Most of this week I was hard at work mixing the
Pernille Sparboe EP. Some late nights, even tho' I try and avoid that when I'm home. The results so far are great, tho--this has been a mixing experience that's been less about problem solving than about how far can I push it to ever greater heights. So many insanely good vocal takes to choose from. Etc.
I had the chance to sneak out for a bit and see the Miserable Rich, an excellent UK band, that basically seems to be comprised of some fiddle-playing farmers, with great songs about drinking and...what you do when you are about to be or have just been drinking. They were supporting
Rodriguez. 6-Rod had a shit hot band, really playing a great 60s groove--Hammond, bass, guitar and drums. The Man Himself has this nice reedy Dylan-like voice, so he just automatically rings of authenticity and righteousness (I would love to hear him cover 'Royal Jelly' by Dewey Cox)...until he stops singing; then he seems a bit befuddled, with really weird stage banter. There was a really long one about the Pope, North Korea, and Amsterdam that was like...wooooooah. But it actually drew applause...somehow.
On Thursday I flew to Toulouse to rehearse with the Sad Knights, learning the 22 song set in...well, no time. We just played. And I played along, and I pretty much nailed it. After rehearsals we checked a bit of
Sonny Vincent, quite a fascinating guy, really. His show was kind of rock rock rock but he has been involved in many things over the years...
ALBI, 6/5
This rock & roll show was held at a great little bar owned by an incredible man, Fabrice. Originally from Normandy, he lived literally around the world--Reunion, Madagascar, New Caledonia, Vanuatu, Australia--working as a radiologist and also playing bass in a few awesome garage bands. I guess he's in his 50s now, and in the last decade he moved back to France, opened a venue in Bordeaux for awhile, and then in the last three years, this modest little bar, Le Jour de Fete, which is able to entertain and feed the rockers of Albi pretty much 24-7. And he cookedd us dinner, breakfast and lunch during our stay. The show itself was super fun, basically I got to beat on the piano like a caveman, playing all my 50s lixx and then some. People actually danced to the rockabilly numbers. So, there's your answer right there. The monsoon-style rain didn't scare the peeps away. And in Albi we find small-town folks who are really civilized. I guess to them it's not a small town.
LAUZERTE, 6/6
After lunch with Fabrice, we drove on the back roads to get to Lauzerte. We stopped in Cordes-sur-Ciel, a quaintly crumbling medieval village, built on a little plug of of a hill or mountain...the kind of place you would build a little medieval town on, to keep it safe from the baddies (like the 'English' that the French fought for a hundred bloody years, who were actually French, but coming from England, who ruled a French speaking England which had more land in France than did France itself at that time). I bought some foie gras and some sweet Gaillac wine. We drove on to Lauzerte, which also turns out to be a little medieval town clinging to a pointy rock, from which you can survey the country for miles and miles. On the way, we drove thru oak forests (I never saw how much this part of France resembled Connecticut til now), along massive limestone cliffs, and thru dazzling, dreamy wheatfields. We passed a fantastic destination in itself--the village called 'Bonnemort' or 'Good Death'. Heavens! I assume they meant something about cramming your own throat with throat-crammed goose product, until you explode like Mr. Creosote.
We finally drove vertically into Lauzerte, and absolutely did not bother to set up our stuff. We worked on the foie gras/Gaillac combo, and I explored the town.
Show--we had a real piano, and our Farfisa, and it was a quieter show tonite--instead of Christian on the drums, we had Jenny on the cahon. I knew people were listening, at least to the webcast, so I tried to really play as incredibly as possible...success? At one point, Jenny's lack of experience showed--but only at one, because otherwise she is excellent--when she had never really heard a Bo Diddely beat, and played 'Who Do You Love' in a kind of double time shuffle. So, I waved at her, and got her to play with one hand, and hold down the root note on the Farfisa; then I got on the kit and blasted out a Bo Diddley bumpdebumpdebump bumpbump til she got the point, then she grabbed the sticks and took over. I picked up the bass, Eric moved to Farfisa, and Simon walked around the room amongst the ever drunker-villagers...awesome! Eventually the bass amp broke, the so I picked up the stand up bass and we finished like that.
Love
KS
Lauzerte, FRANCE
