Since I already feel like I'm late to class and haven't handed in my homework assignment, here's my second post of the day. This one is for Jen's Twisted Mix Tape Tuesday. This week we are moving into Part 1 of the 1970's. Great decade for music. It came about after all the rules had been broken, after American blues clashed with the British Invasion and country and southern rock started to roll. I loved every minute of it.
This was the decade when I saw my first, second and probably my 250th live concert. I was old enough to do what I wanted and young enough to not have responsibilities getting in the way. Did I make some wrong decisions... hell yes, didn't we all. But did I have fun... indeed I did. And I have retained some of the memories to prove it. The rest were forgotten when those brain cells that were in such abundance back then, suddenly went pfft. C'est la vie.
My first choice is no big surprise, it is either #1 or #2 on virtually every Top 100 music list of the era. I could listen to it everyday of my life and still enjoy hearing it. The two parts of the song: the vocal and instrumental are each beautiful on their own. Put them together and it's seven minutes that are magical. The opening riff is one of the most recognizable in music.
What else can it be but "Layla"
The band which first comes to mind for me when I think 70's music is the Eagles. Initially I thought I would use "Take It Easy," written by Glenn Frey and Jackson Brown, as it's the first song I remember from them. But no Eagles song fills me with more emotion and takes me to a better place than this Tom Waits song.
"Ol '55."
I loved Loggins & Messina. I must have seen them a dozen times. When I heard Jimmy Messina from Buffalo Springfield was teaming up with this other guy, I was interested. Then I saw Kenny Loggins and wow. Not only was he hot, but he had that voice... yeah. Their first album, "Sittin' In" was brilliant, and their follow up was just as good. Their song that I've picked is the title cut. Loved the lyrics, loved the sound, love the long instrumental in the middle.
"What a shot you would be if you could look at me with those..." "Angry Eyes"
Next up is the song I actually started this music blog with. It's all about the feeling. It's all about music. It's my definition of what music does to me. "Give me the beat boys and free my soul, I wanna get lost in your Rock & Roll and drift away." Isn't that how music should make you feel? This blog began with a post about the death of Dobie Gray, it lives because of the music.
"And when my mind is free
You know a melody can move me
And when I'm feelin' blue
The guitar's comin' through to soothe me"
"Drift Away"
Then there was Traffic. Oy, such a decision. Do I go with "Dear Mr. Fantasy", "Low Spark" or "Feeling Alright"? In the end, I went with the first song I played on my first CD player. From John Barleycorn Must Die, one piano infused instrumental that just rocked.
"Glad"
So that's five, the number we're supposed to pick. But it's missing someone and as a resident of the "Great State of New Jersey," I feel the need to break the rules. I need to bring in The Boss. Again, the choice is tough. Just choosing which album to take a song from is tough. Greeting from Asbury Park's "Spirit in the Night," or anything from Born to Run would have worked. But I'm going with one song which I wouldn't hear at every concert, which just made it more special when I did. Coming from probably my favorite Bruce album, Darkness on the Edge of Town, it's all Max and Roy at the start, with the tempo building as the song explodes with longing and passion.
"She says, Baby if you wanna be wild,
you got a lot to learn, close your eyes,
Let them melt, let them fire,
let them burn"
The exquisite "Candy's Room"
As a sad side note. It's two years today that we lost The Big Man,Clarence Clemmons. Sure hope he's having a good time playing with the band upstairs.
Thanks Jen for having us over at your place again. Promise next week I'll bring the beer.
Learning that Maplewood, NJ had become a hotspot for music and musical talent
surprised no one more than this New
Jersey native. But apparently, it has. Starting with
a two-day music festival called Maplewoodstock now
nine years old, the township of Maplewood, located twenty miles outside of New
York City, is quietly becoming a landing spot for musicians. This year’s
Maplewoodstock provided the debut performance of
local band House of Essex, an eclectic, vintage rock band oozing
with talent and experience.
