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Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Inductions
Inductees for 2010 are ABBA, Genesis, Jimmy Cliff, The Hollies and The Stooges. Also being inducted this year as individual recipients of the Ahmet Ertegun Award will be David Geffen and songwriters Barry Mann, Cynthia Weil, Ellie Greenwich, Jeff Barry, Jesse Stone, Mort Shuman and Otis Blackwell. The ceremony will take place on March 15, 2010 at the Waldorf Astoria in New York City and will air live on Fuse, Madison Square Garden’s national music television network, as part of the three-year broadcast deal between the Foundation and Fuse.
The performer inductees are:
ABBA
GENESIS
JIMMY CLIFF
THE HOLLIES
THE STOOGES
Ahmet Ertegun Award (nonperformers):
DAVID GEFFEN
BARRY MANN & CYNTHIA WEIL
ELLIE GREENWICH & JEFF BARRY
JESSE STONE
MORT SHUMAN
OTIS BLACKWELL
The 2010 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame performer inductees were chosen by more than 500 voters of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Foundation. Artists are eligible for inclusion in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame twenty-five years after their first recording is released.
All inductees are ultimately represented in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum in Cleveland, Ohio. Through approaches as creative and diverse as the music itself, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum
tells the story of rock music with its exhibits, education programs and Library and Archives, which will open to the public in downtown Cleveland in late 2010.
Presenters and performers at the induction will be announced at a later date. The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony will be televised live on Fuse; more information can be found at fuse.tv.
Tue 1/26: The Willie Waldman Project and LBC Sublime Tribute
Tonight’s concert options include a collaboration group of improv specialists at Three20South, a Sublime Tribute at Sandbar or you can always check out the local talent at shows in Vail and Steamboat.
For the local talent, head off to Ghost Ranch Saloon in Steamboat for Jebus, a five person band that has been jamming together for the last five years. Made up of disparate influences and equally diverse personalities, Jebus comes together twice a week to bend time, improv jam in iambic pentameter, and drink beer.
At Samana, an offshoot of local bluegrass and rock stars, calling themselves The Laughing Bones Trio continue their Tuesday night residency. Not only will these guys entertain you with rousing renditions of Johnny Cash, Bob Dylan and The Grateful Dead, but you can get Jameson shots for $3 while they’re playing.
And how many cover bands can say they’ve played to a crowd of 50,000 before? LBC, the Sublime tribute playing at Vail’s Sandbar tonight can. LBC (otherwise known as Sublime Pimps) started in 2002 and will never end. Carrying on the legacy of Sublime, LBC was created by the one and only Q-Ball in his home town, Long Beach, California. He recruited Chris Chamberlain on drums and Kenny Lamb on vocals/guitar. The LBC has dominated the globe, touring the U.S., Europe, Asia, South America, Mexico and South Pacific, selling out concerts up to 50,000 people but not forgetting the small clubs on the way. The LBC is “it”…there is no other band on the planet serving up the songs of Sublime like the LBC.
Lastly, Three20South has a unique musical collaboration group called The Willie Waldman Project. There is a good chance you have heard Willie’s trumpet on a song somewhere, on tracks from Snoop Dogg, Tu-Pac and others. Willie’s friend, Dave Aron, has been engineering for Snoop for about fifteen years and together, Dave and Willie have created countless songs and worked with a number of great artists. Willie plays trumpet in the Stephen Perkins’ jam band named Banyan which has toured here for years. Mike Watt on bass, Nels Cline on guitar and Norton Wisdom on his giant canvas are the usual suspects. Sometimes Dave plays clarinet or Dan Schulman of Garbage will come in on bass. Rob Wasserman, Calvin Newborn and Herman Green play some of the upcomming shows. There are many different members in what we call the “WWP” and each concert is different than the last.
