Kevin Midgley: News

A shout out to the folks from Ferry Beach Park Association who made a dance party out of the evening at the Run of the Mill! It felt like a juke joint up there. Hope to see you down the road!

The Deer Run Tavern is hosting an all day (1:00 - 8:00 PM) event to raise money for the Portland based non-profit group Konbit Sante. Konbit Sante has been working in the Cap Hatien region of Haiti since 2000, to improve health care by training and teching the Haitian community. There will be all kind of food and music. I will play a set starting at 2:00.

well I never went away, but the recession hit my budget so I had to put off paying the folks at CD/hostbaby. Best wishes to all for safe and peaceful holidays.

well I never went away, but the recession hit my budget so I had to put off paying the folks at CD/hostbaby. Best wishes to all for safe and peaceful holidays.

Hey everybody, Matt Foster is in the state all the way from Australia where he has lived for quite some time now. We are going to swap some songs, jam some and see what happens. Matt was part of The Blue Roots Portland scene, oh you know a ways back there. Come say hello.

Join us this Sunday to help raise money for Ward Webber's living and medical expenses. Ward broke his leg on a job site, and has been out of work for way too long. As an independent contractor he has no insurance and no workman's comp. But he does have a loyal band of friends that want to help him out.

Please join us for a great line up of bands, an awesome silent auction, beer specials, super fantastic guest bartenders, and pulled pork sandwiches. All proceeds from the auction, bartender tips, and sandwich sales will go directly to Ward.

Bands: Marion Grace, Kevin Midgley and friends, Dark Hollow Bottling Company, and the return of Peepshow!

Silent Auction includes these great items:
Two sets of Red Sox tickets!
A Sunday White rooster collage
a gift certificate to the Laura Fuller Glass Studio
a Bar of Chocolate gift basket
Ruski's gift certificate
a gift certificate for electrical service
Bacon and Sausage from the Sausage King of Portland, Maine
and much much more....
Silent Auction donations are still being accepted, if you are interested!

Arty Tavano and Jim White will be providing the pulled pork sandwiches, complete with coleslaw and pickles for $5.00

There will be no cover charge, but a suggested donation of $5.00, which will go directly to Ward.

Come celebrate the inventor of the Runny PooPoo and a person who has helped all of us at least once in our life.

Fans and friends of Gary will be happy to know he is in town and playing downstairs at Empire Dine and Dance in Portland from 6PM-8:30PM the next couple of Fridays and possibly a few weekday evenings as well. Check Empire's site for details and contact info. We are trying to work in a get together...will keep you posted.

Hey there Gary Shackelford fans, Gary will be returning to the state for a 2 week stay sometime in the middle of July. I'm trying to hook up a couple gigs for/with him so keep checking in. If you know of any stages in the area, July 12th-24th please get in touch.

Yah, Mr.Conway and myself will present ourselves to the proper authorities Friday April 10. The possibility exists for surprise appearances by local monster talent. Get some of Cliff's good chow and hunker down jus' like we used to do. There is parking available behind the restaurant if you are driving an uninspected, unregistered and/or stolen vehicle. No guns or weapons of any kind. Everyone on their best behavior.

If you are in the area or just into hanging out for a few hours check us at The Royal Bean, home of beverages hot, beany and leafy. They've also got a lunch menu thang going on if you get hungry. We will be playing from 1-3 PM and some local friends should be joining in. Have you reached that point where the beauty of winter has become overshadowed by the shoveling, slipping and sliding, muscle contracting cold, cost of heating and dread of road salt? Me too. A good cup of coffee may take your mind off that crap.

Join us Saturday, Jan. 10th This week's version of the Small Orchestra will take stage at 9:30 and includes such talent as: Brother Micheal of the Poor Valley Salvation Society (who ran away to join the circus but was tricked into joining the Orchestra by the evil manager Mr. Bubbles), Mr. Jeff Trippe Esq. (hired as legal counsel now working the mandolin pro bono), Bal'mor Slim on harmonica, various percussive items, and shouting, Deacon Lo' D Conway: harmonica and crowd control, and your humble servant Reverend Magic Midgley as always on guitars and vocals. We will be ventilating the premises for The Dark Hollow Bottling Company, a string band of immense influence who play with ear plugs and both hands tied behind their backs. Go to the links area of this fine website (right away) and visit their myspace entry. $5.00 non-refundable cover charge.

