Muffin Bottoms [not] Just another WordPress weblog

Here go the first draft for two reviews of my newest favorite CD’s.
I will write more on each of them after my rigorous semester’s complete.

Gabriel Ayala. PORTRAITS: Music for Classical Guitar.

First off I must say when it comes to guitar music, I love the key of Dm. Yes, more than C, more than Am, more than G even! Bm? A not very close second ahead of everything else I suppose. So anyhow, Gabriel’s Toccata & Fugue is the 10th cut of 11 on this 2008 Canyon Records release.

Oh wow! I love this song, and I really loved this version of it. From the first triplet, to the pause before the next phrase, wow. It’s got that Israel Horowitz feel of the one big fat mic perfectly placed, too.

Albeniz’ Asturias – Leyenda I’ll pass by. I like it, but I have yet to love that song. Ayala’s version of Erik Satie’s Gymnopedie 1 was really pleasing too. A couple years ago I was asked to play some of the Saties including this one at the wedding of my friends Joel and Mollie. I got really good at them, and played out and was fairly satisfied that I could transfer the love of these songs to everyone in attendance. Many comments confirmed that I pulled it off OK. But as I listen to Ayala’s version, I realize there are still some staccatos and silences I’m going to have to keep playing around with before I can call it mastered, to be sure.

Mmmmm. The piece from Sor’s Magic Flute, was delightful. Ayala’s use of the juapango’ish fingernail strokes on the introductory chords did a great job of simulating trumpets or something. For me it worked. Then the waltzy song within a song thingamabob there after a minute or so was just downright fun. Lightly danced and very upbeat and bright. Great work.

More later I promise. This is an album I’m going to come back to many times like Segovia’s Tarrega, Torroba, Sor works that I bought on vinyl once when I was living in Green Bay working mostly on Carulli and Bach pieces. It helped broaden my horizons much; and so now with Gabriel Ayala — thanks, thanks, thanks!

Blackfire.

Wow. Dramatic first note, and the Dine language in the intro is felt even if you don’t speak the language. “We come in peace,” And many other truths, we “anglo society” don’t want to hear. Against the silence. Powerful stuff from a band we already remember as potent. Klee Benally sings and plays guitar and writes a lot. All three sing, and his sister plays bass with Clayson on drums. Between those two elements there is power in the first song that never lets up until the last song finishes. I’ve only seen them live once in Milwaukee, but I can easily imagine that a performance continues that way these days too.

A quote of a quote from a 2005 Northcoast Journal article sums them up really well.

“”Blackfire is my two brothers and myself,” said Janeda Benally, the band’s bass player, explaining that her family grew up on and off the Diné reservation, an embattled place where her people have struggled for years to avoid forced relocation put forward by the BIA, the Hopi and the Peabody Coal Company…”

Here’s another.

“…Janeda and her brothers, Klee and Clayson, came together as a band 15 years ago. “We only knew two songs, but they were our own songs,” said Janeda. “The music really found us, growing up where we did.””

I’ll never forget when they took a Nammy award in MKE and Klee gave some of the acceptance speech. He thanked George W. Bush for giving them plenty to write about.

Peaks Song, the 6th cut on this record is hard driving, pointed, and poignant even. “What do we want; Justice. When do we want it; now.”

Wow.

I think I like their punky metal stuff the best. But I love everything else too. Especially some of the moody stuff, which I’ll describe a lot more later too. But for now let me touch “Common Ground” a little.

Common Ground was written about hurricanes Katrina and Rita. So how fitting is it that Cyril Neville’s featured throughout? He came up with the words for the chorus; and the band blogs that “Cyril has been a strong voice in the failure of the U$ to address the tragedies in New Orleans and works very closely with the Mardi Gras Community.”

I’ll tackle Blackfire’s dad’s CD later too. That’s the second CD of the Recording and it’s quite remarkable as well.

Here go some links:

http://www.ayalaguitarist.com
http://www.nevilles.com/#_bio-cyril
http://www.blackfire.net

There was a time, when all I owned was a ’91 Saturn and a cheap laptop. I was separated from the wife, and I basically lived in my car for three months.

