Homespun Blog

A Recording Session with Bob Dylan

Thu, 24 Nov 2011 20:35:00 GMT

A SESSION WITH BOB DYLAN

By Happy Traum

Just about 40 years ago, in October of 1971, I got a call from Bob Dylan asking me if I'd like record some songs with him for his "Greatest Hits, Volume II" compilation. Could I do it tomorrow, and would I bring my guitar and banjo -- and, oh yeah, how about a bass, too? (Never mind that I didn't own a bass, and had never played one in public before. I borrowed one -- fast.)

Now I realize that for most fair-to-middlin' guitar fingerpickers the odds of getting a call like this are about as likely as John Glenn calling to see if you'd like a seat on the next space shuttle, but I was fairly casual about the whole thing. You see, I had been friends with Bob since the early sixties, and had already recorded a song with him on a Folkways recording called "Broadsides, Vol. I." Of course, that was when he was recording his first lp for Columbia; now he was the best-known singer/songwriter in the world! Nevertheless, as neighbors in Woodstock, NY, we often picked together informally, so it wasn't a great leap to take what we had been doing in the living room into the studio. But was I excited? You bet I was!

So, laden with all sorts of instruments, I took the bus from Woodstock to New York City and made my way to the Columbia studios on West 54th Street. To my surprise, the entire session consisted of just Bob and me (and the engineer) in the big, nearly-empty studio. The first song Bob suggested was "Only a Hobo," one of the tunes he had recorded eight years earlier (as "Blind Boy Grunt") on our "Broadsides" session. The machines were turned on, Bob started playing, and I followed along as best I could. After two takes it was obvious that it wasn't coming together, so Bob dropped the song.

Fortunately, the next one, "I Shall Be Released," immediately caught the right spirit and we relaxed into the music. We started the song with a slightly more bouncy feel than I had heard on the Band's famous recording of the song, and it fit right into the bluesy fingerpicking style that I have always favored. Bob played it in A, so I capoed up to the fifth fret and played out of the E position, accenting the ends of lines with bass note hammer-ons and sliding 6ths and pull-offs in the treble. I joined in singing on the chorus, and before I knew it Bob was grinning and we were on to the next song. Now I was starting to have a good time!

I had heard "Down in the Flood" in bits and pieces during the Basement Tapes sessions, but the version that we did at this recording was totally impromptu -- at least for me. It's a blues in G, so it wasn't hard to find some things to play. Again, Bob was strumming the rhythm with his flatpick, so I just tried to compliment his singing with some sliding licks and bluesy, fingerstyle fills on the high strings. The whole thing went by so fast that I didn't realize it was a take until we played it back.

Finally, we cut what turned out to be my favorite of that day's session, "You Ain't Going Nowhere." Bob set the pace with a strong rhythmic strum, and I tried to give the tune a rollicking, joyous feel with a frailing banjo part. I think it worked. We nailed it in two takes, singing and playing together, again with no previous rehearsal. After listening to it we decided it needed a little extra kick, so I made my debut as a bassist. I must admit it was a pretty visible way to start playing in public, but Bob and the engineer seemed to like what I did so my part stayed in. Not long after that session, Bob invited me to play bass on a date he was producing for Allen Ginsberg, so my career as a bassist stayed high-profile for a little while longer before disappearing into a merciful obscurity.

As I re-listen to the CD today I can still hear the informal, home-style picking that so many listeners have told me they like about those particular performances. There's a relaxed intimacy there that I like to think is partly due to our friendship, and to the many occasions in which we sat around the house playing the old songs. Of course, much of it was due to Bob's studio technique at the time: establish a good "feel," play the song as if you really mean what you're singing about, and get it in one or two takes. If you need more than that, it's not happening, so move on. It's a way of working that has created some unbelievably great recorded performances over the years, and I have always been incredibly proud to have been a part of these three.

Jorma Kaukonen's 70th Birthday Concert

Tue, 05 Apr 2011 13:26:00 GMT

Last month I was honored to be included in the Hot Tuna concert at New York's famed Beacon Theater, celebrating Jorma's big Seven-Oh. It was a star-studded musical evening and great fun to step out onto that glittering stage with Jorma, Jack Casady and a rockin' band. The packed, sell-out crowd was cheering from the first notes of Jorma's guitar, and they gave me, and all the other guests, their enthusiastic approval.

All the players that night put on exceptional performances, with Jack and Jorma front and center (as they should be) throughout the show. Jack, still looking remarkably like the rock 'n' roll kid he was back in the Jefferson Airplane days, stalked and strutted the stage, his powerful bass guitar presence maintaining a pulsing groove that soared on occasion to melodic heights. Jorma was, as always, solid, confident and relaxed, his acoustic and electric guitar mellow when it needed to be and screaming when it had to be.

By coincidence, there were a slew of guest artists playing that night who are on the Homespun roster: Jorma and Jack of course, plus multi-instrumentalist Larry Campbell; blues singer and guitarist John Hammond; and guitarist/singer Chris Smither. Also on the show were Warren Haynes, Bruce Hornsby, Bill Kirchen, Barry Mitterhoff and Byron House. It was an exciting and memorable evening and I was thrilled to have been part of it.

