Guitar Talk: Pocket Honore Part Two

Pocket Honore standing tall with the
ESP H-1000.

Pocket Honore’s journey from the Hee Haw elementary school of guitar to the recent release of Wicked Wisdom’s new single “Stuck” has been an interesting one.  

In part one of our October Guitar Talk Q&A we learned about Honore’s formative R&B years and his almighty ESP H-1000.  

In part two, he delves into his history with frontwoman Jada Pinkett Smith, the progression of Wicked Wisdom into its alternative formation called Wicked Evolution and offers details of the band’s first week of gigs at Ozzfest 2005 where he says something far more dangerous than racial epithets were hurled onto the stage.
  

After spending nearly four years of down time tending to family matters, Honore tells us he’s back into his musical groove again and as usual, the Baton Rouge born shredder goes where the music takes him. 

The band’s short club tour ended recently but they’re back in the studio working on a new album.  In mid-November a video clip of “Stuck” was posted to their Facebook page, their website and other social network accounts. 

If the Evanescence-meets-Creed, thickly riffed song is any indication of the musical direction of the upcoming full-length album, then it’s true what Honore says.  This band is definitely “out for blood”. 

RRR:  I did my research Pocket and I’m still kind of confused.  Now, you played guitar on Wicked Wisdom’s debut album.  Are you with Wicked Evolution now or are you doing your own thing?

PH:  No, no, no, no.  Wicked Wisdom is actually the band with all the guitars.  Wicked Evolution is the setup with the two pianos, drums and bass guitar.

RRR:  OK, I get it now.

PH:  She [Jada Pinkett Smith] wanted to try that and it didn’t go like she wanted it to so she was like OK let’s see what I want to do next.  She got a call from Afropunk and they said we want you play.  She was like you want me to bring Wicked Evolution out with the two pianos?  They were like no, we want to move our head and stuff with Pocket and Cameron.  She said man, let’s just go back and do what we do.

RRR:  OK, so you are officially Wicked Wisdom and you are still with the band.

PH:  Yeah.  But I do have my own band so let me tell you what’s going on.  The band that’s playing behind her now is my band which is Cameron Graves who was also in Wicked Wisdom with me then there’s his brother Taylor, we call him Cookie,  he plays mini moog because we don’t have a bass player and Aaron [Haggerty] who is the drummer, we have a band called Death Touch, the singer’s name is Damien Gates.  Pretty much what happened is this. 

Jada wanted to get back together and was like there’s no way I’m playing without Death Touch.  It was like the rhythm section’s way too tight, way more superior than what we had before.  Then she said OK, let’s check it out.  She heard it and said yo, let’s roll. 

It is massive.  When you hear it live it’s going to be heavy.  It’s no klanky bass strings, it’s going to knock you straight on your back.  This is tight.  There’s two classically trained pianists in the band and two jazz musicians in the band.  Basically we can play whatever, whenever.

RRR:  I went to YouTube and checked out a few clips of Wicked Evolution and the first thing I heard was the classical musicianship but I also heard some gospel in “Left Behind”.  It was the most interesting sound.  Very melodic, but it doesn’t quite go where you think it’s going and it works.

PH:  Yeah, yeah.   Wait till you hear the stuff we’re doing.  When we played Afropunk we put sixteen songs together in nine days.

RRR:  And y’all are still breathing.  You are serious pros.  Well, you know we can’t move on without asking how is Jada and what’s it like to work with her?

PH:  Ahhh, that’s my little sister.  You’ve got to understand.  I’ve known her for eons now.  Like the first time she and I ever met it was in passing.  It was a hip-hop club on Wednesday nights in Hollywood and I used to work the door, this was when she was shooting A Different World, so that lets you know how long ago that was.

RRR:  Yeah, that was a long time ago.

PH:  Her and her friends would come and I’d just let them in.  I’d be like y’all don’t have to pay and they were like really?  I said yep.  So, I met a lot of people like Regina King, Tisha Campbell and all the homies like House Of Pain used to come there, Jam Master J. 

RRR:  That was back in the day.

