independentmidwestmusic.com

 

I am doing a series of interviews with several Eastern Iowa musicians who have been playing music in this area for about 40 years. These guys are personal friends of mine and they have just put together an exciting new band called The BarnRockers. These interviews will all be exploring the pre-BarnRockers experience of these fine musicians. There are six of them. I will be posting the interviews in alphabetical order going by their last name. I hope you enjoy the interviews with this talented bunch of guys. If you ever get a chance to see the BarnRockers play make sure you tell them you read their interview on Independent Midwest Music.com.

 

 

 

 

Ken Clarke

 

Billy Rose: How Old were you when you first started playing guitar?

 

Ken Clarke: My first guitar. I was twelve or thirteen, I think.

I can’t remember to be honest with ya.

 

Billy Rose: Is guitar the first instrument you tried?

 

Ken Clarke: I plucked on the piano a little. Singing, I like singing. I sang in the church choir. I just overall had a love for music. Oh you know what I was thirteen when I got my first guitar. Because I saw The Beatles on the Ed Sullivan Show. I thought if those cats can do it, I can do it (laughs).

 

Billy Rose: That’s exactly what Dave Schneider said.

 

Ken Clarke: Did he really? It makes you wonder just how many millions of kids did that.(laughs). Guitar sales really went up that week (laughs).

 

Billy Rose: So were you involved with music in school? Band or choir.

 

Ken Clarke: Nope! As soon as I saw The Beatles it was over to my buddies house learning all The Rolling Stones, The Beatles, The Animals basically all the English groups (laughs). One of our favorite groups were the Shadows of Night out of Chicago. ‘Cause they were doing that Blues stuff and we kinda dug the Blues. But my first experience with Rock ‘N’ Roll though goes way back. I was at a buddies house that lived down the street…the Cooley’s and Tom Cooley’s brother had a record of Elvis Presley doing Hound Dog. I was all of five years old (laughs) and I was sittin’ there on the front steps and they say hey ya wanna come in and listen to this. This is that new stuff. I was born in ’52 and it came out in like ’56 or ’57. Man he put that Hound Dog on and I was changed right then and there. Because before that all I ever heard was Vic Damone , Tony Bennett and Glen Miller that my folks were listening to. It was like pretty paltry compared to that Rock ‘n’ Roll stuff. Five years old and I jumped out of my skin. I thought this is for me (laughs). I like that Rock ‘N’ Roll man that’s good stuff.

 

Billy Rose: So did you start listening to Rock ‘n’ Roll then at the age of five.

 

Ken Clarke: No, no, no. I heard it on the radio once in a while. My folks wouldn’t let me listen to it. I heard it on car radios of kids driving by or at friends houses who had older brothers or sisters. But we didn’t get any Rock ‘n’ Roll in my house and I’ll tell you it was kinda rough too ‘cause my dad was against that ya know. He called it the Yeah, Yeah, Yeah music, with the long hair and stuff (laughs). A lot of parents were like that and now they have that music themselves. My parents have The Beatles greatest hits (laughs).

 

Billy Rose: So what was the first band you played in?

 

Ken Clarke: Oh wow. I don’t even know if we had a name. Yeah, I think we did have a name. There were three guys. My buddy Danny Bloomberg played the drums, Jim Farr lived down the street from me. I had this little Gretsch guitar and a Silvertone amp and Jimmy had Ampeg Portaflex…very collectible right now…cool sounding bass. We sat in my garage and played Satisfaction until our fingers were raw (laughs)…we played it all afternoon…that’s the only song we knew (laughs)…the kids in the neighborhood would come by and think we were cool. Later we added a couple guys and had a band called the Brick Layers Arms, ‘cause that was a club were The Rolling Stones used to play, we read it in some biography or something. So we called ourselves that. From there it just kinda progressed. We had a band called The Jack Daniels Band when we were in high school. That’s where I really caught it ‘cause that’s when everything started sounding good. Before that it was pretty pathetic.

 

Billy Rose: Did you take guitar lessons or did you learn it yourself?

