Marcus Eaton

Best Band: Marcus Eaton and The Lobby

Dedicated, gifted, and willing to play anywhere, Eaton kept improving his odds as Boise's next breakout musician. The band opened for the Young Dubliners on New Year's Eve, where it was fun seeing first-time listeners going, 'Who the hell is this kid?' Eaton's major-label debut, 'The Day the World Awoke,' arrives this month. - Michael Deeds

'STORY OF NOW'

The Idaho Statesman | Edition Date: 04-28-2006

Marcus Eaton
3 1/2 stars our of 4

Marcus Eaton is ambitious in a way more musicians ought to be.

He spent 40 days laying down tracks at The Tonic Room in Boise. Drummers flew in from out of state. A vocals coach coaxed his singing to new heights. Eaton experimented with exotic instruments. Eventually, a Grammy-nominated engineer mastered the songs.

The gorgeous-sounding result — which Eaton is pre-selling at his Web site prior to larger distribution — solidifies this 26-year-old as a singer, songwriter and guitarist to be reckoned with on a national scale.

Eaton's third album begs for high-end speakers. Or, at least, $100 headphones. Intricate acoustic guitar melodies, hip-pocket bass and subtle percussion enrich the sonics. Waves of electric guitar balance the strum of cathartic opening track "Candle to the Sun." Sitar blossoms on multiple songs, lushly permeating the textured love ballad "Four Seasons Turn to Rain."

Backed by crack musicians including Garrett Sayers (bass, The Motet), Derico Watson (drums, Victor Wooten Band) and Kyle Aho (piano), Eaton blissfully annihilates anything he did with his former band, The Lobby. This music will appeal to fans of Dave Matthews, Howie Day or John Mayer. But compared with those musicians, Eaton is unapologetically challenging. Most songs are five minutes or longer. Bone-snapping time signatures are the norm; verses of Latin-influenced "Burn It Down" are performed in 13/8.

There is no obvious, lightweight radio single. Yet "Disposable" is anything but: It's a Police-like rocker with a chorus that lingers and lyrics that cut. ("Throw your words around as if they were weapons/Look out, one of them may ricochet!" Eaton vents with a silky snarl.) Comparing Eaton to Sting may seem like a stretch. But Eaton possesses a similarly smooth, open-armed quality. He transforms math-rock into approachable adult pop.

"Standing Still" glides like Seal's transcendent moments. It displays Eaton's multiple guitar personalities, as well as his vocal development. An increasingly commanding singer, Eaton showcases a soulful falsetto on the love-addicted funk track "Drug." Romance and relationships are common themes, but Eaton also tackles politics: "With a leader who cannot lead/Take control of yourselves/That's when you'll succeed," he sings on the title track, which dissipates into a psychedelic guitar coda.

Eaton's intensity can become exhausting. Dude is heavy. By the time you reach the seven-minute finale, "End This War," you're craving a bit of pop fluff to rest your head on. But realize that "Story of Now" is a subplot in Eaton's career — an early subplot. With a self-produced gem like this to build upon, future Eaton chapters could border on master works.

- Michael Deeds - Idaho Statesman

The word “acoustic” frequently conjures up images of stoic folk strumming, but a new crop of players are aiming to redefine the instrument. We speak with Marcus Eaton about his eclectic brand of acoustic pop and where it’s going.



Marcus Eaton plays the acoustic, but not like you might expect. He rapidly shifts between frantic fingerpicking and strumming, clean acoustic sounds and swirling, looped effects. His music fits firmly in the post-modern musical relativism that has become the norm among a new generation of musicians – viewing genre distinctions not as absolutes but as starting points – ushered in by a vanguard of established players like Dave Matthews and Michael Franti. That unique outlook on music has led Marcus Eaton to where he is today, mixing seemingly disparate sounds – rock, pop, reggae, jazz, flamenco and folk – into a cohesive whole on his latest full-length release, Story of Now. But it would be a mistake to assume that Marcus has developed his eclectic musical tastes solely from listening to his peers. He has been surrounded with music as long as he can remember, growing up the son of songwriter Steve Eaton and the grandson of opera singers. That upbringing has given him the tools for success in the world of independent music, the most important being a sense of tenacity. Despite the dissolution of his early band, Marcus Eaton and the Lobby, and a series of management problems, Marcus has been consistently able to turn setbacks into gigs. At the relatively young age of 28, he’s already had the chance to share the stage with artists like Dr. John, Rodrigo y Gabriela, Derek Trucks and Nils Lofgren.

We had a chance to speak with Marcus following a series of shows on the East Coast, including a stop at Philadelphia’s World Café Live venue. What was your first experience with music?

My first experience with music was with my dad; he was a musician. I grew up in a rural section of Idaho, a town called Pocatello in the Eastern part of the state. My dad had a studio and my brother and I used to hang around there. He had all of the instruments down there – a bass, a nice Fender Strat, his acoustic guitar and an upright piano. We used to hang out downstairs and listen to him record.


Is that what he did for a living?

Yeah, he was a songwriter. He wrote one of the last hit songs the Carpenters had, a love song called “All You Get From Love is a Love Song.” He also wrote a song for Art Garfunkel on his Breakaway album [“Rag Doll”], and Glen Campbell recorded the same song.


Northern Exposure So music and the songwriting were literally in your blood.

Definitely. His parents were opera singers, so we had a lot of music in the family. Our grandmother used to teach us piano lessons – I wish that I had paid a little more attention to that, but I was really more interested in playing the guitar.


When did the guitar take for you?

