A Chat with Peanuts of "the Peanuts All-Star Jam"

Thanksgiving is the quintessential potluck holiday. Families get together, give thanks and indulge themselves in a hodgepodge of casseroles, home-cooked favorites and brand new recipes. Perhaps that’s why local music journalist Peanuts has settled on Thanksgiving eve for his annual All-Star Jam—an “open invite” gathering of available local musicians from around the region. Everyone gets together, breaks out their favorite musical dishes and, well, pigs out.

Some of it works, some of it doesn’t, but the ASJ never devolves into “The Gong Show,” despite Peanuts having his best Chuck Barris Watchful Eye on. He's the Uncle at the Thanksgiving table who "helps keep the train on the tracks... and running on time." Sporting a “Howard the Duck” t-shirt and baseball cap with a pin that reads, “It’s been lovely but I have to scream now,” Peanuts caught up with Cool Cleveland for a chat about this year's ASJ. The event takes place at Hi-Fi Club in Lakewood tonight. We assure you that no turkeys were harmed during the course of this interview.

Cool Cleveland: What contributed to the All-Star Jam becoming a Cleveland Thanksgiving tradition? It's like the annual Turkey Bowl, it seems.
It’s just sort of evolved over time, one that fell into tradition. It started out as a band meeting. People like getting together and playing. Now it’s like Nathan Detroit in Guys and Dolls, you know? It’s "the oldest established permanent floating crap game in Cleveland." It shows up every year, and you just sort of go with it. The closest it came to blowing up was 1989, at the old Cleveland Café, which is now a parking lot for Staples.

So, people in Northeast Ohio bands are invited to show up and plug in, then?
Basically, yes. We have a few folks that keep coming back every year.

Who are your favorite area bands currently?
I think View From Everest is great. There’s so much out there. A Rare Blend is good for what they do, that jazz-rock stuff. For acoustic stuff, Anne E. DeChant is great and Brian Henke… well, I really like him. I always put him up on stage [at the All-Star Jam] between the 2 loudest acts on the show. (smiles)

The “golden era” of Cleveland’s rock scene is accounted for, and well recounted in Carlo Wolff’s new book, Cleveland Rock & Roll Memories. But what happened back in the 90s? Everything seemed poised for success... so why did the scene deflate?
Too much infighting. Too many factions Balkanized. Egos. Competition. Everyone should have been out there supporting each others’ bands. People say to me now, “It’s dead here… there is nothing going on.” There are great bands here. Everything phases in and out. When things are in an “out phase,” give it a year or two.

How do you feel about the current state of terrestrial radio?
I guess we blame deregulation for this? I’ve always been the Antichrist of heavy rotation. Play the hits, then secondary hits… and go three cuts deep, if you prefer. You just don’t hear that on the radio anymore. Not even on “classic rock” radio.

What about the Internet and technology’s impact on music?
On the one hand, the more [bands] the merrier, but on the other hand, you still have to put yourself out there. And nothing beats real time in the studio, with real nuances. These computers can take all your creativity away. It’s a karaoke machine anymore.

Why keep writing about music, Peanuts?
The adventure in just dealing with musicians. That’s where this grey hair came from.

Any printable Cleveland rock experiences you can share?
How many Jane Scott stories do you want to hear? (smiles) Everybody has 2-3 Jane stories, although everybody knows what her situation is these days.

Indeed.
So, I’m at Swingo’s in 1977, I would guess, and Journey and the Tubes were in town. At the time, the Tubes were bigger. Both groups were staying at Swingo’s for 48 hours, and it was like Fellini’s Satyricon in there. You name it, it was going on. In the middle of all this chaos, Journey’s drummer [Aynsley Dunbar] turns to me and says, “I had the damndest bloody interview today with someone who looks like my Aunt Kelly! She asked the strangest questions I’ve ever heard! Like where I went to school.”

In the middle of all the “sex, drugs and rock and roll,” he’s fixated on that?
Yup. And I said to him, “Jane Scott with the Plain Dealer.” He looked at me like I shot him! “How did you know that?” he said. “Because that’s Jane’s Question… McCartney, Jagger, Springsteen... doesn’t matter, that’s her opening question.” (smiles)

“Peanuts” is obviously not your given name. Where did that come from?
A drunken guitar player back in high school. We were at a teen dance in Parma and this guy started calling me Peanuts. He was so loaded, that he thought he was at a neighborhood bar talking to someone else. Safe to say that it stuck.

I heard that your real name was used instead of “Peanuts” as a byline once—
Never happened.

So your real name is…?
[John] Petkovic [of Cobra Verde and the Plain Dealer] asked me that in an interview. There are 3 or 4 names for me floating around. People ask all the time and I tell them “no.” Look, here’s the situation. There’s a famous politician with the same name.

C’mon, seriously? Bob Taft? Bill Clinton? George Bush?
George Forbes. We didn’t want things to get things confused. (smiles)

Give Thanks with Peanuts during the Peanuts All-Star Jam tonight, 11/22 at 9:30PM. This is a "21 & over" event that is open to the public. Hi-Fi Club, 11729 Detroit Avenue, Lakewood. http://www.HiFiConcertClub.com.

From Cool Cleveland Managing Editor Peter Chakerian peterATcoolcleveland.com

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