Tag Archives: Good Karma

DownTown Blog – Welcome To Sha-La Land

2020 has been one tough historic year and it will be long remembered for the life-changing events that seemed to happen almost daily. People and History will talk about surviving the deadly Covid-19 Pandemic in the years that follow. What might not be talked about is the emotional toll it took on everyone. People had loved ones die and many never had a chance to see them or say goodbye. The pandemic has been like something out of a sci-fi horror movie. Hospitals were so overrun with Covid cases, that many died without anyone claiming their bodies, only to be buried in mass graves like something out of the Middle Ages when plagues were killing people.

It was back in the summer that the thought occurred to me that I should release some musical ‘positive vibes’ out to the world dealing with this pandemic. Sha-La was releasing The Discontent Specialty Shows album and the song Dying Breath struck me as being perfect for this time we were all going through. When I thought about all the music released on Sha-La I decided to make a compilation album with positive messages. It was obvious that the cover art for Welcome To Sha-La Land had a Christmas look to it with the green and reds flowing together, so I thought a Holiday release would be in order. Even though there are no ‘Christmas songs’, I felt that making the album have a ‘positive vibe’ would capture the ‘Christmas spirit’.

I needed a strong lead track to start the album that could also be a single for Radio. Test Of Time seemed to fit the bill. I had written and recorded the song as a gift for my wife Barbara on our 25th Wedding Anniversary, but taken another way, it really speaks to those who lost loved ones to the pandemic. Also, a pattern soon developed, with DownTown Mystic featured on the other tracks with Bruce Engler and The Discontent. It only seemed fair to feature Bruce on Test Of Time because of his great slide playing and harmony vocals on the track. Moving next to One More Chance, which I co-wrote with Bruce, seemed like the perfect segue. It’s also the title track from the album Sha-La will release in 2021 called One More Chance featuring DownTown Mystic.

https://soundcloud.com/shalaman/standing-still

Pollution is a track I co-wrote and produced with The Discontent. DownTown Mystic recorded the song and called it Breathe. Again, it seemed like perfect timing with the lyric “I can’t breathe”. Standing Still is one of my favorite DTM tracks and it was a tough song to write. I had started to try and write about my father’s parents (my grandparents) who both died within a couple of weeks of each other in different hospitals. My father and his 3 sisters never got to see their parents to say goodbye, which is something that’s been all too common in 2020. It became too difficult to get the story down so I focused on writing the song to my father, who died when I was young. The song comes full circle in my feeling like he must have felt with his father and mother.

https://soundcloud.com/shalaman/dying-breath-the-discontent

I included Bruce’s song Fiona because it’s one of my faves and I think one of the best he’s ever written. I wanted to record it from the 1st time I heard his demo of it. I feel the same way about Dying Breath by The Discontent. I recorded more guitar and harmonies on it to bring the track out a bit more. It really hits home right now with all of the lives that have been lost in this pandemic. It has one of the rare positive lyrics from Jessie where he flips the script, from asking to take his dying breath, to not wanting to die and finding meaning in life. It’s profound on a level that Jessie is not usually known for. 🙂

Next, we move on to a 3-song acoustic set starting with Better Day. This was a bonus track on the cd and is the acoustic mix of the song. It has a totally different vibe from the main version, mainly because the acoustic guitar plays a different rhythm than the electric guitars on the track. I wrote The Last Teardrop in 1980 and I’ve always considered it one of my best. It’s an Elegy about loss but it also offers hope for the future. I asked Bruce to sing it because I never liked my voice on it. His vocal is just so natural and I remember when he cut it in the studio. It was amazing! Then I got to record a harmony to it and finally got a definitive version of the song. Also, producer Rob Harari had us track 9 acoustic guitars that created a very cool sound landscape.

https://soundcloud.com/shalaman/the-last-teardrop-bruce-engler

Dead End Space is one of the rare acoustic tracks by The Discontent. Come to think of it, it’s their only acoustic track. I was trying to get the band a song that would allow the listener to ease up from their usual intense attack of material. I co-wrote the song with Jessie Hobbs and the late Ozzie Caccavelli and we recorded the track at Ozzie’s home studio. I’ll never forget Ozzie’s reaction after we finished writing it. I saw the look on his face, which seemed to be shock, and asked him what the matter was. He just shook his head and said it was too good for them. Lol

Welcome To Sha-L Land finishes with 3-Way Heartbreak, which I included because it was not on the Used Records History album and Good Karma by Monte Farber. Monte and I share the same birthday (he’s 2 years older) and first met in the NYC clubs we were playing back in the late 70s. Our lives parallel each other’s in so many ways it could only be coincidence. He’s an astrologer and I’m a numerologist. Monte would go on to become one of the leading New Age authors, creating some of the most incredible divination systems with his wife, artist Amy Zerner. Sha-La released Good Karma almost 30 years ago and it’s become a perennial holiday season favorite.

Sha-La Music celebrated its 33rd year in business in 2020. We started the year by releasing the positive Better Day album in January, not knowing that the Covid-19 Pandemic would soon be taking over the world and changing lives forever. We’ve all lost loved ones and friends that in many ways still feels surreal. It only seems appropriate that we end the year with Welcome To Sha-La Land and put out some more positive energy at the most emotional time of the year. We hope that 2021 will find an end to this pandemic and allow all of us to get back to our lives for the better.

