FYI: SF Bay Area Rockabilly/Country shows

1999-04-29 Thread Brad Bechtel

WEDNESDAY  APRIL 28
Jeff Bright & the Sunshine Boys @ Agenda Lounge, 399 S. 1st, SJ 10pm
Blue Bell Wranglers @ Elbo Room, 647 Valencia, San Francisco 10pm $4
Cadillac Angels @ Henfling's Tavern, 9450 Hwy 9, Ben Lomond
The Chop Tops @ The Catalyst (in atrium), 1011 Pacific, Santa Cruz 9pm
The Hepsters @ Moe's Alley, 1535 Commercial Way, Santa Cruz

THURSDAY  APRIL 29
Jim Campilongo & 10 Gallon Cats @  Above Paradise, 11th St./Folsom, SF

SUNDAY  MAY 2
The Haywoods @ Club DeLuxe, 1509-11 Haight, San Francisco 930pm

MONDAY  MAY 3
The Bachelors @ Lou's Pier 47, 300 Jefferson, San Francisco 4pm
The Bachelors @ The Saloon, 1232 Grant, San Francisco 930pm

TUESDAY  MAY 4
Cadillac Angels @ Fuel, 44 Almaden Ave., San José 9pm
Dallas Craft SF Barndance: Dallas Craft & the Sofa Kings/Dave Thom 
Band/California Cowboys/Jim Campilongo/Larry Dunn @ DeMarco's 23 Club, 23 Visitacion, 
Brisbane 8pm

WEDNESDAY  MAY 5
Russell Scott & his Red Hots @ Agenda Lounge, 399 S. 1st, San José 10pm
The Hepsters @ Moe's Alley, 1535 Commercial Way, Santa Cruz

THURSDAY  MAY 6
Jim Campilongo & 10 Gallon Cats @  Above Paradise, 11th St./Folsom, SF

FRIDAY  MAY 7
Mike Ness/Deke Dickerson & the Ecco-Fonics @ 7th Note Showclub, 915 Columbus, 
San Francisco 9pm $20

SATURDAY  MAY 8
Red Meat/Oakland Medicine Show @ Starry Plough, 3101 Shattuck, Berkeley 945pm 
$5
The Bachelors @ 4 Dueces, 2319 Taraval, San Francisco 9pm

MONDAY  MAY 10
The Bachelors @ The Saloon, 1232 Grant, San Francisco 930pm

WEDNESDAY  MAY 12
Real Sippin' Whiskeys/Ruby Deluxe @ Elbo Room, 647 Valencia, SF 10pm $4
The Hepsters @ Moe's Alley, 1535 Commercial Way, Santa Cruz

THURSDAY  MAY 13
Link Wray @ Bimbo's 365 Club, 1025 Columbus, San Francisco 8pm $15
Jim Campilongo & 10 Gallon Cats @  Above Paradise, 11th St./Folsom, SF

SUNDAY  MAY 16
Sean Kennedy & the King Kats @ Club DeLuxe, 1509-11 Haight, SF 930pm

MONDAY  MAY 17
The Bachelors @ The Saloon, 1232 Grant, San Francisco 930pm

WEDNESDAY  MAY 19
Buck Owens/Red Meat @ Bimbo's 365 Club, 1025 Columbus, SF 8pm $25
Rockin' Lloyd Tripp & the Zipguns @ Elbo Room, 647 Valencia, SF 10pm $4
The Hepsters @ Moe's Alley, 1535 Commercial Way, Santa Cruz

THURSDAY  MAY 20
Joe Goldmark w/ Jim Campilongo & the 10 Gallon Cats @ Amoeba Records, 1855 
Haight, San Francisco 6pm free
Jim Campilongo & 10 Gallon Cats @  AboveParadise, 11th St./Folsom, SF

MONDAY  MAY 24
The Bachelors @ The Saloon, 1232 Grant, San Francisco 930pm

WEDNESDAY  MAY 26
The Rounders @ Elbo Room, 647 Valencia, San Francisco 10pm $4
The Hepsters @ Moe's Alley, 1535 Commercial Way, Santa Cruz

THURSDAY  MAY 27
Randy Beckett's Rebel Train @ Starry Plough, 3101 Shattuck, Berkeley 930pm $4
The Bachelors @ Lou's Pier 47, 300 Jefferson, San Francisco 9pm
Sean Kennedy & King Kats @ Moe's Alley, 1535 Commercial Way, Santa Cruz
Jim Campilongo & 10 Gallon Cats @  Above Paradise, 11th St./Folsom, SF

FRIDAY  MAY 28
Sean Kennedy & the King Kats@ The Fog Bank, 211 Esplande, Capitola

SATURDAY  MAY 29
Asylum Street Spankers @ Great American Music Hall, 859 O'Farrell, SF

SUNDAY  MAY 30
Randy Beckett's Rebel Train @ Club DeLuxe, 1509-11 Haight, SF 930pm

MONDAY  MAY 31
The Bachelors @ The Saloon, 1232 Grant, San Francisco 930pm

WEDNESDAY  JUNE 2
Sean Kennedy & the King Kats @ Agenda Lounge, 399 S. 1st, San José 10pm

WEDNESDAY  JUNE 16
Big Sandy & his Fly-Rite Boys @ Agenda Lounge, 399 S. 1st, San José 10pm

SUNDAY  JUNE 20
Asylum Street Spankers @ Kuumbwa Jazz Center, Santa Cruz 7 & 9pm $16.80

WEDNESDAY  JUNE 23
Kim Lenz & her Jaguars @ Agenda Lounge, 399 S. 1st, San José 10pm

Sorry for getting this out late. Had a probelm with my computer drive that took some 
time to fix.

Steve Hathaway
San Jose, California
[EMAIL PROTECTED]





Clip:Bluegrass Sprouts in Urban Landscape

1999-04-29 Thread Brad Bechtel

Bluegrass Sprouts in Urban Landscape
Cafe's open-mike night encourages novice players 
Sam Whiting, Chronicle Staff Writer
Thursday, April 29, 1999 
©1999 San Francisco Chronicle 

URL: 
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/1999/04/29/DD88506.DTL&type=music
 

Early this evening, a bunch of urban hillbillies will bang their battered mandolin and 
guitar cases through the double doors into the Atlas Cafe. They'll tune up, then turn 
and fill the room with the twang of bluegrass and old-timey string music. 

This is open-mike bluegrass, which once a month turns this hipster cafe in the Mission 
into a broken-down palace for country boys and girls lost in the big city. Anybody can 
play, either onstage or out in the crowd, picking their mandolins and bowing their 
fiddles in what amounts to bluegrass surround-sound. 

"Some people don't want to come up and take a solo, face the spotlight, so they just 
play in their seats,'' says Pam Brandon, a regular. "It works really well.'' 

A house band opens with "Cripple Creek.'' JimBo Trout high-notes the vocal. 

"Yeehaw,'' yells a man who might be taken for a skateboard thrash punk. The floor 
starts moving with toe-tapping. Those who want to move some more get up and dance 
energetically in the aisle between the bar and the bathroom. 

After a few traditionals, Trout asks if anyone wants to sing. Three hands go up. 

David Ray, a bold first-timer from Mill Valley, introduces himself and pours his heart 
into the lyric "I'm shiftless, I'm homeless, I'm a total disgrace/ Cuz I spent all my 
money at the rye whiskey place.'' The melody hits a few spots lower than that lyric, 
but Ray is no disgrace at all. A dog barks on the back patio, but there are no 
catcalls among the humans. 

Ray sings a few songs, then plays guitar for a few more. Suddenly he's one of the boys 
in the band. 

"Some are professionals, some are not,'' says Ray, a software engineer. "You don't get 
favored if you are a professional. 

"Everybody gets the same shot, which is good because there are shy people who are good 
and bold people who aren't so good.'' 

Going into its second year, the Atlas bluegrass concept is simple: "Every month we 
just show up and hack,'' says Brandon, who hacked her way from London. She trades her 
accent for a slow drawl as she sings "I'm Just Here to Get My Baby Out of Jail.'' 

"Various people come with various instruments, and we trade off in a friendly way,'' 
says Trout, whose job is to subtly signal a player when his time is up. It is not 
always easy. When rookies get their first taste of audience appreciation, many don't 
want to give it up. 

"Some people have no idea what they are doing, and they get up there and these guys 
can make them play decent,'' says Kyle Smith, who came from Georgia with a mandolin 
and blues harp. Bluegrass is social music. The strings and voices need company to 
sound right. "In the city, there is no other place for people learning how to play 
bluegrass to get up there and sing and play,'' Smith says. 

A few months ago the Thursday- night rattle worked a tacked-up poster loose from the 
wall. It swung down, dangling from the bottom tack, and was left that way until 
someone got up off the couch and retacked it, upside down. The Atlas fits the loose 
ambience of bluegrass. 

Half of the Thursday crowd looks as if it just blew in from the Dust Bowl, and the 
other half looks as if it came directly from a Grateful Dead show. There are members 
of eight or 10 local bands. 

At the bar is a rockabilly bassist with ducktail hair, letter jacket and rolled-up 
jeans. In back talking on a cell phone is the bassist for Tribe 8, the lesbian punk 
band. 

"People have exhausted the blues scene and the rock scene and the punk scene,'' Smith 
says. "It's another form of music that people are getting turned on to.'' 

Trout says he gets a half-dozen new players every time. Novices sit at tables and 
mimic the fretwork. It isn't far from the back to the front, though en route a few 
stop to drink some courage, laying their mandolins across the bar. 

"You can not know more than three chords and get up and sit in,'' says Brandon, 
daughter of the editor of the U.K. Northwest Bluegrass News. 

A few months ago, a woman who must have been in her 80s pulled herself up off the 
couch to show these kids how to pluck a mandolin. 

By night's end, they are down to paper cups for the draft beer. People dance in line 
in front of the unisex bathroom, next to the band. Brandon is known to improvise the 
lyric "Somebody bring me a Sierra Nevada'' until somebody does. There might be 20 
musicians, shoulder to shoulder. 

Tatsuya Suzuki, just in from Japan, knows little English, but he knows the language of 
a Scruggs- style five-string banjo. He's front and center all night, as if he'd 
reached the stage of the Grand Ol' Opry. 

"It's very good,'' he says of his one-night band. "Excellent.'' 

Jackson Browne All the Time.

1999-04-28 Thread Brad Bechtel

>From http://www.west.net/~jrpprod/jb/jbnews.shtml this tidbit:

The Road & the Sky Radio is launched at http://members.xoom.com/JBRadio playing 
Jackson Browne music 24 hours a day. The Road & the Sky Radio is a totally free, 
uninterrupted broadcast of Jackson Browne songs in RealAudio format. No commercials, 
no DJs, no talk. Just 24 hours of nonstop music!

I KNOW someone out there cares about this.  Fess up.



RE: Bad Company quote, URL

1999-04-27 Thread Brad Bechtel

Matt has been told bad things by bad people.  I saw Bad Company (with Kansas opening) 
in the 70's and they rocked just fine.  The drummer was a bit thuddy, if you know what 
I mean, but the rest of the band was competent.  If you want a bad show, try crack-era 
David Crosby and Graham Nash.  Or heroin-era Grateful Dead.  Or Foghat any time.

-Brad, back from a relaxing weekend playing for the skiers at Alpine Meadows-



Clip: Metallica and the SF Symphony (review for Jon)

1999-04-23 Thread Brad Bechtel

Symphony Bends Under Weight of Metallica
Orchestra plays second fiddle to rock band 
Neva Chonin, Chronicle Staff Critic
Friday, April 23, 1999 
©1999 San Francisco Chronicle 

URL: 
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/1999/04/23/DD17279.DTL&type=music
 



Two antithetical genres mixed well at the concert pairing the hard rock band Metallica 
with the San Francisco Symphony. Maybe too well, in fact. 

The first of two highly anticipated shows was not, as fans from both sides of the 
musical divide had hoped, a dialogue between orchestra and band. Nor was it, as 
critics predicted, a dissonant clash of titans. 

Instead, Wednesday's two-hour-plus performance at the Berkeley Community Theater was 
simply a melting pot in which the nuances of more than 100 instruments -- violins, 
violas, cellos, oboes, trumpets, kettle drums, chimes and one unfortunate harp -- were 
largely reduced to a lush, not always audible musical backdrop for a very loud, very 
good Metallica concert. 

That was certainly no dire disappointment for the thousands of cheering Metallica fans 
packing the house. But it was a pity nonetheless, considering the time and toil 
conductor-composer Michael Kamen and the members of the band invested in this project. 
In preparation, they met in cities all over the world, retooling 18 Metallica classics 
and two new songs, ``No Leaf Clover'' and ``Human,'' for a symphonic orchestra. 

On Wednesday, those plans were sabotaged not by lack of style or enthusiasm but by 
volume. Try as it might, the orchestra simply could not make itself heard over the 
thunder of heavy rock instrumentation. 

The evening began promisingly with a luxuriant string intro to Metallica's 15-minute 
instrumental opus, ``Call of Ktulu.'' As each band member made his way onstage, the 
orchestra gradually built into a galloping rhythm that would have been right at home 
on an Ennio Morricone soundtrack. 

By the time guitarist Kirk Hammett slid into his first solo of the night, the 
orchestra's music stands were glowing a fluorescent white, liquid patterns were 
wriggling across the overhead screen and the sounds from the stage had built to a 
crescendo. 

After a pure metal version of ``Master of Puppets,'' Metallica singer-guitarist James 
Hetfield hailed the crowd. ``Ever hear the one about the heavy rock band that wanted 
to play with the symphony?'' he asked, grinning like a Cheshire cat. ``You're f-- 
looking at it, man.'' After exhorting everyone to have a good time, he introduced the 
next song: ``We usually call this one `Of Wolf and Man,' but tonight we're calling it 
`Of Wolfgang and Man.' '' 

We'll never know what Mozart would have made of the ensuing duel of wailing guitars 
and horns, but the crowd loved it. The orchestra musicians looked bemused, 
particularly when the song veered into one of the evening's more spirited call-and- 
response chants, complete with wolfish howls. It was about this time that a number of 
those in the classical-music fan minority, including director Francis Ford Coppola, 
chose to head for the exit. 

Behavioral differences between the classical and rock schools weren't limited to the 
audience. The members of Metallica and the Symphony presented an amusing portrait in 
opposites: While the rock band demonstrated its love of live music in roars and 
whoops, the tiers of classical musicians retained their elegant poker faces. In the 
world of Beethoven and Handel, it's the music that's the star. 

Still, some among the orchestra couldn't help but be swept up in the friendly 
looniness. One wag in the brass section returned the crowd's two-fingered salutes with 
his own. Another pumped the air with his horn. The crowd cheered them on. 

Metallica members often wandered through the tiers as they played, getting into the 
orchestral groove. Bassist Jason Newsted even jammed beside the harpist. 

Kamen, with his unruly mane and sleek tuxedo, acted as much like a rock star as a 
classical conductor -- impressive, considering the monumental task of coordinating so 
many disparate elements. He gave band members the thumbs-up and punched the air with 
his fist when a section went well. 

But all the high spirits couldn't change the fact that the orchestra was largely 
reduced to atmospherics for the concert's stars. Of the 20- song repertoire, only a 
handful capi talized on the diversity of instruments and talent onstage. 

``Hero of the Day'' featured beautiful interplay between Hetfield's voice and the 
string section; ``Devil Dance'' found the brass instruments rallying to nearly drown 
out Lars Ulrich's drums during the swaggering intro. ``The Memory Remains'' juxtaposed 
heavy rock with a series of nonelectric interludes, in which the orchestra lavishly 
mimicked the song's organ-grinder motif. 

But mostly the orchestra heaved and toiled to little discernible effect, particularly 
on hard-rocking songs such as ``Fuel'' and ``Enter Sandman'' and the speed

Re: Single Most Influential--Bob Marley?

1999-04-22 Thread Brad Bechtel

I'm curious why we've collectively overlooked the influence of Bob Marley in our 
discussion so far. Is it because he's not from the United States? Is it because we 
find reggae to be a marginal music that has had little impact in American culture?

I think the discussion so far has had focus on those performers who had a major impact 
on American popular music of the twentieth century.  I do agree that Mr. Marley's 
influence on reggae music is enormous, but I'm not  familiar enough with non-Marley 
reggae (or Marley-influenced non-reggae musical styles) to argue that he's up there 
with Elvis, the Beatles, or even the Eagles as far as influence goes.



Re: Captain Beefheart (re:Welfare Music)

1999-04-22 Thread Brad Bechtel

Sorry to disagree with Marie, but Captain Beefheart and His Magic Band rocked my 
little part of the world in their own peculiar way.  One of the first CDs I bought was 
"Trout Mask Replica", mostly to replace the LP that had grown scratched and worn.

I do agree that most of his later output was crap.  His two classics were "Trout Mask 
Replica" and "Lick My Decals Off Baby".  LMDOB unfortunately still isn't available on 
CD, or I'd have that too.  You can get MP3s of the songs from LMDOB via the Captain 
Beefheart Radar Station (http://www.beefheart.com/filtered/filtered.htm).

I just dug the humor behind his music.  In 1969, when everybody else was singing about 
peace and/or drugs, the Captain was singing about Big Joan, whose hands were too small 
to go out in the daylight.  His sound was dense, loud and cluttered, definitely not 
for everyone.  Maybe it appealed to me because I grew up on Frank Zappa and the 
Mothers of Invention (my first LP was "We're Only In It For the Money"; my second was 
"Sgt. Peppers".  I thought the Beatles were doing a parody of the Mothers).  Maybe 
it's just the vibrations he set off resonated my geeky side.  Anyway, I thought he was 
tapped into something outside of himself.  Through him I got into Albert Ayler and 
Howlin' Wolf.

I got to see the Magic Band at the Whiskey A Go Go around 1981.  It was a great show, 
one of the best I saw that year. Captain Beefheart was and is a unique character.  

np: Danny Gatton, Portraits



Hecklers, was: Wilco @ Pearl Street

1999-04-21 Thread Brad Bechtel

My favorite "shut up" line was from Henry Rollins of Black Flag:

"Lose the 'tude, dude."




Re: Der Bingle

1999-04-20 Thread Brad Bechtel

According to the Bing Crosby Discography at 

http://www.kcmetro.cc.mo.us/pennvalley/Biology/lewis/crosby/disco.htm 

Louis Armstrong and Bing Crosby had a long professional relationship, starting in the 
1936 with their recording "Pennies from Heaven" (listed as Frances Langford, Louis 
Armstrong, Jimmy Dorsey Orchestra) and continuing through 1960 (recordings with the 
Billy May Orchestra and Louis Armstrong).  

Who else can claim to have recorded with Paul Whiteman and David Bowie?

The two tracks Crosby recorded with Grady Martin, "Just a Little Lovin' " and "Till 
the End of the World", can be found on AWAY BACK WEST AGAIN (Collector Series) 1939-up 
Volumes 20 and 87 by the American Gramophone & Wireless Co. (see 
http://members.aol.com/AGW1886/cbackwest.htm for more details).

-B "such a nerd, you wouldn't believe it" B-



Single Most Influential 20th Century Pop Musician

1999-04-19 Thread Brad Bechtel

Blah blah Bob Dylan's the single most influential pop musician in the 20th century. 
Hands down.

Not even close. Bob Dylan's more influential than Bing Crosby?  Than Frank Sinatra?  
Than Louis Armstrong? Than Hank Williams?  Than Jimmie Rodgers? Than Elvis Presley?

He's definitely one of the top influences in popular music, no argument there.  If 
you'd said "folk musician" or "rock musician" I might agree.  But I would argue that 
any of the above are more influential to the development of American based popular 
music than Dylan.



Re: Ray's tenor harmony man....

1999-04-19 Thread Brad Bechtel

According to the liner notes in Hillbilly Fever, volume 3: Legends of Nashville, the 
harmony vocal was sung by guitarist Van Howard on the song "Crazy Arms".  He probably 
did many of the other harmony vocals as well.



Re: Ray's tenor harmony man....

1999-04-19 Thread Brad Bechtel

http://www.pond.com/~vanallen/raynvan.html has a nice picture of Ray and Van together. 
 

np: Dobrology, Bop to Broadway on Slide Guitar, by Stephen Miller.  Nice job of some 
unusual cover tunes by a Canadian resophonic guitarist.



Clip: review of Alejandro Escovedo's new one

1999-04-18 Thread Brad Bechtel

Just found a couple of things in the paper this morning (93rd anniversary of the Big 
Quake) and thought I'd share.
=

IT'S TIME TO DISCOVER ESCOVEDO'S `BLUES' 
4 stars 

ALEJANDRO ESCOVEDO 

Bourbonitis Blues 
Bloodshot, $12.98 

Why Alejandro Escovedo remains a peripheral star is something of a mystery. The 
Austin- based singer and guitarist -- a former member of the Nuns and Rank & File, 
leader of the True Believers and Buick MacKane -- has shared mikes with Willie Nelson 
and jammed with Charlie Sexton, yet he's rarely received more than a share of the 
spotlight. 

If there's any justice, ``Bourbonitis Blues'' will change that. Half originals, 
Escovedo's fifth solo CD illustrates his wide songwriting range. ``Sacramento & Polk'' 
is a dark, driving tale of (local) obsession, carved with razor-sharp guitar swipes; 
``I Was Drunk'' is a pretty acoustic- electric poem; ``Guilty'' reprises an old Esco 
favorite as a blues-soaked romp that evokes midcareer Rolling Stones. 

