Signature drink: First trial

For years, I've wanted a signature drink for Burnt Sugar Blues, and tonight I tasted an excellent contender!   At the Depot Brewery, I asked bartender Paul Wheeler if he liked making up new drinks.   Ready for fun, he said, "Sure!" and listened to my wish.

I said
(1) the band's name is Burnt Sugar Blues;
(2) I like chocolate; and
(3) the drink ought to have a burnt sugar taste, maybe like caramel.

He thought for a moment, then shook together a combo of Baileys Irish Cream, Kahlua, and DiSaronno with half-n-half to make a sweet frothy delight that goes down soooo easy ~~ smooth and smokin' ~~ just like our sound!

Is it luck or is it fate that Mr Wheeler chose liqueurs I've had on my own shelves at home?   Maybe he's psychic.   That would explain a lot.   It would especially explain the coffee part of Kahlua ~~ because although I didn't mention coffee, the lyrics of the band's name song, Burnt Sugar Blues, include coffee (along with chocolate, sugar, burnt sugar, lollipops, and honey).

As I sipped, I sorted through the symbolisms . . . .

Before I put my feet up to experiment with symbolic drinks, I cut a rug with George Hrebar while collecting cover charge at the door for the band, Dr Blade's Blues. The other two dancers shown here in the foreground are Thomas Selleck and Jennifer Nelson.  (photo by James Moore)

Blues ~~ 

Irish whiskey is renowned for drowning sorrows.   I guess the Irish have a lot of sorrows to drown.   Anyway, Irish whiskey seems related to pick-me-up times with pick-me-up friends, like the blues are.

(As a total tangent, my name "Welty" traveled through Ireland on its way from Switzerland to North America.)

Chocolate ~~ 

From the Baileys Irish Cream website, I learned this: "The distinct style of Baileys is derived from a unique proprietary cocoa extract recipe giving Baileys its chocolate character and essence."

Three hundred some flavors accompany coffee's aroma, so Kahlua's contribution includes chocolatey impressions, too.

Burnt Sugar ~~ 

Sugar cane itself is the basis for the rum in Kahlua, along with roasted arabica coffee beans.   Roasting coffee develops yet another aromatic carbon ring of burnt sugar.

Veracruz, where Kahlua is grown and blended, is on the Gulf coast of Mexico, where Spanish, African, and Caribbean cultures have coexisted for centuries.   Burnt Sugar Blues puts Afro-Cuban and Latin rhythms with midwestern roots, so I feel a correspondence there.

All liqueurs involve transforming sugar resulting in a carbon ring giving the impression of burnt sugar, some more than others.   Disaronno's legend claimed it was an 'infusion of apricot kernel oil with "absolute alcohol, burnt sugar, and the pure essence of seventeen selected herbs and fruits"' (although in spite of its past as an "amaretto," no almond is included.)

I like the impression of herbs and fruits.   It sounds like a tonic with those essences.

Caramel ~~

Half-n-half, along with Baileys cream, smoothes the flavors into a luscious caramel.   Caramel is, after all, just perfectly browned sugar and cream.



For next time, I'll try it with the ice strained out after shaking, just because I'm a no-ice kinda drinker.   I'll report further experimentations as they happen.

Cheers to great beginning!

Midnite Open Mic Jam

I sang "Never Gonna Go Easy" for Wednesday's Midnite Open Mic Jam at the Depot Brewery.   Although at the time I didn't know about the coincidence, I wrote the song a few years ago on the same night a friend was fundraising for his legal defense against accusations of herbal disobedience.   The words and melody came in like a radio wave ~~ THAT part WAS easy!

None of the other musicians had heard this song nor played it, but they made it sound great: Tim Carey grooved bass line, Jon Estrin embellished with lead guitar, James Moore kept rhythm on kit while Bob Bernards gave a beautiful hand rhythm on a djembe.   I added flute between verses.

Afterwards, long, energetic jams with Tim and Jon as Dan Gorman sat kit, James moved to conga, Tony sat keyboard, Paul Squillo joined on trumpet, and newcomer Lava Lava added his saxophone to the mix.

Super energy, awesome sound, so three hours later I'm easing off the high.  Whew!

Flute follow-up

I was sitting at a sidewalk table on North Main yesterday checking email when I saw a familiar figure walking toward me.

"Your flute sounded nice last night," he said, as I remembered that he heard me play at Late Night Open Mic at the Depot with the house band.

