Woe Is Me The Native Clevelander

You know being a Clevelander is hard.

We tune in and watch week after week as the Browns go thru the motions while the owner laughs at us being the suckers we are year after year.

We watch our former Indians pick up their World Series rings with their new teams as we go into another year of rebuilding.

The Cavs, well we’ll see. We’ll see LeBron dishing the pass off to Kobe or Dwayne Wade or Dwight Howard next year and we’ll just sit here and say what if?

You know it seems we like to be the underdog, the downtrodden, the “crapped upon”. It seems we relish it at times, wear it as a badge of honor because we keep taken it, year after year from our sports teams.

But you know what we have that every other city in the United States if not the World would love to rip away from us but we Clevelanders seem to take for granted?

The Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame…..

Other cities have football teams, baseball teams, basketball teams but none have the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame. We do, but do you care?

I don’t know……

All you readers out there hold your hand up if you have been to the Rock Hall..…Okay keep them up if you have been there more than once….Okay now who has been there recently…..Okay that’s what I thought, you couple of people, lower your hands.

We love to bash the Rock Hall Foundation for not having the Induction Ceremonies here each year and complain that New York is stealing our glory, but if they were here every year would you go?

I don’t know……

We complained that the 25th Anniversary Concert for the Rock Hall was in New York and not here in Cleveland and we were being shafted again but would you have went if was?

I would hope so…….

While we were complaining about the Induction Ceremonies and the 25th Anniversary Concert not being held here did you know what is held here and NOT in New York for the past 14 years?


The American Music Masters Series Tribute Concert!

Now raise your hands out there if you knew this…..Keep them up while I count. Okay now those with your hands up, keep them up if you went….Yep that’s what I figured.

Okay, okay I’ll admit it, I didn’t know about it also until last year when they honored Les Paul but you know what…I won’t ever miss another one.

Every year for the past 14 years the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame honors one of the important figures in music with the American Music Masters Series Tribute Concert, right here in Cleveland. They have honored in the past Jerry Lee Lewis, Roy Orbison, Sam Cooke, Buddy Holly, Muddy Waters, Hank Williams, Robert Johnson and Woody Guthrie to name just a few and you know who came to Cleveland to perform at these concerts to honor the greats of the past? Well some of the greats of music now. Artists like Bruce Springsteen, Arlo Guthrie, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Levon Helm, Southside Johnny, The Allman Brothers, Bob Weir, Peter Green, BB King, Bo Diddley, Bonnie Raitt, John Mellancamp, Robert Plant, Aretha Franklin, Elvis Costello, Billy Gibbons, George Thorogood and this is a fraction of the artists that come to our town, our Cleveland, to perform for the past 14 years for us, not those New Yorkers we like to complain about, but us. Take that New York!

Did you go?

This year I did and man, I am glad I did. This year’s honoree was Janis Joplin and it was a great night of music. It showcased the not only Janis but the periods of music that flowed thru her life. From her early days in Austin Texas with the country roots to her love of the blues to the San Francisco sound to her following her heart and finding her unique style as a solo artist. This was all done with an eclectic mix of musicians, many who were friends of Janis.

The night started out with the big cowboy Ray Benson from Asleep At The Wheel accompanied by Carolyn Wonderland and they started the night out on the right track with “Silver Threads And Golden Needles” and for the next 3 hours it never waned. Highlights for me from the night were Carolyn Wonderland, who is just a powerhouse on stage, doing “Down On Me”, Susan Tedeschi’s great versions of “Try (Just A Little Bit Harder” and “Kosmic Blues”, Nona Hendrix doing “Move Over”, Gregg Rolie and Michael Carabello of Santana doing “No One to Depend On” and “Evil Ways” and truly confirming to me that the best music Santana ever created was when Rolie was the voice of the band, and Nick Gravanites “Buried Alive in the Blues” which he wrote for Janis for the Pearl album but she never got to record before she died. A beautiful blues ballad that Janis would have made her own. I especially loved the video of Kris Kristofferson who couldn’t be there talking about him and Janis during the recording of “Me And Bobby McGee” and the very funny stories he told of the two of them. The Rock Hall also did a great job of weaving video of Janis throughout the concert highlighting different parts of her life and seeing the transformation of this woman who finally became Pearl.

I had the honor of being with the press interviewing these artists before the show and got to see for myself how they really felt about the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame and Cleveland. For Rock Hall Inductees like Gregg Rolie and Michael Carabello, they said it was cool for them to see their old outfits and items on display from their early days of Santana and for every other artist I talked to, they were like kids in a candy store as their eyes lit up while they talked about going thru the Rock Hall and seeing the guitars, lyrics and personal items of the artists they idolize.

I’m going to be publishing the interviews throughout the next few weeks here and they should be entertaining reading (at least I hope!). They were very open and gave great insights into their careers and music in general from Rolie and Carabello taking about the creation of Santana to Ray Benson telling me about seeing a 17 year old Stevie Ray Vaughan for the first time to Susan Tedeschi talking about the new project with her husband Derek Trucks (Allman Brothers Band) to Nona Hendrix of LaBelle fame talking about working with Sam Cooke, Marvin Gaye, Jimi Hendrix but her revelation about her time hanging out with rock’s ultimate bad boy Keith Moon of The Who was definitely an eye opener.

On a personal note, I want to thank Reena Samaan and Margaret Thresher for their invitation and for their great hospitality.

We need to remember as our sports teams disappoint us again, we still think we are a great sports town but before that we were known as THE great music town and that’s why the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame is here and not New York or San Francisco or Philadelphia or London. It’s here for a reason. Cleveland was the epicenter of Rock, period. Rock was formed here, given its name here, careers launched here and no one ever skipped playing here. That’s why the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame is here so let’s make sure it stays here. Go out and support the Rock Hall. Go visit the hall, go to one of the talks with the guest speakers they bring in, go see one of the shows like U2 3D in their theatre. Just Go and show them why Cleveland is still the Rock And Roll Capital Of The World!

Take that New York!

Nuff said, least till next time
Peace Out
Bear