Tuesday, August 09, 2005
Open Mic and Rally Assholes
I know I say this every time I post about the open mic scene, but the talent in this area is amazing. Last night at Keystone was no exception, though the choice of talent was a little smaller than last week. Mike and I played for a while, having gotten in a little practice at his house before heading up to Keystone.
We were followed by Amanda (pictured) who is quickly turning into one of my favorite performers. I didn't start writing "music" until my late twenties, a reaction to my divorce. While I suppose all songwriting is some sort of reaction to some outside stimulus, I hope Amanda's songs come from a happier place than my first songs did. Amanda is in her teens and writes thoughtful and meaningful songs. Frankly I'm jealous of her talent. We all do what we do, but I wish I could write stuff that matters like she does.
If she were just a great songwriter that would be one thing, but she has a beautiful voice that has a surprising amount of power behind that she only unleashes at appropriate times. A real treat every time I see her, she'll be playing at the fair in a couple of weeks and I hope a wider audience appreciates her as much as we in the open mic crowd do.
As much of a treat as Amanda is, Tyler is even more so. Tyler will be moving on at the end of the summer and I'll miss his music. Another fine songwriter, but it's his voice that really stands out. He plays in this mellow conversational style. He can effortlessly monologue in the middle of one of his songs which is about the coolest thing I've ever heard. Last night he played Lightning Crash by Live and after the first verse while still playing he just talked about his drive up to Keystone and how seeing the lightning over the hills he felt inspired to play the song. It was so effortless. I've tried to do similar things in Plastic Jesus and have never been able to pull it off. It's a really tough thing to do. Tyler makes it sound so easy that I'll probably try it again, and once more fall flat on my face.
Lynn Boyle from Chicago followed Tyler. Lynn will only be with us a couple more weeks as well, leaving the comfort of Carol's cabin in Hisega for the big city life of Chicago. Besides being from a ways away, Lynn also brings an international flair to our little open mic scene. She's done songs in spanish before, last night I joined her on a Jobim song which she sang in portugeese. Simply amazing. Having worked in a facility that sent pay-per-view movies to Brazil and knowing quite a few Brazilians because of that, I can honestly say that her version of the Jobim classic was true to style. It was also true to Lynn Boyle. Fun stuff.
Lynn went on to a couple of blues tunes. Now I love the blues and the reason I got into playing harmonica was because of the recordings of guys like Little Walter Jacobs and Junior Wells. That said, I've never been able to pull off that sound. People see a harmonica and immediately think blues. For what ever reason I tend to play in more of a folk or country style, probably because that fit more with what we did in Patient 957 (which was neither a folk or country band). Lynn has asked me to play blues with her a couple of times, but last night was the first time I was ever really happy with what I was doing. At least toward the end, I was doing things that made me think, for the smalles incriment of time imaginable, that given the chance, I could have been Little Walter. Or Blind Orange Julius.
A word to our visitors to the region this week. Damn, we appreciate the positive impact you have on our economy and I think 90% of you are good folks who want to just enjoy the slower lifestyle and beautiful scenery that our area offers. The other 10% though, well, you're assholes. Yeah I'm talking to you, the idiot on the BMW (nice bike, by the way), don't park in front of the fucking gas pump. You do understand why the gas pump is there, don't you? It's so Gil Moyle can gouge you by raising the price of gas the week of the rally. He can't gouge you if you simply park in front of the pump. Hell, he can't gouge me either. I worked for the man, that'll really piss him off, you don't want to do that.
A few of you are going to die this week. A few have already. I'm sincerely sorry for the guy who was hit by the drunk near Hill City. The drunk will spend a good amount of time in jail, particulary because he wasn't a former Governor or current Representative. His family will even be able to get money from him in a civil suit and it won't have to come out of the state's funds since this drunk wasn't in the line of duty when he killed your family member. Hell, sue away, get that bastard. The other deaths, the guy from Nebraska who missed a curve and drove flew off the side of the road? That's why we have speed limits. You flatlanders need to learn that we have hills and curves on our roads here. The rally isn't an invitation to ride that new bike as fast as you want. Chances are you haven't hardly ridden it at all. It's logged many more miles on the back of your trailer on the way out here than it will during your stay at the rally.
And while we truly appreciate your money, you don't own the place. We live here, you are our guests, act like it. You are getting ammenites that we don't have, like the Hooters that sets up in Sturgis during the rally. We don't have one of those normally. That's just for you. We treat our guest good, most of us our good hosts. Try being good guests. Like I said, 90% of your are, that other 10% needs to find their manners.
