Updated August 1, 2003
New Ken solo show added: Aug. 5, at the Green Room, NYC,
6pm FREE Address: 765 6th Ave. @ 25th St.
As I write, I am in the Hotel Karel
V in Utrecht, Netherlands, having arrived here today
in anticipation of the 2003 summer REM tour. We will
be here for the week, rehearsing, and play a show at
the end of the week at the Tivoli, a 1000-or-so capacity
club. The Posies also began a tour with a gig at the
Tivoli, our 1994 summer tour and we also played the
Tivoli in 1998 on our tour for "Success".
The cycles come around, and renew and restart and the
familiar is alongside the novel once again.
Music is a game to me that mixes the
novel and the familiar, lulling you into what you want
to believe is safe territory, and then throwing your
sedate(d) mind a mighty change-up that sends you running
for cover. But of course with music there is never any
real danger, just the uncomfortable feeling of being
somewhere new--so new that you don't know how to be
comfortable there yet. And then, without really noticing
the point of change, you have a new area of compatibility,
some new words in the dictionary of thoughts and emotions
Since my last posting, I have been involved in numerous
creative activities. I'll recap month by month:
January: I participated in sessions
for my friend Michael Cerveris' new record. We did sessions
in Portland and New York--in PDX I had the rare t'rill
to team up in a power rhythm section with Janet Weiss
(I was going to say 'Quasi drummer Janet Weiss, but
that sounds pejorative, doesn't it?). At the end of
the month I headed to Spain to tour with White Flag--I
returned to sing and play bass, this time joined by
Pat Fear Javier Escovedo singing and playing guitar,
and Dave Naz behind the 'kit'. To those with truly intimate
knowledge of my career, this grouping of musicians is
identical to the 1998 model Chariot that toured Spain.
Indeed, what we lost in White Flag numbers w/o Trace
Element being there we gained in Chariot numbers...would
anyone notice? I opened the shows each night--I had
a great reception in Madrid, and the two shows I played
on my own--Barcelona and Palma De Mallorca--were truly
stunning. Thank you to all the attendees--and to my
impromptu drummers in Granada and Santa Pola. In Palma,
I performed in a 14th century palace, in a beautiful
chapel, with high, beamed, ceilings and stone walls.
There were over 300 people in attendance, prob. one
of the biggest crowds I've played to as a headliner,
and best of all they were pin drop silent as I played.
Directly from the White Flag/KS tour
I headed to Senegal, to continue my association with
the group WaFlash. I have been a fan for years and did
some recording with them in 2001 in Dakar. Since then
we have come up with the idea to record together, release
the results, and do a tour of W. Africa together. So
on this visit I spent a week in their town writing some
music with them, and we proceeded to Dakar for a week
at Studio 2000. The collaboration yielded some excellent
results (I'll try and get something up on the website
soon). All the musicians in WaFlash are tremendously
innovative and talented. As I hope you will get to hear--I
am hoping to release the music along with video from
the tour. The tour is scheduled to visit Senegal, Gambia,
Mauritania, Mali, and Burkina Faso in December this
year/January 2004. We recorded a couple of co-written
compositions that are sung by WaFlash's singers Ma Sane
and Amodou, with additional vocals by me. There is a
song that we used the same music, with one lyric and
vocal by me and one by Ma. And we did a 3-part suite
that features all of us together, plus legendary vocalist
Soulimane Faye as well. And an instrumental track I
did with some accompaniment by WaFlash's percussionists.
Surreally, I traveled home at the end of February, spending
a night in Madrid on the way, and w/in a week of me
leaving Dakar I found myself in Anchorage, Alaska, playing
a Posies show. From the Sub-Sahara to the Sub-Arctic
in a few days. In addition to that (rather drunken)
Posies show, the Posies also performed shows in Seattle
and Tacoma (I also made an appearance in the Minus 5
that evening).
