Galway Pub Paris | Brad Spurgeon's Blog

Crowded Night at Two Paris Open Mics

June 28, 2011
bradspurgeon

Back in Paris on a Monday after the complete lack of musical culture in Valencia, Spain, it was great to attend two of my favorite open mics in the same night: The Tennessee Bar and the Galway Pub. It was even better to discover that there was something in the air that meant that both places were brimming over with musicians, and good and interesting ones at that. At the Tennessee Bar the accent was on the blues, at the Galway, I suppose the accent was on just about everything – with a little tilt toward accents from the south of the United States and Sweden.

When I arrived at the Tennessee just after 9 PM there was hardly anyone there and I thought it was going to be empty. But it soon filled up with spectators and musicians, including a lot I had not seen before, but while I was there, it was certainly predominantly blues and jazz-like pop. The last act I saw I was sure was Iggy Pop doing the blues, but the voice was definitely not the same – and this guy spoke French…. Also, he didn’t take his shirt off, which would have been the real Iggy giveaway. Check out the video of him, though, and see if you agree on the Iggy bit.

The Galway had lots of people spilling out into the streets, and I enjoyed many of the acts, including a couple from Sweden who are travelling Europe on their music busking earnings and along the way picked up a violinist from Western Australia. Then there was a guy from Canada – from Montreal, and who plays Brutopia all the time, he said – who had a wicked acoustic guitar with supercool carvings on the table and the neck. And then, one of the best of the night, Stefan Cashwell from Georgia, who unfortunately could not be heard as well as he should have been, because by then the drinking crowd had hit overdrive. But it was all great fun, nevertheless.

Oh, and by the way, was I ever amused when James Iansiti, the MC of the Tennessee Bar went up and sang All Right Now – just as I am in the middle of reading the manuscript of Andy Fraser’s memoir, All Right Now.

Family Day at the Galway and Elsewhere; or Jamming With a Last Waltz Band Member – my Son

May 31, 2011
bradspurgeon

Going to the Brasserie Lipp to celebrate my daughter Emily’s 18th birthday, I decided nevertheless to take along my guitar, since that legendary brasserie is located in the same Latin Quarter neighborhood as the Tennessee Bar and the Galway Pub and it was Monday night and that meant the two open mics;

So we had a great meal at Lipp – with my son Paul and daughter eating the same dish of pig’s foot, not for me, and I had the famous choucroute – and of course we all had a nice Beaujolais to go along with it, since the legal drinking age in France is 18 and we had to celebrate that. We finished eating and got out of their at around 10:30 and headed over to the Tennessee Bar where the action was hot, the room was full, and some hard hitting and hard singing guy was on the stage. I took one look around the room and knew that I’d probably not get on – too many performers – and anyway, I had known that from the beginning but just wanted to show my son and daughter the Tennessee joint where I hang out so often.

So we stayed for a bit of this guy and then went to the Galway. My timing was perfect, as Stephen Prescott put me up as soon as we arrived and I did four or five songs. Then Stephen spent much of the rest of the night trying to get my son up on the stage, as I had told him before that Paul has a group, called The Last Waltz, and that he plays guitar and sings. In his band, in fact, he only does the occasional backup vocal, so he is not really used to singing in public – having only done it once or twice before. (To my knowledge.) Eventually, at the end of the evening, with Stephen, me and my daughter pushing Paul, we decided that he and I would go up together and jam a bit. Or rather, I’d sing some songs and he would do lead, some rhythm guitar, whatever.

He and I never play together at home. His music is his music, mine is mine. We did jam a little in the early days, but never seriously. And we never learned the same song. So this was not just our debut performance in public at an open mic, it was our first time playing what ended up being four songs together without break or practice, from beginning to end. We started with Marc Bolan’s “Cat Black, the Wizard’s Hat.” Then we did “Unchained Melody,” then we did, “I Shall Be Released.” By that last song we were starting to get the feel for things, and afterwards we would be complimented on that one. But none of it really showed off Paul’s best talents – he writes his own songs and learns the classics note by note -, and just before we left the stage he started playing “Little Wing,” and I said, “Crap, you should have played that and I’d do and improvise the singing.”

