May 18, 2007 Friday
CENTRAL EDITION
SECTION: GUSTO; Pg. G22

LENGTH: 473 words

HEADLINE: Time to party;
A little tavern finds a niche with 'private' music shows

BYLINE: BY SEAMUS GALLIVAN - Special to The News

BODY:


Dwane Hall and his Sportsmen's Tavern share an unassuming appearance -- you could easily pass either without noticing the big things brewing inside.

While long-heralded for its friendly vibe and dedication to local music, Hall's Black Rock bar is breaking new ground by making bold moves that are bound to pay off big. In addition to his national role in the business chapter of the NASCAR Official Members Club, and the Unplugged Guitar Club, anchored from his Sessions Recording Studio next door, Hall has hit a new high in launching the Private Party Series, which will feature a sold-out show from Austin, Texas-based "Ameripolitan" luminary Dale Watson on Monday.

Watson's show will be the third straight sold-out installment in the series, after last week's visit by honky-tonk hammer and Commander Cody vet Bill Kirchen and the February show with Grammy-winning singer-songwriter Dave Alvin that inspired the entire affair.

Hall admits that he and Ken Biringer, who shares booking duties at the Sportsmen, completely stumbled onto the idea. "Kenny just walked in and said he got a call from Dave Alvin, and I said, 'We'd never be able to afford him,' " he recalled. "He said, 'Let's take a risk and sell tickets, and see what happens.' We put the flier up and out to our mailing list, and people were tripping over each other with wallets and cell phones out. It sold out in eight days."

Intent on creating an exclusive event, Hall and Biringer make all initial announcements only to the Tavern faithful -- even polling them for input on potential artists for the series.

And word is already getting around. "We've had people buy tickets from as far as Toronto and Watertown," said Biringer. "I don't know how they found out about it."

True to form, Hall's modesty is as legendary as his loyalty to musicians. "We're not doing anything extraordinary here," he claimed. "You just can't be afraid to take some risks.

"What makes it real cool is I can afford to pay more money to the bands, especially with the price of gas now. I don't believe in a cover charge, so I don't want to make money on the cover. I get the bar, and the entire cover charge goes to the artist."

Kirchen confirms the Sportsmen's status in the honky-tonk hierarchy. "I love the place," he said. "Ken and Dwane are great guys, and huge in the way they treat musicians. They're not just bottom-line guys -- they truly understand and appreciate what it means to be a musician on the road."

While they're negotiating with numerous artists, on the docket already is a June 24 visit by Texas troubadour Billy Joe Shaver, and an October show with "Queen of Rockabilly" Wanda Jackson that's nearly sold-out.

Already well-ingrained, Hall is hitting his stride by carving his niche. "All it is is a little tavern," he insisted. "We're finally realizing that we're unique to Buffalo."

LOAD-DATE: May 18, 2007

A Good Sport on Amherst

by queenseyes

I am sure that you have heard of the Sportsmen's Tavern by now. I mean, the place has been around since 1907! The Sportsmen is currently busy bringing some of the best local (and not so local) music acts to Buffalo. Once you have seen a show at this neighborhood hangout the vibe may be too much and you may become one of the tavern’s many regulars. The Sportsmen features live music seven nights a week, and just recently added homemade food to its repertoire. Yup, the tavern is now serving basic bar food (lunches and dinners), including paninis, fish fries, souvlakis and crab cakes. That's good to know considering the amount of time that one may spend at this watering hole.

Really, with musicians and bands like Maria Sebastian, Stone Country, HubCap, Bobbie Fulks, Ron Davis and Ray Hogan, Dee Adams, John Culliton Mahoney, Ed Bentley, Chris Scruggs, Mark Winsick, No Effect, Mr. Conrad, Doug Yeomans, John Lombardo and Mary Ramsey, CreekBend, Jerry Darlak, and of course the house band The Sportsmen there really is no dull night to be found. The musicians previously noted are all making appearances throughout month! And get this... there is no cover to see any of this live music.

