busy musical week in Stevens Point

More details and audio to come...

Tuesday 27th - "Song Swap" at the Clark Place, a lot of fun jamming along with Neil Young, Dylan, Beatles songs, etc.. Very cosy, informal, non-competitive atmosphere, a lot of great musicians playing a lot of great songs. The sound and shape of my saz always makes people think of the sitar, hence George Harrison, Ravi Shankar, etc., so of course we ended up playing "Norwegian Wood"...None of this got recorded.

Wednesday 28th - open mic sessions at The Mission and The Clark Place, jamming with Ryan Biesack (amazing percussionist) who came down from Waupaca for the evening. The first one was a bit rough, kind of a warm-up, but still quite well-received. The monitoring at the Clark Place was a bit better, and we really got into a groove, people seemed to really like it. We ended with a version of "25 Years", a piece I created as a 25th birthday present for Inge, and that worked particularly well - afterwards, Sonny, one of the current proprietors, asked me if it was a Joe Walsh tune - the first time that's happened!

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...and here's some stuff we recorded back in early 2001.


Ryan Biesack, jamming in Poland, earlier in 2005
Thursday 29th - I played over at The Yoga Studio for an intermediate yoga class taught by my favourite yoga teacher ever, Jenifer Ebel (sister of Joe "Rebel without an R" Ebel). In 2002 I played at her old studio with a one-off improv group, while people stretched, meditated, etc. [The recording is here.] It's a particularly nice setting to make music, as people are in a very receptive state, but not entirely focussed on the musician(s). Also, the 'reverential' atmosphere is more conducive to playing music as a sort of prayer or offering to one's higher self (which is what I think music ultimately should be) than most places (such as smokey mid-Wisconsin barrooms). This time it was just me, playing gently in a corner whilst Jenifer led her students through their various asanas. She concludes with a breathing exercise, so I gradually slowed down the last piece and came to the gentlest ending I could manage. She's having to give up the lease on the current studio and move to a location next to the Wisconsin River, so I hope that's successful, and look forward to playing in the new studio next time I'm here.

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my view, more-or-less, playing at The Yoga Studio
Last night (Friday 30th) I played a solo set at The Mission Coffeehouse, opening for my friend Jenny Ludeman's new band "The Deadlies" (Jenny, and guitarist Jeff LaMarsh were formerly in the excellent Irene's Garden, which evolved from The Stellectrics who I remember from the mid 80's). Ken Stevenson who I jammed with in Madison briefly was also a Stellectric for some years. Originally I was supposed to be providing the music for a group of bellydancers I'd worked with a few years ago, then they cancelled and it was going to be me and Ryan. Then Ryan couldn't make it, and so it was just me, alone on a stage, attempting to entertain people with just my saz - not something I've actually done before. For the first time I can remember, I felt noticeably nervous, and tightened up so that my playing was rather rushed and generally quite weak. But people still seemed to like it (the saz, particularly played by an English person, has a certain novely value in Wisconsin) - a selection of jammed-out Irish, English, Scottish, Cornish and Greek folk tunes, plus my own "Mingus/Fungus" and "Norwegian Wood" morphed into "The Holly and the Ivy". I made a rough audience recording, but was later informed by Cole behind the sound-desk that he'd recorded it straight to hard-drive - he'd even burned me a CD by the time The Deadlies finished their first set - amazing efficiency. Listening back confirmed what I thought - not a recording I'd really like to make public!


The poster was a themed 50's sci-fi comic book art thing, saying "Featuring The Starmen of Llyrdis", so I announced myself as "The Starmen of Llyrdis" (the rest of me being invisible and inaudible), and explained that I was originally meant to be accompanying a group of bellydancers...

After I came offstage, the Deadlies' drummer's father approached me to ask me about myself, my saz and my choice of tunes - he almost immediately brought up The Incredible String Band (who he'd met in Milwaukee on their U tour), Martin Carthy, and Dave Swarbrick, which was extremely encouraging, as these are some of my all-time musical heros. It must be more of a "vibe" thing that a "sound" thing, but over the years a few people have brought up the String Band after hearing me play. They were who Inge and I were listening to most extensively when we first started playing improvised saz and mandolin together back in 1994. It's very rare to meet anyone in the States familiar with obscure British psychedelia and folk-rock. He also mentioned David Lindley, the guitarist out of a US psychedelic folk band called Kaleidoscope, who now plays some saz, among other things - I shall have to check him out.

