Saints and Sinners will bring some rocking blues and bluesy rock and soul to The Bitter End this Friday, July 12th at 8pm. We last played the venue in February and we're raring to get back in action in Greenwich Village's most historic club. We've been playing an ongoing residency at The Shrine in Harlem, every other Tuesday night at 10pm, and we're getting sharper, funkier and looser all at the same time. We hope you can join us!
Here's a video from the February show, "Good Time Girl," a song from out first album.
Please bring your dancing shoes and/or high heeled sneakers!
This is possibly the first Gibson Les Paul Sunburt from the late 1950s to find its way to England. Keith Richards brought it over after one of the Stones' early U.S. tours. You can see him playing it in the T.A.M.I. Show, a landmark rock and roll movie.
I finally got out to see Play It Loud: Instruments of Rock & Roll at the Metropolitan Museum. It was fabulous, no surprise, and I will be returning as soon as I can. I came away with a feeling that a musical instrument is not fully complete without the player. But no matter, this exhibition rocks in a big way. I’m a huge fan of the Met and I go as much as I can. They did a great job here.
This show was somewhat small on a physical scale. Really, how much space does it take to house a hundred or so guitars and a couple of keyboards and drum sets? But the feeling is very intimate. There are also some video displays and they add a lot. One clip shows The Beatles playing at Shea Stadium in one of their last concerts. They were definitely rocking it and they made me want to see the entire show.
I was delighted when I saw Sister Rosetta Tharpe's Gibson SG Custom. I have a great SG and part of the reason I bought it was because it reminded me of the sound of this guitar. You can see SRT tearing it up with this golden guitar in the video below. On the left is Jimmy Page's main axe that he used as a session player. Again, mind-blowing - because it was stolen in the late '60s and just returned in 2015. I couldn't believe it when I saw it!
Jimmy Page is a central figure in Play It Loud. Most of his legendary axes are here, including his ’59 Les Paul Sunburst, his Gibson Doubleneck, and a Telecaster that he played with the Yardbirds. His other amazing Tele may be present as well! I lost count. Clapton is well represented, too. The “Fool” SG is here, along with “Blackie,” the ‘50s Stratocaster that he used for many years.
This gear survived some performances by The Who. Look closely at the guitar and you can see a huge crack along the upper bout. I once played a mint example of this guitar, and it was so beautiful it made me wonder what it would take emotionally or artistically to smash it to pieces. They don't make bands like The Who anymore.
The Who figure prominently as well, with one of John Entwistle’s trademark Gibson Thunderbird basses (not original, I think – of course he smashed that one!), a pieced together Gibson SG Special smashed by Townshend (you can see the cracks!) and one of Moonie’s drumsets, nicknamed Pictures of Lily after, well – you’ll see. This set doesn’t include the original bass drums, as Moon had a penchant for explosives and would put them in the bass drum and detonate them. It’s amazing he lived as long as he did!
Jimi Hendrix, the Who’s chief rival, was also present, with his hand-painted Gibson Flying V and a piece of the guitar that he burned and smashed at Monterey. But the guitar that really touched my soul was Jimi’s white Stratocaster, the one he played at Woodstock. Yep, he cranked out “The Star Spangled Banner” on this unassuming white Fender with a maple neck, no – not one of the fabled “Pre-CBS” models that go for huge sums, but an off-the-rack, contemporary model. The guitar is surprisingly clean. It looks like it hasn’t been played that much. But it was played by Jim Hendrix himself, at perhaps the most historic rock concert ever.
Jimi Hendrix's white Fender Stratocaster that he played at Woodstock. It's remarkably new looking, as if he barely got a chance to play it or perhaps he took very good care of it. Somebody did. In the Isle of Wight film, you can see him toss his guitar to the ground in frustration at the end of the set. Not this one.
