Fun time in Natick

Today's family show at the Center for the Arts in Natick was a great time. The band had high energy, the audience was way cool (It's a blast to have so many singing along, so much of the time!), the room sounded good, and it was fun to introduce some new elements into our show. Personal highlights were Jack Johnson's Sharing Song, a tune I learned from a group of kids in Arlington MA, were I got to play triple berimbau. It was our first time performing it. Also the story of the hunter and the bow (one way the musical bow could have started out) and a romping Mama Don't Allow where the audience joined in for a foot stompin', hand clappin' and some good hootin'. Finally, we had the pleasure of performing with Chris Thompson-Lively, of the duo Chris and Meredith Thompson and the group The Strangelings. Chris is a strong singer with a vibrant personality that comes through on stage in a big way. We first met onstage with Billy Jonas a while back, and kept running into each other at festivals we were both playing. I was glad to have the chance to do something together, and look forward to singing more with her in the future.

I'll see about posting a few Mp3s from this show...stay tuned.

Thanks to those who joined us on this wintry day, and to Christine Schell, David Nickerson, Oliver, Jake, Henry and, of course, Shari for making it a fun time for us.

-Guy

New Year's Adventure

It seems to be a a new tradition with us that, on a the way to our New Year's Eve concert, something breaks down. Last year, on the way to First Night Bingamton, my old '94 Buick LeSabre broke down outside Albany. I was forced to rent a vehicle and the only thing they had was some sort of Toyota tank (SUV of some sort), which was fun. (Even with that, Shari and I reached the venue before the rest of the band, which was a source of ribbing for a little while on that run.)

Our New Year's adventure this time took place on the way to First Night Morris, in Morristown. We were traveling in a new conversion van owned by our friend and soundman David, about which I was excited. The thing has a flastscreen TV, DVD, sattelite radio, independent headphone hook-ups and AC for four passengers, Nintendo 64, a queen size bed and bunk beds. With a trailer hitch for David's PA system (we were bringing all our own sound for this one - David has a great set-up that allows him to mix wirelessly. And now he can even mix on his iphone, which is kinda scary) we had loads of room to stretch out and we set out in fine style. I was sure we were moving up in the world. Even the blizzard that was quickly burying the roads couldn't get to us.

And this was absolutely true until the transmission blew somewhere around Stafford Springs, CT.

With David on the phone with a mechanic friend who had worked on the van (just the day before), it seemed clear that the new sound we were hearing, and the red liquid sprayed across the engine, didn't bode well. We managed to limp the van to the shop of the Furnace Brothers Inc, a truck repair station in Stafford. On the way there a car skidded off the road, going down hill, and hit a fence post, saving it from careening over the edge. That was the first of four cars we saw skid off the road right in front of us that trip.

Well, the Furnace Brothers were quite kind. They looked after the van immediately, and gave us the run of the shop while we were waiting on plan B and they were out plowing the backcountry roads. Apparently we weren't the only band they'd saved. In 73 there was a group of English kids that broke down, and they fixed them up. Later on they became quite famous. Never found out their names though. They also rescued the truck that was carrying a new hubble telescope mirror, which was a big deal, because it involved a helicopter landing on the truck as soon as the vehicle went off course.

We had fun drumming on different truck parts in their vast shop...Andy recorded a few of the sounds. Maybe he'll post em?
We were in that shop for several hours.

David's friend, Phil Antoniades, from NIMBIT, pulled a truly heroic move. Leaving his work, he drove to David's home, picked up a cargo van, drove it to Stafford, and drove the broke-down conversion van home, in the blizzard (on the way, his wipers went, but otherwise he made it back in one piece). This was an act of great generousity on his part that we all appreciate, and for which we are quite grateful.
With the trailer in tow, the new van headed out only to be greated by worsening blizzard and traffic conditions. It became painfully clear that we were not going to make the venue in time for our first set.

But dammit, we've never missed a show and we weren't about to start. Fortunately, Shannon and Rich were traveling independently, coming from Philly and NYC respectively. Shannon leads a celtic group called RUNA, which also features her partner, the wonderful guitarist Fionán De Barra. The three of them pulled together an emergency rehearsal and pulled of a terrific impromptu first set. After being in transit for nearly twelve hours (I left home at 7:45 that morning) we rolled in somewhere in the middle of the first set, pulled a lightning quick set-up and had a full concert PA, plus our gear, in place by the second set. I've never seen a sound tech work like David did that night - and I've already seen David himself pull some extraordinary manuvers.

