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Event
Wild Honey Presents Freedy Johnston with Jimmer + Syd for the Autism Think Tank
THE SHOW IS NOW SOLD OUT.
Please send an email request to wildhoneyfoundation@yahoo.com to be on the waiting list. You will be contacted by email if there are any cancellations. Thanks so much for your overwhelming support!
Supremely talented singer/songwriter Freedy Johnston will be making his Wild Honey debut! We are super-thrilled to have Freedy perform a set of his songs on the Wild Honey Backyard stage. Freedy will be joined by the fab acoustic duo of Jimmer +Syd. Jimmer Podrasky (Rave-Ups), and Wild Honey pal Syd Straw. The show starts at 1:30pm (the sun sets early in med-November). As always, the show will benefit the Autism Think Tank.
Bio- When you talk about the tunes of Freedy Johnston, theres only one little problem. After youve been blown away by his songs of suspicious circus carnies, shoplifters, unfaithful lovers, the drug-dependent and the truth-challenged, how do you tell people about this guy without worrying youre overselling him. You dont. Because youre not. After twenty years of one great disc after another, the kid from Kansas is back. Bearing maybe the best record hes ever made, Neon Repairman. And its songs will keep you up nights, just like those bright lights of the title track.
Like most of the general public, you probably first heard Freedy when his chiming, catchy single, Bad Reputation, full of his trademark tunefulness and street-level lyrics hit the airwaves. The song was the opening salvo of Johnstons masterpiece, This Perfect World, superbly-produced by the legendary Butch Vig, of Nirvana fame. Vig kept the record radio-friendly, but brought enough clarity so that Freedys characters, the lost, criminal and crazy, all came through loud and clear. These desperate people caught not just the average listener, but filmmakers The Farrelly Brothers. Soon, several of Johnstons tunes showed up in their comedy Kingpin. Topping that achievement, in 1995, Rolling Stone Magazine named Johnston Songwriter Of The Year. Enough to bring color to any mans face. But when you saw that number two was Kurt Cobain, well, Johnston mustve really blushed. Rolling Stone made the right decision, too. It wont be long until This Perfect World, starts showing up on everyones All-Time Best Album lists.
After touring the album, sharing stages with everyone from The Indigo Girls to Jackson Browne, he dropped Never Home, another collection of strong, literary songs, produced by Danny Kortchmar, best-known for his guitar work with James Taylor. The record had Johnstons usual raggedy bunch of immoral or simply exhausted Americans. In the rockin radio track, On The Way Out, a two-bit thief wonders less about stealing than how hell look on the surveillance cameras. As a sparse band kicks ass behind his creepy musings. Western Sky, tells a sad, panoramic tale of a pilot whose son wont fly so the two take off in a car, while wife and mother, ironically, flies above them in a jet. Rarely has there been an an album so beautifully bleak.
Johnston made several more superb discs for his label, but his luck couldve been better. The record industry nosediving, he went indie. While producing several more solo gems, Johnston was briefly part of two alternative supergroups: The Know-It-All-Boyfriends (featuring Vig) and The Hobart Brothers and Lil Sis, which sported songwriters Jon Dee Graham and Susan Cowsill (yes, that Susan Cowsill) for a loose, lovely album of country-ish tunes.
But today is a new day. And after raising funds indepedently, Johnson has produced another peak, easily the equal of his Elektra albums. Neon Repairman glows with the same gorgeous, lonely light that its title song implies. Repairman is one for the ages. The songwriter felt so protective of it, that for the first time, he produced the record himself, perfectly.
The album kicks off with the comically-crazy Angeline. With a Country-music backing, this rollicking tune features one of Freedys most off-the-wall plotlines. About a crazy carny who goes to jail for selling drugs on the side. It makes for an intoxicating opening, but just warms you up. The Folk-Rock follower, Baby, Baby, Come Home, with its memorable chorus, should get the airplay it deserves. One listen and the refrain wont leave you alone for days. Its more typical, less twisted than most of the artists work and the stronger for it. Winning and winsome, its just waiting for one of those black-hatted Country cats to cover it. Its a hit single if there ever was one. Broke Street Light also shames most of the drugstore cowboys were inundated with these days. Blake Shelton, Brad Paisley. Want some real Country cred? Cover this song!
Finally, theres that title tune. And its a pip. A tip of the cap to ace songsmith Jimmy Webb, heres a narrator who could be you or me. Sung to the soothing strains of acoustic guitar, Neon Repairman, is a Wichita Lineman for the 21st Century. This tune may be about a man who fixes burned-out bulbs, but anyone who works or feels alone, will relate to this lovely bit of acoustic Americana. Webb, incidentally, is a fan of Freedys. Hes praised his Exquisite sense of melody and economy and a sort of windswept loneliness that is peculiarly American.
