Peter Spencer: Discussion

eriejones

July 6, 2011

"Little Death Rag" - beautiful, deft, lovely bawdiness - fantastic!

Mr. Bumps

May 16, 2011

Friday night in Lambertville was absolutely everything any true musician could hope for, and I'm very glad I could be there!

Mr. Bumps

January 22, 2011

Okay, erectile joke heard this evening on Garrison Keillor: Why don't lawyers take Viagra? Because all it does is make them taller.

Margaret

January 22, 2011

Like most of the girls in my class, I thought Davy Jones was kind of cute (although I always claimed to be a Peter Tork fan, just to be contrary). Even at nine I recognized that he couldn't play his instrument, though (tambourine or maracas? Come on - how hard is THAT?), and once I realized that a) Davy, the rhythm section, had no rhythm, he was just put there to be cute, and b) those electric guitars weren't actually plugged into anything, it was the beginning of the end. So when some of the girls in my sixth-grade homeroom two years later got to put together a bulletin board display of the class' favorite musicians, it showed David Cassidy, Bobby Sherman, Michael Jackson, Donny Osmond, probably the Monkees still, and maybe Leif Erickson and one or two others - all surrounding a picture of my submission, Beethoven. Now THAT guy could rock!

caleb

January 9, 2011

must say i really enjoyed this blog

but with apologies to my dad......i must say that you lack the context...the fact is, of punk as well as metal, that you are my parent and you're not supposed to really like it....i'm glad you appreciate it, i'm glad you're not stupid, i'm glad that you can admit when you are being obtuse.....i'm glad
that is all

yerson

January 7, 2011

if yer interested in metal, listen to cloudkicker, very melodic and progressive
it's just one guy, a guitar and a computer
he gives his music away for free on the interwebs his album beacons made the #1 spot on many of the metal blogs' year end lists

http://cloudkicker.bandcamp.com/
i highly recommend beacons along with everything else the guy has done

Mr. Bumps

October 27, 2010

Hmm. There are Protestant churches and Protestant churches (and I mean both individual churches and denominations), and while some did just what you note, others did nothing beyond paying lip-service to the injustices, and still others were just as obstructive, just as hate-mongering, as any backwater racist power structure you care to name. So I'm afraid I think there's more to be said than what's here. And I got an extra-large twitch when I read your very last word. Is gratitude really what's called for? Don't you remember how angry Jackie Robinson got-with his own people- when The Man decided to open up a section of the stands one day to let a big crowd of African-Americans sit where they hadn't been permitted to sit before, and they all reacted with evident happiness and thanks? Keep speaking the truth to power, man, but don't condescend, OK?

Gilbert

August 28, 2010

First off: Love the new picture. Really incredible photography, that is. (I guess it doesn't hurt to have those good lookin' Spencer genes either...)

Second off, Listening to Casanova's Waltz and really starting to relate to the bit about dying here of boredom... I don't leave for school until the 12th of September and everyone is gone already! curses.

Anyway, hi! how are ya?

Mr. Bumps

June 14, 2010

Man alive, you are on a roll! (And no, I do not mean Parker House.) What great stuff, both here in recent days and weeks, and in Lambertville on Saturday. Wow.

And there must be a song lurking somewhere in "Bend your knees!"

Natalia Ilyin

May 25, 2010

As I recall, James's "moral equivalent of war" was his proposed institution of public service in place of military service. Your post gives the impression that he may have compared the pain of childbearing with the pain of war wounds--that somehow either pain bears a moral insignia--which he did not. The endured pain of both childbirth and battle may appall you, but it would have been the public responsibility of rearing that newborn child that James found "the moral equivalent of war."

Jim Sund

May 8, 2010

Peter, Anne and I really enjoyed your performance last night at the Jewel Box.

I noticed a corvair in the background of you website picture and in the 'what's up' this weekend. I have a Corvair and curious about yours.

Jim Sund

Dad

May 4, 2010

Pete - I loved your paean to women. As an out-of-the-closet heterosexual for all these years, I could really relate to the warm and graceful way in which you pay tribute to the ones who make our lives so enjoyable. You really have the writer's gift!

Sunday, I participated in the George School's concert, which featured the Brahms "Liebeslieder Waltzes" for chorus and piano four hands. One of the 18 poems is entitled "O die Frauen" which is, not surprisingly, in praise of women. The melody is Brahms at his best, meltingly beautiful, and it resonated again in my head as I read your piece. Great job, Peter!

Mr. Bumps

April 10, 2010

Welllllllll, if Slatkin really did feel "that he has better things to do with his talent than make yet another sumptuous "Traviata" for yet another Met opening for yet another gathering of glossy plutocrats," then he should never have signed on to do it in the first place. He's a pro, for all the reasons you note and then some, and pros do the job at hand to the best of their ability regardless of how they personally feel about that job. Slatkin told me this exact thought when I spoke with him in about 1993; he mentioned that he had conducted Jesus Christ Superstar (I think) as a young man and that while he had not particularly cared for it the gig did generate plenty of other work for him.

