Buffalo Music: City’s tradition of tribute shows offers a chance to pay homage, with a twist

By Elmer Ploetz

Tribute shows have been a thing for a long time. I think back to the Woody Guthrie memorial shows recorded in 1968 and ’70 and issued as a double LP.

But Buffalo has had some special tribute shows over the years. There are regular tributes to Joe Strummer & the Clash, Lou Reed, Townes Van Zandt and even Syd Barrett of the original Pink Floyd. Then there are the shows put on by Bob McLennan and his Buffalo Music Coalition. (For transparency’s sake, we should note that McLennan is vice president of the Buffalo Hive and an occasional writer for us).

Coming up on Saturday night is a Tom Waits tribute show at the Sportsmen’s Tavern featuring some of the area’s best musicians playing with two bands, Ten Cent Howl and Randle & the Late Night Scandals. That’s on the heels of the Woody Guthrie singalong tribute show last month. (The band McCarthyizm be anchoring its annual Steve Earle tribute show on Nov. 8 at the Sportsmen’s and the annual Buffalo Last Waltz at Asbury Hall on Nov. 22 is already sold out).

In addition to the bands, the Waits tribute will feature vocalists Alison Pipitone, Christopher Squier, Joelle Labert, Tom Stahl, Lydia Herren, Dennis Reed and Erin Bahn, Ron Davis, Tom Makar and Kathryn Koch. Guest musicians include Matt Harris on saxophone, Tim Clarke on trumpet, Davis on accordion and keyboards, Kathryn Koch on harmonica, Paul Gipp and the string section of Katie Weissman-cello, Kiersten Fisher-viola, Gretchen Fisher-violin.

The Steve Earle show will feature McCarthyizm, Shaky Stage, Leroy Townes, Chris Jones (Skiffle Minstrels), Flatbed, Bill Smith (Ten Cent Howl) and Greg Klyma.

The Last Waltz recreation will feature too many local luminaries to mention here.

So what is the difference between a tribute show and the tribute bands that have inundated local music venues in recent years? Tribute bands usually tour while trying to recreate the music of a band or performer as exactly as possible, while tribute shows tend to be one shot or annual events where performer bring their own spin to the songs.

With the flurry of tribute shows happening, we decided to ask McLennan (RM) and Joe McCarthy (JM) of McCarthyizm about the art and craft of doing these shows in Buffalo. Their answers have been combined for this article.

BH: What made you decide to do a Tom Waits tribute show? Or Steve Earle?

RM: I love the music of Tom Waits and I’ve never seen him. I’m not aware of him touring to Buffalo. Although there were some local Tom Waits tribute shows quite a few years ago, at least the ones I saw didn’t focus on the songs I most wanted to hear.

JM: My bandmates and I were talking about Steve Earle’s history, the breadth of amazing songs he’s written in various genres and what a shame it is that the average music fan knows nothing about him. So instead of doing a tribute night filled with classic rock hits, how about celebrating this great American songwriter by introducing his songs to people who may have never heard of him, while also bringing together those who do like Steve Earle, but only know a small part of his genre-bending catalogue?

What is special about this show?

RM: We’ll be doing songs from seven different Waits albums, but the one we’re focusing most heavily on is the Blue Valentines album. It’s a great story-telling album, very cinematic. And to really honor the songs, we’ll have a fantastic string section — cello, viola and violin.

What connects you to Steve Earle’s music?

JM: Well admittedly, I personally was not aware of Steve Earle until the late 1990s. Starting in the early 1980s I was listening to nothing but “college radio” type stuff, which of course later morphed into “alternative.” The early music of McCarthyizm was obviously inspired as such. The Celtic music influence was there, but we really didn’t explore that in our writing explicitly until the late ’90s, early 2000s. By then I had been traveling around to places like New Orleans and Austin and started really getting into more rootsy music, music of the people, alt-country, blues, jazz, Celtic, folk etc. And then there’s this guy Steve Early putting out albums with songs pulling in all of these genres.

What makes a great tribute show?

RM: Total respect for the songwriting is the start of it. A great tribute show has artists who love the songs, but still want to put their own spin on them.

As Luke Bennett and Amanda Markovich of Randle and the Late Night Scandal said, “We’re scandalizing Tom Waits’ songs.”

And Ten Cent Howl always delivers killer Howl versions when they cover a song. They’ve been doing Waits’ “I Don’t Wanna Grow Up” for years and I’ve always liked it better than Waits’ version.

How is this different from the tribute bands that go on tour?

RM: I don’t know of a Waits tribute tour, certainly not in Buffalo.  But what’s different from past local Waits shows is we don’t have full bands come on for a few songs, and then another band, and then another. …  We have two core bands splitting up the night and then we have 10 different guest singers making appearances along with six more guest musicians.

In the case of The Last Waltz, touring bands do the music of the Last Waltz show, but what makes us different is that we actually portray the characters in the film by Martin Scorsese.

JM: Hearing different Buffalo bands and artists interpret these songs is what makes it work. Everybody puts their own stamp on these tunes.

What have been the most successful tribute shows you’ve done?

RM: The Buffalo Music Coalition put on a WNY Woodstock 50th anniversary show in August 2019 that was just incredible, with a large cast of performers portraying Woodstock icons like Hendrix, Santana, CSN&Y, Sly Stone, Arlo Guthrie, Country Joe and on and on. We sold nearly 2,000 tickets to that show. 

And in 2022 we did the Summer of Love show, commemorating the Monterey Music Fest that was very successful.

