Tag: Allen Estes

There’s a new poster coming to town today ~ and you’ll never guess who helped create it.

Posted on by Vickie & Peter

As many of you know, ORLEANS’ founding member, John Hall will re-join the band for their 40th Anniversary Tour — and their first east-coast concert is at North Shore Music Theatre on Fri, Aug 31 (get tickets here).

You probably also know that Gloucester’s extraordinarily talented musician, Fly Amero is a longtime member of ORLEANS, which means he’ll be with the band on Aug 31.

What you may not know is that Fly is also very talented with Photoshop — and he created a new photo for us to use for the top of the new poster, which will be showing up around town starting today.

Looking at the poster, you’ll also notice that award-winning Gloucester songwriter Allen Estes is opening.

And that 10% of profits will benefit summer camp programs at the YMCA of the North Shore (where 1 in 4 kids attend only because of your generosity).

This will be one of those shows that you talk about for years!

Allen will make a special appearance tonight at 6:30 to open the Harbor Loop concert with one of his signature songs about Gloucester as part of Harbor Walk Weekend, which starts NOW!

It’s such a great weekend that I can only think of one tiny bit of bad news: you just can’t see all the live music, so you’re gonna have to choose.

Here’s some help with that — get the full live music lineup here.

BREAKING NEWS: Fly Amero’s touring band, Orleans, welcomes co-founder/songwriter/guitarist John Hall for a 40th Anniversary Concert in honor of Larry Hoppen at NORTH SHORE MUSIC THEATRE ON AUGUST 31

Posted on by Vickie & Peter

You saw it on GMG FIRST.  Just like you heard about the sudden, tragic death of Fly’s longtime friend and band-mate Larry Hoppen last week (see post here).

The next day, Fly demonstrated the healing power of music (see that story here) and on August 31, the healing continues as the show goes on (see details here).

All of us who know Fly are celebrating the band’s commitment to music in honor of their friend and brother by inviting John Hall, who wrote the multi-platinum #1 hits Dance With Me and Still the One to join them for this very special 40th anniversary concert (get tickets here).  Here’s a video of John making a special appearance with the band last year.

Now I hope you’re reading this on your phone because that means you’ve taken the day off and are out at the Sidewalk Bazaar and planning to visit the Farmers Market and take in some music this evening.  See today’s AMAZING live music lineup here.

(There may even be tickets left to see Fly and Allen Estes on The Lannon at 6:30 — and, finally, the weather looks good.  Call 978-281-6634 to find out).

Sneak Peak at Tonight’s Local Music Seen with Allen Estes

Posted on by Vickie & Peter

Tune into Cape Ann TV Channel 12 tonight at 6:30 to see three generations of Estes Boys. Here’s a short clip from the show that Lisa Smith just sent over.

If you’re not on vacation, find an excuse to take tomorrow off

Posted on by Vickie & Peter

There’s so much going on tomorrow that it’s just not a good day to be at work.

Gloucester’s Sidewalk Bazaar kicks off at 9am and must be better than ever — otherwise why would our boy Joey represent?

Click here to download the complete Sidewalk Bazaar Schedule

The Farmer’s Market starts at 3pm at Stage Fort Park — remember it’s ON, regardless of the weather.  And the knife guy (forgot his name) will be there this week.  I’m bringing my precious Sabatier French knife that I got in 1974 so he can fix the curve, which I have not been able to maintain properly because I only have a stone, not a grinder.  More on that later . . .

At 6:30pm Allen Estes and Fly Amero will be on the Schooner Lannon for a gorgeous Sunset Music Sail.  Call 978-281-6634 for tickets.  Seeing these two aboard the Lannon is a must.  No mics, no amps, no speakers.  You know you’re in the presence to world-class musicians when there’s literally nothing between you and the sound of voices and guitars.

For all of you who won’t fit on the Lannon, check out Nights on the Neck, which starts at 5pm.  This week you can see singer/songwriter and Noise founder/editor T Max at 8:45.

