Category Archives: My Back Pages

The Demystification of Marissa Nadler

This article and interview was originally published at the No Depression website on April 2, 2011. Marissa is a wonderful sound and visual artist who remains a favorite of mine, and I thought that this deserves a reprint here on my site. She is currently recording a new album for a 2015 release, and has a track on the recent tribute album to Karen Dalton.

Valerie, the twenty-something graphic artist whom I used to work with a few years ago was also a guitarist who fronted a metal band, and she was a good soul with Indian ink hair, Keane-like eyes and translucent skin. One day as I was driving some folks over to the Astro Diner for lunch, she sat in the back of my truck and shuffled through some discs that I had shoved out of the way and under the floor mat. I could see her smile in the rearview mirror and in her flat, po-mo deadpan voice she sneered, “Ed digs chicks with mandolins”.

Although I’m pretty sure I don’t suffer from idiopathic craniofacial erythema, I nevertheless developed a high cutaneous blood flow which caused a radiation of intense heat. Which means that I blushed as a result to an emotional response. It’s associated with shame or modesty, embarrassment or love. Charles Darwin described blushing as “the most peculiar and most human of all expressions.”

It’s no secret nor shame that I do indeed “dig chicks with mandolins” as well as women who play guitars, dulcimers, banjos, fiddles, cellos, bells, pianos, flutes, percussive instruments and autoharps. And if they can write songs and sing, especially in the upper registers while accompanied by open tunings, fingers that pick strings gracefully and have layered vocals with Eno-isms and Fripp-eries…than I may indeed fall hard.

Which brings me to the incredible Marissa Nadler. For when I listen to her sing and play her guitar, as I watch her videos and listen to her lyrics…I feel the heat and flush begin to spread from head to toe and damn it if she isn’t the circus that every little boy wants to run away with. So it would be fair to say that Marissa’s music touches this old man in a most unique way and I just dig her.

In the press section of her website, I counted over forty stories and reviews, from small blogs and fanzines, to mainstream press like Mojo, Pitchfork, Uncut, NPR, Interview and the LA Weekly. I’ve read most all of them because I found it fascinating that a) writers (mostly male) seem to fall in love or lust, and gush over her in the most poetic manner and b) her music has been described in more strange ways than one could possibly imagine.

While I’m left in awe of Marissa’s talent, words to describe her music don’t come easy to me and I admit to feeling hopelessly inadequate. Especially when I read the beautiful, lyrical and flowing words that others have come up with. So here’s a few uncredited “cut and pastes” from the press page of her website. I could never, ever come up with these phrases on my own, but it might give you some sense of what others think of her…and please consider this as a form of graffiti and neither thievery nor laziness:

“The indie-folk pinup girl and mistress of the murder ballad.”

“She’s hacked away the art school whimsy, tossed out the crystals and burned the floaty headscarfs.”

“Simple, melancholic fingerpicked folk ballads that take advantage of her sonorous, spine-tingling vocals, narrating tales of damsels in distress or lovers absent or dead.”

“Compelling medieval twang.”

“A markedly haunting pathos, musing on death, sadness and mourning with an elegiac beauty.”

“Part of me wishes she’d use her siren’s call to unite Sisters of the Moon in a woodland super-group of nymphs and urban wood-sprites.”

“Marissa Nadler could be a damsel who has tumbled from a frayed tapestry in search of her unicorn, a crystal doll who has escaped from her vitrine, or a tubercular maid who has slipped out of her Victorian deathbed photograph to traipse this earthly plane.”

“She’s like a young Stevie Nicks, all doped up and duped to serve as Devendra Banhart’s geisha. Nah, too strong for that. How ’bout Donovan reincarnated as Linda Ronstadt? Except instead of a ’70s pop star, in this life she’s Fairy Queen of the Muir Woods, a mythical creature spotted only by hippie chicks who dare to eat strange mushrooms and venture into the redwoods past nightfall.”

That’s enough of that….you get the idea. Beautifully written words that conjure some sort of witchy maiden swirling in the fog’s mist, wearing long dresses of lace and satin while her black hair blows in the wind and she holds out an alabaster cup filled with a steamy potion that is sure to lure any man to her lair.

And that right there is what I’d call her curse and her blessing, because she carries this image on her shoulders that might work with many fans but also will chase others away. But she is not living in the land of unicorns and dragon slayers, and her music is not all incense and peppermints and it sits neatly on the shelf with artists ranging from Joni Mitchell to Emmylou Harris to Vashti Bunyan. There is a lot of talent, strength and intelligence in this woman, and although I”ll admit that I fell for the image at first (and have since become platonically smitten as I’ve gotten to know her) it offers great satisfaction for me to help assist in the demystification if Marissa for you and bring it all back to Mother Earth.

Marissa Nadler turns thirty this month. She grew up in a Boston suburb and then attended the Rhode Island School of Design where she studied fine art. She taught herself how to play guitar, uses a lot of open tunings and fingerpicks with her thumb and index finger. She has four “official” albums out, as well as quite a few other projects that she sells at shows, on her Etsy page, website or Bandcamp page. She has toured extensively in the US and Europe. She’s tried living in New York, which she found claustrophobic, and Los Angeles which was just too sunny. She now resides again in Boston when not traveling the highway.