The disc's covers are even better, treating tunes by John Cale (``Amsterdam''), Ian 
Hunter (``Irene Wilde'') and even the Gun Club (``Sex Beat'') to fresh 
interpretations. A version of Lou Reed's ``Pale Blue Eyes,'' sung as a duet with Kelly 
Hogan, is lovely and perfectly placed. With appearances by the Mekons' Jon Langford 
and members of the Squirrel Nut Zippers, ``Bourbonitis'' should help Escovedo gain 
some fans. Critics have compared him to Springsteen, Leonard Cohen and Townes Van 
Zandt. Established fans are guarding the secret, but we're silently wondering: When 
will the general public ``discover'' this longtime star? 

-- Colin Berry 



Clip: San Francisco honors Gram Parsons

1999-04-18 Thread Brad Bechtel

SAN FRANCISCO HONORS GRAM PARSONS 





Plans for the Gram Parsons tribute continue to speed forward. An increasing number of 
books and tribute albums connected with the late country-rock pioneer are just a small 
indicator of his flourishing cult appeal. 

On Saturday, several bands from San Francisco -- including Mover, Dixie Star, the 
Blood Roses, Four Fathom Bank Robbers, the Tyde and the Decans -- will pay homage to 
Parsons at the first Sleepless Nights Haight-Ashbury Free Clinic benefit concert at 
Slim's. Also appearing will be out-of-towners Convoy, Sex 66 and Beachwood Sparks. 

Why are these young artists kneeling at the Parsons shrine, and why now? 

``Because he brought together soul music, hillbilly music and outlaw music to create a 
sound that has influenced many great songwriters, from the Rolling Stones to Beck,'' 
explains Sleepless Nights organizer and Mover front man Eric Shea. ``He continues to 
move more people who discover his songs and his sound. He was from Waycross, Ga., but 
he put so much soul in California.'' 

Each band on the bill promises to play at least two Parsons covers, followed by one or 
two of their own songs that he inspired. At the end of the night Shea plans to show 
some rare film footage of Parsons, his protege Emmylou Harris and his band the Fallen 
Angels on the venue's big-screen video monitor. 

Oddly, Shea never had any grand designs for the concert. 

``I really just wanted to play the Cosmic American Music Festival at Joshua Tree. The 
folks in charge of that never returned my calls, so I thought it would be fun to have 
one here,'' he says. 

``If it goes well, I want to have an acoustic one at the Joshua Tree Inn on December 
31.'' 

Shea has already reserved room No. 8, where Parsons overdosed 25 years ago. 

-- Aidin Vaziri 



Clip: Tom Waits from SF Gate web site

1999-04-18 Thread Brad Bechtel

`Variations' On a Twisted Persona
Tom Waits talks about his new album, rats' teeth and Yma Sumac's hairdresser 
James Sullivan, Chronicle Staff Writer
Sunday, April 18, 1999 
©1999 San Francisco Chronicle 

URL: 
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/1999/04/18/PK21006.DTL&type=music
 



``All life interests me,'' lisps Renfield, the feverish asylum inmate Tom Waits plays 
in Francis Ford Coppola's film ``Bram Stoker's Dracula.'' Then he eats a worm. 

That small scene might best capture the singer-actor's trademark affinity for life's 
strange beauty. 

Waits has cultivated an image that's slightly out of whack, and it has served him 
well. A cult phenomenon by the early 1980s, the scat-singing raconteur recast himself 
as rock 'n' roll's ingenious rag man with a masterful series of experimental yet 
deeply traditional albums. He took swatches of immigrant music -- secondhand tangos, 
pub ballads, Weimar- era cabaret songs -- and made them uniquely American, uniquely 
his own. 

Next week, Waits releases his 12th studio album. They came in bunches in the '70s, but 
this is his first, not including soundtracks, since 1992's Grammy-winning ``Bone 
Machine.'' Anticipation is high. 

His first release for the punk label Epitaph, ``Mule Variations'' will be Waits' most 
public project in ages. In recent years he has earned a reputation as a bit of a 
recluse, playing only the odd benefit concert while working on plays and soundtracks 
at his family's home in the Sonoma countryside. 

He's planning select live dates, as well as a concert taping for VH1, which recently 
named him one of the ``Most Influential Artists of All Time.'' 

Not that he buys it, exactly. 

``I don't know what it is I do yet,'' Waits rasps on a recent afternoon, hunching over 
a plate of sweet-and-sour chicken at an old-fashioned, dark-paneled Chinese restaurant 
on Grant Avenue. ``I guess if you figure it out, you're kind of all done.'' 

-- 

True to form, Waits is dressed in rail-yard garb -- scuffed black boots, stiff jeans, 
a tight denim jacket buttoned up like a shirt. When he takes off his ever-present 
battered fedora, his kinky hair springs up like a wire garden. It's the same look he 
took onstage at one of his first concerts in years, in Austin, Texas, at the South by 
Southwest music conference last month. 

Waits is reluctant to do interviews and will do only a handful to promote his album, 
but he is less socially uneasy than simply preoccupied. 

One thing about Waits is certain: He's the sort of guy who will answer a question with 
a question. Asked about his long stretch be tween albums, he replies: ``Did you know a 
rat's teeth will grow through the roof of its mouth into its brain if it doesn't keep 
eating?'' 

There's a clear lesson to be learned from that zoological tidbit, Waits claims, 
suppressing a smile: ``Always keep snacks around.'' He cranes his neck for an 
imaginary waiter: ``Could we get a little something over here as a starter, really 
quick?'' he hollers. ``My teeth are growing.'' 

-- 

Waits has lived in rural Sonoma County for several years with his wife and longtime 
collaborator, Kathleen Brennan, and their three children. ``Mule Variations,'' he 
suggests, is his attempt to get back to the land. ``You know, Robert Johnson started 
writing about automobiles, and from then forward people stopped writing about 
animals.'' 

He says the title phrase of the slow-roasting blues ``Get Behind the Mule'' comes from 
something the late bluesman Johnson's father told his shiftless son: ``You gotta get 
behind the mule in the morning and plow.'' 

For years Waits lived out the gutter-trawling lifestyle of his characters. ``There 
have been plenty of days when I've gotten up too late in the morning and the mule is 
gone,'' he says. ``Or somebody else is behind the mule, and I have to get behind the 
guy who's behind the mule.'' 

The album, recorded last year, features contributions by Bay Area musicians including 
harmonica veteran Charlie Musselwhite, brass and woodwind player Nik Phelps of 
Clubfoot Orchestra, drummer Andrew Borger of the Beth Lisick Ordeal and guitarist Joe 
Gore and multi-instrumentalist Ralph Carney of the Oranj Symphonette. Primus serves as 
Waits' backing band on the rambunctious lead track, ``Big in Japan.'' 

It was Brennan, Waits says, who urged him back behind the mule. They met almost 20 
years ago, while working at Coppola's Zoetrope Studios. Among her many songwriting 
credits with her husband, Brennan co-wrote Waits' music for ``Bunny,'' the short 
animated film that just won an Academy Award. 

In between words of devotion, Waits takes great joy in making up a past for his wife: 
He claims she's been an elevator operator and an anchorwoman, among other things. 

``She was Yma Sumac's hairdresser for a very short period of time.'' His slate-colored 
eyes twinkle devilishly. ``They had to let her go -- too much overhead!'' 

Such absurditi

FYI: Steelin' For Hearts Jam in Jessup, MD April 18

1999-04-16 Thread Brad Bechtel

Just saw this on the Steel Guitar Forum 
(http://www.b0b.com/forum/Forum4/HTML/000323.html) and thought some of you might 
appreciate it:

11th Annual Steelin' For Hearts Steel Guitar Jam
Featuring Leonard T. Zinn, Dewitt "Scotty" Scott, Dean M. Black, Buddy Charleton, 
Weldon Myrick and guest guitarist Bill Kirchen
Sunday, April 18, 1999
Latela's Corral Room, Rt. 175 and BW Parkway, Jessup, MD
1:00 until ?
Donations $12.00 at the door
All proceeds go to help the John Hopkins' Heart Transplant Group in memory of Sonny 
Hunley
For more information or directions contact Dean Black (843) 237-3335 or Latela's 
410-749-4110



Criminally underappreciated

1999-04-16 Thread Brad Bechtel

Red House Painters - Songs for a Blue Guitar - Something about this recording just 
grabbed me.  I would never have heard about it had it not been for a coworker who 
loaned it to me one time.  (She also loaned me Ani DiFranco, which I didn't like as 
much.)  




Re: Question: Lap Steel by Analogy

1999-04-15 Thread Brad Bechtel

Oh, yeah...Solomon Ho'opi'i Ka'ai'ai is the king of Hawaiian guitar.  His later work 
on electric lap steel (after he became a follower of Aimee Semple McPherson) was just 
not as flashy or exuberant as his early 78's.  Both volumes of his Rounder releases 
are well worth owning.

As far as a Twin Reverb goes, that should be a great amp for steel.  Here's what Jerry 
Byrd has to say about it in the book "The Hawaiian Steel Guitar and Its Great Hawaiian 
Musicians" (edited by Lorene Ruymar, published by Centerstream Press):

"My personal preference in an amplifier is the older-style tube amp. I use a Fender 
Twin. I keep the volume set at about 4 on a scale of 1-10, the reverb at 4 as well. I 
like the treble turned almost off and the bass nearly wide open. The final adjustment 
in tone is done on the guitar itself, keeping the volume wide open on the guitar."

I guess it depends on the type of sound you're trying to get.  A Twin will be 
extremely clean at just about any volume.  If you want a bit of bite to your sound, 
consider getting a smaller amp (the Fender Pro Junior or a Deluxe Reverb) and cranking 
it to eleven.

It could just be your National, you know.  Some of those old National pickups haven't 
held up as well as other guitar pickups such as Fender or Gibson.
___
Brad's Page of Steel:
http://www.well.com/user/wellvis/steel.html
A web site devoted to acoustic and electric lap steel guitars



RE: Warning: Bass Guitar question!

1999-04-14 Thread Brad Bechtel

Blah blah Yeah, right, it's not of general interest, like vintage cereals .

I daresay more of us have tasted Quisp than played bass.  Otherwise an excellent post, 
Jon.



Re: New Romantics?

1999-04-14 Thread Brad Bechtel

http://home.sol.no/~knhongro/Geir/pop/History.htm has an interesting take on this:

New Romantics

If you don't like synths you may as well skip this whole 
chapter, because the UK early 80s New Romantics craze definitely was about synths - 
synths, music video and image. But New Romantics also was about great melodic pop 
songs, and groups such as Spandau Ballet, Simple Minds, ABC, Culture Club, Japan, 
Thompson Twins(picture right) and even teenyboppers Duran Duran made some songs worth 
checking out. 

Even more interesting (again if you don't hate synths) were the plain synthpop groups. 
Human League made one of the best albums ever with "Dare", Depeche Mode and Yazoo 
followed to make Daniel Miller, the man behind indie label Mute, rich. Orchestral 
Manouvers In The Dark, Visage, Soft Cell, Ultravox and Human League-spinoffs Heaven 17 
also made some great pop records. Vince Clarke, once a member of Depeche Mode and then 
Yazoo, later formed Erasure, a band that still exists and has had more success than 
Yazoo. There even was an American synthpop band, the slightly more musically eccentric 
Devo. After some time a more musically sophisticated, and not that entirely synth 
based, sort of synthpop was developing. Artists such as Talk Talk, Tears For Fears and 
Howard Jones represented this new trend.

And there's this from http://www2.osk.3web.ne.jp/~buggle/lexicon.html#New Romantics

New Romantics started in the Club scene and it popped out by combing electronic pop 
dance beat and showy fashion stemming glam rock via the visual media of MTV. It was 
alternatively called "Futurist" and there was a Futurist chart in Indies. 
Representative bands are Duran Duran, Kajagoogoo (such a silly name), Visage, the 
second period Ultravox, the early Talk Talk, Spandau Ballet. The only ones with the 
look above a certain level can be called as true New Romantics.

-B "flock of haircuts" B-



Re: Question: Lap Steel by Analogy

1999-04-14 Thread Brad Bechtel

Blah blah  is to the lap steel what Mississippi John Hurt is to 
fingerstyle guitar

What little I know about playing fingerstyle guitar I learned from listening to 
Mississippi John Hurt's relatively simple, elegant work.  Who should I be listening to 
to hear lap steel lovingly stripped to the bare
essentials and well played.

Well, I'd say Jerry Byrd except he's about as far from Mississippi John Hurt's style 
as you can get and still be an American.  

Suggested listening for lap steel guitarists:
Jerry Byrd - the master of tone and touch, although maybe not the master of taste.  
Some of his recordings are pretty heavy on the schmaltz.
David Lindley - is playing mostly acoustic Weissenborn guitars now.  His lap steel 
work with Jackson Browne defined the use of lap steel in rock.  Any of his solo CDs 
with Hani Naser or Wally Ingram on percussion gives you a good idea of what he's doing 
now and what's possible (see http://www.davidlindley.com for ordering).
Jerry Douglas - although known more for his Dobro playing, he does some fine lap steel 
work on his latest CD "Restless on the Farm"

Two excellent early examples of lap steel are Leon McAuliffe (with Bob Wills and His 
Texas Playboys) and Don Helms (with Hank Williams and the Drifting Cowboys).

More information available on my web site.

___
Brad's Page of Steel:
http://www.well.com/user/wellvis/steel.html
A web site devoted to acoustic and electric lap steel guitars



Flint Michigan (the band?)

1999-04-14 Thread Brad Bechtel

A friend sent me the following.  Any comments?
=
I was just checking out their home page

http://www.flintmichigan.net

and wondered about them. the stuff on the page makes 'em sound promising. I wondered 
if you knew anything about 'em.




Re: The perfect single (was Re: Weller's Prime)

1999-04-14 Thread Brad Bechtel

In addition to the previous excellent choices, let me recommend "Shake Some Action" by 
the Flaming Groovies. 




Cereal, Jam, and Fluff

1999-04-13 Thread Brad Bechtel

http://ticktock.simplenet.com/mills.html has a whole gallery of General Mills cereal 
boxes from the past.  Apparently the Count Chocula box with the Star Wars sticker ad 
is a collectible item now.  Go figure...

There's a nice interview with Count Chocula here:
http://www.chebucto.ns.ca/~ai251/Choco.html
Or if you prefer, an interview with Lucky, the Lucky Charms Leprechaun:
http://www.mindspring.com/~josho/pg16.htm

You can buy Fruit Brute, Yummy Mummy, Count Chocula, Frankenberry, Booberry and 
Freakies Cereal Box Mousepads here:
http://pweb.netcom.com/~magnus1/premiums.html

Other interesting sites:
http://members.xoom.com/Imaginathan/boo_berry/monster.html
http://members.tripod.com/~DarrinV/frankenberry.html
http://www.geocities.com/EnchantedForest/3278/index.html
http://www.wfmu.org/MACrec/children.html

According to a letter by David Arnson of Los Angeles (reproduced at 
http://www.tt.net/porkapple/cereal.html) you can still buy Quisp cereal, although it's 
been repackaged as "Popeye's Sweet Crunch". 

-B "nostalgia's not what it used to be" B-



Clip: Something to Crow about

1999-04-13 Thread Brad Bechtel

Something to Crow about 
By Jane Ganahl 
OF THE EXAMINER STAFF 
Tuesday, April 13, 1999 
©1999 San Francisco Examiner 

URL: 
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/examiner/hotnews/stories/13/Scrow.dtl&type=music
 

A once lightweight singer digs in and earns some respect 

I HAVE to hand it to Sheryl Crow. 

After her first mega-hit, "All I Wanna Do (Is Have Some Fun)" hit the airwaves five 
years ago to beat us senseless with its utter catchiness, I was ready to dismiss her. 
She seemed to have just two things going for her: the ability to write monster hooks, 
and sexy-girl-next-door looks. Negatives? A reed-thin, if lovely, voice, a jarringly 
schizophrenic variety of styles - and completely silly lyrics that soon became scorned 
by too-hip alt-rock DJ's. ("Oh, really, Sheryl? Is "every day a winding road?' That's 
so deep!") 

My own verdict? LIGHTWEIGHT. I figured she was either destined for a short career or - 
perhaps worse - a huge, glossy career that would eventually find her in the diva 
dustbin alongside Mariah and Whitney and Celine, cat-fighting for the spotlight on 
those awful VH-1 specials, settling for complete musical irrelevance. 

But something happened to change that course, sometime while she was recording "The 
Globe Sessions" - not a great album (despite its winning a Grammy that said so), but 
certainly a vast improvement. Her music got tauter, a bit edgier, and she seems to 
have taken singing lessons to make better use of her modest vocal gifts. She cut her 
sex-kitten hair in favor of a more serious look; dumped the leather minis and put on 
hard jeans; took up causes (she's now on the board of Rock the Vote), and got some 
respect. 

She was even asked to perform recently at the prestigious benefit for Johnny Cash - 
alongside country goddesses Emmylou Harris and Mary Chapin Carpenter - that also 
starred Bruce Springsteen and Bob Dylan. Once dismissed, Crow's proving she's got the 
chops, the staying power we assumed she lacked. 

That doesn't mean her Monday night show at Oakland's Paramount Theater (she plays 
again Tuesday) was the equivalent of an arm-wrestling takedown. But it did have some 
great moments, and Crow turned in a solid star turn. 

Before she even began, it seemed highly possible that Crow's opening act, the 
Minneapolis power-pop trio Semisonic, could blow her off the stage. Always engaging to 
the point of inciting riots, Semisonic began playing to near-empty house (damn those 8 
p.m. start times!) but by the end of their hefty 50-minute set, had the swelling crowd 
on its feet. 

Frontman Dan Wilson, bass player John Munson and drummer Jacob Slichter - all gifted 
musicians - play with the ferocity of a garage band, but with a joy and sense of humor 
those groups lack. Their songs are acutely melodic, and loaded with creative metaphors 
befitting the brainy Ivy Leaguers they are ("Shaking my mind like an Etch-A-Sketch 
erasing"). 

Especially good were the euphoric "Singing in my Sleep," the sweet/sexy "D.N.D.," and 
the screwball rocker "F.N.T." The bespectacled Wilson seems representative of the new 
model of the Hot American Male - more brainy than brawny, sexual yet sensitive. The 
girlish squeals in the audience every time Wilson moved a hip joint proved this 
theory. 

It was hard to imagine Crow topping Semisonic's take-no-prisoners set. But she did, at 
least by sheer numbers - seven musicians on stage vs. three. And she more than matched 
their infectious good mood. Relaxed to the point of being joyful, Crow exhorted the 
crowd early on to "get up and shake your asses, because that's what I'll be doing!" 

And she rocked. Tamely sometimes, with more abandon at others. Proving her splendid 
musicianship, Crow led the large band like a grinning maestro, switching from bass to 
acoustic to electric guitars, even strapping on a harmonica. Her voice was mostly 
spot-on - potent and mostly staying clear of her annoying, little-girl coo. 

During the 90-minute set, "My Favorite Mistake" was classic Crow, an undeniable guitar 
hook swathed with funky rhythms, and she dug into it deeply, singing for every 
dump-ee: "Did you see me walking by? Did it ever make you cry?" (OK, so her lyrics 
haven't improved much, especially - strangely - on her biggest hits.) 

"Leaving Las Vegas," from "Tuesday Night Music Club," was moody and good, as was the 
sassy "A Change." Crow played pretty much all her hits, in fact - including "All I 
Wanna Do," with a charming set of home movies displayed on screens behind her; and "If 
It Makes You Happy," which proved she still has vocal limitations, fading out at high 
volume in the upper registers. 

But the delirious, sell-out crowd didn't notice - she gave them what they came to 
hear: hits and glitz. (A pet peeve moment: can we please declare a moratorium on 
elaborate, annoying light shows for folk-rock bands?) 

Anyway, I was more impressed with Crow's non-hits. Those included "The Difficult Kind" 
- one of t

Clip: Phil's New Zone

1999-04-13 Thread Brad Bechtel

PHIL'S NEW ZONE
Grateful Dead bassist is feeling fine after his successful liver transplant and will 
celebrate with three shows at the Warfield 
Bassist Returns to Stage in Phil Lesh & Friends Shows 
James Sullivan, Chronicle Staff Writer
Tuesday, April 13, 1999 
©1999 San Francisco Chronicle 

URL: 
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/1999/04/13/DD3153.DTL&type=music
 

When Phil Lesh went in for a liver transplant in December, old friend and transplant 
survivor David Crosby kidded him about his hospital gown. 

``He wanted a picture of me with my ass hanging out,'' Lesh says with a laugh. 

At the time, it was no laughing matter. Last September the Grateful Dead bassist, 59, 
was rushed to the hospital with an acute case of internal bleeding. After he had lived 
for years with the symptoms of liver disease, diagnosed in 1991 as hepatitis C, the 
infection finally caught up with him. 

This week Lesh celebrates his successful surgery, returning to the concert stage with 
three Phil Lesh & Friends shows at the Warfield. Proceeds from Thursday's opening 
night will benefit Lesh's Unbroken Chain foundation, which he plans to use to increase 
awareness about liver disease. 

He feels good. ``The doctors are extremely pleased,'' Lesh says in his first interview 
since the operation. ``The first weeks after the transplant they were using words like 
`beautiful' and `perfect.' There've been a couple of little bumps, but they've been 
minor ones.'' 

Helping himself to a piece of lemon cake, he's sitting alongside his wife, Jill, at 
the dining room table of their new Marin County home. Through tall plate-glass windows 
they share a view of the morning dew on the property's lush greenery. 

Having experienced a hepatitis ``flareup'' as far back as the early 1970s, Lesh 
cleaned up more than a decade ago, around the birth of his first of two sons, Grahame 
and Brian. He quit drinking, started exercising and became a vegetarian. 

