WALLY THE WHALE: Starship Beer meets the Colorblind James Experience

The famous (or infamous, depending on your point of view) Scorgies gig from 1985. Don Scorgie, owner and proprietor, was FURIOUS with Chuck for having Starship Beer open up for us. Their set featured one song only, Wally The Whale, which began with frontman P.J. O'Brien chanting "Wally The Whale" with a bucket on his head and ended 40 minutes later with the entire Experience on stage, each of us playing the wrong instrument. Me? I was on drums. Most of the crowd walked out but the core audience that remained loved it.

Starship Beer pioneered what they referred to as "nut music" and their first release, Free As The Squirrels, featured liner notes by Chuck. It was recorded above the Market House Music Hall on Water Street in Oswego, New York and came out in '79.

P.J. O'Brien is an artist and poet who received the kind of respect and admiration from Chuck that Chuck meted out to a scant few. Kevin Whitehead, Starship's guitarist, is NPR's jazz critic.

To this day, the loyal few whose eyes were opened that night will laugh, remember and for a moment feel again the delirious euphoria created that evening.

Route 66

In December of 1980 Margot and I left Oswego for San Francisco, why? Because we could, and took the southern pass and picked up Route 66 in Oklahoma. We arrived in SF on exactly the same day that John Lennon was assassinated--December 8th,1980--we connected with Colorblind and his wife Janet on Waller St. Chuck was in the bedroom...inconsolably weeping, his hero had died. A sad day to be sure. Eventually Gene Tigh left the CBJE and a bass player was needed. I answered the call, having played with the original Colorblind James Trio w/G. Elwyn Miexner on ragtime Hawaiian guitar. As time wore on, we rehearsed tirelessly--well I did get tired once! Gigs were few and far between. Although we did make it to the "I Beam" on Haight St. in the pan handle of Golden Gate Park. As life would have it I got the call to play in a pit band up in North Beach at the Old Spaghetti Factory--a regular paying gig Wednesday thru Sunday (2 shows on Saturday night, and a matinee on Sunday)--I felt like Stu Sutcliff leaving the Beatles. But money is money and I needed all I could get living on the edge. Much to my chagrin the CBJE went on to play the "Peel sessions on the BBC" and toured Europe twice! I felt like a moax. But ya pays yer money and takes yer chances. I try not to look back, yet find myself on memory lane thinking about what might have been. The unique community of Oswegonians that lived in SF in the early '80s all looked out for each other, and we remained friends. God, those were the salad days. At 23 I felt invincible and the old adage is true :"Why is youth wasted on the young?" But such is life. Those were some of the best days of my life and I didn't even know it. I'm giging in a Big-Band now (Google the Do Good Swing Band) a 17 piece jazz band with a monster horn section...every musician has been playing for at least 30 years and smokes every chart. How I got the call is still a mystery to me...yet I find myself keeping up with some seasoned veterans that ramp up my game...I don't want to be the slouch in the rhythm section so I play with a quiet elegance. My motto is "Less is more." Athletes peak in their 20's & 30's but musicians seem to get better with age, I'm still learning and listening and every once in a while I get the eerie feeling that Colorblind is looking down on me from above laughing with love, and keeping me on the straight and narrow--well let's not get too crazy. Bfn, Thad

Episode Nine: Final Podcast (Dylan Night '91)

OK, it takes me a while, but I do eventually get the things done that I say I will. Here is the promised second podcast of Bob Dylan material. This one is all taken from our show in 1991, and I'd honestly forgotten how fine that gig was. The sound is pretty good, too. Thanks again to Mike Rae for documenting the evening's activities. It's a beefy helping of Dylanesque goodness, so stand back, hit that "download" button and crank it up. It's almost 50 minutes long, so be patient... Here's the list, followed by the link:

From a Buick Six
Ramblin' Gamblin' Willie
Queen Jane, Approximately
It's All Over Now, Baby Blue (with Rick Petrie)
Golden Loom (with Bernie and Carol Heveron)
Rainy Day Women #12 & 35 (with Michael Hurley)
You're Gonna Make Me Lonesome When You Go (with Brian Horton)
You Ain't Goin' Nowhere (with Geoff Wilson)
Knockin' On Heaven's Door (with Stan "The Man" Merrill and Chas Lockwood)
Please Crawl Out Your Window

http://homepage.mac.com/davidmcintire/FileSharing9.html

There are several things to comment on, but I'll try to keep it brief. Many standout performances happened that night, of which I'm only posting a fraction. I had some serious damage on one of the tapes (Florida's humidity wreaked havoc on a lot of my stuff, including this cassette) and so some sizzling material was rendered unfit for broadcast. Despite that, the band members (abetted by their guests) were in great form on this night. A few songs merit some explication:

Yes, I know I put "From a Buick Six" on the last podcast, and in a nearly identical arrangement, but this version was too good to cut. Phil's solos are fantastic, and it was nice to hear it again with Joe's trombone.

I did have to edit a sharp and unsubtle fadeout on "Golden Loom," at the point where the havoc-wreaked tape trouble started, but I couldn't bring myself to omit it. I'm unaccountably proud of Joe's and my little duet at the end, and it's a lovely song...

Rick Petrie's radical funk re-interpretation of "It's All Over Now, Baby Blue" was a standout that night, and I wish that more of our guests had gone for broke the way Rick did here. And had the security to veer sharply away from the standard "authentic" interpretation. I'll personally never be able to listen to the original again...

"Rainy Day Women" is a deliriously loose version, with Michael Hurley adding hilarious new lyrical twists to the end of the refrain each time it comes back. That glorious, manic sloppiness you hear is due in part to the fact that Michael often didn't change chords at the expected moments. He also had a somewhat different take on the rhythm and inflection of the lyrics than we had. I seem to recall all of us watching his hands on his electric piano (which is very low in the mix) for clues as to when he would move to the next chord. By the third verse we were a bit more together. Also, for this performance we had no rehearsal with the guest (as if you couldn't tell...)

Brian Horton was a fine guitarist and songwriter from Rochester who helmed a fantastic band called Buffalo Road for a few years in the early 90s. I went to hear them often. Brian died in 1995. The band released a truly great cd after Brian's death, entitled 'Through the Sun,' which remains one of my favorite discs of all time.

I really like this version of You Ain't Goin' Nowhere. I wish I could remember who the background singers were but I can't. I am pretty sure that Peggy Fournier and Carol Heveron might be they; maybe Phil remembers.

As indicated in the title, this will be my last podcast. Maybe not forever, but certainly for the present. And I think that I've gathered what I feel is the finest material in my personal archives. Other stuff may surface, but this is what I've got for now. I've enjoyed doing these, and hope that they've had some resonance with listeners. My intent has been to offer some perspective on the band's work that I felt was insufficiently represented on our commercial recordings, and show a side of us that wasn't readily apparent to our European fans. CbJE was primarily a live band, and so I've emphasized live recordings. Most long-time fans thought we sounded 'way better live than on recordings. I'd agree with that sentiment, at least for the most part. If I didn't include your own favorite songs here, I am sorry, but there's a whole lot of 'em, and I have did my best. I also have been careful to only present material where I was present in its making. Lots of great things happened before I joined the group and continued to happen long after I left, but I felt it important to only deal with the stuff that I was witness to. It's a rather narrow slice of CbJE history, but a rich one. Thanks for listening.

New Blog! Colorblind James: Song By Song

I've decided to begin a different venture in retrospect to Colorblind James. Beginning with the first CD, the eponymously titled The Colorblind James Experience, I'm going to offer my reflections, memories and opinions on a song by song basis.

Thanks for stopping by,

Uncle Phil Marshall

Episode Eight (Bob Dylan Vol. 1)

I am actually a day late with this episode, which I meant to have posted on May 24th. The fact is, when the semester ends, I stop looking at calendars for a while, and the day slipped past. Sorry about that... But here it is, a "jumbo big" Bob Dylan birthday episode.

