Uncategorized » New Trail Coaching, Scott Malyszka

Saw Sanford and Lena last night

Jan 252009

Last night four of us went to the Old Brogue in Great Falls VA to see Sanford and Lena. It seems that all my friends are familiar with this brother-sister duo except me.

The restaurant, or pub, or whatever classification it should be, was packed. They don’t take reservations, so it was just a matter of muscling in to get a table so we could eat. We got there around 8 pm, an hour before the music started, and we had to sit in another room to order dinner. That’s happened at other places, so no big deal. I have a tough time showing up two hours before the music starts so I can sit where I can hear the show. That seems like asking a lot, but that is how it goes in some of these little places. And there’s no complaining when they don’t ask for a cover charge.

So we missed Sanford and Lena’s entire first set. About 10:30 pm four of us got into the room where the show was happening. We had planned to meet up with some other friends there, but we never could find more than four seats together. We just chatted with them a fewminutes here and there while walking back and forth.

It turns out that Sanford and Lena did mostly original stuff for their first set, which is what we wanted to hear. The second set was covers. I was impressed by the super-tight harmonies. Sanford has a cool tone to his voice. Lena belts it out with some rasp but doesn’t pierce your head with too much voice. Sanford did some nifty guitar picking too. They were doing “Piano Man’ and “Hotel California” and anything else from the 1970s greatest hits song book. We have one of those books in our piano bench here at home.

After hearing the seventies set, we headed for home. Too bad we missed the original stuff. I like hearing a good bar group do covers, but it isn’t every day that I can find a good evening of songwriting. I looked online, and I can’t find anything by these two. So I’ll just have to waite another time to hear what their stuff sounds like.

Bluegrass set at King’s Court

Jan 242009

Last night I played a bluegrass set with four other dudes. We played at the open mike at King’s Court in Leesburg

Overall it was pretty good fun. It was classic open mike. Loud, lots of smoke, couldn’t hear well enough to talk with the folks sitting next to you. Someone got up and sang “Friend of the Devil.” A trio did a funky “Who Do You Love.” Lots of the standard stuff. Banjo player Bruce had asked the guy running the open mike to let us play for 45 minutes or so, so that worked out to be a nice long set. I just played fiddle, giving them my best bluegrassy stuff. I hadn’t played bluegrass for a while, so it felt good to pull off a few nice drones and bluesy licks. I like being a side man, just jumping in and playing fiddle without having to work out harmony vocals or slick arrangements ahead of time. I have too much going on in other arenas to spend time on that with another group. When I sit in on fiddle, I jus tlet my jazz mind take over, though this is a jazz mind developed to the second-grade level. And Ric Sweeney was singing and playing guitar and harp, so I finally got to play with one of my favorite local songwriters.

Oh yeah, good food at King’s court too. I had a burger and fries, and it was definitely worth getting again.

Carry Okey and Vocal Exercises

Jan 172009

I spent about 45 minutes this afternoon doing vocal exercises with one of our Jeannie Deva singing CDs. Deva’s stuff is so great, I must say. I use singing exercise CDs from several folks, but Dev’as stuff always has great results. I still struggle with intonation, and I push with my muscles for power a lot rather than finding the resonance naturally in my body. But I can say that my overall tone and control have improved so much the past few years using her materials. Her warmups CD is the most valuable thing for a singer to use regularly.

I’m also a big fan of Ariella Voccarino‘s CDs, especially her first two. She is a little more fun and engaging to work with on those CDs than Deva, and the exercises do have an effect. Especially her solfage exercises, which have been helping me lock in my intonation a little better. I really need to get that under control. For my birthday a few weeks ago, my wife bought me Ariella’s third and fourth CD. We were both eager to try them out since her first two were so great. The sound quality is poor on these new ones, though, to the point where it distracted me while trying to do some of the first exercises. It sounds like a mediocre cassette recording job. but, I did give some of her vowel exercises a second and third try, and I think it will be OK.

So, after some good exercises this afternoon, I practiced some vocals for a song that I want to enter into the Kerville contest. And then my mom showed up with her belated Christmas presents.

Yes, the presents were great. I got thick warm socks, a Pittsburgh Penguins T-shirt, and a two-four of Iron City beer. Beautiful. My niece and nephews got a neat Wii game. Even better. Snacks and more socks and gifts all around. Great. And then …

My mom brought out the last gift. It was one of those scary machines with two cheap microphones and a hookup for the TV. when you start it up, the music plays and the lyrics are on the screen. And for some bizarre reason, everyone was up singing “School’s Out” and “Edelweiss.” I know how to work a mike, and I know how to sing. but there was no way I was going to join all that kokkyness. I did want to grab a mike just to announce, “Penguins goal by number 17, Petr Sykora, from number 771, Geno Malkin.”

