Lesson #2, In the Groove, odd jobs for neighbours, gorgeous run

It's been a busy day or two.  We had high winds on Tuesday night, so the chicken coop roof blew off, and the temporary fence that I had put up to keep the hens at the back of the garden was in a tangle, so I had to get out there and re-secure the roof with longer wood screws, and then get out the stapler and make a more robust fence with some wooden pickets and the leftover roll of wire fencing that I had on hand.  So far it's seemed to withstand the winds; we'll see how things go.  They are still producing their requisite two eggs per day, which is good news.

Our neighbours two doors over weren't so lucky in the storm; Jacqueline knocked on my door yesterday and asked if I could come and help with their privacy fence, which is made of coated steel attached above a low brick wall.  The upper section had blown down in the winds, and her husband Maurice wasn't quite up to dealing with the debris: he is 87 and just had a couple of medical interventions, so is less that his normal spry self.  Anyway I cleaned things up a bit and it looks like when the weather is nicer we can snap a tight wire along the existing posts, and reuse the coated wire fencing.  That house on the other side of them has been empty for a while anyway, so it's not like they need to worry too much about it, as there is no one there to have privacy from.

The weather would have been perfect today to work outside, but instead I took Yoshi for another 10km in the sunny and clear 6 degree weather before driving to school.  I had lesson #2 with E., and we spent a lot of time helping her sing in her head voice, and avoid getting stuck down in the deeper chest voice.  She is really a very willing student and is working hard to try to experiment with this new kind of singing; she is used to the pop or broadway belting style and so we are trying to see if we can't develop her high voice a bit more.  Bruce has been advising me a lot over the phone, as he has lots of experience with female voices.  I have had male students before, but there are other things going on with women's voices, and I'm finding it an interesting project.  E. certainly seems to find the lessons fun and interesting, and I am looking forward to hearing how her voice develops.

But before the lesson I went to a meeting of the record listening club, "In the Groove".  The teacher who leads it had invited me to bring some records, and so I obliged... as it happened I ended up bringing a lot of jazz/blues/funk: I don't have many classical recordings on vinyl, and I just felt like sharing some of these pieces that the kids are unlikely to have heard.

If you're curious, here's what I played...

Back when I was starting out as a gigging musician, I was influenced a lot by Fats Waller, so I started with "I'm gonna sit right down and write myself a letter" (1935):

I explained that a lot of the great songs of the past are based on good poetry, and usually those poems were on topics of loneliness, yearning, and so forth.  This song is a great example, but Fats is a genius and his melancholy never gets maudlin; rather it's charming and poignant and romantic without being schmaltzy.

Louis Jordan, along with Sister Rosetta Tharpe, is considered one of the parents of Rock and Roll, so I thought I'd play one of his more fun tunes: "Boogie in the Barnyard", from 1947:

Then I skipped forward a little bit to 1967 and Booker T and the MG's.  Booker T, Steve Cropper, Louie Steinberg, and Al Jackson were the original house band for Stax records out of Memphis, and Donald "Duck" Dunn replaced the original bassist in 1965.  They played (and got a writing credit) on a ton of top 40 hits, for people like Wilson Pickett, Otis Redding, Bill Withers, Sam & Dave, Carla Thomas, Rufus Thomas, Johnnie Taylor and Albert King.  I didn't have a vinyl recording of their most famous tune, 1962's "Green Onions" on hand...

... but I did have a copy of "Hip Hug Her" from 1967, so played that instead:

Maggie and I took the boys to see Booker T a few years in Antwerp, and he didn't disappoint.

Then I was thinking a bit about the current political climate, and how the news is so depressing these days.  I immediately considered Mose Allison's 1962 album "I don't worry 'bout a thing ('cause nothin's going to be all right)":

But in the end, chose one from the same album that more closely reflects the current state of political leadership in certain English-speaking countries...

Then I changed it up a little bit with probably the funkiest song ever recorded: The Meters' "Just Kissed my Baby".  Whenever this comes on the stereo Maggie laughs, because I look like I just "smelled the skunk" (but in a good way).  It's the only funk song I know that has a wah pedal guitar AND a slide guitar solo in it, courtesy of Lowell George, of Little Feat, who was a guest on the record.

Then I was a bit of a loss because I realised that I was playing almost all funk.  I decided to bring it down a bit with J. J. Cale's 1970 debut album, Naturally.  J. J. Cale was a huge influence on Dire Straits' Mark Knopfler and Eric Clapton, and after the funky business that preceeded it I decided to go with super-understated and laid-back: "Crazy Mama", which has J. J. playing wah-wah and slide at the same time.  Interestingly, for this debut album he couldn't afford a lot of studio time or studio musicians, so much of the record's percussion was done with one of the earliest available drum machines, the "Ace Tone Rhythm Ace" (yes you read that right):

I wasn't really sure that the kids were into all of this funk and low-key Tennesee and Oklahoma stuff, so after J. J. I opted to play something more upbeat and completely different, from my favourite AC/DC album.

1978's Powerage is the second-to-last AC/DC record with original singer Bon Scott, and it is the last record that was produced by Harry Vanda and George Young before "Mutt" Lange (of Shania Twain fame) took over for their breakthrough Highway to Hell.  As well it is the first record with Cliff Williams on bass; this configuration of Malcolm and Angus on guitars, Cliff on bass, and Phil Rudd on drums came to be regarded as the definitive AC/DC instrumental lineup, whether with Bon or with Brian Johnson as their singer, and it lasted many years.

I was never an AC/DC fan as a teenager; it wasn't until I saw them play in Toronto for the SARSTOCK concert in 2003 that they changed my mind.  Definitely a band that you have to see live to really appreciate...

So that was that.  I decided to close with another band that I also saw play SARSTOCK: the Isley Brothers.  A very funky band in their own right, with their most famous song an anthem about being yourself, from 1969: