Remembering Tom Terrell

Journalist and raconteur Tom Terrell passed away today after a long battle with cancer. He had relocated back to Washington D.C. for medical care after many years in New York.

At Shore Fire, we were blessed with Tom's presence at many events over the years....we all considered him a friend. He always livened up the room. Most of the time he knew everyone in it. Known for his love and deep knowledge of music, he still managed to surprise me a few years ago when we shared our passion for the music of prog-rock legends Yes, who Shore Fire was representing at the time.

Lo and behold, Tom placed an essay on the band -- about his fondly remembered, yet strange, experience as a black fan of the band -- on NPR's "All Things Considered," where he was a contributor. To whit, listen here:

All Things Considered, June 2, 2004 - The U.K. progressive rock band Yes is celebrating 35 years together. Members have come and gone and come again, but the band has a signature sound, full of time changes, electronic keyboards and a tight mix of guitar bass and drums. Music writer Tom Terrell says the white band from Britain had a strange attraction for black kids — like him — from New Jersey.

We got this message today.

Dear Friends - I just received a call from Tom Terrell's sister Bevadine informing me that Tom's battle with cancer ended this morning at 5:05am. I'm happy to say that Tom's final days were pain free and peaceful. He was constantly surrounded by his loving family and friends during his time in the hospital/hospice. The outpouring of love helped Tom stay positive and strong through to the end.

The family is working on funeral arrangements, but tentative plans for the service are for next Saturday, December 8th in Washington, DC (all are welcome). They plan to organize a separate memorial service in NY, but are unsure of the timing.

Our condolences go out to Tom's family and to his many, many friends. We will miss him dearly.

Jim Ford, R.I.P.

One of the greats passed away a few days ago. Most people never knew Jim Ford’s music in life. Maybe that’ll change in death.

If you love country or soul or more to the point, country-soul, then you’d love Jim Ford. He was a funky southern pirate! His songs were covered by Aretha Franklin, Bobby Wommack and the Temptations. He wrote “Ode to Billie Joe” for Bobbie Gentry. He played, uncredited, on Sly Stone’s masterpiece ‘There’s A Riot Goin’ On.’ Sly called him “the baddest white man on the planet,” while Shore Fire client Nick Lowe has called Ford “the biggest musical influence of my life.”

Earlier this year Bear Family Records released the first Ford retrospective ‘The Sounds of Our Time,’ which includes his legendary lone LP ‘Harlan County’ (originally released, if just barely, in 1969) along with a slew of bonus tracks. Every home should have one. Prior to the reissue, the backing musicians on ‘Harlan County’ were never credited, but according to Ford, James Burton, Jim Keltner and Dr. John all played on the record. Wow!

I’ve heard that ‘Sounds of Our Time’ is one of Bear Family’s most successful releases ever. So much so that more music from the Ford vaults is coming next year. What a shame that he won’t be around to enjoy some of the recognition he deserves.

Read more on Ford’s life and death here.

Laverty Hijinks, or Deck the Halls With Hunted Holly

Shore Fire Prexy Marilyn Laverty, away from her computer today, reports from the road on some recent hijinks:

Getting lots of cookies baked and presents bought.

Yesterday we traveled down to one of my favorites places, Barnegat, NJ, an antique bay town in the Pine Barrens which has buildings from the 1700's; you can look across the bay and see Long Beach Island and Barnegat Lighthouse.We had lunch at the Hurricane House, Ocean County's oldest restaurant and NJ's oldest ice cream shop (they serve Arctic Ice Cream -- made in Trenton, who knew? Never heard of it).

We also re-enacted a family tradition from my childhood of going 'holly hunting', which involves pulling over to the side of the road in your car, shears in hand, and poaching other people's holly (only if it has a lot of berries) while keeping a lookout for the police or landowner to come running. We found a deserted Pine Barrens road and some trees with berries that were not too high to reach (other poachers had beat us to it at several previous locations and didn't leave a limb low enough to get without a ladder.) My 77 year old Mom quickly jumped into the bushes and started breaking holly branches with her bare hands, and the cache of beautiful holly was thrilling.

Did somebody say meat?

I'm a born and bred east-coaster, but I have family roots that lead back to the west side of Chicago, and despite the fierce competition below I'd like to humbly suggest that midwesterners can compete as well in the meat department. This beauty in progress snapshot was taken at my Grandmother's house on Thanksgiving afternoon:


But wait, there's more. Let's up the stank factor with one bonafide order of marshmellow topped sweet potatoes:


And later on if you're lucky we'll raid the stash of vinyl in the combination credenza/record player for some Irish drinking ballads...


