americana gazette february/ march 2009 issue

MERICANA GAZETTEAFebruary • March 2009

Feature Story:Dancing With IdiotsWarren Hodges

Aaron Williams

Randy Greene

Cadillac Joe

John Jennings

Good n Loud

The above picture was taken at Flannery’s in NewGlarus where the Americana Gazette staff enjoyed a de-licious meal for our first Christmas party. In the photo,seated starting on the left, are Lynn Nimsomboon, RobKosmeder, Andy Ziehli, Joyce Ziehli and RosemaryZiehli. From the left, standing are Erin Blumer, JimSmith and Bob Hoffman. Missing from the photo is RicGenthe and Andrew Pulver. Now when you read ourstories or look at our photos, you will know who we are.

Now that the holidays are over and we are into theNew Year, how many of us have already broken ourNew Year’s resolutions? Better yet, let’s not even gothere! I think I made it until noon on the 1st of Janu-ary, and then I had to have some chocolate. Let’s moveon to another holiday.

Andy and I went to Nashville at the end of January.Those adventures will be shared in the next issue. Staytuned. . . . .

Valentine’s Day and St. Patrick’s Day will soon behere. Don’t forget your sweetheart on February 14thand whether you are Irish or not, enjoy some cornedbeef and cabbage or some Irish stew!!!

The Americana Gazette looks forward to another yearof great stories to share with you. If you are interestedin writing an article or have some ideas to share withus, please feel free to contact one of us. We are alwayslooking for fresh ideas, and new writers!!!!!

Until the next issue,

Joyce ZiehliPublisher

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PUBLISHERJoyce [email protected]

SENIOR EDITORAndy [email protected]

STAFF WRITERS/PHOTOSRob [email protected]

Lynn [email protected]

Litt Dubay

FEATURE WRITERSRobert Hoffman

Jim Smith

Rosemary Ziehli

Aaron Williams

CREATIVE DIRECTORRic [email protected]

AMERICANA GAZETTE% ANDY & JOYCE ZIEHLIP.O. BOX 208BELLEVILLE, WI. 53508

OFFICE: 608-424-6300Andy Cell: 608-558-8131Joyce Cell: 608-558-8132

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MERICANA GAZETTEA

2

TABLE OF CONTENTS

FEATURE STORY16 DancingWith Idiots

WHERE TO LOOK:

3 1/2 Notes

4 Litt DuBay’s Slant

5 Reviewer’s Stand

6 New Economy

7 Favorites in Nashville

8 Warren Hodges

10 3 for 1

12 Pet Notes

13 Aaron’s Anecdotes

14 Women InThe Round

15 Art of Listening

16 DancingWith Idiots

18 Radio

19 Remember

19 Two P’s

20 Randy Green

22 Cadillac Joe

23 AttractingArt

24 John Jennings

26 Good n Loud

28 Mama’s

30 CD Reviews


Welcome to

AmericanaGazette

The first Annual Tri-county Food Jam SundayFebruary 22, 2009 at Country Side Lanes Hollan-dale Noon until 7:00? An afternoon of CountryMusic provided by some of the areas finest bandsand musicians. This event is being organized byMark Gruenenfelder of Blanchardville. On his50th birthday Mark hosted a Country Jam and hadso much fun that he wanted to make it an annualevent with a purpose. He made a few phonecalls and sent a few emails and theTri-CountyFood Jam was born. This is a great event for agreat cause. Hats off to Mark for stepping up tothe plate and organizing this event. For moreinformation see the poster on page of this issue.

NEW BLUES SERIES !!!, April 3, 2009 TheYoung Guns of Guitar a Beau Geste Produc-tion Beau Geste Productions has just lined up aBlues Series at the East Side Club!The first show will be April 3rd and start at 8:00PM withAaronWilliams & the Hoodoo with JoelPingitore & the Play Ground of Sound taking thestage at 10:00PM.$6.00 cover at the door.

Our first annual juried group show of the workof Artsbuild participants to be presented in theNohr Gallery,Ullsvik, and UW – Platteville fromFebruary 4th to 28th. For the PDF with all the in-formation and forms go to theArtsbuild website -http://www.uwplatt.edu/cont_ed/artsbuild/and click on”opportunities”. Feel free to get intouch if you have any [email protected] or 608-342-1314

WORKSHOP: “PHOTOGRAPHING YOUR ARTWORK”:Tuesday, February 17th, 6 – 9 PMDid you know that exhibition jurors, gallery cura-tors, and even busy web shoppers will simplyblow by your images if they are poorly lit, out offocus, have distracting backgrounds, or otherwiselook unprofessional? Even if the artwork is great,if the photos stink, you lose. You need all photo-graphic representation of your artwork to begood as possible. If you’re not prepared to hire aprofessional photographer, and you need to takebetter photos of your artwork yourself, this classwill help. All you need is a basic understanding ofyour camera. Instructor Steve Gassman encour-ages you to bring some of your artwork to thisworkshop so that you can get hands-on,practicaladvice that directly applies to your situation. You

may bring your camera too. Location: 143Doudna,University ofWisconsin, Platteville,Wis-consin.Cost: $35, you must pre-register for this class. Formore information, or to register, call 608-342-1314 or 888 281-9472, or visit www.uwplatt/edu/cont_ed then go to community classes,community courses, list by topic, enrichment,photographing your art work.

SURVEY: GET HELP SELLING ARTWORK:Deadline: February 27th UW-Madison ContinuingStudies is planning a class to help artists sell theirwork. Please help them identify the topic areasmost important to you by completing the surveyat https://websurvey.wisc.edu/survey/TakeSurvey.asp?AI=1&SurveyID=33I6n5KK5l9MM25If you would rather complete a paper survey, orhave questions or comments, please contactLeslee Nelson,Director of visual arts, at [email protected] or 608-263-7814.You can also join their mailing list athttp://www.dcs.wisc.edu/lsa/mailform.htmCheck“Business of Art” in the interest area box.

February 8, 2pmRichland Concert Series Presents OtisMurphySolo recital by Otis Murphy, classical saxophone.Tickets: Fee not known.UW-Richland students ad-mitted free by showing current student ID card atthe door.Seventh DayAdventist Church, 26625 CrestviewDrive,Richland Center

February 12, Noon & 7pm“Frederick Douglass: Freedom’s Voice”Author of the Pulitzer Prize nominated book bythe same title will speak about abolitionist oratorDouglass, including his connections to AbrahamLincoln.Offered twice--at noon and at 7pm.UW-Richland campus, Pippin Conference Center,Richland CenterFMI: [email protected]

February 12, 7pmUnlock the Secret of Romance: The Key toWriting a Romance Novel in 10 Simple Stepswith Kathy Steffen, author of “First,There is aRiver.”This is sponsored by the Friends of the Li-brary. Spring Green Community Library,Commu-nity Room,230 E.Monroe St., Spring GreenFMI:608-588-2276 or www.springgreenli-brary.org/adult.html

February 13, 8pmLive Music at Aces Tonight: Lost Conversation.Aces Sports Pub, 960Wachter Avenue, Plain FMI:www.acesofplain.com or 608-546-3771

February 14, 1-8pmPaul Bentzen DayA mid-winter bash celebrating local musician,actor, humorist & culinary artist Paul Bentzen’s64th birthday with jambalaya, bluegrass jam andmicrobrews. Paul’s jambalaya served until soldout.All are welcome. Spring Green General Store,137 S.Albany Street, Spring Green FMI:ToddMiller 608-588-7070 or [email protected];www.SpringGreenGeneral Store.com

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1/2Notes

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LittDuBay’sRant!

by Litt DuBay

Saw a guy in Monroe last week with buttons inhis ears. Not to block out sound but to ordinatehimself. I bet his mama’s proud of him. I also sawa guy with his whole upper torso tattooed when Iwas in Nashville a couple of weeks ago. You mustreally hate yourself to cover every inch of yourflesh with a tattoo. Either that or you are so starvedfor attention you do it. If God wanted us to coverourselves with pictures he would have made ourskin out of canvas.

Found a couple of neat musicians jokes for you.

What do you call 10 guys in a drum circle?A dope ring.

What do you call a beautiful woman on a drum-mer's arm?A tattoo.

What do you call a drummer that breaks up withhis girlfriend?Homeless.

I once asked a drummer how to spell "Mississippi".He said, "The River or the state?"

Why do bands have bass players?To translate for the drummer.

Did you hear about the time the bass player lockedhis keys in the car?It took two hours to get the drummer out.

What's the difference between a Bassist and a rhinothat's just eaten a tin of baked beans?One's a huge useless thing that makes a deepfarting noise and the other is a rhino.

What's the difference between a bass player and aDuracell battery?The Duracell battery has a good life.

What's the difference between a guitarist and a mu-tual fund?One matures.

How does a guitar player change a light bulb?He lies on the bed so that the room is spinningaround it.

How does a guitar player show up for practice?Drunk and late as usual

How do you make a guitarist's eyes light up?Shine a flashlight in his ear.

What's black and blue and laying in a ditch?A guitarist who's told too many drummer jokes.

Lastly I want to rant a bit about the state ofAmericana Music in SouthernWisconsin. What weneed here is a radio station to convert toAmericanaMusic 24 hours a day. It’s time that we had such astation, and I think that we should nominate 105.1to be that station. Who the hell is this Charlie thatthey keep talking about? He can’t be a disc jockey,oh excuse me “radio personality” because he’snever on the air. He can’t be the owner becausehe doesn’t take or return calls. I think he is a fig-ment of somebody’s imagination or bad trip andthey are trying to put it off on to us. Here’s what Isuggest we do. Everyone email this Charlie fellerand tell him that we want a real Americana RadioStation in Madison and Southern Wisconsin. Tellhim to hire Mckenize back because we miss herand want her back on Madison Radio. She wouldbe perfect for the job. I think a show with Ole LittDubay and Mel would be a great drive time addi-tion to Madison Radio! Hint Hint. We want to hearAmericana Music! So everyone who reads thisplease email Charlie and tell him so.Have a great Valentine’s Day! Until next issue

this is Litt Dubay signing off. (Just practicing up formy new Radio gig!)

Hello everyone!!!I’m really bummed out because my favorite time

of year has just ended, Fudge Season. God I lovefudge! My friend John Miller of the Fat Cat CoffeeWorks in New Glarus is sad for me too. He thinksas well as I do that Fudge Season should be openuntil at least Chocolate Bunny Season, or Hamm’sBeer Season which is always open at Sugar RiverStudios where Hamm’s Beer is the Official Beer ofSugar River Studios.It is also that time of year when love is in the air,

and a young man’s thoughts wonder to what thehell am I going to get her forValentines Day! I havesome ideas that have worked for old Litt Dubay inthe past and I’m sure will work for you.

1. Wrap yourself up naked with a big bow and lieon the bed so when she comes home you’ll beready for a night of amore’. (Be sure not toattach the sticky backed bow to your favoritepart of your anatomy.)

2. Buy her a case of Hamm’s beer.3. Put together a mix CD of your favorite gettin it

on music.4. Don’t waste money on flowers they just die

anyway. Buy her something that lives forever,like a Jim Beam Decanter of Elvis.

5. Give her a massage with benefits (make sure itbenefits you).

6. Take her out for a meal with candle lights andwine somewhere private. Make sure it is somewhere where you can get the truck out ofafterwards.

7. Write her a love song and play it on the newguitar you bought with the money you weresuppose to use to take her out.

8. For all you unmarried guys give her that onething she really wants onValentines Day.A fullsize picture of you and your record sizedWalleye you caught last summer in Canada.

9. Buy her that puppy you always wanted.10.After an evening of passionate fooling around

before you roll over and go to sleep kiss her onthe forehead and say“if we’re still together nextyear I won’t yell out my name, I promise I’ll yellyours!”

What’s with Fender Guitars raising their price up30% beginning February 1, 2009? Does that meanthat all our used Fender gear is worth 30% more ontrade in? I don’t think so! Fender makes great gui-tars and amps,but a 30% raise in price just becausethey want to make more because of decreasedsales. Yea that will work well for them!

Carol Spelic608.342.1314

[email protected]

We are a regional advocacy, technical assistance and networking program for all types of creative entrepreneurs – including visual artists, composers, musicians, writers, actors, dancers, and choreographers. We connect artists and arts leaders throughout southwest Wisconsin.

offerings on entrepreneurial skill topics

artists and arts groups via email updates containing information about grants, workshops, and opportunities.

creative entrepreneurs increase their visibility.

Wanted: Fiddle Player forAmericana Band.We are all members of other bands doing thisas a side playing and recording project. Weplay original songs and cover songs by SonVolt,Kieran Kane,KevinWelch, Jayhawks,EmmylouHarris,etc. We plan to record a CD and releaseit in the fall of 2009. We would like to play outat least once a month. There are 6 of us in thisproject. If this sounds interesting to you pleaseget a hold of us through theAmericana Gazetteat Box 208, Belleville,WI 53508 or at [email protected]. We are located in GreenCounty,WI.

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It ShinedThe Saga of the OzarkMountain Daredevils

Michael Supe GranadaAuthor House Publishing

For you“youngsters”out there,The Ozark Moun-tain Daredevils is just a name on one of thoseTimeLife types of rock compilation discs of 70’s music.To us people over 45 and under 60, the Daredevilswere an ass kicking rock band that dominated theairwaves in the Midwest in the early 1970’s. Songslike If you wanna get to heaven, Country Girl,Chicken Train, Look Away, and of course JackieBlue blared from our AM car radios from stationslikeWISM in Madison andWLS out of Chicago. TheDaredevils were rock and roll to us with their driv-ing harmonica and chunky guitars. Laying downthe bass lines was a skinny long haired troubadournamed Supe Granada. I remember buying the firstthree Daredevil’s albums and just staring at theband pictures. The homegrown backdrop of theMissouri countryside made for a 1970’s NormanRockwell type of picture.This book“It Shined”is the story of Supe and the

rest of the Daredevils rise to stardom,their slow re-treat back to the Missouri countryside andNashville Skyline. This is a well written book of 494whopping pages of music, humor, grass, coke, andlife. The six members are portrayed as good guysfrom a backwater city that almost get pushed intobeing rock stars. What started out as a group ofsongwriters getting together once a week to playeach other’s songs at a small club grew into a full-fledged world touring band. The stories of the par-ties and live shows are well documented,as well aseach album’s recording sessions.Granada painstakingly tells the ups and downs

of this crew of country boys who just wanted tomake music. They could care less about the busi-ness end,and were just as happy staying home andplaying on the back porch as they were to play sta-diums. They never left Springfield,MO. They droveor flew everywhere they needed to, always return-ing home to recharge, much to the anger of theirrecord companies. Members came and left overthe years, but they all seem to have remainedfriends reuniting numerous times in the originalmakeup of the band to play shows.If anything I could have done with less drug

tales and a little more band member’s background,and the diversity of the band and how it causedthem to implode. Granada does an excellent job ofchronicling the band’s history and never slams any-one in the band in this book. If you are lookingfor a“Hollywood Extra”exposé, this book is not for

you. If you arelooking for agood read on agreat band thatwas both enter-taining on andoff the record,this book is foryou. I finishedit in about aweek at a veryleisurely pace.More pictureswould havebeen cool.

I recom-mend thisbook to any-one who re-members theearly 70’sand the greatmusic thatwas beingmade beforeDisco tookover. So puton yourbells, pop abeer or rolla fatty, andkick backand enjoythis won-derful tripto a sim-pler timewhen themusic wasreal, hairwas long,and con-c e r t swere gen-eral seat-ing.

R e v i ewby: AndyZiehli

FROM THEREVIEWER’SSTAND

AMERICANA GAZETTE SUBSCRIPTIONTheAmericana Gazette is a free bimonthly publication and may be picked up at area locations.However if you would like a copy mailed to you,please fill out the following information andsubmit a check for $15.00 to:Americana Gazette, P.O.Box 208,Belleville,Wi. 53508

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One thing that is for sure in 2009 is wecan’t conduct business the way we use to. Anyartist or musician who thinks that they can selltheir artwork or get playing jobs like they did inpast years won’t be around to usher in 2010. Youhave to be smarter,offer superior customer service,and have a product that is both economical and hasa value worth paying for. The days of selling yourart or music haphazardly are through. Discre-tionary income is gone both in individuals and inbusiness budgets. Your art or music has to bring avalue to the table in order for it to be purchased.In art that task will be a bit harder than music, butmusic must bring people in the door or you won’tbe playing much in 2009. Musicians beware theugly head of Karaoke and the infamous DJ will de-vour much more of your territory than ever before.Let’s talk about “Value”. Value of a product in

marketing means the relationship between the con-sumer's expectations of product quality to the ac-tual amount paid for it. For an artist or musician todeliver value to their customers, they must con-sider what is known as the "total market offering."This includes the reputation of the artist/musi-cian/band, product benefits, and technologicalcharacteristics as compared to competitors' marketofferings and prices.Value can thus be defined asthe relationship of the artist/musician/band marketofferings to those of its competitors.Value in marketing can be defined by both qual-

itative and quantitative measures. On the qualita-tive side, value is the perceived gain composed ofindividual's emotional, mental and physical condi-

tion plus various social, economic, cultural and en-vironmental factors. On the quantitative side,valueis the actual gain measured in terms of financialnumbers, percentages, and dollars. So in laymen’sterms what that means is that the customer/clubowner is getting something that satisfies them-selves or their customers and is able to receive themoney they need to continue to do so.You may ask how that can be determined with

music played in a club. That’s really quite easy toanswer. If your band is packing the club and theclub owner is making money your value is high, ifit is the opposite you have no value to that clubowner or any other club owner. Musicians need tohave their @$&% together and be able to guarantya club owner that they are well worth the pricethey are charging. Artists have to provide a productthat gives the emotional side of their customers aboost,and that the art work is going to fill that needto justify the price paid for it.Now don’t panic and say the sky is falling just

sit down and create a marketing plan to help younavigate these new uncharted waters of this neweconomy. Marketing refers to the promotion ofproducts & services, advertising, pricing, distribu-tion channels, and branding. A marketing plan is awritten document that details the necessary ac-tions to achieve one or more marketing objectives.It can be for a product or service,a brand,or a prod-uct line. Marketing plans cover between one andfive years. You can create a marketing plan fairlyeasily using the web especially using the Entrepre-neur Magazine website which is filled with greatmarketing ideas. You will just have to adjust themto your product which is music or art.Guerilla marketing is a term that describes mar-

keting on a shoe string, using creative low costideas, tools, and materials to market your product.There is a great book called Guerrilla Music Mar-keting Handbook: 201 Self-Promotion Ideas forSongwriters,Musicians & Bands by Bob Baker thatcan be very helpful to you. Local SBDC offices inPlatteville and Stevens Point can also help you. Justremember that your plan should be based on thefollowing criteria:• Clear - There should be an unambiguousstatement of 'exactly' what is to be done.