And of course, in my role at the time as president of the Sportsmen’s Americana Music Foundation, I started Buffalo’s The Last Waltz with Doug Yeomans. This year is the ninth year in a row selling out Asbury Hall at Babeville.

How do you find your other artists?

JM: In a word: Sportsmen’s! Turns out that many of the musician who frequent the Sportsmen’s really dig Steve Earle.

Do you have a waiting line of people who want to play?

JM: Yes, it’s amazing how many bands and musicians in the WNY area have been inspired by Steve Earle. If there was a Venn diagram of many Buffalo musicians, he’d be the intersection point of a good lot.

What goes into preparing for a tribute show for the performers?

RM: The performers have busy lives like everybody else, and they have their setlists that they normally perform in their show.  However, when they agree to take on a tribute show, that’s a whole new batch of songs they need to learn and interpret.  And then rehearsals have to happen, often with other musicians and singers they are not originally familiar with.  It’s a lot of extra work.

And from my point of view, I deal with and worry about promotion of the show.  Our goal is always to present to a sold-out venue.  We’re excited about the shows and we want as many people there to witness it as possible.  And with all the extra work the musicians do, I want them to get paid as much as I can.

JM: Every year it seems we add a couple of Steve Earle tunes for our regular set. Listening to great songwriters helps fuel my own songwriting. So it’s always fun to go back to Steve Earle, listen to an album I haven’t heard in awhile: “Man, I forgot about that one. That’d be fun to play.”

How important is it to sound like the original artist? Or if it isn’t, then why?

RM: There are aspects to an original artists performance that are so iconic you don’t want to leave them out, but we want the performers to do their own interpretations. However they change the original arrangements, we just want it to be delivered respectfully and professionally.

JM: It’s not important at all, as far as I’m concerned. Different voices and instrumentation and even arrangements are all welcome. It only adds variety and flavor to the show.

BH: Any single greatest moments?

RM: The Last Waltz show is full of them. At any given moment I might cite different performances, but what comes to mind this minute is Mark Norris’ performance as Van Morrison and Eric Crittenden playing Muddy Waters.

At the Woodstock show, when Grace Lougen played Jimi Hendrix and lit her guitar on fire, that was very cool.  And Damone Jackson’s drum solo on Santana’s “Soul Sacrifice” was unbelievable!

I love the Shane MacGowan and the Pogues show we do every March with McCarthyizm, Crikwater, Yellow Jack, Captain Tom and the Hooligans and the Travesties. 

And the two Springsteen/Seeger session shows with Captain Tom and the Hooligans in West Falls were very special.

Alex McArthur doing Alabama Shakes, “Don’t Wanna Fight” was a great opening for our Girls Just Wanna Have Fun show, and then she transitioned to Joni Mitchell’s “Case of You” with Grace Lougen.

The performances of Kyly Yagielski and Captain Tom Sieracki as the Blues Brothers with that 12-piece band was something else! I’m sure I’m leaving somebody out and I’m sorry about that; there have been so many great performances.

Any disasters (you don’t have to name names).

RM: No, there really have not been any disasters. There were a couple shows we lost a bit of money on, but they were such artistic successes in our opinion that they are still very positive memories.

What venues work best and why?

RM: The Sportsmen’s Tavern is a great place to do shows.  The sound is perfect and the sound engineers, starting with Tony Coniglio, are very cooperative. I love the 9^th Ward and Asbury Hall at Babeville. West Falls Center for the Arts is a beautiful place.

Why has the Last Waltz been such an overwhelming success through the years?

RM: It’s an annual holiday-themed event. The concert and film we’re reenacting is a beloved show and memory for many people. There are over 30 great local performers in the cast and the night is full of excitement and nostalgia. People love this show. It sold out this year faster than ever.

Did you have any inkling that would happen when you and Doug Yeomans launched it?

RM: We hoped for this kind of success, but realistically we just hoped to be successful enough to do an encore performance. In 2016 when we first started planning it, we didn’t expect to be doing a sold-out show in 2026.

Do your tribute shows ever lose money? Or do they even make money?

RM: The Last Waltz is the single biggest fundraiser every year for the Sportsmen’s Americana Music Foundation.

The BMC lost a little money on two of the shows but the vast majority of the shows have made money. Not a lot of money, as we want to make sure all the musicians get paid fairly, but we’re not in this to make a lot. Our goal from the start, as music fans, was to put on shows we want to see.

What is the status of the Buffalo Music Coalition? Is it a for-profit company? Do whatever profits there are get poured into the next show?

RM: The Buffalo Music Coalition is not a non-profit organization.  We book musicians at various venues around town and make a little money doing that, but it all goes into covering the expenses of putting on specific shows a few times per year.

We started booking several years ago at Flying Bison Brewery because my son and granddaughter worked there, and it was just a placeholder between our other shows. Since then, musicians and venues have reached out to us for bookings. Since Flying Bison closed, we’ve booked music at different places, including Buffalo Distilling Co. and Buffalo Olde Brewery and we’re trying out The Caz in November.

The Steve Earle show benefits the Sportsmen’s Americana Music Foundation. How did you pick the beneficiary for the show?

JM: Since we’ve been doing this show at Sportsmens Tavern since the inception of the tribute, it only makes sense that proceeds would go to help the great work done by the Sportsmen’s Americana Music Foundation. McCarthyizm has been a corporate sponsor of SAMF since the beginning because it brings instruments and lessons to children and veterans and others who would never have the opportunity to play music. That is a very special and unique way to make this corner of the world a better place.

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Elmer Ploetz is editor-in-chief and executive director of The Buffalo Hive.