GET YOUR TICKETS HERE!

While last in Shanghai (June 2010 – December 2010), we were featured in a commercial for (what was then) the new Canon IXUS cameras.  Obviously, that’s not our music, but that is the House of Blues and Jazz, and that is Mike Null & The Soulcasters.

That’s Chris Sublette on bass, Gabriel Guerrero on piano, Max Zemanovic on drums and Dana Shellmire on vocals.

We’ll be playing 6 nights a week, Monday through Saturday, for four months (October 3 – February 3) at club Centro, housed within the Kerry Center Shangri-La Hotel.

This is not only our first time in Beijing, but our first time playing at and staying in a 5 star hotel.  Apparently the decor you see in the above pic will not be there, as they are just finishing renovations and will be reopening with a bang (a new decor, and a new all American band)!

It is my honor to announce that we will have the great pleasure of supporting New Orleans based vocalist, the lovely Sasha Masakowski.

Sasha is an incredibly versatile and skillful vocalist and we are very much looking forward to building a show around her.

The lineup for this run will be:

Steve Belleville on bass (from the original Mike Null Blues Band lineup). Steve is a sharp dresser with a sharp tongue, a lady killer,  and a consummate multi-instrumentalist and  musician.

Todd Marston (from the Soulcasters Shanghai lineup) on piano and keyboard. Todd is a master yogi, a meditator, a fine chef, a comedian, a tasteful musician and an all around centered and great guy.

Max Zemanovic (also from the Soulcasters Shanghai lineup) on drums. Max is a thinker, a non-drinker, and a modern day gypsy with a personality as solid as his groove.

So much to do!  Visas, contracts, rehearsals .. oh my.  I’m very excited for this run, as I think it will be musically challenging and rewarding.  The presence of Sasha changes the focus of the repertoire, which is usually anchored in heavy blues.  Sasha comes from more of a jazz background, so we will be experimenting with applying our Soulcasters sound and arrangement skills to a different feel and approach.  I welcome the chance to explore the new sounds and adventures this trip will bring.

Know any great sights to see in Beijing?  Please leave us a comment and tell us where to go, whom to meet and what to see!

Get your tickets HERE before they SELL OUT!

I’ve updated my calendar page to reflect some of the dates we’ve thrown together. If you’re in the Tuscaras area of Ohio and feel like gettin’ down with some of the area’s best blues and classic rock & roll, keep your eyes and ears peeled for BandHouse!

Follow BandHouse on Facebook!

I played a supporting electric guitar for the Velveteen Playboys new release, “Shakin’ not Stirred”. I recorded with a great group of guys and I’m very proud of how it turned out. Not to toot our own horn, but the album sounds great! Click the picture below to get your rock on.

Storybook Steve’s new album is quite a listening experience. I’m excited to say that I’ve made my world recording debut on piano and synth! Click the pic below to check it out!

The primary guitarist is Robert Holmes, formerly of the band ‘Til Tuesday. Working with him has been such an inspiration because he is true blue professional. During our rehearsals, performances and studio sessions, every note out of his guitar was a free guitar lesson in what to do and what not to do.

Shameless plug: Grab a copy of the new Velveteen Playboys album HERE!

Recently, I was browsing his website and came across this great article he wrote called “Advice”. Some of the tips and opinions expressed therein were so great, I had to pass it on.

Recently I’ve noticed a whole new crop of exceptionally talented teenagers who are already so far beyond what me and my peers were doing in our teens it makes me dizzy. However, the day is right around the corner when you doing music well “for such a young person” is going to evaporate, and then it will just come down to whether or not you are any good. Being young and good is a positive, but the window of using it to your advantage is closing and you want to play longer than a few years don’t you? If you play for as long as I have, and I was one of those “for his age he’s amazing, a prodigy!” (I wasn’t a prodigy…..see fans) it will be but a blip of time on your career path. The bulk of what you do will be stacked up against the best in the business. You’re in a competition with the people who influenced you.

