I’ve just returned from Austin, Texas where I finished recording an album with friends Stephen Bruton, Cindy Cashdollar, Suzy Thompson, Bruce Hughes and John Nicholas…. “The Texas Sheiks”. Jim Kweskin flew in and added his special touch as a ‘guest Sheik’. More on this later, but first…
After that wonderful trip to Japan last June, I spent the summer in LA writing music, doing a few home chores and attending to a problem with my chording hand called ‘trigger finger’. No big deal unless one plays the guitar. This required an operation, which went very well. I was ready to roll by the time I hit the road again in late September. I stopped by Michigan for a while to visit family and friends and then flew to Boston for a warm up gig on Cape Cod… and then on to Ireland.
I arrived at the Dublin airport in the wee hours of the morning. After my first ‘full Irish’ breakfast in quite sometime, I was met by my leprechaun promoter, Larry Roddy. We drove south through the misty early morning to his hometown in the foothills of the Wicklow Mountains where I took a day or so to decompress at a sweet little B&B run by the very hospitable Margaret Tutty. She couldn’t have been nicer.
My first gig was in a little pub in nearby Ballymore Eustace. I play this town every time I go to Ireland. The place was packed, which meant there had to be at least 40 people there! I politely worked my way through the throng-ette and took my seat… so to speak. As I gathered my senses, I looked out from my chair at the faces of the locals. Their eyes were dark and piercing; brows bushy and furrowed. They were Irish. I began to wonder if I knew what I was doing. I started to sweat like a rooster in a fighting pit… (do roosters sweat?) But in time I settled in, the faces in the audience softening, a few becoming familiar – and, with a sigh or two, the evening got comfortable. Ah yes! It was good to be back in lovely Ireland.
The next day I was off to Galway with my travelling partner (and supporting act), Clive Barnes, a young singer songwriter from Wexford. (Did you know? Wexford is one of those Irish towns founded by Vikings. If an Irish town’s name ends in ‘ford’ it’s a Viking town (e.g. Waterford). Wexford is home to the Murphy brothers, extraordinary harmonica wizards. It’s also home to The Wexford Slobs. The Wexford Slobs are not a garage band. The Wexford Slobs is a Wildfowl Sanctuary and home to geese, duck, grebes, godwits and the like.)
I did a bit of snoozing on the way to Galway (still lagged) and pretty much missed the scenery, but I’d made the drive before so no big deal. The gig was in a wonderful two-story pub called The Crane Bar run by Mick Crehan, an accomplished musician in his own right – a piper in fact. He’s often found playing in the area with Jim Rooney, my old friend from Cambridge and Woodstock. Aside from a couple of loud and wasted Scandinavian tourists, the audience was quiet and attentive. Mick focused in on me, watching my fingers, absorbing my music. I knew I was getting to this guy and it felt good. This kind of situation is heaven for me…. a promoter who cares about the music he or she is presenting. Makes one really put out, and I did. I hope to return.
The next morning Clive and I headed for Cork, giving me a chance to fall asleep in the car again. Clive is an excellent driver…. I would imagine. We arrived in Cork and checked in at a hotel in the center of the city. Cork has never done it for me. It’s big, bustling and the downtown area has an overabundance of the dreaded Hand-Held Device People. But I will keep trying to like the place, because the Corkonians who come to my gigs are wonderful. Corkonians everywhere are wonderful. I saw an audience full of them in Dublin a few years back. They had come out to see one of their own, John Spillane, a very talented singer songwriter. He was a very entertaining and they were very entertained, with quips and laughter in abundance.
You have to love Cork. How can you not? It’s a city with hurling as it’s most popular sport. I don’t mean hurling as in spewing, heaving or retching… or ‘chundering’ as the Brits say or ‘barking at the ants’ as the Aussies say. I mean the team field sport of hurling… a combination of lacrosse, soccer, rugby, polo and mud wrestling. The players run about on a football field-like area carrying a wooden stick with a scooped out end while they hand carry, bounce and/or whack at a little ball towards a goal. The players collide frequently and have no protective padding save a helmet covering the only area of the body not needing protection - the Corkonian skull. It could very likely be a fabulous sport requiring vast amounts of skill. I wouldn’t know, but Corkonians tell me it is, and they tell me that Corkonians are the best hurlers in all of Ireland.
