Aftermath

* The Iron Horse Music Hall Northampton, MA 10/27/07 10 PM show $13 at the door.

The 15th Anniversary Show, Drunk Stuntmen/Young At Heart Chorus Back to Back DVD Release Party. TIVO the Game, put on your Costume and come to the show. There will be prizes. There will be dancing. There will be Prospects of Linguica. Chef Al will show up.

* Joe Bomber’s Torrington, CT 11/2/07

* Rt. 63 Roadhouse Miller’s Falls, MA 11/24/07

Check out this review by Kevin O’Hare of Newhouse Music

DVD SPOTLIGHT

Young at Heart Chorus & Drunk Stuntmen, "Back to Back" (Independent)

THREE AND A HALF STARS

For the uninitiated, the Young at Heart Chorus is a globe-trotting

group of seniors who sing rock songs by the likes of David Byrne and

Radiohead. They hail from western Massachusetts, just like Drunk Stuntmen, a

richly talented and earthy alt-country/Americana outfit whose sound is

slightly comparable to acts such as Wilco and My Morning Jacket.

In 2004 the two groups from different generations got together for a

performance at The Academy of Music in Northampton, Mass. This brand new DVD

chronicles that show with all its surprises, unlikely musical combinations

and straight-from-the-heart brand of timeless passion.

After a couple of songs played just by Drunk Stuntmen with "The

Designated Horns," the Young at Heart Chorus emerges, and with more than 30

people on stage, the magic really starts. It's a beautiful and real blend,

on songs like "Out of Bed," the playful tale of getting older "All in Vain,"

and the rowdy Celtic traditional "Drunken Sailor."

Carol Cameron from the Rt. 63 Roadhouse wants to let you all know that the band Yarn is opening for the Stuntmen on Saturday 11/24. Yarn is an up and coming 6-piece bluegrass band from Brooklyn, NY, which has been climbing the American Music Associations charts as of late. We look forward to seeing them. You can get acquainted with the band at www.yarnmusic.net.

So, we’re at the Hyland Brewery. It is a crisp warm Indian summer day. People are happily milling around with their beers. Some have an expression on their face that indicates that they had just encountered Dr. Gonzo who treated them to a healthy spoonful of his Scotch Bonnet Stew. I’ve never tasted anything hotter, except for maybe that Brunette named Jackie I met on Phish tour in 1996. Sorry about that, I’ll try to keep it PG-13.

Everyone was calm and serene in the picturesque New England diorama. The Drunk Stuntmen had played there the day before treating the crowd to a healthy portion of vintage Stuntmen as well as hearty sampling the newer tunes. T-bone, his sister and Father were there. The leaves on the trees were bursting with their fall, reds, yellows and burnt umbers, blazing in the sun. There were children running around. Freddy was educating some of the younger concert goers on the importance of preserving our most valuable renewable resource, trees. Everything seemed so perfect all day long until the end of the third set...and it got better.

The sky began to darken and a thunderhead started to roll down upon us. It was the quieter portion of the tune 6:29, Steve was working away at his solo. Freddy was watching him intently quietly strumming along. Bob Bow busied himself getting ready for the trumpet solo as Soft Rock Scott Hall took over the bass line on the keys. Dave Durst was looking over his shoulder and not quite fully positioned under the shelter of the pavilion. I interpreted the expression on his face as, “Oh Fuck, I’m gonna get wet.”

Steve was intent on getting out a solo which could match the bizarre forces of nature that had swept in. It was like a ball of energy rolling down the hill from the apple orchard and the pumpkin picking patch. The cold wind and the rain swept the audience which had been comfortably spread out, all day, into the pavilion. The forces of nature brought them together to witness the melodic happenings on the stage, the continuation of the energy which had sprung forth all day as if it were pouring out of an underground well. As the pavilion filled up, the crowd had become one in front of the music. It looked like a packed concert hall.

Stuntman Steve and I recalled the previous day’s events and agreed those are the ones we live for. We had talked about the Red Sox and our firm belief that they would indeed prevail and win the ALCS that night after the previous night’s victory. We talked about Ireland and how touched Steve was to walk into a pub and see a booth which said “Reserved for Musicians Only” Bow Bow was fiddling with the sound system and all of the sudden something whimsical and refreshing filled the air. It sounded like…chickens.

Yes, indeed, my friends it was chickens, chickens clucking in rhythm over some old timey jazz. I had to ask.

And we are listening to…?

Steve said, “This is Slim Gaillard. I’ve been listening to this non-stop, It is my new favorite.”

So after the show that day, the Gemini in me took over and I had to find out more about this Gaillard fellow. The best way I can describe him is…He Did his own Stunts. He was a tall black man who got his start as a performer on the vaudeville circuit where his schtick was playing the guitar as he tap danced or the next week as a boogie woogie piano player. . He wore many different hats, he hosted a radio show, he was a bootlegger, he invented his own language called Vout. He played with the likes of Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie. He penned the song Flat Foot Floogie which was recorded by Benny Goodman. He composed a song, Down By the Station which would catch on as a popular children’s nursery rhyme. He appeared in On the Road. Jack Kerouac and Dean Moriarty’s alter ego, Neal Cassidy, saw Slim Gaillard play in San Francisco. Cassidy, who was later immortalized in the Electric Kool Aid Acid Tests and more than a couple of Grateful Dead songs, thought Gaillard was a God.

Talk about Doing your Own Stunts, Gaillard was an actor appearing in many 70s television shows such as Charlie’s Angels, Marcus Welby MD, Mission Impossible and Roots. He is heralded as one of the first artists to “rap” He was a multi instrumentalist. During WWII he was in the segregated US Air Force working on a flight squadron servicing airplane engines. He was an Apple Farmer in Washington State. After an extended hiatus from the music industry was wooed back into the fold by Dizzy Gillespie. He played extensively in Europe before settling in the U.K. in 1982. So songs that included clucking chickens and novel lyrics in his own language don’t seem so uncommon coming from such a talented and revered individual.

Check out this lyric

“Oh the Bartender is just like a mother,

with his apron so clean and white

for he tries to make everyone happy,

and he never looks for a fight

Whenever I'm sad and lonesome, he always gets me to smile

Oh the Bartender is just like a mother to me, and I am his favorite child.”

He penned a song called “Yep Roc Heresay” Which basically amounted to him reciting the contents of a Armenian restaurant’s menu. This song was deemed too provocative by “the man” and banned. What kind of voodoo was he trying to inject into the vernacular of our children?

Gaillard was taken down by Cancer in 1991. I’m sure, that up until the end, He did his own stunts. What better way for the Stuntmen let the audience know they are ready to take the stage than with the whimsical sounds of Slim Gaillard and his chickens.

Stunts - Do Them!

Paul Brown