MEOW Con: going deeper.

I'm now blogging for the Huffington Post, which is kind of awesome. But fear not, loyal readers: I will not abandon you! I'm going to write here for the more intimate audience of my friends, fans and family (which are usually all the same thing, and are the readers that really matter to me). This will also let me express the often rude and unthinking things in my head that I might not want to say to millions of people, but which I know you all can tolerate.

I recently wrote a post for the Huffington Post about my experience at MEOW Con, a conference for women in the music industry. If you haven't read that yet, please read it here. MEOW Con was amazing, and I really didn't feel I could say everything I wanted to say about some of the women who spoke and performed there. So I want to GO DEEPER (like the title of the post. Get it?) into some of my experiences at this conference.

I really enjoyed the panel "Brittany To Miley: Why Do Good Girls Go Bad?" Miley has been a topic of conversation among my friends quite a bit lately. It was interesting to hear what women in the industry had to say. Journalist MaChelle Duma LaVassar was the panel moderator (watch this video); On the panel were Inch Chua, a musician and artist from Singapore, Punk Rock legend Betty X, and 13-year-old phenom Grace London. It was really interesting to hear these women who all have music careers that rely on their otherness, their "different" personalities, and their rebelliousness (imagine being a rocker girl in Singapore!) talk about why Miley does what she does. One thing they brought up is Miley's status as a corporation: she supports dozens of employees, and as long as she keeps the checks coming, none of them are not going to stand up to her and tell her she's making bad decisions. We also spoke about how middle-aged rapper Robin Thicke took no blame for twirking with Miley, while she herself was called a "slut" (a word I hate and will not apply to any young woman). Ma'Chelle spoke about the packaging of young women artists, and how they must be made to fit into categories like "slut," "diva," "hot mess" (Brittany), or "ingenue." It was a pretty amazing panel.

Betty X. She's so amazing.

During the panel Betty X pointed out that Grace London's mom was sitting in the audience. Mom was asked about her feelings concerning Grace's career and talent. Her answer explains why Grace has had the chance to become such an amazing musician while remaining a teenaged girl: mom said "I just want her to be passionate about something. if it was sewing, I'd want her to sew the best she could. But it was music."

 Betty X performs.

One of the ideas that came up again and again was the frustration of women trying to take the conventional route to fame in music: where are the female headliners at music festivals? Why is Suzi Quatro not in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame? Why were the GoGos the only self-contained all female Rock band to ever have a number one radio hit? A lot of this discussion was met with talk of alternative marketing, Internet presence and downloading, and success stories of women like Ani DiFranco, Tori Amos and Amanda Palmer, who all went about their careers without having "hit" songs. But in the panel discussion "Women, Music, Mental Health and Trauma," I heard many women express their frustration at not being accepted as players because they are female. As a man who has been in bands with women throughout my career, I can feel these women's pain, and I fail to understand why men would not accept a woman who plays well: I love working with women who can play well!

I want to highlight some of the amazing performers who showcased at this conference. There were so many that it's hard to know where to start, but there are some that really made an impression on me, so I'd like to show them to you.

Let's start with Grace London. It's hard for me to say how impressed I was with her performance. She is an amazing songwriter, and an amazing interpreter of other peoples' songs (I heard her do a Velvet Underground cover, and there's a great video up of her doing Nancy Sinatra's Bang Bang). She can play her ass off, her singing is to die for, and she exudes confidence on stage. And in case you didn't catch this in the paragraph above, she's 13 years old. Here's some video I did not post in the HuffPost piece:

Grace spent a year in Los Angeles: many of you know I lived there for several years. She wrote this song about the experience, and I could not have written a better song (I tried: my song/beat poem Love Letter To New York From A Bar In Los Angeles. Grace's song is better).

And as if all of that were not impressive enough, Grace is donating all proceeds from her EP, Rocketship Girl, to a charity that is digging wells for villages in Africa. Se has raised more than $20,000 for this project. OK, moving on...

