Ken Glidewell

Go-vember Music

97X, Concert Listings, Music, podcast

Happy All Hallow’s Eve, y’all. Quick question: can we dispense with the whole “trick/treat” thing (which, IMHO is a false dichotomy) and get right to the feet-smelling? Er, asking for a friend…

And now let’s get to the live shows in the Tri-state area over the next fortnight:

Scott H. Biram has a gig at Southgate on Wednesday.

On Thursday,

  • Black Joe Lewis & the Honeybears and Cedric Burnside play Ludlow Garage
  • Chris Smither and Tim O’Brien with Jan Fabricius are at Memorial Hall
  • Wheatus plays Madison Live
  • Banditos play Southgate. Note, they are not related to the Frito Bandito.
https://youtu.be/5irr_2nbB_Y

Friday is a busy night for gigs:

  • The Smithereens play Ludlow, with Marshall Crenshaw as the guest vocalist
  • Taft has a “Celebrating David Bowie” show featuring Todd Rundgren, Adrian Belew, Royston Langdon, Jeffery Gaines… and someone called “Scrote” for reasons that we don’t care to investigate. More on the show here.
  • The Redmoor in Mt. Lookout hosts An Evening with Karla Bonoff
  • Buffalo Wabs & the Price Hill Hustle are in Southgate’s main room
  • William Elliott Whitmore plays Southgate’s upstairs Revival Room
  • Northside Tavern has a show they’re billing as “Alternative Indie Psychedelic Shoegazey Garage Rocking show!” (They must be trying their hand at SEO…)

The Queen City Blues Fest rolls into Southgate on Saturday.

On Sunday, Christine Havrilla and Mama’s Black Sheep play a matinee show (4 p.m.) at the Cincinnati Fire Museum. And that evening, Yes plays a Close to the Edge 50th anniversary show at Taft.

Giving us yet another excuse to run this classic skit:

Looking ahead to next week…

Sun Room plays a sold-out show at Top Cats on Wednesday, Nov. 9th.

On Thursday, 11/10:

  • Puscifer (fronted by Maynard James Keenan of Tool) plays the Jan Brady
  • Fun Lovin’ Criminals are at Ludlow (“Scooby Snacks” sold separately)
  • My Brother, My Brother and Me are at the Taft. Note: My Brother, My Brother and Me are not related to another trio of brothers:

Also on 11/10, Memorial Hall hosts Majesty – a Tribute to Queen.

Next Friday, 11/11:

  • The Mavericks play Taft
  • Twiddle is at Madison Theater
  • Paramore plays the Marsha Brady
  • The Yellowjackets jazz up Ludlow Garage

Ludlow hosts John Cafferty & the Beaver Brown Band on Saturday, 11/12. (Note: the Beaver Brown Band is not related to Wynona’s Big Brown Beaver.) And Southgate has An Evening with Lucy Kaplansky on Sunday, 11/13.

Hot Ticket Alert: Get on the Bus!

97X favorites (and Ohio’s own) The Royal Crescent Mob have announced two reunion shows in December, to raise funds for cancer research. They’re playing Columbus on 12/16, and hitting the Madison Theater in Covington on Saturday, December 17th. More info and a ticket link here.

(Fun fact: RCMob lead singer David Ellison is currently tour manager for Miley Cyrus, Camila Cabello, and Ke$ha, and formerly was the tour manager for Jay-Z, Demi Lovato, Avril Lavigne, Alanis Morissette, Adam Lambert, Goo Goo Dolls, and Panic at the Disco.)

What Heaven is Like…

Heaven is Chuck Cleaver and Lisa Walker of Wussy playing in my living room. What a great night! New tunes from Wussy coming soon…

What Hell is like…

Two downer articles for live music fans:

“The Live-Music Industry is Broken” from Vulture and “How Ticketmaster gets away with it” from Popular Information.

We still miss Mr. K

The latest episode of the 97X Rumblings from the Big Bush podcast features a tribute to Ken “Mr. K” Glidewell, who worked at the station and was in Chemdyne and later Big in Iowa, and also had a long radio career at WEBN and 92.9 The Fox.

