Category Archives: Honorable mentions

Tributes to musicians and other artists — even a few politicians

Dave Alvin’s Folly show, redux

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Another great thing about 11-11-11 is it’s the birthday of Blasters’ alum and rockin’ blues man Dave Alvin. His latest album — “Eleven Eleven” — is his 11th and has 11 songs on it. I had the pleasure of catching him at the Folly this summer, and of trying to capture some of the flavor and feeling of that show with these. The YouTube clip is from the same tour. And these are followed by a couple of other concert batches — for a Sarah Jarosz show and the Concert for Bangladesh.

From July 9

Dave Alvin hits town
It’s American music
Rock, rhythm, and blues

He writes those stories
So real — of love, death, heartbreak
Of people he’s known

He sings those stories
Cigarettes-for-breakfast voice
And beer for dessert

He plays those stories
Electric and acoustic
With scorpion’s sting

You can taste the dust
See the waves of heat rise up
As he spins those tales

Waves of emotion
Build and crash — great work by Dave
And his three band-mates:

Silver-haired shaman
Of slide; Telecaster set
To “telepathic”

Bass man slick and tall
He could’ve been a Blaster
30 years ago

Powerhouse drummer
All the little touches, too
Like tick-tock woodblock

They rocked the Folly
KC’s century-plus gem
Right place, righteous act

It all added up
To one whale of a show on
A hot July night

“40, 69, 30 years ago” haiku, redux

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Another concert batch of sorts, for the 40th anniversary of the Concert for Bangladesh. It also was Jerry Garcia’s birthday and the 30th anniversary of MTV.

From Aug. 1, 2011

August 1, a day
To recall a great concert,
Grateful guitarist

Harrison, Clapton
Ringo, Dylan and others
Joined Ravi Shankar

For Bangladesh, they
Rocked Madison Square Garden
Put on two good shows

“Because I was asked
“By a friend if I would help”
Is how George put it

Spiritual songs
And spirited music played
For 40,000

Guitars gently wept
Lyrics didn’t come easy
As Ringo found out

But Leon Russell
Blew the roof off the garden,
Dylan cast his spell

Billy Preston sang
“That’s the Way God Planned It,” and
Maybe he was right

40 years ago
Aid was slow to reach the poor
But hearts were lifted

40 years ago
They said help is on the way
Let’s say it again

And let’s remember
Jerry Garcia, who would
Have been 69

Trouble followed him
All of his life, but still he
Left a legacy

As a kid he lost
Part of a finger and then
He lost his father

Learned the piano,
Banjo, guitar, pedal steel
He was on his way

Smoked marijuana
As a teen in San Fran’s hills
Music, drugs, Jerry

String along, strung out
Artist, musician, oozing
Creativity

By one count the Dead
Played two thousand, three hundred
And fourteen concerts

It couldn’t have been
Easy amid the chaos
That was Jerry’s life

Three wives and four kids,
Diabetes, heroin
— But always music

Pass the methadone
And the Cherry Garcia
What a long strange trip

Let’s shed a tear, play
Some Dead, remember a soul
Who left us too soon

Something else that died
Too soon: MTV, first aired
30 years ago

Music video
Rightfully was all the rage
MTV led way

But somehow nonsense
And unreal realities
Slowly replaced tunes

And without the M
It’s just another channel
Just, you know, TV

Sarah Jarosz, SHEL concert, redux

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One of the best shows I’ve ever seen was a little gig this year at the Record Bar. Having a front and center seat didn’t hurt. If you don’t know Sarah Jarosz and her two CDs, you should. The SHEL sisters are wonderful and charming, and they have a couple of EPs out and some good YouTube videos. Here’s the show recap.

From Aug. 3

Strings zing, voices blend
Some kind of magic happens
At the Record Bar

SHEL opens the show
Four sisters, classically trained,
Mini symphony

Mandolin, keyboards
Violin, djembe come
Alive in their hands

Heavenly voices
One, two, sometimes three join in
Divine harmonies

Pre-Raphaelite
Faces, hair tossing, tumbling
Bodies sway, step, stamp

Sisters play as one
Yet as different as their shoes
Boots, Keds, black slip-ons

Sometimes close my eyes
To focus on the music
Pure sound surrounds me

Songs so creative,
At turns intricate, simple,
Bewitching, playful

So much joy in just
Listening, soaking it up
They stopped all too soon

Sarah Jarosz takes
The stage with her two side men
Anticipating

“Tell Me True” opens
Heart’s deepest questions laid bare
Intoxicating

“Run Away” beckons
Who wouldn’t follow her down
Unabashedly?

Storm-cloud eyebrows brood
Over face fresh yet knowing
A door to the muse

“My Muse” envelops
Taps creativity’s vein
Oh so languidly

“Gypsy” sketches scene
Filled with everyday mystery
Tear jerking details

Banjo, mandolin,
Guitar– she’s master, mistress
All encompassing

Alex, violin
Caressing, cajoling sounds
Soothing, spine tingling

Nathaniel, cello
One with its strings, body, bow
Fused, he can’t refuse

Their instrumentals
Have a language all their own
Past understanding

Glances exchanged, eyes
To brains, back to fingertips
Synapses in synch

Notes step gingerly
Then parts pace purposefully
Gaining momentum

Break free to gallop
Fearless into the unknown
Into the dark night

Songs up in her head
KC blessed with them tonight
They stopped all too soon

“Silence is golden, mean,” redux

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The math-challenged GOP presidential field reminded me of a famed mathematician, a pioneer of probability theory along with Pascal, who also had the good sense to keep things to himself once in a while.

