February 2012
Quiet month around here, but gearing up for some good stuff in March.
January 1, 2012
Happy New Year! I don't want to be hearing that the new CD Shamrock Eyes is last year - we wrapped in October, still fresh and just starting to roll.
December 14, 2011
So all right, the band and I have been making our way through the northeast and keeping it going for next week. Looking forward to the last few shows for the year and really excited for what's on the burner for next year.
I was thinking about the the song on Shamrock Eyes called 'Late Night Infomercial.' It's got a country kind of story and feel - in a nutshell this guy's girl leaves him and he's home alone watching TV and keeps seeing the infomercials. He's gets hooked, he starts buying them - AND THEY ALL WORK. Gets no money down real estate, 6 pack abs, the works.
Funny now, I get home late from a gig last week and am sort of wired, waiting to crash and start flipping through the channels. The KREG joint informercial catches my attention and I was this close to picking up that phone. I am looking at that thing and my head starts going, yeah, man, I need that - that thing is going to make me like Norm from This Old House, Bob Villa look out. I guess I am just susceptible to those ads. Not like I bought the thighmaster or anything, but you know how it is, RONCO and what not.
And, with the new year, everybody and their resolutions, swearing to hit the gym - 2012 might be time to BRING IT, P90X. Could you picture Keith Richards doing that?
December 1, 2011
Added a few shows for the month the details are on the show tab - we'll be in Providence, RI, Boston, MA, back in NYC, back in Mystic and really excited to open for Johnny Winter at the beautiful Trinity on Main in New Britiain, CT.
November 16, 2011.
It's been sort of a whirlwind week, with a great run of shows and other exciting things cooking. Big thanks goes out to Rick Koster at the New London Day newspaper for his really cool article on the new CD Shamrock Eyes and a little of my background with other bands. I will get it posted in the press page here and there is a link on facebook. We played at Cafe 9 last Thursday, and that was some night, we will be back there soon on a weekend. Then TSO was at the Mohegan Sun on Saturday and it was great to be with everyone there, then NYC on Sunday with Shamrock Eyes then we did sort of an unplugged thing on Monday in Mystic at Voodoo. It's been exciting and fun and I really appreciate everybody checking out the new music and the great e-mails and response to it.
Keep in touch!
November 4, 2011
Had a couple of cool rehearsals this week and gearing up for one of the first little run of shows. Monday is Mystic, Thursday is New Haven and Sunday is back in my old stomping grounds in New York City. I don't know what it is with me lately and quoting the Grateful Dead, but all I can think of is that lyric - "at least I'm enjoying the ride." Seriously, the thrill of a 3 part harmony being nailed spot on can shake a room, and that gives me that spark. Some cool stuff going on creatively and on the quote unquote biz. And one of these days I still have to get a blog cooking on the nuts and bolts making the new CD Shamrock Eyes and the talented friends of mine who kick it up a notch, BAM!
October 21, 2011
CD Baby sold out of the first run of CDs and is back ordered. It should get worked out this week, but in the meantime the disc is still available through the paypal store at the store tab here with same day turnaround. Peace!
October 18, 2011
Really fun night last night for the first show at Voodoo in Mystic - first gig under our belt with Shamrock Eyes. First of many! Thanks everybody!
October 16, 2011
Sunday eve will soon be -Monday, Monday (after 60 minutes of course). First gig with Shamrock Eyes in Mystic, Connecticut this Monday 10/17. I used to do a steady Monday night gig in NYC for years - first on Spring Street then on Bleecker Street, now Mystic - in some ways a quiet night, and in other ways packed with the lifers. Voodoo Grill is a really cool place, we're looking to start really early by 8 for a set and there's no cover charge, and we'll make sure to have plenty of copies of the new CD there.
Thanks for all the kind words from the first batch of people who checked out the new CD, glad to hear you are digging it. Lots of great stuff in the pipeline and shows in NYC, New Haven, Providence, Hartford and Boston!
Peace!
Steve
October 12, 2011
The New CD Shamrock Eyes is up at CD Baby!
