News

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Sing In My Meadow, volume 3 – My Little Basquiat

I know that we promised Volume 3 as accompaniment for those long summer road trips and then we amended that to late summer road trips, well I need to amend my amendment. The album is mixed, mastered and ready to go: eight songs, forty minutes of wailing and gnashing. But we need time to get all of our ducks in a row…internet ducks, US ducks, UK ducks, Canadian ducks, vinyl ducks…you know…ducks. And its very difficult to line up ducks in the summer time. So it looks like we won’t be making Sing In My Meadow available until October. So instead of a soundtrack for your summer road trip you can use it for your annual Leaf Peeper journey…..not exactly appropriate, but whatever.

We’ve also put together a five song bonus EP of some live tracks that we recorded during the Paths Taken tour. Here is My Little Basquiat from a Park West show. Sorry for the delay folks, we’re running in place as fast as we can…enjoy the music.

Here are some earlier Sing In My Meadow blogs:

Introduction

Hunted

Songwriting Demos

Jeff Bird

Late Night Radio

3rd Crusade

 

 

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Cookie Crumbs, volume 9 – The Sphere

Cookie Bob has been busy. Here is volume 9 of his “taper” series. Most of this one is taken from a Buffalo show that we did back in 2004 during the One Soul Now tour. If you have bought the Clubhouse Subscription you can go in to the Clubhouse and download it for free, if you haven’t bought the subscription…you should. There is still a lot more music to come over the next several months. In any case, enjoy.

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Sing In My Meadow, volume 3 – 3rd Crusade

It took me about seven days to recover from our little China jaunt. Waking up every day at 4am and having my brain switch off at around 3pm. Very hazy waking hours. A few days after returning, I made an attempt at going into our studio and starting the final mix for Sing in My Meadow, but I actually fell asleep at the board. I did one of those full body jerks as I slowly faded to black while sitting there in my chair. So I have fallen little behind. The past two weeks I’ve been going in everyday and blasting my face with overdriven everything, trying to come up with a sound that is rude and ugly, but at the same time, is just plain fun to listen to. I’d send the days mixes off to Pete, Marg and Al every night and they’d get back to me with their comments and I’d adjust and tinker and tweak and try and see if I could get it all just a little bit louder, a little bit nastier, a little bit more gnarled and grouchy and crotchety in keeping with our age and temperaments. I think, I hope, we have succeeded.  I want to make this the album that you put on when you’re trying to clear your living space of partygoers that have overstayed their welcome and you find your new BFF when that one person says, “hey, this is pretty cool…what is this?”. We should have final mixes finished this week, and then I need to mix a bonus EP of five or six unreleased live recordings to be  a companion piece to the album. Then we need to master it and get it up on the website…so it looks like it will be sometime in August by the time we get it all to you. But in the meantime here is a final mix of 3rd Crusade, one of the more “poppy” tunes on the album…play that funky music white boy…and play it loud…

Here are some earlier blogs about the upcoming Volume 3:

Introduction

Hunted

Songwriting Demos

Jeff Bird

Late Night Radio

Clarence Anicholas Clemons, Jr. (January 11, 1942 – June 18, 2011)

From our friend Ron Wells:

“When a great man dies, for years the light he leaves behind him, lies on the paths of men.”—Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

“Maybe,’ I figgered, ‘maybe it’s all men an’ all women we love; maybe that’s the Holy Spirit-the human sperit-the whole shebang. Maybe all men got one big soul ever’body’s a part of.’ Now I sat there thinkin’ it, an’ all of a suddent-I knew it. I knew it so deep down that it was true, and I still know it.”—John Steinbeck, Grapes of Wrath

Did you hear it, when sparks flew on E Street that first night Bruce Springsteen touched that hand, touched that heart, touched that mighty soul of Clarence Clemons. The world had never seen nor heard anything like it, nor will it ever be repeated.

And how was it for all of us the first time we saw that big man smile and then blow that saxophone so joyously that the earth trembled, the angels smiled, and we stood silently listening as our lives quietly changed forever. Did you hear it then as Bruce glanced over to his right and grinned so broadly.

How lucky we were to be on this Earth at this moment in time, to have been in his presence and watch a love so profound that it carried us on each and every note of his horn, on waves cascading unto the heavens above.

Even as your teardrops fell, did you hear it then? Look around and listen. Do you not see the light he has left to guide us on our paths? Even in the darkness, there is the paradise he always pointed to. The light so bright, so shimmering, so full of all  those majestic years reaching out and touching us with the splendrous music of wonder.

The holy spirit, the human spirit, don’t you know they’re all one. Clarence knew. Were you listening all those nights he played on stages around the world? Was there ever a time he wasn’t a part of us. Was there ever a time we were not part of him?

