I recently took a trip down to Todaro's Music to see what cool instruments Joe had gotten in. The first thing I took a look at were the ukuleles. Joe had a bunch of cool ukes in. First up is the T.V. Pal.
The T.V. Pal uke is a plastic uke from the 1950s. Some of these ukes have a great sound, plus they look cool. This one has a nice marbled look in the plastic.
Next up is an early mainland uke. I couldn't make out a name from what's left of the label, but it has all of the signs that it's an early uke made on the mainland, probably by one of the big Chicago makers, Regal, Kay Harmony... I don't know for sure, but I really like the looks of these ukes.
Next up are some new ukes that Joe carries, here are some Makai, Diamond Head and Lanaiki ukes. Really nice looking, nice sounding ukes.
Check out the binding on this Makai. (check out that Koto in the background.)
Here are some of the Todaro Ukes that Joe has made for him. I have one of the early ones, and they are great sounding ukes. The new ones are looking and sounding even better.
These are all from the Sweetheart design of Todaro Ukes, or Akuleles.
While I was there, he also had a large shipment of charangos just in from Bolivia.
If you're not familiar with the charango, it's a Latin American instrument that is similar to the ukulele. It's strung with double courses and tuned like the ukulele g c e a with an extra set of e's on the top. (so its g c e a e) It's reentrant in the middle set of e's with a high and low e. If you play the uke or guitar, you owe it to yourself to checkout the charango.
That's it for now, I'll have more on Todaro's Music in the next post.
Which is as you would guess is a look into the “rivalry” of
the Beatles and the Stones. This has always been one of those false dichotomy
/artificial construct questions that is supposed to mean something, Beatles or
Stones? Flintstones or Jetsons? Ginger or Mary Ann? Star Trek or Star Wars? but
which mean nothing. Sort of like all of those stupid quizzes on facewastebook…What
cocktail are you… which punk icon are you… what house should you live in…what
FRIENDS character are you… what Disney Princess are you? gimmie a break!!! As I
was saying the book details the supposed rivalry of the two groups, how the
Beatles were all cutesy and the Stones were all tough. Which, as the author
points out, was the image developed by the managers, Brian Epstein and Andrew
Loog Oldham, and that actually, the Beatles all grew up as working class
troublemakers, and the Stones were very much middle class good boys, or as the
author puts it, “Gentlemen or Thugs?” If you look at the early pictures of the
Beatles, or know of the stories of their time in Hamburg, this is readily
apparent.
When
the Stones formed, Oldham originally wanted them to dress up and look nice,
but then
realized that by making the Stones look dirty and tough (much like the way the
Beatles looked in Hamburg), and by playing up the rivalry, they would stand
out. The image that the groups developed was based on how to gain popularity.
Without the Beatles paving the way for “pop” groups, the Stones would never
have developed their image as the antithesis of the Beatles.
Now let’s talk about the “rivalry.” By the time the Stones
came out, the Beatles had already “made it”. The Beatles already had hit
records and were in no way threatened by the success of other bands, as seen in
the book when the Beatles are asked about the Dave Clark Five. Also, there was
a connection between the bands’ managers. Oldham had briefly worked for Epstein
and actually used this fact to further his career and that of the Stones.
Besides that, the Beatles gave “I Wanna be your Man”
to the Stones to record, and later
sang backing vocals on the Stones song “We Love You.”
Not to mention that Mick was
at the broadcast of “All you Need is Love,” (see Mick at 2:37)
or that John Lennon and Keith
Richards performed together on the Rolling Stones “Rock and Roll Circus” as The
Dirty Mac (along with Eric Clapton and Mitch Mitchell).
Members of the Beatles and
the Stones often said that there was no rivalry and that they were friends, but
they did have an “artistic rivalry.” John Lennon stated several times, that
anything the Beatles did, the Stones did two months later. But you have to
remember, that anything the Beatles did, every
group did several months later. The Beatles were very much trendsetters in
that time and space.
To sum it up, it’s a good quick read on both the Beatles and
the Stones. If you’ve read anything on either group, including Keith Richards’ book,
“Life,” or any of the numerous books about the Beatles, you’ve probably come
across most of these stories, but it’s good to have them all in one place.
As for Beatles or Stones, I have to say that I am on the
Beatles side, mostly because they paved the way for later bands, and also
because of their creativity and the strength of their material. But that’s not
entirely true. Although I prefer the Beatles over the 1960’s era Stones, The
1970s were when the Stones really hit their stride, and much of the material
from “Beggars Banquet” through Goats Head Soup is top-notch. Maybe this is
because they no longer had to follow what the Beatles were doing, or because
they grew into their image and songwriting, or when you think about it, the
Beatles were together from 1957 (approx.) until they hit it big in 1962—that’s six
years. The Stones formed in 1962 (approx.) and didn’t hit their stride until
1968…that’s six years…hmmm.
But as I said, this whole Beatles/Stones is a false
dichotomy. What about all of the other groups? The Who? The Kinks? The Small
Faces? The Yardbirds? The Animals? And so on…If you ask my friend Paul this Beatles
or Stones question, he’d say “The Who.” He has said that pound for pound, The
Who are the Best Rock Group (or something like that…if you read this Paul, post
it in the comments)
But of course there are people who don’t like either band, and
then there’s this little dig from David Bowie as performed by Mott the Hoople:
“And my brother's back at home with his Beatles and his Stones We never got it off on that revolution stuff What a drag too many snags”
So who do you choose?
