Backstage Banter

So recently real life circumstances required me to travel to my hometown of Grand Junction Colorado for a week. About a year ago my good friend, Phil Street, who is also from Grand Junction and was the drummer for my band Crunch here in California moved back to Western Colorado to be closer to his folks. 
He’s drumming in a band there called Missy’s End, 

R to L Joe, Todd and Phil of Missy's End.

 led by a talented singer/songwriter named Joe Davis, and they just happened to have a gig scheduled while I was there and asked me to sit in for a couple of songs. This was the perfect opportunity to give our new Reunion Blues RB Continental case the ultimate road test, by checking it in as baggage with the airlines and letting the handlers do their worst. So I caught the bus from Petaluma

Me and the RBC at the Petaluma Airporter

to the Oakland Airport on a sunny Saturday morning, arrived at the US Airways baggage check in, handed over the company’s Epiphone Dot Studio in the RB Continental case, checked it in and told them to do their worst!

RBC at Oakland Baggage Check-In

(note I didn’t use my own guitar, I may be crazy but not stupid!) I had to make a connection in Phoenix to Grand Junction. The flight to Phoenix was quite turbulent as their were storms lined up the whole way. Then if that wasn’t enough fun, I got to hop on a 2 propeller prop job for the final leg to GJ.
It had been a number of years since I’d had the pleasure to fly on one of those and I’d forgotten just how much “fun” they can be.

Keeping cool on the bouncy prop job

Luckily our pro flight attendant Sandra kept everything calm, cool and under control. Upon landing in Grand Junction all 9 of us intrepid travellers  got off the plane and I headed to baggage claim with more than a bit of apprehension. Within a few minutes I saw the RB Continental Case come down the baggage carousel.

RBC arrives GJ baggage carousel

With nervous anticipation I slowly opened the case and voila! There was the Dot in perfect condition. Not a scratch, dent, ding or blemish of any kind. 100% Success!

An Epi Dot without a spot!

 Now all I had to do was learn Suffragette City by Friday, play the gig and then see how the axe survived the return trip back to the Bay Area.  The gig was at Quincy’s Bar, the only alternative lifestyle bar in Grand Junction, the crowd was probably around 200+ with one of the most interesting mixes of humanity I’ve ever seen.

The one and only Quincy's Bar in GJ.

The people watching was almost as entertaining as the band. We even had a party bus pull up and out came 25 bouncing bachelorettes ready to rock.

Missy's End and yours truly rocking Suffragette City!

So we obliged them and then headed to Todd the bass players house for an after gig party until about 3:45 AM. That’s the latest this old man has been out in quite a few years but we had a blast. The next day I had my good friend and martial arts expert  Kerry Wong give the case a good hard karate chop with the guitar in it and yes it survived the Kung Fu test beautifully as well.

RBC passes Kerry's Kung Fu Karate Chop test!

After taking care of all my family business it was time to head home. The return trip was smooth even if I did have to find a way to kill 3.5 hours in the Phoenix Airport (UGH!) . I arrived back in Oakland to find my wife and kids waiting for me (a sight for sore eyes for sure!) and waited for the RB Continental to come downt the carousel. When we got home my kids helped me check the guitar and as expected it was in perfect condition. I even stuffed some extra clothes, toiletries, etc… in the accessory pockets of the RBC to save space in my carry on. You can literally pack everything you need for a 1 or 2 night gig in this case and not even need any other luggage. And if your guitar happens to fall off a 3 story building or has to be subjected to the whim and whimsy of airline baggage handlers you can at least have some peace of mind knowing that it’s ensconced safely in a Reunion Blues RB Continental Guitar case. That’s my story and I’m sticking with it! Rock on everyone!

Pushed the piano down to Western Avenue & Petaluma Blvd. last Saturday and donned the traditional Santa hat for the annual arrival of the Clause by boat at the river turn around. Tens of hundreds of parents and kids swarmed the downtown area while Petalume Pete wailed on ragtime versions of Jingle Bells, Rudolph and, yes, even Silent Night with a swing beat. The tip jar overfloweth. Later discovered the event was captured and blogged by a Petaluma Citizen, who provided the reader with the attached photo.

I also discovered something all buskers can use. It’s the employment of a “remote” tip jar, because some people are reluctant to approach you with money, but are happy to pop their bucks in a jar that is at a safe distance about 20 feet away. I made a very secure remote tip jar that I will share with you soon. Do you have any tip garnering ideas you can share with our fellow buskers?

So as you probably know there is an awful lot of hullabaloo on the webbernet and elsewhere these days about the long-awaited, much-anticipated,  ridiculously-delayed release of Chinese Democracy, the not-so-new Album from Guns & Roses or NU GNR or The Axl Rose Solo Band or whatever you prefer to call them.  Most of the reviews that I’ve read have been positive and I like what little I’ve heard so far.  Axl’s voice sounds good (well sounds like Axl anyway), the riffs groove and the songs rock. There’s a touch of an industrial sound here and there and the lead guitars, while stinging and soaring in their own right, are much different from Slash’s bluesy burning which I miss.  Other than that some of the material could almost be Use Your Illusion era Guns with Axl attempting his best Freddie Mercury ala November Rain.  I’m sure it will sell by the boatload and I’ll probably find it in my Christmas stocking! One certainty is that the live show, with Reunion Blues endorser Richard Fortus (also of Psychedelic Furs fame) laying it down on rhythm guitar amid the musical maelstrom of Axl, Dizzy, Richie, Bumblefoot, Frank, Chris, Tommy and possibly even Buckethead???, will be a spectacle worth beholding.  www.myspace.com/gunsnroses

