Interview with Bill Roberts of “Fab” (Beatles tribute band) – – Part II

Editor’s Note: “Underground Nashville” covers artists, authors, musicians, poets, political figures, and other compelling people and happenings not typically covered by the mainstream Nashville media. It also presents reflections and commentary from an underground/indie perspective. As I told ‘The Tennessean’ in 2008, “since moving to Nashville twenty-five years ago, I have met people whose lives do not remotely reflect the caricature of what many outside our city presume to be a ‘Nashvillian’ or the Nashville experience.” “Underground Nashville” thus explores the soul of the city, not its surface—offering “thoughts from the shadows of a great American city.”

Dave Carew

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To make sure homeless human beings receive the food, love, and friendship they need, please donate to the Nashville Rescue Mission by calling (615) 255-2475 or by visiting NashvilleRescueMission.org.  Thank you.

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Interview with Bill Roberts of “Fab” (Beatles tribute band) – – Part II

By Dave Carew

Fab—one of the world’s finest Beatles tribute bands—performs at 3^rd & Lindsley in Nashville this Saturday night at 7 p.m.  Before the gig, Fab keyboardist Bill Roberts graciously granted a two-part interview to Underground Nashville.  Here’s how Part II went (please see below for Part I):

UNDERGROUND NASHVILLE:  Having played so many more-or-less monthly gigs over the years, how do you keep your shows fresh for the band members and your audience?

BILL ROBERTS:  Firstly, all the members of the band are friends as well as Beatle fans. We have fun at rehearsals—also, it’s interesting for us to break down and analyze the songs in order to learn them. Even though we’ve all heard the songs hundreds of times, we always discover new chord voicings or instrumentation or mistakes they left in—there’s a lot more going on in these songs than meets the ear. The Beatles recorded 214 songs—we’ve learned about 118 at last count, so we’ll keep trying to learn new songs that we can hopefully play well. On stage, we just try to have fun. When everybody in the band is cooking and all the ingredients are synching up and the crowd is reacting—hey—it doesn’t get much better in this terrestrial dimension, in the words of Charlie Sheen. We’re honored that so many people leave their warm house, get in their car, drive to the club, and pay money to see us perform. So we try to give them a faithful reproduction of the songs in the playful spirit of the Beatles—hopefully a show that spans their musical and emotional range. We always vary the set list from show to show. We’ve used different approaches—an all-request night, a chronological night, celebrating different holidays, acoustics sets, and so on. I hope we never get complacent or take the audience for granted.

UNDERGROUND NASHVILLE:  One final question. I can’t resist asking this. How the heck did you EVER learn to play the solo in “In My Life” so beautifully?  Even George Martin couldn’t do that in “real time.”

BILL ROBERTS:  My piano instructors were all Bach freaks! The solo is essentially a Bach two-part Invention. I still have nightmares—I mean dreams—of them pounding Bach into me. I guess I should thank them.

Don’t miss Fab at 3^rd & Lindsley in Nashville this Saturday. Show time: 7 p.m.

David M. (Dave) Carew is editor of “Underground Nashville” and the author of the novels “Everything Means Nothing to Me: A Novel of Underground Nashville” and “Voice from the Gutter.” He also is a freelance book editor, publicist, and copywriter.

Interview with Bill Roberts of “Fab” (Beatles tribute band) – – Part I

By Dave Carew

Fab is—hands down—one of the finest Beatles tribute bands in the world. Comprised of premier, Nashville-based musicians and singers, this collection of serious-minded-yet-fun-hearted guys presents a more-or-less-monthly performance of great Beatles tunes at 3^rd & Lindsley that no Beatles fan—make that no music fan—should miss. As the non-Liverpool Lads prepare for their show this Saturday night (March 19) at 3^rd & Lindsley, Fab keyboardist Bill Roberts granted Underground Nashville the following exclusive, two-part interview. (Part II will be presented later this week.)

UNDERGROUND NASHVILLE:  You guys have played at clubs like the old Boardwalk Cafe and 3rd & Lindsley for more than a decade. When did you originally form Fab and what was the original idea behind it?