"Thank you!" I said, feeling happy for his kind words.

"You must have been playing for a long time?" he asked.   Maybe he was trying to gauge how long it would take for him to gain the skills he wanted.

"I learned in fifth grade, but there was a long break in there."  

He stopped to tell me a bit about himself.   Turns out that in 1972, he felt inspired to learn flute because he liked its sound.   He tried guitar instead, but the strings hurt his fingertips, and his attention was distracted by other things, and time passed.   Hearing our upbeat jazzy improv renewed his inspiration to learn how to play.

I hope he follows up on that.  

I thank him here on this blog for confirming a pattern I noticed in several conversations like this:
One way for me to empower people is by first empowering myself and then living out loud.   Lucky for me, I dig that design!

Bring on the douns

Josy and I experimented on Tuesday, September 13, and then again on Thursday, September 22, to see how my songs sound when she plays douns and I sing.   We feel encouraged ~~ I feel ecstatic, actually ~~ about how good they sounded.   It's the foundation for the way I hear my songs in my head.

On Tuesday we found some grooves with Coconut Oil and Burnt Sugar Blues.   I figured if we couldn't find good riffs for those two songs, we better just give up and go home.   But they sound cool!   Yay!

On Thursday we refreshed Tuesday's songs, then added Wayfaring Stranger and Fever and enjoyed another round of good luck.   The two links here go to youtubes of the nearest inspirations for our take on these cover songs.   I rewrote about half the words in each so I'll update this post with links to my versions.

Bob Miller of Foliba offered super suggestions and recorded the basic rhythms with his phone so we would remember them for next practice.   In this picture, Bob wears a white shirt as he plays the douns.

Foliba plays Open Mic at Cafe Paradiso in 2012

Josy started drum lessons with Fonziba Koster about seven years ago, and has developed into the go-to doun player in her intermediate drumming group, keeping a steady beat for their traditional West African polyrhythms, from simple to complex.

I feel overjoyed and deeply honored to hear Josy holding the basic rhythm structures for Burnt Sugar Blues' songs.

Hickory Highlands Hen

Josy and I, two seeds of the gestating Burnt Sugar Blues, visited the open house at the Farmhouse at Hickory Highlands on Sunday, May 22, 2016.  The gorgeous afternoon highlighted treasures of the house that John Freeberg and Susan Walch grew atop a prairie hill over the course of five years.

While there, we communed with the cows and calf, and checked in with the chickens.  This little red hen contented herself in my arms ~~ she even snoozed a bit ~~ until she politely excused herself to freshen up without squirting my shirt.

I appreciated that!

Christy holds a snoozing Hickory Highlands hen ~~ Photo by Josy Welty

Hero ballads

Last summer, Mike Scanlon and I recorded two of my hero ballads in Jesse James' new studio in his basement.   (Jesse moved since then but he and his equipment are still in Fairfield.)   The space was perfect for us ~~ low-key concrete, fine audio equipment, and Jesse's keen ear for mix.   Josy sat beside Jesse behind the sound board, observing the whole scene with quiet support.

We had planned on recording only Hero so that's all we prepared, but things clicked along so well I added two more songs, although one of them just wasn't prepped enough to make the grade for the blog.

Although these songs were recorded a year ago, I didn't post them here sooner because the original intention was not to post them on the blog, but to give an interested drummer something of ours to work with until our schedules and practice spaces could line up enough for us to get together for a session.   So they have a singer-songwriter sense, almost folk sound maybe, which is simpler and quieter than usual for me.

In spite of efforts to bring players together, we were not able to play these with a drummer, and then the band evaporated within weeks of recording these songs.   So as an homage to the old band and as a sketch for a future band, I feel grateful to have these in our archives.

Drummers be warned:  we did not use a metronome and the timing is uneven.

Would You Catch Me was first recorded at our first open mic back in April 2012 after I wrote it in December 2011.   The audio file below is from June 2015.



Would You Catch Me posed a question in G minor pentatonic, and the answer in real life turned out to be "No".   From the ashes of that dashed hope came an almost country-western ballad with a few G major chords.   I wrote Hero in December 2013.




Must be the somber reflection during hibernation in winter that brings out my ballads.



Jesse James can be reached by email:   jjamestech @ g m a i l . c o m

Unmanifest

More change.   Steve Jeffries, our sax/harp/percussionist decided to part ways with the band.   He plans to put more attention on jazz ~ he plays with the Dave Leffler group ~ and do a few gigs with his other band, Blue Cat Alley.   I enjoyed the two years that Steve grooved with the band, and I wish him all the best.

