Pulling back

I have pulled the plug on the Mystery Band and gone back to being a harmonica noodler, playing in the backyard to annoy the dog. I like to play, but lining up gigs, trying to get paid, organizing my wonderful fellow musicians - it starts to feel like work. I already have a full-time (plus) job (which, by the way, deserves more of my attention). I was subsidizing the gigs because club owners can't afford to pay a living wage to musicians in this era of iPods and downloads - it gets to be a burden to "pay to play" at every gig. My family also deserves my full engagement. Life is busy, and sometimes you have to pull back in order to go forward.

Maybe I will go back to it some day. Maybe not. The band was starting to feel like a form of self-indulgence, a stupid ego trip for an aging white man who has no business playing the blues. So I will start acting my age and living clean. No more late nights in dive bars for me. My favorite dive bar has closed, anyway.

If anyone wants a couple hundred copies of the Mystery Band CD, let me know.

"It's A Mystery" Reviewed by James "Skyy Dobro" Walker in Blues Blast Bagazine

Many, many thanks to James "Skyy Dobro" Walker for his kind and generous comments.....

Mr. G & The Mystery Band - It's A Mystery
Self Release / G-FreeThoughts Publishing
www.mrgandthemysteryband.com/
www.myspace.com/gandthemysteryband
11 songs; 73:07 minutes; Suggested
Styles: Harmonica Blues; Chicago Blues

Well, well, these are mysteries:

Who is Mr. G?

Who will be in his band at the next live show?

How can this group put out a really good, all original music, debut Blues CD using “a live in the studio approach with limited overdubs and few takes” while others invest excessively and come out with crap?

“Why can’t we all just get along?”

“Why can’t some people tell right from wrong?”

“Why are some people kind and generous and others are rotten to the core?”

“Why do we all love to sing and dance?”

“Why does a pretty girl get a tattoo?”

“Why do young men wear those saggy pants?”

Some of these puzzlers found in the title track have answers while others will remain unknown. First, “Mr G” is Chris Gillock, a singer, songwriter, and harpist who started life in California but finished his education in Chicago and put down area roots. He became a student of Chicago Blues and traded his California funk and jazz trombone for the Blues harmonica.

Mr. G established the Mystery Band on Thanksgiving evening in 2003, filling in for a busted booking at the now defunct Bill’s Blues Bar in Evanston, Illinois, where he was a “hanger-on” and investor. In the six years since, Mr. G has convinced over 45 of Chicago-land’s top blues and jazz players to join the Mystery Band’s mission: “to jam and have fun.” The liner notes list most of those recruits, and the “A Team” on this CD are very talented Chicago stalwarts and pedigreed, indeed: Guitars – OSee Anderson and Anthony Palmer; Drums – James Carter; and bass – Greg “E.G.” McDaniel.

As a reviewer, I receive too many “Blues” CDs that are not. It is a joy to receive this set of solid Blues with first rate playing, unique chromatic harp tones, and eleven original songs with both thoughtful and humorous lyrics. Some of Mr G’s raucous harmonica is rightly featured in the first track, which poses both deep questions (“mean people”) and funny mysteries (the “tattoos” and “saggy pants”).

Sometimes, Mr G juxtaposes a light hearted look and heart break in the same verse like in “My Dog and Me,” a swampy guitared story of marital breakup. “When I first met my wife, I thought she was so fine / But the longer I lived with that woman the more I loved my canine / I couldn’t satisfy her no matter how hard I tried / But now she’s gone and I must confess I feel dead inside.”
Back to fun in track three; “Hey José,” is a traditional 12 bar Chicago Blues shuffle with great harp soloing and guitar breaks by OSee Anderson. As the story goes, José is a best-friend bartender, and the narrator is in clearly in Chicago because he keeps ordering “another Old Style® beer.” This one is headed for a fun spot in my radio show!

Another must play song is the set’s real standout, a minor key chromatic workout, “Cheat Me Fair.” This slow Blues is an eight minute expose of love gone wrong featuring torturing vocals, harp solos and Anthony Palmer’s gut wrenching guitar. The narrator indulges in a curious fantasy about “driving an old Dodge Dart down to Mexico to find a Mexican girl who will follow him everywhere and always tell the truth.” Now that’s funny!

My first ear-worm (song that repeats later in your head) came from the chorus on “Get Out and Walk,” written when gasoline prices were over $4.00 per gallon in 2008. The special effects harp sounds come from a low D harp muted by a coffee cup. The rhythm guitar percolates like a mountain brook on this Country Blues flavored, go green themed number.

