MY Music / A Primer

I write a lot about music sometimes, and sometimes I think a lot about the kind of music I like when people ask me.

The long answer is really, truly that I like a lot of music, and it really depends on the day and the mood. This doesn't make me very special -- in fact, it is a pretty common answer for the modern world. But the short answer is, really, that there is a band that influenced me like no other.

The Squirrel Nut Zippers. And here's my argument.

1. I'd listened to Glenn Miller, Duke Ellington, Benny Goodman and the Ink Spots on many a lazy Saturday afternoon, which I know made me the popular kid I was in high school (but I also listened to Paula Abdul and Michael Jackson, so pipe down the snickering.) So when I first heard SNZ in the late 90s, I felt it. I mean, felt it man.

2. This band didn't deserve and didn't really care that they got the "swing-revival" one hit wonder treatment in mainstream radio. They were doing more, much more. It was surrealism, out-of-time and the creative buzz that I couldn't get enough of.

Surrealism evidence:

I understand that this band is, as it were, well, gone, but really, it wasn't about swing. It was about a transportation of time, more than just zoot suits and instead some kind of space-time continuum that is familiar to Morrison and Faulkner, a favorite subject of mine about which I will go on and on about with the slightest encouragement.

3. The introductions -- SNZ and its side projects led me to the following:
a. Andrew Bird. Enough said right here. But I'm going to continue.
b. Charlie Patton.
c. Buddy Guy.
d. Dirty Dozen Brass Band.
e. North Mississippi All-Stars.
f. Django Rinehart.
g. Hobex.

And more ...

One of those side projects was Katharine Whalen's Jazz Squad, which led me back to The Complete Billie Holiday and Bessie Smith and forward to Diana Krall and beyond. My jazz knowledge has grown beyond this siren's primer, but Jazz Squad is still on my iPod.

So, here's what I'm leading up to. I got to interview K. Whalen. Recently about her new group, The Fascinators. We talked about her house, her past, present and future, and how great it is to be a mom and be an artist too. I knew I would enjoy connecting with her again -- I was right.

Read the interview, and for those of you reading, tell me, who was the band that "did it" for you? I want to know ...

Playing with Fire

 It's spring here in Charleston, the azaleas are through blooming, Tomato Watch 2011 in full swing, and event after event is happening, with so much to do that I more often than not find myself doing nothing at the end of the day. I've been banking up some writing that is spilling out now into publication, and it's been an amazing month, talking to a variety of interesting people about the interesting things they do.

Sometimes I seek them out, and sometimes I am assigned. An assignment is what introduced me to Walker Babington, who defines the always-overused term "free spirit." What has he done? Studied photography (check), lived in a tent on the beach of Costa Rica (!), carved faces into coconuts with the heat from a magnifying glass (!!), and habitually dumpster dove for his art materials, only at least once to return an art piece to the suburban curb from whence he "found" it after completing it (!!!).

Oh, and I didn't even mention the rusted mural in India, using a blowtorch as his painbrush, and currently saving up for stuntman school. He is funny, inspiring and really an underappreciated artist, although I did my best to explain all that in the recent Go Triad article.

He doesn't have a gallery, a plan, or even a palette, but he is making it happen nonetheless. I hope to keep my conversation going with him and bring more of his work to this little forum in the future.