I first took interest in it when I was about eight years old. I was playing my dad’s guitar, which was this old Guild F40, a really interesting guitar – it’s kind of like a minijumbo. That guitar has been around since before I can remember. I started playing with that but it was way too big for me to hold, so my parents got me this little tiny student model for Christmas – I think it was a nylon string, and I was just so enamored with it. That’s been the story ever since, really.


As you were growing as a musician, who influenced you?

Well, obviously my dad was one of my first influences. He played a lot of different types of music, but it was all rhythmically based stuff. He was really a percussive guitarist. But we grew up in this tiny little town, and he had a lot of friends come through the studio. These guys would come through and I would just learn stuff from them.


Are there any names you could drop?

When I got a little older, this guy named Billy McLaughlin came through town – he was a protégé of Michael Hedges. I saw him play and I was just blown away – he was doing two-handed tapping and I remember thinking it was the coolest thing I had ever seen. I was already playing at a decent level, in terms of my age, and I just started pursuing that kind of guitar playing at that point; that still influences my playing.


Listening to your playing, you notice a uniquely modern style that floats between lead and rhythm – it’s very fluid. Did watching all of those different players help mold your technique?

I think it’s just an amalgamation, the result of listening to all kinds of stuff – at that point, I was listening to Billy McLaughlin and starting to get into flamenco guitar. You know how it is as a musician – if you really pay attention to what people are doing, you’ll pick things up here and there. Luckily I was able to see a lot of my dad’s friends play and see the stuff they were doing. And as a young player, I just started putting two and two together.

I was also influenced, without really even knowing it, by Stevie Ray Vaughan’s Brotherhood album. I listened to that for a long time and then rediscovered it later.


What about his playing influenced you as an acoustic player?

His rhythm playing – I mean, you just can’t argue with his rhythm playing. A lot of people think of Stevie Ray Vaughan as a great lead player, but for me, his rhythm is what takes the cake. And then when I was about 14, I got turned onto the Dave Matthews Band, and again, that rhythm just really intrigued me. It was something I was hitting upon with my own playing at the time.

I was listening to Dave Matthews and I really paid attention to the guitar parts. I eventually realized that Tim Reynolds played a lot of the guitar parts on his albums. He is this incredible guitarist that I’ve since had the chance to play and tour with.


So how did you get a chance to play with him?

I went down to Utah when I was 20 with my girlfriend at the time to see a Tim Reynolds show. But I couldn’t get into the show because I wasn’t of drinking age – if you’ve ever been to Utah, you’ll know the drinking laws are a little draconian. So I was standing outside and saw Tim get out of his bus with his road crew. This one guy in particular got out of the car and I thought, “This guy is from a different planet.” We’re good friends now, so we can laugh about it, but his name was Fluffy.


Northern Exposure
Kevin Rogers, Marcus, James Monson
His real name?

Yeah, and he’s got these purple camo pants and gold and silver bracelets covering his entire right arm. He had hair down to his butt, tied back and a beard. And then Tim got out, and he is like five feet tall, a little guy, and I was thinking, “Holy shit, these guys just stepped off Mars.”

So I talk to Fluffy, because I’m thinking he might have some pull. He tried really, really hard, but still couldn’t get me into the show. So I got his information and said, “I’m a musician and I’d like to send you some of my stuff.” Long story short, we just kept in touch over the next couple of years. By 2003, my band, Marcus Eaton and the Lobby was taking off, and we had been touring the Northwest. Tim was coming through Boise, Idaho and we got on the show as the opener. We’ve done a lot of touring together since then – I believe we’ve played 26 different places with Tim over the past two years.


What have you been able to pick up from watching Tim play?

He’s just one of those people that can do anything. He’s so fluid, and what inspires me about his playing is that he can get up and there’s no question about what he’s doing. I don’t know if that makes sense, but sometimes guitarists can get frazzled by bad monitors or the crowd or their sound, if it’s not right. You would never know that with Tim – he just gets up there and plays.


It’s probably an oversimplification, but Dave Matthews and Tim Reynolds both fall under that jam band umbrella. Do you like that kind of association? How do you relate to it as a musician?

I relate to it in terms of musicianship. I think that Dave Matthews and all of these guys are really unique musicians because they’re inspired by so many different types of music and they’re able to incorporate that into their own sound. Being around my dad and listening to all of these different types of music has shown me that you can mix various styles and still have it be your own. So I relate to the jam bands in terms of the music, but I kind of shy away from jamming for too long.

I have a three piece and for the past three years I’ve just been doing looping. The looping really helps me lock my song ideas down because I have to stick with certain things. I have to stick to rhythm and cover all of the different parts by myself. So that’s helped me to not be too self-indulgent, you know? As long as it’s musical I’m down with it – as long as the song is going somewhere. Once you start getting out into the 20-minute range, it starts losing some of that excitement.


Your blending of various genres and sounds really comes through in your latest release, Story of Now. It’s a very ambitious album, and I’m wondering how you approached writing it. How do you boil things down when there are so many sounds to choose from?

The song choice was fairly difficult because I have a lot of material. I think it stems from when I was working with the Lobby, because I was having a great time, in terms of writing.

One of my main influences is Victor Wooten. One of the first tours I got to do with my band was with Victor for three dates. We just got to watch his show – it was incredible and anyone who’s met Victor will tell you that he’s the nicest guy on the planet. That was a really inspirational time and I was writing a lot. Having those kinds of experiences with those types of music really makes you push yourself and become more ambitious.


It definitely shows in the tracks. For example, “Standing Still” has this kind of tripping, rhythmic intro – it’s not necessarily something you’d expect to hear on an acoustic album. Can you tell us about how that song came about?