BILL ROBERTS: I was at a Christmas party in December of 1998 when Woody Bomar approached me and said, “Hey! Let’s form a band to play the Beatles!” That was it! Woody is currently president of Green Hills Music after being VP & General Manager at SONY/ATV Publishing for years. The entire idea was to take a break from the music business and have fun. We had zero expectations—just wanted to play the songs faithfully and in the spirit of the Beatles.

UNDERGROUND NASHVILLE:  I recently read that The Beatles are among the Top 5 favorite bands of EVERY demographic, from 20-somethings to 60-somethings.  As a musician, what do you think accounts for this unprecedented popularity, even among people who have no memory of The Beatles as a band?

BILL ROBERTS:  Every music producer in the world would like the recipe, wouldn’t they? It seems that strong or beautiful or unusual melodies, and interesting harmonies and lyrics, resonate with the human species somehow—The Beatles just did it better. Their melodies and harmonies grab the ear, yet are original and unique—very creative. Their song structures are varied, yet they all work. Their musical and lyrical range was incredible—from gentle songs like “I Will” and “Julia” to the raucous “Helter Skelter” and everything in between. There’s something for everyone. Most of the lyrics are timeless and range from adolescent innocence in “I Want to Hold Your Hand” to fairly sophisticated social commentary like “She’s Leaving Home” or “Revolution.” Perhaps, as Paul said, it’s because most of their songs were about “love, peace, and understanding”—their optimism is appealing. Stylistically, they successfully grew and changed with nearly every album release. They weren’t afraid to be corny or sentimental—right alongside with their edgier stuff. Again, [they offer] something for everyone. Certainly the individual Beatles were/are charismatic in their own way. Many of their chord progressions move in unexpected directions—even “wrong” if you will—yet again, they work perfectly. I’m still blown away by the intro to “If I Fell.” In short—I don’t really know why!

Don’t miss Fab at 3^rd & Lindsley in Nashville this Saturday. Show time: 7 p.m.

David M. (Dave) Carew is editor of “Underground Nashville” and the author of the novels “Everything Means Nothing to Me: A Novel of Underground Nashville” and “Voice from the Gutter.” He also is a freelance book editor, publicist, and copywriter.

The Poetry of Chance Chambers – – Part II

Editor’s Note: “Underground Nashville” covers artists, authors, musicians, poets, political figures, and other compelling people and happenings not typically covered by the mainstream Nashville media. It also presents reflections and commentary from an underground/indie perspective. As I told ‘The Tennessean’ in 2008, “since moving to Nashville twenty-five years ago, I have met people whose lives do not remotely reflect the caricature of what many outside our city presume to be a ‘Nashvillian’ or the Nashville experience.” “Underground Nashville” thus explores the soul of the city, not its surface—offering “thoughts from the shadows of a great American city.”

Dave Carew

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To make sure homeless human beings receive the food, love, and friendship they need, please donate to the Nashville Rescue Mission by calling (615) 255-2475 or by visiting NashvilleRescueMission.org.  Thank you.

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The Poetry of Chance Chambers – – Part II

Chance Chambers is one of the finest poets and short-story writers working in the South today. (For more about Chance, please see below.)

Underground Nashville is honored to present the following new poem by Chance Chambers, which follows the one posted earlier this week:

Happy Buddha

By Chance Chambers

I had crazy summer hair,

curled from sweat,

when Em took my picture

and said I looked like Robin Williams.

 

It was your birthday, too, and I

was everybody’s Happy Buddha,

nobody’s MacArthur,

as the last cinder fell on Riverfront

to the star spangled music of a thousand

cars going nowhere.

 

A parking garage hour is enough

to remember the night you hated

your new haircut, short and tapered

in the back, and I drank

so much my eyes crossed.

 

Sake and vodka, that’s a lot of alcohol

for one drink, but not enough to forget

a field marshal and bass drums marching

up the theatre aisle. I could have

touched them.

 

I could have touched your hand

as we walked along darkened shops,

stopping to look at sleeping cats

and someone else’s wedding dress.

 

I could have told you, but only

stood there cross-eyed while you

and your haircut were beautiful

in the Village windows.

 

For more information about Chance Chambers, please visit ChanceChambers.com.

