It’s a Friday. John Velghe and The Prodigal Sons play their first public show with the entire 7-peice band. At The Record Bar. John Greiner and The Sawyers and The Katy Guillen – GoGo Ray Duo support.
John was recently interviewed by Ryan Quinn and Mike Kelley of After Hours Radio from Rice Lake, Wisconsin. They talked about the economics of touring, tips for bands just starting out touring and the new album Don’t Let Me Stay.
We’d love to see you at one of the shows below:
December 1st: 8PM John Solo at The Brick’s, Singer-Songwriter Forum. John will be the lone featured performer since tonight is the big recording package give-away at Cosgrove Audio.
December 2nd: 1911 Main, KCMO 8-11PM John Velghe and (some of) the Prodigal Sons. Chris and Mike will be joining John to perform songs from the new record, Don’t Let me Stay, as well as some covers. KC Trumpet Player, Hermon Mehari, may drop by and sit in on a few songs. John Griener and his band will start things off at 8PM.
December 20th: The Record Bar 1020 Westport Road, KCMO 7-9PM A matinee show with John Velghe and (some of) the Prodigal Sons. Again, Chris and Mike will be joining John to perform songs from the new record, Don’t Let me Stay, as well as some covers. Don’t miss this early show.
February 10th: The Record Bar 1020 Westport Road, KCMO 10PM John Velghe and The Prodigal Sons (the full, seven-piece outfit) will perform songs from their record, Don’t Let Me Stay. This will be your first chance to see the full seven-piece band perform together. Make sure you get there in time to catch Jenny Owen Youngs (NY) open the show.
If anyone ever asks me what makes this newest record different from the EP I’ll say that this “solo record” is more than anything a collaboration among some amazing musicians. From the first drum tracks Go Go Ray played on to the bass and guitar parts Chris and Mike added to the horns and strings, every one of these songs benefitted from these people who play on this record. Even Scott Born brought a sweet little counter melody to mind; always a trusted set of ears.
When I wrote these songs they were in a nutshell. On a cassette tape here, a voicemail message there, chords, words, melodies. Demoing them amounted to a basic 4/4 beat and singing and playing into a mic. A couple were never demo’d at all, instead committed from head to mic on the fly. (something I swear to stop doing, do, regret, and end up sticking with thanks to the feedback of some great friends) Each of the folks who played on these songs added something to it; like a kilner, stillman, and a blender.
I purposely went into this recording process without a finished product in my head. A dicey proposition, but I’ve gotten to the point that I know “the thing” when I hear it. Besides, going into a studio with full faith in the people you are playing with makes it a lot easier to stand or fall by the outcome.
So we’re here. The tracking board has only a few empty boxes where the Xs go. Mics have been aimed, Vox tubes blown, compressor knees flexed, mic ribbons tickled, cigarettes smoked, and spirits consumed. 15 songs in and there are some amazing parts committed to sine waves assembled from 1′s and 0′s.
We’ll complete tracking next week. Then the songs will get rough mixed and will sit, like a good rye whiskey.
Mixing will happen in late September. From there, it’s up to the drinkers of this little world to take it all in, put their woozy heads to bed and dream the dreams we hoped they would.
I’m honored to be nominated for a Pitch Music Award in the Singer-Songwriter Category. There are a lot of great folks nominated in the category including Jenny Carr, Kirstin Paluden and Patrick Deveny. You can see the ballot and vote by going here:
http://polls.pitch.com/polls/kcp/musicshowcase/vote/
There are great artists nominated in each category and my nomination would never had been possible if it weren’t for the work of the Prodigal Sons: Chris Wagner, Mike Alexander, Dan Dumit, Michael Walker, Sam Hughes and (newest Prodigal Son) Go Go Ray (on the drum kit).
Every nominee affirms that the term “local act” is about as far from a pejorative as it gets when you live in Kansas City. I’ve been lucky enough to tour and play with a lot of local acts in other cities; KC is nurturing more talent than most other places. I’m really excited about what this city is putting on the stage night after night.
John and the Sons will be playing at SXSW in Austin as part of the Midcoast Takeover showcase. They play Saturday, March 19th at 2PM at the Liberty Bar, 1618 E 6th Street, Austin, TX.
If you’re down at SXSW please come say hi. We’ll have dropcards we’ve made especially for our SXSW show with our two latest EPs.
