Greetings and happy Friday to all!
A quick but heartfelt salute to a world class drummer who passed yesterday, Jamie Oldaker. He was Clapton’s drummer for years in the ‘70s and ‘80s, worked with many others, and I met him a few times when Willis Alan Ramsey had a studio in the same business plaza as the original Birdsong shop. Seemed like a cool guy, had a hand in producing folks and helping some people, and those who knew him well are very sad – my condolences to you all. Thank you for the music, sir – and to those he inspired, like in any mentor’s passing, just create and carry on for them… so their best lives on in yours.
So, much of the time there is music happening in the workshop area. Not just the instruments being crafted, but harmonious sound filling the air and working its little vibratory magics into the fibers and threads and connections that happen in the process… I like to believe into the instruments… and taking my mind to a place where I can be in the moment as the conductor of this symphony of process.
Maybe if the alchemists had some Sonny Rollins to listen to… maybe that’s it! They were missing brass, but that special kind - singing brass. As far as my experience goes, by meat or by wind, through horn or string, metal making sound in the air is a crucial ingredient in wood that’ll make music in your hands.
This week it’s been mostly Ed Bickert, Alice in Chains, and reggae in the green shop and whole live concerts filling the air across the porch in the assembly shop. Here are four that I’ve had going while the basses are coming together:
Ten Years After 08/04/75 - Winterland
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Kokr_y2Hg8
Ahhh, what could I even say about a full Ten Years After set? It is what it is! Loose, wild, grooving, jamming, breathing rock and roll. Lee blazing, Leo Lyons holding it down – and up – and everywhere in-between all at the same time – like a boss, and the whole band could drive a skateboard through a brick wall. I love this stuff.
Andy Brown solo - Whiskey Lounge in Evanston, IL March 19, 2015
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LjoD_Wsd43U
This one has been in heavy rotation in my world for about a year. And he’s done some really good quarantine broadcasts this spring – go check out his channel if you dig what he does – he does it spectacularly.
Billy Squier 11/20/81 - Santa Monica Civic Auditorium
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vGtiqjmZ-dI&t=462s
Early, unpolished, raw. Kenny Aaronson is a rock solid workhorse rock and roll bass player who went on to sideman with just about everybody in the free world. And Jeff Golub on guitar – come on. Pure badass ‘70s rockin’ goodness. This was what it sounded like, and this is how it’s done. Give me Squier’s “Don’t Say No”, Boston’s first album, ‘70s Aerosmith, some REO Speedwagon, and some mirrored sunglasses, and I’ll point my ratty scooped musclecar hood down the highway and see you in six months and be just fine. LOL. There’s a killer set from December ’82 up if you want to see what a year on the road as a band will do. Me? Gimme the raw stuff. If I want it like the record, I listen to the album.
Diana Krall Live in Paris
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N0bXQ6DuIBE
An absolutely smokin’ band and she leads it from the front. The level of musicianship on this is ridiculously top shelf, but they all have the touch too. They all make it look so easy, so natural – this is how you know you’re watching the best of the best. Many can do it. Some can do it at this level for an hour set in front of a huge crowd with cameras everywhere. Very few can be so relaxed and in the moment with all of that, AND make the music so musical and swinging and playful. They’re – literally – playing. Great!
(Hope those get you going on watching some great “live” music shows!)
In other news, a small batch of Shortbasses was put into process this week – special Shortbasses of poplar, a lighter weight, lighter colored wood (cream with green in it that all ambers out nicely with our oil finish on/in it) there were a couple of extra planks of. These will be fantastic, and you can see them happen on the inventory page – and claim them at any time! Sold builds will be moved onto the client builds page to continue there. Now the EVEN COOLER part – two (plus one of mahogany) are the Shortbass GT – think “regular” simple one pickup shortbass, but instead of the neck pickup from the Cortobass these have the BRIDGE pickup. A bit more bark, definitely more of a horn-like thing if you dig in, but very punchy and detailed. It’s a small humbucker, not a sledgehammer like a Music Man humbucker is. So there is a lot of subtlety and nuance in there, or you can put a little gain on it and rock out. All in about a 7 pound, easy playing short scale. More on the Shortbass on this page.
EVEN COOLER? All are available and – since I’m working through most of the summer this year, I’m VERY confident I can get some done and out later this year! So if you’re into one, get in touch and we’ll put your name on a singing piece of poplar… and THAT is the COOLEST PART OF ALL.
Speaking of which, cooler parts are especially nice this time of year, heading into summer. My parts are not cool, they are rather hot; it was quite a week, hitting 106 and holding 104. With apologies in advance for the rather severe upper marking, at the end of this I’ll put an official reading off of a cabin in the woods – in the shade of an overhang – under a further canopy of trees. That’s 100 degrees. Or, in the official technical terminology here at the compound, the split where “Pits are screaming” becomes the next level.
OH - also in inventory as of this afternoon, a Birdsong Cbass, go check that one out!
Stay cool but stay ON it, whatever you’re going for – whether it’s “Time to start a new business when nobody else is,” or “Time to make my little list for tomorrow,” or “OK, I’m going to go as deep as I have to inside to find a reason to smile…” - much love to you from the woods for any or all of those good goals. Do not be discouraged. Concerned? Saddened? Puzzled? Of course. But in moderation as a part of your overall life and living, not AS them. Your core knows this’ll all shake out, and you’ll be looking back on it as another page in a chapter. Work from there, my friends.
Listening to: Ed Bickert Out Of The Past; Alice In Chains (the three legged dog album); A Phish jam compilation; The Scientist The Dub Album They Did Not Want You To Hear!; and the concerts we talked about above. Fill your world with music. It’s a big buffet out there! MANGIA, MANGIA!