Here’s an absolute gem: a Hamilton High School-produced TV show from 1985. This episode is guest-hosted by Brett Heartz, who later went on to work at 97X. His guests were:
Dan “Danny Crash” Reed, who also worked at 97X, WFPK in Louisville, WNKU, managed Bogart’s and now serves as afternoon host and music director for WXPN in Philadelphia as well as Talent Relations Manager for the syndicated World Cafe program.
Ken “Mr. K” Glidewell, who worked at 97X, WEBN and 92.5 The Fox until his tragic passing from injuries due to a motorcycle accident in 2008.
In other words, it’s one radio legend interviewing two others. Dan and Mr. K were at 97X at the time of this show, so they talk about the station quite a bit.
It’s well worth noting that all three of these gents go started on their radio path thanks to the Broadcasting Arts class at Hamilton High School. What Dan says in the interview is spot on: the opportunity to work on radio and TV productions in high school gives students a leg up in their career path.
According to the YouTube description, the Broadcasting Arts class ran from 1981-1988 at Hamilton HS. Probably a victim of budget cuts, or perhaps the teacher who organized it moved on. I’m sure there are far fewer classes like this in 2020 than there were in 1985, and that’s a crying shame. Because this show is a great indication of how a passion for music can be channeled into a career.
Can’t go wrong with that gif, amiright? Let’s get to the tunes.
Monday is a holiday for most folks… including touring bands, it appears. Also, please note that the Yola show originally slated for Tuesday in the Taft Ballroom has been rescheduled for Sunday, June 14 due to “unforeseen scheduling conflicts.”
On Tuesday, Cheryl Renee plays Bluesday Tuesday at Arnold’s and the Mynah Tones play the Comet.
On Wednesday, Grace Potter plays a nocturnal show (without the Nocturnals) at Taft Theater. Mipso is at the Woodward Theater, with Bridget Kearney (of Lake Street Dive) and Benjamin Lazar Davis (of Okkervil River) as openers. There are a couple of notable local gigs on Wednesday also:
Ben Levin plays the Phelps/Residence Inn downtown. List member Howard Cohen has informed me that it’s a Great Lakes Brewing Company Pint Night from 5-8, featuring Dortmunder Gold Lager, Conway’s Irish Ale, and the new beast in town, Bierwolf Dunkelweizen. A tasting flight is only $10. Ben plays starting at 5:30.
List member Mark Celsor’s band Left of Center is opening for the Blue Eyed Bettys at Urban Artifact. Mark doesn’t work for a beer company, but he will work for beer.
Thursday, 20th Century Theater hosts An Evening with Mike Gordon, he of Phish Phame. All those smelly hippies in Oakley should bring housing prices down at bit.
Sure they misspelled “hobby”… but it’s still phunny.
On Friday, Turkuaz plays Madison Theater, Shiny Old Soul is at Big Ash Brewing, Todd Lipscomb is at Arnold’s and Ben Levin plays BrewRiver.
Saturday shows:
Olivia Jean plays Southgate’s main room, and Ben Levin is in the Lounge
Noah Wotherspoon plays a gig at Band of Helping Hands in Covington
KY Myle is at Camp Springs Tavern
Fretboard hosts ‘Nati Dread Day, with the Quasi Kings as headliners.
On Sunday, The Comet Bluegrass All-Stars play… The Comet.
Action Photos
That’s list member Dale Doyle (the original D2!) on the right, hanging in Cali with Matt Berninger of The National (in a 97X t-shirt!). Dale is doing the artwork/design for Matt’s solo album. The story of how these two hooked up is pretty cool – you can read it on the website here.
The most recent episode of the “97X Rumblings from the Big Bush” podcast features Rob Ervin, who worked at 97X, co-hosted the Chris & Rob Late Night Talk Show on WAIF for years, and worked on the Gary Burbank Show for a decade-plus. You can listen on the website here, or catch all the episodes on Spotify, Apple Music or Podbean.
Oh, and if you enjoyed the annual 97X “Modern Rock 500” countdown back in the day, a listener crunched the data from each year of the countdown to create an overall “Top 500″… check it out here.
The annual Memorial Day Weekend “Modern Rock 500” was always a highlight of the 97X year. Listener James Brubaker decided to crunch the numbers year by year and create a Meta-list… a “Modern Rock 500 Top 500” as he calls it.
