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Author Topic: Mr.O'Muck plays "Let us get together right down here"  (Read 2972 times)

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Offline Mr.OMuck

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Mr.O'Muck plays "Let us get together right down here"
« on: December 20, 2007, 09:22:27 AM »
Hi. I just posted my version of Rev. Davis' Let us get together (right down here), on my myspace page:
http://www.myspace.com/mromuck

I had the good fortune to study with Rev. Davis' in 1969 -'70 when I was 17 & 18 respectively.
In order to circumvent a certain type of criticism likely to come my way from other RGD disciples let me admit in advance to not playing it "right" or exactly the way he did.
My loathings are simple: stupidity, oppression, crime, cruelty, soft music.
Vladimir Nabokov (1899 - 1977)

http://www.youtube.com/user/MuckOVision

Offline uncle bud

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Re: Mr.O'Muck plays "Let us get together right down here"
« Reply #1 on: December 20, 2007, 09:26:28 PM »
Well, Mr. O'Muck, those lessons with the Reverend certainly seem to have paid off.  :P  Very hot playing, on all those tunes you have there on myspace. Great stuff. I think I been hypnotized by your spinning image though...

Offline Mr.OMuck

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Re: Mr.O'Muck plays "Let us get together right down here"
« Reply #2 on: December 20, 2007, 09:48:07 PM »
Thanks for the good words Andrew. The spinning O'Muck drawing is sort of like a mini light show accompaniment. I saw a triple bill of Gary Davis, Son House and I believe James Cotton (could have been Junior Wells, I was not into amplified Blues yet back then) at a place here in NYC called the Electric Circus in 68 or 69. They had a kind of subdued light show going on and I thought it made an unlikely venue a little more unlikely. I liked it, though no amount of contrived weirdness could have possibly competed with Son House's facial contortions which remain to this day one of the most bizarre, frightening and memorable things I've ever seen.
My loathings are simple: stupidity, oppression, crime, cruelty, soft music.
Vladimir Nabokov (1899 - 1977)

http://www.youtube.com/user/MuckOVision

Offline Coyote Slim

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Re: Mr.O'Muck plays "Let us get together right down here"
« Reply #3 on: December 25, 2007, 03:08:34 PM »

In order to circumvent a certain type of criticism likely to come my way from other RGD disciples let me admit in advance to not playing it "right" or exactly the way he did.

Bugger 'em!!  Play it your way!
Puttin' on my Carrhartts, I gotta work out in the field.

Coyote Slim's Youtube Channel

Offline waxwing

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Re: Mr.O'Muck plays "Let us get together right down here"
« Reply #4 on: December 25, 2007, 03:26:21 PM »
I don't know what your experience is in other communities Mr. O, but you are unlikely to receive such criticism here. Or you are just as likely to receive criticism that you didn't change it enough.-G- Playing as enjoyable to listen to as yours won't receive either. The most important thing is putting it out there however it gives you joy, as you seem to be doing. That seems to silence even those with the heaviest ax to grind.-G-

All for now.
John C.
"People who say it cannot be done should not interrupt those who are doing it."
George Bernard Shaw

“Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean they aren't after you.”
Joseph Heller, Catch-22

http://www.youtube.com/user/WaxwingJohn
CD on YT

Offline Mr.OMuck

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Re: Mr.O'Muck plays "Let us get together right down here"
« Reply #5 on: December 25, 2007, 09:14:50 PM »
Thanks. It could just be paranoia on my part...what ME PARANOID...who said that?! Oh sorry... Some of those fortunate enough to study with RGD were humbled by the experience. On some however it seems to have produced the opposite effect. I was sort of self critical to the point of semi paralysis for a number of years, till I realized that RGD's music is so individualized, atypical and sometimes just hard to play that even HE rarely got through a piece without a flub or two. I also came to an increased awareness of just how surpassingly great he was. One irony is that his guitar playing comprises such an all consuming language that you can sometimes overlook how devastating his singing could be. If you intend to perform his music the issue of "How the fuck am I gonna sing this?" becomes an interesting one. Needless to say, when he did it, both pieces melded into a unified whole. Awesome as the songs are, I got the feeling that his mind was modeling an entire score of other parts even while navigating a hellishly complex instrumental and vocal counterpoint. During my lessons he almost never played anything the same way twice. I guess that's a definition of genius.
I've never had the patience to nail down all the notes in a recording, though I wish I did, and have great admiration for people who do. I get waylaid by my response to the music and I just start playing the song the best I can and patch in the subsequently learned bits as I absorb them. I've come to employ the model of the guy living next door to Scrapper Blackwell, or Bukka White who plays all the same stuff with a degree of family resemblance but somewhat differently. Keeps me goin'. Thanks again for the good woids.
My loathings are simple: stupidity, oppression, crime, cruelty, soft music.
Vladimir Nabokov (1899 - 1977)

http://www.youtube.com/user/MuckOVision

Offline eagle rockin daddy

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Re: Mr.O'Muck plays "Let us get together right down here"
« Reply #6 on: January 09, 2008, 11:04:21 AM »
Muck,

Great great stuff.  I love your playing and singing.  I agree with your feelings about Rev. Davis' genius.  Singing and playing his stuff is a spiritual experience.  I believe he was able to compose and arrange his music in such a way that everything, music vocal and lyric all combine in some way to communicate the same point.  It is just unbelievable to me.

