the soundtrack to the day you wish you'd had
Am back from another fantastic Greenbelt Festival. I’m just off out to play a show at The Spitz, so haven’t got time for full rundown now, but a few highlights would include Billy Bragg, Beth Rowley, Nizar Al-Issa, Iain Archer, Duke Special, and of course getting to play with the great people I was playing bass with – Lobelia, Sarah Masen and Ric Hordinski – all lovely peoples and musical geniuses.
More later…
Just found this entry on the time out website – a very nice write up for our gig on Wednesday – all the more reason for you to be there!
here’s what it says –
Steve Lawson/Lobelia + Monk AKA Ric Hordinski
Recommended
Wed Aug 22 , Chilli Fried at Darbucka, 182 St John Street, EC1V 4JZ
Ambient folk-ish jazz from bassist and loop/electronics master Lawson and American singer-songwriter Lobelia, playing a set of bittersweet and melancholic music. Support comes in the form of a solo set of hauntingly powerful ambient/soundscapes from singer-songwriter and guitarist Hordinski.
not sure how ambeint Ric’s set will be, and it’s not a Chilli Fried event, but those are some lovely things to write… :o)
this is another one of those things that are part and parcel of the lives of almost every working bassist on the planet – they spend their time learning songs to play with different bands or artists… except me. I very rarely have to learn songs, given that most of the time i’m playing either my own songs, or improvising.
So this week is both a challenge and a joy, as I’m learning not one but two sets to play with singers next week.
First up is Ric Hordinski AKA Monk. Ric and I first met, I think, on a gig we shared in LA about 5 years ago, where we were both playing solo. Since then we’ve stayed in touch, and I’ve been trying to get him over for Greenbelt. Finally, this year, he’s coming to play! hurrah! And in celebration of that, we’ve got a gig at Darbucka next Wednesday. It’s a double bill with Ric’s trio (with me on bass, hence the song learning) and my duo with Lobelia (much more usual Stevie-Fare, with lots of looped bass and vocal loveliness on songs mostly written by Lo.) Gigs in August are notoriously poorly attended (everyone’s on holiday and doin’ the festival thang, y’see), so if you can, PLEASE come out and see us play! It’ll be a fab show, with proper songs ‘n’ everything! :o)
The second set is with Sarah Masen, which is particularly enjoyable as I’ve been a big fan of Sarah’s music since her first album came out in the mid 90s, and love the way she writes both music and words. We’re learning these songs for a mainstage set at Greenbelt on Friday, which i’m rather looking forward to…
So I think I’ve got 16 songs to learn… oh, and a bass ‘n’ voice arrangement of a Bond theme to do before Greenbelt as well, for a more secretive show… more on that after it’s happened!
And for your listening pleasure, here are some Myspace links to hear what’s in store…
Ric/Monk
Sarah Masen
Lobelia
Me (inc. one tune with Lo.)
enjoy!
All kinds of exciting gig booking news today – first up, on August 22nd, I’ll be back playing at Darbucka for the first time this year, in my duo with Lobelia and also with Monk aka Ric Hordinski – Ric is a stunning guitarist, a former member of Over The Rhine, has produced records for people like Phil Keaggy and David Wilcox and made a stack of amazing records under the Monk moniker.
I played a show with Ric in LA a few years ago that was a whole lot of fun, and a whole lot of great music, and I tracked some fun noises for his new instrumental record when I was in Cincinnati on this last tour in the US.
The duo with Lobelia is one of the most exciting and fun musical projects I’ve had in ages, and you can hear some of what that sounds like on my myspace page and on her myspace page too.
So that’s gig #1.
Also this evening I’ve booked Patrick Wood and Andrea Hazell to come and play with the Recycle Collective at Greenbelt – both are Recycle regulars, stunning improvisors and just all-round amazing musicians.
AND, as if that wasn’t enough, I’ve booked Andrea, and am just waiting for confirmation from Cleveland Watkiss for the Recycle gig on the 6th September at The Vortex – how exciting!