And it went great. We played in the beautiful Morristown United Methodist Church, right on the Morristown Green, at the heart of First Night Morris. It was a full house, and the crowd received us enthusiastically, making us feel quite welcome. With so much adrenaline we were rearing to go, and the forty-five minute set flew. Towards the end, when I relayed to the audience the surprised question that Rich asked me onstage ("is it really time to end?"), several audience members shouted back No! It's not! We didn't want to go either. I can't speak for everone there, but we certainly had a good time. I think the audience did too...
But go we did. Another act was coming on shortly after us and we'd agreed to strike our set fast, so David continued to amaze us with the speed with which he worked. By the time the next act had so much as plugged in a microphone, his entire system (subs, monitors, house speakers, cables, etc) was struck and out of the venue. And we were back on the road, back to Boston.
After a twenty two hour tour we were back home.

Every musician who's been on the road has such days. It's as much a part of it as anything, and we all have to pay our dues. For me, somehow, knock on wood, these hellish gig have tended to wind up being great, in the end and despite all that happened this was a good New Year's eve. If I'm going to break down with any crew, I'd choose this one.

I hope it was a good night for you as well, and I wish us all an inspired, fulfilling new year. May it be a year of positive change and a few steps forward towards saner living.

Cheers
Guy

Falcon Ridge Folk Festival 2008

(photo by Craig Harris)

Last weekend, the band and I performed at Falcon Ridge Folk Festival in Hillsdale NY. It was a terrific time! I'd heard a good deal about this festival from fellow artists and from people who work there, from site crew to the sound techs. But the experience went beyond the expectations.
This is a festival that, to me, seems truly about community. The kindness and family-friendly warmth there is contageous. Funny how social norms can change so easily depending on your environment. I mean, here in the city, many look at you funny if you say hi to them randomly, strike up a conversation, or maybe wear some unusual clothing. At Falcon Ridge that's the way things go!
We were treated so well, by all the volunteers (we were especially grateful to the Donna, the mainstage stage manager, Allison, Josh, Larry and the engineers from Klondike, David, our friend and sound engineer, Jim and his family at the instrument check-in, and to Pete and Kim who drove our gear around ALOT). The audience made it easy to do what we do because they gave us so much in return. And we got to reconnect with old friends. Of course, thanks to Anne Saunders and to Howard Randall for having us in the first place.

We played the International Spotlight set on the mainstage on Friday afternoon, and at night were up on the hill at the Tribes Hill/Acoustic Music Scene songswap hosted by Mike Kornfield and Glen Roethel and featuring Gathering Time (Glen's acoustic harmony trio) and Joe Iadanza - a lovely, intimate songsharing session under the stars, lit by lanterns and candles. On Saturday we played a family set, which turned into a spontaneous foot-stompin' party, and on Sunday were slated for a set at the Dance Tent (about which I was especially excited because we had written alot of new music for the occassion, including a song called the Ladies of Hillsdale) and the Family Tent.

We had a brilliant time. And here are some anecdotes about bloopers that happened that are perhaps worth remembering.
So we're setting up for the dance stage. Now, set up with my group is always an interesting process. We have ALOT of instruments, some of which are fairly finicky, like my berimbaus. So we always arrive early, to give ourselves lots of time. This set up featured an impressive amount of mud, remnants of the early morning thunder storms, and a tight back-stage (I'm a bit claustrophobic). But no problem, we're used to dealing with just about anything, so what's a bit of mud and anyway, we were working with a dream team on sound. Sometime during our set up, Shari, my best friend, road manager and wife, brought me a soy latte from one of the vendors. Piping hot, organic, fair trade, shade grown. Just my style. I was excited about it. But could not drink it right then because my hands were full of musical bows-and-arrows, frame drums and guitars.
Our set began with some calling by Paul Rosenberg, a new-found friend who calls many international community dances. Brilliant! I had some time to relax and drink my coffee! Fantastic. So I take it and lift it to my lips and...
...what I did not know is that somebody must have opened the lid to see if it was their coffee. Only they did not put the lid back on firmly, just left it on top of the cardboard cup. And so the very first thing that happened to me onstage at the dance tent was that I dumped an entire cup of scalding coffee all over myself.
Wow. There's an opener.
That's was definitely a first. The universe must have been sending me some sort of message. I went straight to voice-mail.
The saving grace was that Paul had everyone's attention. I think. We had a great time anyway, even though we didn't get to play some of the new tunes we'd prepared. Time just ran out. But here's a lesson for all of us. Next time you lift the lid on a cup of coffee, please, for the love of all things good, PUT IT BACK!!!

From the dance tent we packed immediately into the family tent for our last festival set. Robbie Schaefer from Eddie from Ohio was onstage when we arrived. He had just gotten the audience to sing along when the rain started coming down in sheets...and then in blankets...and the tent started shaking and I thought to myself 'Robbie, when people tell you to bring the house down, they don't mean it literally.' And then all hell broke loose.
It was a hail-storm microblast, a mini tornado that never touched down. FRFF had been tracking this storm, labeled F5 on NEXRAD radar. It was moderately severe, very compact and moving rapidly. It was past the festival, and the fest administration thought we were OK. Storm track animation showed it was moving away.

