Paul Vornhagen & Friends: Live at the Del Rio, with Kalle Nemvalts

Wed, 04/02/2025 - 9:59am

This is a live recording of the group Paul Vornhagen & Friends at the Del Rio, circa early 1980s. Musicians include Paul Vornhagen (saxophone, flute, vocals); Kalle Nemvalts (trumpet); Rich Burgess (keys); Norm Shobey (congas); Pete Hodges (bass); Karl Dietrick (drums)

1. Scrapple from the Apple
2. Triste
3. Tough Talk
4. St. Thomas
5. Manha de Carnaval
6. I Mean You

A History of Mime in Ann Arbor with Performances by Michael Lee

Thu, 01/16/2025 - 10:55am

Join us for a series of short performances and interviews with local mime Michael Lee and special guests O.J. Anderson and Perry Perrault. The performance, which will consist of short 4-6 minute pieces will be for many, an introduction to “the actor’s art” of mime. With credit given to the mime artists that inspired and taught Michael Lee, we’ll connect the dots between legendary mimes, and the local Ann Arbor mimes who knew and trained with them.

This project is part of AADL’s commemoration of the city’s bicentennial year.

Melodioso: Live at the Golden Falcon, December 1975

Mon, 09/23/2024 - 4:09pm

This is a live recording of the musical group Melodioso playing at The Golden Falcon Restaurant in Ann Arbor, Michigan, in December 1975. Melodioso was a Latin-jazz combination started in the early 1970s by guitarists Howard White and Cory Sea, instructors at Herb David Guitar Studio. The original lineup also included guitarist-vibist Andy Sacks and percussionists Armando Shobey and Norman Bellis. Other players on this recording include Max Woods, Larry Manderville, and Reggie Smythe.

"This Is The Town That Was," A Musical History of Ann Arbor: A Recording of the December 16, 1974 Performance

Fri, 07/26/2024 - 8:11pm

On December 16, 1974, Ann Arbor concluded its year-long sesquicentennial celebration with a performance of "This Is The Town That Was" at Hill Auditorium, presented here online for the first time. This historical musical, written by Ann Arbor teachers Dianne Baker and Carol Duffy, was performed by Ann Arbor Public Schools students from Abbot, Angell, Newport, and Pittsfield Elementary Schools and Forsythe Junior High School. Produced by Carol Duffy, Joan May, Sue Laughlin, and Lillian Holtfreter, the play was narrated by Judge Sandy Elden and attorney William Richardson playing founders John Allen and Elisha Walker Rumsey.

As Ann Arbor School Board trustee Pat Pooley wrote in an Ann Arbor News editorial that day: "This musical history of our city has been made possible by a modest grant from the Ann Arbor Schools, the opening of Hill Auditorium without charge by the University of Michigan, and the unstinting efforts of teachers, parents, townspeople, and especially, the stars of the show, the children, to conclude Ann Arbor's sesquicentennial year in the spirit of active community involvement in which we all take pride."

This production features several songs written by Dianne Baker. Sheet music is available for The Naming of the Streets and Ann's Arbor We Will Sing You A Song. 

The Prime Movers Blues Band (Feat. Iggy Pop): "Drinkin' That Orange Driver"

Tue, 01/31/2023 - 12:18pm

"Digging out these old recordings has been fun, but it also has made me realize what a great place Ann Arbor was in the middle Sixties. The Prime Movers Blues Band formed in the summer of 1965, the same time as the Grateful Dead were doing the identical thing out in San Francisco. Neither knew about the other. Later, of course there was interaction among these new music groups that were appearing all over the country. There was something in the air. It was the Sixties! The Prime Movers had gone to Chicago. We had seen Little Walter, Big Walter, Junior Wells, Buddy Guy, Muddy Waters, and all the blues greats playing live. I can remember one night listening to Howlin' Wolf play in a small club in Chicago. The room was empty and dark; there was no one there but a couple of us. Wolf was up front sitting on a chair next to the great blues guitarist Hubert Sumlin. Wolf's music went into our ears and then deep into my brain. Time just slowed down and then seemed to stop. The walls around me (and my body) became sort of transparent and it was as if I was somewhere out in deep space, just my mind alone, outside of time and place. My body just kind of disappeared. All that I could hear was Wolf's sound in my ear and brain. I lost all sense of a personal who and where I am. When folks ask me why I listen to and study the blues, it is more than just 'good music'. Blues (for me at least) has been a way to touch home, to go between the clock-ticking seconds of my life, somehow stepping outside of time, and get a sense of my life at a deeper level. Blues has always been for me a journey to see the nature of my own mind -- a refresher course in who I am and why I am here. Music has always been that for me." - Michael Erlewine

