A Community of Song - Palm Loft Gallery First Friday Songwriter's Circle Open Mic - Featuring Paull E. Rubin and Friends - March 4, 2011

Its funny how perspective changes with time! When I started this blog almost two years ago, it was from the perspective of a fan, but relative outsider to the realm of independent music. But with time and my presence at countless shows and the connections this blog has created in its own quiet way, all of a sudden, I find myself being somewhat of an insider. And while I admit, that may cost me a wee bit of objectivity, the payoff in access and insight is well worth that, not even mentioning the richness this adds to my life!

All of the above philosophizing is my convoluted way of introducing the theme of this weekend's entertainment - Community! While many enterprises cause people to develop a sense of community, it seems to me that this is especially so in the realm of independent music. And in the somewhat small and insular area of Santa Barbara County the community feel of the independent music scene is even more apparent. We got a glimpse of this spirit recently when we visited the Palm Loft Gallery in Carpenteria, CA for their First Friday Songwriter's Circle Open Mic Night, which on this occasion featured as headliner Paull E. Rubin and Friends.

This was our second visit to an Open Mic Night at the Palm Loft Gallery. We had visited the previous month, mostly to see the ever-delightful Rebecca Troon, a long-time favorite performer.  Sitting in with Rebecca that evening was a guitarist I had never heard before, one Paull E. Rubin, who played some really tasty guitar and Dobro with like no rehearsal, just winging it and sounding great. We really enjoyed that night, so when I heard that he would be headlining the following month, my calendar was instantly marked!

Like our last visit, we arrived at the Palm Loft Gallery, just up from the beach in Carpenteria, in time to enjoy a marvelous California beach sunset at the early, pre-daylight savings time of 6 pm and just in time for the start of the Open Mic. The Palm Loft Gallery is an art gallery that hosts these events either the first Friday or the Saturday after the first Friday. The format is an hour of open mic by sign up, an hour of the headliner, and then another hour of open mic.  There is a table of appetizer snacks and beverages that  are brought by visitors and the whole thing is FREE! Contributions are accepted to help the headliners defray travel costs.

The gallery and the event are run by a gentleman named Arturo, who is a songwriter himself and performs in the open mic portion. Arturo, as well as most of the other open mic performers and many of the headliners, are participants in a program called Summersongs West, a twice a year workshop for aspiring songwriters, with one camp on the west coast and another on the east coast. I have been hearing a lot of wonderful things about this program for many years and many favorite artists have been on staff there or been campers themselves.  It is very obviously a wonderfully supportive atmosphere for nurturing songwriting and it has a lot to do with sense of community of the independent songwriters up and down the Central Coast of California. One of these days, I'll get to attend myself! And though the performers during the open mic portion of the evening run the gamut from very professional sounding to fairly amateur, they all exhibit the spirit of Summersongs, the openness that comes from that sense of community and they are all warmly received by the audience.

From there we got to the heart of the evening, a set by guitarist/songwriter/vocalist Paull E. Rubin and Friends.  Paull will tell you himself, he really is mainly a band guy and not used to doing solo acoustic stuff, so he was thrilled by the last-minute arrival of his friend and musical compatriot, Marc Mann as well as drummer Ken "Snake" Farmer to help him out. With Marc on guitar and vocals and Paullie switching between guitar and Dobro and singing, with Snake on borrowed house drums and an occasional added background vocal by Lisa Bialec-Jehle,  it certainly was full "band" sound. Paullie and Marc traded songs,  each providing tasty counterpoint to the other's tune. Paull and Marc especially are long-time musical collaborators, playing together as the Bear Bros. and Marc produced and played on Paull's  new CD, Proof, which is a wonderful retro-yet-fresh-sounding album.  So the spirit of musical community  came through loud and clear in their set as well.

Unfortunately, other commitments made us leave after the headlining set and we couldn't stay for the final open mic portion, though as we left there was some discussion if anyone still wanted to perform after such an exhilarating set. But I did stick around long enough to buy us a copy of Paull's previously mentioned CD, "Proof" and get it signed. It was a very fun evening and we left feeling we were a part of a really special musical community!!

Here are links for the Palm Loft Gallery :

http://www.thesoulgroup.com/PalmLoftGallery/index.htm

and a Facebook page for their Songwriters Circle:

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Palm-Loft-Songwriters-Circle/179322751447?ref=ts#!/pages/Palm-Loft-Songwriters-Circle/179322751447?sk=info

and a link for Paull E. Rubin:

http://www.rubinhood.com/

and a link for Summersongs:

http://summersongs.com/

Photo at top of page blatantly stolen from Paull E. Rubin's Facebook page!!!!!!

