140901 Regular Joe St Joe

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Jay KernerPublisher/Bad Patient

Im so mad at my nose!Not for its shape or size, although that wasnt always the case. As an infant

I was pretty much all nose. To the point that my old man (ever the loving nur-turer) called me Buzzard.

While my grownup version isnt exactly Cyranno, Pinnochio or even Ru-dolph, I guess I more or less grew into the one I have.

They say you can pick your friends and pick your nose, but you cant pick your friends nose.

The reason Im thumbing my nose at mine today, is because the darned thing has turned and bitten me on the butt.

Actually, its a little mole on the side of one nostril that had been sore and red for a few months. The Queen pestered me to get it looked at till I did.

Found out I have Nose Cancer.Damn it!Now dont get all excited. Its not that big a deal. Its the least aggressive, slowest growing kind, and Im told it can be re-

moved easily with a good prognosis. Thats the good news.The bad news is that I have to go see a plastic surgeon to make sure the scar

is as small as possible.Normally, scars dont bother me. A lifetime as a runt, playing sports against

bigger guys has given me plenty. A lifetime as sort of a klutzy daredevil has given me more. But a big old nose scar would be different. Anybody remember Jack Nicholson in Chinatown?

Stupid nose. What did I ever do to you? Ive kept you clean, (though brown when necessary). Ive kept your time pressed to the grindstone short, havent I?

Maybe its because I stuck you where you didnt belong, too often.Or because I buried you in too many books.I guess theres a slim possibility it has something to do with five decades or

so, outdoors without sunscreen.Regardless of the reason, the damn spot has to go!So now Im thinking about camouflage of some kind. Maybe one of those

lovely fake jewels would distract the eye from my disfigurement. The Queen says a nose-ring might be the thing, but I think shes just fantasizing about chaining me to a post outside dressing rooms while she tries on clothes.

Maybe Ill use the procedure as an excuse for a little cosmetic improve-ment. Heck, it worked so well for Michael Jackson!

I just hope he doesnt cut it off to spite my face, even though in all fair-ness, the face prob-ably asked for it.

I guess I could get a transplant. Maybe a cadaver nose, (as long as they get rid of that formaldehyde

smell).Maybe each of my kids would donate a nostril.I saw a show one time about prosthetic appendages that attach with mag-

nets. That would probably be better than a big triangular jack-o-lantern hole but Id worry about it flying off with every good sneeze. I imagine it would ruin a dinner party if you had to fish somebodys fake schnozz out of the soup.

Perhaps Im making a mountain out of a mole hill. (I do that.)Its probably not that big a deal.Oh, no! Ive became that guy! The one that needs to tell you about his

operation! Because clearly my health stuff is as fascinating to you as it is to me. Okay, maybe not.

Ill just look on the bright side. As the late comedian, Chris Farley said, In the land of skunks, the man with half a nose is king!

Your skin is your biggest organ. Take care of it. Wear sunscreen and keep an eye out for new weird skin stuff. Do as I say, not as I did. Your nose will thank you.

No Skin Off My Nose

Join The St. Joseph Bicycle Club for the Tenth Annual Saint Joseph Hill Challenge. The ride will be held rain or shine. The start/finish line will be the parking lot at Bartlett Park. The park is located at the intersection of Monterey and Southwest Park-way.

The purpose of this ride is to climb as many of the challenging hills in Saint Joseph in one day that is humanly possible and to raise money for the SJBC Bikes for Kids at Christmas Fund.

There will be two routes available this year. The Half Challenge (approx. 25 miles approx.) or the Full Challenge (approx. 50 miles). The Half Challenge ends at the Official Rest Stop. You can ride as far as you want to and we will come and pick you up if you cannot make it back to the finish line.

Check-in time will be from 8:00 - 8:30 am @ Bartlett Park. All riders must check in prior to their departure. Riders will depart at 8:30 am.

For more information, call: Joyce Reynolds @ 816-261-2383, email: [email protected] or check-our web site www.stjoebikeclub.org. Entry Fee: $25 for everyone. Pre-registration is not required but is recommended.

Dear Joe,The Riverwalk art association and the Mitchell

Park Plaza Gallery and Mead Museum will be cele-brating their 5 year anniversary during the month of September and with a special reception and discount art sale on Saturday September 13th from noon till 4. Wine and cheese will be provided.

