Well, letz see...

In the sudio now @ Cary Dachtyl's and have some fun funky stuff commin' out.

Had a really fun gig last time with some regulars and some new folks (new fans from all the way outz in Chillicothe - thanks Steph!) that hadz lotza kinda words.

Good ta see Dave Yuhas out and about.

Gotta private part gig tommorow for City B-B-Q - thanks to Bob Thomas for the hookup. 

Probably won't be out and about playin' until Jan - have the Trad fest commmin' up - look frwd to that and yammin' on some bloooze

Went to see the new Hunter S "Gonzo" film this weekend.

Pretty good - of course there was the stoned idiot who kept yelling at the screen (I doth think he missed the fact that the good Dr. was famous for his writings and not just his lifestyle - although they certainly went hand in hand, but if it was just a story about a drunk drug fiend who shoots guns then they could've have just wandered around southern Ohio with a camera).

I do think the movie - very well narrated by Johnny Deep - missed the fact that Hunter was in bad physical health. From one of Johnny's own accounts in Rolling Stone there was a social gathering the year of his death where they had to physically carry him  (and not because of his state of mind).

When his text is read aloud in the film it is poignant and stirring. As Hunter wrote about 9.11 he predicted the Bush office would use it as an excuse to invade Iraq - so the man had more insight than John McCain (and every other Bozo in congress).

FBnCC Comix ARE HERE!!!

click here (or on panels)

I had a exposed myself and the band to some funk old friends, some funky new friends, and some funky relatives. Shout out to Uncle Bill (she swallowed a what?)

Hopefully it sounded as good as it felt.

Lovely lovely time....NO, NO DR. SMITH!!! DON'T HURT HIM!!!

Oh, where was I? 

Actually, where am I?

Hopefully all this rain (although good for my tomatoes) doesn't purr down on the festival dates we'll be playin'.

It was a great time at the Ear with the Outlaw Deluxe and I'd like to really thank all the cats and kittens who hung out all night and also walked home with a CD. 

And as always, afterwards I managed to get Matt Monta mad at me (I can be a pesty drunk). Sorry Matt.

Christine of Outlaw Deluxe (and yer favorite server at the Ear) will be singing my new country tune "Tour of 72" (changed the title and make it less offensive)

Click here to see lyrics and explainations

The FBnCC summer spectacular show is comming!!

The theme is "Turn over a new leaf"

We'll have new songs and special guests, including the opening act "Outlaw Deluxe"

We'll be debut new songs 

• country song "Tour '72" - written about the Rolling Stones movie with a x-rated name.

• slide song "Slide on Chuck" - a Chuck Berry tune done ala Al Smyth (kinda Johnny Winter'ish)

• bloooze song "Willie Brown" - a James Brown meets Robert Johnson who bumps into Frank Zappa.

This will be one of only 2 complete FBnCC gigs of the summer !!!

So to get the full in leave a smile on yer face FBnCC experience, don't miss this show !!

KEEF

Another title could be 'Martin Scorsese's close ups of Mick Jagger'. Ever since Scorsese cast Leonardo DiCaprio as a tough guy in Gangs of New York, I've wondered if his judgement hasn't slipped a bit.

I've seen a lot of Stones films (including C&^$@uckerblues) and although this certainly is a good film, it has some obvious deficits. 

Although Keith gets a lot of attention, a lot of the concert is an uncomfortable high-def close up of Mick Jagger.

This is not a major revelation to anyone who has read any serious reviews of the film.

This is very obvious when Keith is on a lead or starting out a song. The guitar is loud and grungy (as it should be), but then as the camera goes to Mick, the guitar level and tone magically drop. And it isn't the kind of drop like a guy on a sound board would do, it is an obvious attempt to match the visual with the audio.

I've seen the Stones a few times, and have heard various live official and bootleg recordings, and what makes the band 'cook' (if you will) is the crash and weave of the band. In fact, some purists will complain that once the Stones started adding components beyond keys and horns, the polish took some fun out of the experience. 

I have read good reviews about the soundtrack, but if it is the same mix as the movie then forget it.

