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AN APPRECIATION
The night Bo Diddley banned the Beat
How do you play with a legend without doing it the legendary way? By
learning his lesson of keeping himself new.
By Dave Alvin, Special to The Times
3:35 PM PDT, June 2, 2008“Whatever you do, DO NOT play ‘the Beat!'”
That was the first thing Bo Diddley said to us before we walked onto
the stage of the Music Machine club in West L.A. for two sets back
in 1983. We were a mix of members of the Blasters and X who had
agreed, with great enthusiasm, to back up one of our greatest heroes
for free at a benefit show for the Southern California Blues Society.To say that we were upset by his announcement/warning would be an
understatement. How could you play Bo Diddley songs and not play the
powerful, infectious and sensual Bo Diddley Beat?Bo Diddley, 79; his beat marked rock ‘n’ roll Since Bo’s first
records for the Chess label back in the mid-’50s, his “Beat” (a
primal and relentless mix of the old shave-and-a-haircut riff,
Chicago blues grooves and Latin rhythms), had been borrowed, stolen
or adapted by everyone from Buddy Holly to the Rolling Stones to
David Bowie for their own hit records.Now, even though Bo had utilized various permutations of the beat
over the course of his long career, he was asking us to abandon it
entirely in favor of . . . What? It’s sort of like asking an actor
to do Hamlet, but don’t use any of Shakespeare’s words.Blasters drummer Bill Bateman and X drummer DJ Bonebreak, who were
sharing the drum and percussion duties for the night, asked Bo to
clarify what beat they should play. He tapped out some rhythm that
stressed a different accent but, to be honest, I couldn’t tell what
the difference was. Fortunately, Bill and DJ picked up on his
instructions and by the end of the first song Bo seemed pretty happy.It was a very good band, with Bill and DJ teaming up for the
essential duties on drums, timbales and maracas, X’s John Doe and
Blasters bassist John Bazz sharing the bass position while my
brother Phil, who also played some harmonica, and I followed Bo as
best we could on guitars.Most of the songs in the first set were new songs that Bo had
recently recorded but none of us had ever heard, let alone studied.
We (and just about every other musician in the modern age) had been
dissecting all of his old records for years with the passion of
theology students pouring over the Dead Sea scrolls or physicists
debating string theory. A couple of the songs in the set were
straight blues that easily fell into a comfortable pocket, but the
rest were extended one-chord, semi-funk jams that wound up sounding
as much like “Bitches Brew”-era Miles Davis as they did classic Bo
Diddley.As the set progressed and I began to get comfortable with Bo’s new
beats, I started thinking that it was close-minded of me to expect
him to play the old songs the same old way. Wasn’t Bo Diddley as
much of a musical revolutionary as Bob Dylan? Weren’t his original
recordings of “Mona” or “Who Do You Love” as musically unique,
pivotal and influential in their day as Dylan’s?Maybe Bo wasn’t the genius lyricist that Dylan is but in rock ‘n’
roll (or blues and folk), lyrics aren’t everything. If Dylan could
change the melodies, grooves and even lyrics to his songs in order
to keep exploring the possibilities of his art, why couldn’t Bo
Diddley?Some people would argue that Bo was one of the architects of funk
and, if that’s the case, why shouldn’t he be allowed to follow his
own rhythmic path to wherever it might lead him? Why should Bo
Diddley have to be stuck in the past just because that’s where a
part of his audience (and perhaps his backing bands) wanted him to
remain?I remember smiling on stage like a goofball as I realized all of
this and came to the conclusion that if you really dig Bo Diddley,
then let Bo Diddley be Bo Diddley! I was a young guy at the time who
was trying his best to replicate old music — and that’s the best
way to learn, believe me — but that night Bo taught me a lesson
about growing and surviving as an musician/artist: Stay true to
yourself.After the first set I approached Bo backstage and told him what I
had been thinking while I played with him. “That’s right,” he said
laughing. “I already made all them old records years ago. Now I’m
keeping myself new.”But as we walked back onstage for the second set, Bo turned to us,
smiled and said, “You know, you boys are pretty good, so I’ll tell
what: The first song is gonna be ‘Mona’ and you can play with the Bo
Diddley beat.” And we did.Thank you Bo, for all your incredible music over the years and,
especially, the wise life lesson you taught me.Singer, songwriter and guitarist Dave Alvin has been a member of the
Blasters, X and the Knitters and leads his own roots-rock group, the
Guilty Men.http://tinyurl.com/459hv2
i’m going to go hear the hacienda brothers/dave alvin this thursday to show them some love (their first show since chris gaffney’s passing)
should be bittersweet…lisa
nice article about emmylou’s newest. i just saw her last week in monterey, catch this tour if you can!
