RARWRITER PUBLISHING GROUP PRESENTS

CREATIVE CULTURE JOURNAL

at www.RARWRITER.com      

--------------------"The best source on the web for what's real in arts and entertainment" ---------------------------

Volume 1-2016

MUSIC    BOOKS    FINE ARTS   FILM   THE WORLD

ARTIST NEWS    THIS EDITION   ABOUT   MUSIC   MUSIC REVIEWS  BOOKS  CINEMA   FASHION   FINE ARTS  FEATURES   SERIES  MEDIA  ESSAY  RESOURCES  WRITTEN ARTS POETRY  CONTACT  ARCHIVES  MUSIC LINKS

                                 

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Use this link to add your email address to the RARWRITER Publishing Group mailing list for updates on activities associated with the Creative Culture and Revolution Culture journals, and other RARWRITER Publishing Group interests.

 

ABOUT RAR: For those of you new to this site, "RAR" is Rick Alan Rice, the publisher of the RARWRITER Publishing Group websites. Use this link to visit the RAR music page, which features original music compositions and other.

Use this link to visit Rick Alan Rice's publications page, which features excerpts from novels and other.

RARADIO

(Click here)

Currently on RARadio:

"On to the Next One" by Jacqueline Van Bierk

"I See You Tiger" by Via Tania

"Lost the Plot" by Amoureux"

Bright Eyes, Black Soul" by The Lovers Key

"Cool Thing" by Sassparilla

"These Halls I Dwell" by Michael Butler

"St. Francis"by Tom Russell & Gretchen Peters, performance by Gretchen Peters and Barry Walsh; 

"Who Do You Love?"by Elizabeth Kay; 

"Rebirth"by Caterpillars; 

"Monica's Frock" by Signel-Z; 

"Natural Disasters" by Corey Landis; 

"1,000 Leather Tassels" by The Blank Tapes; 

"We Are All Stone" and "Those Machines" by Outer Minds; 

"Another Dream" by MMOSS; "Susannah" by Woolen Kits; 

Jim Morrison, Elvis Presley, Michael Jackson and other dead celebrities / news by A SECRET PARTY;

"I Miss the Day" by My Secret Island,  

"Carriers of Light" by Brendan James;

"The Last Time" by Model Stranger;

"Last Call" by Jay;

"Darkness" by Leonard Cohen; 

"Sweetbread" by Simian Mobile Disco and "Keep You" fromActress off the Chronicle movie soundtrack; 

"Goodbye to Love" from October Dawn; 

Trouble in Mind 2011 label sampler; 

Black Box Revelation Live on Minnesota Public Radio;

Apteka "Striking Violet"; 

Mikal Cronin's "Apathy" and "Get Along";

Dana deChaby's progressive rock

 

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Rick Alan Rice (RAR) Literature Page

ATWOOD - "A Toiler's Weird Odyssey of Deliverance" -AVAILABLE NOW FOR KINDLE (INCLUDING KINDLE COMPUTER APPS) FROM AMAZON.COM. Use this link.

CCJ Publisher Rick Alan Rice dissects the building of America in a trilogy of novels collectively calledATWOOD. Book One explores the development of the American West through the lens of public policy, land planning, municipal development, and governance as it played out in one of the new counties of Kansas in the latter half of the 19th Century. The novel focuses on the religious and cultural traditions that imbued the American Midwest with a special character that continues to have a profound effect on American politics to this day. Book One creates an understanding about America's cultural foundations that is further explored in books two and three that further trace the historical-cultural-spiritual development of one isolated county on the Great Plains that stands as an icon in the development of a certain brand of American character. That's the serious stuff viewed from high altitude. The story itself gets down and dirty with the supernatural, which in ATWOOD - A Toiler's Weird Odyssey of Deliveranceis the outfall of misfires in human interactions, from the monumental to the sublime. The book features the epic poem "The Toiler" as well as artwork by New Mexico artist Richard Padilla.