 

Ken Clarke: For a year I took lessons from a guy named Maurice Byers he lived up on Pershing. He was an older guy and he was teaching me scales and all of the rudiments and stuff like that, I was getting pretty frustrated man. I said hey I want to play some of that Rock ‘n’ Roll man. You gotta teach me what I’m listening too. So he pulls out a book and starts playing Pipeline by The Ventures (laughs) and I said that’s enough for me, I can’t handle this. So then I started teaching myself. He gave me enough to get started ya know. But I really learned watching other guys on TV and going to see bands and stuff like that. I would watch how their hand would move up and down the fret and I would just experiment. I don’t want to over simplify it, but it’s pretty simple if you’re good at mathematics ‘Cause there’s only so many scales and so many things you can do. It took a while to teach myself. These kids today man they got the videos and all this other instruction. You get a guitar when you’re seven years old and you’re a professional when you’re fourteen (laughs). I was barely able to play ten chords when I was fourteen (laughs).

 

Billy Rose: So the first band. Were you in High School or Junior High?

 

Ken Clarke: Junior High. It was Gateway Junior High School. Yeah I remember now. We got this fourth guy in the band and my buddy calls me and says Clark you gotta come down and hear this guy has an amp and he’s got this thing called reverb on it and it sounds like he’s playing far away. I jumped on my bike and went right down there. And here’s this short chubby little guy with greasy long hair named Mike Ashby and he was wailing away on a little Fender Mustang…I’ll never forget it…a Princeton Reverb, just krank it up and he could play. This guy had been taking lessons for a couple years. He was a year older than us. We didn’t really do anything serious we did a couple little parties and stuff like that. When we got into high school we had a couple years of playing under our belt and we had a couple new members. This guy named Bruce McCabe played guitar and we had to many guitar players so I talked him out of it and he started playing piano, ‘cause he said he was a good piano player. So we started playing music by The Band and all kinds of piano type music. Leon Russell and Joe Cocker stuff like that because we had a piano in the lineup. Danny Bloomberg played Bass, Mark Rollins on the drums, he turned out to be a pretty talented musician he played drums, guitar and wrote songs. We had two singers out front. We had Tim Drevyanko and Bill Bobek. I think Bruce and me both sang. We had backup harmony and played all kinds of stuff. Bob Dylan, Rolling Stones, The Beatles and all the popular stuff that was going on then. We just had a blast. We started playing out of town and school dances. As soon as we got out of high school we went straight to the taverns, we just wanted to play. We loved doing it. We traveled awhile, went to Canada then we kinda split off and went our own directions. Bruce is up in Minneapolis and still playing. There was a time in high school when we wanted to get a farm…maybe it was Woodstock or something (laughs)…we were gonna go out and farm and make a living playing music (laughs). But school, parents things like that got in the way (laughs). But we had a blast playing.

 

Billy Rose: Were you doing any original material or just covers?

 

Ken Clarke: We did a few original songs. One called There’s Been A Change, written by Dan Bloomberg, Ken Clark and Bruce McCabe.

 

Billy Rose: So Bruce McCabe started out playing guitar, but you talked him into switching to piano is that right?

 

Ken Clarke: It didn’t take too much. He was kind of a folky guitar player and he was a heck of a talented guy. He loved Bob Dylan and Crosby, Still, Nash and Young type music. He taught us all a lot and taught me a lot. We were sitting around one day and I said if we had a piano we could play this and all the guys were in on it. Why don’t we try it. He said sure. So we went to his house and he had a piano in the living room. We set up some stuff and (snaps fingers) that was it. It sounded great. Bruce had years of classical training and he honed his skills in that band. He caught on fire and he got really excited about it. And he took off and never stopped.

 

Billy Rose: So what happened after high school?

 

Ken Clarke: After high school I joined up with Dave Schneider and Mark Haferbier and his brother Terry. We had a band called the Ric Pike Band. We played about ten years in Clinton. Played taverns, dance halls and weddings, and had a blast, but like everything it has to come to an end. That band splintered off and guys went different directions. I hooked up with Jack Schmalfeldt, I always loved the Blues and so did he. We just started hanging out and weren’t too serious about it, but he went to Milwaukee and got real serious. I got to play up there with him a couple times. Then he moved back to Clinton and he wanted to get a band together. He got Dave Schneider and few of others formed the Unidynes. They did a real nice job. JC Monroe who is playing with us now has been in a bunch of local bands and me and (Dave) Schneider and Bingo (Dave Layton) have been in a few different variations of different bands, Unidynes, Ric Pike Band and others. When Jack came along he raised us all up to a whole new level I think. He got us writing our own music and that. kind of stuff. Jack got us up and that’s what keeps us going today. Jack was a real creative guy. More so than any of us realized. You know that old phrase “You don’t miss the water, ‘til the well runs dry” With Jack gone now we all sure miss him. And here we are at our age still getting up and playing. We just love doing it. And to think it all started back in ’57 with Hound Dog. (laughs).

