Posts
Deja Fans,
My wife took a rough video of our encore at the WICA show and I offer here the links to that video. It is in three parts because of the size of the files so watch them in the order presented at your leisure.
Monday, January 18, 2010
WICA Concert & New Deja Product
Hello Deja Fans,
Well, the Deja Blooze concert at WICA as part of their Local Artist Series is now history and what an evening it was. The show was sold out and the crowd was enthusiastic beyond belief. The guys in the band were spirited and ready to play the blues and what a performance they gave, especially on relative short notice.
In conjunction with the event, a new Deja CD was released--Alone with the Blooze, $12.50--featuring 9 original songs written by David Gregor, a commemorative Deja Blooze t-shirt, $20.00, and an original poem broadside in tribute to Robert Johnson, $10.00. All items are available through me at gregorbooks@gregorbooks.com.
The sold out event was a huge success. The four musicians accompanying me were in rare form and delivered the goods in spades. While many in the audience had at some point had a previous Deja experience the WICA show was a totally different performance--specifically designed for the concert venue. The 19 song set began with a single voice with minimal guitar accompaniment delivering my own version of the traditional blues spiritual John the Revelator, then adding my harp player for an original song I wrote paying homage to M.L. King followed by our version of The Sky is Crying with me playing electric slide and Levi Burkle on bass. We then brought out guitarist David Licastro to play slide on another traditional spiritual that I arranged and wrote lyrics for called Someone's Calling My Name. We brought out our piano player Larry Neubauer for our up-tempo version of James Oden's Going Down Slow. We finished the first set with a Robert Johnson tune and two written by me--Lonesome Woman Blues and Long-Legged Blues. After a short break the full band launched the second set with four of my songs: We all Gotta Change, Look What Love Has Done, Photograph Blues and Goodbye Blues then slid into an extended version of Willie Dixon's Spoonful. We paid tribute to Robert Johnson with a medley of "I'm a Guitar King/Crossroad Blues" followed by a soulful version of "Jacksboro Highway" and a lively version of "Good Rockin' at Midnight". We ended the program with Johnson's "Travelin' Riverside Blues" and Bo Diddley's "Who Do You Love" as an encore. The crowd was enthusiastic and very generous with their vociferous applause. It was a great evening of music interspersed with tidbits of blues history and lore that made for a full evening of the blues.
The show was recorded (audio only) and if all went well, I will be making that recording available. So stay tuned. Our collective thanks to all who attended and made the show a rousing success.
Saturday, December 12, 2009
Wednesday, October 28, 2009
September 2009 marked the end of the original Deja Blooze line-up. Personnel changes in the music world are not uncommon and since our first public appearance in November 2007 we pursued a goal of mine to play a lively repertoire of blues music. And that we did. Deja Blooze was (and still is) a musical project that I pursued drawing on some of the best musical talent on South Whidbey. It has been my pleasure to make music with my talented partners for the last two years, but all things evolve and I look forward to the next chapter in the Deja Blooze evolution.
The upcoming Deja Blooze performance as part of WICA's Local Artist Series on January 16th will be a part of that evolution. Joining me for that event will be David Licastro on lead guitar, Levi Burkle on bass, Larry Neubaurer on keyboards, and Dave Gignac on harmonica. It will be a great evening of music with a little blues history mixed in. We look forward to seeing you at WICA on Saturday January 16th as we help celebrate Martin Luther King's birthday.
That is all for now.
David (Deja Blooze) Gregor
Friday, July 10, 2009
Deja Blooze at Freeland Eagles Membership Drive Poker Run
Hello All,
The 2nd annual Whidbey Island Freeland Eagles Poker Run takes place on Saturday July 25th. Sign in at the Freeland club at 9:00 am with a $20.00 entrance fee then head off to the Everett, Stanwood, Burlington, Anacortes Clubs before returning to the Freeland Eagles by 5 pm. The Freeland Eagles will be offering up a BBQ dinner and of course adult beverages will be available. And to help digest your food and get your toes tapping, DEJA BLOOZE will provide live and lively Blooze from 6 pm to 8pm. There will also be a silent auction and a raffle, all proceeds going to local charities. This event is OPEN TO THE PUBLIC so even if you're not an Eagles member, you can join in on the Poker Run, the BBQ and DEJA BLOOZE. For more information, contact Cheryl at 360.969-1678. We'd love to see all of you there...all for a great cause and a fun event.
The 2nd annual Whidbey Island Freeland Eagles Poker Run takes place on Saturday July 25th. Sign in at the Freeland club at 9:00 am with a $20.00 entrance fee then head off to the Everett, Stanwood, Burlington, Anacortes Clubs before returning to the Freeland Eagles by 5 pm. The Freeland Eagles will be offering up a BBQ dinner and of course adult beverages will be available. And to help digest your food and get your toes tapping, DEJA BLOOZE will provide live and lively Blooze from 6 pm to 8pm. There will also be a silent auction and a raffle, all proceeds going to local charities. This event is OPEN TO THE PUBLIC so even if you're not an Eagles member, you can join in on the Poker Run, the BBQ and DEJA BLOOZE. For more information, contact Cheryl at 360.969-1678. We'd love to see all of you there...all for a great cause and a fun event.
