Here's a link to the NY1 report on New Atlantis and interview with John Swenson
http://www.ny1.com/content/top_stories/139941/ny1-online--author-john-swenson-discusses-how-musicians-helped-new-orleans-after-katrina
Friday, May 27, 2011
Thursday, May 26, 2011
Washboard Chaz; New Atlantis in OffBeat
The June issue of OffBeat just came online. My cover story on Washboard Chaz is in there as well as an excerpt from my book New Atlantis. You can see both pieces as well as Alex Rawls' interview with mayor Mitch Landrieu and a wrap up of this year's New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival at:
www.offbeat.com
www.offbeat.com
Wednesday, May 25, 2011
Porter, Batiste, Stoltz legal benefit
Whatever the legal merits of the case against the New Orleans musicians George Porter Jr., Russell Batiste and Brian Stoltz may be, the result should not bankrupt such important resources. A very important benefit to raise legal funds to enable the trio to defend itself takes place May 27 at the Howling Wolf. Legal battles pitting managers and record labels against New Orleans musicians always seem to end up with the lawyers getting far too much of the money. Anyone with a beef and the money to back it up can file a lawsuit; the lawyers win either way. But defending yourself from unjust accusations is always punitively expensive, so the musicians lose either way. Here's a link to Keith Spera's explanation of the story:
http://www.nola.com/music/index.ssf/2011/05/benefit_to_help_defray_legal_e.html
http://www.nola.com/music/index.ssf/2011/05/benefit_to_help_defray_legal_e.html
Sunday, May 22, 2011
Zeke Speaks
Here's a transcript of an interview I did with Ed Volker of the Radiators shortly after he announced he was leaving the band last year:
ED VOLKER: My story is that after 9/11 the road started squeezing tighter and tighter. There was the enhanced security, and our fortunes started waning a little bit so we weren't playing multiple nights when we traveled, so there was a lot more roadwork which meant a lot more riding from town to town. After Katrina the finances started getting even tighter. Over the last few years I've been more and more compressed and I'm just exhausted from the squeezebox of the road. I'm looking forward to a quieter, less stressful life.
John Swenson: So you've been wrestling with this decision for a while.
E.V.: Yeah. It started about five years ago, slightly before Katrina. The band has made difficult economic decisions in order to keep on rolling. Compared to other friends I know we've done remarkably well. But the price you have to pay for that is you make less money and you work harder. The road doesn't soften up and meanwhile I'm certainly getting older and I'm not snapping back like I used to. I've been debating it seriously for about two years. It just got to feeling like it's time.
J.S.: Was there a straw that broke the camel's back?
E.V.: Not really. Nothing dramatic. Just going through the same changes we all must go through. Watching your pennies and living on deadlines and gotta get to the airport... just... the road, y'know? More than anything else. I love the guys and I love our music. It wasnt an emotional thing of 'I cant work with this guy anymore' or 'You're playing the song wrong,' nothing to do with any of that stuff. I thought this was the most caring and fair way to make my departure, to give a lot of lead time so if the rest of the guys want to continue on with the Radiators in some fashion or another it's with my blessing. Whatever anybody does it gives us all some lead time to decide waht the next step would be.
I've gone through variations of three large feelings. One is relief to finally get away from it all. Another is complete heartbreak because a large portion of my life has been dedicated to the Radiators and the music. And the other thing is I'm scared. I don't know what the future's gonna bring. I've had a posse to work with for the last 33 years. Actually far before that I ran with the Rhapsodizers and before that it was the Dogs. I've been running with possees since I was 15. This is a major life change.
J.S.: Have you thought about what you'll do?
E.V.: I have all these little interests. I have a great affinity for being out of the public view, working underground, the true underground, the artist's cave. I've been doing a lot of archiving of my old songs. I have various interests, books that I study. I'm not making any plans at all. I'm thinking of taking six to 12 months of not being in the public eye at all, doing any performances whatsoever.
J.S.: So you wouldn't mind if the Radiators continued on without you.
E.V.: Not at all. It all remains to be seen.
J.S.: Are you thinking along the lines of doing a Last Waltz type event?
E.V.: There have been some discussions. There was an idea of doing a studio album. It seems more fitting that maybe we do three nights in a row at Tip's for our swan song and make that the project. We could call it some kind of variation of Work Done On Premises because our first recording, barring the single at Luigi's 'Suck the Heads,' our first complete work was the LP Work Done on Premises recorded in the spring of 1980.
