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

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.

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.

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. 

Mike's Toon

Mike the guitarist

Mike's is the first caricature I made.   I like the transparent background and plan to do that to all the sketches.   Sketched so far:

     Christy's toon
     Mike's guitar

It'll take some time to climb the learning curve for the new software, GIMP, but I expect it to be worthwhile because it's in my budget (being free), plus being open-source appeals to my sense of amity and goodwill.

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.

Shakin' All Over

lollipop (or sucker)
first & fourth verses
photo ~ Gregory Bastien

Shakin' All Over was the name of the first song we played for Open Mic last night  ~ Russ, Mike, and me at 8:10 pm.


"Shakin' all over" also describes my initial state of nervousness on the stage.   I put a positive spin on it, thinking, Well, maybe actual physical shakes might add to the emotional authenticity of the song.   I heard my voice shaking as I sang the opening lines, but it wasn't as obvious to other listeners as it was in my ears at the time.

chocolate
second verse

Burnt Sugar Blues was the second song we played.

The second verse was inspired by a headline: women say chocolate trumps sex.   Holy cocoa, Batman, not for me!

honey
third verse

Winnie-the-Pooh was my muse for the third verse.   Really.   The honey-lovin' bear inspired wonderfully wicked ways to indulge in honey.

Writing about honey and chocolate makes my sweet tooth ache.   Lucky for me I have a jar of honey in the cupboard, so I'm dipping in and trying not to get the keyboard sticky.   Mmmm, yum...

Giglet

We're planning to take part in Open Mic again with one song from the sixties, Shakin' All Over, and our namesake song, Burnt Sugar Blues, which we played at the February party.   We'll be undrummed again with Mike, Russ, and me.

I thought "giglet" would perfectly describe such a short performance.

So I looked it up and found that "giglet" means "a giddy, playful girl".   It's obvious we need a new definition for the word.   The Urban Dictionary says it's "large quantities of something; opposite of a niblet".   That's cute, too.

Jazz musicians started using the word "gig" in the 1920s for paid performances.   Well, I guess the audience pays attention, and Fairfield audiences are famous for paying exquisitely conscientious attention.

Having stated for my own edification the wherefors and whereases, I therefore now declare with all due pomp and one true circumstance:

Yes, we got us a giglet!

Our First Open Mic

We (Russ, Mike, me) did our first Open Mic last night:  "undrummed" was our theme for two songs.   Here's the audio file.



Things We Said Today is an early Beatles tune.   Mike played the intro twice because the mic was off when I was supposed to start singing.   I wrote Would You Catch Me in December and Mike and Russ made chords for it in February.   After our set, Keith DeBoer, the MC, introduced my son Shane for the next act.   Shane wrote the first tune, and the second is Stand By Me.



Topping off the night as the featured act was Global Cooling led by chanter Chandra Das, who filled in on a few hours' notice for Jonas Magram who'd had an accident and couldn't make the show (he's doing okay).   Global Cooling's bass player didn't make it, so Russ joined in to fill out the bottom end.

Update:   Jonas supplied the "news report" of his injury ~

Undrummed

We're doing a new sound for our first appearance at Open Mic this Wednesday, April 4.   "Undrummed" is softer and more relaxed, and a whole different sound than what we did in February.     Only the core songwriters will be on stage ~ Russ, Mike, and me ~ so we can get on and off the stage in the 10 minutes allotted per group.   That leaves a lot of space between the notes in these three songs.

We'd love to share these with you at Open Mic in Cafe Paradiso.   Don't know exactly when we'll be on stage; performances start at 8 pm.

Guitartoon

I've been hard at work making graphics to use on band posters.   I want to see how it will look to use cartoonized versions of the players and their instruments instead of photos.   Here's one element:  Mike's guitar.

G&L S-500

A fellow blogger posted the pic I used as a basis for the graphic.

Jam in Revs basement tonight

Mike'll be there checking out the scene. 

I hope to get to the jam tonight in the basement of Revelations ~ a big meet-up for a bunch of great musicians.   I heard John Schirmer (guitar, vocals) and Jon Estrin (guitar) are going.   I sang with them at the Boogie Shack 3 years ago when Tim Duffy was organizing us into the Los Armadillos group.

Heard "muscular blues" ~ tight, loud, powerful ~ from the reincarnation of Van and the Movers in their debut last night in the photography studio at Josie Hannes Design/Flair Vintage Décor.   Great venue, but she said she's not planning to rent it out.   She cleared almost all of her photography stuff out of there as a favor for her father-in-law's band.

Lo-Cal taste of Sugar Blues

the West African drumming group Foliba
played at the February 22 Open Mic

Coolio musicians meet friendly audiences at Open Mic in Fairfield.   I enjoyed three of these after they started up again in January at Cafe Paradiso.   That alchemy combined with Tuesday's practice when we were developing a new Celtic-bardic-ballad-sounding song and somebody said it might sound nice with just guitar and voice.   The cauldron brewed until Wednesday evening when a new idea wafted up, so I emailed Mike about Open Mic and the notion that he and I could duo as a low-tech taste of our band.

Open Mic that night was beautiful and touching with storytelling, poetry, and singer/songwriter sounds.   Mike liked it and we're getting songs ready for some time soon.

Update, March 12, 2013: We did perform that Celtic-bardic-ballad-sounding song at Open Mic on April 4, 2012.   We call it Would You Catch Me.

New idea: Open session

No stage, no glam, just lots of energy for a cool jam.

Mike and Guitar at our party February 4
photo by Tim Laughrin

An open session would be relaxed for you to come and go during a festival like Artwalk, and almost as relaxed for us as our practice sessions when we hit the groove (for me, anyway, an audience always adds at least a wee bit o' pressure, even when they're close friends).   Developing new songs is a rush for us, but a drag for an observer, so no new songs in open session.

I'm thinking April or May . . . .

Happy Birthday John Honkanen

Tonight BSB (Russ, Mike, me, and Ark-Hal in for Ken who is away) will be among many well-wishers and musicians at John Honkanen's birthday party.   John loves music and through the years he has jammed with dozens of local musicians (including Mike, Ark-Hal, and me at various times) at his studio in the woods.   Happy Birthday, music man!

Update after the party:  In the shuffle, I sang with Ira Goldberg on drums instead of Ark-Hal, and later Mike and Russ played with Ark-Hal with John and his daughter Carissa.   Lotsa shuffling!   Ira picked up on my songs right away and sounded great.   John loosened up and sang a bunch of his favorites ~ Yay!

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).