On Saturday night, I took a drive to a small North Side tavern to see Tony Lee, a talented singer-songwriter-guitarist who performed songs from his CD, "Pocket," and some more tunes he's working on for a new album. Joining him was guitarist Jason Sichi, playing some tremendous licks on his Alvarez (my new guitar of choice, thanks to the guys at the Guitar Gallery). Jason also plays with his own band, Mojo Filter.

One of the songs they performed Saturday was Tony's original "Heartless," a melancholy ballad that features slide guitar. Jason played his part using a shot glass as a slide, somewhat of a variation on Duane Allman's legendary Coricidin bottle, but every bit as effective.

I'm starting to work with multimedia projects at the newspaper, and I put together a "multimedia project" with some photos I took on Saturday, as well as some others from last fall and a few from Tony's disc case. I tied that all in with the first part of "Heartless" from "Pocket," and there you have it.

View a slide show

For more about Tony, visit his new Web site that's just recently up and running.

Before the downpour put a premature end to Thursday's Main Street Farmers' Market, visitors had an opportunity to hear Hollow Owl, a band from the Scenery Hill area that performed some well-crafted originals.

The band is led by guitarist-singer Paul Kuzupas, who has promised me more information about Hollow Owl as soon as the promotional materials are ready. In the meantime, here are some photos from yesterday's show, along with some audio clips from Paul's solo album, also called "Hollow Owl" and credited to P.E.K., that he released last year.

I've received word about LumberJam III, which is at a new venue for 2006.

Last year, the event took place on a farm in Nottingham Township, a fun weekend featuring numerous Pittsburgh-area bands. With the popularity increasing, the organizers decided to shoot for larger accommodations this year: Sunshine Daydream Music Park in Terra Alta, W.Va. It's scheduled for the weekend of July 21-23.

Keep posted for more information as I receive it.

PHOTO: CK9 and the Old E Allstars, shown at last summer's LumberJam, is returning to perform this year.

Mention Harry Chapin, and the strains of his 1974 hit "Cats in the Cradle" might briefly fill your head. After that, you might draw a blank.

But fans of the late performer remember him as a humanitarian, a man who played benefit after benefit for various causes without a heck of a lot of fanfare, helping pave the way for higher-profile philanthropic ventures.

"Probably without Harry's activism, 'We Are the World' wouldn't have happened," says Joe D'Urso, a New Jersey singer-songwriter who is performing in the area this weekend.

Joe never met Harry, who died in an auto accident in the summer of 1981. But 25 years later, D'Urso and his band, Stone Caravan, have incorporated the late singer as a major part of their latest album, "Cause ...".

Courtesy of Sandy Chapin, Harry's widow, Joe has had access to recordings of various interviews Chapin gave, and he uses excerpts as introductions to most of the album's songs.

"With his gift of gab, the way he verbalized, I have all these great quotes to match all these songs I'd already written and recorded," Joe explains. He hopes the technique will add meaning to the songs: "People will listen just a little bit more than if it's someone down the street saying it."

D'Urso is a supporter of World Hunger Year, and organization founded by Chapin and Bill Ayres in 1975 to combat hunger around the world at the grass-roots level, promoting self-reliance. To honor the late co-founder, WHY presents annual Harry Chapin Self-Reliance Awards.

On "Cause ...," Chapin's commentary segues into a collection of songs that address several facets of social consciouness. The title track sends a message that should be taken to heart by anyone with a conscience: "Everyone has a Cause/I think the world's a good cause." And it sneaks in a reference to Bob Dylan and his classic "All Along the Watchtower": "Wise one says, 'The hour's getting late.'"

"Six O'Clock News" takes a shot at the tripe you're likely to see on your TV screen: "There's the ex-pop star pregnant with the wild love child/This takes too much time, we get no truth for a while." Joe comments on the head-in-the-sand attitude of many Americans in "When the Rain Finally Stops": "Went down to my local store/From the talk there you never know we're at war/No one likes to talk of such sings/Yeah, that's right, just shut up and sing."

