star whose Ohio roots are unknown to many people even in Warren itself is interesting.

Author Nick Wall does a decent job of covering Dave's life after he left Ohio, started his professional life as a musician in Virginia, went on to become a member of Nirvana and what happened after to unfortunate suicide of Nirvana's Kurt Cobain.

The biography captures a lot of Dave's frank way of expressing himself and gives readers a good look at how Grohl was able to re-create his life as a musician after unspeakable tragedy.

Midwest Guest Bookshelf, July 2017

I've been able to get back to reading for pleasure and getting to a lot of the books I've been keeping on a running list of things I've wanted to read over the last couple of years!

A good number of them have some sort of Midwest tie, many of them are music-related, many of them have some sort of regional history tie, and others are just books that I've wanted to read just because!

Some are books I have in my own collection, and a good number of them come to me via the Inter Library Loan program through my local library.

Here's a look at what I've enjoyed reading lately.

 

The curious life and legend of Who drummer Keith Moon comes alive in this book, which concentrates mainly on his musicianship and status as a legendary and pioneering drummer. Still, I did find at least one reference to a story that has a Michigan connection!

Keith apparently had his massive 21st birthday party at the hotel where the Who was staying after a concert in 1967--a Holiday Inn in Flint, Michigan where the drummer allegedly drove a Lincoln Continental car into the pool!

The story, repeated as fact by Moon himself over later years, is still hotly contested to this day, even by those who were allegedly at the party! The truth seems to be that the car did not take a dunk that evening, but one attendee at the party was Barry Whitman (drummer for one of the supporting acts on the tour, Herman's Hermits) says police were called to the hotel after a massive food fight that caused some serious damage. In everyone's rush to get out that night, Moon tripped over the pavement outside, smashed his two front teeth and had to have emergency dental surgery in Flint that night.

 

Susan Whittig Albert grew up in downstate Illinois. She earned her PhD in English at the University of Illinois, but she lives and works in Texas where she continues to publish books under her own name and other pseudonyms.

This is one of her books in the series about China Bayles, a fictional lawyer-turned-herb-shop- owner who stumbles upon mysteries and solves the case by each the end of each book.

If you're up for something fast and fun that includes a bit of herbal lore and a few recipes, check this series out.

This book is the 26th in this series. Albert has several other series that focus on different eras in history or are works of historical fiction about women.

Who better to talk to moms about the challenges of raising their talented prodigy and knowing when and how to encourage that talent to flourish than a mom who successfully watched and nurtured her own son's rise to rock stardom? Here Virginia Grohl, the rockin' mom of David Grohl who saw her son rise to fame as the drummer for Nirvana during the 1990s and successfully go on to become the front man for another commercially successful alternative band, the Foo Fighters.

Grohl, born in Warren, Ohio, is one of rock's most well-known and well-regarded, musician, guitarist, drummer, songwriter, record producer and film director.

His mom Virginia was a school teacher and raised her son as a single mom in Virginia. Dave Grohl began working as a musician in the Washington D.C. area and joined Nirvana in 1990.

He became more and more active in writing music for Nirvana until lead singer Kurt Cobain's tragic suicide death in 1994.

Grohl, after casting around for a bit and wondering what to do next, went on to establish the Foo Fighters as he shopped the initial album of his work and eventually built a band around the demo where he played most all of the instruments and wrote the songs himself.

The book is a fun read featuring interviews with mom's like Verna Griffin (Dr. Dre's mom), Marianne Stipe (Michael Stipe from REM's mom), Hester Diamond (Mike D from the Beastie Boy's mom) and Janis Winehouse (Amy Winehouse's mom).

Imagine Barack and Michele Obama deciding to embark on a road trip across the country at the conclusion of his second term as President, driving their own car and un-accompanied by a Secret Service detail!

Unimaginable in this day and time certainly, and it was something that even proved difficult for the out-going President Harry Truman to so in the less celebrity-obsessed time of 1953 as he and his wife Bess embarked on just such a trip at the end of his second term as President.

The Trumans wanted to travel incognito as they left their hometown of Independence, Missouri to Washington, D.C. and New York City and back.

