10/18/2019
Journal Entry: June 14, 2016 by: Dan Wright
I rolled up to the Blue Pearl just after 8:00, ready as always with the Here & Now Residencies, for a night of possibilities. The first faces I see are Fred Friction, Drew Sheafor, and Bobby Stevens, and I give them each a hug and then sit at the bar.
When I sit at the bar, I asked the bartender, who looks like he’s never tended bar in his life, what’s good and cheap. The only option he lists that I can afford is a Stag. Beggars can’t be choosers, so I take a $2.00 Stag and tip him a dollar. I don’t really have the money to tip but anybody who doesn’t tip a bartender doesn’t deserve to be at the bar.
I ask Bobby Stevens where Neil is, and he tells me that Old Souls Revival has a gig at the Demo tonight but they’re playing either first or second so Neil will be over as soon as they’re done.
As Fred sings his first tune, the wine bar patrons of the Blue Pearl, who look more well to do than the rest of us, take their leave. There’s not many left in the bar as the residency kicks off. Maybe eleven people in the bar total. The tone of Fred Friction’s electric guitar sounds so lonesome and slightly out of tune. But, as poetic as Fred’s words, it fits him. It goes out every so often before coming back in. There is always a beauty in Fred’s performances, even the ones he gets too drunk to recall.
After Fred finishes “Long Hard Road” he gives Drew Sheafor an amused look before holding his guitar up and saying, “Take this!” The small crowd cheers for another song. Fred goes to soundcheck the microphone before beginning by belching in to it and starts singing a Steve Earle tune, “Sometimes She Forgets” stopping the song a few seconds in, to tell a story of a dream he had earlier about drinking with Steve Earle and how, in the dream, Steve Earle made Fred buy the beer because he was too cheap and sent Fred out to get some and then Fred knew they had something in common. He then gets back to singing the tune.
Drew Sheafor looks the role of Dylan disciple with buttoned up 60s stripped shirt and sailor’s cap, opening his set with “Searcher’s Song.” During Fred’s set, the crowd had grown and now that Drew is up, things begin feeling lively and engaging. Though he may look the part of Dylan disciple, like so many others, he is a student of Fred Friction, the way Dylan was a student of Woody Guthrie, which is what makes this particular night of the Here & Now residency so wonderful. While not as masterful yet at his craft as Fred (that’ll only come in time), Drew has put his love of 60s pop and the hard-whiskey-living-St. Louis-life into something special. Drew’s song “Middle of the Road” is a song I have taken great solace in since Zagk Gibbons first played it for me. It captures a sensibility of reaching for a reality that doesn’t kill your dreams in cold blood. He does an up-tempo version of his Barn Mice tune “Song to Fred (Drinker’s Lullaby).” As Drew sings, I can’t help but listen to the song without thinking of fellow Barn Mice member Irene Allen’s backing vocals on the recording of the song.
Drew plays “I Don’t Believe You (She Acts Like We Never Met)” moving like a young Dylan at the microphone. He then goes to his other Barn Mice tune “Just A Girl.” He segues the song, for a moment, into “Bang a Gong” before heading back to “Just A Girl” to finish things off. Sheafor is probably one of the most charismatic and genuinely joyful human beings to ever walk God’s green Earth. In some past life, this man, along with maybe Sean Kimble from Brother Lee & the Leather Jackals, was an energetic dog for some loving family.
Drew and Fred together sing “I’m Going Blind,” a Fred Friction original that Drew covers on a fairly regular basis. This performance is nothing short of sublime. The song itself is some of Fred’s best lyrics. Need to find the record that Fred did for Tower Groove Records. Drew then goes into an Old Capital Square Dance Club tune, “You’re Just a Stranger Now.”
After a few Oasis covers and a cover of “Gimme Some Truth,” the place is full swing. Sheafor is a one-man jukebox, unloading John Lennon and Kinks tunes along with Fred Friction and a few Vanilla Beans tunes.
After a small medley of Beatles tunes, Drew hands things over to Bobby Stevens. I go to get another beer but the bartender is too busy showing Allie Vogler his phone. Allie, seeing me, does the bartender’s job and asks me what I want. I ask for a Stag and I get the last one from the bartender. Bobby opens with a few Townes Van Zandt tunes, “Snow Don’t Fall” and “Flyin' Shoes.” Fred orders another Stag, but the bartender gives him a Genesee, the cheap beer of all cheap beers. I feel bad I got the last Stag, but I still enjoy the damn thing.
