RECAP (a year late): Stories from Storytown 5

I know it’s been forever since our great show at The Cutting Room on January 28 of 2020, and I can only partially blame the pandemic for the long delay. This quick recap serves as the kickoff of a renewed Storytown blog, with shorter and more frequent posts on a wider variety of subjects than in the past. I’ll also be including each entire post in an email (maybe omitting the occasional video or large graphic) so you don’t have to go to the website if you don’t want to. Storytown is alive and well, biding its time until we can perform and record together. In the meantime it’s time to re-engage with you via this blog/newsletter/whateveryouwanttocallit.

So, on with the show. A great crowd, a great room. Three (ok four) stellar guests: music industry legend Danny Goldberg, photographer extraordinaire Merri Cyr, and Alice Cooper Group’s bassist Dennis Dunaway and stylist Cindy Dunaway.

We kicked the evening off with The Urge to Strike. (Here’s a solo performance I made during the earlier days of the pandemic.) Next we played our debut album’s closing song, Broken Promise Land. Our very excellent (and controversial amongst the FB trolls) video is here.

I talked too much, and our conversation was way too brief, but what a thrill and honor it was to talk with Danny Goldberg — author, journalist, manager, record executive, film producer — you name it, he has done it all and with distinction. (And in the spirit of name-dropping, you might have heard of Atlantic, Warner Brothers, Bonnie Raitt, The Allman Brothers Band, Sonic Youth, Nirvana, and Steve Earle.) Here he talks about his first job, covering rock music for Billboard, and a trip upstate for a music festival:

Please check out Danny’s most recent book, Serving the Servant: Remembering Kurt Cobain.

Next the band played Social Animals (Don’t Ever Leave), my typically incisive commentary about online culture (“Like me, love me, love me, hate me, Just don’t ever leave; Friend me, trend me, even offend me, Just don’t ever leave”).

Merri Cyr’s journey from Massachusetts to NYC resulted in a distinguished career of photographing musicians and artists for the likes of Disney, Apple, Columbia Records, Sony, Warner Brothers, Verve, and Rolling Stone. On this January night in 2020 Merri showed us a stunning variety of photos, including her iconic cover of Jeff Buckley’s album Grace. Here’s an extended clip of that conversation:

Check out Merri’s latest book, 25 Years Of Grace: An Anniversary Tribute to Jeff Buckley's Classic Album.

After the band played the new (at the time) song Make It Stop, I settled into a long, entertaining and hilarious conversation with Dennis Dunaway (founding member and bassist of the Alice Cooper Group and Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee) and his wife and roommate and band stylist Cindy Smith Dunaway. Here’s nearly the whole thing:

And if you want more, check out Dennis’ recent memoir Snakes! Guillotines! Electric Chairs! Dennis himself narrates the audiobook, available at Audible.

The band wrapped up this great night with Run Run, the opening track from our debut album, Welcome to Storytown.

Stories from Storytown is proud to be sponsored by that kick-ass audiobook company, Audible.

Thanks for listening. More to come.