Swamptooth Live, 25 April 2012

Event was held indoors due to intermittent showers.  Old Torrance Coffee & Tea is pretty tight even with only ten people in there because of the overstuffed furniture.  I got there almost a half hour late, quaffed a green tea matcha smoothie, and was asked to go on pretty soon after that.  Here is what I performed:

1. A Day is Far too Long
2. Are You Lonely?
3. Big Tin Truck
4. Second Time Around
5. Hampstead Incident (In the Nighttime)

The first two were Graham Coxon covers, done with capo on 2nd fret. Next round was an original, Big Tin Truck, done in the usual arrangement but with one verse forgotten ("back in '78"). Richard McDowell told me afterward that my voice was good on that song, that it gave it a "folk feel," by which I think he meant that I didn't sing it country-style to match the music.

My last set opened with another original, Second Time Around, which ended up amplified and so brought a bunch of listeners in from outside to hear.  This was not bad considering I had followed Mike, the house band, with a song I hadn't intended to play.  I did it because I noticed people reacting to the opening riff which I used to sound check once I was amplified, and decided to keep going.  Afterward I claimed it was a "true story," just as I had after Big Tin Truck. 

I closed my set with Hampstead Incident (by Donovan Leitch), which I cut short because I remembered only two verses.  Someone, I forget who, lauded my singing on the last set, I think because of the amplification.  In fact, I had forgotten to capo the last song, with the result that it was definitely below my range and I could not provide enough volume on the low parts.  I had to get really close to the microphone on those notes, which probably made me seem really "into it."

I intended this as a dry run for a show in Seattle this weekend. The first two songs were not optimized for the crowd, being very tortured bohemian, and angsty, but were fairly well received anyway. I'd say the highlight was Second Time Around, but "Truck" and Hampstead Incident were close behind.

After me, a Joan Baez-sounding soprano named Michelle went on, and I almost tripped her when she backed into my foot while singing Monday Morning (or something similar).

As I was packing up my Martin, the owner asked me if that last song was an original, and I answered that no, it was by Donovan, and he said, "well it was good anyway." But I'm not sure if by "that last song" he actually meant the one before it. Also as I was leaving, Wayne Davis (for whom I had selected Big Tin Truck) told me I was quite a talent, but that I needed to be in a group.  I pointed out that I am a group, and that I just can't get anyone else to join it.  Wayne had been insulting performers all night (and also my guitar), so I took this as a compliment. It also reminded me that he had asked me late last year to become a member of his backing band.

Swamptooth Live, 28 March, 2012

Old Torrance Coffee and Tea

1. Hurricane Days 
2. On The Road 
3. City in my Brain 
4. Arms of Love 
5. Dark End of the Street 
6. Above You

I came in late, at about 7:30, and they asked me to go on immediately, which I did.  

The place was completely packed, and I had almost no ability to even take my gear out inside, let alone tune.  So I scuttled my initial plans to deploy harmonica.  Somehow I left my guitar pick at home, and had to use the emergency one that I always carry in my wallet.  Unfortunately, it is a light gauge pick, which greatly inhibits my picking style.  With that in mind, I tried to emphasize songs with lots of strumming.

I used a capo on first fret for the first two songs, as a boost to my voice.  They plugged me in, which worked pretty well.  When I came back on for a second set, the place had just emptied out after a drum circle.  So that somehow spurred me to try "City."  Probably because I knew not many were listening.  It was way too low for my voice.  I accompanied myself with the usual C harmonica.  

The audience came back.  "Arms" and "Street" were pretty standard, with no capo.  "Street" was the best of the night for me.  I should have stopped, but they asked me to keep going.  So I hemmed and hawed, and then finally capoed somewhere about second fret and launched into Above You.  But the capo threw me off and I blew a whole bunch of chords, especially in the bridge, which fell apart almost completely.  Embarassment.  After that, I called it a night.

This was my first foray after recovering from pneumonia, so the purpose was more just to get out there than to turn in really great performances.  Still, I would have been happy to have recorded my version of "Street."  

Richard McDowell asked me to come and play at Gilmore's this Saturday.  I am thinking about it.

Not sure what to make of this

Don found this one, which clearly has nothing to do with My New Invention, but purports to offer songs from the 1998 My New Invention CD for download:

http://www.hello.dj/my-new-invention

Swamptooth Live, 8 February 2012

Old Torrance Coffee & Tea

From left: my knee, Derek, A.R., Richard
"The Dark Stranger" McDowell, and my milkshake

Swamptooth returned to play songs at Old Torrance Coffee & Tea for the first time since October.  Actually I was billed as "Swamptooth Featuring Bill."  Since my last appearance they had moved the live performances indoors to escape the weather. (if you can call it that in Southern California!)

Also, pressure from performance rights organizations (like ASCAP) had resulted in OTC&T changing over to a policy requesting performers to stick to original (or uncopyrighted) songs.