Elmore Leonard Meets Larry McMurtry

Western Crime Novel

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I am offering another novel through Amazon's Kindle Direct Publishing service. Cooksin is the story of a criminal syndicate that sets its sights on a ranching/farming community in Weld County, Colorado, 1950. The perpetrators of the criminal enterprise steal farm equipment, slaughter cattle, and rob the personal property of individuals whose assets have been inventoried in advance and distributed through a vast system of illegal commerce.

It is a ripping good yarn, filled with suspense and intrigue. This was designed intentionally to pay homage to the type of creative works being produced in 1950, when the story is set. Richard Padilla has done his usually brilliant work in capturing the look and feel of a certain type of crime fiction being produced in that era. The whole thing has the feel of those black & white films you see on Turner Movie Classics, and the writing will remind you a little of Elmore Leonard, whose earliest works were westerns. Use this link.

 

EXPLORE THE KINDLE BOOK LIBRARY

If you have not explored the books available from Amazon.com's Kindle Publishing division you would do yourself a favor to do so. You will find classic literature there, as well as tons of privately published books of every kind. A lot of it is awful, like a lot of traditionally published books are awful, but some are truly classics. You can get the entire collection of Shakespeare's works for two bucks.

You do not need to buy a Kindle to take advantage of this low-cost library. Use this link to go to an Amazon.com page from which you can download for free a Kindle App for your computer, tablet, or phone.

Amazon is the largest, but far from the only digital publisher. You can find similar treasure troves atNOOK Press (the Barnes & Noble site), Lulu, and others.


 

 

 

DENVER/BOULDER LINKS  

 

COLORADO ARCHIVES 

Boulder Archives

- Use this link to go to previously published articles on the Denver/Boulder music scene.

Barry Fey Suicide

"I don't think Barry ever loved himself..." - Longtime business partner Chuck Morris on the sad end of Denver's legendary concert and venue promoter and artist manager. Read More

 

 

 

Sweet Lunacy - Music Documentary

The Boulder Arts Commission's 2001 video documentary on the history of music in Boulder, Colorado is a real gem that contributes in all kinds of ways. Not the least of those is that it perfectly captures the zeitgeist of an era, through the lens of a unique university town, at a hinge-point in musical time after which nothing would ever swing that same way again. Read More

 

Navarro Rising?

What Did Zephyr and Navarro Have in Common?

This picture of the original rock band "Zephyr" was taken for Warner Brothers Records, in New York City in the early '70's; it includes members from left to right: Jock Bartley (guitar); John Alfonse (percussion); Michael Wooten (drums & percussion); Candy Givens (vocals, keyboards & harmonica); David Givens (bass); and Danny Smith (keyboards).

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The caption above was written by the adorable dude in the center of the photo, drummer Michael Wooten, who apparently carried his charm from The Shire more than 40 years ago and hasn't really changed much since. He remains active on the Colorado music scene to this day, performing with Lucky Me and probably others. Wooten's resume includes what was perhaps Colorado's greatest edge-of-fame act (Zephyr, above), Leftover Salmon, and the marginally successful but locally-popular country rock confection Navarro. Navarro, probably few still live to remember, was the subject of a minor lightning strike when songwriting legend Carole King, who was for a time in residence in Colorado while recording her Simple Things album at Caribou Ranch, caught them at a local tavern. This is circa 1977, and Navarro had been a Boulder-area band off and on for much of the decade. Needing a band, King liked what she heard in Navarro and so they became her opening act and show band, performing studio duties as well. All of this history is detailed in a Rolling Stone interview, available here.

The photograph above adds a wrinkle to this story due to the fellow on the far left, the talented guitarist (and painter) Jock Bartley, whose post-Zephyr days included a stint with Gram Parsons and a much longer stint with Firefall, which he leads to this day. Through his own musical contributions and through association with those seminal country-rock acts, Jock Bartley has been an important figure in the development of the Country-Rock sound as it emerged in the 1970s. (And consider how far different it was than was the sound of the acid-blues fueled Zephyr!)

