New York 4/17-4/27

Went up to New York a couple of weeks ago and slipped right back into the scene like I never left thanks to all my dear friends who invited me back to play.  The above picture is the wall outside the old headgear studio.  I heard it was going to be a JCrew soon.  Things change.  I've come to accept that people change and things must just keep going.  

I played a solo set on Friday the 18th followed by a full band set with The Royal Vagabonds with special guest Aaron Dugan.  It was quite a time playing with these guys as we lost control over ourselves and just followed the music.  Dugan played with Josh during his years with Matusyahu, so he had a command over all the dub stuff we did.  We went seamlessly from Folk/Americana to dub to Rocking out and all the material worked well together.  Me, Josh and Dave had started playing some of my old record material last year and it seems to be a good fit.  The crowd was really nice and appreciative and purchased all my cds.  Thanks everyone especially Pauley Ethnic for putting this night together.

I spent another day at Adios Babylon studios with DJ Kiva and we banged out another song.  We started out just experimenting but almost have enough material for an EP.  I like making music with Kiva as he is an expert on all things recording in Apleton Live.  I also got a tour of the school he teaches at called Dub Spot.  It's crazy all the classrooms they have set up to learn music production.  Thanks Kiva for sharing your talents.

On Wednesday I played with Helio Parallax which is the dub duo Josh Werner and Takuya who both met playing in Coco Rosie's band.  Bianca from Coco Rosie and I sang on a few tracks and had a blast.  It was so hard when we were both in the basement waiting to go on to play cause the band sounded so good.  We both did our thing though once we got up there.  This night was for the Bill Laswell Residency.  It was so nice to be in John Zorn's club The Stone finally.  It feels a lot like the old Tonic scene where I got to play years ago.  There were pictures on the wall of all the great musicians from the down town scene over the years.  Feels good to be carrying a part of that torch.

On Thursday, Margo Valiente and Dave Burnett invited me to sing at Skinny Dennis, the old honky tonk bar.  We did a Neil Young song and Bob Dylan's "I Shall be Released" that was written for The Band.  It was nice to hear her sing, ripping through like 50 songs in one night.  

I had the good fortune of playing at artists JR and Prune's home for their monthly dinner party.  JR is well known for winning the Ted award and for speaking on Ted Talks and for changing the world through his art.  I was introduced to everyone before playing by friend Oliver Jeffers.  It was so nice to play for this crowd with Oliver and Mac Premo sitting right there.  The audience was so kind and there was a feeling of love and humility in the room.  This is the feeling I've been looking for for a long time. No record industry can deliver this kind of thing.  This is a real path, with like minded artist forging new paths with each other.

This is a group shot after my performance.  I was joined by dancer Lil Buck the legend and Jonathan Batiste on melodica.  Thanks again JR and Prune.  

Mardi Gras 2014....

It's a wrap......

One Sunday in January of 2011 I was having my morning coffee and Danny Blume came to mind and I searched for him and found him.  I listened to some of projects he'd been working on, including his own music and thought about my experience with him recording my first record with he and Chris.  It was a crazy experience for me as I had no idea what I was doing but had good ideas and a little money to make it happen.  I always loved the sound we got together and loved recording vocals with Danny at the board because he had good ears and a whole lot of patience.  

At this point in 2011 I hadn't stop writing or playing music but was very much hiding out and no one was looking for me.  I mustered up the courage to reach out to Danny and he replied and I started sending him some song ideas I had and he liked them so we decided that we'd do a record together.  The first song "Free" was done from separate cities as he is in Woodstock and I New Orleans.  I loved the outcome so I  then booked a ticket to NY so we could record a batch of songs.  

When I hit the road in the rental car towards Woodstock, I was so excited to work with Danny again knowing what I know now.  When I first started it was so frustrating not knowing how to articulate anything because I didn't have the musical vocabulary so I had to show pictures and draw diagrams and play samples of music to get sounds I wanted.  I was also humbled by my years in seclusion.  I was alone with my music with no manager or booking agents or anyone who really cared.  Well, my wife was there and those beautiful emails that would come out of nowhere every week from people looking for me and thanking me for my music.  

When I was on the road, it was getting dark and all these folks were on my mind.  It takes so much courage to keep going sometimes but I knew Amanda believed in me and Danny wasn't into wasting time so I knew he believed in me and I knew the songs I had in my head were something.

I had no idea what was about to take place or the musicians that would be involved that allowed the project to fly away from my grasp.  It is the best feeling to watch a song take off and become way more than you imagine it and to be in a room of equals with mutual respect for each other.  