Brian Jordan has always had a unique approach to making music, which is something that distinguishes him from most of today’s artists. Brian got his start performing original music via the Southern California underground rock scene with a band called “Daddy Longleggs”. This eclectic and unconventional band pulled some of the largest audiences to date for a local band. The need for growth saw the demise of this project as Brian Jordan subsequently began his national touring career. Throughout the Nineties, Brian recorded and toured with various international reggae artists as well keeping pace with the groove-jazz scene happening at home in San Diego. And through that home-town connection, Brian met up with Karl Denson. Brian began performing with “Karl Denson’s Tiny Universe” in April 1999. For over four years now, Brian has been helping KDTU keep the funk alive with his tasty, soulful and jazzy licks. Some of the pinnacles of Brian’s career have been performing with James Brown and Dave Mathews at a sold out Madison Square Garden show and jamming with Lenny Kravitz and KDTU late night at Tipatina’s Uptown in New Orleans. But, but the biggest highlight has been playing for all the music lovers throughout the world. Brian’s recordings reflect his varied and exciting adventures through the world of music. His trademark is being different, striking and good.
Exuding power and originality, drummer Tony Austin has been making music for more than 25 years, working with jazz luminaries such as, Billy Higgins and Charles Lloyd. At 29, Austin is already one of the most recognized and sought-after drummers in Los Angeles.
Known for his versatility and dynamic performances, Austin plays the drums professionally in all styles of music. He has shared his talents with a slew of popular artists and groups including Erikah Badu, Salvador Santana, John Avila (Oingo Boingo), Banyan, Rob Wasserman, The Calling, Charles Lloyd, The Monterey Jazz Festival All-Star Big Band, James Torme, and a number of producers and bands that span the globe.
Over the course of his creative journey, Austin has garnered a number of esteemed honors. In 1996, Austin took home the Los Angeles Music Center “Spotlight Award” for Jazz Instrumental, marking the first time a drummer had ever won this competition. He attended the California Institute of the Arts, where he earned a degree in music on the college’s highest awarded scholarship. He was also awarded several Charles (Dolo) Coler scholarships
J D Westmoreland is a jazz composer and performer, born September 13, 1973 in Fairfield, California. Westmoreland is a multi-instrumentalist mostly playing improvisations and eclectic compositions. Earning a degree in Theory and Composition from the University of Memphis, Westmoreland showcased his talent as a composer being awarded the Smit Composition Award. Composition credits include string arrangements for Christian rock band Clear, North Mississippi Allstars (Polaris (2003)), and Beanpole. Session work includes Willy DeVille “Horse of a Different Color” where Westmoreland plays Tiples. 1992-93 Westmoreland was a member of touring percussion ensemble “Patoombah” performing on the 1993 HORDE TOUR. Forming an improvisation ensemble in 1994 “Delta Grass” w/ musician Beau Crouch, Westmoreland started a musical movement of constant change. Westmoreland worked as a member of Memphis rock/anti-pop band “BEAM” (1997-99). In 2000, Westmoreland released a solo CD consisting of many composition styles “SOON BE CROWS IN THE GARDEN”. The recording got 4 star reviews from Commercial Appeal writer Bill Ellis quote “Westmoreland covers more ground in 30 mins than most composers bother to do in a lifetime”. Westmoreland began to play bass in early 2000. In 2003, custom bass maker “Robwave” began to sponsor Westmoreland, later to design the “WESTMORELAND BASS”. JD Westmoreland began to play shows with jazz legend Herman Green, and touring with Willie Waldman. Westmoreland continued to do other styles of music, with Memphis favorite “MINIVAN BLUES BAND”. Minivan released debut recording “LIFELONG TURBULATION” which features two Westmoreland compositions, title track “Lifelong Turbulation”, and gypsy styled “Albino Trout”.
JD has been a fixture in the Memphis music scene for well over a decade. His abilities as a session player, composer, arranger, and live musician have reached near legendary status in a city teeming with legend and musical mystique. JD has the unique ability to play with musicians of all generations, genre, and notoriety. He has been the consummate “musician’s musician” yet remains forever humble and grounded. The world has yet to truly discover this young talent, yet so many have been influenced and touched by his spirit and raw talent. Simply put, if you are from Memphis, there is no way that you could not have seen or heard about this gentle giant. His best years are yet to come, and many will be touched by his light. This man has been blessed with talent only a rare few can claim or achieve.
Funk for Haiti – Tuesday at Finnegan’s in Avon
The Stereo Assassins show at Finnegan’s on Tuesday will be a fundraiser with donations going to the Red Cross. The show is free and donations are only for those able to afford it.
Stereo Assassins, an Eagle County “Superband” comprised of members of Frogs Gone Fishin’, Laughing Bones, Hustle and Velcro Sneakers play every Tuesday night at Finnegans.
