LOCAL TALENT - ARDEN, DELAWARE - LESLIE CAREY

There are local music scene's in every medium to large sized town in the U.S. Often centered around a college campus or large urban area these scenes change every few years and if they are lucky one or two acts break through onto the national radar every so often.

The village of Arden, DE is a very unique community. Tucked into the suburbs just two miles north on I-95 from downtown Wilmington, this small, wooded burg has been home to artisans, sculptors, painters, musicians, writers, and thespians since the late 1800s when it began as a vacation community for creative people from Philadelphia, approximately 20 Miles NE. They came and enjoyed the beautiful creeks and wooded glens that ran down to the Delaware River.

Singer/songwriter Richard Julian grew up here and has since gone on to acclaim as one of the brightest lights on the current AAA radio playlists. His work with side project The Little Willie's brought him even wider attention due to his friend Norah Jones' participation. The group featured takes on classic country tunes and western swing material many of which he may have heard initially from the local group, The Sin City Band now celebrating three decades plus on the DE music scene. Sin City's many appearances on the stages of Arden have endeared them to residents here for many years.

Every year the Arden Fair features not only the most popular area bands in the Shady Grove beer garden in September, but also stages an Arden Music Festival earlier in the year. Many of the local performers you see here graduate to opening slot positions in the Gild Hall put on seasonally by the Arden Concert Gild. National performers such as Bela Fleck & Tony Trischka, Richard Thompson, Sonny Landreth, Jerry Douglass, Chris Smither, Alejandro Escovedo as well as renowned world music, jazz, dance acts have graced the comfy confines of the Gild Hall.

On any given night around sunset, walking through the traffic free, flower strewn lanes throughout the town, you can hear banjo from Pete Renzetti's deck or guitar chords strummed from the window of Brad Riesau's second floor dwelling as well as from any number of neighborhood bonfires where voices join together in song.

One local Arden artist who has performed at most of the venues in town is a wonderful singer-songwriter, Leslie Carey. A music teacher to many of the kids in Arden, and throughout the Wilmington area, Ms. Carey has been performing on the scene since shortly after high school. She is a songwriter of great facility and an engaging live performer as exhibited in her recent set at the nearby Bellefonte Cafe.




Above: Leslie Carey accompanied by Brad Riesau at the Bellefonte Cafe, Bellefonte, DE Oct. 17, 2009...the song is LITTLE STEP words & music by Leslie Carey (c) Leslie Carey

She performed two sets of well-drawn originals and carefully selected cover tunes by the likes of Simon & Garfunkel, Nanci Griffith, Randy Newman and Coldplay.

Leslie Carey's own lyrics come from the heart of of poet--keen observation and subtle grace full of rhythmic and melodic twists and turns, always getting to the heart of the human condition.

Influenced by everyone from Joni Mitchell to Nickel Creek to Mary Chapin Carpenter, her music is subtle and stirring and brimming with intellect. Her piano tunes (she also accompanies herself on guitar) are less pretentious but as stirring as the best of Sarah McLachlan. Folkie yet modern. Check her out.

NOTHING MUCH ELSE TO SAY

KANYE, KANYE, KANYE

How can I not post this...first of all Kanye West is one of the most talented of the post-P-Diddy pop stars. But this guy needs to stay home or get himself into a AA program. Something is missing when one of the most popular stars of his generation is so desperate for attention that he thinks getting up and acting like an ass consistently is a good thing. But then again, it makes for a field day for YouTube auteurs...


clips of Kanye's stupidity...

MTV Shows

UTAH PHILLIPS

I just received a not from Clint, an old friend from grade school and he mentioned Utah Phillips. Now Bruce "U. Utah" Phillips was a folksinger, he was a Union man, a father and he was a human being. All that other stuff is fine but this covers a good batch of the important stuff. He passed away in 2008 and I stumbled across his blog which has been continued on by his son, Duncan. It brought back many fond memories of the man and his music and his heart.

I'll share my slightly edited comments with you below that I wrote to Duncan and his readers back then...So go listen to Utah Phillips and more importantly, go live like him...with passion and grit and standing up for what YOU believe in..Amen.


Brad Riesau said...

I played Bruce's I HAD A MULE on July 4th at a beautiful outdoor gig and I hadn't sung it since the late 70s so I searched online for the words which I never came up with.

