Hello Rock And Blues International readers. I hope everybody had a great July.
Rock And Blues is happy to announce that we have now entered the era of Podcasts. We would really like you to check out our new Podcast Channel - Rock And Blues International - The Podcast. If you like the interviews we feature in our publication, then you will love our Podcast Channel as we feature those interviews in their entirety there. On our Podcast Channel you can actually hear those interviews as they were originally done. Our special guests so far are Nick Moss, Devon Allman, Stevie D. from Buckcherry, Chris Henderson from 3 Doors Down, Garnet Grimm from Savoy Brown, Phil Lewis from L.A. Guns, Graham Russell from Air Supply, Robert Jon from Robert Jon and The Wreck, Selwyn Burchwood, J.W. Jones, Chris Henderson from 3 Doors Down, and Warren Haynes from Gov’t Mule. Future podcasts include Jerry Shirley and Jim Stapley from Humble Pie and Humble Pie Legacy, Kissing Judas, Barry Kerch from Shinedown, Coco Montoya, and the return of Robert Jon from Robert Jon and The WreckYou can check it out on all the major podcast channels as well as at http://www.buzzsprout.com/2187498 or go to our website at http:// www.rockandbluesinternational.com and tap the podcast button. We hope you enjoy them.
And now on to the September issue of Rock And Blues International. On the cover of this issue you can see Coco Montoya. Coco has a new Alligator Records album out and it’s titled “Writing On The Wall”. Coco talked to Rock And Blues International to deliver us all the information on his new release. We will also be having Coco as a guest on the Rock And Blues International Podcast later this month. Be sure to check it out. There are also two more great interviews in this issue. Jerry Shirley from Humble Pie talks to us about his new project, Humble Pie Legacy. Humble Pie will be back on the road, but in a new form and you can learn all about it here. Another fantastic interview in this issue is Shinedown. Drummer Barry Kerch of Shinedown talks to Rock And Blues International about the band’s new album Planet Zero, aw well as about the new tour that starts this month. We’ve also got a great story by Edoardo Fassio about Sweet Papa Lowdown. Be sure to check that one out too, it’s very interesting. There are also stories on David Dela Garza, Raycheal Winters, Kimberly Horton, Until The Sun, John Rooney, Ocean Blue, Nervosa, Steely Dan, and more! As you can see, there are a lot of varied genres of music here for you to check out, or as we like to say, there’s a little of something for everyone here. We have even included the current installment of the novella, “The Biker”. Read it and than email us back with your thoughts on this. So far our readers seem to really like this Blues loving Biker.
I sincerely hope that everybody reading this publication finds something here that they like and I would like to encourage you to let your friends and colleagues know about us. Just look for us every month at http://www.rockandbluesinternational.com. I would also like to encourage you to email us for a free subscription to Rock And Blues International as well. Just email us at rockandbluesinternational@gmail.com and in the subject line simply put “Sign Me Up” and we’ll email you a link to the magazine each month when it is published.
Kevin Wildman Editor and PublisherPage 6
Coco Montoya
Coco Montoya Releases His New Alligator Records Album Writing On The Wall
Page 32
Sweet Papa Lowdown
Edoardo Fassio Talks About Sweet Papa Lowdown: Back to the Twenties, in Istanbul, one hundred years later
Page 20
Humble Pie Legacy
Jerry Shirley Presents: Humble Pie Legacy - 50 Years Of Smokin’
Page 44
Shinedown
Shinedown Drummer Barry Kerch Talks About The New Shinedown Album Planet Zero And Their Upcoming Tour The Revolutions Live Tour
Legendary guitarist Coco Montoya has just released his new album, Writing On The Wall on his longtime label, Alligator Records. To call Coco legendary is almost an understatement. This man’s legacy goes back over 50 years. His introduction into the music business was pretty standard at a young age. He started out on drums performing at local venues around Santa Monica, California, playing in several rock bands, however a Creedence Clearwater Revival concert in 1969 at which bluesman Albert King was the opening act changed his direction on where he wanted to go with his music. It was going to be the Blues for Coco.
“After King got done playing,” says Montoya, “my life was changed. When he played, the music went right into my soul. It grabbed me so emotionally that I had tears welling up in my eyes. Nothing had ever affected me to this level. He showed me what music and playing the blues were all about. I knew that was what I wanted to do.”
A chance encounter in the mid-70s with another legendary guitarist, Albert Collins really changed his destiny for the better. He wound up playing drums for the great bluesman. Albert started mentoring Coco on guitar and it wasn’t long before Coco switched from drums to guitar performing as Albert Collins’ second guitarist.
“We’d sit in hotel rooms for hours and play guitar,” remembers Montoya. “He’d play that beautiful rhythm of his and just have me play along. He was always saying, ‘Don’t think about it, just feel it.’ He was like a father to me,” says Coco. There was many a night that Coco found himself staying over at Collins’ house. Albert proudly proclaimed that Coco was like a “son” to him.
But things didn’t stop there. After leaving Collins band, Coco caught the eye of another Blues legend, Mr. John Mayall. John Mayall had caught a performance of Coco playing Otis Rush’s All Your Love (I Miss Loving) and it soon led to a phone call from John to Coco with an invitation to join the world famous John Mayall and The Bluesbreakers. These were going to be pretty hard shoes to fill as previous guitarists for John Mayall included Mick Taylor, Eric Clapton, Peter Green and more, but Coco was up for the challenge. He spent the next 10 years on the road with Mayall and recorded seven albums with him.
The next step came in 1995 when Coco stepped out on his own to lead his own
Blues band and issued his first solo album, 1995’s Gotta Mind To Travel (originally on Silvertone Records in England and later issued in the USA on Blind Pig Records). It quickly became a Blues favorite and his fans and new fans just loved it and it cemented Coco into becoming a full-fledged solo artist recording albums for Blind Pig Records, as well as two stints with Alligator Records with whom he records with today.
Well, Coco is back with his new Alligator Records release, Writing On The Wall, and without a doubt, this is his best album yet. With 13 great songs on this album, five of which Coco wrote or Cowrote, this is definitely a tour-de-force for the legendary guitarist. Other writers or cowriters on the album include: Jeff Paris, Dave Steen and Drew Steen. He even includes three cover songs written by Don Robey, Andy Fraser, and Lonnie Mack respectively. Performing on the album is Coco’s fantastic band which consists of Jeff Paris (Keyboards, Piano, Hammond Organ, Wurlitzer, Background Vocals, Electric and Acoustic Guitars and guitar solo on Writing On The Wall, Rhythm Guitar on What Did I Say?), Nathan Brown (Bass)’and Drew Steen and Rena Beavers (Drums and Background Vocals). This is the first time that Coco has brought his touring band into the studio for an Alligator Records release and it really enhanced the production and spontaneity of the album making it one of the most enjoyable recording sessions for Coco. As you listen to the songs on this album, you’ll
see how tight this band is together.
Guest musicians on the album include: Ronnie Baker Brooks (Guitar on You Got Me (Where You Want Me), Guitar and Vocals on Baby, You’re A Drag), Lee Roy Parnell (Slide Guitar on A Chip And A Chair), Dave Steen (Rhythm Guitar on A Chip And A Chair, The Three Kings And Me), and Tony Braunagel (Drums on Save It For The Next Fool, (I’d Rather Feel) Bad About Doin’ It, Be GoodTo Yourself, Natural Born Love Machine).
Writing On The Wall was Produced by Tony Braunagel and Co-Produced by Jeff Paris. It was recorded at Jeff’s Garage, Studio City, CA.
Songs on the new album include: “I Was Wrong,” “Save It For The Next Fool,” “You Got Me (Where You Want Me),” “(I’d Rather Feel) Bad About Doin’ It,” “Be Good To Yourself,” “Stop,” “Writing On the Wall,” “Late Last Night,” “What Did I Say?,”, “A Chip And A Chair,” “Baby, You’re A Drag,” The Three Kings And Me,” and “Natural Born Love Machine.”
We sat down with Coco Montoya recently to discuss the new album and the songs on it as well as reminisce somewhat about the past and had quite an interesting conversation which we’d like to share with you right now.
continued on next page
(continued from previous page)
Coco Montoya: Hello.
Rock And Blues International: Hello Coco.
Coco Montoya: Yes.
Rock And Blues International: This is Kevin with Rock And Blues International. I think I’m supposed to be talking to you about now.
Coco Montoya: You’re the next one up, Kevin.
Rock And Blues International: All right. How long do we have?
Coco Montoya: Your the last one, so I have to stop now. I’m just kidding. (laughs)
Rock And Blues International: Okay, well, I’ve been listening to the album. I really enjoy it. It’s really nice.
Coco Montoya: Oh thanks.
Rock And Blues International: I found a couple of the songs selections a little unusual, but they sound great.
Coco Montoya: Well thank you.
Rock And Blues International: You don’t hear too many people doing a Don Robey song, “You Got Me (Where You Want me)”.
Coco Montoya: It happens every once in a while. You know, it’s amazing. We took from a lot of different areas on this. That’s probably the biggest enjoyment for me as an artist and the players on the album and the producers had a lot of freedom. And there’s
so many places I wanted to explore there. You know that I have these influences that are inside me. There’s not just straight-ahead blues.
Rock And Blues International: What made you pick that song?
Coco Montoya: Where am I at? I’m gonna get a look on the list?
Rock And Blues International: “You Got Me”.
Coco Montoya: “You Got Me”. Bobby Bland. I got that from Bobby Bland. Alligator records sent that to me. Bruce Iglauer sent it to me and I liked it right away. It was a song he wanted done. He thought it would be a good one for me to do and of course we picked upon it and I rather enjoyed it and thought it was a good vehicle to bring in Ronnie Baker Brooks as well.
Rock And Blues International: Right.
Coco Montoya: I thought right away Ronnie would be great on that. Let’s see if he’ll do it. Of course, he was up for it.
Rock And Blues International: You use several guest artists on this too. I think the big change for you must have been when you switched from studio musicians and brought in your band.
Coco Montoya: Yeah, I have done that in the past over the years, on occasion, especially during the early Flying Pig things on some of the tracks. But this was a situation where I been playing with these guys for a long time and we were so connected and they had so many hours of playing together. That to me, it was a no brainer to just go this route
this time, because we had a little more freedom, and a little more time to do as we wanted to do. So nobody could use the excuse that the studio musicians were getting quicker. We weren’t worried about that. We were not worried. So we decided to go ahead with it and it turned out to be a really great thing, a lot of enthusiasm and the comfort in playing in the studio with each other knowing each other as well as we did was a real asset.
Rock And Blues International: How much did they contribute to.... you know, when you hire studio musicians to work for you they tend to follow what you tell them to do. But when you’re working with your own band in there, there’s probably a little personality that creeps in on songs and would you say their personalities influenced the songs that they played on there?
Coco Montoya: Yeah, just because I gave them the freedom to select. To start, we made demos to give ourselves an idea how would we play this song. I said we do the demos, guys. Throw out the Bobby Bland version. Don’t think about Bobby Bland. Just think about the song and let’s just see where we come from, whether in tempo or we come from simple things and just see where it fits. I think we even had a different key for that, that didn’t fit really well until we actually played it and realized we had to move the key around and put it in “G”. I think I had it a little higher than that and it was still too high for me. That was the beauty of the whole deal is just having their ability to do this the way we play it and that was the most important thing. This is going to be the way we play it. We do not want to imitate the track, the original. We didn’t want to totally imitate that which is great. It made them think, made them feel, made them just play, just play it like themselves, because that was what we wanted. Great, great experience.
Rock And Blues International: Well, you recorded this over Jeff Paris’s studio, right?
Coco Montoya: I sure did, yes.
Rock And Blues International: Was that the first time you were there recording with him or had this been happening before?
Coco Montoya: Well, a long, long time ago, we did an album called I Want It All Back. That’s where I met Jeff. And we were back and forth between his studio and Keb’ Mo’s studio that he had. They both had them in their backyards. So we used Jeff, because he did all the pre production there. And we worked out the songs, worked out the grooves, how are we going to present them and the vocals later where we did them at Jeff’s house, so I had some experience and felt comfortable in that room. And then we would cut over at Kevin’s (Keb’ Mo’) house. So that’s happened before. So yeah, coming in here to me felt at home and I felt very comfortable. We’d rehearsed there several times since Jeff has been in the band. So
continued on next page
(continued from previous page)
we’re all comfortable. And once again, you got guys that had been on the road together, played every night for several years. We know each other. We know how each other works, and we know the moods. And it all worked out to our benefit. It was a really comfortable situation and enjoyable.
Rock And Blues International: Well, do you find that a lot easier? Did you find making this album a lot easier than say when you went to other studios and then worked with studio musicians?
Coco Montoya: I found it to be easier, within also saying that recording is not easy. Recording is very tedious. And in my opinion, and it can be, it’s challenging and definitely you have to keep your emotions together. And you gotta remember you’re going to be under the microscope. Everything that you do is going to be criticized, plus or minus. So, yes, just the idea of being in a studio for me is a little bit daunting, but this experience that even no matter the hardest times of doing anything, we all stayed enthusiastic and we all made things work and we all figured out problems. That was the beauty of it all. So this is a very great experience in my book.
Rock And Blues International: All right. A lot of this stuff was well... I think five of the songs you wrote or co-wrote and the others were songs that were written by someone else, or for the sake of any other word, a cover song of somebody’s that you put your own style and feel into it. So let’s start off with the first song, “I Was Wrong”. Dave Steen wrote this thing and you’ve worked with Dave before.
Coco Montoya: Many, many times, he was my go to co-writer for many, many years... still is. He’s still one of the guys that I work with and now I’ve got Jeff Paris as well. We all... the three of us have written together. As you can see on the album, we’ve actually wrote together with the three of us doing zoom sessions. I wrote with Jeff, me and Jeff Rowan, and me and Dave, of course, over all these years, a lot of Dave Steen co-writes and singles. He writes his own and all over my material, on a lot of my albums.
Rock And Blues International: Okay, well, let’s talk about the first song “I was wrong”. Tell me about that song. What was it about that, that made you pick that, to pick that song by Dave.
Coco Montoya: I heard his version of it, that’s the thing. He’ll send me some stuff. And then he recorded that one for his own reasons. I mean, he recorded me a great,
beautiful recording of it and I said, Well, now how would I interpret that? I hear that a little more slimmed down, you know, a cut down version. And that’s how it worked out with that. I mean, he brought it to me and I said, I could use that one if you don’t mind.
Rock And Blues International: It’s a very, it’s very slow and very soulful.
Coco Montoya: Yeah, well, that’s the thing I liked about it and the approach of the guitar is kind of like the opposite of all that because I was thinking more. I’d say I was thinking more Clapton during his era with John Mayall when I was playing the guitar solo stuff. So my approach is a little more aggressive, more British, trying to be a little more... The fella’s upset. He was wrong. He realizes he was upset, he was wrong. And I thought the guitar had to really show that he’s distressful, what he was feeling trying to say. Okay, you’re right. I really did it. I don’t know how I did this, but I did it. So the guitar to me, lends itself to that emotion of how the person in the story is feeling. I was trying to look as, maybe I would be in a different situation.
Rock And Blues International: Right. And what about the second song, “Save It For The Next Fool?” That’s, that’s a bit more upbeat on there.
Coco Montoya: Yeah, that’s just a wonderful.... One of those Dave Steen things that I love. I said this is really cool. I just gravitated towards it and just said, Yeah, this is something I want to do, because there’s that side of me to me where that song is kind of pushing a little, a little more modern area, a little more groove, a little more tough story. In a nutshell. I liked it. I like the groove on it. The background vocals were really attracted to me.
Rock And Blues International: Okay. And we already talked a little bit about “You Got Me (Where You Want Me)” which was originally written by Don Robey, but whose
version is that that you’re doing?
Coco Montoya: The version we got to listen to was Bobby Bland’s version.
Rock And Blues International: Okay, and what was it about that song?
Coco Montoya: Well, right away, as soon as I heard it, I’ve been looking for something because I wanted to bring Ronnie Baker Brooks in. And I said, well, this is definitely me and him to trade some guitar licks in this. We could definitely do that and that was attracted to me too, right there. So that was the vehicle there for Ronnie... me and Ronnie Baker Brooks to get together on this because I’ve always wanted to do something with Ronnie. We’ve known each other for a long, long time. I was really close to his dad and his brother Wayne for many years. We first met during the Bluesbreakers days and so this a good opportunity to bring him in. And once again, a good experience for me and Ronnie, but a great experience for the people to hear Ronnie, and hear us work together.
Rock And Blues International: I love the version. It sounds really great. That brings us to “(I’d Rather Feel) Bad About Doing It”, which was written by Jeff Paris. Had you been doing many of Jeff’s songs before this, or is this like one of the first?
Coco Montoya: No, no, I definitely have done some. With I Want It All Back (2010) we did some Jeff Paris stuff. And I think on Hard Truth, I did a Jeff Paris song if I’m not mistaken. I don’t have it in front of me, so my brain isn’t as great as it used to be. But um, yeah. That was the tune that Jeff started because of the line. I told him a story that I heard from Paul Barrere. It was a joke. It was just a joke and it was funny. I don’t know if I should be telling the press, but we were all laughing about something that Paul remembered a buddy of his coming up to St.
continued on next page
(continued from previous page)
Paul feeling guilty and bad. I go why’s he feeling bad? Why, what did he do and he’s kind of had this little affair thing. And Paul looked at me as well, I forgive you. And he goes, ‘Look, I’d rather feel bad that I did it. I’d rather feel bad that I did it than feel bad that I didn’t, which is pretty funny to me. And I just remember that and I told Jeff about it. And he goes, ‘that’s it, there’s a song in there, just that... I’d rather feel bad about doing it. That’s what he came up with and he came up with these great lines in there and turned it into this thing, this multi, multi structured story. There’s multi stories going on within this song.
Rock And Blues International: Right.
Coco Montoya: Just kind of great. I really loved what he did with this.
Rock And Blues International: The next song that you did that I found really kind of surprising, because you don’t see too many people doing Andy Fraser songs, was “Be Good To Yourself”. I thought that was kind of unusual. He was a great songwriter. His work with Free was unbelievable.
Coco Montoya: Right! Right! So incredible. I got it from the Frankie Miller version.
Rock And Blues International: Really!
Coco Montoya: Yeah, I’ve been a big Frankie Miller fan for years. I got to jam with him at the Central Club back in the early 80s. Nice guy, great guy. He’s funny as hell. And everybody knows the story that Frankie had a massive stroke and can no longer perform.
Tony Braunagel is really close to him. He knows Frankie really well. So we were just kind of looking around and he says you’ve done a couple Frankie Miller songs and I say ‘Yeah, I have’. A “Beginner At The Blues” was one of his tunes. It was on one of my albums. I know there was another one I did by him and I can’t remember the title off the top of my head, but yeah this one came up and I said ‘I’ll just do this. Check this out,’ and Uh, so this is really good. I saw the video on YouTube myself, Frankie sounds great’. As soon as Jeff Paris heard it, he goes, ‘we got to cut this’ so it was kind of like, everybody was for it immediately.
Rock And Blues International: All right, and that brings us to a Lonnie Mack song, “Stop.” That one really sings.
Coco Montoya: Now see, that was a song that was brought to me a long time ago by Bruce Iglauer, the president of Alligator Records. He’s been bugging me to do that song for quite a few years now. He’s actually brought it up enough to want you to think about doing this. Why don’t you think about doing this. And I wasn’t disagreeing with him. I just wasn’t sure I could pull that off because I guess I’ve been too affected by seeing him do this so many times on gigs. Lonnie was incredible. I mean, his vocals are intense. I guess I didn’t feel very confident that I was up for that. Eventually, we said let’s give it a shot and Jeff Paris helped me once again, Mr. Incredible Talent helped me find a key that would be comfortable enough to be able to pull off the vocal. So yeah, I’m glad we did that. I’m glad we worked at it maybe for a few hours and it made the biggest difference in the world. So I’m very
proud of that song.
Rock And Blues International: The leads on it are so emotional. I mean unbelievable. So tell me about when you went to write the leads on that, were they written out ahead of time or did they just come to you on the spot?
Coco Montoya: Oh, that’s more on the spot things. I mean, I did stop and fix a few little places and stuff like that. I had to do that. But mostly just whatever comes out of my mind. There’s no way you can interpret stuff like that without just feeling it. That’s just my approach to most everything I do. I just got to feel it. If I can’t feel it, then I can’t do it. So that to me is the prime necessary element in anything I do play. I got to be able to feel something. And that song makes you feel something. I mean, this guy is just begging her to stop mistreating him. He’s trying so hard to hang on to what he’s got, but she’s evil. But you know, God bless him, he loves her. And that’s the greatest thing about the story. Once again, you feel the story. And that’s what you got to play to this. What you got to think about when you’re actually playing is just like, Yeah, my heart... I’m really up against it here with you.
Rock And Blues International: Well, I found the song to be very emotional.
Coco Montoya: Yeah, he’s not saying he’s leaving. He’s begging her to stop doing what she’s doing. That there’s an incredible... if you think about that, how incredible that feeling is. I’m not leaving you, I don’t have what it takes to leave you. Just please, just be good to me and I can be so good to you. You got to stop doing it. And that’s where the emotion is coming from. So you play with emotion, or you feel emotion easily. That’s where you end up going. You got to play that way.
Rock And Blues International: Right. I really enjoyed that one. I really enjoyed some of the softer songs on here. They’re just.... your playing is in all of them... for the lack of a better term, they just sound very emotional. Like you’re really putting your heart and soul into those particular songs.
Coco Montoya: Yeah, well, I appreciate that too because that’s the way you do that kind of stuff. You can’t do without that emotional element. I mean, I think you’re barking up the wrong tree. You have to you have to be able to feel it.
Rock And Blues International: Right. And then that brings us to the next song which is also the title song of the album “Writing On The Wall”. Now, I may have heard this wrong, and you can correct me. But when that thing started out, it sounded like a little bit of a honky tonk song to me.
Coco Montoya: Yep.
Rock And Blues International: ...with
continued on next page
(continued from previous page)
that piano. Did I hear that right or am I misjudging that?
Coco Montoya: No, I don’t think you misjudging it at all. I think what the important message musically in “Writing On The Wall” was to not ignore or feel so pigeonholed that, that can’t be. I went through this with “You Think I Know Better” a long time ago. When I got done with it, I put Leroy on it. The record company was concerned because they said it sounded a little bit too country for them. I said, ‘Well, so what’. Well, you’re a blues man. I come from the blues. But am I a bluesman? I don’t know if I’m a bluesman. I definitely blues in what I do. It’s all over what I do. I learned to cut my teeth on all that. And yes, but why should that stop me from writing something that just came out of me naturally and organically? Why should that stop me from going that direction and then recording the song? I don’t see the... I didn’t understand the pigeonholing. I never understood that. And eventually, I won the argument with them about putting the song out and what it did it end up being? It ended up being the title cut. So kind of funny, is when you hear it kind of leans a little bit on a country kind of groove, which is okay. You know, it’s kind of nice and what’s really brilliant about is that Jeff Paris... I told him just for an idea, just throw me a solo on there and look what he did. And I said, ‘that’s perfect’. That makes the song great! Jeff played perfect to the song. And you got enough of me playing all over this record, why not show the talents of the guys you’re working with?
Rock And Blues International: Absolutely. Well, you, Dave and Jeff wrote this. So who contributed what to what part? You don’t have to give it to me line by line.
Coco Montoya: Well, it’s just amazing. Me and Dave had written probably a good 70% of this song. We never finished it. We could never find the right... something’s missing, but we couldn’t put our foot on it. And maybe we need another first. We needed something. We said, let’s give this one to Jeff and see what he can do. It’s pretty much done. It just needs something else. And overnight Jeff said, ‘Yeah, I’ll have something in the morning for you and he came up with a bridge, which is great in there. And then he came up with another verse, which is exactly what we needed to get us into the bridge. He just, he just filled out the rest of the song. It’s just perfect. And isn’t it amazing. You can get so stuck and somebody else comes in and goes, boom, they can see clearly what it needs. So that’s how that song came about is something me and David had started many years ago, and brought Jeff into
it and it got done.
Rock And Blues International: How about “Late Last Night”. You and Jeff wrote that one as well.
Coco Montoya: Yeah, yeah. Yeah, that’s a fun song. It’s a funny song. Straight ahead bluesy kind of r&b feel to it. Yeah, that’s just about the challenges when we’re younger, going out at night and next thing you tie one on, and you had to explain to the little woman where the hell you were and why you were coming in so late. it’s, it’s fun. It’s a funny story. It’s just fun.
Rock And Blues International: What that written by experience from you?
Coco Montoya: oh, gosh, yes.
Rock And Blues International: Have you had to do some explaining about coming in a little too late at times?
