Brad Spurgeon's Blog

Eddie Jordan to Me Was, Above All, a Robber

March 21, 2025
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Eddie Jordan Photo Credit – PA MEDIA

Although I interviewed Eddie Jordan several times, it was only at a musical event outside the context of the racetrack that I really got to know better the Formula One team owner who has just died at the age of 76 of bladder and liver cancer. It was thanks to an evening at the Hard Rock Cafe in Kuala Lumpur at the Malaysian Grand Prix weekend of 2009 that I owe to Eddie one of my best memories in the musical journey that I carried out in parallel to my Formula One reporting during my last decade covering the series.

It was my first year taking my guitar around with me to every race in the hope of finding a place to play music at each event. My goal was to find an open mic or open jam session in each city a Grand Prix took place, or failing that, simply any kind of a place to play in public. That first year was the most difficult as I was transforming my usual life as an F1 journalist from a routine of “airport, circuit, restaurant, hotel, airport” into all of that plus trying to find a place to play music.

That year in Kuala Lumpur I eventually managed to get on stage at a big, cool, half-outdoor, half-indoor, venue called Urban Attic. But that was not enough for me, and when I learned that Eddie Jordan was putting on a show at the Hard Rock Cafe with his throw-together band that he called “Eddie Jordan & the Robbers,” I decided to be bold. His show was to take place on the Saturday night before the Sunday race. I searched around for Eddie in the paddock on the Friday and managed to catch him just as he was leaving the circuit at the end of the day, and I approached.

I told him about taking my guitar to every race and looking for a place to play, and would he let me up on stage to sing a song with him and his band?!?! We were only in the second race of the season, and had gone directly from Australia to Malaysia, as the races were a week apart. (Just as F1 has done between Melbourne and Shanghai last week and this weekend.) So my open mic adventure had just begun. I had succeeded in playing in two or three different places in Melbourne, and at that point, instead of my Seagull S6 acoustic guitar, I carried with me only a horrendous little baby Stratocaster that could not stay in tune for even a single song. Good-hearted Eddie immediately said I could sing a tune during his show, but maybe I should send him a sample of what I would play.

Eddie-and-The-Robbers

Having no good recordings online yet at that point, I decided to record the song on my dictaphone that I used to interview F1 drivers and team members. Partly since Eddie was Irish, and partly because I performed the song a lot at that time, I decided to record “Crazy Love,” by Van Morrison. But the quality of the recording as well as me accompanying myself with that horrendous Baby Strat meant that I asked Eddie to please understand that I would do the song much better during a performance with the band. I sent the song and the explanation to him by email, and he still assured me that I could go up on stage and sing the song. Personally, I knew that I had a great reception at the Urban Attic doing the song with someone else’s guitar, so I was nevertheless confident that I would do ok with Eddie & the Robbers.

When I went to the gig, I arrived as Eddie was adjusting his drums, about to play in a few minutes. We spoke briefly, and he acknowledged that I could play a song. He also introduced me to the Irish ambassador to Malaysia, Eugene Hutchinson, who was in the audience, because I think he probably thought that it probably made him look good to introduce a journalist from the International Herald Tribune and The New York Times to the worldly envoy. I spoke briefly with the ambassador, and then Eddie & the Robbers went up to perform.

They were astoundingly good. Way beyond my expectations. It was not until almost exactly a year later that I began this blog, and started filming my experiences at the open mics with various Zoom cameras and good sound recorders. I did, however, that evening, have that dictaphone that I used for the Van Morrison demo. So I recorded a lot of their songs, as I just couldn’t resist. Afterwards, I put together a tiny medley of four extracts of the songs to show what they could do, and I posted it on my F1 blog on the IHT/NYT web site along with a long account of the evening of Eddie & the Robbers at the Hard Rock Cafe itself.

Many of the links within that post have gone bad. Including the recording. So I put above in the media player the recording of that medley for you to listen to. And if you didn’t listen yet, do so. It is worth it. We hear Eddie introducing the songs, some of the musicians, and we hear also his drumming. And we hear his brilliant band and their fabulous vocals.

At one point in the show – I think it’s the one on the recording – Eddie announces a “special guest” and my adrenalin flashed through me. But it turned out not to be me. In fact, I would never get up on that stage to sing and play. I do not recall now whether Eddie apologized or said anything at all to me afterwards for saying I could do a song and then he never called me up. But I felt both let down and puzzled. Still, the night ended up going way beyond my wildest imaginings in other ways.

Felim Gormley

After they finished their sets, all the musicians and Eddie sat down together and had some drinks. The Hard Rock Cafe was still bursting at the seams with the spectators, but I knew no one else present. I cannot remember how I ended up joining the band, whether it was by invitation or sheer party-crashing gumption. But I did end up with them. And what a group of musicians Eddie had managed to gather for his Robbers this time around: The guest of honor was saxophone player Felim Gormley, one of the stars of the legendary film “The Commitments,” directed by Alan Parker, and based on a novel by Roddy Doyle. On lead guitar and vocals was Matt Exelby, who played with, among many other interesting bands, a Roger Taylor – of Queen – formation. On bass was Peter Noone — no relation to the guy in Herman’s Hermits — but who also played with the Roger Taylor band. And with the deep, yet melodious, astounding voice and playing keyboards, was Jonathan Perkins, who had also played with the others along with Roger Taylor, but who had his own legendary band called “Miss World,” for which they had also played. But Perkins’ CV went way beyond that, as he had worked variously with Little Richard, Mick Jagger, George Harrison, Timothy Leary, Roger McGuinn, Glen Matlock, Bob Geldoff, Dave Stewart and Daryl Hall and John Oates.

