Sit Back And Melt…

We lost a musical Prince last Saturday night

Norman Woolsey died on November 7, 2009. He was an absolute sweetheart of a man, and hands-down the best guitarist that I have ever had the priviledge of playing with.

I’ll never forget the first time that I ever met Norman. We had found each other on one of those musicians’ website, and made arrangements for him to sit in with a few other musicians that I was jamming with. With his thick horn-rimmed glasses, shaggy gray hair, and middle age paunch, he certainly looked like no one’s idea of a guitar hero.

After introducing himself in his soft Texas drawl, I pegged him as a “weekend strummer” – someone who knew some basic chords, and pulled his guitar out from time to time and play songs from back in the day. “Wonderful…” I groused to myself.

We set up and began to play a 12-bar blues as a warm up. I noticed that he was tentatively playing some chords and staying in the background. “I knew it…” I said to myself. The other guitarist ran out of gas after a few minutes, and I shouted to Norman: “Go ahead – let’s see what you got.”

He stomped down on his effect boxes, and his guitar emitted a growl as his fingers slid down the neck. He proceeded to tear through a 5-minute blues solo that would have Stevie Ray Vaughn nodding in approval, followed it with finger-tapping riffs that Eddie Van Halen would have found eminently to his satisfaction, and ending with vigorous applications of the whammy bar that Jimi Hendrix would have wholly approved of.

By the time he finished, there was smoke pouring from his fingertips, and we gaped in disbelief at the sounds that we had just witnessed being created by this nerdy-looking guy with the coke-bottle lenses and the goofy grin.

I had the pleasure and priviledge to play with Norman many times in the last few years. He was always modest about his incredible talent, and always seemed to be surprised when I would tell him that he was the best guitarist that I had ever played with.

Norman Woolsey was a friend of mine, and I will miss him terribly.

“Thanks Norm, it was a real slice of Heaven.”

On this day last year, the rock world lost one of its legendary performers when drummer Mitch Miller was found dead of natural causes in his room at the Benson Hotel in Portland, Oregon.  He was 61 years old.

Mitchell played in a number of groups including the Pretty Things, the Riot Squad, and Ramatam.  But he was most famous for his work with the Jimi Hendrix Experience. While with the Experience, Mitchell drew upon his jazz background and helped the band deviate from a traditional rock 4/4 beat and was essential in establishing their unique sound.

Here’s Mitchell and the Experience doing the (sort-of) instrumental track, “Third Stone from the Sun.”

Legendary blues performer Stevie Ray Vaughn regularly included “Stone” in his sets before his untimely death.

Here, SRV adds a bit of “Stone” on at the end of his version of another Mitchell track, “Little Wing.”

Jaco Pastorius was an influential jazz bassist whose struggles with bipolar disorder and alcoholism led to his untimely death at the age of 35 in 1987.

Here’s Jaco showing off his bass skills while a member of jazz fusion group, Weather Report, live in Germany in 1978.

(That’s a bass he’s doing all that with, folks!)

Grunge super-group, Mad Season, also performed a version live in 1995.

Finally, Brooklyn area bar band, the Marvin Barnes Time Machine, do their version.  (You’ll probably see more of these guys on this blog; they do a lot of tracks that I like and they do them really well.)

Caution Children are one of the many bands that characterize Ithaca sound

Nestled in the foothills of the Finger Lakes, right in the heart of wine country, Ithaca is a community secluded from the rest of the world. There are no major interstates that cut an unsightly swath through its downtown; no passenger trains rumbling across the Cayuga Valley.  One could easily assume that if it wasn’t for Cornell University and Ithaca College, Ithaca would have just been another Podunk upstate burg at the edges of the Rust Belt.

Yet this small college city, just over a one-hour drive from Syracuse and a little under five from New York City, is home to one of the country’s most eclectic, powerful, and thriving music scenes.

After all, the ever-elusive “Ithaca Sound” was created here, a fusion of familiar and ethnic music styles, fundamental to the popularity and acceptance of Roots. Acclaimed reggae group John Brown’s Body considers Ithaca home, as do country singer Johnny Dowd and folk singers The Burns Sisters.  College-town venue The Nines has been hosting the Blue Monday jam session for over 29 years. And the local award-winning college radio station WICB carries such programming as “Home Brew,” a weekly show dedicated to local music, while graduates at the School of Music at nearby Ithaca College go on to play with the Boston Symphony Orchestra and the New York Philharmonic.

“Whenever you have a college town like this, you have a naturally reoccurring base,” says Dan Smalls, a concert promoter who has been part of the Ithaca scene since his freshman year in 1989. “A scene is only as good as the musicians who lived here, and there were always great musicians here. If you continue to do cutting-edge music then you’re going to have a good scene.”

Putting a face to Ithaca’s intricate personality is difficult at best, simply because it has too many faces to represent its storied history:  the veteran blues artist, the bartender at one of the hottest venues on the Cornell hill, the bouncer who’s worked all across town, the respected Visitor’s Bureau promoter, the music writer turning the city inside out, and the students who, in just three years, have carved their place in the scene. Each of them has their own stories about the music and the people, the bands and the bars, and none of them can ignore the impact this scene has had on their own lives.

THE BLUESMAN

Music in Ithaca always changes. The scene flows in four-year waves, rising and ebbing with each incoming and outgoing college class. But there are still some elements of permanence here: take Pete Panek, for example – one of the few, rare constants in a city whose musicians often grow up and move out.

