Michael Falzarano
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We Are All One
New CD coming soon - in stores October 28th
Available now from Woodstock Records
Michael Falzarano & Extended Family
We Are All One
Featuring
Vassar Clements, Melvin Seals, Buddy Cage,
Jorma Kaukonen, Garth Hudson, Professor Louie,
Kerry Kearney, Kane Daily, Jimmy Fleming,
Jimmy Eppard and Dave Castiglione
with
Harvey Sorgen, Pete Sears, Jon Marshall Smith, Ray Grappone, Peter Bennett,
Chris Matheos, Charlie Wolfe, Eileen Murphy, Frank Celenza,
Vicki Bell, Klyph Black, Tommy Circosta,
Miss Marie, Mike Dunn, David Malachowski and Gary Burke
The who, what, when, where and why about this CD
We Are All One, my third solo album, is a 14-song CD featuring a collection of musicians I call The Extended Family. It contains 12 originals, 10 by me, two by me and my friend Kerry Kearney, We Are All One (acoustic) and To Let The Fire Die and two covers, Candy Man and How Long Blues. And most especially, it happens to contain some of the last known studio recordings by our old friend, the late fiddle virtuoso Vassar Clements.
The CD took longer to get out then I would have liked, but that’s just the way it is sometimes. The main reason for the delay was that I started playing with the New Riders of the Purple Sage a few years ago and that took off like a rocket and kept me pretty occupied. Now that things have settled down a bit in that world, I was able to concentrate on this project and get it out to you. This was an exciting project to work on as I got to work with old friends and some of my favorite musicians on the planet.
A little bit about the cover and the title song. On the cover behind me giving the "We are All One" salute are the symbols of the 9 major world religions. Realizing the world is in a bad place right now it just seems to me that if we don't get it together and come together as one people we're doomed. It also seems to me that at the core of much of this world turmoil is one religion or another fighting against the other for longer then anyone can remember. Now, I realize that it's the fanatics that drive that bus but I just feel more can be done by the people in and leaders of all these religions. It's time for us all to take a stand and say enough is enough. I know that this might sound a little naive and an over simplification of the world situation, but why not. "We are all one, Mother, Father, Sister, Brother, Daughter, Son". And that was my head space when I wrote the lyrics and later came up with the concept for the cover. Now, the the CD was never meant to be a heavy message driven project and it's not. I just felt I wanted to put the concept out there, We Are All One.
About the songs and players
The sessions with Vassar Clements were very special to me as this was the last time we played together before his passing. He was on fire that night and we had a blast recording the tunes. Pretty much here’s how it went: we ran the songs down one or two times and then cut them. The first one we cut was the old Reverend Gary Davis song, Candy Man. I remember Vassar commenting that he hadn’t played that one before. He tore it up, in my opinion. Take a listen and see what you think. Next we did a song I wrote call It’s My Own Fault. We listened and he decided that he would play the two bridges - the second half of the solo section and the vamp at the end. It worked out great. When we were done he asked what I called this type of song. I said, “Now, Hillbilly Funk.” He smiled. Then we did two more of my tunes - Big Fish which didn’t make it to this project, and When There’s Two There’s Trouble. We had played When There’s Two live a few times, so he just laid into it and let it rip. That was a great night in the studio and one I’ll never forget.
Working in the studio with Buddy Cage is always a pleasure. He comes in, takes a listen, and lays down the track like he’s been playing it his whole life. That’s the way it is with him. He played great stuff on all the tracks he played on - New Shirt, When There’s Two There’s Trouble, To Let The Fire Die and Gonna Power Down Now. The last tune, Gonna Power Down Now, was especially interesting for me because it was such a fluke of a tune anyway. Along with my band The Memphis Pilgrims, we had recorded the title track for the Dennis Rodman made-for-TV movie Bad As I Wanna Be, which was based on his best selling book of the same title. Long story short, it was late in the evening - actually early morning - and the guys and I were still in the recording room, instruments in hand, when the engineer leaned into the talk back mic and said, “If you guys are done for the night, I’m gonna power down now.” But just as he said that I started to play an idea that I had for an instrumental; the other guys joined in, and luckily the engineer hit record and caught it on tape. But that wasn’t the end of the story. I had the song in the can for a while but when I went back to work on the multitrack I was told by the studio that it was lost, never to be found again. So all I had was the two track rough which I must say sounded pretty good. So I used it and had Buddy overdub onto it. So that track is not only a first time, first take but the only take . Buddy took off on it.
I don’t have to tell anyone what a monster Melvin Seals is on the Hammond Organ. We were on the same label for awhile and played a show together along with Buddy Cage in NY, so the next day with the help of Richard Sisselman we were able to get in the studio and cut some tracks with my old friends from the Memphis Pilgrims backing us. Needless to say, he nailed them.
