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| October 5, 2007: "Chequessett Forever", by Paulette Though I enjoy golf, it has always been my ambition never to spend any money on it, or to write songs about it. I've also never put anyone in "Love To Turn You On" more than once, but Paulette's version of "Chequessett Forever" is just one of the funniest things I ever heard, and it has lately turned into a full-blown obsession around my house. It's from a full length cd he produced after playing a round of golf with me recently -songs for each hole, plus one about the parking lot and one about the snack after, climaxing with "Chequessett Forever." (by the way, there's plenty more at pauletteinternational.com; though, strangely enough the song in question isn't up yet - what the hell, Paulette?!?) Listen immediately... spread the love... |
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| August 16, 2006: "Can't Get it Right", by PJ O'Connell There is no one I know on Cape Cod more kind and generous than P.J. O'Connell; no one writes better songs, either. He's also a good neighbor, having lent me many cups of sugar and about 90 million cds somewhere along the line (and that's way they call him the Cowboy Lawyer, or at least they must do it for some reason.) Pat's latest, "Careful" (on the Clang label), is the best of a really good bunch, even though it features prominently all of the Incredible Casuals (luckily, there's also Q-sters as well, not to mention Dinty and Keith from the Philharmonic.) My wife, even (who I playfully call "Mrs. Travis"), totally loves it, and she doesn't like anything except for the Muffs and the Beatles. This one's called "Can't Get It Right", and It Rocks, Man! But the album's really strong right through, which you can confirm yourself by buying the damn thing at Pat's website, please, godammit. |
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| December 2, 2005: "Hell But Swell", by Zoë Lewis There are a great many charming women on Cape Cod, but Zoë Lewis is really one of the truly charming-est. Her voice is playful and liquid and effortless and lovely, plus she's a major loon. She's British, and my wife says she's an old soul, which I can see -she seems more like a person from the thirties than one from now, and an actual entertainer at that! I've adored her for years; she's a walking birthday party, and so odd a person that sometimes she even lets us play with her -and here's the evidence, from a benefit for WOMR last August in P'town, transcribed here by the right honourable Fred Boak, a song called "Hell But Swell" featuring help from the Philharmonette (in this case, Berke McKelvey and Mark Chenevert da horns, myself on bass and vox, and Keith "The Flaw" Spring on keys . She has put out many fine albums over the years, all available at zoelewis.com; my favorite song is "Squid" (off the album "Fishbone Wishbone Funny Bone"), which is perhaps an even better song than "This Was a Real Nice Clambake" -and that's by fucking Rodgers and Hammerstein! Her latest, "Small is Tremendous", has a cool song called "Havana Moon", that I hope to impair again one of these days, Zoë willing. |
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| February 15, 2005: Duplex Planet OK, this is going to be tricky, because in this installment we'll be directing you to something that's not primarily musical: the Duplex Planet, one of my favorite magazines in the world, and of the most peculiar, consisting as it does of interviews with elderly nursing home residents who respond to the sometimes random, frequently playful questions of my longtime friend and lyricist, David B. Greenberger. Long ago, David asked my favorite interview question ever, which is, "Which do you prefer, coffee or meat?" I should also mention that David is a swell graphic artist and lyricist; he did the covers for the Casuals' "It Is Balloon", My "Ivan in Paris", and a whole mess of NRBQ albums; and wrote the lyrics to some of my best songs: "This is Home", "You and Me Pushing Up Daisies", "Running Up the Clock", and many others (when you notice the lyrics being better than usual, they're probably David's.) The Duplex Planet is pretty damn hard to explain, but it's funny and sad and touching and soulful - downright hilarious and everything in between -and it has been accorded glowing reviews in just about every periodical you can think of, plus inspired a veritable cottage industry of fascinating spin-off products. Please proceed at once to the Duplex Planet -roll up your sleeves and stay a while! |
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| November 18, 2004: "Hey Hey You Say", by Papas
Fritas Tony Goddess has long been one of our faves -his band, Papas Fritas, made some amazing records, esp. their second album, "Helioself", and Rikki and myself have been working with him since last spring, but only played out a couple of times (hopefully, will do more in the future.) So who better for an installment of Love To Turn You On? This one is just one of the best things I've ever heard anywhere, period: "Hey Hey You Say"... even if you don't usually check out the guest section, you've just got to hear this one! You can find out more at Tony's website and at the Papas Fritas website, so, go! |
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| September 14, 2004: "Liquor Store", by Paulette Paulette was born in Stockton, California, the 'son' of two people who weren't brother and sister. She has a music degree from San Francisco State University, and taught piano in San Francisco for 6 years. She has been writing songs for about 20 years, and only recently had enough cash, time, and motivation to make and publish her own album of songs about her present neighborhood, Rockridge, in Oakland California. Without a doubt, the album is a steal at 10 dollars per cd plus postage and handling, $1.50. that's a sum total of $11.50 for a stylishly designed cd in a hard plastic case, an artful insert with a story about Lou Reed, and a padded envelope with some postage and your name on it. Says one pleased hypothetical customer, 'I somewhat honestly felt like a tremendous weight was being lifted from my tired, weary shoulders when i placed my order through the pauletteinternational.com website. |
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| June 24, 2004: "Iceman", by Tom Carns Tom Carns is an old and very dear friend, going back to when he was a teenager in a band called the Hitchhikers with (Casual) Aaron Spade on the lower cape. He moved out to Oakland, CA., about ten or fifteen years ago, and he's been there ever since, so we see him when we visit out there and vice versa - it has becopme one of the really cool things about going to California. Along the way Tommy turned into an excellent musician and an exceptional songwriter, as a listen to this informal version of his song, "Iceman", will bear out (as does his first album, "get up and fall down" (Info Records; Tommy's website seems to be down at the moment, but there's a page here, and you can email him at tommycarns@yahoo.com. This version of "Iceman" was recorded in Tommy and his lovely fiance Julie's living room on the last night of our west coast tour last winter (not to mention Julie's first night back home from Mexico) and features Chandler, Dinty, and Fred the Valet "helping out." It was a magic night, the last of a long and delightful string in a tour/vacation that included more concentrated playing than any of us had ever done before, and we were finding it very difficult to stop (in fact, we did end up staying a couple extra days on impulse.) We recorded a whole bunch of great stuff that night; hopefully someday we'll put some out. Tommy and Julie!. |
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| May 25, 2004: "Dagnabit", by Frankie J.