 

 

 

I am doing a series of interviews with several Eastern Iowa musicians who have been playing music in this area for about 40 years. These guys are personal friends of mine and they have just put together an exciting new band called The BarnRockers. These interviews will all be exploring the pre-BarnRockers experience of these fine musicians. There are six of them. I will be posting the interviews in alphabetical order going by their last name. I hope you enjoy the interviews with this talented bunch of guys. If you ever get a chance to see the BarnRockers play make sure you tell them you read their interview on Independent Midwest Music.com.

 

                                                

                                                         Bud Benson

 

Billy Rose: Well Bud let’s start out with your first instrument. Were the drums your first instrument? And how old were you when you started playing?

 

Bud Benson: Yeah! Drums were it. I was in fifth grade. Whatever age you are when you’re in fifth grade…ten, eleven.

 

Billy Rose: So how did you get into drums?

 

Bud Benson: Church. I played drums in the church band. The youth pastor was the church drummer and he said “Hey Bud why don’t you start playing these drums. So I started playing every Sunday and Wednesday night.

 

Billy Rose: So were you a natural? Did you pick it up right away?

 

Bud Benson: It was hard…well I went to the same church Evan Vulich went to. He was the church Bass player, and he rode my ass solid for two years. (laughs) “Cut those jerk ass fills, quit trying to be a rock star and keep the beat”. (laughs) He was more of a teacher than anybody else as far as playing the drums. Ya know “play the drums man don’t play that other crap”. (laughs) “Keep it simple stupid” (laughs)

 

Billy Rose: So your first band was the church band?

 

Bud Benson: Yep. Then a bunch of the youth group kids and I started a Christian Rock band. Threshold. I still have a T-shirt from those days hanging on the wall of the studio in the basement.

 

Billy Rose: Is that the band you put out a cassette? Do you have any of those tapes left?

 

Bud Benson: Well I didn’t do any with that band. The cassette was with Eat Love.

 

Billy Rose: So what ended the Christian rock faze of your career?

 

Bud Benson: Well we kinda did that Eat Love thing and we realized that if you’re gonna do that sorta thing you’re basically pastors. We weren’t pastors we were just a bunch of punk kids…we go to church and worship God and play the music that we like to play. It was just life ya know living and I caught a lot of flack for that too.

 

Billy Rose: Probably from both sides. Christians and those who were not really into God.

 

Bud Benson: Oh yeah! What the hell were you thinkin’? Well we were just playing music. Really that’s all it was.

 

Billy Rose: How old were you when you were in Eat Love?

 

Bud Benson: Early twenties.

 

Billy Rose: You went from Eat Love to What?

 

Bud Benson: That band…we kinda went our separate ways one of the guys really got into the church. He felt he was riding on the fence with what we were doing so he quit. I went through a bunch of other bands for a while. It was actually Kerri (Schmalfeldt) who introduced me to Jack (Schmalfeldt) and The Unidynes.

 

Billy Rose: Really Kerri hooked you up.

 

Bud Benson: Yeah. Amber and I…my first wife…had a baby and Kerri worked with new parents and babies…she worked for the State of Iowa. She came over to the house one day and I was telling her how I was a drummer and she said her husband and his band were looking for a drummer. I said really, what’s the band called. She said The Unidynes. I about fell through the floor.

When I was eighteen, nineteen or so I used to sneek into bars to hear those guys play. They were so good.

 

Billy Rose: So basically you went right into The Unidynes when you were in your mid-twenties. Did you know what you were getting yourself into?

 

Bud Benson: Oh no man, not at all. When I went to the first practice, sort of my try out…I put on some really nice pants and a belt, tucked in my shirt and everything. That’s not how I dress. You know I thought these were older guys…classy and everything (laughs). So I open the door and a big cloud of pot smoke rolls out, everybody’s drunk and I thought “what the hell” (laughs).I didn’t know it was like this (laughs).

 

Billy Rose: I remember Jack coming over to the house and saying “Hey we got a new drummer”. I said cool is he good. Jack says “Great! Man oh man he’s young, dumb and full of come.” (laughs)

That was how Jack described you to me. I said what’s his name and he said Bud Benson. I said oh I know Bud. I’ve played some of his stuff on Midwest Revue.

 

So did you fit in  right away or did it take some time?

 

Bud Benson: I was a little apprehensive. Ya know those guys were kinda crazy. I never knew what was gonna happen next. I was just trying to do my thing and be a part of it. It took awhile, I suppose. When we went out and recorded Smoke at Junior’s Motel, we spent three or four days together and really got to know each other.

