The Informants Rock The DNC

This has been a huge week for The Informants. The Democratic National Convention officially kicked off on Monday and huge gatherings like this always includes big parties with rock bands. The Informants are always happy to bring the rock. On Sunday night, we played a huge party for the Blue Dog Democrats at Mile High Station. In addition to a really impressive spread of food, open bar and decorations, there were two big stages, one inside the bar where we played and the other was outside and featured international recording artist KT Tunstall. The event was impressive and appeared to be sponsored by Microsoft -- there were huge flat screens all over the place broadcasting the performances. We played for 90 minutes, then KT Tunstall took the stage for 90 minutes and we finished the night with another hour long set. It was a blast.

Monday night found us playing a late night party at Marlowe's for Moving Virginia Forward, Governor Tim Kaine’s PAC, and the Virginia delegation. This party was smaller, but more intimate and the Virginia delegation was a blast! Tim Kaine was a great host and is also an awesome harmonica player, so of course we had him sit in with us for a song. Another fine politician/musician was there, actor David Keith who hails from Knoxville Tennessee. David plays a mean guitar, has a great voice and is rallying support for a great cause (dedicated to the protection of children from abuse, exploitation and neglect -- see http://www.protect.org for more information), so we had him come up and lead a couple of killer southern rock tunes. Just when you thought the party couldn't get more happenin', Charles Barkley walked in at midnight. He was super cool and seemed to really dig the band. Definitely a night to remember.

I've Been Informed!

Well, it's official -- I'm back in a band! I am now the guitar player for Denver's all-star jump blues & swing band The Informants. I will spare you all of the details and just tell you that the band is awesome, I'm honored to be a part of it and I'm psyched to be back in the music scene. We will be rehearsing and working on new material through January and my first gig with the band will be on February 8th at the Robusto Room in Lone Tree (Park Meadows).

A new website will be launching in February. In the meantime, there is a new home page with new info:

http://www.theinformantsband.com/

This is definitely a new start for my music career. It's a very different gig than Dirty Pool. I've been wanting to get back to old-school blues, jazz and roots music and this is the perfect opportunity. It's super cool to be playing with top notch musicians -- amazing singer, keys, horns, rhythm section, etc. Playing for the song instead of goin' full blast all night is really cool. I'll still blast from time to time, but this is where my heart is. I'm finally learning how the guitar should be played.

Looking forward to seeing you at a show...

Once You Put Your Mind To It...

I haven't been updating this page very much. As lame as it is, the most current information about what I'm doing musically is on MySpace. Check out: http://www.myspace.com/paulshellooemusic for all of the latest information, new music (I just posted a new tune), gig dates, etc. I'll try to at least keep this page somewhat current.

The last few months have been awesome as far as music and the guitar is concerned. It's funny, I decided to get back in the game and since I made that decision, tons of opportunities have come up. I played with Joey Fender and the 55's at the Skylark back in April. Joey called me in October and wanted me to play with him at the Rockabilly Rod Reunion in Las Vegas. I flew out for the gig and it was a blast. Nothing cooler than flying with a guitar for a couple of gigs in 'Vegas. After getting back from 'Vegas, I met a bunch of cool local musicians and have been playing with different groups of people trying to find a good match for a new band (or bands?). I'm psyched. There are a lot of great musicians looking for the same kind of situation that I'm looking for. We'll see what happens.

I also might be back on stage on a fairly regular basis in the very near future. Details are still being worked out and I can't really say much yet. I will post again if things work out and I know more. In the meantime, check out the MySpace page and let me know what you think. MySpace is popular with the kids, but also really useful for musician/band networking. Check back soon for more information...

Back In The Ring, Rock-ola Style!

I've been slackin' big time on the blog updates. I've been busy in the past few months. I started working at Quark in December, which has been awesome. I missed it. I went to India in January and had a blast. It's such a cool country -- amazing culture, people, food, history, etc. I got to hang out with a lot of old friends and even jammed with a great guitar player that I work with (I brought a little electric travel guitar).

The big news is that I'm headin' back to the stage. That's right, you can see me playing guitar this Thursday night at the Skylark Lounge playing with Joey Fender and the 55's! I met Joey last week -- he is in town for some gigs and is playing with my buddy Mad Dog, the drummer for Paul Galaxy and the Galactix. They saw me playing at Ziggie's and asked me to do the gig with them. It's been great hangin' out with them. This is the first time that I've been a sideman playing rhythm guitar with a band and I'm blown away by how much I'm learning.