Anthony Tommasini's NY Times review of 30 March (and to a degree his Arts Beat column of 4 April) makes it reasonably clear to me that the issue was less that Slatkin had never conducted the work before than that he didn't seem to know the work thoroughly when he walked in the door. That's the primary failing here. (Mr. Tommasini has a doctorate in piano from Boston University, by the way, and is among the relatively few music critics to have that absolutely invaluable hands-on experience of being a capable performer and not just a bystander.) Now why Slatkin didn't know the score when he walked in is a mystery that may never be solved.

It's also something of a mystery to me why the Met hired him for this in the first place, unless the idea was purely to shake things up--as Mr. Gelb has promised and delivered, for better or worse. But a pro can shake things up and still know what he's doing; an amateur will undoubtedly shake things up through not knowing what he's doing. One does not try out one's first Traviata at the Met, but rather at some out-of-the-way venue, then after a lot of practice and experience get to Lincoln Center. Otherwise there are some serious lapses in judgement going on somewhere.

A sixteen-year-old may as well first set foot to accelerator at Indy or Le Mans.

Mr. Bumps

March 7, 2010

This page has been way too quiet for way too long. Sooooooo, I'll ask you this: what about downloading music for free? And by extension, intellectual property rights in the age of Disney on the one hand and open-source on the other?

Mr. Bumps

December 15, 2009

There is no way in the world, as far as I know, to understand what brings two people together (or drives them apart), nor is there a way to understand by looking in from the outside what anyone else's life is really and truly like. Yes, it's entirely possible that cynicism is what brought Tiger and Tigress together. It's also entirely possible that that's not true at all, that they in fact just knew that the other was the right person from the proverbial get-go. And it's entirely possible that something else was at the root of their relationship. Maybe he thought she smelled absolutely wonderful. Maybe she has a thing for baseball caps. Who knows? We don't and we can't. And with all their flaws they are still human, and still subject to all the weird, inexplicable things that make humans do what we do.

So yes, you may be right about a lot of what's going on, or you may not. Or there may well be boatloads of stuff going on that nobody knows about except the two of them. Welcome to the human race. The saturative (is that a real word?), celebrity-mad media is to blame for much of this, I think.

But what do I know...

Joyce

December 10, 2009

She was trying to sell you some kind of beauty product that is made from salt from the Dead Sea, which softens your skin, or makes it greasy...depending on how you perceive it!! That happened to me last year. A middle eastern guy was trying to sell me 2 for the price of 1. It was interesting but the price was high. I went home, and looked the product up online, for curiousity, and found out that buying 1 by itself was cheaper online. At any rate, the salespeople are looking to sell their products, now that Christmas is coming.

pete

November 17, 2009

Dear Bill,
You are wrong about the Grateful Dead, but not in the way you seem to expect you are. The Grateful Dead, in fact, suck. Yes, there was a period of about 18 months there (I was still in McDowell High School) when the GD looked like they might turn into an interesting hybrid of free improvising, post-serial composition (their bass-player studied with Berio), and half-assed folk/rock. Guess which remained?

The problem with being willing to wait for that out-of-the-world show is that as time goes on (and drugs keep going in) the standard of what makes an ootw show gets lower and lower, as much out of wishful thinking as anything else, until any evening they seem awake goes down in legend.

I've tried, I've really tried. But I've come to the conclusion, after three live shows and lots of other listening, that the Grateful Dead were only San Francisco's second-best band - that is until Sly, Santana, and Moby Grape came along - and once they and their fans are finally gone from the scene that's how history will remember them.

If you want particulars there's a blog entry from a while ago called something like "Good, Old Grateful Dead - One Out of Three Ain't Bad."

Mr. Bumps

November 17, 2009

I got to thinking (always a dangerous thing) about Achievement and its Discontents, and this occurred to me. As you can well imagine, I am lucky even to be able to spell "Grateful Dead," but apparently the reason Deadheads exist(ed) is that you just never knew when a Dead performance would be out of this world. So people would follow them around in hopes of hearing one of those o-o-t-w shows, and the price they paid was enduring the many not-so-o-o-t-w shows.

Consistency is an admirable trait in many ways, not least in music: you know that certain writers or performers are incapable of turning in a bad piece or a bad performance even if there might be some dull ones in there (welcome to the human race). But it's the surprises that make it all worthwhile. Jess Stacy is only remembered for one thing he did, on 16 January 1938 in Carnegie Hall, but what a thing to remember! In the same way, Toscanini once said that nobody is a genius twenty-four hours a day. He may have been referring to Beethoven (I don't know), who wrote some notably bad music if you do a little digging around. The surprises of bad Beethoven and of inspired Jess Stacy and of wildly inconsistent Grateful Dead shows make the adventure of music an endlessly fascinating one.

Feel free to tell me I'm wrong about the Dead. I probably am.

Natalia Ilyin

September 19, 2009

Blast. I MEANT Ruth. But it's the relation of woman to woman of which I was thinking. Someone said that Naomi's repeated asking her daughters-in-law to go back gave them the chance to decide for themselves over and over-- to harden their resolve through repetition. I can't remember who said that the ideas that take time "are kept always in the imagination of the heart, whereas what is soon ripe is soon rotten." I like that.

Mr. Bumps

September 18, 2009

"Whither thou goest..."

