Thoughts Of The Townedger-February

That time again.  If the computer will let me complete this.  I need to upgrade the computer, I've had this for 10 years, by today's standards I'm using a Cotton Gin technology wise.

Opinions are like farts, everybody lets one rip from time to time and some feel better.  A lot of big stink about nothing and some of them they actually shit themselves.

The other day, I gave an interview to Diggy Kat for a later edition of his show 2 Flurries From Awesometown and it was early in the morning I woke up and probably rambled on a bit too long.  But he's a great editor, he edited my Townedger Radio show and I'm sure he'll do a great job editing the interview.  I did tell him that the state of rock and roll is in dire straits and in need of new blood and new bands taking the same three chords but with a different set of words to make it their own and hopefully become the next Beatles, Zeppelin, Nirvana  or _____________________ (add your favorite band's name in the empty spot).  Corporate radio is too intent of playing the same 40 songs over and over from 20 years back and then some.  There hasn't been a Nirvana that came out and grab a crowd although you make a valid argument for The White Stripes.  Too bad that today's singers and songwriters have to whore themselves out to The Voice or American Idol and get ridiculed by the likes of Nicki No Talent Minaj or Adam Levine.  And even if you do win that contract from 19 Records (which actually the demographic age  they are targeting) you have to do it their way or you're tied up and can't record.  The music industry has been a dirty mess, always has been, and only the lucky and the real talented get any staying power. While the rest of us work our daily jobs and on the side record something that won't get played outside of my own stereo or a net radio station.  But it still feels good to hear Wolfie on Lucky Star Radio or Dear Lisa.  But in a world of Corporate controlled FM stations or an indifferent DJ on public radio here, I don't get airplay anywhere else.

But I continue on with the hope that somewhere out in a far away country, there would be some dedicated die hard fans that would seek me out, like Sixto Rodriguez did.  He made two long forgotten albums for Sussex Records and while he was big as Elvis in a far away country, he was toiling away trying to make ends meet up in Detroit.  But they found him and he managed to get back into playing once again in his advanced age.  Looking For Sugarman is the movie that was based upon fans seeking out a long forgotten artist.  And basically it's the last thing I would love to have.  The chance to be rediscovered and resurrected.  But then again, I'd probably would a better chance winning the lottery or becoming President.

It's strange looking back and making original music since 1980 and having a big catalog of albums and ideals. The novice that thought up Town's Edge Rock was 22 at the time and had his life ahead of him. In some way the band could have been another Replacements or better yet Husker Du, loud noise, crashing drums, ringing guitar and words.  Getting revenge on a girl that I thought would be my wife but ended up being a mom of 3 at age 18, and having a good friend play All Over Now at their reception would have been to see the reaction.  But basically the band that would become The Townedgers would be a very secretive cult styled band that hardly gets a dust speck on the net in the past three decades of doing this.  But I'm sure I'm not the only one; there's plenty of other bands and musicians who never left the garage or bedroom to be heard.  But I could never lower myself to audition just for consideration on The Voice or Idol.  Call it pride or stubbornness but I was too much of a punk to even think about it.  Knowing me if I had to face a Nicki No Talent, I just yell in the mike and go LISTEN and then aim a fart in their direction.

When you're 22, you think you can never grow old, eternal youth all the way.  I thought that too but now 32 years later I'm now 54 and now coming into the final stage of my music career.  Everything ends, nothing lasts forever except for the music.  The long hair hippie is rapidly losing his hair, and the rock and roll dream is just that.  And there's really nothing left to prove.  Forthcoming Trains still remains a album to tout and I can give interviews and hyped it up and net radio will play the choice tracks.  And I continue to say it's one of the best albums that I ever made.  And have hope it will get noticed.

We all get old.  The musicians that have stayed in this town are older too. Some still wear their tiedyed Grateful Dead T shirts, some have big pot bellies, some have lost their hair and most are now grandparents that the only time they ever did play is jam sessions on the weekend. The music has changed and not for the better.  Most new stuff is processed dance beats, influenced poor rapping with their Nu Metal and adds Korn or Red Hot Chili Peppers as source points.  Or over do it with Autotuner or the Don't Yell At Me voice that seems to wow them on Idol but annoy the rest of us.  People bitch about Dave Grohl and how he's all over music but to me, he's perhaps the only thing that is a throwback to old time rock and roll and that he is learning about the old time music of the past. His HBO series is highly recommended.  Rock and roll has always been borrowing off bands that influenced us and the greatest of times the 50s through the 80s they borrowed from bluesmen and then we borrowed it off them be it The Yardbirds or Otis Redding or garage rock in particular. Today's gang borrows from rap or RHCP or The Foo Fighters or Nirvana although the early influences can be heard be it The Beatles.