Alyse Black really impressed me as well. I wish I could find a better video of B-17 Bomber Girl. She introduced the song by saying that as a teen, she felt she had an ugly body (and you should see this woman!! Hoo doggy, as they say...). But she explained that she stopped looking at Glamor and Seventeen, and started looking at pin-up girls, like those on the nose art of WWII bombers. So people began calling her B-17 Bomber Girl, a name she embraced. This story of a girl coming to terms with her body issues really touched me (remember that I do pin-up photography). But I just can't find a good video of the song, and it does not seem to be available for download on iTunes (many of her other songs are). So we'll watch this:

OK, here's a terrible video of B-17 Bomber Girl, with crowd noise and bad camera angles. I still love the song:

I had an OMG!!!!!! moment during the "Songwriting: Beyond The Love Song" panel when Sara Hickman, who had seen me play fiddle the evening before, interrupted the panel to tell me I'm great. Sara Hickman, in case you don't know, is the State Musician of Texas. She's an amazing singer and songwriter, and I've loved her stuff for ages. I will gloat over this for a very long time.

OK.... gloating done. Interesting fact: about a month ago or so I began watching Life Unexpected on Netflix from the first episode. Not only does the plot appeal to me (a man who does not even know he's a parent suddenly gets custody of his 15 year old child), but I also love the theme song. In the vey same panel as Sara Hickman there sat Rain Perry, who wrote the song! Of course we are now Facebook friends.

 Ok, actually, still gloating...

 Check out this video of Inch Chua. Her artwork is also amazing. She hand makes each CD cover---I mean hand makes the cardboard cover, paints it, creates the screen for printing it. Now do NOT go expecting that from me!

The final show of MEOW Con was the Bluebonnets, the current project of Kathy Valentine of the Go Gos. Kathy did one of the two key note speeches (the other was Rock legend Suzi Quatro). She spoke about her inspiration for playing guitar (London rocker girls), how she almost ended up in the band Girlschool, and her years with the Go Gos. She posed the question, why are there no female bands equivalent to Greenday or Aerosmith? (I'm kind of glad there aren't...). Then she played with her new band...

I have a bad crush on their guitarist, Eve Monsees (at right on your screen). Don't tell Lauren.

I want you to check out these MEOW Con performers too: Daisy O'Connor who is adorable and talented. She and I hung out together quite a bit and spoke about stage presentation and image; Abbie Bosworth, talented teen singer-songwriter; Jo Wymer, who has an amazing voice and stage presence, and who allowed me to perform with her; My dear friends Ginger Doss and Lynda Millard; and the woman who brought me all the way to Austin for MEOW Con, Sheryl Diane. Also look into June Millington's project the Institute for the Musical Arts. June Millington is a legendary grandmother of Rock, and she runs a music camp for girls. She shared with us that the spirits told her she had to nurture girl musicians, and so she opened this camp. They need some help with finances at the moment, so check them out and give what you can.

Speaking of girl rockers, I leave you with a huge dose of cuteness and talent: Starflight, sisters who rock (just like June and Jean Millinton in the '60s). And don't let the cuteness fool you. These girls can play their hind ends off!

From MEOW Conference in Austin Texas, this is Kenny Klein, explaining it all.

Update the day after writing this: apparently the organizer of MEOW Con, Carla DeSantis Black, finds herself financially struggling to present a MEOW Con 2014. Here is an email where you can help put a little something into a virtual tip jar. Or visit the MEOW Con site to help. She's also looking for ideas about who might be interested in sponsoring the conference (there is a list of current sponsors on the site). Thanks!!

What I've Been Doing...

I feel kind of awful that I haven't posted a blog in a month now. In my defense, I've been busy. I moved to a new apartment a month ago---anyone who has moved knows how stressful that is! But it's a really nice apartment in the Lower Garden District, a very beautiful neighborhood. I am now just a few blocks from Lafayette Cemetery #2, the creepiest cemetery in NOLA, and from LaSalle Park, where the Mardi Gras Indians parade on the weekend closest to Saint Joseph's Day.

 Two views of Lafayette Cemetery #2.

 I've also been putting together a new band. While I've been using the band name Darwin's Monkey Wrench for concerts while on tour, Darwin's Monkey Wrench has always been an ever-changing ensemble of whichever musicians I can convince to show up. Now the band will have permanent members (or as permanent as musicians can be...) with a focus on my original songs, and on traditional Swing and Jugband music. We've done our very first gig together here in NOLA, and will be playing at the Homegrown Harvest Festival this Friday, and at the Kerry Irish Pub next week. So far, everything sounds pretty good. 

 Darwin's Monkey Wrench, above; singer Carolyn Broussard below. Carolyn is the singer on my Black Cat Blues CD. That truck is in the yard of my new home... no one knows why.

