Pond Water Society event July 10, 2010

Ellyn Maybe & Tommy Jordan

I’ve seen Ellyn Maybe & her band at a number of events and also when they had their residency at 212 in Santa Monica. Every single time, I find myself grinning like a maniac, I just get so excited by the music and the lyrics and the laughter. It’s impossible not to get caught up in it. Ellyn’s band is phenomenal, so talented and fun: Harlan Steinberger from Hen House Studios, Tommy C. Jordan from Geggy Tah and Robbie Fitzsimmons from Rabbits Running (this link is to a free album download that you should really check). Robbie couldn’t be here for the event but it was so cool to have the three artists who collaborated to create the CD “Rodeo for the Sheepish” all here to play it.

I need to admit here that I became a gushing fan the first time I saw them, and immediately asked Ellyn if she would perform here. I do not know where I get the balls for this stuff, I just couldn’t contain myself and I asked. She said “yes! Yay!” and it turned out that the date was her birthday and so we jumped around some and laughed and it was all giddy. Oh my god, what a responsibility! THE Ellyn Maybe is going to be here on her birthday? How am I going to make that great for her?

What the Tiki Bar looked like.

July 10th was the first time that we had the event outside and it was so nice to be out in the sun and be able to spread out a little. We used the PondWater launching pad, which was once a Tiki Bar until entropy took it’s toll. Everything that you see in this photo is displaced now except for the concrete floor. Todd Kraus and his son, Randy, brought a microphone and amp for Jamey Hecht to use and Randy did a great job with the sound.

Jamey Hecht opened the entertainment by reading 4 sonnets from his book, “Limousine, Midnight Blue“. Honestly, if you haven’t heard of this book then just click on “Jamey Hecht” in the tag cloud over there up and to your right. I have to stop glowing over it, you take over from here. I had specifically asked Jamey if he would read from his translation of Sophocles “Three Theban Plays“. You know, that story of Oedipus is really pretty killer and he tells it so well, I really wanted to see/hear it out in the garden. It was transcendent, so perfect with the birds singing in the background; I could have sworn that I was in Greece and in some other time. I’m going to show you the videos of that here, but you know how that goes; no matter how much I love these videos, they are no replacement for the experience of being in the audience.

So, what to do, what to do, what to do to make Ellyn Maybe’s birthday special and how do you earn Sophocles in your back yard? All I could come up with was the food; make a big cake for Ellyn and some Spanikopita for Sophocles, some carrot-fennel soup, sandwiches, etc. that’s all I got. But you know what did it? Ellyn and the audience made her birthday special. Jamey and Sophocles brought it home. I love so much watching the artists and the audience connect and make the day. At one point during the show the audience broke out with a spontaneous round of “Happy Birthday” and you could feel the warmth and joy between everyone.

Tommy C. Jordan playing our Kalimba

Todd was so smart and he suggested to Eddie and I that we bring out the Bass Kalimba that we had all worked on. Eddie gave it to Tommy and he knew just what to do with it. I was so thrilled because that thing has sat here for a very long time and we found the just right person to make use of it; he played it like it was a normal part of their set and it sounded so awesome! Well, now that I think about it, I’ve seen Tommy play table tops and chair legs and make them sound great. I have spent so much time trying to tune that thing and have never been able to do it, hours and hours of frustration. Harlen gave me the best tip ever and informed me that these instruments don’t need to be tuned, they just need to sound good. Who knew that having a musicologist in the house would provide such relief?

Lori McGinn made the most beautiful Mexican Wedding Cake cookies, they were delicious! Everyone brought such wonderful things, it really did feel like such a celebration, and it was! We had so much fun (I’m speaking for everyone, but we did!).

Here are Ellyn’s videos just to prove it:

Ellyn and her band and Jamey Hecht have humbled me to the point where I lost my stream of consciousness and have struggled to tell you about it. You’ll need to trust me that it was all quite divine.

On Saturday, August 14th, the Poets in Distress will be here and The Dull is going to reunite to open the show. I’m not sure what that means, but I suspect that a punk band is going to be in the back yard and a lot of unruly poets. What I know for a fact is that these unruly poets are really good and a lot of fun. Just because they bring chaos with them wherever they go, well, they can’t help that, it’s their lot in life. If you could find your way here to witness this with me, that would pretty much rock.

