Over the course of two months last fall,  we wrote a chunk of new tunes.  It was positively easy!  We descended on the magical Pigeon Club recording studio in downtown Hoboken,  and in 5 magical days cranked out 15 original tracks.  The record features the incredible session work of Justin Goldner- on Bass, Guitars, Guitarron and melotron,  Andrew Mclean on Drums,  and the great NYC rocker Tom Curiano on drums.

We’re putting the finishing touches on the album as I write this- and we’ll have some early-listening opportunities coming your way soon.

We have a new website for all things Curtis/Reinhard.  Check it out!

Here are some great shots from the Pigeon Club sessions:

Blaire Tracking in Her Office, Pigeon Club Hoboken, NJ

Pigeon Club Live Room

Tracking on my Republic Guitars High 61 Resonator

Komplexx working the light

Rhythm section, Yours Truly on DRUMS?!

Some Masonry at Work

Moonlight Masonry

Bro/Sis Rock and Roll Fam

With Drums Monster Tom Curiano

As a token of holiday cheer and my continued gratitude for your support and generosity, I’ve put together a new album of cover songs called Rock N Roll Chameleon. It’s available right now, absolutely FREE. Many of these songs were selected by my fans, as part of the Deluxe Fan Edition of my last album 2nd Avenue Ball- so I offer a very special thanks to those magnificent people for their brilliant choices. You can download this album quickly and easily at CLINTONCURTIS.COM. I hope you’ll help spread this free music throughout the land, share it on Facebook, Twitter or by email so we can spread the gospel of free music and 21st Century Rock and Roll!

INSERT WIDGET HERE
Here is the tracklist:

Incident on 57th Street- by Bruce Springsteen and The E Street Band (From the album The Wild, The Innocent and The E Street Shuffle)
Going Up The Country- by Canned Heat (From the Album Living The Blues)
Corrina, Corrina- by Bob Dylan (From the album The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan)
Workin’ At The Carwash Blues- by Jim Croce (From the album Life and Times)
Daughter- by Loudon Wainwright III (Single)
Bright Side Of The Road- by Van Morrison (From the album Into The Music)
Good Day Sunshine- by The Beatles (From the album Revolver)
And Your Bird Can Sing- by The Beatles (From the album Revolver)
Roll Um Easy- by Little Feat (From the album Dixie Chicken)
Tomorrow Is a Long Time- by Bob Dylan (From the album Bob Dylan’s Greatest Hits Vol. II)
Baker Street- By Gerry Rafferty (From the album City to City)

To give credit where it is due- on the track “Incident on 57th Street” the inimitable Gray Reinhard appears on Organ and Piano, the great, visionary drummer Andrew “komplexx” Mclean beats those things within an inch of their lives and the future legend James Casey offers up the saxophone solo. On “Roll Um Easy” the lovely and mysterious Miss Elisabeth contributes backing vocals. All other tracks were performed by yours truly. As always, all tracks were engineered by the platinum-eared wizard of the faders and knobs, Matt Stine.

I hope you have a wonderful holiday season, and that 2012 will be the best year yet. For my part, I can say that the new year will bring two new albums and some great musical surprises…but more on that very soon! Until then, please accept my very sincere gratitude for your friendship and support and DOWNLOAD Rock N Roll Chameleon now! Keep on rockin’ my people…I know i will.

Here are the original versions of these tunes, so you can compare them to my versions… some of these are a pretty radical departure!  Enjoy.

INCIDENT ON 57TH STREET

GOING UP THE COUNTRY

CORRINA CORRINA

WORKING AT THE CARWASH BLUES

DAUGHTER

BRIGHT SIDE OF THE ROAD

GOOD DAY SUNSHINE

AND YOUR BIRD CAN SING

ROLL UM EASY

TOMORROW IS A LONG TIME

BAKER STREET

I earn a little dough and keep my soul healthy by singing with various choral groups throughout New York.   This has taken me to the greatest stages in our city and has given me the chance to work with some of the giants of the conducting world.

This month, I had the incredible honor and pleasure of performing with our hometown band, The New York Philharmonic, in a glorious concert to commemorate the 10th anniversary of the September 11th attacks on our beloved city.  The piece, aptly chosen, was Gustav Mahler’s glorious Symphony #2 “Resurrection.”

The 5-movement symphony features a massive choir in the final movement, building to an emotional, musical peak that was unforgettable for all the musicians and audience in attendance.  The concert was filmed for a PBS “Great Performances” special- and the video (with very fine audio quality) is posted below.

