The Florida Music Association has opened a South Florida chapter (uh, there's, uh, a local music scene in South Florida?) to help musicians deal with the industry that would control them. The group (membership costs $25) conducts workshops and seminars (including a big meet-the-music-media event scheduled for May 27); offers info about radio, clubs, retail, and press; promotes members' music; puts out an annual directory; and offers affordable rates for health insurance and equipment insurance. Call the local chapter organizers: Lydia Ojeda at 952-0618 or Helaine Blum at 741-7730.
You know what would be fun for Earth Day? Everyone go around town and plant cannabis seeds. Plant 'em in Bayfront, plant 'em in the pots in banks and office buildings and police stations.... By July the entire city will be crawling with a weed that could end world hunger, comfort the sick A well, you've heard this speech before. At least it'd be funny. Anyway, the Earth, though not in the best of shape thanks to one especially aberrant and evil species, is still a pretty good planet, the best one we have. On Saturday many dirt people A dirt people are those of us who realize we live on a living planet A will gather at Bayfront. Here's the musical lineup: sitar master and trip guide Stephan Mikes, acoustic-based rocker Jolynn Daniel, percussive jazz outfit Bermuda Triangle, the Planet Earth Project, reggae jammers Le Coup, Nil Lara, and Paquito Hechavarria (see "Calendar").
Jolynn Daniel (and her band, the Gray Area) will be busy Earth Day. To say the least. After she performs at the above-mentioned event at 11:15 a.m., she'll fly to Orlando to open for Steve Forbert and Robert Earl Keen, and then fly back to Miami for a night show with the Goods at Rose's. She'll use an airplane, of course. "We're calling this the Too Many Gigs in One Day Tour," she says. "And we're warning kids not to try this at home."
Easy to write, tricky to pronounce: Folkin' Around With John Soler celebrates its first anniversary tomorrow as the Blue Steel's resident weekly Friday-night jam and open-mike session. Call 672-1227 for details, and listen to Mike Stock's radio show (Saturday afternoons on WLRN-FM, 91.3) on April 29, when the Soler experience will be re-created on the air.
Continuing their gorilla warfare on spring breakers, the busy Baboons invade Club Electra tomorrow (Friday) with the Goods.
The Elysian draws crowds to Button South tomorrow (Friday) and Saturday. Check out Itanna tonight (Thursday) at Silver Dollar. Halo unplugs for a show Saturday at Cool Beans.
Time of Arson, the fiery new CD from Johnny Tonite, is hitting the streets, but don't expect to see the band live soon. Maybe an acoustic set, but until they find a new bass player...Could you be that new bass player? Call front man Randy Ruffner at 340-9413.
One of Chicago's greatest blues players, pianist Sunnyland Slim, passed away late last month. "He was one of the original guys who came up from Mississippi to Chicago right after the war," says Piano Bob Wilder. "He was part of that original group of people changing the blues to the electric sound." Sunnyland also holds the distinction of being Rev. Billy C. Wirtz's mentor. Wirtz once drove the barrelhouse legend home from a gig in a hearse: "Well, I'll be riding in the back of one of these soon enough, might as well see what it looks like from the front," Slim commented. A mainstay on the Chi-Town scene, octogenarian Slim was a perennial blues fest fave who boogied up till the end.
Snatch the Pebble, 23, and Suzy Creamcheese rock Cheers tonight (Thursday). Creamcheese also headlines a big benefit at Hot Moon Cafe all day Saturday for Nova University's fledgling radio station. Romeo Romeo, Terra Blue, Mourning Son, Crash Basket, and Me share that bill. Call 475-7419.
Phil T. Rich and the Fornicators pay their nasty dues tomorrow (Friday) at Churchill's Hideaway, which, unlike Stephen Talkhouse, is still open and still staging local music all the time.
