I've received notes about people playing shows and want to pass the information along.

Born to Cook, the songwriters' collective started by Joey Murphy, Eve Goodman and Carol Lee Espy, presents:

Steff Mahan, rising star from Nashville and circuit favorite, Friday (tonight) at Quiet Storm. Steff will be joined by local emerging talent Autumn Ayers and BTC stalwarts Eve Goodman and Joey Murphy.

Hallie Pritts and Boca Chica, 7 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 4, at Club Cafe. Hallie will be joining us in the round, and Boca Chica will play the headlining second set. The Circle will include the
fabulous authentic roots musician Rick Malis, as well as Joey and Eve.

And moving right along:

The Neon Swing X-perience has a very special gig. They've been asked to play for Seton Hill University's first-ever football homecoming event on Saturday. The performance begins at 4 p.m. at St. Clair Park in Greensburg.

Also, for California University Students: NSX will be performing in the "Underground" at 10 p.m. on Oct. 6. This is for Cal U students only.

Blind Date, "The Good Time Music Band," will be appearing Saturday at Hey Andy's in Monongahela (724-258-4755). The fun starts at 9:30.

Decadence (sounds of the '80s) is performing tonight (Friday) at the Rhythm House Cafe, 3029 Washington Pike, South Fayette (412-221-5010.

The BootHill Gang is playing Saturday night at Buddy's Inc, 555 W. High St., Waynesburg.

Enjoy!!!

That title says it all, and Veronica Kiger is proud of it. In fact, she has "Little Drummer Girl," her own design featuring the Muppets' own Animal, tattooed on her ankle.

But if you're picturing a demure young lady merely keeping time, think again. Veronica is all business at what she does, and she's all power. Matter of fact, she sets up a Plexiglas shield around her kit so that the crashing sound doesn't feed back through the vocal microphones.

When members of her Greene County-based band, the BootHill Gang, introduce her as their percussionist, the reaction usually is along the lines of:

"No, really ... who's the drummer?"

Veronica answers by picking up her sticks and going to town.

"When they come and see me play, they see a whole different side of me."

What they hear is sort of what you'd expect from a band called the BootHill Gang: both kids of music, country and western (sorry, I loved that "Blues Brothers" gag), with a decided rock edge. But rather than do standard versions of tunes you've heard a million times, they like to put their own stamp on them.

"You will never hear (fill in the blank) like you hear us do it." That was the recurring theme as I discussed the group's repertoire with Veronica. For example, one of her favorites is Fleetwood Mac's "Gold Dust Woman," transformed into a much heavier arrangement than the famous one by Stevie Nicks and company.

Veronica's bandmates started the BootHill Gang back in the '80s, and after a hiatus returned five years ago with original members Dee Eisiminger, Tink Eisiminger (an example of wife and husband working in harmony) and Gary D'Angelo. Dee and Veronica had played together in various aggregations, and the Little Drummer Girl was happy to join the reunited Gang.

"These guys had played for years together, and it was great to finally have true friends and now one big family," Veronica writes in a biographical sketch of herself.

In case you're curious (I know I was), she started playing drums after discovering her stepfather had done so when he was younger. He bought her a Ludwig Vista light drum kit, and she started spending "hours a day just listening and learning by ear."

At the time, she was learning from old jazz, blues and country records. So it was culture shock when she joined a high school band that played "Led Zeppelin, AC/DC and stuff I didn't know. Being the trooper that I am, I jumped right in and just played my heart out."

Meanwhile, she decided to try out for snare in the drum line of the high school band, but was miffed when she learned girls were relegated to cymbals. "Boy, did I have to completely throw a fit to even get a chance, and I made it."

That was in Rachel, West Virginia. A few years later, Veronica moved to Pennsylvania and met up with some fellow musicians, eventually running across Dee and forming a band called Greene County Rednecks. Later, they played together in Zero to Sixty before the resurrection of the BootHill Gang.

About Dee, Veronica says: "If it weren't for her, I don't know where I'd be right now. She has saved me emotionally, and she has saved me musically."

The Gang's guitarists are Gary on lead and Tink on rhythm. (The bassist is in flux at the moment. Got Fender?) Anyway, Veronica calls Gary "phenomenal, absolutely phenomenal. There have been times when I haven't been able to keep up with him." And Tink combines stellar playing with a sense of humor to keep everything loose: "He's definitely the comedian of the band."

