don't mind us

We couldn't find a seat so we'll just plop our asses down here and block anyone from using the dance floor.  And spread out with our plates of food.  And pint glasses.  And a pitcher of beer.


And do my my knitting...


WTF? Some of the aged folk hippies in Oakland need to stay in the trailer, or learn some social skills.

Regardless, Loretta Lynch was good music and good fun. Their folksy bluegrass cover of Miranda Lambert's Mama's Broken Heart was so wonderfully charming.

Kiss to Kris

Looking through my phone photos, I am reminded what a light it is when the lovely and talented Kris Searle visits SF. Kris called me when he was in SF working with his producer on the new album, and new single, in which I hear he is taking his music in a new direction. He's very excited about the new LP, and I can't wait to hear it!

I am particularly touched as he shared with me some of the shots from the album cover shoot, and in some free association of imagery and musical ideas, I inspired the new album title: Monarch!

Look for it soon! When it drops, I'll be sure to post an iTunes link here too.










And follow him on Twitter!

house music

I am excited to have experienced my first "concert" at SYLA Presents. SYLA is awesome couple Cindy and Eric, who open their home for private converts of exceptional local talent. Wil and Drew were able to join me to hear Maurice Tani, Mike Anderson, and Steve Kallai of 77 El Deora. Maurice is Man Behind the Band, and while 77 El Deora usually features drums, female vocalist, and guest musicians, this was an intimate performance of the trio and a showcase of Maurice Tani's excellent "hillbilly noir" song-smithing and haunting baritone. Of course, I could also listen to Mike Anderston plug his bass all night long, and Steve Kallai always sets his fiddle on fire.

The evening was a sliver of magic. Not only was the music wonderful, as expected, but the experience of intimate living room setting was visceral. The limited tickets to attend are
a mere $20, with a sliding scale as necessary, and guests are asked to bring a dish for dinner or appetizers, and the hosts pride beverages and wine. All proceeds go to the artists. Their living room, with a sweeping view of the Bay and SanFrancisco beyond, is filled with three rows of chairs and the artist perform at the hearth. These are some amazing hosts.

77 El Deora shows are always a treat for me, but this was something even more special Granted, I am the sort of San Franciscan who classifies a drive to Oakland as a "road trip," but this was a different kind of adventure.

Growing up in Nashville, one is surrounded my music. Good music, familiar, emotional, rowdy and comforting. Gather any group of friends of five or more and at least two of them can play an interment, and surely one can sing. Some of my fondest childhood memories are of parties of "the street people" or other family-friendly casual house parties which would ultimately end with everyone gathered around, guitars and fiddles pulled out, and impromptu concerts with friends playing off of each other, playing old favorites and new showcases. This is generally referred to as "pickin' and grinnin'."


Sitting on a high stool in the back row, with the moonlight on the Bay behind me, a good friend at either side, and live music at the hearth, took me to memories I haven't visited in years, and a warm emotional state I was shocked to have forgotten, and tearful to remember.

The music was rich, everyone amiable, and the interplay of performer and audience blurred to just a family by the fire.


And then the conversation turned—
After the show, Maurice invited us to join him at the Stork Club, where he would be filling in on bass even later for his old rock band from maybe 20 years ago. Sure. Adventure continued.

It took us a little while to find the place, and as we pulled up I realized I had been there before—maybe ten or eleven years ago, and to see The McAllisters, the band Maurice was also a member of way back when. I remembered that Yahoo Maps was new. Maybe not even Yahoo Maps but Mapquest, and it was in the wrong place on the map. This was well before smart phones, and I remember using the new 800 (555-TELL) service "Tell Me" on my brand new and very first cell phone to call and get voice-activated driving directions, which routed me though the dark streets of Oakland with a soft voice giving me instructions such as "Take a left on Suchensuch Avenue. When you have done this, say, 'Next.'"

Wil heard a little more about what to expect, and so we went about 50 blocks out of our way to find an open Walgreens and bought ear plugs. Oh dear god in heaven. The Stork Club is a sketchy venue, in a sketchy part of Oakland, and the caterwauling horribleness of the music is ineffectively obscured by the ridiculous, molecule-vibrating volume. But excellent people watching. Cover notwithstanding. We had to endure two more bands before Mau was up. Despite the absolutely terrible music, and in such contrast to the delicate artistry we had just experienced, the acts were something to see. I imagine mostly made entreating by our (Wil's and Min) personal ability to have fun wherever we find ourselves if we put our attitudes to it. While auditorially offensive, visually the penultimate rock/punk band was so much fun because the lead man was a caricature of Bill Nighy in Love Actually: but a slightly more desperate aspiration to Mick Jagger, complete with bare chest, scraggly hair, and long gaudy trench shirt.

