Sleep is fairly hard to come by. (Ask David, I hear his groggy voice on the phone, offer to bring him a cup of black coffee. Don’t worry everyone, he’s still alive!) Today is rehearsal for Hammer Show (Oct. 8 at 7pm) at Johnny Lee Schell’s studio. We’re all ecstatic. Looking forward to seeing Johnny, He’s an old friend/co-writer on a bunch of songs and a few movie soundtracks, one of the few people who welcomed me as a collaborator when I hit the LA streets as a “songwriter” years back. Awesome guitar legend, what a treat to move this over to the poetry side of song. And Joe Sublett, saxophonist extraordinaire, I met through Johnny back in those LA initiation days, another generous soul who befriended me when I came sneaking around. I met Theo Saunders in a Mexican restaurant in Venice, CA when David and I came to Beyond Baroque a year back to do a celebration reading for Philip Whalen Collected. I have seen videos of David M. and Theo, they have played together before many times, and I like it. Looking forward to mix it up with him myself. Debra Dobkin is a new friend. I hear she can play a full set of suitcases, drummer/percussionist (did you see the video of her and Richard Thompson in the back seat of a black taxi cab? wow!). John B. Williams is a legend too. What Jazz great hasn’t he played with. He’s coming all the way into town from Lancaster to bass it up with us for this grand ROCKPILE experiment. Hat’s off to John B. So I plan to read “I Murdered Elvis: The Nashville Journals” at the Hammer tomorrow. Mystified by the possibilities of collaboration with these magic minstrels. Blues and Jazz and Rock. How will it come together? I know it will. Great musicians always find the language.– MR
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