I take notes when I’m recording stuff, mainly for the purpose of labeling the tracks on the recording, and I sometimes get the feeling that it looks a little nerdy to be doing that. Jon Dee Graham expressed amazement over that one time.
That said, one night when Billy Don Burns was playing at Byron’s, by the third set he was pretty much on auto-pilot due to liberal imbibing, and I had realized that he probably couldn’t remember which songs he’d done and which songs he hadn’t done, particularly the latter. So I used my phone, accessed my own archives with their nice notes and made a list for him.
That turned out to be reinforcement for my even being there, since I had chosen between my girlfriend’s performance in another town (she plays a cajón in a duo) and BDB, and I wasn’t sure I’d figured that out right, but it turned out I had a reason to be there (to write this).
He seemed to appreciate that and started out with Keith Whitley Blue, which I had suggested, it being one of my favorite songs of his:
Keith Whitley Blue, It Would Kill Mama, I Don’t Have A Reason To Go To California Anymore, Outskirts of Desperate
That’s what nerdy stuff is all about, man. Every once in a while, somebody needs the information.
This is one of our earliest recordings from Byron’s, and unfortunately, yours truly had failed to anticipate what might happen if some guitar player overpowered our little recorder and brought the house to its feet.
The Amazing Guitar solo at the end is by Jake Koivisto, originally from Galva, Iowa.
We stole this photo from Sheila Thomsen at Innspiration Vines And Wines
Tony Hogrefe, Wall Lake, Iowa, it would appear, has invented a new music genre: Farm Rock. Not that he isn’t good at the country standards that he covers but he has at least ten originals, all of which are about farming (or not-many are quite philosophical). Yes, he has one about a century old house that he claims is not about farming, but we all know where that house is.
Inspired by a gig with his grandfather at Albert City decades ago, he took the stage at the Threshermen And Collectors Show there for the (third?) time this summer (2021) and brought an entourage of family and friends, including the duo of Tim And Cinda.
Here are two numbers from that show. We like the ambient outdoor sounds of the Threshermen event and yours truly thought the barn swallows that you hear in the background added some Threshermen-y-ness to the occasion:
Grain Cart OperatorRippin’
Five days later, it was on to Linn Grove, to Innspiration Vines And Wines, where he did a similar set indoors to an appreciative room. That was just hours ago and we have the entire night to process yet, but here’s one from indoors:
Iowa Sky
Tim And Cinda are slated for Innspiration Vines And Wines August 29, and a little bird tells us that Tony will probably re-appear with them at that time. But you didn’t hear it here, we’re just the archivist. Smile.
It didn’t stay like this, but that was because the bass player was overcome by something after the first set; the band was tight when they opened with one of Yours Truly’s favorite Stones songs (from Exile On Main Street):
Stop Breaking Down
Originally scheduled as a street dance in conjunction with Pomeroy’s Sesquicentennial +1 and moved indoors due to weather uncertainty, the night featured an interesting mix of returning Pomeroy-ites for the city’s celebration and Byron’s regulars.
Jamie Grimm and John Price arrived with a rhythm section but the bass player had difficulties which forced her to sit out after “Beautiful” and for the rest of the show the band rotated in a couple of “ringers” (smile) and various members took over bass duties.
Originally, Todd Partridge was the sound guy:
But Todd can play bass, so they drafted him.
toward the end of the show, Calvin stepped in and did “Folsom Prison”
So, we’ve built quite a library over the last couple of years, consisting of live performances we’ve recorded in our area (if 65 miles away is local, which of course it is, globally…), and in that particular spot, it’s well known that I’ll stand on my head and edit and fiddle for hours to produce nice recordings which are especially respectful of the performers (once in a while, we chop a show for being sub-standard in some audio sense), and ultimately we share that stuff at Internet Archive, which is dedicated to stuff like live recordings of music performances.
Once in a while, though, a performer just says no when I ask them if I can record the night. While others just whip out their phones and record, I ask first. A guy said no the other night, but the night before that I attended a local event which included two hours of entertainment after a banquet. I wasn’t there to record the band-I actually belonged to the organization, but hey, I have the electronic gizmos and tripods and stuff right there in the car……………….
So, this week we are featuring South 71, a local trio. These three recordings vary a little bit from the Archive versions in that they now fade in and out a little, have just a snitch of reverb added to them and were AI remastered. Band members are Barbara Johnson, Mel Kimblad, and Maury Muhm.