David M. (Dave) Carew is editor of “Underground Nashville” and the author of the novels “Everything Means Nothing to Me: A Novel of Underground Nashville” and “Voice from the Gutter.” He also is a freelance book editor, publicist, and copywriter.

Record Review: Sara Beck’s “Technicolor”

by Dave Carew

Let me skip the preliminaries: This record is an absolute gem. In a human landscape in which people move through shades of light and shadow—seasons of the soul—Technicolor celebrates that season in which the soul is blessed by affirmation, sensuality, cool sexuality . . . the profound feeling that one is alive and not merely sleepwalking. And it explores that terrain with music that will have you dancing in your kitchen. “Ode to Joy” never did that for you.

Listening to stand-out tracks such as “Waterfall Sun” and “Technicolor” is to experience an artist so gifted and assured of her craft that she is able to paint music that sounds like those rare, magical times when the very consciousness of being alive feels like your second glass of wine.

“Technicolor” (the song) is especially pertinent as I write this, because it was inspired by Sara’s visit to Washington during the inauguration of President Obama—and the auguries of positive change she felt amid Obama’s people-of-all-colors coalition. Although it’s easy to dismiss songs of this nature (think John Lennon’s “Imagine” or John Mayer’s “Waitin’ on the World to Change”) as utopian and simplistic, the world and its better angels sometimes step up to prove otherwise. When Sara Beck sings “we’re the generation that’s going to change the world,” who, watching peace slowly come to Iraq . . . and freedom slowly flower across the Middle East . . . would dare to argue with her?

Sara Beck’s official CD Release Show for ‘Technicolor’ will be on Thursday, April 7 at The Basement in Nashville.

For more information about Sara Beck and to hear selections from her new record, visit SaraBeck.net.

David M. (Dave) Carew is editor of “Underground Nashville” and the author of the novels “Everything Means Nothing to Me: A Novel of Underground Nashville” and “Voice from the Gutter.” He also is a freelance book editor, publicist, and copywriter.

Sara Beck releases “Technicolor” CD

Editor’s Note: “Underground Nashville” covers artists, authors, musicians, poets, political figures, and other compelling people and happenings not typically covered by the mainstream Nashville media. It also presents reflections and commentary from an underground/indie perspective. As I told ‘The Tennessean’ in 2008, “since moving to Nashville twenty-five years ago, I have met people whose lives do not remotely reflect the caricature of what many outside our city presume to be a ‘Nashvillian’ or the Nashville experience.” “Underground Nashville” thus explores the soul of the city, not its surface—offering “thoughts from the shadows of a great American city.”

Dave Carew

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To make sure homeless human beings receive the food, love, and friendship they need, please donate to the Nashville Rescue Mission by calling (615) 255-2475 or by visiting NashvilleRescueMission.org.  Thank you.
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Sara Beck releases “Technicolor” CD

by Dave Carew

If you ask me to cast my ballot for “Most Talented While Still Under-Appreciated Singer-Songwriter in Nashville,” Sara Beck gets my vote hands down. Although she spent much of 2010 touring Europe and opening for (the) Kevin Costner and his band Modern West—just months after turning in what, to me, was the best club show of 2009 (her album release party featuring Gabe Dixon and Jeremy Lister at 12^th & Porter)—Sara still doesn’t seem to generate the breathless ink others get routinely . . . and which her talent warrants infinitely more.

Here’s hoping that will change with the release of her new record, Technicolor.

Asked by Underground Nashville what inspired the album, Sara told me, “I made this album after getting really into new music by Corinne Bailey Rae, Feist, and John Legend, and revisiting records I have loved by Sade and Stevie Wonder. I didn’t want to shy away from weighty material, but I wanted the music itself to feel sexy and bold.”

To give her fans a taste of the new record, Sara has posted short videos on YouTube, introducing a few of the songs. To check these out, go to YouTube and search for “Sara Beck+The Game” (particularly recommended), “Sara Beck+Technicolor,” and/or “Sara Beck+Portugal.”

Underground Nashville will post a complete review of Technicolor next week.

Sara Beck will be performing on Saturday, March 5 at 9 p.m. with Guilty Pleasures at Mercy Lounge and on Thursday, March 17 with Guilty Pleasures at the Cannery Ball Room in Nashville.

