Music List

As I enter year 58 in this funky world we live in, a look back on the music acts I've been fortunate to see over the years. I was initially going to rank them but there would be too many in first place so we'll just list them alphabetically with comments. My pea brain is probably missing a few but here goes:

B.B. King

He passed away not too long after this show but was fortunate to see him.

Black Sabbath

My first concert ever and unfortunately it was Black Sabbath with no Ozzy (or Ronnie James Dio). They overdosed with the satanic light show to make up for the bad music. Great people watching in the arena, however. Lots of leather.

Blues Traveler

I've seen them multiple times and while they never disappointed in putting on a great show, they did seem to jump the shark once the bass player passed.

Bob Seger and the Silver Bullet Band

Also seen multiple times and never disappointed. The pride of Michigan music.

Damn Yankees

A supergroup plucked from Styx, Night Ranger and the Amboy Dukes, their songs were pretty cliche but the concert was entertaining.

Dave Matthews Band

I saw the band during their peak. Violins, trumpets and saxophones within the band are always entertaining. Good show except for the girl next to me had loud girl scream going too much.

Dickey Betts Band

While a great guitarist and had some outstanding songs with the Allman Brothers, Betts lost points with me during the show when he checked his watch during a song.

Doobie Brothers

The band that is seemingly always on tour but never disappoints with their catalog.

Eddie Money

The opener at Pine Knob for many years regardless if he had an album out of not, Money did not disappoint. You find out he has a few more songs than "two tickets to paradise."

ELO

I saw them in recent years when they came back on the road after a long hiatus. With the orchestra in tow, they nailed all the songs. The only gripe I had were the morons around me with their damn cell phones out taping it rather than watching. I hoped they enjoyed tape of me yelling behind them.

Eric Clapton

Not sure if this were his drug relapse years (show was in the late 80's) or not but he put on a great show.

Fleetwood Mac

A reunion tour that sounded great but the band seemed to going through the motions, getting the songs over.

Genesis

I saw them on their most recent tour. Phil Collins' son played drums as Phil can no longer but he still has an outstanding voice. Great show, even with the 20 minute 'prog' songs.

George Thorogood and the Destroyers

Slide guitar with a splash of saxophone; great show and great entertainer.

Greta Van Fleet

The youngsters from Frankenmuth rocked the Fillmore in Detroit.

J. Geils Band

The original rapper, Peter Wolf, and the best harmonica player out there, Magic Dick, is all you need for an entertaining evening.

James Wailin'

I saw Wailin' at a small venue in Pontiac back in the 90's. Look him up on the music import sites.

Joe Cocker

Cocker opened up for The Police and he was exactly as you would expect. The incredible voice, the background singers rocking it and Cocker gyrating just like John Belushi impersonated him back in the 70's.

Joe Walsh/The James Gang

A James Gang reunion tour, Walsh did not disappoint playing the old James Gang catalog with a few of his solo songs splashed in.

Judas Priest

Seen multiple times, Rob Halford is quite the entertainer and can scream with the best of them. 

Kenny Wayne Shepherd

An underrated band, worth checking out if they come through town.

Kid Rock

Not a big fan but had to see it once. He's making a living; we'll leave it at that. Maybe he and Corey Feldman can tour together...

Lake Street Dive

Rachael Price has the most beautiful voice out there, bar none. 

Lenny Kravitz

Always a good story, friends and I were watching the show right behind the sound board at Pine Knob. I had to take a whiz. After finishing my business, I came back to my seat, asked my friends if I missed anything. It turns out Kravitz walked down the aisle, onto the soundboard and was right in front of our seats. The story of my life.

Norah Jones

A close second to Rachael Price in terms of beautiful voices.

Paul Rodgers

He played as part of the Art festival in Pontiac one year and played like he was playing in front of 20,000 versus 2,000. Great show.

Pearl Jam

Very fortunate to see the "Vet Man." He was drinking some wine, telling some great stories and rocking the place.  