I will be playing live on WMPG twice this week for those of you with radios or computers with streaming capabilities. Around 6 PM Weds. Nov. 19 I will be on the Evening Sun Show with Myron Samuels. Myron will assist on harmonica, and grill me about what periodicals I read and give me a pop geography quiz. Second show will be Friday Nov. 21st in the AM on Chris Darling's Us Folk. Scheduled lift off will be 8:40 AM. Rumor has it that Chris serves fresh pastries and champagne to guests. I'll bring my ice bucket. On your FM dial WMPG is at 90.9 or 104.1 FM. Go to WMPG.org to listen in over the web.

This is a house party event with two bands: Poor Valley Salvation Society and the Small Orchestra. Seating is limited, so you may want to bring some portable chairs. BYOB and $5.00 to go toward the band stylist and Nieman-Marcus stage clothes. Check out Poor Valley's myspace and host Jay York's website. Used to live in the now empty basement of the church. Allyson and I were unemployed most of the summer. The Belair broke down. Nothing like a vacant lot in Portland in the summer. We lived off of pasta salad and Gordon's gin, watched the sun set over the junkyard and Back Bay. The neighbors were a trip. Showtime 8:00 PM Saturday, Nov. 22.

The Small Orchestra took stage for the second time in its fabled career in front of a small, but enthusiastic, and damp crowd at Yarmouth's Clam Festival. (If you don't know the Clam Festival you will have to look elsewhere for coverage.) The fact that there were farm animals in attendance only adds to the evening's charm. A grueling one hour set of music involving fierce drumming, flaming harmonicas, and the emotional breakdown of Mr. Midgley were left undocumented by the mainstream media. The Small Orchestra's band strategist vowed that the band would return after yet another management shake up. While some members of the band bowed out early thereby safely negotiating a road block, others opted not to go home at all. Thus, along with members of the Mutineers, who wish to remain unidentified, the remaining musicians practiced the beverage equivalent of what the lumber industry calls clear cutting. Many songs were sung, much sleep lost. The moon came out from behind the clouds even as things got cloudy. Amen

It would appear that spring is happening. The yard is full of grackles and redwings, and we actually heard peepers last night. The Rest-O-Bar is going through a metamorphosis. Rumor is it will be open within a week, featuring a few menu items from the past, and Granny's Burritos. I don't know what the music scene will be about there, so we're taking it on the road. Somewhat. Check it out though, bad pennies turn up. Keep an eye on the calendar to see where we're playing.

OK so the wall on the border stops at Hunt's property line - that's what a $350,000 donation to the Republican party gets you - at the same time the "Department of Homeland Security" is waving environmental standards to go through wildlife sensitive areas. Excellent job Chertoff. Medal of Freedom is in the mail.

Seriously - a wall? between the US and Mexico? National IDs? Yes we are the richest nation in the world, so now we are going to be the first "gated" nation in history. Well, it's a race between us and Israel. No Mr. Hernandez you can't come in. Mr. Jones, remember the gates lock at 9. Don't be out after curfew. Maybe we should spend the ridiculous amount of money we are going to spend on that wall investing in some south of the border businesses that would pay decent wages so folks wouldn't have to come here to support their families. (Do you really think people want to leave their homes unless they are desperate?) OK national ID? The people who need IDs to go back and forth are the criminals who crisscross the globe brokering corporate rip offs, weapons sales, starting wars, and stealing other countries' natural resources. Oh shit! those are the guys who want us to have IDs. Terrorists who know how to fly commercial airliners can probably handle the ID thing. Jackasses are making the decisions for us. Greedy, power hungry jackasses.

How can you appear on the radio? Doesn't make sense. I will be live on WMPG Weds Jan. 16th at about 6 PM with host Myron Samuels in advance of a set at the Dogfish Bar and Grill's open mic series. We'll spin some tunes and play some live music. Could be a pre-show cocktail hour for those of you going out, or maybe just some live music during the dinner hour. You can catch WMPG by going to wmpg.org and picking up the stream if you are not in the signal area. You can also call the station at (207)780-4909.

