First New England dates following the release of free “Stink Eye” EP,
including song about Negro League Baseball legend Josh Gibson
Nashville, Tennessee-based psychedelic roots and blues trio Ted
Drozdowski’s Scissormen are making early November stops in Providence
(11/3), Lowell, MA (11/4), Boston (11/5) and Middletown, CT (11/6) in
support of their Stink Eye EP, available for free download via
Noisetrade.com.
After releasing the Love & Life album last summer, the band has been
busy playing dates, working on new songs, and enjoy worldwide
airplay—even making a live appearance on Sirius/XM Satellite Radio to
support the network’s extensive airplay of the songs “Beggin’ Jesus” and
“Let’s Go to Memphis.”
This summer Rocky Mountain Slides also unveiled the Ted Drozdowski
signature guitar slide and Ted was the subject of a major feature in
Guitar Player magazine. But all of that overshadowed the release of the
six-song Stink Eye EP exclusively via Noisetrade.com, which includes
Ted’s tribute to American baseball hero Josh Gibson. The legendary power
hitter and catcher is an under-sung but important figure in the history
of Negro League Baseball, whose skills (Babe Ruth was often called “the
white man’s Josh Gibson”) would have propelled him to greater fame if
not for segregation. The song originally appeared on the limited edition
Batterymen EP on Nashville’s Semi-Pro Records, which also included cuts
by ex-members of R.E.M. and Todd Snider.
“At a time when we seem to have forgotten the progress we’ve made as a
nation, a song like ‘Josh Gibson’ is a reminder of the sacrifices that
many people have made to move us forward—and a reminder that’s the
direction we need to keep moving in,” says Drozdowski.
The New England shows:
• Aurora, Providence, RI, Thursday, Nov. 3 at 9:30 p.m. w/opener the Mark Cutler Trio
• The Back Page, Lowell MA, Friday, Nov. 4 at 9 p.m.
• Thunder Road, Somerville, MA, Saturday, Nov. 5 at 7 p.m.
dinner show w/opener Peter Parcek
• Cypress Restaurant, Middletown, CT, Sunday, Nov. 6 at 6 p.m. dinner show
Showing posts with label ted drozdowski's scissormen. Show all posts
Showing posts with label ted drozdowski's scissormen. Show all posts
Thursday, October 13, 2016
Tuesday, October 27, 2015
GUITAR PLAYER SPOTLIGHTS TED DROZDOWSKI’S SCISSORMEN IN FEATURE AS MUSIC CITY ROOTS AIRS PERFORMANCE ON PSYCH-ROOTS BAND
HEADS UP TO PHILLY & DC: BAND TOURING NORTHEAST IN NOVEMBER
Nashville psychedelic-roots band Ted Drozdowski’s Scissormen is the subject of a Guitar Player feature and will perform on syndicated radio show Music City Roots on October 28. The band will also launch a northeast tour in November, including stops in Philly and D.C.
“Psychedelic juke joint… great songs, a sense of mystery, and the concept of a record as a work of art in and of itself… The guitarist and his Scissormen put on take-no-prisoners shows.”
- Michael Ross, Guitar Player, December, 2015
“So damn enthralling… Rooted in the deepest of blues yet explores the outer edges of the cosmos.”
- Sean L. Maloney, Nashville Scene, August 13, 2015
“Blues-drenched, sometimes psychedelic.”
- Ed Symkus, Boston Globe, July 30, 2015
“The gnarliest album recorded in a tent that you'll hear all day.”
- Chris Steffen, All Music, July 23, 2015
“Staggering guitar skills.”
- Chuck Armstrong, Diffuser.FM, April 20, 2015
“Raw garage rock.”
- Adrien Begrand, Pop Matters, June 29, 2015
“Furious blues… Slide guitar wizard… There’s his hobby of using just about anything and everything available to him for playing slide guitar, including forks, knives, bottles and pistols…”
- Pollstar, August 6, 2015
“singular music vision… It's his strongest, most satisfying work to date... Forward-looking, yet anchored firmly in its roots, 'Love & Life' reinforces the status of Ted Drozdowski's Scissormen as one of the most outstanding bands on the scene."
- Melanie Young, Living Blues, August, 2015
“Drozdowski’s Scissormen cut through the bullshit… Contemporary cosmic blues drenched in reverb and the dark bayou demons that inhabit each day… Love & Life isn’t your typical virtuoso release. It’s the fulcrum wherein Drozdowski pairs his devotion to a music whose roots run deeper than democracy.”
- 80/100, Mike Jurkovic, Elmore Magazine, August 4, 2015
“A very deep groove.”
- Lee Zimmerman, Pop Matters, July 28, 2015
Ted Drozdowski’s Scissormen Tour Dates
October 28 – Franklin, TN – Music City Roots
November 5 – Falls Church, VA – JV’s Restaurant
November 6 – Linden, NJ – Robin’s Nest Rhythm and Blues
November 7 – Philadelphia, PA – The Twisted Tail
December 4 – Nashville, TN – The Family Wash
January 29 – Franklin, TN – Gray’s On Main
January 30 – Marietta, GA – Darwin’s
Nashville psychedelic-roots band Ted Drozdowski’s Scissormen is the subject of a Guitar Player feature and will perform on syndicated radio show Music City Roots on October 28. The band will also launch a northeast tour in November, including stops in Philly and D.C.
“Psychedelic juke joint… great songs, a sense of mystery, and the concept of a record as a work of art in and of itself… The guitarist and his Scissormen put on take-no-prisoners shows.”
- Michael Ross, Guitar Player, December, 2015
“So damn enthralling… Rooted in the deepest of blues yet explores the outer edges of the cosmos.”
- Sean L. Maloney, Nashville Scene, August 13, 2015
“Blues-drenched, sometimes psychedelic.”
- Ed Symkus, Boston Globe, July 30, 2015
“The gnarliest album recorded in a tent that you'll hear all day.”
- Chris Steffen, All Music, July 23, 2015
“Staggering guitar skills.”
- Chuck Armstrong, Diffuser.FM, April 20, 2015
“Raw garage rock.”
- Adrien Begrand, Pop Matters, June 29, 2015
“Furious blues… Slide guitar wizard… There’s his hobby of using just about anything and everything available to him for playing slide guitar, including forks, knives, bottles and pistols…”
- Pollstar, August 6, 2015
“singular music vision… It's his strongest, most satisfying work to date... Forward-looking, yet anchored firmly in its roots, 'Love & Life' reinforces the status of Ted Drozdowski's Scissormen as one of the most outstanding bands on the scene."
- Melanie Young, Living Blues, August, 2015
“Drozdowski’s Scissormen cut through the bullshit… Contemporary cosmic blues drenched in reverb and the dark bayou demons that inhabit each day… Love & Life isn’t your typical virtuoso release. It’s the fulcrum wherein Drozdowski pairs his devotion to a music whose roots run deeper than democracy.”
- 80/100, Mike Jurkovic, Elmore Magazine, August 4, 2015
“A very deep groove.”
- Lee Zimmerman, Pop Matters, July 28, 2015
Ted Drozdowski’s Scissormen Tour Dates
October 28 – Franklin, TN – Music City Roots
November 5 – Falls Church, VA – JV’s Restaurant
November 6 – Linden, NJ – Robin’s Nest Rhythm and Blues
November 7 – Philadelphia, PA – The Twisted Tail
December 4 – Nashville, TN – The Family Wash
January 29 – Franklin, TN – Gray’s On Main
January 30 – Marietta, GA – Darwin’s
Tuesday, October 13, 2015
Ted Drozdowski's Scissormen To Play Famed Music City Roots — Watch Live Worldwide on October 28
New album Love & Life scoring airplay, rave reviews; band now represented for booking by the Road Warrior Agency
NASHVILLE, TN — Acclaimed American roots blues trio Ted Drozdowski's Scissormen will play Music City Roots, the internationally famed syndicated live radio and internet broadcast show, on Wednesday, October 28 at 7 p.m. The show can be seen live worldwide at http://musiccityroots.com/.
The album and the band's live performances have also garnered rave reviews from No Depression, Blues Blast, Living Blues, The Nashville Scene, The Boston Globe, Guitar Player (where Ted will be featured this fall) and other publications. And earlier this summer Ted Drozdowski's Scissormen were featured on the syndicated, 2.4-million listener Beale Street Caravan radio show.
Ted Drozdowski's Scissormen are now working with the Nashville based Road Warrior Agency.
Upcoming tour dates include:
• October 17, Saturday, Gray's On Main, Franklin, TN (9 to 10:30 p.m. concert)
• October 28, Wednesday, Music City Roots, Franklin, TN (7 p.m.)
• November 5, Thursday, JV's Restaurant, Falls Church, VA (9 p.m.)
• November 6, Friday, The Robin's Nest, Linden, NJ (9 p.m.)
• November 7, Saturday, The Twisted Tail, Philadelphia, PA (9 p.m.)
• November 28, Saturday, A Mighty Love — Tribute to Mighty Sam McClain, Arlington Regent, Arlington, MA (7 p.m., fundraiser for the homeless with many guest performers)
• January 30, Saturday, Darwin's, Marietta, GA (9 p.m.)