1/25 Daily Update: Free Beer Mondays at Three20South
It’s hangover week in the mountains, what with last week’s epic schedule of music. I guess that’s a good thing because it allows you the possibility of getting out of bed early to enjoy the fresh powder gracing many of the area’s mountains.
Tonight’s light schedule has String Board Theory playing at Three20South. String Board Theory formed in Steamboat Springs, during the Fall of 2007, when Jeff Hayes, Jeff Barlow, and Tyler Kimball all met and started to jam which led to writing innovative and creatively captivating songs. SBT has been constantly touring all over Colorado for the past two years (except for their 5 month hiatus from June 09 to October 09) they have locked in a solid fan base, while attracting more and more fans every day with their unique high quality blend of super jammy funky, reggae, psychedelic rock, but with a slight electronic feel. The audience always wants more of what they heard because you can never have enough String Board Theory. A SBT show is like walking into a high energy, face melting, deep driving bass, solid-funky beats, club where every one is dancing, feeling good, receiving good vibes from the music as the band feeds off the crowds energy, all creating an excellent positive, ear tantalizing experience in a packed club (with enough room to dance), not to mention a very enhancing light show. Some of their influences are, Govt Mule, Pink Floyd, Sound Tribe Sector 9, 10 Foot Ganja Plant, Led Zepplin, Peter Tosh, Lotus, and all around good energy and enlightenment.
Part of three20south’s free beer series,one free keg tapped at nine.
1/23 Daily Update: Del, Seattle and Winterfest continues with Phix & Taxi
I’m sure most everyone that reads this site has flown off to California where the mountains have received 100″ of snow in the last 72 hours, but if you’re still here and you missed any of last night’s shows, you have a chance to correct your mistake by checking out the band in another town. Tonight, Del The Funky Homosapien (aka Del tha Funkee) takes his act over to Three20South in Breckenridge, The Sounds of Seattle Tour will be at Agave in Avon and Split Lip Rayfield takes the stage at Ghost Ranch Saloon in Steamboat.
Today’s schedule for Winterfest in Nederland is:
Theater Stage |
Party Stage |
|||
| Billy Nershi & Drew Emmitt Acoustic Duo | 3:30 – 4:15 | York Tide | 2:45 – 3:30 | |
| Elephant Revival | 4:30 – 6:00 | Riverbend | 4:00 – 5:00 | |
| Boulder Acoustic Society | 6:30 – 8:00 | Great American Taxi | 5:30 – 6:30 | |
| Bill Nershi’s Blue Planet | 8:30 – 10:00 | Phix (2 sets) | 7:00 – 10:00 | |
Wanee Music Festival
Located on the same site as Bear Creek Music Festival in Live Oak, FL, The Wanee Music Festival boasts the same incredible level of music. The Allman Brothers Band is accompanied by the usual suspects as well as a few random ad ins. April 15th,16th,17th brings a swinging start to the festival season. www.waneefestival.com for more info!
1/20 Daily Update: Drew Emmitt and Keith Mosley
If you’re anywhere near Vail tonight, stop by Samana for a funky collaboration of several local Eagle County Bands. Originally coming together to celebrate Mousike writer Jenna Stecker’s birthday, Stereo Assassins (AKA Jenna’s Birthday Band) is made up of members of Frogs Gone Fishin, Laughing Bones and Velcro Sneakers.
And, The Drew Emmit Band starts their three state mini-tour tonight at Three20South. Revered as one of the most energetic and innovative mandolin players on the jamband/newgrass scene today, Emmitt’s “inestimable talents” (An Honest Tune) don’t end with just the instruments that can be picked. Holding the wheel steady on acoustic and electric slide mandolin, acoustic and electric guitar and mandola, Long Road also showcases Emmitt’s superlative storytelling and versatile vocal abilities. With seven originals, including co-writes with John Cowan (“Long Road”) and Jim Lauderdale (“I’m Alive”), Emmitt saavily chose a few best-of-life-on-the-road songs, such as Supertramps’ “Take the Long Way Home”, Marshall-Tucker Band’s “Take the Highway”, and Van Morrison’s “Gypsy in my Soul”. Co-produced by Emitt and Compass Records co-founder Garry West, “my heaven band”, is how Emmitt describes the special guest musicians on Long Road: Billy Nershi of The String Cheese Incident (dobro), Chris Pandolfi of The Infamous Stringdusters (banjo), Andy Hall of The Infamous Stringdusters (dobro), Stuart Duncan (fiddle), Tim O’Brien (harmony vocals), Alison Brown (banjo), Darrell Scott (vocals), Eric Thorin (bass), Jeff Sipe of The Aquarium Rescue Unit (drums), John Cowan (vocals), Reese Wynans (Hammond B3), Steven Sandifer (percussion) and Tyler Grant (guitar). Hallelujah.
