Au Revoir "So Long"

I guess I started this blog as a place to archive things I love to organize them into little chunks of inspiration.  Over the past couple of days of being introduced to this world it really started to open me up to the idea of tying this into my creative outlet which is songwriting.  In 2001, I finished making my first record in Brooklyn, NY with fellow writers Donovan Guidry and Seth Gold. ( I'll dig into the actual experience of making the record later.)  This record was the very first time I put my whole self into the idea of a creative project.  I had some musical talent at the time but more of a talent of condensing life experiences into songs.  After a three year exploration of songwriting, music lessons and recording classes, "So Long" was born.  The whole project had that handmade feel to it.  All the preproduction was done in our apartment in Williamsburg and we even had fellow artist friend and stick ball player, Mac Premo design handmade art work for the album cover. (above) 

Everything happened so fast, I went from a simple day to day lifestyle of loving the recording process to signing a deal and having to hit the road.  While in my younger years, the thought of being a well known artist was an appealing idea.  It's appealing until you're smack dab in the middle of a marketing campaign and they're taking the thing you love the most away from you, recording!  I don't want to go to far into this but it is important to get to the place where I am today.  

I toured for two years until I refused to play a few shows and then finally got dropped from the label and then by management.  Though disappointed, I was relieved of the stresses that all the attention created for me.  I no longer had a say so of my daily schedule and everything was laid out in an agenda and there was no more of those long stretches of time to think, read and record.  But now all that was behind me.

I hit the road with my recording equipment to make whatever came to me as cheaply as I could.  This was my view for two weeks, outside a Paris cafe window in the Latin Quarter.  I finally had time to daydream again.  So anyway, over the past four years I guess, I would go on to make two records.  The first one "Louque the Drifter", a travel record I began in Paris and then a new project with the bassist Josh Werner called "Royal Vagabonds".  I'll go into these at some point later.  After these projects, I never really pursued the same avenues the first record took me down because of the way the whole industry thing worked.  It all feels like an old formula:

Make Record+PR+Touring+A little selling out=success!

So my inability to put myself into this formula has led me to constantly creating new music and selling a song or two a year to film and television and working other jobs to keep the music pure.  My friends however light into me at dinner sometimes for not being out there and successful, but they have no idea of the what it feels like to be on the artist side.  This leads me to why I'm rambling on.  I'm a huge music fan and would love it if some of the artist I love would post blogs and tell stories or show me things that inspire them.  I have encountered people in different cities that have a connection to my first record and they share beautiful stories of what the music did for them and their loved ones.  This is why I make music!  And this is my blog, an extension to music.  If the album is failing to the idea of cheap singles and artwork is on a jpeg and one can't open a record and devour the liner notes and there are no record shops, then what is the future of discovery in music?  I don't know, but this makes me feel like I have a little nook in the big world of music.  I'm finally making peace with the bitterness of the past and am open to sharing again.  May music lead me back into the wilderness!

Every Man a King!....

Louque

Gary State Bank Music Hall

Saturday, March 16th

10:00 P.M.

Doors open at 6:00

Radio Transmission...

Over time I have become more of a Joy Division fan than New Order, though I love the latter.  Since playing with Chandler, I've been curious about the punk/goth music of my past. I remember when the French Quarter was full of this scene.  Lower Decatur at the Blue Crystal and the old Gold Mine of course.  There were huge stores where you could find rare Doc Martens, Trench Coats, and band T-shirts. 

Chandler just bought a Fender Jaguar which is similar to my Jazzmaster.  I'm really thankful for the electric guitar. It really is an outlet for my all my angst and aggression I've picked up over the years in the music industry.  At this point I don't mind the adversity ahead.  Just wear earplugs!

Gary State Bank Music Hall...

It's hard to believe it's almost been ten years since the release of "So Long" my debut album.  Donovan Guidry and I sat down reminiscing about those days in Brooklyn trying to pull something from deep inside.  I remember going home to Louisiana every four months to research and interview people from Grand Point.  I was finally appreciating my culture for the first time after years of running from it.  

Over the past few years Sean Delauneville(above) has been after me to play live over at his place and for whatever reason I never did it.  I was battling the bitterness of my split with the record industry along with moving on to my new projects and didn't really care much about playing live.  I've never wanted to be a big fish in a small pond or to be celebrated but something real has been happening with the folks back home with that record.  I've heard countless stories of people bonding over that record so I decided to sit down with my acoustic and play a few of those songs late one night and it hit me hard. All those cry's and pleas were now being directed back at me by my own culture who have embraced that strange sounding record over the years.  

Since starting to play live again, a peace has come over me about the whole thing.  I feel as if I was born to do it and I have a gift and it should be shared.  No more, no less.  

We met this week at the old Gary State Bank building, owned by Carl Monica.  This a storied building for him having rode out countless hurricanes in there with his Italian family.  He is a long time historian for the area and is really excited to have some other folks to bring some awareness to the culture. I'm so excited that they will be cleaning up this place for me to play a show in March.  

