Beautiful Darlings

It’s been 50 years since Bob Dylan released his iconic album, Blonde on Blonde. As a tribute, Old Crow Medicine Show decided to pay homage to their hero by recording covers of all his songs from that album, and going on tour.

On May 10th, they played at the Moore Theater in Seattle, Washington. I had the privilege of going to that concert and sitting 5 rows from the stage. Let me tell you, I was expecting a great show, but this one was beyond great. I start by saying that these are some of the most talented guys I’ve ever seen. They’re all multi-instrumentalists and it was fun seeing them bounce around on stage changing to drums, keys, guitar, fiddle, banjo and taking turns singing songs. Even after 19 years of being a group, you could sense their love for one another and the joy they have for performing. You could sense their love for Dylan too. The band encouraged everyone to get out of their seats and into the isles and crowd around the stage. People were up on their feet dancing and singing and having a great time. There was a definite connection between the audience and the band, which is so rare these days. In Seattle, nobody dances. A typical Seattle concert is just a bunch of people slightly bobbing their heads. You’re there to have a good time and everyone at the Moore surely was having the best time.

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They opened with “Rainy Day Women” a/k/a “Everybody Must Get Stoned” and ended on an amazing Americana version of “Knocking on Heaven’s Door” with an amazing harmonica solo. They came back for an encore that ended on one of Bob’s songs that made them famous,”Wagon Wheel”. The crowd was dancing and singing and even took the lead on the chorus for the closing song. It’s a song I know really well, as I have covered it on my own and on fiddle with a band. So I guess I covered a cover of a cover?… Getting back to on task here, what makes a great concert for me is when there is a bond between the performers and the audience. There was a definite connection between the two. It was a call and response. They played the music and the audience soaked it in, sang and danced.

My final revelation after finally seeing this band live; If you ever get a chance to see Old Crow Medicine Show, even if you’re not a huge country music/Bluegrass fan, just go! Seriously, go! You’ll have a great time and you may just even dance.

Music has been something that’s been a part of me since the day I was born. It’s always come very natural to me. Having the ability to just pick up any instrument and play it is pretty cool and it’s been something I thought everyone could do until I realized it wasn’t. I never really thought of it as a gift as much as I see it as a means to communicate how I’m feeling. For me, it’s sometimes the only way I can really express myself or let go of unwanted feelings. Music really is the best medicine for me. Like Bruce Dickinson (a/k/a Christopher Walker) said on SNL, “I have a fever and the only prescription is more cowbell), that is how I feel about music in it’s entirety. Not just cowbell, but all of it. I simply need more. For me, there has been a lot of self discovery through music. Most of the time it can be an out of body experience. I like to channel that creative energy and turn it into something amazing.

Last year, I decided to do a project where I recorded music that was all improvised. I gave myself 15 minutes total to record each part in one take. This is the result:

Strong Man

This song was inspired by listening to a lot of Iggy and the Stooges and PJ Harvey. I was thinking about what it would be like if they were to collaborate. I decided to take it on. Again, I just picked up the guitar and played whatever came to mind in one take. Same with the bass. I basically just made the lyrics up as I went, like with pretty much every improv project I do. That’s what makes it improv, right?

What Would You Do If I Told You I Loved You?

At this time, I had been seeing someone for about 4 months and the dynamics of our relationship were starting to change. I was feeling a lot of unsure feelings, mixed with complete joy and love. I sat down at my piano, pressed record on the voice memo on my phone and just let out my feelings organically.

Paul is “The cute one!”, John is “The rebellious one”, George is “The quiet one” and Ringo, says, “I’m not a mod or a rocker, I’m a mocker!” So many different personalities make up this group and because of that, I feel that’s what lead to their success and survival as a band over their decade together.

The Beatles came to America in 1964,  nine years before I was born. When I look at it that way, it doesn’t seem that long, long ago. In 1973, they were still thriving and making music, only separately. George put out “Living in a Material World”, Ringo released his third solo album called “Ringo”, Paul was in a band with his wife, Linda, called Wings while John had just released his solo album, “Mind Games”.  I am sad that I never got the chance to actually witness Beatlemania for myself. It looked like such a fun and exciting time for music, however, their legacy continues and the music goes on.

Regardless, The Beatles music has been such an inspiration to so many musician and songwriters of every generation. They were so versatile in what they did. One of the things  I love most about the Beatles is that they all contributed to song writing and were all muti-instrumentalists who took chances, that includes Ringo on vocals. It felt as if they were making music for themselves and just shared it with the world because they loved the people in it. To me, as a musicians, that’s what it should be about, freedom to express yourself without worrying what others think of you. Just doing music because that’s what you love to do.