Peter Gabriel

Speaking of story telling, Gabriel's pre-song talk was longer than the actual songs themselves. Long intros aside, the music was outstanding.

Ratdog

The closest I've came to seeing the Grateful Dead as the band had a few former members. As with the Grateful Dead songs, you can go to the bathroom, get a soda, come back to your seat and the same song when you left is still playing,

Robert Cray

I saw him open up for Eric Clapton and also by himself at a small venue in Indianapolis. Very underrated bluesman.

Roger Waters

The closest I've came to seeing Pink Floyd. Waters likes his political talk but talk aside, a very entertaining show. My first "in the round" experience.

Rush

The beginning of Tom Sawyer gives me goose bumps listening to it on the radio, imagine starting a concert off with that drum beat. Great show.

Samantha Fish

Friend Keith M. got me hooked on Fish (a play on words there) and have seen her a few times. This petite blond from Kansas City can pluck the guitar with vengeance.

Sammy Hagar

The ageless wonder, Hagar never fails in entertaining (which swigging some tequila).

Santana

It rained the entire show but he played for 3+ hours regardless, and rocked. Some fun mud slide watching on the hill that night at Pine Knob.

Steely Dan

Seen multiple times, the consummate studio band with so many hits that never seemed to tour finally did so in the 90's; and did not disappoint.

Steve Miller Band

As with the Doobie Brothers, Miller is seemingly always on tour but never disappoints with his catalog.

Steve Winwood

I saw him on a tour about eight years ago. He played a good portion of his catalog from Traffic, Spencer Davis Group, Blind Faith and solo work. The white Ray Charles was entertaining.

Stevie Wonder

A tour to play "Songs in the Key of Life" in it's entirety, besides the hour delay to wait for the crowd to arrive due to a snow storm that came out of nowhere in the area, the show was outstanding with about 20 people in the band.  

Ted Nugent

Political talk aside, Ted is never going to take a night off in entertaining the masses.

Tedeschi Truck Band

Probably a third behind Rachael Price and Norah Jones, Susan Tedeschi has a beautiful voice.

The Allman Brothers Band

As with the Grateful Dead, the Allman Brothers like their long songs. I enjoyed the red Solo cups on Gregg Allman's keyboard as he wailed away at Midnight Rider.

The Black Crowes

A band that seemingly has disappeared, they put on a great show.

The Police

They did not disappoint as they hit pretty much all of their catalog.

The Romantics

My first Pine Knob experience, the band from Detroit had the energy and a good portion of my high school on the hill.

Three Dog Night

While I love their songs, the band in later years may not have aged the best. I saw them at a BBQ fest in Illinois and it was a train wreck with band members forgetting the words.

Three Legged Dog/Herazz/Leechbombs

I'm lumping my garage bands in one. 

Three Legged Dog put on some strong performances but were forced to disband when a founding member moved away.

I saw Herazz, Milford's metal band, at a few garages. They weren't too bad; cliche 80's metal. Below is a link to some songs.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hxJRATzK9GQ

As far as the Leechbombs, they finally learned how to finish songs (kind of). They have since disbanded, whereabouts unknown.

Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers

I saw them three times, the third a blur but the two that were not were outstanding. Petty would be top five if I were to rank.

Van Halen

I saw them for the '1984' album tour. Seeing Eddie Van Halen play was definitely worth the price of admission (which was probably $20 at the time). David Lee Roth can be a cheeseball but he plays the lead man role well.

Yes

I saw them as part of the '90125' album tour. They would probably be number one if I needed to pick one from this list. They were entertaining and hit every song incredibly well.

ZZ Top

Spinning guitars in unison and some great southern rock. Sorry we lost Dusty Hill a few years back.

Bad Bambi

In celebration of the November deer hunting season, $100 to any hunter that can find and take down the buck that had an antler scratch on my newly planted maple tree.

