Checker's Acoustic Jam (Hosts: Ryan Matthew Paul/Julie Gordon)
Songs
Gold Dust Woman (Julie Gordon: Lead Vocals)
Midnight Rider
Ring Of Fire
For What Its Worth
With:
Julie Gordon: Backing Vocals/percussion
Belinda James-Backing vocals
Skip Richards: Bass
Michael Clair-Guitar
Ryan Matthew Paul might have played keyboards on For What Its Worth
Somebody playing Trumpet on Ring Of Fire
Somebody else playing cello
And the whole Checker's Crowd Singing Along
And so the journey of life continues, through jams and through good friends and musicians. I have never expected to have this sort of luck and good vibes. Where did this all come from? It's a blur and I have no answer. My favorite female vocalist sings on Gold Dust Woman and I'm dating her? What can I say about her that hasn't already been said before. She makes me smile in ways that I have never smiled before. She did that time and time again tonight, even pointing her finger at me while singing What I Like About You.
And a good musician will do that. In my time of knowing Julie we have somehow interconnected with our souls on the songs that we do sing together. Since she was hosting the jam and had to sing most of the time, I really wanted to use her sparingly, but I know I want her to sing Gold Dust Woman. I'd love to play along with her on Wicked Game too. I know when I get together with Russ or Dewayne there's a sense of magic when we play on stage, the feeling of knowing one another in how the song will go, it all goes back to the days of Paraphernalia/Tyrus, I can read Russ just like a book when it comes to playing drums, guitar...still a work in progress. Certain jammers will do that, Kenny Webb, Dan Johnson, Brook Hoover have a way to get me to interact with them. Even Rick Clay on Dreams I'll Never See Again, even Ernest on The Twist, or Mike Serbousek on Johnny B Goode. A common bond that get drive the song into something fun, something memorable. Certain people make songs stand out on their own. Belinda cranks into Fever, she turns it into her own, just like tonight when we had a Trumpet and cello player helping out on that song. It has been a specialty of hers since I've known her.
But in the trials and tribulations of life and jamming, Julie has become someone who had driven me into playing some of the best music of my life with her presence and everlasting smile. In reality Gold Dust Woman really has taken on a whole new level of meaning, even while trying to sing and eventually abandoning that idea, I'd never thought that Julie would be my main lead singer on that song. But I'm glad that she does sing and is a big part of this life. She has stolen my heart.
It was what I call a long lunch break but in the two hours I was there, Tim Wiley stopped by to say he's hosting some sort of jam at Rumors from 5 to 7 on Wednesday before wondering off into the night. I think he may have hosted it tonight from what he said. Only problem is, there's something we call work, and I basically have to pull teeth to get part of the night off to do the acoustic jam.
I don't know if Julie and Matthew had retired the Dreams Of Arcadia name (he went by Ry-Dawg) but they held court for the majority of first hour, then Mark and Belinda took over and they did an original rap song written by Mark's son, who's a good guy. Belinda has known to have a bit of alternative rock to her vocals, as I finally figured out how to play It's Been A While and not messed that up, Blue Bayou another story. Carl Mainers popped up to do his song including Your Cheating Heart (complete with Oh Carl catcalls but not as potent as it was last week when Cathy Hart and Lorie Parker hosted).
I decided this time out just to do the songs I was most familiar with, I.E. most uptempo, although I did Midnight Rider in tribute to the late Gregg Allman. But I was not prepared for the request of Ring Of Fire to which the whole Checkers's crowd starting singing along with the chorus. I was floored, I've never had that sort of reaction to any of the songs, although people did sing to I Fought The Law, but the overall reaction was not as great to Ring Of Fire. Yeah I smiled at winked at Julie and even laughed to the point that I messed up the words but nobody cared. Everybody was having a good time,, and even to the closer of For What Its Worth, people still cheered and sang along. It's been said that if you get them to sing along you are doing your job and amazingly that came true. Even for a short four song set, it may have been the best showing that I have done overall and that is saying a lot.
But I didn't do it alone, I had help. Belinda, Mark, Andrew, Carl, Skip, Ryan, The Crowd. But upon watching Gold Dust Woman (this version), most of all it was Julie that made it work. And in the process she stolen my heart too.
Wednesday, 31 May 2017
Monday, 29 May 2017
Rumors Jam 5/28/17 Rocking Hard
Rumor's Jam (Host: Terry McDowell)
With:
Rick Clay-Guitar and Vocal on Dreams I'll Never See Again
Mitch Smith-Saxophone and Vocals on Keep Your Hands To Yourself and Roadhouse Blues
Duane Connaughton-Bass On Roadhouse Blues and Dreams I'll Never See Again
Danny Byal-Bass on Keep Your Hands To Yourself
R.Smith-Drums
Songs:
Roadhouse Blues
Keep Your Hands To Yourself
Dreams I'll Never See
Terry McDowell continues to amaze me with his jams of the past couple months. This time out, the new recruit was Duane Connaughton, a hard driving bass player from Indiana who bought his son with him, his son plays drums and really knew how to pound the double bass petals. He might rival Trevor Worcel as the hardest hitting drummer out there.
I was dealing with headaches galore, and the past couple nights supporting Julie with her band and with Bart but I figure if I stayed home I'd just be miserable. This jam was more hard rocking than usual, Rick Clay returned with the singer from Four Day Creep and Duane, who had experience in playing the harder rock/grunge number really played the role of rock star. I'm guessing he was a bit younger than me but he has played in a number of Indiana rock bands. The guy really blew me away on how he can play bass too.
I guess having Mitch Smith sit in and sing the songs was the less rocking of the numbers but it really wasn't that way. Rick and Duane are solid rockers but Mitch can hold his own with his vocals. Danny Bryal popped up to play the Georgia Satellites number and then Duane came back onboard to which we decided to pay respect and due to the loss of Gregg Allman by doing a jazzy introduction to Dreams I'll Never See Again, to which I never played the Allman Brothers version but I followed Duane on every note he put out. This time out, Duane made me play the accent breaks on the chorus to Dreams and dammed if it didn't work. And Rick Clay played amazing guitar, but a Spinal Tap moment came when his amps suddenly stopped working, but Duane and I kept playing. It was such a magical moment before the amp malfunction.
The three songs did branched out to about 10 minutes on stage, Dreams going about for 8 minutes I believe. Like last week, I was in a good groove and had great musicians helping me keep that groove. Buddy came up to help out on some metal songs with Karie Skogman and Amanda from Four Day Creep. Earlier in the afternoon Dave Bonham paired up with Tim Wiley on a couple blues numbers with Mike Lint. That might have been the least rocking part of the jam, more blues than hard rock. Still we had plenty of jammers that helped out, it wasn't as packed as it was last week but we had plenty of people there. Which made the folks at Rumors quite happy. Later on while talking to Julie before bed, I mentioned about me and Buddy being there and she said had she known this she would have been there. Wished she would have been there, she'd rocked the joint too.
Tim Wiley did join the fun earlier on, but of course once he got done, he was long gone. He never seems to hang around when I get up on stage but I still love him anyway.
All photos taken from video stills is by Kevin Simnacher (but this photo and Tim Wiley is by Tami Soukup) Without him around, I would be the invisible man.
With:
Rick Clay-Guitar and Vocal on Dreams I'll Never See Again
Mitch Smith-Saxophone and Vocals on Keep Your Hands To Yourself and Roadhouse Blues
Duane Connaughton-Bass On Roadhouse Blues and Dreams I'll Never See Again
Danny Byal-Bass on Keep Your Hands To Yourself
R.Smith-Drums
Songs:
Roadhouse Blues
Keep Your Hands To Yourself
Dreams I'll Never See
Terry McDowell continues to amaze me with his jams of the past couple months. This time out, the new recruit was Duane Connaughton, a hard driving bass player from Indiana who bought his son with him, his son plays drums and really knew how to pound the double bass petals. He might rival Trevor Worcel as the hardest hitting drummer out there.
I was dealing with headaches galore, and the past couple nights supporting Julie with her band and with Bart but I figure if I stayed home I'd just be miserable. This jam was more hard rocking than usual, Rick Clay returned with the singer from Four Day Creep and Duane, who had experience in playing the harder rock/grunge number really played the role of rock star. I'm guessing he was a bit younger than me but he has played in a number of Indiana rock bands. The guy really blew me away on how he can play bass too.
