From: owner-ecto-digest@smoe.org (ecto-digest) To: ecto-digest@smoe.org Subject: ecto-digest V9 #22 Reply-To: ecto@smoe.org Sender: owner-ecto-digest@smoe.org Errors-To: owner-ecto-digest@smoe.org Precedence: bulk ecto-digest Friday, January 24 2003 Volume 09 : Number 022 Today's Subjects: ----------------- Oh Susanna songname [afrisch@t-online.de (Alex Frisch)] Rumors of my demise are somewhat exaggerated... [Phillip Hudson Subject: Rumors of my demise are somewhat exaggerated... Hello all Fuzzy Blues; My sincerest apologies to all for disappearing so abruptly from the list without a trace. The past year has been one of the most hectic and intense times in my life, with job layoffs, abrupt moves, relationship breakup, getting mistaken for Chuck Barris and being subsequently detained by the Guatemalan Secret Police; the list goes on.... My life resembled a bad country song for a while, except I didn't have a dog to lose. ( I have since been adopted by an adorable coyote/shepherd mutt who found me a while back; I'm not sure if it were she or I who was lost). So anyway, I have been living on my looks and wits, both hopelessly inadequate to the task. I have missed my fellow Ectophiles a great deal, but did not want to re-sub until I had established a permanent Internet connection again (and/or a semi-permanent life!). This has now come about, so like it or not, you're stuck with me and my fatuous remarks again :) Where to start? Well this is Happy's list so we must honor her first and appropriately; I am in the process of creating a demo/promo CD to send out to labels, stations, promoters, etc, and the perpetually gracious and generous Ms. Rhodes has kindly allowed me permission to use Temporary and Eternal on it. I hope to get sufficient interest to work up a full commercial release sometime later this year. Thank you Happy, you are always a sparkling gem in my universe. The working Title of the CD is Runaway Shadow, ( the original title was "I've Suffered for my Music, Now It's Your Turn") and revision 1.0 currently has only 2 finished songs on it; an original ( produced by my good friend and studio parter, Bill Mazur) and T&E. Bill and I will be going into the studio this weekend to work on three more originals. We hope to have rev 2.0 finished in a few weeks. My producer, Bruce Bellochio, of Faultline Audio, is a great guy who is really committed to what we're doing, with a genuine liking for our music. Bruce is active in promoting a lot of local Indie artists, including Pipa Pinon, and Jeff Hunter, who both appeared at the EFW house concert in Boulder Creek a few years back. Check out the website if you're interested. ( But don't look for me on it yet until I have Rev 2.0 pressed!) http://www.faultlineaudio.com/ If anyone would like to get a copy, please email me offline and perhaps you can send me an SASE, as I will gladly give away the promo CD, but funds and time currently prevent me from attending to the packaging and postage. ( Oh God, shades of Left Hand Demo appear: If I never got to thank Fog, Jeff and whomever else for picking up on that after my entire life went AWOL on me, please accept my sincerest thanks now). Bill and I have been playing out locally in the past few months, and we got to open for Dave Mason, ex of Traffic, a while back, along with some other gigs and a radio slot, and participate in a truly wonderful SF house concert, featuring the delightful Terami Hirsch ( whose wonderful tagline is "Introvert with a microphone")and Ecto's own treasure, Vienna Teng. I can't even begin to say how excited and happy I am for Vienna, after seeing her effortless performance on Letterman. For those of you unfortunate enough to have not yet met Vienna, she is one of the most gracious and wonderful persons one could ever hope to meet. The universe sometimes redeems itself by letting the good people get a share of the goodies. Now let's hold that thought for Happy's forthcoming release. BTW Vienna; thank you much for your kind words about me and Waking Hour on Ecto ( Bill read me your pre-show posting to the group) but I think your musical destiny was carved out long before I ever heard your CD. However, I always felt very honored that you asked me to review the CD, and I thank you so much for the ideas your music has inspired in my own songs. I wish you supreme success and great happiness. For anyone who purchased the initial Waking Hour CD, drop everything and get the Virt release; the arrangements are exquisitely crafted versions, which often differ quite considerably from the originals. I love both the albums, as I'm an arrangement hound, and need to hear