You can find details and a schedule at the PondWater Society website and also on Facebook;.

Ellyn Maybe and Michael C. Ford inside the Beyond Baroque bookstore before the show.

Round VII: Sparring With Beatnik Ghosts on Friday, July 23, 2010, Venice, CA.

Photo by Mani Suri

ELLYN MAYBE is a dynamic performer (joined on the night of July 23rd at Beyond Baroque by two extremely talented musicians Danny Moynahan and Robbie Fitzsimmons matching her charistmatic artistry) and I’m so honored to have had her be a part of Sparring With Beatnik Ghosts. Maybe’s Rodeo For The Sheepish is getting rave reviews and her set at Sparring was filled with beautifully infectious sound and words connecting the brain to a much needed transfusion of art at its best!

Photo by Mani Suri

MICHAEL C. FORD is not merely a Language Commando but a Five Star General of poetry — once again demonstrating his craft not only to the Beyond Baroque audience on July 23rd but drawing tremendous respect from his poet peers with the highest standards. He has it dialed in impressively — as the crowd witnessed at the Sparring With Beatnik Ghosts show. Ford’s work is extremely influential and his accessibility to less-known poets earns him a place of honor among Los Angeles poet greats.

by  Michael C Ford

My initial thought was to decline an invitation to comment on these 49 spoken word tracks. As an associate producer at Hen House Studios, during the gestation period of this recorded document, there might have been some danger that the subjective nature of my prose would take on the PR complexion of a pinch  of low grade salt. That being said, however, as someone who studied the important facets of the creative process with Kenneth Rexroth, Kenneth Patchen and, later, with the poet and translator Jack Hirschman at UCLA, I have better chance of identifying with what’s concerned the Robert Peters compendium of five decades of literary contributions than, perhaps, most anyone. And I/m really  talking about gifts which comprise his prolific catalogue, and how his many works have been assimilated into realms of the World Culture.

One has only to listen to Peters, on tracks like Father, Son, Cousin, Country-Western Band or Home-Made Saw-Rig. With a combination of rhapsody and lament he invites us to experience the  rural landscapes, as well as the interior terrain of the years of his Wisconsin youth. Then, as with cuts like  Memory Loss In A Parkinglot, we’re  hearing him go onward,  into an undeniable poetic maturity. It should be noted that executive producer Harlan Steinberger is responsible for the competently composed, engaging and thoroughly complimentary musical backdrop.

As a hyphenated American poet-playwright- essayist-critical analyst, Peters has been continuously, acknowledged as an author of evocative, imperious perceptions, generally,  involved with the whole of international literature.

Now, this 2009 set of aural genetic poetics, in their entirety, are every bit the perfect recorded companion to a Peters volume of print entitled Familial Love and other Misfortunes: certainly an indicative collection produced by Red Hen Press, in 1999, and still available via their website.

Since, 1974, I/ve been aware that Robert Peters, as an artist who, through his differentiable talent, possessing both an illustrative image mind and the sense of dynamics to interpret character lives in one-man performances of his staged  monologues, has proven time and time again all deserved accolades for the wide and “evocative” nature, on so many levels, down the long years of his transcendent career.

The voice on this CD/MP3 reminds one of how grateful so many of us should be that Peters has never allowed his dark, poetic vision to lose sight of his writer/s integrity. The scalpel he’s used to probe into the, occasionally, vile body of University-sanctioned poetry never got dull, Nor did he ever drop the sutures covering the wounds of warrior poets he, more than once, went out of his way to encourage and defend.

He accomplished his literary goals without chasing after tainted poetry prizes, so often achieved by too many of the mainstream clones beating drums for the Yuppie poets of distinction. It now, seems to be a perfect time, indeed, to put Robert Peters between your ears, harvesting your very own hay and evoking any necessary personal transportation container to oblivion.

Pre-conceived notions are usually not a good thing. As a big fan of Maria Vidal, I had requested her latest CD and thought doing a review would be like falling off a log. Something I could do with my eyes (or ears) closed. I mean, connect the dots. Maria Vidal was part of the band Desmond Child & Rouge. Desmond Child….king of the hooks. Maria Vidal…singer/producer (remember the “Body Rock” soundtrack?). This was going to be a slam dunk pop showcase.