After hearing this Monday afternoon that my band now has no established members besides me, a wise friend said, "Your band is in its unmanifest state.   What lies ahead is the field of all possibilities."

It's very encouraging in a strange way.   Totally true, not faky, it calls my spirit to speak clear and strong for the unfolding future, to be ready for the next adventure.

Metamorphosis

Metamorphosis is the band's latest phase.  

We had a great time playing at the mid-July birthday party.  

Russ hosted the party in his recently renovated party room and played bass all night long.   Ark-Hal Karns played his drum kit, which was perfect since we didn't yet have a kit drummer.   Mike played guitar all night, too.   I sang a few songs and other singers filled out a great party.

Two days later, bassist Russ England resigned from the band.   Three weeks after that, guitarist Mike Scanlon resigned.   Russ was my first band member and we made music together for 6 years.   Mike was with us for 4 years, and we three were the core of Burnt Sugar Blues.

What a shock.   I sincerely wish for everyone to do exactly what fills them with joy, and that's where Russ and Mike say they are going.   Burnt Sugar Blues was close-but-not-quite, and life is too precious to put one's time into close-but-not-quite.

I hope they both find joy and fulfillment in their new endeavors.

So . . . we have a crisis.   No drummer, no bassist, no lead guitar, no practice space for ourselves nor to check out new players.

What we got is HEART.   Plus multi-instrumentalist Steve Jeffries, djembe player Josy Welty, sound tech Jesse James, and singer/tambourinist me.   My philosophy of life says that crisis is an opportunity ~~ the deeper the crisis, the bigger the opportunity.   In that case, this has the makings of a phenomenal breakthrough. 

Some very talented musicians are interested to see what the band is about ~~ potentials include 3 kit drummers, 2 bassists, 2 lead guitarists, and a rhythm guitarist.   What we need at this moment is a practice space to pull all this together.

I checked out a room in a barn yesterday.   If we get a crew together to clear out the accumulations, we'll have a place to practice temporarily.   With enough hands, it will take less than two hours.   This is progress, and I feel eager to assemble our new players and the sounds they bring with them.   I sense a whole new evolution for Burnt Sugar Blues.

Caught backstage

Mark Soth caught a pic of 3 of us Burnt Cat Blues players behind the gazebo in Bentonsport on Sunday.   We were listening to Keith DeBoer sing and play his unapologetically romantic ballads after we backed Eric Schaffer's set.

Keith DeBoer plays guitar and sings while we stand and listen ~~
Christy Ann Welty, Kevin Wells, Russ England
photo by Mark Soth

Burnt Cat Blues *

Sunday afternoon was perfect for playing at the Bentonsport Scenic Drive Festival (and Fine Arts Festival).   Sunny on the north bank of the Des Moines River, shady under grand old trees, breezy on the gazebo, we traded places in a game of musical chairs ~ a series of musicians joining and leaving the "jam session" organized by Mark Soth.

at the Bentonsport gazebo just before our set,
a few members of Blue Cat Alley (named from right to left):
Steve Jeffries at far right on congas, Mark Soth right of center behind corn stalks,
Beth Payne center, Astred Griffin left of center, and David Bordow seated far left
photo by Heather Miller-Rodriguez

Soth's band Blue Cat Alley supplied several players for the jam, including guitarist Kevin Wells and percussionist Steve Jeffries, who played with Russ and I for our four-song set.   Mike was busy taking photos of Chicago's marathon that day.

I chose cover songs because we had time for exactly one rehearsal before the gig, so everybody had to know their parts before the rehearsal.   Russ and I met with Kevin on Wednesday to work out chords and endings, and we were ready to go.   Steve Jeffries joined us on stage after I'd introduced our first song, and I was ready to gun the engine on that Cadillac.

Our 4-song set:

Bring My Cadillac Back
Wind Cries Mary
Little Wing
Wayfaring Stranger 

After our set, Mark asked Russ to stay for the next set to accompany Eric Schaffer, along with Kevin Wells, Steve Jeffries, Mark Soth, and David Bordow.   I decided to stay, too, and picked up a tambourine to jingle along in an impromptu blues jam with Eric's strong lead singing.   After his set, Eric told me that he specializes in simple songs that are easy to jam with no rehearsal.

*  With Kevin and Steve from Blue Cat Alley, and Russ and I from Burnt Sugar Blues, Will Gunn suggested the moniker Burnt Cat Blues.

Foliba wows the crowd

Energetic and tight as a drum (ha), Foliba wowed the crowd last night with the rhythm Marakadon, also called Maraka:



From left to right, the drummers are Dave Winningham, Dan Craig, Bob Miller, and JoLynn Gates.   These rhythms are infectious and inspiring ~~ I love soaking them into my bones to get the knick and knack of what to do during band sessions when I'm banging on the djembe.

Drum circle is a week from Saturday!

The video was captured by Burt Chojnowski (YouTube handle = coolburt) at Wednesday's Open Mic at Cafe Paradiso in Fairfield, Iowa.

Christy's first jam on congas

My first jam on congas went much better than I anticipated.   Really fun, actually.

Mark Soth gathered a group of us at his place last night to jam a bit in prep for a gig in mid-October ~~ Mark plus Mike Scanlon, Danielle Nance, and David Bordow.   Others will probably join later ~~ players will come and go from practice to practice, and from song to song during the gig.   Mark is calling the project Out of Context, which has layers of meaning . . . and a specially personal meaning for me: doing percussion in a band sure is a new context for me!

This is not just a whim, though, this is a strategy.

We, Burnt Sugar Blues, have been without a percussionist for three months and I figured to jump into the breach as a supplemental percussionist to fill in a little during parts of songs when I'm not singing.   Never having mastered snapping my fingers in steady rhythm while singing with focus, I set my goal for alternating between singing and percussion without awkward fumbling of percussion pieces and microphones.   Nominal grace would be a significant accomplishment for me.

When my children started lessons in West African drumming from Fonziba Koster, I started right along with them to give them a little boost of confidence in the new endeavor.   Even before that, I'd been joining in at drum circles, but I did not have much confidence for keeping a rhythm for a band during a whole song, plus pounding it out loud enough to make a difference instead of just scooting around on the edges.    So confidence was the next goal after nominal grace.

After confidence I wanted creativity ~~ to be able to tune into the needs of the song and add a rhythm to support it.   I figured I'd be asking for a lot of advice from other band members.

Well.   Maybe it was beginner's luck.  

Mark Soth heard I wanted to learn this new skill, so he invited me to the jam and set up a nice pair of congas plus a microphone on a stand, which was weird for me because I like to hold the mic in my right hand.   So I ignored the mic and started with r-e-a-l-l-y simple rhythms, just to keep the 1 and 3 going, sometimes all 1, 2, 3, and 4.   It was fun, though, having two drums in front of me, so I played around a little, and a little more.

By about the middle of the jam, we played "Can't Find My Way Home," for which I happen to know most of the words without a lyric sheet in front of me, although I wondered if I'd freeze up and forget them all.   What a shocker to find myself playing all the way through while singing at the same time!

Maybe I'll be able to work with a mic stand.   Maybe I'll be able to juggle multiple pieces and parts without dropping them.   Seems I can maintain some kind of beat while singing, although I don't have the perspective to know how steady it is.   It was a heckuva a lot more fun than I thought it would be to play one single rhythm all the way through a song without changing it up.   I always wondered how drummers could do that without going crazy.   Well, gosh, it felt cool, not crazy.

To add to my astonishment, I found enough creative juice to use a different rhythm pattern for nearly every song we played that evening.   I thought it would take several jams to learn some grace, confidence, and style with percussion, so I'm really pleased to get this far the first time.  

July 3 giglet-party

Announcing our next Open Mic giglet at Cafe Paradiso:

Wednesday, July 3, a ten-minute spot between 8 pm and 9 pm.

We've been drummerless for a few weeks so we arranged songs with no drummer ~ some original, some cover, all smoky sweet.

Chocolate chips for everyone!

At our last rehearsal, Russ said, "How about we do Open Mic on Wednesday after next?"

We all agreed, and when I got home and looked at my calendar, I noticed that Wednesday was July 3, my BIRTHDAY  ~~  a happy way to celebrate!   I'll bring chocolate chips for everyone.

Cafe P is at 101 North Main Street in Fairfield, Iowa.   A $2 donation helps keep nights like this happening at the cafe.

* * * Update: July 1
I'm now calling this kind of performance a gigletto: a tiny little gig. 

