Boatmen waiting on the wind

Collection Contents

#		Title	Length
1		Angel Food	5:25	Play
2		Sara De La Mer	4:09	Play
3		Floyd The Barbarian	4:53	Play
4		Lover's Pantomime	5:50	Play
5		Don't Go Lejos	7:41	Play
6		Your Cruelest Blow	3:05	Play
7		If She Were I	5:03	Play
8		Don't Assume	6:04	Play
9		Magic Ball	5:04	Play
10		Bloody Gold	3:39	Play
11		Olduvai	8:27	Play
12		A Visit To The Zoo	6:53	Play
13		The Gilt of the Christmas Lilly	6:28	Play

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Description

BOATMEN WAITING ON THE WIND

This album could be the songs that boatmen hum to themselves while waiting for the wind to pick up. Or it could be the daydreams fishwives have while listening for the end of summer. Along with a distinguished array of guest stars, it seems to be populated with an intriguing cast of characters some of whom you may feel like you've met before in the Greyhound station across the street from the mental health unit; a barbarian named Floyd whose repressive doctrines seem to draw out more than they repress, an ancient ghost, a depressed musician, an acordion playing marionette, one guy who believes that if the music stops the angels will die. Some are borrowed from older literature or religions. Quasimodo makes a cameo in the tune "Sarah de la Mer". Don't look for Sarah in the Catholic book of saints. She belongs to the Gipsies. "Your Cruelest Blow" is an ironic lament that references a couple of Coleridge's most famous poems and features the majestic string ensemble work of Jim Singleton and Nancy Buchan. It's a very long album and it's worth making it to the end if only to hear Buchan's soulful fiddle marching off into the distance on the enigmatic Dylan Thomas influenced piece, "The Gilt of the Christmas Lilly" but there are many fascinating stops along the way including forays into exotic jazz styles, salsa, reggae and psychedelic zydeco. From the seascapes in the opening number to the glass world of "The Gilt" you'll feel like you've been on a strange, beautiful journey.

- Frances Tabor

HEARTIFACTS

OFFBEAT MAGAZINE: "...one of the freshest and most essential voices in instrumental music today. - Michael Dominici

BEATLICKS (Memphis): "The lyric of 'Honeysuckle' sounds like it was written over a long weekend by Paul Simon and Bob Dylan. The verses have that driving polysyllabic roll of Dylan's Subterranean Homesick period but with Simon's gentler delivery."
- Dennis Formento

RELIX MAGAZINE: "one of the best, and most refreshing 'unknown' bands I've heard in a long, long time." - Mick Skidmore

ATERNATIVES (Gulf Coast): "Easley belongs to the Orphic line of musical artists who report to society in music from the subterranean and sub-rational lode of the unconscious whose music is intuitive, ecstatic and oracular."
- Judy Beck

GAMBIT MAGAZINE (New Orleans) : "...One of the most intriguing figures to emerge on the New Orleans Music scene in recent memory... Easley's quivering, John Coltrane meets-Buddy-Emmons licks also have earned him guest slots on recent CDs from Mem Shannon, Brian Blade and Coco Robicheaux...His band, Heartifacts,...takes its cue from mid '70's Grateful Dead." - Scott Jordan


DOWNBEAT MAGAZINE: "...new, effective voice..." (referring to Easley in their review of Brian Blade Fellowship's eponymous release.)

THE NEW YORK TIMES: "...one of the crucial elements that give his (Brian Blade's) records a swelling texture and a warm, major-key Americana: the pedal steel guitarist Dave Easley..." - Ben Ratliff

"A very necessary development, that's what you've happened on. I am delighted to be acquainted with you and your style." - Dave Chamberlain - D.J. WRFG, Atlanta

AWARDS AND ACCOLADES:

OffBeat Magazine 1997 Best of the Beat Award: Dave Easley was Best "Other Instrumentalist". (2nd place went to Pete Fountain). Dave has also been nominated each year since.

