The John Jorgenson Bluegrass Band at the Parlor Room in Northampton, MA

It's easy to miss the Parlor Room as you drive down Masonic Street in Northampton, MA, home of Smith College. Located in an unprepossessing building that's also the home of Signature Sounds, which also owns or manages five other venues as well as being a major recording studio located in Connecticaut, and promotes three festivals in Massachusetts, the small brick front welcomes music lovers. We had driven down to see the John Jorgenson Bluegrass Band with Darin Aldridge, which is on a quick tour including stops in Pennsylvania, Connecticut, Massachusetts, and New York.

The Parlor Room

Seating about 100 people with two rows of tables in front of eight or sotheater rows of seating about 100 people. The Parlor Room (located at 32 Masonic Street in Northampton) l has a small, low stage with inadequate lighting for a four piece band. This is more than compensated for by fine sound and very good acoustics. No food is served there, but there are a number of eateries nearby offering ethnic food, as well as a brew pub just a few steps away. During the concert, customers may bring their own beer and wine, while a pie bar customarily offers light refreshments during the intermission. The audience was knowledgeable, receptive, and polite.

The John Jorgenson Bluegrass Band (J2B2) is one of three bands John is now touring with. The others are the John Jorgenson Quintet, playing gypsy jazz in the style of the great Django Rheinhardt and Stephane Grapelli music of Paris from the mid nineteen thirties, and the John Jorgenson Electric Band. 

John Hardy (Instrumental)

John Jorgenson

John Jorgenson has a long and distinguished career across genres and with some of the biggest names in music from the 1970's to the present. He has won major awards as a guitarist, but has parlayed musical versatility combined with exceptional quality into a wide-ranging, high interest persona. Early in his career, he served as a staff musician at Disneyland, playing alternately in a Dixieland band on Clarinet, bluegrass band on mandolin, and a Gypsy Jazz band on guitar, changing costumes between performances. The list of musical greats whose bands he has played and recorded with is too long to list here, but includes Elton John, Bob Dylan, Johnny Cash, Emmylou Harris John Prine, and Barbra Streisand. Such versatility is rare in a session musician and nearly unheard of on tour. He played the role of Django Reinhardt in a bio-pic. The bluegrass band he is presently fronting is an outgrowth of his work with the famed Desert Rose Band, of which he was a co-founder, during the eighties and nineties. John Jorgenson is a giant of American music.

The Desert Rose Band (1988) on Austin City Limits

Herb Pedersen

Herb Pedersen, a Californian, too, is also is famed for his long, productive, and creative contributions in the full range of what now has largely been agglomerated as Americana music, including bluegrass, folk, folk-rock, country, and country rock. He was, along with Chris Hillman and Jorgenson, a founding member of the Desert Rose Band, which reached its heights in the 1980's and 90's. He is often associated with John Jorgenson, as well as with Old and In the Way, Peter Rowan, David Grisman, Vassar Clements, Gram Parsons, and more. He performed and arranged vocals on the great Dolly Parton, Emmylou Harris, and Linda Ronstadt album Trio (1987) which won two Grammys, selling over 4,000,000 copies. The list of his professional credits is nearly endless. Even at age 74, his elegant banjo play, smooth tenor voice, and warm sense of humor added a sense of history to punctuate the always contemporary quality of his musicianship.

Wait A Minute

Darin Aldridge

Darin Aldridge, is a generation younger and fits right in musically and personally in this standout band. Darin keeps busy touring with his own band, The Darin & Brooke Aldridge Band, based in his home state of North Carolina, his virtuoso guitar playing and fine baritone and tenor singing, both harmony and lead. Darin, while just just reaching forty, Darin's career has included stints with the progressive bluegrass band Acoustic Syndicate as well as nine years touring with The Country Gentlemen, which only ended with Charlie Waller's death. His flexibility and quality show best in his ability to lead and shape his own band while adjusting to the needs of John Jorgenson's band, which, as Jorgenson remarked is"...at it's core, extremely traditional," while providing a sense a progressive inspiration.