But there it was, a birthday and a birth – of a father and son duo. Well, probably not. But he might go again with The Last Waltz.

Too bad we didn’t get any of it on video, but there were some other high moments in the night – like Stephen’s “Common People,” and Sven Cosnuau singing with Pierre Doucet playing backup guitar.

A Quiet Easter Weekend at the Open Mics and Brunches – But FUN with Videos

April 26, 2011
bradspurgeon

I did my first Brad’s brunch after an absence of three weeks, after my trip to Asia. By my return had to be on a very quiet Easter weekend with a lot of sun in Paris and most sane people no doubt electing to spend time on the various quays around Paris near water. Even so, I had the very insane idea to do the brunch and have one or two very insane, but cool friends and guests. The only other musician who came was Stephen “Danger” Prescott. But he did a great couple of sets, and one of them inspired me to have fun with the video camera. In fact, the next day I attended Stephen’s open mic at the Galway – and also the Tennessee bar open mic – and decided to have even more video fun.

Stephen spoke of one of his favorite bands and songs, and he said he recently saw them and loved to play their song. So I decided to go all out with the video recording, aiming two cameras at him at the Mecano, and then doing another one at the Galway when he sang the song again. I also had a separate sound recorder at the Mecano, so I’ve decided to blend all four things to come up with a little montage vide of Stephen singing this song.

The song is “Song Songs,” and it is by a band from L.A. called Old Man Markley, which has existed since 2007. It is a cool song, indeed. Although Stephen also did an excellent one of his own with the catchy lyrics of “When You’re Okay.”

Anyway, I have decided that since I am collecting mountains of material for the film I am doing open mics around the world, and since I will have far more material than I need, I will put up the occasional bits and pieces of interviews and other snippets that I find and create along the way. Do not expect the editing of the stuff to be good. I will be doing this for the blog as time permits, and to start to get into the stride of making and putting the film together as I go. Some of the snippets may end up in the film, most probably won’t. But I’ll just wing it as it goes – that’s what a blog is for.

At the Tennessee bar there were some original performers, such as Jamie Freeman, who is part American and part British. He had a very hard driving, hard strumming, rhythmic style on the guitar along with some interesting singing and songs. He made me want to record everything he did as each song seemed to merit it, and to have a slight different sound.

Then there was this French guy who calls himself Gyraf, and who dresses in a giraffe skin scheme overall and wears a strange giraffe head/hat, and who plays songs that call for audience participation. In short, a wild and crazy guy. But that is open mics. Anything goes. And, as it turns out, he performs for kids – and kiddie adults, no doubt – around France.

Score 1-0 for the Tennessee and the Galway against Newcomer Corcoran’s Bastille (Oh, and Cheap Drinks at the Galway next week)

March 8, 2011
bradspurgeon

There are already two open mics to attend on Mondays in the Latin Quarter in Paris, the Tennessee Bar and the Galway Pub. Now, as of last week, there is another at Corcoran’s pub near the Bastille. The latter still has a bit of work to do to iron out the creases….

Actually, this is not entirely accurate. The Tennessee and the Galway are two classic open mics where musicians or groups go up on stage and strut their stuff – whatever that stuff may be. The newcomer is a jam session kind of thing, which is a variant on the open mic. At least, that is how it was described to me by the organizer, the MC, last night, when I went for the first time, on the second week of its existence.

So what does THAT mean? Well, it means this: a jam session in a bar like this is a situation where there is usually a drum set, bass, lead guitar, microphone, acoustic, all the instruments you want, and all the performers you want. And you go up and play all together. I have played in this variant of the open mic in so many places around the world now that I feel pretty much at home in it: Try Bauhaus in Tokyo, or Jazz-Si in Barcelona, or Blues Live in Istanbul, Bee Dee’s in Shanghai, or l’Echiquier in Paris, or Tony’s Aussie Bar in Seoul, or Dublin Club in Bahrain, the Lua Nova in Sao Paulo…. they are all over.