...and then perhaps a little kid's disco to top off the evening:

I’m Thankful for Meat

Oh sure, Shore Fire has its share of vegetarians. We’ve even had a vegan or two pass through our ranks over the years. But there’s also a, uh, healthy meat-loving contingent here. Mark Satlof is the king of this group, with his mail-order bacon and tales of Chinatown mystery meats. Michael Lavigne is also a card-carrying member. He loves tripe and isn’t afraid to admit it.

I like to think I’m part of the carnivores’ conversation too, and this Thanksgiving I had a meal that would’ve done Mark and Michael proud. Instead of the usual dried out turkey, we had a mind-blowingly delicious Turducken, courtesy of Langensteins, a super-cool little market in New Orleans that's been around since the '20s. Their turduckens are so popular that they stop taking orders for them the weekend before Thanksgiving. Just look at this thing! What a beautiful bird(s). A neopolitanic smorgasbord of turkey, chicken and duck! A taste trifecta! Did I mention it was stuffed with cornbread and crawfish? Even my daughter Emma was speechless at the sight of it.

Peach Pickin' Time in Georgia, Pig Pickin' Time in North Carolina

For the second year in a row, my wife's North Carolina relatives hosted a full-on pig pickin' on their gentleman's farm north of Wilmington for Thanksgiving. In a pig pickin', in case you didn't know, the pit master barbecues a pig (in this case, half a pig), then brings it out on location in a trailer/smoker. They turn the heat back on, unload the sides....and then you literally start picking the pig apart, usually w/ tongs but with your fingers here and there if need be. Uncle Jerry ("the gentleman") came over and whispered in my ear not to worry, the barbecue had been blessed by a rabbi!

Here's the pig on the grill..notice the tongs getting ready to pick (top center).

Here's what a piled on plate looks like. The greens were fresh picked from the farm garden.

And the bonus shot, the kids got to gather fresh eggs from the hen house.

Who's your ice cream man?

In a dispatch from the is-this-really-happening musical file, last night I got the chance to see Van Halen in their (almost) original lineup at the Garden. As David Lee Roth said "We're three quarters original and one fourth inevitable." I admit I might have forgotten a little just how bat out of hell blazing the Van Halen brothers were until the opening riff of "You Really Got Me" nearly took the paint off the walls.

Here's the view from the seats before the show:

And of course the Van Halen blimp. What gives, why don't more bands have blimps? I feel like I've been robbed on previous arena shows.


And the main attraction, Eddie and Diamond Dave. Plus, lots of confetti. Whoa. I wonder what the teacher's going to look like this year.

Fun at Fox with Friedlander

This morning, I woke up bright and early to accompany cellist Erik Friedlander (and his daughter and junior publicist Ava) to the Fox Business Network. Alexis Glick interviewed Erik about having his music in the new Errol Morris-directed iPhone commercials and he performed the "beautiful" (Glick's word) song "Yakima," off the album 'Block Ice & Propane.' Check out the segment here.

Also spotted over at Fox: TV and film star Jennifer Garner and football coach Don Shula. Check out this amazing video of Erik performing "Yakima," the song that transfixed Morris:

Voice (and Guitar) of the Prophet at Joe’s Pub

Holy cow did Chuck Prophet knock me out last night! Loudest show I’ve ever heard at Joe’s Pub, and one of the best too. Chuck’s on tour playing songs from his new album ‘Soap and Water’ on Yep Roc. Tomorrow he stops by NPR’s DC studios to tape a segment for Weekend Edition Sunday. Here’s a pic of Chuck and I snapped after the show.
Bonus: I got to meet Chuck’s Green on Red bandmate Dan Stuart, who’d come in from Staten Island. Seems like I hear about hip musicians living on S.I. all the timee these days. Two Shore Fire staffers call the borough home as well. Could the NY Times be right?

Take A Look At Rolling Stone

Happy 40th Anniversary Rolling Stone! Last night Rolling Stone pulled out all the stops for their anniversary party at The Hard Rock Cafe in Times Square. The event featured performances by Pete Wentz of Fall Out Boy although he ditched his guitar for turntables and Gym Class Heroes. Unfortunately, I didn't have any Ashlee Simpson sightings but I did meet a lot of people who have no idea who Supertramp is....

Gym Class Heroes performed their hit single "Cupid's Chokehold" which borrows the chorus from Supertramp's 1979 song "Breakfast in America."

New Orleans great seen in NYC

Spotted the ever-dapped Allen Toussaint in the theater district Saturday night on W. 50th. He may be the most elegant man in the show biz. I don't think I've ever seen a bad photo of him!

Havin' a Stanky Time at the 'FMU Record Fair

It's not as easy as it used to be for me to get down to the WFMU Record Fair with the little 'uns at home. Gone are the years when I would blow a whole day and an entire month's discretionary income at the Fair. But I did manage to stop by for the tail end yesterday. I only had an hour, but I got my fix.

