Let It Grow

A “coaching tree” is similar to a family tree except that it shows the relationships of coaches instead of family members.  Coaching trees are common in the National Football League and most coaches in the NFL can trace their lineage back to a certain head coach for whom they previously worked as an assistant.  After being asked the classic question, “What are you listening to?”, I thought a Song Tree would make sense (shout out to the social platform for music creation, sharing and collaboration).

If the idea of a coaching tree is foreign to you, along similar lines, there was a live music series called A.V. Undercover that lasted 7 seasons.  The concept of the show was that each season, a list of 25 songs was compiled. Bands were then invited to choose a song to cover and once a song had been played, it would get crossed off the list. The later a band came on, the fewer songs they had to choose from.  But in my song paradise, there are no rules with a Song Tree and a tune can be covered multiple times.

So take a break from your Spotify playlist or your favorite podcast and let’s explore my Song Tree idea.  The first often-covered artist that came to my mind is Peter Gabriel.  Jeffrey Gaines, Adam Levine and Better Than Ezra have all given impassioned versions of “In Your Eyes”, but for me I am going to take the branch with Peter Gabriel’s classic song “Come Talk to Me”. 

The lead track off of his 1992 album ‘Us’, Peter Gabriel follows-up his best-selling album “So” with a classic right out of the gate.  In my humble opinion, this is the best song on the album and sprinkle in Sinéad O'Connor on backing vocals and in my opinion, this cut clearly outshines the singles “Steam” and “Digging in the Dirt”.    One of the cool things about this song tree, is that a branch has now begun with Ms. O’Connor.  But instead of going off on that tangent, let’s follow the trail. 

Bon Iver goes on to record “Come Talk to Me” in 2011 and places it as the “B-Side” to his single “Holocene”.   While “Holocene” was nominated for Song of the Year and Record of the Year at the 54th Grammy Awards, and has been featured in multiple films, it is his version of the Gabriel song that caught my attention, not the award-winning track. 

Bon Iver then eventually pens his own tune “AUATC”.  This leads us to the Connecticut jamband Goose, who very recently covered the Bon Iver song.  My brother-in-law has had me listening to this up and coming band and now in the spirit of predictions for 2021, I wonder who if Joe May’s (of the band Pluto Gang) version of Goose’s “Hot Tea” will become popular and contribute to the sprouting of branches.

So as we venture into the new year, I ask that you continue to keep watering the trees and do everything within your power to discover new live music

Thanks for reading.

Spin the Black Circle

30 years ago, in the Spring of 1990, I was standing with Jason at Penn Station in New York City. We were underneath the big board that releases the track number for our return trip on the Raritan Valley Line when I looked up to see a man with a crate of records. 

From where we were standing, it looked like Mister Cee, Big Daddy Kane’s D.J. from his 1989 hit album, “It’s A Big Daddy Thing”. I quickly approached the man, but to my surprise, he laughed and told me I was confused and he was not the person who I thought he was. One might now be asking yourself, “How would the 15 year-old version of me recognize Calvin LeBrun?” Well, I am that person who reads the liner notes, checks who received credit for lyrics and admires all of the photographs and artwork that accompanies the albums that have floated in and out of my life.

I am one of the youngest in my family, so I inherited a stereo that played 8-tracks (“Born to Run”) and cassettes (“It Takes 2”). I did eventually add a CD component (“Back in Black”), but I did not realize until a few years ago that the gem of all my inheritance was the albums and 45s. 

I do not know seem to be the only one whose records are getting more use than the dusty pile of CDs. Based on a September 2020 article from ‘The Guardian’, “Vinyl records have outsold CDs in the US for the first time since the 1980s, according to data from the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA).” 

I don’t remember ever actually purchasing albums at Vintage Vinyl in Edison, NJ, but I know that vinyl is clearly now a (big daddy) thing. Already 6 years ago, I attended a Barr Brothers concert at The Andy Warhol Museum in 2014, and the band was only selling their self-titled debut album on vinyl. More recently, I worked my first concert since both the global pandemic stunted live performances and the opening act Nick Perri & The Underground Thieves, only promoted the vinyl release of their new album “Sun Via”. 

These days I go crate-diving and pick up $1.00 classics when I can. Most recently, I found the 1962 release of “The Best of Sam Cooke”. And I also revel in the many classic lines in songs that reference the act of spinning a record. Vanilla Ice simply pumping up the crowd with “If there was a problem yo I'll solve it / Check out the hook while my DJ revolves it” is only one example of artists singing about records. 