Tiny Circus Blues

This tiny project included my first published performance of the blues: 25 seconds of improv humming for an animated cartoon called The History of Blue (from 1:15 to 1:40 in the video below).



My son Shane helped with animating and sound effects, notably the wolf whistle.   We're in this photo watching as the video is shot frame by frame.

Creating video stills with Tiny Circus, July 3, 2010, at ICON in Fairfield.
Shane Welty is in foreground under a camouflage cap, operating editing software.
I'm standing at the back wall with long hair over right shoulder.
Torrey Witherspoon is seated in front of me.

The art gallery ICON hosted Tiny Circus and Fairfield participants in their activity room (pictured above).  After the topic "The History of Blue" was chosen, we needed a story line.   We tossed around lots of ideas and considered every notion of "blue" ~ the sky, pigments and paints, fabric dyes, the water cycle, the rainbow, cold weather, and others.   My mind gravitated to love and heartbreak since that's what I write about in my songs, so I suggested that as a storyline and they ran with it.

We made sound effects in ICON's basement.  Torrey Witherspoon played mandolin for the happy-dancing first part of the video and voiced the sighing transition.   I don't remember the name of the young man who strummed chords on Torrey's mandolin for the end where I hummed.   He said he had just begun learning blues and knew one chord progression.   Well, that's all we needed.

Tiny Circus wrote about the day on their blog.   If you know other details about this day (like the strummer's name), please tell me and I'll add to the story.

Introducing Musician Walter Day

Walter Day

After grocery shopping late Saturday night, I went upstairs to Walter's office to pay my electric bill.   Coldest month ==>> highest bill.   When he asked what's new with me, I said "more attention to music lately" and told him about recent fluting and blogging.   I showed him my blog here and we listened to the Open Mic mp3 that I managed to upload.   His eyes kindled and he left the room for a moment and came back with his guitar.

Walter Day is winding down his celebrated season as the first and most famous referee in video gaming history by packing up his Twin Galaxies paraphernalia and sending it to its new home in New Jersey.   His new focus is music, specifically the 137 songs that he has been conducting in his head with orchestral strings and horns for decades.   He hears his songs with rich, multi-layered vocal harmonies and he wants to get them out of his head and onto recordings.   So he sang a few songs for me and I joined him with improvved harmonies.  

Maybe his extra focus on music lately has been boosting mine as well . . . like the coldest month was a pullback prepping to slingshot us through a warm spring tingle and a rocket-hot summer.

Backing at the Festino

Dick DeAngelis is a great friend of music in Fairfield and last December he hosted a party for musicians.   He said musicians support causes with free performances throughout the year, and this was his way to thank them for their generosity.   Dick cooked up some great Italian food, brought red wine, and collected the cool of Fairfield to evoke a special atmosphere for making music.   Several entertained us with solos and a few of us jammed with them as back-up players.   I did a few backing vocals.   Here's an 8-minute jam from that night ~ ~ ~



Players (left to right): Keith DeBoer, Christy, David Hurlin, Jon Estrin, Trina Neal, Tim Britton
Video posted by FairfieldRocksMe

Christy's Toon

Christy the lead singer

Last March I created a caricature of my face to use in a poster for promoting the band.   I've been using as a facebook profile pic.   It includes my instrument, a microphone.   Haven't pixed a flute yet.

I gave Photoshop Elements a try-out for creating the sketches ~ Mike's guitar, my face, and Mike's face ~ and now I plan to use GIMP (free and open-source) to continue crafting the collection.

Here we are! The band is OUT!

Photographer Tim Laughrin captured a moment early in the evening.
Pictured are Ark-Hal Karns on congas, David Haworth on keyboard, Christy Ann Welty on mic, 
Mike Scanlon on lead guitar, Tim Duffy on slide guitar, Russ England on bass guitar, Ken Ross on drums.
Watching over all of us is the beautiful Delphic Sybil of Cafe Paradiso.

The first Saturday night of February 2012 was our "coming-out" party to introduce ourselves as a band plus a chance for me to say "Thank You!" to the many folks who helped music become a fulfilling part of my life.   Special guests Ark-Hal Karns, Tim Duffy, and Will Gunn added their sonic flourishes throughout the evening.   Headliner Josy Ylene Welty (my daughter) sang ballads from her heart, and newcomer Shane P Welty (my son) warmed up the crowd playing his guitar with the boys in the band (Russ, Ken, Mike, and David).