10 more days to the closing of the year and I’d love to do some reflections here… which is extremely difficult when I have to pen it down through this wordpress blog. As always, the year had presented its ups and downs. It had been a roller coaster year for me and I have to almost say that the number of ‘ups’ is the same as the ‘downs’.

Some of the obvious downs that gave me sleepless nights and non-productive days were my encounter with 2 bouts of headaches that lasted more than 1 month each time it happened… almost to the point of paralyzing my daily activities. But thank God, there is always a silver lining through the dark clouds and I’m fine again as of this post. One thing for sure is that these DOWNS become UPS… truly glad.

I didn’t manage to accomplish certain goals as well. That little piece of driving license is still so far away from my grasps… where had all my resolutions gone to? I probably didn’t see all the distractions coming in. Oh well… As I shifted from my full-time work to a freelance-based work, I guess I lost some focus here and there even though I regain all my lost time. I can almost shout out aloud that thinking how to spend my time meaningfully, when I have 24 hours a day, requires so much dedication and perseverance that it produces some level of stress too. Strange but true.

I managed to complete a project on my own too, after all these while. One of the downside was that I lost most of my work resources by switching to freelance mode. The upside? I get to do things the way I want. I’m still not able to clearly tell the benefits/short-comings of switching to freelancing but I guess time will tell.

I did manage to start my part-time MBA without much emotional/work baggages. I’m actually going to school like a normal undergraduate! And with that, it means that I have some financial baggages to be managed since I’m earning only a fraction of what my former self did. There is no perfect world but trade-offs always exist! Ouch!

The past quarter had seen me doing what I like most and that is playing the guitar! I have to be serious here and I’m glad that I’m having all the time in the world to indulge myself here. It’s just a hobby but boy I’m learning a lot from just learning a piece of music.

Some accomplishments:

• I started this blog and participated in NaBloPoMo for consistently posting for a period of 30-days without stopping (almost)
• I bought my first DSLR camera and I’m enjoying it every outing of my life now LOL
• I managed to post the most number of videos on my youtube channel this year
• I bought Adam’s Stevie Wonder DVD instructional material (and yes the video is up there!)
• And finally, I have a much closer walk with God (still baby steps but I covered some distance spiritually at least!)
• YES LOTS MORE and if I were to continue, this post is going to be flowing out of control!!!

Finally, closing off the year with Stevie Wonder song. Learning this song has shown me the meaning of hard work and perseverance. I repeated the song at least 5 times a day over the past 3 weeks and that made it 105 times… the most number of times that I’ve ever practiced for a single song. And during the past 3 weeks, I played NOTHING and only this one. I’m impressed by myself but also impressed that I still have a long way to go. There is still 2010.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to ALL!

Overjoyed

Over time, I’ve been building my castle of love
Just for two, though you never knew you were my reason
I’ve gone much too far for you now to say
That I’ve got to throw my castle away

Over dreams, I have picked out a perfect come true
Though you never knew it was of you I’ve been dreaming
The sandman has come from too far away
For you to say come back some other day

And though you don’t believe that they do
They do come true
For did my dreams
Come true when I looked at you
And maybe too, if you would believe
You too might be
Overjoyed, over loved, over me

Over hearts, I have painfully turned every stone
Just to find, I had found what I’ve searched to discover
I’ve come much too far for me now to find
The love that I’ve sought can never be mine

And though you don’t believe that they do
They do come true
For did my dreams
Come true when I looked at you
And maybe too, if you would believe
You too might be
Overjoyed, over loved, over me

And though the odds say improbable
What do they know
For in romance
All true love needs is a chance
And maybe with a chance you will find
You too like I
Overjoyed, over loved, over you, over you

Died Saturday from a heart attack.  He was, simply put, amazing.

Jazz Times used some photos from a Velvet Lounge show for this article by famous writer Evan Haga:http://jazztimes.com/articles/25436-guitarist-jack-rose-dies-at-38.

Philly City Paper blog used them: Remembering Jack Rose

Spent lots of time playing the guitar today!

The song just flew out from within the mind and it was immediately translated into melodies! May or may not be true to the original but hope that it entertains! Key is in G A musical day!

Scottish guitarist Ben Reynolds is getting ready to embark on a quick US tour. We reviewed his Tompkins Square debut How Day Earnt Its Night not too long ago, and have since been spinning his Strange Attractors album Two Wings, which is equally good! We’re going to try to take some video at the Pittsburgh performance, so keep an eye out for that… and visit Reynolds’ Myspace page for updates on the TBA dates.

11/10 – Zebulon w/ Eric Carbonara, Mike Wexler, David Copenhafer
258 Wythe Ave, Brooklyn NY

11/11 - The Outpost w/ Eric Carbonara, Concord Ballet Orchestra Players, Mike Tamburo
186 1/2 Hampshire St, Cambridge MA

11/12 – The Appohadion w/ Mike Tamburo, Tom Kovacevic, Prisma
107 Hanover St, Portland ME

11/13 – The Spotty Dog w/ Mike Tamburo, Alex Turnquist
440 Warren St, Hudson NY

11/14 – TBA w/ Mike Tamburo
Providence, RI

11/15 - BAR w/ Mike Tamburo
254 Crown St, New Haven CT

11/16 – Issue Project Room w/ Mike Tamburo
At The Old American Can Factory, 232 3rd Street, 3rd Floor, Brooklyn NY

11/17 – House show w/ Mike Tamburo, Eric Carbonara
4500 kingsessing Ave, Philadelphia PA

11/18 – Schlow Memorial Library w/ Mike Tamburo + others TBA
211 S. Allen St, State College PA

11/19 – Morning Glory Coffeehouse w/ Mike Tamburo
1806 Chislet St, Pittsburgh PA

11/20 – TBA w/ Mike Tamburo, Nick Schillace
Detroit MI

11/21 – Skylab w/ Mike Tamburo
57 E Gay St, Columbus OH

11/22 – Hop Hop w/ Mike Tamburo, Keenan Lawler
800 N. Limestone St, Lexington, KY

11/23 – Little Hamilton w/ Mike Tamburo, Keenan Lawler, The Paper Hats
1318 Little Hamilton Ave, Nashville TN

11/24 – Swan Dive w/ Mike Tamburo, Keenan Lawler, Nathan Salsburg
921 Swan St, Louisville KY

11/25 – Heaven Gallery w/ Mike Tamburo
1550 N. Milwaukee Ave, 2nd Floor, Chicago IL

meet Sungha Jung,  hes about 13 years old.  he taught himself how to play the guitar about 4 years ago.  yep.

Keep up the grand work young man!

a little bit o’ nirvana:

and one of my ALL-TIME favorite songs:

Israeli guitarist Yair Yona

The primary touchstone for Yona’s music is the Takoma school and the American Primitive revival movement, and it’s easy to hear the influence of John Fahey, Jack Rose, Leo Kottke and Glenn Jones. Jones is, in fact, a big fan of Yair and Remember, and had this to say :

Yair is fantastic… that album is one of my favorite guitar records of the year. Production-wise, it’s very ambitious, and quite smart, and in terms of both composition and technique, there are two or three tracks that I think are as good as anything ever done on the guitar. Obviously his album wouldn’t exist without his influences… but it rises above being merely derivative into something beautiful and, occasionally, even sublime.

As a nod to Yona’s drone and indie rock influences, there are also splashes of synth and assorted ambient effects on some of Remember’s tracks, though these are mostly relegated to background atmosphere… for the most part, Yona keeps his guitar playing as the focus of his compositions.

Yair Yona – “Remember”

I decided to get in touch with Yona and conducted the following interview. Worth noting : the entire Remember album is available as a free digital download on Yona’s Bandcamp page.

W&W : How old are you, and how long have you been playing the guitar?

Yair : I’m 28, been playing [music] for 13 years. Most of that time I played bass, until the winter of 2003, when I grabbed an acoustic guitar and started a whole new journey.

W&W : Take us through the evolution of your playing… when did you start working with acoustic instruments? Was it something you moved toward after the discovery of your European and American folk and guitar influences? Did you learn your fingerstyle techniques from emulating recordings, did you use TAB, etc?