James (a.k.a. Dr. James Brubaker, Ph.D.) is originally from Dayton. He’s an author (book links on his website) and teaches at Southeast Missouri State University, where he also serves as editor of the University Press.
Here’s James’ original email to us:
Hi Dave and Damian, I’ve really been enjoying the podcast. I actually stumbled across it while doing some research for a project I was working on, and figured I’d share it with you guys. Here goes… I recently came across the archive of Modern Rock 500 lists on Craig Froehle’s website, and thought it would be fun to crunch some numbers and come up with a Modern Rock 500 Top 500. So, with the caveats that I had to do some data entry that might have some mistakes, and that Froehle’s site is missing lists for 94 and 98 (well, lists are there, but they appear to just be the 95 list repeated), here’s a ranking of the Modern Rock 500 Top 500:
Here’s a cool photo of Matt Berninger of The National, sporting a vintage 97X t-shirt:
The story behind the shot is even cooler. Next to Matt is my good friend Dale Doyle, with whom I worked at Landor in Cincinnati for five years. Dale and I share similar musical tastes (“impeccable” you might say), and we’ve been concert roll dawgs for decades.
Dale’s an extremely talented designer/creative director. After 23 years of dedicated, faithful service to Landor, he was unceremoniously laid off about 18 months ago. So he started a small design studio called Holotype with two other Landor refugees.
Dale’s also a native of the West Side of Cincinnati, as is Matt Berninger. Several months ago, Dale made a “typical West Side move” comment on one of Matt’s Instagram posts. Intrigued, Matt checked out Dale’s personal Insta profile, which was linked to the Holotype account. Amazingly, Matt reached out to Dale and asked him to design some icons… then invited Dale to The National’s concert in Mexico City, with a photo and backstage pass.
Photo credit: I’ll give you three guesses…
That’s where Dale finally got to meet Matt in person after working with him via email/text for months. Their bromance blossomed, and Matt asked Dale to do the artwork for his first solo album.
The morals of the story:
Instagram stalking can pay off.
Getting laid off by a corporate behemoth can be the best career move ever.
You can check out of the West Side any time you want, but you can never leave.
“He was in many ways like an outsider — the guy who was often different from everyone else,” Halper says. “But that was okay with him. He didn’t want to be like everyone else. He just wanted to be Neil. He loved being a rock drummer, but he also loved literature. He loved poetry. He loved the outdoors. He didn’t care what society thought a rock star was ‘supposed to be’ — he wasn’t afraid to be himself, and he didn’t really care about fame. He just wanted to be good at what he did — and he was! — and he just wanted to share his music with the fans.”
I can totally relate to that… well, other than the musical talent part.
It’s a slow week for nationally touring band gigs, so this week I’m going to highlight a few more local artists than usual.
On Tuesday, The Dead South (Canadian folk-bluegrass) hits Bogart’s. And Jerry Springer is doing a live taping (sounds like an oxymoron, I know) of two podcast episodes at Folk School Coffee Parlor in Ludlow, KY, from 7-8 p.m. This isn’t the crazy TV version of Jerry, it’s the politically astute Jerry, along with some live music and a bit of shtick. I’ve been before and it’s fun.
Shiny Old Soul plays the Northside Tavern on Wednesday, and the Blue Wisp Big Band is at Caffè Vivace.
On Thursday, Fuel will make a pit stop at the Ludlow Garage. In addition, the Philip Paul Trio plays Arnold’s, and the Mt. Pleasant String Band plays Southgate’s Lounge — both of those are free shows.
Friday, We Banjo 3 plays a sold-out gig at Memorial Hall. In the cherished tradition of “Wrong Number” bands like the Thompson Twins and Ben Folds Five, We Banjo 3 actually has 4 members… and they play more instruments than banjo, too!
Also on Friday:
Ghost Man on Second plays Lucius Q
Stanley’s hosts an evening with Terrapin Moon
The Ben Levin Trio plays Wiedemann’s Tap Room
This Pine Box has a single release party at MOTR, with Sugadaisy and a great White Stripes/Black Keys type band from Lexington called Johnny Conqueroo (video below).
On Saturday, The Levin Brothers Band plays Ludlow Garage.