There Is a Time

Mark Fain

Mark Fain is one of the most reliable and sought after bass men in music. In demand as both a bandsman and a session musician in Nashville, he's the kind of musician you don't notice...until you do. Then you realize what an impact he has on all the rest of the players on stage.  He’s toured and recorded with some of country music’s biggest names, from the Dixie Chicks, Alan Jackson, and Travis Tritt, to Dwight Yoakam, Allison Krauss and Dolly Parton. His versatility is well known through appearances with Bruce Hornsby and John Fogerty. Mark was a long time player with Ricky Skaggs & Kentucky Thunder. 

Throughout the entire concert this superb group of major players from bluegrass and acoustic music wove a magical evening of song and story-telling. John and Herb, through their long, often overlapping, history together represent two important strands of West Coast music. The connection to Gram Parsons, the Byrds, Emmylou Harris along with their creation and successes with the Dessert Rose Band evoking wonderful memories and fine, often amusing, story-telling. If you can catch this band, be sure to do so! This song, written with Emmylou Harris shows the depth and quality of their versatility. 

Bang the Drums Slowly

Springsteen on Broadway (Netflix) - Review

Springsteen on Broadway (Netflix)

Imagine an almost completely unadorned stage in, for Broadway, an almost small theater, seating only 960 people, an audience Springsteen says is about as small as any venue he's played in the past forty years. Bruce comes on stage in a t-shirt carrying a guitar. He talks, he sings, he plays guitar, harmonica, and piano for nearly two hours, and never loses his audience, either in the theater or in front of their ROKU TV set, not for a second, as he weaves his story in songs and narrative from his many recordings and lovely, evocative writing. 

Springsteen isn't an actor, yet strength, character, passion, and warmth come through in almost every word he speaks. His singing is already known to his millions of fans as evocative, raw, rich, and true. As a solo singer, without the richness of his band behind him, the words take on even more power and conviction as he sketches out his life from his awkward and difficult childhood through his long musical adolescence, to his emergence as a true rock star and then the voice of a generation. 

Patti Scialfa Springsteen makes a brief appearance, for two songs, about two-thirds of the way through the one act show. Springsteen talks about his youth, his discovery of rock and roll, the power of Elvis on the Ed Sullivan Show, his discovery and invention of the Asbury Park music scene, and his growth as a person and a musician. He talks movingly and deeply about his relationship to his parents, his father difficult and distant, his mother able to dance through life...always positive. And these people are brought to life through Bruce's expressions of love and gratitude to and for them. His special tribute to Clarence Clemmons brought me to tears, as did several other sequences. Others, particularly his first experience driving a car cross-country for his first experience driving, with a stick shift no less, is laugh out loud funny. In short this performance of Springsteen on Broadway provides bang-up entertainment with Bruce Springsteen often opening up in ways seldom seen in concerts and impossible in books. 

Bruce & Patti Scialfa Springsteen

With ticket to live concerts by top rock, country, and pop bands in many venues having posted prices of up to several hundred dollars and scalpers asking and getting over $1000 a seat, the future of streamed major concerts seems to be in the future for many music, and theater, fans. With subscription plans in the $10.00 - $12.00 per month range, and the variety of programming seemingly almost unlimited, streaming seems to be the entertainment value of the present and for quite some time into the future. If you haven't discovered streaming yet, you have a happy surprise in your future, reaching way beyond what's on commercial or even premium cable television. 

I can't recommend this concert performance any higher. It offers one of the most entrancing and enjoyable two hours of music and talk I've ever heard. 

The Kominsky Method - Netflx Review

We haven't watched a half hour situation comedy on television for years. I don't know how many it's been, but the cuts and ads we've seen simply haven't motivated us to be willing to endure the increasing number, rate, and time taken up by endless, repetitive commercials. A few months ago, knowing for sure we were going to spend increasingly less time on the road, we dipped our toes into streaming television, and a new world opened to us. I'll have more to say about this part of the journey in another post. Suffice it to say that our viewing habits have had a remarkable change worth writing about extensively on this blog. 

The Kominsky Method, starring Michael Douglas and Alan Arkin as two aging friends living through the crises affecting to old men, is a half hour laugh out loud comedy/drama which captivates almost immediately while encouraging the viewer to keep on watching until the season ends leaving us waiting eagerly for season two. Nominated for three Golden Globe Awards, the series, which only debuted in November of 2018, has yet to be reviewed, so one can only hope.

