July 22, 2013

A long time ago in 1971 when I was a junior in high school, my family moved across town. It was far enough away that I needed to attend a different high school. I lost all my friends!

I was mad, sad and buried my head into my love of photography and music! As I look back now, that move was probably one of the best things that happened to me in my youth!

One of my classmates was Steve Cohen. He had formed a band with some of our other classmates. The Stone Cohen Blues Band was it's name and they played some good blues.

The Stone Cohen Blues Band became Leroy Airmaster a little bit later and Steve was the leader playing harmonicas and doing vocals. Bill Stone plays guitar with Dave Kasik on the bass. Tom Wilson played drums for a while but Vodie Rhinehart is getting the job done now and fits perfectly!

The guys were influenced heavily by local bands The Ox and Short Stuff, and so was I!

Leroy Airmaster broke up for a while and since 2009 have been back together again. They are better and a little older now but it's all good.

The photographs here are from 1971 and from Summerfest this year where Leroy Airmaster opened for Jon Paris who opened for Buddy Guy on the Harley Davidson Roadhouse stage.

Thanks,

Rich Zimmermann

July 15, 2013

Last Saturday night at the Harley Davidson Roadhouse stage at Summerfest, I had a bit of a reunion with some old friends!

Steve Cohen and his band Leroy Airmaster played and they were awesome! That is next week"s blog.

Good friend Jon Paris, brought Ed Sison to play drums with him and it was almost a reunion of The Ox Band. All that was missing was guitar player and vocalist Bob Metzger to make it a full reunion.

Dave Kasik played bass with the guys and it was a great show! Dave did double work that night playing for Jon and Leroy Airmaster!

Enjoy a few photos of the night!

Thanks,

Rich Zimmermann

 

 

July 8, 2013

On February 11, 1972, the Mark Almond Band played at the Oriental Theater in Milwaukee. The opening act that night was the local Milwaukee group Woodbine. I will be doing a blog on them on soon!

I first became aware of Jon Mark and Johnny Almond when they were playing with John Mayall on his album Turning Point.

The band had a nice smooth sound and one of my favorite songs of all time is The City. The vocals by Jon Mark on that song were great!

I am not sure of the names of the bass player and keyboard player but they too were very good. If anyone knows their names I would appreciate an email to update my records.

The jacket that Johnny Almond is wearing in these photos is interesting with little spacemen on it!

Enjoy the old photos and have a great week.

Thanks,

Rich Zimmermann

July 1, 2013

Busy weekend around here getting our yard work done so that we can go to Summerfest next weekend. Saturday night, July 6, will be a good night at the Harley Davidson stage. Some old friends are playing and rockin' the house!

At 6pm Leroy Airmaster is playing with my old high school friend Steve Cohen. Steve has played in the Stone Cohen Band and Leroy Airmaster who still get together occassionally.

At 8pm Jon Paris is playing. He too is an old friend and played with The Ox. Eddie Sisson, drummer from The Ox will be drumming for Jon! Jon has played with Link Wray, Bo Didley, Johnny Winter and lots more!

At 10pm Buddy Guy, will be was crankin' out hits! He is a blues legend!

Come join us for a great time with some of my old friends!

They will get you a rockin'!

Attached are some archived photos of them.

Hope to see you there.

Thanks,

Rich Zimmermann

June 24, 2013

As I grew up in the Milwaukee rock scene, my favorite bands were The Ox and Short Stuff. Ok, I can't forget The Electric Shit Band, Woodbine and The Hound Dog bands.

Life was good for me during high school days in 1971 and 1972 with photography and rock'n'roll!

When The Ox was breaking up, another band was forming called Bobby and the Helmets! Bobby, was Bob Metzger, the great guitar player from The Ox. These days he plays guitar in Leonard Cohen's band. The Helmets are everybody else in the band I guess!

They were all best friends with each other and terrific musicians. Most of them are good friends of mine.

Here is a look at them playing at the Catacombs coffehouse on January 24, 1972.

Have a great week.

Thanks,

Rich Zimmermann

June 17, 2013

By now, all the race cars have been packed into their trucks and are headed back home. Milwaukee IndyFest 2013 is over and it was a good one!

