The Dec. 10 edition of Duck, You Sucker! featured compositions by the American minimalist composer and sound artist Alvin Lucie who died Dec. 1 at the age of 90.
Lucier’s sound installations and compositions tended to focus on the physical properties of sound itself, such as the resonance of spaces, phase interference between closely tuned pitches and the transmission of sound through physical media, as well as the sound of the human body.
His 1965 “Music for a Solo Performer – for enormously amplified brainwaves and percussion” was the first work in history to use brain waves to generate sound. Lucier accomplished this via a series of electrodes attached to his scalp that detected bursts of alpha waves created when the performer reached a meditative non-visual brain state. These alpha waves were then amplified, the resulting electrical signals vibrating percussions instruments dispersed around the performance space. Imagine seeing this performed live!
His most famous piece, “I am Sitting in a Room”, was composed and first record 1969 when Lucier was the University Chamber Chorus director at Brandies University. A native of New Hampshire, Lucier would ultimately move to Middletown where he took a position at Wesleyan University. Middletown remained his home until his passing.
Due to the room’s particular size and geometry, certain frequencies of the recording are emphasized while others are attenuated. Around the 15-minute mark of the piece and about nine repetitions of the recording, the words become unintelligible, replaced by the characteristic resonant frequencies of the room itself. By 23 minutes in, it’s nothing but a drone.
In 1970, he made a second recording of “I am Sitting in a Room” at his apartment in Middletown. It’s an attempt to record the unique resonant harmonics of a given room and features Lucier recording himself narrating a text and then playing the tape recording back into the room. He then re-recorded it and the new recording is then played back and re-recorded. The process was repeated numerous times.
The ground-breaking status of the piece has lost little allure over the years. To celebrate Lucier’ 90th birthday in May, the Brooklyn-based ISSUE Project Room streamed a 26-hour undertaking of it with 90 performers contributing.
An immensely influential artist who collaborated with John Cage, Pauline Oliveros, David Behrman and many others celebrated experimental musicians of his generation, Lucier taught several contemporary avant-gardists such as Miguel Álvarez-Fernández, Arnold Dreyblat and Judy Dunaway, among others.
Call it a collision of rock and jazz as the Dec. 4 edition of Greasy Tracks featured the San Francisco collective Mushroom as well as an array of Krautrock-meets-Canterbury Scene-type music, genres usually linked to Mushroom, a band that cannot be labeled.
Check out this adventuresome and exploratory aural escape by clicking here for an archive, while a playlist is here.
Formed in 1996 by drummer Pat Thomas — who remains the band’s music director — Mushroom, which has boasted more than 30 different members over the years and countless artists have sat in with the band, eschews comparisons to Krautrock, free jazz, progressive rock, ambient, space rock (think Hawkwind) or electronic. Quite simply, they’re a hybrid.
Thomas, interviewed as part of the feature, credit’s Ginger Baker’s Air Force has an influence and inspiration to him personally.
Mushroom hasn’t gone unnoticed by musicians linked to the exciting birth of Krautrock and some prog stalwarts, while remaining relevant to bands active today. Faust had Mushroom as openers in San Francisco. Their paths crossed with Kevin Ayers — guitarist and founding member of Soft Machine — and Gong’s founding guitarist Daevid Allen, and would soon collaborate with the duo. They have shared the stage with Porcupine Tree.
[…] led to a longer-term endeavor keeping the music of the Allmans live on stage. Paul recently was on WRTC…
[…] band parted ways in 1974 but reunited a number of times over roughly 50 years. Edge and Thomas died…
[…] band parted ways in 1974 but reunited a number of times over roughly 50 years. Edge and Thomas died…
[…] band parted ways in 1974 but reunited a number of times over roughly 50 years. Edge and Thomas died…
[…] this year, a release by the foundation, Tim Buckley Merry-Go-Round at The Carousel, was spotlighted on Greasy […]
The experimental/improvisational-meets-avant-garde approach Mushroom takes to a recording session or a more-favored live concert setting, has obvious links to Krautrock, a highly experimental music, fueled by late-1960s radicalism in West Germany. The unique style — which emerged in the late 1960s and enjoyed an exciting decade, but would largely fade out by the early 1980s – was also known as Kosmische Musik (Cosmic Music).