Eddie at this time was already doing television commentary, and I think he used the excuse of having to get up early for that job in the paddock, and was the first of us to leave for the evening, while we were all still in the middle of the second or third round. I got to know the musicians, and we share stories of playing here and there, and stories of Eddie, etc., and I ended up staying up half the night with Felim Gormley and Matt Exelby. (It was Felim’s 40th birthday!) By the time Perkins left us, it was noticed however, that when Eddie Jordan had said goodbye and quit the group, he had done so while leaving his entire evening’s drinks bill unpaid for, and therefore in the hands of the struggling musicians of his band! Millionaire Eddie.

Damon Hill, Jordan Mugen-Honda team principal Eddie Jordan and Heinz-Harald Frentzen at the 1999 launch in London. Photo: Grand Prix Photo

One of the muscians made some comment about how it was just like Eddie. And it drew to my mind my failed deal with Eddie to play a song with them that night. It was pure Eddie from all I knew: He had paid these musicians’ travel and put on a great show for the clients of the Hard Rock Cafe. He had done what I would end up doing for the next decade, playing on stage at any musical venue I could after the business at the racetrack. But whereas my adventure was a no-budget, one-man show in often very seedy bars and other strange venues, Eddie did things with style, and big: His own band, the Hard Rock Cafe, the ambassador of Ireland in attendance, etc. But at the same time, there was the reverse side of the coin: were those little things betrayals? Or were they just part of his seemingly sometimes scatter-brained approach to life. He was a brilliant negotiator, a man of endless ideas and schemes. And he ultimately succeeded beautifully in life in living his dream as a team owner, and becoming very wealthy.

But not everything always held together. Did any of us that night truly feel betrayed by him? No. We all laughed everything off, because Eddie was this fun, light-hearted original bringing stuff to the world in his wake wherever he went. His team itself was run like a rock band.

And, by the way, I had another insight into his Robbers and Eddie himself when two years after this event, in 2011 while continuing my open mic adventure, I met a very cool group of buskers in the streets of Nice during the Monaco Grand Prix weekend. I stopped to listen to them, then played with them, then we met up later in the weekend at Shapko’s Bar open mic, and I got to know one of them better. He was a young street musician, maybe 23 years old, from Britain but bumming around Europe, and during our conversation I told him about my Eddie Jordan experience. He told me that Eddie had met him in the streets playing somewhere – I think Rome – and Eddie had invited him to join the Robbers and he did a few gigs as part of the band. So there was Eddie picking up talented young musicians from the street as he did top backing musicians for major artists.

Jonathan-Perkins-Wild-Mondo-Dave-Stewart-The-SPiritual-Cowboys

Oh, yes, back on that subject of bar bills, I have a suspicion that the first person Eddie met at the doors to the otherworld was Jonathan Perkins, who sadly also left us less than a year ago after his own battle with cancer, and unfortunately a decade younger than Eddie. No doubt Perkins is forgiving Eddie for that unpaid bill, and proposing they do another gig amongst the heavenly choirs.

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Astounding Allman Brothers Dickey Betts Tribute Concert Film, and Another Thanks to the Inspirational Mark Greenberg

March 17, 2025
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Dickey Betts 1978

PARIS – I had to stop everything I was doing tonight when I saw that my friend Mark Greenberg posted a link to the full concert video of the Dickey Betts Tribute live in Macon gig that he played in on 28 February, last month. I had seen Mark mentioning this upcoming gig on Facebook for a while, but I never expected this concert to be as astounding as it is. I am posting the link so you can immediately drop everything you are doing, tune in and listen to the whole three hours of it – or, if you don’t immediately have that amount of time to spare, skim through and find the Allman Brothers Band songs you love the most and listen to those, then go back again. Spoiler Alert: The concert ends with “Ramblin’ Man!”

Dickey Betts, if you don’t know, was one of the founding members and guitarists of the Allman Brothers Band. And you will recognize which one when you hear his son’s guitar playing and vocals, especially on that aforementioned song, which was written and sung by Betts. He died at the age of 80 last April, and this memorial concert brings together not just his own son, Duane Betts, but other big stars and Allman musicians and family such as Warren Haynes, Chuck Leavell, Derek Trucks, Susan Tedeschi, Charlie Starr, Oteil Burbridge, Devon Allman.

Dickey Betts Tribute live in Macon

Just when I was feeling about as low as I ever could in my entire life about the United States, this film and concert has reminded me of one of the many things I love about the country. I won’t go into any detail anywhere about any of that, just take a look for yourself. This is a fabulous concert, especially if, like me, you love or grew up with the Allman Brothers Band’s music.

Mark Greenberg Drummer

Mark Greenberg, whom I mentioned posted the link and is playing drums, is another inspiring part of my life. In 2011 when I was doing a week’s worth of open mics in New York City and he was running the Bitter End Jam, which he has done for almost as along as the Allman Brothers exist (exaggeration), I was about to walk out the door feeling way too intimidated to get on stage. He was standing on the sidewalk outside during the break, and seeing me walking out with my guitar he asked what was going on? (I must have signed a list to go up before this.) I came up with some lame excuse that had nothing do to with telling him I was actually scared shitless to go up with musicians of that quality, when he talked me into going up anyway. We worked out what the songs would be, he said they could do them, and up I went. Best moment of my time in NYC.

