Friday night this week sees a gaggle of musicians taking the stage at Oscar’s on the Corner to pay tribute to American singer-songwriter JJ Cale. LengPleng sat down with project initiator and bass player Stan Paleco to find out more.
“I was first introduced to JJ Cale when I was in my early 20s,” says Stan. “A friend gave me a cassette, Anthology, a collection of his tracks, and I fell in love with the music. I’m not a big country fan, I’m not a big blues fan, but this music is something in between, it connects both genres so beautifully: sometimes a bit country, sometimes a bit bluesy. His feel, his touch, soloing, and the choice of chords – it seems so easy but it needs that special touch. It’s a challenge – if you play too much, or too bluesy, it’s not him anymore.”
Before heading off for a summer in Europe, Stan decided the time was right to get together to play a bunch of JJ Cale songs. “My first idea was to have just three guitars, and do it like Friday Night in Phnom Penh, after Friday Night in San Francisco, the album by Al di Meola, John McLaughlin and Paco de Lucia. I asked around to see which guitarists could be involved – eventually I came across Gaby Courroux, I heard him playing at a jam session, a nice guy and a great musician. And when we started rehearsal I was blown away how he really sounded like the real thing.”
The combo is rounded out by versatile drummer Troy Campbell, violinist Sharon Lui, and singers Scott Bywater, Marianna Hensley and Clay George.
Stan’s love for music is driven by a thirst for challenges, and an abhorrence of boredom. “What I love in musicians is versatility, being able to play different genres,” he says. “It’s a boring life if you just play one thing. Sure, if you master something you can enjoy to play that, but for me it’s good to play in different styles.”
Although he is better known for his work as a guitarist, Stan is now exploring the possibilities of the bass. “I’ve been playing bass a lot more recently – it’s a nice challenge. I’m learning and I’m listening, investing more time on the bass; I would like to learn to play jazz and Latin styles. At the moment it’s all bass, because I’m practicing for this show, and relearning 20 songs for a reunion gig for The Conspiracy Theory on January 28.”
The Conspiracy Theory, led by Brian Wood and featuring Pavel Ramirez and Ricky Haldeman, held down a Wednesday night residency at Oscar’s on the Corner last year, before Brian returned to Siem Reap and then departed for Europe. Now Brian is back, and before a couple of other band members leave the country they’ve been able to sort out one last show at the end of the month. “I’ve always been an initiator, to make things happen. I spoke with everybody separately first, just to test the waters, and everyone said yes. I think it will be a great night. We played the songs for two or three months last year. It’s a great challenge, having musicians from different backgrounds, from different levels, and rehearsals aren’t like jazz rehearsals, where you work for a chart, let’s go from bar 28 – no. Brian would say let’s go from here – where is that? Nobody knows, we don’t listen to the lyrics. So we need two minutes to figure out the spot to restart.”
For the JJ Cale show, note that there will be no cocaine after midnight – the better known songs are being eschewed in favour of the deeper cuts. “We all agreed at the start that we don’t want to do the really overplayed songs like Cocaine,” says Stan. “It will be a night for the real fans.”
The tribute is on Friday 21 January at Oscar’s on the Corner; The Conspiracy Theory will be at the same venue on the following Friday 28 January.