I was very excited last night when I went to Corcoran’s to play at this new Paris jam. It meant I could play with a whole band, just as I had on Saturday at the Echiquier. But here it would also be with a number of the people who took part in the other open mics I do on Mondays, because a few wanted to try the new place.

As the evening progressed my excitement remained: There was some very, very cool stuff with a great lead guitar player, a sax player, a drummer, a keyboard player, at least two bass players. And there was an acoustic guitar waiting to be played. Just great stuff, and a few of the people were very good indeed.

So I must say that I felt an enormous sense of abandonment and absolutely shoddy treatment when after waiting for an hour and a half to play I finally got my opportunity to play my one song and the entire band defected to go out and smoke a cigarette. OOPPPS! That was a first! I cannot tell you how bad it feels to go up alone with your guitar and voice after you have had a five or six piece band blasting out rhythmic rockin’ crap for an hour and a half.

I got up behind the mic and made a comment about that, and that was enough for the kindly-intentioned organizer to come up and join me on lead guitar – but he does other stuff better than play lead, he seemed lost – and a friend joined me to do harmonies. I had chosen “Mad World” in order to facilitate the structure. It’s just four or five chords, a regular pattern. The MC told me that it wasn’t the kind of song you can really play with a band, anyway, but I took that as a pretty lame excuse, considering the brilliant job that the band did at the Echiquier when I had a sax, a trumpet, two leads and a drummer join me on that song – and then Felix’s magnificent version at my concert the week before.

Well, anyway…. let’s just say that I ran off to the Galway after that and found that thanks to the defection of a few people to Corcoran’s I was actually allowed to go up and sing twice at the Galway – and I must have done close to 10 songs in all.

First rule of a jam: Treat everyone the same way and they’ll all go off happy. I’m sure Corcoran’s will end up getting into the swing. There is so much potential in that cool place and for that cool concept. Just gotta make sure everyone has the same deal.

Oh, that reminds me. I also learned that next week at the Galway, the bar has decided that as a test session at its open mic on the Monday, it will put to trial a system in which all musicians who come to play their music will be able to buy the booze at “Happy Hour” prices, which means 5 euros for a pint of beer, and for several of the cocktails. The only catch is that the lower payment will be granted AFTER they play their music. (I heard nothing about quality control, however, so go and sing for your beer….)

A Return to “Solo-ness” and a Selection of Vocals from the Tennessee to the Galway

March 1, 2011
bradspurgeon

The day after my gig at the Disquaires with Félix and Virgile it felt really odd to be back at an open mic all alone with just me and my guitar and a mic. I arrived late at the Tennessee Bar on a night where there were a massive number of musicians, so I opted to watch a few acts and then leave for the Galway.

So it was at the Galway that I found myself “naked” behind the mic with just me and my guitar. I practically could not recover from the sensation and did my four songs feeling there was a lot of sound – and even emotion – missing. Just goes to show what a good practice it is to play alone without a band so that when you do get up with other musicians you are that much more prepared.

ANYWAY… I thought I would just put up three videos, two from the Tennessee Bar and one from the Galway. The common thread to these is just different sounding voices – oh, and also that I thought the American guy singing at the Galway looked a lot like Don Henley of the Eagles does today!!!!

Haylen did a very cool gospel number with her friends at the Tennessee, and as I arrived I heard this young man with the beard and cap who I had not heard there before and who had some definitely interesting qualities and personal style in his voice.

Esperada and a Rap at the Galway

January 11, 2011
bradspurgeon

I did my usual trip to the Tennessee Bar and the Galway Pub for the double header of open mics. Not wanting to weigh down the blog with repeated reports of those same two places, I just want to point out the high points.

At the Galway there was an interesting British duo on a visit to France. Both musicians played guitar pretty well and had nice singing voices. That’s pretty rare in young groups starting out these days, in my experience. So I’m putting up a video of them and it’s also worth checking out this band, Esperada, on their myspace. There is something a little Simon & Garfunkel about them.