Mix May 1, 2008
EMMYLOU HARRIS AND BRIAN AHERN TOGETHER AGAIN by Rick Clark
Few artists in any genre have created a body of work as substantive and rich as Emmylou Harris. Over the years, Harris has mined great songs from folk, country and pop music traditions and showcased their compelling power with her own unique readings. She has also been a selfless champion of many artists and writers, and has written a number of superior songs herself. Harris has received many awards for her work, and this year she was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame.Harris’ string of hits stretches back to 1975, when she began working with producer Brian Ahern on a successful run of 11 albums that included a number of classic tracks and hits like “Together Again,” “Boulder to Birmingham,” “Sweet Dreams,” “If I Could Only Win Your Love,” “Two More Bottles of Wine,” “Beneath Still Waters” and “Too Far Gone.” White Shoes, which was released 25 years ago, was the last album the two made together. Since then, Harris has put out many fine and critically acclaimed albums, but it is her work with Ahern that has proven to be the most influential and enduring over time.
During the past few years, Harris and Ahern have occasionally revisited their creative dance, and most recently it has resulted in a beautiful new release titled All I Intended to Be. The seeds for this new collaboration began during a reunion of Harris’ legendary Hot Band for the 2004 ASCAP Country Music Awards show, where Harris was presented with the Founders Award.
“Since the award was about history, she asked me to come in to supervise the rehearsal and to re-create the Hot Band session vibe,” Ahern explains. “After the show, we were sitting at dinner when she asked me to do another album.”
By that time, the two had already reunited for a number of recordings for various projects: Robert Redford and Ethan Hawke movies, duets with Willie Nelson and Rodney Crowell, and, with Kate and Anna McGarrigle, three songs for the re-issue of Harris’ luminous Christmas album Light of the Stable. Especially moving was her version of Joni Mitchell’s “The Magdalene Laundries” and a richly imagistic track called “The Connection,” which appeared on The Very Best of Emmylou Harris: Heartaches and Highways, and earned Harris a 2005 Grammy for Best Female Country Vocal Performance.
“We’ve always worked incredibly well together,” says Harris. “Even from those first sessions, when I was so unsure of myself, it wasn’t long for me to feel comfortable because one of Brian’s many talents is his ability to sense an artist’s strengths and encourage them without putting you on the spot. He allows you to grow at your own pace and gives you just enough room so that you don’t hang yourself, but you also start to get confidence. I really think Brian understands that every artist is completely unique and has a vision down there somewhere. He helps you discover that by giving you all the tools. I felt I had a safety net, that he was listening to everything, and sometimes just him not saying anything was exactly what you needed. It’s a very nurturing presence.”
All I Intended to Be celebrates some of the people who have journeyed with Harris over the years on her artistic path, including Dolly Parton, Vince Gill and musicians Glen D. Hardin, Stuart Duncan, Steve Fishell, Richard Bennett (who has produced Harris) and the Seldom Scene. The album also showcases Harris’ talent for gatherering great songs, as well as her own gifts as a songwriter.
Harris has long kept a huge library of stashed song-finds on what she calls “material cassettes,” and as always she shows her extraordinary knack for taking others’ songs and making them feel like they came from her heart. Ahern’s empathetic production and arrangements go a long way to making All I Intended to Be one of the most emotionally satisfying albums Harris has done in years.
