2.BB cd #3...live on the street
as i said before, i was in a band called NOBODY for about a dozen years.....we had a lot of fun, recorded a lot tried to play out a lot too.that music is still available and lives HERE on this website. i played a lot of instruments over that time period.....mainly acoustic guitar, but also musical saw, clarinet, hurdy gurdy, harmonica, bass, didgeridoo, sitar....well, you get the picture. in the late fall of 1998, the dobro came into my life. i had been given a dobro as a gift some years before, and was very grateful to have it, but i wasn't quite sure what to do with it. i played it every once in a while, but mostly it just sat against the wall and looked nice. in the summer of 1998, the group NOBODY was working on the historic and hysteric "BLACKGRASS" album, which consists of ten ozzy osbourne songs played in bluegrass arrangements. i must admit that i had always heard the song "iron man" as a love ballad (think tammy wynette)....and wondered why no one had ever recorded it that way......and i must also admit that i thought that once we did record it that way, that we would become international megastars. that didn't happen. i digress. that does happen. during those recording sessions, it was decided that some of the songs could really use dobro on them, and that the dobro should be dusted off and played by someone, and that someone was me. encouraged greatly by marion walsh and george cooke, i began to play the dobro more that fall, and slowly but surely it overtook my life. i'm sure there's some medical term for this, and there's a resonator discussion list where a few people couagulate to talk about such matters, but it really is true in my case. the dobro came and got me, i didn't get it. i feel like i was supposed to be playing it all along. it was just waiting for me to be ready. and so, with the help of stacy phillips(please don't hold him responsible for any of my shortcomings as a player) and lots of days and nights with a guitar in my lap, i became the person you see pictured above.
as the group NOBODY started to dissolve, i began to spend more time playing alone......at first, it was quite a struggle.....i had been used to being on stage with a few other people around me, and having a lot of room to hide out and just concentrate on playing. and then, i was alone......i had written over three hundred songs over the years, but none of them were arranged for solo dobro. i stood at the crossroads: either go back to acoustic guitar, or stick with dobro. i chose the latter. sure, there was a lot of work ahead of me, trying to relearn songs i had already written, some of which had many parts, and to rearrange them to somehow fit onto the dobro, with no one else there to sing but me, but it seemed like things were moving in that direction, and so that is where i went....
in the summer of 2001, i began playing out in harvard square and in the subway more and more.......i think i started doing this around 1987 when people wouldn't let me play 'indoors', but that was then and this is this........so..........at first, i had one song, and i just repeated that over and over. each week, i'd arrange a song or two, relearn it, and continue onward......
people were very nice to me. two people in particular, uncle scam, also known as blue, was super supportive. a nice person, with a good heart. he would always come by with a kind word or a smile. that meant a lot to me. dave johnston was also out a lot, and let me play with him which was always a blast......he makes some really great music, and plays around a lot, so if you have a chance, you should go and check him out with his band..(this link is dead, but it's the dave johnston band, they play at toad and ploug and stars a lot)...both of these guys helped me a lot and i want to thank them for it. i'm grateful that i know them, and that i have a chance to hear what they do.
as the summer progressed, and i learned more and more of my own songs, people began to ask me for tapes and cd's. i was giving away NOBODY tapes for free, as i have always done, but i began to notice that a lot of people would stop and ask me specifically "is this tape JUST you?" and my response was always 'well, sort of. it's my music, but there's a lot of overdubbed instruments, and other people are on it too. it sounds more like a 'band'. and i started to feel kind of guilty about that, like i was misrepresenting the tapes and what i was doing.......gradually, it began to dawn on me that i might have to actually do a 'solo' record at some point.........that had never occurred to me before. not even in 1when i started playing the armpit guitar......which i started sort of late in life..... sure, i wish i started earlier, but that wasn't available where i come from. i'm from brockton, and we had other stuff going on. i digress. again.
so, in the fall of 2001, i finally sat down with a dobro, a national tricone, and a fake weissenborn copy and recorded the songs listed below.......this is essentially a 'live' tape, meaning that all the singing and playing was done 'live' with no overdubbing or extra instruments added. the instruments were all played flat in the lap, and fretted with a metal bar, as in the photo above...........the last official NOBODY show has come and gone, and i remain, here with my dobro................
if you think you'd like a copy of this cd, please drop me a line at : thayerl@bc.edu and i'll send you one.........i'm always looking to play, so if you have a project you're working on and need some dobro, drop me a line, or if you know of some place that would be interested in booking me and the music i make, again, please drop me a line......
ok, i guess that's it for now. are you still awake? ......as shows happen, they will be posted here, otherwise, i will be out in the subway during the winter and wherever anyone will listen.......keep in touch, take care of yourself, and don't forget to tell your friends you love them.
thanks,
ll
ps. "look free sidewalk sale" can also be purchased on line at cd baby.com.............
LOOK FREE SIDEWALK SALE(click here to buy)
(L01)running time: 68 minutes
SONGS:
1. porter square
2. i remember
dirt (click here to listen)
3. when you get in your way
4. i'd rather
be right than happy (click here to listen)
5. boredom
(click here to listen)
6. writing on the wall
7. already home
8. harvard square
9. life's
like a railway station (click here to listen)
10. resentment
11. hollywood hills
12. relatives
13. emotional pain
14. pangs
15. horse/smells
16. moron
17. you gotta move
18. going home
(all the LYRICS to the album live HERE on this page....)
There are No overdubs on this record. All of the songs were
played live by one
person, with the guitar flat in the lap, fretted with a metal
bar, and the harmonica in a rack around the neck..........it's
not absolutely necessary that you know that, but it might be helpful
in terms of the spirit in which this music was made......travelling
into the future, several
thousand light years and back in time, to play 25th century spacebro,with
the ceolocanths and leatherbacks and leftbehinds on wooden porches
a long way from nowhere, back when dirt was young and nights were
new and people wondered..........things were never like they used
to be, it's true, and nobody is sure of that. still, this music
was made with a grateful heart, full of love....for life, and
for you........
All songs, music, words, etc, written by Nobody ©2001
little people's laundry-except #17"you gotta move" by
Mississippi Fred McDowell
songs1,2,12,16-melobro fiberglass resonator guitar by melobar
songs 4,6,7,10,13,14,17-national tricone squareneck, style #1,
1929.
songs 5,11and 15-superior hawaiian weissenborn style guitar.
song 9 -bronson(national)singing steel electric guitar,1950(lap
steel)
some of my NOBODY song lyrics , from other albums are here if you want to check them out.....
has the cd for sale on their website......!