The third season of the web series “Show Me Milwaukee” kicks off this week and Hot 105-7 radio personality Greg Adams continues his explorations of the city, this time with Anthony Pettis, Judge Katie Kegel, Corey Pieper, Maryam Durani, Chris Gilbert and Violent Femmes drummer John Sparrow.
The season premieres online for free at the Very Local app on Wednesday, Aug. 7, but Sparrow’s episode debuts on Aug. 21, says the drummer, who is home for a week between legs of the Violent Femmes’ ongoing tour.
For his segment, Sparrow says he took Adams to spots in the city that he loves, including back to the street on which he grew up.
A few years ago, I went with Sparrow back to his alma mater, South Milwaukee high school, where we visited his old locker in this video.
Sparrow was also recently interviewed by Milwaukee's Breaking & Entering.
Sparrow says he’s sworn to secrecy when it comes to the specifics of his upcoming appearance – “to preserve the mystery of each location” – so we’ll just have to watch and see.
Here’s a trailer for the third season of the program which is part of Very Local’s video features on a variety of American cities, from Albuquerque to Winston-Salem:
In the meantime, Sparrow will again join Brian Ritchie and Gordon Gano as the Violent Femmes head back out on the road to celebrate the 40th and 41st anniversaries of the band’s first couple albums.
“The next leg of this tour will be East Coast dates including one in Canada,” he says. “Out west in September and then down south later in September.
“I’ve really enjoyed playing (the Femmes’ second LP) ‘Hallowed Ground’ in its entirety and then the first album in its entirety after that. This has been a wonderful way to celebrate two iconic albums from Violent Femmes.”
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.