If you want to schedule a night to enjoy their live music, just check out The Sportsmen's up-to-date website. Or just pay them a visit any night at 326 Amherst Street in Buffalo. 716-874-7734

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Copyright 2005 The Buffalo News
Buffalo News (New York)

SECTION: GUSTO; Pg. G2

LENGTH: 545 words

HEADLINE: TELL ME

BODY:


"The older the fiddle, the sweeter the tune," says an Irish proverb. So, too, says anyone who's been to the Sportsman's Tavern on a Thursday night to see Buffalo's legendary honky-tonk heroes Stone Country (Dwane Hall, guitar, vocals; Carl Eddy, guitar, vocals; Paul Iannello, lead guitar; John Dieckman, pedal steel; Jimmy Sweet, bass; Randy Bolam, drums), who this month celebrate 30 years of kickin' up boot heels here and beyond.

In the late '70s, the band had residences at local mainstays from Nashville North to the Executive. Into the '80s, it toured heavily and had multiple hit records. In 1991, the band gambled it all on a one-shot showcase in Nashville, only to have a vicious ice storm shut down both the town and their dreams.

But at 9:30 p.m. Thursday in the Sportsman (326 Amherst St., 874-7734), which Hall owns, the honkiest, tonkiest band in town still packs 'em in, and at his expansive Sessions Recording Studio next door, he reflected on three decades of Stone Country.

How have you kept such a loyal following for 30 years?

We play that hardcore country that everybody loves, and we love doing it. Buck Owens, Merle Haggard -- guys like Dale Watson, who's putting out great new stuff that doesn't get any radio play. People love his stuff, and we tell them, "Hey, this is new. If you see it at a record store, pick it up."

I understand Stone Country had a good run at the record store, too, for a while.

Around '83, '84, we signed a deal with Lenny Silver and Amherst Records to play "The Curly Shuffle," and it got to No. 150 on Billboard, but then we got sued -- we had Stooges sound effects in the background. Then we released "The Rodeo Song" as Sonny Jim the Stagecoach Riders, and that sold over 100,000 copies on the East Coast.

How devastating was the ice storm before your Nashville showcase?

That damn ice storm knocked us right out. All that heartbreak knocked the wind right out of us. So we took maybe eight, nine months off, and by then I had the new bar with the stage, and I said, "Let's play every Thursday night." Now the place is just mobbed every week. We know each other so well we don't even rehearse. Sometimes we play stump the band, and we do pretty well.

Unless it's a line dance -- I hear you're not a fan of the Nashville ballet.

In the early '90s, line dancing literally killed country music. People who just wanted to have fun would get kicked off the dance floor by these water-drinkin' disco holdovers. They really put a stomp on what a honky-tonk bar should be.

I can't see it going over at the Sportsman.

Ain't got no room to line dance over there! Ain't got room for much, but that's part of the draw, isn't it?

The magic of why the Sportsman works is that people sit right on top of the band, and vice versa. You're under the microscope, so you better play -- and Stone Country is a well-oiled machine. Randy -- the only guy that's never wavered in 30 years -- stopped counting after 5,000 shows, and that was at least seven years ago. We had our shots -- now we just do it for the love of the music, and we have more fun than when we were trying to make it. When the weather gets cold, and it gets a little depressing outside, you can always count on Stone Country to be there -- and we'll keep it country.

-- Seamus Gallivan

GRAPHIC: Stone Country

LOAD-DATE: January 16, 2005

SECTION: GUSTO, Pg. 20G

LENGTH: 1271 words

HEADLINE: MUSIC CITY MELODRAMA HOW A GREAT BUFFALO BAND GAMBLED IT;
ALL ON ONE NIGHT IN NASHVILLE

BYLINE: Gregory N. Racz-News staff Reporter

BODY:
Dwane Hall and his Stone Country Band knew they couldn't wait much longer for fame and fortune. Nearing 40 years old and with bills piling up, the members of the Buffa lo band pooled about $ 15,000 from their savings accounts and booked a one-night gig in a Nashville club. They reserved hotel rooms, drove south in a van, and vowed to take Music City by storm. Instead, the storm

Nashville's worst in decades -- took them. Fallen trees clogged roads and downed power lines, leaving 500,000 people without electricity and shutting down Music City on the very night Stone Country Band hoped to light it up. They played to a virtually empty house.