Anyway, Navarro was caught in the undertow of the Colorado country-rock phenomenon and managed a marginal existence on the scene, finally calling it quits until Carole King happened to tap them for another bout of temporary renewal. It was probably a curse, in retrospect, for seven years following the humongous success of King's classic Tapestry LP, and nearly 20 since she wrote with former-husband Gerry Goffin at the Brill Building, she was "old" and sort of lost. Never a strong performer, she was flailing and probably felt reassured by the presence of youngsters like Michael Wooten and Mark Hallman. (Hallman has operated the successful Congress House recording studio in Austin, Texas since shortly after this Carole King episode in his career.) King's fans, however, were flummoxed by her choice of compatriots, having known her previously to have kept musical company with industry heavyweights Danny Kotchmar, Leland Sklar, and Tom Scott. Why Navarro, this little band from Colorado? They wondered.

While the Carole King-Navarro hookup would turn out to be short term and of no particular distinction, there are people who remember the band fondly, enough so that talk of a reunion has begun to emerge and stir interests.

Blues vocalist and harmonicat Judy Rudin, a long-time L.A. resident, provided the great Zephyr photo above on her Facebook page, which is what allowed us to work Michael Wooten into this whole narrative. Rudin was a Boulder-area stalwart during the Navarro period, and she is among those who would be excited about a Navarro reunion. She seems to have found serendipity in that she had only just posted this Zephyr photo when she received the following email message.

Michael Wooten writes: FYI; lovers of waterfalls, mountains, and fall-colors; there is going to be a Navarro band re-union this Fall, in TELLURIDE, Colorado! The fun will begin around the last weekend of September, with one show (possibly a large, house-concert, outside, on private land) on Saturday, September 29th! I talked to Richard Hardy today (who is in Telluride doing some recording) and he told me that our old friend Jim Lincoln came up with the idea and wants to finance it. We (the Navarro band) did a benefit for Jim when he broke his back in a hang-gliding accident in the early '70's. Miguel Rivera sent me a text today, from Los Angeles, and said he would do it. Richard contacted Mark Hallman, in Austin, who said he would be into it, and Robert McEntee, also in Austin, who said he "might be up for it, if you get it in writing". <]:O)) what a kidder. Rob Galloway is out of town, helping with a sick relative, but should return soon, and I'm certain he will want to be involved. Deborah Schmitt-Lobis said she would try to be there, but might already have a booking. James Tuttle said he will tie her up and carry her (gently but firmly).

RARWRITER.com assumes that Michael Wooten is fine with us publishing his personal email. Why not, it's good news, right? It's Navarro! - RAR

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SIGNEL-Z

Smart Stuff from the Flat Irons

RAR NOTE: Signel-Z is the brainchild of bassist/guitarist Steve Ignelzi, who has recently released his jazz collective's first CD io Rise, available on iTunes and elsewhere.

The techie allusion within the title of the CD should be a tip-off to what you are dealing with here, which is stuff too smart for some rooms. (It is not, however, the sort of electrical switch open/switch closed product implied by the title - it is all real musicians on real instruments.) This is a jazz fusion, which won't appeal to those who don't appreciate that form, but for those who do this is a real pleasure. It is a series of wonderful original compositions, performed with a live energy, feel and sound that is unusually anarchic for a form that really exists as a tribute to the traditional jazz forms that came before. There is a thing going on with East Coast underground jazz that seems to be captured in the horn work of this band from Boulder, a sort of revolutionary vibe played out through the bleat of sculpted brass and the peppery accents of 16th-note bursts of jazz guitar.

Steve Ignelzi is one of the more interesting artists at work anywhere today, in part because he does so much. Rather like a model for Buckaroo Bonzai, Ignelzi is a chemist by day - a discipline he has now maintained for decades - and a working musician by night, playing in Signel-Z, the adventurous Martian Acres, Girls on Top, and from time to time a big show band with horn section. And somehow he has raised a family, and sent a kid to college, while another son performs on drums with Signel-Z. He has maintained a long marriage, often working with his wife Chris, who is an excellent vocalist. And Ignelzi does all this with a disarming charm, a sort of low profile boyishness that seems outwardly void of any personal obsessions, other than enjoying the most minute details of musical expression, production and engineering. Just read the marketing promo below and you'll get a good feel for the Steve Ignelzi approach, which is smart without pretension.