Meyer w. Karen Mal (and the Philharmonette, natch -small, west coast
folk alliance version, incl. Berke MecKelvey, Dinty Child, Wendy Sue
Rosloff, Chandler Travis, and god only know who else) -in my really
pretty goddam lengthy but nonetheless apparently completely inadequate west
coast report, part one, I described meeting Frank and Karen
as follows: Frank Meyer and Karen Mal
were a rather striking couple: a lanky, grinning, leathery looking
cowpoke with a deep, low voice and (what i guessed might be) his child
bride -these two probably generated more immediate curiosity than
anyone else, in part due to their Stevie Nicks/John Carradine-like
charisma. Speculation ran rampant. It immediately became apparent that
Frank was an amazing, easy-going, dryly hilarious songwriter/stylist
with an appetite for slow tempos, etc...
On re-reading, I see that I have once again only scratched the surface, because Frank had a goodly pile of killer songs and a style that was full of personality -even charisma! (both areas in which his accompanist on this one, Ms. Mal, was also no slouch.) Picking just one was tough - esp. seeing as this one doesn't really present the low and slow sort of thing that we all found so endearing (see "Coffee Makin' Woman") -but this one had so much spirit from the entire assembly, plus typically fab mandolin and harmony vox from Karen, I couldn't resist. Frank's website, http://www.thangmaker.com/, seems not to have any reference to his music right now, unfortunately; but he does build houses out of some pretty unusual materials, if you're interested.... |
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| April 26, 2004: "My Heaven" -
Laurie McClain Of all our "discoveries" at the San Diego Folk alliance, none was more captivating than Nashville's Laurie Mcclain, who popped up on our first night there with the gorgeous "My Heaven" (mandolin and harmony added here by the equally captivating Karen Mal, from Austin, Texas, from whom we'll be hearing more subsequently.) Laurie had a whole flock of good tunes, frequently characterized by her disarming directness and occasionally quirky humor. In no time we established that not only was she lovely, but she was almost as odd as we were; in short, we hit it off famously. A trip to lauriemcclain.com is highly recommended. |
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| March 26, 2004: "If Love Turns Its
Back On You" - Frank Goodman We met so many amazing songwriters and performers on this last tour that we thought we'd better start a page for this sort of thing, where we can introduce you guys to our latest discoveries; thus the following first installment of LOVE TO TURN YOU ON, this week featuring Nashville's Frank Goodman, who was brought into our lair in San Diego by our other wunnerful new friend Laurie Maclain (another terrific songwriter -we'll save her for next week. I have to put Frank in first because otherwise my wife will never forgive me -she can't get enough of this one.) One of the true heroes of the tour was Berke McKelvey, a sax player we had played with a few times over the years who summers near us on Cape Cod. Luckily for us, Berke turned out to also be a fabulous bass player, as well as the possessor of seemingly lmitless energy -he'd play with us from 1 am to dawn, sleep a couple hours, teach some music classes, give some music lessons, do a gig at an Irish bar, and be back at 1 am with a big smile on his face, ready for another round. Completely ridiculous, if you ask me -don't know how he did it. He sounds great on this one, as does Dinty... it was the first time any of us had heard the song, recorded by Fred in our hotel room. It was typical of our San Diego Folk Alliance experience -we passed the guitar around to anyone who happened to pass throuigh for three nights, and miraculously didn't hit a lame the whole time. We had assumed we'd be over-run by tambourine and harmonica abusers and people who wanted to play "Freight Train" and shit; instead, you couldn't swing a cat without hitting some genius songwriter -not in 1219, anyway. We had a ball. More info on Frank available at: http://www.frankgoodman.com/ http://www.puremusic.com/ |
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