I'm Back

I can't believe its almost a year since I've posted!  A few of you have asked about it. I apologize that I haven't been able to keep things rolling, but I hope that, going forward, I can stay current.  I hope to be making some changes too, expanding my scope from just houseconcerts to live independent music in general.  And hopefully I will be going from this free blog site to a full-blown website where I can pontificate on other subjects as well and get exposure for some of my artistic pursuits and other interests. I will keep you all posted on these changes as they occur. Until then, I have some reviews to share with you!  Its good to be back, I hope you enjoy what's coming!!!!

BLAME SALLY - Houseconcert Review - Bodie Houseconcerts at the Thousand Oaks Library - May 1, 2010

 Memory can be a funny thing, especially at my age. We had seen the group Blame Sally a couple of times back a few years ago, once at a houseconcert and once at a festival. I do remember liking them and that I found their instrumentation interesting, but, other than a general positive feeling towards them, I remembered little else. And, in what I always call the ultimate review, we hadn't bought any of their CDs at either event. So when this concert was announced somewhat late, since we had nothing else planned, we decided to go see them again, but with somewhat muted expectations. And now I feel VERY lucky making that choice, because, as I have suggested, either my memory of them was very faulty or this band has gotten WAY better in the last few years or maybe there is a combination of both at work!

 We arrived at the Thousand Oak Library for this concert very early because we were worried about traffic, with Conejo Valley Days going on right across the street. But we had no trouble getting there, so we were some of the first inside. We settled into some front row seats in front of the percussion set up because we remembered that the band had a very interesting percussionist and, with Becky studying hand percussion, we wanted a good view of both technique and equipment. The room quickly filled up behind us, not a sell-out but a real nice large crowd especially considering the somewhat short notice that this show was happening.

 The traditional opening announcements and introductions were done by our hostess, Renee Bodie and Library Director Steve Brogden. The band then took the stage and launched into their first number, "I'm Waiting", a haunting dark tune with a rolling rhythm and some great electric guitar licks by Jeri Jones that were very reminiscent of the playing of Mark Knopfler, which is a HUGE compliment in my book! My thought when it was over was that many groups would use a song this great as an encore, a real good sign for the rest of the show! The second song was a total change of pace and feel. "Trouble" was a uptempo rockabilly workout that featured a kick-ass guitar solo by Jeri.

 A pause is in order here to introduce the band a bit. Blame Sally are a quartet of female singer/songwriter/musicians from the Bay Area of California who have been playing together for at least a decade. They all are great singers. The bulk of the songwriting is done by Renee Harcourt or Monica Pasqual. Renee plays a whole variety of guitars along with bass, harmonica, banjo, mandolin, lap steel and lord knows what else. Monica plays a variety of keyboards and accordion and probably a lot of other instruments. They both are VERY accomplished, prolific songwriters and both have done multiple solo albums while still members of the group. Percussionist/guitarist Pam Delgado also contributes some great songs though she's not as prolific as Monica or Renee. Their latest CD includes two of Pam's songs, the rest are by either Renee or Monica. The final member of the band, Jeri Jones, plays guitars, mandolin, bass, and dobro and is quite adept at providing the songs with the sonic ornamentation that fully fleshes out their themes and meanings. Pam and Jeri also play sometimes as a duo, called "The Pam and Jeri Show". On this night, as well as the previous times we've seen them, the ladies were augmented by rock-solid 5 string bassist Rob Strom, who has what I consider one of the best sideman jobs in the music business! I will have more to say about each of them as this review progresses. ( above picture left - right, Monica, Jeri, Renee, Rob and Pam ).

 The set continued with one of Renee's songs, the very poignant "All Rise",  which she told us was written during and about her cancer treatment which I'm glad to report was successful. Its a really beautiful and moving song about confronting your fears of the unknown. And then came a new one, "Bird In Hand", a song of love gone wrong that had Pam playing her djembe drum with brushes and Jeri's rhythmic guitar figure reminding me of "Ghost Riders in the Sky"!Once more the mood and pace were changed, with Monica taking a solo turn with just her piano and beautiful voice for "I Knew You When"  written for a loved one dealing with Multiple Sclerosis. Then Renee and Jeri took the stage as a duo with Renee on acoustic guitar and Jeri on mandolin doing Renee's song, "Carnival Ride" which she wrote as a love song to her friends and family on the occasion of her 50th birthday. It was a bouncy happy ditty which was perfect for its sentiment.