Still, the disease began to affect his energy and appearance. Lesh struggled last 
summer through the first tour of the Other Ones, the eight-piece post-Dead group he 
established with band mates Bob Weir and Mickey Hart. He was 30 pounds underweight. 
But the performances drew raves from fans and critics around the country and kept him 
going. 

``You can be in bad shape, and if the music is happening you don't even notice,'' Lesh 
says. ``When I was playing with those guys, I was in heaven.'' 

But when he got home, he knew it was time to deal with his illness. ``People were 
saying, `Wow, you don't look good, man,' '' he says. 

``You could see he was gray,'' says his wife, who lost her father to liver cancer 
several years ago. 

As word spread of Lesh's illness, the Deadhead community rallied via the Internet. 
``One Sunday just before we went out of town (to the Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville, 
Fla.), they all agreed to send me good vibes at the same time. 

``We sat out here'' -- he waves a hand at the porch -- ``and you could feel it.'' 

Such serenity, he says, isn't always the norm within the Dead camp. ``After Jerry 
(Garcia) died there was a lot of stress in the organization. We had to consolidate our 
operations, and there was resistance to that.'' 

Lesh's wife now goes to the Dead's board meetings. ``While Jerry was alive, let me 
say, it wasn't as difficult as it is now,'' he says. ``Now I feel I'm in the minority 
most of the time.'' 

After Garcia's death in 1995, Lesh fought against bringing investors into the Dead 
fold, which was reeling from the loss of its touring income. ``Phil was kind of the 
lone cowboy,'' says his wife. ``It seemed like a quick fix at the time, but then you'd 
be hearing `Truckin' ' for Chevy trucks and stuff like that.'' 

When the Other Ones formed a year ago, there was much speculation over who would take 
Garcia's place. The band compromised, hitting the road with two guitarists, Steve 
Kimock and Mark Karan. (Kimock and Other Ones drummer John Molo will play in Lesh's 
band this week, along with guitarist Trey Anastasio and keyboardist Page McConnell of 
the band Phish.) 

Lesh fought to keep the Other Ones lineup compact. ``I know that it could be even more 
successful musically if there wasn't quite so much clutter -- not so much solo after 
solo after solo, but more of a conversation. Which was what the Grateful Dead were all 
about.'' 

Originally intended as a one-time reunion, the Other Ones were preparing to tour again 
this summer. Lesh declined. 

``It was not so much a question of my health as the issues that are still 
unresolved,'' he says. Among other things, the band needs new material, he says. 

``Otherwise it's just going to be the best Grateful Dead cover band in the world,'' he 
chuckles, folding his hands. 

In the meantime, he is returning to his early training as a classical composer, 
working on a ``symphonic tapestry'' of Dead riffs and themes tentatively titled ``Keys 
to the Rain.'' 

Re: pedal steel player search

1999-04-13 Thread Brad Bechtel

where do i look in the metro Washington DC area for a steel player?  anyone out there 
know anybody? is there a list for steel players? 

Visit the Steel Guitar Forum at http://www.b0b.com/forum and place an advertisement in 
the "Bar Chatter" section (or whatever section appears appropriate).  You have a very 
good chance of finding someone through this site.  Good luck!



___
Brad's Page of Steel:
http://www.well.com/user/wellvis/steel.html
A web site devoted to acoustic and electric lap steel guitars



RE: SOTD

1999-04-12 Thread Brad Bechtel

I don't have time to do it myself, but maybe one of you slackers can visit 
http://www.allmusic.com and count the references for each SOTD nominee.  Personally I 
think David Lindley might be in the running as well.



Re: Jerry Byrd, was: Boudin Barndance

1999-04-10 Thread Brad Bechtel

And wasn't that 50s/60s country session guitarist, Garland (Hank or Wayne?), a jazz 
guitarist, too? -- Terry Smith

It was Hank Garland.  His "Jazz Winds From A New Direction" was the debut recording of 
vibraphonist Gary Burton, and was straightahead jazz.  Quite good, too, if you like 
that sort of thing.




RE: Jerry Byrd, was: Boudin Barndance

1999-04-10 Thread Brad Bechtel

At 09:03 PM 4/9/99 -0400, you wrote:
>I have a cassette of some Hawaiian stuff by Byrd, called Byrd Of Paradise,
>but since it's on CBS Special Products I'm inclined to think this was stuff
>he was doing earlier than the CDs you mentioned, Brad.

Actually, "Byrd of Paradise" is among his weaker Hawaiian material.  And by all means 
stay away from "Paradise Suite", his ill-conceived concept album.  Imagine Hawaiian 
guitar and marching band. (Shudder...)

np: the theme to "Recess" on ABC's One Saturday Morning in the other room.



Jerry Byrd, was: Boudin Barndance

1999-04-09 Thread Brad Bechtel

Jerry Byrd has a few of his Hawaiian CDs available through such excellent
web sites as Auntie Maria's Hawaiian Music Island (http://www.mele.com).
Particularly recommended is "Steel Guitar Hawaiian Style", Lehua SLCD 7023.
This release is cited as the first Hawaiian steel/slack key duet to be
issued, although there's some doubt in my mind as to that being true (I
think the Sons of Hawaii were doing such things in the early 60's).

I agree that a comprehensive overview of his contribution to country music
is sadly lacking.  I never see such classics as "Steelin the Blues" on
compilations; what's wrong with Mercury's reissue department? Jerry Byrd was
a notable session steel guitarist during much of the "classic country"
period, appearing on releases by Chet Atkins, Hank Snow, Marty Robbins, Roy
Clark, Ernest Tubb, Hank Williams, Patti Page, Burl Ives, Jimmy Wakely, Red
Foley and many others.





Announce: Dallis Craft's SF Barndance

1999-04-09 Thread Brad Bechtel

Found this on the newsgroup ba.music and thought some of you might be interested.  

Dallis Craft's SF Barndance A weekly music event! 
At Demarco's 23 Club at 115 Visitacion Way in Brisbane

Featuring : Dallis Craft and the Sofa Kings

5/4/99 -  
California Cowboys 
Jim Campilongo and the Ten Gallon Cats 
Dave Thom Band 
Larry Dunn ( of The Rhythm Sheiks )

All this followed by a Working Musician jam

Showtime : 8pm to 12 midnite May 4th, 1999 continuing every Tuesday night

There will be NO COVER CHARGE!!!

Inspired by Ronnie Mack's LA Barndance, and the Western Beat barndance in Nashville ( 
where Dallis was in the house band). The Barndance will showcase the best in local and 
national Americana, in a music friendly environment. The Demarco's 23 Club is an 
historical honky tonk,  Hank Williams, Johnny Cash and Patsy Cline all performed 
there. Dallis and cohort Paul Olguin are planning to make the show a live radio 
broadcast. They will also be offering a web page with links to websites of featured 
performers, participating radio stations, record labels and sponsors. For more info on 
getting booked to play the Barndance: call Dallis at 415.382.6640 or Paul at 
650.355.5953 or E-mail [EMAIL PROTECTED] .



Re: MC5 / roir

1999-04-08 Thread Brad Bechtel

http://www.roir-usa.com/mc5.htm should give you as much information as you need about 
the MC5 compilation on ROIR.



Re: Japanese hipsterism....

1999-04-08 Thread Brad Bechtel

The most unpopular artist, but certainly the most famous, would have to be Yoko Ono.

There's a good list of famous Japanese at this URL:
http://www.kyoto-su.ac.jp/information/famous/nns.html

np: Sukiyaki



Re: Clip: MP3 in Nashville

1999-04-08 Thread Brad Bechtel

Number 4 on the top 30 downloads at http://www.mp3.com is "James Alley Blues" by Roger 
McGuinn.   He's really taken to this technology.



Re: television / roir

1999-04-07 Thread Brad Bechtel

http://roir-usa.com/ is the ROIR web site.  They have the new Television "The Blow-Up" 
CD listed (with liner notes by Christgau!) along with releases by Johnny Thunders, 
James Chance and the Contortions, and the Dictators.  They also have an interesting 
line of dub and reggae for those of you who like this sort of thing.



Re: Television Live (and twangless)

1999-04-07 Thread Brad Bechtel

Television isn't quite as twangless as you'd think, in my opinion.  They are played a 
different sort of twang than most of us are used to hearing.  In my opinion, they 
could have been one of the great bands of the 70s, had they not been sidetracked by 
drug abuse.  Tom Verlaine's vocals were an acquired taste, but one I certainly 
acquired.

I'm sure I wasn't the only person who spent time trying to align a cassette recording 
of both sides of the "Little Johnny Jewel" 45 so they played in sync.  I later bought 
the big EP version (which I still have somewhere).

More TV facts: Richard Lloyd also played with John Doe,  on his CD "Meet John Doe".  
And Billy Ficca was the drummer for the Waitresses ("I Know What Boys Like").

np in my head: "Prove It"



Re: Hong Kong Music

1999-04-06 Thread Brad Bechtel

http://destinations.previewtravel.com/DestGuides/0,1208,WEB_98,00.html has a good 
overview of whazzup in the former colony.

I don't think you'd like most of the Hong Kong popular music (based on what I hear 
here in San Francisco - not enough twang).  You should be able to get incredible deals 
on (bootlegged) software and electronics of all kinds.

When my relatives went  to Hong Kong, they bought clothing.

Just trying to be helpful.



Re: CD Length?

1999-04-04 Thread Brad Bechtel

Anyone happen to know the maximun amount of music that can fit on a single CD?

If you're using the industry standard 16 bit 44 kHz audio format, 74 minutes is the 
maximum amount you can cram onto a CD.  Mission of Burma has a CD out on Rykodisc that 
featured about 80 minutes, but some of those songs sound like they're recorded at a 
lower rate.

Of course, using MP3 compression (or one of the many similar compression schemes out 
there) you can fit considerably more music onto a CD.  In this case, though, the music 
is treated more like computer data; it has to go through an additional decompression 
stage before being translated into something your stereo and speakers will understand.

The story I've heard is that the 74 minute length was chosen because it could 
comfortably fit Beethoven's Ninth Symphony, a particular favorite of the person at 
Sony who made the decision.

De nada,

Brad



Re: http://www.vivid.com

1999-04-01 Thread Brad Bechtel

My apologies for posting a fluffy URL to this list.  I meant to send it to the 
Twangfest list but got confused for a second.



http://www.vivid.com

1999-04-01 Thread Brad Bechtel

Number two in a series:

http://www.vivid.com




FYI: SF Bay Area Rockabilly/Country schedule

1999-04-01 Thread Brad Bechtel

FRIDAY  APRIL 2
Jeff Bright & the Sunshine Boys @ Ivy Room, 858 San Pablo/Solano, Albany 10pm
Sean Kennedy & King Kats @ Fog Bank, 211 Esplande, Capitola 8pm
Cheseseballs/Chicken Coupe DeVille @ Slim's, 333 11th St./Folsom, San 
Francisco 9pm $12

SATURDAY  APRIL 3
Jeff Bright & the Sunshine Boys @ Club DeLuxe, 1509-11 Haight, San Francisco 
10pm
The Bachelors @ The Saloon, 1232 Grant, San Francisco 930pm

MONDAY  APRIL 5
The Bachelors @ The Saloon, 1232 Grant, San Francisco 930pm

WEDNESDAY  APRIL 7
Wildfire Willie & the Ramblers @ DeMarco's 23 Club, 23 Visitacion, Brisbane 9pm
Lucky Diaz & the High Rollers @ Agenda Lounge, 399 S. 1st, SJ 10pm
The Hepsters @ Moe's Alley, 1535 Commercial Way, Santa Cruz

FRIDAY  APRIL 9
The Bachelors @ Pat O'Shea's Mad Hatter, 3848 Geary, SF 930pm

SATURDAY  APRIL 10
Sonny George & Tennessee Sons/Rockin' Lloyd Tripp & the Zipguns @ Elbo Room, 
647 Valencia, San Francisco
The Bachelors @ 4 Dueces, 2319 Taraval, San Francisco 9pm

SUNDAY  APRIL 11
The Go-Getters @ Fuel, 44 Almaden Ave., San José  430pm
Jesse & the Moonshots @ Club DeLuxe, 1509-11 Haight, SF 930pm

MONDAY  APRIL 12
The Bachelors @ The Saloon, 1232 Grant, San Francisco 930pm

TUESDAY  APRIL 13
Rockin' Billy & his Wild Coyotes @ Fuel, 44 Almaden Ave., SJ  9pm $3

WEDNESDAY  APRIL 14
Deke Dickerson & Ecco-Fonics @ Agenda Lounge, 399 S. 1st, SJ 10pm
The Rounders @ Elbo Room, 647 Valencia, San Francisco
The Hepsters @ Moe's Alley, 1535 Commercial Way, Santa Cruz

THURSDAY  APRIL 15
The Chop Tops @ Moe's Alley, 1535 Commercial Way, Santa Cruz

FRIDAY  APRIL 16
Big Sandy & his Fly-Rite Boys/Deke Dickerson & the Ecco-Fonics @ Bimbo's 365 
Club, 1025 Columbus, San Francisco 9pm $13
Sean Kennedy & King Kats @ Fog Bank, 211 Esplande, Capitola 8pm

MONDAY  APRIL 19
The Bachelors @ The Saloon, 1232 Grant, San Francisco 930pm

TUESDAY  APRIL 20
The Hillbilly Hellcats @ Fuel, 44 Almaden Ave., San José  9pm $3

WEDNESDAY  APRIL 21
Jeff Bright & Sunshine Boys @ Cafe DuNord, 2170 Market, SF 10pm
The Hillbilly Hellcats @ Elbo Room, 647 Valencia, San Francisco
The Hepsters @ Moe's Alley, 1535 Commercial Way, Santa Cruz

FRIDAY  APRIL 23
Hootenanny Tour: Lee Rocker/Russell Scott & Red Hots/Paladins/ Rattled 
Roosters/Chop Tops @ Palookaville, 1133 Pacific, Santa Cruz
Deke Dickerson & the Ecco-Phonics @ The Catalyst, 1011 Pacific, Santa Cruz

SATURDAY  APRIL 24
Jeff Bright & Sunshine Boys @ DeMarco's, 23 Visitacion, Brisbane
Lee Rocker @ Cocodrie, 1024 Kearney, San Francisco
Deke Dickerson & the Ecco-Phonics/Johnny Dilks & the Visitacion Valley Boys @ 
Starry Plough, 3101 Shattuck, Berkeley 945pm $6

SUNDAY  APRIL 25
BR5-49 @ Slim's, 333 11th St./Folsom, San Francisco
Randy Rich & the Poor Boys @ Club DeLuxe, 1509-11 Haight, San Francisco 930pm

MONDAY  APRIL 26
The Bachelors @ The Saloon, 1232 Grant, San Francisco 930pm

TUESDAY  APRIL 27
Randy Rich & the Poor Boys @ Fuel, 44 Almaden Ave., SJ 9pm $3

WEDNESDAY  APRIL 28
Jeff Bright & Sunshine Boys @ Agenda Lounge, 399 S. 1st, SJ 10pm
Blue Bell Wranglers @ Elbo Room, 647 Valencia, San Francisco
Cadillac Angels @ Henfling's Tavern, 9450 Hwy 9, Ben Lomond
The Chop Tops @ The Catalyst (in the atrium), 1011 Pacific, Santa Cruz

MONDAY  MAY 3
The Bachelors @ Lou's Pier 47, 300 Jefferson, San Francisco 4pm
The Bachelors @ The Saloon, 1232 Grant, San Francisco 930pm

TUESDAY  MAY 4
Cadillac Angels @ Fuel, 44 Almaden Ave., San José 9pm

SATURDAY  MAY 8
The Bachelors @ 4 Dueces, 2319 Taraval, San Francisco 9pm

MONDAY  MAY 10
The Bachelors @ The Saloon, 1232 Grant, San Francisco 930pm

MONDAY  MAY 17
The Bachelors @ The Saloon, 1232 Grant, San Francisco 930pm

WEDNESDAY  MAY 19
Buck Owens, Red Meat @ Bimbo's 365 Club, 1025 Columbus, San Francisco

SATURDAY  MAY 22
Deke Dickerson & the Ecco-Phonics/Cadillac Angels/The Chop Tops @ The 
Catalyst, 1011 Pacific, Santa Cruz

MONDAY  MAY 24
The Bachelors @ The Saloon, 1232 Grant, San Francisco 930pm

THURSDAY  MAY 27
The Bachelors @ Lou's Pier 47, 300 Jefferson, San Francisco 9pm

MONDAY  MAY 31
The Bachelors @ The Saloon, 1232 Grant, San Francisco 930pm

Steve Hathaway
San Jose, California
[EMAIL PROTECTED]



Clip:Big business means discord for small bands

1999-04-01 Thread Brad Bechtel

http://www.usatoday.com/life/music/lmds503.htm

Big business means discord for small bands

By Bruce Haring, USA TODAY

Some of your favorite musicians may soon be looking for work.

Seagram-owned Universal Music Group, which became the largest record company in the 
world late last year thanks to its $10 billion merger with PolyGram Entertainment, is 
trimming its roster.

The goal: Sell more records by focusing marketing, promotion and publicity efforts on 
fewer artists.

While such Universal Music superstars as Sheryl Crow, Shania Twain, Hole and U2 have 
nothing to worry about, many lesser-known acts are sweating harder than the act 
following the banjo player at the county fair. As many as 400 to 500 bands may face 
the blade over the next few months, according to various estimates by industry 
insiders.

Those most at risk: acts that are perceived to have either no real shot at developing 
into multimillion-selling acts, the lifeblood of big record companies, or lack the hip 
cachet that would attract new bands to the labels.

The winnowing process isn't being taken lightly. Universal executives on both coasts 
have spent the last three months studying the artist rosters of the combined 
companies, listening to music, going to live shows, and interviewing musicians and 
managers.

As might be expected, the mood in the music industry is grim.

"Personally, I've never seen anything like this," says "Big" Jon Platt, a vice 
president for EMI Music Publishing, a company not affected by the merger. "Usually, it 
would be like, 'Oh, well,' in this business. This time, people were really affected by 
it because I think they think next time it could be them."

Doug Morris, chairman of Universal Music Group, says any cuts are strictly up to the 
tastes of his label heads, which include such industry heavies as Interscope's Jimmy 
Iovine, a former engineer for Bruce Springsteen and U2 whose taste for cutting-edge 
acts helped make the label one of the success stories of the 1990s.

"And I don't want it done in a cookie-cutter kind of way where (the labels) all look 
the same," Morris says. "They're going to have their own shades and flavors and have 
different philosophies about how to break records, about what kind of videos to make, 
about how to market records."

So far, the upheavals have produced few surprises and little real action. U2 has been 
shifted to Interscope Records from its longtime home at Island; Boyz II Men have left 
Motown for Universal.

Most of the artists who have already been pink-slipped by Universal are little known 
(MCA's Dance Hall Crashers is one example), with many having yet to release a record.

The most intriguing names on the potential drop list are churned by the rumor mill, 
most of them failing to pan out: Lionel Richie (no, says a spokesperson, although 
Richie has yet to meet his new bosses); South Park theme composers Primus (no, says 
management, merely a rumor likely started by a Web site); popsters Weezer (no comment 
from management); experimentalists Sonic Youth (no); mope-rocker Morrissey ("no 
information at this time," says a spokesperson); and Paula Abdul (also "no information 
at this time").

The acts being dropped by Universal are "the superstars of niche," according to 
Alternative Distribution Alliance president Andy Allen, who heads the Time Warner 
division that handles distribution for small projects and affiliated labels.

For example, Allen hypothetically cites "a metal band that might sell 100,000 to 
150,000 units, which may not be enough to sustain their existence at a major, but is a 
great band to have at an indie label."

In the wake of the cutbacks at Universal, many observers are predicting a renaissance 
of small, niche-oriented independent labels, many of them eager to snap up the spoils.

Jonathan First, president of Edel America Records, a cash-rich European indie now 
making inroads into the USA, is one potential customer. First says his company is 
looking for "young talent."

"A lot of the acts that were developed at Geffen and A&M haven't even had the chance 
to come out yet, and some of them are quite good," First says.

"What we do is evaluate the credibility and quality of the music, and also think about 
the marketing of the act. We have to really believe we can do something with it. We 
don't sign many things here, but what we do sign, we really, really work."

Dan Beck, president of Richard Branson's V2 Records, says he's also shopping. "For us, 
we'd be very excited about an act that had 10,000 or 20,000 units they had sold and 
had started to establish something," Beck says. "It might be called a failure (at a 
major label), but it could be just the first step toward success."

Despite the robust indie market, artists shouldn't dawdle about finding a new home, 
industry observers say. The cost efficiencies achieved by lopping acts at Universal 
are going to be watched very closely at other record companies owned by multinati

Making laptop batteries more efficient

1999-04-01 Thread Brad Bechtel

One in a series.

http://www.compaq.com.au/dynamouse/productinfo.html?productID=dynaF1




Re: tasteless epiphone elvis model guitar

1999-04-01 Thread Brad Bechtel

http://www1.gibson.com/cgi-bin/epiphone/epi-inst.pl?ID=EAEP is the guitar Kip wants.

Your local guitar outlet should be able to order one for you from Epiphone.  Good 
luck, and remember - it can't be tasteless if it has Elvis on it.