The gig that night was at a new club called The Pavillion. It was a cold-hearted looking place… cavernous, severe. The promoter, Pat Conway, used to run a sweet little place called The Lobby for many years, but he was forced out somehow and chose this place for the time being to put on his shows. There was no way this could be a good gig, but… hello… it was! The woman doing the sound was brilliant. I could hear my guitar and voice perfectly. It was a pleasure to perform. And the folks that used to come to my shows at The Lobby made it to this gig at the Pavillion. We had a great night.
The next day we drove to Roscrea in County Tipperary to play at Leap Castle (pronounced Lepp)… renowned as the ‘most haunted castle in Ireland’. Oooo! The show was presented by a Kilkenny man named Tom Stapleton (another Rooney pal) and his gracious wife, Lucy. But the host and hostess of the night – the owners of Leap Castle – were Sean and Anne Ryan. Sean, a traditional Irish musician, was in absentia due to a tour in Europe. But Anne and her daughter, Ciara, kept the kitchen warm for us to use as a ‘green room’. We tuned up, sipped tea and listened to Leap Castle history and ghost stories.
Leap Castle
Leap Castle was built in the mid-thirteenth century and stands atop an escarpment overlooking a vast valley. It was home to the loathsome and murderous O’Carroll clan. The castle is a place where many people were imprisoned, tortured and executed. A famous fratricide took place within its walls in what is now called the ‘Bloody Chapel’. At the turn of the last century, a dungeon was discovered off the chapel piled high with human bones. I did not know these things when I agreed to play the gig.
On a more pleasant note… the fact that Leap Castle is perched high upon a promontory makes it well suited to peregrine falcons. This year, a peregrine couple nested atop the castle and fledged three young birds (eyasses); very exciting stuff for the local twitchers (birdwatchers).
And on an even more pleasant note, the gig was terrific; very special. Thanks Tom.
The next night I played a club called The Cherry Tree in the Dublin suburb of Walkinstown. This evening was a bit less dramatic than the one at Leap Castle, but well-attended. Dublin fans are a crazy and lovable lot.
My traveling mate, Clive, went his way after the gig (cheers Clive!) and the next day I took time off to tour the Wicklow Mountains with Mr. Roddy. I feel right at home on these ancient heathered hills. It was a beautiful, clear and sunny day; rare for Ireland. We motored up and over the highest parts of the range and down again through a valley and past Glendalough, where, in the sixth century, Saint Kevin founded his monastery with a small band of fellow sufferers.
Larry and I eventually abandoned the car to walk the road in the Glenmalure Valley with an eye out for birdies. In amongst the gorse and the bilberry and next to a small stream we came upon a stone with an inscription commemorating the blessing of the stream by a priest, or perhaps a monk… maybe one of Kevin’s ‘boys’. In any case, it seemed to be a metaphor for human folly. Man blesses the stream. “Oh boy”, says the stream. “Stream thanks Man.”
The Wicklow Mountains
We finished off the day with a delicious lamb dinner at The Hollywood Inn, one of my favorite pubs.
The Hollywood Inn
The next morning Larry and I drove up to ‘The North’… to Belfast. I stayed at a nice hotel off of Botanic Avenue... haunt for the Belfast hipsters, such as they are. The gig was at a bookstore called No Alibis run by fellow named David Torrens. Joe Boyd and I had been scheduled to go there a while back – Joe to read from his book, “White Bicycles”, and Geoff to pick and grin - but something got in the way. I can’t remember what. But here I was. It was a real, honest to goodness bookstore… not a contrived chain store. No Alibis was jam-packed with bookshelves and thousands (I’m exaggerating. It’s probably hundreds) of books. One could hardly move in the place. Fortunately the bookshelves were on rollers. As show time approached, David and his cheery and helpful crew cleared the shop and set up chairs. Then the place filled up, and viola!… a gig; and a good one at that.
I went over to the BBC the next day for an interview with Cherrie McIlwaine. It was lovely. I got comfortable in no time. Cherrie knew her stuff and quite honestly, she charmed me. I’m starting to like Belfast. The night after Cherrie’s interview, I dropped by a club to hear Tom Russell. The American, Tom Russell; the crazy bastard, Tom Russell. He had ‘em rollin’.