Another new situation is that I have a room here set up as my photo studio, something I did not have in my former apartment. Below are a few photos I've been taking in my new studio, and around NOLA. You can see more on my gallery site. Advisory: there are nudes in my gallery.

 Model Dawn Day in my studio.

 Model Siffa Scary. Siffa speaks to young women about cutting and eating disorders through her video blog; the photo below is part of a shoot illustrating those issues.

 Lauren and Stephanie in the studio (above), part of a fairy tale shoot; and in Day Of The Dead make-up at Gryphon's Nest (below).

I'm back in the swing of writing, and I will have new posts up in a timely manner. See you soon!

NYHC (then) and NYC (now)

This week my tour schedule drew me back to the land of my birth, my cradle of consciousness, my city-as-muse, New York City. I'm back here at least once a year, and whenever I return to NYC I reminisce a bit, recalling my youth and the New York Hardcore scene (NYHC) of the early '80s. So I thought I'd take you on a little photo tour of NYC (using my camera's phone; sorry for the poor photo quality), and compare NY now to my NYHC scene then. laced with a few stops to recall my teen years as well, also spend in the East Village.

I began by getting off the IRT #1 subway in Greenwich Village, and walking down Christopher Street to Washington Square Park.

Washington Square was once the site of a marshy swamp, and later of a pauper's cemetery. In the days of the Revolution it was used by George Washington as a troop training area, and that's how it got its name. The fountain, above, was built uptown on 59th street, but moved here in the 1870s. Until 1964 the park was simply the arch and the fountain, and Fifth Avenue traffic rambled around it (below). The rest of the park was built in '64. Bob Dylan, Peter Paul and Mary, and Rambling Jack Elliot all played music and sang there in the '60s.

Washington Square before 1964, historic pic from this site.

Being a hot summer day, the fountain is watery and wet, and kids and teens splash around in it. In the fall, winter and spring, the fountain is dry, and becomes a hang-out for skate boarders and hacky sack players. In '82, a lot of Punks would skate there.

I learned to play Bluegrass by playing around the Square with some of the best NY musicians, especially Gene Tambor of the Minetta Creek Bluegrass band. Gene and I played from about '76 through the early '80s in a band called the New York Frets. He taught me nearly everything I know about performing. We would play on the streets of Greenwich Village, either in front of the wrought iron fence around the NYU chapel on MacDougal, or near his house on Bleecker St. There were a lot of weird things going on when one busked in those days. Once while we were playing, a guy began dancing. He took off his shoes and danced barefoot. Then he took off his shirt and danced bare-chested. Then he took off his pants, and danced naked. That wasn't the weirdest part. He then walked away, leaving his clothes in a neat pile in front of the band. (I couldn't make this stuff up...).

Of course people still busk in the Square. Most of it is crappy, but sometimes you hear someone really good. Today was a really-good day. I ran into some of my New Orleans busking buddies just outside the fountain area. Lyle (who plays with me in Odd's Bodkin while in New Orleans), Daniel and Jordan do exactly what I do every year, leave NOLA to tour up north. It was just happenstance that we all ended up in NYC today.

Jordan is playing a musical saw, and she's really good at it. Jason Mankey, who was walking around NYC with me for some of today, asked me "how does one learn to play a musical saw?" I told him that, while I imagine there are Youtube videos about it, one just watches other saw players and learns.

Before leaving Washington Square, I had to walk by 27 Washington Square North...

If you have read my poetry, you know that I've written a ton of poems about a girl named Kate. My CD Little Birds Of Desire is also laced with songs about this mystery girl: Compact, Bonny Kate, and Love Letter To NY are all about her. My reluctant muse Kate grew up right here, on the corner of Washington Square North and MacDougal Street. That was her living room window. The window right above it was that of Luscious Jackson and Moppy Skuds alum Jill Cunniff. The two girls were somewhat inseparable in '81 and '82. My crush on Kate was unrequited, I'm sorry to say. She ended up dating Cro Mags lead screamer/bassist Harley Flannegan, much to my depression and sorrow. Of course, to her credit, I was kind of a jerk in '81.

Jill Cunniff, Luscious Jackson alum, in '82. This was how most of the Hardcore girls looked and dressed, sort of Siouxie Sioux inspired bag-lady chic. Photo by legendary Punk music producer Dave Parsons.

