The Sam Whitmore Sampler

Jackson Browne

Christy and I caught Jackson Browne's concert this week in Portland, OR. "In '65 he was 17," and "in '69 he was 21," so that would make him 60 today. He didn't look it or sound it. The show was great. He's touring with a seven-piece band including two powerful female back-up singers, Chavonne Morris and Alethea Mills, and they could have carried the show all by themselves.

Abridged song list: opened with "On the Boulevard." Love that guitar riff. Song 4: "Fountain of Sorrow." Uptempo version sans the pathos. Lots of material from the new album, titled Time the Conqueror. Ended with "The Pretender" into "Running on Empty," which he and the band genuinely seemed to enjoy playing. For the encore, Browne skipped the usual "Stay" in favor of the seldom-heard "I Am a Patriot."

Browne kept the political discourse to a minimum and let his powerful music do the talking, to the delight of a packed house. If he's heading your way, catch him. Here's a review of the recent New York City show, with the upcoming itinerary included.

George Thorogood and Buddy Guy

Saw George Thorogood and Buddy Guy last weekend in Murphys, CA, at a winery whose amphitheatre can accommodate more than 5,000. There were a lot fewer than that on Sunday night: the ushers automatically upgraded our seats from "halfway back" to 12th row because so few tickets were sold. Maybe there's something to this recession thing...

Thorogood's band was good but, I dunno, it played the same set as it would have 20 years ago. George himself looked OK but a bit paunchier than he used to -- then again, who doesn't?

Buddy Guy was totally into it. He walked through the crowd (gotta love wireless) and let loose with many a funny blues verse. My favorite:

One leg pointed East
One leg pointed West
I was right there in the middle
Trying to do my best

Lennie Cuje

A former Hitler Youth, 74-year-old Lennie Cuje first heard jazz on an American occupier's radio shortly after the Nazis fell. Lennie fell in love with this music, and less than five years later made his way to America -- specifically to Harlem to hear Lionel Hampton and his band. Strange, Lennie thought, that so many white Americans showed black Lionel the same contempt that Germans showed Jews.

Christy and I had the good luck to hear Lennie play last month at Smalls, a jazz club in Greenwich Village. We sat right in front of the guy, who's still agile enough to keep up with fellow players a third his age -- in a set that started at 1 AM. Check out Lennie's MySpace page.

Here's a Q&A and a wonderful video documentary on the life of Lennie Cuje, produced by the Washington Post.

Dweezil Zappa

Dweezil Zappa, Frank's younger son, makes a living these days  playing his Dad's music onstage with an eight-piece band. Last night in Providence, Dweezil put on an excellent and unusual show. He and his band played rhythm on three songs -- "Cosmik Debris," "Dumb All Over" and "Muffin Man" -- while Frank Zappa played lead guitar on a video screen hung above the stage. We could see Dweezil's genuine reverence as he looked up and played for his Dad.

The theater was maybe 60 percent full last night; last year's Providence show was sold out. Perhaps that's why Dweezil said at least three times that "we'll see you next year." He hopes so. Frank Zappa's original fans are aging -- and few can successfully drag their kid to a concert, even to hear a song called "The Illinois Enema Bandit."

Radio Nowhere

Clear Channel radio stations aren't playing any songs from Bruce Springsteen's new "Magic" album even though it currently tops the charts. While it's great that Fox News is calling attention to this bit of censorship, it's not because Bruce is "old," as writer Roger Friedman asserts.

For starters, the single "Radio Nowhere" craps on the radio business. Clear Channel didn't play Tom Petty's "The Last DJ" either, for the same reason.

The issue unaddressed by Fox is Springsteen's willingness to stand up against what he sees as the fascism gripping this country. Remember also that Springsteen ardently raised money for John Kerry in 2004. Clear Channel simply is not going to help Springsteen make money -- period. Bruce is lucky Clear Channel doesn't send someone out to blow up his tour bus.

Greenwich Village

It's probably no surprise that Greenwich Village was crazy on the Saturday night before Halloween. Hundreds of costumed young people roamed the streets. Christy and I were there to see David Sanborn at the Blue Note. Now 62, Sanborn is best known as the guy who played sax on David Bowie's "Young Americans," but he's a lot more versatile than that, as we learned last night. Quite a show. We also learned that it's not easy to find a cab in the Village at 3:30 A.M. The clubs begin to close and all the revelers stagger to the street at the same time with their arms flailing about. Most cabs display their "off duty" signs but they will stop if they're in the mood. We got lucky and hailed one near New York University, where we found ourselves sharing the sidewalks with rats and dope peddlers.

Christy asked the cabbie whether it's tough to find a good tipper at that hour. "That's not the big problem," the cabbie said. "The big problem is finding someone who isn't going to sit back there and throw up in your cab."

Jewsrock.org

At dinner the other night, my lifelong friend Marty Freeman mentioned the web site called Jewsrock.org, humorously dedicated to the chosen people who can really lay it down. Check out the Challah Fame and click on a letter. You knew original Fleetwood Mac guitarist Peter Green was born Peter Greenbaum, right? Did you know the Beastie Boys make three tenths of a minyan? Then you probably should take the 20-question test "Jew or Not?". Says the site's authors: "It gets harder after Dylan, dude!"

Tom Petty

On Monday, Oct. 15 a four-hour documentary film titled "Runnin' Down a Dream" debuts for one night only in theaters across the country. Directed by Peter Bogdanovich, most famous for directing the 1971 cult flick "The Last Picture Show", the film depicts the life of Tom Petty and his 30+ years with The Heartbreakers. And Lord knows what else: four hours is an awfully long time to sit still for anything, much less a documentary on a rock band even as good as this one.

On Tuesday the DVD will go on sale exclusively at Best Buy. I've already asked Santa for it, but I'll probably break down (get it?) and buy one sooner.

Broooooooce!

Bruce Springsteen is touring again, making music with the E Street Band for the first time since 2002. He played last night in his boyhood home town of Asbury Park, NJ before a crowd of 3,000. There's little I could say about Springsteen that (a) you don't already know if you're a fan and (b) could be of any interest to you if you're not. That said, the photo above is of the Asbury Park boardwalk in the Spring of 1976. Returning to Boston from a college radio convention in Philadelphia, the six of us took a little detour so we could pay homage to the guy who once spent his summers "hanging in them dusty arcades, banging them pleasure machines..."

Don Clark Rocks the House

Wall Street Journal reporter Don Clark and his band "Off the Record" regaled about 125 last night at a San Francisco fundraiser organized by Voce Communications (an SWMS subscriber). Proceeds went to Girls for a Change.

Don's repertoire drew from the '60s, '70s and '80s. Most of the 30-somethings grew up with 867-5309 but only geezers like me would know the words to Marvin Gaye's "Ain't That Peculiar."

Spotted in the crowd: Tom Foremski of Silicon Valley Watcher, Gabe Rivera of Techmeme and Kevin Maney (a musician in his own right) of Conde Nast Portfolio.