INsite Atlanta May 2021 Issue

MAY 2021

INSITEATLANTA.COM

9 YEARS! 2 G N I T ELEBRA

VOL. 29, NO. 9 FREE

Devo • The Kings Micky Dolenz

Spring C

Festivals Georgia Renaissance Festival Yaarab Shrine Circus & Fair Alpharetta Arts Streetfest Dunwoody Arts Fest Duluth Arts Festival Bavarianfest

CONTENTS • MAY 2021 • VOLUME 29, NO. 9

music at

the fred 2021 concert season presented by:

The Best live music experience limited tickets available for 2021 socially distanced concerts

SATURDAY JULY 10 GEORGIA PLAYERS GUILD Presents “Georgia Rhythm - Hits from Georgia Artists” & TRIBUTE - The Music Of The Allman Brothers Band SATURDAY, AUGUST 7 WHO’S THAT GIRL – The Ultimate Diva Experience SATURDAY, AUGUST 21 NATURAL WONDER – The Ultimate Stevie Wonder Experience and BOGEY & THE VICEROY

FOR DETAILS VISIT w w w . a m p h i t h e ate r . o r g PG 2 • May 2021 • insiteatlanta.com

29 R AT I N G CELEB

YEARS!

Atlanta’s

Entertainment Monthly

INTERVIEWS 05 06 Devo 08 Micky Dolenz 10 Yesterday’s Tomorrow 11 The Kings 12 Hollywood Eden 06 13 Noel Paul Stookey 14 Jason Rigenberg

FEATURES 04 The Fred 07 Spring Festivals

08

COLUMNS 03 Around Town 05 Station Streaming 09 Album Reviews 14

insiteatlanta.com STAFF LISTING Publisher Steve Miller steve@insiteatlanta.com Art Director / Web Design Nick Tipton nick@insiteatlanta.com Managing Editor Lee Valentine Smith lee@insiteatlanta.com Local Events Editor Marci Miller marci@insiteatlanta.com Music Editor John Moore john@insiteatlanta.com

Contributing Writers / Interns: Alex. S. Morrison, Dave Cohen, Benjamin Carr, Demarco Williams Advertising Sales Steve Miller (404) 308-5119 • ads@insiteatlanta.com WEBSITE • insiteatlanta.com Editorial content of INsite is the opinion of each writer and is not necessarily the opinion of INsite, its staff, or its advertisers. INsite does not knowingly accept false or misleading advertising or editorial content, nor do the publisher or editors of INsite assume responsibility should such advertising or editorial appear. No content, i.e., articles, graphics, designs and information (any and all) in this publication may be reproduced in any manner without written permission from publisher.

© Copyright 2021, Be Bop Publishing, Inc. All Rights Reserved

MAY 2021

S! TING 29 YEAR CELEBRA

INSITEATLANTA.COM

VOL. 29, NO. 9 FREE

Devo • The Kings Micky Dolenz

Spring

Festivals

Follow INsite on Social!

Please see our Spring Festival Guide on page 7!

Georgia Renaissance Festival Yaarab Shrine Circus & Fair Alpharetta Arts Streetfest Dunwoody Arts Fest Duluth Arts Festival Bavarianfest

Around Town

Socially Distanced Events taking place this Month

MAY 7

MAY 7 - 9

City of Decatur; 5 - 9pm

Skyline stage on Georgia Tech campus

DECATUR FAB FRIDAY

ATLANTA BALLET SILVER LININGS

Dine and shop outside at FAB First Friday in Decatur, May 7. Enjoy a reimagined night out with expanded patios, curbside storefronts, sidewalk pop-ups and an open-air tent market on the plaza. Wear a mask and come on out the first Friday of the month from 5 to 9 pm. Look for "fab" deals as retailers and restaurants partner up to support each other. More information at visitdecaturgeorgia.com. Follow on Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook for updates.

Silver Linings is the company’s newest choreographic initiative featuring a variety of original pieces created by Atlanta Ballet dancers on Atlanta Ballet dancers.

Watch live a selection of pieces that have been featured in Atlanta Ballet’s virtual season’s Silver Linings programs, including Claudia Schreier’s newly created work, “Pleiades Dances.” Seating is offered as 2- and 4-person pods. Georgia Tech Arts Box Office available by phone at 404.894.9600 or at arts.gatech.edu.

MAY 6 - 16

MAY 6 – 23

Under the Tent at Alliance Theatre

Alliance Theatre virtual and live lobby

SONGS TO GROW ON

A Woody Guthrie concert for children.

A family friendly concert event featuring American folk music legend Woody Guthrie's classic children's songs. Performed by Rob Lawhon and drawn primarily from Guthrie's iconic album Songs to Grow on for Mother and Child, this cycle of songs captures the whimsy, joy, and wonder of childhood in three chords & a whole lot of fun. Join Woody and his dog Arlo as they serenade Atlanta families with songs that celebrate the human spirit. For tickets and info, visit alliancetheatre.org/working.

DATA

As this year’s playwright competition winner, Data is a fast-paced thriller that looks behind the closed doors of Silicon Valley.

Step into the world of highly controversial technologies and the people who create them. In Data, Maneesh is a brilliant entry-level programmer content to work in the low-stress environment of User Experience until he learns the true nature of his company’s confidential business. Faced with a crisis of conscious, Maneesh must come to terms with his own American identity and the personal and societal cost of his work.

MAY 9

MOTHER’S DAY BRUNCH

Park Tavern at Piedmont Park Midtown

Park Tavern provides the city’s Best Mother's Day Brunch Buffet in the perfect setting overlooking Piedmont Park and the city skyline.

It takes place this year on Sunday May 9 from 11:00 am 4:00pm.

Mother's Day Brunch is held in their covered patio area and in the climate-controlled garden tent. ere are multiple stations with incredible offerings including: Eggs Benedict with Canadian Bacon; Blackened Chilean Salmon; Applewood Smoked Bacon & Sausage and Hash Brown Casserole. ey also have a carving station with Spiral Ham and Prime Rib. Visit parktavern.com.

MAY 19 - NOVEMBER 15

VAN GOGH: THE IMMERSIVE EXPERIENCE Pullman Yards in Kirkwood

is 360-degree, immersive digital art experience allows visitors to take an aweinspiring journey into the incomparable universe of Vincent van Gogh, one of history’s foremost artistic geniuses. anks to digital projection technology, visitors can explore the life of Van Gogh, his work, and his secrets like never before. rough cutting-edge 360-degree digital projections, a one-of-a-kind VR experience, and a uniquely atmospheric light and sound spectacular, the family-friendly, COVIDsafe, two-story, 20,000-square-foot experience is sure to delight visitors of all ages.

Visitors will be required to wear face masks at all times and must adhere to strict anti-COVID protocols as outlined by the CDC. Visit vangoghexpo.com.

Mother's Day Weekend Saturday, May 8 10am–6pm Sunday, May 9 10am–5pm

• New Location!

Brook Run Park • Free Event • Food & Beverages for Purchase If you are feeling unwell, please stay home. Masks required.

We ask that you maintain proper social distancing during the Art Festival.

splashfestivals.com insiteatlanta.com • May 2021 • PG 3

MUSIC

LIVE MUSIC IS BACK!

A Slate of Family-Friendly Shows will Rock The Fred’s 2021 Concert Season

BY LEE VALENTINE SMITH

T

HIS SUMMER, MUSIC’S greatest hits will fill the air again at the Frederick J Brown, Jr. Amphitheater. Voted “Best Music Venue” in 2018 and 2019 by INsite readers, “The Fred” is one of Georgia’s favorite live music showcases. This year, a slate of tribute acts will be featured, blending state-of-the-art production values with quality, family-friendly performances for fans of all ages.

With a history that spans over forty years, the Peachtree City arena has hosted many of the world’s legendary performers, from oldies to opera. Known as The Fred since 1991, in honor of former Peachtree City Mayor Frederick Brown Jr., the popular attraction features table, theater and lawn seats.

Since 2018, the 2,500-seat location has partnered with PTR, a joint venture of Atlantabased companies - Premier Events, RCS Productions and Ticket Alternative.

INsite recently spoke with Stephen Moore of RCS to discuss the Fred’s innovative new 2021 season and the perils of the pandemic.

It’s been a hectic year for everyone.

We’ve never seen anything like it. For RCS productions, in March of 2020 we were expecting our best year ever. We were coming

PG 4 • May 2021 • insiteatlanta.com

tops. So it’s getting harder to see and hear these songs in the live setting. If you’ve got a reasonable representation, people will support it by coming out, having a good time and enjoying the entire experience with a massive library of hits.

People come for the hits and the whole communal atmosphere the live show can offer.

Absolutely. We do shows for a number of municipalities all around the area. They’re all very different but the one thing they have in common is people love Georgia Players Guild Presents “Georgia Rhythm – Hits from Georgia Artists” & Tribute – The Music of the Allman Brothers Band on July 10 to come together to enjoy music with their friends and family.