As the clock strikes 11:00, Neil still isn’t here but it doesn’t matter. There’s enough friendship in this room to keep the room going until the wee hours. As I look out at the bar from way back in the room, I see Josh Brophy, Madison Price, Drew Sheafor, Matt Casatta, Allie Vogler, Adam Erkmann, Tim Gaubauer, and a bunch of souls I can’t say I’m familiar with but who seem, from a distance, like-minded. It looks like Bobby is going to close out his set soon. Cover or original, Bobby puts his sets together well, letting every song he performs stand on equal footing, provided they’re sober enough to stand. It strikes me that this project is being put together by nothing more than sophisticated red necks, myself included. For as well read or as knowledgeable as we all may be, we are all just people that just came from the outside of one city from both sides of the river with a little blue on our collar and chips on our shoulders and dry humor in our smiles. For at least a few hours every night, we are free and treasure that freedom more than life itself. With each familiar face we see each night, be they part of this project or not, we know we've found another one like us. The opportunities this town affords us are like no other. While we may be spoiled by them, we must do our best to not take them for granted. When Bobby and Drew sing together on Dylan's “She Belongs to Me” it is a moment out of time, perfect. Bobby closes his set with a cover of “Spanish Pipedream” by John Prine. I’m actually surprised it took this long in the night for a John Prine song to be played. Martha Mehring walks up and stands at the microphone Drew was at, bringing it down to her. No one is as tall as Drew. Bobby and Martha play a cover of “Ooh La La” and Martha shows him the chords to play. Bobby hands the guitar to Martha and she then plays while Bobby sings back up to her. Brandon Karras comes in as they begin, speaking of how he feels memories are about to be made. Allie Vogler walks up to join Bobby and Martha and sings with them. After they're done, Bobby puts his trucker hat on Allie and gets off stage.
Allie and Martha sing “Magnolia” by JJ Cale with Martha still on guitar. After that, Martha starts singing “A Change Gonna Come.” With the blend of Allie and Martha from the second verse on, it’s something special, letting the lyrics breathe. So often in covers of this song, an artist will use it as a platform to perform vocal gymnastics, losing the heart of the song. In the more than capable hands of Martha and Allie, it’s cradled and cared for, allowing the song’s message to get across. At the request of the audience, Allie and Martha perform the Shovels and Rope song, "Boxcar.”
At a joking request from Drew, Allie and Martha play “Searcher Song” as Martha does her best impersonation of Drew Sheafor as Drew shouts the chords to them to play from the bar. They soon catch the hang of the song and run through the entirety of it. They have a little trouble with the bridge but rebound with grace worthy of a River Kitten on the following verse.
Martha asks into the microphone if Fred is going to be playing and Fred hears this, opening the front door and putting the cigarette he had gone outside to smoke out on his tongue before saying “I’m here to listen.” Allie and Martha do a duet cover Amy Winehouse’s “Back to Black” with Fred Friction on spoons.
Vogler and Mehring seem back to basics on this night, forgoing being River Kittens and being the friends who met at an open mic a few years back, just playing great tunes as best as they can. Martha hands the guitar over to Allie and Allie starts playing the chords to “Don’t Worry Baby.” Those sweet 60s harmonies are always a playground for Allie and Martha and this is no exception. Brian Wilson would shed a tear over this cover. When they’re done, Fred says “God damn, that makes me glad to be alive.”
After a few tunes, Allie gives Bobby back the acoustic guitar and he performs “Midnight Special” and “Dead Flowers.” Some of the folks I don’t recognize are starting to make me feel uncomfortable, banging down hard on the bar along to whatever song is being played. These bad vibes come from the vibrations they’re banging into the bar. Stevens does a slightly slowed down version of “Honky Tonk Women” that lies somewhere between that song and “Country Tonk” off of Let It Bleed.
As cool as Blue Pearl can be at times, it’s easy for the place to get claustrophobic. I’ve been sitting at the tail end of the bar for most of the nigh, mainly to stay close to the bathroom so as to avoid working my way through people, uttering “Ope” and “I’m sorry” a million times just to take a p**s. I head outside to catch some fresh air for a few seconds to be able to stretch my arms.
At around 12:36am, I see Neil roll up while I’m still outside, talking to Matt Casatta and Fred Friction. Through the door, I can hear Bobby Stevens playing “Can’t Hardly Wait” by the Replacements. We all go in with Neil, and Fred goes up next to Bobby, starting to sing with him the wisdoms of Paul Westerberg. When Bobby is done, he sees Neil, smiles, and starts playing “The Weight.” Martha joins Bobby on stage. I don’t know what it is about this song that has, along with maybe “Ooh La La,” become something of an anthem to this scene but they have, almost serving as a reminder of good times and of home, no matter how much the darkness can creep in here and there. Afterwards, Bobby steps away from the mic for a sec, trying to work out “Up on Cripple Creek” and asks Neil to come up to help him. Fred joins them on the spoons. As 1:00am starts creeping up, I can feel fatigue setting in. I got the endurance for maybe another tune or two. I don’t want to call it but a fight with your body is one you never win.
The bartender signals that they got one song left before they have to call the night. As a half joke, they sing “Friends in Low Places.” I grew up hating this damn song and Garth Brooks along with it. The bar all starts singing along with it. Don’t know if I’ve made peace with the song but I appreciate the moments it brings. Drew grabs Fred’s electric and plays along with Bobby and Fred with Neil. Drew makes lyrics up as they can’t remember the actual song, with Neil doing mouth lead guitar, the easiest lead guitar to do. The song falls apart, with Fred commenting “I hate this fu***ng song!” playing his spoons on Bobby and on Neil before just settling on playing his spoons on Neil’s arms and back. Fred goes back to playing spoons on his knees as Neil tries playing the house piano. Drew and Neil work out the chords between themselves as the song goes on. When the song is done, everybody is in good spirits and it’s another successful night of the Here & Now residency.