I don’t like those machines. People get drunk, don’t have any technique, no warm-up, no attempt at anything listenable. Ugh. And don’t ask me about guitar Zero and all those things. Double ugh.

As for me and my voice box, we’ll stick with Jeannie and Ariella. Amen.

Jammin Java gig last night

Jan 132009

Last night I played a set at Jammin Java. They’ve started doing songwriter showcases on Mondays, hosted by the ever-awesome Ron Goad. They used to have an open mike on Mondays, where each performer got two songs. I went once a few years ago, and there was just not much that interested me that night. Ron has gotten away from that. He is scheduling the performers ahead of time, and he only schedules folks once he has heard their music. Each act gets twenty minutes, so that’s about five songs.

Last night had some great music. Billie Sokul played improvised pieces on fretless bass accompanied by hand percussion, and he was rocking the place. Karen Karma played piano and sang some great originals. I hadn’t heard either of them before, and they both brought power and energy to the room.

There were some great sets by performers that I have heard before: Jean Bayou, Larry Mediate, and the Transcendental Third twins. Larry kicked into “Powder Finger” with some real emotion in his voice, joined by Bernie Muller-Tyme and Ron. Oh yeah, Bernie closed out the night with some great songs done solo. When I hear Bernie sing, I realize that there is a whole language of freely improvised singing out there that I don’t speak fluently. Awesome stuff.

My set went really well. The sound is great at JJ. The lights are bright and hot, which I really like. I hate feeling my skinny hands getting cold when I play, and that happens to me sometimes in the winter. I tried out my new Fishman 12-string pedal, and it did its job quite nicely. The guitar sounded good in the monitor anyway. Robin told me that my focals sounded very clear and sparkly. She said that it seemed to be a combination of a great mike and extra strong voice on my part. She’s biased maybe, but I’m always glad to get a good review from her. She definitely lets me know when I could have done better. So all the technicals seemed to be OK last night.

I had trouble deciding what to sing. I decided to sing stuff from my CD rather than bust out some new stuff. I need to work a little more on some of the new stuff, though I have a couple that are ready and have made it to public performance already. Mary Cliff played my CD twice over the weekend, so I played those two songs (“Hazardous” and “Corporation Blues”). I also played “Reuben’s Train” stuck on the front of my “Tree” for the second time, and I like that medley. No feedback yet from anyone on that thing, so we’ll see if it holds up.

What else? I got lots of good feedback on my set. “Best ever” from one person. A few folks were telling me about the NE regional Folk Alliance, which I hadn’t heard of. They have some contest or something where they choose performers based on submissions, so I might check that out. Oh yeah, that reminds me, got to get my stuff to Kerrville pretty soon.

Overall JJ was a hit. The night went a little long, so we left once the yawns started coming out. I was very very happy to have a bunch of friends there; nothing better than folks who want to hang out and hear your songs. We’ll have to go back again sometime just to listn to other folks. And I’m looking forward to playing again at JJ sometime soon.

Andrew McKnight’s show was great, of course!

Jan 042009

Last night Robin and I went with some friends to hear Andrew McKnight at the Industrial Strength Theater in Herndon VA. What a great performance.

I had never been in the theater before, though I have lived right around the corner for ten years. I had heard that it was a spartan setup with metal bleachers for the audience. Maybe that was a previous decor, I don’t know; the seating was good ol’ cushy theater seats, just as comfortable as you would like. The room was small but had great acoustics. The house lights stayed on throughout the show, but I don’t know if that is how they always do things there. Most performances are theatrical, done by the Elden Street Players.

Now, the music. Andrew did a solo, totally unplugged performance. The premise was that he would spend time telling stories about his songs that were a little more expansive than the usual rehearsed intros and jokes. He is a good talker for sure, and he had no shyness telling us about his travels around the country for gigs, his toddling dughter, or his father’s love of jazz music. Andrew writes songs in the neighborhood of Bruce Springsteen, so there are often a lot of good stories going on behind the tunes.

Andrew’s songs are serious and stirring. He captures a memorable story in a standard song format, which is like capturing a biography in a fifteen-page short story. His “Dancing In the Rain” became a favorite for both Robin and me the first time we each heard it at one of Andrew’s gigs.