My thank you's have to go all the way back to my dear friend John Ellis.  He was my mentor in the beginning of my song writing days and always took me serious, even when I didn't know what I was doing.  He had checked in with me to see how I was doing and asked if I was still writing music and I told him I was and he came down with a bass player, Madison and Dave Burnett on drums and we cut 5 songs at Axis studio with Misha.  This session started it all for me and eventually let Danny hear what I had been up to.  I did a few more sessions in New Orleans with Josh Werner and Dave Burnett who are my Royal Vagabonds brothers.  After these sessions, I knew I had something.  

Woodstock is known for being a haven for musicians from the city and I was amazed by the level of talent and taste living in those hills.  There's nothing like recording next to the wood burning stove and taking breaks to chop wood or to watch bears near the creek.  It was exciting when we started to bring in musicians up there.  David Baron(Lenny Kravitz, Peter Murphy, Michael Jackson), Jerry Marotta(Peter Gabriel), Zack Alford(David Bowie), and Nels Cline (Wilco, Nels Cline Singers).  Finally finished "Campo Santo".  All we have to do is master!

Of course during the course of all this music making, there is life in New Orleans.  Luca gets me out of the house and takes me on walks and gets me out to Holy Cross for some peace and quiet and nature so I don't drive his mommy crazy.  I still manage to do it though.



We're nearly finished the bottom bathroom renovation.  We hired Cody and his friends to do the major construction of moving the doorway to the hallway.  Jay and I cut the door in half and made some french doors. They are going to be so nice with some nice hammered glass put in both sides.













I got Mr. Nolan to help me renovate all the plumbing on the vintage barber sink.  This has been along time as it's been sitting in our living room for two years.  Finally will be put to use.



I polished the brass and it came out really nice.



This is Amanda at Dr. Craig's house where there's always costumes being passed around and nights on the town.  It's a great diversion from all the work and recording.  Now it's time to let the music out there.

Happy New Year, So Long 2013...,

2013 was a year of grunt work and some nice surprises.  I'm so thankful to my wife, Amanda, for pushing me back up on stage.  I feel like myself again and more a part of the New Orleans community because of it.  

I want to wish the very best to the whole St. Roch Crew.  May we all push ourselves even harder in 2014.

Special thanks to all who were part of my record "Campo Santo".  I can't believe all of you were a part of it and it's almost on wax.  

Danny Blume, Josh Werner, Dave Burnett, Nels Cline, David Baron, Zach Alford, Jerry Morotta, Margo Valiente, Misha, John Ellis, Madison, Ward Williams, and Dan Brooks.

Thanks to my New Orleans music crew especially William Chandler.  Shout out to Leesaw, Ms. Mec, Graham Hill, Elise Pinkham, Anton Jonas, Phil Rollins, Bart Ramsey, Olivia, Dave and Scott at the Opera House.  

I'm No Hoarder, Part 3...,

I'm thinking yesterday was the final day of going through my CD collection.  This drawer, the "Rock" drawer was always pretty spread out across different era's.  It started with Animal Collective, Devendra Banhart, Coco Rosie, Elliot Smith and also had some early 90's Grunge with Nirvana, Stone Temple Pilots and such.  It actually started as grunge and went into 90's indie rock and into freak folk back into what we now still call Indie, whatever that means.  The word Indie has as much meaning as hand crafted now a days.  

Once again, it was so nice to actually have to physically go through these.  I would have totally forgotten about the early 90's band "Belly".  I'm excited to have this collection back in my house and am looking forward to revisiting all the Blonde Redhead records.  In the late 90's I was living in Williamsburg, Brooklyn and was spending all my days and nights listening to records, learning Pro Tools and playing piano and guitar along with making beats with Donovan Guidry on the MPC 2000.  A few times a week when I felt I deserved it, I'd hop the train over to Nolita for a coffee break at Cafe Gitane.  In those days you could sit in there for hours and read and sip coffee and gaze out the window.   I don't remember there being any internet or computers involved and could remember people actually talking to each other.  

There were regulars there everyday with these beautiful twin guys who were Italian and would ride vintage motorcycles.  Sometimes they'd have instruments with them but never knew they were "Blonde Redhead" until a few years after the Cafe Gitane hang became too popular.  

Luc, the owner of Cafe Gitane, was and remains one of my favorite men in New York.  He is from Morroco and moved to NY and started this cafe and does really well for himself.  He has a new location in the Jane Hotel now that I frequent sometimes.  The vibe is still the same but the hang is not like it used to be.  The guys and gals behind the counter still wear blue, French chore coats.  Luc was onto to this look way before Bill Cunningham made it so chic.  

