Category: Music

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Merle Haggard documentary gets a thumbs up

Palo Cedro resident Merle Haggard is the subject of this PBS documentary, available here. Below is an excerpt, but it leads you to the full version. Well worth your time.

Watch the full episode. See more American Masters.

Hag Fans are legion around here, but I admit I never got it. I first learned of Merle in the “Okie From Muskogee” years, which arguably isn’t his best work. Although he’s been a Shasta County local for a long time now, his music seems reflective of a style that was popularized elsewhere. This documentary changed my opinion, and gave me a new appreciation for Merle and his body of work. I intended to watch just a bit of it, but I found myself unable to stop until it ended. Kudos to the filmmaker, and to PBS for posting it. It’s given me a new-found appreciation that I never knew I could have in not only his line of work but the making of the documentary itself. I’m sure a lot of blood, sweat and tears have gone into this project, even the small things like using this DCP tool to edit the entirety of the film, as well as creating the sequence of ads that go before it. They should seriously think about showcasing it in small cinemas all over the country. It was that inspiring. You challenged my opinion, and expanded my appreciation for an artist with whom I had little familiarity. And a full blogger hat tip to Marc Beauchamp, who brought this film to my attention.

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New old music – Snowfall

Redding artist Craig Padilla and I recorded this electro-ambient piece in 1994, or earlier, according to the sound file. It remained unfinished and “in the can” since then. More a sketch than anything else. I stumbled across it looking through some old material. Barely remembered. And wondered why it remains more or less unreleased. It’s a pleasant sketch, elaborated on today to just about 7 minutes. See what you think. Enjoy the snow on this sunny May day.
Snow in Redding CA 2010
Snowfall by SkipMurphy
Electro-Ambient music from the ’90s. It’s the indigenous music of ReallyRedding.

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“Star Dive” at the State Theatre in Red Bluff

State Theatre in Red BluffCraig Padilla recently uploaded a video made at his benefit concert performed at the State Theatre in Red Bluff from 2000. The show was intended to benefit both the State Theatre restoration project and the Red Bluff Skateboard Park, which was fundraising. The video, Star Dive, is classic Craig, and is fun to see again. Along with Venita Philbrick and others, I helped Craig produce the stage show, and did some lighting and soundwork. The video brings back some fond memories. The music stands the test of time. It still sounds great.

At the time, the State Theatre was not much more than a building with seats. The rescued remains of an old movie house. The stage had no lighting. We built a small setup structure out of ABS pipe (yes, sewer pipe!), and put up our usual low-budget lightshow. I suggested to Craig that he wear all white, so as not to be lost on the dark stage in dim lighting. At the last minute, Craig was able to talk Morpheus Lighting of Redding into donating some lighting for the show, and it made a huge difference. The videographer, whose name I don’t recall, sorry, mixed in the effects and projected it onstage. Awesome in person. The show was well attended, and we later got a nice thank-you letter indicating that the Skatepark had been built, along with the donations of many others. It was very gratifying.

State of the art back then, it looks pretty retro now. Crank it up!

Today, I see the State Theatre is still under restoration. Learn more at the State Theatre Restoration project. It’s a worthwhile project. The Cascade Theatre in Redding was in similar condition, and it’s subsequent restoration has proven to be the cultural spark that fires up the old downtown. We hope the same for Red Bluff.

Cascade Theatre in Redding CA
The restored Cascade Theatre in Redding CA

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Redding alt rockers Hollow Ln

Redding alt rock band Hollow LnHere’s a band performance image from the now closed Downtown Eatery. Hollow Ln is a Redding based (and Redding named) 3 piece outfit; guitar, bass, drum, and vocals. Tight, tight, tight, power trio originals are filled with thoughtful lyrics. Brandon Bausell works it hard on Vocals and Guitar. Nick Braun punctuates the tunes with insanely creative drumming. Not your 4 on the floor stuff! Max Bausell provides the solid basis for the often staccato melodies on Bass. Head over to Reverbnation and play their 12 well recorded demos all in a row. Awesome. Surprising. They’re playing Bombay’s March 23.

