The Buskers Blog

w/ Harmonica Legend Will Scarlett, Caffé Lena, 7/29/11

    
Caffé Lena, Saratoga Springs, NY, the oldest folk club in continuous operation in America.  We were on a double bill w/ Frank Fotusky, a devotee of old blues repertoire, and legendary harmonica player Will Scarlett, whose distinctive sound is all over recordings by David Bromberg, Jefferson Airplane, Hot Tuna, Old & In The Way, and others.    During a shuffle tempo version of Call Me A Fool, with little urging, Will ran out of the room, grabbed his harmonicas and loped back onstage to join us.  Needless to say, we had a good time. 

Greetings From Redwood, New York

It is good that one of us lives on a lake. Even if it is in a remote location, with no internet access other than dial-up.  It's a wonder Kathy gets as many bookings for us as she does.  But then she often ends up at the Alexandria Bay library to get anything done.  Which is where I am right now.

The week in New York State is really pretty light.  happy reunion with drummer Kyle Tupper, who other than making the rest of us look old is more fun than ever to play with.  Had a great show at Inlet, over in the Adirondacks--our third year there; and for the first time rain did not factor into the evening in any way, which was a relief.  Weather was beautiful, sun set as we played; the audience was big and happy and bought lots of cds.  The next night we played at a posh fundraiser at the Thousand Island Country Club on Wellesley Island. 

Single man Kyle was making eyes at the extraordinarily cute barmaid all evening. Unfortunately for him she left before we finished playing, but as she left she  held up a bottle of wine, pointed to it, smiled at us, and left it against the wall by his drum set.  He read this as a personal friendly gesture, though I pointed out that she smiled at me, too.

But as he was loading out his gear, he stepped backwards, the bottle fell over, and the bottom broke clean off, spilling all the wine across the patio.  Oh, how he held his head in his hands; oh, how he moaned and berated himself.  We tried to comfort the poor, bereaved, love-struck fool, but our murmured words of sympathy (e.g. "no use crying over spilled...wine") fell on deaf ears.   Eventually he pulled himself together and decided he would use the catastrophe as an excuse to try to get in touch with the girl--maybe he could use pity as a device to get her attention again.  We encouraged him.

It was only later after we told KZ what had happened that she told us (please don't tell Kyle this, it would crush him like a grape under a dainty white foot) that the person who hired us asked us at the eleventh hour if we would be willing to play a half hour more than contracted for, and Kathy said, "sure, if you throw a bottle of wine in." (!)  

If there are any more chapters or footnotes to this affair, I will update you.  I guess it depends how aggressively enterprising Kyle is. Kyle?

All right, I'm heading back out to the lake.  We'll practice again all afternoon (when not swimming, eating or napping).  Yesterday, along with a lot of harmony polishing,  we worked up a couple of covers KZ has been wanting to add: "Somebody Was Watching," a rocking gospel number we got off an album of Maria Muldaur's that she gave us when we opened for her--w/ Kathy on vocals (and tambourine, of course); and "Done With Bonaparte," a Mark Knopfler tune off his duet album with Emmy Lou Harris. with Paul on vocals.  We'll trot them out at the Lyric Coffeehouse in Clayton on wednesday & thursday.  See you there.

About To Be Upstaged By A Saw; Again

Talked my way into a steady gig while I'm here in Monterey visiting my mom--at her assisted living facility (!).  They all have Alzheimer's except for my mom, poor dear, who is only there for another few months while she recovers from surgery--too expensive to get care at home. I could joke in poor taste about how I can play the same set every time, but you wouldn't joke like that if you were there.

Tomorrow my brother sits in on banjo-uke (his most air-travel-friendly uke), partial drum set (assembled over the years and rusting away in my parents' basement), and, right off the workbench:  saw.  Yes, saw.  I've dedicated a big part of my life to music, but I will never draw an insta- crowd the way that damn saw does when he sits down and takes a bow to it.  Born to busk is my brother; who just arrived from the Washington, D.C. Fringe Festival, where his show Manifesto once again drew rave revie.

           Accompanying brother Mark's sawing at Carmelo Park Assisted Living, Monterey, California. 

Recording Session; Christmas in June

Like ships passing in the fog, fellow Busker Paul & I unknowingly had back to back recording sessions the other day at Matt Marcil's studio in Concord, NH (tweeksound.com)..  

Matt has been slowly compiling tunes for a Christmas album.  Paul recorded a version of Little Drummer Boy.  I found  an obscure minor key gospel tune from Louisiana called Poor Little Jesus ("yeah, Lord!") and in four hours gave this two and a half minute song bass drum; tambourine (what else did you expect?); shakers; Hammond organ (with a mic'd Leslie); piano; rhythm guitar; lead (a  Danelectro borrowed form the studio; I was surprised it was already in tune, but Matt explained Paul had just used it); my Azola baby bass;  lead and harmony vocals; and... 

I came back yesterday morning with a snare to lay a driving back beat with brushes.  And redid the lead vocals, which is pretty typical: scratch vocal first to keep track of the form, then redo it after the rhythm tracks are set--but at the end when the whole thing starts to come into sharp focus, I've listened to myself so many times that I just have to dive back in with another take to try to correct some of the things I hate most about my earlier performance. Besides, vocals take no time to set up; a take only takes a few minutes.

What I love about recording--the opportunity you have  to listen closely and to better yourself... right then and there, for once--something you have to let go of completely in live performance, of course. Water flows under the bridge so fast.

It was fun working with Matt.  He may have a cramped damp basement studio, but he is professional, affable, responsive, quick and has a good ear.  He was quietly putting together a nice rough mix as we worked.  I'll post a link as soon as the album is available this Fall.