PH:  It’s cool with her you know what I’m saying?  She’s really got a grip on it now.  It’s like when we first started doing the heavy stuff back in 2004, it was a little rough for her and everybody was against her.  They didn’t make it fun for her.  We went out and definitely beat a** for three years with that and everybody got respect, but now it’s like she got it and she’s comfortable with it.  The thing that’s cool about it is she never stopped singing.

RRR:  Oh, really? 

PH:  She never stopped singing and she took advantage of it.  She’s been studying for the past six and a half years now so, she comes in and knocks stuff out.  Rehearsals are real quick.  We don’t have twelve hour rehearsals like we used to have with the other band with Phillip Fisher and Rio.  Now we have like four hour rehearsals that are so intense, so concentrated to the point where it’s like, OK cool.

RRR:  I gotta tell you, when I did my research before I interviewed you guys in February I think it was, 2006, I couldn’t believe the things people were saying about you. 

PH:  Oh yeah.

RRR:  Especially on the Ozzfest Tour because look, if something sucks musically, I’ll be the first to say it, but the minute I heard the CD it was like annnnt! You haters are wrong.  Let’s move on.  Jada took most of the flack, which you know, that’s how it goes.  But she has proven herself. 

PH:  That’s what happens when you want to break new ground.  Everybody has something to say because their cowards.  That’s just how it is.  The first week was rough, I’ll tell you and she’ll tell you.  This is what made it bad.  We weren’t supposed to be announced until the first day of Ozzfest.  People weren’t going to find out until we played that morning. 

And what happened was she went on 106 and Park and AJ and Free kind of backed her in a corner then she got pissed. She said, well since y’all keep asking woop-wop-wop-da-wap well, my band will be on at Ozzfest in Boston first thing at 9 o’clock in the morning July of such and such and from that point on it just went berserk. 

L-R: Cameron Graves, Pocket Honore, Jada Pinkett Smith
 Aaron Haggerty and Taylor Graves.

RRR:  What happened?

PH:  It went back to fuck you ni***rs, you should be picking cotton. 

RRR:  I didn’t hear some of the harder stuff.  I heard about the n-word one time.

PH:  A lot of that stuff has been removed.  It got so bad that we had to close down our website.

RRR:  Oh, get outta here.

PH:  It was like, we’d like to rape you while we’re screwing your band and watch you choke to death, you monkeys.  You ever have piss in a water bottle thrown at you before?

RRR:  I didn’t see any of that at the time I was doing that interview.  You mean like lynching stuff?

PH:  Yeah!  This was like the first week of Ozzfest.  We kept it all down.  Motherf****rs throwing asphalt in water bottles and piss in water bottles, all kinds of stuff, gravel.

RRR:  Oh my gosh.

PH:  Oh yeah.  And us being black it was like OK we’re going to play our set but when I get off the stage we’re going to beat that a**.

RRR:   Oh man, you guys are trailblazers and troopers.  Sharon Osbourne had your back.  She told the press that you guys were the bomb and she was behind you from the beginning, right?

PH:  This is what happened.  Here’s the whole thing.  Sharon heard we were playing the Viper Room.  It was like Jada has a heavy metal band.  They heard about it and she thought it was funny as hell.  So the whole Ozzfest staff came down to the Viper Room and she was just a laughing, they took out a whole table and everything.  They were just there to giggle. 

But when our band came on, it was on.  It was like, these guys are not fu**ing around.  She was like this s**t is not - this is not a joke.  At the end of the night we were downstairs in the bottom lounge just kind of chillin’.  Jada walked up she said I just talked to Sharon and we’re going to do Ozzfest, she invited us.

 

I asked if it was a buy-on, she said no we’re going to get a rider, full carte blanche. She wants us on it.  At the time she had offered us a solid spot instead of a rotating spot.  We were like no, we’re not going to disrespect any of those bands.  Give us a rotating spot. 

We’ll take the very first spot, first thing in the morning, 9 o’clock.  We’re not going to disrespect all the bands that’s out there working.  We’ll take the first spot.  We’ll kick it off.  She was like, OK however y’all want it.  And that’s what happened.  She was way cool.  She is a sweetheart.  I don’t care what people say about Sharon she was good to us.

RRR:  That’s all that matters.  