Six of the tracks on the new album are Harris’ own compositions. This is an area where she has shown tremendous growth during the past several years, as her songs on Red Dirt Girl and Stumble Into Grace show. One song of All I Intended to Be, titled “Gold,” is a stripped-down “three chords and the truth” gem of classic country. “Those are the hardest songs to write,” she comments, “because you’re working in a very small framework and you can’t get clever. You have to come out and say exactly what you mean.”
Most of the work on All I Intended to Be took place at Ahern’s Easter Island Surround studio, which got its name from the 8-foot stacks of gear that surround the control room like the ancient Pacific Island statues. Among the projects Ahern has done there are Harris’ Producer’s Cut (a DVD-Audio surround collection of classic Harris tracks) and surround mixes for Johnny Cash and three Jimmy Buffett DVDs.
Looming behind the studio is the legendary 42-foot, lead-lined Enactron truck. Deployed for all the great Harris productions, it was also a highly sought-after mobile facility used by such diverse acts as Black Sabbath, Bob Dylan, Barbra Streisand and James Taylor.
Even with these options, however, several basic tracks on Harris’ latest required a larger band, and for those Ahern booked the Sound Emporium in Nashville, where he produced Ricky Skaggs and a Number One country record for Johnny Cash. “I like recording at home, but not playing host,” says Ahern. “So when the contingent exceeds two people, I book a studio.” Ahern mounted his 16-track headstack on Sound Emporium’s Studer A827 to record bass and drums at 15 ips on 14-inch reels. “I like to use 14-inch reels because it cuts down on tape waste, and while you are changing smaller reels, the best performances could be slipping away.”
Another member of the creative team who has contributed to the excellence of this new album, as well as most of Ahern’s productions since 1975, is engineer/mixer Donivan Cowart. “Donivan puts up with me. I’m getting old and irascible,” states Ahern. “But the common lingo tends to build after 30 years. He’s become an irreplaceable asset.”
To ensure that there would be plenty of creative sparks, Ahern brought in a group of world-class players. He notes wryly, “If you are the smartest person in the room, you’re working with the wrong people.” Musicians included original Hot Band member Glenn D. Hardin (keys), Glen Worf (bass), Harry Stinson (drums), Richard Bennett (guitar) and Kenny Vaughan (guitar).
Ahern miked Worf’s upright bass with his rare, large British ribbon mic called a Reslo right off the bridge to achieve what he calls “knuckles – you could hear what Glen had for lunch.” The Reslo ran through a Neve 1084 mic pre and was lightly compressed with an LA-2A. An RCA 44 was placed on the floor looking up at the bass with a big block of foam behind it so the backside of the mic heard nothing. That ran through a Tube-Tech CL1B compressor. “Glen finds a way to be musical with one note at a time,” says Ahern admiringly. The producer places his microphones on Gramma insulating floor risers designed to hold guitar amplifiers.
Guitarist Bennett was situated in an all-wood room designed for string sections with four bidirectional ribbon mics to capture his sound. According to Sound Emporium engineer Kyle Ford, “For the close stereo sound, Brian hung two RCA Varicoustics on the only stereo bar I’ve ever seen like this – at different heights, on the 12th fret and at the sound hole. Brian had Richard face the curved wood wall, where he spread out a pair of Wes Dooley’s AEA R44 CNEX microphones. Huge vintage Turner hybrid microphones faced Kenny Vaughn’s amplifiers, which included Brian’s Space Echo feeding his Fender Deluxe.”
Stinson, one of Nashville’s consummate session drummers, observes, “The first question Brian asked when he hired me was, ‘Where do you want to be set up?’ That question never gets asked! Nothing about this was typical Nashville. Emmy and Brian still like to approach music as an art form, whereas Nashville – if I can make a political statement – is about doing it quick, fast, formula: ‘Let’s go with all these plug-ins.'”