The driving, the solitude, the blue-collar work ethic evinced in the title of his new album suits Johnston to a T. He does dozens of dates every year across our big country. New albums are great and Freedys new one is arguably his best. But when he saunters through your city, see him live. Johnston is wonderful in concert. His guitar playing is strong, his singing as lean, lonesome and American as Henry Fonda in The Grapes of Wrath. Freedy will be out soon, playing songs from Neon Repairman and other favorites. Hell have CDs and T shirts to buy after the show. As for fixing your neon sign? Youll have to take that up with him personally. But if he cant, youll still be glad you caught this superb singer-songwriter. Hes as bright and striking as the neon signs that show up in the night. Just when we need a place to go for company, coffee, a movie. Or simply someplace warm. A joint that will take us in. When we need it the most. http://www.freedyjohnston.com/
Jimmer + Syd By Eleni P. Austin
friend (frend) n. 1. A person whom one knows well and is fond of. 2. An ally, supporter and sympathizer.
These days the word friend has acquired multiple meanings, sometimes its even morphs from a noun to a verb. The term friending or un-friending entered the lexicon a few years ago and along with the abbreviation LOL, it doesnt seem to be going away.
True friendship is rare. Youthful friendships are easy, alliances can be made over the simplest of preference, (Hot Wheels over Matchbox, Broncos over Colts, Beatles over Stones). Cultivating friendships later in life can be tougher. Added emotional baggage, unwavering opinions and politics can make it difficult to find common ground. So when you do connect with someone and let them in, it feels all the sweeter. Thats the type of friendship it feels like Jimmer and Syd have.
Artistically, Jimmer Podraskys been on a winning streak the last few years. Best known as the front man for the Rave-Ups, Jimmer grew up in Natrona Heights, Pennsylvania. The band went through several incarnations before coalescing in Los Angeles. A four-piece, their sound encompassed Country, Blues and Folk, while harnessing the DIY energy of Punk Rock. Pre-saging the alt.country or Americana movement (musical monikers Jimmer would probably roll his eyes at), they made their bones playing the fertile L.A. club scene.
Photo by Louise Palanker
Local sensations, their debut, Town+Country, was released in 1985 on the tiny Fun Stuff label. The song Positively Lost Me went into heavy rotation on KROQ, the citys premiere New Wave radio station. A year later The Rave-Ups were featured in a pivotal scene in (Teen Whisperer) John Hughes dayglo class drama, Pretty In Pink. The films star, Molly Ringwald was a big fan and Jimmer had even begun dating Mollys sister, Beth. Ironically, the two songs they performed in the movie didnt appear on the soundtrack, released through A&M. Doubly ironic was the fact that a couple of band members still worked day jobs in the mail room at A&M
But the Rave-Ups persevered, signing with the behemoth label, Epic, home to Michael Jackson and Stevie Ray Vaughan. Despite the fact that they released two excellent records, Book Of Your Regrets in 1987 and Chance (named for Jimmer and Beths son), in 1990, the Rave-Ups rootsy sound positively got lost in the shuffle.
The Rave-Ups quietly called it quits and Jimmer continued with a couple of other projects that never came to fruition. A mostly single dad, he took a sabbatical from music and concentrated on raising his son. Fast forward more than 20 years later and his return was bolstered by two advocates, Robbie Rist (best known as Cousin Oliver from the Brady Bunch and a fine musician in his own right), and Jimmers hometown pal Ed Sikov, (a Film scholar and author).
2014 saw the release of his first solo effort, The Would-Be Plans, a concise set of songs that were funny, heartfelt and heartbreaking. Rapturous reviews hailed the album as a welcome return of a protean talent. That momentum continued in 2016 when Omnivore Records re-issued an expanded edition of Town+Country. To celebrate, The Rave-Ups played a few select live dates around Los Angeles. Soon after Jimmer returned to the studio and finished his sophomore solo album, God Like The Sun which arrived in early 2017. Doubling down on the winning formula of his first album, God was another sharp collection of smart, sad, sunny and funny stories, all wrapped in indelible melodies.
Syd Straw is something of a rarity in the music business, a sui generis talent who definitely marches to the beat of her own drummer. A Hollywood kid, her dad was actor Jack Straw, best known for his role in the Doris Day movie The Pajama Game. Once she came of age, Syd moved to New York, hoping for a career making music.