But, alas, I read the news of his passing and I was saddened greatly and almost immediately filled with great joy of having not only experienced his incredible rapport as a member of an audience numerous times over the years but also touched personally by his grace and sincerity as a human being.

I was a young college student at SDSU in the late 70s and was on the Cultural Arts Board that worked with San Diego folk supporter Lou Curtiss to book what was a gem of a little annual Folk Festival.

The first year I was involved Utah was one of the headliners. After speaking with him briefly before one of the afternoon workshops I was completely taken with the direct and passionate focus he had with each and every person he met as well as his inate ability to touch folks on a very personal but universal level whether conversing casually or in the spotlight onstage.

Also on the bill was Kate Wolf who was as gracious as a person could be to an enamored guitar player (me) who was scrawling down lyrics to tunes as she sang them. I had the audacity to ask her if they were correct as she came off stage. She was sweet enough to offer to show me the chords right then and there. The song was A LEGEND IN HIS TIME which on hearing it now seems to fit Bruce as well.

In the years since, I have worked as a publicist for many fine musicians including Willie Nelson in whom I have also witnessed this kind of graciousness and connection on a one-to-one basis with his fans. And I always recalled the first time I ever saw the wall between stage and audience fall away, when I first realized through Utah and Kate that the reason these great talents were so magnificent was that they were just good folks like the rest of us; folks with families, folks that cared about other people, folks that spent their time sharing good thoughts and good messages and good sense with other good folks.

Here's to good folks.
July 8, 2008 2:31 AM

MUSIC THAT CHANGED MY LIFE pt.1

The Non-Jazz, Non-Blues Albums That Changed My Life, part one

So these are not desert island discs per se, unless of course I had a huge solar driven cell for my iPOD or a hut full of shelves for my vinyl...These records represent big slices of time and memory, connection and discovery. And yeah, I own them all and rarely listen to many of them but I know they are there and most importantly, I know how they make me feel, even just the recalling of the sounds within them...so in no particular order, off the top of my head. Inspired by Rob Grant.

Beatles – every Beatles album in order of release, American versions
David Crosby – If I Could Only Remember My Name
Bob Dylan – Great White Wonder; Blonde on Blonde; Bringing It All Back Home; Blood on the Tracks; Desire; Time Out of Mind
Van Morrison – St. Dominic’s Preview; Common One; Moondance
Gram Parsons – Grievous Angel
Beach Boys – Pet Sounds
Stephen Stills & Manassas - self-titled
Joni Mitchell – Hejira; Don Juan’s Reckless Daughter; Blue
Neil Young – On The Beach; Harvest; Time Fades Away; Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere; Comes A Time; Tonight’s The Night…for starters
Willie Nelson – Sings Kristofferson; Red Headed Stranger; Teatro
Bob Marley & The Wailers – Burnin’; Catch A Fire; Exodus; Natty Dread; Rastaman Vibrations
The Dream Syndicate - Medicine Show; The Days of Wine & Roses
Ryan Adams - Cold Roses; Easy Tiger; jacksonville City Nights; Gold
Graham Nash – Songs For Beginners; Wild Tales
Eric Clapton – 461 Ocean Blvd.
Wilco - Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, Sky Blue Sky
The Who – Meaty, Beaty, Big & Bouncy; Live at Leeds; Tommy; Quadrophenia; Who’s Next
Elvis Costello - My Aim Is True; King Of America; Imperial Bedroom
David Bowie – The Rise & Fall of Ziggy Stardust; Station To Station; Aladdin Sane
The Grateful Dead - Skull and Roses; American Beauty; Workingman's Dead; Europe '72; One From the Vaults
Rain Parade - Emergency Third Rail Power Trip
Uncle Tupelo - Anondyne
Crosby, Stills & Nash – self-titled (1st album)
Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young – Déjà vu; Four Way Street
Creedence Clearwater Revival – Green River; Born On the Bayou
Spiritualized -- Ladies and Gentlemen, We Are Floating in Space
Opal - Happy Nightmare Baby
Lou Reed – The Blue Mask
Jerry Garcia - Garcia
Fear - The Record
Whiskeytown - Stranger's Almanac
Simon & Garfunkel – Bookends; Bridge Over Troubled Water
George Harrison – All Things Must Pass; Concert For Bangladesh; Living in the Material World
Patti Smith – Horses
Old & In The Way - self-titled
Top Jimmy & The Rhythm Pigs – Pigus, Drunkus, Maximus
Peter Tosh – Equal Rights; Legalize It
Dwight Yoakam - Guitars, Cadillacs, Etc. Etc
The Blasters -- The Blasters
Neville Bros - Nevillization, Fiyo On the Bayou
X – Los Angeles, Wild Gift
Aretha Franklin – that there isnt a boxed set is a sin..so Young, Gifted & Black; At Fillmore West; I Never Loved A Man...
Velvet Underground & Nico
Rock n Roll Gumbo – Professor Longhair
James Taylor – Sweet Baby James
Al Green – Call Me, I’m Still In Love With You
John Mayall – Turning Point
The Kinks – Schoolboys In Disgrace
Stevie Wonder – Innervisions, Anthology, Songs in the Key of Life
Marvin Gaye – What’s Goin’ On, Let’s Get It On, Anthology
Massive Attack -- Mezzanine
Bruce Springsteen - The Wild The Innocent & the E Street Shuffle, Born to Run, Nebraska
Todd Rundgren – Something/Anything
Violent Femmes - selt-titled
R.E.M. -- Reckoning
Talking Heads – Fear of Music
Steely Dan – Countdown To Ecstasy, Pretzel Logic
Prince - 1999
Jefferson Airplane – Crown of Creation, Surrealistic Pillow, Volunteers
The Pretenders – The Pretenders, Learning To Crawl
Public Enemy -- Fear of a Black Planet
Dusty Springfield – Dusty In Memphis
Brian Eno – Apollo sdtk
Jimi Hendrix – Axis Bold As Love, Band of Gypsys, Electric Ladyland
Elton John – Madman Across The Water, Honky Chateau
The Clash – Sandinista
My Bloody Valentine -- Loveless
Los Lobos -- How Will The Wolf Survive; La Pistola y El Corozon; The Neighborhood; and basically all of the rest
Carole King – Tapestry
Dr. Dre -- The Chronic
Merle Haggard – That’s The Way Love Goes
Roxy Music – Avalon
Santana – Caravansari, Abraxas
The Byrds – Greatests Hits, Untitled
Buffalo Springfield – Retrospective
The Pogues -- Rum, Sodomy & The Lash
Husker Du - New Day Rising
Pink Floyd - Dark Side Of The Moon, Wish You Were Here
Cream - Disraeli Gears, Wheels of Fire
Derek & The Dominos – Layla & Other Assorted Love Songs
Big Brother & The Holding Company – Cheap Thrills
The Minutemen - Double Nickels On The Dime
Sonic Youth – Daydream Nation
Led Zeppelin - II, IV, Houses of the Holy
Jethro Tull – Aqualung
Allman Brothers Band – At Fillmore East, Eat A Peach
Duane Allman -- Anthology
James Brown - Love Power Peace
John Lennon – Imagine, Plastic Ono Band
John Lennon & Yoko Ono – Double Fantasy
King Crimson - Discipline
Tom Waits – Nighthawks at the Diner, Foreign Affair, Small Change
Smokey Robinson & the Miracles – Anthology
The Band - Big Pink, The Band, Northern lights Southern Cross
The Doors – The Doors. L.A. Woman
Frank Zappa - Overnight Sensation
Nilsson -- Nilsson Schmilsson
John David Souther – Black Rose
Ramone – Ramones
Buddy Holly – 20 Golden Greats
Dr. John – Gumbo
King Sunny Ade -- Juju Music
Jane's Addiction -- Nothing's Shocking
The Eagles – The Eagles, Hotel California
Richard Thompson – Hand of Kindness
Richard & Linda Thompson – Shoot Out The Lights
Spacemen 3 -- Playing With Fire
Meat Puppets -- Up On The Sun
Red Hot Chili Peppers – BloodSugarSexMagik
The Temptations – Anthology
The Police – Synchronicity
Stone Temple Pilots - Tiny Music..Songs from the Vatican Gift Shop
Steve Earle -- Guitar Town
Sam Cooke – The Best of…
Linda Ronstadt – A Heart Like A Wheel
John Prine – Common Sense
T-Bone Burnett – self-titled
Paul Simon – There Goes Rhymin’ Simon, Graceland
Chuck Berry – Chess Box
Big Star -- #1 Record
Green On Red -- Gas Food Lodging
ELO -- Eldorado
Various Artists -- Phil Spector: Back To Mono 1958-1969
The Rolling Stones – Sticky Fingers, Let It Bleed, Exile On Main St, Beggar’s Banquet..etc.
Rod Stewart – Every Picture Tells A Story
Johnny Winter – Still Alive & Well
Television - Marquee Moon
Fela Anikulapo Kuti & Africa '70 -- Expensive Shit
Nirvana – Nevermind
Yes - Close To The Edge; The Yes Album
Sly and the Family Stone – Greatest Hits
Jackson Browne – Late For the Sky, For Everyman
Parliament - One Nation Under A Groove, Mothership Connection
Emmylou Harris - Luxury Liner; Elite Hotel
Guy Clark - Old No. 1; Old Friends; Keepers
Townes Van Zandt - Live at The Old Quarter, Boston; The Late, Great Townes Van Zandt
Joe Ely - Live Shots; Musta Notta Gotta Lotta
Elvis Presley - Sun Sessions; The Memphis Record

