I’ve been listening to a lot of music to gain inspiration for my new project.  Two albums that have held my ear the last couple of months…

Clem Snide – Hungry Bird

I had never really listened to Clem Snide, but when NPR posted With All My Heart from Hungry Bird I had to take a closer look.  I love the sparse arrangement of this heartbreakingly beautiful song.  The rest of the album is equally good.  Turn up the volume when you listen to Me No.

Eilen Jewell – Sea of Tears

I read about Eilen Jewell on songs:illinois, a blog where I’m finding more and more of my music lately.  This album has got balls.  I love love love the rockabilly\surf electric guitar all over these songs.  Every so often Eilen will belt out a guttural growl that just kills me.  Check out Sea of Tears and her cover of Shakin’ All Over.  It’s really fun to listen to this music.

More to come soon…

Donny sent me a link to this American Songwriter contest.  Here’s what I entered:

Rhett Miller has written one of the perfect songs – Question (from the Old 97’s Satellite Rides).  Without using words like marriage, propose or ring, Rhett paints a moment when a man asks that question "you say yes to once in your life."  It’s beautiful and intimate and makes the heart soar.  And all in under two and a half minutes!

I’ve played Question at a half dozen weddings and it never fails to impress. 

The Old 97s are playing at the Fillmore next month.  It looks like Rhett and Murry will be opening with some of their solo stuff before the band comes out.  See you guys there.

I’m a native Texan and a Texas music fanatic.  I go see Lyle Lovett and Steve Earle and Willie Nelson and the Old 97s every time they come to town.  I have a subscription to Texas Music Magazine.  And when I stop to tune my guitar during a set, I quote Guy Clark by introducing him as the greatest living Texas songwriter because Townes Van Zandt is dead.  (“You spend half your life tuning your guitar and the other half playing out of tune.”)

To the uninitiated, Townes is the guy that wrote Pancho and Lefty.  To the Texas music community, Townes is the stuff of Texas music legend.  He reportedly dreamt an entire song, teaching himself the chords and lyrics in his sleep.  He’s been covered by Willie & Merle, Lyle Lovett, Cowboy Junkies, Norah Jones, Allison Kraus and Robert Plant and countless others.

But I never really got Townes Van Zandt.  I figured out why this week.

A lot of folks hear the lyrics first.  I always hear the performance first.  I can listen to a song 100 times before I ever really listen to the lyrics.  If the melody and the groove don’t grab me, I’m unlikely to listen again.  I’ve listened to Townes’ albums and even saw him play once in Houston, but his performances didn’t draw me in enough to get to the heart of the songs.

All that changed with the release of Steve Earle’s Townes.  Steve’s performance brings outs the best in Townes’ songs.  I’ve heard Townes’ recordings of Brand New Companion several times before, but it took Steve’s rendition to make me hear the beauty in it.  The same can be said for every song on the album (Lungs, Mr. Mudd and Mr. Gold, etc.).  Highly recommended. 

And when you’re done devouring Earle’s album, go watch the documentary Be Here To Love Me – a heartbreaking tale of artistry and addiction.

Now I’m going to dust off all of my Townes albums and give them another spin.

Just went to see one of the better concerts I’ve been to in a long time.  I am a huge fan of Jenny Lewis’ Rabbit Fur Coat – another one of those albums that captured my attention for several months. I’m less familiar with Acid Tongue, but based on tonight’s performance I’m going to have to give it another chance.

Why so impressed?  Jenny Lewis is right in my wheelhouse – guitar driven pop\rock music with the slightest hint of twang and strong vocals.  She really knows how to use her voice, switching between a belted groove to a whispered growl with ease and her phrasing has you hanging on every word.  The band was superb.  I was especially impressed with Farmer Dave Scher, who appears to be the master of all instruments that are cool.  For the most part he played a lap steel guitar (which I hope to be my next instrument purchase) but he also broke out a strat, an electric autoharp (the Omnichord), keyboards, some kind of device with a tube that he stuck in his mouth and background vocals.  Impressive.

Here are some songs from Rabbit Fur Coat.  Go buy it now:

Run Devil Run
The Big Guns
Handle With Care

The Sadies opened.  I’ve seen them before (backing Neko Case) and am a fan.  Dallas and Travis Good are both excellent guitar players and put on a great show.  Mostly though, I hope that one day I find myself in a social situation where it is acceptable to wear a western suit like the ones they sport at their gigs.

