Bad High-School Poetry

It has been kind of a weird week for me. Like most people I have a few different versions of myself, but for the most part Poet/Musician Eric is the Supreme Ruler of me. I have given him that title because there appears to be very little democracy in the decision making process, like Homeowner Eric thinks there are tons of things he could do with tax return money, but he has yet to win that debate, seems every year there is an amp that Poet/Musician Eric must have or he has to go in to the studio or needs a new guitar because there is a tonal gap with the 7 he currently has.

This week was Work Eric’s week. I do not intend to discuss work in this blog for a few reasons, but primarily because Work Eric is quiet possibly the weakest of the Erics. He may be a bit stronger than Homeowner Eric, but still nothing compared to Poet/Musician Eric or Friend Eric or Family Eric; however, his importance is not diminished on the tribal counsel and all versions of Eric are appreciative that his contributions provide them freedom, but he kind of just does what he has to, not really what he wants to. He is driven by a combination of fear and desire to succeed. The deal was he was really busy this week, which caused everybody else to take a break from their normal functions, except Workout Eric, Workout Eric never alters his routine.

Alright now that everyone officially thinks I have lost it, let’s talk songwriting. I had an opportunity to sit down and write yesterday, which is a rarity for me due to the chaos that I keep for a schedule, but Saturday afternoon offered a perfect window to get something accomplished. I had a chord progression I had been toying with for a few weeks and a line that I wanted to work in to a song, just needed the time to tie them together. The line is “Traffic Stopping Stunning” (maybe it is more of a label than a line). It is something I coined while I was in Birmingham on my Southeast Swing tour and saw the most amazingly attractive girl at a show I was playing at Marty’s. So I took that, ensconced it in a warm blanket of shyness, and this is what came out.

I Don’t Know Your Name

(Verse 1)
Silent energy between distant eyes
My mind drafts stories of us tonight

(Verse 2)
I play the rescuer, you the enslaved queen
Destroy armies just to set you free

(Verse 3)
Then you’ll play the flower and I’ll be the bee
Sip from your nectar to quench my need

(Chorus)
You’re traffic stopping stunning
But you don’t even know my name
You’re traffic stopping stunning
But I don’t even know your name

(Verse 4)
Tantric crescendo as we close the gap
I’m staring at you, but you’re looking past

(Verse 5)
Crafted stories escape my mind
Hope blue sky falls to moonlight wine

(Verse 6)
I would have held you 10,000 days
but intense pressure left no words to say

(Chorus)

(Bridge)
All these years of quiet fears
Guess I am still the same
In this hour, I’ve lost my power
Because I don’t know your name

As you can tell, I do not really follow a standard songwriting format Verse/Chorus/Verse/Chorus/Bridge/Chorus, and that is okay. I do not claim to write country or pop, so if I bend the rules so be it. The issue that I have and why I rarely share lyrics is they are never as good as poetry. When I sit down to write a song, rather than to just write, I will innately structure the words to fit the tune. When performed everything seems fine, but on paper, if you are reading the words, they are just not that good. To me, very few song lyrics can hold their own on the page, maybe Waits, Dylan and Morrison, but outside of that they all sound like bad high-school poetry.

I suppose that is really all I have this week. I’ve been very focused on getting everything in place for So Much Closer, getting assistance with Logo creation from Stephanie, launching all necessary pages: Facebook, MySpace, and a FanBridge page so you can join the e-mail list. I also put together an ArtistData account, which I am still learning how to use effectively, and the CafePress site will be up once the logo is complete.
Here is the first draft of the logo:



Lastly we started talking with Abi Robins from Morning Bird Records about joining their collective. There is a lot of potential there to help out the scene and get some much needed support for out of town shows. And that really is it. Hope everyone has a good week...Eric

Days I Will Never Forget [Morgan Page]

I think if you asked the majority of my friends they would say I hate clubs, and I probably wouldn’t deny it, but that is not entirely true. What I dislike is the bullshit that accompanies clubs, the Too Cool Crew that lines outside walls, mean mugging people with puffed pathetic chests, as they tip up dangling bottles of domestic, held loosely between their index finger and thumb...the prostitots putting their pure petals on display for all to ogle at, more interested in being scene than the underground scene...the inevitable chaos of those that cannot control consumption milling about like wayward atoms in super conductor, colliding into each other and disrupting the energy of those that are living for the beat.

Here is what I love about them: dance, sweat induced euphoria, good friends having good times, the pulsation, BPMs that hit so hard they alter the rhythm of your heart, being lost in the moment.

It had been years since I had been to a “club” club, but this Saturday I had the opportunity to see the Grammy Nominated Morgan Page do his thing, and it was VIP all the way. My keeper (this keeper concept came out of an earlier post,I essentially have one good friend from every segment of my life) from High School, Jared, has bucked the system since we were 15, and it is finally paying off for him.