Other Saturday shows:
Ben Levin (he’s a Levin brother too!) plays Smoke Justis
Stanley’s hosts the Winter Blues Revival
Nicholas Clay and Kelly Fine (Young Heirlooms) play Camp Springs Tavern (check out this nugget from Nicholas Clay’s music FB page:
On Sunday:
Stef Chura plays MOTR with Leggy
The Boston band called Ripe (“part jam band, part funk, part jazz and part soul”) plays the Madison Theater
The Comet Bluegrass All-Stars do their weekly residency at the bar that gave them their name.
Musical musings
The Parlor & Patio house concert last night was great. Chelsea Nolan has a wonderful voice, and is a fun storyteller. Her TED talk is well worth checking out for inspiration (embedded at the end of this week’s post). If you’ve yet to attend a Parlor & Patio show, you really should check one out. Great songwriters in an intimate setting with a super-friendly and casual vibe… and free pie from Piebird at intermission! The current 2020 bookings are listed here. You can check out the artists on this Spotify playlist. Get tickets early because the shows will sell out.
Hot Ticket Alert
Wussy is playing the Woodward Theater on Friday, March 6th. Tickets here.
Hot No-Ticket-Required Alert
The Cereal Killers are playing MadTree Brewing on Saturday, February 15th, from 4:30-6:30 p.m. Perfect set time for an old fart like me… like a Bob Evans early-bird special, only with beer instead of meatloaf!
2019 tunes worth checking out
Hat tip to list member Michael “Rico” Carrico for directing us to a guy from Finland who has being doing a blog (“One Chord to Another”) covering Americana/folk/etc. for more than a decade. His 2019 favorites list is here and he also does a weekly playlist that’s very cool.
Rob Ervin (also known as “Rowdy Rob” when he hosted Gridloxx) worked as a part-timer at 97X in the 90s. He also co-hosted the Chris & Rob Late Night Talk Show on WAIF-FM and later was part of the writing staff and cast of characters for the Gary Burbank Show on WLW-AM. But wait, there’s more… Rob led the local bands Monkey Biscuit and the High Strung Lifters. Oh, and he wrote for the Hamilton Journal-News, was a substitute teacher, and led historical tours in Cincinnati. Find out how Rob got his 97X gig via a lumberyard, why he once was suspended from the station and much more in this episode.
Rob did a few holiday tunes with the Chris Comer Trio at MOTR recentlyWhen Chris and Rob got married on the air, their wedding registry was at the Norwood White Castle.
Rob and his Chris & Rob Late Night Talk Show co-host Chris Comer also did great radio at WAIF-FM. You can check out talk show segments and their interviews with all sorts of celebrities (Stan Lee, Tim Conway, etc.) and musicians (Adrian Belew, Todd Rundgren, Buck Owens, etc.) right here.
Rob and “Duke Sinatra” from the Gary Burbank Show with “Big Elvis” in Vegas.
Ron Poore, a.k.a. “Jetson” was only at 97X for a year back in the late 80s, but he moved on to record labels, where he has continued to work tirelessly to get great music into people’s ears. Currently Senior VP of Alternative & Rock Promotion for the legendary Atlantic Records, Ron chats with Dave and Damian about how promoting a band called the Red Belly Boys actually got him his first gig at 97X, how a trip to New York City with Rock & Roll Grocer Frank Eavey changed his career trajectory… and how his son saved his life.
As a special holiday gift to you, check out the 97X in-studio performance from the Dave Matthews Band back in 1995, a session that happened thanks to Jetson’s ties to 97X.
Jetson, front row far right, alongside Steve Baker and Julie Maxwell. Jetson (center) and Mr. K (3rd from left) with Mike Peters of The Alarm when they opened for Bob Dylan at Riverbend in Cincinnati.97Xers Tim Hiatt, Ken “Mr. K” Glidewell and Jetson (2nd from right) with Kurt Neumann and Sammy Llanas of The BoDeans during their visit to the 97X studioThe music of the Jetson era.
I’m thankful for tasty tunes and good friends like you! Before we get to this week’s gigs, I must say Elvis Costello & The Imposters were stellar at the Taft last week. Lots of TWILM list members in attendance too…. on a school night! (7:30 show time, no opener… it’s a dream come true for folks of my vintage.)
OK, here’s the Turkey Week lineup:
On Tuesday, Cloud Nothings are at Woodward, with Leggy as the opener. That’s a nice double bill. Jackyl is at Bogart’s, in what feels like a standing monthly gig since 1991.