The next day, Mark gave me more of his time being interviewed on my cameras in his practice studio in the legendary Music Building, for my worldwide open mic film, Out of a Jam. Mark was one of the most inspiring of those I interviewed, and he appears throughout the film as one of the regular “talking heads.” All of this made seeing this film an emotionally moving thing. But there was more moving to it than you can yet imagine.

Seeing Mark in this Dickey Betts tribute, you will find him as one of three drummers always on the stage, and you will recognize him easily because he is the one with the shortest hair. When I interviewed him his hair was down to his shoulders. My bet is it will grow back there soon, but at the moment, Mark Greenberg has been going through treatment for pancreatic cancer, a disease that took his father’s life some decades ago. To see his optimistic and defiant, and joyful posts regularly on Facebook, and above all, to see him back on stage behind the drums at a gig like this, is yet another in the long line of inspirational things I now connect his name to.

Thanks Mark, and hope we get to play together again some day soon too! Maybe not in Macon, Georgia, where you played this concert – but why not Macon, France?

Allman Brothers Band in 1969

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A Not Album Review: “Infinity.” Elliott Murphy’s Latest Starburst of his Life’s Stories

March 7, 2025
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Elliott Murphy Infinity album cover

PARIS – Hard to believe that a year has passed since my 7,500-word portrait of Elliott Murphy appeared in the Village Voice celebrating the 50th anniversary of the musician’s debut album, “Aquashow.” Not so difficult to believe that Murphy today released another album in his epic never-ending (to borrow an idea from Bob Dylan’s concert tour) run of personal opuses. If you did read that big article, you might remember Murphy saying of a singer-songwriter: “If you can’t come up with 10 good songs a year, then what are you doing here?” And guess what? “Infinity” – is it his 51st or 52d album? I’ve lost count – is better than that: 9 wonderful songs.

With the first LP he had critics proclaiming him the next Dylan and his face was plastered all over NYC subways with the statement: “Elliott Murphy is going to be a monster.” While he did end up being a monster, it was not one of the kind that people could have imagined at the time. At 76 this month – and another couple of concerts next week at Paris’s New Morning to celebrate his birthday as usual – he’s still telling his life’s story in rhythm, melody and lyrics as he always has.

You can’t run with the hare and hunt with the hounds

As regular readers of this blog might remember, I stand by Ernest Hemingway’s dictum warning fiction writers not to do book reviews, because “You can’t run with the hare and hunt with the hounds.” While I write, sing, and play songs myself, I would never even feel qualified to critique others in any but an impressionistic manner. So I devised two ways to do album talk on this blog: First, my long-since disused “Morning Exercise Music” column; and, second, my Not Reviews (of music, books, plays, films, everything). So this is a Not Review: It’s about the music I’m listening to these days, and what it made me think and feel.

Aquashow

In fact, while I wanted to talk about it on the blog, my first listen to “Infinity” was supposed to be as casual background music while I worked on something else. That plan went out the window within the first few bars of the first track. I found myself completely drawn in, unable to do anything but listen, and I also called up the lyrics on my screen and began jotting down thoughts and impressions with each song.

The album kicks in with “Granny Takes a Trip,” in which I was blown away by the chess analogies since I play the game daily! The song’s playful, almost Sgt. Pepper’s-like rhythm set the stage for an album that is both energetic and reflective. It’s the kind of track that takes a few listens to fully unravel, but even on first pass, it’s clear that Elliott’s songwriting remains razor-sharp.

“Red Moon Over Paris” had me remembering that blood moon we all saw not long ago, and I couldn’t help but wonder if some of this album was born from the isolation of the pandemic (until I later saw otherwise in Elliott’s newsletter!). “Hoping for a change to come… hoping it’s a lucky one,” he sings, making me think that in any case, this album was fed by a lot of the general political situation that we are now facing. That is confirmed by the line he uses paraphrasing John Lennon: “Maniacs are running this world, you know?”

Elliott Murphy as Late W.B. Yeats

A lot of the lyrics also drew to my mind the late poetry of W.B. Yeats, when he had that burst of creativity in his 60s and 70s… and I’m remembering the Yeats lines from “The Second Coming”: “Things fall apart…Darkness drops again….” (Although the poet was in his fifties when he wrote that one.)

As with the chess, I had to smile as I listened to “The Lion in Winter / The End of the Game,” a tribute to the late Peter Beard, the legendary photographer and adventurer. It brought back a memory of both my own 14-month sojourn in Kenya many red moons ago, and a phone call I’ll never forget that I had with Lee Radziwill, Beard’s friend and sister of Jackie Kennedy Onassis. She called the Trib to see if we could send her an article we ran about Beard being crushed by an elephant. Elliott has always had a knack for weaving historical and personal threads together, and this track does it.

Elliott Murphy with Olivier Durand. Photo credit- ©Marc Ginot ( http://www.marcginot.com )

“Fetch Me Water” is the wonderful moment when we get some of Elliott’s higher singing notes I was waiting for, and with slide guitar, and Melissa’s beautiful violin bringing in a touch of Scarlett Rivera-esque magic. There’s another sound to this – a traditional sound. And the backing vocals, nice, probably some Melissa there too…. It’s haunting and melodic, featuring one of his signature non-word vocalizations – his “ba ba ba ba ba ba” floating through the mix like a callback to some of his early work. “Makin’ It Real” injects a necessary jolt of rock ‘n’ roll energy, sounding a bit to me like a cross between Iggy Pop and Frank Zappa. (By the way, Elliott likes to refer to his music not as Folk Rock but as Rock Folk.) And then there’s “Night Surfing,” which has a hypnotic quality, its unique vocal delivery and ukulele rhythm giving it a dreamlike atmosphere. It also has some kind of Springsteen-esque thing about it, but is distinctly Elliott.

