Tag Archives: guitar

Live: The Dylan-Kerouac Connection

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Jack Kerouac (left) and Bob Dylan.

To celebrate Bob Dylan’s birthday, a very special event, “The Dylan-Kerouac Connection,” will be held in Berkeley, CA on Friday, May 18, 2018.

Former Rolling Stone Senior Writer/ West Coast Music Editor Michael Goldberg and acclaimed Bay Area singer/guitarist Johnny Harper will be collaborating on a night of words about and music by Bob Dylan.

Goldberg will read from his new essay, “Bob Dylan’s Beat Visions (Sonic Poetry),” which has just been published in the book “Kerouac On Record” (Bloomsbury). Harper will perform exciting solo versions of “Desolation Row,” “Just Like Tom Thumb’s Blues,” Mr. Tambourine Man,” “A Hard Rain’s a-Gonna Fall,” “Like a Rolling Stone” and more!

The two set evening will begin at 7:30 pm at The Art House Gallery & Cultural Center, 2905 Shattuck Avenue, Berkeley, CA. Doors open at 6:30 pm.

Goldberg’s essay focuses on how Jack Kerouac and other Beat writers had a profound influence on the songwriting of Bob Dylan. In reviewing “Kerouac On Record,” Mojo magazine wrote: “Among the strongest in a strong lot are Michael Goldberg’s examination of Dylan’s lit roots and Kerouac’s own musicological piece — ‘The Beginning Of Bop’ – that attempts to capture jazz in words – and succeeds.”

Johnny Harper is a well-known Bay Area singer, lead guitarist, songwriter, bandleader, arranger, and producer of recordings and concerts.

Harper has been known, for many years, for leading rockin’ bands (Johnny Harper & Carnival and the earlier Hot Links) specializing in the joyous, upbeat, and funky New Orleans R&B sound – the music of artists like Allen Toussaint, Dr. John, the Meters/ Neville Brothers, Professor Longhair, Fats Domino, and many more. He lived in New Orleans for several years at one point, soaking up the Crescent City’s magic first-hand.

In addition to his work in bands, Johnny is a powerful solo performer, accompanying himself in complex lead/rhythm and finger-picking styles on electric and acoustic guitars. He is a veteran performer in a wider range of American roots music styles – blues and gospel, vintage rock and classic country, R&B/ soul, traditional and contemporary folk, and more. He is an expert on the music of The Band, and knows over 100 Bob Dylan songs! And he is a born storyteller whose comments on the music are by turns moving and highly entertaining.

The show will take place at: The Art House Gallery & Cultural Center, 2905 Shattuck Avenue, Berkeley, CA. Suggested donation: $15.00 – $25.00

For additional info, please contact Johnny Harper: jjmusic@ix.netcom.com

– A Days of the Crazy-Wild post –

Audio: Michael Goldberg & Guitiarist Henry Kaiser Live – ‘Like A Rolling Stone’ Set Me Free

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Photo from my LitQuake reading, October 2014.
Photo from my LitQuake reading, October 2014.

Yesterday afternoon, Saturday December 13, 2104, I read from my novel, True Love Scars, as the acclaimed, Grammy-winning experimental guitarist Henry Kaiser improvised. And then Henry did a short, brilliant instrumental. The reading took place at Down Home Music in El Cerrito, CA.

I called the event a “post-beat happening.”

It was thrilling to read as Henry’s music lit up the room. When you’re on a stage and you’re in the groove, and the music, music you’ve never heard before, is exactly right for what you’re doing, you levitate.

Two sections I read were about how Bob Dylan’s music changed the narrator’s life. I’ve included both of those and then another excerpt which is the first few pages of the novel. Plus an instrumental improvisation by Henry that concluded the reading.

Down Home Music was an incredible environment for a reading. A room filled with CDs and vinyl and a wall of music books and music posters on the walls and incredibly knowledgeable folks running the place.

Where else is an impulse buy going to be a Roscoe Holcomb DVD?

Yep, I now own that DVD.

There was a nice write-up in advance of the reading in the East Bay Express and that brought a great group of folks into the store to hear me and Henry do our thing.

I read about 30 minutes while Henry utilized a guitar, a whammy bar and more than a dozen pedals to create a sonic backdrop for my words. Actually, it was more than a backdrop, as you’ll see if you listen to the first excerpt, below.

1) The impact of “Like A Rolling Stone”:

2) “It was Dylan, man!”:

3) How the book begins:

4) Henry’s concluding instrumental:

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[I just published my rock ‘n’ roll novel, True Love Scars.” Rolling Stone has a great review of my book in a recent issue. Read it here. There’s info about True Love Scars here.]

Live: East Bay Express Hypes Michael Goldberg/ Henry Kaiser ‘post-beat happening’

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Big surprise today when I opened the latest East Bay Express and discovered that my reading Saturday with Henry Kaiser at Down Home Music is their pick for “Lectures & Lit” this week, and one of this weekend’s “Top Five Events.”

How cool is that!

I’ll read from my novel, True Love Scars, and experimental guitarist Henry Kaiser will improvise on electric guitar.