“Standing Still” is based around a drum loop, something I came up with after my brother turned me onto Reason. It’s based on these cool delay patterns – dotted quarters – and, like you said, it’s supposed to sound trippy.


I think a lot of players might be afraid of mixing two distinct sounds like a rhythmic drum loop and an acoustic. What do those loops do for you?

You know, I think it just adds something – it’s cool to have two different elements like that. I like to have an electronic element coupled with something really organic, like my acoustic. It makes for a cool juxtaposition and an interesting sound. The delay parts are really what make the song take off, and you’ve got a really transcendent wah part in there, too.


If my research serves me correctly, Story of Now has really been an independent effort on your part – there’s no label behind it?

There’s no label behind it. It’s all been an independent process. I had a label deal before but it just didn’t work out.


Why was that?

Well, the long and short of it was that [Marcus Eaton and the Lobby] got signed, and we released an album and nothing ever happened with it. There was no push behind it, it wasn’t advertised well, and it never made it onto the radio.


Was that album The Day the World Awoke?

Yeah. And that was really difficult for us, because not only did we have really high hopes for it, but we also really lacked the team and the firepower to keep the momentum going. And that’s really what it takes. You’ve gotta get that momentum happening and you’ve got to hit it on every front. We just really didn’t have the right management; they could have guided us a lot better. Now I don’t even have access to that album.

You know, I loved those songs. We approached that album from a jam band perspective and got a lot of comparisons to Dave Matthews Band. But we just weren’t developed enough into our own thing to take off anyway, so I’m actually happy how it worked out, because it allowed me to develop my own sound. I just wasn’t a good enough musician at the time to understand what I wanted.


Northern Exposure
When exactly did Marcus Eaton and the Lobby come together?

We started playing in 2001 and at the time there was quite the local scene in Boise – we were pulling 1000 people at every show we did. It’s remarkable to look back at that, because that’s tough to do. You gotta be doing some serious stuff to do that – you really have to hit at the right time too, because when people are ready for something, they’re ready.

So we recorded an independent album and got signed in 2002. The president of the label wanted to release this independent album we had done, but we wanted to re-record it because the quality wasn't there -- we had recorded it locally. So they agreed and we went down to L.A. to record, and our very first major label recording experience was that our master tapes got stolen by our manager. We had two managers and they had a falling out right in the middle of the week-long recording process. One of the guys said, "Well, I'm taking the master tapes with me." We paid him the $2700 we owed him, but he wouldn't give the master tapes back. So, we had to re-record the album again and that was our very first experience in the wonderful world of the music business. But we worked our asses off on that, and after the band released the album, we had an amazing run of shows. We opened for Bob Dylan.


That’s a big gig – what was it like?

We opened for him to a crowd of 5,000, but the funny thing was that we had no interaction with him or anyone in his band. I remember that we showed up for soundcheck and I went over to this road guy and said, “Hey man, do you know where I can plug my pedalboard in?” And he replied, “No, I don’t fucking know where you can plug your shit in! Why don’t you ask the stage manager?” And that was, again, my first taste of the big time.

We played a really great show and everyone enjoyed it. But when we got off stage, they were like, “Okay, guys, put your stuff down! Put everything down!” So we put it down, of course, and they said, “We’ve got an artist coming out. Just stay right there! Don’t move!”


It’s like the president walking through.

Yeah, and here comes Bob walking out. As soon as he was on stage they were like, “Okay, you can finish loading up your gear now.” It’s apparently very serious stuff [laughs].


So what eventually happened to the Lobby?

Well, we kept revisiting the same areas a lot and eventually the band just got burned out. I think some of the members lost faith in the project – that sense of, “Why aren’t we rock stars yet?” It takes a lot of hard work and I think people can become really disillusioned once they’re “signed.” That was in early 2004; shortly after I started doing my solo thing.


Is life as a solo independent musician tough?

Yeah, it’s difficult, but now I feel really confident; I feel like we have a really great team. It’s slow going of course, but I think I’m doing really well. I mean, I look at other musicians who are signed, people who have had lots of radio play, and they’re struggling too. So there’s no one thing that can propel you into super-stardom – that’s not even what I’m looking for. I’m just looking to be successful with my music and to play for as many people on a nightly basis as possible. You have to keep pushing forward and be really creative in marketing yourself.


Hasn’t the internet changed the equation for independent musicians anyway? You can connect with fans anywhere. How has it changed your approach to things?

It’s great because it gives me capabilities we should have had back in the day. In 2001-2002, the internet really started cooking; MySpace was still in its formative stages. The truth is that we could have really kept in contact with the fans much better – that’s really what we needed to do back in the beginning. People were just starting to come up with their own email addresses – it sounds funny to say now, but it’s true. People were just starting to say things like, “It’s such and such at hotmail.com.” Now you’re crazy if you don’t have a computer and the internet 24 hours a day.

So it’s great for keeping in touch with fans, but it’s not a cure-all. You’ve got to get back to their region often enough, you really have to make the fans a priority, you have to get in touch, you’ve got to be in the right places at the right times. You’ve got to have a team behind you and that’s what we’re working on.


Could you tell us about some of the guitars you’ve been using lately?

One is the Veillette 12-string baritone, which I discovered while I was playing with Tim Reynolds. I was looking for a 12-string but I wanted something different, with different tonal options. At first I thought I would just transpose songs onto it, but once I started playing it, it sounded so different and ethereal that it inspired me in a completely different way. I use it mostly with the band – you can hear it on tracks like “Disposable.”


What other acoustics are you slinging?

I’m using Baden Guitars, mostly their Astyle. I use a number of different wood combinations – the mahogany model for recording, the rosewood for solo stuff and their maple model for band gigs.


