Operation 365... Blog 70

Operation 365 - Jefferson Jay - Archives - 76 Chris Zach - 4-15-2010
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5mX9vqbUYo4

Here my good pal, Chris Zach, plays one of his most awesome tunes, "Welcome To The Good Life." This was recorded on 4-15-201 on my birthday/CD Release party. Chris is as nice a guy as you'll meet. He is what you would call "a good Christian." I may not even mention that here if he didn't tag "Welcome To The Good Life," with the classic line, "All I need is Jesus and my 6-string. Welcome to The good life."

This tune is about what it's like living here in San Diego. Chris has always been very appreciative to me for encouraging his art. I recorded his first CD. Recording this tune in particular was one of the most emotional moments I've ever had in the studio. The message of the tune really dawned on me in a profound way. It wasn't very long after my trusty amigo, Don Truesdail, passed away and I was overcome with the beauty of this tune and the whole experience of participating in the recording of it. Chris is a truly special guy and I'm glad to be able to call him a friend.

This clip was filmed by Dylan Avery.

Operation 365 - Jefferson Jay - Covers - 76 "The OB Tampons Song" by Unknown
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I_e7HEZwO7M

One day Wes Davis and I were sitting around and we thought it would be real funny to learn the old jingle for "OB" tampons from back in the 80s. The little neighborhood in San Diego that we live in is called OB, short for Ocean Beach. It is a little hippyish beach town and it is vey chill.

So we spent about a half an hour figuring it out. Here is a link to us recording it right after we did.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ou3oSr2UXbI

So we like it and we added it the set list for Wes Davis & The Clean Dirt Boys, for whom I banjo. Here we are playing on stage with Dyaln Avery on bass, Paul Ruiz on trumpet and The Soul Man on guiro at my open mic on August 3, 2010. This is the first cover song that is not a "traditional" song that I've posted that I have no idea who wrote it. I even looked and that information is not readily available on the net.

Just try OB and you'll see.

Operation 365 - Jefferson Jay - Originals - 76 "Gypsy Roll"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gN21wyi9pkI

Got a bit of sickness going on so I'd rather not sing and sound terrible if I can help it. So momentarily, I will be ransacking my archives for a spot of me singing some original song of mine that I haven't done yet to fill this space right here right now. Took a few tries but I got it.

This version of "Gypsy Roll" was filmed at my Open Mic on August 17, 2010. This was probably the most memorable to me of all my Open Mics at the venue I was working at at that time. Our drummer for this set was a man named Brent from Dallas. He was a nice guy who wanted to play the Open Mic so we (Richard Romero, Soul Man and I) took it to the stage for him and he backed up up. I half-jokingly called our band "Brent & The Bombers." Brent was a Texas Rangers fan and I am a Yankee fan so there is a little rub in there. Well, we wound up having an awesome bluesy three song set. The first tune we played "P.S. It's You," was put together on stage right then and I like that tune a lot. I always improvise the lyrics to "Gypsy Roll" every time we play it. It is like my tune "Killing's Wrong" in that way.

The interesting unforeseen thing that followed from this jam was Soul Man called me the next day and let me know quite clearly that he thinks we need to be doing that kind of stuff all the time. Getting people to dance. He told me something like "your songs are good, but you've got to get the chickies dancing". That was the gist of what he said but that is far from a quote you must know. Well, Soul Man rarely offers impassioned unsolicited advice like that. He is 92 and knows some stuff so I listened. I adjusted the set for our next gig accordingly and now, a few months later, The Jefferson Jay Band sounds a lot more like Brent and The Bombers than I ever imagined it would. The recent additions of Cory and Laura Wilkins to the Jefferson Jay musical posse have only made us more rockin and bluesy. That style of music lends itself nicely to my singing voice, so a that way we will go for awhile and see what happens. Thanks to Brent from Dallas. Hope to see him again some day.