Home Away From Home......

KOOL BEANZ!



















It was six years ago this weekend that we closed the doors on what John Hall called "that great cultural experiment - Kool Beanz".

My wife Jen and I opened our beloved coffeehouse/music venue in early 1998, and closed it's doors in 2002.
















In between those years we made a thousand friends, and had nearly as many musicians play for us. Some of the musical highlights: our CD recording party, Magda, Diane & Marianne, Sam Pacetti, Jerry Daze, John Hall w/ Freebo & Robbie Dupree, Hootenanny Sundays, Chief Jim Billie, Lagoonapaloooza, Denny Doherty, Spider John & Dave Ray, The Night of The Living Deadbeats, Lorin Rowan, Victoria Williams w/Mark Olson & the Creekdippers, all of our local friends...and the list goes on.

I was looking for some pictures to share with you all, then I remembered the collage I made that hung by the front door, and thought that would be perfect. Below, is a full shot of the collage, then below it some close ups. Lots good time, old friends, young friends, and lost friends. (click on the pics to enlarge).




















Below are a few of the 17 tracks we recorded over two nights in 1999 for our Kool Beanz CD. In the future I will post other tracks, and some info on where many of these artists are today.



















Diane Runion came to visit shortly after we opened and sat in with our Sunday Hootenanny. The next Sunday she came back to our Open Mic and played this song, the song that became the title track to our CD the next year.
HOME AWAY FROM HOME:

Home Away From Home.mp3

Before we found out what a talented multi-instrumentalist Bryan McCahill was, we all knew him as the guy who played the kool ukulele songs.
DANCE OF THE SUGARPLUM FAIRIES:

Dance Of The Sugarplum Fairies.mp3

Janet Reedy was known for her beautiful voice, long hair, and great parodies of songs. She claims she really only ever wrote one song, this one - in her sleep!
DIRTY KISS:

Dirty Kiss.mp3

Dave Grooms played for us nearly every Tuesday night for four years, he also helps me co-ordinate the Jerry Daze concerts...these two feature him and his band The HoneyBucket HillBilly Band.
HESITATION BLUES/TODAY

Hesitation Blues (traditional)Today.mp3

Our friend from the old Java The Hut Days, Terry Kelly has written dozens of great songs, but at Kool Beanz everyone howled for this one!
WHEN I WAS A DOG:

Terry Kelly.mp3

we also knew Steve Hodak from "the Hut", a great guy, and one of my favorite songwriters, ever, This one will rip yer heart out.
BUTTERFLY MOON:

Butterfly Moon.mp3

Nick Caffeine (aka Terry Kelly) wrote a little radio jingle for us....it ended up being the backing for the intro track on the Kool Beanz CD, where Willie and Kevin overdubbed outtakes from the stage over Terry's rap.
NICK CAFFEINE AND THE COFFEEKATS:

Intro.mp3

Denny Doherty, Java Jen & I


All the love and thanks must go out to my lovely bride Jennifer, without whom our Home Away From Home would have never been possible.

Although I don't think I really want to do the coffeehouse thing again, I've never admitted it...but every time I drive by a closed business, I wonder....hmmmm, that might be a good place for another KB.....



PLEASE Feel Free to Leave to any Thought or Remembrances of Kool Beanz in the comments section below. If you don't have a copy of the CD, I'll give one away to one of the people who leaves a comment....just make sure you leave me your e-mail address so I can notify the winner.

HE'S STILL THE ONE!

LARRY HOPPEN








Monday morning I started my birthday off with a wonderful interview with one of the lead singers for The Band Orleans - LARRY HOPPEN. I had a great chat with Larry, a very nice guy with a lot of musical stuff happening. It's no secret that I'm a huge fan of ORLEANS, since first seeing them perform on the Pretender Tour with Jackson Browne in Miami Halloween 1976, and having had Larry's bandmate JOHN HALL perform at our venue Kool Beanz several times.


(cluster graft from BAND TO BAND tracing rock's family tree)

I want to share the interview with you, but I've got good news & bad news...first the bad news - for the interview I was using/experimenting with a new piece of recording equipment (my birthday present from Jen - thanks baby!) and the mouthpiece on my phone was bad & rendered my voice and the recording horrible. The good news is that I salvaged a few minutes to share with you, and Larry gave us a few MP3s of new and rare stuff for you as well! - A New Solo track, a live one by Orleans, and a vintage live recording from 1969 of Dancin' In The Moonlight, by Larry's early band BOFFALONGO. (from Wiki: The song was written by Sherman Kelly in 1968, whose brother, Wells Kelly - King Harvest's drummer in the early 1970s (and later Orleans')- introduced the song to the band. It was originally recorded in 1970 by the American band, Boffalongo).
Hope we get to chat again soon Larry....