I have been wanting to start gigging again and I would like to start a straight-up good time roots rock/blues band. Joey Fender is exactly that. He has played all over the US for over a decade and has gigged with the best -- Buddy Guy, BB King, etc. He also has a great attitude and refuses to quit. It's exactly what I needed to kick my ass back on stage.

So come on by The Skylark Lounge at 140 South Broadway in Denver this Thursday, April 6th at 9pm -- we'll be playing all night. Three sets of burnin' rock and blues.

Remembering Chris Whitley

This is now old news, but one of the best musicians on the planet died on November 20th. I haven't posted about it because it really bothered me and I wanted to digest the news. I found out about it in late December, which is weird because I had recently re-discovered Chris' music and had been watching his website for local tour dates. I even exchanged e-mails with the owner of his record label (super nice guy) to get his new record on eMusic.com (which he did).

I discovered Chris Whitley when his first major record, Living With The Law was released in the early 90's. I was totally blown away. He was coming from a blues base, but was much further out there. Way more poetic and nowhere near the cliched sound of a lot of modern blues. He played scary slide guitar and sang like a troubled angel. His sound was always totally authentic. His follow up albums were even further out there and that made me like him (and his music) even more. He took the blues base and went way out into heavy (and scary) rock territory. Dark, loud, raw and totally amazing.

I met Chris briefly at Albums On The Hill in Boulder during his Dirt Floor tour (a stripped down acoustic, huge "comeback" album as good or better than Living With The Law). The owner Andy (one of the coolest guys you'll ever meet) introduced us at an in-store performance. He was really soft spoken and nice. We chatted for a while and he signed a CD for me ("Hey Paul, thanks for all -- Chris Whitley"). That was also the first time that I had seen Chris live and I was in awe. Just a guy and a beat up steel body National acoustic guitar making huge noise.

I went to the show at the Fox Theater that night and was surprised to find that he was touring alone. Dirt Floor was a solo acoustic record, but I just assumed he would be travelling with a band. Well, he didn't need a band. It was just him and an amplified board that he stomped on and it was some of the biggest music that I've heard come out of the Fox Theatre (and I've heard a lot there).

I continued to follow Chris' career (though not as closely) up until last year. The description of his new CD Soft Dangerous Shores sounded really cool on the website, so I checked it out as soon as it came out. It was as incredible as anything Chris had ever done. More gentle, but still visceral -- evidently it was his take on love and relationships.

Around the time the CD was released, I read in the forums on his website that he had a trainwreck of a show. Couldn't play, was angry -- just out of control. I had always heard rumors that Chris had his share of demons, so I assumed (probably like everyone else) that he was fighting some kind of addiction. That's where I left it until I read that in Guitar Player magazine that he died (the article didn't mention the cause of death). The news hit me like a ton of bricks. It was like I had lost a friend (though I didn't even know him).

I read the next day that he died of lung cancer. His website has an excellent eulogy from his daughter and his younger brother. The website somehow made me feel better. I'm sure the botched show was just a natural reaction to getting the news that he was extremely ill. I just can't believe how fast he died. I guess it's better that way. All I know is that I'm really going to miss him. I want to be able to see him tear it up at the Bluebird Theater (down the street from my house), tellin' it like it is.

Luckily, he recorded a ton in the last few years, so there is a lot to listen to. I recommend everything that he ever recorded. It's all amazing. His music is difficult, but worth the extra effort required to "get" it. Here are some recordings available on the web:

Chris Whitley Songs

Check out "Hellhound On My Trail" -- talk about someone that really gets Robert Johnson...

"Blues is a mean thing and when it gets to rocking in a fun kind of way, I don't really care for it. Actually, I don't think of the stuff that I really love -- early Muddy Waters, early Howlin' Wolf -- as 'blues;' I almost think of those guys as not playing in a particular style. They're more like dangerously pure expression. I like things real stripped direct. Except lyrics." -- Chris Whitley, 1991

Under The Influence

I went to see the Chris Duarte Group at Oscar Blues in Lyons, CO. last night. It was really good to see Chris again. The first time I saw Chris play was back in 1993. I had just turned 21, Aaron, Dave and I had just started jamming in my garage -- it was a very cool time. Seeing that show was a definitely life changer for me. Chris was playing exactly how I heard music. I wasn't a very good guitar player at the time, but it didn't matter because I had something to strive for. All I wanted to do was be good enough to approach making music like Chris did.

Over the years, I got to know Chris pretty well. Our first theatre gig (at the Fox Theatre in Boulder) was opening for Chris and we opened for him about 15 times over the next 7 years. Chris was always the coolest -- greeted us with open arms, would always sit in with us, invited me to sit in with his band, etc. He even invited me over to jam in his hotel room during the day between a two night stand. Needless to say, I've learned a ton from Chris.