Also, feel free to get up and get a beer (or a hard cider) while Christine Augularia warbles "Live With Me". Okay, okay I get her schtick, she can do a tremelo soul "woooooo" all over the place. But when it comes down to just singing a single freakin' note her skinny white pop voice apparently isn't used to it. Count how many times she goes "wooooo" between verses.  Sometimes ya gotta hold that stuff back.

Jack White picked a great song off of Exile, and any Jack White fan will think it is the greatest. I respect Jack, but really Buddy Guy was the only cat who delivered a presence that was par with the Stones.

And of course KEEF.

Keef will melt your heart when he sings "You Got The Silver" - but then Martin cuts away during "Connection" (the first Keith Stones song - way before T&A and others).

Because of the last gigs date mix up - for some special folks we'll be doing a short set this Thursday at Victorian's Midnight Cafe.

Short Set FBnCC at Victorian's Midnight Cafe

Thursday May 1st at 8 PM

Stop on by 'round 8 o'clock and have a coffee or something harder

THE DATE WAS WRONG!!!

I WAS ADVERTISING SAT APRIL 12TH

IT IS FRIDAY APRIL 4th!!!

YARRRRGGGG!!!

Who would have guessed that when you remove Garfield from the Garfield comic strips, the result is an even better comic about schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, and the empty desperation of modern life? Friends, meet Jon Arbuckle. Let’s laugh and learn with him on a journey deep into the tortured mind of an isolated young everyman as he fights a losing battle against loneliness in a quiet American suburb. 

Garfield minus Garfield

FBnCC

"Confessions

of 

a

Mobile 

Generation"

April 4th

Thirsty Ear

The season (roller derby season) has got me writing new songs again.

Have at least 3 new ones for April 4th - "Confessions of a Mobile Generation".

I can't wait!!!

And hell, yea, I'm getting tickets to the roller derby!!!

So ?

Al Smyth Trad Fest

Saturday was a fun filled day.
We played the CBA Trad. Fest

"Well, that was subtle" the lady said. Ha!!! What can I say, laws and hearts are meant to be broken.

Cereal though, I hope everyone dug it. I know  a few people did. Next year we'll try to do a full hour of traditional madness on the main stage.

We hung with Walter Tore - who the hell didn't he ever meet? But as in Jeremiah was a bullfrog, I helped him drink his wine. Very beautiful cat and nice to hang with.

Jam after was odd. I couldn't hear a thing and the unusual thing was I wasn't the one causing the racket (odd ain't it?). Electricity and fire both can your friend and your enemy. Don't mix 'em!!!

posted pictures from Dave Yuhas and Dusty Blues

Al Smyth WOSU

WOSU (Steve Brown) did a piece on the Columbus Blues Alliance Trad Fest that I'll be playing this weekend.

I went on down to the studio and was interviewed and played a bit.

The piece that they put together has the whacky-chacky of "Hard Times" in the background in the opening and then includes info about the Trad Fest which includes yours truly.

My big quote is "As recent as a couple weeks, someone came up to my drummer and said 'what you guys play is good, but it's not blues,'" Smyth says. "It doesn't necessarily have to be not-for-note one-four-five, it can be a variation on a theme. But it has to have that gutteral feel to it. So yes, I think what I play is blues, but I think I don't have to worry about adhearing to certain guidelines about musical composition."

True, true

FBnCC Manifesto

First of all, thanks again to the great crowd at the Thirsty Ear last Friday (Cabin Fever Feb 8th). It was very very nice to have such a terrific audiance. I gotta make it a point to talk to the crowd more. I sold (pushed) some CDs - I hope who ended up with them liked them.

I don't know how obvious this is (some will say "yea, it is") but our goal is to push the limits of what you find in a typical "blues band". Some will say we don't play blues, some will say we do. I like to think of ourselves as DADA blues. I want to paint a surrealistic picture of music and entertainment, but since I am a songwriter and a musician my heart is also pulled towards writing original music, that yes, ok, has a blues root (but also with funk, rock, and jazz).

towards that end I have published the FBnCC Manifesto.

