When NYS Music caught up with Mister F’s Scott Hannay earlier this year, we talked about what it’s like to sit-in with a band, the preparation (often none) and coordination that goes into a guest spot, and his goal of jamming out with Turkuaz.
Fast forward to the end of 2015 and Scott Hannay has sat in with over 50 bands, performed with Mister F in Colorado and stretched his music experience even further. Wrapping up 2015, NYSMusic followed up with Scott on the year he had and what lies ahead for him and Mister F.
Pete Mason: What have you learned over the course of the year, regarding guest appearances and overall musicianship?
Scott Hannay: It’s hard to properly put into a paragraph what I’ve learned from this year compared to other years, but I can certainly tell a marked difference in my own musicianship after this one. Throwing oneself into so many different styles and situations has a way of broadening horizons. I’ve gotten to shred Middle Eastern scales with Consider the Source, travel into outer space jamming with Formula 5, make a run on all the instruments (except drums) with The Werks, tickled keytar with After Funk and The Magic Beans, and those are just a small few of many. It’s been incredibly humbling. I’ve always said you can learn something from everyone, but I’ve been really, really spoiled with the ‘everyone’ that I get to learn from!
PM: What has the year in music been like, for both Mister F and yourself?
SH: This year has been exciting for a lot of reasons. We’ve had some very high-profile musicians play with us this year, and I have also gotten to play with many very incredible players. As a band, Mister F played over 150 shows this year throughout over 20 states, providing many opportunities for collaborations. We even found ourselves in Colorado for the first time, where I took my only night off to go play more music at a jam night in Boulder and got together with Jaden Carlson Band for a session. It’s been a very immersive year in terms of music for me, and will continue to be until 2016!
PM: So with how this year went, what do you set your sights on for sit-ins? That Turkuaz happened pretty fast after we last chatted…
SH: Turkuaz happened pretty quickly, yes – the day after the last article came out! We’re playing with Particle on January 1 at The Hollow. I’ve gotten to play with them before, and Steve Molitz has sat in with Mister F, so, who knows what will happen! We’ve got a string of official Umphrey’s afterparties coming up, too, so hopefully some of them can come out and throw down with us. Either way, 2016 is already looking great!
This video is from Buffalove, the night I played all three stages – the ‘hat trick’, if you will. Mister F played the 2nd stage, then I hopped up with PTF on the main stage after breaking down and packing up. Rick (from PTF) and I then traded keytar solos latenight with After Funk at the woods stage. Buffalove was recently tied with Disc Jam for best small festival in your NYS Music article – it was definitely one of the most memorable nights of my summer!
Albany area-based guitarist Mike Campese has an incredible resume built off of a talent he has perfected from an early age. Guitar was his academic pursuit, one that has served him well and opened doors both in opportunity and experience. Of the several big acts he has opened for or worked with, the most familiar of the Christmas season is Trans Siberian Orchestra whom he recorded and toured with for a short time.
This Saturday, Dec. 5, Campese is performing at The Madison Theater in Albany at 8:30 pm. With a lot to talk about, Campese chatted with NYSMusic about some of his influences and experiences and about what’s in store for this Saturday’s show.
Steve Malinski: How did you get started on the professional musician track?
Mike Campese: My brother played acoustic guitar and my dad had been a violinist but went into engineering. My early influences were Black Sabbath and the guitar-driven bands. It went from there. I took lessons as a kid and would hang out at the music store at the mall, see all the guitars hanging up. I’d always ask the guy what the price is and they’d be so expensive. He didn’t think I’d buy it but my mom came up to the mall and helped me out. My sister and her boyfriend had gotten me a bass but I didn’t want to play bass so I traded it in the next day. But yeah, I was really into Black Sabbath and they influenced me as a kid. I moved to Los Angeles for the Guitar Institute (GIT) at the Musicians Institute (MI). It was a great experience, great school. I was exposed to all kinds of music. My teacher was a jazz guitar player. Before I went there I had already known a lot of theory but it opened a lot of doors musically for me.
SM: You mention Black Sabbath as an influence, so I see why you went for that guitar driven style. But you really have a playing style along the lines of Eric Johnson, Steve Vai, Buckethead, and so on. How’d you ultimately settle into that groove?
MC: As you advance as a player… even though I love Black Sabbath, their stuff was easy. Catchy, but easy. I got more into – my brother was into Al Di Meola. I would listen to his stuff, and brought some of that to my teacher. Then Yngwie [Malmsteen] came around too. So they’re the ones who started it for me. I started listening to more of the classical stuff. My dad and I were driving in the car to school one day and I said “Why don’t you put on the rock station?” He replied with “Oh, like classical stuff?” I told him I didn’t want to listen to classical stuff but he said I should. So I started listening to Mozart, Beethoven, Vivaldi. The shred stuff – Paul Gilbert was teaching at GIT and I was in his classes. Eric Johnson – I first heard him play at MI. I remember hearing “Cliffs of Dover” and our teacher had shown us how to play the riffs. I love Steve Vai’s Passion and Warfare.
I’m glad I grew up in the time that I did because nowadays there are so many different genres to sort through. But yeah, I’ve always been a fast guitar player after my first year of playing. And now I’m better at composing and am more well-rounded than I was as a teenager. It does take a lot of maintenance playing every day – really have to keep up with it.
SM: Can you talk about your experience working with Trans Siberian Orchestra?
MC: I was part of the band in 2004/2005, around the time when Lost Christmas Eve was out. I got a call from them and auditioned. Paul O’Neill – I was down in the city and auditioned and they were really happy when I played. About a week later I got a call from their manager and he said they’d like to hire me for the band. It was really cool. I wasn’t in the band for a really long time, just a couple of years, and I hope to get back to them again sometime. It was a great experience traveling and playing the music, covering both the left and right guitar parts. It was really amazing experience, incredible band. Just being picked for that, I was amazed. It was a great accomplishment – a band like that, multi-platinum band. I still talk to them. We’re on good terms and I see the guys in the band all the time. A lot of guys in the band have their own groups so I support their bands. I play a trade show in California every year and always run into them there. So at some point – you never know with these bands – there are so many musicians they work with. There’s a full east coast and west coast touring band. So we’ll see.
After that I put out a Christmas album of my own, The Meaning of Christmas. It’s similar to Trans Siberian Orchestra but its more guitar driven and there’s some acoustic and vocal work on it. So it was right after and I thought that maybe I should do my own Christmas stuff. So I’ve been promoting that recently since it’s Christmas season and it’s really the only chance I get the chance to do that. I like Christmas music but did change it up and wrote new sections of the pieces and did a few of my own original Christmas tunes. So it wasn’t like the same traditional tune but a re-written version to basically get it out of my system.
SM: Aside from Trans Siberian Orchestra, you’ve gotten to play with or open for some pretty big names?
MC: Yeah, a bunch. Joe Bonamassa. B-52’s were my first opening act. Spin Doctors –
SM: Cruefest?
MC: Yeah! My own band, my original band played. It was Mötley Crüe, Godsmack, Drowning Pool… That was an awesome show, a great experience playing at SPAC. The cool thing is that my stuff is different that all those guys. My stuff was exposed to people who don’t normally dig into that type of sound.
I try to play music for the crowds. I have acoustic material too, so I mix it up at my shows. And this Saturday I’m going to be doing a little acoustic segment in the middle of the show. It’s going to be mostly an electric show though, with that in the middle. We’ll be playing a variety of stuff, things off the Christmas album and the others as well. So I’m looking forward to that. At the Madison Theater, being a movie theater, they’ve got a screen behind us. I was there recently and asked the sound guy and he said we could use the screen if we want. Se we’ve got some videos and backdrops that we’ll have behind us. I’m looking forward to it because people are coming to see us whereas at a bar people are just hanging out and we’d be more of just a background sound.