please stop me before I lose my mind...

coming soon...the jazz and blues list..

TONY RICE

One of the beautiful things about lugging this humongous music collection around with me for 40 years is that every once and awhile I dig something up that not only takes me back to those first moments when some attractive new sound or song or style pinned me to the wall and forced me to re-investigate what all of this vibration of air was all about but also brings me a bit of fresh perspective about the timelessness of great music.

I remember distinctly the first time I heard bluegrass cross-picking master Tony Rice. I was working at San Diego State on the Cultural Arts Board, and our gig was to spend the University's money booking music, poetry, lectures and such onto campus for the edification and entertainment of the student body. I'll dive into that whole scene in a devoted blog at some later date but for now, let's just say we got a ton of music to whittle our way through each month to plan the semester ahead.

One LP that came across my desk was by a guy whose name I knew from my time in the trenches as a fledgling Dead Head--mandolinist David Grisman. I'd only heard his album with Old & In The Way at this point which was at the time the biggest selling bluegrass record in history thanks to the fact the the Grateful Dead's centerpiece Jerry Garcia was the resident banjoist in the band. So this album, along with the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band's groundbreaking release Will the Circle Be Unbroken were about all the average rock n roll fan knew of bluegrass and traditional country music.

So when I popped on Grisman's then new release, HOT DAWG, I was floored. Not only was this my first exposure to the legendary violinist Stephane Grappelli, and Grisman Quintet bandmates Mike Marshall, Darol Anger, Todd Philips, and a guitar player who caught my ear and did not let go for a long tie tehreafter, the amazing Tony Rice.

This was not only an album of impeccable playing and arranging but it swung like crazy and set the stage for what would soon be called the New Acoustic movement melding bluegrass instrumentation, dexterity and speed, the swinging harmonies of the 30s music of the Hot Club of France, and an ear for great melodies and outrageous instrumental chops but also the open-minded and expansive repertoire that would change the face of acoustic music for years to come.

And in the middle of the mind-blowing record was the sheer stunning beauty of Tony Rice's fingerpicking. The fluidity and far-ranging and daring choices upped the ante on the great crosspickers of the previous two generations, Doc Watson, and Clarence White, both innovators in their own right. There were subtle nods to Charlie Christian, to the great jazz plectrists of the bop and post-bop eras but all within the context a a folky bluegrass root system.

As a fledgling guitarist who knew all the chords that flew by on his left hand, there was no hope of my understanding just what that miraculous right hand was up to. Like trying to watch a hummingbird's wings. Pointless. The difficulty of playing cleanly and quickly on the acoustic guitar is quite a bit more extraordinarily difficult than on the electric where you allow the volume and tone to do much of the work for you.

Like the first time I heard Jim Hall's album CONCIERTO or Bola Sete's exemplary OCEANS: SOLO GUITAR VOL. 1, I immediately knew I was hearing music that would remain a major part of my life's soundtrack from then on. All three of these records make my Desert Island selections, no question.

Funny thing is, I don't recall whether we booked the band with Tony or not though I remember going up to the Biltmore in L.A. for a booking convention and being floored by the DGQ as well as laughing my ass of to a then-funny unknown comic named Jay Leno. We did have the DGQ at SDSU in the next year or so, I believe.