Two days later, Hall and the band left Nashville and their dreams behind. Nine months later Stone Country Band broke up.

That was last year. Now, Hall and some of the band members are at it again.

The story of what happened to one of Western New York's greatest country bands starts with Hall, its lead singer.

Hall's quest for country music stardom began at an early age. Part of a musical Black Rock family of eight children, Hall learned to play the guitar by grade school. At 9, he earned his first dollar playing to the public. And by 12 he had his own band, rocking at local jamborees.

After a stint in the Marine Corps did nothing to quash his love of country music, Hall hooked up with a band, North Country, out of Niagara Falls. The group played at least six nights a week, but Hall and some of the members wanted to hit the road and play to larger audiences.

So in 1974, Hall, along with Randy Bolam, Bud Webber and Hall's brother J.C., formed the Stone Country Band. The group's sound -- country with a whisper of rock -- caught on.

"Stone Country had a swing about them dancers loved. They drew better than any other band in town," said Danny Rose, executive vice president of Stardust Records, who spends half his year in Buffalo, half in Nashville.

"Stone Country was the best band in the city. They were the only ones to have a fan club."

Stone Country was invited to play across the country, from the Dakotas to Arkansas to New England. Fans in Europe signed onto the fan club's mailing list.

In an industry that promises riches more often than it delivers them, Hall's and the band's prospects looked good.

"I told my wife I would give the music business five years," Hall said.

Hoping to catch the notice of country bigwigs, the band, using members' savings and loans from friends, produced its first album, "Ridin' Alone," in 1979. But music executives did not call.

Even though five years turned into 10, and his family started to grow, Hall remained unwilling to let go of his dream to crack the country national scene. To support and prolong his musical career, and to help pay the bills, he opened the Sportsman's Tavern, on Grant Street.

Other band members struck similar deals. Randy Bolam worked during the days as a remodeler; Bud Webber tended bar, and stacked crates in warehouses.

After weathering a brief split in the late 1980s -- "I was getting tired of the rat race," one member said -- the band vowed to stay together. But by 1993, band members knew it was make-or-break time.

So they agreed to hold what's called a showcase, a one-night, all-out, hear-me-roar gig designed to wow Nashville music executives into a bidding war for their services.

The band emptied $ 15,000 from savings accounts and spent more than a year planning. They sent special invitations to dozens of record labels; hired Mark Ammo, a local promoter, to work the phones; rented a Nashville club, and paid up front for food and drinks for all the guests.

They practiced night and day and sent demo tapes ahead. In early February 1994, with Buffalo mired in snow and in the grip of the worst winter in years, Stone Country Band set out for Nashville. Friends and family members followed.

"We left Buffalo and it was 17 degrees, and we arrived in Nashville on Tuesday and it was 70 degrees," said Webber, the band's bassist.

"I remember standing in jeans and a T-shirt on the sidewalk in front of the hotel. It was gorgeous."

Added Bolam, the band's drummer: "We were so optimistic and feeling good being in Nashville. There's a certain air about the city."

After 20 years of playing honky-tonk to sometimes rinky-dink crowds, it was supposed to be their breakthrough moment:

Nashville. Feb. 9, 1994.

Then the unthinkable happened.

"We went to bed and it was 70 degrees. But we woke up the next morning and it was in the 20s and freezing rain," Webber said.

"I don't want to sound melodramatic, but the ice hit the fan."