Michael Douglas

Alan Arkin

The eight episodes currently available on Netflix tell the story of Sandy Kominsky, one hit wonder actor who has become a drama coach in Los Angeles, and Norman Verlander, a crotchety semi-retired agent, whose wife of fifty years dies in opening episode. Their relationship forms the core of this always engaging program as they negotiate their own relationship along with their trials and tribulations with their daughters, lovers, and work. The dialogue is snappy, often profane and off-color, laugh-out-loud funny, and real. The drama is often touching as these two fine character actors open themselves, wounded as they may be, to each other while seeking to find meaning in their lives. For me, each episode ended too soon. As episode eight ended, I was already looking for more.....

Part of the fun in The Kominsky Method comes from the use of guest cameos, sometimes larger than the ordinary guest appearance of a major actor, like Eliot Gould and Ann Margaret, with Gould playing himself reading an Alex Trebek commercial, and Margaret playing a close friend of Verlander's late wife. Both appearances touch the heart while challenging the memory. 

Chuck Lorre

Produced by Chuck Lorre, often called "The King of the Sitcom" has produced and/or directed many commercial situation comedies which have been major hits on network TV as well as long-running money-makers for the networks. Shows like The Big Band Theory, Grace Under Fire, Two and a Half Men and others have broken boundaries to expand the limitations of the genre. Moving to streaming television on Netflix has increased his ability to broaden his scope and given him a larger pallet of language, nuance, subtlety and courageousness to explore. He accomplishes this with infectious glee.

All of season one of The Kominsky Method is currently available on Netflix, a subscription television service available through your favorite streaming device. We use ROKU, with which we are pleased and thankful to have as the quality of commercial television continues to decline, reaching its low during the weeks during the Holidays, dominated by parades and sports. Great buys in smart TV's will be available as the post season shopping may be even better than the seasonal period just past. Enjoy!

YeeHaw Music Fest - January 15 - 20, 2019 - Preview

The YeeHaw Music Fest will be kicking off its 25th Anniversary season at the Agri-Civic Center in Okeechobee, Florida on January 15th and run through January 20th with the quality and fan-friendly warmth that has come to characterize events promoted by Evans Media Source. Once again, Ernie and Debi Evans have brought together outstanding national bluegrass bands with high quality regional bands. Highlights will be Hall of Famer Doyle Lawson and Quicksilver along with IBMA Entertainer of the Year Balsam Range. The usual round of engaging activities will continue from the moment the gates open on Monday until the last act closes on Saturday evening. Camping facilities are convenient, hot showers available. There will be quality vendors offering a range of festival foods, and plenty of jamming around the Park. Located in southern Florida, warm weather, even in January, is the standard. We always look forward to kicking off our winter season with this historic festival, once located in a pasture about thirty miles north of Okeechobee in YeeHaw Junction and now celebrating its fourth year in the wonderful Agri-Civic Center, located just on the edge of Okeechobee.

Agri Civic Center, Okeechobee, FL

The Agri-Civic Center provides plenty of space for all kinds of RV's including water and electric. The shed provides almost unlimited space for holding a bluegrass festival, offering good sound, space for vendors, including an RV display, and all-season cover along with convenient flush facilities and easy access. Shuttle services help convey festival goers from their sites to the performance areas, including the main stage and the workshop stage.

The Lineup and Schedule:

Doyle Lawson & Quicksiilver (Sa)

With more than fifty years in bluegrass, Hall of Famer Doyle Lawson has played in some of the most important bands in bluegrass history, as well as fronting his own band for decades. Once again, this year, they have been named IBMA Vocal Group of the Year for their solo work as well as their gospel quartet. Fans across the country continue to be captivated by this man and his band. 

Doyle Lawson & Quicksilver - 

Balsam Range (Fr)

Buddy Melton

Founded only eleven years ago, Balsam Range has established a remarkable record of recording success and high level recognition, with three IBMA Entertainer of the Year awards and fiddle player/vocalist Buddy Melton having scored three Male Vocalist of the Year awards. This year, bassist/band emcee Tim Surrett was named Bass Player of the Year, too. Hailing from the rural mountain county of Haywood, NC, the band features a remarkable repertoire of traditional sounds coupled with driving southern rock covers and fervent gospel music. This band always pleases with its quality and innovative sound. 