Lots of great gig news fo’ sho’. :o)
Go and put them in your diaries now, you lovely london peoples.
After collecting my car this morning, most of today has been spent recording. Having turned the living room into a remote studio, I spent the day recording tracks for an album by LeeSun – a lovely quirky singer/songwriter from Leeds. She initially invited me to go and record with her in Canada back in June, but it was slap bang in the middle of my US tour with L, so sadly I couldn’t do it (how much fun would that have been??), but I offered to do the tracks remotely when she got back, so that’s what I’m doing, in my lil’ studio here. It’s a fun way to work, being engineer and tea-boy as well as musician, and it means I can quickly do multiple versions of a line and send them over to be checked out. This evening I was able to send some MP3 roughs of what I’d been up to over to LeeSun and chat via MSN about what she wanted – very useful. The wonders of the internet. Fortunately, she really likes what I’ve done with the songs – they’re lovely songs, and right up my street – so we’ll go ahead with the rest of the album.
I’m hoping to do more of this kind of work – it’s a great way to be involved in projects that normally couldn’t afford to a) get me to where the recording is happening or b) even afford time in a big studio anyway. This way, I can do it in my studio in a way that suits the budget of the artist/producer, and everyone’s happy. Good for keeping my carbon footprint down as well, i guess, not driving to studios all over the place…
If you’re reading this and you’ve got a project you want me to play on, please do send me an email with some details about the project and you’re budget, and we’ll sort something out.
I know, I know – with all this talk of us touring and gigging across Europe and the US, y’all have been wanting to hear some of the duo-loveliness with Lobelia – well, there are now two tracks for you to listen to. Firstly on my myspace page there’s a track of L’s called ‘Happy’, which has been given the Stevie-loopage makeover. It’s a great song anyway, and suits my tinkering rather well..
The other is on L’s myspace page and is a version of Black Hole Sun – it’s the arrangement that Cleveland Watkiss and I first came up with ages ago, that Julie and I used at the Edinburgh Fringe Fest last year, and which L adds her own lovely flava to… Good work, fiddy!
Which all means we’ve got work to do on getting this live album together in the next couple of months…
OK, here’s the deal – head to thealldaybreakfastshow.com, download all 22 episodes thus far, and realise why the internet was invented. Solely to bring the ADBS to the world. It’s genius, pure genius.
Danny Baker and I go way back. Not that I’ve ever met him, just that I’ve been listening to him for decades – first on his weekend breakfast show on Radio 1, then a bit when he was at Virgin, and then again when he took over on breakfast at Radio London, following him when he switched to the afternoons. He is, without doubt, my favourite radio presenter ever, and the most consistently funny media figure I’ve ever come across. The podcast is like him replaying his greatest hits without the shackles of the BBC code of conduct. And it’s amazing. L and I had a 10 hour ADBS marathon on the way from Austin to Nashville and it made the journey fly by.
So go, download, listen and sit mouth agape at the genius that is Danny, Baylen, Amy and the oh-so-strange David Kuo.
So tonight was the last night of our 7 week tour for L and I, and we’re in Wisner Nebraska, about 100 miles north west of Omaha…
The gig was in a beautiful recording studio, with a gorgeous piano, and the most fabulous sound, not to mention a delightful audience. I made a handful of mistakes, just through being hugely tired, but in general, ’twas a fitting end to the tour.
And it was recorded, which made last night’s gig all the more important as a warm-up. That one was in St Louis, at the Delmar Restaurant and Lounge, which was set up at the last minute, but was a nice venue, provided a reasonable break in the journey, and gave us a chance to see Amy and Joe from Clatter – you’d be hard pushed to find two nicer people, they drove 3 hours to see us play, and we then followed them back and stayed in their lovely house, got less than 3 hour’s sleep, and then talked for two hours before we set off for Nebraska.
