August 15, 2023 - Drivin’, Dancin’, Poolin’, Slackin’

This week the Music Department at Boo’s N.E.W.S. takes over the newsletter. Each article has links to songs/videos, so be sure to click them! And if you forward this to 3 friends, I'll hug ya!

Nuggets of Information: I'm Not Cryin’ - They’re Cryin’! 

Our town has a summer concert series, and a couple weeks ago they featured Drivin’ n’ Cryin’. It was a beautiful summer night, and after the requisite tailgating, we walked over, set up our chairs, and enjoyed a couple hours of fun live music.  

I came to Atlanta in 1987 and Drivin’ n’ Cryin’ was just starting to emerge on the scene. I remember (fuzzily) most parties ended up with everyone belting out Straight to Hell - a classic party song. Thirty-five or so years may have passed, but the crowds still love singing that one. Another fave we caterwauled to is Fly Me Courageous, their biggest commercial hit.  

While we did have a great time, it was a little weird for me to see a band I knew from a completely different time in my life, back in my Coors Light phase (yeesh), now performing on a stage set up near the post office I go to, while I sipped from my Stanley Tumbler filled with diet tonic water & limes. If they were to update the lyrics to reflect where I am today, they would go: 

So I go down to the parking lot 
Hang around all my friends 
Roam the street 'til 10:00pm breaks again 
I come in at 10:30pm, and she is waiting for me 
She said, "Where have you been?" I said, "I was out" 
She said, "Okay – do you want to watch The Bear?" 

Rock on suburbanites! 

Enrichment:  Dancin’ Around My Grave 

I’m a BIG Andy Frasco & the U.N. fan. I’ve seen them four times in the last four years and have tickets to see them in November at the Variety Playhouse in Atlanta. YOU NEED TO JOIN ME THERE!!! 

Frasco just released his new album – L'Optimist – and it is great. In this clip, Frasco and his band are joined by Logan Rex of Artikal Sound System to perform one of the new songs Everything Bagel. (Logan Rex is no joke – her voice is incredible) You can get a sense of the fun, playful, positive tone of his music. For more about how Frasco got to where he is, check out this recent article from Forbes.  

Frasco is a really cool, friendly, good guy. He likes to have fun, and you can’t help but join him. The first time I saw him, at the Earl in East Atlanta, at one point I found myself in a Frasco-led conga line out in the street in front of the venue. This video does a good job showing the fun, convivial atmosphere of an Andy Frasco & the U.N. show. (It also is my favorite AFUN song.) 

He works hard at having a good time, performing over 250 shows a year. During the pandemic, he embraced the online community, hosting dance parties and launching a great podcast. I was first attracted to his music, the incredible interactions of his band members during shows, and the fun party atmosphere of the concerts. But as I started to follow him on social media, his positivity really captured my attention. He regularly posts short videos from the road, delivering encouraging messages to just go out there and embrace the day, avoid negativity, and be a good person. He usually seems to have just woken up, and may be a little hungover, but he musters up the energy to say “Not today Devil!” or some other more profane missive.

I’ve chatted with him a few times at his shows – he is very approachable. A man of the people, for the people. I’ve hugged him 3 times (so far). I always thank him for his music and his message, for lifting people up, and creating fun. We need more Andy Frascos. Please go see him when he comes to a city near you or join me in Atlanta in November! 

Workshop: Dive Right In, The Music’s Fine 

A decent number of Boo’s N.E.W.S. subscribers belong to the same community pool, a long-standing oasis in a quiet neighborhood, with a creek nearby. There is a good chance you might encounter deer, owls, hawks and golf carts in their natural habitat. This past Saturday we held our annual GainsboroughPoolooza all-day music festival, with a Shrimp Boil!  

The day was long, and fun. Other than a two-hour rain and lightning storm, and an unfortunate mishap in the shrimp boil cooking that led to some wound bandaging, it was a huge success! The music kicked off with D²WēB, pronounced “dweeb”, a new band of old friends recently reconnected 20+ years after meeting at Atlanta Institute of Music in the early 2000s. I was chatting with one of my friends early on and they commented on how much they liked their first set. Funny part was – they hadn’t started yet – they were just warming up.  I wasn’t familiar with them before Saturday, but am now a big fan. Here’s what I learned about D²WēB: With a wide range of musical heroes and influences ranging from Al Green to Zappa, The Grateful Dead to Danny Barnes, Reverend Horton Heat to Phish, D²WēB plays originals and select covers spanning styles, genres and musical eras with a sense of adventure and willingness to explore what is possible in the moment. The band consists of Sean & Eric Denton (D²), brothers and lifelong guitar slingers that led an Atlanta based jam band in the 1990s called Cacklefruit, Ben Wood (W) on bass (and anything else he can find to enhance a jam), and Jeff Beach (B) on drums and percussion from such bands as Good Night City, Ed Roland & the Sweet Tea Project and The Beggars Guild. If you’d like to book them for your next party, first you have to invite me, and then email DWB.D2WB@gmail.com 

