New Trail Coaching, Scott Malyszka

Last night brought some sweet sounds at Bangkok blues. I was there to perform as part of a strong songwriters night hosted by Ron Goad and the Songwriters Association of Washington.

I really enjoyed listening to the other performers. Tom Dews was singing, picking sweet guitar, and playing blues harp. He was very tight and smooth with a Keb Mo style. His songs were very bluesy but had interesting harmonic structures and were very sweet.

The Lynn Veronneau Trio played jazz standards, which surprised me for a songwriters night. But they were cooking real nice on some Brazil-style stuff, with strong, clear emotions in the vocals and cool tranging on the guitar solos. A reall good version of “One Note Samba.”

Anita Aysola went on right before me. She played piano and sang with a lot of blues and emotions. She had some intricate piano lines going under her vocals, and her lyrics were touching. After me was Christiana Trenum who had some good melodies. She tried out one new song called “Blue Eyes” that I like best, with sparse guitar picking behind the vocals. Unfortunately we had to scoot along before we could hear Greg Vickers’s trio, but hopefully I’ll catch up with Greg some time soon.

My set was a little nerve-bending. I tried out some brand-new material that I have been putting together over the past few months, and the first time is always a little awkward. I really like this new stuff, but it would be nice if others liked it too. These new songs are shifting lyrically toward stories about romance, which has not been too common for me in the past. Plus I’ve been fighting dehydration for some weeks because of a respiratory infection. Overall my set went really well. People responded to the new songs, and I’m real pleased about that. I did blow out my voice after about four songs because of the dehydration, and I did have the guitar in the wrong key for one song. But no major problems, and Ron requested that I play “Stoned At Work Today” to finish the set.

There were a lot of musicians who came just to listen, which made things very warm and cozy. Jim Clark was recording audio and video, so hopefully some of my stuff turned out. I hope that this night of good musical vibes is a sign of what’s to come as 2010 unfolds.

I just finished my first venture into community theater. My friend Al asked me to join him in a small acoustic band to perform as part of “Spoon River Anthology.” I agreed to talk to the director, and she said she needed a strong fiddler to play on some traditional numbers such as “Water Is Wide” and “Skip To My Lou.” Sounded simple enough, and Al is always a pleasure to play with, so I was in.

I had some really great experiences as part of the show. The actors were awesome, and the script was very deep. Through the rehearsals I found myself touched or stirred by different characters. I had to control myself a few times to keep from tearing up. I also enjoyed the band. We had two singers, Al on rhythm guitar, me on mando and fiddle, and a guy playing guitar synth. All five gave strong contributions.

All of the performances went well, and the opening night was exceptional. Lots of good feedback from the audiences. I didn’t see any reviews, so I guess no one ever came from the local press to review the show. If something turns up, I’ll post it here.

The script is based on free verse poems by Edgar Lee Masters. The characters all speak from the grave and describe the sadness, scandals, and joys of small-town Illinois in the late 1800s. Here is an online edition of Masters’s original work: http://spoonriveranthology.net/spoon/river/

There were some things that I did not care for in this gig. A couple of us musicians started asking for rehearsals and charts about six weeks before opening night. We finally got our first rehearsal two weeks before opening night, and the director wanted us to do new arrangements for most of the songs. So we spent a couple afternoons arranging, and by the time we started rehearsing with the cast, we really didn’t know the music. So I went from playing fiddle on some traditional tunes to also playing mandolin and arranging. The group asked me to sing a song, and I drew the line and said I was at my limit. The schedule was just too crazy. People were still whispering, “What key is this in?” two days before opening night. Somehow we managed to put it together and not make major flubs during the performances, but I found it a huge drain on my energy trying to do too much in too little time.

I also got sick with a respiratory infection and missed a week of work in the middle of the performances. That left me doubly drained, and I was relieved when the last performance was cancelled due to snow.

Overall it wasn’t bad for an unpaid gig. But I’ll be glad to go back to being a songwriter and fiddle punk, back to my familiar territory.

Yesterday Feel The Wag was on the schedule to play at Reston Regional library’s annual holiday open house. There were kids wearing balloon hats that were several feet tall, plus snacks and who knows what all was going on.

Our mando and guitar picker bill couldn’t make it at the last minute, so it was just Bud on hammered dulcimer and me on everything else. Without bill there I took the opportunity to add my mandolin to my other usual instruments, fiddle and 12-string guitar. We played some of our usual old-time and contra-style tunes. We mixed in a few holiday things, and bud did a few extra dulcimer features that were a nice change of musical scenery.

