A lesson in Time and Distance

It must have been quite a productive evening, Last Night at Band Camp, as I was unable to hear the whole playback of the recorded session. My trip home from rehearsal space to my driveway is just under an hour. Lately, the recordings have been long over by the time I turn off my ignition. Granted, we are known to play takes without the tape rolling. And last night's recording included three takes of DRINK THAT WHISKEY QUICKLY.

But...

Last night was also the first night of the 2010-11 Winter Crappy Weather season, so there were a number of parts in my journey home that were slow going—it was more than an hour's ride home.

Must have been a productive evening...


~slatts

Last Night at Band Camp...

We got a little bit of a late start seeing as we seemed to have an important birthday to celebrate (who is this "bossman?").

We all picked songs we sang for our warm-up. And as we are preparing for the 2011 schedule with gigs ranging from an hour to four, we've begun to make our choices from some songs we haven't played in quite some time.

We started with Would Be Blue an original I wrote back in the Sweet Militia days—one that the Mittys have revisited with a funk-flavor. We did this one last week but I wanted to nail it as I'd like to use it in January at our gig at Snowzee's.

Next up was Sonia with Tear My Stillhouse Down. For a song we haven't visited in some time, this came out well.

Jericho was next with Paul on lead vocals. This is a song we kept on most if not all of our set lists for 2010—so, it came naturally.

Last was Sea of Heartbreak, another song in constant rotation during 2010—it was flawless. Jim on lead vocals, here.

Then we began the "new song" section of the rehearsal starting with our new take on Dylan's Don't Think Twice It's Alright via Mike Ness' (of Social Distortion) version. I can now officially say, we have moved from that version as an influence to one that is 100% Walter Mittys.

Then we did a take of Get Rhythm. We had prepared this for our October show at Snowzee's but ran out of time so didn't perform it. We're working on a new ending—which you may or may not get to hear next year.

We wrapped up the evening with a brand new song for Paul in the Big Joe Turner classic Flip, Flop and Fly—this song is going to be a "blues-rocker" if this early take is any indication—looking forward to fleshing this one out!

Well, that's it for Last Night at Band Camp...

What was THAT???

Some weeks ago, we moved our recording mic to the other side of our rehearsal space—opposite side of my amp. And though the bass fills the room quite well "live," the recorded versions of late have thrown my guitar very low in the playback mix. As I use these recordings to "rehearse"—reviewing my part and how plays with the rhythm section—during the week, I've had to resort to maxing out my car radio with the bass setting at 6 (yeah, no 11 on this amp) and even this hardly works.

So, I was driving home last night reviewing the night's work. We had another recording snafu that put the output levels of the first half of the session at a very low overall volume. The warm-up songs of our versions of WILD NIGHTS and GET RHYTHM along with the two originals, FREE TABLE and 10 LITTLE INDISCREETS needed to be cranked to even be heard. This problem seemed to be fixed when we got to the first run throughs of our "new" songs DON'T THINK TWICE and Sonia's original DRINK THAT WHISKEY QUICKLY.

Still, the bass was in that "buried" spot on the playback.

But suddenly, my iPod moved to the next track and BLASTING out my CRV's speakers was the heaviest of low E to G - A riffs imaginable! The BOOM nearly shook my little car off the interstate!

What was THAT!?!

Turns out a "somewhat old" recording was downloaded in the mix of recent rehearsal takes. The Mittys were working their heavy-blues-groove stuff on a rearrangement of the classic Berry Gordy tune, MONEY. It was wild! One take had Jim playing tremolo drenched guitar til the second solo when he switched to keys (the first solo in the rough arrangement was a sax solo "played" by drummer Paul in a "wah, wah, wah" scat on the mic). I mean, these two takes were out-of-the-vault as one had former Mitty, Laura Jacques singing back-up (she quit the band over two years ago).

So, that was THAT.


~slatts

"It's been a LONG time!..."

Last time I entered a posting here, we were preparing for our debut at SNOWZEE'S! That went quite well and now we're prepping for our return engagement on October 15th.