I visited the Woodstock site once and although I missed the ‘60s scene (too young!), I was touched much in the same way when I saw the bucolic grounds. Time stood still for a moment and I got this little rush of delight. Time will surely stand still for you too if you love rock music when you see this excellent and timely exhibition. -Christian Botta
We all have neighbors. For years, I had the worst – complaining all the time, and even threatening violence. It was insane! Then finally, they both died. Joy! Their son took over the apartment, and he was a Saint. He never complained. Well, times change and now I’ve got terrible neighbors again. Hence, the acquisition of my nifty new Electro-Harmonix Headphone amp. Yeah!
Beforehand, I used the headphone out jack in my old Vox Pathfinder, a wonderful transistor practice amp. But the distortion sounds, whether the amp’s overdrive or my pedals, were horrendous. I set about looking for a headphone amp and one of the first that I read about was the EH. I wanted to try it. A guy at Guitar Center told me that they didn’t stock it. I asked why. He said “hardly anyone ever asks for it.” He was a talented salesperson. I’m not kidding. I used to sell wine door to door, uhm I mean business to business. This kid had me thinking maybe the EH wasn’t any good. Sharp. But wrong.
So, as all the American companies want you to do nowadays, I just went ahead and bought it online. $45 and I tell you, it’s wonderful. I love it. It’s quite clean with a little warmth. It puts you in a world of your own with your guitar and your pedals, if you want them. No options coming from the EH, just clean. You must supply your own headphones. The more high quality, the better your experience will be. Plug in an EH Small Stone or Bad Stone – Heaven! With a Boss OD-3 and an SG with P90s – Hell! And I mean that in the best possible way. And don’t listen to the naysayers online who complain about the batteries and whatnot. The beautiful little blue light will dispel all worries.
You have to be ready to accept your guitar sounding very up close and personal. But this is great for practicing. And your neighbors will think that you’ve gone on vacation. Then you can crank up some Alice Cooper on your stereo and let them know that you’re still there. But they won’t get on your nerves when you’re trying to practice at 12:30am, or any other time.
Spring is in the air and Saints and Sinners will be making our first appearance at The Groove in Greenwich Village on Tuesday, April 23rd at 7:30 pm. We’ve been working hard uptown at The Shrine and we’re excited to bring the music downtown to all our fans in the area. We’ve got some new songs to play for you and we’re psyched for some warm weather and good times.
Now, let me tell you why Tuesday night is the perfect night to go out. Friday night is a must of course, a kind of workingman’s let off the steam sort of thing. Saturday night is strictly amateur night, but alas, it’s on the calendar. Sunday is of course a great day to get a little indulgent but really – try to keep it in check. Maybe a home cooked meal with some fine wine. Monday night on the other hand is strictly staying in time – get a life! But by Tuesday, you’re raring to go. Chomping at the bit. This is the night that the professional celebrants let it loose.
Why, when I was in the music conservatory, we used to have orchestra concerts every so often. And they were, you guessed it – on Tuesday night. There would always be a party afterwards, which I relished. One time, there was this quite popular kid, a violinist, and he showed up for ear training class the next day still in his tuxedo from the night before! I was impressed. I mean, it’s nothing to stay out all night on a Tuesday, but to do it in a tuxedo? Come on! And ear training class was hard – the teacher was a sadist. This kid had a great ear though, I must admit. But so do you!
And that’s why you’re coming to The Groove Club on April 23rd! The Groove Club is located at 125 West MacDougal Street at the corner of West 3rd Street. There is a $5 cover and a two item minimum. Food, drinks, and funk are served.
Saints and Sinners: Christian Botta - Guitar/Vocals, Mike Rodbard - Drums/Vocals, Dave Gerstein - Bass
We want to thank everybody who came to The Bitter End on February 15th. It was a great night and we have a return engagement there on July 12th at 8pm. See below some video from the performance.
In other news we will be hitting American Trash on Saturday night, June 22nd playing from 9:30pm to well after midnight. We also have a couple of shows lined up at The Shrine on April 30th and May 14th, both at 10pm. See ya soon! -A Sinner
If your pull-offs aren’t working, the first place to look is in the term: “Pull-Off,” accent on the “off” part of the movement or technique. Perhaps they should be called, ‘pull-downs,’ but that would probably be confusing. And it wouldn’t make matchy-matchy with the Hammer-On, would it?
