Dave Carter and Tracy Grammer

Dave Carter and Tracy Grammer were a folk music duo who came from Portland Oregon.  They began performing together in the late 1990's.  Dave Carter's songwriting has a mythical and magical feeling to it.  His songs have a timeless quality about them.  Dave died unexpectatly in 2002.   Tracy Grammer continues to play his music around the country.

Here's Dave Carter and Tracy Grammer performing "Gentle Arms Of Eden" 

And here is a clip of me performing Dave Carter's song "Seven is the Number".

Sam Cooke: Mr. Soul

This week I am going to talk about one of my favorite singers, the late but great Sam Cooke. I might never had heard of Sam Cooke if it weren't for a friend of mine playing me one of his songs on her ipod for me during study hall my junior year of high school. The song was "Good Times". I loved the song and immediately wanted to get more Sam Cooke. Being a huge fan of live music, I bought Sam Cooke's album "One Night Stand: Live!" which I consider to be one of the best live recordings I have ever heard in my life. The album does not present the polished Sam Cooke that appeared on his earlier albums. Sam Cooke is at the top of his game on this recording, the only way I can try to describe it, is that he is on fire. His voice is soulful, rougher and plain and simply amazing. Sam Cooke could sing the phone book and sound amazing. Unfortunatly, Sam was shot and killed by a hotel worker in 1964. The hotel worker claimed that Sam attacked her and she shot him in self defense. Sam's family feels that there was some kind of conspiracy to kill Sam. Nevertheless, Sam Cooke was an amazing musician who showed his passion for music in everything he sang.
Here's a Sam Cooke interview with DJ Magnificent Montague from 1963.

Meeting John Gorka: One of My Favorite Singer/Songwriters

I first heard John Gorka in 2003 when I was a freshman in High School. I immediately took a liking to his rich baratone singing voice and percussive and fingerpicked guitar playing. I first saw John Gorka live in the Summer of 2004 at Upper Merion Park in King of Prussia PA. Since then I have seen him around 5 times and every show has been incredible. I have been lucky enough to meet John Gorka a couple of times. What I found amazing is that John Gorka seems to be the same person in real life as his is on stage. He is incredibly humble and kind. I remember I first met him in January of 2005, on a cold Sunday night at Godfry Daniel's Coffee House in Bethlehem Pennsylvania. I went up to him before his set and asked him to sign my John Gorka songbook. I told him that I had figured out how to play his song "Land of the Bottom Line" but I was still working on "The Gypsy Life" song. He retorted "I'm still working on Gypsy Life". He was very kind and was happy to sign my songbook which I still cherish. Another John Gorka encounter is perhaps even more memerable. It was Father's Day weekend in 2006 and my Dad and I saw John Gorka again at the Upper Merian Township Park. After the concert I went up to John Gorka and told him how much he has influenced me musically. I told him that my guitar teacher and I worked out a few of his songs and we call John Gorka songs "Gorks". He got a kick out of that. Anyway, I told John that there was a particular riff in one of his songs "Raven in the Storm." I asked him how he played it and to my surprise he said he would show me if I waited a couple of minutes for him to finish signing CDs and such. So I anxiously waited a few minutes and finally John came over to me and we moved off the stage to a nearby bench. John sat down and began to show me the riff to the song. He played the riff a few times, and explained what he was doing. It was an incredible experience to have one of my favorite singer/songwriter's showing me how to play one of his songs. It was a wonderful experience that I will never forget.
Check out John Gorka's music: I recommend definitely looking for "Temporary Road", although it is out of print, you should be able to find it cheap and definity look for his "Jack's Crows" album. Great music by a great performer.



Here's my performance of "Promnight In Pigtown" one of my all time favorite John Gorka songs. It has everything that I love about John Gorka's music: Clever word play, great melody and wonderful musicianship. Enjoy.

Mark Mulcahy

If you remember "The Adventures of Pete and Pete", you will know who Mark Mulcahy is. He was the singer at the beginning of the show how sang the themesong in his band Polaris. Mark Mulcahy was in a band in the 80's called Miracle Legion and now is a solo artist. I think his music is just amazing. What really got me into Mark was his voice. It's so unique sounding you can't help but listen. He is my favorite singer. I recommend picking up his entire back catalog including the Miracle Legion stuff as well as Polaris. You can usually find Miracle Legion's album "Drenched" for really cheap on Amazon.com. Definitly check it out. I actually made a short film on Mark Mulcahy for one of my film classes last year. You can check it out below. Here's also a great writeup that Nick Jkirincic posted on his blog. This says it all. Here's the link.

Pete Yorn

If you don't know who Pete Yorn is, you should. Pete Yorn is a musician from New Jersey, who first gained nationwide attention from the film Me, Myself & Irene. His song "Strange Condition" was featured in the film. I first heard of Pete Yorn in quite a round about way. I was vacationing with my family in Chatham Massachusetts on Cape Cod. While in Chatham, I  went to a thrift shop and found a promo CD "It's Wicked: A Sony Music Sampler". I bought the CD for a buck and heard "Strange Condition" for the first time. I could not stop listening to that song and I soon found myself buying all the Pete Yorn I could. Pete's music is rocking, catchy and extremely melodic. I have been influenced greatly by his music and his melodic lyric style. Pete Yorn is incredibly underrated. Pick up his first album "Musicforthemorningafter". You won't be disappointed. And while your at that you might as well buy his other albums which are also incredible.

I always find that I'm drawn to musicains that have unique singing voices. Pete is no exception. Slightly gritty, slightly twangy, its a combo that's just awesome.

Here's a video clip of a great song from Pete Yorn's second album "Day I Forgot." The song is "Crystal Village".

Here's the link: Crystal Village Video


And here is one of my original songs. This song is about those days when you get up real late in the afternoon. The day may be gone, but hey...There's Still Tonight.  

Check it out:

Johnny Costa: The Music Behind Mister Rogers' Neighborhood

I've been listening to a lot of jazz piano music lately for some reason.  I think it may because I've grown kind of tired at the moment from other music I have been listening to, which has been a smattering of indie rock a la Miracle Legion and acoustic folk music from the likes of John Gorka .  I tend to listen to listen to music genres in cycles.  Anyway, I really started listening to jazz piano music when I began listening to my dad's friend Mark Randall's CD "Live at the Royal Café. Here's a link to Mark's site: MarkRandallnotes.com That CD opened me up to jazz music and from there I made the connection to Johnny Costa.  You may not recognize his name but if you ever saw an episode of Mister Rogers' Neighborhood you will in fact know his music.  Mr. Johnny Costa was the musical director for Mister Rogers' Neighborhood from when the show began, up to his death in 1996.  He and his trio played all of the music LIVE during the show.  You can see a clip of it at the bottom of this post from a PBS documentary. Johnny Costa obviously was an incredibly talented individual and I'm glad his music still survives today. I actually met Fred Rogers' when I was thirteen years old. I'll save that story for another post.  

I also posted a recording of the first song I ever wrote "Not About the Bike" written about Lance Armstrong and his determination to win his battle against cancer.  Since this is the start of my blog "Tuneskees", I thought it would be appropriate to start with the first song I wrote.  Enjoy,

Kevin

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