Make plans now for a busy musical weekend:

Eleven @ TNT Spring Bike Kickoff
When: Friday
Where: TNT Action Sports, 5101 Oak

Sounds like Summer
When: 6 p.m. Friday
Where: Turner Hall, 926 Hampshire

Rick Crider
When: 8 p.m. Friday
Where: Cellar 21, 121 N. Fourth

Cheeseburgers
When: 8:30 p.m. Friday
Where: One Restaurant & Bar, 600 Hampshire

Devon Clemons Band with Gracia Harrison
When: 8:30 p.m. Friday
Where: Lake Hill Winery, Carthage, Ill.

Logan Kammerer
When: 9:30 p.m. Friday
Where: State Street Bar & Grill, 1638 State

Shrimp Fest
When: 2 p.m. Saturday
Where: Ridge View Winery, Mount Sterling, Ill.

The Corners
When: 7 p.m. Saturday
Where: The Main Hangout, Palmyra, Mo.

Eleven
When: 8:30 p.m. Saturday
Where: The Dock, 1021 Bonansinga Drive

Big Deal
When: 8:30 p.m. Saturday
Where: Adams Trading Post, Liberty, Ill.

Karoake
with A.K.A. Entertainment
When: 9 p.m. Saturday
Where: State Street Bar & Grill, 1638 State

Cheeks McGee
When: 9 p.m. Saturday
Where: Cellar 21, 121 N. Fourth

Super Majik Robots
When: 9 p.m. Saturday
Where: One Restaurant & Bar, 600 Hampshire

Diamonds in the Rough
When: 6 p.m. Wednesday
Where: One Restaurant & Bar, 600 Hampshire

Dueling Pianos Dinner Show
When: 6 p.m. Friday
Where: Spirit Knob Winery, Ursa, Ill.

Steel Magnolia
When: 10 p.m. Friday
Where: Holler & Swaller Saloon, 137 N. Third

Kathy Brink & Mike Coultas
When: 7 p.m. Friday
Where: Cave Hollow Winery, Hannibal, Mo.

Tim Hart (acoustic)
When: 8:30 p.m. Friday
Where: One Restaurant & Bar, 600 Hampshire

Epic Music Showcase
When: 3 p.m. Saturday
Where: Tanyard Gardens, Hannibal, Mo.

Madd Hoss Jackson
When: 8:30 p.m. Saturday
Where: The Dock, 1021 Bonansinga Drive

Highway 99
When: 9 p.m. Saturday
Where: One Restaurant & Bar, 600 Hampshire

Highway 99
When: 2 p.m. Sunday
Where: Ridge View Winery, Mount Sterling, Ill.

Burt Shackleton (acoustic)
When: 6 p.m. Wednesday
Where: One Restaurant & Bar, 600 Hampshire

Mike Coultas
When: 3 p.m. Friday
Where: State Street Bar & Grill, 1638 State

Mcshack
(acoustic rock)
When: 8 p.m. Friday
Where: Cellar 21, 121 N. Fourth

3rd Violation
(rock)
When: 8:30 p.m. Friday
Where: One Restaurant & Bar, 600 Hampshire

Ben Bumbry & The Messengers
(blues and jazz)
When: 9 p.m. Saturday
Where: Cellar 21, 121 N. Fourth

Raised On Radio
When: 8 p.m. Saturday
Where: Elk’s Lodge, 311 N. Second

Pimpkatz
When: 8:30 p.m. Saturday
Where: The Dock, 1021 Bonansinga Drive

Harlot
(Classic Rock/ Alternative)
When: 9 p.m. Saturday
Where: One Restaurant & Bar, 600 Hampshire

Sally Weisenberg
When: 2 p.m. Sunday
Where: Ridge View Winery, Mount Sterling

Dueling Pianos Dinner Show
When: 6 p.m. Friday, May 10
Where: Spirit Knob Winery, Ursa
Kathy Brink & Mike Coultas
When: 7 p.m. Friday, May 10
Where: Cave Hollow Winery, Hannibal, Mo.

Tim Hart
(acoustic)
When: 8:30 p.m. Friday, May 10
Where: One Restaurant & Bar, 600 Harrison

Kathy Brink & Mike Coultas
When: 7 p.m. Friday
Where: Cave Hollow West Winery, Hannibal, Mo.

