Sunday, March 22, 2015

The Camembert Trappers

I played a show at Hometown BBQ in Red Hook, on February 15, 2015. I decided to put together a set of my favorite songs from my songbook going back to the days of Melomane, Sea Foxx, and The Snow. My brother-in-law Gerald Menke thought it would be cool to play a set of my songs and add an element of twanginess to it, so I called the band The Camembert Trappers because I wanted it to sound French, and country at the same time.  Gerald Menke was on pedal steel and guitar, Konrad Meisner on drums, and Jay Foote on bass. Thanks to Roman Elsener for the videos!

















All the World is a Green Jockey Full of Bourbon



I played a Tom Waits tribute show organized by Robin Aigner at Freddy's Bar in Park Slope on March 22. I was joined on stage by three amazing musicians, two of which (Gavin and Bob) I had only met moments before. Here's Jockey Full of Bourbon, featuring Gavin Smith on bass clarinet, Bob van Pelt on Bass, and Andrew Sovine on guitar. These guys just crushed it! This was the first Tom Waits song I ever heard, when it was in the opening scene of the Jarmusch film Down by Law. It completely blew my head off then and introduced me to the weird and wonderful world of Tom Waits.



Here's All the World is Green from the album Blood Money. This time Gavin is on clarinet. This song just breaks my heart into a million pieces. The arrangement, the vocal delivery, the mix of the cryptic, poetic romance, and emotional directness add up to pure songwriting perfection.