The band is touring behind their heralded new album Love & Life, which is getting extensive global airplay including Sirius/XM's "B.B. King's Bluesville," currently playing the songs "Beggin' Jesus" and "Let's Go To Memphis," featuring the late soul giant Mighty Sam McClain on guest vocals.
NASHVILLE, TN — Acclaimed American roots blues trio Ted Drozdowski's Scissormen will play Music City Roots, the internationally famed syndicated live radio and internet broadcast show, on Wednesday, October 28 at 7 p.m. The show can be seen live worldwide at http://musiccityroots.com/.
The album and the band's live performances have also garnered rave reviews from No Depression, Blues Blast, Living Blues, The Nashville Scene, The Boston Globe, Guitar Player (where Ted will be featured this fall) and other publications. And earlier this summer Ted Drozdowski's Scissormen were featured on the syndicated, 2.4-million listener Beale Street Caravan radio show.
Ted Drozdowski's Scissormen are now working with the Nashville based Road Warrior Agency.
Upcoming tour dates include:
• October 17, Saturday, Gray's On Main, Franklin, TN (9 to 10:30 p.m. concert)
• October 28, Wednesday, Music City Roots, Franklin, TN (7 p.m.)
• November 5, Thursday, JV's Restaurant, Falls Church, VA (9 p.m.)
• November 6, Friday, The Robin's Nest, Linden, NJ (9 p.m.)
• November 7, Saturday, The Twisted Tail, Philadelphia, PA (9 p.m.)
• November 28, Saturday, A Mighty Love — Tribute to Mighty Sam McClain, Arlington Regent, Arlington, MA (7 p.m., fundraiser for the homeless with many guest performers)
• January 30, Saturday, Darwin's, Marietta, GA (9 p.m.)
The band is touring behind their heralded new album Love & Life, which is getting extensive global airplay including Sirius/XM's "B.B. King's Bluesville," currently playing the songs "Beggin' Jesus" and "Let's Go To Memphis," featuring the late soul giant Mighty Sam McClain on guest vocals.
Friday, July 31, 2015
Wednesday, July 29, 2015
TED DROZDOWSKI MAKES UNCONVENTIONAL PSYCH-ROCK WITH UNCONVENTIONAL GUITARS ON 'LOVE & LIFE'
MUSIC CITY ROOTS SYNDICATED RADIO SHOW CONFIRMED OCT 28 AS ALL MUSIC STREAMS FULL ALBUM
Ted Drozdowski knows his guitars.
A veteran rock musician and road warrior who doubles as a journalist for Guitar World and Premiere Guitar, he fills his newest album, 'Love & Life,' with more than a dozen acoustic and electric guitars. Also included on Ted Drozdowski’s Scissormen’s ‘Love & Life’ record, which hits stores this Friday, are a handful of custom-made axes that are as unique as the music itself. The band plays NYC’s Shrine tomorrow and Brooklyn’s Grand Victory on Monday as All Music is streaming all of ‘Love & Life’: http://www.allmusic.com/blog/post/album-premiere-ted-drozdowskis-scissormen-love-life
"I like to play unconventional roots music on unconventional instruments," says Drozdowski, who has driven more than 1,000,000 miles during his tour dates with a series of bands, including his current project, Ted Drozdowski’s Scissormen. Along the way, he's carved out a reputation as "both an innovator and interpreter all at the same time" (Pop Matters).
Rooted in electric blues and psychedelic music, 'Love & Life' features guitars like 'Jo Diddley,' a 1960s Eiphone Hollowbody that Drozdowski rescued by ripping off the headstock, securing it back onto the instrument "with industrial glue at a slight-yet-intonation-proof angle," and removed the pickups. The resulting instrument, whose name is a tip-of-the-hat to blues great Bo Diddley, can be heard on "Can't Be Satisfied."
Also along for the ride is Drozdowski's "signature model" Fender Esquire, which features the autographs of friends, tour mates and influences including Dick Dale, Ike Turner and Billy Gibbons. Drozdowski customized the guitar by adding jumbo frets and a pair of late '60s Les Paul pickups. It's heavy, like his music, and he's toured with it since the '80s. "I've even let somebody breathe fire across the neck while I was playing it — in Mississippi, of course," he adds.
And then there's the so-called "Lobster Pot" guitar, which was gifted to Drozdowski by East Nashville artist Mike Windy. Again, Drozdowski modified the guitar a bit, adding a Mexican single-coil pickup — "the cheaper and gnarlier, the better" — and securing it with electric tape. The result is an instrument with "a huge, cutting sound," making it the perfect ax for Drozdowski's arsenal. It also befits Drozdowski’s time spent in the Boston music scene before moving to Nashville.
All three of those guitars will hit the road with Ted Drozdowski’s Scissormen this year. The band's upcoming tour includes a high-profile performance at the Music City Roots syndicated radio broadcast in Franklin, Tennessee October 28.
Ted Drozdowski’s Scissormen Tour Dates
July 30 – New York, NY – Shrine World Music Venue
July 31 – Somerville, MA – Johnny D’s
August 1 – Lowell, MA – The Back Page Café
August 2 – Middletown, CT – The Cypress Restaurant
August 3 – Brooklyn, NY – Grand Victory
August 9 – Nashville, TN – The Bluebird Café
August 15 – E. Nashville, TN – The 5 Spot
August 28 – Winona, MN – Broken World Records
August 29 – Minneapolis, MN – Hell’s Kitchen Brunch
September 1 – Indianapolis, IN – The Slippery Noodle
September 2 – Kansas City, MO – B.B.’s Lawnside Barbecue
September 3 – Lincoln, NE – The Zoo Bar
September 4 – Fort Collins, CO – Avogadro’s Number
September 5-6 – Denver, CO – Ziggie’s Live Music
October 28 - Nashville, TN - Music City Roots
Ted Drozdowski knows his guitars.
A veteran rock musician and road warrior who doubles as a journalist for Guitar World and Premiere Guitar, he fills his newest album, 'Love & Life,' with more than a dozen acoustic and electric guitars. Also included on Ted Drozdowski’s Scissormen’s ‘Love & Life’ record, which hits stores this Friday, are a handful of custom-made axes that are as unique as the music itself. The band plays NYC’s Shrine tomorrow and Brooklyn’s Grand Victory on Monday as All Music is streaming all of ‘Love & Life’: http://www.allmusic.com/blog/post/album-premiere-ted-drozdowskis-scissormen-love-life
"I like to play unconventional roots music on unconventional instruments," says Drozdowski, who has driven more than 1,000,000 miles during his tour dates with a series of bands, including his current project, Ted Drozdowski’s Scissormen. Along the way, he's carved out a reputation as "both an innovator and interpreter all at the same time" (Pop Matters).
Rooted in electric blues and psychedelic music, 'Love & Life' features guitars like 'Jo Diddley,' a 1960s Eiphone Hollowbody that Drozdowski rescued by ripping off the headstock, securing it back onto the instrument "with industrial glue at a slight-yet-intonation-proof angle," and removed the pickups. The resulting instrument, whose name is a tip-of-the-hat to blues great Bo Diddley, can be heard on "Can't Be Satisfied."
Also along for the ride is Drozdowski's "signature model" Fender Esquire, which features the autographs of friends, tour mates and influences including Dick Dale, Ike Turner and Billy Gibbons. Drozdowski customized the guitar by adding jumbo frets and a pair of late '60s Les Paul pickups. It's heavy, like his music, and he's toured with it since the '80s. "I've even let somebody breathe fire across the neck while I was playing it — in Mississippi, of course," he adds.
And then there's the so-called "Lobster Pot" guitar, which was gifted to Drozdowski by East Nashville artist Mike Windy. Again, Drozdowski modified the guitar a bit, adding a Mexican single-coil pickup — "the cheaper and gnarlier, the better" — and securing it with electric tape. The result is an instrument with "a huge, cutting sound," making it the perfect ax for Drozdowski's arsenal. It also befits Drozdowski’s time spent in the Boston music scene before moving to Nashville.
All three of those guitars will hit the road with Ted Drozdowski’s Scissormen this year. The band's upcoming tour includes a high-profile performance at the Music City Roots syndicated radio broadcast in Franklin, Tennessee October 28.
