There’s no good timing for bad news – but this timing was exceptionally lousy and the news was even worse.
But first, a little history.
Since their renaissance in 2005, the New Riders Of The Purple Sage have proven beyond the shadow of a doubt that you can’t keep a good band down. Original New Riders David Nelson (guitar/vocals) and Buddy Cage (pedal steel) are playing some of the most inspired music of their careers with the killer duo of Ronnie Penque (bass/vocals) and Johnny Markowski (drums/vocals) providing the chug and Michael Falzarano navigating with his rhythm guitar work and vox.
Don’t even begin to think of them as some sort of “revival” or “oldies” act that plays their hits by rote for an hour, tips their hats goodnight, and then retires to the bus: the present-day New Riders are as strong a jamband force as they come. They can lay down classic cosmic cowboy twang; they can venture off into the deep corners of the psychedelic universe; they can rock, rumble, roar, and soar. Their flight plans are based on not only an impressive catalog that dates back over 40 years but on new material, as well.
The current-day NRPS line-up released Where I Come From in 2009, putting the world on notice to the fact that not only was the band full of life and creative energy, but they had the talents of an old saddle partner as well: legendary lyricist Robert Hunter was pumping out the words as fast as David Nelson could put chords to them, along with the songwriting talents of Markowski, Penque, and Falzarano and arrangement input from Cage. All was good.
Over the last year or so, some new tunes began to surface at NRPS shows and talk of another album began to buzz. The buzz became a reality with the arrival of 17 Pine Avenue in early March of this year – a set of solid songs featuring seven new Hunter/Nelson tunes. The Riders had raised their own bar another notch; shows around the release date were selling out; things were rolling, bigtime.
And then the news hit: the Rider’s appearance at a Rex Foundation benefit on 3/24 was notable for the appearance of guests Mookie Siegel, Barry Sless and Professor Louie. It was also notable for the absence of pedal steel monster Buddy Cage.
Buddy Cage does not miss gigs. I remember talking to Tim Carbone about a recording session he produced a few years back where Cage showed up sicker than three dogs with the flu and still managed to nail the groove in typical Buddy serve-the-song fashion. That was a recording session – a sorry-I-feel-like-shit-see-you-tomorrow recording session for the average person … for Buddy Cage to miss the Rex Foundation gig, it had to be something bad.
And it was: multiple myeloma.
Blood cancer.
Google undoubtedly saw a spike in searches for the definition of multiple myeloma and its symptoms after the announcement of Buddy’s illness. In the meantime, New Riders fans (and the Riders themselves) wondered what it all meant for Buddy. He had started treatment; other that that, not a lot was known as far as where the trail ahead led for the New Riders.
Michael Falzarano and I had planned on a phoner to talk about 17 Pine Avenue before Buddy Cage was laid low. I backed off to give Michael and the New Riders a chance to deal with the disruptions in their world; we eventually had an opportunity to get together.
It was no surprise that our early conversation revolved around Buddy Cage. Michael acknowledged the outpouring of love and concern for Buddy. His description of the New Riders/Dead family scene was heartwarming: “Fortunately, we have a team of people and players around us. We’re all close friends and we all love each other … when someone needs something, everyone steps up.”
And Falzarano’s take on Buddy’s illness and what it meant for the future was guarded but positive. With a new album to tour behind and shows booked through New Year’s, the New Riders had plenty to do.
I had the interview with Michael Falzarano transcribed and ready to turn into the Jambands.com mothership when I needed to amend it – for the best of reasons: an e-mail arrived from Buddy Cage himself.
I quote:
“I had/have some health issues but I’m back to work. You know the protocol with propeller-driven engines being lift-off – it’s customary to yell, ‘CLEAR!’ So … ‘CLEAR’ IT IS!”
Buddy and I ended up on the phone shortly after that. He had a few thoughts to add to Michael’s about 17 Pine Avenue and about the year ahead. Dovetailing treatments between show scheduling, he’s looking to be on hand to rip it up with his bandmates as much as possible.
While Buddy chose to focus on the music rather than his illness, he did acknowledge the positive vibes that the New Riders community had blessed him with – a reminder of what the scene is really all about.
The first portion of our New Riders feature is some straight Q&A with Michael Falzarano. We’ll close things out with some “Quotes From The Cage.”