He is managing several extremely successful DJs and making a living at it. Morgan is his client, so Jared got me, and a few of my favorites, on the guest list.

Whitney and Noellen


Allyson


To be honest, the only reason I went there was to see Jared, and I thought it was cool that I could hook some friends up. By the time the night was over, the reason I was glad I was there was it reminded me of how much joy I find in dance, and how much I genuinely enjoy House/Techno/DnB. I mean, I am not going to play it in Saaby on my way to work, but when you want to lose yourself in movement and music, there is nothing better. It really was a great night, mean muggers kept to themselves, prostitos stumbled about, as they do, but the energy in Sol Lounge was infectious and Morgan was pulling our chords like a great Puppet Master. I had the pleasure of dancing with 5 amazing ladies (Allyson, Heidi, Megan, Noellen, and Whitney) and two of my best friends (Jeff and Jared) all night long. Other than playing a show, it really doesn’t get better than that for me.

Bad photo of the crew:


What I look like after 2 plus hours of dancing...ROUGH!!!

Even my shoulder was sweating...that is just wrong!

When I was younger and in the Navy I spent a lot of time at dance clubs. I wrote this piece after dancing ‘til dawn on Oahu.

Waikiki Waltz

Clouds waltz across an opaque sky
Waikiki wipes the sleepies from her eyes
Geisha girls scuffle by in bowed appreciation
Street lamps bloom at the stroke of 8pm
Conversations filled with the purity of summer romance
Jungle beats bounce your feet through its doors
Dancers groove to strobe light amplification
With sweaty confused eyes Puppet Master controls you
Sarah arrives with quarterly refreshments
Halo's appear hovering above angel heads
Manito kissed his child, sent her down on winged cloud
Robotic rhythm drives blood pulsation
Exhaustion slows mind, slows body
Manito's child vanishes, angels follow
Once pure streets now soiled with inebriation
Cool breezes walk tourists to hotels
At dawn Waikiki sleeps

Days I Will Never Forget [the Black Crowes]

There are days in your life that you will remember forever. I was fortunate enough to have 2 this week. The first was an All Access Pass to the Black Crowes at the Pageant. When the Crowes busted on to a thirsty music scene in 1990 with Shake Your Money Maker, I was an instant fan. They were accessible and offered the two qualities I look for most in a band, great vocals and good lyrics. Sadly I lost track of them after Amorica. I tried to search my mind for a reason why I would have let them slip from regular play, but I have no good excuse. I do know I started playing guitar in 1996 and my musical focus shifted quickly to singer/songwriters like Edwin McCain, David Wilcox, Dave Mathews, and Duncan Sheik. Still that is not an acceptable reason. When a friend from work approached me about going to the concert, I jumped at the chance.

The invitation was kind of odd because as we discussed the concert, he kept referencing VIP and getting back stage. Now, I have been a fan of music my whole life, I can still remember seeing Heart and Mister Mister with my mom and the Chicago Blues festivals when my little youth belly was full on hotdogs & funnel cakes and my ears were in love with the soulful sounds of life that were being emitted from the stage, but I have never been back stage (unless I was playing the show, of course). My friend is pretty high up in the company I work for, so I thought maybe that is how he rolled, like maybe he has some corporate pull or something. Honestly I didn’t know and didn’t care, we could have had GA tickets, and I would have been stoked. To see and hear Chris Robinson do his thing was all I needed.

The Monday before the show Tom rolled into my office and started talking about VIP seating and getting on the bus. The bus! Seeing a tour bus is a MAJOR fantasy of mine, not the Black Crowes bus specifically but any tour bus. So many of my dreams are wrapped up in that bus that I just want to see what my life could be like some day. At any rate, I had to get to the bottom of this. How were we getting all the special treatments? So, I asked. His reply, “You jerk…the drummer is my brother. You didn’t know?” No! Tom and I connected through music upon first introduction. He is also in a band and is an amazing, toneful, lead player. Tom’s son is also a skilled guitarist. We spent a lot of time discussing gear, our projects, and his son’s bands, but the topic of his brother never came up.

The concert was amazing. The Black Crowes can throw down with any band, stage presence that would make even the most committed girlfriend question whether or not the Robison brothers count as 1 or 2 on her freebie list. Chris’ voice broke through the thick jam progressions and grounded the audience in the reality that they were witnessing one of the great singers of our time. With the addition of Luther Dickinson on lead, the grooves were intense but well constructed. I never had a sense that they were just noodling. They were always moving the tune somewhere.



And Tom’s brother, Steve, was a monster behind the kit providing nice punctuated beats, and helping things stay in order while giving us some ear candy to appreciate.

As it turned out, I did not get to see the bus, but I did get to watch the show from the wing, meet Steve, Luther, and the keyboardist Adam MacDougall. More than I could ask for from any concert. Tom, if you are reading, thanks!!!


