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
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
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.
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.