These parks, bandshells or the from an incredibly strong 2019, and most of board with that, which was fantastic. It helps more proper amphitheaters like The Fred, allow the events that we were implementing were all to keep everyone’s reputations solid within people that opportunity. They don’t have to set and ready to go. I think we had 200 or so the industry. drive long distances to see a quality show and events on the books and we ended up actually enjoy a quality night out. executing eleven of them. So it was quite a 2020 was a depressing time, but when things shock. Basically, that meant our business finally open again, the live concert industry is Now that we’ve been so isolated, that was down 94 percent. There were four of us going to explode. community spirit is more important now working full-time in January of last year and we That’s the idea. I think the first experiment than ever. Visiting The Fred, for example, is spent March and April moving shows to the we had with that was down at The Fred. like seeing a big show in someone’s backyard, fall. Then we spent May moving shows to 2021. Our management team met with the city because it actually is in a neighborhood. The After that, it got very, very quiet. We cut down in December and there was willingness to big sheds don’t offer that same sort of small to two people and we were basically working do something good in 2021. By January, the town charm. one to three hours a day. But we came up with decision was made to put up some shows that There’s definitely a place for the big venues. what’s called mutually agreeable dates for we knew we could complete.

They’re able to host the big touring shows but shows in the future. Most of our clients were on you’re right, the hometown vibe of The Fred, So that became the announced schedule for for example, is hard to beat. Most of the shows The Fred. we do for municipalities are free and whole That’s right. That’s how we came up with families come out for a night out together. the ten shows that have been announced so And because of that, we are careful to make far. They’re all popular tribute shows and they sure it’s a family-friendly event, all around. seem to make the most sense when you’re going from 2,500 seats down to 900.

Often those shows are a kid’s introduction to the live scene.

The demand for tickets was impressive, from It’s truly heartwarming to see families what I heard. sharing the experience of live music. I’ve got Absolutely. We sold out six shows in one a great picture from one of the shows we did day! Now, eight of the ten are sold out. People in Woodstock. I don’t even remember which are ready to come out and buy tickets for a responsible music experience. That’s what we’re show it was but the picture captured such a sweet moment. Two dads had their kids up going to deliver - not on their shoulders, only at The Fred but I took the picture for all of our clients. from behind them.

But what really got Audiences really to me was that the love the tribute dads were loving the shows. show, but these kids They really do. The were just having a shows have gotten ball, too. That’s what bigger and bigger it’s all about. Families and that’s forced the come out, mom and tribute bands to get dad probably grew better and better up with the music with incredible and now they’re production values introducing their to their shows. Most own kids to the songs of them are touring Whot’s That Girl – The Ultimate Diva with a pretty nice Experience will play on August 7. that meant so much to them. It makes production package, for an unforgettable whether it’s video experience. But that’s the beauty of live or special lighting packages. It’s not just any music. It brings people together and creates a band standing up there on a stage, these are moment. I’m glad to see that it’s coming back. fully produced shows, featuring a variety of It’s like a visit with an old friend, so I urge artists and an impressively comprehensive set people to come on out, have a safe, fun time of hits. The market has definitely evolved and and get re-acquainted with something we all people really enjoy the results and it’s all about took for granted. the music. They are playing the greatest hits of these artists and it’s a good way to hear this The Fred is located at 201 McIntosh Trail music played live. Some of the original artists in Peachtree City. For more information, visit are getting up there in age and sometimes they amphitheater.org, or call 770-631-0630. don’t want to play 120 shows a year. Some of them are down to 30 or 40 shows a year,

TV

Station Streaming

HEROINES FIGHTING EVIL

BY BENJAMIN CARR

I

N HORROR FILMS, IT’S THE resilient girl who defeats the monster in the end. In television drama, the darkest and most horrific evils meet their match in strong, badass women, for whom the work is never done.

Three new series introduce a variety of evils, some extremely terrifying, to audiences. But the women at the center of these dramas can more than hold their own.

Them

THEM (Amazon Prime)

The most terrifying series to emerge so far this year, Amazon Prime’s Them kicks off its first season with the story of the Emory family, who move to Los Angeles from North Carolina after a tragedy during the 1950s. The family moves into the all-white neighborhood of Compton, where their neighbors are less than welcoming. The family, though, is already familiar with severe trauma. Monsters lurk in the shadows of their home. Vandals wait upon their front lawn. Neighbors’ facades of decency quickly fracture. And the terror of Them is intense and nearly unendurable.

At the head of the family is Lucky Emory, a woman coping with severe post-traumatic stress after a series of attacks and losses in her old home. Played by Deborah Ayorinde with ferocity and strength, Lucky is not a character who endures suffering in silence any longer as threats are hurled at her family. She’s wounded and tough, dangerous and righteous. And she’s no longer sane. Her husband Henry, played by Ashley Thomas, matches her intensity and her survival instincts, for he’s coping with demons of his own.

Though the racism of the neighbors, embodied most in actress Alison Pill’s cracking, porcelain veneer as the villainous Betty, is scary enough, Them is filled with creepy visuals, acid-burned demons and plenty of horrifying jump scares.

Created by Little Marvin, the series feels reminiscent of the best Jordan Peele works, a mix of social commentary and actual terror that will haunt you.

Tell Me Your Secrets

TELL ME YOUR SECRETS (Amazon Prime)

Another Amazon original series, Tell Me Your

Secrets is a crime drama about monstrous people in search of hidden truths. The heroine of the show, though, is one of the most unexpected protagonists of a series since Dexter. Viewers first meet Karen, played by the always-great Lily Rabe, when she’s in prison for helping her serial killer boyfriend mutilate and butcher dozens of young women. When she agrees to cooperate with the investigation into her boyfriend’s murders, of which she claims to remember very little, the FBI puts her into witness protection, where she is renamed Emma and placed in a house on the Louisiana bayou.

One of her boyfriend’s possible victims, though, has a mother named Mary, played by Amy Brenneman, who is hellbent on tracking down what happened to her daughter, whom she refuses to believe is dead. Through Mary’s nonprofit work, she comes into contact with a reformed sexual predator named John, played with subtle menace by Hamish Linklater, whom she blackmails and manipulates into helping her track down Emma using his skills as a predator.

Murders, creepiness and violence against women - and how survivors of trauma can be irreparably damaged - drench this show in pitch-black darkness. It’s twisted, elevated by the performances and the mystery, though it gets a bit over-the-top. Each episode builds to an effective cliffhanger, and the central mystery is pretty good.

And Emma, as the world’s most complicated, unexpected final girl, is a great character.

DINE-IN! Vaulted Dining Rooms & Enclosed Heated Patio Sign up on website for email alerts on great Dining deals & Event info

The Equalizer

Your Neighborhood Pizzeria!

THE EQUALIZER (CBS)

One of the year’s newest hits and a genuinely satisfying CBS procedural, The Equalizer, starring Queen Latifah as a badass vigilante, is fun television. A reimagining of the original 1980s series and the Denzel Washington movies, Latifah stars as Robyn McCall, a former CIA operative who has walked away from shady government work to spend more time with her daughter. Finding that everyday people are often desperate, in danger and left with nowhere else to turn, McCall offers her unique set of skills to help regular folks tackle conspiracies, frame-ups and dangerous threats.

Latifah is an unexpected delight as she hops motorcycles, beats the crap out of bad guys and flirts with the hot cop - played by Torey Kittles - who’s intent on taking her down for operating outside the law.

Liza Lapira, Adam Goldberg and Chris Noth co-star as her team of aides, who help her hack and sharp shoot her way through every mystery of the week. Lorraine Toussaint and Laya DeLeon Hayes play her family, who isn’t wise to what she does for a living.

The Equalizer is a delightful, comfortable show, a great fit for CBS. Long may Queen Latifah reign.

Atlanta’s Favorite Pizza!

Multiple Atlanta Locations: JohnnysPizza.com insiteatlanta.com • May 2021 • PG 5

MUSIC

ROCK AND ROLL #DEVOTE

It’s a Beautiful World as Akron joins together to Elect Devo into the Hall of Fame

BY LEE VALENTINE SMITH

L

my test. And it turned out that I had it. But I never went into respiratory, you know, ventilator time. All I had was the total loss of smell and taste and fatigue and just a general kind of creepy feeling that was undefined. Then it went away. That was it and I was back.

AST MONTH - ON APRIL 1 OF ALL DAYS - THE Mayor of Akron, Ohio issued an official proclamation in honor of Devo. While music fans wondered if it might be some sort of April Fool’s Day joke, Devo Day really did christen an entire month of homegrown promotions. The Congrats on making it through. How’s Mark now? civic-minded goal was to encourage an increase of Fan Votes Well, he’s fine now, it just took him a long time to recover for the group’s potential Rock & Roll Hall of Fam induction. from having to go into the hospital and on a ventilator. That’s The groundbreaking and influential band, best-known some serious business. for their ‘80s hits “Whip It” and “Freedom Of Choice,” was formed in Ohio in 1973 with a fluctuating line-up of I keep thinking things are becoming crazier and crazier like-minded art visionaries, eventually settling on two sets and the world never lets me down. And every time, I think of brothers, the Mothersbaughs (Mark and Bob) and the about your project: ‘Maybe Devo covered this thirty or forty Casales (Gerald and Bob), along with drummer Alan Myers. years ago.’ But there’s always fodder for new material and The month-long promotion included the installation of concepts, right? fifty Energy Dome sculptures, constructed from recycled You got that right. I mean, ‘cause it’s real, right? It’s Goodyear tires, stacked into the shape of the band’s iconic everything we talked about - but somehow it’s surpassed us. red hats. The monuments featured special QR codes to De-evolution got even uglier than even we thought it would. link to the Hall’s website, so fans could easily vote for their favorite spud rockers.

Unfortunately, we’re not done yet.

Downtown Akron bristled with life-size No, no. There is no end, my friend. Except WE’D HAVE A cutouts of the band as well as an interactive experience housed in a storefront window.