PH:  Her, Charlie Hernandez, John Fenton, all of them were great to us.  They were never, never disrespectful or anything like that.  They were the best.  They were like summer camp!  I’ll tell you like this.  We didn’t have a problem with any of the bands.  All the other bands thought it was bulls**t.  That morning we did a sound check before the first day of Ozzfest in Boston.  Every band came off their bus and you could see the questioning look in their faces. 

We checked everything, got everything the way we wanted it and it was like, OK y’all let’s mark this off.  We started playing and it was like man, these guys can play.  I’m going back to my bus.  Everybody went back to their buses and went to sleep.  I didn’t find out until a year later, when we were out with Sevendust that we had juice.  Somebody came up to me saying you’re from Wicked Wisdom, huh?  I’m going yeah why?  Dude, Zakk man, Zakk laid everybody out on the radio, dude.  Didn’t you hear about it? 

We did Ozzfest it was our first headlining show of that whole tour and it was in Chicago. We didn’t know Zakk and those guys played a gig the night before and did a radio interview.  Somebody had asked him hey man, what’s up with this Wicked Wisdom crap on Ozzfest?  Zakk Wylde said man, let me tell you something. 

That band is beating up everybody musically on that second stage.  Those guys are dumping a load on you guys like you would not believe.  And the guy was like oh really?  He said yeah, the lead singer needs some work, but she’s going for it.  That band is straight dumping on people.

RRR:  And let me say this.  Cuts like “One” and “Something Inside Of Me”, the opening to “One”, that’s the kind of stuff that makes you want to jump out of your skin and run down the street head banging it’s so tough.

 

[serious laughter from Pocket]

RRR:  No really, I would tell people oh my God you have got to hear this and they really didn’t want to listen because of course they had the same idea about Jada fronting the band most other people did. 

PH:  Right. 

RRR:  “Something Inside Of Me"...it’s so beautifully and hauntingly melodic but then it slams again.

PH:  Yeah.  Yeah.  We’re trying to put you on your back reeeal quick.

RRR:  Listen, I saw the Living Room Jam w/Pocket clip on YouTube.  Are you planning to do anything with that and kind of turn it into a Live From Daryl’s House kind of web show or what?

PH:  Actually, that’s something my buddy Aaron rolled out and he’s not here anymore.  He moved up to the Redwoods about thirty minutes away from here.  But everybody’s been asking me to do like a jam thing online, so I’m actually getting back into things the past three and a half almost four years I’ve been taking care of my kids’ mother she’s had breast cancer.

RRR: Oh my gosh.  I’m so sorry.

PH:  It’s all good.  She’s good now.  We’re getting life back together.  So this has all been a little strange but exciting for me because I’m getting to play a lot.  I’ve been doing nothing but practicing the past three and a half, almost four years. So for me, it’ll be fun.  Also just to let you know, this time next year I’ll probably have my first prototype amp built with this guy named Roy Blankenship.

RRR:  OK, that’s good to know.

PH:  Roy Blankenship.  Blankenship Amplification.  If you look him up, and look up his stuff on YouTube, he builds some pretty intense amplifiers.  We’ve been talking about it a few times the last couple of weeks and I told him how I wanted it built and he was like wow!  That’s like exactly what I was thinking about building so, we’re kind of on the same page.  We’re building a monster right now.  I just gotta think about how we’re going to do it.

RRR:  What do we need to know about the Wicked Wisdom tour?  Do you want to drop any information on us about that?  Is it going to be wild?

Jada Pinkett Smith in the studio
with Taylor Graves.

PH:  This s**t is gonna to be an uprising.

RRR:  That’s what we want to know.

PH:  This s**t is gonna to be an uprising.  I can tell you like that.  The band is out for blood.

And there’s a bunch of reasons why.  We’re going to explain a little later.  We’re not going to let the cat out of the bag, but this band’s out for blood right now.  There is no joking about this.
  
I’ll tell you like this.  It’s so serious, when you walk into rehearsal you can cut the tension with a knife and it’s not the type of tension that’s negative.  It’s like, we’re putting everybody on their back. 

What’s funny about it is nobody had anything to say to us when the band broke up.  But everybody has something to say now that the band’s back together.  No one reached out to us and we took care of a lot of people.  We helped people make a lot of money and do other things; people we hadn’t heard from so now everybody’s reaching back out.  Everybody get your premiums paid up on your insurance because we’re coming like a steam roller.