New Orleans Magazine named Dave Easley a "New Orleans Jazz All Star" in 2003.

OffBeat Magazine 1997 Best of the Beat Award: 3 Now 3 was named Best New Progressive Jazz Band.

Gambit 1997 Big Easy Awards: 3 Now 3 was named Best Emerging Artist.
MP3: #1 Song Sarah De La Mer (Psychedelic) during June 1999.
MP3: # 5 Song Magic Ball (Reggae) during June 1999.


Beatlicks: (Memphis based literary journal)


Heartifacts:::: The first time I saw this band they rolled through a repertoire that included John Coltrane, the Grateful Dead & a sizeable portion of the very extensive real estate in-between. Leader, Dave Easley, is an unassuming prodigy. His endless vocabulary of rock, blues, psychedelic, and jazz licks make him one of the most familiar players on the New Orleans music scene, where he is a runnin' partner of Coco Robicheaux. He's also a member of bassist James Singleton's creative jazz powerhouse, 3Now4.

Easley is gifted with one of the great inexhaustible musical imaginations in this city. During one 3Now4 set at the Dragon's Den, he took two long solos with a brief excursion by tenor saxist, Tim Green, sandwiched between... what amazed me was not the length of Dave's improvisations, but that he seemed never to repeat a single phrase. The music just kept tumbling out of that pedal steel like snowflakes, no two riffs ever the same, produced as effortlessly as breathing.

THE ICICLE MAN is the Heartifacts' second disk. A brief list of worthy tunes: "Not Giving Up:" the vocal is more chanted than sung, kind of like a Grateful Dead hymn, with Hawaiian effects on the guitar. "The Eerie Road" starts like a Hendrix-inspired blues march, and Dave's steel takes on the quality of an acid six-string.

The lyric of "Honeysuckle" sounds like it was written over a long weekend by Paul Simon and Bob Dylan. The verses have that driving, polysyllabic roll of Dylan's Subterranean Homesick period but with Simon's gentler delivery.

"Ollie" skanks or maybe skinks along with the great Michael Skinkus on the bongos. The title track features another sensitive and articulate local percussionist, Andrew McLean, on tablas. - Dennis Formento


Informal Comentary by Some Prominent Figures in the New Orleans Music Scene:


It's astonishing, really. Beautiful. I can't believe I didn't hear your band sooner." - Christina Diettinger

"Is the 'Icicle Man' Dave Easley?"
- Coco Robicheaux and John Magnie (Independently and unbeknownst to each other.)

"...many tremendous gifts to give the listener...stories that leave one thinking...very involved stories and poems, intertwined with serious musical content, yet all the songs are very accessible. Another gift is that I've listened to this record three times in its entirety, and I found some other tidbit I missed on the last listen... This is a CD I'll listen to again and again." -Tim Green (saxophonist)

HEARTIFACTS & GUEST STARS
P.O. Box 850702
New Orleans LA 70185-0702


Heartifacts is a band based in New Orleans, Louisiana fronted by writer, guitarist, singer and pedal steel player Dave Easley. The Heartifacts core band consists of Ethan Leaming (The Great Mr. E.) on guitar and vocals, Dave Easley (Mellow D.)(Together they comprise the Mr. E.-Mellow D. Guitar Section [Mystery Melody]); Thomas McDonald (from Anders Osborne, B-Goes, and Peabody) on bass and vocals; Karl Budo (from New World Funk Ensemble) on drums. Other occasional members and recording guest stars include Theresa Andersonn on vocals, Cori Walters on Drums, Michael Skinkas (from Michael Ray & the Cosmic Krewe, New World Funk Ensemble, Dreamland, and Smilin' Myron) on hand percussion; and Elisabeth Gill (B-Goes) on background vocals and auxiliary percussion. Maria Griener, and Irene Sage on background vocals, Thomas Tymphony on bass, Jim Singleton (3 Now 4) on acoustic bass and Nancy Buchan (Coco Robicheaux) on fiddle.