It's actually from the Book of Ruth, one of the shortest of the books in the Bible, and that story of sticking with your family, whether by blood or marriage, is among the most touching and dare I say resonant ones to be found in the Good Book. For me it's right up there with the parable of the Good Samaritan, the message of which is so plain, so simple, and yet so often forgotten nowadays.

Tom

September 12, 2009

"Mistakes are the building-blocks of a personal style."

A great quote if I've ever heard one. I must have lots of personal style by now. Let the mistakes continue!!!

August 30, 2009

They just don't make matriarchies like that anymore!

Natalia

August 30, 2009

To put two too-fine-a-points on it:
As I recall from my Dundee Cake-induced stupor, the two men being married wore kilts, which made the trouser issue moot. And did Judith not speak those words to her mother-in-law, not a husband-to-be? Certain mothers inspire such confidence, even in college-educated women.

natalia

August 23, 2009

"Defeat this canard as long as we don't duck our responsibilities?"

That pun makes me wonder if you need to adjust your medications.

pete

August 17, 2009

Two things to remember, Gil:

1. Noodling around IS practicing.

2. Mistakes are the building-blocks of a personal style.

Gil

August 17, 2009

firstly I'd like to comment about the new security code required to post... are you still receiving posts in cyrillic? Is this step #1 in operation "Peter Spencer goes hi-tech"? secondly I'll post that clearly I'm spending too much time on the computer, or at least the rest of Peter Spencer nation has been hard at work this summer promoting your act as I have now been the author of 4/5 posts on your discussion since June the 7th. I have no shame! None!

I really enjoyed your writing about Erie. I hope you had a good time traveling with Caleb, hopefully I'll get to travel around the country sometime myself... but hey I've got a long time to live...
Thanks for the CD's, too! I really like both of them, i can see why you loved them too, I can hear them both in your music.
It certainly was great to see you up in the motherland two weeks ago, your advice was invaluable, although mind-boggling and containing enough information to keep me busy for several months a) trying to remember it all and b) actually practicing instead of noodling around. Honestly I don't know how you remember to do all of that at the same time...

all the best, hope to see you soon. hey, if I end up in the midwest for college I'm a good 1000 miles closer to seattle...

Gil

July 11, 2009

Thank you, so much, for your words about MJ. I'm glad to hear that I'm not the only one who isn't adrift in the "Michael Jackson-was-a-freakin-genius-and-great-person-who-should-always-be-remembered-for-his-amazing-deeds" ocean. As you said, sure, he sold a whole lot of records. but just because some sells a lot of records does not mean that they are either a good musician or a good person (as I heard someone say today at the box office at Rams Head Live say "he sold so many records, doesn't that mean that he's a great musician? and a good person? people wouldn't have bought his records if he was a jerk". clearly, this person has never turned on a commercial news channel, or read a news paper in recent memory.
thanks. I'm glad I'm not alone on this one, but I should have known you stand in the same boat as I do...

Liam

July 10, 2009

A bit of Joplin trivia (Janis, not Scott) ...

A good friend of mine is Andy Gurley ... the nephew of James Gurley, guitarist for Big Brother and the Holding Company. Andy is an amazing musician, and tours and records full-time here in Nashville.

Gilbert (again?)

June 11, 2009

Maybe re-reading blog posts is a good thing, because it reminded me to thank you for introducing me to "The Band" this summer. so, uh, thanks! I don't really know what to say other than that I love it/them/their music! wonderful stuff. I wonder why they weren't ever super popular, but that basically describes the music I listen to now, I guess... there's just no market for good music anymore, except among musicians.

(3 days!%Pr

Gilbert

June 7, 2009

looking forward to the show next week!

Liam

May 5, 2009

Just saw the May 22nd date, centered on Texas songwriters. Just wondering if you have Lyle Lovett's "Step Inside This House" two cd set? It's all songs from Texas writers who influenced him. Townes, Guy Clark, Robert Earl Keen, etc. Very nice stuff.

Mr. Bumps

April 28, 2009

You know, I have never warmed to Dylan. I think I've always been so put off by the way he sounds that the musician in me says Oh, puh-LEEZE. But heaven knows he's had an incredible impact on thirty-eleven-teen bazillion people for a very long time, as you lay out so lucidly, so who am I to say Oh, puh-LEEZE? And of course, like any musician, I have my own lightning-strike musical moment to remember, from somewhere around age 12, that set me off on my own journey...one almost completely different from yours, which is as it should be. Just as unsurprisingly, that piece of music still has the power to turn me into a whimpering blob of protoplasm.

Yet there's one unexpected thing: the Dylan lines you quote at the end ring a very loud bell in my head. For reasons best left unexplored, in recent times I have been considering various things about and people in my life from about age 15 to maybe 25 or somewhat beyond. As part of this dangerous rummaging around in the attic of my mind, I realize that even with all the downs of that period (and good golly Miss Molly there were a lot of them...way quicker to count the isolated ups) there were certain people of whom I can say the same thing: "I'm still carrying the gift you gave./It's a part of me now it's been cherished and saved./I'll take it with me into the grave/And into eternity."

The gift? It was offering me a place where I could be myself, just as Dylan offered you a place to be yourself. Not in a panic about how I was supposed to come across in a given situation, not a hopeless misfit, not a clueless dolt, not an object of derision (or worse), none of those things, but just me--accepted as such. It meant a great deal to me at the time and means a great deal to me now, even if I had no idea of that at the time. I've managed to say thanks to a couple of those folks lately, with at best mixed results, but at least I could say the thank-you (I missed my chance with at least one, who died before I figured any of this out). That acceptance is the thing to be cherished, and is the gift we all have to give to one another. Heaven knows we should all give it more often.

By the way, the Carol Burnett song is from Sondheim's Follies. It's a classic, the iconic survivor's anthem, and she sings the hell out of it. Any self-respecting performer would.

Dad

April 24, 2009

Your beautiful essay about Bob Dylan brought back many memories for us. As parents, we knew how frightening it must have seemed to you, to be thrown into such a lonely situation. Like "Ruth, in tears amidst the alien corn", we could only wait and hope that your inner strength would see you through all those challenges. And, praise God, hearing Dylan was just what you needed to pick up your socks and forge ahead. It was a long and arduous road ahead of you, of course, with its triumphs and hazards as well. But as Carol Burnett sang it so memorably in - what was the play? - "I'm Still Here". And so you are: we are truly proud of you, Peter -

April 17, 2009

I don't agree with your views on "Imagine". I don't think you get where John Lennon was at.

pete

April 9, 2009

Nicholas McGegan (sp?) said to me in an interview, "Nobody's going to leap to their feet and say, 'Wow! Was that ever authentic!'"

Mr. Bumps

April 9, 2009

Bravo on getting the right answer about not getting the right answer! Reminds me of something Paul Desmond wrote once, about how he "could play a totally illegal note at any time and Dave [Brubeck] would instantly come up with a voicing that made the note sound not only right but inevitable." Or Ansel Adams's remark that "the negative is the score, the positive is the performance." Or a zinger that one of my last classroom teachers made to us all, that "nobody is going to buy a ticket to come hear articulation." Or Sir Colin Davis's written comment (to me!) that "the score is only a guide." In other words, whether it's written down or not, the basic working material of musicians is just the starting point, rather like the list of ingredients in a recipe. And the best musicians, like the best cooks, are always striving to keep it all fresh and new and interesting.

pete

March 30, 2009

Gotta keep things fresh.... Want me to send you a copy?

Joan E. Mitchell

March 30, 2009

So, what happened to the cowboy pix with all the girls in them?

Malcolm Lance

March 28, 2009

Peter, do you have a MySpace account? Tom and I (band name Booletts) would like to add you. I'm ordering your CD's soon as well, your stuff is just classic. Godzilla Feet...oh man. I heard Tom do that as well. You are one heck of a songwriter man, I can't wait till you get to Bucks County. If you'd been around when ppl like Jim Croce, John Denver,Harry Chapin were around you'd be as well known as any of them. It's that good. You're as distinct as all of them.

Liam

February 28, 2009

Couldn't agree more on "Imagine." Well said.

Liam

February 8, 2009

The Cowsills should reconstitute as a bebop act. That would be a little less hincty, perhaps ...

Margaret

February 2, 2009

Super Bowl 2010 act? The Cowsills. I'm just sayin'.

pete

January 29, 2009

Ya'll got to see this.
http://www.oneeyedparrot.org/obama.html

pete

January 29, 2009

Gil, I just went to the Fleet Foxes MySpace page you listed below and I like them a lot. Ever checked out Del Amitri? Notwithstanding the name they're Scottish. There's a good, jangly bit of '90s pop at www.youtube.com/watch?v=ypwCSIEVo4I.

pete

January 29, 2009

Time marches on, buddy....

Liam

January 28, 2009

No, no, none of this Fleet Foxes stuff. We're on the Cowsills now, can't you see! ;)

Gil

January 22, 2009

Check out this great new band I discovered while surfing the net the other day: fleet foxes.
myspace.com/fleetfoxes.
I THINK you might like them... hard to say, though. I would definitely recommend "Mykonos" or the video of "He doesn't know why". But it's all great, especially the harmonies, truly spectacular for a modern rock band to master that.
hope all is well in Seattle (Fleet Foxes is based in Seattle!!!)
G
P.S. thanks for the guitar in cold weather tips, I appreciate it. I decided to take it along and hope for the best, perhaps leaving it in my car if it deems necessary.

Lance Lawson

December 28, 2008

What the Cowsills are no more? How can this be? Just when I was about to ..... Oh forget it I might as well just listen to Restless Youth In Chinatown for the billionth time and try learning the chords. Happy Holidays Pete!

Natalia

December 20, 2008

I was going to make a wry Cowsills remark but then looked up their story on Wikipedia (I know, not reliable, and yet...so convenient). The collapse of the Cowsill family is dramatic-- what with various estrangments, deaths at young ages from emphysema, addiction and the like, and at least one homeless Cowsill found floating after Katrina. The perfect example of what the good old American music business could once set in motion. Thank goodness the MP3 hath changed all that. Forever, I hope.

Mr. Bumps

December 19, 2008

The Cowsills??!?!?? I had forgotten they even existed. Thank you sooooooooooo much for reminding me. I wonder if they make the oldies tours at all; if so, we could say of them that they are forgotten but not gone. Mind you, I cannot bring up one single note they ever did, and I am grateful for that small blessing. I could echo Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes, who once remarked concerning his medical practice that he was grateful for small fevers.

pete

December 15, 2008

I forgot everything by the Cowsills about three minutes after I heard it!

