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Album Rerelease Announcement

Snarky? Me???

We are excited to announce the super deluxe rerelease of Joe Stone's first album, Doesn't Really Exist. Newly remixed and remastered, we've slammed the levels on to the maximum allowed by (digital) law. Not only does this mean you'll be able to hear the songs over anything but the loudest jackhammer right next to you, but you won't be able to recognize the songs from previous editions. Go ahead, compare the songs to the "Ultimate Edition" we issued just last year (that's the one with the live bonus tracks that we didn't include on this edition). Even the quieter ballads are now so loud your eyes will cross.

Speaking of bonus tracks, we've uncovered several unfinished demos from the recording sessions that didn't make it to the original release. These weren't good enough to make the original cut, but we figured, what the hell? There's money to be made! So we've thrown them on here. We even decided to finish a couple of them, even though all the band members have changed since then and now we sound completely different.

There's also a super deluxe vinyl version that comes with a full size poster of the band, a photo book, and a piece of cardboard with those silly mustaches, glasses, and badges you can cut out and wear. [Note: Vinyl version only contains half of the original album due to the limitations of the length of material that can be pressed on a vinyl album. We considered making it a double or even triple super deluxe album, but we were just too lazy.]

So what are you waiting for? Preorder it now and we'll ship it whenever we get around to it. If you wait, you may be tempted to buy the next rerelease of this album instead, so order now!



[Hoping that I won't have to put a disclaimer here later…]

Wed, 2010 05 05 at 10:46 PM |Permalink for this entry

Is Music a Language?

"I don't call it dancing, I call it sparkling."

Lately I've gotten in the mindset of thinking of music as a language. Studying jazz piano, I felt like I was learning a new language and was at the baby gibberish stage, where all I was doing was making noises trying to copy those around me but not making much sense.

Where I thought the metaphor began to fall down was in the concept of "right and wrong." While trying to improvise, I was wondering if I what I was playing was "right." I mean, I knew "right and wrong" could be different in this context, but if music was a language, then I wondered if I could be wrong musically when I was playing certain things.

In other words, if I was learning Chinese and trying to speak it, was I making any sense, or was I randomly putting words together? I thought about this for a while and came to the conclusion that there wasn't a right and wrong like there is with language.

I discussed this with Paul English, and he pointed out that yes, music was a language with an idiom and there were accepted norms. Going back to the language metaphor, there are accepted ways to say things that we all agree upon. Of course, he was right, which meant I was wrong. Or at least, I was not on the right track.

Thinking about this conversation and what Paul said, it hit me. I'm not just learning the language but also how to use it. Little kids don't write novels. People start out with essays and move on to short stories before tackling novels or dissertations. In order to write certain things in certain styles, you have to learn the idioms associated with that style. Along the way they get better at the language in general. If you want to write a story about something, there isn't a wrong way to tell the story so long as you do so in an understandable fashion. This is where the accepted norms come in. If you are writing for a certain audience, then you should also write in the style they expect or require.

I think the metaphor of music as a language does work, but you have to look at it on several levels. You're not just learning to speak the language, you're learning to write it and compose more than just conversationally. I haven't determined where actual compositions fit in all of this however.

The important thing that came from all of this was that it got me away from the "right and wrong" I was worried about. That's not to say I don't have a lot to learn about music, but it gave me the freedom to tell my story my way. As I go along, I'll find better and better ways to tell it.

Tue, 2010 04 27 at 5:51 AM |Permalink for this entry

Playing for Exposure

My friend Kevin says, "man, people die from exposure…"

A lot of times musicians will be asked to play a free gig, being told they won't be paid, but "it's good exposure." My short answer is never play for free, you devalue yourself, your music, and other artists. That being said, there are situations that make sense and everyone has to judge whether it is worth it. I think one important thing to remember is that many times people expect musicians to play for free or cheap, while others such as caterers and other staff get full pay. This is a topic that often leads to much debate that I'm not going to enter here.

Aside from that, I have three things I want to post in response to the playing for free or exposure question. The first is my friend Kevin's response above.

The second is the writer Harlan Ellison's response to when he was asked to do something for free for a DVD. (Note that this is NSFW and may be rough for sensitive ears.) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mj5IV23g-fE

Third is this post that was recently found on a Massachusetts-area Craigslist. Unfortunately, I do not know who wrote it so I cannot give credit.

Hi,

We are a group of professional musicians who will be street performing this coming Sunday afternoon in Cambridge. We would like to offer our event as an avenue for a local restaurant or club to come and provide food for us, and our audience. We will play for about 2 hours, and the traffic count will be at least 100 people, more if the weather is sunny. We would prefer food that is healthy, good tasting and versatile as our audience has a wide variety of tastes.

Also, we would prefer that you send at least 2 pretty waitresses to help serve the food, this is negotiable as not everyone has the same definition of pretty. I'm actually fine if they are at least "friendly", because honestly I'm not that good looking myself.

Sorry we won't be able to pay you any money, our budget is tight. But, you will be able to hand out your brochures and get some great exposure for your restaurant. If things go well, we will invite you back for our next performance, and possibly include a gift coupon that you may use to attend one of our future shows. Come on down, you will have FUN feeding people, and again you will have great exposure for your restaurant.

If interested, please respond quickly with your menu, as we would like to make our selections and complete our summer schedule.

Mon, 2010 04 19 at 5:56 AM |Permalink for this entry

What Do You Play?

Once again, a detailed answer to a simple question.

As a "mercenary" keyboard player, I get this question asked of me sometimes. Some people assume that I only play certain styles. I must admit, that while some styles are my preference (blues and jazz), there are two factors that come in to play outside of that. The first factor is do I have any interest in the music or the style. The second factor is, as my keyboard-playing friend Kevin says, "how much does the gig pay?"

Another way of looking at the question is to discuss what I've done already. Blue Funk was a blues/blues rock band. We covered blues and rock songs, and we wrote originals in those veins as well. The other band I've played a bit with, Collective Hallucination, is a R&B/Soul band, though most would probably say it defies categorization. The band plays a lot of original songs, and has covered songs by Donny Hathaway, Charles Brown, Rihanna, Prince, Bill Withers, and others. It is nothing like the blues and rock stuff that Blue Funk played, nor like the blues and jazz I'd seek out. I've also played a couple of times with "acoustic soul rocker" Kenneth Scott. I'd say the kind of soul he plays is very different than the soul of CH.

If I got a call today from a country act, I would never rule it out per se. I'd consider if I liked the music and what I'd be playing. If it were an act like Jesse Dayton, Hayes Carll, or Johnny Bush (yeah, right, but bear with me), I'd definitely do it if I could.

So what do you play?

Sometimes I think it can be better described by what instruments I play. I play piano, organ, electric pianos, and clav. In other words, real keyboard instruments. I don't play synths because I feel that's a skill that's a bit outside of what I'm trying to nail down right now. I don't do strings, horns, or anything like that where keys are used to "fake" a part. Not that there is anything wrong with that, it's just not my thing (personally, I think if you want horns you should get real horns. It's my blog and I can say that if I want to. But I'm not going to dismiss a band if they chose or need to do that). You won't see me at a gig with stacks of modern keyboards and/or racks of synths.

(I threw the word "modern" in there because if I could play a rig like that of Benmont Tench with a grand piano, a Hammond, a Clavinet, a Wurlie, and whatever else he has in his stacks, I would!)

So what do you play?

At a recent Band Campus, we discussed our "elevator pitch." Here is mine, and hopefully it answers the question. You'd tell me if it doesn't, wouldn't you? That's awfully nice of you.

I'm a piano and organ player and songwriter. I've been playing mostly blues and blues/rock, but I'm getting deeper into jazz and R&B. I play with all sorts of bands and I'm always looking for a gig with someone that moves me.

Fri, 2010 03 26 at 11:48 AM |Permalink for this entry

If You Ever Visit San Antonio

Sounds like the title of a song.

If you ever visit San Antonio, TX, US, you'll likely visit the famous Riverwalk. There's not a lot of live music there, mostly places to eat and shop. Some may find it too "touristy." However, there is one place you should check out if you visit the city and enjoy jazz.