Clip: RIAA's 1998 Consumer Profile

1999-04-01 Thread Brad Bechtel

http://www.riaa.com/stats/press/consumer98.htm

RECORDING INDUSTRY RELEASES 1998 CONSUMER PROFILE 
R&B and Gospel Growth Continues, Women Again Outpurchase Men, and Online Sales Triple



WASHINGTON, March 23, 1999 – Today, the Recording Industry Association of America, 
which represents U.S. record labels, released its annual demographic survey of 3,051 
music purchasers in the United States.  “Several interesting profiles emerged in 1998, 
including the boom in R&B and Gospel, as well as the sharp decline in Rock sales,” 
said Hilary Rosen, RIAA president and CEO. “Demographic shifts also continued with 
women outbuying men for the second year, and a drop in purchases among 15 to 29 
year-olds, contrasted by significant growth among those age 35 and older.” 

Last month, the RIAA released its annual year-end shipments statistics, which revealed 
the size of the domestic sound recording industry in 1998 to be $13.7 billion. 

The following are highlights from the 1998 Sound Recording Consumer Profile: 

Genre: Rock and Country maintained their decade-long domination of the market, 
although Rock continued to decline, dropping from 32.5% in 1997 to 25.7% last year. 
The absence of hits from established Rock artists, the continued decline of the Rock 
sub-genre, Alternative (down from 11% to 9%, not broken out on the chart), the 
shrinkage of buyers in the 20-24 age bracket, once a stronghold for Rock, may all be 
contributing factors to Rock’s decline. With 14.1% of the market, Country remained 
stable and was able to maintain its second place market position.  

Meanwhile, the hot genres of 1998 were R&B, Gospel, and Soundtracks. R&B growth (from 
11.2% in 1997 to 12.8% last year) came mainly in the 35+ age group, and can be 
attributed to the success of artists such as the triple-Platinum award winner Lauryn 
Hill, Brian McKnight, Levert, Sweat & Gill, Erykah Badu, Jon B. and Janet Jackson.  

Gospel has surged from 4.5% in 1997 to 6.3% last year, showing the greatest market 
growth of any genre. Its increasing popularity over the past three years is due 
largely to the cross-over success of a number of Gospel/Christian artists who appeal 
to R&B, Pop, Country and Rock fans. Of particular note last year was Kirk Franklin’s 
“The Nu Nation Project,” which certified Platinum and peaked at number seven on the 
Billboard album charts, Lee Ann Rimes’ “You Light Up My Life,” DC Talk’s “Super 
Natural,” and Point of Grace’s “Steady On.” Also extremely popular were the children’s 
video “Veggie Tales,” and the inspirational soundtrack to “The Prince of Egypt.”  

Other blockbuster movie soundtracks – including “City of Angels,” “The Wedding 
Singer,” “Armageddon,” “Hope Floats,” and the “Titanic” of them all – propelled this 
genre’s growth from 1.2% to 1.7% last year. And Classical enjoyed a healthy year (2.8% 
to 3.3%) also driven by purchases of Titanic which, with sales of more than 10 
million, is the best selling orchestral soundtrack in history.  

Gender: Continuing the trend from last year, women accounted for a higher percentage 
of units purchased than men (51.3% vs. 48.7%). Women over 30 accounted for the largest 
share of purchases, and their genres of choice are Pop and Country (65% and 60% 
respectively). 
This increase in buying among older women can be attributed to the Titanic 
“phenomenon,” along with the success of artists such as Celine Dion, Shania Twain, 
Jewel, Sarah McLachlan, Sheryl Crow and Mariah Carey. Conversely, men under 30 
outpaced their older counterparts, and Rock dominated their purchases followed by a 
combination of R&B and Rap (62% and 51% respectively). 

Age: The trend towards an older purchasing demographic continued. In fact, consumers 
over 30 were the only age demographic to show any growth last year. Consumers 35 years 
and older accounted for 39% of the units purchased in 1998 compared to 22.1% 10 years 
ago. In 1998, 12% of all purchases were made by those 50 years of age and older 
compared to just 6%, 10 years ago.  Country and Pop dominate the music choices made by 
these mature consumers, accounting for 51% and 53% respectively of all purchases 
within these genres. Also, a drop-off in the proportion of purchases accounted for by 
15 to 24 year-olds (32.2% in 1996 vs. 28% in 1998), once the mainstay of the market, 
continues.  

Configuration:  Accounting for 74.8% of the total market, full-length CDs were 
consumed at a greater rate in 1998 than in the past four years.  Full-length 
cassettes, while maintaining their second place position, continued their gradual 
decade-long decline (18.2% to 14.8%).  Singles declined more than 2% last year, music 
videos recovered their 1996 market share of 1% and vinyl maintained at 0.7% 

Outlet: Last year, more music consumers (86%) shopped at retail outlets than in the 
past eight years. However, the gap continues to narrow between purchases made a

Guinness Fleadh 99 in SF

1999-03-31 Thread Brad Bechtel

Big full page ad in the SF Weekly for this year's version of the CSRF called Guinness 
Fleadh:

Van Morrison
Elvis Costello
Ben Harper
John Lee Hooker
The Cardigans
Moxy Fruvous

On the VH1 Stage:
Shane MacGowan
Saw Doctors
John Prine
Dave Alvin
John Martyn
Eleanor McEvoy

On the Irish Village Stage:
Luka Bloom
Martin Sexton
Young Dubliners
Shana Morrison (Van's daughter)
Too Cynical To Cry

Golden Gate Park, the Polo Field, 10:30-6 Saturday June 5.
http://www.guinnessfleadh.com for more.



Clip: Mojo Nixon on MP3.com

1999-03-30 Thread Brad Bechtel

http://www.mp3.com/news/205.html

Mojo Nixon Sounds Off! 

By Mojo Nixon 

March 20, 1999 

[Editor's Note: Mojo "Bring Me The Head Of David Geffen" Nixon stops by this week to 
let off some steam the only way he knows how (parental guidance suggested). For those 
of you not familiar with Mr. Nixon--first off, shame on you--he is a national 
treasure; one of rock's most profane and insane. As Rolling Stone wrote, "It's Nixon's 
crusading commitment to raw, stripped down rock'n'roll and his anger at all things 
that defile and dilute it that make such a bracing tonic in these bland and kingless 
times." 

Mojo and his new label Shanachie were kind enough to let us be the first to post "I 
Don't Want No Cybersex" 
(http://www.mp3.com/artists/14/mojo_nixon__the_toadliquors.html) from his outstanding 
new album, "The Real Sock Ray Blue" (due in stores March 23). If your MP3 collection 
don't have Mojo Nixon, then your MP3 collection needs some fixin'!] 

Mojo says:

"A bunch of lyin,' cheatin' Record Company creatins are gonna start spewing a giant 
line of bullshit about how artists must be protected from MP3.com--about how the 
Internet is gonna ruin their criminal Spice/Hootie cash grab--about how there must be 
regulations and the Rio must be outlawed and that there must be "industry" consensus 
on how to keep ass-fucking the artists and keep those uppity cash cow kids in their 
place. 

People, don't believe The Big Lie from big brother NARAS, major record labels, the 
RIAA, etc.! The real question is not who the artist is going to get screwed by and how 
the artist is going to get screwed. It's is he/she gonna control their own their own 
exploitation or is some coke-snorting, L.A. shyster surrounded by scum lawyers gonna 
suck the talent dry from our best and brightest rock and rollers? 

I don't care what you make illegal--the future cannot be stopped. Not only is MP3 just 
the tip of the iceberg, but Internet radio, Rios, and even PC car radios are coming 
faster than Madonna. This ain't about piracy or bootlegs or artistic integrity. This 
is about monopolies, capitalism, and the man keeping us down. Fuck the man! Let 
freedom ring! Let 1,000 flowers bloom! 

I'm putting my song, "I Don't Want No Cybersex" on MP3.com for free to spread the word 
of the insanity that is me. Hell, you can still buy my CD if you want to or resurrect 
my former Web site Mojo World and become a Mojoholic or Mojonite. Alas, the guy who 
used to run it is currently residing in a state institution for the criminally insane. 

Anyway, you get the picture. Download my song, fight the power, cry havoc, and let rip 
the dogs of war as we proud, few nut jobs, begin to visualize armed insurrection." 



Sweet Chaos

1999-03-29 Thread Brad Bechtel

I've been reading Sweet Chaos : The Grateful Dead's American Adventure, which I 
thought was going to be more about the Grateful Dead's process of becoming an 
institution in American music, but which is really more about the author's experiences 
in the 1960s and how the Dead related to them.  

There is a need for someone to illuminate how this ragtag band of hippies became one 
of the top concert attractions for the past 30 years.  This book certainly doesn't do 
it.  The author had the access to many key people within the Dead's organization, but 
doesn't seem to have understood what to do with the information they provided.

Plus it really bothers me when one of the pictures supposedly portrays Jerry Garcia 
playing banjo with the New Riders of the Purple Sage, and the person shown is playing 
a bass guitar and is obviously NOT Garcia as shown by the other photos in the book.



Re: Ranchera?

1999-03-28 Thread Brad Bechtel

http://www.mariachi.org has a number of fine links to many Mexican music sites.  
Vincente Fernandez, Juan Gabriel, Lola Beltran and Lydia Mendoza are among the names 
that pop up frequently while searching the net for "musica ranchera".  Also check out 
http://www.elmariachi.com for some further exploration.

I would agree that Arhoolie (http://www.arhoolie.com) has the finest selection of 
Mexican music for non-Mexicans, particularly when it comes to historic recordings.  
Their budget priced CD series has a particularly good compilation of Mexican music 
that's well worth picking up.



FYI:SF Bay Area RAB/Country Calendar

1999-03-25 Thread Brad Bechtel

I've taken the liberty of adding a date in here.  I'll be playing with a band called 
JelloHat (name created from the combination of two band members' names - Hatfield and 
Gelormini) at the Velvet Lounge in North Beach on Wednesday, March 31.  We're not 
quite country - we have a saxophonist who's quite good - but it should be interesting. 
 Unfortunately we're playing the same night as Hal Peters.  Please GO to one of these 
shows if you're in the area.
=
From: Steve Hathaway ([EMAIL PROTECTED])
Subject: SF Bay Area RAB/Country Calendar

WEDNESDAY  MARCH 24
The Chop Tops @ The Catalyst, 1011 Pacific, Santa Cruz 9pm (in the Atrium)
The Haywoods @ Elbo Room, 647 Valencia, San Francisco

THURSDAY  MARCH 25
Sean Kennedy & the King Kats @ Moe's Alley, 1535 Commercial Way, Santa Cruz  
930pm CD release party

FRIDAY  MARCH 26
James Intveld/Red Meat/Bud E. Luv @ Transmission Theatre, 11th St./Folsom, San 
Francisco
The Hepsters @ Murphy's Law, 135 S. Murphy, Sunnyvale

SATURDAY  MARCH 27
Bland Ol' Opry: Supersuckers/Gerald Collier/Wilson Gil & the Willful Sinners @ 
Cocodrie, 1024 Kearney, San Francisco 9pm

SUNDAY  MARCH 28
Hot Dogs & Hot Rods: The Stillmen/Rockin' Lloyd Tripp & the Zipguns/ Gerard 
Landry & the Lariats @ Bottom of the Hill, 1233 17th St., SF noon $5 all you can eat 
BBQ
Darrin Stout & the Starlighters @ Club DeLuxe, 1509-11 Haight, SF 930pm

MONDAY  MARCH 29
The Bachelors @ The Saloon, 1232 Grant, San Francisco

TUESDAY  MARCH 30
Hal Peters & his String Dusters/Johnny Dilks & the Visitacion Valley Boys @ 
Fuel, 44 Almaden Ave./Post, San José  9pm

WEDNESDAY  MARCH 31
Hal Peters & his String Dusters/Johnny Dilks & the Visitacion Valley Boys @ 
DeMarco's 23 Club, 23 Visitacion, Brisbane 9pm
JelloHat at the Velvet Lounge, 443 Broadway, 9:30pm

WEDNESDAY  APRIL 7
Wildfire Willie & the Ramblers @ DeMarco's 23 Club, 23 Visitacion, Brisbane 9pm
Lucky Diaz & the High Rollers @ Agenda Lounge, 399 S. 1st, San José 10pm

SATURDAY  APRIL 10
Sonny George & Tennessee Sons/Rockin' Lloyd Tripp & the Zipguns @ Elbo Room, 
647 Valencia, San Francisco

SUNDAY  APRIL 11
Jesse & the Moonshots @ Club DeLuxe, 1509-11 Haight, San Francisco 930pm

TUESDAY  APRIL 13
Rockin' Billy & his Wild Coyotes @ Fuel, 44 Almaden Ave., SJ  9pm $3

WEDNESDAY  APRIL 14
Deke Dickerson & the Ecco-Fonics @ Agenda Lounge, 399 S. 1st, SJ 10pm
The Rounders @ Elbo Room, 647 Valencia, San Francisco

THURSDAY  APRIL 14
The Chop Tops @ Moe's Alley, 1535 Commercial Way, Santa Cruz

FRIDAY  APRIL 16
Big Sandy & his Fly-Rite Boys/Deke Dickerson & the Ecco-Fonics @ Bimbo's 365 
Club, 1025 Columbus, San Francisco 9pm $13

TUESDAY  APRIL 20
The Hillbilly Hellcats @ Fuel, 44 Almaden Ave., San José  9pm $3

WEDNESDAY  APRIL 21
The Hillbilly Hellcats @ Elbo Room, 647 Valencia, San Francisco

FRIDAY  APRIL 23
Hootenanny Tour: Lee Rocker/Russell Scott & Red Hots/Paladins/Rattled 
Roosters/The Chop Tops @ Palookaville, 1133 Pacific, Santa Cruz

SATURDAY  APRIL 24
BR5-49 @ Slim's, 333 11th St./Folsom, San Francisco
Lee Rocker @ Cocodrie, 1024 Kearney, San Francisco
Deke Dickerson & the Ecco-Phonics/Johnny Dilks & the Visitacion Valley Boys @ 
Starry Plough, 3101 Shattuck, Berkeley 945pm $6

TUESDAY  APRIL 27
Randy Rich & the Poor Boys @ Fuel, 44 Almaden Ave., San José 9pm $3

WEDNESDAY  APRIL 28
Jeff Bright & the Sunshine Boys @ Agenda Lounge, 399 S. 1st, SJ 10pm
Blue Bell Wranglers @ Elbo Room, 647 Valencia, San Francisco
Cadillac Angels @ Henfling's Tavern, 9450 Hwy 9, Ben Lomond

TUESDAY  MAY 4
Cadillac Angels @ Fuel, 44 Almaden Ave., San José 9pm

WEDNESDAY  MAY 19
Buck Owens @ Bimbo's 365 Club, 1025 Columbus, San Francisco

SATURDAY  MAY 22
Deke Dickerson & the Ecco-Phonics/Cadillac Angels/The Chop Tops @
The Catalyst, 1011 Pacific, Santa Cruz

Please come out and see Hal Peters & the String Dusters with Johnny Dilks at Fuel next 
Tuesday. This is the bands first trip from Finland. They have a great late 40s western 
swing/honk tonk style, featuring killer steel guitar from Lester Peabody.

Next week's calendar may be late due to my returning from Viva Las Vegas and job 
situation. Hope to see some of you at Fuel or Vegas, 
Steve Hathaway
San Jose, California
[EMAIL PROTECTED]




FYI: Tut Taylor & Norman Blake live online

1999-03-22 Thread Brad Bechtel

>From Tut Taylor's excellent web site (now at http://www.tuttaylor.com):

Tut Taylor and Norman Blake will get together for a LIVE! online concert "Pickin' in 
Earl's Kitchen" on Solid Gold Bluegrass (http://www.solidgoldbluegrass.com). The date 
for this first-of-its-kind event for Tut and Norman is March 25th at 8 p.m. EST. It 
has been a long time since Tut and Norman have done a show and they promise a fun time 
for all! It will be interactive too - email requests and they'll do their best! They 
may even have a chat line running. Join Tut and Norman for this new-fangled old time 
online radio show and hear some great music from two good old friends. Be 'round or be 
square! 


___
Brad's Page of Steel:
http://www.well.com/user/wellvis/steel.html
A web site devoted to acoustic and electric lap steel guitars



Re: Help please ! (Tom House & Joseph Spence)

1999-03-19 Thread Brad Bechtel

Don't know anything about Tom House.

Joseph Spence was a Bahamian guitarist and stonemason who was discovered by blues 
ethnomusicologist Samuel Charters in 1958.  His syncopated fingerpicking style was a 
big influence on Ry Cooder among others.  There are several CDs of his music currently 
available; I own "The Complete Folkways Recordings, 1958" which was distributed by 
Rounder Records.  It's great stuff.

http://www.si.edu/folkways/40066.htm has a RealAudio clip of his music; 
http://www.indiana.edu/~smithcj/cjsbvoi2.html is an appreciation of his life and work. 

___
Brad's Page of Steel:
http://www.well.com/user/wellvis/steel.html
A web site devoted to acoustic and electric lap steel guitars



Clip: Guitar Remains At the Heart of Texas Festival

1999-03-19 Thread Brad Bechtel

Guitar Remains At the Heart of Texas Festival 
Beck, Waits, Williams at South by Southwest 
James Sullivan, Chronicle Staff  Writer 
Friday, March 19, 1999 

URL: 
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/1999/03/19/DD36403.DTL&type=music



The guitar cases were the first items off the plane Wednesday in Austin, Texas, home 
of the annual South by Southwest music conference, which takes place this week.

The music industry may be casting about for a new sound to flog, but the guitar still 
rules in Texas. On Wednesday night the veteran six-string dazzler Jeff Beck showcased 
his new album ``Who Else?'' at La Zona Rosa, tweaking his showy instrumentals with the 
anxious hubbub of electronica.

No one danced, of course. It was still rock 'n' roll, catering to a predominantly male 
audience with a collective case of slack-jaw. ``Hot damn!'' hollered one observer.

The festival organizers have been working to include a wider variety of music -- this 
year's lineup includes showcases for hip-hop and rock en Espanol -- but songwriting 
remains the prime focus at SXSW. Nouveau troubadours Beth Orton, Sparklehorse and the 
Old 97s are playing some of this year's most highly anticipated gigs.

Tomorrow's rare performance by Tom Waits, Sonoma's master of the eccentric ballad, is 
the conference's most coveted ticket.

Yesterday, Southern-drawlin' sweetheart Lucinda Williams delivered the keynote speech 
at the Austin Convention Center, the hub of SXSW. Proving that the stubborn rock 'n' 
roll lifestyle still appeals, Williams' ``Car Wheels on a Gravel Road'' recently beat 
out ``The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill'' for 1998's top album in the influential 
Village Voice critics' poll.

Her simple message, nervously accompanied by acoustic versions of some of her best 
songs, called for recording artists to stick to their guns. ``The whole music business 
has become corporate, and that's the problem,'' she said. ``I don't think the major 
labels are working anymore.''

The record companies are wondering the same thing. This year's panel discussions 
include a debate about downloading music from the Internet, one about Wall Street and 
the music industry and another titled ``How Will Consolidation Affect the Indie 
Scene?''

Other panels weren't quite so business- minded. One yesterday, called ``I Can't Help 
It If I'm Still in Love With You,'' celebrated the late Hank Williams' enduring 
influence; another, taking place today, looks at the long history of nonsense lyrics 
in rock 'n' roll.

On the Sixth Street nightclub drag and in the outlying clubs, the atmosphere is 
anything but academic. On Wednesday, several Bay Area bands vied for attention from 
the talent buyers, artist-and-repertoire people and other industry reps on hand.

Sacramento's Deathray, featuring two recently departed members of Cake, guitarist Greg 
Brown and bassist Victor Damiani, unveiled its Britpop fixation at the Steamboat, one 
of Sixth Street's more collegiate venues. Earlier in the day, the band mem bers made 
the rounds of Austin radio stations, playing a $5 Casio keyboard they picked up at a 
pawn shop ``straight from the airport,'' according to singer Dana Gumbiner.

Another no-frills joint called the Buffalo Club featured two bands on Sacramento's 
Future Farmer record label, Jackpot and Joaquina. With a wry hillbilly attitude (they 
covered ``Highway to Hell'') and some impressive jazzy interplay among the band's 
three members, Jackpot reconfirmed itself as one of Northern California's better live 
bands.

With little name recognition to speak of, however, its audience numbered in the dozens 
-- mostly University of Texas students, not Los Angeles talent scouts. A thousand 
bands will play in Austin before the weekend is over, many of them to crowds not much 
bigger than they're used to at home.

``Half of me feels happy to be here and the other half feels stupid,'' said Jackpot's 
bassist Sheldon Cooney, drinking a beer in a courtyard behind the club after his 
band's set.

His outfit, a short-sleeve dress shirt and a striped thrift-shop tie, made him look 
like a traveling salesman. Highly appropriate, given the self-promotional frenzy of 
SXSW.

Earlier in the evening, several blocks to the east of the commotion on Sixth Street, 
the San Francisco- based punky Latin soul band Los Mocosos headlined a relaxed 
community event on an outdoor soundstage next to a Little League game.

Texas is treating Los Mocosos well right now, with Latino and alternative radio 
stations picking up on the band's new single, ``Brown and Proud.''

Perhaps flush with his group's mounting success, lead singer Piero el Malo (formerly 
with Los Angelitos) poked some good-natured fun at his hometown. San Franciscans think 
all Texans wear cowboy hats, he said.

``What do you expect from a bunch of tofu-eatin' hippies?''