Part I: Michael Falzarano
Michael, not to take anything away from the various forms of the Dead family that are still performing live, but you guys don’t have a whole lot of other peers who are still creating and going into the studio with brand-new material like this.
I agree 100%. Seven years ago, when we did those first five shows, it was only supposed to be those first five shows: play the catalog, have some fun with those great songs that John Dawson wrote back in the day … just have some fun.
And then it began to grow – and as any musician will tell you, if you want something to grow, you have to plant some seeds … you gotta do some new stuff. We took the position that we were going to try to stay as true as we could to the legacy and the history of the band but move forward at the same time. Everybody in the band knows how to put a song together – and when Robert Hunter started writing with David Nelson, things began to take on another life.
At this point, we could probably – if we had the budget … which we don’t (laughs) – go into the studio tomorrow and record three or four more albums worth of new material and still have some left over.
I wondered about that, as David and Buddy have both told me before about Hunter’s amazing flow of words once he gets going.
Oh, yeah … (laughs) I know Hunter sent a lot more tunes to David. Plus, Johnny, Ronnie, and myself all write. I know I’m not exaggerating when I say we could record several more albums. But you can do only so much, you know?
My original plan for 17 Pine Avenue was to do a double disc, because we have so many songs ready to go. But to be honest with you, we couldn’t afford it. It’s just not the way it works. But we’re really pleased with the way the album came out and the great reviews we’ve been getting. We‘re just pushing forward – that’s the main thing.
How are you balancing your set lists between the New Riders’ massive back catalog of tunes and this growing batch of new material? Between this album and 2009’s Where I Come From, you have a bunch of great songs that begged to be jammed out.
Well, every night we try to strike a balance between songs from the back catalog and the new ones. We try to keep it as close as we can to something that we feel people want. Sometimes it leans more one way than the other; it’s never right-down-the-middle 50% old material/50% new material … but we try to maintain a mix of classics and new. As long as it’s good quality music and people are getting off on it, you know?
A lot of the new, younger fans are starting to come out now and they really, really love the new material – as do the older fans. It goes both ways. If we went out and played nothing but new material, people would be disappointed – and if we went out and did nothing but the old stuff, then we’d be a nostalgia act and wouldn’t last a year or two.
We do what we do as if we were in a new band … who happen to have a history, a legacy, and a catalog to play. (laughter)
You also produced 17 Pine Avenue. How do you handle being on both sides of the glass in the studio? I’m thinking it has both its advantages and its challenges.
I’ve been doing it for so long … (laughs) My first studio date was when I was 16 years old – I’m in my 60s now, so it’s sort of become like second nature. I know how to do it and how to get the job done; I know how to stand back, take a listen, and go, “I think this is good” – or, “I think this is bad.”
My theory has always been – and almost always is – get everybody in the same room together, playing at the same time; live in the studio, playing off of one another. A lot of albums these days are made piece-by-piece: put on another guitar part, put on another vocal part, put on this, put on this, put on this … but I like to go as live as we can. And get the early takes, before it has a chance to get into that studio-sounding thing.
Right down to those off-mic yells you can hear on the album when you’re starting the jam or trying to reign things back in … (laughter) It’s happening right then.
That’s exactly what I’m talking about. When you’re listening to it, you get that feeling of being there while it’s happening. Often times what you hear is me directing traffic – you want to the jam to go on longer or you want to get back to the verse … it’s just part of the live performance and you leave it there.
When I go into the studio with any band, what I want is for everyone to have the same mindset: this is a moment in time – that’s what we’re gonna capture today. It might not be the version of the song that we develop six months from now or the version that we played two months ago … but we’re going to capture the best version we can today.
But that’s what happens with music – it’s constantly developing. Even a song that we’ve played a thousand times – “Panama Red”, for instance … we play it differently every time. A song develops as it goes along. You can’t wait until it’s just exactly the way you think it’s meant to be, because it’s always the way it’s meant to be – it changes as you move forward.
What I want to do in the studio is just capture that moment – capture that performance – and move on.
How many of these tunes were road-tested before you recorded them?
I think we’ve played the majority of the Hunter/Nelson songs live. And we started playing one of Johnny’s – “Down For The Ride” – last year after we recorded it. My songs and Ronnie’s song we haven’t yet.