Northern Exposure What do you like about those?

I really like the intonation on the Badens, plus they have a great cutaway, which is essential for me. They also have the new Eclipse Aura pickup from Fishman. They’re so powerful and they do a great job of driving my effects. Most acoustic guitarists are using electric effects, after all, and the Fishman system just gives your signal a little more power.


I would guess that you’re probably pushing your signal through more effects than the average acoustic player. What kinds of pedals are in your rig?

Right now I have the Boss Loop Station, the RC-20. I use a Line 6 Echo Park Delay, which has some really great sounds. I have an old DD5 Digital Delay from Boss, as well as their Pitch Shifter, which I use for doing bass loops when I’m playing solo. I also have a custom switching box, which is a stereo A/B switch that enables me to send my loops in stereo back to the soundman – once he has them, he can turn it up or down and effect it, which is really cool. At the end of my effects loop I use Radial direct boxes. Having high quality direct boxes at the end of the chain helps keep the EQ the way that I like it.

I also have a volume pedal on my board at all times. I’ve been experimenting with different brands, as they keep getting messed up, in terms of the volume pots. Most recently I’ve been using a Goodrich, which is actually designed for pedal steel. I’ve also used models from Ernie Ball and Boss – the Boss pedal is actually really nice because it’s tiny and it’s light, and I’ve been flying everywhere lately. The last pedal in my rig is a Tech 21 Killer Wail wah. They’re not making them anymore, but they’re badass for acoustic.


What makes it perfect for the acoustic?

The pedal has three settings – high, extended and deep. The high setting moves the wah to the high-end; it’s almost like a funky envelope filter. The deep setting, which is actually a low-pass filter, works well with the acoustic, because it picks up and tracks things a lot better.

I should also mention that I’ve been doing a bit of beta testing for Fishman’s acoustic effects, like the AFX line. It’s very cool stuff – I got to help tweak the pedals, which was really fun, and I’ve been using the AFX Delay live. The delay in particular is awesome because you can actually loop on it. If you have it running right, you can tap in your tempo and run loops in stereo.

What’s great is that there is so much stuff you can do by combining effects – dotted quarter delays and things like that. It’s actually becoming a lot of work for me. I’m going to have to get some sort of system worked out where I can memorize my delay settings, just to keep things moving along when I’m in-between songs with the band.


We’ve been touching on looping a lot throughout this interview, and you’ve mentioned that you have the Boss Loop Station on your board. How did you first discover the technique and what does it enable you to do?

When the Boss pedal first came out, I attended this tiny clinic with Victor Wooten. I saw Victor loop something and I had always, even in my first band in high school, wished for an easy way to record myself and play over the top. Lo and behold, someone obviously thought of that long before I did. When it came out, I just had to have it. At first it became the best practice tool on the planet, because instead of having to play with somebody else, you could lay down chords and figure out how you were going to approach your solos. It gives you a huge advantage as a musician, just in terms of being able to practice effectively. So that was really my first exposure to the idea.

When the Lobby was playing, I would lay down rhythm parts because my rhythm is so strong most of the time and my guitar is EQ’ed pretty powerfully, so if I drop out of a song it’s pretty noticeable. I used it at first to create more of a rhythmic feel, like there was a fourth musician in the band. When I started doing the solo thing I began looping all sorts of stuff, like percussion parts on the guitar – hitting the pickup and using the guitar as a percussive instrument. I learned some bass techniques from Victor Wooten that almost sound like drum and bass stuff.


Can you explain those “powerful EQ” settings further?

Generally speaking, in acoustics a lot of the power lies in the midrange, but that’s also the frequency range that’s most likely to feedback at high volumes. 99 percent of the time I’m not playing with an amplifier – I usually run direct into the board – and when you add delay to an acoustic guitar, that also tends to create feedback.

So I usually hand the power over to my soundman and he EQs a lot of the lowend and midrange. We don’t EQ anything out – we actually add, if anything. We accentuate the midrange because, rhythmically, that’s where it really pops. And that’s why I’m playing the acoustic.

Sometimes I hear people mixing acoustic guitars with a lot of high-end, so you can hear the slap of the pick against the strings, but that’s really all you can hear. I use really big chords, as many notes as I can and lots of stereo effects, so it’s important that you can hear everything. That’s why we tend to accentuate with EQ instead of take away.


Northern Exposure Do you own any other acoustics? Are there any specific guitars you would love to get your hands on?

Oh, I would love to have a Martin dreadnought. I have a Taylor that I played for years that has become a really great guitar. I played it so much that I had to have it refretted, and I only bought it in 1999. I had a Guild Peregrine for a while, and I’m also starting to get back into the electric.


Are we going to be reading about Marcus Eaton’s switch to the electric anytime soon? You did have a fleeting encounter with Bob Dylan, after all.

I love the acoustic – I love it for its percussive qualities. I mean, the electric is a blast, it’s a lot of fun to play, but they’re about different things. With the acoustic you’re always pushing the rhythm and telling the song where to go. Electric guitar is all about sustain; you can kind of lay back and just hit a chord here and there and let it sustain.


Do you play with a pick or more of a fingerstyle technique?

I kind of float between both, actually. I change my techniques all of the time. A lot of the time I’m holding the pick with my right hand between my pinky and my ring finger. So I’ll be playing with three fingers, and then I’m able to grab the pick. A lot of times I’m holding it in my mouth when I’m doing the Latin stuff, when I’m playing on my fingertips – it’s back and forth a lot. The 12-string baritone is almost all fingerstyle; there are so many strings on there that if you play with a pick you get lost.