RESPONSIBILITY ‘the end.’

Mayor Dan Horrigan was also included TO USE THE Well, hopefully we’re a few years away from in a “DEVOtional” video with devoted OPPORTUNITY TO the series finale. But for you, as a filmmaker testimonies from fans including Jack Black, musician, is it easier or harder for you MAKE A PRETTY and Fred Armisen and Tony Hawk. Even the to make a music video for someone besides iconic Goodyear Blimp was along for the DEFINITIVE your own projects? Obviously you’re shot ride, flashing support for the revolutionary many Devo films, but when an act like Foo STATEMENT. I THINK group. Likewise, fans around the world were Fighters, for example, enlists your services using the hashtag #DEVOTE on their favorite THAT’S EXPECTED OF - is that more of a challenge for you at social media platforms to drum up interest.

US AND WE’LL HAVE this point?

Back in the running after an unsuccessful Well, it’s a much bigger challenge because I TO LIVE UP TO IT. bid last year, Devo is one of 16 nominees on mean, Devo had this situation where we had the official HOF ballot. The winners will be a production deal with the record company. announced this month. Will Devo Whip It out this time?

We had creative control of the use of our funds and what we Stay tuned! were doing. Since they didn’t even understand what we were In anticipation, INsite spoke with band co-founder, doing, they didn’t come around and put, you know, their foot singer-songwriter-filmmaker Gerald Casale from his studio on it like a big dog in the park. We had the freedom to do in California. what we wanted. So if we had an idea it wasn’t like we had a manager saying one thing and a publicist saying another How is Devo handling the pandemic? I heard Mark had a thing or the lead singer’s girlfriend saying a third thing. rough time with Covid-19.

There were no politics.

Well, he went almost all the way; he was on a ventilator.

I got it before anybody. I got it before they even knew It was an art project. what it was. My wife got it and then I got it a week later.

Exactly. We were an art collective. There was the idea we That was over a year ago, in the beginning of March. And wanted to run with and nobody was there to stop us. The then when we already had it, they started publishing these only limitation was the budget. We knew what we wanted to symptoms and we’re going, ‘Well, wait a minute, we have do and how to do it, so that was actually easy. But when you those symptoms.’ She found me a place to go get tested when get into being the director for other bands - well, the first there were only two places in all of L.A County to get tested thing you do is write a concept. You’re in a competition with back then. I drove down to some kind of gospel church for at least six other directors. Then they pick you and you go, ‘They like your idea, Gerry.’ Now you think you’re going to get to do your idea. But that isn’t what usually happens.

Then the other cooks step into the kitchen.

Unfortunately, yes. The video commissioner weighs in.

He starts creating fear and doubt saying, ‘Well, you can’t do this and this and this, but maybe you can do the rest of it.’

Then the management, depending on how much power the manager has over the band creatively, they’ll say, ‘Well, I know the band liked this idea, but you can’t really do it like that. You gotta do it like this. And you have to show the lead singer in a closeup, in at least 50% of the cuts.’ Right? Pretty soon you don’t even recognize your own idea.

But as an artistic entity, Devo never compromised.

Yeah. I mean, AC/DC never changed. It it’s like, if that’s what you do, you don’t try to do something you can’t - you just stay in your wheelhouse.

Devo’s most recent album was released in 2010. Before that, there was one in 1990. So are we nine years away from a new album at this point?

Well, you know, we may have literally devolved. I don’t know. I don’t know where we are, really. We’re dead in the water. But maybe getting into Rock and Roll Hall of Fame will change Mark’s mind, I don’t know.

PG 6 • May 2021 • insiteatlanta.com

When Devo is finally welcomed into the Hall of Fame, it could very well be the most ironic thing ever the band ever accomplished. Finally, there would be a real punk band in the hallowed Hall.

(Laughs) Although the punks didn’t think we were punk, which was funny. I thought we really were punk in the truest sense of the word. But not formulate punk, right? Because punk to me meant disrespect for illegitimate authority. It meant doing whatever came to your mind and not caring about what’s right or what’s cool and just being original. And that’s what we did. That’s exactly what we did and so yeah, we were the punkiest!

It will be interesting to see what happens. Not if - but when - you do get in the Hall of Fame, it’s going to be your most elaborate art project ever.

Well, yeah. I know what you mean. We’d have a responsibility to use the opportunity to make a pretty definitive statement. I think that’s expected of us and we’ll have to live up to it. You know, it can’t be the typical artist pose like, ‘We’re not going, we don’t want to be part of any club that would have us.’ You know, like the Groucho Marx thing. Or like Radiohead did and even like Johnny Rotten did. I think that’s just too easy. I really think that’s kind of a wanky artist pose. For us, it’s more like, hey they’re giving you this opportunity. Whether you think they put you in there for the right reasons or not, you owe this to all the people who ever thought anything about you or that thought they should take you seriously at all. You owe this to them.

That’s the way I would look at it.

Have you given any thought as to what you might do in the moment of acceptance?

(Laughs) You mean besides sing and play good? Um… Yeah - besides that, of course.

Well first of all, I think [Mark Mothersbaugh’s beloved character] Booji Boy has to show up. Secondly, I can promise you if I get to talk my speech will not disappoint.

I have no doubt about it. We’ve all seen plenty of embarrassing speeches. I know Devo won’t suffer that fate.

Oh my God, no. I will not bore people. It will be short and sweet - but every word will count.

For Devo info and merchandise - including limited-edition, band-branded PPE items - visit clubdevo.com.

Spring

Festivals

Dunwoody Art Festival

Yaarab Shrine Circus & Fair

Dunwoody Art Festival is back Saturday May 8 10am to 6pm and Sunday May 9 from 10am to 5pm at their new location in Brook Run Park.

Bestowed the trophy for the “Best New Event of 2010” by the Southeast Festivals and Events Association, Dunwoody Art Festival continues to attract the top artisans from across the country. Along with the partnership of the Dunwoody Rotary Club and hundreds of volunteers, Dunwoody Art Festival is a must-see. Organizers we'll be practicing CDC guidelines as recommended to help ensure the safety of everyone. If you are feeling unwell, please stay home. Masks are required to enter the festival, and attendees are asked to maintain proper social distancing. For more information visit splashfestivals.com.

The largest Shrine Circus and Fair in North America is back for its 79th year!

Witness high-flying acts and aerial artistry from The Flying Poemas. Audiences will be amazed with Brian Miser “The Human C a n n o n b a l l ”.

And everyone’s favoritethe Shrine Circus Clowns will be there to tickle your funny bone. In addition to the (80minute) circus under The Big Top, there are 35 exciting carnival rides and attractions, as well as lots of carnival food.

Come opening weekend for the Mega Pass Blowout. Just $15 per person includes admission to the park and circus, as well as unlimited rides for one day only. The Sneak-a-Peek Ride-A-Thon begins Friday May 21. Midway opens Monday through Friday at 5 p.m.; Saturday at 10 a.m.; Sunday at Noon, and Memorial Day at 10 a.m. Visit 2021ShrineCircus.com.

Brook Run Park

MAY 8 & 9

Georgia Renaissance Festival I-85 Exit 61 Fairburn

MAY 1 - JUNE 13

Georgia Renaissance Festival is back taking place weekends from May 1 through June 13 and Memorial Day. Festival guests will Festival guests will be greeted by Queen Anne Boleyn and her Court, merry minstrels, fair maidens, gallant Knights and a full-day of entertainment on 10 stages, food fit for kings, and a marketplace of over 150 master artisans.

Join a rowdy crew of buccaneers as they lead you on Pirate Pub Crawl. Enjoy beer, songs and meriment. Covid protocols are in place, and CDC guidelines are practiced throughout the village. These include mask wearing, temperature checks, social distancing, and the use of hand wash stations and hand sanitizer.

Cumming Fairground

Bavarianfest

MAY 22 - 31

At Festhalle in Helen, GA

MAY 29

Alpharetta Street Fest

With an emphasis on the visual arts and family fun, this two day event is presented by the Atlanta Foundation for Public Spaces. One of the most vibrant and fastest growing cities, Duluth is home to one of the largest and most enthusiastic art buying communities in metro Atlanta. The Duluth Spring Arts and craft festival is excited to bringing back the tradition to the arts community. The festival will feature approximately 86 painters, photographers, sculptors, metalwork, glass artists, jewelers and more! The Festival will also offer artist demonstrations, live acoustic music, plus gourmet food trucks with healthy alternatives and music and dance performances. Duluth was named top 10 safest cities and top 5 in the most exciting places in Georgia. The City’s dedication to good living has made Duluth a popular destination. For more information visit DuluthArtsFestival.com.

Come on out to the City of Alpharetta in the new Village Green for the Alpharetta Arts Streetfest over Memorial Day Weekend. This three-day event will host more than 90 regional and national artisans whose colorful and whimsical artwork will certainly make a splash in this charming district of Alpharetta. The popular Streetfest will feature live music, entertaining and handson children’s activities along with great cuisine from local eateries and street eats in the food court. Organizers we'll be practicing CDC guidelines as recommended to help ensure the safety of everyone. If you are feeling unwell, please stay home.

Masks are required to enter the festival, and attendees are asked to maintain proper social distancing. Many of the artists will have an online marketplace beginning May 15 running through June 4. For more information visit splashfestivals.com.

MAY 22 & 23

3167 Main Street, Duluth, GA 30096

CDC Guidelines Followed

Celebrate Memorial Day Weekend in the mountains of Helen, Georgia on Saturday, May 29 from 6 11pm with Bavarianfest!