I’ve read she prefers old things to new things, and she cites these folks as some of the artist’s she likes to listen to: Nina Simone, Billy Holiday, Neil Young, Sam Cooke, Otis Redding, Roy Orbison, Elliot Smith, Bob Dylan, Mazzy Star, Opal, Throwing Muses, Leonard Cohen and the Band. On her Covers album (available only on Etsy), she sings Gram Parsons and Townes Van Zandt and simply nails Lennon’s “Jealous Guy”.

She was the breakout artist performing this year at the first ever Couch By Couch West web-fest alternative to Austin’s SXSW, putting up some simple homemade videos that drew me in and reminded me that I had all of her albums uploaded, but had barely spent enough time with them. The urge came upon me to curl up with them immediately and so began several days of non-stop Nadler-maniacal obsessive compulsion which made me seek her out like some lecherous stalker.

Thankfully, writing for this site has cachet and she’s graciously allowed me into her world, although I imagine it shall be fleeting as she is a busy person. Over several days we traded messages, tweets and emails and I share our conversations:

Easy Ed: When you and I first connected, you mentioned that No Depression was a magazine you read back in high school. What were your interests back then? Did you identify at all with the alt.country and Americana scene at the time?

Marissa Nadler: Well, I remember really having an affinity for the rootsy Americana scene at the time, probably because it was so different from my own upbringing in New England. I worshipped the west and the freedom it embodied. Part of alt. country and Americana was linked to that wanderlust. My interests back then were my painting career mostly, and music was still a hobby until about age 18. I would just spent my awkward adolescence copying master paintings in my basement and listening to music on the boombox. A lot of this music was prog rock and classic rock. A lot of it was folk and americana. I loved Gillian Welch and Lucinda Williams and they really spoke to me. Also, Emmylou Harris and Gram Parsons and the Fallen Angels. Elizabeth Cotton. I could go on and on.

EE: I felt you were the breakout artist this year at Couch By Couch West and you certainly captured my heart with your homemade videos. You’ve mentioned that it was a more comfortable setting for you, making and uploading videos, than your previous live SXSW experience. Can you share a little about that?

MN: Ha! Thanks Ed. CXCW was a good alternative to SXSW, at least for me. To answer your question, my career has never been an overnight thing. I am not the kind of artist that some A&R guy would see at SXSW and give a big record deal too. This is mostly because I am and always have been a bit shy, and stage fright really debilitates me at those high pressure events. For the past four or five records and those related SXSW shows, the people around me, whether various managers or various record label lackeys that I was working with at the time, would really put a lot of pressure on me to “kill it.” It was as if not doing these showcases was somehow career suicide. One particular year, I ran off the stage after three songs. I am really particular about my sound, but people always see a chick with a guitar and think they don’t need a soundcheck and also assume you suck. (That and you don’t get sound-checks at festivals). So, I’m fingerpicking on a twelve-string and all you can hear is feedback. I start crying, run off stage. End. Three songs. I must add, however, that this hasn’t happened since and I am doing well at my live performances these days.

EE: You use lots of open tunings when you play guitar, and on your albums it’s augmented by all sorts of other instruments, electronics and sounds. Does that come from your collaborators or is it something you hear in your head early on in the songwriting process and direct during the recording process?

MN: I’m pretty open to what my collaborators, like Carter Tanton, will throw in the mix. Carter, who’s arrangements feature prominently on my new record, has a very delicate ear and a sensibility for melody that I trust. So, I basically just have to work with people who I love and trust that can handle playing delicately and knowing when not to play. Usually, during the actual songwriting, my main focus is the words and the vocal melody, and when I can get a real groove on with the guitar, it’s usually by using an open tuning. I can keep the bass notes droning for a constant atmosphere.

EE: I read an interview where you spoke about going into Guitar Center and being treated like the little girl who plays a pink guitar. It seems to me that anyone able to put out five albums, who has toured throughout the world, created an image of both femininity and strength in equal measure and runs a business indicates quite a bit of ambition and tenacity. How do you view your accomplishments so far and what have been some of the highlights for you?

MN: Well, that is very sweet of you, as well as observant. It is a hard thing to strike a balance between femininity and strength. If you are too strong, a lot of men in the music industry view it as “diva” behavior. If you are too meek, or wear too many dresses, people think you can’t play your guitar. I get both assumptions a lot, no matter how many albums I put out, and notoriously have had difficulty with sound-men throughout my life. I have always had a very definitive idea for what I wanted. Whether is was 7 seconds of long hall reverb on my voice or more treble, I knew what I wanted but the sound-men always seemed to think differently. The obvious choice would have been to hire my own sound technician but I have never been able to afford one. I always felt and still do feel that there is a huge double standard in the music industry. There is an argument to be made that women musicians have to play guitar twice as good and write twice as well to get the same amount of respect that the men do. Also, I find an incredible amount of pressure to “look good.” Video killed the radio star, I guess.