The album closes with “Count My Blessings:” a song that felt to me like it was recorded in Elliott’s living room, which I made a note of before I read in the credits that it was recorded on a Tascam 4-track cassette recorder, giving it that intimacy that’s rare in today’s polished world of overproduced music. Co-written with longtime guitarist collaborator Olivier Durand, we also find Elliott’s beautiful, understated harmonica, giving another layer of the personal to this the song. Its delivery reminded me a little of early Tom Waits.

“Infinity:” Another Elliott Murphy album all of a piece

One thing that really stood out for me with “Infinity” is its coherence. Every track feels like an essential piece of a larger story, a deliberate construction rather than simply a collection of a bunch of songs at hand. Elliott once raised that point with me about having to eliminate potential songs for an album if they didn’t fit the overall vision of the album, and that approach is evident here. So maybe that’s what happened to that 10th good song….

Again, in the interview that I did with him for that Village Voice article published a year ago, Elliott said that what’s missing from much of today’s pop and was at the center of his and his contemporaries’ songwriting, is personal storytelling. “Infinity” is a lesson in how it’s done. And I cannot end this without mentioning that a big part of the magic of this album, like so many of Elliott’s others in recent years, is that it was produced by, and with some backing instruments played by, Elliott’s son, Gaspard, who is clearly the next step towards the infinite of the Murphy musical story….

Where to get Elliott Murphy’s new CD “Infinity”:

“Infinity” CDs are available at at the Official Elliott Murphy Online Store. He also has a special price for the Infinity CD + the Wonder-Works vinyl. You can also stream “Infinity” on all the usual platforms.

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New Openings at Paris Songwriters Club Open Mic at the Cave Café

November 14, 2024
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Paris Songwriters Club participant

PARIS – I recently saw that the Paris Songwriters Club open mic at the Cave Café on Tuesday nights would open its rules a little to allow cover songs. This is the wonderful evening hosted by Paddy Sherlock for close to a decade now, and that after finding and then losing two or three venues, finally landed in its dream spot of the Cave Café basement room just behind Montmartre. What made for this open mic’s originality – personal compositions only, please – also made for a certain limitation for someone like me, who has only so many songs I’ve written that I will ever dream of singing in public. So I kept going, but I would always sing the same songs…until I kind of stopped. When I heard I could sing cover songs now, I went IMMEDIATELY!

But attention, or watch out, or wait right one second: Paddy wants to make it clear that this remains the Paris Songwriters Club, and that he still prefers songs performed being those written by the performers themselves. But he felt that it was time to open up to continue to do exactly the same thing that is the point of the original idea: To encourage singer songwriters and just plain performers to get up on stage, experiment, and hopefully feel the urge, and the comfort to eventually write their own stuff.

It came out of his mouth before I even said it, that there were cases of people who write their own songs, but don’t have enough of them.

“But if someone comes and they’ve written, like, 2,000 songs, I’d really rather they do their own!” said Paddy, when we spoke about it at the end of another great night at the open mic.

Dr Faustus Talking WWIII at Cave Cafe

In fact, and indeed, as I sat there last night and listened to one original musician after another – none of whom I had ever heard before – I realized that almost all of them were doing their own songs anyway. And I felt that, this is great, the tradition continues, but the doors are open for anything. (I must not forget to add that Paddy has also always allowed for people to do stand up comedy, acting, reading, whatever they want.)

And boy, did “anything” follow. From Brooklyn came a somewhat secretive guy who called himself “Dr. Faustus.” I say secretive simply because, a), he left before I even had a chance to talk to him and b), I had the sense that he had done a pact with the devil, and so hightailed it outta there as soon as he could.

Woman Sings Pakistani song at Cave Cafe

And I say that about the pact because his cover of Bob Dylan’s Talking World War III Blues was just brilliant. So brilliant that I thought, “Who is this guy?” But never got an answer, except he is from Brooklyn….

So I was happy the doors had opened for that one.

There was another guy who did a song that might as well have been a personal composition for most of us, as I think a lot of us might not have heard it before, even if I think it might be well known in Corsica. And if not, it should be. It was something like “Ma Patrie, Corse…” but I did not note the title, and anyway, the guy said it was written by his music teacher in high school – so it might be considered something of a personal composition after all.

Woman Sings Man Percusses at Cave Cafe

When it came my turn, as I have not been performing in public much lately, and there I was doing cover songs for the first time on Paddy Sherlock’s open mic, I was overly nervous, and felt worse than half ok during my first two songs. I was also using a guitar that was up to my chin with the strap setting, and that didn’t help. I did “Runaway Train” by Soul Asylum and “Come Pick Me Up,” by Ryan Adams.

But it was on my second time on stage after we had run through two songs from all musicians present and had time for another go that the evening transformed for me into a truly memorable one, and gave the real sense to the meaning of the new approach allowing cover songs at Paddy’s place.

I am working on a recording of a cover song that I hope to release soon. The guy who wrote the original even offered to sing or play a bit on the song himself, and given that he is a very successful musician, I got out and recorded my guitar and vocals as quickly as I could. I got a friend from Canada to add bass. But then I realized that having upped the tempo so much in my version recorded in the studio that I don’t have enough “space” to sing the chorus as it should be done, in a long, drawn out manner. In short, the chorus sung by me stinks.

