Host Notes – June Brick & Mortar

Jun 7, 2010
Category: Brick & Mortar shows, News

By Laddie Ray Melvin

Sunday morning, and the lawn can wait. If I’m lucky it will rain, and I can put cutting the grass off for another indeterminate amount of time.

Time is a thread that runs through many of Tri Cities singer and songwriter Mike Skalstad’s songs. There is clock time, and the kind of time, free of clocks, that moves through our lives, and it’s the latter that slides in and out of Mike’s tunes. It appears as a “sweet summer wind,” as a reflection about being “in love and out of control,” or as life lived one day at a time in the song “Just Along For The Ride” in which we are reminded to “enjoy the ride” whether confronted by life or illusion. This song was one of my favorites, and it flat out rocks. In the song “Eventually,” we are reminded that time haunts the dreamer, but is a healer as well. Mike opened and closed his set with songs about love that lasts. He closed with “Just Because Of You” a ballad that succeeds because it deals with a true sentiment. The song is honest not sappy or sentimental. In his opening song—your host didn’t get the title because he was twiddling knobs—he writes, “The road up ahead is lookin good again.” It’s love that puts us on the true path.

Steve Schennum, Spokane’s latter day Jonathan Swift, took us on a satiric journey and reminded us that “most people like wars” concluding that it’s a matter of being “tricked into it.” Steve’s writing deconstructs history, our relationship to the constitution, and dysfunctional relationships. In his song “Hypnotized” he sings, “we’ll be together when our caseworker says it’s all right.” In his “co-dependent dysfunctional love song” the hero is happy she’s left him because his dog comes back. (I should say that Steve is one of my favorite guitar players, and surrounds his lyrics with a fluid and jazzy ambiance that I really appreciate.) In his “Parasite Blues” he satirizes the stereotypical musician who wants to be subsidized, the not-too-subtle message being he deserves nothing. In the song “Allen Can’t Smoke Reefer Anymore” he reminds us that it ain’t fun to have that “bureaucratic needle in our skin.” Steve then discovers his libido on the internet and his “strong right arm,” then ends his set with his Amway seduction song reminding us it’s easy to get hustled.

It is a pleasure to be host of the Brick and Mortar concert series, and to be a member of this community of very creative folk at work on songcraft. I am always delighted, informed and inspired by the work of the writers who show up and sing a couple of songs during the open-mic session opening every show, and by the featured writers who play longer sets. Thank you.