On my holiday shopping list:

Album Cover of the Fortnight

Wendy likes Action Pants. And Children of the Corn.

Episode 88: Mr. K was A-OK

97X, Music, podcast

Ken “Mr. K” Glidewell put the personality into “radio personality.” He had the gift of gab, a wicked sense of humor and a way of making friends wherever he went. Ken worked at 97X during the station’s formative years while also playing with fellow 97Xer Dan “Danny Crash” Reed in Chemdyne. He later moved on to WEBN-FM and 92.9 The Fox in Cincinnati for his day job, and co-founded the Americana band Big in Iowa. 

Unfortunately, Mr. K passed away in May of 2008 from injuries sustained in a motorcycle accident. In this episode of the podcast, we talk to a few 97X-ers who worked with Mr. K: Phil Manning, Julie “Jae” Forman and Steve Baker, as well as the founding members of the Mr. K Fan Club, Elizabeth Cannon and Wendy Dorn. 

Mr. K (2nd from left) mugging with Timothy Hiatt, Jetson and the BoDeans.
Mr. K and Jetson with Mike Peters from The Alarm.
A review of Big in Iowa’s 1999 release in No Depression magazine.
https://www.citybeat.com/music/farewell-mr-k-12171326
https://cincygroove.com/2008/05/27/musician-mr-k-dies-in-crash/

Here are a couple of videos of Mr. K playing with Big in Iowa.

You can find more Big in Iowa videos on their YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/BigInIowaBand

Big in Iowa was awarded their first Cammy (Cincinnati’s version of Grammy Awards) as Roots Rock Band of the Year in 1997, a trophy they would own over the next several years. By the beginning of 1998, Bryant had left the band and O’Keefe was replaced by Jeff Wilson, thereby formulating the core quartet, which proceeded to prepare its second album for release. Twisted was a substantial improvement on the preceding effort. In addition to standing as Big in Iowa’s first mature work, it also began its long-term association with Germany’s Blue Rose Records. In addition to its Group Cammy, Twisted also helped to earn individual honors for Burns (Best Vocalist) and House (Best Instrumentalist), as well as new fans such as Mojo Nixon and an appearance at the 1999 South by Southwest Music Festival in Austin, TX. The band contributed a version of “Cinnamon Girl” to the Neil Young tribute album This Note’s for You, and then set about working on its third studio album, Bangin’ ‘n’ Knockin’, which appeared in Europe at the tail-end of 1999. As outstanding a progression from Twisted as that album was from Big in Iowa, Bangin’ provided the band with its most extensive praise yet, including notices in Bucket Full of Brains, No Depression, and Amplifier magazines; as well as its first opportunity to tour Europe (Germany, Austria, the Czech Republic, Denmark, United Kingdom, Switzerland) at the beginning of 2000, and jaunts through the Midwest and New England. Such was the band’s reputation that it also began landing opening slots for such lauded peers as Dave Alvin, Dan Baird, the BoDeans, the Bottle Rockets, Cheap Trick, Alejandro Escovedo, Bob Mould, Drivin’ N’ Cryin’, and Jerry Jeff Walker, among others.

After the limited appearance of the live 4 Guys in a Trabi — which delightfully documented a show from its first German tour — the quartet began making treks to Brooklyn to begin working on its fourth studio album with Eric “Roscoe” Ambel, one of the catalysts of the ’80s roots revival as leader of the fabled Del Lords, in the producer’s seat. Released in Europe in mid-2001, Green Pop was a quantum leap ahead of anything Big in Iowa had previously recorded, an artistic apex that single-handedly vaulted the band into the upper level of roots rock bands. In Europe, the CD’s first pressing sold out in just two weeks, and on a second tour of the continent, the band routinely played to capacity crowds, including a headlining performance before up to 5,000 people at the Wolfstock Festival. After returning to the United States, House decided to leave the band due to family obligations, and he was replaced in early 2002 by Jason Erickson. (Source: https://www.allmusic.com/artist/big-in-iowa-mn0000060379/biography)

Cheers to you, Ken!