The idea is that you’re creating two notes from one picking hand motion. The left or fretting hand does the extra work. But if you simply pull your finger away from the first note, you won’t get much of a second note. You have to consciously squeeze off the string with your finger, creating the second note by actually plucking it with your fretting hand. So instead of a motion away from the fretboard, you’re actually sliding or squeezing over in a downward and then circular motion. Your fretting finger will actually end up touching the fretboard before circling up and back into position for another note. Take a look at the video. It hurts a little at first. Some exercises and licks are included below to make it hurt even more.
You should be able to get a note with this technique even without the picking motion of the right hand. So, first you need to have two notes set up – the first one, a higher note, which will be picked with the right hand and then pulled off, and the second note which must be either open or fretted. If it’s a fretted note on the high E string, you have to hold onto it, not allowing the pull-off finger to pull the whole string out of line and therefore killing the second note and probably the first as well. But any fretted note that you're pull off to must be held on to.
Note that in tab or traditional musical notation, there are no terms like “pull-off” or “hammer-on” written into the music. When you see the slur sign, (see above) you’ll usually have two notes, with the slur sign on top of them (as in the examples). If the first note is higher than the second note, it’s a pull-off. If the second note is higher, it’s a hammer-on. Good luck and have fun!-Christian Botta
Once, I swore I wouldn’t form any more rock bands. Then a bolt of lightning from Maine called me asking for guitar lessons. It was the beginning of a band and a friendship. Unfortunately, the friendship eventually dissolved into a Nigel Tufnel – David St. Higgins type of, “We shant work together again” sort of farce, but for a while there, it was magic.
We started writing songs, and we always had plenty of fine wine to fuel the sessions and parties. There were some great vintages in those days, particularly the 2002 Red Burgundy. The market was high – the crash would come later. I wrote the music and my new collaborator Brendan wrote the words and melodies.
Nicholas James Maciolek and Tamar Prager at Kenny's Castaways in the mid-aughts.
I knew a bunch of musicians from bands I was in and the first version of our group included a drummer named Chip and the diabolically talented Nicholas James Maciolek on bass (above with Tamar). I met Nick in the band Her Majesty. He then got me a gig playing guitar in another group he was in, with a beautiful singer-songwriter named Arielle (below with me) and her eventual wife, Tamar. We did some great shows together.
Chris and Arielle at Kenny's.
Brendan was a natural onstage. I could tell by the way he moved when he played guitar. It was as if he was playing some simple thing like “Dead Flowers” for the back rows of Madison Square Garden. He also had a ton of friends between him and his girlfriend’s clans back home so there would be seventy people to see us do a gig at Kenny’s Castaways.
I was listening to Serge Gainsbourg a lot in those days, The History of Melody Nelson practically every day when I got up. We named the band after one of the songs, “Cargo Culte.” We tried to live it like Serge and I actually succeeded at one point but more on that later, perhaps.
The final lineup of Cargo Culte Left to Right: Mr Lucky, bass, Brendan, myself, and Tom Costogliola, drums. I was pretty lucky in those days, too.
A friend of mine had an excellent studio. It was called The Batcave and his name is Gary. His studio was designed by a genuine acoustical engineer and as soon as I saw it, I knew that it was the real deal. The first thing I look for in a studio is an isolation booth. It’s amazing that so many NYC studios don’t have one. But when I walked into the Batcave, I could see immediately that lo and behold, there were two of them! Maybe it was one for each wing, I’m not sure. But you could play an acoustic guitar in one while the drummer played outside in the main room and a singer warbled away in the other booth and I actually did this. Made me feel like a rock star. Oh, yeah – the studio sounded great.
From the first note to the last, we did everything at the Batcave. The point I’m coming to is that The Batman gave some real serious value for money. And he did a fantastic job engineering the EP that we produced. Gary made a tiny boo-boo at one point but it didn’t affect the final mix. In fact, I called him one day (on a motherfucking land line!) and he was sitting there, working on our record. I think he spent hours mixing this one song, free of charge. To me, it seemed like a privilege to be able to work this way, but no one else thought much of it. I think Brendan appreciated it.
