JOURNEY INTO WEIRDNESS. If nothing else, being in this band called Brave Combo
has given me the opportunity to experience and actually participate in some mighty unusual things. As well, this has caused unexpected things to occur. And now, as the band turns 30, it is really easy to see all of this as a journey and a pretty dramatic one, at times. When you span three decades, significant events are bound to happen in the lives of all the people involved. And some of the stuff is so cosmic, there is just no rational explanation. Twenty years ago, when Brave Combo was about ten, we made a few amazing trips to Japan. We were treated like the stars we wanted to be. Brave Combo fever was bubbling up all over the land of the rising sun and we were somewhat clueless about it all. We didn’t really know what was going on, but lots of Japanese folks were very interested in what we were doing. One of the record companies we worked with asked us to record an album of traditional American Christmas music and explained that the holiday is a big, big deal in Japan and they thought a bunch of familiar Christmas tunes played through the Brave Combo filter would strike a chord with their country. So, we created IT’S CHRISTMAS, MAN! for P-Vine Records, which led to a great tour that same year. A year later, we released the same album on Rounder Records in the United States and it seemed to make a bit of a splash here, too. Rounder really got behind it and every year since, the album has a little resurgence of energy, around Christmastime, of course. We’ve had some success, as well, with songs from the record finding their way into strange but profitable places. Our recording of “Jingle Bells” was used prominently in a pre-release short of the movie, MADAGASCAR and “Feliz Navidad” closed out last year’s season of the TV sitcom, UGLY BETTY. But two years ago, I was alerted that Bob Dylan was going to play our recording of “Must Be Santa” on his Sirius/XM radio show and sure enough, he did, and even talked about it a little, as if he actually knew who we were. And for some reason, he talked to Matt Groening about us on the same show. I don’t know Matt was doing there. See, pretty strange, huh? So, now we’re in 2009, right? IT’S CHRISTMAS, MAN! is two decades old. I now find out that Bob Dylan has included the song, “Must Be Santa” on his new Christmas album and start to wonder if he allowed us to influence his thinking about the song. We made up the arrangement we play. My inspiration for doing the song came from Mitch Miller and the sing-along gang’s quite static and stuffy version from the early 1960s. It was a seasonal favorite at the Finch house. Whatever, the Brave Combo version only sounds like the Brave Combo version and I tickled my brain with the idea that we possibly influenced Mr. Dylan a little in this new recording of his. Well, it turns out it’s almost an exact copy of our arrangement, including our original intro and outro melodies, all the little connecting riffs, the vocal stylings, the counter melodies, the little obscure musical references (Okinawan motif), the key, the modulations, etc., not to mention it’s a polka! And, he snagged David Hidalgo from Los Lobos to play our unique parts on the accordion. The strangest “borrowing” though comes from our live performances only. It’s when we sing the names of past USA Presidents instead of reindeers. There’s ol’ Bob crooning, “Carter, Reagan, Bush and Clinton.” Curiously enough, that innovation is not on our original version from IT’S CHRISTMAS, MAN!. So, he even had to research our available live recordings or videos. Are you following all of this? I have been imagining Bob Dylan going to bed at night hearing the sound of my voice in his head singing, “Who’s got a big red cherry nose?” Now I learn that he’s made of a video of the song and the track is being used as a special download to buy meals for homeless people this Christmas, which is icing on the cake. Bob Dylan has publicly acknowledged where he found the arrangement and admits to being heavily influenced by our recording and I have seen some very cool references to us in reviews of the CD. I have no idea how he came across it, but that doesn’t really matter. The coolest thing, for me is that Brave Combo’s reinvention of something and our musical viewpoint has sprouted gigantic wings. Millions of people will hear how we organize sound and texture and structure. Our way of doing something has been given a major boost and perhaps it means that Brave Combo is now beginning to make sense to the outer fringes of the mainstream. Apparently, that’s never been a real goal or even a dream, for us. We’ve always known we were a little different from most everyone else. It has worked to our advantage and, just as much, to our detriment. Hipsters and scene-makers have embraced us and the same have ignored us. But now Bob Dylan is in the house. I do actually have a couple of his albums and a few 45 rpm singles, but I’ve never spent a whole lot of time watching his vinyl go around the turntable. So many of his songs were such Bible-level classics, that I probably knew most of his music from hootenanny get-togethers at church or school. Some of his songs are as common to us as breathing. Millions of musicians have performed and recorded his music and now he’s recorded ours. Heavy! Well, just go to youTube and type in Bob Dylan Must Be Santa and hear it for your self. It’s been posted a few times now. I’ve talked to his manager and he seems to think there will be some follow-up for Brave Combo in all of this. We’ll see. I try to keep my expectations just this side of hopeless, so if more comes, it will be another fun surprise. It doesn’t matter, though; I’ve already received my Christmas present for the year. It’s nice to get that out of the way early.