In terms of accomplishments, pretty much I just live day by day. I have to be honest with you that I am one of those workaholics that is never happy with the work I have done and I am constantly striving to be better, even at the risk of complete emotional ruin. But, yeah, I guess if I had to name one single accomplishment, I am pretty proud of overcoming my debilitating shyness and it’s crippling shackles to be able to share my music with the world.

EE: Can you share a little about your new album and what we can expect to hear? You mentioned something to me about a pedal steel guitar.

MN: Well, I would say that Brian McTear, who produced this record, did a great job! There are many intimate moments on the record with just guitar and vocals and there are some big, luscious arrangements. There are three songs with absolutely no reverb, which was a huge thing for me. I always and still do love the way reverb make the voice sound, but on this record I wanted it to really cut deep. I noticed the dryer the vocal, the more emotional the sounds sounded. I used to not be able to listen to my voice without reverb. Now, I can listen to it completely dry. Its so much more intimate. Carter Tanton added an incredible amount of beauty to the record with some of his choices as well.

In other parts of the record, we used Tammy Wynette recordings as a way to place the vocals in the mix. So, in some ways, it’s mixed like a classic Americana record. Nevertheless, it has many atmospheric and dreamy moments. Yes, there are two songs with some real rootsy pedal steel “jamming.” And I have to tell you, I never thought I would hear a groovy jam on one of my own records. I actually can’t even believe I just wrote the words groovy jam.

EE: What was your thought process in deciding to fund it through Kickstarter and handle the sales on your own, going outside of the traditional music business model?

MN: Well, things are changing. Everyone’s got to try something new, whether it’s artists or the labels. Its a lot of work but I’m really enjoying my freedom. I am self-distributing through a mail order system. I put pre-order buttons up on my websites far in advance, knowing I would need to be as organized as possible. I also put up a way for stores to order bulk/wholesale from me. So far, so good! (Click here for her website.) If I get overwhelmed, I may use a distributor down the line but definitely an independent one.

EE: I saw you have posted some west coast tour dates for June…where else are you planning to perform? And is your audience of equal gender and age, or is it tilted one way or another?

MN: I am planning on touring the entire US as well as the rest of the world. My audience is changing. My first and most loyal fans have always been older men who are finger picking and songwriting fanatics and music buffs. I also now have a size-able legion of black metal fans at my shows due to my collaboration with Xasthur’s Malefic. I wish more ladies would come to my shows.

EE: In reading some of your press, people sure throw many different labels or genres on your music, many I’ve never even heard of before. So how do you describe what you do?

MN: First and foremost, I take my songwriting very seriously. That is my main craft. I work very hard on the lyrics, the structures, and the melodies. I also consider myself a guitar player. Labels beyond that to help describe the music to new listeners would be dreamy, atmospheric, sultry, nostalgic, and romantic.

I told Marissa that it was my hope with this profile that I could help expand her audience a little. You know, old guys coming out to the shows are nice and all that, but I’d think a younger, broader audience would be there if they just knew her a little better. With an extensive touring schedule being put together, it shouldn’t be too hard to find her.

Here’s a list of what I call Marissa’s “official” releases, although she is an extremely prolific woman in the recording studio and there’s much more to be found in the way of compilations, live EP’s, the great lo-fi Covers album available only on Etsy, and other gems and one-offs:

Ballads of Living and Dying (2004)

The Saga of Mayflower May (July 2005)

Songs III: Bird On The Water (March 2007)

Little Hells (March 2009)

Marissa Nadler (Coming June 2011)

These links where you can learn more, hear music, watch videos and buy things:

http://www.marissanadler.com

http://marissanadler.bandcamp.com

http://www.etsy.com/shop/Marissamoon6

http://twitter.com/#!/marissanadler

The photograph at the top of this post is credited to Courtney Brooke Hall, 2011. Copyright. http://www.lightwitch.com/

Arborea: Escaping From The Man-Eating Hyphenated Genre

In 2011 I began to test my own fractured Americana and roots music definition and biases with a series of articles originally published at the No Depression website. Exploring artists who pushed against the bounderies to create remarkable collaborations, it began with Boston-based Marissa Nadler and then to Buck and Shanti Curran, who are profiled here. It took me down a road I’m still traveling on.

Hyphenated genres are there for the sake of hilarity when writing press releases, not for seriously describing music.
Kim Ruehl, Twitter (Editor of NoDepression.Com)

April 2011

Around the time that our site manager Kim posted this thought of hers, I was in the midst of spending several weeks exploring the music of a number of East Coast contemporary folk artists from Maine to Pennsylvania, and pondering what the hell to call it and how I should describe it. What began with Boston’s Marissa Nadler, led me to Philadelphia’s Espers, Meg Baird’s solo work, and up to a town near the Northern tip of the Appalchain Trail where Arborea live and work.

As I read and researched each of these artists, I found myself knee deep in hyphenation-ville, because there are so many elements and influences that are pulled into their music, there seems simply to be no other way to describe it. Indie-folk, goth-folk, acid-folk, psych-folk, freak-folk, neo-folk, prog-folk, metal-folk, electric-folk, techno-folk, space-folk…you get the idea…it’s just all folk-ed up. And Kim just about killed it for me with her Tweet.

