In The Wind Tonight

In The Wind Tonight

The stars  they shine tonight
As I stare into the sky
Looking for answers I never get
And the stars that do fall
And the wishes that I call
That nobody above ever hears

(chorus)
Tell me why I'm here
Is it for somebody dear
Or am I being blind?
By some untrue dream
That turns to dust it seems
Blowing in the wind tonight

It was just a waste of time
I thought that she'd be mine
But I guess I never learn anything
And so I sit here all alone
While she drives on home
To the man she calls her own

(chorus)

C 1992
Written by R.Smith

Photo: Troy Paiva-Wicked Grin

53

So I turned 53 today and basically it's just any other day around here.  The traffic sucked, I hit every fucking red light in town but I managed to spend the afternoon having lunch with my mom at Pizza Ranch and later dinner with my best friend Russ and his wife at Cancun later on.   And been trying to learn Behind Blue Eyes for inclusion on a record later on but the middle guitar part continues to play havoc and still haven't figured out how to cheat on the B minor chord on the power middle eight.  I'm sure with more time and practice I might figure it out, but if not, probably just keep practicing on it till the time is right to record it.

I wasn't in a very good mood when I finally made it to Wells Fargo to get my check cashed and pay bills but found a sympathetic ear in the teller up there, LaSkeesha a black woman with a funny sense of humor.  We talked a good ten minutes about traffic, red lights and found that we had a common bond of red light hatred in this hell hole town.  Plus this winter has been cold and brutal and below zero since the start of December.  She talked about saving up to move down to Miami.  Had to admit she was kinda cute and probably could have had me till she talked about me not having a savings account there, plus she's a good 3 decades younger than myself.  For friendly conversation that was good enough and as far I go.  Thought I would pay Bruce a visit at the pawnshop but when I saw him stalking out to his car not looking so happy I figured I'd keep my distance.

There really hasn't much to do this winter.  Too cold to go anywhere and the last couple weeks talking about the good times of Tyrus and the other band.  Russ and I kinda discussed that over burritos and rice and beans.  But for the rhythm section I think we have done fairly well despite the odds and differences of opinion.  I know for a fact that when we jamming with a friend of his, we hadn't played together in over 10 years but after a couple songs we were back in sync so to speak.  Kinda like riding a bike, you always know how to ride it, even though it might take a while to get back into the swing of things.  But being over at his home for the first time in years, I noticed he's added a couple more bass guitars to his lineup. 

But for Tyrus, I think the reunion on Facebook is as close as we're all going to get to reuniting, time, age and distance are the three major reasons and a couple of ex bandmates don't even play music anymore.  Or so it seems.  As long as everyone is alive there's possibilities.   But in an era of the internet and a changing music environment, plus there's hardly any places to play at here in the great wasteland.   And I'm more interested in doing original music anyway.

But who knows.  But I do know one thing for sure.  Next time I return to this forsaken planet, I'm making sure I'm born in a warmer month.  This is the only time I've been early for anything, and I've been paying for it ever since being born in the coldest time of year.

Let's see if we can make it to 54.

The Past Returns-Pearl, Zildjian

The Tyrus mini reunion on Facebook got me to really think about embracing the past and the sounds that we made.  In the 80s I was using a used Pearl snare drum for most of the Tyrus/Open Highway recordings as well as some of the old Route 66 albums of long ago, last time I used it was on the 1985 R.Smith And Route 66 album.  It replaced the old Reuter Snare that originally came with the Zickos drum set but I think I may have donated it or sold it off, either day it didn't last too long.  The Pearl Snare went through a few wars and I beat the shit out of it with my playing and the only thing that didn't last was the snare wires falling apart.  I never quite understood why I never replaced the wires in the first place, either I didn't know how nor didn't want to deal with it and it stood gathering dust and rust in the dew room downstairs.  The old band may never reunite but perhaps the next best thing is to bring back what I still have for percussion.  And I'll be using this snare for the upcoming TE album Forthcoming Trains.  Here it is in its restored glory.



Also a change of cymbals is coming as well. For the past week on Facebook I asked the fan base about cymbals.  For 7 years I've been playing Paiste and still believe the ones I got are the best sounding ones.  I asked a question to the fans about what cymbal that I should use for the next project and it was unanimous.  The overall champion in a shutout mind you was Zildjian which really surprised me that not a single vote went for Paiste.  Even when I asked Martin and Geoff, (Martin didn't care either way), Geoff thought that the Z's were the better choice, a much more darker and aggressive sound than even the Paiste 2002 series.  It doesn't matter about endorsing any brand, I never had any music maker give me free stuff but I always known to post the stuff used for albums. The guys in Tyrus (Doug and DeWayne) both said that the Z's were the ones that they rather hear since they grew up all around them.  And so the masses have spoken and after a change over during the week, I introduce the new lineup of cymbals.  All Zildjians.




