Remembering

The Narrows crew continues to mourn the loss of longtime Narrows supporter Ronnie Brandt, who passed away recently.

We thought we'd post his photo, since many knew his smile but maybe not his name.

"Tries To Be Good"

"I'm glad I found Slaid Cleaves, because my life would have been poorer without him."

--Stephen King

A good crowd enriched their lives Thursday night at the Narrows, as singer/songwriter Slaid Cleaves brought his bag full of story songs to our stage for the first time since 2006, according to our records. You can look it up.

We're particularly fond of Slaid because he was one of the first performers ever to play the Narrows back about 9 years ago. He was at the Narrows before the Narrows was cool!

Through the years, his motto has remained the same: "Grew up in Maine. Lives in Texas. Writes songs. Makes records. Travels around. Tries to be good."

Too Cool to Miss

Praise & Blame--Tom Jones--Powerful vocals. Powerful songs. Tom Jones, who turned 70 this year, has tossed the tux to get into a rootsy wrassle with John Lee Hooker's "Burning Hell" (watch TJ do it on Jools Holland's show), Bob Dylan's "What Good Am I?" and other gospel-like tunes. Jones "reinvents himself but is always the same guy," says producer Ethan Johns in this clip about making Praise & Blame. Which is about right--remember when he did--who would have thought?--Prince's "Kiss"? And it was perfect! (Note for history buffs: Johns is the son of famed producer/engineer Glyn Johns, whose name you may have spotted on a Stones or Beatle album.) Backing musicians in addition to Johns include Gillian Welch and Rhode Island's Dave Rawlings, Stax legend Booker T. Jones and Tom Petty associate Benmont Tench. This is a keeper that may not get its due because roots fans will overlook a bump and grinder. Resist the urge. This one's too cool to miss.

And Now For Something Completely Different...

"I'm a cross between Pete Seeger and Don Rickles," said Vance Gilbert during his debut at the Narrows Saturday night.

This delightful self-effacing performer--who started in jazz and is a mainstay in the folk scene--charmed the audience with his soulful vocals and stand-up comedy stage banter.

When your humble blogger went "backstage" to shoot a behind-the-scenes photo (above) before the show, he rose to the challenge to make it fun and different.

As one of our longtime audience members (Fred) pointed out, a Vance Gilbert performance is a personal experience. It certainly was!

A sad note: Before the concert, Vance learned his 82 year old step father had just passed away in CT. Our condolences to him.

Howlin' for The Black Keys

Brothers--The Black Keys--These two guys from Akron are doing what musicians--like Led Zeppelin, Canned Heat, the Rolling Stones, the Animals and others--did in the 1960s: take sounds from way back and make them your own. The Stones and the others took blues music and transformed it for a new age. The Black Keys are taking classic rock--with more than a touch of the likes of Screamin' Jay Hawkins and even Gary Glitter--and molding it for a new generation. Call it retro, call it garage. It works!

All the songs were written by The Black Keys except for "Never Gonna Give You Up," written and recorded by soul singer Jerry Butler (Who covers Jerry Butler?), but the riffs sound familiar, even though you may not be able to pinpoint why. And the songs are more than songs--they feel like atmosphere. It's old, it's new. It's everywhere too. This morning I heard their "Howlin' For You" from Brothers in a car commercial. Not a bad thing. If you're, like me, late to The Black Keys--they have been around for about a decade--Brothers would be a nice introduction.

Texas Tornado

The Lone Star State's Jimmie Vaughan made his Narrows debut Sunday night before a sold out venue of appreciative fans (including guitar god Duke Robillard)!

Accompanied by a blazing band and roadhouse singer Lou Ann Barton, the Fabulous Thunderbirds founder showed why he is one of the most celebrated guitarists in the world.

R.I.P.

Learned of a death in the Narrows family just before the Jimmie Vaughan show Sunday night.

Ronnie Brandt passed away suddenly this weekend. Narrows honcho Patrick Norton led the audience in a toast to his memory before the concert.

Our condolences to his family and friends. He was remembered fondly by members of the crew at the Narrows.

The Temptations are Still Here!

Still Here--The Temptations--Yes, those Temptations. "Just My Imagination (Running Away with Me)" Temptations, "Ball of Confusion," Temptations, "My Girl" etc. Great songs, very cool sweet and, in the late 1960s, psychedelic soul. Only one member these days is original, but throughout their hit-making history they kept changing personnel anyway. Never mind that. Still Here is a wonderful listen, a recording the Temps call a "concept album" because it reflects various styles from their history. If you like soul, you'll like Still Here.

Raul Malo: The Voice

He's got the subtle heartbreak in his voice that Roy Orbison possessed--and he brought it to the Narrows Thursday night for the first time along with his band and kind of Tex-Mex sound.

