A few show notes and thoughts…….we just finished the Christmas Show on the AZ MUSIC CAFÉ this afternoon and I went home whooped.   Yes, a little Christmas sick bug and my brother’s Christmas party the night before may have made a contribution.   But mostly, it was the sheer energy that gets crammed into that studio each Sunday, and particularly THIS one.   After the show’s final minutes, we had about 2 minutes to get out of the studio and make way for the next program and found ourselves deposited into the lobby for the obligatory Saturday Night Live end of show photo shot.   It was like getting washed up on shore by a monster wave. 

The show was like a two hour whirlwind.   Any one of our guests could easily have done an hour or more on their own.   But to concentrate all 5 of them and squeeze them into 2 hours…..is sort of like trying to cram a lightning bolt into a test tube.  (No burlap sack allusions)

The recipe for a potent Christmas brew?  First we have Mary Hoffman’s effervescence in her songwriting and vocal offerings, and the sheer positive flow of eager energy juxtaposed against Darin Mahoney’s absolutely bottomless pit of depth conveyed through the unique fingerings and stylings of his instrumental creations.   Then add Chris Frazer’s sheer reach (he is like a multi armed Doc Ock with his AZ OPEN MIC chores, his Songwriter Challenges, his weekly hosting gig, his own considerable songwriting talents (and then he teaches music to kids?), he is exhausting to just think about.    Add in Chava Cannon’s amazing story(ies) and her gift of lassoing heart tugging emotions and wrapping us up in them, which she does regularly.   And finally the flying fingers of flamenco (a)ficionado Chris Burton Jácome, were barely contained in the final segment as he 12/8 timed his way through Little Drummer Boy and played Jacob’s Ladder with his guitar bass strings in order to simulate the drum.   Man! 

Maybe it was the sugar and eggnog high.   But I don’t think so.   The room was positively electric.   I am ready for a nap.  

Hope you enjoyed the show and if you missed it, do yourself a favor and grab it on the podcast when it comes up midweek.   You will have something to treasure.   You won’t be tired afterwards, you didn’t have to channel and direct all that wonderful talent and energy. 

You just get to enjoy it!

Martin here, blog usurper.   (I am tired of waiting for Erich to craft his latest post.)

I’ve made a discovery about my assimilation/appreciation of music.  Sometimes you can have too much of a good thing all at one and not end up appreciating it.  (I’m sure it applies to stuff other than music, too!)

For example, on Black Friday I went out and braved the traffic to see if I could pick up a wireless network antenna (”needed” it to play some CNC type games with my boy), and ended up at Circuit City, a store that is being closed down.  Consequently, they had everything marked down … including all of their CD’s.

I began greedily picking up CD’s until my wonderful spouse finally began to get impatient.  I ended up with about 15 CD’s.  They were a real bargain (an average of $8 or less).

I find now, that it has been a couple weeks and I haven’t gotten around to listen to many of them (other than a cursory first pass), let alone develop that new music “bond”.  You know the one, when you get a new “album” (as Erich calls them still), and listen to it over and over again.  You get so that you know what order the music is, and are discombobulated when the tracks are played out of order.  At this point in the “relationship” you know all the lyrics by heart.

Well, it’s hard to get there, when you have 15 new CD’s to listen through.   I’ve come to the conclusion that I really shouldn’t buy more than one or two at a time.  I’ve “discovered” CD’s I purchased in lots, that never got a fair shake in the queue, and years later I realized that they were actually pretty good.  In some ways, it was better for my appreciation of the music when I couldn’t afford the occasional splurge, buying multiple new CD’s.

The CD I have started imprinting with is the new Los Lonely Boys: Forgiven.  It is the first CD I have by this band.  I’ve heard snatches of things here and there, including the Salvador cover of Heaven.  Boy is this CD good!  If I didn’t get any other music from my outing, this one was worth the trip.

The band incorporates a lot of things I REALLY like into their music.  Sometimes it’s like listening to Stevie Ray Vaughn, while other tracks almost sound like the Ventures, the Beatles, or John Elefante.   Good stuff.  I have listened to this CD at least 10 times now, but still haven’t got it quite imprinted.  I don’t know all the lyrics to every song, or the track order quite yet.

I’m making a vow not to buy anything else until I spend some time with the others, though.  I am really spoiled.