19 inch  Armund Ride
20 inch  Old  A Zildjian Sizzle Ride
20 inch Oriental Crash Of Doom
18 inch K dark session crash
18 inch A  Medium thin crash
16 inch A  Rock crash
13 inch K/Z hi hats (mixed)
(not pictured) 13 inch K Zildjian Splash (original Istanbul made version)

The 16 inch rock crash and the 13 inch K Splash are the links to the Paraphernalia band days, both purchased in 1984, one from West Music and the other came from the pawn shop.  The medium thin crash is not the same one that I used back in 1982 but since it's basically the same type of cymbal used during the formative years.   The K/Z hats were brought in 1988 when I decided to get back into playing drums after selling most of what I had after making Postcards From The Edge, and thought it was time to grow up and quit playing drums all told.  But regretted that decision and more so since selling off those prized Zickos for a very cheap price.  And basically probably will never have another Zickos set in this lifetime since every one I see on EBAY are top price or sold in pieces at top prices.

The sizzle ride is a vintage old Zildjian cymbal and I've been using more of a sizzle type ride cymbal since using the Paiste 3000 or the Paiste signature flat ride with rivets. The sizzle ride was brought in 1990 at the Marion West Music store used and was more of a crash than actual ride but when I jammed with my best friend Russ and another guy, it turned out to be the ideal crash ride that I was looking for.  But then I ended up overdoing the EBAY buying and ended up getting the Paiste sizzle rides and crashes that nobody wanted.  Or I overpaid.

The Yamaha cymbal stand holding the Doom Cymbal was brought around 1982 and is a direct link to the past as well.  Although I play DW and have DW bass and high pedals and stands I prefer Yamaha stands since they're less cumbersome than the DW and that damn Dogbone thing that you can't lower.  I guess I'm still old school to rather have the toms coming from the bass drum rather than standalone.  They're a pain in the ass to put together as well.  I still can't get over using the DW snare drum and seeing assorted nuts and bolts inside the snare, which never happened on the Zickos, Pearl and Yamaha drums that I used to have.  In fact I haven't used the copper DW snare all that much either.  I think I enjoy the trashy sound of the Pearl snare that drove the band into new melodies.

As a oldie rock and roller, I still enjoy the comforts of having at least 6 cymbals in a lineup although in later years I have not had a middle cymbal in front of the drumset.  The compliment of the Armand Ride and Sizzle ride enables me to jump from one to another and not miss a beat.  I have plenty of cymbals to mix and match on the sideline as well. I still have my favorite 18 inch K Medium Thin Crash although it somehow gotten chipped on the side.  And then discovering a 18 inch rock crash that probably came from a Ebay bid I forgot all about.  I may bring the Impulse ride out of mothballs as well. But for the moment, the cymbals seen in the picture above will the ones you will be hearing on the next project.

This may not be the second coming or reunion of Tyrus but with the magic of drums and cymbals used from the past it's the closest thing to a reunion. 

Last Chance Train Song

In 1992, I wrote lots of songs that would eventually turn out to be Drive In Blues but lesser known songs that didn't make it came out as The Art Deco Sessions.  The ones that didn't make it would come out later on other albums, this one was revisited in 2001 for the There's Nothing left album.

The song is based on the old Gulf, Mobile And Ohio train route that went through an old area of Lincoln Illinois, where Grandma Ambrose lived not too far from and when I spent the summers over there in the 70s I would watch the GMO fly through the tracks and basically about riding the rails someday.  You can't do that anymore if the train security dudes didn't get you, then the freaks that deface the box cars with their graffiti would.

Life everything else, the railroads that we used to know would either get brought out by the bigger corporations or go bankrupt and then the bigger train corporations would take over. The Union Pacific for that matter or the Burlington Northern Santa Fe.  Anyway, the Illinois Central reference in the final verse is a nod to the other railway company that had tracks going north and south and while the IC was in town, they didn't have the many cars that the Gulf Mobile And Ohio would have.  Where was home at you ask?  Good question for I thought that going back to Lincoln would be home.