After The Deadlies finished, and a few beers were consumed, my old friend Marty took me to a biker bar called "Big Todd's Rumble Inn" where we played bad pool, ate disgusting stuffed pretzels and listened to Whitesnake, AC/DC, etc. on the jukebox - all very entertaining.

winter solstice 2005

The Astronomical solstice occured at 12:35 p.m. on Wed. 21^st December – the Sun entered Capricorn while I was sitting in old friend Marty's front room amidst vast stacks of vinyl and CD's – he'd recently purchased a load of albums local University station 90FM were selling off to raise money for Hurricane Katrina relief effort, including obscure Roky Erikson solo work, almost-forgotten 80's indie bands whose names I probably hadn't heard once for over 15 years, etc.

I then strolled off on a vigorous 4.5 hour walk around about 1/3 of Stevens Point's 'Green Circle' – a long walk in beautiful snow-covered pine forests without having to travel far from the town centre – wonderful. My personal soundtrack (interspersed by much-needed periods of relative silence) included Soft Machine’s Third, Toumani Diabaté and Ali Farka Touré's In the Heart of the Moon, King Tubby's Fatman Tapes and the Grateful Dead live at Watkins Glen, 1973. There were some remarkable snow formations, presumably the result of partial thawing and refreezing several times over – long 'sausages' of snow hanging in arches drooping down as far as 6 inches from spindly horizontal branches of small trees and shrubs. It almost looked like Andy Goldsworthy had had something to do with it (perhaps assisted by the spirit of Yves Tanguy). The winter light was already extremely beautiful even with a pale sun barely visible through light cloud, but then a couple of hours before sunset the sky cleared and everything was bathed in an additional layer of golden light. I caught the last few red-orange rays through a dense pine forest, and then suddenly caught sight of a couple of deer (they're far from uncommon around here, but I rarely see deer so it still felt like a blessing). I walked around Lake Joanis (an artificial lake named after an insurance mogul, but a beautiful place nonetheless) in the twilight, and then headed back to tea and warmth.

Later in the evening I played a couple of open mic sessions downtown. There are two on Wednesday nights here – an early one at The Mission coffeehouse, and a later (and more well-attended) one at a relatively new venue called The Clark Place. My banjo-playing friend Gavin (from the local psychedelic bluegrass/country/folk band Sloppy Joe) met me at The Mission and we worked out a basic set around some of his songs. This was all very spontaneous, and my playing was certainly a bit 'sloppy' in places (some monitoring issues at The Mission, but not bad), but people were very appreciative. These open mics tend to very much be dominated by singer-songwriters with guitars - often very good ones, but not a lot of variation in instrumentation, so people are always into something a bit different. We reconnected with Marty who came down to The Clark Place after his late work shift, and authoritatively declared that we "rocked".

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Sloppy Joe at Witz End (recently demolished) - Gavin's on the far right
The Clark Place was formerly the American Legion hall. Back in the late 80’s when I was at the local high school with Marty and Gavin, Marty used to organise hardcore/punk events (6 bands for $3, all very musically rudimentary, but vastly empowering for the tiny teenage anti-establishment subculture in that time and place - this stuff kept me sane during the Reagan era). Some of these bands were our friends ("Ted", "Balance of Terror", "Mud Luscious", "The Lacerations") others were like-minded teenage bands like "Vegetable Spit" from Medford and "Oi Vey" from Rhinelander. Occasionally we’d get bands coming through from further afield (The Problem Children from Ontario played a memorable show at the old Armoury on 15/05/87). Some of these gigs took place in the Legion Hall, including one headlined by a relatively new and little-known band called NOFX who are now a global institution. Apparently, there's some footage of some of us moshing at that very gig in their anniversary video Ten Years of F**kin' up.

inspiring/hilarious Lennon tribute

I've been up in Stevens Point for a few days now, but the night before leaving Madison (Wednesday 14/12/05) I witnessed something really quite wonderful. Billed as "Bed-in for Peace, the music and poetry of John Lennon", this must have been one of many Lennon tributes in the week of the 25^th anniversary of his assassination. It was held at the High Noon Saloon (which seems to have replaced O'Cayz Coral, which burnt down). I mainly went along because Pete wanted to, and because Maggie was going to be involved. I feared an overly-reverent occasion, with various earnest singer-songwriter types paying tribute to the one-dimensional "love and peace" cartoon version of Lennon, who was in fact a rather complex, multi-faceted character. There is a tendency towards Beatle-worship over here in the US which (despite being quite fond of the Beatles) I can't quite relate to.