Many people find it hard to take advice, and there are usually a whole lot of people who want to give it out. Evidently I’m not an exception.

For what it’s worth, if I could meet myself at 16 there are some of the things I would tell myself and my band mates.

Always play and or sing it like you mean it. There is never an appropriate time to phone in your performance. In a cover band, when you’re learning a song, try to at least start by doing exactly what it was the original artists did to have a song good enough that now, you’re learning to copy it. Chances are your reinterpretation is a “less than”, experience for everyone else. And the odds are, your embellishments are not very good. Ever heard the expression “reinventing the wheel”? You’re not doing that are you?

That said, I think the greatest obstacle to young bands sounding good is often, players over playing.

Guitar players; Almost nobody cares or notices the difference, other than the visual, when you change guitars from one song to the next, so the only justifiable reason is that you broke a string or you need a different tuning, otherwise, unless you can do it really quickly, it’s probably unnecessary, and it’s a lot more gear for everyone to haul around. Oh, it has a different tone? You think that has enough of an impact at a live gig do you? OK if you must, do it as fast as possible.

Pedals. You really don’t need that many. I know, I’m guilty too, but I’m telling you, a cranked up amp usually sounds better than a distortion box. Simple is better, all around. Half the time the pedals just make it sound mushy….I’m talking live. And distortion? You’re probably using too much. Play with the amp cleaner and play harder and use heavier strings and perhaps a heavier pick. I’ve seen people get annoyed at the statement, it’s in the hands. (on “the gear pages” anyway) Sorry, but it’s true. It is in the hands, period, assuming your guitar is set up nicely. Play cleaner and harder if you want to rock. You can’t use a wimpy pick and wimpy strings with a light touch through a distortion pedal and expect it to sound like rock. Rock has energy, so you have to put energy into it, in order to make it rock. All the guys whos playing you like, dig in. Trust me. Wimpy attack, thin strings, equals thin, wimpy sound. You need to move air, and that is done with more mass and intensity. Now I know there are examples of guitar players that use thin strings and thin picks and sound great, Billy Gibbons springs to mind, but I would say they are exceptions. They are already professionals to start with and their technique is very accurate. I’m not talking about them. I’m talking about guitar players in general that have trouble cutting through the mix.

Solos. Few people care about solos beyond other guitarists. People like them enough, but then they move on. Solos can be a nice departure especially if you include melodic elements or add some kind of excitement factor, but they’re more of a side dish than a main course. Truly. Don’t believe the hype. Yes there is an entire industry built around pedals, amps, guitars, solos, but that isn’t the general public. To a hammer, everything looks like a nail and it’s in the best interest of music gear manufacturers to sell you on the next great pedal or amp. Are you really interested in playing almost exclusively for male guitar players? How many girls are at a Joe Satriani concert? There are probably some, but it’s mostly guys that play guitar. I’d be willing to bet there are very few girls who don’t play guitar that even listen to guitar player records let alone pay money to see them live. And do you really think we need another person playing blues licks? Stevie Ray, Joe Bonamassa, Gary Moore, the list goes on and on and on. OK, two of the aforementioned are dead, but I promise you there are plenty of guys in the pipeline. And there are enough guys that can play their asses off and sing their asses off simultaneously. Plus many of them are great performers. Chances are, you don’t have it covered so ask yourself, honestly, why does the world really need to hear from me? What’s in it for them? Ask that one again and again. What is in it for the public? Why, why, why should they be paying attention to your blues licks? Why? Because you’re adding your own thing to it? Sorry, you aren’t. You’re imitating the people that influenced you. OK at a back yard cookout or a little local club. Go ahead, learn them all, you need to and they’re fantastic. Do a cover of “Texas Flood”. Your buddies will tell you, you sound just like Stevie Ray. Smile and thank them, but privately don’t believe them. And don’t make the mistake of trying to base a whole career around it. Unless you are truly a badass, and you’d know if you were. If you think you might be, you probably aren’t. You’d be 90 percent sure, and don’t kid yourself. Define badass? Derek Trucks pops to mind. Jeff Beck. Are you that good? Not can you play some of those licks the way he does, but are you going to give him a run for his money? Because nobody is interested in Derek Trucks or Jeff Beck lite. Nobody, other than your friends. Why, why do we need another Derek Trucks? We don’t. We’ll go straight to him if we want that. Sure, you can do it at a local club, but if it comes to someone parting with their hard earned money why would they buy your CD over his? Really, you would do well not to focus your energy too much on playing hot blues based guitar, all night long, in public. Or putting together a rhythm section so you can go out and imitate it exclusively. You can get club gigs, but that’s where your career is going to stall. There are really so many mediocre blues bands in the world you should really try to think of a twist. (Songs!?) Yes, you can get away with it for a long time and it might be better than nothing in some towns but examine your motives carefully. It might be a vanity effort, so don’t be disappointed if the crowds don’t show up. And it’s not that I believe artists need to focus on crowd pleasing. It’s more that I believe good artists are rare.