This festive Bavarian atmosphere consists of a live German band and plenty of dancing. This Memorial Day Weekend help honor those who gave the ultimate sacrifice. Import and domestic beers & wines, wursts on a bun, hot dogs, pretzels and more will be available for purchase. Active and retired military receive free admission.

All others $8.00. Visit HelenChamber.com and follow Facebook / Oktoberfest Festhalle Friends. Tickets may be purchased by phone at (706) 878-1908.

Duluth Arts Festival Duluth Town Center

MAY 22 & 23

MAY

Downtown Alpharetta

MAY 29 & 30

insiteatlanta.com • May 2021 • PG 7

MUSIC

MONKEE TO MONKEE

Micky Dolenz Sings Choice Cuts from the Michael Nesmith Songbook

BY LEE VALENTINE SMITH

O

of my own original material, but you never know. I’ve been working on short stories and a screenplay and stuff like that. But not songs. I haven’t been inspired to sit down and write any tunes. It’s been prose. It’s been short stories, science-fiction short stories, actually.

NE OF THE MOST POPULAR pop bands of the ‘60s was The Monkees. The made-for-television group blurred the lines between high concept and extraordinary creativity, surprising even their fans and corporate gatekeepers with a revolutionary catalog Well, let’s get into this Dolenz Sings of great music, an influential feature film Nesmith, because I really love it. and two seasons of shows that continue to Well look, I say, ‘It always starts with garner new generations of fans. the material.’ It’s the songwriter and the Following the deaths of Davy Jones and song and the material, or a script or a Peter Tork, the surviving members of the story, a book or whatever. It starts with band continue to tour and record - with the material. Nez just wrote so many a recent live album featuring concert great tunes. performances from Micky Dolenz and Michael Nesmith. Now that they’re off the The concept and the cover are reminiscent road during the pandemic, Micky Dolenz of Nilsson Sings Newman. has a brand-new album ready for release.

Many years ago in the late 60s, early 70s, Dolenz Sings Nesmith finds drummerone of my dearest friends - probably my guitarist-director-screenwriter Micky in best friend at the time - was Harry Nilsson, especially fine form with a set of completely the singer-songwriter. I was there when reimagined tunes from Michael’s vast he did that album and I guess it just stuck catalog of ‘60s and ‘70s-era compositions. with me. A number of years ago when Mike, With able production from frequent Peter and I put together a little tour as a Monkee-band guitarist Christian Nesmith, memorial tour for Davy, I just said to Nez the collection - due this month from one day, this was years ago, ‘I would love the retro-minded folks at 7A Records to do a Dolenz sings Nesmith album.’ He resonates as one of the best recordings of was like, [shifts into a Texas drawl] ‘Well, Dolenz’ career. A deep-dive into that’s a good idea.’ He came up the Nesmith canon of tunes, IF YOU’RE LUCKY with some tunes, suggestions.

Dolenz and company have But that was it at the time AND ALL THE selected a set of performances because we went on tour and I that showcase his range STARS ALIGN AND did other things, other albums as a vocalist and his openIT’S THE PERFECT and this and that. Then a couple mindedness as arranger and STORM, THEN IT years ago, I mentioned it to 7A skills as interpreter.

Records who’ve released a lot of Recently INsite was honored WORKS OUT. WHAT reissues of stuff and they loved to speak with Dolenz from his HAPPENS IS THE the idea. Now here we are. I home in Los Angeles.

WHOLE BECOMES mean, essentially, they made me a deal and we engaged Christian Here you come with a great new GREATER THAN THE Nesmith to produce and album. You’ve made records SUM OF ITS PARTS. [Monkee mastermind] Andrew during Vietnam, Watergate Sandoval to do the A&R. I and now during a pandemic. basically left it in their hands.

Good point. Well, in my case there’s I knew I was too close to the material to not a lot of pressure or intent. During really be objective about it. I didn’t want The Monkees, it was all intent. It was a to do just a karaoke cover version of set schedule. I would film the television these tunes. show for 10 hours a day and then go into the studio and record a couple of lead There’s not a bad song on it. It’s not one vocals every night, and it was all on a very of those records you skip through and go, tight schedule. It was pretty well-defined “Well that one’s okay, but…’ for everyone. But after the show went off You mean like with Sergeant the air, I stopped recording on a regular Pepper, right? basis. Then it was just basically down to somebody making me an offer, saying, Yeah, exactly.

‘Do you want to record an album?’ Lately, I remember skipping through all of those.

I think a lot of people have had nothing better to do but get in the studio and write Just filler, it’s all filler. or create things. I think probably we’ll find Yeah, all filler. that a lot of great material - musical and otherwise – I mean, books and movies and But on yours, it’s all killer. There’s a whole scripts and things, will probably all come new look at the Nesmith songbook. out of this situation. There’s nothing like There’s some really interesting rebeing tied to your word processor or your imagining of some of these tunes, like guitar, your piano or something. That’s “Circle Sky.” I mean, it’s just amazing what always been one of my problems, I’ve never Christian did with it. I was thrilled, because been very prolific as a songwriter or any when I talked to him about it originally, I kind of writer but I have written some stuff said, ‘Do you think you’re going to be able recently because I just can’t go out. to work with that material?’ He said, ‘It’s an interesting challenge, but I want to give it So do you think we’re going to see a Dolenz a shot,’ and he did an amazing job. He’s the sings Dolenz here pretty soon? one that re-envisioned the majority of that I had some wonderful songs that I did on material. I would throw in my two cents. So Good Times, produced by the late Adam I’m glad you like it.

Schlesinger. But I’m not prolific, I never have been. Something has to catch my Oh, I absolutely love it. And just like with attention. I don’t see myself doing an album Justus, the very first track I played was PG 8 • May 2021 • insiteatlanta.com

“Circle Sky” and man, this time it did not disappoint.

We talked about it and I was like, ‘How can we do “Circle Sky” any differently? I mean, it’s what it is.’

an elevator. I heard a Muzak version of Revolution. I thought, ‘Oh boy.’ It was like Mel Tormé or something, [breaks into smarmy Vegas crooner mode] Ya say ya want a rev-o-lution…

It’s a million times better than the version on Justus. I was actually disappointed by that one particular track for some reason.

Well, that’s probably because it wasn’t that different from the original, it’s so hard when you cover tunes, very few people can do it. I mean, look at how many people have successfully covered a Beatles tune.

Very few. I mean, Joe Cocker’s the one that comes to mind that was able to re-envision a couple of Beatles tunes. I mean, how many can you name? How many Beatles tunes can you name that have been reenvisioned, and so successfully. It’s very difficult. I mean, even if you look at Smash Mouth’s version of “I’m a Believer,” which is great. But it’s not a different feel. It isn’t a different version, really. It’s very difficult to do that with iconic songs.

Hey, that’s your next record right there.

You could swing the hits.

(Laughs) Yeah, right. But if you’re lucky and all the stars align and it’s the perfect storm, then it works out. What happens is the whole becomes greater than the sum of its parts. And that’s, I think, the secret to our industry, our business, in music or in film or in any medium. You can’t take a Beatles record apart and say, “Oh, well, it was just George Martin,” or, “Oh, well, it was really just John Lennon.

It was just Ringo’s drumming. It was just this chord change from G to A.” You just can’t do that. You can’t take it apart. You can’t dissect an album or a movie or a TV show. Anything. It doesn’t work like that.

The whole becomes greater than the sum of its parts, and that’s just it. You take it apart, its like the old thing about taking the watch apart to see how it works. Well, then you don’t have a watch and it doesn’t work. When I did King for a Day with Jeffrey Foskett, I said, ‘I’m going to be Frank Sinatra, going into the studio with Quincy Jones and singing.’ That’s what I do. That’s my instrument.

No, because in the ‘60s on TV variety shows, everybody took a stab at those songs and it was always embarrassing. Jim Nabors or somebody, you know? It’s like Steve and Eydie doing “Got to Get You into My Life.” I mean, that’s just wrong.

Yeah, I remember when I realized I was really getting old. It was when I was in an elevator, I guess in ... probably at that time it would’ve been in the ‘80s, and I was in

Dolenz Sings Nesmith will be available on May 21 from 7arecords.com.

MUSIC

Album Reviews

Always Fun. Funky. Unusual.

REVIEWS BY JOHN B. MOORE

Rev. Peyton’s Big Damn Band Dance Songs For Hard Times

(Thirty Tigers) The good Reverend and his crew are known for churning out a remarkably satisfying blend of Blues and Americana, often played and recorded on vintage instruments and using antiquated technology.

What they aren’t really known for are current takes on modern problems. But even Rev. Peyton’s Big Damn Band couldn’t avoid singing about the global pandemic that locked down the world for the 12 months. On “No Tellin’ When,” Peyton sings about not knowing when he’ll be able to get back to work or hug his mom again. And that’s not the only time the COVID 19 virus, and the financial and the emotional havoc it brought. serves as fodder for the band’s songs . The themes pop up on “Dirty Hustlin’” and “Ways And Means”. But listening to this album, it turns out the Blues is the perfect genre to tackle the past year.

Dance Songs For Hard Times, their 10th full length, manages to be their most accessible album yet and also once of their strongest.

The album closes with “Come Down Angels,” a plea for a little help from above, and while not exactly a slow tempo jam, it’s probably the closest the band has come yet to writing a ballad or a hymn. Appropriately it evolves into a full-on raucous stomp, an appropriate end to any Reverend Peyton album and a great way to cap off (hopefully) the end of the pandemic.