DownTown Blog – DownTown Mystic: Used Records History 1979-1985 Part 2 “A Long Strange Trip”

What a long strange trip it’s been…or words to that effect. Going back into my musical archives and listening to all the songs I recorded 35-40 years ago brought back memories…both good and bad…but mostly good. The main thing I took away from the experience was how much the music always mattered to me. I left a band that was my life for 10 years to go solo because I wanted to concentrate on writing better songs and getting more into the recording process…and that’s exactly what I did. I stayed true to myself and the music, and that’s not something many people can say.

When putting the album together I decided to arrange the songs chronologically by the year they were recorded, starting with 3 tracks by The Tupelos (1979-80). The only exception was the 1st track Please Be There, which features Garry Tallent from The E Street Band on bass. This song had been on the 45 single with Chuck Berry’s Sweet Little 16 from 1979. We changed the arrangement with Garry. I thought it should be the lead track because it was recorded as part of a Production Deal that was the last highlight for the band.

The Tupelos 1980

Actually, it was that single that attracted Garry to the band at the end of 1979, when he was recording The River with Bruce and The E Street Band. Garry came over to my house in 1980 to jam with the band and agreed to play bass and record with us when we got a deal. We got the deal and Garry came down with us to record in Washington DC and then last played with us on stage at The Fast Lane in Asbury Park. Garry would be our bass player from April to August 1980. There’s no other band that can make that claim outside of Springsteen himself. LOL

https://soundcloud.com/shalaman/sweet-little-sixteen

I left The Tupelos in early 1981 and went to LA, driving cross country with the bass player George (who we met at that Fast Lane show). My publisher hooked us up with Gregg Thomas, a drummer who had worked with Neil Young and Leon Russell and we recorded some songs with him. This was really the 1st time that I got to play with a pro drummer and I learned a lot from it. There’s something that I can only describe as “solid” by the way guys like him, Max Weinberg and Steve Holley all play. It was this same quality that I saw in Tommy Mastro when I heard him play with The Discontent that made me want to get back into recording my songs again.

Robert at Alley Studios 1981 N. Hollywood

 When I got back from LA I knew what I wanted to do and went solo, recording my 1st project in 1982. I would play all the instruments with the exception of bass, enlisting the help of my good friend and fellow Aquarian Monte Farber. Monte has since gone on to become one of the leading New Age authors in the world. Along with his wife, artist Amy Zerner, they’ve created some of the best-selling divination systems ever created. You can hear Monte on the Welcome To Sha-La Land release and his own album, Good Karma.

I chose the 3 best tracks recorded with Monte for this album. Baby Believe Me, Night Time Girl and I Just Want To Love You all feature piano as the main instrument. This was something new for me and helped to add a new dimension to my songs. Night Time Girl was written right after I wrote Brian Jones in 1980 and both were in The Tupelos setlist. I Just Want To Love You was one of the 1st songs I wrote for The Tupelos and it was the last song I recorded with the band. I also recorded it with Gregg Thomas in LA. I clearly had a thing for this song because I couldn’t let it go of it until I had a definitive version that I felt was IT. You’ll notice that I have 1979 & 1982 listed for Sweet Lies. This song was recorded with the band as part of the 1979 Single session and then I went back to it, recording piano and re-mixing it during my solo session in 1982. 30 years later, I borrowed the intro and verse chords to write Read The Signs with Bruce Engler.

The next 2 songs, You Didn’t Know and Same Old Lover are from a 1983 8-tk demo session which would be a very important turning point for me. It’s not these songs alone, but the ones that were also recorded and are missing–the original versions of And You Know Why & Way To Know. These were much different from the versions I recorded with Garry Tallent & Max Weinberg. This was also the 1st time I ever played bass on a recording, thanks to swapping my pedal steel with Garry for one of his bass guitars. I wish I could find those original demos, especially Way To Know. Most likely I sent the reel to reel tape with them on it to Paul Schindler, my music attorney at the time. It was another era.

The remaining 4 songs (1985) were the last recordings I did until starting the DownTown Mystic Project 12 years later. I think you can hear a marked improvement in my writing and recording. I hooked up with Joe Norosavage, a keyboard player I met through Garry Tallent. The 80s and MTV were in full swing, as were synths, sequencers and drum machines. I decided to forego a band to make a state of the art recording. Turn Around and Go gets the full 80s treatment here. Who could have guessed that Fly Like The Wind would be discovered 30 years later and become one of my top sync-licensing tracks!

If you’re wondering why I called the project Used Records it’s because those songs from 1985 would be released in Europe on a cd called Used Records by a German label called Long Island Records in 1995. I was managing bands by this time and was out in LA when I met the label’s owner and all-around nice guy, Sondi. He wasn’t interested in a band I was shopping at the time but then we got to talking about this project I had done with the likes of Garry Tallent and Max Weinberg. This seemed to get Sondi’s attention and we made a deal. I wanted to get my songs on a cd since all my tapes were wearing thin, so this was a win-win! 🙂

Robert & 1976 Les Paul

It’s been strange to go back over songs I wrote and recorded in another century. I still think about getting Nik Cohn’s letter in the mail 3 years ago and just how strange it was to read his words. I look at it now like someone tapping me on the shoulder, trying to get my attention to look at this music. There’s certainly karma at work here. So in a very real sense, this album feels inevitable to me now. As I said at the start of this post, what a long strange trip it’s been. 🙂

Listen to DownTown Mystic: Used Records History 1979-1985