Margaret

December 15, 2008

Forget "Go Long, You Is a Lazy Mule." I'm just trying to forget everything ever recorded by the Cowsills.

Dad

December 7, 2008

Natalia, you are a sweetheart for weighing in on what must be the oldest contest in the world, namely, music from one generation to another. But I do have to admit that we may be baying up the wrong tree (to borrow an image from coon hunting).

As probably the only living person who has actually heard the song, "Go 'Long, You Is A Lazy Mule", I feel compelled to say that it really is a stinker of a clanger. Like songs by Florence Foster Jenkins, the would-be opera diva, it is sooo bad that only a rich dose of irony would make it palatable nowadays. Like "Kiss Me Again" (which my mother loved) and "Juanita" (much beloved of sentimental barbershoppers) this "song about a mule" stands triumphantly in the midst of a culture long gone. Ave, atque vale!

natalia

December 4, 2008

Bravo Cynthia! She comes out with her signature right hook just when her opponent is proclaiming himself the winner and wrapping up in the silk robe.

My concern here is that serious respect and consideration may be due to "Go 'Long, You Is a Lazy Mule." I urge you all not to jump too early to conclusions about a song that clearly may be an unsung gem of our musical past. A remake could have ironic resonance, in a sort of neopostmodern sense. This could be big, Pete.
Really big.

Dad

November 30, 2008

I was delighted to see the spirited dialogue between you and Cynthia, over the issue (if indeed it is an issue) of anti-folk versus folk music. I'm sure I have no idea of what you're talking about, but I enjoyed the sparkling prose both of you can muster.

At the risk of being a moldy fig myself, I have to tell you of an exchange I had with my father, the venerable Poppa Joe, on a similar musical issue. At a time when I was cutting my a cappella teeth on songs like "Perfidia" and "Jeepers Creepers", he kept telling me that I was missing out on musical classics, many of which were in the old Yale Song Book. He particularly wanted me to arrange - and sing - an old wowser called "Go 'Long, You Is A Lazy Mule". Needless to say, I failed to agree with him about the virtues of such an old clanger.

So, from generation to generation, there will always be different perceptions of what is wonderful music, and what is merely outdated treacle. I can't always appreciate your music - or Cynthia's, for that matter - but you don't have to appreciate my old stuff, either. Hurrah for the difference between generations!

Pete

November 29, 2008

OK, I reread "The Anti-Folk Wheeze" in the blog section and while the first 2/3 was expressed more violently than I would like (I heard from Axeman Horowitz that his feelings had been hurt and I'm sorry about that - he didn't deserve it) the last paragraph says what I wanted to say pretty clearly. The point about Folk was supposed to be its understanding of roots music and how that understanding distanced it from mainstream culture; and that the insularity and willed ignorance of "anti-folk" leaves it open to the same pretensiousness that did in Folk. I still think that.

I didn't know Regina Spector was anti-folk. I like Regina Spector. I didn't know Ani de Franco was anti-folk. I respect her musicianship although that whole line-in-the-sand thing leaves me cold. I expect that like any other musical movement there are people doing good work in it and others who use it as a handy audience-building label that keeps them from having to be original.

Cynthia Spencer

November 27, 2008

I'm a bit late, but I was reading some of your old posts and find myself having to defend anti-folk. Ani DiFranco and Regina Spektor were both involved in the anti-folk scene in New York and, well, neither could be called worthless no-talents. I have heard the words, "I respect Ani DiFranco" come out of your mouth and I'm not afraid to post it here on your website where everyone can see. As for Regina, I know I haven't yet convinced you about her, but here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KwrMvNcWlR0
Give her one more chance. This is the right song. If you want to hear more after this one, I'd recommend "Back of a Truck." It should be in the related videos to the side.
Anti-folk is a rejuvenation of the folk movement that, rather than reiterating the same old songs that (ahem) the previous generation reiterated themselves ad nauseam, brings a lightness and a sense of humor (along with energy and emotional intensity) to music which, in the end, is supposed to be fun. Don't be such a moldy fig, man. You were young and tried something different once, too.

G

November 19, 2008

Is it just my imagination, or did "Election #3" disappear from your blog? I think there MAY be ghosts living in your computer, you should have that checked out... :p

G

November 17, 2008

Words cannot describe how elated I am at the events of two weeks ago. It's high time, it really is. On November 10th the Cover of the New Yorker magazine was a long red tunnel with a blue door at the end, how fitting, no? Finally we end 8 years of misguided decisions and reckless hunting trips for change; I have high hopes for the future of this country, finally... 'Yes we can' has been replaced by 'Yes we DID'.

Mr. Bumps

November 14, 2008

P.S.: I'm not certain that tanks would have appeared in Canada, say, or San Marino, or Fiji (wouldn't be much room for them there anyway, I imagine), but the point is very well-taken.

Mr. Bumps

November 12, 2008

I actually know a few home-schoolers who are not some weird combination of control freaks and ostriches. They chose to go that route because they are or were so unhappy about the generally sorry state of public education nowadays. (One family lives in NH, one in MD.) Yes, I suspect that a substantial majority of home-schoolers do so for what the rest of us might call rather unenlightened reasons, but there are more reasons than just those unenlightened ones to make that decision.