And of course there’s the Harbor Loop Concert starting at 6:30 — always a good time –and you can bring your kids and watch them dance.  If you video your kids dancing (or other kids) put it up on YouTube and paste the link in a comment to this post.  We’ll show it to all of Gloucester.

If that’s not enough, six other venues have music of all kinds.

But let’s not forget about tonight!  Fly Amero is back from Larry Hoppen’s memorial service and will host the great Inge Berge at Rhumbline.  Marina Evans joins Dennis Monagle at Minglewood.  Steve Caraway hosts an open mic at Catch 22 …

Whew!  I could go on and on.  See the complete live music schedule here.

Two Cable shows feature new music tomorrow (Wednesday)

Posted on by Vickie & Peter

Two excellent shows premiere tomorrow (Wednesday) on Cape Ann TV Channel 12.  At 6:30pm, Allen Estes welcomes his family for a special, very lively Local Music Seen that’s sort of like a peek into the family living room.

Then at 7:30pm Blues Festival producers Bob Hastings and Paul Benjamin are Rick Sagall’s guest on Cape Ann Report — complete with footage of some of the stars of the festival.  See a preview of that very special show below.

Tonight you can see some of Cape Ann’s finest musicians for free and if you have tickets to  the sold out Ladysmith Black Mambazo concert at Shalin Liu, you’re in for a treat!  See the full live music lineup here.

Allen Estes at the Cape Ann Museum

Posted on by Matthew Green

This was a free concert at the Cape Ann Museum, last Friday at 4PM. It was originally planned to be outdoors, but due to the threat of rain, it was held indoors. It was great! At the end I bought one of the CDs he was selling: “Live Souls”. His CDs can be bought on his website or at stores, such as Gloucester Music on eastern Main Street.

–Fr. Matthew Green

Fly Amero & his friends transform a dark day into a night of healing through music

Posted on by Vickie & Peter
L-R: J.B. Amero, Wolf Ginandes (behind J.B), Fly Amero, Dave Brown last night @ the Rhumbline

“How can you be here tonight?” was the question asked of Fly Amero by friends and fans who knew he had lost his dear friend of over 3 decades and band-mate Larry Hoppen, one of the founders of Orleans, who had died less than 24 hours earlier.

“The show must go on,” replied Fly.  “It’s not just a slogan, you know.  Everyone in the entertainment business takes it very seriously.  If Lance [Larry Hoppen’s brother, another Orleans founding member] had a gig tonight, he’d be there too.”

Fly began by delivering the terrible news for those who didn’t already know, followed by 3 Orleans classics.  By the time the crowd sang, with Fly, the last chorus of Dance With Me, we had all been lifted through Fly’s personal grief to a higher place only music can take you.

Then Fly’s friends began to share the stage with him: Wolf Ginandes on bass, Allen Estes on harmonica.  The energy shifted a little, from memorial to entertainment.  Finally J.B. and Dave Brown joined Wolf & Fly to bring the house down!

Fly thanked the crowd for sharing this “living room” with him during a difficult time.

Something special — indeed magical — was at work last night.  Everyone felt it.

Thank you, Fly, for using music and your extraordinary rapport with your audience to heal all of us a little bit last night.  We hope you were healed a little too.

See “Rock Stars of Gloucester” tonight ~ in the flesh and oil

Posted on by Vickie & Peter
Allen Estes ~ oil on canvas by Laureen Maher

Just in case you’ve been under a rock for the past couple of weeks and don’t know that Gloucester’s biggest block party ever starts at 6 tonight, you can click here to read some posts about it.  Okay, now you know.