Next up was my good friend Matt Coppedge, who typically plays with his buddy Stewart in Cousin Eddie, but was solo, and performed as Todd & Margo, a reference only purveyors of the finest films will catch. Matt is a great guy – funny, smart and very talented. And if you look at the picture above-upper right, he has legs that go on for miles. It was fun watching the other musicians watch Matt play – they were definitely impressed. It was also great seeing his wife and kids sitting in the front row. They are his biggest fans, and he their’s. Sadly, the thunderstorms started to roll in right when Matt started, and his set got cut by about 30 minutes. The rain did not stop Matt from consuming all the Kiwi-Razz White Claws that he demanded in his contract rider.

Once the weather passed, the Trey Boyer Band took the stage. Trey and I go way back as well, and he is super nice and very supportive of other musicians, including my daughter Samantha. I have enjoyed his performances at local bars and festivals, and after seeing him perform at a few of our kids’ school events, joked that he needs a playlist of the least family-friendly songs available. Uncomfortable stuff like My Name is Luka. He has ignored my fiendish plot, opting for more crowd-pleasing covers of Tom Petty, Elvis Costello, Old Crow Medicine Show and Johnny Cash tunes. If you want more of Trey, his album On My Way is available through Apple Music, under Trey Boyer Band. If you would like to book Trey for an event, he can be reached at treyboyer@comcast.net.  

Trey was joined on stage by drummer Mike Rizzi and bass player Brian Bisky. Mike & Brian play in numerous projects together, including John Driskell Hopkins of the Zac Brown Band, the Barbaric Gentleman, and Ed Roland & the Sweet Tea Project. Rizzi is a national touring singing drummer that has played with Tony Lewis of The Outfield, Five Eight, Sonia Leigh, Michelle Malone and is currently drumming/touring with The Romantics. Check out his album “Appreciate What Remains” at www.rizzimusic.com. 

Selected Content: What a Wonderful World 

The first three articles this week tell tales of live music, in my hometown, with friends, laughter and beauty, where the biggest adversity you might face is surge pricing for your Lyft ride. Right now, in another part of our country, people just like us are experiencing unimaginable tragedy.  

The recent devastating wildfires in Hawaii are heartbreaking. It is hard for me to wrap my head around so much death and destruction in a place so many consider paradise. I’ve been to Maui twice, once when I was 15, and again for our honeymoon. It is a beautiful place, with beautiful people and it pains me to read about what is happening there. If you want to help out, please consider donating through this Pledge site.  

The spirit of the Hawaiian people comes through in their rich musical tradition. While several mainstream musicians have roots in Hawaii, including Bruno Mars, Jack Johnson and Bette Midler, some of my favorite performers are less famous on the mainland, but no less deserving of our attention. In each of the sections below, there are links to songs, known in Hawaiian as mele. I hope you will listen.  

On our first trip to Maui, our family saw Keola Beamer, a famous slack-key guitar player and singer. While the steel guitar and ukulele may be more commonly associated with Hawaiian music, the slack-key guitar really is unique to the Hawaiian sound. Slack-key requires retuning the guitar strings from standard (EADGBE), and this usually involves lowering or "slacking" several strings. The result will most often be an open major chord. The style originated with 19^th century Mexican cowboys, who taught the Hawaiians this general style of tuning and playing then left them to adapt and interpret in their own way.  

When we honeymooned in Hawaii, we saw Hui Aloha, who also feature the slack-key sound. A few years later, they toured the mainland, and Lisa and I saw them at the Variety Playhouse. Their CD was on heavy rotation in our home for a good while. Great music for casual gatherings. Check out their song Steal Away. I love this song...  

Perhaps the most notable Hawaiian singer was Israel Kaʻanoʻi Kamakawiwoʻole, or “Bruddah Iz” who famously performed a medley of Over the Rainbow & What a Wonderful World. In this article, recording studio manager Milan Bertosa relates the story of when he got a call at 3:00am that Iz wanted to come in and record a song. Bertosa wisely agreed, and when “the largest human being I had seen in my life” walked in, he scrambled to set the studio up for the recording session. Big Iz recorded it in one take and it is a classic. In 2020, it was selected for preservation in the United States National Recording Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant." The official YouTube video has 1.3 billion views.

More recently, Thunderstorm Artis, from the North Shore of Oahu, performed on The Voice. His blind audition of the Beatles’ Blackbird is my favorite Voice performance ever, my favorite cover of Blackbird ever, and deservedly earned a four-chair turn. I still get chills listening to it.  

If you have a favorite Hawaiian artist or song, please share in the comments so others can discover them. And again – please consider helping with their recovery.  

Mahalo!