Rockabilly - at age 73!

It was THE Premier Hillbilly, Rockabilly, and Bluegrass Festival for the Inland Empire, presented by Ruffneck Entertainment (thank YOU Darcie and Heather)! 2 Stages and over 20 Acts over 2 days! A few weeks ago, I was lucky enough to attend. Well, I made it to day two, anyway. The headliner was Wanda Jackson. You may ask, “Who?” I did. Then – with just a bit of research…wow!

Wanda Jackson is called The Queen of Rock n’ Roll, the 1^st Lady of Rockabilly, and credited as the 1^st female rock n’ roll singer. I have yet to talk to her about these names being placed on her, but I will.

She started early, around 1949 or so, winning a talent contest at the age of 12. This led to a daily show on a local radio station, KLPR. She was heard by Hank Thompson, and after graduating high school (which she insisted upon doing) soon was on tour, with a bill that included folks like – oh…Jerry Lee Lewis, Johnny Cash, Buddy Holly – all in the earliest stages of their career. Did I mention Elvis? She toured frequently with him, and it was he that encouraged her to sing rockabilly. She was also a cast member on ABC-TV’s Ozark Jubilee, in Springfield Missouri from 1955 to 1960. Here, credited as being the first to put glamour into country and western – the fringe, long earrings, etc. She was also innovative in recording – placing, say, a country song on one side of a 45, and a rockabilly number on the other.

It's easy enough to find video of Wanda. You’ll find classic country, with Queen for a Day, blues-based rock with Riot in Cell Block #9, rockabilly, jump blues, and boogie woogie rhythms, with Whole Lotta Shakin’ Goin’ On and Long Tall Sally (to name a few). She’ll introduce “…the most beautiful love song ever writtena love song, dedicated to all y’all…”, then launch into Hard-Headed Woman. Nice!

Jumping ahead some 48 years, and leaving out a few details, she was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of fame only last year, and also received a lifetime achievement award. Also – very recently - Jack White – of The White Stripes contacted her for a recording project. She said she didn’t listen to his stuff, but that didn’t matter. She was soon recording at his place in Nashville. You Know I’m No Good (ala Amy Winehouse) among other tunes to be released on a new album out in January 2011.

In the 80’s – my image of today's rockabilly looked like this:

As of a few weeks ago… 

Wanda Jackson is 73 – and got EVERYBODY on their feet! Thanks again to Darcie and Heather, Rick Dulock (from KVCR), and everyone else involved in making this a spectacular event!

Pappy & Harriet's Pioneertown Palace

So this started with me looking for live music on a Sunday evening. Several bands were relatively nearby, but I was getting a little bit picky, and almost hung it up for the evening (I’ve recently been spoiled by meeting a lot of people who I’ve put on the air for a bunch of years). Just when the evening almost boiled down to deciding what I needed from Lowes, my buddy Tom Bell told me about Pappy & Harriet’s, and we went online to check out the house band. We decided, “Eh, this could be good”. This was an incredible understatement.

Pioneertown is near Joshua Tree, making it ideal for visitors from Palm Springs, Redlands, 29 Palms, and anywhere in between. People from around the world come to this area. I mean - It's Joshua Tree. A lot of people even come to the area simply because of U2's album (it is a great album). From the website, "In 1946, Pioneertown was founded by a group of Hollywood investors with dreams of creating a living movie set -- an 1870's frontier town with facades for filming and interiors open to the public...Roy Rogers, Gene Autry, Russell Hayden, and the Sons of the Pioneers (for whom the town was named) were some of the original investors and personalities who helped build and invent Pioneertown. More than 50 films and several television shows were filmed in Pioneertown throughout the 1940's and 1950's." Pappy and Harriet's itself looks like something out of movie (or, two or three or...). There's good reason for this. At Pappy & Harriet’s, the floor is made up of rough-hewn old oak plank, and the walls are covered with posters and flyers of the many, many groups to have passed through. As soon as you walk in, it feels like a roadhouse. Don’t expect Patrick Swayze keeping order, with an occasional appearance by Sam Elliott. Here’s a mix of locals, college students, desert/mountain hippies, marines, and a few bikers. Everyone is there for the same purpose – to have a good time, have some good food, and experience some great music. The staff all have a cool aesthetic as well. This may be hard to put into words, but if ya go – you’ll understand. Maybe it's the tattoos, but maybe that's just me. It just feels like a hip crowd.

