Sunday, August 2nd, 2009 10:58 AM PDT
I got friends in High Places: Truth and Salvage edition
Truth and Salvage Co. is a band, comprised of some of my best friends. I was there playing bass during the first incarnation of the group, right after I moved to L.A. in the winter of '07 and I loved it because we were all there for the pure joy of making music together and each other's company.
I have known most of the band for a long time.... Walker, Scott and Smitty for over 10 years. Walker was my older brother's first friend when he got to college in the Blue Ridge Mtns. in Asheville, NC. I would go visit my brother when I was 16 and 17, taking the Greyhound through the night and arriving in an exciting beautiful place, where everybody seemed to be enjoying life and making some kind of art. There really was an unexplainable togetherness that I could feel when I was there. Along with my brother, those guys were the ambassadors to that exciting new place. We would stay up all night playing music, drinking beer and laughing, and I used to hate when my visit was over and I had to return home to sit through the rest of high school.
It felt the same way when I came to Los Angeles...Those guys were here, convincing me to move out, and going out of their way to make me feel right at home when I did.
Truth and Salvage Co. has been on a great run in the last year, and I couldn't be happier for them. Not only did they make a great record with Chris Robinson of the Black Crowes, due out this winter, but they'll be on tour with the Crowes, opening for them all across the country this fall. They write and sing great songs, and that feeling of togetherness is what I get when I watch and listen...They exude that same joy and sense of love for each other that first brought us all together every weekend in Tim Jones' living room, singing late into the night.
I'm playing a big show with Truth and Salvage Co. on August 8th at the Troubador, before they head out on the road. Andy Clockwise is also playing, and he's absolutely phenomenal as well...(check out his interview from this week on NPR's 'all things considered' below)
It's going to be a great night of music, with lots of awesome people there. Come out and enjoy yo' self!
check out my homies:
http://www.myspace.com/truthandsalvageco
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=106932875
I have known most of the band for a long time.... Walker, Scott and Smitty for over 10 years. Walker was my older brother's first friend when he got to college in the Blue Ridge Mtns. in Asheville, NC. I would go visit my brother when I was 16 and 17, taking the Greyhound through the night and arriving in an exciting beautiful place, where everybody seemed to be enjoying life and making some kind of art. There really was an unexplainable togetherness that I could feel when I was there. Along with my brother, those guys were the ambassadors to that exciting new place. We would stay up all night playing music, drinking beer and laughing, and I used to hate when my visit was over and I had to return home to sit through the rest of high school.
It felt the same way when I came to Los Angeles...Those guys were here, convincing me to move out, and going out of their way to make me feel right at home when I did.
Truth and Salvage Co. has been on a great run in the last year, and I couldn't be happier for them. Not only did they make a great record with Chris Robinson of the Black Crowes, due out this winter, but they'll be on tour with the Crowes, opening for them all across the country this fall. They write and sing great songs, and that feeling of togetherness is what I get when I watch and listen...They exude that same joy and sense of love for each other that first brought us all together every weekend in Tim Jones' living room, singing late into the night.
I'm playing a big show with Truth and Salvage Co. on August 8th at the Troubador, before they head out on the road. Andy Clockwise is also playing, and he's absolutely phenomenal as well...(check out his interview from this week on NPR's 'all things considered' below)
It's going to be a great night of music, with lots of awesome people there. Come out and enjoy yo' self!
check out my homies:
http://www.myspace.com/truthandsalvageco
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=106932875
Tuesday, July 7th, 2009 9:25 AM PDT
July Cover of the month: I'm your puppet
Here's one of my favorite songs. 'I'm your puppet' was written by Dan Penn and Spooner Oldham and made a hit by James and Bobby Purify in the 60's. I'd heard it on the oldie's station plenty of times, but about five years ago I went with my Dad to see Dan Penn play at the Tin Angel. Now an old man, he recounted stories of the legendary Muscle Shoals recording heyday, and of how he wrote classic soul hits, like Aretha's 'Do Right Woman' and 'Dark End of the Street.'