Raul Malo, formerly of The Mavericks, charmed from his first note.

The concert was streamed live on mvyradio.com and hopefully will be in the archives in the near future.

Did You Know This About Peter Wolf?

Peter Wolf, solo artist and J. Geils singer, makes his Narrows debut in November, although he has attended at least one show (Shelby Lynne's) at our fabled location.

Peter lived an interesting life even before he came to national attention as the wild man voice of the J.Geils Band.

Some fun facts:

--His father was a musician and had his own radio show in New York City; his mother was a teacher; his grandmother, an actress.

--His older sister was a dancer on Alan Freed's television show.

--As a child he took part in a child music series with Woody Guthrie.

--Peter has dyslexia, a condition which makes it difficult to play an instrument. He studied piano, guitar, drums and violin.

--When he was seven his family moved to the Berkshires due to his father's work at Tanglewood, and young Peter used to hang out in the studio of Norman Rockwell, developing an interest in painting.

--Peter hung out with Bob Dylan in Greenwich Village in Dylan's early years.

--Peter's high school was in Harlem, not far from the Apollo Theater, where Peter watched shows by Ray Charles, James Brown, Jackie Wilson and others.

--Peter roomed with David Lynch (Blue Velvet, Twin Peaks) in Boston while studying art at Boston's Museum of Fine Art. He also befriended Jon Landau, later Bruce Springsteen's manager and a writer for Rolling Stone magazine.

--Peter had an apartment in Cambridge, MA which became a refuge for touring musicians, including Muddy Waters.

--Barry Tashian, of New England legends Barry and the Remains, and later a member of Emmylou Harris' group, roomed with Peter.

I could go on.  Learn more at www.peterwolf.com.

Cheryl Wheeler made her annual appearance at the Narrows Friday night--but this time she was accompanied by a lovely book called Nice Rendition, Cheryl Wheeler's Lyrics in Calligraphy.

Sixty artists have done beautiful work in interpreting the lyrics from 73 of Cheryl's songs.

The book will continue to be for sale at the Narrows for a couple more weeks. Also check out www.nicerendition.com.

Notwithstanding Pompatus

Bingo--Steve Miller Band--The smooth production rock powerhouse who gave us "pompatus of love," is back after almost 2 decades, and doing blues with the help of veteran R & B singer Sonny Charles. Like most, perhaps all, of Steve Miller's work, what's not to like? It's catchy, it's fun, it's quality, and it's mostly silky smooth (except, maybe, for a rhythmically jarring rendition of Howlin' Wolf's "Who's Been Talkin"). Soon-to-be-Narrows-alum Jimmie Vaughan had a hand in writing 3 tracks, by the way.

For those who may not be ultra-serious blues students, there's a possibility you are unfamiliar with the tunes on Bingo. You might know B.B. King's "Rock Me Baby" (reportedly the most covered blues song of all time), though. But, no matter. This is a fun, fine recording you can listen to a lot without growing tired. I'm mean, have you ever tired of hearing "Rock 'N Me,""Jet Airliner," or "Swingtown"? Not me. Okay, I am tired of "The Joker," "pompatus of love" notwithstanding.

Marc Cohn Surpasses

Listening Booth:1970--Marc Cohn--This guy, a Narrows fave and best known for "Walking in Memphis," may finally put that song behind him with this interesting recording of important tracks from 1970. "It was the year that the Beatles broke up. Simon and Garfunkel too...but it wasn't really 'the '70s' yet. 1970, at least musically, still felt like the '60s somehow," he writes in the CD notes.

When I saw the song listing on the CD, I was less than enthused about another cover of Paul McCartney's "Maybe I'm Amazed"--a great song, but hasn't it been covered enough? But Marc makes it worth hearing with new ears, along with Cat Stevens' "Wild World," Bread's "Make It With You," and Badfinger's "No Matter What."

But he makes this more than a trip down memory lane for those listening to Top 40 radio at the time. He reaches for deep tracks, like John Lennon's "Look at Me," from the Plastic Ono Band album that contained the better known "Mother," and "Working Class Hero," and blends it with the Beatles' "I Am the Walrus." And "The Only Living Boy in New York," from Simon and Garfunkle's Bridge Over Troubled Waters album containing the better know title track, "Cecelia," and "The Boxer." And the Dead's "New Speedway Boogie" from Workingman's Dead, an album containing the better known "Uncle John's Band." Frankly, I don't think I've heard "The Only Living Boy in New York" or "New Speedway Boogie" before, so this is an introduction to those songs for me.

As for moving beyond "Walking in Memphis,": "Listening Booth: 1970" surpassed it on Billboard. So there.

His Name is Luka

A packed, enthusiastic Narrows audience Saturday night greeted Ireland's Luka Bloom for his first visit to our fabled stage.