Speaking of Christmas, we have finally given into the pressure and will have a brand new, live Christmas CD available any minute now. And it contains a rocking recording of the above-mentioned Bob Dylan smash, “Must Be Santa.” It’s called CHRISTMAS PRESENT and if you like holiday standards and you like how we screw up music, this is a must for your enjoyment of the season. It was recorded at one of our all-time favorite venues, Fitzgerald’s, in Chicago and at the beautiful McDavid Studio in downtown Ft. Worth. Tis the season to buy a bunch of our humble offerings.

Along the same line, we are planning to begin live-streaming our shenanigans on the internet again and one of our planned events is a Christmas concert. Just watch our site more closely than ever so you don’t miss it. We’ll take requests and dress up and everything, just like Vaudeville, or Branson, at least. Maybe it will be a telethon and we can hold up the CD and show the scoreboard, too. Who wants to do our make-up? We need volunteers to man the telephones. It’s going to be spectacular, with dancers and special guests. Maybe even Santa, himself, will make an appearance.

Brave Combo will be at Poor David’s Pub, in Dallas, on Saturday, November 14, performing songs from our CD, SYMPHONIC POLKAS, with a mini-orchestra (12-15 musicians) from the Mesquite Symphony. We recorded the CD with the full Mesquite Symphony Orchestra in 2008 and have just now released the recording of that performance. This could be a one-of-a-kind show, so be there AND be square.

Oh, but it’s all just a fame game, isn’t it? Much of this job is simply strategizing how to get more attention than anyone else. It used to be easier, especially before the term “world music” was around. We were as odd as oddballs could get in the world of musical Popdom. Nothing we did was supposed to be what someone would expect. That’s not exactly a fool-proof formula for regular television appearances. There has never been a place for us to fit in, really. But we do constantly have to announce our presence in a “normal” world to survive. I still don’t know how we’ve made it this far. It’s a good thing I can chalk up most of our success to cosmic forces making things balance here and there, otherwise I wonder if I might be second-guessing myself all the time. Ultimately, I know that I can only be what I am, if all of this is to be believable. In kind, Brave Combo will do what it does and we will accept any recognition that comes our way and then exploit our good fortune the best we can. I have great faith in something I don’t totally understand. Maybe it’s just people. But I’ve never felt particularly driven to do my art for the good of humanity. If I’m honest, I do it for the fun of personal exploration and to see if others will pay money to see what I’ve dome up with. It’s still hit and miss in the money realm, but I believe I’m living a “comfortable” existence, supported by my art. I am generally my own boss, which is not always preferred because I might be a perfectionist about certain things, including almost everything about Brave Combo. And perfection is unachievable. But near perfect isn’t. So, check out the BC Scene, Baby! We strive for perfection and consistently settle for getting almost there! And that’s good enough. Let’s Polka!

This entry was posted on Friday, October 30th, 2009 at 5:04 pm and is filed under MP. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.