Interesting article on a new band from SF

1999-03-19 Thread Brad Bechtel

This one's too long to clip, so I'm posting the current URL.  The band is called Train 
and the article contains some interesting observations on a new band trying to make it 
big in today's musical business.

http://www.sfweekly.com/1999/current/music1.html

np: Tom Morrell and the Time Warp Tophands Go Uptown



Fwd: San Francisco Bay Area RAB/Country Calendar

1999-03-18 Thread Brad Bechtel

SATURDAY  MARCH 20
Cigar Store Indians @ Cafe DuNord, 2170 Market, San Francisco 10pm $7
Kountry K's @ El Rio, 3158 Mission, San Francisco

SUNDAY  MARCH 21
Rockin' Lloyd Tripp & Zipguns @ Club DeLuxe, 1509-11 Haight, SF 930pm
The Hepsters @ Moe's Alley, 1535 Commercial Way, Santa Cruz

MONDAY  MARCH 22
The Bachelors @ The Saloon, 1232 Grant, San Francisco

WEDNESDAY  MARCH 24
The Chop Tops @ The Catalyst, 1011 Pacific, Santa Cruz 9pm (in the Atrium)
The Haywoods @ Elbo Room, 647 Valencia, San Francisco record release party

THURSDAY  MARCH 25
Sean Kennedy & the King Kats @ Moe's Alley, 1535 Commercial Way, Santa Cruz  
930pm CD release party

FRIDAY  MARCH 26
James Intveld/Red Meat/Bud E. Luv @ Transmission Theatre, 11th St./Folsom, San 
Francisco
The Hepsters @ Murphy's Law, 135 S. Murphy, Sunnyvale

SUNDAY  MARCH 28
Hot Dogs & Hot Rods: The Stillmen/Rockin' Lloyd Tripp & the Zipguns/ Gerard 
Landry and the Lariats @ Bottom of the Hill, 1233 17th St., SF noon $5 all you can eat 
BBQ
Darrin Stout & the Starlighters @ Club DeLuxe, 1509-11 Haight, SF 930pm

MONDAY  MARCH 29
The Bachelors @ The Saloon, 1232 Grant, San Francisco

TUESDAY  MARCH 30
Hal Peters & his String Dusters/Johnny Dilks & the Visitacion Valley Boys @ 
Fuel, 44 Almaden Ave., San Jose  9pm

WEDNESDAY  MARCH 31
Hal Peters & his String Dusters/Johnny Dilks & the Visitacion Valley Boys @ 
DeMarco's 23 Club, 23 Visitacion, Brisbane 9pm

WEDNESDAY  APRIL 7
Wildfire Willie & the Ramblers @ DeMarco's 23 Club, 23 Visitacion, Brisbane 9pm
Lucky Diaz & the High Rollers @ Agenda Lounge, 399 S. 1st, San Jose
10pm

SATURDAY  APRIL 10
Sonny George & Tennessee Sons/Rockin' Lloyd Tripp & the Zipguns @ Elbo Room, 
647 Valencia, San Francisco

SUNDAY  APRIL 11
Jesse & the Moonshots @ Club DeLuxe, 1509-11 Haight, San Francisco 
930pm

TUESDAY  APRIL 13
Rockin' Billy & his Wild Coyotes @ Fuel, 44 Almaden Ave., SJ  9pm $3

WEDNESDAY  APRIL 14
Deke Dickerson & the Ecco-Fonics @ Agenda Lounge, 399 S. 1st, SJ 10pm
The Rounders @ Elbo Room, 647 Valencia, San Francisco

FRIDAY  APRIL 16
Big Sandy & his Fly-Rite Boys/Deke Dickerson & the Ecco-Fonics @ Bimbo's 365 
Club, 1025 Columbus, San Francisco 9pm $13

TUESDAY  APRIL 20
The Hillbilly Hellcats @ Fuel, 44 Almaden Ave., San Jose  9pm $3

WEDNESDAY  APRIL 21
The Hillbilly Hellcats @ Elbo Room, 647 Valencia, San Francisco

THURSDAY  APRIL 22
Deke Dickerson and the Ecco-Phonics/Cadillac Angels/The Chop Tops @ The 
Catalyst, 1011 Pacific, Santa Cruz

FRIDAY  APRIL 23
Hootenanny Tour: Lee Rocker/Russell Scott & his Red Hots/The Paladins/The Chop 
Tops @ Palookaville, 1133 Pacific, Santa Cruz

SATURDAY  APRIL 24
Lee Rocker @ Cocodrie, 1024 Kearney, San Francisco

TUESDAY  APRIL 27
Randy Rich & the Poor Boys @ Fuel, 44 Almaden Ave., San Jose 9pm $3

WEDNESDAY  APRIL 28
Jeff Bright & the Sunshine Boys @ Agenda Lounge, 399 S. 1st, SJ 10pm
Blue Bell Wranglers @ Elbo Room, 647 Valencia, San Francisco
Cadillac Angels @ Henfling's Tavern, 9450 Hwy 9, Ben Lomond

TUESDAY  MAY 4
Cadillac Angels @ Fuel, 44 Almaden Ave., San Jose 9pm

That's it this week. Urge everyone who likes late 40s style country to see the shows 
at end of month with Hal Peters & the Stringdusters (Finland).With Johnny Dilks on 
bill it should be hillbilly heaven. Dilks, by the way, has just finished recording 
first CD. It is to come out on Hightone by summer.

One of Europe's best rockabilly band's, Wildfire Willie & the Ramblers (Sweden) comes 
to town early April. Look also for the Go-Getters (Sweden) in early April.

Steve Hathaway
San Jose, California
[EMAIL PROTECTED]




FYI: Shot Jackson's Sho-Bro for Sale

1999-03-18 Thread Brad Bechtel

>From the Steel Guitar Forum by Terry Miller 
>(http://www.b0b.com/forum/Forum3/HTML/001377.html):

I am posting this on behalf of Donna Jackson. Donna wants to sell Shot's black 7 
string Sho-Bro. This was  his own guitar. Take it from me, it is a great sounding 
guitar. I used it on volume 2 of  "Pickin on Shot: a Tribute to Shot Jackson". It 
would be a great collectors item as well as a great guitar. You can contact Donna at:
Donna Jackson
3030 Hobson Pike
Antioch TN  37013 

___
Brad's Page of Steel:
http://www.well.com/user/wellvis/steel.html
A web site devoted to acoustic and electric lap steel guitars



Clip: Another view of SXSW from San Francisco

1999-03-18 Thread Brad Bechtel

Music-Industry Merger Casts Shadow on South by Southwest 
James Sullivan, Chronicle Staff Writer
Wednesday, March 17, 1999 
©1999 San Francisco Chronicle 

URL: 
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/1999/03/17/DD31646.DTL&type=music
 



Live music, free-flowing beer and smoking grills as far as the eye can see: The annual 
South by Southwest music conference in Austin, Texas, is the record industry's version 
of March Madness. 

This year, however, a certain sobriety threatens to dampen the festivities, which 
begin today and run through Sunday. Seagram's recent purchase of Polygram has resulted 
in the dilution of some of the industry's most highly regarded labels -- A&M, Geffen, 
Island. At least a few hundred bands and as many as 3,000 employees have received pink 
slips in recent weeks. 

While nearly 30 Bay Area bands are heading to Austin for the conference, including 
Imperial Teen, the Hi-Fives, Los Mocosos, Jackpot, the Mother Hips and Neurosis, few 
of them expect to bring back much more than hangovers. 

``I think there's a general feeling of disillusionment in the music industry,'' says 
Hans Dobbratz, lead singer of Dura-Delinquent. Having missed the deadline to apply for 
a spot in the official showcases, the bratty San Francisco band plans to perform 
around Austin on a rented flatbed truck. 

The group's kamikaze appearances will be a kind of protest, Dobbratz says. ``All we 
really want to do is have fun and play rock 'n' roll. We want to give it to the people 
pure and free and unadulterated -- no middleman or business weirdness.'' 

Weirdness has been the first order of business this year in the industry. In addition 
to the merger, record companies are fretting over the new MP3 technology, a way of 
downloading music from the Internet that promises to radically alter the distribution 
of recorded music. 

But doomsday predictions are wildly premature, says Bonnie Simmons, Cake's manager and 
a founder of the music convention SFO in recent years. ``I've never seen the record 
industry get to this point, but I've certainly lived through three or four major 
purges. They seem to happen every five years or so.'' 

Simmons goes to South by Southwest (SXSW) every year with a coterie of San 
Franciscans, including staffers from Slim's and the Great American Music Hall. This 
year she's escorting her latest client, the highly touted (and unsigned) songwriter 
Etienne DeRocher. 

She says the industry's uneasiness won't keep her from enjoying herself. ``I don't 
feel like I'm going to a wake,'' she laughs. 

Actually, the shakeup might be just the thing for the big-money gathering, says Adam 
Cohen, former front man of the Geffen signee the Mommyheads. In recent years, SXSW 
began moving away from its original function as a showcase for unsigned bands, as 
record labels lobbied for appearances by established acts plugging their new records. 

``Maybe this will bring them back to square one,'' says Cohen. With the majors 
unwilling to spend as lavishly as they have in recent years, unsigned acts might find 
better venues to play than ``an ice cream parlor five miles out of town.'' 

With the Mommyheads broken up after being dropped by Geffen, Cohen's new band Adam Elk 
-- featuring members of the Kinetics and Mumblin Jim, two other groups affected by the 
industry turmoil -- has been enjoying an early surge of local interest. He's not going 
to SXSW, concentrating instead on promoting his band's forthcoming independent 
release, ``Labello,'' here in town; there's a record-release party March 25 at Slim's. 

In hindsight, he says, this might have been as good a year as any to go to SXSW. ``I 
might've missed my one year, when the integrity's back,'' he says. 

Simmons points out that getting signed is just one of many productive connections 
people make at SXSW. When Cake was in its infancy, the band played Austin and 
attracted the attention of talent buyers from clubs around the country, laying the 
groundwork for Cake's first successful tours outside California. 

``I think we sometimes give people the idea that these conventions are a peculiar, 
rigid star search,'' she says. Record company representatives ``don't just stumble 
into a nightclub, accidentally see a band and take a contract out of their pocket.'' 

Whatever the industry climate, she says, Austin's relaxed attitude will take the edge 
off. ``It's the only convention where I don't feel people are shaking my hand and 
looking over my shoulder for the next person to accost,'' Simmons says. ``It's just 
comfortable.'' 



FYI: alt.music.no-depression now available

1999-03-15 Thread Brad Bechtel

As seen on my news server...

From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] (S.Smith)
Newsgroups: alt.music.no-depression
Subject: New Group
Date: Mon, 15 Mar 1999 23:25:19 GMT
Organization: WWWeb World
Lines: 12
Message-ID: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
X-Newsreader: Forte Agent 1.5/32.452
Xref: news.macromedia.com alt.music.no-depression:3
Status: N


This is a new Usenet group that has been created for
the discussion of "No Depression" bands, as well as
roots/revival bands and their influences.

Have patience, since it will take a few weeks for this
group to eventually make it's way around to all the
news servers out there.

Glad to see this new group come about.

SS



Boot recommendations?

1999-03-15 Thread Brad Bechtel

So I've decided I need some simple black cowboy boots.  Wouldn't you know they're not 
really sold in San Francisco.  I've been to motorcycle shops, charro clothing stores, 
western wear stores - you name it, including a couple of really scary leather stores.  
I can buy boots made of snake, leather, rubber, some sort of weird South American 
reptile, and probably a few things I don't want to imagine.  But no black, relatively 
plain, pointy tipped cowboy boots.

So what's a good brand?  What's a good brand to avoid?  Any tips for a finer shopping 
experience?

I'm just starting out, so I haven't hit the more rural areas around here.  I'm sure 
once I get a half hour out of San Francisco things will improve.

As an aside, there must be some really whacked out banda groups out there, based on 
what I see for sale in the Mission District.  

Thanks again, as usual.



Re: Clip: The state of country radio

1999-03-15 Thread Brad Bechtel

Is there another genre of music that has so thoroughly turned its back on such a large 
segment of its roots?

Rock and roll comes to mind.  



Re: iggy pop

1999-03-15 Thread Brad Bechtel

I saw that VH1 show featuring Iggy Pop (and his son) as well.  One thing that stood 
out to me was how both he and his son managed to overcome their various drug and 
alcohol problems.  Iggy was taking his son around nightclubbing with him at age 13!

np: Gastr Del Sol - Camofleur



Clip: Another interview with Jeff Tweedy

1999-03-14 Thread Brad Bechtel

You'd think he was pimping a new CD or something...

Q & A With Wilco's Jeff Tweedy 
Aidin Vaziri
Sunday, March 14, 1999 
©1999 San Francisco Chronicle 

URL: 
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/1999/03/14/PK98714.DTL
 

It's the morning after the Grammy Awards, and Jeff Tweedy, the soft-spoken front man 
for Wilco, is recovering in his Los Angeles hotel room. He is not exactly the type you 
would expect to find frequenting industry affairs; last night was the exception. Wilco 
was contending for the best contemporary folk album prize for its critically acclaimed 
collaboration with Billy Bragg on last year's ``Mermaid Avenue,'' an interpretation of 
lost Woody Guthrie songs. The prize went to Lucinda Williams, but Tweedy, 31, is still 
marveling at the recognition. As a former member of the acclaimed roots-rock band 
Uncle Tupelo, the singer-songwriter has been on the brink of success for so long he 
almost forgot the potential was still there. Wilco's latest album, ``Summer Teeth,'' a 
dark and emotional epic, may change all that. It is already being heralded in some 
circles as a clincher for album of the year. 

Q: Are you mad you didn't win the Grammy? 

A: No. We were pretty much expecting to lose. The thought crossed my mind that it 
would be pretty terrifying to make a speech. Whenever you're up for anything, part of 
you wants to win, but we pretty much knew from the moment the category was announced 
that Lucinda Williams was going to win. 

Q: Pretend that you did win and you're at the podium right now. Let's hear your 
speech. 

A: No, thanks. I escaped that -- why would you make me do it? 

Q: Just preparing you for next year when ``Summer Teeth'' sweeps. What prompted such a 
vulnerable record? 

A: I think lyrically, ``Being There'' was the same. Musically, we are very 
self-confident, but I don't know many people that maintain a self-assured mind-set all 
the time. They're just songs. I don't psychoanalyze them that much. Just because 
they're first-person doesn't mean there's any grand scheme behind them. I guess it 
takes a certain amount of self-assuredness to be vulnerable, but I don't know if that 
was the goal. 

Q: You illustrate a lot of your songs with violence. What would it take for you to 
become violent in real life? 

A: Probably someone in the service industry. Maybe if someone was trying to hurt my 
son? I don't know. I don't like to think about violence, but just because I don't 
think about it doesn't mean that it's not in me. I'm sure those lines are going to be 
misunderstood. You can't expect anything that you write to be read in the right way, 
but I don't think that should inhibit you. They're not really violent to me. They're 
more about passion. 

Q: Do you ever beat the other band members on the head with your guitar? 

A: Not on purpose. Actually, we get along pretty well. 

Q: Does this record accurately depict you as a downhearted person? 

A: Ideally, the record starts in one place and ends somewhere more hopeful. I don't 
think it has an overall mood. We just wanted to make a record that was interesting to 
listen to from song to song. Maybe something you could listen to in its entirety. As 
an overall feeling or mood to the record, I can't say. People either tell me it's 
happier or really sad. I think it's good that it's open-ended. 

Q: Is Wilco on the VH1 track of success, excess and tragedy? 

A: Well, we have to get to the first one first. Maybe we did it the other way around. 
I don't know. I barely know what you're talking about. 

Q: Are you going to freak out if this album becomes successful? 

A: The potential is always there. Every time you put out a record you have some high 
hopes that it will do good, not necessarily sales-wise, but that it will be received 
well. It's a pretty vague thing. I'm not any more apprehensive about success than I 
would be failure. I don't know exactly what would define it for me. I feel satisfied 
creatively. As long I have an outlet for creativity and to make records, that's about 
all I could hope for. If it became some huge record, then that's just what I'll have 
to deal with. That's just the next challenge. Maybe I've been in training. I've had 
the experience. The carrot has been dangled in front of my face for a long time, not 
just with Wilco but Uncle Tupelo. I'm used to it being there, and I'm used to it 
disappearing. 

Q: Are people still mad Uncle Tupelo broke up? 

A: I don't know if they're mad. A lot of people ask if we're going to get back 
together or if I'm still in contact with Jay Farrar. I'll say this, though. It's a lot 
easier to deal with now than it was five years ago. 

Q: Do you fall asleep when you listen to your former band mate's new group, Son Volt? 

A: Only at their shows. 

Q: Who do you think gets more girls? 

A: That is the important question, and I don't really know. I'd have to say that we 
do. We're a lot cuter and that's all that matters. Let's

A couple of shows in SF

1999-03-14 Thread Brad Bechtel

March 24, The Gourds and Jon Dee Graham at Slim's
March 24, Nashville Pussy at the Edge, Palo Alto
April 2, Sebadoh, Richard Buckner, lowercase at Bimbo's 365 Club
April 18, Jeff Beck at the Paramount Theatre in Oakland
May 8, Volunteer Jam Tour '99, featuring Charlie Daniels Band, Marshall Tucker Band, 
Molly Hatchet, at Concord Pavilion

Just a couple of interesting shows on the agenda.  More once I recover from last 
night.  

I played the cocktail hour at the Spinsters Society ball.  Imagine 500 college 
educated, unmarried women between 25 and 35, dressed to kill (black tie formal, some 
stunning gowns) with gourmet nibbles, free drinks, and casino gaming, all to benefit a 
summer camp for children with cancer.  One of those GOOD gigs...even if you don't get 
paid.

___
Brad's Page of Steel:
http://www.well.com/user/wellvis/steel.html
A web site devoted to acoustic and electric lap steel guitars



Clip: John Mellencamp & Son Volt on tour

1999-03-12 Thread Brad Bechtel

http://www.sonicnet.com/news

John Mellencamp Powering Up 'Rural Electrification' Tour
Heartland rocker will perform in 40 cities over two months, starting May 5 in 
Woodlands, Texas. 

Senior Writer Gil Kaufman reports: 

Heartland rocker John Mellencamp will launch his first major concert tour in more than 
two years May 5 with a show at the Woodlands Pavilion in Woodlands, Texas.

Mellencamp has scheduled 40 dates at various outdoor amphitheaters and arenas in 
support of his self-titled 1998 album, which features the song "Your Life is Now" 
(RealAudio excerpt).

The two-month string of shows, dubbed the "Rural Electrification" tour, will bring the 
singer/songwriter to California in early May, then he'll trek across the Midwest, up 
the East Coast and back through Texas. The tour will wind up July 16 at the Coca-Cola 
Starplex Amphitheatre in Dallas. 

Roots-rockers Son Volt are set as the opening act.

According to Indiana native Mellencamp, the name of the tour is derived from his 
eagerness to bring the music from his most recent album to his fans.

"In the '30s, rural electrification brought electricity to farmers and other rural 
dwellers for the first time in their lives," Mellencamp stated in a press release 
announcing the tour. "And along with that electricity came radios and record players: 
Music!

"We're lucky enough that, for the last 20 years, we've had the opportunity to play our 
own small part in bringing music to people; to entertain them and have a lot of fun in 
the process."

John Mellencamp Tour Dates:

May 5; Woodlands, Texas; Woodlands Pavilion
May 7; Phoenix, Ariz.; Blockbuster Desert Sky Pavilion
May 8; Los Angeles, Calif.; Hollywood Bowl
May 9; Chula Vista, Calif.; Coors Amphitheater
May 11; Mountain View, Calif.; Shoreline Amphitheater
May 12; Concord, Calif.; Concord Pavilion
May 14; George, Wash.; The Gorge
May 17; West Valley, Utah; E Center
May 19; Morrison, Colo.; Red Rocks Amphitheater
May 21; Bonner Springs, Mo.; Sandstone
May 22; Maryland Heights, Mo.; Riverport Amphitheater
May 23; Antioch, Tenn.; First American Music Center
May 26; Minneapolis, Minn.; Target Center
May 27; Madison, Wis.; Kohl Center
May 28; Tinley Park, Ill.; The New World Music Theatre
June 11; Hartford, Conn.; The Meadows Amphitheater
June 12; Mansfield, Mass.; Great Woods Center
June 13; Saratoga Springs, N.Y.; Saratoga Performing Arts Center
June 15; Hershey, Pa.; Star Pavilion
June 16; Holmdel, N.J.; PNC Bank/Garden State Arts Center
June 19; Philadelphia, Pa.; First Union Center
June 20; Burgettstown, Pa.; Coca-Cola Star Lake Amphitheater
June 22; Cincinnati, Ohio; Riverbend Music Center
June 23; Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio; Blossom Music Center, Stadium
June 29; Columbus, Ohio; Polaris Amphitheater
June 30; Detroit, Mich.; Pine Knob Music Theatre
July 2; Milwaukee, Wis.; Milwaukee Summerfest
July 3-4; Indianapolis, Ind.; Deer Creek Music Center
July 6; Vienna, Va.; Barns At Wolf Trap
July 7; Raleigh, N.C.; Walnut Creek
July 9; West Palm Beach, Fla.; Coral Sky Amphitheater
July 11; Atlanta, Ga.; Chastain Park Amphitheater
July 13; Charlotte, N.C.; Blockbuster Pavilion
July 14; Louisville, Ky.; Freedom Hall
July 16; Dallas, Texas; Coca-Cola Starplex Amphitheater



Clip: Wilco & Alex Millar

1999-03-12 Thread Brad Bechtel

http://www.sonicnet.com/news/article1.jhtml?index=5

Wilco Debut New LP Live Amid Wash Of Technical Difficulties In-store appearance shows 
band delivering onstage renditions of tracks from Summer Teeth.

Staff Writer Chris Nelson reports:

CHICAGO -- Sometimes no amount of preparation can spare you from live performance 
gremlins.

Case in point: Wilco's appearance at Tower Records on Clark Street Thursday. There was 
tension in the air. It was the band's first show since it released its well-received 
third album, Summer Teeth, earlier in the week.