In between that time, we played a "live on the lawn" show at Gallery 38 in Turners Falls and "other outdoor show"—ARTSfest in Northfield, MA. Both shows, too went quite well! The former—our first outdoor gig where we had to be our own sound crew and the latter—our first show with a substitute palyer—drummer, A.J. Lapinski.

Like I said, both shows rocked—we were quite pleased.

But I wanted to post about something more than just an update.

Last night at Band Camp, we worked on two new original songs to debut are our next show at SNOWZEE'S. And listening to the play back this morning, I could help but think of the days of 45 rpm records. If we were a band back then, we would take Sonia's groovy-blues-based song, "FREE TABLE" and record it as our A side. My straight-ahead "old rock n' roll" ode to "TEN LITTLE INDISCREET LOVERS" would serve as the B side.

Well, such was my little daydream on the way into work...

Maybe you should come check 'em out on Friday October 15th, yes?

"I've got nothing to say—but it's OK..."

And so, if I don't see you tomorrow at the show—catch you next time in cyberspace.

They drew a small crowd...

Well, actually—I did.

At Monday's "dress rehearsal" during one of the instrument changes—when Sonia put down her guitar and picked up her sax and Jim, his accordion for the piano—I made a small joke about 'the game' that is facebook's Invitations to Events, saying "We have five confirmed "Will Attend" guests—but two of them are band members."

Later in the evening, during a similar pause, I went up to the dry-erase board that hangs from a brick pillar a couple feet in front of my microphone and I scribbled three stick people with cheering smiles—one with his hands in the air.

"There!" I exclaimed, "Our audience!"

I'd say the van is packed...

...only, the van is gone. The CRV and RAV4 will have to do.

And they did.

Good thing there's a house PA.

So, now the COUNTDOWN is purely logistical. That and any personal preparation the members of the Walter Mittys must conduct before our debut this Friday at Snowzee's.

See you there!

The COUNTDOWN to SHOWTIME begins!

Well, this is it.

Our debut at Snowzee's is this Friday.

Tonight, very well could be our "dress rehearsal." We have Wednesday penciled-in but I'm not figuring we'll need it. Listening to the play backs of the recorded rehearsals sounds good. The band is ready for a live performance.

Our last show was the benefit gig in January with the Bum Steers. Our next show is a gallery opening in August.

But here comes our very next show!




Visit our website: www.TheWalterMittys.com

Set list is set...

More or less. And this is what it's looking like:

Jolie, Jolie (Rickie Lee Jones)
Cry To Me (Professor Longhair)
Jericho [as recorded by the Gourds]
In My Time Of Dying (traditional)
You Do a Good Blue (Sonia Barrera)
Jockey Full of Bourbon (Tom Waits)
Reconsider Me [as recorded by Etta James]
One After 909 (Lennon - McCartney)
Big Weekend (Tom Petty)
Big Trouble (Sonia Barrera)
Dirty Old Town [as recorded by the Pogues]
Dead Flowers (Jagger - Richards)
Honey Don’t (Carl Perkins)
Angel From Montgomery (John Prine)
Don’t Think Twice It's Alright (Bob Dylan)
Riptide (Sonia Barrera)
Jack Daniels (Kevin Slattery)
Tom Thumb’s Blues (Bob Dylan)
Evangeline [as recorded by the Band]
Bad Moon Rising (John Fogerty)
Fisherman’s Blues [as recorded by the Water Boys]
Train Train [as recorded by Dolly Parton]
Matchbox (Carl Perkins)
Struck [as recorded by Los Lobos]
Rock Me (Slim Harpo)
Spider Web (Joan Osborne)
Unforgiven (Bap Kennedy)
I Got Loaded [as recorded by Los Lobos]
Sea of Heartbreak (Johnny Cash)
They Call Me The Breeze (J.J.Cale)
...It Takes A Train to Cry (Bob Dylan)

P.S. We have a new website (though it just may lead you back to here—you'll see what I mean—visit us!)

http://www.theWalterMittys.com

"I'm So Tired..." "Another Cup of Coffee..."

Those and similar songs will be my soundtrack today.

Late night at "Band Camp" going through our initial dress rehearsal of material for our show at Snowzee's at the end of the month. I suppose everything went as suspected—those few songs that we haven't played in some time and their rough edges that will need to be smoothed out and those other songs that just roll out like everyday conversation—I suppose.

As everything went so late last night, I didn't wait around for the recording to finish downloading to my iPod for my listening review on my ride home.

Yes, that review of what happened "last night at Band Camp" will have to wait. For the moment, it's time for "another cup of coffee before I go into the valley below..."

LISTEN to this....

You may have heard about our "demo" CD? The show it came from? The art and the changes it went though? Well, now on our MySpace page you can hear 10 of the twelve song samples.

Check it out!

http://www.myspace.com/thewaltermittys

Call it "Spring Cleaning"...

Last night at Band Camp, we ran through the eight-song Fire Drill Sonia created from our master list of songs we have performed. As we attempt to ready ourselves for a more active pursuit of live performances, this seemed like a good way to keep our backlog well-rehearsed. And it proved to be just that—some songs have not "been played in awhile!" Most humbling.

Then we tried to divide and assign a process for "those other songs." The songs that are in-progress in one stage or another. The "almost there" songs. And the "still-early-in-the-process" songs.

Maybe a little too much "business" in proportion to music for a night in the rehearsal space but I think we have the pieces in place. And to borrow a song title to sum it all up: We Can Work It Out!

"Time it moves so fast..."

Maybe later for that song (an old original titled "Remember What To Say").

It was like Spring Cleaning at Band Camp, last night. Time to take stock of all the songs we started and didn't quite finish before we moved on to the next.

Sonia recorded them into our mast set list while I scrawled them onto our swipe-board.

Two takes each. We moved from "Evangeline" to "All Over Now." And because Jim had the accordion on, it made sense to hit our bayou-version of "Last Hard Bible."

And we closed the night with "Tom Thumb's Blues" (and very nice piano part on that).

That was just a small dent in our effort to "finish up them songs." I can see some busy—but productive—rehearsal nights ahead.

~slatts

P.S. Speaking of songs, don't be singing a sad tune this weekend on Mothers' Day—check this out: www.kslatts.com/beatles_sale_.html

Jack Daniel's Scat

What do you do when you ain't got your piano player and you need to fill a 32-bar solo?

You scat.

That's what I did, Last Night at Band Camp...

Nursery Rhyme ROCK

I sent this email to my band mates yesterday...

Sooo....

Does the idea of a song based on the words and melody of a nursery rhyme make you nervous? Maybe even, downright freak you out?

If not, I've been overdosing on this full moon of late and Sunday afternoon a weird notion came to me. I heard TEN LITTLE INDIANS in a song. A different song. A Mitty's song. One where Sam the Sham meets swamp. Tom Waits does Nursery Room Nightmares.

Still with me?




Here's the lyrics and chords (I'm thinking A but I put them in Roman Numerals so we can change if necessary):
TEN LITTLE INDISCREET LOVERS
(I) One little, Two little, Three little indiscreets
(V) Four little, Five little, Six little indiscreets
(I) Seven little, Eight little, Nine little indiscreets
(V) Ten little indiscreet (I) lovers

(I) One found out that life gets lonely
(V) Two forgot their one and only
(I) Three must flee from matrimony
(NC) Four don't care what people say.

CHORUS

(I) Five contrived when they quit trying
(V) Six save time and spent more lying
(I) Seven don't see no sense in crying
(NC) Eight won't wait for sunny day

CHORUS

(IV) Nine is fine with doing time
(I) Mine all mine right down the line
(IV) But time and time and time again
(V) Nine ends up with Number Ten!

CHORUS
(I) Ten little (V) indiscreet (I) lovers
(I) Ten little (V) indiscreet (I)


I didn't lose them. No doubt, there was some caution.

It was only the three of us as Jim was out sick. Once we determined the actual key (not A but F#), Paul aptly set a cajun beat going. That was abandoned for a more straight-ahead rock count. The middle-eight got repeated after a space for an instrumental break—and we had it!

A twisted little hillbilly-rock take on a classic nursery rhyme. Maybe you'll get to hear it soon.

It's GOOD to be back!

Last night's FIRE DRILL* had two fairly "new" songs by Sonia and Paul—"Jolie" and "Don't Think Twice," respectively— and two songs offered up by Jim and myself that dated to 'the elements**' -era with "909" and "Struck."