Jamgrass legends Leftover Salmon make their return to The Egg on December 2. Bassist Greg Garrison spoke with NYSMusic about the group’s first time back in Albany since the 2003, the group’s influence on the jamgrass scene, their songwriting process and release of the live album 25.
For fans of bluegrass and its speedier cousin, jamgrass, the welcoming atmosphere can be felt as “a happy, fun festival vibe,” as Garrison describes it. The upbeat, progressive improv nature of Yonder Mountain String Band and Greensky Bluegrass can trace itself back to Leftover Salmon, whose unique genre of Polyethnic Cajun Slamgrass is an instant jolt of energy to audiences around the country. Bringing the audience to their feet at The Egg will be thanks in part to drummer Alwyn Robinson, a role often not filled in typical bluegrass acts. “The fact we have always had a drummer and looked to find a well-versed and good drummer, and with our current drummer Alwyn Robinson from Brooklyn, kept up with the tradition of energetic drummers that we’ve had,” noted Garrison.
There are of course other bands who preceded Leftover Salmon in their contributions to the jamgrass scene. Hot Rize, The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band and Newgrass Revival paved the way for Leftover, marking a lineage that dates back to the early 1980s, connecting current jamgrass-descendants with their predecessors. Over the years, Garrison has seen bands come and go, and the sound changed ever so slightly over time. “The faces and names of the bands have changed, and some have done better than others, like Railroad Earth and String Cheese Incident, who are paving the way for how far you can push the genre as far as crowd and sound. The ones who stay a little truer to roots – Yonder Mountain String Band and Greensky Bluegrass and the like, you could listen to them 10 years ago and now, while the material might change and playing has gotten better, it has matured, it’s still the same.”
Greg Garrison, photo by Andrew Wyatt
The evolved newgrass sound can be found within their recorded albums as well. On their albums High Country and Aquatic Hitchhiker, listeners can find songs that change as they are performed live, whereas Garrison notes, “some will stretch out a little bit and we see where it takes us, and take a simple arrangement and continually use it as a vehicle live.”
Songwriting on recent studio albums has been fresh songs that had not been road-tested. Songs were written individually outside the studio and once in the studio, arranged as a band and lyrics edited to polish the final product. “Andy Thorn (banjo) was a live player since before he joined us. He used to see us when he was 15 years old. Now, he’ll come up with a tune that is a fully formed Leftover Salmon tune before we get a hold of it.”
25, a celebration of Leftover Salmon’s 25 years of music, was released over Thanksgiving weekend. Selecting the tracks was a feat, taking three years’ worth of shows and trimming the list down to 50-60 recordings to choose from. “It took a better part of a year to dig through it all and get what we wanted. Mario Casilio (sound engineer) spent time in the studio together mixing it and making sure it sounded good enough as a representation of the band. It’s the first album I’ve been able to produce for the band. I feel like we picked some interesting tunes that don’t get played very often, like an old version of “Blister in the Sun,” which we play once a year, so to capture a good one of those is great.
“Bill Payne (Little Feat) playing with us for the past couple years (all but one track features Bill) has helped us move in the direction of filling some spaces in a collective improvisation kind of way. We had a horn section with us at the Boulder Theater last year – it sounds like Leftover Salmon but the stuff is definitely unexpected and made it sound really good, and much better than just pulling something off of archive.org, but there’s nothing wrong with that, I do it too.”
Back in the Northwest for New Year Eve, Leftover Salmon will be joined by Skerik and Bill Payne in Portland, followed by shows in Alaska, Fort Collins, CO, a three week run in March and April, as well as the annual Ski Tour, which will include a mini-festival at The Stanley Park Hotel in Estes Park, CO. Unique to the Rocky Mountain-based band are events like Winter Wondergrass in Lake Tahoe, NV and Colorado, an outdoor bluegrass fest in the winter. “Everyone braves it and has a good time, plus we have a few shows in Chicago at The Vic Theater. We’ll be out and about doing our thing.”
Leftover Salmon continue their Northeast run with stops at Higher Ground in Burlington, VT on December 3, Brighton Music Hall in Boston, MA on December 4 and The Wolf Den in Uncasville, CT on December 5.
On a chilly November evening in Syracuse, the boys from Long Beach California, Sublime with Rome, brought the heat and their unique blend of reggae and ska punk to the F-Shed at the Regional Market! Despite the cooler temperatures outside, it didn’t deter legions of loyal fans from coming out in shorts and tank tops or some very enthusiastic folks from playing hacky sack outside in between band sets. That laid back, “chill” aura set the tone for the evening.
The show got under way with openers Santa Cruz, California natives, The Expendables, who helped get the crowd jumping with their blend of homegrown reggae/ska and surf rock. These guys delivered a very energetic and positive performance. After their 30 minute set they left the crowd excited for the headliner.
The lights go down and you can sense the excitement in the air. The soft hum of the amps turning on and the band plugging in their instruments can barely be heard above the buzz of the crowd. The stage slowly starts to illuminate and poised at the mic is a dark silhouette of Rome Ramirez; the band busts out with the classic “Get Ready” as if it’s a premonition of what they have in store for the exuberant and ecstatic crowd at the F-Shed. They didn’t waste any time before cranking out crowd favorites such as “Date Rape” and “Wrong Way”, not to mention a really upbeat and ska version of the Grateful Dead’s “Scarlet Begonias.” Rome and company played a very intense set consisting of a mix of classic Sublime songs and some crowd pleasers off their new album “Sirens.” You could feel the overabundance of positive energy between both the band and the crowd.
The show was a party from the beginning right up to the end when the crowd went wild as the band played their most famous hit “Santeria.”
Prior to the show I had the opportunity to chat with Rome Ramirez. Rome was very laid back and fun to chat with. We talked about the album “Sirens,” what inspires him and his favorite aspects of touring. Hope you enjoy the interview!
Assembly of Dust stopped by the Westcott Theater in Syracuse, NY for their second night of their four-date Pre-Thanksgiving Tour. Supportive local bands, Soul Risin’ and Universal Transit warmed up the brisk evening for the energetic audience. We had a fantastic time chatting with Reid Genauer about music, bandmates, songwriting and children’s books.
Kevin Bedford: Welcome back to Syracuse, it’s been a little while since you’ve been here. What is it that keeps you coming back to our fair city?
Reid Genauer: Ah, well you’ve got to start with the Dinosaur BBQ, as a landmark. We had dinner from there tonight. Not in there but from there, so that’s a good start. It may not be a good end but it’s a good start. (laughs)
KB: What did you have?
RG: You know, sort of a disappointing order. I just had a cheeseburger, but it was still good. But I can assure you there was Fred Flinstonian amounts of flesh consumed. (laughs)
KB: It’s been a couple of years since your last album, Sun Shot. Tell us what’s in the works for you? Do you have a new album or anything that you’ve been working on?
RG: Yeah, you know I wish I could report global dominance, but one thing that we’ve been working on is a show from last winter that we multi-tracked in Portland, Ore. And we’ve done this a couple of times but we’ll probably take a handful of the better tracks from that show and release it as an album. So we’ve been working on that.
KB: Anything new that you’ve been working on that will be on that release?
RG: Yeah, I’ve been writing songs for a new album and you’re never sure how long that process will take but we’re due for a new album.
KB: I saw that you posted a new tune from California that you had posted online (you can hear the song on Reid’s FB page).
RG: Yeah, I’ve been going, you know, fits and starts with writing new tunes and I’ve been doing some new writing. Actually It’s not very rock n roll but I’ve been working on a childrens book as well. Which you know everybody and their mom has done but I’m really doing it. I had written a book, like a Shel Silverstein book. A book of kids poems and stuff years ago. Probably 15 years ago and tried to get it published and got rejected from a zillion different publishers and during that time I had connected with an illustrator and things have changed since then, you know, you can self publish now. Which was sort of happening back then, but now it’s really a lot easier to do now. So, I looked him back up and he lives in Michigan. He’s doing the illustration right now, it’s pretty cool. I think the next two things, besides sitting in my back yard and trying to come up with number one jams, are the new live album and the kids book. I’ll see if I can find a picture of it just so you can see it while we are talking.