Nov. 20 marked the 75th anniversary of the birth of legendary guitarist Duane Allman and Greasy Tracks celebrated it with a three-hour spotlight.
In Demand In Studio: Duane Allman at FAME Studios. (Michael Ochs Archives photo)
Click here to check out an archive of the program, while a playlist is here.
This proved to be a deep dive into the archives as the program featured music from across Allman’s career, especially session work.
There will also be interviews from past programs with Rick Hall, the founder of FAME Studios in Muscle Shoals, Ala., as well as bassist David Hood and guitarist Jimmy Johnson of the Swampers, who played numerous studio sessions with Allman and keyboardist Bobby Whitlock who played with “Skydog” with Delaney & Bonnie and Derek and the Dominos. Studio session insight was provided by Donna Jean Godchaux-MacKay.
Duane Allman played with the Allman Brothers Band from its founding in 1969 until his untimely death at the age of 24 in 1971. While he recorded only two proper studio albums with the band, he had already gained great acclaim for his studio work and was in demand as a session player before he and his younger brother, Gregg, put the band together.
In Studio: Rick Hall (left) and Duane Allman at FAME in Muscle Shoals, Ala.(Michael Ochs Archives photo)
After the Allman Joys and Hour Glass — two bands he formed with his brother — failed to garner any success, Duane turned to session work and was hired by Hall in the fall of 1968, following how impressed he was with the Florida-born guitarist when the Hour Glass recorded at FAME earlier that year.
Allman — working primarily with FAME’s house band, the Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section, best known as the Swampers — would go on to record landmark sessions backing the likes of Wilson Picket, Clarence Carter, Aretha Franklin Arthur Conley, King Curtis and Otis Rush.
In 1969, the Swampers opened their own facility — Muscle Shoals Sound Studio — and Allman would go on to play sessions there with Boz Scaggs, John Hammond and Ronnie Hawkins among others.
Hey Jude: Wilson Pickett (left) and Duane Allman at work at FAME Studios for the Hey Jude album that effectively introduced the world to Allman’s playing. (Michael Ochs Archives)
One of Duane Allman’s most-famous recordings was the title track to Derek and the Dominos’ Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs in 1970 where Allman’s slide guitar meshes magnificently with Eric Clapton and effectively takes the recording to another level. The guitarists were mutual admirers.
The Allman Brothers released their self-titled debut in late 1969 and would follow with Idlewild South nearly a year later — neither proved to be commercial successes, but did provide a taste of what made the band tick as it combined blues standards, with jazz-, blues and even country-inspired originals.
Epic Sessions: Duane Allman with King Curtis at Atlantic Studios in New York where they were doing sessions for Aretha Franklin’s This Girl’s in Love with You. (Stephen Paley photo)
The Allman’s were more comfortable on stage and it was the double-live offering, At Fillmore East, which proved to be the band’s breakthrough release in the summer of 1971. Long considered one of the greatest live albums of all time.
It only had seven tracks, but At Fillmore East packed a potent punch. From the opener, a rollicking version of Blind Willie McTell’s “Statesboro Blues” to an extended take of T-Bone Walker’s “Stormy Monday” and nearly 20-minute take on Willie Cobb’s “You Don’t Love Me,” the band is nothing short of mesmerizing in their approach, especially on “In Memory of Elizabeth Reed” and the 23-plus minute “Whipping Post.”
In 2004, the Library of Congress added At Fillmore East to its National Recording Registry.
At Macon, GA.: The iconic cover photo of At Fillmore East by The Allman Brothers Band was actually shot in Macon, Ga. (Jim Marshall photo)
The music of and an interview with Carolyn Wonderland highlighted a special on Texan guitarists on the Nov. 13 edition of Greasy Tracks.
Click here to check out an archive of the program, while a playlist is here.
Following a three-year stint as John Mayall’s lead guitarist, Wonderland has returned to solo work, recently releasing Tempting Fate, her 10th studio album and first for Alligator Records. The album features guest appearances by Alvin, Jimmie Dale Gilmore, Red Young, Marcia Ball, Shelly King, Cindy Cashdollar and Jan Flemming.