WHEN WORLDS COLLIDE 4
Against All Odds, Bout Money, Somewhere In Between, KMF, JR The Jerk, Blaze of 5 Star, HME, RME With Yng Swaga, Krazy Caucasionz, MME
WHEN:7 p.m. Friday
WHERE: Turner Hall, 926 Hampshire; $5 at the door

Ketchem Louden
(acoustic/rock)
When: 8:30 p.m. Friday
Where: One Restaurant & Bar, 600 Hampshire

The Mckay Brothers
When: 9:30 p.m. Friday
Where: State Street Bar & Grill, 1638 State

Crazy Horse
When: 10 p.m. Friday
Where: Holler & Swaller Saloon, 137 N. Third

Spring Dance with Wreckingball band
When: 8 p.m. Saturday
Where: Keokuk Yacht Club, Keokuk, Iowa

Big Deal
(country/classic rock)
When: 9 p.m. Saturday
Where: One Restaurant & Bar, 600 Hampshire

Time Well Spent
When: 2 p.m. Sunday
Where: Ridge View Winery, Mount Sterling, Ill.

Pepper Spray
(dinner and dancing)
When: 6 p.m. Sunday
Where: One Restaurant & Bar, 600 Hampshire

Seven Days Fuller
(pop/folk)
When: 8:30 p.m. Friday, April 19
Where: One Restaurant & Bar, 600 Hampshire

I miss vinyl records. For one thing, it is way more cool to say record than CD. For example: “Burn by Deep Purple is a great CD” or “Burn by Deep Purple, that’s a great record” Case closed. By the way if you do not own this album, go get it now and read this later.

Also, records are big. You cannot lose them in your car or in the couch cushions. They usually have pictures and liner notes that can actually be seen by the human eye too!

But, I think my very favorite thing about records is that they are not portable. They control where you listen. There is no pause or skip button, and you risk scratching trying to do either of those things. They were designed to play to the end. After all, there is only one groove on each side. One path for the needle to travel over. You are just along for the ride.

Van Dyke

It is the perfect metaphor for life itself. Short silence at the beginning and long silence at the end. Then you have to re-dress the record in its inner sleeve and jacket when you are through with it. Records are like the ‘high maintenance’ girlfriend/boyfriend of the audio world. You have to treat them right or you will be sorry.

They are starting to make a comeback as more people begin to realize just how great they are. A lot of artists are again starting to release their work on vinyl and I for one could not be happier. There is even a ‘vinyl store’ on Amazon.com. Now, if we could only get neighborhood record stores back. Maybe when I am rich, I will open one. If you are rich, a store like this would be an excellent hobby.

I just realized that I have not really been breaking down anything, so perhaps my blog has been misnamed. In order to save the trouble of making changes, I will start breaking something down somewhere in each blog from now on or something like that. For now, I guess I will list some of my favorite musical breakdowns. In my opinion a musical breakdown can be one of two things. It can be a slowing down and quieting in a song or it can be a a portion of a song that goes in another musical direction. Maybe they are really just instrumental breaks or a bridge, but I can call them whatever I want and so can you!

One that jumps out at me right away is Over the Hills and Far Away by Led Zeppelin, mainly because I just heard it. The breakdown occurs at approximately the 2:32 mark and goes on for about 30 seconds. They have quite a few other songs with interesting breakdowns. Fool in the Rain is a good one. I suggest getting all of their records and start pointing out the 50 or so that I did not mention here. Also, try and notice how it sounds almost like actual human beings are playing the music. I know, it is weird.

Almost any song by James Brown will have a breakdown that is fabulous. The best thing to do with James Brown is to get some of his studio records and some of his live records and compare the same tracks between them. The studio records will slap you around a little, then the live stuff will knock you into next week. His band is just ferocious.

Heavy metal songs tend to have about 30 breakdowns in them apiece. From the early days of Black Sabbath through Iron Maiden, older Metallica and Tool, to Mastodon and Gojira and everywhere in between, metal breakdowns are sometimes brutal, sometimes beautiful, sometimes humorous, but always entertaining to me.

So what are some of your favorite breakdowns? Leave them in the comments and I will check them out. I am always looking for new music.

Keep supporting real live music and real food. You should only do Karaoke and fast food in moderation. Keep your suggestions coming, then stay tuned for my next breakdown, which will be about ways to get ideas for a music blog.

— DVD

Mike Coultas and Kathy Brink Acoustic Duo
(acoustic)
WHEN: Friday, 7 p.m.
WHERE: Mark Twain Cave, West Winery, Hannibal, Mo.

Royal Bliss, Bobaflex and Wayland (rock)
WHEN: 8 p.m. Friday
WHERE: Johnny’s, 138 N. Front St.