For me, I love the sound of the snap, crackle and pop made through my speakers. The three-dimensional grooves cut into the vinyl record represent how the sound waves can move through the air. It is also exhilarating to actually steady my hand to put the needle on the record. I can’t go back to Penn Station and ask the question to Mister Cee again, but maybe if he saw me now carrying my crate of records, he would have a different answer. 

Thanks for reading!

Every Breath You Take

Gavin Rossdale sings in Bush’s hit single ‘Machinehead’ – “Breathe in, breathe out, breathe in, breathe out”.  

When one of my sons is up to bat, I remind him to breathe.  When my other son is shooting free throws, I remind him to breathe. I am trying to find a way at this point in time to breathe myself.  I find my myself constantly thinking about the impactful choices that my wife and I are currently facing: deciding to send our boys to school for in-person learning (yes that is a term now), searching for work that is accompanied by a paycheck, and making sure that the four of us consistently have enough groceries to eat ALL of our meals in our house.  But between all of those thoughts, I am finding ways to meander around my neighborhood, as it always seems to be easier to breathe when I am out in the fresh air of Pittsburgh.

To combat one of the pitfalls of spending all this time in my house, I have been trying to run more.  Right now, while I can, it is on the trails of Frick Park.  Right now, I do not listen to headphones or music, due the trails mostly being single track, and I have never seen a runner win a collision with a mountain-biker.  So as I huff and puff to finish a 4-mile course that I have outlined, my head clears and I am brainstorming blog ideas and potential podcast episodes; some that I believe are good which turn into actual posts, and some that will sit forever as post-it notes on my desk.  At the same time, I would be lying if I did not admit that while I am running, I also think of political conspiracy theories, 1980s & 1990s collegiate basketball players, a lot of music to remember to listen to and of course remembering to breathe.  

According to the American Lung Association, we breathe an estimated 17,000 breaths a day, and breathe in about 2,000 gallons of air—enough to almost fill up a normal-sized swimming pool. Most of us don't even think about it as we go about our daily routine. But what if your breathing technique was one of the most important skills to having a successful career?

Wind musicians rely heavily on training their lungs. I can only imagine Rob Wagner, saxophonist and clarinetist player for the New Orleans Klezmer All Stars smoking cigarettes.  And according to https://music.stackexchange.com/, there are hundreds of different types of breathing exercises for brass band players.   If Wendell Eugene was still with us, I can only imagine which of these that he prescribed.   Construction workers need to be mindful of their breathing based on all of the dust that surrounds them.  Even those who sit in front of a screen all day hunched over, according to scientists need to actively think about how they are breathing.

So as life around us continues to intensify, remember no matter where you are, escaping for those few moments of fresh air, or auditioning for the Hot 8 Brass Band, you should try and breathe.

Thanks for reading.

We Used to be Giants

John Fogerty sings “Got a beat-up glove, a homemade bat, and brand-new pair of shoes / You know I think it's time to give this game a ride / Just to hit the ball and touch 'em all / A moment in the sun / It's-a gone / And you can tell that one goodbye!”

In a previous life it was a badge of honor as a tour manager to barrel into a van with guitar cases, drum kits or even just friends and drive miles and miles to get to a concert.  These days, I am a dedicated equipment manager to my son and his aspiring baseball career.  Instead of a haul from Guitar Center, I find myself loading baseball bats, multiple gloves and catcher’s gear to get to Little League games.

Road-tripping once meant debating classic drive-time conversations like who was more influential, The Beatles or Led Zeppelin as we fought for control over the radio or CD player.  These days, my son and I just take turns playing music for each other on my iPhone that we might like.  Yes – I confess, I slipped DJ Shadow’s collaboration with Run the Jewels “Nobody Speak” into the mix and smiled so big when he hollered at El-P’s flow: “I'm unmentionably fresh, I'm a mensch, get correct / I will walk into a court while it wrecks”.

Traveling to shows also meant a certain amount of pride in performing 8 shows in 7 days, but now it is bragging about 10 games and several practices in 8 days.  Where my mapping skills used to take me to places in Pennsylvania like Media, Millvale and West Chester, these days it is Beaver, Harrison City and Saxonburg.  All special places in their own right, but these days my reason for adventure rivals why people traveled “to Iowa for reasons they can't even fathom.”  With a wink and a nod to W.P. Kinsella and Phil Alden Robinson, I arrive at fields innocently.  Walking out to the bleachers; sitting in shirtsleeves on a perfect afternoon and watching a game and as if I was dipped in magic waters.  It reminds me of all that once was good and it could be again. 