Donovan Guidry and I, along with my good friend Malik Baloney are planning to document everything with video, audio recording and portraits.  We all come from different paths and have arrived at the same place.  Donovan, the Frenchman from Lafayette and Malik, the creole intellect from Garyville.  We are all so excited to have an avenue to share our culture with the world.  Not New Orleans, but specifically a Creole/Cajun region that sits on the Mississippi River.  There will be no talks of alligators or other Louisiana corniness.  We will humbly distill this American life!

Searching for Sugarman....

A truly inspiring story about Sixto Rodriguez.  Not surprising to hear what happened to him as the record industry is loaded with soulless vampires.  Such a pure person though, continuing to love music even as he worked regular jobs.  An all knowing soul.  This is what music is all about.  These kinds of individuals sharing their pure self.  Thanks Sugar Man!

St. Roch Tavern..

The past two Fridays I have tried out playing at the St. Roch Tavern down the street and am loving it.  It is not associated with any old New Orleans traditions musically speaking and that is just perfect for me.  The most important thing about this place is the diversity and in my neighborhood.  

I have been knowing William Chandler for like three years now and always knew he played guitar but we had never played together.  Over the years we both learned that we both had a love of late 80's new wave and punk scene.  One day we decided to play and we just clicked and he pushed me into a sound that I've been after for a long time.  Along with being a really tasteful musician, he's great to hang with. 

On Friday, he played my Jazzmaster guitar because his Rickenbacker is in the shop and sounded great. We will probably play shows once a month and eventually be recording everything we do for NetLive Music.  

Jeremy Krause has been a long time fan of my music.  I guess he heard me in San Diego a few years back or something.  His startup is called "Netlive Music" and he wants to promote me with my live recordings.  We plan to meet soon to get to know each other better.  I'm really excited about playing live again.  I feel that it is providing me with much needed energy and confidence.  

"The St. Roch Sessions" is the name of the night at the Tavern.  I'm eventually going to be bringing in other artist to play and hopefully over time do my part in developing a local, new music scene that isn't tourist music.

At the Hearth...

Many changes are taking place.  The country just reelected Obama and everything feels like it's shifting to a new era.  The old guard is nervous but all the great young thinkers are excited.  Everything feels uneasy right about now.  Another school shooting in Connecticut, another political argument, another gentrification spat.  It all can be a bit noisy and confusing and then theres the damn Iphone's and Ipads and think pads and this pad and that pad.  Insta this and Pinster that.  I don't think we can even begin to see ourselves and to understand the mass confusion we are going through.  

Winter is upon us and the old house is getting cooler.  Our house, The McGovern house as I was told last Saturday by Mrs. Augustus and Bob.  Beautiful couple that have been in this neighborhood throughout all its changes.  Fire is a beautiful, soulful thing.  Much can be learned from building a fire.  Gathering dry, small pieces of wood over the sparks and then layering it with bigger pieces until big chunks of coal start to form.  Then come the logs and warmth.   When I build a fire it reminds me to be patient in all things.  Restoring, writing, friendships and relations.  All things needs patience but it's harder and harder to come by.  This is why I love fire.  It reminds me of being at the hearth in my Mamere's kitchen in an old simple wooden house.  The basic needs were met, we had fire, an omelette and coffee in the percolator and maybe 12 stations on the TV.  Mostly we had each other and a game of card tricks.  How hard would that be now, to sit in that stillness.   

This old Gibson was a guitar that was in a closet in my house where I grew up.  I remember going in there to peek at it.  I would always go in there very quietly because I knew it was special to my dad and didn't want to him to worry I was going to harm it.  I never touched it or took it out of the case.  I simply opened it and looked at it and it was always so beautiful to me.  I never considered playing it but it meant a lot to me back then.  Years later when I had become a musician in Brooklyn, I remembered that guitar and when I visited I ran to the closet and there it was, same place it had always been.  At the time, I was touring and home to play the House of Blues.  It was as if I was playing in the Super Bowl or something to folks back home.  No one ever heard me play, just my recordings.  It's funny to look back on.  I played a song on this guitar that night and it was feeding back like a wild stallion but my band and I just thought it was so special and had something about it.  They named it "Wild Pony". 

Now that I'm playing more guitar, it means so much to me.  Sitting next to the fire playing Hank Williams, Sr.'s music brings me back to the Hearth so to speak.  I want to always remember that simplicity and hopefully I can extract it and put it into song so I can share with others.  I feel this is what  I have to do but there is so much noise out there and I don't always know how to cut through it.  

The song writing parlor

A year ago, we were a little uneasy with the purchase of this property but things are changing everyday.  The median has been getting a face lift and the houses are now selling as fast as they're listed.  But the most important thing is the diversity of folks living here.  

I've been reading The Secret Languages of Birthdays and it told me that mine is the day of social ideals.   It goes into my attention to detail and believe me I'm suffering through some things in this area right now but am working through it.  It told me to use these skills and put them to use in the community.  It says if I direct too much of this on myself, it won't be useful to me.  

Todays meditation:

Everything is related.