Music Before the Money

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Playing the blues is a lot like learning the piano. It’s easy to get a few chords to play a song but it takes years of playing to get good. And in the case of the blues it is getting into the soul of Howlin’ Wolf, B.B. King and the rest of the Delta men who took the Illinois Central up the Mississippi to Chicago so long ago.

Dave Goyetche’s self-titled album hits the mark in being a really good blues album. The slide guitar work, played by Goyetche on a metal-top Dobro, is great and mixes well with the acoustic guitar and drums. Gratefully, he and his co-producer, Charlie McNamara, never fall into the trap of drowning the music in the depths of effects.

Most music reviewers usually judge an album from what has gone on before mixed with personal preferences. This is to give the print readers a taste of the songs before they actually hear them. That said, “Ain’t No Need of Crying” could be included in a Van Morrison compilation. Goyetche even gets Morrison’s whine right and may not even know he’s doing it.

The octave voicing in “Dreamin’ About the Blues” reminds me of the Rolling Stones’ “It’s only Rock and Rock.” The Stones were probably copying Howlin’ Wolf but Goyetche gets the connection between Robert Johnson and the modern blues players in his great lyrics. The walking bass in the chorus changes up the feeling and moves it back in an easy motion.

With “Rolling On” the lonely guitars and sad voicing are front and center. In fact for a moment I think he’s going to break into the chorus of “Oh Black Water” by the Doobie Brothers. Since this is a train song convention would dictate that a harmonica mimic the whistle or, like Johnny Cash, the guitar beat copying the train wheels. The simple slide notes fill in those areas quite nicely.

“Fools’ Gospel” could be sung by an actual small church choir. The resolution of the opening chords is quite vivid. He changes the feel with a groove mixed with repentant lyrical content, a man begging for forgiveness.

“Robot Butcher” is Goyetche letting out his “Inner Stevie Ray Vaughn.” It is a southern-rocker instrumental where he harmonizes slide solos. The tone is also different, like Leadbelly overdriving his old Sears Silvertone amp.

“Shine On (Life’s Too Short)” seems like a reprise of the first song with its overtones of Van Morrison. This does not mean it’s not a good song but it makes me think that Goyetche is preparing us for the end of the CD.

“Dartmouth Cove Breakdown” finishes off the album but is really short. In fact I didn’t know the CD was finished until I heard Sam Cooke singing “You Send Me” (The next CD in my jukebox).

I hope Dave Goyetche keeps writing and recording because his style does stand apart from the recent blues offerings on the radio and in the clubs. He’s got the voice that sounds like he has sung his songs in southern roadhouses and bowling alleys and, with his size, fought off unruly juke joint buffoons. However, unlike the great blues players of the 1930′s and 1940′s, I don’t think Dave packs a piece.

For more information go to his webpage: http://www.myspace.com/davegoyetche

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On May 4, l970 members of the Ohio National Guard fired into a crowd of Kent State University demonstrators, killing four and wounding nine Kent State students. The impact of the shootings was dramatic. The event triggered a nationwide student strike that forced hundreds of colleges and universities to close.

Before CNN and the internet there was evebning news shows and magazines, Walter Cronkite was the voice of a generation and his announcements included the assassinations of two Kennedy brothers and Martin Luther King as well as many space shots and moon landings. But the tone of his voice on May 4, 1970 was that of a dedicated journalist who was tired of breaking negative news about America such as body counts in Vietnam and how many Americans were killed in street riots in Watts. Because on that day at Kent State University Cronkite had to announce to the people of the United States that soldiers of their own country had not opened fire on the Viet Cong or other subversives, they had shot down middle-class, American college students.

The effect of this incident was felt by famous folk-rock musician Neil Young who went right into the studio with David Crosby, Graham Nash and Stephen Stills. In just a few takes they produced a song that both capped the era of the turbulent ’60′s and foretold the end of Richard Nixon’s government and the Vietnam War. The graphic picture in “Life” magazine that showed blood running into a drain from a dead student silenced many of the proponents of the Vietnam War and gave creedence to the peace movement.

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John Peter Mastrangelo was born on the Lower East Side of Manhattan on May 7, 1939 and went on to be a star singer in the three decades that defined rock and roll. On Wednesday, March 24th he passed away at the of 70 from cancer.

Mastrangelo was known as Johnny Maestro and his clear voice attained immortality in the words of “16 Candles” when he was the leader of the Crests.