Richie Rockin

On a less grand scale but no less important, I’d also like to briefly mention another new release by yet another Reunion Blues endorser, a local boy and personal friend Josh Ramos.  The CD is called The Dream and it’s a collaboration between Josh and Hugo Valenti. Some of you may remember Josh from his time in The Storm which featured former members of Journey and Santana including Gregg Rolie, Steve Smith and Ross Valory and also the SoCal based hard rock outfit Hardline.  Hugo started out fronting Valentine which later became Open Skyz but might be best known for fronting Evolution, the pre-eminent East Coast Journey tribute act.  So as you might have guessed buy now, The Dream bears a strong resemblance to Journey in many aspects, but all in a positive way.  It’s the best collection of Journey songs from a band not named Journey that you’ll ever hear. The songwriting and arrangements on this album are rock solid and memorable and Hugo is a terrific singer with great range and passion. But the highlight of this cd is Josh’s playing. He really rips it up all over the disc with ferocity, feeling and an innate sense of melody not many possess.  The Dream is being released primarily in Europe so it might be a bit hard to find but for fans of outstanding melodic rock guitar playing it’s well worth seeking out. www.myspace.com/ramoshugo

Josh Jammin

Brett’s Music Bag: You’ve also got to check out The Answer www.myspace.com/theanswerrock. These bad boys from Northern Ireland are really bringing it hard the wayyy old school way. I’ve had their initial release Rise for close to a couple of years now after hearing about them in Classic Rock Magazine.  Anyone who caught them on The Late Show with David Letterman recently knows exactly what I’m talking about. The singer Cormac Neeson reminds me of a heavier, more aggressive Chris Robinson of The Black Crowes and the guitarist Paul Mahon is pure Gibson/Marshall hard rock glory.  Catch The Answer  live in concert opening for AC/DC on their Black Ice world tour. Never toolate indeed…    

The Answer Rocks

 Speaking of AC/DC, kudos to the Brothers Young & Co.  whose Black Ice recently went #1 in 29 countries, shifting 1.5 million units in the first two weeks of release in the US alone and over 5 million copies sold worldwide so far. Brings a tear to a crusty old rocker’s eye. Good on ya mates! www.myspace.com/acdc

Hi, I’m John Maher. I’m the Marketing Manager at Reunion Blues and I love sharing my old-time Stride piano playing with others. One great way to do this is through busking, which is also a fun pathway to building your chops while making a little extra coin in the process. Over the years, I have busked the streets of Old St. Louis, Chicago, Meridian, Mississippi, Dallas and LA and, lately, established myself as “Petaluma Pete” in (you guessed it) beautiful Petaluma, California. I enjoy playing music and entertaining passer-bys in this very cool town and I’m happy (and lucky) to have been doing this for almost two years.

I looked up busker on dictionary.com which describes busking as a person who entertains (as by playing music) in public places. This sounds about right as I have been busking on and off for over 40 years! In fact, my 32-year-old son busked his way through the Berklee College of Music in the subways of Boston. This does not make us full-time experts but we have learned a lot of the tricks of the trade that are worth sharing.

Here are a few quick tips if you ever wish to hit the streets:

1.) Unless you are playing in a subway or train station where the audience constantly changes, don’t stay in one place too long because, sooner or later, you are going to run out of songs and repetition can annoy merchants who are close by. In other words, don’t wear out your welcome. Always leave them wanting more.

2.) Acknowledge as many people passing by as you can by making BRIEF eye contact, nodding your head and smiling. Why? Because if you ignore the people you are playing for they will ignore you in return and the tip jar will suffer for it.

3.) Get to know the merchants on your favorite corners. Always check with them to make sure you are not too loud, even if you already know you are not. Make them part of the process. Also work to make the local law enforcers and city workers you friend, by introducing yourself so they will know you, instead of feeling motivated to shoo you away.

You can find a good example of this by checking out the video at the following here.

Full-time buskers are my favorite. I don’t have the guts but I read about people who do and, deep down, I envy their free spirit. It’s the purest form of artistic risk, like stand-up comedy. However, in the real world of jobs, mortgages and car payments, you can still have a blast playing on the street and it beats the heck out of sitting in front of the tube!

Here’s a couple of cool busker web sites.
buskercentral.com
stiffarmingsociety.com/busking

Have you even played on the streets? Please feel free to share your tips and thoughts in the comments section!

Good luck out there!

If you are one of the unlucky few to have missed Nine Inch Nails rolling through town recently, I highly recommend you carve out some space in your schedule to catch the band as they head out across the US for the second leg of their “Lights in the Sky” tour.

Trent Reznor has created a mind-blowing, technology-enhanced stage presentation with the help of a massive computer controlled lighting rig and the addition of several light sensitive LED mesh curtains that add an incredible visual element to the intense and energetic show NIN are known to deliver. If this sounds too much like science fiction, Reznor would agree; but when the stage is completely obscured by digital static which is then peeled away to reveal the band performing one of the instrumental tracks from the recent Ghosts record, it is difficult to avoid the hyperbole that this is, quite possibly, “the coolest thing you have ever seen”.

You can check out some of the clips on youtube, and if NIN is going to be anywhere within a few hundred miles of you, don’t miss it.

(In related news, Robin Finck, guitarist for Nine Inch Nails, has been using the Reunion Blues merino wool straps on several of his guitars. His guitar tech Chris Whitemyer contacted us several months ago to track down some straps, which at that point were not on the market. He explained that Robin had insisted on Reunion Blues since this was the best strap he had ever used. Chris and Robin were very helpful in the re-introduction of the strap so it was great to see it in use on stage. Thanks guys!)