A Classic Night at The Mint - The Tom Freund (Chris Joyner and Lacey Cowden) CD Release Show

Whoa. Last night was one for the books at The Mint in Los Angeles. It's fun when you're friends with everyone on the bill, and last night's acts are some of my dearest. The occasion was the (east side) cd release of Tom Freund's The Stronghold Sessions double live album, and also the (east side) debut of Sister Lacey Cowden. PLUS Chris Joyner. We were gonna tie. one. ON.

After some catch up time with a slew of mutual friends, Lacey kicked off the show, saying "This will be on my ep coming out in January, so hold on to your nipples!" She bewitched the room with one of her tunes that will stick in your head for days - like it's given me insomnia before - "Shotgun Lovin'". Cowden grew up in New Orleans and Hawai'i with some Santa Cruz in there too, so she's a wholly original mix of southern fire and mellow artistry (she's a beautiful visual artist too).  When she dedicated the next one to her "Sugar nipples, Brian" (ha!) you could sense the room quieting down to catch every note of "Walking Song". By the time she laid "Honey" on us, the room was hers.

"Sweet Lord Jesus! Let's go walking through Hell right now! Let's do this shit!" was Lacey's reaction to all the applause, which kind of fired the room up to noisy again as folks felt the rowdy - and by now, their whiskey. The Devil doesn't want me 'cause he knows I'd give him Hell. Badass. She ended with her gorgeously touching, "Southern Boy", but not really, because the whole room shouted "One more!" No one louder than me. "Well, I'd do anything for CJ (Mahalo!), this one's for Matt Ellis, it's his favorite." (Ellis is producing Cowden's debut ep. I've heard snippets. It's fantastic.)

Godspeed me out of this town ... feet don't fail me now ... I love Lacey's lyrics equally as much as her voice and playing. She is a treasure, and the by now larger and louder crowd let her know it. It was a mad impressive first real show, and in the words of Tom Freund, "She crushed it." High praise.

Chris Joyner (the original CJ)  played a stellar set that was a complete blast to watch, because he's always so good, but because the antics of guitarist Tim Young playing along were so animated you had to just stare. It was fun to watch Joyner watching Young with a big, rad smile - both of them getting it. Joyner said they were all new songs, so I don't know any of the names of them - but now I have his cd so I will soon! My friend, Liz Singer summed up his jams thusly: "It's rhythmic enlightenment with sexually charged lyrics." Bam.

By now everyone was extra fired up, and when Tom Freund took the stage (with the awesome Michael Jerome Moore on drums, Gabe Noel on bass, and Joyner back on keys - Tom was on literally everything else ... guitar, mandolin, stand up bass, a shoe - just kidding), the party was ON. (So you'll have to forgive my less than thorough set list). It was a complete jam of musicians' musicians, playing at the top of their game and completely grooving off of each other. After blazing through "Not In The Business Of Knowing" and "Wounded Surfer Boy" (a total Venice jam - where Tom also lives - with lines like He's the Mayor of the neighborhood, he rides around on a skateboard ... Freund had to stop to say, "I have such a good band that they make me better. Everyone should have this band, but they can't." SO good.

"Ghost In This Town" was total excellence and I wrote next to it in my book, "Everyone is going crazy!" But I knew nothing about crazy yet. Right as I was watching and saying to a friend, "You know who I love to watch play - Gabe Noel," a guy that you could tell was INTO it said about Noel, "That is some deep motherfucking shit right there." He told me I needed to move to hear the bass better. I did, and he was right. DEEP.

Ladies Heather Donovan and Suzan Postel backed up Freund singing the lovely and sad, "Why, Wyoming?" and I was reminded of a friend saying about Freund, "Most musicians in this town aren't qualified to carry his instrument cases." Seriously. "Digs" backed that up even more.

Tom is doing a Pledge campaign to help fund his next album (in progress and sounds CLASSIC) and said, "If I don't mention this, CJ will kill me," (I've been helping him with it, and it would just be a maiming, not a kill) and gave this little  - and true - speech:

"Angel Eyes" says You make it possible to do the things I do ... so please go here and chip in on the future fun. Thank you!

http://www.pledgemusic.com/projects/tomfreund

*(Because you better believe THAT cd release party is going to go even crrrrrazier.)

The beautiful face and voice of C.C. White appeared and she and Freund WAILED on "Come Together" and Joni Mitchell's "A Case Of You".  Bliss. Which only grew when Ben Harper (two days after his astounding Disney Hall show) came on up to join his old friend for "Collapsible Plans" (also the name of the album Harper produced for Freund). "This is the kind of shit that happens at The Mint!", said Freund truly. After playing together for so long, these guys have it DOWN. Watching and hearing them harmonize together, my heart felt full. We'll kiss in the puddle of the sky ... Sugar don't get no sweeter than this .... Nope.