The couple wasn't able to entirely evade attention from the press, local officials and the curious public, but they were, at times, to travel on their own and see a good bit of the Midwestern states like Missouri, Illinois, Indiana and Ohio as they mostly stayed at small motels, stayed with friends and ate at family diners, while greeting people along the way who shouted "Hi, Harry" when they spotted the duo on the road.

The author sought to re-create this road trip by using the same route and stopping at many of the places the Trumans stopped during their original adventure, capturing a slice of life that is long-gone and something no retiring chief executive before or since has ever thought about doing or would be able to do in these days of heightened security concerns and a celebrity-obsessed public.

The 1964 World's Fair in New York City was set against a backdrop of a world experiencing racial unrest, the country's discomfort with a rapidly growing immigrant population, a rapidly changing music scene, increasingly violent crime, the escalating war scene in Vietnam, a definitely divisive political scene, and other cultural changes. In other words, it really sounds like not much has changed in the country over the past 40-plus years.

The Midwest played, at best, a bit part in the fair as pavilions represented states like Wisconsin with cheese displays, a realistic-looking and -sounding audio-animatronics Lincoln held some fair goers in its thrall at the Illinois display and  the big automotive companies vied for attention for their newest vehicles and innovations at their respective pavilions. 

Long-seen as a financial failure and not really advancing it's stated "peace through understanding" mission, the bill still offers a fascinating look at this not-so-transformative event and the world as the 1960s got underway.

Anyone have any other suggestions that you feel I might like checking out?

Midwest music mix list #10: Iowa

So, after a long hiatus, I'm back with yet another edition of the Midwest music mix list. This time, we'll explore the musical scene in Iowa!

Iowa was unfortunately immortalized as the place where "the music died" after a 1959 plane crash in a cornfield that took the lives of music legends Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and J.P "The Big Bopper" Richardson, but I found plenty of great musicians that called the Hawkeye state home while adding to its musical legacy.

• American Pie-Don McLean I vividly remember when McLean released this tune in 1972 and the endless controversy and interpretations of the lyrics that McLean finally agreed to reveal after selling the original song manuscript of the song in 2015. Although McLean grew up in New York and first rose to fame in California, this song about a musical tragedy in the Midwest is perhaps what people know him best for.  

 

 

• Cathy's Clown-Everly Brothers Close vocal harmonies were a hallmark of the Everly Brothers' sound and the spate of hits they had during the late 1950s and early 1960s. Don was born in Kentucky and his younger brother Phil was born in Chicago, but the Everly family moved to Iowa where the boys spent much of their childhood and some of their high school years. The brothers started their careers by singing with their parents Ike and Margaret on the radio. The brothers began recording by the late 1950s and toured with Buddy Holly. While harmony was a hallmark of many of the Everly's recordings together, their life together in later years, unfortunately, wasn't nearly as harmonious. Phil died in 2014 while Don continues to record and performs as a solo act.

 

 

• Davenport Blues-Bix Beiderbecke Beiderbecke was a musician and composer known best perhaps by fans of early jazz and Dixieland music for his ability as a coronet player during a few brief years in the late 1920s. He may be even more well-known for his brief but troubled life. Beiderbecke quickly became one of the most influential jazz musicians of the era, and his legend lives on a slew of early jazz recordings, a book called Young Man with a Horn and a 1950 film of the same name starring Kirk Douglas and Lauren Bacall. He mostly taught himself to play the horn by ear and left his native Davenport to play in various bands and in various locales primarily around the Midwest. Beiderbecke found fame among jazz musicians and rabid jazz enthusiasts in his life time and in the early years following his shocking death at the age of 28 of ill health exacerbated by acute alcoholism. His legend and influence earned many accolades from the 1960s to the present time, and I remember first learning about him myself during the 1980s.

 

 

• In the Mood-Glenn Miller Miller was another "man with a horn" and he played the coronet at one point, although his instrument of choice was the trombone. Miller was born just a year later (1904) than Beiderbecke but his career lasted into the mid-1940s, until he disappeared during a plane flight over the English Channel in 1944. Born in Clarinda, Iowa, Miller moved around the region, attending school in Nebraska, Missouri and Colorado while becoming interested in becoming a professional musician. Miller originally worked as a freelance trombonist and became frustrated with the slow growth of his career before finally hitting his stride during the late 1930s. Miller volunteered for military service during World War II and disappeared during a flight planned to go from England to Paris. He earned a posthumous Bronze Star medal from the Army Air Forces.  

