Coast to Coast Diving
I’m beginning to see a trend in my travels as I discover one cool dive bar after another… It’s not the boozing— I’m not much of a drinker anymore— it’s the gestalt of the dive. The right kind of dive. The real, and the surreal. Some bars try to be dive bars and they’re not. You can always tell. They have the accoutrements of dive bars- the cool barback, the wooden tables and chairs, maybe a tin ceiling— but they lack the authenticity. The deep, unexplainable intangible vibe of 100,000 drinks at the bar by crazy, cool, lonely, beautiful, offbeat loners, losers, lovers, writers, ravers, would-be politicians, traveling salesmen, and artists. And the crazed, first-thing-in-the-morning, dyed-in-the-wool alcoholics. These characters are the most important. Each scratch on the floor, the bar, the doors- evidence the presence of the holy.
Some dive bars are new. They might not be scrappy. They are imbued with cool. You can’t buy cool. Cool exists on its own. It’s a state of mind with a life of its own. It’s never about one thing or the other. You can have cool music but an uncool dive bar. Actually, it’s not a dive bar at all if it isn’t cool. I’ve played in a number of bars that want to be dive bars but they’re not— because they’re not cool— no matter how hard they try. The ethos matters. If the ethos is cool and the patrons relate to the ethos, you have a dive bar in the making. Some dives start out cool but wind up being uncool and filled with wankers. I’ve never seen it work the other way around. Let me know if you have.
Which brings me to Snake and Jake’s Christmas Club Lounge in New Orleans (pictured above), my most recent dive bar discovery. Long on the cool map, I found Snake and Jake’s by accident, which is the best way to find a dive bar. I knew it would be cool because the guy I was with was cool— a top-flight musician with a long history of cool. What I wasn’t expecting was to learn that his brother owned the bar. Now THAT was cool. Owner Dave Clements was fixing the roof when we arrived in the dark on a Wednesday night; A classic New Orleans scenario. The two brothers got right into it, sharing stories of mutual acquaintances (among all of us) and their travels in England with Joe Clay (Dave is a bass player). My son was duly impressed when I reported I had been there, him having lived in NoLa for 10+ years and yet to visit the legendary dive. Another step in my New Orleans indoctrination. and my list of historic dive bars. I can’t wait to go back.
Speaking of dive bars, the van Gogh Brothers returned to Vincent’s Worcester, the coolest dive east of the Mississippi, on September 9th, for our first show since April (!!!) Jamie Walker sat in for a song and blew the roof off and we all felt like we got our sea legs back at long last. It was a wonderful welcome back for Brother Paul wo spent the summer dealing with health issues which seem to be stable for now. We look forward to returning to Vincent’s again on Saturday, October 14th, to continue our lifetime residency. In the meantime, I’m slowly piecing a band together in New Orleans for the off weeks.
I spent some of my September time at Woolly Mammoth with David Minehan, tracking overdubs and mixing Sinner Girl, which now boasts Hammond organ, thanks to our beloved pal and former bandmate, Mark Zamcheck. The track is fire, and begging for a rap overdub and a mash-up, a la Walk this Way by Aerosmith and Rum-DMC. I’ve asked a young rapper in NoLa to take a stab at the vocal and we’ll see what we come up with. I’m very excited about the track and the rap/mash-up concept. Od pal Anthony Resta has signed on to produce. Exciting!
Back on the home front Donna and I have been planning some trips away from the Farm and Summer House both near and far. Scotland is booked for the spring. I’m happily splitting time in Boston near my daughter, and in New Orleans near my son, with Summer House in Marshfield near Donna and the Farm. My west coast life seems to be on hold for the moment, and, coincidentally, my LA-based publisher is opening an office in New Orleans, which has given me more access at a critical time as we work through album #17 and future recording slows to accommodate our personal lives. Life has come to a comfortable cadence, though my restless spirit is always bubbling under.
We hope to see you at Vincent’s Worcester on October 14th. The coming months might include more interruptions for the live shows so if you’ve been waiting to come see us at this most fabulous of dive bars, now is the time.
UNtil then…
Love,
JC