NPD Music

27/12/2023

04/11/2023

“I don’t play with a lot of finesse. I usually play like I’m breaking out of jail!”
— Stevie Ray Vaughan

09/09/2023

Behind The Music
"Nature Boy" was Nat King Cole's first big hit, since then it has been covered over 1223 times! The story behind the song is even more sensational.

Jon S. Randal Peace Page has the strange story of eden ahbez: "In the late 40s, there was a rumor that there was a "hermit," disenchanted and disillusioned with the world, supposedly "out-of-sync" with society, living in California in a cave under one of the L’s in the Hollywood sign.

No one really cared about this strange man, until one night in 1947, when someone tried to enter backstage at the Lincoln Theater in Los Angeles. Nat King Cole was playing there, and the man said he had something for Cole. Of course, the employees didn't let the strange man see Cole, so he gave whatever he had with Cole's manager.

What he had was a song sheet, which Cole would later take a look at. Cole liked the song and wanted to record it, but he had to find the strange man. When asked, the people who saw the man said he was strange, indeed, with shoulder-length hair and beard, wearing sandals and a white robe.

Cole finally tracked him down in New York City. When Cole asked him where he was staying, the strange man declared he was staying at the best hotel in New York - outside, literally, in Central Park. He said his name was eden ahbez (spelled all in lower-case letters). The song he gave Cole was titled, "Nature Boy." It became Cole's first big hit, and was soon covered by other artists through the years, from Frank Sinatra and Sarah Vaughan to Tony Bennett and Lady Gaga, most recently.
Of course, the media went crazy about the strange, mysterious man who handed Nat King Cole, one of the biggest hits during that time. Everyone went out to try to find out more about him.

What little they found was that he was once an orphan, who never stayed at one place very long, living in various foster homes. He explained he just never fit in and was always searching, for something.

["They say he wandered very far...
Very far, over land and sea..."
They found out he would hop freight trains and walked across country several times, subsisting solely on raw fruits and vegetables, then one day he completely vanished.
["A little shy and sad of eye...
But very wise was he..."]

He finally showed up again in the Hollywood hills. When a policeman stopped the strange, long-haired man with beard, sandals, and robe, ahbez simply replied, "I look crazy but I'm not. And the funny thing is that other people don't look crazy but they are."
["And then one day...
One magic day he passed my way..."]
He then showed up backstage at Nat King Cole's concert in Los Angeles, to present him with the song, "Nature Boy." No one seems to really know why he selected Cole, there were some rumors that he came out of hiding when he began to hear about the racism going on and trouble throughout the world, and he thought "King" was the best person at that time to pass his message along.
["While we spoke of many things...
Fools and Kings..."]
When he was asked about racism, he replied, "Some white people hate black people, and some white people love black people, some black people hate white people, and some black people love white people. So you see it's not an issue of black and white, it's an issue of Lovers and Haters."
It was that theme of love that he continued to talk about, what was missing in the world, and what would be needed in the future if we are to survive.
ahbez would eventually get his message out, especially after the counter-culture finally caught up with him and the hippie movement began, when other artists such as Donovan, Grace Slick, and the Beach Boys' Brian Wilson sought him out. He also wrote songs for Eartha Kitt and had another song recorded by Sam Cooke.
In 2009, Congressman Bill Aswad recited the last lyrics of the song before the Vermont House of Representatives at the passing of his state's same-sex marriage bill in '09.
Author Raymond Knapp described the track as a "mystically charged vagabond song" whose lyrics evoked an intense sense of loss and haplessness, with the final line delivering a universal truth, described by Knapp as "indestructible" and "salvaged somehow from the perilous journey of life."
["This he said to me...
The greatest thing you'll ever learn...
Is just to love and be loved in return."]
➖➖➖
"George Alexander Aberle (April 15, 1908 – March 4, 1995), known as eden ahbez, was an American songwriter and recording artist of the 1940s to 1960s, whose lifestyle in California was influential in the hippie movement.
He was known to friends simply as ahbe.
Ahbez composed the song "Nature Boy", which became a No. 1 hit for eight weeks in 1948 for Nat "King" Cole.
Living a bucolic life from at least the 1940s, he traveled in sandals and wore shoulder-length hair and beard, and white robes. He camped out below the first L in the Hollywood Sign above Los Angeles and studied Oriental mysticism. He slept outdoors with his family and ate vegetables, fruits, and nuts. He claimed to live on three dollars per week.
In the mid 1950s, he wrote songs for Eartha Kitt, Frankie Laine, and others, as well as writing some rock-and-roll novelty songs. In 1957, his song "Lonely Island" was recorded by Sam Cooke, becoming the second and final Ahbez composition to hit the Top 40.
In 1959, he began recording instrumental music, which combined his signature somber tones with exotic arrangements and (according to the record sleeve) "primitive rhythms". He often performed bongo, flute, and poetry gigs at beat coffeehouses in the Los Angeles area. In 1960, he recorded his only solo LP, Eden's Island, for Del-Fi Records. This mixed beatnik poetry with exotica arrangements. Ahbez promoted the album through a coast-to-coast walking tour making personal appearances, but it sold poorly.
During the 1960s, ahbez released five singles. Grace Slick's band, the Great Society, recorded a version of "Nature Boy" in 1966 and ahbez was photographed in the studio with Brian Wilson during a session for the Smile album in early 1967. Later that year, British singer Donovan sought out ahbez in Palm Springs, and the two wanderers shared a reportedly "near-telepathic" conversation. In the 1970s, Big Star's Alex Chilton recorded a version of "Nature Boy" with the photographer William Eggleston on piano. The song was finally released as a bonus track on the 1992 Rykodisc re-release of the album Third/Sister Lovers.
In 1974, ahbez was reported to be living in the Los Angeles suburb of Sunland, and he owned a record label named Sunland Records, for which he was recording under the name "Eden Abba." From the late 1980s until his death, ahbez worked closely with Joe Romersa, an engineer/drummer in Los Angeles. The master tapes, photos, and final works of eden ahbez are in Romersa's possession.
Ahbez died on March 4, 1995, of injuries sustained in a car accident, at the age of 86. Another album, Echoes from Nature Boy, was released posthumously."

