SMART ASS: The Music Journalism of Joel Selvin

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EXCLUSIVE CONCERT REVIEW:
The Doobie Brothers at B.R. Cohn Fall Music Event in Sonoma
Saturday, October 9, 2010

Like a family picnic more than a rock concert, the Doobie Brothers, freshly reinvigorated with a new hit record, presided over the annual Sonoma Valley fundraiser this weekend run by the band’s longtime manager at his Glen Ellen compound, the B.R. Cohn Winery.

Adult children of original Doobie Brothers made impressive turns on the stage – Tom Johnston’s soul-singing daughter Lara fronted a tidy band of seasoned professionals...read more

Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival draws 600,000
Monday, October 4, 2010
The bluegrass invasion swarmed over the west end of Golden Gate Park again this weekend as financier Warren Hellman threw his million-dollar bash, the 10th annual Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival, and the park was filled with people playing fiddles, mandolins and banjos - way past the legal limit.....sfgate

Music review: Bob Dylan at the Warfield
Friday, August 27, 2010
Bob Dylan conducted something of an intimate house party Wednesday at the Warfield with more than a thousand of his closest friends or, at least, those willing to wait in line for tickets before the show. Tickets for the last-minute addition to his touring schedule - he played the night before at a sold-out Fox Oakland - were placed on sale the day of the show only and sold for cash. When the box office opened at 5:30 Wednesday afternoon, a line snaked down Market Street, ...sfgate

40-year reunion of 'Mill Valley' third-graders
Monday, August 9, 2010
A half-dozen middle-aged men and women adjusted their glasses and looked up at the television in Judy Berman's living room. Watching themselves as 8-year-olds in a promotional film shot 40 years ago by a young Francis Ford Coppola, they were celebrating the anniversary of a flukey hit record that painted the town of Mill Valley as an idyllic haven "where people aren't afraid to smile, and stop and talk to you a while."....sfgate

Time comes back around for Lester Chambers
Tuesday, June 22, 2010
Lester Chambers can't play the cowbell anymore. An injury to his neck, probably exacerbated by all those years of playing cowbell in the first place, has sidelined the man who made the instrument famous on the opening of the Chambers Brothers hit "Time Has Come Today.".

He needs surgery on his neck. He has a tumor growing like a mushroom-size wart on his eye. He has three different kinds of cancer. His teeth have deteriorated to where he can't really play the harmonica very much. He has no medical insurance other than Medicare. But thanks to Yoko Ono, at least he finally moved out of the rehearsal hall, where he was sleeping on an air mattress. ...sfgate

Old friends join Bill Kirchen for truck-free CD
Sunday, June 20, 2010
There are no truck songs on "Word to the Wise," the new album by guitarist Bill Kirchen.

"The second record with no truck songs, you'll notice," he says over the phone from his Maryland home. "I figured that I had enough truck songs in my repertoire, that I'd either written or learned, to last a lifetime. I'm not eschewing truck songs. My plate is full. Time to move on. And with all these vocalists, I didn't want to make Elvis Costello sing a truck song."....sfgate

Trombone Shorty to spice S.F. with Treme flavor
Tuesday, May 11, 2010
A packed crowd of drunken white Southern college kids jammed into the House of Blues in the French Quarter last month on the opening night of Jazzfest to watch Trombone Shorty, New Orleans' brightest new star in a generation, play a punishing 2 1/2-hour set, only the first gig in the 10 busiest days of his annual calendar

Between nightclub shows, guest appearances on other people's bandstands, private parties and his own climactic set the following weekend on the fairgrounds stage at the 41st annual New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Fair, it is harvest season for the charismatic 24-year-old dynamo, and he doesn't let up for a minute....sfgate

All-star concert honors life of Norton Buffalo
Nobody ever knew anybody like Norton Buffalo. It was his gift to make anyone he met feel like his friend. He played on more than 180 albums, and every one of the musicians who hired him thought he was their friend.

When Buffalo was diagnosed with lung cancer in September after getting off his summer tour with the Steve Miller Band, his longtime bandleader and close friend talked to Buffalo about putting together a benefit concert.....sfgate

Dionne Warwick has sung a 'blessed' career
Dionne Warwick was a college student who sang in New York City recording sessions when songwriters Burt Bacharach and Hal David, yet to have their first big hit, picked her out of a background choir at a Drifters session. She sang their demos first and eventually made their biggest hits, including "Anyone Who Had a Heart" and "Walk on By," both recorded at the same morning session, and another half dozen Top Ten hits that formed one of the most beloved treasuries of 20th century American popular song......sfgate

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Contact Joel: joelselvin@aol.com

Literary Agent: Frank Weimann: fweimann@theliterarygroup.com