I guess having Mitch Smith sit in and sing the songs was the less rocking of the numbers but it really wasn't that way. Rick and Duane are solid rockers but Mitch can hold his own with his vocals. Danny Bryal popped up to play the Georgia Satellites number and then Duane came back onboard to which we decided to pay respect and due to the loss of Gregg Allman by doing a jazzy introduction to Dreams I'll Never See Again, to which I never played the Allman Brothers version but I followed Duane on every note he put out. This time out, Duane made me play the accent breaks on the chorus to Dreams and dammed if it didn't work. And Rick Clay played amazing guitar, but a Spinal Tap moment came when his amps suddenly stopped working, but Duane and I kept playing. It was such a magical moment before the amp malfunction.
The three songs did branched out to about 10 minutes on stage, Dreams going about for 8 minutes I believe. Like last week, I was in a good groove and had great musicians helping me keep that groove. Buddy came up to help out on some metal songs with Karie Skogman and Amanda from Four Day Creep. Earlier in the afternoon Dave Bonham paired up with Tim Wiley on a couple blues numbers with Mike Lint. That might have been the least rocking part of the jam, more blues than hard rock. Still we had plenty of jammers that helped out, it wasn't as packed as it was last week but we had plenty of people there. Which made the folks at Rumors quite happy. Later on while talking to Julie before bed, I mentioned about me and Buddy being there and she said had she known this she would have been there. Wished she would have been there, she'd rocked the joint too.
Tim Wiley did join the fun earlier on, but of course once he got done, he was long gone. He never seems to hang around when I get up on stage but I still love him anyway.
All photos taken from video stills is by Kevin Simnacher (but this photo and Tim Wiley is by Tami Soukup) Without him around, I would be the invisible man.
Saturday, 27 May 2017
The Saturday Afternoon Acoustic Gig And Other Ones
Gilligan's Pub 5/27/17 (Karl Hudson: Host)
With
Tim Nemec-Bass
The Promise Flower
Listen To Love
I Fought The Law
For What It's Worth
If I Were A Carpenter
Ring Of Fire (Jeff Overly-sax)
Teri My Love (abridged)
Everybody's Talking (False Start)
Gold Dust Woman (Belinda James-Lead Vocals, Karl Hudson, Guitar, Jeff Overly-Sax)
Everybody's Talking
You Can't Judge A Book By Its Cover
Come Together (Belinda James-Lead Vocals)
With Julie And The Mad Dogs-Rumors 5/26/17
Johnny B Goode
Highway To Hell
Mike Serbousek-Vocals on Johnny B Goode
Julie Gordon-Vocals on Highway To Hell
Kevin Micheal-Bass
Buddy Archbremner-Lead Guitar
Another stormy afternoon but I managed to do a half hour set of songs, another attempt to do The Promise Flower (and still fucked up on one of the verses) but it was a pretty good and spirited jam. Tim Nemec, who I jammed with at Whittier played bass on all of the songs mentioned. I'm still not entirely sold on The Promise Flower since I'm having issues with one line in that song, it sounded better in the studio than it does live.
For the most part I kept the songs to their original versions and not extended them much although I did play around with the lead on Listen To Love. For What It's Worth was done Buffalo Springfield intended it to be. Belinda cracked me up on the version of Everybody's Talking to the point that I forced her to do a version of Gold Dust Woman, (with Karl on extra guitar and Jeff Overly adding backing vocals). I do think Belinda was ready to call me on that song, she did quite well for a first time we ever done it together. Belinda was also tapped to do Come Together, we did that song at Checker's the other night and she's beginning to figure out the way that I play it, Tim on bass also picked it up, first time we ever jammed to that song. I would love to have more people take turns singing on these songs. Of course Julie is my first choice, but if she's not around then Belinda has shown she could sing too.
A singer will have their own style to fit the song and chemistry helps too. Belinda brings more of a cool type of vocals, whereas Julie goes by emotion and feel, basically she has a way that brings me to do a song a lot better than I could ever do singing it. And it seems like Gold Dust Woman became the focal song of the jams, taken from a clumsy ideal of trying to play it solo and then having Julie pick it up when I was trying to play it to her for the first time at her place a few weeks ago. I have heard her sing that song Friday Night at Rumors with Buddy playing guitar and she also has done another version of that with Bart Carfizzi on keyboards, both versions unique, but I'm biased to the point that when we play it together something comes from deep within. I think the 2nd version we tried at Checkers was the best of them all but the 3rd version got partly recorded and we managed to dub it off on cassette for something in the future. I'd rather have a complete version but that would bring me and Julie together at some recording studio for that to happen.
It's been a sad week for her, since the breakup of the Acoustic Kitties and then all of a sudden losing one of her doggies and despite all the sadness, she still manages to sing great. I would have crumbled under pressure. Since this is Memorial Day Weekend, the crowds were not there for The Mad Dogs Friday Night, nor the Bart and Jewelz show at The Frog Saturday. I was there to support the effort and not get in the way, it's her gigs and her show. Bart's wife Kathy was there as well and we managed to talk a bit and took down Bart's keyboards and PA monitor since his back surgery has not helped and he's still in chronic pain. I feel bad for him, he's doing his best trying to make it work but back pain is not fun. I've been dealing with that myself the past couple days. It's their second time out together and a few songs got redone later (guess which one). I could have made a suggestion about grabbing my guitar and help them along but that's their gig and not a jam. And not a good idea. Still, it's tough to play gigs and only have 5 to 10 people show up, and you wonder what's the point but a musician keeps going on, they consider it practice and they'll get better for the next gig. That is if they get invited back.
Which leads back to Friday Night after the gigs and everybody's packed up and ready to go home upon saying goodnight to Julie, she remarked about wanting to go do something, go out on a date. I said that I thought going to jams was kinda like a date, was it? She said not exactly. I then said well if I ask you very nice, would like you go out on a date and go somewhere (after all the last time I went out with somebody was over five years ago) and she said yes. She continues to surprise me in her own ways. I don't look at myself as just a friend to people. It's just that Julie is a musician and we share certain interests, I thought about it but never could find the right place and time to say it, but she did.
While I talk about it and think about it, it's hard to believe that I'm could ever be a part of her life even from a musician perspective. Even for 56 years, I still stumble about like a awkward teenager trying to impress her, but alas something gets in the way, I either knock over her fan she uses at her gigs, or stepping on somebody's guitar chord and things like that drives me insane. No, I never thought this would ever remotely happen again.
With Julie in this life, I'm playing better, the guys in the band are enjoying the music more and I am beginning to lose the negativeness that had been building up for many many years. And I do hope that this continues me on the right path to what's left of this life. I'll continue to stumble along the journey but I hope the longer we know each other, the more closer we can become. The music helps a lot, that's what brought us together, on stage. But I do know it will take time and I'm very much out of practice when it comes to taking somebody out on a date. I guess the best way to start at square one and go from there.
Hello, I'm Rodney Smith and I play in a band called The Townedgers...............
With
Tim Nemec-Bass
The Promise Flower
Listen To Love
I Fought The Law
For What It's Worth
If I Were A Carpenter
Ring Of Fire (Jeff Overly-sax)
Teri My Love (abridged)
Everybody's Talking (False Start)
Gold Dust Woman (Belinda James-Lead Vocals, Karl Hudson, Guitar, Jeff Overly-Sax)
Everybody's Talking
You Can't Judge A Book By Its Cover
Come Together (Belinda James-Lead Vocals)
With Julie And The Mad Dogs-Rumors 5/26/17
Johnny B Goode
Highway To Hell
Mike Serbousek-Vocals on Johnny B Goode
Julie Gordon-Vocals on Highway To Hell
Kevin Micheal-Bass
Buddy Archbremner-Lead Guitar
Another stormy afternoon but I managed to do a half hour set of songs, another attempt to do The Promise Flower (and still fucked up on one of the verses) but it was a pretty good and spirited jam. Tim Nemec, who I jammed with at Whittier played bass on all of the songs mentioned. I'm still not entirely sold on The Promise Flower since I'm having issues with one line in that song, it sounded better in the studio than it does live.
For the most part I kept the songs to their original versions and not extended them much although I did play around with the lead on Listen To Love. For What It's Worth was done Buffalo Springfield intended it to be. Belinda cracked me up on the version of Everybody's Talking to the point that I forced her to do a version of Gold Dust Woman, (with Karl on extra guitar and Jeff Overly adding backing vocals). I do think Belinda was ready to call me on that song, she did quite well for a first time we ever done it together. Belinda was also tapped to do Come Together, we did that song at Checker's the other night and she's beginning to figure out the way that I play it, Tim on bass also picked it up, first time we ever jammed to that song. I would love to have more people take turns singing on these songs. Of course Julie is my first choice, but if she's not around then Belinda has shown she could sing too.