KB: Do you have an estimated publish date for it yet?
RG: No, I don’t. It’s getting close though. It’s all illustrated and it’s written. It’s called Jeffery’s Jungle and it’s about this little kid that basically turns up the heat in his house and it turns into a jungle. (pulls out his phone to show several great illustrations of jungle animals in a living room) So I mean, in fairness the illustrations are the harder part here. But you know, (chuckles) I wrote the lyrics.
KB: That’s awesome. We all know you’re always good at writing the lyrics.
RG: (laughs) Yeah. Thats my magic, my parlor trick.
KB: Yes it is and I have more questions about that but first, AOD started out as your solo project back in 2003 and now here we are 12 years later. Did you ever think at the time AOD would still be playing together all these years later?
RG: I did. Well, not when we first initially started playing together. It all started out very organically. As we started to set out to be a band or whatever that means, we made more of a concrete commitment to each other. I was thinking about what the matrix for success is right, because, sure, playing the Enormo-dome 5 nights a week across the globe, that’s a pretty obvious one. But there are some less obvious ones. The one that is most central to me was just longevity. The ability to do it just sort of indefinitely. Especially after being in a band that sort of came to a glorious end, I didn’t want to have that same sort of tumultuous end point, you know. I think you can look at us as that we are underachievers on a lot of counts including the Enormo-dome, but in terms of longevity, having a good time with it and enjoying other music that we are making. We’re still at it ya know, still in it.
KB: How is it that you all came together with Adam, John, Nate and Andy?
RG: I knew all of those guys. We were all running around New England playing music in the 90’s and that’s when I met the guys from moe. and they had their own thing going on over here in Western NY, which we were all adjacent to. So there was them, the (Ominious) Seapods and Moon Boot Lover who sort of had one foot in each camp. There was Yep and I’m drawing a blank on a couple others but anyhow, it was a scene in New England, Vermont, New Hampshire and I knew those guys just from the scene. After the last Strangefolk album I spent the summer in New Hampshire and that’s where all of those guys were living. I booked some dates just to sort of test the waters and see what would happen. It was sort of experimental and they just slowly kind of coalesced and it casually all went well. It’s a pretty well known tale but I knew John and then I saw Adam at a Percy Hill gig. He was in the audience and I said, “hey, I’ve got a gig at the Stone Church, would you like to sit in?” and he did. I saw John backstage at the same gig and he said: “you know if you ever want me to play some stand up bass and play some acoustic stuff …” and then it went from there. We had three guys, bass and two guitars and we needed drums and we all knew Andy so we said well, what about Andy, and we all knew Nate so we said well what about Nate it was really that simple.
KB: You’ve had some member changes over the years, but Adam and John have been the consistent members, tell me about your relationship with these two guys, musically.
RG: They’re just close friends. It’s familial and so I’ve been looking forward to this first run of shows just to hang out with them. Again, if your aim is longevity, one of the things that you have to build into that is enjoying each other’s company both personally and musically. I think at the core that’s how I would access the relationship. We laugh a lot and tell a lot of, you know, fart jokes. And then I just enjoy the hell out of playing with them. I’ll listen to what’s going on onstage and kind of be enjoying it as a fan, a participant, and an audience member at the same time. And then I’ll listen back to shows from time to time or little snippets that people post online and i’ll be like holy shit. Somebody posted a just a little clip of one of Adams’ solos from last night and I watched it as almost like a third party observer and I was just like holy F*** that guy can play the guitar. And I sort of feel lucky to play music with guys that are that good. I mean, not sort of, I do feel lucky! It’s sort of like having a hot girlfriend. (Laughs)
KB: So you write all of the music and lyrics, I’m assuming, on an acoustic guitar. At what point does the collaboration begin with these guys?
RG: Yeah, well, over the years I have written songs from the get go in collaboration with people. In Strangefolk I wrote a lot with John the guitarist and Eric the bass player. With AOD I wrote a lot with Nate and to a lesser extent I’ve done some stuff with Jason Crosby. So it depends, is the answer. If it’s a song that I sort of conceptualized from beginning to end, then collaboration just begins with showing the band the changes and talk about what it feels like and peoples first impressions. A lot of the time, songs just based on the lyrical content or the key or the tempo that I’m playing in that moment or the rhythmic pattern, might remind someone of something, or suggest something to someone and then well, they have their own default uh, perspective on music or well, voice really, and then we have our group as a voice. So if you go and take all of those, if you look at all of those data points to inform the song, the first iteration usually happens pretty organically then you start to play it a little bit and you say eh, maybe it feels great and you play it just the way you play it and a lot of the times we do or sometimes you kind of say oh maybe this feels better a click or two slower or a more complex or less complex drum part in this section. Or it kinda feels empty here but uh you just sort of …
KB: Adjust.
RG: Yeah, you adjust. It’s sort of like rearranging furniture, if you’re moving furniture into a house. You put furniture in a room and sort of squint at it and say, “does this look like the right set up or does the chair need to be over by the window?” It’s a little bit like that. It’s a mental rearranging.
KB: So our mutual friend Al and I were talking a couple of years ago about Adam’s guitar work. And we both agreed that neither one of us has ever heard him play a sour note. (Reid laughs) What is it that you love playing with him?
RG: Well, I have heard him play a sour note but rarely, to your point. He is an executioner. What do I love about playing with him? Well first of all he is very ego-less and very humble about his talent which is really refreshing in about anybody, right. He is so multi-faceted, he can more or less play in any style and he’s sort of like a painter. While his solos are Bah-lazing and that’s the sort of the most obvious thing to latch onto, especially with what people post on social media. I think what makes Adam so unique are the parts that he plays during the song. The fills that he’ll do between the lyrical phrase or the little embellishments that he’ll do to the harmonic structure of the song while it’s in motion and he really just, like I said I think of him like a painter. I almost see colors as he plays, and it’s sometimes subtle pastels, sometimes its brilliant oil paint. The fact that he can do both is unusual. Because, usually people kind of do one or the other.
KB: I’ve always considered Adam one of the most under rated guitarists. I think he should be spoken of in the same breath as Trey Anastasio, Carlos Santana, Al and Chuck (moe.) and people of the same caliber.
RG: Yeah, yeah. So in the vein of being underachievers, um, people say that a lot about Adam. The only part that bugs me about that is that I don’t think he’s underrated. Anybody that has ever seen him, rates him very highly. He’s just under-appreciated because not enough people know about him.
KB: So do you think Dead and Co. should have asked Adam to join them instead of John Mayer?
RG: I think Adan would have fucking crushed it, I will say that! I don’t know it’s kind of an apples to oranges kind of thing but, the question I’ve asked myself many times when I think about those situations isn’t how would Adam would do in one of those incarnations. I mean he would blow the doors off! I think one of the things that I like about John Mayer’s approach is that you do still hear John Mayer but he does play homage to Jerry in a tasteful way and Adam does a really good job at it when he attempts to. He can sort of accomplish the intent while still having his own soul and his own layer represented. So, he would crush it. So, hey Bob Weir, hey Phil Lesh, if you guys are reading this? Adam Terrell, Adam Terrell, Adam Terrell…
KB: So let me ask you about Jason Crosby. Jason started playing with you in 2013 with the Sun Shot album.
RG: Yeah, and probably before that.
KB: So speaking of the Dead and in that vein, where did your paths cross for the first time and how did it lead to have him joining the band?
RG: So, Nate let us know that he was sort of done, he was tired and the immediate instinct was to sort of rush out and find a quote unquote replacement right away.
KB: But you didn’t for a while.