In a perfect world, though? I’d prefer that we didn’t play songs out live first.
Really? How come?
Well, in the old days when you played a song live for the first time, you could try it out on that audience that night, you know? Now, when you play a song live, the whole world hears it. (laughter) You’ve got people with iPhones or whatever … it’s just instantly out there. Sometimes before we get back to the hotel after a gig, it’s up on YouTube. (laughter) Which is great, you know? Don’t get me wrong. But sometimes you just want to be able to develop something.
It’s interesting that both 17 Pine Avenue and Where I Come From have songs coming from different writers – yet everything meshes together as, well, New Rider tunes. For instance the Hunter/Nelson tunes are like big, grown-up fairy tales, with scenes or names that always remind you of something from the past … some old folk tune or Dixieland number.
Right, right. That’s the genius of Robert Hunter. To me, he’s one of the greatest songwriters/lyricists of our generation … maybe one of the greatest, period. He’s able to capture these great visions – and very few people out there are able to do it as well as he does.
And it’s a tribute to you all that he’s pumping these things your way.
Oh, and we really do love and appreciate it. God bless him – Robert has been pumping this stuff out for us and writing so much … at this point in his career, you’d think he’d just take it easy. (laughs) And none of it is filler – everything is great.
And then you have Johnny, who I think of as a “master of the singalong.” The tune on the new album that he wrote with your sound wizard ScareKrow – “Down For The Ride” – is a classic example of that.
MF: Oh, yeah – Johnny‘s a really great songwriter. We joke about it, but you give Johnny two chords and a drum beat and he’ll make up a song … and before the night’s out, the audience will be singing it. He just has music in his blood.
As does Ronnie.
That’s right.
Ronnie described himself to me once as having “graduated from the college of the Grateful Dead.” His tune “Shake That Thing” is truly the trippiest song on 17 Pine Avenue.
And I love that song – it’s one of my favorites on the album. We were arranging it in the studio and I had Nelson come in and play some 60s psychedelic guitar … it just kind of fell into place. It’s a cool little tune and a lot of fun. Having graduated from the college of the Grateful Dead is a great thing, you know? (laughter)
And your stuff always tends to hit me right in the heart. “That’s The Way It Goes” has this sweetness about it, but there’s a big “fuck you” in there, too.
(laughs) Things just come to you when you’re writing songs – sometimes you think it’s going to be one thing and it turns out to be about another. A lot of people write in different ways … I’ve never sat down to write about this, that, or the other thing – they just sort of come to me when they come to me. A little thing will pop into my head and turn into something ten minutes later … or ten years later. (laughs) You never know.
I guess it’s just a matter of being receptive to them when they show up.
That’s right.
What’s the story behind the album closer “Truth is Dead”? You have it listed as “Traditional – Arranged by NRPS, Lyrics by Falzarano.”
The theme of the melody is a traditional song – “Jole Blon” – but it’s really not. I put it in there as “Traditional” to be politically correct. It’s actually a jam we’d done in the studio – a lost track, really.
I was sifting through tape looking for something else and the engineer stumbled onto that. I heard a little bit of it and said, “What’s that? Let me hear it.” And it was just a little thing we’d played – a two-minute jam, you know?
So now we had this instrumental that needed some lyrics. I was listening to it in my little studio one day and “Truth Is Dead” came out – I didn’t sit down to write that song; I was listening to it and that’s what came out. I’ve been saying for a long time that common sense is dead – nobody has any common sense any more. When you listen to the politicians, it’s ridiculous what they’re saying, you know? One thing led to another and the next thing I knew, I had a fully-written theme from top to bottom that fit the music.
And I love that – I love things that just happen.
I remember the instrumental “Gonna Power Down Now” that closed out your last solo album, We Are All One. You and Buddy were just running with a groove … one of those on-the-spot moments.
That’s exactly right. The engineer was going to power down the board, but we were playing and he let the tape roll; it was one of those things that just happened. Back in the day, people weren’t always able to do that because tape was pretty expensive. Nowadays, with digital, it’s not the same. You never know what you’re going to capture … it might just be a little idea.
We released a bonus CD with Where I Come From that had a couple of soundcheck jams on it. You’ll be at a show and see everyone recording, right? To me, I’d rather be recording at the soundcheck – something very unusual always happens; something weird; some groove that just comes to us.
