Triple header coming to town

By: Jay Minkin
Date: 06/22/2009
There are three performers coming to town that you should make every effort to go see.  
First, Jimmy Webb is playing at the Beachland Ballroom on Friday, July 10 on the very first stop of his summer tour. Now, some of you will say you’ve never heard of him. But if I start rattling off the songs he has written like “By the Time I Get to Phoenix,” “Wichita Lineman,” “Galveston,” “Up, Up and Away,” and “MacArthur Park,” I think the bells will start to ring.

The names of the artists who have recorded his songs are as legendary as the man himself. For tickets and more, visit www.beachlandballroom.com.

Talk about doubleheaders. The following night, on Saturday, July 11, Rosanne Cash will be performing at the very intimate Kent Stage. The eldest daughter of the late Johnny Cash has been writing her own hit songs since 1981’s “Seven Year Ache.” Her last album, Black Cadillac, released in 2006, marked the loss of her stepmother, June Carter Cash, and father, Johnny, who died in 2003, and her mother, Vivian, who died as Rosanne finished the record. 

Minkin’s Music bestowed “Album of the Year” honors on Rosanne Cash in my very first column over two-and-a-half years ago (sigh). You will get to hear many of her hits, along with a sneak preview of her next release, The List, based on a 100 greatest songs list that Johnny gave her when she was 18.

For the pièce de résistance, Steve Earle comes to the smaller Kent Stage on Friday, July 31, instead of the larger Playhouse Square theatre he normally is booked into. Since the release of Guitar Town in 1986, Earle has created a body of work that should ultimately land him in one of the Hall of Fames—rock or country.

His last collection of penned songs was the 2007 critically acclaimed Washington Street Serenade. Last month, Earle released the beautiful album Townes covering songs written by his songwriting mentor, the late Townes Van Zandt. For tickets and more, visit www.kentstage.org.

Reach Jay at blues4bird@aol.com.

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