She is currently touring to support the release which was produced by Dave Alvin. Wonderland plays the The Narrows Center For The Arts in Fall River, Mass., on Nov. 18 and of StageOne in Fairfield on Nov. 19.
A native of Houston, Wonderland made the move to Austin in 1999 at the urging of Doug Sahm who said “it (Austin) was the land of free guitar lessons.”
The annual WRTC fundraising marathon concluded Oct. 31.
On behalf of the staff and management, we thank all of our generous listeners who pledged to support the station.
As the non-commercial radio station of Trinity College, we offer a diverse schedule of 60-plus programs on a weekly basis. Aside from two very-part-time employees, we’re an all-volunteer organization.
Much of our financial assistance comes from our loyal listeners and we rely on your backing to keep us on the air doing what we do best.
Those who pledged will receive a payment form in the mail. Just follow the simple instructions and return it to: WRTC Marathon, 300 Summit St., Hartford, CT 06106.
You can also still donate securely online, just click DONATE!.
“Thank You” premiums are expected to be mailed out in the near future – though supply-chain issues are rampant this year. Please be patient.
For more information, or to make a pledge by phone, contact the station at 860-297-2450.
Alex and Maura featured an interview with and the music of Nick Bosse on the Nov. 8 edition of Bantam Backroads.
Hailing from North Stonington, Conn., Bosse regularly plays venues along the Rhode Island/Connecticut shoreline with his band, The Northern Roots.
Bosse discussed his roots in classic country, southern rock and bluegrass, as well as how he approaches the songwriting process. His newest single, “What Happened to Country” was featured along with other material.
A few years ago, renowned guitarist Danny Kortchmar was approached by a Japanese label to go into the studio and record some nuggets — old and new — in his catalog.
The timing couldn’t have been any better. A number of Kortchmar’s old colleagues from The Section, the legendary studio band, were available along with some other crack players. When it came to reaching out to drummer on Russ Kunkel, bassist Leland Sklar, guitarist Waddy Wachtel and guitarist Steve Postell about doing some recording, there was no surprise that everyone was on board.
Following the album sessions, the band, known as Danny Kortchmar and Immediate Family, played a series of shows in Japan. They would soon shorten their name to The Immediate Family after the members decided the studio work and playing out live had gone so well it only made sense to continue working together.
The Nov. 6 edition of Greasy Tracks featured interviews with Kunkel, Sklar and Wachtel as well as tracks from the band’s recently-released self-titled album.
Click here to check out an archive of the program, while a playlist is here.
Doing What They Do Best: Members of The Immediate Family, including (from left) Waddy Wachtel, Leland Sklar, Russ Kunkel, Danny Kortchmar and Steve Postell.
Kortchmar, Kunkel, Sklar and keyboardist Craig Doerge comprised The Section which was effectively the house band of Asylum Records and would end up backing the likes of Carol King, James Taylor, Jackson Brown and Warren Zevon, amongst others. The group released a handful of their own albums and by the early 1980s had ceased working as a studio unit, but members would continue to collaborate on assorted projects in the ensuing years.
Wachtel was one of the guitarists members of The Section would regularly cross paths with in the booming Southern California studio scene, another was David Lindley. Each would work from time to time with players from the band.
Hired by Zevon to work on an Everly Brothers album and supporting tour, Wachtel became known for his session chops and was soon doing everything from playing for and producing other artists and doing soundtrack work. Over the years, he would play an important role in the studio or on the road with everyone from Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks to Zevon and Linda Ronstadt and even Keith Richards and The X-Pensive Winos. It was Wachtel’s guitar work — in part, on Zevon’s Excitable Boy which was co-produced by Wachtel and Jackson Browne — that caught the attention of Richards as the Stones were huge fans of the album.
Following their debut in 2018, Honey Don’t Leave LA (Vivid Sound Corp), the band put out a second full-length release, Turn It Up To 10 (Vivid) and an EP, Slipin’ & Sliding, each in 2020.
A special three-hour feature on Max Creek aired on the Oct. 30 edition of Greasy Tracks to mark the band’s 50th anniversary.
