Posts Tagged ‘Add new tag’

Bison Rides Again for Vera

Thursday, July 30th, 2009
bison-5

Duff looks cool, per usual

The Vera Project is exactly the kind of place that didn’t exist when I was 15 years old.

All-ages shows, summertime rock school, lots of music for young people.

I’m all for it.

Last summer and again a few days ago, Duff McKagan, Mike McCready, Kelly Van Camp and I (collectively known as Bison) got together to play a few songs and answer questions for the kids who attend Vera’s Rock Camp.

One of the only known mammals cooler than Duff

One of the handful of known mammals cooler than Duff

We do it for two reasons.  One, getting together and playing some songs you like with guys you like is fun.  Two, I think we all feel some sense of responsibility or obligation to share whatever wisdom we’ve gained in our years in the rough-and-tumble music business.

Why Bison?  It’s an old joke band name that my friend Kermit and I came up with many years ago.  We also had a career’s worth of album names: Stampede, Put Your Ear to the Ground, Over the Edge, etc.

Vera is a community-driven project backed by the City of Seattle.  If we can do it here, you can do it in your town, too.

No Shortage of Talent

Tuesday, July 28th, 2009
Beaumont stud

Beaumont stud

Or charisma.  Or energy.  Or work ethic.

There are so many incredible songwriters and musicians out there that you’ll never hear or even hear about.

One evening spent listening to pickers and singers in New Orleans or Austin or Nashville will tell you that.  So many guys and gals who can just plain rip.

Why do some become stars and some don’t?  I sure as hell don’t know.  Maybe ask Jesse Dayton.

I met Jesse Dayton sometime in 1995 or 1996.  He was friends with our friends the Supersuckers and he sang lead on a track we did for Twisted Willie, a compilation of younger artists doing Willie Nelson songs (that’s another story for another time).

I shan’t forget the first time I saw him play, at some bar in Hollywood.  Goddamn!  Here was a guy with George Jones’s voice, Elvis Presley’s supercharged sexual charm and guitar skills from James Burton to Jimmy Page and beyond.  He literally blew me away and I felt very small indeed as a singer and player myself for a long time after that night.

I was able to get Jesse on a bill with the Presidents a few months later, opening for us on a three- or four-show swing through his native state of Texas.  Our audience didn’t know what to do with him.  I couldn’t understand why people didn’t get it.  To me he was, and is, a huge star, just plain to see if you watch him for even a few minutes.

A Song You Should Know, from Australia With Love

Tuesday, May 12th, 2009

So many songs you should know but don’t. So many songs I should know but don’t.

The Celibate Rifles formed in 1979 and are/were one of a great generation of Aussie bands virtually unknown in America, also including Radio Birdman (dig their song about Hawaii Five-O).

I love this song, “Cycle.” Really tops. Go buy the studio version now.

My only connection to The Celibate Rifles is that sometime in the early 90s they slept on the floor of a house on Franklin Avenue in Seattle that was shared by my sister’s then-boyfriend Ed Fotheringham, Mudhoney guitarist Steve Turner, PUSA drummer Jason Finn and Flop guitarist Bill Campbell.

We also had some wonderful Tuesday night poker games at that house, but that’s a different blog post.