Rhythm guitar etc. This is so important you just can’t believe how important it is. It’s the cornerstone of guitar playing assuming you agree that it’s song based music that moves the general public. It’s hard to be a good rhythm player. Many players rush and lose the groove or just don’t dig in. Play simply and cleanly and resist, resist, resist, adding all kinds of extra shit. Too many licks between chords, licks that step all over the vocal, licks licks licks, enough already! I like them as much as anybody and I play a ton of them, alone, but you’re probably over doing it. It’s your ego that wants you to play so many licks and then it becomes all about you and not about the songs. Look at me, look at me, look at me! Look at me I can play licks ! And? Why? Why is that an important enough skill that I should be watching? It doesn’t matter if it’s good for you, that you’ve come a long way in your playing. Nobody cares about your personal struggle to play well, and when people want blues, they want the real thing done really well with real feeling and the assumption is you’ll have chops and be good. They can sense it when it’s just some suburban ego wank fest and they will respond to that by not showing up to your gigs and not buying your CD. They wont come up and tell you they think you’re mediocre. They’ll just ignore you or worse, feign interest because they like the idea of someone making an effort. I think there are probably more instances of audiences clapping because they feel sorry for the artists and want them to feel appreciated and loved than anyone cares to admit to. Most of the time they’re being nice when they clap and real when they don’t.

And try not to be keeping the groove going by doing all sorts of chunky time keeping stuff in between with the pick. Play more like a keyboard player in this regard. It’s on or it’s off. All that, in between time keeping crap, contributes to making it sound messy. To a point. A little bit is O.K. Listen to Angus and Malcom. Clean, fat, sharp. I know, I know, you get less attention when you play rhythm. Less people are paying attention to you and you want attention don’t you? Of course you do. There is no shame in that. Otherwise, just play in your bedroom or basement. But I know you think, they think rhythm playing is what you do when you don’t know how to play lead. True only in some instances, but you want to make a career out of this don’t you? If you play solid rhythm more people will want you in their bands. Songwriters, singers, bass players, drummers, good ones, all will like working with you. In fact everybody likes working with guitar players that can sing and hold it down. You’ll get your chance to play some hot licks, until then you’ve got an important job to do. Playing guitar on songs. Think for a minute about the demand in bands for hot soloists? How often do you see ads looking for a hot lead soloist in song oriented bands? They might be looking for a lead guitar player, but secretly they’re hoping that you aren’t going to show up and be all Yngwie or Steve Vai ‘d out. It’s boring when guitar players are all about soloing, especially over blues progressions.. They’d rather you be a parts player, capable of letting it rip in the right moment, as an addition to a song, a vocal and a point of view. And turn down during the verses. Dynamics. Leave some head room to get louder. Don’t play on 10 all the time. Sing. Learn to at least sing back ups. That’s more important in the long run, than the ability to play licks. If you think songs exist as a platform for soloing………you’re wrong. Get your priorities straight. Don’t forget, this is coming from a guy who actually can play world class licks! I’m telling you this because I want you to be valued as a band guy. And it’s a bitter pill to swallow, especially if you’ve put some serious time into learning to play, to realize that although you think there a whole lot of people who bought Dire Straits records because of the great guitar playing, the fact is, the people who recognize the great guitar playing are in the minority. The bulk of the people who bought Dire Straits records, liked the songs. It’s a huge plus that the performances are so great, but without the songs the interest factor drops way off. I’m not saying don’t practice or learn to play licks. You need to learn them and you absolutely need to practice, but unfortunately the hours and hours and hours of time you put into playing are so you can get good. And then when you’ve gotten good, you’ll only do a little of it.