It’ll happen at 3 pm at Down Home Music, 10341 San Pablo Avenue, El Cerrito, CA. And it’s free, of course.

Writes Arts and Culture Editor Sarah Burke:

True Love Scars is a rock ’n’ roll novel about harboring nostalgia for the 1960s, getting lost in a drugged-up dream-world, finding love, and then losing it tragically.

You can read the rest of the writeup here.

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[I just published my rock ‘n’ roll novel, True Love Scars.” Rolling Stone has a great review of my book in a recent issue. Read it here. There’s info about True Love Scars here.]

Novelist Michael Goldberg & Experimental Guitarist Henry Kaiser to Perform Together

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Henry Kaiser

a post-beat happening

words + guitar

novelist michael goldberg +
experimental guitarist henry kaiser

december 13, 2014, 3 pm

Henry will join me in a reading/performance for the first time at the world-renowned world music/roots music record emporium, Down Home Music, located at 10341 San Pablo Avenue, El Cerrito, CA.

I’ll read from my critically acclaimed rock ‘n’ roll novel, True Love Scars, as Grammy award winning musician Henry Kaiser improvises on electric guitar.

Inspired by the fabled Beat jazz readings of the ‘50s, Henry and I will join together to make a new kind of post-Beat, post-rock noise.

There’s no charge. It’s FREE!!

I invite you all to attend.

Here’s a photo of me.

Copies of the book are available at Down Home Music, and online of course. Use the handy link in the right hand column to order a copy.

My book has gotten excellent reviews.

Here’s the Rolling Stone review.

Here’ what PopMatters’ Greg had to say.

Simon Warner.

Blurt Magazine’s Fred Mills.

Roy Trakin.

And there are lots of four and five star reviews at Amazon.

Grammy winner Henry Kaiser is widely recognized as one of the most creative and innovative guitarists, improvisers, and producers in the fields of rock, jazz, world, and contemporary experimental musics.

The California-based musician is one of the most extensively recorded as well, having appeared on more than 250 different albums and contributed to countless television and film soundtracks.

A restless collaborator who constantly seeks the most diverse and personally challenging contexts for his music, Mr. Kaiser not only produces and contributes to a staggering number of recorded projects, he performs frequently throughout the USA, Canada, Europe and Japan, with several regular groupings as well as solo guitar concerts and concerts of freely improvised music with a host of diverse instrumentalists.

Among the numerous artists Kaiser has recorded or performed with are Herbie Hancock, Richard Thompson, David Lindley, Jerry Garcia, Steve Lacy, Fred Frith, Terry Riley, Negativland, Michael Stipe, Jim O’Rourke, Victoria Williams, Diamanda Galas and Cecil Taylor.

— A Days Of The Crazy-Wild blog post —

Audio: Chrissie Hynde Rocks Hard with Raging Guitar From Neil Young

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I haven’t heard the entire new Chrissie Hynde album Stockholm yet, but this track, “Down the Wrong Way,” features some of the most exciting electric guitar from Neil Young in years.

Stockholm will be released on Tuesday June 9, 2014.

By the way you might want to check out the “True Love Scars” soundtrack playlist here. It’s the music that goes with the first two chapters of my novel.

–- A Days of the Crazy-Wild blog post: sounds, visuals and/or news –

The Guitar Bob Dylan Played At Newport Sells for $965,000

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Photo of Dylan and the pricey guitar via Rolling Stone.

The sunburst Fender Stratocaster that Bob Dylan played when he went electric at 1965’s Newport Folk Festival and angered fans with a three song rock set that began with a noisy “Maggie’s Farm,” was auctioned at Christie’s on Friday for $965,000, according to the auction house’s website.

The  buyer actually had to pay $985,000, which includes what’s called a “buyer’s premium,” in this case $20,000 that goes to the auctioneer — not the seller — to cover administrative expenses.

In total the buyer paid $985,000 to own the guitar once played by Bob Dylan.

For background on the guitar and how it came to be auctioned, head to Rolling Stone or this Associated Press story or this one at The Guardian.

“Maggie’s Farm” at the Newport Folk Festival, Sunday July 25, 1965:


Bob Dylan & Mike Bloomfield -Maggie's Farm… by Tushratta

-– A Days of the Crazy-Wild blog post: sounds, visuals and/or news –-

 

New Music: Stream Vertical Scratchers Garage-Pop Gem, “These Plains”

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Vertical Scratchers is guitarist John Schmersal (formerly of Brainiac and Enon) and drummer Christian Beaulieu (ex-Triclops!).

“I love Christian’s drumming because he approaches it like a songwriter, as he is one in his own right,” Schmersal says in a Merge Records press release. “There aren’t really drum fills—more like rhythmic accents that punctuate what is happening at that point in the song itself.”

As for the guitars: “Part of the aesthetic we were establishing when writing Vertical Scratchers songs was to maintain a sense of urgency and raw energy without relying on volume and distortion,” Schmersal says. “I wanted the guitars to sound light and jangly, and most songs were purposefully sung in a soft falsetto.”

The duo’s debut, Daughter of Everything, will see release February 25, 2014.