A singer will have their own style to fit the song and chemistry helps too. Belinda brings more of a cool type of vocals, whereas Julie goes by emotion and feel, basically she has a way that brings me to do a song a lot better than I could ever do singing it. And it seems like Gold Dust Woman became the focal song of the jams, taken from a clumsy ideal of trying to play it solo and then having Julie pick it up when I was trying to play it to her for the first time at her place a few weeks ago. I have heard her sing that song Friday Night at Rumors with Buddy playing guitar and she also has done another version of that with Bart Carfizzi on keyboards, both versions unique, but I'm biased to the point that when we play it together something comes from deep within. I think the 2nd version we tried at Checkers was the best of them all but the 3rd version got partly recorded and we managed to dub it off on cassette for something in the future. I'd rather have a complete version but that would bring me and Julie together at some recording studio for that to happen.
It's been a sad week for her, since the breakup of the Acoustic Kitties and then all of a sudden losing one of her doggies and despite all the sadness, she still manages to sing great. I would have crumbled under pressure. Since this is Memorial Day Weekend, the crowds were not there for The Mad Dogs Friday Night, nor the Bart and Jewelz show at The Frog Saturday. I was there to support the effort and not get in the way, it's her gigs and her show. Bart's wife Kathy was there as well and we managed to talk a bit and took down Bart's keyboards and PA monitor since his back surgery has not helped and he's still in chronic pain. I feel bad for him, he's doing his best trying to make it work but back pain is not fun. I've been dealing with that myself the past couple days. It's their second time out together and a few songs got redone later (guess which one). I could have made a suggestion about grabbing my guitar and help them along but that's their gig and not a jam. And not a good idea. Still, it's tough to play gigs and only have 5 to 10 people show up, and you wonder what's the point but a musician keeps going on, they consider it practice and they'll get better for the next gig. That is if they get invited back.
Which leads back to Friday Night after the gigs and everybody's packed up and ready to go home upon saying goodnight to Julie, she remarked about wanting to go do something, go out on a date. I said that I thought going to jams was kinda like a date, was it? She said not exactly. I then said well if I ask you very nice, would like you go out on a date and go somewhere (after all the last time I went out with somebody was over five years ago) and she said yes. She continues to surprise me in her own ways. I don't look at myself as just a friend to people. It's just that Julie is a musician and we share certain interests, I thought about it but never could find the right place and time to say it, but she did.
While I talk about it and think about it, it's hard to believe that I'm could ever be a part of her life even from a musician perspective. Even for 56 years, I still stumble about like a awkward teenager trying to impress her, but alas something gets in the way, I either knock over her fan she uses at her gigs, or stepping on somebody's guitar chord and things like that drives me insane. No, I never thought this would ever remotely happen again.
With Julie in this life, I'm playing better, the guys in the band are enjoying the music more and I am beginning to lose the negativeness that had been building up for many many years. And I do hope that this continues me on the right path to what's left of this life. I'll continue to stumble along the journey but I hope the longer we know each other, the more closer we can become. The music helps a lot, that's what brought us together, on stage. But I do know it will take time and I'm very much out of practice when it comes to taking somebody out on a date. I guess the best way to start at square one and go from there.
Hello, I'm Rodney Smith and I play in a band called The Townedgers...............
Thursday, 25 May 2017
GREATEST HITS: Listen To Love
Listen To Love (Smith/Redding)
You are the one that makes my dreams come true
I never thought it could ever be you
You are the reason why I stay around here
And when we're together it becomes clear
I know you're meant for me
And I know that I'm for you
I know, your eyes are showing
Your love, listen to love
I'm not in the practice of one night stands
When I take you by the hand please understand
I know it's all been said before
But if you knew my reasons, then you'll know
I know you're meant for me
And I know that I'm for you
I know, your eyes are showing
Your love, listen to love
(repeat chorus)
You are the one that makes my dreams come true
(C) 1996 Townedger Music Emporium
Originally from Light At The End Of The Tunnel, this song got resurrected on Jubilee (another attempt was done on a bootleg 2008 gig). (2017 update: I continue to mess around with the words, replacing your heart is showing with your eyes are showing before the Your Love, Listen To Love line at the end of the chorus, Geoff tells me this makes a bit more perfect sense, until I sing it and return to sing the original line of Your heart is showing, but then again has anybody seen what their heart is showing?)
Love songs are not exactly my forte and while trying to balance originals with covers at acoustic jams I been revisiting songs from the past and tweaking them and updating them. This song goes all the way back to 1996 while working on Light At The End Of The Tunnel. That album is famous for my appendicitis attack on Jan 31 and my appendix was removed. 11 days later while still nursing stitches and still half crocked on pain meds this song was recorded.
When you find somebody special, you want to shout it out to the world although most of the listeners would be indifferent or simply putting their fingers in their ears and going LA LA LA LA. I don't believe the inspiration to this song cared much of this song. My A and R person Diggy Kat, decided to make this a featured song earlier this year and I have performed this song (to mixed reactions) at local jams around town. I play and sing it since it's easy to do. It's either that or Yummy Yummy Yummy.
I like the original version better although the drum mix wasn't that great. I was using an Realistic Mic that was part of the recording process (all the way back to the days of reel to reel recording) but the usually reliable Richard Dennanbaugh under recorded the drums, a rare occasion since Richard likes the drums up front. On the 2016 Jubilee album Terry Bainbridge managed to get a better drum sound and this version is better for the radio.
Dedicated to that one true love of mine. Who ever she may be.
You are the one that makes my dreams come true
I never thought it could ever be you
You are the reason why I stay around here
And when we're together it becomes clear
I know you're meant for me
And I know that I'm for you
I know, your eyes are showing
Your love, listen to love
I'm not in the practice of one night stands
When I take you by the hand please understand
I know it's all been said before
But if you knew my reasons, then you'll know
I know you're meant for me
And I know that I'm for you
I know, your eyes are showing
Your love, listen to love
(repeat chorus)
You are the one that makes my dreams come true
(C) 1996 Townedger Music Emporium
Originally from Light At The End Of The Tunnel, this song got resurrected on Jubilee (another attempt was done on a bootleg 2008 gig). (2017 update: I continue to mess around with the words, replacing your heart is showing with your eyes are showing before the Your Love, Listen To Love line at the end of the chorus, Geoff tells me this makes a bit more perfect sense, until I sing it and return to sing the original line of Your heart is showing, but then again has anybody seen what their heart is showing?)
Love songs are not exactly my forte and while trying to balance originals with covers at acoustic jams I been revisiting songs from the past and tweaking them and updating them. This song goes all the way back to 1996 while working on Light At The End Of The Tunnel. That album is famous for my appendicitis attack on Jan 31 and my appendix was removed. 11 days later while still nursing stitches and still half crocked on pain meds this song was recorded.
When you find somebody special, you want to shout it out to the world although most of the listeners would be indifferent or simply putting their fingers in their ears and going LA LA LA LA. I don't believe the inspiration to this song cared much of this song. My A and R person Diggy Kat, decided to make this a featured song earlier this year and I have performed this song (to mixed reactions) at local jams around town. I play and sing it since it's easy to do. It's either that or Yummy Yummy Yummy.
I like the original version better although the drum mix wasn't that great. I was using an Realistic Mic that was part of the recording process (all the way back to the days of reel to reel recording) but the usually reliable Richard Dennanbaugh under recorded the drums, a rare occasion since Richard likes the drums up front. On the 2016 Jubilee album Terry Bainbridge managed to get a better drum sound and this version is better for the radio.
Dedicated to that one true love of mine. Who ever she may be.
Wednesday, 24 May 2017
Recording Session 7-Checkers Jam
Recording Logic And Lies
The 7th Session;
Production: Rodney Smith And Terry Bainbridge
Recording: Richard Dennanbaugh/R.Smith
Lately (Smith/Strobie)
The First Cut Is The Deepest (C. Stevens)
With: Geoff Redding and Mel Strobie
Lately, is a song about the end times and having too many roundabouts in town and First Cut Is The Deepest was recorded as a reference song. I'm not sure if I'll use it for the album but we never know. Mel Strobie co wrote Lately and the version of First Cut Is The Deepest the Keith Hampshire version is used.