The roof of the poor Mint blew off when the whole gang (+ and Steve Postel and Marvin Etzioni) threw it down for The Who's "Let My Love Open The Door"! Between C.C. elevating every note played, and Ben and Tom singing their lungs out and the band totally dialed in ... just YIKES.

I don't know how they brought the vibe down immediately for the silence that met their stunning "Copper Moon", but they did it like magicians. It was so pretty I want to time travel back to that moment right now ....

OK, I'm back. And so was Freund to play one more, his all-time great "Francie" that features his blistering mandolin solo that builds until his hands are one big blur. Which the night was also becoming by this point.

What a great time. Performers, partiers, and The Mint alike simply killed it. Good job, everybody! WELL worth the trip east of Lincoln. Thank you, MUSIC - for being the reason for it all.

Matt Jennings and Bombino at The Mint. Mint!

Matt Jennings blew through town this last week, opening for Bombino at The Mint, and it was remarkable. Remarkable, I say! I've loved Matt's music and its international flavors for years (He's from Minnesota too. We pretty much all get each other ...), and it's about time you all get to know and love it too.


Let me tell you a cool thing about Matt Jennings. Aside from being a great musician, he is a great friend, and now a collaborator of mine as well. Over the years, I've told him stories of mine, or he's read them, and a while back he started bugging me to write lyrics out of them for songs. I'd never branched out in that direction creatively, so was a little resistant. Then one day I told him a story about one of my dearest friends ever (Darren Sakai, I love you!) who was/is dealing with the dread cancer, and about this healing lake in Hawai'i, where we lived together back in the day. Matt listened, and then simply said, "That should be your first song."


I guess I figured that would be cool, as it wasn't really as much about me doing it, as it was about me doing it for a friend. I wrote it all down, sent it to Matt, and like a week later had a dope song - MAGIC - to send along to my friend, D- Funk. WOW! So we've kept at it, and now we have a whole bunch of special and remarkable songs (I'm switching to "remarkable" for a while - "Amazing" is too over and wrongly used).


Well, the other night was the first time I've ever had a song I wrote (the words to) performed live, and that it was among Matt's other stellar set-list songs, was a true, rare, first-time honor. Matt is one of those virtuoso guys - the ones who you can just suggest something to, and they come back with some genius thing you've never heard and all you can do is smile. Or trip out. This has happened to me time and again with our project (which we're toying with calling The Wholesome Hellraisers!), and it happened to the whole crowd at The Mint the other night.


Bombino has been getting a lot of press as the "Hendrix of the Tuareg People" of late, so the place was sold out, but they maybe didn't know that they were first going to get served with some straight up ROCK, courtesy of Matt Jennings, and his team of Aaron Rosener on drums and Zeke Hall on bass. Not just rock, but rock with worldly flourishes, and stories to tell.


The boys opened up with "Big Blue Whale", a surf-y rock out of a song, and right away I was jolted into knowing that Matt is heavier musically than I remembered. And his guitar will simply transport you, to a plethora of places ... and many of them speak Spanish. "Simplemente En Fuego"! is one of my favorites of Matt's, and also served to define the night. En fuego! "Todavia" and "Todo Tu Corazon" were both gorgeous, as was the beautiful lilt of "I'm Floating" that really makes you feel like you are.


The song I wrote, "Tamarindo Cocodrilo" takes the listener to Costa Rica, and the time I almost got eaten by a crocodile on a surf trip. For real. It was so great to recall sitting at my desk and writing the lyrics and then be out at The Mint and have Matt making the people smile with his extra-talented song story-telling. I was stoked. Stay tuned, as I mentioned, as we have a lot more where this one came from. Fun!



Sometimes it's funny to look at my notes that I scrawl in my book as I'm watching a show. As next to "The Tortoise and The Hare", I wrote "Fresh guitar - fancy! Ripping." "Slow Motion" - "Genre: Metal World Alternative". "God Moves" - I simply underlined "Metal!" 3 times. "Whispering Word - "Dark and heavy". For "Spirit Soldiers" - "Deep as hell". You can glean from these notes that I had a great time, and that Matt Jennings is a force to be reckoned with. He's super talented, a great friend, has challenged me creatively like not many others, and after these shows out West opening for Ozomatli and Bombino, you're going to be hearing a whole lot more from him. You are lucky.


Bombino and his dressed for the desert band mates were RAD. The packed crowd was super reverent and quiet as they listened to his otherworldly, almost religious feeling music. I wouldn't go so far as the Hendrix comparison, and was rather more struck by Bombino's distinctly different singing style.


I didn't get to hear the whole set, but Bombino and Company made quite an impression on everyone there. Those guys don't speak a lick of English, I don't think, so had a translator relay that they "were very happy to be playing here". As we watched and enjoyed the musical experiences of a far-off land via Bombino, we were all likewise very happy to have them playing here.

A special night of special music with special people that I won't soon forget.




*Photos by Paul Gronner from the Matt Jennings Collection, and Me.