“Lord you know I’ve been so many places/At least I know I have a longer view”, sings Leftover Salmon lead singer and mandolin player Drew Emmitt over a rollicking mandolin lick on the title track of his third solo effort, Long Road. “I’ve been on the road since the 80’s – can you believe that? That’s 25 years, a quarter of a century…Long Road is all about where I’ve been, what I’ve seen, where I’ve ended up and I invited all of my friends I met along the way to help me tell the story.”
Following a decade of success with Leftover Salmon, Emmitt released his first solo effort, Freedom Ride, in 2002 drawing on the talent of peers John Cowan, Peter Rowan, Sam Bush, Ronnie McCoury, Vassar Clements, Stuart Duncan and Randy Scruggs. Critics and fans loved the collaboration and Emmitt relished the chance to record with some of the giants with whom he’d shared festival stages. “It’s amazing,” he said, “it’s like walking in a dream….Standing on stage next to Sam (Bush) is pretty indescribable.” In 2005 he followed up with Across The Bridge, an equally impressive effort showcasing Emmitt’s bluegrass chops and songwriting talents as a straight-ahead bluegrass man. After touring as the Emmitt-Nershi band with Billy Nershi of The String Cheese Incident for the past year and making several reunion appearances with Leftover Salmon, Long Road finds Emmitt rejuvenated and once again taking the contemporary, live gig, fresh everytime approach to bluegrass music.
STS9’s Axe the Cables is now available
You may remember that STS9 chose the Denver area’s Wells Fargo Theater as the locale for their most recent New Year’s Eve run. You also may remember that on the chilly evening of the 29th, they sat down in Gates Hall, a pristine modern opera houses at the University of Denver, to create the inaugural “Axe The Cables… An Evening of STS9″.
What the night encompassed was one of, if not the most flawless STS9 event in the bands decade plus history. The entire show was played, for the most part, sans all “electric” gear including the common stage instrumentation of laptops our fans have grown quite accustomed to.
The crowd wore suits and behaved as if they were going to the opera and the night took on a life of it’s own. To say the event was a hit is an understatement. It was a night legends are made of. So much so the band has decided to re-cut, re-mix, and re-master this into one massive release.
“Axe the Cables” is available NOW on STS9’s ever-exploding record label 1320 RECORDS
Cecil “P-Nut” Daniels
Intro
In early 1955, while Elvis was still running around playing third bill at state fairs and rodeos, a premature baby was born into a loving family in Temple, Texas. He was so tiny they called him P’Nut. Despite an early bout with polio and spending his formative years in the all-too-common iron leg braces of that era, it wasn’t long before Cecil “P’Nut” Daniels was beating a racket in the living room on a homemade drum kit. His first kit was made out of pots and pans from his mother’s kitchen, with a few dimes thrown in to give it all a little sizzle. As he grew he decided that he would study the trumpet in school and by the time he was 15 (the year that Hendrix passed away) he was playing clubs on the nearby Fort Hood army base in Killeen.
P’Nut survived the upheavals of the 70’s and by ‘86 he had landed in San Fran where he settled down to a day job and raised a family while he pursued his music at night. In Frisco is where he picked up his signature Casio DH-100 and by ’91 he found himself somewhat in the spotlight sitting in on midi horn with a then small-time Widespread Panic. (“But Panic’s always been big to me!” says Daniels about their humble start.)
