Cleveland, OH
6/11-6/14:
The original route I had planned for the trip was to leave Chicago and head up through Detroit into Canada. However, due to the border still being closed due to covid I had to pull an audible. Luckily I had just the right option. Cleveland…
I should be more specific and say that a musician friend of mine named Ryan had moved back to Cleveland from Asia when covid hit. Ryan and his father were kind enough to let me stay with them for a couple nights at there home in Shaker Hieghts, a suburb just outside of Cleveland. I had met Ryan on the streets of San Diego. I had been playing guitar on a corner in North Park and he was riding by on his bike and stopped. He came over and asked “mind if I grab my Cajon” and I of course said that he totally should. About 20 minutes later he returned and we jammed out. Over the next couple of years we played together at open mics, gigs at bars and even farmers markets. There really has not been another person who I’ve ben able to gel with as well when it comes to music and I have missed him.
Ryan took me out to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, an obvious must do for two musicians hanging out in Cleveland. It was an interesting spot. Upon first entering the exhibit area it was instant over stimulation. So many instruments and outfits of the biggest stars for the last 100 years. What struck me the most as we walked through the time line of Rock and Roll were the hand written lyric sheets. It reminds me that I need to start writing things down more. Not in hopes of ever having them displayed as such, but simply because this is a clear part of the process for the most accomplished song writers in the world. It was fascinating to see artists that I’ve known an admired displayed alongside lesser known contemporaries and be illuminated to their influences along the way. The best part of the whole museum for me was the jam section. They had an area with guitars, basses and drum sets where people could play around and take little virtual lessons. Ryan and I posted up in a drum room for a bit and jammed out, something we have not been able to do in too long. They also had a section called the “garage” where they had higher end equipment and a few employees who could rock out behind people who wanted to sing from their list of tunes. Ryan and I just wanted to play in a less cramped place and I felt a little weird when we entered and explained that we were going to play Valerie. “The fast version” the keyboardist asked, “Not really” I replied. I told him it was kind of my own arrangement and he said right on. So we started playing and it felt so good to see Ryan right there with me as I transitioned from the first verse/chorus which I play a little under tempo and into a more upbeat tempo second first. With the first 2 beats of the intro to this section that Ryan hammered out, the keyboardist and bass player from the museum jumped right on in and we jammed through the rest of the song. Afterwards the keyboardist, who was really good, said “I’ve heard like 12 versions of that song and I think I like that one the best”. It was a pretty nice feather in the cap.
After the Hall of fame Ryan took me on a little tour of downtown. He had grown up there, but really only learned about the area a few years ago. He took showed me some fascinating places called the “Casino’s”. These were some of the first and largest indoor shopping areas built in the country. They were absolutely gorgeous edifices covered by skylight style roofs. We then checked out a civil war memorial called the ‘Soldiers & Sailors’ monument that looked like a simple large statue in the middle of the city center but in fact section in the base that included bronze relief statues depicting major moments in the civil war from the start of the war in Ohio to the end of the war. Within the marble walls of the chamber are carved the names of the 10,000 Union Soldiers from Cuyahoga county who had fought in the war. It was a really interesting structure to explore.
I spent the next two days running around Cleveland, checking out bars and hanging out. There was one bar that I really liked called the The Social Room. It was a cool little dive with a couple of pool tables and friendly mixed crowd. While there I overheard a conversation that I really enjoyed. There were two black guys with dreads who were in conversation about their hair. It was pretty clear that they were just meeting each other for the first time. One had been growing his dreads for 7 years following naval service and the other had been growing his about 3 years. The top quotes from this interaction were as follows: “Lady’s love it!”, “It shows you are committed”, “People look at you like you’re homeless, then the next day you step out of your beamer in a 3 piece suit and they can’t say shit”, “Warriors don’t cut they hair, that’s monk shit. Do samurai have short hair?” and my absolute favorite “This hair taught me how to love, to cry and to respect myself”. It was an inspiring moment. My hair is currently a year and a half long, usually unflattering, I often hate it and I also don’t know what to do with it. I’ve been told by many to keep it going, however they don’t have to deal with trying to tame it or dealing with the looks when it’s at its most unkempt. It’s hard to let an experiment go on for so long and then just give up and hack it off. I don’t think I have the fortitude to go the dread route but overhearing the love they had for theirs does make me think if I should consider it. It’s unlikely for me, but I have all the love and respect in the world for these two men and the strength of their conviction and conversation.
Cleveland has a history to it, like the fact that the river it resides upon has caught on fire 13 times. It has a soul, displayed in the diversity of the people living there and still trying to bring the city back to it’s glory days. I don’t know that it’s a city I could call home, but it is one that I think is one worth a visit fif you are in the area.