 

 

• Before I Forget-Slipknot This heavy metal (and it IS heavy) came to life in Des Moines in 1995 and still lives on with its arresting image and video visuals. The band puts me in mind of the Detroit band Insane Clown Posse with its emphasis on supernatural and horror-themed images. Slipknot shows with energetic head banging, stage diving, fighting and macabre imagery and costuming can make for disturbing viewing and listening for casual listeners, but it sure doesn't look dull! The band had multiple Grammy nominations in Metal and Hard Rock categories from 2001 through the present day, scoring a win for Before I Forget (Best Metal Performance) in 2006.  

 

 

• Chicken Fat-Meredith Wilson Wilson fondly remembered growing up in Mason City and playing flute and piccolo as a member of various bands as a young man, but he is best known as a composer, conductor and playwright with works like the score to Charlie Chaplin's The Great Dictator movie (1940), radio programs during the later 1940s and his play, The Music Man, which won a Grammy for Best Original Cast Album (Broadway or TV) in 1959. But it's his novelty song, "Chicken Fat" that ended up as the theme song for President John F. Kennedy's youth fitness program and became mercilessly embedded in the memories of school children during the early 1960s (ack!).

 

 

• Moon River-Andy Williams Andy Williams had a popular television variety show, which won 3 Emmy Awards during its 1962-1971 run. Williams sang pop and easy listening music, selling more than 100 million records worldwide. Henry Mancini's "Moon River" became one of his biggest hits. Born in Wall Lake, Williams began performing with his three older brothers while living in Des Moines and eventually moved to Los Angeles in 1943 before going on to motion picture and television stardom. He opened the Moon River Theater in Branson, Missouri during the 1990s, and he lived in Branson at the time of his death in 2012.   

 

 

Be sure to check out previous posts in this series that include music mix lists for Michigan, Ohio, Minnesota, Indiana, North Dakota, Illinois, and Wisconsin, as well as second lists for Michigan and Ohio.

Do you have favorite Midwestern artists or tunes I've yet to mention in this series? Let me know! I've yet to do Midwest Music Mix lists for Missouri, South Dakota, Nebraska or Kansas, so I'd be particularly interested in doing lists for those states, but I'd also be willing to do new lists for states I've done in the past as well.

©Dominique King 2016 All rights reserved

Midwest travel links for April 2016

Check out some great Midwest-related stories I found online this past month:

Sixth Street Bridge in Grand Rapids-This post by Farlane at Michigan in Pictures spotlights the 544-foot-long wrought iron bridge built in 1886 by the Massillon Bridge Company of Massillon Ohio and reminds me of bridges with similar histories in Michigan (wrought-iron spans built by Ohio bridge builders during the 19th century) and not to be confused with Grand Rapids' landmark Blue Bridge. Check out the excellent article at the Historicbridges.org site cited by this post for a more complete history of the Sixth Street span. You can also check out Historic Highway Bridges of Michigan by Charles K. Hyde (who taught several classes I had at Wayne State University in Detroit).

 

 

Flying Hot Dog at Rock and Roll Hall of Fame-We've seen this flying hot dog multiple times at the R&RHOF+Museum in Cleveland, Ohio, but we've yet to be able to make an image of it to share with Midwest Guest readers, so here's a nice shot of it by Karyn at Sand and Snow...and everywhere in between! We first got a membership here when the museum opened in 1995, but we haven't been able to visit in recent years since the museum lifted its prohibition on visitors being able to document their trips with their own images. Returning and making my own images there is definitely on my Midwest Bucket list!

Celebrate Indiana's Special Sites during National Parks Week-Kayleen gives readers of the Indiana Insider blog a nice round-up of the three National Park Service sites in the Hoosier State. This year sounds like the perfect time to visit as the NPS celebrates its 100th anniversary and Indiana also celebrates its 200th year as a state! Check out Indiana at 200: A Celebration of the Hoosier State to learn more about Indiana's Bicentennial.

6 Reasons You Need to Go the Detroit This Year-Jessica writes about how Detroit's story of doom and gloom is slowly changing to a story of "comeback" in recent years. While those of us who live in the area are well aware of its problems and its new-found charms among hipsters who pride themselves on discovering places before their widespread popularity among mainstream travelers, here's a list of Motor City highlights. Check it out at the Viator Travel Blog.  