 

Billy Rose: How long after you joined the band, did you do the recording?

 

 

 

Bud Benson: Two or three months. It was pretty quick I just learned all the songs and we went and recorded them. Jack used to record every practice session so I would go home with a tape and listen to it all week. I would hear what I didn’t like and what wasn’t working. So after three months I had it down. It’s not because I’m an awesome drummer it’s because every week I’d have a new tape to listen to.

 

Billy Rose: It basically happened pretty fast for you then. Getting in with The Unidynes and putting out a CD within about six months. Are you glad you got hooked up with these boys?

 

Bud Benson: Oh yeah, it’s been the best. These guys are the best musicians I could ever hope to play with.

 

Billy Rose: What do you think of Bingo as a bass player?

 

Bud Benson: The best fucking bass played I’ve ever worked with. He is the best musician I’ve ever known. He can play everything. He sucks on drums though (laughs).

 

Billy Rose: So Bud are you a songwriter?

 

Bud Benson: I’ve got a few actually, I’ve done on the guitar. One of these days I’m gonna get my balls up and let these guys hear ‘em. See if there is anything that they feel we could play. Right now with the Barn Rockers we’ve got almost eleven tunes, so by the end of the summer maybe we can get in the studio and put ‘em down.

 

Billy Rose: I didn’t know you played guitar, do you play anything else?

 

Bud Benson: Not very good. I play a little piano. After I started playing drums my grandmother told me to learn piano because if you can do that you can pick up anything. So I took a few piano lessons. I play a little…not like Bingo (laughs). Nobody does it like Bing.

 

Billy Rose: Thanks Bud. I wanted to talk to you and the rest of the guys about your pre-Barn Rockers career. I plan on following up with the whole group after I get this preliminary stuff done.

 

 

 

 

 

I am doing a series of interviews with several Eastern Iowa musicians who have been playing music in this area for about 40 years. These guys are personal friends of mine and they have just put together an exciting new band called The BarnRockers. These interviews will all be exploring the pre-BarnRockers experience of these fine musicians. There are six of them. I will be posting the interviews in alphabetical order going by their last name. I hope you enjoy the interviews with this talented bunch of guys. If you ever get a chance to see the BarnRockers play make sure you tell them you read their interview on Independent Midwest Music.com.

 

Bud Benson is the youngest member of the band. Bud is the drummer for The BarnRockers. Bud is from Clinton Iowa and has been playing in the area for about twenty years.

 

Ken Clark will be second. Ken is a great guitar player, he also does lead and background vocals. He has been playing around the Midwest for forty years or more. Ken is also from Clinton Iowa.

 

Kevin Kash is up next. Kevin is from nearby Charlotte Iowa. Kevin plays excellent guitar and does a mean slide. Kevin also occasionally plays bass. Kevin has been playing in the area for about thirty years.

 

Dave (Bingo) Layton is a Clinton Iowa native. Dave is the most versatile musician in the band. Layton plays the standup bass fiddle, piano, saxophone, harmonica and background vocals. Dave Layton has more than forty years of experience playing in bands around the Midwest.

 

JC Monroe is from Dewitt Iowa. JC is another versatile musician who plays guitar, piano and bass. JC also sings lead and background vocals. JC has played with numerous bands over the years. JC has been playing for more than forty years.

 

Dave (The Rave) Schneider is the final piece of the puzzle. Dave plays guitar and sings. This Clinton Iowa boy has also been playing almost non stop for more than forty years.

           I met Shannon Curfman and her band at a new venue in Fenton Illinois. Now Fenton is not your typical music town. When Randy puts on a show on a Friday or Saturday night the population of Fenton doubles or triples. The Old School Bar and Grill is a converted elementary school. The bar is set up in the gym, there are several class rooms that have been converted into sleeping rooms and the grounds around the building (several acres) are available for those who want to set up a tent or camper. Randy goes out of his way to give the people (both fans and artists) what they want. So iArista Records,f you are looking for an out of the way place to kick back and relax head to Fenton Illinois and enjoy some kick ass entertainment in very peaceful surroundings.

 

Shannon Curfman played Friday and Saturday night at Old School and ended up playing an afternoon show for a big group of bikers that rolled into the place early afternoon on Saturday. I sat down and talked with Shannon early in the evening and found her in good spirits and full of energy.

 

Billy Rose: Shannon it’s been a treat meeting you and I want to thank you for sitting down and talking to me.

