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July 26 - 2003 Excuses -
Pittsburgh PA- Excuses, South Side:
It's always a great night when Norman and the guys play
this room dating back 15 years. A two hour first set
mixing the old with the new, featuring great versions of
"Play", "Burnin Up" (with a lot of good bull shit).
Harry sang a great version of Marty Robbins' "Singin'
the Blues". A one hour second set ended up with the old
Pittsburgh rock n roll classic "Rock You".
Notables in Attendance: Angelo, Terry, Patty &
Ron, Young Eric and his boys, Wonderful Tom, Hockey Hall
of Fame's Mike Lange and various friends of Alisa (the
mad booze scientist from Cleveland, Ohio (Home of the
Cleveland Clowns) ;-)
July 29 -
2003 - Buddy's Parking Lot - Waynesburg PA:
A rain day celebration. A white trash funfest with
people yelling requests the whole show. It was not a
giant audience, but one with a lot of character. What
the $%*! kind of summed up the whole evening. Ray the
soundman played the last song of the night with the guys
a cool version of "I Hate A Nickel"
Notables in attendance: Crazy, Bobby, Bobby Moore
(who looked great and everybody was glad to see him),
Larry, the Kid Man and our gracious host Buddy.
July 30 -
2003 Frederick's: (In West Hills Shopping Center next to
Ladbrokes) Norm with Herman & David Granati
The three greaseballs and an Irishman Crash McCracken on
drums. Question: Who's shorter? Herman? David? or
Norman? A whole lot of fun just playing old cover songs,
except for when Norman decided to torture the musicians
and made them play a couple of new originals "Mr. Right
Now" and "Who Dat Do Dat". Also of note, Alison Granati
(Joey's daughter), sang an R & B number and kicked all
ass.
Notables in attendance: Mary Ann, Nicky and
Alison Granati, Ted Thompson, Alan & Debbie, Christin
from Car Hops, Scott Talerico and Michelle (the recipe
collector)
July 31 -
2003 Parkway Tavern: 312 Center Rd, Monroeville, PA
A rainy night in Pittsburgh, Norman and the guys were
rippin' right from the start. Killer versions of "Lazy
Bones", "Good Rockin Man", "The Bottom Of This Bottle".
Then the second set started off rippin' too. A guy from
the audience got up and sang background vocals to "Up
Jumps The Devil" and embarrassed his wife. Then the Rat
Man got up and sang "Wasted Days and Wasted Nights"
(took of his pants but kept his shirt on). He also
embarrassed his wife.
Notables in attendance: Shades & Debbie, John &
Lorrie Grieco, Rat, Betty & Donna, Dave & Carol, Sue &
Marcia, Lee from Car Hops East, Mike Shehee, E.J. & T.J.
July 20
- 2003 Donzi's (Bike Night) Strip District- Pittsburgh,
PA
The guys were still hot from the night before. Norman
noted that his face hurt. For some reason, it just
sounded great from the start. The first set featured a
lot of Norman's old bluesier numbers, like "Send You
Back", "Good Rockin' Man" and the sometimes scary "When
I die and go to Hell". The second set was all new songs,
except for Whitey doing a great version of "Shamalama
Ding Dong". It was a beautiful evening and a good time
was had by one and all.
Notables in Attendance: Chris & Eric, The Jan
Man, Gary Cow Pants, Biker Doug, former starting tackle
of the Pittsburgh Steelers, Justin Strelzyk who made
Norman really look short.
July 19
-2003 - Moondog's - Blawnox, PA
The guys kicked things off around 10:30p.m. and once
again performed almost all new songs for around an hour.