Ted Drozdowski’s Scissormen Tour Dates
July 30 – New York, NY – Shrine World Music Venue
July 31 – Somerville, MA – Johnny D’s
August 1 – Lowell, MA – The Back Page Café
August 2 – Middletown, CT – The Cypress Restaurant
August 3 – Brooklyn, NY – Grand Victory
August 9 – Nashville, TN – The Bluebird Café
August 15 – E. Nashville, TN – The 5 Spot
August 28 – Winona, MN – Broken World Records
August 29 – Minneapolis, MN – Hell’s Kitchen Brunch
September 1 – Indianapolis, IN – The Slippery Noodle
September 2 – Kansas City, MO – B.B.’s Lawnside Barbecue
September 3 – Lincoln, NE – The Zoo Bar
September 4 – Fort Collins, CO – Avogadro’s Number
September 5-6 – Denver, CO – Ziggie’s Live Music
October 28 - Nashville, TN - Music City Roots
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 —
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 —
Tuesday, July 14, 2015
TED DROZDOWSKI’S SCISSORMEN SLIDE UP TO BROOKLYN’S GRAND VICTORY, MANHATTAN’S SHRINE FOR PSYCH-BLUES POWERHOUSE SHOWS
Rocker/rock writer Ted Drozdowski will bring his band Ted Drozdowski’s
Scissormen to NYC for a pair of album release shows for slide
guitar-driven ‘Love & Life.’ Splitting his time between journalist
and musician, Drozdowski has done over 1,000 artist interviews and
driven over 1,000,000 miles on tour in a series of bands culminating in
Ted Drozdowski’s Scissormen, which brings together his loves of
psychedelic music and blues. Early spotlights have come from Wax
Poetics, Diffuser.FM, Premier Guitar, and beyond. The “Beggin’ Jesus”
music video brings to life the dirty groove with lo-fi animation.
Drozdowski knows how to tell a story in song as well, portraying his immigrant grandfathers suffering from mining-related illnesses in “Black Lung Fever,” sketching a portrait of armed forces veteran, former truck driver, blues music player, and MENSA member Watermelon Slim on “Watermelon Kid,” and recounting a true hang with his mentor RL Burnside that also tells of the complexities and contradictions of race relations in America. ‘Love & Life’ is his masterwork.
WHO: Nashville Psych-Blues Band Ted Drozdowski’s Scissormen
WHAT: Album Release Shows For ‘Love & Life’
MANHATTAN SHOW: 8pm, July 30 at Shrine, 2271 Adam Clayon Powell Blvd. w/ Pork Chop Willie supporting
BROOKLYN SHOW: August 3 at the Grand Victory, 245 Grand Street w/ The Nowadays and The End Men supporting
Drozdowski knows how to tell a story in song as well, portraying his immigrant grandfathers suffering from mining-related illnesses in “Black Lung Fever,” sketching a portrait of armed forces veteran, former truck driver, blues music player, and MENSA member Watermelon Slim on “Watermelon Kid,” and recounting a true hang with his mentor RL Burnside that also tells of the complexities and contradictions of race relations in America. ‘Love & Life’ is his masterwork.
WHO: Nashville Psych-Blues Band Ted Drozdowski’s Scissormen
WHAT: Album Release Shows For ‘Love & Life’
MANHATTAN SHOW: 8pm, July 30 at Shrine, 2271 Adam Clayon Powell Blvd. w/ Pork Chop Willie supporting
BROOKLYN SHOW: August 3 at the Grand Victory, 245 Grand Street w/ The Nowadays and The End Men supporting
Wednesday, July 1, 2015
Thursday, June 25, 2015
TED DROZDOWSKI’S SCISSORMEN PLAN NASHVILLE TAKEOVER
NEW ALBUM ‘LOVE & LIFE’ (JULY 31) RECORDED IN “GREEN” STUDIO
IN TENT ON MOUNTAIN TOP NEAR NASHVILLE
Nashville-based psych/roots band Ted Drozdowski’s Scissormen will
be a steady presence in its hometown this summer as the slide-guitar driven
‘Love & Life’ nears release July 31. Among its plans:
+ Opening slot this Saturday for the Baseball Project at City
Winery to celebrate the release of the song “Josh Gibson” on the vinyl
compilation album ‘The Semi-Pro No-Show’ with Todd Snider and others.
+ Album preview and tour kick-off celebration at the Basement on
July 26 as part of the Sunday Night Post series.
+ Early set at the Bluebird Café August 9 at 6pm.
+ A full-band in-store at Grimey’s on August 13 in the Grimey’s
Too/Howlin’ Books space at 6pm.
+ A ‘Love & Life’ album release and benefit concert
for the family of Mighty Sam McClain, a guest on ‘Love & Life,’ at the 5
Spot. Sam, an American soul music treasure and legend who sings on ‘Love &
Life's’ "Let's Go To Memphis," passed away last week after a fight
with cancer and a post-surgery stroke.
Monday, June 22, 2015
Remembering the great Mighty Sam McClain
By Ted Drozdowski
Mighty Sam McClain, the last of the truly great red clay soul voices in American music, died on Monday, June 15, at the age of 72 after a fight with cancer and related complications. Sam led a remarkable and rich life, full of struggle and beauty. He left his home in Monroe, Louisiana as a teenager to escape an abusive stepfather and rose to the pinnacle of his art, touring the world, creating a legacy of albums that define the character of the human spirit, and continuing to grow and evolve as an artist and man until the very end. For the last decades of his life, he lived in Epping, New Hampshire with Sandra McClain, his devoted wife and business partner.
The songs Sam wrote and chose to sing — whether soul, spiritual music, R&B, blues, funk or the cross-cultural love duets he recorded in recent years with Iranian vocalist Mahsa Vahdat — were transformed by the elemental properties of his voice, which seemed as strong, natural and enduring as a redwood, as deep and swirling as the Mississippi, and as clear in its messages and ability to bear witness as a prayer.
Sam was a man of faith, and often his songs — even hits like “New Man In Town,” which he recorded for his 1997 album Journey and was prominently featured in the TV series Ally McBeal — were directed to or from the spiritual realm. That number, in particular, announced the arrival of God in his life, in a renewed and inspiring way. But even his first hit, the 1966 recording of “Sweet Dreams” – the Don Gibson composition made famous by Patsy Cline in 1963 – that propelled Sam onto the national R&B scene and the stage of the Apollo Theater, was infused with the spirit of the music he first sang in church as a child. For Sam, the “you” in the line “sweet dreams of you” was his Maker, not a woman.
Samuel McClain was born in Monroe, Louisiana in 1943. His father left when Sam was two years old, and he began singing in his mother Emily’s Baptist church at age five. Even at that age, he knew he had a gift and determined to use it. Sam began to sing professionally in elementary school, when his physical education teacher put a backing band together and began booking him at kids parties and dances. But at age 13, after years of abuse from his stepfather, he’d had enough. He considered shooting the violent man with one of his own hunting rifles. Instead, Sam left home, sneaking out through a window at night, and did not see his beloved mother for four decades. He carried the pain of that experience throughout his life.
Initially Sam followed local R&B guitarist “Little Melvin” Underwood along the Chitlin Circuit, first as his valet and, by age 15, as Underwood’s featured vocalist. “I didn’t care about money,” Sam said. “I wanted to be around music and I would do anything to do that.” Sam got his first taste of performing for large audiences then, but not under his own name. Underwood was notorious for putting together phony versions of the Drifters, the Chubby Checker band, the Phantoms and other hit-makers of the day, and mounting tours that sometimes took the faux outfits into theaters and arenas. Sam was a member of Underwood’s pseudo-Phantoms.
After a show in Pensacola, Florida, Underwood announced that he was leaving for Wisconsin. Sam stayed behind. He adopted the name “Good Rockin’ Sam” and worked out of the area for a decade, building a strong reputation in clubs and roadhouses with a bristling, powerhouse voice that equaled those of his heroes, who included Clyde McPhatter, Little Willie John, B.B. King and, primarily, Bobby “Blue” Bland. One night Sam was erroneously billed as “Mighty Sam” on a gig at Pensacola’s Tom’s Tavern, and the name stuck.
Eventually Sam signed a production contract with Pensacola disc jockey “Papa” Don Schroeder, who took him to Rick Hall’s Fame Studios in Muscle Shoals, Alabama. There, Sam cut “Sweet Dreams” and 17 other sides over a two-year period. After “Sweet Dreams” broke, he began playing larger stages in a triangle from Florida to Chicago and Detroit to New York City. He was backed by King Curtis’s band on his second appearance at the Apollo in Harlem. In 1966 Sam brought his friends James and Bobby Purify to Schroeder’s attention, and as their star climbed with “I’m Your Puppet” and Shake a Tail Feather,” his own career plummeted.
“Boom! Quick as it happened, the bottom fell out,” he recalled. “And Don became too important to even talk to me.” After two unsuccessful singles for Atlantic Records and another for Malaco, Sam was foundering. By 1975 he’d moved to Nashville,
hoping that Music City would rekindle the spark. Instead he turned to selling marijuana and, after narrowly missing arrest when his home was raided by police —Sam said he had a vision that warned him of the raid, so he relocated his stash — he took a job at International House of Pancakes. His luck did not improve, and by 1982 he was living in New Orleans in an abandoned car. “I slept on the streets,” Sam said. “I sold plasma.”
Slowly, he began to rebuild his career, playing all-night gigs at the tourist clubs along Bourbon Street. He also met producer/record label owner Carlo Ditta, who took him into the studio to record an EP that included Sam’s blues hymn “Pray.” New Orleans musicians and booking agents began to take notice of his astonishing vocal abilities. A chance encounter with a Japanese tourist visiting the Crescent City led to a tour of Japan and a live album in 1987 that raised his profile. The same year he appeared on Hubert Sumlin’s Blues Party, an album organized by guitarist Ronnie Earl for the then-high-profile US blues label Black Top. The four songs Sam sang on that album began getting him consistent airplay in the US for the first time in nearly 20 years.
