Tuesday, August 26, 2008

Charlie Haden Family And Friends Debut Show

I know I promised to blog every day from NYC during our stay for the Charlie Haden Family & Friends debut performance at Lincoln Center's 25th annual Roots of American Music Festival Aug. 24 but I was so busy it just wasn't possible!

Anyways, it was a lot of fun. Here are some highlights...

The view from Rachel and Atom's hotel room was incredible.



The rehearsal was a lot of fun.



Atom Ellis was in awe.



My dad's wife Ruth Cameron sounded great.



Lincoln Center's Damrosch Park Bandshell provides a stunning foreground to a equally stunning classic New York backdrop.



Guitarist Bryan Sutton and banjoist Jim Mills shared a moment in front of my iPhone camera before soundcheck.



Icons and Fellow L.A.'ers The Knitters played before us and the legendary John Doe posed for a picture with Atom and Rachel.



My dad Charlie confers with Dan Tyminski backstage before soundcheck.



From the first note the Charlie Haden Family & Friends band were tearing up the stage. From left, Bryan Sutton, Dan Tyminski, Jerry Douglas, and Stuart Duncan. Also present were Jim Mills, Sam Bush, and Mark Fain.



My sisters Petra, Rachel, and Tanya took the stage as the sun went down.



Patti Smith and her band headlined the show and even though this isn't a very good picture, they were amazing. It was the first time I'd seen them play, and I was incredibly moved and inspired by their powerful songs and message of peace and call to action in an endearing and totally non-pretentious way. Patti Smith is the real thing.



All in all, playing at the 25th Annual Roots Of American Music Festival at Lincoln Center was a blast. The music was incredible, and it was really great to see the guys in the band again.

Charlie Haden Family & Friends debut cd "Ramblin' Boy" will be released Sept. 24 on Decca Records. If you'd like to read my previous posts about the recording sessions check out here, here, here, here, and here!

Friday, August 22, 2008

Bringing it all back home

Charlie Haden returns to his country roots—and takes his family with him.

By Jay Ruttenberg
Time Out New York
Aug. 20 - 26, 2008

In January, an unlikely swarm gathered in a Nashville studio to record songs steeped in rural American music. The session was spearheaded by jazz-bass titan Charlie Haden and singer Ruth Cameron, Haden’s wife of two decades. Featured artists included the bassist’s grown children—Josh, singer in the band Spain, and harmonizing triplets Petra, Rachel and Tanya—plus Tanya’s husband, Jack Black, a movie star with an oddly commanding voice. Invited guests included luminaries of bluegrass (Dan Tyminski), jazz (Pat Metheny), country (Vince Gill) and the worlds between (Elvis Costello).

The resulting album, Charlie Haden Family & Friends’ Rambling Boy—due next month on Decca, but showcased live at Lincoln Center this week—underlines the musical breadth of its ringleader. “The hinge of the record is my dad’s past and all the different styles he’s been involved with,” Josh Haden says. “It’s like an overview of his entire life, starting from when he was one year old.”

The younger Haden isn’t exaggerating. Long before he helped Ornette Coleman redefine jazz’s boundaries, the bassist sang with his parents and siblings on a daily radio program in Missouri. Haden, now 71, joined the family act back in an old America that was unimpeded by such dreary niceties as child-labor laws. “I remember my mom rocking me to sleep,” recalls Haden, speaking from L.A. before heading to his son-in-law’s Tropic Thunder premiere. “I wasn’t even two. She was humming, and I started humming the harmony. She said, ‘You’re ready for the radio show, babe.’ They started taking me to the station every morning. My mom would pick me up in her arms and hold me to the microphone so I could sing.”

In an archival recording appended to Rambling Boy, the future Liberation Music Orchestra leader can be heard as a toddler, introduced on the show as “the little two-year-old yodelin’ cowboy.” (Frankly, Haden’s work on The Shape of Jazz to Come is more impressive.) The budding musician worked on the radio until he was 15, coming of age surrounded by tall-tale heroes of American country. “My dad knew Jimmie Rodgers, the Carters and [Hank] Williams,” Haden says. “All the people in Nashville used to guest-star on the show. Mother Maybelle would come sing at our house.”