Balsam Range - Matthew

Summer Brooke & Mountain Faith (Sa)

Summer Brooke McMahan

Also from the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina, Mountain Faith began its life as a young, enthusiastic gospel band, catching national attention as runners-up on America's GotTalent. The band has continued to broaden its repertoire, while appearing at bluegrass festivals and singing the National Anthem at major league events in football and other sports, making friends for bluegrass across the nation.  They show their versatility in this cover of Lady Antebellum:

Mountain Faith - Milan

Nothin Fancy (Th)

Mike Andes

Nothin' Fancy has been a fixture on the bluegrass trail for nearly twenty-five years, combining songs written from within the band with well-chosen covers, especially of The Country Gentlemen. Their well-loved humor includes both broad farce and subtle musicality. Since signing with Mountain Fever records, their music and humor has received increasingly serious attention and their popularity has spread still further. We always look forward to spending time with this band which keeps the sawdust between their toes while always striving successfully for greater quality and style.

Nothin' Fancy - Simon Crutchfield's Grave

Mile Twelve (Fr)

New Zealand's BB Bowness

Mile Twelve, based in Boston, has emerged from the red hot bluegrass and Americana scene in The Hub and sparked by Berklee College of Music. Candidates for IBMA Emerging Artist of the Year in 2018, they won a Momentum Award in 2017. The band's members have assembled from all over, but the talented BB Bowness on banjo has come the farthest, from her home in New Zealand to study at Berklee. The other members of the band were drawn to the light currently glowing in and around Boston. Mile Twelve is melodic, musical, and personable. Make sure you get to know them while they're at YeeHaw and in Florida this winter.

Mile Twelve - Our Last Goodbye

Monroe Crossing (Th, Fr)

Monroe Crossing hails from that great old time bluegrass state of Minnesota. Each year they magically appear in Florida, usually before heading out on or coming back from a much needed Caribbean cruise. Their music ranges from the deeply traditional to the interestingly progressive, with rock covers and folk music sprinkled through their sets. They're always fun and sometimes surprising. 

Monroe Crossing - Long, Cool Woman in a Black Dress

Dave Adkins Band (Sa)

Dave Adkins loves what he's doing! He squirms like a puppy with his belly being rubbed every time something in his music tickles him. He has a big, deep country voice which helps display his roots and love of music. He's a hard working musician who brings his all to every performance. 

Dave Adkisn - Put Some Grass In It

Don Rigsby (Sa)

Don Rigsby has had a long and distinguished career as a musician as well as having spent some significant time as a college administrator, working to preserve and extend traditional music. He has played with some of the great bands in bluegrass history, including J.D. Crowe & the New South, The Lonesome River Band, and Longview, as well as others. Most recently, he has been featured with Flashback. He is an articulate spokesman for maintaining traditional music as well as one of the great, in demand, tenor singers in the history of bluegrass music. 

Don Rigsby - The Mountain Doctor

Jeff Brown & Still Lonesome (Th)

Jeff Brown has spent much of his life as a working musician, meaning he also has to find a variety of ways to make a living. In his case, this has included work as a bluegrass DJ and concert promoter, among other endeavors. Through the years, he has performed with the likes of Larry Sparks, Charlie Sizemore, Ralph Stanley, Jesse McReynolds and many others, in addition to having been named a Kentucky Colonel. With his current band, including his son Austin, Still Lonesome, he has released two albums, the most recent being on Mountain Fever Records. He has been a regular at EMS events during the past couple of years. 

Jeff Brown & Still Lonesom - Appalachia Is My Name

Roxeen & Dalrymple (Sa)

The face is familiar, but the band may be new to you, as it was to me. Then I recognized Gary Dalrymple, for more than twenty years the mandolin player, harmony singer, and road manager of The Spinney Brothers. With their retirement from the road, Gary has formed this new duo with Roxeen Roberts, who was a bandmate with the Spinney's twenty-five years ago. This duo looks and sounds like an engaging change of pace.

