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."

John-Boy Victory Tour!

After more weeks that any of us would care to count, John-Boy Dickison is (by the grace of God and a great many of His helpers) on the road again, leaving the good folks at Geisinger Medical Center and headed for a spot much closer to home. Here's an excerpt from John's email:

"Good news, I’ve been traded to the State College team, and you’re invited to a potluck gathering this Saturday. As of 2pm today (Weds, Dec 19), I’ll be moving from Geisinger Medical Center in Danville, PA, back to Hearthside nursing home in State College. It will be lots easier for local folks to visit, but more importantly, it marks another step of progress toward recovery. I still need to keep my leg elevated, and avoid prolonged dangling, but eventually (a week or two) I can begin some 'non-weight-bearing crutch-walking.' Doesn’t that have a wonderful ring to it?

"The skin graft took very well, and they’re waiting for the exposed, drilled bone (top of my tibia, about two inches below my knee) to granulate and form some growth media that will support coverage. Skin needs to be fed with circulation from directly beneath, like grass, so a skin graft bridging the bone will just die if there’s no subsoil or topsoil (flesh or circulation) from below to feed it. Hence, we’re waiting to see what the bone grows, or else revisit some kind of muscle flap surgery down the road. But in the meantime, I will be AT LARGE! (bed-resting in a nursing home).

"Friends from church had the foresight to think I’d be at Hearthside by Christmas, and weeks ago reserved the community room at the nursing home for a PARTY—thanks, Ruby! So, please join us between 4 and 7pm at the Nittany Dining Room at Hearthside, address below.

"I will have a semi-private room for the first week or so, with a roommate, and without a phone. So, I won’t have internet much, and I’ll have the cell phone (email or contact Tracey to get the number). So, locals, come on down to the wrinkle ranch if you’re not doing anything Saturday. Bring a covered dish (with something in it) and enjoy the potluck. Tell any other friends who might not know.

"Mainly it’s a big thank-you to all of you who have kept me in your thoughts and prayers. Still workin’ on recovery process, but boy am I grateful for your support !!!

"Take care all, see some of you real soon! Love, John-Boy"

Robert "Steady" Casler, Rhythm King (Band Profiles, Part III)

Robert Casler's first drums were empty ricotta cheese containers that he played as a pre-teen, lip-synching to the Beach Boys and the Beatles with friends in a garage while the moms sold juice and cookies to neighborhood kids. He obviously had the right kind of parents: after that performance, his folks offered to pay for lessons. (Years later, it was deja vu when he debuted with the X-Tension Chords at Lake Tahoe. His drum kit consisted of the bottom of a hotel trash can, and yet again, shaking their heads, his parents offered to pay for lessons.)

Casler’s first public performance was similarly inauspicious. Sister Margaret had convinced his band to perform “The Alley Cat” at the 8th grade graduation assembly, while the other band in school threw caution to the wind and played rock and roll to an enthusiastic audience.

And it's just kept getting better. Casler has played lead snare, cymbals, and a mean triangle in a symphony orchestra. His high school marching band endured four years of losing football teams, and continued the scatological theme with a march behind the horses in the Macy’s St. Patrick’s Day parade – all the more challenging since the drummers never stop playing and they can’t see directly ahead of them. In high school he and his (non-marching) band made good money playing weddings, where he caught an occasional glimpse into the dark side of family celebrations: you can always count on a person requesting "Dixie," one asking for "The Stripper" (usually a middle-aged male), and one person who insists on playing your drums. He also learned the value of a strong family life: his dad was always there to pick him and his drums up, no matter where the gig was or how many extra sets he had to play. The list of his bands reads like a pantheon of middle school rock: The Continentals, Nadine and the Mophonics, The Lincoln Street Bullies.

Then things started to quiet down as Casler took on the father's role himself and sat back to watch his sons’ progress as musicians. A stint in a campus community orchestra showed him that little had changed over the years: the trumpet section was still preppy, the trombones still unruly, the clarinets very proper, . . . and the drummers never seemed to have any sheet music. In terms of musical performance, he thought his best days were behind him.

It was with no little shock and surprise, then, that he saw his hotel suite at the ACE 2004 conference at Lake Tahoe fill one night with singers, players, and newly minted fans for an informal jam session that turned into a launching pad for the X-Tension Chords phenomenon, with Robert and his sons filling out the band and sharing in the magic. (The boys also got to see how intoxicated people behave – a good primer for college life.) And the beat goes on.