What’s in the future for you?

Really just getting my music to more people and improving upon it. I want to learn from other musicians and guitarists – guys like Pat Metheny, John Scofield, Victor Wooten and Béla Fleck. And I’m not locked into guitarists either; there are so many drummers and pianists I’d love to work with, because they’re all inspirational in different ways. So, really, what’s next is just pushing this as far as it can possibly go.


Marcus’ Gearbox
When Marcus plugs in, here’s what he’s looping on.

Guitars
Baden Guitars a-style acoustics
Veillette 12-string baritone
solidbody acoustic
Taylor 514ce Effects
Boss RC-20 Loop Station
Boss DD-5 Digital Delay
Boss PS-5 Pitch Shifter
Line 6 Echo Park Delay
Fishman AFX Delay
Tech 21 Killer Wail Wah
Custom switching box
Goodrich Model 120
Volume Pedal
Radial direct boxes

Marcus Eaton
marcuseaton.com
- Premier Guitar Magazine

Michael Deeds
The Idaho Statesman | Edition Date: 07-01-2005

Barricaded inside a Boise recording studio, Marcus Eaton is making the most ambitious music of his life.

"I'm extremely excited about this album," says Eaton, pausing between takes at The Tonic Room, 1509 S. Robert St. "We've been working, like, every day from 11 (a.m.) until probably 1 (a.m.) — that's average. That's what needs to be done. There's all sorts of work to be done."

If Eaton sounds business-like, it's because he is. During the past year, this driven 25-year-old has restarted his career: He dissolved his band, The Lobby; acquired a new Connecticut-based manager; and most importantly, acquired a private investor to fund this still untitled project.
Eaton recorded his last CD, "The Day the World Awoke," in a week in a Burbank, Calif., studio. Eaton has taken over the Tonic Room since May 26, singing and playing guitar on songs that will contain as many as 60 tracks apiece, he says.

"This has been the most time-consuming, most complex, but also the most rewarding and the best stuff I've ever put down on record," Eaton says. "Everything's been very well thought-through."
An exceptionally precise musician, Eaton hired gifted session players to complete the album's vibrant, full sound. When a Vermont-based drummer didn't meet Eaton's expectations, he sent him back and flew in Nashville-based Derico Watson, known for his deadly funky work with the Victor Wooten Band.

Eaton's voice fills with pride when he talks about using bassist Garrett Sayers of The Motet. "Garrett's incredible," Eaton says. "I mean, all of these guys are amazing musicians."

Eaton hopes to have Sting guitarist Dominic Miller play on his song "Burn it Down."
Of course, chops are nothing without alluring songs. Eaton says that his song writing — pulling from rock, jazz and Latin influences — has risen to a new peak.

Tonic Room co-owner and engineer Jason Ringelstetter agrees: "I think Marcus' life is going to be changing dramatically real soon," he predicts.
Recording should be finished in a week, Eaton says. That's when mixing begins.

"We have — and this is the coolest part of the puzzle — we have a guy coming in named Brandon Mason, a mixer-producer-engineer based out of Madison, Wis.," Eaton says. Mason works with artists such as Joan Baez and David Bowie.

He hasn't decided whether he will release the CD through a record label: "I honestly think we'll have our pickin's of opportunities," he says.
CDs should be pressed and ready for Eaton to sell when he tours in September with virtuoso guitarist Tim Reynolds.

Only time will tell whether the world is ready to awaken to Eaton's most sophisticated recording to date.
"It's going to be a huge breakthrough for me," Eaton says. "I think when people have heard our albums in the past, they've really appreciated the song writing. To me, in my mind, that's what's really important about this — that the songs are all good."
- The Idaho Statesman