It all remains to be seen. Man proposes, god disposes. This all presupposes that all of us are healthy enough to make it to Tipitinas in June of 2011. We'll see. We don't know what's going to happen.
J.S.: It strikes me that this is the end of an era of New Orleans music. Not everybody would agree with me when I say that the Radiators were the carriers of a particular type of New Orleans culture but to me that seems very clear that the end of the Radiators would mean the end of a specific type of New Orleans rock culture.
E. V.: We embodied the idea of the eclecticism that defined 60s bands like Little Feat and the Dead, and the early Stones, but we did it in our uniquely New Orleans fashion. There was nobody quite like us in the way we mixed things up. We seemed to have our fingers in lots of pies. In that way we were unique. While we were a part of New Orleans music we were something apart from it as well. We didn't have a set approach or style. We had Dave's country rock thing, then riffing on the Meters with 'Suck the Head' then a Merle Haggard song, a Blind Willie Johnson song. We covered a lot of different song spaces.
J.S.: You are also a direct link to an era of New Orleans music that no longer exists because you actually played with Professor Longhair and Earl King.
E.V: That's so much a part of us that I take it for granted.
J.S.: The new wave of very interesting eclectic New Orleans rock bands doesn't have that connection. That's been cut. You guys are the last link to that. These new rock bands could just as eaily come from San Francisco or Portland, Oregon or Minneapolis or Brooklyn New York. In fact, some of them do come from other places.
J.S.: Looking back, does anything stand out?
E.V.: It's a kaleidoscopic merry go round or rather roller coaster I should say.
J.S.: You have a close relationship with the MOM's ball dating back to the Rhapsodizers.
E.V.: Before that. The first MOMs ball there was live music Camile and I were in the band. It was a band called Sweet Magnolia. As long as there's been live music at the MOMs ball -- the first year there wasn't -- I've been in the band.
J.S.: What is the band's legacy?
E.V.: That's a tree that has lots of branches. What will it be remembered for? Part of it is the eclecticism of the music, part of it is the good heartedness of the shows and part of it is an extension of that in that our fans became communities onto themselves, kind of floating communities. About eight or ten years ago when a lot of people had more disposable income I guess people would fly around to catch us in various places around the country. There was a lot of community spirit there, sort of like the fans created their own Social Aid and Pleasure Clubs wherever they went.
J.S.: The connections between those people don't necessarily end even if the band isn't there to conduct the service. What kind of feedback have you been getting?
E.V.: They're kind of in a state of shock. I don't really do a lot of social networking. My idea of social networking is Terranova's and walking on the bayou and hanging out with friends on my porch. I don't really go on line to see what people are saying.
J.S.: Will Jolly House continue?
E.V.: Jolly House is a nice little thing. We played last night at Chickie Wah Wahs. I don't know what Reggie's going to do and Joe's still with the Iguanas. I want to get away from ambition, the way the Radiators lifestyle for me was a driven-ness. I'm not going to translate that headline deadline reality to any other entity. I like playing with Jolly House but I have no plans or ambitions except to do the occasional gig.
J.S.: You must be happy about what you achieved.
E.V.: Oh yeah, I got to live my dream. When I was a kid, first starting to get turned on to music when I was 10 years old, when I first started to write songs I would design my own LP covers and write the whole back cover and list all the songs. So back when I was 10 years old I was dreaming of having this reality and I got to do it.
ED VOLKER: My story is that after 9/11 the road started squeezing tighter and tighter. There was the enhanced security, and our fortunes started waning a little bit so we weren't playing multiple nights when we traveled, so there was a lot more roadwork which meant a lot more riding from town to town. After Katrina the finances started getting even tighter. Over the last few years I've been more and more compressed and I'm just exhausted from the squeezebox of the road. I'm looking forward to a quieter, less stressful life.
John Swenson: So you've been wrestling with this decision for a while.
E.V.: Yeah. It started about five years ago, slightly before Katrina. The band has made difficult economic decisions in order to keep on rolling. Compared to other friends I know we've done remarkably well. But the price you have to pay for that is you make less money and you work harder. The road doesn't soften up and meanwhile I'm certainly getting older and I'm not snapping back like I used to. I've been debating it seriously for about two years. It just got to feeling like it's time.