It is called Jim Cullum's Landing and Jim Cullum's band plays live jazz there almost every night of the week. Rebecca Ferguson told me about this place, but what she didn't mention was that the Jim Cullum Jazz Band plays very traditional jazz. When we walked in, I could hear that traditional New Orleans sound in the first tune they were playing. They play a lot of Louis Armstrong, and the second night we went, they played a couple of W.C. Handy tunes while we were there. They played a lot of other tunes I didn't recognize, but it was all great stuff. The first night we went was Christmas Eve, and I guess the piano player was away. The second night we made it there was Boxing Day, and they had their piano player who was terrific, and then he stepped aside for another piano player who turned out to be a previous member of the band. He was fantastic as well.

Their rhythm section has a drummer whose kit gets great crappy sounds (I mean this in the best way), upright bass, and a guy who either plays banjo or a guitar looking thing that has four strings. Then you have piano, and up front trombone, Jim Cullum on cornet, and a guy who switches between clarinet or sax. It's a small club, but they use very little amplification, just on vocals and Jim in between songs.

They also have a radio show that can be streamed online. I hear their monthly newsletter is very cool too, but I have not seen it yet. More info about those can be found here. http://www.riverwalkjazz.org/

There are YouTube videos and a Facebook fan page to join if you're into that sort of thing.

On the chalkboard on the wall by the door is this quote by Louis Armstrong.

“Jazz is played from the heart. You can even live by it. Always love it.”

Mon, 2009 12 28 at 3:44 AM |Permalink for this entry

Something Funny Happened on the Way to the Blues Gig

For the past I don't know how many years, I've been focused on the blues. Learning it, playing it, writing it, listening to it, anything I can get. It hasn't been an exclusive thing. There have always been other forms of music I have enjoyed. But underneath it all, has been the blues. Whatever else I was doing, I always wanted to get back to the blues. The top of my list in previous posts of bands or artists I wanted to play with were, you guessed it, blues artists.

Lately, I've been feeling something else. Donny Hathaway. Stevie Wonder. Hall & Oates. Diane Birch. Hitsville USA. Soulsville USA. Even Kenneth Scott. I've been feeling a whole different soul thing lately. Not that most of this stuff is new to me, but I've just been getting into it a lot more. I don't think there's any reason, it's just one of those things.

That's not to say I don't love the blues. Nor does it mean I don't want to play the blues anymore. It might just be because this is great music, and since I've been playing these kinds of gigs, I've been getting into it. You may have noticed, I can be a bit single-minded about things. That may be all this is.

Or maybe, I'm subconsciously trying to justify buying a real Wurlitzer electric piano.

Sun, 2009 12 20 at 12:58 PM |Permalink for this entry

Spielberg to Remake “Jaws”

The idea of creative control is a funny thing.

Control freaks crack me up. Mainly because I am one. Knowing the behavior so well, I can spot it easily.

On the one hand, I can understand that a songwriter or band leader might have a specific vision for a song. I've written songs myself and heard them in my head. But the reality is that they will end up different when you let them out on their own, and that's a good thing.

What's funny is, when you ask a songwriter which one of his or her songs are his or her favorite, they will often tell you, "they're like children, I can't pick a favorite." Well, like a child, you can't control what they will be or become once they're out on their own. Use the whole analogy if you're going to use it.

I think people who are too much of control freaks are defeating themselves. Sometimes the best moments happen because of things that are out of your control. My favorite example is Bruce the shark. Bruce was the shark in Jaws, but because of ongoing technical problems, Steven Spielberg had to shoot the movie in a more Hitchcockian manner where you didn't see the shark as much as he originally intended, but you experienced it instead. It made for a much better movie. Imagine if he made that movie today. He'd have a frickin' CGI shark doing backflips over the boat or something. Instead of the enduring classic, it would be another forgettable summer blockbuster.