Even back then, Lincoln was a backward thinking town 20 years removed from today and even worse when I returned there for a forgettable family reunion in 1998.  Had we lived in Lincoln chances are I'd be a Grandpa by now since there's nothing to do but knock up the neighbor's daughter and have a shotgun wedding or get into fights with the local kids.  In 1971, I became friends or so I thought with a couple of boys not too far from the abandoned warehouse across the street and we had a good time.  Next year, the little fucks didn't want to be friends and ended up throwing rocks and stuff like that.  My brother recollects that I almost took on about 5 or 6 of another gang of boys that lived a couple blocks away from my Grandpa's place.  So I don't have a high opinion of that town.  At least back then, they had a Woolworths and a Record Store down to road to keep me busy.  Last time I rolled through there in 2007, everything was closed up except for junk shops an Antique stores.  But the town still looks like it did when we lived there in the early 60s.  Not sure whatever happened to the fairweather friends, but I'm sure they're grandparents and probably keeping it in the family, if you know what I mean.

Getting back to the song, we did a rough take for it on Drive In Blues but the arrangements was all wrong, especially on the drum boasts at the beginning.   In 2001, we simply let the guitars started out and the drums followed.


Last Chance Train Song   4:40

Union Pacific and Santa Fe
We used to have one an hour
But nowadays we're even lucky
If one passes through our town
We used to ride the rails by day
And we walk the highway at night
I'll tell you boys that it's not the same
It's just another endless wait

(chorus)
So take me home, GMO
Back to the place I was born
The dream is gone and I'm all alone
And I don't feel safe anymore
Take me home if you could
I just feel lost, misunderstood
Let me catch the last train out
And let it be homeward bound
 
It was a thrill living in a boxcar
The only worry was not to get caught
And we ate at the finest greasy joints
And watch the semi's pass us by
Now those fine eating establishments
Are getting torn down for those Mcdonalds
So I guess we gotta take our chances
Of handouts or from garbage cans
(chorus)

Well (I guess)  the railroad days are over
I suspect that they will never return
I suppose that it's  out of the question
If I could ever find a railway queen
But if you listen close to the wind at night
You can hear a train in the distance
And if I ever see that Illinois Central
To jump on it and ride I'll take that chance
(chorus)

GMO=Gulf Mobile & Ohio

Written by R.Smith/G.Redding

2001 Townedger's Music Emporium

The Tyrus Reunion

Over the weekend we kind of a reunion of sorts.  And it started with me cleaning out the bedroom and finding some old pictures and then the ball got rolling.


Tyrus was the agreed name for Paraphernalia which was a band started by myself and Russ Swearingen. While the life history of that band never really stopped, we took a break in 1984 and been on break ever since.  But with the discovery and posting of the band pics actually turned to be a reunion of sorts on Facebook.  Along with Russ, Dennis Lancaster, DeWayne Schminkey and Doug Bonesteel with also comments from Mike Swearningen's daughter and Chris Swearingen's daughter Nicole we got to shoot the breeze for a time and it stirred memories of a long ago and far away place when we all young and hungry to make it to the big time with lots of money and women and power to boot.  But when you're living in small town Iowa, nobody from Warner Brothers or Sony or Universal are going to drive off the beaten path to see you play.

When I posted the band pictures it was an attempt to preserve some sort of historical meaning and since Mike Swearingen didn't have many band pictures up on his site, I thought I passed them on to him over there. The OK Lounge set, where most of the pictures came from, there's not many of them with me in it.  In fact there's are two post shows pictures of myself but the lighting and my shirt made it hard to see. Shawn Ster had the majority of photos taken of him, since he was a guest guitarist and really not a perm band member I really didn't see the need to post all 7 of him.  But the best pictures will be posted for the upcoming blog about playing that final night in 1984 in subzero temps under a full moon, giving our best shot before going separate ways of work, family and life itself. 

Tyrus wasn't a great band but the core group were good friends and still are today.  What we lacked in musicianship we made up with total reckless abandon and full speed ahead.  I love these guys and even though we will never be on stage together again, we learn to say never say never. Anything can happen.

But for now I'll enjoy the memories of how we got there.

History Lesson-Paraphernalia 1982

Time...where does it go?




I've been scanning pictures of the bands that I used to be in, but very little can be found of the Routers, the 1991 project with Greg Nutter and of course The Townedgers which basically is myself most of the time. This photo you see of me is from January of 1982 when we were recording an EP with some of our favorite bar tunes.  The cymbals are incredibly high, especially the 20 inch Pang in the background.  One of our guitar players' Girlfriend snapped this shot and it perhaps this picture best describes the intensive look on my face.