• Quantified - The predicted outcome of eachactivity should be, as far as possible, quantified;so that its performance can be monitored.

• Focused - The temptation to proliferate activitiesbeyond the numbers which can be realisticallycontrolled should be avoided.

• Realistic - They should be achievable.• Agreed - Those who are to implement themshould be committed to them, and agree that theyare achievable.The final piece is creating a brand. A brand is a

name, term, design, symbol, or other feature thatdistinguishes products and services from competi-tive offerings. A brand represents the consumers'experience with an artist/musicians, product, orservice. A brand has also been defined as an iden-tifiable entity that makes a specific promise ofvalue. Branding means creating reference of cer-tain products in consumers mind. You need to cre-ate a brand for your art or music. The ultimate goalis to be the number one artist or musician thatcomes to mind when someone is choosing yourparticular style,product,or sound. Creating a brandis hard work but the rewards are very great fordoing so.

Here are some simple ways to market you andcreate a brand in the new economy:Develop an overall marketing umbrella that es-

tablishes your brand and trumpets the value it pro-vides. If you create this umbrella, be sure you un-derstand it and find the angle in it that you want tobase your sales approach on.Make sure that all of the marketing tools and ini-

tiatives are at your disposal or that you invest in arestructured to capture customers.If you have a website, what do you do to drive

traffic to it? Once you drive traffic to your onlinedestination,offer a reason for visitors to leave theire-mail addresses or other contact information.Contact every lead that arrives at your website.Stop by the show. Provide a sign up list for fans andcontacts at each show.Start a newsletter to let fans,customers,and club

owners know what you are up to.Network,Network,Network!Start a Street team to help pass the word about

a gallery showing or a playing job coming up.Create posters, bumper stickers, and brochures

that are eye-catching and truly convey what youcreate, sell, or play.Don’t overcharge! The days of the big money

jobs are through. If you are going to charge over$300.00 a night in this economy you had bettermake sure you can deliver at the door, because ifyou can’t you won’t get a second chance at mostclubs.Be on time, in starting,taking breaks,and ending

your shows.Be polite to the people who work at the clubs

and to all the club’s customers.Play the music the people want to hear, not

what you want to play. Take the time to learn amore diverse song list.Practice,Practice,Practice!!! Because the other

guys are!Be professional on and off the stage. Don’t get

drunk while or before you play. Don’t smoke onstage or have your amps covered in beer bottles.Dress appropriately for the job and club.Make an EP of your best material and hand it out

at shows.If you can’t create quality posters, cards, or

brochures hire it done by a professional. This in-cludes creating a trademark for your band or act.Be willing to work with club owners in securingjobs. They can exist without you, you can’t existwithout them.Lastly, don’t play at volumes that the patrons of

the club cannot communicate with each other. Vol-ume is a musician’s worst enemy. Acts that play toloud and drive customers out won’t be asked backagain.This is the time you need to market yourselves

and your bands! When everybody else is stoppingadvertising to save money you need to guerrillamarket and advertise wisely to keep your name inthe front of the pack. Artists and musicians who dothis will come out ahead of their competition whenthe recession ends. This is the single most impor-tant thing you can do! Keeping your name in frontof people will create sales and jobs. Your competi-tors are scaling back.You need to move forward!Give 110% in customer service. This will keep youin the minds of your customers. Don’t worry aboutprice when selling your products; sell your serviceand reputation. Become the brand yourself. Lastly,keep positive. It will get better and you and yourart/music can survive.

Story by: Andy Ziehli(Some information for this article was gatheredfromWikipedia)

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The “New”EconomyandArts & Musicor.... . . h o w d o I s e l l

o r g e t p l a y i n g

j o b s n o w ?


February 21, 2-3:30pm/3:30-5pmLive Music at the General Store Featuring BobWeinswig & Friends. Free and open to the public.Spring Green General Store, 137 S.Albany Street,Spring GreenFMI:Todd Miller 608-588-7070 or [email protected]; www.SpringGreen-GeneralStore.com

February 26-March 7, 7:30 pmRiver Valley Players presents “Annie” TheMusical Leapin’ Lizards! The popular comicstrip heroine takes center stage in one of theworld’s best-loved musicals.“Annie” is a spunkyDepression-era orphan determined to find herparents,who abandoned her years ago on thedoorstep of a NewYork City Orphanage run bythe cruel, embittered Miss Hannigan. In adventureafter fun-filled adventure,Annie foils Miss Hanni-gan’s evil machinations, befriends PresidentFranklin Delano Roosevelt and finds a new familyand home in billionaire OliverWarbucks, his per-sonal secretary Grace Farrell and a lovable muttnamed Sandy.Cost: $10 adult, $8 student/senior.GardTheater, 111 E. Jefferson Street, Spring GreenFMI:608-583-2748 or www.rivervalleyplayers.org

February 28, 2-3:30pm/3:30-5pmLive Music at the General Store Featuring Don& Lynn Morris andThe Pickin’ Bubs. Free andopen to the public. Spring Green General Store,137 S.Albany Street, Spring GreenFMI:Todd Miller 608-588-7070 or [email protected]; www.SpringGreen-GeneralStore.comRCH

March 1, 2pmRichland Concert Series Presents Aaron Sin-nett ConcertAn accomplished cellist returns to perform a var-ied repertoire.Tickets: Fee not known.Seventh DayAdventist Church, 26625 CrestviewDrive,Richland CenterFMI:608-647-6477

3rd Annual Celebrity Squares, based on thepopular Hollywood Squares television program,Celebrity Squares will again feature a variety oflocal luminaries from all walks of life.Contestantswill have the opportunity to compete for thou-sands of dollars’worth of prizes, all of which havebeen generously donated by area businesses andindividuals.Tickets $12 and available at Nina’s,Spring Green General Store, and at the door. Spon-sored by the Spring GreenArea Arts Coalition.GardTheater, 111 E. Jefferson Street, SpringGreen.

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1/2 notes... continued from page 3

Joyce and I travel to Nashville an average of 6times a year. We have gotten to know some greatpeople over the last few years and have found somegreat places to visit and eat at during this time.Many people ask us where they should go andwhat they should see when they get to Nashvilleso we have put together a list of some of our fa-vorite places to visit and hope that you find themjust as enjoyable as we do.Nashville is a huge city spread out over many

miles,so finding the right place to stay is important.We like to stay downtown right on East Broadway.It is the hub of Nashville and 90% of the historictrue country sites are within walking distance fromeach other. If you are interested in seeing Opry-land and the theme park scene you should find ahotel near there, or stay at the Opryland Hotel.Opryland is about 15 miles from downtownNashville. So back to East Broadway. Parking isvery expensive and very hard to find in this end oftown. There are lots but an hour’s parking can costyou $5.00 so it’s best to leave your car at the hoteland walk.On Lower Broadway, as it is known, a great

place to stay is the Holiday Inn Express. It hasplenty of parking (for $14.00 a day), an excellentfree breakfast which includes, eggs, sausage, bis-cuits and gravy, cinnamon rolls, fruit, cereal, bagels,etc. The hotel is very clean, the staff very helpfuland friendly, and very affordable with rooms aver-aging $150.00 a night. Now I know some of youwill say that that is outrageously high. I’ve stayed inthe under $100.00 a night rooms and trust me youdon’t want to. The Holiday Inn Express does takean AARP discount if you have the card. In all theplaces I have stayed in Nashville this hotel is thebest value there is. It is also only two blocks fromthe Ryman,Tootsie’s, and all the other honky tonkson Broadway. It is also only three blocks from theCountry Music Hall of Fame, and the Studio Musi-cian’s Hall of Fame.The music on Lower Broadway is all traditional

Country or Bluegrass. No Carrie Underwood orToby Keith played here. Just Haggard, Jones, Pay-check, Cash,Owens,Cline,and Lynn. So if you likethe Country Music from the 50’s,60’s,and 70’s thisis where you want to go. There are a couple ofgreat restaurants on Broadway serving local barbe-cue and pizza. There is a nice restaurant at the East-ern end of Broadway along with a Hard Rock Café.Breakfast is out of the question on this side of townso you’ll have to travel or eat at the hotel.All the clubs on Broadway feature excellent

music. All the employees and musicians in these

clubs work for tips so be prepared to divvy up atleast twice an hour. Nashville is 90% smoke-free inthe clubs so it makes it a whole lot more enjoyableto sit and listen to music. Most of the clubs aresmall and crowded. The music can be loud espe-cially at night. There are many gift shops and CDstores to visit. You can spend a whole weekend andnever leave Lower Broadway and the surroundingblocks, there’s that much to visit.There are some excellent restaurants on the

West side of Broadway,but you’ll have to take a taxior drive your car to get to them. Music Row is onthat side of town a block off West Broadway. It isworth the drive over there to see it. You can’t gointo the offices there but you’ll get to see wherethe music and business folks work. Take a tripdown 12thAvenue South and you’ll see a differentside of Nashville. You’ll travel through some of thenicer neighborhoods and there are a lot of CivilWarplaques and sites to see. Also take I 65 South toFranklin and visit many shops and restaurants.Many Country Music Stars live in Franklin so you’llnever know who you might see.Below is a list with addresses of some of our fa-

vorite eating and entertainment spots to visit. Justremember that Nashville is a tourist town and thereare always a lot of people there. Food prices arecomparable to Madison, sometimes lower. Youwon’t find a huge Prime Rib special or Fish Frythere. If you want carry out beer you have to go toa grocery store or Beer Depot. Hard liquor is pur-chased at Liquor Stores. Gas is paid for at the pumpor you have to go in and pay in advance. It is a verylaid back community, and they move at their ownpace. They really like people from Wisconsin inNashville. They’ll let you know you have a funnyaccent.I hope this has given you a good overview of

some places to check out in Nashville. It takes 10hours to drive,so it is very doable in one day. I havefound it the most enjoyable place I have ever vis-ited. I hope you will too. (All of the below are inNashville Proper unless labeled)

Restaurants• Pancake Pantry (get there early or you willwait in line) • 1796 21st Ave South

• Nashville Delicatessen (try the CoconutCake) • 1918West Broadway

• The Frothy Monkey (Coffee House)2509 12thAve South

• Blackstone Restaurant & Brewery (Salmonor Steak) • 1918West EndAve

Our FavoritePlaces inNashville

Back in September when Andy and I wentto Nashville, we were attending our friend, PeterCooper’s concert at the Station Inn. I just hap-pened to be sitting at the table next to Warner E.Hodges and his friends. (Warner and the rest of theband, Jason &The Scorchers, had just been recipi-ents of a Lifetime Achievement Award during theAmericana Music Conference.) Gathering mythoughts and getting up enough courage, I turnedtowardsWarner’s table and introduced myself andcongratulated him on this wonderful achievement.I figured he would either talk to me or give me thebrush off. Warner said, “Thank you very much.Someone from up around Madison,Wisconsin justdid an article on Jason Ringenberg and Jason &TheScorchers and I can’t seem to find a copy of it. Doyou know who did this and what magazine?” Ireplied,“You found the writer of that article and Ihave an extra copy of that issue of the AmericanaGazette in my vehicle.” Very excited I ran out ofthe Station Inn to retrieve a copy from the truck togive to him. We talked a little more, laughed,hugged and parted ways, but before we partedWarner graciously agreed to do an interview withme in the future. Warner E. Hodges would neverbrush you off, thus comes my phrase from above,

“an overall really nice guy to talk with.”Warner was busy doing a fifteen date United

KingdomTour and he emailed me upon his returnto the States and we chatted via telephone. Butbefore we get into the meat of things,I want to giveyou a little background onWarner E.Hodges,GuitarGod!!!!! Warner was born on June 4, 1959 inWurtzburg,Germany. His father,a U.S.Army officer,and his mother were both musicians and played alot of USO concerts. When the family returned tothe States, they settled in Nashville in hopes of hismom pursuing her musical career, and this iswhere Warner grew up. Warner played drums incountry bands when he was only twelve years old.At an AC/DC concert in 1973, (only 15 years ofage)Warner was bit by the bug to play guitar. Thisis how the journey began for Warner E.Hodges andthe beginning of his life as a Guitar God on aTele-caster. In the summer of 1981 he became the leg-endary lead guitar player for Jason &The Scorchersand now to the interview. . . . . . . . .AG: Warner,you were born in 1959 in Germany.

Your parents were in the military and played inUSO outfits on base. Is this how you got your mu-sical start?WH:Oh yea, you had to be able to play a musi-

cal instrument to be in our family.AG: Do you have any siblings in the musical


field?WH: I had two brothers but they are both de-

ceased.AG: You moved from Germany to Nashville,Ten-

nessee? How old were you at this time?You played drums at age 12 and then guitar by age15 in your parent’s bands? What was this time likefor you?WH: I actually played in a band at the age of 12.

My parents bought me a drum set at the age of 6.My parents were gluttons for punishment I guess.We spent one year in Virginia and moved toNashville in 1973. My mom was a country singerand we went to Nashville so she could pursue hercareer.

As far as what this was like for me, I thought itwas cool and did not realize at the time that it wasreally a unique thing. I thought everybody wasraised playing in their parents’ band.AG: How or who taught you how to play guitar?WH:My Dad showed me some chords and I just

took off from there. I was always around a lot ofgreat guitar players,so I picked up stuff from them.AG: You had a number of influences such as

Kiss,AC/DC,CheapTrick, Jimi Hendrix,The RollingStones,Credence Clearwater Revival,Elvis,The SexPistols,etc., just to name a few. This was some hardrock n roll. You were country, then onto hard rock,

WARNER E. HODGES- Tennessee’s Dynamic Guiter God- Legendary Member of Jason & the Scorchers- Overall Really Nice Guy to Talk With


then back to altcountry withJason and theScorchers? Tellme how you metJason Ringenbergand how you be-came involvedwith Jason andthe Scorchers?WH: Country

music was alwayscrammed downmy throat. TheJason & TheScorchers jour-ney started in thesummer of 1981when a hogfarmer from Illi-nois, Jason Rin-genberg movedto Nashville tostart a new band.Jeff Johnson wasthe first bandmember to joinup with Jasonafter he wit-nessed a per-formance of hiswith REM. John-son insisted that Icome see his next gig which was with the leg-endary Carl Perkins. I thought to myself this guy isnuts, I have to play with him! I joined the bandand several weeks later, Perry Baggs became thedrummer and Jason &The Scorchers was formed.AG: You guys were pretty wild in your per-

formances, how did the public accept this?WH: Yea we were kind of wild. I was either

leaning over into the audience or spinning in cir-cles and Jason was doing his own dancing. (Asquoted in an article from Robert Oermann,countrymusic historian,“They kicked butt. The Scorchersnever sold more than a million records,but nobodywho saw them will ever forget it.”) Those dayswere pretty wild; I’m still a wild guitar player. Itgets a little harder every year. In my head I’m aswild as I used to be, but physically I’m not. (Weboth laughed.)AG: Tell me about Jason & The Scorchers and

what you did after they fell apart in 1989?WH: The Scorchers EP debut,Reckless Country

Soul, was cut in four hours in somebody’s livingroom and was in stores the second week of 1982.It was great while it lasted. But by decade’s end,Jason & The Scorchers were coming to an end.Johnson left the band, and I moved to New Yorkwhere I started playing with Iggy Pop and Roscoe’sGang. I then relocated to California and becameinvolved in the video business.

I moved back here to Nashville in 1992. Overthat 3 year period I guess I had way too much funand needed to get serious again.AG: Jason and the Scorchers reunited in the

early‘90’s and started touring in 1993. Tell me a lit-tle about this time frame.WH: It was Jeff Johnson who decided to try to

reunite the band, Jason & the Scorchers. The firsttour was only to be around 20 shows, but we hadsuch a good time,we continued on. We did a cou-ple more studio records,but then as Perry becameill,we did less and less dates. The last 4 or 5 yearswe have just been doing sporadic dates as we are

available. We areheading back intothe studio thisWinter though towork on a newCD.

AG: In1998, Scorchersback in semi-re-tirement. Youstarted a newband, The Disci-ples of Loud? Yousang vocals in thisband. What wasthis band like?

WH: It wasa big ass loudrock band. Wedid a couple ofrecords. It wasjust a fun thing! Idid some singingand this gave mea real respect forJason’s talent.

AG: Whatwas winning theLifetime Achieve-ment Award likelast September?

