Concert at Forte Prenestino

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  Roma, Italy
Thursday, June 28, 2007

(Rome, Wednesday, June 27, 2007)-Back at Forte Prenestino after our rewarding weekend in the provinces, Mark and I enjoy a couple of days off in Roma while preparing for our concert at the outdoor stage on the former parade grounds Wednesday night.

Then Wednesday turns into a busy day when my publisher, Marcello Baraghini, and his promotion director at Stampa Alternativa, our dear friend Monica, stop by around dinnertime for a short but very productive meeting about the Italian translation of GUITAR ARMY, scheduled for September 2007 release; my next book for Stampa, SONG OF PRAISE: Homage to John Coltrane, set for 2008 release with a CD in the back; and the scheduling of our appearances when we return to the Festival Internazional della Letteratura Resistente in Pitigliano the weekend of 7-8-9 September.

Marcello Baraghini is the godfather of modern-day radical, creative and experimental publishing. His Stampa Alternativa celebrated its 35th anniversary last fall, and he continues to issue a relentless flow of essential literature in Italian at the rate of 60 books per year. Our first collaboration was my 2006 collection called VA TUTTO BENE / IT'S ALL GOOD, a selection of poems & writings translated by Alberto Prunetti, printed with the American and Italian texts on facing pages, and framed with an introduction by Matteo Guarnaccia, who also designed the cover. The book was well-received and sold quite briskly in the nation's better bookstores.

Everything was lovely with respect to the publication of VA TUTTO BENE and now we have two more books in the works and hopefully more to come. Marcello doesn't speak any English, so Monica translates for him and we quickly reach agreement on all the points at issue and bring our meeting to an end so Marcello can get back to his retreat in Viterbo and get back to work.

Before the concert our perfect host Antoniello rushes us over to the left-wing radio station where Gianluca Diana hosts his Mojo Station blues program to make an appearance before the show at the Forte. Jon Short is in the house, playing some 'live' blues on the radio before Mark & I take the mike and do a couple of numbers of our own. Then we race back to the Forte and get ready to hit.

The people of Forte Prenestino are music lovers of a different stripe, rooted in punk rock and tuned into electronic dance music, world beat and rebellious, anti-mainstream music of several modern sorts. When Mark and I brought the Blues Scholars from Rotterdam to play at the Forte last year, the people told us it was the first time they'd ever had any blues played in their place since they took it over 21 years ago.

But we feel very close to these hard-working rebels we're living with right now and we wanted to thank them for their unstinting hospitality by offering a concert of our music & verse just for them. Tonight we give them our best, and it's accepted with warmth and grace and friendship.

We have Thursday off and go out with Antoniello Friday evening to attend another screening of the film Sir! No Sir! by a local film society in a tent right on the river. I'm asked to introduce the film and answer questions from the audience afterwards, and we have a great time talking about the war against Vietnam and the two wars being pursued as we speak. Antoniello takes us back to the Forte and warns us that he'll be right back in the morning to drive us to our gig at the Fossa Cesia Blues Festival on the Adriatic Sea.

-Detroit
August 13, 2007

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