Rock on man.

And danced we did, and when Maruice's old band took the stage we rocked on with Mike & Megan, Cindy & Eric, and the always awesome J9.




I can't believe we closed down the Stork. But I do love and adventure, especially with such a good soundtrack.

Krismastime!

Sometimes you can judge the fun of the night before by the photos you find in your phone the next day.

And by the amount of damage done to an ankle.


Kris Searle dropped in this week to record some amazing new tracks. Check out his new single Veins via Soundcloud and his home page, and listen to "An Evening with Kris Searle" streaming live from the Coffee Connection this Sunday, December 5th.

Hey Johnny, where ya been?

Take a break and visit this interactive map that pops Johnny Cash faces on all the points where Johnny Cash has been.

And he's been everywhere, man.

drinking deeply from the cups

I wrote a brief history of the "Cups" song, You're Going to Miss Me, back in May. Vulture has published a much more extensive and quite interesting Comprehensive History of the ‘Cups’ Phenomenon. I recommend looking it over (I had no idea the cups-rythm-to-folk-songs went back so far).

I still love the song. And I still can't hear it without thinking about Dad.  Now he's got mountains, he's got rivers, and he's got sights that would give me shivers. And I sure do miss him now he's gone.



The lyrics, as I think about Dad, in my mind sound like this:

You got your ticket for the long way 'round.
Two bottles of whiskey for the way.
And I sure do miss your sweet company.
We're leaving tomorrow what can we say?

When you're gone (when you're gone)
When you're gone (when you're gone)
I sure do miss you now you're gone.
I miss you by your hair, I miss you everywhere.
I sure do miss you now you're gone.

You got your ticket for the long way 'round.
The one with prettiest of views.
It's got mountains it's got rivers it's got sights that'll give you shivers
And I know now it's prettier with you.

When you're gone (when you're gone)
When you're gone (when you're gone)
I sure do miss you now you're gone.
I miss you all your walks and I miss you all your talks,
I sure do miss you now you're gone.

You got your ticket for the long way 'round.
These feet weren't built to stay too long.
You had to go there on your own,
And we miss you here at home,
And it's for you, Dear, that I sing this song.

When you're gone (when you're gone)
When you're gone (when you're gone)
I sure do miss you now you're gone.
I miss you by your hair, I miss you everywhere.
I sure do miss you now you're gone.

When you're gone (when you're gone)
When you're gone (when you're gone)
I sure do miss you now you're gone.
I miss you all your walks and I miss you all your talks,
I sure do miss you now you're gone.

Those of you who knew Dad hear it too.

on a scale of 1 to 10, Maurice Tani is a 77

The reviews are in, and they are exceedingly effusive. Maurice Tani recently released two CDs simultaneously, one together with his marvelous 77 El Deora, and an acoustic album of duets with bassist and all-around awesome man Mike Anderson. The 77 El Deora album is called Blue Line, and the duet sets are together on Two Stroke. Country Music People in the UK reviewed both albums separately but in tandem. And highly regarded both. I can only hope my Nashville peeps who know good music are taking notice too.

Excerpts:

The CD is sometimes touched with genius. Unlike Maurice Tani's other new disc, this one has a wonderful natural flow, and it is very entertaining. It's probably Maurice Tani's least country disc, but probably his very best.

It is clear from the opening track, 'Out With The Old', that something special is happening. The superb arrangement, with the violin a highlight, is far superior to the original 2008 version sung by Jenn Courtney on Maurice Tani's 'Hammer And Tongs' release. The wonderful vocal fleshes out the melody better as well. All through the new CD are some of Maurice Tani's superb lyrics and melodies. This is pretty much a masterclass in producing very high quality songs. 'The Devil In My Ear', a warm country song dating back to 2005's 'Sirens', gets an acoustic update which makes it sounds slightly less country, but still great. The mandolin is important in the new version. Following this track is a traffic jam of amazing songs, from the delicate, fragile 'Radio City', to the dark ballad 'Poison', while 'Colour Me Gone' is plucking wonderful.
...
Maurice Tani and Mike Anderson have created a CD of warm, engaging, intelligent, entertaining music that seems utterly timeless. Maurice Tani wrote nine of these songs. It is kind of crazy that he is not so much better known. Hopefully, this release will put him on the musical map. A few weeks ago I had not heard of Maurice Tani. Now he is one of my favorite singer/songwriters. Maurice Tani and Mike Anderson have created a masterpiece.

