Billy Strings Confirms Fall Headline Tour 

billy strings tour

Billy Strings is one of the most exciting musicians playing music today. At least in my opinion, and according to the concert recordings I’ve seen. Dude is a hell of a guitar player, a good singer, and quite the performer. He’s got a bit tour coming up and here are the dates. You can buy tickets on his website.

He’s coming to my neck of the woods in May. Things have been tight for me and my family but I’m gonna do my best to find a way to see him.

BILLY STRINGS CONFIRMED TOUR DATES
BOLD on-sale this Friday, April 28 at 10:00am local time

April 29-30—Los Angeles, CA—Hollywood Bowl – Willie Nelson’s 90th Birthday (SOLD OUT)

May 11—Morrison, CO—Red Rocks Amphitheatre (SOLD OUT)

May 12—Morrison, CO—Red Rocks Amphitheatre (SOLD OUT)

May 13—Denver, CO—Mission Ballroom (SOLD OUT)

May 17—Phoenix, AZ—Arizona Financial Theatre (SOLD OUT)

May 19—Los Angeles, CA—Greek Theatre (SOLD OUT)

May 20—San Diego, CA—Cal Coast Credit Union Open Air Theatre (SOLD OUT)

May 21—San Diego, CA—Cal Coast Credit Union Open Air Theatre

May 24—Las Vegas, NV—Brooklyn Bowl (SOLD OUT)

May 26—Napa, CA—BottleRock Napa Valley 

June 2—Austin, TX—Moody Center

June 3—Austin, TX—Moody Center

June 7—Tulsa, OK—BOK Center

June 9—St. Louis, MO—Chaifetz Arena

June 10—Indianapolis, IN—TCU Amphitheater at White River State Park (SOLD OUT)

June 11—Indianapolis, IN—TCU Amphitheater at White River State Park (SOLD OUT)

June 13—Cleveland, OH—Jacobs Pavilion (SOLD OUT)

June 14—Cleveland, OH—Jacobs Pavilion (SOLD OUT)

June 16—Clarkston, MI—Pine Knob Music Theatre (SOLD OUT)

June 17—Chicago, IL—Huntington Bank Pavilion at Northerly Island (SOLD OUT)

July 13—Cary, NC—Koka Booth Amphitheatre

July 14—Cary, NC—Koka Booth Amphitheatre (SOLD OUT)

July 15—Cary, NC—Koka Booth Amphitheatre (SOLD OUT)

July 19—Norfolk, VA—Chartway Arena

July 21—Bridgeport, CT—Hartford HealthCare Amphitheater

July 22—Essex Junction, VT—Midway Lawn at Champlain Valley Expo (SOLD OUT)

July 23—Essex Junction, VT—Midway Lawn at Champlain Valley Expo (SOLD OUT)

July 25—Boston, MA—Leader Bank Pavilion

July 26—Boston, MA—Leader Bank Pavilion

July 28—Portland, ME—Thompson’s Point (SOLD OUT)

July 29—Portland, ME—Thompson’s Point (SOLD OUT)

July 30—Newport, RI—Newport Folk Festival (SOLD OUT)

August 7—Frankfurt, Germany—Batschkapp

August 8—Berlin, Germany—Huxleys

August 9—Hamburg, Germany—Grobe Freiheit 36

August 11—Gothenburg, Vastra Gotaland County—Way Out West

August 12—Oslo, Norway—Oya Festival

August 24—Knoxville, TN—Knoxville Civic Coliseum (SOLD OUT)