CABIN FEVER

I can't take it... there is only a small path between the back door and the burning barrel, where you'll find discarded remnants of non flammable food, beverage packaging. I sit by the oil lamp night after night my mind going deeper and deeper into despair. As the great Alice Cooper sang in the balled of Dwight Frye "I gotta get outta here, I gotta get outta here!!!" I've marked on my calendar (a series of scratches on the wall) Friday Feb 8th as the day (night) I will venture out and shout to the wind.

Manifeste Cannibale Dada, by Francis Picabia,27th March 1920 
You are all indicted; stand up! Stand up as you would for the Marseillaise or God Save the King....
Dada alone does not smell: it is nothing, nothing, nothing.
It is like your hopes: nothing.
like your paradise: nothing. 
like your idols: nothing. 
like your politicians: nothing. 
like your heroes: nothing. 
like your artists: nothing. 
like your religions: nothing. 
Hiss, shout, kick my teeth in, so what? I shall still tell you that you are half-wits. In three months my friends and I will be selling you our pictures for a few francs. 

CBA Blooze Jam

Shuffle in E... and why not?

Had a great time - and we had a winner.... Ron from California wasn't it?

A few CDs exchanged hands - hope yer enjoyin' it as much as I do!!!

WNCD 93.3FM The Wolf - BEST BLUES OF 2007

• KOKO TAYLOR
• KENNY WAYNE SHEPHERD with BRYAN LEE
• ALVIN LEE
• JASON RICCI BAND
• ANA POPOVIC
• ALLMAN BROTHERS BAND with SOUTHSIDE JOHNNY
• COREY STEVENS
• TOMMY CASTRO
• JOE BONAMASSA
• DUKE ROBILLARD
• AL SMYTH
• WILLIE PHOENIX
• THE WHITE STRIPES
• MICK JAGGER
• ELAM McKNIGHT
• SUE FOLEY/DEBORAH COLEMAN/ROXANNE POTVIN
• BUCK69
• OMAR KENT DYKES & JIMMIE VAUGHAN
• BOBBY RUSH
• ROD PIAZZA & THE MIGHTY FLYERS
• VAN MORRISON & BOBBY "BLUE" BLAND"
• COLIN DUSSAULT (HOMETOWN ARTIST)
• GARY MOORE
• JOHN HAMMOND

C.B. ROY'S MOSTLY BLUES TOP 25 AIRPLAY 

REAL BLUES Magazine's TOP 100 blues recordings of 2007

Jo-Jo was a clown from Tucson Arizona

Thirsty Ear  - always a good time

Had a good time (as always) at the Thirsty Ear Tavern. We played (a little rough - especially at the end when Steve and I were out of tune .. yikes!!!), helped out Dee Ann and Mike (Creekside) and meet some old friends and made some new friends.

Shout out to the dude in the FBnCC shirt - outrageous... Mr. Lennon I'm yer biggest fan - BANG!!! Seriously, hope to see you and yer crew at the Feb 8th gig. We'll pull out all the stops and stay in tune!!

Finally got to hang out with Long Tall Deb, stopped by the Outlaw Deluxe and wound down (up). When will the fun end ?

PICK UP A COPY OF THE CBA Bi-MONTHLY PAPER AND READ Achbar's Column "Greetings From"... I smell a Pulitzer (or perhaps I smell the grapefruit I threw in the waste basket)

Anyhoo - I'm charged about the next gig and what kind of outside-the-box stuff we can do.

Mike & Dee Ann for the fatabulous gifts!!!  

Everybody was so impressed (first of all 

that I had friends, and secondly with the pictures). 

Thanks to Paul of the CHHF for the 

Hunter S. magazine

Thanks to my new Grove City friends, 

to Sandy & Bob., theThirsty Ear staff - 

it is always Christmas at the Ear

Oh, heck, and everyone.. too many to mention!!!

I had a wonderful evening Friday night at the Thirsty Ear Tavern. I looked out and every table was friends and family - or enemies and unrelated strangers - but either way - I looked out.

Cereal though, fantastic - thanks Johnny Mack for playing some nice blues.