Most fans noticed long ago that Chuck's songwriting was heavily influenced by the Bard of Hibbing, and so early in the band's history, the group started doing an annual Bob Dylan birthday show. This tradition began long before I joined and continued onwards after I left. Each spring we'd shut down for a month and learn about 40 Dylan songs, rehearsing many with guest artists. On the Saturday night closest to his birthday, we'd play through the whole gamut, nothing but an entire evening of Dylan. Over the years they gained in popularity, and former band members carry on the tradition to this day. We also occasionally did an Elvis birthday show and I remember us having conversations about doing ones for Van Morrison and Hank Williams. But the Dylan show was the only one that we did without fail, year after year.

This podcast is comprised of songs that were all taken from a single show, the Bob Dylan birthday show of 1992. This was in fact, my last performance as a member of the band. Joe "The Bone" Colombo had moved on by then (somewhere during our "long nap" through the winter of '92) and Chuck recruited Reece Campbell of the New Dylans to play keyboards with us for the show. This was a pretty good night for us, and the recording is a board tape made by Mike Rae, who recorded many of our shows. The venue was the Country Warehouse in Rochester, and I remember there being a sizeable audience that evening. I've included a number of songs featuring our guests, along with the band by ourselves.

here's the songlist:

From a Buick Six
Most Likely You Go Your Way and I'll Go Mine
This Wheel's On Fire (w/ former and future CbJE member G. Elwyn Meixner, gtr/voc)*
Everything Is Broken (w/ Bill Lambert, gtr/voc)
Dear Landlord (w/ Carol Heveron, voc)
Dark Eyes (w/ Brian Horton, gtr/voc)
Solid Rock

http://homepage.mac.com/davidmcintire/FileSharing8.html

As noted in the heading, this is Volume 1 of at least two Dylan show podcasts. Depending on how much good material I uncover, there may be one or two more. I played on five of these as a band member, but I only have tapes for '88, '91 and '92. And '92 has the best sound by far. Hope you enjoy it.

*I meant this in the sense that Gary had been a member before I joined the group, and he rejoined it after I left it. I realized later that the way I phrased that might not make sense to some folks...

Episode Seven

Here is a brace of five songs all from a single gig in 1987. At this point, the new version of the band had been rehearsing for about six months. As you'll hear, the group was still honing its sound and we compensated for any lack of refinement with sheer raw energy. Sound quality is not great, but listenable. My clarinet is barely audible most of the time--you'll have to strain your ears a bit. On the last track "The Pin-Boy's Life," it's hard to hear me at all, but I take a solo trying channel the spirit of Albert Ayler through my clarinet. I almost make it, too... This track is notable to my ears for its ferocious groove and just plain weirdness; I'd also point out that the band's aggressiveness on this and other tracks could hold its own with just about any punk group of the era. (Note: on this track there was a substantial dropout on the tape. I did my best to make a smooth edit, but it's not very smooth...) We often played Willy Dixon's "Spoonful," and it was usually a powerful standout of our live shows. My tenor solo here is not me at my best, but I did get better, I can say that. Still, it's a song we played a lot that some might not have heard before. "Why Should I Stand Up?" has different lyrics than those on the studio album, and most subsequent performances. Chuck rewrote one of the interior verses, and the arrangement hadn't quite settled into its permanent form.

The songs are:

Why Should I Stand Up?
That's Entertainment
Why'd the Boy Throw the Clock Out the Window?
Spoonful
The Pin-Boy's Life

Here's the link:

http://homepage.mac.com/davidmcintire/FileSharing7.html

Special thanks to Don Argus for sending me the tape of this show.

Coming Soon!

Hello everyone. Here's a quick note to wish you all a Happy Buster Cornelius Day! And to let you know that there are new podcast episodes in the works, even as I type. Stay tuned!

