Local Fame Dogs the Smilin' Bluesman

Oregon State University' Life@OSU series recently posted video and written profiles on the slide-steel side of Learning Technology Leader and X-Tension Chords star, the smilin' bluesman, Jeff Hino.

Check it out --
Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Athm5hFDKI4
Article: http://oregonstate.edu/dept/ncs/lifeatosu/2008/hino-gets-the-blues/

Lady Rocks the House: Janet Allen (Band Profiles, Part VI)

Soulful chanteuse Janet Allen started singing before she could spell "USDA" -- before she could walk, even -- and she's always been happy to share her talent with family and friends. Christian music was her favorite right from the start. Age 13 saw her first formal performance, singing in a church choir, and you'll still find her there of a Sunday morning. Or at least you will be until someone on the board of elders stumbles across this blog and find out about her rock and soul alter-ego. (Don't Google me, bro!)

But on with the story. With Janet's teen years came voice lessons in high school, which led naturally enough to a music major in college, and then of course to -- wait a minute -- "a job at USDA?" Yes, folks, it was then that the still, small voice of Practicality (a concept one or two of us in the band have heard stories about) that cleared its throat, says Janet, and subtly suggested that "it might be better to work at a reasonably stable job with retirement than possibly bus tables on Broadway til age 50, still trying to 'make it big.' " Yeah, well you can take the singer out of the pipeline to fame, but you can't take the pipes out of this singer. Or something like that. And so say we all, right?

Since college, Allen has kept her chops up as a nights-and-weekends warrior. For a while she was vocalist with a top-40 cover band, but soon she and her husband, Ralph, split off from the group to make their own duo act, 2-4-U. It's a partnership that has worked out well both for the music and for the parties involved. Janet and Ralph play a range of rock, swing, hymns, country music, and jazz standards, performing mostly for private parties: anniversaries, birthdays, fraternal organizations, second (and occasionally first!) weddings. They've slowed down their performance schedule a bit lately so they can concentrate on their latest hit -- one-year-old son Conner, whom some of you met at ACE this June in Traverse City.

But not even a dozen babies could keep Janet from any true rocker's dream gig: a once-a-year engagement belting out the classics with the all-star international line-up of the ACE X-Tension Chords! She's been a regular with the band, adding her own vocal je ne sais quoi since Quebec City. We may have been playing with smoke and mirrors at Traverse City this year, but Janet Allen's voice is the real thing all the way through. Truly smokin'!

X-Tension Chords Shorts

In Traverse City, it appears, the cows come home at midnight. That’s what the X-Tension Chords and their fans learned at Shimmers nightclub when the witching hour rolled around to put an end to June 11th and an amazing night of dancing, fun, and rock ’n roll. This was the ’Chords 5th year performing at ACE, 4th time appearing in a pre-arranged room, 3rd time with a dance floor, 2nd time with a full PA (and official nametag ribbons), and 1st time with lights, fog, and a disco ball. True, we felt like we could have played another hour or two, but the early quitting time probably made for a more productive next day at the conference. Props to all the performers, “fifth Beatle” Randy Nemitz, and the crew at Shimmers.

An email note from the rental outfit that provided PA and most of our instruments: “I hope to work with you guys [sic] in the future! It’s very nice to get to work with people who are not jerks. Your band was by far one of my better gigs!” Clearly, the band has to work on its attitude.

The ’Chords Unplugged had its first performance on an Opera House stage the next night, opening for the house band. We started out a little shakey, but got going pretty quick with a set of blues and folk, and a little yodel tossed in here and there. Thanks go out to Debbie Hagenmeier and the conference planners who secured the gig for us, and to Judy Harrison & Swing Shift who so generously let us use their PA equipment. Also to 'Chords newcomer Brad Haire, who joined us on stage. My biggest fear was that I’d step up to the mic and see everything in our meager repertoire written down on Swing Shift’s set list, taped to the floor next to the mic stand.

Now everybody is practicing at not pronouncing our "S"s in preparation for next year's gig. All we can say is, “Look out, Des Moines!”

Top Ten Reasons . . .

For those of you who missed it, here are the Top Ten Reasons for having the X-Tension Chords play at the ACE conference (as read at the 2008 ACE Business Meeting in Traverse City, Michigan):

Reason #10. Five years of performances without a drummer blowing up.

Reason #9. Eric Estrada is not in the band.

Reason #8. Canadians are nice people to have around.

Reason #7. Proper use of Extension Chords can slow global warming!

Reason #6. They speak of the pompatus of love.

Reason #5. Two words: Rock and Roll.

Reason #4. They make you feel so young . . . by comparison.

Reason #3. Longest standing "community without practice" in eXistence.

Reason #2. John-boy is still kicking out the jams.

And the number-one reason to have the ACE X-Tension Chords play at an ACE conference:

They play real good, for free.

