House Concert, April 10th

I'll be doing a House Concert in Alexandria on Saturday, April 10th. Send an email to jimheald@comcast.net if you are interested in joining the party. Beer, Wine, and snacks will be served.

Crazy Heart

Finally got around to seeing Crazy Heart this past weekend. Great acting by Jeff Bridges and Maggie G, good story, and good music by T-Bone and Stephen Bruton. Looking over some viewer reviews the other day and it seems like most people liked the movie, but a small percentage really hated it. There were some common threads aside from the few that thought it was boring and slow moving, cliche ridden, or depressing and just a tale about a drunk. A couple of folks complained about Hollywood's tendency to hook up an old guy with a "27 year old hottie" and how it would have been more believable if she had been 35. While I agree with the overall sentiment, Maggie G was 32 when they shot the movie, so the writer was a little off base. Indeed, if they looked around there are a lot of hot 35 year olds (and not just in Hollywood). Heck, there are a fair number of hot 40 year olds. So, if you want to argue that it would be more believable if Jeff had hooked up with a 40 something reporter, then I'd certainly agree with you. But, it's still Hollywood, and more than likely it would be a "hot" 40-something, because 1) she'd have to have something to set her apart from the one-night stand fans, and 2) the audience wants some eye-candy too. Speaking as a 57-year old, I might argue as well that Maggie projected more soul and world-weariness than HOTness. Perhaps she needed a father-figure. Perhaps she saw something "real" in Bad Blake. And who's to underestimate the charm of the worldly performer? Someone older and wiser might not have been taken in by such a character.

Another line of dissent on the movie came from folks who thought that Robert Duvall was under-utilized and a few who thought that Tender Mercies was a much better movie on the same subject (including one person who suggested that the makers of Crazy Heart didn't know anything about the music industry). I don't remember Tender Mercies well enough to comment, but Bob had a good role in Crazy Heart and I can't say that I felt a need for more of him. As for lack of knowledge of the music business, that's a real laugh. It would be hard to find a duo with more knowledge of the music world than T-Bone Burnett and Stephen Bruton, especially the working musician's world. T-Bone played with Bob Dylan during the Rolling Thunder Review, has had an interesting solo career, has been a prolific producer and has done a number of well-regarded soundtracks. Stephen was Kris Kristofferson's lead guitarist in the 70's and 80's, before settling in Austin and working as a producer (Jimmy Dale Gilmore among many), solo artist, session musician, and member of the Resentments before his untimely death last year. Supposedly, when Kris K saw a rough cut of the movie last year, he had a hard time watching it because it came so close to his own life and the lives of his friends (Waylon Jennings, Johnny Cash).

Playing a drunk, addict or a crazy person is supposedly a good career move for an actor and it has certainly worked in recent years for Nicholas Cage and now Jeff Bridges, among others. Interesting that it's not something that audiences or producers are willing to try very often for a leading lady (though Ann Hathaway pulled it off, in a different way in Rachel Getting Married). It's hard to imagine too many folks willing to look as bad and take it as far as Bridges does here. And as a result some folks find it repulsive, or boring, or depressing.

Thankfully, the filmmakers didn't linger too long on the rehab stint, and also didn't have Bad relapse after Maggie rejects him. And while Bad's fortunes turn positive after rehab, the seeds were sown during the depths of his condition. He makes the deal with Tommy and writes the great song while he is still drinking hard and before Maggie walks out on him.

Gosh, where has the time gone

OK, it's been more than a month. I'm sure you've all (lol) missed me terribly. Anyway, the gig at Buzz was cancelled due to the blizzard (part 1). There was more winter mayhem (blizzard part 2). Then Laura and I went to Mexico to get away from the last of the mayhem.

Needless to say, my head has not been "in the game". New stuff is coming up. There's a house concert in 2 weeks on Saturday, March 27th at 8 pm (email me for directions if you are interested in joining us - jimheald@comcast.net). Then I have some showcase appearances in April, May and June.

Take care. I'll be writing more later.

Triple Whammy

Hoping for a good turnout at the gig at Buzz tomorrow night, but it's not looking good.

Strike One: It's a Monday night.

Strike Two: Day after Super Bowl.

Strike Three: Historic Winter storm. Almost 18" officially at National Airport (about 2 miles from here). Picture above is the patio yesterday afternoon.

Officially, this is a worse storm than December (more snow), with wetter snow (heavy and more prone to freezing).

At least it's a sunny day today, though not expected to rise above the 20's. Big problem for the gig will be parking (can I even get close enough to unload my gear?

Oh, Well. Mother Nature always gets the final say.

Buzzzzzzzzzzzzz

I'll be performing solo at Buzz Bakery on Monday evening, February 8th starting at 8pm. Come on out for the music, for a drink (beer and wine), and/or dessert and coffee. Hope to see you there. I'll be performing songs from my two CDs, new songs, and maybe some tunes from Bob Dylan, Jimmy LaFave, Jimmy Buffett, Loudon Wainwright III and others. Speaking of others, here's a little bit of info on some of my early influences...

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Musical Influences

Learning to play the guitar, brought contemporary and popular music back into my life. After a number of years of listening mostly to classical music, it was fun to rediscover the music of the 60’s and early 70’s and some of the better folk music. There was a wealth of good material to absorb and play. The Beatles were at the bottom of everything, since they were my original favorite group. Comparing the Rolling Stones and the Beatles, I have always chosen the Beatles. And when listening to the Beatles, I have generally been more a fan of John Lennon than Paul McCartney, although I probably know more of Paul’s songs, although I've forgotten how to play most of them.

I was pretty distraught about John’s death. It was as if one of the better parts of my own childhood had been killed. I learned Norwegian Wood to play specially at the Single File Open Stage the week that he was killed.

There were concerts at the Old Town School and I became acquainted with the likes of John Prine, Steve Goodman, Michael Smith, Corky Siegel, Stan Rogers, Doc Watson, Jim Post, Bob Gibson, Tom Paxton and a slew of other artists. I also became aware of a new generation of local songwriters like Tom Dundee, Thom Bishop, Chris Farrell and Marty Piefer. We would hang out at clubs or at the local stages during Chicagofest to hear these new artists. I particularly liked to go to a club like Somebody Else’s Troubles or The Earl of Old Town and sit near the front and watch performers play guitar. I picked up ideas for my own playing and sometimes I wound up learning a few of their songs.

During some benefit concerts for the Old Town School in 1981, I got to meet Roger McGuinn, who many years earlier had passed through the School on his way to becoming a Byrd. I really didn’t have much of anything to say to him, and it was an awkward few minutes, but it was a thrill just to shake his hand.

Some artists I got to know primarily through their recordings. Several albums by Loudon Wainwright III helped me through a romantic breakup in 1980. Songs like Mr. Guilty and Down Drinkin’ at the Bar became part of my repertoire and I still sing them on occasion.

A few years later, in 1984, I read a concert preview in the Chicago Reader for a songwriter named Bruce Cockburn. While I had already missed the concert, the article piqued my interest and I went to the local record store and bought the only thing they had of his, a cassette tape of Stealing Fire. Almost instantly, he became my favorite songwriter and remains so to this day. Over time, I have also become increasingly impressed with the emotional and stylistic range of his guitar playing. I've seen him perform a number of times over the years, both in Austin and in DC. While I've never warmed up to the overtly Religious songs (Lord of the Starfields, for example) in his catalog, fortunately they are few and far between, especially on the Albums starting around 1980.

Any list of songwriter influences would be incomplete without mentioning Bob Dylan. He was a huge favorite, as you can imagine, at the Old Town School. His songs were a large part of the teaching curriculum. I have learned, and forgotten, many Dylan songs over the years. Two have pretty much stayed with me: Tangled Up in Blue and Shelter from the Storm.

Other more recent influences include David Wilcox (fabulous guitar player, I particularly like his older less - new age material), Richard Thompson (acoustic and electric wizard), Stephen Bruton, and many, many more....

How it all began

Pretty sure no one is tuning in to this station, so I'll just blather on about music. I wrote a pretty serious memoir back in the late 1990's and a great deal of it concerns music and songwriting. So, I'll go back to the beginning (at least the guitar part of the story) and snip out some extracts from the memoir and pass them along when I don't have anything new to say. This part starts in 1977 in the City of Chicago, after having quit my job and then taken a 6 week journey through England, Scotland, Ireland and Paris.

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When I got back from Europe, somehow I got pointed in the direction of the Old Town School of Folk Music (perhaps my mother told me about it, I'm not sure). I signed up for the first class available after my return and the rest is almost history. Practically the first thing that they teach you is how to tune your guitar. Then they teach you how to play Row, Row, Row your Boat and Go Tell Aunt Rhody and a lot of other old chestnut songs that you can play with one or two chords. I took lessons until sometime in 1980, but after a while I began learning mostly from watching other people perform.