He had to stop periodically through the set because his arthritis was acting up, but he songs sounded as fresh as when he wrote them. I was completely blown away when he sang 'I'm your puppet.' At the honesty in his voice and and the beauty and simplicity in what he was saying. It was a moment when the power of a good song came into focus as truly being our gift as humans to express ourselves to one another. Since then, this song has been one that I'll often start strumming whenever a guitar is near me.
click to download:
He had to stop periodically through the set because his arthritis was acting up, but he songs sounded as fresh as when he wrote them. I was completely blown away when he sang 'I'm your puppet.' At the honesty in his voice and and the beauty and simplicity in what he was saying. It was a moment when the power of a good song came into focus as truly being our gift as humans to express ourselves to one another. Since then, this song has been one that I'll often start strumming whenever a guitar is near me.
click to download:
Wednesday, May 20th, 2009 11:09 AM PDT
May Cover of the Month: Under the Boardwalk....Live in Philly
I had a great trip back East last week, and played some very fun shows.... Thanks to all who came out to show some love. Summertime is almost here, and so I've been playing this classic tune, and this recording was made Saturday May 16th at the Tin Angel in Philadelphia.
I've always loved this song. It's perpetually stuck in my head, and yes, perhaps a bit kitschy when i do it, but c'mon...you just can't deny that melody, or the feeling the song gives you. Who doesn't want to escape with the one they love to a shady, quiet place?
Written by Arthur Resnick and Kenny Young, The Drifters made it a hit in 1964.
I love playing with my band from Philly, and they display some great musicianship here.... Mike Pietrusko on drums, Nate Skiles on bass and Ross Bellenoit on electric guitar. Check out a taste of Ross's amazing guitar work in the solo on this tune....top notch! I'll be posting more from this show, so check back.
Click the song title below for a free download!
I've always loved this song. It's perpetually stuck in my head, and yes, perhaps a bit kitschy when i do it, but c'mon...you just can't deny that melody, or the feeling the song gives you. Who doesn't want to escape with the one they love to a shady, quiet place?
Written by Arthur Resnick and Kenny Young, The Drifters made it a hit in 1964.
I love playing with my band from Philly, and they display some great musicianship here.... Mike Pietrusko on drums, Nate Skiles on bass and Ross Bellenoit on electric guitar. Check out a taste of Ross's amazing guitar work in the solo on this tune....top notch! I'll be posting more from this show, so check back.
Click the song title below for a free download!
Friday, May 1st, 2009 12:07 PM PDT
Field trip to Skid Row!
One of the intriguing things about Los Angeles is the sheer size and diversity of the place. The city is so spread out that it seems there's always somewhere new to discover.....Yesterday, my old friend Nell and I decided to go exploring the downtown area a bit. We grabbed our boards and took the metro train to McArthur Park, cruised around it, then bombed the hill from there into downtown.
It's an overwhelming place. I haven't spent much time at all in that area of the city, and it seems like a whole other world. It's congested, bustling, and generally filthy, which by itself doesn't necessarily differentiate it from Hollywood, but it has a completely different feel to it. The smells of the inner city brought me right back to Philly. (I guess exhaust and bum urine smell the same wherever you go.) We skated down 7th Street, hung a left on Broadway. Past the Mexican vendors, the beautifully decrepit old Marquis on theaters and churches and the home-boys on the corners. It seemed to me just like Woody Guthrie's description of downtown L.A. in the 1940's in his autobiography, 'Bound For Glory.' Cars and trucks belching endless exhaust, and every type of dirt you can imagine on everything.
We continued on, past the LA county courthouse and jail, and then we turned right on Temple. We found a great little wallride under a bridge to the courthouse (see attached pic and vid) and worked up an appetite, so we headed for J-Town, or 'Little Tokyo' as I've heard it called, and sat down in a tiny, amazingly delicious, authentic ramen noodle house. With our bellies full, we took a walk through Little Tokyo. The Japanese are up on their style! They seemed to have all the cool colors and styles of everything down there...it made all these hollywood hipsters look so passe. I'm gonna have to go back and cop some of that...I couldn't leave without buying a cool t-shirt with a 'Spirit of the Samurai' print on it for 5 bucks.