RG: I didn’t because it dawned on me that it was the wrong thing to do. You know, it had happened so organically because it was just so pleasant for everyone. There was such a good chemistry and rather than trying to cram something there for the sake of cramming someone in there, we just kind of sat tight and figured fate, with the intent of finding someone, would throw us a bone. And sure enough about a year after Nate left, Jason and I both have a mutual friend, Lucy Chapin who is this great singer-songwriter and she lives in Vermont. But she was a girl who was, well, when I was in Strangefolk she was just this little precocious 16 year old hanging out backstage like she owned the place and so I got to know her that way. Just because she was this petite blond 16 year old who’s, you know, making me feel uncomfortable in my own space. (laughs) Ya know, and we became friends and it turns out that she and Jason are good friends and she kinda did the match making thing. So, she said you guys ought to connect. I was living outside of New York and Jason was living in the city and we’ll tell this story till the day that we die. I went over there to just kind of introduce myself, to see if there might be something there for us to do, and we wound up having dinner. His girlfriend cooked this delicious meal, like these salty steaks and this beautiful meal. I drank a ton of vodka with dinner and I got so hammered I couldn’t even really play (laughing), so after dinner on our first meeting we barely and I mean barely played anything. We just had dinner and kinda got to know each other and just took it from there. It was funny, I went over there to jam and when we were done with dinner I couldn’t really string a song together.
KB: That’s great! You’ve had a long career as a musician and you’ve had the opportunity to play with some pretty cool people over the years. In fact, Some Assembly Required was a virtual who’s who of special guest musicians on the entire album. Besides the folks on that album, who would you say was your biggest thrill to play with either a special guest with you or you with them.
RG: Yeah, wow, I mean it’s hard to pick one but one that stands out to me that, is near and dear to this conversation, was singing and playing Friend of the Devil with Phil Lesh and Friends at Jones beach. That was pretty great for me. You know, that was definitely a moment. Um, we backed Dicky Betts at the Jammys one year at Madison Square Garden Theatre for Blue Sky and Ramblin Man, I mean that was pretty cool. In fact, if you look up in Rolling Stone’s 100 best guitar players, Dicky Betts is in there, he’s number seventy or whatever, and the shot they used of him was from that night and I’m standing behind him, so it’s (laughs) really funny, it’s like Where’s Waldo. That was a pretty special experience and I dunno, those are two that just really jump out for me. You know, there are others. We actually had Butch Trucks sit in on an Allman’s tune that we played in Rochester. And the list goes on. Mike Gordon sat in with us several times up in Vermont and that’s just special because you know, I’m a phan boy. So those are some big ones.
KB: I once heard you say at a show that you can often hear musicians try to emulate someone that they love and respect in their music. Is there someone in particular that has influenced you in your writing?
RG: Yeah, I mean for sure, 100%. But I try to emulate many so it’s not all just one. You know, here’s me doing Garcia over and over again but, you know, it’s funny in trying to emulate Garcia. I think you realize that you are actually trying to emulate Robert Hunter as much as you are Garcia, so that’s been on the front of the list for me. Neil Young is another big one. Certainly Lennon and McCartney, Paul Simon, CSN, The Band. Those are the ones that come front and center and I think if you listen to the music, you hear that stuff pretty obviously. Hopefully with a fresh garnish on it. (laughs) A little celery…
KB: OK, so this is a personal question. I’ve been going to the Gathering of the Vibes for a very long time as have you and you’ve preformed at all of them except for one which you mention ever year. I’ve often wondered what was the story behind that.
RG: The story was, that was the year that I left Strangefolk and I thought those guys would have found it upsetting if I was there, so I sort of just politely bowed out, you know, to not make anybody uncomfortable.
KB: Oh, OK. I didn’t realize that because you make a joke out of it at the Vibes every year saying that, that was the year that you were in jail.
RG: I was just in the, you know, leaving the band jail. (laughs)
KB: Ok, I always pictured you on some drunken escapade gone wrong or something.
RG: No, I wish I had a better story (laughs)
KB: So what are some of your other favorite festivals to play at?
RG: Bonnaroo was awesome, right, I mean that place is just a crown jewel of a festival and we played it at noon or something. I mean, it was a really early set. It was like the breakfast set and I remember there were thousands of people. I remember the rush was just amazing. That was awesome. Um, I’ve played Summer Camp a few times and moe. had us out one time for one of there band-melding moments where you take over the instruments one at a time and I remember being in front of multiple thousands of people with AOD and Adam is just blazing the solo and people are going apeshit, it was just awesome!
There are really, sort of, different classes of festivals. The ones that I actually resonate with more tend to be the more sort of folksy ones like the Strawberry Music Festival out in California. Then there’s the High Sierra Festival. The vibe there is just, I mean if you haven’t been, it’s worth going to. It’s like, it sounds cliché but it’s the west coast and it’s just mellow. It’s like people are just, chill. Merle Fest is in there and there are others that are more folk than they are jam band festivals. I think that there is something like it’s more livable, like people are there more to experience the music and it’s not like a gauntlet of how f***ed up you can get, right, so it’s a different…
KB: A different appreciation for the music?
RG: Yeah, A different appreciation and a different approach of just experiencing it.
KB: So you have such a unique style of playing. You mix a lot of major and minor chords together, almost like a walk up or walk down to get to from one chord to the next. Whereas other musicians might just use three or four chords to piece together an entire song. You seem to blend a waterfall of colors to get from point A to point B and it never sounds muddy. How do you approach your melodies.
RG: I’ve written so many tunes that I just feel like if I don’t throw, and they’re not exceptionally complex but I feel if I don’t throw nuggets in there of more obscure chords, we call them chords from the chord museum, that we all know that i’ll just write the same song over and over again. And you know, no matter what you do, your songs sound like referencing each other or sort of cannibalizing each other. So for me, it’s a forced attempt to not do that. That’s what drives that and you know whether or not i’m successful at that I’ll leave for somebody else to access, but that’s what it’s driven by.
KB: Which leads me to my next question. Your songs, like Bootleggers Advice, Etta James, Leadbelly, Paul Henry, you have such an interesting subject matter in your songs. Where does that come from?
RG: Same thing, right. It’s like, I mean, there’s only so many times you can write about a sunny day or a broken heart. I think some of the most interesting songs are about obscure subject matter, you know, like Steely Dan. You know, unlike Phish songs which is often times nonsensical, Steely Dan’s are just about stories, like weird little vignettes. Or if you look at like Appalachian music. I mean they do tend to write about the same themes but they will still be like a tangential event in somebody’s life as opposed to the pillar event. Sure, there’s meeting the girl and falling in love but they’ll talk about nine pound hammer, talks about working in a blue collar situation. I’m trying to think of other examples of that.
I think that some of the most interesting novels are that or movies even. It’s not like your typical western. So, I’m like just thinking about the Marigold Hotel, right, I mean what a random subject matter about this guy who runs a hotel in India and these English people come there, and that makes for a great story. It’s born out of the same thing as the chord question and melody question, which is how do you keep writing songs and not just being the same story over and over again. So you have to pick on something that’s more on the edge that’s more obscure and make that the center piece of your lentance. And once you sort of coach yourself to do it, it’s a thing that you can repeat over and over and over again. So it’s repeatable ya know.
KB: You have always struck me as sort of the Mark Twain of…
RG: (laughs) Of Jam-bands.
KB: Well jam-bands, I mean I consider you just a singer songwriter but a fantastic story teller.
RG: Yeah, I’m not quite sure, ya know. They sometimes say, well they always say, necessity is the mother of invention. I wander and for me it’s just what I gravitate to. I think it was sort of like a cheat, a way for me to ratchet my way into the music world and so it’s like I’ve got a guitar and I can strum a few chords. I really didn’t have the attention span or the discipline to become Adam as a guitar player, so you know, how am I gonna fit into this picture right. That was part of how it happened and I’m sure there is some sort of biochemistry as to why my brain gravitates towards words. So it has always been a fascination, even since I was in grade school.
KB: So did you study English in college?