Wednesday, Dawg Yawp is at Woodward, with Ruby Vileos and Bendigo Fletcher. (Nice to see back-to-back concerts at Woodward… must be a slow week for wedding receptions.) Memorial Hall hosts “Abbey Road: a 50th Anniversary Beatles Celebration.” The complete Abbey Road album will be performed live by The Newbees with the Bee Strings and the Horn-Its.
The Tillers have a cool gig at Arnold’s on hump day too. Here’s the blurb from Arnold’s Facebook page:
We partnered up with Neltner Small Batch, Otto Printing and Mus-i-col Records to give offer a handmade, one-off, limited edition 7” vinyl record. The album is two live versions of the Tiller’s songs The Boatman’s Dance, Hickory Jack and Down at the Bottom. The records will also be pressed on transparent green vinyl to look just like a Jameson bottle. The awesome part? It’s free! That’s right, we are giving them all away. We have 250 total pressed on transparent hunter green vinyl to hand out and they will be first come first serve. . Drink and Menu Specials run all day, The Tillers take the stage at 9. The Records will be available at 8pm.
Also on Wednesday, Ben Levin plays the lobby bar at the Phelps/downtown Marriott from 5:30-8:30.
Thursday is a day to take a break from the live music and spend time with family… even if they drive you nuts.
On Friday, Pomegranates play… holy crap, the Woodward. Three shows in one week! Sylmar and Grand Ace are also on the bill.
That same evening:
Frontier Folk Nebraska have a record release party in Southgate’s Revival Room
Joslyn & The Sweet Compression play Ludlow Garage
Jordan Smart plays Camp Springs Tavern
Static-X is at Riverfront Live (formerly Annie’s)
the Trans-Siberian Orchestra has two shows at the Coliseum (presently Some-Bank Arena)
Ben Levin performs at BrewRiver
Freekbass plays FUNKsgiving in Southgate’s Sanctuary. That’ll shake you out of your tryptophan coma.
Saturday:
The Reverend Peyton’s Big Damn Band plays Southgate’s Sanctuary. Amen to that! Col. JD Wilkes (of Legendary Shack Shakers fame) opens up.
Sierra Hull is at Memorial Hall
Anna Stine plays Ludlow Garage
Stolen Faces noodle a Grateful Dead tribute at Stanley’s
Fretboard Brewing hosts an “Americana Gives Back” show starting at 5, with RootCellarXtract, Hickory Robot, Jeremy Francis and John Ford. Please bring a gift to donate to Toys for Tots.
Also on Saturday, Michael W. Smith and Amy Grant are at the Coliseum, which I mention merely because it gives me a convenient excuse to play this fantastic tune by the Young Fresh Fellows:
I saw the Young Fresh Fellows opening up for the Red Hot Chili Peppers at Bogart’s eons ago. Which gives me a handy excuse to do a callback to the Abbey Road mention earlier in this post:
Where was I? Oh, live gigs, right…
Sunday, the Ludlow Garage features Poco. The current lineup is sans Richie Furay, Jim Messina, Timothy B. Schmidt and Randy Meisner… but Rusty Young is playing.
The Aronoff Center features “It Was 50 Years Ago Today”… which is billed as “an All Star Tribute to the Beatles White Album – featuring Christopher Cross, Todd Rundgren, Micky Dolenz, Jason Scheff (Chicago) Joey Molland (Badfinger) – performing their greatest hits along with songs from the White Album.” Wow, Christopher Cross, Todd Rundgren and a Monkee together, whodathunkit? Of course, mentioning the White Album merits a shout-out to this:
And now you know how my brain works (or rather, doesn’t work).
Hot Ticket Alert
The lineup has been announced for The National’s Homecoming festival at Smale Park on May 8-9, 2020 and it’s very strong. I got tix for both days.
Video of the Week
The Drive-by Truckers’ new song mentions Cincinnati.
Kids these days (Part II)…
List member Lisa Collins, who works at Great American Insurance, mentioned to her 20-something niece Morgan that Jon Bon Jovi was playing Great American’s annual holiday party, and Morgan asked “What’s the difference between Bon Jovi and Jon Bon Jovi?”
(The one and only time I attended a Great American holiday party was eons ago when Carl Lindner Jr. was still around and apparently picking the entertainment, because the musical guest was… drumroll please… Wayne Newton!)