Check 'em out Saturday night at Buddy's Lounge in Waynesburg. And the following Saturday, Oct. 8, the BootHill Gang will headline the Disaster Relief Benefit at the Greene County Fairgrounds, an event Veronica decided to organize after seeing all the suffering inflicted by Hurricane Katrina. See my regular newspaper column for details on that, or look under "Opinion" on the Observer-Reporter home page

Veronica is into a lot of cool stuff, including hot rods, horses and being a good mother to Austin. But being the Little Drummer Girl, she has this to say:

"My drums are my heart and soul."

PHOTOS: Veronica with and without her drums, and with the BootHill Gang in the middle.

As is the case with many folks, Saturdays often turn into running-around days for me.

That was the story last weekend as I scrambled to make it into Pittsburgh's Strip District in time to catch what I could of guitarists Bill Toms and Tom Breiding for their regular Saturday gig. Bill hadn't been there the previous week, but that was OK because I had the opportunity to meet Joey Murphy and write something up about her.

Since April, Bill and Tom have been doing acoustic shows at Leaf & Bean, kind of a neat setup where they play inside the cigar-coffee shop and put a few speakers outside the pump the sound into the street.

So I heard strains of their music as I hustled toward the venue after parking my van a few blocks away, and I recognized the tune they were doing as Tom's "You Don't Want to Lose Her." Cool! I've really liked that song since Tom demonstrated it to me back around '99, and I've learned it as part of an ongoing effort to play some music written by local artists I've met.

I walked into the shop with a smile, which got broader as I watched Bill and Tom launch into an extended jam on the song's E minor theme, with Bill picking out a riveting solo to raise the level of intensity.

"We never played it quite like that before," Tom told me enthusiastically after the show.

Hey, check it out for yourself. Head down to the Strip on a Saturday afternoon and see these guys (and have a cup of joe and a Montecristo No. 3 while you're at it.)

Then check out the sounds of Bill Toms & Hard Rain, when Bill and Tom strap on electric guitars and go to town with a full band.

I talked with Bill after the Leaf & Bean gig before he had to run to do another show that evening with Joe Grushecky & the Houserockers, a band he's been a member of for nearly two decades. You know Joe as a well-respected veteran of the Pittsburgh music scene - and from his friendship with a certain Mr. Springsteen, who produced the wonderfully titled Houserockers album "American Babylon."

But our conversation dwelt mainly on Bill Toms & Hard Rain and the imminent release of the band's fourth album, "The West End Kid."

"This is more of a rock record than we've been doing the last couple," Bill said, featuring characters and themes that take the listener "from despair to redemption; from darkness to light."

Bill composed the material and co-wrote one song, "In the Paradise," with Tom, representing the latest joint venture in a collaboration between the two musicians that dates back about five years.

They met when Tom brought copies of his first compact disc, "Guitar and Pen," to see if Bill would sell it at Premiere CDs, the store he ran on the South Side.

"I fell in love with his songwriting," Bill said. "We got to talking, and I needed a guitar player." They thought the arrangement might be temporary, but Tom still is part of Hard Rain.

Also in theband are four other Houserockers: Art Nardini (bass), Joffo Simmons (drums), Joe Pelesky (keyboards) and Bernie Herr (percussion). Phil Brontz rounds out the lineup on saxophone. And like the acoustic adventures of Bill and Tom, band members play together here and there in various combinations besides the full seven-pieces, rearranging the songs as necessary.

"A lot of the stuff that we write, it leaves a lot of air. It's very open music," Bill said. "One of the things I enjoy is reinventing these songs every night. Nothing's set in stone."

One thing that might be set in stone is Bill hanging around in Pittsburgh.

"We've played all over the world, and I think that in this city, there's so much history and so much folklore to write about," he said. "It's a great thing to draw from if you're a songwriter."

Listen to the songs of Bill Toms and Tom Breiding, and you'll know what he means.

Mark your calendar: The CD launch party for Bill Toms & Hard Rain's "The West End Kid" is Saturday, Oct. 22, at Cefalo's in Carnegie.

PHOTO: Bill is on right and Tom on left at the Leaf & Bean.

The band is best known today as Grace Slick's vehicle for the classics "White Rabbit" and "Somebody to Love."

