Naturally I dig the Chi-town music world, but I have to admit that what truly sets Chicago apart is its theater. From Tony-winning stage plays to rogue performances in abandoned swimming pools, it seems like every block has at least one storefront theater, and every neighbor and coworker seems to have a local production underway. But this is less and less true as our thriving indie theater empire feels the recessionary squeeze.

And every time one of those storefronts closes, our unparalleled arts scene gets a little less cool.

No, I’m not starring a local production. But I am going to join my pal Evan Jacover at the Beat Kitchen on Wednesday night to play some tunes and donate the proceeds to the New Colony theater.

Let’s keep Chicago cool!

Gordon

But fear not, hot is almost here! Once June arrives, we’re officially done with jackets & boots and plastic on windows. In come the shorts & flip-flops and random street festivals in seemingly every neighborhood. Ah, Chicago in the hot season…

So celebrate the official end of cold with me on May 31st. I’ll be back at my old acoustic haunt, the original Uncommon Ground on Clark St.

But the reason I write is not to brag about Jonah (though he’s crazy cute), but actually to tell you that I’ll be returning to that great Evanston venue, and this time the plan is to show up.

Opening for Steve Forbert.

Romeo’s Tune - Steve Forbert

I was actually very careful not to book anything within a month of the lad’s due date, but he one-upped us all and showed up six weeks early. He’s happy and healthy and exceedingly handsome, but still requires a lot of attention and cooing and feeding and cuddling as he basks in the blue bili-lights at Prentice Women’s hospital.

So I just wanted to let you know that I will not be performing this Thursday evening, October 23rd, at SPACE in Evanston, as originally advertised. The show is still happening, though, and will still, I’m sure, be awesome. But alas, without me.

Hopefully SPACE in Evanston will see fit to put me back on a bill, perhaps in a few months when Jonah can sit in with Aric on keys.

Till then, enjoy a lovely fall.

Yours,
Gordon

Thu, Oct 23 in Evanston, IL
8pm, All Ages, $12
w/ Matt Santos & Janelle Kroll
1245 Chicago Avenue
(In the back of Union Pizza)

Some of you are up in the northern suburbs of Chicago. That’s okay. I won’t hold that against you. In fact, just to show there’s no hard feelings, on Thursday, October 23rd, I’ll be playing a show at the newest and by far sexiest venue on the flipside of Howard Street: SPACE.

It’s going to be a great show — not just because you can have some fabulous pizza and choice beer at Union beforehand, but also because I’m opening for Matt Santos, who is a true phenom, having recently secured himself a major-label record contract (they still have those?) and played all over Lupe Fiasco’s records (but no, he’s not hip-hop). Janelle Kroll is opening the night, and she’ll probably be famous within the year, if she’s not already.

So, as the summer sun sets, stroll yourself on over to Uncommon Ground at Clark & Grace St., where I’ll be playing some summer-themed acoustic tunes fit for such an ideal evening. Some dear old pals of mine from Boston, the Brendan Boogie Band, are passing through town this weekend and have obliged to play some of their tunes at 7pm. Then, as the sun dips out of view at precisely 7:58pm, I’ll serenade you — lit only by the lights of the Cubs-Cards game going on across the street.

This Sunday, August 10
Uncommon Ground on Grace & Clark
3800 N. Clark St., 773 929-3680
FREE, All Ages

7pm - Brendan Boogie Band
7:58pm - Gordon Wright

But I’m a huge fan of the New Yorker’s classical music critic, Alex Ross. Not only is he a fantastic writer, but he has an openness and innocence in his approach to music of all styles, which I think is a needed and refreshing perspective, especially for that magazine.

Recently he quoted a rule from a composer named Bruce Adolphe: “To say exactly what one means without complication but also without compromise.”

Adolphe may have intended his reflection for composers, but no mantra could ring more true for songwriters. Gotta post that one on my wall.

Playing first will be another local, Denise Hradecky, who I plan to reminisce with about our overlapping Boston days. Between me, Jazzy Jeff and Denise, there can’t be more than one degree of separation from back in that incestuous Beantown rock scene.

To wit, David Brooks’s much-emailed op-ed today in the Times, How Obama Fell to Earth. If nobody emailed it to you, essentially he says that the damage has been done and now Obama is a pedestrian pol with all the double-talk, false promises and pandering that entails. The unsullied usher to the promised land has been reduced to that basest of human life-forms: the politician.

Ready for my retort? Well, I don’t have one. I completely agree. It’s been hugely sad to me to watch Obama engage in all the games he said he wouldn’t play and the tactics he said he’d never use. All along I’ve been worried about his pledges to bring our troops home from Iraq unequivocally, thinking surely his lawyerly prudence would assess the situation from inside the Oval Office and make the best decision for our country and the world. And actually I think this is still the case, but now veering even slightly from his current prescription will mean he lied outright. And that’s really disappointing.

I still find him hugely inspiring as a leader, thinker, speaker, and yes, even as a politician. For as much as he has sadly succumbed to the lowest common denominator, he still stands head and shoulders above the field. As a supporter, one can only hope that Clinton’s unabated and opportunistic attacks have only tempered the steel of his electability and promise, and not done any permanent damage heading into November.

God help us, when we make it to November, that is…

Now, loyal readers of course know that I’m an Obama supporter. Naturally, I was inclined to put the most positive spin on his statement. In retrospect I think he chose his words poorly, but it seems ludicrous that his mild comment could be used by Clinton or McCain to show that they are somehow more authentically in tune with rural voters.

Still, BO hasn’t done the best job killing this one. I think his intention was better stated by Lancaster, PA’s mayor, J. Richard Gray:

I don’t think he’s demeaning religion or guns. He’s saying the use of those issues as wedge issues plays on the bitterness that people have and diverts attention from the real economic issues, like the disparity between the wage earner and the rich.

The tragic thing to me about Obama’s now regrettable comment is that he was caught in the act of doing exactly what he pledges is his greatest strength: building bridges. He was at an intimate meeting of well-heeled Bay Area liberals, and he was explaining to them why they should care about what rural Pennsylvanians think, and why in the end, there are core social and economic goals they can all agree on. Just as he did in the race speech, he was able to step out of the room in a rural town hall with farmers and factory workers, and into a room on the other side of the country with left-leaning rich folks (and probably a few homosexuals, eh?) and share his same message of hope: simply, let’s come together and improve things. And he does it without the pandering or shape-shifting that has come to typify Clinton’s need to win at all costs or McCain’s fumbling attempts to court a divided electorate.