Let me sing you a waltz; Out of nowhere, out of my thoughts

Perfect music performed imperfectly, but it lends it a certain charm. Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome Julie Delpy:

He''ll have to go

My friends, family and co-bloggers will appreciate why I've chosen this title, but anyone can appreciate Ry Cooder's rendition of this country classic:

This road is filled with Heartache

Chris Gaffney(on accordian) & The Hacienda Bros.

Guest post from reader Amy Bianco:

Chris Gaffney- An Appreciation

We lost two great musicians yesterday, Danny Federici and Chris Gaffney. Both were significant talents in American music, but the one who may not be mentioned on CNN is Chris Gaffney. I did not know him personally, but I feel that I do know part of him through his music, wonderful recordings and the great live performances I got to witness. There will be many loving tributes to the facts of Chris Gaffney’s life, some cold and hard, like his not achieving more “commercial” success; some glowing and warm, such as the great admiration and affection that he and his music engendered. For me, a huge music fan, what I will remember is his soulful singing of honky tonk shuffles, rhythm and blues favorites and rollicking rockers. His phrasing was perfect and heartfelt, earned from decades of hard work throughout the bars and concert halls of the Southwest and beyond.

His seminal album, Road to Indio came out in 1986 and showcased his raucous blend of rock, honky tonk and norteno styles. He followed this album with Chris Gaffney and the Cold Hard Facts and Mi Vida Loca in the early 90’s. I saw him perform at SXSW back then and became an immediate fan. It was disappointing that he was not able to parlay that great sound into more success, as the “Americana” movement, which had been around for a couple of decades already, had not yet found its format name and platforms nationally, something that would eventually happen through satellite radio.

Chris would go on to become one of Dave Alvin’s Guilty Men, where he added a wonderful spicy element to their sound with his great singing, guitar and accordion. He continued to play with Dave, eventually forming the Hacienda Brothers with Dave Gonzalez. In this incarnation Chris seemed to be in an excellent place creatively. The musical mix is similar to the Cold Hard Facts, but now there’s satellite radio and the Internet which make his music accessible to thousands (at least). His songwriting, which had always been witty (“don’t let love tear apart what lust has brought together”) and sometimes very pointed, as in 1968, had now found a perfect outlet.

The Hacienda Brothers hit a groove with its roots in the Bakersfield sound, as in their Americana favorite What’s Wrong With Right. In concert they’d then slip right into a killer version of a classic soul number such as Dan Penn’s Cry Like a Baby or Cowboys to Girls by Gamble and Huff. At least we will always have these recordings and a new one scheduled to be released early this summer. If you aren’t familiar with Chris Gaffney’s music, give it a try now; with such an early loss of a great talent, it’s one way his art can continue.
Believe me; I won’t ever be able to drive Highway 10 between Phoenix and LA again without humming The Road to Indio (even though it’s about for the way from Yuma):

This road is a highway
A highway to Hell
And if you’ve been on this road
I know you know it well
This road is filled with heartache
This road is filled with luck
This road is filled with local high school heavy metal trucks
I’m on the Road to Indio
I got no where else to go sir….

Amy Bianco
Scottsdale, AZ


Steve: I knew of Chris, as he had many friends out here in L.A. that I also know, but I never got to meet him. Talent finds many ways to succeed, not all involving money. Sometimes the best success is having people love your work.

Here's a link to the otherwise Right-wing OC Register's tribute to Chris:

Chris Gaffney, the Orange County singer-songwriter whose country and roots rock-tinged music earned him a small but fervent following in barrooms and concert halls around the world, died Thursday after a brief battle with liver cancer. He was 57.

For years, Gaffney gigged constantly around Orange and Los Angeles counties, playing the Swallow's Inn in San Juan Capistrano with his band the Cold Hard Facts on a Saturday night, then moving up the highway to the Blue Café in Long Beach for a show on Sunday afternoon.

Moore Music

The night I worked with them I was just blown away by Keb Mo' & band. He could play Chicago, delta, slide, finger picking blues like ringing a bell! His band was so awesome everything almost mixed itself. He did a solo set in the middle that brought the house down and then the band came back and we rocked (blused) the night away!