("And that is why on the Third of May/We celebrate Buster Cornelius Day")

Episode Six: Songs of Blind Willie McTell

Here's Episode Six of the podcast, featurng a few songs by Blind Willie McTell, who was one of Chuck's favorite songwriters. Truth be told, I wish I had more material for this one. There's a few songs we did, such as "Little Delia" and "River of Jordan" that I never got recordings of, but they would have certainly been included on the Blind Willie McTell album that we talked about making at some point. Sadly, no record company we dealt with gave the idea a moment's consideration. A couple years after I left the band, Bob Dylan released his excellent 'World Gone Wrong' album, which featured a number of McTell's songs and did pretty well. Apparently, Dylan had more clout in the music business than we did. Here's the list:

Statesboro Blues (Live WITR broadcast, 1991)
Your Time to Worry (Live at Jazzberry's, 1990)
Blues Around Midnight (Live WITR broadcast, 1991)
Your Time to Worry (Live WITR broadcast, 1991)
Sendin' Up My Timber (Live at Jazzberry's, 1990)

"Statesboro Blues" is one we did frequently, and is represented here in a sizzling performance, if I say so myself. In Phil's second guitar solo, he drops his pick—see if you can figure out where. I only wish Joe "the Bone" had been able to make the gig. The horn parts were much fuller with the two of us. I'm used to this clarinet-only version now, but it was a lot better when Joe was present.

You get to hear two versions of "Your Time To Worry" on this podcast. On the first, I play alto sax, and honestly, I had completely forgotten that I did. I think Joe and I sound pretty good here. I often referred to us as "the finest two-man horn section in upstate New York." Heaven knows what other folks called us... On the second version, Joe is absent and I play clarinet.

Chuck's vocal on "Blues Around Midnight" is one of his best ever, in my opinion. It haunts me to this day.

For anyone who's interested in hearing more of McTell's music, I urge you to check out his 'Atlanta Twelve String' album on Atlantic. There are other collections on the Yazoo label as well.


Download the podcast here:

http://homepage.mac.com/davidmcintire/FileSharing6.html

Next up: CbJE does Dylan. Their way.

Episode Five: Girls! Girls! Girls!

After a long wait, here's the link to the Abolutely More! Podcast—Episode Five. My sincerest apologies for the delay; it's been a busy semester. I have two or three more episodes planned and hopefully those will get done fairly soon. The podcast:

Girls! Girls! Girls!

She'll Break Yours Too
Circus Girl
Acorn Girl
Hey! Bernadette
Blind Girl
Polka Girl
O Sylvia
Two-Headed Girl

Here's the link:

http://homepage.mac.com/davidmcintire/FileSharing5.html

A few comments:

"She'll Break Yours Too" is one we never played live very much. I really like the squonk at the opening and the sax/trombone melody in the middle. The recording and mix could have been better, though.

"Circus Girl" is one we did fairly often and even recorded at the BBC, though this is from a different live broadcast. Ken Frank thought it extremely erotic. I get what he means, but I'm not sure most other listeners did.

"Acorn Girl" was one of my favorites from Strange Sounds From the Basement. My daughter Rachel wanted to make a music video of it when she was in high school. She had to get the lyrics approved by her technology teacher, whose response was, "Is this a real song?" She had to show him the album before he believed her.

"Hey! Bernadette" is about the great singer and actress Bernadette Peters, who Chuck admired greatly.

"Blind Girl" is a very early CbJ song. We didn't play it out much, but I liked it.

"Polka Girl" was a really popular song. It took me a while to work out my tiny little solo, and it wasn't that easy to play. I played it better on this BBC recording than on the album version. It's the only CbJE thing that my clarinet teacher ever complimented me on.

"O Sylvia" is, in my opinion, just frickin' gorgeous.

And only Chuck would write a song about dating a two-headed girl. "We'd swing on the porch swing on the porch" is a brilliant line, though the song has many others.

Next up: the lost Blind Willie McTell album.

Some final thoughts

I realize I haven't posted anything of any substance in quite a long while. It's been a pleasure to have Dave take up my slack. Dave's podcasts have been a real treat as well.

The reality is I believe I've said most everything I need to say regarding the Colorblind James Experience. I wish I could go into more detail regarding the UK/Europe touring but, quite frankly, it's all a blur. Maybe down the road at some point it will come back to me in a flood. But for now, the experience is basically bookended with arriving elated and departing exhausted. We played for a lot of adoring fans who went more beserk during a show than any of our American audiences. We drank a lot of beer and I remember Timothy Taylor's Landlord as being a particular favorite.