Then they brought up Norman's old friend from Junior
high school Frank Giove on guitar and Moondog's regular
Perry on harp. They performed old T-Bird's classic
"Walkin' To My Baby". Norman's "Bow Legged Woman" and
closed the set with a fired up version of "Got My Mojo
Workin". It was a great fired up first set. Norman and
the guys opened the second set on fire and quickly
brought up Wayne Baker Brooks (Lonnie Brook's son) on
guitar, Biscuit on bass and Mike on drums (Lonnie
Brook's rhythm section). These boys from Chicago kicked
ass in the true Chicago Blues tradition. They played 3
tunes and brought the house down. Thanks for comin' out
guys! Norman and his boys took back the stage with
Pittsburgh's own Jimmy Adler on guitar and performed the
old T-Bird's classic "Let's Start All Over Again". Then
before you knew it Wayne Baker Brooks came back up to
close out the night with Moondog singing lead on "I
Shall Be Released". Norman played a smokin solo and all
was right with the world. And if that wasn't enough,
around 2:15am, Rat Man came up and did a semi-nude
version of "Wasted Days and Wasted Nights" and pretty
much scared he shit out of everyone who was still
standin. There's a rumor goin around that Norman,
Whitey, Harry, Moondog and Wayne Brooks partied till 6
in the morning.
Notables in attendance: Gil & Sue, Patty, Mary &
Craig, a large gathering of rowdy's from the Blues
Festival dominated the audience.
July 18
- 2003 Moondog's - Blawnox, PA
After the Blues Festival Jam. The show didn't start till
11pm. but things got cookin real quick. Norman and the
guys played almost all new material in the first set.
The second set featured young Zack Weissinger who was
smokin'! He performed to old Norman's instrumentals
"Boilermaker" and "Nightclub". The Rat Man closed the
show with a sick version of "Blue Suede Shoes".
Notables in attendance: Gil & Sue, Patty &
Beverly, Grant & Tammy, Mark the Vet, Dave & Carol,
Craig workin' the door and Mary behind the bar.
July 18 - 2003 Pittsburgh
Blues Festival - Pittsburgh Brewing Company -
(Lawrenceville), Pittsburgh, PA
A beautiful evening with a nice crowd of all ages. The
Pittsburgh Blues All-Stars took the stage at around 8:15
with Zack Weissinger on guitar, Phil Bronson on tenor
sax, Bob Adelman on trumpet, Harry Bottoms on bass,
Whitey Cooper on drums and the manful handful on guitar.
Kicked off the show with the old Norman instrumental
"Bulldog" and got the whole house groovin'. Then Norm
called up super fine lady Shari Richards to sing Jimmy
Reed's "Hidin' and Peepin". In the middle of the song,
Annie Sutton found her way to the gig, walked on stage
in the middle of the song and finished it out. Timing is
everything. Then they called the star of the show,
Pittsburgh Blues Legend Chizmo Charles, to do his thing.
He kicked it off with "Woman Go to Work" so Annie &
Shari proceeded to go to work singin' and dancin' up a
storm. Chiz followed with "Stormy Monday Blues", then he
did an impromptu Happy Birthday to a lady in the crowd,
(Betsy)? Then everybody sang a verse of the old Canned
Heat tune "Work Together". Just goes to show how
beautiful it can be when everybody does work together.
They closed the set with the old "Shake Your
Moneymaker". How cool it was having Chizmo at 75 years
old singin' and Zack at 16 years old jammin' right along
on guitar. Two generations joined together in one
groove. Norman couldn't have been more proud.
July 3 -
2003 - Moondog's - Blawnox, PA
Not a big crowd, but definitely a fun crowd. July 4th
weekend is a tough time to get people out to the bars.
The band had a pretty good first set and did lot of the
newer material. Rat came out on the second set and sang
Me and Bobby McGee, while he ripped off his shirt and
pants. Underneath, he was wearing a coconut bra and a
hoola skirt! Norman said he messed up the words but no
one seemed to notice. Then, Moondog got up and sang a
great version of David Allen Coe's "You Don't Have To
Call Me Darlin" Also, the womb sisters got up and sang
background on "She's a friend of mine". They should be
friends, they used to be womb-mates cause they're twins!
Last but not least, Harry Bottoms sang the old Marty
Robbin's song "Singin The Blues"...Love that!
Notables in Attendance: Mary, our favorite
bartender, Craig, our favorite doorman, Rat & Crew, Ron,
Patty & Beverly, Gil & Sue |