So, a little about Larry Hoppen:
Larry is of course, a founding member and 'the voice' of the band Orleans, whose critically acclaimed music and memorable harmonies are loved the world over. People instantly recognize Larry's uplifting tenor from Orleans' timeless classics: Still the One, Dance with Me (both BMI certified, with a combined airplay of over 6 million!) and the self-penned wonderful hits Love Takes Time, Let There Be Music.

A musician's musician, Larry's vocal, keyboards, guitar, bass, Hohner Melodica, and other instrumental talents have been featured on tours and album releases by such artists as Graham Parker, Michael Franks, Lulu, Felix Cavaliere, and Livingston Taylor, Screaming Cheetah Wheelies and Blues Traveler.

In 1996, Larry produced (his side project) The UnHerd's Looking for the Light. With David Sancious, Tony Levin, Terry Silverlight and other world class artists Larry created a wonderful collection of meaningful compositions. All CD sales profits and 100% of Larry's publishing are donated to Sunshine for HIV Kids, which he and wife Patricia, co-founded in 1993. The symbiotic combination of Larry's musical career and charitable efforts is something to which he is deeply committed.

Larry's newest CD as singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist is titled "Handmade", and recently, Larry has been touring the globe with RPM (Rock and Pop Masters) whose members enjoy 25 Gold Albums, 26 Platinum and Multi-Platinum Albums, 57 Top Forty singles, 25 Top Ten singles, and 10 Number One Hits!

Today, Larry is in Woodstock, perparing for a gig with ROBBIE DuPREE at the The Bearsville Theatre on Friday, February 1st.The Time and Tide CD concert will be a special concert because they will preview all the new songs from "Time and Tide", Robbie's Brand New CD (Today!) in the first part of the evening, and in the second half of the show, they will perform favorites and hits, reaching back through his recording history.

"Time and Tide" is Robbie's first studio record in 5 years, and features an awesome band: David Sancious, Larry Hoppen, Leslie Smith, Rick Chudacoff and Peter Bunetta. Together, they've been friends and music partners for more than 30 years.

Larry and I discussing the Rock and Pop Masters

larry-RPM.mp3

Larry and I talking about the new Robbie DuPree project

larry-robbie.mp3

solo Larry

3 Unsettling Down.mp3

ORLEANS

Mission of Mercy.mp3

Boffalongo `69

Dancin' _ BOFF '69.mp3

Check Out The Websites below for Larry, RPM, Robbie and Orleans...this bunch is still kicking out some awesome music!

LARRY HOPPEN

ORLEANS

RPM

ROBBIE DUPREE

Sunshine for HIV Kids

BAND TO BAND

They Say It's Your Birthday....

Well, Happy Birthday to Me!

First off, THANK YOU all very the wonderful response and support during my first two weeks of blogging on SPILL THE BEANZ. I've got lots of kool things coming up, I'm lining exclusive interviews, concert & book reviews, lots of art and more! Please be sure to go to the bottom of the page & click the link that says "subcribre to:"...or email me to be kept up to date with new posts.


Today I'm going to share with you a bunch of January 28th related things. This morning I had a great interview with ORLEANS frontman Larry Hoppen, I'll share some of that with you tomorrow when I get done editing. In the meantime I'll share an MP3 or two that he passed along with you....I'll also share with you a recording of another Orleans frontman, John Hall, singing Happy Birthday to me 7 years ago at Kool Beanz, and some great news.


My 10 year old son (The Florida Gators Fan!) sculpted this replica of (my team) the Miami Hurricane's Mascot "Sebastian" for my birthday today - AWESOME!!









Here are a few other notable
1/28 Birthday celebrants:
1887 Arthur Rubinstein
1909 Lionel KP "Buster" Crabb
1912 Jackson Pollock
1929 Acker Bilk
1936 Alan Alda
1943 Dick Taylor (The Pretty Things)
1950 Barbi Benton
1962 Sam Phillips
1968 Sarah McLachlan
1977 Joey Fatone Jr. ('N Sync)
1980 Nick Carter (Backstreet Boys)
1981 Elijah Wood
...and my Unlce Phil....