Seems like a lot of folks nearby have checked out recently. One minute they are there, either making you laugh or pissing you off, and then next you are asking yourself "Is that a life?" or "What is a life?" Oh yeah...the mystery of existence. What went before, what happens later? The good stuff. You can only hold on to it for so long, unless you're a philosopher, then it's back to lovin', drinkin', and cursin' the powers that be until somebody checks in or out . Then you stop in your tracks and start thinking real hard again. The deacon's dad, the reverend's mother-in-law and so many others give us pause to ponder, at the very least, what the hell is happening and where we are on our journey. Amen

Check the links out for a little video that Chris Darling posted from a booksigning for the Steve Goodman bio by Clay Eals a few weeks back at Longfellow Books in Portland. The book clocks in at 800 pgs. with a CD of tributes to Steve Goodman. I chimed in with Mutineers Stuart MacDonald and Jeff Trippe on a Hank Williams tune. Many thanks to Chris for thinking of us and to Longfellow Books for the refreshments and opportunity to play. (Cool bookstore.) After the evening's events the musicians were in agreement that Clay owes us a copy of that book - we're musicians: we buy beer not books!

Yet another local Yarmouth business bites the dust. Haggerty's is gone due to their being unable to meet a hood code. The insurance companies are the entities that put spark to a violation unknown to the lessee and the landlords. It would appear that neither the renter nor the owner were willing (or able) to "invest" in the upgrade. But wait! The for lease sign says, "Restaurant/Retail space". BUYER BEWARE! You are entering the Yarmouth Business District.

It feels like July: the trees are waving around like a scene from a Ray Bradbury novel. It's 9:30 pm and there is a severe thunderstorm warning in effect. The damned sodium vapor lights are casting an orange pall over the brand new leaves. The splash company - an outfit that trucks water around to fill folks swimming pools (that seems like an only in America thing: "I NEED MY POOL FILLED, AND FAST!") Fellas, have you ever seen the back of one of these tankers? An artist, of the truck painting ilk has portrayed a bikini clad bathing beauty, poolside - a wonder to behold, especially on a truck. I live on a dead end street, so when a large vehicle goes by it creates a lot of excitement. Who has a pool? Where the hell does he think he's going? etc. I'm out cutting the grass and I here the splash truck coming. Truck like that takes up a quarter of the street. Goes by. I think, he's got no place to turn around, he's gonna have to back all the way out. That will suck. Sure enough, I hear the reverse beeper, and man, he doesn't flinch, all the way back to town hall parking lot (across from my house) where he can turn around. What does he do? He pulls out and proceeds to head back down where he came from in reverse! Got to be one of the most exciting Saturday afternoons in quite a while. I guess he couldn't reach the pool in forward. He wasn't there too long and left. He just came back. Did he fill the wrong pool? somebody's basement? or just miss completely? So I'm scratching my head about all this, waiting for some nickel size hail to scream through with 60 MPH gusts. That will make for a really exciting Saturday. We get hail once a year maybe. Nickel size? We'll be talking about that at work Monday morning.

Chicky's Fine Diner, sadly, has closed it's doors...we hardly knew ye. These are the times that try musicians' souls. There are few spots where staff and patrons somehow manage to share interest and temperment and thus create a comfortable vibe where musicians can shine at their craft. Thanks for the gigs and the whiskey boys!

We will be playing at 10 PM Saturday night at Geno's, featuring a couple of drummers, possibly a couple of harmonica players, and me. We shall see what that sounds like! Lots of rootsy music from 9 PM on until last call. Saturday April 21st. If you've never experienced Geno's now is your moment - dress casual - spray down last weeks laundry with some febreeze, and extract your favorite ensemble and head on out...Hey check out the Rest-O-Bar on your way!

It was so windy today I saw a reconditioned Hum-Vee blow off the back of a trailer. Fella grabbed one of the tie downs and tied it off on a guard rail by the airport. Kind of like a box kite - they don't really look like they belong up there. The control tower notified the authorities who sent some fighters from the Naval Air base to blow it out of the sky. I found that to be ironic. Some people can't see the humor in that. At least nobody got hurt. What a mess though - because it was so windy all the pieces just went everywhere. What the hell were they thinking? Some kind of anchor would have made more sense. Well, well, well you ought to come by the Rest-O-Bar. It'd be good to see ya.

Slap in the Face - that's March fuh ya. We keep on thinking spring, more light - talk to a farmer - frozen pipes, depleted woodpile. It's 0° for Chrissakes! Anyways come out and rub elbows with the rest of the human race this Sunday in Yarmouth at Haggerty's Cafe, right theah on Main St. from 10 til noon or so. We'll see some of yous at the Thursday evening services!