Coco Montoya: Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. You don’t have a drug habit and alcohol problem, and not have this kind of situation. I haven’t had a drink or drugs since late ’72. I mean ’92. Me and Jeff on it are hilarious, because this guy’s like, he’s out there. Somebody had a jam and he says, ‘I stopped by to sing a song.’ It turned out to be an all nighter. It’s kind of... It’s just hilarious. I listened to this. I started laughing. I smile, because talking about waking up naked on his front lawn. That’s pretty funny. And then the wife says, I don’t trust your friends. I don’t trust the guys you call friends, what they’re doing to you! So yeah, I think every guy at some point or person is at that point where they’ve fallen off the deep end a little bit and do some explaining.
Rock And Blues International: Right. And I think, yeah, for one reason or another. Yes.
Coco Montoya: I came up with that
line. I wouldn’t have been late if I wasn’t late last night. I came up with that quite a while back and that’s another situation where Jeff said, ‘what was that line again’, wrote it down and we started working on it. You know, I hear something there.
Rock And Blues International: Well, you and Jeff seem to be doing quite well writing together. The next one was fantastic, too, a bit slower, but it’s another one of those emotional songs. “What Did I Say?” So explain that. What did you say?
Coco Montoya: Well I think that’s the question he’s having is, what did I say? What did I do? The line I came up with once again... I thought of something, then I call Jeff. I was ‘Jeff write this down. “What did I say? What did I do to make you run baby to someone new?”’ And he said, ‘Okay, wow, that’s a great, great song. We got something there’. We would see it and like me and Jeff will do that. With me, Dave, will do that. We’ll talk the story out. What is the story? What are we trying to say? And what we were talking about basically. The exhilaration of finding love is just like the exhilarate of take it.. It was the exhilaration when John Mayall called me and asked me to be a Bluesbreaker. I was just like, over the moon about it. I’m gonna be a Bluesbreaker, and I’m so excited until I first went on the road did the rehearsals and all that, and then it started to sink in. Oh, shit, we’re gonna do “Have You Heard.” We’re gonna be doing “Pretty Woman.” We’re gonna be doing all these songs like “All Those Heroes” where Clapton played “Have You Heard.” Nobody’s beat that? Gosh, now it’s sinking in that I’m gonna be compared to Eric Clapton. I’m gonna be compared to Mick Taylor. I’m gonna be compared to Peter Green. Now, the other side of it, the insecurity. The doubts start coming in. So it’s the same kind of idea but with a love affair between two people. And basically, she’s backing off at him.
continued on next page
(continued from previous page)
That’s where we talked the story of me and Jeff, we were talking the story out and he doesn’t know why she’s backing off. That’s why he said, ‘What did I do? What did I say? What happened? Why are you not contacting me? Why are you getting cold feet?’ And basically the song goes through the whole thing, how he’s changed. He says in the bridge, then he says that the thing he would normally do is just walk away. . And he said, we got to work at this, and to have hurt just gave him doubts. He kind of said, I like what he says, What’s your thought? He’s like, did I fail some test? That’s the idea. It was like there was a test, and I failed it. Are you letting me go just because of that., you’re not going to be willing to work out it. And basically, if you’re scared, I gotta tell you, and let me tell you, I’m scared too. I have my doubts. And that’s what that song is all about is just like, communicating, because you really don’t want to lose this great thing you guys got. But it’s always full of doubts. You got to get beyond those. If it’s real good and true love you get beyond the doubts.
Rock And Blues International: Right? And then now we’ve got “A Chip And A Chair” now. Is that a gambling song?
Coco Montoya: Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. Wonderful song. Another song, like I say, it cracks me up. I have to like, I have to kind of go after Dave and I have to go after Jeff. Sometimes they have songs that they’ve written that they just... “I didn’t think you’d be interested in this. I never showed it to”. this gem, this beautiful song or a great song. Yeah, “A Chip And The Chair” was Dave song that I liked the groove of it, kind of swampy little thing. And I thought there’s
my vehicle for Leroy Parnell and I could see the future of that. The song was written by him and his son Drew. Drew said ‘yeah dad, I had a gambling problem for a while there, that I’ve gone to meetings, and I gotten out of my problem. I don’t have that anymore’. But, you know, in the old days, when I used to gamble, is that sort of everybody would say, that was a saying, as long as you got a chip and a chair, you’re still in the game. So if you got your last chip, which is your last bit of money, you’re still in the game, if you want to play. So that’s what that whole thing was derived from was just showing that if you want to take it, follow it all the way to the end, whatever it may be, like in the songs talking about playing to an empty room. The idea is just, yeah, some days you really got it, some days you don’t, you just got to keep going. As long as you got a chip and a chair, you’re still get in the game, so I gravitated towards that really right away. I thought that was a great song.
Rock And Blues International: And Dave even did a little guitar on here as well.
Coco Montoya: Yeah, Dave did. I wanted him for the rhythm tracks and stuff because he built them so beautifully. I said, Dave, give me those tracks. So he flew out and came to the studio and hung out for a day and brought some great groove to the song. I don’t think it would be the same. I don’t think I could have played it anything like that.
Rock And Blues International: Leroy Parnell’s slide guitar was fantastic as well.
Coco Montoya: Isn’t that wonderful!
Rock And Blues International: It is!
Coco Montoya: I knew it. I knew it right away. He’s been on three songs on my albums, three albums I mean. There’s three albums with a Leroy Parnell appearance. He’s such a dear friend. Great guy. I was a huge fan of his way back and he ended up playing on my second album, Ya Think I’d Know Better. His solo on there is just to die for and we were good buddies and we just shipped it down there he put it solos on and played against me. We played against each other on it. I think it’s magic.
Rock And Blues International: Well, it sounds like magic and the whole song just really grooves.
Coco Montoya: Yeah, it sure does.
Rock And Blues International: Okay, on “Baby, You’re A Drag”, tell me about why baby’s such a drag.
Coco Montoya: Oh, that was funny. It was hilarious. We we were messing with this one a long time ago. I had actually forgotten that we had done this, me and Dave and Dave said, ‘Do you remember’ revisiting some of the old stuff? I found his “Baby, You’re A Drag,” and I did not even remember that. And then we listened to what we had on it. And the story, I said, Oh, this is a great story. Why didn’t we finish this? Usually every writer goes in there and gets it done till it’s done, good or bad. We just let that one lag. I don’t know what we lost it. It got lost in the shuffle, stuffed in a box somewhere. And yeah, it’s just a story, a great story that’s not common, which is great., I mean he’s just commiserating with his buddy. What I thought right away is it could be a thing for me and Ronnie Baker Brooks as well. Write the song into a place where the two guys commiserating about what a drag their old ladies are? Their wives are just no fun. You know, she don’t want to go out and party. Music’s too loud. Don’t like those people, you know? Yeah. So, me and Ronnie said, Well, we can share that. It’d be two old guys talking about it and that’s how it came out, as we made it like two guys just chat it up bitching about the old lady.
Rock And Blues International: Yeah, and he does guitar and vocals on this one.
Coco Montoya: Yeah. That’s another vehicle for us to share the guitar talents of another great guitar player and working with him and we both are trading off.
Rock And Blues International: Who are the Three Kings in “The Three Kings And Me”?
Coco Montoya: Very simple. That’s Albert King, Freddie King, and BB King.
Rock And Blues International: That’s what I was thinking. Although it doesn’t really say that. Or at least if it did, I missed
continued on next page
(continued from previous page)
that line.
Coco Montoya: Well, it’s just the beauty of it. It’s just... it was a guy here that doesn’t have much love for the holidays, especially at Christmas time. That’s what this is all about. And he’s got no presents, he’s got nobody there, he doesn’t have a wife or anything. You can hear through the whole song, it’s just him talking about going through another Christmas, but he’s got these three wisemen, so it’s about us musicians and musicians like me and David. So their our Wiseman and our guys that we look up to as blues players and that right there got me and the idea that he ends up ‘I’m here with them,’ so it pays homage to these three greats.
Rock And Blues International: Well it’s definitely very bluesy.
Coco Montoya: Yeah, definitely very bluesy.
Rock And Blues International: Last song an album, “Natural Born Love Machine”. Is that like a song about yourself?
Coco Montoya: Oh, no, at 71. No, I doubt it.
Rock And Blues International: Well, you never know. Sometimes they say the older you get, the better you are. I mean, we’re both the same age, you and I.
Coco Montoya: If there’s another blues guy that is 71 and is doing all that, I hate him already. I’m jealous as hell. “Natural Born Love Machine” started out with a guitar riff that I had that led us into the groove. We approach the song purely from a musical standpoint to say we’ll catch a groove, catch some chord changes, which is not the usual way we go about it, but we talked the groove and the idea, then we just came in “Natural Born Love Machine”. We just wrote together, me and Jeff on that, so we had plenty of time to sit around the studio and come up with that. I think he came up the Natural Born Love Machine idea and we just kept bouncing it off each other until we ended up with that, which is a lot of fun. It’s just to me just a great r&b groove. Lot of fun to play that kind of stuff. I had to break up the set from some of the slower models. Some songs are a little slower. It’s so different. It’s uptempo a little more, but it’s so different from “A Chip And A Chair”, things like that.
Rock And Blues International: But there’s a lot of great variety on the album from song to song. It’s not like they all sound the same. There’s a couple that that might sound a little similar, but they’re not.
Coco Montoya: The important thing is to definitely spread the flavors, I guess, like I said, to be able to go in here and do these different kinds of songs on here. They’re so different from each other. Taking chances is just being able to be free to to create and add somebody’s... You know, I never have a problem, somebody comes up live. I didn’t like to feel bad about doing it like that when it’s me, but I really like “You Got Me”. I didn’t like “Stop” as much as “Three Kings”. I mean, it’s just but that’s because that’s what people are gonna say out there. Interesting, and that’s why I like the variety. I’m not afraid to have the variety to stir it up a little bit. If anything taught me that was the I Want It All Back album. Don’t forsake everything that’s inspirational to you because you want to find exactly what the best... all the songs to be accepted. They’re not all going to be accepted by all people.
Rock And Blues International: Absolutely.
Coco Montoya: Yeah. So to me, that’s the whole thing. You paint the picture, you uncover it. Once you uncover it, now anybody can say what they want. They think that photo, the painting you did is a piece of shit or they can send another guy which brings me to tears. It’s so beautiful.
Rock And Blues International: Right.
Coco Montoya: That’s what you got to let yourself do, open once you’re done with it. That’s okay.
Rock And Blues International: We’ve talked a lot about Jeff Paris. We’ve talked about Ronnie Baker Brooks and Leroy Parnell. And let’s give a little love to a couple of the other musicians on here. Nathan Brown is your bassist on here. Tell me about Nathan.
Coco Montoya: Nathan Brown. He’s originally from Michigan. He lives out here in sunny California and he doesn’t want to leave. He’s an amazing player. I found him playing with the Boneshakers, Randy Jacobs And The Boneshakers. Incredible band. Some of the players used to be in Was Not Was. Great band, really funky and soulful. I saw him playing at a festival in Santa Cruz, California and I went up and gave him my number. Just, I’m looking for another bass player at this time. Let me know if you’re interested. Luckily, him being more of a jazz bass player and funk, r&b kind of soul thing, I wasn’t expecting him to say yes, because there’s a lot of different genres I cover in the scope of my music. But he said yes to it and he’s been here ever since and we just enjoyed each other. What an amazing player, very well liked by a lot of people in the business.
Rock And Blues International: Can you comment a little bit on what his playing might have lent itself to a couple of songs.
Coco Montoya: I think Nate’s playing, especially on... looking for the one that I really love what he does. And “What Did I Say” of course, incredible. “Natural Born Love Machine”’s playing is tough. I mean, it seems Nate always finds the right thing to play and what not to play. He knows what not to play. With Nate, it’s always asking him for something you hear and he’s got it. He said, I just don’t want to fill it up too much, I wanted to make a statement with simple words, instead of trying to... It’s like writing 50,000 words and you only need 10 to express yourself. He’s brilliant like that.
(continued from previous page)
Rock And Blues International: All right now, I will probably get the name wrong on the next one. But Rena, Rena Beavers.
Coco Montoya: It’s Renee, Rena pronounced Renee, but he spells it that way. And if your guess is as good as mine is why he won’t change it.
Rock And Blues International: Well, it’s Rena on what I’m reading.
Coco Montoya: That’s what it is. Renee Beavers.
Rock And Blues International: Okay, tell me a little bit about Rena.
Coco Montoya: I first met Rena out of the Blue circuit. He was playing with Jennifer Magnus, and little Milton he played with as well if I’m correct. He’d been around. He’s done toured with a lot of the great blues people. He was out here playing in some local clubs and we really connected. And, yeah, I saw him when I was in need for another drummer. I mean, he happened to be around and I gave him a call and he came down. I said, this is the guy and he’s been here for a long while. And he just once again, was really refreshing, he plays to the groove, plays to the song. That’s what I love about my guys, they play to the song.They really try and flush out what is necessary that they need to do or not do. They’re real conscientious that way and Rena is very conscientious, like his famous saying. He always says ‘group responsibly’, which is what his intention always is. And yeah, he’s brought the band to another level because he’s also is a great singer. He’s got a great voice and a wonderful falsetto, so he’s enhanced the band not only as the drummer, but also a background vocalist. And so yeah, I’ve got probably the
best guys I’ve had ever, in these guys.
Rock And Blues International: Okay, and last but certainly not least, a man of all seasons here. Tony Braunagel. Fantastic drummer. Fantastic producer.
Coco Montoya: A Scalawag. Great.
Rock And Blues International: Yeah, he’s from Houston.
Coco Montoya: Yeah, he’s from Houston. He’s a great guy. I’ve known him for many years, many, many years. We know a lot of the same people. He did the last two albums before. He brought me in there in the studio with old friends. The last ones I told you does this. I’ve got two albums. Actually, I got three albums with Mike, Mike Finnegan on it. If you don’t know Mike Finnegan is Mike Finnegan’s probably...
Rock And Blues International: The keyboard player.
Coco Montoya: Yeah, he was the ultimate to me in every aspect. I mean, incredible B-3 player, incredible piano player... the singing. That man can out sing anybody he ever worked with, anybody he ever played with. Mike Finnegan could sing like you wouldn’t believe and I never thought I would have something like that in my band. I guess if I had something like that. And the Tony albums, it shows Mike is just tremendous. Well, I did and when I got a hold of Jeff Paris and we talked about him joining the band, I couldn’t believe it when we got out and start playing. He could sing his butt off. He’s an incredible singer. Jeff is so multi talented, so you know what he brings to the band!
Rock And Blues International:
Absolutely, he plays guitar, he plays keyboards, he plays everything.
Coco Montoya: There’s nothing he can’t play. He’s a great harmonica player, that’s something. I’m thinking of ideas of how to feature that... I’m going to feature Jeff on... He’s phenomenal. He’s just a wonderful talent and wonderful guy to have on the road. My boys are all behind me. It’s just sometimes I am amazed by how behind me they are and how much effort they put out. So another one of the reasons why it was the right thing to do for us to go in here as a band and do the album.
Rock And Blues International: Well, Tony’s on for four songs on here.
Coco Montoya: Yeah, and that’s stuff that needed Tony’s expertise on, which is absolutely wonderful. It always is.
Rock And Blues International: And what was it like working with him as your producer?
Coco Montoya: Tony is great. Tony has great ideas, great vision. He listens, which is great. That’s part of the real important thing, is to listen to the artists. It’s not whether the artist is right, or gets his way. It’s whatever ideas going through his head, he gets to state it and put it out there and Tony is really good about that. He’ll stop what he’s doing. He’ll say, ‘What did you have to say? What was your idea?’ That was really important to me. And I’ve always been grateful for that and with him. He’s a very understanding producer.
Rock And Blues International: And how do you feel that this album fits in with the rest of your body of work? Is this the best one yet?
Coco Montoya: Yeah, I think everyone’s the best one as you do it. I mean, as you move along, you get better and better and better. I personally really love where the sound is coming from in so many ways. Like I said, the freedom this album represents right now, I never thought I’d ever have. So this gives me... I’m looking at it when I walk away from this, no matter what it does, plus or minus, that’s up to the good Lord and all the people out there that either they’ll like it or they won’t. I’m hoping they do. And I walk away from this album going, I just made, in my opinion, a really good album. And I’m at peace with that. That’s important to me. Now we want to take it to the people and see what they say.
Rock And Blues International: What’s the response been? I know it’s not out yet, as we’re as we’re talking now, I know that you’ve played this for some people. So tell me what the response has been from the people you’ve played it for so far?
Coco Montoya: Well, I’ve played it for very few people. I want to keep it down to
continued on next page
(continued from previous page)
make sure... I was told also by the company just don’t give it away. I don’t because I want it to be done right and correct. I have personal friends of mine, a few personal friends of mine, that just, they think it’s the best thing I’ve ever done. But that’s too early now to even tell if that means anything. Give us six months down the road. And we’ll see where this thing is sitting on the charts to see where this thing is selling, because you never... I don’t think there’s anybody, I don’t care how big you are, how small you are. I mean, nobody’s got their finger on the pulse of what sells and what doesn’t, what’s a hit, what’s not a hit. Nobody can really. I don’t believe anybody can pinpoint that. People can guess. But you never really know until that actually does what it’s supposed to do.
Rock And Blues International: I don’t know, you’re on Alligator Records and Bruce Iglauer is very vocal about what he thinks is going to be good and what is not going to be good, so when you played it for Bruce, what happened?
Coco Montoya: You know, that’s what’s also brilliant, which is a very good sign, that also leads me to be more... Even when I say things well, you never know. But I feel confident, I feel good in this. And so did Bruce, when we played it, we went to Chicago and brought him the roughs of demos. And these weren’t even the tracks. We brought the demos in there. And we listened to all 13 of them. And he just looked at us and said, I like them all. And believe me, there’s a guy over there named Bruce Iglauer that will tell you straight out if there’s something he doesn’t like. He doesn’t have a problem, so it was a great, great experience for him to say I like them all. And my manager John Boncimino just said, ‘Well, do we got an album? And Bruce said, ‘Yeah, let’s get to work’. So that’s a positive sign all the way down the road to get us to where we are here. Now the next thing is when we get it released, get it to the people and see where it goes. And I’m very, very enthusiastic. I’m very, I’ve got a positive mind that this is going to be probably one of the best sellers if not the best seller.
Rock And Blues International: I think response on it is going to be fantastic. I really do.
Coco Montoya: I actually have a good feeling it does. I feel really positive on this thing. And it’s not just me, it’s all these people that we just talked about that are involved all the way down the line. Without their input, it wouldn’t be what you’re hearing. I don’t think it would be. Everybody was necessary.
Rock And Blues International: Anything you’d change?
Coco Montoya: No. No, there’s nothing unless there’s something I can give you. There’s always stupid stuff. You can go in there go ‘Oh god, I hate that guitar riff. I could play that better.’ You could do that to yourself ad nauseam. So you try to, you walk away from this saying ‘look, this works and I’m presenting this. I think this is great.’ And like I said there’s a couple of little things in there that I probably would have changed, but you know what it is. To me beauty has little flaws. You get too perfect, it’s too sterile, it’s too perfect. I used to make that comparison to Playboy. When playing I used to have these beautiful pictures of these beautiful women and then you go back as they moved to Munna, they airbrushed everything so much, and then you start seeing make believe commercials and all this stuff in this limited process that they’re just like mannikins. That’s not attractive to me. You know, a woman with a wrinkle here or a woman with a beauty mark there, that’s real. That’s the same thing to music, it’s like a beautiful piece of wood. It’s got a knot in it that you leave in there because it looks great. It’s got a great design to it. There’s a lot of ways of comparing it. This album to me is perfection and its imperfection.
Rock And Blues International: I certainly understand your feelings with that. That’s great. If someone listened to your music for the very, very first time, and they’ve never heard anything you’ve done before, what album would you want them to listen to, this one?
Coco Montoya: Well right now I can’t get this out of my mind, so this would be the one because it’s so diverse. We worked hard on the other ones to be a little diverse as well if you go back and listen to them. I guess what I’d like this to do is to hear this and then want to go back and get the others and listen to the others and listen where as you know, as we count on this road since the first release. That’s the idea. It’s like, listen to this and then if you can go back further. Go back further. It may make you want to. I want it to make people say, ‘I gotta hear his other stuff’.
Rock And Blues International: Well, this is Coco Montoya today.
Coco Montoya: Absolutely.
Rock And Blues International: Well, what haven’t I talked about that I should have?
Coco MontoyaL Well, I don’t know. We pretty much covered this I think. We got Tony there.
Rock And Blues International: As soon as we hang up, you’re going to think of something that we should have talked about.
Coco Montoya: I know, well that’s always the way it goes. That’s the way it goes. It was just an amazing, great time. The idea actually is kind of a background info thing. It just like we were doing this album as well. Jeff’s studio in the back it was... what was brilliant about this situation is like Jeff’s studio is not far away from being a real studio. We had to bring in a brand new recording system. So there was things that need to be done to fire this thing up. It’s like finding an old car. It’s a little dirty here. I want it to start. If not, what do I gotta
continued on next page
(continued from previous page)
do to get this started up and we had to work on it. I brought in microphones I’ve had from other items that I bought over the years. They were really good microphones. A couple of preamps I had, a set of Tannoy speakers. Jeff had dug this out and dug that out so I brought all of this recording equipment I had for my demos in my house that I wasn’t using. So we basically built a studio and fired it up and got all the bad pits out of that whole thing. I don’t understand the digital recording. Now that’s way out of my realm, but these guys basically built up the studio and got it running. And so there was a lot going on trying to do all that, get it ready, and then finally start working. But in the meantime, we had the ability to make the demos, so we had to make the demos and try and get the studio built up and running on its own. So we did. Jeff did an amazing amount of stuff. Tony was really helpful. A couple of the engineers came out and helped us troubleshoot all kinds of things and it took a long while so we had to do all that in the meantime and then eventually go in there and start working, cutting and it was a blessing. Next time we go in there, it won’t take nearly as long but I guess the reason why I tell you that it’s it shows the dedication from everybody. You know, everybody showed up, everybody got things running, everybody wasn’t worried about the time clock. Nobody was worried when they’re gonna get their money. Everybody pretty much worked on a leap of faith to get it done, so we could do it at Jeff’s place and we’re so glad we did it totally.
Rock And Blues International: Well, before I let you go, was it the strat you played through the whole thing, or did you use other guitars?
Coco Montoya: No, I pretty much used that strat through everything. Yeah. That was it. I didn’t mess with anything else. I think I had enough backing things. Jeff played some rhythm parts. Ronnie played some great parts as well, you know the background and of course Dave came in and played. He played an SG on a lot of things in the background. So I was covered. I play so unorthodox that sometimes playing rhythm parts for me, I can tend to play a little out of tune. That’s just an honest factor. I don’t care if anybody knows that. I work on it, but I get help when I need it and where I need it. I don’t have any ego with that.
Rock And Blues International: Well, I enjoyed the guitar tone through the whole album. It’s a fantastic album. And well, nothing else we need to talk about? You Sure?
Coco Montoya: Other than, you know, I was grateful for Two Rock Amplifiers. I got one of those and it’s proved to be very useful in the studio, that one and my Steve Carr amp and we used a lot of different things. We had another Super of Jeff’s that we used in there and it’s just the right thing to use. We line all the amps up and then everything came into into favor at one point or another.
Rock And Blues International: All right. Well, I want to thank you for your time. And if you think of anything else, give me a call. Otherwise, I hope I’ll be able to see you in Houston again. sometime. I believe I saw you here at.... God, I want to say it had to be 10 to 15 years ago at the club called Rockefellers,
Coco Montoya: Rockefellers. That’s about right, Rockefellers. So that’s still there.
Rock And Blues International: Yeah.
Coco Montoya: Oh, man. Oh, yeah. I used to play there with Mayall. I played with Albert.
Rock And Blues International: Yeah, it used to be a bank that was robbed by Bonnie and Clyde.
Coco Montoya: Yeah, yeah, I remember that story. That’s great. They robbed that place.
Rock And Blues International: Yeah, there’s still chunks of concrete knocked out on the wall outside where they shot it up a little bit.
Coco Montoya: I’ll be damned. That’s amazing. Wasn’t there another place? Was there a Fitzgerald’s down there?
Rock And Blues International: Yeah. Fitzgerald’s, it’s now a parking lot.
Coco Montoya: Oh, goodness gracious.
Rock And Blues International: Oh, yeah.
Coco Montoya: Well, I remember that place. Oh, my God. I was with Mayall. We played there and we flew in to do the gig and they had backline and stuff. But we had our gear, you know, guitars and John had a keyboard he had to take with him and all that. And we went out to the parking lot to watch over our gear. The area there was a little shaky, a little weird.