Another review of note appeared in No Depression ("The Roots Music Authority"). I love No Depression, and was unreasonably entertained to hear the editors note that the comments to the reviews pushed that piece to the top of their site, and that the readers comments were the most articulate they've ever seen.

From the review:

I not only found them interesting, I was actually blown away. Maurice Tani writes songs that I would call “Hillbilly Noir” that sound at once familiar, ethereal and beautiful.
...
Songs like “I Think of You”, “New Dress” and “Radio City” ( a crowd favorite at the Freight performance) sound like buried treasures…treasures that while having country elements in that they tell a story and employ traditional instrumentation, are their own thing. “New Dress” was written for Pam Brandon, which Tani describes as “one of the spookier songs in my repertoire”. Starting with a subtle breathy sigh that wouldn’t be out of place in a David Lynch movie, Tani explained that it’s “a song about rebirth, reinvention but also wide open to interpretation.”
...
I would be remiss not to comment on Tani’s vocal style. He has a quality to his singing that is closer to a Raul Malo or a Roy Orbison, almost a classic cabaret voice, rather than a quirky, twangy bar voice, that brings a haunting feeling to many of his songs. His vocals on “Radio City” build on a form that Tani describes “as cinema for the blind”. You can imagine driving along a desolate road when this song comes on the radio “ a lost-love song where the protagonist is an all night disc jockey who laments that he has squandered his chance at love and finds himself alone and lonely in a one way conversation with thousands of people who only know his voice."

Added bonus! You can hear Maurice play a Summer Night Speakeasy with Mike Anderson & Steve Kallai, Gayle Lynn & The Hired Hands at Viracocha in Mission this Saturday at 8 pm.

And while you're at it, enjoy The Lovers Card, also recorded at Freight & Salvage, from 2010.

Deus Duet

My two favorite people in the world, together.

Steve Martin and Kermit the Frog playing Dueling Banjos.

Steve Martin and Kermit the Frog in "Dueling Banjos" from Steve Martin

sultry Jolene

Someone, presumably YouTube user "goodlittlebuddy," ran an MP3 of Dolly Parton's Jolene through Audacity and slowed it down 17%. Holy Backwoods Barbie this sounds like an entirely new song, and it is mesmerizingly good.




Update: And there are those who think that Bruce Springsteen sped up sounds like Dolly Parton. What do you think?

The bear and the three Goldilocks

Instead of one girl and three bears in the cabin in the woods, it was three women and a sleuth of bears in the cabin that is the music room of the Hotel Utah for the Tom Goss show last night featuring Jeb Havens (see also) and The Plastic Arts. Coco and I were joined by the GlasgowDuo Alison and Susan for some good times (I still can't believe they walked to the Utah from Dolores Park. Their explanation: "We're European. We walk places.")


Despite being awake for something like 40 hours, Tom was a bundle of adorable energy and put on a great show.




While Til the End still moves me, it was when I him first play Make Believe years ago at the old Kimo's on Polk Street that I fell for his music. I was hoping that would be his encore last night. As it was, he rocked out his new single Bears, and built an amazing series of loops and back tracks on the fly for his ridiculously talented cover of Makelemore's Can't Hold Us.

Celarly, Tom loves bears!


And we love him!


I had forgotten how tiny action-packed Tom is. Notice where the top of my head is in the first photo, and where it is in the second. That's a serious crouch. Such talent packed into such a photogenic package. I just wish his husbear Mike could have joined too. He's a good one.

The bears were remarkably quiet and I believe that was the most respectful and attentive crowd I have ever been a part of at the Utah. Music soothes the savage, i.e. furry, breast.

