How Weird Is This?

Back when I lived in Minneapolis I used to hang out at a bar called The Triangle near the University of Minnesota's campus on the east, and grittier, side of the Mississippi River. There were a number of bars in that area, somewhat dive-like in nature, but a lot of fun. The Triangle always had decent live music, Willie Murphy and the Bumble Bees played there a lot as well as one of my favorites, Spider John Koerner who often played with Tony "Little Sun" Glover and Dave "Snaker" Ray. Now The Triangle has been gone for years, the whole area has been somewhat gentrified now. Last time I drove by it was a pizza place. That was just sad.

Okay, coincidences, one of which occurred in Key West back in the year 2000. I went to the Green Parrot Bar and saw a poster for Spider John Koerner and Dave "Snaker" Ray. I hadn't seen these guys for about 25 years and just assumed that it was an old poster up for decorative purposes only. I took a closer look though and damn if it wasn't a current poster and they were playing that night. I came back and had a great time. When Spider asked for requests I hollered "Red Palace." He said he hadn't played that for years and I said he always played it at The Triangle. Well after his set he came over and we had a couple of beers and chatted about the old days. I found out that Tony "Little Sun" Glover didn't like to travel but still played with them in Minneapolis. Actually, it turned out that the three of them very seldom played together anymore. I think Dave and Tony played together most frequently, and Dave died of cancer on Thanksgiving day, 2002.

Anyway, I hadn't really thought about Spider for years. Then, for some reason, I looked him up on Rhapsody and played a couple of his albums last night, Raised By Humans and Nobody Knows The Trouble I've Been. Brought back a lot of good memories.

Okay, so here is the weird part. I got up this morning and picked up the morning papers including the free weekend edition of am New York. I was browsing through the 24/7 section which lists things that are going on in Brooklyn for the next week and nearly fell on the floor when I saw this:



Now that was really spooky. To think I hadn't seen this guy for several years and probably hadn't thought about for almost as long (sorry, Spider) and then the day after I listen to a couple of albums I see he will be playing almost in my neighborhood. Needless to say I will be making every effort to see him even though one of my nieces is having a birthday party that day. Guess I will just have to leave early. It is almost like I am meant to go see Spider, caught up in his musical web, so to speak.