He was right, literally. Inches of ice accumulated, weighing on and breaking tree limbs, which then cluttered roads and downed power lines. By 2 p.m., the city shut down as people jumped into their cars and headed home. he next day, the Nashville Tennessean reported that the governor had declared a state of emergency and that hundreds of thousands lacked light and heat, making the 1994 storm far worse than the icy blast in 1989 that threw 70,000 Tennesseans into darkness.

"That was the worst storm in almost 40 years at the time. I think we can safely say this one's worse," Nashville Electric Service spokeswoman Teresa Corlew told the Tennessean in 1994.

But Stone Country Band didn't need to wait to read the next day's paper to know that the bad weather was bad news.

"As we were driving to the club, people were driving north, outbound, away from where the showcase was being held," said one band member.

"Everybody was trying to get home; they're not used to the weather. It was like a demolition derby on the highway," said another.

A handful of people showed up to a club that could seat hundreds. But with $ 15,000 already spent and no refunds or second chances possible, Hall and the band had little choice but to declare that the show must go on.

"There were more people from Buffalo than from the music industry," one member recalled. "It was pretty depressing. We played one set, about 13 songs, and that was it."

After waiting a day for the roads to reopen, the band left Nashville on Friday, arriving in Buffalo about 5 the next morning. Nine months later, the band broke up.

"Enough was enough. For me, at least, it was time to retire," Webber said.

"We accepted it as one of those things. For whatever reason it was not meant to be."

But Dwane Hall did not let go of his dream. Soon after Stone Country Band broke up, Hall opted to try a solo career and signed on with Stardust Records, an independent label.

Stardust liked Hall so much, it flew him down to Nashville to hold a solo showcase, a year and a few weeks after his Nashville debut. About 1,500 packed the Wild Horse Saloon to hear him.

"It was pretty nice, especially having someone else pay," Hall said.

It's unclear how far Hall will go. He has formed a new band, Midnight Special, with Bolam from Stone Country Band among others, and is coming out with an album, "Keeping Country, Country."

Colonel Buster Doss, head of Stardust Records, said that there's a lot of chart action in Europe for Hall but added that executives from major record labels have shown more interest in Hall's songs than in Hall.
 
That doesn't bother Hall. He's

thrilled to be playing after all these years.

"If I never got another record," he said, "I could call my music career pretty much fulfilled."

Even Webber, who pulled the plug on his own music career soon after the 1994 storm, said he can't complain.

"I wouldn't not have done it," he said. "I had a great run, and I loved it."

GRAPHIC: Iced over; when a storm paralyzed Nashville, it couldn't have come at a worse time for Dwane hall and his band. The stone country Band; Their dream was to hit it big.

LOAD-DATE: June 12, 1995

T POINT;
DISILLUSIONED DAVIS FOUND MUSICAL REFUGE IN HARD-CORE COUNTRY

BYLINE: BY SEAMUS GALLIVAN - Special to The News

BODY:


The love affair between Moot Davis and the Sportsmen's Tavern begins tonight.

The New Jersey-bred and Los Angeles-based honky tonk hero will make his Buffalo debut at "the Honkiest, Tonkiest Beer Joint in Town," the indisputable moniker the Sportsmen's borrows (with permission) from Texas troubadour Dale Watson. Good luck finding two better dance partners.

Davis and his stout, nasal-pinched twang deliver authentic, stand-up tales of highways and byways, booze and floozies, and the blues you get when they're infused. His right-hand man both onstage and on his self-titled debut is none other than Pete Anderson, the Grammy Award-winning producer and guitar giant who, in overseeing and playing on all of Dwight Yoakam's albums and co-producing the landmark "A Town South of Bakersfield" compilation, is as responsible as anyone in reminding the music world that real country music doesn't have to wash the dirt from under its nails to shine.

While the Trenton native grew up with country music in his home and grandparents in West Virginia, the genre didn't appeal much to him until, oddly enough, he heard Hank Williams' "Your Cheatin' Heart" in a soft-drink commercial. Once he dove into artists like Williams and Webb Pierce, his fleeting tastes for mainstream music were long gone.

