Greenfield, NH is a little past nowhere. And I say that with love. Dan and Robin found a place off the beaten path and made it a home and I do love visiting them. The house concert here last time was out in the backyard with a stage and everything but the weather is not being as kind today so Dan has set up the entire living room as a stage and three rows of chairs for folks to listen and hang out.
Dan’s band Glittertooth is opening up and I know you’re going to wonder about that name - it came from a fever dream of Dan’s after getting some dental work done. Pretty great name if you ask me.
Tonight is going to be low key but still great. There’s chili in the crockpot and three dogs wandering around and holy smokes on the Guitar Geek Warning trip. Dan has brought out an old amp that he inherited from his wife Robin’s uncle and it’s a 1959 Fender Vibrolux and it sounds amazing. I’m a little scared to actually perform through it as my big weird sweeping delay thing that I do could actually tear through a 60 year old speaker.
Glittertooth go on first and sound great and I join them on a couple of songs and we make a good fun racket. I forget how much fun it is to just be a lead guitar player sometimes. Like seriously, when all you have to do is play the fiddly bits - life is groovy. It feels like a performing vacation.
The living room has shockingly great live sound and I think Dan is going to petition Robin to leave the living room set up like this.
My friend Lara has showed up too. I haven’t seen her since 2018 in Nashville so it’s great to catch up with her too.
I have a good set and finish up with two Glitterteeth joining me on drums and bass. I actually planned on playing “You ain’t going nowhere” by the Byrds but I can’t find it. The rhythm, the words - they’re down the road having a pint and I can’t pull it together so I shift right into “Song for you” by Gram Parsons and I am the only one in this room that knows this song but this tight rhythm section of Glittertooth hold me together and it’s great. After hearing how great they are I can’t help myself and I throw one of my originals at them. “This one is 6/8 time, G, Bm and C for you Dan.” And with that we do a killer version of “Too many miles.” And with that we call it a night.
Thank you Dan. Thank you Robin, Thank you Glittertooth!
----------------
WCAP radio has moved. I know this. GPS does not. I’ve been to the new location before but for some reason GPS still thinks it’s located next to Cappy’s Copper Kettle. Hartley is ready for my call and he redirects me over to Market Street in downtown Lowell.
My drive through Lowell takes me past former haunts that we used to play at, or at least the locations, I cut through and pass where the Last Safe and Deposit used to be and Smithwicks and I seriously consider stopping at Santoro’s for a sandwich but I don’t think I’ve ever been in there before 10 pm.
WCAP is a crazy station that I have heard described as “NPR on acid.”* And Hartley has had his own show on here for a long time and is always super gracious in sharing my music with his listeners. I met Hartley though my buddies in the Gypsy Mechanics back in… well, let’s just say it was the last century.
Hartley asks all the great questions that an experienced and knowledgeable radio DJ would ask and it’s an easy interview for me. I mention this because sometimes you do the interviews and the person interviewing you hasn’t done a lick of research and it feels like you’re writing your history instead of being in a conversation.**
I sing some songs, we cover history, new projects, new songs, my show at Cobblestone’s on Thursday, Melvern Taylor’s benefit show on June 25 and have great banter. He leads me right in and out of songs and before I realize it, the hour is up and it’s time to get a move on to radio #2.
A mile away from WCAP is WUML, UMass Lowell college radio. I was an intern DJ at WUML when I went to college at UMass and the Gypsy Mechanics also played their live band show “Live from the Fallout Shelter” back…oh, last century!
Mike Flynn is the host of “Almost Acoustic” on WUML and I can tell you they have cleaned the hell out of this studio since I was a DJ here! When I was here it was a crusty college radio, people drank and smoked in the studio, the rug was - well, it was disgusting but it was the 90s and I was used to being a little grungy. The WUML Fallout Shelter still is blanketed with the graffiti from the past 50 years but the studio looks like what I imagine the radio station on the Starship Enterprise would look like.
When I show up Mike is part way through a block of my music, I hear it playing in the lobby area before I even get into the studio. The Fallen Stars are playing and some of the new stuff as well. He lifts a record off the turntable and it hadn’t even occurred to me that he was playing my record!