 

Shannon Curfman: Absolutely!

 

Billy Rose: I’d like to start out talking about your early years. You made quite a splash about…what was it about ten years ago…

 

Shannon Curfman: Yeah, it was like ’99, 2000, 2001.

 

Billy Rose: You came out with a major label album. Fourteen years old. Pretty impressive to a lot of people. How was that whole experience for you?

 

Shannon Curfman: (laughs) I thought it was amazing! We had actually recorded that album before I got signed. It was done independently on the record label I had back then. For us when we did that album…we just thought we’d release it and play shows in the twin cities and sell the CD’s. Well we ended up selling about 5000 copies a week from like the first week. It was like Oh! Great! Now what do we do, we don’t have enough CD’s (laughs). Now we have to find money to print more CD’s. It was actually kind of a mess. But it ended up working out (laughs). That’s how the major labels found us. Through Sound Scan, seeing that there was this independent artist, who was selling a few thousand CD’s a week. So they were curious and a couple had started calling around and trying to figure out who we were. You know at that time I didn’t have a web site…nobody did in those days…nobody was doing the World Wide Web thing yet. Anyway they started calling around and found out I was this twelve year old girl and they thought everyone was lying (laughs). But we ended up signing with Arista Records.

 

Billy Rose: So did they release the exact same album that you had previously released?

 

Shannon Curfman: No, it wasn’t exactly the same. It was the same name, Loud Guitars Big Suspicions completely different art work. Three of the songs were replaced. So we went back in the studio and recorded three other songs. I Don’t Make Promises that song is a completely different version it went from being a country song to a pop rock song. And a bunch of different mixes for different songs. True Friends is really different…they changed a lot of stuff and made it more…so it would fit into the machine so to speak. (laughs)

 

Billy Rose: So are you still working with the same band.

 

Shannon Curfman: No, oh my gosh! This current line-up has only been together for about three weeks. Justin Kesterson is the new guitar player. With Justin we’ve played maybe ten shows together.

 

Billy Rose: Wow I never would have guessed he was that new. I think you work together really well. The vocals really gel.

 

Shannon Curfman: Ya know he was actually a front man before he joined me. He had never done the side kick thing. And sometimes you don’t really know how that will work out. Ya know some people are just better at doing the front man thing. But we have a blast.

 

Billy Rose: You can see that on stage, every once in a while you through your head back a laugh out load.

 

Shannon Curfman: (laughs) Yeah we do! (laughs). I figure if we’re having fun up there then it probably helps the whole place have fun. Hopefully the people who come out to hear the music are diggin’ it too. Having a good time. I don’t want it to just be music, I like knowing the people who are at me shows. I like getting to know people and I like hangin’ out. We hung out here all day long. Just hanging in the bar and outside. It was fun we ended up selling a bunch of CD’s (laughs). I posted a bulletin online and said hey if you don’t have plans this weekend and you’re in this area, come hang out and camp with us (laughs). But its fun for us to play together…we have a blast.

 

Billy Rose: You were twelve when you recorded your fist album, how did you get into the blues at such an early age? Or were you into blues?

 

Shannon Curfman: Well I got into blues through Jonny Lang. We’re both from Fargo North Dakota. We were both into guitar. Our families grew up together. He’s four years older than me so we never really hung out. At that age four years is a huge gap. You don’t see eighth graders hang with fourth graders (laughs). We both started playing guitar and then started hanging out. My parents would take me to his shows all over the Midwest, and we just started discovering music together. He discovered blues through his band. Before he was playing guitar he played saxophone in the band for a few months.

 

Billy Rose: So is there anyone else in your family that are musical?

 

Shannon Curfman: No (laughs). Well a couple people played guitar back in the day. My maternal grandpa played guitar in the service. Everyone in my family are huge music lovers and huge supporters of the art community. When Christmas comes around the whole family gets things, for each other that were locally made. My cousins and I all buy tickets to music events and theatre events things like that. Like for Mother’s Day and Father’s Day. I think that was a huge part of why I got into music. All of that exposure to the arts. My whole family is so supportive of the arts. So it’s not like you were the black sheep if you didn’t get a nine to five job. It’s alright if you want to paint (laughs). They didn’t look at you funny or anything. So that was a huge help.

 

Billy Rose: Besides Jonny Lang, who else did you listen to growing up?

