Progressive News, Opinion, and Analysis
Finally, Justin Katz and I get down to the brass tacks of it and hash it out over the big picture. Every week, we seem to have one fundamental difference: is the free market better suited to solving social issues than government.
Watch and see if either of us convince you to change your mind:
Robert Malin has video on the May Day march in Providence yesterday. It includes people rallying against the city’s proposed plan to move the bus terminal out of Kennedy Plaza, Wendy’s workers, Hiton hotel employees, foreclosure and immigrant rights activists.
Arthur “Pooch” Tavares, with nearly 60 years in the music business, continues to reach out to his old fans and to new generations as well. The 70 year old Tavares is still performing about 75 concerts a year all over the world with three of the brothers (Perry “Tiny,” Antone “Chubby” and Feliciano “Butch”) who made up the original quintet which became know worldwide as simply Tavares. (Fifth brother Ralph retired from the road in the 1980s.)
The brothers grew up in the Fox Point and South Side neighborhoods of Providence and Tavares says, “The good lord has seen fit to keep us all together.” The most notable moment he remembers from his long career is when The Bee Gees gave his group “More Than A Woman,” one of the key songs in the score to Saturday Night Fever, for which they won a 1977 Grammy Award. But running a close second is being inducted into the Rhode Island Music Hall of Fame
“It’s quite an honor to be recognized for your music in the place where you were born,” states Tavares.
With just two weeks to go until the induction of this year’s class into the Rhode Island Music Hall of Fame (RIMHOF) on May 4, at The Met at the historic Hope Artiste Village, Vice Chair Rick Bellaire gives this columnist the details about those who are being recognized as Rhode Island’s best.
In announcing the RIMHOF Class of 2014, Bellaire says, “This initiative provides a great opportunity to acknowledge Rhode Island’s musical greats and celebrate their achievements and now we finally have an organization whose primary goal is to promote and preserve our state’s rich musical heritage. With actual exhibit space, coupled with our online archive, we have in place the tools to curate and showcase the best of Rhode Island’s musical artistry.”
Bellaire notes that it’s sometimes easy to forget, and even hard for some to believe, that such world-acclaimed artists actually have roots right here in Ocean State. “For the smallest state, Rhode island has produced an inordinately large number of truly great, successful and important artists and their devoted local fans helped to place them on the world stage. Tavares is a case in point.”
According to Bellaire, from their earliest days in the Fox Point neighborhood of Providence, it was clear the seven Tavares brothers were born to make music. They are recognized as pioneers in the evolution of R&B from the Soul era into the modern Funk and Disco movements of the ’70s and ’80s. They had over a dozen major hits and won a Grammy for “More Than A Woman,” their contribution to Saturday Night Fever. “But,” says Bellaire, “the best part of the Tavares story for me is not about how great they are or how successful they are. Everyone knows that. For me its about their journey. They worked really hard to get to the top. Their story will continue to inspire young musicians for decades to come.” Tavares will appear in concert on May 3 at Lupo’s Heartbreak Hotel.
Bellaire provides some background on the other new RIMHOF inductees:
The Castaleers are recognized as the state’s Rhythm & Blues trailblazers. They came together in the mid-1950s when members of various groups formed a permanent lineup consisting of Richard Jones (later replaced by Joe Hill), George Smith, Dell Padgett, Ron Henries and Benny Barros. In partnership with songwriters/producers Myron and Ray Muffs, they had four national releases and paved the way for the rest of Rhode Island’s R&B greats.
Paul Gonsalves of Pawtucket started out playing tenor sax in big bands including Count Basie’s. As a master of many styles, he became a pivotal figure in the evolution of post-war modern jazz. He joined Duke Ellington in 1950 and provided a crucial ingredient in the modernization of Duke’s sound. His place in the history books was guaranteed by his famous 27 chorus improvisation on “Diminuendo and Crescendo In Blue” at the 1956 Newport Jazz Festival.
Randy Hien of Woonsocket entered the music business in 1971 when he took on the job of reopening the old Loew’s State Theatre as The Palace in downtown Providence to present Rock ’n’ Roll concerts. When the Palace closed 1975, Randy purchased the original Living Room on Westminster Street by trading the keys to his Jaguar XKE for the keys to the club and the liquor license. He kickstarted Rhode Island’s original music scene by instituting a policy which welcomed bands who performed their own music. The club became the center of the state’s music scene and Randy its biggest supporter
Rhode Island Philharmonic Orchestra founder and conductor emeritus Francis Madeira initially came to Providence to teach music at Brown University in 1943. Finding no professional symphonic orchestra, he created one bringing together a 30-member ensemble that would bring the music of the European masters to the Ocean State. Maestro Madeira will be inducted into RIMHOF on May 10 during a performance by the Philharmonic at Veterans Memorial Auditorium in Providence.