Touring with Yeah, Jazz in '88 was fun and I'm happy to report their material has been reissued. They have a MySpace page. Kev, the lead singer, is also spearheading a lovely folk-sounding group called Radio Mary also to be found on MySpace.

In '89 we did a stint with Boy On A Dolphin who were among the nicest fellows we could have hoped to meet. They were a very funky quartet who ended up getting signed to Atlantic. I remember the disappointment hearing that cd and not recognizing anything. The powers that be obviously wanted them to be something else.

One of us got led out of a London music hall by security for smoking a joint. I remember thinking it was all over of us. Fortunately, they led him to the street and told him not to come back. It went no further than that.

John Entwhistle was at the pub in our hotel with his arm around a girl who could've been my daughter. Maybe it was his daughter. What do I know?

I started off the tour hating the Waterboys which Kevin blasted from the van stereo. Now when I hear it, I tear up because it takes me back there.

At one of the oddest gigs we played in Norway, we were playing for an over 40 singles crowd in a hotel bar. There was a lady standing to my left who kept yelling "You are not good! You are very bad!" and insisting that we stop playing.

Playing in Kevin Hunter's home town of Hull was a highpoint. It was a small bar packed to the rafters. I was drenched in sweat before I reached the stage. I remember Chuck coaxing the crowd with "It must be 300 degrees in here! Let's TURN UP THE HEAT!" The crowd went crazy. Kevin sat in on drums and showed us just how precise and powerful he really was.

I loved the Colorblind James Experience. I loved Chuck, Jimmy Mac, Ken, Dave, John Ebert and Joe "the Bone". I loved Carl Gaedt, our 300lb sound man and roadie.

I remember waking up one morning in our hotel in London. No one was around so I threw on my clothes, scraped some change together and went out to get coffee. When I stepped outside the hotel doors, there was Ken in his long black overcoat. He was smoking a butt and was holding 3 styrofoam cups of hot coffee stacked on each other. They were all for him. In that moment I remember smiling and thinking "This is what I've always wanted to do. This is where I'm meant to be. This is who I really am." I've tried to live each day with that feeling ever since.

I may check in from time to time, but I hope the other members of the blog begin or continue to contribute their own memories and thoughts.

Peace always,

-PHil aka Uncle Phil aka Rex Havoc

Charles James "Brother" Jaffe

I played keyboards in Colorblind's band for 8 years. Recorded 2 cd's with him. His name was James Charles; mine Charles James. His wife was Jan; the mother of my child was a different gal named Jan. The first time I went to Chuck's house I saw an old van and Michael Hurley stepped out of it. This was 1993. I had met Hurley in a commune in Vermont in 1968; never new Chuck new him.

I left home young and hitched out to Haight St. Cal in '67 and lived there for 2 years and lived in communes and travelled with bands and met many colorful folks. Coming to Rochester in 1990 and hooking up with Colorblind and the Rochester community has been the most meaningful days of my life. I really owe it to Chuck and all the people he brought to me. I often speak to Chuck's spirit like he was still here. He is a blessing to me.

Guest contributors

I've invited a number of musicians from the band's colorful history to contribute their respective Colorblind James stories. As any reader of this blog is well aware, a linear narrative has never been attempted. Soon, hopefully, the reader will hopscotch once again from the early White Cap days, over to London, skip back to San Francisco, rest a moment in Rochester, and then fly off again.

My hope is through the narratives of the folks who played the music with Chuck, you'll be able to draw your own picture of this wonderful and unique voice in American music.

Thanks,

Uncle Phil

Europe 1989: Coming Home

One of Martin Scorsese's earlier films, 'After Hours,' depicts the adventures of a character played by Griffin Dunne as he tries to connect with a girl one night in NYC. He suffers a series of dreadful events, each becoming more and more preposterous, with his character ultimately ending up back at his starting point. Our '89 tour was like that movie in many respects, with our trip home being the crowning series of frustrations.

