Author Archives: Jim

Riffing on Bowie and Blistering the Walls

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Music, like everything else, wasn’t intended to be programmed by algorithm. But, people seem to have succumbed: anything that isn’t easy, or pleasant, or makes them feel good about their pathetic lives is just deleted, or tuned out. Like populist rock and roll.

Try doing a Google search for “populist rock and roll” or “populist rocker.” Notice how Bruce Springsteen pops up? One of the articles is an older Spin magazine piece (from 1985) and another one on “The Boss” is from the New York Times and 1997. I guess if he’s the standard-bearer for populist rock and roll, no wonder it sets people off so easily. No one really remembers, apparently what music that pushed back against the establishment’s supposed to sound like. Oh, and see what I mean about algorithms? They fucking distort reality. And just so you know, Springsteen’s populist pose is just that: a pose. Remember the pathetic “unity in the middle” Super Bowl ad for Jeep?

But go ahead, keep looking for that populist thread running through what’s left of rock and roll. I won’t hold my breath waiting.

I ran through another Rock and Roll Church service Sunday morning. Got the stream to work, too. Weirdly, I had this odd, cascading thing going on during the Facebook Live stream. But, at least people showed up and could see and hear something. We’ll keep working to get all the speed bumps smoothed-out.

I’ve been playing “Stuck in a Nightmare,” my COVID song about lockdown and Janet Mills for a year. I wrote it in March, 2020. I’ve never played it live until today. There was this riff in the verses that sounded Bowie-esque. I couldn’t put my finger on the song. Ironically, it’s “Queen Bitch,” which seems fitting since Governor Mills plays so prominently in the sentiment of my song. I really like the electric version. This track was on Bowie’s 1971 record, Hunky Dory.

After a brief respite where Mary and I walked part of the beach at OOB, I was back down in the Bunker, working on recording a four-pack of songs I played during the morning R & R service.

Let me warn you. Don’t listen to it near flammable liquids. They may ignite.

I’ll post my video and then, Bowie playing, “Queen Bitch.”

There’s the screed about Jeff Bezos, and how his wealth has gone from $106 billion to $186 billion during COVID. So much for pandemics being tough on TPTB. I also reference Jimmy Dore, someone you might want to check-out if populism doesn’t offend you.

Unplugged Prayers for Rock and Roll Salvation

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I am doing a combination of recorded videos and live streams as part of the work of the First Congregational Bunker Rock Church of Lo-Fi Salvation. As the church’s music minister, here is my contribution: a setlist of songs played Thursday afternoon.

Later that night, a live stream went out on the interwebz. I thought this was a more energetic (and slightly different) set. By the time we went live Thursday night, I’d played three sets, so my fourth set that night was a bit underwhelming, in my opinion. You be the judge, though. Oh, and there’s even a brief self-help segment about midway through the set. Bromides by Baumer, or something like that.

Song Fodder/Broken Little Bird

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When I was teaching writing, I worked at cultivating the habit of writing in my students. I’d say to them, “writers write—so start writing.” Not necessarily profound, but really: you want to write, so in order to start the flow of words, you need to prime the pump.

Countless people who have dreamed of playing guitar often never start with something as basic at what I wrote above. Rather than writing, you need to begin playing—every single day! How do I know this? Because I’ve taken that advice and parlayed it into guitar skills that while they aren’t steeped in virtuosity—they serve their purpose and allow me to write songs and then, play them. How much more do you need?

I’m a fan of The Hold Steady and the songwriting of Craig Finn. For my money, he’s as good as anyone writing in the rock medium. His songs flesh out stories about characters like hoodrats (“Your Little Hoodrat Friend”) and women with migraines that bet successfully on horses (“Chips Ahoy”).

Finn is a proponent of the daily writing habit. That’s what he lives by as a songwriter. If it’s good enough for Finn, it’s good enough for me and anyone else who wants to write songs.

While I’m no Craig Finn, I have written more than 20 songs over the past 16 months, or so. I just wrote another one last night.

Songwriters such as Finn, mine the experiences from his life for fodder that become the lyrics of his songs. I used an incident that happened last week to craft the lyrics and then the progression that became “Broken Little Bird.”

Tuesday morning, prior to jumping on the phones—my source of shekels and keeping ahead of the bills—listening to Finn and his band. I had ideas of where I wanted to go with “Broken Bird,” but knew I was still short of it. Lunch was spent fiddling with lyrics and moving verses around, wolfing down some Annie Chung KungPao. By the end of the day, I had the song framework I wanted.  Thanks, Craig!

After writing it on my acoustic, I thought I’d fiddle around playing it on my Danelectro last night in the basement. Danny is my “Fender” and his tone is what I was aiming for.  I located a drum track that was perfect and I started the sound recorder on my phone. My rough mix prior to breakfast, and here you have it. Song-making in 48 hours from JimBaumerMe.

Oh, and that person who after 15 years walked away with two sentences in an email: you’re simply song fodder.

Rock and Roll Church-Sunday, March 7/Do You Want to Get Well?