Stinson also overdubbed drums at Ahern’s house. “When Harry is overdubbing to something previously recorded, he can hear, sympathize and play through the center of the mayhem,” says Ahern.
Final overdubs took place at The Village in West L.A., where Ahern had been working with an all-star band on another project. “Emmy’s album still felt sleepy, so I peeled off two of my ringers to contribute”: Greg Leisz and Patrick Warren for stringed instrumental overdubs and keyboards, respectively.
“Brian can walk the line between allowing you to instinctually do what you do to a song and also knowing how to get what he wants out of that person by just a few carefully chosen words of direction here and there,” says Leisz. “It’s a really good combination for somebody like me, and I think it’s a really important part of what he does as a producer. I think to be completely left alone without any direction at all is sometimes frustrating because you want a little bit of feedback.”
“On rare occasions, a producer may superimpose ,” Ahern adds. “‘Broken Man’s Lament’ is a song about a mechanic who lost his wife to her singing career. To me, he obsesses on a piece of music as an artifact of his creeping insanity. I explained this to Patrick Warren who researched the ‘Whiter Shade of Pale’ B-3 organ drawbar settings.
“Extracting the best performances is Job Number One,” Ahern continues. “Great headphones, if you’re using them, are essential. We dedicated two MacIntosh MC-275 tube amps, our finest, to the headphone mixes. Everybody hears really well.”
One element that leaves a sonic fingerprint on this album is Ahern’s pervasive use of ribbon mics. “Brian has more ribbon mics than anyone I’ve ever met,” remarks engineer Ford. “He carries around a number of rare, hard-to-find mics, as well as some newer ones. I had never heard the Turners and Reslos.”
For Harris’ vocals, Ahern says, “Because recording up close to a microphone is a relatively modern concept, vintage ribbon mics are susceptible to pops and breaths. I told Wes we liked his AEA R84, but I couldn’t use it because Emmy kept sneaking up on it. He built one to accommodate us. And his ribbon preamplifier was everywhere. When Vince and Dolly sang harmonies on ‘Gold,’ I used his big AEA 44 Cs. Dolly said, ‘I love this microphone,’ so we gave it to her!”
Dooley’s R44 CNEX was used to record Harris’ bluegrass buddies, the Seldom Scene. “Live in the room, she used a Soundelux U67. I often choose it for contralto females,” Ahern says.
Ahern and Cowart are both fond of Harris’ aggressive guitar style. Harris clearly loves playing guitar, and Ahern hired her to play on Keith Richards’ contribution to George Jones’ Bradley’s Barn Sessions album. “I do enjoy playing rhythm guitar,” Harris says. “I think it’s just connected to you. That’s how I learn songs: I sit down and play them on the guitar so the phrasing and the heartbeat are connected with the guitar. I find my voice through the guitar, in a way. I’m perfectly happy to have my own little picker’s corner where I’m comfortable.” For Harris’ guitar on this album, they sometimes used an AKG C-24 in an M/S configuration and at other times one of four RCA Type BK-5Bs.
For mic pre’s for ribbons, Cowart and Ahern also liked one made by Wes Dooley. “It works well: You set it up right by the ribbon mic and amplify it before you make a long run into the studio with it,” explains Cowart. “It helps hold the gain together; it has lots of gain and low noise.”
Over the course of the project, Ahern and Cowart used some other favorite pieces of gear one might not expect. “We have a discontinued Yamaha reverb unit Keith Richards showed me in New York that provides convolution presets of a wood-domed studio,” says Ahern. “We also used it to take quad convolution recordings of the soon-to-be extinct Lexicon 224XL. We used two low-bit Prime Times. And the Germanium Tone Control and the Zener Limiter seem to be in successful pursuit of the best vintage sonic markers and character that we’ve come to know and love over the last 40 years.”
In a time when so many records sound like the life has been squashed out of them from overcompression, Ahern’s productions are rich in dynamics. Vocals and instruments rise and fall naturally, enticing the listener to ride with the feeling of the moment.
“That’s the emotion, and the dynamics has a lot to do with the emotion,” says Cowart. “If you suck all that out, you’re just left with noise. I’d much rather have somebody have to lean into the mix than be blown against the back wall.”
Ahern adds, “It provides a sense of people being together in a room rather than rash waveforms. We don’t use any stereo gain reduction. Let mastering do that.”
Georgetown Masters’ Andrew Mendelson mastered the album; he remarks that All I Intended to Be is an exceptionally “emotional” album that has “loads of vibe and makes no concessions to the highly compressed sound of what you hear today,” he says. “As a result, it stands out and sounds totally fresh.”
“Working with Brian and Donivan gives me everything I need and lets me know when it’s not happening,” Harris concludes. “If you’re sounding good to yourself, you’re going to stop thinking, worrying and just sing. They’re also very patient. I feel more comfortable having that working relationship, that sort of ‘nest’ where you know everything’s gonna be okay. I think we got to that point a long time ago and we sort of picked up where we left off.”
http://mixonline.com/recording/tracking/audio_emmylou_harris_brian_2/
it wasn’t mentioned in any of the above articles, but this is yet another album that has contributions from greg leisz (i’m not a relative, just a fan of pedal steel)
can’t wait for this and the new emmylou (yes, greg’s on that one too)
lisahow did you like it paul? would you go to a show there again?
was it worth the hours waiting? just wondering….
it was a pretty setting….and looked like it would be good acoustically….but the way they handled EVERYTHING…all the best areas to sit all tagged as reserved (you had a choice of side view or back two rows)
it was shabby chic! hawell, i left before the music started so thanks for the review…
well there’s always largo tonight and mudcrutch at the troubadour tomorrow…sorry paul, i’ll try not to be a problem child if i see you at emmylou in monterey…
the amoeba kids that were there were vocally supportive as i was escorted out, thanks!!!! i met some fun folks
(i was kicked outta the skirball, somehow i’m proud as i’ve never been kicked outta anywhere…and if i were gonna be, this place is fitting…
we had waited way too long as lots of people got there early to look around, but they had closed everything so the employees could work the event…so there was anywhere to go kill time…i knew the restaurant was going to be closed, but i thought the rest would be open.
i was tired of waiting early on..
wish i’d sold my “ticket” so someone else coulda heard the music…oh welll…i’m sure it was lovely.would never have happened at the fillmore, great american music hall or the belly up….or a hacienda brothers show!!!!sigh…..
i knowingly pushed my luck out of restlessness/boredom, but thought i’d get a warning before getting kicked out…
i did the crime, i did the time…doobie doobie dew
……at home in bed asleep early….ha on me…
lisachris gaffney memorial
http://www.myspace.com/thecellarlbc
Dear friends,
Please join us in celebrating the life of Chris Gaffney, April 30th at The Cellar in Long Beach, California.Andy Kindler and the Gaffney family will be hosting a night of stories and music. Special guests include Dave Alvin and The Guilty Men, Hacienda Brothers, The Cold Hard Facts and many other friends.
The Cellar’s information is available at: www.myspace.com/thecellarlbc
Address: 201 E. Broadway, Downtown Long Beach. Located on the Promenade at BroadwayThe memorial celebration begins at 3pm.
Donations are graciously accepted and deeply appreciated.We hope to see you all there.
Love,
The Gaffneysi’ve done some fun things in amoeba including having a beer with dave prinz and anita kleinow celebrating that flying burrito release in the hollywood store……
but if i were browsing, and saw someone next to me with snakes entwining her arm (as i’ve seen a few times before at molly malones or the mint) that would’ve been most memorable (like browsing at a different store on franklin next to henry diltz one time…he’s perty kewl)
soooo…………what did she buy? i bought two tish hinojoa and two joni mitchell dvd’son another note…..another time i was admiring a particularly unusual person on the other side of a rack while browsing at amoeba, then turned to my left to see someone anonomously taking this person’s picture…
i wondered what kind of website it ended up on! ha………..thanks I.J.