So I took a break to ponder.

A week or two later, while watching a television show on the Smithsonian Channel about Folkways Records, it was founder Moses Asch who put it all in context for me. I shall para-phrase his actual quote, but it goes something like this: “I consider folk music to be sounds made by folks.”

The “a-ha moment” had arrived which allowed me to go back into the woods and share this story.

Buck and Shanti Curran live with their family in Maine, and have been making music together since 2004 under the name Arborea, with four group albums currently out, and a few anthologies that they’ve either compiled or just contribute to. (They do a real nice “This Little Light of Mine” on an Odetta tribute I just found this afternoon; merely stumbled on) Acoustic Guitar magazine noted that their Robbie Basho tribute album We Are All One, In The Sun was one of 2010’s best. And it was a top editors pick in the December issue of Guitar Players Magazine 4 stars from Mojo, and has received great reviews from The Wire and Pitchfork.

This month, they’ve released Red Planet and have been traveling and performing all over the US, UK and Europe. (As I write this, they just landed in Ireland.) Before leaving the States, Buck and I spent a few weeks writing back and forth to talk mostly about music, and a little about life.

It’s tough sometimes for bands and artists to understand that I’m not someone who often reviews stuff, but I do love to shine a spotlight on those who dwell in the shadows. And while Arborea are not even close to being shadow dwellers, they live in the world of the hyphenated genre which prompts me to share a few words. Actually, I think I’ll share a song.

A little bio and press-type stuff I’ll steal from someplace else…it’s saves me time:

“Husband and wife team, Buck and Shanti Curran, construct a fragile, resonant world with a lingering Americana after-taste, shimmering with the same wide-open spaces Ry Cooder’s captured so well on Paris, Texas. Sounding like frayed, half-remembered, hand-me-down tunes, shaped and altered with each retelling, the fluidity and the sparse application of instruments wherein Eastern and Western modes gently mingle is the secret of this album’s startling beauty”.

BBC

“Arborea’s brand of folk music is ethereal, bone-chilling and beautiful all at once”

Performing Songwriter Magazine

“Maine folk duo Arborea creates timeless music, haunted by deep shadows. Their songs are bathed in shimmering harmonics, spectral slide, and positively spooky banjo. The songs also evoke a kind of mysterious quality, in which you are never quite sure what the songs are about, but they seem to touch a place in your soul that instinctively understands.”

Dirty Linen Magazine

Buck is an interesting guy, especially in the world of acoustic guitar playing. Let me have him share his story with you.

“My passion for acoustic guitars can be traced back to the 1970’s when I first heard and fell in love with my mother’s record of John Williams playing Bach’s Gavotte en Rondeau. I started playing guitar and taking lessons in 1981 after my father gave me his Yamaha classical guitar. In the early 80’s I was fortunate to discover the record ‘Routes to Django’, which featured the young gypsy guitarist Bireli Lagrene. Another milestone in my musical education was listening to the record ‘Passion, Grace, and Fire’ which introduced me to the breathtaking Flamenco guitar playing of Paco Delucia. These two acoustic guitar based recordings, really showed me that there was an entire world of ‘hot’ guitar playing outside the realm of amplified players Jimi Hendrix and Edward Van Halen.”

In addition to developing a very distinctive fingerstyle-type of playing, Buck also took an interest in hand built guitars were working at Ramblin’ Conrads, a premier folklore center and store in Tidewater, Virginia. And he took that extra step of learning how to design and build his own guitars.

Performing as Arborea, Shanti Curran provides lead vocals, banjo, Banjimer (a type of banjo dulcimer made by Tennessee luthier Mike Clemmer), harmonium, ukulele, sawing fiddle, and hammered dulcimer. Buck does vocals, guitar, slide guitar and sawing fiddle. And they both share songwriting duties, arrangements, and production.

Over a period of a few weeks as I became lost in their music, I started to wonder if No Depression was the place for them. After all, it’s not exactly twang or alt or what we normally think of as Americana and even roots music might be a stretch. Buck turned me around.

“We use the elements of pre-war folk and archaic blues as a starting point. Our recordings definitely have a dreamscape feel to them…but that is quite a natural product of how Shanti and I sound together and the open minor tunings we use with our banjo, guitars, and dulcimers. Our recording are quite stripped down, but they have an undeniable mood and atmosphere to them. It’s not like listening to a Pink Floyd record where you have dreamy synthesizers, electric guitar, drums etc….but mostly just Shanti signing and playing banjo and me on slide guitar. These ethereal elements are certainly present in the music of Skip James and banjo players like Hobart Smith…elements that can definitely be attributed to the resonance and ring of their instruments and the tunings they used.”

“Our album also features traditional songs like Black is the Colour….Careless Love which is not a trad song, but an anonymous poem that many traditional artist cover. The Tim Buckley song Phantasmagoria in Two. As well, our music is influenced by the rugged and beautiful Landscape of Maine. Shanti and I live close to the Appalachian trail…which terminates in Maine. A lot of people don’t instantly think of Maine as part of the Appalachian trail. Often we like to say, we are creating a Northern Appalachian sound.”

