Jazzified Country Folk Music?
Field Work Notes — Paul talks candidly about his music and the CD
Field Work is an eclectic mix of jazzified country folk blues from Colorado, where songs grow out of the wild, just for the pickin’. This Foothills Frontiersman made tracks across the musical landscape with 12 original songs, featuring Paul’s mountain mandolin, guitar, vocals, and hand-picked musicians of the Denver area. Recorded at the distinctive Audio Park Recording Studio in Arvada, Colorado, by he-who-hears-all, Park Peters.
The opening track, No Side Effects, ponders the question, “Why is pleasure so simple, and pain so complex?” and is punctuated by Ron Baso on the electric bass and telling it to your heart with saxophone by Carlos Chavez.
The Players: Paul Landsittel: guitar, vocals – Ron Bland: bass – Carlos Chavez: saxophone – Barry Ebert: vocal harmony – Craig Fisher: keyboards – Brian Mikulich: drums, percussion
Ever feel like you spend so much time in your car that you might as well be living there? There’s no place like… Home on the Run is a cruising down the highway in the comfort zone, riding on the rhythm of the Hammond organ by Park Peters and feeling the wind of Carlos’ saxophone blow in your ear. We all have to drive to survive.
The Players: Paul Landsittel: guitar, vocals – Ron Bland: bass – Carlos Chavez: saxophone – Brian Mikulich: drums, percussion – Park Peters: keyboards
The country piano and back-porch mandolin create the place where only Spirit of a Child, enters in, featuring Eddie Martinez on pedal steel.
The Players: Paul Landsittel: guitar, vocals, mandolin – Barry Ebert: vocal harmony – Craig Fisher: piano – Ernie Martinez: pedal steel – Brian Mikulich: drums, percussion – Steve Ralph: bass
A lighthearted swing tune, Keep It Simple, (don’t tell anyone we’re together), with Freddie Rodriguez, Jr. on soprano sax and Park Peters on piano, and Hammond organ.
The Players: Paul Landsittel: guitar, vocals – Park Peters: keyboards – Freddy Rodriguez: saxophone – Brian Mikulich: drums, percussion – Steve Ralph: bass
Stepping into the Night is a dreamy, wandering around in a bluesy evening with a passion for mystery. Silky soulful saxophone rides over foot-stepping bass by Steve Ralph and keys by Craig Fisher.
The Players: Paul Landsittel: guitar, vocals – Carlos Chavez: saxophones – Craig Fisher: keyboards – Brian Mikulich: drums, percussion – Steve Ralph: bass
Rocky Mountain Peace of Mind is a quest for city refugees to rise above it all, float on the mandolin breeze and country-fied acoustic piano by Park Peters. Let the divine wilderness take you away. Inspired by Devil’s Thumb Ranch, a world class place of peace and beauty.
The Players: Paul Landsittel: guitar, vocals, mandolin – Ron Bland: bass – Barry Ebert: vocal harmony – Park Peters: keyboards – Brian Mikulich: percussion
From the pages of “the men don’t know what the little girls understand” Whatever Happened (to my own free will) sings about the spell of love, that overpowers any worldly desire. Singing in the language of “love-ese” with Barry Ebert and Gabe Ebert on harmony vocals, and Craig Fisher on Fender Rhodes, for all the hopeless romantics.
The Players: Paul Landsittel: guitar, vocals – Ron Bland: bass – Barry Ebert: vocal harmony – Gabe Ebert: vocal harmony – Craig Fisher: keyboards – Carlos Chavez: saxophone – Brian Mikulich: drums, percussion
The power of bittersweet forgiveness in World Without Blame rocks to the interplay of mandolin and synthesizer by Craig Fisher and vocal harmonies. “When anger is the fire feeding the flame, bury the ashes in a world without blame.”
The Players: Paul Landsittel: guitar, vocals – Craig Fisher: keyboards, background vocals – Brian Mikulich: drums, percussion – Steve Ralph: bass
Broken-hearted Chevrolet tells the blues story of the rise and fall of the auto industry when steel was king of America, with “Ice-rain” keyboards by Craig Fisher, alto sax gliding over tension-and-release mandolin.
The Players: Paul Landsittel: guitar, vocals, mandolin – Carlos Chavez: saxophones – Craig Fisher: keyboards – Brian Mikulich: drums, percussion – Steve Ralph: bass
What is spirit, anyway, but the source of inner fire that we use to live life and how we spend our time here. I see Holy Smoke as a prayer that produces a state of spiritual awareness for treatment and emotional release. It’s an inside job. Wisps of pedal steel curl around guitar and mandolin and echoes of electric piano.
The Players: Paul Landsittel: guitar, vocals, mandolin – Barry Ebert: vocal harmony – Ernie Martinez: pedal steel – Brian Mikulich: drums, percussion – Park Peters: keyboards – Steve Ralph: bass
Soldier’s Ghosts is a reggae Boomer’s ballad telling the story of our old bass player, Tim McGraw, a Viet Nam vet, a tortured soul, a Buddhist biker in a clown suit, haunted by memories of the war and playing music to “dance those devils away.” Hey, who hasn’t banged on a guitar for hours late at night, that’s music therapy, with the mountain mandolin dancing around acoustic piano and a carnival-like reggae Hammond organ.
The Players: Paul Landsittel: guitar, vocals, mandolin – Brian Mikulich: drums, percussion – Park Peters: keyboards – Steve Ralph: bass
Fearless Love adapted from the Great Invocation, a prayer handed down to us all, calling in Divine Love and Power to be present among us, with Ken Routenstruas on piano.
The Players: Paul Landsittel: vocals – Park Peters: keyboard – Kent Rautenstraus: piano
Thanks for listening!
You got this far… GREAT! Treat yourself and buy this CD…
All songs written by Paul Landsittel (except where noted)