We were a bit shaky and off-kilter to start, but we picked up energy and got through it OK. If it were a recording session, we would have had to quit and just say “none of these takes will do–better luck next time.”

Funny to think about the clumsiness after the gig. The sound in the library is a little dead and dull compared to the live rooms where we usually practice. Bud and I only play as a duo on occasion, maybe three or four times over the past few years. And there was a little extra nervousness for some reason. When we have played at the library in the past, we have seemed extra relaxed. but yesterday we seemed a bit jumpy. I just read something by Eric maisel about performance anxiety that described Luciano Pavarotti’s odd habit of looking for a bent nail before each performance. That was Pavarotti’s way of dealing with his performance anxiety–just find a bent nail as a lucky charm. wow, if that guy got a little jumpy, I guess we’re in good company.

We had a nice crew of friends and fans there to hear us. there were some little kids dancing and clapping. One dad was showing his kid how to clap to the music. There were also people talking loudly right next to us while we played. They were trying to get some kids to pose for a picture, and they had no idea they were disturbing our performance. “Hold up your balloon, please! Now make a smile on yourr face! No, you can smile better than that, can’t you?” Craziness.

On we go. I’m eager to see what 2010 will bring for Feel The Wag. Hopefully some hard work, lots of new tunes, and lots of fun gigs.
8

I was eager to find out for myself about two folk singers last night. I had heard Pierce Pettis’s music here and there for many years, and I had heard so much talk about Tracy Grammer. So I had the chance to check out both performers at a show last night at Jamin Java in Vienna VA.

Pettis started the show. He jumped on stage, made a quick intro, then jumped right into some songs. He had a nice mix of lively, rocking, bluesy, energetic numbers with more thoughtful, reflective, slower tunes. His material did not have tricky mystical poetry with obscure images and phrases, but his presentation was sincere and gettable. I was someone who didn’t know all his material, and he knew how to reach an audience member like that. He sang with some old-fashioned soul groove, some bluesy growl, some sweet mellow touching stuff. Versatile, down-to-earth, and down-to-business. A very nice guitar picker too, plus he played some Popper-style blues harp. His set lasted an hour, and I would have eagerly listened to a second set. he’s been playing since the early 1980s at least, and his experience shows.

Grammer was the top act. She took the stage and started talking about another artist who was doing one of her songs without her permission. That took about four or five minutes. Then she sang the song, and followed it with two more minutes of complaints. Throughout her set she told aimless stories to introduce each song. The intros were longer than the songs. I checked my watch at one point, and I was amazed that it took her thirty minutes to get through her first three songs.

Grammer sings with a sweet, unexpressive style similar to Karen Carpenter’s. I have not enjoyed her style when I have heard her recordings, but she has a fabulous reputation as one of folk music’s most important artists. I had hoped that her live performances would hit me with intensity, meaningfulness, something that would show me how this reputation was earned. Last night I was very disappointed by an artist who seemed to take her audience for granted. She did not do anything to win over a guy who was not intimately familiar with her material or stories. Some of my friends are devoted fans, but I was not among the converted-and-saved last night.

I’m such an amateur folky. I don’t know Richard Shindell’s music. Other credentials: I don’t own a John gorka album. I never saw Dar williams or Lucy Kaplansky. Yup, I’m an amateur.

Wednesday night I saw Richard Shindell with some friends at Jammin Java in Vienna VA. Shindell’s songs are sometimes terribly touching and sometimes just kind of sweet and light. I have been captured by his “Balloon Man,” a simple and sympathetic portrayal of an apparent loser guy who sells balloons. I heard a lot of Shindell’s stuff for the first time at this show. He sang something about a guy struggling just to get from south America to Miami–a concrete description of every-day facts that make you tear up a little. I think that’s the magic in his writing. He draws clear, simple scenes and winds a little plot through it, and it works. Plus some standard out-of-the-box contemporary acoustic guitar playing and some very good musical composition. Now I see why he has such a great reputation.

some of my folky friends will read this and say, “Huh? You don’t own a stack of Shindell CDs?” What can I say? I’m a little unfocused in my musical tastes, so it takes me a while to come around sometimes.

Richard Shindell singing “Last Fare Of The Day”