House of Essex lead vocalist, songwriter and
keyboardist Tim Welch, formed the group, adding each complementary
member slowly and methodically. Veteran drummer David Longworth was
the first on board, bringing the experience of playing nationally and
internationally with renowned artists such as Phoebe Snow, Southside Johnny and
Bruce Springsteen. David also can be found playing with LaBamba and the
Hubcaps. Bassist Gregory Jones involvement with top tier
artists goes back to Sly & the Family Stone. With Brazilian, Cuban, Afro
and Funk influences, Gregory adds his unique style with David’s in creating a
first-class rhythm section. Guitarist Courtney Sappington does
more than just play guitar, he creates punctuation with it. Think exclamation
point. A veteran of Broadway orchestras, Courtney has also toured extensively
with artists from Garland Jeffries to Bobby Womack. Lora
McFarlane-Tazewell brings her R&B, Soul, Jazz and Reggae
influences into the band, empowering her rich vocal range.
While each member of the House of Essex equation
is a skilled, stand-alone musician, the sum of its parts is absolute magic. The
band sat down for a talk about beginnings, creativity and of course…music.
Kats's Theory: You all come from various musical
backgrounds with huge amounts of experience. How did you all actually meet?
David Longworth
David: I was doing a local collegiate theatre prep production, I
was in the pit and Tim was the conductor. We met at a great time, hooked up and
he said “Well, I was thinking, do you do drum lessons? Why don’t you
come over and do a drum lesson?” So I said sure. I go over there to do
one lesson and he says ”Well I have some original tunes, you want to
hear them…maybe you could do the recording on some of my tunes.” I
said yeah and we started getting to know each other in a different kind of way.
In one of the sessions he goes “Would you know a bass player around?”Gregory
is someone I’ve known for years, more professionally than anything else, and I
said I’ll give him a call. Greg came over and the three of us for six months
every Thursday from 10-12, we got together working out tunes. I mean
religiously. And it ain’t about money or anything else, we didn’t even know if
we were gonna gig or anything like that. We just really enjoyed each other’s
company, musically speaking and personally. We started to form a sort of bond
and some of the songs on the CD were from the original trio thing.
Tim plays everything: the guitar, piano, keyboards. We
started to think we really had something going here, if we wanted to play live,
how are we gonna recreate all the stuff that he (Tim) does? That’s when we
started thinking about guitar players. Courtney is somebody I’ve known for
decades at gigs, and Gregory has known him too, and they're all Maplewood (NJ)
people.
Kat’s Theory: And Lora, when did you come into the group?
Lora McFarlane-Tazewell
Lora: Tim is my vocal coach and I started working with him, I think
it’s going on two years. I was working on getting back into singing and I was
prepping for a special recording project. It was like a godsend to be able to
work with him. Then he started working on this project and asked me if I’d like
to be a part of it, because he knew that I really wanted to sing with a band.
Kat’s Theory: House of Essex
bills itself as an eclectic, vintage rock band, which I think is pretty
accurate. Tell me how you ended up going in that direction. Tim: You know it’s funny, our first gig out, we played 15 songs I
think, all originals. Now our library of 17 or 18 songs are even more diverse
than what we play in our 6 or 7 song set. The songs all came over a time period
of maybe five years of writing. They were never necessarily ready for any
purpose other than I have a creative idea. I’d be inspired by an artist and
write a song
Tim Welch
Then it became a matter with the group, it was sort of “let’s
try out these songs” and they really became more of a skeleton, or a
template around which this sound that we have now kind of happened. Courtney’s
addition was really a huge sonic change to the music. He brings a very
specific, unique to his own playing, sort of style of guitar playing that added
a thumbprint to the sound. And Gregory has a distinct style of playing; it’s
not always straight rock, it’s not always jazz, not always Motown, it’s a real
hybrid type of thing. So the songs that were all scattered in the beginning,
were thrown into this fusion of whatever harmonic and sonic things that were
happening with us getting together. So the sound hasn’t really been a
formulated or calculated “let’s go this or that route” per se,
because I’ll write a song and drop it into the machine, and out comes whatever
House of Essex sounds like now. It becomes its own thing.