As a songwriter, the ultimate moment isn't when you finish the demo that you've been working on by yourself in your studio late at night, it's when you hear your band or another good band nail it. The individual contributions by the musicians, letting them interpret the song and put themselves into it, make it better than you even imagined. They're not getting in the way of your vision, they're taking it places you never even thought of. The people you are working with aren't robots there to perform every moment exactly as you demand, they're creative interpreters of the work bringing it to another level. Don't fight it, enjoy it!

Mon, 2009 11 30 at 10:35 AM |Permalink for this entry

That Was Some Fun

First gig in a while and some other updates

Yesterday afternoon I had my first gig with Collective Hallucination (CH) in a while. It was a nice feeling to go to a gig and be as prepared as you know you can be. I mean, yeah, you never really feel 100% about these things, and with Ant, you never know what direction things are gonna go (all the more reason to catch a CH show!), but you do what you can and remember the one secret to dealing with these kinds of things.

No matter what you do, no one's gonna die (probably).

The curve ball came shortly after I had finished setting up. Ant had a singer doing a few songs before CH to open the show up. At the last minute, their keyboard player didn't make the gig. Guess who got "the call"?

The bass player tells me he can write out the chords for me, which I say I definitely need. Turns out, he had only worked thru the material for the first time the day before, and was hoping to follow the keyboard player.

I think they changed what they were going to do shortly before we went on, because there were two a cappella songs that I didn't know about. The first song I played on went pretty well as far as I was concerned. In fact, after a certain point I started getting into it and "noodling around" with it. Nothing complicated, just adding some drive and interest to it.

The second song I had a little trouble picking up the progression at first, but then I finally found it. It didn't seem long after that that it changed, though. There was a change I knew of in the song, but I wasn't hitting it. Nor did the original progression seem to come back, so I winged it. I have no idea if I was close, but at least nothing I played made me cringe. Ha! The singers seemed to be fine, so that was good. The bass player didn't know what happened either.

The CH set went pretty well. I had one issue that I was far from prepared for. Turns out, I was set up directly under the A/C vent, and that thing ran the entire show. I was freezing. Being that cold, clenching and shivering, sucked all the energy I had out of me. That's something I'm going to have to remember to watch for in the future. It's funny, other people on stage are sweating like crazy, and I'm freezing.

Some of the changes that happened in the CH set kept me from stretching out like I had hoped in a couple of spots, but I only realized that later and I didn't feel restrained in any way. There were just a couple of places that I found I could do some things leading up to the show that I didn't get to do. Oh well.

Meanwhile, here are some updates on other things.

The blues band I thought I could have the gig if I wanted has not called me back despite them doing other things. They acted like they were interested, but now it seems like they've gone in another direction. I'm slightly disappointed but I suspect it's for the better in my case.

The jazz duo thing hasn't progressed much, because I haven't spent the time I should on it. I'm hoping to dig into that material more soon.

I've sat in once with the other performer who is putting a band together, and will do so again next month. I need to work a bit more on his material, mainly to build up some more chops so I can really let loose when I play with him. I dig his music and playing with him, and hope this works out.

I haven't sat in with that "gig I'd really like." Shame on me.

One new item, I contacted a great piano/organ player that's here in town about lessons, and am going to meet with him on Tuesday to see if we want to work together. Since that's still up in the air, that's all I'll say about that for now.

The good thing is, I have been practicing almost daily, and I've started to realize when it's time to move on from pieces that are "assigned" in the books I'm studying. You can sit there and keep trying to get a piece perfect or keep working on it for whatever reason, but after a certain point, you realize that you've been on it for too long and there's still a whole book in front of you. When I did take lessons previously, even though I knew the piece could be better, the piano teacher would say okay and move on to something else. I've only now realized that they were keeping things moving. Besides, I can always go back to a piece later and work on it some more if I feel like it.

I was talking to a keyboard player friend the other night and he said if he doesn't gig regularly, he starts losing his chops because he doesn't practice on his own. "Between stupid Facebook," he said, at which point I said, "if I spent as much time at that keyboard [pointing to his keyboard on stage] as I do at the computer keyboard, I'd be an awesome player!" To which he said, "yeah!"