Yair : Well, I was playing bass for couple of years, and was really into psychedelic rock and prog. In 2002, I moved to London and a couple of months afterward, I heard the first Bert Jansch album, which totally changed my life and made me realize that I’m much more into that now. His technique was so breathtaking, I almost lost the will to play. But at some point, I managed to learn one simple tune of his, which gave me the strength to move on and learn more tunes and practice. At first, I had to use TABs, as my hearing was rusty and I couldn’t figure out how the guy combined the two elements of bass string playing along with a melody and rhythm. The guy is a genius. No one plays like him, and I wish he’d be my neighbor. I’ll trade glasses of sugar and milk for 15 years, for one guitar lesson from him..

W&W : Which Bert song was the first that you learned to play? When I first started playing fingerstyle, I taught myself “Runnin, Runnin From Home” from the album, but ended up with a completely convoluted fingering that made it way more difficult to play than it had to be! A friend later found a TAB online and set me straight!

Yair : We share the exact same story! I figured “Running…” was the more “easy” song on the album, so I started with it. I had no idea about alternate bass, so I made up some terrible chord positions to try and understand how to play that. Only later I found a TAB for it and realized how it should be played. When I managed to play “Angie” for the first time, it was the happiest day of my life! (More on the day I first heard Bert’s album can be found here) One of my favorite tunes of his is maybe his easiest – “Bright New Year”. But the all time favorite song for me is “Fresh as a Sweet Sunday Morning”…

W&W : Please describe the instruments you used on Remember.

Yair : Well, in terms of my guitars, there were only three. The 6-string is an EN guitar, which a friend of mine built me as a practice for the guitar workshop lessons that he took. The EN was built based on a Martin 000 model. The 12-string was a Fender, which I sold to buy a brilliant Larrivée. The Weissenborn was actually a simple Vineyard guitar, and right after I finished the recordings, I bought a Goldtone. Still have the Vineyard, such a wonderful guitar, especially for its price. The Royal resonator is a cheap resonator I bought to see how I’m doing with this type of guitar.

W&W : You replaced your 12-string with a Larrivée 12? What body style, model number?

Yair : The Larrivée is a new LR-03-12.

W&W : Does Israel have its own instrument manufacturers, any popular regional guitar makers? Are the popular US brands like Martin, Gibson, Taylor etc available / widely used?

Yair : There are no REALLY famous guitar builders, maybe there are manufacturers who build really few pieces a year. The American firms have some representation, but usually in the acoustic guitar rooms, you’ll find a few Martins and Taylors, usually way overpriced, and the variety of models doesn’t exist. You won’t be able to find a good 12-string second hand. It’s not a popular instrument in general, and it’s much less in a country of 6.5 million people.

W&W : Talk about your right hand… thumb pick? Fake nails? Acrylics? All natural?

Yair : Thumb pick, plastic Dunlop one. Other fingers are my natural nails.

W&W : What are the tunings you use on Remember?

Yair : Most of the tunings are open D (DADF#AD), where “Broken Rockin Chair” is in G minor (DGDGBbD), “Floodgate” is an open C (CGCGCE), and the most complicated one is on “Skinny Fists”, which is DGDF#G#C#. It’s a tuning I learned from Glenn Jones, who’s by far my favorite guitar player in this style.

Yair Yona – “Brave Walls”

W&W : Please describe the recording of Remember… did you record it yourself or were you assisted? Studio?

Yair : I was fortunate enough to become a label manager of Israeli alternative label Anova Music and we have our own studio, so I was recorded by a great engineer called Ronen Roth. We recorded the guitar tracks on a 2 inch tape, using U-87 and 67 [microphones].

W&W : Do you have plans to do any touring in 2010?

Yair : There’s a great will, just trying to figure out how to handle the road with 3 guitars, and how to avoid work for two weeks without having to be worried that something happened to my company!

W&W : What other projects are you currently involved in that you would like to talk about?

Yair : Well, I’m writing new material and I’m working on a new band that I’ll play bass in, of some experimental, noise and psych music. I want to have my own Faust. Or Califone, whatever comes first.

W&W : What albums are you listening to most at the moment?

Yair : At this very second, I’m listening to the brilliant Pockets by Karate. I’m checking my LastFm page to see what else I’ve listened to today (because I’m listening to a lot of music, with a variety of styles) – I listened to Mudhoney a lot because they are coming to Israel in couple of days, which makes me very VERY happy. The Churchills, psych rock from Israel 1969, The Veils new album and Arthur by The Kinks. The new Califone is brilliant, and the record of the month or maybe the year is the new Black Heart Procession. YEAH!!!

W&W : Could you talk a little about your blog and your mixtapes?

Yair : Sure. I run an alternative music blog called “Small Town Romance”. Now it’s only in Hebrew, but in a month and a half, I plan to have an English version of the blog, with a translation for each post. The idea behind it is to expose people to good music that sometimes is left behind, and slips under the radar. Once a week I post a mixtape of good music, an hour of great sounds of stuff I’ve listened that week. I love being an ambassador of music and exposing people to records that may change their lives. It’s somewhat naïve, I know, but when someone comes to you and says “The record you recommended me just made my week!” – it’s the best thing ever. That’s why I went to work in a record store a couple of years ago. I remember someone told me that me selling her No Other by Gene Clark got her out of a serious depression she was in. Who could ask for more?

Download “Remember” for free from Bandcamp
Buy “Remember” on CD from Anova Music
Yair Yona on Myspace

These Matches Won’t Light In The Damp – Throw My Ashes Into The Fire
free album (download) self-released 2008

Listen while reading:

Folk meets slow alternative I said about A. P. Swearengin’s new record With/Without. Few days ago I found the solo project of Dominic P. Miller from London/Great Britain and his music also fits the genre very well. He plays under the moniker Those Matches Won’t Light In The Damp and has one full lengh album ready so far. Although he calls Throw My Ashes Into The Fire an EP I think 10 tracks and 37 minutes are worth to be called an album.

In comparison to A. P. Swearengin the music of Miller is even darker and more despaired. He creates a nocturnal atmosphere filled with his quiet and weak voice and fingerstyle guitar play. The always present soft echo is the key for an outstanding sound remembering me alot of the sound of Flying Saucer Attack but without all the noisiness and droniness.

You feel alone whilst listening, don’t expect something happy or nice to happen. For now it is just this haunting voice of a lonely man playing his ghostly guitar in the dark black of the cold windy night in a deep and forgotten forest  – no stars, it’s cloudy and the bright and pale moon is the only listener. This is real creepy stuff.

Dominic told me he’s planning to append an electric guitar (together with various pedals) to his music in the future so that he can add another dimension to it. He also said he wants to sound a little more like Loveliescrushing, a drone/shoegaze/noise/whatever you call it band from Chicago, Illinois. This way he maybe leaves the folksy path he went along with Throw My Ashes Into The Fire, but some things have to change I guess… So let’s see what the future will bring but till then enjoy listening to this nice album.

You can download it here for free (but you have to sort the songs to get them in the right order) or you donate 6$ and buy the MP3s over at cdbaby.com. For more information, visit These Matches Won’t Light In The Damp’s MySpace page. You won’t be sorry you gave a listen.

]]> http://workandworry.com/2009/10/20/review-glenn-jones-barbecue-bob/ Tue, 20 Oct 2009 11:58:51 +0000 Work & Worry http://workandworry.com/2009/10/20/review-glenn-jones-barbecue-bob/

by Raymond Morin

In the avant-rock band Cul de Sac, guitarist Glenn Jones and his bandmates combine fingerstyle electric guitar, krautrock rhythms and harsh electronics, creating a challenging, textured sound that defies categorization. In 1997, the group famously collaborated with acoustic guitar icon John Fahey and released the album The Epiphany of Glenn Jones. Now, over a decade later, comes the third solo outing from Jones, and on Barbecue Bob in Fishtown the spirit of John Fahey and his American Primitive approach is alive and well.

Though his band is known for their experimental leanings, Glenn Jones the solo artist is considered something of a traditionalist, and the Barbecue Bob… package is very much presented in the grand tradition of instrumental acoustic guitar collections of years past. From the light-hearted cover image and the eloquent, self-penned liner notes to the tuning references and instrument notes for each song, the art direction has a classic feel… the album could pass as an artifact from any point in the last 40 years. When the included booklet is flipped over and reversed, we’re treated to a photo-diary of Jones paying a visit to Belmont Nails, for what appears to be an application of fresh acrylics. All of this is the kind of stuff that guitar geeks eat up, myself included!