Kat’s Theory: "Right to Love You," I love the
heavy keys at the beginning, then Courtney comes in with the accent of the
guitar. As opposed to most rock songs, with the heavy guitar and the keys come
in as an afterthought. Is that a trial and error kind of thing, or just absolute
genius on your part?
Courtney: Oh, it’s just trial and
error. It’s just accident really. It just comes out. I hope it just sounds
good.
Tim: We’re still changing things all the time
and it’s very much feeling it out. We’re interjecting ideas all the time. We
just changed “Learn From You.” Lora’s going to sing the second half of the
verses now, as opposed to me singing all of the verses. We just did that about
20 minutes ago before you called and it was like “that’s kind of
perfect.” So it’s very organic.
Courtney Sappington
David: And then we’re trying to find the right
key to make the vocals and the song fit and feel the best, so it’s all part and
parcel. But I think the overall thing, is there’s an element of trust here
that’s a rare kind of quality that allows you to go out on a ledge and still
feel like there’s always a safety net around you. It’s because people are going
to take your ideas seriously, give their best effort and let the chips fall
where they may. And if it sounds good, it sounds good. But we’re really getting
to the point where we are really trusting each other along the way. I think
that’s one of the essential ingredients to this kind of thing.
Kat's Theory: Now do you think that it’s coming from the
fact that you guys are not kids and have been around the block, or is it that
you think you have the exact right group right now?
Lora: A Combination David: Yeah a combination that’s extremely rare. I can get in the
room with four or five other men and women who I might know really well, but we
might just not find that kind of quality. It really is almost an unspoken
thing. To find it, it’s a really rare quality.
Kat’s Theory: Either during the recording process or in
rehearsal, what was that moment like when you looked at each other and
said “Yeah, this works. This is gonna be good”
Tim: It was in the beginning, we had a good time
playing, getting together and experimenting on things, but I don’t think it was
until we actually heard the first rough mix of “Right to Love You.” And we were
like “Holy Cow, this kind of sounds cool.” I think maybe that
was the moment when we thought maybe we had created something cool. David: The three of us (Tim, David, Gregory) were all kind of
reacting the same kind of way
Kat’s Theory: Tim, how do you do this? You have vocal
studios, you teach, you have three bands in progress, you are trying to get a
cabaret act going with your wife Elizabeth, and you have a life. How is this
even possible? Tim: I’m not a big fan of sleep and I love coffee. First of all, I
have an extremely understanding and supportive wife, that I am happily married
to, and she really supports my music projects a lot. As far as my creative
time, she’s on Broadway, so she working in the evenings and my daughter goes
down about quarter to nine or so. Then until she (Elizabeth) gets home around 11:30, that is a
very sort of protected time for me. That’s my creative time: mixing songs,
recording, writing music. I also have some time during the day. It’s all a
juggling thing I guess like it is with all of us. You’re balancing spending
enough time with the family, enough time on this project, that project. It’s
the same that we’re all doing. I just drink a lot of coffee.
Kat’s Theory: Gregory, Your bio mentions Brazilian,
Afro-Cuban, Jazz and Funk among your strengths. I can't think of any better
influences for a bassist. Did you naturally drift into those genres or was it a
case of being handed an opportunity?
Gregory: In the case of jazz, I grew up in Boston at a time when
jazz was everywhere, and very accessible. Funk, and Soul, was the music we all
heard on the radio, as well as more sophisticated bands like Steely Dan,
Emerson, Lake, and Palmer, and the like were
played on college radio.
Gregory Jones
Brazilian, Afro-Cuban, African, and various other world
music, was the result of being a little familiar with latin jazz through some
of my favorite players like Anthony Jackson with Michel Camilo. I could fake it
a bit! I got a call to do a last minute restaurant gig with a brother and
sister group, Cidinho and Vera Mara Texeira, and drummer Vanderlei Pereira. All
from Brazil.