I’ve got an unprecedented second June gig set up with Robin & Eric (first one here) and it’s even in my hood:

 
Saturday, June 20 from 7:00 – 9:00 PM 
Epicenter Café
http://www.epicentercafe.com/
764 Harrison Street, between 3rd & 4th Street
San Francisco, CA 94107

I suspect I’ll be able to sneak in a cover or three at this one.  See you soon in SOMA!

Friends,

Come see Robin, Eric and me play all acoustic, all original music at the Bazaar Cafe on Sunday, June 7th.   The details:

Sunday, June 7 from 6:00 – 8:30 PM
Bazaar Café
http://www.bazaarcafe.com/
5927 California Street, between 21st & 22nd Avenues
San Francisco, CA 94121

Here’s some of Robin and Eric’s stuff from their new CD:

Unrequited
You and I
Hangman

Listen to the rest of the CD here.

See you at the Bazaar!

If you’re in New Orleans this week, come by the Rusty Nail Tuesday Night for the Open Mic:

Tuesday, May 19th at 9 PM
The Rusty Nail Open Mic
1100 Constance Street
New Orleans, LA
Sign up at 8, I’ll play sometime after 9

See you there!

Last night I went to see the Fleet Foxes at the newly reopened Fox Theater in Oakland.  I wasn’t that familiar with these guys, but the show was really good.  GREAT harmonies.  The Fox is amazingly beautiful and the sound was great.  Somehow we got guest passes and managed to not use them, instead opting to stand a couple of rows back from the stage.

The lead singer did one of the cooler things I have seen in a long time.  For the encore he went off-mic, stood out front on the lip of the stage and belted out a completely acoustic, unamplified song.  The two thousand person room went silent and let him do his thing.  Magic.  I’ll have to remember to do that when I play the Fox!  😉

A couple of folks have asked me about my musical upbringing.  I have avoided posting because I kind of think it’s a bit self-indulgent.  But all blogs are basically created to feed the author’s narcissism anyway, right?

• My Mom taught piano while I was growing up, so I’ve always been playing music.
• I took 10 years of piano, starting when I was 4. I can play two songs, neither very well.
• I took up classical violin in 4th grade. I also dabbled with the viola.
• In addition to my classical violin training, I played bluegrass and Cajun fiddle at contests all over Louisiana. I only won when my buddy John Johnson was exempt from competition because he had won the year before. I think he plays for Rascal Flatts now. My mom would accompany me on the guitar and my little sister would join on the washboard.  We were the Meador Family Band.
• Around that time I also picked up the mandolin, though I’m still not as good at it as I would like to be. I’m not all that good at the violin anymore, for that matter. Not an instrument you can put down for a couple of years…
• I took up string bass in 6th grade. In 8th grade I started playing in a semi-professional symphony orchestra.  The director of the symphony was Tony Kushner’s father.
• I played bass with a group of professors all through high school to make some extra cash.  It’s good to be one the only bass players in the state.  We played mostly churches.  Trust me, there are a lot of churches in Central Louisiana.
• I was going to be a String Bass Performance major in college until the Mechanical Engineering bug bit me.
• It’s been years since I’ve played in an orchestra, and I miss it.  There are a lot of great community orchestras in the Bay Area, but I have commitment issues.  (And my bass will only fit in my car on sunny days…)
• I was in musicals at the GPGC every summer 1983 – 1986. My crowning glory was playing Conrad Birdie in Bye Bye Birdie. This fueled an Elvis obsession that lasted for years.
• I played electric bass in various Jazz Bands in high school. Freshman year they made me play electric bass in the marching band and that SUCKED.
• I was an arts major at my high school, the Louisiana School for Math Science and the Arts.  I was in the 18 piece show choir junior\senior year. Yes, we sang and danced (unbelievable to me now) in shows all over the state. We appeared in Steel Magnolias.
• I taught myself guitar late in college, mostly to support my singing habit. To date, I play it almost to the complete exclusion of all else.  My guitar fetish has proven to be an expensive habit.  More on that in another post…

Definitely a jack of all master of none thing going on here, but you get the idea.  For the record, I don’t think my story is much different than just about everybody who grew up with the arts.

Thanks for indulging!

Robin and Eric have graciously asked me to play a show with them this week:

Saturday, April 18 at 8 PM
Simple Pleasures Cafe
3434 Balboa Street
(between 35th Ave & 36th Ave)
San Francisco, CA 94121

All acoustic music in an casual coffee house.  Stop by if you’re in the neighborhood!