"It's very honest and simple," Davis, 29, said of their music, by phone from the road. Those terms easily apply to his own tunes and have become so hard to find on the radio.

"For me it started sometime after the Stone Temple Pilots broke out," he added. "I identified less and less with the music everyone else was listening to. I had country in my house as a kid, and I always liked Johnny Cash and David Allen Coe. But when I rediscovered Hank, that was it."

Where Davis becomes a true inspiration is his reaction to the disparity between Nashville's golden era of country in the '50s and the modern platinum-driven drivel. "I was looking to bridge the gap between the golden old stuff and today, and I wasn't able to find it too much," he said. "So I tried to fill the gap myself by writing songs, and it started to work out."

Soon after his heart became set on music, he met fellow Sportsmen's favorite Rosie Flores at a live radio show in Sergeantsville, N.J., who convinced him to move to Nashville and hooked him up with Anderson in L.A. Once their collaboration hit on Anderson's Little Dog Records, the press began gushing over their savior of hard-core country.

The Hank comparisons are showered upon Davis like rice on newlyweds, but they are just as dangerous. The image that expands from them works to trap Davis in the mold of a throwback artist, which is not his intention. Sure, the two share the strong yet hankering voice, the love of bottles and broads -- Davis even looks a bit like Williams. But a close listen to Moot Davis reveals the subtle spark he puts into traditional honky tonk. While SECTION: GUSTO; Pg. G22

LENGTH: 571 words

HEADLINE: Country roots;
Chris Scruggs adds country to hardcore in a return visit

BYLINE: BY SEAMUS GALLIVAN - Special to The News

BODY:


At the wee age of 22, Chris Scruggs already has a list of accomplishments on which many country musicians would be happy to rest their laurels. But he's really just getting started.

While the Nashville native is no stranger to Buffalo, Saturday will mark both his Sportsmen's Tavern debut as well as his first visit to town with the band that bears his name.

Local country followers will recognize Scruggs as the former frontman for hipster traditionalists BR549, with whom he made regular local stops until he amicably jumped ship in January. He was originally hired by the band in 2001 as a bassist, a spot he'd previously held with rockabilly queen Rosie Flores when he was barely old enough to buy a pack of Lucky Strikes.

Many will simply recognize his famous family name, despite the fact that those with it don't recognize him -- to their loss. Forget that he's ignored by his father, A-list session player Randy, and his grandfather, banjo pioneer Earl. His mother, Gail Davies, along with some chart action as an artist in the '80s, Davies became one of the first female producers and Nashville and had released Chris on the Nashville club scene by the time he was 13.

The adolescent Scruggs first hit the punk circuit, but in time fell back to his roots, as is evident on his 2002 solo debut, "Honky Tonkin' Lifestyle." Driven by his genial twang and swerving solos on acoustic, electric and steel guitars, the album lives and plays fast, barreling through 10 traditional tales of the tenets of hardcore country -- booze, babes and automobiles -- in under 23 minutes.

An inviting, if not profound, balance of ballads a la Hank and rockabilly ragers, the tunes leap off speakers in a way that suggests that those punk premonitions can make them explode in the live setting. But Scruggs asserts that the energy that he and bassist Rob Price and drummer Chris Dettloff (who plays on "Lifestyle" and is also a Flores alum) bring to the stage is at least partly channeled from long before the punk explosion of the '70s.

"People have been jumpin' around and actin' like weirdos onstage for a long time, and we're proud to follow in that tradition," he said.

Still, he agreed with the ongoing assertion that rockabilly is the original punk music. "It really is," he said. "It was the first time kids got a hold of instruments and started screaming into microphones, so it's definitely the blueprint."

What it has rarely been the blueprint for is mainstream success, something that Scruggs says isn't a goal for him. While he says he's drawn from a broader base for his newer material, which he'll feature much of at the show and plans to take to the studio in October, he's not too concerned with topping any charts. "I don't think about that too much," he insisted. "It would be nice, there are benefits, but I'm doin' fine. I live in a house, I eat well, and I'm makin' a living makin' music."

