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Showing posts from June, 2016

Hizzoner Saves the Day - Baron Von Rumblebuss, Chatham Community LIbrary, 6/17/16

The Baron and his Barbie fans Want to hear a good story? On Friday, I had a gig with Baron Von Rumblebuss at the Chatham Community Library. BVR is a kids rock band (music for kids, not by them) started by Tray Batson some years ago. Tray is a music therapist at Duke hospital, and BVR is a logical extension of his work as well as his love of good power pop music. The Baron writes the tunes and sings lead on most, with capable backing from his cohorts Princess Lulu La Li (Kathleen Batson on vocals, keys and wind instruments), Pofus Fimonfen (Mark Simonsen on drums) and yours truly, The Black Hole (on Fender bass). Recently, I've been having issues of soreness in my left hand and arm. Comparative sizes of P-Bass (L) and Mustang Bass (R) Tray, who moonlights as a bassist, offered me the use of his Fender Mustang Bass which is far lighter and shorter than my own Precision Bass. So that was the plan going into the library show. I drove out to Pittsboro and got to t

Update from my branch

Well, here it is mid-June and no record yet. My apologies to those waiting breathlessly for it. Parts of it are really finished. Others, not as finished. I am not the world's biggest self-starter or multi-tasker, so this bidness of getting a record together is slightly challenging. Test pressings were not pressed well, so I'm sorting that out. Cover art has been sent to a professional ( Skillet Gilmore ) who is making it so I can send it to the folks making the covers. I'm also getting ready to put together a video of the a-side since it's bound to be a natural for that sort of treatment. More on that later. I have shows coming up which feature my record's producers James and Mark James Wallace and Mark Simonsen and their talented and adaptable pals Aaron Oliva and Evans Nicholson, a quartet collectively known as the Forryst Bruthers . We play a short set at Stand Against HB2 - NC Musicians United for EqualityNC and QORDS (4:00 p.m.) in

Heroes and other humans - R.I.P. Henry McCullough

Henry McCullough died today after a prolonged incapacitation following a severe heart attack four years ago. He is survived by his wife Josie.  You would likely best know Henry as the Irishman on the Woodstock stage with Joe Cocker playing lead guitar on "With a Little Help From My Friends" ; you might know him from the remarkable one-take solo he played on "My Love" by Paul McCartney and Wings when he was a member of that band. But you've heard him play on records like the original Jesus Christ Superstar , and Henry's song "Failed Christian" has been covered by Nick Lowe and Dave Alvin . And you and 50 million other people have even heard him at the end of "Money" by Pink Floyd on Dark Side of the Moon saying "I don't know, I was really drunk at the time." That's all Henry. For me, Henry McCullough was THAT guy from the Grease Band, whose first self-titled album on Shelter Records has been a cornerstone

Dave Swarbrick R.I.P.

I just learned of the death of Dave Swarbrick , flash fiddle genius of British folk music. He'd been wrestling with major health issues for years, even having survived a premature obituary a while back. The first track on the first side of Friends , that free A&M Records sampler album I sent away for in high school, was "Walk Awhile" by Fairport Convention. Swarb's mad playing and deep, sweet vibrato hooked me and thousands of others worldwide on Fairport, an attraction to which few have yet to surmount. Further digging brought me to his incendiary work with Martin Carthy, like "Byker Hill." But it was the Fairport era, especially around Full House , that I keep going back to, even after working backward to the earlier lineups with Sandy Denny and Tyger Hutchings. This was a very different band, which the accompanying live document  House Full confirms.  When the Continental Drifters performed as the backing band at the tribute to Sandy Den