RRR:  Oh, that sounds serious.  Well, I’ve been on board since day one. 

PH:  Thank you.

RRR:  I have to admit, as I told Jada in the very first interview, I was skeptical, but you prove it to me once and I’m sold forever.  If you guys come to San Diego, I will come to see you because I’m a total true believer.

PH:  Did you see the Afropunk clip?

RRR:  No, not recently.

PH:  Go on YouTube and search Wicked Wisdom/Afropunk and watch the band now, 'cause you saw the band back in the day.  Watch the band now you’ll be like oh my God this is scary!  When you see those clips from Afropunk, that was only a week of rehearsal.  I missed two days of rehearsal because I had kidney stones and I had to get a stint put in and I’m playing that gig with a stint in me. 

What you see, what you’re about to see on that Afropunk clip is about a week of rehearsal and it’s tight as hell; tighter than we could ever be.  To the point where Vernon Reid stood by my rig the whole gig.  When I got off the stage he was like dude, you can’t fake that.  You can’t fake that.  That is tight as hell.  He said that reminds me of the Mahaviushnu Orchestra, Tina Turner, Slip Knot, The Yellowjackets.  Some of the craziest guitar and keyboard solos I’ve heard in years, man. 

RRR:  I’m glad you guys are back doing it again, because like I said, I’ve been a fan from day one. 

PH:  Also too, just to let you know, on this tour, I’m not wearing any major brands, any major shirts or nothing like that.  I’m also moving to Albuquerque, New Mexico.  So, since I’m moving there I’m wearing all independent clothing from that area.  How about that?

RRR:  That sounds good to me.  Maybe you could throw some Native American…I don’t know if the Navajos are in that area or not.

PH:  Hey, I’m down!  I’m down!  I’m always down.  I’m down to represent the little man.  I don’t have anything to say to the big man because he got his money.

RRR:  Alright Pocket.  I really appreciate your time and you guys keep head banging.

PH:  All right then you have a good one.

Photos courtesy of Pocket Honore and Wicked Wisdom.

Note:  In part one of this interview Honore said the band was set to do a larger tour after the first part of next year.  We were not able to confirm that fact at press time.

Bandemic

L-R: T. Idol, Figueroa, Sheena and Force.

Yesterday I caught a really good band performing at the American Cancer Society’s 16^th annual Making Strides Against Breast Cancer walk in Balboa Park. 

Bandemic is a Rancho Bernardo based cover band that plays pop, dance and rock music.  

The minute I heard them playing the B52's “Love Shack”, complete with the infamous “Tiiiiin roof – rusted!” lyric, I went straight home, got my cell phone camera, pad and pen, then I fast-walked back to the park to listen and take notes.
    

They weren't the tightest band in the world on Sunday and lead singer Sheena’s vocals could have been a bit more consistent pitch wise.  

It didn’t make any difference though.  She went for it anyway.  Bandmates Walker Force (lead guitar), Tim T. Idol (guitar), Paul Klecka (bass) and Marlon Figueroa (drums) followed right along with her on every song. 

L-R: Klecka and T. Idol

“Play That Funky Music” by Wild Cherry, “Are You Gonna Go My Way” by Lenny Kravitz and the "Forget You" version of Cee Lo Green’s “F**k You” song were immediately recognizable with enough of a groove to make you dance and smile. 

When they counted in to “Everybody Talks", by Neon Trees, that was it for me.  I started dancing in place, giving a light pop rock head bang as I took notes.

There’s nothing like listening to rock and roll music played by a band that really goes for it.  Awesome.

Photos: Renée Westbrook

What Would Pat Benatar Say?

http://www.sandiegoreader.com/news/2013/aug/21/blog-diego-i-was-rock-star-part-one/

Strength Of The Single

Kelly Clarkson, the Clive Davis feud, American Idol.  I know, I know.  I’m not a fan of the show and what happened between her and Mr. Davis is their business.
 

But I have to say, even though Clarkson represents the pop genre more than the rock genre, her cover of Aranda’s “WhyYaWannaBringMeDown” is a fantastic example of great rock music.

