Musician, Freak, Dayjobber, Etc.

Hey, here comes kErrY, stumbling out of the fog to bring you yet another useless blog, completely yours to do whatever you wish -- throw it away, ignore it, paint it orange and laugh at it, use it to wrap cocaine in, insult it, dry urine off of a Greyhound Bus station bathroom floor in Mobile, Alabama, with it, etc.

I guess the coolest thing I’ve done lately was last weekend, when I went to Houston, Tx to play a private party as a guitarist/backing vocalist in Stew’s “The Cover Problem” band.

Now, Stew has his own laid-back way of approaching these types of things: very loose, very free, and very much “in the moment”, musically speaking. So, I shouldn’t have been surprised that we only had one full-band rehearsal in preparation for the gig. It was a cool band, too: Adam Marsland and John Perry on keys (dueling keyboardists!) and backing vocals, the unmistakable Joseph Berardi on drums, and, of course, the Dazzling Duo themselves, Stew and Heidi Rodewald on guitar and bass, respectively, and, of course, their trademark AMAZING vocals.

The setlist – largely requested by the client – was eclectic to say the least: songs by Randy Newman, Nilsson, Prince, Outkast and Guns-n-Roses were among those featured, as well as a handful of Stew originals. I set out learning the material note-for-note, knowing that Stew would most likely radically change the arrangements – which he did. During rehearsal Stew stripped the material down to the most basic elements, retaining a cool chord change here, adding a gang-chorus there, tweaking the material as he envisioned it. We’d play something for a few moments and Stew would say “Okay, that’s done, what’s next?” and we’d move on. Wham, bam, thank you Stew.

John Perry and I furiously took notes, while Heidi taped some of the rehearsal stuff (which John converted to MP3’s and later uploaded, bless his hairy heart), and we basically sketched-out what we thought Stew wanted. We had a plan. Yes.

After an uneventful, god-awful early Saturday morning flight (in which my guitar case was searched and determined to have some kind of explosive residue on it, haha, it’s only funny in hindsight, trust me), we arrived in the heart of Bush Country. Yea. After a quickie lunch, we were off to the hall (a beautiful, majestic old place that reminded us all of the El Rey in Los Angeles) for soundcheck. There was a nice – kickass, actually – backline awaiting, and we all settled in and set-up our gear, then ran through the set and, lo and behold, things sounded pretty good. Reasonable. Real. Stew was letting loose some incredibly jazzy runs and licks here and there, blowing my mind in the process (I didn’t know he played lead guitar like that). I was slightly nervous, but, when Stew’s driving the bus, you know you’re going to – at the very least -- enjoy the ride.

Then we all trundled off to the hotel (another cool old 1920’s-era building, right around the corner from the hall), where we each had our own rooms (very cool!). We all went our separate ways, some choosing to nap, others hanging out and just messing around. I sipped a bourbon and water in my room-with-a-view, called my sweetheart, then crashed out until showtime.

When we arrived at the hall, the place was packed; the event was a bar mitzvah, thrown by a very cool man for his 13 year-old son (who had, in fact, chosen some of the music we were to play). The man, it turns out, is a huge Stew fan and supporter. Very cool. The crowd was an interesting mix of crazy teenagers, young parents, and older folks, some totally square, some tragically hip, some in-between, but everyone very nice and friendly. After a delicious sit-down dinner, we were asked to play. Moments earlier, Stew was saying how he really preferred not to eat dinner before playing, as it slowed him down and made him feel lazy, and here we were being told “it’s time”. Oh oh.

