The Thing About "That Thing"

Most of us think of Tom Hanks in terms of his unparalleled acting ability, the vast number of roles he's played , the inevitable description as the film industry's "Everyman" , but we don't often think of him as a writer and director, why is why you should check out Hanks' 1996 masterpiece, "That Thing You Do." The movie captures the rise and fall of the "One-ders", a very obvious play on the term  "one hit wonders", the bands that strike gold once only to fade into obscurity, like "The Night Chicago Died" by Paper Lace or "Brandy" by Looking Glass as well as many others. The movie is just about perfect in its depiction of the band's rapid rise and fall.

It's 1964 in Pittsburgh when Tom Everett Scott, as drummer Guy Patterson, joins up with Jonathon Schaech, as singer/musician James Mattingly, to form the band. They are officially discovered  by Tom Hanks, playing "Mr. White", a talent scout for Playtone Records, who proceeds to package them as the latest "teen sensations". The film depicts the process of manufacturing a hit, from the endless sucking up to the deejays who controlled the radio playlists to the touring shows of Playtone's hit artists, which Hanks captures perfectly, slyly poking fun at the names and personas of the mid Fifties - mid Sixties performers. The Onders' rise to the ultimate honor - their televized national debut on an ersatz version of Ed Sullivan, complete with screaming teens.

The first major crack in the Oneders' facade originates with James Mattingly, who begins to resist "cookie cutter" fame by demanding more input into the band's output, so to speak. The funniest aspect of Mattingly's quest for "creativity" occurs when Playtone's President Sol Siler (Played for max laughs by Alex Rocco) meets the Onders for a quick cameo, spending exactly 10 seconds with his "hottest" act before starting in on a massive deli sandwich, keeping up a continual dialogue with his entourage. Mattingly decides to take the initiative, planting himself squarely in front of Siler, innocently inquiring about maybe recording some original music for the label. The mogul's reaction is classic - he chokes on his corned beef,demanding that Mattingly be removed from his sight immediately, plus reminded never to speak unless spoken to, a moment that sarcastically summarizes the typical label-artist relationship of that era.

The fissure widens further when - once again - Mattingly freaks over a tongue-in-cheek photo caption supered over him during their TV debut implying that he's engaged. Liv Tyler does a superb job as Mattingly's girlfriend, faithful, broken-hearted after she follows him to California only to be spurned and humiliated , finally forced to speak up for herself, dissing Mattingly in front of the band and Hanks. The next day, Mattingly quits, walking out of the studio. Drummer Patterson watches helplessly as the band quickly unravels, Hanks' Mr. White providing wry commentary on the fact that most groups typically collapse and re-form, reassuring Scott's Guy Patterson that he has talent and a future. Patterson pays homage to jazz pianist Del Paxton (Bill Cobbs) who catches him playing solo in the studio after the break-up and ends up sitting in with him. All the loose ends are neatly tied up as Scott finds Tyler in the hotel coffee shop about to head back to Pittsburgh. They discover their love for each other, and head off for marriage and a great lifestyle on the West Coast. Hanks' goes to the trouble of letting the audience know the fate of the characters, with the ironic twist that the Mattingly character supposedly formed a new band and recorded three gold records for Playtone.

The movie exudes positive energy, tongue-in-cheek satire and captures the moment perfectly - when rock and roll was re-invigorated by the new wave of "teen sensation" bands - the Beatles the Stones, and who could forget - The One-ders !!!

Boogie Children – Happy Birthday John Lee Hooker and Robert Cray

Besides the fact that they were both born in August – John Lee Hooker, on either August 22, 1917 or maybe 1915, 1920 or 1923, depending on what kind of mood John Lee was in when he was asked the question – and Robert Cray, born August 1, 1953 – the two guitar virtuosos actually played together, Cray’s band in its entirety backing Hooker on 1992’s “Mr. Lucky.”, not to mention Cray sitting in on selected tracks from “Boom Boom..” Both musicians have made a mark on the blues.