Corsican song at Paris Songwriters Club

I’ve been wrestling for weeks, even months, on how to fix that problem. So with only a few people left in the room last night, I decided to explain my predicament and ask for ideas on how to fix it. I sang the song, it went down pretty well, and I felt much better about my performance. (To the point that some listeners did not quite understand the problem with the chorus – but I told them I cheated on stage, making room in that part that I don’t have in the recording!)

But what happened was I got some fresh ideas – particularly from Paddy a bit later – and now I have some new ideas on how I might fix that problem with the chorus.

Paddy said at the end that this kind of thing was totally within the spirit of what he would hope to be doing with his open mic now that covers are part of the Paris Songwriters Club.

I sure won’t say no!

Senegal guy sings at Paris Songwriters Club

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“What’s All This Talk” Comes Around Again, Unbelievably: Say No to Mr. T

October 14, 2024
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PARIS – My post below about degrees of separation from the past that I put up the other day reminded me that it was four years ago that I wrote a song about all the would-be tyrants in the world, called What’s All This Talk. And then I remembered that I found the right moment and way to do a music video for that song when on January 6, the American would-be tyrant’s followers decided to have a peaceful demonstration in and around the Capitol Building.

What’s All This Talk song video

Who could possibly have imagined that Mr T would return for another round of elections four years later, let alone the close race that he is producing looking like he is the favorite to win. What’s all this talk indeed!??!

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My Two Degrees of Separation from the Battle of Waterloo…or for that Matter, the French Revolution (And What About Yours?)

October 10, 2024
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Jacques-Louis David (French, 1748 – 1825), The Emperor Napoleon in His Study at the Tuileries, 1812, oil on canvas, 203.9 x 125.1 cm (80 1/4 x 49 1/4 in.), National Gallery, Washington, D.C. (Photo by VCG Wilson/Corbis via Getty Images)

You know that thing about us all being six degrees – or fewer – of separation in social connections from everyone else in the world? Well, the other day I had another thought along those lines. But one that shows us all how close we are in human history to each other. The dawning came to me as I thought about how close we are to repeating history these days, with fascist leaders all over the world gaining in power, and wars erupting in a manner that is dangerously close to setting off that World War III that many of us no doubt have feared all of our lives.

Yes, with the U.S. election around the corner, and with the possibility that an unbalanced leader not unlike the worst we have seen this century being voted in again, I began pondering how it was that we could repeat history so easily with so many unthinkable examples we seem to be following without thought to the consequences.

That got me thinking about how, in fact, we think that with so soon now 80 years since the closing of the last World War, it seemed a long time. A time long enough to allow us to forget. But it also felt like sufficient time to allow us to learn, develop, and change as the human race.

So that got me thinking about time, human time, and how far ago we really are from the Holocaust and the second World War, or even the first. Then bang. I suddenly began thinking about it, and then doing the research, and I realized that when I was born in 1957, there were still a handful of veterans alive from the American Civil War in the 1860s. And add to those veterans a whole lot of other people who lived during that time.

That is when I jumped to the next natural step, thinking about my father, born in 1925, and how many such veterans or people from other periods of history were alive when he was born. And then, before I even got to the end of that thought, I jumped to his father, my grandfather, Carey Bradford Spurgeon, who fought in World War I – among other places, in Vimy Ridge, and was born in 1892.

I got to researching that, and thinking about the days I sat on his knee in my childhood as he showed me his little red heart collection like those Russian dolls that fit inside one another, these little hearts containing other hearts. I think they were made of ivory, brought back from his many visits to the country where he was born, India, as the son of a missionary.

American Civil War

And I looked it up and I found that throughout his childhood, there were living veterans of the Napoleonic wars. People who fought under Napoleon – for whom this leader was not just an historical figure, but a person they served. Right up to the 20th century, they lived. In fact, there were actually people alive when my grandfather was born who had lived through the French Revolution! But the Battle of Waterloo, in 1815, was the one that really struck me in terms of war.

Yes, my very own grandfather, who lived in our own family home, was born into a world where the values, the memory, the mindset that brought about all those historic moments going back more than two centuries now were very much imprinted and alive in their minds and spirits. I repeat, I knew a man who lived at a time when people lived that experienced the French Revolution!

So how, I ask, can you really expect that the human nature that created Fascism, Nazism, the Holocaust, has had enough time to become something radically different in just 80 years? If we could do that – and all the other horrors that the last two and a half centuries have created – all within the crystal clear collective memory of only me, my Dad and my grandfather and the people alive during his day, how the hell can anyone think that it cannot happen again? Or do something far worse, as humanity has managed to do as we move along through history?

The passage of time is an illusion when it comes to any thought of distancing ourselves from our past. With all the writing on the wall, please, study history, be aware: Understand, U.S. voters, the signs that are all around us. Do not vote for Donald Trump. Even if you hate the democrats.

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A Not-Restaurant-Review: The Nescy Family Affair of Astounding Creativity in Castellammare del Golfo, Sicily

July 12, 2024
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Pasta allo scoglio at Nescy. Photo ©Brad Spurgeon

PLEASE NOTE THE UPDATED ADDRESS as of summer 2025. Since I wrote this post last summer the restaurant, unfortunately for all visitors and residents of Castellammare del Golfo, has moved to the neighboring town of Alcamo. So it is now the people and vistors of Alcamo only who can be treated by this amazingly original restaurant. Or you can drive to Alcamo from Castellammare, but don’t drink wine with your meal if you plan to drive back! V.le delle Fornaci Romane, 796, Alcamo, Italy. +39 366 196 5949 info@nescy.it nescy.it :

CASTELLAMMARE DEL GOLFO, Sicily – To my recollection I have written very few things about restaurants and dining on this blog. I do know that one of my most popular posts is an effort at writing a restaurant review that I did in 1991, at Joel Robuchon’s Jamin in Paris. And I also put up another unpublished restaurant review, that of Alain Passard’s Arpège, that I also wrote around that time. So if I am about to create a new category of blog post on great eating, please understand that it is because I find the following restaurant absolutely exceptional!