(Disclaimer - I do not own the right to any photos or videos posted here)
Okay so it's Valentine's Day today, but the song that came to my mind has nothing to do with love or any of that mushy stuff... more like slushy stuff...The first line of this song kept going through my head as I spent the morning out shoveling snow.... I'm a snowplow...I must now plow on...
Well, we 're snowed in here in PA., so I'm listening to some Dr. John to warm up. I just picked up the Dr. John Original Album Series, so I'm all set. This set contains five of the good Doctor's early albums: Gris -Gris, Babylon, The Sun Moon & Herbs, Dr. John's Gumbo, and In The Right Place. You can't beat some of that New Orleans funk to warm you up on a cold snowy day.
I don't see as many concerts as I did when I was younger, but I do try to go to as many as I can... when I can afford them. When my wife and I heard that John Hiatt and Lyle Lovett where coming to town and performing together, well we just had to go. We had seen John Hiatt and Lyle Lovett a couple of times back in the 1990s, but hadn't had the chance to seem them since. The last album of Hiatt's that I had purchased was Crossing Muddy Water from way back in 2000, and the last Lovett album that I bought was Live In Texas from 1999. Since John had put out eight more albums, and Lyle five since then, I was a little concerned that I wouldn't know any of the songs. I shouldn't have worried, the show was great, consisting mostly of their best known songs. The show was just the two of them sitting on stage, trading songs. John would play one, and then Lyle would. In between there was some banter back and forth. My wife felt the banter was the best part of the show. Usually Lyle would start out by asking John about the song he had just played, or by saying "Oh, were doing love songs now? Is this a theme show?" or "Did you ever write a song off an idea that someone gave you?" Although most of their songs were played separately, they did collaborate on some, such as Church and Thing Called Love, mostly John adding vocals or guitar leads to Lyle's songs, although Lyle did add vocals to some of John's songs, at one point in the show Lyle said that John was working harder than he was by playing on more of Lyle's songs than vice versa. Unfortunately cameras weren't allowed in the hall, so I didn't get any footage, but here's some video from other shows.
If I Had A Boat
Thing Called Love
Although the show was fantastic, there were a couple of things that I think would have made it a better show, one is that I wish they had done more songs together, the other I didn't realize until I looked for videos on line and saw that Joe Ely had done some shows with them. Man I would have loved to have seen that. The only time I saw Joe Ely was with the Flatlanders , back in 2002.
Drive South - A nice little bit of information John gave is that for Drive South, he tunes his G string down to E for this song.
My Baby Don't Tolerate
Have a Little Faith
And although Joe Ely wasn't at the show, I just have to add this.
Me and Billy the Kid
If you get a chance to see these guys together, I highly recommend that you go see them.
So after getting the boys on the bus, I went back to sleep. (One of the perks of not working), and when I woke up, I had been dreaming about Husker Du. The strange thing about this is that I haven't listened to or though about Husker Du for months...maybe even years. I tend to think that dreams are made up of junk floating around in the subconscious, but I don't know where this dream came from because as I said, I hadn't been listening to or thinking about Husker Du. For example, the day before I had been listening to Charley Patton and John Prine, with a little David Bromberg at the end of the day. The day before that, my wife was whistling Donna Summer's song On the Radio. (Which was actually the song going through my head as I was getting the boys ready for school.) So no Husker Du.
But anyway, the dream was soft of like this, I was sitting at a cafe or maybe a school lunch table, and saw a flyer talking about all this cool stuff you could get for 7 bucks; forgotten videos, secret interviews, lessons and more...all about Husker Du...weird...
So maybe it was a sign for me to post something about Husker Du. As I may have said before, in the 1980s, the Huskers were one of my favorite bands. I only got to see them once, for the Warehouse tour, but I sure listened to them a lot, I mean, I had even silkscreened t-shirts and my jean jacket with their logo...so here are some favorite songs.
Makes No Sense At All
Don't Want To Know If You Are Lonely
Eight Miles High
Green Eyes
In college, I remember hearing that they were going to be on the Late Show, and staying up late to watch it on a crappy little TV. (This was before colleges had cable in the rooms, not to mention internet) Back then it was kind of strange for them to be on national TV, so this was something of an event.
How about a little reunion, probably the only one we'll ever see.
and lastly one of my favorites.., All Work And No Play
Maybe my brain was trying to tell me to dust off the old vinyl, tapes and cds and give them a listen. So thanks subconscious for the chance to revisit some favorite music, and thanks Bob, Grant and Greg for the music in the first place.
A jazz musician is someone who puts a $5,000 horn in a $500 car and drives 50 miles for $5 gig.
Now, I'm by no means a jazz musician, but that's the joke that was going through my head as I drove the 12 plus hours out to Milwaukee to play at John Paul Spencer's Album Release. If you have read this blog previously, you may remember in 2012, when we went to Georgia to record what would become the album, which you can now purchase here http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/johnpaulspencer .
The gig was at the Tonic Tavern, which was a nice space to play.
Opening for J.P. Spencer, was his friend Eric, who goes by the name E is for Epic. He played a great set on both 12 and 6 string guitars.
E is for Epic
After E is for Epic, we went on, and played a set consisting of J.P.'s songs and some covers of Richard Thompson, Camper Van Beethoven, Van Morrison and others. Check out the videos at the link below. (I've been having computer issues, and can't load videos directly , but this sort of works.) The link goes to a Picasaweb page, and has two videos of E is for Epic, a couple of pics and two videos of J.P. Spencer. (the last video is approx. 30 minutes.) Also playing with us were J.P.'s friends Martin and Leigh Ann. If you have any problems seeing the video, send me a comment. I hope you enjoy the videos.
