J.J.Cale and bluegrass.

svod...@cc.curtin.edu.au

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Sep 30, 1991, 1:42:34 PM9/30/91

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Greetings from Down Under!

I just found this newsgroup, and picked up an earlier thread on J.J. Cale.

Now this man is one of my heroes: I have every single album of his and
love every single track. His music is also incidentally great for
practising subtle drumming with. (hard music to cover well, though :-)

But I know practically nothing about him - beyond the limited liner notes
on a recent compilation released down here. Does anyone out there have
any further information on the guy? I understand he rarely gives
interviews etc but does anyone recall seeing one? Has anyone actually
seen him play in concert? I'm on the wrong continent it seems :-(

On a related note, :) , I heard some great bluegrass lately (first time
I've ever matched the label to the music, actually) and really enjoyed it...
can anyone provide me with some pointers to bluegrass on CD?

Aaron Leonard

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Sep 30, 1991, 4:59:26 PM9/30/91

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In article <1991Oct1.0...@cc.curtin.edu.au>,

svod...@cc.curtin.edu.au writes:
>
> Greetings from Down Under!
>
> I just found this newsgroup, and picked up an earlier thread on J.J. Cale.
>
> Now this man is one of my heroes: I have every single album of his and
> love every single track. His music is also incidentally great for
> practising subtle drumming with. (hard music to cover well, though :-)
>
> But I know practically nothing about him - beyond the limited liner notes
> on a recent compilation released down here. Does anyone out there have
> any further information on the guy? I understand he rarely gives
> interviews etc but does anyone recall seeing one? Has anyone actually
> seen him play in concert? I'm on the wrong continent it seems :-(

I remember reading a brief interview with him that was in _Rolling Stone_
back in (I believe) 1972. As I recall it, the interviewer had to drive
over quite a few miles of bad road to arrive at Cale's home in rural
Oklahoma. Cale was sitting on his front porch, playing an acoustic guitar
with a homebrewed pickup and a hole bashed in the back of the body.

At the time, Cale was in his early-mid 30's, which would put him in his
early 50's now. In the interview, he said that he didn't like giving
interviews, didn't like having his picture taken, and didn't like being
called "J.J.". (It was explained that friends know him as "John", but that
he couldn't be known professionally as "John Cale", owing to the fact that
a certain Welsh electric viola player beat him to it.) That's all I
remember from the story.

> On a related note, :) , I heard some great bluegrass lately (first time
> I've ever matched the label to the music, actually) and really enjoyed it...
> can anyone provide me with some pointers to bluegrass on CD?

Ask in rec.music.country.western ... you should get plenty of advice.
>
> Martin

- Aaron

Tim Bray

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Oct 2, 1991, 12:11:41 AM10/2/91

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I once stage-managed a JJ Cale show in the late 70's. Pretty unique
approach; the roadies dumped the drums, guitars, etc. in heaps on the
stage where the musicians would be. Eventually the musicians rolled
in, got up on stage (audience is in), put up their drums & amps &
other gear, and eventually, had everything ready to go and started
playing.

Good show. For those who haven't seen JJ, he is terminally-cool on
stage; not a real raconteur. Anyhow, at the end, the band exits stage
left, the crowd goes wild, the lights stay low, the cheers go on & on &on,
no sign of an encore, eventually I get nervous and run into the wings,
and ask the band if they're going to encore. Ask JJ, they say. Where
is he? Downstairs, in the dressing room. I run down there, JJ's all by
himself packing up his guitar. The noise is deafening with the crowd's
foot-stamping. I ask something like "Gee, you think you might play
another tune for those people?" Blank surprised look: "Think I oughta?"
"Sounds like it'd make them happy." Loooong silence. "OK." So
the story has a happy ending. Pretty weird guy. I think maybe a little
too much of that stuff he wrote the famous song about.

Cheers, Tim Bray, Open Text Corporation

Bill Leff

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Oct 2, 1991, 7:11:14 PM10/2/91

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In article <1991Sep30....@arizona.edu> leo...@arizona.edu (Aaron Leonard) writes:
] In article <1991Oct1.0...@cc.curtin.edu.au>,
] svod...@cc.curtin.edu.au writes:
] > But I know practically nothing about him - beyond the limited liner notes

] > on a recent compilation released down here. Does anyone out there have
] > any further information on the guy? I understand he rarely gives
] > interviews etc but does anyone recall seeing one? Has anyone actually
] > seen him play in concert? I'm on the wrong continent it seems :-(
]
] I remember reading a brief interview with him that was in _Rolling Stone_
] back in (I believe) 1972. As I recall it, the interviewer had to drive

Guitar Player Magazine did an article on him a some months ago. He's
living in the Mojave desert in CA somewhere out in the middle of
nowhere in an Airstream trailer. I don't remember much of the article,
except that he talked about his Casio PG-380 synth guitar (!) and is now
using some cheesy new-ish Fender solid-state amp (he admitted he liked
Boogies, but said at his age (fifty-something) it was too hard on his
back to transport).

Interesting guy. Kind of reminded me of the Harry Dean Stanton character
in "Paris, Texas."

--
uunet!sco!leff or le...@sco.COM
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