Structured like a Ramones classic with a linear melody that pushes itself into a chanted chorus, the entire song lasts only 2 minutes and 42 seconds and Clarkson’s vocal is Gavin DeGraw powerful.  She tosses in a few diva riffs, but for the most part it’s full throttle singing.

The centralized vocal feels like it sits a few paces ahead of the rhythm plane only to form a bulldozer blade when it connects with bookended background vocals on the hook. 

The bass line is so well blended into the floor tom slams and the engine revving rhythm guitar that it’s nearly inaudible.  When the chorus kicks in the first time, you want to dress up like a Redcoat and prance around like Adam Ant. 

No nihilism in this short version of a breakneck angry love ballad, just music thick enough to get your head banging and your body doing the Pogo.  By the final outro you expect Toni Basil to show up with her cheerleading crew and break out with a tribute to “Mickey” while his baby mamas sit on the sidelines watching. 

Based on the strength of this single I would put on a cheerleader’s uniform and E.T. dance through Balboa Park until a Park Ranger shows up and insists I put on more age appropriate clothing. 

“WhyYaWannaBringMeDown” (Aranda/Biancaniello/Watters)

Kelly Clarkson
All I Ever Wanted
(RCA 2009)

Missing Prince Again

Here it is mid-June and I’m just now recovering from yet another missed Prince concert.  The first was in 1982 at Golden Hall in downtown San Diego.  I was a twenty-something year old acting student with little to no money and anything that had to do with school like books, food, bus fare, clothing, was the priority. 

All of my theatre gang knew he was coming.  Some made plans to see him; others threw in the towel before the fight even started.  I was one of the surrendered so, no Prince concert for me. 

The second time I missed a Prince show I was living in Los Angeles.  I don’t remember if it was the mid/late 80s or the early 90s and I’m not sure if the venue was the Universal (now the Gibson) Amphitheater or the (Los Angeles) Forum, but my oldest brother, a self-proclaimed Prince aficionado, had two tickets.   

But big bro only called me after he called all of his friends who couldn’t make it, which meant he called me at the very last minute.  There was no way I could have made it to the venue from the Culver City area, by bus, on time.  I would have missed a huge portion, if not the majority, of the show and that was unacceptable.  

I really thought the third time would be a charm though.  I was so excited.  Prince is coming back to San Diego!  May 3^rd and 4^th!  And I can cover the show for Renée’s Rock Reviews! Perfect.  The universe has finally conspired in my favor.  This. Is. It. 

I left several messages for my contact in Prince’s camp who promised to do me a favor because I donated a portion of my record collection to His Royal Purpleness (I’m still waiting for Prince to confirm receipt of those discs). 

And... crickets. 

Then I used every skill in my dusty freelance writer arsenal to create a pitch that would hook the PR Honcho at the scheduled venue.  I pitched early enough so I wouldn’t crowd her and I actually had a telephone conversation with her, at the end of which she told me they hadn’t issued any press credentials yet but she would surely give me a call when they did. 

Again, crickets. 

The week of the show I made a follow-up phone call to the PR Honcho who, by the way, sounded like she couldn’t have been more than 13 or 14 years old, and that’s when she laid it on me in that nasally, Kim Kardashian, Valley Girl tone:  “I’m sorry.  We’re not issuing press credentials for any of the shows and they wouldn’t give me a comp.  So-rry.” 

Why can’t I have a press credential or comp?  Is my blog too ugly?  Am I too ugly?  Am I too old?  Don’t you like my blog?  Don’t you like me?  Did my pitch suck?  Did you save all the comp tickets for your friends?  Can I be your friend for a night?  

Those were just some of the thoughts that ran through my head.  I felt stood up on prom night and cried like a bullied chick in a teen flick.  I’m serious.  I literally cried because I missed another Prince concert.  And I was pissed about it too.  I spent hours trying to contact his manager and the jerk in his camp who promised the favor but decided to let it go because I didn’t want to burn any bridges. 

But the fact remains.  The Purple Rocker was one bus ride and a few blocks walk away from me.  Prince was in town again playing an intimate show with his all-female band 3rd EyeGirl and I MISSED IT!  AGAIN! 

