On Saturday, May 5 – Cinco de Mayo – a trio of Milwaukee roots rock veterans performs at Club Garibaldi.
Songstress Liv Mueller takes the stage first and The Carolinas close out the night.
In between, Alex Ballard and Sugarfoot (which also includes drummer Jeff Jara, bassist Jeff Harrington and guitarist Dan Johnston) play, and will surely highlight the tracks they recently recorded (mostly) at the studio of Dave Vartanian (where the Violent Femmes, Crash Test Dummies and others have recorded).
Those songs – which also feature local guitar guru Peter Roller – will soon appear on Bandcamp and two of them will be released on a vinyl 7" 45.
"We’re going to release another single, hopefully, in the next three or four months and then another and, hopefully, it will culminate in a full length package of some sort down the road," says Ballard.
But you can hear it all first at Garibaldi this weekend. In the meantime, here's a preview of the a-side, "Built My World" ...
and the flip side ...
Born in Brooklyn, N.Y., where he lived until he was 17, Bobby received his BA-Mass Communications from UWM in 1989 and has lived in Walker's Point, Bay View, Enderis Park, South Milwaukee and on the East Side.
He has published three non-fiction books in Italy – including one about an event in Milwaukee history, which was published in the U.S. in autumn 2010. Four more books, all about Milwaukee, have been published by The History Press.
With his most recent band, The Yell Leaders, Bobby released four LPs and had a songs featured in episodes of TV's "Party of Five" and "Dawson's Creek," and films in Japan, South America and the U.S. The Yell Leaders were named the best unsigned band in their region by VH-1 as part of its Rock Across America 1998 Tour. Most recently, the band contributed tracks to a UK vinyl/CD tribute to the Redskins and collaborated on a track with Italian novelist Enrico Remmert.
He's produced three installments of the "OMCD" series of local music compilations for OnMilwaukee.com and in 2007 produced a CD of Italian music and poetry.
In 2005, he was awarded the City of Asti's (Italy) Journalism Prize for his work focusing on that area. He has also won awards from the Milwaukee Press Club.
He has be heard on 88Nine Radio Milwaukee talking about his "Urban Spelunking" series of stories, in that station's most popular podcast.