Well, as everyone knows, the best compliment to great packaging is great music (to listen to while staring at the great packaging, of course!) and on Barbecue Bob in Fishtown, Jones delivers some fine picking indeed. The album kicks off with the upbeat alternating bass of the title track, the bends and rolls evoking both Fahey and some of the modern purveyors of his style, such as Nick Schillace and Jack Rose. Jones’ style immediately stands apart from those players in its more relaxed attack, never quite approaching the tidiness of Schillace or the determined physicality of Rose. I find the easy, slightly ragged character of Jones’ picking to be very charming, particularly on “Barbecue Bob…”, “Dead Reckoning” and album closer “A Geranium For Mano-a-Mano”.

There are two brief banjo pieces on the album, and both are compelling listens. Mood and tempo-wise, “Keep It A Hundred Years” and “A Lark In Earnest” are very similar, a possible product of Jones’ relative newness to the instrument… but in spite of this, his knack for composition wins out, and the banjo songs stand up as some of the most melodically driven on the album. “Keep It…” contains some unexpected chord changes, keeping it interesting and unpredictable, while “Lark…” benefits from a simple, memorable melodic theme and some very nice finger-rolls.

Glenn Jones in action

“1337 Shattuck Avenue, Apartment D”, Jones’ tribute to Robbie Basho, is one of the most emotive tracks on the disc, and also its longest. In the liner notes, Jones explains that this loosely structured composition was one of many takes, and was chosen for its “uncertain” feel. There is definitely a palpable degree of uncertainty in the playing, with many of the notes fretting out around the 4 1/2-minute mark as Jones begins descending into dark, dissonant territory. Still, the emotional thread that runs through the song, coupled with the variety of the sections, keeps the listener wholly invested.

My favorite song on the album is “For Wendy, In Her Girlish Days”. This selection contains some of Jones’ most delicate and beautiful playing, and its primary theme is a nice hybrid of Leo Kottke-style alternating bass and chord voicings, supporting a vaguely British-tinged melodic approach.

Glenn Jones – “For Wenday In Her Girlish Days”

Glenn Jones is something of a staple in the current solo acoustic guitar movement, and Barbecue Bob in Fishtown makes a great case for why that is. Jones’ playing shows him to be a guitarist with a distinctive touch, an experienced player with a pleasing affection for traditional picking as well as a flare for varied and innovative composition.

Buy the LP or CD from Strange Attractors
Buy the LP or CD from Insound
Glenn Jones’ website
Glenn Jones’ on Myspace

Another song that stemmed all the way since college time I didn’t manage to check how the original song sounds like but as usual, I always prefer my own interpretation of the song Okay… I’m lazy!

Here’s a great series Danny Gatton did before the Hotlicks tapes. 9 parts.

Thanks to 4engle. He’s got some good vids here

Pierre Bensusan

French-Algerian guitarist Pierre Bensusan is a unique and fascinating player. After cutting his teeth in bluegrass bands, he switched from mandolin to acoustic guitar, adopted the DADGAD modal tuning as his “standard” tuning, and began a long musical journey. Along the way, his dizzying technique and boundless musical scope have proven that almost anything that can be imagined can be played on the guitar.

After releasing a handful of albums on Rounder Records and Favored Nations in the late 70’s and into the 80’s, Bensusan set about purchasing back his master tapes, and started his own label, DADGAD Records. Now, to mark the 35th anniversary of his career in music, Bensusan is releasing a box set of his entire recorded output : Complete Works, 1975-2010.

…and what a body of work it is! Bensusan’s first few albums (the classic Pres De Paris, 2 and Musiques) found inspiration in the folk music of the British Isles and France, with the young Pierre steadily expanding on the instrumental innovations of Brit-folk revival giants like Martin Carthy and Davy Graham. Bensusan also proved himself an exceptional interpreter of Irish melodies, as evidenced in one of his most popular pieces, “Merrily Kissed The Quaker”. This track shows Bensusan’s agility on the instrument, effortlessly adding ornament in every voice of the chord, including the bassline.

As time went on, the sound that Bensusan developed drew from many sources… classical, folk, world, new-age and rock ideas were seamlessly fused together and played in his singular, elegant style. The guitarist began restlessly experimenting with both sonics and song structure, adding a variety of tone-altering effects to color the sound of his Lowden acoustic, as well as a phrase sampler so that passages could be looped, layered and improvised over. These techniques can be heard on the atmospheric Intuité and Altiplanos albums, as well as on Spices, which features Pierre bouncing ideas off of a group of world-jazz musicians.

Though the box is attractively designed, the price of the collection (99,90 Euros, roughly $150 USD) might be a little prohibitive. There is no new material on offer, and for the most part all of these albums are still available, with the few out-of-print titles coming up regularly on sites like Ebay. (UPDATE — according to DADGAD Records, the discs Wu-Wei and A la Carte both contain bonus tracks. Also worth noting, there will soon be a US manufactured box, which should retail for closer to $120 USD + shipping!) I think this package will appeal mostly to collectors, gift-givers with a guitarist in their lives, and perhaps those hoping to replace original vinyl records. Don’t let me discourage you, though… Pierre Bensusan’s music is an absolute treasure, and I highly recommend it to anybody who is interested in folk music, world music or the acoustic guitar. I’m frankly stunned that so many of the younger guitar players that I talk to these days have yet to discover Bensusan’s work. Hopefully that will start to change with the release of Complete Works and with the upcoming new documentary about Bensusan, entitled Strings Without Borders.

The feature-length film is being directed by Roger Sherman, of Florentine Films. The work is currently in production, and fans and supporters can donate to the project here. Donors who give in excess of $100 will be featured in the film’s closing credits. From the selected preview scenes featured below, it looks like it’s going to be a great documentary!

When a release date is announced, I’m hoping to talk to both Pierre and Roger Sherman about the film. In the meantime, to learn even more about Pierre Bensusan, I highly recommend this interview, conducted by Todd Ellison. For guitarists, there is also The Guitar Book, Bensusan’s thoughtfully prepared printed collection of (challenging) sheet music, tablature, recipes, poetry and philosophies about life and music.

This is a quick interpretation of the song from the youtube – acoustic version. The original youtube post seems to have 3 different parts with the 1st and 2nd part played in C while the 3rd parts seems like C# or something… I played this version with capo on the 2nd fret which makes all 3 parts into the key of D.

Learning time to recording time took approximately 45 minutes but was too eager to upload it that I didn’t manage to refine it further. Lots of mistakes in the middle (no excuse) but I guess the video shows the originality and the difficulties that players at my level face

I didn’t watch the drama but it’s a great song! Hope that the interpretation does the original justice!

by David Leicht

Constancy is one of the charms of the solo fingerstyle guitar category. In contrast to the rip-it-up-start-again ethos of musicians from various other genres, the notable fingerstyle guitarists have openly emulated earlier players while carefully making their own mark. Nonetheless, the category transforms, with resonant changes occurring when a particular player can effectively bring unique attitudes of his/her time to the story. So it was with British fingerstyle guitarist Dave Evans, his classic Kicking Mule album from 1974, Sad Pig Dance, re-issued this fall as an expanded CD collection by Stefan Grossman’s Guitar Workshop.