In 1990 Sam organized and headlined the Southern Soul Revue tour, which put him, North Carolina blues shouter Nappy Brown and New Orleans’ famed “Tan Canary” Johnny Adams along with blues guitar innovator Wayne Bennett in a van together for a month of one-nighters. McClain headlined and proved his mettle with heart-rending versions of “Pray,” the Sam Cooke hit “A Change Is Gonna Come” and songs from his own catalog. Encouraged by several musicians who spent their time between New Orleans and Boston, Sam relocated to that city’s Fenway neighborhood the next year.
During all those years, Sam had been honing his songwriting skills. In 1993 he signed a contract with the AudioQuest label and recorded the brilliant and deeply soulful Give It Up To Love, which featured nine original songs and put him in the spotlight of the international blues, soul and R&B scene. Quickly he was headlining clubs and appearing at festivals in the U.S. and abroad.
Sam released four more albums on AudioQuest plus Joy and Pain — Live in Europe on Germany’s Crosscut Label before signing with the larger Telarc Records in 1999. His next two Telcarc recordings, Blues for the Soul and Sweet Dreams, garnered his first Blues Music Award nominations.
The 1990s were a dynamic and life-changing period for Sam. He started to crystallize a new vision for his music. His writing began to weave together the spiritual and the secular, and the stories in his songs became compelling parables from everyday life and from his own experiences that made keen observations about faith, dignity, race, oppression, freedom and social responsibility. He was rewarded by the many letters he regularly received from fans around the world who said their lives had been changed for the better by his music.
In a typical display of his willpower, he gave up drinking one day, literally, after deciding it was interfering with his goals and his personal life. Most important, he married Sandra, affirming their deep romance, which would last throughout the remainder of his life. Through her and her children, he also found the loving family connections that he had craved for so many years. In 1995 Sam also formed a musical partnership with his bandleader and guitarist Pat Herlehy, who would also become Sam’s co-arranger, engineer and co-producer. They remained close friends for 20 years and recently created two more albums, Undiscovered — Diamond in the Rough and Up From the Dust, which have yet to be released.
Unsatisfied with his business dealings within the music industry, Sam started Emily’s Son Publishing in 1996 and then launched McClain Management with Sandra. He also began producing his own albums and in 2003 created his own label, Mighty Music, with the release of One More Bridge To Cross. That album was followed by Betcha Didn’t Know in 2009 and 2012’s Too Much Jesus (Not Enough Whiskey), which garnered more Blues Music Award nominations.
Sam’s social consciousness, his time living on the streets and the hardships he endured in childhood made him a perfect fit for the 2008 benefit compilation Give Us Your Poor, which was dedicated to raising funds to fight homelessness. Rock star Jon Bon Jovi duetted with Sam on Sam’s original song “Show Me the Way,” co-written with his saxist Scott Shetler. Touring behind the project, Sam appeared onstage at Lincoln Center and the Kennedy Center.
The next year Norwegian guitarist and songwriter Knut Reisersrud invited Sam to make an album of love duets with Iranian folksinger Mahsa Vadhat. The album, Scent of Reunion: Love Duets Across Civilization, was an effortlessly beautiful bridge that transcended cultures and ideology to speak in the language of the heart. It reached number six on the European world music charts and was nominated for a Grammy in Norway. They recorded an equally remarkable sequel in 2012 titled A Deeper Tone of Longing, which followed a 2011 soul-blues collaboration between Sam and Reisersrud called One Drop Is Plenty. Sam also lent his voice to the theme song for filmmaker Ernest Thompson’s 2013 drama Time & Charges.
In recent years, Sam’s recordings became more rhythmically driving and intense, with Too Much Jesus (Not Enough Whiskey) at times evoking the classic funk of James Brown and Sly Stone thanks to Sam and Herlehy’s arrangements and the raw, focused power of his road-honed seven-piece band. The unreleased Up From the Dust showcases Sam and Herlehy blending yet another element into Sam’s music – ’60s rooted, groove driven psychedelia.
While Sam never achieved the fame of his idols like Bland and King, he did share bills with them and even sang with Bland on stage at a California festival, which he recalled as a highlight of his career.
Sam’s importance within the cultural and artistic realms of American music was largely misunderstood by the music business establishment and even by many fans. He was a living bridge between the deep historic roots of African-American gospel music, the old-school sounds of rhythm and blues, soul and funk, and the cutting edge, which is reflected in the body of his work.
Sam was a reasonable man and artist with a glorious musical gift, driven by self-determination and a respect for himself, his considerable accomplishments, his family and his art. And in the music business, those qualities are not always welcomed by the paternalistic power structure. Sam openly shared his feelings about that with both his friends and his fans.
His perspective was also shaded in part by his experience growing up in the Jim Crow south. He told a story about having an Alabama promoter cancel one of his late-’60s shows because he arrived at the gig with his then-wife, who was white. The week before a local African-American man had been shot to death for marrying a white woman in the same town. Nonetheless, Sam went to his death believing that his musical legacy would live on and some day find a greater audience than it did during his life.
Sam declared that “to me, making music is all about freedom. I believe I have a gift from God and I’ve worked hard all my life to pursue my own vision of it. This is what I do, and I’m going to keep doing it as long as God gives me breath.”
— END —
Mighty Sam McClain, the last of the truly great red clay soul voices in American music, died on Monday, June 15, at the age of 72 after a fight with cancer and related complications. Sam led a remarkable and rich life, full of struggle and beauty. He left his home in Monroe, Louisiana as a teenager to escape an abusive stepfather and rose to the pinnacle of his art, touring the world, creating a legacy of albums that define the character of the human spirit, and continuing to grow and evolve as an artist and man until the very end. For the last decades of his life, he lived in Epping, New Hampshire with Sandra McClain, his devoted wife and business partner.
The songs Sam wrote and chose to sing — whether soul, spiritual music, R&B, blues, funk or the cross-cultural love duets he recorded in recent years with Iranian vocalist Mahsa Vahdat — were transformed by the elemental properties of his voice, which seemed as strong, natural and enduring as a redwood, as deep and swirling as the Mississippi, and as clear in its messages and ability to bear witness as a prayer.
Sam was a man of faith, and often his songs — even hits like “New Man In Town,” which he recorded for his 1997 album Journey and was prominently featured in the TV series Ally McBeal — were directed to or from the spiritual realm. That number, in particular, announced the arrival of God in his life, in a renewed and inspiring way. But even his first hit, the 1966 recording of “Sweet Dreams” – the Don Gibson composition made famous by Patsy Cline in 1963 – that propelled Sam onto the national R&B scene and the stage of the Apollo Theater, was infused with the spirit of the music he first sang in church as a child. For Sam, the “you” in the line “sweet dreams of you” was his Maker, not a woman.
Samuel McClain was born in Monroe, Louisiana in 1943. His father left when Sam was two years old, and he began singing in his mother Emily’s Baptist church at age five. Even at that age, he knew he had a gift and determined to use it. Sam began to sing professionally in elementary school, when his physical education teacher put a backing band together and began booking him at kids parties and dances. But at age 13, after years of abuse from his stepfather, he’d had enough. He considered shooting the violent man with one of his own hunting rifles. Instead, Sam left home, sneaking out through a window at night, and did not see his beloved mother for four decades. He carried the pain of that experience throughout his life.
Initially Sam followed local R&B guitarist “Little Melvin” Underwood along the Chitlin Circuit, first as his valet and, by age 15, as Underwood’s featured vocalist. “I didn’t care about money,” Sam said. “I wanted to be around music and I would do anything to do that.” Sam got his first taste of performing for large audiences then, but not under his own name. Underwood was notorious for putting together phony versions of the Drifters, the Chubby Checker band, the Phantoms and other hit-makers of the day, and mounting tours that sometimes took the faux outfits into theaters and arenas. Sam was a member of Underwood’s pseudo-Phantoms.
After a show in Pensacola, Florida, Underwood announced that he was leaving for Wisconsin. Sam stayed behind. He adopted the name “Good Rockin’ Sam” and worked out of the area for a decade, building a strong reputation in clubs and roadhouses with a bristling, powerhouse voice that equaled those of his heroes, who included Clyde McPhatter, Little Willie John, B.B. King and, primarily, Bobby “Blue” Bland. One night Sam was erroneously billed as “Mighty Sam” on a gig at Pensacola’s Tom’s Tavern, and the name stuck.
Eventually Sam signed a production contract with Pensacola disc jockey “Papa” Don Schroeder, who took him to Rick Hall’s Fame Studios in Muscle Shoals, Alabama. There, Sam cut “Sweet Dreams” and 17 other sides over a two-year period. After “Sweet Dreams” broke, he began playing larger stages in a triangle from Florida to Chicago and Detroit to New York City. He was backed by King Curtis’s band on his second appearance at the Apollo in Harlem. In 1966 Sam brought his friends James and Bobby Purify to Schroeder’s attention, and as their star climbed with “I’m Your Puppet” and Shake a Tail Feather,” his own career plummeted.