Travis

Good Feeling [Vinyl Reissue]

(Craft Recordings) Long before the music of Travis became the go to soundtrack for dramatic rainy scenes in TV shows like Grey’s Anatomy and One Tree Hill, they put out a fantastic and oddly overlooked Britpop album, 1997’s Good Feeling.

Craft Recordings just reissued this debut with the classic sleeve and packaging (the lacquers were all cut at Metropolis Studios, London). Produced by Steve Lillywhite, the album opens with the guitar-heavy track “All I Wanna Do Is Rock,” a song that is decidedly 90s with Fran Healy’s sing to howl chorus, but one that also holds up brilliantly well two decades-plus later.

With Good Feeling, Travis took what Blur and Oasis had started, but came at it with a very guitar-heavy sound. Songs like the opening track, “The Line Is Fine,” (oddly enough this one was not one of the five singles released from this record, but easily one of the band’s best) and the upbeat “Tied To the 90’s” all sound remarkably fresh even now. Even on their slower tracks, like “I Love You Always” the band manages to impress.

In the decades that followed the Scottish band have continued to release albums, some that are pretty remarkable, but none match

the energy or the rock-heavy sound of Good Feeling. And yes, this one sounds even better on vinyl.

Prism Bitch

Perla (Self-Released)

On their stellar debut, New Mexico’s Prism Bitch manage to channel some of the best late’80s early ‘90s college rock, from the Breeders to The Pixies, all while slamming their own stamp on the genre.

On the 11 track Perla, the four-piece careen through a dizzying collection of songs that take turns highlighting their airtight rhythm section and the brilliant guitar/keyboard combo, adding remarkable color to bassist Lauren Poole’s confidently strong vocals.

The album starts off with a seemingly incongruous synth, on “In N Out” before kicking into, and blending perfectly with military precision drumming and straight-ahead rock guitar riffs. Perla ends with the slow burn “One Shoot,” with sluggish guitars bookending the album nicely. In between is a whiplash of boisterous punk rock and slower indie rock on tracks like “Lonely Nights,” an addictively catchy song that manages to standout on an album full of standout tracks.

Even just four months into 2021, it’s hard to imagine many more records coming out this year that are as satisfyingly diverse as Perla.

And kudos for coming up with the last great band name.

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Streetwalkin’ Cheetahs

One More Drink (Dead Beat Records)

It takes a lot of balls to name your band after one of the most famous lyrics from a Stooges song, but as the Streetwalkin’ Cheetahs have been proving since the mid’90s, they actually have the talent to back up that bravado.

On One More Drink, the LA band tears through nearly a dozen gritty, yet addictive pop punk tracks for another deeply satisfying 30 minutes. The band started out playing clubs around LA doing covers of the Dead Boys, New York Dolls, Stooges and The Runaways and it’s clear they never really shook those core influences but have added to them over the years.

It’s been two decades since their last album, but the band has clearly not been sitting idle letting rust settle in, as One More Drink proves to be one of their best yet. That’s not to say it’s flawless – there are a couple tracks here that sound a bit paint by numbers, (like the goofy “Switchblade Knights”) but those moments are fleeting.

There are also plenty of surprises here showing the band expanding their template, like on the opening track, “Ain’t It Summer” sounding remarkably like Cheap Trick or the sax slathered all over “Bad Vacation.” Elsewhere, on a song like the ferocious “Rumblin’ Train,” the band bolster their hard rock cred once again, proving they just may be the missing link between power pop and punk rock, managing to bridge the genres perfectly.

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MUSIC

COMBO CORNER, SLIGHT RETURN

On Yesterday’s Tomorrow, Vets of the Winston-Salem Music Scene Look Back

Easter: I played my first show at a place called Floretta Baylin’s Academy of the Dance Arts, which was this thing where they taught all these wild teenagers how to do the foxtrot and stuff so they could be civilized adults, you know? It was like the last little gasp of a certain kind of genteel era of social skills. It’s very charming to think back on now. At the end of the term or whatever, the kids were allowed to have a crazy party and listen to that awful loud music that they liked. My first band played at one of those parties and that was my big entrance into show business.

BY LEE VALENTINE SMITH

I

NDIVIDUALLY AND COLLECTIVELY, North Carolina-based Mitch Easter and Don Dixon were an integral part of some of the finest records of the ‘80s. As musicians and/or producers, individually and collectively the old friends were behind guitars, microphones and mixing boards on many projects from R.E.M., Pylon, The Smithereens, Guadalcanal Diary, Oh OK, Let’s Active and Marti Jones.

When their friend and fellow Carolinian Chris Stamey published his 2018 memoir A Spy In The House Of Loud: New York Songs and Stories (University Of Texas Press), he enlisted Easter, Dixon and a number of likeminded pals for a commemorative concert to promote the book. In May of ’18, the gathering occurred at The Ramkat in Winston-Salem.

During the pandemic, Stamey listened to the tapes of the show and decided to issue the recordings as Yesterday’s Tomorrow: Celebrating the Winston-Salem Sound.

Released by Omnivore Records, the set revisits the rock scene of the area’s so-called “Combo Corner” in honor of a Guitar Player magazine feature on bands centered around RJ Reynolds High School.

The result is an energetic and decidedly psychedelic history lesson with the various participants briefly looking back on their formative roots. INsite spoke with Easter and Dixon about the new album and their shared disdain for musical nostalgia.

How did the record happen?

Easter: Well Chris Stamey really has a knack about making a product out of something. He knows how to make the package make sense to somebody. The show had actually happened a couple of years before, but a while back, he started talking to Omnivore and other people about making this into an actual product.

Dixon: I don’t think it was planned to be a record when we all played the show. You just record because you can. I think Chris just wanted to have a fun night that celebrated these bands.

Was the show filmed as well?

Easter: Yeah there were actual visual recordings, some of which, in a prelegendary way, were immediately lost. I guess he had the idea of making a sort of a documentary out of it. And now it’s happened. It was kind of a remarkable show.

I don’t know how enjoyable it was if you didn’t know the story of the people involved but it was a pretty good overview of a certain slice of a really strong music scene, back when all of us were kids in this town. It’s not comprehensive at all but it’s still a good bunch of people. It was the kind of thing where a lot of them were people I hadn’t seen for so long. It was just weird that so many of us still played.

As we all know, there are always some people in a scene that you just don’t want to run into, much less be creative with, but it doesn’t seem that way within the WinstonSalem scene.

Easter: In our case, I don’t think it was ever that way, maybe because it just didn’t seem ‘real’ or something. People that I know who have had more of a showbiz-type upbringing around places, like Los Angeles for example, PG 10 • May 2021 • insiteatlanta.com

I’M SUPER-WARY ABOUT THE ‘NOSTALGIA BUSINESS.’ IT JUST MAKES MY SKIN CRAWL. WE JUST GOT UP THERE AND DID IT – WITHOUT ANY SORT OF HOKEY FANFARE. they’ll talk about a more unpleasant sort of competition. Around here, everyone was sort of starving. Not literally, but when I was in high school, nobody had any idea of what to do to make a step forward - beyond just playing. It’s like, ‘Ok here we are, we have a band, we’re writing songs and we’re playing. Now what do we do?’ Nobody had the slightest idea. It’s funny that anybody from around here that did anything and got some kinda traditional attention. The model for that, I think, the pioneers would’ve had to have been the B-52’s and Pylon going to New York to play. They went and sort of proved that New York audiences might want to hear bands from down here. Then the sort of pipeline opened for us. It was a great thing for all of us. Chris and I had sent tapes to record companies when we were in high school, that was our bold thing to do. I don’t think anyone else we knew did that. Of course, they were all rejected. Beyond that it was like, what do you do? So around here, I don’t think people felt competitive because there was really nothing to fight over. You

just sort of played at the teen dance or something. There was a kind of fantastic indifference to it all.

Dixon: But I must say, I don’t think there were a lot of scenes that were happening quite like this, anywhere else in the country.

It was driven by the church coffeehouses and the city fathers putting money into it all to try and keep the kids off the street and give them something to do.

It created these venues that were pretty unique.

Most towns didn’t have all these opportunities. It was a real circuit.

You could play every week.

Bands had places to play, in front of hundreds of people. It was very different than anything I’d known as a kid growing up in South Carolina. I guess we were a little older than Mitch. Being in college as opposed to being in the ninth grade is a big difference. So the level of experience was different. I’d already played a lot of super professional gigs. The WinstonSalem scene was very different for me because I saw that it gave people the chance to be creative and to be heard. That’s so important. It’s definitely worth celebrating and looking back on.

There is a certain sense of optimism in these tracks as well as the performances. I haven’t felt that sort of focused energy since the early ‘80s days in Athens.

Dixon: Well as we get older I think it’s harder to feel that optimism, but there was something pretty special in the air in that time. In Winston-Salem, in Athens and Atlanta, too. Though the scenes were very different. It’s hard to really pinpoint but I remember [my wife, singer-songwriter] Marti Jones commenting on this, too. The first time she started coming down to North Carolina, she noticed how supportive and non-competitive the scene seemed to be.

As opposed to what was going on around Akron and other places where she’d been, because it was kinda cut-throat there. People were trying to outdo each other or outsmart somebody - just to get ahead. It was amazing to see the support of people. Like with the B-52’s success, I think it kind of created this sense in Athens of, ‘Oh gee, maybe doing our dumb little shit, we can actually have some fun with it.’ That same kina thing was part of this whole Winston-Salem world that Stamey’s trying to celebrate with this record.