I didn't play drums as per-say as you're supposed to, I basically came home after working at the gas station and took my frustrations out on my Zickos when we recorded.  There were gasps in the above ceiling when errant drumsticks would carve a hole into those asbestos type above me and the guys in the band would have be on the lookout for broken drumtips or cymbals falling on the floor.  I'm surprised I didn't behead anybody at that time.  The spirit of Keith Moon was alive and smashing cymbals left and right on this EP that we tore through Rock Me Baby, Take It On The Run, Loving Touchin And Squeezing, Highway To Hell and two deconstruction takes of Rocky Mountain Way and I still don't think we ever got it right. 

I know prior to 1981, that Russ and I screwed around, just getting our instruments and figuring out ways to conquer the world and be the best rock band ever (everybody dreams that  before MTV and autotuner and Corporate radio killed the rock dream), and I knew that Russ was looking for something to do once his time with Uncle Sam came to an end but I figured I had to wow him by playing Anytime by Journey including the boasting drum breaks at the end but I still never fit in with the music scene in Cedar Rapids.  I barely knew how to keep a beat after fucking around most of my youth and high school and just tore apart two toy drumsets before my parents said Hell No to a real drum set.  So most of 1980 I self taught myself although with a few choice rock albums of note and took it from there.  The major influence was of course the rock drummers (John Bonham, Keith Moon but also Jerry Shirley figured a great deal upon this and Dave Mattacks of Fairport Convention fame)  but in high school hearing a local dude Lonnie Washburn pound away on the drums, he basically kicked me in the ass to get going into the music career that doesn't pay bills but remains a closet cult artist at best.   Even later in life I may have ran circles around him, I still believe that Lonnie had he kept at it would have been just as famous of drummer as Don Timmons was.  But I guess what Lon started, I finished.



Russ's cousin is Mike Swearingen, a fun guy that would love to tell jokes as much as sing the blues or rock out.  I fear that we may have blown his voice out in some of the covers that we did or trying to shout over loud guitars and crashing 20 inch cymbals left and right. But with a Marlboro Menthol bellow, Mike was simply the best vocalist that I ever worked with.  From time to time after the end of Paraphernalia we continue to work in other bands and country and blues jams across Cedar Rapids.  But I never considered us to be a bar band but rather a work in progress to do our own songs but since we were born into the great wasteland, it was learn to do the hits and bar favorites. 

In January of 1982, we did this EP of sorts and I kinda wished we could have done a bit more. But it would be a start but it also be a start of a reputation that would be bestowed upon me the title of BIG CRASH, for all those damn seven cymbals left and right.   And it really hasn't changed all that much since then although The Townedgers are not as reckless as Paraphernalia once was.  I'd end up with a heart attack if I approached the drums like I did 34 years ago.  But I'd never trade it in for one minute.  It was a start and I kicked the damn door off the hinges in a music odyssey that continues to this day.

Thank you Mike, DeWayne, Doug and Russ for sharing it with me.  I love you all.

 

The Townedgers Plans for 2014

In 2014 I'll be returning to the studio to do a new recording with a working title of Forthcoming Trains.  On this next effort I want to try to return to a more experimental sound by use of what is offered on the 4 track harddrive that I kinda ignored over the past decade or so.   I'm going to revisit some of the earlier songs done in the past but thinking they need a upgrade, at least in sound.  Since I'm not doing any music hunting, this will give me the time to focus on the music and give the guys in the band my undivided attention: something that has been lacking in years although last years album 30, I did pretty good despite the fact that I couldn't keep away from the thrift stores and such.

Hopefully with everything recorded and mixed properly I'm hoping for something in the spring to finish it.  You'll get to hear it on Radio Buzz'd when the time comes.

Anyway, I thought I leave you with a nice picture of my favorite co worker at Pearson INC, Sonya who I managed to crash the party three years in a row.  A record itself.

Thank God 2013 is finally gone.  And may 2014 be a year that I can celebrate the 3 decades of The Townedgers Rock And Roll.  Stay tuned to this blogspot for more news and lyrics to songs nobody ever heard on the radio.  A helluva music hobby.

History Lesson: Paraphernalia Tyrus 1984

This year I hope to add more pictures of past bands to this site since they are a stepping stone to the machine that is the Townedgers.   They had a big role in the development of music that I played although these guys were more bar band than original.

Here to explain who played what is Dennis (Harmonica) Lancaster with the line up.

The Band (from left to right)






Russ (Wonk) Swearingen-Bass
Mike (One Liner) Swearingen-Throat
Shawn (Eddie) Ster-Whammy Bar
Dennis (Harmonica) Lancaster-Real Guitar, bo-bo
R. (Big Crash) Smith-Cymbals, oh and drums too.