WH: Thisreally changed

the visibility of the band. We did 10 shows in Eu-rope this past May and it has really rekindled thefire in us. Jeff played at this and I hadn’t seen orspoken to him in 9 years, but we picked up rightwhere we left off. Band members are like brothers,sometimes you just want to strangle each other,other times you are the best of friends. I haveknown Jeff Johnson since we were kids and havebeen playing with him for 15 years and have playedwith Jason Ringenberg for over 20 years.AG: What are you up to these days?WH: I’ve been co-writing some songs. Jason

writes most of the songs, but I am really gettingmore into it.I’ve been touring with Stacie Collins Road Band. InSeptember we did the U.K.tour,backed by the cur-rent Scorchers rhythm section of KennyAmes andFenner Castner. I released my debut solo CD,whichI wrote 7 of the 10 songs.AG: What influences your writing?WH: I really don’t know,I sit down with a blank

piece of paper and start noodling with a guitar.AG: Is music your sole means of livelihood, or

do you have another job?WH: I have my own construction company in

Nashville. I used to build recording studios,but notmuch call for that anymore.(I kiddingly asked if he was the “big boss of his

company” and Warner responded no, his wife is,and that is a good thing as she is better at it thanhim.)AG: What do you do to relax? Hobbies?WH: Music is my hobby, as well as my passion.

I am an avid reader, watch movies and hang outwith my wife, Deb. I guess I am a college footballfan too. I even tried to follow Brett Favre’s careerthis year.AG: What is your favorite food?WH: Southern cookin. My wife is the cook,but

I could make you something that would be edible.My wife says my favorite food is fried chicken.

AG: Ever been toWisconsin – any plans on play-ing inWisconsin in the future?WH: Hell yes, Madison, Milwaukee. I am plan-

ning on coming to MonroeWisconsin, I believe inJune to do a show with Dan Baird and HomemadeSin. I will email you my schedule when it gets fi-nalized.AG: What does the future hold for Warner

Hodges?WH: Would like to go back to Europe in May or

June,then off toAustralia for some shows. Australiais a long haul though,but I don’t mind flying.AG: If you could meet anyone in the world,

whom would you like to meet?WH: Dead or alive?AG: You can have a choice of both.WH: My dead person would be Winston

Churchill. I don’t knowwho the live person wouldbe; I don’t have an answer for that one.AG: I have to ask - Any pets?WH:Two little dogs; Full Blooded 100% North

American Yard dogs. One is a dachshund/terriermix and the other is a beagle/lab mix. They aregreat dogs.AG: I ask everyone this question. What do you

want your fans to know about you? If I mentionedWarner Hodges name, what would you like themto say about you?WH: That I am a decent human being, first and

foremost!And a decent human being he is indeed. When

I get a finalized date, time and place for his show inMonroe,Wisconsin, I will be sure to put a blurb inour magazine. My thanks toWarner E. Hodges forhis time and I’m hoping to run into him when I amin Nashville in January. Who knows maybe he willwhip me up some good old fashioned friedchicken. . . . . . . .For more information or to see where he is playing,check out his website @ www.warnerhodges.com.

Story by: Joyce ZiehliPhotos supplied byWarner & Deb Hodges


Brent King is a superb drummer/percussionistfor the local blues/rock band Soul Shaker. He is alsothe drum department manager at Good N LoudMusic. Drummer since age eight when his brotherbought him a set of drums, he has been poundingout Rock & Roll beats for 20 plus years in Madison.Brent sites his older brother who was a musicianas a big influence in his becoming a musician him-self.His current band Soul Shaker (watch for the

April/May edition of the Americana Gazette for afull story on the band) plays Robin Trower, JimiHendrix, and power blues rock. The band is a fourpiece outfit. In the past Brent was the drummer inTrinity James’s band up until James left forNashville. At that time the three remaining mem-bers decided that they wanted to continue and en-listed a new lead singer and changed their format.For ten years Brent was drum manager for

Drums & Moore a local music store that catered todrummers and percussionists. Besides sellingequipment he also gave lessons. Today he takesthose same skills and heads the drum departmentat Good N Loud Music on University Avenue inMadison. Brent is very knowledgeable and has thekind of personality that you would want for work-ing with the public. Always friendly, he is readilyavailable to answer your percussion questions.When asked what shows were the best to play

in, his 20 plus years of playing Brent sights Playingwith Zakk Wilde “when we were both younger”,sharing the bills with John Eddie,and having RingoStarr say he liked the music and recording thatBrent and his band mates were putting out. Find-

Slim Miller is a technical/computer wizard whenit comes to music software and hardware. He is themost knowledgeable person locally on this subject.Completely self-taught Slim learned from readingbooks,magazines, internet articles,and through thebest teacher in the world, hands on trial and error.Vowing to“learn”from his mistakes he said“I nevermake the same mistake twice”.Slim is the Sales Manager for Good N Loud Music

in Madison. Covering two stores he is always busy.He said that he is known as the “ask that guy”per-son at work. Everyone always sends customers tome when they don’t or can’t find the answer to thecustomer’s questions.He came to Madison 14 years ago from Shawno.

There is no one in the world quite like PaulGruenenfelder of Blanchardville. He has been per-forming throughout SouthernWisconsin for the last45 years even though a car accident 30 years agoleft him paralyzed from the chest down. Paul is asurvivor! His love of country music started as ayouth listening to his father Henry play the guitarand sing Country Western music in the Blan-chardville country side.Paul’s brother,Al starting playing the guitar in his

teens, where Paul was much more interested inchasing girls. When he turned 19 he decided thathe also wanted to play and bought a bass guitar.Soon Paul and Al joined Hank Elmer’s Old Timeband and were playing that style of music at tav-erns, weddings, and anniversary dances through-out Green, Iowa, and Lafayette Counties. A chancemeeting with guitar player Gary Godfry got thebrothers playing the Country music that they loved.In 1972 local Country legend Arnie Alme hookedup with the boys and they became Arnie Alme &The Country Kings. Shortly after this band startedPaul was transferred to Kentucky for his job as aCheese maker. Paul stayed until 1974 when he re-turned to Wisconsin and started playing with theCountry Kings again. Paul andAl’s younger brotherMark soon joined in as a fill in for Paul when hecould not make the jobs.In 1980 Paul was involved in a car accident that

left him disabled but not out of action. After a longrecovery Paul was soon back singing with his oldband on special occasions. In 1989 a friend,TobyMoen asked Paul if he would put together a band toPlay on a float for a parade. Paul called his brothers,Tim Francois,Dale Freidig, andAndy Ziehli to helpout and out of this parade Toby’s Trailblazers wasborn. TheTrailblazers played old and new countryhits for many years in Southern Wisconsin beforedisbanding in the early 90’s. Paul took off a fewyears and then in 1999 formed The GreenfieldBrothers with his brothersAl and Mark,Al Mell,andDanny Hintz. They continue to play today makingmusic and keeping people dancing throughoutSouthernWisconsin.Paul states that there are too many“Best Jobs”to

even start listing them. He said that “the best jobsare always the ones where people dance from thefirst song until the last song”. As far as the worstplaying jobs go he also said,“There’s been a few ofthem too”. Paul continues today to love and sing“good”country music. Any time you get the chanceto see Paul and the Greenfield Brothers performyou should jump right on it! You won’t be disap-pointed.

Paul has excelled in many other areas too. He

3 for 1

was Mayor of Blanchardville, owned and operateda very successful café“Freddie’s”with his late wifeGladys,designed and wrote a software program fordairy herd management,operated a record keepingbusiness, and raised 4 children.A true inspiration to everyone Paul Gruenen-

felder is and continues to be a driving force and tal-ent in Country Music in SouthernWisconsin. Paulsaid that he has “truly enjoyed singing and playingmusic with everyone he ever had the opportunityto do so with.” Paul feels blessed that he has madeso many friends throughout the State playing allthese years. Take the time to take a drive to theSouthwest part ofWisconsin and enjoy some greatgood old Country Music provided by Paul and therest of the Greenfield Brothers!I owe my existence as a lead guitar player to Paul

Gruenenfelder. He asked me to be his lead pickerinToby’sTrailblazers even though at that time I wasa novice. He taught me how to play Country intros,Luther Perkin’s runs, and Roy Nichol’s solos. Ilearned more about entertaining people, songstructure, and not overplaying from Paul and hisbrother Al. I’m forever grateful for the years I waslucky enough to make music with Paul. He is andwill always be the consummate Country enter-tainer and band leader in SouthernWisconsin.

Written by: Andy Ziehli

Paul Gruenenfelder

Slim Miller

Brent King

ing out that Ringo asked that the CD be playedagain made it even better. Mostly Brent said”play-ing locally and seeing people enjoying themselvesis the best.”Having played numerous shows and onmany CD recordings Brent has quite a resume.Brent’s advice to younger players is simple,

“Practice as much and as often as you can, other-wise you will get behind. When that happens op-portunity slips away from you”. Brent King is thekind of musician we all want to be, hardworking,honest, and most of all very very talented! Checkout Brent and his band Soul Shaker on My Space.


www.amer i canagaze t t e .ne t 11

The first couple years in town he worked for alandscaping company. Then Slim became the DrumManager atWard Brodt in Madison. Slim had beendoing sound since he was 16 years old. Computercame naturally to him so tying sound reproductionand computers together was a natural next step.He plays guitar,bass,and drums, though he said hisbest instrument is the mixing board.Slim’s expertise in music software and hardware

is well known in Madison. His work as a producerand engineer is also very well known. He has pro-duced and recorded five CD’s in which two ofthem have been nominated for MAMA’s. Slim saysthat his work on the Self Gene’s CD’s were “great”and“a blast to do.” Lately he has scaled his record-ing back and has been recording“spoken word”ses-sions that include books and achieving oral stories.Artists usually approach him about producing theirwork. He only takes projects that really interesthim, though he is always ready to listen to demosfor future projects.The best part of Slim’s career is being able to

work with people he’d be friends with anyway. Hestates that”knowledge”is easy to pass on to othersand he enjoys sharing his vast knowledge with cus-tomers and friends. The worst part of his career isthe long hours required in retail. “I really enjoy allthe customers I get to help.” It’s the time con-straints of the position that make it hard to do a lotof outside recording or mixing work.Slim’s advice to students who want to get into

becoming a soundman or engineer is to “buy asmall P.A. system and go out and mix your friend’sbands at practice and at jobs. Learn everything youcan through trial and error. That’s how you get bet-ter! Experience has no substitute.”Slim Miller is a good guy who has helped me out

of a jam many times. He’s a great guy to work with.Stop by Good N Loud and talk to him about record-ing, live sound, and music. Slim is as close to a ge-nius you will ever find in Madison or SouthernWisconsin in music technology.


Grown in the dirt of middle TennesseeBig fat roots, big wide leaves,Full of vitamin A, vitamin E,all that good stuff.But mostly, full of good music.

We’re a small label based inEast Nashville, TennesseeWe love zip code 37206.There’s a ton of great musichere, and we’re bringing it to you!

RED BEET RECORDSP.O.BOX 68417NASHVILLE,TN 37206

EMAIL USAT [email protected]


Now if you have read all the issues of theAmericana Gazette,you will remember the first PetNote story I wrote which featured Russell Cooper,the miniature dachshund of Peter and CharlotteCooper of Nashville,Tennessee! Peter always said,“I have a miniature dachshund because a regularsize dachshund is too much dog for me.” Well dur-ing a weak moment, Peter must have realized heneeded more “dog”! Russell Cooper gets a sister,Loretta – and Russell says,“ yes, sisters are great –sometimes.”

Peter Cooper, songwriter, musician, writer forthe NashvilleTennessean,overall great guy was outon tour and traveling through Hannibal, Missouriand spotted this little darling miniature dachshundin a window. Of course,he had to check it out,andwe all know what checking out a puppy means?Fifteen minutes later Loretta was sitting in the seatbeside Peter on their way home to Nashville,Ten-nessee. Peter’s on the cell phone explaining toCharlotte what he has done and why. We knowCharlotte didn’t care, in fact she was probably just

as excited as Peter. (Loretta was ecstatic as in herfive months on this Earth, she had dreamed manynights of moving to Nashville, and this indeed wasa dream come true. During our dog/human inter-view, Loretta informed me that her birthplace ofHannibal is also the home of Mark Twain. She is avery well rounded dachshund.)

Russell and Loretta spend most of their after-noons chasing balls and wrestling. Russell really en-joys spending this quality time with his sibling,although Loretta is kind of a bruiser! If you recall,Russell always enjoyed the warm clothes from thedryer,Peter says Loretta also likes this – at least theyhave something good to fight about. Poor Charlottemust just keep busy doing laundry. Peter and Char-lotte refer to this “afternoon time”as Greco-Dachs-hund wrestling. Loretta really is a better athletethan student. Peter commented that she has justrecently completed her first round of puppykindergarten,mastering the concepts of“stay”and“down”.Music is always a presence in the Cooper house-

hold, obviously Russell and Loretta’s favorite artistis Peter. (They aren’t dumb, they know the handthat feeds them.) As mentioned in the first issue inthe article on Russell, he is a big Todd Snider fan,even has ridden inTodd’s bus,sitting in the driver’sseat! On the other hand, Loretta is more favorabletowards a beautiful woman’s voice, that being ofartist,songwriter Emmylou Harris. Loretta has evenhad the pleasure of meeting her favorite singer Em-mylou recently. You have to admit those miniaturedachshunds have good taste!!

Russell and Loretta also enjoy a nice strollaround the block, enjoying the sounds and smellsof East Nashville. Keep an eye out,you never knowwhen Peter may have the urge to have“more dog”and go for a third miniature dachshund. As in my in-famous words, you can never have enough dogs!!!

Written by: Joyce ZiehliPhoto by: Peter & Charlotte Cooper

SISTER’S ARE GREAT . . .. . . SOMETIMES!

APETNO

TE


Aaron Williams is the guitarist and lead singer of the band, Aaron Williams

and the Hoodoo. They are based in Madison, WI. They can be reached at:

www.aaronwilliamsandthehoodoo.com or by email at aaronwilliamsandthe-

[email protected]

What is it like to be a musician trying to make it? Why do musicians always look

tired? Why do musicians wear funny clothes and seem to have no fashion sense?

Why won't that band just play Freebird like I've asked them to....three times now!

These are all questions that people want to know...ok, perhaps not all of you

but some of you may be a little curious and I’m the guy that's going to answer

them. Please allow me to introduce myself, I'm Aaron Williams. I'm the leader of

a band based out of Madison, WI - Aaron Williams and the Hoodoo. I must stress

the point, I’m not a writer by any means, just a guitar player and singer that loves

music and most of all loves to perform for other music lovers. I thought it would

be a great idea to write a guest spot in the Americana Gazette giving a glimpse into

the struggles and highs of trying to "make it" in this business. This is the first of my

articles with hopefully many more to come. I'm going to tell stories about the road,

my band mates, other musicians and anything else I can think of. A bit of an

open book, if you will. I hope you'll enjoy my ramblings and if you ever have a

question you've been dying to ask a musician, like why do bass players over the

age of 40 always wear vests, or why do guitar players make those weird faces when

they play, or why do bands always smell funny, just ask away!

In thinking about this article it took me back…about a week. I had been thinking about all the showsI’ve done in the past and it just so happens I might have played the hardest show of my life a few weeksago. It got me thinking about some of the worst/hardest gigs I’ve ever been a part of.Now all bands havegone through this, it's just a part of the business...we all like to compare war stories when we get together.I could tell you about the renegade sound man that kept turning my amp down after each set, he didn’task to,he just did it.That is until he eventually turned it down to 0.5 on a scale of 1-10.I think my grandmawould have thought it was too soft.That was the first time I've ever got in a fight...ever.Or the time I hadto drive through the corn fields of Iowa for an hour to try and find a paved road to get home.Now thiswasn't driving in circles, this was driving through people’s backyards with a trailer and a huge HammondB3 getting the crap beat out of it in back. I think we might have even found a drug cartel set up, that’show deep we got into the corn fields of Iowa.Think "Children of the Corn."This brings me to this gig afew weeks ago.We had booked this showmonths ago, in fact I'm really good friends with one of the promoters of this

show so he won't mind this little story....I hope.After driving for about 3 hours on a coldWisconsin in-

Aaron’s Amusing Anecdotes

terstate to get to the show,we were already feelingcold. I believe the high for the day was around 2F,now that’s cold! Our navigation system (all roadbands should have one) had us snaking turn afterturn on some very small country roads.We knewgoing into this show that it was going to be in abarn,now you're thinking..."why are they going toplay in a barn in January, inWisconsin,they deservewhat they are about to get." No sweat, we werepromised that the barn was nice and heated, com-plete with a stocked green room.Yea, green roomsare always nice (that will be another topic someday, what goes on in band green rooms). As ournavigation system lead us to a sleepy town in north-ernWisconsin, complete with no stop lights and alot of bars, we were preparing ourselves for whatwas about to come.We all had a sense somethinginteresting was going to take place.We were hop-ing that droves of people would head out in thiscold weather to see an up and coming band in abarn. Hmmm....After making a few U turns we fi-nally pulled into the "parking lot", I said to ZT (mybass player) "hmmm, this is going to be interest-ing."The first thing we noticed was that this venuewas a farm, out in the middle of no where.Therewere no markings or signs to direct people into thisplace. I think that might have helped cutting downon our U turns as we drove by this farm at leastthree times.We drove through the parking lot andmade our way to the barn, it was the only barn onthe property so we were sure we had found theright place.As we walked in the back door of thebar,we were met by one of the promoters;he wel-comed us in and said, "This is your green room!"

continued on page 31


Let’s asksome couples . . .February is here and LOVE is in the air,or maybe

not. I wanted to meet with several couples to dis-cuss this topic, but ended up having to do it viaemail. I threw out several questions to some cou-ples and the following are the responses I received.(I even made my husband complete the questions;I wanted to see how romantic he really is!!)

Please give your name and anything you want peo-ple to know about you as an introduction:

DKS:We are Dewey and Kathy Sies and we live inFreeport, Illinois. We have a bit of a mixed marriage– Dewey is a musician and Kathy cannot sing.Kathy is a long time Chicago Bears fan, whileDewey is aWisconsin native and supports the Pack-ers. Imagine the fun we have during football sea-son especially when we are at the Wisconsinrelatives for the holidays!!!

AZ: My name is Andy Ziehli and I live in Belleville.I am a musician, editor of this magazine, operate arecording studio, school bus driver and all aroundnice guy.

JZ: My name is Joyce Ziehli and I also live inBelleville. I am the publisher of this magazine,work full time as an executive secretary of the NewGlarus Nursing Home and am a First Degree BlackBelt and teach at the Belleville Tae Kwon DoSchool.

GMF: Gary and Mary Francois from Belleville re-sponded –“We just wanted to let you know our an-swers for the questions can be said in onesentence; We have been happily married for 26years and look forward to many more…

AG: How did you meet your spouse?

DKS: We met on a blind date. (The only reasonKathy finally agreed to go out with Dewey was be-cause she was told he drove a "vette". Imagine hersurprise when he showed up in a little redChevette.)

AZ: In the hall at Madison Business College.

JZ: Yes,my roommate introduced me toAndy andbeing shy (at least I was back then), I said hello and

ran off to my class. I didn’t want to be late.

AG: Where were you when you first metand/or who introduced you?

DKS: Kathy’s sister, Maureen, and herboyfriend at the time,Steve,(who was alsoa coworker of Dewey’s), thought the twoof us should know each other. Theyarranged to pick up each of us (Kathywas in town for the weekend), and gomini-golfing and then for pizza.By the endof that first meeting, plans were made togo to Six Flags /Great America in theChicago area) the following week.

AZ & JZ: Joyce’s roommate introduced us –thought we would make a nice couple.

AG: How did your spouse ask you out on your firstdate?

DKS: Maureen and Steve had really wanted our 1stmeeting and date to be the Six Flags/Great Amer-ica trip. Kathy though, thought it might be betterto meet first-thus the reason for the mini golf andpizza outing.Our next real date was attending a Siesfamily anniversary celebration and then spendingthe afternoon at the Madison Zoo, and picnickingand walking around the Lake Mendota area.

We went to GreatAmerica/Six Flags,near Chicago.We rode all the rides, ate all the great food.Kathy’sfavorite memory is of the 2 of us sitting at the topof the Ferris wheel, talking about the kinds ofhouses we’d each like to have someday,and wherewe were each going in our lives. The next day,Dewey left the morning’s newspaper and a noteunder Kathy’s' windshield wiper.Kathy still has thenote.

AZ: I asked Joyce to go to a movie. We went to seeMAGIC, then to the Basement Bar in Verona towatch a band.

JZ: Andy asked me one day after class if I needed aride to work. Then he asked if I would like to go toa movie sometime. I said – yes!!!!!

On our first dateAndy brought me to Bellevilleto showme where he lived and to meet his parents.He pulled up in front of an old decrepit house, nopaint, no lights on, etc. I inquired as to why therewere no lights on andAndy said Dad was trying tosave money. I started to get out of the car and walkdown the sidewalk. Andy laughed and said he reallydidn’t live here. Then he drove away and parked infront of this huge raised ranch house. He said helived here. I said no way and wouldn’t get out ofthe car until he finally convinced me. Can you be-lieve there were more dates and we finally did getmarried. . . . . . . . .

AG: Does your spouse remember anniversaries orspecial dates/places?

DKS: YES!!

AZ: Always!!!

JZ: I have to say ALWAYS.

AG: On a scale of 1 – 10 (10 being the most) pleaserate your spouse as to how romantic they are? Andwhy?

DKS: What a loaded question!!! Kathy says: If ro-mantic means remembering those little things thatcan make me smile,or still reaching for my hand aswe sit and talk or walk…calling or emailing me atschool if he knows I'm going to have a particularlychallenging day, just to see how it all turned out;being a wonderful listener; still telling me howlucky he feels that he married me (after 25 years);and when we go out dancing to a "live band", heasks the band to play My Girl (cause he knows Inever got to dance to it when I was in highschool)…then I have to give him a 10 plus.

AZ: 10Very romantic because she’s hot!!!

JZ: How can I answer after his remark? Yes,Andyis very romantic. He remembers little details, hecalls just to see how I am doing or emails me. Heholds my hand in public, he tells me he loves meevery day and that I am the best thing that everhappened to him. He gets a 10+++++.

AG: What are your top 5 most romantic “LOVE”songs?

DKS: Kathy’s: I Got You, Babe;Two So in Love;Where HaveYou Been (Kathy Mattea);At LastMy love has come along by Etta James;Once Upona Dream (soundtrack from Sleeping Beauty).

Dewey’s:Two So in Love; My Girl; I Will (Beatles);Have I Told You Lately That I Love You-Van Morri-son; JustYou n Me--Chicago

AZ: Lady; It’s Only Make Believe; I JustWant to BeYourTeddy Bear;WillYou Still Love MeTomorrow.

JZ: I Honestly LoveYou;Love MeTender;PassionateKisses;TheWedding Song; and I have to say I JustWant to BeYourTeddy Bear.

AG: Where is the most romantic place your spouseever took you?

DKS: He honestly can make any place romantic.One of the stand out memories though, is when hesurprised me with dinner at Portabellos in Madi-son.

AZ: I took Joyce to a romantic Bed & Breakfast inDoor County and we spent most of the weekend inthe hot tub. We were really clean!!!!

JZ: Andy takes me on picnics on Liberty Hill some-times. We just sit and talk,eat fried chicken and daydream. It is great and a very special time for me.

AG:Does your spouse sing love songs to you? If so,what song(s) do they sing?

DKS: No,he doesn't sing love songs to me,but backin the day, he made a tape for me, of him singingsome of my favorite singers and songs.I still have it.

AZ: No!

JZ: Sometimes, he just makes up silly words. Hedid write a song for me before we were married en-titled, You Make Me Smile. He won a songwritingcontest and then we played it at our wedding andthe and played it for the grand march. What a ro-mantic – I think I’ll keep him!!!!

I want to say thanks to the Sies’s for completingthese questions and being such good sports by fill-ing them out. Also thanks to Gary and Mary Fran-cois and to my sweet husband.

Written by: Joyce Ziehli

ROMANCE IS INTHE AIR –OR IS IT???


Is Mom home yet? I would yell out from mybedroom anxiously awaiting her arrival home froma trip to the grocery store. If I heard “yea” fromsomewhere in the house, I would tear out of myroom and as gently as I could paw through the bagstill I found it, the towering box of Honey Comb ce-real. Saying a little prayer I would turn the boxover to see just what song was on the back of thebox. Yes I said“song”on the back of the“box”. Fora short time the cereal companies had 45’s on theback of their boxes that you could cut out and puton your record player and play. My favorite at thetime were songs by the comic book-come-TV car-toon series-come top 40 band “The Archies”. Thesongs on the back of the box were as sugary as thecontents in the box,and I loved them both. “SugarSugar” (how appropriate) “Jingle Jangle” and theTheme from the Archies, “Everything’s Archie”were songs I remember cutting out and playingthem over and over. I knew every word and everydrum beat by the time I finished the cereal withinthe box. That simple and thrilling exercise beganfor me a life long pleasure of listening to music.When I became old enough to begin appreciat-

ing“real” records, I would save or more than likelybeg my folks for the 50 cents needed to head to therecord department in the local Shopko store nearour home. The radio would give me an idea ofwhat I should be looking for,and I relied on“Amer-icanTop 40”with Casey Kasem to hear the songs Iloved. I would stand for an hour or so in front ofthe rack that would display the top 40 hits of thatweek and be filled with the agony of the decisionof what to buy. Torture!I enjoyed the entire record buying experience. I

knew the song(s) that I liked and would eventuallypurchase, but I was just as enthralled with thesleeve that the 45 came in. Picture sleeves weremy favorite as it would often be my introduction towhat the group of musicians that sang my favoritesong looked like. All of this made the song comealive for me. When I got the record home it alwaysfelt like magic. I can still see me putting the 45 onthe plastic adaptor (that would slide on the postthat held the 33 rpm’s in place) watching it dropand the record arm moving over and the sound ofthe needle making contact with the vinyl. Then themusic would start,and I could not be moved. Overand over the song would play as I sat and paid at-tention to what I was hearing and how I was feel-ing. I was focused and open and learning andenjoying the magic of recorded music. I was lis-tening.

In my teens collecting LP’s became my hobby. Iwas a pop music junkie enjoying the melodies andharmonies of that style of music. The Beach Boyswere my favorite,but there were many others, too.But, I always did the same thing when it came timeto listening to a record. I would look through mystack of LP’s in my orange crate and pick the onethat spoke to me in the moment. Without really re-alizing it at the time, my LP choice would be onethat was reflecting my feelings at the time, or if Ihad a new record and had not read all the linernotes yet, that would get top billing. Once therecord was chosen, I would line up my rockingchair (Grandpa’s old one that was just right forrecord listening) to be a perfect distance away fromand smack dab in the middle of the stereo speakersthat were on the small tables in my room. As muchas I loved the notes being played, I also was veryaware of the production of and the placement ofall the instruments in the spectrum of the stereo 2channel reproduction. I would put the needledown on the first cut of the LP,get in my chair, andnot move until side one was complete. I would ei-ther have the record jacket in my hands looking atit as I listened, or I would turn off the lights andallow myself to experience the music with my earsonly. It did not take long before I could sing everysong entirely. I was paying attention to what theartist was giving me and forming my opinion aboutwhat it meant to me. I was listening.Now in my mid 40’s my music listening habits

have changed. I find myself putting CD’s on in mycar (always wanted a dashboard mounted recordplayer!) or in the CD player in the house and thendoing something else like driving, cleaning, exer-cising or drumming, but not really listening. Iwould hear the music,but it just was not the same.The CD’s that are new to my collection have a songor two that I know from the radio, but the rest ofthe songs are a mystery to me. My attention is nowdivided and because of that choice, so is my pleas-ure. My music listening experience has changedjust like the format of the music itself. I believethey go hand-in-hand. As music became moreportable and convenient, I found myself enjoyingit in a different way often in a less satisfying way.For me,the removal of the commitment to sit downand listen to the record on the player has also re-duced my connection to the music and the emo-tion of the artist. I no longer “feel” the music, Isimply hear it.This summer I decided to make a conscious ef-

fort to revisit the music listening habits of myyouth. Rather than turn on the TV, I would pick aCD and put it in my home stereo CD player.Withthe CD cover in hand I headed for the couch(which is perfectly centered,smack dab in the mid-dle of the speakers!) hit play just to see what Iwould feel. I was amazed. It still worked! Before Iknew it I was captivated by the music and the pro-duction of the selected CD and was swept away. Iwas listening again!I realized something else as well. As I began the

exercise of once again sitting down and focusingon what I was listening to in the CD player,I also re-alized and reflected on how I listen to the peoplein my life. I can remember after the completion oflistening to a Sheryl Crow CD I just sat there in thesilence and thought that I don’t do this enoughwith the people I love. I don’t listen to them; I justhear them. I reflected on recent conversationswith others and realized I was so busy thinking ofwhat I was going to say next that I never reallyheard what they were telling me. I thought of theirreplaceable experience of looking someone in

the eye,hearing their words,and allowing myself tobe moved by the experience. My computer and cellphone create a gap between me and the other per-son. I still had the experience of communicatingwith the other person, but I found myself less in-volved and less committed to really listening tothem. I sat there in the silence amazed at how thislesson came to me. I rediscovered the passion Ihave for making the object of my attention my onlyexperience.In the very fast paced world we all live in we all

seem to be trying to do so much. It’s as if I am afraidthat if I stop to pay attention, there will be thingspassing me by that I think I do not want to miss. Iam beginning to understand that I will never be ableto experience all of the possible things that comemy way, so I must begin to choose a few things thatI select as important and make them the focus ofmy attention. I believe that my deep joy comesfrom committing to what is in front of me from startto finish, just like side one of a record. It might beto pause and enjoy a flower and not just look at it.It may be closing my eyes and hearing the wind inthe pines and not just watching the branches movebut just taking time to listen.Did the mail come yet? I would yell from the

lower level of the house. If I hear“yea”I tear up thestairs and out the door to paw through the junk mailto see what LP Ernie the mail guy has delivered,freshly purchased from E-bay.

Time to dust off the needle!Written by: Jim Smith

TheArt ofListening

15%DISCOUNTOn your first

recording project!

313 East Church Street • Belleville, WI 53508

608-424-6300


What’s it like to be young and truly talented with your whole music future ahead of you? I don’t know, butI’m sure it is what it is like to be in DWI (Dancing with idiots) from New Glarus, WI. New Glarus you say isn’t that the homeof Polka Fest, Wilhelm Tell, and of course Spotted Cow? Yes it is but it is also home to the three very talented Andersonbrothers Greg, Brian, and Eric, along with their surrogate sister and one hell of a lead guitar player Chelsey Blanke (who re-sides in Waunakee).The Andersons and Blanke make up DWI, a hard rocking combo that plays everything from ACDC to the Bare Naked

Ladies. These kids rock! I had the opportunity to see them live twice and they blew me and everyone else at their showsaway. With dual lead guitars of Eric and Chelsey they whirl their way through hard rockin bone breaking rock and roll.Brothers Brian on bass and Greg on drums round out the band with one of the tightest rhythm sections you’ll ever hear.The killer part of this musical equation is that not one of these rockers is 20 years old. Eric is the youngest at age 15, Brianis 16, Chelsea is 18, and Greg 19. Eric, Brian, and Chelsey handle the vocal chores and have excellent range and harmonies.They all play way beyond their years. Chelsey is not your average “girl” guitar player. She shreds, bends, and taps outsome unbelievable lead guitar riffs. All are participates in the great lessons program that Good N Loud Music of Madisonputs on. In fact that is where they met.Currently the group is in Sugar River Studios in Belleville recording a demo to use to acquire more playing jobs. I spent

some time with them and got the lowdown on DWI and what makes them want to be musicians.

AG: When did you guys start playing?

DWI: In 2004 Greg and Chelsey and two other guys started the band. We had met at the Good N Loud master session.Chelsey was playing with some other guys and they did not have a drummer so Greg jumped up on stage and started play-ing with them. Afterwards they decided to start a band. At first we did not have a bass player, then one of the other guitarplayers left so they were down to a three piece band. We soon asked Eric to join. Shortly after that a bass player joined up

DWI, Rock With Some Attitude

Dancing With Idiots


and they practiced forabout a year and a half.A disagreement on banddirection happened andthen Brian came aboardto play bass. We havebeen together for twoyears in this formation.

AG: Why this style ofmusic instead of POP?

DWI: Classic Rock and12 Bar Blues is wherewe started. That soonevolved into more mod-ern Rock like TheRaconteurs. We just re-ally play what feels nat-ural to us.

AG: What are your mu-sical goals?

DWI: We hope to getinto Summer Fest thisyear and play on one ofthe smaller stages. Weare always looking toplay more jobs. HighSchool Dances, PrivateParties, All age’s clubsand parties, anything wecan get to help us moveforward and get morestage time.

AG: What is it like to be in band whileyou’re still basically in High School (Greg isa sophomore in College) and starting out?

DWI: It’s a lot of fun. It’s exciting to be ableto get up on stage and make music. Everygig is really appreciated. Making somemoney is a great benefit. Being able to playout is what it is all about!

AG: What do your families think of youbeing in a band?

DWI: Our Parents (The Anderson’s) arevery supportive and have always providedtransportation and practice space for us.They like the fact that we are making musicand having fun. Chelsey’s parents havebeen very supportive too. They like havinga Rocker Daughter!

AG: Have you always lived in New Glarusand Waunakee?

DWI: The Anderson’s are originally fromBarrington IL. They have also lived in Mid-dleton before moving to New Glarus eightyears ago. New Glarus feels the most likehome. Chelsey has always lived aroundWaunakee.

AG: What influenced all of you to play?

DWI: Music has always been part of ourlives; We all have always had music aroundour homes. To be able to bring our own indi-viduality to the table and create music as agroup is very important to us. Greg was in-

fluenced to play drumsbecause of earlier experi-ences in school musicclasses playing percus-sion. The Anderson’s hadalso all received instru-ments at Christmas andhad started taking les-sons at Good N Loud.Chelsey was influencedby Led Zeppelin CD’s, butnow is into 9 inch Nails.

AG: How many shows toyou play a year?

DWI: We play as many astime allows with schooland Greg being away atCollege.

AG: Do you write any ofyour own material?

DWI: We started doingsome writing and plan towork harder on that in2009. Greg and Brianhave some jams workedout that are pretty inter-esting. We are usingthem and trying to putlyrics to them. Chelseyalso has written somethat we are planning towork out.

AG: Chelsey not to sound like a sexist butwhat’s it like being a female lead guitarplayer?

Chelsea: Just like it must feel to be a guylead guitar player! I’m just one of the broth-ers here.

AG: Touché!!!

AG: How doyou decidewho sings leadwhen you havethree greatsingers?

DWI: Whoever wants totry the songfirst gets to. Ifit does notwork for themor does not fittheir vocalstyle someoneelse will take ashot at it. Itreally dependson the band weare trying tocover and whoit fits in DWI.

AG: Any com-ments you’dlike to make as

we wrapthis up?

DWI:Yes, wewouldlike tothankJohnandAnneMiller atthe FatCat Cof-feeHouse inNewGlarusfor let-ting usbe partof the“Partyon thePatio”concertseriesthis lastsummer.Wewould also like to thank the AmericanaGazette and Sugar River Productions fortheir help and support. We would also reallylike to thank our parents for letting us playmusic and making it easy for us to have funat it.

AG: Good luck DWI!!!

DWI: Thanks and hopefully we’ll see allyour readers at our shows.

DWI is on MySpace so check them out.Story and Photos by: Andy Ziehli


Yes, that is right; my radio would be thelast possession in the world that I could/would giveup. I am a radio guy. I listen to a radio some timeor other every day of my life. I grew up with theradio,and I still depend upon the radio for my dailynews, weather reports, sports, music, and talkshows. So if you are going to take away my pos-sessions, I will fight the hardest and longest to keepmy radio. I have two similar models available fordaily use in the house. One is in the kitchen, andwhat is a kitchen without a radio? The second is inthe bathroom closet. I open the closet door to lis-ten to it while doing the bathroom things! I havea regular routine of when I listen, and I have beenknown to adjust my schedule so I can be in thekitchen or in the bathroom so I can listen to “myprogram”. The car radio is usually on, too. It is myfavorite accompaniment when I am doing Meals-on-wheels.

My parents had the radio on in their kitchen,too. We got the early morning news and weather atbreakfast. At noon it was more news and the obit-uaries. Yes,WIBA once made noon time death no-tices. Monroe radio still does that. The barn radiowas on to polka music or dance music of somekind with an occasional country and western song.My dad sat up listening to Badger basketball gamesand professional boxing matches. My mother lis-tened to an Oak Park, Illinois family broadcast fromtheir home. It was the Cliff Johnson Family show.Sometimes she would listen to Arthur Godfrey’s

radio show. Saturday night meant the WLS BARNDANCE show. The radio was placed in the livingroom, a central location to reach the downstairsand upstairs bedrooms, and it was turned up quiteloud. We would go to bed with the show on. Ithink it ran until 11 or midnight. We had our fa-vorites like RexAllen and Lulu Belle and Scotty. Mydad did not care for a singer named GraceWilson.Sometimes her songs got to him so much that hewould get up and shut the program off for a time.The show often faded in and out, and on somenights the quality was so bad that the radio wouldbe shut off early. I do not know which parent shutthe radio off each week. I just know I could wakeup in the night after midnight,and the radio wouldbe shut off.

But I had a lot of favorite radio shows: weeknights it was Jack Armstrong, the All American kidand the Lone Ranger. When those two shows wereover,I would run to the barn to do my chores. Eachnight there would be a favorite show of mine,suchas, Jack Benny,George Burns and GracieAllen,Doc-tor I.Q., Horace Height, Charles McCarthy andEdgar Bergen, People are Funny,Truth and Conse-quences, Our Miss Brooks, and many others thatwould make this list too long to read. Saturdaymornings featured hour long plays or dramas withfamous stars from the movies and Broadway. A veryspecial favorite was the Lux Radio Theater hostedby Cecil B.DeMille. Each week the show would bea re-creation of a newly released Hollywood movie.

And sports! The radio was my way of enjoyingsports! I still prefer to listen to Badger football on

the radio. And baseball is meant tobe on the radio! Sunday nightchores were much more enjoyablewhen there was a baseball game onduring chore time. DoubleheaderSundays usually meant I could findone somewhere on the dial to enjoy.I even remember sitting up to listento the University of Wisconsin box-ing team bouts often out West inIdaho or Washington State. Okay, aconfession: a few times when myteam lost a close game or thingswere not going well for “my team”,the radio was almost a victim of aheave across the room, but I had toremind myself that if the radio broke,I was out of my favorite possession.

As a kid I used to try and find abroadcast from some station manystates away: like Texas, Pennsylvania,Georgia, or Colorado. I would writedown their call letters, and then Iwould send them a card telling that Ihad listened to their station. Mostwould reply with a special postcardfeaturing their building and call let-ters. I had a small collection. Oncethe transistor radio came into being,I had one of those with me all thetime. I remember hot lazy summerdays listening to pop songs as I wassupposed to be doing some farmchore. Some songs remain favoritesto this day because of the happywarm memory of when I first lis-tened to them. On Saturday morningthere would always be a countdownof the top songs of the week. It wasalways special when one of your fa-vorite songs got to the top of the list

and stayed there for a few weeks. And Christmaswas not Christmas without listening to Santa andBilly the Brownie onWTMJ,Milwaukee.

I was listening in when Monroe radio stationWEKZ began its first broadcast. I think the firstsong I heard that day was “Sweet Violets”. OurSwiss family always tuned in to the Swiss programeach day at 1 PM. Today we listen to old bandmusic on Sunday mornings followed by theold timemusic show that Roger Bright hosted for manyyears.

I had two d.j.s that entertained me so wonder-fully: Jim Mader and Wally Phillips. Mader couldspin great tales during his programs, and Phillipsused sound effects and blended songs and weirdvoices as his special gimmick.As the years went on rock radio became a staple

in my listening agenda. The Braves were replacedby the Brewers as my favorite baseball games toenjoy via the radio.My very first radio memory is simple. My

mother was sick with the mumps. A neighbor girlcame to look after my sister and me. She playedour radio constantly switching stations so she couldhear her then favorite song“Mairzy Doats”. I couldsoon sing every word of that song as she found itover and over again on various stations. It was songby the Merry Macs.

Sorry but I need to end this. I wonder whatKathy and Judy ofWGN radio are talking about thismorning. I need to find out. And keep your handsoff my radio, please.

Written by: Bob Hoffman

You Can’tHave MyRadio!


Do youlike reminiscing?When old friendsget together andyou say “Remem-ber that time,” andthe list goes onand you laugh andtalk of the goodtimes long ago.Well I am going todo just that. For allyou older readersout there wholived in the oldendays BTR (beforethe remote) I amgoing back in timeto my youth as ateenager duringthe“Nifty Fifties.” Iremember it as agreat time.One of the

great things wasthe music. Youcould understandwhat the singerswere saying.Therewas Rosemary Clooney,The Singing Rage,Miss PattiPage,” Frankie Laine, singing Mule Train, and whocould forget Vaughn Monroe and Racing with theMoon. If you liked Country there was Rex Allen,EddyArnold,KittyWells to name a few, and yes wehad Elvis. It was the beginning of Rock and Rollalong with American Bandstand.The number onesong on the hit parade in 1950 was GoodnightIrene.TV was making its mark in the average Ameri-

can’s home, throwing us altogether to enjoy abrand new culture. Big boxy sets were the norm,all showing a black and white picture.At first wesat in the dark viewing the screen like in the movietheatre.Then someone came up with the idea of aTV light to sit on top of the set and throw a warmglow throughout the room.These lamps came in allsize, shapes, and colors. They became a decorativeitem.Levis made a fashion statement as the jeans you

wanted to wear. Crinoline under your skirts, theSack dress was in,Peter Pan collar on your blouses,and anything pink was the color to wear. Duck tailhaircuts on guys and poodle cuts for gals.Let us notforget hairspray.What a treat to comb your hair,spray it,and then not have to comb it again to keepthe look you wanted. We went green back thentoo. There was chlorophyll in our toothpaste,mouthwash, and cough syrup.The prom was the big event of the year.That’s

when we had a real orchestra for music. For other

events we allbrought our fa-vorite records tothe gym wheresomeone was incharge of thep h o n o g r a p hplayer. We danceduntil it was time togo home.We hadour own DiscJockey’s beforethere was such afield. For enter-tainment therewere soc-hops,roller skating par-ties, and movies toattend. I remem-ber when the sex-iest scene I eversaw in a moviewas the beachscene with Debo-rah Kerr and BurtLancaster in“FromHere to Eternity.”Comedians werefunny back then

without using four letter words to get their pointacross.We all laughed at Red Buttons,Milton Berle,and Desi and Lucy onTV.We had our war too.It was called a police action

and took place in a country called Korea.It was oneof the bloodiest wars in history. The purpose, ifthere is ever a purpose in war, was to stop thethreat of communism from spreading. We were thefirst generation to enjoy M&M peanut candy, theFrisbee,Tony theTiger and Pop-it beads.There were football games to attend in the fall.

At the school that I attended we had six man foot-ball. Back then you knew all the players and eventhe players from the competing teams.There was abig bonfire at homecoming and a parade withfloats.A queen was crowned at the big game and adance was held afterwards. If this sounds like ascene from “Happy Days” it could have been,though I don’t remember a Fonzie in our crowd.By the end of the decade things were starting tochange.The war in Vietnam was on the horizon,feminists were burning their bras,Civil rights issueswere becoming something to be reckoned with,and anAmerican president would be assassinated.To me the fifties were good times. I take a lot of

pleasure in remembering.Thoreau once said,“Thatman is the richest whose pleasures are the cheap-est.”, and I feel very rich.

Written by: Rosemary Ziehli

TheTwoP’sandYouWhen I was a kid in grade school the teacher’s

would call my parents or send notes home with mesaying“Andy does and is not working up to his po-tential in class”. They had the perception that I wascapable of doing much better and working muchharder than I was exhibiting in the classroom. I al-ways wondered how they, the teachers knew whatmy potential was, and how they came to perceivethat I was not achieving the heights or standardsthey had envisioned for me.As I got older the two P’s as I came to call them

followed me through Junior High and High School.I came to hate report card time, not for my gradesbut for the little notes that would be attached.Maybe I was working to my potential and theteacher’s perceptions were wrong. Heck I oughtto know what I was capable of.It took me till I turned 40 to realize that I had

not been working up to my potential all theseyears. Then on a cold December day in 1997 I re-alized what they had been talking about all thoseyears ago, and I have been on a one way street toachieve,create, rethink, rebuild, and master my fullpotential. I realize that my potential only has thelimits that I set, and not the ones life throws at me.What does this have to do with art,music,or you

the reader? A lot really. First,no one can determineyou or your potential. That’s something you canonly do. Secondly, just because you have a slow orlate start does not mean that you cannot achieveyour dreams and goals. Thirdly, perception is onlyimportant if how you perceive you or your talentsand skills to be,not how your friends and family seeyou or your muse. Lastly, don’t let others change,block,or end your life’s path because they perceiveyou or your muse as not being up to the task athand.Many people I have met over the years gave up

a dream to be something at an early age becausesomeone or something discouraged it. Ninety-ninepercent of these people were extremely talentedand could have easily “made it” as an artist, per-former, or songwriter if they would have only takenthe chance to do so. They might not have madethe “big” time but they would have certainly ac-complished their basic desire or dream in somefashion. Dreams are what keep us trudgingthrough life’s roadblocks. They are the things thatcement bonds between people working towards


I RememberWhen


Itwas an cold Monday morning when I ven-tured to Randy’s Recording in Cottage Grove to in-terview Randy Green, studio owner, musician,producer, engineer, and entrepreneur. He hademailed me on the previous Friday to see if I wouldlike donuts with my coffee and of course being thegracious guest that I am readily acted. When I gotto the studio I was greeted with a tour, cup of cof-fee, and a large cinnamon roll. It was a great way tostart two wonderful information/wisdom filledhours talking with Randy.Randy Green was born inWashington D.C right

after WWII. His Father was in the Navy and grewup in LaFarge,WI.while his mother came from Pitts-burgh where her parents had emigrated from Italy.When Randy was two his family moved back to La-Farge where he grew up and went to school. In1966 he moved to Madison to attend and graduatedfrom the U.W.and played in Pop bands. This startedhis love for recording and making music. His firstrecorder was a Sony Reel to Reel two track ma-chine. He made his first tape hanging two micro-phones over the stage to record his band, ThePolice Department at a show. When he got homeand listened to it he was appalled and mystified.The recording was awful. It was all distorted anduneven. After learning from that first experiencehe developed his skills at mic placement andstarted making better recordings, which he statedthat “it takes years to learn the correct way torecord.” He soon graduated to a four track reel toreel machine, then to a sixteen track, and then fi-nally to a twenty-four track reel to reel which hestill uses today.Randy’s Recording is a multi-room studio with

three different live rooms, control room, lounge,and office, all designed by Randy. It is filled withmany different mics and amps. It has Dr.Bop’s oldpiano, a Hammond M-3 organ and Leslie, analogoutboard gear, and a digital recording setup. Theserooms are all very comfortable and have a greatvibe so the creative juices can really flow here.Large panes of thick glass separate the rooms sothat eye contact can be maintained at all times.Each room can be isolated from the other by dou-ble doors. This facility is quite impressive to say theleast. Hundreds of albums,cassette tapes,and CD’shave been recorded here since the studio officiallyopened in 1989. The walls of Randy’s office hold

Randy GreenCapturing Music in

Real Time

testament to the people andartists who have walkedthrough the front door of thisstudio.As we talked about everythingfrom the state of Country Musicto live music in Madison,Randy’s wit and wisdom shownthrough. I came away from thisinterview with a different pointof view on creating music andplaying music. The first thing Idid was go home and throughaway my notebook of studiohow-to articles. Randy’s ap-proach and style is very differ-ent than the “new” breed ofstudio owners. They all shouldtake some time to spend withRandy and the few “old” timersas he says to learn about thealchemy and study of the mostimportant element of recording,the song.

AG: When you first startedrecording you said that yourfirst attempt was terrible. Whathave you changed or haschanged since then?

Green: Well when I look at aconsole now I still see theknobs and sliders so that hasn’t changed. I thinkwhat has is my ability to record better. In your firstrecordings your brains aren’t really in it as much asyour ears are. You have to learn to use them in tan-dem. It’s not so much skills as my will to make bet-ter recordings. I learn from each session even afterall these years and every session I try to do betterthan the one before.

AG: You said that you did four track and eight trackrecording before moving to a more professional for-mat with a sixteen track recording. What was thatlike?

Green: I went to a one inch sixteen track recorderwhich is a wonderful format, probably the bestsounding recording format ever. I used that for

about eight years and then went to a twenty-fourtrack which I still use today. I upgraded to this for-mat because people started building houses in thisneighborhood. My neighbors were talking abouthow they heard thunder a lot and I realized thatthey were hearing the drums from my studio. I de-cided to add on the studio then and soundproof itbetter. When that happened, I needed to upgradeto a twenty-four track (in 1994) because of the lo-gistics of inputs being needed into three rooms in-stead of one. I miss that machine. It was incredibleto record with and the sound was perfect.

AG: Do you record digitally?

Green: I do. I have a full digital, fully integratedannlog/ditigial system here. I guess I’m an analog


guy. A 24 bit digital recording is a more accuraterecording than analog. Digital when it first cameout did suck,but it has gotten better. Analog doesnothing but pickup what you are recording,exactlywhat is there. What people forget and why they sayanalog recording is “better’ or warmer” is becausethey had this entire analog front end. A board, ef-fects, and the machine itself. That entire front endwas helping to make that analog recording soundthe way that it did. It just wasn’t the tape machine.

I find that if I just simply run through the analogboard and then through the tape machine anddon’t commit the recording to tape but to digital, Iget the same sound only more accurate. So whatyou need is an analog front end without all the micpre-amps you use to enhance a digital recording.The bottom line is you don’t need to spend$50,000.00 on all this software and pre-amps to getthat sound. All you need to do is use a good analogboard to record into.

AG: With the Recording schools putting put allthese graduates in an over crowded job marketwith nothing but ProTools experience,how is thatgoing to affect the recoding industry, and what isthe effect on the learning curve in the field?

Green: I don’t think it’s as much a learning curveas a learning regression. It’s hard to learn to do stuffwrong. I have played with people who were terri-ble but yet people liked them. You had to playbelow your level to play with them. So what youend up doing is learn to play wrong to fit in and dothe job. The whole digital system and world inrecording is actually teaching you how to run ananalog system on a screen. That is a total regres-sion. For me to have to learn that is a waste of time.I know how to turn a knob by hand. It’s easier thanlearning to do it with a mouse.All the great music written in the world in the

last 40 years was recorded analogy and nobody hada problem with it. Nobody went "Ah man weshould have recorded it digitally”. It’s not that. It’sthe fact that digital recording does not even need tobe. I would not waste my time on something thatis not up to speed yet.We are just the Ginny pigs for the next genera-

tion of computer operators. We are working thebugs out. The next generation will be able to say tothe machine record this song and it will happen.That’s why regressing to learn how to record digi-tally on a screen using analog pictures does notmake sense to me. We have been up to speed for25-30 years.The thing that computers and digitalrecording does bring to the table is editing. Youcould never never edit analog tape like you can editdigitally.Pro Tools is a bubble in the industry. All these

kids getting trained on it so that all recording is thesame is wrong. Just take the name Pro Tools (ProTools is a registered trademark of the DigidesignCorporation) has a condescending notation formusic. You fix things with tools. I don’t want to“fix”music I want to create and record music. Mu-sicians seem to be split on this topic. Some enjoythe program and embrace it and others see it as anecessary evil in today’s music world. The fixer ver-sus the player. So the bottom line is do you want tobe a musical mechanic or do you want to be a mu-sician. As I said I have no problem with it as an ed-iting device, but as an end all recording mediumI’m not really sold on it. The parts that it brings thatwork well I’m also good with. The part where it istraining people to manufacture music is maybe not

such a good thing. I’ve been recording for 40 yearsand I think I’ve seen pretty much everything thathas come along. Teaching someone to “fix”musicinstead of having someone who can play or singjust is not right. I don’t subscribe to the notion thatif you don’t record with a computer or don’t usesoftware to fix the recordings you are wrong, andthat’s the only way to do it now.

AG: When someone who has never recordedcomes to the studio,what do you do that is differ-ent than someone who has studio experience?

Green: Before anything happens I ask them whothe producer is. Usually they don’t know what aproducer does so I explain it to them. Then usuallythey say oh I’ll take care of that or my dad or buddywill. I then explain to them how it is better to finda “real” producer. Someone who knows their wayaround the studio and understands the music andrecord business. After we get that settled I let themget the feel of the studio for about an hour. Thenwe get down to work and try different things. Itusually takes a couple of hours to get the groovegoing. After everyone is comfortable we startrecording.With seasoned performers and writers they un-

derstand the production process and usually haveeverything figured out before we start. They areused to the process and have an end result in sightbeyond just making a CD or record.

