The Mescal Sheiks: News

JULY RUMINATINGS



Well here we are, into the Summer, and half-way through the year.


July 21st would have been the Summertime Stomp. We're sorry that we weren't able to get the technical issues with the Hall, lighting and sound equipment resolved in time to be able to play for you.

We're working on these issues (old Hall, wiring, lighting and sound quality) for the next week or two and making a decision to do the Sheik Fest at the FOE Hall or finding a substitute venue to play in
October. As we figure which way we're going we'll post the information.

The rest of July, August and September will see us continuing the Second Wind Sessions. We'll be finishing up the first four songs by the end of August. We have almost half of the twenty one songs for the sessions written and will be heading into ChessVolt with the next four songs in October. The first eight songs should be recorded, mixed, and mastered after the first of the year. When they're done we'll get them up on the player on our MySpace page, and on our website for you to
listen to.

We'll be doing that throughout the production process. After the twenty one songs are done, we'll be deciding (maybe with your help!) which twelve to thirteen songs will be our next release, scheduled for the end of 2008.


Have a great Summer, and if you're here in the L.A. area mark your calendars to get out and see us in October!



the Sheiks
Los Angeles, CA

Due to lighting and sound issues with the Hall that we won't be able to resolve in the next three weeks we are regretfully having to cancel this year's Summertime Stomp.

We hope to have the technical problems worked out so that we'll be able to do the Sheikfest in October. We'll keep you informed.

Ticket refund checks for the Stomp will be going out in the mail the weekend of July 7th.


As always, thanks for your support.


the Sheiks

We'll be playing at The Mint, just west of the Fairfax District on Pico Blvd this Sunday at 10 PM.

The line up will be;

Clabe Hangan - vocals
Danny Broussard - vocals
Rick Solem - keyboard/vocals
Rick Smith - harmonica
Dean Sterling - guitar/vocals
Peter Malick - guitar
Angus Thomas- bass
Phil Bloch - drums

It was really hard deciding which songs were going to be in our abbreviated 60 minute set.

Come on down for the first Drive-by of 2007. The cover charge is $7. Which for the 60 minute workout you'll get dancing is much better than going to 24 Hr Fitness!

Bring dat 2nd line witchou!

The recording of the Second Wind Sessions began today.

Rick Solem, Dean Sterling, Peter Malick, Angus Thomas and Butch Norton laid down the bed tracks for "Memphis Time", "You Bought the Ticket", "Medicine Man" and "Nola La-La" this afternoon at our new recording home, ChessVolt Studios.

Danny Broussard (on his birthday) came in to do the reference vocals for the tracks. Rick Smith lent moral support and observed from the control room, keeping ChessVolt asst. engineer Paul company.

On Monday the 28th, Peter and Rick (Solem) will be back in the studio adding additional guitar and keyboard tracks to the four songs.

!!! MAZZMUSIKAS HATS OFF: ALL HITS, NO MISSES!!! The Mescal Sheiks/This World is Not My home/Blue cap BC 1003 (www.mescalsheiks.com) The Mescal Sheiks is a collection of musicians from New York, Chicago, Arkansas and Los Angeles, based in Los Angeles. These songwriters and musicians write with their fat, funky and soulfull style, which they define as rootsy. Clabe Hangan (vocal), Rick Solem (keys, vocal, prod), Rick Smith (harm) and Dean Sterling (gtr, vocal) form the core for the CD; along with the superb Texicali Horns, a rhythm section and the vocal backing of Elizabeth Hangan. Every member writes number of the songs, most in collaboration. Solem and Sterling, however, write most of the material. On "This World is Not My Home" nothing that we have heard rather, but it is a telling collection of styles. And that is what makes this so good. Influences abound, and this appreciation is seen in the quality of the song material, "How Long" is a strong opener, but "It Doesn't Really Matter" is the forsting on top of it: as if Booker T. Jones came by and brought everybody Stax. "Fool For You" has Little Feat and Bonnie Raitt thing going, as does "Sugar Hoodoo" Chicago is the style of the singing of Hangan and the harp of Smith in "Honey The Night is Young" " Live From The Gates or Hell" with its horns is patented Memphis soul and a superb nod Al Green. "Walking To The River" with its intro and the fragile singing of Hangan and the harmony vocals; makes it a ballad, a hymn and a gospel song at the same time. The last time we heard some thing this moving was from John Hyatt. It is the song that Robbie Robertson never wrote for The Band. "Looking Out 4 #1" sounds like some thing written from the catalog of Allen Toussant. "This World Is Not My Home"is a great piece of work and it makes us very curious to hear what the Mescal Sheiks sound like live!


