"i sang my songs, i told my lies..."

alicia insisted i buy "songs of leonard cohen." she'd insisted on "music from big pink" too & i was not an initial fan of that album. but she was giving me bj's & anal sex. what could i say? we were 13yo.

i was appalled when i first heard that album. i was a "british invasion" convert, raised on american pop like the association & the four seasons. cohen's droning voice was what really struck & stayed w/me. & the spare instrumentation, led by his "bumblebee" picking technique. there was an austerity of sound that no 13yo raised on the beach boys could possibly be attracted to. i probably insisted on another bj.

what was most striking about "songs of leonard cohen" when i returned to it several years later was the instrumentation. there was lots of it. banjos & fiddles, violins & drums. & that strumming style(nearly as unique as his fingerpicking). why hadn't i heard it before? & of course, the lyrics also stood out. words had become important to me as a 17yo. how could:

"who's walking down the streets of the city,
smiling at everybody she sees?
who's reaching out to capture a rainbow?
everyone knows it's wendy."

compare w/:

"there are heroes in the seaweed,
there are children in the morning,
they are leaning out for love
they will lean that way forever,
while suzanne holds the mirror." ?

in 1975 the vicissitudes of fate conspired, allowing me to see cohen perform not one but two shows in atlanta. he hadn't been south of the mason-dixon line in twenty years, he said & implied it would be another twenty before he returned. he was touring in support of "new skin for the old ceremony," one of my favorite of his albums. i've learned just how rarely he toured & that just reinforces the serendipity of my seeing him both nights.
i drove up to laurinburg n.c. to pick up holly. she was in college at st andrews. it was in november. holly & i were on the downhill side of our five year relationship but she was still giving bj's & anal sex w/more alacrity than alicia ever did. what can i say? we were 20yo. i can't really recall all the details about going & getting her. lust makes long detours seem incidental. i know we stayed in a motel & that we didn't have much money. in fact, when we bought tickets for the SECOND nights show, i'm not sure if we had any money left.

the shows he did were fantastic(see set list below). he was surrounded by an excellent group of musicians(lead by john lisseur)who were extremely tight & his song selection was impeccable. what made the experience especially memorable was the venue. it was some place called the "great southeast music hall." the maximum seating capacity was maybe 300 & it was general admission. holly & i rushed up front & got seats at both concerts that placed us maybe 5 yards from cohen.

there were two moments that have always stuck w/me about this experience. the first revolved around my first "brush w/greatness" & the second was just plain weird. on the second night, i'd noticed that the band exited into a hall & went into a small dressing room. i figured there was only one way in & out of that room & that if we stationed ourselves just so, we'd be there when the band came out. of course, in my head, i ran all kinds of scenarios. as cohen brushed by me, i'd whisper a line or two from rimbaud, in the original french, & he'd stop in his tracks & enthusiastically invite us to join him for a night of wine, women, & song.



of course, what really happened was when he emerged from the room & brushed past us, all i heard was a strangled girlish voice bleeting out "mr cohen mr cohen, we enjoyed your show so much." he did pause for just a second or two(initially, no doubt, to locate the source of the pathetic mewling) but not to invite us along w/him. no, he stopped just long enough to look at holly's mostly bare boobs. she was wearing a tiny white see-through halter(& yes, i said, it was winter). in a flash of near blind desperation, i almost blurted out, "you want her, she's yours" but something restrained me. it wasn't pride, that was long gone. as was cohen.

earlier in the evening, we sat next to a middle aged woman who was utterly smitten w/cohen. oddly, she reminded me of holly's mother, hulda. we had talked quite a bit before the concert began. i suppose at some point i'd mentioned that we had spent our last few pennies to get into this second show. once the show began she was mesmerized & didn't ever seem to take her eyes off the stage. nearing the end of the concert, i felt a crumpled piece of paper hit my chest. then another. i grabbed them & shoved them into my pockets. i thought the woman was sending me some kind of note or something. i was a little embarrassed & a little concerned but my main focus was on our fantasized night of camaraderie w/cohen. we had to get out into that hallway quickly. after the last encore, i thanked the woman & hustled holly out that side door, just behind the gigantic bald black percussionist who was fielding various offers from different women. "sorry, sorry," he kept saying, "we're flying out right after the show." ok, i thought, it won't be a whole night w/cohen but a few hours would do. we'd exchange addresses & telephone numbers. we'd agree to pal around in the greek islands. i was flexible.

after cohen resumed his rush out the front doors of the "great southeast music hall," holly & i glumly walked to the pinto. i fished in my pockets for the keys to the damn thing & found the crumpled pieces of paper the woman had launched onto my chest during the concert. it was two twenty dollar bills. i was astonished. what the hell?

that money got me home & holly back up to north carolina. within a year, it was holly who was in the greek islands & i was in college in sarasota. it was five years before cohen played in america again(berkeley for two concerts). this is the set list of a concert he did just prior to the atlanta shows. i remember at least one or two more new songs(several of which ended up on the phil spector debacle & two ended up years later on "recent songs"). he ended both atlanta concerts w/"bird on a wire" too.