Comedy night, Skippy from “Family Ties” with Fryman and Denise Ramsden
WHEN: 8 p.m. Friday
WHERE: Spirit Knob Winery, Ursa

Flood Plane (Southern rock/blues)
WHEN: 8:30 p.m. Friday
WHERE: One Restaurant & Bar, 600 Hampshire, Quincy

The McCaughey Brothers (blues)
WHEN: 9 p.m. Friday
WHERE: Cellar 21, Quincy, 121 N. Fourth, Quincy

Festive Sounds Family Concert with the Quincy Symphony Orchestra, Chorus and Youth Chorus
WHEN: 3 p.m. Saturday
WHERE: Quincy Junior High School, Morrison Theater; Adults $15, Seniors $12, children free

7 Days Fuller with guest Katie Jean
WHEN: 8:30 p.m. Saturday
WHERE: One Restaurant & Bar, 600 Hampshire, Quincy

Captain Geech & The Shrimp Shack Shooters (Top 40)
WHEN: 8:30 p.m. Saturday
WHERE: Johnny’s, 138 N. Front St.

Overdraft (classic rock)
WHEN: 8:30 p.m. Saturday
WHERE: Adams Trading Post, Liberty; cover charge

Ketcham Louden Live (acoustic/rock)
WHEN: 9 p.m. Saturday
WHERE: Cellar 21, Quincy, 121 N. Fourth, Quincy

Barrington Wildfire (acoustic)
WHEN: 2 p.m. Sunday
WHERE: Ridge View Winery, Mount Sterling

Cheeks McGee (acoustic)
WHEN: 2:30 p.m. Sunday
WHERE: Lake Hill Winery, Carthage

Big River Swing Machine (swing)
WHEN: 7:30 p.m. Wednesday
WHERE: One Restaurant & Bar, 600 Hampshire, Quincy

Van Dyke

I think this causes a lot more mediocre songs to get on the albums. The same problem has been caused by recording technology. There is so much available to an artist that there is little room for creativity any more. If you want a sound, you can just dial it up on the computer or on a synthesizer. It is way easier to do that than go find someone to play it. It is kind of like frozen dinners. They are cheap and easy, but what do they taste like?

As you may know, I am old. That means that the first section of my music collection contains records, the second section contains cassette tapes and the third contains CDs. My collection also has a digital wing, which houses all my CDs plus an ever-growing pile of MP3s. It took many an evening (and a couple of CD drives) to get all of the CDs digitized. I completed that process about seven or eight years ago.

My turntable broke back in the late ‘90s and I never replaced it. I spent the last few years looking at ways to be able to convert my albums to digital. I was online and found some turntables with a USB cable and software designed to do just that. I was on the checkout screen many times, but was just not able to bring myself to submit the order. I got in the habit of looking at them when I saw them at stores and in the ads from the Sunday paper. I guess my wife noticed, because she got me one for Christmas last year.

So, I managed to get the thing hooked up, converted my first album, and it worked great. The only problem is that unless your records are absolutely scratchless, you have to manually insert the breaks between songs. This means that you have to sit nearby and click on the “next song” button. In other words, you have to actually listen to the entire album. I was not thrilled with this idea until I converted my second album and realized how awesome a situation this was.

First of all, this is something my wife gave me as a gift. If I enjoy it, that makes her happy. Couple that with the “torture” of sitting all by myself in the basement forced to listen to some music that I had not heard in years. Surrounded by an assortment of records and beverages, I dive into the vaults several times a week and find some absolute classics, good and bad. The great albums stick to the 45 minutes or less idea, so I am able to get through them at a good rate.

Here are a few of the “treasures” I found:

Aerosmith – Live Bootleg: This is probably one of the best live albums I ever heard. Joe Perry and the boys at their absolute best. It has really cool packaging that is supposed to make it look like an actual bootleg recording. They even “forgot” to list one of the tracks on the cover.

Jesus Christ Superstar: At the recommendation of my friend, Ryan McKay, I bought this album for a dollar at the Salvation Army store on Maine Street even though I had no turntable. It features Ian Gillian of Deep Purple, Murray Head, and Yvonne Elleman. It is kind of an oddity, but has some cool parts on it.

Paul Simon – Still Crazy After All These Years: A great, mellow album. His third solo record. If you are not a fan of Paul Simon or Simon and Garfunkel, today would be a good day to check into it.

King Diamond – Abigail: The King’s vocal style is just crazy. It was priceless to see my kid’s faces when they heard the opening verse of “The Family Ghost.” It is a concept album about something evil. Oops, spoiler alert!

The Rolling Stones – Their Satanic Majesties Request: The cover of this one was too weird to avoid buying it. It has a 3D picture glued to it and if you hold it right, you can find the faces of all four Beatles, among other things. It has some good moments, but I cannot say it is anywhere near their best work.

