Baba Charles and Michael Sharfe of Mambo Combo joined Cori Wolff of the Longworth-Anderson Series to talk about the local band’s reception performance before Orquesta Akokán’s concert April 27 at Memorial Hall.
The guys previewed baseball season – Bob is cynical, Bill is optimistic – starting with “Cincinnati, Ohio,” Connie Smith’s 1967 hit. She was scheduled to sing that on Opening Day before the spat between billionaires and millionaires postponed the season.
Bill introduced Honeysuckle (Holly McGarry and Chris Bloniarz), a Boston duo that will become a playlist staple. Also, tributes to Foo Fighters drummer Taylor Hawkins and super Bengals fan Charles “Juna” Woods, husband of Q-Kidz Dance Team matriarch Quicy Jones-Woods.
Bill returned from a three-week hiatus to play music he saw live during that period. Starting with the extended Whitmore family (Whitmore Sisters, Bonnie Whitmore, Mastersons), he also played the Temptations, Golden Shoals, Angela Perley, Liz Cooper and Aretha Franklin.
Bob noted the passing of Tim “Spin” Considine of Spin and Marty and My Three Sons fame in honor of his partner Bill “Spin” Thompson. John Cale turned 80, Robin Trower turned 74 and the artist known as ? from ? and the Mysterians also had birthdays. A big set was devoted to Little Feat’s upcoming Taft show where they will reprise the Waiting for Columbus Album. And Bob played his newest discovery Kenny Knight who had his only release in 1980.
With his high-tech lap machine in the shop, Bob had to play the records he just found lying around, so he covered all the genres you’d expect from BS&B with help from Lightnin’ Slim, PPL, Dave Alvin, SCOTs, Jill Sobule, Little Esther, Wild Jimmy Sprull, Moose Jackson and so much more! It didn’t hurt that Bob had all of his old King Records collections at hand.
Bill urged listeners to head to Memorial Hall Thursday to see Allison Russell, whose “Outside Child” was his favorite album last year. They also paid tribute to Procol Harum’s Gary Brooker, who died at 76 this week, and celebrated the 77th birthday of the late Johnny Winter.
After more than a month of giddiness surrounding the Bengals’ run to the Super Bowl, reality set in three days after their loss to the Rams. Bill was a good sport, though, and paid tribute to Los Angeles with tunes by Dawes and Lucero.
Bob went nearly all-in on Bengals hoo-haa with songs devoted to California, site of the upcoming Big Game. He also had special guests Kathy and Jack Greiner in to share the hopes of the WhoDey! faithful. Tributes to the recently departed Hargus “Pig” Robbins and outstanding blues drummer Sam Lay rounded out this sure-to–be-a classic episode.
Technical snafus silenced the usual scintillating repartee, which depending upon your tastes, was a bad/good thing. Great music saluted the Bengals’ win in the AFC Championship and Super Bowl berth, the passing of legendary King Records drummer Philip Paul, and the Thompsons’ anniversary (God bless you, Janinne). Wish us better luck next week.
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