And since I have evolved a little bit since the 1990s, I have decided while writing these words that I will follow in my blog column rubric of “Not Reviews” to write about the amazing Nescy in this idyllic seafront town in northern Sicily. I have written Not Book reviews, Not Theater reviews and Not Film Reviews. This is my first Not Restaurant Review. The idea behind the Not Review, I remind you, is that I do not want to get on a writer’s high horse and pontificate on a subject in the way a traditional review does. Instead, this is just me writing about my impressions and feelings about a book, play, other, or in this case, restaurant.

Castellammare del Golfo is full of fabulous places to eat and drink. For a small town on the Sicilian coast, in fact, it seems exceptional the number of excellent restaurants. And they are located in various areas, like down the main Corso Garibaldi, or in the marina amongst the fishing boats, or up in the other main street by the park, municipal building and theater. That is partly why it took us years before we found and decided to try out a little unobtrusive place on the steep staircase beside the park leading up from the port (the Arab name for the town during its conquest – that was one of many, and started in 827 – was Al Madarig, which means, “The Steps”). This restaurant, Nescy, is not mentioned in the Michelin app, which only has a restaurant called Mirko’s, which we have been to twice. We have now been to Nescy, seven times – twice last year, and five times this year. And we will continue to go.

Coppu Russu Volante. Photo: ©Brad Spurgeon

Why? Because Nescy is simply the most inventive, original restaurant in Castellammare del Golfo. It uses normal, but high quality ingredients, with often well known dishes, but the food is of a finished quality that is exceptional. It fills you with joy, in fact, a sense of “bien être,” or well being, and it is not deadly hard on the pocket book. Twice, for instance, three of us got out of there with three course meals and a bottle of wine for 105 euros.

To put the originality into a nutshell – excuse the food metaphor – this is a restaurant that serves dishes that range from classic Sicilian to street food taken to a higher level. The Nescy web site puts the emphasis on the street food side to their fare; but for me that does not do justice to the kind and level of what Nescy has to offer. Now that we have been so many times and with several members of the family, I have seen and tasted many of the dishes, and have a fairly complete view of both the food and the service. It is almost impossible to speak of favorite dishes, but there are ones I keep wanting to take again but do not do so as I want to try new things all the time.

On the street food side, the Coppu Russu Volante of battered and fried calamari and Mazara red shrimp and potatoes, all with Trapani sea salt, is astounding, especially with its extraordinary homemade ginger mayonnaise.

La Buatta starter. Photo: ©Brad Spurgeon

Another fabulous dish that is light enough to be served as a starter, is the smoked swordfish with watermelon, with its mandorla mayonnaise!

The starter called La Buatta, is fabulously original and very copious – as are virtually all the dishes. This is a jar of fresh little pieces, or cubs, of ham from “a little black pig,” as they told me – and sorry for the image if you are an animal lover – that is marinating in olive oil with laurel, nuts, garlic and oregano. Delicious and filling.

Among the simplest of the most original dishes was the mixed salad I took served in a bowl made of a kind of tortilla cracker that you could eat along with the salad! (The seafood salad, by the way, is also supberb.)

Nescy salad with a bowl you can eat. Photo ©Brad Spurgeon

On the pasta side of things, the classic “Norma” has the freshest taste of pure tomato sauce I think I have ever had; while the “pasta allo scoglio” is the best mixture of spaghetti with mussels, squid, Sciacca pink prawns and scampi that I have had in Sicily. The seafood is big, thick and juicy.

Probably the most surprising pasta was the “Cala la pasta,” which is fresh pasta with ragù and colonnata lard of Nebrodi’s black pig – the same as the above mentioned starter – grains of Bronte’s pistachio, cosacavaddu ragusano cheese and stracciatella cheese. That cheese is making me hungry again as I write down these words! In short, it was rich and unctuous.

I could keep on listing the dishes but suffice it to say that each feels more original than the next as you make your way through numerous visits to this fabulous restaurant owned and run by a family from the neighboring city, Alcamo. And before I say anything more about them, I do want to save among the best of the food to the end, where it belongs:

The desserts are at the moment among the highest expression of the chef’s delightful imagination and approach to her work. (Anna Maria is all I know of her name, I apologize!) One night we were there, she invented a new dessert on the spur of the moment, that was not even on the menu. Literally, she decided to do something different and made an artwork out of panelle, which is not usually used in a sweet dish. She added ricotta mixed with bianco mangare, and blackfruit coulis.

A mainstay is the the “fried ice cream,” which is ice cream in a dough ball tossed into the hot oil, almost like a donut with ice cream inside.

But my favorite of all is the Tortino Florio, which is a kind of a hot spongecake with marmalade accompanied by the most creamy, beautiful ice cream with rosemary! You have to taste it to believe it.

The wine list, by the way, is short but solid, with several of the mainstay wines from the region – like Maria Costanza white, Terre della Baronia white, and a few grillo, an Inzolia, and our favorite for the moment, the Balhara, which is made from the local catarratto grape. All of them are more the reasonably priced by comparison to elsewhere, and our favorite is only 20 euros for the bottle.