Checkers Acoustic Jam 5/24/17 (Hosts: Lorie Parker/Cathy Spina)
The Promise Flower
I Fought The Law
Mystery Girl
Diddle Wah Diddey
Come Together (Belinda James-Vocals)
Debut of two songs from Logic And Lies. They would have been done better had I had my reading glasses and I basically faked myself through Diddle Wah Diddey. Belinda James was tapped to sing Come Together and I always like using other vocalists to do songs that I can't sing with. Come Together is one, Gold Dust Woman is the other. Certainly Julie was missed tonight, but Mark Randolph inquired about how G.D.W goes so that he and Belinda could use it in their set.
While Cathy threatened me to do another set of songs, thankfully a few more jammers came on board and I managed to play and bang on the congas, which wasn't good for my carpel tunnel issues but hell I had fun. I hope it doesn't curtail me on helping out Julie And The Mad Dogs Friday Night.
Abigail, the ten year old wonder vocalist mentioned that she's off to New York to take part in a talent show and hopefully she'll do well. She can really sing Jesus Take The Wheel and not have to use a cheat sheet. I don't know how she does it but she does a fine job. On this jam, we had a cello player and David came to play with his saxophone. I did helped out on Steve Black Wolf's version of Knockin On Heaven's Door, his hair is growing back and his mustache is beginning to take hold after stopping his chemo therapy, but he's still smoking. I guess if your time isn't long better to continue to do the things that make you happy. Even if it is smoking.
And so it goes.
Thanks to Cathy and Steve for their kind comments on last night's batch of songs, especially on Come Together to which that song Steve's guitar playing buddy commented on how I was playing the hell out of that song. Anyway, credit must be given to Belinda James for singing that song. I have some great female singers helping out on past shows, Julie Gordon does a great job, Lorie Parker and Cathy Spina likewise too. Usually, Julie Gordon is the go to person, but I have known Belinda James for over a year and she can make a song into her very own as well. She loves to sing just about anything and with Mark Randolph they make a very good duo, they have a varied songlist that goes from blues to Staind and Fever too. Abigail Bunker is very good but I don't think she knows that songs that I play. Over time as I continue to do the acoustic route, there's always a chance to work with great musicians out there and the right combination will make even an overplayed song take on new meaning. In the long run, I can trust Julie or Belinda with their vocal expertise. They're that good.
The 7th Session;
Production: Rodney Smith And Terry Bainbridge
Recording: Richard Dennanbaugh/R.Smith
Lately (Smith/Strobie)
The First Cut Is The Deepest (C. Stevens)
With: Geoff Redding and Mel Strobie
Lately, is a song about the end times and having too many roundabouts in town and First Cut Is The Deepest was recorded as a reference song. I'm not sure if I'll use it for the album but we never know. Mel Strobie co wrote Lately and the version of First Cut Is The Deepest the Keith Hampshire version is used.
Checkers Acoustic Jam 5/24/17 (Hosts: Lorie Parker/Cathy Spina)
The Promise Flower
I Fought The Law
Mystery Girl
Diddle Wah Diddey
Come Together (Belinda James-Vocals)
Debut of two songs from Logic And Lies. They would have been done better had I had my reading glasses and I basically faked myself through Diddle Wah Diddey. Belinda James was tapped to sing Come Together and I always like using other vocalists to do songs that I can't sing with. Come Together is one, Gold Dust Woman is the other. Certainly Julie was missed tonight, but Mark Randolph inquired about how G.D.W goes so that he and Belinda could use it in their set.
While Cathy threatened me to do another set of songs, thankfully a few more jammers came on board and I managed to play and bang on the congas, which wasn't good for my carpel tunnel issues but hell I had fun. I hope it doesn't curtail me on helping out Julie And The Mad Dogs Friday Night.
Abigail, the ten year old wonder vocalist mentioned that she's off to New York to take part in a talent show and hopefully she'll do well. She can really sing Jesus Take The Wheel and not have to use a cheat sheet. I don't know how she does it but she does a fine job. On this jam, we had a cello player and David came to play with his saxophone. I did helped out on Steve Black Wolf's version of Knockin On Heaven's Door, his hair is growing back and his mustache is beginning to take hold after stopping his chemo therapy, but he's still smoking. I guess if your time isn't long better to continue to do the things that make you happy. Even if it is smoking.
And so it goes.
Thanks to Cathy and Steve for their kind comments on last night's batch of songs, especially on Come Together to which that song Steve's guitar playing buddy commented on how I was playing the hell out of that song. Anyway, credit must be given to Belinda James for singing that song. I have some great female singers helping out on past shows, Julie Gordon does a great job, Lorie Parker and Cathy Spina likewise too. Usually, Julie Gordon is the go to person, but I have known Belinda James for over a year and she can make a song into her very own as well. She loves to sing just about anything and with Mark Randolph they make a very good duo, they have a varied songlist that goes from blues to Staind and Fever too. Abigail Bunker is very good but I don't think she knows that songs that I play. Over time as I continue to do the acoustic route, there's always a chance to work with great musicians out there and the right combination will make even an overplayed song take on new meaning. In the long run, I can trust Julie or Belinda with their vocal expertise. They're that good.
Sunday, 21 May 2017
Recording Session 5-Rumors Jam 5/21/17
At Hoarder House Of Hits-Anamosa IA
I worked on Logic And Lies all night trying to find the right melody to go with it and half the time I'd forget how it went. Thankfully I had the chord progression written down. I think I'm finally getting out of my depressionary state of mind and Logic And Lies (the song) really came together and I only had to do a couple takes before the overdubbing process came to be. Let It Go, is basically a blues guitar riff and I was trying to fit some lyrics to make the song work. The Promise Flower might be the best of the bunch. It's hard to tell somebody of the way you feel about them without repercussions, I know I have gone through the emotional roller coaster, the highest of the highs and then way down below, I don't recommend this to anybody. Certainly, the jams of the past couple weekends were the best and most inspired and here's hoping I can continue to do that. But it was a good thing I managed to record Let It Go and The Promise Flower, I have forgotten the melody already.
Songs:
Logic And Lies (Smith/Redding/Strobie/Daniels)
Logic And Lies (Smith/Redding/Strobie/Daniels)
Let It Go (Smith/Redding)
The Promise Flower (Smith)
Producer: Terry Bainbridge and R. Smith
Recording: Martin Daniels/R. Smith
With Geoff Redding and Mel Strobie
I worked on Logic And Lies all night trying to find the right melody to go with it and half the time I'd forget how it went. Thankfully I had the chord progression written down. I think I'm finally getting out of my depressionary state of mind and Logic And Lies (the song) really came together and I only had to do a couple takes before the overdubbing process came to be. Let It Go, is basically a blues guitar riff and I was trying to fit some lyrics to make the song work. The Promise Flower might be the best of the bunch. It's hard to tell somebody of the way you feel about them without repercussions, I know I have gone through the emotional roller coaster, the highest of the highs and then way down below, I don't recommend this to anybody. Certainly, the jams of the past couple weekends were the best and most inspired and here's hoping I can continue to do that. But it was a good thing I managed to record Let It Go and The Promise Flower, I have forgotten the melody already.
Rumors Jam:
With:
Terry McDowell (Birthday Boy)
Terry McDowell (Birthday Boy)
Karl Hudson-Guitar
Rick Clay-Guitar and Vocal on Dreams I'll Never See Again
Layne Goldsberry-Bass and Vocal on Rock And Roll All Night
Songs:
Dreams I'll Never See
Rocky Mountain Way (rejected)
Living After Midnight (attempted)
Rock And Roll All Night
A capacity crowd of musicians jammed into Rumors to celebrate Terry McDowell's birthday (on Tuesday) and I certainly didn't think I was going to play at all. Buddy wasn't too pleased with the songs he had to do. The highlight was jamming with Rick Clay on Dreams although this time out the version was a bit more rougher (Layne never played it before) but we managed to pull it together. A couple of false starts with Rocky Mountain Way (Karl didn't feel like singing it) or Living After Midnight (Karie Skogman decided not to sing it) so we ended up bashing away on Rock And Roll All Night., the KISS song that everybody plays (my first time I do believe). Not as rough as Dreams but it did rock and roll hard though. But I had a tough act to follow. Troy Mitchell, one of the best hard rock drummer played before me and he laid down some nasty bad ass beats to Hair Of The Dog. I later chatted with him and he said that Bruce Stanley's Mom passed away last week, she was in pretty bad health even before Bruce's passing but thankfully she's meeting up with her son on the great beyond.