It’s OK. Think about a factory that makes after dinner mints. I’m guessing there are huge expensive machines made to produce a simple after dinner mint. Whole crews, engineers making serious money, buying property, getting bank loans, hiring lawyers, constructing buildings, taste testers, chocolate makers, mint flavor production facilities, water lines, electric lines, heating systems, phone systems, employee lounges, employee lounge furniture, secretaries, all so they can produce a simple after dinner mint. That’s what your time spent practicing is like. When someone pops that after dinner mint in their mouth, they aren’t interested in all the machines that produce them, or how difficult it was to get the financing for the mint o matic. They just want to eat the mint, enjoy it for a few seconds and move on. That’s the value of your licks and solos pretty much. Regular folk like songs and vocals and a beat you can dance to. And regular folk will be your bread and butter, like it or not. I’m not talking about jazz. That’s a whole different subject. That’s all about soloists and then it’s all turned around.

I’m talking here about playing guitar in people pleasing rock music songs. Take a good look at music fans and the people that buy CD’s. How much do they care or notice that your Les Paul is a rare one? They don’t care one teeny tiny bit.
Do not aim exclusively to please other musicians. If you’re any good, they will come around anyway, and they will applaud you for your restraint.

Drummers; That double pedal? It has really limited value buddy. 60% less please. Easy on the fills, don’t step on the vocal. You’re speeding up when you do that fill, so please, use sparingly. Oh you’re Neil Peart? Sorry, didn’t realize. My mistake. And if you’re learning a cover, again, get the real tempo in your head and try to cop the exact part the original guy played, at least to start with. It’ll be harder doing what the original guy did than doing your own thing. And not harder for the reasons you think it’s harder. Harder because of the restraint and accuracy needed to evoke the original groove. He didn’t speed up during his fills and he didn’t play gratuitous fancy double kick drum licks either. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve suffered through “Play That Funky Music” on a gig and it was so unfunky it was sad. Speaking of, if you find yourself in the unfortunate position of playing ” Play That Funky Music” for the thousandth time, you owe it to the rest of us to at least do like the name says and make it funky. It’s slower, simpler and drier sounding than you think. Same thing with Brick House. Never played Brick House? You will. It’s slower than you’re feeling it. AC DC too, that stuff is slower than you think. Fat and heavy. Not sprightly and eager. Oh, you’re doing covers but with your own twist? Why? Oh, I see, the original was hit n’ all but your version is different and actually better in some ways. Kind of like how the Red Hot Chili Peppers doing Higher Ground is better in some ways than Stevie Wonder? OK, go on Groovesharkright now and listen to both back to back. I rest my case. I’m not saying there is no value in the Chili Peppers reinterpretation, I’m saying just because it’s easier to do it your own way, when you are learning you may need to do things that require more effort and focus, and it’s often a harder route.

