Since a few of you asked (Jennifer Horsely most insistently), here's a little bit of the footage from the mini-doc that's being assembled about the current Skip trio (with Lee Joseph and Mark Borinstein). It's called Better Love: Skip Heller and the San Fernando Valley and includes performance footage, interview stuff, and ephemeral footage. It's really just a glorified electronic press kit for The Long Way Home, as well as the current band and SH's upcoming release with Jim Cavender, A Cellarfull of Noise.
Here are a few moments of interview. Hope you like.
Those of us who grew up in Philly -- on Philadelphia radio -- associate the summer months with a certain style of rhythm'n'blues. That "All Day Music"/"Cowboys To Girls" style.
This is a San Fernando Valley love song. Summer is hot, there's a decent band playing somewhere nearby, and everyone is living check to check.
This is a pretty rough demo, but what the hell. If this makes you think of someone you care for, my work here is done.
I really love rockabilly music but I often feel weird singing the stuff everyone else sings. A 44 year old man can't really explain away the pedophilia of "Sexy and 17". Now that Lee Joseph is in the band -- he's great at those melodic McCartney rockabilly walking bass lines -- I have a stylistic ally.
I wrote this and a love song -- "The Best Of Me", it's called -- kinda right next to each other. If that doesn't explain the contradictions of my heart, nothing will.
It's funny how long I've been a Big Sandy fan, and how he's still my favorite singer, songwriter, and bandleader. to emerge in the post-Blasters California music scene. As a vocalist, only Alison Krauss is generational equal. As a songwriter, he's probably the only guy in his field who can really get in the Johnny Mercer/Floyd Tillman realm. But he goes beyond and does things that never would have suited the Mercer era. As a bandleader, he's definitely got it together not only for the tightest, but for the band that grooves most naturally while being the most tightly arranged. That said, he and his band are the most spontaneous improvising group I've seen out of the California roots scene, especially when Lee Jeffries and Carl Leyland were in the front lines next to Ashley Kingman.
God, I saw that band a million times.
The roots scene has long been made of largely of people who are hostages to mannerism. So many bands have been so obessed with imitating somebody else's end result that "blues" and "rockabilly" and whatever else are less about music than they are about of behavior, clothing, and gear. They cop old licks and other peoples' acts. They don't really do the elemental thing of developing a personal style, block by block, step by step.
But Robert Williams (Sandy) really does. His building blocks have added up to a really rewarding personal statement, starting with the rockabilly of those first two albums, the streamlined western swing of the next two, then the Tin Pan Alley of the next two, and on out. I swear, the last thing I heard of him sounded like Goffin & King invading Town Hall Party. But his refusal to not make it jump...
He's the National Treasure of his generation, and he just gets better, more original, and more improvisational.
Lately, I find myself presented with certain choices musically, and -- along with insightful advice from friends -- I think about Bill Evans.
There's always this terrible thing of shoving music and musicians into a categorical box, and BE does an amazing job of explaining how it ain't about what, but rather about how and -- just as important -- why.
The things that people freeze into stylistic mannerism -- blues and rockabilly especially -- make it possible to grow a certain type of audience for money. But the people who really grow the music itself past the stylistic trappings -- the Blasters come to mind -- make the lasting impact even as they're not playing stadiums.
Hearing Bill Evans discuss creativity and self-teaching is a giant reminder of the beauty and nobility of the creative process. He's not talking riffs and licks and posture. This is one of the great artists ever clarifying the why of art. I know it's not for everybody (and some might even be insulted by some of the assertions he makes). But I treasure this and want you to be able to check it out.
This version of the band -- with Lee Joseph on bass and Mark Borinstein on drums -- is turning out to be the best band I've had in a very long time. They've got it dialed in, not just in terms of learning their parts, but also as a great support system for improvising.
"Doin' My Time" -- written by Jimmie Skinner and recorded by almost everybody I love -- came into the set as an afterthought (i.e. I needed something uptempo in the key of G), and it's become the fast workout song. As you can hear, the rhythm section is very comfy up there, and Lee takes some freedom with the usual bluegrass bassline, and Mark is freer with the accents than is usual for this type of music. Works for me.
We practice with no electricity, which is great to help you listen to one another. Also, we're not young. I'm the youngest guy in the band. So, um, loud is not an aspiration.
Ron Resnick took the video, and he's been ably documenting certain aspects of the roots music scene here (Frank Wakefield, Phil Alvin) that I hope more people will check out.