Maurice Tani and Mike Anderson at Freight & Salvage Sunday 8/18

It's going to be a great show, and it's an honor to play at the Freight & Salvage.  I can't believe I've never been to a show there before.  Maurice Tani and Mike Anderson will be playing their own acoustic stuff from their album along with other songs from the other new album with the full 77 El Deora this Sunday evening in Berkeley.  Go.

Tom Goss at the Hotel Utah tomorrow night

So looking forward to the return of Tom Goss.  Although now the venue will be packed with bears since he became a big indie hit in the scene.  I loved his chill acoustic shows before he became all super popular—but I am so happy for his success.  STELLAR human being.

And, of course, the music.  And he's a cutie.  And all about love.  And has an awesome husbear to boot.

Tom Goss with Jeb Havens at the Hotel Utah, Wednesday August 14, 8:00 pm.







And there is this awesome new live mixed cover! (he records and pulls in all the loops himself on the fly)



And the great love anthem which launched Tom into the national spotlight back when:

wake up and smell the whiskey

I love it when I see my friends' songs in karaoke books.



I really should start practicing this in the shower to see if I could even attempt it. I really, and truly, cannot sing. I did manage to make it through the Dillard's Dooley for Dave's birthday bearaoke the other night.

double release, twice as nice, and three CDs for me

Tonight at Café Du Nord— Maurice Tani, Mike Anderson and 77 El Deora celebrated the release of two new CDs: 77 El Deora's Blue Line and Maurice and Mike's acoustic duos and trios titled Two Stroke.

Great show, and featured guest vocalist Keta Bill. Jenn Courtney, will you ever come back to me?






Batting cleanup and stealing my heart was Tin Cup Serenade. CD immediately acquired as well.


77 El Deora and Maurice Tani & Mike Anderson are available via Western Independent. Tin Cup Serenade is available on CD and in the iTunes Music Store.

Bears!

The charming, delightful and talented Tom Goss has released his latest video.  Just like him, it is full of bear love!

shop around

After such a fun time at Hard French, I have been digging through my CD collection and ripping more of my old Motown collections. I have a lot of compilation sets and "Best Of"s but really only listened to the songs I already knew I liked, and I started ripping CDs back in the day when the biggest hard drives were only 500 MB and ripping took a long time using MusicMatch, so I only ripped tracks I knew I wanted. I've started ripping entire CDs now and am enjoying discovering songs I never listened to before. Some songs fall too far on the mellow end of scale for me to really enjoy while in a good mood (I don't think of Motown as being so sad so much of the time), but many tracks have already been marked for addition to my party playlists.

One song I heard on this morning's commute was a bit of a shock. It's "Don't Let Him Shop Around" by Debbie Dean. It's basically the opposite of the story in "Shop Around" made famous by Smokey Robinson and the Miracles (and I suppose later by Captain & Tennille). And it has basically the same tune. I had no idea that "Shop Around" was originally recorded by a woman who sings of her mother's lesson to keep her man and not let him shop around, and was reworked the other way and made into a hit.

Well, a little Internet later and now I know my assumption was very wrong. Smokey Robinson and the Miracles did have a huge hit with "Shop Around, " and Debbie Dean (Motown's first white singer) recorded an answer song in response to "Shop Around," called "Don't Let Him Shop Around." And apparently such "answer songs" were pretty common and rather popular.

Still a bit esoteric, but a fun bit of music trivia. And worth a listen.

put down the cup, and put on a lampshade

In finally got around to seeing Pitch perfect. I don't think the movie ever decided what kind of movie it wanted to be and was pretty all over the place. The slightly psycho whispering Asian girl was hilarious though and by far my favorite. That, and the very cute Miss Me When I'm Gone song with the plastic cup timpani.

I did a little, minimal really, research, and found the wonderful original versions of this song by Lulu and the Lampshades.

Now the song is getting a lot of radio airplay and it's being called Cups and the Pitch Perfect Song. This annoys me to absolutely no end! The song is not called Cups and it is not "from" Pitch Perfect. The movie features an a cappella cover of the song Miss Me When I'm Gone, and played with a plastic cup.

Okay, the soundtrack and the radio people are now calling the song Cups, so I guess it could be considered tobe called Cups, but that really just makes everyone involved sound like morons. That's like calling I Will Always Love You, The Bodyguard Song.