AG: Are there any“newbie” traits in the studio?

Green: Yes there usually is a couple. First they tellme that they’ll need headphones. Secondly they’lltell me what mic to put on an amp or guitar be-cause they read it in a magazine or book. Thenthey’ll say that they don’t understand why theydon’t sound just like their idols,or it goes the otherway and they tell me that there is something wrongwith the mic or recorder because “they” don’tsound like that.

AG: So is it frustrating to work with beginners?

Green: Frustrating is not the word I’d use. Educa-tional and trying are probably better in most cases.

AG: Any advice for people thinking about going toa study and recording?

Green: Sure, a couple of things. First, talk to thestudio owner and engineer about your project be-fore you get to the studio. Listen to the engineerand producer. They are the ones who know thisequipment and the process better than anyone inthe studio you are in. Not every studio is a good fitfor every session,project,or artist. Check out a cou-ple to find one you are most comfortable in and canaccomplish what you had in mine. Be open to sug-gestions from the producer and or engineer. Lastly,have fun and don’t be stressed out.This concludes the first part of this interview

with Randy Green of Randy’s Recording in CottageGrove. The second part of this interview will be onRandy Green the musician and it will be in theApril/May edition of the Americana Gazette. Youcan check out Randy’s Recording at randysrecord-ing.com.

Story by:Andy ZiehliPhotos furnished from Randy Greene

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A low chatter filled the High Noon Sa-loon on a foggy Friday night. It was time toescape the holiday togetherness and peoplewere out for a night on the town. Tonight theHigh Noon was holding the “Benefit for Cadil-lac Joe”. Then out of the bar’s darkness andonto the stage came Clear Blue Betty, a kindof folksy, kind of rocky band whose roots rundeep into the Madison Music scene. With thestunning and talented Beth Kille at the helm,Clear Blue Betty sailed high above the stage.This well tuned ship made f light with RobKoth’s catchy guitar play, Doug Sies, TonyKille, and Jim Smith providing a precise andrumbling percussion section, and Beth Kille’scaptivating stage presence brought the crowdto full attention. The music smoothly and eas-ily transferred from a powerful, straightfor-ward sound to a light and bouncy one.As the band finished up their set, more and

more people filled the main floor and balcony.Light sounds of a harmonica drifted over thecrowd. Bluesy and rich, the sound made peo-ple turn from their holiday chat to the stage.Everyone watched in anticipation as the mu-sicians summoned their instruments, but onewas missing. Drummer, Kenny Smith, wasstuck somewhere else because of the lovelywinter weather, so the sound that came fromthat stage was something different, somethingcool and mellow. The mix of Joes Nosek’ssmooth harmonica, Chris Boeger’s thick andrich bass, and Billy Flynn’s superb guitar play-ing swirled around the bar, and all that wasmissing was the hiss and crackle of vinyl on aturntable. People began to move around thedance f loor weaving to the slow easy pace ofthe music. The best word to describe the

band was “smooth” Chicago Blues music.After a few bars of this hypnotic music SouthChicago blues singer Oscar Wilson took thestage. Wilson swayed as he sang with a clas-sic but far from stale voice. Most peoplearen’t born to sing the blues, but Wilson mayhave been one of those lucky few. He broughtus back to the 1930’s and down to the Delta.The crowd now covered the f loor as The

Cash Box Kings left the stage, and AaronWilliams and the Hoodoo took their place.Within seconds of taking the stage they com-pletely reversed the mood in the room frommellowness to heart pounding blood rushinggroove. Powerful blues pounded from thestage unto the crowd below. Then up cameCadillac Joe, and made sure everyone knew hewas there. His voice, rough and low, his keyslight and quick. His fingers danced across thekeys and never showed any sign of hesitation.But the same could be said about AaronWilliams and his mastery of the guitar. TheHoodoo and Cadillac made it hard to lookaway from the stage. Williams, whom oozedcool and talent, made it impossible to notfocus 100% of your whole being stage front.The crowd really started moving when bassplayer, Zac Auner, took the mic and did a hard,upbeat version of “Folsom Prison Blues”.Theband was tight, never missing a beat or a note.Song after song the band conquered thecrowd. Although cliché and corny, I woulddefinitely say that the High Noon Saloon was“hopping” that foggy Friday night.The crowd had thinned a bit by the time

the last band walked up the stairs, and tookthe stage. All the party poopers were defi-nitely going to miss out. Joel Pingitore andthe Playground of Sound exploded off of thestage. The first couple songs were powerful

instrumentals. Pingitore wasn’t still for a mo-ment. With each progression he shook andswayed in a different way. The notes thatcame from that guitar were fueled by some-thing, something intense, something thatcomes from the soul. Then new lead vocalistBrad Reichert took the stage with his classic,rumbling blues vocals. Reichert groovedalong with Pingitore as he cranked out an-other solo. The Playground of Sound was hav-ing a great time. After a few songs Reichertleft the stage, and Joel Pingitore and the Play-ground of Sound dove into a beautiful, slowand light instrumental, really showing thedepth of the band. Bassist Frank Queram anddrummer Joel “B” Brantmeier are a suburbrhythm section meshing like the gears in afinely tuned Chevy 396 engine! The talent ofPingitore could not be overshadowed thatfoggy Friday evening. Most in the bar wereentranced by the sounds that poured from hisinstrument. He is a natural and master of theguitar.Soon after The Playground of Sound

stepped down from the stage, the crowdbegan to clear. On this cold foggy night a feel-ing of love and support heated the damp airto a high enough temperature to rain goodtimes and great music onto the many whoventured out to help support Cadillac Joe.Thanks to everyone who showed up and par-ticipated in the drawings and silent auction,and thank you to Aaron Williams for organiz-ing this great event.

Story by: Rob KosmederPhotos by: Lynn Nimsomboon

The Benefit for Cadillac Joe


arts district or scene is one way to get thecommunity on board and support the creationof such districts and scenes.

3. The next thing that you need is a businessowner or entrepreneur to have a business thatartists and musicians can congregate at toexchange ideas, and to showcase their work. Acoffeehouse, gallery, and or club/bar. Withouthaving a central place or two for these folks tomeet, exhibit, and or perform at all the talent inthe world won’t help your community grow asan arts center or scene.

4. Your local banking community needs to under-stand the arts marketplace. It needs to createloan programs that work with artists and thebusiness cycles they operate in.

5. Emphasis needs to be put on the positiveaspects of creating an arts community and theeconomic benefits it can bring to a community.The arts need to be looked at as a viable busi-ness. By creating the infrastructure that isneeded to attract both artists and tourists youare creating the same infrastructure that youneed to attract other businesses.

6. Landlords of commercial property need towork with artisan tenets to have affordableleases. Setting up rent payments in a graduatedform to coincide with tourist seasons and theincrease in revenue at those times can helpartists lease buildings and space in an affordablemanner.

7. Bar and Club owners need to be focused on thelong-term effects of promoting original music,and not panicking when the crowds are not aslarge as cover bands can bring. This is not tosay that the owner of these establishmentsshould not make money, but rather they shouldunderstand that original music takes longer tocatch on,but also increases crowds over time.Original music crowds tend to be betterbehaved and cause less problems than rowdycover band crowds.

8. The local artist need to understand that they arepart of the community and therefore need togive back to it. Volunteering services and prod-ucts that benefit the community is essential.Benefits and fundraising events can bringgoodwill and needed funding to communities.

9. Tourists and the cash that they bring to acommunity are essential. Residents of thecommunity need to learn to embrace thetourists and work to keep them coming back.Complaining about them or openly beinghostile to tourists can only cause hard feelingsand a reduction in tourist dollars in thecommunity.

10.Marketing and advertising your local arts sceneis very important. If you don’t market your -selves beyond word of mouth marketing, yougreatly reduce the money that could be flowingthrough your community. A marketing plan isessential. This plan should include an advertis-ing budget,media selection, testimonials, a 5year plan of action, a review process, andrequirements plan to increase the artisan base.

Two P’s... continued from page 19

the same goals. They are the essence of life itself.Without dreams or goals we as humans have noneed to repopulate this planet. If things neverchange and we soldier on without a better future,why continue at all.So here are some steps to rekindle that dream if

you have set it aside or help you take the steps for-ward to achieve it now. Remember that your po-tential and the perception that you have of yourselfis what is important, not how others perceive youto be.• Dare to dream in the first place.• Write down your dream so it becomes a goal.• Make sure your goal is obtainable with thetalents and skills you have or can acquire.

• Network and find a mentor to help you achievewhat you desire.

• Quit hanging around negative people whowon’t and don’t support you in your quest.

• Learn a new skill that will help you achieveyour goal quicker.

• Join a group of like minded people and orartists so that you can help each other.

• Showcase your work.• Take and understand criticism. Use it to moveforward, not backward.

• Take baby steps at first.• If you don’t succeed, try again.• Study the past and people who have succeededin what you are attempting.

• Do not let age stop you from attaining yourgoals and dreams.

• Always find a way to go around, under, over, orthrough any road block that you face.

• Lastly, understand that being able to achieve asmaller version of your dream or goal is better thannot being able to do it at all. Once you have ac-complished a small part of it you will be able to re-examine your dreams and goals and find out if thisis enough or if you need to venture on further.I hope that in 2009 all of you are able to take

steps to reach your dreams and goals. I also hopethat your perception of yourself is positive andstays that way. It’s going to be a crappy year eco-nomically anyway,so instead of spending your timeworrying about the economy spend the time posi-tively working on you. Make 2009 the year “you”chose to be creative and happy.

Written by:Andy Ziehli

AMERICANAGAZETTE

SUBSCRIPTIONTheAmericana Gazette is a free bi-

monthly publication and may be pickedup at area locations. However if youwould like a copy mailed to you,pleasefill out the following information and

submit a check for $15.00 to:Americana Gazette, P.O.Box 208,

Belleville,Wi. 53508

Creating a “scene” in a positive way takes plan-ning, work,and money. The scene is nothing morethan a place where artists congregate and peopleflock to be a part of.Historically many“scenes”have been created in-

cluding Haitt Asbury in San Francisco,AustinTexasthe live music capital of the world,Greenwich Vil-lage in New York,Athens Georgia, Nashville Ten-nessee, SeattleWashington,and Soho in London. Allthese places attracted talented artists, writers, andmusicians. The community of people that followedthem helped define the“scene”.Many will argue that some of the above“scenes”

happened and were not planned. I will agree thatthey were not planned in the conventional way.They did happen because someone decided thatthose places were a great place to be creative andothers agreed with them and moved there. Thoughthe plans were not written out,a muse was createdand planned because of like thoughts and actionsof many individuals.Over the last 3 years I have spent an awful lot of

time interviewing and talking to many differenttypes of creative people on this subject and justhow does one go about creating an arts scene inone’s community. The answers and ideas have allbeen very interesting and thought provoking.Some people said that a scene can’t be created,andthat they just happen. Some said that an eventsparks the creative muse and people feed off of it.Yet others had genuine insight and ideas on howto create a vibrant arts and music scene that wasboth stimulating and economically possible.

The following ideas came from these inter-views. I hope that you can find one or two to useto help create an arts & music scene in your com-munity.1. The first thing you need is a good base of localartesian,musicians,writers, artist's, andperformers to draw from.

2. Second you need to have the support of thecommunity at large. If your community doesnot believe in this type of economic base itcannot succeed. TheArts and their place inlocal economies has been proven to be astickling point for many communities. Settingup town meetings to explain and show theeconomic and cultural advantages to having an

Creating a“scene” toattract the

arts to acommunity


John Jennings -Making a

LivingMakingMusic


John Jennings is one of the finest examples of agood guy making it in the music business: a multi-instrumentalist,award winning producer,engineer,and artist, besides being the best sideman anyonecould ever want in their band. Jennings, who hasbeen Mary Chapin Carpenter’s bandmate, frequentco-producer and friend for the last 25 years or so,has also produced and played on cd’s for JohnGorka, BeauSoleil, indigo girls, Janis Ian, Jen Cassand Bill Morrisey, just to name a few. He is an astuteplayer who knows when and when not to play,something many young musicians could learn from.John’s journey began when he was born in Luray,Virginia,about 90 miles from DC,back when it wasstill the Deep South. Jennings states you couldn’tmisbehave or everyone knew about it. John livedwith his mom, grandmother, aunt and brother.There was always music around the household. Hismother played piano,his older brother played sax-ophone, John himself had piano lessons, and theradio was always on, playing everything from BigBand to classical music. From the age of 12 Jen-nings knew he wanted to make a living makingmusic. John also used to play trumpet, (he laughs,and says he doesn't play this anymore) and uprightbass. John played in neighborhood bands growingup, and in 6th grade his band, (consisting of twoguitar players and two percussionists) played aschool concert,enlightening the crowd with SecretAgent Man and Sounds of Silence. In 7th gradeJohn turned to the electric bass, and by age 15 hadswitched to electric guitar, his first being a GibsonSG Special. (Which he says he no longer owns.)There is a difference and a formula to reaching

the achievements of John Jennings. Learning as hewent, he became familiar with both sides of theboard, and became a sought after player and pro-ducer from the late seventies on inWashington DC.On October 13, 1982 at a chance meeting wheresongwriters got together at a restaurant called theClass Reunion lead by Bill Danoff, he was intro-duced to Mary Chapin Carpenter (MCC). The rest,as they say, it is history. This article is really a twopart story, the first talking about John Jennings theperson, artist, and songwriter, and the second parttalking with John Jennings, the producer andrecord maker.We have known Jennings for about eight years

and have always found him to be very helpful andhonest about music. He is especially straightfor-ward on the most important aspect of music: thesong. To Jennings, everything starts and ends withthe song. It’s not the fancy fills or technicalshenanigans that makes people want to listen to asong. It’s the heart and soul of the writer and theability to get your point across in a relatively shorttime. Unlike literature or prose, songwriters mostoften make their point with a few hundred words,and within three or four minutes. The compactnessof this medium makes it important that the writerbe focused and clear about their intent. It is theartist’s ability to capture a point in time that makeslisteners participants, not just observers.Jennings had a 16-track home recording studio

in the early eighties (before home recording be-came the norm, and where Mary Chapin Carpen-ter’s first album began), and he played and sang onjingles and demos. This helped to shape his skills

and his ear for musical lines and lyrical content. Healso learned to produce at this time. Singer/song-writer Bill Holland and producer/orchestrator PaulChristianson taught and mentored him on stageand in the studio. Jennings credits these two withbeing the most important individuals for teachinghim that “real adults could use popular music as atool of serious expression.” Jennings says that,when he saw 12, his brother asked him what hewanted to do when he grew up. He then remem-bered the old joke,“you can either grow up or be amusician. You can’t do both.” His main interest inthe last twenty years has been making records. Healso says that“when I work, I really work hard, andwhen I don’t work, I don’t work really hard.”When Jennings was in his early 40’s he decided

that it was about time that he record a cd. His man-ager found him a record deal with VanguardRecords. He cut two CD’s with them,and treasuresthe experience. At that time, he was doing a lot oftouring and production work with MCC,which oc-cupied most of his time. His lack of touring on hisown eventually became something of a problem forthe folks at Vanguard. They parted on very goodterms and Jennings has since recorded and distrib-uted his records on his own label.Jennings starts his compositions in his head. He

does not usually sit down with a guitar and say I’mgoing to write a song. He stated that he“usually hassomething in my head or heart, and the song de-velops from there.” Usually a rhythm is the firstthing that happens in his songs. The pulse is alwaysat the forefront of his creative process. As a writerhe confesses that“I’m a little haphazard in creatinga song.” As a producer and engineer,“I am muchmore focused on the process”. As far as his ownmaterial goes,Jennings says that“I have so little dis-cipline in writing that it isn’t even funny!” Johnshared that he has done a bit of co-writing, morewith Mary Chapin than anyone else. He rarely lis-tens to his own records when he is done recordingthem. “When they’re done, they’re done”he stated.The basic thrill for Jennings is getting to the pointwhere everyone is happy with what’s beenrecorded, and“you feel you have done the best jobyou can.”We talked in length about guitars, venues, food,

and finding a place or two for John to play up herein Wisconsin. We asked John where and whatvenue was the coolest place to play and he had a lit-tle trouble answering this as he stated,“all placesare good and all gigs are important.” However hedid tell us that he has played the White House acouple of times,and that was great,as well as a USOHoliday Season Tour in Saudi Arabia and Kuwait,and on the USS Enterprise. John doesn’t really havea favorite song that he has written: he still likesabout ½ of them and these are generally the oneshe plays live. When asked what he does to relax orif he has any hobbies, Jennings replied that he“put-ters around” and does handy man projects, whichhe is reasonably good at, because growing up hehad many jobs including working for the Depart-ment of Interior, record shop salesman, securityguard,bartender, landscaping,moving furniture andeven cleaning up buildings after a fire. John saidhe isn’t much of a cook, but he can “julienne thehell out of a carrot.” On the other hand,he said hispartnerTamara is a great cook,and he himself doesa decent job baking. (John did share a deliciousgrilled asparagus recipe with us, which we willhave to give a try.) On the subject of food, weasked John what his favorite food was,besides theWisconsin Cheese we send him. “Cheese is good,”Jennings replied,“but my favorite is dark chocolate.