“I’m the first person that really got the boogie goin’” John Lee claimed, as documented in Ted Gioia’s definite book “Delta Blues” (“Hooker’s Boogie”) , but he also said he couldn’t really explain what the sound was”…It’s just there…And it just comes out.” Most musicians complained that Hooker was very hard to follow, since he admitted he never played the same song the same way twice. His “boogie” music eschewed the typical drumbeat for a pulsating, throbbing sound defined totally by Hooker’s guitar. Although Hooker was born just outside of Clarksdale, Mississippi in the heart of the Delta, it was his migration northward to Detroit in the l940s that defined his music, gave it an edge. The raw power of Hooker’s first “hit” drove it to the top of the R & B charts in 1948, even though “Boogie Children” is really just one chord repeated over and over. Although he is best known for “Boom Boom” and a plethora of other one of a kind creations, one of my personal favorites is a relatively obscure but recognizably Hooker ditty called “Drugstore Woman”, in which he lampoons “drugstore girls” for wearing “lipstick and powder” as well as “nyyy-lon stockings”, a sort of gonzo social commentary pointing out that, when it comers to romance, don’t judge the book by looking at the cover. Hooker’s life reflected his music, especially “Whiskey and Women” in which John Lee points out” I had a lot of money at one time.” He survived and prospered over bad decisions and rocky relationships by simply jamming with everyone from Canned Heat to Carlos Santana to Keith Richard to Robert Cray until John Lee Hooker died peacefully in his sleep on June 21, 2001. Hooker’s powerful “boogie” sound combined with the raw and frequently raunchy lyrics on tunes like “In the Mood,” Boom Boom”, and “Crawling Kingsnake” stands out as a significant contribution to blues and rock alike.

Robert Cray’s prowess on the guitar is equal to Hooker’s, but his style is to pluck the notes out of the strings in precise, seemingly endless riffs instead of chord progressions. I was immediately drawn to “Smoking Gun” the first time I heard it, the fluid riffs matching the rising anxiety in Cray’s voice as he describes good loving gone bad, but infidelity and conflict figure prominently in some of his best tunes like “Guess I Showed Her” and :”Chicken in the Kitchen”. Robert Cray was born on August 1, 1953 in Columbus, Georgia but his breakout didn’t come until the release of his third album “Strong Persuader” which earned Cray a Grammy and the “crossover” (Meaning a song that can appeal successfully to two different musical audiences as defined by Billboard’s charts, like Country and Western and Easy Listening, or R & B and Urban Contemporary) single “Smokin’ Gun” gave him recognition. Cray’s artistry can be heard on three of John Lee Hooker’s albums, most notably on “Mr. Lucky” in 1992, the entire Cray band backing Hooker on the title track. Robert Cray has also opened several times for his friend Eric Clapton, and was inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame in 2011.

In a manner of speaking, the “boogie children” of August represent a generational leap from the down home backwoods sound that traveled from Mississippi to Michigan with John Lee Hooker to the more sophisticated urban musings of Robert Cray. They helped to shape Twentieth Century American music.

2012 Providence Roots Sound Session Sensation- Rock/Jazz/Ska/Soul/Salsa/Etc.

I've always maintained that the true test of a musician is a live performance - no chance to hide behind a phalanx of studio musicians or layers of synthesizers and drum machines, multiple takes and overdubs and the rest of the recording industry technology designed to enhance as well as manufacture talent. At an event like the Eighth Annual Roots Sound Session, held July 12-15,2012 in Downtown Providence, musicians have to rely on their own ability in the raw with the crowd as combination critics and reviewers. Fortunately, the diverse lineup and all aspects of the event, put together by Len Cabral and Providence Inner City Arts Roots Cultural Center, did not disappoint.