We timed the drive out well, and as the band got started as we settled in. Well, I should say that a few people on stage started playing. In essence -- one guitarist started pickin', another one started strummin', and the drummer started drummin'. Soon - before ya know it - two more guitarists are there - a bass as well. They all just slowly join in with what's going - giving a gradually thicker and thicker texture to what we were already enjoying. They launch into a few more numbers as yet another guitar or two show up, along with another percussionist. Somewhere between some Dylan and some (mostly) originals (and the band stopping to notice a new disco ball above them) I noticed that the guy partially blocking my view started playing the fiddle - later, keyboards. Turned out to be Bobby Furgo. You may find him on some of your Leonard Cohen discs. When some woman with a small guitar and a kalimba showed up - I thought it was some local hoping to play a bit. She was introduced to me later AS a local-yokel. Turned out to be Victoria Williams. She's been living in the area for the past thirteen years, and is there most Sunday nights. At some point, the band played Crazy Mary, and Tom leaned in to tell me they were covering Pearl Jam. I only found out later that this is a Victoria Williams tune. Pearl Jam covered HER. Another mainstay of the group is Tim Easton. I told him I knew his name, but didn’t know why. Hm. Coulda been his five albums. It also coulda been the fact that he’s been on World Café a few times, with another appearance slated for September. He gave me one of his discs, and it’s stayed in the cd player all day today. 

I don’t mean to take anything away from the other singers/players. The entire group is a veritable “who’s who” of players. At a cursory glance it may seem like a veritable “who’s that?” but if you dig just a bit, you find that even if you don’t know THESE folk – you know the people they’ve played with. Even today, people will just show up – with no warning. People like Ricki Lee Jones. People like Robert Plant. Others to make appearanes - Billy Corgan (of course there were pumpkins smashed that night), Dave Navarro, Cracker, Camper Van Beethoven...What IS this place?

4 ½ years ago, they kept one waitress on Sundays to handle the 3 tables that MIGHT be used. Today, Sunday Nights are popular in the area, and the place is packed. Not in an uncomfortable club scene kinda way, though. The tables are full, and the sand-covered beer garden area retains a comfortable sized crowd. It’s almost received some sort of cult status. It’s become a place where EVERY Sunday evening you can see a musical collective -- trading leads and supporting each other. Nice. They call it "church".

Earlier in the evening, as my friend Tom and I got there, we saw a guy with a guitar and amp walking up. I joked, "I guess the band hasn't started yet". This is a good time to mention that if you see a guy with a guitar walking up to a Pappy and Harriet's Sunday night gig - it doesn't necessarily mean the show hasn't started yet. It just means that there'll probably be 5 guitars that night. Or six. Or seven. Or...........

And all this because needed something to do when I got the date wrong on when I could go see Poncho Sanchez.

Smooth Jazz - in defense?

In defense of the musicians…but not the music, per se:

My wife was told by a friend, "Ah, smooth jazz early in the morning.” (I paraphrase)Technically speaking – we had it on really loud the night before while I was painting the kitchen. Priya was only making people AWARE of it the next morning, posting a link to a video OF it.

Thing was – it wasn’t “Smooth Jazz”. We’re talkin’ Compared to What?, via Les McCann and Eddie Harris (Montreux 1969). I was asked, “Um, Compared to What’s not Smooth Jazz – right?” (I’d had a relaxing morning up until that point.) She didn’t really think it fell into that category, but – better check, when accused. So this led to quite a discussion, trying to define this - this Smooth Jazz.

Smooth Jazz is a marketing ploy – a branding gimmick. That’s how it started out, anyway. It’s grown to become a format, though more and more stations are starting to veer away from it. With the format, it’s become a genre.  Yeah. NOT the other way around. What we’re really talking about is the lighter side of contemporary jazz. That’s what it was – though there has continued to be a synthesis and expansion.

Smooth Jazz as a type of music – Wikipedia says it’s also known as contemporary jazz. True enough that Smooth Jazz may be contemporary jazz, but contemporary jazz is not necessarily Smooth Jazz. Clear enough? The early roots of Smooth Jazz have jazz artists covering pop tunes, in an attempt to find some crossover success. This started to be blended in with 101 Strings, or other light, non-threatening (elevator) music which could be found on the easy-listening stations. Soon enough, a few stations took this, and the lighter side of some incredible fusion or other contemporary jazz groups, and tacked the word smooth in front. Some of the early groups? The Rippingtons, Fourplay, Spyro Gyra, The Yellowjackets, and Pieces of a Dream, among others. Later, folks like Norman Brown (one of my favorites), Candy Dulfer, Dave Koz, Boney James, and even Chick Corea were to be included. Mind you – these are not Smooth Jazz musicians per se, but rather musicians who have some of their music (often, the lighter, gentle side) played on Smooth Jazz stations. 