But at its genesis - before Grace even joined - Jefferson Airplane was one of the first groups to put a harder edge to folk music, producing what became known (and is still revered by many) as folk-rock.

One key to the early Airplane's success was the vocal blend of co-founders Marty Balin and Paul Kantner, along with Signe Anderson, the original female singer. The combination of two men and one woman worked effectively to the point where it became a template for other folk-rock groups to follow.

So it's with high praise that I compare the sound of the Primatives to that of the Airplane. The trio - Jesse Hanson; his wife, Lila; and their bass player, Jack - basically features three lead singers, a distinctive touch in a day one most bands seem to lean toward one front man (or woman).

"The three-part harmonies are kind of ourspecialtyy," says Lila, whose background in the music of India also helps shape the Primatives' sound.

The group's instrumentation is effectively spare, with Jack's fluid bass dancing around Jesse's acoustic guitar lines, accentuated by Lila's low-key percussion and well-placed fills on silver flute. The approach lets the vocals take center stage, bringing emphasis to Jesse's poignant lyrics.

Jesse says he's been writing songs since he was in junior high school, "taking so many different influences from so many different people." Among them, he cites the seminal country of Hank Williams Sr., the well-crafted compositions of the Beatles and the folk-rock bent of Bob Dylan, Neil Young and Neil's band Buffalo Springfield.

He led an earlier lineup of the Primatives that recorded a CD, "The Lovers of Kali Yuga," several years ago. Some tracks were recorded in North Dakota, and the project wrapped up after Jesse and Lila - they met over the Internet - decided to settle in the Pittsburgh area.

One night, performing as a duo at Club Cafe on the South Side, they met another musician on the bill as Jesse was attempting to haul in their equipment.

"He had two guitars in his hand, trying to open the door," Jack recalls. That evening, he says, he enjoyed their upbeat style, and the groundwork was laid for the Primatives becoming a trio.

Jack actually started his musical career drummer, playing in garage bands around Bethel Park, covering everything from Steppenwolf to Led Zeppelin. On the formal side, he also was part of a drum corps that placed highly in national competitions.

The diverse influences of band members combine for a sound that will be on display with the completion of the new Primatives CD, to be called "Primitive Spirit" (yes, that's with an "i").

"That's going to be the character of the band as it is now," Jesse says.

In addition to playing shows around the area, the Primatives host an open stage the second and fourth Fridays of each month at the Coffee Den in Mt. Lebanon, playing a few songs themselves and encouraging other artists to play. The event has received a very good response, and an intergenerational one.

"The nice thing is, the younger people listen to the older people," Lila says, "and the older people listen to the younger people," Lila says.

Click here for upcoming dates.

You've heard of the Renaissance man.

Well, forget the "man" part and meet Jessica Lee, who's been referred to as "attorney, financial analyst, business consultant and jazz singer." You certainly don't see that combination often.

Let's start with the jazz singer part of the equation. Jessica will unveil her first solo album, "Bluebird Fly," with a release party on Saturday at Dowe's on 9th in Pittsburgh,

Jazz and blues aficionados who know Jessica from her weekly Entrepreneurial Thursdays at Dowe's will welcome an opportunity to hear a CD's worth of her smooth, well-phrased vocals set against the backdrop of a crack band with crystal-clear production. And it's all done with local talent.

"We really wanted to do a Pittsburgh-based project," Jessica says, "because we have some great musicians in this area."

Check out clips from "Bluebird Fly" in our Sound Files

Several worked on this project, including versatile guitarist Danny Shields; John D'Amico, who did the arrangements along with playing keyboards (he also teaches jazz at Carnegie Mellon); drummer Andy Reamer; and Chris Hemingway, and young up-and-comer who played alto sax on the album's opener, a smoky reading of the Peggy Lee/Bennie Goodman classic "Why Don't You Do Right."

On bass for much of the album is Hollis Greathouse, who also co-produced along with Jessica and Hollis' partner at Audible Images Recording Studios, Jay Dudt. You may recognize Jay as a Grammy winner for his work with singer Nancy Wilson.

"I'm really, really happy about the project. It shows all the influences I've come from," Jessica says, agreeing that the album is an eclectic mix - jazz, blues, ballads and a bit of rock 'n' roll via relaxed covers of "Son of a Preacher Man," popularized by Dusty Springfield, and "My Baby Left Me," by way of Elvis. (Roy Ruzika, co-executive producer with his wife, Joan, plays some cool guitar on the latter.)