When Haden’s yodelin’ voice fell victim to polio, he shifted his focus to bass, which he decided was “the most beautiful instrument of all, because it made everything sound better when it was playing.” (Also: He harbored a childhood crush on the Carter Sisters’ bassist.) He heard Charlie Parker, grew smitten with jazz, moved to L.A. and became famous. But Haden never forsook his roots. “Most jazz musicians are born in big cities,” he notes. “I’m glad I was born in the Ozarks and exposed to country music. It left a deep impression in my soul. It’s in everything I do.”

While Haden never put his own children on the radio, he still fostered an intensely musical household. Josh Haden grew up to be a singer-songwriter—his work has been covered by Johnny Cash—and the triplets have played with a veritable who’s who of contemporary rock. Rambling Boy presents a lovely family portrait, with support from some of Nashville’s most accomplished hands. Though steeped in tradition, the recording sounds modern and, with its jazz undertone, somewhat eccentric. “Charlie drew from his country roots here,” says bluegrass artist Ricky Skaggs, who appears on the record. “But on the song ‘20/20 Vision,’ Bruce Hornsby suggested that he play his jazz licks. It really showed Charlie’s ability to walk from country to jazz.”

To Haden, mingling those genres is a given: They are, after all, “the indigenous forms of American music.” Appropriately, the Haden Family’s debut performance, on Sunday 24, marks the 25th anniversary of Lincoln Center’s Roots of American Music series. Flanked on the bill by Patti Smith and the Knitters, the Hadens and their Nashville brethren have given Lincoln Center curators Spike Barkin and Bill Bragin what Bragin deems “the perfect anchor. There’s something about family harmonies and communication that really connects this to traditional music.”

Yet for Cameron, Haden’s manager as well as his wife, the album proved something of a break from tradition. “Through years of recording, it’s always ‘Charlie this, Charlie that,’ ” she says. “Then all of a sudden, the girls were singing and we heard from the council room, ‘Daa-aad! Daa-aad!’ In three-part harmony, of course.”

Charlie Haden Family & Friends play Damrosch Park Sun 24.

Thursday, August 21, 2008

Charlie Haden Family And Friends At Lincoln Center Aug. 24 2008

Charlie Haden Family & Friends will be playing their debut performance this Sunday, Aug. 24 2008 at Lincoln Center in NYC as part of the 25th annual Roots Of American Music Festival.

This show is in anticipation of the debut Charlie Haden Family & Friends album recorded in Nashville to be released September 23 on Decca Records. The songs include a mix of classic country and bluegrass with gospel, folk, and jazz. In addition to Charlie and his wife Ruth, kids Josh, Rachel, Petra, and Tanya, artists appearing on the album include Pat Metheny, Elvis Costello, Rosanne Cash, Bruce Hornsby, Bela Fleck, Jack Black, Ricky Skaggs, Vince Gill, Dan Tyminski, Sam Bush, Jerry Douglas, Stuart Duncan, Bryan Sutton, and others.

I'll be there singing my song "Spiritual". My dad Charlie will be playing bass and his wife Ruth will be singing, my sisters Rachel, Petra, and Tanya will be singing great harmonies, and the core group of Dan Tyminski, Sam Bush, Jerry Douglas, Stuart Duncan, and Bryan Sutton will be playing as well. I'm not sure, but I think there'll be surprise guests also. I wonder who they'll be? Hmmm....

I'll be blogging from NYC the entire time, check here for updates.

I understand more gigs in the States and Europe are being planned, if you're not in the New York area stay tuned!

Charlie Haden Family & Friends
New York City
Lincoln Center Out Of Doors/Roots Of American Music Festival
Damrosch Park Bandshell
Sunday, August 24 - 7pm
Free

P.S. the festival headliner is Patti Smith! Whoa!! Also, the Knitters will be playing too!

Thursday, August 14, 2008

Spain Keyboard For Sale

Thought some of you might be interested that the Roland RD 600 keyboard Spain used on our 1999 "She Haunts My Dreams" tour, played by Shon "Goldenboy" Sullivan, is for sale on ebay and craigslist. It was also used for the Josh Haden solo shows, played by Randy Kirk.

