the schwartz brothers band

thursday night i went to see what i am going to call a cleveland underground staple. the schwartz brothers band, who play every thursday night at hooples a small little bar in the flats of cleveland. i had heard stories about the main schwartz member guitarist and lead singer glen schwartz. turns out he was a founding member of the 60's group the james gang who would later become famous for being the starting block for super rocker joe walsh. at any rate, glen, somewhere on sunset blvd in l.a., found the lord and left the main stream music world. 30 years later he turns up playing for free at hooples to anyone who will listen.
glen is not a good person. he is very very opinionated about things like race, gender, religion and pretty much anything else you could think of as being offensive. the crowd, myself included, ignores all of his babble because he is without a doubt the most amazing blues guitarist i have ever been witness to. as the great tim schmit said, "colonel sanders was a total ass hole too, but the chicken was really good, so everyone put up with it." you get this feeling that you are should not be able to see such talent in such a location, it feels like a movie.
at any rate, if you want a real experience and a real treat go to hooples on the west bank of the flats on a thursday night and witness for yourself.
glen, doing what i imagine to be the only thing he does well, but man he does it really really well..