WEEKEND EDITION

This rare Ron Wood cover always reminds me of a long bar hang in the Latin Quarter with my friend Alan Merrill. We had gone to dinner with Marti at Louis Vins in the rue de la Montagne Sainte Geneviève. We discussed the recent passing in New York of a mutual acquaintance, rock singer Nikki Sudden. I had met Nikki a few years earlier in a cyber café in Athens, Greece. Marti and I heard him sit in on a Chuck Prophet set, then gone so see him do his own show somewhere in the hip Psiri district of Athens.

Nikki Sudden.

In New York for three gigs, Nikki had apparently enjoyed too much powdered entertainment and checked out early. When he learned about it, Alan had been bummed because he knew Nikki from London and had played with him on the Ronnie Wood tribute album "We've Got Our Own Best Of To Do."

Alan at the Zug session.

In fact, the next morning after our dinner and bar visit Alan was flying out to work on the project in Zug Switzerland. Musicians on the date -- and on the video above -- include Darrel Bath (lead guitar), Pascal Kravetz (keyboards and harmonies), Kurious Kurt (guitar and harmonies), Zach Prather (guitar and harmonies), Nikki Sudden (acoustic guitar and harmonies), Bertram Engel (drums and harmonies) and Alan Merrill on bass guitar and lead vocals. An orphaned Ron Wood track, previously only performed live at Kilburn State Theater, Wood finally released his own recording of "Forever" in 2010 on a solo album. Perhaps he was inspired to record his version after hearing this track.


After dinner Alan and I put Marti in a taxi home, then headed for the bar at La Pomme d'Eve. There the owner George, a friend of mine, was thrilled to have the writer of "I Love Rock N Roll" downing vodkas and telling musician stories at his bar. We chatted up a couple of female German flight attendants throughout the night. As George kept trolling for different versions of "I Love Rock N Roll" on his Internet music sites, I realized that Alan would be going straight from here to his Montparnasse hotel to pick up his guitar and bag, then riding out to airport.

No sleeping anytime soon. Let's have another Absolut on the rocks.