Confessions of the Starving Artist - MONSTER BLOG - 7/31/08

"Confessions of the Starving Artist" - 7/31/08 - MONSTER BLOG 1

Sunshine or stormy weather
Tailwinds or no wind at all
As long as we're together
We have it all...
"You Make Me Feel Brand New" by Elliott Glick

Friday, July 11, 2008, two guys, two acts, one night. First, Big Blues Bob Kresse. A resonator man. Plays a steel resonator guitar, slide style. Bob is a big bear of a man but a sensitive and gentle songwriter and guitar player. Bob brings a lot of personal style and experience to the table. He has seen life and lived to tell the tale, and he does in his songs. A particular favorite of mine is the song to his wife. I'll get back to Bob in a minute. Enter Act 2. Tod Pierce is a whole other kind of act. Tod is also a good and sensitive songwriter who has seen much of what life can toss your way. A highlight for me in his set was the song for his son who passed away. The good writing of a song handled well. At the end of the evening, Bob - remember Bob? - joined Tod on stage for an impromptu jam / sing-a-long. They never met and couldn't be further apart stylistically, but it was like two old friends playing and having fun. Way to go, guys.

Saturday, July 12, 2008, Charlie Spina and Barbara Blasucci come under the cover of October Road. And while I don't know where to get it on the Interstate, I do know it leads to the Starving Artist. Charlie plays guitar and Barbara sings. You know all the songs and yet they could be theirs. They cover a lot of ground, even Janis Joplin. They had a packed house and I loved that. They'll be back.

Sunday, July 13, 2008. Another road that leads to the Artist is in England, evidently. Pete Morton has found it twice now. I'm very happy about the fact that people come from the United Kingdom and play my club. And Pete is one of the reasons the folk tradition is slightly different in the UK than it is here. Pete exemplifies that pretty well. Humor, charm, wit and the politics of love and compassion make up his work. His album (CD, sorry) couldn't clue you to his stage act. He even uses my wife's quote in his introduction to "Another Train." I'm glad to know him and glad to introduce him to you.

Friday, July 18, 2008. What has two legs and sings like a bird? A bird, but also Kat Spina (no relation to Charlie from last Saturday night). Kat is a young girl who sings like she's been doing so forever. Jazz standards, smooth jazz, cabaret blues - she owns them. Alt rock covers and even original tunes – all belong to her. The audience too, all for her. Check out her web site and see and hear for yourself.

Saturday, July 18, 2008. We had a Saturday night blues party with the real deal - Bennett Harris. Bennett is the main man to see if you love the blues. I love the blues. Armed with both a Gibson and a national steel (both 1930s models), finger-style slide is his specialty. John Hammond Jr., Jorma Kaukonen and Dave Van Ronk come to mind. Robert Johnson, Rev. Gary Davis, Mississippi John Hurt and others were covered. Bennett also does originals that are both clever and tasty.

Saturday afternoon we had a baby shower for my son and his wife, Joshua and Jamie. A big, generous crowd showed up and now these kids have everything they need. This is good because...well, you'll read later.

Sunday, July 20, 2008, we had another permutation of that Circle of Friends come to play. "Songwriters hangin' out" is how they were billed. Pleasant Bud Coughlin, with Jody Stokhamer sitting in, and Patrick Matteson with John Guth sitting in. Pleasant Bud is a singer-songwriter with stories to tell. First person. In character. He is also a fine guitar player. He is both amusing and earthy. Jody Stokhamer added harmonies in the great folk / coffeehouse tradition. Pat Matteson writes finely crafted personal tales of love lost and found. Pat was backed up by an exceptional guitar player named John Guth. (See clip of them from that Sunday below.) I like John's playing so much that...well, you'll read more later.

Friday, July 25, 2008. Friday is always a very busy day for me. Shop, bake and work all night. This Friday was my wife's birthday and to top it off my new grandson Ranen came into the world. Ranen was a month or so early and as anyone will you, nobody in my family was ever early for anything. (It's a good thing we had that baby shower!) Mother and son are doing fine and we are becoming a large family.