So today listening to an advance of a wonderful new CD by guitarist Clay Ross, I heard his rendition of Norman Blake's "Church Street Blues" and was taken back to the recorded version by Rice. I listened it twice and on a whim headed to YouTube to see if I could get a glimpse of the hummingbird's right hand. After the third pass, I manually closed my gaping maw and moved on to the wonderful exploratory solo version of the folk classic "Shenandoah" and then onto one of Rice's favorite cover tunes, Gordon Lightfoot's "Cold On The Shoulder". Rice no longer sings so some of these videos are a tad sad for me but the smoothness of his right hand as he arpeggiates some of thes perfectly timed runs is truly a blessing to rediscover.

Enjoy and pick up any of Tony Rice's music. You can't go wrong

Buy HOT DAWG cheap here! Do not wait! Get it Now!


CHURCH STREET BLUES - Tony Rice solo guitar and vocal


DAVID GRISMAN QUARTET "E.M.D." Grisman/Rice/Mark O'Connor/Rob Wasserman


SHENANDOAH - Tony solo from the film Bluegrass Journey



BLUE RAILROAD TRAIN - Tony w/ Mark O'Connor, Jerry Douglas, Sam Bush and Ronnie Simpkins


A blistering FREEBORN MAN for you bluegrass fans out there...Tony, Bela FLeck, Jerry Douglas, Mark O'Connor, Sam Bush...


COLD ON THE SHOULDER w/ Tony, Jerry Douglas, John Hartford, Vassar Clements, Mark O'Connor, Roy Huskey, Jr.

BESTS OF 2008 - Movies, Music, Food, Concerts...

FAVORITE FILMS OF 2008
Saw 278+ movies in 2008, close to 70 in theaters

SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE
THE FALL (though I think it was officially released earlier)
THE CHILDREN OF HUANG SHI
IN BRUGES
CHOKE
RACHEL GETTING MARRIED
TOWELHEAD
TELL NO ONE
WHAT JUST HAPPENED
BURN AFTER READING
THE DARK KNIGHT
STEP BROTHERS
A GIRL CUT IN TWO
TROUBLE THE WATER
VANTAGE POINT
VICKY CHRISTINA BARCELONA

FAVORITE CDs OF 2008

Ryan Adams & The Cardinals -- Cardinology
Greg Osby – 9 LEVELS
Charles Lloyd Quartet – Rabo de Nube
Bob Dylan – Tell Tale Signs: the B ootleg Series Vol. 8
Jimmy Herring - Lifeboat
Orchestra Baobab – Made In Dakar
Rudresh Mahanthappa - Kinsman
Grateful Dead – WINTERLAND – November 1973 (boxed set)
SF Jazz Collective – Live 2008
Wood Brothers – Loaded
Sara Serpa – Praia
Lionel Loueke - Karibu
Dave Holland Sextet – Passing It On
Francisco Mela – Cirio
Mad-Sweet Pangs – Witness & Wait
Todd Sickafoose – Tiny Resistors
Neil Young – Sugar Mountain Live at Canterbury House 1968

FAVORITE RESTAURANTS of 2008

Arroyo Chop House, Pasadena, CA
HARU, Philadelphia, PA
Indonesia Restaurant, South Philadelphia, PA
Fresh, Culver City, CA
Palomino, Westwood, CA

FAVORITE CONCERTS OF 2008
Saw 63 concerts, a light year for me

Wilco -- 8/10/08 – Grand Opera House, Wilmington, DE

Ornette Coleman – 2/15/08 -- Portland Jazz Festival, Schnitzern Theatre, Portland, OR

Bruce Springsteen for OBAMA -- 10/4/08 -- JFK Parkway, Philadelphia, PA

Ryan Adams & The Cardinals – 1/22/08 – Bridges Auditorium, Claremont, CA

Charles Lloyd Quartet – 3/28/08 – Herbst Auditorium, San Francisco, CA

JAZZ FOR OBAMA – 10/1/08 -- Roy Haynes, Hank Jones, Joe Lovano, Roy Hargrove, Kurt Elling, Jeff ‘Tain’ Watts, Christian McBride, Charlie Hunter, Doug Wamble, Aaron Goldberg, Brad Mehldau, Dianne Reeves, Dee Dee Bridgewater, Roberta Gambarini, Stefon Harris, Stanley Jordan, Bilal, Robert Glasper, Matt Penman, Derrick Hodge, Willie Jones III, Steve Turre – New York, NY

