Archival Buffalo News feature articles

  True disciples of Stan Szelest, these guys went forth and did a lot of likewise. See the Footnote:   July 29, 1972 A Mix of Southern Boogie and Blues   THE EGG CRATES begin at the ceiling and come down the wall to about chest level.           “That’s our $600 soundproofing job,” Phil Gallo chuckles as the photographer inadvertently bumps a crate and it falls.           Push another crate and the brass chandelier with the imitation candle-flame light bulbs glows with displaced elegance among the spare chairs and the bare walls in the ground floor apartment a couple blocks south of Buffalo State University College . The place is nicknamed Nasty Manors.           “The décor here is 20th Century poverty,” cracks harmonica player Seth Holzman with characteristic irony. * * * THE SIX MEMBERS of Rosco & The Red Hots can joke about the shabby room and being poor, ...

  Everybody I wrote about up to this point moved on to other things. Now meet someone who stayed.   July 22, 1972   Jeff’s Gentle Folk Songs Stir Listeners His Voice Is ‘Smooth, Filled With Emotion’   SINGER-SONGWRITER Steve Goodman, who hails from Chicago , came to UB for a concert last April and the show just slipped Jeff Goldstein’s mind.         He didn’t recall it until about 2:30 a.m. when some of his friends called from Jerry Raven’s Limelight Gallery coffeehouse and said they had somebody who wanted to talk to him. It was Goodman.           “I can’t thank you enough for doin’ my songs out here,” he told Jeff. “Everybody around here knows my songs.”           What convinced Goodman that someone was out spreading the word were the requests for the satirical “ Lincoln  Towing Company” – a song which isn’t on his album. Somebody must have picked it u...

  News flash! Hippies invade country music mecca.   July 8, 1972   Just an Ol’ Country Band – Or Is It More? The Clover Sweetens Despite the Long Hair                   “Other groups have to do stuff to attract the crowd’s attention,” drawls Wild Bill Houston, “you know, like dirty songs, but we don’t have that problem. They’re lookin’ at us already."           No doubt about it, when they climb onto the stage at the Club Utica, the mecca of country music in Buffalo , Wild Bill & The Sweet Clover Boys really have something extra.           And that’s hair.           Sure, Merle Haggard ain’t bald and you can’t even see Johnny Cash’s collar in back, but these guys look like refugees from a love-in or something.           Wild Bill knows all this. And he...

          The endless delights of the summer of 1972 peaked on this weekend in Toronto . I spent three days at the Mariposa Folk Festival, which then was on Toronto Islands , and retreated at night to the Royal York , the grand old Canadian railway hotel just a short walk from the ferry. Coincidentally, there also was a major concert that weekend in Maple Leaf Gardens , for which I also had a review ticket.           Here’s my Mariposa dispatch, which appeared in Saturday’s paper (no Sunday edition back then). I forget how I transmitted it from Toronto , though. Either I sent it from the nearby Western Union office or dictated it over the phone to one of the copy aides back in Buffalo .     Taj Mahal Shatters the Idyllic Cool   TORONTO , July 15 – It was the old story of high-powered Americans against low-key Canadians Friday as the Mariposa Folk Festival opened on Toronto Islands . It continues today a...

  One of the best concerts I ever witnessed. Perhaps that’s because I was particularly attuned to the charms of their newest album, “Exile on Main Street .” Hot Rolling Stones Get It Off, Steam Up the Crowd in Fine Show   TORONTO , July 17 – “I been waitin’ seven years for this.” It was that kind of determination that thwarted Toronto Metro Police at the second Rolling Stones concert in Maple Leaf Gardens Saturday night every time they tried to clear the aisles. But most of it was good-natured. The police could even nod hello after the concert. The place was a veritable steam room. By the time the Stones got to their grand finale in “Midnight Rambler,” spray was flying from Mick Jagger’s dripping hair and from his hands. Jagger is one of the world’s ultimate showmen, as carefully in control as Elvis Presley, but far nearer the edge of Frenzy. And while Presley’s appeal is mainly to women, Jagger makes more of an impact on guys. * * * MAYBE IT’S because th...

  Here’s a future so bright, I had to wear shades just to transcribe it:   June 24, 1972 Pro Football’s Al Fortune Leads a Busy Life He’s Also a Concert Promoter, Singer and College Student   HENRY ALFORD Jr. is in Mexico City this particular afternoon and it’s beautiful, but there’s a lot of Buffalo on his mind.           After all, he was born here Feb. 27, 1950, went to East Side public schools and besides, he’d just been home a few days ago, popping in from Pittsburgh to see his folks on Locust Street.           Then he flew off again to New York City and a disappointing session with the agency that was supposed to send him Cold Blood for a Pittsburgh concert. Then, without breaking stride, he headed south of the border. * * * BUT HERE he is, calling Buffalo . About the time the phone connection starts to clear up, Henry, who goes by the name of Al Fortune these days, is saying: ...