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I’m a tad late in writing the latest installment of what I have been working to make a monthly blog/gig-schedule/reminder-of-my-existence. I usually wait until around the 1^st of the month, see what thought seems foremost in my head at the time, and try to write something interesting about it. But most of what has been occupying the parks and streets of my so-called-mind lately has been family stuff. I won’t bore you with too many details here, nor expose any embarrassing family secrets – well, truth be told, for my two teenagers, I’M the embarrassing family secret: Just having their Dad anywhere visible when they’re talking with their friends is mortifying. I remember a story about when Billy Idol – once the cool, sneering, spiky-haired pop-punk – had pre-teen kids, who bluntly informed him that they thought he was the exact opposite of cool: “Yeah, Dad, more like ‘Eyes Without a CLUE.’”

But some of my best memories of when I was a kid are the family vacations. Yes, I’m sure I spent a good deal of the car-travel time whining, “Are we there yet?” Nice to hear it again, coming from the other side. But I remember each one, and the places we went have special meaning to me now that most all the old folks are gone (irony noted).

Last summer, with my wife and my two teenagers, I set off for a road trip that took us from L. A. to Nashville, back down to New Orleans, through Texas and back home again. We did it in a little under three weeks. The drives were sometimes long, but I tried to stay over at least one night in a lot of the interesting places along the way.

A few of the highlights: Passenger boredom complaints instantly silenced as they walked up to the rim of the Grand Canyon at sunset. Watching someone (not us) eat a steak the size of Gregor Samsa’s thorax in Amarillo. My girls getting front-row seats to a Decembrists concert at the Ryman Auditorium in Nashville just because we happened to wind up having dinner at Monell’s, family-style, with some of the band members.

We’re about to go on another of those this summer. This won’t be as much driving, as there’ll be less land to cover. But Dad will be in the driver’s seat again once we get there. We will be in the lower Mid-Atlantic States. We have friends in D.C., and plan to see all of that, plus many of the historic places, and maybe pay the Amish a little neighborly visit.

I do like to be on the road. Of course, there’s no more flipping through local AM radio stations to hear what kind of crazy stuff people are thinking in, like, Muskogee. These days, everybody’s pretty much listening to the same kind of crazy all over the country. Sirius or Spotify now.

But, to my kids, I know it’s like a bad remake of “National Lampoon’s Vacation.” I’m Clark Griswold, in baggy khaki shorts and embarrassing sandals, alternating between trying not to fall asleep at the wheel, and excitedly communicating to my daughters my enthusiasm for some of the great sites and sights of the lower half of the United States. You know they’re listening, and you know they’re learning, but at times they couldn’t look more bored nor less interested in doing it. Except – for those moments when they get to see the donkeys in the streets in Oatman, AZ; or Meteor Crater; or the ducks in the lobby of the Peabody Hotel in Memphis; or the indescribable majesty of Carlsbad Caverns.

It’ll all come back to them someday. I wonder what kind of radio they’ll have then?

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 There are a few more gigs coming up in June before we leave, and after we get back, I will be performing at The Amazing Meeting, starting July 13, in Las Vegas. More about that in a future blog.

June 14^th, Thursday night, 8pm, I’m doing another “Songwriter Back-‘n’-Forth” with the always cool and eclectic Skip Heller at The Other Door, near Cahuenga and Burbank Blvd. in Noho. Come hear some new tunes and a couple of covers, and some good drinks.

June 20^th, Wednesday, will be the “First Day of Summer” show at the Cinema Bar. Starting at 8pm with Heather Donavan, then Captain Danger at 9pm, and then me, Skip Heller, and the Captain doing a Round-Robin at 10.

JUNE 22^nd – EVE BRANDSTEIN’S “POETRY IN MOTION” at Beyond Baroque. This is Eve’s acclaimed spoken-word/poetry series that has featured some of the best writers in town. I get to appear with Michael Des Barres, Terry Kirkman (of The Association! – I used to hear them at the Glendale Ice House a million years ago), and Mason Summit, among other notables.

I went to the 60^th birthday party of an old friend the other night. Most of us had been friends since the ‘70s, and I saw people I hadn’t seen for years. There was great food, the bar was pouring generously, and we Boomers were all blooming. There was a dance floor, and a DJ. Standard party stuff, I know, but since we were mostly all of a certain age, the DJ dutifully played music of the mid-to-late Sixties.

After some Stones (Rolling, not Sly and the Family, unfortunately), some Beatles, and things like “Build Me Up, Buttercup,” the guy played “Do You Love Me” by The Contours. Actually, he played someone’s cover version of the song, in a lower key, but he was young and may not have known what he did. But I noticed.

I grew up in Glendale, CA in the ‘60s, listening to KRLA, KFWB or KHJ, the three radio stations that played Top 40 (this was way before FM’s cool baritone alternative DJs). In 1962, most of the top tunes were pretty conservative, even the ones by black R ‘n’ B artists (remember, AM radio played a much greater variety of styles back then than modern radio does. Everything is niche-marketed and genre-fied now): DeeDee Sharp’s “Mashed Potato Time,” Chubby Checker’s “The Twist,” Nat King Cole’s “Ramblin’ Rose,” and even “The Stripper” by the great David Rose.

But then there was “Do You Love Me.” Before the Beatles, before the entire British invasion, this song came out in the same year as the Cuban Missile Crisis. A well-known raconteur and thinker about music, Bob Lefsetz, talks about those records and songs that have the power to change your life. And this one changed mine.

Glendale was, by many accounts, the largest all-white community in the United States. I’ll probably write more about that in a future blog, but suffice to say that, at the tender age of 10, there was no chance I’d ever have been inside an African-American church hearing the power of Gospel soul-shouting.

When I heard Billy Gordon’s solo on “Do You Love Me,” it made me crazy. How could a human being sing like that? My Mom was a singer and I’d heard the great singers of the day, but this…THIS was something different! First, the announcement that he was “…back – to let YOU know I can really shake ‘em down.” So right off, he throws down the gauntlet, then he proceeds to prove his point with a throat-ripping plea that comes from the center of all human gravity.

To this day it gives me chills every time I hear it, and there’s nothing more real than this record, from the Funk Brothers’ track to Hugh Davis’ tremolo guitar intro to – and this is the part that sent my little 10-year-old brain over the edge – the FALSE ENDING! The record starts to fade out like all good records of the era did so the DJ could begin puking his intro to whatever was coming next (in the industry, they actually call that old style of over-energetic DJ-speak “puking”). THEN, just like James Brown when he springs-up, reborn, throwing off his robe, the groove begins again and Gordon makes his impossible gut-wrenching way to the end of the song.

“Tell me baby, do you like it like this? Tell me… TELL ME!”

Yeah, I like it like that.

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As of this blogging I have three shows to post. First, I will be doing the great Comedy/Spoken Word show “Sit ‘n’ Spin” this Thursday, May 10 at 8pm. I’ll be appearing with the hilarious and crazy Eddie Pepitone. It usually sells out (it’s free, but, you know what I mean). Call 323-960-5519. If they tell you it’s full up, email me, I might be able to get you in.

Then I’m doing a Round Robin at The Other Door in NoHo with two great songwriter friends, Captain Danger and Skip Heller on May 17^th. Come hear us all trade tunes and banter like the singin’ dogs we are.

May 13^th, Mother’s Day, I’ll be singing a couple of tunes for the well-known songwriter, and teacher Harriet Schock at The Talking Stick in Venice. There should be some other great singers and songwriters there as well, including Harriet herself.

I’m looking to do a bigger show, a full evening, on a Saturday night, sometime in June.  If you have any venue suggestions, pass them along. I will probably beg you all to come to that show sometime in the near future, but I’m a mellow beggar so don’t worry.

I’ve been pretty lucky over these last almost thirty years. I’ve made a decent living writing music-for-hire (or “music-for-whoring”) on TV shows. But back in the early ‘90s, I found myself singing on a Spanish Pop record in Miami at Criteria Studios. One of the singers on the gig was my friend Dan Navarro who, besides being a session guy like myself, was also a very successful songwriter. He and his partner (the late and beloved Eric Lowen), wrote “We Belong,” which was a hit for Pat Benatar. We had some down-time since the producer who had hired us and flew us down to Miami was – in a word – nuts, and had abruptly cancelled the session.  So, over drinks and other vices, Dan put the wacky thought in my head that traveling around, playing and singing songs might be a hell of a lovely way to spend one’s musical time and talents.

Then, some years later, when it seemed the business was changing (it has), and when it seemed that the economy was tanking (it did), I decided it was time to stop trying to write what other people wanted me to write, – recording countless demos for no money that went into the trash, and endlessly schmoozing for more work – and go back and/or forward to being a singer-songwriter (hereinafter abbreviated to s/s).

As I become a part of that world again, I’m seeing who the bright lights of the s/s world are. And two of them that have begun to really mean something to me are Severin Browne and Dave Morrison. For decades they have put their lives and their thoughts into perfect little four-and-a-half-minute novels, full of demons and saints and villains and victims, spilling their guts in chords and time and rhyme.

Severin’s life has had its successes and its disappointments, from doing two albums as the first white folk artist on Motown Records, to vowing he’d never make a record again: a vow he kept until the mid-90’s when he began recording again. I don’t know anyone who doesn’t love Severin. He’s kind of a benevolent avatar for the wide and diverse community of s/s talent in this town. And that brings me to Dave Morrison.

Dave’s history is murkier than Severin’s. I couldn’t find too many facts about his life except for the fact that he’s recently shed some of his more difficult demons and has put out a couple of really lovely and moving collections of songs. There’s so much forgettable and disposable music out there, so when you hear the kind of work Dave does – and you realize he ain’t getting’ rich doing it – well, you kind of wonder where’s the justice in this world.

Not every great songwriter gets a hit or two like Dan Navarro and Eric Lowen. But you know, there’s a kind of nobility in writing and singing, as Townes Van Zandt put it, “For the Sake of the Song.”

And the saving grace is that there IS an audience – and a growing one – for people who sing about the laughter, the pain and the sweet delights of being human, and for that audience, it isn’t about hits, or hipness, or cute young faces. It’s more about truth than it is about being cool.  Or famous. Or rich.

Who knows, maybe telling the truth IS the new cool.

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Cinema Bar “Sweet Songs of April” with Captain Danger, and Helper:  https://www.facebook.com/events/366289393422285/

“Hellstock 3” with Skip Heller Band, Rafa’s Lounge Art Gallery:  https://www.facebook.com/events/335463513184064/

I just did a real nice phone interview with a guy named Michael Nayt, who does an internet radio show on blogtalkradio.com. He’d obviously done some Googlin’ on me and realized I’d played music with Billy Mumy. It was a coincidence for him because he had interviewed Billy some months earlier. I thought, “This is very good. If I’m running in some of the same circles as Billy, I must be comin’ up in the world.” Billy’s a good friend, a great performer and songwriter, and a good father. He is living proof that child-stars don’t have to turn out bad.

A few things amaze me. One of them is that I have actual friends who actually fear telling people their actual age. I don’t mean women who subscribe to the old “don’t ask a woman their age” adage, I mean some showbiz pros who are worried that if someone knows they’re 50 instead of 40 their credibility (and hire-ability) will suffer. I won’t try and argue with their experience, but as for me, I think my age IS the thing that is probably most interesting about my pursuit of recognition as a singer-songwriter after a career of doing nearly everything else in the music business (and even acting from time to time).

Anything I have to say as a songwriter has to include being the age I am, smack dab in the middle of the age I’m livin’ in. Like this, for example: “YZ Lookin’ At Me”

As my own booker and manager, I’m in charge of procuring venues and shows to play, so if I don’t do it, you know nobody else will (to paraphrase Dr. John). This month I should fire myself as I haven’t lined up that many places to play, but more will be added to the website and Facebook (here and here) as soon as I get them. PLEASE CHECK!

Here are the  highlights:

I’ll be doing Joe Staats’ VARIETY SHOWCASE on Thursday, March 22. It is at The Lodge on Ocean Park in Santa Monica. Right now he has me on at 9:30 (it may wind up being earlier). I know that’s late on a weeknight for many of you, but I’ll be doing a 45-minute set. The show starts at 8pm, and there are 3 acts before me, so come when you can. It’d be great to see any of you there.

I will also be doing a 30-minute set at Sheena Metal’s CARNYVILLE show at The Other Door in North Hollywood, 8:45 on Thursday March 15. Nice place, good drinks and not crowded.

Thanks, and see you next month!

GREETINGS! First off, a big THANK YOU to DAVID AVALLONE, who has directed and edited a new video of my song IS WAITING. It is watchable from the hyperlink (click on the title) or on my YouTube Channel.

David edited three of our best videos (not using the royal “we,” I’m talking about two of the songs which I wrote with Spencer Green), ALL I WANT FOR XMAS – the 2009 AND the 2011 versions, and I HEART which is our Valentine’s song. (And a belated thanks to the great MICHAEL FRANKS, who directed them.)

WHICH REMINDS ME – when you check out IS WAITING, please also take another look at I HEART. It is written for an upcoming musical about bumper stickers, but it’s also good for the season, and we got very lucky on the shoot day with a rainbow, which we took full advantage of for a few shots.

AND, Friday, Feb. 17. I will be rockin’ the late cocktail hour at WAKING UP FOR HAPPY HOUR at Trip in Santa Monica, on Lincoln. I’ll be playing first with the lovely Scott Breadman. Then comes my good friend and laugh-rocker CAPTAIN DANGER.

Plus, come see us Feb. 25 at HELLSTOCK:  The Stockdale/Heller Rematch! Veteran LA rockin’ billy-boy SKIP HELLER and I will each do a set at Rafa’s Lounge in Echo Park, and then spend the rest of the evening trading well-known and obscure cover tunes until we lose what’s left of our minds. When we did it last month we dug out classics by the likes of Stevie Wonder, Burt Bacharach, Johnny Cash, and many others. It’s a cool little place and we hope to do this once a month. Be on the lookout for Phineas and Ferb writer/tunesmith Martin Olson whose smile is hard to miss, set off by his head of perfectly-coiffed silver Mad Men-era hair.

This Thursday, Feb. 16, I will be playing CARNYVILLE, the latest installment in Internet Radio star Sheena Metal’s cavalcade of talented LA performers. I’ll be on at 8:30pm.

New songs coming, new videos, too. Come see me. I’ll bring cookies!