My new blog Dave's Basement Tracks is reviewing the inaugural release of The Calico Stray. tomorrow March 10th. While I can't add much more to the story, this type of story truly brings me back to this blogs mission of a variety show with new and continual entertainment. I'm pretty sure that with my upcoming retirement, I just might find stories that fit better over here, and some that fit both places.
As retirement nears, officially April 29th, I KNOW I'm going to find more time to listen to music and write. My routine of writing each morning on a word will start back up and likely the creative juices will be flowing again. If you are reading this post, you are in the infamous The Zemmy Show. A blog I created to be a variety show like say the infamous Johnny Cash show or the Prairie Home Companion.
The Zemmy Show ran for over 800 posts, with many twists and turns now Dave's Basement Tracks (that originally started as a radio show) is coming to the internet as a streamable blog of Bandcamp embedded links and YouTube videos. Each post will have a theme or make a good hour radio show; yet of course you are in control as you read and click on the links that interest you. Hope to see you there.
I have a friend, Jess, who is a much better blogger and writer than I, but heck she READS for a hobby. Feel free to follow her blog, but this post she shared on Facebook and got my music juices flowing again. Mixtape is right up my alley, and because my tastes never completely align with anyone's here's some phenomenal women songs she should add to her mix tape for 2016. (most were not released in 2016 but Jess this is the first year you likely heard them) First up has to be Natalie Gelman. I met her first at the Root Note after she had asked to play my house concert and I didn't have an open spot. Fast forward three years, and I made her 11th best fan list, and I've hosted her now.
If you have never heard of Sarah Jarosz, don't panic but she would be one artist I would love to get to the fest if we could afford it. The good news is that she seems to a favorite of Chris Thile and she's been on Prairie Home Companion more now. Her cover of Dylan is the best with the Transatlantic Sessions but they have seemed to have deleted that from YouTube.
Norah Rendell wins awards for her Celtic singing skills and here's one from our house concert that I put behind a Christmas tour. She and her husband played the night before.
Kelley McRae is an outstanding sensitive songwriter, but she can rock it a little when her hubby Matt gets cooking on that guitar. Kelly has played both my house concert and the Great River Folk Fest.
Barbara Jean has to make my list. Such a low key talent, she just slowly takes your heart away especially if you look into those beautiful eyes; but I wouldn't have booked her just because she's beautiful. She writes great songs, and here she is with her new group Dusty Heart.
HALFWAY through my ten songs.
If you scroll through this blog you will find I've been blogging a long long time, and met some of my favorite artists on MySpace before it died. Here's an upbeat one from one of the smartest woman I know (her day job is at MIT)
A dear MySpace friend who isn't touring at all anymore but her stuff should be out there to buy, Allison Sattinger. Back in 2009 she played my house concert, and I did this video to her song just for fun.
Scroll through the blog and again you will find Kendel Carson is one of my favorites. This is a duet but it was one of the first time I heard her sing. Being from Canada, she just doesn't get much publicity in the states but she is awesome. She's toured with Chip Taylor and has sung with my hero John Prine.
Oh my two left.. I'm going to leave off friends and favorites, but this one came to mind since you were looking for up beat. Jill Barber and her brother up in Canada are another great reason to move up north.
Ok I have to end on one you might have heard of, Jillian Rae. She's another talented soul that has played my house concert. Truly I get blessed by any honest hug from anyone I host, even if they are male. If you haven't seen this video, it was one that got me hooked on Jillian.
Ok like Spinal Tap, we need to take this to ELEVEN with Lindsay Lou
Again I was lucky enough to book this eclectic string band who is lead by Lindsay who grew up loving the wildly passionate Claudia Schmidt, this song is so much like something she would do:
Here's an idea for President Elect Trump, free of charge.
Being an accountant & marketer employed with a company who manufactures in the US and employs 600+ people; I both enjoy and do want to see America work more again. So drop the Corporate Tax reduction idea and be strategic with their reduction in tax relief. Let's take every $1 they spend on US wages for someone $100,000 or less count as $2 of tax reduction. This will allow companies to invest in PEOPLE, who will then spend money and pay for taxes. I would put one more caveat on it, I would make the incentive it only available for their employees that are eligible for Health Insurance.