It’s about the supportiveness of the scene, not of the divisiveness. That’s what you were feeling when you had those positive feelings about what was going on in Athens. I think you were feeling the positive energy from the bands and the scene that created that music. You have to have a certain amount of chutzpa to think that anybody would even want to hear you do anything at all.

It takes a lot! I remember being in high school and trying to get up the courage to sing. You didn’t want people to laugh at you, you know? So having a scene that was so supportive, as opposed to being all ‘everyman-for-himself’ is a very important thing.

The record sounds vital and doesn’t wheeze with forced nostalgia at all. It’s old music - but played with a great deal of modern enthusiasm.

Dixon: I agree. It doesn’t come off as a nostalgic at all. This isn’t an oldies act, it’s who we were and still are. I think there’s a terrific energy to it.

Easter: It’s really great that everybody in their ‘twilight years’ could even do it again at this point. But I don’t think it came across as tragic. Like, ‘Oh there’s the old codgers up there singin’ their old songs, isn’t that great?’ I’m super-wary about the ‘nostalgia business.’ It just makes my skin crawl. We just got up there and did it - without any sort of hokey fanfare.

Yesterday’s Tomorrow: Celebrating The Winston-Salem Sound, is available from most music retailers and via the shop at omnivorerecordings.com.

MUSIC

THE KINGS ARE STILL HERE

Canadian Power-Pop Band Glides into Gold and Platinum Status

Zero: That’s a good question. I think for artists like us, it’s gotta be through You Tube and social media. We’ve been trying to promote through Facebook. You can target your city, province or country and certain demographics. Because this is our 40th anniversary year of our first album, a few newsworthy things that have happened this year. We got into the Canadian Songwriters Hall Of Fame and we finally got noticed for a Platinum award for our album The Kings Are Here. And the single is getting a Gold award so we’re pretty happy about that here in Canada.

BY LEE VALENTINE SMITH

I

F YOU WERE ANYWHERE NEAR A radio from late 1980 through most of ‘81, their signature hit was an inescapable rock and roll delight. The Kings’ “This Beat Goes On / Switchin’ To Glide” single was an enormous broadcast and live-set favorite. Although it didn’t quite elevate the Ontario-based outfit to superstar status, they continue to create music that remains as true to their original power pop vision as anything from their classic debut LP The Kings Are Here.

This spring, while celebrating the Covid-delayed 40th anniversary of their initial album and single - finally certified Platinum and Gold by Warner Music Canada - the band has issued a brandnew track. The decidedly retro vibe of “I Know So” picks up where 2019’s “Circle Of Friends / Man That I Am” left off, blending their harmonious, New Wave-esque strengths with a sly nod to early ‘60s soul and ‘40s Big Band jump.

Releasing their music independently, The Kings can now address their loyal subjects directly - via an informative website, personalized social media interaction and a wonderfully self-effacing documentary featurette, The Kings: Anatomy of a OneHit Wonder. But don’t let the glib title fool you, the group has written and recorded over 100 other great songs, fueled by equal doses of kinetic energy, crafty humor and catchy hooks. Additionally, a new long-player and live collection of vintage performances from Toronto’s historic Heatwave Festival are planned for release later this year.

Recently INsite hopped into The Kings’ virtual Mercedes for a long drive through the past and present with Canadian Songwriter Hall of Famers “Mister Zero” (guitarist John Picard) and “Dave Diamond” (singer, bassist David Broadbent).

Have you used the pandemic downtime to be creative?

Zero: Yeah, we’ve been in the studio and we’ve just put out a video. So we’ve been busy working on new stuff and resurrecting old stuff. The gigs have all dried up so ya gotta keep doing something. It’s actually kinda good to not worry about going somewhere and playing, you can just focus on creating new things.

Let’s talk about some of the new stuff.

The latest single, “I Know So” has a different vibe, but you retained The Kings’ familiar sound.

Zero: We’d had that song around for a long time on an old demo. Then we remixed and remastered it and there it is.

It came from one night where some people in the bar really knew how to jitterbug and stuff. They started dancing like that to that song so that became the idea behind the video.

The video is a cool mash-up with a ton of clips.

Zero: Yeah, because there’s a horn part in it, we tried to sync to clips of big bands from yesteryear. We went through at least 100 different clips to sync it all up.

Diamond: The tempo had to match with the right instrument at the right time, too.

It’s been a long time coming.

Zero: It’ll be 41 years in the summer but the thing is, we’ve been aware that we were eligible for the honors for a while.

It’s just taken a little while for them to acknowledge it. It was on the charts for 23 weeks into 1981.

The Kings did American Bandstand as the single was rising, around that time.

Zero: Yeah, I think that was in December of 1980. We out were in L. A. on tour. That’s the weekend we’d played the Whisky.

Diamond: Yeah, but it was on John Lennon day - the day he was murdered.

They say, you know where you were when a certain thing happened? Yes, we know exactly! We were at the Whisky - A - GoGo in Hollywood.

So there was quite a bit of editing, that’s for sure.

now since we even made that video.

You continued the same sort of history The result is similar to the way you edited message with the keyboard player line-up all the Kings’ vintage performance pieces in the “Circle of Friends” video, too. for the “Switchin’ To Glide” video. So Zero: Oh, yeah good eye for noticing many different eras were that. We have our original represented, including FOR A CANADIAN BAND - keyboard player Sonny haircuts, venues – AND THERE ARE LOTS OF Keyes with our current Zero: And the clothes!

CANADIAN BANDS THAT keyboardists Peter and Diamond: Yeah. That NEVER HAD A HIT RECORD Christina. The fun thing video includes about 42 about that one is we were IN THE US AT ALL, AND different video sources able to get our friend Bob CERTAINLY NEVER PLAYED Ezrin (Pink Floyd, Kiss, from over the years, from ON AMERICAN BANDSTAND Peter Gabriel) to mix it for VHS and all different - WE’RE PRETTY PROUD us. He produced our early kinds of formats, but I OF IT. THANKFULLY, WE think it worked out great. stuff on Elektra, just after DID MORE AFTER THAT. WE he’d worked on The Wall.

It’s surprising Elektra DEFINITELY DIDN’T STOP didn’t issue a video when AND NOW HERE WE ARE WITH “Circle” is as much of a the song was new. Didn’t A LOT MORE MUSIC. WHEN hit song as the landmark they want to spend some EVERYTHING SETTLES DOWN, “Switchin’” more of your money for Diamond: I think so, WE’RE QUITE READY TO TAKE too. It’s a mix of older and an official video?

TO THE STAGE AGAIN. Zero: It worked out that newer ideas and of course in the US, it was out just it was done pre-Covid before MTV hit. If it was another year time. We’d been working on it for a while. or two later, we would have been part of Ezrin seemed excited to work with the ol’ that. But the thing about our video is, King boys again. We went to [his studio in] they would’ve never let us make a video Nashville for the final mix. He said, ‘Don’t for the whole segue with the two songs. forget your local famous producer when At five and a half minutes, I kinda doubt you’ve got more work to do!’ that would have ever happened. And in retrospect, most everything from back then You can’t beat the history he brings along.

Zero: Sometimes when we’re here was really lousy, visually. So our video of it, which took a long time to make, shows us rehearsing, we’ll play some stuff some onstage really rocking out. That’s how we’d other people have done for us and it’s like, like to be remembered, so I think it’ll stand ‘Dang it, Bob! Why are you so good?’ the test of time.

That begs the question, where can good Basically it’s a five-minute history lesson. rock songs be heard at this point? Rock Diamond: Yeah, let’s say a few years has become a strange sort of niche market have passed.

- whereas in the old days even old people Zero: And a whole ten years have passed were aware of rock and roll acts.

What was the vibe in the club that night?

Diamond: I think John was killed around 11 pm and with the three-hour difference, we were just getting ready to go to the club to do our show. I was getting ready for the gig, and I’d just come out of the shower and turned on the television. Then the newsflash came on about John Lennon. I picked up the phone and called Zero, ‘Hey, put your television on!’ As soon as we got the Whisky, it was just dead.

Then you had to play a live set? How’d it go down?

Zero: That night we basically played like shit, let’s face it.

Diamond: I don’t think anybody wanted to hear any band playing. It was just so somber, it was awful.

But at least you’d made it to American Bandstand and that was quite a rite of passage for any good band.

Diamond: It was quite nerve-wracking.

We felt really out of place playing that show, being young Toronto guys talking to Dick Clark. We’ve gone back and watched, even when famous bands were on there, when they talked to Dick Clark, they were a little starstruck by the whole thing. When he did that between-song interview, boyoh-boy!

Zero: But it’s quite a calling-card. For a Canadian band - and there are lots of Canadian bands that never had a hit record in the US at all, and certainly never played on American Bandstand - we’re pretty proud of it. Thankfully, we did more after that. We definitely didn’t stop - and now here we are with a lot more music. When everything settles down, we’re quite ready to take to the stage again.