 

Shannon Curfman: Actually the CD’s that got me going were Ani DeFranco’s Dialate, Rory Block When A Woman Get’s The Blues, Green Day Dookie, and Jonny Lang and The Big Bang. Those four CD’s, oh and John Prine Live. I listened to those front to back for years. Literally for years. Also everything Led Zeppelin (laughs).

 

Billy Rose: That kind of shows in your performance sometimes (laughs).

 

Shannon Curfman: (laughs) Yeah. I’ve been told I’m sometimes a little more Zeppliny than bluesy (laughs). My answer though is, isn’t Zeppelin blues? I mean that’s what they play.

 

Billy Rose: I argue with people about that too. The Blues hardcore people don’t consider Led Zeppelin to be blues. I argue that blues and music in general does and should expand their boundaries.

 

Shannon Curfman: That’s so bizarre…they do call themselves “Hardcore Blues” people. Which is hilarious to me, because those people are so close minded. They only listen to the same twelve bars of music in different keys, in like three or four different grooves. That’s it if you don’t do that you’re not blues. I think if you’re a hardcore fan of anything, Metal, Blues Rock or Country whatever the case may be. If you are really a hardcore fan then you would really listen to everything that’s going on out there. You would know the facts. You would be keeping up with the new releases and listening to everything happening in that entire genre. That’s a hardcore fan to me.

I got so much crap when I was thirteen, fourteen years old when the Arista record came out. Ya know, just another poser, she’s just a little kid, she doesn’t know anything about the Blues. I didn’t really know I was writing Blues. I was just writing what I knew. Whatever was in my head, I wrote it. It’s all pretty darn Blues inspired and so was everything that I listened to, across the board. All the old Country I listened to was rooted in Blues music. Same with the Folk stuff or Classic Rock. You can’t get away from blues. Even Rap, so much rap I hear, it is Blues. Its Blues based music, and they just kind jumble it all up.

 

Billy Rose: Were do you get your ideas from, for writing songs?

 

Shannon Curfman: I usually think of a line that I really like. Just little sayings or something pops in my head. I have little saying written down all over my house. I have two in my head that I need to work on pretty quick. I’ll go around for at least a good month with a line in my head… and just experience normal everyday life. With that line running through my head, different things happen and thinking about that one line because then you think of different things you can put in the song. Then once I sit down a write it, it happens real fast. In about twenty minute it’s done. I’m also guilty of writing one particular song over and over. I have one song that has like eighteen different versions. From Rock and ballad and everything in between. I’m getting better at looking at as a snapshot, ya know click there it’s done. It is what it is.

 

Billy Rose: Have you ever tried to write a song about a certain subject or something and had a lot of trouble doing it?

 

Shannon Curfman: Yeah, I can’t write happy songs. I’m better at writing songs that are more emotional or something. I guess my everyday life is pretty darn happy so it’s not something unusual. If I go through something that has heartache in it, it’s something I need to get out. Yeah, I can’t write a happy song, I started thinking, is there something wrong with me (laughs). I mean I have songs that are positive…like can we get through this or love of my life kinda thing. But I guess it all stems from the fact that there’s bad stuff happening anyway (laughs). I started going through my friends CD’s and listening and it turns out I’m not the only one (laughs).

 

Billy Rose: So tell me a little bit about the new album. You said it’s almost finished.

 

Shannon Curfman: The new album is called What You’re Getting Into. It’s Rockin’ Blues. It’s pretty much as simple as it gets. There are like three or four covers. We’re doing an Eric Clapton cover. The Clapton cover is gonna be a duet with Joe Bonamassa. And on the other side of the spectrum…we’re doing a cover song by Queen. On that song I have a guest artist. Stevie D the guitar player from Buckcherry. There are so many friends that I love playing with…and I’d love to work with. But I didn’t want to flood this album with a bunch of guest stars, so I just picked a couple. Those two just were the two I decided on. Joe to me is the whole new Eric Clapton like bluesish Guitar God. Then you go the other side of it you go to a Buckcherry show which is Rock. And they certainly have crossed over. I think he is the greatest Rock guitar player of our time. I just wanted to pick a couple from those genres. I also wanted to get Joe to sing (laughs). He’s more of a guitar player by nature. But I try to push him to sing.

 

Billy Rose: Is there anybody out there you would just love to play with?

 

Shannon Curfman: Jeff Beck! We used to hang out all the time in LA. He actually invited me to play with him one time and I about had a heart attack. I became a stammering idiot. I pretty much cowered and ran the other way. And at that point, he had been a friend of mine for a long time, but hanging out with someone and just chillin’ and talking about old cars and guitars and drinking (laughs). Hanging out in the sun in LA is a lot different that playing with your favorite guitar player EVER!