lisai went to amoeba records in hollywood yesterday and they were going all out with hourly raffles for amoeba gift certificates, in store music (DJ’s) and it was packed!
i found the joni mitchell dvd Painting with Words and Music for $4.99, i was happy! and some tish hinojosa too…
they rock and i hope they never close…browsing online will never be the same as the people watching at amoeba hollywood, san fran or bezerkley!one guy’s blog
http://mog.com/Eric5776/blog_post/156641National Record Store Day – One Important Plea (4/19/08)
We all know that iTunes in the #1 retailer out there now. They’re crushing the competition by outshining over Wal-mart, Circuit City, Best Buy, Target and FYE (I know, some of you are probably saying – What’s FYE stand for???). More importantly, iTunes is slowly chipping away at what I know still for many of us hold dear – the physical album. For those unsure what I mean when I say “album”, it could very well be vinyl record in a 12″ x 12″ sleeve or it could be a collection of songs on a CD by one artist presented in some sort of creative CD case, digipac or other form. An album is R.E.M. “Green” on cassette tape. An album is occasionally thrown in gratis by a record label like Matador or Merge Records when you purchase the downloaded version of the entire release.
I could go on, but I’ll stop here to let you know about a very important date for anyone who still cares about records, cassettes or CDs (not ripped or burned CDs, ones w/ artwork that you paid for). National Record Store is what I see as a last ditch effort, not to save the music industry or the record labels, but to save the dying breed of the record store, primarily the independent record store which is still clinging by a thread. There is still to my knowledge at least one independent record store in every state (with the possible exception of Alaska and Hawaii) and they’re banding together to flip off iTunes and Best Buy and Wal-mart and Target. They’re getting bands from as huge as Metallica and as indie as Nada Surf to nobodies like Jackie Greene to play in their record store. They’re doing this to prove a point – that people still care about the album, and shopping in record stores, and buying independent, and spending $10 – $13 on a decent CD.
With that being said, I urge any and all fans of music who are over the age of 23(anyone younger probably has never shopped in a record store outside of their local mall) to patronize their local record stores this Saturday, April 19, 2008. If you can’t because there isn’t one within a stones throw, at least purchase a physical record, 7″, single, or CD from a local indie’s website. Yeah, it might be a little more than the more convenient iTunes or it may take a few extra days to ship from the Record and Tape Traders warehouse, but dammit if you care about how music was 10, 15, 20 years ago, you’ll do it.
Here’s a list of great independent records store along with the official website of National Record Store Day if you’d like to peruse. I’d recommend Vintage Vinyl if you’re shopping online, their store is the best.
www.nationalrecordstoreday.com
www.cims.com
www.musicmonitornetwork.com
www.vintagevinyl.com
www.recordandtapetraders.comThanks for listening,
RIP Gaff Memorial
Chris Gaffney Celebration
The Chris Gaffney show is still on for Sunday April 27th a The Doll
Hut. It will be a celebration of life show. All proceeds will go to
The Gaffney family to pay Chris’s medical expenses.Sunday April 27th, 2008 a celebration of life benefit show for Chris
Gaffney will be held at The Doll Hut at 107 S. Adams Street in
Anaheim.Orange County music icon, Chris Gaffney lead singer of The Hacienda
Brothers has passed away from liver cancer. This show is dedicated
to the Memory of Chris Gaffney.Former owner of Linda’s Doll Hut, Linda Jemison and Hacienda
Brothers Guitar player, Dave Gonzales have put together a
celebration benefit for Chris. The show will feature a wide range of
music. There will be a BBQ on the patio and a limited amount of
vintage Linda’s Doll Hut shirts will be for sale.