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Slam Buckra now a crossover artist.

redding musician Slam BuckraOne of my all time favorite Redding artists passed away recently at age 53. Damn. 53.
Like much of Redding music, Slam was hard to categorize. I won’t try. Jim Dyar does a good job of it at this post over at A News Cafe. Blogger Marc Beauchamp pointed me to Slam’s MySpace page, where you can listen to some recordings, and which will hopefully remain available. I can say the times I met him, he impressed me as a truly genuine character, and that’s a compliment of the highest order. He was a creature of the stage, and could be found playing live all over the Northstate whenever possible, often with his band, the Groove Palookas, laying down some funky beats to rocking audiences. A skilled musician, with his own very original style, in an artform where originality is a most prized attribute. He had a great many enthusiastic followers. RIP doesn’t seem appropriate to this energetic player. I’d prefer to believe he’s just appearing on a stage somewhere else. Given the relatively small local music scene, I’d always hoped to jam with Slam at some point. But it looks like that’ll have to wait until we meet again on the other side of the stage curtain. Our heart goes out to his family, friends, fans, and Groove Palookas everywhere.
Slam Buckra of Redding

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Music from Redding’s Planetarium past – Set 2

I posted the first set of music from Craig Padilla‘s mid 90’s live show a few days ago here. I believe we called the shows “Impulse-Live from Space,” but I couldn’t find any of our promotional materials. I did find a photograph I took of Craig in the Schreder Planetarium (using film back then!) with the famous horizontal axis mirror ball in the background. Most mirror balls rotate vertically, but for our planetarium shows, lights swirled on the dome from front to back. Pretty intense, as I recall it, heh. Anyway, here’s the second set. About 47 minutes. Captured like a dusty photograph, a slice of time gone by.
Craig Padilla at the schreder planetarium in redding
Planetarium2 by SkipMurphy
Impulse, Live from Space by Craig Padilla. Craig on synths and guitar, Dave Barnett (Montuno Salad) on drums and percussion, Al Mires (Music Max) on electric guitar, and Skip Murphy on more synths, lasers and lighting.

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A musical gift from the Planetarium past

music in reddings planetariumThis isn’t related to Christmas, but I recently completed this project from the archives I’ve been editing, and so I’m putting it up. Sometime in the late 1990s, Craig Padilla produced a series of music events at the Schreder Planetarium in Redding. We played as a 4 piece band in darkness, while special lighting effects and the stars wheeled overhead on the dome. Along with Craig playing synths and guitar, I played more synthesizers, and ran some lighting. Al Mires of Music Max in Palo Cedro played electric guitar, and Dave Barnett of local band Montuno Salad played drums and percussion. I have offered some of the individual tracks before, but this is the first time I have presented the entire first set as a whole. It runs just over 40 minutes. This set of music is different when heard in totality, rather than as individual tracks.
Planetarium Show Live (Set 1) by SkipMurphy
I think it holds up very well over time. Hearing it again today , this rainy Christmas day, I am struck by just how ambitious the whole project was. It’s a fairly complex composition, played in near total darkness. As any live recording, it has some imperfections, and since it was recorded to analog 2 track, there’s no remixing. It is what it is. I feel proud of the effort, and I relish the artistic eloquence we brought to the planetarium venue. Thanks to Craig for putting the shows together, and for letting me contribute to his unique and original music. Thanks to Al and Dave as well. It was hard work, but we had fun too. Give it a listen and see what you think.
The spoken word art at the conclusion is Craig’s long departed grandmother, taken from a cherished message machine tape, speaking to us all from the across the divide between this world and the next:

Oh fudge and damn
I forgot
Roses are red
Violets are blue
Stick this machine
in your maple surple
That’s prose
This is Mom
Just being a little silly on Valentine’s Day
Love y’all.

Although it’s not specifically Christmas music, I hope you enjoy the mix. I submit that it’s the indigenous music of 21st Century Redding; it’s ReallyRedding.

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Live recording -Craig Padilla’s “Sundial Bridge”

Here’s a live recording of Sundial Bridge by Craig Padilla. It was recorded on the patio of the cafe of the south end of the bridge. It’s about 20 minutes of symphonic electronic music. It starts off quietly, until it begins to soar. I accompanied Craig, and ran audio. There is no mic on the audience, but you do hear our voices briefly at the very end.
Sundial bridge2 by SkipMurphy The Sundial Bridge has arguably become the symbol of Redding CA. The architect for the bridge is a world famous artist named Santiago Calatrava, although I don’t see this particular work listed on his website. I haven’t looked through the whole site.
The folks at the host Turtle Bay Museum seemed happy to have us play there. The venue was really hot (thermal hot, not swinging hot) and it’s not acoustically great for either listeners or players. And for an art museum, the staff seemed really unimpressed that world famous musician Craig Padilla had composed a complete symphonic music composition named after the bridge, just for the occasion. Like, “Yeah, that’s nice.”
Anyway, I came across the recording in the studio, and thought I’d share it with the world again. At least, that part of the world that wasn’t at the event. Like any live recording, it has some issues, but I think the spirit of the muse comes across intact. See what you think.