these great songs in as many different ways as possible. OK, this email is now approaching Biblical size, so I should quit while I'm ahead. Warmest regards to all my friends on the list, and thanks again to Meth and Woj for making it happen. All the best Phil Hudson Extrovert with a Megaphone < ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 23 Jan 2003 18:13:06 -0500 From: JoAnn Whetsell Subject: matt's dilemma; edie carey & anne heaton in concert Matt, Can't help you with your latest dilemma, but have fun at the Melissa Ferrick show. I think you'll enjoy it. I saw Edie Carey and Anne Heaton with Frank Marotta, Jr. play at the Fez on Tuesday night. It was my first concert of the year, and I think my first concert since August or September, and quite a good one. They chatted about touring with Melissa Ferrick and being back in NYC (Edie lives in Atlanta now). They interspersed their songs (1 Edie, then 1 Anne) all night and frequently contributed backing vocals on each other's songs. Edie started things off. She played a lot of new songs and things from her second album, including "Violently," "Fall or Fly," and "Come Close" (at request), and "Compromise (be a poet about it)" from her live disc. She talked about her move to Atlanta (or maybe around it) and complained about Anne's songwriting being so good she raises the standards too high and she hates her even though she really loves her anyway. It was cute. I really liked the way she wrote about 9/11 in a new song, "Under a Blue Sky" (I think) which she said was about important events that happened to her at age 9, 17, and 27. (Or maybe that was 8, 18, and 27, but close enough). The chorus was something like "Nothing great could ever happen under that blue sky/ Nothing bad could ever happen under that blue sky) and when she started singing about the black clouds filling the sky, followed by that chorus, you knew what she was talking about. One of the things I remember most about 9/11 was what a beautiful, sunny, warm day it was, and yet there were these terrible things happening, but the disconnect didn't make either one less true. All in all, it was a good performance. She sang and played well and seemed like she was enjoying herself. Anne contributed vocals, and sometimes keyboard too, to some songs. I don't think Frank played on any, but I could be wrong. She ended with Shawn Colvin's "Diamond in the Rough," which is on her live album, Come Close. When she said she was going to play a Shawn Colvin song, I thought yes, that makes total sense. I hadn't thought about the comparison before, but it makes sense. Shawn Colvin's early work anyway. They're both storytellers, and there's musical similarity too. Anne was in a really loopy mood, saying she felt more "present" and less cerebral than usual. But whatever it was didn't take away from her performance. She also sang and played well, and Frank's backing vocals and guitar (both acoustic and electric) added a different dynamic to the songs, kind of an edge that's not lacking on the album, but just different somehow. She also played a lot of new songs, but played "Black Notebook," "Spinning," "Take Your Desire," and "Your Heart Is For Breaking" and a song which I think is from her first album (or a cover?) with the chorus "Make up your mind/ Do you want to spend time with me." She played a new song that she said was a response to someone who had written a negative song about her and seemed a slightly upset afterwards that she had messed it up, although I didn't notice. I think everyone appreciated her taking the risk of playing a song she didn't have under her belt yet. They have such wonderful harmonies together. The whole show was just under 2 hours, but flew by. JoAnn - -----Original Message----- From: bittnerm@earthlink.net [mailto:bittnerm@earthlink.net] Sent: Wednesday, January 22, 2003 2:35 PM To: ecto@smoe.org Subject: Another dilemma Okay, I've decided to go to the Melissa Ferrick show (thanks all for the recommendations) assuming I have the time and money, but now I'm in another dilemma. Since I have limited funds, I'm contemplating my next CD purchase. Sure, I'll buy both, but I'm having trouble figuring out which one to purchase first, the new one from Vienna Teng, or the new one from Nicky Mehta? I really, really, really like the song snippets on their respective sites, and both are extremely awesome to my ears. However... ;-) Like I said earlier, I will definitely buy both at some point. Unfortunately I forgot about the Letterman show with Vienna - sorry. Matt Bittner ------------------------------ End of ecto-digest V9 #22 *************************