Down On The Corner

By Paul Moffett

Editor-in-chief Metcalfe and your humble correspondent recently took a week off from newspapering to trek to Nashville. The journey was to pursue our original interest in the music business, SONGWRITIN'. We had a box full of tapes and appointments with several publishers, including the firm which has the newest Shenandoah single, due out at the end of May.

Well, we didn't sign any contracts but we did leave a couple of tunes with several publishers, so it was a success, as song-plugging trips go. Any song-plugging trip to Music City which leaves you standing taller than your shoelaces is a success.

One of the other reasons for making the trip was to find out if our efforts at promoting Louisville music through the paper were having any effect. Since we mail over three hundred copies of LMN to music industry people in the Nashville area, we thought we ought to be having some impact. As it turned out, we came away feeling fairly good about that, too. Hah! Tomorrow the world!

Back on earth, meanwhile, Mike Ballard of Triangle Talent's Club Division reports that Triangle has signed Cincinnati's hottest band, the Menus, to an exclusive territorial contract. Ballard says the band puts on a show featuring classic rock material from the Sixties to the Eighties, with some flashy dance numbers by the lead singer.

Rocky Adcock at the Musicians Union gave us the news that former City Lights drummer Deke Farrell injured his arm in a motorcycle accident recently. No word on his condition.

Rocky also said that the Union is working on a showcase for its members, tentatively scheduled for August, at the Derby Dinner Playhouse. Music by Sam Harris is handling the booking chores. More information will follow as it is available.

Mark Hoekstra, of the blues band West Side Heat, says the band has finally gotten a leg up after five-and-a-half years of paying them dues. After moving to Louisville from Chicago last October, the group has gotten booked on the Chicago Blues Festival, scheduled for the weekend of June 9. In addition, while they were in Amsterdam in April, they left some material with Hans Kramer of Blue Shadow Records. Kramer just wrote to say that he is interested in releasing a CD in Europe. Hoekstra and the group are planning to get back to a studio to put together about forty-five minutes of album quality material. Choice of a producer and studio has not been made.