A "Life Changing Experience"

About 10 days ago, Nathaniel had a couple of days off from school, around the Columbus Day holiday. A lot of his weekend was spent hanging with his friends. On Thursday night, with no school the next day either, he called to say he and his friends, Pete and Nick, were going to a place near Pete's, together with Pete's folks, to hear some music and did I want to come along?

The draw was this: apparently, they thought my good buddy and jazz guitarist extraordinaire, John Farrar, was playing, and that there was a chance his kid brother Jay was going to show. For those of you not in the know (as I wasn't when I first started playing with John many years ago now), John's brother Jay was in Uncle Tupelo with Jeff Tweedy, and then that band broke up and Jay and Jeff went their separate ways, Jeff forming Wilco and Jay forming Son Volt, both of which bands have had enormous commercial success. Uncle Tupelo is widely credited with creating the "alternative country" genre, and although Wilco may be more generally well-known, Son Volt has a raft of absolutely dedicated fans. They record and tour frequently and have been on Letterman, Austin City Limits and so on and so on. They're big time. And Pete's family in particular are dedicated Son Volt fans, and my son is not far behind.

So I naturally accepted the invitation. Nathaniel tells me to meet at Pete's, as it's walking distance from there. I know Pete's neighborhood, and I don't remember a lot of clubs around there. Then Nathaniel texts me that it's BYOB - and the Holohan family will hook the boys up with sodas, etc., but I might want to chuck a few beers along. And there "might be" food. Curiouser and curiouser.

When I show up to Pete's, I ask his dad Michael what's the deal with this place. He seems mildly surprised I don't know about Joe's Cafe, and says to me slyly, "Well, this is going to be a life changing experience." He wasn't kidding - or far off (or should I say "Farrar off" - sorry couldn't resist).

We walk around the corner (literally) to Joe's Cafe, and Michael is giving me the scoop. Joe's is a private club run by Bill Christman. Bill is a local artist who's had this place going for a number of years. It had in previous iterations been open to the general public, but because of

its proximity to Washington University, it morphed into more of a college hang than Bill really desired. So he shut it down, then reopened it as a private club, open only to members and their guests. Bill kind of has to know you, and who you're bringing. I think Michael even went by earlier in the day to give Bill the heads up that he was bringing three 15/16 year old boys, including his son, as a way to specially vouch for them (they are cool, if I do say so myself).

Around the corner the group encounters Bill, sitting outside the club, with a sign that says "Members - $5, Guests of Members - $10."  The boys are introduced and given the all-clear. I also pass the screening process (not a foregone conclusion, mind you, but Michael said I was a good musician - I think that helped). Michael had been explaining that this place also served as a studio for Bill's eclectic art. Bill designed Beatnik Bob's Museum of Mirth, Mystery and Mayhem at the City Museum in St. Louis. And this place is like walking in to the City Museum, except imagine it in a much smaller space, but the same amount of stuff, and everything crammed together. Everywhere you look there is something really cool. The stage is like a vaudeville stage. Neon lights glow everywhere. We nestle down to great seats, and Michael shows me around. Outside, in the side yard, there is more stuff than you can possibly imagine. Think of going to Gringo Jones near the Botanical Garden, mixed with the City Museum, and a bar with a vaudeville stage. For those who grew up in Southern Illinois, remember old "Big John" in front of the grocery store, towering 30 feet in the air? Well, I found him - he's buried up to his waist in

Bill Christman's side yard, still holding his grocery sacks, but with other stuff all around his big ol' muscular arms. Don't worry - he looks very very happy to be there (at least, he still has that same big grin). Behind him there's an old elevated train car, up on tracks. It just goes on and on. Oh, and did I mention some folks were set up outside cooking up the most delicious BBQ - not part of the club, but clearly "friends of Bill" and the community - $5 or so bought a meal that was pure heaven!

So when we go back in, Michael tells Pete he should give the guys the tour, and I say yes, you've got to see this place. Nathaniel looks up and says he's been before. Michael and I are incredulous that he could have failed to mention it to me, and he says, in absolute earnestness and seriousness, "Why? It's just a place with a bunch of stuff in it." The line of the night - and pure Nathaniel, for those who know him.

So the band filters in. It turns out John is not playing at all, but it is a country group called Colonel Ford. Jay is not the main feature, but just "one of the guys: in the band, playing pedal steel guitar. (Not to worry - there was no shortage of Farrar's - Dade Farrar plays stand up "slap" bass with Colonel Ford, and is a great singer in his own right.) Colonel Ford plays country - and I mean country, complete with fiddle player Justin Brannun who had just won the Grand Masters Fiddle Contest in Nashville earlier in the month. They were playing George Jones, Buck Owens, the whole nine yards. They describe themselves as playing in the "Hillbilly" genre on their Facebook page. I didn't even know that was a genre - I guess that's what you'd call pre-Rockabilly as I think about it. Anyway, everyone had a gas, especially the boys (interesting, as this is not "their" kind of music - but they like good stuff no matter what it is).