Rock And Blues International: Right.
Coco Montoya: But there was supposed to be a car coming along to take us, a van or something to take us back to the hotel so we could fly out the next day and go home. And nobody showed up. Oh, yeah, this is when we didn’t have cell phones. This was a long time ago.
Rock And Blues International: Right.
Coco Montoya: I remember we had to stand and watch over everything. I forgot which one of us went find a payphone? Yeah, we had to call the promoter and all this stuff. And then he was saying the guy was there and you weren’t there. No, we’re sitting here, there’s nothing. And I don’t know how... I think John got a couple of taxis to come find us and take us to the hotel. We were sweating bullets in that dark, dark parking lot. I remember that.
Rock And Blues International: Yeah, gravel.
Coco Montoya: Yeah, gravel. Exactly. Oh, that was just, that’s the road. It’s the blues. It happens.
Rock And Blues International: Yeah, I’m sure you’ve got a lot of tales you can tell about different venues you performed at, some good, some bad. Some a little shaky.
Coco Montoya: Yes. some not good, some great. All in all, it all averages out. It’s all good.
Rock And Blues International: Well, I’ll let you go. Thank you for your time. It looks like we spent about an hour on this, which I don’t know if that’s too long or too short.
Coco Montoya: I think we’re fine.
Rock And Blues International: All right. Well, thanks again. You have a great weekend. And I’m looking forward to the next album as well.
Coco Montoya: All right, buddy. Thank you so very much. We’ll hook up the next time we come down to Texas.
Rock And Blues International: Okay, I’ll do that. Thanks again. Bye bye.
Coco Montoya: Bye.
Writing On The Wall is definitely the best album for Coco Montoya to date. This album is chock full of everything that Coco is known for, soulful and incendiary leads, great melodies and complete music honesty. This is Coco Montoya today. This is the passion of Coco Montoya out front for everyone to hear. As you can tell by the interview, Coco is busting at the seems to get out on the road and start performing these great songs. Coco plans on tour non-stop, as he has been doing all his life to promote his new album, Writing On The Wall. For Coco, touring is everything. Besides touring back and forth across the United States, Coco has performed in many countries including Australia, Belgium, Switzerland, Germany, Norway, England, Brazil, Argentina, Spain, Mexico, Ecuador, Italy, Poland, Russia, the Czech Republic and Canada. Keep you eyes and ears peeled for Coco Montoya, as without a doubt he will be performing somewhere near you in the imminent future. And please be sure to pick up his new Alligator Records release, Writing On The Wall. It is simply fantastic!
This month we’re happy to present a special two-part story for the band Humble Pie or rather, Humble Pie Legacy to be exact. This story will feature two interviews back to back. The first interview will be with Humble Pie founder and original drummer Jerry Shirley, and the second interview will be with Humble Pie Legacy guitarist, Jim Stapley. Humble Pie Legacy will be hitting the road on tour this month and we wanted our readers to get a preview on what to expect if they are lucky enough to make it out to one of the band’s gigs this year.
This year legendary Humble Pie drummer Jerry Shirley has formed the Humble Pie Legacy which is billed as JERRY SHIRLEY PRESENTS: HUMBLE PIE LEGACY – 50 YEARS OF SMOKIN.’ For this new band, Jerry has recruited a former Humble Pie alumni, Dave “Bucket” Colwell to head up the band. Also in the band is bassist Ivan Bodley, drummer Bobby Marks and vocalist / guitarist Jim Stapley. Jerry has handpicked every member of the band because he felt that these four guys could actually live up to the legacy of Humble Pie.
Jerry Shirley tells us that, “Having spent a long time carefully putting together such a wonderful band of top-class players with the help of Dave ‘Bucket’ Colwell, my
musical director and band leader using his recruiting skills, I am thrilled with the outcome and can’t wait to see and hear them light up the live stage later this year.” Founding guitarist Peter Frampton adds, “I wholeheartedly support this venture.”
Guitarist Jim Stapley is equally as happy to have been selected for this project. As Jim tells us, “Having spent a number of years playing with guys like Bucket, Kenney Jones, and Rick Wills, and having written, performed with, and been a close friend to Mollie – one of Steve’s daughters – it’s clearly obvious to me that the legacy of Humble Pie is an important and influential one. It’s not lost on me that the center spot on stage has a huge hole in it, where Steve Marriott once stood. I can’t even attempt to fill those boots, no one can. But I’ll tear my lungs out giving it a shot… The songs deserve it, the band deserves it, and everyone one who has come to love the music of Humble Pie, but never got to see them live, deserve it too… So, no pressure… (gulp).”
Bassist Ivan “Funkboy” Bodley, recalls, “I grew up with and love Soul and Rhythm & Blues music. To me, Humble Pie is just an extremely loud soul band covering Ray Charles, Ashford & Simpson, Dr. John, Ann Peebles, etc. It’s clear from the choice of covers that the founders of Humble Pie and I share that same obsession, which makes their music very dear to me.” He spent 13 years
on the road as bassist and music director with Rock & Roll Hall of Famer Sam Moore from Sam & Dave. He continues, “When I first got the call to join Humble Pie, I was a little bit worried that Jerry might think I was too diverse musically or not enough of a dedicated rocker. It’s not that I’m not a rocker. It’s just that I’ve had to do a lot of very different gigs in my life to keep the rent paid. In one of our early emails, Jerry said to me, ‘Anyone good enough for Sam & Dave is good enough for Humble Pie!’ It brought a tear to my eye. That’s when I realized just what soul music fans they were and how much Jerry appreciated how my skill set could contribute to the band.”
Drummer Bobby Marks continues, “What I love about this repertoire is its rock in its purest form – the songs, and parts, are heavy, bluesy and most importantly sexy. The music slithers. I love it! Being able to carry on this legacy is very important. Humble Pie is such a significant part of rock and roll history, and we’ve seen and heard first-hand how important this band and these songs are to people. To be able to speak the universal language of music, we make people happy. Understand that is some powerful stuff. Respect it, and most importantly deliver the goods every night.”
Now who can forget Humble Pie. For their original time together they were
(continued from previous page)
considered one of the first “Supergroups” and featured members such as Steve Marriott, Greg Ridley, Jerry Shirley, Peter Frampton, and Clem Clempson. Their albums, such as As Safe As Yesterday Is, Town And Country, Humble Pie, Rock On, Smoking’ Performance Rockin’ The Fillmore, Eat It, Thunderbox, and Street Rats, to name a few, dominated the charts and they were the toast of every concert they performed at. They created a song list that rivaled any other band out there. Who can forget hit songs like “30 Days In The Hole,” “I Don’t Need No Doctor,” “Stone Cold Fever,” “Hot ‘n’ Nasty,” “Four Day Creep,” “Big Black Dog,” “Black Coffee,” “I Walk On Guilded Splinters,” “Shine On,” “I’m Ready,” “Fool For A Pretty Face,” and the list just goes on and on. While it seemed that those songs might have been left to an era long ago, Jerry Shirley has chosen to revitalize the legacy of Humble Pie now for the whole world to see and listen to, and he has done so in the form of Humble Pie Legacy and those songs are coming to life again.
We sat down with Jerry Shirley to reminisce a bit about the history of Humble Pie as well as the future of Humble Pie Legacy and it was a really interesting interview. Jerry was very forthcoming to explain the process of Humble Pie Legacy and the goal for the band, as well as explain how everybody that is still somewhat connected to the original Humble Pie have given their best wishes and endorsement for this revitalization of Humble Pie Legacy. Although Jerry will not be performing with the band on a regular basis, he hopes to sit in every once and a while and will be there to help guide the band along the way.
The second part of our interview is with guitarist Jim Stapley, who will be taking on the role of Steve Marriott for this endeavor. Don’t expect Jim to step in as a Steve Marriott clone. That’s not his place and he knows it. Jim will be there to deliver the best that he can in interpreting Steve Marriott’s iconic vocals and guitar-work. When Jim was approached for this position in Humble Pie Legacy, he consulted with his old friend Mollie, Steve Marriott’s daughter for her advice on joining the outfit. Her response was, “do it”, and so with her blessing, he agreed to take part in Humble Pie Legacy. Jim was
happy to sit down with us and clarify his position on the band as well as to spread a lot of fantastic enthusiasm for joining up with the band.
As much as I would like to sit back and continue on with the story of the original Humble Pie, those of you reading this are probably already high knowledgeable about the history of the band and the real story here is the resurgence of Humble Pie, the breathing of life into a new band to carry on the auspicious legacy of all the great musicians involved in the original Humble Pie, so without any more hesitation, why don’t we sit down with Jerry Shirley and talk about this new project and when his interview is finished we’ll move on to the newest member of Humble Pie Legacy, Mr. Jim Stapley and he his take on the new project.
Rock And Blues International: Hello.
Jerry Shirley: Hello Kevin.
Rock And Blues International: Yes. How are you doing?
Jerry Shirley: I’m fine, this is Jerry calling. Can you hear me?
Rock And Blues International: I can hear you just fine.
Jerry Shirley: Right, I can hear you perfectly too. I’m using the Skype. I can hear you better. How are you sir?
Rock And Blues International: I’m doing great. How have you been?
Jerry Shirley: I have been very well.
Rock And Blues International: The last time you and I talked and you won’t remember it, but you were in a band called Fastway.
Jerry Shirley: Oh, yeah.
Rock And Blues International: Yeah. So that’s been, you know, a couple of weeks ago. (laughs)
Jerry Shirley: Yeah. I can’t believe it, it’s what, forty years?
Rock And Blues International: Yeah, I think I think we met in ’83 or ’84.
Jerry Shirley: That’s right. The band released its first record in
continued on next page
(continued from previous page) ’83, and the second in ’84. And it was a shame that they didn’t keep that lineup together. But they chose machinery over men. And that was a big mistake, because the third album stiffed. They got rid of myself and the bass player, Charlie McCracken, and replaced us with machines and may he rest in peace, Eddie himself admitted to me that afterwards it was a big mistake.
Rock And Blues International: Well, it’s ridiculous. You never replace the rhythm section. That’s the backbone of the band.
Jerry Shirley: Yeah, without a rhythm section that cooks, there is no band. I don’t care who’s the frontman! I mean, Mick Jagger will tell you that the Stones would not have been the Stones if they hadn’t have had Charlie and Bill. And the same applies to all the big bands. You name them, and they’ve got a hot rhythm section.
Rock And Blues International: That’s right. Well, I guess we’ll get on to the the Humble Pie Legacy Tour. I don’t think they’ve been on the road since 2018. Is that about right?
Jerry Shirley: Yeah, yeah, we started putting this together right before COVID happened and we got COVID, and put it on hold for a while and it gave us time to rethink and re-shuffle. I preferred the idea of a four piece band, so we changed it around because the 2018 version was a five piece band, and that wasn’t Humble Pie for me. It had to be a four piece. And we got lucky and found a great lead singer who played guitar as well called Jim Stapley, who you’re going to be speaking too soon, I believe.
Rock And Blues International: That’s right. He’s scheduled right after you.
Jerry Shirley: Yeah, so it’s a perfect remake of Humble Pie if you like. The difference between this and sort of a bog standard tribute band is that the tribute bands usually have nothing to do with the original members, whereas this is put together by me with David, Dave “Bucket” Colwell, who was in Humble Pie back in 2000 when Greg Ridley was still alive. So because I can’t play anymore, not that hour and a half of it anyway, we figured out that the only way to do it and do it with class was to... Well, first of all find a drummer that
could play the way I did. And second of all, approach it with the legacy, so that we’re saying, we understand it’s not the original lineup, but it is put together by the original lineup. The original has the blessings of... Well, first of all, I own the name now, Kevin.
Rock And Blues International: Right.
Jerry Shirley: So I didn’t need any blessings from previous members. But God bless him because he’s my dearest friend, Peter Frampton, highly approved of what I was doing. Clem Clempson also, and hopefully down the road, when this thing gets going, we’ll be able to have myself and who knows who else will join us along the way with special guest appearances. You know, our old fans of the band have gone on to become well known players themselves. There’s nothing set in stone yet, but I know that there’s plenty of bands out there. For instance, Chad Smith, with the Chili Peppers, who is a huge fan and a dear friend, and once we get it rolling, friends like that might show up. I’m hoping, and I’m certainly hoping I’ll be fit enough by then to be able to do the occasional guest appearance.
Rock And Blues International: I certainly understand. Well, when you get to be our age, getting on the road for a 30 or 40 Date Tour gets to be a little trying at times.
Jerry Shirley: It certainly does. Yeah, you can’t. I mean, I have health issue also with my hips. I can’t play drums for 90 minutes anymore at the level at which I need to play for Humble Pie. The type of material involves some pretty hard work drumming wise, and my hips were replaced about eight years ago. and I can walk again. Great, that was fantastic, I had my mobility back, but I can’t sit and play drums comfortably for any length of time. And without going into any long boring medical reason, it can’t happen. So I’ve done enough on the road. I’ve been on the road for 50 plus years, since I was nine years old and I did my first professional gig. So we found a way of keeping our music alive in a live format. And that’s where we were at our best anyway.
Rock And Blues International: Well it would definitely be hard for you to recreate the live performance at the Fillmore you did back with that album Performance Rockin’ The Fillmore. Your drumming was just incredible back then. It was just unbelievable. I don’t even know how you could last 15 to 20 minutes now at our age doing something like that.
Jerry Shirley: Exactly. Yeah. And do it well, you know that’s
continued on next page
(continued from previous page) the whole thing. It’s all very well to do it for 10 minutes, but to do it for now half or more you got to be super fit and I just.... Let’s put it this way, Kevin, I figure I’ve done It. I’ve done my bit, I’ve done enough, but if I can find a way of keeping the band’s music going and introduce it to newer people and younger people, then it’s only helping.
Rock And Blues International: Exactly. Exactly. Well even 30 minutes or an hour wouldn’t even be enough time to cover the hits that Humble Pie had with songs like “Black Coffee,” “30 Days In The Hole,” “I Don’t Need No Doctor,” “Hot ‘n’ Nasty,” “Natural Born Boogie” and the list goes on and on. You know you can get stuck there for at least a minimum of two hours.
Jerry Shirley: Oh, absolutely easily. I mean, you could put a set together with just three or four songs that would cover two hours. “Walk On Guilded Splinters,” “Rolling Stone,” I Don’t Need No Doctor” and one or two others to get and make a two hour set.
Rock And Blues International: Oh Exactly. “Walk On Gilded Splinters” from the Rockin’ The Fillmore album was unbelievable. It was just unbelievable.
Jerry Shirley: It was. Thank You. It was really fun, too. Yeah, it was. It was a wonderful musical journey all in itself, because we never... We had a structure to it, but what happened within that structure was anybody’s guess. We knew each other so well, we could go left, right and center, it didn’t matter. We could just take off somewhere that we’ve never been before night after night and that magical ad lib that we had between us was so wonderfully captured on the live album. We didn’t realize what we had done until years after, really. Honestly we just thought, well, it’s a live album. and you know, we nearly screwed it up, we mixed the audience out. We mixed it as if it was a studio album. And the management came to hear it. And the biggest favor he ever did was when he said, ‘What have you done?’ He said, you mixed the audience out. Where’s the atmosphere? And of course, in our in-experience of live recording, we thought we would mix it as if it were a studio record. Subsequently, all the live mics, we
got rid of, and the atmosphere was removed because we were treating it like a studio album. So we had to completely do it all over again and we hired on board the engineer, who is actually a dear friend of mine, Eddie Kramer who actually recorded it on the night. But we went to New York afterwards and remixed it at Electric Ladyland with Eddie in charge. And we were taking turns, band members to be with him, so that we weren’t too many cooks, you know.
Rock And Blues International: Right, well back then live albums were few and far between as it is, so you were you were pretty much breaking new ground for artists. Today live albums are commonplace. Back then some bands just would never even consider the idea of doing a live album.
Jerry Shirley: That’s right. Yeah. Yeah, I think they were probably scared that they might show off their weaknesses instead of their strength. They were scared that their weaknesses might be laid to bear and we didn’t care about that. We knew what we had was good. But we had to involve the audience more, bring the audience mics back in. There was no phony crowd put in there. We brought back in what we’ve taken out basically is what I’m trying to say,
Rock And Blues International: Yeah, you push the fader back up.
Jerry Shirley: Yeah, that’s what we did. Because we thought, Oh, I got it. You don’t need that, that was supposed to be clean and it’s supposed to be studio live, and that’s nonsense. It needed all that. Half that record is the atmosphere from that beautiful room, The Filmore, the room itself, which is why there was so many live albums recorded there. Because it sounded beautiful, and the atmosphere that was created with the audience was absolutely fabulous.
Rock And Blues International: Well, it is one of the most popular live albums ever made, without a doubt.
Jerry Shirley: Well, thank you. I used to get a little... I’m actually shy by nature or excuse me, but humble by nature and I always used to shy away from being told that something we did was good. But actually 50 plus years later, I guess you bleep this out, but fuck it, I think it’s great.
Rock And Blues International: I remember the first time I sat down with my copy and listened to it. I probably listened to it three or four times the first time I heard it. It was just great! Oh, yeah, without a doubt it’s a great album and mine’s autographed.
continued on next page
(continued from previous page)
Jerry Shirley: Oh, where did we do it?
Rock And Blues International: Ah, actually, I got it in different places when people came through at different times. I got Steve Marriott at a club, I got I got you at a club are well. No, you were playing in concert here in Houston. You were with Fastway when you autographed mine. And it didn’t happen all at the same time. It happened at different times.
Jerry Shirley: And you’re in Houston.
Rock And Blues International: Yes.
Jerry Shirley: Oh cool, because I have a lot of connections with Houston. My first wife was a Houstonian and I’ve got a lot of friends down there that thankfully are still with us, some of them. Some of them have since left us but yeah, I used to love the place back in the 70s. Early 70s. The Montrose district.
Rock And Blues International: Right. It’s still happening.
Jerry Shirley: Is it? Is it really? Yeah. Yeah. Used to be a great restaurant there called Manfred’s. I don’t know if it still exists.
Rock And Blues International: No, that’s not there anymore. The restaurants have come and gone, but it’s still a very popular neighborhood. The hippies don’t have it as much more as the people with the BMWs do.
Jerry Shirley: Because it used to be the rich hippies didn’t it?
Rock And Blues International: Right. It used to be the hippies. Now it’s the... I don’t know what you call that group of people now. It’s like the average car, the cheap cars are the BMWs.
Jerry Shirley: The cheap cars. I love it. That’s great.
Rock And Blues International: Well, on this line up of the band that’s going out you’ve got Dave “Bucket” Colwell on guitar. You’ve got Ivan “Funkboy” Bodley still on bass.
Jerry Shirley: Yep. Yep. He’s still on bass.
Rock And Blues International: And Bobby Marks is doing your part. Right?
Jerry Shirley: He certainly is and he’s doing a grand job.
Rock And Blues International: Did you pick Bobby personally for this?
Jerry Shirley: Yes and no, Dave “Bucket” Colwell picked each guy and showed them to me, you know, like, this is a sample of this guy. What do you think? Et cetera, et cetera. So between us. He went out there in the field if you like, because he was in America a lot, visiting. And whilst there and through his connections with musicians, he found various people. We have one bass player initially, who was very good, but it just didn’t quite fit. And then we found Ivan, who was just perfect. He had Greg Ridley’s bass playing down to a tee, not copying him, just in the same ballpark, playing the same type of bass without copying note by note. And the same with Bobby Marks. He’s not copying me, but he’s a hard hittin’, fit, strong, powerful driver.
Rock And Blues International: So he’s sort of channeling the spirit of Jerry Shirley.
Jerry Shirley: Yeah, he’s made, if you like, he’s made it again without copying. He’s made a study of it, my style. We’ve talked about it. I’ve given him tips about why I approached playing and he’s kind of taken that on board and worked it into his own style and he’s doing a great job. And then of course, Dave “Bucket” Colwell is doing a marvelous job on guitar. He’s like the bandleader now. He is sort of the man that does the arranging and making sure that the right material is chosen and all that band leader stuff. Then of course, we’ve got Mr. Stapley, Mr. Jim Stapley. I can’t say enough about him. He’s perfect. Again, he’s not trying to copy Steve Marriott, he’s singing. He has the same range, he can get up there very high, and he can go down low, and he sings beautifully in tune. And he plays great guitar. So it’s just if you blink your eyes, if you close your eyes, it could be Humble Pie. And when you open your eyes, it is, it’s just four different guys carrying on the legacy of Humble Pie.
continued on next page
(continued from previous page)
Rock And Blues International: I think that’s wonderful that you’re keeping the legacy of Humble Pie alive. I would have liked to have seen a couple of other bands do that along the way. But again, you’re breaking new ground with something like this. Maybe some of them will get the idea later on and do that.
Jerry Shirley: Well, it’s different from just calling it Humble Pie with no original members. A lot of people have done that with different band names. What’s happened is over the years band members have gotten old, and have passed away, but the band name, it’s become a brand name and the music is a brand. With streaming and online radio the way it is now, with a new generation that listen through streaming... To give an example, Kevin, six, seven years ago, on streaming, Humble Pie had about 5000 people. Now we’re in several million people. Bit by bit it grows. When I one kid gets a hold of some of our music and tells his buddy or a lady will tell her golf friend, ‘look, check this out, listen to this guy. Blah, blah, blah.’ And so it has built... I’m surprised at how well it has developed through the whole streaming system of listening to music the way they do now.
Rock And Blues International: Yeah, the streaming system is something else. I wish it translated to more money for the musicians as well as it does for the labels.
Jerry Shirley: Yeah, yep.
Rock And Blues International:We could go do a whole show just on that alone.
Jerry Shirley: Yeah, yeah, something needs to be done there, because it’s not right that you have to have forty-seven streams to generate one cent, one penny, in earnings. And then that has to be divided up between the people that are entitled to it. So you think about it, it’s all very well if Taylor Swift is doing 57 million streams, whatever. And that’s bringing in a nice chunk of change, but not everybody is bringing in those kinds of numbers,
Rock And Blues International: Right! Right!
Jerry Shirley: Yet it is becoming the way that people listen to music now. So you have to embrace it somehow, some way, in order to move with the times, I suppose. You are right, it’s not fair on a monetary basis. You did say the label. Did you mean that?
Rock And Blues International: God knows how many people have their finger in, I hate to say it, but have their finger in the pie.
Jerry Shirley: Yeah. They do. I mean, I wouldn’t disrespect our label live on the air or in an interview, but I guess they get more than the artist does. I don’t really know. I mean, I know that what we get is very small.
Rock And Blues International: Enough for a trip to the pub occasionally.
Jerry Shirley: Yeah, If I hadn’t been sober for the last 26 years, the amount of money that we do get would be enough to make you go on out, go get drunk, I suppose. But it is growing, we are building an audience in that world. So that is the positive side. We have to keep looking at the positive or it’ll drive you crazy.
Rock And Blues International: Well, I wish we had a lot more time than what we have for this interview, because I think Jim’s supposed to call me in about four minutes. So what would you like to add that we really need to know about the tour?
Jerry Shirley: Well, well, I would love for you all to do is to come and see this band live and give it the shot it deserves. We’re going to be starting out on in Atlanta in Woodstock, Georgia, going through Virginia Beach, and then through New Jersey at the Landis Theater, at Red Bank, New Jersey, through Pennsylvania. You can find all of this online and through Humble Pie Legacy, either at Facebook or Instagram. We’re doing a big festival in West Springfield, Massachusetts. Yeah, West Bloomfield, I think that’s Massachusetts.
Rock And Blues International: Yes, it is.
Jerry Shirley; Yeah, and that’s called the Big E., and then with again, we go back to the good old Token Lounge, outside of Detroit, then we’re in Cincinnati, and then in Kent, Ohio. And if we can, we will add a few dates to that. If not, we will be out there in earnest next year. And hopefully this tour will develop an audience to generate more people to come out and want to come and see us next year.
Rock And Blues International: Well, I think that’d be fantastic.
continued on next page
(continued from previous page)
And I’d love to see the band come to Houston, but it doesn’t look like you’re going to be anywhere near Texas.
Jerry Shirley: Not this time, but trust me, it’s on the top of the list for me that I’d want to see us be in Texas. It was always our strongest market.
Rock And Blues International: All right. Well, Jerry, it’s been a pleasure talking with you. You’ve got my number. If you think of anything else you want to tell me just give me a call or drop me a line or something. And I hope we can run into each other again one day.
Jerry Shirley: Okay, Kevin. Well, it’s been lovely talking to you. You’ve been a true gentleman, and give my regards to Houston.
Rock And Blues International: I certainly will. I’ll do that. And you have a great day. And I just I hope everything’s... I hope you’re having a lot of fun right now.
Jerry Shirley: Yeah, I’m doing the best. Looking forward to a great tour coming up in September and onwards to get this band really rolling into the new year.