TODAY: JIMMY PAGE PRESS CONFERENCE ...LED ZEP REUNION?
More From The Associated Press:

Led Zeppelin Guitarist Wants World Tour
By ERIC TALMADGE – 1/28/08

TOKYO (AP) — Led Zeppelin guitarist Jimmy Page said Monday he was ready to take the iconic band on a world tour after burning up the stage at last month's reunion concert in London. But it probably won't be before September.

"The amount of work we put into O2 was what you would normally put into a world tour anyway," Page, 64, said of the intense rehearsing the band did for the Dec. 10 concert at London's O2 Arena.

The band's three surviving members — Page, singer Robert Plant and bassist-keyboardist John Paul Jones — were joined at the sold-out benefit show by the late John Bonham's son Jason on drums.

Page, who was in Japan to promote the new Zeppelin release, "Mothership," said the two-hour-plus concert was proof that Led Zeppelin can still perform at its best.

He said the band, which formed in 1968, was ready musically to get back together and take it out on a wider run, but it was not clear when it would go on tour as the singer had other plans.

"Robert Plant has a parallel project and he is busy with that until September," Page said.

Plant and bluegrass star Alison Krauss will begin their world tour with a run of shows in the southern U.S. this spring. The two released an album in October called "Raising Sand" that debuted at No. 2 on the Billboard chart in the U.S. The duo will tour Europe in May before returning for North American shows still to be announced for June and July.

Page said the band set their standards very high before agreeing to do the reunion, their first in 20 years. Led Zeppelin broke up in 1980 after the elder Bonham's death.

Page said they rehearsed for weeks, apprehensive that the cohesion they had in the 1970s when they were at their peak might be hard to rediscover.

"We wanted people who might not have even been alive in 1980 when we finished to understand what we were," he said.

Page said all went well until he broke a finger in three places, forcing the band to postpone the show for several weeks.

"But we did the show, and it was great," he said. "It was instant in terms of chemistry."

ANNOUNCED TODAY:
QTRAX - FREE LEGAL MUSIC DOWNLOADS by Major Artists

from QTrax:

Qtrax is NOT just another P2P network, it provides a complete system for finding and downloading music. The player provides access a web site filled with artist content, including Videos, Ringtones, Lyrics, Album Art, up to the minute artist news! Try finding THAT on any other P2P network. Even better – its FREE AND LEGAL on Qtrax.

One This Day In History.....
January 28th:

1960 - The first photograph bounced off of the moon.
1960 - Zora Neale Hurston died in Fort Pierce, Florida
1964 : Andy Warhol: Andy Warhol starts the Factory, the first works of art were boxes of food
1965 - The Who made their first appearance on the British TV rock show "Ready Steady Go!"
1967 -Rolling Stones release "Let's Spend the Night Together"
1985- the recording took place for 'We Are The World' the US equivalent of Band Aid. Written by Michael Jackson and Lionel Richie the all star cast included Stevie Wonder, Tina Turner, Bruce Springsteen, Diana Ross, Bob Dylan, Ray Charles, Daryl Hall, John Oates, Cyndi Lauper, Steve Perry and Bob Geldof. The proceeds went toward worldwide hunger prevention.
1986 : Space Shuttle Challenger explodes during lift-off Space Shuttle Challenger explodes 73 seconds after lift-off killing all seven astronauts, including school teacher Christa McAuliffe. The cause was later determined as a leaking solid rocket booster.
1986 - Joaquin Phoenix: He made his big-screen debut in "Space Camp"
1988- Eleven years after it was released, The Sex Pistols album 'Never Mind The Bollocks, Here's The Sex Pistols' went Gold in the US with sales over 500,000.
1990 - Aaron Neville sang the U.S. national anthem at Super Bowl XXIV.
1994- Paul and Linda McCartney attended the premiere of Wayne’s World II in London. The couple then went on to Hard Rock Café, where the film star Mike Myers presented them with a check for LIPA (the Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts) for $42,500 from the sale of Linda’s vegetarian burgers.
1996 - Diana Ross performed as the featured halftime performer at Super Bowl XX.
1999 - Anna Kournikova: Won her first double Grand Slam Title in Australia (with Martina Hingis)
1999 - Pat Boone formed the Gold Records label, which will only sign artists 45 years old and up. The first performer signed was Jack Jones.
2007 - Dreamgirls: Music from the Motion Picture was at No.1 on the US album chart. The musical based on the history of Diana Ross and the Supremes featured Jamie Foxx, Beyoncé Knowles, Eddie Murphy, Jennifer Hudson, Anika Noni Rose and Keith Robinson.




