Lou Carlozo - Chicago, IL

And so it was the other night that award-winning musician/songwriter Lou Carlozo, after hitting the stage at Schubas Nightclub on Southport Ave. in Chicago, aptly demonstrated to the rowdy crowd that older men can indeed "rock on". Maybe even better than the kids. Maybe. After all, there's experience and soul in the guitar riffs; years of unruly sweat on the fingerboards, a do or die mind-set in the voice. Know-how simply makes the music scream mature.

"Bald and loving it!" shouts the Ray Ban-clad Carloza as he treats the pack of hooting friends and family, jaded industry pals, and curious strangers to another song. This is his record release bash (Stick Figure Soul) that has been eight years in development, and Lou was making up for lost time. The sincerity in all this fingering fuss is that he represents the closet rocker in all of us older farts: the over 40 air-guitar embarrassment that immerges after drinking too much cheep pinot grigio at the yearend office party. Sure he's the real deal with his hot electric six string sporting 3-way magnetic, 13-pin synth, X-Bridge/mix output plus backup buddies a bit younger, adding more muscle to the score. But he's still one of us! He's the aging everyman that put the rock n' roll dream aside to raise a family, give the world the next generation. So with a batch of killer tracks, and a lot of spirit, Lou Carlozo gives us hope.

From the press materials we learn that he's a man of many pop cultural hats. By daybreak, Carlozo's an entertainment editor and DVD columnist for the Chicago Tribune and by moonlight an award-winning songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and professional musician. He even has his own state-of-the-art recording studio in the basement. So does about half a dozen other shirttails-out-over-the-belly dudes thrusting their beers high into the air. This record release bash was something like I experienced once at the "cool" kids house party back in my high school days, the hot-ticket revelry. Here it was incarnate, all the rebels reunited, jumping up and down and acting conservatively crazy to Lou's contagious rock n' roll.

After smartly dedicating the night to his wife Amy – awwwww, and then getting the audience to vote on whether or not he should wear his regular specs or the nifty Ray Bans of Risky Business, Miami Vice, and Blue's Brothers fame (Ray Bans won – dah,) Lou went on to bring all our rock n' roll fantasies to life. For the duration of his set he was a local rock star. That guy you snap your fingers saying out loud, "I know him, it's, it's…what's-his-name." All too familiar but lost in music mania of the good old vinyl days. …And fun was had by all.

There were also fabulous special guests like The Spares and sounds from legendary local fab-rock DJ Stuart Shea all keeping things steamy before the Carlozo sound emerged. Twangy, bluesy, roots music that glistened with perfection was The Spares' hot Americana mix. With shout-outs to Emmylou Harris and Gram Parsons, The Spares have been successfully touring throughout the Midwest promoting the group's first CD, Hand Me Down. The Spares duo came from other disciplines as well such as chemical engineering and newspaperman, but like Lou, Missouri-native Jodee Lewis and Michigan-man Steve Hendershot really pumped the house.

Jason Reed's mandolin was an added perk that altered the music toward a more original sound while even Lou picked up the bass from time to time. Jodee Lewis front and center was delicious – she made me wonder why this years Country Music Awards didn't offer such an original. She held the spotlight and entertained the gathering as if she where country legend in the making. To be honest, they could have kept on going; a really hard act to follow is the phrase.

And then there were the children. That's right, it was an all-ages gig and Lou and friends took advantage by releasing several dozen wound up kiddies into the crowd. It was a homey hoedown eve with yummy APART Pizza filled, soda sugar-crazed young'uns dancing about. Surreal as all this was, that too worked pretty well. The pizza was deliciously hot; the kids all beautifully behaved, which was a great way to prove that rock n' roll can be a family affair. I have never experienced anything like it sober. Maybe it's a Midwest "thang". I dunno. But I had a goofy blast and a half I even bought Lou's CD Stick Figure Soul to relive the whole musical twilight zone.

The entire zealous evening was sponsored by APART Arts, the same folks the served up the steamy "ZA". Now as I understand it, (deep breath) APART Pizza Company created APART Arts to support local artists through financial grants, mentoring, and promotional partnerships and this was their first record release ever. Bizarre as that sounds, it's all-good. I had a really great time and according to the wallet cards I picked off the table APART Arts is also sponsoring (deep breath again) an evening of original theatre and authentic Italian pizza with The House Theatre of Chicago's production of The Nutcracker at the Steppenwolf Upstairs Theatre, December 19th, 2007, 8:00 pm. All proceeds will benefit Cabrini Green Legal Aid. These guys are busy for a pizza joint – but hey…

However, Lou Carlozo's CD, Stick Figure Soul, the reason for the whole hullabaloo, includes a variety of styles to choose from like a mockabilly Elvis In the Sky to a dance-along slap-happy pop digit entitled I'm Still Sleeping. Recommended for an innovative nostalgic trip for those who for obvious reasons gave up wondering long ago when the Beatles would ever produce another groove.