“Boom! Quick as it happened, the bottom fell out,” he recalled. “And Don became too important to even talk to me.” After two unsuccessful singles for Atlantic Records and another for Malaco, Sam was foundering. By 1975 he’d moved to Nashville,
hoping that Music City would rekindle the spark. Instead he turned to selling marijuana and, after narrowly missing arrest when his home was raided by police —Sam said he had a vision that warned him of the raid, so he relocated his stash — he took a job at International House of Pancakes. His luck did not improve, and by 1982 he was living in New Orleans in an abandoned car. “I slept on the streets,” Sam said. “I sold plasma.”
Slowly, he began to rebuild his career, playing all-night gigs at the tourist clubs along Bourbon Street. He also met producer/record label owner Carlo Ditta, who took him into the studio to record an EP that included Sam’s blues hymn “Pray.” New Orleans musicians and booking agents began to take notice of his astonishing vocal abilities. A chance encounter with a Japanese tourist visiting the Crescent City led to a tour of Japan and a live album in 1987 that raised his profile. The same year he appeared on Hubert Sumlin’s Blues Party, an album organized by guitarist Ronnie Earl for the then-high-profile US blues label Black Top. The four songs Sam sang on that album began getting him consistent airplay in the US for the first time in nearly 20 years.
In 1990 Sam organized and headlined the Southern Soul Revue tour, which put him, North Carolina blues shouter Nappy Brown and New Orleans’ famed “Tan Canary” Johnny Adams along with blues guitar innovator Wayne Bennett in a van together for a month of one-nighters. McClain headlined and proved his mettle with heart-rending versions of “Pray,” the Sam Cooke hit “A Change Is Gonna Come” and songs from his own catalog. Encouraged by several musicians who spent their time between New Orleans and Boston, Sam relocated to that city’s Fenway neighborhood the next year.
During all those years, Sam had been honing his songwriting skills. In 1993 he signed a contract with the AudioQuest label and recorded the brilliant and deeply soulful Give It Up To Love, which featured nine original songs and put him in the spotlight of the international blues, soul and R&B scene. Quickly he was headlining clubs and appearing at festivals in the U.S. and abroad.
Sam released four more albums on AudioQuest plus Joy and Pain — Live in Europe on Germany’s Crosscut Label before signing with the larger Telarc Records in 1999. His next two Telcarc recordings, Blues for the Soul and Sweet Dreams, garnered his first Blues Music Award nominations.
The 1990s were a dynamic and life-changing period for Sam. He started to crystallize a new vision for his music. His writing began to weave together the spiritual and the secular, and the stories in his songs became compelling parables from everyday life and from his own experiences that made keen observations about faith, dignity, race, oppression, freedom and social responsibility. He was rewarded by the many letters he regularly received from fans around the world who said their lives had been changed for the better by his music.
In a typical display of his willpower, he gave up drinking one day, literally, after deciding it was interfering with his goals and his personal life. Most important, he married Sandra, affirming their deep romance, which would last throughout the remainder of his life. Through her and her children, he also found the loving family connections that he had craved for so many years. In 1995 Sam also formed a musical partnership with his bandleader and guitarist Pat Herlehy, who would also become Sam’s co-arranger, engineer and co-producer. They remained close friends for 20 years and recently created two more albums, Undiscovered — Diamond in the Rough and Up From the Dust, which have yet to be released.
Unsatisfied with his business dealings within the music industry, Sam started Emily’s Son Publishing in 1996 and then launched McClain Management with Sandra. He also began producing his own albums and in 2003 created his own label, Mighty Music, with the release of One More Bridge To Cross. That album was followed by Betcha Didn’t Know in 2009 and 2012’s Too Much Jesus (Not Enough Whiskey), which garnered more Blues Music Award nominations.
Sam’s social consciousness, his time living on the streets and the hardships he endured in childhood made him a perfect fit for the 2008 benefit compilation Give Us Your Poor, which was dedicated to raising funds to fight homelessness. Rock star Jon Bon Jovi duetted with Sam on Sam’s original song “Show Me the Way,” co-written with his saxist Scott Shetler. Touring behind the project, Sam appeared onstage at Lincoln Center and the Kennedy Center.
The next year Norwegian guitarist and songwriter Knut Reisersrud invited Sam to make an album of love duets with Iranian folksinger Mahsa Vadhat. The album, Scent of Reunion: Love Duets Across Civilization, was an effortlessly beautiful bridge that transcended cultures and ideology to speak in the language of the heart. It reached number six on the European world music charts and was nominated for a Grammy in Norway. They recorded an equally remarkable sequel in 2012 titled A Deeper Tone of Longing, which followed a 2011 soul-blues collaboration between Sam and Reisersrud called One Drop Is Plenty. Sam also lent his voice to the theme song for filmmaker Ernest Thompson’s 2013 drama Time & Charges.
In recent years, Sam’s recordings became more rhythmically driving and intense, with Too Much Jesus (Not Enough Whiskey) at times evoking the classic funk of James Brown and Sly Stone thanks to Sam and Herlehy’s arrangements and the raw, focused power of his road-honed seven-piece band. The unreleased Up From the Dust showcases Sam and Herlehy blending yet another element into Sam’s music – ’60s rooted, groove driven psychedelia.
While Sam never achieved the fame of his idols like Bland and King, he did share bills with them and even sang with Bland on stage at a California festival, which he recalled as a highlight of his career.
Sam’s importance within the cultural and artistic realms of American music was largely misunderstood by the music business establishment and even by many fans. He was a living bridge between the deep historic roots of African-American gospel music, the old-school sounds of rhythm and blues, soul and funk, and the cutting edge, which is reflected in the body of his work.
Sam was a reasonable man and artist with a glorious musical gift, driven by self-determination and a respect for himself, his considerable accomplishments, his family and his art. And in the music business, those qualities are not always welcomed by the paternalistic power structure. Sam openly shared his feelings about that with both his friends and his fans.
His perspective was also shaded in part by his experience growing up in the Jim Crow south. He told a story about having an Alabama promoter cancel one of his late-’60s shows because he arrived at the gig with his then-wife, who was white. The week before a local African-American man had been shot to death for marrying a white woman in the same town. Nonetheless, Sam went to his death believing that his musical legacy would live on and some day find a greater audience than it did during his life.
Sam declared that “to me, making music is all about freedom. I believe I have a gift from God and I’ve worked hard all my life to pursue my own vision of it. This is what I do, and I’m going to keep doing it as long as God gives me breath.”
— END —
Tuesday, June 16, 2015
AWARD-WINNING JOURNALIST TED DROZDOWSKI VIVIDLY BRINGS TO LIFE GUITAR GIANTS ON FIRST BOOK
OBSESSIONS OF A MUSIC GEEK, VOLUME 1: BLUES GUITAR GIANTS TO ARRIVE JULY 31 ALONG WITH NEW ALBUM ‘LOVE & LIFE’
Ted Drozdowski is a man of many hats. Besides putting over a million miles on a series of vans for a series of bands, culminating in Ted Drozdowski’s Scissormen, he has conducted over one thousand artist interviews as a journalist. July 31 marks both the band’s new album ‘Love & Life’ as well as Ted’s first compendium, a book of vivid portraits called Obsessions of a Music Geek: Volume 1, Blues Guitar Giants.
Obsessions of a Music Geek brings to life some of the all-time greats, shining new light on aspects of their lives and careers. Drozdowski writes about Otis Rush’s secret to bending strings, conducts one of Johnny Winter’s last interviews, expands on his Rock & Roll Hall of Fame induction program for Freddy King and reveals what King thought of Eric Clapton, takes a stroll through Dan Auerbach’s vinyl collection, and explains why John Lee Hooker has more direct African influences in his playing than many other bluesmen, and more.
Making a lifelong study of music, Drozdowski has learned how to tell a story in song, a talent that he’s put to use on ‘Love & Life,’ the new album.
In his career, Drozdowski has also interviewed Tom Waits, Lou Reed, Patti Smith, Buddy Guy, B.B. King, Metallica, Van Halen, Etta James, Pete Townshend, Wilco, Chrissie Hynde, Solomon Burke, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Robert Plant, David Bowie, and Laurie Anderson, and hundreds more with bylines in Rolling Stone, Travel and Leisure, and editor positions for the Boston Phoenix and Musician Magazine. He has also penned liner notes for dozens of releases, including Santana, John Lee Hooker, Morphine. He presently writes for Guitar World, Premier Guitar, Gibson.com, and the Nashville Scene, among others.
Ted Drozdowski’s Scissormen are on tour this summer.
Ted Drozdowski is a man of many hats. Besides putting over a million miles on a series of vans for a series of bands, culminating in Ted Drozdowski’s Scissormen, he has conducted over one thousand artist interviews as a journalist. July 31 marks both the band’s new album ‘Love & Life’ as well as Ted’s first compendium, a book of vivid portraits called Obsessions of a Music Geek: Volume 1, Blues Guitar Giants.