I ran into FOSF (Friends of Shore Fire) Billy Miller and Miriam Linna, who always have the best-placed (and stocked) table at the fair. They hipped me to the new Dictators double LP of early demos and rare tracks that they just put out. Can't wait to crack that one open!

Another highlight from my haul (even though I haven't listened to it yet!) is the debut LP by Stanky Brown. Yeah, I've never heard of them either, but with a name like that....Note the price tag on this record. And then take 50% off. That's what I paid. How can you go wrong?!

Everybody Loves Chris. Happy Birthday!

Today we celebrated Chris Brudzinski's birthday. With a record player in his office and probably the only SF staffer with a stage name, Chris is one cool cat.

Here he digs into a Junior's famous strawberry cheese cake- yum!

All You Techies and Music Addicts

Check out this interesting Electronic Musician podcast where our client Peter Buffett talks extensively about home recording equipment and how he made 'Staring At The Sun.' One ambition was to pair a soft verse with a booming chorus a la Radiohead.

Halloween Comes But Once A Year

Since living in NYC, one holiday always stands out to me amongst the others: Halloween. I'll go out on a limb and say that no other city revels in the freaky spectacle of the holiday like New York.

First you have the Village Halloween Parade. Brooklyn Vegan has some great links and photos up and YouTube has lots of videos. Loud music, wild costumes and a huge group of people doing the "Thriller" dance in unison - it's a spirited affair to say the least.

Here's a video snippet of some young funky drummers strutting their drum corps stuff in the parade at Bleecker and Ave of the Americas:



The other highlight of Halloween in NYC is the live music scene. Here's a few of last night's live music options: Shore Fire clients B-52's w/ The Rapture, Antibalas, Ryan Adams, The Black Crowes w/Patti Smith, The Police!! Wow that's a lot of good bands playing on the same night. I ended up at the Mercury Lounge to see a fantastic Danish band called The Figurines - the perfect way to cap off another great Halloween.

"When You Feel It" - Brett Dennen Rocks the Bowery

Tuesday night Northern California native Brett Dennen headlined a packed audience at the Bowery Ballroom. I was up on the balcony enjoying the show with Nick Baily, talented singer and Shore Fire client Sonya Kitchell, and a bevy of our journalist friends including Kevin O'Donnell and Erin Kelly from Rolling Stone, Brian Bingham from the CBS Early Show, Lyneka Little from the Wall Street Journal and Robin Wood and Jeremy Gerard from Bloomberg News.

As always, Brett put on a fantastic show and a few times it was hard to hear his voice over the enthusiastic audience who sang along loudly to pretty much every song. He's about to embark on a co-headlining tour with Colbie Caillat and then a run of dates with the John Butler Trio that will take him through the end of the year. For a complete list of dates click here:

Photographer Adam Cantor got some amazing live shots... check em out:

The Ghosts of Halloween Future at Shore Fire

I can see it now, all these kids of Shore Fire staffers getting wilder and cuter as the years go by. But for now, things were raucous enough last night as Rebecca Shapiro's Roxy, Matt Hanks' Emma and Sally, and my Leo and Eli loaded up on candy. The classic costumes were definitely in this year - princesses, ballerinas, kings, skeletons, ghosts & witches.

Here's the photo gallery



Leo, as a press photographer, and Eli as Bob the Builder, both their own choices.

Here's Roxy "Ducky" Shapiro (right) with her friend Rachel at Washington Square Park's
parade.

Emma and Sally dressed as a witch and skeleton respectively. Emma dictated the costumes for the entire family. Courtney and Matt were vampires (but there's no WAY I'm posting pics of us! says Matt)Another of Ducky Shapiro.

Here's only a portion of the 138th St. kids group gathered on a stoop...there were just too many to get them all in one place and sitting. That's Leo w/ the yellow vest and Eli top left, next to his pal/next door neighbor Lenny. It was only last night that I realized that Leo, Eli and Lenny are outnumbered at least 4-1 in the girl/boy ratio. Wait till high school, boys!


Photo of UFO in front yard of house on Clinton Ave. The house owners are set designers and they put on a show every year. It draws insane crowds, but it's super cool. Read more here:

THE B-52'S PARTY OUT OF BOUNDS

There's no better way to celebrate Halloween than with an electrifying concert from The B-52's. Fans in some outrageous costumes packed Roseland Ballroom last night to hear the Athen's foursome play new songs from their upcoming album 'Funplex' (their first studio album in 16 years). From the start to finish fans were on their feet dancing.
This sea of fans 'Keep(s) This Party Going' on here:


Can you guess which song is this fan's favorite?

Below (from left to right) Astralwerks' Glenn Mendlinger and Alison Tarnofsky catch up with Shore Fire's Diana D'Angelo, Nancie S. Martin, Mark Satlof and Abby Johns.