At the outset of the 1970’s, Dave released The Words In Between and Elephantasia, both solid examples of singer-songwriter music from the period, with a few instrumental numbers added to the mix. “Ten Ton Tasha” and “Elephantasia,” from the latter, both feature whimsical, delay-treated overdubs sounding akin to progressive rock music, which was in its heyday at the time. I asked Stefan Grossman — producer of the Sad Pig Dance sessions, co-founder of Kicking Mule Records and tireless champion of Dave’s guitar playing — about the shift in emphasis from songs and multi-layered arrangements to unaccompanied guitar:

“Kicking Mule Records featured guitar solos and Dave had quite a few solo instrumentals he wanted to record. He and I wanted to present these as solos as the tunes were so interesting and did not need any other instruments to clutter up the melodies”

The incredible opening cut from Sad Pig Dance, “Stagefright” is one of Dave’s signature works. Aptly described by Grossman as a “tour de force in guitar playing,” it shifts through an array of moods in a short time (under four minutes). The introductory passage, a playful assemblage of hammer-ons and pull-offs, ushers in the Celtic-tinged verse, which is gradually subverted by increasingly chaotic runs before giving way to the triumphant, strummed passage and repeating in full. The performance of “Stagefright” featured on the Vestapol DVD Fingerstyle Guitar: New Dimensions & Explorations 2, is one of the most charismatic pieces of solo guitar footage I’ve seen:

My favorite cut from the album is “Morocco John.” This tune has an emotional, sketch-like quality that I find very moving. In the notes from the LP sleeve, Dave describes it thus:

“For John who rented a beautiful house overlooking the Atlantic for three pounds a month. I spent a week with him, living on chick pea soup, brown bread and olives. He taught me to play…”

Herein is another charm of the solo fingerstyle guitar (or any instrumental) category… its narrative power. As with “Morocco John,” a hint from the composer, embedded within the title or liner notes, can move the listener to imagine the narrative as the tune unfolds.

An excerpt from “Morocco John” by Dave Evans

In 1976, Kicking Mule released the follow-up to Sad Pig Dance, a mix of songs and instrumentals entitled Take a Bite out of Life. Stefan Grossman, who again served as producer for the sessions, recalls:

“When we came to the second album of his songs we tried to get other companies interested that focus on singer/songwriters as Kicking Mule certainly did not. But no other record company was interested so we decided to try our best on KM.”

As with Dave’s first recordings, there are some fine songs on Take a Bite out of Life. Still, its standout cuts are the four instrumentals (all of which appear as bonus tracks on the Sad Pig Dance CD reissue). I’m not sure it would be fair to characterize Dave as “the gifted guitarist who was compelled to sing,” though one might conclude it from studying the arc of his recording career, which effectively ended in the late 1970’s (Dave now lives as a potter in Belgium). Either way, in my mind, he was one of the rare players whose command of traditional material was virtually unmatched, yet also possessed the flair and imagination to weave elements of his time into the music, leaving the tradition richer.

Amazed by how Adam Rafferty and Sungha Jung play this song and bring it alive… I set out to do a simple version in the key that i’m familiar with (in C, it starts in Am) and without the running base lines! ouch! It’s a fun piece but more practice is needed!

Earlier this year, Pairdown, an acoustic duo that I play guitar and sing in (alongside Mr. David Leicht) released our debut LP Holykyle. It was the product of plenty of time, hard work, love… and a whole lot of beer! It was all worth it, though, when the test pressings arrived and I heard our music on wax for the first time. Here, I thought, is something that will last forever. Holykyle was released on Sort Of Records as a vinyl edition of 315 copies, and being that our act is new and relatively unknown outside of our home base of Pittsburgh (who am I kidding… we’re unknown in Pittsburgh, too) I figured that if Pairdown wanted to sell some records, we would have to get on the road. Touring is a fact of life for indie artists, one of only a few dependable ways of conquering new territory and spreading the good word about a new group.

Of course financial, family and work concerns all have to be considered when planning a (potentially money-losing) trip… because of these realities, my partner David would only be able to take to the road occasionally, while the relative flexibility of my schedule meant that I could travel somewhat regularly. We came up with a strategy that has served us well : we would play as a duo for local and certain higher-profile gigs, with each of us taking the periodic solo jaunt to keep the album on peoples’ minds. Thankfully, we’ve got a good number of songs under our belt at this point, and many of them can be pared down (yup, I went there) to a single voice and guitar when the need arises. Using this approach, we arranged several very exciting duo shows in Pittsburgh, including gigs with Sub Pop recording artist Death Vessel, the electro-acoustic drone duo Mountains, the inimitable Micah Blue Smaldone, and Pittsburgh’s own Daryl Fleming, David Bernabo + Assembly, Horse Or Cycle, Chris Neils, and some others. We also took a few exciting trips out of town, playing in Chicago, Cleveland, Youngstown and Turner’s Falls (western Mass). Sometimes we expanded to a four piece, which included drummers Jim Powell or Matt Leicht (David’s younger brother), and my girlfriend Minette Vaccariello on keyboard-bass.

In addition to the increasingly busy local schedule, I was able to go on solo trips every month or two, the most recent of which is the subject of this little tour diary. Booking this tour couldn’t have gone more smoothly, and the itinerary was exactly what I’d hoped for : six shows in a row, no drive longer than five hours, no back-tracking. I was thrilled at the prospect of playing with a couple of my favorite pickers, some very old friends, and a few people who I don’t see nearly often enough.

My guitar, a Larrivée OM-09

Before the trip, I decided that my acoustic guitar, a Larrivée OM-09, was long overdue for a setup, so I brought it to Dave Mannella at Mannella Guitars in Verona, PA. Dave set about leveling the frets and replacing the nut and saddle (my constant tuning changes had gradually worn them down, causing more than a little fret buzzing). When I got the guitar back, she played like a dream.

DAY 1… PHILLY, PA

I packed up my guitar, cables, clothes, LPs, my recently-washed sleeping bag, my trusty farm-animal-themed blanket and a pillow, and after a quick 3-hour shift at work (I was going to be missing several days, after all, figured I’d get some hours in) I was ready to hit the road.

Minette and the infamous pout

The ride to Philadelphia was an easy one. It was a beautiful day, and I enjoyed the drive. For the past couple of years I’ve been more or less completely dependent on GPS on these trips, and, as usual, I just took the first route that the Garmin offered up, which was the turnpike. I’ll think better of it next time, though… I hadn’t made the trip directly from Pittsburgh to Philly in a while, and my jaw dropped when I had to pay the first toll of the journey : $19.10!!! I resolved to take a different route in the future.

I arrived in Philly around 6pm and met up with my friend Rob Dingman, who had organized the show. He opened up the space for me to check out, and I couldn’t believe the size of the room! Rob explained to me that in the past, property was taxed not by square footage but by how much space it took up on the sidewalk, which is why many of these buildings in the Old City were narrow but quite long. I strapped on my guitar and walked around the space, practicing and listening to the fantastic echo sound in the room. Before too long, The Shrinking Islands, old friends and one of the openers that night, arrived and loaded in their gear. Cases of beer were opened, and the festivities soon began.



Though there weren’t a great many people in attendance, the show turned out to be a blast. Local duo Heirloom opened, which featured Meggie Morganelli switching between acoustic guitar, piano and Appalachian dulcimer, and Stefan Zajic playing acoustic and electric guitars. Their sound was somewhere between a coffeehouse-friendly singer-songwriter style and more modern, hushed indie-folk. I really enjoyed the sound of the dulcimer in the cavernous space.

Meggie and Stefan from Heirloom

The Shrinking Islands delivered much jangle-pop goodness in their short set… I had put out a record by this electric-guitar-and-drums duo on my label back in 2006, and though they were no longer performing regularly, and hadn’t played together in several months, they didn’t miss a beat. Singer/guitarist Kyle Bittinger’s high-energy picking and pogo-ing and drummer Andy Tefft’s busy fills put a smile on everyone’s face and a tap in everyone’s feet.



My set went just fine, perhaps not transcendent, but with no blatant screw ups, either! I opened with “Untitled For Holly” off of Holykyle, which was easy on the fingers and a good way to slide into the set. I stayed in standard tuning for the first half, performing Stefan Grossman’s “Bermuda Triangle Exit”, Davy Graham’s “Forty Ton Parachute”, and my own “Metal In My Mouth”. Several tunes were played for the first time in front of an audience, including Archie Fisher’s “Lindsay”, and the Milo Jones classic “I Belong To You”, which I was playing in a new, higher key. Though I had planned a pretty concise set, Rob got me to extend it, asking me to keep playing since his wife Jamie was on her way over. I played a few more tunes, and closed with Graham’s classic “Anji”.

Meggie picks on my Larrivée after the Philly show

It was starting to get late, so Rob, Jamie and I went back to their place, talked for a little while and called it a night.