Celebrating Gloucester’s extraordinary music scene has become a Block Party tradition — and we do it by putting musicians and dancers on the street, right in front of our celebrated shops and restaurants.  (see schedule here)

Fly Amero ~ oil on canvas by Laureen Maher

In this spirit, Laureen Maher will be putting her series of oils on canvas, entitled “Rock Stars of Gloucester” on display at Fred Bodin’s Historic Photo Gallery at 82 Main Street, right next to the Sargent Stage (see map here) where one of the rock stars in her collection, Allen Estes, will be performing with his son Dylan.

Other Rock Stars of Gloucester on display tonight (in oil) will be JB Amero, Dave Sag, Inge Berge, Willie Alexander featured with Greg Tower and Ed Savage, Rik Razdan featured with Lisa Marie — and Fly Amero (who may appear in the flesh with his sister, Linda, at the Franklin Stage).

So dine, dance and shop under the stars tonight in Gloucester.  You’ll have more fun than you think you deserve.

A dozen venues with Live Music Tonight ~ and 2 of them are floating!

Posted on by Vickie & Peter

Being a waterfront community, you’d expect Cape Ann to have plenty of restaurants, pubs & live music venues on the water — and we do.  Tonight we also have two that are IN the water — literally.  The Schooner Thomas E. Lannon is hosting a bluegrass sunset sail at 6pm featuring local legend Allen Estes with Gloucester’s best bluegrass musicians and Gloucester’s newest schooner, Ardelle, built by Howard Burnham (who build the Lannon) is hosting a sail at the same time with doo-wop/oldies girl group Honky Tonk Women of Glocuester.

Now, there are plenty of choices for those of you who wish to remain on land, from jazz standards, reggae, rock, funk, soul, motown — you name it.  See the full live music lineup here.

Got kids? Take ’em to the Block Party. It’s Free and Fun on Saturday.

Posted on by Vickie & Peter

I just spoke with Rick Doucett, whom you all know and love from the YMCA.  Rick reminded me that he and his wife, Loren, will be running Kids Town at the Block Party on Saturday (just like last year).   Kid’s Town is between Pleasant St. & Hancock St. near the Sovereign Stage (see map here).

Balloons, face painting, giant chess and more.  Every year kids connect with friends at the Block Party that they haven’t seen in a while (just like adults do).  How many things can you do that are just as much fun for your kids as they are for you?

Speaking of kids, don’t forget Y summer camp is in full swing (see here).

Don’t forget that the Orleans concert on Aug 31 — featuring Gloucester’s own Fly Amero along with Rhode Island’s John Cafferty of the Beaver Brown band and Eddie and the Cruisers movie will help raise money for the North Shore YMCA Summer Camp program.

And just in case you missed Monday’s announcement (click here if you did) Allen Estes will open the show.  You won’t want to miss this!

You and your kids can see Allen Estes at the Block Party on Saturday at the Sargent Stage.

And if we’re lucky,  we may also get to hear Fly sing with his sister at the Franklin Stage.

See Block Party Entertainment Schedule here.

Allen Estes will open for Orleans at North Shore Music Theatre on August 31

Posted on by Vickie & Peter

You know that being an FOB means you’re the very first to get the scoop on what’s up in Gloucester.  Well, Allen Estes just agreed to open for Orleans and we’re telling you BEFORE we even update the website.  We’ll do that later tonight.  In the meantime, you can get tickets here.

Here’s a video of Allen singing one of his new songs The Trouble with Me — destined to be a hit.  If you like the song, you can catch Allen with his son Dylan at the Block Party on Saturday and ask him to include it in his set at North Shore Music Theatre.

Decompression Unplugged ~ hot sound, tight harmony

Posted on by Vickie & Peter

A good way to judge the quality of an electric band is to hear them unplugged.  This video proves that The Bandit Kings are one of Gloucester’s best.  Here they are unplugged on a tiny TV set delivering all the power and energy of their fully electric shows.  Plus Renee and Ann Marie’s harmonies are perfect!

The video above features one of three of their songs from their excellent show (Decompression off their excellent Precious Stones CD — get it here).