This particular crowd, maybe ten people at any one time, was very sedate and very attentive.  With that mood dominating, I made a snap decision about which song to open with: "Come My Way," a B-side from the Black and Blue Second Time Around single.  I really like this song, but I tend not to play it because I'm afraid of wearing it out and losing the connection.  Not a big deal, I'm just saving something for times like this.

Swamp guitar face

Songs performed:

1. Come My Way
2. Life is Black (end of first set)
3. Big Tin Truck
4. Above You (end of second set)
5. A Song for You - joined by Mike Munoz (acoustic guitar/vocal) and Derek (conga drum)
6. Sin City - Performed my Mike Munoz, with accompaniment from me (vocal, guitar) and Derek (guitar).

Come My Way turned out very solid.   I had introduced it as a "serious" song, about a very brief love affair.  I think that one really hit the mark, and I could see people reacting positively to it.  I was worried it was a bit of a slow number to start with, but I was wrong, because it has enough dynamics to keep things from dragging, and turned out to be a foot-tapper.  Unlike the CD, I played it with capo-2.  Likewise with "Life is Black," but I had a D harp so I could still do the old Stickmen arrangement, just with more harmonica breaks.  Trouble was, "Life is Black" came out fine technically, but the irony fell completely flat with the crowd.  I had described it as a "silly" song.  But really, it's not.  If anything the song is very dark.  I think Matt has the charisma to pull it off, but I won't try it again solo.

Big Tin Truck went over quite well.  It was pretty much the standard Black and Blue arrangement, only without a rhythm section.  I got a heartfelt compliment afterwards on that one.

Above You, my "teenage angst" song, is barely excusable now given that I am almost twice as old as when I wrote it.  That said, the music was catchy, and the song is in a low enough key that it's hard to hear what I am singing except in the bridge, which is the best part of the song.

Derek snuck in several cover songs.

I stuck to originals for the proper performance, but then during the post-show jam session, a couple of Gram Parsons covers surfaced.  Of those, "A Song for You" was totally unplanned but turned out really great sounding with a second guitar and a conga drum.  After I had pulled out one Gram song, Mike replied with another, "Sin City," which I sang along with.  But Mike is hard to sing along with, because he does kind of a Van Morrison/Joe Cocker thing which is very unpredictable.

At one point I loaned my guitar to a self-conscious chick who was almost like a young Odetta, and who sang one very sultry song dedicated to her man, who happened to be sitting next to me.  Someone said "Damn, you can play like that and you just sit there all night?"  After this impressive performance, she got all embarrassed and left.

Once again, the whole affair was very fun and worthwhile.  Thanks to Derek, who I had just met (who hosts an event in Carson), and Richard, who I knew from last year, I ended up after the show with appearances planned in three different venues by the end of this month.

Now if I can just get Munson up here.

Swamptooth Live - 26 October, 2011

Third appearance in four weeks a Old Torrance Coffee & Tea.  This time with Don Varner in attendance, though not playing. 

1. Arms of Love - the Munson arrangement of the Robyn Hitchcock song, played in G with C cross-harp.
2. Dear Prudence - pretty faithful version of the Beatles' original, with a few changes to make it work better on solo acoustic.  Guitar was plugged in for this show, and sounded particularly good on this song.
3. It Doesn't Matter Anymore - Eva Cassidy arrangement of the Paul Anka song, again played in G with C cross-harp.
4. Girl #134 - the Matthew Munson original, but with an unauthorized bridge snuck in there while the author wasn't looking.  I fell into the trap I always do with no drummer, and played it a too slow a tempo.

Ran out of time and had to cut things short before I could go on for a planned second set.  This performance was less satisfying than the previous two, just because none of the songs really hit it out of the park.  That's okay, because I am purposely trying out material to see what works.  Also, rumors of possible Matt Munson attendance did not pan out.  I think Varner got some video, though.  The best part was the harmonica experimentation, which worked out pretty well.  I resolved after this to practice at least three times before each performance.

Swamptooth Live Again

Swamptooth, Live, Again
Old Torrance Coffee & Tea
Wednesday, October 19, 2011

Songs performed:

1. It Hurts Me Too
2. Big Tin Truck
3. The Dark End of the Street
4. Billy (with Mike Munoz on lead acoustic and backing vocal, and Eddie G on percussion)
5. Sand and Foam
6. The Ballad of Geraldine

 Details:

I launched straight into "It Hurts Me Too" with no introduction.  I explained it as an Elmore James song.  Did it in C, with a G harmonica, played cross-harp.  I was very happy with this one, having learned it a few days earlier and practiced quite a bit.  I did the whole show "unplugged," that is with only a single microphone for amplification.  I had a bad experience with my guitar plugged in the previous time, and didn't want to risk it.

"Big Tin Truck" was my own song, but played like the Black and Blue High Desert Mystery arrangement.  Well, without the band.  What I mean is that I sang the Munson words in the bridge.  I dedicated this song to Wayne Davis, the resident truck driver and country singer, but he wasn't there to hear it.  He had the flu or something.