Reluctantly moving on from 27 WSN, I headed down Washington Square North to Astor Place/Cooper Square, home of the Cube. Here are two views of the sculpture that sits at the center of Astor place.

The cube (actually titled The Alamo  and created by sculptor Tony Rosenthal in 1967) is a popular tourist site, and if you push it pretty hard it rotates on its axis, a favorite pastime of drunk NYU students. It's also a popular skateboarding hangout, and in '82 there were always a dozen or so skaters tricking around the thing.

Directly across from the Cube is Cooper Union college, one of the best design schools in America. In '82 Punks used to hold a makeshift flea market outside Cooper Union. Dave Parsons, of Rat Cage Records, would sell Punk records off a blanket on the sidewalk, and Punks would sell their old clothes, belts, and records, books and magazines on the sidewalk.

Today there were two kind of normal-looking girls spare-changing there. (I'm used to spare changers looking like, well, spare changers. Usually Crusties...)

Their sign reads "out of work; boss was a jerk." A sign of the times? When I walked by later there were signs for a poet who would write a poem on demand (a common busking career in NOLA), but I never did see the poet.

I walked down to Saint Marks Place, which in '81 was the hub of NYHC. Here is a pic of Saint Marks in '81, courtesy of Even Worse bass player Rebecca Korbet-Wootton (in center on stairs):

And here's the same street today. The stoop pictured above is just to the left of the Saint Marks Hotel and the Trash and Vaudeville shop (picture below), which was one of the first Punk stores on Saint Marks Place.

Upstairs is Vaudeville, and downstairs is Trash (see below). It was and is an awesome clothing shop, though a bit pricey. Still, if you visit Saint Marks Place, you ought to stop in there. The girl who worked at Trash and Vaudeville in the late 70s was named Angel. She was an early Punk rocker, skinny to the point of emaciated and pretty hyper. She used to rehearse her Punk band in the shop. The first time I ever shopped at Vaudeville Angel made fun of me because I was using my mom's credit card (hey, I was 15!). We became friends after that.

Here's the downstairs shop, Trash:

 The building nest to Trash, the Saint Marks Hotel, is a landmark building, and looms large in the Punk legend. Before the early '70s the building had housed the gay baths. I remember passing the baths in '68 and '69 on my way to shows at the Fillmore East. By the time I moved to the East Village in '72 it had become the hotel. Many Punk notables lived there at one time or another, including Spacely/Gringo, a weird crustie Punk who was often called the "Mayor Of Saint Marks Place." Someone did an indie film about him in around '82, and to promote it they painted a huge billboard of his face over Saint Marks and Third. While there is a legendary Punk presence there, in '82 the Saint Marks Hotel was largely populated by druggies and hookers. There was this one very cute but very strung out little blond hooker with asymmetrical eyes who always asked me if I wanted "a date." Whatever my morality may have been in '82, I never had any money. Poor asymmetrical eyes hooker... Third Ave and Ninth Street was a hooker area then, as was Second and Tenth, so many girls who made a living that way lived in the hotel. Most of the girls were pretty enough (as opposed to street girls since Craig's List made it easy for attractive addicts to hook-from-home). The East Village was pretty squalid back then.  Anyway, quite a few of my NYHC friends resided in the Hotel on and off.

Just down the street from the hotel is the Grass Roots Tavern, a Saint Marks landmark.

When I first returned to NYC after my couple of years in college up at New Paltz, I was looking for the Punk scene. My college friend and Punk princess Nicole hung around the Grassroots, and it was there I first met Bobby Bratz, one of my best friends in the NYHC scene. Nicole and I used to drink there (yes, I used to drink) with my high-school-GF-turned-Punk-buddie Alice.

Nicole died in the early '90s (a lot of my friends died...I'm the only one who isn't either dead or famous these days). Alice speaks to me on occasion.

Moving down Saint Marks, we come to the corner of Saint Marks and Second:

This used to be the Saint Marks Theater. In '73 and '74, you could see three movies there for a dollar (my first date with Alice was seeing Woodstock and the Jimi Hendrix movie at that theater. She left in the middle of the date). I saw a lot of art films there, and by '81 they used to do a midnight show of Clockwork Orange, a Hardcore fave. We would all go on Saturday night, then proceed en masse to A7 (I'll be getting to that in a few moments). 