Keb Mo' was the last best show I personally ran sound at. What a way to go out, huh?


Please pardon this personal rant: On that night I was working for the PA company and Keb was traveling w/o his own engineer so I got to do the honors. And it was an honor. He and the band were so professional and gracious, we all got along great. The sound check was smooth and I was blown away by the music even then.

After that it became a engineer's nightmare. The soundman for the opening act, (the act was some 16 year old white kid playing 'blues' that was getting airplay but who shall remain nameless), insisted on having access to the 31 band EQs and the freakin' CROSSOVERS! When I diplomatically said 'what, are you crazy!?' the boy wonder's dad/manager got involved trying to throw his weight around. The club manager got involved, my boss was called ... and all this wasting of precious soundcheck time resulted in doors being held for an additional 1/2 hour while the crowd waited outside.

End result: My EQ stayed in place, the Xovers stayed the same and junior had a hurried 15 minute sound check with an unprepared and insecure soundman and then had to deal with a hostile crowd 45 minuted later.

Kids, let this be a lesson to you; If you're the opening act you just can't expect to have that much say in things. If you're the musician(s), play your ass off and soon you'll be headlining. If you're the engineer ... well let's just say a good engineer can make a good recording with a Tascam 4 track, a bad engineer can't make one with a 64 channel SSL.[/rant]

When I Woke Up This Morning You Were On My Mind

Like SteveAudio still does, I used to do studio work, unlike Steve I worked only as an engineer.

I wanted to be a musician, I just could never afford the lobotomy. [/rimshot]

But seriously folks, I got over wanting to be a musician by age 17. I came to realize my true calling was as an engineer. And my first love was always live engineering.

There's just something about doing a live show that turned me on. In the studio you work for days, weeks, months on a project and hopefully you get a good product.

You can will spend hours going over the same 8 bars. And there's always the budget and deadline issues. You can make a mistake on the first day and have to live with it the rest of your life. (e.g. I occasionally hear one of the songs I recorded/mixed on the oldies station and I still cringe.)

But when you work live you get one shot at it. And when it's over you either blew it or killed. Usually somewhere in between. But regardless of that particular night's performance tomorrow is another day.

But some nights are special. You get the right band, the right equipment, the right audience, and it makes your hair stand up. It's just f***ing magic! And you know you were an integral part of it.

Live sound felt so good to me I left a gig as studio manager to work freelance live, at a 50% pay cut. At that time in my life the trade off was worth it.

I have a different job now, in a different state and in a much different industry, but when I woke up this morning I was thinking about some of my favorite bands I worked with at the China Club and The Troubadour. I'd like to present two of them to you.

So without further ado, ladies and gentlemen, please welcome SOY COWBOY!(Not just another Thai-Western band)

If that wasn't your cup of tea you might find this cover of Paint It Black more approachable.

For the second set tonight please give it up for Human Drama!

I like my current job, and I really got to hate all the traveling and persnickety crap from my old job, but I do miss the nights when everything was golden.

Late Night Music

It's all part of my rock 'n' roll fantasy, It's all part of my rock 'n' roll dream

A belated note: Scot Halpin passed away February 9th. Who you say? Exactly, The Who's drummer ... for 15 minutes.

Unfortunately the best article about Scot is behind a subscription only firewall of the newspaper in the small town that Scot called home from 1995 until his death.

Here are some excerpts from the article sent to me:

Gig with The Who was a footnote in a life well-lived
By Mike Leonard [...] mleonard@heraldt.com
February 17, 2008

Most people who met or became friends with Scot Halpin never knew that he occupied an amazing little place in rock 'n' roll history.

They knew the tall, gentle Halpin as an artist, an illustrator and the bass player for various local musical ensembles, including Carlyn Lindsey and SnakeDoctor.
[...]
Rolling Stone magazine named Halpin as its "Pick-up Player of the Year" after he came up out of the audience at a show in late 1973 and filled in for the band's incapacitated drummer, Keith Moon.
[...]
A Bloomington resident since 1995, Halpin died recently at age 54 of an inoperable brain tumor. He had already been diagnosed with the tumor, but did not mention it, when interviewed for this column in 2006.
[...]
The drummer and artist would go on to meet his wife, Robin, in a painting class in 1978. Together, they would work in graphic art and design while keeping a hand in music and the management of a nightclub. By the time the couple relocated to Bloomington, Scot had switched from drums to bass as his primary instrument.
[...]
A few months later, Halpin suffered an on-stage seizure so violent he dislocated both of his shoulders. It was then he learned of his brain tumor.