101 Things to See and Do for $10 & Under in the Kenosha, WI Area (Part 1 of 4)-I bookmarked this site as we were planning a visit to Kenosha this summer, and some of Tony's suggestions like taking in a Kenosha Kingfish baseball game and climbing the Southport Lighthouse were high on our to-do list! While it doesn't look like this trip will happen for us this year, I'm still keeping this list for future reference. Check it out at The Walking Traveler blog.

 

 

Family Focused, Center City Activities Abound with the Return of Baseball Season-There is much to do in Cincinnati, Ohio, whether or not the Reds make a playoff run according to Randy at the UrbanCincy blog. Check out this video focusing on family fun in the Queen City, which reminded me a bit of some of the things we saw during our own trip to Cincy and a Reds game (you can link to the video here if it doesn't automatically pop up at the blog). Also be sure to check out a recent guest post from Jessie here about Cincy's Findlay Market.

What Happened to the Minneapolis Music Scene?-Aaron Renn (a.k.a. The Urbanophile) posts his ponderings about the Minneapolis music scene in the wake of Prince's untimely death this past month. Aaron muses about the importance of the city's music scene and wonders about the fading of its wider impact over the years since Prince's 1980s heyday--as opposed to the music scene in a place like Detroit, which seems to continually reinvent its musical culture in a variety of ways while remaining relevant to a wider audience today. Check it out at Aaron's self-named blog (that I first discovered as The Urbanophile blog a handful of years ago.

Wright in Racine-The grandson of the global manufacturer SC Johnson hired an architect during the 1930s to design the company headquarters in southeast Wisconsin with the instructions "don't make it too unconventional". The architect? Frank Lloyd Wright. And the building? Well, Wright certainly seemed to allow his imagination to fly with a structure featuring concrete flying saucer forms and a roof of glass tubing that still attracts many tourists today to tour the futuristic building as part of a cross-state tour of various buildings designed by Wright. Yup, this place is definitely on my Midwest Bucket List. Check out Beth's post at the Midwest Weekends blog.

 

 

Seward Johnson Sculptures in Crown Point Portray Real Life-Connie did a double take when she realized that a pair of men she saw on a city street in Crown Point, Indiana were actually sculptures and part of a public art project in the northern Indiana city. This summer saw a new public art installation of the realistic sculptures by artist Seward Johnson at Crown Point, and Connie files this report about it at the Midwest Wanderer blog, which includes a couple of familiar looking figures like the ones I saw four summers ago at a similar display in Carmel near Indianapolis, Indiana! Also be sure to check out Connie's recent guest post at Midwest Guest about Cantigny Park in Wheaton, Illinois.

That's it for this month's Midwest travel links list. Do you have any favorite Midwest stories or blogs to share?

Want more Midwest news and links? Subscribe to my bi-monthly Midwest Guest newsletter!

© Dominique King 2016 All rights reserved

It's no joke--Carhartt supports the arts and the symphony in Detroit

April Fool's memes and jokes online usually just annoy me, but I saw one April Fool's Day post on Facebook this year that was subtle, clever and said a lot about the Detroit Symphony Orchestra's continuing effort to appeal and relate to a wider demographic and Carhartt, a Detroit-based company with a long history of support for its hometown and as a purveyor of durable work and sport clothing.

Hamilton Carhartt established the clothing company in Detroit in 1889, and the company returned to its roots last summer by opening a flagship store in the heart of Detroit's Midtown area near the main Wayne State University campus on Cass.

The DSO performed its first concert of its first subscription season in December of 1887. The orchestra closed for a few years during the 1910s, resuming operations in 1914 at the old Detroit Opera House and eventually built Orchestra Hall as the symphony's new home in 1919.

Carhartt's line of rugged work clothing for men, women and kids includes outerwear, high-visibility clothing, flame resistant gear, lots of other casual and sporting wear, as well as Carhartt's classic bib overalls.

The DSO's April 1 post was a short film clip featuring symphony musicians performing while dressed in the iconic overalls and talking about how the garment lends itself providing convenience to the hard-working musicians like the trombone player pointing out how his bib overalls provided a particularly convenient place to store the numerous mouthpieces he might use during a performance.