Trail Head

City of Gold

Northwest Michigan had a good dose of lake effect rain showers this past week. The sun would be shining and in would come a 2 minute burst of rain, then sunny again. While driving home the other day, I came upon the attached view so I pulled over (or maybe I didn't pull over...) and got the shot. If you look close, there is a leprechaun sitting on the entrance gates to the town.

Trail Head

The Donna Tree

the Donna tree

My mom advised that she wanted her ashes to be placed where children play so yesterday Bird and I ventured downstate to the D to help do that with my sister and her family. The Greening of Detroit organization was doing a tree planting near a recreation center (lot of trees planted) so we had a tree planted in my mom's name with her ashes helping fill in the soil.  

Even in death my mom is helping others.

Trail Head

Bird was morale dog for the diggers

Names - John and Michael have left the building

While attending the local high school's football game Friday, I was perusing the rosters for the two teams. Very small rosters at that; the visiting team had 19 players listed and it looked like less than that dressed, the home team not many more. My pea brain glanced at the names and one thing jumped out at me, the common names I grew up with (John, Mike, Jim, Jeff, Tom, Dan, Steve, Eric, Al, etc...) seem to be slowly becoming extinct. There is a Tim listed below but he goes by 'Timmy' so he must get his ass kicked quite a bit.

The home team of funky first names took the victory for those keeping score at home.

Trail Head

Salmon Camp - blind squirrel catches one (and gets caught in the battery console)

Al and Gus ventured north this week to join me in the fall tradition of attempting to catch the salmon heading upstream. The streams/rivers themselves had fish to see but none caught by our posse. The lakes/bays, however, gave up the attached. The king salmon was taken out of Betsie Bay just minutes after we had the trolling rods out. Gus got the second fish, a coho salmon, out of Crystal Lake. 

On a funny/sad note, while fishing, we discovered what we thought was a (singular) squirrel/chipmunk making a home in Al's boat, specifically in the battery console area. Our thoughts were correct, however, it wasn't just one squirrel/chipmunk, it was three of them. We believe they made the entire trip from downstate. We tried our best to get them to flee, leaving the console door open with a trail of nuts. When Al and Gus left, I saw one below where the boat was that unfortunately didn't make it. Hoping the best for the other two furry travelers.

Trail Head

Striving to be Grand Poobah

While it might not be the equivalent of the secret handshake/men's only Water Buffalo club that Fred and Barney partook in back in the day (the episode where Wilma and Betty dressed as men to investigate the club was a classic), I recently became of member of the local Eagle chapter. Instead of the Grand Poobah, there is the Worthy President. Women are allowed. The pledge/initiation is more or less "be cool to others and don't be a dick." The benefits are a nice place to grab a beverage/meal when the tourist season kicks in high gear. The Worthy President who was reciting the pledge for me to repeat I thought was going to pass out as he had some serious cotton mouth while talking. Get that man some water.

Worthy Tim out.

Trail Head

Bird's Designated Belly Rubber

The town where I reside has quite a few retirees walking the streets in the morning. My dog Bird will normally just watch them all walk by except for one; her designated belly rubber. One walker who comes past the house pretty much at 8 AM each morning, give or take a few minutes, approached me and asked if she could pet Bird. Said belly rubber and her husband live a few blocks from Lake Michigan I learned so pet away, just leave that sweet house you have to me when you leave this funky planet we live in. 

So every morning at around 7:50 AM or so, you'll see Bird sitting right next to the curb waiting for her belly rubber, wagging her stump tail like a Pavlovian dog drooling as the belly rubber approaches with treats, some dog talk and about a five minute rub. 

If Bird could smoke, she would as she always looks like she just made woopee after the belly rubber leaves.

Trail Head

 

Frontier Rider

The tour headed west this past week to pedal Curt Gowdy State Park outside of Cheyenne, Wyoming and get a glimpse of southeast Wyoming. 