Rock And Blues International: All right. Well, thanks a lot and we’ll talk next time.
Jerry Shirley: And very quickly, thanks to Steve Karas, our manager who has done a brilliant job. Along with Gary Buck, our agent. They’ve just done fabulous work to help us.
Rock And Blues International: All right. Well, thanks again. We’ll talk to you later.
Jerry Shirley: Take care buddy, bye, bye.
Rock And Blues International: Bye
Well, that was the first part of our story here. Now we’re on to
our interview with the newest member of Humble Pie Legacy, Mr. Jim Stapley. Jim has been tasked with recreating the guitar-work and vocals of the late Steve Marriott, which is not an easy job. It will require quite a bit of practice, patience and luck, but I honestly think he will pull it off fantastically, so here we are at about two minutes after I finished my conversation with Jerry Shirley.
Rock And Blues International: Hello.
Jerry Shirley: Hello Kevin.
Rock And Blues International: Yes. How are you doing?
Jerry Shirley: I’m fine, this is Jerry calling. Can you hear me?
Rock And Blues International: I can hear you just fine.
Jerry Shirley: Right, I can hear you perfectly too. I’m using the Skype. I can hear you better. How are you sir?
Rock And Blues International: I’m doing great. How have you been?
Jerry Shirley: I have been very well.
Rock And Blues International: The last time you and I talked and you won’t remember it, but you were in a band called Fastway.
Jerry Shirley: Oh, yeah.
Rock And Blues International: Yeah. So that’s been, you know, a couple of weeks ago. (laughs)
Jerry Shirley: Yeah. I can’t believe it, it’s what, forty years?
Rock And Blues International: Yeah, I think I think we met in ’83 or ’84.
Jerry Shirley: That’s right. The band released its first record in ’83, and the second in ’84. And it was a shame that they didn’t keep that lineup together. But they chose machinery over men. And that was a big mistake, because the third album stiffed. They got rid of myself and the bass player, Charlie McCracken, and replaced us with machines and may he rest in peace, Eddie himself admitted to me that
continued on next page
(continued from previous page)
afterwards it was a big mistake.
Rock And Blues International: Well, it’s ridiculous. You never replace the rhythm section. That’s the backbone of the band.
Jerry Shirley: Yeah, without a rhythm section that cooks, there is no band. I don’t care who’s the frontman! I mean, Mick Jagger will tell you that the Stones would not have been the Stones if they hadn’t have had Charlie and Bill. And the same applies to all the big bands. You name them, and they’ve got a hot rhythm section.
Rock And Blues International: That’s right. Well, I guess we’ll get on to the the Humble Pie Legacy Tour. I don’t think they’ve been on the road since 2018. Is that about right?
Jerry Shirley: Yeah, yeah, we started putting this together right before COVID happened and we got COVID, and put it on hold for a while and it gave us time to rethink and re-shuffle. I preferred the idea of a four piece band, so we changed it around because the 2018 version was a five piece band, and that wasn’t Humble Pie for me. It had to be a four piece. And we got lucky and found a great lead singer who played guitar as well called Jim Stapley, who you’re going to be speaking too soon, I believe.
Rock And Blues International: That’s right. He’s scheduled right after you.
Jerry Shirley: Yeah, so it’s a perfect remake of Humble Pie if you like. The difference between this and sort of a bog standard tribute band is that the tribute bands usually have nothing to do with the original members, whereas this is put together by me with David, Dave “Bucket” Colwell, who was in Humble Pie back in 2000 when Greg Ridley was still alive. So because I can’t play anymore, not that hour and a half of it anyway, we figured out that the only way to do it and do it with class was to... Well, first of all find a drummer that could play the way I did. And second of all, approach it with the legacy, so that we’re saying, we understand it’s not the original lineup, but it is put together by the original lineup. The original has the blessings of... Well, first of all, I own the name now, Kevin.
Rock And Blues International: Right.
Jerry Shirley: So I didn’t need any blessings from previous members. But God bless him because he’s my dearest friend, Peter Frampton, highly approved of what I was doing. Clem Clempson also, and hopefully down the road, when this thing gets going, we’ll be able to have myself and who knows who else will join us along the way with special guest appearances. You know, our old fans of the band have gone on to become well known players themselves. There’s nothing set in stone yet, but I know that there’s plenty of bands out there. For instance, Chad Smith, with the Chili Peppers, who is a huge fan and a dear friend, and once we get it rolling, friends like that might show up. I’m hoping, and I’m certainly hoping I’ll be fit enough by then to be able to do the occasional guest appearance.
Rock And Blues International: I certainly understand. Well, when you get to be our age, getting on the road for a 30 or 40 Date Tour gets to be a little trying at times.
Jerry Shirley: It certainly does. Yeah, you can’t. I mean, I have health issue also with my hips. I can’t play drums for 90 minutes anymore at the level at which I need to play for Humble Pie. The type of material involves some pretty hard work drumming wise, and my hips were replaced about eight years ago. and I can walk again. Great, that was fantastic, I had my mobility back, but I can’t sit and play drums comfortably for any length of time. And without going into any long boring medical reason, it can’t happen. So I’ve done enough on the road. I’ve been on the road for 50 plus years, since I was nine years old and I did my first professional gig. So we found a way of keeping our music alive in a live format. And that’s where we were at our best anyway.
Rock And Blues International: Well it would definitely be hard for you to recreate the live performance at the Fillmore you did back with that album Performance Rockin’ The Fillmore. Your drumming was just incredible back then. It was just unbelievable. I don’t even know how you could last 15 to 20 minutes now at our age doing something like that.
Jerry Shirley: Exactly. Yeah. And do it well, you know that’s the whole thing. It’s all very well to do it for 10 minutes, but to do it for now half or more you got to be super fit and I just.... Let’s put it this way, Kevin, I figure I’ve done It. I’ve done my bit, I’ve done enough, but if I can find a way of keeping the band’s music going and introduce it to newer people and younger people, then it’s only helping.
Rock And Blues International: Exactly. Exactly. Well even 30 minutes or an hour wouldn’t even be enough time to cover the hits that Humble Pie had with songs like “Black Coffee,” “30 Days In The Hole,” “I Don’t Need No Doctor,” “Hot ‘n’ Nasty,” “Natural Born Boogie” and the list goes on and on. You know you can get stuck there for at least a minimum of two hours.
Jerry Shirley: Oh, absolutely easily. I mean, you could put a set together with just three or four songs that would cover two hours. “Walk On Guilded Splinters,” “Rolling Stone,” I Don’t Need No Doctor” and one or two others to get and make a two hour set.
Rock And Blues International: Oh Exactly. “Walk On Gilded Splinters” from the Rockin’ The Fillmore album was unbelievable. It was just unbelievable.
Jerry Shirley: It was. Thank You. It was really fun, too. Yeah, it was. It was a wonderful musical journey all in itself, because we never... We had a structure to it, but what happened within that structure was anybody’s guess. We knew each other so well, we could go left, right and center, it didn’t matter. We could just take off somewhere that we’ve never been before night after night and that magical ad lib that we had between us was so wonderfully captured on the live album. We didn’t realize what we had done until years after, really. Honestly we just thought, well, it’s a live album. and you know, we nearly screwed it up, we mixed the audience out. We mixed it as if
continued on next page
(continued from previous page)
it was a studio album. And the management came to hear it. And the biggest favor he ever did was when he said, ‘What have you done?’ He said, you mixed the audience out. Where’s the atmosphere? And of course, in our in-experience of live recording, we thought we would mix it as if it were a studio record. Subsequently, all the live mics, we got rid of, and the atmosphere was removed because we were treating it like a studio album. So we had to completely do it all over again and we hired on board the engineer, who is actually a dear friend of mine, Eddie Kramer who actually recorded it on the night. But we went to New York afterwards and remixed it at Electric Ladyland with Eddie in charge. And we were taking turns, band members to be with him, so that we weren’t too many cooks, you know.
Rock And Blues International: Right, well back then live albums were few and far between as it is, so you were you were pretty much breaking new ground for artists. Today live albums are commonplace. Back then some bands just would never even consider the idea of doing a live album.
Jerry Shirley: That’s right. Yeah. Yeah, I think they were probably scared that they might show off their weaknesses instead of their strength. They were scared that their weaknesses might be laid to bear and we didn’t care about that. We knew what we had was good. But we had to involve the audience more, bring the audience mics back in. There was no phony crowd put in there. We brought back in what we’ve taken out basically is what I’m trying to say,
Rock And Blues International: Yeah, you push the fader back up.
Jerry Shirley: Yeah, that’s what we did. Because we thought, Oh, I got it. You don’t need that, that was supposed to be clean and it’s supposed to be studio live, and that’s nonsense. It needed all that. Half that record is the atmosphere from that beautiful room, The Filmore, the room itself, which is why there was so many live albums recorded there. Because it sounded beautiful, and the atmosphere that was created with the audience was absolutely fabulous.
Rock And Blues International: Well, it is one of the most popular live albums ever made, without a doubt.
Jerry Shirley: Well, thank you. I used to get a little... I’m actually shy by nature or excuse me, but humble by nature and I always used to shy away from being told that something we did was good. But actually 50 plus years later, I guess you bleep this out, but fuck it, I think it’s great.
Rock And Blues International: I remember the first time I sat down with my copy and listened to it. I probably listened to it three or four times the first time I heard it. It was just great! Oh, yeah, without a doubt it’s a great album and mine’s autographed.
Jerry Shirley: Oh, where did we do it?
Rock And Blues International: Ah, actually, I got it in different places when people came through at different times. I got Steve Marriott at a club, I got I got you at a club are well. No, you were playing in concert here in Houston. You were with Fastway when you autographed mine. And it didn’t happen all at the same time. It happened at different times.
Jerry Shirley: And you’re in Houston.
Rock And Blues International: Yes.
Jerry Shirley: Oh cool, because I have a lot of connections with Houston. My first wife was a Houstonian and I’ve got a lot of friends
down there that thankfully are still with us, some of them. Some of them have since left us but yeah, I used to love the place back in the 70s. Early 70s. The Montrose district.
Rock And Blues International: Right. It’s still happening.
Jerry Shirley: Is it? Is it really? Yeah. Yeah. Used to be a great restaurant there called Manfred’s. I don’t know if it still exists.
Rock And Blues International: No, that’s not there anymore. The restaurants have come and gone, but it’s still a very popular neighborhood. The hippies don’t have it as much more as the people with the BMWs do.
Jerry Shirley: Because it used to be the rich hippies didn’t it?
Rock And Blues International: Right. It used to be the hippies. Now it’s the... I don’t know what you call that group of people now. It’s like the average car, the cheap cars are the BMWs.
Jerry Shirley: The cheap cars. I love it. That’s great.
Rock And Blues International: Well, on this line up of the band that’s going out you’ve got Dave “Bucket” Colwell on guitar. You’ve got Ivan “Funkboy” Bodley still on bass.
Jerry Shirley: Yep. Yep. He’s still on bass.
Rock And Blues International: And Bobby Marks is doing your part. Right?
Jerry Shirley: He certainly is and he’s doing a grand job.
Rock And Blues International: Did you pick Bobby personally for this?
Jerry Shirley: Yes and no, Dave “Bucket” Colwell picked each guy and showed them to me, you know, like, this is a sample of this guy. What do you think? Et cetera, et cetera. So between us. He went out there in the field if you like, because he was in America a lot, visiting. And whilst there and through his connections with musicians, he found various people. We have one bass player initially, who was very good, but it just didn’t quite fit. And then we found Ivan, who was just perfect. He had Greg Ridley’s bass playing down to a tee, not copying him, just in the same ballpark, playing the same type of bass without copying note by note. And the same with Bobby Marks. He’s not copying me, but he’s a hard hittin’, fit, strong, powerful driver.
Rock And Blues International: So he’s sort of channeling the spirit of Jerry Shirley.
Jerry Shirley: Yeah, he’s made, if you like, he’s made it again without copying. He’s made a study of it, my style. We’ve talked about it. I’ve given him tips about why I approached playing and he’s kind of taken that on board and worked it into his own style and he’s doing a great job. And then of course, Dave “Bucket” Colwell is doing a marvelous job on guitar. He’s like the bandleader now. He is sort of the man that does the arranging and making sure that the right material is chosen and all that band leader stuff. Then of course, we’ve got Mr. Stapley, Mr. Jim Stapley. I can’t say enough about him. He’s perfect. Again, he’s not trying to copy Steve Marriott, he’s singing. He has the continued on next page
same range, he can get up there very high, and he can go down low, and he sings beautifully in tune. And he plays great guitar. So it’s just if you blink your eyes, if you close your eyes, it could be Humble Pie. And when you open your eyes, it is, it’s just four different guys carrying on the legacy of Humble Pie.
Rock And Blues International: I think that’s wonderful that you’re keeping the legacy of Humble Pie alive. I would have liked to have seen a couple of other bands do that along the way. But again, you’re breaking new ground with something like this. Maybe some of them will get the idea later on and do that.
Jerry Shirley: Well, it’s different from just calling it Humble Pie with no original members. A lot of people have done that with different band names. What’s happened is over the years band members have gotten old, and have passed away, but the band name, it’s become a brand name and the music is a brand. With streaming and online radio the way it is now, with a new generation that listen through streaming... To give an example, Kevin, six, seven years ago, on streaming, Humble Pie had about 5000 people. Now we’re in several million people. Bit by bit it grows. When I one kid gets a hold of some of our music and tells his buddy or a lady will tell her golf friend, ‘look, check this out, listen to this guy. Blah, blah, blah.’ And so it has built... I’m surprised at how well it has developed through the whole streaming system of listening to music the way they do now.
Rock And Blues International: Yeah, the streaming system is something else. I wish it translated to more money for the musicians as well as it does for the labels.
Jerry Shirley: Yeah, yep.
Rock And Blues International:We could go do a whole show just on that alone.
Jerry Shirley: Yeah, yeah, something needs to be done there, because it’s not right that you have to have forty-seven streams to generate one cent, one penny, in earnings. And then that has to be divided up between the people that are entitled to it. So you think about it, it’s all very well if Taylor Swift is doing 57 million streams, whatever. And that’s bringing in a nice chunk of change, but not everybody is bringing in those kinds of numbers,
Rock And Blues International: Right! Right!
Jerry Shirley: Yet it is becoming the way that people listen to music now. So you have to embrace it somehow, some way, in order to move with the times, I suppose. You are right, it’s not fair on a monetary basis. You did say the label. Did you mean that?
Rock And Blues International: God knows how many people have their finger in, I hate to say it, but have their finger in the pie.
Jerry Shirley: Yeah. They do. I mean, I wouldn’t disrespect our label live on the air or in an interview, but I guess they get more than the artist does. I don’t really know. I mean, I know that what we get is very small.
Rock And Blues International: Enough for a trip to the pub occasionally.
Jerry Shirley: Yeah, If I hadn’t been sober for the last 26 years, the amount of money that we do get would be enough to make you go on out, go get drunk, I suppose. But it is growing, we are building an audience in that world. So that is the positive side. We have to keep looking at the positive or it’ll drive you crazy.
Rock And Blues International: Well, I wish we had a lot more time than what we have for this interview, because I think Jim’s supposed to call me in about four minutes. So what would you like to add that we really need to know about the tour?
Jerry Shirley: Well, well, I would love for you all to do is to come and see this band live and give it the shot it deserves. We’re going to be starting out on in Atlanta in Woodstock, Georgia, going through Virginia Beach, and then through New Jersey at the Landis Theater, at Red Bank, New Jersey, through Pennsylvania. You can find all of this online and through Humble Pie Legacy, either at Facebook or Instagram. We’re doing a big festival in West Springfield, Massachusetts. Yeah, West Bloomfield, I think that’s Massachusetts.
Rock And Blues International: Yes, it is.
Jerry Shirley; Yeah, and that’s called the Big E., and then with again, we go back to the good old Token Lounge, outside of Detroit, then we’re in Cincinnati, and then in Kent, Ohio. And if we can, we will add a few dates to that. If not, we will be out there in earnest next year. And hopefully this tour will develop an audience to generate more people to come out and want to come and see us next year.
Rock And Blues International: Well, I think that’d be fantastic. And I’d love to see the band come to Houston, but it doesn’t look like you’re going to be anywhere near Texas.
Jerry Shirley: Not this time, but trust me, it’s on the top of the list for me that I’d want to see us be in Texas. It was always our strongest market.
Rock And Blues International: All right. Well, Jerry, it’s been a pleasure talking with you. You’ve got my number. If you think of anything else you want to tell me just give me a call or drop me a line or something. And I hope we can run into each other again one day.
Jerry Shirley: Okay, Kevin. Well, it’s been lovely talking to you. You’ve been a true gentleman, and give my regards to Houston.
Rock And Blues International: I certainly will. I’ll do that. And you have a great day. And I just I hope everything’s... I hope you’re having a lot of fun right now.
Jerry Shirley: Yeah, I’m doing the best. Looking forward to a great tour coming up in September and onwards to get this band really rolling into the new year.
Rock And Blues International: All right. Well, thanks a lot and we’ll talk next time.
Jerry Shirley: And very quickly, thanks to Steve Karas, our manager who has done a brilliant job. Along with Gary Buck, our agent. They’ve just done fabulous work to help us.
Rock And Blues International: All right. Well, thanks again. We’ll talk to you later.
Jerry Shirley: Take care buddy, bye, bye.
Rock And Blues International: Bye
Well folks, that concludes our story about Humble Pie Legacy. It looks like Jerry Shirley and the rest of the band members on this project have everything well under hand and can’t wait to kick off the tour this month. As you heard, they do have plans on continuing this project out next year with an even bigger and longer touring schedule and I’m certainly looking forward to that. Since they don’t have any tour dates down here in Texas where I’m based, I feel a little disappointed, but hopefully next year we’ll be on the list. If you check out their schedule on the Humble Pie website and you too are a Humble Pie fan, then there’s a lot to hope for next year as the tour schedule for this year is pretty short and a lot of Humble Pie fans are going to miss out this year. If you are one of the lucky ones to get to see the show this year, I’m jealous. Those of you who can drive to any of these gig or have the bucks to hop a plane and get there, I’d highly recommend it. It really looks like the Humble Pie Legacy tour is going to be a blast!
Sweet Papa Lowdown, the stage name for expat Yankee Jeff Shucard, originally designated the small band he fronted, devoted to the revival of early 20th-century blues and syncopated jazz. Over time, somewhat in the way of Alice Cooper, the leader ended up identifying with the name of the group.
Shucard remembers being introduced to jazz and blues as a kid, while listening spellbound to old 78s found in his grandparents’ attic in Paterson, N.J. His passion strengthened when he began to hang out the music clubs in nearby Greenwich Village, to attend concerts by Alberta Hunter, Doc Cheatham, Sonny Terry & Brownie McGhee, as well as relevant folksy singer-songwriters such as Jerry Jeff Walker, Paul Siebel and Tim Hardin. It wasn’t long before he was playing in public, gaining some popularity in New England haunts. Years of application and travel followed; Shucard developed an affinity for the music of Blind Blake, which continued to inspire him even when he moved to Vancouver, Canada in 1982. Here
Sweet Papa Lowdown was officially born, a joint venture with Ray
Charles alumnus, trombonist Dan Marcus, and Jamie Perry, alias Bocephus King, destined to a brilliant and tortuous longevity as an alt-folk songwriter and still regarded as a cult hero in Italy. The trio plays a hybrid music, combining the raw intensity of songs related to Ma Rainey, Bo Carter and Leroy Carr with the sophistication of the “hot” orchestras of New Orleans. The so-called “post-modern retrofusion hokum jazz and blues” arouses the curiosity of Chris Barber, the British icon of trad jazz. Barber, who had brought Muddy Waters and Sister Rosetta Tharpe to England in the 1950s and had been responsible for the first blues revival on English soil, joins them on successful Canadian concert tours. A shared CD was also released: One of Your Smiles, produced by CBC Radio. Jeff and his wife now live in Portugal. His most recent adventures took him to Turkey, where he formed an alliance with blues artist and activist Göksenin Tuncal?, an international artist and president of the Turkish Blues Association. His latest album was recorded in Istanbul, in a fruitful collaboration between North American veterans (Dan Marcus also joins in) and the best local musicians, and jointly produced by Shucard and Tuncal?. Good As This is a delicate homage to the passing of time: still endowed with an elusive intonation, between cabaret, coffee house and pianoless bar, Shucard performs original lyrics and scores which, like “All Cranked Up” and “Frenchmen`s Rendezvous,” seem to have been composed a century and a continent ago.
By Edoardo Fassio
Sweet Papa Lowdown, il nome d’arte dello yankee espatriato Jeff Shucard, in origine designava la piccola band da lui guidata, dedita al revival del blues e del jazz sincopato del primo Novecento. Nel tempo, un po’ alla maniera di Alice Cooper, il solista ha finito per identificarsi con il nome del gruppo.
Shucard racconta di aver fatto conoscenza con il jazz e il blues degli albori quando era ragazzo, mentre ascoltava incantato i vecchi 78 giri trovati nel solaio dei nonni, a Paterson, N.J. La passione si irrobustì quando incominciò a bazzicare i locali del vicino Greenwich Village, per assistere ai concerti di Alberta Hunter, Doc Cheatham, Sonny Terry & Brownie McGhee, oltre che di rilevanti cantautori di impronta folk come Jerry Jeff Walker, Paul Siebel e Tim Hardin. Non passò molto tempo e si mise a suonare in pubblico, guadagnando una certa popolarità nei ritrovi del New England.
Seguono anni di applicazione e di viaggi; Shucard sviluppa un’affinità con la musica di Blind Blake, che continua a ispirarlo anche quando, nel 1982, si trasferisce a Vancouver, in Canada. Qui nasce ufficialmente Sweet Papa Lowdown, insieme al trombonista Dan Marcus, che aveva militato nell’orchestra di Ray Charles, e a Jamie Perry, alias Bocephus King, destinato a una brillante e tortuosa longevità di cantautore alt-folk e tuttora considerato un personaggio di culto in Italia.
Il trio suona una musica ibrida, combinando l’intensità grezza di canzoni legate a Ma Rainey, Bo Carter e Leroy Carr con la sofisticazione delle orchestre “hot” di New Orleans. La sedicente “retro-fusion postmoderna di hokum, jazz e blues” attira la curiosità di Chris Barber, icona del jazz tradizionale britannico. Barber, che negli anni Cinquanta aveva portato in Inghilterra Muddy Waters e Sister Rosetta Tharpe ed era stato il responsabile del primo blues revival sul suolo inglese, li vuole al suo fianco nel tour canadese. Uscirà anche un CD condiviso: One Of Your Smiles, prodotto da CBC Radio.
Le avventure più recenti di Jeff, che attualmente risiede con la moglie in Portogallo, lo hanno condotto in Turchia, dove ha stretto alleanza con l’artista e attivista-in-blues Göksenin Tuncal?, performer di respiro internazionale e presidente della Turkish Blues Association.
L’ultimo album è stato inciso a Istanbul, in fertile collaborazione tra veterani nordamericani (anche Dan Marcus è della partita) e i migliori musicisti locali, e prodotto congiuntamente da Shucard e Tuncal?. Good As This è un delicato omaggio al passare del tempo: dotato tuttora di un’intonazione sfuggente, tra cabaret, coffee house e piano bar (senza il pianoforte), Shucard esegue testi e partiture originali che, come “All Cranked Up” e “Frenchmen`s Rendezvous”, sembrano composti un secolo e un continente fa.
So here I was about to have lunch with the noted multiple Grammy award winning David DeLaGarza of La Mafia. That in itself was cool but what was so much cooler is this cat is real. It wasn’t one of those hi I am a star and you’re not. No the man was approachable and most of all when we started talking about music he wasn’t stuck on himself as we talked about some of the best in the business both today and yesterday. To say the least it was the best lunchtime interview I have had in a long time. Check this out….