DAY 2… UNION, CT

After a late breakfast with The Shrinking Islands and friends, I set off for the woods of northeastern Connecticut, the region where I grew up. It was another pleasant, sunny day, and knowing that my GPS would surely take me straight to the traffic and tolls of the George Washington Bridge, I decided to map out a different route, north on the Garden State Parkway. It was a smart move, and I managed to avoid traffic and see some truly lovely autumn scenery, particularly crossing from New York state into western Connecticut. I busied myself singing Ewan MacColl’s “The Terror Time” in several different keys, trying to decide which one would best suit my voice. Around 6pm, I arrived at my old friend Terry’s house on the Eastford/Union town line, greeted by Terry, his wife Sarah, and a couple of very excited dogs.

My old friend Terry

My set was loose and fun, and I played most of the same songs as I had in Philly. A lot of the people at the party were kind enough to buy LPs, CDs and t-shirts to help me on my travels, and we stayed up late into the night, listening to music and catching up… Terry and I hadn’t seen each other since playing together in The Parallel Gawdheads, our version of a surf/ska/punk band, way back in 1996. Back then, Terry was endlessly championing Frank Zappa, which I didn’t understand at all (I had the more typical teen-angst driven fixation on loud, post-punk bands like Unwound and Fugazi). Of course, about a decade later I became an incurable Zappa fanatic, which I remain to this day.

One by one, the guests all said goodnight and went home. I unrolled my sleeping bag, played on my phone for a few minutes and fell asleep.

DAY 3… PORTLAND, ME

I awoke to an amazing breakfast of egg and mushroom burritos, courtesy of Terry and Sarah. I didn’t have far to go that Sunday, so we all lazed around for a while, and I noodled on Terry’s Stratocaster while he burned me a bunch of mix CDs. When it was finally time to go, the weather had changed quite a bit from the previous day… it was grey, cold and rainy outside, and I took a quick detour through Putnam and Woodstock, trying to recognize some of the backroads of my youth. I made my way to Maine, where I was to play at a new theater-style venue called The Apohadion.

The room wasn’t difficult to find, situated in a semi-industrial section just around the corner from downtown Portland. I was excited to be sharing the stage with Micah Blue Smaldone, one of my favorite guitarists and songwriters, and a Maine native. He arrived at The Apohadion shortly after I got there, and he, his girlfriend Rebecca and I departed for some pre-show Japanese food. I wasn’t very hungry, so I contented myself with a seaweed salad, while Micah and Rebecca shared a quite amazing looking spread of assorted sushi and fried delights.

We got back to the gallery and the room slowly started to fill up with people. By the time local opener Listo took the stage, a pretty nice crowd had assembled. Listo was the combination of Apohadion founders David Noyes and Pat Corrigan, lately of the band Seekonk, and local songstress Kelly Nesbitt. Their music was quite a treat, combining a lovely vocal harmony blend and the interesting combination of two nylon-strung acoustic guitars and Pat’s electric, treated generously with a wah-wah pedal. They sang several songs in English and several in Portuguese, and closed with my favorite Caetano Veloso song, “Canto Do Povo De Um Lugar”. Sublime!

Pat, David and Kelly from Listo

I took the stage next, and instead of making up a setlist, I decided to just write a bunch of songs down, divided up by tunings. The room was pretty full at that point, and I was a little nervous playing in front of Micah, who I consider to be a world-class picker. I did my best, though. Once again, I opened with “…Holly”, and played another song from the Holykyle LP, the folk-rock track “Good Wood”. According to my list, I played “Forty Ton Parachute”, though I don’t remember it… I threw in the old drop-D Pairdown chestnut “Threadbare”, and also played our newer “No Occupation”, which Micah later commented was one of his favorites.

The set went well enough, and I settled in the front row to watch Micah. He performed several tracks off of last year’s “The Red River” LP, my favorite of his three full-lengths. As an artist, Micah has undergone something of a transformation over the years… on his first album, “Some Sweet Day”, he conjured a very old-timey sound, playing on a National-style resonator guitar and singing in a pinched, affected voice. His songwriting has always been top-notch, though, and over the course of his next few releases, he gradually eased into a more natural singing style and a very moody, economical approach to the acoustic guitar, eventually relying almost exclusively on his Guild 12-string. His lyrics are at once elegant and stark, and his sad stories evoke another time. I was able to capture this video of “A Derelict”, one of my favorite tracks from the newest record.

After the show, we shot the shit for a little while, and Micah handed me what I later determined must have been most or all of the door money from the show, a very kind gesture. We drove over to his house in west Portland, and he put me up in his housemate Caleb’s (formerly of Cerberus Shoal and lately of husband-and-wife duo Big Blood) studio room.

DAY 4… CAMBRIDGE, MA

That Monday morning, I threw down on the most substantial piece of toast I’ve ever encountered, 2″ thick easy, on bread baked fresh by Micah’s housemate Sean the night before. It was quite tasty, and kept me from being hungry for most of the day. The short drive to Boston meant another easy morning, so we lingered for a spell, talking about the various upcoming projects Micah had happening around the house, from installing doors to working on his moped. I finally got to gettin’, as I’ve been known to say, and had a quick, uneventful drive over to Boston’s south end, where I met my friend Nate (who incidentally also mixed Holykyle) for lunch.

Kelley Shaw-Wade, owner of Pinkergreen

It was at Nate’s house that evening that I had one of the strangest, most modern experiences I’ve had in some time… Nate’s housemate John and his girlfriend Nellie had arrived, and we began talking about smart phones (my girlfriend had recently given me an iPhone as a gift, which I’d been using to document the tour with photos and videos) and the various music-related software applications that could be procured. John proceeded to download an interesting “virtual guitar” to his phone, and after a couple of minutes, got pretty proficient with it! Of course, Nellie and Nate had to get in on the action, and pretty soon we had a proper smart-phone symphony happening… all improvised, of course.

Before I knew it, it was showtime. The venue was Zuzu’s, a fantastic bar and restaraunt housed between the two entrances of the legendary Middle East Club on Mass Ave in Cambridge. I turned in a pretty good set, debuting a pair of new instrumentals. “Tanning” is in double-D-down tuning (DADGBD) and has become one of my favorite duets in Pairdown, but since it was originally designed around my guitar part, I figured I’d give it a try solo. It held up okay, but I definitely missed Dave’s complimentary guitar work. The other new instrumental, “Work & Worry”, is in DADGAD and is something of a fingerbuster, written deliberately as a solo piece. It took me a good 15 seconds silently looking at my fretboard to remember how it even started, but once I got going, I picked out a more than respectable version. Three of my all-time favorite acoustic guitarists, KG Fields, Milo Jones and Micah were in attendance that night, and they all voiced approval for the new material, which was very exciting for me!



Micah once again played wonderfully, quieting down the noisy room with his first song and keeping their undivided attention for the duration of his set. Unfortunately, it was raining cats and dogs outside, and the low-lit room was far too dark to shoot any decent photos or videos.



The final act of the night was Nate and John’s band Quoins, who defy classification. Though their music is economical, it isn’t minimalist… though it is powerful and sometimes loud, it isn’t “rock”. The lyrics and melodies are consciously intelligent and angular, and many of the songs had three part harmonies in the vocals. I was very impressed with their set.

At the end of the night, Nellie and her bike hopped into my car while Nate and John went back to their practice space to unload. We all met up back at the house and went to bed.



DAY 5… BROOKLYN, NYC

Pete's Candy Store

Well, my set that night was intimate alright… being the last act added to the bill, it meant that I would be playing around 8:15, before most people go out in NYC, including the other bands that were playing that night! For about a half-hour, I shared that little back room with a crowd of about ten folks, all of them waiting for their friends in other bands to show up. They lent me their ear, though, and I did my best to introduce them to my brand of fingerstyle acoustic music. I was done before I knew it, and since none of my NYC friends had found their way to the show, I decided that I would pack up and hit the road for home.



The drive home was pretty excruciating. If you’ve ever done NYC to Pittsburgh in the dark, it’s pretty boring to begin with… but when you factor in road fatigue, fog, rain and deer (I shot out of one of the tunnels and found myself alongside a huge buck, running in the same direction in the passing lane!) it makes for a long drive. With stops for naps and gas, that 4 ½ hour trip took me all night. I rolled back into the ‘Burgh at 7:30 AM.

