I love long holiday weekends and next weekend will be a two-day adventure traveling from Damascus to Johnson City for a couple of extraordinary local music events. I will be performing with some extraordinary talent too and would like to invite anyone who can to join us for performances from Clear on Friday and, members of Beck and Self, 1492 and many of my talented friends who are joining together for a benefit at Gatsby’s in Johnson City.
Living in a small town like Kingsport is extra special around the holidays. Friends seem to migrate back into our little community to visit family and friends and it’s always good to have something on the agenda for these special times.
On Friday night, the first official performance of Clear returns for a one-nighter in Damascus, VA at the Old Mill. This listening room, restaurant and B&B is one of the area’s best kept secrets near Abingdon on Highway 58. Located in downtown Damascus at the foothills of the Appalachian Trail and The Virginia Creeper, this venue greets travelers from all over and you never know who you’ll find there. They have a wonderful upper-scale restaurant, a bar, a bed and breakfast with 10 or 12 rooms and a auditorium that seats close to 200.
The Old Mill stage has welcomed many bands from Old Crowe to Goose Creek Symphony over the past several years. Virginia Ground made history in this place too, but my favorite concert, other than my performances with Reagan Boggs was Tony Trishka a few years ago. Lots of great memories here, but none more important than this next gig with CLEAR.
We’ve been rehearsing for a week and after our Bristol Rhythm and Roots performance in September, this will be the first gig in about a month. We’ll have dinner and a few drinks while Chris Barker opens up in the bar. He’s a new talent from Abingdon and performs a mixture of folk/jazz that I’m looking forward too listening too. After that, we’ll start up the new act from Clear with Jared on the mike and guitar, Lance and Greg on bass and guitar, Willie Simpson on drums and I’ll be bringing all the keyboards for a night of Appalachian based soul/funk.
I gave Willie a hard time this last week too because one of his fans was waxing romantic about him from high school on my Myspace account. I asked him, “Why am I getting your fan mail?”
If you heard Willie play, you’ll understand why he’s still getting fan mail from high school. He’s got a great energy and gives the Clear sound a signature vibe that is groovy and stuffed with high-energy songs both familiar and original. Everyone in the band is excited about this new chance to get back on the scene. We’ve worked up a half set of eclectic covers from everyone from Citizen Cope to Stevie Wonder and Maroon 5 and Al Green. More important, we’ve got a lot of Clears original music from the late nineties along with several new tunes that Jared has brought to the table including Forgive Me.
We’ve made several recordings over the past few weeks and the bands sound is defining itself even more as we get to know each other and it’s sounding great. It’s a recipe of jam band, funk, soul and jazz that has me especially excited and we look forward to a memorable performance.
Friday isn’t the only event next weekend though. The next day, we’ll pack the gear up from Damascus, head to another short rehearsal and then descend on Gatsby’s in Johnson City for a different performance – one that will certainly be talked about for months to come – I’m starting to call it “The Mahaffey Crossroads.”
Mike Mahaffey was a guitar legend in the Tri-Cities music scene. He left Sullivan South and went straight to the road playing first with a regional band called Avalanche (where he played with Terry McCoy) and later with John Cowen in a band called Dr. Nick, Blackfish and ultimately with his brother Matt in Self. These two brothers are some of the most talented players from our region, but last year Mike died in his sleep at 38 years old. He left a family, three sons and lots of friends.
It wasn’t long after that when Tad Dickens, former Brian and the Nightmares drummer and Online Editor for Roanoke.com made a commitment to bring together a benefit show for Mike’s boys. He organized a show at Gatsby’s in November 2005, brought in members of Avalanche and John Cowen and invited me to play keyboards for the show. It was an incredible time and it was one of the most rewarding moments of 2005 when my friends Terry McCoy, Bo Bradley, Tad Dickens, Brad and I had the opportunity to perform with Cowan.
This year, Tad’s doing it again and what a lineup! Tad will be playing drums and Terry returns on guitar. I’ll be playing keyboards again, but look for Kevin Light to play bass and Jared Bentley plans to sing. This constellation of musicians should prove to be exciting too. Each of the players are well accomplished and will begin rehearsals this Sunday on an hour set of originals and great party tunes from Wilco, Drive By Truckers, Citizen Cope and some of Jared’s new original songs.
Events like this stand out not only because of the cause, but the organization and possibilities that exist for musicians and those in attendance usually have great performances from impromptu shows like this. You never know what to expect and the events come around once in a lifetime. Tad does a great job pulling things together too. Gatsby’s is working with us on the room, Alan Prince will be running sounds and two other great acts are also appearing including Mike’s brother Matt who is coming off of his tour with Beck for this one-nighter.
Matt is an incredible songwriter. He’s on the cutting edge of indie/pop rock scene and several years ago, his band Self made it to one of the loftiest peaks of any local artist by signing a record deal and producing two or three videos that appeared on MTV and VH1. Mike played with him in the early days and they released 3 albums before Matt joined in with the Beck tour.
Look for Matt on stage next Saturday at “The Crossroads.” He plans on a solo set of Self material and will also perform with a band that was popular in the mid-nineties named 1492. I don’t know much about their act, but remember well the buzz the created and look forward to hearing them after all of these years.
There you have it. A big holiday weekend with three bands and three unpredictable performances at the “Mahaffey Crossroads” Benefit Show. Showtime is 8pm at Gatsby’s in downtown Johnson City and will continue well into the morning, so make plans to join us for this great cause.