note: the review is in Danish and we used translation software to English.

This is a short news break preceeding our May/June What's Sheiking?

We'll be going into ChessVolt Studios at the end of May to lay down tracks for the first four songs in the Second Wind Sessions. And May will also be a writing month. Right now we have seven of the twenty-one songs for the sessions already written and May sould see us getting another four or five songs written.

Our first of three "Drive Bys" at a club somewhere in LA will occur in June. We don't normally play clubs but we'll be doing this off and on during the sessions to try out new ideas and material. We'll announce the location only 2-3 weeks ahead of time and only on our website and our MySpace page. So keep your eyes peeled if you would like to come.

The table is set. Thank you!


See you tonight!

http://iacmusic.net/forum/viewtopic.php?p=26506&sid=7421ee00bf47c3b547ab44bcbd411d82

For all of you that have asked us how they can get Mescal Sheiks apparel - we've opened "The Sheiks Shop"....you can get there either from our "Home Page" or our "Products" page!



And we appreciate your patronage.....

As we wrote a few weeks back, we began what is becoming known as the "Second Wind" sessions, the beginning of January.

We're writing and recording eighteen songs during the sessions, which will continue through the summer of 2008. From these songs will come our next release, scheduled for November 2008.

Our music community in southern California will have the opportunity to hear these songs evolve live during this period. We'll be moving the songs in and out of our 90 minute set at our concerts, working out ideas and arrangements to take into the studio with us as we record.

We'll begin at the Rites of Spring 2007, April, in Altadena. Our set that evening will be;

How Long
Memphis Time *
It Doesn't Really Matter
Got To Have Me Two
Better Get Ta Steppin'
Fool For You
You Bought The Ticket *
Honey The Night Is Young
Live From The Gates Of Hell
Walking To The River
Baby Whatcha Do
What's Holding Her Up *
Sugar Hoodoo
Medicine Man *
Looking Out 4 #1
Healing Love
Good Enough Ain't *
NOLA La-La *

Clabe Hangan- vocals / percussion Rick Solem- keyboards / vocals Rick Smith- harmonica / percussion Dean Sterling- guitar / vocals Danny Broussard - vocals / percussion Angus Thomas - bass Jeff Silbar- guitar Albert Trepangier Jr. -
drums

The "Rites of Spring" in April will be the first of eleven concerts we'll perform in southern California over the next 12 months. We invite you to be a part of the creative process with us.


the Sheiks
Los Angeles, CA

Stay tuned for further details!

The billing for the "Rites of Spring" on April 21st was finalized yesterday- appearing with the Sheiks will be;

BUDDY ZAPATA & THE SHUFFLING ARMENIANS


“Someone recently called my music ‘junkshop blues’ and I’m keepin’
it!” says singer-songwriter and guitarist Buddy Zapata.

It’s true that collectively the sound of Zapata’s tunes conjure
visions of saw horses, old 78 rpm records, a cast-off voodoo doll
and a nylon wig or two, but the melodies, born in the fertile
Mississippi Delta, treated by way of East LA and merged with
workshop grind are infused with lyrics that bleed California-grown
soul: it’s a nuevo blues-thing, and it’s the terrain he covers on
his debut, Turo.