Whether you are happy or sad, The Beatles have a song that will touch your soul and make you feel even better. For me, that’s Strawberry Fields Forever.

In 1970, they may have had their last public concert together on the roof of Apple Records, but if there’s one thing for certain, the Beatles have never let me down. What a way to go out.

 

Music is powerful. It moves us. It is the one thing that speaks to every single being on this planet which allows us to express our emotions to help us comprehend the meaning  of our lives. It’s an artistic expression which can be personal and it’s the language we can all understand. However, like with any language, we are not all fluent in all of them. Same is true with music. When we speak about music, we typically speak about what we know. Just like when we speak in the language we are fluent in. There’s a term, musical fluency. Basically, it is the ability to comprehend the musical elements, concepts and structure of a piece of music. When you can do that, understand the music, it speaks to you even more than it did before. It becomes more personal. You feel the emotion behind the piece and it draws you in a little more every time you hear it. You connect with the artist. With their vision and most importantly, you broaden your mind to new experiences. I am a firm believer that music really does makes the world go round. It’s the one thing that unites us all. The concept of a “World Tour” proves that to be evident. We might not know what they’re saying, but the music alone is enough to get us interested. For me, Sigur Ros is a good example of that. I have no idea what they’re talking about, in fact, most of it is just Icelandic gibberish, which shows it’s mostly about the music itself rather than the meaning of the words.

A little background on myself. I have been immersed in music my whole almost 43 years. I started playing piano when I was three years old. I picked up violin when I was six years old. Bass guitar at age 13 and a late bloomer on the guitar at 23. I am self taught on piano, but had my musical theory and formal violin lessons from the age of six. My violin has taken me on quite the life journey. Youth Symphonies and competitions, leading to symphonies, session/studio work and playing in bands. The thing I love about playing music is that I don’t just settle for one genre. I like the challenge of learning something new, which includes working with different artists and I feel this has expanded my musical palette. Whether it’s sitting in the studio at KEXP playing David Bowie covers on the air, or playing bass. keys and fiddle with an Americana band, sitting on stage with the Seattle Rock Orchestra at the Moore Theater or the Triple Door, Playing Verde’s Rigoletto with the Seattle Opera, Blues guitar with the guys at the Jam Box just for fun, maybe some death metal violin… I love it all. It’s all great. It’s all great because I grew up listening to David Bowie, Folk/Bluegrass (Americana), Classical, the Blues and Death Metal. They’re genres I’m fluent in. When I was younger, the one genre, however, that I could not get into was jazz. I just didn’t understand the timing, the dissonance, the key changes. It just didn’t make sense to me. I was in the jazz choir in High School, so I understood the classics, Ella Fitgerald, Billie Holiday, Cab Calloway and Louis Armstrong to name a few, but the more modern Jazz, I just didn’t get that stuff; That was until I met my friend, Jeff. Jeff was a professional jazz drummer. I spent a summer just hanging out with him and jazz class was in session. I was about to get schooled. We would lay on the floor and listen to records. The first jazz album he turned me onto was Miles Davis – A Kind of Blue. He broke it down in segments, taught me about all the musicians and the more I knew, the more I could understand the math, the theory and the emotions behind it. The more I understood the different branches of jazz, the time period, the musicians, the more I grew to appreciate it. It turned me on to Bill Evans, Cannonball Adderley, John Coltrane… I felt like a little piece of my mind opened up a little more, just when I didn’t think it was possible.

I could keep writing this article, but what I really want to do is get to the point. Yes, this is about how I expanded my musical appreciation through discovery and understanding of something that I didn’t really understand. It seems with anything, if you don’t understand it, you just stick within your comfort zone and stick with the things you do understand. I encourage you all to step outside of your comfort zone. Educate yourself on something you’re not sure of. Not just music, but anything. Expanding your mind through education, research and having the willpower to want to know more. I won’t get into a political rant, but I will… Yes, this world is full of close minded people who would rather be followers than be an individual, and I find that very disheartening. It’s lazy. It’s irresponsible when we’re all born with potential to be something great. Knowledge truly is power. It will not only help you benefit in the world, but it will most importantly help you benefit as an individual, which is something this planet needs more of. The first step I encourage you to take is to step out of your comfort zone. Listen to a piece of music you normally would not listen to. Research the artist, research the timeframe it was recorded, research the musicians and once you do that, find other artists in that genre. Expanding your musical palette expands your mind and in turn, will make you more accepting of the world.