But I forgot I was in Madison! It turned out to be in equal parts inspiring and utterly hilarious. The Gomers, a ubiquitous feature of the local scene, acted as house band, with wonderful WORT presenter Johanthon Zarov MC'ing. There was a large bed on stage, and a succession of weird and wonderful performers came and went, mostly backed up by said Gomers. Somehow, the band managed to keep an incredibly tight sound together despite being in the midst of complete chaos (and, I'm told, almost no rehearsing). Highlights included:

• an absurdist John-and-Yoko puppet show with Biff from The Gomers singing an obscenity-laden Lennon interview rant (insulting Paul, George, Mick Jagger, the media, and repeatedly proclaiming his "fucking genius" status) over the top of some appropriately dark/heavy Lennon-esque music
  
• a "Lost Weekend John" character haranguing a very unconvincing Paul McCartney character in the midst of a weedy "Yesterday", before getting in a fight on the bed, and then launching into a blistering full-tilt version of "How Do You Sleep?"
  
• The Beatific Hornacular Brass Choir (a full on brass band, with four French horns) playing a sort of amalgam of "I Am The Walrus" and "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds"
  
• Optometri (described as "the best band of Russian has-beens ever to vanish from sight at the height of their popularity only to re-emerge unexpectedly more than a decade later in South-Central Wisconsin in a new millenium whose sensibilities they do not fully grasp"), featuring surgical masks and coveralls, an inaudible marimba, and quite possibly the world's largest balalaika, playing Lennon's "correct translation" of "Back in the USSR" which frontman Yuri Mishkin claimed his cousin had written (in Russian) as "gift to Beatles" and had suffered a mis-translation by McCartney.
  
• Maggie singing a rousing (yet entirely unrehearsed) "I Want You/She's So Heavy" with The Gomers at the height of their powers
  
• Local eccentric The Artist Still Known as Art Paul Schlosser clambering onstage (from the front) sporting baseball cap and huge grin, leading a shambolic "All You Need is Love" singalong
  

There were also readings from Lennon's A Spaniard In the Works, video screens showing a lot of Lennon footage I'd never seen, an ambitious cover of "I am the Walrus", Jonathon Zarov and Biff playing guitar solos whilst jumping up and down on the bed...Pete ended up onstage concealed inside a sleeping bag, being interviewed by Jonathon as part of his regular "bag-oke" feature (he got a free drink and an Onion T-Shirt saying "End Racism, Kill Everyone"...The Onion originated in Madison, which gives some indication as to the nature of "Madisonian humour")

I'm pretty sure John Lennon would have wholeheartedly approved.

jamming in Madison

My plane touched down in Chicago a couple of nights ago while the Steve Miller Band rather appropriately sang "Jet Airliner" through my earphones connected to the in-flight entertainment system. It sounded surprisingly good, despite Miller meaning very little to me. On arriving in Madison, Wisconsin a few hours north (my favourite city in the US), I was met by my friends Pete and Maggie, who informed me Miller had gone to University here (having been born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin). So the local music connection started before I'd even touched the ground.

Unfortunately I'd arroved too late to witness PROG, the prog-rock tribute band they'd just seen that evening who were playing Yes, Gabriel-era Genesis and Jethro Tull at a local bar (very well apparently). That would have been amusingly disorienting, since despite the material being British, I first got into it when living in Wisconsin in the 80's - so with my body clock set at 6:30a.m., hearing a bunch of Madisonians performing "Watcher of the Skies" or "Siberian Khatru", I'm sure I would have completely lost track of what country I was in.

Yesterday morning I was recovering from jetlag, doing yoga in Pete's apartment while listening to bluegrass and country on WORT, the truly excellent listener-sponsored local community station. The afternoon was spent reading a dauntingly huge Ken Wilber book and practicing my saz technique (the saz survived the journey in its new fibreglass flight case, which I had to order from Turkey).