In their de facto hometown. For broadcast over WXRT-FM.

The band's guitar tech arrived four-and-a-half hours early to begin setting up. A 6:50 
p.m. soundcheck on "Passenger Side" and "Hesitating Beauty" revealed the band and its 
equipment in perfect form.

Naturally, all that flew out the window at 8 p.m. when the band started blasting live 
out of home radios and car stereos throughout the nation's third largest city.

A growing buzz, like the sound of bees swarming closer and closer, ran through the 
P.A. for the length of the 45-minute show. At times the silence between songs was 
sliced open by squeals of wince-inducing feedback. Some numbers were laced with 
unintentional whirs and whines.



"I'm afraid I don't know what any of those weird sounds are," singer and guitarist 
Jeff Tweedy said at one point to the audience listening at home. "But if you like to 
see things blow up, come on down."

The often self-deprecating Tweedy actually made it sound worse than it was. "This is 
an unmitigated disaster," he deadpanned later, before eventually cracking, "We'll do a 
few more songs here before we end up breaking up onstage."

But despite the technical setbacks, Wilco proved they could render the dark, 
studio-oriented pop of Summer Teeth compellingly in a live setting. And on such 
adrenalized songs as "I Got You" from Being There and "California Stars" from last 
year's Mermaid Avenue collaboration with folk-rocker Billy Bragg, the triple-vocal 
attack of Tweedy, Jay Bennett (keyboards, guitar) and John Stirratt (bass) sent both 
the crowd and Tower's "Blank Tapes Specials" display rocking back and forth.

Of course it was the Summer Teeth material that most came to hear. The album marks 
Wilco's definitive break with the alternative country movement (and with Tweedy's 
former group Uncle Tupelo), showcasing the band as innovative pop experimentalists. 
And while Tweedy has performed such songs as "She's A Jar" and "I'm Always in Love" 
(RealAudio excerpt) during recent solo acoustic shows, the Tower gig marked the first 
time many fans had heard the songs with the full band.

"I don't think the album's as much of a departure as people think," said Elizabeth 
Stockton, 24, of Chicago. "I think it's like Being There with a much more focused 
feel. And that's what you want out of a great album, a really coherent feel."

On Thursday, the small confines and live instrumentation cast some of the new material 
in a different light.

"I'm Always In Love" was still a Velvet Underground-inspired rave-up, complete with 
the addition of Leroy Bach (who has worked with Liz Phair) on extra keyboards. But the 
album centerpiece, "Via Chicago" (RealAudio excerpt), took on a much more stable feel 
in the hands of the full band. In the past, when Tweedy stood solo and sang such 
disturbing lines as "I dreamed about killing you again last night/ and it felt alright 
to me," he bore sole responsibility for the song and its unsettling lyrics.

In Tower, with Bennett and Stirratt standing at arms' length from Tweedy on the 
makeshift stage, the song was a group creation, and, as such, was less disconcerting. 
Still, Tweedy's closing harmonica work added a welcome edge, undercutting the warmth 
of the organ with skeletal notes that evoked the feel of a Neil Young guitar solo.

"It's a far cry from where they were, but it's still Jeff Tweedy's songwriting," said 
Alex Millar, 26, of Chicago, before the show started. "I think ['Shot in the Arm'] is 
the finest song he's written since the Tupelo days."

After the show, a video crew came in to shoot footage of the band signing autographs.

"I don't know what we're going to do with it," Tweedy said of the video. "We're trying 
to film a lot [of the upcoming tour]."

Meanwhile, Millar handed him a copy of the alternative country book "No Depression." 
Tweedy scrawled his name in black marker across the chapter on Wilco and then turned 
immediately apologetic, as he'd been throughout the show.

"I signed across the words. I'm sorry, that was stupid," he said.

But just like the audience during a feedback-tinged performance, Millar seemed not to 
mind at all.



RIP Yehudi Menuhin

1999-03-12 Thread Brad Bechtel

Speaking of famous violinists...Lord Menuhin was known for an open approach to music 
of all types.  His collaboration with sitar master Ravi Shankar was one of the first 
cross-cultural experiments I ever heard.  I don't know if he ever played fiddle, but 
he probably could have kicked ass.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/uk/newsid_295000/295657.stm

Violin virtuoso Yehudi Menuhin dies

World leaders have been paying tribute to violinist Yehudi Menuhin, who has died in 
Berlin of heart failure aged 82.

UK Prime Minister Tony Blair said Lord Menuhin's "unique talent" brought joy to 
millions.

He will be remembered the world over as one of the greatest musicians of his age," he 
said.

German President Roman Herzog and French President Jacques Chirac called Yehudi 
Menuhin one of the most brilliant musicians of the century.

"With him, a light has gone out, the light of genius and also the light of the heart," 
said Mr Chirac.

Lord Menuhin died in a Berlin hospital on Friday morning, after arriving in the city 
on Tuesday for a concert that night.

He was taken to hospital during the week suffering from bronchitis, and died after a 
"very brief illness".

Died in a Berlin hospitalLord Menuhin lived in central London with his second wife, 
the ballerina Diana Gould, with whom he had two sons.

He was a renowned interpreter of classical and modern music, and also famous for 
establishing the Yehudi Menuhin School in Surrey, which trained other stars such as 
punk violinist Nigel Kennedy.

'He wanted to share'

The headmaster of the Surrey school, Nicolas Chisholm, said: "I've told the children 
and they are heartbroken.

"He was inspirational and we're going to miss that inspiration dreadfully."

Kennedy once said: ""He had this box of chocolates he wanted to share with people - 
that was his attitude."

Just before Christmas, Lord Menuhin was promoting music teaching in British schools.

He believed music could play a vital role in civilising society.

"Art reflects the refinement of a civilisation," he said. "Music goes both ways. You 
make yourself heard and listen to others."

Naturalised Briton

Lord Menuhin was born in New York of Russian immigrant parents, but became a 
naturalised Briton in 1985 and was knighted two years later. He was made a life peer 
in 1993.

He gave up public performances in his 70s, when his hearing become impaired, but 
continued conducting at his school at least once a month.

Former head of music for BBC television Humphrey Burton, who is writing a biography of 
Lord Menuhin, described him as "the world's greatest violinist".

He went on: "Musicians loved working with him. We are going to miss him greatly."

"The last thing he did was dictate letters from his hospital bed on Tuesday," he said, 
"and the last was to Gordon Brown congratulating him on his Budget."



RE: Bill Anderson article

1999-03-12 Thread Brad Bechtel

Anybody who can write such classics as  "Heel Mijn Leven Is Niets Meer" or  "Jim 
Reeves Medley" is all right in my book.  http://bmi.com/rep/default.asp is the direct 
link to find out more of his oeuvre.

Seriously, that's an impressive body of work.  So who wrote "Looking Out The Window 
(Through The Pain)"?



Clip: Geek alert: Microsoft's challenge to MP3 format

1999-03-12 Thread Brad Bechtel

http://www.mp3.com/news/197.html
Exclusive: Microsoft Prepares Breakthrough MS Audio 4.0!

By Doug Reece 

March 11, 1999 

Sources say that Microsoft will release MS Audio 4.0--a new file format that 
compresses audio files to half the size of an average MP3 file while improving sound 
quality--sometime in April. 

The company also plans to distribute free encoders for the ASF (advanced streaming 
format) audio. 

"It's a high-priority over there with 'The Owner,'" says one source. 

Sources say the format will have a security feature built in, but reports are mixed as 
to MS Audio 4.0's e-commerce capability. Some believe the format will launch with 
commerce functions built in; others say it's not clear how far along Microsoft is with 
commercial applications. 

According to another source in the music industry, Microsoft has been approaching the 
major record labels over the last few weeks to discuss the new format. Some labels 
have also been solicited for music content, which Microsoft plans on including on a 
demo CD that contains 10 hours of music in the MS Audio 4.0 format. 

Initially, MS Audio 4.0 can only play on Windows Media Player, which raises questions 
about Microsoft's strategic position. It will also play on Windows CE devices (hand 
held PCs). 

"They're not trying to squeeze out anybody," says yet another source. "They don't 
fancy this as another Liquid Audio and they're not looking at this as a means to 
extend their world domination. They're just providing you with another alternative." 

The launch of MS Audio 4.0, if true, also brings into clearer picture Microsoft's 
recent investment in Reciprocal Inc. (formerly the Rights Exchange, Inc.). According 
to a press release from Redmond, the equity stake in the digital rights management 
company is "the first step in a relationship in which the companies will work together 
to build the emerging digital content distribution and commerce industry." 

It's expected that Microsoft will tout the format at its Got ASF? web site 
(http://www.microsoft.com/sbnmember/osig/gotasf.asp).



Opinions on Trace Elliot Velocette amp?

1999-03-12 Thread Brad Bechtel

I'm looking for a good small amp for lap steel guitar use.   By "good" I mean small 
and inexpensive with decent tone. One that's been recommended to me is the Trace 
Elliot Velocette.  Unfortunately it seems to have been discontinued.

Does anyone know about these amps (particularly where I can get one)?  I've read the 
reviews at Harmony Central (http://www.harmony-central.com/Guitar/Data) and they're 
pretty positive.

Thanks in advance.



Re: twanglife after 50, 60, 70 ...

1999-03-11 Thread Brad Bechtel
Blah blah  the lives of  famous or historical people looked like at later key ages,  particularly after 50 (examples include: Frank Lloyd Wright,  Sidney Greenstreet - even Philip Glass, who apparently was  a plumber until he hit 40).   Musical suggestions would be appreciated (interesting  non-musical examples too, for that matter). Twang example: Don Walser 

Clarification needed.  Are you talking about folks who hit it big in a later key age (such as Don Walser) or someone who hit it big early, but have continued to make vital contributions to their area of expertise (such as Bill Monroe)?



Clip: Allman Brothers at the Beacon Theater, NYC

1999-03-10 Thread Brad Bechtel

Southern Rock Enshrined, but Still Raucous 

Allman Brothers at the Beacon Theater 

ANN POWERS 
03/09/99

When a rock band signs up to do 18 concerts in one place in one month, it had better 
be able to show off more than one personality. The Allman Brothers, repeating last 
year's residency at the Beacon Theater in Manhattan, manage that trick with ease. Here 
are a few things the Allmans are in 1999. 

The Allman Brothers are legends. The group remained elegantly absorbed in its playing 
throughout Friday's long performance. The guitarist Dickey Betts, in a cowboy hat and 
multiple tattoos, rogueishly embodied Southern rock. The heft of middle age made Gregg 
Allman seem more soulful as he played Hammond organ and sang his rough blues. Behind 
these icons, mementos spanning the band's career flashed on a big screen: concert 
posters, album covers, portraits of the group's deceased members, Duane Allman and 
Berry Oakley. These Rock-and-Roll Hall of Fame inductees had brought along their own 
museum. 

The Allman Brothers are also a cult band. Friday's show included rarely performed 
chestnuts like "Revival" and the group's version of "Stormy Monday." Fans screamed in 
delight at these treats as the most devoted scribbled down set lists. Many were 
college-age followers of the recent generation of jam bands, pleased to see the new 
Allman Brothers bassist, Oteil Burbridge, who also plays with the popular Aquarium 
Rescue Unit. 

The group attracts these young acolytes because they emphasize improvisation. Songs 
stretched elastically as members took protracted solos. A new tune by Mr. Betts, "J. 
J.'s Alley," shifted from a be-bop-inspired beginning to Santana-style rock to Texas 
blues. The drummers Jai Johanny Johanson and Butch Trucks got their chance to jam on 
the instrumental "Les Brers in A Minor," which had Mr. Trucks pounding two bass drums 
in double time. 

But the Allman Brothers are a well-oiled machine, too. The Southern boogie the group 
invented, which mixes blues with jazz and soul, relies on a fast, danceable beat. The 
way most songs circled back to almost irritatingly catchy riffs got a bit tedious in 
Friday's third hour, but the band's stamina barely flagged. 

Some would say the Allman Brothers are the soul of classic rock: music men unswayed by 
trends who have perfected a fusion of the genre's main ingredients. Traditionalist 
innovators and liberal good old boys, they are multifarious and contradictory. So is 
classic rock. In that way, the band is true to form. 

The Allman Brothers are to play at the Beacon through March 27.



Re: instrumentally speaking

1999-03-09 Thread Brad Bechtel

Another problem with instrumentals in the alt.country field is that the lack of voices 
almost automatically pushes the music into either the alt. or country side of things.  
Without those Freakwatery voices, most bands are going to sound a lot less country.

A notable exception would be Jim Campilongo and the Ten Gallon Cats (featuring Jim 
Campilongo, guitar and Joe Goldmark, pedal steel).  Their first album especially 
showed off  instrumental cowboy jazz with a bit more edge to the guitar tone than used 
by most people working in this vein.

A Greg Ginn-influenced Western Swing band?  Dude, I'm there.  I'd prefer a Robert 
Fripp influence.  The real question is why hasn't there been more of a push towards 
that combination of sounds.  Blood on the Saddle was probably as close as I've heard.



Re: Dead link was...Gerald Collier info... (fwd)

1999-03-08 Thread Brad Bechtel

The actual URL is
http://www.drizzle.com/~lal/postcard2.htm
and it's a very nice logo, although I prefer the new Twangfest logo:
http://www.twangfest.com




Clip: Tom Petty/Lucinda Williams at the Fillmore

1999-03-08 Thread Brad Bechtel

Sorry, I got in late today.  It was a really fun time last night.  Lucinda kicked ass; 
she definitely won over some converts.  Petty seemed to be stoned, but having a lot of 
fun.  Bonnie Raitt was up in the balcony next to the stage, dancing to the noise.  We 
all thought she was going to come down and join in, but she never did.  Still, a 
dynamite show!

=
Tom Petty rocks on 
By Philip Elwood 
EXAMINER MUSIC CRITIC 
Monday, March 8, 1999 
©1999 San Francisco Examiner 

URL: 
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/examiner/hotnews/stories/08/Spetty.dtl&type=music
 

Sold-out Fillmore shows leave ticketless fans heartbroken 

TOM PETTY, his Heartbreakers and the night's guest, Lucinda Williams, stomped off his 
seven night series of performances (spread over a couple of weeks) at the Fillmore on 
Sunday night with a definitive performance of good ol' rock 'n' roll, the likes of 
which we've not heard since his few nights of similar appearances a couple of years 
ago. 

Petty's music over the years has shown an integrity virtually unmatched on the rock 
scene. His band, with him for more than two decades, is the best in the business of 
traditional, hard-core rock, in large measure because they've stayed together and thus 
play (magnificently) together. 

When Petty kicked off "Reelin' and Rockin," Chuck Berry's 1958 classic, the Fillmore 
crowd, jam-packed into the historic hall where Berry himself often played in the late 
'60s, waved their arms, moved their bodies, reveling in a song that all of them know 
but few have ever heard played as well as by the Heartbreakers. 

Petty's rock and rollin' jamboree kept up Berry's pace as the concert moved to the 
midnight hour, with tunes old and new tossed into the mix. From JJ Cale's "They Call 
Me The Breeze" to Bo Diddley's "Diddy Wah Wah"; from "Telstar" to "Homecoming Queen," 
with "I Won't Back Down," "You Don't Know How It Feels," "Runnin' Down The Road," 
"Don't Do Me Like That" played along the way. This was not just an evening of grand, 
exhilarating rock 'n' roll, it was a tribute to Petty's contribution to the popular 
music of this era and to his perseverance. 

Through thick and thin -- and he's endured it all -- Petty has sung, played and led 
his band like a rock 'n' roll crusader. Often entangled in disputes with record 
companies, sometimes pushed aside as heavy metal and other new varieties of rock music 
came to popularity, then often vanishing, Petty has continued to play the stuff of 
which the most enduring rock 'n' roll traditions are made. 

On Sunday there were frequent stylistic references to Bob Dylan, and many to The Band. 
The Heartbreakers remain Mike Campbell on guitar, Benmont Tench, keyboards; Howie 
Epstein, bass and Steve Ferrone, drums, with some additional keyboard and guitar help. 
Each gets solo space (especially Campbell), but overall this is an ensemble effort. 
Often overlooked is Petty's own remarkably sensitive and commanding guitar work, 
around which most renditions are centered. 

Opening Sunday's show was a performance by Williams and her fine band. Petty and 
Williams recorded "Change The Locks" together in 1996 (she did it, solo, on Sunday) 
and her folk-country-rock style and material fitted perfectly into the pattern of 
Petty's subsequent set. 

Williams' band arrangements worked behind her voice beautifully -- especially on 
"Right In Time," a wonderful number. 

The mood of Petty's shows at the Fillmore brings back memories of bygone years, when 
rock 'n' roll was more personal, and more fun; when the crowd felt like family and 
accepted the performers (who were usually very close to their age) as close friends. 

The deep impression that Petty's music makes on his Fillmore listeners is also an 
aspect of the feeling that the old hall itself creates. Williams looked around the 
auditorium, then at the crowd as its cheers subsided, and said, "I can tell you're not 
a folk music audience, you're a rock 'n' roll crowd." 

Petty merely said, "There's something very special for me and the Heartbreakers to 
play in this famous place." On Monday night, Petty's guests will be the group "War." 
His rock 'n' roll jamboree series, long since sold out, continues on Wednesday, Friday 
and Saturday of this week and on Monday and Tuesday, March 15 and 16. 



RIP Joe Dimaggio

1999-03-08 Thread Brad Bechtel

Joe DiMaggio, the flawless center fielder for the New York Yankees who, along with 
Babe Ruth and Mickey Mantle, symbolized the team's dynastic greatness across the 20th 
century and whose 56-game hitting streak in 1941 made him an instant and indelible 
American folk hero, died Monday in his home in Hollywood, Fla. He was 84. 


In a country that has idolized and even immortalized its 20th-century heroes, from 
Charles A. Lindbergh to Elvis Presley, no one embodied the American dream of fame and 
fortune or created a more enduring legend than Joe DiMaggio. He became a figure of 
unequaled romance and integrity in the national mind because of his consistent 
professionalism on the baseball field, his marriage to the Hollywood star Marilyn 
Monroe, his devotion to her after her death, and the pride and courtliness with which 
he carried himself throughout his life. 



DiMaggio burst onto the baseball scene from San Francisco in the 1930's and grew into 
the game's most gallant and graceful center fielder. He wore No. 5 and became the 
successor to Babe Ruth (No. 3) and Lou Gehrig (No. 4) in the team's pantheon. DiMaggio 
was the team's superstar for 13 seasons, beginning in 1936 and ending in 1951, and 
appeared in 11 All-Star Games and 10 World Series. He was, as Roy Blount Jr. once 
observed, "the class of the Yankees in times when the Yankees outclassed everybody 
else." 

He was called the Yankee Clipper and was acclaimed at baseball's centennial in 1969 as 
"the greatest living ballplayer," the man who in 1,736 games with the Yankees had a 
career batting average of .325 and hit 361 home runs while striking out only 369 
times, one of baseball's most amazing statistics. (By way of comparison, Mickey Mantle 
had 536 homers and struck out 1,710 times; Reggie Jackson slugged 563 homers and 
struck out 2,597 times.) 

But DiMaggio's game was so complete and elegant that it transcended statistics; as The 
New York Times said in an editorial when he retired, "The combination of proficiency 
and exquisite grace which Joe DiMaggio brought to the art of playing center field was 
something no baseball averages can measure and that must be seen to be believed and 
appreciated." 

Grace on the Field, Sensitivity Off It 

DiMaggio glided across the vast expanse of center field at Yankee Stadium with such 
incomparable grace that long after he stopped playing, the memory of him in full 
stride remains evergreen. He disdained theatrical flourishes and exaggerated moves, 
never climbing walls to make catches and rarely diving headlong. He got to the ball 
just as it fell into his glove, making the catch seem inevitable, almost preordained. 
The writer Wilfred Sheed wrote, "In dreams I can still see him gliding after fly balls 
as if he were skimming the surface of the moon." 

His batting stance was as graceful as his outfield stride. He stood flat-footed at the 
plate with his feet spread well apart, his bat held still just off his right shoulder. 
When he swung, his left, or front, foot moved only slightly foward. His swing was pure 
and flowing with an incredible follow-through; Casey Stengel said, "He made the rest 
of them look like plumbers." 

At his peak, he was serenaded as "Joltin' Joe DiMaggio" by Les Brown and saluted as 
"the great DiMaggio" by Ernest Hemingway in "The Old Man and the Sea." He was 
mentioned in dozens of films and Broadway shows; the sailors in "South Pacific" sing 
that Bloody Mary's skin is "tender as DiMaggio's glove." Years later, he was 
remembered by Paul Simon, who wondered with everybody else: "Where have you gone, Joe 
DiMaggio? Our nation turns its lonely eyes to you." 

Sensitive to anything written, spoken or sung about him, he confessed that he was 
puzzled by Simon's lyrics and sought an answer when he met Simon in a restaurant in 
New York. "I asked Paul what the song meant, whether it was derogatory," DiMaggio 
recalled. "He explained it to me." 

When injuries eroded his skills and he could no longer perform to his own standard, he 
turned his back on his $100,000 salary -- he and his rival Ted Williams of the Boston 
Red Sox then drew the largest paychecks in sports -- and retired in 1951 with the 
dignity that remained his hallmark. 

His stormy marriage to Marilyn Monroe lasted less than a year, but they remained one 
of America's ultimate romantic fantasies: the tall, dark and handsome baseball hero 
wooing and winning the woman who epitomized Hollywood beauty, glamour and sexuality. 

