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One of the cool things about playing with other musicians (especially if your house is the practice space) is that quite often you get to play with a few of the “toys” they leave at your home. Such was the case in 2003 -2004 when the drummer (Larry Verhovec) in my band brought over his keyboard. Not owning one myself, I was immediately intrigued and began to experiment with all the things that this electronic device was capable of. Larry’s keyboard eventually found itself on several recordings, and this is the story of one of them.

As fate would have it, at the exact same time – I began working with and recording a rather interesting fellow: 78 year old Carmen Barricello from Amherst, Ohio. Carm is, well…as I have dubbed him, the undisputed King of Lorain County Karaoke. Somewhere between Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin you’ll find Carmen Barricello; “Carmen the Crooner”. He and I hooked up when he approached me about recording some of his Karaoke classics for posterity. Carm does a rather interesting version of Jimmy Buffet’s “Margaritaville”.

I was looking for some original material for Carmen to take a crack at, and remembered an old song I had written back in 1979. Back in those days, I was pretty interested in all things Broadway, and had a kernel of an idea to attempt to write an entire show. You know, boy meets girl – wackiness ensues – boy loses girl – additional wackiness…a typical Broadway plot. I had a song of unrequited love (typical of such vehicles) written into the show and the more I thought about it, the more perfect it felt for Carmen to record it. Plus it was a Christmas song – how can you miss with that?

I gave the music and lyrics for “All I Got for Christmas is the Blues” to Carmen and let him practice it on his own for a few weeks. While he was doing that, using Larry’s keyboard, I laid down all of the musical bed tracks. Carm came into the studio, I coached him through a few practice rounds to get his timing and phrasing down, and by the third take, we had an instant Holiday classic.

Although some years have passed since its recording – and some decades have passed since i wrote it, I still rather take a shine to this piece. And Carm, now in his Eighties, still calls me from time to time and fills me in on how his career is going. I hope that this holiday season is a safe, healthy and joyous one for all. I’ll be back in the new year with some more stuff, but until then, Ladies and Gentlemen may I present for your Yuletide listening pleasure – Mr. Carmen Barricello.

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Since we were speaking of lovesongs…

For a kid who was into music, Cleveland was a great area to grow up in. Before the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, before the Buzzard ballot stuffing, we had WMMS when FM radio was new, exciting and innovative. I heard things on that radio station that I had never, ever heard before. Denny Sanders, Matt the Cat, Kid Leo were pioneers in the early 1970’s – and at least in my opinion, set the standard for what FM radio should be – that is until the great Clear Channel monopoly started taking shape, leaving FM radio as the voice of corporate America, rather than young America.

WMMS definitely left its mark on my early adolescent mind, both consciously and subconsciously.

One such occasion occurred on the small portable radio in my bed room during the early 1970’s, when for the first time anywhere on WMMS I heard a young Bonnie Raitt performing a live version of her song Blender Blues. To the best of my recollection, before I heard Stevie Ray Vaughn, before I heard B.B. or Albert King, before I was really sure who Eric Clapton was – I heard Bonnie Raitt. Her “Blender Blues” WAS blues to me. It was slow, sexual, full of innuendo and double entendre – and most likely, at that time, one of the cleverest things I had yet heard. From what I understand Bonnie took some heat for this song – and most likely has never performed it again. In retrospect, I’d have to guess that I only heard it played on WMMS perhaps 4-5 times.

Almost 30 years later, with this song indelibly burned into my subconscious, I am driving my Dodge Colt to work on the interstate and am passed (OK – literally left in the dust) by a woman driving a Volvo.

A Volvo?!

Let ME drive your VOLVO, Honey!

Hmmmm…

Before we got married, Michele had dated guys whose idea of a fun evening was rebuilding an engine. As a result – she knows way more about cars, how they work and why they don’t, than most men I know, certainly more than me. I wrote Motorhead – to let her know that, although she was the automotive expert in the family – I knew a few things too.

Written and recorded in early 2001 – Motorhead is my Blender Blues. Although I had every intention of re-recording it at some point, this is its original rough cut demo version – and in all the years of playing out, Motorhead has never been performed publicly since it was laid down on an 8 Track Analogue Panasonic. Much like Raitt’s Blender Blues and the Vintage WMMS, it resides only in the fondness of reminiscence.

You can listen to Bonnie Raitt’s Blender Blues by either clicking the link at the bottom of the “She Plays Music” article – or here.

Motorhead lyrics and music – after the fold…

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What do Steely Dan, Miles Davis, Kip Winger, John Coltrane, Chubby Checker and George Clinton all have in common?

Love.

