The Lovely Carla Hayden and Jammer often engage in spirited, enlightened conversation about everything under the sun. You know “let no existential crisis go unexplored.” Yesterday, in the middle of a very rollicking, rambunctious dialogue, Carla whipped out a pen and drew up a little diagram to expalin everything. Let’s call this one:
Everything Else and the Evil Forces…
Record Store Day 2024 April 20 at Vintage Vinyl in Evanston, IL. This is always an exciting and challenging gig. Primal, elemental, on the street, against the wind, in the cold, in the heat, singing & playing amid the passing, madding crowd. Oh yeah, the best r&r kick too. Weather permitting at 10:30 a.m or so. With Carla Hayden, whitewolfsonicprincess & an ever-changing cast of characters. Bring a chair. A drink. A bagel. Kick Out the Jams! – Jammer
It helps to have an audience of creative subterraneans. You know, those unique ones: poets, writers, photographers, dancers, musicians, folks who have the flame turned up high, shining eyes, smiles on their faces, love in their hearts, life pulsing thru their bodies with an uncommon, overflowing, electric-charisma.
We played at the Montrose Saloon last Friday night. And we debuted a brand-new song called “Murmurations.” It the lyrical brain-child of the Lovely Carla. A newly-hatched WWSP original. The band had only played it a handful of times in rehearsal. A new song, raw, bursting with energy, still looking to find it’s ideal expression.
We ventured it out into the slipstream, just to see if it would fly. Yes, indeed, it did. Surprisingly, the subterraneans performed a spontaneous “murmuration dance;” arms held high, fingers and palms gracefully circling in the air like a flock of starlings, as the vibrations of the song bounced off the walls and suffused that little barroom. A sweet, fleeting moment of uncommon beauty & mystery. Took our breath away. Chalk it up to “21st Century Druid Music,” in action. Really… – Jammer
A fabulous lineup for this Friday’s show at the Saloon. It’s St. Patrick’s Day season. So let’s celebrate! We have special guitarist, Rich Poston joining us for this one. Rich will be filling in for our usual guitar-slinger & r&r depserado Chuck Wasserburg.
Rich will be bringing a bit of a more “progressive rock,” approach to our songs. Lately rehearsals have been somewhat revelatory. WWSP = 21st Century Druid Music & “Prague Rock.” You know, a bit of a avant garde European flavor mixed in with our homemade Celtic blues vibe.
Anyway, it will be a unique one, no doubt. We play at 10 p.m. A bit of an extended set. Hope you can join us. – Jammer
If you have seen our band perform live, you know, the Lovely Carla is the “conductor of the vibes,” she is the driving force, the hurricane of creativity, the primary striver towards that nebulous unicorn called “perfection.” Still, her feet are planted firmly on the ground, her head is in the game, and she knows that all that striving is just the motion towards a chimeric ideal.
So yeah, the leader of the band, the primary conductor, vocalist, lyricist, and lately, pretty definitively, the 3rd percussionist in the ensemble. She has propelled us to a bit of a new sound, a new vibe, a new cohesiveness as a group. Pictured above are some of her instruments. She also has bells, shakers, tambourines, and a Tibetan singing bowl.
Our next show is this coming Thursday, February 8, at the Montrose Saloon. We take the stage at 8 p.m. sharp. Carla will “ring the bell for peace and healing,” and then the WWSP whirlwind of sound, (a fabulous collection of musicians, and me, “the destroyer of strings”), will commence to do our thing. I, of course, do my best to keep up with all the talent surrounding us, trying not to fuck up. Ha. We each have our own method for living.
Hope you can join us. It will be epic; new songs, old songs, a whirling-dervishing, 8-piece ensemble. Maximum vibe, maximum fun. – Jammer
Hello All – Happy to say that the first whitewolfsonicprincess show of 2024 is on Thursday, February 8 at the Montrose Saloon. We take the stage at 8:00 p.m. SHARP!
Think: WWSP big band in a small, cozy saloon. Expect maximum vibe. Hope you can join us. – Peace & Love – James & Carla
BTW – You can purchase tickets in advance ($10.00) here: https://www.seetickets.us/event/WhitewolfsonicprincessThomas-Pace-BandNo-Hero/580604
$15.00 at the door!
Hello Beautiful Humans!
James and I wanted to take a moment to say hello to you all. There is so much turmoil on our beautiful blue planet, we wanted to send a message of love and light out into the world, and to you. We wish you and your loved ones a peaceful, joyous, holiday season.