BOJ
We were followed by Amanda (pictured) who is quickly turning into one of my favorite performers. I didn't start writing "music" until my late twenties, a reaction to my divorce. While I suppose all songwriting is some sort of reaction to some outside stimulus, I hope Amanda's songs come from a happier place than my first songs did. Amanda is in her teens and writes thoughtful and meaningful songs. Frankly I'm jealous of her talent. We all do what we do, but I wish I could write stuff that matters like she does.
If she were just a great songwriter that would be one thing, but she has a beautiful voice that has a surprising amount of power behind that she only unleashes at appropriate times. A real treat every time I see her, she'll be playing at the fair in a couple of weeks and I hope a wider audience appreciates her as much as we in the open mic crowd do.
As much of a treat as Amanda is, Tyler is even more so. Tyler will be moving on at the end of the summer and I'll miss his music. Another fine songwriter, but it's his voice that really stands out. He plays in this mellow conversational style. He can effortlessly monologue in the middle of one of his songs which is about the coolest thing I've ever heard. Last night he played Lightning Crash by Live and after the first verse while still playing he just talked about his drive up to Keystone and how seeing the lightning over the hills he felt inspired to play the song. It was so effortless. I've tried to do similar things in Plastic Jesus and have never been able to pull it off. It's a really tough thing to do. Tyler makes it sound so easy that I'll probably try it again, and once more fall flat on my face.
Lynn Boyle from Chicago followed Tyler. Lynn will only be with us a couple more weeks as well, leaving the comfort of Carol's cabin in Hisega for the big city life of Chicago. Besides being from a ways away, Lynn also brings an international flair to our little open mic scene. She's done songs in spanish before, last night I joined her on a Jobim song which she sang in portugeese. Simply amazing. Having worked in a facility that sent pay-per-view movies to Brazil and knowing quite a few Brazilians because of that, I can honestly say that her version of the Jobim classic was true to style. It was also true to Lynn Boyle. Fun stuff.
Lynn went on to a couple of blues tunes. Now I love the blues and the reason I got into playing harmonica was because of the recordings of guys like Little Walter Jacobs and Junior Wells. That said, I've never been able to pull off that sound. People see a harmonica and immediately think blues. For what ever reason I tend to play in more of a folk or country style, probably because that fit more with what we did in Patient 957 (which was neither a folk or country band). Lynn has asked me to play blues with her a couple of times, but last night was the first time I was ever really happy with what I was doing. At least toward the end, I was doing things that made me think, for the smalles incriment of time imaginable, that given the chance, I could have been Little Walter. Or Blind Orange Julius.
A word to our visitors to the region this week. Damn, we appreciate the positive impact you have on our economy and I think 90% of you are good folks who want to just enjoy the slower lifestyle and beautiful scenery that our area offers. The other 10% though, well, you're assholes. Yeah I'm talking to you, the idiot on the BMW (nice bike, by the way), don't park in front of the fucking gas pump. You do understand why the gas pump is there, don't you? It's so Gil Moyle can gouge you by raising the price of gas the week of the rally. He can't gouge you if you simply park in front of the pump. Hell, he can't gouge me either. I worked for the man, that'll really piss him off, you don't want to do that.
A few of you are going to die this week. A few have already. I'm sincerely sorry for the guy who was hit by the drunk near Hill City. The drunk will spend a good amount of time in jail, particulary because he wasn't a former Governor or current Representative. His family will even be able to get money from him in a civil suit and it won't have to come out of the state's funds since this drunk wasn't in the line of duty when he killed your family member. Hell, sue away, get that bastard. The other deaths, the guy from Nebraska who missed a curve and drove flew off the side of the road? That's why we have speed limits. You flatlanders need to learn that we have hills and curves on our roads here. The rally isn't an invitation to ride that new bike as fast as you want. Chances are you haven't hardly ridden it at all. It's logged many more miles on the back of your trailer on the way out here than it will during your stay at the rally.
And while we truly appreciate your money, you don't own the place. We live here, you are our guests, act like it. You are getting ammenites that we don't have, like the Hooters that sets up in Sturgis during the rally. We don't have one of those normally. That's just for you. We treat our guest good, most of us our good hosts. Try being good guests. Like I said, 90% of your are, that other 10% needs to find their manners.
BOJ
# posted by Blind Orange Julius @ 12:10 PM 
