Reunion Blues Backstage Banter

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Brandi Carlile at the Petaluma Mystic Theatre

The Brandi Carlile Band came down to the Petaluma Mystic Theatre in California, home of Reunion Blues, to play a back to back night. The first night was to make up for a show that was previously cancled after performing only a song or two before Brandi’s voice had went out. The second show was the actual “Let’s rock this place” show where the entire theatre was packed from wall to wall, with people singing along and yelling “I love you Brandi” throughout the evening. I was so lucky enough to work as the monitor engineer for the band, who I must say were the coolest and most down to earth group of folks one only hopes to meet. This is a great touring band that I would definitley recommend to go out and see for yourself, if you haven’t done so yet.

side stage shot

Keith Barr Remembered

Sometimes we just have to share a story when we lose one of the really great ones.

Keith Barr died of a heart attack at 61 this week… inventor, icon and founder of many music industry companies including Alesis where I worked in 1991 as director of communications. Keith had a brain the size of a Buick, a sense of humor, and a 300+ employee company that was fueled with some of the most competitive people I have ever met, all of whom the company fed a free lunch to… every day!

 

Keith.Bar.8

The VHS tape-based Alesis ADAT Digital Multitrack Recorder was a hot product in 1991. I was charged with pulling together all the presentation tools to help Keith and his co-brainey conspirator Marcus Ryle (founder of Line 6) thwart the DAT tape-based competition. And thwart we did.

The ADAT won multiple industry awards that year. Always one to shun the limelight, Keith would leave the acceptance speeches to Alesis President Russell Palmer. There was this one time, however, when neither could make it to an award ceremony, so yours truly was chosen to mount the podium. When I asked what I was supposed to say, Keith pulled me aside and secretly suggested we create a Russell Palmer cut-out puppet with a moving mouth and let him do the “talking”… operated by the worst ventriloquist in the history of mankind.

Keith

The end result was one of the most embarrassing, hilarious, memorable nights of my existence with the room falling all over the place and “Team ADAT” having the time of their lives. We laughed until we cried.

Thank you Keith. Rest in peace.

 

Notes From a Woodstock Wanna-Be

A very cool customer recently sent me a picture of himself at Woodstock. It looked like it was right off the album cover (he even commented on the clouds looming largely in the background-see for yourself). It made me think about how much I was influenced by that festival at Max Yasgur’s farm, and I wasn’t even there. I didn’t attend Woodstock because I was a little too young. But, I think that made me even more into the music and the whole scene (thank goodness for the movie and the album). Like many things in life, don’t we yearn to be part of something that our older brothers and sisters are into? And it can shape us for a lifetime.

There were many things that Woodstock represented, but for me it was all about the music. I still consider Jimi Hendrix’ version of the Star Spangled Banner to be the most creative piece of music ever played. The customer that sent me his photo said his favorite performers were Ten Years After and The Who. He said he had a hard time picking a favorite. I can believe it. Look at the lineup and try to choose a favorite. Monumental, epic, seminal…all words I’ve heard to describe what happened during that summer weekend in August 1969. And here we are, over 40 years later and people still know Woodstock as if it were the moon landing. So, even though I wasn’t there, I will happily listen to the music of the musicians who performed there for the rest of my life. Hey, Joni Mitchell wasn’t there and she wrote the classic song. It was a big vibe that still vibrates.

Is Looping Considered Cheating?

It wasn’t long ago that if one recorded backing tracks for a performance, it was almost as bad as lip-syncing. Think back to Milli Vanilli and Ashley Simpson. Not something that a self-respecting, qualified musician would do since the emphasis was on “live” music. Now, it is very common for a musician to loop some tracks and play along. BOSS is even having a Looping competition now, and the winner gets to go to Hollywood! I’d rather go to San Francisco, but that is a separate subject. As computers become a mainstay of the musical landscape, should we allow this intrusion of the non-human element without crying “Cheater!”? I have finally decided to go along and say…Maybe! It better be good, with no slip ups!
I think I began to give in when I saw Joe Craven perform. Joe Craven is a multi-instrumentalist who plays violin, guitar and a variety of percussion instruments. He has played with David Grisman and Jerry Garcia, so he’s got cred. What took me over the top, to accept looping as viable, is when he played the jawbone of a mule as a percussion instrument, along with a loop. Maybe it was the novelty of playing a jawbone, but more than that, it was a successful mix of modern technology and good old fashioned ingenuity. Back when Keller Williams did it, it seemed like he needed a back up band. When Trey Anastasio of Phish looped, it was so much a part of the musical backdrop that I couldn’t tell he was looping. I really thought it was Page McConnell on the keyboard. At the end of the day (is that term overused or what?), it doesn’t matter what I think. Computers and looping are here to stay. It’s up to the next generation of musicians to challenge themselves and come up with something interesting and compelling. The audiences and fellow musicians will shape the use of looping and computers. I still wouldn’t break it out at a bluegrass hoedown (unless I was Joe Craven)!