He charmed us with his own compositions as well as inspired covers such as "The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face," written by late Englishman Ewan MacColl and made famous by Roberta Flack. His beautiful guitar sound was also of note, filling the space with acoustic warmth.

Though he may be from the Emerald Isle, his is not a Celtic show, although his accent is--or more precisely Irish, dropping the "th" sound and filled with self-deprecating wit.

If you missed this visit, be sure to catch him next time.

The Working Artist

Marc Ribot was one of the first musicians ever to play the Narrows, way back in 2002.

We were pleased to have him return after so many years to do what might be termed an "avant garde" set at the Narrows Thursday night. And as you can see in the photo, he seriously preps before a performance.

Not surprising, since he is the "go to" guy for Tom Waits, Elvis Costello, producer T-Bone Burnett and others. If you heard Raising Sand by Robert Plant and Alison Krauss, you heard Marc Ribot. It won a slew of Grammys.

Most recently he performed on John Mellencamp's mono release, No Better Than This, recorded in a hotel room in San Antonio, Texas, where Robert Johnson recorded in the 1930s; at the oldest African-American church in America, which is located in Savannah, Georgia; and in Memphis, Tennessee at Sun Records, where Elvis, Johnny Cash, Howlin' Wolf and others cut sides in the 1950s. "The experience of doing that in that room was amazing," he said, noting with a chuckle that perhaps more studios should have been built with parquet linoleum floors.

Marc's most recent solo release is called Silent Movies.

Though I didn't get a chance to ask him about it, he apparently will be appearing as part of the back up band in the upcoming Elton John/Leon Russell collaboration.

Top 10 Most Influential Guitarists of the 1960s

I was looking at the Rolling Stone's list of the greatest guitarists of all time--and got to musing if greatest meant the same as most influential.

I concluded it didn't, because the prowess on the frets award probably should go to a jazz guitarist that comparatively few listen to.

How about the top 10 most influential guitarists from a single era? How about the 1960s? A time which began around 1963 and ended in the early 1970s. Here's my thinking:

1. George Harrison, John Lennon, Paul McCartney (yes, Paul played guitar on those records too)--I've counted these three guitarists as one because the records they produced inspired at least one generation to play guitar. That's influence.

2. Brian Jones, Keith Richards, Mick Taylor--These guys, of course, played guitar in the Rolling Stones, and as an ensemble they made great and influential guitar-centered records.

3. Bob Dylan--He changed the world when he went electric. Now, that's influence.

4. Dave Davies--One song: "You Really Got Me." His brother Ray wrote the tune, apparently on a piano. But, unless a session guitarist (rumored to be Jimmy Page) sat in, Dave gets the credit. The riff won't go away, and overshadows Ray Davies' other songs, many of which are arguably better.

5. Roger McGuinn--The jingly-jangly sound that was his trademark was lifted by Tom Petty, one of the most important recording artists over the last 3 decades, who, at times, seems to be a Roger McGuinn tribute artist.

6. Jerry Garcia and Bob Weir--They influenced the whole jam band movement through their work with the Grateful Dead.

7. John Fogarty--It's easy to forget how important Creedence Clearwater was in the late 1960s. For all intents and purposes, Fogarty was Creedence. Love his version of "Suzi Q."

8. Eric Clapton--Cream. Derek and the Dominos. Period.

9. Jimi Hendrix--Clapton, Hendrix and Jimmy Page (below) were important in launching the influential Album Oriented Rock phase.

10. Jimmy Page--He influenced several generations of air guitarists. Try to listen to Led Zep's "Black Dog" without moving your hands.

Honorable mention: Gram Parsons, who wasn't much of a player, but his vision of Cosmic American Music was critical in spawning the guitar-centered country rock in the 1970s, and later Americana.

Agree? Disagree? Who are your top 10?

Electric Blues Guitar 101 from a Guitar Hero

So you want to be an electric blues guitarist. What do you need to know and do?

I posed such questions to a guitar hero, Kim Simmonds, who was at the forefront of the late '60s wave of British blues that gave the world the Yardbirds, Cream, Eric Clapton and others, including his band Savoy Brown.

I interviewed him before the Savoy Brown performance at the Narrows Center for the Arts on Saturday, September 18, 2010. I wanted to get hands-on practical advise for the aspiring guitarist. And he gave it.

First of all, "my advice has always been to focus in on one particular music," he said. "Hone in on the style at the exclusion of everything else. I mean to this day I can't play a Beatles song." When he became interested in guitar, he listened to jazz, old style R & B, etc., but by the time he was a teenager he realized he wanted to play the electric sounds emanating from Chicago courtesy of Muddy Waters and others. So he focused on that style as he learned to play his instrument.  