I met Terry and Ed in March of 1978 when I began the third set of classes at the Old Town School. Terry was a psychologist, working at IIT at the time, who was a big ham and wanted to be a Rock 'n Roll star. He was a big Elvis fan which should have turned me off right there, but they were both good guys. Eddie was a pharmacist. We didn't know it at the time, but Eddie was on some pretty serious anti-depressants. He had problems with women and also with his family, and both were tearing him apart on the inside, but he seemed like such a nice guy.

The first session we took lessons together was on a Saturday morning. We started going out to lunch occasionally and started to become friends. We were all pretty serious about learning the guitar and were at about the same level. The next session we took was on a Wednesday evening and that was really the beginning of our deepening relationship and an even more serious turn towards the music. There was an open stage on Wednesday nights at this little club a few blocks from the school and a large group of folks would go there and hang out and play after the lessons were over (maybe around 9:30).

Our teacher at that time, and for a long time after, was Bill Hanson. Bill was a country music fan who had a little group that would play regularly at the Single File on Wednesdays. None of us really liked Country music all that much, but Bill was an okay guy and we learned a lot of popular music from him. Our playing was beginning to improve dramatically and we started practicing together more. Ed eventually picked up the bass and started to perform with Bill and his group. Terry and I finally got up the nerve to get up and play a couple of songs at the File. I think originally it was mostly Terry, with me just hanging in there. Being a natural ham, he was infinitely more comfortable on stage than I was.

We performed together maybe one or two times and then Terry decided that he wanted to do things on his own(probably play Elvis songs). I started to practice my singing more and fortified by about a six pack, I began trying to play at the stage all by myself. The first time, in the summer of 1980, I was so nervous that I forgot the words to whatever song I was singing(I think it was Part of the Plan by Dan Fogelberg). It wasn't a glorious beginning.

Alvin, another teacher at the school, who was at the time the host of the Open Stage, took me aside after one of those early attempts and told me that I really should be working with Terry. He talked about how I had no stage presence, but had the makings of a good solid musician and Terry had the charisma, but needed some grounding. I thanked Alvin for the advice, but told him that it was really Terry's idea to split up, and that if I was going to get better at performing then I'd have to do it alone (at least until I found someone else to work with). I want to say that this was sometime in 1979, but it may have been late 1978.

Alvin, who knew a million songs, but wasn’t that great a performer, was disappointed. I'm sure he didn't want me taking up valuable space on his list of Wednesday night performers. But I persisted, and Terry persisted at doing his own thing and eventually we started to get reasonably good at it.

Sometime in 1979, Mike Blackburn appeared in the classes that we were taking and joined us at the Single File and later at other clubs. Mike was probably a better player than any of us and was good on stage. He'd actually lived off playing for a while in Florida when he was just out of college. He was also a cop, but a good guy none the less.

I started writing songs not long after I began playing. One of the reasons was that I didn't entirely see the point of singing and playing songs that "professional" musicians had already done better than I ever would. I wasn't much of a singer in those days. I was too afraid to open my mouth when I got outside my living room. The first two songs that I wrote, which were quite forgettable and not very musical or poetic, were Plutonium Meltdown Blues and I want to be a Spaceman (I wonder if I even still have they written down anywhere?).

I took a songwriting class at the OTS in the fall of 1978 and it was during this class that I wrote the first two songs that I still perform: The Psychologist Song and Miguel's Song. The seminar was taught by Bob Gibson (who died in 1996 in his early 60's). We started out having to write a song about the American Dream and after a few weeks, Bob didn't think it was going too well, so he had us try to write a song based on one of the stories in Working, by Studs Terkel.

I wrote Miguel's Song in the way that is somewhat typical of my songwriting. I began playing around with a chord change that I had recently discovered (A major 7 to A7 suspended 4th) and I liked the way it sounded. About a week later, I was walking home from class at the OTS. It was December and pretty cold, with a bright moon. I was passing the Lincoln Park Conservatory, watching my cold breath, when one of the phrases from the song came into my head. Then a few more came.

I picked up my pace to get back to my apartment more quickly. The walk from Fullerton to Diversey is long enough on a cold night, but with a song bursting into one's head, it must have seemed like an eternity. All I remember is that when I got home, I put the words down and polished them up in less than an hour. It might've taken me a few days to get the music straightened out, but I knew that the chord change I'd been playing with would play a prominent part.

It's never too early...

I'll be performing next at Buzz Bakery, 901 Slaters Lane in Alexandria on Monday, February 8th and I could really use your support...

That's in about two weeks. Don't worry, I'll remind you more than once. Yes, it's a school night and it's also the day after the Super Bowl. Two strikes against it. But I'm practicing hard and expect it to be a very good show.

Adios for now.