 The whole band retook the stage with Monica playing accordion for the next tune, another of Renee's and one of my favorites, "Jump Start". With its driving, insistent rhythm as the perfect background, it delivered a wonderful description of the obsessive passion of new love,
                                " I stood out in left field watching
                                  You snuck up on me like a wildfire
                                  Sparks and flames flashing and flying
                                  And I felt the light inside jumpstart"
Another powerfully moving song came next, Monica's "Night of 1000 Stars", the story of a soldier returning from war with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder that drives him to domestic violence. This song is the title track to Blame Sally's latest album and its beautiful vocal melodies ran counter to the otherworldly sounds of Jeri's bottleneck guitar creating a dreamlike atmosphere. It was just one more example of the stunning subtlety of Jeri's understated guitar playing and, as we gave them an ovation as they left for intermission, I couldn't help but marvel at how GREAT this band had become or how flawed my memory of them was!

 Intermission brought the usual sugar-rush snacks, some socializing with our hosts and other friends in the audience and of course a CD purchase and signing. Trying to economize in the face of an unpaid furlough at work, before the show I was determined not to spend the money, but this band was just too good to let the opportunity pass! I was very anxious to hear what else they had in store for us.

 The band returned to the stage and began the second set with the straight-ahead folk-rocker "Fillmore Street". This song again made great use of Jeri's bottleneck guitar work and also Renee's harmonica solo, while playing on the similar lyrical sounds of  "Fillmore" and "feel more". The next song was probably my favorite Blame Sally song and seems to be one of the band's "signature" tunes. With a jangly mandolin rhythm and Monica's bouncy accordion, Renee's song "Pass the Buddha" gave a humorous peek at the New Age and Eastern therapies that the world threw in her direction during her cancer treatments. "Please, pass the Buddha,  a hit of Mr. B, open eye number three"  is just part of one of the coolest lyrics I've heard in ages! This was one song I had remembered from hearing the band previously! After that came a slow love ballad, "Same Space" and then a stripped down, slowed down cover of Aretha's "Chain of Fools", with Pam delivering the soulful lead vocals.  Another cover headed in a more country direction, Emmy Lou Harris and Rodney Crowell's "Tulsa Queen".

 The night was headed into the home stretch but there were still some gems in store for us. Monica's "Pajaro Sin Allas" had the sound of a traditional latin folk song. Then came Pam's tour de force from the latest album, "Hurricane", a bluesy rave-up comparing a woman's rising passion to an impending storm. Another major crowd-pleaser, it featured Jeri's bottleneck National Steel guitar and a great accordion solo from Monica. Then came the show closer, "Dead Horse", a haunting bluesy ballad of the love-gone-wrong variety that sounded like it was written by Renee ( I haven't been able to verify this ). It used a great bottleneck solo by Jeri to help it build in intensity as the finale. And, of course, the crowd was wild as the ladies left the stage! We all wanted more, and of course we were rewarded with an encore.

The band came back and played the traditional Mexican folk song, "La Llorona", which sounded very different than the song we've heard Perla Batalla sing many times. But it was also  a great tune and we got a chance at one last great piano solo by Monica and I got to hear one last tasty guitar solo by Jeri, who impressed me all night with the talent and taste in her understated playing. It was a  really pleasing end to an exciting night of really great songs and musicianship and we were very glad to have been there to experience it!
So here's one last try at my question.  As I finally finish this review, I've had the benefit of a few weeks to ponder some of this. Had I really forgotten how great this band was? Had they really made great improvements in a few years? I'll probably never totally figure it out, but one thing seems relevant. Most of the songs we heard on this night were songs we had previously heard a few years earlier. Clearly their material has  been this good for a while! So while I allow that their playing of these songs may have improved some in the ensuing years, I personally think that I previously was just not in the right space to totally get them or had forgotten how GREAT they really were. And of course none of this really matters, the important thing is that I am now a huge Blame Sally fan and I hope you will soon be one, too!

Here's a link for Blame Sally :

http://blamesally.com/

and one for the Bodie Houseconcerts :

http://www.jrp-graphics.com/bodiehouse/index.html