 

Billy Rose: So Jeff Beck is your favorite.

 

Shannon Curfman: Yeah!

 

Billy Rose: I’m sure he’d be glad to hear that.

 

Shannon Curfman: Oh, he knows.(laughs) After that night I think I kinda blew it. He had flown me out to New York, to see him at B B King’s blues club in Times Square and I just totally geeked out (laughs). I still to this day would love to get a Jeff Beck tattoo of like his autograph. There is nothing…nothing negative in my mind when I think of Jeff Beck. He’s such a great player; he’s not an idiot running around. He keeps his life private. And what’s so funny is he lives on Sunset, about the most public place there is. He manages the lifestyle he wants. He does every bit of music he wants. His last couple albums were like Techno-House music kind of a thing with him playing over it. Which I thought was brilliant. The basic tracks for those songs were so bare, it’s almost like looking at a blank canvas, and then Jeff could do whatever he wanted over that. I thought that was just beautiful. As opposed to having songs that are so structured that there are things that you just naturally play.

 

Billy Rose: Tell me something about yourself that very few people know. Something you would like to share with the world.

 

Shannon Curfman: I’m growing a huge organic veggie garden in my back yard.

 

Billy Rose: In Minnesota. How long is the growing season up there?(laughs)

 

Shannon Curfman: (laughs) about four days! We’ll have a good eighty days. That’s what I need, so I’m gonna say we’ll have a good eighty days (laughs). I’m gonna have about a thousand tomatoes or so that we’ll harvest this year. A bunch of cucumbers and a berry patch. I love domestic stuff.

 

Billy Rose: Well Shannon, I want to thank you for sitting down and talking with me and I wish you all the best with the new album and your tour.

 

Shannon Curfman: Yeah! Thank you for doing this.

Tales From The Fence Line

By Fontaine Brown

Manatee Records

2008

 

 

 

Fontaine Brown also known as Doug Brown, has been in music for more than forty years. He started out in Detroit and has played with Bob Seger, Del Shannon and Moon Martin among others. He has supplied songs to Dave Edmunds, John Mayall, Emmylou Harris, Dave Allen and Percy Sledge among others. So why havn’t you heard of him? Well if you are from the Midwest or more so Michigan you may know him from Doug Brown & The Omens or Southwind.

Fontaine Brown has released a new record of original material. His first in almost 30 years. The CD Tales From The Fence Line is a very diverse collection of songs. It features Pop, Rock, Blues, Country and Soul. With instruments like the electric sitar, mandolin and tabla. The songs have a wide range of subjects and have little in common. But the CD as a whole flows very nicely.

Ain’t No Brakeman starts out the CD and is a classic Blues/Rock tune. Fence Line is next, another Blues/Rock number that incorporates a mandolin into the mix. These two are probably my favorite tracks. Other standout tracks include Wreck At The Crossraods, Got To Git and Love Come Rescue Me. This is an excellent CD with a eclectic mix of genre’s and great performances on all the tunes. Tales From The Fence Line would be a great addition to any collection.

Everything You Love Will Be Taken Away

by Slaid Cleaves

Music Road Records

2009

 

 

 I got the mail and I saw a new Slaid Cleaves CD. The first thing that ran through my mind was that I hadn’t listened to any Slaid Cleaves in a while.

 I put the disc in the player as soon as I got home and proceeded to look for my other Slaid CD’s. I kept getting distracted by the music as I looked, eventually I quit looking and concentrated on the new music.

Everything You Love Will Be Taken Away is the new CD. Songs that have characters like hookers and heroes, beaten women and men. People dealing with grief and broken relationships. Lovers good, lovers bad and all kinds of things that make us sad.

Featuring ten original songs and a cover of one of my favorite Ray Bonneville songs. This disc is loaded with great writing and great performances.

Cry starts out the disc, a great song about how relationships can go on forever with no real value. Between a dream and a lie
Between hope and what’s real After so many years of ‘Let’s work it out’ You’d think there’d be some kind of deal
Cry for your mama, Cry for your dad
Cry for everything you know they never had
The love they never had.

Green Mountains and Me explores feelings of a wife before, during and after the death of her soldier husband. It’s quiet here, your little boy’s asleep He looks more like you every day
Won’t you come back, come back my darlin’ Each night I pray on bended knee
Won’t you come back to the Green Mountains and me

 

Though most of the songs are about sad things and trouble, there is an underlying theme of hope as the last stanza indicates in Beautiful Thing. I live in a land of hope and betrayal
I get up each morning, try to tell the tale And so until my dying day whatever fate may bring A dark age looms, there’s evil at hand
Somehow I still believe in the goodness of man
It’s a beautiful thing.