Prints,crafts,hanging art,jewelry and art cards all available at discount prices all of September. Also on display will be photographer Dawn Davis as the gallerys featured artist for September. The gallery is located at 1300 s. 11th in st joseph. Visit the face book pages for more info: www.facebook.com/riverwalkart or www.facebook.com/Mitchell-ParkPlazaartgalleryandMeadMuseum or call 660 541 5989.

Dear Joe,

Contact The Regular Joe816-617-5850

[email protected]. Box 1304 St. Joseph, Mo. 64502

Read us onlinewww.theregularjoepaper.com

Jay KernerPublisher/Baseball Fan

Any Regular reader of this column knows how I feel about baseball, so I wont spend much time on my personal love affair with the game. Clearly, St. Joe has a massive baseball jones of its own. If youve been part of the record-setting crowds for our local summer league team at Phil Welch, youve seen for yourselves. Even if youre part of the mi-nority who hasnt, you have to have heard the talk.

Well let me tell you about some other baseball talk. Some of it we were directly involved in, some of it we overheard, some of it we were sworn to se-crecy on, and some of it, quite frankly, we made up.

Lets back up almost seven years. The Reg-ular Joe was only a dozen issues or so in, at that time, when I got a call from a downtown business guy I was friendly with. He wanted to know what I thought of the chances for a minor league baseball franchise playing in a new St. Joe stadium adjacent to downtown.

He was connected somehow with a group who was exploring various ways to clean up the brown-field areas just to the south. These formerly indus-trial areas arent among the highest environmental danger zones, but there are still enough concerns that our friends with the EPA want to be involved in what goes on there. Interestingly, it turns out that a ball-park is considered among the highest and best uses for properties of that distinction.

I started doing some digging and running some numbers.

First, new ballparks are being built in down-towns. From the majors to the minors, baseball or-ganizations and the communities that host them have finally figured out the symmetry between the games and where theyre played.

A downtown stadium engages the public like no suburban complex (or stand-alone, parkway ver-sion) can. From pre-games and post-games spent in the adjacent drinking and dining establishments to the simple magic of downtown foot traffic, a game night can be transformative to an area poised to cap-italize on it.

But forget about the altruism for a minute. That stuffs great but it doesnt get the deal done. Its the cash that does that.

Any knucklehead with a calculator can do some simple figures. Paid attendance multiplied by average ticket price is a good place to start. Then

you add X dollars per ticket for concession and gift shop sales. Then you tack on all the dough from various sponsorship packages, and all of a sudden youre talking some real money, here. But it all comes down to butts in seats.

Back in 2007 I didnt have the current teams phenomenal attendance numbers to factor in. I used much more modest projections and it still looked good to me. I passed on my findings and waited to hear.

Then nothing. Maybe the expected grant never came through. I never heard for sure what the hold-up was but bottom line, nothing happened.

Till the Mustangs happened. We raise our cups to our summer league

friends. They get it, and they know how to do it. Their monumental success story is confirmation of what many of us knew all along; give us a product to be proud of, served up with the right promotional flair, and this is as good a baseball town as any in America.

Its not hard to see why weve caught the eye of the baseball universe.

Now, some of them are looking downtown again.

The Environmental Protection Agency has spurred this interest by awarding Mo-Kan, an economic and community development organization, a bunch of cash for the afore mentioned brownfields cleanup.

Now its on. Property own-ers and developers are scheming and dreaming, trying to figure out a plan to get their mitts on some of it, to do something big with their holdings.

I met a couple of them last week.There have been conversations

about luring an existing minor league team to St. Joseph with the promise of a new downtown stadium. Wow! Kind of an If you build it, they will

come kind of a deal.They tell me there are a couple of teams in the

Midwestern League looking to move. A sixteen team league scattered through Iowa, Wisconsin, Illinois and Indiana, theyre divided into two, eight team di-visions, all with major league affiliations. And play-ing a schedule with over three times as many home games as our current team.

I was asked not to mention which teams are in play, but it wasnt hard to look up the various atten-dance figures and see which ones would drool over our numbers. Its also pretty easy to see how St. Joe would fit in geographically with other teams in the western division.

Now these folks are talking to other folks, looking to put together a potential ownership group. I figure there are a handful of local families with the means and interest to do it.

When the downtown ballpark idea seemed to die down a few years ago, we kept talking about it. We figured a campaign of rumors and gossip might continue the conversation.