He was private and remote. Even Monroe, at their divorce proceedings, said he was 
given to black moods and would tell her, "Leave me alone." He once said, with disdain, 
that he kept track of all the books written about his storied life without his 
consent, and by the late 1990's knew that the count had passed 33. 

Yet he could be proud, reclusive and vain in such a composed, almost studied way that 
his reclus

Clip: George Jones remains critical

1999-03-07 Thread Brad Bechtel

George Jones remains critical after car crash

March 7, 1999
Web posted at: 2:15 p.m. EST (1915 GMT)

NASHVILLE, Tennessee (CNN) -- Country music legend George Jones remained in critical 
condition Sunday, one day after he lost control of his vehicle and crashed into a 
bridge abutment. 

Jones suffered a collapsed lung, blood in his chest and a ruptured liver in the 
accident, said Dr. John Morris of Vanderbilt University Hospital, where Jones is in 
the trauma unit. 

Morris said Saturday evening he expected the singer to remain in critical condition 
"for at least 24 to 48 hours." 

"The liver injury is what we're most concerned about," he said. "He's already received 
some blood. If he requires much in the way of additional blood, we'll have to 
reconsider our current approach." 

Jones has been unconscious, under general anesthesia, since he arrived at the 
hospital, Morris said. "The body responds to this kind of injury much better if we can 
control the pain," he explained. 

Jones was driving east Saturday on Highway 96 near his home south of Nashville when he 
lost control of his Lexus sport utility vehicle and hit a bridge abutment, according 
to Tennessee Department of Safety spokeswoman Dana Keeton. 

At the time of the crash, Jones was talking to his stepdaughter, Adina Estes, on a 
cellular phone, said Evelyn Shriver, head of Asylum Records, Jones' record label. 
Shriver talked to Estes after the accident 

"He was calling to say he's almost home, and she heard the crash and everything," 
Shriver said. 

It took two hours for rescuers to free him from the vehicle. A helicopter airlifted 
him about 20 miles from the site of the one-car accident to the hospital. 



Clip: Review of Wilco's new CD, from SFGate

1999-03-07 Thread Brad Bechtel

4 stars 

WILCO 

Summer Teeth 
Reprise, $16.99 

``It's our beginning,'' sings Wilco vocalist Jeff Tweedy on the opening track of 
``Summer Teeth.'' It's an appropriate introduction to the insurgent country band's 
third, most stylistically diverse album yet, in stores Tuesday. Expanding on the pop 
overtures of 1996's ``Being There,'' the new CD works both as a study in stylistic 
departure and a narrative of emotional and professional endurance. ``Summer Teeth'' 
marks the end of a four-year coming of age for Wilco. Since rising from the ashes of 
Uncle Tupelo with its 1995 debut ``A.M.,'' Wilco -- Tweedy, guitarist Jay Bennett, 
bassist John Stirrat, drummer Ken Coomer and fiddler- steel 
guitarist-multi-instrumentalist Max Johnson, who has since been replaced by Bob Egan 
-- has toiled to transcend its parent band's legacy. With ``Summer Teeth,'' the group 
proves that it can cast its own shadow. Recorded in Austin, Chicago and Champaign, 
Ill., the album that Tweedy has termed ``weird'' finds Wilco splashing its luxuriant, 
morose sensibilities onto a bright pop canvas, celebrating emotional trauma through 
euphoric melodies and wry (and frequently funny) narratives of woe and longing. 

A sense of rootless morbidity, propelled by hooky little choruses, permeates the 
album's 15 songs. In ``Via Chicago,'' a narrator dreams of death and freedom and 
finally of a homecoming; in the next track, ``ELT,'' he starts all over again, at once 
wishing his lover dead and bemoaning his loneliness ``so far from home.'' Against a 
backdrop of effervescent '60s pop, babbling water and twittering birds, the title 
track sinks into a reverie on isolation and suicide. And while it's hard to top a line 
like ``She's a jar with a heavy lid/ My pop-quiz kid'' (``She's a Jar'') for lilting 
insouciance, the glee is tempered by a swooning synthesized string section and images 
of ``skeletons with wings.'' In toto, the result is a sweet, doleful weave in which 
keyboards, acoustic guitars and choppy distortion merge in sonic symbiosis, from the 
Velvet Underground guitar riffs and nasal organ of ``I'm Always in Love'' to the 
British invasion-era harmonies of ``Nothing'severgonnastandinmyway(again).'' 
``Pieholden Suite'' boasts a swanky brass section, and there's even a glimmer of 
lounge jazz -- brushed cymbals and all -- in the jaunty ``When You Wake Up Feeling 
Old.'' ``In a Future Age'' closes the album with the bittersweet and slightly maudlin 
observation that ``some trees will bend/ And some will fall/ But then again/ So will 
we all.'' Paired with the album's initial lines, it offers a fitting bookend for a 
record that counters droll fatalism with the restless spirit of a veteran group 
rediscovering the joy of taking baby steps into the sonic unknown. 

Like every other ``alternative'' music form these days, the No Depression genre is so 
entrenched in tradition that its wheels are spinning. Whether alt-country fans will 
greet Wilco's new album as a betrayal of roots or a welcome infusion of new energy 
remains to be seen. 

The band has made its choice, and like its album's many narrators, it's already on the 
move. 

-- Neva Chonin 

=
POP CDs IN BRIEF 



4 stars 

JOE HENRY, Fuse, Mammoth, $15.98 



Joe Henry is best known to scene-makers as Madonna's brother- in-law, a fact that 
shouldn't be held against him. He's a quirky, world- weary singer and a songwriter 
with a flair for appealingly disjointed lyrics and strong (if slightly dissonant) 
melodies. ``Fuse'' boasts a stellar lineup, including Daniel Lanois and Jakob Dylan 
and his fellow Wallflowers Rami Jaffee and Greg Richling, all adding their own 
atmospheric touches to Henry's rueful pop miniatures. There are traces of the blues, 
'60s spy-movie soundtracks, hip-hoppy modern rock, Tin Pan Alley and lounge guitar. 
Still, Henry has put his own stamp on the proceedings, fleshing out his tales of 
perplexed lovers with brilliant musical and lyrical flashes that bring to mind some 
mutant blending of Hoagy Carmichael and Tom Waits. 

-- j. poet 
=
2 stars 

EMINEM, The Slim Shady LP, Aftermath/Interscope, $16.98 



``God sent me to piss the world off,'' suggests the new hottest-rapper-on-the-planet 
on the first track of his major-label debut. And he'll probably do just that. The 
latest find from Dr. Dre, Detroit-bred Eminem (real name: Marshall Mathers) is a 
facile freestyler who, in the guise of the title character Slim Shady, dishes a 
profane, violent and irreverent world view that offers hard times as a justification 
for his ``Just Don't Give a F--'' attitude. Some of ``Slim Shady's'' warped utterances 
are truly funny in a dark, ``South Park''- ``There's Something About Mary'' kind of 
way, but the album's length results in enough thematic repetition to blunt the attack. 

-- Gary Graff 

(personally, I thought the video was hilarious)



Little Roy Wiggins in hospital

1999-03-07 Thread Brad Bechtel

As reported by Stoney Stonecipher on the Steel Guitar Forum (http://www.b0.com/forum):

Besides the bad news about George Jones, I got more bad news yesterday. Faye Wiggins 
called me yesterday, and Roy ["Little" Roy Wiggins, steel guitarist for Eddy Arnold] 
has been in intensive care for the last two weeks, due to kidney failure. He is now on 
dialysis. I was able to speak to Roy this morning for just a second by telephone, and 
he is very, very weak, with very little hope for much improvement. So, along with 
George and Nancy Jones, say a little prayer for Little Roy, an icon of the Steel 
Guitar world. Roy is in the Baptist Hospital in Knoxville, TN 37920. 

___
Brad's Page of Steel:
http://www.well.com/user/wellvis/steel.html
A web site devoted to acoustic and electric lap steel guitars



RIP Stanley Kubrick

1999-03-07 Thread Brad Bechtel

Director Stanley Kubrick Dies
Filed at 4:27 p.m. EST

By The Associated Press



LONDON (AP) -- Stanley Kubrick, the director of ``2001: A Space Odyssey'' and ``A 
Clockwork Orange,'' whose films often puzzled and shocked audiences only to end up as 
classics, died Sunday at his home in England, his family said. He was 70. 

Police were summoned to Kubrick's rural home north of London on Sunday afternoon, said 
authorities in Hertfordshire, where he was certified dead. ``There are no suspicious 
circumstances,'' police said. 

Kubrick's family announced his death, and said there would be no further comment. 

Kubrick's films included ``Spartacus'' in 1960, ``Lolita'' in 1962, ``Dr. 
Strangelove,'' in 1964, ``2001'' in 1968 and ``A Clockwork Orange'' in 1971. 

He also made ``Barry Lyndon,'' released in 1975, ``The Shining'' in 1980 and ``Full 
Metal Jacket'' in 1987. 

Malcolm McDowell, who starred in ``A Clockwork Orange,'' issued a statement through 
his publicist calling Kubrick ``a heavyweight of my life.'' 

``He was the last great director of that era. He was the big daddy,'' said McDowell. 

Kubrick's latest film, ``Eyes Wide Shut,'' is still slated for release on July 16, 
Warner Bros. said Sunday. Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman star in the story of jealousy 
and obsession, which Kubrick made in great secrecy. 

``He was like family to us and we are in shock and devastated,'' Cruise and Kidman 
said in a statement released by their publicist. 

Director Steven Spielberg issued a statement describing Kubrick as a ``grand master of 
filmmaking.'' 

``He created more than just movies. He gave us complete environmental experiences,'' 
Spielberg said. 

Kubrick was born July 26, 1928, in New York. 

At 17, he was hired as a staff photographer by Look magazine, which had been impressed 
by a picture Kubrick had snapped on the day President Franklin D. Roosevelt died. 

While working at Look, he studied film by attending screenings at the Museum of Modern 
Art. 

``I was aware that I didn't know anything about making films, but I believed I 
couldn't make them any worse than the majority of films I was seeing. Bad films gave 
me the courage to try making a movie,'' Kubrick once said. 

In 1951, he sold a 16-minute documentary about a boxer, ``Day of the Fight,'' to the 
RKO film studio. 

Kubrick was drafted by actor Kirk Douglas into the film ``Spartacus'' when the 
production -- then the most expensive ever mounted in the United States -- ran into 
trouble. The film, about a slave revolt in ancient Rome, included some footage shot by 
the original director, Anthony Mann, and Kubrick did not regard the finished product 
as a great success. 

``I tried with only limited success to make the film as real as possible but I was up 
against a pretty dumb script which was rarely faithful to what is known about 
Spartacus,'' Kubrick told an interviewer. 

``Lolita,'' starring James Mason and Shelley Winters, was based on Vladimir Nabokov's 
controversial novel about a professor who is sexually obsessed with a 12-year-old 
girl. The work was filmed in Britain, in part because of censorship problems, and 
thereafter Kubrick was based in Britain. 

``Dr. Strangelove,'' starring Peter Sellers and George C. Scott, was a black comedy 
about nuclear war released in the early 1960s during a period of great fears over the 
bomb and Cold War tensions. 

``2001,'' a science fiction film about the evolution of man and humanity's place in 
the universe, combined dazzling visual imagery and an inspired use of music. It proved 
to be a great success for Kubrick. 

In an interview with Playboy magazine, Kubrick said he had ``tried to create a visual 
experience, one that bypasses verbalized pigeonholing and directly penetrates the 
subconscious with an emotional and philosophic content ... just as music does. ... 
You're free to speculate as you wish about the philosophical and allegorical 
meaning.'' 

``A Clockwork Orange,'' set in a violent future, is a graphic film about a young thug 
who carries out rapes and beatings before being sent to prison where he is 
brainwashed. 

The film was one of Kubrick's most controversial -- it was even disparaged by Anthony 
Burgess, whose novel was the basis of the film, and Kubrick eventually removed it from 
screens in Britain. One of Kubrick's memorable touches was to have his hero sing 
``Singin' in the Rain'' while dishing out a brutal beating. 

``The Shining,'' a thriller based on a Stephen King novel, starred Jack Nicholson as a 
writer who went mad and attacked his family while at a deserted, snowbound resort 
hotel. 

Kubrick was married three times, first in 1948 to Toba Metz, then after divorcing he 
married Ruth Sobotka in 1954. Their marriage ended three years later, and in 1958, he 
wedded Suzanne Harlan, with whom he had three daughters. 

Details about funeral arrangements were not immediately available. 



Clip: Plastic People of the Universe

1999-03-06 Thread Brad Bechtel

Plastic People Power
Czech band that helped spawn revolution comes to San Francisco 
Dan Ouellette
Sunday, March 7, 1999 
©1999 San Francisco Chronicle 

URL: 
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/1999/03/07/PK80634.DTL&type=music
 

Thirty years ago a group of young Czechoslovakian musicians formed a rock band. An 
innocent act by American standards, it was profoundly subversive in a country held 
hostage by the Soviet Union. 

Named after a Frank Zappa tune they smuggled behind the Iron Curtain, the Plastic 
People of the Universe proved to be much more than a bunch of upstarts out for a rowdy 
time. With their propulsive beat and dour- comic-sardonic lyrics, the group not only 
became a provocateur but, ultimately, a catalyst for the Czech revolution. 

``Yes, we're still very famous back in Czechoslovakia,'' says Plastic People alto 
saxophonist Vratislav Brabenec by telephone from New York City. The band's first-ever 
U.S. tour stops at San Francisco's Bottom of the Hill this Friday. ``The band 
continues to be seen as a symbol of the fight against communist oppression.'' 

Speaking with a heavy accent, Brabenec says he sometimes feels as if the band's role 
in the fight against Soviet oppression has been overblown. After all, the tunes 
themselves weren't blatant calls to revolution. 

But the Plastics vigorously bucked the status quo by delivering thought-provoking 
lyrics wrapped in power-packed rock. Brabenec notes that the band's biggest 
contribution to the uprising was its refusal to make concessions. 

``We did not compromise, which was rare at that time,'' he says. ``It really is a 
miracle that we survived. The Communists did not like us. They wanted us to emigrate, 
but we held out. 

``That's why today it's very important for a lot of young people that the Plastic 
People exist.'' 

RESPONSE TO SOVIET TANKS 

In 1968 in the United States, rock 'n' roll provided the soundtrack for the protest 
against the Vietnam War. In Czechoslovakia, music became a response to Soviet tanks 
rolling through the streets of Prague -- the outward sign of sociopolitical clampdown. 

Born a few months after the invasion, the Plastic People started out as a cover band, 
drawing material from the Doors, the Fugs and the Velvet Underground. They gradually 
integrated their own material into the psychedelic mix, inspired by the likes of 
Captain Beefheart and Zappa's Mothers of Invention. 

``We were playing music that was influenced by the feeling of freedom that was in the 
air at the time,'' Brabenec says. ``It was the same everywhere, but because of the 
Communists we had a harder time expressing it.'' 

In 1973, the Czech government revoked the Plastic People's license to perform, which 
forced the band underground. It played unannounced concerts in abandoned buildings and 
countryside venues and in 1974 secretly recorded its first album. 

Titled ``Egon Bondy's Happy Hearts Club Banned'' in an obvious allusion to the 
Beatles' ``Sgt. Pepper,'' it was a hard-driving collection of crass poems about such 
topics as constipation and toxic chemicals. 

Two years later, the secret police raided one of the group's concerts and arrested the 
band for ``organized disturbance of the peace.'' 

The raid sparked a response by Czech dissidents, including future President Vaclav 
Havel, who published the human rights manifesto Charter 77 (which paved the way for 
the Velvet Revolution in 1989). 

After a public trial, the band's manager and artistic director Ivan Jirous and 
Brabenec were jailed -- the former for nine years, the latter for eight months. 

``I still don't know why I was the only musician in the band to be imprisoned,'' 
Brabenec says. ``One of the theories is that they singled out people who had a 
university education and were considered intellectuals.'' 

The Plastic People kept performing and recording secretly, and the government con 
tinued to harass the band. A landscape architect by profession, Brabenec couldn't find 
work after he was released from jail and eventually was forced to move to Canada in 
1982. 

The rest of the band finally called it quits in 1987, with three members forming the 
post- punk groove group Pulnoc. The Plastics didn't re-form until January 1997, when 
at the request of President Havel they played at the Czech Republic's 20th anniversary 
celebration of Charter 77. 

Pleased by the response, the band began to perform sporadically, playing concerts in 
Slovakia and the Czech Republic and last July staging a show in New York. 

The most recent Plastics recording is ``1997,'' a live show performed in Prague and 
released on the Globus International imprint. Available here as an import, the CD 
captures the band playing its old material from the 1970s and '80s. 

The tunes are hard-edged, crunching rockers with a metallic throb and pile-driving 
beat. The numbers are also characterized by a jamming vibe, with young guitarist Joe 
Kararfiat (a new P

Clip: Lucinda Williams at the Fillmore

1999-03-06 Thread Brad Bechtel

A Joyride with Lucinda Williams
Grammy-winner radiates star power at intimate Fillmore show 
Neva Chonin, Chronicle Staff Critic
Saturday, March 6, 1999 
©1999 San Francisco Chronicle 

URL: 
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/1999/03/06/DD105451.DTL&type=music
 

Lucinda Williams is a diplomat of cool. Thursday night at the Fillmore, a front-row 
fan presented her with a sincere but problematic gift -- a bootleg CD of one of her 
own shows. 

The unruffled star laughed it off. ``Wouldn't you know it? I come to San Francisco and 
somebody hands me a bootleg,'' she cracked. ``This is Bootleg City. It's OK. I don't 
mind.'' 

Williams has good reason to feel indulgent. Last week her fifth album, ``Car Wheels on 
a Gravel Road,'' was voted best album of 1998 in the Village Voice's authoritative 
``Pazz & Jop'' poll, besting the nearly invincible Lauryn Hill by a hair. Last week 
Williams won a Grammy -- her second -- for best contemporary folk album. 

Fans, critics and musicians have been doting on the 45-year-old Louisiana-born 
singer-songwriter for decades. Her songs have been covered by everyone from Tom Petty 
to Emmylou Harris. 

What's different is that at long last the masses are starting to dote, too. Thursday 
the Fillmore was packed tight as a tin of sardines for the first of Williams' three 
San Francisco concerts, which conclude tonight, at the Warfield. 

Lucky fans who managed to get near the stage shared their space diplomatically. Young 
cowboy lesbians in tattoos and dreadlocks boogied; older country folk swung their 
partners. Many simply stood bobbing their heads in bliss. 

Williams, in a sensible mini-dress, black tights and biker boots, played acoustic 
guitar and kicked off with the Southern gothic ``Pineola'' from 1992's ``Sweet Old 
World'' before barreling into the present with ``Metal Firecracker.'' 

``Car Wheels on a Gravel Road'' naturally ruled the night, with standouts like the 
title track and ``2 Kool 2 Be 4-Gotten.'' But in the course of her 100-minute set, 
Williams also took care to include earlier material for her veteran fans, who roared 
with recognition at the opening notes of favorites such as ``Side of the Road,'' 
``Passionate Kisses'' and ``Something About What Happens When We Talk.'' 

The warm, interactive chemistry between Williams and her audience stood in balmy 
contrast to the current state-of-siege atmosphere of most rock (and that would include 
country rock -- new country, No Depression or otherwise) and hip- hop concerts. There 
just aren't many Grammy-winning musicians who let fans drape themselves over the front 
of their stage. 

This easy attitude and lack of bouncers doesn't translate into a lack of star 
presence. Williams is as mesmeric delivering a melancholy song such as ``Jackson'' as 
she is jamming out a steamy cover of Howlin' Wolf's ``Come to Me Baby.'' In 
performance, her expressive vocals are much like the woman herself -- beautiful, a 
little ragged and exquisitely, poetically possessed. 

The members of Williams' backup band shone in their own right. Rhythm guitarist Kenny 
Vaughan, looking like a cross between Buddy Holly and one of Herman's nerdier Hermits, 
twitched and twisted with aplomb. Lead guitarist John Jackson, formerly a Bob Dylan 
sideman, played suave and subtle lead guitar. Bassist Richard ``Hombre'' Price and 
drummer Fran Breen ably held down the fort while organist-accordionist Randy Leago 
supplied melodic atmosphere. 

Opening act Patty Griffin, who won over the audience with a delivery as lushly 
stylized as her tendriled red hair, joined Williams to supply counter-harmonies on 
``Greenville.'' 

Every concert has its epiphany, and Thursday's came with the final pre-encore number. 
After dedicating songs to late friends and heroes such as Dusty Springfield (``Still I 
Long for Your Kiss'') and Williams' longtime drummer, Donald Lindley, who recently 
died of lung cancer, the singer paused to fiddle with her guitar strings and ponder. 
Then, with a shrug, she simply offered, ``I guess all we can do is rock on.'' 

Which she did, in a rousing, extended jam session capping one of her newer songs, 
fittingly titled ``Joy.'' 



Re: Recordable CD Players

1999-03-05 Thread Brad Bechtel

If you own a Mac, I'd recommend getting a copy of Adaptec Toast (version 3.5.6 is the 
most current).  If you own a PC,  Adaptec's Easy CD Creator does the job.  Either will 
burn audio CDs; if you're doing multimedia development, you can make your own 
presentations and have them automatically play when the CD is inserted into your PC. 
http://www.adaptec.com can give you more information about their software.

I'm using a Sony doublespeed recorder from 1995 that has worked flawlessly ever since 
we bought it.  I've done this more times than I'd care to admit.  If you own a 
Macromedia product, chances are it came from this CD burner.

