11:10 a.m. Sept. 19
I've been a Nick Lowe fan since his 1977 solo debut "Pure Pop For Now People," a vinyl copy of which I am now holding in one hand. What a great record. Side one begins with the high octane rock anthem "So It Goes," it includes "Marie Provost," a ditty about a hungry dachshund devouring an aging starlet and concludes with a glam rock parody on the Bay City Rollers.
I have been to London twice in the past 30 years and each time I have combed record stores for similar compact pop in the style of Lowe, a native of Woodchurch, Suffolk. One of my best finds was Dodgy's engaging "Staying Out For The Summer' 95." All this is part of my quest to merge music with travel.
Lowe looks at things in a similar light............
September 2007 Archives
6:15 p.m. Sept. 12
Over the weekend I picked up a dusty '45 of soul stylist Jack Hammer singing "Obviously I Love You" at A Repeat Performance resale shop, 156 First Avenue in New York. There is no date on the record, but when I got home and played it, Jack sounded like Frankie Lymon meets early Grandmaster Flash. The record label is EXPERIENCE in Brooklyn, N.Y. It was a NICE souvenir of my trip.
Jack Hammer sounded like New York.
I grew up on a diet of regional '45s with the Buckinghams on U.S.A., the New Colony Six on Mercury, both out of Chicago, James Brown on King from Cincinnati, Lee Dorsey on Fury in New Orleans and so on. The colorful label logos and the diverse music took me places far beyond suburban Chicago.
I enjoy exploring regional music as much as I like regional food. Before I left town I put that notion to Diane Hatz, Founder/Director of Sustainable Table, the New York-based group that promotes sustainable agriculture. Her roots are in rock music.........
9:30 p.m. (eastern)
JERSEY CITY, N.J.-----As one who has celebrated the spirit of tequila on a tequila cruise and on a tequila train through Mexico, I had to break away from my other duties to check out the Oaxaca Old Fashioned at the new Death & Co. bar on East 6th Street in the Lower East Side.
The Oaxaca Old-Fashioned has 1 1/2 ounces of El Tesoro Reposado (tequila), 1/2 ounce of mezcal, a teaspoon of amber agave nectar, a dash of bitters and a orange twist. The orange is peeled and the slice is flamed a few inches above the drink and spread around the lips of the glass. Each of my bartenders had devlish hipster goatees that acccented the Hades feel of the pyrogenics as well as the Gothic atmosphere of the small bar........
Dave Hoekstra
Dave Hoekstra has been a Chicago Sun-Times staff
writer since 1985. His collection of Sun-Times travel
columns, "Ticket To Everywhere," was published in 2000
by Lake Claremont Press. He was lead writer for "Farm
Aid: Song for America" (Rodale Press, 2005) which
commemorated the 20th anniversary of the Willie Nelson
inspired effort. He won a 1987 Chicago Newspaper Guild Stick O-Type Award for Column Writing. Hoekstra wrote and co-proudced the WTTW-Channel 11 PBS special: "The Staple Singers and the Civil Rights Movement," nominated for a 2001-02 Chicago Emmy for a documentary program/cultural significance.
He lives in Chicago.
RECORD ROW
Chicago's Record Row In addition to being a resource for archived stories, this is a place to share anecdotes about Chicago's Record Row, to network about Record Row developments and an opportunity for locals and tourists to comment on their experiences along Record Row.
