HOW TO SOUND LIKE A 4-PIECE WHEN YOU’RE JUST ONE PERSON AND HAVE NO MONEY: SCAVENGE, BUILD, & WRITE GREAT SONGS

THE SUITCASE JUNKET USES FOUND OBJECTS AS INSTRUMENTS

 

MUSICIAN ALSO A BOOTLEGGER & VISUAL ARTIST

 

When you put on ‘Pile Driver’ (April 21 / Signature Sounds), the new record by The Suitcase Junket, you would think that the band has four members, and yet there’s only one and few overdubs were made. Yes, the Suitcase Junket is a one-man band and a damn good one, with catchy melodies, imagistic lyrics that stick in your consciousness, and enough energy to impress the festival crowds for whom he’s played at Mountain Jam, Joshua Tree, Hardly Strictly Bluegrass, and Green River. He calls his sound and ingenuity required to construct it “Swamp Yankee.” However, ‘Pile Driver’s’ constant is the Suitcase Junket’s remarkable songwriting, with rousing choruses underpinned with gritty, distorted guitar and imagistic, evocative verses.

 

It all started with a guitar in a dumpster. “Every spring when the students graduate, a lot of them get rid of stuff. They call it hippie Christmas. I’ve fixed up a dozen bikes and then sold them.” He spied a vintage, Japanese made, acoustic guitar but it was filled with mold. So naturally, Lorenz grabbed it and bought some white vinegar. It resonated best in an open C tuning and he found that his songwriting voice was more focused with the limitations that the guitar provided. It’s also more versatile than he expected, with open chords with a powerful bottom end or slide sounds or he can capo it high on the neck for fingerpicking. Since then, he’s added a chunk of washboard and a pickup to it. The songs that came out of writing on that guitar had a grit and honesty and heart to them and Lorenz began to realize that this was a new project, separate from his former band Rusty Belle. “I’m attracted to music as another aspect of life, not as a fine art, something that you do to survive because you have to.”

 

Though the instruments have developed and several have broke, it began to solidify when he found a double-wide suitcase at a tag sale which is now both the bass drum and throne. “How much noise can I make as 1 person without looping?” Both out of financial necessity and out of aesthetic choice, he began to assemble other found items for percussion. “I’d much rather find a thing that’s more or less itself and beat the hell out of it. Plus, it forces you to be on the edge of your skills. I would add a new thing and then learn a new skill and, in the process, make some interesting mistakes.”

 

He explains the rest of the kit, “My right toe plays high hat. It’s the most nuanced thing about the drum set. On the right toe, is a box filled with silverware, a bottom cymbal which is an old wooden cheese box, and a top cymbal which an eight millimeter film reel. If I stomp the pedal, I get a dark, crunchy sound. My left foot plays a baby shoe [his own] hitting a gas can. I’ve got some galvanized heating duct material that I hammered flat. This one might be the end of the baby shoe. On my left heel is a stainless steel cook pot. I built that on tour down in WV and it’s got a nice pop to it. I built it onto old chair parts. Just a pot. The last thing on my left heel is a circular saw blade, which I use like a crash.”

 

Add to that his technique of Indian-inspired throat singing, which allows him to “solo” by singing two tones at once, and a keyboard that he plays while playing his guitar. Four amplifiers fill out the sound. He has two vocal mics, one a Shure bullet-style mic going into a Vox amp. Two mid-50s Gibson amps, a GA-20 and a Skylark, for both a clean and distorted sound at the same time plus occasional tremolo. He doesn’t use effects pedals, though. He found a two-octave Yamaha keyboard and ran a quarter inch jack off the speaker as there’s no output. It goes into a small, radio solid state amp.

 

For the Suitcase Junket, aka Matt Lorenz, building and fixing and making stuff is just part of life. “I was making my own freaking alcohol. Part of it was this ideal of using what you find. We throw away too much in this society. Why consume more when we already have more than enough?” He pauses and grins, saying,“Aside from all of the sonic ideals and idealistic thoughts, it was fun. I like making shit.”

Ted Drozdowski’s Scissormen’s Love & Life gear list

Dreaming on the Road — Guitar: Dean resonator, Amp: 1966 Fender Twin reverb. Note: two mikes on guitar, one on amp

R.L. Burnside (Sleight Return) — Guitars: 1970s Fender Stratocaster, 1968 Les Paul Standard, 2012 Les Paul Standard; Amps; 1966 Fender Twin Reverb, 1972 Marshall 50-watt Super Lead, 1996 Mesa-Boogie Dual Rectifier, Eminence Private Jack 1x12, Roland Cube 30; Effects: ZVex Fuzz Factory, Line 6 Digital Delay, PDS1000, E-Bow, Big Muff