After playing in Dirty Pool for about 8 years, I started to get tired of my own playing/style. The market was flooded with over-the-top blues guitar players that all were trying to cop Stevie Ray's style. Being a blues-based rock band, we were put in the same category. I admit that I owe a huge debt to that style of music, but I was always striving for more. That's why I like Chris Duarte's approach so much -- it's all about breaking down the boundries. Anyway, the blues scene left a bad taste in my mouth and I eventually started to explore other types of music.

For better or for worse, blues as a music style is definitely at a popularity low point. Strangely enough, I am now being drawn back to it more than ever. It makes me realize why I was so drawn to the blues in the first place. In the late 80s, corporate hair rock was the thing and no one was interested in the blues. The blues was dangerous and kinda scary (just listen to some Robert Johnson). That really appealed to me. I feel the same thing going on now. I LIKE the fact that there isn't a big audience for blues. Ironically, I'm playing way more than I have in years and am slowly getting back to gigging.

I have always struggled with wearing my influences on my sleeve. I'm only now coming to terms with who I am as a player. It's OK to have influences and, to be able to approach the level of musicianship required to draw comparisons is pretty flattering. All musicians have certain strengths and are drawn to certain aspects of music.

I realized a long time ago that I won't ever reach the skill level of someone like Chris Duarte because I don't have the desire to push the guitar to it's technical limits. I just don't have the discipline to practice as much and as hard as I would need to reach that level. Plus, I have tried a million times to get into the crazy jazz that Chris is influenced by and I just don't understand it. Maybe that will change, but for now, I'm happy with where I am as a musician.

One of the most flattering compliments that I have ever received was from Brian Nevin (drummer for Big Head Todd and the Monsters). He told me that the thing that sets Dirty Pool apart from the other "big guitar" bands is the songwriting -- "you write good songs." I still have a long way to go musically and as a songwriter, but I enjoy the songwriting process more than any other aspect of music. Don't get me wrong, I love wailing on the guitar, but the most rewarding experience for me is a finished original song that people (even a few people) actually enjoy. Usually it's with someone else singing (like "Room To Breathe" which Crystal Derx sang the hell out of on our CD), but just to know that I wrote a good song is where it's at for me.

Anyway, I am eternally grateful to Chris Duarte and the long list of musicians (including Jim Thomas from the Mermen who I talked to a few weeks ago) who have influenced me over the years. It's OK if someone thinks that I sound like Stevie Ray Vaughan (or any other influence), we all learn from those who came before. It's the weird combination of influences that come together to form an original style. Some musician's combinations are just a little bit weirder and more bold than others.

Holiday Music

The last couple of months have been really cool. Tracy and I just got back from a trip to northern California (visiting my family for Thanksgiving). We stayed in Carmel, Los Gatos and San Francisco. The stay in San Francisco was mainly to see one of my favorite guitar players, Jim Thomas (of The Mermen and the Shi-Tones). His side project band called The Shi-Tones has a weekly gig at a cool bar called the Park Chalet which is right on Ocean Beach. They play instrumental surf covers and are totally awesome. It was a really high energy, but small/low-key show, we talked to the band, met cool people, etc. Very cool.

Tracy and I have recently been cleaning out our storage room in the basement for the past few weeks. It has been a huge pain in the ass, but one cool outcome was finding a ton of stuff from the Dirty Pool days. I found everything from photos (candids and official) to original master tapes of studio and live recordings, as well as jam/rehearsal tapes, song ideas, etc. I have just started listening to everything and it's been pretty cool.

I even found the very first studio recording that we ever did. The name of the band was "Black Cat Bone" at the time of the recording, but we changed it to "Dirty Pool" after finding that a national band had the name Black Cat Bone. It's definitely raw, but there is a lot of spirit in the performances -- it was a really cool time.

Another studio recording that I unearthed was a Christmas song that Dirty Pool recorded for the KBPI morning show in 1996. KBPI was supporting local music by playing Christmas songs recorded by local bands. We recorded the song in one night at the Boulder Sound Company (where we later recorded our CD "Shootelectric"). We did it without a click track, so I thought it would be pretty shaky, but I think it actually sounds pretty good. Again -- there is a lot feeling there. We definitely had a good time recording the song.

So here it is, just in time for Christmas 2005. Merry Christmas! Enjoy...

Back Door Santa - Dirty Pool (MP3 file)