Here's a Youtube link to a performance at Joe's Cafe by Colonel Ford earlier this year - I can tell you this video does not do justice to the visual and audio experience of hearing these guys in this venue. You can't help but smile when you're there....

Or, as Nathaniel succinctly put it on Facebook:

"Colonel Ford + Jay Farrar = Fantastic"

Indeed, a man of fewer words than his father. But he says it all.

Love the Thing You Do

I talked to my friend Matt Farmer last night as he was driving to his two-guitar-man gig last night. Matt has taken to playing about once a month with Chicago guitar ace Brian Willkie at whatever bar will let them in, I think. (Actually, usually Finley Dunne's in the Wrigleyville area of Chicago.) Brian is one hell of a guitar player, a master of all styles, including the rockabilly influenced style that is in Matt's sweet spot. Matt sings and plays guitar, too. He has studied under the careful tutelage of Jamey Aebersold, I believe.

In any event, that has become something of a monthly thing for Matt. I've been playing with Matt (through and with my sax-a-ma-phone pal Neal Connors) for 10 years plus now. Matt has been working the six-piece full-on horn section bar band for all that time. He loves it, but it is a ton of work for him, corralling all us crazy players. It allows him to do a bunch of material he truly loves to do in a way that is very satisfying. Who wouldn't want to do Sweet Caroline with a horn section and all the trimmings? (OK, some of the trimmings.) But make no mistake, it's a slog, and it happens once every two months at best, and at times Matt decides to (or has to) take a break for half a year or better. All of that is frustrating for him, I can imagine.

But I think Matt started doing these two-man things to scratch his performing itch--fun for him, way easy for him compared to a six-person group, way less pressure to bring out a crowd, way less pressure to get good comp for the band members (Matt never takes any pay himself), likes to hang and play with Willkie (or their mutual buddy, Stevie Doyle). And I think he loves it.

Just the way I love doing my Sunday blues band. Easy, no-brainer in terms of scheduling, set-up and the rest. I love playing Wayne Shorter tunes with a full-on Miles Davis style jazz quintet, but the blues band thing is so cool and easy, I just embraced it, the way it sounds like Matt is embracing his two-man thing.

And things have a way of morphing anyway--the blues band has become a little hang for the jazz musicians in town. Last weekend, we played So What with the base band, as well as a blistering Red Clay with our good friend David Certain kicking our butts on bass. And absolutely smoking versions of The Jody Grind and Blue Bossa with John Farrar and Darryl Mixon sitting in--both the best versions of those tunes I think I've been a part of in my life, anywhere, anytime. And Matt similarly I think has quite a crowd of friends, sit-ins coming by his two-man thing. Both things are a "scene"--hence, the title of the blog: like Ray Sasaki's exhortation years ago--when you've got a chance to create a scene, do it.

My point is, it seems you can spend years picking at something or other, trying to make it work, which is a good, worthwhile and necessary thing. But then, seemingly out of nowhere, but related to that effort, there's another little thing that comes up, that you may ignore for a while, but it keeps presenting itself, insisting on itself, "Try ME!!" And you do, and that little thing turns out to be just the thing.

And you love it.

Memphis Madness

In the fall of 2006, my friend Matt Farmer called with an improbable boondoggle: grab your horn, we're all going to hang out in Memphis in the Sam Phillips Recording Studio (Sam's next studio after Sun Records--they recorded Mr. Bojangles and Son of a Preacher Man there, among others) while a CD is being cut. Matt's good friend Mark Morse had hired a working rockabilly band (Rockin' Billy & the Wild Coyotes) and decided to cut a CD. They were the real deal (and so was the production team), complete with pompadours and multiple tattoos, and grabbed Neal and me when we came in ("The horn section's here!!"). While they didn't need us on much (maybe less than they imagined after they heard us play), we did make it on to one track (guess which one when you read the tunes). If you want a copy of the CD, Top Dead Center, go to CD Universe (online):

http://www.cduniverse.com/search/xx/music/pid/7606990/a/Top+Dead+Center.htm

It's really a fun rockabilly CD! My favorite cuts are "Ain't No Grave (Gonna Hold My Body Down)" and "Shake Your Hips."

P.S., Matt tells me that's a picture of Billy Favata (the slap bassist and one of the "Wild Coyotes") whose likeness appears on the CD cover.

Blog Mania

Faithful readers,

I want to encourage you to visit (and mark as a favorite) Matt Farmer's blog on the Blue State Cowboys: http://www.bluestatecowboys.blogspot.com/. The Blue State Cowboys is Matt's eclectic, semi-regular cover band. I've been gigging with Matt and the BSC for nearly 10 years now, since August/September 1998. We've had some very interesting gigs (Japan, Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland, not to mention several taverns within easy walking distance of Matt's house).

