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Mr. Silverstone and the Foregone Conclusions Show Show Tonight at 6:30-8:00 @ the Yellow Sofa

I had booked a spot at the Yellow Sofa for tonight (Sat. July, 16tth @ 6:30 p.m.-8:00) but my usual backing band, the Silvertone Horns, could not make it due to mandatory vacation time they had to take to recover from the rigors of our incessant and punishing rehearsal and recording schedule.

So like they say at discount fire sales, "Our setback is a bonus for you, the customer." Instead of putting an ad in the paper in the slim hopes of finding and rehearsing with a new schoolteacher/bass player and attorney/lead guitarist in time, I called in some favors and got the very best unattached rock and roll wrecking crew in the valley, The Foregone Conclusions, with Ray Yelle on Percussion, and the Moushabeck brothers, Ramzi and Simone who take turns playing killer bass, guitar and more as the situation requires. They are hands down the most talented musicians young, old or in-between to be found anywhere, or, more to the point, in my rolodex. In case you suspect this whole referring to myself as Mr. Silverstone thing is a spoof, I first met two of the three members of the crew, like, for real, dude, when I was their 2nd grade teacher, a fact that you will quickly find surrealistic when you hear how seriously, precisely and assuredly they rock, like well-brought up, considerate, assassins.

Why just yesterday we were in the studio recording tracks for the next Mr. Silverstone album. In the video above, and you can see a glimpse of the monster talent Ramzi commands as he adds lead guitar licks to the outro of our climate change balad "The Ice Age Hotel" while our studio producer Jim Matus oversees the recording at the Old Schoolhouse Recording Studio in Hadley, our home away from home. There will be an advance 3-song EPs will be available at the gig tonight for the lo-lo price of $5.00. You can also listen for free, or download for a fee, at the URLs included below for thee:

http://michaelsilverstone.bandcamp.com/track/the-ice-age-hotel-studio-version

http://michaelsilverstone.bandcamp.com/track/i-believe-in-you-2

http://michaelsilverstone.bandcamp.com/track/in-the-way-it-feels-right-now-studio-mix


Proceeds to go to The Foregone Conclusions who were never in it for the money, but wouldn't mind it if their fans showed the love.

But wait, there's more! This concert will feature massive audience participation as a parade of beloved Yellow Sofa frequent performers will join me for duets on our favorite cover songs, many of which we've actually rehearsed harmony parts for.

Don't miss:

Christopher Goudreau -- Eight Days a Week
Christa Joy -- Love Hurts
Dave Franklin--These Days (Jackson Browne wrote it when he was 17)
Jeremy Anderson -- Time (beautiful Tom Waits song, reminding us once again that Tahm waits for no one)
Tom Neal (From West Hartford, CT) and his blue ukelele -- Old Paint (Loudon Wainright III version we used to sing at the dorm in Oberlin)
Frank Cable -- Daniel (Elton John song we both liked in our separate elementary school days)
Chris Griffin -- Pony Ride (You haven't heard of it--yet--it's a Mr. Silverstone song)
Plus the Sofa's good friend, the always delightful, Manny Menimore

Just to give you a flavor of the show, we now include and conclude this blogcast with a video recorded back on Thursday. Hope to see you there, or that you can experience the groove virtually or actually. Wishing harmonious vibrations and dissolution of limitations across all superfluous boundaries from all of us (all one of us at the moment) here at Mr. Silverstone's music funhouse.

For more videos of recently written and performed songs, see the MrSilverstoneMusic channel on YouTube:


http://www.youtube.com/user/MrSilverstoneMusic?feature=mhee

Tempting Fate (Plenty of)

Wrote this imagining Robbie Robertson/Rick Danko/Garth Hudson/Levon Helm playing it in the style of The Band. Playing it on a guitar, that's how it seemed. A kind of ragged band of heartbroke guys with their Civil War era hearts on their sleeves feeling. . .

Here's the original. My friend Tom says the shadow obscuring the singers' face makes it look like he's (I'm) "in the songwriter-witness protection program."

But it took a much different turn in the "studio" (our converted garage, literally). In the world of synthesized virtual music reality, there are orchestral string sections, horn parts and such, and it became a major production that is much more R & B, if you can call anything with a string section from the Hollywood Bowl R & B. The lead singer is me, and the back up singer is--me. That kind of affects the authentic context for the song. It's the me-brothers, laying it all out on the line for you, baby.


I shouldn't tell this to any of you, but Randy Newman has this song "Marie" which features a string section and a really vulnerable and sincere lyric. I always loved that song. I'm gong to erase all this information soon, so I'm going to pretend I never said any of this if anyone asks me. It's bad form to box in the interpretation of a song, because then it always has to be linked to the facts that leak out about it, which are interesting but often less relevant and interesting than what gets evoked in people because of what they bring to it.


What's especially interesting to me is that as the song went from the backyard guitar to the orchestral production I kept changing the words and what the song was about. Just now, when I reviewed the video and the studio recording that are in this post, I made changes again. I didn't like my third verse because I didn't think people would know what the word "imprimatur" means. I am not sure I even know how to pronounce it correctly. At the time I made the video, I didn't actually have words for the third verse, so I just sang, "This is the third verse/and we're going to the home stretch" etc. It turns out, I decided to ditch the third verse on the studio version and actually go with a new verse based on that messing around, which I found a way to make fit. The latest and probably final version of the lyrics are printed below. To hear the studio version,

http://michaelsilverstone.bandcamp.com/track/plenty-of

click the line above to listen to the song (at my site on bandcamp:):

Lyrics printed below. . .

lyrics

Plenty of

Music and Lyrics by Michael Alan Silverstone

7/10/11

©2011 Mr. Silverstone Music Publishing/ASCAP

I’m probably tempting fate

I shouldn’t attempt to get so high up on a ladder

I can imagine you talking with me

Saying o.k. but right now

that just doesn’t matter

‘cause all we once had

may be gone to us now

and all we have is what we love

and what I never presumed before to know

Not good to deny ourselves

We just live once and may not get another chance here

Desire may call to you

Never knew how to choose the ones that really need an answer

But all we have now may be lost in the end

What we find is what we love

And what I never presumed,

in my life, to know

The only one

I ever knew

To care enough

So real and true

So beautiful

Though opposites

All I could do

was to delight in it

The way it is

The way we were

Before anything

Had yet occurred

I knew the place

I had to be

Where you are

Forever

Is where I want to be. . .

We’ll probably never know

Why we’re unsure

Maybe that’s just how we want it

Maybe didn’t take first last time

But I can feel in my bones

We’ve got no cause to act sardonic

All we have

May be gone anytime

And all we can give is our love

Which I know our life has always had

Plenty of

Which I know our life has always had

Plenty of

Plenty of

Plenty of

Plenty of