Ken Vatcher Sings Again!

Last posting from the September 2011 SuperSesh folks !

If we remember rightly, Ken grabbed a mic. and called for a solid slow blues. A  few bars in started into the lyrics of  the 1919 Swanstone, McCarron, Morgan tune “Blues My Naughty Sweetie Gives To Me”. Click on the title in the PBGB Juke Box on the right of your screen to have a listen.

As you heard on the PBGB version of Hound Dog ( click on title on the PBGB Juke Box ), Ken has a great growly blues voice, and on ‘Naughty Sweetie’ he once again provides us with a mighty fine vocal performance. The song is full of humour, and Ken does it proud.

Well done Brother Ken !  Top work !!

The support line up for Ken was :

POL O’SHEA - BASS, GUITAR ( LEFT CHANNEL ) , SLIDE GUITAR

GARRY CARSON JONES - GUITAR ( RIGHT CHANNEL )

LYNDON LEWIS - RHYTHM GUITAR

MARK BOLSIUS - KEYBOARDS

PETER REID - DRUMS

And again, the immaculate production work was done by Pol. Can’t thank you enough Pol !!

So that folks, wraps it up for the September 2011 SuperSesh. PBGB is absolutely honoured to have the super talents of so many of the district’s leading musical lights coming along to  The Shed and hanging out , playing and having a beer– we love it, and just can’t get enough.

Thanks to everybody who came, played, drank, laughed and listened – hope to see you all again very soon !!

Pete

Dave Hannagan sings the blues. Beautifully!

As reported in the blog post of October 1, 2011, (scroll down to find it), Dave Hannagan turned up to the SuperSesh, and proceeded to croon a couple of great blues numbers. Dave sang the Howlin’ Wolf / Willie Dixon 1966 classic ‘Built For Comfort’, and T-Bone Walker’s 1947 opus ‘Stormy Monday’. Click on the song titles on the right of your screen to hear just how beautifully Dave interprets these songs. Well done Dave ! Super work !

 Dave is very ably supported on both songs by the following stellar line-up :
 POL O’SHEA - GUITAR (LEFT CHANNEL)
GARRY CARSON JONES - GUITAR (RIGHT CHANNEL)
MARK BOLSIUS - KEYBOARDS
KEN VATCHER - DRUMS
KEVIN BREEZE - BASS

 Beautiful work all ‘round guys – stunning !

 A special mention needs to go to Pol....... Busy as Pol is as a professional music producer ( Pol is the In-House Guru at Turingal Studios ) he very generously offered to take three of the SuperSesh song audio files away with him, and to see what he could do. We know Pol is an obsessed perfectionist, and we know he has put many, many hours into the production of what you hear on these songs. Pol has surgically made good, mixed and mastered these two songs, plus ‘My Naughty Sweetie’ which is the subject of the next post. ( see above ). The results, we hope you agree, are nothing short of outstanding.

So a heartfelt ‘Thank You’ goes to Pol for putting all that effort in. PBGB and The Shed are humbled Pol !

Pete

Safe Hands

Here are 2 versions of "Safe Hands" for your listening pleasure.  The first, below is a video version by Neil and 6 musical friends from the US and Norway.  Video and audio mixed and mastered by Neil, it features John Libby (Boston MA US) on keys, Anne Cozean and Marty Ross Vining (North Fork CA US) on backing vocals, Thor Oliversen (Stavanger Norway) on  guitar, Mike Watkins (Stirling VA US) on drums and Chris Flynn (Houston TX US) on bass.  Neil is singing and playing second guitar.  This international collaboration was made possible through MacJams - http://www.macjams.com

Check the song notes for more information.

The second, by PBGB with Sasha Dee is in the JukeBox on the right, and features Pete, Ken, Kev, Neil and of course Sasha.

Blue Pool

A new post - "Blue Pool" was recorded a few months ago and for a time, left to mature due to Chris' medical leave from PBGB. It's a song of Neil's, with Pete on drums, Chris on bass and Neil on vocals and guitars - originally recorded live in The Shed with acoustic guitar, with the electric added later in the studio.

Recording and mixing by Neil.

See how many Bermagui references you can find in the lyrics :)

Have a listen using the new alphabetically sorted PBGB JukeBox on the right of the page.

Pete’s Out There Somewhere

Click on  “ I’m Out There Somewhere”  on the right of your screen to have a listen to  Pete’s latest offering.

The song is about  a time in  Pete’s life circa 1980. Pete did find that place somewhere -  it turned out to be Crescent Head on the Mid North Coast of New South Wales.

Lyndon took over  the production of this one  pretty early in the piece and ran  it right through to the finish line. So this song is  Lyndon’s first production of a PBGB song.  Well done Lyndon !

Players on I’m Out There Somewhere are :

Pete on Vocals and Drums

Kevin on Bass

Lyndon on Lead Guitar

Neil on Rhythm Guitar

Words - Pete, music - Neil

PBGB JukeBox

With all the changes happening on the blog, we decided to look at re-jigging the songlist in the new Jukebox to better represent where PBGB is at the moment. Neil was happy to drop a couple of his ("No Relief In Sight" and "Mad Hatter") and Pete has dropped "Serve It Up".

In place of these, we have added a Shed version of Neil's "Blue Pool" (listen for the Bermagui references in the lyrics), with Chris on bass, Pete on drums and Neil on guitars and vocals. It's based on a live take in The Shed but with an added lead guitar track by Neil.

Keep watching the page for further changes, including a major rebuild of the site by Mark Reid in the not too distant future.