Thanks Jill for some nice cello ('there's always room for cello')

Sherri, Fred, Joe, Steve - Merry New Years and dank u!!!!

DADA!!!

'nuff said?

I had an awesome time hangin' out down in grove country and I'd like to thank my man Johnny Mack and friends. I hurd sum fantastic bands (how the hell does that kid play a guit-fiddle with 10 gwarsh-dern strings?) and met some vonderful pee-pols ('cept for the dude that hustled me out of a $1 on darts - but then again, it is a bar, duh!)

I hope everything works out for Clark and Sylvia www.myspace.com/GroveCityBrownsBackers209

Great finish up of the night at the 'evil bar'. Where can I get a sign like that?

What does Salvia do to ya? I dunno... ask Johnny Mack.

Thanks again Johnny Mack (I tried out the lap steel today - cool), cousin, rusty, and the gals.

I just got word that 'comfort me' has made C.B. ROY'S MOSTLY BLUES TOP 25 AIRPLAY October 2007

And I received notice that 'comfort me' is listed by REAL BLUES Magazine's TOP 100 blues recordings of 2007

Also, 'comfort me' is still in the top 50 Roots Music Report!!

Roots Music Report  charts Are Not Compiled by a Record Company, Record Promotion Company or by any Organization or Affiliate  that has an interest in financial gain from any particular record or artist. RMR is not responsible for content of news and articles posted on this site, excluding those composed by RMR. Enjoy our roots / americana music charts our blues music charts, bluegrass music charts, folk music charts, roots rock music charts , jazz music charts, reggae music charts, roots gospel music charts, western swing music charts, true country music charts, and our zydeco music charts. The top 100 and the top 50 of each genre. Roots Music Report helping indie artist receive radio airplay chart recognition.

Dig it!

yea!

Next Friday we're playing a short set at the Rubma Cafe. And for this gig we'll be having our good buddy and FBnCC standby hurtin' Bruce Burton back on the bass fiddle (thanks Bruce!!!).

Also we'll be having Sax Man Dan stoppin' by to guest spot on a a tune or two such as Gimmie Back My Wig and Comfort Me.

Thanks in advance Dan !!

Well, we didn't win place or show but we did kick some ass I must say, and for a weakling like me that 's pretty satisfying.

I'm pretty sure we lost because of the "Blues Content" category - which is fine by me. Based on the style of most of the bands that got high numbers, a super artist like Sonny Landreth would not have been in the running either.  

But even with all that,  I'm really was happy to play for my peers and network with local cats and the judges (hopefully get a gig!). And also it was good to hear what other acts are doing. 

Will I do it again? Probably. In fact we do have a new song that is in the Sonny Landreth style - so I'll probably pull that one out next year (heh heh).

gearin' up for the blues challenge

A lot o' competition!!!

e-yikes!!! But to comfort our minds we're gonna do a kick ass show on Oct 20th at the Thirsty Ear with Groove Soda.

MORE COWBELL!!!

http://www.myspace.com/supportingtheblues  

OMG!!! What I could do with such power !!! Well, one thing for sure - I will use it for good and not for evil (now, let's talk about the definition of evil...)

Good talkin' to Steve who said my first album got' em through his divorce. I hope this new record gets him through better times !!!

Drop me a line and let me know what you think of it !!!

Either click on Feedback or send  me an email.

THANKS !!! Ale Smyth

Last Saturday at the Thirsty Ear was fantastic - so many good souls allowing me to slam and bam around on stage for them !!! I had only 1 drink during 2 sets - but at the end I was a high as a kite (so naturally I had to have a few drinks to get my feet back on the ground afterwards). Great after party - thanks Ian !!! (I had fun playin' Cocksucker Blues for ya all - Boonesfarm... what no Mad Dog ?.)

Sold a good number of CDs - hope ya'll are enjoying it as much as I do (I was just listening to it myself this morning on the way down to UDF).

Will do that now.... July 14th with special guests Cowboy Hillbilly Hippie Folk at the Thirsty Ear Tavern !!!

Come out and git yer copy of "comfort me" !!!