I heard he put on a good show as usual and yes I’m upset that I missed another one of his concerts.  But what really chokes my chicken is the fact that I couldn’t at least get a press credential because according to the public relations executive, no press credentials were issued for any of the shows and they wouldn’t give her a comp. 

Honestly there’s a part of me that thinks she took one look at this blog, thumbed her nose at it and made up a tall tale -- but I’ll have to take her word for it.  No press credentials were issued and they wouldn’t give her a comp. 

I do so love music. 

Renée

I Was A Rock Star

One of the coolest things about rock and roll music is it has the ability to make you feel bigger and better than you actually are.  Listen to the Rolling Stones’ “Sympathy For The Devil” with its chaka-chaka jungle beat and you’re Mick Jagger in his Pony dance, purse-lipped prime.

If you’re a Rhodes Scholar you might end up slumming with Skid Row while you listen to “I Remember You”.  If you’re really delusional like I was, Pat Benatar could hit you with her best shot and make you believe you’re one band away from becoming a rock star.

She ruled radio in the early 80s.  When I watched her on MTV with that pixie haircut and spandex outfit, I thought yeah.  Me too.   A Rock star.  Cool.  What I should have been thinking about was finding a vocal coach or more importantly the odds against me.  But no.  Rock and roll juju made me believe I was her.
    
I bought the “Crimes Of Passion” album from a used record shop and played it until the grooves turned white.  Not the whole album though.  Only one song reached out and touched the rock star in me: “Hit Me With Your Best Shot”.
    
It's less than three minutes long and has maybe four or five chords.  Yet with every play it cast such a spell on me I couldn’t help but believe I was going to be a rock star like Benatar.
    
First you need to understand something.  Deep down I’m a shy person, not one to reveal my innermost self to anyone, let alone do it in front of an audience.  Oh yeah, I can’t sing either.  I can carry a tune, but interpret melodies and stay-on-pitch sing?  Not a chance.  That didn’t stop me though.
    
I’d like to think of that era in my life as the tender, naive years, but reality won’t let me.  The truth is I was doing some heavy duty partying back then and I was in a blind stupor almost every day.  Based on that and my inability to accept my true self at the time, the rock star period of my life is now officially dubbed the days of delusion.
    
So, how does a delusional, alcoholic, twenty-something closeted songwriter with no previous band or singing experience become a rock star in 1980s Southern California?  Rock and roll wish-craft.
    
One day I was talking to my friend Chubb, an overweight heavy metal lead guitar player whose breath was so bad you didn't want to face him when he spoke.  He also had body odor that fell somewhere between the early stages of decomposition and the smell of rolling out of bed with yesterday's clothes on.
    
We talked about starting a band and becoming mega rock stars.  We mused over what we'd wear, where we'd play, the millions of dollars we were going to rake in.  When Chubb mentioned a rhythm guitar man and bass player who were looking to start a band I knew my rock and roll wish had been granted.
    
Chubb and I met with No Hand Gonzalez once or twice for introductions sake and shop talk.  Dude was a Santana wannabe only his style wasn't even close to Santana's.  In fact, he didn't have a style.  He just kajunk-ajunked his way through riffs.  Slink, the geeky bass player with thick glasses, had a short fuse but his skills were well up to par.
    
At first they weren't too keen on me being the lead singer because I had never actually sung in front of an audience.  Slink had the most experience and No Hand was in second place.  Chubb was neutral on the subject because he knew I'd blow a gasket if he went against me.
    
The solution?  Well, our house had a huge playroom that could be used as a rehearsal space.  There was nowhere else to practice so if they wanted the band to happen they had to let me be the lead singer.
    
Physically I was pretty much a mess.  About a week before our first rehearsal I had orthoscopic surgery on my knee.  I tore ligaments and meniscus during high school basketball practice several years prior and it was never really the same.  I brought my own version of a painkiller to help me through only it wasn't used to kill physical pain.
    
Alcohol was my magic elixir and it numbed a spiritual pain that only sobriety could heal.  I was at the height of my fatal attraction with booze.  Besides the heavy duty partying I was doing, the doctor gave me some heavy duty painkillers.  So, naturally I added them to the mix.
    