My last House concert artist, Natalie Gelman, quickly departed for a European tour after the weekend in Wisconsin, Minnesota and Iowa. After a few days in London she headed to Portugal and the Madeira Film Festival. She is is such a rock star.
The festival not only featured great films, but tremendous artists in other media as well. American singer Natalie Gelman did a series of acoustic performances throughout the festival. Both sunny and soulful, Gelman sang a series of original songs, many of which are sure to become classics. She also sang a medley of covers such as a version of "One Fine Day" that was more tragic and moving than earlier versions by the Chiffons, Carole King, or Natalie Merchant. Her original song "Some People" ought to generate its own slew of covers. It is a classic in the making, capturing the essence of America and the globe's current "Gilded Age", with its chorus that "some people are so poor...all they have is money".
Gelman herself was touched by the festival, saying, "this is a film festival to go to if you want to be inspired. I have been to some of the largest film festivals like Sundance and Tribeca and I've been to quite a few small town film festivals - the Madeira Film Festival has the best of both worlds. Loads of talent like those larger festivals with the community and camaraderie of something you would find in a small town. "
Of course I loved the review because I had noted the same new song and have already covered it on YouTube, here's a blog post on it.
More photos of Natalie in that stunning blue dress from Astars Women's clothing.
At 300 and now back in Oct 2009, was my love for the Belleville Outfit. I find it so weird that I would find myself drifting away from their music only to find myself sitting at the Pump House in 2013 listening to a fiddle player someone recommended. It was Phoebe Hunt from the Belleville Outfit. Quickly I remembered why I loved their music.
Then I moved to another song I know from Ralph McTell that I learned from playing of Fred Holstein I did have to google the words again, but the music was like riding a bike.
Have you seen the old man
In the closed-down market
Kicking up the paper,
with his worn out shoes?
In his eyes you see no pride
Hand held loosely at his side
Yesterday's paper telling yesterday's news
So how can you tell me you're lonely,
And say for you that the sun don't shine?
Let me take you by the hand and lead you through the streets of London
I'll show you something to make you change your mind
A great song that I'm covering and you won't find anywhere yet... hoping Natalie Gelman puts out her own video. I'm looking forward to the CD she'll release with it. Natalie co-wrote the song with Charlie Midnight.
So a funny thing happened while I was practicing this at church waiting
for the Sunday School kids to come back up... some one moved from the
back of church to a pew behind me to hear it.. so I got to the where it
goes "you got a roof over your head..." and poof forgot the next line.
Obvious to me later, "you got a book you haven't read"... I haven't read
a book in about 15 years... ha
The song really does talk to the right kind of passion good Christians should have, so it's appropriate I was playing it in church... truly many get mixed up by what it means to walk in faith of God, Allah, or Jesus at times.
Back in the 80's I learned the melody and would murder a few of the verses, so I thought I should take the time to learn the song. It has always been a favorite; except that our river is 5 miles away, it reminds me a lot of our house.
Where I live there is a river, and it freezes with the cold
All except some open water ‘neath the bridge
And the ducks that gather there, black and red they fill the
air
Wingin’ in across the pines along the ridge
And in the early morning sun silver mare breaks on the run
Across the fields and out along the little streams
Movin’ like the winter wind beyond the fence and back again
She loves the time she’s smooth as anything I’ve seen
There’s a field of winter rye that smells sweet when it is
high
Whispers to you so you almost cannot hear
Shining like a satin sea beneath the moon when it is spring
It falls beneath the cutters blade, a little year.
There’s a tree that stands out back, waiting for the falling
axe
To split its rings and show it’s secrets deep inside.
Year’s of drought and little growth, Year’s of good it’s
seen them both
And Now it’s there and waiting only for the fire
There’s a truck that’s broken down, that I used to take to
town
Until the axel went and I left it there to die, I’ll get it
fixed I used to say
That was back before the day, things got busy and I never
had the time.