"Signel-Z has been evolving as a band, as composers and players. The ability to listen hard is valued as highly as the ability to play dramatically. The balance between structure and improvisation is the playing field upon which the original compositions are expressed at each live performance. The album was tracked live with very little use of modern studio trickery in order to capture the human element and the artists performance. Several of the band members provided original music compositions for the album. The compatibility of the composers and players really comes across nicely in the progression of the sound from the start to the finish of the CD lending greater depth and diversity to the music than what would have been possible with a less collaborative approach.

"The approach to the mixing and mastering was meant to emphasize the complexity of the sounds and to couch them in a full bodied mix that describes the perfect live soundstage. Perhaps an evening concert in the desert, the Arcosanti amphitheater or the Red Rocks amphitheater in Colorado. A sensual sound that would be ideal if driving or meditating late at night results. The group can perform jazz, funk and other genres, but prefers to develop each piece as distinct from the others such that a distinct character is achieved in each piece as well as a great progression of the overall set."

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Apropos of Nothing and Everything

Coming Down from Sam's

"Anyway, I had told my dad I was going bowling one night and I went up to Sam's instead with a friend named Nick Tolve. Nick and I tried our damnedest to pick up some girls, but we crapped out, and headed down the mountain several hours later, with God knows how many pitchers under our belts. It's one of those incidents you cannot forget. We were listening to "All Day and All of the Night," by The Kinks, as Nick entered an inside right hairpin doing maybe fifty. Everything slowed down in my mind. There was The Kinks and the seemingly endless skidding out across the oncoming lane and then the wide turnout, bordered by the blackest abyss. All of the windows were filling up with the billion lights of Denver. We came to a merciful stop with one tire over the edge and a hubcap loudly pinging off the rocks for what seemed like ten minutes. Then it was dead quiet . . . except for The Kinks, which now seemed to fill up the entire night." - Dennis Wanebo

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Lawyers are expected to be good writers, though reading a John Grisham novel may persuade you otherwise. A great deal of lawyering is about constructing word arguments, communicating in effectively selective ways to support a narrative theme. In this sense, the practice of law is also closely related to the "art" of sales, marketing and to commercial journalism. Journalism students, at least back in my day, were often encouraged to stay in school for a law degree if they seemed research oriented and suited to writing briefs and legal arguments. If they were more imaginative, possibly less technical by nature, they were still encouraged to stay in school and get a law degree because journalists with that credential were coveted. College seniors may be excused for missing the hidden message in those admonitions to stay in school: a journalism degree alone is about as valuable as a degree in drama. In fact, my experience as one of those clowns who ventured into the working world armed with only a journalism degree has been nothing but drama! Or possibly trauma.

I'm not sure where retired lawyer Dennis Wanebo fits into all of that, I just know that I enjoy his writing. The descriptive paragraph above, of his journey down the Rocky Mountains from a tavern high in the pines, is an entertaining example of his style. Wanebo's recently released solo acoustic album, Running On Gravity, is reviewed in this edition of RARWRITER.com, and the story above relates directly to the title tune.

Writes Wanebo - "The final song (and the album namesake) "Running On Gravity" is a semi-autobiographical glance at the days when Colorado was a 3.2 beer state--the days when there were only two major targets on life's calendar as an adolescent: sixteen to drive; and eighteen to drink. And, sweet Jesus, didn't we abuse them both, especially when we could put them together.

"Anyway, you may remember that some thoughtful businessmen decided to put a big 3.2 beer hall at the tippy top of Lookout Mountain, just west of Golden. "Sam's" was the name. They would bring in decent dance bands and the place would really rock on Friday and Saturday nights . . . jam-packed with kids like me who had been driving for two years or less, all of them guzzling pitchers of fresh Coors in order to work up the nerve to meet some chicks.

"I assume that you've driven the road up the face of Lookout Mountain, to the top, way past the lighted "M" (Colorado School of Mines' logo visible across half of the metropolitan Denver area). It's a nice place to bring out of state visitors, like grandparents and the like. It was guaranteed that the uninitiated (and many times the fully initiated) would be white-knuckling the car seats all the way down, even under the best of conditions. It's an insane road.