Cecil Taylor, solo piano – 2/27/08 -- Portland Jazz Festival, Portland, OR

Dave Holland Sextet -- 10/10/08 -- New York, NY

Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band – 4/7/08 – Honda Center, Anaheim, CA

John Beasley’s Jazz Circle w/ Buster Williams, Jeff “Tain” Watts, Bennie Maupin -- 12/15/08 -- Jazz Bakery, Los Angeles, CA

Mad-Sweet Pangs -- 11/15/08 -- Recher Theater, Towson, MD

PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA's INAUGURAL ACCEPTANCE SPEECH

Can't think of a more mindblowing day in my lifetime...now granted seeing The Beatles on Ed Sullivan just 4 short months after being home sick and watching JFK shot on TV, was quite a relief from what I was feeling as a 7 year old who dreamed nightly of missiles coming down on us (oh those duck-and-cover drills scared the shit out of me) and The Fab Four opened a world of youth and hope and fun before me even at that young, impressionable age.

I had learned how to read off of Presidential flashcards. My parents, even then die-hard Republicans had taken me to a Goldwater rally, but Kennedy was MY first President. I was too young to know or care about Ike.

And the Beatles and Dylan and the counter-culture, the youth culture of the Civil Rights years, the anti-war movement, the music that was our soundtrack kept me intersted and hopeful and pissed off through that time as an inquisitive young pre-teen and teenager. The slogans of the time though simple and sometimes naive, still resonante with me and my generation in different byut vibrant ways--somehow "All You Need Is Love" set the stages for my investigations into Buddhism and Eastern thought..."War Is Over, If You Want It" has always been a beacon of hope in what seems to have been some sort of ongoing war somewhere in the world for as long as I can recall...

And though the disillusionment of the deaths of MLK and RFK and the riots in Chicago took the wind out of the sails of the idealism of the 60s, the sheer force of will that a people's consciences could help to stop the Vietnam War and could help to bring down the illicit wrongdoing behind Nixon's presidency gave me faith once again...faith that found glimmers in a peanut farmer who was culturally our style but who couldn't muster up what it took for the fight he needed to fight, thru the facade of Reaganism, the clandestine meanderings of GHWB, the hope and charisma of the Clinton years gone down in a hail of hypocritical attacks that forced the public's eye away from real issues into foaming holier-than-thou soapboxing, to the Prodigal Son's comeplte and utter ineptitude in the name of God and Daddy...

Remember that the moon landing was a beautiful, boundary shattering moment that came on the heels of the violence of 1968 and which for a brief moment showed us a look back at Earth in all of it's fragile beauty and made us feel the hand of creation and its hope and the miracle of our existence.

"...Picture a bright blue ball, just spinnin', spinnin' free / it's dizzying, the possibilities..." of course, the next line to that Grateful Dead song is "ashes, ashes, all fall down.*" And there have been many dark hours since the astronauts looked back and saw us staring up at their other worldly achievement.

Well, hold today's moment of hope close and cherish it and let's see if the magnificent, perspective shattering moment that today signifies can hold its water. My prayers are with President Obama (sounds damn good, doesn't it). I pray you will have more strength than you will ever need, more wisdom than you'll have time to use, and more open-minded, human compassion, insight and love than any mortal man before you. You just may need it. Here's to a brave, and diligent and dedicated man. Be your best and push beyond it. Ball is in your hands and there is a full court press on. Make your shot count, sir.





*Lyrics from "Throwing Stones" by John Barlow (c) Ice Nine Publishing

MISUNDERSTANDINGS

A joke for the day...

"THE BOTTLE OF WINE"

For all of us who are married, were married, wish
we were married, or wish we weren't married, this
is something to smile about the next time you see a
bottle of wine:

Sally was driving home from one of her business trips in Northern Arizona when she saw an
elderly
Navajo woman walking on the side of the road.

As the trip was a long and quiet one, she stopped the car and asked the Navajo woman if she
would like a ride.

With a silent nod of thanks, the woman got into the car.

Resuming the journey, Sally tried in vain to make a bit of small talk with the Navajo woman.
The old woman just sat silently, looking intently at
everything she saw, studying every little detail, until she noticed a brown bag on the seat
next to Sally.

'What in bag?' asked the old woman.

Sally looked down at the brown bag and said, 'It's a bottle of wine. I got it for my husband.'