Unwanted Man — Guitars:1970s Fender Stratocaster, 1968 Les Paul Standard, 1990 Les Paul 1960 Classic, Dean Resonator; Amps: Mesa-Boogie, 1972 Marshall 50-watt Super Lead, Private Jack 1x12; Effects: ZVex Fuzz Factory

Let’s Go To Memphis — Guitars: 1970s Stratocaster, 1967 Gibson ES-345, PDS1000, ES-150; Amps: 1966 Twin Reverb: Effects: phase shifter plug-in

Can’t Be Satisfied — Guitars: 1960s Epiphone hollowbody one-string; Amps: Mesa-Boogie Dual Rectifier, Eminence Private Jack 1x12

The River — Guitars: 1983 Fender Esquire reissue with Gibson humbuckers; Amps: Mesa Boogie Dual Rectifier, Private Jack 1x12 cab; Effects: PDS1000, Boss VB-2, Ibanez Tube Screamer

Black Lung Fever — Guitars: 1967 Gibson ES-345, 1968 Les Paul Standard; 2014 McInturff Spitfire Amps: Mesa-Boogie Dual Rectifier, 1972 Marshall 50-watt Super Lead,  Private Jack 1x12; Effects: MW Fuzzytone pedal, Digitech PDS-1000

Beggin’ Jesus — Guitars: 1990 Gibson Les Paul, 1960 Les Paul Classic from 1990, Jeff “Skunk Baxter Epiphone acoustic; Amps; Amps: Mesa-Boogie Dual Rectifier, Private Jack 1x12; Effects: MW Fuzzytone

Watermelon Kid — Guitars:1958 Les Paul Special, 1983 Fender Esquire with two humbuckers, ’70s Fender Strat for slide accents; Amps: Mesa Boogie Dual Rectifier with 1x12 Eminence cab, 1963 Supro Lightning Bolt

Letter From Hell — Guitars: 1968 Gibson Les Paul Standard; Amps: Mesa Boogie Dual Rectifier, Eminence 1x12 cab, 1963 Supro Lightning Bolt; Effects: Digitech PDS-1000

Lived To Tell —1990 Gibson Les Paul Classic 1960 reissue, 1983 Fender Esquire with two humbuckers;  Mesa Boogie Dual Rectifier, Eminence 1x12 cabinet; Effects: PDS1000, Big Muff, Digitech Whammy II, Phase 90,

STRINGS: GHS Boomers .10 sets

SLIDES: Seymour Duncan Pinky Slides (no longer available) and Rocky Mountain Slides, Columbine and Salidin models

— END —

HOW KEVIN GORDON'S '56 GIBSON ES-125 CHANGED HIS SONGWRITING, CULMINATING IN FIRST NEW ALBUM IN 7 YEARS 'GLORYLAND' (FEB 14 / CROWVILLE MEDIA)

Kevin Gordon – the rock and roller with the masters degree in poetry whose songs have been covered by Levon Helm and Keith Richards – let his songwriting and recording evolve through his use of a '56 Gibson ES-125, culminating in the stunning new album 'Gloryland' (February 14 / Crowville Media). Here's Kevin:

"Not long after moving to Nashville, I found my 1956 Gibson ES-125 in my friend Pat Gallagher’s apartment, propped in a corner, without a case, gathering dust. I picked it up and played it; it immediately felt right, natural. I borrowed it for a weekend’s gigs, not knowing exactly how I’d use it--I was just attracted to it. It showed its age: the binding yellowed, the finish on the back of the neck worn away in places, pick-guard gone, battle scars here and there. The heads on the original tuning keys were brittle and weak as chalk.

I loved the chunky low end and the responsiveness of the P-90. When I got back, Pat agreed to sell me the guitar, for what now seems like a bargain: $350.

But I’d been trying to figure out a way to play solo gigs, beyond the usual acoustic-through-the-P.A. kind of sound--which I was hearing a lot of in Nashville at that time, and which always sounded thin to me, no matter how good the guitar or the sound engineer. And I wanted a sound that reflected where my songs were coming from--a lot of the songwriters/performers who influenced me played electric guitars: Chuck Berry, Sister Rosetta Tharpe, Muddy Waters, Elmore James.

To make it adaptable to more of my songs, I put it in open-D tuning, using a capo and gradually finding other chord shapes/voicings that took advantage of open strings. I love the wideness of the sound when I mask the 3rd of the chord--playing all 1s and 5s. For the solo gig I use a blackface Princeton (the one with white knobs--’63?) and, if it’s appropriate for the room, a second amp: an old Epiphone Pathfinder or a late 40s Gibson BR-9 that’s been modified to accept a non-fieldcoil speaker. Tremolo, a little delay from an old Boss DM-3 pedal, and that’s it.

Though I originally bought the guitar as a way in to playing solo, it’s greatly influenced my songwriting--since circa 2001 most of my songs have been written using it. Eight of the twelve tracks recorded for the new release, 'Gloryland,' are songs written on the 125; it’s also one of the main guitars used on the record."