That car had no CD player, and the cassette deck had long since stopped working; and I just couldn’t bring myself to listen to commercial radio. So I spent a great deal of my time listening to NPR (classical music and other smart stuff). The “other smart stuff” led me to enroll in college, and to pursue a degree in Political Science. And the classical music served as a nice alternative to all the escapist crap that you’d normally hear on FM radio.

Then one night, as I was dozing off at a rest area near Huron, Ohio, I heard a program called Folk Alley. The songs were familiar, in that most were built around the traditional forms that I’d grown up on; it sounded like bluegrass, or like classic country, but above all, it sounded REAL. Somehow, the gimmicks of modern escapist art hadn’t found their way into this stuff. And I became a regular listener.

A couple of times a year, the staff at Folk Alley (and at WKSU) would hold a fund drive. And I never had a cent to my name, but I did always want to call in, and to tell their listeners who COULD donate, how much this service had changed my life. Public Radio is the closest thing to free, universal education that this country has. And it both informed me of the world around me, and inspired me to contribute again to that world.

And the more I listened to Folk Alley, the more I realized that I had spent too many years running from my past. I grew up with this music. And yet, I had spent over a decade attempting to reinvent myself, musically. When all the while, the answer was right in front of me. The art, lies in being yourself. And I can thank Folk Alley for that lesson.

So I started writing songs again. In part, because I had something to say- but in part, because someone had shown me HOW to say it. And those songs became Hollow Bones in Monotone. And I haven’t looked back since. I’ve spent the past two years as a songwriter again, and I have Folk Alley to thank for that.

So it’s only fitting that I’d perform for their 5th anniversary bash at Happy Days Lodge (in Peninsula, OH) this weekend, because their five years online have changed the course of my life. And I’ve never gotten to formally thank them for that. But I will this Friday, and I’d encourage anyone in the area to join me in doing so.

The boys and I play at 6:30 pm, and Eilen Jewell takes the stage at 8:00 pm. It’s gonna be a great time, and our set is free to the public. So come eat some cake and ice cream, win Folk Alley merchandise, and listen to some music without gimmicks. Oh yeah- and we’ll be unveiling the new disc, Crazy Wind.

Good times all. Peace.

Songwriter Chris Castle

http://www.dirtsandwich.com

———————————————–

http://www.folkalley.com/openmic/artist.php?id=1088

I currently have 5 guitars I’ve kept all these years because of a certain “je-ne-sais-quois” they possess. 3 folk; one classic, 1 electric;

In all these years of playing, repairing, building, I have sold off, given away and thrown out each and every other guitar only to keep these. After all these years. I’m setting out to blog each one over time.

Here’s the first; my newest.

#5 Handmade bamboo guitar from the Phillipines.

Created by Jun Reputana.

So what’s so special about my bamboo guitar from the Phillipines? It’s loud. It’s sonorous, it’s bright, it’s bassy, it’s precise. What else can I say. It’s weird? It’s beautiful. It’s got sweet spots that go right to your heart.

Acoustically.

From far away even. The action will be easy with a little work, and it seems to be patterned after a fairly old Martin D-28 although I think it was made 2-5 years ago.

Bamboo neck, bamboo body, bamboo headstock. Bamboo almost every THING! The inlay spots are black pearl, from shells that the creator wanders around a beach to find on his own whenever he starts a new guitar.

And when I say handmade, I’m talking about standard, ancient and reliable but sturdy tools. Hand saws and stuff. Wow.

Are there more than 20,000 other guitars in history made that way? That’s only part of what I’m talking about when I say magic. You really have to hear it and feel it to see what I mean. So just take my word for it for now.

[GUITAR’S NAME HERE: Alma!]

So how did I acquire Alma?
I pointed it out in a coffee shop because of the strange hand made case. By shape you can tell it’s a guitar case, but it really looks more like a footlocker that has travelled the oceans. The handle is literally a drawer handle with phillips head screws keeping it fast. Three hasps keep the top secured. Wooden pegs or locks, your call.
“What’s that guitar all about?” I ask the owner.
“You like it?”
“It’s neat, but what kind of guitar is it? And what’s its story?”
“Open it, you like it?”
“Kinda,” I say opening it. “Nice. I do.” It’s odd looking because I’ve never seen a guitar entirely made out of bamboo before. (The fretboard *might* be jackfruit, but I’m pretty sure it too is heavily dyed bamboo woods)
“Take it home. I’m sick of looking at it every day. It’s been here since last fall,” he says. And then he proceeds to tell me everything he doesn’t like about it. The flaws, how the maker must be unskilled, etc.
“Sure, thanks.” I tell him I’ll string it up and if it works out ok make it work, and if not I’ll make artwork out of it like I’ve done so many other times. It was missing a bridge pin, and had not been strung in a while, but other than that was intact and serviceable.
So I got it home, put a bridge pin on it, and strung it up. And tuned it.

