Iron Man - Tony Iommi Book Review

I recently finished reading the 2011 Tony Iommi auto-biography Iron Man: My Journey Through Heaven and Hell with Black Sabbath. This was a great read, I thought I knew a lot about Black Sabbath, I guess I did, but what I did find interesting was reading about the later years of Sabbath. Everyone has read lots about Black Sabbath and the Ozzy years, but not really much about the years with Ronnie James Dio and all the other singers that have been in and out of Sabbath during 1986 and 1995. I enjoyed reading about the 1983 Black Sabbath album "Born Again" that was done with Deep Purple lead singer Ian Gillan.

Tony Iommi tells some interesting stories of drugs, groupies, band managers, losing the tips of his fingers while working a factory job as a teen, growing up with little to no money. It is a quick read and told with honesty and a sense of humour. Highly recommended. There is a revised edition out now that tells about his battle with lymphoma (cancer).

In concert news...Black Sabbath will be playing in Edmonton on Tuesday April 22nd at Rexall Place.

Charlie Musselwhite and Ruthie Foster Live in Edmonton March 17th 2014

On Monday night my buddy Hurl and I went to the Charlie Musselwhite and Ruthie Foster concert at the Jubilee Auditorium here in Edmonton. This was my first time seeing both artists.

I have always wanted to see Charlie Musselwhite live, and on this evening I was finally getting my chance. I was happy to see that Charlie was the opening act for the show, as I wasn't in all honesty, cared whether I saw Ruthie Foster or not.

Charlie Musselwhite and his band hit the stage right on time and ripped through an hour long set, which ended with the audience giving him a standing ovation, which brought him out for an encore. Charlie just earned himself his first Grammy Award (Best Blues Album) for his album that he did with Ben Harper called "Get Up!" that came out last year. It is a great blues album and a well deserved award for this harmonica playing blues legend. At seventy years old, Charlie Musselwhite is looking healthy and sounding awesome, his voice was strong as was his harp playing. His back up band was quite good as well, especially guitar player Matt Stubbs. Charlie's style of blues went from down south delta blues to old school Chicago blues. All and all a great performance by Charlie Musselwhite and his band. Would love to him perform in a bar or outdoor festival setting.

After Charlie's opening set, he was out in the lobby signing autographs. I picked up his latest release "Juke Joint Chapel", a live album that came out in 2012.

Charlie Musselwhite at the Jubilee Auditorium.

Headliner of the evening was Texas native Ruthie Foster, this was my second time seeing her in concert having seen her open for Taj Mahal years ago. I only stayer for about forty-five minutes of her set. What I saw and heard was alright. She had a three piece band that were good. Ruthie was engaging with the audience a lot, telling stories and such, she did a few cover songs, one of them a Lucinda Williams song "Fruits Of My Labor". The lady has got a great voice, she can sing gospel very well and has a decent voice for the blues as well. She was good but not an artist I would go out of my way to see again. This show was not well attended at all, maybe about 700-800 people in a venue that holds 2500. Good times!!!

Ruthie Foster at the Jubilee Auditorium.

Cro-Mags in Edmonton March 8th 2014

On Saturday night my brother Citrus and I went to the Cro-Mags concert here in Edmonton at The Pawn Shop. This was the second night of two exclusive Canadian dates. The Cro-Mags are a New York hardcore band that have been around in one form another since 1981. While I never followed the bands career, I recall reading about them in Kerrang magazine back in the mid eighties. They always looked very menacing and tough in all the pictures I saw of them. I listened to them once back then and they weren't really my thing as I was more a metal head then a fan of the punk thing. They were one of the first bands thought to meld the metal and punk music together.

Now many years later, I appreciate their music and what it stands for, especially there first album The Age Of Quarrel. That album is a classic in the hardcore scene. I had never seen the band live before, and when my brother heard about the show, he said he was going to come up from Calgary for it. So I figured I would check the show out with him. The last show my bro and I went to together was the Terror show, another hardcore band, that show was off the wall for intense and violent. So, I wasn`t sure what to expect for this show, as Cro-Mags shows have been known to be violent affairs sometimes. Therefore we made sure to keep our distance from the dance floor. Hence why the pictures we got aren`t all that good.

The line up for Saturdays show were three local bands opening which were Ringleader, Tarantuja and Etown Beatdown. We missed the first band Ringleader and caught the rest of them, which made for a long night of loud hard fast music. All the bands were alright, but everyone was waiting patiently for headliners Cro-Mags. Whom didn`t hit the stage til one o`clock in the morning.

The Cro-Mags line up for this show was a who`s who of the New York hardcore scene, with original singer John Joseph McGowan on lead vocals, A.J. Novello (Leeway) on guitar, Craig Setari (Sick Of It All) on bass and Mackie Jayson (Bad Brains) on drums who has been playing with the Cro-Mags off and on since 1984.

The show was a quick fifty minute concert with the band playing pretty much all of the The Age Of Quarrel album. They did do one song from their second album Best Wishes, the song they did was Crush The Demoniac, it was weird for this line up of Cro-Mags to play this song as lead singer John Joseph wasn`t even a member of the band for this album, nonetheless they did this song, during this song, a member from the crowd, a long haired freak whom I had just had a smoke with outside earlier in the night, jumped up on stage and grabbed the mic and sang this song. In which he did a very good job of.

All and all the show was very good and not near as crazy as I was expecting. It was an older crowd of old school punkers and hardcore guys. The band sounded good and seemed to really appreciate the non violent crowd and all the accolades the crowd was showing them. I`m glad I went to this show, and big shout out to my brother for coming up for the show and making the whole day an awesome time from the long walk, the record shopping and hanging out, good eats and topping the night off with a great concert. Good times!!!

Few pictures from the show taken by my brother.

T-shirt.