Another piece of advice to the would-be electric blues guitarist: "Don't start on the acoustic guitar because it's very difficult to make the swap...The first thing you should do if you want to play good electric blues guitar is start with electric guitar and an amp. Because it's a different head space altogether." While he plays acoustic blues when he performs solo, he says he's still learning how to play the acoustic guitar.

Thinking about becoming a lead guitarist in a blues band? "You don't play scales. You don't do anything technical...you start off listening to records, you start off getting licks, you know, you get one or two licks, you play those, you get a couple more licks, and you build up a library of guitar licks..." He never knew what a scale was until he was in his 30s, well after he became a blues guitar star. "It's all about feeling, you know, and playing scales is too technical." 

He adds new original licks to his repertoire nearly every performance. "Which is a big surprise to myself. I'm trying that hard every night to play the instrument...it's a very nice feeling to have. It means that you're on the edge, it means that you're really pushing yourself, and you're trying to improvise."

Anybody out there can play what I play, he says. "But can you play it and mean it? That's the only difference." When you play a simple phrase, it has to carry meaning. "You've got to find a way to make that full of meaning," like Muddy Waters and other classic old-time blues guitarists did.

"I intend to live to a ripe old age"

Tonight British blues guitar pioneer  Kim Simmonds returns to the Narrows with his band Savoy Brown.  Figured I'd  dig up the 2007 interview:

During your last visit to the Narrows you played with such joy. Is it always fun these days?  

KS: The "joy" is always there. It's a blessing. Tough to hold on to if you take it lightly. I try to not make it "work" which this business of being a traveling musician can quickly become. Therefore I take less gigs so that the ones I do play, I can give 1000% to the audience and to the music. I can't give any less...it's the way I'm built.  

What recordings are you listening to these days? Any recommendations?

KS: I like listening to the artists I grew up with. All the old blues and rock records are still fresh to me. I like people like Mose Allison and Tony Joe White and Dion and so forth. Older artists that still make great new music. I've been also listening to The Smiths lately which will tell you just how crazy my tastes are!  

How about your recording plans?  

KS: I'm currently recording my next solo acoustic CD tentatively entitled "Out Of The Blue" for release next May. I have the songs written but now I'm waiting on a special Martin from the Martin factory and also I've been promised a couple of newer Guilds so there will be a guitar shoot out in my studio soon....may the best guitar win.  

Solo performing versus playing with a band...any preference?

KS: The positives and negatives for each. I was surprised to hear James Taylor talking of the difficulties of putting on a one man show. I would have thought it was second nature to him. There is a real challenge to standing on stage alone with just an acoustic guitar. I love the challenge. With a band you can relax on stage and just let it happen (if the band is good)...you can't relax just by yourself. Of course on the upside there is a wonderful solitary vibe that goes along with traveling and playing alone which appeals to the Celt in me.

What kind of gear do you use, and why?

KS: I use Gibson guitars because they give me a beefy sound and one that exemplifies the "UK blues sound" that I am apart of. I was also using Marshall amplifiers for the same reason but recently I've switched to a Dailey amplifier that has much the same characteristics as a Marshall but with hand made components etc.

What's your favorite kind of audience...quiet and attentive, or kind of rowdy, shouting out requests, that kind of thing. The Narrows has both, and in-between.

KS: For solo acoustic performances I like an audience that's not too quiet because then I may get too self conscious. Attentive but responsive I suppose is what I mean. As regards the band shows...I don't mind...quiet is good...boogie loud is also good...crazy maniacal is also good!!! Really, with the band, there is nothing better than a loud, ready for the moment audience.

What are your long-term future plans?

KS: I intend to keep being a traveling musician until I'm.......really old. It keeps me healthy and inspired. I also draw and paint every day at home (as well as practice the guitar) so even if I wasn't a professional I would still do those things. More and more I am grateful for the ability and blessing that have made me able to make a living at doing what others consider a hobby. I will continue to record band and solo records and with luck, I intend to live to a ripe old age!

Old School Returns

More from the Narrows Festival 2010 last Sunday:

Deep funk hit the outdoor stage with Nashville-based the Dynamites featuring longtime soul vocalist Charles Walker.

Mr. Walker's story reminds us of that of Narrows fave Bettye LaVette: Starting in music decades ago; tasting mainstream success but never breaking out huge; taking a hike from the music biz; rediscovery by a new generation.

There's an old school soul movement, wrote USA Today back in 2008:

"This summer artists such as James Hunter...Ryan Shaw, Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings and The Dynamites featuring Charles Walker are doing more than waxing nostalgic. Though commercial radio bypasses them in favor of glossier R&B and their niche-label record sales remain modest, these acts are wowing live audiences coast to coast with fresh songs and slamming performances."

James Hunter, by the way, played to a packed Narrows house a few months back, so maybe there's something to this.