DAY 6… PITTSBURGH, PA



Though I was back home, the tour wasn’t quite over. I had saved the best show for last, a Pairdown duo show at Morning Glory Coffeehouse, hosting and opening for the legendary Jack Rose. After a day filled with fitful attempts at sleeping, I drove over to Jeffrey Alexander’s lovely little coffeeshop and met up with David. David had been in touch with Jack throughout the day, and it turned out that Mr. Rose was at the very end of a month long tour of his own, and was pretty wiped out. To make matters worse, he got turned around trying to get into Pittsburgh, and had the potential of being in a very bad mood by the time he arrived.

Once Jack showed, though, a case of Lord Chesterfield beer was opened and everyone relaxed. I was thrilled to be reunited with my guitar playing partner, and we did a set of mostly new Pairdown songs, including recent instrumentals “Capitano” and “The D.Putnam Strut”, as well as “Cathedral”, our version of an acoustic blues. It was great to be back to the duo versions of “No Occupation” and “Spotted Eye”, and we closed the set with “Tanning”. I was very satisfied both with the way that we played and with the nice crowd that had filtered in to see us and Jack Rose.

As many acoustic guitar accolites are aware, Jack is one of the leading American Primitive-style pickers working today, and the heir apparent to the late John Fahey. His relentless touring schedule has made him an incredibly powerful and accurate player, and he performs slide, raga and back-porch instrumental guitar with the best of them. He played a little of each that night, ending his short set with a loud “That it!!” and leaving the crowd wanting more. I was completely satisfied, and glad that the night would wind down early.



Everyone agreed that the show had been a great success. Jack and David went back to David’s place in Allison Park, but I demured the invitation to come along, prefering to get home to Minette, the cozy red glow of my TV room, and then a good night’s sleep. The next day it was back to my job and normal life, if only for a little while.


I was doing my essay on “Managing People” and it was mind-wrecking. If it had continued on for the next few days, I would have turned into a zombie. Flipping through an endless volume of journals and finding the right references are just not me. The action can be painful.

The journey is challenging but it is a meaningful one, nonetheless.

As I wrote some of my last few paragraphs and just on that split second before I turned into a full-fledged zombie, the song “sometimes when we touch” permeated out of the room and I just had this urge to pick my guitar up and follow the tunes. That little 8-note guitar licks is the push factor and also a motivation factor. It just felt almost peaceful especially when it’s Olivia’s version of the song.

I was re-spawned back into full health and left my zombified “skin” behind. And there you go! The story behind the arrangement!

Just a little bit about the arrangement… It’s not a uniformly arranged piece cos I probably didn’t spend enough time to arrange it note for note. It’s almost as pristine as playing off from the brain and that proves the imperfection of life.

I’m even lost if the lyrics of the song is supposed to be good or bad. It’s like pulling on a thread and before it breaks, we release it. The lyrics always mention two opposite ends.

Sometimes When We Touch

You ask me if I love you
And I choke on my reply
I’d rather hurt you honestly
Than mislead you with a lie
And who am I to judge you
On what you say or do?
I’m only just beginning to see the real you

And sometimes when we touch
The honesty’s too much
And I have to close my eyes and hide
I wanna hold you til I die
Til we both break down and cry
I wanna hold you till the fear in me subsides

Romance and all its strategy
Leaves me battling with my pride
But through the insecurity
Some tenderness survives
I’m just another writer
Still trapped within my truth
A hesitant prize fighter
Still trapped within my youth

And sometimes when we touch
The honesty’s too much
And I have to close my eyes and hide
I wanna hold you til I die
Til we both break down and cry
I wanna hold you till the fear in me subsides

At times I’d like to break you
And drive you to your knees
At times I’d like to break through
And hold you endlessly

At times I understand you
And I know how hard you’ve tried
I’ve watched while love commands you
And I’ve watched love pass you by

At times I think we’re drifters
Still searching for a friend
A brother or a sister
But then the passion flares again

And sometimes when we touch
The honesty’s too much
And I have to close my eyes and hide
I wanna hold you til I die
Til we both break down and cry
I wanna hold you till the fear in me subsides

A new addition to my arrangement!

This is one of the first few songs that I learnt and the arrangement is really slow and neat… and incidentally it’s also simple enough to play on the guitar!

http://myfirstmba.com/guitar/

A tab written after much hardwork… enjoy!

http://myfirstmba.com/guitar/ –> tabs

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lIARFstbEQ0 –> old video recorded on an old mobile phone

Eric Slavin – Serenade
UR Music 2009

Listen while reading:

Today I present you something special. As we all love acoustic guitars and the unique sound of them I think we all must love Eric Slavin’s first solo release called Serenade. But let me say some words about him in case you have not heard of him yet. Slavin is a professional guitar player who studied guitar and music in many countries and under many popular names such as John Marlow, Miguel Piva or Guido Santorsola. Later he became a founding member of the famous Santa Fe Guitar Quartet. And now after over 20 years of performing with it he has released his first solo CD.

So let’s not talk about the skills of this man playing his instrument – pure professionalism without any doubts. It’s fascinating how the compositions differ. Even though Slavin does not sing to his music the tracks vary widely in style and mood. Sometimes they are melancholic, sometimes they are dark and sad but then they are also full of hope and vitality. The fact that he plays nylon string guitar gives even more warmth and ease to those deeply emotional tunes.

If you compare this music to folk you may think there are different ideas behind them both. And you are right, I think. But why should we care about ideas instead of caring about the feeling that lies in the music itself? And I think if you come from this point of view, there are not so many differences. I have to admit that I don’t know much about the famous composers for acoustic guitar of these days and I’m also not very familiar with this kind of music. But what I know is when music goes straight from your ears into your heart – and this music does.

I recommend to get your copy of Serenade at cdbaby.com, check out Eric Slavin’s homepage and then sit down, dim the light, get a good glass of wine, close your eyes and dream away on those soft waves of entrancement. Caution: If you play this record in repeat mode you can loose your sense of time in extenso.

Fans of Kicking Mule Records and ragtime guitar will probably remember the name Ton van Bergeijk. The young Dutch picker was discovered by Stefan Grossman in the 70’s, and went on to record several awe-inspiring ragtime albums. Ton has since played in a number of Dutch big bands and hot jazz bands, including The Boulevard Of Broken Dreams, The Gangbusters and The Dutch Swing College Band.

Ton now has a video page over at Daily Motion, and has a number of fun guitar and ukelele videos on display. One of my favorites is “Ecky Thumb Drum”, linked below… check out the move at 00:09!

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There are a couple of very informative posts about Ton over at the Keep Swinging blog.

On the first Tuesday of September I got up and played at an open mic night – first time for about five years.

The Cynon Valley is well provided with open mic opportunities – there’s at least three per month in different venues. The one I played at was in the Coliseum,  Aberdare.

Just a bit of background. This is South Wales.  This is the “Land of Song”. Is it really? Well, yes it is. Why?

All kinds of reasons. One is that going back through the years South Wales has been something of a cultural melting pot as well as being an industrial powerhouse. There was migration from all over Europe to work the mines and heavy industry. The gene pool is very diverse.  To survive the economic environment working class communities had to stand together against their capitalist overlords – and differences of race and nationality were largely eroded in the struggles with the ironmasters and coalmasters. There was undoubtedly racial and sectarian tension but the harsh realities of life gradually broke it down.

So there are lots of South Wales people who have got Spanish, Italian, German, Scottish, Irish, English ancestors within the last few generations. You can pick it up in their surnames and you can plainly see it in the faces of the people. These migrants may have been desperate but they were resourceful, talented, clever people - they were  survivors, they wanted to get on in life. They all brought their own cultures and music to Wales.

Were the indigenous Welsh resourceful, talented, clever people? You bet they were. They had a linguistic and cultural (especially musical) heritage of unsurpassed depth and sophistication. Bryddonig (meaning British) Welsh had been the main language of the British Isles for many centuries. They had a grasp of instrumental music (the harp) with proper harmonies whilst the  rest of Europe hadn’t got beyond chanting in parallel fourths and fifths. Except Spain, of course. Al Andalusia, under Moorish occupation, would be rocking out with lutes.

All this makes a cultural hothouse. It’s got a lot to write and sing about. Simply retaining identity in face of of political and industrial oppression for one thing; hiraeth (longing) for the homeland (wherever that may be) for another.

