Last Week

. . . a brief history . . .

July 6

Live in the sunshine. Swim in the sea. Drink in the wild air. ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

The Wonder Bread Years made me laugh so hard I pulled a groin muscle . . . at least I think that’s when it happened? The fun part about going on opening night is that the audience gets to party with the talent afterwards. We really enjoyed chatting with Pat after the show while sampling adult beverages and salty crunchy snack food items . . .

Comedy is simply a funny way of being serious. ~ Peter Ustinov

If you want to make an audience laugh, you dress a man up like an old lady and push her down the stairs. If you want to make comedy writers laugh, you push an actual old lady down the stairs. ~ Tina Fey

Comedy is surprises, so if you’re intending to make somebody laugh and they don’t laugh, that’s funny. ~ Norm MacDonald

Drama is easy. Comedy’s hard. ~ Peter Bogdanovich

[Life at the scene . . . ]

[I forgot to thank Pat after the show for Stan Musial, my first hero . . . ]

July 8

[A brief interlude with the babies as the they rapidly approach their first birthday. I can only hope they don’t replicate the terrible twos of homo sapiens . . . ]

Cats are connoisseurs of comfort. ~ James Herriot

A kitten is the delight of a household. All day long a comedy is played out by an incomparable actor. ~ Champfleury

July 9

Oh, the summer night, has a smile of light, and she sits on a sapphire throne. ~ Bryan Procter

Kelley Hunt Biography

In some ways Roots R&B/Americana singer/songwriter/piano player/guitarist KELLEY HUNT is a rarity and a challenge to the music industry’s penchant for easy artist definitions — a woman who has muscled her way onto the scene on her own terms with an identity steeped in blues/roots/gospel traditions and a refreshing originality. She makes music with it’s righteous roots intact that also crosses boundaries, has an open-minded, exploratory attitude and takes on social and political issues. Together with a commanding, passionate stage presence and superior vocal, keyboard and songwriting skills she has earned the respect of critics and fans across North America and Europe.

Born in Kansas City, Hunt’s love for her craft was ignited listening to early blues, R&B, roots rock, jazz and Gospel influences — artists like Ruth Brown, Mahalia Jackson, Billie Holiday, Ann Peebles, Ray Charles, Dinah Washington, Aretha Franklin, Charles Brown, Wanda Jackson and a cross section of the New Orleans/St. Louis/KC piano traditions of Professor Longhair, Toots Washington, Johnnie Johnson and Kansas City masters Jay McShann and Mary Lou Williams among others. Before that came the sound of her mother singing jazz and blues – her first musical memories – and the influence of her New Orleans Gospel singer grandmother. Reminders of these very traditional influences are evident in Kelley’s live performances and recordings but the lyrics, soul and passion are all her own. Her career path so far has been a story of fierce independence, incredible will, unassailable cred as a blistering live performer and hard-won accomplishment. That narrative includes 1500+ performances with appearances on a long list of premier North American and International festival stages, six times on American Public Media’s ‘A Prairie Home Companion’,150,000+ indie units sold on her own label and critical praise reflecting her conviction from the outset to make her path in the roots music world not just as a performer, but as a forward-thinking songwriter as well (kelleyhunt.com).

[The Super took advantage of our early arrival to tour the gardens . . . ]

She smelled of sun and daisies with a hint of river water. ~ Katie Daisy

[The stage is set . . . ]

[The stage is still set . . . ]

[Lowell Pickett, founder of the Dakota in Minneapolis and friend of the arts in Alex, was the welcomer . . . ]

[And introduced Kelley Hunt to her second performance at the Gardens . . . ]

[Ready . . . begin! Kelley is from Kansas City and advised she had called her sister there earlier in the day. Kansas City has been running plus 100 temperatures, and she wanted the folks at home to know she was going to perform in 72-degree weather! She mentioned many times during the concert how much the band was enjoying the weather . . . ]

The Blues . . .

Kansas City, I would say, did more for jazz music, black music, than any other influence at all. Almost all their joints that they had there, they used black bands. Most musicians who amounted to anything, they would flock to Kansas City because that’s the place where jobs were plentiful. ~ Jesse Stone

One time, when I was in my teens, jamming in a Kansas City club, I was doing all right until I tried doing double tempo on ‘Body and Soul.’ Everybody fell out laughing. I went home and cried and didn’t want to play again for three months. ~ Charlie Parker

[My Cub reportorial duties took me took cover Kelly on her first visit here – July 5, 2013 . . . ]

[My camera battery died about 2/3’s of the way through this panorama shop . . . ]

[The full monty panorama . . . ]

[Did I mention (as Ms. Hunt did often) that it was a beautiful evening?]