Sara’s official in-town “Technicolor” CD Release Show will be on Thursday, April  7 at The Basement.

For more information about Sara Beck and to hear selections from her new record, visit SaraBeck.net.

David M. (Dave) Carew is editor of “Underground Nashville” and the author of the novels “Everything Means Nothing to Me: A Novel of Underground Nashville” and “Voice from the Gutter.” He also is a freelance book editor, publicist, and copywriter.

Record Review: “An Introduction to Elliott Smith”

by Dave Carew

“Why would you want any other, when you’re a world within a world?”

– – Elliott Smith

I love Elliott Smith’s music so much that the thought of a single album sufficing as an “Introduction” to his work was initially a turn-off. I thought to myself, “How can you possibly create a sufficient ‘introduction’ to an artist who was this important, this indelible, who produced all those masterpieces?” But the word “indelible” is, after all, about remembrance, so I found myself, in the next moment, moving toward gratitude that someone (in this case, the record label Kill Rock Stars) was doing something to keep Elliott’s beautiful, haunting music alive.

In a piece published three years ago by the Nashville rock magazine Shake!, I tried to encapsulate why, to me, Elliott Smith is such an important artist. I wrote:

“[A] key aspect of Elliott Smith’s [art] is his stunning willingness to take off ‘the male mask.’ Time after time, listening to Smith’s songs, one is struck by his extraordinary bravery in openly exploring male grief, loneliness, vulnerability, frustration, and anger. In doing so, he is the antithesis of everything we associate with the slick, macho rock star.

“Elliott Smith once said his art was an attempt to convey ‘what it’s like to be a person.’ It was his special gift for voicing otherwise unvoiced feelings—particularly those resting in lonely, often alienated men—that helped give his [music] such distinct, surpassing power.”

As Anthony Davis of Expunged Records writes in the liner notes of the tribute album To Elliott, from Portland, “To his fans, Elliott was someone who told your sad story and made you feel like you were not alone. He took your desperation, your toils and torments, and he made them beautiful, and in doing so he made you beautiful.”

Elliott Smith committed suicide on October 21, 2003 at the age of 34, but not before offering the world the 14 magnificent songs on this album. If you care about what the singer/songwriter’s art can be—in its ability to paint impressions of a beautiful and painful world and make those impressions the soul’s elegy—come here. Discover a world within a world.

David M. (Dave) Carew is editor of “Underground Nashville” and the author of the novels “Everything Means Nothing to Me: A Novel of Underground Nashville” and “Voice from the Gutter.” He also is a freelance book editor, publicist, and copywriter.

 

 

Record Review: Laura Marling’s single “Blues Run the Game” – – Third Man Records

Editor’s Note: “Underground Nashville” covers artists, authors, musicians, poets, political figures, and other compelling people and happenings not typically covered by the mainstream Nashville media. It also presents reflections and commentary from an underground/indie perspective. As I told ‘The Tennessean’ in 2008, “since moving to Nashville twenty-five years ago, I have met people whose lives do not remotely reflect the caricature of what many outside our city presume to be a ‘Nashvillian’ or the Nashville experience.” “Underground Nashville” thus explores the soul of the city, not its surface—offering “thoughts from the shadows of a great American city.”

Dave Carew

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To make sure homeless human beings receive the food, love, and friendship they need, please donate to the Nashville Rescue Mission by calling (615) 255-2475 or by visiting NashvilleRescueMission.org.  Thank you.

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Record Review:  Laura Marling’s single “Blues Run the Game” – – Third Man Records

by Dave Carew

So the Nashville skyline is dark, heavy, overcast, and I’m walking into Jack White’s Third Man Records for the first time. It is a Tuesday afternoon—nothing going on, the afternoon endless, sleepy-dreamy—and then I’m standing in the forefront—about twenty feet by twenty feet—and I see on the rack the first 45 I’ve seen in a store since . . . well, another lifetime.  It is Laura Marling’s new single, and the A side is “Blues Run the Game,” a cover of a Jackson C. Frank tune, the B side Neil Young’s “The Needle and the Damage Done.”  I prove my unhip cred by thinking “I’ve never heard of Laura Marling OR Jackson C. Frank,” but I plunk down $6 anyway, thinking, “Hell, if Jack White thinks she’s cool—and wants to sign her, produce her, and carry her 45 in his store—I’m in.”  Or at least I’ll give it a spin. Which is kind of the idea behind Third Man Records.