Everything You Love Will Be Taken Away is a great CD. You should add it to your collection as soon as possible. By the way anyone out there who borrowed my other Slaid Cleaves CD’s, I WANT THEM BACK!

 

Treat Me Right by Robin Rogers

Blind Pig Records

 

 

 

 

Anyone who picked up the John Nemeth CD without really knowing who he was (and loved it) should do the same with Robin Rogers. This is another obscure artist signed by Blind Pig, who is ready to take on the world. Like John Nemeth, Robin Rogers has been around for awhile. So far known only in her own little universe, Rogers is ready to explode like a nova. It won’t be long and you’ll be seeing her on the major Festival Circuit. Treat Me Right is the title track and kicks off the disc. It’s a great cut that showcases Rogers strong vocal abilities. Her voice sounds like a cross between Sue Foley and Angela Strehli, but it sounds like she may have swallowed a few more shots of bourbon, along the way, than her contemporaries. My favorite cut is Color Blind Angel, a tribute to civil rights worker Viola Liuzzo who was assassinated by the KKK in 1965. Go out and pick up a copy of Treat Me Right by Robin Rogers on Blind Pig Records. I mean go to the store now! You won’t be sorry you made a special trip, because this CD is worth it.

 

Red Top by Liz Mandeville

Earwig Music Company, Inc.

2008

 

 

The first time I saw Liz Mandeville was at The River City Brewing Co. in Clinton Iowa. I don’t remember what year, but it was in the Eighties (there is a whole lot about those years I don’t remember). The band was on break and a friend walked in and asked “what’s the band like”. I said “the girl can sing! She’s a blend of Aretha Franklin, Tina Turner and Janis Joplin with a little Bette Midler sprinkled on top. I heard a screech and Liz jumped on my back. She kissed my cheek and said “that’s the nicest thing anyone ever said about me”.

 

Listening to Red Top her fourth CD for Earwig, those comparisons are still evident. But it is really hard to say she sounds like this one or that one. Liz sounds like Liz. There is no doubt that she plays the blues but she has developed her own sound and style. That voice is fabulous. The musicianship is outstanding. This is one great disc.

 

Liz penned all songs. I love her sense of humor and double entendre lyrics on songs like Scratch The Kitty, Rub My Belly and Spanky Butt. Liz also has a serious side. Illinois National Guard Blues speaks of the pain felt by those left behind while unsuspecting loved ones serve two or three tours (or more) in Iraq.

 

My favorite cuts are; Corner Bar Blues, So Smart Baby, Guilty of Rockin’ All Night, Bad Man Blues, Oh! Hell, I could list the whole damn CD.

 

This is a hot one man. Go to the local shop and pick it up!

 

 

Last Exit To Happyland

By Gurf Morlix

Released 2009

 

Gurf Morlix is one of those guys that make you say, Who? Morlix has been around for years. He’s played with a who’s who of American music. He plays numerous instruments, he produces, he engineers, he sings and he writes.

Gurf Morlix is one of those guys who could do an album completely alone. Last Exit To Happyland comes close. Morlix plays all instruments except drums. The drums are left to the capable hands of Ricky Richards. Lending vocals on five of the ten songs are Patty Griffin, Barbara Kooyman (Barbara K of Timbuk 3) and Ruthie Foster.

The CD features the sparse production you expect from Gurf Morlix. It has that roots sound that Morlix calls “muddy”, a collaboration of traditional country, blues, folk and rock music that has come to be know as Americana.

One More Second is a perfect opener. How many instances in a lifetime could one more second have changed your mind and your life’s path? “One more second, might have saved my soul.” Drums From New Orleans tells how Gurf, like so many of us, would “search the dial” at night just trying to catch a few notes of wonderful music from other parts of the country. The moans and groans from Ruthie Foster make this one an immediate classic. Music You Mighta Made tips the hat to the late great Blaze Foley, whom Morlix was friends with.

Last Exit To Happyland is the latest and greatest from Gurf Morlix, who has been playing music for four decades. Morlix is a master at making simplicity very complicated. There are ten new songs all written by Morlix. I Got Nothin’ and Drums Of New Orleans were co-written with George Carver. Every song on this disc is worth hearing. Pick up this one you won’t be disappointed.