"But: did you ever come down drunk? Huge numbers of kids did. It seemed like once a year, a car full of kids would miss one of those unforgiving hairpins. Then there would be the dutiful shaking of various parents' heads over the morning Rocky Mountain News, and the breakfast table lectures about "Jesus, take a good look at what happened to that car! Stay away from that place for God's sake."

THIS HAS BEEN A PUBLIC SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENT FROM RARWRITER.COM: KIDS, DON'T GO TO SAM'S!

Wanebo's Running On Gravity is a wonderful album, released to a market that probably can't appreciate it but should if they could. It seems like the work of someone who is here to help. - RAR        092912

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Above: Robb Candler, Grant McIntosh and Devon Bailey

Wild Road Colorado

Classic Country

Grant McIntosh, Devon Bailey, Dean Field, Howard Palmer, and Robb Candler are Wild Road Colorado, a classic country outfit from the Boulder area. They are a group right after the heart of old school country fans everywhere, a road house devotional to Johnny Cash, Hank Williams, Merle Haggard and George Strait. They also list the Sons of the Pioneers, the great vocal backing group that was founded in the 1930s by an Ohio-to-California transplant with the suspicious name of "Leonard Slye". Leonard Slye eventually changed his awful name to Roy Rogers, which was much more befitting his movie star bearing, which was gentle and kindly, as one might expect from a cowboy who used quick hands and quick wit, rather than a gun, to keep peace in the Hollywood Hills of the Old West. And along the way to becoming one of the great Hollywood singing cowboys, Rogers created the Sons of the Pioneers and set the standard for vocal harmony acts. "We" - the Baby Boomer Generation - grew up with their soundtracks wafting from movie scores, Country LPs and Christmas albums, training our ears to what it sounds like when men sing gorgeously together. Somehow it was much less gay than that sounds; in fact, covered every generic male fascination from Happy Trails to Tumblin' Tumbleweed to Cool Water, and did all that banal observational stuff in a pre-creepy way. (America later succumbed to the Statler Brothers and the Louvin Brothers and other more Nashville-oriented sounds from the school of greater psychological disturbance.)

What all that Sons of the Pioneers stuff has to do with Wild Road Colorado is that these are guys who are steeped in this American cultural heritage, authentic in their emotional connection to this earlier time in America's cultural development. As a person from their age group, I appreciate what they do. Use this link to stream their tune "Amarillo" and then use this link to go to their Facebook to hear more. - RAR

EDITOR'S NOTE: Seeing Robb Candler, who is associated with the Mary Russell Blues Band as well as the Wild Road Colorado, reminded me of Robb's Music, the music store that Robb Candler has operated in Boulder, Colorado since 1978. To musicians who were around Boulder in the late '70s and '80s, Robb's was the greatest music store that ever existed anywhere, largely because Robb himself was such a pillar of the Boulder creative community. There is just no way to over-emphasize how important some operations are to the lifeblood of a community, and Robb's was always one such place, rather like an immediate institution. In these tough times, it is truly inspirational to know that Robb's is still vital and active. (I say this as someone who hasn't been back to Boulder in almost 30 years.) Congratulations and best wishes to Robb Candler and Robb's music!

Lee Trees Makes Rare Appearance

If for 20 years a guy just plays out in public only once a year or so, one might tend to assume that he just had other priorities. This is made more interesting by the fact that when singer-songwriter Lee Trees does make a rare pilgrimage to the public arena, he always kills, as he did earlier this month when Lee Trees And The Commoners -- featuring Eric Gunnison on keys, Christian Teele on drums, and Kirwan Brown on bass -- played the Rock'n Soul Cafe in Boulder. One finally must conclude that Lee just has his life ordered a certain way, and while clearly music is a big part of it, pursuing the career aspects of a working musician are not. That's a decision of the soul, as soulful as his Samba. Catch him if you can.- RAR

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Ash Ganley Signs Publishing Deals

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Colorado - Multi-threat musician/singer/songwriter Ash Ganley reports that he has signed a number of publishing deals aimed at breaking him beyond the regional popularity he presently enjoys in the Rocky Mountain States.