That made me feel a little better that I'm making a decent effort to practice. If he keeps not practicing, maybe I will catch up to him and play as well as he does someday. And pigs will fly.

Sun, 2009 11 15 at 3:38 AM |Permalink for this entry

The Audition

As I mentioned in my previous post, I had an audition last week but wasn’t ready to talk about it until I knew either way if I was getting the gig. I found out last evening I did not get it.

Frankly, I’m not surprised. I’m a little disappointed, but not surprised. I kind of knew what they’d say when I saw it was them calling.

I know, you guys still have no idea what I’m talking about. My friend Marie from The Snake Charmers told me about this job a couple of weeks ago. The International House of Blues Foundation (IHOBF) has a program called the Blues SchoolHouse Program. It is a musical presentation/educational program for 5th-12th grade students and teachers. Programs generally take place on select weekday mornings during the school year at the House of Blues-Houston venue.

The International House of Blues Foundation is a 501 (c) (3) non-profit organization dedicated to bringing the arts to schools and communities through programs that promote cultural understanding and encourage creative expression. The IHOBF is supported by the House of Blues, House of Blues Foundation Room members, Live Nation, and other public and private donors.

Blues SchoolHouse: The IHOBF Blues SchoolHouse Program explores aspects of American history and culture through blues music, blues-inspired music and traditions of related folk art. Utilizing the House of Blues venue as a multimedia classroom, the program engages students and teachers (grades 5 -12) with interactive, arts-related learning experiences. Through the Blues SchoolHouse, participants gain a greater understanding of how the arts can reflect life experiences and social conditions. The program fosters appreciation for diverse contributions to American culture and highlights the role that the arts can play in social transformation.

The Blues SchoolHouse includes a live musical presentation tracing the history of blues music from its roots in African musical traditions through its emergence and evolution as a unique American musical form. The presentation also explores the influence of the blues on other forms of popular contemporary music including jazz, R&B, rock and roll, soul, funk, and rap. The performance demonstrates how the blues musical form was influenced by and reflects important events in American history including the Atlantic Slave Trade, the institution of slavery, emancipation, Jim Crow laws, the Great Migration and the Civil Rights Movement.

In other words, it has an association with the House of Blues, but it is not the House of Blues and is a separate organization from it.

I was auditioning to be the keyboard player in the Blues SchoolHouse Band. If you go to the IHOBF web site, there is a video about the whole organization. For a more specific example of the Blues SchoolHouse Program, here is a video of the Dallas group on WFAA performing a song with an introduction of what the song is about and where it came from. This is only part of the presentation that they normally do.

The woman who was talking with the anchor, Nazanin, is the Program Manager for Dallas and will also be running the Houston program. She was my contact through the whole process.

I saw this as an exciting opportunity. As a full time musician, the days are looking to be occupied. I love working for myself, but playing out at nights can be a mixed bag. This would give me the opportunity to play the blues and other styles of music I like, share it with kids, and do it during the day. Also, doing about twenty performances during the school year would be a nice bit of income.

I was pretty wound up about the audition leading up to it. I had to present three songs, St Louis Blues (Bessie Smith), Respect (Aretha Franklin), and one of my own choosing to demonstrate my abilities. I was told I would be accompanying a vocalist for the first two pieces. I worked on all three for the week, finding interesting parts and licks to play because I did not want to simply comp behind the vocalist, but wanted to show what I could contribute to the song. Of course, I wasn’t going to play over the vocalist either. You don’t get the gig if you don’t pay attention and don’t work with the other performers.

On the Monday before the audition, I thought it might be a good sign that they called me and asked if I was willing to back two different singer’s auditions. Of course I said yes. This showed my flexibility, and would also give me a chance to play everything twice in case I screwed up the first time! Unfortunately the day before the audition they called again and the first singer had backed out, so I was back to playing once.

After the singer arrived at the audition, she told me she needed to do Respect in another key. Even though it’s basically only three chords, I wasn’t prepared to transpose the licks I had gotten down into the other key. There’s a lesson to be learned there, to always be ready to transpose when it comes to playing with a new singer. There’s a corollary, and that’s to know how to use the transpose feature on any keyboard you might play. I’m not really an advocate of doing that, but if I knew how to do that on the keyboard they provided, things would have gone that much easier.