Kitty corner across Second Ave is the Orpheum Theater. Stomp has been playing there for as long as I've been around the East Village, maybe since '73. I'm not kidding. This is one thing about the Village that never seems to change.

Moving a few yards down Saint Marks, we come to number 74. My teen-aged home!

Today this is the Kaplan House; when I lived here it was the Stuyvesant Residence Home. Long story which perhaps I'll tell one day... anyway I lived here form around '72-76. 

Next door at 78, there lived, in '73, two women who had been former Playboy Bunnies. One had a teen daughter, Kristen if memory serves, who played guitar, so we became buddies. Mom and her friends would throw parties on the roof, and invite the teenaged boys from Stuyvesant residence. Then the women would be topless or nude at the parties. The '70s were a fun era... Kristen's mom would date a lot of the teen boys and move them in when they hit 21 and had to leave the residence home (not me...I was not so lucky. I simply moved in with my girlfriend in the Vassar college dorms).

When you grow up in the squalor and chaos that is the East Village, you really don't know anything else. Now, looking back at my teen years, I often comment to myself "wow, I grew up amidst squalor and chaos!"  It's truly not most peoples' teen experience. I really need to write my memoirs someday...

Across the street from Stuyvesant Residence is the Holiday Cocktail Lounge.

In '81, this Ukrainian bar didn't stand much on legal drinking ages (in the Ukraine there is no legal age limit), so they would serve anyone who could pay. The little Punk girls all drank there, and not one of them was 18 just yet. Next door is Stromboli's Pizza, the best pizza in NYC in the '70s and '80s. I went there today and found that they had built tables and chairs (in '81 we stood outside, eating pizza as we leaned against parked cars), and that the pizza had become a bit mediocre... yet still better than anything outside of NYC and Jersey.

Speaking of food, down First Avenue at 11th Street we come to Veniero's Cafe, the BEST Italian pastry cafe in America!! Really.

Since 1894, this place has served delicious Italian pastries. In '81, the front room staff was all Italian school girls, and the dining room staff was all tall, blond Ukrainian girls.Today I was waited on by a young man of nondescript ethnicity, who served me this:

The iced cappuccino  is iced with coffee flavor gelato ice cream. OMG!!! It's like a cappuccino milkshake. 

Yes, that is a wall of chocolate cake.It extends across the length of the front room, maybe 20 feet. The next case is cheesecakes of all descriptions. Then come the fruit cakes.

Just down twelfth street is my old tenement apartment, where I lived from '79 to about '83. I write about the place a lot...

E 12 st and Avenue A, my home for many years. It was a hideous ghetto then... now it's beautiful. 

Those trees were not there in '81. 

515 East Twelfth Street. The sew-Top Cleaners was a tax service in '80-83. I lived in the back building. There is a courtyard behind this building, and a smaller building in the back of that. It's a nice arrangement, because the front building muffles the noise from the street, and it's quite peacful back there. 

I lived for most of that time with Carol Louderbach. Here's a picture of Carol and her BF Barbara Taylor from around '83:

Carol is the seated six-foot Punk girl. Barbara says Carol's mom was taking the picture, and they couldn't think of anything picturesque to do, so they shook hands. Barbara and I remain friends. She lives in London now with her teenaged daughter. We can't seem to locate Carol. Punks are currently scouring the Earth looking for her, but to no avail. It's a real life mystery. Carol was dating one of the Bad Brains, so I would often come home to find three Bad Brains asleep on my kitchen floor and one in Carol's bed. The Bad Brains were kind of homeless in '82. They mostly lived in the recording studios at 171 Avenue A, where they, the Beastie Boys, the Stimulators and Reagan Youth would all record. Other days it was my kitchen floor.

After visiting 515, I walked across Tompkins Square Park to what used to be A7. On the way I was stopped by this woman. She knew me, mentioned people I knew, that she had just gotten out of jail (intent to incite, I believe, whatever that is), and that she was so glad to see me. I have no idea who this is...

She does have a Baphomet tattoo across her chest... still, I cannot place her.

From the park you can see the building that used to be the center of Hardcore Punk in '82, A7.

