My Will Oldham Story – part 3

“Man she’s really dragging this story out!” you might be thinking... but it’s amazing how a short trip to West Virginia can feel so epic.

I believe we left off here: After grabbing the guitars from Michael’s West Virginia Hall of Fame, we went to collect Rob and G at the airport.  They schlepped over from Los Angeles; the ice and snow of the Smoky Mountains was a complete culture shock for those California boys.

We were safely shuttled to the city centre where we visited a rockin’ pizza place called Pies and Pints http://www.piesandpints.net/ the guys crashed out because we had a big day to come.

** my pizza did not have meat on it! xx p

The following morning the Culture Centre welcomed us with open arms (and all-you-can-drink coffee).  Because me and Garo live in London and G and Rob live in LA we hadn't played together since the tour in October.  So we jammed in the dressing room for a couple of hours while Calexico http://www.casadecalexico.com soundchecked with all their wonderful warm mariachi brass and crazy percussion pit.  They don’t half put on a show!

I was running around with curlers in my hair trying not to get nervous, that all-you-can-drink coffee wasn't helping the nerves.  

Chatted to those nice chaps from Camper Van Beethoven for a bit... 

...and I got to meet Larry Groce http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Larry_Groce not only is he the lovely presenter of The Mountain Stage, but he was a pop a star in his own rite!  He had a hit with Junk Food Junkie http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZLiVeRJTtqo and it was even covered by the Jackson 5 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MWEe3IR58lw AND he wrote albums for Disney.  How cool is that?

So we do our gig and it was really great fun to play such a classy big venue, and to see a radio show recorded live and to see all the other performers.  The House Band was off the hook!  And we had the best seat in the house for the rest of the gig, just backstage on the left...In fact you can hear the Mountain Show, on NPR here:

http://www.npr.org/event/music/177043995/piney-gir-on-mountain-stage

Will Oldham’s set moved me to tears when he did a cover of the Loudon Wainwright song “Screaming Issue.” But I can’t tell you what a fan I am of Will Oldham already anyway... and he had such an intimidating air about him I didn't know how to act.  Rob said I was probably just making that up in my own mind.  Rob is probably right.  Maybe what seemed intimidating about him was just shyness or getting prepared in his own mind for his show to come.  He had very intense eyes and he barely said a word to anyone.  

My anticipation in the weeks building up to the Mountain Stage Session was magnified by how big of a Will Oldham fan I actually am.  I covered his song, ‘Ease down the Road’ on one of my Country Roadshow singles a few years ago.  In my mind I was going to meet him in West Virginia, give him the copy of the (now very rare) single where I covered his song, and he would love it... then we’d be new best friends.  He’d put me on his speed dial (if he even has a speed dial) and I’d be his quirky Kansas City via London gal pal.  We’d tour the world together; he’d sing with me, I’d sing with him.  My friendship fantasy grew and grew... Will Oldham was going to be my new best friend! 

Stay tuned for the final instalment of ‘My Will Oldham Story’

Do you think we are new best friends?  Vote now: yes/no...

Xx

Piney

My Will Oldham Story - part 2

Right, so here’s part 2:  We dump our stuff at the Super 8 and go across the street to the grocery store to stock up on supplies.

By supplies I mean the stuff I get homesick for living in England.  I.e. S’mores-flavoured Pop Tarts, lemon meringue chewing gum, Lawry’s Seasoned Salt, Kraft Mac ‘n’ Cheese (yes the kind that comes in a box with the powdered cheese), Jello Pudding (all flavours), Jiffy Corn Bread Mix, a variety of hot sauces, Kool Aid (Black Cherry & Pink Lemonade flavours specifically), Peanut Butter Oreos... you get the picture.

After the big shop, we meet Adam from Mountain Stage and his lovely girlfriend Trish at the Mexican restaurant across the road and we heartily decide it’s ‘margarita-o’clock’ so get stuck in to chips, salsa, and salt-rimmed glasses of tangy lime tequilas.  We ordered extra queso sauce and I daresay we feasted.  

After being awake for 36+ hours we then passed out in a food-booze-queso-induced coma.  I have never slept so well.

