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Kaltenberg's
Cafe On Thursday night Sam Bond's will host Deke Dickerson and the Ecco-Fonics for a CD release party and a night of swing and rockabilly revivalism you won't want to miss. Major Label Records recording artist Deke Dickerson has been spreading the gospel of swinging rockabilly and garage rock since the age of 17, when he and some high school friends started the now legendary surf-influenced garage band Untamed Youth, which released eight full-length albums. After that Dickerson and musician Dave Stuckey partnered up for two full lengths as the Dave & Deke Combo.
When that project faltered in 1997, Dickerson released
three solo records. He's also a member of the Go-Nuts in his spare
time. Now with the Ecco-Fonics, he has a brand new CD entitled Deke
Dickerson In Three Dimensions, and it really rocks! The 17 songs
on 3-D are separated into three sections presented as "Rock 'n' Roll,"
"Rockabilly," and "Hillbilly." It's hard to argue with those differentiations
in style once you listen to the CD, but it really Being joined by expert musicians doesn't hurt either. Renowned New Orleans session drummer Earl Palmer (Little Richard, Fats Domino, Richie Valens, many more) enhances the "Rock 'n' Roll" section, along with pianist Carl Sonny Leyland, saxist Ron Dziubla and Pete Curry of Los Straightjackets. The "Rockabilly" section ably takes on rockabilly bop with such a pure sound you would think the music emanated from the '60s. A fine crop of western swing tunes awaits the listener at the end of the CD. Dave Biller on guitar and Wayne "The Train" Hancock's steel guitarist Jeremy Wakefield contribute some powerful tunes. Billy Horton, who has played with Hancock, The Hot Club of Cowtown and The Asylum Street Spankers, plays bass. More Hancock talent, Bobby Trimble, who has also played with Big Sandy & the Fly-Rite Boys' drums. All ya'll cats and kittens will want to wear your dancing shoes because there's no way you can go to this show and not get the urge to cut some rugs! Each Wednesday night through the end of March, Cafe Paradiso will host guitarist Tony Kaltenberg. I recently spoke with the Yachats resident to find out more about what he's been doing. Kaltenberg has been playing guitar for almost 20 years. Classical training occupied him for a couple of those years, but that ended when he bought a steel string guitar. "I started composing and that took up the last 10 or 12 years!," jokes Kaltenberg. The majority of his compositions are instrumentals, but a typical show will find him playing some other songs he loves, like songs by The Police, Edie Brickell, and Jimmy Hendrix. "I sing both originals and some of my own versions of other people's music just to add something that other people might be familiar with," he explains. Kaltenberg has one CD out called Spiral Waves, which came out on the heels of 2000, with the second, a CD of all original compositions entitled On the Wing of the Great Spaceship planned for a March release. While Spiral Waves was a solo effort, Spaceship will feature cello by UO music school grad Alex Kelly, bass by Michael Manring, a former Windham Hill recording artist, and the session fiddler for the Kerville Folk Festival, fiddler Jane Clark. Over the past few years, Kaltenberg has "gotten together" with the same group of musicians. The result of this collaboration is a band called Jelly Moon. "We finally have gotten to the point where we feel we need to get out there more, too. (Jelly Moon) is more acoustic rock but also a lot of improv," he says. Jelly Moon, with Eugenean T.R. Kelly on bass, will be playing at Café Paradiso Feb. 8. On Feb. 15, Kaltenberg will open for the reunited Laura Kemp Band, also at the Café. On Feb. 26, he will warm up the crowd for Joe Craven, who is the percussionist for The David Grisman Quintet.