Where I live there is a road, that seen me come and seen me
go
Taken me so far I thought I lost my way, Back to where my
life is slow
Back to everything I know, back again to where that river
slips away.
Where I live there is a road, that seen me come and seen me
go
Taken me so far I thought I lost my way, Where I live there
is my heart
It won’t be long before I start, back again to where that
river slips away
It won’t be long before I start, back again to where that
river slips away
When I went to look for the chords and the lyrics of this song, first they put in more than you need and second most put in a verse about a Denver girl and leave out the Houston verse. Frankly I've never heard Rod sing the Denver version, so here are the words and chords in the video above:
A Bm E A
I have been a rover I have walked alone
Bm E A F#m
Hiked a hundred highways never found a home
C#m D Dm
Still in all I'm happy the reason is you see
A Bm D Dm A E A
Once in a while along the way love's been good to me
Bm E Bm E A F#m
There was a girl in Portland before the winter chill
C#m D E
We used to go out courtin' along October Hill
A F#m D Dm
She could laugh away the dark clouds cry away the snow
A Bm D Dm A E A
Seems like only yesterday down the road I go
Chorus
Bm E Bm E A F#m
There was a girl in Houston out where the hot winds blow
C#m D E
Why I had to leave her God Almighty knows
A F#m D Dm
She could take the long hot summer cool it with a sigh
A Bm D Dm A E A
Words have no more wisdom when it's time to say goodbye
written by Rod McKuen release on a Frank Sinatra LP "A Man Alone" (c) 1969 Almo Music
My favorite playlist lately to bring me out of any funk... a crazy mix of Christian and way not Christian music..... Ha I definitely resemble a Saint and Sinner..
We are back on the cliff overlooking another race of hugely paid for politicians bantering about how their side has all the answers... to that I say "Phhhhhtttt"
In most cases the answers are compromise and finding solutions that work within our government and bylaws. Here is my platform that will never get me elected...
I am unelectable:
1)I’d raise income tax rates gradually back to 25%
of Pre-Reagan days.Let’s not get crazy,
but the wealthy have been living in luxury on the rates that have dropped
dramatically.I would reduce their taxes
in other places, because taxes are best when they are targeted to influence
behavior.What is a child credit or a
donation credit to your church if not influencing behavior?
2)I’d TRIPLE the corporate tax deduction on the
bottom 80% of their workers pay.In
other words giving them an enormous tax credit on wages for all non-executive
salaries and wages. Hire more people in the US please.If you import, think of a domestic model
fast.Funded only if we do number 1).
3)I’d bring up Minimum wage gradually to $12.50 / hr.
but only if 2) was enacted.
4)For every $15.00 of Welfare, I would impose a
requirement of an hour of work at either a government, non-profit, or God
willing a church.Reported monthly, if
they don’t comply the Welfare is deferred until the put the time in an
accredited.Physical handicaps
deferments would need to be approved by Goodwill.If they can’t find a spot for them, I’ll be
amazed.If they can’t find a job,
governments should start cleaning up streets and building new parks like they
did during the New Deal era.
5)I would sanction government sponsored daycare
facilities or a credit that they have to pay with more hours at a rate of
$7.50. Hey it’s a tough life being a single parent so we should help, but it’s
no excuse. Guess what... one of the jobs available for #4 is #5, but they need training.
6)Dump Obamacare, and adopt Medicare for anyone
but rate based on need.For all the
Conservative banter on this, their 401k are loving every minute of it if they
have Insurance companies in their mix; and the Accountants are making a killing
on it trying to describe it.Simpler and
Medicare is a program that actually works.
7)Put in the pipeline, we need a disaster to make
any decent policies and we haven’t had a good oil spill that we haven’t been
able to clean up.
8)Modernize a few good nuclear plants, or better
yet build on one of our missile silos that we’re neglecting, cheapest energy
and least amount of carbon issues.