But there’s no such thing as a sure thing, kiddies. Or maybe there is…since I just knew somehow this record was going to be great. And it is. The only thing is I couldn’t have been more wrong about the direction of the material. In a very ying/yang moment, Living in Radical Radiance is about as polar opposite to Maria’s “Body Rock” single or the Rouge material as you can get. And despite being initially flabbergasted, I couldn’t be happier about it.

Nothing in Maria’s background — including her 1987 solo record — could have prepared me for this kind of material. It’s like world beat mixed with an early ’80s techno-pop flavor. There’s a trippy vibe with dark moments and separate tranquil, floating sections. They all culminate in a fantastic project that is a voyage for the ears and the mind.

There are eight songs on this record, all written by Maria (one is co-written) and although there is no credit issued, presumably she produced the affair as well. The record opens with “What’s the Matter” led by a chugging guitar and primitive beat. Maria’s delicate vocals remain as compelling as ever and when she gets to the simple chorus of “Ah ooo” sounding like Jane Siberry doing a Bonnie Prince Billy imitation, I’m riveted. This isn’t a matter of a song grabbing you by the hair and pulling you into the room. It’s more like your ears just know that if you didn’t keep listening to this gentle aural biz card for the rest of the record, you’d be missing out on something pretty enthralling.

An ethnic hand-stamp greets you en route to the next song, “Love Hunts”, with an ethereal choir pulling you up with the clouds before gliding into some really tasty verses. Maria’s voice is double-tracked with low and high ranges combining into a really seductive honeycomb of a place to visit. The high end is more angelic while the lower range really serves to make the ears take notice (cough). Maria’s Rouge cohorts Diana Grasselli and Myriam Valle guest on the track.

The song looks at love as a sort of predator, making you helpless against it. Some of the lyrics read, “Love teaches you, taunts you. Works you over in an alley, when you think you’re only walking home.”

There is some excellent instrumentation with snippets of different things here and there, including wind instruments, some kind of eastern string instruments, mandolins, violins, along with a Mike Garson-ish (David Bowie) piano. All of these are interwoven into the mix at various times making it sound über lush but not competing for each other’s space. Overall this is just an excellent song!!

“You Move Me” comes closest to Rouge material, mostly due to the chorus. This is a hypnotizing track (especially on headphones) and the vocal arrangements (one of Maria’s strengths) towards the end of the song really bring out its potential.

One of my favorite songs on the record is the next cut, “Mermaid”. Again, vocal-wise you’re helpless to resist Maria as her voice (with some great background vocals) is the framework that this is set on. An electric guitar jags along throughout the song like a fluorescent water snake giving tremendous color. The title of this song is appropriate as you really feel like you’re floating in a body of water and expect a bikini-clad Maria to tap you on the shoulder at any time (OK, maybe that part’s just me).

“If I Ever Knew” approaches the song from a more stripped-down angle and is the most straight-forward song on the record. However, there are still some interesting segues that are mixed into the end of the song which really add much to it.

The jewel on this set, and my most treasured track, belongs to “Firefly”. This is an absolutely beautiful song that is melancholy in lyrical content (love lost) but glimmering in musical perfection. You’re lost in Maria’s voice for the first few awesome verses and then a strong-arm guitar torques up this already excellent song into a stratosphere you weren’t expecting. As with all these songs, there are moments that you didn’t anticipate. In this one, a Spanish guitar and male vocal singing several short lines pop up in the middle and it’s the icing on the cake — almost jarring but entirely welcomed.

The eccentric “Flowers (Robbie’s Song)” (again briefly featuring another male voice that blends in perfectly) is another hypnotizing piece. The rhythm track is simply undeniable. It’s almost like a cobra doing its sway before striking. You’re caught in its gaze and helpless to do anything else. Again, Maria uses both ends of her voice to great effect and is the centerpiece of the track.

The record ends off with the title track which might contain the record’s best chorus. Subdued but still seductive, this is a haunting song and a great way to wind down the set.

I’m not only surprised at the material — I’m impressed by the quality of the material. There are only eight songs on the record but seven out of the eight are in the five-six minute length. There are many unexpected parts to Living in Radical Radiance. Songs are going along and then you get these little odd (as in good) passages or left turns on a bridge or whatever, without jarring the listener.