Pierre de Fermat, born Aug. 17, 1601

Pierre de Fermat
We salute you. Proof it’s good
To blow some things off

“Pierre de Fermat”
That’s French for “Big math tease” or
“Guess my solution”

You helped develop
All sorts of math, theory of
Probability

But you’re remembered
For what you didn’t produce,
A proof others chased

Scribbled in margin,
In Latin no less, you had
A killer math proof

No room to explain,
You explained, then never did
Explain it — ever

Math geeks went bonkers
For centuries until one
At last cracked the code

But Brit Andrew Wiles
Used techniques you couldn’t have.
Was his proof the same?

Jeez, Pierre, guess we’ll
Never know, but your silence
Guaranteed your fame

A little one-two punch

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First Tuesday haiku:

Elected this date:
JFK, Sonny Bono
Ah, democracy

“Answering a different bell” haiku:

Goodnight, Smokin’ Joe
Even the champions can’t duck
That last big left hook

Nov. 7: Two women with great chemistry

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Marie Curie born,
Joni Mitchell, too: This day’s
Radio active

Brilliant but modest
Madame Curie coined the term
Radioactive

Won Nobel prizes
Both physics and chemistry
Nobody else has

There was nothing half
About her life, discovered,
Named two elements

Radium research,
Isolating isotopes
Saved lives, cut hers short

Her legacy lives
Her dedication inspires
Google her — you’ll see

Joni Mitchell turns
68 today, complete
Artistic package

Songwriter deluxe
“Both Sides Now,” “Woodstock”
Were hits for others

Her albums scored, too
Overflowing with romance,
Poetry, protest

Lilting melodies
Lyrics playful and painful
Confide and confess

You could do much worse
Than “Blue,” but it’s really hard
To do much better

Joni pushed the sound
Branched into jazz though some folks
Hissed her “Summer Lawns”

Distinct guitar sound
Forged when polio forced her
To chord differently

A fine painter, too
As her album covers show
Yeah, the whole package

Joni says she’s through
Except for painting a bit
Sure, we all decay

Like those isotopes,
Though, her music, influence
Will glow on and on

R.I.P. Andy Rooney, two views haiku

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‘Bye, Andy Rooney
“Don’t you hate it when your wings
“And halo don’t match?”

‘Bye, Andy Rooney
“Don’t you hate falling back for
“Demon Saving Time?”

Anniversary 22 haiku

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I was married Nov. 4, 1989. Amazingly, I still am. Thanks, Tina.

Groom walks down the aisle
That crazy percussive sound
Was his knees knocking

Twenty-two years passed
I’m not sure now what I feared
Shouldn’t have worried

Went without a hitch
— Except for the one we planned —
And we’re both still here

Thanks Yael, Alison,
Gary for standing with me
My two brothers, too

And Bob for singing
“From a Distance” for Tina,
For me, and our world

The Kelley Hunt Band
Rocked out at the reception
It was quite a day

Lots of memories
And two great children later
I count my blessings

Memorial Day, D-Day, the Hyatt, Loved Ones Gone, redux

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Continuing some re-postings from holidays and other important days on the calendar. These two batches go together well, and I’m following them with a third one on the Hyatt tragedy’s 30th anniversary, and a fourth about loved ones gone. I know I do better with humor — or at least that’s what the muse usually brings me — but I’m proud of all of these.

Memorial Day, May 30, 2011

Headstone and bouquet
Flowers watered by the tears
Of those who survive

We honor duty,
Bravery, courage — and pray
For an end to war

They served and they died
Deserved more than medals for
Sacrificing all

They defended us
Our homes, our lives, our freedom
Stop to remember

We owe them this now
To live life to the fullest
And to work for peace

Headstone in the grass
Only one moves in the wind
But both wait for us

D-Day, June 6, 2011

D-Day. On duty:
Radio Man 2nd Class
John Hack, U.S.N.

Dad played his small part
Never talked about it much
Maybe in Morse Code

I’m glad he waited
Till after the war to be
A hero — to me

Nothing second class
About how he loved us all
And worked for our good

He lived quietly
Died the same way, enjoyed life
The way a dad does

Memorial Day,
As it should, each year honors
Those who died fighting

D-Day let’s toast too
Those who survived and came home
So we could be here

Hyatt haiku, from July 17

30 years later
It still seems like yesterday
The night the sky fell

The loss still stunning
The terror still real, and still
No answers for “Why?”

Life goes on — for some
For others it ended then
We recall, regret

Death comes to us all
Few get to choose how or when
In sorrow, we learn

From Sept. 1
Haiku for loved ones gone.

We don’t think we could
Love them more; somehow we do
After they are gone

Yet they’re never gone,
Not really; their souls echo
Louder than the flesh

In our flesh they live
In our memories never die
And help us go on

How do they still know
What we need? And how did they
Leave their best behind?

It’s all a mystery
But of all the mysteries, this
Is one of the best

Sept. 11, redux

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From the 10th anniversary, and the day after.

Sept. 11

Some say change takes time
I say it’s always instant
What is, then is not

And what’s gone echoes
Fading to a whisper or
Rising to a roar

Fire, blood, twisted steel
Crashing planes, falling bodies
Seared in memory

Unspeakable loss
Heartbreaking heroism
Echo, re-echo

A wound that won’t close
Can seem so immediate
Despite passing years

Someone you love gone
Missing forever, some piece
Of you lost for good

A decade passes
For you was it a second
Or eternity?

Sept. 12
Day after haiku

America stops
And honors the memories
Of thousands fallen

America stops
Exhales fear, suspicion, hate
Inhales courage, strength

America stops
And all faiths pray together
One country, one peace

America stops,
Reflects, resolves that love, hope
Mark the next decade

Americans stop
And link arms in unity
Show that we still can

Americans stop
Can we start moving again
As one great nation?

It was a fine day
But just one day. This new day
Demands all we have