He mixes some bittersweet love songs with a couple of covers, John Stewart's cynical 1979 hit "Gold" and Chapin's "Taxi." The latter is a low-fidelity acoustic version interspersed with commentary about the good deeds of the late composer.

Stylistically, Joe says the band strived for something close to its live sound: "I wanted to make this more loose, like a garage-rock record. I wanted more of the raw emotion and feel." Helping achieve that goal are the members of Stone Caravan: guitarist Greg Lykins, bass player Lou DeMartino and drummer Sam LaMonica, along with keyboardist Neil Berg.

Joe D'Urso & Stone Caravan will play two shows in this neck of the woods, both times sharing the bill with Peters Township resident Tom Breiding and his band, American Son. Joe knows Tom's music and is especially enthusiastic about his composition "Gary's '55," which appears on the album "Two-Tone Chevrolet."

Friday's show is at Archie's (304-292-3991) in Sabraton, W.Va., near Morgantown, where D'Urso developed a following with previous appearances there, prompting fans to e-mail and ask when the band would return.

"This is going to be a little bit like a homecoming for us," he says.

On Saturday, the two bands will play at the Rhythm House (412-221-5010), 3029 Washington Pike, South Fayette Township.

Click here for sound samples of Joe D'Urso & Stone Caravan.

The "Lettuce Entertain You" feature of the Main Street Farmers' Market in downtown Washington welcomed the Other Tribe this week. The Wheeling-based percussion ensemble is scheduled to return to the market on Aug. 17.

The market, which runs from 3 to 6 p.m. Thursdays, features performers each week. This year, a new PA system to carry the sound is getting rave reviews.

See a slide show.

When bands are taking requests between songs, I often put in my two cents: "Play something original!"

Sure, it's great to hear tunes you might know and love, but why not give the musicians an opportunity to put their writing skills on display.

When I saw Boss Diablo on a handful of occasions last year, I was mightily impressed by the band's choices of songs to cover: Go back in the archives and read my raves about such fare as "Help Me," "Homework" and "We've Gotta Get Out of This Place." Great material, and stuff you don't hear every day.

Still, I looked forward to hearing what the members of the quartet would put together on their own. A demo CD they put together last year gave an inkling, with a couple of originals included, highlight by a slice of social commentary (including "special guest commentary by George Dubya," as the band puts it) called "End of Days."

That song is one of nine originals among a dozen tracks on Boss Diablo's debut album, "Don't Act Right," just released on Blawnox-based Moondog Records. And for anyone who's caught the band's live set, the CD doesn't disappoint, bringing together the band's varied blues and rock influences in a well-produced package.

Guitarist Chuck Beatty had a hand in composing all the originals, and he shares vocal duties with drummer Tom Hohn, well-known around this area for his work with the Cynics. Chuck also handled much of the production duties, with Tom taking care of the vocal arrangements. They're ably augmented by the other two band members, bass player Brian Washington and harmonica player Stanley J. Mikolajek.

Many commentaries about albums start with words about the opening track. But let's begin here with the closer, which would seem a natural as the band's theme song: "The Ballad of Boss Diablo." Over an instrumental arrangement that would make Ennio Morricone proud, Hohn delivers a story line about "one bad hombre" from south of the border "dealing black tar and fragrant buds of green." Move over, Panama Red!

Some other highlights:

* The near-title track, "You Don't Act Right," shows a strong rockabilly influence, with various band members harmonizing for the chorus: "Can't take you out in the daylight, 'cause baby, you don't act right." Chuck plays a suitably crunchy guitar break, without a pick, no less.

*"Light a Candle," a primarily acoustic song featuring Chuck using his growling vocal style to a melancholy effect, and an outchorus that's reminscent of mid-period Rolling Stones.

* "Shake Some Dust" is a Beatty-Hohn composition that has a sinister ambience throughout, from Stanley's filtered harmonica to Chuck's strategic use of reverb and
slide guitar to Tom's "desperate times call for desperate measures" vocal delivery.

