Patti Ecker: News

I've been doing some pretty interesting gigs this summer. Yay!

To my delight, been doing a bunch with L.J. Slavin They've ranged from summer concert series all over Chi-land to marching in the Hoffman Estates 4th of July parade to playing at the Berwyn Police Station with Gus Friedlander. It's all good!

The big news, of course is that Louise Brodie and I have done one mini tour to Michigan, and are getting ready for a nice little weekend tour September 12th and 13th in Wisconsin-- first in Appleton at the Harmony Cafe and then in Mount Morris for the Black Hawk concert series.

Check the calendar page for updates!

Yay! I got a new review from Chip Withrow of The Muse's Muse online reviews.

Go to the "Raves" page and read it. It's a goodun. :D

I am pretty darn tickled! Yaaaay!

I’d like to tell you some things about the genesis of my new CD, “Gypsy Lover’s Eyes.”

Many of you know that I started playing guitar when I was about 15, but you may not know that because I wrote poetry and enjoyed singing as a child, I developed a burning desire to write songs as an adolescent. Artistic self-expression was always encouraged and nurtured in the Ecker household (Mother being a published author and Daddy being a fine singer), so as soon as I learned my first three chords, I hit the ground running.

Just like any young writer/performer, I fumbled around a lot the first few years before I found my style – or rather, styles. For the first few years, I kicked around ideas, first writing protest songs, and then the typical angst-filled singer/songwriter tunes. Sometimes I wrote songs just to get a reaction. I soon developed what Rusty (the engineer and co-producer of “Gypsy Lover’s Eyes”) calls my “Slice of Life” songs -- you know, the quirky little ones that tell a short story (usually about love) but with a little edge, and a bit of saucy humor. At NIU, I snuck backstage at a Steve Goodman concert and played him one of my first funny songs (inspired by John Hartford), called “Influenza Blues.” He liked it, and he offered to help me, but I think I just wasn’t ready yet. It was enough just to know that Steve Goodman thought that I had written a good song.

I sang and played and I wrote more songs. In 1978, I followed Sarah to South Florida, and within about a year, I was playing in bars in Fort Lauderdale. I joined the band October Road and learned how to front a band with confidence, I hung out at the Musician’s Exchange with Gaye Levine as The Ecktones, I joined Top Forty and wedding bands and I wrote some more songs. The oldest song on “Gypsy” is “Okay For You”, written that first year in South Florida, and “Indifferent Love,” “Too Close, Too Soon” and of course, “Shine” are all from that period. I spent a lot of time in recording studios, mostly singing other people’s music, but I learned a lot about the process from those sessions. I was always trying to find the perfect recording situation for myself ; great musicians and supportive fellow songwriters surrounded me. People were constantly pestering me to “get your stuff out there, dammit!” Somehow, I could never find the right musicians to play what I was hearing in my head for my songs. Besides, I had rent to pay, groceries to buy and crappy cars to keep running. And so, more years went by.

Coming back to Chicago set up a whole new set of challenges for me. Of course, I thought I would plug in my sassy South Florida style here and take the town by storm. That didn’t happen. Even with my husband Don’s help, and the friendship of another great bunch of musicians, I never felt like my songs or my eclectic style fit in here. I didn’t think anyone was listening. So I put them away for years and did kids’ shows to get my music fix. I decided that I really wasn’t much of a songwriter, after all. I didn’t write a single word for nine years.

Then something unexpected happened. As I was finishing “Prairieland”, I decided to have Rusty master the CD at his basement studio. When he was working on the song “El-A-Noy,” he looked at me and said, “That’s the kind of vocal I like to hear you do—as if you’re singing just to me.” I knew then that he was the right guy to engineer and co-produce “Gypsy.” He asked me to put down reference tracks of all the songs I thought I’d like to do, and we took some time picking the best of the best. In the meantime, I started writing again, and a couple newer songs are on “Gypsy.” “The Grace of a Song” has little hints of what the studio process is like. Almost four years after we started, and after working with seventeen musicians in the studio, we finished what amounts to my Great American Novel, “Gypsy Lover’s Eyes.” With Rusty’s help, and the help of all of the talented people who helped produce my music, I was able to make this recording sound like a cross between an intimate live concert and a movie soundtrack—everything I have dreamed about for more than thirty years.

This CD tells my story -- not necessarily the "real" me, but the best, strongest part of who I am and who I hope to be. You can hear all of the influences that have shaped my creative life over the years, and the amazing way the songs still stand up, after so much time. I am very happy with the result, and even the beautiful cover design is a bonus. I’m not sure what will happen to these songs. I am hoping to sell them on gigs,through my website and wherever I can. I will be sending them to radio stations and using them as demos. I hope you will buy one, and if you love it, I’m hoping you’ll tell other people about it.

Oh, man, what a wonderful concert --- Saturday's Concert for the Cranes! It was really more like a festival-- with the Grasslands lads, Pete Norman and D.K. Kolars, Cooper and Nelson... and I was really excited to be joined by the fabulous Louise Brodie on fiddle. (Our second gig, man!)