I came to the band (then the Redstreaks) through my saxophone playing buddy, Neal Connors, who went to high school in Chicago with Matt. Neal and I had met in the jazz program at the University of Illinois in the early/mid-80s, then reconnected later in life. He asked in '98 if I wanted to go up a play a gig with him in a cover band in Chicago (he really thought I might say no). On the drive up I learned the songs (let's say I listened to a tape of the songs on the way) and also learned that the band was doing a demo recording that day to send to get a gig on the military base in Iwakuni, Japan. When we walked into the studio and Neal introduced me to Matt and the fellas (basically as my buddy Rob, he plays the trumpet), it was an interesting scene. Mildly pleasant hellos (not unfriendly mind you, simply not effusive), mostly silence (all warm-up ceased) and a series of whispered conversations between Neal and Matt and furtive glances my way from Matt. I asked Neal if he had told anyone he was bringing me, and he said "not so much". When they heard I could play a little, there was a palpable look of relief from the band. By the end of the night (we had a gig at Gamekeepers, a neighborhood bar, later than evening), I was a full-fledged member of the band. The rest has been history.

One of our most memorable gigs was at a tiny tiny bar in Hiroshima (the Jacara club), where Candy Dulfer had once played (her posters were up everywhere). They opened the bar up for us (I think it was a Sunday), and had other bands in. We were treated like American rock stars and shown a great deal of love and respect. We looked smugly to ourselves when an all-Japanese blues band on the bill got up to play, then had those grins wiped off our faces when they launched into their set. A few bands later (including an incredible acoustic set by a singer and two percussionists doing American pop tunes) John Tully and Mike "Waldo" Walsh whispered to me, "We're the worst band here tonight." And they were right.

Thanks for the memories, Matt and Neal.

Blue State Cowboys tear up Chi-Town

Well, I participated in what has now become something of an annual ritual--goin' to Chicago at Thanksgiving. I've played music with my buddies Neal Connors and Matt Farmer for nearly 10 years running now. Matt, our fearless leader, has traditionally gotten together a date for this band (the "Blue State Cowboys"--more on the name later) on the Wednesday night before Turkey Day, which Matt tells me has traditionally been a huge tavern night in Chicago. So we played a nice little 3 and half hour set at Finley Dunne's in Wrigleyville.

Matt is a Chicago lawyer who knows more about 20th century popular music than any person I've ever met, from jazz to soul to blues to country. I met him through Neal (they went to high school together). Matt is the sweat behind the group, and we play a truly eclectic setlist from Sweet Caroline to Take a Letter Maria to Ring of Fire (before it was cool) to Ice Ice Baby (at least in the olden days). One special treat this time was that Matt pulled in Brian Wilkie on guitar (both the Telecaster and pedal steel). I knew of Brian, but had never played with him (he and Neal used to do some jazz gigs in Champaign in the 80s). Brian sounded fantastic--a pleasure to play with someone of that calibur and who can really nail a variety of styles.

I drove up (flying is just not that much faster for a trip from St. Louis), and it was a brutal drive on the way up--a little weather mixed in with about 5 hours of conference calls (ugh), but going back was a snap. But a very worthwhile gig, and we hope to play with this configuration again. Got a chance to stay over with Matt and his lovely wife Lisa, who are always very hospitable, and their charming daughter Samantha. I love hanging with Matt--he always has something interesting to share on the musical front, usually a new DVD or recording that he has gotten that he can't wait to share (this time is was a tape of Solomon Burke's band with a buddy of Matt's in the band (a Chicago-lawyer/trumpet player), a DVD of a 1967 concert of the famous Stax line-up (Otis Redding, Sam & Dave, Booker T and the M.G.s) and his new 8-CD box set of Joe Henderson sides). Matt handed me two new jazz CDs on the way out the door--he's got so much music around (he says he's in and out of CD clubs all the time) that he just happened to have a couple extra copies of some classic Miles Davis and Hank Mobley CDs--fantastic listening on the way back to St. Louis today.

Lots of other friends made it out, including various members of Neal's family (his wonderful mom Annie even trooped in from the 'burbs), good friends John Tully (bass) and Mike "Waldo" Walsh, who were members of an earlier incarnation of Matt's band. We have called ourselves the Redstreaks, Chatterbox, Sprung Rhythm, the Roach Farmers (when Joe Roach was in the band), and toyed with Spongebath and Electric Amish, although never booked a gig under those last two names. Also, Sharon from the Bryan Cave office in Chicago (who I had met once at a firm retreat) came and brought a friend.

Unfortunately, I missed my good friend Tim Green, a fine jazz pianist and bassist, but Tim and I had a nice long chat as I was driving home. Tim couldn't fathom a tavern gig that started before 9:00, but I'll catch Tim another time. If you haven't bought Tim's CDs or need to check him out, go to http://www.timgreenjazz.com/. Doesn't take much Green to get those CDs. (Plus, note that Brian Wilkie lends a hand to Tim on his second CD.)