For music, merch and more from The Kings, visit thekingsarehere.com. insiteatlanta.com • May 2021 • PG 11

BOOKS

HIGH SCHOOL GOES HOLLYWOOD

Joel Selvin Delves Into the History of Southern California Music & Entertainment Especially in the ‘50s where the generation that we call the baby boomers was just coming into this post-war wave of prosperity. Then we’d plop all that into this thing on this hillside in Santa Monica, with all these incredibly wealthy and privileged elite from Brentwood and Bel Air, with parents who were making a living in show business. Not just actors and actresses, but film directors, accountants, lawyers and studio employees of all sorts. Their kids went to University High. So of all the world and all the times, and all the places, that high school class represented these people who saw life as anything was possible for them. And guess what? Anything was possible for them.

E

VEN CURSORY FANS OF MUSIC history will surely enjoy the fascinating glimpse of the elusive California Dream mythology as told by renowned music scholar and general raconteur Joel Selvin. In Hollywood Eden: Electric Guitars, Fast Cars, and the Myth of the California Paradise, the prolific writer details the incredible microcosm of art, fame and privilege of the sunny SoCal scene.

Incredibly he manages to cover an incredible sweep of time, beginning with the innocence of 1958 concluding in the self-awareness of fall of 1966 as a jaded new decade loomed ahead. Everything was poised for change and this book wisely covers the era that led up to the tumultuous ‘70s.

Utilizing a narrative centered around the hallowed halls of University High School, the institute of learning that was included an incredible pedigree. Attendees included Jan Barry, Dean Torrence, Nancy Sinatra, Bruce Johnston, Kathy Kohner (the real-life inspiration for the fictionalized “Gidget” character).

Turns out, the seemingly idyllic wonderland is anything but a paradise, but hey, at least they all had cool cars.

Selvin has researched the era relentlessly and his story is a fascinating look into high school as seen through the eyes of some of pop culture’s iconic movers and shakers.

INsite caught up the busy writer from this office near San Francisco.

This book is quite an undertaking. When you were working out the concept, how did you develop the narrative?

Obviously, you can’t just throw a bunch of facts at people.

There’s a crazy friend of mine that collects high school yearbooks with future celebrities’ pictures in it. He showed me the University High book and it just clicked in my brain.

Soon it evolved into a vision for this book, it all grew really organically from that starting point.

Well, high school and early college is such a crucial point of life.

High school is such a unique and essential American experience, one not shared by other cultures or countries.

I’ve really come to see high school as this place where we get so much of our formative information, and not just the education in the classroom. I think that education might actually be the last on the list, but I mean your socialization, politicization, sexualization. All that stuff takes place in high school in an informal, but socially constructed way.

PG 12 • May 2021 • insiteatlanta.com

Yeah. You left it at such a great spot because everything was about to change at that moment. And boy did it.

So true, you’re right. It’s right at the front step of a different world. If you go through that portal between 1966 and ‘67, then everything changes. Everything. I just didn’t want to go into that part. I wanted to just go from total innocence to self-knowledge and then just stop. The journey is complete.

Your own story parallels the book in many ways.

Well, you know, I fell into the newspaper business after I dropped out of high school when I was 17. And that was the Summer Of Love, June, 1967. So my story begins where the book ends. I went to work as a copy boy.

IF YOU GO THROUGH I also got on the guest list at the Fillmore.

That covers it all right there. Since we’re THAT PORTAL BETWEEN Saw Hendrix and Cream. So very early in talking about the cultural touchstone 1966 AND ‘67, THEN life, I determined that I wanted to write rock bands for newspapers. I did of school, this particular location was EVERYTHING CHANGES. about that for a million years. Believe me, I wrote very fertile ground for so many people EVERYTHING. I JUST DIDN’T about rock bands for newspapers so much and ground zero for some amazing WANT TO GO INTO THAT that I got everything out of it I ever wanted female artists.

It was really important to me to bring PART. I WANTED TO JUST - and then some. So the newspaper business them out of the background because in all GO FROM TOTAL INNOCENCE came to an end or let’s just say it shifted its position. In 2009, I was one of 120 the previous portraits of this era, and there have been many, were strictly the boys club. TO SELF-KNOWLEDGE AND Chronicle editorial employees that left their THEN JUST STOP. THE jobs. That’s the end of the daily newspaper The girls were on the margins as somebody’s girlfriend. When I first thought of this book, JOURNEY IS COMPLETE. business. There were 10,000 of us on the streets that year. I just determined, well, I sought out [singer-actress, brief member let’s just see if there’s any business in this book thing. I had of the Mamas and Papas] Jill Gibson. When she agreed to an agent, I had books out and the first thing we cooked cooperate, I felt like I could move forward with the project. up was a Sammy Hagar book. It was the number one New She was the linchpin, in fact. I intentionally brought Jill out of the background. She’s anything but somebody’s girlfriend. York Times best seller. So it appeared there was definitely something to be done with this book thing. I think that And when she steps forward in the final act in a real prominent way, she really represents what it was like to be a Hollywood Eden is my 10th book or something like that female in that scene. That’s why I brought Nancy Sinatra out since 2009, when I left the papers. It’s been scribble, scribble, scribble. But it’s just like selling articles to a bunch of the background, too. Her whole personal story parallels of different magazines. It’s a big hustle and you never know with a generation of females trying to figure out her role in what the next one’s going to be or where your next year’s life. Am I a wife and mother? Am I an independent person? income is coming from. The only difference is the writing Am I a daughter? It’s especially poignant in her case. And projects take longer. That’s all. that record, “These Books Are Made For Walkin,’” which reflects this whole sort of thing that came to be called Hollywood Eden: Electric Guitars, Fast Cars, and the women’s liberation, was really a personal liberation for her Myth of the California Paradise (House of Anansi Press) is and that story is spelled out in the book. The University available from all major book retailers. Be sure to look for High class of ‘58 were living an American teenage dream Selvin’s special Hollywood Eden playlist on Spotify. and they didn’t even know it. They thought that was their real life, and it was.

High school pretty much forms and informs who we are.

That’s exactly right. One of my San Francisco hipster lawyer friends once told me that the only three people you could trust were Deadheads, people in AA and friends from high school.

BY LEE VALENTINE SMITH

and this is the story’s end and then it’s over.’ We could fill in a lot of data, but it just wouldn’t add anything to the emotional experience of the narrative arc.

Nice to see some interesting history on Jan and Dean, as well.

The general thinking or public perception is that Jan and Dean were Beach Boys imitators. The actuality is that the Beach Boys were Jan and Dean imitators! They had a dozen records out by the time the Beach Boys made their first record. And they established an easily identifiable style, drawn from the music we call doo-wop. And unlike the Beach Boys, both Jan and Dean actually surfed. So they got the Beach Boys to play behind them on a couple of the Brian songs for the album they were finishing up. Surf City, right?

And Brian tossed off half of his... well, not even half of the song - just that line, “Two girls for every boy.” And Jan ran with it. He got a disc jockey, Roger Christian, to cough up some lyrics and Dean tweaked them. And it came back to Brian and they made the record together. But they showed Brian how to stack harmony, vocals and overdub. He used a couple of Latino guys that he knew from University High who recorded under the name The Gents. And Brian and Jan sang on it. Oddly, the only person who didn’t sing on it was Dean.

That really started the whole California sound we know today.

They were the beginnings of this whole Los Angeles rock and roll thing. But it doesn’t seem like people draw the mind back that far to it. And then Jan’s sort of unceremonious exit provided a perfect bookend to the story. I had an editor who very much wanted me to put a ‘Where are they now’ sort of concluding chapter or appendix or something. But I just resisted it. I thought, ‘No, man. This is the story’s beginning,

MUSIC

GIVING BACK AND GIVING A DAMN Noel Paul Stookey Carries on the Revolution, One By One

BY LEE VALENTINE SMITH

H

E’S BEST KNOWN AS THE TALL, wisecracking middleman of iconic ’60s folk trio Peter, Paul and Mary.

But Noel “Paul” Stookey is also a busy solo singer-songwriter, international human rights advocate and community benefactor.

Beginning with Paul And, his first solo release in 1970, Stookey’s material has consistently highlighted his devotion to faith, family and social justice. His latest album is an independently released non-profit project called Just Causes.

Culling from over fifty years of material, the genteel troubadour paired some of his favorite songs with a selection of choice charitable foundations, with all proceeds evenly divided to fifteen worthy causes.

With daughter Elizabeth Stookey Sunde, he founded the Music to Life Foundation in 2001, utilizing music and education to inform and motivate likeminded revolutionists dedicated to societal and civic action.

The Maine-based performer recently spoke with INsite by phone from California about the new album, his half-century-plus canon of compassionate (and occasionally divinely inspired) material and various altruistic pursuits. Stookey also previewed his new “crinkle factor” movement. It’s catching on.

How are you handling the pandemic?

Well, virtually. But right now, I’m out here on the West Coast and it’s been the strangest trip we’ve ever taken. We came out three months ago to see our daughter in Los Angeles.

We’ve only seen her twice in the time we’ve been here. But the whole Just Causes thing happened because I was looking for a way to do something in the downtime. It’s been a wonderful experience, I’ve gotta tell you.

The story behind it is pretty unique. Not many albums are inspired by pizza boxes.

That’s true but I’d also ran across a track I’d recorded in 1971, I think. It’s called “Tom Quick.” When I originally recorded it, I felt that it was a sort of harbinger of change. Then I was standing in the frozen foods section of the grocery store and I saw the Newman’s Own Pizza box and it said that 100 percent of the profits from it were going to charity. I thought, ‘Wow, what a great thing to do during a pandemic.’ I’ve earned a great deal of money as a performer; it’s put my kids through school.

I’ve been able to earn money as a songwriter, publisher and even as a record manufacturer.