November xx: Bryn Mawr, USA - The Main Point
1) Bird on the Wire
2) Je Veux Vivre Tout Seul (Bird on the Wire in French)
3) So Long, Marianne
4) There Is a War
5) One of Us Cannot Be Wrong
6) The Stranger Song
7) Hey That's No Way to Say Goodbye
8) Guerrero
9) Diamonds in the Mine
10) Who By Fire
11) Don't Go Home With Your Hard-On
12) The Partisan
13) Story of Isaac
14) Famous Blue Raincoat
15) Came So Far for Beauty
16) Sisters of Mercy
17) I Guess it's Time (early The Smokey Life)
18) The Traitor Song
19) Lover Lover Lover
20) Is This What You Wanted
21) Lady Midnight



in 2009, the vicissitudes of fate have conspired once again to bring cohen into my life. i got two of the much coveted tickets for his oakland show in april. as of this writing, mike is still trying to land some. i'm hoping he does. like i wrote about longhair, there are no guarantees about how long we'll have the greats w/us. it's best to see them when you can.

the inimitable mr byrd shows how it's done

Danny,

I hadn't heard that Snooks had passed until I read your blog today. He
was certainly one of the greats. I watched the video and it looked like
he was just using his index finger - interesting technique. The
comparison that came to mind was Wes Montgomery - who only used his
thumb. He held it in a certain way so that he could use it for both up
and down strokes - simulating a flat pick. Of course it was that
technique which gave him his characteristic tone - and I don't know any
other guitarist that used the thumb in that manner. My favorite of his
disciples - Emily Remler - used a pick to approximate his tone.

Joshua Rifkin once spent several hours with Professor Longhair
attempting to learn his technique. He finally gave up - he couldn't do
it. He was classically-trained and schooled in a variety of styles, but
he could not get Fess's (who knew so little about theory tht he didn't even
know the names of the chords he used) technique.

Thank God for video - at least musicians are able to see what these
masters were doing.

RIP.

K


i had the great pleasure & honor of seeing mr byrd one month before his death, his penultimate performance at tipitina's. i took a handful of posters from there that night. i gave one to mike. he was smart enough to have his framed. the only one i kept was taped to my fridge in gulf breeze for years. the brilliant piano prodigy, james booker, had a regular monday night gig at the maple leaf bar in new orleans. i kept putting off going to see him(maple leaf wasn't on my usual new orleans bar routes). i never did get out there to see him. he died when he was 44yo.

it's best to see the greats when you can. there are no guarantees.

btw, see any familiar faces in the musicians backing up fess?

BUDDY MILLER: keep your fingers crossed

Nashville music great Buddy Miller recovering after heart surgery


Buddy Miller -- one of Nashville's most celebrated singers, songwriters, guitarists, recording artists and producers -- reportedly suffered a heart attack in Baltimore, Md., on Friday, Feb. 20. He was on tour with Emmylou Harris, Patty Griffin and Shawn Colvin; the tour is dubbed "3 Girls And Their Buddy."
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Miller, 56, was taken to Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, and he underwent a triple-bypass heart surgery. The surgery was successful, and Miller will likely be recovering in Baltimore for several weeks.

Named the "Artist of the Decade" by No Depression magazine, Miller has written songs that have been recorded by the Dixie Chicks, Lee Ann Womack, Brooks & Dunn and others. He is a veteran of Harris' Spyboy band, and in the past year he has been touring as a featured instrumentalist in Robert Plant and Alison Krauss' band. He has produced albums for Solomon Burke, Allison Moorer, Jimmie Dale Gilmore and others. Miller has lately been producing a new album for Patty Griffin. He has been called "the best country singer" alive by Steve Earle.

Miller is married to Nashville singer-songwriter Julie Miller, and the pair have a duo album coming out on New West Records on March 3.

empress of the universe

Empress of the Universe Antoinette K-Doe called home
Posted by: Alison Fensterstock in In Memoriam

In the early hours of Mardi Gras Day, Antoinette K-Doe, widow of the legendary Ernie and proprietor of the Mother-in-Law Lounge, passed away. Last Mardi Gras Day, Mrs. K-Doe had entered the hospital for heart failure, but recovered and was quickly back behind the bar.