Thoughts From The Townedger January Edition

Wouldn't you know it.  Getting ready to start a new album and get a fucking sore throat in the process.  Anyway some thoughts of the season.

As far as I know Diggy Kat is still planning to do the Songs That Made An Impact in 2014 but he's been busy with his own projects.  I did submit him the 30 album and a couple suggestions.  We also been talking about making an appearance on his Vufcup album but as of the moment nothing has come of it.

The process of songwriting comes in spurts.  Usually when I'm at work some ideas will come around and if they're worthy of doing anything I jot them down.  At this stage of the game seems like any song title I come up with is either the same of an older song or a phase of another song.  Sometimes if I am desperate I'll throw out nonsense like how come you do me like you do do do which became a song in 1996 and used on a specialty comp.  Last couple albums I just started doing cover versions of stuff.  Which became the basis of Soul Biscuits. Sometimes even though I can listen to it doesn't mean anybody else can or can't.  Which was why Soul Biscuits got put back in the vaults.  Not its time to come out.

When I first started buying cymbals for my drums, 1980 wasn't a very good year of finding the right kind. Nobody had Paiste in town and Zildjians were the way to go.  The first featured lineup was something like this.

Camber Hi Hats
A 10 inch splash cymbal of unknown maker
Two ZYN 18 inch multiple use crashes .  I think they were made out of tin or nickel but looked silver.  One had a fairly nice ride sound, the other a china trash sound.  In other words your typical standard cheap cymbal.

 Camber non label 16 inch Crash
 Camber black label 18 inch  crash

A Zildjian 20 inch ride/crash

The Camber 16 inch crash had more bite than the 18 inch which sounded like a long bong rather than crash. The Zildjian drowned the rest of them out ride or crash.  Eventually, the cambers would be replaced with each new project that I did.  I did find a Paiste 404  an entry level cymbal but the crash was a lot like the 2002s.  But West Music wasn't selling new Paistes (at that time) but they had that 404 and I used it for 1980 and 1981 before selling it off to somebody real cheap.  Everything would lead up to a all Zildjian lineup in 1981 although on The Power Of Positive Thinking album The Camber high hats and 16 inch crash was still being used.  In 1982  every recording up till 2007 was all Zildjians.

Sad to say in around 1983 I ended up getting ripped off and losing half my Z's on a bad money deal and lost a crash ride 18 inch and a crash 16 inch, plus a odd sounding 16 inch rock crash (may have been a bottom of a high hat way it sounded). 

The Big Crash lineup of 1982-1984

All Zildjians
14 inch Quick Beats
16 inch Thin Crash (beaten to hell during those years)
18 inch Medium Thin Crash
16 inch Rock Crash
21 inch Rock Ride
20 inch Pang with rivets
12 inch Original K Splash (a genuine Turkish made Zildjian from the old country)

If Dennis thought I was Big Crash back then, good thing he wasn't around for my Paiste RUDE lineup with 2002 Novo Crash, perhaps the loudest cymbal lineup ever known to man ;-)

I actually like the Impulse Cymbals a lot more although they never catch on like the RUDE's did. And still have a Impulse lineup including the clunky sounding high hats which I used once and put away.  I could probably unloaded them but probably would not recoup my losses from paying them back then.  I know that I ripped off myself trading my Rock Ride, Pang and 16 inch Crash at a Arizona drum shop to get the Impulse Ride.  To which had a nice sweet ping ride to it.  I hate to think what I actually paid for it considering how much I unloaded to get that cymbal.

Despite what Mark Concower says, he was not playing in the band when we did a live version of All Over Now at the IMU in Iowa City in 1987.  It was me, Jack Orbit and Ken Miller that nite and we did that song and one other in that variety show.  Something that Orbit improvised on the spot and we messed around before the lights went out.  The awkward applause at the end of All Over Now pretty much says it all.

Cymbal brands are a matter of choice and most of the time the cymbals used fit my personality very well. Not much difference I can tell although while some listeners thought I was using Rude cymbals on Wapsipinicon Dreaming, I was using Impulses. You can't tell the difference on the 2007 Solon LP, a couple songs were from the Highway Home album (which Zildjians were used) and the 2008 sessions (Paiste were the choice)   The classic 2002 cymbal sound is on All Along The Watchtower off 30, whereas a combination of Paiste 3000s and 2002's were put into use.  Hard to tell what I will use on the next album.

But no Sabians, don't have any.

Till then.....