Further details available privately to those who really need to know.

np: Buena Vista Social Club



RE: Lawrence Welk vs. Spade Cooley

1999-03-05 Thread Brad Bechtel

Interesting quotes from the liner notes to "Spadella!  The Essential Spade Cooley" 
(Columbia Classics CK 57392):

"Coming to an end concurrent with the '40's was the 20-year heyday of the cowboy 
movie.  Also fading fast was the public's fascination with both singing cowboys and 
highly arranged western swing bands.  Spade reacted by bringing in horns and retooling 
his 18-piece band into a slick, Freddy Martin-like entity.  His label, RCA Victor, 
reacted by kicking Cooley off the hillbilly roster and putting him in the pop lineup...

"Cooley signed with Decca in 1950.  Now augmented by a string section, his band 
swelled to 25 pieces.  Their overwrought recordings bore little resemblance to the 
spirited country swing of their earlier heyday...Worse yet, new shows such as that of 
unhip upstart Lawrence Welk began attracting chunks of Spade's audience...

"After five years and no hits, Decca dropped Spade Cooley in 1955.  The following year 
his TV show was cancelled.  The year after that Spade Cooley retired from show 
business."

By the way, for a lurid account of his last years, see this URL (3D glasses 
recommended):
http://www.hotad.com/spade.HTML




Clip: Tom Petty finds inspiration in San Francisco

1999-03-05 Thread Brad Bechtel

Check out the bottom of this article for opening acts.
=

Petty Finds Inspiration in San Francisco
Rocker returns to Fillmore before launching tour, CD 
James Sullivan, Chronicle Staff Writer
Friday, March 5, 1999 
©1999 San Francisco Chronicle 

URL: 
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/1999/03/05/DD77323.DTL&type=music
 

Tom Petty remembers how giddy he was on the last night of the Heartbreakers' historic 
20-show run two years ago at the Fillmore. The final show stretched to four hours. 

``We just caught a wave, and we were gonna ride it to the beach.'' 

The adrenaline, he says, carried over into the recording for ``Echo,'' the band's new 
album, due next month. To jump-start a summer tour, the Heartbreakers begin another 
Fillmore engagement Sunday; they'll play seven sold-out shows. 

Before the last time, Petty says, he'd never even been inside the Fillmore. ``I just 
showed up uninitiated,'' he says. Still, it was his idea. ``The history had a lot to 
do with it. I wanted to put the band in a residency setting, to play just for the sake 
of playing. ``We weren't promoting anything. We didn't have any agenda. And it was a 
very successful experiment for us. I think we enjoyed it more than anything we've ever 
done with the Heartbreakers.'' One of rock 'n' roll's most consistent performers since 
his breakthrough more than 20 years ago, the 48-year-old Petty has outlasted punk, New 
Wave and spandex metal with a straight-ahead style rooted in the British Invasion, pop 
psychedelia and other radio staples of his Florida childhood. 

``We've been very blessed with a loyal audience,'' he says. ``We've just tried to stay 
honest with them, and that gives us longevity. We've never particularly tried to get 
into a suit of clothes. 

``I knock wood. It's just wonderful that people still want to hear it.'' 

One bit of proof: Petty's ``Greatest Hits'' is still on the Billboard Top 200 Albums 
chart, six years after its release. 

After Petty issued a few albums billed to himself without the Heartbreakers -- 
guitarist Mike Campbell, keyboardist Benmont Tench, bassist Howie Epstein and drummer 
Steve Ferrone -- the 1997 Fillmore stay reconfirmed the group's confidence. 

``We have a damn good rock 'n' roll band,'' says Petty in his casual drawl. The 
Fillmore shows ``really played a huge part in inspiring us -- not just to do the 
record, but to carry on.'' 

Judging by the first single ``Free Girl Now,'' ``Echo'' finds the Heartbreakers even 
more direct than usual. Not that the band best known for its buzzing, unfussy rock 
songs -- ``American Girl,'' ``I Need to Know,'' ``Jammin' Me'' -- has ever been 
accused of self-indulgence. 

``It's a very simple record, very unadorned,'' Petty says. ``People are telling me 
it's much more of a rock 'n' roll record, in the sense of faster tempos and louder 
guitars, than what we've done in a while. 

``I'm very pleased with it -- more so than I usually am.'' 

The one medium in which Petty can be considered avant-garde is videos. When his 
self-titled debut got its first break in England, he became one of the first American 
artists to make film shorts for his songs. 

``In England, it was not that abnormal to make a little promo clip you could send to 
the TV shows. 

``When I was given (MTV's) Video Vanguard award, I said, `All this because we didn't 
want to go on `Merv Griffin,' '' he says, punctuating the thought with a familiar 
``heh-heh.'' 

Rest assured he won't be mailing in his Fillmore performances. ``No two shows will be 
the same,'' Petty promises. Confirmed opening acts include Lucinda Williams and War. 
Two years ago, of special guests included John Lee Hooker and the late Carl Perkins. 

``I've been very fortunate. I've developed a lot of friendships with people I admire 
musically.'' 

Last time, he says, the Bay Area proved itself the ideal place for the residency 
``experiment.'' ``I've always felt that San Francisco has a very open-minded audience. 
I thought they'd be more open to us performing as a house band, rather than doing a 
medley of our hits. ``I think I was right.'' 

CONCERTS 

TOM PETTY AND THE HEARTBREAKERS: The band's seven Fillmore shows are sold out. 



Announce:Homespun Videos on Sale

1999-03-04 Thread Brad Bechtel

I just got the latest copy of the Homespun Videos catalog.  They list a huge number of 
instruction videos, covering just about any instrument and genre, on sale until March 
31, 1999.  If you've ever wanted to learn to play an instrument, these videos may be a 
big help.  

They use expert teachers (Richard Thompson, Rory Block, Jerry Douglas, Jack Casady, 
David Grisman, Levon Helm, etc.) and the videos I've seen are very well done. Most of 
the tapes are at least $10.00 less than the normal price.

http://www.homespuntapes.com for more information.



RE: Covers and a defense of irony (long)

1999-03-04 Thread Brad Bechtel

Blah blah New Yorker blah  street blah blah New Yorkers love to talk blah blah  Staten 
Island is a bad example to use, because though most New Yorkers know how to get there, 
they'd rather not, and they don't understand why anyone else would either.

To visit Mandolin Brothers, one of the finest vintage guitar stores in the world.

Brad, who still owns those Batman trading cards referred to by Terry Smith, and who 
thinks "Don't Walk Away Renee" is a fine cover song.



Jimmy Day Benefit March 28th in Nashville

1999-03-03 Thread Brad Bechtel

According to postings on the Steel Guitar Forum, there will be a benefit concert to 
help try to pay off some of the hospital bills the late Jimmy Day accumulated during 
his battle with cancer.

It will be held at the Nashville Nitelife nightclub on Music Valley drive, starting at 
2:00 on March 28th.  Buddy Emmons will be featured on steel guitar, Tommy Alsup and 
Pete Wade on guitars, Willie Rainsford on piano, Hoot Hester on fiddle, etc.

Jimmy Dickens, Lee Ann Womack, Wade Hayes, Toby Keith, Jeannie Sealy, Craig 
Dillingham, Bill Russell, and others have agreed to perform, according to this post.

For more information, visit the Steel Guitar Forum (http://www.b0b.com/forum) or write 
to [EMAIL PROTECTED]



Dusty Springfield covers

1999-03-03 Thread Brad Bechtel

This may seem weird, but there's a gay rock band here who does a completely non-ironic 
cover of "Son of a Preacher Man".  Works really well in their situation.

-B "tying two threads together" B-



Re:RIP Dusty Springfield

1999-03-03 Thread Brad Bechtel

What a terrible loss.  Dusty Springfield was one of the few white soul singers of her 
generation who could legitimately stand up to the great black singers.

According to the BBC web site 
(http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/uk/newsid_67000/67646.stm), she had just been 
awarded the Order of the British Empire this year.   Thanks to the discussion on this 
list, I picked up a copy of "Dusty In Memphis" last year.  It's a hell of a fine 
album, worth owning no matter what.

np: Son of a Preacher Man



Re: questions

1999-03-02 Thread Brad Bechtel

At 09:15 AM 3/2/99 -0600, you wrote:
>Has anyone heard of any of these bands? What kind of music do they play?

Just as a guess, I'd say you're looking at some sort of traditional jazz festival.  
These are the bands of which I have heard, and my simple generalization about their 
music:

Cats N Jammers - hot string jazz 
Zydeco Flames - zydeco 
Lavay Smith and her Red Hot Skillet Lickers - 20's and 30's jazz with sultry vocals
Dynatones - white guys playing blues



Wanna see Tom Petty at the Fillmore?

1999-03-01 Thread Brad Bechtel

Due to a misunderstanding, I have a couple of extra tickets to see Tom Petty this 
Sunday evening, March 7.  If anyone on this list would like them, let me know 
privately.

Thanks.  



___
Brad's Page of Steel:
http://www.well.com/user/wellvis/steel.html
A web site devoted to acoustic and electric lap steel guitars



Clip: Jeff Tweedy - Don't Fence Him In

1999-02-28 Thread Brad Bechtel

Don't fence him in 
By Jane Ganahl 
OF THE EXAMINER STAFF 
Sunday, February 28, 1999 
©1999 San Francisco Examiner 

URL: 
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/examiner/hotnews/stories/27/Stweedy28.dtl&type=music
 

Jeff Tweedy isn't country, or punk, or folk -- except on the days that he is 

Jeff Tweedy is a tough man to pigeonhole. Insurgent country crooner, punk rocker, 
musicologist, folk hero, poet, guitarist. 

Ever since his days as the teen star of the seminal, now defunct "alt-country" outfit 
Uncle Tupelo ('90s rock meets hick tunes), the 31-year-old Midwesterner has shifted 
genres like a master. 

It all depends on what music he's making that day. 

Last year alone, the hyperactive Tweedy recorded albums with his current band, Wilco 
("Summer Teeth," due out March 9); and his just-for-fun side project Golden Smog, an 
underground supergroup that sold out Slim's last month, comprising members of other 
Chicago-area bands like Soul Asylum and The Jayhawks. 

And he promoted the release of a third album: the Grammy-nominated, much-heralded 
"Mermaid Avenue" -- a collaboration between Wilco, English political folksinger Billy 
Bragg and the late Woody Guthrie, whose long-lost lyrics were resurrected with music 
composed by Tweedy and Bragg. 

Tweedy's dexterity -- an effortless ability to hop-scotch between projects that always 
seem to turn out fabulously -- has led the music media to dub him a "visionary." But 
the gravel-voiced, prickly Tweedy, in town recently with Golden Smog, is the first to 
say nah, he's "just f---ing around." 

Q: Do you ever sit down and rest? I saw you last year with Billy Bragg, Golden Smog 
AND Wilco. 

A: I stay busy. I have to. I get better by staying at it. And I do sit down a lot more 
than people think. This year we didn't tour that much, compared to recent years. 

Q: Is your son Spencer one reason? 

A: He's 3 now, and he's amazing -- talking, saying everything. But it wasn't because 
of him that we didn't tour as much. "Mermaid Avenue" just didn't lend itself well to a 
full-blown tour. It was too hard to get everyone together. But we did play several 
songs from it during our Wilco shows. 

Q: It was nominated for a Contemporary Folk Album Grammy ... 

Q: Yeah, as proud as we are of it, we were pretty shocked it was nominated. It's 
exciting and kind of surreal. But I think Lucinda Williams will win it. (She did.) If 
we did win, I figure Billy will accept and probably give a really long speech. 
(laughs) 

Q: "Mermaid Avenue" made a lot of top 10 lists, but how did it sell? 

A: It's not the best-selling Wilco album, but it might be the biggest selling Billy 
Bragg record ever in the States. In fact, I saw an ad in a British magazine saying, 
"Buy the record that is breaking Billy Bragg in the States!" I wonder if Wilco had 
anything to do with that?! Sorry, a little ego happening here. 

Q: Did ego get in the way during its creation? 

A: (hesitates) Well, it's all about perspective. We knew we came into it much later 
than Billy, but we also had our own vision of it. Billy was really gracious at first 
in accepting that a certain amount of his vision would not be intact at the end of the 
day. But it reached a point where he became sort of territorial. That's 
understandable, and I can't argue with how it turned out, but there's a part of me 
that thinks it could have been better. 

Q: When we spoke before of "Summer Teeth," you said it would have no twang at all, and 
it doesn't. What do you call your style now? 

A: I would say ... postmodern bubble-gum? (laughs) I have no idea. 

Q: You're gonna be asked this a lot, since "Summer Teeth" sounds so different from 
your other work. 

A: But I don't have to answer. It's just what Wilco sounds like NOW. It's just how our 
vision has progressed, for musical reasons. 

Q: And personal reasons? This record has a much darker feel. I listen to lines like "I 
dreamed about killing you last night" and want to ask if everything is OK at home? 

A: Yeah things are fine. Look, these are stories. I know some songs will be 
misinterpreted. I just look for things that seem honest and direct and hard to sing. 

Q: Because you want to challenge yourself? 

A: Because I want to FEEL something. And these days, it takes a pretty extreme lyric 
-- whether it's rooted in something that happened to me or not -- to make me feel. The 
less something sounds like ME, the more compelled I am to explore it. Like visiting 
two sides of an argument. 

Q: Okay. I'll write this: "News Flash -- Jeff Tweedy does not want to kill his wife." 

A: (laughs) I'm not saying that either. I DO want to kill my wife! But seriously, 
these are the things that provoke images of passion. I'm always interested in those 
things. 

Q: You've been called visionary. Do you aim to push the envelope or just go on 
instinct? 

A: The seed of "Being There" (Wilco's most recent album) was a certain amount of anger 
over being cornered, pigeonholed, by

Re: Reno?? Tahoe? Carson City? March 12-15

1999-02-27 Thread Brad Bechtel

Reno?

http://www.tahoe.com/action/reno.html shows the following during the timeframe March 
12-15:

John Ascuaga's NUGGET CELEBRITY SHOWROOM: 

Righteous Brother Bill Medley (March 4-17)  [just missed Barbara Mandrell]

On the South Shore,
CAESARS TAHOE
CIRCUS MAXIMUS:
George Carlin (March 12-13)
Wynonna (March 19-20)
[just missed the Moody Blues and Willie Nelson]
March 1-31 -- Carson Valley Museum & Cultural Center: National Women in History month. 
Info: 782-2555. 

ELEVATION in North Shore has the following:
Super Diamond [great Neil Diamond tribute band] (March 12-13)
Abyssinians (March 14) 

More will be available as you get closer to the date.

http://www.tahoe.com/skitahoe/sierralife/index.html has more suggestions.

Don't ask me about the time I inadvertantly saw the Further Festival at the Reno 
Hilton. Deadheads gambling...uhhh




Re: Robert Johnson

1999-02-26 Thread Brad Bechtel

At 09:12 AM 2/26/99 +, you wrote:
>A longshot, this, but I really need a link to a site that has a collection of
>Robert Johnson lyrics if at all possible.

Not a long shot at all.

http://miavx1.acs.muohio.edu/~flannetd/rjlyrics.htm
http://www.geocities.com/BourbonStreet/5942/rjohnsonlyrics.html
http://www.geocities.com/BourbonStreet/Delta/2541/blrjohns.htm




Grammyszzzzzzzzz....

1999-02-25 Thread Brad Bechtel

Sheryl Crow did a fine job.  I appreciated the fact that she paid tribute to the 
people at A&M who were responsible for her success by allowing her to grow as an 
artist.

Shania Twain HAD to perform with her legs spread apart like that.  If she closed her 
legs, her outfit would have fallen to the floor.  Her costume and the costumes her 
band wore seemed the least natural of all the many variations of clothing I saw that 
night.  She still sounded like new country to me, even with the smoke bombs and 
spandex.  Must have been the steel guitar...

Lauryn Hill's reading of Psalm 40 was one of the best things anyone did, especially 
the way she emphasized "He lifted me out of the slimy pit".

np: Grammy winner for best contemporary folk album



Another good quote from the Village Voice web site

1999-02-24 Thread Brad Bechtel

The year's most inexplicable musical fad was the vastly overrated genre of 
"Americana"— a/k/a "No Depression," "progressive country," "regressive country," 
"independent country," "insurgent country," "alternative country," "neo-traditional 
country," "garage country," "cow punk," "twangcore," "y'alternative," "grange." For 
every Lucinda there are 50 Freakwaters and for every Shaver there are 100 Backsliders. 
Long on sincerity and short on talent, these are sensitive, educated, well-meaning 
writers who genuinely lament the end of Route 66 consciousness and the blanding of 
America. Which is why no one, critics or peers, wants to dog them. 

Michael Lipton 
Charleston, West Virginia 



RE: Merle question

1999-02-24 Thread Brad Bechtel

Blah blah Merle Haggard blah blah Boston blah blah  wondering if he is worth going to 
see blah blah
 worth going to see if he isn't doing anything but scratching his ass blah blah fine 
show.

I'd second what Jon says about him - he's an American treasure.  Watching Merle 
Haggard in concert should be a required step for high school graduation, in my opinion.

-B "or at least extra credit" B-



Danny Gatton/Lenny Breau/Buddy Emmons?

1999-02-23 Thread Brad Bechtel

There's supposedly a video and/or audio tape going around that has guitarists Danny 
Gatton and Lenny Breau and steel guitarist Buddy Emmons jamming together.  If anyone 
knows of this tape or how to obtain it, please let me know.



Clip: Penelope Houston

1999-02-23 Thread Brad Bechtel

Interesting photo of Ms. Houston here:
http://www.sfgate.com/chronicle/pictures/1999/02/23/penelope23.jpg

Penelope Houston Lets Out Her Punk
Ex-Avengers leader releases new and old tunes 
Neva Chonin, Chronicle Staff Writer
Tuesday, February 23, 1999 
©1999 San Francisco Chronicle 

URL: 
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/1999/02/23/DD83308.DTL&type=music
 

Like a skilled sonic chef, Penelope Houston has perfected the art of fusion. Sporting 
blue hair and sensible shoes, the striking 41- year-old singer-songwriter looks like a 
cross between her latter-day incarnation as an acoustic chanteuse and her historic 
identity as leader of the legendary late '70s punk band, the Avengers. 

Houston's personal aesthetic reflects where she's at professionally. Last week 
Lookout! Records released "The Avengers Died for Your Sins,'' a collection of live, 
studio and rehearsal recordings from the lauded San Francisco band whose ferocity as 
an opening act blew the Sex Pistols off the stage at Winterland in 1978. 

The album's release will be celebrated tonight at the Great American Music Hall and 
Friday at Berkeley's 924 Gilman Street with concerts by Houston and a band billed as 
the ScAvengers. If that's not enough to get the old punk blood pumping, on March 24, 
Houston will break with her neo- folk persona and release "Tongue,'' the first album 
in her 11-year solo career that rocks more than it strums. "It's pretty exciting that 
these albums are coming out at the same time -- one with my earliest music and one 
with my latest,'' says Houston over a plate of grilled veggies at a San Francisco 
cafe. "I knew I could do it after a recording session with Billie Joe Armstrong (of 
Green Day) and (local producer) Kevin Army. 

"They kept saying, 'We want you to scream like you did when you were in the Avengers!' 
So I finally let loose, trying to relive those moments of punk fury, and it felt 
really good. I thought, 'I can do this.' '' 

Armstrong, who co-wrote the song "New Day'' on "Tongue,'' introduced Houston to her 
future ScAvengers rhythm section, bassist Joel Reader from the Mr. T Experience and 
drummer Danny Panic, formerly of Screeching Weasel. (Original Avengers guitarist Greg 
Ingraham completes the lineup.) 

"I think Joel Reader was 6 months old when I played my first show,'' says Houston with 
a wry smile. "But when we started rehearsing, it blew my mind. We sounded so much like 
the Avengers.'' 

Houston's return to her roots started two years ago when, during a European tour to 
promote her previous album, "Cut You,'' she found herself longing to rock out during 
her acoustic set. 

After returning home, Houston parted company with her backup band and began 
collaborating with local singer-songwriters Pat Johnson and Chuck Prophet and ex-Go 
Go's Jane Wiedlin and Charlotte Caffey. The result was "Tongue,'' an infectious blend 
of sly, vitriolic vocals (the first single, "Scum''), rambunctious pop hooks ("Grand 
Prix'') and distorted indie-rock guitars (the title track). 

At the same time she was recording her new album, Houston was scouring the Internet, 
looking for tape traders with vintage recordings to include in Lookout's Avengers 
collection. 

It was a long historical trek. Houston was only 19 when she moved from Seattle in 1977 
to attend the San Francisco Art Institute. Already a veteran of the Northwest punk 
scene, it wasn't long before she co-founded the Avengers with three other renegade 
artists. Though the band lasted only two years, it won its place in the punk hall of 
fame thanks to its artful garbage-bag attire and one album of scathing, passionately 
political songs. 

Though Houston's days as a revolutionary punk rocker have passed 

--she's happily married to art director Patrick Roques and settled in a funky old 
house in Oakland -- at heart she figures she'll always be an iconoclast. 

"When they were interviewing me for the 'Tongue' bio, they asked what lyric sums up 
what I want to tell the world,'' she says. "I thought about it and realized it was a 
lyric I wrote when I was 19 -- 'I believe in me.' 

"I'm still the same person I was then. I still feel strongly about people finding 
their way through life and being true to who they are.'' 


CONCERT 

THE ScAVENGERS play at 9 p.m. tonight at the Great American Music Hall, 859 O'Farrell 
St., San Francisco, with the Hi-Fives and Pansy Division. Tickets are $10. Call (415) 
885-0750. The band also plays Friday at 924 Gilman Street, Berkeley. Tickets $5-$7. 
Call (510) 525-9926. 



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