Given the strength of this material, it’s odd that Maria hasn’t released anything else commercially in the years since her last solo record. Let’s hope that it’s not anywhere close to the same duration for the next one.

In a loose re-creation of the historic 1955 Six Gallery poetry reading, and other readings of the Beat Era, a group of prominent LA poets read favorite poems by Beat icons. As they read, they take on the personae of the various poets, and a dramatic situation takes shape as two offstage commentators drink wine, joke around and conjure up the poet-readers from the audience, one after another… all the while awaiting the arrival of “Jack” (Kerouac), who is always late, and may not show up. One of the poets passes the hat for donations. Finally, Jack appears (or does he?) and brings the evening to an emotional climax.

The 90-minute piece is partly scripted, partly improvised, not unlike a jazz performance where musicians depart from the sheet music to do their own thing. Poets are invited to choose the poet they prefer to read. The cast changes from night to night. As the evening progresses, the reality of the present shifts back and forth to the past. The effect will be a shamanistic evocation of the Beat Era, an homage to its lost heroes, as well as an entertaining night of live poetry.

POET CHARACTERS (only 8 or 9 will be performed each night)

Denise Levertov/Kenneth Rexroth/Charles Bukowski/Philomeme Long/Philip Whalen/Diane DiPrima/Frank Lima/Kenneth Patchen/Barbara Guest/Ray Bremser/Ann Waldman/Jack Micheline/Laurence Ferlinghetti/Gregory Corso/Stuart Z. Perkoff/William J. Margolis/John Thomas/Jack Kerouac/William Carlos Williams/Allen Ginsberg/Michael McClure/Gary Snyder/Philip Whalen/Brother Antoninus/Henry Miller/Philip Lamantia/LeRoi Jones/Amiri Baraka/Lenore Kandel/William Burroughs/Ted Joans

Readers: Herbert T. Schmidt, Jr., Sarah Maclay, Bill Duke, Lisa K Thayer, Stephen J. Kalinich, S.A. Griffin, John Harris, Pegarty Long, Jerry Garcia, Cyril O’Reilly, Michael C Ford, Eve Brandstein, Rex Weiner

Friday July 23rd 7:30pm

By Falling James

Sparring With Beatnik Ghosts is a “traveling poetry supershow” of spoken-word performers and musicians that started in San Francisco in 2008 and is finally making its debut in L.A. The series presents adventurous modern-day poets in bars and venues where the early Beat poets used to hang out, in the hopes that the lingering spirits of the elders will inspire their progeny’s new work. Given its long history as a SoCal literary vortex, Beyond Baroque seems to be an ideal setting for “tapping the mystic voices and drumming the Beat haunts from their tombs in Los Angeles.” This seventh edition of the series features the longtime local poet Ellyn Maybe, appearing with a band (!), and veteran wordsmith Michael C. Ford, whose “arsenal of commando language” blows apart every last standing irrational political pie-ball cowboy who continually threatens National Nirvana.” Meanwhile, former Ringling Sister Iris Berry (Two Blocks East of Vine, pictured) leavens her tales of heroin misadventures and gangster boyfriends with a punk rock perspective and gallows humor. The show also includes Jim Bolt, Mike the Poet, Rachel Kann, Brenda Petrakos, Gary Justice, host Mani Suri and special guests known only as the Mystery Poets. (Link to LA Weekly Events)

Video by: Nisey Jay and Riccardo Spinotti

“Fans of spoken word CDs and lovers of slam poetry with a nerd-girl edge should seek this CD out as soon as they finish reading this review, as should anyone curious to see the highs to which this blended art form can aspire. I cannot recommend Rodeo for the Sheepish enough.” – JoSelle Vanderhooft for Pedestal Magazine

///This video was a contribution to Ellyns online zine http://www.rodeowrite.com/ please visit and contribute your own work to the Rodeo!