“We’re the old guards,” says the 58-year old guitarist and lead singer of his epynomous band, Pete Panek and the Blue Cats. “We’re constant, we’re here forever.”

A consummate bluesman, Panek can recite a who’s-who of blues legends he has shared the stage with: Buddy Guy, Junior Wells, Koko Taylor, Charles Musselwhite. He played with the legendary Bo Diddley as his backup band, twice.  Since moving to Ithaca in October 1982, he’s been jamming at The Nines in Collegetown each week — one of the longest-running open blues jams in America, he’s quick to point out.

“In its heyday in the mid-’80s, right after Robert Cray and Stevie Ray Vaughn came out, it was crazy,” he says. “One night 24 guitars showed up to jam.”

As a forum for students to meet and experiment, Ithaca is fertile ground: Panek estimates that 80% of the bands playing at Ithaca’s major venues are college students, as opposed to out-of-town bands.

Yet it’s retaining these acts that’s the major problem.

Panek acknowledges that bands in Ithaca frequently outgrow their small college-town status. Those that move to Boston or New York to take their chances are rarely heard from again—if they even stay together.

“It could be a case of big fish in a small pond,” he shrugs.

Once band members graduate after being popular for 3 or 4 years, there’s “almost like a scramble” for another band to fill the void. Other times, bands that find success in Ithaca usually stick around, sometimes for a few years, sometimes more.

“There’s always a lot of bands, but the ones that really make it to the top have been together for a while. It takes time to get tight.”

And what works in Ithaca may not always work elsewhere in the country, as Panek points out.

“To be honest with you, a lot of times the bands that are really popular locally for a while, don’t leave town for a reason. Because they’ll get their asses kicked.  Some of the bands are pretty good for Ithaca, but if they leave town they’ll get burnt to death. All of a sudden, they’re a little lightweight. It’s a problem.”

But with the talent from the music schools, Panek knows that Ithaca won’t come up short for new and diverse bands anytime soon, and especially now.

“The music is good, the bands are as good as ever, and getting better,” says Panek, keeping an eye on how the current school year is progressing. “It remains to be seen. This semester’s so young.”

THE BARTENDER

Talk to enough people in town about good venues for live music, and a few names will emerge from the riffraff: The Nines. Castaways. Felicia’s Atomic Lounge. The Shop.

Ask John Peterson his favorite venue, and he’ll surely tell you the Haunt Bar and Grille, which he owned until 1996.

Originally, Peterson had intended to stay in Ithaca only for one summer after graduating Cornell. He took up a bartender job at The Haunt in 1972, back when the venue featured one or two local bands covering the Allman Brothers every week. Peterson didn’t stand for it.

“I knew exactly what the college kids wanted,” says Peterson. “It was later in the 70s, between 1976 and 1977 that we started bringing live entertainment back. Strictly original bands. No bands that played covers. I wanted bands that played original music.”

More original bands started to filter in, playing original reggae and blues.  And eventually, Peterson became a partner and stayed in Ithaca to steer The Haunt towards becoming the institution it is now.

In those initial years Peterson took a trendsetting approach to booking, oftentimes bucking the trend on mainstream music. For him, working at The Haunt was a “labor of love.”

“Having a nightclub was just a cool thing and I was very enthused about bringing these bands in,” he said.  “I would promote them really hard, and as opposed to bringing in what people really wanted, I brought in bands I thought I could develop a market for.”

Those acts included the likes of Stevie Ray Vaughn, who Peterson paid $250 for in 1981 — the same Stevie Ray Vaughn who went on to record Texas Flood and cement his reputation as one of the most acclaimed guitarists of this generation.

“I used to let the bands stay at my house back then,” recalls Peterson, “and Stevie was leaving kind of late after the act. He planned to stay in their van, but he stayed at my place for four to five nights. With his guitar.”

After being in town for so long, someone like Peterson starts to notice trends. Jam bands are on their way out, he says, a sentiment he shares with Panek. Heavy metal struggles to find a thriving audience. Soul and funk are currently crowd-pleasers, as well as African-inspired roots music mixed with good ol’ rock ‘n’ roll.

“The thing that makes me happy about Ithaca now is that it’s known as a town that really supports alternative ethnic music,” Peterson said. “People in Ithaca have a broad taste of music. It’s that kind of community… there’s a definite vibe in Ithaca that makes creative type people stick around that will help keep the scene alive.”

THE BOUNCER

Tim Mavros may be a self-proclaimed metalhead, but his job takes him all across town and across all different genres of music. He’s a bouncer who’s worked almost every major club in Ithaca and tossed drunks and underage kids out of most of them, but he is a man who enjoys the crowd too much to be confrontational.

Working directly with the shows also means that he’s seen the scene change from time to time and knows which venues he enjoys working with (Dark Star Orchestra are among the most entertaining of the “hippie shows”) and which ones may give him trouble (the nascent hip-hop scene isn’t his cup of tea). He enjoys the crowd, he enjoys the glimpses of the show he catches from the door, and he clearly enjoys his job.

He’s also felt the sting of the economic recession, which threatens to pull the carpet out from under the entire scene.

“The prices of everything went up,” he explains. “New York State wants to raise the liquor taxes. So you’re forcing the venues to up their prices, and it deters them from buying what they would usually buy.”

Venue owners rely on college students’ billion-dollar-strong disposable income to survive and thrive. When the recession hit, club owners were worried that their crowds would disappear, and reacted by reducing shows during the slow weekday stretches. But mercifully, the crowds haven’t disappeared altogether, the talent hasn’t vanished like the money has, and musicians are simply requesting more free gigs.