Baseball Lies, Rumors and Innuendo

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Dr. Robert Corder

Auth back in the 50s and 60s there was a TV show called, To Tell the Truth. It was hosted by Bud Collyer (Mike Wallace hosted the pilot). The show basically involved a celebrity panel trying to guess which of three contestants was telling the truth while the other two were lying. It was very popular and had a slew of famous actors, performers, and personalities who were invited in to be guest panelists over the years. The reader may be wondering what this has to do with Rosecrans?

Well, last month I attributed General William Rosecrans as being the individual that our Rosecrans airport is named after. Turns out, to my dismay, there was more than one Rosecrans. General Rosecrans, who commanded Northern troops during the Civil War in this area, is not the person that I as-sumed Rosecrans airport was named after. Rosecrans is named after the first, and only U.S air corps casualty from St Joseph during WWI. I would not have been a good panelist on To Tell the Truth.

General Rosecrans graduated from West Point in 1842, and he was a rising star in the Northern Army until he suffered defeat in the Battle of Chicka-mauga in September of 1863. He was then transferred, (banished?) to the Department of Missouri hence his leadership at the battles of Camden Point and Westport in 1864. Animosities existed between he and General, later President, Grant when he criticized Grants actions in the battle for Corinth, Mississippi in 1862. General Rosecrans moved to California after the Civil War and was elected a Congressman for several terms. He also served as minister to Mexico. He was never on good terms with Grant. He died in 1898 and was buried in Arlington Cemetery. He does have a fort named after him in California.

Rosecrans Memorial Airport was named in honor of Sgt. Guy Wallace Rosecrans of the 153rd Aero Squadron, US Army Air Service, 1917-18. He was the only St Joseph airman killed in World War 1. Guy Wallace Rosecrans was born in Omaha, Nebraska. He worked at Swifts meat packing plant in St Joseph prior to enlisting in the Army in 1917. He died in October of 1918 in France. It is unknown whether Sgt. Rosecrans was a flier or a member of the ground crew. He died as a result of walking accidentally into a propeller. He was buried in France, but his remains were removed and reburied at Mt Auburn cemetery in 1920.

Interest in aviation was feverish in St Joseph in the early 1920s. In 1924 St Joseph could boast of one of the largest aero-aviation associations in the world. The first landing strip was at East Hills Country Club, now Stonecrest

housing addition. In 1922 the City of St Joseph began construction of a mu-nicipal airport at Lake Contrary. It was dedicated in May of 1923. The Chamber of Commerce and the American Legion Post recommended that it be named after Sgt. Rosecrans, not Gen. Rosecrans. That airport was soon deemed too small, so, another airport was developed North of the city near the Waterworks. Ten years later that airport was deemed too dangerous, and the air service was moved to its present location in 1940. A memorial stone dedicating the airport to Rosecrans has survived several moves from Lake Contrary to Water Works Road to its present location. It has also survived several floods.

Rosecrans isnt a very common surname. Im sure that these two men must have been related in some way?.......

WILL THE REAL ROSECRANS PLEASE STAND UP?

Scott Wineinger Agency1805 Oakridge CirSaint Joseph, MO 64506(816) [email protected]

Chuck Thorburn Agency, Inc.125 S 5th StSavannah, MO 64485(816) [email protected]

Stephen Lorenz Agency1109 N 26th StSaint Joseph, MO 64506(816) [email protected]

The Glore Psychiatric Museum, 3406 Frederick Avenue, will be the site of a Grand Re-opening on Saturday, September 13 at 6 p.m. The event will feature the new introductory video and exhibit Within These Walls. This exhibit and video project, which chronicles the development of Missouri State Hospitals, is made possible through a grant from the Missouri Humanities Council and fund-ing from the Nodaway Valley Bank.

As one of only a handful of psychiatric museums in the country, the Glore Psychiatric Museum explains the role of the State Hospital in St. Joseph within the larger State Hospital System as well as the history of mental health treatment. The Museum began in 1968 with the work of George Glore, the Occupational Therapist for the State Hospital. Mr. Glore, with the help of patients, created displays of historical mental health treatment devices for an Open House at the hospital. The collection grew into a Museum that was housed in the Administra-tion Building of the State Hospital until 1997. At that time, the State Hospital moved across Frederick Avenue and became the Northwest Missouri Psychiatric Rehabilitation Center and the Glore Psychiatric Museum moved into its current location, the former Medical, Surgical, and Admitting Buildings for the hospital. In the past year, the Museum exhibits have been re-designed and areas of the building have been opened to allow for more interpretation of the hospital. Dur-

ing the opening, guests can view all four floors of the Glore Psychiatric Museum and a section of a hospital tunnel that was built in the 1930s. This section was part of a system of tunnels that connected many of the main St. Joseph State Hospital buildings. The tunnels made it easier to move large quantities of food and supplies, as well as patients.