Every Thanksgiving, my wife Sandi puts on the calendar a Turkey.   A construction paper turkey.   With construction paper feathers.    All month, this Turkey looks at us and occasionally, I look back at it.    I think this was an idea from her sister.   I don’t know.   But like I said, this turkey has cut out feathers attached to it.   Each one is written on by a different family member.   One from her, one from each of her folks and one from her son, her brother, her sister, and even me.  (I got grafted on the bird in 2006).     And on each feather each person made a list of things that they are thankful for.    It went up on our wall about the time the stock market went south.    (See photo attached)

We are hammered every day by the media on how “bad” the economy is.  (If I hear the word “crisis” one more time………I am going to GIVE them one!!)    Fact is its getting tough for many.   We have good friends that are unemployed and fearful for what tomorrow will bring.   We have family members worried about what is going to happen next year with their jobs.   My wife and I are commission only earners who are dependent on a strong housing market and strong business climate’s advertising revenues for our livelihood.   People’s 401K’s are dropping like drunks after a Greek wedding.    And so it goes.

But as I look at the construction paper Turkey on my calendar and I read the blessings, I don’t see “a strong economy” listed.   I don’t see “my savings account” on the list.   And “my humongous 401K retirement fund” is nowhere to be found …..(literally J) 

But I what I do see are friends, family and God repeated over and over again on every feather.   

And interestingly enough, no matter who is President, what the state of the economy is in, or which CEO is surfing in Aruba with his (our) bailout money, these are things that do not change:  God, Family and Friends remain constant.  I am reminded in challenging times especially, just how important and how much a blessing they are to us.  Because of them, I will always have much to be thankful for.   I don’t know how long the present hardships will continue…..my crystal ball is broken, and I can’t read tea leaves.   

But I can read turkey feathers.  

Thank you for being on them.  From our house to yours, please have a very Happy Thanksgiving!

Like a lot of folks, music has always been a big deal for me, well maybe not always …

I think the AZ Music Café show host (Weird Uncle Erich as my kids affectionately refer to him … at my instigation, of course) had a lot to do with developing my love for music.  Mind you, this was long before there was an AZ Music Café.  It’s funny the little snatches of memory that we preserve from childhood.  I have a distinct memory of camping with some family friends, it must have been one of the very last trips we went on, (the folks were rapidly losing interest in camping by the time I came around), and E.P. (family name for your host), playing a cassette of The Ventures.  I was probably 5 years old.  I still remember E.P. making funny mouth movements (and some vocal renditions) of that wacky guitar sound.  ”Wowwww, Wow! WooooWwww.”

Flash forward maybe a year, I guess I might have been 6 or 7, and E.P. took me to see “Let it Be”.   For months I wished I could grow a beard like Paul McCartney had.  I think I walked around for almost as long singing the chorus, and driving my folks nuts.

Then E.P. moved on to a new group called Chicago.  He tried to convince me at one point that they were the Beatles, but I wasn’t having it.  By then I could tell the difference.  At the time I didn’t like ‘em, except for Saturday in the Park.  Color My World didn’t do it for me then.  By the time I was a teen-ager, I really did like them.   Although they were old even by then, but I still got to see them perform twice.  I loved 25 or 6 to 4 and I thought Peter Cetera was pretty neat.

But, that was later.  Erich still had more to indoctrinate me with.  Due to the VAST difference in our ages, (he’s a LOT older than I am), we never had a problem getting along, even when I was little.  He was always pretty nice to me.  Consequently, I rapidly became his biggest fan when he started playing the guitar and singing.

It was Erich that introduced me to Gordon Lightfoot.  I heard him sing Alberta Bound, Sundown, Carefree Highway, and If You Could Read My Mind, long before I heard the originals.  But, it was enough to make me a lifelong Lightfoot fan.  Similarly, I remember Erich playing Buffet’s Margaritaville sitting in my parents kitchen.  I remember being disappointed that Jimmy Bufffet didn’t sound as good as E.P.

It was Erich that took me to my first concert.  We saw Gordon Lightfoot at Gammage Auditorium.

Over the years, I’ve picked up my own tastes and preferences for music, but E.P has always managed to introduce me to new things.  Some I didn’t like at first, like Procal Harum.

Because of him I discovered Ricky Skaggs, Michael Johnson, Bonnie Raitt, and Mark Knopfler.  

(I was immensely satisfied to introduce him to Los Straightjackets a few years back.)