And the love-hate relationship between the permanent residents of Ithaca and the rowdy students on the Hill makes for an interesting dynamic.

“Townies don’t like the students,” explains Mavros, “but they know they bring the jobs. Even mine.”

THE PROMOTER

Fortunately for Bruce Stoff, this summer’s tourism season shook off the worst effects of the recession. A 10-year Ithaca resident, Stoff is the communications manager of the Ithaca/Tompkins County Convention and Visitor’s Bureau. His job entails drawing visitors to hike along Ithaca’s famous gorges, tour the wineries on the nation’s first wine trail, kayak down Cayuga Lake, go swimming at Buttermilk Falls, and do some shopping in the newly refurbished downtown Ithaca Commons.

And, while they’re in town, maybe catch a show or two.

“We just love the local music scene here, it’s fun. And we love getting all the national acts coming through,” says Stoff. “But from a tourism perspective, from the visitor’s bureau we just like to spread the word that people can come here and catch a good show.”

Stoff has been involved with the annual GrassRoots Festival for years — the “festival of music and dance,” featuring performers like Donna the Buffalo, has become a staple for folk fans across the country. And it’s one of the many promotions Stoff has worked on during his tenure here.

“We did a CD of local Ithaca music,” explains Stoff, “featuring some of the bands that are popular here. And we inserted it into 12-packs of Ithaca beer that were sold throughout the Northeast. And that was cool, just putting local music out with beer and letting people know there’s a fun music scene here.”

Additional projects target nearby metropolitan areas such as Philadelphia, whose NPR station is working with Stoff to bring Lyle Lovett to town for an interview on the program “World Café.”

And the Chamber of Commerce does what it can to help out small and new businesses, says Stoff. Finding sources of funding for clubs, with their razor-thin profit margins, can be difficult, but when they become successful these businesses are a boon to tourism. That’s why local nightclub Felicia’s Atomic Lounge was recently picked by the Chamber as the Best New Business of the Year.

“You don’t expect a chamber to pick a bar or a club as the Best Business of the Year,” says Stoff. “That’s how they try to bring attention to it.”

Seventy to 80 percent of the 750,000 visitors to Ithaca are in town primarily for the waterfalls and the downtown attractions. And after that, the remaining tourists are evenly split between the restaurants, the water sports, and the wine. To them, the music scene almost feels like an afterthought—a testament to Ithaca’s relative isolation on the national stage.

“It’s a little hard to get on the national radar like that,” says Stoff. “But there’s a really strong contingent of national performers who live here, especially with the roots scene.”

It’s a challenge for Stoff, who acknowledges that while student musicians develop their talents in Ithaca, they make their professional impacts in major cities like New York.

“The biggest stumbling block is, how do you keep the talent here long enough to really develop a name for the location? As soon as they start getting really good and popular, they move on to where they can get big shows and media attention.”

THE JOURNALIST

Or perhaps there are those in town who wouldn’t want Ithaca to become huge and corporatized, like the faceless record conglomerates in Los Angeles. Jim Catalano has been covering the scene since 1992, when he wrote a weekly music column entitled “Soundoff” for the Ithaca Journal. Despite being laid off in June 2009, he plans to continue covering music.

Being a music journalist means that he caught a lot of shows, including Dread Zeppelin, Soul Asylum, Buddy Guy and Jeff Buckley. When he first moved to town The Haunt was located downtown instead of by the waterfront, Castaways was a metal bar called Max’s, and locals could earn a good living not only by playing clubs but also fraternities, hotels, and college dorms. The scene ebbs and flows, he says, “but that’s mainly due to the types of venues in town and the local promoters, rather than the musicians themselves.”

Today, Catalano believes the scene is poised for another upswing. With talented and dedicated promoters who understand the scene well, and two newly refurbished venues set to open, “I think it will continue to be bright,” says Catalano.

He believes underground shows like Popcorn Youth, the Ithaca Underground, and Cornell University’s Fanclub Collective are shaping the contemporary scene today. Local bands such as the Sim Redmond Band, J-san & the Analogue Sons, and John Brown’s Body are also putting out new music that, no matter how large or small the crowd is, will manage to draw an audience.

And mercifully for his career, Catalano always finds something to write about.

“I’ve had people ask me how I could possibly write a weekly music column for 17 years,” he saoid. “I usually tell them that between the strong local scene, the number of cool national touring acts that visit, and the variety of regional concerts in the summer, when it’s easier to travel, there’s almost always something worthwhile to write about.”

THE YOUNG BLOOD

Worthwhile new acts, in fact, lie no further than Ithaca’s South Hill, home to the music-intensive Ithaca College and dozens of young student acts.

The six beard-toting, flannel-wearing members of Caution Children spent their junior year in a house on South Hill, drinking Utica Club, recording demo tracks for Myspace and playing gigs on and off campus when they had the time.  Though they’ve since moved into separate houses, they’ve still become something of a fixture on the college scene — so much so, in fact, that they seem to open, headline or otherwise involve themselves in every show that IC puts on.

But for keyboardist and IC senior Aaron Terkel, at least, Caution Children are more a band from Ithaca than a band from Ithaca College.  It’s an atmosphere that he and other college acts say is very hospitable to young bands, largely because the local scene itself is so vibrant.