And tomorrow we drive 900 miles (according to Google Maps, it’s exactly 900 miles from here to Hartville), drop the car off on Sunday, and Monday I fly to NYC, then Tuesday back to London… I think… I’ll check.
here’s a review from the Grafton, West Virginia show a couple of weeks ago with L. There are a couple of cool quotes in there that I’ll grab for later use… :o)
So from Dallas to Austin – first night in Austin we spent at a Motel6, seriously low-rent place, but we weren’t actually in it for long… Went down town, found a coffee shop, and then drove out to find dinner, to the Kerbey St. Cafe, for some fine veggie food.
The next day was the first of the Austin gigs, at a place called Cafe Caffeine – a cute lil’ coffee shop, but it was an afternoon show, and not a place where we had any draw, so just a handful of people there. Still, it’s always nice to play, and Brady Muckelroy who organised the shows for us in Austin, played a lovely set, and it was nice to get to hang out with him.
Then the adventure started… just before we played I got a call from Tay – she and the utterly lovely Vicki Genfan were in the Austin area too, and Vic was guesting with Patty Larkin that night at a local studio concert. So I call the venue to try and get tickets, but no-one answers. i leave a message, but we decide to head out there anyway.
The lovely Brady shows us the way, and we get to the gorgeous studio where the gig is being hosted, but it’s sold out. Tay and Vicki come out for a chat, and it becomes clear that a few people who’d reserved tickets might not show, so we stick around and get in just before the show starts! Hurrah! Patty is, as expected, amazing – I’ve got 5 or 6 of her albums, and this is the first time I’ve seen her live. She’s great. Vicki sits in on the last number ( a crazy prog-acoustic thing in all kinds of time signatures), and much love is shared.
We then head back to Austin to the Bananie love-palace – I hadn’t seen Bananie for about 3 years, so ’twas a delight all round. The lovely Schmelen proves to be just as lovely as expected, and the menagerie is full of gorgeous mutant dogs ‘n’ cats. It’s 12.30 but we’s all peckish, so a trip to Magnolia is in order – late night fun ‘n’ games in the Santa Cruz of the South.
Following day, we sleep late, then have breakfast together, before heading out into the sticks to see Vicki and Tay again for an hour or so, before driving to San Marcos for the second of the Austin-area gigs. It’s another coffee shop gig, in Brady’s home town, and he’s clearly got a cool thing going on there, as the coffee shop is full of his friends, fans and family. He plays another beautiful set, followed by Lisa and I. The driving of the last few days, late nights and not enough sleep is starting to catch up and I don’t play particularly well, but it’s a fun gig nonetheless, and there’s a particularly enjoyable duet between Brady and I. L is as fab as always.
The next morning, we’re up at 5, load the car and head out for the longest single day’s driving of my life – 850-something miles from Austin to Nashville. (as a comparison Land’s End to John O’ Groats is 830-something miles).
Back at Nashville and it’s all round the the utterly lovely Trevor and Jenna’s house, where there’s a party in full swing, featuring the equally lovely Marky over from NI (that’s Northern Ireland, not New Internationalist).
L and I are utterly baked after the journey but find some energy to chat to lots of delightful friends old, new and previously-cyber-only, before crashing out early.
Sunday am, off to Downtown Pres. – one of the few churches I’ve been to in the US that I’d consider going to more than once. Followed by lunch back at the Dark’s, with more socialising and fun with the lovelies of Nashville. Eventually we leave from T and J’s at about 4pm, heading out on yes another mammoth drive (515 miles this time) back to L’s brother’s place in Northern Ohio.
And here we are, helping L’s family to move house, hanging out, and trying to regain the energy that was zapped by the tour thus far… we have got two more gigs, one in St Louis Missouri and one in Wisner Nebraska – see the gig dates page for more info.
Thanks SO much to everyone who’s been out to the gigs so far – it’s been really lovely to meet so many great people. Particular thanks to everyone who helped organise the shows – Ralston, Steve in Toledo, Ric Hordinski, Jay and |Crystal, Kevin Ford, Darren and Cindy, Sarah ‘n’ Dave ‘n’ TOGH, Trip and Sarun, Brian, Brady… good peeps one and all.
Go to my Flickr page for some photos from the tour…