At the end of the audition, I didn’t have any clear thoughts about it either way until the very end and I got that “thanks for coming” vibe, you know when you go out on a first or blind date with someone and it ends with them saying, “it was nice to meet you”? It felt like that. I don’t mean to say they were blowing me off, just that final, “nice to meet you, thanks for coming” and the vibe that comes with it. But, even though they’ve turned me down, that may not have been the case at all. They may have simply needed to move on to the next audition.

After they told me last night that they passed on me, I sent an email that asked, “could you let me know why I wasn’t chosen for the position? Your honest, objective feedback would help me with future auditions and I would greatly appreciate it.” They replied, “We simply had A LOT of very qualified applicants and it was a tough choice. It wasn’t something that you didn’t do.” In that respect, that is good. It means it was simply a matter of picking one person and I wasn’t it. Sometimes picking one person for a job is a tough choice.

There’s probably more, but that covers it for now. Like my last post discussed, I have some other balls in the air, so we shall see how each goes. Hopefully some will come through and I will enjoy all that do. Tonight I am meeting the blues band.

Thu, 2009 10 01 at 7:46 AM |Permalink for this entry

Kick in the Pants

A few things have come up since I last posted. In no particular order, a sax player contacted me about starting a jazz duo though he hopes to add drums and bass at some point. This is an interesting proposition. I really want killer jazz chops, though I feel like I'm really far away from that right now.

I found out about a job that I had an audition for last Thursday. I don't want to talk much about it yet because I'm still waiting to find out if I got the gig. What I do want to talk about is the kick in the pants this was. I had to have three songs ready, and I ended up getting nervous as hell about it. I really don't know why. I had theories, but no definite answers. I think it had to do with being so long since really playing in front of anyone, not having the band nor CH to play with recently, etc. I felt as nervous as I did before the first gig with CH. It was an awful feeling, a tightness in my gut that drove me crazy. Unlike the time before the first CH gig, I only had a week between finding out about the audition and the audition (on the other hand, CH was a month of being nervous).

Of course, once I completed the audition, I felt much better. In fact, while I was playing, I was so focused on what I was doing the nerves I had immediately before were completely gone.

Two days later, I sat in with my friends The Snake Charmers. That turned out to be an absolute blast, and I got a lot of good feedback from my performance, including from the manager of another performer who might be looking to put together a band.

Between those two events, I feel fine again. It's pretty nice, actually. While I might get nervous for some types of auditions or anything really particular that wants parts played exactly, for most things I feel fine. Last night was the first CH rehearsal for a show we're doing on November 14 at 2 PM at The Jet Lounge (mark your calendars!) and even though Ant and I were the only people there from the previous incarnation of the band, I felt completely fine. I didn't even know the particular songs we rehearsed and it didn't really bother me.

A friend forwarded me a Craigslist ad for a blues band that's looking for a keyboard player. I got in touch with them yesterday and am talking with them about checking them out as well.

In reality, I only have CH going on for sure, but I could have several others.

Collective Hallucination - 100%
Jazz duo - 80%
Audition - unknown, completely in their hands
Blues band - probably could have it if I want it, we will see once we meet
The other performer's band - depends if they make a band
A gig I'd really like, I think - I don't know, I have to get my butt out there and sit in with them before I have any idea

To be honest, that's too damned much. If they all came through at once, I'd have to pare it down, at least for now until I learned how to manage doing multiple bands. I also realize how these things work. While it may seem like all these things are coming at once, most of these people have other things going on and may not get to me or be a while. Holding my breath is not a good idea! I think I mentioned in a previous post a band that had expressed interest in having me play on their recordings or something like that. Their release party is coming up and they never asked. I don't know why, but that happens. Whatever they are happy with musically is what I want them or any artist to do. It's all good.

With any luck, all these things will come through but they'll be staggered in such a way that they will be manageable.

Wed, 2009 09 30 at 5:42 AM |Permalink for this entry

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