From J-town, we decided to head back to the Metro. We skated back towards 7th street, and I began to notice the environment changing quickly, block by block. The L.A. sun beat down on us, but all signs of life around us indicated that we were entering into a dark place. Homeless folks by the dozen. Pushing shopping carts, nervously pacing the streets in search of a fix. Hopeless, downtrodden people all around us. I pushed faster. We hung a right on 6th street and it was like we crossed into the next ring of purgatory. People everywhere, laying on the street, leaning in doorways, obviously in various stages of heroin intoxication. Some were in ecstasy, some were jonesing. I knew we were close to the infamous skid row. I've lived in cities before, watched people nodding off, buying drugs, selling drugs, and living the street life. But this was like nothing I've ever seen. I watched a tv show about it once, and heard people talk about it, but that didn't prepare me for seeing it in person. When we pushed past skid row, I couldn't believe it. It was an open air drug bazaar. Thousands of people inhabiting tents and boxes in a homeless village. The streets were completely full of the living dead. I wondered how all these people ended up there and I felt so sad. Wondered about where their families are and if they knew where their loved one was. Drug addiction is a horrible thing, and all I could think was that heroin must be an incredible high for all these folks to obviously not care about anything else in life. I've heard that people with jobs and houses go down there to take 'heroin vacations,' and pitch tents for a week or two just to get high. I've never had any interest in trying it myself, and after seeing skid row, I know I never will. My board carried me safely back to the Metro, and soon I was underground, happy to be rocketing North and thinking about my day.
The craziest thing is, one block further down the road is a big police station. It all goes down under the watchful (or participating) eye of the LAPD.
On a lighter note....here's a picture of that wallride...it looks cool, but do you think I made it? click the photo to find out.....
It's an overwhelming place. I haven't spent much time at all in that area of the city, and it seems like a whole other world. It's congested, bustling, and generally filthy, which by itself doesn't necessarily differentiate it from Hollywood, but it has a completely different feel to it. The smells of the inner city brought me right back to Philly. (I guess exhaust and bum urine smell the same wherever you go.) We skated down 7th Street, hung a left on Broadway. Past the Mexican vendors, the beautifully decrepit old Marquis on theaters and churches and the home-boys on the corners. It seemed to me just like Woody Guthrie's description of downtown L.A. in the 1940's in his autobiography, 'Bound For Glory.' Cars and trucks belching endless exhaust, and every type of dirt you can imagine on everything.
We continued on, past the LA county courthouse and jail, and then we turned right on Temple. We found a great little wallride under a bridge to the courthouse (see attached pic and vid) and worked up an appetite, so we headed for J-Town, or 'Little Tokyo' as I've heard it called, and sat down in a tiny, amazingly delicious, authentic ramen noodle house. With our bellies full, we took a walk through Little Tokyo. The Japanese are up on their style! They seemed to have all the cool colors and styles of everything down there...it made all these hollywood hipsters look so passe. I'm gonna have to go back and cop some of that...I couldn't leave without buying a cool t-shirt with a 'Spirit of the Samurai' print on it for 5 bucks.
From J-town, we decided to head back to the Metro. We skated back towards 7th street, and I began to notice the environment changing quickly, block by block. The L.A. sun beat down on us, but all signs of life around us indicated that we were entering into a dark place. Homeless folks by the dozen. Pushing shopping carts, nervously pacing the streets in search of a fix. Hopeless, downtrodden people all around us. I pushed faster. We hung a right on 6th street and it was like we crossed into the next ring of purgatory. People everywhere, laying on the street, leaning in doorways, obviously in various stages of heroin intoxication. Some were in ecstasy, some were jonesing. I knew we were close to the infamous skid row. I've lived in cities before, watched people nodding off, buying drugs, selling drugs, and living the street life. But this was like nothing I've ever seen. I watched a tv show about it once, and heard people talk about it, but that didn't prepare me for seeing it in person. When we pushed past skid row, I couldn't believe it. It was an open air drug bazaar. Thousands of people inhabiting tents and boxes in a homeless village. The streets were completely full of the living dead. I wondered how all these people ended up there and I felt so sad. Wondered about where their families are and if they knew where their loved one was. Drug addiction is a horrible thing, and all I could think was that heroin must be an incredible high for all these folks to obviously not care about anything else in life. I've heard that people with jobs and houses go down there to take 'heroin vacations,' and pitch tents for a week or two just to get high. I've never had any interest in trying it myself, and after seeing skid row, I know I never will. My board carried me safely back to the Metro, and soon I was underground, happy to be rocketing North and thinking about my day.
