Chicago Blues harp master Corky Siegel and me at the Heartland Cafe this morning. Photo: Anne Lowry Klonsky.
Just another Saturday morning in the life of a retired K-5 art teacher.
It included me doing a radio interview on Live from the Heartland with Katy Hogan and Michael James.
My opening act was only the Chicago master of the blues harp, Corky Siegel. I’m blessed.
Oh. And I met the Cuban Ambassador to the U.S. over eggs and coffee.
Well. He’s not technically the Cuban Ambassador since the U.S. stupidly does not have normal relations with Cuba. But he is at the ambassador level and heads the Cuban interest section in Washington, D.C.
And Mrs. Tennessee, who was there to talk about bullying.
I keep saying that we are not our parent’s seniors and retirees and this was the morning that provided further evidence.
Corky is seventy years old. Still keeping retirement weird in the best sense.
Anne asked me,”Has it really been thirty years since we heard him live?”
It has been. We saw him in a come-back performance at the Metro on Clark Street in the early 80s.
“I’ve had many come-back performances,” Siegel told me.
“Keep ’em coming,” I said.
When we last saw him at the Metro it was post Siegel-Schwall Blues Band.
Corky still performs and was on Katy and Mike’s radio show to talk about his current project: promoting the Chicago office of Common Cause and getting big money out of election campaigns.
That didn’t keep him from taking out his harp and putting on one amazing blues performance.
And he will be performing in town at the City Winery next month.
I was there to talk about pensions.
Of course.
The show is on a local Loyola University station, but is live streamed on the internet.
I’ll post a video of my performance as soon as it gets posted on Youtube.
I thought of bringing my uke and doing my own blues number: The Wall Street Fat Cats and Springfield Political Hacks Are Stealin’ My Pension Blues.
I decided to let Corky play the blues.
While we retirees are singin’ it every day.
Fred Klonsky 