Appearing Mon thru Fri at The Stairs

Now that my gigs have dried up for a while I'm turning my focus back to songwriting using a new technique. For some reason I have more to offer creatively in the morning (you know, before the constant pounding of bourgeois routines and the meaningless drudgery of proletariat responsibilities take their inevitable toll ... but I digress). At my house there is a short window that starts around 7:20 am when I'm alone in the house but don't have any pressing obligations. I'll take my guitar to the front stairs, where the acoustics are best, and play as mindlessly as possible. I try to make something up on the spot using nonsense words. Invariably I come up with a morsel that may be worth savoring so I go to the computer and make a quick recording. Then, every few days I’ll take a listen. It may take a while but I can see how some of these tunes will grow up to find meaning in their lives. One day they’ll be out the door, oblivious to my tearful good-byes. They grow up so fast!

What does it say about the human mind that you have employ tricks to coax an idea out of your head that you suspect is already formed? Weird.

Playin' Out

It's tough out there trying to play your music and just when you think you're justified in giving up you stumble into some joint that's just right. It's been a crazy couple of weeks. On Oct 14 I was the feature at the open mike at Amazing Things. Attendance could have been better but you couldn't ask for a more attentive bunch, most of them fellow songwriters. What's tough is the inherent wrist-slitting pedestrian pace of most folky open mikes. My beef has always been this: If you set up a venue where All Are Welcome and everyone is encouraged to play then you invite (and encourage) the lamest among us. I have a problem with people who write songs with 14 verses and, by the way, they CAN'T F&^%ING SING or with performers who think giving it the full 40 percent is good enough. It makes me nuts. I can say stuff like this now. I'm a curmudgeon-in-training/elder who played his first coffeehouse gig in 1970.

Three days later I was at The Java Room. I've played there before but never for the brunch crowd. It's just the worst place to play. How many variants of disrespect are you expected to put up with? The patrons can't seem to take a break from their precious laptops or private conversations to give you a chance to get inside their heads. But the most galling thing is the attitude from the establishment. They don't pay you, provide a sound system, greet you when you walk in, introduce you to the crowd, offer to prop the door open during your nine round trips to the car, offer you a beverage unless you ask, or exhibit any kind of friendliness at all. Yet you are there to enhance their business at absolutely no cost to them. All they offer is 40 square feet and a piano. You have to "pass your own hat", as it were.

After that gig I think I was entitled to a bad attitude but I recovered after a couple of days. Tuesday night I felt to urge to play so I headed up to Main St. Market & Cafe in Concord. I've been meaning to check out this open mike run by Bruce Marshall, a first-rate guitar player and songwriter. This open mike is a keeper – it combines the rapt audience attention you usually find only in a coffeehouse with the social energy of a bar. There were all kinds of wack jobs stepping up to the microphone but everyone had something different to offer. Lots of fun.

Dagmar

Dagmar is a musical thing like no other. I first heard about this duo earlier last summer, before it got so hot that I lost my mind but that, as they say, is another story. The way I describe Dagmar to people is that they approach acoustic music through the theatrical side door. This is a lame depiction that doesn’t do them justice or even explain their brand. The only way to appreciate them is to have a look.

The units of Dagmar are Jim Bauer, who writes all the material and plays mostly guitar, and Meghan McGeary, a wacky and talented percussionist who also plays melodica and mandolin. Their music is vivid, the harmonies are sublime, and the music itself like some wonderfully insane combination of folk, show tunes, and German opera.

I’ve been looking forward to the latest CD, Door No 3, for a while now but it’s only available at their gigs so I vectored over to scenic Melrose last night to catch them at Absolutely Fabulous. It was not a great trip. As if the deadly embrace of rain and traffic weren’t bad enough, my Tom-Tom must have been set to Post-Apocalypse mode since it thought the quickest route from the Mass Pike to Melrose was through Central Square in Cambridge. Say what? Apparently neither Tom attended MIT. Not only did the traffic crawl but I fell victim to a police scam designed to pull over as many cars as possible to feed the local coffers. They don’t call it the Republic of Cambridge for nothing. 100 bucks for an illegal turn – seriously?

Shaken but not stirred, I got to the venue 10 minutes into Dagmar’s short set. I was not disappointed. My favorite songs, I suppose, are Give Me the Rifle and Isle of Kokokovo (both from Door No. 2) and the newer Wish That I and You Said Yes but there are many gems.

The best part of the night was sitting at the bar the rest of the evening talking to Jim and Meghan about art, music, performing, recording and a language called Maxperanto (or did I dream that part?). I know a lot of musicians and guitar-playin' wannabes but it occurs to me that I don’t know many real artists - people who create something truly original from the heart then live for the passion to get it heard and seen. That’s what I appreciate most about Dagmar: Their aim is true.

This experience comes just two days before I start recording my second album. Maybe it's not a coincidence. I can tell you that there is small shift in my thinking on this project. As I was driving home I imagined how some of the songs might levitate with the help of an unexpected instrument or melodic excursion to a faraway place. We'll see if I have any of that in me.

Related links:

http://www.dagmartheband.com
http://www.myspace.com/dagmartheband
http://www.theblueflower.org/