In what may be the music news of the year already, Canadian folk-rock singer, songwriter and poet Leonard Cohen returns to Milwaukee to perform for the first time in 38 years.
Cohen plays the Milwaukee Theatre at 8 p.m. on Friday, March 15.
Tickets are $250, $135, $85 and $55 – before convenience fees – and go on sale Friday, Jan. 18 at 10 a.m. at the Milwaukee Theatre box office, select Walmart stores, via Ticketmaster and by phone at (800) 745-3000.
"I've been in this business 30 years," says Peter Jest, who is part of the team bringing Rock and Roll Hall of Famer Cohen to town, "and I've really wanted to get someone to town all those years."
That someone, says Jest, is Cohen, who last played in Milwaukee at the Performing Arts Center in February 1975.
"(This is) one of the biggest shows I've ever done," says Jest.
Cohen is not performing anywhere else in the state on this tour. His band for the tour includes background singers Sharon Robinson and the Webb Sisters, bassist and musical director Roscoe Beck, keyboardist Neil Larsen, guitarist Mitch Watkins, percussionist Rafael Gayol, violinist Alexandru Bublitchi and Javier Mas on bandurria, laud, archilaud and 12-string acoustic guitar.
If you're a Cohen fan, you know you can't miss this one. After all, in another 38 years, Cohen will be 116 years old.
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.