The urban block party atmosphere featured separate stages outside on Westminster and Mathewson Streets as well as the Roots stage indoors, the entire area fenced off and a section set up as an impromptu food court. The event this year encompassed Kid City on Saturday , a Saturday night parade, a Sunday Gospel Buffet and continuous music. We got there around 8:00 Saturday night, in time to catch Los Planeros del Coco stirring up a frenetic Latin mix on one stage and We Own Land pumping out metal on the other, with an appreciative crowd partying in between. Sue and I found a great vantage point on the steps of a church between both bands, basking in the battle of the genres until we decided to check out the Roots stage indoors. Roots is designed for comfort, from the artfully arranged couches and chairs in the front suggesting a very laidback living room to the tables nestled in the corners, along the wall and in the mezzanine overhead fronting the stage.

Back when I was a deejay on the Martha's Vineyard radio station, I used to do a jazz show. I didn't know a lot about the music at the time but, thanks to the influence of legendary Cape Cod "Night Train" host Otis Sutton , I began to appreciate the styles and complexities and influences that make it a unique American art form which brings me to the best music we heard that night - Michael C. Lewis Soul Jazz Experience. Although his exceptional trumpet playing clearly evokes Miles Davis, I first thought of Ramsey Lewis and US 3 (If anyone remembers them!)  and Pharoah Sanders, whom Michael has played with, as well as artists from Patti LaBelle to Jimmy Heath to Wilson Pickett. Michael Lewis pays homage to the greats, but makes the music his own on endless jams like "Cloud Parade" from his debut 2010 CD "Reflection" (Available from  Lewis' Cybervision Entertainment), the perfect progression of notes floating above and mixing with the interplay of strings, keyboard and percussion, creating an image, a feeling of serenity, casting a spell on the appreciative audience. We basked in Lewis soulful sound until the end of his first set drove us back outside, just in time to catch Brass Attack running through the obligatory Chicago number, but then nicely seguing into the Jackson Five before their set ended.

As the Big Nazo puppets mingled with street musicians waiting for the ska band The Agents to play, we heard some of The Silks' music from  the Mathewson Street Stage. I caught some incredibly good blues riffs but ended up drifting back to wait for ska. having been a fan of The Mighty Bosstones and The Specials among others. The Agents took the stage after a brief debate with the soundman, launching into their first frenetic trademark number, but after three songs Sue and I decided that the lure of Michael C. Lewis was impossible to resist and headed back inside to Roots. Our timing was excellent, because Lewis and the band launched into an incredible version of "We've Only Just Begun". showcasing an endless trumpet solo that took the melody apart and then rearranged it in endless variations - slash - riffs, inventing and improvising into a grand finale that had the laidback audience hooting and clapping.

Great music, great company, great event, lots of entertainment for a low price and remember - Sound Session 2013 is now less than a year away.

The Mistics of Matunuck

Luckily for me, my friend Sue not only has very good taste in music but also knows where to find it, which lead us to the Ocean Mist in Matunuck over the Fourth of July weekend after a hot day on the beach. The combination of ice cold drafts and the laidback environment would have been more than enough to ease into a long summer twilight, but combined with the sound of the Ocean Mistics, who get together Saturday afternoons at the Mist from 3:30 to 6:30 PM, it was remarkable.

The combination of steel guitar, fiddle, and lead guitar lent itself to a unique selection of tunes from "Dead Flowers" by the Rolling Stones as well as "Not Fade Away", to "Tiger By The Tail", a Nashville standard by George Jones, to an inventive, seemingly endless version of the Doors "Riders on the Storm". At one point, I decided to stroll down the beach in front, evoking memories of oceanside Caribbean bars , endless rum punches and Red Stripes , the band's solo riffs drifting over the gentle surf, a soundtrack for the slowly setting sun.

The Mistics lineup features Gary "Guitar" Gramolini, Steve "Sonny Boy" Burke, Dean Cassell, Mike Warner and Rick Russell. Gary Gramolini is best known for playing with John Cafferty and Beaver Brown. He prefers "...anything that connects back to the golden age music of the Twentieth Century, blues, country, the folk era, 60s' my generation awakening..." and goes on to list an electic mix of artists and music as influences, all of which are evident in the Mistics repertoire.

Sometimes the best music sneaks up on you, always a pleasant surprise when you don't know what to expect. Check out the Mistics Saturday afternoons at the Ocean Mist - you won't be disappointed! 

