Salvation Alley String Band

Organizing records combines two of my favorite activities: listening to music and being fastidious.  The system I'm currently using to sort/find records is to divide the discs by category, and then to alphabetize by band name with multiple LP's by a single band in order by release date.  By sorting my records this way, I find that I can typically find things very quickly.  Lena wants everything organized alphabetically with no reference to genre, but I find that's just not how I listen to music or decide on what to listen.  I like to browse.

Here are my categories:

If you can't read my Microsoft Paint scribbling, that's:

Folk, Irish Folk, Comedy, Beatles etc., Springsteen, 7" and 10", Local CD's

Country and Western, Curiosities, Jazz, Crooners, Blues, General Rock and Pop

General Rock and Pop (cont.)

There are problems with this system.  One is that it's not always easy to divide by genre, especially when a band can span genres.  For instance, most of the Byrds output probably belongs in "General Rock and Pop", but where do I put "Sweetheart of the Rodeo"?  It's a relatively straight country album played predominately by Nashville session players.  I could create a separate Byrds category, as I've done with The Beatles and Bruce Springsteen, but those are exceptions to the system which only serve to make the general rules less useful.

The Springsteen exception, which only exists due to some sentimentality about my favorite musician from middle school, is going to end with the current reorganization, but I'm split on The Beatles.  As Jason Bourgeois asks on the forthcoming Bourgeois Heroes EP, "Is Wings filed under 'McCartney' or 'W'?"  With "Beatles, etc." as a category, there's an easy answer: Wings and McCartney are under Beatles.  I'm not into McCartney enough that I want to be looking for him as a solo performer, even if I have a solo album of his. My mind will be thinking, "Beatles".  For this reason, I have a bad tendency to break the system while filing solo albums released by band members of more recognizable bands- Roger McGuinn and Gene Clark get put with the Byrds, the Ginger Baker Air Force with Cream…it's all a mess.  But ultimately, if a filing system allows one reliably to find what one is looking for, it works, right?

What is the better system?  What do you do?  Why do you do it?

-Ryan

p.s. Lena got me a bunch of these record labels from a local record store.  I haven't yet labeled them with my own categories, but will probably do so once I settle on a system which serves both my desire to find things quickly and my need for coherence in such a system.

A: A band you didn't know you needed.

This isn't strictly a Salvation Alley String Band post, but since three members of this band are playing in SASB and the fourth recorded our new album…it's close enough.  Jason put this group together to play the January 9 Arson Victims Benefit at the Elevens.  Jason sang a tune, Mike sang a tune, I sang a tune, Justin played drums.  Expect more.

After the first pic, all photos are courtesy of Stephanie Levine:

Last night we played the Rendezvous in beautiful Turners Falls.  I'd been there once or twice before, and had played with the Silver Jasons there last Spring.  "The Voo" is a large, open room with a bar on one side, some kitschy furniture, tin ceilings, and a delightful menu, which is located just off Route 2.

We showed up early, had some dinner, met with some friends who came out for the show, and talked to some students from the Hallmark Institute of Photography, also located in Turners (there were a surprising number of SLR cameras in the crowd, almost all of which were pulled out when Jason played toy piano).  We started playing around 8:30 with a large line-up including Mike McClellan of the Novels on electric bass and acoustic guitar, Matt Juggenheimer of Whistle Jacket on drums, and Matt Silberstein of Swillmerchants on mandolin.  After ten or so songs, we pared down to Jason, Brandee, Andy, and myself for the rest of the first set.  We played a second set later on with the whole group.

The show went really well, and I particularly enjoyed the contributions of the folks playing with us for the first time.  Matt S.'s mandolin solo on "Nebraska", Matt J.'s swampy, Levon-Helmesque drumming on Andy's tune, "Love You More", and Mike's bouncy bassline on "Mr. Spaceman" were all highlights from where I was standing.  Speaking of Levon Helm, recently we've been playing shows where Andy, Brandee, and Jason all sing lead on at least one song, a practice which always reminds me of the Band.  I'm hoping we can write and arrange a few more for people so that it doesn't seem like Ringo Starr style tokenism.

Jason, Mike, and I will be back at the Voo along with the "Silver Higgins Band" on March 13 for the Nuggets Night Jason is putting together.  That show will also feature ALOTTLE, The Claudia Malibu, Ray Mason, The Original Cowards and Tony the Bookie.

Best review of the night: Jamie from the Voo says we're "swell".