After Midnight

Well . . . maybe only 10 minutes after midnight, but still . . .
Click below to see a few snaps of the 'Chords plugged-in gig Wednesday night, June 11:

XTC2008 Rocks

X-Tension Chords 5th Anniversary Tour

Get ready, folks: It's almost time for the ACE MuSIG to make some noise! The ACE X-Tension Chords is plugging in again, as we rock the Lower Peninsula and get that big Michigan hand clapping with the beat!

Get ready for a rockin' night at Shimmers nightclub Wednesday night, when the Chords' Compact Electric Edition will have you dancing from 9 pm into the wee hours with many of the few rock standards that we know, and maybe a few we don't. Then Thursday's "Night at the Opera" dinner will see the Chords' Unplugged Edition opening for local musical sensations Judy Harrison & Swing Shift.

It's a great complement to the excellent educational and networking opportunities that we all really come to ACE Conferences for. Really.

So be there with your dancing shoes on -- or off, if you prefer -- and remember as you cut the rug that it's the heat, it's not the humidity . . . and it's certainly not anyone's age!

Have a great trip to Michigan, and we'll see you all there!

X-Tension Chords' North American Tour, 2008

Great news! Music meta-legends The X-Tension Chords have chosen Traverse City, Michigan, as the next stop in their North American tour, a string of performances that is now stretching into its fifth year. As luck would have it, their visit coincides yet again with the ACE International Conference's meeting dates. Not surprising, really, when you consider that all of the band members are also members of ACE. Chords fans will have at least two opportunities to enjoy their music at this year's conference.

ACE 2008 organizers have reserved Shimmers – one of Traverse City's hottest nightclub/dance venues – for a private party one night during the conference. The dance floor will be open, with the dancing powered by the Chords' trademark blend of classic rock, R and B, and eclectic oddities. The club's small stage will limit the size of the band to a core group for that performance, but they guarantee to pump out enough energy to keep dancers out of their chairs and spinning across the floor into the wee hours.

One or more "unplugged" sessions are also planned, where Chords regulars and drop-ins can share tunes in a more informal setting, recalling the spontaneity of the 2004 sessions at Lake Tahoe.

So make sure to include your dancing shoes when you pack for ACE 2008. And if you want to share in the music making, pack your favorite instrument, too, or just be ready to join in and sing. Whether verbal or nonverbal, we'll all be playing in pursuit of communications excellence. It's the ACE way!

Jim Coats: Playing for the Love of It (Band Profiles, Part V)

Born and raised in Northern California, Jim Coats grew up steeped in the pop music of the early to mid-60s, singing along to AM radio, 45 singles, and American Bandstand. Every Sunday night he watched the Ed Sullivan Show with his family, and there along with plate-spinners, performing bears, and the comedy of Wayne and Shuster he witnessed Elvis, the Beatles, the Lovin' Spoonful, Simon and Garfunkel, and other rock 'n' roll acts – and also got a glimpse of Duke Ellington, Louis Armstrong, and that whole jazz scene. He had had a few early years of piano lessons, but at age 11 Jim got his first acoustic guitar for Christmas. By lucky chance, this happened just in time for our hero to drag the guitar into his standard-issue pre-teen period of withdrawal from human society. In music he found an ideal outlet for adolescent angst and rage, and he continues to recommend it for that purpose right up to this day.

It wasn't til he went away to college in Berkeley, though, that Jim actually started to perform with other players. Some guys down the hall at the vegetarian co-op -- this was Berkeley, mind you -- were plunking out old-timey tunes on banjo (Mikey Gardner) and fiddle (Ben Lapp), and he asked if he could sit in. It was an easy fit, and soon he was backing the others up on guitar. Lapp was trying to learn a tune from a Bill Monroe record, and Jim was intrigued: the vocals on the record were awful, of course, but the tunes were great. The three of them worked out the tune, and a band was born: Gone Fishin'. They played gigs now and then – say, a wedding or party, or drop-in sessions at the local Irish pub – but mostly they just got together and played every week or so for the fun of it, says Jim, "like it was poker or bowling or something."

Then in the late 70s someone gave Jim a David Grisman record, and his mind was completely blown. Okay, maybe his mind was kind of that way anyway. But this was music like he'd never heard before. Here were the tight harmonies of bluegrass and the swing of hot jazz . . . and that crazy mandolin: a melody instrument that could jump out in front of the rhythm guitar and play, really, just about anything. The Bay Area was the center of a budding Mandolin Universe, and Jim got himself an instrument: an old, well-worn mando with its brand name, "Strad-O-Lin," painstakingly spray-painted onto its peg head. Cheap, maybe, but its frets were in the right place. Jim did a little editorial work for Grisman's magazine, Mandolin World News ("It fits in your case!"), went to workshops, and got a chance to play casually with folks way beyond his league. That was a huge thrill in itself, and besides that those folks were tremendously accepting and encouraging. It was a kindness that he would never forget.