In March, I spent a couple of days
recording in Seattle on tracks for my new record. Working
at the Soundhouse and Ironwood (where the Posies did
much of Frosting on the Beater and the Minus 5 did a
large portion of the Lonesome Death of Buck McCoy) Studios,
I tracked a song called 'You Drew' backed by the Posies'
Darius Minwalla on drums and Matt Harris on bass, and
also legendary session musician Larry Knechtel on piano
and organ. Look him up on All Music Guide to see his
vast CV, but to name a few things he's played on...
Simon and Garfunkel--Bridge Over Troubled Water (piano)
Beach Boys--Pet Sounds and Good Vibrations (piano/organ)
Doors--Light My Fire (single vers.) (bass)
Byrds--Mr. Tambourine Man (bass)
Frank Sinatra--That's Life (piano)
And various tracks by everyone from the Mamas and the
Papas to Barbara Streisand to the 5th Dimension to Duane
Eddy to Elvis Costello (and Presley, I believe)...from
the end of the 50s thru the 90s Larry was one of the
top session players in LA. He is mostly retired and
lives in central Washington State. For awhile he was
living near my hometown of Bellingham WA and did a session
at a friend's studio, which is how I got in touch with
him. Larry also played bass and keyboards on my version
of the Association's 'Never My Love' (he plays keyboards
on the Association's original version); Matt H. played
drums and John Roderick of the Long Winters plays acoustic
guitar on that track as well.
After those sessions I did a Minus 5 show in Seattle
to celebrate the release of Down With Wilco, the latest
Minus 5 album, on which Scott McCaughey is backed by,
well, Wilco, but M5 regulars such as Peter Buck and
myself make appearances. It's out on YepRoc! In the
states and Cooking Vinyl in the UK.
After the M5 Seattle show I headed
(literally) to the airport and settled into a few weeks
of recording sessions for my record in Stockholm, Sweden.
I worked with Jorgen Wall, at his studio, and with him
playing most of the drums (Jorgen is one of the most
requested drummers in Sweden). I recorded several new
songs, had some talented musicians come in for tasty
bits (strings, saw!, etc.). This included a special
dub segment of one of my new songs, as interpreted by
Gaffa Man, the amazing one-man electro reggae sound
system. I did a couple of shows while I was there as
well...the studio is in the same building as Stockholm's
only all ages venue, Kafe 44. I performed there for
free but took donations to give to the Red Cross for
victims of the war in Iraq (which began while I was
in Sweden), raising several hundred dollars.
Upon my return from Stockholm I settled
into the Soundhouse to start overdubbing and mixing
all the stuff I had brought back from various countries
and sessions. There were some hairy moments trying to
find a machine that would play the tapes from Senegal
back properly...but it all worked out. I added some
horns and other special guests to my stuff. The collaborations
with WaFlash are being released there this month (June)
on cassette format. The songs from my record thus far
are done but plan do some more writing and recording
as the summer progresses. I basically spent all of April
and May in the studio in Seattle, save for a few days
I spent in Memphis with Big Star, playing two shows--including
an opening celebration for the Stax Museum of American
Soul Music, where we shared a bill with blues legend
Little Milton...truly a relatively unsung hero (even
his new record is good and how often can you say that
about...anyone?). The night after that show we went
to the big ol' Stax Museum show, a real soul re-vu with
many stars including Al Green, Ann Peebles, Eddie Floyd,
Booker T. and the M G s, and Rance Allen, an explosive
gospel singer who was my pick of the night (well, OK,
Al Green was really spectacular). In one of my afternoons
in Memphis that week, I went to meet Alex Chilton for
a few sets of tennis (surreal? Not as much as you'd
think) and out in front of his hotel I found him on
the sidewalk--the hotel having been cleared due to a
fire alarm--in a crowd that was solely comprised of
the other hotel guests present at the time: Eddie Floyd,
Percy Sledge, Michael McDonald, Jimmie Vaughn, and Chuck
D. And no one else! Alex said if he'd had a camera at
that point he could have retired. After the all clear,
I went to change into my tennis gear in the men's room,
and Percy Sledge came in to pee...singing the whole
time. Free show, and unf., his voice was better in the
bathroom than at the Orpheum.