As equally interesting as the food and ambience of this delightful restaurant is the story behind, and cohesion of, the family that founded and runs it. It was born of hardship in 2014: the patriarch of the family lost a very good job at the same time as one of the daughters encounter a health setback. They decided all together, with an idea from the son, to start their own business and not have to depend on working for other people. So they founded this restaurant and use some of the recipes and approaches to cooking of various family members. The result is a great success, even if it is probably more popular with non-Castallammarese clients than the locals.

A bit more street food from Nescy. Photo: ©Brad Spurgeon

Last night we went to a restaurant about 200 meters distant from Nescy and almost everything that can go wrong did go wrong, and it made me realize all the more just what a great evening of dining this family affair consists of. The service is impeccable, warm, and timely – you can press a little gadget on the table to get service whenever you want to; and the same gadget to call for the bill. In fact, the name of the restaurant has several related meanings: N-Nature E-Ethic S-Sicily C-Coppu Y-You…. But in Sicilian, Nesci means going out!

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Of Timing, Count, Rhythm, Reverb and “Born to Run” – or Not!

July 6, 2024
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Born to Run album cover

CASTELLAMMARE DEL GOLFO, Sicily: One of the things that fascinates me in playing music, is the question of the roles played and interchange of timing and emotion and melody. Sometimes I think there is a tradeoff between timing, the count, the rhythm, and emotion. Other times I think I just don’t know what I’m doing. The other day I stumbled upon a recording I did at home in 2015 of Bruce Springsteen’s song, “Born to Run.” As I now work on a new cover song recording that I hope to release in the coming months, this Springsteen one I did years ago made me think about that whole question again. The timing, the count, in this attempt at “Born to Run” is ALL OVER THE PLACE! It sounds like I didn’t know what a metronome is; although I know it was really because I didn’t care. It was an after dinner and wine effort to do a crude recording of “Born to Run” in a slowed down, folky version, rather than the original hard romping rock. While there is no constant rhythm or count, there is definitely meandering emotion.

[B. Spurgeon’s B. Springsteen lies here (I wonder if those initials ever hindered his career?!):]

Aquashow

With the song I am working on at the moment, by Springsteen’s friend Elliott Murphy – about whom I did a huge feature article in The Village Voice last February – I did use a metronome. This is his song “How’s the Family,” off Murphy’s first album, Aquashow, which was released in 1973. Although I had done an initial version of the song in the same way I did the Springsteen, and the emotional rambling worked for me, it was essential to use a metronome for the recording, as I am asking musician friends around the world to contribute their parts remotely – bass, drums, etc. But how strong will it be? Only the final recording will tell me.

When You’re Gone Away

Again, though, it reminded me today of my 2016 CD, “Out of a Jam,” where, although recorded in studios with the bands present, some of the songs were done with a “tick” – the metronome – and others we decided to do without the count. For instance, on the song Borderline, I used the metronome; but due to various reasons, on the song, “When You’re Gone Away,” we did not use a metronome. And the rhythm does actually change slightly over the song from the opening to the end, in a very slight crescendo. It felt appropriate for the song. And which is more effective? Not sure it’s possible to say – except I have noticed over the years that Borderline performed live tends to get a more enthusiastic response than did the Borderline of the CD.

Borderline

This morning, I saw an astounding video of Prince doing a monumental live version of “Play That Funky Music.” One of the keys to the whole performance was the astounding tight rhythm section and Prince’s more than impeccable melodic expressions on the guitar within that tight confine. Hits you over the head with that rhythm and tightness of timing! Filled me with an admiration I hadn’t felt since certain Jimi Hendrix moments.

Prince doing Play that Funky Music

But it did raise in my mind that question again of how much leeway a musician has within the confines of rhythm, count and beat, etc. Oh, yes, and regarding that Springsteen effort I did – another thing it brought to my mind, again in relation to the recording I’m doing at the moment, is when is reverb too much reverb? At the time I recorded it, I felt that I had put about 300 percent too much reverb on it. Now, I find it charming – this feeling of a big room, an otherworldly thing that goes along with the slowness of the version of the song.

Well, isn’t that what playing music is really all about? That there are no formulas? Just like writing, and most of the other arts. I hope to post that new Elliott Murphy cover sometime soon, once it is done!

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Irish Trad Music Around a Table in Paris with Paddy Sherlock – and Charles de Lint and MaryAnn Harris in the Background, on my Mind

March 7, 2024
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Paddy Sherlock and Paul Susen at La Cave Café in Paris

PARIS – Truth be told, it has been 50 years since I sat around a table and played along with Irish songs in a pub over a couple of pints. But 50 years ago, I was incapable of carrying a tune, and only really dreaming I was doing it. That was with my friend Charles de Lint and his band, Wickentree, in Ottawa at The Celts Room bar in Ottawa. Last night, I joined Paddy Sherlock and fiddle-player Paul Susen at La Cave Café for the first round-the-table weekly Irish jam. And sitting before me or beside me throughout the jam was the songbook of Celtic trad songs handwritten and given to me by Charles de Lint half a century ago as well. To my slight surprise – but not too much – Paddy Sherlock knew and played almost all of those songs…and more.

While Charles de Lint went on to become a successful fantasy novelist, he has always continued to play music, as well, writing and recording his own songs, but also continuing to play traditional music. It was through Charles while he worked at a record store in Ottawa that I also discovered and developed my taste for traditional Irish, Scottish and English music. And while I went on to do my own stuff, and in the open mics I play mine and all the usual pop and folk rock stuff, I regularly persist at home to be a closet Celtic crooner.
Paddy Sherlock and Paul Susen

When I learned last week that Paddy – whose Paris Songwriter’s Club open mic has been going for years – would begin this weekly session around the table, I jumped at it. In fact, I pulled out Charles’s songbook from my shelves and brushed up also on a few songs I love but rarely play at home, to be ready.

