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Air Fair host turns up the excitement

BY CHRISTINA FUOCO-KARASINSK

West Valley View Executive Editor

Jeff Overby had just moved to the Valley when he was introduced to the breakfast fl y-in at Buckeye Municipal Airport.

An air show host, Overby was asked to bring a sound system and describe some of the participating planes for visitors.

“I told them they could have great attendance if they had a proper air show,” said Overby, who lives in Cave Creek.

“I made that comment to the airport coordinator, John McMahon, at the time. He said he always wanted to have an air show in Buckeye. Two weeks later, he was killed in an airplane crash.”

Soon thereafter, the city emailed Overby, canceling any future fl y-ins.

“He (McMahon) was such a fi xture in putting this together,” Overby said. “I called everyone and told them about the last conversation we had. We needed to grant him his wish.”

The Buckeye Air Fair took fl ight and returns Saturday, Feb. 19, and Sunday, Feb. 20, to the airport, 3000 S. Palo Verde Road. This year’s event includes a new air show, STOL Drag Racing, the Copperstate Fly-In and Expo, Arizona SciTech Festival and a VIP experience for a front-row view.

“We had a very special inaugural event,” he recalled. “We went from 4,000 people, then 8,000, then 13,000 and then pushing 40,000 attendees in such a short time. The backing of this community is just outstanding, It’s been amazing to see this thing blossom.”

“This year, we’re going to have a variety (of activities),” he said.

“We’ll have very patriotic, Lee Greenwood-type music and then some Jason Aldean for the Vanguard Squadron. We’ll have performers like three-time national acrobatic pilot Jeff Boerboon, who fl ies this extra 330 SC, which is one of the dominating high-performance acrobatic aircrafts in the world today.”

Boerboon, who also lives in Cave Creek, will perform to “good old classic rock music,” Overby said.

“It’s going to be quite a variety of not only the performers and the types of planes, but the kind of energy from the music and the audience.”

Overby has long been into fl ying. He “got the bug” after attending a fl y-in pancake breakfast in his home state of Wisconsin. A pilot took him for a ride and that inspired him to get his pilot’s license in 1997.

“I then participated in every kind of extreme motor sport — anything with wheels or wings,” he said with a laugh.

“My wife purchased a ride for me in an acrobatic plane, and that fueled the fi re for acrobatic fl ying.

“I had been wanting to be the next world champion acrobatic pilot. Just as I was learning the sport, the coach asked me if I would announce shows back in the Midwest for them. I knew every maneuver they were doing. It turned out that the crowd really seemed to enjoy it. I got my wife involved, we added music to the maneuvers, and it just took off from there and I drifted more toward the announcing side.”

Now, Overby balances his full-time job owning Overdrive Tech Group with announcing. He wouldn’t have it any other way.

“Although I do have a day job, this is my fun job for sure,” he said. “It can vary anywhere between eight to 12 shows a year. It’s great.”

Je Overby is an air show host.

(Submitted photo)

If You Go...

WHAT: Buckeye Air Fair WHEN: Saturday, Feb. 19, and Sunday, Feb. 20 WHERE: Buckeye Municipal Airport, 3000 S. Palo Verde Road, Buckeye COST: Free admission; VIP tickets available for $50 one-day pass, $85 two-day pass INFO: buckeyeairfair.com

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WEST VALLEY VIEW NEWS | FEBRUARY 16, 2022

The Black Moods’ road was paved with hard work

BY CHRISTINA FUOCO-KARASINSKI

West Valley View Executive Editor

Josh Kennedy sits backstage at the Crescent Ballroom waiting to hit the stage for a “surprise” appearance with his band The Black Moods.

His mood is jovial as his curly blond locks hang from under his black hat. When the Moods — which also includes bassist Jordan Hoffman and drummer Chico Diaz — arrive on stage, it’s clear that years of touring with the likes of Whitesnake and The Dead Daisies have perfected the Tempe act’s craft.

“We work harder than any other band out there,” Kennedy said. “I look back at our career trajectory and I like that we’re still on the up slope. We haven’t hit the top and gone down the other side yet. The roller coaster is still clicking up. I’m OK with that right now.”

Things are about to change for The Black Moods. They’re playing their biggest show yet in the Valley, 8 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 19, at Talking Stick Resort, and tickets are selling briskly.

VIP packages were available, but they sold half of them in two hours.

“It’s pretty amazing,” Kennedy said via telephone from Missouri, where he’s visiting family. “Talking Stick is really happy.”

The show advances the Feb. 25 release of the new single “Saturday Night” and its video. VIPs can watch the video with the trio backstage at the Talking Stick show. The song’s success will dictate a new album’s release date

“VIPs get to see it first,” Kennedy said. “We’re going to go to radio, push that song and see how it goes.”

