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Wednesday, 16 September 2009

Spot * Jude Vivona

Spot - (Austin, TX) - I AM PRIMARILY A SOLO WARRIOR THESE DAYS. Over the years I've had bands, been in bands, played with other musicians, etc. But when it comes to really getting something done musically, it seems lately I've had to go it alone. Main instruments played are guitar (acoustic & electric) and tenor banjo. Other instruments include mandolin, bouzouki, fiddle, fiddola, bass, bamdo, cittern, drums, percussion, clarinets and other reeds (tho my reed chops are kinda rusty these days). So let's say I'm a multi-instrumentalist/composer/writer/solo performer/sideman. Insofar as styles..... acoustic/jazz/rock were the closest boxes to get the idea across. I started out on acoustic instruments (this was eons ago), then roared into the electric kingdom (again, eons ago) to be the proverbial rock & roll baby who grew up with a jazz sensibility. Eventually there was the punk rock muck (yeah, go figure) and, when I unmired myself from that, there was the traditional Irish & Celtic muck to trudge through (yeah, keep figuring) and, now that I've mostly emerged from that paisley bog, there is now "the muck that cannot be named!" And thus, I am so mired (ok, figuring won't help you now)! Ahh, Muck! The choice of a blue generation! ...the man makes some very interesting but very hard to describe music. Certainly worth a listen for the musically adventurous." — Dirty Linen "...Spot can really play his ass off." — Mike Watt "He is a ruling individual—privilege to know him. Spot is the best—funny, insightful, a real natural Dadaistic head." —Nels Cline (Wilco) "...his simpler, storytelling numbers resonated with naughty wit and fiery sarcasm (while) the instrumentals recalled the more refined works of Leo Kottke and Chet Atkins." — Bernard Lesemann (Flagpole; Athens, GA) "...Spot stole the show and he was completely solo. But then again, he can play anything, as he proved when he hoined Mike Watt later in Mike's set, so it never gets boring. Great show." —Xanna Don't (Don't Label It; Raleigh, NC) "...with influences as far reaching as rock, jazz, avant-garde, country and Celtic... ...this man takes off, leaving the known world far behind, although pegging it as only a truly 'out there' perspective can. ...because he plays the hell out of anything he gets his hands on—most visibly guitar and tenor banjo." —Tim Britton (Fairfield Weekly Reader; Fairfield, IA) "...he heads down the eccentric-post-Beat path (a narrow one, through dark woods) taken by the likes of Michael Hurley and Peter Stampfel." "...(Spot is) proof that the elusive grail of tradition is as much in the individual vision as it is in the cliches." — Monica Kendrick (Chicago Reader) "...if you took Trey Anastasio and John Fahey and squeezed them into one body, you'd come up with Spot." — Jason Enright (Jupiter Records) "...thankfully, Spot's sense of humor and years of experience have combined to make his explorations and updatings of the hornpipe, jig, and all those old traditional musical forms with funny names far more than just a fine academic study." — Ken Lieck (Austin Chronicle) "...(it all) makes sense, in an acid-folk, progressive-bluegrass, front porch fingerpicking kind of way." — Greg Baise (Metrotimes; Detroit, MI)

 

Last Update Wednesday 16 September, 2009