Daddy's playroom was the perfect place for us to rehearse.  There was one small problem though.  Daddy didn't want white folks’ music played in his house.  He was a Black Nationalist born in the late 1920s.  In his mind there were black folks and there were white folks.  There was black folks stuff and there was white folks stuff. That was that. 
    
Because I was his only daughter and learned years before how to work him, I used my sweetest daddy's girl voice to explain how famous I was going to be and he eventually gave in-- on the following conditions: 1) we enter and exit the playroom using the outside door 2) the guys were not allowed to come in the house or use the restroom.
    
Rehearsal day my knee was stiff as a board and bandaged up like a mummy.  The microphone and stand must have belonged to one of the guys because I was too broke to buy gear.  This would be the first time I heard my voice filtered through an amplifier.  I was so excited--and loaded--and in pain I could hardly stand up.
    
Chubb showed up first because he lived a short distance away and as ordered, he entered from the outside gate.  Slink and No Hand followed shortly after.  My body was present but the overall package was a steaming hot mess.
    
Unsteady and full of ego, my onstage accoutrements consisted of a grungy t-shirt and raggedy goldenrod colored gym trunks that dangled from my hips because they were so tattered and torn.  I think I even did the Steven Tyler scarf on the microphone thing.
    
We spent the first fifteen minutes arguing over what to play until I slurred yet another reminder about the rehearsal space.  The Benatar song won out of course.  The next fifteen to twenty minutes were spent figuring out the arrangement.  I already knew the words so I played Miss Bossypants until they got so irritated they had to shut me up.
    
Finally the axe players were set.  I tried very hard to focus and No Hand counted us in.  I wish I could say “and the rest is history”, but that would be far from the truth.  After about ten bars of something so horrific a deaf person wouldn't want to feel the vibrations, No Hand waved us to a stop.
    
“This sucks,” Slink hissed.   
    
Never in the history of American wannabe garage bands has a group of so-called musicians so single handedly massacred a tune the way we did Benatar’s.  Maybe it was the drummer.  Oh yeah, we didn’t have one.  Not because we were stupid enough to believe we could ever do gigs without one.  We figured we’d eventually work him in when the time was right.
    
Remember what I said about my not owning any real singing talent?   Well, that characteristic, doused with alcohol and painkillers do not a singer make.  Yeah, it was bad.  In my eagerness to achieve rock superstardom I neglected the obvious.  Rock and roll convinced me I was Benatar, but it forgot to tell me I needed to have talent--singing talent.  Real talent.
    
I slurred my way through less than fifteen bars of a song that was more than half a beat off.  Don’t ask about my pitch.  Simon Cowell would have murdered me and the vocal if he heard it.  It was my best shot but I couldn’t hit it if I stood 12 inches away.
    
Like I said, I could carry a tune.  That’s different from singing with a band though.  Yes, I knew the lyrics and the melody when Benatar sang it.  It was a whole different story when I stepped up to the mic.
    
Having a basic talent for music like playing the flute in fourth grade and knowing how to read music is one thing.  Being the lead singer of a rock band is another.
    
No Hand complained about how bad we sucked and Slinked joined in.  “Hey, why don’t we come up with a name,” I offered. 
    
“Yeah,” Slink said.
    
Rock divas first, “How about Steel Wagon?”
    
“Sounds great if you’re Dolly Parton’s backup band,” Chubb dead panned. 
    
“We should call ourselves Rock Of Ages,” Mr. Santana said.
    
How about Black Stone Band,” Slink pitched.
     
“That sucks,” I mumbled.  And so it went.  With each round every member of our nameless band came up with a name more wrong than the other.  No Hand finally got so pissed off he quit.  Then Slink.
    
They loaded out and split.  Me and Chubb stayed and tried to hit the tune with our best shot, but we didn’t get far. 
    
Perhaps it’s the anarchy, the rebellion, the endorphin rush who knows.  Rock and roll music changed my life and continues to do so.  My first and only band broke up before we could agree on a name and I never became a famous rock star.  For one or two hours, through alcohol addiction, a serious lack of singing talent, and sheer delusion I was a rock star.
    
I was Mick Jagger in his purse-lipped prime; Sebastian Bach at his best.  I was Benatar.  No matter how delusional, no matter how drunk, I was a rock star who, if only for a handful of moments, lived the dream.
    
Man was it worth it.
 
