Volume 17 – #9 – September 2014

2014 has been a funny (unusual) and festive year, so far, with more special happenings on the way. Playing with my three founding BC partners at Dallas’ Kessler Theatre, in August, was a particularly rewarding experience, though certainly bizarre. Time squashed down into nothing during the show. For several moments, it felt like 1979. All four of us were stunned at how often cell memory took over and, suddenly, we would sound just like we did 35 years ago. Looking back over the history of the band and all of the cool people who have contributed to creating Brave Combo, it’s become clear to me how we original four were all pretty private people, just sorta caught up in what we were doing. And not just private, but rather shy. Believe it or not, I’m very private. Something like Facebook would never be for me. 100% bad idea for Carl, the individual. However, I appreciate what a great tool it is for promoting the band and connecting with fans. I just don’t share much of my secret home life with anyone, because it’s a secret. Well, not really a secret. Plenty of people know where I live and with whom. Some even know our animals by name, but, aside from bits and pieces in The Machine’s Pump, I don’t let out much personal stuff. If I’m having a spectacular veggie burger, don’t expect to hear from me about it or see a picture of it. At times I feel like a bit of a loner, especially on tour. I need a lot of down time and alone time to do the best job I can on stage. And when we are on the road we play almost every single night we’re out. I’ve found a trance internet radio station from Belgium that’s perfect for the hour or two drive from whatever venue we just played to our motel. I try to make that time as magical as possible. This period of time feels the most real of any moment of the day; driving away, heading somewhere for a reason – to rest and sleep. The band decided early on that each member having his/her own room on the road was essential to making the band work properly, so the lure of one’s own space at the end of everyday is pretty strong. We typically get to the club or festival or concert hall in the afternoon or early evening and everything kicks in immediately and there’s a lot to do, which means being alone won’t happen again for several hours. But, back to my point about the first version of Brave Combo being a collection of private, rather shy folks and how, once the last of them moved on, things changed. The band went from quirky and eccentric to groove-serious and controlled. From weird nerds to rock stars! Chops replaced whimsy, but a lot was gained in the process. Brave Combo started to focus more sharply on what all of the different rhythms were about and the proper way to play them. Choosing material became trickier, although there have always been plenty of good songs out there for the repertoire. After the dust from the original band settled, the new Brave Combo, circa 1984, was Bubba Hernandez, Mitch Marine, Jeff Barnes and me. This band signed with Rounder Records, traveled a lot, went from vinyl to cassette to CD, got tons of press and even had a song chart in Japan. This is what many people think of as the first version of Brave Combo; classic combo. Well (drumroll) it looks like this very band will be playing three shows together again in December. One in Denton (18th), one in Dallas (19th) and one in Ft. Worth (20th). If you’ve missed Bubba’s soaring vocals and twitchy hips or Mitch’s power punches and bare feet, you might want to include North Texas in your travel plans this holiday season. The dates are looking likely and I would even put money on ’em, at this point, if I were a gambling man, but we can’t officially announce any just yet.

I’ve been working tonight on various songs from the new studio album we’re in the midst of recording. Tomorrow is our last day of tracking, then mixing starts the next day. I can tell you that there are four original songs by Jeffrey, three by me and two by Little Jack. We flew Danny Jerabek down to help us with a few things, including a Whoopie John Wilfhart standard. There is a traditional Greek song, a not-that-well-known Henry Mancini composition from one of the PINK PANTHER movies, a classic Eddie Blazonczyk polka and something from the 1980s television series, TWIN PEAKS.

Speaking of new Brave Combo albums, LIVE AT BLOB’S PARK has just been released and is now available at popular prices. This is the Combo album you’ve been waiting for, recorded at the legendary dance hall between Baltimore and DC. Virtually run, don’t walk, to the BC store and stock up today. The album is especially good with tofu in black bean sauce (no garlic).

And, in case you hadn’t noticed, the word, it appears, is OKTOBERFEST! Check our itinerary and come out to one of the parties. We will play a polka while you dance or listen or drink or eat or talk to the person next to you or look down at your phone or leave the room.

Wow. One of my cats, Stacie, was just crying to me from our catio (cat patio) and, for a second, as I stepped outside and felt the air, I couldn’t remember if we were heading toward winter or summer. Forget the day of the week. What month is this? Okay. That’s enough personal info about me. You’ll get nothing more. Except that I start feeling better as the sun goes down. Also, we had potatoes and salad for dinner, with iced tea and toasted biscuits.