-Ryan

p.s. Here are some pics my friend Sondra Murphy took:

We played two sets at the Elevens on December 31st as part of Northampton’s annual First Night festivities. Having never attended First Night myself, I wasn’t sure what to expect. I couldn’t imagine that many people would want to attend a rock and roll show at a bar at two in the afternoon.

To my great surprise, people were abundant at the Elevens that afternoon. It was so great to see older people and children mixed in with the usual crowd of 20-30somethings. Everyone really seemed to enjoy the music, and responded with plenty of cheers, and even some dancing! It was great.

Ryan explained to the crowd that although they saw the name “Los Hijos Unicos” printed on their First Night schedules, we are now known as the Salvation Alley String Band. The LHU-SASB merger (as it’s known in corporate circles) has opened the band up to a wider variety of songs and instrumentation, which is exciting both for us and for people coming to our shows. Aside from the regular guitar, bass, and drums, we also brought in washtub bass, ukulele, banjo, saw, kazoo, and plenty of vocal harmonies.

After our last set, School for the Dead played a great set, engaging the audience with “Instant Surveys” about New Years Eve, which they cleverly read aloud right in the middle of one of their songs. The Fawns followed with a cool pop set that had the crowd thinking about snow ball fights and cozy snuggles on the couch with loved ones.

We had to leave shortly after the Fawns set, so we weren’t able to see the rest of the performances. I have to say, being inside a dimly lit music venue during the majority of the daylight hours, not emerging until early evening when the dark of night has already taken over, makes one feel a little disoriented. By the time midnight rolled around, I felt like the First Night show was last year’s news.

Happy new year! 2010- whoa.

-Brandee

For $10 on January 7, you can see all of the great above groups playing the music of Tom Petty.  Jason and I will be playing with the Rub Wrongways Caravan of Stars.

-Ryan

Hello,

We're playing a few shows this month, breaking our self-imposed live music embargo that was to last until we had the album mixed.  We'll be playing a show in a secret location in Easthampton on December 12 around 7:30pm, and we'll be playing the Elevens on New Year's Eve at 2 and 3 pm as part of Northampton's First Night.

If you are interested in seeing the secret show, email me at ryan@loshijosunicos.com and I'll let you know the details.  We'll be playing some new material to a small crowd.

-Ryan

Hello friend,

Los Hijos Unicos has been my main musical project for almost four years now, but it's time for a change.  Rather than continue to play honky-tonk shows as Los Hijos Unicos and jug band shows as the Salvation Alley String Band with a lot of common members in both groups, we're going to book all future shows as the Salvation Alley String Band, and we'll be playing music from both bands with members from both groups.

Why are we going with the Salvation Alley String Band name when Los Hijos Unicos has played around Massachusetts for almost four years now?  Because more people around here can pronounce and remember it.  The "string band" label also better describes our bastardized western swing, honky-tonk, and bluegrass roots.  From now on, if you come to a Salvation Alley String Band show, you may be find a nine-piece western swing band, a bluegrass outfit, a rockabilly quartet, or some other combination.  We look forward to mixing it up some.

-Ryan

Hey!  Last week, SASB mandolinist Matt Silberstein was profiled in a Valley Advocate article on his new band.  Then, yesterday, I picked up this week's Advocate to find this article about SASB accordionist/vocalist Ella Longpre and her Dust Savior Project.  It's been a real kick to read about the great music they're making, and their personalities really come through in the articles (Matthew Dube does a great job of allowing people to sound like themselves in his Behind the Beat column).

So, to extrapolate on this trend of wall-to-wall, up-to-the-minute SASB coverage: next week in Matthew Dube's column: "Andy Goulet and his amazing junkyard instruments"?  "Brandee Simone impresses the hell out of everybody with her sultry voice and 13-octave range"?  "Ryan Quinn adequate at banjo"?  Only time will tell.

-Ryan

Last week, we went back to Bank Row to record some finishing touches to the album.  New instruments: Tenor Sax, Trumpet, Fiddle, Glockenspiel, Piano, Theremin, Harmonica, 12-String Guitar.  Justin got great sounds from everything.

Eric Lee came by to play some fiddle and arrange strings, and Annalee Locke and Andrew Gena  played sax and trumpet based off my inadequate and innacurate horn charts.  It was fun, the album is really starting to come together.  All that's left before mixing is a handful of pedal steel guitar tracks.

-Ryan

P.S. Here's some pics Andrew took with his digital slr while he was at the studio.

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From Jason’s camera:

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