Winston Cogswell of Warwick,was literally present at the birth of Rock ’n’ Roll after moving to Memphis, Tennessee in 1954. At Sun Records, as a guitarist, pianist, songwriter, arranger, producer and recording artist under the name “Wayne Powers,” he collaborated with some of the most important figures in music history including Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis and Roy Orbison. He returned to Warwick in 1960 and began working with pianist/composer Ray Peterson. The duo formed Wye Records with a third partner, engineer Ken Dutton, and their debut release as The Mark II, “Night Theme,” became a national hit. Wye remains the only Rhode Island label to score a Hot 100 hit.
By the end of the 1960s, Duke Robillard of Woonsocket had already earned a reputation as one of the finest blues guitarists in the state after stints with the short-lived original lineup of Roomful of Blues and Ken Lyon’s Tombstone Blues Band. In 1970, he reformed Roomful with a three-piece horn section to play jump blues and under his leadership, the band practically single-handedly revived the genre with two albums for Island Records. In the early 1980s, Duke began to pursue a solo career at Rounder Records. His jazzier side emerged with the release of “Swing” in 1987 to critical acclaim. “Duke recently told me he feels that, in music, blues is the universal language,” says Bellaire. “So I say, Duke Robillard is fluent in many languages!”
Freddie Scott of Providence moved to New York in 1956 and began his career as a songwriter for Don Kirshner working alongside to Carole King, Neil Sedaka and Paul Simon. His songs from this period were recorded by Ricky Nelson, Paul Anka, Tommy Hunt and Clyde McPhatter. Freddie entered the charts as a singer himself in 1963 with “Hey Girl” written by his friends Carole King and Gerry Goffin. It hit Billboard’s Top 10 and is considered a classic today. In 1966, he scored a #1 R&B song with “Are You Lonely For Me.” His last album was “Brand New Man” in 2001.
In 1976, Cheryl Wheeler moved to Rhode Island to pursue a career in music on the Newport folk scene. She was quickly recognized as one of the finest songwriters and singers to surface in a decade or more. In 1986, her first album brought her national attention. Her song “Addicted” was taken all the way to #1 on Billboard’s Top 40 Country chart by superstar Dan Seals in 1988. Since then, she has released a series of albums of her comic and emotionally intense songs which are considered singer-songwriter classics around the world. Says Bellaire, “Cheryl is a treasure. Her songs are perfect – every note and every word propels the story forward. She’s also a masterful performer. She can have you in tears one minute and rolling in the aisle the next. Every show is magical.”
RIMHOF Chair Bob Billington says, “This year’s honorees are amazing. Their histories in music are superior. Rhode Islanders should meet and greet them in person at our events. They will not be disappointed.”
Tickets for the Saturday, May 3 Tavares concert at Lupo’s and for the induction ceremonies and concert on Sunday, May 4 at The Met can be purchased at www.rhodeislandmusichalloffame.com.
Herb Weiss, LRI ’12, is a Pawtucket writer who covers aging, health care and medical issues. He can be reached at hweissri@aol.com. He also serves on RIMHOF’s Board of Directors.
Everybody seems to be wondering what has Historian Laureate Patrick Conley’s knickers in a twist over R.I. Department of Environmental Management’s regulatory structures, so I offer a bit of perspective on his beef with DEM. As Bob Plain pointed out in this excellent post, Conley is currently subject to at least two corrective actions by our state’s environmental watchdog. One of those actions stems from quite arguably the greatest environmental disaster to ever hit Rhode Island.
Back in September of 2001, just days prior to the World Trade Center attacks of 9/11, the village of Pascoag, in the Town of Burrillville, was made victim of a massive toxic event that continues to be felt by the residents of the sleepy hamlet. News of this disaster was drowned out in the media by the events of 9/11, but the effects on the health and safety of the people of Burrillville are equally as terrifying. I am writing, of course, of the contamination of Pascoag’s only public water supply by the failure of underground gasoline storage tanks located at 24 North Main St.
As of November of 2013, the property is owned by one 20 Fairmont St., LLC, which happens to share an East Providence address with Conley’s development company. An address to which the latest round of RIDEM NIE’s , or Notice of Intent to Enforce, have been sent, addressed to one Colleen Conley c/o Dr. Patrick Conley. The owner of the property is responsible for enacting soil and water monitoring and management plan with the RIDEM, also known as a Corrective Action Plan.
The failure of these tanks, according to DEM, released a significant, undetermined quantity of gasoline and the now-banned additive methyl tertiary butyl ether, or MTBE, into the aquifer under the village. The spill was so profuse that some testing wells were found to have standing gasoline in them months after the spill had been discovered. MTBE has been fully or partially banned in many states in the U.S., and for good reason; it has has proven to be a potent carcinogen.