Champion Jack and Blind Owl - Born on The Fourth of July

I'm not sure if I 'd want to be born on a holiday, especially December 25, because you want people to pay attention to you but everyone's concentrating on candy or presents or in this particular case, fireworks. Fortunately for blues fans, July 4th happens to be the birthday of barrelhouse piano "professor" Champion Jack Dupree and Boston's own"Blind Owl" Al Wilson (Other famous Independence Day infants: Meyer Lansky, Steven Foster, P. T. Barnum and Calvin Coolidge).

Champion Jack was born in Louisiana. orphaned at the age of two, self taught pianist whose music encompassed the best foot stomping boogie woogie style. He had a wicked sense of humor as evidenced by my personal favorite - "Everybody's Blues" in which Champion Jack literally dedicates the blues to people in all walks of life from transportation workers - "These blues here/they're for the railroad men/they got a family on both ends/but don't want both ends to meet/you know what I mean" - to the hardcore unemployed - "These blues here/they're for them boys who don't do nothin'/I mean nothin'/sit around all day waitin' on that relief check/cuss the postman out if he ain't got it." During his  Depression era travels as piano player / cook, Dupree met boxer Joe Louis in Detriot, who convinced him to step in the ring; Champion Jack got his nickname by fighting 107 bouts, winning the Golden Gloves. He served as a cook in World War II, captured by the Japanese and held as a prisoner of war for two years. Dupree eventually settled in Germany, still making occasional forays back to the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival up until his death in 1992.

Blind Owl Al Wilson was said to be so nearsighted that he laid his guitar on top of the cake at a wedding reception, but that didn't stop his unwavering vision of the blues as the founder of Canned Heat, playing guitar, harmonica and writing most of their songs. Wilson grew up in the Boston metro area, honing his musicianship in the Cambridge coffeehouse circuit. He performed with Canned Heat at both Monterrey Pop in 1967 and Woodstock in 1969, which produced Wilson's biggest "hit" song - "Going Up Country". Blind Owl also wrote the band's other best known song "On The Road Again"; his slightly eerie falsetto can be heard on "Country" as well. Wilson sat in on sessions with Son House and John Lee Hooker, who proclaimed Al "...the greatest harmonica player ever." Despite his exceptional career, Al Wilson ended up joining the so-called "27 Club," dying of an overdose in Topanga Canyon at the age of 27. He remains a significant but cryptic figure in the annals of both 60s rock and traditional blues.

Happy birthday to the Champion and the Blind Owl, gone but no way forgotten.  

Talk Trax

It used to be that talk radio was just that - all talk at first, then gradually expanding to include mindless musical bridges between segments, with equally forgettable commercial “background”music But, these days, music is a key part of the message.

I experienced it first hand one late night trapped in my car with only AM radio for solace needing stimulation to stay alert, when the tinny speakers abruptly vibrated with a cascade of :”metal” chords, truly a rarity in the domain of talk. Rather than Metallica intoning: “Now I lay me down to sleep…”, the next voice was that of talkmeister Michael Savage - The Savage Nation, making me wonder if the intent was to imply that headbangers liked the show, or if it was just an attention getter. It turned out to be the tip of the proverbial iceberg.. After all, those music bites were relatively predictable heavy metal chords, destined to straighten the listener's spine just in time for the host's next diatribe, but the repertoire has widened considerably.

Rush Limbaugh seems to be addicted to the opening to "My City Was Gone" - since it plays ad nauseum throughout his show, making me wonder what Chrissie Hynde would think. He also likes to throw in the baby boomer anthem - Mick Jagger pointing out that "I Can't Get No Satisfaction" - which in Rush's case, probably applies to his view of the Obama administration. Tom Petty's "Learning to Fly" has cropped up repeatedly apparently in relation to ongoing political campaigns, while "Rock the Boat (Vote)" by the Hues Corporation is the prevalent theme on one prominent Boston station relative to those pesky mid terms.