He continued to play music, however, and his friend, musical collaborator and woodworker Jerry Farnsworth, helped him modify a bass guitar into a super-lightweight instrument that he could play with the help of a harness that kept his shoulders in place.

From another city he lived in:

Halpin was composer in residence at the Headlands Center for the Arts in Sausalito and played with and composed for several bands. He also illustrated children’s books and donated artwork to various fundraising events.

And the surviving members of The Who also noted his untimely death.

I never met Scot, but to me he's the epitome of a good musician: He could step in and play with the best. He didn't brag about his gift. He participated in and added to whatever community he lived in.

In short, he did good work and good works. I aspire to the same.

Rest in peace Scot.

Fast as a shark

Sometimes it's just fun to be loud:

Sometimes she's gonna make me feel so bad

So much news, so little . . . news. The anti-Hillary hackery is still in full swing, and may, in part, have helped her win in N.H. Molly Ivors offers this:

The message from the wingnut-o-sphere (which the NYTimes seems daily more determined to join) has been clear: if she cried, it was calculated. Why? Because if it's Hillary, it has to be. No other reason. It's impossible to determine whether or not this transcends gender, because there has not been a woman in her position for many years, if ever. In and of itself, that fact should shame us as a nation. Even the craziest retrograde third-world backwaters do better at electing women than we do: it was a goddamn crime, but Benazir Bhutto was murdered because she was a political enemy, not because she was a woman.

Indeed. So in order to not jump on that bandwagon, I offer this:

Don't get around much anymore ...

I'm almost as old as Sputnik and after spending 20+ years in the music industry I rarely go out to see live music. Been there, done that, got a closet full of T-shirts. Literally.

But I do get dragged out occasionally, and a couple of nights ago I was reminded of why I love music so much. Krista Detor is the real thing.

I'm think SteveAudio would agree with me that some of the best artists we ever worked with either didn't make the big time or haven't made it yet, and we think it's a shame.

Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome Krista Detor!

You take me the way I am

We just got back from The Troubadour in West Hollywood, heard some good music. The reason we went was to hear Ingrid Michaelson, about whom I wrote a few weeks ago:

You know the song from the Old Navy commercial? You know the one I mean, that you can't get out of your head? It's Ingrid Michaelson singing "The Way I Am".

Well, if you watched the YouTube I put up last time, live on TV, you already have an idea how good she is live. And I have to say she's really that good. Effortless, on-pitch vocals, easy yet confidant stage presence, and really good songs. We though it would be her whole band, but instead it was Ingrid, her talented guitarist Allie Moss, and an upright bass player on "The Way I Am".

Here's a live video of her, on the annoying Carson Daly's show:



And here is a fan video in a club, where you can see her interaction with the crowd as she conducts them on their handclap performance:



Very enjoyable show. I had tried to get in touch with her, I wanted to have a little sit-down and talk about the career path for a musician outside the traditional record company path. But sadly, my emails went un-answered. Oh well, she's still really good.

She was the opening act, 2nd up was Melee, and the headliner was Matt Nathanson. We left partway through his set because the mixer had so much kick drum in the mix both our chests hurt. And no, we're not too damned old; I loves me some kick drum. But this was like a hammer blow to the sternum. His music and band were good, but he also annoyed us by gratuitously swearing every other word. Dude, it's been done, by musicians whose shoes you're not worthy to shine. Get over yourself.

Here's a publicity photo of the stage at the Troub:


And just for fun, here's my friend Jimmy Messina onstage at the Troubadour with Rusty Young in Poco, around 1970:


Good times.

Update from Jim Messina via email:

I love that picture of Randy Meisner and myself playing in Poco playing at the Troubadour. I am playing my Gretsch and it looks like he is playing my bass, the one I played in Buffalo Springfield.