Friday was also Open Mic Night at the Starving Artist. I claim bragging rights to one of the BEST open mic nights in the world. But don't take my word - take my stage or just come and check it out. The mic is open the last Friday of each month. Very creative people converge around the mic of the Artist.

I love my job. I cook behind the counter and get to talk to many people with many points of view. Art, music, politics, the news of the day, and, of course, City Island gossip. Artists, musicians, poets, writers, doctors, lawyers, carpenters, all sit at my counter at one time or another. And that's the way I like it. Hell, I even get Republicans in here. Define republic, well, never mind. Saturday, July 26, 2008. Up at the crack of noon for my guitar students and to get ready for my show. I get to play my own club once in a while. (It's good to be the king.) Food prep is the order of the day. "Uncle" Bill Yehle, my brother-in-law, does all the cooking while I play but I try to get him all prepped before I go on. Earlier I mentioned the masterful guitar work of John Guth. He sat in with Pat Matteson and I thought, wow, that's the guy, that's the sound. I asked him then if he could play my gig with me and he said yes. I went home and said, "Shit!" He doesn't know any of my songs and what he did get he didn't get until Thursday. Well this man showed up with some charts of my stuff and together we blew the room away. He'd heard the eight songs I sent him from the most recent CD, "I've Been Told." My set list had 18 songs and only five were from that collection. We never played together at all and yet he was with me like an old band mate, like an old friend. His fills felt like they were written with the songs. He pumped them up or flowered them as needed. He never missed a beat, even on the ad libs I throw in between songs as the mood strikes me. I think anyone that was there would agree we kicked the ass of Saturday night. John plays the Starving Artist himself; he'll be there, in fact, on Friday, September 19, at 8 p.m. Catch this powerhouse musician and good soul that night when he does his own thing. I will too! He also owns a studio. He's played with Judy Collins, Mimi Farina, Susanne Vega, the Paul Winter Consort, and his music is on the audio book, "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire" and more. I'm a lucky guy, I know. YouTube clips will be coming of our performance together. Justin Rodstrom also sat in for a couple of tunes Saturday night. I love playing with J-Rod and we jam when we can. Thanks Justin!

For those that don't live near City Island and the Starving Artist Cafe - move! No, for you, I am trying to get closer to providing some of the experiences with regard to my blog. Audio recordings and video clips will become more available as time goes by.

Sunday, July 27, 2008. Jazz. City Island style. Starving Artist style. Yeah. The best Sunday you can have without your grandma's chicken dinner. All right, maybe the next best. And maybe your grandma never made Sunday dinner and maybe you never experience the first best thing, well, maybe you need to write your own blog or just show up when the City Island Jazz Quartet comes to the Artist (like they will again on Sunday, August 3, 2008). If you need to cool out from your week (or weekend), we have your remedy. Roger Scala on sax, Gene Zilempe on Fender bass, Sal Mazzola on drums, and the legend himself, Lou Volpe on guitar. This is the real deal here. Again, they are playing this Sunday too! Good for you. Me, too!

I must at this time mention that longtime Starving Artist supporter Ellen Ruth Topol not only read her poetry at open mic but attended my show Saturday night and jazz on Sunday. A triple play for Ellen. Way to go. If you read this, Ellen, you get a free dessert! And welcome back to City Island - until the baby comes this fall - to Melissa, daughter of Frank and Cheryl Koller, our Friday night crew. Her son, their grandson, Ryan, is also on board - too cute.

So Hindis have a concept of Sutras. Literally stitches that connect. I always mention circles. Well, this blog cycle had more overlapping circles than an Audi hood emblem. Isn't it good? Isn't it fine?

My CD, "I've Been Told," has gone "cardboard"! I've sold more than 800 downloads of my songs from that CD collection at Verizon V Cast. We are about to place "Return of the Starving Artist" (my first CD) on CD Baby. On Neil Young's Living With War Web Site (as of this writing) I am #53 (Bitter Tears) and #52 (Baby This One's For You) out of a list of 2,730 songs. 2,730. I pat myself on the back for this. I also thank you. Be good to each other. Make your reservations for this weekend. And come in, and live right.

Elliott Glick