The next morning super-sweet Jeff from Mountain Stage collects us to take us to The West Virginia Hall of Fame, it is here we meet Michael who kindly let us use some lovely, vintage guitars and we nosed around his Hall of Fame, which is basically a bunch of super cool West Virginia stuff!  http://www.wvmusichalloffame.com

Michael is also in a band, they’re called The Carpenter Ants http://www.carpenterants.wvmusichalloffame.com/ and wow were they good!  Great musicianship, wonderful singing, and just the kind of gospel-tinged, blues-oriented, riff-led,  country-rock you’d expect at the foot of the Smokies... After the Mountain Stage show we ended up at a The Empty Glass http://www.emptyglass.com where the Carpenter Ants were playing.  The bar girl gave my band free hot dogs which pleased G and Rob muchly!  I spotted there were a couple of girls in that bar that took a shining to my boys but they were obliviously chomping on their freelicious hot dogs... 

Ah!  But I digress, because this happened AFTER the Will Oldham encounter, and that’s why you’re reading this blog right?  Hmm... this is getting pretty long though, so stay tuned for part 3

xx

P

My Will Oldham Story - part 1

Right, so for those of you who haven't been in the loop you may not be aware of the fact that I now have a 'Will Oldham Story'...

Yes he's a bit of a hero, right?  I mean, he's a strange, warped, twisted hero, but you can't deny he's an indie-rock-underground legend!

So I went to the Mountain Stage, in Charleston West Virginia and this is how the story goes.

Firstly, our flight was cancelled in the middle of the night, luckily I was online checking last minute e-mails before the trip to West Virginia to play NPR's famous Mountain Stage Sessions with an amazing line up!  We'll get to that in a minute.

So we literally hoof it straight to Heathrow at 2:00 AM in hopes they can put us on the next flight.  You see, because our flight was cancelled we would have missed the session!  It was tres stressful!

We hang around Heathrow for hours, fueled by large coffees, on the promise that they will get us on a flight, and they do!  Hurrah!

The flight is turbulent to say the least, there is a serious blizzard brewing below and there were times I wondered if the Mountain Stage was worth risking my life for... When we landed safely I kissed the earth, the terra firma that is my homeland - America awaited me.  We were in the nation's capital city of Washington DC and we had more hours to kill waiting for the 2nd flight.  Much to my delight there were burritos and tortilla soup in terminal C, and I utter the words "there is no place like home."  You see, Mexican food made by a Mexican person is in another league to this British Mexican food we get here in the UK, and that's true even in the airport.

We get on a tiny tiny plane, which requires bundling up and slipping out onto the runway where the salt and grit had melted the ice away in little pathways.

The plane felt like it was made by Playmobil.

We hadn't slept for 24 hours.  The view below was stunning and other-worldly, like a white-dusted, crazy quilt.  I felt like I was floating due to the lack-of-sleep, caffeine-fueled, post-Mexican-food, trance-like state I found myself in.  It was a beautiful way to see the Smokey Mountains, up high in the clouds with snow below.

Adam from the Mountain Stage was there to greet us and he was the epitome of Southern hospitality.  He took us to our Super 8 through the winding, snow-ploughed roads.  He was used to these conditions.  He runs the Mountain Stage dang it, and he's a Mountain Man, a little snow on the zig-zag roads left him nonplussed.

And we were there!  The city of Charleston welcomed us and that's where I'm going to leave you (until the next installment)

Here's a little video about the journey featuring a cover I did of Bonnie Prince Billy's "Ease Down The Road" - please check it out!

And watch this space for Part 2 of the story!
xx
Piney

It's The Most Wonderful Time Of The Year (?????) I think so...

Okay, so basically my favourite day of the year is Halloween, I love it!  The wild nights, the crazy costumes, the free candy, I can't get enough of Halloween.  From Halloween to Christmas it's good times a-go-go!  The hols in fall and winter are pretty good.

In the UK there is Guy Fawkes night, which is kind of mental.  Children burn scarecrows on bonfires and people blow stuff up to commemorate Guy Fawkes' failed attempt and blowing up Parliament in 1605.  What an odd thing to celebrate, right?  But it's pretty and it's a good excuse to drink hot chocolate on Primrose Hill watching the fireworks over London town.