So Wales really is a profoundly musical place.  Why are we good at singing? My guess: Welsh people had to learn to project their voices just to make themselves heard over the machinery in the workplace.  Just listen to Valleys people talking – forget accent, listen to the clarity of the consonants and the resonance.  A Welsh teacher (one of our main exports) can inspire terror at a hundred paces. No wonder we can sing.

The other thing is that, despite all our recent economic challenges and the struggles between capital and labour in the past, Wales was once a hugely prosperous and dynamic place. We were one of the power plants of the Industrial Revolution. Look at it another way – Global Warming started with us.  The combined wealth of the working people who subscribed to societies, co-operatives, clubs was colossal.

And that explains how Aberdare – a community founded on coal – which has no coal to speak of now – has a theatre, yes, a theatre with stalls and balconies and curtains and lights – the real deal. And this is where the open mic evening is. But it’s not in the theatre itself, it’s in the bar.

Actually whilst we’re banging the drum, Cynon has three theatres…yes, three…count them.

I digress. Well, look at at this way. Us boyos know that Aberdare is the centre of the universe. But there maybe readers for whom South Wales is a far flung corner of the earth and need a bit of elucidation on the cultural significance of the Cynon valley. At the same time, there are a lot of people living in Cynon (and South Wales generally) who seem to hold this place in medium esteem – call it a dump, even. Wise up dudes. Anyone who has lived in London, Berkshire or Essex can tell you we’ve got a hell of a thing here.

However, far be it from me, a migrant myself (but Celtic – Scottish) to appoint myself Cultural Attache to Cynon. You can find out more at http://www.cynonvalley.co.uk .

So we’re in a theatre bar. The open mic event, which is open to all to come along and sing, play, recite, whatever ( I think there may be some restrictions), is run by the Cynon Valley Acoustic Club http://www.myspace.com/thecynonvalleyacousticclub. This is largely run by Steve and Christine Chandler (I’m sure there are others and I’ll correct this when somebody pulls me up on it), who do it for no other reason than the rewards of good music and good company. Many thanks to them – and all people who run this kind of event.

So Steve and Christine set up the gear and work out the running lists – and play and sing a bit themselves. All us other musos have to do is turn up with voices and instruments. I confess this makes me feel guilty. I’m used (from band days) to turning up with a van and spending the next hour and a half lugging speakers and amps in, hooking up to a spaghetti network of cables, endlessly intoning “Testing…one…two…” into microphones, trying to damp down feedback. One of the outcomes of this is that by the time I actually got to play I was so knackered and hacked off that stagefright just wasn’t an issue.

Tonight, I have plenty of time to sit and work myself into a state of nervous disarray. Moreover, I’m late – the list has already been drawn up. This means I might not get to perform tonight or, if I do, it’ll be towards the end of the evening. I’m a bit new to this venue and my assumption is that more experienced performers go on towards the end of the night. Right now, I feel that my thirty odd years experience counts for nothing. I’m going to fall apart.

So why is this? It’s not like I’m really doing it for the first time, is it?

Ah, well. Last time I did it I was with the band. Safety in numbers. Then I was playing a different instument. Subtlety wasn’t the issue. Ok, so I was still a bag of nerves but I sort of powered through the nerves by gritting my teeth and slamming hell out of my SG. To say I was heavy handed is an understatement. I could wear away the points of a three corner Gibson heavy bass pick in a couple of hours. If I didn’t restring before every gig there every chance of breaking  strings.  But this is my first airing on the nylon strung guitar, fingerstyle. Subtlety is an issue, so is control. And – this is the big one – the material is original and I haven’t done myself any favours by making it easy to play or listen to.

Christine very kindly offers to move things round a bit. Some of the slots will be shorter than others – something can be done. I sit down and watch the other performers. This will hopefully take my mind off my impending doom.

One of the things that makes the Coliseum open mic special is the amount of original material being aired. So I can expect a sympathetic hearing. Does that make me feel any better? Nope.

Now here’s where I feel a bit bad. I can remember a few names, I can remember a few songs but I can’t put them together for the purposes of this post. Next time I’ll take a notepad. There’s a guy – I think his name is Colin (I can correct this obviously) who did a song about a policeman proposing to his loved one using police force jargon and protocols. I’ve heard him before doing a song about poisoning pigeons – very clever stuff, witty. There’s a lady (Jan?) who reads a poem about being a poet at urban guerilla level – competing with the bingo, pub quizzes and karaoke.

Later on there’s Gino. Like me he uses a nylon guitar rather than steel strung. And like me,  it’s a cheap guitar – thirty quid from Argos I think he said. Mine was £125 – buttons in guitar terms (but not from Argos). Gino’s songs are musically simple and emotionally complex. Tonight he sings a song about politicians. Okay, who doesn’t? But the anecdotal material in this song is hot off the press and stings. Then there’s a song about the awkwardness and mixed feelings of a one night stand – brilliant.

And there’s Pat, who’s been going to these events for years and years. An excellent guitarist, he does a stunning rendition of McCartney’s Blackbird. Which he says is about racism. Never thought of it like that.

How come the same plonker who gave us Mull of Kintyre and the Frog Chorus can give us something as exquisite as Blackbird - a consummate work of art, a masterpiece on a par with such as Dowland or Hoagy Carmichael?

So my turn comes along. Steve does a grand job with the sound but I’m used to the sound coming from the backline, not from the sides. That doesn’t help. The guitar won’t tune.  I might as well have two packs of raw sausages for fingers. I’m shaking so bad that the audience can feel it through the floor – so Christine tells me afterwards.

So I mangle two numbers with drop outs, misshapen chords,  missing bass notes.  I think the singing was quite good. The audience was appreciative  – like everybody said, there was no need to be nervous. Mistakes? Everyone else was making mistakes –  so why worry?

I probably came to this giglet with the wrong attitude: a bit of chip on my shoulder and thinking I had to conquer the world in one night - built it up to be too important. A fifty-one-year-old should know better. The reality is I will do a lot of open mic slots – many more than I ever did gigs – and there is plenty of time to re-invent myself as an acoustic performer. Process not product.

Many thanks to Steve and Christine and the old hands who reassured me that I’d be fine in just a couple of months. They’d seen it all before – first timers who looked like they were at death’s door as they did their maiden turns.

And despite all the cock ups, I got lots of positive feedback on my guitar playing – from people who would know.

Work & Worry’s own Raymond Morin will be going out on the road at the end of September, touring in support of this year’s “Holykyle” LP by Pairdown. He’ll be playing songs from Pairdown, his solo work as The Instances, some new instrumentals and a few chestnuts from the British folk and blues revival. Morin will be joined by Micah Blue Smaldone on a couple of dates, as well as old friends Shrinking Islands and Quoins.

9/25 – Skylight 307 (w/ Shrinking Islands, Heirloom) 307 Market St (upstairs), Philadelphia PA… 7PM
9/26 – 421 Bigelow Hollow Rd (house show w/ old friends! Invite only!) Eastford, CT… 8PM
9/27 – The Apohadion (w/ Micah Blue Smaldone, Listo) 107 Hanover St, Portland ME… 8PM
9/28 – Zuzu (w/ Micah Blue Smaldone, Quoins) 474 Mass Ave, Cambridge MA… 9PM
9/29 – Pete’s Candy Store (w/ St. Cloud, Underscore Orkestra, Tori Sparks) 709 Lorimer, Brooklyn NYC… 8PM
9/30 – Morning Glory Coffee (Pairdown duo, w/ Jack Rose) 1806 Chislett St, Pittsburgh PA… 7:30PM

For more info or directions, please email sortofrecords at gmail dot com.

Check out Pairdown on Myspace
Buy Pairdown’s LP from Sort Of Records

By Raymond Morin

Ben Reynolds is a member of the Scottish folk-rock band Trembling Bells, who are currently making a name for themselves on the European circuit. They’ve recently appeared at the yearly Green Man Festival, have a new record out on Honest Jon’s, and every press bit that I’ve seen has made mention of legendary producer Joe Boyd’s affection for the group. Not too shabby!