And that makes Scruggs a perfect fit for the Sportsmen's Tavern, where he was referred to by one of the bar's all-time favorites. "Bill Kirchen highly recommended the place," he said.

The "dieselbilly" Telecaster titan Kirchen, who also recently relocated to the booming Austin area, shared a bill with Scruggs earlier this summer and invited him up during his own set for a "gang twang." "I would highly recommend seeing Chris," he said. "He's got the traditional country down, but he also rocks -- he'll rock you quite well, thank you."

GRAPHIC: Chris Scruggs will make his first local stop with the band that bears his name Saturday.

LOAD-DATE: August 15, 2005


Williams' desperate howl evoked tragically accurate images of a man deep in the gutter, a tune like "Thanks for Breakin' My Heart," one of 10 on the album (all penned by Davis), are delivered with an irreverent swagger that suggests that despite the long roads, lonely nights and hard luck, Davis still sleeps at night. "I like the irony of that," he says of the song.

That confident smirk will go a long way in winning over the Sportsmen's crowd, already waiting for him with open arms. "It's perfect," tavern owner Dwane Hall said of the matching of Davis and his bar. "We've had him on the jukebox for a month -- we all know it by heart by now.

"We can't wait to see him live."

LOAD-DATE: July 10, 2005

What a wonderful site you put together!!!! Loved looking at all the pics & reading all the stories!!! Dwayne is an excellent singer & always has been...if you ever get the chance to hear him sing "Desperado""" Its gorgeousssssss... Dwayne & Denise Hall  are wonderful people & truely down to earth..as nice as can be!! So I would advice anyone to stop at Sportmans Tavern....they will make you feel like family....Tell them Suzy Thomas that worked for them agesssssss ago said hello please!!Thank You & thanks for an awesome site to look at!!!

Hugssssss

Suzy

Good music, no money Let's face the music and dance! At the historic Sportsmen's Tavern in Black Rock, the Sportmen - the bar's house musicians - are dishing out their trademark mix of roots rock, country and honky-tonk. Trust us, you'll never have a hipper New Year's than you will among this roadhouse crowd. There's never a cover at the Sportsmen's, so you can spend your money on beer. Take off your shoes and dance. Hall put the rock in Black Rock 9/6/2005