The next day we drove through County Down to The Brontë Centre near the town of Rathfriland. No wonder those conniving Brits held on to this part of Ireland. This is beautiful country… rolling fertile farmland. The Brontë Centre is named for Patrick Brontë, the father of writers Charlotte, Emily and Anne. The performances take place in the Drumballyroney Church where Patrick preached and taught school as a young man. The Centre complex is a little cultural oasis down a narrow twisting farm road in the middle of nowhere and it’s a stunning place to play. The director of the music series, Andy Peters, was a welcoming and knowledgeable host. I hope to return.
The Bronte Centre in Rathfriland, Northern Ireland
The next night I played in the USA with Jim Kweskin at Club Passim in Cambridge, MA. Flying west to The States, I had the time zones on my side, so it was less difficult than you might think. I love playing with Jimmy. I could play “Papa’s on the Housetop” with him every day for the rest of my life. We played in Cambridge for two nights to wonderful audience, many of whom had seen us in the sixties in The Jim Kweskin Jug Band. These folks are pushovers. It doesn’t get any easier or any more enjoyable.
After another good gig out in Natick at the Amazing Things Arts Center, Jim and I headed to New York for a performance in Greenwich Village. It was a new club called Le Poisson Rouge and occupied the same space as the old Village Gate. There are always new clubs in New York. That’s the problem. In the sixties, we always played venues you could count on to be there; The Bitter End, Café Au Go Go, Gaslight, Gerdes Folk City. Occasionally we would get lucky and play Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, Town Hall or a festival in Central Park, but we could always count on those clubs. Now the clubs for roots musicians seem to come and go. Pity. Fortunately, ‘one off’ appearances still come up for me at the big halls, but I still miss the club scene.
As it turned out, Jim and I had a good crowd at Le Poisson Rouge. It was good night all around thanks to the crackerjack management and crew. I wish them a long and prosperous presence in The Village.
It was time to head up to Martha’s Vineyard Island for our last gig before heading home to Los Angeles. In a way, Martha’s Vineyard is my home… where I summered as a child and lived year-round in the seventies and eighties. Jim and I played the Katherine Cornell Theatre and the turnout was great; the audience was overflowing; sitting on stairways and standing against the walls. It turned into a real community event. People we hadn’t seen in many years came out to hear us.
My sweetheart, Mary, had flown in from Los Angeles as well and we had a few extra days to spend time with family and friends. The Bass Derby was just finishing up and the fall air was crisp and invigorating. We stayed with friends at their home on the North Shore and had a little attached cabin all to ourselves:
View From The Porch
When I’m on Martha’s Vineyard, I always make sure to get to Menemsha. This is where I used to keep my little skiff when I lived on the island year-round. From the dock in Menemsha I could fish in the warm months and scallop commercially in the winter. It was heaven on earth. There are a few places where one gets a feeling that they are at the center of some spiritual vortex; Canyon de Chelly in Arizona is like that. Paris has that feeling… and, for me, so does Menemsha in Chilmark, MA.
Menemsha Dock at High Tide
My young grandson, Quinlan, lives on Martha’s Vineyard with his mother Dardanella (my daughter) and his father Sean, so we spent as much time as we could with the little tyke and his parents.
Quinlan’s First Lesson from Grandpa
Alas, it was time to go home. In a way, I’m glad I don’t live on Martha’s Vineyard anymore. It would be just as it was before… bird watching, fishing, gathering berries, mushrooms and watercress, hunting deer, ducks and geese, digging clams, mussels, scallops and oysters, catching lobsters, eels, crabs… I could never get a damn bit of work done.
I flew home to LA with Mary and was there for a couple of weeks before flying to Austin, TX to record The Texas Sheiks.
“THE TEXAS SHEIKS”
Stephen Bruton, GM, Johnny Nicholas, Cindy Cashdollar, Suzy Thompson, Bruce Hughes
We recorded mostly-obscure acoustic music from the south… string band music and blues mostly, with a little Jump and Texas Swing on the side. The players are some of my favorites.