Thursday, July 9, 2009
Deja Blooze at Choochokham
Hello All,
This weekend is the Choochokham Arts Festival here in Langley, and Deja Blooze is on the musical line-up. We'll be playing Saturday July 11th from 11:00 am to 11:45 on the Main Stage at First Street & Anthes. We'll play a lively set of our signatures blooze including several new original material that we'll be releasing on our new CD in the next few weeks. So stop by the Main Stage at 11 on Saturday and let us spread some mojo your way. We'll be looking for you.
Monday, July 6, 2009
Deja Recording Update
Hello All,
Well, on July 5th it was about 75 degrees when I arrived at the Blue Ewe Studios at noon. Once all the gear loaded into the studio in the woods, it was up to David Malony--owner, engineer and ace drummer--to figure out "what am I doing here?". Once he finished his breakfast (which we so rudely interrupted) and downed a cup of joe, he remembered what his task was and began grabbing cords, setting up the mics, moving the amps, setting volumes, balances and all the important stuff that goes into making a recording session work.
While David Malony is getting his bearings, which took about an hour and a half, the band got tuned up.
Here's the voice of Deja Blooze tuning up the telecaster for some slide work later in the day. When the gear was tuned up, we still had a few minor things to hammer out....like what is the intro for this song, where do we want the solos in this one, and did we come up with an outro for song three? No matter how much we practice, sometimes little important things like a beginning and an ending are left unattended to until you're going to put them on a disc permanently.
Once David Malony got all of the wires in and checked volumes and made sure we were all connected to one another, then our work began for the next three hours.
I had written six tunes that I wanted to get recorded for an upcoming EP-CD as well as a Celebrate Whidbey CD project. While you never know how things are going to unfold in the studio, I went in with every confidence in the talent of my two band-mates; based on Ed and my previous trip into the studio, we knew that if you are dutifully rehearsed, the odds are better of a smooth studio experience. Such was the case once again. We got all six songs laid down in three hours, with several making it in one take. Which is not to say that recording is an easy task. On the contrary. It's very exhausting. You get very focused because the more takes you have to do, the less spontaneity you get. The quality of the live performance, especially on my part as the lead vocalist, can quickly degrade. And if you lose the "fire" in the delivery, you've lost the song. Actually for one song we tried it twice without hitting the sweet spot, so to speak. Malony suggested we put it aside and go on to another and come back at it "fresh." We did just that. Two tunes later we revisited the song and the suggestion worked. One refreshed take and it was in the can. We also tried another song--"Six Feet Under"--at a slow bluesy tempo with some slide guitar This version did not rock the engineer's world, so we tried it again more up-tempo without the slide, and we got a thumbs-up from maestro Malony. We also trust the engineer, with his musician's, fresh ear, to give us the straight poop on a take.
So at 4:30 pm, we called it a session, happy with what we had accomplished. We'll go back for a brief session to put in a couple of backup vocals and some additional lead guitar work. Then our work goes into the engineer's hands to mix the material and gives us the final product. And as soon as that happens, we'll have our efforts available to you. We'll keep you apprised of availability.
Deja 1 signing off.
Well, on July 5th it was about 75 degrees when I arrived at the Blue Ewe Studios at noon. Once all the gear loaded into the studio in the woods, it was up to David Malony--owner, engineer and ace drummer--to figure out "what am I doing here?". Once he finished his breakfast (which we so rudely interrupted) and downed a cup of joe, he remembered what his task was and began grabbing cords, setting up the mics, moving the amps, setting volumes, balances and all the important stuff that goes into making a recording session work. While David Malony is getting his bearings, which took about an hour and a half, the band got tuned up.
Here's the voice of Deja Blooze tuning up the telecaster for some slide work later in the day. When the gear was tuned up, we still had a few minor things to hammer out....like what is the intro for this song, where do we want the solos in this one, and did we come up with an outro for song three? No matter how much we practice, sometimes little important things like a beginning and an ending are left unattended to until you're going to put them on a disc permanently.
Once David Malony got all of the wires in and checked volumes and made sure we were all connected to one another, then our work began for the next three hours.
I had written six tunes that I wanted to get recorded for an upcoming EP-CD as well as a Celebrate Whidbey CD project. While you never know how things are going to unfold in the studio, I went in with every confidence in the talent of my two band-mates; based on Ed and my previous trip into the studio, we knew that if you are dutifully rehearsed, the odds are better of a smooth studio experience. Such was the case once again. We got all six songs laid down in three hours, with several making it in one take. Which is not to say that recording is an easy task. On the contrary. It's very exhausting. You get very focused because the more takes you have to do, the less spontaneity you get. The quality of the live performance, especially on my part as the lead vocalist, can quickly degrade. And if you lose the "fire" in the delivery, you've lost the song. Actually for one song we tried it twice without hitting the sweet spot, so to speak. Malony suggested we put it aside and go on to another and come back at it "fresh." We did just that. Two tunes later we revisited the song and the suggestion worked. One refreshed take and it was in the can. We also tried another song--"Six Feet Under"--at a slow bluesy tempo with some slide guitar This version did not rock the engineer's world, so we tried it again more up-tempo without the slide, and we got a thumbs-up from maestro Malony. We also trust the engineer, with his musician's, fresh ear, to give us the straight poop on a take.
So at 4:30 pm, we called it a session, happy with what we had accomplished. We'll go back for a brief session to put in a couple of backup vocals and some additional lead guitar work. Then our work goes into the engineer's hands to mix the material and gives us the final product. And as soon as that happens, we'll have our efforts available to you. We'll keep you apprised of availability.
Deja 1 signing off.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)