Mr. Bumps

October 22, 2008

Been too quiet on this page for too long, sooooo...allow me to repeat birthday wishes a week late. Just like last year. Autumn is again in the air and a welcome feeling it is, too. Does Seattle get autumn?

Dad

August 15, 2008

Loved your comments on "St. James Infirmary". It's really a classic, and it has a fascinating history. It first appeared in this country, described as a traditional folksong and recorded by Cab Calloway and Louis Armstrong (separately) in 1928 or 1930, One of them, I can't tell which, claimed that it was originally entitled "The Gambler's Blues", but I couldn't find any such song in the Google.

Wikipedia says that its source is an English folksong called "The Unfortunate Rake" (with the intriguing possibility of a title like "Young Man Cut Down In His Prime" also cited). According to them, it was first "collected" in 1906, under the "Rake" title, by Henry Hammond. This sounds like a stretch to me, but Wikipedia does point out that "like most folksongs, there is much variation from one version to another". They claim that both tune and lyrics have evolved as far as "The Dying Cowboy" and "The Streets of Laredo", which seems to be an even bigger stretch.

One true example of the durability of the "real" "St. James Infirmary" is the fact that the song has been used in figure skating competitions, most notably by Maria Butyrskaya in 1999.

Christy

July 26, 2008

The Band was and still is the best band who ever existed on planet earth! Not only were each and every one of them incredible musicians but three of them possessed the most beautiful voices I have ever had the pleasure to hear. My favorite album by The Band would have to be "The Band". That was their masterpiece.

nephew g

July 14, 2008

Thank you for bringing to light the many evils of *gasp* guitar hero. it's very popular amongst those who are "video-game inclined" (among them, I am not) at my school. I find it uninteresting and, as you say, no test of any sort of musical ability whatsoever. I have had a similar experience as you have with a friend telling me he could play the guitar, if I would only watch. As it turns out he meant he could play guitar hero; to this day I have no idea if he even knows what a real guitar looks like.

hopefully some more of my generation will read this blog and realize there's more to life than video games.
I'm thinking of doing a similar post in my own blog pretty soon, but on a more general scale, rather than just guitar hero.

Hope all's well in WA., maybe I'll get out there someday to see you play live.
your CD New Hope and Wise Virgins has occupied the "top 25 most played" playlist on iTunes for a while now; I'm anticipating it's reign to go uncontested for a very long time : P

G

Margaret

June 18, 2008

Speaking of "House of the Rising Sun," don't forget that you can sing both "Amazing Grace" and "O Little Town of Bethlehem" to that melody. Usually freaks people out, the first time you do it...

Gilbert

May 28, 2008

Hey uncle Pete, recently found out that a cool new band is coming your way in Seattle this July. It's State Radio, a funk-reggae-ish band from Boston. If you've heard of Dispatch (my current favorite), then Chad Urmston (aka Chetro, Chad Stokes etc...) is the frontman of the band. It's a really cool sound, it's like Bob Marley meets something like Chicago or The Eagles. Basically it's some reggae with a more driven beat and better vocals. Dunno if you're interested, the concerts 13 bucks in advance, 15 day of show. It's at Chop Suey, not totally sure where it is, but I don't live in Seattle. Check em out on Youtube or iTunes or whatever.
I mean they're nothing on Dispatch (which I highly reccomend), but I think they're pretty good.
Gil

Mr. Bumps

May 8, 2008

Wish I had known (or remembered, maybe) that you were going...an old buddy of mine from McDowell and Jr. Phil days is a successful session bass player there. Plus Lou Gottlieb's son lives somewhere nearby, I understand. It would be very very interesting to hear stories of that man's life, I'd think, regardless of what anyone thinks of the Limeliters nowadays.

Charlie Bermant

May 6, 2008

Pretty inspiring, that post about Wanda Jackson. After reading it I recalled an ad I saw earlier in the day, that she was coming to town. After reading your take on her I resolved to attend. Looked it up, and she was scheduled at the Tractor....two days previously. Damn. Story of my life.

April 10, 2008

WOW thank you so much!!! I've never even heard of the Zombies before (like you, I am
surprised) and checked them out on iTunes, and was (again, like you, blown away) I'm hearing a Freddy Mercury-esque sound on "A Rose for Emily" and a few of the other songs.
I've heard the hit on the radio too, and I could never figure out who was doing it, so
thanks for solving that mystery for me!

Gil

Mr. Bumps

March 19, 2008

Take a gander at Oliver Sacks's recent book called Musicophilia. I got a copy for Christmas and have dipped into it briefly amid the crush of daily life. Not enough to give a review or anything more than a vague plug, but what I have read is fascinating...just why are humans so attuned to music in so many ways? It is completely useless... except... well, who knows why. Except it feels so good, even when it makes you feel so bad.

You know as well as I do that we triple-distilled musicians don't choose music. It chooses us. (I for one am convinced that I had absolutely no choice in the matter.) Music makes no sense at all and yet remains utterly compelling. It is something that teases us, haunts us, torments us, energizes us, drives us bonkers, all to no discernible end except pleasure, in the broadest sense of the term. And it is always there. There is no shutting it off or out.