NOTES: Greg Mein and his wife Brenda usually does a set that includes Heard It In A Love Song and The Weight, the latter song I really would love to do on my own but their version is very close to how the Band plays it, and I've jammed with them a bit at Checkers sometimes on that song. Needless the say the drummer backing them up didn't know how to play those songs, After my little song list of bashing the hell out of Terry's Drums (somehow his Rock Crash had a couple of cracks in it judging from the reflection of light off the cymbal) I chatted briefly with Greg and Brenda after they complemented on my drumming and they said they would like me to drum with them next time they do the Rumors Jam. I told them I'd be very happy to help them out next time they played at Rumors.
I also got a kick out of Terry after my set, he made a comment that I played some wild drums and I never took off my jacket either. I had to laugh on that, but I do admit, that place was like a sauna and I was working up a sweat. But some of my classic performances on drums was when I was wearing a sweat shirt or jacket. I also think I did get carried away, I bruised a knuckle on one of the drum tuners, which still hurts as I type this out.
Nevertheless, this did get me out of my depressionary state and I'm sure everybody is happy about that too.
It was two years ago, that I finally did a jam of sorts. I managed to chat up with Rod Albaugh at work and played his guitar and did a couple of songs with him. It was my first jam with anybody since the demise of I/O in 2009.
And life hasn't been the same since then.
Recording Session 6 5/22/17
Producer: Terry Bainbridge/R.Smith
Recording: R.Smith
Mystery Girl (Smith/Redding)
Richard Thompson was the inspiration of this song to which Geoff and I traded lyrics and worked them up from scratch within the hour. The melody was thought up for about three months and the only song that I could sing this to was Lee Dorsey's Ya Ya. The funny thing about recording in this day and age is how quickly these songs come to be, it used to be we would toy around it and waste 10 or 15 takes and still couldn't get the feeling of the song right. This is why I practice guitar late in the night downstairs, to tinker with the arrangement and when the next day comes and my brother's at work I can record them. Most of the songs I haven't done more than two or three takes at best. Once you start laboring on them after 10 or 15 takes then it becomes work and not much fun. I can say since Forthcoming Trains, I have managed to continue to work on songs before committing them to tape. I really do want more originals than covers, otherwise I may have to do a Wapsipinicon Dreamers Volume 2 but I'm thinking more of a title called Scratchy Records and have some local musicians come in and help out. If that's the case, then I may have to book a studio in advance. Julie Gordon has expressed a desire to work on a song or two, but I would rather have her do something original, although we did save an in progress version of Gold Dust Woman. We could do a complete version at her place (since Buddy Aschbrenner says he can record anything we do, the dude keeps deleting his Facebook page so I can't get a hold of him) but I do have a couple original ideals that she might put to good use. She's quite busy with The Mad Dogs, Dreams Of Arcadia and now Bart And Jewelz but if the stars align just right we'll work on something.
It was two years ago, that I finally did a jam of sorts. I managed to chat up with Rod Albaugh at work and played his guitar and did a couple of songs with him. It was my first jam with anybody since the demise of I/O in 2009.
And life hasn't been the same since then.
Recording Session 6 5/22/17
Producer: Terry Bainbridge/R.Smith
Recording: R.Smith
Mystery Girl (Smith/Redding)
Richard Thompson was the inspiration of this song to which Geoff and I traded lyrics and worked them up from scratch within the hour. The melody was thought up for about three months and the only song that I could sing this to was Lee Dorsey's Ya Ya. The funny thing about recording in this day and age is how quickly these songs come to be, it used to be we would toy around it and waste 10 or 15 takes and still couldn't get the feeling of the song right. This is why I practice guitar late in the night downstairs, to tinker with the arrangement and when the next day comes and my brother's at work I can record them. Most of the songs I haven't done more than two or three takes at best. Once you start laboring on them after 10 or 15 takes then it becomes work and not much fun. I can say since Forthcoming Trains, I have managed to continue to work on songs before committing them to tape. I really do want more originals than covers, otherwise I may have to do a Wapsipinicon Dreamers Volume 2 but I'm thinking more of a title called Scratchy Records and have some local musicians come in and help out. If that's the case, then I may have to book a studio in advance. Julie Gordon has expressed a desire to work on a song or two, but I would rather have her do something original, although we did save an in progress version of Gold Dust Woman. We could do a complete version at her place (since Buddy Aschbrenner says he can record anything we do, the dude keeps deleting his Facebook page so I can't get a hold of him) but I do have a couple original ideals that she might put to good use. She's quite busy with The Mad Dogs, Dreams Of Arcadia and now Bart And Jewelz but if the stars align just right we'll work on something.
Saturday, 20 May 2017
Recording Session 4-Logic And Lies
Songs:
The Way Love Used To Be (Smith/Strobie)
Cuts Like A Knife
I Fought The Law
Recorded At Hoarder House
Production by Terry Bainbridge/Rodney Smith
Recording: Martin Daniels/Rodney Smith
I've been in a down mood and somehow I seem to get the most out of this when I write dark songs.
The Way Love Used To Be was cobbled together Friday Night at work. Upon today, we started on Jimmy Brown The Newsboy but somehow the lyrics to The Way Love Used To Be worked better. Plus it enabled me to use the E to C chord as well. But it does mirror Roger Miller's version of Jimmy Brown, or was it A P Carter?
I finally came up with a workable version of Cuts Like A Knife although it does not vary much from Bryan Adams' version. But I liked having a more baritone vocal to this version. I think it fits the song better.
And then a run through on I Fought The Law, to which the version done at Checkers Wednesday Night was the version I used tonight, more Bobby Fuller than the Hank Jr version that made it on the 1998 The Art Of Deception album. Plenty of backing vocals from Mel and Geoff too.
LOGIC AND LIES
(Smith/Redding/Strobie/Daniels)
Well take a look at what we got
It may not be much but it means a lot
Your brighten smile lighten up the night
Your ecstatic kisses are my earthly delight
But do I know that you're my girl
Or are we just strangers in this world?
As I'm drowning in my insecurities
Or never knowing what's it going to be?
Oh Logic And Lies
Logic And Lies
Logic And Lies
The Way You Love Me
The more I try to get nearer to you
You get further away from my point of view
This love is not easy and that's a fact
When I get closer you read the riot act
Well I knew that the risks was going to be high
But still I thought that the timing would be right
Got too close to the flame and then I got burned
You'd think by now that I would have learned?
That Logic And Lies
Logic And Lies
Logic And Lies
Is the way you love me
Still I know there's something special here
Let's give it time and things will be clear
Just you and me but it's easy to see
I keep holding on but you're killing me
With your Logic And Lies
Logic And Lies
Logic And Lies
Is How You Love Me
(C) 2017 Townedgers Music Emporium
The Way Love Used To Be (Smith/Strobie)
Cuts Like A Knife
I Fought The Law
Recorded At Hoarder House
Production by Terry Bainbridge/Rodney Smith
Recording: Martin Daniels/Rodney Smith
I've been in a down mood and somehow I seem to get the most out of this when I write dark songs.
The Way Love Used To Be was cobbled together Friday Night at work. Upon today, we started on Jimmy Brown The Newsboy but somehow the lyrics to The Way Love Used To Be worked better. Plus it enabled me to use the E to C chord as well. But it does mirror Roger Miller's version of Jimmy Brown, or was it A P Carter?
I finally came up with a workable version of Cuts Like A Knife although it does not vary much from Bryan Adams' version. But I liked having a more baritone vocal to this version. I think it fits the song better.
And then a run through on I Fought The Law, to which the version done at Checkers Wednesday Night was the version I used tonight, more Bobby Fuller than the Hank Jr version that made it on the 1998 The Art Of Deception album. Plenty of backing vocals from Mel and Geoff too.
LOGIC AND LIES
(Smith/Redding/Strobie/Daniels)
Well take a look at what we got
It may not be much but it means a lot
Your brighten smile lighten up the night
Your ecstatic kisses are my earthly delight
But do I know that you're my girl
Or are we just strangers in this world?
As I'm drowning in my insecurities
Or never knowing what's it going to be?
Oh Logic And Lies
Logic And Lies
Logic And Lies
The Way You Love Me
The more I try to get nearer to you
You get further away from my point of view
This love is not easy and that's a fact
When I get closer you read the riot act
Well I knew that the risks was going to be high
But still I thought that the timing would be right
Got too close to the flame and then I got burned
You'd think by now that I would have learned?