It’s Just My Way is a re-mixed, re-mastered version of the song that first appeared on my album Mecca. Jorma and I have preformed this song too many times to count all over the world and I just wanted to include it in this collection of songs and friends. I really love Jorma’s buzz saw guitar solo on this one and the sax solo by Dave Castiglione isn’t too shabby either.
While I was a member of Professor Louie and The Crowmatix we recorded one of my tunes Last Train Out which I had written in memory of the late Allen Woody bassist for the Allman Brothers it appeared on their album Flying High, which features Garth Hudson from The Band. This is another re-mixed re-mastered version. When Garth is on board, no matter what instrument he’s playing be it organ, piano, synthesizer, accordion or horns one thing is for sure - it’s going to be interesting and that’s exactly what happened on that day. In fact if you strip away the track and just listen to his parts it's really hard to recognize the tune but as soon as you bring the other tracks up it all makes perfect sense. priceless.
My old friend Kerry Kearney is on board on the CD as well as Kane Daily and Jimmy Fleming. All of them played on my last solo CD, The King James Session. Kerry and I also wrote two of the songs together. Writing with Kerry is a pleasure; it just seems so easy whenever he and I sit down. The acoustic version of We Are All One came about when he and I were in the studio recording one of his CDs called Tripping on the Psychedelta. He had a track that needed lyrics and asked me to come up with some. As I was driving home listening to the rough mix I started singing the lyric to a tune I had written earlier on and it seemed to fit so well that I decided to use it on that track. So, on this CD I’ve included the acoustic version as well as the song as I originally heard in my head with a full electric band, this version featuring Melvin Seals. I love both versions.
This CD could not have been made without the help of all the great players - the ones I’ve mentioned above along with Harvey Sorgen and Pete Sears my old buddies from Hot Tuna, Steve Rust, Jon Marshall Smith, Ray Grappone, Peter Bennett, Miss Marie Spinosa, Mike Dunn, David Malachowski, Gary Burke, Chris Matheos, Charlie Wolfe, Eileen Murphy, Frank Celenza, Vicki Bell, Klyph Black and Tommy Circosta.
To all I say thanks……Michael F.
Review Excerpts
Jambands.com 11/11/2008 By
Michael Falzarano has been holding down the fort for a long time. Over the years he’s been the “Bobby” rhythm guitar figure to the “Jerry” lead played by Jorma Kaukonen (Hot Tuna) and David Nelson (New Riders) -– at least as far as the always-there-with-the-rhythm-no-matter-how-crazy-the-jam-gets role...... Past projects (the Memphis Pilgrims and the solo 2005 King James Sessions) have proven Michael’s talent as a bandleader, but his latest release, We Are All One, is the best yet. And although the album features a revolving cast of characters recorded over a long period, it sounds like the result of a bunch of old friends sitting down one evening and going for it with the tape rolling. The album-opening “Why I Love You I Can’t Explain” explodes with all the joy of a late-'80s vintage Jerry Garcia Band show, and there’s good reason for that: give him room, folks, that’s Melvin Seals hisself on the B-3. Big Melvin makes several appearances on We Are All One, including the title track. In typical Falzarano fashion, there’s no heavy message here, but just an attempt to get the people of the world to realize, as the man says, “We are all one – mother, father, sister, brother, daughter, son.” The song gets revisited acoustically later on, featuring some beautiful mandolin by Jimmy Fleming. There was only one Vassar Clements and, luckily, Michael spent some session time with the fiddle master before his passing in 2005. Clements weaves and bobs with Kerry Kearney’s wild-ass guitar on “It’s My Own Fault” and the old Rev. Gary Davis classic “Candy Man”. And Falzarano’s “When There’s Two There’s Trouble” sounds like it was written solely for the purpose of letting the “Father of Hillbilly Jazz” wail. New Riders pal and pedal steel monster Buddy Cage makes several appearances, including the haunting “New Shirt” when the steel takes the lead over a chugging rhythm guitar/bass/drum foundation. “Last Train Out” is to Michael as “Soulshine” is to Warren Haynes-–though we’ve heard it before, it never gets old. This arrangement of Falzarano’s tribute to late Gov't Mule bassist Allen Woody features Professor Louie and The Crowmatrix with the always-amazing Garth Hudson on keyboards.... Even though there’s no one core group of musicians throughout the album, We Are All One is held together by the good Falzarano karma. This is definitely his album, no matter who sits in where -– and, in the end, the man proves his point: given the chance, we are all one.