In one of our last email exchanges, I thanked Buck…as he had pretty much written the story for me.

It goes like this:

Buck and Shanti make folk music together. It’s exceptional work from highly talented people. It requires no hyphenation. End of story.

Some of the videos I featured here are from the March 2011 Sun Room Sessions featuring Helena Espvall from The Espers (currently on a never-ending hiatus) on cello, and Jesse Sparhaw on harp. Video by Derek Moench. They will be released on an EP in June, 2015 to celebrate the tenth anniversary of the duo. And this last video was from 2014 and obviously not from the original article. But it’s a great example of the enduring work these two continue to produce.

The Day My Guitar Gently Weeped

Like most guitar players, I’ve long known that having just one is simply not enough. I have my sweet-smelling mahogany Martin 000-15 that I keep inside the case next to my bed and only bring out on special days. There’s the Takamine Jumbo custom for playtime; a cheapo Ibanez black laminate, thin-body, acoustic-electric that sounds totally awesome when I plug it into an amp once or twice a year; the lap steel I’m still fussing around with, in C6 tuning; and two guitars I bought when I was a kid that are now classified as vintage. As am I.

Other players will chuckle and tell you truthfully that I am as far from a serious collector as one can get. In fact, for someone who has played as long as I have, it’s an embarrassing assortment of wire, wood, and glue mostly constructed across the Pacific. If I had ever chosen to show up at a bluegrass festival parking lot with my Epiphone 6830 dreadnought, they would likely have run me over with a John Deere tractor. I speak in the past tense because this week it ceased to exist as anything other than wall art.

When I bought that guitar back in 1971 – it is an ‘it’ because I don’t name my instruments – it cost me about $200. That was a lot of money back then for a starving student to spend. People would often ask why I didn’t have a higher end Martin D-whatever, and I always said that if I could find one that sounded better than this one, I’d buy it. Honestly, the Japanese craftspeople who made my Epiphone did one helluva job. I’ve kept it in great condition, with only a few nicks and bruises that one might expect after too many nights of dim lights, thick smoke, and loud, loud acoustic music.

A few years back I began to notice it wouldn’t stay in tune for too long, and I started to play it less and less. Still, every guitarist needs at least one dreadnought, so I drove up north last week to a small town in the Hudson Valley to see a luthier named Doug about what it might cost to repair. After he examined it inside and out, and explained in detail the issues, he picked up a calculator, punched on the keys like Liberace, and held the display up for me to see. $1,800. Goodbye.

Like an addict who needs a fix, I’ve been staying up late all week, surfing the web to brush up on what’s out there that might fit my tight budget. I’ve solicited suggestions from musicians and dealers I know, and read up on the pros and cons of manufacturing and design from America, Canada, Mexico, China, Korea, and Japan. I’ve learned about solid wood, sustainable wood, laminates, satin finish, high gloss stain. I’ve considered guitars with a thin neck, wide neck, open or closed tuning machines, acoustic both with and without pickups. I’ve looked into large companies, small companies, handmade, oven-baked, extra crispy, and gluten free. The choices are endless.

And where do you buy a guitar these days? Just like with hardware stores and booksellers, there seems to just be one or two companies that dominate the marketplace. They look the same, price the same, have the identical inventory and selection. Most of the guitars on display have never been set up, the strings are oxidized, and they buzz and squeak. I’ve also visited a number of smaller retailers and they can hardly compete with the big guys on price, so they tend to stock the lower-end models for beginners. Even here in New York City, it’s hard to find someplace that doesn’t either require a ferry ride to Staten Island or a trip to the Village where it’s often hard to hear above the din.

Being someone who loves to curl up with a good spreadsheet, I’ve been doing some research. According to www.musictrades.com, last year in the United States almost 1.5 million acoustic guitars were sold; about 350,000 more than electrics. Thank you Mumford and Llewyn Davis, I suppose. Of that number, about two-thirds sold for $500 or less, a third priced between $501-$1,500. And only 25,200 sold above that. Wow. If you’ve ever picked up a magazine like Fretboard Journal or Acoustic Guitar, you’d think everybody is buying that custom $15,000 Martin or Taylor. Nope. I think those magazines are mostly hedge fund manager pornography these days.

Jim Isray, the owner of the Indianapolis Colts’ football team, paid $335,000 last February for a Gibson Les Paul to add to his collection, which includes Dylan’s Fender that he played at the Newport Folk Festival when he went electric and Jerry Garcia’s beloved Tiger. The Washington Post quoted Cheap Trick’s Rick Nelson – a Les Paul collector himself, with over a hundred of them – as saying the price was reasonable, and “I’m happy it didn’t go for $2.1 million.” And that Garcia guitar? Isray paid $850,000 for it in 2002. That’s much less than the Hendrix 1968 Strat that billionaire Paul Allen bought in 1993. Boys and their toys.