The main band members included:

Friends of the Sixties: The Prime Movers Blues Band (Solo from "Endless Blues")

Tue, 01/31/2023 - 10:07am

"Friends of the Sixties" with Michael Erlewine, a half-hour show on the legendary Ann Arbor blues group the Prime Movers Blues Band, with Iggy Pop as their drummer, complete with dozens of photos, live tunes, and Iggy Pop singing "I'm a Man" with the Prime Movers Blues Band. Michael Erlewine is founder of the All-Music Guide and former lead singer and amplified-harmonica player for the Prime Movers Blues Band.

This video originally appeared here.

Michigan Music Project: Interview with Peter Madcat Ruth (Part 2)

Tue, 01/31/2023 - 8:16am

Part Two of an interview by All-Music Guide founder Michael Erlewine with harmonica virtuoso Peter Madcat Ruth, an internationally known musician. These video-podcasts are part of a series of interviews for the Michigan Music Project, a documentary on Michigan musicians, artists, venues, and music supporters. The interviews in this series represent basic archival footage (roughly edited) from which excerpts will be taken for eventual documentary.

This video originally appeared here.

Friends of the Sixties: The Landmark Ann Arbor Blues Festivals 1969-1970

Tue, 01/31/2023 - 7:50am

This is a rough-draft of some footage Stephen Erlewine took back in 1970 at the second pivotal Arbor Blues Festival, where his brother Michael was in charge of food and drink for the blues artists, and also served as interviewer for scores of the performers. This was a life-changing experience and led some years later to Michael founding the All-Music Guide (AMG).

This video originally appeared here.

The Prime Movers Blues Band (Feat. Iggy Pop): "Watch Yourself"

Fri, 01/13/2023 - 12:33pm

"A question I get a lot is why did the Prime Movers never record and get famous? The short answer is: it was not in the cards. The longer version is actually pretty funny. Here it is in brief: There were two attempts to hitch our wagon to the stars. For a short time early on, we had the now-legendary 'Jeep' Holland, manager of the rock group "The Rationals" as our manager. For sure, he wanted to get us into the mainstream of popular music and to this end he tried to get us to conform, to wear little suits, and whatever he thought would help us. And we did try, but our natural temperament as a band found us wandering off that trail pretty quickly. Included here is an old video of a staged chase of the Prime Movers by a lot of our women fans. We did have some great fans. This video is appropriately stupid, as you will see. Our second near brush with fame came when a subsidiary of Motown courted us to join them as a White band playing Black music. They drove us around in their limousines, set up cool events like my brother Daniel and I having lunch with the Everly Brothers. Now THAT was very cool, because we loved their music. You get the idea. The shit hit the fan, so to speak, when we realized that the Black music they wanted us to play was not the Chicago blues music we loved and were learning, but some really bad arrangements they came up with for us to play. In other words, we would have to play what they gave us to play. Well that was not about to happen and we walked. We were out of there, instantly - short karma for the fame trip. So here is all the actual video of the Prime Movers that I am aware of." - Michael Erlewine 

The Prime Movers Blues Band was founded in the summer of 1965 in Ann Arbor, Michigan.

The main band members included:

Community High School 45th Year All-Class & 34th Commstock, 2017

Mon, 08/03/2020 - 2:08pm

Short film of the Community High School 45th Year All-Class Reunion and 34th Commstock music festival, produced in conjunction with the feature-length documentary Welcome to Commie High from 7 Cylinders Studio.