I remember what fun we had going to hear him play at the coffee shop down the road and how disappointed I was when it closed (nothing to do with his playing).  I think he thought I was just being nice.  In reality, I just didn’t want to miss one of my favorite performers!  Gotta hear about those rats in the rafters.

He gets grief from my wife and me when ever he does a show without performing a song.  And so, I hope that he can make the AZ Music Café into something of a success, if only so I can keep catching him on the radio.  He’s STILL introducing me to new music - every week from 3-5.

Thanks E.P.

We did the AZ Chicks with Picks show this past weekend and during one of the breaks, one of the guest’s accompanists turned to me and asked me if I was “the” Erich Sielaff who used to work as a buyer or merchandising manager at Smitty’s.   (First of all, the notion that anyone would ask if I was “the” anyone was a bit peculiar to hear… how many can there be?)   But I revealed that indeed, we were one and “the” same.

He smiled and said that his dad used to call on me at Smitty’s as a sales representative.   He also remembered me from the church I attend.   I paused and waited for my mind to fill in the blanks.     (This requires more time to accomplish than it used to.     More tape to rewind I suppose.    There I go with analog metaphors.  I have to reformat to digital.    More disc space to search?    Update file, update file, update file …)

Yes, I remembered his name and yes, I even had a vague mental image of his business card.   (Still doing the file search for his face.  I have an image driven operating system).   But what struck me instantly was that it had been 14 years since I left Smitty’s and I have no idea how much earlier it had been that we began working together.   Looking at his 20-something son, I suspected that contemporaneous with that event, the son was probably around 10 years old.   And now, a decade and a half later, here he was, sitting in a radio station with me waiting to perform.    Go figure.

You wouldn’t think it possible to draw a line from that life to this one.   But it happens.   And more often than the odds makers should be able to make book on.    I was glad that apparently I had left him with a positive impression.   People freeze-frame you and vice-versa.   Who am I today compared to who I was 14+ years ago?   Well, I am on a different road to be sure.   And that road intersected with someone who is also on a different road.   But the travelers are the same.   Or are they?   Am I a kinder gentler man?  Or am I a harder, less adaptable version?   Wiser or just older?   I wonder whom I have left with a less than happy recollection.   Whom might I have offended?

I am not entirely sure I can answer honestly who I was then compared to who I am now.    And I am not sure I even want to know.   I have enough trouble just managing the day’s events.   Turns out, I ended up having to bump my old cohort’s son because we ran out of time on the program.    I promised I would get him back on at a later date.   (Sooner rather than later)

Today I stopped to think.    I wonder with whom I will intersect down the road that will take something away from today that I won’t even remember.   One of the other guests did a song about someone being a skeleton in their closet.   I commented to her that we all likely either have one or are one or perhaps both.    I sincerely don’t want to be anyone’s skeleton.   But I guess like the proverbial ghost in a wishing well, I am not in charge of that.    We each must set our own captives free.   I can however from this day forward, do my utmost to do a good thing, to say a kind word and to try to leave something of value.

I am glad that in this case at least, I seemed to have been remembered well.    I am thankful for these intersections.   It reminds me again that choices matter.   Things are remembered.    It also stirs me to recognize that the time for morphing is now.    That all of us will eventually run out of time on life’s road and get ”bumped”.    And then, whomever we will have become will be whom we will remain.

I recently picked up an Alison Krauss’ Too Late to Cry. It’s a good album, especially when you consider that she was only 16 years old when she recorded it! I didn’t realize that it was her debut effort when I bought it. (Wikipedia is a good source for stuff like that.)

I’m a fan of Krauss and Union Station, perhaps not quite as enamored as host’s son Nick, but a big fan nonetheless. So, when I saw this CD at Fry’s electronics (I can’t walk by a CD display without looking), I had to get it. I think I have every other CD she has done.

This one was different, her voice has definitely improved with age, but the musicianship was phenomenal even then. This predated Dan Tyminsky and Ron Block, but Jerry Douglas was featured. The instrumental Dusty Miller is, in a word, awesome. Too Late to Cry is an interesting time capsule, capturing who Krauss was then, and foreshadowing who she’d end up to be. This is especially evident in her cover of Rodney Crowell’s Song for Life. I’d heard this one before on a Kathy Mattea CD that came out at about the same time. I like both versions.

It’s worth picking up, if you’re a fan, but probably not, if you’re not.  If you’re not a fan, buy A Hundred Miles or More and you will be.