The mission of the Glore Psychiatric Museum is to reduce the stigma as-sociated with mental illness and the updated exhibits work towards making this complicated subject accessible. The Museum encourages visitors to think about the following questions as they tour- How have the mentally ill been treated in the past? What kind of care are they receiving today? And what does the future look like for those who face mental health challenges? said St. Joseph Museums Executive Director Sara Wilson.

The Grand Re-opening will be held on Saturday, September 13, from 6 to 8 p.m. Welcome and introduction to the exhibits will take place at 6:30 p.m. Admission is free and refreshments will be served. For more information on the Glore Psychiatric Museum, visit www.stjosephmuseum.org or call 816-232-8471.

Grand Re-opening of the Glore Psychiatric Museum

Under the Big Oak Tree, St. Jo-sephs own acoustic folk/bluegrass band, releases its debut album on September 9th. The new CD which is self-titled and features original artwork by Josh Hamilton (boxcardinal.blogspot.com) was funded entirely through the groups Kickstarter campaign, which raised over $4,000 in pledges from fans and supporters. The album will be available for purchase as a physical CD on the bands website (www.underthebigoaktree.net) and at stores such as The Lucky Tiger

(www.facebook.com/TheLuckyTigerStJoe) or as a download on iTunes, Amazon, and other places on the internet.

The album features ten original songs, many of which are descriptive of life in the bands home region, Northwest Missouri. Farmers Son is dobro player Sean Clearys declaration of hard-won allegiance to his rural roots in the area. Missouri wistfully charts the ups and downs of industrial development along the Missouri River. Under the Big Oak Tree draws inspiration from lead singer Kristin Hamiltons warm memories of family get-togethers at their farm just outside of St. Joseph.

Local support of the band has been so overwhelming that the group was able to raise all funding for the recording and pressing of its new CD through a successful Kickstarter campaign. In exchange for pledges, the band offered rewards such as copies of the album itself, prints of the album artwork, and VIP passes to the CD release party.

The band will celebrate the albums release by gathering some musical comrades for an evening of unique collaborative performances and special guests. The festivities will take place at Paradox The-ater (107 S. 6th St.) on Sat-urday, September 13th from 710 p.m.

Guest musicians will include Tyler Gregory (www.tylergregorymusic.com), The Matchsellers (www.facebook.com/The-Matchsellers), Sean Ew-bank of The John Brown Boys (www.facebook.com/TheJohnBrownBoys), and many others. Audience

members will be entered in a raffle to win band merchandise and other prizes.Under the Big Oak Tree draws on the enduring fertile ground of American

folk music, creating heartfelt songs that have an uncanny timeless quality to them. The bands rustic, acoustic arrangements radiate a warm golden glow: a hon-eyed mix of vintage Americana, folk revival, and old country and bluegrass. The band has amassed a loving and supportive audience in its hometown and hopes the new album will help expand its fan base even further.

8

CD Release Party for Under the Big Oak Tree

9Woods & Bruce Electric

No job too small!David Bruce, Master Electrician

816-617-1152

Cafe Acoustic 2605 FrederickALL SHOWS @9:30pm unless listed otherwise.

Sept 3 OPEN MIC Hosted by Nicky Fitz Feature Artist Corey Clark & Larry OsbornSept 4 9pm Johnny Campbell & the Bluegrass Drifters sept 5 Manniquinn EscortSept 6 Hubcap BanditsSept 7 Memorial Benfit for DOUG PICKETT Open Mic jam @ 7pmSept 10 OPEN mIC hosted by Nicky Fitx=z Feature Artist Lindsey SaundersSept 11 Ben Kuzay & Drew Balls Sept 12 Red Velvet Crush & The GASTOWN LAMPSSept 13 Steves Birthday BASH Featuring: A Tribute to the BEATLES ith Tom Mayfield, Scot Brunette & Joe StretchSept 17 OPEN MIC Hosted by Nicky FitzSept 19 Sneaky Creeps & CUPCAKESept 20 The Philistines & Drew Black & the Dirty Electric Sept 24 OPEN MIC Hosted by Nicky FitzSept 25 OPEN M IC COMEDY hosted by AJ BAILEYSept 26 Odd-O-Matic & the Burnstylessept 27 DREAMGIRL