The first song on our EP is “Justine,” which comes from the title of Lawrence Durrell’s Alexandria Quartet. A literary band, that’s what we were. Again, the repeated riff and this time the chorus with octaves, something I was into at the time. Easy for me to do for some reason – I wish I could speed pick. But not sweep pick. Maybe the swoop. I like the texture of the guitars and the way they’re layered – thanks Gary! I borrowed a pedal called a Strange Master from one of my students and it’s in there between the rhythm and lead guitars. I used my Marshall JCM 900 on a lot of that and a Fulltone ’69 fuzz. I love the lick at the end of the choruses, ala Zep, The Stones, Kurt and everybody else. The lineup for the EP was Brendan Tateishi - vocals, Christian Botta - guitar/backing vocals, Nicholas James Maciolek - bass, and Tom Costagliola - drums. Recorded by Gary Dorfman.
The second song on our EP is called “Been Through It All.” It has a repeated riff, a concept I was trying to work in and a double plagal cadence (drop me a line!) of power chords in the hook. To me it smacked of The Who but it was really more like The Smiths, one of Brendan’s favorite bands. The lyrics seem to have something to do with “Melody Nelson,” a song from the Serge album. Everyone was always saying that we sounded like The Smiths or the Stone Roses, which I didn’t get because I had been listening to The Smiths for years and I have an original pressing of the first Stone Roses album and I just didn’t hear it. I hear it now.
When we finished cutting the basic track of the song in the studio I was really happy with the way it came out. I used a Rick Kelly Telecaster which was brand new at the time and a Riviera 5512 which sadly has flown the coop. But eventually, I made too many overdubs and it sounds a little busy, maybe too complicated of an arrangement. I got a really good wah-wah sound using a Les Paul, a Vox Wah and the Riviera. It was a bit much for so-called Alt Rock. Boo-hoo!
The third song is “Rapture,” which I never understood. Maybe it was some kind of lapsed Catholic thing. It has a cool groove though, which Gary got into and worked on, connecting to it via Neil Young. I adapted the guitar solo from Iggy and the Stooges “Shake Appeal” from Raw Power. I worked hard on all the parts of the record. I’m happy with the way it came out.
Finally, there is “Back & Forth,” a ballad with Pink Floyd overtones. I like this one a lot, from the emotional lyrics to the orchestration and the overall sweep of the song. It features a guitar part that I’m very proud of. When all was said and done, there still seemed to be a hole in the chorus. I had a part that I had been working on, a line. I planned to play it straight but at the last minute I decided to use an MXR Blue Box. This is an octave fuzz pedal but instead of doubling the line an octave above, it puts the double an octave below, maybe two. It really fattens up the guitar and makes it sound like a synthesizer. It made the chorus bust out like a son of a bitch. Nailing these little studio flourishes isn’t as easy as it sounds. I finally got one!
We did some nifty covers at our gigs, too. My favorite was “Chimes of a City Clock” by Nick Drake. I wish I had a video of that. Have you ever listened to the words? There are a lot of them and they’re tricky to organize in your mind. Brendan did an amazing job with that. I had a straightforward approach to the guitar that can be done without fingerpicking or a fancy tuning and I got a velvety sound with an Electro-Harmonix Small Stone. I love phase shifters!
We also covered “I Wanna Be Adored” by the Stone Roses, maybe Brendan’s favorite band. You can see the performance of that in our medley (above) which includes a version of one of my originals, “Clouds.” It gives a good idea of what the band sounded like towards the end. A little heavy for us. A bit tougher to pull off was Lou Reed’s “I’m So Free,” a sleeper from the Transformer album. Go figure.
In the final sessions, where we were trying to write more tunes. I started working on a tune in F#, one of my favorite keys, and used slide guitar, which I had always played but never focused on enough. This idea would become the corner stone of my next band. I decided to return to my roots, the blues. The song is called, “Just Ain’t Right.”