One song has Reggae flavoring, one a Bo Diddley beat, another is a rumba. There is an ode to square shouldered working folk, a “Payin’ Taxes” protest, and themes from after hours partying to both sides of love. Bottom line: every track on this CD is a winner. Put this CD in a blind listening test for Blues fans and friends, and they will agree that there is enough going on here to elevate to a national level this band that’s slowly building a following in the intensely competitive Chicago Blues market.

Reviewer James "Skyy Dobro" Walker is a noted Blues writer, DJ, Master of Ceremonies, and longtime Blues Blast Magazine contributor. His weekly radio show "Friends of the Blues" can be heard Thursdays from 7 - 8 pm and Saturdays 8 pm - Midnight on WKCC 91.1 FM and at www.wkccradio.org in Kankakee, IL

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The Mystery Band CD - Ugh!!

Yep, I sweated quite a bit putting the first Mystery Band CD together. I financed it myself, no record company involved. I wrote all the songs so it wouldn't be another disk full of blues covers (not that there is anything WRONG with that; I just wanted something different). The final product is pretty good - I can still listen to it without puking, which is saying something in view of the number of hours I spent on this. I usually get tired of listening to a CD if I play it repeatedly. The CD got decent reviews in the May 2009 "Illinois Entertainer" and the July issue of "Blues Revue." I have been pitching it at all my gigs for the past several months.

And it ain't been selling, folks.

Yah, well, I haven't been working it real hard, I guess, and I haven't tried to get a label to pick it up. I have a day job, and I have to take care of my non-musical profession (it generates all the cash, and for the past two months, I have been humpin' trying to offset the recession with increased effort). But I have gained a deeper realization that making a living in music during this age of downloads and piracy is damn near impossible for a lunch-bucket musician like me. Folks under the age of 45 just don't buy CD's anymore. Many, maybe most, of them steal music. I have family members that are big-time music pirates. This bleeds over into live music, too - folks refuse to pay a cover charge, even a small one, to hear local music heroes. Soon, these working class musicians will stop trying.

Musicians will continue to make music, but the number of professionals has been shrinking and will continue to shrink. The level of techinical skills among musicians might decline. Talented people are giving up and this trend is likely to continue.

So I have about a thousand copies of this disk in my basement. Guess I can use them for drink costers.....but if anyone reading this is interested, you can find the record on CD Baby: http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/mrgthemystery

Stayin' In and Catching Up

It is a chilly Saturday night in Chicagoland, the last day of February. The Mystery Band had no gig this evening. I thought about hitting the clubs to hear some of my buddies play, but my energy failed me - I stayed home with my girls and my dogs (the picture above is a demon-eyed version of Jenna and Brandy, the house canines). There was a big pile of mail that I ignored all week; it is now processed and dealt with. I got on YouTube and called up President Obama's February 24th speech to Congress, which I was too busy to watch live. Whooooo! That dude sure can speechify. I bought a big 120 gig iPod to replace the one that was lost/stolen at the Evanston YMCA. It took a long time to synch the 10,000 songs in my library to the new device. Now I am enjoying Nina Simone in my earbuds. I paid bills. I started getting my 2008 tax return organized. I had a couple of adult beverages. I practiced on my E-flat chromatic harmonica. I basically stayed in and fiddled around. Now it is almost midnight and I am ready to sleep.

I feel schizophrenic. On a personal level, I feel pretty optimistic. There is no discernible disaster lurking. My day job is OK because my little company is nimble and we are finding ways to make money in spite of the economic crisis. But then I read the papers, or talk to my friends that work at big companies, or listen to the news and I feel pretty pessimistic. This economy hasn't hit bottom yet. The massive debt reduction that is going on ("de-levering" is the business buzz word) is unlike anything we have seem in well over a generation. The savings rate of the average American is moving quickly from negative 1% to positive 10% (10% was close to the average in the 1960's through the mid-1980's). This process will mean a whole lotta pain - less spending, more debt defaults, higher unemployment. But the only way out of this is through it.

As I said earlier, I am ready to sleep. Goodnight.

The Mystery Band CD Is Out!!!

It took 10 months, but the first CD by Mr. G and the Mystery Band is finished, packaged, manufactured and ready for consumption. It is on CD Baby - click here for the link. The CD will be available on iTunes in a couple of weeks or so.

All the tunes on this disc are originals so you can blame the whole thing on me. I have lots of copies of this CD in my basement, so help me clear them out.