“There’s a lot of music in this town,” Terkel said by e-mail.  “It has been said that there are more musicians (or at least, musically inclined people) per capita in Ithaca than anywhere else in upstate NY… Local music will always be present and be a big driving force behind what keeps people going in this town.”

Caution Children originally formed in 2007, after an open mic night at IC’s Campus Center.  The band began as a kind of free-spirited collective, sitting on a rainbow parachute and jamming out on toy instruments.  As they began practicing more regularly and playing actual songs, they gained a small following and a reputation for spirited, often riotous, live shows, complete with the token parachute and the “pistols in the sky” hand gesture that have become something of a calling card.

Last year, they opened for The Pains of Being Pure at Heart at Cornell University.  This month, they’ll play an IC homecoming event.  And over the upcoming winter break, the band intends to record their debut album with Sixteen Sixteen, an artist label and collective started by frontman Steve Burton’s high school friend Chris Ploss and home to fellow IC acts Radio the Ape, Kites in Space and Dandy Little Lions.

But Caution Children are a part of the four-year cycle that Pete Panek and other scene vets cite as critical to Ithaca’s music scene: most of the band’s six are not native to Central New York, and though they groan — literally — at the mention of post-graduation plans, it doesn’t seem that they’re likely to stay in the area.  Few college bands do, said CJ Knowles, a 2008 IC grad and the former frontman of now-defunct folk-pop act the Tundra Toes.

“College bands are in a lot of ways flashes in the pan doomed to fizzle out once everyone graduates,” he wrote in an e-mail interview. “But each one definitely leaves behind some influence, particularly on the administration’s support for college music and the local venues’ ideas of its worth.”

Knowles said that Jack Bauer and Stanley and the Livingstons were critical in paving the way for his band, while Tundra Toes went on to clear the way for Caution Children.  There’s a lot of crossover between the three bands: Caution Children’s saxophonist, Reece Lazarus, used to play with Tundra Toes, while Knowles once played with Stanley and the Livingstons.

Caution Children also share their bassist, Mike Grippi, with Dandy Little Lions, a noise-driven electro act that went on hiatus when keyboardist Jake Forney and drummer Nick Carr graduated last spring.  Forney has since relocated to Brooklyn, while Carr lives in Rhode Island.  There’s no word on if or when the Dandy Little Lions will return.

But that isn’t the case for every college band playing Castaways and The Nines these days.  Nick Bullock, Jason Pratt and Devon Reehl met in the IC dorms in 2000 — nearly 10 years and two line-up changes later, Revision remains a staple of the funk/jazz scene.

Keyboardist Jonathan Petronzio said that it’s a scene on the brink — a fact that explains why Revisions, at least, have never left.

“I’ve often wondered why and how Ithaca isn’t viewed as the Nashville of the Northeast,” he said.  “I compare Ithaca’s music to the likeness of a Carnival quarter machine where all of the quarters are lined up teetering on the edge, and ready to fall at any time… We only need one band to break.”

When all is said and done, the future of the Ithaca music scene appears as strong as ever, in spite of the recent recession, changes to the scene and changes to the industry overall.  The trendsetters of contemporary music are still here, coming and going every four years: these kids know what they want and they are ready to reshape this weird and beautiful town in their own ever-changing image.

“So do what you want, don’t follow trends, make your own trends,” Panek advised newcomers to Ithaca’s music scene.  “And then let them follow you, wherever that may be.”

– story by Blake Rong and Caitlin Dewey
– additional reporting by Donata Lockett and Jamie Miles

So did you hear about who’s being nominated for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame for 2010? Here’s a list…

ABBA
The Chantels
Jimmy Cliff
Genesis
The Hollies
KISS
LL Cool J
Darlene Love
Laura Nyro
Red Hot Chili Peppers
The Stooges
Donna Summer

Now… Okay. Some of these are a no-brainer. KISS is a big duh, along with Genesis. The Red Hot Chili Peppers? Mmmmaybe. They’re definitely someone who should be there at some point, but I’m not sure if it should happen just yet. But seriously, DONNA SUMMER? LL COOL J? Look, I like these artists as much as the next guy, but really? In the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame? That’s just silly, friend! I mean, good grief, how many legends of Rock are being overlooked so we can get these people on the list? Oh look, another list!

Thin Lizzy
Blue Oyster Cult
The Doobie Brothers
Kansas
The Steve Miller Band
Billy Squier
Journey
The Cult
Rush (I’m not their biggest fan ever, but I do acknowledge where they belong in history)
The Moody Blues
Def Leppard
The Marshall Tucker Band
Heart
Ringo Starr (the ONLY Beatle that hasn’t been inducted yet)
Stevie Ray Vaughn!

The list goes on. Now granted, I understand they don’t want to cram everyone into a single year. They wanna space ‘em out. But does that really mean we should be giving non-rock and roll artists the opportunity to be inducted? Not that it’s gonna happen, but what if LL Cool J gets voted in over KISS?

You’d look stupid, 500 people who get to vote on this. Yes, you. I will blame you all. Shame on you, 500 people. Shame. On. You.

So, to summarize, vote for KISS. Because that’s the American way.

Or write in the Electric Light Orchestra. That’d be pretty dang sweet.

Anyway, I’m outta here at 11:30. Gotta go take my Computer Skills Placement Test, or whatever it’s called. After that, I’m going to go pick up my tux for Troll’s wedding. Rehearsal’s tomorrow night, and Troll’s big day is on Saturday. I really hope it works out for him, and I wish him nothing but the best. I’ve been mulling over my best man speech (I did tell you I got “promoted,” right?…), and I have a pretty good idea of the challenge I’m going to issue them as part of my toast. I just hope they take what I say to heart, because the stuff I’m going to say is the stuff that all married couples should remember if they want to live a long and happy life together.