* "King of the Urban Jungle," the band tells us, is Chuck's tribute to the late James King, a bluesman of some renown around the Pittsburgh area. Beatty makes his
low-pitched vocals resonate and his guitar sting through a song that sounds something like John Lee Hooker meets Magic Sam.

The cover songs are some of the band's stage favorites: Tom Waits' spooky "Way Down in the Hole" (Chuck's vocals are practically a dead ringer for the original), the jump blues "I Love You Honey," and "Midnight Train," as popularized by the great Buddy Guy.

And to close, let's talk about the opener. "Darker Side" is co-written by Beatty and Washington, D.C., lyricist Matthew Aquiline, addressing some of what's wrong of the American dream: "Promises made every day, then broken/Things that beat you down become security/Sends you down to your darker side." Chuck gives the song a very distinctive flavor with his tasteful use of tremolo throughout.

Accompanying the basic quartet on a couple of tracks is keyboardist Bill Maruca, a regular in the Grateful Dead tribute band Fungus. And adding vocals on a couple of other songs are two ladies who also have the last name of Beatty, Elisa and Ruth.

Everyone combines for a musical document that shows the members of Boss Diablo are capable of coming up with some quality material of their own to go along with their superb choices of old favorites (of mine, at least) to play for new audiences.

CD RELEASE PARTY: 8 p.m. Friday, May 19, at Moondog's, 378 Freeport Road, Blawnox. Plus special guests the Pump Fakes.

Between sets at his CD release show Saturday, Tom Breiding greeted some of his fans and well-wishers. He saw me, and we shouted some pleasantries above the crowd and PA system.

"I'm psyched!" I thought I heard him say.

"That's good," I replied.

"No, I said I'm tight," Tom corrected me, meaning he thought he needed to loosen up before taking the stage again.

Whatever he did in the next few minutes must have worked. Tom and his band, American Son, put their new album, "Time to Roll," on full display for an enthusiastic audience at Cefalo's, the stylistically converted church in Carnegie.

It's always a pleasure to see Tom perform, something I unfortunately haven't done enough during the seven years or so I've known him. He puts on a good show on his own, but his quartet - also guitarist Jeff Stevens, bassist Mike "Pit" Mozena and drummer Chris Moore - has really come together as a tight performing unit, adding a new dimension to some of Tom's older song.

But Saturday night was about the new album, Tom's eighth and the first he's recorded as a project with his working band. The material is strong and the performances are sharp on disc, but hearing everything live gives it full impact.

The setlist for the CD release show peppered some older tunes in with the new, giving fans a chance to enjoy some favorites while getting used to the "Time to Roll" material. He highlighted two of his more recent albums, "Two-Tone Chevrolet" and "American Son," with selections from each of those, and his "Happy Hour in the Round Hotel" album was represented by the should've-been-a-hit "You Don't Want to Lose Her."

But a good portion of the show, of course, was devoted to "Time to Roll," with most of the album's songs showing up during the evening. A highlight was hearing Tom's heartfelt rendition of "The Music Plays On," the true story of his travails in trying to sell a composition for a film soundtrack: "Drove 500 miles for 10 minutes of your time." Needless to say, Tom deserves far better than that!

The night also included performances by Kick Start, the other project by the other guys in Tom's band, and by Bill Toms & Hard Rain, of which Tom is a regular member. (Sometimes it's tough to keep up on who's playing with whom, but it's all good music!)

While the Cefalo's gig represented the CD release show for "Time to Roll," the release PARTY is scheduled for Friday, May 12, at Moondog's in Blawnox. That evening also will include a performance by Pittsburgh-area legend Norman Nardini. (Scroll down to read a bit more about him.)

And don't forget about the special gig by Bill Toms & Hard Rain at Kenny's Castaways in New York City this Saturday, May 6. A bus trip from Pittsburgh is organized for those who want to attend.

Everyone involved should be plenty loosened up for that.