RG: No, That is one of my regrets. I would have loved it. I really would have enjoyed it. I love it and I just didn’t. Mainly because my parents helped out with college and my dad was like there’s no f***ing way you’re going to college and studying English. (laughs)
KB: One final question. I see that AOD, Strangefolk, and God Street Wine are coming together to preform as Assembly of Strange Wine. Now we all know your affiliation with Strangefolk but with God Street Wine, they took a pretty long hiatus and now they’re back in the game. How did they come into play with the other two bands?
RG: That’s a good question. I’ve known the bass player for years, Dan Pifer. But what happened actually, was Jason was playing with God Street a few years back and through that, they invited me to come down and play a tune. I learned one of their songs and fronted the band for a tune at the Grammercy. That sort of sparked a friendship, and I knew them tangentially for the same reasons as we talked about before as being part of the same scene. Then I needed a sub at one point and a few different times I used a few different members of the band. Dan subbed once and Jon and then Aaron, so I got to know them and then we did a gig as Assembly of Wine where we played each others tunes. That was Jon Bevo’s inspiration and then at a recent Strangefolk show, we did a sort of similar thing with Strangefolk and now we’ve all had this sort of incestuous love affair. Bevo said we ought to do a big mash up and contrary to the story around the Gathering of the Vibes thing feelings are mended and so its like one big happy family.
KB: And what a better place to do it than the Capitol Theatre and Boston at The Paradise
RG: Yeah it’ll be great!
KB: Well, on behalf of NYSMusic, thank you for hanging out, talking with us and have a great show tonight!
RG: Yeah, Thanks. I appreciate it, those were really thoughtful questions.
For the past seven years, Guitarist Zack Feinberg has been on a seemingly endless tour with New Orleans rock group The Revivalists.
Currently touring to promote their 2015 album Men Amongst Mountains, the group made a stop at the Hollow Bar and Kitchen in Albany, NY on November 5. Feinberg, along with pedal steel guitarist Ed Williams and drummer Andrew Campanelli, took a few minutes of his pre-show time to speak with NYSMusic about the band’s origins including the “famous bike story,” early tours with The Rebirth Brass Band, their Prince-inspired Halloween show and more.
Erin Clary: How did you all come together? I understand none of you are actually originally from New Orleans.
Zack Feinberg: Yes, I’m actually from New York. A bunch of us went to college in New Orleans; six out of seven of us. Everyone but Dave, our lead singer, went to college in New Orleans. The famous “bike story” is that Dave had just moved to New Orleans and he was singing on his front porch. I was riding my bike and stopped because he sounded so good. He was looking for people to play with, had just moved to the city. I had known Andrew, our drummer, from Tipitina’s, a club in New Orleans. They have these weekly clinics and we had been going there kind of jamming with each other. He knew George, our bass player, from college. He knew Rob from college. We knew Mike from college and playing in bands in New Orleans. Ed we knew from bands but he also went to school down there.
EC: So because you all lived in New Orleans but you all happen to be from different areas, does that influence your sound? Because it’s clear it’s not a strictly New Orleans sound.
ZF: Yeah. I think we’re all musicians that have a different range of influences. We love New Orleans. We love New Orleans music. We like a lot of different music. I think a lot of musicians in New Orleans also are into different styles.
EC: I’ve heard that the Rebirth Brass Band took you guys under their wing for a time. Can you talk about how that has shaped your influence along the way?
ZF: They were generous enough to allow us to open for them when we first started to tour. It was really because our manager at the time, Stu Schayot, he is the general manager for a pub in New Orleans call The Howlin’ Wolf. He manages them as well. So he kind of set that up. But they throw a great show and they get the crowd moving the whole time.
EC: Yeah – like you guys!
ZF: Yeah!
EC: I’ve been listening to you guys for a few years. I first heard you at Mountain Jam a few years ago. You played a few sets.
ZF: Yeah! That was awesome. That inside set was so awesome.
EC: This was the first time I heard you. My friend and I were like, “Who are these guys?” But I listen to you a lot and the lyrics include struggle and love, of course. How do you come up with these lyrics? Is there one person who generally writes, or do you all take turns?
ZF: Dave writes a lot of them, as the singer. If there’s a song that’s stemming out of an instrumental idea where everyone’s jamming on, he will tend to be the one to do it. I’d say he writes probably 70 percent of our lyrics. Andrew, our drummer, writes lyrics. I write lyrics. It’s pretty collaborative. A person could write an entire song on their own or write a lot of the song on their own.
EC: Are they from your own life experiences? When I’m listening it often feels like a movie scene in my head. I can see the girl, the guy, the struggle…
ZF: I think personal experience definitely offers a big part of it but it doesn’t necessarily have to be.
EC: There’s an audible passion for the music. It is evident that this is your love. Did you grow up surrounded by music? Were your parents musicians?
ZF: They’re not musicians but my family really likes music a lot. My older brother is a musician; he’s a guitar player. My dad plays guitar.
EC: You just released an album this summer, “Men Amongst Mountains.” Can you talk about the process in creating it? And what is the theme?
Ed Williams: It’s literally a man walking into a mountain.
Andrew Campanelli: I always think of it that our songs were written a lot when we were on the road in those years that we spent touring after we made City of Sound, a record that we made while we were getting used to living in New Orleans. And then we went on the road and that song itself was written while we were on the road in the Colorado mountains. The one thing that ties all the songs together is the years that they were in. We’ve been going out into this world and realizing it’s a big place, and we’re just men.
EC: Ok, so the process then?
ZF: It was made over three sessions in 2014. We did a week in January 2014, at a studio in the country which is a studio in Bogaloosa, Louisiana. It was kind of like a cabin in the woods situation. From there, we added two or three songs onto the record and did overdubs on two different sessions in New Orleans. The process was very much like get everyone together playing in a room and track it. Then do our overdubs.
EC: I counted this tour you have 40 shows…
ZF: Yeah, we’re doing about 150 a year, so it’s really a never-ending tour.
EC: Well I would call that “extensive” then. So what are some of the highlights?
ZF: Definitely Halloween.
EC: I mean…you guys dressed as Prince. You nailed it.
ZF: I made an appointment at a barber shop and everything. We had a blast; that was amazing. It was a sold out show at the 930 Club. It was a great milestone and we really prepared a lot with all the Prince material. Red Rocks was another highlight. Outside Lands was definitely a highlight. Kaaboo was cool. We got to see No Doubt at Kaaboo! Brews and Blues Festival in Telluride.
EC: So now you’re here in Albany, called “Smalbany” by some. Does playing in a small city and small venue offer any opportunities?
ZF: It’s its own thing. It’s cool to do shows where you have less expectations all day because in a way you’re looser and it’s a different vibe to the set. So it’s really fun as an audience member to see shows like that and as a musician. And you know what, its’ fucking packed up there! We played here, but it wasn’t called The Hollow. We played here a few years ago, and sat in this very basement. So this is a huge improvement.
Making its debut at Hulaween was Atlanta based Incendia. Built by Cory Glenn, Incendia started as a backyard project that has blossomed into a tour de force of fire, music, and performance art and has been on a tour of music festivals, Burning Man, and regional burns all over the U.S., including festivals such as Mysteryland and Creatures of the Night. NYSMusic was able to get an exclusive interview with Cory regarding Incendia, it’s origins and future.
Mysteryland
Chris McMullen: How long have you been a burner/going to Burning Man?
Cory Glenn: I’ve been attending burns since 2009, when I stumbled across the incredibly passionate, creative, and resourceful community that is the Georgia burn scene, which is centered around an annual event called Alchemy.
CM: How many Burns have you been to, both main and regional?
CG: I lost count of how many burns I’ve been after around a dozen, but I can definitely remember that I’ve been to Burning Man twice.
CM: What inspired you to start making domes? And add fire to them?
