Tuesday, March 4, 2014

March Bustles In On Windy Feet …

March Bustles In On Windy Feet …          

… "And sweeps my doorstep and my street.
She washes and cleans with pounding rains,
Scrubbing the earth of winter stains.
She shakes the grime from carpet green
Till naught but fresh new blades are seen.
Then, house in order, all neat as a pin,
She ushers gentle springtime in." -  Susan Reiner, Spring Cleaning

Sun’s gonna shine in my back door some day,
March wind’s gonna blow my blues all away.
(The Carter Family—1934; Jody Stecher/Kate Brislin--1999)

On the last day of February, as we watched the rain clouds sweep across San Pablo Bay, we spent most of the day in the recording studio. We worked on the first tracks for the great song, "A Satisfied Mind" by Joe “Red” Hays and Jack Rhodes. Hayes explained the origin of the lyric this way: "The song came from my mother. Everything in the song are things I heard her say over the years.” 

The first version by Porter Wagoner, went to #1 on the country chart in 1955. Many others have covered the tune since, including Johnny Cash who recorded it in 2004 on the Kill Bill soundtrack, and Willie Nelson in 2010. Our version is a composite arrangement built on one created by Mayne Smith and Mitch Greenhill of the 70’s group Frontier (I played piano with them in those days.) They created a gospel sound with changes moving from the tonic chord through the dominant of the relative minor to the minor. Chappell added
another minor chord to it when we arranged the song for our live performances. All in all, it’s journeyed pretty far from Porter Wagoner’s three chord version at the Grand Ole Opry. We think you all will like our version as much as our local audiences do!

John Roy Zat dropped by and added some wonderful fiddling. It’s sounding great but we still have some vocals, a banjo track and a bass track to add, then full time mixing. Mastering and manufacture is the next stage, with a product just around the corner!

This month, we are preparing for a short junket down to Southern California with

our first stop-over being the Artlife Gallery in Redondo Beach.  Musician/Singer, Shakeh Herbekian and Brian Asher, cellist, host an Invitational Open Mic at the gallery, 1217 S. Pacific Coast Highway.  They will feature Chappell & Dave’s "Jazzy Side of Americana" on Thursday, March 13. “There is always great music, art and fun at this monthly jam,” said Shakeh.

On Saturday morning, March 15th, we'll attend a meet and greet in Canoga Park for the southern California musicians who are looked after by Mother Hen Promotions. That afternoon, we’re off to help Mitch Greenhill of Folklore Productions celebrate his birthday in Santa Monica. It’s going to be a fun time, another adventure.

Dave will be reading Irish poetry for the event created by local publisher/teacher Jannie Dresser, Alta Solano LIT OUT LOUD, Folk & Fine Art Gallery at 1861-A Solano Ave., Berkeley, [in the small alleyway just above Pegasus Books]. Come by on Saturday, 7:30 p.m., March 22, 2014: Judy Wells is launching her book The Glass Ship (inspired by ancient Irish island-voyager tales), and we’ll feature readings of great Irish poets from Yeats to Heaney. Solano Avenue is a great main street, a place to meet and hang out. Hope to see you there!
 
And we also hope to see you at Dave’s poetry reading at Sacred Grounds CafĂ© in San Francisco on Wed., March 26.