The craziest thing is, one block further down the road is a big police station. It all goes down under the watchful (or participating) eye of the LAPD.
On a lighter note....here's a picture of that wallride...it looks cool, but do you think I made it? click the photo to find out.....
Saturday, April 18th, 2009 12:34 PM PDT
New Music Vid!
the other day, my friend robe grabbed my tiny little camera, and between sips of tecate, we started making a video for my song 'meet me in l.a.' it's actually not even a video camera...it's a still camera that can take small snippets of video. (remarkably well, i think)
my favorite part is the girls that appear on the bridge...they were walking past us on Highland and robe asked if they wanted to be in it...
here's what we did:
Thursday, April 9th, 2009 10:05 AM PDT
April Cover song of the Month....Hall and Oates
there's so many great songs out there....i've decided to begin sharing some tunes i like to cover once in a while...i'll try to put up a new one every month, and you can download them for free...
I found this version of the Philly greats' Hall and Oates classic 'Rich Girl' that I did a few months ago. What a great tune! I really got into singing it. hope you enjoy, and let me know if there are songs out there you think I should play.
I found this version of the Philly greats' Hall and Oates classic 'Rich Girl' that I did a few months ago. What a great tune! I really got into singing it. hope you enjoy, and let me know if there are songs out there you think I should play.
Monday, March 30th, 2009 7:51 AM PDT
no place like home
I've been having a great week back in Philly...
My dad's 60th birthday party was this last weekend, which was tons of fun. Happy Bday dad! My older brother Isaac plays pedal steel (very well), and one of the groups he plays in, Jet Weston and the Atomic Ranch Hands provided entertainment. Nothing like some good old Hank Williams tunes to pass an evening!
I had some really fun shows while I've been back, too... The Keswick theater is such a wonderful stage...The place was full of people last Wed, and you could hear a pin drop. It's always fun to be able to sing like I'm in my living room in front of so many folks! Friday night was for the bar set, at the Northstar...I've had mixed experiences there over the years. It can be a very difficult spot to play because the bar in the back gets really noisy. I was especially apprehensive because I was doing it on my own, without the sonic reinforcement of a rhythm section...It worked out beautifully though, and I was flattered to have a room full of folks listening and singing all the words! It was a great chance to debut some of my new tunes, which I'm happy to say went over really well.
I got a last minute call to head up to Roxborough on Sunday night, to play a few tunes at a new little joint up on Ridge ave, The Blinkin Lincoln. I was so glad I went...I was surprised to find that this place is the hang that a lot of people have been waiting for to reemerge on the Philly scene, and the music scene was well represented there...always great when you can put a whole bunch of legends in one small room to hang and play. My time back home was short, but rejuvenating, and reminded me that there's no place like home!
My dad's 60th birthday party was this last weekend, which was tons of fun. Happy Bday dad! My older brother Isaac plays pedal steel (very well), and one of the groups he plays in, Jet Weston and the Atomic Ranch Hands provided entertainment. Nothing like some good old Hank Williams tunes to pass an evening!
I had some really fun shows while I've been back, too... The Keswick theater is such a wonderful stage...The place was full of people last Wed, and you could hear a pin drop. It's always fun to be able to sing like I'm in my living room in front of so many folks! Friday night was for the bar set, at the Northstar...I've had mixed experiences there over the years. It can be a very difficult spot to play because the bar in the back gets really noisy. I was especially apprehensive because I was doing it on my own, without the sonic reinforcement of a rhythm section...It worked out beautifully though, and I was flattered to have a room full of folks listening and singing all the words! It was a great chance to debut some of my new tunes, which I'm happy to say went over really well.