Thanksgiving, being an American in London, I tend to miss out on.  It seems like the universe doesn't want me to have Thanksgiving, because every year I have a gig that I am either playing or I must attend for social obligation (you know how it is, being a girl about town and all).  This year I was at the Father John Misty gig, delivering a special loaf of banana bread.

And so it's been YEARS since I've had a Tofurkey... and did you know the UK doesn't do pumpkin as a sweet thing?  They do pumpkin curry and pumpkin soup, but pie = no way José, unless it's a pie with goat's cheese and potato and pumpkin.

So I get the yearning for sweet pumpkin pie.  It means scouring the American section of the food hall in Selfridges to buy a can of pumpkin (have you ever tried to make pumpkin pie with a real pumpkin?  It ain't so good).

And that little jaunt to the food hall on Oxford Street can fulfil me when I feel homesick...that and Selfridge's ample supply of Jif peanut butter, which is a whopping £4 a jar = that's like $6.50.  I justify this expense because I would happily spend that much on a glass of wine in a bar, so why not spend that much on many pieces of wonderful breakfast toast?

I digress... so Christmas is coming.  I like Christmas, but thinking back, Christmas really stopped being a big deal after my parents split and when I was a teenager, I usually spent Christmas like a waif/stray at friends' parents' houses.  Thinking back that's kind of odd.  But I guess my mom wasn't much of a cook, and the lovely Robinson family, who Mom tended to spend Christmas with, well... they put bacon fat in EVERYTHING.  As a vegetarian it meant only eating pumpkin pie on Christmas day.  Which is kind of nice, but every now and then a girl wants some stuffing or green beans, right?

Once my mom took me to a Polynesian restaurant out by the airport, because it was one of the only places that was open in Kansas City on Christmas day.  I have really fond memories of this exotic Christmas dinner.  The tiki lounge feel of the place suited my inner spirit, which is kitsch through and through.  The pineapple in everything baffled my Kansas palette but it was something of an experience.  Don Ho's 'Tiny Bubbles' infiltrated the atmosphere, and then we went to see a movie.  It was something like Home Alone 2.  It might not be the traditional Christmas that people think about, but I'll always remember it well.

And this brings me to now.  This year, I am spending Christmas in the Oxfordshire countryside and it's a sparkling, traditional, family Christmas that I am lucky enough to be a part of.  The nights are very long in England this time of year (it's dark by 3:45 these days) and it's very and damp (because we are an island the wind is wet and stings).  So cosying up with a hot toddy and a game of Jenga is just what's needed to evoke true Christmas spirit.

Now all I gotta do is survive Christmas party season!  Wish me luck, and godspeed to you too dear reader.
xx
Piney

Chelsea Boots Girl

If you know a little about me... then you'll know that I am stuck in the 60s.

I don't know why, because I wasn't alive in the 60s, my parents never talked about the 60s and I'm not one of those people that seeks out LSD and free love.  I do not own anything tie-died.  There are still hippies everywhere, especially in California and Northeast London... but it's fun to dabble with hippy stuff sometimes; i.e. I am wearing 2 crystals today and a Mary Quant-style dress with lashings of eyeliner.  That's pretty 60's right?

I've been known to drink a Cherry B or Baby Cham purely for the kitsch packaging.  It's so sickly sweet, but I feel cool holding the bottle so I sip it slow. *footnote*

And I just love 60s clothes, man... I love them.  I collect them.  My bedroom is more like a giant closet with a bed in it, than a bedroom with some clothes in it.  I guess vintage fashion is my hobby and I have taken that hobby to an extreme.  I justify it with, "well I can always wear it on stage" and I do.

Last night, I was delighted to be on the Father John Misty guest list.  I felt like such a a jammy hipster, and it was a good gig.  Anyhoo... a hot London gig requires a good outfit and my black dress needed blood-red, velvet Chelsea Boots, natch!  But here's the catch, in London, in November, IT RAINS!  and I mean, it really rains, like a cold monsoon.  You'd think having left Kansas and lived here for 14 years now, I might have thought of that before leaving the house.  The thing about velvet shoes and rain, is that your feet get totally soaked, they are more of a glorified sock.  And so I've learned my lesson, the boots are on the radiator and I am hopeful they are not ruined.  I have nobody to blame but myself (and perhaps God for making it rain).