My 3 favorite food groups are Middle Eastern, Ital-ian and French.”A true gentleman and a professional. When

asked about what advice he would give a youngmusician or producer Jennings said“Get a graduatedegree! Seriously, if you are in this strictly to makemusic, just make music,and don’t worry about it. Ifyou are in it to make a living, then I think you haveto be careful about which avenues you choose togo down. No one ever said it would be easy tomake a living as a musician.And the avalanche offreely accessible music, while admirably demo-cratic, rather warps the attitudes of listeners aboutthe real value of what they’re hearing. It’s hard tomake a living on stuff that you give away.”Ending up with a good record (or not) depends

entirely on the songs and how they are portrayed,and “every important factor is a human factor. Ihear very clever records all the time that have nointerest beyond the production. That’s just not ter-ribly appealing to me” Jennings states. Jenningscontinues,“I love finished songs that are sung well,with conviction and clarity. That’s pretty muchwhat I’m interested in. The easiest thing in theworld is to throw a bunch of clever crap on a trackand say you have made a record. People often puta bunch of noise down that sounds cool and con-temporary and figure they have a great record andthat’s just not enough. There is nothing wrong withcool sounding records,but if there is no substanceto it, it doesn’t hold anyone’s attention.We are nowdealing with a new generation of artists, engineersand producers who have never seen a tape ma-chine and have never had a limited number oftracks to work with. While there are benefits toworking in the digital realm (John uses Nuendo),there are some drawbacks,especially as regards nothaving to make timely decisions that could help theart.” When he mixes he does not automate any-thing, and always keeps a hand on the lead vocalfader. It is just a different process than what is con-sidered the industry standard today.Listening is critically important as an engineer,

player, and producer for Jennings. As an accompa-nist, he tries to familiarize himself with the songs asquickly as possible. He asks the artist and pro-ducer(s) what they are looking for. He makes sug-gestions when called upon. When producing asession, he always lets the artist know that “youhave ideas on how you want this to go, and I haveideas on how I want this to go, and they are prob-ably really good ideas.But we have to be careful notto let our good ideas get in the way of better ones.”Jennings knows how to make “good” records. Hispast accomplishments speak for themselves. ThenumerousWAMMIE’s he has won and the GrammyNominations prove that he is a force to record withand an expert in his fields.Before we ended our conversation we asked

John what he wanted his fans to think about him.John laughed and said,“I want them to know I’mtall. Also, that I am basically a good guy, and I amthere to help out.” John Jennings has been an in-spiration and mentor to us over the past few years,always available to help Andy out with his studioquestions, taking the time to look us up when weattended one of his and Mary Chapin Carpenter’sconcerts, and keeping in touch with us via email.We look forward to our continued friendship andJohn’s successful future in the music industry. Wewill keep you posted on any future John Jenningssightings!! Check him out – he really is tall!

Written by: Andy & Joyce ZiehliPhotos supplied by John Jennings.


In 1976 two local sound engineers were offered the franchise of Peavey to start a fledgling music store on the corner of John-son and Broom Streets in MadisonWI. They had occupied the basement building sound enclosures and mixers for their sound com-pany. After signing the paper work they purchased $10,000 worth of amps, speakers and mixers, in which they paid for in 1 month.That’s when the decision was made to become music retailers full-time.Steve Liethen and his business partner started then what today has become a two store location where they sell musical instruments

and all parts and accessories, from drums and cables to amplifiers and guitars. Steve and his wife Chris bought out Pete in the early90’s. They have expanded the focus and direction of the original Good N Loud from a strictly Rock & Roll music store to a multi-fas-cist music and sound operation. They outfit the beginner to professional, and their products have a wide price range. They also rent,

Good n LoudTaking on the Future



sell and repair band and orchestra equipment.Good N Loud has over 600 students enrolled in avariety of instruments from the basic guitar andkeyboard to the more obscure mandolin and banjo.They employ 35 teachers who are all musiciansthemselves.I had the enjoyable opportunity to sit down

with Steve & Chris over coffee and discuss GoodN Loud Music, and the future of music retailing.The Liethen’s are a very cordial couple who mademe feel right at home. I have known Steve sincethe store’s opening in 1976, and Chris since theearly 90’s. Both Steve and Chris have served on theoriginal MAMA’s board of directors, and currentlysit on many community oriented boards and com-mittees that serve both musicians and youth. Thefollowing is our conversation where nothing wasoff limits to discuss, laughs were plentiful, and pic-tures were optional.AG: So let’s get started talking about the store

(as I lay my camera on the table).Steve: No pictures today! My makeup person

called in sick!AG: What are your thoughts of the music indus-

try today and retailing in it? Explain what a “real”music retailer does to operate their store comparedto a big box music store like Guitar Center (GC) ornow Best Buy (BB), and the on-line stores like Mu-sician’s Friend (MF),American Music Supply (AMS)etc.?Chris: That’s interesting because we were talk-

ing about that this morning.Steve: We don’t know either!Chris: Now that most cities around the country

are losing their independent mom and pop musicstores the perception is that“oh they couldn’t com-pete with GC or MF because the big guys can buyfor less”,which is not true at all. What the real rea-son is that the distribution channels have changedso drastically and the amount of product has in-creased so much. What people don’t under-stand is when you go to GC or BB you see a lot ofguitars and amps sitting and hanging on the walls.That is just a very small amount of the availablemodels on the market today. It looks like they havea real big selection but in reality they only handle5 models from a company. They have a little bit ofeverything. Fender guitars are a great example.They only carry 30 different models, and that’s allthey’ll carry out of the over 600 different modelsavailable from Fender. They also only carry themodels that they do in limited colors and pickupconfigurations. They will have ten or less of eachone of those all hung up. It’s like an office supplystore where when you walk in it looks like theyhave a huge amount of items but in reality theyonly have and can get a small amount of each item,but they are spread out to look like they have a lotin stock.As far as the pricing goes it is the same for most

items for us and the big box stores. What happensin a lot of cases is that the manufacturer will dis-continue a model and call up these big retailers andoffer them say 100 of this model at a blow outprice. So when they offer them in their stores theycan discount the item because they bought them ata huge volume, where your local mom and poptype store cannot buy 100 Strats at once. The pricethen is lower because of the volume purchased. Bydropping the price on this special purchase it lookslike they sell items for less,when in truth they arebuying 90% of their product for the same price wedo. It is unfortunate that the manufacturers don’toffer smaller lots to the smaller dealers so that in-dependent stores could take advantage of those

deals. The manufacturers really don’t play fair inthis arena. The true disservice in the industry isthat the choices you receive are smaller and nar-rower than in the past.When GC came to town Good N Loud was one

of the top 20 Fender dealers in the United Statesand had been for many years. We sold every prod-uct that Fender made. If we did not have it on handwe could have it to you very quickly. After GC’s ar-rival that distinction and service went away.AG: What about the used musical instrument

market? I remember in the 70’s and 80’s you had ahuge amount of used gear for sale, as did all theother music stores in Madison.Chris: What you have to figure is that the aver-

age person might only have a single piece of gearevery five years or so that they want to get rid of orupgrade. The perception today is that they can getmore by putting it on EBay or Craig’s list than theycan by trading it off. So if everybody only has onepiece and instead of taking it to their local musicstore they sell it on line, it does not take long forthat market to go away.So the question becomes can you get more for

selling it on EBay or Craig’s list? I suppose some-times you can, but after you factor in all the costsand time for shipping and such I don’t really thinkyou come out ahead. The trouble is that there is noreal way to track that. The disadvantage to the con-sumer when buying on-line is that you don’t knowwhat you are truly getting until you get it home andplug it in. In a lot of cases if it is junk or does notwork you are stuck with it. Where as if you wouldgo to a local music store and purchase it you cansee, touch, and hear it first. Then make your deci-sion to buy it. Good N Loud continues to warrantyall the gear sold here, both new and used. Our in-tention is not to take advantage of anyone. If youbuy something and get it home and the next day itfails we will make it right with you. Most peopledon’t have a ton of gear anymore. We still get usedgear in and we resell it.Steve: It is like any other distribution system. It

is going to find its optimum point. In the pastwhen you wanted new gear you traded it in at amusic store. The trouble began when consumerscame up with the idea it was wrong for music storeowners to make money. For some reason peoplegot the idea that they were getting ripped off bythe stores because they were given a price for theirused equipment and then the store would offer itfor sale at a higher price than they were given forit. What a lot of people don’t understand is that themarkup applied is there to cover the overhead ofthe store, shelf space taken up, and a very smallprofit which is what capitalism is all about. Theother thing is that the stores took a piece of gearthat you as the customer found not to be worthyour hanging onto.

AG: You as store owners and business peoplehave a right to make a profit and a living buyingand selling gear. Just like consumers have the sameright to make money at their jobs.Steve: That is a lost concept to many people. If

somebody makes a profit operating their businesssomeone feels that they have been abused some-how. It is the same in the car industry. There aremany channels to sell used gear. An advantage overthe car industry is that musical instruments do notwear out like cars. An example would be that a1956 car today would need major repair and workto be used everyday. A 1956 Strat would still be inthe same condition as it was when it was pur-chased barring abnormal use, and would still have

another 53 years of use in it along with value.The profit margins are still the same in used

gear,but what has changed again is the way that itis distributed. In the past all we had was tradingit to a music store or putting it in the want ads.Then we had to deal with all those people comingto our houses so it was easier just trading it in.Now with the internet we have taken the homevisit out of the equation.Chris: I think there are still great deals to be

had today in the used market. You just need toknow what you are buying and understandinghow this new economy works. The biggest dis-service the internet has been is to the uniformedconsumer/first time buyers group. They see an in-strument on line for $49.00 and then come into amusic store and see that same item for $98.00 andwonder why there is such a price difference.Their first thought is always that the store is tryingto rip them off. People today don’t compare ap-ples to apples, it is usually apples to gum ball ma-chines that are not even related.Steve: There are different buying groups. There

are musicians who can make those judgments andthan there are beginners who do not understandthe difference in products or the values of prod-ucts. They make their decision by pictures; a lotof the entry level product being sold today is verymarginal in quality and value. The trouble is todaythat learning to play a musical instrument is stillhard to do, but the gear to play it on in a lot ofcases adds to the difficulty because it is substan-dard and this turns off a lot of folks very early inthe learning process. They make up their mindsthen that all guitars or trumpets are this hard toplay and give up on music. This is really very sad.Again that’s why going to a local store where youcan try out the instrument is such an advantageto buying on line.Chris: The issue is not with a musician who

knows their way around an instrument andknows the parts, it’s the beginners who don’t takethe time to research their choice before they buyor make the effort afterwards to be more in-formed. This goes for parents too. Lots of timeswe get asked why do we need a truss rod in a gui-tar neck,or people say why do we have to changestrings, or why do strings break? Some will evensay“well if I would have known that this requiredchanging strings I would not have ever bought aguitar”. It’s sad but a lot of customers are very illinformed or even uninformed. Another exampleis a young much excited player who breaks astring and thinks he has done something wrongbecause he is ill-informed. Again not to beat it todeath, that’s why buying from a local store can besuch an advantage. You can get the help you needfrom someone who cares about your purchase,and wants you to be happy with it verses a sales-man in a big box store just trying to meet hisquota for the week to keep his job.AG: So what does all this mean to owners like

you?Chris: Change is inevitable and there is noth-

ing we or anyone can do about it. The trouble isthat change is happening so quickly in our indus-try that by the time you make adjustments to meetconsumer’s needs and desires they have alreadychanged again. The main reason that there are somany independent stores closing is that they can-not handle the rapid change. It is affecting thechain store too. Until the water finds its own levelit will continue to force people to close down.The biggest misconception is still that GC or MF


MAMA,Inc. is a non-profit organization.MAMA isan acronym for Madison Area Music Awards. Eachspring we hold an award show that honors the ef-forts of local musicians. This award show, alongwith the many other initiatives of MAMA, Inc.throughout the year,raises money to foster the nextgeneration of musicians by helping fund youthmusic programs and by putting instruments in thehands of kids who might not otherwise have them.Our focus is on the public school system but ourcharter is not limited to specifically that. Our ob-jective is to keep the fundamentals of music avail-able for our youth and to promote that cause.

MAMA Urban FundraiserFebruary 21, 2009 - High Noon Saloon$5 cover; Rob Dz, DLO, KALO, and Felicia Alima(with the band);More details TBAMAMAs Make $7,000 in New Donations

The MAMAs have given three substantial equip-ment grants over the summer and fall. We havebeen working closely with the East Madison Com-munity Center and are establishing a music educa-tion program there.The first step is getting themsome instruments. Earlier this summer, we wereable to secure a piano donation from GeriAger,wifeof the late Joel Gersmann who had a long, out-standing career in theater, namely with the BroomStreet Theatre. Gersmann left behind a turn-of-the-century upright piano, admittedly in need of refin-ishing, but which plays beautifully and sounds evenbetter. In August the MAMAs donated the piano tothe East Madison Community Center.You’ve probably heard of the new GoodmanAt-

wood Community Center.We have been workingwith them for several months as well, and have acouple of program ideas we hope to implement.Through our association with Electrovoice, wewere able to get over $3,000 in P.A. equipment forthe New Loft performance area.Additionally,we ob-tained two more power amps and a power condi-tioner that we granted to them, making the totaldonated well over $4,000.We’re working on findingother items to get the New Loft operational.Ken Keeley,bassist with Bob Manor and the Get-

away Drivers, donated a bass rig in addition to P.A.equipment.The P.A. stuff ended up at the AtwoodCommunity Center and the bass rig found a homewith the O’Keeffe Middle School Jazz Band.Thanksto Ken for helping us put giant smiles on the facesof these kids.The MAMAs gladly accept used instruments and

MAMA's UPDATE2009

gear. It must be in working or near-working order.Contact us if interested.All donations to MAMA,Inc.qualify for tax deductibility.MAMAs Take New Approach in Establishing Pro-gramsThis has been a year of significant change for the

MAMAs organization.Traditionally,we have soughtfunding primarily through corporate sponsors.These businesses receive advertising time as partof their donation to the MAMAs.As you can imag-ine, these corporate sponsorships, at the level weneed them,have been getting harder and harder tosecure.We will still look for at least one corporatesponsor to partner with us each year.The MAMAscontinues to gain recognition and status in thecommunity, making us more of a viable organiza-tion with which to partner. Earlier this year, how-ever, we decided to take on an entirely differentapproach,one that we’ve discussed for some time.The MAMAs will now actively pursue grant

money.That may sound like a no-brainer but grantapplications are time-consuming and can be quitecomplicated.There is also a bit of a catch-22 in thatwe need to produce a track record of programwork in order to attract the kind of grant moneywe need.A sticking point for us has always beenfinding the right grant writer, one with the experi-ence and the time.This year we have succeeded inthat and have also started working with severalcommunity groups and the schools to foster ongo-ing working relationships.The MAMAs have always had a grand vision of

establishing several programs.Now we are startingto realize some of those dreams, dreams that mayalso have an impact on local professionals as well asbenefiting kids.Take the East Madison CommunityCenter,where we are currently building an arsenalof instruments that will enable us to create a musiceducation program.A similar type of project is inthe making at the Goodman Atwood CommunityCenter, where they have a recording room andwish to offer recording technology courses.We arecurrently working on equipment needs for that fa-cility and a plan that will fund the educators annu-ally.The educators will be locally based players andteachers and they will be paid to instruct. Addi-tionally, we have helped to provide equipment forthe New Loft at theAtwood location (the New Loftis an all-ages club located in the newAtwood Com-munity Center). (You can see our complete historyof giving by clicking here.)There are other programs that we are working

on with other community groups and the schools.If you are willing to donate any instruments or gear,

contact us. It must be in working or near-workingcondition and donations qualify for tax deductibil-ity. You can help us get these programs off theground and make a real difference in your commu-nity.Of course, in addition to seeking grants and

sponsorships, the MAMAs rely on ticket sales,fundraisers, and membership and registrationmonies.We also accept cash donations,however,soif you know someone who may be willing to helpus out in that regard, please have them contact us.

MAMA’s voting and awards show

Smart Studios is sponsoring theArtist of theYearAward, including a day of recording and otherprizes,worth $1,000.Visitors to the site may choosewhether they are an artist submitting materials ora fan casting a vote. .The first round of voting runs from February 5

through March 20, followed by the Nominee An-nouncement Party Saturday,March 28 at the BrinkLounge. The final round of voting runs from March28 throughApril 28. The 2009 MadisonArea MusicAwards show is Saturday, May 9 at the BarrymoreTheater. Performers for the awards show and otherfundraising events will be announced soon.

Categories are as follows:

Michael St. John LifetimeAchievement AwardEntertainer of theYearSongsAlbumsArtistBluesClassicalCountry/BluegrassElectronicFolk/AmericanaJazzPopRockUniqueUrban/R&BWorld BluesClassicalCountry/BluegrassElectronicFolk/AmericanaJazzPopRockUniqueUrban/R&BWorldCompilation BluesClassicalCountry/BluegrassElectronicFolk/AmericanaJazzPopRockUniqueUrban/R&BWorldDJYouth EnsembleNewArtistCover BandInstrumentalist AwardsVocal AwardsGuitaristBassistKeyboardist


or any of those other outlets have more selectionand better pricing than your local music storewhich in most cases is just not true. Sometimes thebig guys have better pricing because they chooseto sell at cost or below to get the sale,but you can’tdo that forever and survive as a business.AG: So what makes you two stay in such a

volatile business?Steve: I don’t know how to do anything else!

This is what I have always done (laughs). I’ve doneit for 30 years and I still like doing it. I like the peo-ple. It is not very profitable but we’ve been lucky.Chris: You can’t teach an old dog new tricks!

The retail end of it is no fun.Steve: The retail end used to be a lot of fun.