I always liken the jam situation to parallel tightrope walkers: cool as hell when it works, but if one falls, everyone’s going down. (laughter)
Yeah, it happens. (laughs) Over the years, we’ve been very fortunate to be playing together and have some really fun stuff happen.
To me, you’re in an interesting role in the New Riders. On one hand, you have the killer rhythm section of Ronnie and Johnny; and on the other, you have Buddy and Nelson, who are like Fred and Ginger when it comes to knowing what the other’s about to do. (laughter) I mean, I love listening to Buddy weaving his pedal with David’s B-bender leads – two instrumental voices based on intonation. Not everybody could do what they do and make it work.
Right, right.
And oftentimes you really keep yourself low in the mix.
Well, yeah – my job as a rhythm guitar player is to keep the groove going. You’ve got two guys like Buddy and David who’ve been playing together for 40 years on and off – and as you say, their sound is to weave in and out with each other. I’m trying to weave with them, but not get in the way of what they’re doing. You don’t need another lead player out there – it would just be a traffic jam. My role – which is the same thing I did in Hot Tuna, to be honest with you – is to lay in there; to try to stay out of the way, yet keep a foundation going.
I’ve been very fortunate. Over the years, I’ve played with a lot of the people I grew up listening to … I’m proud of it and at the same time, I know I’m very fortunate to have the opportunities that I’ve had.
It looks like there are a bunch of New Riders gigs coming up.
Yeah – we actually have shows booked through the end of the year. Plus, I’m doing some producing for other people and I’m working on another solo album.
Cool – anything you want to say about it at this point?
MF: Sure – the name’s going to be I’ve Got Blues For You. I’ve pretty much got all the songs recorded; now it’s just a matter of mixing and figuring out what I’m going and not gong to use. Hopefully, that will see the light of day by the end of this year, or beginning of next. Part of it is finding the time to work on it – I stay pretty busy, fortunately. (laughs)
Part II: Some thoughts from Buddy Cage (in which we just roll tape and get the hell out of the way)
Listen: it’s such a … a privilege to be playing these tunes, man – I love all of them. (laughs) Hunter’s lyrics are just unbelievable – his writing is stunning. And Nelson did a great job with them. And frankly, we all played tremendously.
We’ve tried it many, many ways in the studio over many, many years. It usually depends on who you’re working with – everybody’s got a different way of producing a song out of us. With Michael as producer, we were doing it right on the spot – the lathe is cutting right then, you know? One take stuff. You can feel the energy of the performances on the record.
We were working on an extremely limited budget for this album, which is fine with me for now. The good side is, we own it. We’re the guys that drive the truck.
As far as working out the arrangements, Nelson might come up with something – say at a soundcheck, when we’re tweaking and whatever. And he’ll have these chord sheets: “This is what I’m working on …” That’s really helpful for me; it gives me something to focus on. I mean, I’m an ear guy, but the way Nelson presents it is very helpful.
We might play a song for six months before we cut it … we might play it twice – it depends. But when we get to a studio situation, we’re ready … let’s go! And if there are no glitches it’s going to happen – we’re going to knock it down, man. We’re creating – and particularly on 17 Pine Avenue – we’re creating on the spot as we’re recording. I like that spontaneity, you know?
This one was done pretty much in two days – think about that. (laughs) Part of it is knowing your thing well enough so that you can sit down and just do it. For me personally, I don’t have to decide which way I’m going to go with this or that; usually whatever I hit from the top – BANG! – sets the tone on where I go from there.
This band is still evolving; still growing in our sound. When you get people who want to hear the same songs the same way over and over, it’s one of those things … you smile and wave: “You don’t get it.” I mean, they don’t get it – I’m not reaching for the people that I can’t get, man. This is the music that I’m giving and trying to make something out of … that’s what I do. There’s no time to screw around; I have no opinion about what anyone else is doing out there – I really don’t have time. I’ve got a full boat here.
I would like to sell enough albums just to have the budget to be able to get another one down – it’s fun to do, man. That’s what I mean by that line the “drive the truck” – that’s the drive that I’ve always had; we’ve always had. And this record is an example.
I’m working with the med team to dovetail everything with working with the New Riders. I’m dealing with some pretty wonderful people so far who realize what I do and what I have to do.
I’m ready to go, man – let’s play! (laughs)