Photographer Barry Berenson shot this image of me playing on stage with Jack and Jorma.

Our New Website!

Thu, 06 Jan 2011 04:08:00 GMT

I hope you like this newly designed website as much as we all do here! I'm sure you'll find it faster and easier to navigate, and will enjoy the many new features that will make your Homespun browsing experience a better one. And there's lots more to come! We're just getting started in exploring the functionality that this website offers, and we'll be adding to it regularly with offerings that will be helpful to your musical development.

We're eager to hear your comments about the site, as well as suggestions for future lessons. We are here to serve your learning needs, as we have been for more than 40 years. We listen to you, our Homespun "students," and we try hard to respond to your requests.

So, please post to our Homespun Music Forum, add your experiences to our Homespun User Stories, and generally stay in touch. We always love to hear from you.

Happy Traum

Dobroist Rob Ickes Wins Major Award

Thu, 06 Jan 2011 04:07:00 GMT

Rob Ickes Wins United States Artist Fellowship
50 Artists from Eight Disciplines Recognized as Among "America's Finest Artists"

December 7, 2010 - New York

United States Artists, an organization dedicated to supporting America's finest artists working across diverse disciplines, announced the selection of Rob Ickes as the 2010 United States Artists Cummings Fellow at a ceremony tonight at the Lincoln Center.

The USA Fellows program awards a $50,000 grant to fifty artists each year in the disciplines of music, theater arts, visual arts, dance, literature, media, crafts/traditional arts, and architecture/ design. United States Artists was formed by the Ford Foundation in 2005 with $22 million in seed funding from The Ford, Rockefeller, Rasmuson and Prudential Foundations, with a mission "to invest in America's finest artists and illuminate the value of artists to society." Previous USA fellows from the field of music have included Homespun's Michael Doucet, among other luminaries.

Ickes is the first artist with roots in bluegrass music to be named a USA Fellow. His work spans multiple genres, and Ickes plans to use his fellowship to continue to explore "the vast musical potential that the dobro has to offer," and to raise the visibility of the instrument.

His Homespun DVD lessons can be seen here.

An active session player and touring musician, he has collaborated with a wide range of artists, including Merle Haggard, Earl Scruggs, Tony Rice, Charlie Haden, David Grisman, Alison Krauss, Willie Nelson, David Lee Roth, Dolly Parton, Patty Loveless, Peter Rowan, Claire Lynch, andMary Chapin Carpenter. Rob is also a gifted resonator guitar teacher; in 2007, he founded ResoSummit, a three-day annual instructional event in Nashville, featuring leading Dobro players and luthiers as faculty.

Bluegrass in Woodstock

Wed, 05 Jan 2011 16:28:00 GMT

There's a tiny club right on Mill Hill Road, the main drag going through the village of Woodstock, called the Harmony Cafe. (It's attached to a Chinese restaurant called Wok 'n' Roll!) Like clockwork, every Thursday night a local group called the Bluegrass Clubhouse takes over the joint - and pretty good bluegrass it is, too! Consider that their banjo player is none other than Bill Keith, one of the finest players in the world. It was Bill who invented the "melodic" three-finger technique, often called "Keith Style," which influenced most of the younger wizards (including Béla Fleck and Tony Trischka) playing today. During Bill's long musical career he has recorded and toured with Bill Monroe, Jim Rooney, the Kweskin Jug Band, the Woodstock Mountains Revue and innumerable others. He also invented the Keith Tuner, widely considered the Cadillac of banjo tuning pegs.

It's great fun to see Bill and his cohorts running through classic bluegrass songs, original tunes and instrumentals. The show is friendly and loose, and you never know who's going to show up from the local music scene to sit in. If you're passing through town on a Thursday night, drop by. You'll hear some great picking!

12-String Guitar Revisited

Wed, 05 Jan 2011 16:28:00 GMT

I was recently inspired to start playing 12-string again, many years after the untimely demise of my Fyllde (the one I played on my 12-string instructional video), which kind of imploded on me. I have always loved the sound of the twelve, but it's a commitment to start up with it again. Just think - twice as many strings to go out of tune!

A couple of things changed my mind: The first was a visit to the Woodstock Luthier's Invitational in October, where I came across a wonderful 12-string made by one of our local guitar builders (with an international reputation), the renowned Joe Veillette. I played a set at this event and, on a whim, I borrowed one of Joe's shiny new mahogany guitars and, with Larry Campbell and Teresa Williams, proceeded to work my way through some of my favorite Lead Belly songs. The audience seemed to like it, and I have to admit I got off a little on the power and resonance of this instrument.

My other inspiration is a biography I've been reading of the great Blind Willie McTell by the English author Michael Gray. "Hand Me Down My Travelin' Shoes: In Search of Blind Willie McTell" immediately immersed me in the music of this great Georgia blues and ragtime fingerpicker, whose main instrument throughout his life was the 12-string guitar. Just listening to his "Statesboro Blues" (forget all the covers that have been done on this song in the past 40 years) was enough to hook me, all over again, on Blind Willie and the 12-string.

I don't know whether this fascination will hold, but I'll probably buy Joe's guitar and start getting a new repertoire together. Maybe before long I'll make a video so you can hear it.