Everything felt good.

The second half brought some fine-tuning to our take on the Band's waltz, "Evangeline." A re-introduction to Sonia's original, "You Do Good Blue." A new take on another elements-era cover of Cash's "Get Rhythm." A re-worked drum part—more bayou-style "train-rhythm"—to "All Over Now." Some polishing up (sans coughing fit of last week's recording) of "Wild Nights." And a great closing song choice in "Jericho."

Listening to the playback on my rainy ride home last night, I thought—it's GOOD to be back!




* FIRE DRILL is our name for the warm-up songs we start a rehearsal off with—just like a fire drill—play it like a gig, no stopping.

** the elements (intentionally lower-case) was the name of a band (1999 - 2003) where Jim, myself and Sonia first met, musically. Our set list still contains many—since re-worked—songs from that band.

"It's been a long time..."

I just about ready to open this post with the lament of sore fingers and over-used vocal chords, when I realized it was exactly how I opened my last post, here.

Over a month ago.

February was a complete wash for the Walter Mittys. Two snowstorms and schedule snafus made for no rehearsals after our last gig at the end of January.

It's these kind of rehearsal nights—after a long hiatus—where you question your ability to even play an instrument or remember anything of the dozens of songs you once knew.

However, nobody went home miserable last night. There were rusty spots. There were missing lyrics. There was laughter recorded amongst the melodies and lyrics. And listening to the playback on the ride home, I could see the expressions, rolled-eyes and smiles that went with each of these "not-like-I-remember-the-song" parts.

Our focus was to just get the machine running again. And with that, we ended up picking songs that we had to cut from our last show. The recording was flawed from incorrect mic postioning—and the previously mentioned musical hiccups. But it's safe to say, the Walter Mittys are back!

The Night Before

The callouses on my fingers have that dull throb that reminds me of the work-out they went through last night. My voice has that rasp—less from singing than from barroom-level conversations and cheers for the second band, the host band, the BUM STEERS.

The Walter Mittys are so thankful for this opportunity to be part of last night's benefit. The unexpected chance to take our show to the stage. The feeling of watching a good crowd of people enjoy themselves and support this most-worthy cause. The many faces of friends some of us haven't seen in a long time.

"Last night is a night I will remember you by...."


~slatts






JACK DAY of the Bum Steers
sent me this message regarding the success of this fund-raiser:

"K-dog - you and your band mates helped us raise over $2000 for the fire victims....can't thank you all enough for your time and talents!!! Awesome job as always!"

It's SHOWTIME!

In twelve hours we'll be a half-hour into our set at tonight's benefit dance for the fire victims of Northampton and Holyoke Mass.

I'll be heading south to the Florence VFW around five this evening. My fellow Walter Mittys will probably all be there around 5:30 (they all live closer).

The host band and the arrangers of this fund-raiser, the Bum Steers, will no doubt be there, coordinating the logistics of the event.

Walter Mittys drummer, Paul, and myself on bass, were once members of the Bum Steers—in fact, that's where we met. That band is full of great guys who have always made "having a good time" priority one. They're all originally from the city of Northampton, so this arson tragedy—no pun intended—"really hit home."

It's an honor to be invited to help with this cause. And, musically, I look forward to sharing the stage with these guys tonight.

My band—the Walter Mittys—are ready.

It's SHOWTIME!
























Details of this event can be found here:
http://thewaltermittys.blogspot.com/2010/01/about-our-upcoming-show.html

Now, comes the hard work...

The paring down of the set list and the assembling of the order.

We when were in the early days of discussing this upcoming benefit show (see previous posts), Sonia threw out in one of our email volleys the need for "two hours of music." The estimate based on the average bar-gig of being a four-hour night—this one shared by two bands. I immediately replied, "Everyone pick six songs"—absolutely based on nothing, except maybe the crazy notion that 24 songs, 12 songs-a-set, sounded like a good idea.