We live in crazy, crazy times but I am taking a lot of positive energy from being socially distant at these games but at the same time rooting on my son and his teammates.  Borrowing from Rage Against the Machine’s song “Renegade of Funk”, these boys believe in each other and are following the mantra, “No matter how hard you try, you can't stop us now".  And just as his team has rallied in the bottom of the 6th inning, I am hoping that we can as people.   

Now instead of wanting to go to a gig at the Williamsport Community Arts Center we have our sights set on a game at Howard J. Lamade Stadium.

Thanks for reading.

Pac-Man Fever

I had never had an MRI before June 2020.    I have now had three, but even with all of the time in the scanner tube, I am still having issues identifying the house band that has been making all the sounds in the background. 

Although when most people hear the letters M.R.I., they think of Magnetic Resonance Imaging, my brain continues to turn to music.  And while some people hear jackhammers or a cacophony, I have been spending my different time intervals in the cylinder-shaped magnet thinking about the uniqueness of the sounds.

Could it have been Daniel Maman, better known by his stage name The Alchemist, trying to get the beats just right?  Tom Morello's 1982 Fender Telecaster practicing for the next Rage Against the Machine reunion gig?  How about everyone’s favorite Count von Count, the mysterious but friendly vampire Muppet from Sesame Street tuning his organ?  Had I simply landed inside of the arcade game Galaga?  Unfortunately, we will never know.  Radiologists are not people of many words (or clearly a sense of humor) and when I asked who got to enter his/hear initials for the game’s high score, I just received blank stares.

For the purpose of this post, let’s think that M.R.I. stands for Multi Recording Interface.  And for those who did not graduate from Berklee College of Music in Boston, MA or Belmont University in Nashville, TN, an audio interface is a piece of hardware that expands and improves the sonic capabilities of a computer.  And in my experience, they are an absolutely essential component in audio production.   

Some strong memories jump to the forefront of my mind when thinking of sound recording equipment.  There is my former roommate and childhood friend Danny Marcus recording on a 4-track in the living of our Washington DC apartment.   Another flashback is getting schooled on Pro Tools by Doug Derryberry in his Brooklyn, NY recording studio.  And these days, I have my own equipment sitting in my house in Pittsburgh, as my friend Josh Green joins me from Harlem, NY while we figure out how to use Audacity to record our podcasts.

I know that I am not as talented as Charlotte Gainsbourg, who made the sounds of the MRI scan part of the music itself. Her third album, co-written and produced by Beck, was released in 2010 and titled “IRM,” the acronym for Imagerie par Résonance Magnétique (MRI in French), but what I am doing is trying to keep things in perspective when dissecting a mentally heavy procedure. 

I am not sure when I will have my next one scheduled, and multiple friends have suggested that I request headphones the next time that I have one booked.  I am open to suggestions as to what to listen to, but maybe the soundtrack has already been written?

Thanks for reading!

If I Were A Carpenter

On Facebook, I was recently challenged to name 10 albums that have influenced my musical taste and upbringing over the past 44+ years. You have all seen the posts: One record per day. No explanations, no reviews, just the cover art.  Not my desert island discs, not my top 10 albums of all time, but the 10 albums that are core memories.

For those that know me, seeing my first two listings, "Check Your Head" by the Beastie Boys and "Southern Harmony & Musical Companion" by The Black Crowes were probably not surprising, but then I started to dig deep.  In fact, it was Corey Glover's voice from Living Colour that started to ring in my head, when he sings, "Everything is quiet / Everyone's gone to sleep / I'm wide awake / But these memories / These memories can't wait".  It caused me to think of the early 1980s in Westfield, NJ when it was The Carpenters' "Close to You" that was being pumped out of my parents' faux-end-table size speakers.  I cannot even remember the last time before today when I listened to "We've Only Just Begun".  But it was at this point that the challenge really started to make sense. 

It also made me think that I can relate to my friend Jess who has been spending the quarantine in Moreton-in-Marsh, UK.  She recently wrote,  that she is "Nostalgic in normal times and fairly connected and social, I wondered if this overwhelming longing to hear from people I’m perfectly capable of not talking to with any regularity in other times was just me. Turns out it’s not. It even has a name, a good one. It’s called a memory avalanche, this feeling of nostalgic desire for connection with people from our past . . ."  