J.S.: Was there a straw that broke the camel's back?
E.V.: Not really. Nothing dramatic. Just going through the same changes we all must go through. Watching your pennies and living on deadlines and gotta get to the airport... just... the road, y'know? More than anything else. I love the guys and I love our music. It wasnt an emotional thing of 'I cant work with this guy anymore' or 'You're playing the song wrong,' nothing to do with any of that stuff. I thought this was the most caring and fair way to make my departure, to give a lot of lead time so if the rest of the guys want to continue on with the Radiators in some fashion or another it's with my blessing. Whatever anybody does it gives us all some lead time to decide waht the next step would be.
I've gone through variations of three large feelings. One is relief to finally get away from it all. Another is complete heartbreak because a large portion of my life has been dedicated to the Radiators and the music. And the other thing is I'm scared. I don't know what the future's gonna bring. I've had a posse to work with for the last 33 years. Actually far before that I ran with the Rhapsodizers and before that it was the Dogs. I've been running with possees since I was 15. This is a major life change.
J.S.: Have you thought about what you'll do?
E.V.: I have all these little interests. I have a great affinity for being out of the public view, working underground, the true underground, the artist's cave. I've been doing a lot of archiving of my old songs. I have various interests, books that I study. I'm not making any plans at all. I'm thinking of taking six to 12 months of not being in the public eye at all, doing any performances whatsoever.
J.S.: So you wouldn't mind if the Radiators continued on without you.
E.V.: Not at all. It all remains to be seen.
J.S.: Are you thinking along the lines of doing a Last Waltz type event?
E.V.: There have been some discussions. There was an idea of doing a studio album. It seems more fitting that maybe we do three nights in a row at Tip's for our swan song and make that the project. We could call it some kind of variation of Work Done On Premises because our first recording, barring the single at Luigi's 'Suck the Heads,' our first complete work was the LP Work Done on Premises recorded in the spring of 1980.
It all remains to be seen. Man proposes, god disposes. This all presupposes that all of us are healthy enough to make it to Tipitinas in June of 2011. We'll see. We don't know what's going to happen.
J.S.: It strikes me that this is the end of an era of New Orleans music. Not everybody would agree with me when I say that the Radiators were the carriers of a particular type of New Orleans culture but to me that seems very clear that the end of the Radiators would mean the end of a specific type of New Orleans rock culture.
E. V.: We embodied the idea of the eclecticism that defined 60s bands like Little Feat and the Dead, and the early Stones, but we did it in our uniquely New Orleans fashion. There was nobody quite like us in the way we mixed things up. We seemed to have our fingers in lots of pies. In that way we were unique. While we were a part of New Orleans music we were something apart from it as well. We didn't have a set approach or style. We had Dave's country rock thing, then riffing on the Meters with 'Suck the Head' then a Merle Haggard song, a Blind Willie Johnson song. We covered a lot of different song spaces.
J.S.: You are also a direct link to an era of New Orleans music that no longer exists because you actually played with Professor Longhair and Earl King.
E.V: That's so much a part of us that I take it for granted.
J.S.: The new wave of very interesting eclectic New Orleans rock bands doesn't have that connection. That's been cut. You guys are the last link to that. These new rock bands could just as eaily come from San Francisco or Portland, Oregon or Minneapolis or Brooklyn New York. In fact, some of them do come from other places.
J.S.: Looking back, does anything stand out?
E.V.: It's a kaleidoscopic merry go round or rather roller coaster I should say.
J.S.: You have a close relationship with the MOM's ball dating back to the Rhapsodizers.
E.V.: Before that. The first MOMs ball there was live music Camile and I were in the band. It was a band called Sweet Magnolia. As long as there's been live music at the MOMs ball -- the first year there wasn't -- I've been in the band.
J.S.: What is the band's legacy?
E.V.: That's a tree that has lots of branches. What will it be remembered for? Part of it is the eclecticism of the music, part of it is the good heartedness of the shows and part of it is an extension of that in that our fans became communities onto themselves, kind of floating communities. About eight or ten years ago when a lot of people had more disposable income I guess people would fly around to catch us in various places around the country. There was a lot of community spirit there, sort of like the fans created their own Social Aid and Pleasure Clubs wherever they went.