You can see the entire show this week on Cape Ann TV Channel 12 beginning Wednesday at 6:3opm.  It also features one of Allen Estes‘ very popular (relatively new) songs, Peace and Harmony, which is not available anywhere for download or on CD.  This is part of our summer reprise of the most requested shows from Local Music Seen with Allen Estes.

If you don’t have cable or you don’t live in Gloucester you can watch the entire show on-line here.

Best of all, you don’t have to wait until Wednesday to see the Bandit Kings.  Go to the Rhumb Line tonight where they host the open jam to get your fix of one of Gloucester’s most distinctive sounds.  And check out the enterprising way they are raising money to make a new record — a very good cause, indeed.  I just donated and can’t wait to hear the new album.

“I can hear that one with the band” ~ OK, Allen, here it is!

Posted on by Vickie & Peter

A few weeks ago, we premiered Chelsea Berry‘s new song Lonely Being Lonely on Local Music Seen with Allen Estes (see the post here).  When she finished the song, Allen said, “Yeah, I can hear that one with the band.” to which Chelsea replied, “That’s the electric guitar song.”

This video shows part of the solo acoustic version aired on Local Music Seen followed by the electric version of that same part of the song shot at a rehearsal for the band’s debut on June 28 at North Shore Music Theatre opening for Chris Isaak.  Enjoy!

It’s another hot summer night with plenty of music by (and on) the water –or in air conditioned venues — from classic rock to string quartet to open mic to soul and blues.  Take your pick.  See the full live music lineup here.

Local Music Seen ~ first ever show on location!

Posted on by Vickie & Peter

On Mardi Gras, Local Music Seen with Allen Estes went to Minglewood to shoot the sold out Mardi Gras on Rogers Street benefit for Y Teens Rebuild New Orleans.  It took some time to edit all the footage and create a good show, but with the help of Cape Ann TV’s master director and editor, Lisa Smith, we finally got it done and the show airs TONIGHT at 6:30pm on Cable Channel 12.

In this video, you’ll see the complete (un-cut) version of Henri’s studio interview with Allen and a very unusual performance of Henri singing Route 66 accompanied by Allen on Guitar and harmonica.  If you want to see the Mardi Gras footage, you’ll have to watch the show (we’ll put this show in the archives soon for those of you who don’t live on Cape Ann or don’t have cable.  You’ll be able to find it here.)

After a nice hot day, you’ll want to cool off tonight at any of the six air-conditioned venues with great live music.  See the cool live music lineup here.

Allen Estes’ New Song Written for J.B. Amero

Posted on by Vickie & Peter

Check out this new song  by Allen Estes that premiered on Local Music Seen on June 6.  Allen wrote the song with J. B. Amero in mind, thinking J. B. would do a great job with it — especially the end where he could scat and whail.  What do you think?  Tell us by leaving a comment.

Allen will likely stop by Jalapenos tonight and might even sit in and sing this new song and, if JB’s there, perhaps he’ll chime in too.

Don’t you love living in a town where stuff like this (and lots more — see full live music lineup here) happens on a Tuesday night?  And it’s all FREE!

One of the many reasons I wouldn’t want to live anywhere else on earth.

Are you in this video? Depends on were you were on May 5 …

Posted on by Vickie & Peter

If you were at Minglewood Tavern on May 5, you just might be in Brad Byrd‘s new video On My Way Down shot by Hollywood Director Brandon Rose that night.  If you can’t remember May 5, perhaps you’re the one dancing, singing the words and pointing in the air at 1:24 seconds into this video.

You may remember our series on Brad’s hit video Zero to the 101 shot by Brandon on St. Pat’s day (here’s some behind the scenes footage of that shoot).

Brad is Allen Estes‘ guest on this week’s Local Music Seen, which premieres tonight at 6:30pm on Cape Ann TV Channel 12.  It’s a half hour of excellent music and fascinating dialogue between two of Cape Ann’s best songwriters.  Plus you’ll get to hear three songs by Brad and Allen’s new song The Trouble with Me.