It was an extra hot August day in Houston on the day I would meet with noted keyboard/vocalist David DeLaGarza. We met at one of the premiere listening rooms in the city, The Mucky Duck. It was immediately interesting as we both arrived at the exact same time and both rushed to get inside where there air conditioning was doing its job. I didn’t know what to expect as it is my policy not read anything anyone else might have written about the person I am about to interview. My job is to capture the essence of the person in front of me and therefore not deliver the usual boring standard facts that you can read anywhere. Well this time around as the man educated me to his past I could feel a very personable soul filled presence. Nothing stuffy about this man, the man is down to earth. I don’t think anybody has told him how big a star he is or if he knows he wears it well. He walks his daily life in full humility. You can feel it, unpretentious is the correct word. So here’s this multiple Grammy award winning artist with one of the world’s greatest groups La Mafia and what does he do he begins to tell me about others around him that are unique musicians, artists. He wants to talk music baby and man did we ever get into it. Even though God blessed him with a natural ability on the keys he has a deep affectionate appreciation for all things brass and when he brought up Tower Of Power’s “What Is Hip” album we were off and flying about some of their greatest compositions such as “So Very Hard To Go”. That led us into a number of other great releases such as Al Kooper’s “Super Session” with Bloomfield and Stills, and then he hit me right over the head when he brought up Lydia Pence of Cold Blood fame and her “Feel Like A Ballgame” delivery. Next it was Joe Sample and Randy Crawford and not the Crusader’s famous “Street Life” track but Sample’s and Crawford’s riveting “Tell
This man knows music but then again it that would make sense because his Dad was a career musician in Las Vegas. I had lived there too and so we were two kindred spirits in that regard. We knew the haunts and the lounges and the ever flowing top shelf inspirational acts that came to town. So yes the man was blessed from an early age on up and to this day has never lost his humility. Perhaps it was the awe of seeing Dad perform and the countless other professionals that made the scene in Vegas I don’t know for sure but I could feel the passion coming through for sure. Next our meal was served and I was able to turn David on to the Pub Crisps. The sauce is to die for and he agreed. It was over the meal that our conversation turned to David’s affinity for the kitchen. (see photo on next page) Can you believe it the man creates home made sushi among other things. I was surprised
continued on next page
(continued from previous page)
because I didn’t envision him as getting into cooking that much but he certainly does and that’s cool. The clock was ticking and I knew I had to get the conversation over onto his contributions in music. I asked him about them and after a bit of a struggle what came to me was that David DeLagarza brings depth to new compositions, no matter who wrote it. Yet when he performs another artist’s song on stage he does not stray from the original. For example recently he sat in at Dan Electro’s in order to share in the festivities at Corey Stoot’s birthday jam. As the band was ready to begin someone in the audience shouted out do the Doobie Brothers. David said yes that sounds good, let’s do it. You would have sworn that the Doobie Brothers were laying it down.
The song was “It Keeps You Runnin’”. If you haven’t ever heard David’s vocals the man is a tenor with a fantastic falsetto presence. The clip I am writing about can be found on You Tube “Corey Stoot B’Day Jam featuring David Delagarza”. This leads me into sharing the various Houston based names that David teams with: John Calderon (lead guitar) - Andy Vargas (lead singer Santana) - Chris Castaneda (lead guitar) and here’s something few know about: “Los Souldees”. An upcoming 5 track EP recorded at Jose “Chapy” Luna’s recording studio produced by David that features the old Chicano style of music. I asked him how he felt about it personally and he replied, “Definitely excited about doing something on my own.” David has recorded over twenty albums with La Mafia and this will be his first exploration into releasing his own sound. One of the cool attributes about this upcoming EP will be that David’s life long Latin influences are sure to come through, it’s a natural presence that flows through his family. I switched gears on him and asked him about what audiences, countries outside of the U.S. would he like to return to, well the list was long for sure but what stood out was Germany. He would like to return to Europe and then he told me something very interesting about earning the respect of the audiences in other countries. Right at the height of La Mafia’s early fame it was time to tour Mexico. You would think that they knew of La Mafia and that acceptance would be a given but it was not. They had to earn the respect and gain the love of each attendee in Mexico as if they were back in their formative years. David went on to say that from that moment on no matter what country they would perform in they would keep in mind that these people are just getting to know us. Today, well if you know about La Mafia fans you can hardly get a seat at one of their major concerts. Literally thousands show up and it’s the same all around the globe these days. David has been with La Mafia for thirty four years now received five Grammys and yet the man is as humble as the first time he stepped onto a stage. You can find David on all the popular social media sites and it’s a great place to sign up so that you learn of his upcoming EP release date and his upcoming shows. David DeLaGarza has got it working big time and the cat is cool too. When you meet him ask him about his family’s dog, a rescue dog, a Terrier mix, that they took in when the big flood hit Houston. You will see a huge smile.
Aquí estaba yo, a punto de almorzar con el reconocido ganador de múltiples premios Grammy, David DeLaGarza del grupo La Mafia. Eso, por sí solo, ya era genial, pero lo que fue mucho más genial es que este tipo es auténtico. No era de esos que dicen: “Hola, soy una estrella y tú no”. No, el hombre era accesible y, sobre todo, cuando empezamos a hablar de música, no se centró en sí mismo, sino que hablamos de algunos de los mejores en el negocio, tanto de hoy como de ayer. Para decir lo menos, fue la mejor entrevista en la hora del almuerzo que he tenido en mucho tiempo. Echa un vistazo a esto...Era un día de agosto extra caluroso en Houston el día en que me reuniría con el reconocido tecladista y vocalista David DeLaGarza. Nos encontramos en una de las salas de escucha más destacadas de la ciudad, The Mucky Duck. Fue interesante de inmediato, ya que ambos llegamos al mismo tiempo y nos apresuramos a entrar, donde el aire acondicionado estaba haciendo su trabajo. No sabía qué esperar, ya que es mi política no leer nada de lo que alguien más haya escrito sobre él. En esta ocasión, mientras el hombre me educaba sobre su pasado, pude sentir una presencia muy cercana y llena de alma. No hay nada pretencioso en este hombre, es muy sencillo. No creo que nadie le haya dicho lo grande que es como estrella, o si lo sabe, lo lleva con humildad. Vive su vida diaria con total humildad. Se puede sentir, la palabra correcta es despretencioso. Aquí está este artista ganador de múltiples premios Grammy con uno de los mejores grupos del mundo, La Mafia, y ¿qué hace? Comienza a hablarme de otros músicos únicos a su alrededor, artistas. Quiere hablar de música, amigo, y nos metimos de lleno en ello. Aunque Dios lo bendijo con una habilidad natural en el teclado, tiene un profundo y cariñoso aprecio por todo lo relacionado con los instrumentos de viento-metal, y cuando mencionó el álbum “What Is Hip” de Tower Of Power, nos embarcamos en una discusión apasionante sobre algunas de sus mejores composiciones, como “So Very Hard To Go”. Eso nos llevó a hablar de otros grandes lanzamientos, como “Super Session” de Al Kooper con Bloomfield y Stills. Luego me sorprendió cuando mencionó a Lydia Pence, famosa por su participación en Cold Blood, y su interpretación de “Feel Like A Ballgame”. Después, mencionó a Joe Sample y Randy Crawford, no la famosa canción de los Crusaders “Street Life”, sino la cautivadora “Tell Me More And More And Then Some” de Sample y Crawford. Este hombre conoce la música, pero tiene sentido, ya que su padre era músico profesional en Las Vegas. Yo también viví allí, así que éramos dos espíritus afines en ese sentido. Conocíamos los lugares y los salones, y a los actos inspiradores de primer nivel que llegaban a la ciudad. Así que sí, este hombre fue bendecido desde temprana edad y hasta el día de hoy nunca ha perdido su humildad. Tal vez fue la admiración de ver a su padre actuar y a los innumerables profesionales que frecuentaban la escena de Las Vegas, no lo sé con certeza, pero definitivamente podía sentir la pasión en sus palabras. Luego nos sirvieron la comida y pude presentarle a David las Papas Crujientes del Pub. La salsa es para morirse y él estuvo de acuerdo. Fue durante la comida que nuestra conversación continuó. El tema de la conversación se dirigió hacia la afinidad de David por la cocina. ¿Puedes creerlo? El hombre hace sushi casero, entre otras cosas. Me sorprendió, porque no lo imaginaba como alguien que se adentrara tanto en la cocina, pero lo hace y eso es genial. El tiempo apremiaba y sabía que tenía que dirigir la conversación hacia sus contribuciones en la música.
Continúa en la siguiente página
(Continuación de la página anterior)
Le pregunté al respecto y, después de un poco de esfuerzo, lo que me transmitió fue que David DeLagarza brinda profundidad a las nuevas composiciones, sin importar quién las haya escrito. Sin embargo, cuando interpreta una canción de otro artista en el escenario, no se aparta de la versión original. Por ejemplo, recientemente participó en el cumpleaños de Corey Stoot en Dan Electro’s. Cuando la banda estaba lista para empezar, alguien en la audiencia gritó: “¡Haz algo de los Doobie Brothers!”. David respondió: “Sí, suena bien, hagámoslo”. Hubieras jurado que los Doobie Brothers estaban interpretando la canción. El tema era “It Keeps You Runnin’”. Si nunca has escuchado la voz de David, el hombre es un tenor con una presencia fantástica en falsete. El clip del que estoy escribiendo se puede encontrar en YouTube: “Corey Stoot B’Day Jam con la participación de David Delagarza”. Esto me lleva a compartir los diversos nombres de Houston con los que David colabora: John Calderon (guitarrista de Al jarreau) - Andy Vargas (Vocalista de Santana) - Chris Castaneda (guitarra principal) y aquí hay algo que pocos saben: “Los Souldees”. Un próximo EP de 5 canciones grabado en el estudio de grabación de Jose “Chapy” Luna, producido por David, que presenta el antiguo estilo chicano de música. Le pregunté cómo se sentía al respecto personalmente y él respondió: “Definitivamente emocionado de hacer algo por mi cuenta”. David ha grabado más de veinte álbumes con La Mafia y este será su primera exploración en lanzar su propio sonido.
Uno de los aspectos interesantes de este próximo EP será que las influencias latinas de toda la vida de David estarán presentes. es un presencia natural que fluye a través de su familia. Cambié de tema y le pregunté sobre qué audiencias y países fuera de los Estados Unidos le gustaría volver a visitar, bueno, la lista era larga sin duda, pero lo que destacó fue Alemania. Le gustaría regresar a Europa y luego me contó algo muy interesante sobre ganarse el respeto del público en otros países. Justo en el apogeo de la fama temprana de La Mafia, llegó el momento de hacer una gira por México. Uno podría pensar que ya conocían a La Mafia y que la aceptación sería un hecho, pero no fue así. Tuvieron que ganarse el respeto y ganar el amor de cada asistente en México como si estuvieran en sus años formativos. David continuó diciendo que a partir de ese momento, sin importar en qué país actuaran, tendrían en cuenta que estas personas recién nos están conociendo. Hoy en día, si conoces a los fans de La Mafia, apenas puedes conseguir un asiento en uno de sus conciertos principales. Literalmente, miles de personas asisten y es igual en todo el mundo. David ha estado con La Mafia durante treinta y cuatro años, ha recibido cinco premios Grammy y, sin embargo, el hombre sigue siendo tan humilde como la primera vez que pisó un escenario. Puedes encontrar a David en todas las redes sociales populares, y es un excelente lugar para registrarte y así enterarte de la fecha de lanzamiento de su próximo EP y sus próximos conciertos. David DeLaGarza la está rompiendo en grande y el tipo es genial también. Cuando lo conozcas, pregúntale acerca del perro de su familia, un perro rescatado de raza Terrier, que adoptaron cuando ocurrió la gran inundación en Houston. Lo comprobarás tú mismo.
That’s the key to understanding the Raycheal Winters experience. She’s not a clone of any established female artist yet has been compared to some of the greats like Lady Gaga. Raycheal Winters hits the communal mark dead on. She’s so in tune with exploring the human experience that when it came to her own personal life she removed the privacy barrier and revealed the vulnerable and unexpected pieces of herself that can be found on her EP “The Wrong Ones”. A musical journey that resonates extremely well with both audio listeners and live audiences alike, “The Wrong Ones” explores past experiences of being entangled with the wrong people and situations that deeply hurt. It’s always a bold move to be vulnerable on a one to one basis but to be that way with thousands you have never met is quite another thing. Life can be
embarrassing, hurtful and alienating. Raycheal expresses that we shouldn’t shy away from the darker sides of life but rather embrace them, use them as a tool. Connect and find family in the communities of people that understand. It all starts with breaking down the walls and being honest. “The Wrong Ones” is all about past decisions that didn’t turn out so hot but that is only half the story. Raycheal is currently working on a follow up EP titled “The Right Ones” which will describe a 180 degree course change. When asked how she would describe the difference between her two releases Raycheal had this to say, “‘The Wrong Ones’ is about meeting the wrong people and entering the wrong situations. “The Right Ones” is about meeting the right people and entering the right situations.” When combined the two EP’s take the listener through an intimate exploration of the human condition where they can learn about some life lessons along the way. Most recently Raycheal performed for an audience of her peers and music fans at Barry Coffing’s “Springboard Houston” Springboard is a unique event that brings artists and songwriters together with top rated music industry professionals from all around the world. Raycheal’s Springboard performance resonated extremely well with both the audience and industry professionals in attendance. The noted producer and sonics expert Robbie Parrish was there. After watching Raycheal’s performance he stayed to approach Raycheal and her management with positive words of encouragement. Parrish, whose client list is a virtual “who’s who” in music is no slouch when it comes to discovering rising talent. Next up Raycheal performs at Rise
continued on next page
(continued from previous page)
Rooftop in Houston on September 28th. Rise Rooftop is the top rated premiere nightclub in downtown Houston that attracts many of the national touring acts, a perfect venue for this rising up-and-comer. She has a keen sense for delivering contemporary themes. Her stage presence and dramatic emotional flair match the night’s theme perfectly. This intuitiveness also helps explain her performances at such music festivals as Loud Fest, Miller outdoor summer mixtape festival, and as previously mentioned Springboard. Originally, she was inspired in her youth by Halsey and Demi Lovato, more recently she’s finding additional inspiration in Erykah Badu, Michael Jackson, Hiatus Kaiyote, Thundercat, and St. Vincent. She is known for having her own sound which is not too surprising because she studies voice with Tom McKinney who pays close attention to enunciation, emotion, tone and timing. Her impressive vocal delivery is a combination of original talent blended with the influences of the masters. This has led her to deliver the national anthem at baseball’s Minute Maid park which hosts the Houston Astros in front of thousands of fans. Raycheal was also chosen to deliver the anthem at a charity event hosted by Texas Governor Greg Abbott. On top of that she was honored to be a part of the Warehouse Live Women’s Charity at Sheila Jackson Lee and Nancy Pelosi’s women’s summit charity event. This year Raycheal released her latest music video on You Tube titled “While I’m Alive.” Filmed as one continuous 4 minute shot this unsettling video was conceived and created by Raycheal and two friends. The combination pop R&B number is being well received with open arms by Raycheal’s audience as a “We can make it through anything” anthem. Concert fans regularly sing along with the chorus “I can’t believe I’m alive ‘’. Raycheal Winters is a rising force to be reckoned with both on and off stage. There is nothing pretentious about this artist/songwriter. She’s a gentle, polite individual off stage and pure dynamite on stage. When it comes to her two releases “The Wrong Ones” and her upcoming “The Right Ones” it is easy to grasp that Raycheal does not want her listeners to feel embarrassed about their experiences because we all go through ??life’s tribulations but we don’t all talk openly about them. The chief concern - not being able to move past negative experiences thereby being alienated due to the limitations, the weight those experiences place on you. Raycheal Winters lifts the curtain on personal traumatic situations and by doing so invites everyone to share in the freedom she has found. Her message is not just an American experience Raycheal has fans around the world that relate to the tapestry as well.
Kimberly Horton has been named President and CEO of The Blues Foundation, a position she has held on an interim basis since last Fall, it was announced by R. Scott Fitzke, Chair of the Board of Directors.
Horton is a native of Jackson, Mississippi and has been a passionate advocate of the blues genre since she was young. A graduate of both Jackson State University and Belhaven University with degrees in Management and Public Health, Kimberly has dedicated
over sixteen years of her career to higher education. Her love for the blues, however, led her in a different direction: becoming President of a successful blues booking and management agency, Heathrow Muzik Box.
Through her agency, Kimberly has managed several well-known artists in the blues genre. Her expertise in the industry helped earn Horton a position as a Board Member with The Blues Foundation. Possessing a strong desire to inspire and educate the younger genera-
tion, Kimberly plans to lead The Blues Foundation to new heights by, among other things, implementing youth education initiatives and updating the Blues Hall of Fame Museum with modern technology.
In addition to her professional achievements, Kimberly cherishes her family. She is a proud mother to two beautiful children, Tyra and Jerin. Tyra is currently following in her mother’s footsteps as the CEO of Heathrow Muzik Box, while Jerin is a junior at Manassas High School. Horton’s passion for the blues, coupled with her leadership skills, is sure to leave a lasting impact in the world of Blues.
“We are confident that Kimberly is the right person to lead The Blues Foundation into the next chapter of our history,” says Fitzke. “Kimberly shares our passion as well as our core values and has a clear vision for how The Blues Foundation can continue to make advancements in serving that mission. Kimberly is also committed to fostering a culture of collaboration, innovation, inclusion, and excellence both within The Blues Foundation, among our constituents, and with the community in general,” adds Fitzke.
Please join us in welcoming Kimberly Horton as the President and CEO of The Blues Foundation. We hope everyone will have an opportunity to meet her at an upcoming event, at The Blues Hall of Fame, or on the road championing our cause. Please visit our website at www.blues.org to learn more about The Blues Foundation and our programs.
http://www.untilthesun.com
http://www.facebook.com/UntilTheSunBand
http://www.instagram.com/untilthesunband
Phoenix Blues-Rock Group Until The Sun Release New Album, Enchantment
Until The Sun, an eclectic, rising alternative-blues/rock group from Phoenix, release new album, Enchantment
The 14-song disc, follow-up to their previous release, the critically-lauded A Night At The Rhythm Room, is now available for pre-order on all platforms including Apple Music and Spotify.
UTS guitarist Brandon Teskey encapsulates the tracks on Enchantment:
musical theme sets the mood for the rest of the album.”
Your Well: “Powerful, original bluesrock groove with a 60’s vibe.”
All Over Again: “Cover of the B.B. King classic, done in a very different way then the original.”
Dancing On The Floor: “Funky, original blues track that’s been an audience favorite for the last year since we wrote it.”
Death In Disguise: “A song that was previously released on our live album we redid with a studio feel, about a person dealing with a narcissistic relationship.”
Enchantment (Part 2): “Another musical interlude...rehashes the theme of Part 1 but with a slower, more somber feel.”
Hound Dog: “Cover of the classic tune done in the style of the original Big Mama Thornton version.”
Enchantment (Part 1): “Short instrumental psychedelic blues-rock song whose
Dragon Below: “Blues-rock tune with rockabilly beat whose lyrical content is based on an ancient Eastern parable about the seemingly meaninglessness of life, famously recounted by Leo Tolstoy in his autobiographical work, ‘Confessions’.”
Animal Within: “Upbeat original blues rock song about betrayal.”
Seek The Sunshine: “Slow blues song
continued on next page
(continued from previous page)
done on slide guitar about not giving up on life, even if you’re going through hell.”
Groovin’: “An, upbeat, blues shuffle.”
Broken Masterpiece: “A slow song with an outlaw/western and bluesy feel about depression and facing an existential crisis.”
Space For Leaving: “Somber ballad written by (UTS vocalist) Alyssa Swartz about struggling in a relationship that you feel is one-sided and dealing with the foreboding feeling, that they are just waiting for you to leave.”
Ghost In The Prayer (Enchantment Part 3): “Psychedelic blues-rock song layered with sitar and haunting backup vocals, leading into a hidden track of Avant-garde sounds that give way to the final part of Enchantment (Part 3).”
Until The Sun are Brandon Teskey, guitars; Alyssa Swartz, vocals; David Raymer, bass; Michael Young, keyboards; and Chris Tex, drums. They formed in 2017 and have been making their mark in the Arizona blues and rock community with high-energy live shows and solid recordings. Their music includes and often fuses elements of Blues, Alternative Rock, Pink-
Floyd-esque Psychedelia, and Jazz.
“Until The Sun are a refreshingly original blues/rock band who mostly play their own music as opposed to playing a
string of blues covers. They’re carving out their own solid niche in an over-saturated blues market which is really, the only way to stand out.”
LA METAL MEDIA
Until The Sun - “Your Well” (Click to View @ https://youtu.be/K7HelBT5vhg)
Shinedown Drummer Barry Kerch
Talks About The New Shinedown Album
Planet Zero And Their Upcoming Tour
The Revolutions Live Tour
Platinum award-winning band Shinedown are out on the road right now touring in support of their new Atlantic Records album, Planet Zero. This is the seventh album for the band and their first at topping the all-genre Billboard Top Album Sales chart. This is also the second album recorded and produced by their bassist, Eric Bass at his own studio, Big Animal Studio in Charleston, South Carolina. Bass had also produced the bands previous album, Attention Attention. The album was recorded in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic and is filled with 20 great songs that are bound to be thought of as a little controversial as it touches on subjects that the band has never ventured into before, such as societal forces that seem to keep us divided. It also shares messages of hope, perseverance, and compassion. The album was released in July of last year and the first single from the album, “Planet Zero,” was released ahead of the album’s release on January 26th, 2022. The single went on to reach number one on the Billboard Mainstream Rock Airplay chart. The second song from the album, “The Saints of Violence and Innuendo” was released in March of last year, and the song “Daylight” was released on the 1st of June. Their newest
release from the album is “A Symptom of Being Human” and has become a To 20 hit at Hot AC Radio. The band tells us that the song is “about how we are all a work in progress and celebrates the beauty of our individual differences and embraces the ups and downs and the messiness and awkwardness in life, while showcasing Shinedown’s gift for making us feel connected through our common humanity.”
Shinedown has certainly made a name for themselves in this business, the band has amassed a stagger 19 #1 hits, 15 platinum and gold singles, platinum or gold certifications for every album released so far, and they have sold over 10 million albums worldwide.
The members of Shinedown are Brent Smith [vocals], Zach Myers [guitar], Eric Bass [bass, production], and Barry Kerch [drums]. The band has been proclaimed #1 on Billboard’s Greatest Of All Time Mainstream Rock Artists. Wow! Just some of their #1 songs include: “Planet Zero”, “Devour”, “Save Me”, “Bully”, “Attention Attention”, “Monsters”, “Second Chance”, “How Did You Love”, and “State Of My Head”. Don’t be surprised to see more #1 hits come from their new album, Planet Zero. The band’s studio album releases are: Leave
A Whisper, Us And Them, the Sound Of Madness, Amaryllis, Threat To Survival, Attention Attention and the recently released Planet Zero.
We had a chance to sit down with longtime drummer and founding member of Shinedown, Barry Kerch who was able to give us a little insight into the new album as well as talk candidly about his role in the band and some of the obstacles that he has encountered recently and it really made for an interesting and eye opening conversation, so without any further ado, here is Barry Kerch.
Barry Kerch: Hey, Kevin.
Rock And Blues International: Hi there. How you doing today?
Barry Kerch: I’m doing great, yourself....
Rock And Blues International: Doing fine. So where are you calling from?
Barry Kerch: Home. Jacksonville, Florida.
(continued from previous page)
Rock And Blues International: Jackson, Florida. How’s the weather there today.
Barry Kerch: To be honest, it’s a little rainy and not that pretty today, but it’s been a very rainy summer overly so for us.
Rock And Blues International: Okay. Well, I have been listening to the album. I actually just got it a few days ago, so I think I’m on my sixth listen right now and I find it very extraordinary.
Barry Kerch: Well, thank you.
Rock And Blues International: It’s a total departure from the other albums. It’s still rock ‘n’ roll. But to me, it’s a total departure. Would that be fair to say?
Barry Kerch: Yeah, I would say so. It’s definitely sets itself apart. Yeah, absolutely.
Rock And Blues International: And it appears to be a concept album of some sort.
Barry Kerch: Unintentionally, so. Yes.
Rock And Blues International: What was the intention?
Barry Kerch: We didn’t set it out to be that way, but it just kind of came together that way. There was no pre thought of like, ‘hey, we want to do a concept record.’ It was just once the songs were done, there was a link together and that’s what we ended up doing, the speaking in between, the CYREN voices in between that kind of linked everything together. That was done after all the songs
were recorded. So it wasn’t necessarily on the tip of our brain at the time, but it became that.
Rock And Blues International: Well, the press release states, that the album is somewhere along the lines.... that it’s a talk about humanity today, or the future that we’re on... something along those lines. Is that about right?
Barry Kerch: Yeah, I mean, when this record was being written, it was during COVID and it was just after, you know, the ‘Summer of Love’ with all the riots. You know, everybody just at each other’s throats and all the just horrible stuff we were seeing and Shinedown has kind of always been a band that sings and writes about not only personal experiences, but overcoming and coming to terms with things, whether it’s addictions, mental health, all those types of things. That’s just what has always been the underlying theme of Shinedown and our albums, because we write from real places, things we’ve experienced. And at that time, all we were experiencing was the divisiveness of everything and we’re not a political band, so we wanted to stay out of that lane because we have fans on both sides of the spectrum. So we’re like, we’re not going to pick a side, that’s not who this band is. This band’s about bringing people together. So in the album, it kind of takes you on the journey of all of that. And it’s a warning to say, look, we need to find our humanity with each other and start getting along and dealing with these things without the just avid hatred that we see right now.