I got a last minute call to head up to Roxborough on Sunday night, to play a few tunes at a new little joint up on Ridge ave, The Blinkin Lincoln. I was so glad I went...I was surprised to find that this place is the hang that a lot of people have been waiting for to reemerge on the Philly scene, and the music scene was well represented there...always great when you can put a whole bunch of legends in one small room to hang and play. My time back home was short, but rejuvenating, and reminded me that there's no place like home!
Monday, March 23rd, 2009 5:54 PM PDT
Wind at my Back
It's a beautiful day here in California...i've been singing and playing guitar in my living room, practicing up for my shows this week back in Philadelphia...They should be good. I love the Keswick theater, where I'm playing on Wed. night, and it's always lovely to see my family and friends.
This is an instrumental I've been kicking around for a while...I don't really know what to do with is except play it for you! It gives me a good vibe, like driving west down Santa Monica blvd towards the beach, with no traffic, so I call it 'Wind at my back.' If you click the song name below, you'll get a free download. Cool sidenote, the amazing Matt Chamberlain is playing drums...
This is an instrumental I've been kicking around for a while...I don't really know what to do with is except play it for you! It gives me a good vibe, like driving west down Santa Monica blvd towards the beach, with no traffic, so I call it 'Wind at my back.' If you click the song name below, you'll get a free download. Cool sidenote, the amazing Matt Chamberlain is playing drums...
Wednesday, March 11th, 2009 2:46 PM PDT
Thankin the lord for my fingers
Today I went and played for children that are severely disabled. I don't know if it's politically correct or not, but for many of them, the term 'vegetable' I've heard used before might apply. I didn't know what to expect when I pulled into the parking lot of the hospital in North Hollywood, but I quickly realized it was a situation I wasn't used to.
The woman in charge of the ward greeted me warmly, and briefed me on what to expect as I played music for the kids. She explained that sometimes a glimmer in their eye would be the only indication that they were hearing the music. She also said something that really stuck with me: that because their condition is so extreme and difficult, these children are forgotten by society. They are voiceless and forsaken.
Some of the kids smiled wide and began to giggle when I sang, and some of them just lay there. Some stared at my hands moving on the neck of my guitar, and others' eyes darted uncontrollably around the room. One little girl who was in better shape than many of the others followed me from room to room with her nurse and stood outside listening and dancing. While their reactions were unpredictable and sometimes undetectable, it was somehow more rewarding experience than many of the concerts I do for 'normal' people. It's pretty amazing to share music with people who can't share much of anything. It just reinforces the saying that music is the universal language.
I have a lot of respect for the people who work there, caring for those kids. It seems like an incredibly difficult job in so many ways, and today I saw them tending to the children in a very loving and patient way. It really takes a certain kind of person...
Life deals us all a different hand of cards. Some folks have a little, some folks have a lot. Some folks figure out a way to make a lot out of a little. These poor kids won't even be able to read their hand.
Today put things in perspective, and reminded me of one of my favorite lyrics, by Paul Simon from his beautiful song, 'Lincoln Duncan'.
"I was playing my guitar and lying underneath the stars
Just thanking the Lord for my fingers, for my fingers"
Thursday, March 5th, 2009 5:39 PM PST
Let's Stay Here
Here's an excerpt from WHYY's show OnCanvas.
taped June '08 at the Tin Angel in Philadelphia...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ahJUSKLSjkE
taped June '08 at the Tin Angel in Philadelphia...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ahJUSKLSjkE
Friday, February 27th, 2009 5:40 PM PST
A song for you
Here's a brand new tune for you...written and recorded in my living room on Tuesday...it's called 'Meet me in L.A.'
just click the song title below to get your download your free mp3.
just click the song title below to get your download your free mp3.
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