So I thought, why don’t I look back through songs like “Tom Quick,” spanning nearly fifty years of material I’ve recorded, and decided which of them speaks to an issue. And then assign that song to a non-profit to benefit, to basically give back everything above my manufacturing costs. That’s how it all began.

By and large the response has been great. I’m getting a lot of ‘Why didn’t I think of that?’ from my peers. So with fifteen tracks, the nonprofits are sharing a fifteenth of the net profits but that can add up fairly quickly.

You have so many songs in the catalog, selecting the tracks and charities must’ve been quite a challenge.

You’re kind to say that I have such a swath of tunes. But not all of them are politically or socially pertinent. They all have a spiritual nature, at least the ones I’ve written since 1970, but I had maybe twenty-two tunes to connect with the various non-profits. Some

were pretty self-evident. Like for “America The Beautiful,” I’d worked with the People For The American Way and they’re fantastic. The song “Jean Claude,” about the two boys from the Holocaust, so I assigned that to the Dallas Holocaust Museum.

Did they all fall into place so easily?

Some were oddballs. Like, where do you go with a song called “The Connection?” It’s not so much about addiction but the political fact that addicts probably aren’t thinking they could be funding the Taliban, for example.

Curiously, I made a call to the Partnership To End Addiction and they said that their theme for this year’s fundraising is called The Connection. They’re talking about connecting addicts to their loved ones, to their community and building back help in that way. But they saw the opportunity to pivot on the term.

When little things like that show up, it’s kind of a cosmic thumbs-up.

You’ve been giving back since “The Wedding Song” on the Paul And album.

But I had no choice on that one. It was a prayed-for song and that’s beyond the normal songwriter saying ‘the muse’ moved him or her to write a particular song. For this one I wanted God to bless my partner Peter Yarrow’s wedding. I said, ‘How would You manifest yourself at Peter’s wedding?’ The song was the answer. When it came time to put it on a record, I wasn’t sure what to do. I couldn’t put ‘G_d’ as the writer and if I didn’t put anything, the money would just go into the pockets of the record company.

Warner Brothers had enough money at that time.

You could say that, yes. I felt the best compromise was to create a foundation to

hold the money and disperse it. An agency my daughter created from it is called Music To Life. They’re one of the beneficiaries of one of the songs on the album, the homage to Pete Seeger called “Not That Kind Of Music.”

There’s also a new album out from Music To Life, called Hope Rises. My daughter created it and it’s basically an introduction to fifteen new activist-artists. It’s pretty powerful stuff.

When Peter, Paul and Mary first came on the scene, it was relatively easy to rally a considerable slice of the population with an activist anthem - or a good ol’ protest song.

Is it possible now to ‘rally the people’ in this segmented world?

Segmented is an interesting choice of word.

We are definitely separated by individual choice of what particular concern to support.

We’re diffracted, if you will, by the choices.

There doesn’t seem to be a universal march for human rights, anti-war, environmental or non-nuclear proliferation that we expected to see from the ‘60s. Historically, music that expressed social concerns was relatively new to the scene in 1963, say, when Martin Luther King delivered his “I Have A Dream” speech.

Radio had been the domain of pop music.

To introduce those causes that we hold in common was relatively new then. Pop music was mostly a platform for romance. Not to say romance has gone away. What did McCartney say? The world will never tire of ‘silly love songs.’ It makes everything go ‘round. But I don’t know if there’s gonna be any sort of galvanizing cause that’s going to pull us all together, except for love with a capital L. If that ever gets off the ground as a concept, we can treat our fellow human beings as a family of the heart. Then we can finally join together in celebrating this gift we call life. Peace on Earth begins with each of us, as the song says,

and then the ripples will spread. That’s what the song “Revolution 1 x 1” is all about. One by one.

Right and you can’t preach at people, either.

They’ll tune right out. Some wise-guy once said you “have to lay it between the lines.” I can’t recall his name at the moment.

(Laughs) Sometimes those lines come back to surprise me. But when they stand the test of time the way those ones on this album seem to do, I’m really pleased that a message is still out there. I’m blessed that these songs have a way of reminding people of their responsibility to one another.

People have to care about each other. We mentioned the Paul And album. One of my favorite tracks from it was always “Give A Damn” because it references another song with the same title.

That’s right. Well, there was also a movement in New York City called Give A Damn. It wasn’t a real popular one because of the hesitance of people to use what they felt might have been, you know, ‘naughty language.’ I did that talking blues tune based on a radio station playing - or not playing -that other song.

Sometimes people just need to be reminded that they do care. It’s built into the human heart to care. But turning it into action, that’s the stumbling block for most of us.

Sometimes it’s a big step.

Yeah but you know what I’ve found? I like to call it the “crinkle factor.” It really didn’t exist before the pandemic. I mean, the amount of crinkles around the eyes tend to increase when people smile. I’ve noticed that with our masks on, maybe you’re going too fast around the corner of an isle in the supermarket or wherever, and you almost bump into somebody. They stop for a second with this fearful look on their face. But then you crinkle them! Usually, they’ll crinkle you right back. It could be a new movement - what do you think?

For music and more information, visit noelpaulstookey.com, musictolife.org and revolution1x1.org. insiteatlanta.com • May 2021 • PG 13

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ASON RINGENBERG HAS BEEN gracing stages in Atlanta since the early 1980’s when Jason and the Nashville Scorchers were tearing through sets at the old 688 Club on Spring Street. Through the years, with the Scorchers shelved for the time being, Jason has always kept himself busy with a multidimensional solo career. By night he’s singersongwriter-storyteller Jason Ringenberg while by day he’s Farmer Jason, entertaining children with ditties about life on the farm, riding tractors and the various farm animals. His latest CD release is the social conscience and spiritual infused Rhinestoned, a 12-track gem that touches on civil rights, native American warrior Crazy Horse as well as Hank Williams, The Carter Family and Ozark Mountain Daredevils cover songs. Jason returns to Atlanta June 5 when he performs at Eddie’s Attic for the first time. He recently spoke with INsite Atlanta.

Your latest release, Rhinestoned, seems to me to have been written with a purpose, with certain topics like civil rights, native North American’s, specifically Crazy Horse, and even the ongoing transformation of life in Nashville featured in the songs.

I think it was initially to show my relationship to country music and to Nashville. As the songwriting developed it became broader. There are concepts about racism and native American history. With the song “Nashville Without Rhinestones,” which is directly what that song is about. Nashville has lost its soul. (laughs) It has completely gone crazy for development. I’m not saying musically, but, I mean the Nashville money people have just taken over completely and the art and culture people have sort of had to stand back or be ridden over by development and progress.

Ozark Mountain Daredevils. What strikes you about a certain song that leads you to want to Jason Ringenberg it?

I have always had an instinct for doing that. There’s thousands of covers that you could do so why did I choose Absolute Sweet Marie and Lost Highway with the Scorchers?

In this case, why did I choose the ones you mentioned? I’m quite good at finding a song that will work for what I do in the context of the album that I’m doing.

Listening back to your 2019 release Stand Tall, you wrote a song called “God Bless The Ramones.” You saw the Ramones while you were in college at Southern Illinois and a few years later the Scorchers toured with them in Texas. A life changing couple of hours for you to say the least?

My perception of you, above It was life-changing to see the and beyond just being a Ramones. It was late 1979 and it songwriter, is that you are was in the basement of a college Saturday, June 5 a storyteller/songwriter, dorm. Carbondale, where I based on the subjects of Eddie’s Attic went to school, was in a way, many of your songs. little island of creative people eddiesattic.com That is certainly the truth in this vast sea of Appalachia. when I am solo live. There All two hundred of the people is a lot of storytelling. I talk and sing a lot in southern Illinois that were artistic or musical about history. You are going to learn a lot of or weird or different were at that show. I was history at my shows. There is no question still pretty much a folk-country rocker. I had my about that. straw hat on with my blue jeans and cowboy boots and a bolo tie. I was right up front, Regarding the song, The Freedom Rides Weren’t between Joey and Dee Dee. When they hit the Free, people may not be aware that some of the stage I didn’t know too much about them but it Freedom Riders, civil rights activists who rode was a stunning experience to see the Ramones buses into the segregated South in the early at that age. It was fantastic.

1960’s, were students from Nashville.

Regarding the Freedom Riders, I, as an Going back to the early days with Jason and amateur historian, interestingly didn’t know the the Scorchers, Atlanta has always been a good Nashville connections to it until five or six years place for you to perform. ago. It’s a fascinating story about a bunch of Yes, Atlanta possibly could be my favorite college kids from Nashville, from Meharry and city in the world to perform in. Very early on Fisk Universities. The kids got together in their we noticed that with Jason and the Nashville college dorm rooms, after the first wave of the Scorchers. Things just happened for us freedom riders collapsed and failed, and decided there. The connection with our audience was that they were not going to let this stand. They really intense and it’s just stayed that way all were going to continue these rides on their own through the years. Atlanta audiences are very without any sort of support from the Kennedy educated about music for starters and they’ll administration or the NAACP, and they just tell you about it. They’re very intense about went for it. They pooled their money and they their relationship with the bands and artists got on those buses and headed to Birmingham that they’re listening to. The shows at the 688 and faced those mobs all by themselves. It is an Club that we played in 1981, 1982 and 1983 amazing story. Quite incredible. transformed our music. We were able to see what our music could mean to people in a You included some cover songs on this album very direct way with those shows. It was an

by Hank Williams, The Carter Family and the amazing thing.

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