I’m posting the final movement first, followed by the preceding movements.  Enjoy!  And look for your boy around 21:30,  30:15, and 34:50.  I’m thinking about wearing that tuxedo to my next show at Arlene’s Grocery!

PART 1

PART 2

PART 3

PART 4

PART 5

I was joined by great pianist and composer, Cody Owen Stine- along with songwriters Liana Stampur, Miss Elisabeth and Miko Deleon.

I tried to pick some unexpected tunes written by women- and I was really thrilled by the setlist.

One of my favorite aspects of doing this radio show is learning tons of new songs.  Matt Stine suggested I play “Freight Train” by Elizabeth Cotten.  I had never heard this simple masterpiece- and what a thrill it was to discover.

Cotten was born in 1895 and began writing songs at a very early age.  She was also a guitar innovator-  a left-handed player that learned to play a right-handed guitar turned upside down without re-arranging the strings.   This meant she played the melodies with her thumb and the bass-lines with her 2nd and 3rd fingers- absolutely backwards!  This funky style birthed the term “Cotten-Pickin’.”

Here’s Elizabeth playing her most famous song:

The guitar playing is just incredible!

Here’s our latest episode of CC Radio featuring “Freight Train” and songs by Bonnie Raitt, Amy Winehouse, Carole King, Alanis Morrisette, Billie Holiday, Sister Rosetta Tharp and others!

http://www.clintoncurtis.com/home/cc-radio/

http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/14778910

Fleeing from the Memphis tornadoes, quite unaware of the gravity of the situation playing out throughout the south (and especially in Alabama, a couple hundred miles to our east), we turned south into the Mississippi darkness.  I had enjoyed a few libations on Beale street and so my man Justin Levine was in charge of driving us through truly awful weather down and out of the danger zone.  There was actually very little driving involved, since we basically hydroplaned the entire way down highway 61.  Yes, THAT highway 61- the mythical route that cuts right down the center of the country, tracing the Mississippi River from the Canada border to the great city of New Orleans.   In the deep south, it is known as The Blues Trail- since it connects the towns that cradle the history of blues music and therefore the great history of American music itself.

There was an incredible sequence of events and indecision that led us to our resting place that night.  If we were anywhere near sane, we would have stopped as early as possible that night,  but some bizarre force kept leading us on.  We passed many cheap hotels across the MS border and the resort/casino town of Tunica- which seemed incredibly inviting…yet, something kept us trudging all the way to Clarksdale- the focus of our conversations for the last two days and of my dreams.

Clarksdale is a small town in the Mississippi Delta that holds more mythology than perhaps any town of its size in the country.  It is the birthplace of a staggering number of music legends:  Son House, Sam Cooke, Ike Turner, John Lee Hooker and from a later generation, Nate Dogg!  We had also heard that Bessie Smith, one of the greatest singers of all time, died there.  In addition, the intersection of highways 61 and 49 in downtown Clarksdale is the supposed site of “The Crossroads” where Robert Johnson made his infamous deal with the devil.

Here’s the rediculous tourist marker that exploits this rumor:

All of these notable residents, and Robert Johnson’s satanic site were leading us to Clarksdale, however we hadn’t planned on spending the night there- it was only the tornado that brought us there this very night.

We found the Riverside based on 3 positive reviews online (which I pulled up on my phone haphazardly as we skidded down the highway).  I called the place at around midnight when we were about an hour away.  A man answered the phone, “Riverside, this Rat.”  At that point, a normal person would have hung up and continued in search of a Best Western, but the voice sounded warm and inviting, if a little drowsy.  I apologized for waking him and asked if he might have a room for three musicians and wouldn’t mind taking us in at around 1am.  “I’ll be here, you’s just ring the bell, I’ll be here.”  That was that,  no changing our minds now.

On the way, bursts of lightening lit up the black night pure white and we began to see the flooding all around us-  high water rising, indeed.  The delta was swollen, and highway 61 and the great, muddy Mississippi were becoming one and the same.  An hour later, after some fine driving (water skiing) from Levine, we pulled up in front of the Riverside Hotel in the persistent, eerie rain.  Any highbrow folks would never have gotten out of the car.  The Riverside is basically a war-era boarding house-  uneven, slanted and relatively rundown.   It looks exactly like it did when it opened in 1944 as the segregated town’s African-American hospital.  In fact, one of the magical things about Clarksdale is that the whole town looks trapped in time- a true piece of American history.