His song “Walk In These Shoes” always makes me cry, with its pounding emotions about people who struggle to get into our country because there is nothing else for them to do. I understand the political problems going on around this issue, but I also understand that there are kids who grow up in America without paper work and then can’t go to college or get a decent job. And that is an awful way to become an adult. Parents take their kids away from poverty and violence so they can come here to maybe have a chance at a quieter life, and these kids are excluded after living here for fifteen or twenty years. Morality or whatever, it is a sad side of our world where nation-building in the name of equality is more important than putting true equality into action. So I cry every time I hear this song, for those kids who are left out.

Andrew has a new take on Robert Johnson’s “Crossroads” that I have heard him do three times over the past year. The first two times the tune didn’t really grab me, and my mind wandered a bit. Last night his slide guitar playing on this tune really stood out for me. It was not the primitive, emotional outburst that I really like in a bottleneck blues thing. But the quiet, gentle notes on the guitar made a nice conversation with the vocals.

I was surprised in this unplugged theater setup that Andrew seemed to sing without totally belting out. He sang in his usual breathy, sweet voice, and sometimes even whispered. If I were in a room like that, I would just belt it out like a fool. Maybe something for me to learn here. Of course I’m usually singing loud and more loud without exactly staying on top of my intonation and enunciation.

So there, I’m a big fan. Have been since I first heard Andrew’s songs. If you haven’t seen Andrew before, make a point of it. Very good stuff.

I hate plugging in my guitar

Jan 022009

Yes, I do. I avoid pickups in acoustic guitars as much as possible. Just mike them up. Most people don’t mike them up, but nothing sounds better.

Here are points in favor of my ridiculous opinion:

Bluegrass bands played into mikes for years and years. Many still do. A little feedback here and there when you don’t have a competent sound person, but all in all it can be done and is done every day all over.

Bob Dylan back in the first twenty-five years of his career, give or take, miked his acoustic guitar when he played solo. It sounded great. I always liked the sound and feel of his floppy-pick strumming. Like on all those bootleg series CDs. Once he started plugging in, the solo sets lost a lot. Listen to the “Real Live” and “30th Anniversary” albums to see what I mean.

Along the same lines are many others who miked up their guitars and sounded geat: Joan Baez, Mike Seeger, on and on.

Don’t get me wrong: I’m not talking about miking an acoustic guitar when you have a bass player and a full drum kit. You got to in those loud circumstances. But for folkies like me, who perform solo or with one or two other folkies, nothing beats the miked-up guitar. Especially my 6-string dreadnaught. I couldn’t stand the thought of slapping a pickup on that thing because it just sounds great the way it is.

I think 90% of the solo, folk, acoustic, whatever guitar players that I see out there are plugging in. Probably half of them are pulling off a decent sound, thanks to Taylor and Martin electronic magic. But a lot of folks are still plugging in and getting that piezzo under-saddle quack quack that sounds like rubber bands stretched across one of those cardboard trays that comes with a frozen salisbury steak dinner. yeah, I guess I feel kind of strongly about this subject. A lot of folks are pulling off a nice plugged-in sound alright, but I’ve struggled a lot to get there myself.

About two years ago I wanted to buy a 12-string. I decided to buy one with a pickup in it, because there are just some places where you don’t have good hands on the sound board and you just don’t want to be fighting the feedback on a guitar mike. So I bought a great Guild 12-string I think the model is GAD212, something like that. It is a mahogany dread and has a Fishman piezzo under-saddle pickup. It sounds like the quacky duck rubber band salisbury steak thing. I think that whoever invented those pickups was trying to get the most un-guitar-like sound possible. But, there are those places where you almost got to plug in, because there’s a drunk or half-asleep guy at the board. And there are a lot of world-class masters out there who plug in and sound great. Beppe Gambetta, for example.

OK, so here is where I start sounding like a commercial. I just bought a new gadget to help with the piezzo. I bought Fishman’s Aura pedal for 12-strings. It is pretty expensive, but it makes the guitar sound like a guitar. Actually, it makes it sound like a bunch of guitars. The pedal is pretty simple, so a dummy like me can use it without too much worry. Just plug in and you got three things to adjust. There’s a big knob with sixteen settings that are supposed to be sixteen different digital models of guitar and mike combinations. They are not labeled, so you just have to use your ear to get a mellow, strummy mahogany dread sound, or a chimy Taylor sound, or a whatever guitar through a whatever mike. There’s also a blend control to add in as much piezzo quacky as you like, which I think could help in a bar to add some punch back into the warmth of the digital images. Then there’s a phase switch which boosts the bass and probably helps with some feedback problems on a PA, we’ll see.

