It’s been a standing joke between me and whichever beat
combo he’s just left that Mr Wendell - the artist formerly known as The Singer (see blogs passim) - is terribly good at starting
bands, but not so capable at actually being in
them. I think generally it’s the hours you have to put in, although having said
that, very many of the actual minutes have been a joy in themselves. He once
left my group Gods Kitchen after missing a rehearsal because he’d rather go
kart racing, for example, but to be honest the worst thing you could accuse him
of is being slightly ahead of the curve, in that these days I think we all
would.
Nevertheless, we’re at it again. After last year’s
excursion into West Coast territory with Dawes-inspired electric combo
Theodore, we’ve decided to carry on the experiment and diversify into the
acoustic arena in a similar fashion to that as would be experienced by a
newly-signed electric combo whose record company can’t afford the Travelodge
bills for the whole outfit and so have sent the two guitarists out on a promo
tour of radio stations instead.
Thus, after many years’ delicate shuffling around the
subject Mr Wendell can finally relax into the role of David Crosby and I can once
again fully unleash my inner Neil Young (I don’t need much of an excuse really,
the injudicious dropping of a hat is usually enough to set me off). Students of
West Coast musicology will probably note that this is not a combination that
has previously met with unalloyed success, however we do not necessarily see
this as a barrier to exploring the possibilities offered by such a pairing,
given our prior attempts to capitalise on the musical chemistry which has brought
together such titans as John and George, Don and Kootch, Dave Dee and Tich,
Brian and Michael, and Willson-Piper, Keppel and Betty* both on stage and in
the studio. We’ve written some new songs, we’ve raided our back catalogue for suitable items for refurbishment, and most importantly we’ve invited some eye candy along for the ride on vocals and made sure that our first gig is at her birthday party. It’s not an original trick – in fact it’s exactly the same principle that we used for our first live performance around this time last year, but as the old saw says – if it ain’t broke, it’s clearly never been owned by a drummer**
I fondly recall the first time Mr Wendell and I sat in a room discussing our possible future musical direction - me hunched over a record player trying to decide which Peter Gabriel track would be most likely to entice him into a lifetime of collaborative musical experiments and him sat in an armchair, trying to keep his dinner down. To this day he’s still never heard the other three and a half sides of The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway, and I know that for a fact. In contrast, when we got together last week, rather than try to drop the stylus down on the right song on the album and grab an acoustic guitar in order to be able to start playing along before the track kicked in I processed an electric guitar sound through some modelling software on an iPad and read the lyrics to a cover version we were thinking of doing off his phone. How times have changed. What a long strange trip it’s been. Whatever happened to the west?
And so, just before we return to the electric arena with the full band, we will take a moment to expose ourselves willingly to the lingering scrutiny afforded by the two acoustic set up, brave the slingbats and arrows*** of outrageous fortune and grasp the opportunity to perform minor key reflections on our own mortality and morality. Or, as we say in the mournful singer-songwriter world, Carpe Dm.
*note to sub-ed – please check some of these sources.
**Hello subs – me again. One more thing – this may be a
mis-quotation. Pls check Oxford Dikker of Quotaggers to verify.
***Again, this one might need looking up online.
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