Rock And Blues International: Okay. One thing I find very extraordinary in the
music is your drumming. There’s so many different types of songs or moods to this album, yet your drums seem to flow seamlessly through every song and that’s got to be rough for a drummer. Although you’re a very experienced drummer, and obviously a little more experienced than some drummers out there, because not everybody could pull off that type of a beat from song to song to song to song.
Barry Kerch: Sure, sure. It’s always daunting when you go in the studio, especially as a drummer. Typically, you’re the first one in. The songs are roughed out, and you have maybe demo forms of the song and things like that, but I’m the first one in recording for the record, so there’s a lot of pressure there. Luckily enough since it was during COVID, our bass player who produced and recorded the record, had built a home studio during COVID or not even a home studio, it’s a professional studio that he built on site at his home. We were able to take a little more time with things because in a studio, say we’re out in Los Angeles recording at Capitol studios. You walk in, get the job done, because those hours are costing you money. This made it a little bit easier and he and I had a great working relationship. I do have a lot of experience and I was in many different.... I’ve played in many different aspects of music from marching band, to symphonic bands to funk and all these things throughout my history. We were able to explore and tap into those things and really spend some time getting tones. Okay, let’s record this drum set outside, okay let’s record half this song in this room and then go out here into the big room and that’s the fun of recording. When you have those opportunities to really explore and be creative. People like yourself get to hear that and enjoy it and I find pride in doing that because once you record it and it’s there, it’s there forever.
Rock And Blues International: But it also opens up room for you to do different takes of songs, whereas when you go into a big studio somewhere, like in California, whatever with the money constraints in recording, you don’t have the luxury of trying to do a song a dozen different ways.
Barry Kerch: Correct. Absolutely. And it also depends on who is producing your records. Every producer, there are artists as well, they have their way of recording and some of them just want to get the drums done, because that’s not their emphasis. They’re worried about the vocal takes, and the guitars and things of that nature, which is just their their work methods and you have to learn how to work with those people as well. It’s different with this because we’re a band of brothers, and we were able to do it on our
continued on next page
(continued from previous page)
own, and Eric’s very good. He knows how to read me, how to get things out of me and vice versa, so it makes it a lot easier in the long run.
Rock And Blues International: Well, he’s also the bassist in the band, so he’s one half of the rhythm section, which puts you a little closer together than say you and the guitars. Without a good rhythm section, you’ve got nothing.
Barry Kerch: I 100% agree with that, you’re the heartbeat.
Rock And Blues International: What songs in particular are you the most proud of your drumming in? I’m sure it’s all of them, but are there certain ones that were really kind of a challenge?
Barry Kerch: Yeah, yeah, I would say they are. “No sleep tonight”, just for the sheer tempo of that song. I’m not a big, I was never a big like speed metal or punk rock super fast player, that wasn’t my thing. So to get handed a demo of basically a punk rock song that’s super fast. That was a lot of fun to work up to and get out. So something like that was fun. The bass drum patterns on a song like, what is it, “America Burning”, that it was originally kind of like a drum loop and it was something that as a drummer, I wouldn’t have thought of, because it changed a lot, it was different. Typically when you, when drummers think of patterns and we think in patterns, and get your verse patterns and have your chorus patterns, then you have your pre chorus, you get your bridge and it kind of you see it in blocks, mentally. This was all over the place, but it had a feel. It was like, I’ve got to emulate that, I’ve got to take that electronic part, make my own, but follow that so I ended up sitting with a piece of paper and charting out things on quite a few different songs. But that one in particular just charting out going okay, that’s how that pattern goes. I’m gonna change in the next chorus. Okay, that’s what we’re gonna do, charted out on piece paper, go and record it. So I like those challenges. That’s what makes creating music fun.
Rock And Blues International: Okay, what about like “Daylight”, I found that to be a very good song as well. The drums on there are really good.
Barry Kerch: Yeah, that’s a whole different way of playing. That’s digging into a more orchestral kind of thing and I think the majority of that song was recorded kind of in
an orchestral way where it wasn’t played on a drum set, it was played on the bass drum here, let’s do a snare here, let’s add this on top and recorded in pieces, and put together like an orchestra. Same with “A Symptom Of Being Human”, very similar in that way because that’s what the song required. It didn’t require a drum set as much.
Rock And Blues International: Okay, so what would you say the evolution of this album is compared to the last two albums.
Barry Kerch: You know, I think we always, every album we grow as musicians. Anytime you do something for a long period of time, you hope to grow and you try to grow and and you try to put that out there. I think with this record, we were a lot more direct in the way we, you know, there’s always metaphors and lyrics and things of that nature, but this was a lot more direct in your face, which I like. I think sonically, when you listen back to something like “Attention, Attention” or even “Sound Of Madness,” and a list those records, they were very spacious, very orchestral. They’re very wide when you listen to them. It’s all way out there in the headphones, very spread left to right, a lot of stereo. This record, because we wanted that intensity of what the songs represented, because we wanted that intensity. Really, if you listened to it in the
headphones or a set of good speakers, it’s hitting you directly in the face. The vocals are right there in your face and then the drums come in. It’s all really tight, almost like a classic punk rock record in a modern fashion and that’s what we’re really shooting for. We never want to do the same thing twice and I think that’s what keeps us around. We look to bands like U2. We look to bands like The Stones or Aerosmith, band’s that can grow with time. They still sound like themselves, but they’re able to change and grow and stay relevant and still create wonderful music. And that’s, we want to be as well and so far so good. We’re still here after 20 years.
Rock And Blues International: Right?
Well, with your singer the way he is, with Brent singing, you’re going to definitely have a certain sound. His voice is something a little bit different from anything else you hear out there. But with the style of music, you go from album to album to album on, it really shows an evolution and growth in the band.
Barry Kerch: Well, thanks. Thank you, I appreciate that. I’m glad you can recognize that in us. And that’s what makes enjoying your craft so special. You know, we all have.... you’re a writer, you do articles. That’s your thing and the word craft. You get better
(continued from previous page)
with it over time, the more you do anything.
Rock And Blues International: Well, you try to at least.
Barry Kerch: Yes, you try to. There’s still things I can’t do and it frustrates the hell out of me.
Rock And Blues International: Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Well, what about the pressure from going from one album to another album when you have something like 19 number one hits. When you get ready to do the next album, is it something like, ‘oh, hell, what are we going to do?’
Barry Kerch: Yes and no. So we’re very lucky to have that many number ones. Awesome. We also have this weird thing that we never really looked back. I’ve never looked back at my career and gone ‘look at what all I’ve accomplished’. I go, ‘that was awesome, what’s next’, and we all kind of have that. So when we go into the studio, it’s not, we have to write that radio single, it’s let’s write a group of songs. Of those songs, we can write it this time and then out of these 20 songs, maybe 25, maybe 30, let’s pick the best 12 to 15 that go together and that’s our record, then listen to them and listen to and then listen to it, then we might get rid of one. Maybe switch one out, listen to them some more and go, that’s the single. But it’s never really a conscious thing when you go in because if you do that, and I’ve seen a lot of bands do that. They start writing the same song over and over again and you listen to it and you go that’s just like it’s on the last record. Not to say we haven’t been guilty of
that, it happens sometimes because you have a style. But you try to avoid that because you want to again, show growth and just create the best record you can that is a representation of you.
Rock And Blues International: Well, we were talking about picking out the songs. Well, this one’s got 20 songs on it. Although four or five of those are like short intros into another song.
Barry Kerch: Yeah. Yeah, you know, it’s, it’s tough to pick them, especially when you write... I mean, there’s a few that we wrote for this record that I would have been just as happy to have on this record, but something about him just didn’t fit and that’s always been the way with Shinedown. We always write more songs than we need for the record. We have a back catalogue of a ton of songs. I don’t know if we’ll ever release them or not. It’s kind of weird. I think once you start releasing, like, Hey, here’s our b-sides or here’s our greatest hits, then you’re kind of... I don’t know, it feels like it almost stops the momentum of what we’re really trying to do, which is always to outdo ourselves. Maybe someday those will see the light of day. I have no idea.
Rock And Blues International: That’ll happen when the record label takes over everything and you do the expanded version that you’re not really happy with.
Barry Kerch: So far we’ve been able to keep Atlantic at bay with that, but you never know.
Rock And Blues International: You
know what I mean though, these things come out years later, and it’s all of a sudden, well, here’s four outtakes and the band’s sitting there going, ‘Why the hell didn’t we burn those tapes?’
Barry Kerch: Right? Oh, here’s a new Beatles song we found. No, we didn’t want that out there because it wasn’t good enough.
Rock And Blues International: Right, right. And they’ve just put another one out that sounds like one they really didn’t want out there.
Barry Kerch: Yeah, absolutely. That was me with a Linkin Park song that just came out. Though it did very well at radio and people wanted to hear it., I was like, oh, that’s that’s an okay song, but it’s not what it was. I feel bad. The guy’s dead. Yeah.
Rock And Blues International: Oh, yeah. Yeah. What would you say the biggest difference is between this one in the very last album.
Barry Kerch: This one’s much more aggressive. I’d say that’s the biggest difference, this is much more in your face because of the subject matter and because of the sign of the times that we were in during writing this record. It’s definitely a lot more in your face and aggressive.
Rock And Blues International: It’s amazing how when COVID hit and everybody was confined how much new music came out, and really good, extraordinary music. It was like everybody had more time to write than they ever had before.
Barry Kerch: Absolutely.
Rock And Blues International: So you didn’t feel rushed on this project because of all the time, you just were able to spend more time than you ever did on an album.
Barry Kerch: Between this one and the last one. The last one we spent quite a bit of time on as well, but definitely there was no pressure because, what else you’re gonna do. My bass player lives in Charleston, South Carolina, so it’s about a four hour drive for me. So I just drive up there, stay in my camper, hang out. record. It didn’t matter. And that was nice. Maybe there’s less pressure on... Less gotta get it done, gotta get back on the road and more of let’s just see what happens and have a good time.
Rock And Blues International: Well, was there a little more added pressure since you’d had a health scare.
continued on next page
(continued from previous page)
Barry Kerch: Yeah, I mean, it’s funny that that happens. You know, I had gone to a typical checkup, you know. Dermatologist said that we need to take a sample the spot and look, I’m a Florida guy who has Nordic skin and I didn’t wear sunscreen as a kid, so it’s on me. But they take the sample and then I go up to record the record. Well, I’m going in... we had done some stuff, getting the studio ready, found our sounds. Okay, tomorrow, we’re coming in, we’re starting on the first track. And that morning, I wake up and get the phone call. You’ve got cancer, you got melanoma, and I went, Oh shit, okay. That’s scary. I’m by myself, don’t have my family round and you hear that you got cancer. She was like... my doctor... and she said, we caught it early. You gotta get this removed. So well, how much time do I have? And she said, Well, I’d like to get it done in less than a month. You don’t want it to sit there. I said, Okay, well, I got a job to do. And it kind of gave me the impetus to really get in there and focus because that was always hanging in the back of my head. I was like, you go to dark places, sometimes. What if this gets worse? What if we don’t get it all? What am I gonna leave is my legacy for my family and my brothers that I play with? And I think some of that transferred to the record.
Rock And Blues International: So there was more of a sense of urgency for you as well.
Barry Kerch: Sure, sure.
Rock And Blues International: And before that you had elbow problem.
Barry Kerch: Yeah, yeah. Luckily, that was healed up by the time I got in. Again, I had time off with COVID. We had come off of touring “Attention, Attention”, and it’s always the simplest thing that you end up hurting yourself with. We’ve been gone for a long time, got home, it’s around Christmas time. I’m playing with my daughter. We’re dancing around the living room. I keep twirling her and lifting her up, throw her and lifting up and then I wake up the next morning, I can’t move my arm. I had given myself a basically golfer and tennis elbow at the same time, pretty severely. I ended up spending six months in rehab and physical therapy and shots and everything else but back on the mend. So that’s just part of it. It’s repetitive strain. It’s repetitive injuries. My style of drumming is very intensive and very athletic, so it deteriorates on your joints as we age.
Rock And Blues International: Well, fortunately, you were able to overcome that as well. You sure certainly have gone through quite a bit in the last couple of years.
Barry Kerch: Yeah, I tend to, I tend to beat myself up. I’m always a positive guy. It’s like boxing. I let it out on the drums, so I’m pretty happy most of the time.
Rock And Blues International: Well, that’s great. How did the rest of the members of the band take the news when you had to tell him a little bit about this?
Barry Kerch: They’re all supportive. I mean, they truly are. They truly are brothers. Blood or not, we’re brothers and they care for each other. We still eat dinner together. We still ride on the same bus. We still love each other. So, they took it. Each one took a different way. Eric’s a very stoic person, so he’s looks at me because, I’ve got tears in my eyes and he’s like, gonna be fine. Let’s get to work. Zack’s totally different. He’s blubbering in tears. He wears his heart on his sleeve. Brent goes, ‘how can I help you? How can I
fix it, I want to fix this and he starts researching doctors and all this kind of stuff. And you know, if you take these supplements it’s going to help you, because that’s Brent’s way of showing love. So everybody showed it in a different way. But it was nothing but my guys caring, which is what we do for each other.
Rock And Blues International: That sounds wonderful. I mean, it truly sounds like a band of brothers.
Barry Kerch: We are, we are. Even when we get in our fights, as anybody does, much like in a marriage, we put it, we put it to bed before we go to bed. Alright, let’s talk about, let’s get it done. Let’s not hold grudges because we’ve had those times after 20 years and many iterations of who we are as people. You’re gonna get in fights, but we, we’ve always been able to squelch those. And if it’s real bad, we all sit, the four of us in a room and hash it out until it’s done.
Rock And Blues International: How do you think you’ve grown within the band?
(continued from previous page)
Barry Kerch: Um It’s funny, I think I’ve grown in the band where I don’t have to worry about them as much anymore. So I’ve always been the... the nickname, they always call me the grandpa, the worrier. I always took care of everybody. When Brent was going through his horrible addiction issues, I was the one trying to take care of them, take care of the band, keep it together. And so now, as the band’s grown, and everybody’s gotten healthy and those issues are no longer, thank God. I feel like I could take a breath of fresh air and just be me, which is nice. That worry and that burden, those weights that I had to carry on my back to help alleviate my brother’s pain, I don’t have to do anymore. So in that, I think in that I’ve grown. And I’ve also grown not to worry as much. I get that from my mother. My mother’s a worrywart. Sometimes you gotta let people fall on their sword. That’s hard to do when you’re an empathetic person and an empath like me and everybody dumps everything on you. But you just gotta let them fall on their sword. So I think you grow emotionally. I’m not a psychologist or psychiatrist, but somehow that’s my other long life, I think.
Rock And Blues International: Well, I’ve always seen the drummer in a band as being like, actually the most, the most important person in the band. I don’t know if I’m looking at that right, but from my viewpoint, I believe the drummer is the most important person. If you’re out there performing and you stop in the middle of a performance, everything falls to pieces. So you’re almost like the leader of the band in some regards. How do you... what do you think?
Barry Kerch: I agree with you, it’s a lot of pressure. And you
know, we’re all humans, we make mistakes, but I don’t get the opportunity to make big mistakes very often. Otherwise, you’re out of a job as a drummer. You can’t drop the beat, the song stops. So it is a lot of pressure and it’s an unsung thing. I mean, people like yourself, who are a fan of music, they notice it. But you know, the Mom test when they’re just excited about the band, they wouldn’t think that way. They just be like, Oh, I heard the lyrics. I love the song. They don’t realize the pressure that it takes to put on those shows and to keep a consistent show night after night. And the drummers, that’s our responsibility. But at the same time, that’s what I signed up for. I could never be a frontman or singer. I don’t want that. I like being behind my drums and commanding from that seat. That’s my throne. That’s who I want to be. I want this wall. Let them be the superstars. Let them be out in front. And I want to be your support. I’m proud to be the support member.
Rock And Blues International: Right. You’re the drummer. There’s always a singer or guitarist standing in front of you anyway.
Barry Kerch: Yeah. Oh, all I do is see their butts all night.
Rock And Blues International: That’s right. You can never see the drummer for some reason. It is hard at times, especially in small clubs.
Barry Kerch: Yeah, I’m okay with it. That’s it. That’s our lot in life. And I think you hit the nail on the head, but I think there’s two different kinds of drummers out there. There’s the very laid back ones, I would consider myself one of those. Or there’s the over the top in your face, Tommy Lee, Chad Smith, those kinds of guys. And they’re just completely different. You got the ADHD spike, look at me type of drummer, or you got to the other side that more laid back drummer, the Charlie Watts of the world.
Rock And Blues International: Right, you’ve got the lead drummers like Keith Moon, who thinks he is more important than the rest of the band.
Barry Kerch: That’s what happens and then you don’t live long, unfortunately.
Rock And Blues International: Yeah, well, I take it that everybody in this band has pretty much been able to avoid anything that that would find themselves, you know, that was kind of hazardous to their future at this point.
Barry Kerch: Yeah, yeah. It’s a different, It’s a different animal now in a great way. The addictions are gone. All that has been put away, the focus is on the band and putting on the best shows that we can and it makes it a lot more enjoyable experience.
Rock And Blues International: Well, this lineup, the band has been together since... Well, the majority of it. Well, all of it since 2008. And I think the biggest change before that was 2005. So you’ve gotten to know each other a lot better. What would you consider this lineup compared to the 2001 version?
Barry Kerch: This is the band. I look back on it and if it wasn’t for Brad and Jasin, who were the original bass player and guitar player, this band wouldn’t exist, and I give them nothing but props for that. I was the last member to come in and they were already together with Brent. and we wrote the first two records together. They wrote the first record. I came in at the tail end of the songs being written, but before the band was named. However, that was that and we wouldn’t be here without that thing. But at the same time, it was very toxic. So I don’t know that we’d still be here if it was that. So it’s never easy to
continued on next page
(continued from previous page)
go to those changes. It was, I liken it to a divorce. It was hard. And I wish nothing but great things for them and a wonderful life. But it had to be what it is now.
Rock And Blues International: Well, I think this lineup is fantastic. I’ve loved every album, every single one. This this one just blew me away. The subject matter was totally different from others. The flow from song to song just.... Whoever arranged the lineup of the songs on here here did an excellent job. I don’t think it could be arranged any other way.
Barry Kerch: That is all Eric, our bass player. This was his baby. It put him through the wringer. But I give Eric credit for 98% of this record just in vision and putting together sonically This is Eric’s record.
Rock And Blues International: Well, it’s gotta be wonderful to have a studio engineer and producer that is actually a member of the band and can do what the band really wants, as opposed to using an outside producer and engineer that want to do it their way.
Barry Kerch: It’s great. I don’t know that he wants to do it again, but he will.
Rock And Blues International: Well, this is his second one doing this, isn’t it?
Barry Kerch: Yeah. Yeah. He’s got all the great ears to show for it. He puts it that he’s a perfectionist and he puts a lot on his own shoulders and sometimes it’s hard for him to let it go. ‘You have to let it go, Eric. That song is done. You’re gonna have to let it go.’ ‘Yeah, but it’s just not sounding.’ ‘Eric, we’ve got to turn it in. That song is done.’ ‘Okay,’ and then he’s frustrated. So it’s, he will never tell you that he’s happy with any of it, because that’s his personality, because he’s not. But us being on the outside of his brain see the talent that he, that he has and how special he is. so it’s really nice to have that but he’s, uh, he’s definitely a tortured soul when it comes to that side of things.
Rock And Blues International: Okay. And let’s talk a little bit about the tour. You’re out on tour, you’re going to be supporting this album. How many songs from this album will creep into the song list?
Barry Kerch: Woo... As many as we can fit. Having 19 number ones that makes it really hard to fit.
Rock And Blues International: Well, it is a four hour set, isn’t it?
Barry Kerch: I wish. Not for amphitheaters, they have curfews.
Rock And Blues International: I know you’re playing at the Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion in Houston. They shut down everything by 11 at night. Can you believe that? 11!
Barry Kerch: Oh, I do because if you go over, they charge you!
Rock And Blues International: Yeah, it’s like $1,000 a minute or $2000 a minute, something ridiculous.
Barry Kerch: All the amphitheaters are that way. And when you get to the northeast, like in New York with all the union’s it’s even worse, 10,000. $15,000 if you go over, so you better not go over so
you can only play so many songs. We’ll try... We’re still kind of creating the setlist for this run, but I would hope at least three, maybe four off this record because this is what we’re doing right now and that’s what we’re excited to play. But the fans that come to see us, they want to hear the old stuff too. They want to hear the singles, they want to hear “Second Chance”, they want to hear “45”, They want to hear “Simple Man” and I can go the rest of my life without ever hearing that again, but it’s not about me. It’s about the fans and we try to give them as much of what they want as we can within the time allowed.
Rock And Blues International: Well I know you’ve had to have picked out one song off of this already saying ‘well, whatever we do we have to do this one song,’ so what song is that?
Barry Kerch: I think at this moment just because it’s so popular right now it’s got to be “A Symptom Of Being Human”. That’s the song that we have to play right now. And then probably either “Planet Zero,” “Dead Don’t Die”, but I think “Dead Don’t Die” goes over more with the crowds than “Planet Zero”. Sometimes “Planet Zero” comes out and I don’t know, it’s different. We’ve done both, we’ve done all three, So “Symptom” for sure.
Rock And Blues International: Wonderful, wonderful, wonderful. And tell me about your support acts. You’ve got Papa Roach on the bill and Spiritbox. How do you think that they blend in with what you’re doing.
Barry Kerch: Having Papa Roach is like a family reunion.
continued on next page
(continued
We’ve done so many tours together over the years. I love those men, they’re a fun camp. And they make us work really hard. Having them supporting us or you know, the slot before us. They make you work really hard because they put on a fantastic high energy show as well. So it makes you want to go out there and even do better because it’s a friendly competition. I’m going to be your friend, but my job on stage is to destroy everybody that comes before me or after. Because that’s what you want to do. But they give you a run for your money. Papa Roach is a fantastic band. When it comes to Spiritbox, I’m very excited because I’m a fan of the music. I don’t know them. I’ve never met them. And my daughter’s a big fan. So I want to get my daughter out to see them and possibly to meet them because she’s a big fan. My daughter’s a competitive swimmer and that’s kind of her warm up music, it gets her pumped. So yeah, I’m excited for both bands. I’m excited to see Spiritbox because I’ve never seen them live. And we always try to treat it on our tours as a family. You know, we’re all working hard. We all do the same job, whether you’re doing the 30 minute set, or the two hour set. We’re all here working really hard to play music and to tour and we want to make it as comfortable and happy and drama free as we possibly can.
Rock And Blues International: So what do you think? Is this a two hour set?
Barry Kerch: Yeah, probably. 90 minutes to two hours, roughly, depending on, what are you know, again, it’s arenas you have the luxury of going over a little bit, amphitheaters you don’t so that window’s that window, we got to be done by certain time.
Rock And Blues International: Well, we’ve talked about Eric and we’ve talked about you, but we haven’t said much about Brent or Zack. Let’s say something good about them. What would you like to say about them?
Barry Kerch: When it comes to Brent, he and I have known each other for over 20 years. He is the most genuine. He’s the guy that would give you the shirt off his back. He’s an odd person. He still lives out of a suitcase. He has no home. He lives in hotel rooms. But he’s also the most driven person you’ll ever meet. Nobody can tell that guy ‘No’. And if you tell him ‘no,’ he’s not only going to prove you wrong, he’s going to go around you. I’ve never seen anybody with the drive that he has in whatever he does, no matter what. It’s all or nothing and I think I look up to him in that and try to follow him in that behavior of just, I’m gonna give 110% at all times, because I know he is and he’s got my back. So that’s Brent. When it comes to Zach, he’s Zack, he’s our little aloof. He’s like our little brother because he’s, he’s almost 10 years younger than me. He’s my little guy that I like to pick on and such an important part of this band. He’s the one that really, if anybody gets mad at the setlist, you get mad at him because he’s the one that helps come up with them for the most part and he’s very good at it. He’s, uh, he and I tend to be the food people. We get to get out and we enjoy foods We cook together on the road. We’ll do some barbecue for the bands and crews. Southern Style stuff. So that’s who Zach is. He’s my little brother.
Rock And Blues International: Great, great. Well, what have we missed in this interview so far? You do a lot of interviews? What have you not been asked that you’ve always wondered ‘why the hell haven’t these people ever asked me this question?’