Barry Manilow Live: Actually, this belongs to my aunt, but it is here. I spun it and it is not terrible. There is a silly medley of commercial jingles in there, the hits, and the misses.

George Carlin – Occupation Foole: The first comedy record I ever heard. George was one of the funniest people who ever lived. I know this is a music blog, but the comedy album is a lost art form as well.

Forever – Forever and Ever: The first local music I ever bought. While listening to this one, I was back at the Starlite all those years ago getting my face ripped apart by Steve McCarley’s shredding guitar solos. Steve, along with Ray Burke, Kevin Tanner, and Jack Emerick were the founding and only members of Forever (at least to my knowledge). There are some good songs on this record. Check it out if you can.

I could go on for hours with what is left, but I think that gets the point across. While I listened to these and many others, I got the whole album experience again. I do not think it will be the same when I get to the tapes. Did I mention there is an input jack for a tape deck? Well, I will cross that bridge when I get to it. For now, I will continue my Dr. Johnny Fever impersonation and keep the records spinning. More music and Les Nessman …

Yes, I am that old …

— Don Van Dyke

Van Halen

Hello, my name is Don, and I am a music snob. I will be sharing my opinions on various subjects with music being the main one, of course. Every once in a while, I will put out one of these blogs just to empty my head. So, they will be short most of the time. I will try to relate them to something current or local whenever possible. Since this is my first blog, I hope you will give me some room for improvement. Any suggestions or comments are welcome!

Van Dyke

There is a new Van Halen album this month. This is the first album they have recorded with David Lee Roth since 1983. While this reunion is not at the same excitement level for me as a reunion of the original Beatles, it is quite a bit higher than the level for a possible Color Me Badd reunion. I am not going to get into all the chatter about the songs being remakes of material they started writing decades ago. It is new to me. It is their music; they can put it out however they want. I wish them the best of luck, and I will probably get the new album. I would like to say it was because I thought they were still a great band, but it will probably be because it is on sale for five bucks. Without Michael Anthony, it is a tough sell. He made the whole sound with his vocals.

Why a reunion? Probably because they figured out that changing singers once and remaining successful was the exception that proves the rule. Usually, if you change singers and try to carry on, it does not go well. Just ask Motley Crue, they replaced Vince Neil with a singer for a few years, and it did not work out very well at all. Vince came back, and they made a mountain of money. They had two of their most successful tours without producing any new music worth listening to. They even landed a residency at the Hard Rock Hotel in Las Vegas. They had a crazy stage show, but… well, you can look on YouTube to see what I am getting at.

I think the whole reunion craze started with the Eagles and the trailer loads of cash they hauled in on their 1994-96 tour. Kiss had a reunion of the original members soon after, and toured the world in their 1976 makeup. Then, they put out an album nearly unparalleled in its awfulness and toured the world again, making millions. Fleetwood Mac had a reunion around the same time, so did Black Sabbath, The E street band, and many others. Roger Waters even had a reunion with Pink Floyd at the Live 8 concerts a few years back. I was sure I would never see that. It is a shame that they couldn’t have done something else together before Rick Wright passed away.

At the other end of the spectrum are the bands that continue with only one or two of the original members. Guns N’ Roses comes to mind. Kiss is doing this now, too. They say it is because the makeup is bigger than the band members. I guess it is bigger than the panda bears they sell with the makeup designs on them too. I guess when your band becomes a “brand” you gotta ride that horse until it drops.

It makes you wonder why bands split up in the first place. I look at it this way: Most bands start out as just a group of friends. In order to be successful, they spend almost all of their time together. A lot of bands have lived together in a house or apartment for years trying to make it in the music business. They are like a family. It’s all for one and one for all because the band is what is important. This can work for a while, even for many years, but eventually it begins to wear on you. Especially when alcohol, drugs and other substances like success come into the picture. At some point, people need space from each other. A band that is successful or trying to be does not provide much space, so things tend to get amplified and yesterday’s disagreements settled after a few beers and couple games of pool turn into today’s fistfights settled after an arrest or a management ultimatum. Someone quits the band or gets fired. The band is too big and probably owes too much money to the record company to stop, so a new member is brought in and they soldier on.

It is just like most families. The only difference is that you tend to move out of the house at some point after you become adults. Has anyone been in a confined space like an RV with their family when everyone was an adult? How did that go? Pretty well if you drove for three or fewer hours. If it was longer, I bet you were ready to leave the band when it was over or maybe fire a couple of members. The only problem is that you and I cannot plug DJ Ashba or Wolfgang Van Halen into the chairs around our Thanksgiving tables.

