Well, I finally found and fixed up one last leftover from the RKBS sessions that commenced, lo, over a year ago. There was a persistent hole in the solo area that it turns out was just the size of a baritone guitar and my nifty new Hummingbird tremolo pedal. I also hadn't had much chance to play my fake gospel piano bits in a while, and the pedal steel had been totally gathering dust, so it was fun song to put together, especially so because it moves on a stately pace well suited to my limited musical fleetness.
The song dates to the tail end of our temporary East Douglas, MA relocation about 10 years back, and is a typical rumination on the swirl of separation and togetherness that life'll deal you. Listening to it now, I can detect a Steve Earle feel to it but, irregahdless, it's been a fave for a while.
Still Holding You: https://app.box.com/s/hzhygbw0zjkmse9ev23t
Thursday, March 27, 2014
Monday, March 17, 2014
Happy St. Pat's! Rum and whiskey, covered.
Midwinter as it still seems (around 15 degrees this morning up in Harpswell Holler), St. Patrick's Day has done sneaked up on us! Granted, I don't count down the days or plan out excursions on the town for it nowadays but, in heed of my parents and in honor of our Old Brooklyn Irish-American roots, I do pay attention. As skeptical of the fake aspects of this holiday as any other, I'm still happy to set down for a Guinness or a whiskey if you're offering. I'd love nothing better than to see a crack band of pickers, pipers and fiddlers do their thing. In a few weeks, stocked up on holiday surplus from the market, I'll be living large on good corned beef and all that sterotypical immigrant fare.
Last year I tried to knock out these covers and get them posted, but only half succeeded. So the cover of the Pogues' "Streams of Whiskey" (off their murky debut "Red Roses for Me") is a re-post. And yesterday I was able to roll out a quick version of "The Old Black Rum", from St' Johns, Newfoundland's favorite sons, Great Big Sea. They've certainly put out some E-Z Cheeze in their day but when they get it right, they can indeed nail it. On this one, I was gonna bring up a tom-tom drum and fake some bodhran for percussion, as I did on the Pogues song, but Miss Oonagh, knowing well how they'd do it in Nova Scotia, sorted through the fine silver and selected a solid pair of spoons.
jk
"The Old Black Rum" (Great Big Sea): https://app.box.com/s/05vio0l9wglu6ts7ryg7
"Streams of Whiskey (the Pogues): https://app.box.com/s/ej5sbpdj5r6in4crwqy7
Last year I tried to knock out these covers and get them posted, but only half succeeded. So the cover of the Pogues' "Streams of Whiskey" (off their murky debut "Red Roses for Me") is a re-post. And yesterday I was able to roll out a quick version of "The Old Black Rum", from St' Johns, Newfoundland's favorite sons, Great Big Sea. They've certainly put out some E-Z Cheeze in their day but when they get it right, they can indeed nail it. On this one, I was gonna bring up a tom-tom drum and fake some bodhran for percussion, as I did on the Pogues song, but Miss Oonagh, knowing well how they'd do it in Nova Scotia, sorted through the fine silver and selected a solid pair of spoons.
jk
"The Old Black Rum" (Great Big Sea): https://app.box.com/s/05vio0l9wglu6ts7ryg7
"Streams of Whiskey (the Pogues): https://app.box.com/s/ej5sbpdj5r6in4crwqy7
Wednesday, March 12, 2014
Roadkill Buttsteak 8 Covers: "In the City" b/w "Panic"
Not much to report about these two covers. When you want to hear how a Rickenbacker sounds, you go to one of the wells. For me? Probably that's Charlie Chesterman, most hours of the day. If you're feeling foundational, it's Harrison and Lennon. For old-school classic, McGuinn or Petty. And if your mind's on the '77-'86 era, it's Paul Weller and Johnny Marr, hands down, case closed. So enjoy the parenthetical...
jk
SoundCloud: https://soundcloud.com/johnk-rkbs/
In the City (the Jam): https://app.box.com/s/fcyrjjwpvpxxlh4l5uvs
Panic (the Smiths) https://app.box.com/s/37i4csmguoepmutu5tax
jk
SoundCloud: https://soundcloud.com/johnk-rkbs/
In the City (the Jam): https://app.box.com/s/fcyrjjwpvpxxlh4l5uvs
Panic (the Smiths) https://app.box.com/s/37i4csmguoepmutu5tax
Tuesday, March 11, 2014
Wednesday, March 5, 2014
Roadkill Buttsteak 8: "St. Mary, Star of the Sea" b/w "June"
History repeats. Or, as they say, it rhymes. Once as rhyming tragedy, once as rhyming farce, I suppose. Well, if the two songs of this post are history (to me and a couple others anyway), I think they are more the rhyming persistence-in-the-face-of-life variety, but you be the judge...
