A Joyful Noise

I’ve been to many concerts over the years, more than some people, fewer than other people.  I’ve paid for concerts and snuck into concerts.  In those years, I’ve seen some performers more than once and for a long time, Neil Diamond and Corky Siegel remained tied.   They no longer are.

Neil Diamond concerts are fun.  Always.  His audiences love him and know the music and sing along for everything.  He puts on a good show, and I have enjoyed every performance. 

Big sound from a little guy.

I first saw Corky in Chicago.  I think it was Alice’s on Wrightwood.  Regardless of whether I have the name and place correct in my memory, it was a small dive on a small Chicago side street.   Siegel-Schwall played the blues.  The best kind of blues.  Chicago blues.   Four guys having fun on the stage, and their enthusiasm and pure joy on the stage always impressed me.  Jim Schwall played an amplified acoustic back then long before the current Americana music trend popularized by Mumford and Son and the Avett Brothers.  Corky played harp, small in stature but always large in sound.  With their drummer and bass, they played the blues.  They played Chicago blues. 

Before acoustic was cool again

I saw Siegel-Schwall play William Russo’s symphony compositions with the Milwaukee Symphony at the old Summerfest grounds before there was the Marcus Amphitheater with it’s molded chairs under a roof.  Fans sat by the band shell on logs and railroad ties.  Over the years, Corky and Jim still played together but not as much.  Schwall went on to Madison where he is a music professor.  Siegel moved his harmonica playing to mix with string quartets in something he calls Chamber Blues.

Rollo Radford

The Amazing Sambo

Last night at Turner Hall they got together for a special concert, to celebrate their drummer’s 79th birthday.  Sam Lay is the epitome of the blues.  He played with many of the familiar names of early Chicago blues era.  Willie Dixon, Howlin' Wolf, Eddie Taylor, John Lee Hooker, Junior Wells, Bo Diddley, Magic Sam, Jimmy Rogers, Earl Hooker, and Muddy Waters.  He played with the Paul Butterfield Blues Band.  He played with Bob Dylan at Newport when Dylan brought electric sound to the folk festival.  Listen to many of those old Chess records.  That beat is Sam Lay.  He joined Siegel-Schwall in a later incarnation of the band, but together with bassist Rollo Radford, they still played the blues.

The Legendary Sam Lay

Corky used to tell a joke about Sam.  Sam went backstage to talk with Bob Dylan at some event.  When he got back to his seat, people were asking him, “Sam, how was it to talk with a legend?”  Sam said, “Bob thought it was pretty cool.”  

Through all the incarnations of the band, the men up on the stage have always showed a joy in being in front of an appreciative audience.    Whether it was Siegel-Schwall, or just Siegel, with the band, with a viola and cello, with a symphony, I have never been disappointed.  Some performers just go through the motions.  Some lip sync their way through a show.  Some charge hundreds of dollars for a seat where your nose bleeds.  I am glad that through the years, Siegel-Schwall has remained raw, real, and energetic.  It truly is a joyful noise.