For the Townedgers or myself, my influences have always been Buddy Holly, The Who, The Velvet Underground and the lesser known.  As well as old country or vintage garage rock via Nuggets. And of course Jerry Jaye how many other bands would cite him as influential or Bill Amesbury.  I always been adamant about who influenced me all the way down to Lonnie Washburn a local dude that played at the school show and wowed me to get off my ass and get a real drum set and learn how to play.  And then take it one step further.  It's a shame I didn't go after this dream and learn how to play and write music when i first got my drumset years ago but then again I was too busy being a kid and not taken it seriously. Till after after high school and then trying to make up for lost time.

I look at my albums as my own kids, of course I have at least 30 of them!  And like most children some I like a lot, some are the black sheep but still kept on the shelf and a couple went out of print since they served their usefulness but not anymore.  What I call dead albums.  Every one has a personality of their own.  But at a certain time they were my reaction to the world or what I was going through.

At this stage of the game that is my life I have come to the conclusion that I may have said as much as I could and make it relevant.  It took me five years to come up with something after Pawnshops For Olivia, I was burned out, the album was great but nobody was playing it and bills had to be paid so I gave it up and tried to fit in with a new relationship and tried to compromise.   When that didn't work, I returned to what I knew best and No Exit became the first new album in 5 years.  And then Forthcoming Trains.

For the old guy that's me, somebody is going to have to take up the slack and try to turn three chords and the truth to their own music and although everybody has used the same three chords over and over I think that there will be a new band with old rocking ways that might get us back into the promised land without having to hear Foreigner's overplayed music on Corporate Rock Radio. But the new bands have their work cut out for them.  It's not going to be easy, not in this day and age but with the right persistence and attitude anything can be possible. But the classic rockers are now old men (if they're not dead), and relying too much from their past just to rehash things and add a bonus disc of remixes.  Which is not the same thing at all.  And the major labels are not going to support you at all, if your first album bombs you won't get a chance to record a second.  A far cry from the 8 albums that it took REO Speedwagon to make it and it took Journey at least five to break the door open.  To which they're still enjoying the big check that Don't Stop Believing gives them from being played every minute of the day. If today's band can write a song like that, you might be set for life.

For the rest of us we move on, recording and hoping that something gets played on the radio.  Or at least in somebody's player.  If and when the new album gets finished, I'll take a long hard look and decide to see if this is worth another year of promoting and performing, or we send people off with one last parting gift before being committed to the ages and they blow my ashes out into the wind.  To the newbies, your music is competing with the history of recorded music and chances are, it's not looking good for you.  But hold out hope that you can defy the odds and make it into the radio spotlight and at least make a margainable  living at best.  It's not going to be easy, you might lose your friends or your high school sweetheart in the process.  But at least you have managed to do it your way without the embarrassment of being schooled by Nicki No Talent or being voted out of Idol or The Voice.

Or hope you have fans in South America that come across your music by accident.

Recording the new album Session 1.

So begins the task of the next Townedgers album and according to script Hilary ensures on it. Four songs done and basically the wonders why I'm doing it in the first place. The remakes of Just To Satisfy you might not make it to the final product. Tackling a song like It's My Time, and trying to hit the high lonesome notes that made the original a powerful statement was a job upon itself, I wished there was a higher octave singer around hit the high notes on The FRIENDS coda but with limited resources available I think I did all right.

Three new originals came up, Better off alone was written on the spot after hearing about Steve Earle breaking up with wife number 7 (I wrote that last night as well as a biting little number called I Know about me don't know about you, which the first take didn't work, so another came up after the serenading the neighbor next door peeking into the window. A song basically about who I am and having to deal with bullies growing up, it was a thumb at the nose at the naysayers. Or being a free spirit at hand, always somebody out there going be jealous of you no matter you say or do.

Different Paths, came from putting some old lyrics I never used to a new melody to which the fabled Jack Orbit helped co write back in 83. I don't think I had anybody in mind when that set of words were jotted down but I might have wrote that up while taking courses at Kirkwood. Unfinished I added some additional thoughts in the second chorus. I may take another stab of re record the thing since it sounds a bit ragged. But not too many people are going to hear it anyway. Just like the rest of my recorded legacy. Hindsight tells me that maybe I should have brushed up on my Jimmy Buffet and move to Florida and rub it in to the shivering midwest. But then again, I'm more interested in having my own originality. Even though it was never a money making venture.