 

"Well....I have lots of news. After several months of  cold calls, warm  emails and hot coffee, I have signed with two publishing/licensing companies and a fantastic, forward-thinking and successful indie label. Two of these companies have been on my radar for years, and have basically been my focus, my 'dream' partners during this time. I wanted to wait until I had all three records done at Summit Road Studios before I approached them. In December, I did- and have signed with both.

 

"The first company I signed with in late December is NOMA Music, a major music licensing and publishing company is Los Angeles. NOMA has taken on all of my recorded material, staring with 2006 release "Dark Fuel" all the way up to my upcoming Feb. 2011 release "Magic Season". They have an amazing track record of getting their signed artist's music placed in some of the biggest television shows and movies out there. Within two weeks of signing, NOMA had two of my songs- 'Elysian Fields' and 'Only In Our Dreams'- picked up by hit Canadian television series "Heartland", for use in back-to-back episodes to be aired later this month. Currently, NOMA is submitting my material to the FX series "Justified" for use this season. If this early action is any sign of things to come, NOMA clearly delivers. 

I am also signing this week with San Rafael, CA based Magnatune Records. This label is a unique, forward-thinking success story in adaptation to the digital market place. Check out their website if you can- they are like a breath of fresh air and a welcome change from the "old" way of doing business in music. They have a number of innovative and creative outlets for marketing their artists and I am really excited to be partnering with Magnatune.

"I have also signed another deal with Germany-based licensing/publishing company Goldentraxx. They are another innovative company that promotes their artist roster to European and world media markets in televsion, film etc..

"In the coming weeks I am expecting to complete another non-exclusive deal with UK-based licensing/publishing company Mango Reel.

 


James Geisler

Former Boulder Resident Producing Musical Theater Productions

Along the lines of the story we have on the Music page on Phillip Rauls and his relationship with the late music industry personality Buddy Zoloth (various management capacities with Stephen Stills, Manassas, Blues Image, others), I was pleased recently to hear from another Zoloth associate, James Geisler, who back in the day I knew as "Jimmy".

Jimmy is 61 years old now, which seems odd because I'm still 29, and still in the entertainment industry. He works with the Florida-based musical production company Cirque Productions (http://www.cirqueproductions.com), which describes its mission as "combining the European cirque-style of performance artistry with American circus arts and Broadway theatrics".

Rather like Cirque de Soleil, Cirque Productions presents a number of shows in venues ranging from Broadway to theater tours to cruise line productions. Their Website says that 50 million people have seen their shows.

This would be right up Jimmy's alley as he had a long history with production companies, mostly as an event manager and promoter. He did some artist management, including work with singer-songwriter Willis Alan Ramsey ("Muskrat Love").

Jimmy and I inadvertently conspired to undermine Colorado Senator Gary Hart's 1982 bid for the presidency, an odd bit of treachery for a couple liberal Democrats (at least at that time).

Jimmy Geisler's vocations have always been entertainment-business oriented, and it is something he is quite good at, but his real passion is for his art. He is a talented sculptor, who when I met him was working primarily in metals.

He once tried to give me a fanciful metal work that I loved called "King Rat", this in lieu of money he owed me, which I foolishly didn't accept at the time. "King Rat" is probably worth a fortune now, or at least it should be. Cool stuff.

Jimmy Geisler has lived in Santa Fe for the past 20 years, has been married since 1987, and has a 20-year old daughter, a biology major in college who is currently studying in Japan. "Nothing to do with Biology, just spending Dad's money," writes Jimmy.

Below is a video of one of the productions presented by Cirque Productions.-RAR

 

Cirque Dreams Illumination

 

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©Rick Alan Rice (RAR), November, 2018

 

 

 

   

 

 

  ARTIST NEWS    THIS EDITION   ABOUT   MUSIC   MUSIC REVIEWS  BOOKS  CINEMA   FASHION   FINE ARTS  FEATURES   SERIES  MEDIA  ESSAY  RESOURCES  WRITTEN ARTS POETRY  CONTACT  ARCHIVES  MUSIC LINKS

Copyright © November, 2018 Rick Alan Rice (RARWRITER)