Still At It: Max Creek marks 50 years together in 2021. (From left) Mark Mercier, Jamemurrell Stanley, Scott Murawski, Bill Carbone and John Rider.
Click here to check out an archive of the program, while a playlist is here.
The spotlight included a decade-by-decade overview of live music by the band as well as interviews with members.
Best known as one of the earliest groups of the “jam band” genre, Creek’s roots can be traced to country music as the band got its start as a quartet in 1971: bassist John Rider, guitarist Dave Reed and drummer Bob Gosselin, augmented, albeit briefly, by an accordion player.
The humble beginnings of the group — heavily influenced by the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band and The Byrds — would go through a number of personnel changes and musical styles over time, yet still maintain many characteristics of those formative early years.
Although never known for their studio work, Max Creek released four solid albums, but really forged a legacy as a live act with a substantial repertoire of original material and tantalizing covers.
Rider along with guitarist Scott Murawski and keyboardist Mark Mercier proved to be a formidable group of composers, especially in the 1970s and 80s when, according to Murawski, crafting songs became especially competitive between the members.
Early Days: Max Creek in concert with Mark Mercier, John Rider, Dave Reed and Bob Gosselin (clockwise from left)
Oddly enough, Murawski was focusing on becoming a trumpet player — Rider and Reed were also trumpet players — when Reed, who was the then-15-year-old Murawski’s music teacher, asked him to sit in with Creek in 1972 after hearing him play guitar.
The Creek-as-a quartet-again only lasted a few months as the underage Murawski was kicked out of the Rocking Horse Parlor — a Hartford club the group regularly played — for drinking a beer on stage. As fate would have it, Murawski would be back in the band in 1973, returning shortly after Mercier, once a roommate of Rider’s at the Hartt School, was hurriedly drafted by Rider to fill in for Reed who was sidelined by acute appendicitis ahead of some holiday shows late that year.
Stylistic changes were afoot as the band’s direction took to a more improvisational approach with less country and more acid rock filling the bulk of the band’s live sets. This created unrest at times in the band and Reed opted to pursue a solo career as Rider, Mercier, Murawski and Gosselin honed their chops, gaining a growing following and expanding their reach as a live act.
In 1976, vocalist Amy “Barefoot” Fazzano, joined the band — she had been a waitress at one of the clubs Creek played and usually sang while doing post-concert bathroom cleaning.
Busy Decade: The 1980s proved to be extremely busy for Max Creek, shown here on stage at Mad Murphy’s Cafe in Hartford with (from left) John Rider, Scott Murawski and Bob Gosselin.
A year later, Creek put out their self-titled debut studio album — pressing 1,000 copies of their self-released LP — which featured all original compositions minus “Big Boat” — a bouncy re-arrangement of Willie Dixon’s “Tell That Woman” — which remains in the band’s sets to this day.
In 1979, percussionist Rob Fried joined the fold, providing a fuller sound as he alternated playing a wide array of percussion and a traditional trap set alongside Gosselin. A year later, the band’s second studio album, Rainbow (Wranger Records) came out.
The 1980s were the busiest years for the band when it came to playing live shows with 1982 proving to be the peak as the band logged 241 gigs that year.
The band recorded a three-night run of shows in June 1982 at Cellblock Eleven in Hartford and soon after released Drink The Stars (Wranger Records), a double album packaged with a poster and notes in a nicely designed box set.
A handful of Max Creek shows were aired live on WRTC so there’s a chance a track or two from one of those performances could show up on this feature. In 2017, a four-part, 11-hour feature on Creek aired on WRTC, featuring interviews with current and past members of the band. Click for Part 1, Part 2, Part 3 and Part 4.
Music To Dine By: Max Creek plays the University of Hartford Picnic on July 31, 1977.
In 1991, DeGuglielmo was replaced by Greg Vasso who would do two spells with the band, the first ending in 1996 before he returned in for a second go-around 2004-2011. Scott Allshouse, who went to Creek shows as a high schooler in the 1990s, joined in 1996 and would partner with Vasso in the dual drummer format as Vasso returned in 2004 to take the place of Fried who left the band. In 1998, Creek recorded a pair of shows at the Webster Theater in Hartford for their live offering, Spring Water. Their New Year’s Eve gig at the Connecticut Expo Center in 1999 was also recorded and later released.