The level of sophistication is getting more and more cutting edge. During a sports talk show last week, I heard the opening to Led Zep's "Travelling Riverside Blues", James Brown grunts, the extended Keith Richards riff from “Can’t You Hear Me Knocking?”, more Tom Petty riffs, as well as the opening to “It’s a Long Way…” by AC/DC, which always makes yours truly dance around the room playing air bagpipes.Not to be outdone - I've noticed - is the inclusion of rock and blues on TV programming. The History Channel is promoting IRT: Deadliest Roads with Aerosmith's "Living On The Edge", while another one of it's programs - Pawn Stars - has a soundtrack that is a steady stream of blues and rock instrumentals. I was surprised the other night to hear Howlin Wolf's "Smokestack Lightnihg" all over a car commercial - innovative, but it didn't give me the same chill down my spine as the use of Jimi Hendrix' "Voodoo Child" a couple of years back in a Nissan Xterra spot.

I predict the next musical invasion of the media will crop up during newscasts. For example, lead ins to homicide stories might use Pat Benatar's "Hit Me With Your Best Shot", arson stories with the Talking Heads' "Burning Down The House" or "Ring of Fire" by Johnny Cash, business news could be dramatized with "Money" by the O'Jays, and there would be numerous choices for the weather - "Rain" and "Good Day Sunshine" by the Beatles, and "Starry Starry Night" by Don Mclean.I've concluded that there's only one viable lead in to the nightly news - "Ball of Confusion" by the Temptations..

Smokin' Joe Kubek and Bnois King Live in Woonsocket:Spring Rolls and The Blues

At one point during their blistering set  Saturday night (5/5/12) at Chan's in scenic downtown Woonsocket, Bnois King mentiioned that he and Smokin Joe Kubek had been playing together for 23 years, which probably explains why the two guitarists effortlessly trade off leads, delivering a potpurri of styles sounding at times like Jimi Hendrix, Bo Diddley, BB King, Chuck Berry and/or Eric Clapton. The "Blood Brothers" (The title of their first Alligator CD) always serve up a heaping plate of down home roadhouse blues with a dash of jazz, funk and exceptional slide guitar. Although it always seems a bit incongruous to go to a blues show in a Chinese restaurant, Chan's has become an outpost for some of America's best blues and jazz musicians on the road between New York and Boston. After the years I spent sitting in the mud at various outdoor concerts or fighting for standing room at a crowded bar, the idea of comfortably sitting at a table eating, drinking and listening has a lot of appeal. Predictably, the crowd is a bit older, contentedly munching away on Chinese comfort food, but reverting to a mini-arena audience as soon as Smokin Joe and Bnois took the stage. John Chan provided his usual efficient but affectionate intro, and the band took over.

Both Kubek and King are fully capable of fronting their own bands which is evidenced by the constant interplay between the two, pumping up "My Dogs Still Walkin'" with seamless breaks, then launching into a rollicking Chuck Berry style romp for "My Heart's In Texas" (Title track from their live CD). Their trademark brand of tongue in cheek social commentary is the focus of "Payday in America" (From "Have Blues, Will Travel") but Smokin Joe managed to squeeze in some fluid slide breaks that had the audience clapping frantically, a motif that reverberated throughout the set every time one of them finished a particularly impressive riff. "Texas Cadillac" matched a stinging psychedelic lead evoking Jimi Hendrix with a sly vocal and a driving beat, followed by another heavy duty crowd pleaser, "Burnin' To The Ground".

By the time I had polished off my spring rolls and started to eviscerate the chicken wings, I noticed that the place was full. The band switched gears slightly with "I Saw It Coming," Bnois King's wistful vocal underscored by the haunting refrain, before both guitarists went into a long slow blues punctuated by Bnois' nimble runs up and down the neck , trading leads with Smokin Joe's molasses slow slide much to the audience's delight. Their version of "Two Trains Running" basically turned the song inside out, at least compared to the Paul Butterfield version I'm familiar with, segueing into a dramatic build up that had the crowd wanting more. Smokin Joe and Bnois King always deliver, and their one night stand at Chan's was no exception.