Stormcellar Band Home Page

We spent a few hours in the studio on Monday, keeping the work moving.

'Sail away' & 'Brave with your heart' are still in construction and Theo & yours truly had a desire to hear some additional percussion.

I dunno. 

Unlike most of our work which is built from the drums up, the songs on 5D were built from the Guitars out. That means that the timing is a little slippery.

Adding a more formal structure to it may or may not work. We will see in mixing.

'Pirouette' has already made it out as a single. In discussing it with J. the other day I recalled the observation that we'd mixed it to the point where adding any more, or taking anything away, did not improve it. Therefore, even if not 'perfect' in some speculative or imaginary sense, it's 'as good as we're going to do today' and that's ok too.

The thought of stuffing around endlessly for perfection irks me, I'm uncertain that you (me? I? Us?) can ever get a sense of absolute perfection. I read once that a poem is never finished, merely abandoned.

That leaves 'Soul thing' in need of a solo and some main vocals. 'lay your loving' is in need of redo on the vox.

After that? New stuff.

So yesterday Mr Wizard got Theo to lay down some drum patterns to use as loops.

Brother Bill is slightly alarmed at the idea of Mr Wizard working on House Beats and EDM.

It's almost like we're looking for rules to break. Naughty Mr Wizard.

I for one welcome the chaos. As they say, Ph'nglui mglw'nafh DJ-Cthulhu R'lyeh wgah'nagl fhtagn!

We started talking about remix ideas and I asked Ben if he knew anyone who might want to have a shot at remixing one of our songs.

I was a big fan of The Cure's 'Mixed Up' project.

Might be blasphemy, but I kind of liked the remixes better than some of the originals.

It's not like mixing EDM and Blues/Roots/Soul/Folk is a new idea.

Moby comes to mind. The soundtrack to the Generals Daughter contained old Blues and Gospel samples taken from the Library of Congress.

Why not? 

Let the experiment commence! 

My first attempt is to put 'Sail Away' up as a Mixing Comp. I've submitted it to an online mixing comp site, put in a small prize and when I get all the details right I'll post it here in case you feel like getting your Doof on.

DOOF DOOF DOOF (woke up this morning) DOOF DOOF DOOF (thought I'd dust my broom) DOOF THUMPA THUMPA WAAAAA.

Ahem.

Yeah. Could be awesome.

Might be completely 

or...it might be...epic.

Maybe we should give it a name.

Dubcellar. Stormtrance. RDM (Roots Dance Music)

Cellarhouse. House Cellar.

Heh.

Just wait until we go metal. that'll be a trip.

Stand by. the weird flows well in 2018.

This Saturday night late, we're at the Town Hall Hotel in Newtown & on Sunday, arvo at the Coast Hotel in Budgewoi with our mates Halfway Homebuoy

Saturday Jan 13 from 10pm and Sunday arvo from 3pm-6pm

Howdy Sliders.

Viet Guitar is great. Eastern scales are a big influence for slide players. The scales are a trip.

Check it.

As the stars/planets align, we get to go back into the studio on Monday

Late last year we were into SC10/11, running two different simultaneous development paths.

Because we can. And it's fun.

Which ever one comes out first will be SC10 :-)

Woot - a positive phone call interruption - Marina and her flamenco friends are down with trying a version of Brave With Your Heart.

Yep. It's Beyond 5D.

Where was I? Oh yeah. Monday. Studio. Adding another idea to the existing version of BWYH, more percussion, new ideas for new stuff.

A good start to 2018. When we can, we'll move into finishing the preserved-in-amber-tracks from last year (Lay Your Loving Down, Soul Thing). 

Also we've got 2 shows next week.

You know what we could do with?

Some new songs.

Heh.

Woot I got the text.

LIVING BLUES #252; Vol. 48, #6 - December 2017... pp. 55/56.

FOREDAY RIDERS  Herding Cats FDR2015

STORMCELLAR Kansas City Gold SC1601

Blues music, as we all know by now, is an international thing, with performers active all over the place, even Australia, where I live now. In the Sydney area, two groups have recently released CDs with additional guest personnel. Foreday Riders is one of the longest-lived bands around (since 1967!) and has become sort a “blues college” with many good musicians having graduated from their ranks. Stormcellar are a more recently gathered group, lead by Mike Barry, who seem to be quite busy in the US playing gigs and festivals, meeting and playing with locals… in this case, Kansas City, MO.

Blues music has cropped up in many parts of the world over time, as we all know. It has had a decent historical run beginning probably with visits by Brownie & Sonny and continuing on with various sorts of acoustic and electric blues by the locals. Not too many traveled the other way to its home country – Dave Hole on Alligator is one that comes to mind before the days of the annual Memphis “do”. Some have had the usual half-life, while others have lasted well. The Foreday Riders is one such aggregation.

Beginning in 1967, two brothers – one a guitarist, the other a harp player/singer - formed a band that sort of played their record collection, a common modus operandi of beginners. [For a good biography of all the folks who peopled the group over the decades since then (a veritable serious all-star batch of high quality musicians of all sorts) see: http://www.foredayriders.com/Bio.htmlreflected .] Added to the basic Riders four piece of leaders Ron and Jeff King (hca/vo, gtrs) are former members [and a ringer] who could be rounded up (ergo the title!). There is here the core band of the brothers, plus Stan Mobbs on bass guitar, Rosscoe Clark on drums, and alum Shane Pacey on guitar. They are as tight as a crab’s arse, and that’s waterproof! Bruce Bongers is added on baritone sax, Pinecone Packer on piano, Jill Tweedie on vocals (once the original singer with the band), and Al Britton on bass guitar. Despite the chaotic title of the CD, they seem to be quite locked in musically with each other – rhythmically subtle and swinging, songs of worth and decent vocals. Recommended as a slice of what’s been and is in the blues world down under! They are currently celebrating their half century in the business… and surviving! Most Sydney area bluesos “studied” and blossomed under the King brothers aegis.

The other band reviewed here consists of younger Sydney locals recorded with folks from KC added during their US tours. The main band are: Michael Barry (vo/hca), Paul Read, Michael Rosenthal (gtrs), Bill Williams (bs gtr), Theo Wanders (dms), and Jo Fitzgerald on added vocals. They toured in Oz with D.C. Bellamy, one of the extras here last year. These addenda include Bellamy, Danny Cox, Joseph Cox (vo), Millage Gilbert (vo/gtr), Max Groove (keys), Bob Simmons (gtr), and Ron Teamer (vo/gtr).  There is a harder edge to the band compared to The Riders, but the genre is not damaged one iota! It’s successfully right in the pocket throughout.

Their original material is well within the range, with some political stances taken (“We the People”, “Chalk Angels”) – the few covers appropriately chosen and played. With all the visiting firemen taking part, there is much variety in the singing; the production is clear and clean as well. Not a debut, but a paving stone in the pathway of a good band as they find their “voice” in this music. The blues takes many forms… this is just one or two of them! Good stuff.

PETER B. LOWRY

Sydney, 2017