Nashville producer Luke Wooten helped in the selection of material and brought in an original, "Right Place Right Now," from Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame member Rory Bourke and partner Jon McElroy. Luke wanted Jessica to record the project down there in Tennessee, but she opted for the hometown approach.

"A lot of people advised me I'd have to move to Nashville or New York City," she says. "I don't think I have to."

A big reason is the other part of that "Renaissance woman" mix. Jessica is extremely well-versed in the business end of music and has some big visions that could help make Pittsburgh another one of those meccas for music.

Entrepreneurial Thursdays, launched four years ago, provide a taste of what she has in mind. The concept is to combine jazz shows featuring local artists with between-set sessions featuring Jessica talking with members of the business community; as she says, it's a case of "music promoting innovation."

She got the idea from a rumor that somewhere in Silicon Valley was "a club where more deals were done than in the board rooms." She never verified the story, but the concept intrigued her. So she talked about it with Pittsburgh jazz veteran Al Dowe and his wife, Etta Cox, as something for their fledgling club. And today, it's flourishing.

Along those lines is the concept for America's Music Center, which just might help provide an answer to the question: "Isn't there a way we can use music to attract and retain young people?"

In today's musical environment, "Everyone needs to become an entrepreneur, but there's no center in the country to help young musicians," Jessica says.

One goal of America's Arts Center is an "Artrepreneurship" division, a means to give independent musicians some background in business and promotion. In that regard, Jessica and others involved with "Bluebird Fly" plan to promote it nationally and use the experience as "lessons learned" for others who follow in her footsteps.

We'll keep an eye on how America's Arts Center develops through Jessica's business, financial and legal expertise. In the meantime, we'll be content to enjoy her talents as one fine singer.

Not only does Joey Murphy make some good music, but she has a pretty good philosophy to go along with it.

The Murphy Hypothesis, she calls it. And it's something along these lines:

"The only point is just making some music. You don't need to spend much money or do anything special. Just let the music speak for itself."

That's exactly what her CD, credited to the Murphy Hypothesis, does. "Low Lights in the Living Room: Songs 1988 to 2003" is Joey and her guitar, showing off her playing, singing and songwriting in the simplest of settings.

"This is just me in my living room with a microphone," she says. But the nine originals one the disc ring through clearly, with her soulful voice in the forefront, delivering instrospective lyrics over some catchy acoustic riffs.

Check out clips from "Low Lights in the Living Room" in our Sound Files

Joey, who's originally from the Harrisburg area (Susquehanna Township, right next door to my own hometown of Paxtang), grew up around music. Her mother taught it, and a cousin worked at a store nearby called the House of Bluegrass. She got her first guitar at 7 and remembers entertaining classmates during show-and-tell by playing along to Grand Funk Railroad's "I'm Your Captain" (she's still a big fan of '70s classic rock).

She's been playing shows and writing since she was a teenager, and has stepped up her musical activities in the past few years. This summer, she joined with fellow musicians Eve Goodman and Carol Lee Espy to start a songwriters' collective called Born to Cook (a tongue-in-cheek takeoff on the old Springsteen songs, she says, pointing out what girls allegedly were born to do.)

They've been working to schedule concerts at "just about every venue in Pittsburgh, anything we can do to develop the songwriting scene in town." The shows feature several artists on the bill, and when the friends of each attend, it makes for a good-sized crowd and "everyone gets exposed to new music."

Plus they've been trying some "gig swapping," kind of an exchange program involving musicians in other cities who get to visit Pittsburgh, while artists from here travel there.

Through their efforts, Joey says, "You've got a really vibrant community for songwriters and the people who want to listen to music."

PHOTO: Joey Murphy played over the weekend at Leaf & Bean in the Strip District, which hosts acoustic Saturdays featuring Bill Toms and Tom Breiding. (My "action shots" of her weren't too hot, so we tried something artsy with an old window box in the background.) She'll be playing with those guys when they have their CD release party in October.

Ask Valerie Plish what kind of tunes she likes, and she'll come back with:

"You can't go wrong with '80s music. That's what I always say."

And that's what she sings, too. Val's vocals help drive Decadence, a South Hills-based band that's been making a name for itself this summer by drumming up nostalgia for two decades ago with dead-on renditions of the era's hits.

"The biggest compliment we can get is when someone comes up to us and says, 'You really took us back,'" says Val, a West Mifflin native who returned to the Pittsburgh area after stints as singer and/or dancers in places like Vegas, Branson (at Canonsburg native Bobby Vinton's Blue Velvet Theater) and even as part of the circus.

The four guys who share the stage with her are glad she's back.

"As soon as we found her," guitarist Mark Willson says, "we knew we were onto something."

The band specializes in music made for the shakin' it.

"A lot of people are touching on '80s stuff, and it's going over really well," Mark says. "But no one's doing the dance stuff."

Decadence's repertoire is just that: everything from Madonna in her "Lucky Star" days to the catchy riffs of the Bangles' "Walk Like An Egyptian."

Val's singing, of course, is the essential ingredient to pulling off those types of tunes. But she'll point out that everyone in the band sings, which certainly helps their goal of coming as close as possible to the sound of the hits.

To that effect, she's impressed with the talents of musicians. Along with Mark are Steve Leach on bass, Jay Nazum on drums and Michael Lesko, who came up with the concept for the band, on keyboards. All are longtime veterans of the music scene.

For example, Mark, who lives in Upper St. Clair, had plenty of experience playing '80s music back there in the '80s, as a member of Cooper and Ross (as in Jimmie Ross of the Jaggerz and Skyliners). "It's very close to that," Mark says. "We're actually doing about 10 songs that band did."

By the way, he's also founder of AcoustiCafe, a promotional organization for singer-songwriters (he's one of those, too). Decadence is a change of pace from that: "I really missed playing in front of a packed dance floor."

Decadence has been packin' 'em in since starting to gig around Memorial Day, apparently filling a niche for people who miss the days of Wang Chung and Men Without Hats. They'll be at Auggie's Roadhouse, just north of Washington, on Saturday, Sept. 17, and at the Rhythm House Cafe in Bridgeville on Sept. 30, among other dates.

When it comes to playing "classic rock," any band can strum three chords and claim they're doing Lynyrd Skynyrd.

Members of Flashback - you've gotta love that name - takes a different approach.

"One thing I really like about this band is that we're not just covering these songs," says Jeff Beasom, Flashback's bass player and one of three members who alternate lead vocals. Their approach is to try to replicate the tone of the original; for example, "on a Hendrix song, you'll hear the sound of Hendrix's guitar."

And they do it with the same type of equipment the musicians of the '60s actually used. For example, readings of the Byrds' "I'll Feel a Whole Lot Better" and "Mr. Tambourine Man" feature a Rickenbacker 12-string guitar, just as Jim McGuinn (before he was Roger) strummed on the original. And the band recently added some equipment that truly evokes the period: a Hammond B3 organ and Leslie speaker box.

Jeff put the band together with guitarist/keyboardist George Hudson, from Mt. Washington, after they met through the Internet. They initially tried to go another direction as far as the repertoire, but during rehearsals, they kept coming back to their old favorites.

"We started searching for guys who felt the same way," says Jeff, who hails from Harrison City in Westmoreland County. They round some kindred spirits in drummer Peter Waddell and two recent additions, harp player/lead vocalist Andrew Mrasz and guitarist/lead vocalist Mike Carson.

The guys may draw their material from quite a few decades ago, but that doesn't mean they play exclusively to old-timers.

"There's definitely a younger audience for this, too," Jeff says. "They're actually hearing some real musicianship."

The band's song list includes, as they put it, "recognizable (but not overplayed) Classic Rock, with many good dance numbers." I'm very impressed that they do a tune by one of my favorite virtually unknown bands, the Electric Prunes' "I Had Too Much to Dream (Last Night)."

"We get a good reaction to that one," says Jeff. "And the other one people like is 'Pictures of Matchstick Men,'" Status Quo's sole U.S. hit.

Flashback returned to live action this summer with a show at Zanderz in Plum, which usually features bands exclusively on Saturday. But the Flashback performance went so well that the guys were told, "We're going to break our own rule and have you out on a Friday night." And that's the Friday before Halloween.

Sounds like a good time to break out your tie-dyes and headbands.

http://flashbackrockband.home.comcast.net

PHOTO: Members of Flashback are, from left, Peter Waddell , Mike Carson, Jeff Beasom, George Hudson and Andrew Mrasz.