The blue notes come natural to Zapata, no matter whether he’s
floatin’ downstream to the tune of the supernatural tale “Boat
Ride,” doing a dreamy take on the traditional tune “Deep Blue Sea,”
transforming “Samson and Delilah” into a gritty roadhouse jam, or
sliding on his National resonator guitar and evoking feelings on the
instrumental “Father’s Son.”

Recorded in 14 hours over two-days at San Diego’s Start Studios.
“Most of my favorite music was created by accident,” he says. “If
there were mistakes, we decided we’d keep them.” The album takes
its title from a special in-studio guest. “Turo was my dad’s
nickname,” explains Zapata. “It felt like his spirit was with us
while we worked and the album is an unofficial tribute to him.”

Raised in East LA and Whittier California on a fat dose of Mexican
rock’n’roll and ‘60s and ‘70s AM radio, “My origins are easy to
understand,” he says, “This is what you get, though when I
say I’m from East LA people automatically ask me if I know Los
Lobos. And when I say Whittier, they always bring up Nixon.”

Zapata first discovered the blues when he was about 13. “An uncle
took me to one of his apartment complexes to clean out a vacated
unit filled with 78s and 45s. The one that caught my attention was
one by Sam "Lightning" Hopkins. That was my first blues record and I
kept digging deeper after that.”

In high school and during the punk rock era, Zapata soaked in the
primitive sounds at Hollywood’s notorious underground clubs; on more
than one occasion, he relieved Tom Waits who was moonlighting as a
doorman. “We mostly compared notes on Whittier,” he laughs.

Eventually he found himself with one foot in USC’s architecture
school and living in Pasadena’s historic Gamble House while his
other foot was firmly planted in the blues clubs of South Central.

“I started playing with serious intent when I finished school and
immediately fell in with some local LA blues acts, people
who were much better than I who made me become a better player,” he
says of musicians like Charlie Chan, Coco Montoya and Denny Freeman,
among others.

For the recording of Turo, he was assisted by producer and
saxophonist Archie Thompson (Los Straitjackets) whose brother Mike
Thompson (Eagles, Rod Stewart) had been a longtime supporter of
Buddy’s work.

“Mike once convinced me not to quit music,” he says. “And Archie really helped step things up with his unusual ideas.” Zapata also credits a gang of session players who generously got on board for the project.

These days his live band features bassist Angus “Bangus” Thomas
(Miles Davis, John Mayall, Albert King) and drummer Victor Bisetti
(Los Lobos, Leo Kottke and Mickey Hart’s Planet Drum). “When
players like Angus and Vic say they like what I’m doing, I listen
with big ears,” he says.

Stay tuned for more news on Zapata’s brand of junkshop
blues as he prepares to tour his home state of California in 2007.

“I think of my music as if it’s a curio shop, with broken pieces of
dust-covered stuff scattered everywhere, a little bit of this and
that, but it all means something to me,” he says.

SAMANTHA TOBEY

Singer/songwriter Samantha Tobey's voice cuts through L.A.'s smog like a burst of fresh air. She's Hollywood's idea of a hometown heroine, born and raised under the stars (her grandmother was a song and dance girl as well), with an uncanny knack for contemplating the beauty and sadness of it all. Samantha's rising star comes after years of building a loyal fan base in SoCal with a ton of memorable gigs (The Viper Room, The Mint, The Derby, The Cat Club, Alterknit Lounge, and many others.) Her sultry, angelic voice has brought comparisons to Tori Amos, Sarah McLaughlin and Jenny Lewis . (think what stream-of-consciousness heartbreak sounds like coming from a wide-eyed child). With her haunting melodies and cutting lyrics, Samantha is poised to reach the next step of her career with her first EP entitled Fall Like the Leaves, which includes "Rocks and Stones," "11 Shades of Red," and "12 O'Clock." Her vocal range runs the gamut -- from quiet and moody to shameless and kick-ass. Samantha's music shimmers with promises of hope and heart, of love lost and won again, of fleeting glimpses at a better tomorrow. It plays with our familiar (and familial) collection of stories. It teases the potency of a Forgotten Dreamworld. It's acoustic raw emotion, charged with soul and tempered by loss. The immediacy and intimacy of Samantha Tobey's songs reminds us all to face those ghosts And maybe, just maybe, they're not so scary with her at your side. "Samantha's artistry is a breath of fresh air wonderful tunes with a beautiful voice Her material sparkles with good nature, soft unspoken charm and outright talent!" - Ann O'Lear, "Music Connection"