 

 

Meanwhile, DSO president and CEO Anne Parsons talked about the importance of presenting a relatable image to the symphony's audience...an audience that consists of many hard-working metro Detroiters like those that work at Carhartt or wear the company's clothing.

The partnership between these two long-time Detroit institutions--Carhartt and the Detroit Symphony Orchestra--is certainly no joke, and at least a few folks seem to take themselves and the symphony way too seriously (judging from some of the comments I saw posted on this post at You Tube and Facebook), but I thought using wit and gentle humor to make its point only shows how dedicated the DSO is to the idea of expanding their audience and how enthused Carhartt is about supporting the arts in the Motor City!    

© Dominique King 2016 All rights reserved

Photo Friday: Thornetta

We love the yearly Concert of Colors world music and unity festival that takes place each summer in Detroit.

We've written about it many times, and I've published many images from the festival over the years here at Midwest Guest.

Thornetta Davis is one of our favorite performers, and this image happens to be a favorite of mine!

We particularly love her as a blues singer, but we've seen her perform gospel, rock and other genres in various venues around town. Go see her if you're in town and notice that she's playing a gig near you!

Can't get to see her in person? Check out Amazon for Sunday Morning Music, with lots of self-penned music, or Thornetta Davis Covered Live at the Music Menu, which includes some of my favorite classic blues tunes like I'd Rather Drink Muddy Water and Meet Me With Your Black Drawers On!

This particular image placed second in Monochrome General, Beginner Division competition for September 2015 at the Motor City Camera Club. The Greater Detroit Camera Club Council, consisting of 10 member clubs around the metro area also recognized this image with a third-place prize for Monochrome General in November of 2015.

Check out the Motor City Camera Club's Web site, or connect with the Motor City Camera Club on Facebook.

© Dominique King 2016 All rights reserved

Photo Friday: Infatuation

We make lots of images each year at the Concert of Colors, but sometimes it's only when we come home and actually start looking at our images after downloading them into the computer that we notice something we didn't really see at the time we made the original image.

I concentrated on making sure I focused on the subjects and tried to minimize camera movement in the low light as I captured images of a local band called the Infatuations during the hot July night...but I didn't notice how clearly I'd captured the flag-themed lenses in sun glasses the lead singer wore that evening until I'd more closely examined my images several days later.

 

 

This particular image took first place in Color General, Beginner Division competition for August 2015 at the Motor City Camera Club.

Check out the Motor City Camera Club's Web site, or connect with the Motor City Camera Club on Facebook.

© Dominique King 2015 All rights reserved

2015 Concert of Colors: Corktown Popes, Infatuations, Plena Libre and more!

Here are a few more images from some of the shows we enjoyed during the 2015 Concert of Colors.

 

 

We checked out a lively show featuring the Puerto Rican bomba music of Plena Libre. The group plays the two-beat percussive music that caught the imaginations of music lovers on the island around the turn of the twentieth century. Described as the "sung newspaper of the day", it allowed listeners to learn of romance, politics and other current events in a call-and-response pattern. The musical form fell out of favor during the 1940s, but the genre's revival among a new generation of fans and enthusiasm for other Afro Caribbean music owes much to the work of the Grammy-Award-winning Plena Libre.

 

 

We first saw the Infatuations at last year's Concert of Colors when the Don Was All-Star Revue staged a tribute to Bob Seger's "Live Bullet" album, and the group performed a rocking version of Seger's "Ramblin' Gamblin' Man".

 

 

This year, the Infatuations put on a high-powered show debuting the talent of their new lead singer, Kendrick Hardaway, fronting the six-member group with a unique brand of gritty rock and soul that included hints of rap, surf and other musical genres.  

Check more of the music out for yourself with a free download of Monster, the Infatuations' recent three-song EP.

We also enjoyed hearing the Corktown Popes, a rock band with a decided Celtic edge that we first heard last year during Concert of Colors' tribute to Seger's "Live Bullet" when they performed "Travelin' Man".

 

 

This year, the Corktown Popes seasoned their brand of straight-ahead rock with Celtic instrumentation like the use of mandolins, accordions and pipes.

 

 

Be sure to check out our other recaps of the 2015 Concert of Colors shows: Don Was Revue stages Tribute to the Electrifying Mojo and Jazz and blues artists pay tribute to Marcus Belgrave.

