Baker Falls Falls for Storytown

Until this past May 20, Storytown’s last live gig was at Pete’s Candy Store on September 23, 2021. That night, a line of thunderstorms roared through at just the wrong time, only a handful of audience members showed up (thanks Mark!), and I got COVID. So I said to myself, “that’s it, this is no fun, why are we doing this, etc etc.” I never even posted a recap. And yeah, maybe it was a little early in the pandemic to be expecting a “normal” gig. That said, we’ve not really amassed much of a local following beyond a VERY APPRECIATED bunch of friends, so I guess my expectations were a bit out of whack.

Then, in January of this year, through a flukey series of events, we played a showcase in NYC, and for the showcase I wanted to make the vocals bigger and better, more like our recordings. Thus the addition of the grand and glorious Erica Smith and Rembert Block.

I was so excited by how it felt to be onstage creating that bigger sound – it was such a revelation, with the rich harmonies — my natural thought was “of course, now we need to add HORNS!”. So, we added the grand and glorious Pam Fleming and Jeff Hudgins on trumpet and saxes, respectively. And wow, I LOVE the live sound. Big, rich, organic, lots of textures. Call me late to the party (my own party, it turns out), but the band now finally sounds the way I want it to. And this is no reflection on the original and always fab band members – Rick, Charly, and Tony – just now we’re complete. Actually, we do still need a mandolin player…. :-O

Here are a few pics (courtesy Vinnie Grosso) of the sausage getting made, at the always first class Euphoria Studios:

IMHO, at Baker Falls (née Pyramid Club) we sounded better than we ever have, and we got a lot of love from the folks who turned out for our bigger badder better selves (pictures courtesy Vinnie Grosso as well as my daughters):

Opening for Storytown were what I like to call Tony Salvatore’s OLDSCOOL “collective” – a core band of which I am honored now to be a member, plus an eclectic, rotating cast of singers and musicians. This was the fourth (I think) OLDSCOOL appearance at Baker Falls. The core band comprises Tony Salvatore on guitar, “Mad” Kat Arevalo on bass, Jeremy Driesen on drums, and, as of now, myself. The rest of the collective may include Cousin George (Haddad), Maggie Moore, David Driver, Cindy Kaplan, and Sean Altman. At this last gig the terrific violinist Deni Bonet joined for a couple of songs. Your mileage may vary.

Tony likes to choose a theme for the OLDSCHOOL gigs, and this time it was songs with the word “eye” or “eyes” in the title. I got to close out the set with The Who’s “Behind Blue Eyes”, which included a spontaneous and touching singalong by the audience. Thanks y’all, that was truly old school!

In case you didn’t see it, I created a playlist of the studio recordings of the set that we played at Baker Falls.

So where does Storytown go from here? I very much want to do it again – play live for people, play some new songs, not be rushed on and off the stage, get better, rinse, repeat. We’re looking at a next gig sometime in the Fall 2024. So watch this space.

Thanks for listening (and getting outta the house to hear some live music).