Did you hear it when Bruce told us that the Big Man was the King of the World, the Master of the Universe. Why would you doubt it now. The universe embraced Clarence and added his peace, his energy, and his love to light up the darkness and send stars hurtling through the night.

In the silence that is now amongst us, take a moment and listen once more. Now do you hear it? Do you hear that sound? That deep rumble of the first notes of that huge saxophone. Keep listening for that music is starting to cascade as it always has when Clarence plays. Listen very closely. Then you must know that the sound you hear, that glorious saxophone sound that only the Big Man could play, is coming from deep within your own heart. It’s his gift to you. It’s his way of saying he will never leave you, and you are a part of him.

His joy and smile, his saxophone playing, will always light your path, for he is within you. Living on in your heart and soul. And that is the sound you hear, the sound you have always heard, the glory that was, that is, Clarence Clemons: An eternal heart beating to a saxophone playing within all of us.

Thank you, Clarence. Goodnight, and Rest in Peace, my friend.

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Bruins 4 – Canucks 0

Once Montreal was eliminated from the playoffs I figured that it was my duty as a Canadian to root for the Canucks. So I watched most of their series (except for the one verses Nashville, two games of that was enough, it was some of the most boring hockey that I have ever watched). So I tried to like them, I really did. There were times when I even convinced myself that I was a fan. I enjoyed watching Kesler’s heroics in some of the early series, Bieksa was, at times, impressive and when I was a kid I owned a Canucks shirt when they had that cool 70’s hockey stick logo. But I just couldn’t warm up to the Sedins and their gaped mouth lack of emotion and I’ve never bought in to the Roberto Luongo hype, even when he was backstopping our gold medal winning national team. So I found myself quietly rooting for the Bruins. At first I thought it was because I just wanted to watch a good series and I especially wanted it to go seven games. But it’s hard to root against a story and a performance like the one Tim Thomas gave us (I don’t think I’ve ever seen a professional athlete smile as much Thomas did throughout the series); or how about a 43 year old Mark Recchi playing beside a 19 year old Tyler Seguin who wasn’t even born when Recchi started his NHL career; or the four foot two inch (or something like that) Brad Marchant playing alongside the eight foot seven inch (or something like that) Zedano Chara…..in any case, you get my drift. The Bruins are a tough, hard working, resilient team. They had to win three game sevens and they came back from 0 – 2 in two series including the finals. Congrats Bruins…you deserve it.

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we are the world
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Beijing – June 2, 2011 (Day 2)

we are the world

Oh man…what a day…it’s days like today that are the reason that I love being in China. Events just start to roll in at you, wave upon wave upon ever intensifying wave and soon you realize that if you try and fight it you’ll drown, so you just have to relax and let the current drag you to where it will…you might as well enjoy the ride because you can’t stop it.

A few weeks ago we were asked by our promoter and host, Youdai, if Margo and I would be interested in visiting and performing for the China’s Disabled People’s Performing Art Troupe (http://www.mydream.org.cn/en/index.aspx). June 1 is Children’s Day in China and he felt that this would tie in nicely and be a much appreciated gesture. Travelling half way around the world for one show is all about the adventure and the experiences, so you need to open yourself up to whatever comes your way and so we quickly agreed to the visit. We arrived at the Troupe’s building at 10am and were greeted by a large group of anxiously waiting teachers and administrators as well as a large group of photographers and TV news video cameras. We were quickly whisked in to the building and down a hallway which was lined with the performers all decked out in their costumes, clapping rhythmically as we shot past them, and then into a full size rehearsal/performance room where, sitting patiently on plastic chairs, awaited more administrators, invited guests and representatives from the Canadian Embassy. In the front row were four empty chairs for me , Margo, Blair and Youdai and before we could catch a breath, the show began. What followed was a string of beautiful performances by blind musicians and deaf dancers. Traditional Chinese ballads segueing into a medley from the Sound Of Music, by way of a Star Wars-esque bar-scene jam, followed by a modern dance piece, then another performance by the band, along with a full costume change, a classical ballet performance and then the most extraordinary “Dance of a Thousand Hands” and it all ended up with the full troupe singing We Are The World, waving Chinese and Canadian flags and hauling Margo up to join them….welcome to China, now we know we are out of town. Extraordinary, surreal, sublime, absurd, even psychedelic considering our internal clocks are still 12 hours behind the local time. And then it was our turn. The Troupe gathered round the walls of the space, Margo and I moved to the center of the floor and did our four songs, plinky-plinky-plink…East meets West and East kicks West’s ass: an incredible start to our adventure.

musicians

Following a brief tour of the performers dormitories we headed off to an amazing lunch with Youdai and his friend/co-worker Johnny Hutong an ex-pat Canadian from Kitchener who is now a DJ here in Beijing. We then drove to Youdais offices which are housed in the 798 Artist Area: a former factory that has been turned into an enormous center for sculpture, fashion, photography and painting all scattered among galleries, cafes, bars and funky little retail outlets. It’s an amazing complex filled with the energy of Beijing’s exploding art scene.