Starting with the latter being firster, "June" goes farther back, to the Dillo band and even earlier. I wrote it sitting in the bare, tall living room of my old, dark apartment on North Calvert St. ('96-ish) on a busy, dull intersection towards the edge of Charles Village (or Upper Charles Village as they probably market it nowadays). I was trying to learn how to write songs and of course listening to a lot of Jayhawks and such roots rock (as evah, kid!) and that influence definitely shows. I've decided over the years that I missed the mark just a bit, by talking around things rather than addressing them directly, Granted, the whole thing definitely was intended to be more painting than writing-- I was aiming for something impressionistic that it never quite arrived at. I guess I'm saying that if I had it to do over again I'd tackle things differently from a lyrical perspective but I still do love the song after all these years and do I keep taking it out for periodic spins. Thelonius Monk I ain't, but with every go-round I think the song gets a bit closer to the intended destination.
The '96 version was moody and muddy, done on a 4-track with a capo-ed Ovation acoustic, some mediocre, but sparse and clean electric guitar, punchy and "unplugged" sounding drums, and harmonica. Shortly thereafter, the Dillo band rocked it out live on a bunch of occasions and captured a nice, driving recording at one of our two forays to Invisible Sound Studios out in Greektown. At that time it was Johnny Marsh singing and playing rhythm, Goff on lead, Mike on the drums and me on a great short-scale Gibson EB bass that Dave Nachodsky handed to me. When Paul B came on board to play bass, it only got better. RK and I took another stab around six years ago, which may yet be remixed. For the current recording, it was again me and Mike in the engine room, followed by a few too many layers of Wurlitzer and organ and guitarmonies and general interference.
St. Mary, Star of the Sea (the church) is right up the block from our old house in Federal Hill, me and Goff and Johnny Rock. Standing on top of Riverside between Clement and Gittings, it was a useful late night navigational aid in the 'hood. Post-bar or post-work or post-rehearsal, you could stop in front and look up at the steeple on one side and then down the hill towards the outer harbor and the great red neon sign of the Domino Sugar plant out in Locust Point, and think how well that scruffy town could clean up when it wanted to. So, yeah, St. Mary, Star of the Sea (the song) is a tribute to the losers and boozers and them trying to get up and over.
JK
SoundCloud: https://soundcloud.com/johnk-rkbs/
Pics:
Box Links:
June: https://app.box.com/s/24ellye4qahihklwdlte
St. Mary, Star of the Sea: https://app.box.com/s/4zt73bfj5ix70on9ngmj
Starting with the latter being firster, "June" goes farther back, to the Dillo band and even earlier. I wrote it sitting in the bare, tall living room of my old, dark apartment on North Calvert St. ('96-ish) on a busy, dull intersection towards the edge of Charles Village (or Upper Charles Village as they probably market it nowadays). I was trying to learn how to write songs and of course listening to a lot of Jayhawks and such roots rock (as evah, kid!) and that influence definitely shows. I've decided over the years that I missed the mark just a bit, by talking around things rather than addressing them directly, Granted, the whole thing definitely was intended to be more painting than writing-- I was aiming for something impressionistic that it never quite arrived at. I guess I'm saying that if I had it to do over again I'd tackle things differently from a lyrical perspective but I still do love the song after all these years and do I keep taking it out for periodic spins. Thelonius Monk I ain't, but with every go-round I think the song gets a bit closer to the intended destination.
The '96 version was moody and muddy, done on a 4-track with a capo-ed Ovation acoustic, some mediocre, but sparse and clean electric guitar, punchy and "unplugged" sounding drums, and harmonica. Shortly thereafter, the Dillo band rocked it out live on a bunch of occasions and captured a nice, driving recording at one of our two forays to Invisible Sound Studios out in Greektown. At that time it was Johnny Marsh singing and playing rhythm, Goff on lead, Mike on the drums and me on a great short-scale Gibson EB bass that Dave Nachodsky handed to me. When Paul B came on board to play bass, it only got better. RK and I took another stab around six years ago, which may yet be remixed. For the current recording, it was again me and Mike in the engine room, followed by a few too many layers of Wurlitzer and organ and guitarmonies and general interference.
St. Mary, Star of the Sea (the church) is right up the block from our old house in Federal Hill, me and Goff and Johnny Rock. Standing on top of Riverside between Clement and Gittings, it was a useful late night navigational aid in the 'hood. Post-bar or post-work or post-rehearsal, you could stop in front and look up at the steeple on one side and then down the hill towards the outer harbor and the great red neon sign of the Domino Sugar plant out in Locust Point, and think how well that scruffy town could clean up when it wanted to. So, yeah, St. Mary, Star of the Sea (the song) is a tribute to the losers and boozers and them trying to get up and over.
JK
SoundCloud: https://soundcloud.com/johnk-rkbs/
Pics:
Box Links:
June: https://app.box.com/s/24ellye4qahihklwdlte
St. Mary, Star of the Sea: https://app.box.com/s/4zt73bfj5ix70on9ngmj
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