I figure anyone can review a new CD, (Martin, the blog usurper here again) so I thought I’d revisit an old friend.  Who knows, I might review a few of these old friends.    This time around I thought I’d talk about one of my favorite Jazz CD’s, Color Rit.  I bought this CD when it first came out almost 20 years ago.  It’s aged really well.

I like Jazz of most varieties, but some of the stuff that you hear, while pleasant enough background music, is really kind of, well, boring.  Some of the “Smooth Jazz” that’s touted so much is often indistinguishable from elevator music.  I figure if I can’t tell one group/artist/song from another, the music isn’t really all that potent.

This CD and artist are instantly recognizable for me.  They were from the moment I first heard them.  If you have a craving for crisp sharp, clean guitar that will loosen the wax in your ears, this CD is for you.  It’s safe to say the Ritenour is a virtuouso guitar player.  This CD shows that talent off.  There are number of Brazilian (I think) influences in the music and some funky vocalists, but it’s the guitar work that really shines.  The first piece on the CD, Bahia Funk, sets the tone.  It’s like listening to sunshine.

Its been 5 months since we started this show.    We are about to do our 24th show, or our 28th depending on whether you count the 4 Sampler programs in October.   We have a few sponsors and are hopeful we can attract a few more with the two hour show.   The bank account shows the strain.   But we are hopeful.   My wife helps me by taking photos in the studio, helping me get ready each week and allowing us to give up our Sunday afternoons without complaint.   She also endures the fiscal pummeling without complaint.  She believes too.     

My little brother has ascribed to me the moniker of “Free Spirit” which obliges me to conjure up visions of flowing long grey hair, swirling in the wind, held in place by a worn bandanna, and the glow of my wizened face squinting in the rising sun, as I wander among the tumbleweeds. 

Or not.   

He is right that this endeavor appears to have come out of nowhere.   But actually, I had notions along these lines for years.  I don’t listen to much music on the radio.   I was spoiled years ago by Bill Compton and KDKB (KCAC before that) and the wonderful artists he introduced to Phoenix, like Tom Waits, John Stewart, Gordon Lightfoot, Jerry Riopelle, and so many more.   He passed from the scene prematurely and as radio got worse and more monolithic, I retreated to listening stations in Borders and Barnes and Noble to try and find good music.    When the opportunity presented itself to me to perhaps combine business and pleasure……well, I jumped at it and figured that over time, I would meet enough folks to convert a few of them to clients and actually pay for the effort.   

So after 28 shows, 70+ guests and over 200 songs, what have I learned?    I have learned that it takes more time than I ever imagined.   (Thank you Martin, I don’t know what I would do without the website and your weekly updates and creativity)    I have learned that I say “Uh”, “outstanding” and ”very cool” WAY too much.  What comes out of my brain is much more lucid when I have the opportunity to edit.  (Can I blog the shows?)I don’t trust spontaneous for good reason.  I am not good at it.   I default to trite.  I hate that.   Did I mention that I am learning humility?  

I have learned that there is far more talent in Phoenix than I ever imagined.   That is not being gratuitous.    I have heard and met musicians who have more talent than a good share of the current occupants of the average radio playlist.   And that it takes more than talent and perseverance to be successful in the music business.    I have learned that this business is brutal.   I see it in the eyes of the ones who have been doing this for many years.    I have had to redefine what I thought persistence and dogged determination looks like.  The true professionals are ready and willing and able to appear almost anywhere, anytime and for any (or no) money to keep their music out there and heard.   Whether its by 20 or 2000 people.   They don’t care.   Staying tight and improving their craft and keeping themselves in front of an audience is what they do day in, week out, month in and year out.   Hoping, believing and continuing.    The true professionals smile and do it again, and again, and again.   And they never surrender.    They are gracious.   They make it a point to thank us for the show without exception.   They always smile.  But you can see it in their eyes.   They’ve ridden the up and down roller coaster so many times that their stomachs no longer participate.   But they know that the only way to stay in the game is to play.   It won’t happen if they sit on the sidelines and whine.   Or allow themselves to be defeated by the latest disappointment.   They get up, brush off and put themselves back in the game and hit “play”.  

I am not a fan of entertainers jumping on their soapbox and becoming instant experts on politics or the issues of the day.   Or life.  That’s why we keep this show about the music.   But we might learn a thing or two about keeping on…..about stick-to-it-ivity.   About not giving up at the first sign of adversity.    About running the long race.   Paul used the metaphor of athletes and marathon running in his epistle to the Phillipians.   But I think if he had met some of these folks, he might have written “I have played the long song, and finished the gig.”