CG: This is definitely a case of the chicken coming before the egg; I discovered our awesome flame effect whilst fooling around with fire in my backyard. Geodesic domes are just a simple, safe, and ultimately aesthetically sound way of framing this fire effect we’ve grown to call ‘fire inversion’. The more I began to work with, and learn about geodesic structures, the more amazed I became at their elegance, symmetry, and geometric majesty. They’re just so damn beautiful to me in their simplicity, and the more I studied them the more layers I found, and potential possibilities to expand and complement their inherent grace kept becoming apparent.
CM: Did you plan on taking Incendia to music festivals? Had you attended music festivals previously?
CG: I definitely expanded Incendia from a small prototype ‘proof of concept’ dome into the larger, more logistically challenging, and time-consuming behemoth it is today with the intention of turning it into a business. Music festivals were, and continue to be, the primary source of revenue for us. We are however endeavoring to expand our services into different markets such as private events, corporate showcases, pop-up restaurants, and the like. I had never really attended for-profit and musically-motivated festivals before, being too focused on large-scale projects within the burn scene. However in 2015 we’ve done close to 15 festivals, ranging from small mom-and-pop bluegrass jams to internationally-renowned events such as Mysteryland and Hulaween, and I’ve lead the build on all but two of them.
CM: What are your thoughts on Hulaween in particular in regards to the crossover of burns and music festivals?
CG: I wouldn’t consider Hulaween to be a crossover between a burn and a music festival in too many ways, as Hulaween does not uphold nor espouse the Ten Principles of Burning Man, which are tenets that play an integral role in creating the unique environment of a burn versus a commercial festival. However, I will say that Hulaween was excellently curated art-wise. Spirit Lake contained a greater density of incredible art projects than I’ve seen at any non-burn event, and definitely reminded me of the experience of wandering the open desert at Burning Man in search of art with which to interact. Furthermore, many of the experiences I witnessed people sharing in and creating together were very reminiscent of those at a burn. Oh, and radical self-expression. Hulaween’s attendees had that in spades, bunch of goofballs… the ultimate campsite contest too, to me that was a great way to encourage teamwork á la the burner principal of communal effort. I guess Hula’s doing more than I realized, I hope they keep it up!
CM: Is this a good thing for the future of Burning Man?
CG: It is no secret that American pop culture and mainstream commercial festivals have seen a greater influence from ‘burner’ culture. Unfortunately I think this is most apparent in the things that these separate entities previously shared; love of music, style and fashion, and technology. Whilst now I see a subtle permeation of burner fashions, musical sub-genres, and gadgetry and art into the greater American consumption machine, what would make me far happier to witness is the adoption of some of the tenets such as leave no trace, decommodification, and civic responsibility.
Is this ‘good’ for Burning Man? Depends on who you ask! Depends on how you define ‘good’! Whom exactly is influencing whom? One of the most striking things that has kept me going back to burns is this intangible and ethereal experience of human connection and personal fulfillment that I get. Imagine summiting Mt. Everest, only instead you’re summiting Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs. THAT feeling. Can people reach this state at a commercial music festival? Undoubtedly so, given the right circumstances. Can this euphoric state be recreated in the day-to-day? It’s been a goal of burners everywhere since we started tracking playa dust back into our living rooms years ago. So if the permeation of burner culture into greater society results in this positive influence, then yes, I’d say it’s ‘good’ for Burning Man. If it results in the commercialization, dilution, and bastardization of our culture and it’s values, then no, I’d say it’s not good. Only time will tell.
In anticipation of their upcoming show on November 14 at Bearsville Theater in Woodstock, Dopapod’s drummer Scotty Zwang took some time to chat with NYS Music about summer tour highlights, Woodstock, and pranking Papadosio.
This weekend’s stop is part of the progressive groove quartet’s extensive fall and winter tour with soul-funk quintet, the Nth Power. The tour follows an action packed summer, with appearances at Bonnaroo, Mountain Jam, Red Rocks, Peach Fest, Electric Forest, Disc Jam, High Sierra and more. Dopapod refuses to stay within the boundaries of one distinct sound. Show-goers will get a taste of prog rock, synthesized keys, and even some country inspired songs, all that have aided in their ever growing and loyal fan base.
Tickets are available for $18 through Ticketmaster, or at the Bearsville Theater box office. Doors at 8, show at 9. Other upcoming dates include:
Nov 14 – Woodstock, NY – Bearsville Theater
Nov 18 – Buffalo, NY – Tralf Music Hall
Nov 20 – Brooklyn, NY – The Hall at MP
Nov 21 – Philadelphia, PA – Theatre of Living Art
Erin Clary: Even though you’re touring, do you ever get a chance to go to shows yourself? And if so, who do you go see?
Scotty Zwang: Yes. That can range. I mean I’ve been off for about ten days since the last show. The day after I got home on Halloween I went to see Ben Folds with yMusic which was really awesome. All things can vary. I try to go to as many shows especially bands that really influence me and bands I don’t necessarily get to see all the time. I like to go see friends, like the Disco Biscuits are playing in New York the day after New Year’s so I am going to go see them after seeing Phish. I try to go to as many shows, not necessarily just jam band ones, but different ones as often as I can, not as often as I would like. Frankly, by the time I get home from tour sometimes the last thing I want to do is go see live music.
EC: It’s been a year since your last album release, do you have another one in the making or are you focusing on touring and improvisation?
SZ: We’ve been focusing a lot on touring for the last year since the album (Never Odd or Even) came out and yeah, usually in general we’re pretty busy with touring. We are actually planning on taking a good chunk of time off in the beginning of the year to finish songs that we’ve been working on on the road and also to write some songs from scratch so that hopefully by next year at some point, or maybe beginning of the following year, we will have an album finished. But we are going to take some time off first and see where that all goes and hopefully take some time to get in the studio shortly after that.
EC: Dopapod crosses a range of musical styles, some are sort of hard, others are a little twangy, others sound more like video games. What is your personal favorite?
SZ: I guess I really do love the darker and proggier kind of stuff. Although the video gamey kind of stuff when Eli synthesizes the sound I think is the more quirkier writing that the band does. I do enjoy all of that. And even some of the twangy… I mean we have a song that is pretty much country, bluegrass, more of an up-tempo kind of feel. As a drummer, I do have to say some of the proggier stuff, when I play correctly on stage, I do feel very good about myself like I’ve accomplished something. Even though we wrote the songs, sometimes I do end up still messing things up live. When something is that challenging it’s definitely rewarding and I still feel good about being able to pull that off live. I would like to say it’s done correctly every time, but sometimes people do mess up. I know Neil Peart from Rush said that anytime he played a song like “YYZ” or “Tom Sawyer,” he wrote it and spent a lot of time focusing on difficult drum parts, and he still gets that excitement when he actually pulls it off live and I would say the same goes for me.
Dopapod, Mountain Jam, 2015
EC: You guys have had some pretty interesting profile pictures on Facebook recently. Who is the creative genius behind those graphics?
SZ: They’re usually fan based. We have a fan page created by fans on Facebook. It’s our top fans around the country or wherever else and they call themselves “Dopafam.” There’s usually some weird stuff that goes around in there (laughs) and every once in a while there is a picture that is just gold. The one you’re talking about is Chuck in his underwear riding a razor scooter on the rainbow road from Mario Cart. That was created by a fan and I’m not even sure exactly who did it. We have some super creative fans I guess because sometimes they strike gold. If anyone in the band likes it, (it’s) usually Chuck and not just because he happens to be in this photo, but usually he will put it up. Chuck has kind of realized throughout the year – well we all have – that people don’t necessarily want to see or have the time and patience to watch a video, or read a long, thought out and touching thing. They just want to see pictures of whatever. Chuck always says that when he goes on Facebook if he doesn’t see a picture of a dog within 10 seconds then he just signs off.
EC: Was that picture from Jam on the River in Philly?
SZ: (laughs) So yeah, there was a bet that happened with Papadosio that was betting Chuck to go out on stage and ride the razor scooter in his underwear. I kind of pushed him to do it because I think those things are funny and that is what people will remember…
EC: Oh I remember it quite clearly!