First song in Charles de Lint songbook in his calligraphic handwriting

One of these was “Peter’s Song,” by the Sands Family. Memory tells me that during at least one of Charles’s sessions at the Celts Room, he invited at least a couple of the visiting members of that Irish band – on a tour in Canada – onto the stage and they performed together. Maybe it was an amalgamation of my slightly off-kilter teenage mind. In any case, last night, for the first time in my life in front of an audience, I sang their song about a fiddler and a weekly jam he played at until his death in ’74. A beautiful, touching song that paints a picture of the kind of atmosphere I found last night at Paddy Sherlock’s new evening. A line from the song sums it up: “There were flying bows and bodhran sticks and you hadn’t room to turn / But there was always a chair and a couple of drinks for the lad who came to learn.”

Unfortunately, Charles and MaryAnn have not been able to continue their own frequent music nights in Ottawa over the last more than two years, as MaryAnn has been in a difficult condition in hospital after being bitten by a tick and infected with Powassan virus. This is a horrible, debilitating condition and situation that you can read more about at the Gofundme page dedicated to MaryAnn and Charles’s plight. And this is why the two of them were so much on my mind at the Cave Café last night. The other reason, was the book that Charles gave me, and that I have treasured for this half century. And I highly recommend any of Charles de Lint’s own novels or short stories and other writings, if you have never read this master of the urban fantasy genre.

Charles de Lint singing and MaryAnn on the mandolin a few years ago

By the way, in addition to “Peter’s Song,” I sang “Only Our Rivers Run Free,” and “The Star of the County Down.” Paddy and Paul did some reels and jigs, and songs like “Whiskey in the Jar” – Paddy’s version was quite different in style than what I know, and strangely sounded something like American country music to my ear!!! (Don’t kill me, Paddy! But I loved it!) And he did “As I Roved Out,” and many other classics. It was so fabulous to hear his Irish accent with these songs – I probably sounded like American country music on ALL of mine to him, with my accent – and he taught me a thing or two about playing the guitar the Irish way! It was a completely different Paddy of the Paris Songwriter’s Club open night.

Paddy Sherlock Irish Night 3

Paddy plans to do this weekly at the Cave Café: So if you are an audience member or a musician, get your instruments or vocal cords warmed up and join the jam!

PS Also, take a listen to this old Wickentree song from the 1970s. I remember listening to this one a lot at that time, before I even knew what the words meant – as it is in French.

PPS For years I attended the Oxford Folk Club open night once a year while attending the British Grand Prix. But that was a classic kind of audience/stage open mic, not an around the table jam. A fabulous place, by the way, where some of my folk heroes have occasionally played through the years, like Dave Swarbrick, etc.

Paddy Sherlock Irish night 1

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I Bit the Apple Again, Along with Eve and Had a Blast at the Open Mic

January 26, 2024
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Brad Spurgeon at the Open Mic at The Pom. Photo Credit- ©Riyad Sanford

PARIS – Thank goodness for friends who get you to move your butt. Last Friday, I had a very busy day with TAC Teatro, doing two shows, one in which I performed, the other that I filmed. A friend visiting Paris contacted me and said he wanted to do an open mic with me – the open mic at the Pomme d’Eve in the 5th Arrondissement, near the Panthéon. Going out again was the last thing I wanted to do after that long day, but the friend was visiting Paris only for the weekend. So I said I would go. Thank goodness I did! Another great night at this Paris mainstay open mic run by Riyad Sanford, after his previous musical evening at the Klein Bar across the river had been closed down.

My need for relaxation – and a beer – after the long day was more than fed by the laid-back atmosphere in this medieval kind of basement room with its curved ceilings, cut off from the world in every way except for the warm crowd of spectators and musicians. And above it all, Riyad, with his warm MCing of the open mic. My friend said it brought him right back to Greenwich Village in 1970 – or thereabouts. Think “Inside Llewyn Davis”

Ladies band singing a cappella at The Pom open mic

There was a long list of performers, and as I mentioned in my previous post about the open mic at The Pom, it’s important to get there even earlier than the 20:30 sign up time if you want a good spot on the list. I had a pretty good spot in the middle of the evening with one drawback. As I said when I got on stage, Riyad really did me a great injustice to have put me right after one of the most spectacular acts of the evening – a girls band singing a cappella. I did a video of them, which I have placed above in this post.

First at the open mic at The Pom

So there I was having to follow these geniuses! How could I do that? Only one choice: Doing the song I have done more often than any other, and in more places around the world than any other: “Mad World” by Tears for Fears. But then, I decided that the situation called for taking a risk on a new song I have never performed before in public, and only learned recently. This meant even more fear for me of screwing up and having the room erupt in distracted discussion. But if you take no risks, you make no gain.

So I tried it. A cover of Elliott Murphy’s song from his 1973 debut album, Aquashow: “Hows the Family.”

Second at The Pom open mic

Ouf, as the French say, the two pints of beer I had before mounting the stage did their trick, and as soon as I started singing the song I lost my stagefright, and it felt like I was on stage at the Olympia. That, of course, was also thanks to Riyad’s gentle prodding of the public to not erupt into discussion during this more peaceful, gentle, quiet number. At least I think that’s the case.

Anyway, tonight is Friday again, as I write these words, and the open mic will again take place, and if you happen to read these words tonight, get your butt over there now, whether you want to or not!

Fourth at The Pom open mic

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