October 1, 2011
I am going to have to add a new tab to this website - SHOWS. GIGS. LIVE APPEARANCES.
you know how the Stones had the Voodoo Lounge tour, well I am starting with the Voodoo Grill tour - Mystic, Connecticut baby. Yes, that place that your parents were required to bring you as a child, the aquarium and the seaport. And then as an adult you go - what a nice corner of the earth. I meant for these shows to be low key and a chance to work kind of quietly with a rotating cast of characters band, but the cat is out the litter box, and the bag.
And then, like I always wish for at this special time of year - the chance to put on the silver ACE FREHLEY spaceman make up, sing it with me - I'm Back, Back in the New York Groove, I'm Back, Back in the New York Groove - yes siree bob, gigging in the big apple, don't mind the maggots people dressed in plastic bags, directing traffic, some kind of fashion SHA DOO Bee
And like Bob Barker always said - COME ON DOWN!!!
All right, let’s pick up where we left off – next installment of how this record came about.
One of the coolest perks of touring with TSO in arena’s through the years is becoming friends with tour people – touring is their business and business is good. We’ve all made the joke of six degrees of separation - (and again, one joke about my uncanny resemblance to Kevin Bacon, Footloose and I will come out swinging) and in the touring industry it is more like 2 degrees, a very small, incestuous group.
And not genre specific – while Megadeth would not perform on a Lady Ga Ga tour, the guitar tech will do both of those gigs. A tour is a tour, and work is work Metallica or Miley Cyrus, Bad Company or Brad Paisley.
When I moved out of NYC, I ended up on the coast of Connecticut very close to the Mohegan Sun, which is an amazing venue. And from the years of touring with TSO, the phone would ring – “YO Stevie B, I am doing lights tonight for Toby Keith, come out and hang” or “Stevie – I am doing monitors for Buck Cherry, get down here” And, how could I say no? And as a little side note, red herring – a lot of those country concerts and Toby Keith in particular are like the party, hair metal days – it was rowdy as heck, songs about drinkin and partying, kind of bluesy arrangements, women standing on chairs with cowboy hats, sipping on Jim Bean, beating up other women on chairs in cowboy hats, sipping on Jim Beam – I thought I was at Sundance again in the 80s.
So – a lot of concerts. And one night, just about everyone from the TSO tour crew is in town for the Motley Crue show at Mohegan. Lights, Sound, pyro – a ton of friends very close to home. And Motley – cuz I’m alive, LIVE WIRE. I wouldn’t say I am the most eclectic dude in the world, but I have no problem going from Van Morrison, to Tom Waits, to Iron Maiden. I don’t think that’s weird, for me there really is only two kinds of music – what I like, and what I don’t like. And if you don’t get Motley – well, you better chiggety chiggety check yo self befo you wreck yo self.
And on with show. KA Boom. Maybe you wouldn’t immediately associate a lot of the production with TSO, but if you look at it and think about it for a second, hmmmmmmm. Like I said, small world, even smaller industry. And at this show is the one and only Dan CZ I told you about from the last post and we pass at the beer line another Dan, Watty Watson. Hey man, nice to meet you. Seems cool. Really cool.
Fast forward to writing and rolling. A one Watty Watson is recommended again. And again – as in, Steve if you want the right guitar player in this area, that is the guy to call. A dialogue is started and a mutual appreciation for this local god radio station 96.9 WEHM is discussed. And we get in a room together. Dude got guitar chops and a voice. Naturally and easily fleshes out the tunes and the harmonies. All while juggling 6 gigs a week. So, let’s make a record -------
More soon, same bat time, same bat channel
September 22, 2011
Writing, Recording and Gigs, OH MY (and if I hear one joke about my uncanny resemblance to the scarecrow, why I ought ta.....)
Should have this new CD I recorded in my grubby little mitts maybe as soon as next week, fingers crossed and will be playing songs from it and the last Steve Broderick CD live, a lot. Starting very local and very soon in Mystic, CT. People don't think it be like it is, but it do!
September, 2011
IT'S A WRAP!!!!!!!!!!!!!
The new CD is recorded, mixed and mastered and will be available in the coming weeks!
August, 2011
So, a little background on this new recording.