Little blurb about the iPSotD… My brother, Mark, is in the special ed program here at the high school where I work. They have their own PE room where they go to work on a preset list of physical goals. Today the teacher had Mark on the stairmaster, which as you can see, Mark can do in his sleep. LOL! (he stayed up all night last night)

Wait wait wait. ABBA? ABBA!? That’s… well, I don’t know what to think of that.

iPSotD:

My brother, the Sleepwalker!

We just found this website today…… Loving fender guitars like so many of us do we thought we would post the link. Check out fender clothing.

I can’t have a food blog and not talk about my favorite food in the world! Well, as the title says, life gets a whole lot better with a little bit of Tex-Mex. It makes me happy just typing the name.

I have to preface this blog by saying that I love ALL types of mexican food and, in my personal opinion, it doesn’t get any better than the Mexican food in Texas. Since I can remember I have always been drawn to chips, salsa, and of course…Queso! I mean what’s not to love about a big pot of melted cheese with some spicy beef, hot peppers, and roasted tomatoes thrown into the mix. My obsession started young and I have to blame my Okie/Texan family for introducing it to me early on. Half of my family is from Oklahoma and half from Texas..it makes for a fun football season let me tell ya!

My first real memory of Mexican food started with my grandfather’s salsa. Anytime I would ever go over to see my grandparents the first thing I would do is go to the fridge and pull out the salsa. He would even hide it sometimes because, once the boys found where it was hidden, it would be gone in a matter of minutes. For years I couldn’t find a salsa as good as his until I finally tasted my big brother’s recipe.

Side Note: As I mentioned in the “This is Me” section, my father is an amazing cook, but he’s not the only one. My grandfather and brother can really hold their own in the kitchen.

I hadn’t attempted to create my own salsa until this year and I really have to credit my brother for 90% of the recipe. I’ve added a few hints of originality to it, but why mess with a good thing.

It is only fitting for someone so in love with a particular type of food to have their first real job serving it. Growing up I was always drawn to restaurants (ha well now I know why) and I couldn’t wait to turn 18 so I could be a waitress. The week after I graduated from high school I went and applied at On the Border Mexican Cantina in Norman, Oklahoma. I was so excited to start my new job, but I soon learned that it was going to be harder than I thought. My first day out of training I dropped an entire tray of drinks all over this poor woman wearing a light pink jumpsuit. Needless to say, I was a bit more cautious from then on and my summer job turned into 3 years of working my way through college. During my employment with OTB, I learned that I had no limits when it came to Mexican food. When I wasn’t working, I was up there eating sometimes 5 days in a row for lunch and dinner (hey it was free and I was in college). When I moved to Texas in 2003 I continued to wait tables, but moved from serving mexican cuisine to more upscale restaurants serving steak & seafood. Even though the menus are night and day for the most part, I still managed to find the closest thing to mexican food on the menu to eat (I still crave The Keg’s chicken nachos).

I now try to incorporate one Mexican dish in my menu a week, but one hang up with eating Tex-Mex all the time is that it’s not always kind to the waistline. So, now I have reached out to my trusty Weight Watchers cookbooks and Cooking Light magazine collection for healthy alternatives. I have to say, the Healthy Beef-and- Been Tacos from Weight Watchers have become a weekly staple in my home. Taco night is something both my husband & I look forward to for sure.

After many years of eating Queso multiple times a week, I started to show it on the scale. I don’t eat it much anymore, but I have grown to love it’s substitute just as much…Guacamole! Avocado finds it’s way in a lot of my dishes- everything from salads, dips, sandwiches, etc. I know it’s fattening, but it’s good fat and okay if eaten in moderation right? Nothing adds excitement to Taco Night like a little chips, salsa, and guacamole!

Now I know that I can survive living on the west or east coast just as long as I have a supermarket close by. I’ve talked to some people who think mexican cooking is too difficult, so they don’t even try. Start easy, like me, and you’ll eventually find yourself frying up some Flautas and grilling some killer fajitas. I guarantee you this will not be my last post about Mexican food, but here are a few recipes to get you started. Enjoy!

Josh & Sarah’s Fresh Salsa

In the spirit of Tex-Mex nobody screams Texas to me more than Stevie Ray Vaughan. Songs like “Pride and Joy” have influenced my musical taste and love for the blues. His raspy voice and signature guitar makes me want to be dancing in South Texas…while eating some Mexican food of course!!

Here’s to a little piece of Texas!

By Anthony D Jacques

An Allegory

The room is dim, cool, relaxing. You pick up that delicate, six-stringed work of art for which your heart has longed these many months.

She’s lighter than you expected, perfectly balanced in your capable hands. The luscious curves and liquid smooth, deep burgundy finish over the flamed maple body is the epitome of desire. The neck fits naturally to the curvature of your palm, and as the strap slides down over your shoulder, your hand finds the volume and tone knobs without looking and you dial in the perfect setting; it’s as if you were meant for each other.

Then, you plug the cord into the amp. The tension in the air is growing more and more palpable every moment, and yet you let the tension build as you feel the guitar’s body pressed gingerly against you own. Your eyes move up and down the body while your fingers explore the neck, the headstock, the strings and delicate frets.

