Concert offerings for 2011, Heatin Up in the Midwest

Fred Eaglesmith Feb. 11th St. Louis,Mo. Off Broadway
Lucinda Williams Feb. 25th Bloomington,In.
Sarah McLachlan Feb.17th Indy & March 13th Louisville,Ky.
Arlo Guthrie March 15th Effingham,Il.
Murder by Death March 16th St. Louis,Mo. Off Broadway
John Hammond March 20th St. Louis,Mo. Old Rock House
Ryan Bingham March 10th Indy & March 12th Louisville,Ky.
James McMurtry March 26th St. Louis,Mo., The Paegent & March 29th Champaign,Il.
Guy Clark April 2nd Van Buren,Mo.
Carll Hayes April 7th Champaign,Il. High Dive
Tom Russell Oct. 7th St. Louis,Mo.
Slaid Cleaves June 19th Fayetville,Ak.


After a really weak 2010, it looks very promising in 2011. I'm still holding out hope for Old Crow Medicine Show, Tom Waits, Hank III, Steve Earle & William Elliot Whitmore to come around in the summer or fall.

William Elliott Whitmore - Diggin My Grave

Brad Paisley - You'll Never leave Harlan Alive

"FRANK SINATRA IN A BLENDER" by Matthew McBride

Ken Bruen says of FSIAB

"2011 is off to a magnificent start, this novel dazzled me, delighted and provoked me. Never no more will I view Old Blue Eyes in the same light. A stunning piece of sustained imaginative artistry"

I also read the manuscript for Matt's unpublished crime novel and I gotta believe this one's gonna get snapped up pretty quick. This is by no means a cozy. This is a hard boiled crime story, set in St. Louis,Mo. It revolves around a heist of millions from a Credit Union and soon everything goes to Hell. There are alot of people who want to get there hands on that kinda cash and will kill to get it. This ones got great characters, great dialouge, and lots of action & some very brutal & sometimes funny scenes. It reminded me of early Ken Bruen. For all of you out there who loved Benjamin Whitmer's wonderful debut novel "PIKE", you will want to keep an eye out for this one down the road. I'm no pro at this, all I know is what I like and I liked this one alot. Like Ken says, it was a great way to kick off 2011. I can only hope to find a few more as entertaining as this one in the year to come.

BLAST OF SILENCE....speaks loud & clear.

I really, really.. wish I could remember where I first heard of this film. I go to so many crime blog's that when I forget to write things down I can't remember who to thank. That is a real shame because I owe someone a HUGE thank you. If you come across this story and it was you, then consider yourself thanked properly. The film I'm talking about is "Blast of Silence" from 1961, and written, directed and starring Allen Baron. The film is available via Criterion on Netflix and contains in addition to the film, a special addition entitled " Requiem for a Killer: The Making of Blast of Silence" from 2007. How this film has ridden under the radar for so long is a crime. Blast of Silence is the story of Frank Bono, a hit man from Cleveland who's come to New York to do a job at Christmas. This film is vintage N.Y. and was made on about a $20,000 budget. Frank deals with his feelings of alienation while waiting to complete the job and soon things start to spiral out of his control. Frank soon finds his profession is not one you can simply walk away from. Lionel Sandler gives voice to film in the role of narrator. I watched the film twice in one day & then viewed the extras and just fell in love with it the more I saw of it and learned of it. I highly recommend it to all my crime noir buddies out there.