Gearing up for the upcoming June 26 release of The Nels Cline Singers Draw Breath, both Nels Cline's MySpace page and the Cryptogramophone homesite now features the opening track "Caved-in Heart Blues." Nels was kind enough to provide us with some notes on the song:
"Caved-in Heart Blues" was written while I was sitting around the Wilco loft in Chicago, playing with a lot of reverb. The title is actually literal. It IS a blues, but only one trip through 1-4-5-4-1. As for the caved-in heart part, well, I am pretty sure that most humans can get a feeling or idea about that image/sensation. I play my beloved Jerry Jones baritone guitar on the main body of the piece, and the psych blues collage is lap steel and 6-string electric looped, reversed, delayed, etc., along with Scott's electronics and Devin's arco bass harmonics and textures. I think of this as being in the mood and tradition of the work song. Our version, anyway.
Stay tuned. More exclusive tracks from both Nels' new album and David Witham's Spinning the Circle to come.
knew & loved Rod,
had the unique opportunity to create with the man via percussive sound sources!
Rod was not keen on pulsing to ridged drum/percussion expressions, however, with the suggestion from his beloved Lisa that we attempt some experimentation 2gether he opened his ever improvisational world to the possibility....it was a hit.
we even performed a "bowed guitar" with odd-percussion, a one-off.
i then arranged a chance-ensemble.
based on john zorn's "cobra" technique, the line-up was; Rod Poole, Anna Homler, Chris Heenan, Cheryl Banks-Smith, Michael Interier & myself. the ensemble was named ZebraLogic (new configurations are performing now).
Rod & I went on to trio with Walter Griesham (sp! sorry Walter) performing in ChinaTown's bowery for a SanFran's AltFilmShort of incredible live improvised creations.
This trio recorded studio improvisations that raced the tension/compassion of acoustic & electronic; looping, distorting et al.
I recall after a session rough mix with Rod on Les Paul twistings, him saying, "I may never play electonically again"...I beg to differ, the session yeilded some quite unusual experimentation from the artist.
Aside from Rod's utmost respected musical genius which means more to me as an outsider (L.A.) musician; Rod used to say to me "what if you passed by someone who you might connect with, just because he or she is an Angelino!!?
This motto served me well, bless you my brother Rod.
In the years of Rod's emotional (totally understood transition from European mindset to our harsh/ego-driven U.S.ways of existence) transition, he would tell me (I lived in England & Denmark for several years) of how he couldn't, wouldn't accept the "oh-well' attitude of us "yanks", which I could relate to as an American living outside this space/place (it is a completely different way of exisiting, to put it mildly).
Rod was an extremely compassionate individual, which our world could benefit greatly from more individuals like Master Poole. The delima is that in the world as we know it . . . 2007 . . . media rules, the moment does NOT relate to reality! Realism and compassion for each other doesn't mean ANYTHING within the mind of LOSTsouls driven by violentME-MY-NOW mentality!
No One will allow themselves the respect to assess the practial, common sense, compassionate, realistic manner of approaching ANY in-the-moment situation that arises on a daily basis...we live in a world of an extreme MASS
Rod's finite approach to his craft and his life were NOT in vain.....he remained true to the complete compassionate realist that flowed pure from his very SOUL.
Bless you Rod Poole and on to your next chapter . . . YOU are a C H A M P I O N
love...........Stephen'Breeze'Smith
Posted by: Stephen'Breeze'Smith | May 18, 2007 at 10:57 PM