Amazingly, our very cool demo/EP didn’t seem to do a great deal for us other than getting nice gigs at Arlene’s Grocery. Our following never grew beyond Brendan’s huge circle of friends and my limited one and the bumps and bruises of making it happen started to add up. This was pre-internet and it was still the time of, “Where are we gonna get a record deal?” Squabbles over the band’s direction, hired gun issues, songwriting and of course money eventually led to the band’s demise. Whaaaa! But I’m still really proud of what we did. It was a great little band and a lot of fun. -Christian Botta
I went to The Loft at City Winery in NYC to see one of my students play with his band, Mojo And The Mayhem and I was thoroughly impressed by his playing and the lively, accomplished sound of the band. Paul Lederer takes slide guitar lessons from me but he was totally polished and inspired in a bluesy, r&b inflected lead guitar style. He wielded a Gibson ES-335 through a Fender combo and got a great, woody tone out of them to go along with his flawless execution and subtly mod look.
The band is a large one, eight pieces including two female vocalists. There’s a definite chemistry about the group and it’s not that surprising when Paul explains, “My cousin, Ben Deixler, and I put together this band with friends.” It’s not the typical New Orleans-styled groove that many NYC blues/funk/r&b big bands go for, but a slightly more modern, commercial sound with a highly danceable and nonetheless rollicking feeling. I’d have to get in there with my groovometer to check on the New Orleans Quotient but my assistant is on vacation for now…
It’s hard to tell who’s in charge with this group, they all contribute so much. But front and center would seem to be Larkin McSurely Bradshaw on vocals and Jimmy Rose on trumpet (pictured above). The pair also wrote the single from the group’s new EP, “Good Day.” Keyboardist Ben Deixler also contributed lead vocals to the record and songwriting expertise.
Bassist Aiden Boardman is also an undeniable presence with a small scale but large sounding bass. Everyone it seems contributes vocals except perhaps the solid and grooving drummer Dylan Awalt-Conley. Vocalist Jennie Riverso took the lead on at least one song and the harmony vocals on the band’s records and in concert are really sweet. It’s a pleasure to hear such in tune and polished harmonies at a club gig in NYC and certainly many fans will be attracted to their sound. Rounding out the corps but not in any way second line (I still don’t know what that means although I know the sound!) is Tom McHugh on trombone.
The sound at the gig was quite good – very balanced and smooth – although I had a little trouble making out words in the verses. But the band before them also had this problem despite having a totally different lineup with two guitars and separate lead vocals in a standard configuration. So, maybe someone needs to cut or boost frequencies somewhere in the live mix.
Or maybe I just need to learn all the words to Mojo and The Mayhems songs! And you should too. You can check them out at DROM on Thursday, February 28th from 10:30 to 11:30pm and at the Parkside Lounge on March 16th from 8:30 to 10pm. Paul adds that, “later in April, we’re excited to do a mini tour in central NY state around Ithaca and Syracuse because some members are from those parts.”-Christian Botta
I hit the Red Lion Blues Jam on Bleecker Street on maybe the second coldest night of the year about ten days ago on Monday, January 21st aka Martin Luther King Day. Due to the weather there weren’t as many jammers as usual but the place eventually filled up with an appreciative crowd.
Mike Muller on the world stage somewhere...
I was lucky to get up on stage with my friend Mike Muller, who is a dynamite bass player and a great singer and performer. He brought out two interesting tunes, “I Just Dropped in to See What Condition My Condition Was In," by Kenny Rogers and the First Edition and “Every Night of the Week,” by Tracy Nelson.
Please note the Irish sweater worn by the guitarist on the left. I forgot to take it off it was so cold.
The band included Nick Mancuso on drums, Mike on bass and vocals, an unnamed newcomer on guitar who played some very nice licks – stage right and lefthanded – there’s a song in there somewhere - myself with the gorgeous blue Strat, and Mark Mancini on keys, who played some nice Hammond-styled backing and solos. I also played and sang one of my favorite songs, “The Things I Used To Do” by Guitar Slim (not included).
