the hum / By Bob Doran

Truth with Melody

Thad Beckman, Kaydi Johnson, Mad Professor and facts about Carlos

(Jan. 29, 2009)  Formerly local bluesman/songwriter Thad Beckman is one of many who made the move from Humboldt to Portland. In Thad’s case, it was via Austin, Texas, and since he was born and raised in Portland it was a homecoming. Thad’s back in Arcata for a Friday night show at a club he knows well, the Jambalaya, joined by globe-trotting drummer Danny Montgomery and relatively sedentary bassist Gary Davidson, both old friends and former bandmates (along with the proverbial unnamed “special guests”). The gig is a CD release party of sorts, since Thad comes bearing a new album titled, Me Talking to Me. Talking about what? I wondered.

“Oh, all kinds of interesting tales,” said Beckman when I called him in Portland. He noted that you should not expect the same old blues. “It’s a songwriter album,” he emphasized. “It covers more territory. There’s some county influence, a little blues influence, but it’s not a blues album in any respect. There are ballads. There’s a song about Hank Williams, a song about falling in love, of course there’s some broken-hearted stuff. There’s funky stuff, a rock tune, some slide guitar — it’s kind all over the map.”

GALLERY >

Hank Williams? “It’s a song called ‘Honky Tonks and Truths.’ It’s actually about me loving to listen to Hank Williams, talking about him a bit. For my money he’s the best songwriter of the last century, at least one of the best. He told the truth with melody.” A lofty goal — we’ll see if Thad does it himself.

Ask someone who’s familiar with the work of Kaydi Johnson about what she does and they’ll probably tell you she’s a singer/songwriter, although they might add “poet,” since she incorporates spoken word sections in songs like “Eddie” (often leading to Rickie Lee Jones comparisons). Kaydi’s part of a makeshift online social network called “Six Sentences,” where you’re invited to describe yourself in, that’s right, six sentences. She only uses four:

“About Me: I am a poet, novelist and singer/songwriter. I was a fiction editor for the Cortland Review. I hold an MFA in Fiction from Sarah Lawrence College. My third CD, Peasant of the Wreck, was released on Fifty Fifty Music, NYC, in June 2008.”

Note that singer/songwriter comes third.

“Singer songwriter should be first — that’s what I do most — but that’s a writers’ site,” she explained when I asked about it. “Anyway, it all rolls together,” she added. When you listen to Kaydi’s songs with writing in mind, you’ll see that many are like short sketches that could be worked into novels, and literary allusions abound.

First up in the photo section on Kaydi’s website (www.kaydijohnsong.com) is a snap of Kaydi with David Crosby taken when she opened for his show at the Eureka Theater a while back. Crosby’s guitarist on that gig was Jeff Pevar, who just happens to be playing with Kaydi this weekend for a pair of gigs at the Lost Whale Inn. (Coincidence?) They’ll be joined by Jeff’s partner Inger Jorgensen (an artist/singer who also happens to be an HSU alum) for an intimate house concert-type show. Kaydi will be back at the Lost Whale the following weekend (Feb. 6 and 7) with jazzy folkies Allison Scull and Victor Martin. In between, Thursday, Feb. 5, Kaydi plays solo at Mosgo’s. Expect some new songs: She’s been winning songwriting contests at various folk festivals and she’s working on a solo album. “I play by myself all the time and I’m getting better on guitar,” she says. “Simpler, with just vocals and guitar seems to be the way things are going — plus when you’re recording, it’s cheaper.”

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