Singers; Sorry, I know you can’t hear yourself cause we’re too loud back here. It’s is rock music however, so you might need to either sing with more presence, (better) or get in ear monitors and we will try to turn down a little. But I’m not sure our volume is an excuse for singing flat. I think that’s something else. And truly, the rest of us need to understand, you are the most important person up there. I’m not being facetious. It’s fact. But the hand held percussion? Tambourines and shakers etc? You know, there are full time professional percussion guys, that do nothing but play those instruments, really well, so you would be served well to think twice about how necessary tambourine is on every song. Usually it’s used sparingly for accent and often it’s a part and not a non stop rattling. I’m sorry if you need something to do, but the base music is built on is silence. Then you add stuff as needed, so non stop extra percussion is over playing. And speaking of unnecessary, bad back ground vocals from the rest of the band don’t add, they detract. Tell them, unless they can sing on pitch, it’s probably better they keep quiet. But while we’re on the subject…..I know if you’re a front person you like to be the center of attention, and the audience likes it too. Good, someone needs to step into those robes. But that doesn’t mean your every utterance is worthy of our attention. Don’t ask how everyone is doing tonight, please don’t ! You aren’t really listening, you don’t really want to know how everyone is doing tonight. You just want them to yell out and prove to you that they’re paying attention. Or you’re filling space because you feel awkward. Either way it’s disingenuous. If you really wanted to know how everyone is doing tonight you wouldn’t ask them all at once and you wouldn’t be able to tell the ones that weren’t doing well tonight anyway. Those people aren’t doing well so they probably won’t yell out “Poorly”. I know, you’re thinking, “Oh c’mon, Robert everybody knows that when a singer asks “how’s everybody doing tonight ” they aren’t really asking. It’s just a custom. Everybody does it” I don’t think you can afford to fall back into default behavior. You’re up against the best of the best. Be real. Listen, you love the sound of your own voice. That’s fine, you should love the sound of your own voice, but talking too much on stage, ” in ” jokes, or lengthy explanations of where you were and why you wrote the song? Unless you’re a hit already, save it. It’s not working and it makes you look pompous. Further more, only the most clearly stated announcements over a low budget PA system can ever be understood by the bulk of the people. You do not have their undivided attention. Just run one song into the next, then you won’t have to talk so much. And if it’s the guitar player changing guitars? See above.

Keyboard players. On a keyboard sound that isn’t a piano, in a band, I think you need to do less left hand stuff. We have a bass player for that. You would do well to view playing in a band differently from accompanying a singer solo. Otherwise we love you, and if you’re any good, you’re hard to find. But play parts in a band. Don’t play the song as if the rest of the band isn’t playing. It quite possibly sounds messy. If you play the parts you play, when the band is not playing, and it still sounds like the whole song, you might be doing it wrong. You don’t need to keep the groove going with your left hand all the time.

Bass players. Well if you’re any good, and that means you have a great groove and play with conviction and don’t speed up or slow down my only suggestion is, please slap and pop sparingly…in a rock band. Otherwise you can get away with a lot if you want to, especially if you have a guitar player that isn’t over playing. That said, it’s safer to keep it simple, but by all means explore the chords.
But when you drop out to fiddle with something, the whole bottom drops out, so wait ’til the song is over if possible to tweak that crucial amp setting. Hammering on is not the same. Tell your drummer the same thing. We notice when you play with one hand to adjust something. Can it possibly wait ’til the song is over? Would you do that if you were recording live? You know, someone might be recording you live.

Sax players, harp players etc; You can’t really play chords. That just means you have to do something else, like nothing, when you aren’t needed. Gratuitous percussion? See above under singers. You’re usually playing solos and some parts, so no need to keep busy trying to seem valuable. You are already valuable, because we can’t play your instrument. In a serious, professional band you won’t get to play anything that isn’t pre thought out. Think about that. Serious professionals won’t let you free associate on your instrument.