Since then Mr. Cecil Daniels (as JB refers to him on-stage) has formed a relationship with the band and if not made a name for himself, certainly made a lot of friends in the process. He has played some 40 or 50 gigs with Panic, appeared in their movie “The Earth Will Swallow You”, was mentioned in a Fortune Magazine article about the band and continues to sit in with them from time to time when their path’s cross. And Cecil crosses a lot of paths. I managed to cross his path here in Denver, where he makes a home-away-from-home and spends his time jamming with anyone from Tori Pater and Polytoxic to Night Town, Stanky Pockets and of course the occasional Red Rocks gig with Panic. He also has a new side-project going with the MoBoogie website (moboogie.net) called “The P’Nut Gallery” where he sits down and interviews other musicians such as DJ Logic or Todd Park Mohr.
I was intrigued by this gentleman who seemed to always be playing everywhere at once with his unique midi instruments and who always had a warm handshake and a smile on his face, so I tracked him down at the MoBoogie loft to turn the tables on him for a quick interview which soon evolved into an afternoon with an old friend.
Beginnings (Verse 1)
So, what do you say we start at the beginning of your career. Tell me about your early days on the military base.
I guess I was around 15 when I started playing (drums) on the army base in Central Texas. Fort Hood, it was the largest Army base in the US. During those times they were shipping people out to Viet Nam, late 60’s early 70’s. My hometown Temple, was like 32 miles from the military base.
Now, that was long before things were integrated in Texas, I imagine.
Absolutely. However… with the exception of the music scene. In those days I did things and went places as a musician that I could never do as a civilian. The music had really broken those barriers years before that, you know. And we had integrated bands back then because of the military. And in our communities we just only cared how you played, not where you came from – how you played and how you behaved. But the climate… the way I see my generation, was kind of like the chosen ones to go out into the world and mingle. Because comin’ up in those days the thing was to maybe go out and show society that you’re educated and smart and you can get on and you don’t fit all these stereotypes. That’s when the integration and the bussing started during those times back in the 70’s. So, I figured that was part of my calling to make sure that, you know, we all mingle. Because it’s all about one thing, and that’s living good and having a good time in life.
Now, what kind of music were you playing back in those days, what were you calling it?
Soul music it was called. But within that was the heavy jazz and blues from the origins – where that came from. I used to listen to the radio all the time, and even though I was in that soul environment Mr. Tambourine Man used to be my favorite song, you know.
Anybody back then who was a big influence on you?
Yeah, my mom. (sheepish smile from P’Nut) She’s always been my biggest influence in anything. I had so much love in my home. My mom was the bomb.
The Horn (Chorus)
So, tell me how you came about playing that Casio midi horn.
Well, in 1989 I was workin’ in San Francisco as a warehouseman for this food brokerage company and I was still playin’ drums a lot then and I had gigs at night, workin, tryin’ to take care of my kid. Actually she wasn’t born yet, it was five days before she was born, and I remember goin’ on my lunch break down to Macy’s and I saw this horn (the DH-100) sitting up there. And I looked at it and I thought, ‘ah that’s cool…’, I said “…bet a kid would love that”. I guess as my child grew up if I just had that around maybe Tamar growin’ up could be a part of that. And I looked at it and saw it had a midi plug on it. And I said “Ah, cool, but you know, midi is a kind of hit and miss thing, you know, most of ‘em don’t track that well and you always got to have the right interface with them to get the latencies corrected… But I said, “I’m gonna buy it anyway.”
Now at this time I wasn’t playin’ horn, I had played trumpet in school and that was my academic introduction to music, but I was always a closet drummer. And so I took it home and said, “Well, I’ll just plug it into my piano.” And, pow… pow-pow… I said “Wow, this think tracks well.” Now as a drummer, you know, that’s very important. It was a very percussive instrument. I said, “Wow, this is amazing!” And by 3 o’clock in the morning I fell in love with it and by the time Tamar grew up it wasn’t a toy anymore..
Michael Jackson, Muhammad Ali & James Brown (The Bridge)
Any thoughts on Michael Jackson and his career?