It’s not like the band was stashed off in a corner someplace; no, we had a full-blown stage (4-foot risers) smack-dab at the head of the hall, front and center, with a lighting rig, a great sounding PA, and nicely balanced stage monitors. We went up there, tuned up, and launched into our makeshift set. The first song went great, but the audience was a little shy, with no one venturing onto the dance floor. The second song found a handful of people up and dancing, and a tight little knot of teenage boys gathered front-and-center, cheering us on and shouting requests for AC/DC and Led Zeppelin (I am totally serious; I earned some “yeah dude!”’s from the boys when I chunka-chunked the riff to “Highway to Hell” just for grins). By the third song, Stew had somehow transformed himself into a fucking MONSTER, and the dance floor was packed from then on. From that moment forward, everything we played was golden; everything was flowing like maple syrup in spring. Just, like, wow, man. I couldn’t believe it. Stew was rocking so hard he broke two strings on his guitar. Our New Wave Version(tm) of “Sweet Child O’ Mine” even had the grandparents on their feet, dancing and singing along as best as they could (Adam and I played that classic opening riff in unison, me covering the Slash part and Adam adding an awesome square-wave synth on top; it sounded really fun, very Gary-Neuman-on-speed).

Before you could say “schmatlz”, we were on our last number (Harry Nilsson’s “Rainmaker”), which Stew somehow led us into transforming into the most gigantic, overblown, rock-n-fucking-roll ending you could ever possibly imagine. I had to laugh like hell, it was so overblown. The crowd ate it up, going crazy with applause and screaming “more, more, MORE!”. It was all I could do to keep from floating away; I have never played for such an appreciative crowd in my life, it was an incredible buzz.

As we’re standing off-stage, we were all thinking “there’s no way we’re going to be able to top that”, yet, we knew we had to go back up. So we did -- to more embarrassingly wild applause -- and we launched into our Lounge Version(tm) of David Bowie’s “Rebel, Rebel”, slowing things down a bit with a fake jazz-trio vibe, and creating a nice, smooth come-down which everyone appeared to dig (the dance floor remained S.R.O.). Good times, good times.

We hung out at the party for another hour or so, soaking in that peculiar orange-amber post-show glow, socializing and meeting folks, taking untold numbers of wonderful compliments, and just having fun, basking in the glory of it all. I must say, it was the best show I have ever had the pleasure of participating in (and I’ve played a few).

All good things must come to an end, and, sooner than I’d have liked, we found ourselves packing up our gear and heading back to the hotel. The rest of the band were all pretty burned-out and elected to crash, so I went out onto the somewhat-crowded Houston city streets, found a nice little bar, and had a few beers, hanging out with some locals and listening to a very good hard-rock band who were playing. Two o’clock rolled around, and I headed back to my room with a plate of nachos, munched out, and crashed, dreaming of purple guitars and drum solos.

The next day was a blur of BBQ-beef sandwiches and airport security, and we made it safely back to Los Angeles late Sunday afternoon. A great experience had come to an end, as do all things. It’s a memory I will always cherish – many, many thanks to Stew and Heidi and the band for a great time.

Meanwhile, did I mention that the Abe Lincoln Story went into the studio the other week and nailed another half-dozen tracks for the upcoming album? Well, we did, and, I must say, we got us some fucking nice stuff onto virtual tape. Not to sound like an asshole here, but I must say that I nailed some cool guitar stuff on-the-fly, as did the whole band for that matter. We’re usually a pretty tight unit to begin with, but this recording day, we were basically on fire; people were playing things we’d never heard them play before, incredible stuff that fit like a glove, and, somehow, it all came together. I’ve heard the rough mixes and we definitely have an album happening. I should write a blog about the session, we had so much fun and everyone deserves mention for some fine, fine work, but I just don’t have the time. Maybe later.

Lastly, on the Ultra Suede tip, we are about eighty-percent finished with tracking the vocals, and we’re looking to finish up some significant sections this week. Everything is sounding insanely great. Anyway, yeah, we’re thisclose to getting some soundclips up, and, of course, you’ll be the first to know when it happens.

This weekend finds Nipper and I heading off to Las Vegas to visit my folks and squeeze in a little r-n-r, so, until next week, I bid you a fond(le) farewell. Thank you so much for reading this, I most certainly appreciate your kindness and love. Until next time, remember, architecture is frozen music, so build yourself post-war streamlined modern in a hillside canyon – with forever views – today. xoxox kErrY xoxox

In lieu of a "real" blog -- trust me when I tell you I have been busy with three musical projects in the works -- here's a link to a trip report for a recent fishing excursion I made. Hope you enjoy, a real blog will follow in a week or three...xoxox kErrY xoxox