9)Legalize marijuana; we need the tax revenue; and
we could free up a lot of prison costs.Imprison any one shooting some one else; let’s keep this place
safe.You want to own an Uzi, fine just
don’t shoot someone with it.
10)Allow
Cities and States to charge a rate up to 25% of property tax allotments to
non-profit organizations for services rendered.Yes this might be a hardship to some, but it needs to be voted on
locally.There are many exploiting this loophole
and no one wants to talk about it because it’s in Southern states that could affect
their electability.
That’s enough… pretty sure I alienated enough
sacred cows not to get me elected, but boy this would change America for the
good.
For those of you who ran into this blog thinking that this was a music blog... think of this as satire.
Feel free to guess the artists on the Playlist I made for driving four hours over the holidays... this one gets you about half way there...
1 Yellow
2 The Lion
3 Hard Way Home
4 Dance the Blues Away
5 Cannonball
6 Rocky Boat
7 Paint My Life
8 Comeback Kid (That's My Dog)
9 Double Wide Trailer
10 Here and Heaven
11 Born In the Country
12 Rag and Bone
13 Till I'm Too Old To Die Young
14 Freckles
15 Flowered Dresses
16 Lay Down Your Weary Tune
17 Crossing The Water
18 Follow the Heron Home
19 Phantoms
20 When I look into your eyes
21 sail on white moon
22 Fall Down With You
23 Tree By The River
24 Furr
25 Achin' All the Time (Live)
26 Most the While
27 Old Man
28 Man In The Long Black Coat
29 The Storms Are on the Ocean - Aoi...
30 Home To Me (is Anywhere You Are) 31 Soul 32 Ain't No Reason 33 Fields of Illinois 34 Seeds 35 Raise Hell 36 Ring Them Bells 37 Share the Well 38 (ours Is A) Simple Faith 39 how can i keep from singing 40 My Sweet And Shiny Eyes
Have to really say I'm sorry... I have a lot to say about the great music I encountered in 2014, the Great River Folk Fest that I became chair of, and my love for hosting live music. So much to do though... wish me luck to find time, tell me that you read it and it might inspire me more.
Ah the second CD… at least from the purposes of organized
and ready for hand out.The first one
Gypsy Soul by Dave Zeman I dedicated a whole blog for and spent a couple years keeping it on iTunes. This one was started as a gift to a fine young friend leaving the place I work, but it also is kind of a point in time for me and what I've been doing the last few years. Many of the songs became the vocal tracks off my videos, but some I did putz with a little before they got into the folder of choice. Oh the folder of choice.... it still didn't get originals like Grace or an improved Blonde Attitude, nor covers I love to do like Way over in a Minor Key or Ring Them Bells... still many of hours of work and so little quiet time at home or maybe it's just focus.
Here are the liner notes:
1) This cd has to be given away because I truly don't own the copyrights to many of the songs, including my favorite and the first on the CD, Lady Mary Eyes. I song in which I took a beautiful song written by Janis Ian for Mary Black, and changed it to a song for Lady Mary Crawley from Downton Abbey. The instrumentation is two simple guitars, a bass and a harmonica, but it's the words I love. Janis wrote beautifully but my twists and the number of times I've sang them have put her version completely out of my head. I have loved Mary for a while... Ha.
2) Take the Dance slides in at number two. My original that my band mate Lynn has pushed me to play in every gig. Funny I've simplified the first verse and know that I sing it better than in the recording, but I still thought it was worthy. Now if Ashley helped inspire the CD and now the first two songs about women with dark eyes and fair complexion, she's probably worried if the cd is just for her. Well I'm a sucker for dark eyes, and wove everything I loved into the song. I had written a blog post about the journey of writing this song funny how it started way back in 2012. The video is in the blog post. Ashley, keep going and don't worry the songs change from being all about brown eyed girls, though you might understand that I tend to be a little romantic gypsy by the end.
3) Julia was on my first release, but I still love this song and it was really written for another loving soul that left my place of employment so I thought it really fit. I've already written about this song here, and I've kept in touch with Angie has she has ventured around the US. She considers me a loving crazy Uncle Dave.