Funkin'
an' Folkin' On Friday, Feb. 7th, Diablo's Downtown Lounge welcomes local "acoustic jazz fusion" trio Carmizin. Now well into their fourth year as a group, Carmizin members recently experienced a minor personnel change. Former lead guitarist Michael Shaller switched to upright bass and veteran Eugene jazzman Geoffrey Mays came aboard as the new guitarist. "We're taking our older songs and moving them into new formats," drummer Carrie Jahde says. "We're also doing some of Geoffrey's songs." Jahde describes Carmizin's typical set as "two-thirds original material and one-third jazz standards. We do standards like 'Summertime' and 'Take Five' and try to interpret them in more funky ways or more Latin ways." As evidenced by Carmizin's latest CD (a live recording from the WOW Hall), the trio imbues their music with inventive vocal harmonies and a hearty dose of improvisation. Each member of the group takes a turn in the spotlight, executing dexterous solos that use elements of bluegrass, folk and Latin funk as well as traditional jazz. Jahde says that some of Carmizin's new songs were created during jam sessions, but, for the most part, Shaller and Mays write the lyrics and music. Once a song has been fleshed out, the trio concentrates on each person's individual solos. "We really focus on communicating when we improvise, both by eye contact and by listening," Jahde says. "And we try to keep things changing every time we play." All the members of Carmizin keep busy playing with other bands or performing frequent solo gigs. Jahde plays with the Latin jazz outfit Ritmo De La Noche, Shaller is a member of Los Mex Pistols Del Norte and Mays has fronted his own group for many years. Jahde believes that Eugene boasts a vibrant music community, especially for jazz. "When Michael and I came to Eugene five years ago, we were thrilled to find this great jazz scene," she says. "It was a nice change from the Midwest, where there weren't nearly as many jazz venues." Speaking of jazz venues, although Luna is best known as a jazz club, the downtown club offers other genres as well. Talented local singer-songwriter Erik Muiderman plays acoustic folk music every Friday and Saturday night as Luna's "permanent opening act." Muiderman says he happened to be in the right place at the right time. Upon moving to Eugene from Michigan a few years ago, he began working at Adam's Place, the restaurant that operates in tandem with Luna. Muiderman soon became Luna's stage manager and soundman. He returned to Michigan for a year and a half to record a CD, and when he returned, Luna's owner offered him the chance to play live. "My job is to get people in the room and warm up the crowd," Muiderman says. "I try to play as much original material as possible, and I take a lot of requests — classic singer-songwriter stuff, like James Taylor, Van Morrison, Peter Gabriel and Bob Dylan." "Some of the best musicians in town — and some of the best players on the West coast — come to the club," he says. "I'm very much a folky songwriter, so it takes a bit of confidence to stand there in front of them and play three-chord folk songs." Nevertheless, Muiderman's regular gigs have paid off. His fanbase continues to grow, with his opening set sometimes pulling a larger crowd than the headlining act. Much like Carmizin, he savors the opportunities for musicians in Eugene. "Eugene is small enough to be liveable, but big enough to have activities and culture," he says. "For the size of the town, there's a lot of music happening here and lots of good bands coming through. It's extraordinary compared to where I lived in the Great Lakes area. If someone of any caliber came through, I'd have to plan for months in advance and drive to Detroit or Chicago to see them. Here I can see a good show every week."
BEANERY All Ages BLACK FOREST BRICK HOUSE CAFE PARADISO All Ages CHANTERELLE'S
CHAPALA RESTAURANT DIABLO'S DOWNTOWN LOUNGE EMBERS SUPPER CLUB EUGENE WINE CELLARS FOOLS PARADISE FOOLSCAP BOOKS FOXFIRE GOOD TIMES JO FEDERIGO'S JOHN HENRY'S JOHNNY OCEAN'S All Ages LAVELLE'S TASTING ROOM LUCKY'S CLUB CIGAR LUNA MAC'S AT THE VET'S MCDONALD THEATRE MULLIGAN'S PUB OREGON ELECTRIC STATION OVERTIME TAVERN PICCOLO'S Q STREET BILLIARD QUACKER'S RAMADA INN RUMBA ROOM
SAM BOND'S GARAGE SAMURAI DUCK SENOR FROG'S SPIRITS STARBUCK'S All Ages SWEETWATER'S TINY TAVERN TSUNAMI BOOKS All Ages WILD DUCK MUSIC HALL WETLANDS
WOW HALL All Ages
CORVALLIS BIG RIVER RESTAURANT INTABA'S KITCHEN All Ages
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