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Dirty-South Blues Harp forum: wail on! >
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waltertore
1181 posts
Mar 16, 2011
10:06 AM
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I didn't want to sidetrack the Tom Waits topic so I will answer you here. I lived in California twice. First was from 1988-92. I ended up in Sebastopol and met my wife there. I played the bay area with my own band and backed up guys like cool papa, sonny rhodes, mississippi johnny waters, johnny b good, freddie roulette, troyce keys, jimmy mc craklin, and most of the bay area blues guys. I also was a part of mark naftlins blue monday party at the sleeping lady in faifax. I met charlie musselwhite, kim wilson, mark hummel, john lee hooker, lowell fulsom, and all the guys that were touring through there. They all would stop by to play a song or two. Tom mazzoline of kpfa broadcasted the show. Mark had a great band - otis clay drums, henry oden bass, bobby murray guitar, and lots of other guys like me floated through the rotation. My band name was walter h.k tore and the below zero blues band.
then the guitar god of norway brought me over there for a tour and I ended up living in brussels for 2.5 years. Then back to NYC and nothing happened musically so we moved to houston. I use to play with lightning hopkins and he always told me stories about the place. He was dead by then and houston was ok but we were told austin was the place to be. So on to there for 11 years and when that scene fizzled out, we went back to santa rosa for 11 years. 4 years ago we moved here to ohio.
I hope I didn't go on too long...... Do you live in the bay area? I really miss sonoma county but the cost of living, crowds, poverty, gangs, stress, made that natural beauty a drag. Hopefully when we retire (my wife is a alameda native) we can move back and not have to deal with the work world flow. Walter
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walter tore's spontobeat - a real one man band and over 1 million spontaneously created songs and growing. I record about 300 full length cds a year.
" life is a daring adventure or nothing at all" - helen keller
2,600+ of my songs
continuous streaming - 200 most current songs
my videos
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bonedog569
256 posts
Mar 16, 2011
10:30 AM
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I've been in SF since the mid 70's and have crossed paths with some of the same people. I made it to Naftlan's Sleeping Lady Blue Monday party a couple of times and played at least once. Freddy Roulette is one of the reasons I stayed here. He came to a jam at a house I was visiting in Berkely and I thought - ' If someone this good just shows up at my first jam - I gotta stick around this place'. Saw him a few weeks ago at a Jam and almost got him over to my place to play and record - but it hasn't happened yet.
I mostly hung in SF. I played the Saloon many times with the only country band they had in there - the John Gallagher Band. I played quite a bit with Johnny NItro (R.I.P) and almost started a band with him.
I've played a number of times with Lisa Kindred and a was a regular with sax player Jules Brousard . I met Luther Tucker when he was around and Elvin Bishop actually sat in a band I was playing with.
Met Marc Hummel back then too.
We must have just passed each other coming and going I guess.
Sonoma is still beautifull. I get up there to a buddys pretty often.
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waltertore
1182 posts
Mar 16, 2011
11:24 AM
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I bet we did pass in the night. Luther tucker was another I played with a lot in sf and belguim. He put us up in his apt when we first moved to austin. I played the saloon with gino skaggs and walter shufflesworth on drums. I played the tatoo and blues festival with freddie, indiana slim, and uncle mark. You mentioned recording. What kind of set up do you have? I have been obsessed with it and was able to build my own detached studio here in ohio. I keep playing because I need music to learn more about recording. Otherwise I would probably quit it all. Funny how it use to be the crowd that excited me. I never played at home. Now it is the opposite.
Do you remember fast floyd? He and I played a lot together. Do you know the pulsators? Doug the guitarist and me have been playing together on and off for 30 years. He is floyds younger brother. Sonoma county is still beautiful if you live in the right place. We were right next to the fairgrounds in santa rosa and dealt with crazies, homeless and gangsters daily. We couldn't afford to move anywhere else and the school systems are falling apart so quick and bad that working in them grew toxic. Life is a lot easier here in ohio. Now that spring is here all is good! Walter
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walter tore's spontobeat - a real one man band and over 1 million spontaneously created songs and growing. I record about 300 full length cds a year.
" life is a daring adventure or nothing at all" - helen keller
2,600+ of my songs
continuous streaming - 200 most current songs
my videos
Last Edited by on Mar 16, 2011 11:27 AM
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bonedog569
260 posts
Mar 16, 2011
8:19 PM
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I know of, and probably jammed with Gino and Walter - but don't really 'know them'. I don't know fast floyd or the pulsators. By the mid 80's I was a dad and stopped playing out wtih rare exception. - I remember some others from back then - I hung and play with Roy Rogers (produced JL Hooker CD etc.) He was playing with a really good harp player at the time - David Burgin, then went on to play with Norton Buffalo. Can't fault him there. Also Stevie Gurr - a great guitar player.
My home studio evolves of course, I mostly use Logic as my DAW, with working man grade I/O - currently a Focusrite Saffire pro 40 and a Behreinger Ultragain 8 that gets me 8 more inputs via adat so I can record 16 tracks live to disc. I've got a variety of mid grade condenor mics. Studio 1, Oktava, AKG etc, plus the usual bunch of 57's, 58's and miscelany. I've go a pretty big basement room that doubles as a home theater with a projector and mega watt surround sound. There is a little stage that functions as a drum riser and raised theater 'mezanine'.
I have a nice little tube amp collection too. An original blackface deluxe, a Rivera era Concert, a Gibson br9 and a couple of airline amps for harp, plus one I built ( a Lone Wolf 6L6SE ) but stuff is stuff, eventually it breaks and ya gotta fix it.
I occaasionally miss the audiencesand will through a party or go out to a jam, but mostly I'm like you. I'm content to play and record at home, have good musical buddies over and just enjoy making music.
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waltertore
1183 posts
Mar 17, 2011
9:17 AM
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We are on similar paths. We converted the detached 2 car garage to my studio. It has a full bath, kitchen, finished walls, central air/heat. When we move it can be used as a second dwelling. I use samplitude 11 and universal auidio plugins, a delta 1010 interface that allows up to 8 tracks at once. I have some decent preamps, mics- universal audio 610, vintage altec pre, two rnc, 2 rnp, 2 akg c414's, michael joly modified mk219 and 012, beyerdynamic m500 ribbon, shure 57. I sold my black face fenders years ago and now use a reissue princeton reverb. You have some nice amps!
I knew norton when I lived in sebastopol. I booked my band for all those years and recently got fried on that end. My bay area playing days were as a singer/harp player with an occasional guitar, and 1 man band gig. I look forward to meeting someone that wants to promote my approach to music and playing gigs regularly again in rooms that come to hear it. I am done with the other stuff. Until then, the studio is a killer place to be waiting! Walter
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walter tore's spontobeat - a real one man band and over 1 million spontaneously created songs and growing. I record about 300 full length cds a year.
" life is a daring adventure or nothing at all" - helen keller
2,600+ of my songs
continuous streaming - 200 most current songs
my videos
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