Eagles Lodge North BeltSaturday, Sept 6th Ranger from 8:00 - 12:00Saturday, Sept 13th -Revd Up, 8:00 - 12:00Saturday, Sept 27th - Dixie Cadillac, 8:00 - 12:00

First Ward House St. Joe Ave & Grand Live Music most Saturdays

Magoons Deli 8th & LocustMon 9/1 Open JamThurs 9/4 Colby Bob & DyanSat 9/6 Bugsy Maugh & Rockin RickMon 9/8 Bugsy ParadeWed 9/10 the MotorsThur 9/11 John MaxfieldFri 9/12 Chilli & Ron TeemerSat 9/13 TBAThurs 9/18 Jeff LuxFri 9/19 Hubcap BanditsSat 9/20 Magoonstock Lineup:Tracy Huffman - The Motors - Ben Green - Page IIThe Souveneers. Group Photo 4pm9pm Ben Green, Tracy Huffman and their sonsThurs 9/25 the SouveneersFri 9/26 the MotorsSat 9/27 Amalgam Jazz

Lucky Tiger 8th & FrancisFirst Saturday August 6th Live music all afternoon

Live Music Hi-Lites

JOESTOCKThe areas largest and most eclectic live concert

event returns Labor Day weekend to downtown St. Joseph, Missouri. Over 33 musical acts will take the stage of Coleman Hawkins Park for the 5th annual JoeStock Music Festival. This is an all ages, fam-ily friendly event presented by the St. Joseph Music Foundation.

This festival is free to the public and features a roster of internationally respected artists, region-al performers, and amateur artists showcasing their talents in the genres of rock, alternative, pop, jazz, country, folk, metal, and experimental music.

For the first time, this event will be digitally broadcast across the world through SJMF RADIO (www.stjosephmusicfoundation.org) and throughout the St. Joseph area via community radio KFOH LP 99.3 FM.

DAY 1: Friday, August 29, 2014 03:00 pm- OPEN 03:45- Robo Hops 04:30- Joes Garage 05:15- Stephanie Glenn 06:00- Benton Rolling Alumni Band 06:45- Jeff Hudson 07:30- Grindstone Creek 08:30- Stephanie

Gummelt 09:15- The Re Agents 10:15- Jamazon Cloud DAY 2: Saturday, August 30, 2014 10:30 am- OPEN 11:00- Sara Mathews12:00 pm- Jennifer George 01:00- Tom Meehan 02:00- Tony Hernandez 03:00- Supernaut 04:00- DBox 05:00- Daniel Berg Bergonzoni 06:00- The Coterie 07:00- Cody Hudson 08:00- The Devil & The Southern Fellowship 09:00- Burnstyles 10:00- Hubcap Bandits DAY 3: Sunday, August 31st, 2014 10:30 am-

OPEN 11:00- Jerry Rodriguez 11:45- The Embers 12:30 PM- Forced Anthem 01:15- Sparrowsong 02:00- The Phil Jackson Group 02:45- Tad Hopkins & Ronnie Weir 03:30- Nite Grooves 04:15- Mid Life Crysis

05:15- Britt Small 06:15- The Iris Project 07:15- Jeff Lux 08:15- Hall of Fame Jam Band

Coleman Hawkins Blues FestivalFriday Sept 12th at Coleman Hawkins Park

6:00 to 7:40 p.m. Jerry Forney 8:00 to 10:00 p.m. Brother BagmanSaturday,

September 13th 3:00 to 4:30 p.m. Dave Hayes and

Pedro Squella 4:50 to 6:20 p.m Hector Anchondo 6:40 to 8:10 p.m. Big Harry and

the Back Alley Blues 8:30 to 10:00 p.m Old #5s*

Bluegrass Battles Hunger

Friday, September 26th at Coleman Hawkins Park

5:30 - 6:30 pm Hubcap Bandits 6:40 - 8:00 pm Dr. Cotton 8:20 - 10:00 pm Old Salt Union

Saturday, September 27th1:00 - 2:00 pm Brett Hodges & No

Mountain String Band 2:20 - 3:20 pm Under the Big Oak

Tree 3:40 - 4:40 pm Old Sound 5:00 - 6:00 pm Whiskey for the

Lady 6:20 - 7:20 pm Konza SwampBand 7:40 - 8:40 pm The John Brown Boys 9:00 - 9:40 pm Loaded Goat 9:40 - 10:00 pm Loaded Goat with All

JoeStock, C.Hawkins Blues & Bluegrass Battles Hunger

A year ago this September we attended Expo East, the large natural products convention held annually in Baltimore. Featured during the meeting was the premiere of a new film called GMO OMG by director Jeremy Seifert which profiles the history and potential danger of foods containing genetically modified organisms.