The Navajo woman was silent for another moment or two.

Then speaking with the quiet wisdom of an elder, she said:

'Good trade.'

####

Then there's the other side of the story...



RICHARD THOMPSON solo version of "I Misunderstood" live in Seattle 1990

and a nice 'lil lo-fi rare audio track from DEREK & THE DOMINOS live at Curtis Hixon Hall, Tampa, FL featuring Duane Allman

2009 SCHLOCK TREATMENT

Well, it has been a few months and I've decided to try a few new tricks here to get myself blogging at STMonkey more often. I know, so many distractions...that evil thing called work, those distractions like eating, playing gigs, sitting on Facebook and MySpace for hours, watching the entire Season Six of 24 before Season Seven starts...having a different book and magazine next to each chair I may plop in (and this includes the front seat of my car, the commode, the bed...even the rocker on my front porch)...chasing girls..the usual distractions.

So I'm taking a turn from some of my fellow bloggers and I think I will use this place as a dump for whatever cultural claptrap comes across my desk each day as well as the occasional diatribe, cd or concert or book review etc. I always seem to wait until I have a huge writing urge and those tend to get divided between my letters to friends, my journals, my sex blog (don't ask) and random assorted networking rambles...so my promise is to attempt a more frequent attentiveness and instead of just letting some of this stuff flow by, I'll stick it here and see what happens.

Of course, I will love any feedback you can give. If it is just easier to post this stuff on MySpace or Facebook, I may just wind up there but at least here it will be a concentrated view as opposed to shifting through news of my band, my friends' daily personal issues, etc.

So here are a couple of things of interest (to me anyway)...come back again, subscribe, hang out...

The DEAD to play Barack's Inagural Ball

http://www.rollingstone.com/rockdaily/index.php/2009/01/15/barack-obama-selects-the-dead-for-inauguration-ball-it-was-quite-an-honor/

Okay but I think some of the guys played at Clinton's Inauguaral...any one recall? So what WILL they play? Songs from the set list from the 10/13 ROCK FOR CHANGE show may give some clues...Help On The Way...Throwin' Stones...Dark Star...Not Fade Away...Playin' in the Band...all somehow appropriate. Any other ideas? I say GOLDEN ROAD works...

Elvis Costello sings the Grateful Dead tune LOSER

Years ago, when I first heard a tape of Elvis' live version of the Dead's SHIP OF FOOLS I was blown away by what a great match it was for his voice and style. This is cool too is a tad raggedy. Looks from the backfrop like it was from Golden Gate Park but I'm not sure. That would indeed be appropriate. Elvis is one of the great music fans out there. A huge collector with a vast knowledge of so many styles and genres. I was pleased to be in the studio with him on a couple occassions for a Mingus Orhetra session where he wrote lyrics to and sang a relatively obscure Mingus tune, Invisible Lady. I also had a chance to be in on the session for Elvis's performance on Marian McPartland's Piano Jazz show on NPR and he was a fabulous guest. Gracious and full of insight into the jazz tunes and standards he played with Marian that day. Very cool. Check out his talk/music show on Sundance Channel, SPECTACLE. Possibly the best music show on TV since NBCs NIGHT MUSIC years ago.





Ryan Adams Quits the Music biz


http://www.pitchforkmedia.com/article/news/148460--ryan-adams-is-quitting-music-says-ryan-adams

Ok, so many of you know I think Ryan Adams is the best damn songwriter out there these days. Yeah, I dig Ray LaMontagne as well but Ryan is the man. Prolific as can be, stylistically interesting like Neil Young, Todd Rundgren, and many of the best "artists" before him. The Bowie's, the Willie Nelson's...guys who always sound like themselves, have an identity but are not afraid to push the envelope some every time out. Artists who were there influences out in the open but always add something totally unique and intriguing everytime out.

Now MANY famous artists retire, some over and over agin, just to find life out of the spotlight boring and suddenly realize that they are gonna be creative no matter what so they may as well share it with the world...Artie Shaw and Elton John retired numerous ties...Bowie, Tina Turner, Dylan, Charles Lloyd and many of them have come back and given us some of their most timeless work.

See ya in a bit, Ryan. We'll miss ya while you're gone, and we'll look forward to your return. I'm sure it will be not a minute too soon.


(Photo at top of me, Marian McPartland and Elvis Costello courtesy of RJ Capek)