Noodling. You know what noodling is don’t you? Fiddling around on your instrument. It’s different from serious practicing. Lots of players noodle and it has value. For example; it’s a rehearsal and you have a riff or progression and you aren’t sure if you want to officially present it to the rest of the band, but you’d like them to sort of over hear it, so you play it, hoping someone will say “what’s that?” because they like it. I know songs have been written that way or cover songs added to the set because of it. But on stage or sound check think twice. Yes, you need to test out your volume etc, but to then continue noodling it looks like you want to strut the stuff you don’t get to play within the parameters of the songs or the band. Your motives are mostly transparent to professionals. And house monitor guys, sound guys and your band mates now they have to yell their communication over you. If you’re any good they’ll probably hear you later when you play anyway. But by noodling at volume you’re not adding to the smoothness of the business at hand, you’re now making it difficult. There is a lot of resisting you have to do as a professional musician. Resisting playing extra shit and having faith that the people you’re working with already think you’re good. And you don’t really need to warm up at volume if you’re a keyboard player, guitar player, bass player or drummer.

Regarding fans; They tell you what they think you want to hear, and then they exaggerate. Don’t believe it. They’re in your face, they want you to like them, they like you, they’re impressed that you’re up there doing it and they aren’t, and they want to like you in advance, but will they follow through? Odds are once they’ve made the effort to see you they might feel like they paid the bill, especially if there isn’t much in it for them. Will they actually track down buying a CD of your original music? Will they make plans around your upcoming gig? They’re wonderful and they make the music business go around, but they’re fickle. And they like other artists too. Never take them for granted but don’t believe everything they tell you about how they feel about your music when they’re in front of you. They’re just being supportive. They say things like “definitely let us know when you’re playing again!”. They tell you they’re your biggest fans and that they listen to your CD all the time. If you’re feeling mean, quiz them. Ask them to recite some of the song titles on this record that means so much to them. Bless them, but a lot of what they say is bullshit. They’ll tell you you’re their favorite singer or drummer or guitar player etc but the fact is, their real favorite is a professional that they’d rather be seeing if they only had the money or tickets. You might be only better than nothing to them. They don’t owe you a thing, not honesty, not undying support, nothing. You owe them.

Write songs; You would do well to try to write songs as much as possible. The entire music business is built upon good songs. This will always be your trump card. Start writing about anything and everything. The more real or personal, the better in my book. At the very least, try to come up with catchy riffs or sections and progressions and then be open and willing to work with others. And try not to cling too tightly when you do work with others.

I want you to go forth and Rock, and if you do it better, it’s going to help everyone. Just zoom out of your reality and take a cold calculated long look at yourself from the outside and don’t cut yourself slack or make excuses. If you sing or play badly on your live recordings, your excuse, whatever it may be, is an excuse and nobody else cares why. You’re judged by the public on results, not efforts. Stack yourself up against the best. I certainly don’t know it all and I would do well to take my own advice too, in fact I have. Writing this has helped me trim out some of my own bullshit and clarify my own motives. And after I wrote the first draft I even got rid of my distortion box!

You can read more about Robert Holmes at his website.

Shameless plug: Grab a copy of the new Velveteen Playboys album featuring Robert and I on guitar!

Look at what I found! Click on the little winder on the side to rev it up.

Metronome by BestMetronome.com

Now there’s no excuse for not practicing without a metronome. You can even access it from your mobile phone. I’ve also heard there’s a great metronome iPhone app available as well.

This is (another) video of “Hideaway” , a guitar instrumental originally by the late great Freddie King, filmed LIVE at the Legendary House of Blues and Jazz in Shanghai, China.

More to come! Stay tuned! Special thanks goes out to Fella Film Studios, Shanghai for doing such a great job.

That’s Earl “The Pearl” Phenix on keys, Chris Sublette on bass and Matt Lydon on drums! Those of you in Shanghai will recognize Earl from the fall of 2009, when I brought him over to the House of Blues and Jazz. You might also recognize Chris from the second half of 2010, when he held down the bass chair for The Soulcasters!

Thanks to everyone who braved the arctic Boston winter temperatures to spend the evening with us. It was a great night! Earlier on we had some special guests sit in with us… James Houlahan (of Dogs on Television) and singer/songwriter Rebecca Muir graced us with their presence and talents.

This show was a nice warm up for our return show at Smoken Joe’s BBQ this Friday! Hope to see you there.