But enough foreplay already. You flick on the power switch and with a few sparks, a brief whiff of ozone, the tubes begin to heat up, start glowing ominously in the background. The guitar is perfectly tuned, and the feedback begins to build as the speaker comes to life.

You raise your hand in anticipation of the first chord then hold it, hold it… And now you bring it down to the strings Pete Townshend-style, producing a gut-wrenching E#7#9, arguably the sexiest chord in the history of Rock n Roll.

Riffs and melodies flow freely from the yearning in the depths of your soul, through every muscle and sinew in your body and into the guitar which wails, then gently weeps, then wails again at your lightest touch. Your fingers work their way up and down the neck, playing scales you’ve never rehearsed but somehow flow so naturally, it’s like you were created to Rock.

* * *

Time for a reality check, especially before you all mess up your laptops. Have you even been to a guitar shop? If so, you know where I’m going with this; if not, go check one out. Really.

It’s a hectic scene. Out-of-tune guitars, poorly EQ’d amps and effects, gross amounts of feedback, long hair, leather jackets and frankly, with the heat from the tubes and all the people, it tends to smell a little funky.

No one is a Rock God from the first time they pick up a guitar, and neither is anyone a Sex God the first time either. Television and movies and books sell an idealized sexual experience and get people’s hopes up. Without someone keeping your feet on the ground, it’s easy to go into that experience expecting to play Hendrix and walk away wondering why you’re so sweaty and confused, or why your G-string broke before you even got going. (Pun unabashedly intended.)

And that’s all provided you aren’t so scared of the evils of Rock n Roll… err… Sex, that you can actually perform at all. One terrible side effect is how oh-so-many conservative newlyweds were simply unable to, you know, do it when the “right” moment came. Their body said, “Oh heavens yes!” Their pastor said, “You can do it!” But their conditioned mind said “Oh God, no! It’s… dirty!”

There is a proper time and place for sex in the same way there is a proper time and place for a guitar solo.

Some guitarists do nothing but face-melting lead lines for fifteen minutes at a time, madly pursuing nothing but solo work. That’s great, but it usually comes off as overkill. Who cares how fast you hammer-on, pull-off and sweep-pick if the end result has no emotion? Blues giants like Stevie Ray Vaughn or BB King could play one note for 12 solid bars and have more soul than your ten minutes of blistering, mind-numbing, non-committal 64th notes.

Other bands are prudes, producing album after album without anything even remotely resembling a guitar solo. This kind of music is good at times, but it always leaves me feeling teased. A good melody or riff is fine, but if that is the cornerstone of Rock n Roll, then the art of the guitar solo is the climax. (Pun also fully intended.)

What I’m saying is: Sex is great. Don’t misuse it. Don’t overdo it. But for heaven’s sake, don’t run from it either.

I’ll zero in on how the proverbial slate needs a once-over on this matter in an upcoming post: Don’t Unsex Me!

Thoughts so far?

Netraja.org (Sharing is Community) » Albert King & Stevie Ray …

Download Albert King & Stevie Ray Vaughn “In Session” Ful Album (Rename the file A&S.rar and Extract the files using Winrar). This entry was posted on Thursday, July 16th, 2009 at 3:31 pm and is filed under (Music) Blues. …

Download Albert King & Stevie Ray Vaughn “In Session” Ful Album (Rename the file A&S.rar and Extract the files using Winrar). This entry was posted on Thursday, July 16th, 2009 at 3:31 pm and is filed under (Music) Blues. …

Download Albert King & Stevie Ray Vaughn “In Session” Ful Album (Rename the file A&S.rar and Extract the files using Winrar). This entry was posted on Thursday, July 16th, 2009 at 3:31 pm and is filed under (Music) Blues. …

Download Albert King & Stevie Ray Vaughn “In Session” Ful Album (Rename the file A&S.rar and Extract the files using Winrar). This entry was posted on Thursday, July 16th, 2009 at 3:31 pm and is filed under (Music) Blues. …

Download Albert King & Stevie Ray Vaughn “In Session” Ful Album (Rename the file A&S.rar and Extract the files using Winrar). This entry was posted on Thursday, July 16th, 2009 at 3:31 pm and is filed under (Music) Blues. …

Netraja.org (Sharing is Community) » Albert King & Stevie Ray …

Daisy Baker&s is charged with six counts of copyright infringement, for bands& performance of classic songs by Prince, Chris Isaak, Stevie Ray Vaughn and Marvin Gaye, as well as some of the most well known Motown songs from the 60s …

Daisy Baker&s is charged with six counts of copyright infringement, for bands& performance of classic songs by Prince, Chris Isaak, Stevie Ray Vaughn and Marvin Gaye, as well as some of the most well known Motown songs from the 60s …

stevie ray vaughn insane, plays behind his back http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tWLw7…layer_embedded pure amazingness, tell me if u like.. and watch.

Download Albert King & Stevie Ray Vaughn “In Session” Ful Album (Rename the file A&S.rar and Extract the files using Winrar). This entry was posted on Thursday, July 16th, 2009 at 3:31 pm and is filed under (Music) Blues. …

stevie ray vaughn insane, plays behind his back http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tWLw7…layer_embedded pure amazingness, tell me if u like.. and watch.

Dad’s guitar close plugged in.

The first time I remember seeing Stevie Ray perform was on the undercard for the “George Thorogood and the Destroyers” tour back in ‘78 or ‘79 at the Armadillo World Headquarters (R.I.P.)  It’s not one of those venerable memories held by the more sagacious Austin music aficionados (“I first saw Stevie get up and play for the first time at Antones.” Or, “One night at Soap Creek Saloon, Jimmie Vaughn let his kid brother jam with the Thunderbirds.”)