Mark Griffin tuned in to 97X as a teenager, and “the future of rock and roll” shaped his future. Listen to the podcast to learn how Mark ruled his high school art room with an iron fist… and why that iron fist never had a digital watch on its wrist. And learn why (and how) Mark painstakingly assembled 14 hours worth of song mixes from 97X circa 1985.
We reached out to Mark because he wrote a great post on his website about 97X and the profound impact it had on his life:
In his post, Mark reprints an article that Steven Rosen wrote about WOXY for the June 2, 1985 edition of the Cincinnati Enquirer. You can read that feature in Mark’s blog post linked above, but you should also check out the PDF version for the article as it originally appeared — right alongside ads for cigarettes and bras!
Kudos to Mark for creating such fabulous playlists culled from his 97X memories. All those mixes — 14 hours worth! — are also on his website:
In our podcast interview, Mark mentions mining the annual “97 Best of…” lists to create his mixes. Craig Froehle has compiled those lists for 1984-2009, as well as the Modern Rock 500 lists from 1989-2009, a 97X “A to X” list, and a 97X2K list from 2000. All those links are here: https://www.craigfroehle.com/p/97x.html
Monday, Incubus plays Taft with Le Butcherettes as the opening act. Jay Madera is at MOTR with Kaitlyn Peace & the Electric Generals.
On Tuesday, Ludlow Garage hosts Rising Appalachia, The Neighbourhood plays the Short Vine neighborhood at Bogart’s, and Ben Levin tickles the ivories at Arnold’s.
Wednesday marks the return of the band whose name sounds like an dark web site that sells cut-rate ED remedies: Bonerama!
They’re playing Riverfront Live, which used to be Annie’s. (If you’re keeping score at home, yes, that means Bonerama will be performing on Hump Day.)
That same evening, Chris Thile plays Memorial Hall, Marcia Griffiths plays Ludlow Garage, the Dallas Moore Band plays Southgate’s main room and Michael Nau is upstairs in the Revival Room.
On Thursday, The Marcus King Band is at Bogart’s, and Dylan LeBlanc and Night Moves play Southgate.
Friday, the Commonheart plays Taft’s Ballroom, The Rippingtons play Ludlow Garage, and Ambrosia is at Memorial Hall. Jesse Malin will NOT be playing Southgate, much to my dismay.
Saturday is quite busy:
Daniel Martin Moore plays the final Parlor & Patio house concert of 2019 at the home of list members Dave and Jacqui.
Gregory Alan Isakov is at Madison Theater
Jake Book plays Camp Springs Tavern
The David Bromberg Quintet is at Miami U-Hamilton
Melody Guy and Steff Mahan play the Downtowne Listening Room
Last but not least, the old Annie’s will still have a Bone… Thugs-N-Harmony
On Sunday, you can catch Hobo Johnson & the Lovemakers at Bogart’s, or see some NWF Wrestling at Bircus Brewing in Ludlow, KY.
Hot ticket alert
Shovels & Rope is playing Ludlow Garage on 4/8/20. Get tickets here.
Clarification Department
List member Rob Ervin, formerly of the Chris & Rob Late Night Talk Show on WAIF-FM, let us know that when Ben Folds stopped by their show lo those many years ago, he was playing a melodica (not a recorder as originally reported here), and it was Ben’s first interview west of the Appalachian Mountains.
Lipstick on a Pig Department
The Riverfront Coliseum has yet another corporate name. Doesn’t matter, it’s still a dump.
Heritage Bank better order 20 cases of this:
Video of the week
This clip was brought to my attention by list member Dave Tellmann… it’s smokin’ hot.
Shameless self-promotion
Speaking of Dave Tellmann, the latest episode of the 97X Rumblings from the Big Bush podcast that I co-host with Dave is live now, right here. It’s a two-parter with Kevin “Couche” Couch, who worked at 97X in the mid-90s and went on to host the National Lampoon Comedy Radio show on Sirius XM and produce the top rated morning radio show in L.A. He also had a neighbor in the apartment upstairs from his who was dead for two months before being discovered, but that’s a story for another day.
Live shot
I snagged the extra Wilco ticket from Dan “Reds above .500 in 2020!” Lewis. Birthday Boy Danny (his wife calls him a sexagenarian now… and he’s never been to see Bonerama!) had great seats about 8 rows from the stage, and it was an excellent show.