Great stuff.

So 'Homage to Grungie' was to you?  I knew Kate a bit years ago when she lived in the back of the Caffe Lena in Saratoga, and played with this incredible guitarist, Roma Baran.  Then they split, Kate joined up with Anna again, I think they went out west....But wow is she talented.  One of the best singers ever.

Mike


Offline rjtwangs

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Re: Mr.O'Muck plays "Let us get together right down here"
« Reply #7 on: January 09, 2008, 01:12:15 PM »
Great great playing Mr. Muck sir, I really loved the Blake style in your playing! I also really dug the sound of your resonator, a National I presume?? Anyhow I really enjoyed your playing a great deal...

RJ

Offline Mr.OMuck

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Re: Mr.O'Muck plays "Let us get together right down here"
« Reply #8 on: January 09, 2008, 09:32:43 PM »
Quote
So 'Homage to Grungie' was to you?  I knew Kate a bit years ago when she lived in the back of the Caffe Lena in Saratoga, and played with this incredible guitarist, Roma Baran.  Then they split, Kate joined up with Anna again, I think they went out west....But wow is she talented.  One of the best singers ever.

Mike

[/quote]
Thanks for the good words Mike. I spent many an inebriated evening at Lena's playin' music and chasin' after Skidmore girls, one of whom I married. Back in them days I had a first name; it was Grungie, so the whole name was Grungie O'Muck. After the Seattle "Grunge" thing however people who didn't know me previously began thinking I was trying to identify with that scene, (yeah right!). So I reluctantly dropped it and became Mr.O'Muck. I never got a cent in royalties for use of my name from any o' them Seattle Starbucks drinkin' crybabies neither. To this day many of my friends from that epoch call me Grunge or Grungie, Kate too.
Kate was and still is a great singer and she and Anna are some of the only songwriter types whose music I care to listen to. Their traditional Quebec-ian stuff is particularly good. So thats why its "Homage a Grungie"
It speaks to my other life as a painter.
My loathings are simple: stupidity, oppression, crime, cruelty, soft music.
Vladimir Nabokov (1899 - 1977)

http://www.youtube.com/user/MuckOVision

Offline Mr.OMuck

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Re: Mr.O'Muck plays "Let us get together right down here"
« Reply #9 on: January 09, 2008, 09:40:13 PM »
Great great playing Mr. Muck sir, I really loved the Blake style in your playing! I also really dug the sound of your resonator, a National I presume?? Anyhow I really enjoyed your playing a great deal...

RJ

See all ya have to do is have shitty recording equipment and you can make your nice old Gibsons and Martins sound just like Nationals! The recordings were done with a mid fifties Gibson L-50 (long tall mama suite, let us get together) a 1946-7 Gibson LG-0 (or2?) (shake em on down, trimmed & burnin)  and my old reliable 1963 Martin D-18 (C Blake Rag, Big Bill Mess around). I hope to get a National someday however. Thanks very much for your kind remarks.
My loathings are simple: stupidity, oppression, crime, cruelty, soft music.
Vladimir Nabokov (1899 - 1977)

http://www.youtube.com/user/MuckOVision

Offline eagle rockin daddy

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Re: Mr.O'Muck plays "Let us get together right down here"
« Reply #10 on: January 10, 2008, 04:29:38 AM »
Grunge ( if I may call you that)

Perhaps this should go backchannel, but I 'll keep it here for now... I wonder if I know you?  I pretty much grew up at Lena's.  My folks were some of her original patrons, and took me there frequently when I was growing up.  I wound up washing dishes there all through high school, approx '69-'72 and a bit after that.  The Skidmore girls were a little old for me though I did do plenty of drinking at the Exec, which is now a sports bar with only the black and white floor tiles remaining.

Those were great days, and there was so much great music, but Kate was really a standout.  She and Roma landed in Saratoga from Penny Lang's band, and I had huge crushes on both of them.  I love the McGarrigles work, but Kate's music from that time was much more blues-y then what came with Anna.  'Travellin' on for Jesus' from the first album was one of the tunes she would sing, and is representative of what she was doing at that time.  They did guest sets almost every weekend.  The other song I remember was called 'Oh Papa', and old slow blues.  If you ever see Kate, ask her to revive it ;-)  I really liked that stuff.  Just great days and music.

Mike Taub

 


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