Mrs. K-Doe was a local legend and as proprietor of the Lounge and steward of K-Doe’s memory, an international icon. Details to follow as they become available. At this time, it’s not clear if the lounge will be open to revelers and mourners today.

me got fire me can't put out

the zulu's marched for the 100th time a few hours ago. the indian tribes are out & about in the city throughout the day. it's fat tuesday in new orleans, a month long celebration peaks today & ends abruptly at midnight tonight. as many times as i've been to new orleans, i only spent one mardi gras there. sometime in the '90s, a large group of us rented a huge suite in what used to be the "burgundy house" in the french quarter. i used to joke that it was within "crawling distance" of all my favorite bars. the trip was eventful(jaynie scored a "zulu coconut" for example)but i don't remember a lot about it. i had been on the wagon for several months prior to it, fell off w/a flourish only mardi gras can provide, & was in re-hab six months later. i don't really remember much of the six intervening months either.

"The Mardi Gras Indians do not ride floats, have established routes, or follow this traditional Mardi Gras Krewe structure. They parade through their neighborhoods on foot. When they criss-cross one another's paths, it takes time to meet and greet each other. The Mardi Gras Indian "parade" can be an all-day affair...happening in different parts of the city."

the indian tribes are more "outlaw" than the zulus. they also have the music. during the course of a year, the tribes work on their costumes but also on their music too. when two tribes do finally "meet on the battlefield," the battle consists of a-cappella singing/chanting & much vigorous dancing. the zulu's actually were certified by city hall as early as 1916. their parade has floats. the indians are not indians at all but black folks dressed in outrageous indian garb. the zulu's dressed differently:

"The group wore raggedy pants, and had a Jubilee-singing quartet in front of and behind King Story. His costume of "lard can" crown and "banana stalk" scepter has been well documented."

there was blackface too. that's louis armstrong as zulu king in 1949. zulu utilized subtle mockery of racial stereotypes. for black men to mimic white notions of "blackness" was one of only a few methods available for protest by blacks back then:

"The menace of mimicry is its double vision which in disclosing the ambivalence of colonial discourse also disrupts its authority."

fat tuesday is the last great day of indulgence before the abstinence of lent. it's a day when authority is upended, even mocked. when folks who've never been to new orleans ask if they should go during mardi gras, i always say no. i tell them to go during a less chaotic time. i do qualify this: go to mardi gras AFTER you've been to new orleans a few times.

snooks eaglin 1936-2009

snooks eaglin died last night. i heard from my new orleans connection, mr page. i'm not sure how much press he'll pick up outside of the big easy. i guess we're all just waiting 'round to die but some are doing more than others...snooks recorded on & off for nearly fifty years, his first session was w/sugar boy crawford, who i read about nearly 30years ago in the old version of gambit, the new orleans music paper that's gone main-stream. i've convinced myself i saw him at the world-shaking, money-making, absolutely innovatin' ROCK & BOWL there in the city way back when.

forget about anything but watching him play the guitar here. he's strumming & what should sound like full chords are beautiful single note lead runs. i remember ken playing rev gary davis for me & telling me that he was doing all that he does w/two fingers. snooks is doing the same thing, strum & pick w/one finger, maybe that second one. they're moving pretty fast. they were both blind. they were both genius guitar players. i just plod along wondering why my various handicaps haven't helped me.

ANYTIME new orleans loses one of their homegrown geniuses the world should stop & take note. there aren't that many of them left. what's heartening is that being homegrown & all, they keep coming in spite of everything.

thanks mark for keeping me up on things.

this is snooks w/the utterly dapper mr george porter, founding member of the funkiest music ever played by human beings, the great new orleans group, the meters. it's not a surprise he's deferring to snooks here.

your left hand in my backpocket

june carter's got nothing on this young lady. she's been singing w/her family("one way rider") since she was knee-high to a palmetto bug(just like june & the carters). crystal clear voice & a catchy song. her first album, "with blasphemy so heartfelt," is available everywhere & has five or six more songs that ring true & clear. i first heard this song as a cover by the avett brothers. i've got mixed feeling about them, the hick bohemian thing is problematic for me but their song, "if it's the beaches" is a lovely thing. they do ok by ms. mayfield but, as usual, the original is where you want to be.

this reminds me of something you'd find scrawled on a schoolhouse wall. this is a post-millenium angel singing us all away. if her face doesn't destroy you(that's what angel faces do, btw)the song itself should. if the guys don't get we're pretty much dispensable at this point, we'll be jacking-off into eternity. but ms. mayfield puts it so much prettier that that, doesn't she, guys?

if you can get past the nose piercing, your home free.

& mark, if this doesn't remind you of jaynie, you ain't gotta memory.

enjoy.