Here's the deal, Lulu and the Lampshades, a Brittsh band, took parts of a 1937 song called Miss Me When I'm Gone by Mainer's Mountaineers and added more melody, additional lyrics, and a comepltely new arrangement to make the modern Miss Me When I'm Gone. Mainer's version itself was based on a Carter family song Will You Miss Me When I'm Gone from 1928. But it was Lulu and the Lampshades that did the creative heavy lifting to make it into the modern, catch pop/folk song we have today.

The girls from Lulu and the Lampshades even added the cups part.

Here's the song from J.E. Mainer and Mainer's Mountaineers.



And here's Lulu and the Lampshades



And here they are messing around in the kitchen having fun with it.


Here's where the creativity takes a twist to popularity. A pretty-but-average-looking and popular YouTuber saw the Lulu cups version, practiced it herfself, and put it on her YouTube channel. It was cute. Then a thinner/prettier chick copied the average chick and put herself on YouTube too, and that version with the other girl got posted to Reddit and then it went viral. (Both girls are good singers and lovely.) Anna Kendrick saw the viral version and spent a Saturday all day practicing at home until she could do it, because it's fun. While filming Pitch Perfect, the director found out she could do this so they put it in the scene. And then it went batshit popular.



What annoys me is that the creative artists behind the phenomenon, Lulu and the Lampshades, look like they are getting zero credit and zero dollars for unearthing a classic, making it new, and adding the catchy "cups" accompaniment. And the radio and teeny-boppers are disrespecting even the original artists by calling it Cups, reducing some real song-smithing to a base gimmick. The movie soundtrack is short but getting airplay. Jean Simon was the first to cover it commercially and get a single out there and cash in, and now Anna Kendrick and the movie studio are releasing their own extended version and video.

I bought the Lulu and the Lampshades versions from iTunes. They should at least get a couple of bucks from me.

And it makes me sad that in order to get credit for their own work, and be recognized by the masses/search engines, they have changed the name of their track to Cups (You're Going to Miss Me). They have also changed their name to just "the Lampshades."

I don't begrudge Anna Kendrick or Pitch Perfect as the song never would have become this popular and it might have never even crossed my radar if it weren't for its popularity from the movie.  And it really does nail the scene.  I just wish everyone around it would have treated it, its origins, and its creators with a little respect.

I love the song, all versions truthfully, but I still like the Lampshades' original the most. And I take it very personally as it reminds me so much of Dad. He would have loved this. And if I had even the slightest ability I would have considered getting folks to sing it with me at one of the memorials.

I sure do miss him now he's gone.

Morning music

Both of these started my foggy Friday off right.

Although the snowy backdrop for The Girl from Ipanema is just too incongruous for me to process. But this version did bring to ming the musician friend who first introduced me to the work of Stan Getz—Guy ("Guee") was a jazz player from Caen, France.



And this is just much musical fun: The Evolution of Music. Enjoy!

Danger Girl

Hey, did anyone else know the Molly Ringwald was a jazz singer?

She's performing at a CD release party at Yoshi's tonight. General admin tickets are $25, and the VIP $45 tickets are sold out.

Looking/sounding good Molly!

"Except...Sometimes," the debut CD from actress and author Molly Ringwald, will be released by Concord Records on April 9th, 2013 at which point Ringwald will go on a World Tour of concert dates to include high profile jazz clubs, festivals and major performing arts centers. An homage to the Great American Songbook, Ringwald has crafted a carefully chosen selection of nine standards which she caps off with her take on The Breakfast Club classic, "Don't You (Forget About Me)." The release of "Except...Sometimes" will be accompanied by select tour dates as well as appearances in conjunction with the release of her bestselling new novel, "When It Happens to You."

piping hot T

The 77 El Deora show last night at St. Cyprian's was just wonderful. Beers in the pews, everybody quietly intend on the music, quality song-smithing, outstanding performances, and superb acoustics.


I loves my 77, clearly, but the surprising absolute treat for me last night was being presented with the T Sisters. Their vocals and harmonies were enthralling, and I sat in my pew transfixed. The three actual sisters (two fraternal twins) were just back from some harmony festival where individually and together they took such honors as best trio, best performance, and best original song (well, for some of these they placed if not won, but still). I bought their sample CD, which is nice and features a richly dark single among the five tracks, but lacks the edge-of-my-seat songs I loved in their show. They are working on their first full album, which I eagerly await.


Keep and eye out for their performances, and an ear out for their voices. You will not be disappointed.