Or not.

I can tell you one thing.   I hope we can keep this show going and get to 100 shows and many, many more.   But if we can’t keep this show alive and prove the concept, we will at the very least have had the privelege of meeting some extraordinary people and witnessing their extraordinary talent.   I will have come away from this experience learning my own limitations and maybe just a bit about grace and perseverance.   It will have been well worth it.

Howdy! (Martin here.)

As the guy who’s thrown together the AZ Music Café website, I have conferred upon myself the privilege of being a guest author on the newly launched AZ Music Café Blog.  Hopefully, big brother won’t mind me treading water in his pool.

I recently purchased Yo Yo Ma’s new Christmas album.   Wow is this good stuff!  

There are all kinds of people on this CD.  James Taylor, Allison Krauss, Edgar Meyer, Dave Brubeck, and Chris Botti, to name a few.

The first 15 songs on the CD were phenomenal.  (I didn’t care much for 18-20, but with 15 very strong, very high quality pieces up front, I can deal with 3 I don’t like.  Who knows, maybe they will grow on me.)  The CD has 20 tracks in all.   James Taylor and Diana Krall are both excellent as featured vocalists.  

Number 13, INVITACIÓN AL DANZÓN, is really great.  Since my daughter plays the clarinet, we always keep an ear out for this instrument in any jazz or classical music we buy.  This one does not disappoint.  Wow!

This is a Christmas album that I will probably listen to all year, since it doesn’t necessarily come across as a the same old holiday staples.  (For instance, I had a quick listen to some of Spyro Gyra’s Christmas effort.  It was OK, but not outstanding.)  This CD is outstanding and I would have to say, out of the norm for Christmas music.  I highly recommend it.

One of the rules on the AZ MUSIC CAFE show, is that politics not be a part of the program.   No soapboxes for pet causes, no agenda driven content in the music.   The show is about music.   Period.    That would hopefully distinguish this from programs where artists feel compelled to pronounce their grandiosity.   As though talent with an instrument gives one wisdom and discernment regarding the affairs of the world.  Please.   Its not that I don’t have an opinion.   I have lots of them.   I just don’t want the show to be a forum on politics.   (”Its the music, stupid” … to paraphrase from an earlier election)

Having said that, it is impossible to ignore the fact that today is Election day.   So I will make a few remarks about the process only.

I decided that I would believe the reports of record turn out and voted early (not often.)  So I trundled off with coffee in hand just after 5:30 am.   I found where I was supposed to go and arrived a few minutes later.

Standing in line in the dark, you have time to think a bit.   A young man in front of me with incredibly bad morning breath, asked me how long I expected the process to take.    After I recovered my senses, I replied as politely as possible that I couldn’t see the end of the line, but given what I could see, 15-20 minutes later we should be voting, and then it was just a matter of a few minutes to actually cast the ballot.   (I hoped that he would not want to continue the conversation, as the air was still, and all I had was my cup of coffee as a shield from further attacks of his halitosis.)   Mercifully, he turned around and we resumed waiting.

When we do our next show on Sunday, there will be a new President-Elect.    I wondered while I was voting today how many people that voted expected that the winner would assume office tomorrow.    What other misconceptions exist out there.    Did they really understand the Electoral College, or did they believe that was where volunteers graduated from in order to work at the polling places.    I wondered how many first time voters like Bad Breath Bob, would become regular voters, or if this was their singular moment of hope.

I wondered what it would be like standing here 4 years from now.    What history would have been made.   What the world would look like.   I reflect now on what the world looked like in 2000.   Before 911 and before Iraq.   Before the housing run up and subsequent crackup and near collapse of the banking system.   When gas was about $1.50 per gallon.    When you could get on an airplane without being violated.

I wondered what it was like to view the world through the lenses of a 20 year old instead of through the eyes of someone whose first election was the Ford-Carter contest in 1976.

How different the world was then and how fast things have changed.   Change.  The mantra of the 2008 election.    We have focused a lot this year on what divides us.   But what unites us is that we all want things to be better.  And some are willing to do just about anything for their version of what “better” looks like to them.

I am reminded of a wise guy who told me once:  Be careful what you wish for, you just might get it.

I wonder if we will get what we bargained for, or if we’ll get what we deserve.