For production, Richard Dennanbaugh had prior commitments and I didn't want to venture out into getting unknowns so what better person to understand me and music than Martin Daniels, who's not a novice at all.  He's been a part of the Townedgers and my recording career since The Art Of Deception (1998) and he could find time to do this as well.  His fingerprints are all over Pawnshops for Olivia and Long Time Forgotten.  By doing four songs acoustically we didn't have to dink with the controls or try to set the amps so that the vocals don't get buried in the mix.  As the sessions go on and on  I look to add more electric guitars to forthcoming songs.  The cover versions of Just To Satisfy You or It's My Time sound like a good idea at the time, both are simple with the exception of Time which on the recording by George Hamilton IV he's got the Nashville Edition backing him up and there's some very high backing notes on the part of Friends of Mine and trying to carrying out on the word Friends.   And certainly late in the day was not the best chance to do such a song, after singing and playing for four hours straight.  I kinda wished I never blew my voice out yelling at ball games or being a human beatbox growing up.  However there's not many female singers available that can do this without charging a 100 dollars for session playing.  So I drink a bit of lemon tea and hope that I can at least capture the moment without screeching or straining the vocal chords.  Otherwise it becomes an outtake.

Basically the first session was Me singing and writing them out and Martin capturing it on tape and making suggestions as we went along.  There is hope that Geoff Redding can break away from his busy life and help out, but I also have Mark Glarington on the sidelines ready to come in if needed.  I'm certain more people will come into play, Diggy Kat or Russ Swearingen providing backup support.  If things go quickly and smoothly like Forthcoming Trains, the album will be completed within a month.  So far, the record has a personality like Pawnshops For Olivia, very folk sounding and very little to deal with mad drumming of the past.  In fact the older I get to more straight lined the drumming is.  A far cry from Town's Edge Rock and the Paraphernalia Tyrus years.

Regardless, of what songs to cover from the Townedger Catalog or what new songs will be used.  Like a puzzle I have to pieces spread out, all I have to do is put them together and see what the end result will sound like. It should be interesting. 

It's My Time

Gather around men, who I grew up with
My old friends that I used to scruff with
I need you round me at this time
You've all had your turn to cry
An old friend stood closely by

FRIENDS OF MINE-stand by me, cuz it's my time

It's my time
IT'S MY Time


Gather round girls that I used to play house with
Come here girl I first kissed on the mouth with
I need your tenderness so kind
You've all had your misty eyes
An old friend stood by to dry

FRIENDS OF MINE-please stand by me cuz it's my time.

Written by John D Loudermilk  1967

Done by my offshoot band The Wapsipinicon Dreamers for a aborted album, I first heard this from George Hamilton IV who passed away last year.  The dark and starkness is the beauty of this song and makes me think of long ago forgotten girls that grew up in my neighborhood, that I walked some home from school and played baseball/football with the guys and sucked at it (See the lyrics to Home for further subject matters).

George Hamilton was a teen idol later a country star and would record folk songs from the likes of Joni Mitchell, Leonard Cohen and Gordon Lightfoot to name a few. 

I guess this song is of needing a outlet of comfort but for the past couple hours it got me into thinking about my childhood past .  I tend to think my high school years were the darkest of my time, basically of letting a bully make my life a living hell at time.  To which I still wonder about the aforementioned Gregory K, closet geek turned gooney goon the past two years of high school and wondering what i had to make him to be so Goddamned jealous of me.  Penis envy maybe?  Hell, he was a janitor at Kresge's years ago and I'd be in the dollar bins and he be smirking up at to me.  Hindsight should have told me to go tell the manager about him not doing his job.  What bothers me to this day that I never stood up to the douchebag, although when we first met, I think he didn't have this anger toward me until a something went too far and he went ballistic and wailed on me after study hall and I just laughed at him.  Hindsight should have told me then and there to nut punch him or go after him like I do on my drums.  One of us would have not been alive if that happen.  However, after school I could not get away from him or his late flunkie friend Rick O (RIP) or having Gregory  either throwing tomatos at me on the way home after a football game or him shooting a air gun, which should have been reported at that time, but I kept it inside.  Felt sorry for the guy who's Love interest had a bigger size than he.  But I never stopped to think that he'd be so jealous of me for even living, when he had the love interest to which he would post all over his car, (of course it never last, teenage love never does).   I suppose it was a good thing we didn't have social media back then.  It would have been ugly.  I probably would have shot him, then shoot myself and then kick his ass to Purgatory.  He would dealing with a vengeful spirit. 

Although he still lives in this area, I have yet to see him.  Time and age might make us look different and perhaps wisdom comes into play as well.  I wish him well but I do wish back then I could have stood up for myself and nut punch him.  I probably sleep better at night.