I was a really strong sight reader, and could groove. They offered me steady
weekends, and proceeded to school me on the vast music of Brazil mixed
with their jazz approach. That led to working with bands from Peru, Uruguay,
Argentina, West Africa, South Africa,
Parisian-Afro scene. It's a lifelong study, as each country, and region have
their own rhythms-just the individual islands in the Caribbean alone, one could
spend years absorbing. It has also given me a deeper appreciation of our own
music, such as soul, rock, and jazz
Kat’s Theory: Courtney, You've done a lot of work in
Broadway orchestras, and also touring with some very well known artists. I
would think it's a lot easier to have a normal life playing on Broadway but
it's probably more fun to be on the road. Other than the economic factor, what
would make you choose one over the other?
Courtney: Many factors come into play. The
economic factor is very important, but so is the fun factor, the quality of the
music, the travel conditions when on the road, the company, etc. And of course,
once you have a family, it can be hard to leave home for extended periods.
Kat’s Theory: David, playing drums behind Ben E. King,
The Shirelles, Southside and playing at the New Jersey Hall of Fame (NJHOF).
Was that two different years you played at that event?
David: They started that four years ago and I’ve
been in the pit band there every year. Originally I played with LaBamba &
the Hubcaps since 1982. And though they were still located in New
York when we did the first year at the NJHOF, now of course they
are located in California.
But he’s come back each year to do those, and I will still fly somewhere….to do
a Hubcaps gig. It’s a great little gig for us to do, it’s a solid packed
weekend and we always get to play with some nice people. And to play at that
performance center (New JerseyPerformingArtsCenter) is really
beautiful.
Kat’s Theory: Now do you go into it with a different
mindset when you’re playing with somebody like Phoebe Snow?
David: Well, I played with her and had done
international touring with her before and she was a Jersey
girl. Everyone in the band has known her and done some stuff with her, so that
was easy.
I will tell you a very funny story about the NJHOF. It was
in 2011 and it was all politicians, scientists, doctors and athletes. It’s the
governor, Woody Johnson and it’s just to create some publicity for New Jersey, so to speak.
They had Susan Sarandon, Jack Nicholson, Yogi Berra, I mean all these famous New Jersey people bought
into the concept. So they’re given some sort of award and they have some other
famous people introducing them… that maybe have a relationship with them. We
start to rehearse during the week because there’s always a special guest,
And Southside was a guest in 2011.
It’s a long day, lots of rehearsing. So we do the show and
we’re at the last three minutes of a two-hour show. “We’re Having A Party” with
Southside Johnny, and the producer of the whole event is standing in the wings
and Joe Piscopo is standing with him…with a pair of drumsticks in his hand.
We’re in the last song, the last part of the last song, and the two of them
come over to the drum riser and he points to me “Joe sits in.” I’m
like“You’re kidding right.” But I didn’t have a choice. All the
guests were on stage, like sixty people on stage and so I sort of move over on
the drums. So Joe comes up and sits down and I take literally a step and a half
and I’m going “Oh my god, he can’t play drums.” He can’t play
and we’re in the encore.
It was like a tidal wave from the back of the bandstand
through to the front. The groove is destroyed. Joe Piscopo cannot play and I’m
pissed and upset all at the same time. So really quickly this tidal wave hits
the front of the stage and Southside turns around like “What the fuck?” And
it really messed him up, and the gig had gone great. His songs beforehand were
great. So he throws the mic down, storms off the stage and there he practically
runs into me. We are standing about two inches from each other and he’s
spitting at me “How could you fucking do that to me? What the fuck did
you let him go up on stage?” “Don’t be yelling at me, I had no choice.” I
mean we’re like face to face spitting at each other. And I did eight years with
Southside, I know him. So he leaves and the show sort of just collapses at that
point in time. We made up, it was fine and everything like that, but to me it’s
just another Southside story.
Kat’s Theory: Lora, You step out in the front for “Bright
Lights.” Great vocal. How did you approach that vocal and did you have to fight
Tim to get the lead on it?