Humble beginnings

Kennedy was bred in the most unlikely of spots for a rock singer — Wheaton, Missouri, in the Ozarks, where his head was filled with Southern rock and country music. Wheaton has a population of only 700. He found his calling when his dad summoned him to the living room to see a band that he liked. “They didn’t have MTV,” he said. “This one day I was in my room playing

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and my dad says, ‘Hey, bub’ — he calls me ‘bub’ — ‘come check out this band.’ It was the Gin Blossoms playing ‘Hey Jealousy’ on an awards show.”

Kennedy’s dad told him he could write music like that because it wasn’t virtuosic.

“I decided when I was 13 that I was going to play guitar for the Gin Blossoms,” he said. “On my 21st birthday, I was on tour with the Gin Blossoms. They invited me onstage and I got to play guitar.”

Flashback to when he was a teen, when he met the Gin Blossoms’ Robin Wilson, after a show with his side project Gas Giants.

“I was a super fan,” Kennedy said with a laugh. “I talked to him after the show. His advice? Go to college. He was playing 200-seaters to 50 people. Of course, I didn’t listen. I came out here. I found him playing Long Wong’s and I hit him up for a job. I worked at his studio.”

The Gin Blossoms have proven to be a huge influence on Kennedy’s songs like “Someone to Save Us” from The Black Moods’ 2016 album “Medicine.”

“‘Someone to Save Us’ is an example of a song that has the Gin Blossoms kind of feel,” he said. “It also has a harder rock sound than those guys have.

“We take elements of stuff I grew up on — Bad Company, Led Zeppelin. I listen to them just as much as I did the Gin Blossoms.”

Now he has the jangly alterna-pop musicians’ phone numbers on speed dial.

“The 13-year-old me would be freaking out,” he muses.

Music is all the trio does. When they return from touring, they get right back into their Tempe studio.

Their breakthrough album, “Bella Donna,” was recorded with Johnny Karkazis, to whom he was introduced by Adelitas Way’s Rick DeJesus.

“He’s definitely pushed us,” Kennedy said. “He called us names and stuff. He’s turned into a member of the family. It’s shocking when you meet him. He’s a big-time producer who has all these hits. It’s a little intimidating.”

Diaz, who grew up in Tolleson and Phoenix, said Karkazis brought the music out of them.

“He pulled the pieces out of each one of us,” Diaz said. “He turns over every stone. We get it and it pays off.”

“Nothing’s pedestrian,” Kennedy added. “He doesn’t let things slide by. If it’s not cool, he’s not doing it.”

Hoffman is the newest member of The Black Moods. Raised in Toledo, Ohio, Hoffman was living in Los Angeles working as a musician and server when he auditioned for The Black Moods. He joined September 2017. Hoffman also lends background vocals to the songs. Then, it was something new to The Black Moods.

In a previous interview, Karkazis called this version of The Black Moods the best.

“They’re so talented and dedicated — all the good stuff you can say about a band,” Karkazis said. “It’s a really special band. It makes you wonder why they’re not hugely successful. They’re well known in their hometown, but I don’t know how well known they are outside of there. Maybe they just haven’t been in the right situation. They would meet any challenge I threw at them. They’re the kind of band a producer would love to be working with.

“It’s encouraging to see a band so hungry and so talented. We seem to have a good rapport with each other. It all seemed to fall in place. We don’t know what the future holds, but I love the songs we’ve recorded.”

Karkazis is also working on the forthcoming record, along with Phoenix native Jim Kaufman in LA.

“This is the second record we’ve done with Johnny K,” Kennedy said. “This one, when we recorded it, we had moved the studio to the Ozarks. We packed our whole studio up in Tempe when everything was shut down and nobody could go to a restaurant or bar.

“There was no live music or anything happening. Coming from the Ozarks, I grew up on lakes, creeks, backroads. You can always do that. We could go out on the lake, down to the creek and crawdad, or cruise the backroads.”

Kennedy said he, Hoffman and Diaz had great ideas for songs but they were built from the ground up in the Ozarks,

give or take a song or two.

“You can defi nitely hear the surroundings melded into the record,” Kennedy said. “When I hear it, I can hear the creek. We would be working and get frustrated and hit a wall, so we’d say, ‘Let’s go to the creek.’ We’d jump in the creek and work on vocals and lyrics down with Mother Nature.”

“Saturday Night” and another new track, “Junkie Excuses,” may be previewed at the Talking Stick Resort show.

“We’ll do three or four off the new record,” Kennedy said. “It gets weird when you do new stuff with people who aren’t super familiar with it. Everyone likes to get down and sing along. On the Dead Daisies tour, we did ‘Saturday Night’ and two or three others. Everyone loved it.”

If You Go...

WHAT: An Evening with The Black Moods WHEN: 8 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 19 WHERE: The Showroom at Talking Stick Resort, 9800 E. Talking Stick Way, Scottsdale COST: Tickets start at $25; 21 and older INFO: 480-850-7777, talkingstickeresort.com

23 Button collectors to converge in Avondale

BY CHRISTINA FUOCO-KARASINSKI

West Valley View Executive Editor

Janet Parker has traveled the world, learned about history and studied art — theoretically, of course — all thanks to her collection of buttons.