GMOS, as they are known, involve the splicing in of genes from one organism into a host organism. For example, a fish gene could be spliced into a corn host. Biotech companies have been doing this for the last couple of de-cades to increase yields and to create new plants that are resistant to insecticides and herbicides. And not just plants either. One of the most recent controversial developments was the proposed gene splicing of one fish species into farm-raised salmon to make them grow to marketable size more quickly.

This sparked a protest among grocery chains, indicating that they would not sell the fish if the FDA were to approve the practice.

The main issue so far concerning GMOs centers on the publics right to know whether or not the food they are eating has been genetically modified. Only a few states, including Connecticut and Maine have passed labeling laws. A hotly contested vote in California favored not labeling GMOS, a result that reflected the fact that biotech companies spent twice as much money on adver-tising as did the Non-GMO movement.

Biotech companies maintain that GMOs are safe while the Non-GMO movement counters that they have not been in the food supply long enough to determine whether or not they are safe or not for human consumption. Mean-while, did you realize that over 80 percent of all the corn and soybeans grown in the U.S. are now genetically modified? Interestingly, these are also the crops that are the most heavily subsidized by the government.

Its probably too late to turn back the tide of genetic modification. As the saying goes, the genies out of the bottle. But we can still insist on our right to know and thats what Mr. Seiferts film is all about. We also support the efforts

of the NON-GMO Project--a non-profit organization that certifies non-GMO foods and disseminates information about their efforts.

A-Zs Fresh Air fare has obtained the rights to screen GMO OMG which will be shown at the East Hills branch of the St. Joseph Public Library on Wednesday, October 15 at 6:30 p.m. We will also serve NON-GMO snacks and have a question-and-answer period afterward.

We cordially invite you to mark this date and event on your calendar to inform yourself about this important issue. In the next Regular Joe we will post an ad on this page about the film. Admission is free to the public.

Yours for a transparent food supply,James Fly

12- Joe Health

Non-GMO--The Publics Right to Know....

Danny R. PhillipsRegular Joe Music Guy

Someone please tell me, who was the rat ba**tard that coined the term Americana? Whoever it may have been, Id like to tar and feather their entire body, take them to the town square and have them flogged with a copy of Websters Dictionary. The crime is not truly severe or overly heinous; no, its that the guilty person created one of the most over used clichs in all of writing, mu-sic criticism or otherwise. I will not use it in my re-visiting of Son Volts album American Central Dust. It is not Americana; it is, like Farrars work with the groundbreaking band, Uncle Tupelo, sim-ply America.

Dust is dark and brooding one minute and happy the next, like a woman on the verge of los-ing her mind or that has just realized that she has fallen in love. Farrars songs and style embraces that woman and even buys her flowers. Whether he was paving new ground with Jeff Tweedy (later to be front man of the acclaimed Wilco) in Uncle Tupelo or charting a new course with solo records and the great output of his band Son Volt, Farrar has never failed to release quality music and in doing so, has proven that he is one, along with Tweedy, of the fin-est songwriters of his generation.

This trend continues with American Central Dust. Its greatness lies in its weighty darkness; a statement of a downtrodden America in a very Bruce Springsteens Nebraska kind of way. Few can spin tales like the ones to be found here (The Boss and Steve Earle are the only names that rush to the front of my brain); it is storytelling like Craig Finn of Hold Steady only wishes he could pull off. Yes, Ive gone on and on about the songwriting prowess

on this record and I should give several individual examples but frankly, there is no stand-out line, phrase or song. The tracks are all equally moving, dra-matic and perfectly flawed. American Central Dust is not a perfect album, it is not the Tim of Alternative Coun-try but it is a dirty diamond in the Dust Bowl of Rock.

