Carlson's Corner

This last week found me with the busiest performing schedule in years. Four gigs, four days. The best part, each of the four shows were completely different: Wednesday June 24th, I hosted open mic at Intermission. This was the first time in over a decade I have hosted a formal open mic. Sure, I have 'invited guests, regularly, but this was a bit different. It was a great night with performances by Will Yates, the one and only Jerry Duginski, Rob Piehl, and instrumentalist Tom Cat. Friday June 26th I performed at the CVA for the Wisconsin Visual Atrists' Guilds "Rhythm & Blues 2009" gallery opening. This show found me performing totally acoustic guitar, no singing. It has been quite a while since I performed as an instrumentalist (in fact the last time was at a previous CVA Gallery Opening). Friday June 26th - I sat in with The Townies at Malarkey's on percussion. That's right, percussion. Years ago I used to sit in with Mary and The Mercenaries and jam wit...

'It’s been a while since you’ve been around A stranger to this town - An empty lost and found' When Love Dies from the forthcoming Jim Carlson album Further Out For the last four months, I've been quiet. It is not that things are not happening, I'd just rather not talk about the details (or the generalities, for that matter). I've started several posts and writing them has been reflective and therapeutic, but I just couldn't hit the 'publish' button. Sometimes this media seems rather self indulgent. Musically, things have been interesting. On the Saturday before Saint Patrick's Day, The Jim Carlson Trio hit the stage at Mickey's Billiards with an unconventional line up that included John Hocker on bass along with former Les Nillissen Band drummer Dave Keefe and Cool Hand front man Rob Piehl on rhythm / lead guitar. The trio was once again a four piece. Now it is not unusual to see Rob and I on stage together, but historically I'm playing r...