“The Crests were a band of street kids from the Lower East Side, and quite a mix,” maestro once reported. “There were three blacks, one Puerto Rican, and I was the Eye-talian.” As most up-and- coming groups did in the 1950′s they performed at parties, hops and sang in the subway for coins in a hat. One day an impressed subway rider handed them a business card and that led to a successful audition and a subsequent record contract.

When the first 45 came out it featured “Beside You” as the A-side. However, the jocks flipped the side and hammered away at the teenage love song that has come to symbolize the 1950′s, “16 candles.”

But Maestro never stopped there. In 1968 Johnny teamed up with the Del-Satins and the Rhythm Method and the result was an amazing 11-piece band. Selling a band that size, a band member quipped:

“This is going to be difficult. We have 11 people. That’s hard to sell. It’s easier to sell the Brooklyn Bridge.” And that’s what the band was named.

Their break-out performance was on the Ed Sullivan Show later in 1968 where their blend of voices, rhythm and horns won then a huge fan base. Their hits included “Welcome Me Love,” “You’ll Never Walk Alone” and “Your Husband, My Wife.” However, it was Jimmy Webb’s “Worst That Could Happen” that epitomized Brooklyn Bridge.

But most of us baby Boomers remember “16 Candles” in the movie “American Graffiti.”

Watch it Here!

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On January 20, T-Mobile USA and Eric Clapton teamed up to promote a cell phone and it is now appearing in commercials around the T-Mobile’s world.

The hook is a Fender Stratocaster sunburst-finish design from the guitar that made Clapton famous and, conversely, was made a household name by him.

As for the mechanics the T-Mobile myTouch 3G Fender Edition has a 3.5mm headset jack and a 16GB MicroSD card. Another hook is that the unit will come loaded with Eric Clapton’s hit songs like “Wonderful Tonight,” “Layla,” “Rock ‘N’ Roll Heart” and “My Father’s Eyes.” There will also be other songs from stars such as Avril Lavigne, Wyclef Jean and Brad Paisley.

In addition, the phone will feature applications like Guitar: Solo and Musical Light, and a customized multimedia sync solution from doubleTwist, offering an intuitive interface for syncing and managing music as well as other media when linked with a Mac or a Windows PC.

The myTouch 3G Fender runs the Android 1.6 program but can be upgraded to Android 2.1 in a few months.

Many people having been posting negative comments about Clapton. The scuttlebutt is that Clapton is “selling out.” Well, sure he is. Everybody does. But at least Eric didn’t dress up in gambler’s outfit in his last tour or put out a cheesy Christmas record like Bob Dylan. And if he did, all the power to him. He’s Eric Clapton and he looks like he had fun making the commercial.

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Kate McGarrigle, one-half of the great Canadian folk duo, The McGarrigle Sisters, died on January 18th of sarcoma, a rare cancer that affects connective tissue such as bone, muscle, nerves and cartilage. Not only were they Canadian icons Kate was the mother of Rufus and Martha Wainwright, two impressive singer-songwriters.

The McGarrigle Sisters began their career in the coffee houses of Montreal in the early 1960′s. After leaving a folk group called The Mountain City Four their act was given a great bost when Lind Ronstadt used their song “Heart Like a Wheel” as the title song of her best-selling album of the same name in 1974. Other songs by the sisters were covered by Elvis Costello, Judy Collins, Emmy Lou Harris and Billy Bragg.

Their biggest Canadian hit came from a song by Wade Hemsworth called “The Log Driver’s Waltz.” This was later made into an animated feature by the National Film Board of Canada in 1979, a couple of years before videos became popular.

Later came a self-titled album that featured “The Work Song,” Cool River,” and “The Lying Song.” Although they were folk singers the McGarrigles drew their influences from all genres including rock which prevented them from being pigeon-holed in the music business.

Another attribute that the sisters had was that, although they were “Anglos,” they drew heavily from their French Canadian province and were popular in both cultures. Quebec Culture Minister said of them, “They were Anglos, in the middle of many people who were singing in French. And they were interested in singing to them in French, and to show to francophones in Quebec that English people were interested in Quebec culture, and our identity.

Kate McGarrigle was married to famous folk singer, Loudon Wainwright III famous for songs such as “Dead Skunk in the Middle of the Road.” In 1994 she was invested with the Order of Canada for her music and her contribution to Canadian heritage.