Story of Now

The music world is rife with “one-album wonders” -- performers and bands
who release one brilliant recording and then are not heard from again, either
because the band broke up or because they were dropped by their record label.
This sort of thing happens a lot more these days, since most of the major labels
will drop an artist from their roster if they don’t sell hundreds of thousands of
copies of their first album almost immediately, and that’s a shame. But at the
same time, the ease with which independent recordings can be made and sold
by means of the Internet, means that losing one’s label contract does not mean
the end of making records.
But even with that possibility, almost every serious music fan has his or her
own favorite one or two album wonders, who have largely disappeared from
the recording scene.
In 2003, I reviewed for this series a recording by a superb, musically
sophisticated acoustic rock band from Idaho called Marcus Eaton and the
Lobby. I was beginning to think this was going to be one of those flashes in the
pan. Fortunately, now four years later, Marcus Eaton is back with a new CD,
minus the Lobby, but with musical quality even higher. Eaton’s solo recording is
called Story of Now.
Marcus Eaton grew up in Pocatello, Idaho. The son of a guitarist and songwriter,
he naturally gravitated toward music, taking up guitar at age nine. He formed
a band called E.S.P. with a drummer named Nate Keezer in high school in
1996. Eaton continued playing in bands while attending Idaho State University
in Boise. The band which came to be known as the Lobby also featured a
prominent sax, and was initially a kind of jam band, who did what they did out of
necessity: without a great number of compositions to play, they jammed on each
one for a long time. They released a couple of independent CDs before issuing
The Day the World Awoke, which spotlighted the band’s creative, musically
complex compositions, almost all by Eaton, along with Eaton’s pleasing tenor
voice and impressive acoustic guitar work, which could sometimes hint at Latin
American and flamenco styles.
Now, four years later, the Lobby has apparently gone their separate ways,
and the 26-year-old Eaton spent some 40 days in the studio in Boise to bring
to realization his new songs. Derico Watson, who plays in Flecktone Victor
Wooten’s band was brought in to play drums on some tracks, while Troy
Sereduk plays on three other pieces. Garrett Sayers is heard on bass, and
Kyle Aho is featured on piano. While the sonic emphasis of Eaton’s music
remains acoustic, he does play some electric guitar and there are some tracks
that include the electronic rhythms of contemporary pop music, but the result
is anything but conventional. I suppose that if you wanted one of those glib
rock-critic capsule catch-phrases, one could call this “acoustic art rock singer-
Eaton’s lyrics are intelligent and generally optimistic, though they do largely
center around the perennial subject of love and its permeations. Musically,
Eaton’s writing is intricate and sophisticated, yet very appealing, despite the
majority of the tracks being in unconventional meters, with five, seven and
even 13-beat rhythms. Eaton is one of a relative few who, like Sting, who can
create music that is this complex and yet make it sound easy and natural.
Before recording the album, Eaton also spent some time with a vocal coach,
and his already appealing vocals are stronger than before, an airy tenor who
can impart a good deal of energy when he wants to.
While Eaton’s vocals and guitar dominated the sound of the Lobby band, this
CD lacks the sax and flute that were prominent in that group. It’s mainly Eaton
himself this time on the various guitars that are the basis of the sound. Some
tracks run toward the more acoustic and with lighter or absent drums, while
others can rock out.
Leading off is one of the rockers, Candle to the Sun. It’s one of Eaton’s generally
optimistic love songs. The piece is typical of his almost art-rock composing style
with complex shifts of meter and effective use of dynamics with the contrast
between acoustic and electric sections.
On the Lobby album Eaton showed some reggae influence, and on the title
track of this CD Story of Now, a hint of reggae figures into the elaborate
arrangement. It’s another appealing and quite musically interesting piece.
Four years ago on the Lobby album, one of the more interesting influences that
turned up was Latin American rhythms, and even Spanish-style guitar. Story of
Now also draws on that source on the track Victims of What Is Available, which
also features some oblique social commentary. The piece is one of the highlights
of a uniformly outstanding album Eaton’s tendency toward rhythmic complexity
is evident on several tracks. In fact there is very little in a conventional rock
or folk meter on Story of Now. A song called Drug, which compares love to
chemical addiction, rocks along in seven without sounding too abstruse.
As mentioned, Sting is also known for creating songs in unconventional
rhythms. Eaton’s song Disposable shows some definite influence from Sting’s
old band The Police.
Somewhat more laid-back in sound, with more of a singer-songwriter style is
Road to Home. Lyrically, Eaton continues his optimistic direction. Another of
the album’s most impressive tracks is Burn It Down, which features mainly just
Eaton’s acoustic guitars accompanying his words of lost love. He again draws
on Latin influence, but in a rather un-Latin-like 13-beat meter on the verses.
Also quite appealing, though with a somewhat less rosy outlook, is Four
Seasons Turn to Rain. Eaton features a little sitar on the track, as he does from
time to time elsewhere on the CD.
On Story of Now, Marcus Eaton, a still quite young Idahoan, has created a
really outstanding album that surpasses the excellent recording by his band The
Lobby four years ago. He creates music that is outwardly appealing, but is full
of classy, high-level musical ingredients that would likely endear this recording
to art rock and even jazz fans, with his rhythmic and harmonic sophistication.
And this CD could also come across as a singer-songwriter recording with its
often acoustic sound and thoughtful lyrics. It has been a long time since the
Eaton’s last recording, and once he started, he spent a long time making this
CD. But his labor definitely paid off, with every track on the CD having a lot to
offer.
Sonically, we’ll give the CD a grade “A.” The mix is first-rate, skillfully blending
the acoustic and the electric, Eaton’s vocal is generally well-recorded, and the
dynamic range of the recording, which was a problem on the last CD by the
Lobby, is much improved, allowing the volume to be soft when the music calls
for it.
Marcus Eaton has been looking for a record label to distribute his CD. For now,
he is making it available in limited numbers on his website. It’s definitely worth
seeking out. A recording that maintains such a high musical level and that’s so
downright likable is rare indeed. - GEORGE GRAHAM, Marcus Eaton: Story
of Now ((independent release As broadcast on WVIA-FM 4/4/2007)
(c) Copyright 2007 George D. Graham. All rights reseved.

http://georgegraham.com
- George D. Graham

George Graham's
2007 Year-end Audio Essay and Graham Awards

(As broadcast on WVIA-FM December 26, 2007)

This is Mixed Bag and this is George Graham, and we come once again to perhaps one of the most scrupulously evaded parts of Mixed Bag all year for our listeners, our year-end review and the richly deservedly overlooked Graham Awards.

In past years, I used to spend a fair amount of time going on about this and that in the music business, noting trends and talking about statistics on record sales, who were the biggest concerts draws, and the ongoing battles between emerging technologies versus the traditional music business. Well, for all practical purposes, it's all over. The paradigm of big record labels dominating the market for music is for all practical purposes, a thing of the past. As most people know, CD sales are declining in a big way, while sales of downloads are skyrocketing. iPods are everywhere, and there is a whole branch of electronics consisting of accessories for iPods, and a lot of young people would hardly know what to do with a CD. I can't resist the impolite temptation to say I told you so, but I remember back in the 1990s when the Internet started to become available to the public, I noted that it could eventually mean the end of the stranglehold of the major labels. It most likely was a lucky guess. But it has come to pass. The major labels are still there selling a lot of downloads on iTunes and still a few tens of millions of physical CDs, many by manufactured "stars" who won so-called "talent" shows on commercial TV, but the music appearing on the corporate labels is so far removed from what we do on this radio program, that it has really become a kind of alternate universe or completely different culture. So I'll try to refrain -- mostly -- from kicking them while they are down, or criticizing what they are releasing, since it really does represent a different market, audience and paradigm. Except perhaps to say that the domination of the iPod and the digitally compressed audio file as a medium for distributing music has resulted in a really discouraging decline in audio quality.