An interesting moment came at the end of the Galway evening as well when another young performer, I think from the United States, played recorded music and rapped to it. That got the whole place to perk up its ears, and for last night at the Galway that is really saying something, as it was a biggg night for talkers…. But by the time this guy got to his third rap the novelty value had worn off, and the talkers were back in full rap themselves.

“Blind Boy” Brad Plays His Usual Paris Haunts

January 4, 2011
bradspurgeon

I left out a detail in my previous post in which I tried to sum up the previous week’s activities. I wanted to keep the detail personal, private and just not make anything out of it. But as I decided to sit down and do my blog entry today about last night’s musical activities, I thought that it was not possible to write about the spirit of my evening – and what the people there saw – without unfortunately unveiling the news.

blind boy brad with glasses coolly covering the black eye

It’s pretty banal, actually, but a little embarrassing: I was attacked on New Year’s Eve and had my face re-arranged. Well, okay, it’s not as bad as all that. But the black eye is a doozer. I had to cancel my Sunday brunch two days ago because my face was still something of a mask of red and black spots. But I decided last night that I would not let the assailant get away with destroying my glasses, my Lacoste coat, my face AND my fun!

So it was that I went to the Tennessee Bar and the Galway Pub to play in the open mics as I usually do. But I wore dark glasses to cover the dalmatian look. Unfortunately, my forehead still has some bloody scrapes on it, and it was clear that I had been beaten (although the scrapes are much less visible even today). So this raises the question as to whether a performer really should go up and play music – which is supposed to be entertaining for the audience – when clearly in a state of disgusting ugliness through visible wounds. If I were a Sex Pistol, or maybe Nazi Dog of the Viletones, I would actually do all I could no doubt to inflict such wounds upon myself while actually on the stage performing. But as these open mics are generally considered nice family entertainment, and worse, as they are carried out by amateurs, it can look like a strange assault and self-indulgent act to perform in such circumstances.

These, at least, were the thoughts going through my mind when I got up on stage soon after arrival at the Tennessee Bar. It was odd to get up behind the mic and suddenly realize that I could not see a single person in the audience through my dark glasses. This really made me feel cut off. I tried to joke about my face and seek a thread of banter that would link the music to the face – after all, think of how odd it would be to sing of happy days with a face like a pulp! (I exaggerate.)

I sang Tom Petty’s song, “I Won’t Back Down,” which seemed appropriate. Then I sang my own song, “Borderline.” Then I ran out of ideas and thoughts on how to blend the face with the music, and for reasons beyond me I immediately segued into “Unchained Melody.” Judging by all the talk I heard in the audience building up as my three songs progressed, I did not grab the audience.

I left almost immediately afterwards, feeling as if I had been self-indulgent. But I also thought I would nevertheless test out the waters at the Galway. Stephen Prescott, the MC, immediately greeted me with a laugh and a talk about black eyes of his own in the past. I inquired as to whether he thought I could expect the permanent pink spot I am seeing to disappear, and he said in his experience he had seen nothing for days and it all came back.

I was immediately put at ease. Then when it finally came my turn to play my songs, good-natured Stephen presented me as “Blind” Brad, or “Blind” Brad Spurgeon, or something like that. This made me feel really comfortable, and even cool, with the glasses, and I realized there were precendents and even a tradition of performing like this – from Blind Boy Fuller, Blind Lemon Jefferson, Ray Charles, Stevie Wonder, and even the Frenchman Gilbert Montagne. So I instantly ceased to think about my physical appearance, and I asked the lead guitarist from a group that had played just before me if he could play with me – he said they were from England and that the band’s name was “Mana King,” but I cannot find a link for them – and we played the first two songs together. I played “Crazy Love” and “Father and Son,” and he played some great lead. Then, alone, I did “Andalucia” and “Since You Left Me.” Had a great time, felt exorcised and as if I’d had my revenge on my attacker and I was back to normal.

Three Sunday Adventures, one common thread

December 13, 2010
bradspurgeon

I’ll start immediately by saying the common thread between the three musical venues I want to talk about here was Stephen “Danger” Prescott, the Aussie musician of Paris. There may be others, but Stephen is the inimitable one.

My Sunday brunch was a surprise, massive, incredible, jubilant success…there was a salsa lesson and dance going on in the back end of the Mecano at the same time. So that meant that those who REALLY wanted to hear the laid back music of the brunch, got to bunch up in the front of the Mecano bar to listen to me and this week’s guest.

This week’s guest, if you have not guessed (sorry, that’s almost a pun), was Stephen Prescott, of Melbourne and Paris. Who would have thought that one of the audience members would be another Aussie in off the street – but that was good timing, since she knew several of the songs that Stephen sang, and requested more. In fact, Stephen has a vast and varied repertoire, from Aussie songs to the Pogues to Stan Rogers. Because of the salsa dancing and its accompanying music, at Stephen’s suggestion, after he and I did a couple of sets, he suggested we bring the guitar into the room at the front of the Mecano and sit down and just sing a few songs like that, at the table.

That’s when the brunch turned very cosy and informal, and Stephen and I shared the guitar and hammered out songs that are perhaps not always on our repertoires. We even had the visiting Austrian, Wolf, play and sing the Hank Williams song I do, “I’m So Lonesome I Could Cry.” And I thank Wolf for doing a vide of me when I sang my song, “Borderline.”

From the Mecano we all went over to the Disquaires, where Ollie Fury was set to play. But his set did not play until near 10 PM, so in the end we stayed only for Yaco and his band’s set.

Then we headed off to the Galway, where Stephen plays MC every Monday night at the open mic. There we listened to the amazing German phenomenon named Yann, who looks, dresses, speaks, acts and sings like an Irishman. Please don’t ask me to explain. But I think I liked best his Richard Thompson song, and the song he did with Stephen – the Stan Rogers one.

A long brunch, in the end, that went on from 2:30 to 12:30. Fun for a Sunday afternoon and night.

The Difference a Guitar Makes

December 7, 2010
bradspurgeon

I won’t give a day-by-day account of all the open mics I do in Paris, because that could get tiresome (if it hasn’t already). But the one little point I took out of last night’s playing at the Galway – I also played at the Tennessee Bar, where there was some great jamming with many musicians together – was the difference a guitar can make to a musician’s sound.

That may sound like a banality. But as I have recently been contemplating buying a new acoustic guitar, I have continually come back to the same conclusion: Since I’m not much of a guitarist, my Seagull S6 does me just fine. In fact, this fabulous guitar has been praised around the world, even once in England by a guy – a good guitarist – who said it blew away a 10,000 euro Martin signature guitar he had played a few days before. And this Seagull – minus the pick-up – costs less than 400 euros.

So back to last night. Stephen Prescott is the MC of the Galway open mic and I have always enjoyed his singing and stage persona, and I have also been intrigued by his guitar playing. I’ve liked the guitar playing, but I have always found there was something I could not understand about it, or pinpoint. That may sound weird, but last night when the battery ran out on his regular guitar – a travel guitar with no body to it – he asked if he could use my Seagull. I agreed with no problem – the guitar has been used for two years now at various open mics by people around the world, and I love that.

So then when Stephen started playing away in his usual way on MY guitar, I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. Here, finally, I realized, was what Stephen’s guitar playing really sounds like! The Seagull gave to it, above all, the “body” it was missing with his no-body guitar. A depth, a range, a sound that was very cool indeed. It not only added a whole dimension to his music, but also made my guitar come to life in a different way than when I play it. Unfortunately, I ran out of battery life on my Zoom Q3 recorder at the same time as his guitar ran out of pick-up battery life, so I only got a small little taste of the Stephen sound on my guitar in video, and more unfortunately, the automatic level thingy toned down the guitar too much when he really got to playing it hard. But give it a listen:

P.S., it is normal that Stephen does not have a great guitar for his open mic, since it is the one that gets passed around to all takers, every Monday, many hands, if they do not have their own instrument.

P.P.S., I forgot to finish off with one of my conclusions! To see the difference with Stephen’s sound when he used a different guitar made me reconsider my relationship with my S6. On the other hand, so far I have only found Gibsons and a one or two other guitars that cost 5 to 10 times more than my Seagull that strike me as adding a little difference in sound to my guitar playing….

Further Musical Discoveries in Paris

November 30, 2010
bradspurgeon

I wanted to keep the names of the Tennessee Bar and the Galway Pub out of the headline this time, since my weekly haunts while in Paris might cease to look very attractive as a read. But they continue to be attractive as places of musical discovery.

Last night I showed up at the Tennessee Bar at 9:10 PM and I was far too late. I never would get a slot on stage. But I stayed long enough to hear some fabulous music before heading on to the Galway where I basically always get a slot on stage, thanks Stephen Prescott.

But the discoveries at the Tennessee were well worth the visit. The biggest discovery of the night, no doubt, was Benjamin Scheuer, who sang some songs of his own composition before picking up the lead guitar to help Les DeShane with “November Rain.” When you hear Benjamin singing his songs you think of the 1960s, and more the 1970s, and you think of the great singer songwriters of that era. You think of Simon & Garfunkel, without the harmonies. I’m sure some people could come up with some much better parallels, but this much is certain: Benjamin has a very cool voice in terms of expressiveness, natural timbre and emotion. And he writes some beautiful touching lyrics AND he places a wicked guitar. In fact, after hearing him play his songs with the acoustic I had no idea that the same guy could do that “November Rain” lead – which was very cool. Check out the videos, and his web site. The word “up-and-coming” cannot be better fitted than to this guy Benjamin.

Then there was this wild old French guy who took to the stage and was immediately joined by Les on the lead and another guy on the piano, and we had to have the oldest guy in the place provide us with the most rock ‘n roll stuff of the night. I recorded his “Route 66,” and it’s pretty cool.

Les himself, in fact, also played a song I had no yet heard him play, and I enjoyed it immensely, and this was a Robert Johnson song. I also had fun with the camera work, managing to get Les in the shot and to also simultaneously get Les in the shot on his own camera that was videoing the whole thing.

When I realized that I did not want to wait around any longer at the Tennessee and that if I did get up the audience would be reduced to 1 person by then, I decided to head over to the Galway. There I heard a cool guy named… Brad as I entered. And then a cool guy named Matt, who was from Montreal. And then I heard cool Stephen, who showed off his new toy, which is a box that can turn your voice into harmonies as you sing. Now, although I had seen Les with the same thing at the Mecano, I had never tried it. Stephen told me I could try it, and that was another very cool discovery. I want one. I used it to harmonize my voice on my song that I wrote when I was 16, and which still has no title. I put the harmonies on the chorus: “My love she’s gone away, she’s left me here to stay, all by myself, all by myself.”

This is me, Brad, at the Tennessee holding on to Ladie's Di's CD compilation

Ladie's Di lied, saying I looked 20 years younger in this photo. Shit, I look like a grandfather.

Oh, the other discovery was not on stage. I ran into Ladies Di, a friend and fellow open mic traveler from Chile, whom I have mentioned on this blog before. He presented me with the CD he had been working on for the last year or so, and it was finally finished, packed, ready for distribution around the world, and now entitled “Who else is gonna leave me?” (Could have put my song from when I was 16 on that.) Ladies Di had invited me to put something on the CD and I didn’t. Couldn’t get myself together enough to do anything, and hesitated to put my Ephemere Recordings on it. But the concept is this: The CD is a sampling of I think 12 musicians, each of whom contributed 2 songs (although one seems to have contributed 1 song). Each group or musician then gets a 100 or so copies of the CD and distributes and sells it at gigs around the world. Indeed, the artists come from all around the world: Chile, France, England, Sweden, Norway, Japan, etc. Very cool. And it ain’t half bad! I found a number of songs I liked. The CD project has its own myspace page, robotminimalista.