(Sorry for the photo quality, I was shooting with my phone)

Weeks in Rewind...

Life after Southeast Swing 2009 can only be described as chaotic. The week I got back was the final week/weekend for a major project at work. My schedule was all discombobulated. After some calculation I determined that I put in 66 hours between Friday and Monday, as a result there was no blog. The last week was all about getting back to my normal routine and putting the finishing touches on Roktoberfest Belated, more on that later but first I want to talk about Son Volt and Complexions.

As I indicated in this post One Fast Move, Son Volt is one of my top 5 bands. There is something completely genius and inspiring about Jay Farrar. His lyrics are grounded, rooted in the common, but extremely intelligent and poetic at the same time. Jay possesses this quiet calm on stage, as if the energy pouring into the song is so intense that it would be wasted on some showy performance. This was my 4th time seeing Son Volt, but the first time I got to expose newbs to their music. In tow was the It Burns bowling team; Warren (has previously be referenced in my blogs), Jeff (he has also been mentioned and was my road warrior for SE Swing), Stephanie (who you are familiar with from Epic Roadtrip ’09) and a newcomer to my blog Jen, also referred to as Jenertainment, for no other reason than she is a lot of fun.



I love this group of people, everyone unique but connected by a shared love of music, intelligence, whit, sarcasm, bowling, spicy food (hence the name, It Burns) and a desire to have fun whenever possible. Collectively everyone had a good time. I think Son Volt may have been a bit too Country for Jen and Warren, but Jeff, Steph, and I were completely awed by the performance. They were touring in support of American Central Dust which is their 6th album, but they played all the favorites, and Jay threw in a couple tunes from the One Fast Move or I am Gone CD. Highlight for me was probably “Cocaine and Ashes” because it is stark and powerful. We parted ways and I had a great drive home enjoying the Indian Summer in the Saab, top down of course. Oh yeah, I did have a pretty amazing Dirty Blonde there, as well.



Saturday, was the big Roktoberfest Belated day, but we are not there yet…Complexions . As you may or may not know, my ex-wife was a Modern Dancer. I met her in college after a Dance concert. I was always interested in dance, as I am interested in all the arts, but being married to a dancer definitely heightened my emotional attachment to dance, to its creation, the thoughts behind the movement, the sacrifices dancers make for their art, as well as my overall knowledge of dance. Alvin Ailey to Angela was like BB King to me. A couple years ago I had an opportunity to see the Alvin Ailey Company at the Fox, and I jumped at it. Though I have been divorced for several years, my respect for this incredible art form has not wavered. Saturday, Desmond Richardson’s company, Complexions Contemporary Ballet, was at the Touhill, and I could not miss that opportunity. Desmond was a protégé of Alvin Ailey and is quite possibly the best dancer alive. There were three acts to the show with multiple group pieces. His dancers were all amazing, especially Christina Dooling who is extremely captivating, but his solo has forever changed the way I will look at dance. There was more soul and emotion in the curl of his fingers than most people could produce doing a full piece. He is the Elvis of dance.

Finally, the 3rd Annual Roktoberfest (Belated), I started throwing this party when I had a roommate who was also a musician. The first two years were very gimmicky, resplendent with PBR, Camo cans, and Stag. In a sense we were poking fun at an often misguided hipster rock culture, while embracing the idea of rock at the same time. Roktoberfest was about drinking, food, and costumes, with inevitable jam sessions. This year I put the focus on the music. Sure there was a keg, but it was a keg of good beer, Boulevard Wheat! Hate me if you must, but I have a really good job, why should I subject my guests to crappy beer just because it is trendy?

For the past several months I have been practicing with a great group of musicians (Patrick Swan on MiniKorg/Trumpet/Guitar/Vocals, Chris Logan on Bass, and Patrick Enright on Drums) but because of work delays, Swan's wedding, Epic Roadtrip ‘09, and my SE Swing, the process has taken way longer than anyone of us were accustom to. We were all getting antsy and just needed to get in front of people to validate that what we have has value, but we knew we were not tight enough to book a venue, so we commenced on turning my living room into a fitting stage for the debut performance of So Much Closer. Our performance was not perfect, but it was VERY close. I’d say we are at about 85% and should be ready to start playing out in December.

So Much Closer:


Me doing my thing:


Now, since we had converted the living room to a club atmosphere, it seemed fitting to have a DJ, and luckily I happen to know the best Drum and Bass DJ in St. Louis, Dylan Thomas to the rescue. At one point my living room looked closer to a raging, pulsating, club, than it looked like a respite for the work weary.



It was the best Roktoberfest to date, kicking off at 8p and officially closing down at 4:55a after we got back from a much needed gravy run, and I sent my last tweet before crawling in bed. What made it great for me was not solely the So Much Closer performance or the amazing DnB by Dylan, but that several fragments from my world were forced to collide, and they all played nice with each other. It is great to have amazing friends…you all know who you are.