This comment made me think of the Disney Pixar film "Inside Out" when Riley, a happy, 11-year-old Midwestern girl gets her world turns upside-down when she and her parents move to San Francisco.  Riley's emotions do their best to try and guide her through this life-changing event in only a way that a clever Pixar film can.  Outside of entertainment, scientific studies find that our identities are defined by specific emotions, which shape how we perceive the world, how we express ourselves and the responses we evoke in others.  "Inside Out” similar to these times of quarantine is a film about loss and what people gain when guided by feelings of sadness.

So for me, it is not the loss of people, but over these weeks and now months, I have been taking the time to reconnect with music.  There have been some recent deaths of musical legends that have hit me right in the gut, leading me to reflect on what music has always meant to me.  I do not own any Bill Withers or John Prine albums, but when I heard the respective news of their deaths, I could not help but remind myself how much I like listening to classic songs like "Use Me Up" and "Lean on Me".  And for Mr. Prine, the memories of hearing  'Dear Abby' and 'Grandpa was a Carpenter' jumped to the forefront of my mind.

Don't ask me how I remember these types of things, but spending all of this time inside has allowed me to dust off some albums that I have held onto and it feels good to connect with these records from my past.  It has even allowed me to hear how I got from polished singer-songwriters who used the Wrecking Crew as their house band to hip-hop pioneers that played their own instruments.

Thanks for reading.

"Does Anybody Really Know What Time It Is?"

"When things get back to normal . . .".   "When was the last time you went out to eat in a restaurant?" These are becoming all too common questions/phrases that we are currently hearing regularly in conversation.  In fact, I initiated an email thread a couple of weeks ago asking my long-time concert companion Jamie what were his first and LAST shows.  For those keeping score at home, for me it was August 28, 1991:  George Thorogood and the Delaware Destroyers with Johnny Winter at Waterloo (Stanhope, NJ), while for Jamie it was July 27, 1986:  Mr. Mister with The Bangles at  Saratoga Performing Arts Center (Saratoga Springs, NY).  And to keep us in the way-back machine, the first show that we ever attended together was November 23, 1994: G Love & Special Sauce at Maxwell's (Hoboken, NJ).  We have come a long from those days, but obviously not too far geographically since we were both spotted together most recently February 15, 2020:  The Play Trains reunion show at Crossroads (Garwood, NJ).

However, I have decided that I want to stop thinking about things from a perspective of first and last, but instead first and what’s next.   Is it the auto disco, The Micrashell (according to Robby, I can just wear the green blazer over the suit), drive-in shows, streaming concerts?  

The auto disco just doesn't do it for me, I would rather take a road trip and sing and dance in the car all the way to New Orleans instead of parked in one place.  The Micrashell is wild, an extremely futuristic idea and you will always be Halloween ready, but I can only see myself donning it for a Daft Punk show.

Drive-in concerts intrigue me, but similar to the fact that most amphitheaters were built outside of cities, so were drive-ins and not that I have never traveled for a show, but what happens if you don't call "Shotgun"?  Being relegated to the backseat for a show at the Riverside Drive In Theater in Vandergrift, PA makes me think that my friends will treat me like Morgan from 'Good Will Hunting' and that I just ordered a 'double burger'.

As for streaming concerts, I went old-school and watched the Rush in Rio live DVD in the Hickey’s basement with some fanatic fans, I also took the time to connect my laptop to my TV to watch Phish from my own living room as they closed out their 2014 tour at the Verizon Amphitheatre in Alpharetta, GA, but not surprisingly, neither experience captured the feeling of actually being there.

I realize that artists are going to continue to release new music and that they are going to want to present their songs.  In fact, I just read the New York Times '25 Songs that Matter' and I am definitively intrigued by Richard Dawson (the British singer songwriter, not the kissing bandit TV game show host) as well as the band Red Hearse and the idea of seeing these artists perform live.  So what do I think is next?

Well after watching SpaceX launch, I believe we are over-thinking all of this.  In my humble opinion, the same venues re-open, but at smaller capacities.  Concerts adopt the definition of social distancing and take-on the feel as if you are seeing the Avett Brothers at Club Cafe in 2006.  And when that happens you can once again say, "Remember when we saw G. Love & Special Sauce with 50 other people on the night before Thanksgiving."

Thanks for reading.