White RabbitAngel From MontgomeryCalifornia DreamingBlack Horse And The Cherry Tree
Set Opener at Byron’s Bar, Pomeroy, IA 5/30/21. Zoom H2n on light stand maybe 8′ high, 5′ from PA right side. Some editing has been applied to remove a cough, a couple of beer can cracks, an odd crashing sound, but the PA crackled a bit. Much of that is gone too, but close listeners will hear the snip. Myer would like to review our output before we got all public with it, so this will serve as a “preview” of the night, and might be a temporary post. For the time being, we won’t add stuff from this show to our Facebook page. Photo by Byron Stuart.
Since the middle of 2019, we’ve been recording shows at Byron’s Bar, Pomeroy, IA and a few other locations nearer by (Byron’s is 65 miles away from us). Byron’s is a gem of a listening room, to which many performers have attested. Ever since yours truly discovered the place in August 2018, I’ve sat there thinking: somebody ought to be archiving this stuff. By the following July I’d acquired a little Zoom recorder and a little bit of stuff to go with it and already had the editing software since we already edit samples of records we’re selling here on our site. Since then I’ve missed a show or several due to the inevitable opposing circumstances that can come along, but I’ve recorded everything I’ve heard, which has to be something in the neighborhood of thirty-six shows. I’m a Deadhead and that’s what we do. A couple of artists have requested that I not distribute those, but otherwise they usually go to Archive.org, which is a sharing site for all kinds of stuff.
A guy has to be prepared for somebody telling him “no” when he asks if the recording thing is ok. There are various good reasons for that, and this past Sunday, November 25, 2000, Maurice Vaughn did say “no” when I asked if recording was ok.
That kind of pulls the rug out from under my feet if I define myself as “the guy that’s there to do that”, but after all, in the first place, we only posted set lists on Facebook, and it was still possible to do that.
So, first of all, here’s the set list: Set 1 01 Travelin Man (Vaughn) 02 Garbage Man Blues (Vaughn) 03 Baby What You Want Me To Do (Jimmy Reed) 04 A Computer Took My Job (Vaughn) 05 Sitting In The Park/I Do Love You (Billy Stewart) 06 I Got The Blues (John Watkins) 07 The Feeling Is Gone (Bobby Blue Bland) 08 Sweet Home Chicago (Robert Johnson)
Set 2 01 I’m So Proud (Impressions) 02 If I Hadn’t Been High (Emory Williams Jr.) 03 Bring It On Home To Me (Sam Cooke) 04 I Just Want To Make Love To You (Muddy Waters) 05 Don’t Take My Monkey (John Watkins) 06 As The Years Go Passing By (Fenton Robinson) 07 Keep On Sleepin’ (Vaughn) 08 I Don’t Care (Vaughn) 09 Kansas City (Wilbert Harrison) 10 Going To New York (Jimmy Reed) 11 It Serves You Right To Suffer (John Lee Hooker) 12 Mustang Sally (Mack Rice)
Set 3 01 Ooh Baby Baby (Smokey Robinson) 02 I Got My Mojo Working (Preston Foster) 03 Help Me (Rice Miller) 04 Call It Stormy Monday (But Tuesday’s Just As Bad) (T-Bone Walker) 05 Money (That’s What I Want) (Barry Gordy & James Bradford
Maurice Vaughn seemed quite interested in the fact that there was a guy taking notes, which has happened a time or two before (notably when Jon Dee Graham played one time), and he was enthusiastic about helping me with the correct titles and attributions. That’s fun. Especially if you’re me, and you’re note-taking about a genre with which you’re not particularly familiar and artists’ names and songs’ titles can shift over the years. Because I wasn’t concentrating on the recording thing, I could think about what I was hearing and I came to the realization that both Vaughn and John Watkins really knew the historical stuff and the fabric of the pieces that they were playing.
That’s all on a ten dollar ticket.
Maurice said it was ok to do a track or two but not a whole show. I think he thought I was using some million dollar camera and producing some gorgeous HD thing, so I shot no photos or video at all, and got to a nearby cell phone recording which should remain anonymous or else it will appear that I did it, and maybe I did.
So I gave it the same primitive treatment that I’ve used on all the Byron’s stuff – simple low-tech fan production with mostly free software, things you can do at home with Windows or whatever.
This isn’t in the spirit of piracy. It’s archival – somebody ought to be keeping track of this stuff….