But it’s all I’ve got.

It was Guitar Gunslingers Night.  The show opened with Bugs Henderson–then recognized as one of the true Texas hotshots on the axe.  Next came Stevie with Double Trouble, then came George Thorogood.  Bugs and Stevie let it all hang out, each trying to play such a  smokin’ hot set that folks would come away amazed at them as much as George–more so, if they could pull it off.  Stevie’s set was high-voltage as he roared through his blues/Hendrix repetoire with amazing energy, even playing a bit of behind-the-back guitar.  I’d like to say he was the best axeman that night.  But truthfully, Stevie was a still a couple of years away from finding his groove and  pushing through to the level he achieved with 1983’s watershed album, “Texas Flood.”   He seemed to be laboring a bit too hard at winning the Best Gunslinger award from the crowd.  We wouldn’t have thought this then, but in hindsight Stevie was still developing his sense of identity and still in a sort of exploration phase when it came to music and style.   George Thorogood had these things already, and when he and the Destroyers took the stage it didn’t take long to see why they were at the top of the bill.  Yeah, it was 3-chord 50’s blues/rock ‘n’ roll, but George and the band were so into it, and brought such passion, energy and showmanship to their performance, that the old music came alive again–it became electric, loud and frenzied as it pulled you into its primal energy.  And then you could see why there ever was such a thing called the Generation Gap.   You could better understand why moms and dads tuning their radios to Doris Day, Frank Sinatra and the Weavers’ “Goodnight Irene” in newly emerging suburban neighborhoods would want to scream, “Turn that awful noise DOWN!”  And you could understand why many kids mostly ignored their parents and continued to crank it up.  That was what I got when I saw George and the Destroyers play that night.

Still, that night many of us could tell that Stevie was also onto something special.  Thorogood was impressed, coming out for his encore wearing Stevie’s trademark hat as a bit of a  salute to the young guy just on the verge of hitting it big himself.  And here he is, in top form, blazing away with Jeff Beck., in the groove and playing the music that flows through him, music that no doubt inspired someone somewhere to yell out, “Would you turn that awful noise DOWN!”   Sorry, grandpa, but this music is meant to be played LOUD!

My dad’s new baby.  Just got it in.  Sounds like butter melting in my mouth.  (Too much sugar).

I’ve never been one for traditional love songs. Half the time the lyrics of the songs people associate with love are of the unrequited kind, the broken hearted kind or not even of love at all. It’s not always about what the songs say though, it is how they make you feel… That being said, I was shuffling through my collection of digital songs (a truly incomplete subset of the library of music I’ve amassed over the years in all formats from 78RMPs on up) on the train heading out to a wedding and managed to do a “save song” list based on things that caught my eye and ear that might remotely resemble songs that two people with some kind of discerning musical taste (which are NOT the words I would use to describe the couple, by the way) might enjoy. It’s not a love mix, per se, nor is it a wedding mix, it’s just what was left after I arranged the songs in this order for them.

“Jupiter” Cave-in from Jupiter</a<
"One for the Road" Funeral For a Friend from Tales Don’t Tell Themselves
“Hand on Heart” Steve Vai from the 7th Song
“Never Been in Love Before” Chicago from VIII
“Love Reign Down on Me” The Who from Quadrophenia
“Open Arms” Journey Escape
V
“Everywhere I Go” Kings X from Faith Hope Love
“Summer Love” Incubus from SCIENCE
“Love and Affection” Def Leppard from Hysteria
“All of my Love” Led Zeppelin from In Through the Out Door
“Us and Them” Pink Floyd from Dark Side of the Mood
“Riveria Paradise” Stevie Ray Vaughn & Double Trouble from In Step
“All You Need is Love” the Beatles from Magical Mystery Tour

Dissatisfied customer who accidently purchased a song lasting only 2:48.

Have you ever downloaded a song from iTunes and thought – damn, that’s one short song. Was that really worth the 99 cents or did I just get ripped off?  After all, in today’s down economy, you can’t afford to waste your money on just any old song.  Wimpy little two and three minute songs songs just don’t add enough value anymore. And, for that matter, neither do 5 minute songs. Frankly, I’m done with anything under 6 minutes.

The iTunes Value Maximization Framework:
 
First: To fully realize your investment, make sure your picks are at least 7 minutes long, preferably more. That’s not to say length is everything. You’ve got to add a little substance too.  And, watch out for really lengthy self-indulgent tracks.  Take Marais la Nuit from Neko Case’s album Middle Cyclone, for example.  I’m sorry, but the next time I want to hear crickets chirping for 31 minutes, I’ll go outside, thank you very much.  It’s technically not a song and I’m a purist, so I’m treating this one as an outlier and taking it out of the average cost per minute (ACM) for my collection.

Second: Delete all the shorter songs in your library. Trust me, you don’t need them. Two minutes goes by really fast. That’s less time than it takes to make a cup of coffee, get the mail or eat an ice cream cone.  And, as you age, time goes faster anyway – so if Stairway to Heaven seemed long to you in high school, give it another chance.  It’s a lot speedier today. Really.

Third: Pledge to check your downloads each and every week.  Don’t forget this step. It’s very important to keep the integrity of your music collection intact and not let any low value songs sneak into the mix.  Kind of like the Farenheit 451 of iTunes collection management – just burn ‘em.