She first made a name for herself at Catch A Rising Star. The infamous venue opened in 1972 and launched the careers of everyone from Billy Crystal and Joy Behar to Eddie Murphy and Louis C.K. Pretty soon Syd was singing back-up for Pat Benatar, who had also gotten her start at the club. This led to a stint with The Golden Palominos. The No Wave/New Wave super group first emerged in the early 80s and included downtown musicians like Anton Fier, Bill Laswell and Nicky Skopelitis. Superstar musicians who lent their talents to the band included Michael Stipe (R.E.M.), Jack Bruce (Cream), John Lydon (Sex Pistols and PiL) and Richard Thompson. Lesser known lights (at the time), who also contributed were Matthew Sweet, Don Dixon, Peter Holsapple of the dbs and T-Bone Burnett. Syd appeared on their second and third albums and her vocals stood out from the pack. Once she struck out on her own, she started concentrating on writing her own songs.
Pretty quickly she was signed to Virgin Records and began recording her solo debut in New York and Texas, as well as her old Hollywood stomping grounds. A plethora of pals helped out including Michael Stipe, Willie Aaron (Balancing Act), Dave Alvin, Marshall Crenshaw, Ry Cooder, John Doe, Peter Holsapple and Chris Stamey of the dbs, Greg Leisz, Benmont Tench (Tom Pettys Heartbreakers), Richard Thompson, Van Dyke Parks and Don Was.
Entitled Surprise, it was released in 1989, it didnt exactly set the charts on fire, but the music industry took notice. Along with Squeeze and the Cars Elliott Easton, Syd appeared on the inaugural episode of MTVs Unplugged program, around the same time she Syd-ified a version of Doris Days signature song, Que Sera Sera, which played over the credits of the mordant Wynonna Ryder Black Comedy, Heathers.
In the 90s she began a discriminating acting career, appearing as Laurel, in the first Tales Of The City miniseries and more lastingly as Miss Fingerwood, the Algebra teacher in the Nickelodeon series, The Adventures Of Pete & Pete. By 1995 she had returned to the recording studio, in Springfield, Missouri of all places. Enlisting the help of a Springfield band called the Skeletons. The ensuing album, War And Peace was more stripped-down and assured than her first effort. It featured instant classics like Love And The Lack Of It, Time Has Done This and CBGBs.
The world would have to wait another 12 years for new Syd Straw music, her self-produced Pink Velour album arrived in 2008 via her own Earnester label. In the meantime, she could be found adding her dulcet tones to recordings by Dave Alvin, Rickie Lee Jones, Leo Kottke, Wilco, Los Lobos and Cindy Lee Berryhill. For the last 20 years she made Vermont her home but she spends each Spring in Los Angeles, with her faithful manager and canine companion, Carole Burnette in tow.
Sitting in with friends, playing gigs, adding her rich harmonies upon request, and participating in the annual Wild Honey benefit show, keeps Syd and Carole pretty busy each year. A couple of years ago, Jimmer asked her to duet on his song You Can Count On Me. The pair had originally met way back in the 80s, but had never collaborated musically. The tune was a highlight of the God record, and it got them thinking once they cleared the idea with Carole (and the Foxyco. Management team), Jimmer combed through his surplus of original songs and the result is the six song EP, Shoulder To Cry On.
The record opens with The Girl Next Door. Hazy harmonica runs lattice over jangly acoustic guitar and sawing violin. Jimmer and Syds vocals perfectly intertwine on this politically-charged lament. Lyrics emphasize the skewed values that evolved following 9/11 and the run-up to the most recent war in Iraq; We argue more about a tit exposed than a war where littles told, we dont worry about dying but were afraid of looking old/A generation didnt care and something sure got lost, and they made a generation that wont be better off. Later in the song they offer this vivid (ne apocryphal) scenario; Moses and Mohammad picked up Jesus in a cab, and they all went to a party at the house of Abraham/And the Devil crashed the party and he looked them in the eye and said we all own a piece of this great big pie. Yep, even Beelzebub knows were all complicit in the current culture war.
Conventional wisdom has it that there are five stages of grief: Anger, Denial, Bargaining, Depression and Acceptance. Jimmer and Syd skip the first two and tackle the last three on a trio of tracks that burrow deep into the dissolution of a relationship.
So Long Blue offers a crash-course in the art of emotional bookkeeping. Rumbling bass lines connect with smoky harmonica, rippling banjo, chiming acoustic riffs, baritone electric guitar, Gypsy Violin and a stutter-step rhythm. Dashed expectations and broken promises crater an on again/off again entanglement. A combo-platter of emotions are etched in a few succinct lines; Every time you looked back at me with that kind of disappointed glee, it set me free.
More Than Mine is elegantly rueful. It opens with a poignant confession; I was thinkin about your life, funny how I think about your life more than mine. The instrumentation is spare and bare-bones, cantilevered acoustic riffs bridge bedrock bass lines, swirly electric guitar and a slip-stitch beat. Here, Syds supple harmony shades Jimmers rough-hewn rasp as he parses the politics of the romantic postmortem.