As soon as I saw the historical marker on the street in front of the hotel I felt the blood rush from my face.  My heart began pounding like the stomp-in-time of a bluesman’s hard-sole shoe.  Sonny Boy Williamson lived here?   Bessie died HERE?  “Since 1944 The Riverside Hotel has provided lodging for traveling musicians,” reads the first sentence.  This was surely our home tonight.

We looked at each other, dazed, delighted and suddenly un-exhausted and knew we were in for a serious experience .  What, after all, were a bunch of New Yorkers who maniacally drove from New York City for no reason looking for?

The boys stayed inside our little car as I headed for the door, with the engine still on and the windshield wipers whisking the view clean, just in case I needed rescuing.  A hand-written sign tacked to the screen door in front read “Ring Bell for Rat.”  I did so and a few seconds later- the stirring of a once-sleeping man.

“You the boys called me earlier?”

“Yes, sir.  So sorry to wake you.”

“You boys shut off that car and bring all your things in.  Don’t worry about the car, I got a security camera up there.  Bring all your things in.  It’s cash only, now.  You boys come on in.”

And so we did.

Everything inside looks all White-Stripey…you know, primary colors and mod-looking clothes on all the 90 Lb. employees.   I really dig the idea of a boutique record label opening up a one-stop shop that acts as the studio, the offices and the retail store to sell records.  It’s like a physical version of the electronic platform that many artists use now.   Would if I could!

Last stop in Nashville is the famous Gruhn Guitar shop.  Almost every instrument is vintage or pre-owned, and everything is spectacularly unique.  Justin Levine and I sampled as many guitars/banjos/mandos/ukes and resonator guitars as we could before we started getting scowls from the grizzled fellers behind the counter.

Here’s Justin wishing he’d left his wallet in the car:

We made it out with our bank accounts still in the green- which is good because we still have a lot of trouble to make this week.  Speaking of trouble-  Justin and I played a brief outdoor impromptu concert on the steps of the world-famous Ryman auditorium, until we got shut down by the man.  The man must have been worried about the enormous crowd that gathered round us.

Now, it’s back in the car for the short trip southwest into the heart of American music-  the great city of Memphis.

I drove us straight to Graceland and we paid our respects to the king and to his amazing landscaping staff.  The house is a monster tourist institution situated in an otherwise rough part of town.  In fact- most of Memphis is a tough place that doesn’t tend to make a bunch of city boys feel like strolling around.

We were aching for our first look at the magnificent Mississippi river- so we headed down to the banks near a section of downtown Memphis.  It was looking mighty as always- in fact, it was positively swollen to the brim.  Across the river lay Arkansas which we’d have to save for another trip.

As we were taking some photos on the muddy banks the sky started to yell at us and within literally 2 minutes, the entire scene changed and darkness covered all the land.  All of a sudden, very loud, very disturbing sirens filled the entire city- and I knew what was up.  I cannot stress how disarming the sounds of the tornado sirens were-  it sounded like the soviets were coming.  We ran to the car just as the storm began and within seconds the sky opened and the streets began to flood.   I drove as fast as we could for downtown in hopes of finding a parking garage, preferably underground.  On the way, a flash of lightening seemed to hit our car and it was among the loudest sounds I’ve ever heard.  Three grown men began to scream like children.

We ducked into a parking garage where many other folks were beginning to congregate and waited out the storm for almost two hours.  The sirens were going the entire time- and we found out from folks listening to their radios that there were two tornadoes on the ground right across the river heading our way.  So naturally, we picked up our guitars, sat on the back bumper of the car and began to play.  We helped to calm down one particularly distressed woman, which was nice.

Finally, the sirens shut down- and we ran through the flooded streets to historic Beale Street, a place I’ve been many times before and will go many times again.   Luckily- blues musicians aren’t afraid of tornadoes- apparently they have bigger troubles on their minds.  We dug some incredible bands up and down Beale.

Our favorites were Blind Mississippi Morris blowing harp at the original BB Kings:

The Blake Ryan Band also at BBs featuring Blake on incredible slide guitar, and one of the greatest Hammond Organ players we’ve ever heard:

…and The Blues Masters in some crazy little run down juke joint:We caught a look at the news on TV in one of the clubs- and it looked like we were in a short calm between massive tornado-laden storm systems, so we decided to jump back in the car and head south into Mississippi instead of sleep in Memphis because we had to make it all the way down the Mississippi River to New Orleans tomorrow.  That decision was one of the best we’ve ever made…and more on that tomorrow.