And back by popular demand-

Jumpin' Jack Benny will be the MC for the evening.

http://independentartistscompany.com/genre_chart.aspx?Genre=R%26B%2FSoul

http://iacmusic.com/genre_chart.aspx?genre=Christian%2fSpiritual

The Sheiks have been chosen as one of three featured artists at
"The Blues Bunny". Check the
sight after February 18th.

www.bluesbunny.com/default.htm

http://www.audiocandy.com/mdat/playlist.php?id=40&tpl_dir=skin&skin=Cobalt&template=jr_playlist.tpl

1 Paulie Cerra - Junkie's lament (Self Release)
2 Daddy Mack Blues Band - Royal shade the blues (Inside Sounds)
3 Swamp Cabbage - Tallahassee (Self Release)
4 Kevin Coyne - Whispering desert (Ruf)
5 Nina Van Horn - You changed (Cristal)
6 Peter Nande - Comin' home (Straight Shooter)
7 Miller Brothers Bnad - Wolf at your door (Foundry Town)
8 Roxanne Potvin - While I wait for you (Alert Music)
9 Bo Diddley - Doctor Jekyll (Blue Label/SPV)
10 Charles Walker - Ease the pain (Ehlona)
11 The Electrophonics - Fill skill (Retro Swing)
12 Michael Power - Prodigal son (Baryon)
13 Deep River Boys - Rock a beatin' boogie (Smith & Co.)
14 Katherine Davis - Way back home (The Sirens)
15 C.S. Leyland with N. James & B. Hernandez - 515 miles (Sacred Cat)
16 Cleveland Fats - Cheaters never win (Honeybee)
17 Doghouse Daddies - Mary had a little lamb (Greenback Hill)
18 The Mescal Sheiks - Better get ta steppin' (BlueCap)
19 Walter Jr. - Leave well enough alone (Gatortone)

With the coming end to the month we've completed the first of 3 1/2 months of rehearsals for our '07 concert schedule beginning April 21st with the FOE Hall Party and ending on New Year's Eve.

We've written twelve new songs that we'll be recording in sessions in April-May-June and November.

Six of the new songs will be in our 90 minute set for 2007.
We'll be doing all the songs from "This World" and with the new songs we'll be weaving among them will make it an 19 song evening.

So for those planning to attend one of the eight concerts we'll be doing- make sure your dancing shoes have heels - the groove is very deep this year!

http://iacmusic.com/underground40.aspx

The Sheiks began rehearsals today for our 2007 performance
schedule at The Alley in North Hollywood - and we're performing with a different line up than we used on the sessions for "This World".

Clabe Hangan - vocals / percussion

Danny Broussard - vocals / percussion

Rick Solem - keyboard / vocals

Rick Smith - harmonica / percussion

Jeff Silbar - guitar

Dean Sterling - guitar / vocals

Angus Thomas - bass

Albert Trepangier Jr- drums


Look for the schedule announcements in the coming
weeks!

http://www.audiocandy.com/mdat/chart.php?

Has added "Baby Whatcha Do", "Fool For You", "Got To Have Me Two" and "Looking Out 4 #1" to their playlist.
http://www.ms-blues.com/playlist.php