mini tour weekend
So Chris,
Three shows, three nights, three towns. Almost like a snippet of the road. One thing that stands out in my flashback is Louise Kirchen's singing. You picked a pretty tough tune for the two of you to duet. No place to hide in those harmonies
It's a neat trick to choose songs to sing when I'm sitting in with somebody. Bill Kirchen is a specialist; he doesn't play five sets a night in a beer joint, which would mean he'd have to play current jukebox tunes instead of the tailor-made songs he performs in his shows. His audiences have come to expect trucker songs and old Commander Cody tunes. And Bill and Louise have amassed an impressive collection of original material, much of which Bill has cut and released and gigged and sold to the people who dig him. People who come to see Bill don't particularly care to hear Kenny Chesney's latest hit. I think it was you, Merle, who observed that most of Bill's audience was made up of guys. What's the purpose of a love song in that environment?
That's where I came in this past weekend. Louise was out here for several gigs, so I just thought it would be a kick to have her sing some standard weeper with me to offset all the impact lug nut wrench lust that was happening in the rooms. So I picked one that was easy when I was 22 and right challenging now that I'm far beyond 22. I put Louise up on top like Patsy Sledd used to sing with Tammy Wynette and we sang "Apartment #9". I have to hand it to Louise, she put it all to the grindstone and supported me with that stratospheric 1969 radio stuff that as a young singer coming up I used to strive for in recordings but could never enjoy live, being The Girl Singer among men. Louise is a real sport. We wrung our hands over the tune backstage three nights in a row, joking about ending it all before the song was called, or just walking to the back of the green room and hurling. She compared it to walking the plank, and I readily agreed. Prayer, water, Guafenesin, compulsive throat-clearing, all rusty tools in the dilapidated tool box. It's funny what we do to pass that interminable, tedious time before the bandleader calls us up: peeing takes precisely as much time as pacing, but you don't want to get caught with your pants down once the fanfare strikes. A lot of performers will tell you once they get on the bandstand and see the audience that all their fears dissolve. I'm the opposite. Monitor bugs, flaccid microphone stands, lost cheat sheets for the lyrics I haven't sung in forty years ~ it all factors in to the fantods. And faces. If an audience is close enough to look up my nose it brings to mind that question from the book of Job: "Why do the righteous suffer?"
"They've come here to like you!" Not to bury you. The best balm for all of this is the friendships, the old connections from when we were all still nearly children in the very early 70s, when life was wide open and we were just daring it to throw something our way. When he and I were alone in the dressing room together on Thursday night, I told Bill that I was just glad he was here, still with us, to play and bring some joy to "his people". He stopped what he was doing and thought for a few seconds, and then he looked at me and said, "You know, Chris, I am too." Nothing more needed to be said.
Yeah, Bill said he and the band are going to England soon to do some kinda retrospective on his career and his previous recordings. Some of the those arrangements were forty years old and had evolved over the years, but Bill has really reinvented lots of the old favorites with new tempos, new rhythms. I think this new product will be released on Proper Records. They're the ones who put their weight and trust behind that Roger Miller song Bill and I did as a duet. It's on his record "Word To The Wise". I know, I'm still calling them records. That's what they are to me.
Blackie came on like a racehorse with his tune "Rockabilly Funeral"! He's been feelin puny for so long I didn't know what to expect but he drove it home. What a great song! He mentioned two or three new songs he's workin on, some with LeRoy Preston, and I can't wait to hear em when they're done. You know, Blackie only has one current recording out, and it's on "Word To The Wise" as well. It's a song he and LeRoy wrote called "Open Range". It's a lament that one of those fancy cowboy singer types oughtta pick and and run with. They have all that cowboy poetry stuff going on all year, up in Elko, Nevada and down through California and such. Somebody like R.W. Hampton should record "Open Range". It beats doing the forty-two-thousandth version of "Little Joe The Wrangler". Be the first on your block, R.W.!
Which gives me the baton to stir up some stuff: I just heard the latest mix of Blackie's best-ever song, recorded by my correspondent here, and it happens to be a secret, as to which great Blackie Farrell song that is. So unless you can track down "Loose Lips" Garnier, you are in for a great surprise. Soon.
Back to you Chris ...
Just wanted to mention that people can visit me on my facebook page here:
and on tumbler here: http://1ollieman.tumblr.com/
(Still working on exterminating the bugs from these links; if it does not connect you to my page, just copy/paste the link into your search bar for now. If that doesn't work we'll find out who's in charge and give him a thrashing he'll never forget!)
Stroll on over and take a look! Your questions, comments and suggestions are always welcome. Stick with us as we build this network - the more the merrier, right?
Be well, everybody! (Great job, Merle!)
Bill Kirchen, "Titan of the Telecaster" with Chris
142 Throckmorton Theater, Mill Valley, CA. 5/19/12
posted by Coffee With Merle Torpitude: Chris O'Connell Chats With Merle About Music, Life, and That Other Important Thing. @ 12:44 AM
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