(Proceeds going to Chris’s medical fund)Cover Charge $10
All proceeds will go to the Chris Gaffney medical expenses
Doors are at noonArtist Line up:
Big Sandy 7pm
The Ziggens at 6pm
Kid Ramos and the FAB-U-LOCOS at 5pm
Manny (from the Original Blazers) at 4pm
Mike Eldred 3pm
Torquays 2pm
Hellbound Hayride 1pm
Sitting in throughout the day members of The Hacienda Brothers and
special surprise guestsThe Doll Hut
107 S Adams Street
Anaheim Ca 92801 Club – 714-533-1286To make a donation please make checks payable to:
Chris Gaffney Fund
c/o Helen Gaffney
403 43RD ST
Oakland, CA 94609dave alvin sang shenandoah in tribute to gaff last night at the ash grove anniversary…
lisaOBITUARY
Chris Gaffney, 57; witty songwriter, Southern California bar musician
By Mike Boehm, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
April 18, 2008
Chris Gaffney, a roots-music omnivore whose earthy aplomb and offhand mastery of many styles made him a quintessential Southern California bar musician — but who also earned international regard for his heartfelt and witty songwriting — has died. He was 57.Gaffney had been getting treatment for liver cancer that was diagnosed in February. His brother Greg said he died Thursday morning at Hoag Memorial Hospital Presbyterian in Newport Beach, where family members rushed him after a fall in his Costa Mesa home.
Audio
“What’s Wrong With Right” by the Hacienda Brothers (Chris Gaffney on vocals)
(MP3 audio)Gaffney toured extensively over the last nine years as a member of Dave Alvin’s backing band, the Guilty Men, playing accordion and guitar and adding vocals, and as lead singer of the Hacienda Brothers, in which he teamed with veteran San Diego guitarist Dave Gonzalez.
But Gaffney had been a presence on the regional bar scene since the 1970s, playing multiple sets each night in small clubs such as the Upbeat in Garden Grove and the Swallows Inn in San Juan Capistrano. It was a hard-won musician’s existence that he and Alvin captured in their easygoing honky-tonk number “Six Nights a Week.”
“One of the things that may have hindered him commercially was that he couldn’t turn it on; he was a hundred percent honest,” recalled Alvin, who considered Gaffney his best friend. “If Chris is in a good mood, you get an amazing show; if he was in a bad mood, he wouldn’t hide it.”
As a songwriter, Gaffney was a peer of Alvin, Los Lobos, X and the Red Hot Chili Peppers in chronicling the life of Southern California. In “Artesia,” from the 1990 “Chris Gaffney and the Cold Hard Facts” album, he evoked memories of his teenage years cruising through the San Gabriel Valley — remembrances stirred by the scent of cow manure carried on the wind from inland dairy farms.
“The Gardens,” from the same album, and later recorded by Freddy Fender with the Texas Tornados, was an aching assessment of the void that gang violence leaves in a community’s heart — in this case, Hawaiian Gardens.
But many Gaffney songs reflect the dry, sometimes absurdist, sense of humor that stayed with him in his day-to-day life: “They made a mistake and they called it me,” he sang in one jaunty tune; in another lyrical self-description he pegs himself as “a dancing cretin with faraway eyes.”
Gaffney sang in a tuneful yet conversational voice that was both sandpapery and sweet. He had no pretentiousness about his music. In a 1992 Times interview, he described taking part in a songwriters panel at a folk festival: “The kids were asking, ‘How do you write songs?’ I said, ‘I’m sitting in front of the TV, having a beer, and something comes to my mind, and I go ‘what the hell’ and write it down.”
Born in 1950 in Vienna, Austria, he grew up mainly in Cypress, the son of a telephone company executive. Tall and solidly built, Gaffney excelled at track and cross country at Western High School in Anaheim and took his licks as a Golden Gloves boxer.
“I always ascribed his cockeyed view of the world to being beat around the head a few too many times,” Alvin said.
As he built a critically acclaimed recorded repertoire during the 1990s with three studio albums, including “Mi Vida Loca” and “Loser’s Paradise” for Hightone Records, Gaffney was unable to capitalize on it with touring — tied instead to his bar hero regimen on top of days spent scraping hulls at a Newport Beach boatyard.