4) Picks up the beat with Done with Bonaparte, a cover of an old Mark Knopfler tune that I just learned. Oh my I love this guy's work, he can write interesting tunes about history too! The song hasn't made it into our Lucky Dog set list yet... needs practice, and I not sure if Lynn has time to learn the lead part on the bouzouki, hope she does though. Again this was the vocal track from this video:
5) Graceful and Grand is the only instrumental I put on the CD and it is one many times I slip into my instrumental breaks. As a single guitar I've found the style of picking melodies and then back to chords, it works for some songs; though I still love Garageband and proverbially "playing with myself" and filling up the rest of the song. The song has words dedicated to Lady Mary Crawley again, but she is too pretty for me to kill the song by singing with my gruff voice; here's a different blog post to explain.
6) Family Tree... another song from the 1st CD, but another song that frequently makes it into Lucky Dog set lists since it gives a choice of what instrument to play it on Banjo or Guitar. I'll let you read more on the old liner notes, but now that I know Jessie at Ecker's orchards I'm going to share it with her when the Spittler family re-union shows up their placard. Lynn, Sue and Lori always loved my reference to petticoats.
7) One more Cup of Coffee, what's a music CD from me without at least one Dylan cover. Inspired to learn this after buying Calexico's cover with Roger McGuinn singing lead; mine pales but still it's all about the inspiration. I still go back to listen to it and then my next time I cover the song it changes ever so slightly.
8) Another Like You a love story about a Right Wing lady and Left Wing guy.. Lucky Dog had a night messing around with recording live at home, this one had to get on the CD. Lynn and I do this live when no kids are around. Again here's the inspiration from the talented Hayes Carll and Bonnie Whitmore.
9) Most of the While, a cover of Natalie Gelman's beautiful song about being on the road as a musician. While I never have been a road warrior, I have travelled for work and have hosted numerous artists... this song really works and spoke to me to cover it. I blogged about it here, and she even responded. We hosted Natalie recently when she played at the Elmaro Vineyard and look forward to her playing a house concert at our place in 2015. Here's her much better video and original.
10) Where you heart is, written for our church's mission statement a long time ago. I sometimes forget that it was one we used to sing many times with Tim and Paula on lead for ACTS. Here's a real old blog post from a site I ran for church with the lyrics.
11) Gypsy Soul... This song has always been a favorite and I named the first cd after it. It never gets played in Lucky Dog; maybe someday... of course I'll have to put up with Lori asking me who I wrote it for; dang if I knew. Here's what I wrote about it back in 2008.
12) Jolene... another cut from our Lucky Dog recording night, a song filled with such texture from a great writer, Ray Lamontage. I learned it from a recording of Hope Waits first on a EP of her second CD which she hasn't released yet. I do love Hope, who is now married to David Carducci and is expecting her first child. She has graced this blog numerous of times. http://thezemmyshow.blogspot.com/search/label/Hope%20Waits
14) West Shore... not sure how I ever made this song sound like this... it's got to be written and produced with all the great tools I had back in 2007. Never made it on the first CD, and the whole premise with the chorus is double meaning of "Ride a Lie" an opinion about casual sex. Something I have no experience with thus was written as an observer, not always the best place to write from but in this case the safe place.
15) To Make you feel my love, ah the second Dylan piece. Had to learn this to back up Katie Johnson for a wedding, and when I recorded her to help her practice at home... later I couldn't help to add my voice. Haven't played the song in ages, but anyone want to sing like Katie, and I'll never pass up a chance to play guitar for them.
17) Talkin at the Texaco... the results of loving a great song and having a quiet house for the night... many tracks added to this one, even had the hat from late step dad on...
20) Wreck of the old 97, what's a cd that has covers without one from my youth and love of Johnny Cash. I was surprised I had a pretty decent recording of the song.
Hey if you got this far... thanks... I'll try to have some copies of this to give out at future gigs.