We each did 2 short sets to a pretty nice crowd of as many as one hundred folks in the Mayslake Peabody mansion. We set up in a huge chapel-- great acoustics! We even got to jam a bit. :-)

The best news was that we helped to raise $4000 for a new exhibit for a pair of Sandhill Cranes who were surrogates for Whooping Cranes.

Roger Kotecki put the whole shebang together. And rumor has it, we may now have a new cool venue for acoustic music!

I took Don with me to the WDCB studios last night for a live appearance to promote "Gypsy Lover's Eyes" and the concert on Saturday. We had such a blast with host Lilli Kuzma. It was less an interview and more just a conversation between friends. Very fun and chatty.

Lilli did me a very great honor by taking my suggestion and making the entire show a "Gypsy" theme. It was a complete coincidence that the first song on the playlist for the evening was "Who Let That Django Jazz Into the Room?" by friend David Williams!

She played 3 cuts from the CD and I got to play 3 songs live! What a treat! I even gave away a CD on-air to a very nice man who enjoyed hearing "Elsie."

Thanks to Lilli Kuzma and all of the Folk Festival listeners!

11/06/2007 07:00 PM - WDCB FM 90.9 Folk Festival Live!

I'll be the featured guest on 90.9 FM WDCB’s "Folk Festival" hosted by Lilli Kuzma. I'll be playing some live tunes from "Gypsy Lover's Eyes" and promoting the upcoming CD release concert.

You can also hear streaming audio on WDCB.org
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11/10/2007 03:00 PM - CD Release Concert and Party!!
U.U. Church of Elgin - Highland Avenue, 3 miles west of Randall
Elgin, 60120
US
Cost:$5.00
Gypsy Lover’s Eyes" CD release concert and party! Featuring Rocco Phipps, Mike O’ Connell, Peg Lehman, Louise Brodie, Rick Veras and more!
patti@pattiecker.com for more info
Reception to follow. :-)
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11/17/2007 02:00 PM - Concert for the Cranes
Peabody Mansion, Mayslake Forest Preserve
Oak Brook, Illinois
US
Benefit for Sandhill Cranes! With Andrew Calhoun, Mike O’Connell and Mark Andel, Pete Norman and Dave "D.K." Kolars

Call Roger Kotecki 630-393-1890

I got got notified that I'll be showcasing at this year's FARM (Folk Alliance Midwest Regional) Gathering!
Time and day TBA...

Yipppeee!

I finally got around to working on my MySpace page! Check it out:
www.myspace.com.pattiecker.


It's got some new, almost-final mixes of "Indifferent Love" and "Okay For You, " featuring the fabulous John Otto on clarinet.

Yesterday's session was with young saxophone player, Dan Nicholson, who came all the way from Logan Square just to hang out with the twittering Tree Sparrows, the racing rollerbladers and the trusty Trolleys at Chez Rusty.

I think we made him do 9000 takes (the average for us), but I do believe we have enough to work from!

Next, some clean-up vocals and when Aras Bizzaras gets back from wherever he is in Europe, he'll do some percussion colour for us in June.

We will be editing and mixing our buns off in May.

We were delighted to see our old friend (from Juicy John Pink's days) David Williams, of Denver's Deco Django last Saturday night at the Wildwood Steakhouse in Geneva with the Grasslands guys.

With three lightning fast players (and some surprise spirited piano playing by Mike at the end of "Layla"), the feathers fairly flew!

Holy Benny Goodman!

We met clarinetist John Otto at Don's company banquet in February (via Aras Biskis--a complete coincidence that they were in the band that night!) and fell in love with his playing. In the studio last Sunday, he did not disappoint.

John played on that minute-and-a half barn burner, "Okay For You" and did a beautiful take on "Indifferent Love."

In March, Mike O'Connell played some lovely mandolin on "The Grace of a Song" and a sprightly solo on "Gypsy Lover's Eyes" to add to Gus' rhythm. Who says you don't need two mando players?

In the meantime, Rusty and I have been doing the final editing and mixing on everything else.

Happy New Year!

Yesterday, Gordon James graced the woodsy retreat of Chez Rusty with his fine and mellow keyboard sensibilities. We got 2 "B3" tracks, a kickass solo on "Baby's Got the Blues," and a really cool marimba sound on "You Missed Her."
Further goofing around with spooky sounds leads us to believe we REALLY NEED Gordon on "Not Really Spring."

More smiley faces all around, and this thing be gettin' done.

I uploaded some songs that are on Prairieland (2002), but that we also do in RedOak Bluegrass: "Wabash Cannonball," "Uncle Joe," and "Old Dan Tucker."

Although RedOak Bluegrass is usually L.J., me and a stellar standup bass player such as Mitch (The Beast) Straeffer or Malcolm Ruhl, the usual suspects are on the recordings, namely Gus Friedlander on mandolin ("Wabash"), Marc Edelstein on bass, Barbie Silverman playing washboard on "Wabash" and David Bragman on that wonderful banjo solo on "Uncle Joe."

I do what I always do and L.J. plays everything else!

I've added a few new Wild West pics to the Gallery. Take a look! Many, many thanks to photographer Allen Harbison for sending these excellent photos of our memorable weekend.