The links are:

Spain Roland RD 600 Keyboard For Sale On Ebay

Spain Roland RD 600 Keyboard For Sale On Craigslist

Wednesday, August 13, 2008

Jazz Bassist Charlie Haden to Perform Bluegrass

Jazz Bassist Charlie Haden to Perform Bluegrass
Date: July 30, 2008
Written By: Melissa Daniels

Famed jazz bassist Charlie Haden will be switching gears and performing bluegrass as part of Lincoln Center’s 25th Annual Roots of American Music Festival on Sunday, August 24.

To showcase the bluegrass-Americana song style from Haden’s upcoming album, the band slated to take the stage with Haden includes Sam Bush, Jerry Douglas, Stuart Duncan, Bryan Sutton and Dan Tyminski.

Featured on the album, as well as in the festival performance, is Haden’s wife Ruth Cameron and their four children—son Josh and triplet daughters Petra, Rachel and Tanya—all of whom have had followed in their father’s footsteps with careers as professional musicians.

The festival performance will mark the live debut of Charlie Haden Family and Friends, according to a press release. Other acts at the festival include the Music Makers Blues Revue, The Knitters and Patti Smith and her band.

Haden’s upcoming release, presently titled Rambling Boy, brings the bassist back to his 1930s roots of traditional Americana songs, when he performed as a small child with the original Haden Family band.

To be released on Sept. 23 by Decca Records, the album is packed with guest musicians matching Haden’s own talent—artists include Pat Metheny, Vince Gill, Bruce Hornsby, Ricky Skaggs, Rosanne Cash, Elvis Costello, Jerry Douglas and Sam Bush.

The performance will take place at the Damrosch Park Bandshell on Amsterdam Ave and West 62nd Street in New York City. The free show begins at 4 p.m., with the Haden family taking the stage at 7 p.m.

More information on the Roots of American Music festival can be found at the Lincoln Center Web site

Friday, August 8, 2008

Cast Away

A new Spain song entitled "Cast Away" is now available for your downloading pleasure on the Spain myspace player, which can be found on the Spain myspace page.

Alternatively, the song can be downloaded as a podcast from my Diamond Sounds podcast page. Click on the play button below to listen.

This is the third in a series of demos of new songs we've recorded, we hope you like them!




Thursday, August 7, 2008

Charlie Haden Family And Friends - First Ever Live Performance!

New York, NY. (Top40 Charts/ Shore Fire Media) - Charlie Haden Family and Friends will make their live debut at Lincoln Center's 25th Annual Roots of American Music Festival on Sunday, August 24th. Performing will be legendary bassist Charlie Haden, his wife, Ruth Cameron, his children Josh, Petra, Rachel, and Tanya - all of whom are established musicians in their own right - as well as a Nashville dream band made up of Sam Bush, Jerry Douglas, Stuart Duncan, Bryan Sutton, and Dan Tyminski.

The performance celebrates the release of 'Rambling Boy' (due out September 23 via Decca Records), an intriguing album of mostly traditional songs Charlie Haden learned as a young child while performing with his own siblings and parents as part of the Haden Family band in the 1930s.

Charlie's friends making an appearance on the album include such luminaries as Vince Gill, Bruce Hornsby, Ricky Skaggs, Rosanne Cash, Elvis Costello, Jerry Douglas, Sam Bush, his long-time collaborator Pat Metheny, and many more. Audiences can expect the same kind of stirring, emotional performances featured on the record. Haden's triplet daughters sing tight, heartbreaking harmonies. His son Josh and his wife Ruth both lend their bold and clear voices to several songs. Then there's Dad, Charlie Haden, whose musicianship is unmatched.

Charlie Haden Family and Friends will be appearing at the Roots of American Music Festival alongside some other very impressive artists. Other acts on the bill include the Music Makers Blues Revue, The Knitters, and Patti Smith and her band.
For more information, please visit: http://www.lincolncenter.org/show_events_list.asp?eventcode=-62548

WHO: Charlie Haden Family and Friends
WHAT: Live debut
WHERE: Damrosch Park Bandshell
Damrosch Park
Amsterdam Ave & West 62nd Street
WHEN: Sunday, August 24th - 4 PM - FREE