Mr. Reynolds busies himself with a great many projects, and has amassed a deep discography of noise and improvised recordings on such labels as Last Visible Dog, Strange Attractors Audio House, Beyond Repair, Dancing Wayang and others. The venerable Tompkins Square label tapped him for the third installment in their indispensable Imaginational Anthem compilation series, and this summer the label quietly released How Day Earnt Its Night, an instrumental acoustic guitar record and Reynold’s highest-profile solo outing to date.

Upon listening to the album and digging deeper into his back catalog, it’s clear that Reynolds has many interests, and that being associated with a a single style isn’t one of them. Thus, there is a little of everything on How Day Earnt Its Night… and though the recording quality is warm and clear, and Reynolds is a more than competent picker, there is a certain lack of direction that keeps many of these tracks from being home runs.

The songs generally fall into two categories : shorter, British Isles-flavored vignettes and extended Takoma-inspired explorations. Opener “Skylark (Scorner of the Ground)” takes the former approach, as Reynolds easily picks through some pleasant, stately figures. Though nothing revolutionary, the songs in this style are some of the best on the album, even if tracks like “Risen” and “England” rely more on the moods that they evoke than on any concrete melodic ideas. Reynolds builds most of these British-style songs around a simple alternating-bass with hammer-on riffs in the high strings, generally falling back on picking patterns and ignoring the harmonic possibilities in the chords’ middle voices. “Kirstie”, as lovely as it is, repeats the formula one last time, feeling a little like a song waiting for a singer.

Ben Reynolds

The wild card on this collection is definitely the title track. “How Day Earnt Its Night” is the album’s centerpiece, sitting somewhat conspicuously between two of the aforementioned British-style tunes. “How Day…” opens with haunting three finger triplet-rolls on the high string, filling in over the course of the next few minutes with stark harmonics and staccato melodic fragments. The results are really pretty enchanting, reminding me of the hammer-dulcimer compositions of one of Reynolds’ soon-to-be-tourmates, Pittsburgh’s Mike Tamburo. Reynolds drops in some downtuned bass-note melodies, coloring the piece harmonically and adding more tension, before the still-blazing triplets are unceremoniously cut off around the eight-minute mark. The breakneck pace slows, and Reynolds noodles somewhat aimlessly for the remainder of the song… a disappointing anticlimax to what began as a very engaging and promising piece.

Ben Reynolds – “How Day Earnt Its Night” (excerpt)
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I’ve got a few discs from Reynolds’ back catalog on their way, and am looking forward to seeing him live this autumn. While How The Day Earnt Its Night lacks originality, it does present Reynolds as a restless and intriguing picker, with both solid technique and an internalized knowledge of a few beloved acoustic guitar styles… and because Reynolds stands to grow exponentially as both a player and a composer, I plan to follow his progress closely.

Buy this CD from Insound
Buy this CD from Tompkins Square
Check out Ben Reynolds on Myspace

by Raymond Morin

When I first encountered last year’s Wayfaring Strangers – Guitar Soli compilation by the excellent Numero Group reissue label, I’ll admit that a lot of it blew right past me. The disc is a collection of music by some lesser-known guitarists who had cropped up in the era between the establishment of the watershed Takoma Records and Windham Hill labels, the recordings dating from the end of the 60’s to the dawn of the 80’s. The tracks, generally speaking, tow the line between highly physical Fahey/Kottke pattern-picking and the more heady, “New Age” atmospherics of the Windham Hill sound, without really charging headlong into either style.

Today, many pickers from Detroit’s Nick Schillace and Philly’s Jack Rose, to Israel’s Yair Yona are finding their audience by keeping the Takoma sound alive and well, boom-chicking their hearts out with the same spartan spirit and intensity as John Fahey in his heyday. In parallel, world-wide interest in atmospheric and impressionistic acoustic and electro-acoustic music has never been stronger, and a healthy lineage of avant-garde-leaning musicians from David Grubbs to Chris Brokaw to James Blackshaw to David Daniell have torn down and rebuilt “New Age” (now “Ambient”) guitar music for a new generation.

The players featured on Guitar Soli, in their day, were operating in a similar, albeit more isolated environment. Without today’s mass communication tools, like the luxury of instantaneous access to virtually any and all recorded music via the web, it would seem natural for these players to drift toward one end of the spectrum or the other, riding the respective tides of enthusiasm for more traditional or more contemporary musical ideas… but we’re talking about guitar players here. Great guitar players do what they want, when they want, regardless of the tastes and trends of their time… and that’s a beautiful thing. The world of music is not black and white, and much of the thrill of discovery, for musician and fan alike, comes from mining the rich territory in between established norms. This “in between” guitar music takes a little extra time, a little bit of attentive listening before it really starts to shine, and then it’s well worth the effort… so it is with many of the players on Guitar Soli, and so it is with Scott Witte.

Scott is a Milwaukee-born guitarist, currently residing in Washington state. Scott remains a relatively unknown quantity in the world of fingerstyle guitar. He’s bound to gain some purchase with “Sailor’s Dream”, his standout track on the aforementioned Numero Group compilation, an animated little tune which owes no small debt to the playing of Leo Kottke. Witte’s debut album, also titled Sailor’s Dream and originally released in 1980, is still pending reissue, but fans of six and twelve-string acoustic guitar music would do well to seek out Sound Shadows, his 2007 collection of originals. Recorded between 2002 and 2007, Scott’s sophomore album sees the guitarist composing and performing with astute passion and creativity, picking up where “Sailor’s Dream” left off, but with an appreciable evolution of technique, harmony and song structure.

The album starts off with “Song of the Crow”, and an eye-roll inducing sample of, you guessed it, a loud crow “KAW!” My first instinct : “How much effort would it take for me to manually edit that out of the MP3 version, so I never have to hear it again?” All is forgiven, though, when Scott launches into the song itself, which is a finger-picking tour-de-force, and a great introduction to the elements of his style. A forlorn, minor-key meditation snowballs into a gorgeous set of guitar patterns, effortlessly moving back and forth between conventional and odd time signatures. It’s quite a trip, and sets the bar very high for the rest of the record.

“One Last Time” is all joy and effervescence, the buoyant chord clusters being played in an unusual 7/8 pattern. It’s a real showcase for Mr. Witte’s clean right hand technique, but it also illustrates how he transcends the American Primitive style by thinking about the voice of the entire chord, rather than droning two or three notes and throwing down a simple repeating melody over the top.

Scott Witte – “One Last Time”
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At this point in an album, and with so much ground covered, one might start to worry about the well of ideas beginning to run dry… but Scott is just hitting his stride. Sound Shadows reaches it’s creative apex with “Inward Journey”, a composition that cycles through many movements, each more striking than the last. Much like James Blackshaw, one of the better-known modern-day purveyors of the long-form acoustic guitar song, Scott deftly picks his way through some gorgeous groups of chords, alternately accentuating notes in every register. That Mr. Witte is a virtuoso shouldn’t be a mystery to anyone at this point, bouncing back and forth between finger-rolls, time signatures and melodic snippets with the greatest of ease.

Genre-blurring acoustic guitarist Scott Witte

The album begins to wind down with “Walking On Air”, which revisits the sad, dirge-y mood of some of the earlier tunes. A short poem, “One Day Came a Crow”, reminds us of the loose concept of the album before closer “Prayer For Peace”, a very pretty pattern-picking invention in 5/8.

Though the few quirky “New Age” devices/trappings (the crow theme, the spoken word, etc.) at times threaten to cheese-up the proceedings (I know, right? Such a literate review and the best I could come up with was “cheese-up”), they prove minor distractions, relatively benign in the greater scheme of things. Sound Shadows is a serious, and seriously accomplished guitar album. The recording quality is very good indeed, the 12-string numbers featuring nice, thick close-micing, while the 6-string compositions benefit from the added sparkle of a little electric pickup mixed in. It is no small accomplishment that this group of songs, recorded intermittently over a five year period, are so of-a-piece… this collection could be sequenced any number of ways and would be no worse for the wear, a testament to Scott’s ability to keep things consistently varied and exciting. Though Scott Witte has been off the radar for some 28 years, with Sound Shadows he proves that he is not only in step with the current acoustic guitar scene, he also has the potential to be one of its leading lights.

Buy this CD from CD Baby
Check out Scott’s website