Peter Fee and I, Stevens Point, Wisconsin, 2002
In the evening I headed over to Maggie and Ken's place for a session (they live next to the lake Otis Redding's plane crashed into). Ken used to play bass in Central Wisconsin's finest psychedelic danceband The Stellectrics, who eventually morphed into Irene's Garden. Currently he's playing with a "dark pop" band called Sunshine for the Blind here in Madison. In fact he was away rehearsing when I got there, so Maggie and I played some saz and guitar stuff, including a beautiful Hebrew prayer she knew, set to a modern melody. Peter and his flatmate Dave came over soon after, then Ken.

A thoroughly enjoyable psychedelic jam followed, most of which got recorded:

Maggie - acoustic guitar, flute, bells, percussion, kazoo, voice
Pete - acoustic guitar
Ken - electric bass guitar
me - saz
Dave - manualism

Dave was urged to join in on the last piece, having been described by Pete as a "handfartiste". I've since discovered that what he was doing is called "manualism", and there appears to be a small worldwide scene devoted to this artform!

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last St Stephens Drone of 2005

This was our usual first-Wednesday-of-the-month slot at St. Stephens church in Exeter High Street.

Keith - mandola, acoustic bass guitar
James T - piano, percussion, poetry
Pete - banjo, balalaika, mandola, piano, percussion, acoustic bass guitar
Melski - flute, percussion, voice
me - saz, balalaika, percussion

A wet and windy night, with the Anti-Nowhere League playing down the road at St. George's Hall...

More challenging than most, this one. The absence of Henry meant things were rhythmically more fluid than usual, which isn't necessarily a problem. But it felt at the time that things weren't gelling at all. Still, it doesn't seem that bad, listening back to the MiniDiscs today.


St. Stephens (left), amidst devastation, having survived The Blitz
Pete has come to some previous sessions as part of Vaughan's improvised voice group. This time he arrived with a 5-string banjo, and tried his hand at various other instruments. James delivered another of his library catalogue-based "found poems" - this time titles starting with the pronoun "It..." Because of the amount of rain, the sounds of passing buses were more pronounced than usual (more of a "woooooosh" effect). Keith apparently found himself playing the bassline for the folk song "A Sailor's Life" at one point, although I didn't notice until he pointed this out later. Melski arrived quite late (having been giving a talk to about music therapy at another church, in Heavitree) so she didn't actually make it onto any of the excerpts from my edit:

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almost-forgotten ambient session, Sint-Niklaas 1994

I've found an old tape from when I was living in Belgium in the mid-90's, when I'd only been playing improvised music with Inge for a few months (before I'd discovered the saz and she the mandolin). The music's quite wobbly in places, but interesting enough to be worthy of preservation as a "historical curiosity". The tape wasn't properly labelled, so there is a chance that it's from early '95, but it's more likely to be autumn '94.

Funkey - synths
me - electric guitar and effects
Inge - acoustic guitar, penniwhistle, accordion drones, melodica, percussion, "Jah!"

possibly
Alan - percussion
and someone playing bass? Kris? Mickey?

Funkey's Tangerine Dream and Klaus Schulze influences are very much in evidence. This was recorded in the early days of Funkey, Kris and Alan's psychedelic dub band Oort Cloud. They used to rehearse in the same place - Funkey's front room in Sint-Niklaas, a.k.a. Higher Grow Studios.


Natasja and Christophe at an Oort Cloud rehearsal, Higher Grow Studio
I was playing electric guitar through Kris's newly acquired digital effects module, particularly enamoured with one effect labelled only "amazing!", as I recall. This had the welcome "effect" of dispersing my notes into showers of crystalline fragments, thereby covering up my rather dubious playing.

In one piece, Funkey triggers a sample of a voice proclaiming "Rastafari is everywhere!", after which Inge shouts "Jah!". This was borrowed from the RAS Records album Rastafari Elders.

This was a pretty spontaneous session, as I recall. Just another spaced-out afternoon round at Funkey's and a great chance to explore, musically. He had the good sense to leave a cassette running throughout. I've editted out four chunks from my 2nd or 3rd generation copy.

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