09/09/2023

September 4, 2023 - Washington, MA - The Farm

It's Labor Day! And I'm taking the day off. I wasn't doing much to begin with, but I'm celebrating anyway. I've been seeing lots of posts on various social media sites reminding everyone of what Labor Day is all about. It didn't used to be about going on vacation.

There were mainly two people who taught me what the holiday its about. Pete Seeger was one, and the other was my father, Woody Guthrie. They were the ones who taught me about the struggle it took to get this far in plain old fashioned fairness. We're still not there, but we're on the right road. The songs they sang and the people they influenced were important to me. I learned how to be fair with people who worked for me, and people I worked for.

Later on this evening I'll raise a glass to everyone who actually worked for a fair wage, and I'll be doing what I can to see that struggle continue in lots of places around the country and the world where fairness is still hard to come by. It's pretty simple.

Not far from where I am at this moment there used to be a place (in Lenox/Stockbridge) where folks would gather to hear music and rouse the spirit. My father and Pete played there, and I played there too. The old Music Inn has been gone quite some time, but like a lot of things it's worth remembering.

Here's a photo of Pete and my dad getting ready to perform at the Music Inn.

09/09/2023

I didn’t know Jimmy Buffett. But I sure I wish I did. About 5 years ago I’d started calling my music “Gulf & Western”. It sounded better to me then what I was going by before, Gulf Coast Boogie Woogie. Being naive, I thought I’d come up with my own sub genre. I got the idea from the old Paramount Pictures logo with the tall snow capped mountain on it. Well, a few years later somebody reviewing one of my records noted that I identified as gulf and western and that Jimmy Buffett had claimed that title almost 50 years before. Of course he did. He was born on the Gulf too. He was also very country, and highly unusual. Difficult to pin down. Margaritaville casts a mighty long shadow, and because of that, a lot of folks discount Jimmy’s brilliance. But that’s how you know you wrote a hit. How I came around to being a Parrot Head was all thanks to the 1974 neo-western cult classic “Rancho Deluxe”. I kept wondering who the hell was signing all those songs in the movie. The voice was familiar but I couldn’t place it. Short story long, it was Jimmy Buffett. That soundtrack feels like a country concept album to me. I’d say that’s what it is. So began my journey into his early albums. And there’s a lot of ‘em! I’ve reached a place in my life where his song writing brings me great comfort in a relentlessly tiresome world. I don’t fit in to the modern music business. But neither did Jimmy Buffett, and he reminds me that I don’t have to give a damn. I can do it anyway I want to. And I do. That’s how I came to call my sound “Gulf & Western”. When you’re from the Deep South, and especially born along that third coast line, you’re a different type of country & western. The kind that hangs in all that humidity and warm breeze. Thank you Jimmy. From Livingston to Texas, I’ll be eating off your plate for a long time. Jimmy Buffett

12/08/2023

I have hundreds of credentials from working shows but I worked harder for these than all the others put together.

04/03/2023

04/03/2023

RIP David Lindley- Another big loss right on the heels of losing Wayne Shorter. David Lindley was a true stylist and a unique voice on whatever instrument he picked up. His lap steel playing in particular was a big influence on me. I’ve always put David on a short list of major influences on my slide playing- especially on the melodic side. Often times when I’m approaching a song or solo in a major key Lindley’s influence will appear automatically. His style was so vocalesque and his sense of melody was a deep well. I think of some of those Jackson Browne songs with David that we all heard on the radio in the seventies where his solos became part of the song to the point where even non-musicians could hum along. David leaves behind a beautiful trove of music for music lovers to enjoy for centuries to come.- WH

31/10/2022

12/10/2022

I don`t care much about music. What I like is sounds.
~Dizzy Gillespie~

05/10/2022

Still, a man hears what he wants to hear and disregards the rest...
~Paul Simon~

30/09/2022

With Loretta Reese

02/08/2022

The sign is up, and it is HUGE!!
We couldn't be happier, thank you NB Signs & Design ... y'all are the best!
Come see it with your own eyes, play some guitars, hang out, love life, and just surround yourself with music!

02/08/2022

26/07/2022

Deal Closed 🙌🏽 Come see the premier of performing live at Wednesday August 10th 7-9pm For table reservations 210.320.9224

25/05/2022

"There’s a foreboding underpinning this song from the very first note; and the harmonies direct the chills down your spine." - Americana Highways

I'm so happy to share the latest single from Ben Balmer & Friends: Volume One. Please enjoy 'Johnson Farm' written by the one and only Mark Jungers. I'm so happy that Americana Highways wanted to premiere this tune, recorded with the band at King Electric Recording. Give it a listen at the link below, and find it streaming on Spotify this Friday, May 27.

https://linktr.ee/benbalmer

10/05/2022

Guitars, Guitars, and more GUITARS here at the shop, come by and check them out!
227 Courtyard Dr.
New Braunfels, Texas 78130

29/04/2022

“There are two kinds of music. Good music, and the other kind.” Happy Birthday Duke Ellington

11/04/2022

Hi, my name is Tyler Jordan, and Jake Ames is my best friend. We play t… Jason Jordan needs your support for Hometown Guitar Hero, Jake Ames, Needs Your Help

08/04/2022

Get your tickets on Eventbrite!