Theres a hint of anger on the title track. Resonator color outside the lines of the torchy melody, as layers of acoustic guitar and violin wash over a kick-drum beat. Old lovers poised on the threshold of friendship lay down the ground rules; I dont wanna be the pan you fry on, when someone new has come to push your shoveI dont want to be the roof you rely on, when the rain comes pouring down from up above/Dont want to be the shoulder you cry on, cause Ive forgotten all I ever learned of love.
The biggest surprise here is Big Wide River. Modal and melancholy, the song evokes the expansive soundscapes of Wichita Lineman and other-worldly Psychedelia of Dont Come Around Here No More. Anchored by wily sitar notes and a propulsive dumbek beat, the lyrics chronicle an erratic courtship that weathers some ups and downs; Like a big wide river our love rages and then its calm/But fight after night and night after fight it keeps on rolling on. Despite the romantic Sturm und Drang, the song is suffused in sweetness, thanks to Jimmer and Syds heady harmonic brew.
The album closes with Break Like The Sun, a scratchy stylus sound folds into a back-porch ramble accented by acoustic guitar, roiling bass, boisterous banjo and prickly violin. The lyrics issue an open invitation; The kitchen door is open to you, all you have to do is move your hopes and dreams and plans and schemes and all your stuff and everything. A sunny sing-a-long, theres a joie de vivre here that is infectious and insistent and quite impossible to resist.
This EP was recorded quickly, but its execution feels flawless. Production chores were shared by Syd, Geoff Pearlman, Robbie Rist and ex-Rave-Up Terry Wilson. They enlisted a coterie of old friends to bring each song to life. Lynn Bertles added violin, Rave-Up Tim Jimenez played bass drum, shaker and dumbek. Robbie Rist contributed fretless bass and Terry provided sitar, bass, banjo, violin and backing vocals. Geoff is the EPs MVP supplying a plethora of guitars: 12-string electric, baritone electric, National Resonator, plus bass. Jimmer tackled acoustic guitar, harmonica, banjo and bass. Syd sang, in her words, she grafted her voice onto Jimmers stories.
This kind of chemistry cant be faked. Theres a symbiotic convergence that occurs when Jimmer and Syd blend their voices together. It seems so natural, nuanced and nonpareil; its hard to believe they havent been honing this sound for decades. Hopefully the Shoulder To Cry On is just a taste of things to come.
The Rave-Ups Jimmer Podrasky and Syd Straw announced today that they will be releasing a new EP. A dream pairing of two of the most talented and important singer/songwriters of the last 30 years, the EP, Podrasky wrote on Facebook, will hit the streets, when summer comes.
With two recent solo albums under his belt, Podraskys songwriting prowess has never been stronger. His penchant for mixing clever wordplay with world-weary wisdom and bittersweet irony make him one of Americas best musical storytellers. Meanwhile, Straw, whose voice is one of the most powerful and affecting around, is every bit Podraskys equal and the perfect musical foil. Her own discography is observational, tragic, comic and deeply moving and her delivery knows how to find the most secretive hearts and break them right in half.
As for what to expect, Podrasky described the EP as music, that strays somewhat from our rock roots. Its a starker, simpler, sweeter approach.
Dubbed Shoulder To Cry On, the six-song platter finds three-fourths of the Rave-Ups playing on Big Wide River, which, Podrasky says makes it, the closest thing to a new Rave-Up release as one can get.
JIMMER & SYD Shoulder To Cry On (Jimmermusic.com)
By Admin - June 27, 20181065 0
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The Wild Honey Foundation, a 501 (3)(c) non-profit, seeks to celebrate and keep alive the passion, creativity, and idealism of the musical giants of the late 20th century and pass on their legacy to future generations. Wild Honey shows bring together the global music community to raise funds for a variety of charitable causes, especially autism treatment/research and assisting ailing musicians in financial need https://www.facebook.com/groups/Wildhoneyfoundation/
The Autism Think Tank, NJ is an internationally recognized 501(c)(3) (Non-profit) organization whose mission is to facilitate the medical and psychosocial stabilization of the child and family. Bringing together a team of world renowned medical experts via telemedicine, the Autism Think Tank, NJ is designed to provide a multidisciplinary team approach to the identification and treatment of the complicated medical comorbidities of autism. The Autism Think Tank is committed to improving the lives of children and families in the home, school and community through comprehensive case management, community outreach, research and education.
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LocationWild Honey Eagle Rock Backyard Amphitheater (View)
1167 Kipling Ave
Los Angeles, CA 90041
United States
Categories
| Kid Friendly: Yes! |
| Dog Friendly: No |
| Non-Smoking: Yes! |
| Wheelchair Accessible: Yes! |
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Contact
| Owner: Wild Honey |
| On BPT Since: Mar 11, 2013 |
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| Paul Rock |
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