SZ: I kind of pushed him to do it and I kind of had this thought of how funny this with be if this was an ongoing prank with Papadosio because we play so many festivals with them and they truly are some of our best friends. So at High Sierra, once again I egged Rob, our guitarist to do it and he went out in his underwear on the razor scooter. It was just hilarious and no one expected it. It kind of opened up a whole can of worms since I kept making people do it, I had to do it myself. So I finally did it at The Werk Out. We’ve all done it except for Eli but at this point I don’t want Papadosio to think that every time we play together that one of us is going to appear on stage in his underwear, so I’m not sure that trend is still alive.
EC: Do they ever prank you guys?
SZ: They tried to prank us at the same festival when I did it but because they had to get out of there and go to another show they didn’t have enough time. So it was passed onto the Werks and Dino, their bassist, came out in his underwear wearing…I got this poop mask, it’s a mask that looks like the emoji of the pile of poop with a smiley face. It’s essentially that exact thing. So he came out in his underwear wearing the mask because no one had a razor scooter I guess.
EC: “Nerds” from Never Odd or Even – what’s the story behind this? Are you guys mocking someone in the very beginning?
SZ: No…well kind of. It was Chuck’s idea when we were in the studio and we had a lot of empty space and build up before the lyrics kicked in, which aren’t really a lot of lyrics it’s just “no words.” But it was kind of a nod to Frank Zappa because in…I forget which song, maybe it was “Catholic Girl,” he kind of does a ‘Valley Girl’ impersonation, kind of making fun of people in the California area that he is from. Chuck just thought it would be funny. We came up with this song and originally the band just had a lot of instrumentals. Jam bands are kind of known for not having the best voices at times. We were kind of just mocking the same kind of valley girl and if she was at a jam band show, and all these songs are long and they don’t have any words. So Chuck, after we recorded all the instrumentals and everything was done, we just had a night at the studio where maybe we drank a little too much or something, and he went in there and gave it his all.
EC: I saw you a few times this summer at Disc Jam, and at Mountain Jam where you played two sets, one was on that outdoor main stage. Isn’t it huge?!
SZ: It was the biggest stage I think we’ve ever played on. I am trying to think back because we did have some big performances this summer, but I do remember getting to Mountain Jam and thinking, “this is definitely the biggest stage this band has ever performed on. It’s just massive.”
EC: Massive! I’ve been going there a lot of years and it’s just gotten bigger and bigger. I’ve seen you guys on plenty of regular sized stages so to see you on something like this was really impressive!
SZ: Thank you! It’s funny because that stage next to it is a pretty nice stage and you could have a regular production on it, but it is just dwarfed by how big that main stage is.
EC: What was your favorite festival this summer? You guys really went after it.
SZ: Yeah there were a lot of them. They start pretty early. Obviously we do have random festivals that go into the fall or destination ones in the winter, or musical festival in the end of February or beginning of march this year. So they just go all year long now. Summer Camp is a real great one as far as “real festival” season in summertime, its kind of the first weekend. Bonnaroo was a dream ours and the biggest audience we’ve ever played for. It was broadcasted over the Internet for RedBull.com and we were interviewed by Sal Masekela, who I’ve been watching as the host for the X Games since back in the day when I was a little kid and loved flinging myself off of stairs and other things, whether it was a bike or skateboard or whatever. It was just a really crazy experience to just look and someone is powdering his face and asking us if we want water, and actions like que cards in order to sync with the video. So that was definitely one of the most mind blowing experiences of the summer. There was just so many great ones. I mentioned The Werk Out is a lot of fun. High Sierra in California is great. It has a really nice family vibe and is one of those festivals that has survived two decades. It’s a festival that is almost as old as all of us in the band. It’s really cool to be a part of stuff like that.
EC: Now that the season has changed in the Northeast, it’s time to go inside. What are you looking forward to and what can we expect from your show at the Bearsville Theater in Woodstock on Saturday.
SZ: It’s our first time playing in Woodstock. Although my family has a house in West Saugerties, it’s actually on the same road as the house where The Band lived, ‘Big Pink.’ So I have a lot of experience in Woodstock and when I joined the band we actually went up to my family’s house and did videos of songs like “Nerds” and “Picture in Picture” for the first time. That was all shot in Woodstock. So really excited. I’ve actually never seen a show at “the bears,” and my family really loves it there. They’re excited that we’re finally there, we get to have dinner next door at the café. It’s going to be a great time. It’s got such a great vibe, especially with music and especially this time of year, it’s just very beautiful.
EC: Will your family and friends be coming to the show?
SZ: Oh yeah, I know I have my brother-in-law, my sister, my mom and dad, in-laws and my girlfriend, everyone is coming up. It’s going to be quite the weekend. I hope I don’t disappoint them.
Popa Chubby, the long-time stage name for Ted Horowitz, has been playing a mean guitar for over 25 years. Fresh off of playing shows in Europe this past month, he returns state side starting off a winter tour this Friday Nov. 13 at 8pm at The Hangar in Troy with several other New York appearances on the schedule. Tickets for his show at The Hangar are on sale here.
His other New York shows include: Nov, 28 at Daryl’s House (Pawling), Dec. 12 (Christmas Concert) at Roulette Theater (Brooklyn), Dec. 31 at The Turning Point (Piermont), and Jan. 16 at Treme Blues & Jazz (Islip). Check out his full tour schedule here.
In anticipation for his appearance at The Hangar on Friday, Popa Chubby chatted with NYS Music about his music, playing guitar and his new double-live album, Big, Bad and Beautiful.
Steve Malinski: You’ve got a sound that’s quite your own, sort of a cross roads of blues, rock and roll with quite a level of musicianship.
Popa Chubby: Yeah man, I appreciate that. I started off playing rock and roll, metal, punk rock and speed metal before I got into the blues.
SM: And I’m sure growing up in New York City had and impact on your sound –
PC: – NY Hardcore! –
SM: – So what lead you to find the groove you have today?
PC: It was like 1980 – no, the late 1980’s and the hardcore scene had kind of dried up by that point. There was a lot going on and I just wanted to play. Somebody gave me a Muddy Waters record and I heard it and was like holy cow this is awesome. So I put a little band together. We started playing in bars around NY and it just took off. A couple of years later I had a big record deal with Sony/Okeh, made a record with Tom Dowd, then went to Europe and it’s just been going on ever since, for 25 years.
SM: I’ve kind of pinned your sound as a version of Blue Cheer with a big guitar sound.
PC: Well, I will take that as a huge compliment. I like to rock, man, you know. I like to crank it up. I’m into the raw sound so it’s definitely got a healthy aspect of rock and roll and punk in it for sure.
SM: Kind of like how Ted Nugent plugs directly into his amps and rips from there.
PC: (laughter) Yeah, the Nuge! Luckily he and I are nothing alike politically.
SM: I recently came across a video of you jamming out with Johnny Winter at his 70th birthday celebration at B.B. King’s in NYC last year. How awesome was that for you?
PC: That was just a legendary night. Johnny’s 70th birthday. He asked me to play with him. Ironically the first concert I ever saw was Johnny Winter. So it was a real monumental night for me.
SM: Was that the big highlight of your career so far?
One of Popa Chubby’s idols, Leslie West, at Bethel Woods (Woodstock 40th Anniversay) Aug. 15, 2009. photo: Steve Malinski/The Polytechnic
PC: One of them. There have been a lot of high points and that’s definitely one of them, on stage with one of my idols. I was really lucky too because he passed away shortly after that. It’s been quite a year. I’ve gotten to play with a lot of the guys I grew up listening to. Johnny Winter, Leslie West, just great stuff. It’s been awesome.
SM: You just returned from a Eurpoean tour that spanned five countries. What was that experience like?