Over the years since, Jim has managed to keep a day job, marry, buy a house, raise a family, and still continue to play in a variety of groups and idioms: bluegrass with the Narrow Gauge String Band, Irish with Riggity Jig, recorder quartets with the Yolo County Windpipe Ensemble, folk and world music with the Redwood Grovers, and of course good ole rock 'n' roll with the ACE X-Tension Chords. "Getting a paying gig is great," Jim says, "but I'm like the musical equivalent of a junkie, I guess. I swear, I'd do it anyway, just for the endorphins. When we're all up there playing and singing together, it's like we're sharing a mind, the band and the audience, thinking the same thoughts, sharing the emotions. Groupthink. Groupfeel. It's the ultimate high. And, of course, there's the free beer and adulation, and sometimes you do get paid for it." What could be better?

The Owen Roberts Story: A Rhapsody in Ab (Band Profiles, Part IV)

This is a story about Ab. In musical lingo, Ab is "A flat," not an abbreviation for Abraham, Abner, Absalom, or Abigail. Ab is where Owen Roberts's musical education began, and that probably explains a lot.

At age 13, Owen found it was not an option or a desire -- rather, it was a requirement -- that all cool guys be in a band. One of his best friends was Lonnie Aarssen, "an amazing keyboard player already at 13," and together they decided that if they were to be at the sharp edge of cool they needed a band. This despite the fact that Owen couldn’t play anything other than the Satisfaction riff on his acoustic guitar (a riff you can still hear any time the X-Tension Chords play) and The Wabash Cannonball.

What instrument, Lonnie wondered, could his sincere but talent-challenged pal play well enough to be part of the band (eventually called The Store, since most of the members worked at a -- you guessed it -- store)? Lonnie settled on the bass for Owen. Four strings shouldn’t be too hard, right? The only problem was, no one in the band knew much of anything about the bass: how to play it, for instance, or even how to tune it. But Lonnie was a teenager! A rebel! And in the spirit and wisdom of youth, he just made it up. (Please note: This guy is now a long-tenured, highly published biology professor at Queen’s University in Canada, one of the country’s most prestigious institutions. He also has his own blues band, and sings uptempo blues like he was born in Chicago).

To tune that bass, Lonnie focused on fundamentals, the ABCs. Or at least the A. Make that Ab. Who really knows what he was thinking? Under his expert guidance, our hero's first bass guitar (an ugly but affordable Kay) went from bottom to top, A flat, D flat, F sharp, "and I forget after that," recalls Owen, foggily. It didn’t really matter, because who played the top bass string, anyway? In fact, who played the top two strings? Show-offs, that’s who.

The best thing about this tuning was that no musicians watching him could figure out what the heck he was playing. He wasn't all that good, but he sure was different.

That merriment ended a few years and basses later, when Owen joined an established country band, The Alley Cats, to get himself through school. The band leader, Jim Stirling, was about 20 years Owen's senior and did amazing Elvis impersonations. He played a Fender Broadcaster, which is worth a mint now. He knew every country song imaginable. Owen hardly knew any, but Stirling's patience with the newcomer was legendary.

Onstage, Stirling wouldn’t even bother shouting out the name of the next song, he’d just shout out the key it started in. Owen would dutifully go to it, finger in place on the fretboard of his Hofner copy (totally out of place in a country bar, but no moreso than Owen, with his hair halfway down to his butt), waiting for the leader to kick it off. Stirling would stare over at Owen and emphatically repeat “C!,” expecting him to find the note where every other bassist would. But it was not to be. This drove Stirling nuts. "He’d see me poised," says Owen, "and keep shouting across the stage, looking at my finger position, 'C!' And I’d keep yelling back 'Got it right here!'” Stirling's wife, Gloria, was the drummer. Eventually, they divorced. Ab tuning probably had nothing to do with that, but it certainly didn’t promote harmony on stage.

In subsequent bands (The Reflections, Speed O’ Light, Canadian Grande, Spice, Hat Trick, The Mudcats, The Roberts, and most recently, the GMOs [www.gmomusic.com]), he continued to play bass for awhile, but finally switched to guitar, mainly because he was usually the lead singer/hot dog, and how many bassists (Sting and Sir Paul aside) double as leaders? "Ironically," Owen reflects, "it was then I came to appreciate the musical magic that takes place when a superb bassist and drummer hook up, like Ron and Robert in the X-Tension Chords. As the band’s quasi-front man, I can’t say enough about the rhythm foundation they give us, which is really the secret to how we can bring 12 people onstage, several of whom are shaking hands for the first time, and have it sound like we’ve been together for more than 30 seconds."