So anyway, here I am: minus one dreadnought and ready to go on a shopping spree. While I’ll try not to succumb to Madison Avenue-style advertising and marketing, it’s hard not to want a new six-string that will “bring back memories of the great instruments of the Golden Era of guitar building. Those were days when all work was done by gifted craftspeople, by hand, using simple tools. Heirloom-quality instruments which may be enjoyed by future generations of musicians.” God bless great design, low overhead foreign manufacturing plants, and American Express.

This was originally published by No Depression, as an Easy Ed’s Broadside column.

Maybe You’re Listening To The Wrong Music

Photo by Loubos Houska / Creative Commons 1.0

Do you think you might be suffering from the boogie woogie flu? It’s an affliction that causes you to become totally bored with your record collection or digital library, much of which is populated with either new music or old favorites. It happens to me sometimes. The best medicine is often digging deeper.

If I’m driving down the road and a track pops up from The Okeh Blues Story 1949-1957 collection, my toes start to tap and my heart skips a beat. The Complete King Recordings of Wade Manier makes me pull my banjo off the wall for some two-finger pickin’. If you haven’t lately listened to the Cotton Top Mountain Sanctified Singers or Da Costa Woltz’s Southern Broadcasters or Fruit Jar Guzzlers, run out now and get yourself Yazoo’s Times Ain’t What They Used to Be. There’s something about those old dusty 78s.

Last week I was in the car and I tried to get my mojo back by twirling the dial up and down the FM band looking for inspiration. Of course “twirl” is a euphemism for pressing buttons on a digital readout, and “inspiration” was perhaps too much to hope for. But with millions of people from every nook and cranny in this whole wide world living in the city of New York, I knew I’d find something to whet the whistle.

What I found was a small station broadcasting from New Rochelle, a suburb not far from Queens and the Bronx. It caught my ear with Caribbean music, blasting in a style that blended old school rhythm and blues, a reggae back beat, hip-hop, dancehall, and toasting. Weird electronic sounds, songs shifting effortlessly in and out of each other, and a steady commentary in a thick Jamaican accent that made it impossible to know if it was part of the music, an informercial, or a news flash. I think it might have been all three.

WVIP-FM is owned by David ‘Squeeze’ Annakie’s Linkup Media Group, and some of the other businesses they own and advertise almost continually on the station include JAMROCK Magazine, Saige Skin Care, SqueezeCard, AAA Service Protection, BioLife Energy Systems Solutions, Vitaways, Value Health Network, USA Credit Repair, Fiction (a Jamaican club), and Immigration Link. Squeeze takes to the air himself and promotes like Reverend Ike on speed. And, as a special bonus to the island music (between all the ads), there is the option for anybody to buy a 30-minute block of time for their own show. I’m considering it.

While my reggae vocabulary mostly consists of Bob Marley and that “Bad Boy” theme song from COPS, I have to tell you that whatever the hell this station is playing, I want more of it. Although not Americana nor alt-anything I know about, it’s roots music of the stems and seeds variety. Ain’t no such thing as wrong music.

This article was originally published as an Easy Ed’s Broadside column over at No Depression: The Journal of Roots Music.

Many of my past columns, articles, and essays can be accessed here at my own site, therealeasyed.com. I also aggregate news and videos on both Flipboard and Facebook as The Real Easy Ed: Americana and Roots Music Daily. My Twitter handle is @therealeasyed and my email address is easyed@therealeasyed.com.

The Blues Magoos’ Resurrection

There are times when ideas and words effortlessly flow out of me, and there are times when they don’t. While some may consider it a challenge, I prefer to view it as an opportunity. I have an arsenal of books, magazines, websites, and my music collection to rummage through when I need inspiration. And, should that fail, there’s always a few topics I keep on the shelf for moments such as these.

Back in 1964, there were some kids from the Bronx who had a band called The Trenchcoats, and they played at clubs down in Greenwich Village. Riding the post-British-Invasion first wave of American rock bands, after a few false starts with a couple of labels, they landed on Mercury Records with a new name: The Blues Magoos. Released in 1966, their debut album Psychedelic Lollipop was a great album of the times, with a hot single titled “We Ain’t Got Nothing Yet” that still resonates today with a memorable bass line, Farfisa organ riff, and killer guitar run.

In Philadelphia’s suburban Greater Northeast, there was a discount retailer out of New York by the unusual name of S. Klein on the Square. It was a department store with clothes, shoes, accessories, appliances, furniture, and a record department in the basement. While I didn’t often shop there, my friend David and I got busted one Saturday afternoon in early 1967 for attempting to shoplift an Animals’ single and were “banned for life.” Two weeks later, it was advertised that the Blues Magoos would be making a personal appearance, and there was no way we were going to miss it.

I was a fat teenager with a Beatles bowl cut, striped bell bottoms, and black boots. David was skinny and had a ponytail. As we kept an eye out for the security people, I couldn’t believe the crowd. Instead of people who looked like me and him, almost all of the guys wore ties and jackets. And they were from Father Judge High School, known for being tough and always ready to fight. While there were maybe a couple of dozen girls in their school uniforms standing on the outside, the 50 or so guys were all up close and gathered around a foot-high platform where the band was going to perform.