Radiohead had just released OK Computer when I moved to NY and I would walk around the city with my walkman dreaming alone before I knew anyone.  A few years later when we were building Headgear Studio in Williamsburg we'd would blast Kid A in awe.  So good, two copies ended up in my collection.  

Portishead's Dummy was probably one of the biggest influences for "So Long"  Mostly in production style with the beats and ambience.  Of course hip hop and sampling was an influence too but this was closer to the direction we wanted to go.  

And then England puts their foot down again with Massive Attack.  Once I heard them, I bought it all.  Over time, I like it a little less mostly due to the female club style vox.  I love them with Horace Andy though.  I was happy to hear they ended up recording at Headgear with friend Dave Sitek.

The Yeah Yeah Yeah's were the first band to hit in the neighborhood.  They were old school Williamsburg too, L Cafe people.

One of the best things about living in NY is the level of talent and taste you find living around the corner.  We had a decent idea of what we wanted our music to sound like but needed some help and we were introduced to Chris Kelly and Danny Blume at Good and Evil studio.  They had a small space in Carroll Gardens with a sound like no one else was getting.  The song "Perique" was made there.  Haunting sounds.

I'm No Hoarder, Part 2....

Yesterday was another day of going through my record collection.  I went through a very important part of my collection which was the New Wave era along with other great 80's artist like Madonna and Prince who could have their own section.  It's funny how people always try to compare the next young female star selling her budding sexuality to Madonna.  Whether you like her or not, she reinvented herself over and over way past the budding of her womanhood. So sorry Miley, Brittany and all the other school girls.

Prince was an early influence even before Michael.  The movie Purple Rain with his cheap motorcycle and Appolonia!  You can't put a guy like prince in the 80's section or R&B, Rock.  What an artist!

I grew up right in between Baton Rouge and New Orleans right off of the river.  The musical taste  in my area from the early to mid eighties was mostly R&B.  Prince, Morris Day and the Time, Midnight Star, Marvin Gaye.  As a freshman, I left the local high school to attend a Catholic school closer to New Orleans. The school was more of a college prep school and Prep it was.  I had a peach fuzz mustache and listened to Prince but all that was about to change.  I shaved for the first time and started seeing band names written all over peoples books.  INXS!  I used to think it read inks.  Echo and the Bunnymen, U2, The Cure, The Smiths, DM, Dead Kennedy's, Sugar Cubes, New Order.  Also as the mid 80's were heading towards the late 80's the music back in my home town was changing as well and becoming more electronic with a twist of New Wave but remaining true to R&B with the same swagger.  

Artists like Stevie B, Noel, Johnny O, Cause and Effect, Egyptian Lover, Kyper were taking over the dance floor back home.  While folks back home were open to New Wave, it didn't exactly quench their thirst for the remembered swagger of 1983. Also, the city folks would come get a taste of the country dance parties too.  The Kingfish in the woods outside of Lafayette is legendary though I was too young to go.

I think the first time I heard Depeche Mode was on a mixed tape.  It was like nothing I had ever heard and took me far away from my little town.  They tapped into my imagination somehow and I began to wonder about the world outside of Louisiana for the first time.  We were reaching the age for nights out in New Orleans at the Gold Mine Saloon where we were discovering loads of artist.  I loved Decatur Street in those days.  There were great small bars with great music and shops to by posters and anything black.  It was always a great drive to New Orleans to hit either Tower Records or this record store on Octavia Uptown.  

I was glad to come across this great record, especially since it still had the price tag on it.  I bought this at Crossroads Records in Starkville, Ms. when I was in college.  I first saw The The when they opened for Depeche Mode in the late eighties.  Really great singer and writer.

This is one of my favorite album covers, probably right after New Order's, Power Corruption and Lies. I didn't really know about The Violent Femmes until college.  I remember my good friends Rodney Rocconi and Lance Grady going see them at Tipitina's and talking about climbing up on the fence.  I can imagine this band creating quite a stir live when they were at their peak.  Such a great record of acoustic punk songs.  I did get to see them at some point at Tipitina's in the early 90's.  They were great but would have been great to see them earlier.  

Depeche Mode kind of ruled the New Wave/80's collection. Over time New Order's catalog holds up the best for me.  Of course Joy Division does too but that would be more post punk which should be another discussion.  So many great artist in this period.  Most of this music stands up to the times and aged well with the exception of some of the snare sounds and gated reverb.  Well, there was the drone singing and affected cool but it was perfectly of the time.  Thanks Martin Gore, Robert Smith, Stephen Morrissey, and Prince Rogers Nelson.