Back To Chicago and a fly-in to Milwaukee....

CHICAGO AND MILWAUKEE

JUNE 21

Chicago bound. We would actually be playing the Milwaukee Summerfest on the 23rd, but staying in Chicago at the Peninsula Hotel. We’ve stayed there before, so it is familiar territory. After finding our room and settling in, Rosie and I went to “The Bar”, a nice quiet spot on the lobby level for a cocktail. We had wanted to dine in the Chinese restaurant in the hotel called Shanghai Terrace, but it was not available...so we wound up in “The Lobby” restaurant. That was fine, and we enjoyed the fare and went back to the room afterwards to chill out with a couple more glasses of wine and some tv.

JUNE 22-23

OK...retail therapy on the Magnificent Mile in order for the day. But prior to that, I wen to the great fitness center on the top floor of the Peninsula for a good workout. Also, we were to meet for lunch with an old friend, Pat Boyer. Pat was married to Scott Boyer back in the early 70’s when I was involved with Capricorn Records and Rose Lane was working for the label. I used to live with Scott and some other members of the band he was in, Cowboy. I played on their records, and we interacted together playing on other records like Gregg Allman’s first solo album, “Laid Back”. Scott also wrote “Please Be With Me”, which was made famous by Eric Clapton on his 460 Ocean Blvd record. Pat and Scott eventually divorced, but not before having two children together, Scott, Jr. and Ben. Pat went on to make a good life for herself working in the pharmaceutical business....now working with the company AbbVie, that makes the “miracle drug”, Humira. we met with her in The Lobby for a little bite to eat and to catch up on each other’s lives. We enjoyed exploring the last few years of our exploits, and we would see her at the show in Minneapolis as well as at a club show I would be doing on the 24th in Chicago at Martyr’s.

After lunch, we headed out to pound the pavement and do some shopping. We headed over to Oak St., looking into some shops on Michigan Ave on the way. Oak St used to be full of boutique type stores, but it seems now it has been somewhat converted to high end designer stores. Along the way we ran into Charlie Watts, who was doing some shopping of his own. We spoke with him for a bit and then moved on to our own adventures. At the end of the day, we didn’t really do much damage...I bought us some things at Walgreen’s to have in the room...some wine, water, etc. After that it was back to the room for a bit of down time before dinner.

We did make it into the Shanghai Terrace that evening...and had a really great meal there. Pricey, but worth it as the quality is really high. We were advised by some others to try the “Happy Rice”....which lived up to its name and was delicious. We had some other dishes, all excellent. Then it was up to the room for a couple of hours of wind down before bed.

The next day, the 23rd, was show day in Milwaukee. Since it was a good hour and forty-five minute drive, we left earlier than usual. The venue is a small one in terms of this tour...some twenty-four thousand capacity in what we call a “Shed”...a covered amphitheater called The Marcus Amphitheater. I had exchanged a few texts with my friend Tom Hambridge, a talented drummer and producer, who I had worked with on a James Cotton record a couple of years ago called “Cotton Mouth Man”.

Tom is also a songwriter, and has produced and written songs for Buddy Guy’s last 5 releases. He would be at the show as Buddy was opening for us and he had flown up to deliver the latest project he had just finished for Buddy. We hooked up backstage before our sound check and enjoyed catching up. Tom is a great guy and I’m hoping to work with him some more up the road. He promises to try and make it happen, and I agreed to do all I can to join in on something with him before too long. Tom also introduced me to Marty Sammon, Buddy’s long time keyboard player. Oddly enough, I had been approached not long ago by Jeff Schroedl of the Hal Leonard Co to consider writing a forward to a book about blues piano playing that Marty had written. I had never met him, but was familiar with his playing through recordings...and after getting an advance copy of the book and checking it out, had agreed to write the forward. But this would be the first time I would meet Marty. Very nice guy and great blues keyboardist.

After all that we did the sound check, agreeing to do “Champagne and Reefer” with Buddy as a guest on our set. We had done it before with him at the Beacon Theater for the Shine A Light DVD. Buddy wasn’t present for the sound check, but we knew he would handle it fine.

I finalized the set with Mick and then went to the VIP to meet some of the folks that I had arranged passes for. That included Bill Doyle, CEO of the Potash Company (retiring soon) and his wife Kathy. Bill has graciously sponsored a couple of fertilizer studies at Charlane on pine tree fertilization; Pat Boyer; and Walter Greenberg (formerly with the Stihl Company). There were also some random fans there that I agreed to take pictures with. All good fun.

The gig went well and Buddy was well received, both on his own set and as a guest on ours. He has such a great stage presence and of course is an iconic blues guitarist and singer. One of the few living legends, and a joy to be on the stage with. I also got to play with Buddy years ago when I was with Eric Clapton and we did the “24 Nights” show and record at the Royal Albert Hall back in ‘92. I’m so glad and feel blessed to have had those opportunities.

After the rather long ride back to Chicago, we were pretty well wasted from the day and it wasn’t long before we were in the sheets.

JUNE 24-26

This would be the day of my club show at Martyr’s. www.martyrslive.com 
Billed as “Chuck Leavell with special guests Tim Ries and Bernard Fowler”. Tim had helped to arrange the guitar player and bass player...Bob Palmiery and Larry Kohut respectively....and we had brought in Reggie Jackson, a great drummer that had played with us in the club gig we did in Columbus earlier in the tour. I went down early to start the rehearsals...the guys were quite well prepared (I had sent mp3s to them to study) and we ironed out any problems over the three and a half hours we had to rehearse. Tim and Bernard came in the last hour or so and we went through their bits and were ready to go.

The club owner, Ray Quinn, had done what he could with fairly short notice to get the word out, but in the end we didn’t quite pack the house...probably about 3/4 of it, maybe. But the folks that were there were a really great audience and responded with strong enthusiasm. We all had fun and the band played really well. So in the end I would say it was an unqualified success.

We hung out some afterward...we all had friends that had attended, so we socialized with folks for an hour or so and then made our way back to the Peninsula to crash.

The 25th would be another off day for us. We slept in a while as the night before was a long one. After enough coffee to wake us up and get us motivated, I had an appointment for an interview with a gent named Bill Hageman of the Chicago Tribune. His wife accompanied him, and we met at 1pm in The Lobby. They were both really fine folks, and I enjoyed talking to them. Bill had read my latest book, “Growing A Better America” and had some great questions and comments on it. we hit the streets again to see if we could find any items we couldn’t do without. We went to Water Tower Place, but were disappointed with what was there and moved on to re-visit some of the other stores we had already checked out. I did find a shirt I liked in Sax Fifth Ave, which was right across the street from our hotel and wound up buying that. But otherwise we kept our money in our wallets. That evening we had a great meal at Ralph Lauren’s Grill, just around the corner about two blocks away. We had dined there before and liked it, and were not disappointed this time. Really good food not fancifully overdone...excellent quality and service. That wound up our last full day in the Windy City and we called it a night.