When the Magoos came out, I remember thinking that they had great hair and I noted that one of the guys wore a lace or ruffled shirt beneath a velvet jacket. As soon as they began to play, the crowd began to edge closer and closer. I’m not sure how far into the set the band got before the kids pushed forward and began throwing punches. I scrambled up the escalator as fast as my feet would move, and looking back I saw that the musicians were on the run too. When we were all outside, I remember the guy in velvet getting swarmed and taking a few hard hits before they got into a van and left. It was a total protopunk moment.

I finally got to hear the band at Convention Hall a few months later on a hot July night. They opened for Moby Grape, Scott McKenzie, and the Mamas and Papas.

From 1965 to 1968 the core band stayed together and released three albums. Peppy Castro (guitar and vocals) put another group together using the same band name for two more releases before they spilt up and he joined the cast of Hair. In July 2008, the Blues Magoos with original members Ralph Scala, Castro, and Geoff Daking reunited for two concerts, including one with The Zombies at the Fillmore New York at Irving Plaza. In December 2009 they traveled to Spain for the Purple Weekend festival.

This past week, well over 40 years since their last release, the Blues Magoos performed three sold-out shows at the Bowery Electric in NYC. They have a new album, available on CD Baby, titled Psychedelic Resurrection and a Facebook page with over 1700 followers. Peppy is doing interviews and talking about the Village scene, partying with Keith Moon, and how he taught Ace Frehley from KISS how to play the guitar.

They ain’t kids from Da’ Bronx anymore; the boys are back.

This was originally published by No Depression, as an Easy Ed’s Broadside column.

Texas Musician Community of Wimberley Devastated in Historic Flood

I am re-posting this article from Trigger Coroneos at SavingCountryMusic.com to bring everyone up to speed if you haven’t yet heard the news. It’s Tuesday May 26th at around 5:00 EST. Since Saturday I have been following the Facebook updates from musician Robyn Ludwick, who lives in Wimberly Texas. In the days preceeding the storms, she was excited to be getting ready to go out on tour next week, and also thanked an Australian disc jokey who was spinning her latest album. Her world literally turned upside down in a short time. Here is the story from Trigger.

Many of your favorite Austin, TX musicians who list their hometown as Austin actually live in a small community south and west of the city in the panoramic Texas Hill Country called Wimberley. About a 45-minute drive from Austin, the small town of less than 3,000 sits on the banks of the Blanco River, and is a favorite day trip for many central Texas residents.

The picturesque town and its surroundings have been the inspiration for many country songs since the greater Austin area became a haven for musicians in the 60’s, and Wimberley has boasted a strong artist community for many years. Ray Wylie Hubbard calls Wimberley home, and Hal Ketchum used to live in a cabin in the community. Bluegrass prodigy Sarah Jarosz is originally from Wimberley, and so are many other songwriters and musicians who have lent their creative efforts to country and roots music over the years. The Wimberley United Methodist Church regularly hosts “Susanna’s Kitchen” concerts where local artists like Ray Wylie Hubbard play.

On Saturday night (5-23), the Blanco River that runs through Wimberley overran its banks to historic levels amidst the devastating storms Texas has been experiencing. The heart of Wimberley was ravaged, and an estimated 350 homes were destroyed when the river reached a historic level of 43 feet. The previous record flood for the Blanco was set in 1929, and was eight feet lower than where the river crested Memorial Day weekend. Flood stage on the Blanco River is 13 feet. According to the National Weather Service, the river was flowing at a rate of 223,000 cubic feet per second, which is 2.5 times the flow of Niagra Falls. The water was so intense, it swept away an entire bridge (see video below).Eight people are currently missing in the Wimberley flood from two separate families. Laura McComb and her two children Leighton and Andrew, Ralph and Sue Carey, Randy and Michelle Charba (daughter of Ralph and Sue), and their 4-year-old son Will have all been confirmed missing by authorities.

“I’m overcome with sorrow as my little Texas town lie(s) in ruins,” songwriter and performer Robyn Ludwick posted Monday morning (5-25) along with pictures of much of the devastation around Wimberley. Robyn is the sister of famous Texas singing brothers Bruce and Charlie Robison. “Wimberley, Texas, one of the most beautiful spots in the world has endured incomprehensible damage from flooding. My neighborhood is in the National news. Just 500 yards away, my neighbors are missing and still haven’t been found. This morning I walked a mile to get one bar on my cellphone to let every one know that we are safe. But we are not okay. What has kept me with strength is the messages of concern and love from my family, friends, fans, and unbelievable perfect strangers.”

Ludwick posted pictures and video of trees ripped out of the ground by flood waters, structures swept off their foundations, and cars overturned in trees.

“As I type, search and rescue helicopters circle. My little girl says ‘please let this be a bad nightmare mommy.’ Please pray for our little town, a gem along the Blanco River. We need every possible prayer. Rain drops fall and the sky darkens again. No way to get news or weather. Hopefully we can get thru the next round and start repairing our hearts and this little town.”