So, for the past two weeks we've been rehearsing 24 songs. Our estimates were not that off. We ran the recording last night pretty much straight through—no pauses after songs—all our rehearsal room chatter, all the moving about to change instruments, all the unplugging and re-plugging of any amp or effect switches, etc. etc. etc. And it all came out to about an hour and 55 minutes.

What doesn't work in this equation are the following:
1. Our set time is 1 hour and 30 minutes.

2. We grouped our songs to be rehearsed in order of instrument changes ie., all the songs where Jim plays accordion and Sonia plays guitar followed by all the songs Jim plays guitar and Sonia plays sax followed by all the songs Jim plays keyboard and Sonia.... and on and on. This makes for ease of switching instruments and it saves time and we will use some of these back-to-back songs in our final set list but it also limits the variety in our song choices and styles—one of what we feel is a strong suit of our band's sound.

3. There's bits of talk in between the songs on last night's recording—but mostly of the nature of "Hold on a minute, I need to tune this E string" or "Is everybody all set?" But in all, there's no where near the space allotted for the proper introduction of songs, the acknowledgment of the people involved in putting this benefit together and the announcement of things to come—in other words, all the normal "live-show" stage banter. All that is not accounted for.

So, as Sonia heads off to a much deserved vacation, Jim, myself and Paul will begin that daunting task of "coming up with a set list."

Now, this may be the point where some one out in the blogosphere might be thinking "HA! Sonia takes off and Jim, slatts and Paul fix the length of the set list problem by cutting out all her songs!" But that thinking comes from those who have not heard her sing. Chances are she'll come back to find she's singing ALL THE SONGS of our new "made-to-fit" set list!

Stay tuned...

ABOUT our upcoming show....

A concert/dance will be held on January 30th at the Florence VFW to raise funds for the families recently displaced by fires in Northampton and Holyoke.

At least 3 families were displaced and 2 people killed in multiple fires in Northampton on December 27. At least 15 families were displaced when fire destroyed a Holyoke apartment building on December 23.

All admission proceeds will go to the Pioneer Valley Chapter of the American Red Cross, which has been providing food, shelter and clothing to the Northampton and Holyoke fire victims. Two local bands have donated their time for the show.

Doors will open at 7pm at the Florence VFW, 18 Meadow Street, Florence. Admission is a suggested donation of $10. Music starts at 7:30 with roots rock band The Walter Mittys. At 9:30, country rock band The Bum Steers take the stage.



The Bum Steers can be found playing barroom stomp cow punk at the intersection of Johnny Cash and The Ramones. The Bum Steers are: Jim Dadmun (guitar and vocals); Bill Knittle (guitar, bass and vocals); Scott Delisle (bass, guitar and vocals); Jack Day (harmonica, percussion and vocals); and Paul Ayotte (drums and vocals). (www.thebumsteers.com)

The Walter Mittys mix rock, folk, country, blues and zydeco into a unique bar to barn to bayou and back sound. The Walter Mittys are: Kevin Slattery (bass, vocals); Jim Reilly (accordion, guitar, keyboard, vocals); Paul Yandoli (drums, vocals); and Sonia Barrera (sax, guitar, vocals). (www.myspace.com/thewaltermittys)

Last Night at Band Camp

Early this week we were invited by the Bum Steers' harmonica player, Jack Day, to join his band in a benefit show for the Victims of the Northampton, MA arson fires. We accepted and details are still being worked out.

We decided as a band, that we would probably need about two hours worth of music ready. Depending on whether it's just the two bands—or more—that would give us plenty of material to choose from.

Our set list looks like this:

Sea of Heartbreak

Dirty Old Town

Jolie, Jolie

They Call Me The Breeze

Fisherman's Blues

All the Way to Jericho

Big Trouble

Cry To Me

Unforgiven

Angel From Montgomery

Train, Train

Incognito

Jockey Full Of Bourbon

Honey Don't

Spiderweb

Dead Flowers

Reconsider Me

One After 909

I Got Loaded

Sarasota

Rock Me

All Along the Watchtower

Don’t Think Twice

Jack Daniels is a Friend of Mine

We ran through all these songs last night—it made for a long rehearsal. On my ride home, I listened to the recorded play-back. My ride's only an hour, so I'll listen to the rest to and from work today.

So far, everything sounds good.

~slatts