I think it was Joe Perry from Aerosmith who once told his drummer that they did not have to be friends to be in a band together. This may be a cold, heartless thing to say, but it is the truth.

Based on all of this, I will give this advice to those in bands today: Try not to spend all of your free time with your band mates. Find other interests, even a side band or doing solo music. Make every rehearsal and show a reunion, so you do not have to have one for the wrong reasons later. It has been said that if you love what you do, you will never work a day in your life. Unfortunately, this does not apply to the music industry. That is why very few bands survive anymore. I will get into that more in later blogs. For now, remember the two rules some very wise friends shared with me. One: Less is more. This applies to every facet of music except, of course, for volume. Two: Look for quality rather than quantity. This applies to music and just about everything else.

Don Van Dyke

Six String Heroes

OK, this is the final blog for me. Next up is the Don Van Dyke show. I appreciate Jess at the Local Q asking me to write the blog for a couple months and for all the kind words from those on Facebook that read my ramblings.

Those of you that know me, know that I’m originally from Quincy, but moved to St. Louis about 10 years ago. I worked too many hours and traveled way too much the first five years here and decided I needed to make some changes in my life. I decided that I really wanted to spend more time with my family and that I wanted to focus more on helping people, rather than making money. Easy to say but much harder to do. I was able to start teaching online college classes, which meant working from home — great start — but was still looking for a way to help people.

A couple of years ago, I saw a story in a guitar magazine about a national organization called Guitars for Vets, which taught military veterans how to play guitar to help them with PTSD, depression, memory issues, and other problems. A chaplain named JR Harris at Jefferson Barracks in St. Louis had recently started a chapter, so I decided that was my calling. Combining my love of guitar with helping veterans — there couldn’t possibly be a better mix for me. I met with JR, Kevin Sullivan, and army veteran, Derek Milles, who were all teaching in the program and it felt like home the first night.

Fast forward six months and we were doing some great things for Veterans in St. Louis, however, Guitars For Vets had some growing pains and we were in high growth mode in St. Louis, so we decided to go it alone. By this time, JR had been transferred to Las Vegas and army veteran Mike Petty had started to help. We decided by going it alone, we could raise money locally and keep the funds in St. Louis to grow and run our own program. Six String Heroes at Jefferson Barracks was born on Feb. 22, 2011.

I’m proud to say that almost immediately after starting the program, the great folks in Quincy were supporting our efforts. In addition to various donations directly to me on my visits back to Quincy, Second String Music and the Vancil Performing Arts Center sold about 150 shirts and took in about 15 guitars in the last eight months.

I wrote a blog post about the reality of music therapy a few weeks ago. In it, I said that I see that it’s real every week when I give guitar lessons to veterans. We’ve had comments such as, “this is the best part of my week, I never thought I ‘d look forward to Monday nights (our lesson nights),” ”I’m glad the program is there, I’m a lot more focused on my actual life now.” I’ve been stopped in my tracks and fought back tears when I tried to explain to a student that he’s putting his fingers in the wrong place for a chord and then noticed that the top half of one of his fingers is missing from a mortar blast, so he has adjusted to using his remaining fingers to fret the chord. That same student has helped me change my entire outlook on life in a positive way, so I definitely get as much as I give.

Stoner

I’m proud to announce that in conjunction with Second String Music’s one year anniversary (the day after ours), we have implemented a Quincy chapter of Six String Heroes. Second String Music and the Vancil Performing Arts Center will be working together to provide lessons to qualified veterans and Six String Heroes will be providing the guitars and accessories for the program.

The basics of the program are:

1) The program is designed to help military veterans, who as a result of their military service are suffering from PTSD, depression, battle fatigue, memory issues, social anxiety, a physical injury, or similar problem.

2) The first step to enter the program is to fill out an application available from Second String Music or by e-mailing Six String Heroes at sshstl@gmail.com.

3) If all criteria are met, the veteran schedules their lessons with Second String Music and receives 6 free guitar lessons. A loaner student guitar is provided by Six String Heroes for the lessons. After the 6 lessons, the veteran is awarded their own new guitar, a gig bag (case), and accessories and is encouraged to continue on with their lessons or join a guitar group in order to continue learning.

All guitars and funding to Six String Heroes is provided through personal donations. A Quincy benefit is being planned for June 30, 2012, at Turner Hall. Please make plans to attend and contact us at sshstl@gmail.com if you would like to help in any way.

May your seas be still and your sky be blue,

Steve Stoner