Oh my gawd!!!

It sounded awesome even working its way TOWARD in-tune. Let’s put it this way. No other guitar I’ve ever played has sounded good between 420 and 432 A. Most guitars only sound good between 440 and 455ish, and much higher than that you’ll watch the whole face cave in and become unrepairable. Well this one doesn’t need to even come up to concert pitch to sound exciting. I really hope I can share that with you some day. And that’s the rest of the magic that I’m not even going to describe in this blog. It’s there.
I’ll close with one last description of other peoples’ description of this magic and then a link or two about Jun Reputana who made this guitar.
I check 7 music stores working my way from far ones to the nearest ones before finding a gig bag I want to fit with this fine pony.

Caruso’s in Downtown New London, CT has a new line of cases by a British company called Ritter. They specialize in Yoga equipment, upscale luggage and guitar cases.
I purchase one and open my other case to carefully move my guitar into it and see if they fit together.
“Wow, what is that?” says John the drum guy at that store asking what kind of wood it has.
“Bamboo I say, wanna play it?” I hand it to him.
He strums it once and yells, “Oh my gawd! Hey, Rich,” he shouts across the room to one of the owners. “You have to hear this guitar.”
Rich signals that he’s on the phone and will deal with it later. Another salesman I never met before asks to play it while we’re waiting together for Rich to get off the fone.
He loves it too. Rich has seen it all. Been running music stores since I was a little kid. Plays it more nonchalant than the others at first. I watch him strum some of those “show off a guitar in a salesroom” jazz chords with the occasional sweet licks in between and I can see that he’s really excited about it.
“Not bad” is all we get out of him verbally, but you should’ve seen the look on his face.

So I go to my favorite coffeeshop to hang out and use wifi and stuff, and the salesman I hadn’t met before comes in. (never did get his name) He tells me that after my guitar and I left the shop he googled it and got blown away by what he found.

Here this guitar here: [] here:  [] & here: []

People with Macbooks are having trouble hearing the songs on my Myspace page. If you want those and more, just download the heck out of the following 2 albums at:

http://frucht.org/MarcoPlaysClassicalGuitar/MarcoPlaysClassicalGuitar.html

and:

http://frucht.org/letsstopthenextwar/letsstopthenextwar.html

(…and U can print the JewelCase right from the HTML. :))

It’s hard to get your brain around the fact that Dickey Betts’ been playing 10 minute guitar solos since 1968. Harder still to think he did it again last nite and keeps on keepin’ on!

And his band. Wow. 7 of the strongest musicians anywhere.

Ever, ever ever.

Collage From Garde New London 24jun08

With his son as one of two co-leadguitarists sharing the stage, holy crap! Sometimes they trade licks in a circle forever. Inspiring each other over and over and over. And it shows in the audience response, too.

Things started out slow and built up to a roar, which has been his soloing style, songwriting style and concert style since the get go. I lost count but I think the small cozy 800 or so in attendance asked for 2 or 3 encores. And he humbly gave ’em. Lots of Thank You’s and God Bless you’s.

The two kit drummers who usually weave in and out between sounding exactly similar and perfectly  complementary opposite, gave a couple drum solos that were out of this world while the rest of the band took a break. Then after a second “mini-encore” that way, the bass player came out WITH the drummers and simply wailed as a trio more potent than any drum and bass you’ve ever heard before.

Blue Sky, Ramblin Man, they pulled out all the stops. I’ll close just saying their bass player is the best I’ve heard anywhere in about ten years.

Duane and Pedro Performing “Rolling On” at the moboogieVids Youtube site.

http://www.dickeybetts.com

Dickey Betts and Great Southern’s Myspace page: http://www.myspace.com/dickeybettsgreatsouthern

ok, one last link; Dickey Betts Wiki: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dickey_Betts