On Halloween night, I went to Rusty's to do some editing and cleanup vocals. I fixed some stuff on "True Love" and edited my whistling solo (yes, these things sometimes require digital tweaking!) on "Too Close." We were very happy to finish early...

To make a very long story short, on the way back (somewhere on Rt. 72 East of rt.59--you know--there's no "there" there), a large deer bounded out of the sky and landed on my car's hood, thus totaling my faithful Civic Servant of nearly seven years, Deborah Car.
Luckily, from Here to (what seemed like) Eternity, I sustained no injuries. :-)

Friend Rebecca Miale thinks this sounds like a John Prine Song...
"Ya don't know how lucky you arrrrre, ya could have run into that treeeee...etc."

A few days later I got a severe sore throat, followed by acute laryngitis, no doubt courtesy of sneezing children in a Chicago classroom, Halloween morning. I'm still recovering, and scanning the online Auto Trader for another Honda.

Whoo!
Another fine Shameless Hussies Show last night, this time at El Barrio Restaurant in Mundelein.
The Shameless Hussies are a group of Chicago-area women who get together a couple of times a year to do a Cabaret-style concert of bawdy and provocative music. The Shameless Hussies are: Tricia Alexander, Diana Laffey, Jacquie Manning, Kate Moretti, Margaret Nelson and Patti Ecker.

Thanks to Chuck VanderVennet, the Lake County Folk Club and all the folks who came out for the show.

On Saturday night, in the pouring rain, I met L.J. and a new (to me) bass player, Malcolm Ruhl, at a private party gig in the veddy horsey area of St. Charles/Wayne, IL --also home to M'OC, coincidentally, who was at Fitzgerald's that night.
(Beautiful estate, party barn, excellent client!)

I think this little Bluegrass project is finally coming together--And with Malcolm's fabulously groovy in-the-pocket playing and darn near perfect harmonies, I think we gots us a winner! See us on the Picture page.

I am enthusiastically learning new/old songs- Hey, L.J. lurves the U.Utah Phillips tune, "Rock Salt and Nails," bringing back memories of Juicy John Pink's. ("If the young men were squirrels, with them high bushy tails, I'd fill up my shotgun...")
And to make it even more of an eerie coincidence, I have recently shot a flintlock squirrel gun!

We had a pretty full week starting 9/17 (my birthday!). First, Gus Friedlander played mando on "Gypsy" and "Elsie", then the cunning and imaginative Rick Veras came in on Tuesday to play fiddle for "Mame" and "Too Close, Too Soon." On Thursday, M'OC played some fabulous mando for "Mame" and for that frantic minute-and-a-half wonder, "Okay For You."

Rusty and I are editing this month--big job, but we have a veritable goldmine of takes from which to choose!

What an amazing experience! We are tired, but had a truly enchanted weekend in Piqua. We did seven action-packed shows—instead of eight, because it rained on Sunday afternoon! I didn’t ride a horse, but I shot four different kinds of guns, including the Buntline Special. Whoo Hoo! But this is the best part—Darling Husbie Don actually *played* Frank Butler! He had a beautiful costume already, and handled all of my guns AND helped Matt (Cole Younger) with the various pyrotechnics. Boy stuff!

Highlights:
* Meeting Annie Oakley’s grandniece, Bess Edwards of the Annie Oakley Foundation. I got to spend some quality time with her; she is delightful and shared a lot of fascinating information about Annie! And Ray Smith, 101 year-old Captain, invited us to take a ride on the Miami Erie Canal in the Piqua Historical Area , aboard the General Harrison, a mule-powered canal boat!
* Don’s portrayal of Frank Butler. Wow. Who’d a thunk Don Sherman would be such a trouper! I’m tellin’ ya, if he hadn’t handled all of those guns, I would have been lost!
* The talented, funny, kind and generous cast. Thanks to Kent Shelton (as Buffalo Bill), Jimmy Ellis (as Ned Buntline), Chris Mitri , (as Chief Rain-in-the-Face), Matt Stratton (as Cole Younger), Mike Dvorak (as Meandering Mike), Emilia Dvorak (as Emila) and Denise Harnish (Thanks, Denise. I needed a mom, too!), and the horses, Gerry, Rodin and Matisse.
* The BIG, enthusiastic Piqua, Ohio audiences, especially the children. I did manage to play a couple of songs with some little cuties. :-)
* The Piqua Heritage Festival itself--It was located on a a huge site, with so much to do, including a Buckskinner's camp that went on forever. (I *did* enjoy strolling around the grounds with Don and being a *star*, hee hee!)

Can we do it again, please?

I just got back from a day-long rehearsal for the Wild West Show. I'm exhausted, but I learned some fancy (fake) shootin' and about a jillion puns.

When we get to Piqua, there'll be a day and a half of rehearsals.

This is the first time in a long time I have a gig that doesn't involve at least a little singing and playing. I'm taking Sugar, the Parlor Guitar along, plus a banjo and the spoons, just in case.

In some of my reading, I discovered that Annie liked to entertain children. Hey, they didn't exactly say how, ya know.