Lora: Actually Tim wrote that for me. Being the
amazing vocal coach that he is, he created a song that he thought really
complimented my vocal register and helped take me out of my shell a little bit.
He really had me in mind with that song and said Lora “I have this
idea, can you come over and hear it?” And we went through it maybe
five or ten minutes and it was so natural. It was a natural fit. Before I had
even performed it or recorded it, it felt like it was so much a part of me. So
that’s a very special song.
Kat’s Theory: “To The Bone” You have this big wall of
sound that comes at you and it’s just fabulous. How did you come up with huge
tidal wave of sound to start it out with?
Tim: Well, as we’re playing out live more, we’re
starting to get a feel for how we want to interact with the audiences and what
sort of energy to bring. When we did our first gig, our library of songs, maybe
half of them are mid tempo, some of them are ballads, bluesy…very much not this
kind of raucous, wild, in your face live energy six song, half hour set. Our
whole library of music is much wider ranging. Real diverse. So sometimes it
feels we need, in a six or seven song set, to bring a little more energy, more
punch. Because in the sort of in-and-out half hour set, sometimes the slower
songs feel like they dip the energy too much. When “To
The Bone” came out, it was like "let’s do something
raucous, a little dirty,a little sort of wild" and
think of a great opener. That was how that idea started and then the whole
lyrical content really came more from the chord progression. Usually the lyrics
always come second for me. The chords come and I’ll get the energy of the song.
Kat's Theory: You don’t seem to get writer’s block…
Tim: See, the trick to not having writers block,
in my opinion is, to in any moment write a crappy song. And be ok with it. Just
don’t stop. I just don’t stop. I try to be very careful at what stage I edit.
I’m a big believer in complete, unjudged brain-dumping, look at what comes out
and sort of move it around. Turning off that editor for a large part of the
initial creation of a song. I haven’t had that (writer’s block) in a while
Kat's Theory: What does the future hold in store for
House of Essex?
Tim: We’re just gonna keep playing and trying to
reach people that would connect to our music. David: We’ll see how it goes. There’s going to be bumping and
bruising along the way. I mean the gigs we’re doing right now, we just sort of
throw ourselves up on stage. At the level we’re at, there’s no sound check or
nothing. Just going up and hittin’ and quittin’ and that’s just part of the
process. So it’s all good. I know we’re just all excited about keeping our
momentum moving forward.
Back in February I wrote a blog called "Take a Ride Down the Tunnel of Love." In it I talked about what I thought was one of the best ever opening lines to a song.
"Fat man sitting on a little stool,
takes the money from my hand
as his eyes take a walk all over you"
Perfect imagery. The song of course is Springsteen's "Tunnel of Love."
Today I have another memorable opening line. While it doesn't compare on any level with Bruce's beautifully crafted song, every time I hear it, I smile and say to myself "that is such a great opening line." Overall, it's an interesting song, has several layers to the lyrics, and whether you are from the South or a Yankee girl, it's an excellent sing-along.
"Honey don't walk out, I'm too drunk to follow"
Fabulous. Simple, but it gets the message across loud and clear...in only nine words.
From the Southern Accents album, the song is "Rebels" by Tom Petty.
"Honey don't walk out, I'm too drunk to follow
You know you won't feel this way tomorrow
Well, maybe a little rough around the edges
Or inside a little hollow,
I get faced with some things, sometimes
That are so hard to swallow, hey!
Chorus
I was born a rebel, down in Dixie
On a Sunday mornin'
Yeah with one foot in the grave
And one foot on the pedal, I was born a rebel
She picked me up in the mornin', and she paid all my tickets
Then she screamed in the car
Left me out in the thicket
Well I never woulda dreamed
That her heart was so wicked
Yeah but I keep comin' back
'Cause it's so hard to kick it, hey, hey, hey
(Repeat Chorus)
Even before my father's father
They called us all rebels
While they burned our cornfields
And left our cities leveled
I can still feel the eyes of those blue-bellied devils
Yeah, when I'm walking round at night
Through the concrete and the metal, hey, hey, hey"
One foot in the grave and one foot on the pedal...well that line's not bad either.