That Logic And Lies
Logic And Lies
Logic And Lies
Is the way you love me
Still I know there's something special here
Let's give it time and things will be clear
Just you and me but it's easy to see
I keep holding on but you're killing me
With your Logic And Lies
Logic And Lies
Logic And Lies
Is How You Love Me
(C) 2017 Townedgers Music Emporium
Wednesday, 17 May 2017
Checkers Acoustic Jam 5/17/17 Storms In The Valley
(Anamosa Storm 5/17/17)
Setlist:
Listen To Love
I Fought The Law
Oh Death
Let's Work Together
Gold Dust Woman (Julie Gordon Vocals)
With:
Julie Gordon
Belinda James
Ryan Paul
Mark Randolph
Carl Meiners
Donna Jo Eisner
A very small crowd at Checkers due to some severe weather in the area. The participants mentioned were the only ones that showed up. Lorie Parker stayed home. The storm hit the area around 5:45 and skies were dark. Very dark. Although we did get plenty of wind and rain the tornadoes were not here, there was reports of one around Waubeek close to home. Coming home, we didn't have any damage from storms, some tree limbs down but overall we escape the wrath of the face cloud.
The highlight was Julie doing yet another great version of Gold Dust Woman and Belinda James actually did shoot a video to which she sang background vocals although she was not miked up. Smart phones will make you part of the songs selection. Julie and Ryan were the hosts of the jam and they both did a fine job. I Fought The Law makes it debut.
Later on, Julie and Ryan did their own version of Ring Of Fire, more akin to the Johnny and June version rather than the Social Distortion version of mine. Later on, I played percussion and backed Belinda and Mark up on their songs and Carl managed to do a bunch of Kris Kristofferson songs (Silver Tongued Devil, Me And Bobby McGee K.K Version and The Pilgram). Julie and Ryan concluded the jam with an encore version of Rio. I suspect since they had the name Dreams Of Arcadia they should do a Duran Duran song.
Despite the weather, a fun night.
Recording Session: Various Jams
For this, mono recordings taken from smart phones (Belinda James recorded them)
Recorded to four track recorder-R. Smith
Teri (with Jeff Overly on Sax) 5/13/17
Gold Dust Woman (With Julie Gordon, Lead Vocals, Belinda James, backing vocals, Ryan Matthew Paul: percussion) 5/17/17
5/19/17 at Hoarder House Of Hits: Anamosa IA
Producer: Terry Bainbridge and Rodney Smith
Recording: Martin Daniels.
For Shame Of Doing Wrong.
Originally I wanted to try Cuts Like A Knife but instead we messed around with I Fought The Law before trying For Shame Of Doing Wrong. Terry thought that song would be better recorded. It was done in one take. I wish the rest of the songs would be one take songs as well.
Sunday, 14 May 2017
Various Weekend Jams-Mothers Day Weekend Edition
At Gilligan's Pub (Karl Hudson: Host)
Set list:
Does It Matter
You're Gonna Miss Me
Teri (Jeff Overly-Sax)
Ring Of Fire (Jeff Overly-Sax)
Everybody's Talkin
Ever So Much (Jeff Overly-Sax)
Whittier Acoustic Jam (David Lam: Host)
With:
Belinda James
Mark Randolph
Mike Fredrichs
Rose Slaymaker
Tim Nemec
Listen To Love
Oh Death
For What It's Worth
Teri My Love
Ring Of Fire
I Hear You Knocking (David Lam/Belinda James-vocals)
With The River City Drifters At Knucklehead's Anamosa
Nick Lneicka-Guest Harmonica.
Dean Kirby-Guitarist
Mike Serbousek-Drummer
Mike Wendler-Bass
Brandon Berry-lead vocalist
Songs:
Keep Your Hands To Yourself
Folsom Prison
Sweet Home Chicago
We didn't have to work the weekend after all but I still had a full plate of jams to go to and basically I hit the ground running. For the most part, the Gilligan's set were the songs that I was going to do at Checker's before going in a different direction and this time Does It Matter and You're Gonna Miss Me made their debuts. Jeff Overly came up from Fort Madison and I used him a lot through the song list. This time out, I went with songs that I knew the words, only I stumbled on Everybody's Talking and ad libbed when I couldn't remember the words. It was a sparse crowd at Gilligan's, (Karl, Jeff, Belinda and Mark were the only participants), so the last two numbers were encore songs. The future of the Gilligan's Acoustic Jam is in doubt, there is one more but after that we don't know what's going to happened.
Julie had to work today so the version of Ring Of Fire was much different and I didn't consider anybody else to do the songs that she does sing. Not that anybody else could do the job, but she owned the version of Gold Dust Woman and it's a shame nobody recorded that. It's hard to say what will happened the next time I get the night off to go to Checkers to do the acoustic jam but whatever the case may be, Julie is my first choice. I still marvel at the way she really brought those songs we did to a whole new level.
On to Whittier for the monthly acoustic jam and this time I started things off with Listen to Love and then the debut of Oh Death. I'm not sure if people really get this song, although it's been done by Camper Van Beethoven and the Kaleidoscope, it tends to be too dark to play at acoustic jams, or for that matter other jams. To have my sort of sense of humor to even do Oh Death it may have gone over the jammers' head although I did try to explain the origins of this song. I doubt if I'll play it at Checkers anytime soon. I did also brought a snare drum to the acoustic jam just to liven things up. And I'm not sure if David really cared that much about having drums but I have to find some sort of something to keep a beat on and not just a guitar. The copper snare sound I was not happy with, I need to replace those God awful drumheads that DW put on that snare. Even with the hot rods, the drum sound got a little loud and the only time I like the drum sound was having my cheat sheets on top of the drum head. Back to the drawing board. Next time I'll bring bongos. Listen To Love was dedicated to somebody that wasn't there but was thought of and I redid Teri, thinking that the guy playing flute was going to play it but by then he packed up and was heading for the door. I closed my set list with another version of Ring Of Fire and was backed up by Tim on bass with Rose and Belinda doing backing vocals.
I promised Mike Serbousek that I would check out his new band River City Ramblers which was formed from the ashes of West 66, the guitar player and bass player was with that band along with Mike. For a debut they did quite well although the lead singer admitted he was not that familiar with the songs. Due to the lateness of the Whittier Jam, I got there around 11:00 and got to see their final set and a few of the second set, and as per course, Mike drafted me into doing a couple songs and I did three, Nick Lneicka, who usually plays the blues jams at Parlor City surprised me by being there and we hung out and chatted a while. Of course Nick had his arsenal of 30 harmonicas and put just about every one to use on the songs. As for Mike, we didn't do Johnny B Goode but I did spell him. After a five minute rest, he comes back hitting those drums a lot harder and more rocking. They did do a very loose version of Bad Motor Scooter and Mama Let Him Play. Anybody that does Doucette's song gets kudos from me. We managed to close the bar down before going home and crashing for the night.
Rumors Mother's Day Jam (Terry McDowell; Host)
Songs:
Rocky Mountain Way
Crossroads
Brown Sugar
With:
Cecie Stark-Vocals on Rocky Mountain Way
Michael Clair-Bass on Rocky Mountain Way
Dave Bonham-Guitar and Vocals
Tommy Bruner-Guitar And Vocals
Ken Webb-Bass on Crossroads and Brown Sugar
There was an attempt to do Whipping Post but since I haven't played that, the song was passed over in exchange for Crossroads. Cecie Stark did the vocals to Rocky Mountain Way and the rest was sang by Dave Bonham, who I have jammed with for the first time in quite a while. The original intention was to back Belinda James up on her songs, but she ended up getting ill so that got scrapped. The interaction between Dave and Tommy was quite good. A big surprise that Dave sang the Rolling Stones number Brown Sugar rather than Tommy. That was a rare occasion.
A funny moment was when I was playing Rocky Mountain Way, the drumstick got away from me and hit the snare drum and bounced up in the air and I managed to catch it and not miss a beat to which Mike Clair, Cecie and I share a good laugh over that. Thank our lucky stars it didn't fall on the floor. A fun performance although once again people commented on how wild I was playing on the drums. I told them this version was much more tamer than the ones I did a while ago. Compared to the crash and bash of the Paraphernalia years, it was a walk in the park for me.
Since it was Mother's Day, I didn't stick around, I had to go over to celebrate the day with my mom. With that I concluded a long weekend of endless jamming and song ideals and rehearsals. I think I'm in need of a break from that.