Download John Velghe and His Prodigal Sons’ new Live EP Live from the Midwestern Musical Company directly from our BandCamp page.
The Live EP contains four songs from our debut show at the Midwestern Music Co. We’ll also have this as part of our Drop Card release along with the six-song EP from fall 2010. When you come to a show you can buy the Drop Card for $5 and get all ten songs.
The tracklist includes:
Owe My Soul
Big Tent Revival
New Madrid (Uncle Tupelo)
I Wanna Be Your Dog (The Stooges)
CoverMe Songs.com named our version of “I Wanna Be Your Dog” one of their ten best covers of 2010. If you follow the site, you know they hear a LOT of covers. They did a list of the 50 Best Covers of 2010. Given all the material they listen to (hundreds of songs this past year) I was surprised and honored to be named one of the Ten Best.
Besides being named, the real honor was in the fact that Ray Padgett and Company truly took the time to listen and embraced the place I tried to come from in recording this version of Iggy’s song. Iggy Pop is, for me, more than a legendary rock performer, more than the swagger and brashness he’s known for. You can’t write songs like Iggy did without a tremendous amount of sensitivity and honesty.
So to the folks at Cover Me, not only do I say thanks for the acknowledgement, but thank you so much for appreciating where Iggy was coming from.
What they said:
10. I Wanna Be Your Dog (The Stooges cover)
John Velghe
Download MP3
There are few phrases in the English language less romantic than “I wanna be your dog.” John Velghe and duet partner Abigail Henderson turn Iggy’s grimey assault on its head, though, discovering unlikely beauty in lines like “So messed up, I want you here / In my room, I want you here.” If Velghe sang this to you, you’d let him be any animal he wanted.
November 2, 2010
KC music veteran takes solo excursion
New music from John Velghe
John Velghe
‘EP’
Nope Records
Observers of music in Kansas City over the last decade or so likely have heard John Velghe’s work. Stints with the Daybirds, famous fm and most recently the Mendoza Lie have kept Velghe visible to local fans. He’s also worked as a recording engineer and film score composer. With this eponymous EP, Velghe adds solo artist to an impressive body of work.
From the jangle and crunch of the opening track, “Little Teamsters,” through what may be the most impressive Iggy Pop cover yet, the six songs here are a finely honed mix of well-crafted hooks, earnest delivery and skillful musicianship. While Velghe gets a hand from some talented friends, he does a remarkable job handling multiple instruments himself. It’s no small feat to perform guitar, drums, piano and more all by oneself, but to make the mix feel like an inspired ensemble and not just overdubbed parts is even trickier. On tracks such as the lovely, somber “Wrecking,” Velghe does just that.
Some of the more memorable performances appear in songs that feature guest artists. “Did You Fall Down?” and “Time on Their Side” would be a great pop songs, but Michael Walker’s trombone and Sam Hughes’ sax push the hook factor over the top, resulting in tracks that will stick in the listener’s consciousness. Dan Dumit’s restrained drumming adds much to the atmosphere of “Long Face” and the almost archetypal American pop/rock of “Little Teamsters.”
Most impressive, though, is Velghe’s cover of Iggy Pop’s “I Wanna Be Your Dog,” featuring backing vocals from Atlantic Fadeout’s Abigail Henderson and upright bass from Chris Wagner. Velghe’s reworking of the Iggy classic is spare, stark, and frankly, pretty damned amazing. Those who thought Jim Campilongo’s tortured take on “No Fun” earlier this year was the end-all of emotive Iggy covers may want to reconsider.
Velghe’s song is so haunting and beautiful that even if the record weren’t already filled with five other tracks that have an extraordinary amount of heart, it’d be worth picking up just for this one.
— j howell { special to ink }
Read more: http://www.inkkc.com/content/kc-music-veteran-takes-solo-excursion-0#ixzz14EzZSjj
Michael Byars closes out his latest radio show “The Mailbox” with John Velghe’s cover of “I Wanna be Your Dog.”
Michael also talks a bit about this Friday’s Apocalypse Meow 3 benefit show for the Midwestern Music Foundation.
Give The Mailbox a listen. There are some great songs on this week’s show including Lana Mir’s gorgeous cover of The Stone Roses song “I Wanna Be Adored”
Michael’s theme this week appears to be “I Wanna Be. . . ” and let’s your imagination take it from there.