PC: We did a month long European tour, myself and a band I’m working with called the Balkun Brothers out of Hartford, CT, a duo along the lines of the Black Keys…Blue Cheer, MC5, like the heavier side of blues rock. So we just killed it in Europe and now we’re coming back. It starts this weekend in Troy and I’m really psyched to be up there, I love the area. I’ve played I the Albany area for a long time and it’s gonna be great.
SM: Are the crowds over there in Europe much different than what they are like here?
PC: I wouldn’t say they’re different. It’s just… it’s just been awesome, so great. I’m just so lucky to be doing what I’m doing, man. I’m sitting in my studio right now and I’m looking at my wall with poster of a lot of my heroes. People like Hubert Humlin, and Leslie West is up there, and of course Johhny’s up there, Jimi Hendrix. I’m just so lucky to be doing what I’m doing. Really just happy to be playing music and guitar.
SM: So I’ve counted 24 releases that you’ve had in your career and you’ll soon be adding a 25th – a live album. What can you tell us about that?
PC: A double live record, Big, Bad and Beautiful. I think in a large sense this is a career-defining record for me. It really sums up 25 years of work and it really came together, man. We recorded it last spring in France when we were on tour and I’m really proud of it. It’s 27 songs and it reflects a lot of my stuff – old, new, and in between. So I’m really happy about this record and it’s been great. It’s coming out on Cleopatra in January.
SM: I’ve never had a chance yet to see you live but from what I’ve heard of you since I first stumbled on you music at my college radio station
back in 2007 and from videos I’ve seen it seems like you have a deep passion for music. What’s so special about the blues and rock and roll to you?
PC: You know what, I can’t really speak for the blues and rock and roll, but I can speak about my music. It’s hard and it’s raw. It’s like…my music reflects what I grew up listening to. For me, like when punk rock came around, seeing bands like The Ramones and Richard Hell & The Voidoids, The Damned, and The Deadboys and stuff like that. There was an immediacy, that and the guitars would just rip your face off. And even seeing bands like Motörhead, Metallica and Black Sabbath, then going back to listen to people like Muddy Waters and Buddy Guy, it’s all got the same element to it. It’s like, no bullshit, man. It’s like, straight up.
SM: You’ve got a lot of shows coming up, including the one this Friday at The Hangar in Troy, Daryl’s House, Roulette Theater –
PC: – Yeah we do, man, it’s non-stop. We’ve got a lot, and in January we’re going back to Europe again. Business is just really kickin’ for me. We just got an offer for a festival in Juno, AK, then back to the west coast in the summer.
SM: With all these shows in your home state, do you have anything special lined up?
PC: I’m always happy to play in New York, man. Especially this time of the year – November, December – is when I’m local and get to play all my favorite shows. And definitely Troy/Albany is a hotspot for me. I’ve recorded a lot of records there, also in Saratoga back in the 90’s…oh man, I can’t even remember the name of the club! It might have been Metronome or something like that [The Metro]. But anyway we recorded Hit the High Hard One up there. So that region has always been really great for me and I’m really excited to get back up there to play. So it’s gonna be a great show. Thanks for taking the time to talk to me, I really appreciate it.
There are moments in one’s life that will stay with them long after the music has stopped. The third and 2015 edition of Hulaween once again curated a festival experience for the ages. One that will be stuck in festival goers minds for a long time to come, until next year that is.
The third installment of Suwannee’s Hulaween Music and Arts Festival brought many new faces to Spirit of the Suwannee Music Park in Live Oak, FL. Having grown to over 21,000 attendees this year, it was the largest festival ever thrown at the site since it began hosting. Not without some slight growing pains, long lines on Friday for ticketing and entrance into the event quickly gave way to smiles and wide eyed amazement of what was in store for the weekend.
Hosted once again by The String Cheese Incident, Hulaween brought many other big name musical acts to the party, some for their first appearance at Suwannee. With a total of seven sets over the course of the weekend, including their Halloween “Ghoul Train” cover set featuring Wu Tang’s Gza acting as Don Cornelius, plowing through crowd favorites such as “Brick House,” “Boogie Man,” “Car Wash,” and “Dance to the Music,” SCI held nothing back, whipping revelers into a dancing frenzy at every opportunity.
A highlight at the Amphitheater Stage Friday was undoubtedly Primus, getting the crowd started with “Those Damn Blue Collar Tweakers,” they left it all on stage with favorites like “Mr. Krinkle,” “American Life” and the coveted “Jerry Was a Race Car Driver.” Their set was not without Les Claypool’s usual witty banter with the crowd, as well as some less usual songs like “Jilly’s on Smack” and “Salmon Man.”
Pretty Lights played to a majority of the attendees Friday night interspersing some new music into a set chock full of his trademark energetic glitch hop, with horns and keys aplenty. A highlight at the Amphitheater Stage on Saturday was Suwanee virgins Odesza who harnessed the crowd’s energy and magnified it into an incredible set of danceable electropop and chillwave grooves leaving everyone in a breathless sweaty heap by the end of their set. With many festivals opting for a relaxed schedule on Sunday’s to encourage a relaxed crowd, Hulaween had other plans.
After a tight bluegrass set by SCI on the main stage, the skyrocketing Griz took the amphitheater by storm announcing that it was the “Funkiest party in the galaxy until Lettuce takes the stage.” Hit after hit had a packed amphitheater crowd bouncing and gyrating until it appeared to form into one massive dancing organism. After String Cheese played their final set, Lettuce indeed brought the funkiest set of the weekend, playing new material off of their fourth studio album Crush. Many were seen looking for their jaws on the ground afterwards.
Closing Hulaween down were none other than livetronica pioneers Sound Tribe Sector 9. Once again the main concert field was packed with fans drawing from energy reserves to dance their hearts out for one finale set of music.
The expansion of Spirit Lake brought many new art exhibits and interactive sculptures, as well as the return of exhibits from previous years. With some stellar performances by Manic Science (Manic Focus X Break Science) and The New Mastersounds at the Spirit Lake Stage, the art wasn’t the only selling point.
Silver Wrapper Productions and The Spirit Of Suwanee Music Park have outdone themselves, once again. Time will tell if it’s possible to bring together a more impressive line up, a more perfect lay out, or a more incredible all around music and art experience together in one gorgeous package.
Fast forward to the end of 2015 and Scott Hannay has sat in with over 50 bands, performed with Mister F in Colorado and stretched his music experience even further. Wrapping up 2015, NYSMusic followed up with Scott on the year he had and what lies ahead for him and Mister F.
PM: What has the year in music been like, for both Mister F and yourself?
PM: So with how this year went, what do you set your sights on for sit-ins? That Turkuaz happened pretty fast after we last chatted…
This Saturday, Dec. 5, Campese is performing at The Madison Theater in Albany at 8:30 pm. With a lot to talk about, Campese chatted with NYSMusic about some of his influences and experiences and about what’s in store for this Saturday’s show.
The show got under way with openers Santa Cruz, California natives, 
The show was a party from the beginning right up to the end when the crowd went wild as the band played their most famous hit “Santeria.”
CM: What inspired you to start making domes? And add fire to them?
CM: What are your thoughts on Hulaween in particular in regards to the crossover of burns and music festivals?
This weekend’s stop is part of the progressive groove quartet’s extensive fall and winter tour with soul-funk quintet, 
EC: It’s been a year since your last album release, do you have another one in the making or are you focusing on touring and improvisation?
EC: I saw you a few times this summer at Disc Jam, and at Mountain Jam where you played two sets, one was on that outdoor main stage. Isn’t it huge?!
The third installment of Suwannee’s Hulaween Music and Arts Festival brought many new faces to Spirit of the Suwannee Music Park in Live Oak, FL. Having grown to over 21,000 attendees this year, it was the largest festival ever thrown at the site since it began hosting. Not without some slight growing pains, long lines on Friday for ticketing and entrance into the event quickly gave way to smiles and wide eyed amazement of what was in store for the weekend.