We also wanted to take a moment and thank you for your continued support. Our hearts overflow with gratitude for your generous spirit and abundance of good will for the creative journey of our whitewolfsonicprincess project.
We are still working on new music. Our next album, originally titled, “Seeds Of Light,” has a new title: “Love Without Fear.”
There is still some work to be done. The goal is to have our new album released in 2024. We are looking forward to an exciting celebration.
Much love and gratitude! – Carla & James
Another Songwriting session.
Sometimes we are just trying to catch the butterfly. We want to catch it, but we don’t want to harm it, or squelch it, or hold onto it too tight. We need to be gentle, relaxed, not be trying too hard, trying not to chase. We find it’s best if we accidentally stumble into a song. We try to short-circuit our conscious minds, and tap into the vast unconscious stream. A stream of creativity. It works best if songs come as an accident, a gift, a surprise. It is weird to write about it, best to do it.
Yesterday my partner, the Lovely Carla had all the lyrics, I had a few riffs and chord sequences up my sleeve, riffs I have been playing with over the last few weeks. We sat on a comfy leather couch in our rehearsal room, totally unplugged. My acoustic guitar, Carla with a classic bodhran. We tried out various approaches. I did some finger-picking, alternate picking, hybrid picking, vigorous strumming, tried some different tempos, weird time-changes. I think rhythmically, I was inspired a bit from my recent close listening to the Pogues, “Rum Sodomy & the Lash.”
We ran thru a few parts trying to marry words and chords naturally, organically. It’s all vibe and feel. When we felt we had come close to the heart of it, we turned on our little digital recorder. Best to capture the moment, turns out the best parts are always so fleeting and ephemeral. The defining character of a song is often found in the pauses, the silences, in a particular up-stroke, down-stroke, or oddly-weird strum. Carla’s voice floated in the air; ethereal, gentle, wonderful. We worked, meaning we played, for nearly two hours. Time evaporated. We were in the moment, the expanding moment.
We walked out with a 5 minute recording. Pretty sure it is the song. The song that really wanted to materialize before our eyes and ears. It was exciting, gratifying. It’s always a surprise too. The song seems old, so, so, old world, ancient; another time and place. That has been where we have been going with our songs. The lyrics point to the mystery, the beauty, the grandeur of our natural world. Yes. And the murmuration of starlings. All sadly vanishing and imperiled by the careless, life-nullifying ways of Human Beings. How tragic.
Anyway, heady stuff for a little song. A song hopefully delivered in the most poetic and exciting way we can conjure up. We are playing forward to go back to another time and place. To my ears it all sounds very Druidic and Celtic, a sort of a Celtic blues alive in a Pagan world, a world ruled by The White Goddess. Handmade, homemade. Other. – Jammer
I had a few extra bucks burning a hole in the pocket of my Levis. I stopped into one of my favorite local record stores Squeezebox Books & Records. They have used CD section, pristine copies of new and old CDs for $5. It’s always a kick to rummage thru the racks and see if I can find a treasure.
Yesterday, I scored 3 treasures.
Neil Young’s “Songs For Judy,” solo acoustic songs recorded on a cheap cassette player in 1976. Raw. Beautiful. Thrilling. “… often fortified by a smoke or two just behind the curtain.” Just fantastic singing and playing out on the edge. A few rare songs never officially recorded or released. There are couple really funny monologues too. The ghost of Judy Garland speaks to Neil. Lo-fi magic.
Also nabbed a pristine copy of The Pogues, “Rum, Sodomy the Lash.” (1985) Shane Macgowan and the boys at their raucously-poetic finest. Rambling, shambling. Funny. Produced by Elvis Costello. Fabulous. Essential. A band alive in a room, raging, blazing and engaging.
And Stereolab’s “Margerine Eclipse,” (2004) – kicky fun. A feast for the ears. A great trip with a good pair of headphones. The band said it was recorded as “dual mono.” What does that mean?
“Margerine Eclipse was mixed with full stereo separation – or as Stereolab termed it, in “dual mono”.[21] For every song, the band made two recordings – each with a different arrangement – then created a final mix by synchronising both recordings together, with one on the left channel and the other on the right channel.” Hi-fi magic.
The results are pretty amazing.
Cheap entertainment. Plus soulful, thrilling and inspiring music. Love. – Jammer
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