So I get “Blues Run the Game” home and I play it on a beat-up turntable a friend has stored in my house for 300 years and . . . and . . . gold, man.  Gold.  I get INSTANTLY why Jack White is interested in this artist, why Laura Marling has recorded this obscure (to most Americans) song, the beauty and mysticism they must have felt as they brought this song back from the mists and started working on it. Written by a man (Jackson C. Frank) whose bouts with depression, mental illness, and homelessness give the song a particularly poignant authenticity, “Blues Run the Game” is rendered perfectly by Marling, in a voice seemingly no stranger to suffering or despair—or hope. If suffering and human yearning against despair can be tuneful—melodious—“Blues Run the Game” captures that poetic landscape in a way that will touch you profoundly.

“Blues Run the Game” sung by 21-year-old English folk singer Laura Marling, is available as a single (7” vinyl, 45 rpm) at Third Man Records in Nashville or by visiting: store.thirdmanrecords.com/index.aspx?page=2

David M. (Dave) Carew is editor of “Underground Nashville” and the author of the novels “Everything Means Nothing to Me: A Novel of Underground Nashville” and “Voice from the Gutter.” He also is a freelance book editor, publicist, and copywriter.

 

Random thoughts from the underground

Editor’s Note: “Underground Nashville” covers artists, authors, musicians, poets, political figures, and other compelling people and happenings not typically covered by the mainstream Nashville media. It also presents reflections and commentary from an underground/indie perspective. As I told ‘The Tennessean’ in 2008, “since moving to Nashville twenty-five years ago, I have met people whose lives do not remotely reflect the caricature of what many outside our city presume to be a ‘Nashvillian’ or the Nashville experience.” “Underground Nashville” thus explores the soul of the city, not its surface—offering “thoughts from the shadows of a great American city.”

Dave Carew

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Middle Tennessee was devastated in May by flooding from which it will take many more months to recover. Please join the recovery effort by contacting Hands on Nashville at Hon.org or by calling (in Nashville) 211. Otherwise, please call 800-318-9355. You can also support The Salvation Army’s relief efforts by going to Salarmy-Nashville.org or calling 800-725-2769.  Thank you.

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Random thoughts from the underground

by Dave Carew

• Ku-DOS to FYE for actually knowing in which category to place albums by The Flying Burrito Brothers.  The Burritos were a hippie country band—not a rock band—although you’d never know it from any other record store on planet Earth;

• Every famous venue in Nashville (e.g. The Bluebird Café) is smaller than you think it’s going to be.  Add Jack White’s Third Man Records store to the list . . . although small certainly doesn’t mean “not cool,” in this case;

• Speaking of which . . . If you haven’t bought a 45 in about 45 years (like me), a decent place to start is with Laura Marling’s “Blues Run the Game,” backed by (Neil Young’s) “The Needle and the Damage Done,” available in the storefront at Third Man Records;

• The CBFB (cheeseburger on French bread) at Rotier’s soon will be declared the eighth Wonder of the World (asserted the mostly-vegetarian);

• The next time you go slumming at Waffle House and the waitress tells you they serve breakfast any time, say, “Great. I’ll take scrambled eggs during the French Revolution.” Then send his commission to Steven Wright.

David M. (Dave) Carew is editor of “Underground Nashville” and the author of the novels “Everything Means Nothing to Me: A Novel of Underground Nashville” and “Voice from the Gutter.” He also is a freelance book editor, publicist, and copywriter.

Album Review – – Jill Sissel’s “Haunted Highway”

By Vince Gaetano

I think it was Groucho Marx who said, “Good will always find an audience.” Or maybe it was something I once heard in a dream. Either way, I believe in the sentiment wholeheartedly; anything of considerable quality has a way of drawing a crowd — it’s unavoidable. And I have little doubt that Jill Sissel’s crowd is drawing closer every day, and in a big way.