I’m rather thankful that the two Smooth Jazz stations  around where I live incorporate some funk, groove, and R&B as well. They’re good stations (The Wave, out of LA, and KJJZ in Palm Springs). I’m also thankful that some of the jazz festivals nearby, while occasionally branded as “Smooth”, have had some top talent on their bill. Two in particular – Grooves in the Grove, at La Quinta Resort and Spa in Palm Springs, and the Champagne Jazz Series put on by the Thornton Winery in Temecula. The latter was rather pricey, but again – top line performers.

Anybody who’s ever known me (in the context of jazz on the air) would be quite surprised to hear of me defending Smooth Jazz. Fine. I’m not. I’m simply defining it. I am however defending many of the players – and some of the stations – who are branded as such.

NPR and fundraising

I was going to call this “KVCR is My Source for Travel, but that title was already taken by a friend.  Please though, check out that blog.

Around a year and a half ago, a friend of mine was complaining (on facebook) that it was fundraising time at his local station. He wasn’t complaining about the fundraising pleas per se, but rather that one of the local hosts continually fumbled anything she wasn’t used to saying (I couldn't help but think of the PA announcer from M*A*S*H - the movie). One of his friends made that comment that she really hated all these people begging for money, and that this was the time she turns off the radio and gets all her favorite NPR shows via podcast. I jumped in to remind her that us “begging for money” (listener support) is a part of what even makes her little podcasts possible!

I went on to point out a lot of what NPR offers every day: in-depth news…going beyond the headlines or some flashy sound byte. The sound bytes are there, but they’re the type of sound that makes you think you’re, oh…sailing along a river…or running next to a tank in Afghanistan. Or in some jazz club or music festival somewhere. Only yesterday, Victor Wooten was on Talk of the Nation. He didn’t just talk about playing music…he was there bass in hand. We heard it…and experienced it. Long story short (too late), NPR and public radio bring you what you cannot get elsewhere on the dial. And you learn – whether you meant to or not.

It’s easy to pledge financial support to your local public radio station. And that’s just it – when I talk to people, or blog, about supporting public radio…that’s what I’m talking about. I’m not trying to drum up support for the station I work at (though you CAN make your pledge of support at kvcr.orghttp://kvcr.org/). I’m trying to convince people to support whatever public radio station they listen to. One dollar a week, 5 dollars a month…you decide how much. Any - any - amount can be spread out over a year.

The simple fact is that if everyone who listened gave – even only a dollar or two per year - we wouldn’t have to go on the air at all for these pesky little drives.

If you listen – thank you. If you’re a contributing member – at any level – thank you all the more. We really couldn’t do it without you…and you are why we’re here.

Make your thoughts known - here, and at your local station.

Grooves in the Grove - Jazz Series

Sitting on a large lawn among the citrus trees - with the Santa Rosa mountains behind you.

photo taken from the La Quinta Resort and Club website

This is the setting for a new jazz series, Grooves in the Grove - presented by La Quinta Resort & Club in Palm Springs. Cool!

They’ve lined up top performers from around the country, with influences from all over. Several of the musicians fall into the smooth jazz category, but if that’s not your thing, don’t let it keep you away. A lot of raw talent in everyone on the bill, and believe me – they’ll be going beyond the quiet, easy to listen to drive that some smooth jazz stations prefer (thankfully, the “smooth jazz” stations around where I live go beyond this middle of the road, non-threatening form). The folks in this lineup are musicians. They’ll be bringing jazz. And Improvisation. And Feeling. There’s plenty of funk and fusion on the bill as well. Groups like Hiroshima (jamming since 1974), Greg Adams & East Bay Soul, and Jeff Lorber Fusion with Eric Marienthal. I regret missing the first show, which featured Michael Paulo and Rick Braun (but unless I’m mistaken, Paulo at least will be back with the East Bay Soul guys). With the exception of November 12^th, the series continues Fridays through November 26^th, and it’s quite reasonably priced – something I can’t usually talk about on the air. I’ll be going to at least a few of these shows, and thanks to all involved for helping me to get interviews lined up.

Go to the La Quinta website for the specific lineup. Again – it’s a good one, with guitarists Marc Antoine and Paul Brown this coming Friday, and Hiroshima next Friday. While you’re at the site, there are tabs for you to get a sampling of the music of the artists. Don’t stop there, though. You’re already online, so it’s not gonna take much more to go to the websites for each musician or group. Some have interesting bios, and hearing more of their music and knowing a bit more about them might get you to what promises to be a great new jazz series.

This blog may not do much for readers in Kentucky, Houston, or say - Buenos Aires, but if you're in the Southern California area - it'd be worth stopping by. As the La Quinta folks have said - "It’ll be a great way to end the week – and start the weekend."

If anyone makes it to any of these performances, let me know.


Also - what's your favorite music festival experience?