Gaffney accepted the bar-musician’s lot with equanimity: “I was a working guy before becoming an unheralded roots-music recording eminence, and I continue to do that. If they don’t want to put out an album, I’ll go and do my day job,” he told The Times in 1999. What sustained him, he said, was “the music, and I love the people. You surround yourself with good friends, and you’re good to go.”
Starting in 1999, though, Gaffney got to live the life of a musical road warrior, with Alvin and then the Hacienda Brothers, touring extensively through the United States and Europe. Alvin said he soon learned not to give Gaffney a weekly advance on his meal money: “He’d give it to some homeless guy or a guy standing at a rest stop begging for change.”
With the Hacienda Brothers, who blended classic country and rhythm and blues styles, Gaffney recorded two studio albums and a live release. In December, he and Alvin recorded the song “Two Lucky Bums,” a mellow duet to friendship:
Let’s make a toast to the times we’ve had
The good, the crazy, the rough and the bad.
We’ve survived every one, a couple of losers who won,
And when it’s all said and done, we’re two lucky bums.
“He might have gone out early, but he did everything he wanted to dbut o,” said Greg Gaffney, who played bass beside his brother through many of the bar years. “He loved being on the road, happy in a van with a bunch of buffoons.”
In addition to his brother Greg of Costa Mesa, survivors include his wife, Julie, of Costa Mesa; daughter Erika of Houston; sister Helen of Oakland; and brother Robert of Vancouver, Canada.
Services are pending.
http://www.latimes.com/news/obituaries/la-me-gaffney18apr18,1,4527969.story
and greg leisz is on this too! oh i just love me some pedal steel (apologies to jeff tweedy)
lots of benefits for chris gaffney are popping up…
helpgaff.comwell…then it’s got to be john mellencamp (which will be fun too)
but i’m gonna bask in the glow of just the mere thought of a leonard/lu show………
a girl’s got to have a dream……..how about lucinda & dave alvin, that would be fun!
lookin’ forward to the skirball & mudcrutch at the troubadour, jackie greene, the ash grove show at ucla, and shelby lynne too…is lucinda going to open for leonard cohen??? omigawd!
i look at least 3 times a day for the US leonard tour, please say it’s twoo it’s twoo……..lu and leonard??? ha……well if it’s not leonard, i’m starting the rumour!
lisajust bought my ticket, thanks for the heads up Tim!
i went to see the exhibit a few weeks ago and it was so packed i left without being able to park!
lisai like this newest, asking for flowers the most of kathleen’s offerings (having jim scott and greg leisz doesn’t hurt. it was mixed not far from where i live)
buffalo is the song i like the most and the title track too.
i think she gets better and better and i’m looking forward to hearing her here in L.A. in May. i was introduced to her at the gram parsons tribute at universal amphitheater. (kathleen & susan marshall were the new discoveries for me that night).
the new shelby lynne is really great (i can’t wait to hear her sing those songs live in may too)
then we’ll have lucinda’s and emmylou’s…aren’t we lucky? 2008 is great!
(oh what’s the only difference between kathleen, emmylou & lucinda’s new releases? hmmmm…no greg leisz on lucinda’s…but i’m sure doug did just fine……… )
quite honestly, i’m going thru lucinda withdrawl….and as much as i want her to have her down time/let her do her thing……….
any chance she’ll be bored and show up and sing/play around town???
(hint hint inside job) like steve earle at ucla or ????
doesn’t hurt to ask….it’s not like i don’t have things (pappy and harriet’s this saturday/march 22nd is going to be fun. the slidewinders and sara petite…and wildflowers in joshua tree!!!! whoo hoo!!!!)greg leisz on pedal steel please (no offense doug)
he added so much to the el rey shows…i still get chills listening to him on He Never Got Enough Love…………..and i can’t wait to hear the song
If Wishes Were Horses……that saying means a lot to moi………
(if wishes were horses all poor men would ride)
lisa
los lobos at the belly up feb 2nd, whoo hoo! i wonder if lucinda will ever play the belly up again? it’s a great venue/laid back and fun! lucinda has always had great taste in venues!