Obsessions of a Music Geek brings to life some of the all-time greats, shining new light on aspects of their lives and careers. Drozdowski writes about Otis Rush’s secret to bending strings, conducts one of Johnny Winter’s last interviews, expands on his Rock & Roll Hall of Fame induction program for Freddy King and reveals what King thought of Eric Clapton, takes a stroll through Dan Auerbach’s vinyl collection, and explains why John Lee Hooker has more direct African influences in his playing than many other bluesmen, and more.
Making a lifelong study of music, Drozdowski has learned how to tell a story in song, a talent that he’s put to use on ‘Love & Life,’ the new album.
In his career, Drozdowski has also interviewed Tom Waits, Lou Reed, Patti Smith, Buddy Guy, B.B. King, Metallica, Van Halen, Etta James, Pete Townshend, Wilco, Chrissie Hynde, Solomon Burke, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Robert Plant, David Bowie, and Laurie Anderson, and hundreds more with bylines in Rolling Stone, Travel and Leisure, and editor positions for the Boston Phoenix and Musician Magazine. He has also penned liner notes for dozens of releases, including Santana, John Lee Hooker, Morphine. He presently writes for Guitar World, Premier Guitar, Gibson.com, and the Nashville Scene, among others.
Ted Drozdowski’s Scissormen are on tour this summer.
Wednesday, June 10, 2015
TED DROZDOWSKI’S SCISSORMEN BRING ROWDY, SLIDE GUITAR DRIVEN SHOWMANSHIP, KILLER NEW GARAGE/BLUES/PSYCH ALBUM ON TOUR
Club crowds are as likely to
find slide guitar virtuoso Drozdowski flying through the air, sitting in
their laps, standing on tabletops and sliding with every object
imaginable — from dinner plates to, at one Mississippi juke joint, a 9mm
revolver — as they are to see him on stage.
Or as Anthony DeCurtis (Rolling
Stone, New York Times) said, “His slide playing shears the skin off
your bones, and he can unleash roaring gales of sound. But lyricism and
musicality lie at the heart of even his wildest moments. I have never
listened to him and not been transported to a strong, beautiful place
I’d never been before.”
Fans can appreciate
Drozdowski’s dangerous style of showmanship on tour this summer and
fall. When the garage/blues/psych bandleader got hit in the face with a
ceiling fan during a particularly rowdy show in St. Paul, he went out
on the street, covered in his own blood, to play slide with Delta
bluesman and Fat Possum Records alum T-Model Ford's Jack Daniels bottle.
Ted never hesitated after the
injury. “I got sliced right to the skull on the first song, played an
hour set and then went to the hospital,” he recounts
Earlier this month, at a taping
of Beale Street Caravan (the syndicated radio show based in Memphis),
Drozdowski took his soloing outside of the club entirely. Blurt Magazine
posted a “slide challenge” of Ted playing slide on some truly bizarre
objects, including a vibrator and a Blade scooter. Watch it here: http://blurtonline.com/
Besides returning to his child
hood turf of Middletown, CT and his longtime home of Boston, MA, several
shows stand out. The East Nashville show will also serve as a benefit
concert for Mighty Sam McClain, former Nashville resident and all-time
great soul singer. McClain appears on the album, singing lead on “Let’s
Go To Memphis,” and is battling cancer and the after-effects of a
stroke.
In addition, Ted Drozdowski’s
Scissormen will return to the Slippery Noodle in Indianapolis, where
part of the Robert Mugge movie about the Scissormen, Big Shoes: Walking and Talking the Blues, was filmed. ‘Love & Life’ comes out July 31 on Dolly Sez Woof Records.
Also, July 31 Drozdowski, who is also an award-winning music journalist and educator, will publish the first in a series of e-books, Obsessions of a Music Geek, Vol. 1: Blues Guitar Giants. Private, press-only stream of the album (please don’t share or post) here.
Drozdowski's Scissormen have performed at Bonnaroo, King Biscuit, and Muddy Roots, among other festivals.
Ted Drozdowski’s Scissormen Tour Dates
June 19 – Marietta, GA – Darwin’s Burgers & Blues
July 26 — Nashville, TN — The Basement
July 30 – New York, NY – Shrine World Music Venue
July 31 – Somerville, MA – Johnny D’s
August 1 – Lowell, MA – The Back Page Café
August 2 – Middletown, CT – The Cypress Restaurant
August 3 – Brooklyn, NY – Grand Victory
August 9 – Nashville, TN – The Bluebird Café
August 15 – E. Nashville, TN – The 5 Spot
August 28 – Winona, MN – Broken World Records
August 29 – Minneapolis, MN – Hell’s Kitchen Brunch
September 1 – Indianapolis, IN – The Slippery Noodle
September 2 – Kansas City, MO – B.B.’s Lawnside Barbecue September 3 – Lincoln, NE – The Zoo Bar
September 4 – Fort Collins, CO – Avogadro’s Number
September 5 – Denver, CO – Ziggie’s Live Music
September 6 – Denver, CO – Ziggie’s Live Music
Thursday, May 21, 2015
JIM DICKINSON ON TED DROZDOWSKI’S SCISSORMEN: “ACID BLUES FOR THE 21ST CENTURY”
BEALE STREET CARAVAN TAPING PERFORMANCE IN EARLY JUNE AS EARLY RAVES COME FROM DIFFUSER, WAX POETICS, ETC.
Before he passed away, Jim Dickinson heard Ted Drozdowski’s Scissormen, whose new album ‘Love & Life’ comes out July 31. Dickinson had this to say about Ted’s music:
“Ever wonder what would have happened if Bukka White had discovered the Fuzz Tone? Or if Skip James had played piano with Antenna Jimmy and Drumbo from the Magic Band? Scissormen is acid blues for the 21st century... Robert Palmer would indeed be proud.”
Early buzz on ‘Love & Life’ has been excellent. In a premiere of “Beggin’ Jesus,” Diffuser.FM praised Drozdowski’s “Staggering guitar skills [on] music that will stand the test of time."
Wax Poetics said, “Ted Drozdowski’s Scissormen weaves together Hill Country blues, Memphis soul, and psychedelic/garage rock.”
Beale Street Caravan is taping the band’s performance on June 2 at Rum Boogie in Memphis, TN for broadcast on its nationally syndicated radio program.
Elmore called the album an “exciting journey of experimental, genre-hopping, electric and eclectic music making.”
Before he passed away, Jim Dickinson heard Ted Drozdowski’s Scissormen, whose new album ‘Love & Life’ comes out July 31. Dickinson had this to say about Ted’s music:
“Ever wonder what would have happened if Bukka White had discovered the Fuzz Tone? Or if Skip James had played piano with Antenna Jimmy and Drumbo from the Magic Band? Scissormen is acid blues for the 21st century... Robert Palmer would indeed be proud.”
Early buzz on ‘Love & Life’ has been excellent. In a premiere of “Beggin’ Jesus,” Diffuser.FM praised Drozdowski’s “Staggering guitar skills [on] music that will stand the test of time."
Wax Poetics said, “Ted Drozdowski’s Scissormen weaves together Hill Country blues, Memphis soul, and psychedelic/garage rock.”
Beale Street Caravan is taping the band’s performance on June 2 at Rum Boogie in Memphis, TN for broadcast on its nationally syndicated radio program.
Elmore called the album an “exciting journey of experimental, genre-hopping, electric and eclectic music making.”
Thursday, May 14, 2015
R.L. BURNSIDE NUDGED PSYCHEDELIC ROCKER TO START PLAYING HILL COUNTRY BLUES
TED DROZDOWSKI’S SCISSORMEN RETURN THE FAVOR WITH DREAM SONG “R.L. BURNSIDE (SLEIGHT RETURN)” ON ‘LOVE & LIFE’ (JULY 31)
When he befriended Mississippi hill country blues legends R.L. Burnside, Junior Kimbrough, and Jessie Mae Hemphill, Ted Drozdowski had been the primary force in risk-taking alternative rock, a textural music ensemble, and psychedelic bands. All of these sounds come together in the tribute song “R.L. Burnside (Sleight Return),” which you can hear here.
In the full-length Robert Mugge (Deep Blues) 2010 documentary “Big Shoes: Walking and Talking the Blues,” Drozdowski recalls, “R.L. Burnside, who I was very close to, R.L. didn’t actually know that I played guitar until I knew him for seven years. Because I felt like it wasn’t actually my place to impose my scene on him, you know? Then when he found out, he was the guy that really kicked my butt and made me start to play with him live. Even at that I had to be strenuously encouraged.
On night in Cambridge, MA in 1999, R.L. grabbed Ted by the shoulders and told him that he’d be calling him the third song from the end, telling the younger man, “I’m calling you up and I don’t hear any bullshit about it. R.L. stood up, gave me his amp to plug into, and grabbed his Jack 'n' coke and sang the song while he shook his ass dancing back and forth across the stage in front of a screaming sold-out house. It was kind of crazy. We played two more songs that are now blurs — although I think one of them was ‘Snake Drive.’ I held on for my life!”