J.S.: The connections between those people don't necessarily end even if the band isn't there to conduct the service. What kind of feedback have you been getting?
E.V.: They're kind of in a state of shock. I don't really do a lot of social networking. My idea of social networking is Terranova's and walking on the bayou and hanging out with friends on my porch. I don't really go on line to see what people are saying.
J.S.: Will Jolly House continue?
E.V.: Jolly House is a nice little thing. We played last night at Chickie Wah Wahs. I don't know what Reggie's going to do and Joe's still with the Iguanas. I want to get away from ambition, the way the Radiators lifestyle for me was a driven-ness. I'm not going to translate that headline deadline reality to any other entity. I like playing with Jolly House but I have no plans or ambitions except to do the occasional gig.
J.S.: You must be happy about what you achieved.
E.V.: Oh yeah, I got to live my dream. When I was a kid, first starting to get turned on to music when I was 10 years old, when I first started to write songs I would design my own LP covers and write the whole back cover and list all the songs. So back when I was 10 years old I was dreaming of having this reality and I got to do it.
Rev. Frank Zappa on the deficit
The great moral philosopher Frank Zappa had the perfect solution to the deficit crisis back in the 1980s when he ran for president. In light of the terrific advice we're getting from religious zealots these days it's worth revisiting his bold economic plan:
"Tax the churches. Tax the businesses owned by the churches!"
That's our sermon for today. Thank you.
"Tax the churches. Tax the businesses owned by the churches!"
That's our sermon for today. Thank you.
Rapture this, suckers
Spent the day of rapture drinking beer and eating sausages at a local bar. Old fart face still around on the day after, and he has all that money people gave him to console himself with. Doesn't this guy owe everyone on earth $1.99 or something for wasting our time with his phony science fiction drivel? The Bible is a cool book about human life but people should stop using it as an excuse to tell other people how much better than them they are. Jesus is not coming to turn all dead "believers" (I believe they are actually dead, y'know?) into Norman Rockwell zombies, and unfortunately he's not coming to whisk away all the living ones either. I'd gladly take my chances with "The Rapture" if only to get rid of all these gun toting, rich people worshiping, bedroom window peeking, abortion doctor killing right wing hypocrites who call themselves Christians. Christ did not keep company with jerks like that when he actually was around to pick his friends.
Saturday, May 21, 2011
Jazz Fest thoughts
I've been busy with the release of New Atlantis: Musicians Battle for the Future of New Orleans, so I haven't posted lately. I did write some pieces about what happened in late April and early May in New Orleans for OffBeat's upcoming June issue, including a lengthy report on Chaz Fest. Overall the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival Presented by New Orleans Musicians was an obvious success due in no small part to spectacular weather, perhaps the best ever. I have to say I felt cheated by the presence of the likes of Kid Rock and Bon Jovi not so much because they watered down the music, which of course they did. There was plenty of great music to go around at Jazz Fest, though. The problem from where I stand is that the celebrity quasi-musicians at Jazz Fest distracted too many journalists from writing about the local music at this festival, which was shockingly dismissed or simply glossed over in many national magazine reports on the fest. I won't single anyone out but a casual glance will reveal who was more interested in the opportunity to weigh in on Entertainment Tonight regulars than to report on the magnificent music that is only available in New Orleans. National readers heard about who they already know and could easily see in their own town on the rest of the national tour that Jazz Fest was only a stop on. They did not read about Irma Thomas' heartrending recollection of her recently-deceased mother during her Mahalia Jackson tribute. The historic final Jazz Fest performance of the Radiators was sniffed at. You won't read anything about the joyous reunion of the Bluerunners at the Fais Do Do stage. Dr. John's stirring performances with Dave Bartholomew playing trumpet on "The Monkey Speaks His Mind" and Mac himself on guitar paying tribute to Earl King with "Let the Good Times Roll" went unremarked. Once again the eloquent warnings of the Voice of the Wetlands All-Stars fell on deaf ears, which is one reason why Tab Benoit's speech urging listeners to bypass the media in dealing with this problem had such resonance. Anders Osborne's best big stage rock performance of the festival was an afterthought in most reporters' notebooks. I'm sorry I didn't do a more aggressive job of finding a way to report on this singular -- and very imperiled -- event myself. I'll add some posts on my personal highlights in the next few days.
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