To read the full review click Reviews
The Grateful Web 10/8/2008 By Sanjay Suchak
The album is potluck of various genres and musical styles. While this can be a risky proposition for many musicians, Falzarano handles this with precision and grace crafting the entire album as a gradual transition from style to style. It’s a method which I think serves his style of songwriting very well... Picking out highlights of this album was a very hard thing to do, not because there were none, but because the whole album was consistently a very listenable one. We’ve all heard albums where there are only a few decent songs and the rest is filler, this is clearly not the case here. The album is a grower; it’s the type of album that each time you listen to it you hear something new that you’ll love.... I’m going to give Michael Falzarano’s album We Are All One four stars out of five, for being an extremely well produced, well written, and exceptionally performed album.
To read the full review click Reviews
Media Matters 10/20/2008 By Eric Alterman
It's interesting, but for me, the real find in this genre is this record by Michael Falzarano, apparently his third one. It's called "We Are All One," and it's on Woodstock records. Twelve of the 14 tracks are his, and there are some of the last known studio recordings of the late fiddle virtuoso Vassar Clements. Falzarano was in Hot Tuna on and off for 20 years, and recently has been touring with the reconstituted New Riders of the Purple Sage. If you like those two bands, this is going to be hard to resist.
DMW News The Waster.com 11/02/2008 By Martin Halo
With his twenty plus year stint in Hot Tuna and now touring with the New Riders of the Purple Sage, Michael Falzarano is hardly a stranger to the American music industry. His melodic vocals drive honest songwriting grace. Now with the release of his third solo effort, We Are All One, on Woodstock Records, Falzarano has found a groove buried in the jam side of outlaw country. “Why I Love You I Can’t Explain” kicks things off in a good times barroom atmosphere with Falzarano’s vocals a mix of Elvis Costello and Bill Payne. A little funk pushes “Sweet Marie”, while bluegrass tells the story of the “Candy Man.” A sensual saxophone leads “It’s Just My Way,” which is a number about doing things to the beat of one’s own drum. Another strong track is that of “When There’s Two There’s Trouble,” with Falzarano’s melody lines a pleasure to the listening ear. It has the hospitality of a little country and a little rock n’ roll. We Are All One is packed with the kind of numbers that will lend to memorable live performances. They are loose, they are packed with musical expression, and lend to a hip shake or two.
To read the full review click Reviews
The Purply Grotto 11/06/2008
Here's a MP3 file of an interview I did with The Purply Grotto. If you don't know about the P.G. website you should check it out
Just click the link below
http://www.purplygrotto.com/html/modules.php?name= News&file=article&sid=189&mode=&order=0&thold=0
The Westword Music News 11/07/2008 By Nick Hitchinson
Michael Falzarano, We Are All One (Woodstock Records). Michael Falzarano blends well with others, as evidenced by this release, which finds him collaborating with Melvin Seals, Jorma Kaukonen, the late Vassar Clements and Garth Hudson. Songs like "Why I Love You I Can't Explain" highlight Falzarano's top-shelf songwriting, gritty guitar and Elvis Costello-like croon, while deeper cuts pile up more gravelly soul
Billboard.com 11/09/2008 By William Ruhlmann, All Music Guide
Rhythm guitarist Michael Falzarano is a member in good standing of the musical communities of Marin County, CA, and Woodstock, NY, which has brought him steady work with some of the better known musicians of those areas, including stints in latter day configurations of Hot Tuna and the New Riders of the Purple Sage. For his solo albums, of which this is the third, he has no trouble getting his friends to sit in. Here, those friends include the late master fiddler Vassar Clements, in some of his final recordings ("It's My Own Fault," "Candy Man," "When There's Two There's Trouble"), Hot Tuna's (and Jefferson Airplane's) Jorma Kaukonen (lead guitar on "It's Just My Way"), Jefferson Starship's Pete Sears (piano on "It's Just My Way"), the New Riders' pedal steel player Buddy Cage ("New Shirt," "When There's Two There's Trouble," "To Let the Fire Die," "Gonna Power Down Now"), and the Band's Garth Hudson (keyboards on "Last Train Out"). The guests provide some of the instrumental highlights of the disc, but they are only icing on the cake. For the most part, Falzarano leads ensembles anchored by Harvey Sorgen or Ray Grappone on drums, Steve Rust or Pete Bennett on bass, Melvin Seals or Jon Marshall Smith on organ, and Jimmy Eppard or Kerry Kearney on lead guitar. His leadership consists of his sturdy songwriting and singing in a countryish, bluesy vein that will be familiar to fans of the Band and the groups of which he's been a member........