Where I work, there are quite a few Vietnamese immigrants whose families came to the United States after the Fall of Saigon. From time to time, I’d hear them playing cassettes of both traditional and modern Vietnamese music.

Although my Vietnamese is not very good, having an appreciation for the music but not understanding a single word being sung – I would often ask, “what’s this song about?”.

Invariably, their response would be “love”.

Another song – another query.
Again the answer – “love”

I soon learned that most, if not all, Vietnamese songs were about “love”.

Hey! what a coincidence! So are mine!

Inspired by Steely Dan’s first studio album in 20 years; Two Against Nature (2000) – in 2001, I penned this ode to my love.

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Octuplets in California.
Pfizer buys Wyeth for 68 Billion Dollars.

Time marches on
But some things never change.

A couple of stories in the news this year reminded me of a song I had written back in 2002 – based on recent events at that time.
Basically, the formula for this piece was a simple one:
Read the Newspaper – Write a Song.

Quite a few of my compositions have a bit of a political charge/slant to them, those of you who may know me would, perhaps, expect that. Much of what was going on in the immediate post-9/11 world would make me simply shake my head and ask the question in the common vernacular of that time period,
“What’s up with that?!”

I had been listening some to groups like Wilco, and more locally Dan Rose of Mothertrain and although I would never characterize myself as a fan of Country and Western, I did develop an appreciation for their melodic fare.

Whatever it may mean – and I’m not really sure what exactly it does mean – I’ve classified this song as alternative country – because I believe that style of music only adds to the Americana of this piece.

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Esoterically speaking, we are all irrelevant.
It’s just that some of us are more irrelevant than others.

Written in 2001, I chose to kick things off with Irrelevant – as it is my most autobiographical song. That’s not to say that most of my material doesn’t have a good bit of me in it – because it does – I’m what I know best.

For those who may be familiar with the song Irrelevant – this is not that song. Well, it kinda is – this is the original, unabridged version I originally recorded. When Neville Meredith produced that track for the Irrelevant album – he did what good producers do. He removed unnecessary verses, rearranged things, added necessary elements. I gave Nev full reign to do what ever needed to be done. Such is my trust and confidence in him. I will get Nev’s version of Irrelevant up on this site in the future.

I turned 40 in 2001. I would think that for myself, like a lot of other people, I was born to accomplish great things. It took me 4 decades to learn that sometimes simply living, experiencing, loving and working are all Great Things.

There’s a tremendous freedom in realizing one’s irrelevance. Perhaps only then can we as human beings move on to true self-actualization.

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“I am but a Simple Man…” – Simple Man (2001)

“On my own, I’m nothing but a silly man” – Better Than I Am (2002)

“What a lucky man am I…” – Steady as She Goes (2002)

In many ways I am a very lucky man.  Many ways.

Throughout my life I have had the opportunity to do many things.  Many things.

I’ve been a store clerk, a steel worker, a soldier, a teacher, a counselor, a therapist, a clinical director, a lecturer, a motivational speaker, a bartender, a community activist, a citizen-journalist, a husband, a son and a friend.  Throughout all of the twists and turns my life has taken, there has been one constant: music.

For as long as I can remember I have been singing and playing guitar (and experimenting with other instruments) – although I’ll readily admit – neither particularly well.  Technically, I am a mediocre guitarist.  I am more fascinated by an interesting sounding chord progression than performing blistering guitar solos or classical finger-picking technique.    For my purposes, I am an adequate vocalist – you’ll hear many much better voices than mine.  I am probably more suited to the chorus of an off-off-off-Broadway musical than commercial radio.  Such is life.

Much more than playing an instrument or singing, I write songs.  I have written songs for as long as I can remember.  Hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of songs.  Truthfully, I am much more songwriter than performer.  Some are not worth hearing, but a few I am quite proud of, and would hold against the work of many other more successful smiths.  That – more than anything else – will be the purpose and focus of this site; a permanent home for the body of a life’s work.  An anthology of sorts.  Warts and all.

The songs I have written, the story behind each one, the people, events and circumstances that inspired or aided in its evolution will all eventually be featured here.  In no particular order, without any chronological rhyme or alphabetical reason (only as the mood strikes), you’ll find old stuff, new stuff, very old stuff, very new stuff, alternative – ne’re before heard versions, songs that I did all on my own, songs that I collaborated on with others – and even other folks’ work and recordings that I helped out on/contributed to as an engineer or producer.

Hopefully as we progress here, you’ll get to hear some interesting and enjoyable music,  read some entertaining stories and meet some very talented (and very crazy) people.

I hope you will come along for this ride.