Ryan Hunter Reay won the race for the second year in a row and Helio Castroneves had a great race finishing second. Helio had a good idea. They substituted Wisconsin State Fair cream puffs for the traditional podium champagne!

Marco Andretti, won the pole position and had a few problems during the race. In the end it was Ryan's day.

Graham and Bobby Rahal looked frustrated and couldn't find any speed.

Sage Karam, won the Indy Lights race and was fast all weekend.

Alex Tagliani spun his car right in front of me in turn 4 during the race!

Oriol Servia and JR Hildebrand were looking for Indy Car rides walking around pit lane.

Tony Kanaan, our Indy 500 winner, was very busy with the media and fans. He had a pretty good race.

It was good to see Sebastian Bourdais back in an Indy car. It was the prettiest car on track but full of problems!

Some of the race's highlights are shown in the attached photos.

Have a good week and if you would like a copy of any photo please contact us.

Thanks,

Rich Zimmermann

June 10, 2013

This coming weekend Milwaukee's IndyFest is going to happen!

This past weekend the Indy cars were in Texas and Helio Castroneves won the race and did his usual fence climbing after he won!

I am hoping Helio wins Milwaukee and the championship!

He's fun to watch and follow because he has sooo much energy.

His good friend Tony Kanaan won the Indy 500 and now Helio is on his way to hopefully winning the IRL championship.

Attached are photos of Helio's first year in an Indy car at the Milwaukee Mile in 1999. He won the pole position that weekend with a new track record. Also attached are some pictures from last year's race at Milwaukee IndyFest.

Enjoy and come join us this coming weekend for some Indy car fun!

Thanks,

Rich Zimmermann

May 27, 2013

It is not all rock'n'roll and racing in my life!

Last weekend, I photographed a Sweet 15 birthday party and ceremony.

It was a beautiful day. I photographed a very loving family having a lot of fun.

Here are a few of the photos from that day. I am busy editing and organizing them now.

So, back to work for me and have a great week.

Thanks,

Rich Zimmermann

May 27, 2013

Today's blog is a pleasure to do because it is about Tony Kanaan winning the Indy 500 race!

Tony, is one of those guys who should have won the Indy 500 more than once already but hasn't. He has had bad luck at each previous attempt to win the great race.

Each time Tony has raced at Indy he has had the lead for a while but just not at the right time. This time, everything went his way and I think every person at the speedway was happy. It was his time finally, to pour the milk on his head!

His face will now be put on the huge Borg Warner trophy that has every previous winner's face on it. Tony joked about his big nose being put on the trophy!

It was a good race, a fast race, nobody got hurt and the good guy finally won! I even had a tear in my eye when Tony won!

Congrats Tony, you deserve all that comes with winning the Indy 500! He will have a very busy week this week because he is the Indy 500 winner!!

Attached are a few photos from the Milwaukee Mile race in 2012.

If you would like a picture of the Indy 500 winner please contact us.

Thanks,

Rich Zimmermann

May 20, 2013

My favorite time of year is here! In the background here on the television right now is Indy 500 qualifying!

It is a weekend full of good and bad drama and stories.

A good story is that Conor Daly is qualifying for his first Indy 500 with A J Foyt's team. So far he is in the show and I hope he has a good race. His father Derrick Daly has some Indy 500 stories of his own.

Helio, Dario, and Marco Andretti are in the race and personally, I am pulling for Marco. It is his time for a win and he always has a good run at the speedway.

The story of the weekend of course is the race for pole position and Ed Carpenter has won it!

Ed Carpenter is a family man who lives in Indianapolis. He likes to work around the house himself and take the kids to school. Ed is so plain and normal, you could say he is vanilla! He is part of the Hulman/George family that runs the speedway and the first family member to be in the race. I wish him luck and a safe race but watch out Ed, Marco is coming!

So far, no crashes have occurred that I know of and let's hope it stays that way. At 226 mph we do not need any crashes.

Attached are some of my favorite racers that have won Indy or should have. I can't put all of them up, but here are a few and if you would like a print on your wall at home just let us know.

Enjoy and have a safe Memorial Day and Indy 500 weekend! I think I hear Jim Nabors practicing his song that he sings every year before the race, Back Home In Indiana.

Thanks,

Rich Zimmermann