 
© 2008 Renée Westbrook

Strength Of The Single

It’s 1977, The Allman Brothers Band and members of Graham Central Station are standing outside of Studio 54.  Patrice Banks listens as Gregg woefully lament’s over Melissa when the group’s small talk suddenly leads to an a cappella rendition of Glen Campbell’s “Southern Nights”.  Before they finish harmonizing the hook Larry says, “C’mon man, let’s go someplace and jam.”

The end result of that session would probably sound something like “Diamond Ring”, from The Black Crowes’ By Your Side (Columbia/Sony 1999), a southern blues rock tune doused with powerful elements of southern gospel.

A laid back Hammond B-3 takes you straight to the pulpit when it peppers the verses then gently fades into background when the testifying comes in the hook, which is the heftiest section of the song.

It sports a splashy disco high hat riding on top of the 12 bar blues rhythm guitar riff and bass-y backing vocals with an “arranged by Larry Graham” brand seared all over it.

Production value wise, one of the best choices the producer and drummer made has to do with the tuning of the snare.  If the pitch was one squintch higher or lower the song could easily qualify for an entirely different genre.

Based on the strength of this single I would show up uninvited at Whitney Houston’s church, decline an audition, dive into the alto section of the choir and try to sing my buns off.

- Renée Westbrook 

Strength Of The Single

If you really want to forget yourself and play air guitar like a Grammy® winning arena rocker then you have got to listen to “The Night” from Heart’s Brigade (Capitol, 1990).

The creepy southern gothic sounding intro makes you think of Mr. Rock Of Ages himself Tom Cruise, as Lestat  in Interview With The Vampire, crawling out of the swamp after being left for dead by Louis and Claudia.

The next thing you know dude gets his strength back and saunters through the darkened streets high as a kite on liquid eternal life.  He drops a newbie undead off in the alley behind the club and the minute he crosses the threshold boom! 

The slammin’ begins.

Funk filled and definitely not for Bieber lovers or Lil’ Wayne thugs, the Sammy Hagar/Denny Carmassi (ASCAP), penned head banger is so good it makes you want to slap your mama across the face and scream ROOOOOOCK!

Ann Wilson’s on the money interpretation, Howard Leese’s nimble fingered lead and Nancy Wilson’s second to none harmony form a peel your skin off hard rock tune that bangs like hard rock music should.

For those of you who like your hard rock straight up and nasty you will immediately become addicted to this song.  In fact, I predict you’ll listen to it at least once a day until your air guitar amplifier explodes.

Based on the strength of this single I would wait for Lestat on a dark street corner at midnight on Friday the 13^th with a full moon rising and beg for a plus one into the club.

- Renée Westbrook

Prince Riff

I’ve not yet seen Prince play live which greatly disappoints me.  I hear he gives fantastic show and his “friends”, known in less purple circles as fans, are totally respectful while they’re going completely mad for his music.

Not only is he a great songwriter, but he’s one of the best blues, R&B, punk, punk funk, and soul guitar players on the planet.  He is also one of the greatest rock lead guitar players in the history of rock music.

Have you ever listened to “Bambi” and “Why You Wanna Treat Me So Bad?”  I mean really listened to them?  The 1970s production values make them come off a bit thin but they totally rip.  Couple those very same chord progressions and melodies with today’s digital technology and it’s all shred city baby.   All shred city.

I don’t care what kind of clothes or shoes he wears and I’m not interested in who he dates.  All I care about is joining the ranks of respectfully mad friends who get totally lost in the Wop dance as he plays “I Could Never Take The Place Of Your Man”. 

Cool. 

Renée Westbrook

Blues Rock Belter

The first time I ever saw Susan Tedeschi was on the “Donny & Marie Talk Show” way back in the late 1990s. When she spoke she sounded like a shy kindergarten teacher and when she sang I could have sworn I was at a Sunday morning revival meeting in the neighborhood juke joint.

If you didn’t get a chance to watch her perform with husband Derek Trucks at Eric Clapton’s "Crossroads" concert last year, check out this clip http://youtu.be/3Eb_UXDxUbs and be blown away.

Vocal style:  Big and bluesy covered with a thick layer of gritty gospel rock.

-  Renée Westbrook