By MARY KUNZ GOLDMAN Dwane Hall grew up in Black Rock, on Amherst Street. "We left the block six times, moved back six times," he laughs. He met his wife, Denise, when they were teenage neighbors on nearby Military Road. Maybe that explains why, when it was time to take a chance, Hall bet on Black Rock. In 1985, he and Denise were raising their kids, and he was looking for, as he says, "a few bucks." He is a good guitarist who, as a kid, played in a band with seven of his brothers. He decided to open a music club. So he bought an old bar on Amherst and Grant called the Sportsmen's Tavern. Built in 1898, with black tin ceilings, it had been open since 1907. Would it work as a club? The area was tragically unhip. And, Hall says, " "Sportsmen's' isn't a music name." Still, he had a plan: Live music. Cheap drinks. No cover. The plan worked. Thanks to word of mouth, Hall's tavern grew. He built a recording studio next door. This fall, he will start serving food. Doug Yeomans, a popular Buffalo guitarist, recorded his latest CD in Hall's studio. "It was a great experience," he says. "He's grown as a studio owner and club owner along with the place. We affectionately call him the Mayor of Black Rock." One Thursday finds the tavern welcoming Four Shillings Short, husband-and-wife hippies from San Francisco. Their old van, plastered with stickers such as the inevitable "Question Authority," is out front. The audience, atypically quiet, hushes a reporter talking during a sitar solo. "It's not the usual crowd," admits Frank Szucko of the Jump Kings, whose picture is on the jam-packed wall. Over the years, Szucko has seen the tavern's clientele become younger. "The old neighborhood regulars are dying off." But over at the bar is Joe, a gray-haired guy ignoring the band and playing solitaire. "He's a regular," Szucko says. No one is getting rich here. "It's not a money thing. It's about music," Hall says. He can't pay most bands much. "Fifty bucks a guy," he confides. Hall sweetens the deal with free drinks and crash space in the studio. Pete Anderson, Dwight Yoakam's guitarist, slept there in July. Everyone, in short, wins. The neighborhood wins, too. Could it be coincidence that, after Hall set up shop, a Mighty Taco opened across the street? Black Rock can be rugged. Once, when Hall's wife was bartending, a guy tried to sell her a pair of her own shoes, stolen from her car. Another time, someone stole a speaker and some booze. The cops, Hall gloats, followed snowy footprints right to the thief's door. Still, he shrugs off these incidents. "Black Rock is a strong-minded community," he says. "I'm one of the few business guys who stuck with it. They respect me for that." We should all respect him, for making our town a little richer. Hall, who plays in the Stone Country Band and the house group, the Sportmen, has unique musical standards. On one Black Monday, he fired 13 blues bands for being too loud. "I kept telling them to turn it down. They wouldn't," he says. His friend Kenny Beringer, who trolls the Internet for talent and books the road acts, has a wide knowledge of the music scene. "I have a lot of time," jokes Beringer, who is disabled. Their next big coup is Elliott Randall, Steely Dan's guitarist. On Sept. 16, he will be playing Black Rock. Yes, Black Rock. "I'm going to lose my shirt, but I don't care," Hall laughs. "I just want to have him play here." e-mail: mkunz@buffnews.com

The buzz

The Sportsmens Tavern has a Web site! It's www.sportsmenstavern.com, and it includes a birthday calendar (you see a dog drinking out of a toilet bowl, and the words "Another year down the toilet") and the bar's bulging schedule (Friday, catch Creek Bend, and Saturday, it's Jim Whitford). Plus you log on and your computer starts blaring: "Wish I had a dime for every time somebody cried a tear in their beer... at the honkiest tonkiest beer joint in town." Fun for the office! ... With darkness falling earlier every day, revel in film noir. "The Third Man" screens Friday at 7 p.m. at the Screening Room in Amherst, and next Friday, they're showing "Rear Window."

Pattern baldness
Buddy Guy's not the only one trying to look more like Steve Calvaneso. Swingin' saxman Don "Red" Menza, home from California, played the Sportsmen's Tavern on Monday, and he, too, now sports a shaved head. Don! How will fans know enough to call you Red? The Sportsmen's was uncharacteristically quiet as Menza played. No one was playing pool or dancing barefoot. Two video cameras were trained on Menza, and his sidemen - Bobby Jones on Hammond B3 and John Bacon, Jr. on drums - played as if it were the gig of their lives. (Buzz entered in the middle of a frantic, lurching riff-fest, and it took us 20 minutes to figure out it was the tender Cole Porter ballad "I Concentrate on You.") Menza dealt with the attention self-deprecatingly. "Can you hear me?" he said, tapping the microphone. "I want to make sure everyone can hear my asthmatic voice."

Raising the roof
Buzz got a new roof, and it was incredible drama. It started small - as we sat on the porch at 8 a.m., huddled over our coffee and regretting the cheap wine we'd drunk at the Sportsmen's the night before, a lone guy walked up asking where he should put the shingles. (On the roof, we should have said. Ha, ha! But we were half asleep, so we just said to put them where he usually puts them.) Next, like an omen, a dumpster arrived. A few hours later, it felt as if the house were tossing on the high seas, with blue tarps over all the windows, hammering on all sides, shingles tumbling, daylight flowing in from the attic, ladders rattling, machinery rumbling, thumps overhead and constant shouting, mostly about how the Bills were doing. We got our $8,800 worth of entertainment, that's for sure! More importantly, we had use of the dumpster. Everyone should get a new roof. It's worth it just to be able to clean out your closets.

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