Her voice is soft and alluring, her guitar playing is solid, and her lyrics are evocative with a slightly playful undertone. To make that long story a bit shorter, Jill Sissel’s got it. The proverbial “it.” Not just talent—although she certainly has enough of that to go around—but a drive and earnestness that so many talented people seem to lack in today’s music industry. Just looking at the liner notes is enough to make me feel inadequate. Jill Sissel is the lead vocalist; she’s the guitarist (acoustic and electric); she plays the keyboard, the bass, the mandolin; she either wrote or co-wrote every song on the album. Is there anything she can’t do?

And there are no tricks with this album. What you hear is what was played, what was sung. In a time of auto-tuned number-one hit singles and the Lady Gaga’s of the world using image as a stand-in for talent, it’s nice to hear something as raw and unprocessed as this. It’s refreshing, I think, to know that there are still musicians out there who don’t use twenty years of recording technology as a crutch.

But like the old saying goes — and this one I’m almost positive I didn’t make up — “A chain is only as strong as its weakest link.” Well, in this case, her band is a strong link, indeed, and its strength is undeniable. It would seem that Jill Sissel insists on only working with musicians as obviously talented as she. And it shows.

Haunted Highway may not be the best thing since sliced bread, but so what?  It’s good. Arguably, it’s very good. And shouldn’t that be enough? I think so, and I hope you do, too.

Jill Sissel will be performing live at the 315 Bar and Grille in Nashville, TN on February 3; LaHacienda in Franklin, TN on February 19; and Richard’s Louisiana Café in Whites Creek, TN on April 2. Visit http://www.jillsissel.com for details.

Vince Gaetano is an aspiring screenwriter and director who has written film and album reviews for ‘Shake! Magazine’ and ‘Underground Nashville.’ He graduated with honors from SUNY Oneonta with a major in video production, and currently resides in Nashville, Tennessee.

David M. (Dave) Carew is editor of “Underground Nashville” and the author of the novels “Everything Means Nothing to Me: A Novel of Underground Nashville” and “Voice from the Gutter.” He also is a freelance book editor, publicist, and copywriter.

Book Review – – BLINDNESS by Jose Saramago

by Roy E. Perry

Although, considered as a whole, Jose Saramago’s Blindness is an intriguing and fascinating read, its ending is disappointing. Several questions are left hanging, unanswered, and several problems with the plot are left unresolved.

I’m not sure how the author could have made the conclusion of his work more satisfying, but it simply ends without providing a sufficient explanation of what caused the epidemic of universal blindness (“universal,” that is, except for one character who, inexplicably, avoids the plague).

Blindness propounds the same thesis as does William Golding’s Lord of the Flies: Scratch away the thin veneer of civilization that we so proudly wear, and underneath you will find a raging savage.

When men, women, and children are exposed to extreme limits of life and death, survival often goes to “the fittest,” that is, to those who descend to the level of brute force, corruption, exploitation, and animality; conventional standards of human decency and morality collapse.

I suspect that Mr. Saramago’s work is a parable of atrocities perpetrated in World War II. As I read this book, I kept thinking of the horrors of the Holocaust–Auschwitz, Buchenwald, Treblinka, and other concentration/death camps, in which millions of innocent people were tortured and murdered.

An ancient Hebrew prophet spoke of “foolish and senseless people, who have eyes but do not see, who have ears but do not hear” (Jeremiah 5:21). In other words, “none are so blind as those who will not see”—who deliberately close their eyes to criminal deeds.

I “see” (a pun, if you insist) Blindness as a cautionary tale for present-day readers, lest we forget the horrific lessons of the past. For those who forget the past are doomed to repeat it.

A dark and depressing work, Blindness contains scenes of brutality, explicit sex, and foul language; it is not recommended as suitable fare for the Puritan, the pious, and the prudent. Its deep symbolism, however, will be a delight to those who appreciate the creative imagination. Blindness is an excellent exhibit of high-quality literary art.

Roy E. Perry of Nolensville, Tennessee was a book reviewer for the ‘Nashville Banner’ and ‘The Tennessean’ for more than thirty years. He is an advertising copywriter at a Nashville publishing house.

David M. (Dave) Carew is editor of “Underground Nashville” and the author of the novels “Everything Means Nothing to Me: A Novel of Underground Nashville” and “Voice from the Gutter.” He also is a freelance book editor, publicist, and copywriter.