Fazzano would leave the band in 1983, but would often sit in during annual anniversary shows. Gosselin exited in 1985 and was replaced by Greg DeGuglielmo. This line-up recorded a pair of studio albums, Windows (Relix) in 1986 and MCMXC (Wranger Records) in 1990.
The Allshouse-Vasso partnership gave way to Creek’s current backline of drummer Bill Carbone and percussionist Jamemurrell Stanley who continue to handily carry on Max Creek’s rich timekeeping tradition.
Max Creek performs at the Simsbury Arts Festival, July 29, 1979.Max Creek at the Silver Bullet in Moodus, Conn., in 1975
The music and story of The Nervous Eaters , including an interview with guitarist/vocalist Steve Cataldo was featured on the Oct. 18 edition of The Devo Rock Show.
The Nervous Eaters appear at Café Nine in New Haven on Oct. 23. This special program will feature classic singles and rarities from their early years in the late 1970s as well as new music from the latest incarnation of the band, including their self-released Record 10 from 2019.
Regarded as one of the forerunners of the burgeoning punk/new wave scene in late 1970s Boston, the band got their start backing other artists such as Willie “Loco” Alexander, before they were signed to the short-lived Rat Records, a label that was connected to the legendary destination for up-and-coming bands from around the world, The Rathskeller, best known as “The Rat”.
The band’s first single, “Loretta,” was released in 1976 and garnered regular airplay in the Boston area, but failed to catch on outside the Commonwealth. This was a fate suffered by contemporaries such as The Real Kids, DMZ and to some extent, The Neighborhoods, who all had talent and a track record of outstanding live performances, but never broke out nationally.
While they would split up and reunite many times over the years, The Nervous Eaters never really fared well in the studio, yet their material, especially singles, remains highly sought after by collectors.
A Ric Ocasek-produced demo tape by the band got the attention of some label executives, including those at The Cars’ label, Elektra, which signed The Eaters. At this time, the label was enjoying the success of The Cars’ first two releases — The Cars and Candy-O — and would soon be focused on Panorama, which would not bode well for the newcomers.
Their eventual self-titled major label debut for Elektra was produced by Harry Maslin who had worked on David Bowie’s Young Americans and Station To Station and included guest appearances by guitarist Steve Cropper and pianist Nicky Hopkins.
Despite expectations, the album never took off and The Nervous Eaters felt the label had let them down by not putting any effort into promoting the release, despite the fact the band had been out supporting the likes of The Cars, The J. Geils Band, The Ramones and many others during the late 1970s.
Following the failure of the debut record and Elektra not doing a follow-up project with the band, The Nervous Eaters broke up for the first time in 1981.
They would reunite in 1986 and released Hot Steel And Acid, a six song EP.
There are very few drummers who even come close to racking up the number of sessions that Bernard “Pretty” Purdie has done and the Oct. 9 edition of Greasy Tracks spotlighted just a fraction of what the legendary timekeeper has accomplished.
Click here to check out an archive of the program, while a playlist is here.
Dating to the late 1950s, Purdie — once considered the “house drummer” of Atlantic Records — played on 25,000-plus sessions, has appeared on more than 4,000 albums and recorded with 2,500-plus different artists. He also has a deep catalog of solo releases.
Artists he has appeared with, running the gamut from jazz to rock, include Miles Davis, James Brown, Steely Dan, Ray Charles, Aretha Franklin, Louis Armstrong, Quincy Jones, Herbie Hancock, BB King, Joe Cocker, Bob Marley, Rahsaan Roland Kirk, Mongo Santamaria, Peter Frampton, Hall & Oats, Hank Crawford and Jimmy McGriff to name only a few.
Employing an innovative use of triplets against a half-time backbeat, Purdie developed an immensely distinct and impactful technique known universally as “the Purdie Shuffle”.
[…] led to a longer-term endeavor keeping the music of the Allmans live on stage. Paul recently was on WRTC…