The image shown above is a reminder of this, one of the most difficult and frustrating episodes in my time with CbJE. It also will show that we could be airheads of the first order. I think I've mentioned in earlier postings how the second tour in 1989 left the band deep in debt, in spite of our playing frenetically with practically no time off for eight weeks. We finished up in December, just a few days before Christmas. After a difficult meeting with our management, record company and booking agency, we found ourselves deep in debt and learning what should be the first lesson for any musician: at the end of the day, the artist is the one who is financially responsible. After the meeting we headed out into the streets of London with this burden.

We were also very hungry, and at that point we had practically no money. Near our hotel was an "all-you-can-eat" pasta joint, and this seemed to be the best bet for our dinner. The waiter was astonished and annoyed that we ALL ordered water. ("What, d'you mean just water from the tap??" We did.) He was also a bit cheesed by how hungry we were. Seven large Americans can eat A LOT of pasta, and I think he saw the day's profits ebbing away with every additional plate we ordered. At least that's what I interpreted from his dirty looks.

The next day we headed to Heathrow. It was here that we realized that over half the band had lost their air tickets. Actually, we had thrown them away at the beginning of the tour, not realizing what they were. This was in the days before electronic ticketing. So, the image above is a receipt for the repurchased tickets. We were eventually reimbursed by the airline, but it took months for that to happen. The flight across the Atlantic was fine, except that there was another band on the plane who'd had a fantastic European tour and exulted in all the wonderful things that they'd experienced, including playing in Berlin on the night that the Wall came down. We were supposed to have done the same thing, but our gig was cancelled. If that weren't enough misery, Phil and Chuck also had to endure the indignity of watching a film starring Dudley Moore.

Also, our flight had been delayed for around four or five hours. An annoyance, but not a big deal, or so we thought at the time. Except that it meant that by the time we got to NYC, we had missed our connecting flight to Rochester. So we had to spend the night in a hotel. The next day we took a shuttle to the airport and boarded our plane. And waited. And waited some more. After a while, someone came on to the plane and announced that there was a problem and we had to change to a different plane. I remember Phil muttering "Oh for God's sake, we're never going to get home." Eventually though, we did.

New York City: The Big Kahuna

It was in June or July of 1988 that we got our first gig in New York City. It was at a club called The Big Kahuna, which boasted an aggressive surfer decor, to the point of having a VW van in the bar done up in psychedelic style, surfboards protruding everywhere. I don't remember much about the show, except that we were interviewed by Ian Cranna for Sounds magazine, we played "Viola Lee Blues" somewhere in the set, and finding parking was a nightmare. Ian spoke with Chuck after the show in a cramped basement dressing room. It was incredibly hot, so I headed out to the alley behind the club to get some relatively cool air.

I was sitting on the back step of the club when I was approached by a young black fellow who wanted to know if I had any spare change. He had a very eloquent speaking style and a heartrending tale of woe, some of which may have even been true. When we left Rochester, I'd brought along all of my spare change to help pay for tolls, and this lump of coins was still in my pocket. I said, "Yeah, I can help you. I hope things get better for you soon." and gave him all of that change, probably in the neighborhood of eight or ten dollars. His eyes widened in astonishment and the ensuing response was worth every penny. "Now, I'm not gay or nothin', but I gotta say, I LOVE white men! I mean, I just LOVE white men!" All of which was shouted repeatedly while jumping up and down. Around this time, other band members came out to witness the spectacle and added to the donation. Chuck said, "I had to give him something, he was such a fine orator."

I searched for an image of this club, which is apparently no longer there, but didn't find one. I'm also having trouble remembering if this was our first gig in NYC, or the one we did at the Rodeo Bar. Phil? Ken?