To help you get started, I’m sharing some of my personal picks below. While not necessarily the definitive list on the subject, I guarantee that these songs will help you lower your ACM:

1. Land of Hope and Dreams  (Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band - Live in New York City) Length 9:46
2. Can’t You Hear Me Knocking (Rolling Stones – Live Licks) 10:02
3. Disco Inferno (The Trammps  – Saturday Night Fever Soundtrack) 10:51
4. Movin Right Along (Michael Stanley Band – Stagepass) 9:35
5. Elegant Gypsy Suite (Al DiMeola – Elegant Gypsy) 9:16
6. D.M.S.R (Prince – 1999) 8:17
7. Taboo (Charlie Byrd – The Guitar Artistry of Charlie Byrd) 9:41
8. Groove Line (Disco Version) (Heat Wave – Best of Heat Wave) 7:29
9. Riviera Paradise (Stevie Ray Vaughn and Double Trouble – In Step) 8:48
10. I Want Your Sex (George Michael – Faith) 9:04

Special mention: Do You Feel Like I Do (Peter Frampton)  (The best versions of this song clock in at 19:28 on Frampton Comes Alive II and at 14:17 on Frampton Come Alive. Imagine what type of impact that could have! Unfortunately, you can only get them by purchasing the entire album. Note to Apple iTunes: what’s up with that?)

Important note: Older songs, such as these listed above,  generally provide even more value because presumably you’ve already heard them, which contributes to reducing the cost per listen (CPL).  That’s a complicated subject – so a future post will outline in detail how to lower your CPL, complete with step-by-step illustrated instructions.

Much credit goes to @fitzroy for bringing this extremely important subject to my attention.

What are your picks?

I must admit I missed this one the first time around. Sorry I did because it contains some very tasty licks from Misters King and Vaughn. Albert is obviously in control yet seems willing to share the spotlight with the young upstart. The conversation between tracks is not exactly riveting, but it is revealing. However it’s the inspired guitar work that makes this collection worthwhile.

I have never been a big fan of live recordings. The sound is usually muddy and the playing often uninspired. Neither is the case here. Pick up on this CD and you’ll be rewarded with some first rate blues jams and a slice of musical history to boot. What more can you expect for a mere $13.98? 

In Session is the only known recording of Albert King and Stevie Ray Vaughan performing together. The 2009 remaster presented by Stax Records stands as a fitting tribute to the genius of two of the greatest musicians ever to have played the blues on electric guitar.

- from the liner notes by Lee Hildebrand

Anyone who’s witnessed a much anticipated jam session only to be disappointed–with each participant deferring to the other, the end result being that neither ever got out of first gear–will welcome this pairing of two giants of blues guitar. Albert King and Stevie Ray Vaughan obviously shared a mutual admiration, but it simply wasn’t in either one’s makeup to: a) be intimidated or b) take a backseat to anyone. Not without kicking up a little dust.

- from the liner notes by Dan Forte

Albert King–electric guitar, vocal
Stevie Ray Vaughan–electric guitar, vocal (on Track 3 only)
Tony Llorens–piano, organ
Gus Thornton–bass
Michael Llorens–drums

Recorded December 6, 1983.

Albert says “Get Yo Copy Today!” @ http://www.concordmusicgroup.com/albums/In-Session-STX-31423-02/

I am curious to what you think is the best guitar solo?

  Living Legends

  The Protege’

  The Rebel

  The Legacy

  The Master

  The Student

  The Genesis

My son just showed me this video of an “8″ year old Guitar Prodigy.  It just blew me away.  I just can’t imagine what this kid will be capable of when he reaches his prime.  Do we have another Stevie Ray and Hendrix in the making?

I am not skeptical - this rocks!

I’ll admit that you can grab my attention with a witty band name or album title, and Taildragger hit both bulls-eyes with Skeptictank. Even better news? The band flat out smokes.

Taildragger the band (not to be confused with Taildragger the Chicago bluesman or Spokane’s fabulous Too Slim and the Taildraggers ) is a blues rock trio led by guitarist/drummer/vocalist Jon McGee. McGee is also a member of The Mighty Jeremiahs as is Taildragger bassist Mark Hendricks. On this album Rob Hulsman splits drum chores with McGee, and I believe Jon’s sister Sherri even whacks skins with them on occasion. Greg Martin smokes the axe on several tracks as well.

Skeptictank is a tour-de-force of swampy blues, stinging rock and even some countrified soul (think  the fringes of the Flying Burrito Brothers and Byrds, especially on “Mary Virginia” and “Believe”). But the bands that popped into my head most frequently were southern rockers Gov’t Mule and Lynyrd Skynyrd, Texas blues rockers like Stevie Ray Vaughn and ZZ Top and even Jo Jo Gunne and Irish legends Thin Lizzy. The latter comparison is likely due to the fluid bass playing (the band has the chops and the stones to cover John Entwistle’s “My Wife”!). I’d be remiss by not complimenting keyboard player Kevin McKendree, whose organ really adds a ton to the sound.

If you like classic 70’s boogie, greasy slide shuffles or high-charged power trio rock, you’ll find a lot to love here. I could drop a million more names from vets like The Rolling Stones to contemporaries like The Muggs, but it’s really this simple – classic American rock and roll played by grade-A musicians. I don’t know how I missed out on Taildragger for four years, but it’s discoveries like this that make me keep digging. I suggest you dive into this Kentucky magic  right away.

Taildragger’s MySpace page.

Hear clips from Skeptictank at CD BABY.