Novato’s Loiacono releases personal CD
As live music goes quiet, Marin's Greg Loiacono releases deeply personal album
A few columns back, I wrote about the quiet return of live music in Marin. Since then, sad to say, the comeback has been in quiet retreat. After having musicians play outdoors for physically distanced audiences for a couple of weeks, two of our most prominent venues — Terrapin Crossroads in San Rafael and Mill Valley’s Sweetwater Music Hall — have abruptly shutdown again.
On the eve of a weekend of sold-out dinner shows celebrating the 50th anniversary of the “Workingman’s Dead” album and “Festival Express” film, Terrapin pulled the plug after one of its staff members tested positive for COVID-19. The week before, the restaurant was going to open on Thursdays for casual dining without music. That, too, got scrapped when another employee called in with a fever.
“We’re going to reassess at the end of the month,” says Nica Orlick Roy, Terrapin’s director of special events. “No one is going to be allowed back to work until they’re tested — probably twice. We want to make sure when we come back people feel comfortable and that they can trust us. That’s important.”
In the meantime, Terrapin’s amping up its livestream concerts, including some from founder Phil Lesh’s deck with its postcard views of Mount Tamalpais.
Orlick Roy says that Lesh, the 80-year-old former bassist for the Grateful Dead, “is doing great. He’s playing again. If you listen to the banter in the videos, he’s like a kid.”
In a video I watched, Lesh, his son, Grahame, Stu Allen and Jason Crosby sang “Playing in the Band” wearing masks.
In Mill Valley, Sweetwater’s experiment with solo performers at a tiki bar set up on its patio came to a screeching halt with this announcement on its website: “Due to a variety of factors, we have decided to cease operations again until further notice.” I walked by the club the other day as an afternoon wind was whipping around the plastic tiki bar decorations that were still up, giving the empty patio a forlorn look — a feeling that I’m sure many of us can relate to as we watch all the sacrifices we made for months go for nothing as infections in the state spike to levels higher than when all this began in March. It seems like what’s happening in Marin’s music community is a kind of microcosm of what’s going on in the country as a whole, as plans to reopen are withdrawn with the resurgence of the coronavirus. One step forward, one step back.
It’s enough to make me depressed, except that Marin’s working musicians, many of them gigless for months, keep lifting me up with their determination to carry on as best they can. Novato singer-songwriter and guitarist Greg Loiacono (gregloiacono.com/music) and his band, the Mother Hips, had to cancel their 12th annual Hipnic, a weekend music festival in Big Sur that had been set for May. All the shows and tours he had booked with Chris Robinson (Black Crowes) and his other band, the Green Leaf Rustlers (debut album: “From Within Marin”), were also toast. So, he decided to make the most of this unexpected time that was suddenly on his hands by releasing a new solo album, “Mystic Traces,” an 11-song collection on Blue Rose Music, an artist collective that donates a portion of its revenues to preschool scholarships for financially disadvantaged children.
“I definitely have mixed emotions putting an album out in a pandemic,” he says. “Not being able to tour is a new thing, and a challenge. But this is also something to promote, something to do, something to feel good about.”
Recorded over the past two years at friend Scott Hirsch’s studio in Ojai, “Mystic Traces” is a deeply personal record that he has every right to feel good about. The ballad “Arms of the Sleeping Lady,” for example, draws from his experience growing up in Marin — being “raised at the feet of Mount Tamalpais,” graduating from Redwood High School and forming the Mother Hips with Fairfax musician Tim Bluhm at Chico State. (The album cover art by Evan apRoberts it’s worth noting includes a stylized painting of Mt. Tam.)
The 49-year-old musician has been staying at home with his wife, Carolina (former owner of Carolina boutique in Mill Valley), and their two children, Noah,
18, who will be heading off to New York University after a pandemic gap year, and 14-year-old Ella, a high school freshman. They’ve been singing harmonies with him in the livestreams he’s been doing from his living room and posting on Facebook at facebook.com/gregloiacono.
On one of the album’s new singles, the Latin-influenced “San Felipe,” Loiacono tells us about first falling in love with his wife on a dreamy Mexican vacation with her family. In “Close Your Eyes (We’ll Be There Soon),” he
I definitely have mixed emotions putting an album out in a pandemic,. Not being able to tour is a new thing, and a challenge. But this is also something to promote, something to do, something to feel good about.”
— Greg Loiacono
takes us on a road trip with his wife and kids through “wooded canyons” and “sprawling wineries.” Listening to the rocker “Do What You Do,” I wracked my brain trying to figure out the classic song that inspired the hook. With some help, I finally figured it out. Spoiler alert: Roy Orbison’s “You Got It.”
“It’s a nod to one of our favorites,” Loiacono says. “Some people get it right away, and some people have no idea.”
“Mystic Traces,” the title track, name checks Highway 37 and the Solano County town of Benicia as Loiacono sings about what it’s like to be a touring musician who gets “stuck in hard luck places for awhile.”
In the studio, Loiacono assembled an impressive cast of some of our finest players, including Wilco’s Mikael Jorgenson, Marin’s Barry Sless and Jason Crosby, and the late Neal Casal. Stylistically, this record runs the gamut, from the Beatlesesque harmonies of “Into the Light of Another Day” and the country funk of “Shoot the Messenger” to the acoustic folk of “Chamberlain’s Trunk” and the spare indie rock of “Animal Clouds.” That last song begins with an image of the singer waking up too early and worrying about how to be a creative person and survive in this economic crisis we find ourselves in. Before this frightening new spike, Loiacono was hearing some positive words from his booking agent about some possible outdoor shows in September. Now, those look more and more doubtful.
“It’s tough,” he says. “I’ll wake up at 4:30 or 5 in the morning thinking what the hell am I going to do? I can’t go back to sleep. And then on other days, I realize that after touring all these years how much time I get to spend with my family. Another thing that’s been really great, we’ve been working in the yard a lot. We planted gardens. When
I’m feeling down and worried about what the hell’s going to happen, there’s something about digging in the dirt that’s pretty grounding. And having this close family time, I’ve definitely got to be grateful for that.”