You got new product in,customers were informed,and there was integrity and respect in the manu-facturers. It was just a different world. Now ex-cept for the small one man shops and there are a lotof them working with large manufacturers likeFender are like buying a Coke. Gibson,Ampeg allhave their products made in a factory in China.There all the same. In some factories it’s one com-pany’s run in the morning and another’s in the af-ternoon. The same factory for different companies.The quality is going out of a lot of the big manu-facturer’s gear. The small one to ten person cus-tomer boutique shops make better stuff.Chris: What gets me out of bed everyday is the

teaching. Seeing those smiles on the kids whenthey learn something new, and when they get achance to get on stage with their instructor at ourshows.They start out a little nervous but by the endof the song they are rocking the stage.Steve: It’s the kids for me too. When you see

young people come into the store and they are in-spired to play, that’s what it’s all about.AG: Back in the day when we were all younger

and Madison had a bunch of music stores each onehad their own personality from the owners and thecharacters that hung out there. That’s what I missthe most today.Steve: If you would have told me three years ago

that we would be the last independent mom andpop music store in Madison I would have told youthat you were nuts! But we are the last full servicemulti-instrument store left, and that’s sad. Back inthe early 80’s people would come from 300 milesaway on a Saturday and hit every music store intown looking for deals and used gear. Now they goonline.The folks that ran the other stores were all great

people. Everyone had their own little niche andcore group of supporters and we all survived. Itwas cool to see all the different musicians come inand try out gear and they even helped sell it bytelling other customers howmuch they loved own-ing a particular piece of gear. That networking andcomradery is kind of gone now.AG: You and Pete were the hippy owners, Re-

genbergs were the young guys, Ray Kentner wasRay, but the cool thing was that all of you knewgear and did your best to help the customer makethe right choice. All those people were and aregreat folks and I truly miss them and their stores.Steve: You know the personalities helped to

make the business fun. Back then that was half ofthe buying experience dealing with the owners.AG: Your lesson program here is exceptional.

You have over 600 students. What do you attributeto that?Chris: We have excellent instructors who are

great players themselves. These folks are all work-

Drummer/PercussionistStringsBrassWoodwindsSpecialty InstrumentYouth Instrumentalist Male VocalistFemale VocalistEnsemble VocalsYouthVocalistStudent of theYearTeacher of theYearLaunchpadAwardsLive Music VenueRecording StudioLive Sound EngineerLocal Recorded Music StoreLocal Radio StationLocal Radio Personality

MISSION STATEMENT

MAMAs, Inc. is organized and operates exclu-sively for charitable or educational purposes,as de-fined in Section 501 (c) (3) of the Internal RevenueCode.The mission of the MAMAs is to support the

preservation and expansion of all forms of musiceducation in the Madison area, and to encourageand promote the artistic advancement of ouremerging musical youth.

Vision Statement

In furtherance of our charitable purpose,MAMA,Inc. has created and presents the annual MadisonArea Music Awards ceremony,with the purpose of(1) raising public awareness of the need to pre-serve and support the existence of music educa-tion in our public schools and other communityinstitutions, (2) encourage and promote the ad-vancement of musicians and others in the Madisonarea by recognizing their musical achievements aswell as the achievements of outstanding music stu-dents and music educators, and (3) provide pro-motional support for the Madison music economyas a whole. MAMA, Inc. seeks to establish threeother annual events to further carry out its chari-table mission and to keep the awareness of theneed for music education in the public eye year-round.

MAMA, Inc. also seeks to carry out thefollowing:

• Provide opportunities for professional,semi-professional and student musicianswho are interested in pursuing careers in musicto learn about the music industry

• Provide forums for young musicians and othersin the Madison area to participate in liveperformances

• Become advocates for music education byworking cooperatively through the MadisonSchool Board and with others

• Establish a school instrument repair program• Create, support and fund music educationevents presented in the schools in the form ofassemblies

• Create an endowment fund to provide musiceducation scholarships

ing musicians so they know how the students feeland what their dreams are. They want to makelearning fun. That’s what’s important.Steve: It’s hard to learn to play an instrument

like a guitar. Kids see these guys on TV and theythink that they just picked up the guitar and couldplay like that when the truth is that those pros havepracticed thousands of hours to get there. Our in-structors can relay that message to these kids, andget them to want to put in the time to get betterthrough practice.

AG: Do you have a lot of adult students?

Chris: Yes we do. They take lessons for many dif-ferent reasons. Some always wanted to play butwere not allowed the chance when they wereyounger. Others put down their instruments andnow that their kids are playing want to pick it upagain. Some just want to strengthen their skills,oth-ers to learn a new instrument. All really just wantto create music.

(Note; I took lessons at Good N Loud three yearsago to learn a new style of playing. I had lessonsonce a week for 12 weeks and enjoyed every oneof them. My instructor Shane Keck was great. Ilearned what I wanted to learn. Nothing wasforced onto me that I did not desire to undertake.The experience was excellent and I would recom-mend it to anyone who wants to learn a new skillset or just learn to play)

AG: Any closing thoughts?

Steve: I can honesty say that I have never sold any-one a guitar that was not what they wanted to buy,or was substandard. I still hold to the fact that Iwon’t sell a substandard instrument. I look forwardto continuing in this business and make adjust-ments as we go. We have a great staff, loyal cus-tomers, and a very good reputation in the musiccommunity. Being fair to our employees and cus-tomers is very important to us. It’s been a greatride so far and I’m sure it will continue to be one.

Chris: We try to be a family friendly store. A placewhere you would want to shop. We have the ex-perience in our staff to solve just about anythingthat comes along musically. If we can’t help youout we’ll do our best to direct you to someone wetrust who can. It is fun to own a music store. It’sjust different than it used to be. Hopefully the fu-ture will bring new technologies and innovationsto get more people interested in making music. Allin all I agree with Steve “it’s been a great ride andhopefully the future will be too”.Thanks to Steve and Chris for their time and the

excellent insight on their industry and their opera-tion. Buying from your local music store is so im-portant. Without them you will sentence yourselfto dealing with a computer screen or a very im-personal sales person who knows nothing morethan to turn the amp up loud and play every VanHalen song they know to try to get you to buy thatnew guitar. I can honestly say that I buy 95% of allmy musical instruments and supplies from inde-pendent mom and pop music stores and will con-tinue to do so. There is so much more involved inbuying a musical instrument than price. Don’t letthese great stores go the way of vinyl. Buy local!!!!

Story & Photos by: Andy Ziehli

Good n Loud... continued from page 29

30

Artist- Clovis Mann ♪♪♪Album- DuesAmericana/WorldStyle: Americana/World

All in all, this was a good album,but as I listenedto the CD I realized something was missing. Icould never put my finger on what it was. I haveheard from many people that they are a great liveband,so one shouldn’t pass the final judgment untilthey see the band live. The CD definitely showedthat this band from Madison definitely has talent. Iguess what I’m saying is that the talent wasn’t prop-erly displayed. Hot guitar licks and funky rhythmscatch the ear, and definitely make you take a sec-ond listen. Song structure and hooks just did notcome through like you would expect. Maybe Clo-vis Man should put the energy they put into theirlive shows into a CD. I do look forward to seeingthis band grow and develop, and on their nextrecording show the maturity and energy their fansdeserve.

Reviewed by:Rob Kosmeder

Eric Brace and Peter Cooper♪♪♪♪♪You Don’t Have to Like Them BothRed Beet RecordsStyle:Americana, Folk-Rock,Country

This CD could have been a lot of things. It couldhave been a CD full of Eric Brace songs or PeterCooper songs,or it could have been everyone else’ssongs. What it is, is a collection of great songs writ-ten by the best songwriters in Americana musictoday including Brace and Cooper, Jim Lauderdale,Todd Snider,Kris Kristofferson,Paul Kennerly,KarlStraub, David Olney, and a new favorite of mineKevin Gordon. All have great contributions here.Starting out the CD is a Brace tune called “I

know a Bird” a No-depression feeling song. Its sim-ple instrumentation brings the lyrics to the front.If you close your eyes you can see despair as themelody and lyrics take you to that plain of pain weall have felt in the loss of a loved one. The thirdsong on this CD is an incredible song written byEast Nashville songwriter Kevin Gordon named“Down to the Well”. This is a moving song. Thelyrics are colorful and explicit. Sung as a duet, thissong transcends our simple listening to reachinginto your soul and making you listen. I understandGordon is releasing a solo CD in 2009. I hope hedoes because the world needs to hear more of him.Cut number five is a Cooper song “The man wholoves to hate”. This song is a departure from theformula that Cooper has written in the past. Thissong could be on any of Rodney Crowell’s last 4CD’s. This change in style brings out a side ofCooper that is exciting and interesting. I liked it alot. It shows that even established songwriterslearn new tricks and are not afraid to break themold once in a while. My favorite cut on the CDis track seven “Denali, Not McKinley”, the story ofCooper’s first trip toAlaska. It is a good time handclapping song that will surely bring a smile to yourface. If you don’t tap your toes to this song you’realready dead! Track ten is a Sea Chantey that Bracereworked for this CD. It is superbly done! Again

Artist- Todd Lorenz ♪♪♪Album- Twenty Aught EightVolumes 1 & 2Style: Folk/Rock/Blues

This is a two disc set of folk, blues, and ballads,but nothing that really catches the ear. Lots andlots of potential, but the delivery is always just outof reach. Something was just missing. Each songhas so much potential, but it’s very hard to see itthrough the haze. The albums are filled with greatguitar work,and straightforward songs. No fluff be-tween you and the message that is coming across,but without catchy,ear-grabbing songs,the messagejust becomes lost. And what good is a lost message?Lorenz should work on creating“hooks”either vo-cally, musically, or lyrically. That would have madethese CD’s much better.

Reviewed by:Rob Kosmeder

CD Review


Toni Catlin ♪♪♪♪UncoveredCatlines MusicStyle:Country/Americana

the simple arrangement stands out. Brace is a mas-ter of this. His ability to structure songs so that thelyrics standout and are not buried with a wall ofsound is a blessing in this day and age of over pro-duction. The final cut on this CD is a Todd Snidersong sung by Cooper that is very pleasant andsoothing. A simple song that carries the weight ofthe world on its shoulders. It speaks of simplertimes in a relationship,a place we all wish we couldget back to from our busy lives.Brace and Cooper really make this CD standout

because of their ability to let the other shine. Noego’s here. Their voices blend wonderfully. Pro-duced by both Brace and Cooper, the feel and vibeof this CD reflects their personalities and friend-ship. The band is made up of the best of the best.Paul Griffith on drums, Dave Roe on bass, LloydGreen on Steel, and Jen Gunderman on keys andaccordion along with Brace and Cooper on guitars.This CD is a must for every person who lovesAmericana Music. These guys deserve to be “big”stars. Don’t let this one get away from you!You can purchase it at Red Beet Records.com,

CD Baby,Amazon.com,and locally in East Nashville.This CD is the real McCoy - 5 stars all the way!

Review by:Andy Ziehli


Toni Catlin is a superb songwriter who for awhile lived in Nashville but has since relocatedback to Vermont. I heard about her through ourmutual friend Randy Blevins of Blevins Audio inNashville. Catlin is probably too cool and too realfor mainstream Music Row which is a good reasonyou should check her out. A very entertainingsinger/songwriter that is a cross between DeanaCarter and LucindaWilliams. This is not to say thatshe is not original in her styling or voicing, just thatshe reminds me of them and fans of those two willenjoy this CD.The recordings are flawless. All the songs were

written or co-written by Catlin. The CD starts outwith a great song called“Not Goin Down”. Kind offolksy yet with an urban flavor. The third song onthis CD“Undertow” is the most up tempo song onthe CD. It is a straight ahead greatTop 40 Countryradio friendly song. It would have been nicer tohave a few more of these types of songs on the CDbecause Catlin sings them well. The rest of the CDis made up of ballads and mid-tempo Americanasinger songwriter tunes. This is not a bad thing.Catlin has a very pleasant voice and is an incrediblesongwriter. I just like a few more up tempo tunes.

This CD really reminds me a lot of DeanaCarter’s platinum“Did I shave my legs for this”CD,a CD I still listen to on a regular basis. It’s too badCatlin did not get the breaks she should have had inNashville,because she has star written all over her.Maybe this review will find its way to a RecordExec on Music Row and she’ll get another listen. Ifnot I’m sure as an Independent she will sell a lot ofCD’s. Toni Catlin deserves a listen and this wouldbe a great addition to any CD collection. I wish herall the luck in the world. Talent like this deserves tobe heard!You can purchase a CD from Catlin by contactingher at www.tonicatlin.com or at her MySpace pagetonicatlinmusic.

Review by:Andy Ziehli

Aaron Willieams... continued from page 13

Sugar River Productions and theAmericana Gazetteare looking for Songwriters for two CD compila-tion projects to release this year. If you write in theAmericana, Bluegrass, Folk, Indie Rock,Country, orRock a billy styles please send a CD with no morethan 3 songs and lyric sheets to be considered forthese projects. The songs do not have to be pro-fessionally recorded. Simple demos are fine. Allsongs will be re-recorded in Sugar River Studios bythe writers/artists.

Our staff will choose the best 30 songs to be in-cluded on the CD’s which will be sold to raisemoney for local charities in Southern Wisconsin.The dead line for submission is May 1, 2009. NoCD’s will be returned. All songs selected in the final30 will be copy written by the authors before theywill be re-recorded. Our staff will help you withthat if you need it. Pass the word onto your song-writing friends!

Send lyric sheets and CD’s to

Americana GazetteSongwriters CDPO Box208 Belleville,WI 53508

Looking forSongwritersin SouthernWisconsin!

"YES,” only one problem, when I said "YES" a bigpuff of steam rose from my mouth.The green roommust have been around 15 degrees.One of the pro-moters said, "Sorry, the heater broke in the greenroom.But don't worry,the main room is heated andworking."Whoa,that would have been horrible hadthe main room been this cold. Nothing will work,most of all my fingers! They had a great spread setup for us, snacks, beer, water (the best part, theydidn't need a fridge).We stuck with the beer sinceit wasn't yet frozen.As we loaded our equipmentthrough the green room we made our way to thestage area, we walked in and started setting up. Icould still see my breath. I thought to myself "thisisn't going to work." Thoughts started goingthrough my head,should we just pack up and leave,it wasTHAT cold.Since the promoters were friendsof mine we decided we'll see what happens.The barn was your typical barn, a nice little

setup. It could probably hold around 200 peopleand be full.We had an opening acoustic act andthey were quite good.Great vocals and some coolsongs.As we waited for the band to finish up I no-ticed my toes starting to hurt and my fingers werenot moving very well.Not to mention all of us look-ing like Rudolf the Red Nose Reindeer. I was justhoping our equipment would turn on at this point.We got set up around 6pm,which means the sun

had gone down by now....not good! Moving parts,guitar amp tubes and most of all fingers don't liketo work when it's this cold.After letting our equip-ment warm up from being turned on we got sound.Yes! We were ready to go. I rubbed my hands to-gether to get as much heat as possible to loosenthem up then took the stage with a rousing versionof a Freddie King tune...we were cooking and heat-ing it up! After the song was done we looked outinto the crowd and got a nice little applause of muf-fled hand claps. Everyone in this little barn was infull winter garb,ski masks,gloves,scarves,big fluffyjackets, mittens ...anything to keep warm.As thenight came and went people would stick aroundfor 10 minutes and then take off, it was just toocold.Little kids would try and get parents to dance

but everyone was huddled around the free hotcider and the heater.Granted the heater in the barnwas blaring full blast but when a car would drive bythe barn outside, it looked as though a strobe lightwas going off, that is how big the gaps in the wallboards were.We were doomed.We just needed tomake it through the night and we eventually did.At about 10pm and after a few long warmingbreaks we were done.We had made it! It was sur-real to look over and see us playing in winter jack-ets and Shack (my drummer) wearing gloves.WOW,what a night.Needless to say in our contract whereit says "performance space must be heated" we'llbe sure to highlight that section next time!This is where the story takes a turn the more I

thought about it.There were a fewmoments before,after and during the show that will always be re-membered. Moments the audience would neverhear about or even care to ask,but it's what makesplaying good music with friends so fulfilling.For in-stance, right before we went on stage the three ofus were all huddled around a little space heater inthe green roomwith our full winter attire on eatingpeanut butter brittle and drinking whiskey to warmup. Nothing was being said and all we could hearwas the blowing of the heater and the cold windoutside. I looked up and took a peek at ZT andShack;we all made eye contact for an instant and alljust started laughing hysterically. In the end that'swhat it's all about...making music and living stories.It's the backstage connection of the band thatmakes it grow into something bigger and better,be-yond the eyes of the audience, beyond the eyes ofthe stage lights. A connection on stage can't befaked; it's back stage where bands are born and insome cases….a bands dies.Ahh, the life of a working musician! Until next

time, be safe AND warm.

Written by: AaronWilliams

• Rosa Pepper’s Cantina & Mexican Grille1907 EastlandAve (East Nashville)

• Alleycat Lounge • 1008Woodland St #B(East Nashville)

• Big River Grille & Brewery Works

Nashville’s best... continued from page 7

111 East Broadway• Rippy’s (Pulled Pork Sandwich)429 East Broadway

• Waffle House • 790 Old Hickory Blvd.(Brentwood) Most likely to see someonefamous here of all theWaffle Houses

• Bongo Java (Coffee House)107 South 11th Street (East Nashville)

• Portland Brew1921 EastlandAve (East Nashville)

Clubs• Tootsies, Roberts Western World,The Stage, Legends, and Rippy’s

• Red Door Saloon • 1010 Forest Ave (EastNashville) I have not been here yet but haveheard great reviews and plan to visit thisspring

• Family Wash • 2038 GreenwoodAve (EastNashville) I have not been here yet but haveheard great reviews and plan to visit thisspring

• The Basement • 1604 8thAve South #330

By:Andy Ziehli

FOR SOME GREAT BEVERAGES,

FOODANDA PEACEFULATMOSPHERE,

STOP INATTHE FAT CAT COFFEEWORKS

IN NEW GLARUS.

Fat Cat Coffee Works LLC(608) 527-3346606 Railroad St, • New Glarus,WI 53574

TODD SNIDERIN CONCERT

SAT., APRIL 11TH, 2009BARRYMORE THEATRE

MADISON, WI.

americana gazette february/ march 2009 issue

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