Atlantic City Library Roars Back to the ‘20s

NEWS & VIEWS > COASTING

Plus Roomful of Blues at Kennedy Plaza for free concert, the Album of the Week and DrewToonz comic

By ACW Staff

Add Comment | Comments: 0 | Posted Aug. 31, 2011

Nucky Johnson Photo Courtesy of Atlantic City Free Public Library

In anticipation of the second season of the HBO hit docudrama Boardwalk Empire, the Atlantic City Free Public Library is hosting a special program series called “Roaring Back to the ’20s” that highlights the golden era in Atlantic City history. Among the events is a free concert on the Boardwalk showcasing the era’s music and dance on Saturday, Sept. 24, at Kennedy Plaza. Artists include the Jersey Rhythm Devils (with Linda DeVaul, Mark DeVaul, Tamara DeMent, Mike Hoebler and AC Weekly editor Jeff Schwachter), the Jim Craine Band (with Craine, Tony DeLuca, Jimmie Hines, Ray Nunzi), and a dance demonstration by Melanie Brough, who will don a “flapper” outfit and teach attendees some period-appropriate dance moves. The series kicks off this Saturday, Sept. 3, with a book discussion by Brother’s Keeper author Jim Waltzer (an AC Weekly columnist) at 2pm at the library (1 N. Tennessee Ave.), and a panel discussion on “people, places and events of the 1920s” at the library on Oct. 29 with three of A.C.’s foremost historians — Ralph Hunter, Boo Pergament and Nelson Johnson (author of the book on which the Boardwalk Empire TV series was based). The library will also enhance its Atlantic City Experience: 1920s’ exhibit by adding rarely seen childhood photos of Enoch “Nucky” Johnson to the display this month. The photos (including the one above) are from the library’s Alfred M. Heston Collection and will also be added to the Atlantic City Experience Web site — atlanticcityexperience.org. Call 345-2269 ext. 3115 for more information.  — Ray Schweibert

Funk and Blues at Kennedy Plaza 

“Few bands swing the blues more exuberantly than Roomful of Blues,” according to Entertainment Weekly, and you’d be hard-pressed to find a more tight-knit, well-versed and inspired blues band in today’s field. On the band’s new album, Hook, Line & Sinker, the horn-equipped New England-based band plays songs by American music icons such as Amos Milburn (“Juice, Juice, Juice”), the late Clarence “Gatemouth” Brown (“She walks Right In,” “Gate Walks to Board”) and the legendary songwriting duo Jerry Lieber and Mike Stoller (“It”). The band plays for free on the A.C. Boardwalk Sunday, Sept. 4, at Kennedy Plaza as part of the summer-long Mardi Gras on the Boardwalk series. Although last Monday’s Curtis Salgado Band concert was canceled due to Hurricane Irene, this Sunday will feature 90-minute sets by two bands. At 6:30pm one of New Orleans’ funkiest jam bands, the Honey Island Swamp Band, will perform a full set. Then ROB will hit the stage for its own full set. This is the final show of the summer in the free Mardi Gras on the Boardwalk series, in its second year. Judging from the shows we caught, it was more than a successful season of live music courtesy of Tony Mart’s Presents and the many series sponsors, including Atlantic City Weekly. — Jeff Schwachter

Tinariwen 

‘Tassili’ (Anti-) 

The members of the acclaimed Touareg group Tinariwen began recording and dispersing cassettes of their emotionally charged music in the 1980s throughout Saharan North Africa, where a revolution was taking place. The group of soldier-musicians spent years in a military camp in Libya prior to the Touareg rebellion broke out and sent them to fight in the southern Sahara. Decades later the Touareg revolution has morphed into a musical one with Tinariwen leading the charge. Anti- Records has just released the band’s latest, on which the members shelve their electric guitars for acoustic instruments. Recorded in the Algerian desert, Tassili features the band’s unique desert blues sound stripped down to its weary, sacred, mournful and timeless essence. — Jeff Schwachter  