Wildflower - Roxeen & Dalrymple

Scattered Grass (Tu,Th)

Composed of four local musicians from the Okeechobee area, the members of Scattered Grass are all well known to attendees of the YeeHaw Music Fest. The Prevatt sisters (Spider and Moe) bring their perky enthusiasm and sister harmonies to the band, which also features Sean Campbell on banjo. Justin Mason, on mandolin, has become a regular at EMS festivals, bringing his enthusiasm and organizational skills to encouraging jamming in the jam tent and contributing in other ways as needed. Scattered Grass will host the open Mic on Tuesday with the concert release of their new CD  Always energetic and musical.....

Scattered Grass - Little Georgia Rose

Sandy Back Porch (Fr)

Sandy Back Porch is an Orlando-based bluegrass band frequently seen and heard in the central Florida region. Enjoy their bluegrass and gospel music. 

Sandy Back Porch - Sitting on Top of the World 

Sunday Morning Gospel Sing

Jan Ladd

Jan Lass, her husband Larry, and several members of their band offer a non-sectarian Sunday morning Gospel Sing at 10:00 AM on Sunday morning. For many attendees at EMS events, this low key period of song and reflection provides an opportunity for simple worship and helps prepare them for the drive home. 

Les Sears

Radio DJ Les Sears will be hosting the open Mic "In the Spotlight" at the Pot Luck Supper on Wednesday evening.

Pot Luck Supper

Jo Odum

The ever popular Jo Odum returns as the emcee at Evans Media Source events for another celebration of bluegrass. 

Jan Ladd will host a gospel sing on Sunday morning at 10:00 AM 

This year's YeeHaw Music Fest lineup is power packed and diverse. It will prove, once again, to provide a great kickoff event for the winter season of Florida bluegrass. 

The Details:

Dates: The YeeHaw Music Fest will run from January 15 - 20, 2019 with the gates opening for campers on Monday, January 14 at the gate on highway 710 only at 9:00 AM

Call for Tickets, Camping Reservations and Reserved Seats: The New Phone is 386.385.3500!
Tickets:
3 Day Gate Price = $85.00 (Advanced Ticket Sales are  Closed)
Daily Tickets:
     Thursday: $30.00, Friday and Saturday: $35.00 per day
Children 12 and Under 12 Free with a Paid Adult
Reserve Seating: $5.00 per person
Bring a comfortable Chair - No high backs or conventional rocking chairs. The cylinder charis are OK.  - No high back chairs over 35"

Jamming

Camping: There are a limited number of camp sites with hookups.
Get Your Campsite and Reserved Seat by Calling (904) 886-8378 (Reserve Seats are Limited)
Primitive Sites: $15.00
20 Amp Electric = $20.00/per night (Three night minimum)
30 Amp Electric = $30.00/per night (Three night minimum)
50 Amp Electric = $35.00/per night (Three night minimum)

Food and Craft Vendors: This year's scheduled food vendors include a barbecue wagon, fish & shrimp sausage etc., homemade ice cream, and a hot & cold drink wagon. More are still being added. 

Important Details:
Show goes on Rain or Shine (Music is under cover) - There are no refunds!
Wristbands must be worn.
Park Rules and Regulations are posted and must be obeyed!
Golf carts must have lights and drivers have licenses.
No Pets, Smoking or Alcohol in the concert and food vendor areas.

How To Get to the Agri-Civic Center

The Okeechobee Agri Civic Center 

4601 FL-710

Okeechobee, FL 34974

Place your Address in the Space Marked O

Click to Make a Personalized Map

YeeHaw Music Fest is celebrating its 25th Anniversary this year. I haven't been told what surprises you can expect, or they wouldn't be surprises, would they? Evans Media Services has rebuilt this festival from near failing a very few years ago into a thriving and growing event. Come and celebrate the re-birth and anniversary with Ernie and Deb Evans.