Barry Kerch: Ha I’ve never. I’ve never thought of it that way to be honest. How about that question. I’ve never been asked that. I don’t know. Is there something you’ve always wanted to ask a band, but also like, I don’t know, I don’t want to offend somebody or get them upset or anything. I’m an open book. I’ll tell you just about anything. For me, I enjoy and I appreciate this interview. I enjoy actually talking about relevant things instead of somebody that’s maybe read the Wikipedia and goes, ‘so I hear you have a degree from this school’. ‘Yeah, I do’. You can. It’s all out there. You can read about it. It’s nice to just talk about music and things and internal things and whatnot. So I guess in a weird way, that’s my answer.
Rock And Blues International: Well, some people when they do interviews, and I’m not trying to talk bad about other other reporters or interviewers, but they more concentrate on what the overall song as opposed to recognizing the individual talents that go into the song and like I talked about you being the drummer of the band. I really do find that to be one of the most important, if not the most important part of the band. If if you start playing playing a fast song and in the middle of it decide you want to do a waltz, everybody’s screwed.
Barry Kerch: Yeah, yes they are. Maybe I’ll do that the next time they get get mad at me. I might have to get some revenge on my guys.
Rock And Blues International: Really just suddenly drop it down 40 beats.
Barry Kerch: Yeah, I mean, I would never do that live because that’s not fair to the fans, but in rehearsal, Don’t threaten me, if it’s a good time, I might mess with them.
(continued from previous page)
Rock And Blues International: Well, that’s a thought there. Well, anything else that we haven’t discussed about the tour or the band or the album that we really should mention?
Barry Kerch: I don’t think so, aside from I wish I had your last name because that’s a cool last name.
Rock And Blues International: You like that?
Barry Kerch: I do. I’m jealous. You know, I’ve got a very non discriminate name and Barry Kerch doesn’t really, you know, it’s nothing much to it. But Wildman, that’s good. I’m jealous.
Rock And Blues International: Oh, well, the problem with that is when you get a name like that, you have to try to live up to it.
Barry Kerch: As long as you do it above board, I’m okay with it.
Rock And Blues International: It’s had its own adventures along the way over the last.... so long. I’m considerably older than you. I’ve seen a lot. I saw that you might have been born on an Air Force Base.
Barry Kerch: Yes, I was. I was born in Colorado Springs at the Air Force Academy. My dad was, he’s retired Air Force now, but he was at the Air Force Academy at the time and that’s where I was born, so I don’t remember it. We moved or he got sent out shortly thereafter, so I pretty much been in Florida since I was five years old. Grew up in the Panhandle in Panama City at Tyndall Air Force Base. Yeah, it was. I tell everybody, I had a ‘Leave It to Beaver’ childhood. I had a wonderful childhood. I had a stay at home mom that cooked meals. We sat around a table, played in the water, was kicked outside every single day, a military father who taught me value and humility.
Rock And Blues International: I come from a military family too. My dad was an Air Force Major. His motto was....
Barry Kerch: Retired Major. Hmm. Same as my father, he was a retired Major.
Rock And Blues International: There you go. Well, then you understand what it’s like being raised military.
Barry Kerch: Yeah. Oh, yeah, very much so.
Rock And Blues International: My dad’s favorite saying was when I tell you jump, you ask how high on the way up!
Barry Kerch: Yes, yes, it was very. There was no getting by!
Rock And Blues International: Not at all. Not at all. Anyway, we won’t get into my childhood. It was a little strange as it is, but...
Barry Kerch: Any military childhood can be a little strange.
Rock And Blues International: Well, you spend an average of one to three years in a location and you move and you move and you move. And by the time you’ve met, or you have a friend, you no longer have that friend anymore.
Barry Kerch: Yeah. A 100 percent.
Rock And Blues International: All right. Well, I do appreciate
our time together here. Thank you very much. I wish you much, much success for the album and tour. And again, I’ve listened to the album about six times. I really think it’s extraordinary and I really love the diversity from song to song.
Barry Kerch: Thank you. That means a lot to have somebody who’s interviewing me that’s actually spent the time listening. You’d be surprised or maybe not how rare that is these days.
Rock And Blues International: Let’s hope that in any future interviews you have, the people have taken the time to listen and and understand what they’re listening to
Barry Kerch: You would think. You would hope.
Rock And Blues International: All right. Well, again, thank you very much. I appreciate your time. And if you think of anything else you want to say to me, or tell me later on, you’ve got my number, just give me a call. All right. Well, thanks again for your time. Have a great day. Have a great week and we’ll talk on the next album.
Barry Kerch: Sounds great. Thank you Kevin.
Rock And Blues International: Okay, bye bye.
Barry Kerch: Bye, bye.
Be sure to catch Shinedown in concert this year should they be performing anywhere near you. Their concerts have become quite legendary and they feature an unbelievable amount of their greatest hits and #1 releases. As you can tell from this interview, Barry just can’t wait to get on stage and perform some of the new songs as well. We’d like to thank Barry for talking to us about this new album and tour and would like to wish him a very successful album and tour. Thanks again Barry!
John Rooney formed his first band The Lonelyhearts in Sydney, Australia, and it was a fiercely talented power pop band that went on to release a number of independent records. Always a musician and singer-songwriter, he has played numerous events over the years, including the premier Byron Bay Blues Festival. With his pure and wonderfully melodic voice, Rooney has captured fans with his emotional rapport.
Rooney’s sumptuous melodies and his diverse and inspirational lyrics caught the attention of A-list producer Kevin Shirley; (Joe Bonamassa, John Haitt, Aerosmith, Black Crows & Silverchair.) Hoodwink was recorded in Los Angeles and Nashville. The songs on this album feature an excellent array of musicians, including guitarists Waddy Wachtel (Stevie Nicks and Linda Ronstadt); Rusty Anderson (Paul McCartney); Mitch Easter (producer for REM, Pavement, and Ben Folds). Bassists: Don Was; Chris Chaney (Jane’s Addiction), and Alison Prestwood. Keyboardists: Benmont Tench (Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers) and Spooner Oldham (Muscle Shoals, Aretha Franklin, Bob Dylan, Neil Young). Drummers: Jim Keltner (Traveling Wilburys, John Lennon, George Harrison), and Greg Morrow (Nashville).
The record was also mixed by multiple Grammy Award-winner Bob Clearmountain, who is associated with legendary acts like Bruce Springsteen, The Rolling Stones, Toto, Bon Jovi, Bryan Adams, and Gregg Allman.
September 8th Fall Headlining Tour Begins
September 6th With Guests The Ataris and The Pink Spiders For Tickets go to https://www.everclearmusic.com/tour
Releases
Everclear, one of the leading alternative rock bands to emerge from the ‘90s led by vocalist, guitarist and founder Art Alexakis, has officially revealed the details for their new live album, Live at The Whisky a Go Go, and released the first single and music video for “Heroin Girl.” Due out Friday, September 8th via Sunset Blvd Records, Live at The Whisky a Go Go was recorded and filmed in late 2022 during Everclear’s 30th Anniversary Tour back in Alexakis’ hometown of Los Angeles and marked the first time the acclaimed quartet performed at the famed venue. The 17-track
collection features all the hits and hidden treasures from throughout Everclear’s extraordinary catalog as well as two bonus studio tracks, last year’s single “Year Of The Tiger” and new single “Sing Away.” The first offering from the forthcoming album is the 1995 hit “Heroin Girl,” off the band’s platinum-selling album Sparkle and Fade.
“Live at The Whisky a Go Go is raw, loose, noisy, and kind of ragged around the edges…just like rock & roll is supposed to be,” shares Alexakis. “Having grown up in Santa Monica in the late 1970s, performing at
The Whisky was always a dream, and that dream finally came true last December. Everclear has always been one of those bands that are way louder and rowdier live than we are on record, so this album is a gift of love to the thousands of fans who have come to our shows over the last 30 years.”
Everclear – Art Alexakis (vocals, guitar), Davey French (guitar), Freddy Herrera (bass), Brian Nolan (drums) – will be out on the road in support of the live album on a recently-announced fall headlining tour. The 30-date outing, featuring special guests The Ataris and The Pink Spiders, begins September 6th in Lexington, Kentucky and will make stops all across the country, including Cleveland, Buffalo, Philadelphia, Boston, New York City (September 18th at Gramercy Theatre), Nashville, Omaha, Denver, Seattle, Los Angeles (October 9th at The Wiltern), San Francisco, and many more, before wrapping October 15th in Pioneertown, California. Everclear also has a variety of shows lined up for the summer. See below for full list of upcoming tour dates.
Since forming in 1992, Everclear has enjoyed a lengthy career by any measure, spanning 11 studio releases, including four that have been certified Gold or Platinum, selling over 6 million records, and achieving 12 Top 40 Hit Singles on Mainstream Rock, Alternative, and Adult Top 40 radio, including “Santa Monica,” “Father of Mine,” “I Will Buy You A New Life,” “Wonderful” and “Everything To Everyone,” as well as numerous videos, thousands of shows, and various other accolades, including a 1998 Grammy nomination. The band’s 1993 debut album, World Of Noise, released on the Portland independent label Tim/Kerr Records, paired with their significant efforts to break into college radio and the buzz they’d created within the Portland music scene, attracted the attention of major labels, including Capitol Records, which signed the group soon after. Beginning with their majorlabel debut, 1995’s platinum-selling album Sparkle and Fade, and its massive charttopping hit “Santa Monica,” Everclear was soon a household name and catapulted into the masses, thus allowing their impressive three-decade career to prosper and endure. In 2019, Alexakis was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis (MS) and has since donated one dollar from every ticket purchased for his performances to charities such as Sweet Relief Musicians Fund and National MS Society. To celebrate their 30th anniversary in 2022, Everclear reissued World Of Noise as a special remastered, deluxe edition, making the album available for the first time on digital streaming platforms with 6 bonus songs in addition to its original 12 tracks. In addition to his thousands of Everclear performances over the band’s lengthy career, Alexakis created and runs the annual Summerland Tour, which features a package of popular ‘90s alt rock bands, and he released his first solo album, Sun Songs, in 2019. PRESS HERE to watch a special commemorative anniversary video,
continued on next page
(continued from previous page)
“Everclear – 30 Years Gone: A Retrospective,” hosted by former MTV VJ, current radio host and longtime friend Matt Pinfield.
More than three decades later, Everclear’s enduring legacy and ongoing appeal as a live band continues.
Friday, June 30 Decatur, IL @ Devon Lakeshore Amphitheater
Saturday, July 1 Attica, IN @ Badlands Off Road Park
Sunday, July 2 Westchester, OH @ Voices of America Museum
Monday, July 3 Dixon, IL @ Dixon Petunia Festival
Saturday, July 8 Woodhaven, MI @ Uncle Sam JamWoodhaven
Friday, July 14 Lake Charles, LA @ Golden Nugget Casino
Saturday, July 15 Cadott, WI @ Rock Fest 2023
Friday, July 21 Detroit Lakes, MN @ Northwest Water Carnival Bash On the Beach
Thursday, July 27 Jordan, NY @ Kegs Canalside
Friday, July 28 Whitehouse Station, NJ @ New Jersey Lottery Festival of Ballooning
Saturday, July 29 La Porte, IN @ LakeFest
Sunday, July 30 St. Louis, MO @ Pig and Whiskey Street Fest
Saturday, August 5 Butte, MT @ Brawls and Kickstart Days
Thursday, August 17 Lynchburg, VA @ Academy Center of the Arts
Friday, August 18 Bristol, TN @ Paramount Bristol
Saturday, August 19 Fayetteville, GA @ Southern Ground Amphitheater
Saturday, August 26 Wittenberg, WI @ Ho-Chunk Gaming Wittenburg
Saturday, September 2 Albany, OR @ Albany Downtown Block Party
Fall Headlining Tour w/ The Ataris and The Pink Spiders supporting:
Wednesday, September 6 Lexington, KY @ Manchester Music Hall
Thursday, September 7 Nashville, IN @ Brown County Music Center
Friday, September 8 Lemont, IL @ The Forge Lemont Quarries
Saturday, September 9 Fort Wayne, IN @ Piere’s
Monday, September 11 Cleveland, OH @ House of Blues ^
Tuesday, September 12 Buffalo, NY @ Town Ballroom
Wednesday, September 13 Silver Spring, MD @ The Fillmore ] Silver Spring
Friday, September 15 Philadelphia, PA @ Rivers Casino ^
Saturday, September 16 Westbury, NY @ The Space at Westbury
Sunday, September 17 Boston, MA @ Big Night Live
Monday, September 18 New York, NY @ Gramercy Theatre
Wednesday, September 20 Raleigh, NC @ The Ritz
Thursday, September 21 Nashville, TN @ The Sky Deck at Assembly Food Hall
Friday, September 22 Mt. Vernon, IL @ The Granada Theatre
Saturday, September 23 Waterloo, IA @ National Cattle Congress
Wednesday, September 27 Omaha, NE @ Barnato
Thursday, September 28 Denver, CO @ Gothic Theatre
Friday, September 29 Kamas, UT @ DeJoria Center Arena
Saturday, September 30 Cheyenne, WY @ The Lincoln
Sunday, October 1 Great Falls, MT @ The Newberry
Wednesday, October 4 Seattle, WA @ The Crocodile
Friday, October 6 Umatilla, OR @ Rock The Locks +
Saturday, October 7 Elko, NV @ Maverick Hotel and Casino by Red Lion Hotels +
Monday, October 9 Los Angeles, CA @ The Wiltern
Tuesday, October 10 San Francisco, CA @ August Hall
Thursday, October 12 Temecula, CA @ South Coast Winery Resort & Spa #
Friday, October 13 Rocklin, CA @ Quarry Park Amphitheater
Sunday, October 15 Pioneertown, CA @ Pappy + Harriet’s
Friday, October 27 North Augusta, SC @ Jack-O-Lantern
Jubilee +
+ indicates Everclear only
^ indicates Everclear and The Ataris only # indicates tickets on sale 6/23 at 10am local time
Follow Everclear:
Website @ https://www.everclearmusic.com/ Facebook @ https://www.facebook.com/everclear Instagram @ https://www.instagram.com/everclear/ Twitter @ https://twitter.com/EverclearBand
YouTube @ https://www.youtube.com/channel/UClxjm6JR5j7Wc_uP20OjUCA
Spotify @
https://open.spotify.com/artist/694QW15WkebjcrWgQHzRYF Apple Music @ https://music.apple.com/us/artist/everclear/549623
“It is our first truly independent release, and the first record we did entirely on our own, in our own studios with some help from friends but no outside producer or engineer,” says lead singer and songwriter David Schelzel of THE OCEAN BLUE about the wide rerelease of their first post-major label
album Davy Jones’ Locker (release date: August 25 via Korda Records).
Davy Jones’ Locker was initially released in 1999 by indie label March Records in a limited run. But that didn’t prevent the legion of faithful fans who have been following the band since their
inception in 1987 from elevating the release to mythic status. PopMatters said, “The band has returned in full style with Davy Jones’ Locker… ethereal, delicate, shimmering, beautiful.” Music Box quipped, “The Ocean Blue simply
(continued from previous page)
makes it work by building simple, supple melodies and dreamy atmospheres that swirl and surround.”
Davy Jones’ Locker was the band’s first album after they left a successful major label run (they released three acclaimed albums on the legendary Sire Records, and another on PolyGram/ Mercury) but it gave them the freedom to try new things. “It’s definitely our most eclectic and least fussy record, where we were experimenting with different musical directions, sounds, arrangements and lyrical themes,” explains David.
Playful, jangly, and gorgeously executed, the album is nestled perfectly in the band’s catalog and the alternative realm of ’80s legends like the Smiths and New Order, through the early Britpop of Blur, the LAs and The Trashcan Sinatras, while still sounding ahead of its time alongside modern compatriots like Cigarettes After Sex, Beach House, and Fontaines DC.
Anchored by the single “Denmark,” which enjoys a brand new video released today, Davy Jones’ Locker finds the band looking back circumspectly on their history. “The first line of the song is ‘Like mist or a daydream, made of substance can you feel it?’ and it begins a lyrical trip into musings about the past, the present moment, and the future direction of the band,” explains David. The accompanying video (directed by Zeke Anders) captures the band at these figurative and literal crossroads. Set in an airport while images of the band –past and present – flash behind him, David recalls the creation of the song and how the video relates to it: “The setting of the song is the band’s tour of Denmark which marked a turning point for us, as one of the founding members of the band left right after that tour and a current member joined us. The video does an amazing job of capturing all of these themes and moods. Better to see it than explain it.”
Other highlights of the album
include the jangly gem “Ayn,” the carefree existential “Garden Song” (“it captures why connecting with and tending life in a garden grounds you, and gives you a good perspective on life”), the lovesick “Been Down a Lot Lately,” and the haunting “Cake.” On an album as diverse and consistently endearing which has always been a hallmark for the band, the tracks on Davy Jones’ Locker indicated why the band has a fiercely loyal and fervent fanbase. “It boggles the mind, really,” smiles David appreciatively. “I suppose it helps that we’ve stayed together, kept making music, and continue to show up. Our older, core fans, often talk about how our music has been an important part of their lives, especially their formative years, or has gotten them through a difficult experience.”
A touchstone of the band’s continued success is their embrace of their fanbase and their live shows, and how invested they are in them. With a tour in support of the re-release of Davy Jones’ Locker, The Ocean Blue will be playing a host of shows kicking off on Labor Day weekend in Milwaukee, Chicago, and Minneapolis, and hitting
cities such as Washington DC, Pittsburgh, San Francisco, Houston, Miami and concluding in Phoenix on Nov. 18th. “This tour will certainly highlight Davy Jones’ Locker, but our set will include many songs from other records,” he explains. “We generally play a broad cross-section of our music, from the first record to the most recent. We often play a cover or two for fun.” (complete list of tour dates below)
Getting their start as teenagers in the late ‘80s in Hershey, PA, The Ocean Blue released their self-titled debut on the famed Sire Records that launched many of their heroes in the U.S., like the Smiths, Echo & the Bunnymen, and the Pretenders. Embraced by MTV, the band quickly made their mark on the onset of the Alternative Music scene. Their early singles “Between Something And Nothing” and “Drifting, Falling” notched them Top Ten hits on College and Modern Rock radio, setting in motion their continued and firm grasp on altrock and dreampop. With eight albums under their belt (Sire/Rhino reissued
continued on next page
their first three albums in 2015), the band continues to wield their songwriting prowess effortlessly with even more plans for the near future.
“We’ve started on a new album, and that will continue to be our focus until it is done. I’m not sure we will do another extensive tour like this fall before releasing new material, but we are looking at a few opportunities next year to play outside of the U.S., some festivals, and cities we haven’t gotten to in recent years. We’re grateful for all we’ve been able to do and excited about what lies ahead,” concludes David.
The newly-remastered Davy Jones’ Locker will be re-released on vinyl, CD and all streaming services on August 25 via Korda Records. The Ocean Blue is David Schelzel (vocals, guitar), Oed Ronne (guitar), Bobby Mittan (bass) and Peter Anderson (drums).
The Ocean Blue arrived as the 1980s drew to a close, and their debut record on the famed Sire Records label in 1989 seemed to summarize the best of the passing musical decade. With the release of The Ocean Blue, the band of four teenagers from Hershey, Pennsylvania quickly achieved widespread acclaim and radio & MTV airplay with top 10 Modern Rock/College Radio hits like Between Something and Nothing, Drifting, Falling, and Vanity Fair. They followed their debut with the dreamy and atmospheric Cerulean, which includes perhaps their most beloved song, Ballerina Out of Control. Their third Sire release and highest charting pop album Beneath the Rhythm and Sound featured the single Sublime, with a video of the band in the sublime landscape of Iceland. The band’s fourth major label album on Mercury/PolyGram, See The Ocean Blue, delved into wider 60s and 70s stylings but with the band’s 80s DNA peeking through.
The band left the majors in the late 90s and released several independent records in the ensuing decade, including 2000’s Davy Jones Locker and 2004’s
Waterworks. In 2013, after a long hiatus and much anticipation, the band released their first full length record in a decade, Ultramarine, on Korda Records, a label cooperative the band helped launch that same year. The record was a welcome return for both long-time fans of the band and a younger generation of likeminded fans, and it garnered widespread praise as one of their very best albums. In 2015, the band worked with Sire Records to reissue their first three albums on vinyl, and did wider touring in North America and in South America, where some of their most passionate fans reside.
In 2019, the band returned with the beautifully powerful Kings and Queens / Knaves and Thieves, and has continued
to tour for this release and the newly reissued vinyl of See The Ocean Blue (2022) and Davy Jones’ Locker (2023).
Davy Jones Locker Tracklisting
Ayn
Garden Song
Denmark
My Best Friend
Cukaloris
Been Down a Lot Lately
Consolation Prize
Cake
Bottle Yours
I Can’t See You
So Many Reasons
Do You Still Remember Me?
It Never, Just Might
TOUR DATES:
Sep 1
Sep 2
Sep 3
Sep 8
Sep 9
Sep 29
Sep 30
Milwaukee, WI Shank Hall
Chicago, IL
Lincoln Hall
Minneapolis, MN Parkway Theater
Washington, DC Howard Theater
Pittsburgh, PA
Mr. Smalls
Philadelphia, PA Ardmore Theater
Virginia Beach, VA Neptune Festival
Oct 6 San Antonio, TX
Oct 7
Oct 19
Oct 20
Oct 21
Nov 10
Sam’s Burger Joint
Houston, TX Numbers
Toronto, ON
Detroit, MI
Columbus, OH
Miami, FL
Horseshoe Tavern
Magic Bag
Natalie’s Grandview Music Hall
The Ground @ Club Space
Nov 11 Chapel Hill, NC Cat’s Cradle
Nov 16 San Diego, CA
Nov 17
Nov 18
Casbah *SOLD OUT*
San Francisco, CA The Chapel
Phoenix, AZ
Crescent Ballroom
(continued from previous page)
Thrash metal frontrunners NERVOSA have announced their fierce fifth full-length, Jailbreak, out September 29, 2023 via Napalm Records! This will be the first NERVOSA album with guitarist and founding member Prika Amaral on vocal duties, and showcasing the band’s mighty new lineup completed by the immensely talented and well experienced Michaela Naydenova on drums, Hel Pyre on bass and Helena Kotina on guitars.
Following the blistering standalone single “Endless Ambition”, with “Seed Of Death”, NERVOSA serves up a second taste of what’s to come. Starting off with a beautiful, epic intro, “Seed Of Death” features philosophical lyrics that explore questions about the never-ending cycle of life, grabbing an omnipresent issue relevant to all of us. Check out the captivating official music video below!
Prika Amaral on the new single and album:
“I’m very happy with the result of this song and our new album. I always wanted to have a song like this but it never happened for different reasons and now we can finally make it happen. Also, we were able to take even more risks and do new things. With two guitars the doors open to a whole new world of possibilities, in fact NERVOSA had two guitars in the beginning, but then we decided to go with one guitar for logistical reasons, since it would be easier to move with one less person for tours. Now NERVOSA has a much bigger structure that allowed this addition, and we are really enjoying this moment of the band. The process of writing this record was the most fun and brought the most musicality, enriching the band.
Helena Kotina adds:
“I think Jailbreak is NERVOSA’s most revolutionary record, both musically and lyrically. It was a very challenging process but at the same time very constructive. We were able to take care of every detail until we obtained the best result.”
Breaking through barriers like an unstoppable steamroller, full-speed thrash outfit NERVOSA present their new studio album, entitled Jailbreak! With their previous record, Perpetual Chaos (2.8M plays on Spotify), NERVOSA not only secured their first chart positions (#18 GER Official Album Charts, #6 US Hard Music Albums, #9 US Top New Artist Albums charts), but also performed at some of Europe’s biggest festivals, such as Copenhell, Resurrection, MetalDays, Summer Breeze, Wacken Open Air, and many more.
Among its various themes, Jailbreak explores messages of breaking free from everyone and everything holding you back from doing exactly what you want to do. It encourages the listener to be proud of who they are, and to trust in themselves and the strength that lies within them. The album kicks off with charging “Endless
Ambition”, a track previously released in early 2023 that acted as a first harbinger for everything that is about to come on the album. The track immediately showcases the incredibly powerful attitude and talent of Amaral as frontwoman. Raging
“Suffocare”, which deals with several aspects of toxic relationships, and “Ungrateful” continue on the path of the intense opening track. Relentless title track “Jailbreak” attacks with a thrash metal chorus and roaring guitar solos. As a very special treat, NERVOSA spices up the intense track “When The Truth Is A Lie” with none other than an impressive guest contribution from legendary EXODUS guitarist Gary Holt, whilst INFECTED RAIN/DEATH DEALER
UNION vocalist Lena Scissorhands provides another strong guest feature by lending her voice on “Superstition
Failed”. “Elements of Sin” features some of the album’s most insane guitar work and thundering vocals, before uncontrol
continued on next page
New Single, “Seed Of Death” & Official Music Video Out Now Watch
(continued from previous page)
lable closing track “Nail The Coffin” seals the 13-track album with a forceful thrash banger.