Than there was a sudden rotation and it came back with 70 MPH winds, 3 inches of rain and up to golf ball size hail. There was no time for a warning like the ones passed on earlier, it happened so fast. Radio communication was out.

The ground filled with water, fast, and the tent's smaller wooden poles were being wrenched from the ground. The place was full of families with children. The volunteers, including our soundman, David, directed all available adults to hold the tent walls down to prevent the whole thing from lifting off. The volunteers did an excellent job keeping everybody, especially the children, calm. There was some singing. All of our instruments piled into a heap on the stage which was high enough off the ground to remain sorta-dry, and we were all holding down the walls, totally drenched. At one point the tent wall tears from Andy's hand and he is pelted in the face by something...he 'turns to me and says "that was hail! What are they gonna throw at us next?!?"
At the next lull the volunteers instructed everybody to evacuate the tent. Several other tents had been flattened. We hurled ourselves and our equipment into David's van, and David ushered several families with small children in with us, where we all remained until the storm passed, passing blueberries that David's family had brought us and sharing some tales.

(there are several interesting videos showing the storm up on various other blogs and on youtube)

Thankfully, no one was injured in the storm.

This was quite a memorable ending to an otherwise terrific festival. And it tells you alot about how much Falcon Ridge means to people to see how people rallied together both during the storm and afterwards, finding so many ways to show support for a festival that is a highlight of their summer.

If you were at Falcon Ridge, feel free to share your experiences. Where were you when the great festival storm of 08 came round?

Cheers,
Guy

Once upon a time in a backwoods farmhouse...

In the autumn and winter of 2006, the Guy Mendilow Band briefly took over Skyland Farm, a 17th century Berkshire farmhouse situated on 1500 acres of wildlife trust. In a whirlwind operation, the group transformed the old carriage house into a live mic room and the living room into a control room with cables running through the kitchen. Between ice storms that nearly sent them packing, and heated only by Skyland's woodstoves, stoked between takes, the band recorded this album...

Well, friends, the journey that began at Skyland is now about to hit the road. After much hard work, many woodstoves stoked, ice storms braved, and miles on the road, the new album is complete.
While it won't be released for a few months yet (in fact, at this point, there is no official release date yet), you can hear a preview of it here.

We hope you will enjoy it. Drop by and let us know what you think.

Cheers from the GMB team.

A new review of Guy Mendilow: Live

Just got wind of a small new review of our 2006 release, Guy Mendilow: Live. Check it out at www.rambles.net/mendilow_live05.html

Cheers,
Guy

Festivals, A New Interactive Instrument Gallery, and a Few New Live Tracks

One of the reasons I love festivals is their community environment, and this extends to the musicians as well. These events are among the few places that performers can visit and make music with one another, and in that regard I'm excited about teaming up with violinist Jeremy Kittel for our Musikfest debut on August 4th and 5th. Though we've been friends for a few years now (we first met at the Northeast Regional Folk Alliance the year an ice storm knocked out all power for Jeremy's formal showcase. Funny that. For our own formal showcase I lost my voice for the first time ever. Hmmm...) this is the first time we've had the opportunity to make music together. I've little idea about what to expect, except that Jeremy is one of the finest players I know and I'm confident that wherever the music will take us, it'll wind up fun. Another upcoming festival collaboration will be at the Connecticut Folk Festival. Industrial Repercussionist Billy Jonas and I will team up for several interactive workshops on starting your own percussion band, body and mouth percussion, vocal improvisation and more. We'll also sit in on each other's sets. We're both looking forward to a good time. On a different note, check out the beta version of our new, interactive instrument gallery where our instruments are at your command. (Note: it takes a few moments to load correctly and for the instruments to play in synch). Let us know what you think! We've also added a few new live tracks. You can hear them on our Caught On Tape section at www.guymendilow.com Cheers, Guy

TOP TWENTY FINALISTS IN THE UNISONG INTERNATIONAL SONGWRITING CONTEST

We are delighted to announce that Experiment (on Guy Mendilow: Live) has been selected as a top 20 finalist in the 11th annual Unisong International Songwriting Contest.

This year's contest had tens of thousands of submissions from a multitude of countries representing every continent, excluding Antarctica. We are honoured to be included in the top fifteen percent.

You can hear the LIVE version here
or check out a recording of it from the band's recent concert at the Tribeca Performing Arts Center here.

- Cheers from the Guy Mendilow Band team