I guess there’s many angles you could look at Michael Jackson from, but I have to say that he had to have had a great life and he fulfilled whatever his mission was and his calling was. On many levels, musically, socially and we could talk about all of those things. But I think he fulfilled his mission and those of us that were fortunate enough to be here, and got it, we were better off for it. And if we didn’t get it, we’ll have to wait for the next one to come around. Because he was something else…
And like jumping from one key to another within the context of the same song P’Nut’s face lights up and he diverges from music for a moment…
You know they just found out that Muhammad Ali’s great grandfather was an Irishman! So if you think about it, Ali got his talent from being Irish. He got his swiftness maybe from being black, but he was an Irishman, it (fighting) was in his blood! That cream rose to the top! See he had crossed all those barriers with his life, no matter what his name was, he was respected for him being the human being that he is, and one of the first people to step up and say “No” to the system, do his time and say “I’m not going to kill anybody who never did anything to me, I’m havin’ a problem over here in my own system. Why’m I gonna go fight for you?” Now those are principles that we weren’t used to. And I see the Irish in that too! (P’Nut chuckles and becomes animated) Because we’d been a suppressed people for a long time. And that’s another thing, to talk about how you mix stuff together and get something out of something that would rise to the top, those principles, not just being Black or Irish, it’s principles, of standing up and saying, “You can do whatever you want to do to me because I’m not going to fight him just because you said so, cuz look how you treated me!”
It is amazing that the greatest fighter in history was a pacifist.
Ain’t that somethin’? Beautiful. See, there’s where it mixes again! The pacifist side or the fighter side? You know, but fightin’ for a right cause. That was a fight, the fight not to fight, when you’re a fighter! That’s deep! But to find out that he was Irish? Now think about this… the footwork… (P’Nut gets up and starts shadow boxing and shuffling his feet) the Irish Jig! Think about it! (P’Nut and I share a laugh while he shadow boxes and does the Irish River Dance and I realize that I love this man.)
Now while we’re on the subject, do you think Ali and his rhyming had anything to do with the origins of rap?
I don’t think that Ali’s stuff was considered as much like rap as it was poetry. Not to say that raps not poetry. But the influence for the rap thing came from other angles.
So did Muhammad Ali have any influence on your life when you were younger?
I was just a kid. As a matter of fact, I disliked him when he first came out and tried to change his name. He was just so arrogant. You know, comin’ from slavery to here arrogance is not what you need, you needed to be humble. This was a hard transition, this was a struggle of identity. Before then, James Brown had to come along and let us be proud of the term ‘black’. Before then, you couldn’t call a quote-unquote black man ‘black’. He was either a colored or a negro. “You don’t call me black, I’m not black.” Because black was derogative. Then James Brown came along with a song called ‘Say it Loud, I’m Black and I’m Proud.’
I guess music is changing the world every day…
Music is probably one of the biggest ones, but it’s not just music. Let’s take boxing. Let’s take Ali and his calling. He was able to do all that through boxing. Now, his whole façade is not of him being this batterer, it’s him being an ambassador. People from all walks of life respect that man. And they don’t respect him because he’s this. (P’Nut shakes a fist in the air) They respect him because he’s this! (P’Nut makes a gesture with open arms.) You know, his boxing career is really secondary to his behaviour as a human being. Secondary. It’s what put him in the light, but it’s like music, music is just a vehicle or a tool for other things that… that can be manifested. I mean, music is something that can fill up the whole room, but it’s unseen, and with that tool or whatever your thing is you can manifest the physical. Likewise whether it’s a good thing or a bad thing.
So if it’s not just music, it could be boxing or basketball or whatever discipline it may be, what is that magic key ingredient?
However your calling uses you? Spirit. That encompasses everything.
‘Pieces’ (The Solo)
Any moments in your career that really stand out?
Yeah, one time I was out front (at a Panic show) with some friends and it was this perfect little scene, you know where someone from the crew comes out and says “P’Nut the band wants to see you.” And everybody goes “Woooo-oo, you know.” So I go back and there was Carlos Santana and they’d just been rehearsing. And that’s when the band tells me they want me to play with them. They said “We wanna do Pieces.” And I’m like “Mmm, oh… kay… uh, cool…” And I said it like that because, you know of all the songs that I ever played, Pieces was the one where I figured I didn’t express myself properly. Because it was in a major mode and I just felt like I hadn’t quite captured my major mode properly. And I’d never said anything about what to play, they’d just tell me what the key was like and I’d play it. But this time it was here in front of Carlos Santana, so I did say something and I said, “You know guys? I’m always grateful and honored to ya’ havin’ me play and I never complain or say anything, but can I do something else other than Pieces?” I said, “The reason why is I just don’t feel like I express myself on that song that well, therefore I figure I won’t do you any justice.” I said, “As a matter of fact, we just played it at Red Rocks awhile back and I just felt terrible when I walked off the stage. Do you think we could pick another song?”