Then back to the hotel….a much better dinner than last night at a restaurant that specializes in Peking Duck….an after-dinner stroll through the Olympic Park to gaze at the Birds Nest and then….bedtime. Not a bad day.

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Created with flickr slideshow from softsea.

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Sing In My Meadow, volume 3 – Late Night Radio

When we get back from China (if we get back from China)…I plan to get to work mixing this damn thing and then get it in your hands for those Summer road trips that you all have planned….although with the price of gas these days, one can’t just jump in the car and take off for parts unknown, like the good-ole-days, without first sitting down and doing some serious financial planning. In any case perhaps we can just close our eyes, pop on our headphones and pretend to be eating up those miles. I’ve loved the radio since I was a kid, not just music, but talk shows, sports casts and the madmen. I still listen to it all the time (rarely to music stations, mainly to madmen). I especially like it while I’m driving long distances and it just can’t be beat late at night when most of the world is asleep. I love twisting the dial, pushing the buttons, listening to one station fade in while another fades away, it’s never ending and so magical the way it is just out there (so much more romantic and mysterious than the internet and all the protocols needed to connect to it). Here is a rough mix of Late Night Radio, enjoy:

Late Night Radio

Under his pillow whisper low

They creep in through his radio.

That long-distance howling at the moon.

Wille Stargel at the bat.

Some freak singing about his Siamese cat.

“Ask the Pastor” sowing through his dreams.

Hey girl, wanna touch my soul?

Do you listen to late night radio?

Come away with me.

He likes the way it eats the miles,

The way it pulls you, like a child

Holds your hand,

Briefly lifts the veil.

The way the music curls like smoke,

Where the mildly sane and the madmen float,

The hum of night, the freedom in the air.

Hey love, can I reach your soul?

Do you listen to late night radio?

Come away with me.

Under his pillow whisper low

They creep in through his radio.

All that distance filling up the room.

Firmly locked in the long grey middle

He reaches out and starts to fiddle

Just to hear them howling at the moon.

Hey babe, do you doubt my soul?

But I listen to late night radio.

Come away with me.

Other Sing In My Meadow blogs:

Introduction

Hunted

Songwriting Demos

Jeff Bird

Happy Birthday Bob

I spent the summer of 1976 in the extremely remote town of Fort Simpson, Northwest Territories. I was sixteen years old. My job was to fuel the small prop-planes that serviced the tiny communities, unreachable by land, which dotted the banks of the Mackenzie River. It was a true frontier town. I was alone, there was virtually no one my age that I could talk to. When I wasn’t working I spent my time running upon the huge boulders piled along the banks of the Mighty Mackenzie or recklessly speeding along the backroads in the company pickup truck. I was told to always check underneath the truck before I moved it because there was a good chance that there would be someone lying there, drunk. I lived in a converted goat shed and I spent the summer in silence: except for Dylan. There was a beat-up portable turntable in the corner of my room and one album, Desire. By the end of the summer the grooves at the beginning of side one were so worn out that the tone arm would skid halfway across the platter and start playing somewhere in the middle of Mozambique. The bass line at beginning of One More Cup Of Coffee still jangles my innards, Emmylou’s harmonies on Oh Sister still make me swoon; Dominique Cortese’s’s accordion buried itself deep in my subconscious only to re-emerge ten years later when Jaro walked in to our life. Desire locks me in a place and time. Desire was my saviour. Happy Birthday Bob and thanks for this one of many, many fabulous memories.

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Rolling Stones tribute – Paint It Black

We were approached over a year ago by our good friend Jim Sampas who was putting together an alt-country tribute to the Rolling Stones. It sounded like a fun project to get involved with, so we went in to our studio and worked up a version of Moonlight Mile and No Expectations. We gave Moonlight Mile to Jim for his project and then the whole thing kind of slipped away. Well, it has resurfaced and it is now available. There are a lot of old friends on the album like Over The Rhine, Lee Harvey Osmond and Mary Gauthier, Howe Gelb and many more. Check out Reimagine Music for more production and purchase details.

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Cookie Crumbs – volume 8

Cookie Bob’s latest Cookie Crumbs is now available. Volume 8 is mostly from our Great Barrington gig in 2010. I remember that day clearly. It was a beautiful day which we spent leisurely exploring the streets and shops of Great Barrington, which is a beautiful little town in the South West corner of Massachusetts. Nice weather, good coffee, an excellent second hand book store, friendly town folk, a nice little theater  and an enthusiastic audience are usually a recipe for a good gig. Take a listen and judge for yourself…and buy it if you have the coin….

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