Thanks to Big Ed and his band for making the night happen all these years and to Sylvie Yannello for the highly watchable video. -Christian Botta
Hello and Happy New Year! Saints and Sinners has some good stuff planned for the beginning of the year and we thought we would share it with you. First of all, we have a residency at The Shrine, one of our favorite venues. We’re playing every other Tuesday in January and February, that is Jan 15, Jan 29, Feb 12 and Feb 26, from 10:30 to midnight. Ah yes! The wee wee hours as Frank Sinatra once sang. Well not quite, that’s even later. It’s a relaxed, night owl sort of scene that gives way to freestyle dancing and other shenanigans after midnight. The Shrine is located at 2271 Adam Clayton Powell Jr Blvd – that’s 7the Ave and 133rd St. in Harlem. It’s free. We will of course be hitting all these gigs with the ever dangerous Dave Gerstein on bass, Mike Rodbard from, ahem, Chicago on drums and vocals, and yours truly, Christian Botta on guitar and vocals.
The second big thing is that we have this terrific gig at The Bitter End on Friday, February 15 at 9pm. Yes, we busted right into the big time, it seems. We hope you can make it to that one. We are under the threat of house arrest if we don’t bring in a good crowd and we sure would love to play there on a regular basis. Come on! Join us. We know it’s the day after Valentine’s Day. So, if he or she breaks your heart, just come on out and party to some blues and rock and roll with us. Otherwise, just storm out of the house on Friday like a regular homewrecker would. It feels great, let me tell you! We will be playing our new album, natch...
In case you’re unaware, The Bitter End once hosted Curtis Mayfield and his super fly band, no not the Impressions, but a kind of post-Impressionist line up, yes – The "Freddie’s Dead" crew. So, Curtis made an album of that run, twelve nights in a row. I highly recommend listening to it. It is FABULOUS! But we’ve only got one night so, I hope you can be there. The Bitter End is located at 147 Bleecker St. in The Village. It costs ten bucks. Thank you for your patience! Watch the closing doors!
While visiting my girlfriend in Budapest, we took a side trip to Salzburg, Austria, the birthplace of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. Those who are familiar with my blog must know that I’m a diehard Mozart fanatic. Have you ever cooked a Sunday pasta dinner while listening to Don Giovanni? You must try it, I say! Must!
In any event, I was struck by the breathtaking natural beauty of this small city on the Eastern edge of the Alps. In all my days of reading about, hearing about and listening to Mozart, I seemed to have missed this fact. Gorgeous snow-capped peaks loom in the distance, and Salzburg is surrounded by rocky hills, small and large. There is also a very large fortress on one of these hills overlooking the old town.
A view from the tower of the fortress
We visited the house where Mozart was born (main pic, above), which is a very good museum on his early life and beyond. Included in the displays were a lock of Mozart’s hair and the violin he played as a child. The literature was very interesting, stressing that Mozart was never poor and in fact did quite well for himself. He just liked to spend money, you see. The house is situated right on one of the main streets of the old town, which is immaculately kept up. You would never know the buildings are all centuries old.
The Mozart family eventually moved to lodgings on the other side of the river. Unfortunately, we didn’t have time to visit, but I hope to go back. You could easily spend a week in Salzburg, as long as you have an interest in going outdoors and getting some exercise. The hiking would appear to be first rate. The restaurants are also excellent, and we were lucky enough to encounter a Krumpus at one of the them.
One interesting thing about Salzburg and Vienna is that the population there certainly seems to have money, and everything runs like clockwork. But visiting is not expensive up to the eyeballs as it is in cities like New York, London and Copenhagen. Makes you kinda wonder…
But back to Mozart. Well, anyway, in a last note, I must say that it’s not all that surprising that Mozart grew up in a place of such awesome natural beauty. It’s reflected in his music, naturally. Oh yes, one other thing – there is an incredible cathedral – The Salzburg Cathedral, where Mozart was baptized. There has been a church on the site since 774 AD and the present building dates from 1628. There are excavated portions of the earlier buildings in a lower area that you can visit. It’s a magnificent church. Unfortunately, we didn't have time to hear any music. We are sure to return one day. -Christian Botta