Home base was Cheyenne which tops Denver's "Mile High City" designation by about 1,000 feet in elevation. The "Mile High and some change City!!" The lungs were feeling all 6,000 feet on the trails but a beautiful park Mr. Gowdy has named after him. The visitor center has a bunch of pictures of the legendary broadcaster fishing and hunting with sports legends, celebrities and presidents from the old "The American Sportsman" show back in my youth. He was a sportsman for sure; kind of reminds me of my friend Rob with the many hunting/fishing expeditions he's been on. I attached a short clip of my pedal at the bottom of this post. Take note of baby rider at about the 1:37 mark. Hold on tight son!

The city of Cheyenne has some good people. It must be the cowboy thing but local establishments allow customers to "get one for the road" so out came the paper cups (big gulp size), in went some jungle juice booze or whatever and off went a happy customer. Yee-ha and heads up drivers! And no, I did not partake.

As far as airport fun, with my new hip I was able to get my crotch grabbed going to and coming from Cheyenne; so I had that going for me.

Trail Head

Looking for Gold in the (dune) Hills

My Monday morning trot around the beach has one constant, the two fellas pictured, searching for anything and everything that may have dropped out of the pockets of the many beach-goers over the weekend. Not many people are bringing priceless jewelry to the beach (and leaving said priceless jewelry) so guessing the two bring home a couple bucks in change each Monday. My theory is their wives bought the metal detectors for them to get them out of the house.

Laugh as I may, I'll probably join them in a few years after I pack up my belongings and stop working full time.

Trail Head

1984 - The Year of Eating Free

A little different version than Orwell's 1984 with Big Brother being replaced by Big Mac but 1984 was the year one of the fast food chains had the Olympic spirit in the form of a scratch off card that presented an Olympic event when scratched. If the U.S. takes first, second or third in that event, free food for that card holder! 

Said Olympics were boycotted by 15 countries (I looked it up), with the old Soviet Union leading the charge. With that, the U.S. dominated with close to 200 medals overall. Mix that with the stack of about 30 scratch cards the ladies at the local establishment would give us each time we came in and we had ourselves a feast; with a splash of gluttony. We were still in high school though, so I could polish off a 20 piece nugget without breaking a sweat with room for more.  

U.S.A.

Trail Head

BREAKING NEWS!!!

I hate the way the national news throw out the BREAKING NEWS logo when they are reporting something that was known hours ago, but they need us attention-deficit individuals to not change the station so they throw it out whenever possible.

Well, in the spirit of that process, I give you breaking news from the smallest county in Michigan. Taking away from the regular news in town of where to put the beach bathrooms (going on about three years now for that one), the breaking news in town are the installation of the new pickleball courts!!! I've never played the game but it has quite a following with the many 60-plus-ers in town.

https://www.recordpatriot.com/news/article/frankfort-opens-four-new-pickleball-courts-market-20771151.php

Way Back Machine - baseball 'games'

In the spirit of baseball season and the year the Tigers are having, we take a ride in the way back machine to the 1970/80's when kids like myself improvised for baseball practice when little league was down with games such as:

pickle

The game was pretty simple, and quite stupid looking back on it. You placed two bases apart about the distance between the bases in baseball. Two people have their mitts on and guard each base while throwing the ball to each other. With this going on, one person runs between the bases attempting to get to one of the bases without being tagged. If he made it, I can't remember if we switched places or that person stayed and was king until called out. 

There was no umpire to call safe or out so debates were also part of the game as I recall. "I touched your shirt!!" "You did not!!!" 

I don't recall these games lasting long.

500

A simple game of one guy hitting baseballs to a flock of kids and every man for himself in catching one of the hit balls and accumulating points. The first to 500 wins. I'm going off of memory so probably off in some regard but recall fly balls being 100, line drives 200 and grounders 50. If you dropped the ball, points were deducted accordingly. 

As with pickle, there was no umpire so debates/rationalization happened. "It didn't touch my mitt so that is not a dropped ball!!"  "No way was that a line drive!!!"