Ernie Evans

Deb Evans

Darin & Brooke Aldridge Sign with Rounder Records

Rounder Records announces that Darin & Brooke Aldridge have inked a deal with Rounder Records.  Darin & Brooke Aldridge have joined their highly acclaimed roster and will be releasing a new album for the label in 2019. The duo joins former and ongoing greats like Alison Krauss, Rhonda Vincent,  Béla Fleck, Hazel Dickens, Dailey & Vincent, The Steep Canyon Rangers,The Steeldrivers, and, more recently, Steve Martin. The Gibson Brothers, and The Lonely Heartstring Band, who have graced the label since its founding in 1970, when three Tufts University students (Ken Irwin, Marian Levy and Bill Nowlin) traveled to Appalachia on collecting expeditions during their vacations

Darin & Brooke have been building their band and their reputation, while burnishing their already significant singing and instrumental skills together since releasing their first album in 2010. Darin began his professional career with Accoustic Syndicate while still in high school, later touring with The Country Gentlemen for nine years and forming a band called the Circuit Riders after Charlie Waller's death. Darin and Brooke Justice met in church near her home in Avery County, NC.

We first met Darin and Brooke in 2008 at a local Cherryville, NC jam held in an quietly well-known weekly jam held in an old, cinder block Bomb Shelter. She was sporting a new engagement ring. Soon after, at a rehearsal of Darin's then current band, The Circuit Riders, who were preparing to open for the James King Band, we first were captivated by the strength and sweetness of this emerging duo and romantic couple.They were married in 2010   Over the early years of their career, we traveled with them at some length, as they sang at a tiny storefront church in North Carolina, as well as a variety of concert halls and bluegrass festivals up and down the East Coast. Long drives, late nights, and hard work turned them into a sublime duo. Brooke's haunting, magical voice, Darin's brilliant instrumentals and strong harmony, along with his vision for a band that didn't yet exist combined with their deep faith and commitment to each other dominated their life.

Local gigs turned into national performances as changes in the band improved it each time they were made, and people noticed their music and their love story. They found new songs, new fans, new musical partners who helped spread the word. They toured with Jimmy Fortune, long-time singer and song-writer with the Statler Brothers,  and, more recently John Cowan, lead singer for many years with the New Grass Revival,  whom they tour with when he's not performing with the Doobie Brothers. Each album opened new doors, helping them find better ways to showcase themselves as they grew into new roles, performing with grace and charm.

Award nominations began to come as well as performances at the Grand Old Opry. This year, Brooke was awarded her second consecutive IBMA Female Vocalist of the Year, a recognition widely popular and richly deserved. Darin was recognized as Mentor of the Year at the IBMA Mentor Awards for his work as a teacher and with the development on ongoing educational efforts of the Earl Scruggs Center in Shelby, NC, near their home. In the past year they have been featured on the Grand Old Opry over ten times as well as on RFD-TV's Larry's Country Diner. Their work has charted regularly.

Darin & Brooke Aldridge - Someday Soon

Rounder co-founder Ken Irwin said, ""Darin and Brooke are two of the most gifted and hard-working young artists in bluegrass. Their soaring vocals and extraordinarily beautiful harmonies really make them stand out. After being fans for years, we're excited to have the opportunity to work with them." 

Darin Aldridge added, "As artists, there aren't adequate words to describe the feeling when you realize you get to be a part of a label that has done such extraordinary things within the music industry for so many years and still continues to do them today. We are honored to embark on this new adventure with Rounder and look forward to sharing new music with ALL of our friends in 2019!"

Darin & Brooke Aldridge - Tennessee Flat-Top Box

Brooke wrote to me saying, "It's neat to sit back and think of all we've worked for, the goals we started out with, and the many we've accomplished. We feel extremely blessed."

The move to Rounder Records marks a significant step for Darin & Brooke Aldridge and their band. Rounder's history and their personal journey and love story are a natural fit. What comes next should add luster to their continuing tale. 

Darin & Brooke

Nighttown by Timothy Hallinan - Book Review

If you like your crime fiction detectives smart, funny, complex, and insightful and haven’t yet met Tim Hallinan’s Junior Bender, Nighttown (Soho Crime, 385 pages, November, 2019, $26.96/14.99) you’ve been missing a rising star whose latest outing, the seventh in the series, takes him to new heights of risk while continuing to grow and evolve as a character you will quickly come to treasure. Bender’s first arrival in Herbie’s Game won the 2015 Lefty Award for best comic mystery novel. Hallinan’s humor is character and plot driven, rather than built on the wisecrack. His characters are quirky and real, while protagonist Junior Bender, sometimes clueless about the characters he loves the most, earnestly works towards solving the problems of the problematic.