But, as you might know if you listen to this radio program and if your taste runs to something other that commercial corporate pop, there is a huge universe of worthwhile music being released -- and being released on CD. This year, we have received over 2600 CD titles for airplay consideration, only slightly fewer than as last year, which was a record. And 2007 provided anther bumper crop of great new music.

Of course, now it is incredibly easy for almost any artist to make his or her own CD. A laptop computer, some software, microphones and a small mixer, and you can make what used to take a 24-track $100-per-hour recording studio to do. And you can distribute your music on-line for very little cost, and even manufacturing CDs is quite inexpensive anymore. Of course, from my perspective, as I have observed before, this complete independence from record labels has eliminated the A&R department, the people who filter the talent, and provide a polite rejection letter to bands and artists could not sing or play their guitars in tune. Now, all the bands with off-key vocals, inept musicianship and dumb material are putting out their music. And believe me, it's amazing how much of that kind of thing comes in our direction. But at least, for those who might appreciate such things, it is available, just not on our airwaves.

Well, to look at some of the other perhaps inexplicable developments in music, we turn to the 34th or so annual edition of The Graham Awards. <<>>

Yes, long-suffering listeners, it's time for that solemn ceremony of desultory sophistry, fustian galimatias, and specious prolixity that is the Graham Awards, one of the most widely disregarded of all the many awards shows. As usual, these awards were most carelessly prepared by the panel of one utterly biased and partial curmudgeon. The winners of these awards have the great embarrassment of having the news of their accolade broadcast on our valuable airwaves for the few seconds it takes and then to proceed to go off into the ether and perhaps go off into space where they will in all likelihood dissipate before reaching any significant body in out there in the universe. Of course, now the ignominy will remain on the Internet.

We'll start with another of those tiresome "this is the new that" awards. We're definitely not the first to observe that You-Tube is the new MTV. Since the commercial cable network pretty much got out of running music videos, the Internet do-it-yourself video phenomenon has largely taken over that function. I have never been a fan of music videos, but You-Tube does provide a means for some music to get exposure that would probably never make it to the corporate broadcast media.

"This is the New That" award part 2: The iPod is also the New MTV, in terms what I think is the damage done to the quality of music. Music videos twenty five years ago put visual appearance ahead of musical content, and I have never forgiven that. The iPod culture I think is having a similar effect, deconstructing the album as an art form, further reducing attention span and making music even more disposable.

The democracy in action award, or at least as it applies to government officials appointed by the Bush administration, goes to the FCC, which after being inundated by many thousands of letters and e-mails from the public asking them not to do so, nevertheless relaxed corporate media ownership rules allowing further consolidation of media with more newspapers and commercial broadcast outlets to merge. Toward the end of the end of the year, there was a move in Congress to try to undo the ruling.

Though I said I would largely avoid it, I can't resist taking one more stab at the industry: The "finally seeing the light" award goes to Capitol EMI records which announced in 2007 that it would start selling downloads without so-called DRM, or Digital Rights Management, the maddeningly frustrating way the major labels and iTunes would sabotage tracks you buy on-line to prevent copying, and also prevented them from being played on many kind of players. They came up with what I think is a reasonable solution: pay a little more and not only get the file unshackled from DRM, but would also be higher in quality. Of course, a lot of independent artists have been selling DRM-free downloads for some time now.

On the subject of downloading, the "Empire Strikes Back" award goes to Jammie Thomas, the 30-year old mother who was sued by the major labels in 2007 for downloading tunes for free. Instead of buckling under the threat of the lawsuit, she took it to court, where many thought she would prevail. Instead, she lost, and was obligated to pay $222,000, or $9250 for each of 24 songs she had on her computer.

Continuing on the Star Wars motif, the "gone over to the Dark Side" award goes to Apple, whose enormously successful iTunes service takes a 30% cut in everything they sell. So for full-album downloads, most artists get even less per sale than they would at a major label, and on i-Tunes there is no expense for a physical CD, artwork, etc.

The "Isn't That How Public Radio Works" award goes to the popular band Radiohead, who although they were not the first to do so, created quite a stir in 2007 when having divorced themselves from record labels and iTunes, announced that they would make their new CD available for download, and invited their audience to pay what they could afford or what they thought it was worth. That way of providing audio content does sound familiar to those of us in this business. Without all the middle men, the band reports they are making more income with this CD than any of their previous releases. A decidedly different approach was taken by the Eagles, who reunited in 2007 and released a double album independently. They sold it at a low price point, but exclusively through Wal-Mart, where the idea of "pay what you think it's worth" will probably not fly.

The "inverted economy" award goes to the sales of cell-phone ringtones. People pay two or three times as much as a whole song download, for a snippet of music from a hit artist to use to annoy people around them when their cell phones. Go figure. I don't know how true this is generally, but one thing I have noticed recently is that the people least likely to have ring tone recordings on their cell-phones are musicians. I guess I'm not alone in thinking that the ring-tones cheapens and in a way defiles music.

