Hall Monitor

We were both a bit more youthful twenty-some years ago when I met Big Bad Jimmy Dean shortly after his head-over-heels fall for Donna Mead brought him to Richmond to make a new life on the banks of the tidal James. His is one of America's classic rags-to-riches stories and his contribution to the television medium and to what we still eat for breakfast are legend.  Not to mention of course, his indelible mark on the music industry which is at long last being acknowledged this spring by his induction into the Country Music Hall of Fame.  Jimmy recounts the phone call one day last week from "someone at the Country Music Association telling me I'd been put in the Hall of Fame, and thinking it was just somebody pulling my chain, I said 'That's very nice...thank you very much and goodbye."  Jimmy hung up on the guy.  It took another subsequent call from Hank Locklin, Jr., CMA employee and namesake of the Opry veteran who recorded "Please Help Me, I'm Fallin'" to make him realize it was for real.  The speculation as to why it took so long is moot now.  A glaring hole is now properly filled.  And with Ferlin Husky, Billy Sherrill and Don Williams going in with him, I venture to say it will be one of the most joyous and emotional induction ceremonies the Hall has ever seen.  May 16...in Nashville.  A giant of a man with a heart as big as the Texas sky.

To shift gears, what an uplifting musical experience we were afforded at the Carpenter Theatre Tuesday night thanks to the stellar players on tour for California’s Monterey Jazz Festival.  Pianist Kenny Barron, violinist Regina Carter, guitarist Russell Malone, bassist Kiyoshi Kitagawa and percussionist Johnathan Blake with vocalist Kurt Elling enthralled the Modlin Series crowd with a two-set tour of the jazz landscape.  All with distinguished resumes and the miles together to attain an obvious comfort level, this sextet displayed its collective and individual virtuosity with both the familiar…a memorable take on “Georgia On My Mind” incorporating a well chosen phrase from “Amazing Grace” from Barron and Carter, and a sensitive so long to Michael Jackson in Malone’s “I’ll Be There” on solo guitar...  and a couple of engaging originals like Barron’s “Theme # 1” from an unnamed film score and “Calypso Calypso” that he learned in a West Indian club during his early years in Brooklyn.  Yet another feather in our city’s colorful cap as we continue to showcase top-drawer talent from all over the map.  And we welcome the Modlin Center’s new director Deborah Sommers to the U of R and to our community at large…her predecessor Kathleen Panoff set the bar high.  May Ms. Sommers build on Kathy’s programming prowess.

Scroll on down to my previous post A Magic Monday for details on this Saturday’s bluegrass benefit jam at Grandpa Eddies out on Three Chopt.  Venerable tunesmith Patty Larkin celebrates her 25th year as a recording artist with a tour stop at Ashland Coffee and Tea, also Saturday night.  And check out the 25 guest artists she has on her new album to commemorate the milestone.  And one more reminder of our upcoming enchanted evening with the gifted string quartet, the Bee Eaters…our third JAMinc/In Your Ear concert of the year on Thursday March 4th (reservations here) and Adam Steffey’s new bluegrass band, the Boxcars at AC&T on the 5th.  A really big shew is set for Sunday, March 7th…Page Wilson’s 3rd annual Out O’ The Blue Stage Revue at the Canal Club.  Lots or our local best donating time and talent for many music-related causes.  Check it out.

And a ‘save the date’ for the weekend of May 14 and 15 on Brown’s Island:  Floydfest 09 favorites Grace Potter and the Nocturnals play Dominion Riverrock on Friday night and Robert Randolph & the Family Band hold down the groove on Saturday.  More to come, along with some of the early bookings for October’s Richmond Folk Festival III and a peek at the lineup for Groovin’ In The Garden at Lewis Ginter.  Just wait.

TT

(photo of Jimmy and me at NBC12 by Bob Remsberg, others from artist websites)