Ted continues, “I went up and did it and I felt that that kind of flipped a switch for me and whenever we saw each other, he’d make me play with him again. Ultimately, R.L., Junior, and Jessie had a profound way not only on my playing but on my thinking as a person which fed back into my playing and those guys just changed my life and changed my playing and opened the door to the blues for me.” The ex-rocker’s narrative songwriting and tireless sonic explorations ultimately benefitted him in his open-minded approach to psychedelic blues.
“R.L. Burnside (Sleight Return)” in particular has a driving, funky backbeat with a delay-tinged guitar over a tight funk riff. Though framed as a dream, Ted tells a true story of drinking whiskey with the legend. “R.L. and his band visited our home in Boston one night, and after dinner he wanted to watch a movie. He looked through hundreds of VHS tapes and selected ‘Check and Double Check’ with Amos and Andy — and he roared through it right from the first joke. When it was over, he told us about how he and his friends would save their money and ride their bikes from Holly Springs, MS all the way to Memphis when each new Amos and Andy movie hit the theaters, and then ride back at night. He said that when they saw headlights, they'd throw the bikes into the bushes and hide out for fear that it was night riders.” The guitar solo goes full-on hallucinatory while Ted utters R.L.’s refrain “well, well, well.” Like the album on which it resides “R.L. Burnside (Sleight Return)” is a culmination of sorts, bringing together his experimentalism with his hill country blues apprenticeship.
The song highlights a particular irony. Ted says, “So for me one of the interesting subtexts of the song is that Amos and Andy and night riders are both signposts of racism, and the complication is how much R.L. loved Amos and Andy. America is a strange prism sometimes.”
When he befriended Mississippi hill country blues legends R.L. Burnside, Junior Kimbrough, and Jessie Mae Hemphill, Ted Drozdowski had been the primary force in risk-taking alternative rock, a textural music ensemble, and psychedelic bands. All of these sounds come together in the tribute song “R.L. Burnside (Sleight Return),” which you can hear here.
In the full-length Robert Mugge (Deep Blues) 2010 documentary “Big Shoes: Walking and Talking the Blues,” Drozdowski recalls, “R.L. Burnside, who I was very close to, R.L. didn’t actually know that I played guitar until I knew him for seven years. Because I felt like it wasn’t actually my place to impose my scene on him, you know? Then when he found out, he was the guy that really kicked my butt and made me start to play with him live. Even at that I had to be strenuously encouraged.
On night in Cambridge, MA in 1999, R.L. grabbed Ted by the shoulders and told him that he’d be calling him the third song from the end, telling the younger man, “I’m calling you up and I don’t hear any bullshit about it. R.L. stood up, gave me his amp to plug into, and grabbed his Jack 'n' coke and sang the song while he shook his ass dancing back and forth across the stage in front of a screaming sold-out house. It was kind of crazy. We played two more songs that are now blurs — although I think one of them was ‘Snake Drive.’ I held on for my life!”
Ted continues, “I went up and did it and I felt that that kind of flipped a switch for me and whenever we saw each other, he’d make me play with him again. Ultimately, R.L., Junior, and Jessie had a profound way not only on my playing but on my thinking as a person which fed back into my playing and those guys just changed my life and changed my playing and opened the door to the blues for me.” The ex-rocker’s narrative songwriting and tireless sonic explorations ultimately benefitted him in his open-minded approach to psychedelic blues.
“R.L. Burnside (Sleight Return)” in particular has a driving, funky backbeat with a delay-tinged guitar over a tight funk riff. Though framed as a dream, Ted tells a true story of drinking whiskey with the legend. “R.L. and his band visited our home in Boston one night, and after dinner he wanted to watch a movie. He looked through hundreds of VHS tapes and selected ‘Check and Double Check’ with Amos and Andy — and he roared through it right from the first joke. When it was over, he told us about how he and his friends would save their money and ride their bikes from Holly Springs, MS all the way to Memphis when each new Amos and Andy movie hit the theaters, and then ride back at night. He said that when they saw headlights, they'd throw the bikes into the bushes and hide out for fear that it was night riders.” The guitar solo goes full-on hallucinatory while Ted utters R.L.’s refrain “well, well, well.” Like the album on which it resides “R.L. Burnside (Sleight Return)” is a culmination of sorts, bringing together his experimentalism with his hill country blues apprenticeship.
The song highlights a particular irony. Ted says, “So for me one of the interesting subtexts of the song is that Amos and Andy and night riders are both signposts of racism, and the complication is how much R.L. loved Amos and Andy. America is a strange prism sometimes.”
Monday, April 20, 2015
BONNAROO ALUMS TED DROZDOWSKI'S SCISSORMEN CONFIRM BOLD NEW ALBUM 'LOVE & LIFE,' OUT JULY 31
R.L. BURNSIDE PROTEGE MAKES FORWARD-LOOKING, EFFECTS-LADEN COLLECTION
Psychedelic blues innovators Ted Drozdowski's Scissormen will release their sixth album, 'Love & Life,' on July 31st via the Dolly Sez Woof label. An exhilarating musical experience, 'Love & Life' is a culmination of Drozdowski’s eclectic and adventurous musical career, fusing psych, blues, and garage rock histories in an exceptionally forward-looking, sonically audacious collection. A protégé of R.L. Burnside, Drozdowski sat in with the legendary bluesman multiple times before his passing and expands on his vision here. The album's eleven new tracks find the bandleader at his most electrifying, as scorched, layered guitars drip with distortion underneath his open-throated voice. Legendary soul singer Mighty Sam McClain and GRAMMY-nominated organist/Bobby Rush bandleader Paul Brown make guest appearances on the album alongside the Scissormen, who have expanded from a duo into a lean, blistering trio over years of relentless international touring, including high profile stops at major festivals like Bonnaroo. The album will coincide with the release of a new e-book by Drozdowski, who is also an award-winning music journalist and educator, titled Obsessions of a Music Geek, Vol. 1: Blues Guitar Giants.
Drozdowski has a gift for painting vivid lyrical portraits, with characters ranging from old bluesmen and coal miners to sinister ghosts and the devil himself. On "R.L. Burnside (Sleight Return)," he recounts a visit from his musical mentor, while "Watermelon Kid" pays homage to Watermelon Slim. "Beggin' Jesus" battles with temptation, "The River" takes a spine-chilling journey to the banks of the Tallahatchie River in north Mississippi, and "Black Lung Fever" ruminates on the disease that took the lives of both of Drozdowski's immigrant grandfathers before he was born.
"I wanted every song on this album to tell a story and be deeply rooted in great American music," says Drozdowski. "I also wanted to apply more elaborate production techniques, like multi-tracking my guitars and treating them with multiple effects during and after recording, to create a broader, unpredictable sonic palette, and just plain get weird."
Drozdowski recorded the album at Omega Lab, a "green" digital recording studio located in a tent perched on top of a mountain in the unincorporated hamlet of Pasquo, Tennessee, outside of his adopted hometown of Nashville. Despite the studio's high fidelity capabilities, it runs on less power than the average hair dryer. It was there that Drozdowski experimented with swirling, fuzzed-out tones, reversing parts and layering others sometimes seven guitars deep. The result is an album that blends the past and the future, the Delta and the city, Earth and Hell, into one singular, stirring, utterly riveting sound.
Stay tuned for more info and tour dates.
Psychedelic blues innovators Ted Drozdowski's Scissormen will release their sixth album, 'Love & Life,' on July 31st via the Dolly Sez Woof label. An exhilarating musical experience, 'Love & Life' is a culmination of Drozdowski’s eclectic and adventurous musical career, fusing psych, blues, and garage rock histories in an exceptionally forward-looking, sonically audacious collection. A protégé of R.L. Burnside, Drozdowski sat in with the legendary bluesman multiple times before his passing and expands on his vision here. The album's eleven new tracks find the bandleader at his most electrifying, as scorched, layered guitars drip with distortion underneath his open-throated voice. Legendary soul singer Mighty Sam McClain and GRAMMY-nominated organist/Bobby Rush bandleader Paul Brown make guest appearances on the album alongside the Scissormen, who have expanded from a duo into a lean, blistering trio over years of relentless international touring, including high profile stops at major festivals like Bonnaroo. The album will coincide with the release of a new e-book by Drozdowski, who is also an award-winning music journalist and educator, titled Obsessions of a Music Geek, Vol. 1: Blues Guitar Giants.
Drozdowski has a gift for painting vivid lyrical portraits, with characters ranging from old bluesmen and coal miners to sinister ghosts and the devil himself. On "R.L. Burnside (Sleight Return)," he recounts a visit from his musical mentor, while "Watermelon Kid" pays homage to Watermelon Slim. "Beggin' Jesus" battles with temptation, "The River" takes a spine-chilling journey to the banks of the Tallahatchie River in north Mississippi, and "Black Lung Fever" ruminates on the disease that took the lives of both of Drozdowski's immigrant grandfathers before he was born.
"I wanted every song on this album to tell a story and be deeply rooted in great American music," says Drozdowski. "I also wanted to apply more elaborate production techniques, like multi-tracking my guitars and treating them with multiple effects during and after recording, to create a broader, unpredictable sonic palette, and just plain get weird."