On that note, it was 2 years ago on Monday that the original guys from Paraphernalia/Tyrus got together at the Scoreboard in Marion when Dennis Lancaster came through town and we talked about getting back together to play. While that hasn't made into reality just yet, I have jammed with DeWayne a few times and have recently begin to get back with Russ to go over new songs. I don't hold my breath about a full reunion, Dennis makes way too much good money flying airplanes but as long as we're still alive anything is possible. However, that get together did push me back into playing drums at various jams around town and I thank the many drummers who let me bash away on their drumsets and of course Terry McDowell most of all. But in December I decided to try the acoustic guitar jams and found myself in a whole new concept of playing now. While I have yet to be fully satisfied on my guitar playing, I have managed to do more and more originals to the covers when I play live. It's still a work in progress and I make no guarantees that this time next year I'll still be jamming. I do have a small support group of musicians that really helped me along the way. Without their encouragement, I'd be still hiding inside my music room upstairs. But I am coming out and playing more songs, even though they might be a bit eccentric and a bit more droll than say Wonderful Tonight. I dare anybody out there to follow up a hymn like Jesus Loves Me to a song like Oh Death. I may break barriers for new songs but I want to do songs that nobody will play. If it don't work, we can file it away but it is the eclectic side of me that I would love to explore more in the forthcoming weeks, and to challenge myself with new music, and perhaps find another voice to help me explore new music and what I can play. And I think I have found the perfect voice Wednesday Night. It's a long road but you gotta start from somewhere to get anywhere. But so far I'm enjoying this ride for a change.
(2 years ago, one of the high school girls I dated, eventually reunited and married Karl and the reception was held at the same place where Paraphernalia/Tyrus staged their reunion. You would think that the third time would be a charm, but even high school sweethearts are not what they used to be. I wish both them the best of luck in their endeavors in life)
Set list:
Does It Matter
You're Gonna Miss Me
Teri (Jeff Overly-Sax)
Ring Of Fire (Jeff Overly-Sax)
Everybody's Talkin
Ever So Much (Jeff Overly-Sax)
Whittier Acoustic Jam (David Lam: Host)
With:
Belinda James
Mark Randolph
Mike Fredrichs
Rose Slaymaker
Tim Nemec
Listen To Love
Oh Death
For What It's Worth
Teri My Love
Ring Of Fire
I Hear You Knocking (David Lam/Belinda James-vocals)
With The River City Drifters At Knucklehead's Anamosa
Nick Lneicka-Guest Harmonica.
Dean Kirby-Guitarist
Mike Serbousek-Drummer
Mike Wendler-Bass
Brandon Berry-lead vocalist
Songs:
Keep Your Hands To Yourself
Folsom Prison
Sweet Home Chicago
We didn't have to work the weekend after all but I still had a full plate of jams to go to and basically I hit the ground running. For the most part, the Gilligan's set were the songs that I was going to do at Checker's before going in a different direction and this time Does It Matter and You're Gonna Miss Me made their debuts. Jeff Overly came up from Fort Madison and I used him a lot through the song list. This time out, I went with songs that I knew the words, only I stumbled on Everybody's Talking and ad libbed when I couldn't remember the words. It was a sparse crowd at Gilligan's, (Karl, Jeff, Belinda and Mark were the only participants), so the last two numbers were encore songs. The future of the Gilligan's Acoustic Jam is in doubt, there is one more but after that we don't know what's going to happened.
Julie had to work today so the version of Ring Of Fire was much different and I didn't consider anybody else to do the songs that she does sing. Not that anybody else could do the job, but she owned the version of Gold Dust Woman and it's a shame nobody recorded that. It's hard to say what will happened the next time I get the night off to go to Checkers to do the acoustic jam but whatever the case may be, Julie is my first choice. I still marvel at the way she really brought those songs we did to a whole new level.
On to Whittier for the monthly acoustic jam and this time I started things off with Listen to Love and then the debut of Oh Death. I'm not sure if people really get this song, although it's been done by Camper Van Beethoven and the Kaleidoscope, it tends to be too dark to play at acoustic jams, or for that matter other jams. To have my sort of sense of humor to even do Oh Death it may have gone over the jammers' head although I did try to explain the origins of this song. I doubt if I'll play it at Checkers anytime soon. I did also brought a snare drum to the acoustic jam just to liven things up. And I'm not sure if David really cared that much about having drums but I have to find some sort of something to keep a beat on and not just a guitar. The copper snare sound I was not happy with, I need to replace those God awful drumheads that DW put on that snare. Even with the hot rods, the drum sound got a little loud and the only time I like the drum sound was having my cheat sheets on top of the drum head. Back to the drawing board. Next time I'll bring bongos. Listen To Love was dedicated to somebody that wasn't there but was thought of and I redid Teri, thinking that the guy playing flute was going to play it but by then he packed up and was heading for the door. I closed my set list with another version of Ring Of Fire and was backed up by Tim on bass with Rose and Belinda doing backing vocals.
I promised Mike Serbousek that I would check out his new band River City Ramblers which was formed from the ashes of West 66, the guitar player and bass player was with that band along with Mike. For a debut they did quite well although the lead singer admitted he was not that familiar with the songs. Due to the lateness of the Whittier Jam, I got there around 11:00 and got to see their final set and a few of the second set, and as per course, Mike drafted me into doing a couple songs and I did three, Nick Lneicka, who usually plays the blues jams at Parlor City surprised me by being there and we hung out and chatted a while. Of course Nick had his arsenal of 30 harmonicas and put just about every one to use on the songs. As for Mike, we didn't do Johnny B Goode but I did spell him. After a five minute rest, he comes back hitting those drums a lot harder and more rocking. They did do a very loose version of Bad Motor Scooter and Mama Let Him Play. Anybody that does Doucette's song gets kudos from me. We managed to close the bar down before going home and crashing for the night.
Rumors Mother's Day Jam (Terry McDowell; Host)
Songs:
Rocky Mountain Way
Crossroads
Brown Sugar
With:
Cecie Stark-Vocals on Rocky Mountain Way
Michael Clair-Bass on Rocky Mountain Way
Dave Bonham-Guitar and Vocals
Tommy Bruner-Guitar And Vocals
Ken Webb-Bass on Crossroads and Brown Sugar
There was an attempt to do Whipping Post but since I haven't played that, the song was passed over in exchange for Crossroads. Cecie Stark did the vocals to Rocky Mountain Way and the rest was sang by Dave Bonham, who I have jammed with for the first time in quite a while. The original intention was to back Belinda James up on her songs, but she ended up getting ill so that got scrapped. The interaction between Dave and Tommy was quite good. A big surprise that Dave sang the Rolling Stones number Brown Sugar rather than Tommy. That was a rare occasion.
A funny moment was when I was playing Rocky Mountain Way, the drumstick got away from me and hit the snare drum and bounced up in the air and I managed to catch it and not miss a beat to which Mike Clair, Cecie and I share a good laugh over that. Thank our lucky stars it didn't fall on the floor. A fun performance although once again people commented on how wild I was playing on the drums. I told them this version was much more tamer than the ones I did a while ago. Compared to the crash and bash of the Paraphernalia years, it was a walk in the park for me.
Since it was Mother's Day, I didn't stick around, I had to go over to celebrate the day with my mom. With that I concluded a long weekend of endless jamming and song ideals and rehearsals. I think I'm in need of a break from that.
On that note, it was 2 years ago on Monday that the original guys from Paraphernalia/Tyrus got together at the Scoreboard in Marion when Dennis Lancaster came through town and we talked about getting back together to play. While that hasn't made into reality just yet, I have jammed with DeWayne a few times and have recently begin to get back with Russ to go over new songs. I don't hold my breath about a full reunion, Dennis makes way too much good money flying airplanes but as long as we're still alive anything is possible. However, that get together did push me back into playing drums at various jams around town and I thank the many drummers who let me bash away on their drumsets and of course Terry McDowell most of all. But in December I decided to try the acoustic guitar jams and found myself in a whole new concept of playing now. While I have yet to be fully satisfied on my guitar playing, I have managed to do more and more originals to the covers when I play live. It's still a work in progress and I make no guarantees that this time next year I'll still be jamming. I do have a small support group of musicians that really helped me along the way. Without their encouragement, I'd be still hiding inside my music room upstairs. But I am coming out and playing more songs, even though they might be a bit eccentric and a bit more droll than say Wonderful Tonight. I dare anybody out there to follow up a hymn like Jesus Loves Me to a song like Oh Death. I may break barriers for new songs but I want to do songs that nobody will play. If it don't work, we can file it away but it is the eclectic side of me that I would love to explore more in the forthcoming weeks, and to challenge myself with new music, and perhaps find another voice to help me explore new music and what I can play. And I think I have found the perfect voice Wednesday Night. It's a long road but you gotta start from somewhere to get anywhere. But so far I'm enjoying this ride for a change.