To read the full review click Reviews
The Who Did What
Why I Love You I Can’t Explain
Michael Falzarano – Lead Vocals and Rhythm Guitar
Melvin Seals - Hammond Organ
Jimmy Eppard – Lead Guitar and Backup Vocals
Professor Louie – Piano
Steve Rust – Bass
Harvey Sorgen – Drums
Klyph Black and Tom Circosta – Backup Vocals
Sweet Marie
Michael Falzarano – Lead Vocals and Rhythm Guitar
Melvin Seals - Hammond Organ
Jimmy Eppard – Lead Guitar and Backup Vocals
Professor Louie – Piano
Steve Rust – Bass
Harvey Sorgen – Drums
Klyph Black and Tom Circosta – Backup Vocals
It’s My Own Fault
Michael Falzarano – Lead Vocals and Rhythm Guitar
Vassar Clements – Fiddle
Kerry Kearney – Lead Guitar
Peter Bennett – Bass
Ray Grappone – Drums
Klyph Black, Tom Circosta and Jimmy Eppard – Backup Vocals
Candy Man
Michael Falzarano – Lead Vocals and Rhythm Guitar
Vassar Clements – Fiddle
Kerry Kearney – Lead Guitar
Peter Bennett – Bass
Ray Grappone – Drums
Jimmy Eppard – Backup Vocals
We Are All One
Michael Falzarano – Lead Vocals and Rhythm Guitar
Melvin Seals - Hammond Organ
Kane Daily – Slide Guitar
Chris Matheos – Bass
Ray Grappone – Drums
Klyph Black and Tom Circosta – Backup Vocals
It’s Just My Way
Michael Falzarano – Lead Vocals and Rhythm Guitar
Jorma Kaukonen – Lead Guitar
Jimmy Eppard – Guitar and Backup Vocals
Pete Sears – Piano
Steve Rust – Bass
Harvey Sorgen – Drums
Dave Castiglione – Saxophone
How Long Blues
Michael Falzarano – Lead Vocals and Rhythm Guitar
Melvin Seals - Hammond Organ
Jimmy Eppard – Lead Guitar and Backup Vocals
Professor Louie – Piano
Steve Rust – Bass
Harvey Sorgen – Drums
New Shirt
Michael Falzarano – Lead Vocals and Rhythm Guitar
Buddy Cage - Pedal Steel
Kylph Black – Bass
Ray Grappone – Drums
When There’s Two There’s Trouble
Michael Falzarano – Lead Vocals and Rhythm Guitar
Vassar Clements – Fiddle
Buddy Cage - Pedal Steel
Kerry Kearney – Lead Guitar
Jon Marshall Smith – Farfisa Organ
Peter Bennett – Bass
Ray Grappone – Drums
Professor Louie and Miss Marie – Backup Vocals
Crazy Days
Michael Falzarano – Lead Vocals and Rhythm Guitar
Jon Marshall Smith – Farfisa Organ
Jimmy Eppard – Lead Guitar and Backup Vocals
Professor Louie – Piano
Steve Rust – Bass
Harvey Sorgen – Drums
To Let The Fire Die
Michael Falzarano – Lead Vocals and Rhythm Guitar
Buddy Cage - Pedal Steel
Jimmy Fleming – Mandolin
Kerry Kearney – Guitar
Charlie Wolfe – Harmonica
Frank Celenza - Bass
Eileen Murphy - Drums
We Are All One (Acoustic)
Michael Falzarano – Lead Vocals and Rhythm Guitar
Jimmy Fleming – Mandolin
Kerry Kearney – Guitar and Backup Vocals
Charlie Wolfe – Harmonica
Frank Celenza - Bass
Eileen Murphy – Drums
Vicki Bell – Backup Vocals
Last Train Out
Michael Falzarano – Lead Vocals, Lead and Rhythm Guitar
Garth Hudson – Keyboards
Professor Louie – Accordion
David Malachowski - Guitar
Mike Dunn – Bass
Gary Burke – Drums
Gonna Power Down Now
Michael Falzarano - Guitar
Buddy Cage – Pedal Steel
Jimmy Eppard –Guitar
Professor Louie – Fender Rhodes
Steve Rust – Bass
Harvey Sorgen – Drums
All songs written by Michael Falzarano
Except tracks 4 (Reverend Gary Davis), 7 (Leroy Carr),
11 and 12 (Falzarano / Kearney)
All songs Lawdy Miss Clawdy Publishing (BMI)
Except tracks 4, 7, 11 and 12
Tracks 1, 2, 7, 10 and 13 recorded by Professor Louie at LRS Recording
Tracks 3, 4, 5, 8, 9, 11 and 12 recorded by Vicki Bell at Hipbone Studios
Track 6 recorded by Dave Cook at Dreamland Studios
and Track 14 recorded by Mike Birnbaum at Applehead Studios
Mixed by Michael Falzarano and Jon Marshall Smith
Produced by Michael Falzarano
1275 Hurly Mt. Rd.
Hurly, NY 12443
This page in under construction so more info to follow soon