HOW IT CAME ABOUT:
As you may know I've played live at a lot of wineries. Hundreds of sets, literally. Folks would often ask which record to get that sounds most like what they'd just heard me doing in my sets. I realized I didn't actually have that to offer, a record of just me and my acoustic guitar doing a mix of originals and covers. So this series is my attempt to fill that gap, finally putting on tape songs pulled directly from my tattered, torn and time-worn set lists.
THE TITLE:
One of the wineries I've performed most at is called Sevtap Wines. It's run by a crazy Turk named Art Sevtap who I'm proud to call a good friend. Years ago I show up to do the usual 3 sets + and I see on the chalkboard announcing the week's events it says: LIVE MUSIC SATURDAY, BRADY HARRIS, UNCORKED.
Of course this cracked me up. I don't know if it was his Turkish/English translation but it was perfectly fitting at a wine bar and way better than "Unplugged". You'll see the Sevtap logo on the wine glass on the cover of the record. And btw, Art is a fantastic winemaker with many accolades and unique blends. If you're ever in the Central California wine region, you should put a stop at his place on your list. Hopefully he'll be pouring, he's quite the character. Tell him I sent you. 
THE SONGS:
On this "Volume 1" we've got 3 covers and 2 originals.
1. Raise A Glass
2. Singing The Blues - (Marty Robbins)
3. Like A Virgin - (Madonna)
4. Waymore's Blues - (Waylon Jennings)
5. Let's Live
*Raise A Glass: I figured a title like this might be an appropriate way to kick-off the series. Raise A Glass is a song I wrote about drinking and being haunted by a memory of a lost love. It's from my full band record "NoHo Calling".
*Singing The Blues: This is an ancient song by Marty Robbins (and many others) that I originally learned as a teen-aged busker in the 80s in London. Figures, I have to go to London to learn a classic American rockabilly standard. I stayed in a spare room in a council flat (public housing) of a fellow named Nick Watkinson for a few weeks in Clapham. Nick was the lead singer in a band called The Jags and they had a hit in '79 called "I Got Your Number (Written On The Back Of My Hand)". I learned Singing The Blues from hearing Nick sing it. At the time Nick was busking to supplement his pub rock gigs. The Jags were long gone. Nick had a deep knowledge of American '50s rock and roll music. I learned a lot from him and he helped show me the arcane protocols of the intricate underworld of busking. My usual pitch (your allotted time of 1 hour) was at the South Kensington tube station in West London, down in the underground walkway that connects the "South Ken" station to the V&A Museums (Victorian & Albert Museums). It's a long pedestrian corridor with great natural reverb. Plus people had to walk 20 yards or so approaching you (either direction) and could hear what you were singing and thus gave them time to decide if they wanted to leave a tip and most importantly time enough to dig around and get that spare coinage or (pray tell) pound note ready to drop in your guitar case. These are working people on a crowded path. They don't have the time or inkling to stop or double back to put 10p into your tip jar/guitar case, so you gotta make it easy for them to be ready. Here's what I looked like in the '80s in a tube station photo booth. 
*Like A Virgin: A favorite Madge tune of mine. I liked it when it first came out. Her record has a great groove, powered by the formidable Tony Thompson (RIP) on drums. I could listen to it for the rhythm section alone. Later I would discover it was produced by Nile Rodgers, who had just produced David Bowie's "Let's Dance" album. No wonder I liked it so much. In 2006 I included my own electric guitar interpretation of Like A Virgin on my all-covers record "Cover Charge". It was after that that I adapted my electric version to acoustic guitar to see if it could work. The acoustic version represented here has been a set staple at the winery gigs for years now. And it's earned me some decent tips, too. Though no pound notes. They don't exist anymore. Replaced by the pound coin.
*Waymore's Blues: A favorite Waylon Jennings song of mine. I grew up in Texas, outside of Houston, and Willie Nelson and Waylon Jennings seemed like the Lennon & McCartney of Texas at the time, to me anyway. Their presence loomed large in the Lone Star State. Waymore's Blues was on one of several vinyl LPs my Mom and step-dad had in constant rotation. I think there was a copy on an 8-track as well (anyone remember those?). A simple, 2-chord bluesy song, I was always intrigued by the powerfully evocative lyrics ranging from hobos, trains and rain and Jimmy Rodgers (the Singing Brakeman) to reckoning with mortality to the love-life troubles of a wandering eye. I mean that's a lot ground to cover in under 3-minutes. And that's not even including my favorite line, the closing couplet, a real "rockstar move" where he brags about wearing his own concert t-shirt "Got my name painted on my shirt/I ain't no ordinary dude I don't have to work". Man, that's badass.
*Let's Live: An upbeat number, the opener from my full-band record "NoHo Calling". It's a call to snap out of the malaise and embrace life and love. A second chance for a stalled love-affair. A beckoning to a lover to abandon fear and apprehension and dive-deep into the wild and unknown.
THE ARTWORK/COVER:
Big THX to my good friend, the talented and sexy Sean Rainer for making the album cover.
Sean's got a cool new record out too, btw. It's called "You Are Not You". Check it out here.
And thanks to my friend Sarah for taking this cool shot!
Album cover by Sean Rainer.
http://seanrainer.com/
Photo by Sarah Jiles taken at Sevtap Winery, Solvang, CA.
THANK YOU FOR LISTENING!
Post Comments/Suggestions below.
"Volume 2" will be up next month.
Cheers,
Brady