Many moons ago when I was with a full time touring band, we got the opening slot on a Lynyrd Skynyrd tour. It was the outdoor sheds, biggest crowds we ever played to. First show was in the great state of Georgia at the Lakewood Amphitheater, Atlanta. 20,000 plus people there, and even though we had this southern rock kind of thing going on, we were all born and bred New Yaaawckers. At the risk of being on the wrong end of a country boy Altamont, running the risk of our little known warm up band getting stomped in a Tony Lama filled kick circle, we walked out there and did the only right thing under the circumstances. I went loud and proud into that mic “How Y’all Doin?” The roar was deafening. And we kicked out the jams.
So this tour runs it course through purple mountain majesty and amber waves of grain and we find ourselves on the last night playing Great Woods in Massachusetts. And we’re partying like rockstars afterward, it was after all the last night of the tour, and we meet a guy backstage asking us about our next move. We tell him that it’s back to the bars, we got bills to pay we got mouths to feed, ain’t nothing in this world for free (couldn’t resist the Cage the Elephant lyrics, Ain’t no rest for the wicked) and we look for the next tour. And the guy says, “I own a bar.”
A deal is struck and not too long after we are driving to gig at this dude’s place.
It was a dark and stormy night (actually, it was kind of clear and mild, but I always wanted to use that).
Two long lasting repercussions would come of this night that has had a major impact on my humble existence. One, I met the dude that is playing some drums on this new recording and helped me get the whole project rolling, and two I met the girl who would become my wife. There’s a joke in there somewhere about drummers and wives, beating things with a stick, but I won’t touch it.
The bar was in the thriving metropolis of Moosup, Ct. A town I have since come to love though somewhat suspect upon first visit (because New Yorkers aren't used to all that natural beauty, when they see that much open space they start to think it's a great place to hide a body). And just like every other town I passed through on tour, we rode in a whooping and a whompin. We kick in the swinging doors and there is a warm up band playing. The drummer in said band, a one Dan Ski (real last name Cz something or other with about 17 more consonants) immediately impresses us with his drumming skills and all around GENUINELY good dude presence. Who knew all these years later, all these miles apart we be jamming.
The wife thing – well, back then I was playing in a traveling band, trying to find the hotel, baggage gone oh well, singing and mingling. The band sets up and starts to do the do, and I’ve got to point out that when you take a band that just recently came off a tour playing in front of tens of thousands of people every night and then you put them in a bar with 200 people, they blow the roof off the joint. You learn a thing or two about a thing or two on those tours. Watching and studying at the masters feet. So we start to burn and a couple songs in there’s this, this vision right in front of me grooving, smiling, shining like the sun. And to quote Michael in the Godfather – I was struck with the thunderbolt. I lean over to the guitar player and tell him to play an instrumental so I can jump off stage and walk right up to this lovely and use my best line….. Yo Baby, Yo Baby, Yo Baby, YO.
And she’s got the good sense to immediately intuit; I can’t have anything to do with this skinny, longhaired, band guy. So, love at first site for me, and for her…….. I wore her down. It took many years of groveling and stalking. Tenacity. She settled. But we’re very happy now. Well I am. I got lucky.
I started out saying this was going to be about the new record, and in a round about way it is – we took the scenic route. Stay tuned, next up will bring us to the present and CZ’s machinations to the Steve Broderick II record.
June, 2011
Well I think I am actually getting to a point in my life where I again change more guitar strings than diapers. The one thing everybody said when I had just started becoming the family guy that holds true is that the time is going to fly. And it does. As I remember overhearing on the subway one day - "people don't think it be like it is, but it do." Yeah, I scratched my head too, but there's a kernel of genius in there.
Being afflicted with this mutant musician gene, even in the thick of family bliss, I would sneak into my man cave and jot down the meat of that inspired conversation that would make a good lyric. Or pick up the guitar and hit that same chord progression over and over and go hmm, there's a song somewhere in there. I can't help it. Some people pick up the remote or the Wii, some people pick up the phone, I pick up an instrument and make songs. And pick up a hairbrush like a mic and it's spooky how much I can be 1976 Ozzy, but that's another story.
And after doing that for years, you end up with a batch of songs you like (and a batch you don't like or don't know what to do with) and get the urge to document them. So, hit the record button, let's see what we got, make some heads bop, new music soon.
People don't think it be like it is......... but it do