The "Milli Vanilli fake pop-star" award goes to electronic pitch corrector technology. Some of you may remember the scandal involving with the band Milli Vanilli who won a Grammy Award, only to have it revealed that the people on in the video and on the album cover were not the people who actually sang on the record. The front-men were just chosen by a casting director for how they looked. Now something along the same lines is happening though the increasingly ubiquitous use of electronic pitch corrector technology which transforms off-key vocals to on-key, allowing once again for so-called artists to be recruited by central casting. It used to be a dirty little secret, but now it's being flaunted in many commercial pop albums. When you hear that slightly robot-like vocal sound that jumps suddenly from one key to another, that's a pitch corrector in action. Just remember that sound is a clue that in all likelihood, that pop star you see couldn't sing on-key to save his or her life.

Our "This Geezer Takes Solace" award goes to the proliferation of retro music that took place in 2007. There were lots of young bands and artists that took up styles from Beatles-influenced pop to Sixties-style folk to classic soul. A lot of young musicians have been listening to their parents' record collection.

On more or less the same subject, our "All the Good Songs Have Already Been Written" award goes to a several artists who are worthy composers who decided to make albums of cover tunes, including Judy Collins, who did a collection of Beatles songs, Patti Smith, Richard Shindell, Lisa Lauren and the duo of Lowen & Navarro.

Our "Art Imitates Politics" award goes to several artists, including Bruce Springsteen, and Mike Farris, who as secular artists, released CDs featuring Gospel tunes prominently. With politicians of a certain party trying to peddle their religion as much as any policy, it seems only natural that there be an interest in the old Gospel songs. <<>> Susan Werner took a rather different tack, doing a CD of songs in the Gospel musical style, but lyrically taking a skeptical and even agnostic approach.

Our "maintaining the family business" award goes to quite a few musical offspring who have released CDs in 2007, including Salvador Santana, son of Carlos; Crosby Loggins, son of Kenny; Bethany Yarrow, daughter of Peter Yarrow of Peter Paul & Mary, and the duo Bethany & Rufus; also a different Rufus, Rufus Wainwright, son of Loudon; Ben Taylor, son of James; and Amy Helm joining her father Levon on his 2007 comeback release.

Our "playing in the bluegrass" award goes to Robert Plant who made a well-received CD with bluegrass luminary Alison Krauss, and Bruce Hornsby, who made an outstanding joint album with Ricky Skaggs.

Our "not fade away" award goes to Joni Mitchell, who during 2007 released her first CD of new songs in several years, and also was involved with a ballet based on her music, an art exhibition of her paintings. and was the subject to two tribute albums, one of which was by jazz piano great Herbie Hancock, on which Ms. Mitchell herself also appeared.

Our award for the most prominent chanteuse to sing protest songs goes to Norah Jones, who on her 2007 release Not Too Late departed from the love songs and songs of introspection to include some at times pointed commentary.

Our "Baby Boomers will not quietly depart" award goes to an almost dizzying number of artists whose career started in the 1960s and early 1970s who released CDs in 2007, including Judy Collins, Joni Mitchell, James Taylor, Bruce Springsteen, who released two new CDs, John Fogerty, Loudon Wainwright, Neil Young, John Hammond, Levon Helm, Toots and the Maytals, and the Eagles, among others. Other veteran artists from earlier decades with new CDs in 2007 include Steve Forbert, Rickie Lee Jones, Patti Smith, Robert Plant on that CD with Alison Krauss, Steve Earle and Linda Thompson.

Now for some of the at-least semi-serious awards for noteworthy recordings. In the World Music category, I had two favorites, Ojos De Brujo's Techari, a fascinating blend of flamenco with everything from Eastern and Indian influence to hip-hip, Angelique Kidjo's Djin Djin, which was a delightful recording of sophisticated African pop, with a remarkable mostly a cappella version of Ravel's Bolero.

In the blues category, we'll give the award to Koko Taylor, for her Old School, which was brimming with energy in the classic Chicago electric blues style. At 79 years old, she bounced back after some medical problems, and is sounding as good as ever.

This was also a good year for debut recordings, or almost debut recordings -- with previous work by these artists and bands not widely available. Our picks for approximate debut releases go to the Infamous Stringdusters, a great new bluegrass band, Jason Reeves, who created some great sophisticated Beatles-influenced pop, as did the band called the Red Button. Also Thomas Dybdahl, from Norway, who made his US debut recording likewise featuring sophisticated pop.

Our award for the most distinctive debut recording goes to the Born Again Floozies, a band that included tuba and in place of a regular drummer, a tap dancer.

Now for our sonic honorable mention awards for CDs marked by decent sound quality in a year of sonic deterioration: Norah Jones for Not Too Late, Judith Owen, for her CD Happy This Way, Susan Werner for The Gospel Truth, and the David Zoffer Differential and their CD Release.

And now for my top dozen CDs for the year, this time ranked by how much I liked them:

#12: Linda Thompson: Versatile Heart
#11: The Red Button: She's About to Cross My Mind
#10: Koko Taylor: Old School
#9: Eddie Reader: Peacetime
#8: Angelique Kijdo: Djin Djin
#7: Round Mountain: Truth and Darkness
#6: Susan Werner: The Gospel Truth
#5: Fountains of Wayne: Traffic and Weather
#4: Ricky Skaggs and Bruce Hornsby
#3: Ojos de Brujo: Techari
#2: Jamie Leonhart: The Truth About Suffering
#1: Marcus Eaton: Story of Now

And there you have it, our take on the year, and the traditionally insufferable Graham Awards. Once again, a great number of artists are now able to breathe easier knowing that they will not have to deal with the crush of fame, or rather the crushing infamy that receiving the Graham Awards entails. But maybe next year will loom for the lucky escapees.

(c) Copyright 2007 George D. Graham. All rights reseved.
This article may not be copied to another Web site without written permission.

http://georgegraham.com - WVIA-FM