The level of writing and playing on the record is topnotch. From the opening track Dynamite ( this love is like/ celebrating fourth of July with dynamite) to the collapsing industrial complex (When The Wheels Dont Move) through a tribute to Gram Parsons old friend Keith Richards (Cocaine and Ashes) and the most haunting song about a shipwreck since Gordon Lightfoots Wreck Of The Edmund Fitzgerald, the tear-soaked river-boat tragedy Sultana. Dust is equal parts history lesson, rock record, walk down an old dirt road and a day trip through Farrars Faulkner-esque mind.

It is also a showcase to bands on how one sur-rounds themselves with great players. Dave Bryson (drums), Andrew Duplantis (bass), Chris Masterson (lead guitar) and Mark Spencer ( keyboards and steel guitar) all know their places and how to hold them down. Each is a king of their instrument and makes a spiritedly groove-filled band to help bring to life the sorrow and darkness filled words and phrasing of Farrar.

I will stop far short in saying that Farrar stands on a level with Young and Dylan. That would be crazy, that lonely mesa is only big enough for two giants to stand upon. However, Jay should be rec-ognized as a documenter of the American Experi-ence; a rock star with a country soul, a folkie with an amp turned to 11. It wouldve been easy for Farrar to put together a Wilco-like band when forming Son Volt and in some ways he did, in that both groups

appreciate melody, roots music, Woody Guthrie and rock n roll. But unlike Tweedy who has flirted with greatness (the albums A.M., Summerteeth and Yan-kee Hotel Foxtrot), Jay Farrar delivers an album in American Central Dust that whispers and screams to the listening world, I am a songwriters song-writer I am better than Jeff! Wilco is Son Volts bitch!

From the Shelf: Son Volts American Central Dust

THANKSFOR READING

THE REGULAR JOE!

We caught these folks at Parties on the Parkway, Trails West! and the always crazy streets of the Joe. See anybody you know? Tell em you saw their mugs in The Regular Joe!

MUGSHOTS

Sascha Gorschang, cel-list, and Kairy Koshoeva , pianist, will present the first concert of the 2014-15 sea-son of the First Thursday Downtown Noon Concert Series on Thursday, Sep-tember 4, at 12:1012:50 p.m. in the Sanctuary of the First Presbyterian Church, 7th & Jules. The church sponsors the series in coop-eration with the Missouri Western State University Department of Music. The audience is invited to bring lunch to eat during the performance. Bever-ages will be provided. There will be an opportunity to meet the musicians after the concert.

Sascha Groschang is an active recitalist and chamber musician, having performed across the United States and Asia. She has appeared at Lin-coln Center and Carnegie Hall numerous times, and gave her solo debut recital at Carnegie Halls Weill Recital Hall in 2009. She has shared the stage with artists such as Yo-Yo Ma and Itzhak Perlman and has been a soloist with the Grammy-Award-winning Kansas City Chorale and the Bach Aria Soloists. She is principal cellist of the St. Joseph Symphony, principal continuo player for the Trinity Lutheran Bach Cantata series, (on both modern and period instruments), and is on the faculty at Mis-souri Western State University.

In addition to classical music, Sascha is an avid performer and composer of non-traditional styles. She has performed with the Trans-Siberian Orches-tra, Michael Buble, Peter Gabriel, and has extensive recording experience, including sessions for NBC, Atlantic and Rhino Records. She is co-founder, co-composer and cellist of the alternative string duo, The Wires, which explores unorthodox styles through original music. www.cellolady.com

Kairy Koshoeva earned her Doctor of Musi-cal Art degree from the Conservatory of Music at the University of Missouri, Kansas City. She also holds bachelor and masters degrees from Gnessins Academy of Music in Moscow,Russia and Artist Diploma certificate from Oberlin Conservatory at Oberlin College in Ohio.

Ms. Koshoeva has garnered awards from around the globe including the top prize at the International Piano Competition in Vincenza, Italy,

the N. Rubinstein Competition in Paris, France, and is the 2004 Gold Medal winner of the Rachmaninoff award in Moscow, Russia and first prize at Chautauqua Music Festi-val concerto competition in New York.In 2003 she was named Hon-ored Artist of her native country Kyrgyzstan. She has performed in Israel, France, Germany, Rus-sia, Turkey, Switzerland and the United States. She has held teach-ing positions at Avila University, Kansas City Community College,

the University of Central Missouri. Currently she is an adjunct faculty at Rockhurst University and lecturer in piano at The University of Kansas. She is Nationally Certified Teacher of Music in Piano through MTNA .

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