For 23 years, the Sun City resident has cobbled together a collection of fasteners that most people would not think twice about. However, hers recall the Statue of Liberty, the USS Arizona Memorial and churches.

Parker will add new pieces to her collection at the Arizona State Button Society annual show on Saturday, Feb. 19, and Sunday, Feb. 20, at the Hilton Garden Inn in Avondale.

Themed “Hats Off to Buttons,” the show features educational programs, exhibits, creative works, dealers and competitions. Vintage, studio and craft buttons from the 18th century onward will be exhibited.

“A lot of people pick up the hobby as kids when they went through their grandmother or mom’s button box,” said Roberta Schuler of Tucson. She’s the society’s show chair.

“Serious collectors, like myself, go to the show looking for specifi c buttons that we don’t have. Say I’m looking for birds and I don’t have a peacock. I have to fi nd a dealer who’s going to have a peacock button.”

Buttons come in a variety of materials as well, including celluloid, glass, vegetable ivory, and ivory.

“When you collect, the goal is to represent all different materials,” Schuler said. “It’s not everyone’s cup of tea. Some people just collect to hang on the wall or to make jewelry or crafty things.”

The National Button Society was founded in 1938, with many state and local organizations subsequently forming. The fi rst national button show was held in 1939 in Chicago.

The National Button Society has more than 2,700 members on four continents with 39 of the 50 states represented by state and local clubs. Parker is a member of the Button Hooks Club, who meets the fi rst Saturday of the month at the Glendale Main Library, 5959 W. Brown Street.

For Schuler, button collecting is an offshoot of quilting. During a visit to her local quilt shop, she saw “beautiful pearl buttons” on a block.

She was working as a dental assistant, when one of her patients opened an antique store. There, she saw trays of buttons and quickly learned about the hobby.

“The fi rst show I went to was in Phoenix,” she said. “I walked in and everyone was friendly and I got the hang of it. The best thing to do when you’re a beginner — not just a casual hobbyist — is go to a show and ask to be an observer at judging day.

“You can’t talk or interrupt them. You get a feeling for what’s going on though. Then, the next year, ask to be a runner. Then ask to be a clerk. Finally, you can ask to be a judge. It’s easy to learn.”

If You Go...

WHAT: Arizona State Button Society WHEN: 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 19, and 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 20 WHERE: Hilton Garden Inn, 11460 W. Hilton Way, Avondale COST: Call for charge INFO: 623-882-3351; 520-296-8196; bklassic@comcast.net

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King Crossword

ACROSS

1 Fine, to NASA 4 “Misery” star James 8 Garbage barge 12 -- -mo (replay speed) 13 Taj Mahal city 14 Ocean motion 15 Sunbather’s goal 16 Insect organ 17 Oklahoma city 18 Patsy Cline song 21 Shoe width 22 Little rascal 23 Brilliance 26 6 on a phone 27 Gaiety 30 “Dream on!” 31 Ginormous 32 Flintstones’ pet 33 Abolish 34 Curse 35 Summoned with a beeper 36 Frenzied 37 Jewel 38 Words of empathy 45 Made into lumber 46 Drescher or Tarkenton 47 TV schedule abbr. 48 Currier’s partner 49 Plane-related 50 Debussy’s “La --” 51 Antitoxins 52 Lincoln in-law 53 Farm pen

DOWN

1 Wine region 2 Norwegian saint 3 Hawaiian coast 4 Pill variety 5 Marble type 6 Woody’s son 7 Taking a siesta 8 Precipitous 9 Title akin to POTUS 10 “Garfield” dog 11 Marries 19 Piece of lettuce 20 “As I see it,” via text 23 Hearing thing 24 Hit CBS series 25 Cover 26 Blend 27 Pear-shaped fruit 28 French article 29 Affirmative action? 31 Adipose tissue 32 Slightly wet 34 Chum 35 Anise-flavored liqueur 36 High-IQ group 37 Sentry 38 Egyptian deity 39 Top choice, for short 40 Pitcher 41 Crunchy cookie 42 $ dispensers 43 “Yeah, right” 44 Not even one

by Linda Thistle

The idea of Go Figure is to arrive at the figures given at the bottom and right-hand columns of the diagram by following the arithmetic signs in the order they are given (that is, from left to right and top to bottom). Use only the numbers below the diagram to complete its blank squares and use each of the nine numbers only once.

DIFFICULTY THIS WEEK H H H

H Moderate HH Challenging HHH HOO BOY!

Place a number in the empty boxes in such a way that each row across, each column down and each small 9-box square contains all of the numbers from one to nine.

DIFFICULTY THIS WEEK H H

H Moderate HH Challenging HHH HOO BOY!

EVEN EXCHANGE

by Donna Pettman

Each numbered row contains two clues and two answers. The two answers differ from each other by only one letter, which has already been inserted. For example, if you exchange the A from MASTER for an I, you get MISTER. Do not change the order of the letters.

SCRAMBLERS

Unscramble the letters within each rectangle to form four ordinary words. Then rearrange the boxed letters to form the mystery word, which will complete the gag!