In 2011, as a reporter for ecoRI News, I decided to look back on the spill and how it affected the lives of people in Pascoag. I spoke to many members of the community, the Pascoag Utility District (PUD), RIDEM, and sources at the EPA. Unfortunately, the then owner of the property was – and continues to be – “in the wind,” to use law enforcement parlance.
This small community has been ravaged by the lingering effects of the spill.
Many in the community have developed, as one town resident called, “oddball” cancers. Others believe that exposure to the chemical caused a spate of Multiple Sclerosis diagnoses in the town. In the weeks preceding the discovery of the spill, residents complained of afflictions from recurring ear infections, to massive chemical burns. The financial cost to the townspeople has been steep, as well. After the spill, the PUD was forced to tie into the wells of the Harrisville Fire District, and wound up paying double what most Rhode Islanders pay for public water for ten years.
By the time that the spill had reached its maximum impact to the aquifer, MTBE levels had risen to 42 times the EPA’s maximum exposure limit. Due to the fact that the owner of the property had skipped town, DEM was saddled with 100 percent of the cleanup costs which, without help from the EPA, would have bankrupted the state’s Leaking Underground Storage Tank program.
Since then, Exxon/Mobil has settled a class action suit with the people of Pascoag for a mere $7 million – which translates to about $800 for each claimant – and the town has just finished drilling a new well, far away from the contaminated site.
Conley and his associates have been repeatedly warned by RIDEM about non-compliance, and yet, still they seem shocked by the agency’s actions. In his op-ed in the ProJo, Conley writes:
Providence was home to the world’s largest tool factory (Brown and Sharpe), file company (Nicholson File), engine factory (Corliss Steam Engine Company), screw factory (American Screw Company), and silverware manufacturer (Gorham). These firms were exuberantly proclaimed as Providence’s “Five Industrial Wonders of the World.”
What he fails to mention is that the sites of all five of these former “powerhouses” are now horribly contaminated with everything from heavy metals, to petroleum by-products, to industrial process waste. He then writes:
If that zero-growth bureaucracy (DEM) existed in the 19th century, it would be a wonder if our five industrial wonders could have acquired permits to operate.
The answer to that question, Mr. Conley, is a resounding, “No!”
See, that’s the thing about the unending march of science, you tend to learn things in 150 years that cast a pallor over the “successes” of these former industrial giants. Namely, their horrible legacy of detrimental environmental and human health impacts.
The RIDEM has spent millions remediating this spill. All they are asking from Mr. Conley and his associates is that they maintain a commitment to cleanup the site of the former gas station. The contamination was known when Conley bought the parcel, and thus he should have known about the need for a RIDEM-approved action plan for the site. Maybe Conley could do us all a couple of favors and a) STFU about the “regulatory burdens of DEM,” and b) stop being crybabies and CLEAN UP THE MESS THAT YOU KNOWINGLY PURCHASED!
All across America, Democrats – and quite frankly courts, too – are waking up to the oppressive reality voter ID laws represent for too many minorities, the poor and the elderly. Judges in Arkansas, Wisconsin and other states have almost systematically ruled against voter ID provisions and well-respected Washington Post political scribe Chris Cilliza recently blessed the issue with this post.
The president of the United States even weighed in last month. “I am against requiring an ID that millions of Americans don’t have,” he said. “That shouldn’t suddenly prevent you from exercising your right to vote.”
Not Rhode Island, though. We the only blue state (along with Hawaii) with such a law, and we seem more content with it than some pretty red states. The Senate had its hearing (you can watch all sorts of good government groups and equal rights activists testify against it here) but the voter ID law seems pretty safe here in spite of the widespread liberal and legal opposition.
That’s not to say there isn’t the political will for state legislators to address election law this session.
The anti-master lever bill passed the House last night 70 to 0. This puts amazing pressure on the Senate to do likewise – note the activist role the Providence Journal is taking by urging readers to call legislators.
The master lever, or straight party voting, doesn’t serve democracy well and should go. Ken Block in particular deserves great praise for leading the charge against it. I’d say it’s solid evidence he can effectively use a bully pulpit to affect political change, and that’s what he says he wants to do as governor.
To that end, I kinda find myself wishing voter ID laws hurt Ken Block supporters, too. Then he may have taken me up on my offer to tackle both voting rights issues. Because just as we should ensure the ballot is as straightforward as possible, we should also ensure that everyone has access to a ballot.
Rhode Island wasn’t mentioned in the Washington Post’s list of 13 states “to watch” on voting rights despite the big push here to end straight party voting. Maybe we could gain some positive national attention on a good government issue if we did away with both the master lever AND voter ID this year?