Chelsea (home of the Chelsea boot) ain't what it used to be.  Apparently in the 60's it was a real epicentre for music, fashion, cafe culture and general cool cats & beatniks.  Now Chelsea is full of rich people, Starbucks, and overpriced boutiques aimed at yummy mummies and retired media lovies.  Property values may be high, but if you ask me... there goes the neighbourhood!  Times They are A Changin' and there's no point fighting that.

I am trying to figure out why I'm obsessed with an era that is so distant from me.  Why do I feel this passion for a time that I have never known?  Why do I cling to a nostalgia that I have only experienced second hand?

I think it might have something to do with the fact I discovered secular music late in life, so when the rock 'n' roll flood gates were opened I soaked it all up like a sponge and took great fascination with the past.  I wanted to learn what made music what it is, the past that shapes the future.  There will never be another time like the 60's when it comes to music.  So I revere it, I respect it, and I feel a little sad I missed out.  I live vicariously through music, art and fashion.

I guess there is a sort of freedom in the fact that in the 60's there was this fun sonic playground that nobody had discovered before... such an exciting time with the invention of the Mellotron, synths, overdriven guitars, the notion that you can use the studio as an instrument, manipulating sounds and atmosphere.  Some classical composers played with this idea, people like Cage and Stockhausen, but pop pioneers like Phil Spector, The Beatles, The Stones, The Beach Boys, made it mainstream and we've never looked back.  Modern bands like Radiohead and Flaming Lips would not be what they are today if peeps in the 60's hadn't pushed the envelope waves.

So what better way to love you and leave you than with a song... a song by a band that inspire me a lot.  They capture that edgy, dangerous thing that the 60's represented, untapped rebellion with an icy, cool sheen.  Enjoy Velvet Underground, I love this song!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YuM3SteeAgY

xx
Piney

* it's probably not 'cool' to admit that something makes you feel cool *

Sugarman...

I am currently obsessed with this album!  Cold Fact by Rodriguez.
 
I know, I'm a late bloomer... y'all were telling me to see 'Searching for Sugarman' back when it came out last spring.   But I'm a busy girl and barely ever find 2 hours to sit still.  So I finally got round to seeing the movie a couple of weeks ago, in Pasadena, at a cute little art house cinema (with dollar popcorn, I might add!)

I have to say, this film spoke to me by the buckets.  Tears they did fly, but not sad tears, happy ones.  How joyous to see someone like Rodriguez who has fulfilled his destiny after long last and great patience.  He is unspoiled by his success, he is unaffected by his newfound fame.

Rodriguez, I salute you!  And I cannot wait to see you later.  I'm baking you a Sugarman cake as we speak...

xx
Piney

For those of you who like to know... I have just complete demo number 16 for the next Piney album, how exciting is that?!~!?

I have to say though, the last song I just finished (like just now, i.e. just this minute I finished it) sounds pretty goth.  I can't say I've ever written anything like it (well I guess Creature from Peakahokahoo was a little bit goth/Fad Gadget inspired)... but this new track is a lot more Tim Burtonesque, not so synth pop.

I think I blame the chronic grey skies here in England, today is particularly Sweeney Todd don't you think (Englanders, I'm talking to you!)?  Also, Katrin Schla is coming over later to watch a vampire movie with me, I've been looking forward to that all day!  We might have to get really garlic-laced pizza so we don't get attacked in the night.  I will sleep in my rosary beads with crucifix in tow.

I'd defo say the whole album is not goth, in fact it's just the one song (well and there is another one about a ghost of a mouse, but it's quite cheery really, that one).  Maybe it's too weird to even include on the album...  But people like weird stuff sometimes right?  Diamanda Galas has a whole career based on her weird and wonderful voice.  

Robert Smith is in one of my favourite bands, and he's done well out the goth persona.  One thing I'd say about The Cure though is if you didn't know what Robert Smith looked like, they wouldn't be a 'goth' band.  I mean their songs are pure pop!  Boys Don't Cry and Friday I'm in Love are some of the best pop songs ever written... put Robert in front of 'em and they get bracketed as a 'goth' band. 

But I've never been a fan of pigeon holes...  xx

Piney