my portrait of original Beatle drummer Pete Best, signed by Pete on my birthday 1995
















Some USA Number 1 Singles on January 28th

1997 "Un-Break My Heart" by Toni Braxton
1993 "I Will Always Love You" by Whitney Houston
1987 "At This Moment" by Billy Vera and the Beaters
1986 "That's What Friends Are For" by Dionne and Friends
1985 "Like a Virgin" by Madonna
1984 "Owner of a Lonely Heart" by Yes
1983 "Down Under" by Men at Work
1981 "(Just Like) Starting Over" by John Lennon
1980 "Rock with You" by Michael Jackson
1974 "You're Sixteen" by Ringo Starr
1973 "Superstition" by Stevie Wonder
1972 "American Pie" by Don McLean
1971 "Knock Three Times" by Dawn
1970 "Raindrops Keep Fallin' on My Head" by B. J. Thomas
1969 "I Heard It through the Grapevine" by Marvin Gaye
1968 "Judy in Disguise (with Glasses)" by John Fred and His Playboy Band
1967 "I'm a Believer" by The Monkees
1966 "The Sound of Silence" by Simon and Garfunkel
1965 "Downtown" by Petula Clark
1962 "Peppermint Twist - Part I" by Joey Dee and the Starliters
1960 "Running Bear" by Johnny Preston


Below are some MP3s for your enjoyment. You'll hear from the "Dancin' and We're Still Havin' Fun" DVD and CD by ORLEANS...and a solo track from Larry Hoppen.

"Dancin' In The Moonlight" from the ORLEANS Live DVD/CD

3 Dancin' In The Moonlight.mp3

LARRY HOPPEN solo

10 Love Is Love.mp3

JOHN HALL @ KOOL BEANZ

JavaJohn BirthdayBlues.mp3

ORLEANS

LARRY HOPPEN

JOHN HALL

ROCK & POP MASTERS

(Congressman) JOHN HALL

PETE BEST

LED ZEPPELIN

QTRAX

SUNSHINE FOR HIV KIDS

Solo on Saturday

JOHN HALL

On some Saturdays I think I'll share with you the solo side of artists who were made popular by their bands. Starting with a friend....

Singer/songwriter John Hall had his first real success when JANIS JOPLIN cover the song "Half Moon", and THE TYMES recorded "Miss Grace", both written by John and then wife Johanna.
He then formed the Band ORLEANS in Woodstock, 1972, with Larry Hoppen & Wells Kelly. By 1975 they had their first hit with "Dance With Me", in '76 their big hit was "Still The One". After several other hits, and a few albums Hall left for a solo career & to co-found M.U.S.E. (Musicians United for Safe Energy). He carried on with the John Hall Group, and was a key figure in the (M.U.S.E.) NO NUKES Concerts Bonnie Raitt, Graham Nash, and Jackson Browne.

Fast forward a dozen years to 1999, John release his first solo CD, "Recovered", covering songs himself, that he had written and had become hits for Orleans and other artists - Janis, Linda Ronstadt, Steve Warnier, and others. That was followed by the awesome "Love doesn't Ask". On both of tours for those two records, we were lucky enough to has John perform at our coffeehouse Kool Beanz. The first time he asked if he could bring along a few friends - "sure! It's your gig!" I said. He brought along Freebo & Robbie Dupree. Too kool!















Around the time of his 2005 release "Rock me on the Water" (songs about the sea and sailing), John was seriously contemplating a career in politics. During a conversation at that time, he asked me if I thought that that was a good idea. I told him that I thought of all the people I know in music, he'd be the most qualified I could think of. Before he made his decision to run, I sent him this button mock-up!


















On November 7, 2006 Hall was elected as a Democrat to the
United States House of Representatives from the state of New York!




Half Moon from "Recovered"

Half Moon.mp3

Sails recorded Live at Kool Beanz 1-27-01 (2nd set)

Sails_at-KoolBeanz.mp3

Reach - John Hall No Nukes Central Park 6-12-82

John Hall - REACH.mp3

Congressman John Hall

Orleans