(2 years ago, one of the high school girls I dated, eventually reunited and married Karl and the reception was held at the same place where Paraphernalia/Tyrus staged their reunion. You would think that the third time would be a charm, but even high school sweethearts are not what they used to be. I wish both them the best of luck in their endeavors in life)
Wednesday, 10 May 2017
Checker's Acoustic Jam 5/10/17-Somewhere Johnny And June Are Smiling
Song-list:
That's All Right (Skip Richards: vocals)
Good Lovin/La Bamba
Ring Of Fire
If I Were A Carpenter
Gold Dust Woman (Julie Gordon: lead vocals)
With:
Dan Hartman-Guitar (That's All Right)
Skip Richards-Bass (all songs)
And
Julie Gordon-Backing and lead vocals
Lorie Parker-Backing vocals
Tom: Congas
Rick Wagle: Congas on Gold Dust Woman
Upon on going over songs to do at the jam tonight, I wanted to debut You're Gonna Miss Me but since when I got up there, Skip and Dan went into That's All Right so I sang backup to them. I helped out Belinda, Mark and his son on a couple of originals that he did plus Fever.
I scrapped the originals in favor of improvising on Good Lovin/La Bamba, since I felt they would be more fun than You're Gonna Miss Me, or Does It Matter. And of course, Skip picked things up as they happened, even with my unpredictability and continuing to tinker with songs. Dan took over for Cathy Hartman. It's funny how Julie and I talked about Johnny And June last time we got together and I didn't figure how things happened till I just took a look at the set list and realized that Ring Of Fire and Carpenter were done by Johnny And June. Had I known that Julie was going to help sing this song we could have dusted off Johnny and June's version. I was undecided on the next song and debated to do Everybody's Talking but then I just did the riff to Carpenter and went from there. I think that riff did throw Skip off a bit but nobody else does that riff.
Two weeks ago, I didn't play guitar but did provide the beat to the songs at hand and didn't think much about playing guitar but this time I wanted to try some new songs, new ideas and where they may lead. Basically with my situation at place of employment, I have become disgusted on how things are turning out to be and while practicing today, I simply took the guitar and despite our place being busy, wanted to go play rather dealing with machines. I would have loved to take Rod Albaugh with me to help out but since he's supporting the scanners and such that was out of the question. However, I made no announcements about coming to the jam till about 6:55 when I P.M'ed Julie that I was going to have her sing on Gold Dust Woman. I have no doubt that Kimberly Trevallion (who was there) could sing it or Belinda too and they would have done a good job. But I know Julie can sing it just like Stevie Nicks, therefore I wanted her to sing it. And she came through. As always. And as I continue to work with Julie on songs the hope is continue to find suitable songs that we could trade vocals. And the more comfortable I'm around her, the more songs we can together, maybe tapping into the Richard And Linda Thompson songbook as well. I'm sure she can bring some sort of counterpoint to For Shame Of Doing Wrong.
Kimberly sings with Blue Scratch and she's more of a shouter which goes great with some songs. Blues songs is her specialty. But even as a Facebook friend, we have yet to chat and I didn't get the chance to do that when she stopped at the bar to sing. She did do Sweet Home Chicago and Drift Away and Gimme One More Chance.
I would say Gold Dust Woman was the highlight of our songs of the night, and Julie really tore into it, especially at the end, where I should have extended it out and have her really get into it. It's strange that we haven't played together but for a couple weeks at best but somehow she has managed to anticipate what I'm going to do next, even when I don't know when I'm going to do next.
For a debut of new songs, I think somewhere Johnny and June are smiling.
(Photo: Kevin Simnacher Rumors Jam 5/7/17)
Sunday, 7 May 2017
Wess Side Jam 5-7-17
We have come a long way from 2015, when I decided to do the jams around town, and then onward to the acoustic jams in December. I'm not making money at all but at least I'm living the dream of doing my own music.
While the past weekend was spent working, I was rehearsing songs and even crashed Julie's house the other day to wow her with a version of Gold Dust Woman. I've never played it live before and she was kind enough to put up with my antics and sent me with leftovers from the lunch that we had the other day. She even let me use her Martin guitar to play the opening riffs. I was nervous as hell and still trying to play around with the opening, when she sang the opening verse and I quietly helped do the chorus lyrics later on. It's beautifully strange to practice this song off and on for the past couple weeks, and we never played it together but the way Julie sang it, it seems like we were playing this song forever. I did joked with her about maybe doing something off the wall and called it Scratchy Records, and she liked the idea. I'm not sure if I can capture the magic of the Acousta Kitties or even Dreams Of Arcadia but it would be a departure from what she might be doing.
She's been mighty good to me in the time of playing music, she's always smiling and upbeat, even on down days, she manages a big smile and has slowly been chipping away from the negativity that has been a part of this life. I think she's reinventing me into a more positive person on things in life.
(Diggy Kat: A n R person for my music, illustrated by Alan Wild Matthews from U and Us)
For the most part Diggy Kat has been playing plenty of songs from the Jubilee album and has done a great job promoting the record although sales have been as good as the last ten albums. Non existent. Kudos to him for playing our version of The End by The Doors.
(Photo: Kevin Simnacher. L to R: Kenneth John Webb, Mitch Smith, Michael Clair)
(We have dancers in the crowd, which is why you don't see Bart nor me)
Wess Side Jam-Rumors 5/7/17
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PQsqz2c9Tac
With
Mike Clair-Guitar and Vocals
Bart Carfizzi-Keyboards and Vocals
Mitch Smith-Saxophone and Vocals
Kenneth John Webb-Bass
Rodney Smith-Drums
Terry McDowell-Host
Songs:
Call Me The Breeze (Vocals: Mitch and Mike)
Sweet Home Chicago Jam (Vocals Mike and Mitch)
Runaway (Vocals: Bart)
The original keyboard player didn't show up, so Bart took over in his spot. I think there was more of a jam vibe in all of the songs including Runaway. The highlight was the banter between Mitch and Mike Clair when Mike popped up to play (replacing Kevin Simnacher), and forgo Sweet Home Alabama in exchange for Chicago, which had great interaction between him and Mitch. I left soon after to take in some sunshine down at New Bo but overall, it was a fun jam. As always.
(Photo: Kevin Simnacher)
While the past weekend was spent working, I was rehearsing songs and even crashed Julie's house the other day to wow her with a version of Gold Dust Woman. I've never played it live before and she was kind enough to put up with my antics and sent me with leftovers from the lunch that we had the other day. She even let me use her Martin guitar to play the opening riffs. I was nervous as hell and still trying to play around with the opening, when she sang the opening verse and I quietly helped do the chorus lyrics later on. It's beautifully strange to practice this song off and on for the past couple weeks, and we never played it together but the way Julie sang it, it seems like we were playing this song forever. I did joked with her about maybe doing something off the wall and called it Scratchy Records, and she liked the idea. I'm not sure if I can capture the magic of the Acousta Kitties or even Dreams Of Arcadia but it would be a departure from what she might be doing.
She's been mighty good to me in the time of playing music, she's always smiling and upbeat, even on down days, she manages a big smile and has slowly been chipping away from the negativity that has been a part of this life. I think she's reinventing me into a more positive person on things in life.
(Diggy Kat: A n R person for my music, illustrated by Alan Wild Matthews from U and Us)
For the most part Diggy Kat has been playing plenty of songs from the Jubilee album and has done a great job promoting the record although sales have been as good as the last ten albums. Non existent. Kudos to him for playing our version of The End by The Doors.
(Photo: Kevin Simnacher. L to R: Kenneth John Webb, Mitch Smith, Michael Clair)
(We have dancers in the crowd, which is why you don't see Bart nor me)
Wess Side Jam-Rumors 5/7/17
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PQsqz2c9Tac
With
Mike Clair-Guitar and Vocals
Bart Carfizzi-Keyboards and Vocals
Mitch Smith-Saxophone and Vocals
Kenneth John Webb-Bass
Rodney Smith-Drums
Terry McDowell-Host
Songs:
Call Me The Breeze (Vocals: Mitch and Mike)
Sweet Home Chicago Jam (Vocals Mike and Mitch)
Runaway (Vocals: Bart)
The original keyboard player didn't show up, so Bart took over in his spot. I think there was more of a jam vibe in all of the songs including Runaway. The highlight was the banter between Mitch and Mike Clair when Mike popped up to play (replacing Kevin Simnacher), and forgo Sweet Home Alabama in exchange for Chicago, which had great interaction between him and Mitch. I left soon after to take in some sunshine down at New Bo but overall, it was a fun jam. As always.
(Photo: Kevin Simnacher)
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