And Mikey looks at me and he says “Well, now’s your chance to redeem yourself!”
What do you say to that? Either you don’t play or you play! And it was like a tough one. And I played it, and I still didn’t feel good about myself. So, it took me another couple of years to capture that mode.
As a matter of fact, there was a gig at Red Rocks after that, after Mikey had passed away, and I was playin’. And George – it was the spirit of Mikey – says, “Hey, why don’t we have P’Nut come up and do Pieces?” So I’m on my way to the gig and I’m really feelin’ Mikey here at Red Rocks but I still don’t have a plan, and they wanna do Pieces to open up. But they started with an acoustic set so I’m hanging out backstage by myself thinkin’ I got away with something. But I’m still feeling bad going “What am I gonna do? What am I gonna do?” And I go out and I’m getting’ to play the song I wanted to play, it was Arlene. So I’m playin’ the song, and all the sudden as I’m playin’ this is the way I heard it – I hear Mikey go “Just play the melody, fool!” And I went “Oh!” So during the course of that solo I went and played the Pick Up the Pieces melody and it was a big relief for me. And after then I got the mode. It was crazy. But it happened that day and a bird came off the mountain and was flyin’ around and I was pointin’ up and I was cryin’, pointin’ up in the sky. And people thought I was goin’ (P’Nut pumps his fist) and they were goin’ “Yeah! Yeah!” and I’m like, “No, the bird, the bird!”
Anyway I finished playin’ and the bird went back in and I was like, “Mikey, damn… ”. It was crazy, it was definitely the Spirit of that there, and I felt redeemed. So, that’s my redemption song, Pick up the Pieces. And now every time I hear that song I cry, because I hear Mikey.
P’Nut Gallery (Verse 2)
Well you’re about to make me cry, so let’s pull on up to the present here. Tell me how long you have been doing the P’Nut Gallery with MoBoogie.
I guess, about six months maybe. It was one of those things that had kind of stuck in my mind sayin’, “Man, you play with so many different people, I should be tryin’ to interview some of these guys.” And one day here a while back I was at this party where Drew (Drew xx from MoBoogie) was and he goes, “Hey you know, I think you’d be good at…” And it tripped me out cuz it had already crossed my mind and the next week we was rollin’.
You seem to be a natural at it, is it the first time you’ve ever done anything like this?
Yeah, on this level. The way I see it is we wanna give it sort of a backroom shoot-the-shit-type of environment. Informal. Drew has given me a perfect segue into doin’ this and it’s been good for me to creatively sharpen this part of my musical involvement. It’s difficult really, it’s not really easy for me.
So have you learned anything about yourself from this MoBoogie gig? Were you nervous at first?
Yeah … um, that I can do it! (P’Nut laughs) I’m nervous all the time. Me personally, I’m a shy guy. But it’s my nervous energy that’s my performing energy. It just happens, it’s there, it’s a part of me and it does it’s thing when it’s time to do it’s thing. That energy is reserved for a special time. Really, like I say, “I don’t play my horn, my horn plays me.” That’s the energy I’m talkin’ about, and it’s there for us all, it belongs to us all.
Outro
Well thanks for sitting down with me Cecil, before we call it do you have a shout out to anyone?
Yeah, I wanna say “Hi” to all the people that’ve been supporting me all the years, guys like Jay Bianchi and Steve Johnston who’ve had venues and kept me in the light and took real good care of me. And Brian Loftus who’s been the catalyst for makin’ this happen, he put you on me like a blood-hound.
And I just want to say Happy Birthday to my sister Elizabeth Ann. Today’s her birthday and I should be with her, and she’s real good about it. And my two beautiful daughters just for being such beautiful girls – Tamar and Cecilia. Tamar’s the one I bought the horn for. I have pictures of her when she was little and I’m holdin’ the horn up and she can’t get it. But Tamar is like 6’3” now, and she’s so tall and her arms are so long she’ll hold that horn up and now I can’t get it. So she’s payin’ me back.
Colorado Statewide Music Calendar
Below is a link to Mousike’s statewide music calendar with concert listings for towns in the counties of Summit, Eagle, Routt, Garfield, Pitkin, Boulder, Denver and more. This was the most updated information as of December 1 and contains schedules and contact information for most of Colorado’s music venues.
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