The building that used to house A7, seen from the park. A gaggle of Hardcores would hang out here in the park until the doors to A7 opened, usually between midnight and one AM. Then we'd march over in an orderly fashion. Billy Idol used to drink at A7 every night, as did several of the Plasmatics. Bands that played there included the Even Worse, the Moppy Scuds (some of whose members became Luscious Jackson), the Bad Brains, Reagan Youth, the Beastie Boys, the Cro Mags, and the Young Aborigines. I played there regularly with a band called Mara. Here I am in '82 playing on the stage at A7:

Here is the wall art on the building today:

Joe Strummer, immortalized here, was the founder of the Punk band The Clash, as well as a one-time member of Irish Punk-Folk band The Pogues. He was a Punk legend, though he never played at A7. 

The NYHC scene was a time and place in pop culture that will never happen again: the time and place was just right, and when it faded it was gone. I am forever grateful to have been a small part of that time and place. The death of Beastie Boy Adam Yauch this year brought a lot of us Punks together on Facebook, and we all ended up recalling those days and comparing stories (and scouring the Earth to search for Carol). Those of us who survived the era have moved on with our lives, but I think we all cherish that moment in time and our places in it. I still write about it a lot. I have a novel I'm finishing up set in NY in '81. I haven't been able to find a publisher just yet, but Jason Mankey assures me I ought to self publish the ebook. Your thoughts?

I return to NYC each year to see what has changed and what has stayed the same. I'll be hanging around the NY area for another few days, then I'll be heading back to Ohio for Starwood, and to upstate NY for the festivals at Brushwood.

From squalid, chaotic NYC, this is Kenny Klein explaining it all.

Festival Views and Tour News

I will confide in you dear reader that sometimes when I'm not in New Orleans I feel that I have nothing much to write about. Maybe the city is the source of my power. Of course, I then tell myself, that's utterly ridiculous. "You're on tour, Kenny Klein, and there's a big ol' world out there." (That's how I talk to myself in my mind.... sometimes I even have a Cockney accent. "Oi, Kenny Klein, why not write 'bout the time you went up the frog and had a pint of pig's ear with yer airy tate, eh?")."There's plenty for you to write about," my mind rambles on. And I know my mind is right. At least most of the time (except about that green-haired stripper in Denver. My mind was SO wrong that time!). A-hem. Anyway, here's a little update, with some photos, of what I've been doing on tour.

I just spent a week at a very lovely festival site in southern Ohio called Wisteria. Wisteria was created about a decade ago as a site to house the long-established PSG festival. The site itself is an old strip mine in the Appalachians, and the caretakers have done an amazing job of restoring the once strip-mined land to a place of lush beauty. The site now hosts Starwood, one of the largest Pagan style festivals in America, as well as two of its own fests, Summer Solstice Festival and the Autumnal Cornstalk. I performed last week at Summer Solstice fest, and had a great audience. I had brought some of my jugband buddies from New Orleans (who are conveniently spending their summer in Ohio...something about finishing up a probation), and they were loved by those at the festival (to distraction: I had to force them to rehearse, as they were totally overstimulated by the adoration they were receiving). We had a great show, and I also had great attendance at my workshops on Faerie lore.

As many readers know, I am also a photographer (well, duh, Kenny...there's all these photos all over your blog). I always like to take advantage of the beauty of festival sites and the availability of models, and do some shoots while I'm at a fest. So here are two shoots that I did while at Wisteria.

First I shot Soolah Hoops, an amazing hula hooper/fire dancer who often travels with my fellow festival performer, singer Kellianna. Soolah and I went out to the Turtle Mound and got some great shots:

One of my latest goals as a photographer is to capture motion using the medium of still photography, and course shooting Soolah provided me with an opportunity to do just that. I found further opportunity when I was asked to fiddle for a ritual on Friday night, and was teamed up with a lovely dancer named Lisa. I asked Lisa if we could do a shoot, and she happily agreed. Here are some shots of Lisa doing veiled dancing in the meadow and at the border of the forest at the lower end of Wisteria:

Next week I go to Pittsburgh PA and then New York City. I'll be back at Wisteria in July for Starwood Festival, then on to Brushwood for Sirius Rising and Summerfest: I always take some great shots at Brushwood, and I hope that this year is no exception.

I'll remind you, dear reader, that my latest CD Black Cat Blues is available here, and my newest book of poetry, Verses On Saint Marks Place,  is here at Lulu.com, and here at Smashwords.com.

From the wilds of Ohio, this is Kenny Klein explaining it all.