You can download most of the songs in the JukeBox (including a number of previously available songs) for free by clicking on the JukeBox.

You can also share the PBGB JukeBox with your friends by clicking on "Share" and copying the code for your preferred look and your preferred online community/email.

JENNY HALPER WHIPS ONE UP

When Chris arrived at the September 26 SuperSesh, he brought along a long time friend and fellow muso – Jenny Halper.

We soon discovered that Jenny has a great singing voice, so we offered her a microphone and launched into  George Gershwin’s 1935  classic  ‘Summertime’.

You can hear how brilliantly Jenny sang it by clicking on ‘Summertime’ on the right of your screen.

Well done Jenny, and welcome to the PBGB Family !!

Thanks for letting us post the song.

Jenny has indicated strongly that she would like to do more PBGB stuff, and Jenny............ we can’t wait !!

As we indicated on the post for Hound Dog ( one post below ) we had a few drinks at the SuperSesh and nobody took notes.

So we THINK the line-up goes like this :

Jenny Halper on Vocals:

Mark Bolsius on Keyboards

Pol O’Shea on Bass

Garry Carson Jones, Gus Washbourne, and Lyndon Lewis on Guitars. ( Again, don’t ask what order !! )

Pete  on Drums

By the way, PBGB featured  different versions of Summertime on both our third and fourth cds back in 2007 and 2008, so it seems to be a bit of a perennial PBGB favourite.

Not surprising really, old George knew a thing or two about writing a great song !!

Hopefully Summertime will not be the last post from the SuperSesh, so watch this space for more.

Ken Vatcher goes four on the floor

Late in the September 26 SuperSesh, Ken sidled up to a microphone, called out “Let’s do Hound Dog” and whispered to Pete “Four On The Floor Rock Beat please Pete”, and whammo!

Off we went into the old (1952 in fact) Leiber and Stoller classic that Elvis made super famous. The original version was sung by Big Mama Thornton, but the PBGB version (click on Hound Dog on the right of your screen) features the one and only Ken Vatcher on vocals.  Fantastic Ken, well done sir!

One of the principles that underpins PBGB is that we always try to encourage people to go musical places that are a little outside their natural comfort zone. We knew from previous episodes in The Shed that Ken could sing up a storm, so we have been waiting......and waiting........and now, here he is on lead vocals.

Thanks Ken, great fun, and thanks for letting us post it.

Who is playing on it?

Well, we think (we had had a beer or three by the time we played  this, and nobody was taking notes) it probably features:

Ken  on Vocals

Pete on drums

Lyndon, Garry, Pol and Gus on guitars (don’t ask what order!)

Mark on keyboards

Neil on bass (in actual fact Chris played bass at the time, but the recording turned out to have no bass track so Neil dropped a new bass track in later).

PBGB bungs on a rocker!

Enjoy

Should be more September SuperSesh songs coming to the PBGB Blog very soon. Watch this space.

Another Super Sesh

Monday September 26 saw another Super Sesh in The Shed.

PBGB was honoured to have another stellar line-up of local musical luminaries in The Shed for an afternoon of fun and general musical bonhomie.

We had a full house, with the following in attendance :

Pete, Gus, Kev, Chris, Ken, Lyndon, and visitors Dave Hannagan, Pol O’Shea, Garry Carson Jones, Mark Bolsius, and Jenny Halper.

Who are these people ?

Info. on Garry can be viewed under a previous PBGB Blog posting dated July 4, 2011, and by clicking HERE

http://www.myspace.com/garrycarsonjones

At the July Super Sesh Garry sang and played lead guitar on his song I Am, which you can play by clicking on the title on right of screen. Brilliant Garry !

Dave Hannagan has a fine musical pedigree, including a stint with Greg Quill’s Country Radio – see

http://www.milesago.com/artists/quill_radio.htm

But best of all, Dave is a fabulous blues singer who absolutely starred on Monday, and we hope to post a song from the Super Sesh featuring Dave on vocals very soon.

Pol O’Shea, likewise, has a life-long connectivity with the world of music – far too much to mention here. But if you Google Pol O’Shea you will see just what we mean. Pol played some superb guitar lines on his trusty Strat at the Super Sesh, and again, we hope to post an example or two of his brilliant licks very soon.

Mark Bolsius made a very welcome return to The Shed on Monday. You can read more about Mark, and see what a handsome fellow he is,  by reading PBGB Blog postings dated 17 and 20 February 2011. You can also hear Mark’s great keyboard work clicking on the song ‘Autumn Leaves Jam’ on the right of this page.

Jenny was a first time ‘Shedder’. Welcome Jenny !  Jenny has sung with a number of bands around the district, and when you hear her you will hear why ! We hope to post Jenny’s excellent rendition of the George Gershwin standard ‘Summertime’, soon.

PBGB extends a warm welcome to all these great artistes. Please make a habit of dropping in for Seshes !

Monday was just great fun. What with 11 people in The Shed all blazing away ( and having a beer or three ), and with no agenda other than sheer enjoyment, getting good recordings is a secondary concern. But we have listened through the afternoon’s proceedings, and we should soon be able to stitch together some songs that will give friends of PBGB a chance to hear what these great musos can do. Watch this space !

Some photos of the newcomers............

Pol’s Strat. If that were a hot rod it would be called a Rat Rod. Is it in fact a Rat Strat ?

Pol - Thanks for coming Pol - blistering licks!

Jenny and Dave - A very warm welcome and a standing invitation to come on back.

Garry - Always a big happy smile!