August 25—Huntsville, AL—Orion Amphitheater

August 26—Huntsville, AL—Orion Amphitheater

September 14—Louisville, KY—Bourbon & Beyond Festival

September 22—Buena Vista, CO—venue announcing soon

September 23—Buena Vista, CO—venue announcing soon

September 27—Nampa, ID—Ford Idaho Center Arena

September 29—Portland, OR—Moda Center

September 30—Portland, OR—Moda Center

October 1—Seattle, WA—WAMU Theater

October 4—Sacramento, CA—Golden 1 Center

October 6—Stanford, CA—Frost Amphitheater

October 7—Stanford, CA—Frost Amphitheater

October 8—Stateline, NV—Tahoe Event Center

October 10—West Valley City, UT—Maverik Center

October 13—Independence, MO—Cable Dahmer Arena

October 14—Independence, MO—Cable Dahmer Arena

October 31—Grand Rapids, MI—Van Andel Arena

November 6—Amsterdam, NL—Paradiso

November 7—Amsterdam, NL—Paradiso

November 8—Antwerp, BE—De Roma

November 10—Cologne, DE—Carlswerk Victoria

November 11—Luxembourg—den Atelier

November 12—Munich, DE—Neue Theaterfabrik

November 14—Paris, FR—La Cigale

November 15—London, UK—Roundhouse

November 17—Manchester, UK—Manchester Academy

November 18—Glasgow, UK—O2 Academy Glasgow

November 19—Birmingham, UK—O2 Academy

December 6—Greensboro, NC—Greensboro Coliseum

December 8—Baltimore, MD—CFG Bank Arena

December 9—Baltimore, MD—CFG Bank Arena

December 12—Pittsburgh, PA—Petersen Events Center

December 13—Pittsburgh, PA—Petersen Events Center

December 15—Wilkes-Barre, PA—Mohegan Sun Arena at Casey Plaza

December 16—Syracuse, NY— The Oncenter

December 29—New Orleans, LA—Uno Lakefront Arena

December 30—New Orleans, LA— Uno Lakefront Arena

December 31—New Orleans, LA— Uno Lakefront Arena

Watch Tom Waits Perform “Ol’ 55” On VH1 Storytellers

If you don’t remember Storytellers was VH1’s sort-of answer to MTVs Unplugged, whereupon they invited various artists on their stage not to play acoustic instruments but to talk about the songs (the stories if you will) they had written over the years and then perform them. It was a really cool show, actually, and it was always neat to hear people talk about their songs.

Tom Waits performed on the show in 1999 and it is epic. Waits is a great songwriter, of course, and a great storyteller (and bullshitter). His Storytellers is full of all three in ample doses. It isn’t available anywhere commercially. I posted the show a while back (but it is currently unavailable on my blog, I’ll get it back up eventually) but you can listen to the whole thing over on the Archive. It is well worth your time.

Listen To Bob Dylan Covering “Truckin'” In Tokyo (04/11/23)

Bob Dylan’s setlists have remained pretty static for years now, especially so on his recent Rough and Rowdy Ways tours. Last night he changed things up and covered the Grateful Dead’s “Truckin'” for the first time ever.

I haven’t seen the bootlegs yet, but Ray Padget has a stream up of this song over on his wonderful Flaggin’ Down the Double Es Substack (I highly recommend subscribing to it, for it is full of wonderful Dylan thoughts.)

It is a nice recording and a pretty great version of the classic.

Old Reviews Are New Again

I think I’ve discussed this before, but it bears repeating.

You’ve probably noticed that I’ve been (re)posting a lot of movie reviews lately. A few days ago I decided it was high time I created a master list of my movie reviews. Similar to how I have artists’ pages where you can see all the shows I’ve posted from a particular artist, I thought it would be a good idea to have a page where you can see all the movies I’ve reviewed.

I clicked on the movies category and scrolled down, page after page, until I found my first review. Then I started systematically going through each review and linking to them on my Movie Review Page. As you may recall a great many of my old reviews are still in private mode, which means no one can read them but me.

For those private posts, I’ve been doing some light editing, adding movie posters, and making them public. When I do that many of you receive an email with the post inside as if it were a new post. When in fact, many of these reviews are quite old. Some were written as far back as 2004 – that’s nearly twenty years ago.

I have changed in many ways since then. I’ve matured, my writing has matured, and my understanding of life and art has changed. Truth be told I sometimes cringe at the things I wrote back then. To tell the truth, I often feel like rewriting some of it. But I feel like that would be wrong. I don’t want to rewrite my own history.

I am doing some light editing. I try to fix my spelling and grammar mistakes. Sometimes I’ll rewrite a sentence for clarity – or just delete it altogether if I’m no longer sure exactly what I was trying to say.

But I’m keeping the embarrassing stuff in. Most of it isn’t too bad. It’s like looking at a picture of yourself from two decades ago where you look at that sweater and wonder how you ever thought that it looked good on you. Or you can’t imagine why you ever wore your hair in that style.

But sometimes it is full-on cringe. My early reviews were way too jokey. I often wrote in the way I might talk to my friends about a movie – filled with bad gags and strange asides. As a young man, I seemed to think it was all too funny to admit watching a movie for a little T&A. I’m embarrassed that I wrote about Elizabeth Hurley looking good in a tight silver skirt. But I wrote those words so I’m allowing them to stay.

It isn’t like I wrote racist screeds or went on and on about some attractive actress and got really skeevy about it. But it is embarrassing to read what I did write.

But also there are movies that I watched and reviewed many years ago and have rewatched since and completely changed my mind on. I just read my review of The Harder They Fall which I wrote in 2005. I gave it a somewhat negative review and panned Humphrey Bogart’s performance. I rewatched that movie a few months ago and really liked it. And I found Bogart’s performance to be really good. I don’t know what I was thinking when I wrote the review.

So, when a review pops up in your inbox and you give it a read, please do check the date it was originally published and recognize it might be the words of a younger, much sillier man. And do forgive any lapses in judgement.

Mary Poppins (1964)

mary poppins blu-ray cover

One of the (many, many) joys of being a father is watching some of your favorite movies with your child. We introduced our daughter to classic Walt Disney movies very early in her life and she’s been a fan ever since. One of the (many, many) delightful aspects to this is watching movies I hadn’t seen in a long time, and probably would not have watched were it not for my daughter.

