Hullo, folks!
So we had an awesome album release last month and that was all dandy. There’s been one show since then, an acoustic duo set with me and Guy at Kaleidoscope. But a week from Friday is the real next show, by which I mean it’s where we’ll unveil…The New Radical Folksonomy!
Let me be frank here. Erika and Jay were (are) pretty darn near irreplaceable. I’ve had a few ideas floating around about people whom I could bring in to fill in those respective roles, and have even tried things out with a few people. So far nothing’s stuck, but you know what? A) Searching for new band members is tiring, like job hunting or online dating and B) more importantly, the longer I’ve had to get used to the idea of having a more stripped-down, rock and roll line-up, the more I’ve grown to kind of like it. And now we’ve had a few really good practices and I’m feeling really good about the direction of things.
What does it sound like? Well, number one, we’re coming right out the gates with no less than THREE new songs on this show. All written this year, after I had already gotten the news that Erika and Jay would be departing. So they all work really well with the group we’ve got. Now, one of the things I was most self-conscious about going forward was not having another singer to pretty up the vocal side of things. But then, lo, I happen to have two talented singers in Guy Brown and Alex Stein (significantly more competent than myself, really). And true, there’s something uniquely charming about the male/female vocal pairing; but having all dudes singing is a nice sound too, especially if you do it in three parts, which is something that we’re going to start having a lot more of. I’ve actually given Alex the mantle of “vocal harmonies musical director”, since he has a knack for figuring that stuff out.
Honestly what I’m most concerned about it how to rearrange our ‘classic’ repertoire without the female vocal and keyboard elements. But I think we’ll figure it out by degrees, even if it means temporarily retiring some songs. Would I still consider bringing new people in to fill those roles? Maybe, but I’m kind of going back to the mindset I had in the early days of the Folksonomy when it was just me, Guy, Erika and Jay. My mentality then was, “I’ve got a good core group of people, and if other people are going to be a good fit, it’s worth waiting to find them.” Same now. We’re going to be fine.
Anyway, you should totally come to the show next Friday: hell of intimate dinner show at my place in West Oakland. Two achingly good solo performers (Wolf Larsen and Trans Van Santos) and a mother of a female supergroup, Fox & Woman. Gonna be the jam! That is all.
Amina Shareef Ali 