So we learn to live with it, eh? And maybe harness it to some limited degree, to try to do some broader good with it...though who knows what that good might be.

C'est la guerre.

Pete

March 15, 2008

Did I say "early April"? I meant late April - the last week, to be exact. Apologies.

pete

March 15, 2008

Sam, the album is called "From the Island" and it's being mastered right now. I'm hoping I'll have it ready for my trip to Nashville in early April. The tracks are:

Went Too Far
From the Island
Dark by the Rain
Holding On
Root Man Boogie*
The Afterwhile
Portland Blues
Goodbye Pork-Pie Hat
A Woman Left Lonely
It's Supposed to Snow at Christmas
I Made My Baby Cry
Delicious Cookies
Beale Street Blues

*back from the grave, thanks to Todd Houghton.

sam

March 15, 2008

Where's this new album we keep hearing about, and what's on it?

Liam Graham

March 8, 2008

Hey, Pete,

Glad Root Man Boogie has been resurrected! I love that one. I love the line about the old root man "Dancin' like an old oak tree" ... or something like that ...

Cheers,
Liam

Noam Sane

February 19, 2008

The song "Love Is a Losing Game" on "Back to Black" is the best refutation to your argument I could think of. Deeply soulful and real, and a string arrangement to die for.

That said, I agree with much of your argument. Todd Rundgren's "Soul Brother," on his unjustly ignored "Liars" album of a couple years back, made the point as well:

It's just a murky, jerky groove.
It motivates but it don't move
And all the pimps and funky divas
Crank out their empty testifying
They mixed it all in a bowl but then they
Forgot to add a pinch of soul

Can't find a little a bit of soul
Cause it's so hip to be a ho
And all the brothers act like crooks
And all the kids in the suburbs write the radio hooks

Pete

February 18, 2008

That's a worthwhile remark, Ned, and I'm glad you posted it. I get the feeling that there are just as many good young musicians as there always were, but every time I go looking for them I have to wade through a dismal swamp of imitators, half-talents, and corporate sludge. So I get discouraged and stop. I like Ryan Adams, although alt-country seems to involve as much posing as the regular variety. Let me think some more. I'll get back to you. vvv

ned

February 18, 2008

Nice last line, man. But, hey, is there anybody new that you like?

Liam

February 11, 2008

Hey, Pete,
So glad you're doing the regular blog entries now. Your take on things is always interesting, and always evidences a great deal of thought and consideration. You definitely make me think in ways I haven't thought before, and - whether I end up agreeing with you or not - that's something special.

All the best,
Liam

Bob

February 10, 2008

Wow! I don't know what to think about that last blog entry. You're looking at things from a different angle than I've ever heard before. Keep it up. You may not be right but you'e interesting.

pete

February 4, 2008

Usually double-neck guitars have 6- and 12-string necks. Jimmy Page used this combination with Led Zeppelin in concert, the better to play the 12-string intro to "Stairway to Heaven" before moving to the other neck for the solo. I've also seen guitar/mandolin, guitar/guitar, and guitar/bass combinations. I THINK Mike Campbell was playing a guitar/12-string double-neck but I'm not all the way sure. I do know he switched necks at least once. Perhaps there was some pickup combination or other sound effect that he wanted. You'll notice he moved his hands very carefully.

Margaret

February 4, 2008

What is the point of a guitar with two necks? I was watching Tom Petty at the Super Bowl last night, and one of his bandmates was playing a guitar with two necks. I know that adds up to twelve strings, but I can't imagine it actually sounds like a twelve string guitar. So what's the point? Are the two necks tuned differently, theoretically adding to the instrument's range? (But you have a bass for that...) And wouldn't you spend a lot of time bashing your fingers on the lower neck, when playing the upper one? I mean, really - what gives?

Andreas Gygli

December 27, 2007

Do you have the lyrics from Buddy Boy Hawkins:
"Hawkins' Blues" - I try to learn it in the version of Rory Block.
Thanks.
Andy

Lindsey Meyer

December 25, 2007

I've been listening to Gathering Light quite a bit this week and it's such a pleasure to hear. One spends so much time trying to avoid all the awful Christmas music in the stores that it's a relief to hear your stripped-down and elegant approach to the carols. They have your stamp on them for sure, but you let the real spirits speak that are bottled up in all those familiar musical notes. Thanks for making this album.

New London, NH

December 24, 2007

Merry Christmas from your sister and (by extension) your parents - one of whom is now looking over her shoulder and commenting...

I hope we'll touch base over the next couple of days - it would be great to hear what you've been up to! Lovelovelove, M. (and M&D, natch)

elena

November 29, 2007

hi
in your christmas album, do you sing? I need music for the store but am sick of bing crosby and retro compilations

Mr. Bumps

October 22, 2007

So rather than be a week early I'm a week late. As you know I have a fairly good reason for that, but regardless, here's hoping it was a happy day and that all continues to percolate as it should. Middle age is not for the faint of heart, eh?