Mary Poppins is a delightful classic and I got to watch and review a special edition Blu-ray of the film a few years ago. You can read it here.

My Week in Movies March 19-25, 2033

butch cassidy and the sundance kid poster

I watched ten movies last week, seven of which were new to me. Two of which were westerns that I will talk about later this week in more depth.

The Wild Bunch (1969): Sam Peckinpah made several westerns before this one, but this is his masterpiece, the culmination of his thoughts on the genre. It is brutally violent, dark, cynical, and pretty fantastic. I’ll have more thoughts on it when I write my full review.

Small Town Crime (2017): A small, twisty, noir-tinged thriller starring John Hawkes as a disgraced, alcoholic former cop who discovers a body on the side of the road. He convinces the girl’s father (Robert Forster) to let him work the case as a private detective. The case gives him a new lease on life to actually do something besides drink himself into an early grave. The plot is pretty standard stuff, but it is done well and Hawkes is great as usual. I’d love to see him in an HBO-type series where he solves crimes every week.

Double Indemnity (1973): A television remake of the classic film noir with Richard Crenna in the Fred MacMurray role, Samantha Eggar taking over the Barbara Stanwyck part, and Lee J. Cobb as Edward G. Robinson. It follows the original script pretty closely (though it does edit parts out to cut down on the total time), but pales in comparison.

But it isn’t as bad as it’s been made out to be. It is a perfectly serviceable TV movie. If the original didn’t exist this would be, well it would be completely forgotten as it isn’t good enough to really be remembered, but if you picked it up in the $2 DVD bin you wouldn’t think it was a waste of your money.

But since the original does exist there is no real reason to watch it other than to make you realize how perfect the original is in every way. I watched it because it came as an extra on my Blu-ray of the original and I was curious about it.

Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969): One of my favorite westerns. It feels like the opposite side of the same coin The Wild Bunch comes from. This is a lot more fun to watch and Paul Newman and Robert Redford have never been more charming.

The Lodger: A Story of the London Fog (1927): Alfred Hitchcock’s first big hit and his first truly Hitchcockian film has been a gaping hole in my cinematic knowledge for far too long. I remedied this week and I can’t really fathom why it took me so long.

The plot follows a London family after they have taken in a mysterious lodger who might just be a Jack the Ripper-style killer. It is full of creeping dread and suspense while utilizing what would become many of the director’s trademark styles. Even without sound, he proves himself a master of camera placement and movement, and editing.

Barbarian (2022): A pretty terrific little horror film that I talked about in my Friday Night Horror piece.

Sabotage (1939): The Lodger got me into the mood for another early Hitchcock film. I’d seen this one before but it is so worth watching again. It is about a man who is enlisted by foreign agents to commit acts of sabotage in London. It follows his wife and a young police detective as they try to determine whether or not that’s actually true.

Strangely, this one doesn’t seem all that beloved by Hitchcock fans and classic movie nerds, but I love it. It is full of that classic Hitchcock suspense and it makes great use of its setting (the family runs an old movie theater.)

Excalibur (1981): I have this distinct little memory of my mother renting this movie when I was a kid. I was very excited to watch it because it had knights in shining armor and wizards and it looked really cool. But Mom watched it before me and decided that the nudity, sex, and violence were not appropriate for little old me. I was so disappointed.

That memory has stayed with me, but I somehow only got around to watching the film now. What a strange, long, freaky movie it is. The plot is a retelling of the King Arthur myth. It looks great, the set design is wondrous and the lighting and camera placement are all really interesting. But the story just plods along and the action is clumsy at best.

John Boorman directed it. He made Zardoz a few years earlier. It is just as weird and stylish but its actually good.

Gold Diggers of 1933 (1933): Joan Blondell and Dick Powell star in this wonderful little musical with choreography from Busby Berkeley. The film opens with Blondell, Ginger Rogers and a host of chorus girls decked out in dresses made of gold coins singing “We’re in the Money” and it just gets better from there.

Every Secret Thing (2014): Two very young girls are convicted of kidnapping and then murdering a baby. Years later, just after they are released from juvenile correction another little girl goes missing. The story moves from the first crime to the next connecting how what we did in our past influences who we are and what we can do in our present and future.

Did you all watch anything interesting this week?

The Birthday Haul

blurays and comic books

As I mentioned in today’s bootleg post it is my birthday. Birthdays aren’t a big deal to me, so we didn’t do anything too exciting. We had plans to see Bill Frisell in a little club, which would have been awesome, but the budget has been tight of late, so that wasn’t in the works.

Instead, the wife bought me a few gifts and it was a lovely day and we went to the park. The daffodils were blooming and they were wonderful.

Thanks to everyone who wished me a happy day, it was a good one.