1/2 field/pitcher's mitt out/ghost runners

Sometimes a combination when you don't have enough people for a full field of players, you designate second base as the median line and the batter can only hit to one side of the field or the other. Instead of a first baseman, fielders throw to the pitcher before the batter reaches first base for the out. If you're having a good inning, you get to use the famous "ghost" runner and bat again. 

Thankful cell phones didn't exist during this time.

Trail Head

new sign for Bird and evolving into 'get off my lawn' guy

I live on a street that has no speed limit signs and a few speeders from time to time. While I haven't achieved rake throwing status that my dad did in slowing down the select few (yes, he used to throw rakes at speeders), I will make the widest and slowest turn ever on the lawnmower into the street if I see someone chugging down the road. Funny thing is, the speeders are the grandmas of the area. The Seinfeld bit on old drivers (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=24psdnXhsEk) rings true.

I have an invisible fence in the yard and my dog Bird will lay in the shade right at the border of the fence line so I had the local print shop make the attached sign. It at least makes people slow down to read it (and see the coolest dog) so it works.

Trail Head

Skegemog 2025 - changing species in the live well, giggling at Rundgren lyrics and JVic takes the weekend

The 2025 Skegemog Invitational is complete. No team battles this year as individuals and individual team boats were up for the big bucks and bragging rights for biggest fish. 

The team boat competition on Saturday morning was fierce as the Al C. boat 'only' brought in four keepers, however, those four had more poundage than the five out of my boat so Al's team took the money. 

Saturday afternoon/evening's fish session brought about some challenging winds but the JVic/Gus combination resurrected their 2000-something jigging magic to bring in a 14+ pound bag.

Jim M. was on both winning boats for poundage and brought in a 3+ pound pike for the biggest fish of the weekend (whole lot of 2+ pounders but not many jumbos).    

As far as entertainment, the Todd Rundgren reference to "Leroy, boy" in the "We Gotta Get You a Woman" song will forever at this point make me laugh for no reason. 

Also entertaining was a group within our possie (who shall be nameless to protect the innocent) that claimed they caught a smallmouth bass, put it in the live well, checked on it a few minutes later and it was now a largemouth, The three guys that were in the boat confirmed but fellow fishermen were skeptical.

Trail Head

future angler

Mountain Bike Patroller Revisited - marital bliss

While it's been a few years since I donned the mountain bike patroller jersey, you can take the jersey away from the patroller but can't take the lessons learned on the process. Case in point Saturday evening as I was pedaling home on the bike path from a local establishment. About 100 yards in front of me past a few elderly ladies I see what I thought was a bicyclist go down as all I saw was aluminum in the air. Upon closer inspection, it was a 70-something man on his walker; off his walker. The two ladies and I got him up and besides a nice skin scrape on his forearm, he seemed okay but guessing he was going to be in some pain the following morning as falling on a paved path hurts, no matter how young/old you are.

We managed to get a hold of his sister who lived down the road and came to pick him up. While waiting, I asked the man where he was coming from and he replied Elberta, about two miles away from where we found him. His walker was one of those that had a seat. My mom had one of those and they are made for individuals that need a rest every 10 yards or so. With that, I was shocked that this frail man had made it this far. Upon further inquiry, he revealed that he and his wife had a fight, "I told her I was leaving," he said. You made it this far in life with your wife, why fight now but have seen fighting couples who seem to live for the fight so enjoy the bliss.

Trail Head

Police Logs - a lot of suspicious situations

The local paper in the metropolis I live in (it's the smallest county in terms of land area in the state) publishes the police log regularly. A lot of suspicious situations being reported:

The log title is the click bait 
but after clicking you get...

yes, there was a breaking and entering 
and that is all the information you get

nothing good happens after midnight

to the kid who got busted for the truancy, 

it's tough to skip school when you have 30 

kids total in your graduating class 

seven total 'suspicious situations' if my count if correct - 
it's either the many elderly in the area calling them in or
crystal meth morons on a bad high

the minor in possession was probably
the kid skipping class

angry person at 9AM
is not good