Drozdowski recorded the album at Omega Lab, a "green" digital recording studio located in a tent perched on top of a mountain in the unincorporated hamlet of Pasquo, Tennessee, outside of his adopted hometown of Nashville. Despite the studio's high fidelity capabilities, it runs on less power than the average hair dryer. It was there that Drozdowski experimented with swirling, fuzzed-out tones, reversing parts and layering others sometimes seven guitars deep. The result is an album that blends the past and the future, the Delta and the city, Earth and Hell, into one singular, stirring, utterly riveting sound.
Stay tuned for more info and tour dates.
Monday, April 6, 2015
Ted Drozdowski's Scissormen photos
Friday, April 3, 2015
PSYCHEDELIC VISIONARY & R.L. BURNSIDE PROTÉGÉ TED DROZDOWSKI’S NEW ALBUM BUILDS A POWERFUL AND UNIQUE BRIDGE BETWEEN THE PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE OF AMERICAN MUSIC
Evolutionary Love & Life’s uncanny tales,
untamed guitars and explosive textures — plus a guest shot by soul legend
Mighty Sam McClain — create an epic sweep; Drozdowski’s debut e-book to
coincide with album’s release
NASHVILLE,
TN — Listening to Love & Life,
the new album from Ted Drozdowski’s Scissormen, is like taking an acid trip in
a time machine. Day-glo guitars slither through stories about old bluesmen and
coal miners. Tectonic plates of sound churn the past, present and future of
great American music into a stylistic kaleidoscope. And a dizzy spray of
vibrant slide six-string permeates the album’s performances, adding a fine
sonic mist of unpredictable virtuosity to the mysteries in its 11 tunes, which
ricochet between deep truths and bald-faced lies.
Drozdowski
made the new album Love & Life in
a tent down a dirt road in the woods on top of a mountain in the unincorporated
hamlet of Pasquo, Tennessee. That’s just another example of this highly
creative singer, songwriter, guitarist, bandleader and producer’s passion for
thinking outside the box. And there are plenty more within the dynamic, evocative
sixth album from Ted Drozdowski’s Scissormen.
Love & Life will be released on the Dolly Sez
Woof label on July 31. That same day Drozdowski, who is also an award-winning music
journalist and educator, will publish the first in a series of e-books, Obsessions of a Music Geek, Vol. 1: Blues
Guitar Giants.
Love & Life is evolutionary. For Drozdowski,
the album celebrates the expansion of his internationally touring duo
Scissormen — with stops at Bonnaroo and other major festivals under their belts
— into a fiery, flexible trio. That core trio sound is made even bigger, with
as many as seven of Drozdowski’s own guitar tracks layered on some cuts, while
capturing his finest songwriting and studio performances. He’s also joined on
the album by legendary soul singer Mighty Sam McClain and Grammy nominated
organist Paul Brown. For great American music, it proves that traditional
styles can be celebrated with authenticity while creating tunes that are
contemporary, timeless and slammin’.
“I wanted
every song on this album to tell a story and be deeply rooted in great American
music,” Drozdowski relates. “I also wanted to apply more elaborate production
techniques, like multi-tracking my guitars and treating them with multiple
effects during and after recording, to create a broader, unpredictable sonic
palette, and just plain get weird. That weird streak is what made the pillars
of American music — Muddy Waters, Bill Monroe, Sam Phillips and others —
original, authentic and evolutionary, and somewhere along the way the truth and
beauty of honest weirdness got lost. I want to bring it back.”
Love & Life starts with “Beggin’ Jesus,” a
riff-fueled yarn about temptation and the conflict between good and evil, with
a wicked, sizzling, doubled slide guitar solo. A few songs later, “The River”
unfolds as a ghost story. A swirling mist of guitars and Drozdowski’s soulful
voice recreate the mystery and magic of the foggy, moonlit night along the
banks of the Tallahatchie River in North Mississippi that inspired the song.
It’s one of the album’s few tracks cut without overdubs, recorded live in one
take.
Drozdowski
pays tribute to two of his friends and mentors on the album. “Watermelon Kid”
is an homage to the bluesman Watermelon Slim, and “R.L. Burnside (Sleight
Return)” is a funky, psychedelic recollection of a night the juke joint blues
patriarch came to visit – replete with a slinky groove and layers of backwards
guitar. Drozdowski’s own family history as Pennsylvania coal miners fuels the
grinding, visceral Mississippi hill country music inspired “Black Lung Fever,”
citing an occupational affliction that claimed both of his immigrant
grandfathers before he was born.
The
romantic ode to the Bluff City “Let’s Go To Memphis” reflects the classic sound
and spirit of Stax Records, with shimmering B-3 organ and four intricately
woven guitar tracks. But the song’s star is the legendary soul singer Mighty
Sam McClain, who first appeared on the R&B charts in 1966 and whose
passionate command and emotional depth are practically unparalleled today. “Sam
and me have been friends for more than 20 years,” says Drozdowski. “I’d hoped
to someday write a song worthy of his voice, and now I’m thrilled and honored
by his performance.”
“Our friendship has
grown over the years to a very beautiful place in our lives,” McClain concurs.
“When Ted asked me if I would do a song with him, Hell, I couldn’t wait. When
he sent me ‘Let’s Go To Memphis,’ I liked the title right away, because it was
so Ted. I’ve heard him talking about Memphis and Nashville for so long. So
‘Let’s Go to Memphis’ was a no brainer for me! I would have sung almost
anything for a chance to do this with Ted. But ‘Let’s Go to Memphis’ is a great
song, written by a great person.”
Fans of
the stripped-down juke joint aesthetic that has governed the sound of Ted
Drozdowski’s Scissormen until now will dig “Can’t Be Satisfied,” a raw take on
the Muddy Waters classic as a full-throttle duet for drums and diddley bow – in
this case, an intensely electrified version of the home-made one-string instrument
that gave Bo Diddley his name. There’s also a solo number, “Dreaming On the
Road,” that features Drozdowski playing resonator guitar. But throughout the
disc a multitude of effects-laden six-strings slip in and out of the mix like
foxes in a henhouse, defining his own sonic terrain among musical innovators.
To
Drozdowski, risk-taking is an essential part of being an artist. Since the
1980s his bands have always pushed toward new ground. As a primary force in the
alternative-rock band Vision Thing, the textural music ensemble Bloodblister
and the explosively guitar-intensive Devil Gods, his narrative songwriting and
tireless sonic explorations won him a cult following.
That cult
has grown considerably since he established Scissormen a decade ago, under the
influence of R.L. Burnside, Junior Kimbrough, Jessie Mae Hemphill and other
totems of Mississippi hill country blues. “R.L. in particular got me to play
this music, which I initially resisted,” Drozdowski says. “But his
encouragement helped me find my voice and my sound.
“After
meeting and becoming friends with R.L., Junior and Jessie, who were making some
of the most profound music I’d ever heard, yet living in obscurity and poverty,
I devoted myself to bringing the music they and similar artists made to more
people,” Drozdowski says. First, that was as a music journalist, and he
received the Blues Foundation’s Keeping the Blues Alive Award for Journalism in
1998, in part as a result of that effort. Next, he became a visceral
torchbearer with Scissormen, physically taking this deeply rooted music to a
wider and more diverse audience with playful, high-energy performances built
around his singing and incendiary slide guitar showmanship. Club crowds are as
likely to find Drozdowski sitting in their laps, standing on tabletops and
sliding with every object imaginable as they are to see him on stage. Another
mentor, free jazz guitar granddaddy Sonny Sharrock, also had a major influence
on Drozdowski’s slide playing.
Drozdowski
has released five earlier recordings bearing the Scissormen name, including the
2012 collaboration with the award-winning music filmmaker Robert Mugge, BIG SHOES: Walking and Talking the Blues.
The CD+DVD set was built around a Mugge documentary starring Drozdowski that
premiered at the Denver Film Festival. He has also taken the band across the US
and to Europe, playing up to 100 dates a year at everything from the major
festivals Bonnaroo, Memphis in May and France’s Cognac Blues Passions to
theaters to clubs to coffeehouses.
“Love & Life begins a new chapter for
me, where I can connect all the dots of what excites me musically to realize my
own vision of great American music as a vital, original and still evolving art
form,” says Drozdowski. “But I couldn’t have begun to record it without help. I
conceived of this album five years ago, but didn’t have the funds to go
forward.” Enter Robert E. McClain, Jr., owner of the one-of-a-kind Omega Lab
studio atop a mountain high above Nashville’s famed Loveless Café, and Whit
Hubner, host of the Mando Blues Show, a program on Radio Free Nashville that’s
recorded live at the tent — a ProTools based “green” studio with surround sound
capability that draws less power than the average blow dryer.
“Rob and
Whit, who are dear friends, invited me to make the album at Omega Lab,” say
Drozdowski. But eventually costs intruded on the album’s progress, so
Drozdowski turned to his fans, launching a successful Indiegogo campaign that
raised nearly $14,000. “Knowing that more than 160 people from nine countries
had my back when I needed them fills me with gratitude and makes me feel like
I’m on the right path,” Drozdowski says. “And I intend to keep following it,
wherever it takes me.”
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)