Tovey knew what he was talking about, practically all the time. That whole English thing about how it's better to be sincere than talented and hard-working is mostly a pretty fragrant load of pferdescheiss and it's good to see through it, the sooner the better. And I'm an Anglophile. Olivier never got to where he was just by being sincere, any more than have David Willcocks or Tony Blair or Posh Spice.

Mind you, talented and hard-working amateurs have done remarkable things over the decades, but what allowed them to do that was not their amateur status but rather their talent and hard work.

But you knew that.

son spencer

October 6, 2007

http://youtube.com/watch?v=4PDKStGR0kM

speaking of great great great songwriting check this one out and try to hear the lyrics and ignore the pitchy voice

son spencer

October 6, 2007

hey i was just checkin out yer site and everything.. big ups and respect from all yer east coast homies.

i ran across this..http://vimeo.com/322463

it's amanda palmer doing(about half of) a dead kennedys song,beautifully.
i never liked this song... i had a live DK album and always skipped this track. but as always amanda has a real talent for playing things the way they should be played

speaking of amanda and great great great great great great songwriting check this out http://youtube.com/watch?v=4PDKStGR0kM and try to listen to the lyrics
much love
c

pete

October 8, 2007

Is this Billy Idol, teasing me about my upcoming birthd....

Mpff.

Hey, Little Sister

October 8, 2007

Only a week to go...

louanna farnsworthy

September 13, 2007

PICTURES!
We need fresh pictures!

Liam Graham

August 23, 2007

Hey Pete,
Just dropping by to say I really dig the videos. It's great to 'see' you again, while hearing your art.

Hope to see you again one of these days!

Liam

Doc

August 12, 2007

Hi Pete,

I finally got around to checking out your site, looks great! It's good to see your lookin' good and doing well, the new videos are much more flattering and representative of what you can do. By the way Mystery Woman Blues is a knock out surprise, (the only tune I was not familiar with). Keep up the good work, it shows.
Everybody's doing well 'round here; it’s been a decent festival season, with more to come.

We'll see you next time your on de udher side,
Doc

Mr. Bumps

July 25, 2007

I don't particularly know from Clapton, but I feel confident you can play like him. What I like the best is you playing like you. FYI, went to a Leo Kottke concert last year in Exeter. Steve B. (who was not there) said he figured the place would be full of guitar geeks (his phrase) trying to figure out how the heck he does it. Which I'm sure was true. What I decided is that he must have six or seven fingers on each hand, and that just about everything he does sounds the same. Which is too bad. And which is a different way of saying I like what you do, precisely because it's all so different from one thing to the next.
If I'm not supposed to diss (or in this case, semi-diss) others here, say so and delete. But it's what I think.

Margaret

July 20, 2007

Hi, Big Bwadoo!

I just zipped over to YouTube to watch the videos - NOT FAIR!!!!! First, I started singing harmony on "In the Pines," which took my office mate *totally* by surprise (my current computer has no speakers, so I have to listen over headphones, with the result that she didn't realize what I was listening to), then I hopped over to "From the Island" and got all weepy at my desk. Luckily, "Mystery Woman Blues" got me back on my usual even keel, so no one needs to know about this except you, me, my co-worker, and the thousands of people who read your blog and the discussion pages. What a relief...

Still remembering how much fun I had out there with you last month, trying to figure out when I can get out there again. See you at Dad's b-day! XOXO, M.

pete

July 10, 2007

Dear Mr. Bumps,
All I can say about our relative merits as musicians is that I have been saved by your erudition considerably more often than you have by mine. I doubt very much I would be anything like the player, singer, writer, or thinker I am without your example all along the way. Your sensibility informs everything I play, and there's only two or three people I can say that about. I'm very grateful.

Mr. Bumps

July 9, 2007

You know, I was mentally drafting some long screed for this spot a few weeks back about something or other I saw here, when life kinda took a really sharp left and didn't use the brakes. But as I sit here thinking things over, I realize that even though we are both musicians in our own very different ways, and if I may say so both very good ones, you are a better one than I am. Why? Because you have such a wider range than I do. Me, I'm a walking taproot, endlessly and uselessly informed and experienced in one increasingly marginalized area. You may not have the depth there that I do, but you have _so many_ areas where you do excel, and any attempt I might make to string together two or three coherent syllables would end up being all vowels, no consonants. My loss. If you're a dinosaur then I'm a troglodyte or a coelacanth or something.

I am in the process of digitizing a big bunch of LPs before they get tossed, and I will definitely include yours from way back when, and send the result to you for use as you see fit. Hmm...a CD with surface noise??!?

With love from Mr. Bumps (in memory of him who bestowed that name upon me way back when)

bubbles

June 25, 2007

Hey Peter! Thanks for making Flo, Trixie and me get up on that stage Saturday night! Trixie and Flo sang out like stars and I saw stars and can't remember a thing. YOu made it all happen through your great coaching and band-leader talents!
XOXO Bubbles

Dan Fjelstad

June 18, 2007

I'd like to extend a kudos to Peter. With endless patience and more dedication than I would have expected, he has produced a CD of 15 of my songs that we began recording in January. He made changes, such as tempo, to songs that I wrote over 20 years ago, and made them different, fresh, and better. Of course, having him add the guitar licks that I could not do myself, and even some drums, truly round out the disk. I highly recommend his services as a producer. Thanks, Pete.