Episode Four

is now up and running.
Get it here:

http://homepage.mac.com/davidmcintire/FileSharing4.html

This one's a bit bigger than the others. Apologies for the file size, but I think it'll be worth it. Here's the song list:

Ride Board
Strange Sounds From the Basement
Considering a Move to Memphis (live 1990)
Romeo Witherspoon (live radio, WITR 1989)
Hi-Fi Alphabet
I Am Joe Montana (live radio, WITR 1989)
Strange Case (live radio, WITR 1991)

A few notes on the program:

A "ride board" is a bulletin board at a college or meeting place for young people where one can post signs of "ride needed to 'X.'" If you happened to be driving that way, here was a person able to share expenses. I didn't have a car for much of my early college years, and the ride board was an important resource for me. Nowadays, everyone's got a car and you don't see them much anymore. The cafe referred to in the song was the Lowlife Cafe of Oswego NY. It was gone by the time I joined the band, but Chuck spoke of it often. I think both Phil and Ken probably remember it from their Oswego days as well. The names and cities in the song are significant.

"Strange Sounds From the Basement" demonstrates one our most impressive (and least appreciated) skills—the ability to play in very slow tempos. And marvel at the timing of Chuck's delivery of the words—Jack Benny coudn't have done it better.

This is a pretty good version of "Memphis," and gives the general ambience at one of our live shows. This is from a gig at the Country Warehouse, which was a pretty big Rochester venue. I saw The Band there once. They had absolutely no interest in booking us until after we'd played in Europe. And apologies to podcast listeners and my former band mates for my floundering solo here. Took me years to solo on this song properly. I'm not sure why.

"Romeo Witherspoon" and "I Am Joe Montana" were taken from a live WITR broadcast in 1989, when we did an acoustic show there as "CbJ annd the Death Valley Boys." We were working on our acoustic album at the time. Chuck was a big fan of the San Francisco 49ers, and admired Montana greatly. There were a few fans who really loved that song and we often got requests for it.

I've always loved "Hi-Fi Alphabet." Other than its skewering of artistic pretension ("bohemian die-hard twerp"), I have no idea what it's about. In the instrumental section leading to the end, you can hear a number of guest artists join in, including members of The Wilderness Family and Personal Effects, two great Rochester bands.

"Strange Case" was one of my favorite songs, but we didn't play it out much, if at all. When we started to learn it, we had a huge disagreement about how to count off the song. It got to the point where we just set it aside and worked on other things. Just before the broadcast in December of '91, we revisited the song and solved the problem by emphasizing the song's rhythmic ambiguity, rather than clarifying it. That worked. My solo on this is probably my favorite of any that I did with the band.

Next episode: Girls! Girls! Girls!

Episode Three

Here's the second part of the CbJE Gospel Album. The playlist is as follows:




Daniel In the Lion's Den (live)
The Wives Of the Saints (live)
Three Of Them and One Of Us (live radio)
Jesus At the Still
Four Horsemen
Death Fears No Man

I'd actually meant to put this live version of "Daniel In the Lion's Den" on the last podcast but it slipped my mind in the rush of events of the day. So here it is now. Phil's solo is spectacular; I couldn't leave it off. And if you've never heard "Four Horsemen" before, it's one of Chuck's most hilarious and peculiar lyrics ever, with a bizarre and loopy groove from the band to match. I think it probably comes fairly close to capturing the spirit of the "Book of Oswald" that he wrote back in high school. "Three Of Them and One Of Us" is similar, but Chuck's a bit angrier in this one.

Here's where to get it:

http://homepage.mac.com/davidmcintire/FileSharing3.html

Podcast activity will slow down for a bit, while I attend to other matters; probably nothing more will happen until mid-June. Then, in upcoming episodes we'll explore the quirky side of CbJE, take a look at the Blind Willie McTell legacy of the band, and I'll also post some selections from some of our Bob Dylan shows as well. The ones from '91 and 92 have some terrific material. And the sound isn't too bad, either.

And quirky opinions of all sorts may be vented with:

davidmcintire "at" mac.com (replace the "at" with @)

Episode Two

Here's the first installment of a hypothetical CbJE Gospel Album. I should have the second part up and running in fairly short order. The playlist for Part One is as follows:

Gospel Mood
Wedding at Cana
Daniel in the Lion's Den
Jonah and the Whale
If Nobody Loves You In Heaven

Dowload this fabulous internet resource here:

http://homepage.mac.com/davidmcintire/FileSharing2.html

As always, comments, criticism, and scathing invective may be lobbed at:

davidmcintire "at" mac.com

It's Here!

Happy Buster Cornelius Day! Today is the launch of the Colorblind James: Absolutely More! podcast, and Episode One is already up and running. You may download it at:

http://homepage.mac.com/davidmcintire/FileSharing1.html

The playlist for Episode One is:

Buster Cornelius (live)
Leopardskin Pillbox Hat (live)
Forgotten Man (live radio)
Fourth Floor Rock
I'm Never Gonna Hurt the Girl I Love
St. James Infirmary

As promised, there's a bit of background and commentary at the beginning and end. I hope just the right amount. The audio quality is variable, though I personally think it's fairly listenable. Audiophiles should probably avoid it. I'll work on getting the podcast available through iTunes shortly, so you can just subscribe to it and have it automatically downloaded if you wish. Feedback will be greatly appreciated. Collect 'em all! Trade 'em with your friends!

Comments? Questions? Advice?

email: davidmcintire "at" mac.com

Coming Soon! Really Soon!

Mark your calendars. Buster Cornelius Day is nearly upon us (that's the Third of May, folks), and there could be no better day to launch a Colorblind James Experience podcast. So that's when I'll launch one. This will be a highly personal view of the band's work (mine), and will largely (though not exclusively) focus on the period from about 1987 to 1992, the years of the band's most intense and concentrated activity. Expect some of the group's lesser-known material, a lot of previously "unheard-by-nearly-anyone" recordings from live performances, radio broadcasts and studio outtakes. Stuff you never knew we did, but will be glad to find out about. Among upcoming planned episodes, you'll get to hear a hypothetical reconstruction of the much-discussed but never-recorded "Blind Willie McTell Album," our long-lost "Gospel Album," and "Girls! Girls! Girls!." Plus so much more—a Beach Boys cover, our magnificent version of "Saint James Infirmary" and the legendary "I Am Joe Montana."

I intend to do at least four or five podcasts of about 45 minutes in length. In addition to the songs, I'll provide a bit of background and brief commentary. And this will be available to anyone for the extremely reasonable price of nothing at all. Comments from listeners will be greatly appreciated. More details will be posted here on the launch day. Woot!

(As I was typing this up, I realized that this podcast will coincide with the 20th anniversary of my joining CbJE. Whoof...)

Q Magazine reviews CbJE

Here's a review of our second album, 'Why Should I Stand Up?' that appeared in Britain's Q magazine, a hip glossy that offers lots of reviews, interviews and feature articles, and a had/has somewhat higher journalistic standards than some other publications. They had some very good writers; Charles Shaar Murray was especially excellent. I think this reviewer got the album pretty well, better than many. And yes, we livened up many a wedding. (Though I don't think anything could have induced any of us to don straw-boaters for any reason. He's wrong there.)

One of the things I enjoyed about our brief spell near the limelight was seeing us grouped with other artists alphabetically, in print or in record stores. In record shops our bin would often appear next to Elvis Costello or Edwin Collins, at least once we'd graduated from the "Miscellaneous C Artists.". In this Q Magazine review, we were placed on the same page as Can, a long-time favorite of mine, and Company, a free-jazz outfit that I also admired a lot. It was a juxtaposition that I privately enjoyed very much, and probably the closest I'll ever get to either group. I always imagined some fan of Can glancing across the page after reading their review and thinking, "Hmmm. Maybe I should check these lads out..."

And speaking of record bins, they offered their own sort of endorsement. The fact that your group had its own space and your name was placed next to some artist like Elvis Costello lent a bit of credibility. ("Jeeze, these guys must be pretty good; they've got their own bin, AND it's right in front of Elvis Costello's!") One of my sister's friends was completely unimpressed that her big brother was in a band until the friend saw that we had a generously-filled bin at the Washington DC Tower Records (RIP). That proved we were somebody to reckon with, at least for her.