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Rock and Roll Church this week was pre-recorded earlier in the week. It makes for a “less bumpy ride” than dealing with stream issues. Plus, it gives people some flexibility in being able to watch/listen if Sunday morning don’t work for them.

Time: March 7, 2021

Location: First Congregational Bunker Rock Church of Low-Fi Salvation

Host: JimBaumerMe (music)     Rev. Jimi (sermon and edification)

Set 1:

Sermon:

Set 2:

Note: I mentioned “Burkean Conservatism and John Michael Greer” in my sermon and a link. Here it is.

Can I Get an Amen? Rock and Roll Church Update

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My time in the pool during my twice-weekly swims are very productive. Not only are they good for me, physically—they are also where I work through ideas—like how to make the most of the idea for what I’ve been referring to as “Rock and Roll Church” each Sunday.

Sunday morning at the First Congregational Bunker Rock Church of Lo-Fi Salvation

I admit, week one was one bumpy ride. My live stream went down, and there were a host of other issues. My main beta testers were patient. One so-called friend I asked basically walked away from our friendship with a two-line email. Oh well. Don’t let the door hit you in the ass. It’s too bad you can’t read, or have an ounce of patience and compassion. But looking back on whatever we had—friendship would be too generous for me—you’ve always missed basic queues (and not just with me).

But hey, it’s another week and another chance to come to the alter of rock and roll and party like it’s 1999, or so sang the purple one, Prince.

I’ve got it figured out. Live streaming isn’t necessary. No! We can all gather on Sunday morning and at least for the Sunday services from the First Congregational Bunker Rock Church of Lo-Fi Salvation, I can pre-record them and that way, no streaming messes to clean up or fix. Better than that for you, dear worship participant: you are not locked-in to Sunday mornings. I know you’re busy cleaning the tiles in your shower and with other important things like organizing your sock drawer.

I’ll embargo the videos until 8:00 a.m. on Sunday morning. Then, they’ll be there for you to watch at your leisure, when you aren’t so strapped for time. I think I’ll split the service into three videos. Music pre-sermon, then the sermon from Rev. Jimi, and then, post-sermon, more music from JimBaumerMe. That seems to make sense to me.

Then, there are the logistics of weekly services and the prep that goes into making them mildly entertaining (or irritating, depending on your perspective). I think I’m going to do the Sunday services twice a month. Then, on the weeks when there is no Sunday morning Rock and Roll Church, let’s gather together on Thursday nights at 7:00 for an Unplugged Prayer Service. That one will be live-streamed, with JimBaumerMe strumming along on his acoustic.

Here is the schedule I’ve mapped out for March and April. We’ll see how things go. I know in May, open mics are opening up. Perhaps by then, I’ll be gigging so much, we won’t need to gather on Sundays, or maybe we do these once a month instead.

But for now, plan for the following over the next seven week:

Sunday Morning Rock and Roll Church

March 7

March 21

April 4

April 18

Unplugged Prayer Service (Thursday nights)

March 18

April 1

April 16

April 30

To the Bunker, Earthlings!

 

Not To Be Deterred

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Since I began streaming at the beginning of COVID, I’ve been chasing improvement in the audio of each subsequent stream. I did okay when I played everything on the acoustic, save for the first disastrous foray with YouTube’s live streaming option. What they do is “squeeze” bandwidth if you are using the free version of their live service.

To be fair, YouTube’s strong suit is that it allows you to store your videos and not chew up bandwidth on your own website. For that, they are awesome.

Of course, everyone uses Facebook for everything—including streaming. I get it. You can roll out of bed, push the hair out of your face, grab a guitar and warble out a few tunes.

But what if you are like me, trying to capture a live sound that’s more than you plinking out three chords on your ukulele? Rock and roll (the lo-fi variety) with an electric guitar pushed through an amp and—oh my God!! Distortion!! Then, if you top it with some drums—what the fuck?

Anyways, I decided that OBS might be the way to go. Then, when I began ironing out my mix, then tested it last Thursday on Facebook—major problems. That was it for me and Facebook. I don’t like Zuckerberg for reasons I won’t bother with here. But the major reason is I can’t do what I want to do with Facebook.

Then I had a great idea. I’ve had my JBE WordPress site—this one—since 2013. I’ve been kind of neglecting it the past year, or maybe, a better way of framing it is this way. Rather than recognizing WordPress is a site for my writing, it’s actually quite capable of supporting my music endeavors. With a plug-in or two, I should be able to stream on this site, right? Well, not necessarily.

For those of you who consider technological nirvana, turning your smartphone on and off and setting up your voicemail, this isn’t for you. Hell, I’m not going to elaborate any further than to say, there were more speed bumps than I anticipated. Due to that, I couldn’t capture the actual live stream via video, so I took some time Monday after work to create a facsimile. It comes pretty damn close in capturing the music from Sunday’s first service of the First Bunker Rock Church of Lo-Fi Salvation.

JimBaumerMe delivers, per usual, even if it’s his Plan B, or Plan M.

Stay tuned for the next advisement about our next service—it will be here, not on Facebook.

Launching Rock and Roll Church-Sunday Service

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New England-style Congregational Church (Maine Memory Network)

There was a time when salvation really mattered to me. Perhaps it still does—just in a different way than before.