Partial Dave Discography:
Heartifacts-Boatmen Waiting on the Wind (Independent), The Icicle Man (Soon to released on Sound of New Orleans Records)
Brian Blade Felloship - Brian Blade Fellowship (Blue Note Records, Produced by Dan Lanois), Perceptual (with Joni Mitchell on vocals, also Blue Note Capitol)
Coco Robicheaux - Louisiana Medicine Man (Blues Album of the Year 1999, OffBeat Magazine, Orleans Records), Hoodoo Party (Also Orleans Records)
Royal Fingerbowl - Happy Birthday, Sabo! (TVT Records)
Mem Shannon - Spend Some Time With Me (Shanachie Records)
3 Now 4 - 3 Now 4, Book of Spells (both Independent)
Denise Mangiardi - River of My Own (Crow Hill)
Irene Sage - Irene Sage (Independent)
Paul Christian - Pan (Cannon Music)
Frankie Nola - Frankie Nola (Independent)
Lauren Pickford - Sutrees on the River (w/Rosie Carter Cash)
Monk Boudreaux/Anders Osborne - (Shanachie Records)
Shannon McNally Run For Cover (Independent)
More Press

Relix Magazine (cont.): There's not much I can tell you about The Heartifacts-Witch Doctors of the Soul except that they are one of the best, and most refreshing "unknown" bands I've heard in a long, long time.
This five-piece hails from New Orleans. Their sound is not overtly commercial, but it's got musical integrity, vitality and melody. Strong jazz tones add to the band's fluid and inventive improvisations. There's plenty of substance to the songs which run the gamut of styles from folk-rock and jazz through psychedelia and funk.
The band is led by pedal steel guitarist, Dave Easley, who manages to make the pedal steel guitar sound like anything but a country instrument. A well recorded 90-minute demo tape features some excellent original tunes by Easley as well as some innovative modern jazz workouts such as "Favorite Things" and "A Visit to the Zoo." According to Easley, Deadheads love the band's music, and it is easy to see why, as it has that free-flowing air of spontaneity. In fact, in the segue of "The Water Came Up High/Gypsy Mother" there's a slight spacey psychedelic phase before slipping into neo-African rhythms and back to jazz-rock-come-psychedelia.
- Mick Skidmore

Alternatives: ...Easley belongs to the Orphic line of musical artists who report to society in music from the subterranean and sub-rational lode of the unconscious whose music is intuitive, ecstatic and oracular...Easley writes intuitively, from Surrealist-style cues: dreams, alpha-state visions, automatic drawing. His experiences and readings steep in the unconscious to soak up their language and meaning...Easley's non-linear approach yields consistently potent, telling lyrics:
"The water came up high but didn't knock the lions from the sea wall.
Deep into the night angry dogs gave their call
For tender charges behind the gates,
Or ancient times still resplendent in their skulls."
...Shuttling into the unconscious also enables wordplay, free association and Lewis Carroll inversions. From the Native American viewpoint, "the West was lost if the West was won."...
...Reggae, rock, salsa, blues, folk, Middle Eastern, country and more weave their way into The Heartifacts' modern jazz/psychedelic core - not for novelty, but for their intrinsic, if sometimes oblique, pertinence to the material. The setting for each poem seems to choose itself in an intuitive process that Easley "can't explain." Again, this non-conscious process has a multi-leveled effect... poignant in its beauty, truth and mystery ... When genres are served straight, folklorically, they're often coupled with decidedly non-traditional, even paradoxical, material...
...What makes The Heartifacts "witch doctors of the soul"? From below consciousness, The Heartifacts bring unarguable visions that bond us; from before history, the pre-patriarchal imprint of social harmony; from around the world, regional and sub-cultural rhythms and sounds. Their medicine music shrieks, whispers, laments, caresses, warns, celebrates and reveals. And makes you feel good. - Judy Beck