In true NERVOSA style, the album’s lyrical themes comment on our society in a direct, critical manner, with messages delivered through intensely fast-twitching, raw soundscapes. On Jailbreak, the band continues their powerful collaboration with Martin Furia, who produced the four-piece’s successful previous records. With this album, NERVOSA graces fans with yet another thrash metal masterpiece!
NERVOSA is:
Prika Amaral – Vocals and guitars
Helena Kotina – Guitars
Hel Pyre – Bass
Michaela Naydenova – Drums
Jailbreak Tracklist:
1 Endless Ambition
2 Suffocare
3 Ungrateful
4 Seed Of Death
5 Jailbreak 6 Sacrifice 7 Behind The Wall
9 When The Truth Is A Lie (feat. Gary Holt)
10 Superstition
Failed (feat. Lena Scissorhands)
11 Gates To The Fall
12 Elements Of Sin
13 Nail The Coffin
Jailbreak will be available in the following formats:
1LP Vinyl PURPLE
1LP Vinyl RED/WHITE MARBLED incl. slipmat (in gatefold) bundled with wristband & printed cotton bag
1MC TRANS RED, WHITE print
CD Digipak + “Jailbreak” Shirt Bundle
CD Digipak + “Seed Of Death” Shirt Bundle Digital Album
1LP Vinyl RED/WHITE MARBLED incl. slipmat (in gatefold) bundled with wristband & printed cotton bag
Velenju
Steely Dan’s Jazz-Rock Masterwork, Aja, Remastered From Analog Tapes And Reissued On Vinyl After More Than Four Decades Legendary Album, Featuring “Aja,”
“Deacon Blues,” “Josie,” and “Peg” Continues
Extensive Reissue Program Of Steely Dan’s Classic ABC And MCA Records CatalogPersonally Overseen By Donald Fagen
Availale September 29 Via Geffen/UMe
Pre-order Aja: https://steelydan.lnk.to/AjaVinylPR
(continued from previous page)
Steely Dan’s 1977 multi-platinum jazz-rock masterwork, Aja, has been remastered from analog and will be reissued on vinyl for the first time in more than four decades on September 29th via Geffen/UMe. Aja marks the latest release in Geffen/UMe’s extensive reissue program of Steely Dan’s classic ABC and MCA Records catalog, which returns the band’s first seven records to vinyl – most of which haven’t been available since their original release. Overseen by founding member Donald Fagen, the series launched in November 2022 with the group’s legendary 1972 debut, Can’t Buy A Thrill, followed by 1973’s Countdown To Ecstasy in May 2023. The band’s beloved third album, 1974’s Pretzel Logic, was just released last month.
Aja has been meticulously remastered by Bernie Grundman from an analog, non-EQ’d, tape copy and will be pressed on 180-gram black vinyl at 33 1/ 3 RPM. Additionally, Aja, like all the titles, is being released as a limited edition premium 45 RPM version on Ultra High-Quality Vinyl (UHQR) from Analogue Productions, the audiophile inhouse reissue label of Acoustic Sounds. Analogue Productions is also releasing this series of titles on Super Audio CD (SACD). Visit here for more details and to order.
Additional titles rolling out over the next year include 1975’s swing-pop perfection Katy Lied (featuring “Black Friday,” “Bad Sneakers” and “Doctor Wu,” as well as the addition of Michael McDonald on vocals); 1976’s guitardriven The Royal Scam (“Kid Charlemagne,” “The Fez”); and Steely Dan’s final album for MCA, and last for 20 years, 1980’s brilliant Gaucho (featuring “Hey Nineteen” and “Time Out Of Mind,” with Mark Knopfler on guitar).
All albums in the series are being mastered by Bernie Grundman from the original analog tapes except for Aja and Gaucho, with the later being sourced
from a 1980 analog tape copy originally EQ’d by Bob Ludwig (There’s no evidence the original tapes containing the flat mixes of Aja and Gaucho were delivered to the record label and it’s presumed the tapes no longer exist). Lacquers for UMe’s standard 33 1/3 RPM 180-gram version will be cut by Alex Abrash at his renowned AA Mastering studio from high-resolution digital files of Grundman’s new masters and pressed at Precision. They will be housed in reproductions of the original artwork.
The 45 RPM UHQR versions will be pressed at Analogue Productions’ Quality Record Pressings on 200-gram Clarity Vinyl, packaged in a deluxe box, and will include a booklet detailing the entire process of making a UHQR along with a certificate of inspection. Each UHQR is pressed, using hand-selected vinyl, with attention paid to every single detail of every single record. All of the innovations introduced by QRP that have been generating such incredible critical acclaim are applied to each UHQR. The 200-gram records feature the same flat
profile that helped to make the original UHQR so desirable.
Released in 1977, Aja (pronounced Asia) marked Steely Dan’s sixth album in just five years and cemented Donald Fagen and Walter Becker to be the musical visionaries their previous albums hinted at. Alongside longtime producer Gary Katz, Fagen and Becker recorded Aja, a heady and sophisticated seven-song statement that blended jazz with progressive pop and rock, over a year and a half in six different studios in Los Angeles and New York. The duo, retired from touring and now true songwriting partners, recruited dozens upon dozens of ace session players to help realize their singular vision. As creatures of the studio, they became sonic perfectionists, in search of the perfect sound and perfect take, scrutinizing every single note played by some of the best in the business, bringing in new musicians and sometimes even entirely new bands to try a different approach, only accepting exactly what they were
continued on page 77
(continued from previous page)
looking for. In all, nearly forty musicians and vocalists played on the seven-track, forty-minute album including such greats as bassist Chuck Rainey, saxophonist Wayne Shorter, guitarists Dean Parks, Larry Carlton, Lee Ritenour, Jay Graydon and Steve Khan, drummers Bernard Purdie, Ed Greene, Jim Keltner, Rick Marotta and Steve Gadd and Victor Feldman and Joe Sample on keys. Timothy B. Schmit and Michael McDonald both contributed backing vocals to several songs.
The hard work and obsessive attention to detail paid off and Aja became Steely Dan’s commercial and critical high point. The album became their fast seller to date and gave the band their first platinum record, eventually going on to double platinum. Bolstered by two Top 20 hits, “Peg,” which hit No. 11 and stayed on the charts for more than a year, and “Deacon Blues,” which climbed to No. 19, plus the Top 40 single, “Josie,” (No. 26), the album peaked at No. 3 on the Billboard Top 200. UK’s New Music Express hailed it as “simply the finest and most sophisticated and intelligent rock album to be released this year” while Billboard called it the year’s “most polished album.” Aja won the GRAMMY for Best Engineered Recording – Non Classical for its meticulous production and was also nominated for Album of the Year and Best Pop Performance by a Duo or Group.
Since its release 46 years ago, Steely Dan’s Aja has only continued to grow in stature. It remains their best selling album and is routinely referred to by audiophiles as one of the best sounding albums ever, as close to perfect as a record can be. Aja frequently appears on “greatest albums” lists, including Rolling Stone where it was voted #63 on their list of the “500 Greatest Albums Of All Time.” Retrospective reviews continue to extoll its importance as a landmark record. Pitchfork awarded it a perfect 10 in their 2019 review, declaring “Aja is as bold as
records get,” adding, “Steely Dan spent the 1970s getting progressively more esoteric: jazzier, groovier, weirder. Even now, mapping the album’s melodic and harmonic shifts is impossible to do with confidence. Its songs are sprawling and fussy, populated by oddball characters with inscrutable backstories, like ‘Josie,’ from the song of the same name (‘She’s the raw flame, the live wire/She prays like a Roman with her eyes on fire’) or ‘Peg,’ an aspiring actress headed whoknows-where, who’s ‘done up in blueprint blue.’” Ultimate Classic Rock called it “the artistic pinnacle of the ‘70s jazz-rock movement,” GQ a “masterpiece,” Variety praised it as “still among the most voluptuous-sounding recordings ever committed to tape” and “a thing of musical beauty with a hard-edged heart, and a consummate act of creative sleight-of-hand.” Spin exclaimed, “Today, Aja still stands as the crucial microcosm of Becker and Fagen’s artistry, and as one of the most inventive blockbuster rock albums of its decade.”
In 2003, Aja was inducted into the GRAMMY Hall of Fame and in 2010 it was added to the National Recording Registry of the Library of Congress.
Led by the songwriting and virtuoso musical duo of Walter Becker and Donald Fagen, Steely Dan released an extraordinary run of seven albums on ABC Records and MCA Records from 1972 through 1980. Filled with topline musicianship, clever and subversive wordplay, ironic humor, genius arrange-
ments, and pop hits that outshone the Top 40 of their day, Steely Dan’s records – which were as sophisticated and cerebral as they were inscrutable – were stylistically diverse, melding the band’s love of jazz with rock, blues, and impeccable pop songcraft.
Steely Dan helped define the soundtrack of the ’70s with hits such as “Reeling in the Years,” “Rikki Don’t Lose That Number,” “Peg,” “Deacon Blues,” “Babylon Sisters,” and “Hey Nineteen,” culled from their seven platinum albums issued between 1972 and 1980 (including 1977’s groundbreaking Aja). Both their sound and their notoriety survived the ’80s despite Walter Becker and Donald Fagen occasionally surfacing for a solo project. They reunited as Steely Dan in the early ’90s, touring successfully throughout the decade and releasing a live album in 1995 (Alive In America). In 2000, they released their multi-GRAMMY® winner, Two Against Nature, and were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2001.
Side B
1. Peg
2. Home At Last
3. I Got The News
(continued from previous page)
In celebration of the Golden Anniversary of the iconic Marvin Gaye album Let’s Get It On, Motown/UMe is releasing digitally a revised and expanded Let’s Get It On: Deluxe Edition on August 25, 2023, three days before the album’s original release date in 1973 fifty years prior. Featuring a fascinating trove of 33 bonus tracks, 18 of them previously unreleased, the Prince of Soul’s creative explorations continued to unfold with the production of this pivotal release. Collectively, the bonus material leans into the story of Gaye’s multi-layered personal struggles during the album’s creation. To honor this milestone, aLet’s Get It On event will take place at the GRAMMY Museum on August 23 featuring Smokey Robinson, Jimmy Jam, and Marvin Gaye biographer David Ritz. Get tickets here.
Comprised of tracks recorded during an intense six months of sessions in Los Angeles in ’73, this newly enriched Let’s Get It On: Deluxe Edition presents the album’s original eight songs alongside unheard mixes and material from all the sessions along the way, in addition to a trove of funky and fascinating instrumental tracks - and unreleased versions of the ballad recordings Marvin returned to time and again.
To further commemorate the record’s golden anniversary, the original album will be available in Dolby ATMOS. In the coming weeks, Motown/UMe will premiere new video content for select tracks, and an e-commerce-only colored vinyl edition of the original album.
After the success of What’s Going On and the following album, the protoacid-jazz soundtrack to Trouble Man, Gaye had won Motown’s trust. The freedom was liberating but also fueled a heightened uncertainty about where to take his career. At a personal crossroads involving relocation to Los Angeles, a fraying marriage, a budding romance with Janis Hunter, who attended the initial sessions, and a driving need to experiment, Gaye found a steam valve in creating a suite of erotically charged yet emotionally vulnerable songs. But the final album lineup was drawn from a series of different sessions, resulting in a wealth of vaulted material.
Marvin’s first step in early ’73 was
to seek out Ed Townsend, the artist, songwriter and producer best known for his 1950s ballad hit, “For Your Love.” He initially had Townsend guide him through ballad arrangements created especially for Marvin by arranger/pianist Bobby Scott in 1966, tracks he obsessed over for years. But these versions of the ballads, like ones Marvin recorded earlier, were left behind; the revealing, previously unreleased ’73 versions are included on the new Let’s Get It On: Deluxe Edition. (Later vocals were included on the posthumous release, Vulnerable.)
Simultaneously, sharing their mutual vulnerability, Marvin and Ed wrote new material that eventually became Side 1 of the Let’s Get It On album.
“I’d just come out of rehab, where I’d beaten a monstrous addiction to alcohol,” the late Townsend said. “I was looking to move ahead with my life - to ‘get it on.’ Marvin grasped this completely. But he didn’t stop learning the lyrics. He bypassed superficiality, questioning where you were coming from when you composed the song. He couldn’t just sing it; he had to connect with it as deeply as he’d written it himself.
“I witnessed the pain he was going
through in his life; I was also blessed to witness the joy of an artist fully engaging with his work.”
With Townsend and veteran arranger Rene Hall, and a slew of stellar session musicians, including veteran saxophonist Plas Johnson, guitarist Melvin “Wah Wah” Ragin, jazz drummer Paul Humphrey and the Crusaders’ Wilton Felder on bass, Gaye recorded six songs, completing three, transforming the hopeful theme of what became the album’s title song into a call for spiritual sex. Again, he moved on.
Marvin reunited with David Van DePitte - the Detroit arranger who unified What’s Going On into a cohesive suiteand they delivered blazing cuts with a few of the same musicians, plus Herbie Hancock on piano, who met “Wah Wah” for the first time during these sessions and would go on to collaborate with him on several albums; guitarists John Morell, then with Shelly Manne’s band and soon a veteran of countless hits, and Richard Bennett, who became a key member of Neil Diamond’s band for nearly two decades and later produced Emmylou Harris. James Jamerson, the original Motown Funk Brother who was also new
continued on page 81
(continued from previous page)
to LA, switched off on bass with Felder. Yet Marvin left those tracks behind, too.
Nothing hung together until Motown, watching months fly by without a new Marvin Gaye record, pulled “Let’s Get It On” from the tapes and rush-released it as a single before an album was finished. Alongside new hits from Motown’s own Stevie Wonder, Smokey Robinson (in his solo debut), Eddie Kendricks, and Diana Ross, “Let’s Get It On” shot to No. 1 Pop (2 weeks) and R&B (6 weeks). The company’s first full year on the West Coast was proving a resounding success.
During the song’s climb to the top, Let’s Get It On the album began taking shape. Gaye built upon tracks that originated in Detroit in the fall of 1970 - the Side 2 gems “Come Get To This,” “Distant Lover” (the album’s second single) and “Just To Keep You Satisfied” - while also finalizing additional selections from the Townsend sessions and his own, provocative “You Sure Love To Ball,” which was eventually the third single from the album. Let’s Get It On stayed No. 1 on the Soul Albums chart for 11 weeks in the fall of 1973 while peaking at No. 2 Pop.
Inducted into the GRAMMY Hall of Fame in 2004, Let’s Get It On represents a pivotal moment not only in the career of Marvin Gaye but in the evolution of soul music. Gaye gave voice to intimate desire in a way that was lightning charged. At the time, he claimed it was spiritually guided. Fifty years on, it’s never been more apparent that he was telling the truth.
In the acclaimed biography, Divided Soul: The Life of Marvin Gaye, author David Ritz put the project into perspective with the following summation: “The paradox is this: The sexiest of Marvin Gaye’s work is also his most spiritual. That’s the paradox of Marvin himself. In his struggle to wed body and soul, in his exploration of sexual passion, he expresses the most human of hunger-the hunger for God. In those songs of loss and lament-the sense of separation is heartbreaking. On one level, the separation is between man and woman. On a deeper level, the separation is between man and God.”
Original Album *
1. Let’s Get It On
2. Please Stay (Once You Go Away)
3. If I Should Die Tonight
4. Keep Gettin’ It On
5. Come Get To This
6. Distant Lover
7. You Sure Love To Ball
8. Just To Keep You Satisfied
Single Edits
9. Let’s Get It On (single version) *
10. You Sure Love To Ball (single version) *
11. If I Should Die Tonight (original LP edit) *
Album Bonus Tracks
12. Let’s Get It On - demo **
13. Let’s Get It On - Pt. II (a.k.a. Keep Gettin’ It On) **
14. I Knew One Day My Day Would Come (instrumental)
15. Interlude #1
16. Please Stay (Once You Go Away)alternate mix 1 **
17. Lovely Lady (instrumental)
18. If I Should Die Tonight - demo **
19. I Don’t Have To Get High To Do It (instrumental)
20. Come Get To This - alternate mix 1 **
21. Distant Lover - alternate mix 1 **
22. You Sure Love To Ballalternate mix 1 w/alternate vocal **
23. Just To Keep You Satisfiedalternate mix w/alternate vocal **
24. Interlude #2
25. If I Should Die Tonight - SaLaAM ReMi’s Piano Mix
26. Just To Keep You SatisfiedJohn Morales’s Stripped Mix
The David Van DePitte Sessions
27. Song #1 (instrumental)
28. Song #2 (instrumental)
29. Song #3 (instrumental) **
30. Song #4 (partial vocal)
31. Shake Well (instrumental)
32. Perfection (instrumental)
33. Cakes (instrumental) **
34. My Love Is Growing (Super Polished) **
Vulnerable: The 1973 vocals
35. She Needs Me
36. Why Did I Choose You
37. Funny, Not Much
38. This Will Make You Laugh
39. The Shadow Of Your Smile
40. I Wish I Didn’t Love You So
41. I Won’t Cry Anymore
* Previously released
** Previously released bonus songs with fresh mixes
All other tracks are previously unreleased.
The newly revised Deluxe Edition replaces a deluxe edition first released in 2001, as most of its bonus tracks are now available in the previously vaulted album of 1972 recordings, You’re the Man, issued by Motown/UMe in 2019.
Life is strange. You meet all kinds. Years ago I met a man that everybody called Trailer Park Jack. A combination scooter tramp and bluesman. Cool guy kind of out there but cool none the less. He rode a trike. An old flat head Harley engine mounted inside a later model trike body. Definitely a conversation piece. He has this Jekyll and Hyde personality going on. Off stage he was this super quiet reserved guy. On stage he became something totally different presenting highly opinionated original lyrics and blazingly hot lead guitar licks. Anyway this was Jack and Jack lived in a small trailer park with just himself and his Irish setter named Kelly. He rented this two bedroom mobile home that was parked at a 90 degree angle that looked squarely onto the side of this green colored mobile home with this one large living room window. He had built this low height picket fence so that he could let his dog outside without her needing to be chained. When he would let Kelly out many times a young boy, maybe four years old, would look out his neighbors’ living room window and watch the dog romp around. On one such day I had bought some grub for Jack’s outside grill and was doing my best to grill up some cheeseburgers and a couple of hot dogs. It was an interesting afternoon because out of nowhere there was two unmarked cop cars with their red lights on the roof of their cars turning round and round. Then about six maybe eight plain clothes cops came out of nowhere. It was like being in a black and white Perry Mason movie actually. Watching a lot of drama with no insight into the story line but then again soon the main plot unfolded. I saw them bring a man out of that green mobile home in handcuffs and put inside one of the cars. As fast as the drama started it ended just as fast. I noticed a nice looking young lady holding that young boy I had seen in the window, she had tears in her eyes. She noticed me sitting there and turned her face away and went back inside. The meat on the grill was done by now and so I took it back inside Jack’s trailer and we scarfed it down like two men that had not eaten in days which was not the case but we were chowing down big time. We didn’t forget Kelly by the way she was digging the grub too. About two or three hours later around dusk I let Kelly out and went outside with her. I sat down in a summer lawn chair and was taking in a fantastic sunset. About maybe five minutes passed when I glanced over at the fence line and noticed the gal from next door standing there holding the boy in her arms. I got up and went over and said hi. She began to apologize for what I had seen and I told her no problem and offered her a beer. She said not right now as she needed to settle her son down and then get him into bed. Well for me it was time for a Macanudo 50 ring maduro cigar, single malt scotch and my round take on the road portable music speaker. So I went back inside fetched what I wanted including some ice and then went back outside. The sun was almost down now and the skyline was this deep purple color, perfect for kicking back and taking it all in. Trailer Park Jack came out with his rig and said he would see me later as he had to leave and set up for a gig. He invited me to attend to but I decided to stay with his dog Kelly. She was enjoying the yard and I was resting my keister from about a three hundred mile ride. Funny how at times you can’t think of one song to play. So I did what everyone should do and asked the dog. I pulled some names out of my head and she just
continued on next page
laid there until I came up with Steely Dan then she raised her head in approval. I tried to tell her that Steely Dan wasn’t blues but then again I did mention the name. Now let me tell you something that everyone has done and it’s embarrassing. At one time another you are having a conversation with a pet or you are talking out loud to no one and then you notice someone just standing there smiling. Oh come on now you’ve done this, I know you have…. Well anyway I looked up from talking to the dog and there was that neighbor gal just smiling away. So I said ok who’s embarrassed now? Her smile became much wider. She said just said a lite beer and an ashtray. I said I can do that. I came back with both and looked down at Kelly and told her the track I thought she would like most would be “Deacon Blue” and commenced to getting it moving along. Maria was the girl next door’s name and I looked in her eyes and asked so how did your day go today? We both laughed a bit. Her husband had been doing twenty five years but had been paroled and came home to them but after a month had gone by he still had not reported
in to his parole officer. So they came and got him without any notice. I told her yep that’s the way it’s done. I told her that I normally can come up with a list of blues numbers I want to listen to but tonight my brain was not cooperating with my memory. I asked her what blues numbers she liked and she said just about anything blues rock and mentioned “Black Magic Woman” and I said coming right up. I lit her cigarette and my cigar and we kicked back to Black Magic Woman. Near the end of the song I chose “Hotel California” and without any words between us we got right into it. I poured another four fingers of scotch went inside and got some ice and of course another lite beer. She talked about how easy it is to get lost in the lyrics and I thought exactly. She excused herself to go check on her son and when she returned she brought one of those room monitors that parents use to keep a close ear on their child. She lit another cigarette and looked at me and down at the ashtray and asked if I was going to smoke that cigar or just let moss grow on it? I picked it up, she lit it, I said smart ass. She smiled. For two people that did not know each other we were having a pretty good time especially after the fiasco at her place. I asked if she liked the Allman Brothers, she nodded and I put on “Statesboro Blues”. Then I thought well maybe that song will be a bit too suggestive but the number is good no matter how you cut it. No it was alright as her foot was tapping and the woman knew how to down a can of cold beer. She asked where I was from and I said my mother and you? She changed the subject which told me she was sharp, intuitive. The next song up was “Stormy Monday” and we were both nodding ok
with it so we just sat back and took it all in. Me? Good cigar, good scotch, good music makes for a nice evening, add a good looking hep lady and its heaven on earth. Some noise came across the room monitor and in a flash the ambiance of the evening changed as the good mommy left to be with her son. So I said to Kelly well this is we were in the beginning, how you doin? Kelly wagged her tail and moved closer. I said just you and me baby, just you and me. If you spell dog backwards that kind of says it all. There’s some kind of spiritual connection between humans and dogs. So here I was in Dog Patch Trailer Park on a warm night with clear skies and everything a man needs to be at peace, life was good. A while later I picked up my mess, called Kelly into the place and called it a night. Trailer Park Jack came wheelin’ in at zero dark thirty and bumped his way down the hall and into the main bedroom. There was a thump a few choice cuss words, then no sound at all. In the morning, it was about maybe nine, I fired up my scooter and made way to the local grocery store. Picked up some bacon, eggs and potatoes along with some salsa and returned to the hacienda on wheels. Jack was up and complained about a headache but was pleasant none the less. I warmed up a frying pan, added a little butter and made some breakfast for us then afterward he said his head didn’t hurt as much any more. We caught up on old times and shared who had left this planet since the last time we saw each other, which the list keeps growing as the years continue to move forward. Jack suggested that we ride together a bit since we hadn’t done that in years so we went for a country ride. The rain had fallen rather strongly the day before I arrived so the small streams were flowing and when we would go over a small highway bridge we could see clear water flowing. We were moving along at about maybe sixty miles an hour when a bubble gum machine came up behind us and turned on his siren. We pulled over and went through the usual insurance, registration and warrants check. The guy was a dick about it and I felt like Barnie Fife had strayed too far from his town and we looked like bad guys on bikes. No big deal in a way, if you ride it goes with the turf. However most cops are ok people and this could have happened without the sarcasm and cold personality. We decided to head back and I thought I would hose down ole red (not the dog but the hog) and clean my scooter up a bit. Jack was going to get ready for another gig that night. I thought I might go and then again I wasn’t sure. I knew it was about time to pull up stakes and head down the road so a clean bike would be cool to have ready to go. Kelly was eager to see Jack and then she worked her way over to me. Tail was wagging heavily and her body language was speaking a mountain of joy. That did my heart good. Ok inside for a cold beer, after all a man has to have his priorities, then back outside with a wash rag and some Dove dishwashing soap. I sat down in the “contemplating” chair, that was the spot where I would contemplate the near term itinerary. Then I made my baby shine.