When the show is over, you can choose from half a dozen live music venues tonight with music for every taste you could imagine.   See the full live music schedule here.

Have you seen the sun today?  It’s coming back and will be here in full force soon enough, which is a good reminder to save $12 by getting your tickets now for the Gloucester Blues Festival on Saturday August 11 at Stage Fort Park.  See you there!

Congratulations GMG Ticket Winner to a gimmeLIVE Summer Concert

Posted on by Vickie & Peter

Congratulations to Diana Long, who won our GMG text to win contest for 2 tickets to the gimmeLIVE summer concert of her choice.  Diana chose Chris Isaak with Chelsea Berry opening.  (Click here if  you missed yesterday’s post with one of Chelsea’s most touching songs.)

There’s still time to enter our contest to win a VIP upgrade  (see VIP details here).  You can’t buy a VIP upgrade, but you can win it.  Just sign up for the gimmeLIVE Concert Club (click here, it’s free) and you’ll automatically be entered into a drawing to win 2 FREE VIP UPGRADES to the concert of your choice.  All you need is 2 regular tickets and you and your honey can go as VIPs!  The winner will be chosen on Friday.  Good seats are still available, but they are going fast.  Get tickets here.

Now for some sad news.  The great Doc Watson died yesterday.  His playing influenced a generation of guitarists, including one of Gloucester’s best, Allen Estes, who knew both Doc and his late son Merle.   I saw Doc with other greats including Bill Monroe several times in Bean Blossom Indiana in the 70s.  Here’s a video of Doc with Earl Scruggs, Ricky Skaggs & Alison Krauss.  Enjoy!

There are plenty of choices for live music tonight and many of them might be willing to play a Doc Watson tune if you request it.  See full music lineup here.

Allen & Dylan Estes ~ Father & Son make a special appearance at Giuseppe’s Sunday at 6pm

Posted on by Vickie & Peter

Here’s something you don’t see (or hear) every day — father & son performing  together with voices that blend this beautifully.  In this video, Allen & Dylan Estes sing one of Allen’s classic songs on his show Local Music Seen.  Tomorrow (Sunday) you can see them at Giuseppe’s — and they’re even better live!  You might want to call ahead to be sure you get a seat.  Music starts at 6pm.  Take your kid(s) and get inspired.

Now for tonight.  It’s time to get out and DANCE!  Gloucester is HOT tonight with all kinds bands ready to ROCK!  Take your pick or try to fit them all in.  Whew!  Check out the hot music lineup here.

Another new song by Allen Estes ~ perfect for the summer kick-off!

Posted on by Vickie & Peter

He’s on a roll, folks.  Every week we hear a new Allen Estes song — and they keep getting better too!  This gem is featured on Local Music Seen TONIGHT at 6:30 on Cape Ann TV Channel 12.  Chelsea Berry is Allen’s guest on this week’s show — and she has a beautiful new song too — must be something in the air!

If case you forgot, Chelsea will be opening for Chris Isaak at North Shore Music Theatre on June 28 with her new band — and they ROCK.  Imagine Chelsea’s powerful voice soaring over a rockin’ new band.  This will be the first time you can see them together on a magical night in an intimate listening venue with perfect sound.  Tickets are selling fast, so don’t wait until the last minute — get tickets here.

Sun’s out today.  Seven shows tonight.  Summer’s here in spirit.  Check out the music lineup here.

Allen Estes Band will Rock Rockport

Posted on by Vickie & Peter

Allen Estes (R) and Sal Baglio

If you’ve never seen Allen Estes with his band — Sal Baglio on guitar and vocals (in the photo left) and Matt Leavenworth on fiddle, guitar and vocals — tomorrow night is your chance.  They’re at the Old Sloop Coffeehouse in Rockport and when the three of them get going, you will lose yourself in the music.  There are still tickets available (get them here) or call (978) 546-3551.