Information has been difficult to get out of Wimberley since access to the town is difficult, and communication channels are down. Ray Wylie Hubbard’s home, which is close to the center of Wimberley, was spared from the worst because it sits on a hill. “Thanks to all who have reached out to check on Ray Wylie & I,” Ray’s wife Judy Hubbard posted on Twitter. “We’re on a hill so no water in our house but lots of devastation in Wimberley.”Musicians Andrew Hardin and Susan Gibson were also spared the worst of the flood, though they lost power like most of the community during the devastating storm, and have friends and neighbors who’ve been heavily affected.

Another artist wasn’t so lucky. Bob Stafford, known to some as “Texaco,” who Wayne “The Train” Hancock can be heard calling out to on many of his early albums, had his Wimberley recording studio inundated with two feet of water in the disaster according to reports. Stafford was able to save his guitars, but amps, PA’s, and computers were damaged in the flood.

The flooding was also felt upstream in Boerne, TX where songwriter and performer Possessed by Paul James lives. He was forced to evacuate his family to higher ground, though Borene was spared the brunt of the flood. Downstream in San Marcos where many Texas/Red Dirt artists live, more homes have been destroyed or flooded, and more people are missing. And the threat of floods in Central Texas is not over. With highly saturated soil from weeks of historic rains, and more storms already flaring up on Monday including with multiple tornadoes, more flooding could occur.

UPDATE 3:20 PM CDT: Sarah Jarosz has posted, “Thanks to all who have reached out with concern in regards to the recent flooding in my hometown of Wimberley, Texas. My family is ok, but this is a very difficult time for the Wimberley community. Please keep all those who have lost their homes and loved ones in your thoughts and prayers.”

UPDATE 5/26 12:00 CDT:

********To anyone able to make a donation to help those from Wimberley, Texas.********

Wimberley has two organizations already set up and would prefer donations be sent to:

Barnabas, PO Box 737 Wimberley, Tx 78676

My Neighbors Keeper, PO Box 528 Wimberley, Tx. 78676.

Both are established 501c3 non-profit organizations and will ensure funds go directly to Wimberley area families.

Watching The Detectives

I am always at the beginning, middle, or end of a book. While my primary interests vacillate between biographies and works of nonfiction, my guilty pleasure is in the mystery and crime genre. In particular, I like series featuring the same hard boiled police detectives or private investigators that the reader can develop a relationship with over years, or in some cases, decades. Think of Lawrence Block’s Matthew Scudder, John Sandford’s Lucas Davenport, or Robert Crais’ Elvis Cole, to name merely a few. There’s at least a baker’s dozen that I religiously follow.

Several years ago I had a sobering thought: what would happen to one of my beloved literary characters when the author passed on? I imagined it would be the end of the line, the final chapter. But no so fast.

With 71 books published, Robert B. Parker created a money-making franchise with Boston PI Spenser, and he also had two other concurrent series featuring Jesse Stone – the sheriff of a small Massachusetts beach town – and a female detective by the name of Sunny Randall. He had sold over 15 million copies of his books and was still turning out three per year up until January 2010, when he had a heart attack and died.

He was the first of my favorite aging authors to pass on, and I recall being both elated and aghast when I read that his family decided to hire a replacement for him to carry on the series – a ghostwriter in the real sense of the word. So it came to be that Ace Atkins, a pretty interesting blues-infused crime author himself, took the job to keep Spenser alive.

The titles of the Atkins-written Spenser books sound a bit clunky and silly: Robert B. Parker’s Lullaby, Robert B. Parker’s Wonderland, Robert B. Parker’s Cheap Shot and this week brought Robert B. Parker’s Kickback. But do they sell? And are they representative of Parker’s work? If you can believe the reader reviews on Amazon, and see them shoot up on the bestseller’s lists, the answer is a resounding yes. In fact, many say they can barely tell the difference between each author’s style and writing.

Just in case you were wondering about the Jesse Stone series, the Parker family hired another writer to continue that, and a third writer has brought back some of Parker’s Western-themed characters.

Should any of this seem odd to you, I would imagine you’re not alone. Many are appalled. But Parker is not the only author who managed to find life after death. The estates of Ian Fleming (James Bond) and Robert Ludlum (the Bourne series) have soared in popularity and generated millions and millions of dollars at the hands of other writers.

While I know that it might seem that I’ve chosen to stray off my usual topic of music, fear not. Because all this talk has made me wonder of the possibilities that lay ahead for many of our senior citizen folkies and rockers.

As record labels scramble for every crumb, and there is a never-ending corporate thirst for generating more, more, and more profit, just how far-fetched would it be to see something in the future like Bob Dylan’s Redhead on Brunette, written and recorded by a 25-year-old runner-up from The Voice? Actually, it sounds plausible, probable, and downright horrific. Get ready.

This article was originally published as an Easy Ed’s Broadside column over at No Depression: The Journal of Roots Music.

Many of my past columns, articles, and essays can be accessed here at my own site, therealeasyed.com. I also aggregate news and videos on both Flipboard and Facebook as The Real Easy Ed: Americana Roots Music Daily. My Twitter handle is @therealeasyed and my email is easyed@therealeasyed.com