It isn’t necessary to have relatives in Kansas City in order to be unhappy. ~ Groucho Marx

I was able to work with the best musicians in Kansas City starting when I was really young. ~ Pat Metheny

Kansas City style, Chicago style, New Orleans style hell, they’re all Jelly Roll style. ~ Jelly Roll Morton

[Editor’s note: Our pastry of choice are plain old-fashioned doughnuts. If one is to be nicknamed after one’s favorite pastry, I guess I would be Plain Old-Fashioned Obert . . . ]

Arizona is the worst place to spend the summer – it’s like 125 degrees – so my mom, my brother and I would go to the beach for two months to escape the heat. ~ Emma Stone

Summertime and the livin’ is easy. ~ Porgy & Bess

Those Lazy-Hazy-Crazy Days of Summer. ~ Nat King Cole

You are so much sunshine in every square inch. ~ Walt Whitman

Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day? ~ William Shakespeare

July 10

[Glen Everhart took the stage at Carlos Creek Winery. Glen has been driving from Blaine to Alexandria to perform for over 30 years. He estimates he has performed at Arrowwood over 400 times (used to be every Wednesday during the season, now four times a year). Yet this was his very first time at the winery . . . ]

Summertime, and the living is easy. ~ Ella Fitzgerald

[Glen had enough electronics to have flown the stage to Saturn . . . ]

Summer means happy times and good sunshine. It means going to the beach, going to Disneyland, having fun. ~ Brian Wilson

Sun is shining. Weather is sweet. Make you wanna move your dancing feet. ~ Bob Marley

People don’t notice whether it’s winter or summer when they’re happy. ~ Anton Chekhov

Rest is not idleness, and to lie sometimes on the grass under trees on a summer’s day, listening to the murmur of the water, or watching the clouds float across the sky, is by no means a waste of time. ~ John Lubbock

I hate summer, to be honest. I hate dressing. I hate the heat. I hate sweaty people getting aggressively close to you when you’re walking down the street. ~ Johnny Weir

I believe that summer is our time, a time for the people, and that no politician should be allowed to speak to us during the summer. They can start talking again after Labor Day. ~ Lewis Black

Why do all our friends and relatives destroy the summer for us? Why can’t they get married in February? ~ Jerry Della Femina

[Pan-o-rama . . . ]

[And again . . . ]

[The winery property line along Co. Rd. 34 . . . ]

[And the conclusion to Saturday . . . ]

[There’s a story (isn’t there always?). We spent the afternoon at the winery. Came home for a nap, dinner at home, and “Midsomer Murders” before going to bed. Then the Super decided she really needed a hamburger. Where to go? Golf club is closest, but there was a tournament going on. Checked in there anyway and discovered burgers not available because of pre-planned menu for the golfers. The Lure would be next. Beautiful evening as it was, we decided no chance of getting seating there. The Depot has outdoor dining. We went there next. Lots of seating available on the porch but . . . they were all taken by reservations (it was prime rib night). On to the Pike & Pint, where we learned that the next available table on the patio would be Wednesday. Well, let’s try Longtrees. No outdoor (OK, couple of tables overlooking Starbucks) but going any farther south we’d be in Glenwood. The Super got her burger there. We ran into friends who were going to TLHD for “The Wonder Bread Years.” We warned them to be prepared to laugh. So, doing what we hoped would be a half hour quick trip for a burger turned into wishing we had packed overnight bags . . . ]

And in conclusion: We joined Bob, Vivian, and Angie Annen for breakfast at the golf club this morning. For the first time I had the biscuits & gravy (a felony in several states). I did not have lunch; I had a salad for dinner. Let that be a lesson to you! (p.s. Bob & Viv have moved into Grand Arbor – they will not be ready for visitors for a while until they have settled in).

If you look at it, the history of comedy has always been strongest among the nations who have been persecuted the most. ~ Trevor Noah

Michael Palin decided to give up on his considerable comedy talents to make those dreadfully tedious travel shows. Have you ever tried to watch one? ~ John Cleese

Up Next: There are things in the works (now that’s useful) . . .