The other Joel helps beef up 15th Cook-Off music lineup

The other Joel helps beef up 15th Cook-Off music lineup
Cleveland Plain Dealer - Cleveland,OH,USA
6 pm today (reserved seats available), Bud Light Stage. Apparently, Billy Joel turned down an invite to the Rib Cook-Off but he sent a close relative. ...

 Like peanut butter and jelly but much more tasty, ribs and music -- at least in Northeast Ohio -- have gone together for decades. While the sauce remains fresh, the live music over the years has become, for good or bad, a stroll down memory lane targeting baby boomers and most recently Gen-Xers (congrats, you're officially old). This year's lineup is more of the same, but what the heck; grab a rib and a plastic tall-neck, pull up a chair and let's rock like it was 1977, 1982, 1995 and 1997. Following are some concert highlights.

Alexa Ray Joel

6 p.m. today (reserved seats available), Bud Light Stage.

Apparently, Billy Joel turned down an invite to the Rib Cook-Off but he sent a close relative. Some aspiring musicians have the weight of the world on their shoulders. For 20-year-old Alexa Ray Joel, daughter of Billy Joel and Christie "Uptown Girl" Brinkley, the weight is not only a piano, but the Piano Man himself.

Just as Pops found an audience in Cleveland nearly 30 years ago, his daughter is hoping to create a Northeast Ohio following with two Rib Cook-Off gigs (Thursday night and tonight), her second visit to the Rock Hall city in as many months.

With a debut album in the works, Joel's set garners attention for what it doesn't include.

"People are always asking me to do my Dad's stuff, songs that are associated with me like Lullabye (Goodnight My Angel)' or The Downeaster Alexa,' " Joel said. "But what they don't understand is even though I'm a huge fan of my Dad's, it's really important that I make it on my own."

Spin Doctors

7:30 tonight (reserved seats available), Bud Light Stage.

As for the Spin Doctors, "Little Miss" really was wrong as this one-hit wonder from 1992 failed to last until 1993. Still, the band's cover of Creedence Clearwater Revival's "Have You Ever Seen the Rain?" is the third best song on the 1994 "Philadelphia" soundtrack.