In 1979 a group of musicians under the acronym MUSE (Musicians United for Safe Energy) organized a monumental concert at Madison Square Garden in New York City, to support the idea of a nuclear free world. The concert known as No Nukes, was recorded and released the next year as a feature documentary and a live triple album.
The performances from this show are legendary. Springsteen, at this point gaining a reputation for his wild, all-night-long live shows, is finally caught on film. James Taylor singing with then-wife Carly Simon, Bonnie Raitt, The Doobie Brothers, Crosby, Stills & Nash, Jackson Browne, John Hall...the list goes on.
Today, we will take a few samples from that great concert.
James Tayor & Carly Simon"Mockingbird" ...just an incredible and joyful performance Bruce Springsteen"Thunder Road" ...show a little faith there's magic in the night, you ain't a beauty but hey you're alright. yes indeed. Doobie Brothers"Taking it to the Streets"... with a little help from their friends Jackson Browne"Running on Empty"...hard to find a better version John Hall"Power"...the unofficial anthem, with JT, Doobies, Carly etc.
One of the first, but certainly not last time when musicians came together for a common cause. This one was absolutely magical.
If you need to see more, check out TheMusicMan34 on youtube, his channel has the entire concert split into seven segments.
Writing a music blog, I get to hear some really bad music. No, I mean some really bad music. Everyone and his cousin who has an interest in the music business sends me links, follows me and wants to be my friend. People who know me are keenly aware..I am not that friendly.
I do however have a few friends and people in high places (well maybe not high, but a bit loftier than me), who give me a head's up for things of interest on the music front. Well, thanks to the 'cat's eyes,' we have a topic to discuss. That subject is pretty much the reason this blog was created in the first place. The state of music today. ugh.
It seems researchers in Spain have compiled musical data from the last fifty years, used crazy algorithms and figured out that the pop music of today is louder and more boring than music from years back. My first question is: Did they really need to do research to figure this out?
The research shows that today's music has less complex chord structure, simpler melodies and well frankly, it is crap. Basically the high, low and depth which makes music sound so layered and complex, has been replaced by extra bass and volume. ugh.
Now, I cannot comprehend the need for this whole research team, which by the way, was led by an "Artificial Intelligence Specialist." That term alone is enough to make me crazy.
Music is something you feel in your heart, something that breaks through to your soul.
Music is something which can make you cry or bring you out of the bottomless pit of despair.
I know, it's done it for me.
Enough talk, let's just listen to what I consider a few really great songs.
First up, one of the greatest musical anthems for imagery, vocals, arrangement, and if you have ever seen it live...performance.
Meat Loaf "Bat Out Of Hell" ... a masterpiece from Meat Loaf and Jim Steinman. an almost 10 minute roller coaster ride.
Jethro Tull "Heavy Horses" ...an insanely beautifully constructed song. As you listen, take a look at the lyrics. not exactly of the "let me do you on the kitchen table" type of lyric. musically...intense and vibrant.
Bob Marley "Could You Be Loved" ...a great rhythm, message and hell it's Marley.
Bruce Springsteen "Jungleland" ...story, vocal, piano...and the big man.
Now, there are thousands of songs I could have included here, feel free to leave comments on what songs you consider great. These are just used to make a point.. None of these songs were created with a beat machine, auto tune or any other tricks. These songs were written with deep emotion using all the skills necessary to create brilliant musical arrangements... full of passion.
One thing I can guarantee, long after we are all gone from this earth, another generation will hear the opening riff of "Layla" and smile. Can the same be said of 95% of the songs you will hear today?
Being a Jersey girl, today we must celebrate The Big Man. Clarence Clemons would have turned 70 today. His passing last June leaves a gaping hole in the hearts of E Street Band fans everywhere. We await this year's Springsteen tour with anticipation, mixed with of touch of the bittersweet.
This clip from 2001 features not only Clarence on sax, but also the late Danny Federici on keyboards. Live from New York, an incredible performance of "Jungleland."
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