"The Dark End of the Street" I introduced as a Motown song turned country, which I had just learned this week.  However I was called out on it, because it was in actuality a stealth Gram Parsons cover, a fact I readily confirmed.  For some reason, my voice is well suited to this one.  I took another turn on my G harmonica, for the third song in a row. 

Mike M. and Eddie G, backing band for "Billy."

"Billy" was the most fun.  They asked me to do another song, and I said OK, I had one, an "old west number" but it really needed percussion.  A guy called Eddie G was summoned to the stage.  While he tracked down his box (actually a flamenco percussion instrument called a cajon), I started the long instrumental lead in to the song.  Eddie was like, "is this it?" thinking I might just be warming up, but I just nodded and he started playing.  The percussion really added a lot, and we nestled right into a groove that could have just gone on and on.  Things were cool until I started to sing the first verse "There's guns across the river aimin atcha," and then the crowd really came alive as they recognized the song, much to my surprise, cheering, and Mike Munoz (the "house" musician) grabbed his guitar and joined us to do the acoustic lead.  The song lasted at least five or six minutes, probably longer, as I stretched to remember all the different verses from three different recordings on the Pat Garrett & Billy the Kid soundtrack.  But rather than get stale, "Billy" continued to steadily build in excitement right up to the end.  It wasn't perfect, as I dropped the beat once, and also stepped on Mike's guitar solo by breaking in to early for the "Guitars will play your grand finale" verse, but these faults were hardly noticeable.  (I realized afterward I had the words wrong, it is supposed to be "gypsy queens," not "guitars.")  We got such a response that I knew I had to leave the stage, 'cause I couldn't follow it.

The owner of the place sent me out a coffee, high praise indeed for this venue. I overheard him say, "I know what soundtrack I am going to listen to tonight!"  Cool, I must have struck a nerve with that one.

Later on, a guy named Richard closed his set with Donovan's "Catch the Wind."  Galvanized, I went on for a second time and did "Sand and Foam," which I pulled off very convincingly, but with less response than I would have hoped for.  Then somebody asked if I knew a song called "Geraldine."  This was a request that I never thought I'd get, and I didn't waste it.  I had to fish for my capo, but then I launched straight into it.  It must have seemed like I knew every obscure folk song from the sixties.  However, my version of "The Ballad of Geraldine" was not totally pure, veering slightly into "Boots of Spanish Leather" as my fingers took on a will of their own.  Not bad though. Afterwards I talked to the guy who requested it; his name turned out to be Neil; he is a young blues harmonica player.  He had never been able to find anyone who could play that song until then.

This was a really fun show, and I was very glad I did it, especially because I almost flaked at several points leading up to it.  Matt took me to task afterward for not inviting him, but in reality, I wasn't sure I would actually play, even while I was sitting there five minutes beforehand.  I made sure to invite Matt to the next one.

Swamptooth Live!

After years of dorking around, the mysterious musical entity called "Swamptooth" finally took the stage on 9/28/2011 at Old Torrance Coffee & Tea, to perform a handful of acoustic songs, open-mic style.  On this occasion - its public debut - the "band" was reduced to just the absolute core lineup: me, and my guitar!

Standing in for "Swamptooth" in this photo is a blues guitar player named Jesse, who borrowed my Martin for a few songs of his own, 'cause his own guitar was pretty awful.

It was a warm autumn night, and the crowd was maybe 15-20 local characters, split evenly between youngsters and fogies.  Everyone was laid back, attentive, and friendly, so the music got a good reception. 

Songs performed:

1. Moonshine Blues
2. Blackbird
3. Miller's Cave
4. Hurricane Days
5. Sing Me Back Home
6. Blackbird (encore/request)

Quite a while after my set, one lady wanted to hear Blackbird again, so I was asked to return to the stage, which of course I did.  I got a lot of compliments on that number.  The other song that went over quite well was Miller's Cave, which I hadn't even planned to do.  Moonshine Blues, on the other hand, was slow, with dark subject matter and some technical problems associated with my first-ever use of fingerpicks in a live setting.  I would probably skip that one in future.

This was my first public musical performance in several years.  So, yeah, I was a bit nervous beforehand.  But having done it, I don't know why I waited so long.  It was quite fun to do, and turned out pretty good!

I think Matt would dig it here; OTC&T would be a perfect whistle stop for Black & Blue, and is totally in spec for a Swamptooth extended testing ground.  So I would DEFINITELY like to play here again.

Swamptooth Live

www.classicstickmen.com - classic stickmen dot gone.

Looks like another domain name has gone the way of the dodo. Oh well.

Another Round

All of the mixes I've done over the past couple of days came with me to the gym tonight. I have a few more notes that I took that I need to implement, but overall, I think things are really coming together. I think for my next test, I'll put together a playlist that shuffles between BNB songs and songs from legit albums. Mainly just to check overall volume. I want to see how close to the mark we are.

There's a couple more tiny technical nits to clean up, but it's getting cleaner and cleaner. Very exciting times.