Stephen Bruton is a long-time friend from Fort Worth. In 1967, young Stephen drove with a friend from Texas to Newport, RI to hear our band, The Jim Kweskin Jug Band. He was particularly interested in our banjo player, Bill Keith. Stephen got real good on the banjo, but he later began to excel at the guitar and it’s been that way ever since. He’s played for years with Kris Kristofferson, Bonnie Raitt, T-Bone Burnett, Delbert McClinton and – luckily for me – yours truly.
Johnny Nicholas comes out of the fertile blues scene in Rhode Island. As a young man he performed with Duke Robillard, Steve Nardella, et al. before moving to Chicago where he played with Big Walter Horton, and recorded with the likes of Robert Junior Lockwood. In the late seventies, Johnny joined Asleep At The Wheel, the award-winning Austin, Texas country swing band. Johnny always had family roots in Texas and he began to feel their pull in the early eighties when he decided to move to the Central Texas Hill Country to raise a family and start a restaurant. He’s been out there ever since (with the occasional interruption of touring), serving up inspired dishes at The Hilltop Café where he plays the blues every night for his appreciative, well-fed clientele. If you ever get out Fredricksburg way, drop by The Hilltop up the road in Doss, TX and have a little something to eat. And don’t forget to ask for the Oysters Bruton. Oh my goodness…. they are delicious.
Cindy Cashdollar grew up in Woodstock, NY where she honed her amazing skills as a steel guitar and dobro player with Rick Danko, Levon Helm and Paul Butterfield…. and it shows. Playing with those guys would corrupt anyone, and sure enough, she was rendered musically dangerous for life. Cindy eventually spent eight years with Asleep At The Wheel and received 5 Grammy Awards in that time. She has also toured with Bob Dylan, Van Morrison and Leon Redbone and now makes regular guest appearances on Garrison Keillor's “A Prairie Home Companion”. Cindy is now a resident of Austin, TX.
Fiddler, Suzy Thompson, along with her husband, Eric Thompson, is central to the old-timey music scene in Berkeley, California. Their home is the weigh station for locals and visiting musicians from all over the country. Music as a social scene in the US has pretty much fizzled… but not at the Thompsons. Their pickin’ parties are a dream come true. I’ve been there when a dozen players have banged away at obscure mountain fiddle tunes… fiddles, guitars, mandolins, banjos, bass... that kind of thing. For more than 30 years, Suzy’s been a leading force in many of the Bay Area's roots music groups including Blue Flame String Band, Any Old Time, California Cajun Orchestra, Bluegrass Intentions, Todalo Shakers, etc. She teaches blues fiddle at Centrum's Country Blues Week in Port Townsend; she's also taught at Augusta Cajun-Creole and Old Time Weeks, Bluff Country Gathering, Lark in the Morning, California Bluegrass Association Camp, etc. Suzy is the Director of the Berkeley Old Time Music Convention, a four-day non-stop music party that takes place each September in her hometown of Berkeley, California.
Texas native and Austin resident, Bruce Hughes, is a new find – at least for me - and co-producer of this album. He plays with Stephen Bruton in an Austin band called The Resentments (a name stolen from my daughter Jenni; a fact which she resents). I heard Bruce for the first time a few years ago when The Resentments were playing in London. He’s cocky…. good cocky, and he plays with l’attitude. Bruce’s talent as a bass player, guitarist and singer is highly sought after by groups from a parallel universe; groups like: Poi Dog Pondering, Jason Mraz, Teratoma, The Scabs, Palm Fabric Orchestra. These kids today... who are these groups? No matter… at his core, Bruce is all Texas Sheik.
You are no doubt familiar with our ‘Guest Sheik’, Jim Kweskin, the leader of the seminal sixties group, the Jim Kweskin The Jug Band. Nobody picks and sings like Jimmy. He’s a national treasure and a cool customer.
In a few weeks I head back to Texas to mix the Sheiks album. In January I go up to Portland, OR to play with Jim Kweskin, Bill Keith and The Barbecue Orchestra at the River City Bluegrass Festival. My first bluegrass festival… heeeeeee haw!! Then later in January I’ll be going to NYC to record a young man named Gabriel Kahane. He’ll be playing the Bix Beiderbecke piano pieces for the upcoming re-issue of my album, Private Astronomy. It’ll now be a 2-CD set with source material and these new piano recordings. More chart writing in early spring – gospel arrangements. And, with any luck, on and on it goes….
Best wishes,
Geoff