The pedal is made of metal. And, I’m a poet and I know it. The pedal looks like it will hold up a long time–that’s what I am trying to say here. So, I hope that it does because it was a little pricy. But I think I have finally found a good way to plug in at a gig and feel confident that I can control my sound. I’ll write something after I road test the pedal to see if all my happy dreams came to pass.

Dickens and Honky Tonk Confidential

Dec 202008

I’m not too crazy about Christmas music. It’s all been done so many times, so I am looking forward to January just so I don’t have to hear too much more of the same fifteen worn-out melodies. However, my wife and I had two very nice Christmas music experiences last night.

First, we went with friends to see a musical based on Dickens’s “A Christmas Carol,” performed by the McLean Community Players. It was musical theater in its standard flavor, with the expected tensions, climaxes, juxtapositions, and resolutions . It was sappy and touching, and of course the plot is very familiar. But the whole show was performed with such great energy and with such technical perrfection, we all enjoyed it very much. I was very pleased that the music and lyrics really made no reference to familiar Christmas tunes. The show really was a fresh experience and allowed the power of Dickens’s story to hit my emotions.

The second musical surprise was a CD that friends gave us as a Christmas gift. It was Honky Tonk Confidential’s holiday CD. The disc has clever holiday originals and is a lot of fun. We laughed most on the “Honky Tonk Hanukkah” song, but it’s all very good listening.

Feel The Wag gig at Reston Regional Library

Dec 082008

Yesterday we played a group gig at the Reston Regional Library. There were three of us there: Bud on dulcimer, Bill on mandolin and guitar, and me on fiddle and 12-string. Man, it was a fun gig.

We just set up in the middle of the library not too far from the main entrance. It’s a typically quiet library, but not legalistically silent. Bud opened up with a few solo numbers on the hammered dulcimer, which are always a treat to hear. Then we started up with our usual warmer-upper, “Bonapart Crossing The Rhine.” In a relatively quiet environment, our sound carries well. We had a nice crowd circling around us for most of the two hours. The only time things thinned down was when we played the “My Own House” waltz. It’s a little slow, a little choppy and scratchy maybe. Maybe we play it too many times? I think we did five turns, with the penultimate turn switching keys from A to D, then back to A for the last turn. Funny thing about waltzes I guess. We’ll have to find a way to pair that waltz up with “Peak-a-boo Waltz” or something else to make it a little more interesting. Or perhaps I should just get my fiddle playing a little better on that one.

We did our favorites, such as “Barlow Knife, “Ebenezer,” “Little Rabbit,” “Jeff Davis,” and “Bill Sullivan’s Polka.” And a bunch more.

As we left, the folks working at the front desk told us that people kept coming in thinking that a recording was playing. but it was us. Nice.

Dead Men’s Hollow show

Dec 072008

Tonight a few of us went to see Dead Men’s Hollow at a nearby church.

The group did a nice show. The harmonies were crisp and the vocals were snappy. I found myself comparing their stage presence and antics to mine when I perform. I think that I do something very different from them. I guess it’s like comparing the Andrew Sisters to Bruce Springsteen–it just depends on your taste.

The star of the group is Marcy on fiddle. She really has excellent technique, and her tone reminds me of Martin Hayes. I call it the “saxophone tone” fiddlers who play with such lush tone. That’s just my brain’s description; I understand if others don’t get what I mean.

The fiddle tunes were the highlight of the show for me. They did a cross-tuned “Red-Haired Boy,” a nice “Duck River” and one or two others. The tempos were a little on the slow side for old-timey tunes, but then I am usually pushing the beat on everything I play. I hope that Marcy someday gets to be in a strictly old-time group just so she can let loose even more.

Music on Sirius Satellite Radio

Nov 232008

I am trying to adjust to the changes to Sirius radio’s music programming since they merged with XM this month:

I love Bob Dyln’s Theme Time show after my first listen. It is well-produced and I’m sure there is a crew of dozens behind it researching and writing. But Dylan sounds so great talking through the show, and the music is sweet too. The Deep Tracks channel in general is pretty sweet. It seems that I like everything I hear whenever I turn it on.

Larry Kerwin was one of the best DJs on Sirius, and now he’s gone. Even the channel name “Disorder” was cool. I’m still trying to figure out if Vin Scelsa and Les Davis are still around. Man I hope so. I can hardly find the channels I want, let alone the individual DJ schedules.

Larry, wherever you turn up next, I’ll be listening for you.

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