Bender lives mostly at night in the shadows, befitting because of the shady nature of his clients themselves. You see, he is the go-to detective for criminals who can’t seek help from the police to solve their problems. Junior, at once a deeply moral person and an accomplished thief who has never been caught but is always on the police radar, must navigate the dark world between people who have no compunction against killing him if he fails, and his own strong drive for stability and true love. Out of these internal conflicts emerges a fully-rounded person capable of both compassion and deviousness. His sense of justice is superb, fitting perfectly with the conscience he must battle all the time along with maintaining his ethical sense of responsibility.

Nightown Opens with Junior in a 1908 house once owned by a recently deceased isolate, one of Hallinan’s typically wounded women. Junior’s been paid $25,000, half of his offer for this job, to steal something, but he’s not certain why it has value. He does, however, know that he’s not the only person in the hunt. The book opens with Junior casing the house filled with Hallinan’s unique smells, creaking stairways, and off-beat observations of the world that only Junior Bender can fully inhabit. Furthermore, it soon emerges that Ronnie, Junior’s latest love, has a two year old son whose father has kidnapped him and kept him away from her. That’s the secret she’s been keeping ever since she was introduced to the plot line several books ago. I wonder though whether Junior’s ex-wife and daughter, her boyfriend, and the two computer wizard girls have disappeared to in this volume. I can only wish they return later in counterpoint to Ronnie.

Hallinan’s language sets him aside from every other contemporary fiction writer I’ve encountered. Especially with Junior Bender, the literate, sometimes off the wall imagery, similes and metaphors fly out of Juniors mouth or race through his head as if such a brilliant rif were immediately available to the rest of us, too. His dialogue sparkles as it defines class and character, combing with descriptive language to present a whole picture. There’s a joy in reading Hallinan, in simply taking in the breadth of what appears to be casual knowledge but must actually reflect the distillation of hours of careful research and wide, inclusive reading. As Hallinan manages to pack away two one hundred thousand word novels a year, most of it must come from some easily tapped internal source, but its breadth is enormous, suggesting deep familiarity with a wide range of literary material from outside his genre. How many detective fiction books mention Hieronymus Bosch?

Hallinan’s children, as odd, broken and twisted as they may be (Anime, Lilli, Eaglet, and his daughter Rena in the Bender series as well as Poke Rafferty’s wife Rose, daughter Mia and her street and school friends in the Bangkok-based Poke Rafferty thriller series) are real and seem alive. Junior may be the only character in the genre, at least the only one I’ve met, who likes nice kids, and talks to them as if they were humans. Robert A. Heinlein did that in science fiction a lifetime ago, but children are rare in genre fiction. Hallinan creates believable, quirky children today, developing Junior in whole, over time, as a man to whom family is real and matters, despite his own issues with personal reliability in relationships.

Timothy Hallinan

Timothy Hallinan has led an interesting and varied life, working in public relations, in the film industry, and doing corporate consulting on media and outreach. He is the author of three detective series. His first, the Simeon Grist novels were mostly published in the 1990’s, with a revival this year in a new and inventive (almost fantasy) manifestation. The Junior Bender series and the Poke Rafferty series have each been running at the pace of one novel each per year for the past several years. Hallinan lives in Los Angeles and Bankok, both of which add color and variety to his writing.

The convoluted plot of Nighttown (Soho Crime, 385 pages, November, 2019, $26.96/14.99) includes many of the characters that have appeared in previous Bender tales. As usual in series fiction, it’s not necessary to have read the previous versions to “get” this one, but I defy you not to go back to pick the earlier ones up and read them, too. I don’t think Hallinan’s characters emerge fully drawn from the head of Zeus, but they maintain an inner consistency, while growing, too. Nighttown is a particularly strong entry, deserving your attention and demanding your respect for the character and the mind creating him. Hallinan throws insights away that others, both writers and readers, would spend a lifetime seeking to discover. I read Nighttown in a galley version sent to me by the author, who, while I’ve never met him, is a frequent correspondent whom I consider to be a friend. I highly recommend the book.