Directly from Memphis I went to Vancouver for a week
of REM rehearsals, the first (increasing the Seattle/Minus
5 content of REM into a majority) with Bill Rieflin
on drums. Bill also paid me a visit in the studio in
Seattle...results pending the arrival of lyrics.
On my days off from the studio in Seattle I managed
to play a Posies rock show (Crazy Horse meets....Crazier
Horse), a Posies acoustic show (part of a charity auction
that raised tens of thousands of dollars for an autism-related
charity) and KS solo show (debuting several of the new
songs). Just before I left town I produced 5 songs for
a new artist (well, he is 20-something) named Ben Adams.
Then I hopped a plane to Atlanta and REM rehearsals
resumed in earnest.
It's June 21 now, I'm backstage at the Tivoli, our first
show is tonight...
I forgot to mention the Long Winters album that I co-produced
is out on Barsuk Records, and getting rave reviews.
I can recommend it with all confidence. I also contributed
a track, a cover of 'Nature Boy' as made famous by Nat
King Cole et al, to a compilation released thru the
Seattle clothing store Olivine. I just checked their
website and couldn't find ordering info but call Olivine
(toll free in the USA) at 877-906-1903. Overseas people
and email addicts can go to www.olivine.net and contact
the store thru that site. It's in some stores as well,
and it's called "This Is The Music For Me".
This is the only place my track will be available. You
can always visit the Olivine boutique in Seattle's now-fashionable
Ballard if you are a shopper...
OK, I have been attending to my duties
as REM sideman, and my habits as a tennis opportunist,
etc., and I have neglected to proofread and send this
dispatch. In fact, it's July 7 now and I am in the ultimate
Swiss holiday spot, Locarno, for an REM show (duh) tonight.
Interestingly, Microsoft Word recognizes 'duh' as a
word. The tour has been going incredibly well, despite
the fact that a couple of the shows were performed in
torrential downpours...this seemed only to enliven the
audience's determination to have a good night. Some
of the audiences have been among the best, loudest,
and most uplifting I have ever performed for. We headlined
the first night of the Glastonbury Festival (near Pilton,
UK, which is not too far from Bristol) and had a very
successful night, in front of over 100,000 people.
I haven't seen one yet, but the Jon
Auer and KS split EP, 'Private Sides' has been released
on Arena Rock Recording Co., a Brooklyn-based label.
Three new tracks each from Jon and I. I contribute 'Don't
Break the Silence', the typical set-closer from the
Saltine days; 'Prequel', a recording I made during the
Posies' 1997 hiatus, and a cover of the magnificent
Bridget St. John (UK based acoustic genius who released
the orig. version of this song in 1969) composition
'Ask Me no Questions'. Bridget's version is the gorgeous
title track to her album released originally on John
Peel's Dandelion label, and reissued in the 90's by
See For Miles Rec. in the UK. Unf. I believe the CD
is out of print, but you might find it in the racks
if you sniff around a little. On 'Silence and Questions'
Jill Sobule accompanies me on banjo, guitar, vocals
and percussion. Also, the cover of this EP is truly
frightening!
The cassette-only release of the music
I made in Senegal is out now there, and has sold 10,000
copies in the first week--evidently it's a hit--and
great things are expected for the tour. In other positive
news, my photo (from a 1998 KS show at Key Arena in
Seattle) is included in a major cover story on REM in
the German edition of Rolling Stone.
If our wireless internet is up and running at soundcheck
today, I will post this posthaste...
KS
Locarno SWITZERLAND July 7, 2003
|
The new Ken Stringfellow
CD, titled "soft commands" came out July
13th! |