Paul Bass Photo
Chicago Dawgs Mark Zaretsky and Tom Crivellone perform in the WNHH FM studio.
Mark Zaretsky had a choice to make.
He’d been working on a new song about mass slaughter in the news. The song was about the top-of-the-front-page conflict unfolding in Ukraine.
Then Ukraine slipped from the top of the front page, replaced by mass slaughter here in the U.S. So as he finished up the song, Zaretsky had to decide: Pivot to Uvalde? Or stick with Kharkiv?
He stuck with Plan A.
He played the new song for the first time in public with Chicago Dawgs, his four-piece New Haven-based blues band. The band played it recently at the semi-finals of a statewide “Blues Challenge” event taking place at Black-Eyed Sally’s In Hartford.
I feel your pain …
It’s happening again …
Ukraine …
Missiles raining down again …
I’m crying for Ukraine …
Zaretsky, a harmonica player who has fronted blues bands in New Haven since the turn of the century, played the song for the second time in public on Tuesday, with Chicago Dawgs guitarist Tom Crivellone. They played it stripped down, without electric instruments, during an appearance on WNHH FM’s Dateline New Haven program.
Click on the above video to watch Zaretsky and Crivellone performing the song live on air.
The Ukraine war hit home for Zaretsky.
“My people came from Belarus. I don’t understand what it is with Russia. No matter what the government is there, they can’t live with their neighbors. They’re always trying to put together a greater empire. Two of my grandparents fled from [Belarus]. One fled from Lithuania, chased out by Cossacks,” Zaretsky said during the “Dateline” appearance.
Zaretsky — who when he’s not writing songs for his band is writing news articles for the New Haven Register, his day job for the past four decades — and Crivellone spoke on the program about how they formed the Chicago Dawgs. Both hail from Chicago, where they soaked up the influence of that city’s distinctive blend of rural-urban blues created by the Muddy Waters generation, who plugged in their guitars upon moving north as part of the Great Migration.
The Dawgs are side projects for both musicians. Zaretsky’s longer-running project is the Cobalt Rhythm Kings (formed in 1996). Crivellone is a guitarist in Blues Hall of Famer Eddy Clearwater’s nationally touring band.
The Dawgs plan to tee up “I Feel Your Pain” for another performance when they return to Hartford on July 31. They’re scheduled to compete with five bands in Bushnell Park that day for the chance to represent Connecticut at the International Blues Challenge in Memphis.
Click on the video to watch the full interview with, and live performances by, Mark Zaretsky and Tom Crivellone on WNHH FM’s “Dateline New Haven.”
