Electric and Loud (from 2008)

I had a good time today - playing some music with the boys down at Tommy Doyle's in Harvard Square, Cambridge, MA. Electric and loud. I like to play that way, though most of my gigs for the past umpteen years have been acoustic. I can do either, though I look forward to the times when I play electric. Mickey Hart once said that if it's worth playing, it's worth playing loud. I agree, though I usually don't say that to many people, especially to the acoustic fans out there in my world. In the 90's, most of my gigs were in the New England acoustic scene. I was part of a duo with Jill Stein. It seemed as if we played every small coffeehouse and venue in the area. I became a "folkie" by default. We played sort of world folk for the lack of a better description. Our music was very rhythmic. We knew, and I still swear by it, that rhythm is everything - or maybe I should say that it's the foundation for all music - and life too. Where would we be without our hearts beating in time. When it goes off beat, we die. As simple as that. But, I digress. Rhythm is feeling - it's body. It's visceral. Music has to have that. Duke Ellington said that if it ain't got that swing it don't mean a thing. I extrapolate that to mean that swing is rhythm, the core, the root of all music. Now you don't have to swing like the jazzers do, but you have to "swing" your music to where you feel the music, where the music is in your body and not just in your head. It stems from the ground, or from the earth. From that point you can reach for the sky and the stars and play any damn thing you want. So, back to Tommy Doyle's - I go there to have a good time and jam some with friends and with whomever shows up. It's good for me. I don't know about the audience though. Do they like it? It seems that way. But for myself, I need to play and sing to my heart's content. It's a reconnection for me from a week of thinking. It's healing, but that's another story, for another time. So Electric and Loud. Add tasteful to that and you've got something. Kenny