Text © Dominique King 2015 All rights reserved

Photos © Dominique King and Tim Marks 2015 All rights reserved

Related articles

2015 Concert of Colors: Jazz and blues artists pay tribute to Marcus Belgrave

2015 Concert of Colors: Don Was Revue stages tribute to the Electrifying Mojo

2015 Concert of Colors: Jazz and blues artists pay tribute to Marcus Belgrave

Detroit jazz master and world renowned trumpeter Marcus Belgrave busily planned a headline show for this year's Concert of Colors until his unexpected death this past May.

Concert of Colors quickly fielded a replacement to headline the festival's Saturday evening bill, but Belgrave's spirit apparently had other plans for organizers as the State Department failed to get the necessary paperwork for the replacement act to make it to Detroit in time for the show.

Belgrave's family and friends rallied together to work with concert organizers to make sure that the show did, indeed, go on. Concert goers enjoyed a program the featured some the music Belgrave loved and spotlighted the musical legacy he left behind after 45 years of performing and mentoring the generations following him on the Detroit music scene.

Even as he met health challenges in recent years while dealing with pulmonary and heart disease, Belgrave still practiced his trumpet daily as he planned his return to the Concert of Colors stage this year.

Detroit bassist Marion Hayden served as the curator for the evening's tribute, which starred Belgrave's wife and vocalist Joan Belgrave, as well as musicians who worked with, and learned from, the jazz master.

Marion Hayden

Here are a few highlights from the Saturday evening show:

Wendell Harrison

Ursula Walker



Thornetta Davis


Don Was


Thornetta Davis


Joan Belgrave


Joan Belgrave ends the show by acknowledging her husband

Missed the show and want a taste of some of Belgrave's music missed? Check out some of his work that includes albums like Marcus, Charlie and Joan...Once Again and You Don't Know Me: Marcus Belgrave Presents A Tribute of New Orleans, Ray Charles and the Great Ladies of Song.

Text © Dominique King 2015 All rights reserved

Photos © Tim Marks and Dominique King 2015 All rights reserved

Related articles

2015 Concert of Colors: Don Was Revue stages tribute to the Electrifying Mojo

2015 Concert of Colors: Don Was Revue stages tribute to the Electrifying Mojo

The members of the Midnight Funk Association did indeed rise as a great audience gathered to pay tribute to one of Detroit's most magical and eclectic DJ's, the Electrifying Mojo!

 

The legendary Detroit radio personality held court on the airwaves from 1977 until the mid-1990s ushering some of the best loved and remembered music onto the air, in many cases becoming among the first to play artists like Prince and Was not Was on the air and popularizing those artists throughout Michigan, northern Ohio, southern Ontario and beyond.

Prince, the B52s, Kraftwerk and others were among the artists first played by Mojo in the region, and Detroit Techno owes a real debt of thanks to the legendary DJ for his on-air support of the genre.

Mojo's "mothership" would set down on Detroit airwaves at midnight for an hour-long dose of funk, classic rock and alternative artists like Parliament-Funkadelic, The Time, Rick James, Peter Frampton, Pink Floyd, Talking Heads and more. The Electrifying Mojo would then continue with his nightly radio how, often far beyond his allotted time slot and well beyond the narrow restrictions of race, genre or other standard radio formats.

The funk was certainly with the audience at the Concert of Colors during the final big show of the festival on Sunday evening as the Don Was Revue gathered a constellation of Detroit talent both vintage and new to recall and celebrate the spirit of Mojo's shows!    

The man himself, ever mysterious, remained in the shadows with the occasional newly recorded dispatch, but his spirit was certainly in full force that night.

Here are a few of the highlights from Sunday evening's festivities:  

Detroit Symphony Youth Orchestra String Quartet


Carolyn Stribo


Kraftwerk


A New Thing


Laura Rain


Amp Fiddler


Amp Fiddler


Third Coast Kings


Muruga


Was Not Was

Want to see more? Subscribe to Don Was' Detroit All-Star Revue channel on YouTube for performances from prior year's Revues and for upcoming video from this year's All Star Revue performances!

Text © Dominique King 2015 All rights reserved

Photos and video © Tim Marks and Dominique King 2015 All rights reserved