Mike also knows his stuff and has been following my tour diary and other adventures so we have a great conversation too. We talk about traveling and Cobblestone’s and the local scene and Melvern Taylor comes up again. It’s a fun and easy conversation that flies by with more songs and stories and before I know it - it’s time to go to my next gig.
-------------
I’m playing a house concert in Billerica today. The rain is still sort of coming down but when I pull up to Twombly Ave it has cleared. Mark is in the backyard and they’re setting up chairs and cleaning off the stage area and putting up an EZ-UP over the stage. The show will go on.
The weather gods seem to be smiling on us as the rain has stopped. Mark called folks and told them that the show will go on but just an hour later and almost on cue - the sun comes out.
After a discussion about the structural integrity of the stage, I set up in front of it and put my amp on the stage behind me and then folks started showing up. I’m winding up my brain, the two radio shows were not “full shows” but it is now occurring to me that they are still performances as I had to be “on” and performing and that will make this my third performance of the day.
Fortunately for me, the folks here are up and ready for some music and it makes my job so much easier. I launch into some stuff, add a few covers into the set for fun and am met by great applause after every song. I share stories and in a small town history of sorts, some of my stories can be even more specific because these folks KNOW what I’m talking about, they get the landmarks, they know who Billy and Tommy at Stan’s Garage are. I make fun of the bad side of Nuttings Lake and the ridiculousness of the “Riverdale” section of Billerica.***
In between sets I’m asked if I know a specific Richard Thompson song and this is a very peculiar request. Richard Thompson is an amazing songwriter and even more amazing guitarist. And the reason why I was asked was because this person thought that the way I played guitar - I must know some Richard Thompson. So what started as an odd request, weirdly turns into a very sweet compliment.
I was vaguely hit on again by an 83 year old woman but she knew I was married so she dialed it back a bit. I’m always in favor of more fans and it’s very sweet but I can just hear a marketing dude saying “why can’t it be teenage girls liking you - they run the world!” Eh, taking what I’m given cause I’m singing for a livin’.
Towards the end of the set I’m looking for a cover to throw in and the couple of covers that I have done so far - mostly they went unknown as covers. That’s the way I roll, covering songs most folks don’t know. But I mention Pete Townsend and Ronnie Lane and Mark gets all excited because he knows the album Rough Mix.**** I’ve covered this song live less than 5 times ever and only one other time did anyone know it or give a shit about it at all. I was not expecting today to be any different but I was completely wrong. “Heart to hang on to” went over huge today.
And I mention this because, well, I’ve been doing this singing and strumming thing for a while now and I kind of feel like I can judge…judge is not the right word but I have learned to read an audience to some extent. Like this crowd probably won’t like song X or whatever. Today’s crowd liked the weird stuff, the noisy stuff, the quiet stuff - they liked all the stuff, even the obscure stuff!
Sometimes I don’t know nothing.
Then the dark clouds start rumbling in. I get everything packed up and as we’re saying goodbyes, then the rain comes and we run and hide our heads.
Rain
I don’t mind
Shine
The weather’s fine.
We make plans for next year or this fall or whenever. It’s amazing that I’ve found this group of folks from my hometown that I never really knew and yet here we all are, sharing an evening with songs and stories and yes, even sing alongs and good times.
When it rains and shines it's just a state of mind.
Thank you and goodnight Billerica.
*Thanks Mike for that one!
**I also love seeing all the RE20 microphones in the WCAP studio. It’s one of those just industry standard microphones that I wished I owned and they had…six of them?
***Riverdale is about two streets in between Market Basket on Boston Road and the Shawsheen River in Pinehurst. Oh and Pinehurst is just the southern end of Billerica. How does one small town have so many geographically specific named places?
****Rough Mix is in my top ten favorite albums of all time. I listen to it all the time. It’s a weird one where Ronnie Lane was broke and his friends convinced Pete Townsend to record an album with him so he would have some dough to live and so he did. It came out in 1977 and was never a hit record.