Music has been something that has offered me a way forward following the tragic death of my son, Mark. Back in August 2018, I never thought I’d be sitting here, promoting a Facebook live event—especially not an event like Rock and Roll Church.

What do I hope to accomplish with a facsimile of a Sunday morning worship service, sans the usual spiritual trappings? Actually, music has a spiritual component that’s often overlooked. I mean, Larry Norman, the father of contemporary Christian music, did ask the question, “why should the devil have all the good music?” Really! Norman knew that music was a medium that could be used powerfully—in his case—to glorify the god who he believed in and exalted in his music.

With a new EP out and songs that I’ve been playing now for a few months, I thought the time was right to roll out a setlist made up of these songs and a few others. Also, as COVID has shut down regular opportunities to play each week via open mics and gigs at music venues, this is a good time to develop some momentum with regular streaming gigs.

I plan to play for an hour or so. I’ll blend a few covers and I’ll probably offer some between song banter, some thoughts on things going on in the world, and a bit of background about the songs I’ll be playing.

Come on down to the First Congregational Bunker Rock Church of Lo-Fi Salvation and join the JimBaumerMe/aka, Reverend Jimi as he shepherd rock lovers through a unique rock and roll experience.

Rock and Roll Church
Facebook Live
Sunday10am

Get Back to Rock and Roll!!

Making the (music) News

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I’ve been reading Aimsel Ponti’s coverage of music for local pubs for years—certainly well over a decade or more. Whether writing about national acts, or local musicians looking to break out of Portland’s crowded music channel, she writes with passion, as well as an understanding that’s all-too-rare in music critics.

When I was cranking out books about baseball, Moxie, and local themes with my book of essays, I knew it was important to let others know about these releases. As I often told my writing students, “never under-estimate the importance of writing a compelling press release.” Many writers (and yes, musicians) miss that lesson.

Can you imagine my surprise while working last week to see a text that said,” Jim, this is Aimsel Ponti…check your email.” I’m glad I did.

She’d sent me some questions and was on deadline for her latest Face the Music column. Could I answer and get them back, along with a photo? You don’t have to ask twice on that one, Aimsel!

Photo of JimBaumerMe, making music in The Bunker (Mary Baumer photo)

This morning, I am featured along with three other artists in her music column, as musicians who’ve made the most of the last year of lockdown. I’m honored to share space with fellow Maine artists, Alice Limoges, Stephanie Atkins, and Oshima Brothers. Continue reading →

The Art of Songwriting: Tom Brady (GOAT)

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I’m someone with considerable experience listening to sports talk radio over the course of the past 35 years. The week leading up to the Super Bowl has always been something I’ve kept on my personal radar. This year, the strangest year ever, things about sports (even the Super Bowl) seem to have been pushed to the fringes, shoved there by all-things-COVID.

Perhaps it has something to do with not really running with a tribe anymore. Or, not working in a physical space with other humans. Every workplace I’ve ever been part of would have had someone running a Super Bowl pool, soliciting predictions with a pot of cash going to the winner. Maybe New Englanders were depressed because their favorite son had found success somewhere else, out from the constraints of the Krafts and the Hoodie Man.

But this year, nothing: nada! Working from home, the daily Skype was filled with the usual inane banter about dogs and things people didn’t know about how to do their jobs. Nothing about Tom Brady, or thoughts about how New England’s favorite son might fare in the land of the sun. No openings to insert, “I just wrote a song about Tom Brady–check it out.” Actually, no one at work gives two shits about anything related to my life–I learned that all-too-well the week of the fourth anniversary of Mark’s death. Not one note or inquiry like, “how are you doing” from a team leader or manager. Oh well. Continue reading →

John Prine Didn’t Do Lo-fi

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America is an atomized and disconnected space. I’ve felt that disconnection in a visceral way since January 21, 2017. That’s the night my wife and I learned that our only son had been killed: walking along an isolated stretch of highway in Florida. Mark had just turned 33.

In my case, loneliness feels exacerbated by social media. To be truthful, there are moments when it seems like it might be part of sinister plan concocted by our overlords to keep us as divided and disconnected as never before. Why even make the effort to remain connected when you can push a button on your screen?

I don’t know a lot about Ben Sasse, senator from Nebraska. I’ve heard him speak on news shows and I know he has a book called Them: Why We Hate Each Other—and How To Heal. Personally, I have little hope that we’ll stop hating each other—that’s not my point, here. But in reading something over the weekend about Sasse and his book, I was reminded again about my opening point: our isolation (and how I cope daily with my own).

Sasse’s book addresses elements like an “evaporation of social capital,” which is the “glue that binds us together,” as I’ve written about before. This one item struck me just like someone had slapped me in the face. “Loneliness—not obesity, cancer or heart disease—is the nation’s number one health crisis.” Sasse writes that “persistent loneliness reduces average longevity more than twice as much as does heavy drinking and more than three times as much as obesity, which often is a consequence of loneliness.” Or, you could be so fucking lonely that you just end it for good and kill yourself. To feel isolated day after day takes a toll. Continue reading →