“A new DVD released by Hen House Studios in Venice, California. Curated by Michael C Ford, the DVD is a feast of memories of poets, their friends and two members of the Rexroth family who also read from the works of Kenneth Rexroth. The passion and feelings of the poet are mirrored through the voices of the participants. Several of them gave credit to Kenneth as a personal mentor. His widow, Carol Tinker, and his daughter, Mariana Rexroth, a spark of fire off the old genius in her performance, was there. Michael C Ford did a marvelous job hosting this fast-moving, entertaining and engaging program. The program is a panorama of a passing scene of poets and memories that would have been lost had this wonderful high quality DVD not been produced. Our thanks to Hen House Studios and Michael C Ford for its production.

The DVD features Morgan Gibson, Kerry Tomlinson, Lewis MacAdams, Philomene Long, Eloise Klein Healy, Aram Saroyan, Bonnie Tamblyn, Sprague Grayden, Bob Brandts, James Cushing, Doren Robbins, Uri Hertz, Ruben Guevara, Carol Tinker, Brad Dourif, Mariana Rexroth and Michael C Ford.”

Look for Upcoming Programs of PoetsWest at KSER.

Excerpt from Victor D. Infante’s “Life After Slam” – “The recent revival of poets performing with musicians is an interesting trend,” says Brown, who performs with bassist Steve Lanning-Cafaro as The Duende Project. “I know that for The Duende Project, it’s the chance to find ways to present my work differently to an audience; being a musician myself, it gives me a chance to flex different muscles … even though I may not be playing an instrument myself in the duo. Audiences may find a new way into the work through the music; it’s also possible that those who don’t care for poetry just like the music. Whatever the reasons for it.”

For Ellyn Maybe, a Los Angeles poet whose first full-length book was published by Henry Rollins’ 2.13.61 Publishing, and who recently released a poetry CD, “Rodeo for the Sheepish,” with musical accompaniment, the addition of music to a reading is a serious artistic choice.

“I think performing with music can heighten different moods,” says Maybe, “inspire new phrasing and bring out different, more outgoing aspects of oneself. I reference music quite often in my work, so it’s fun to actually work with music. For audiences it can get interactive as sometimes people dance, sing along and shake the fruit shakers at the shows!”

And it’s not just the poets who see artistic value in the collaboration between art forms. It also adds dimensions for the musicians involved.

Click on the Image to Listen! Ellyn is listed under June 9th...

“Drumming” The Doors drummer John Densmore plays the drums while poet Michael C Ford recites a spoken word piece about the history of drumming in the USA. As Michael speaks of the different styles and drummers, John plays the styles. The viewer is educated to the history of drums and has the opportunity to watch the legendary poet and drummer at work.

“Spoken word, raspy/gravelly voice, great wordsmith set to low background music.
From the notes: Going Down The River In A Hayloft Coffin: the evocative years of Robert Peters is a music poetry album featuring the illustrious poet Robert Peters and music composer Harlan Steinberger. The record includes forty nine poems that are strung with a twinge of Gothic & glaciated enchantments sequentially evoking how a poet thaws and carves out his destiny distancing himself from his primordial Wisconsin roots. The poems start off with winning tales of model Ts, berry picking, sexuality among North wood folks and other vivid backwood encounters. There are variances of deer hunting and fishing expeditions fleshed out. The sequence forges to the present covering eulogies to his beloveds and poignant elegies to the folks who were such integral part of the poet’s life. In the midst of these violent, visceral, celebratory, and elegant tales there’s a silver cord that keeps these images astonishingly alive with high voltage and renderable music and lyrics.”

Click to listen!

Peach has a grittiness, a raw energy and sheer lust for experience rarely seen in modern blues. Their sound reaches back to Big Mama Thornton and Janis with stunning vocals and rich brass, but with a 21st-century sensibility and velvety undertones that will blow you out of the water. Peach makes good use of the slide guitar, the B-3, the organ, and much more to give it’s audience a full dose of the blue experience.

Peach is lead by Peach, the band’s singer / songwriter and plays guitar. She has tons of experience, playing and touring for years on end. Her right-hand man is Paulie Cerra, who is Peach’s music director and plays the sax as well. Peach and Paulie are accompanied by Maria Martinez on drums and percussion, Hardy Eason on B-3 and piano, Lynn Keller on bass, Joey Delgado on guitars, Lee Thornburg on trumpet and Gina Segall, Peach’s very young daughter, a musical prodigy who plays kickass blues percussion like she just returned from a midnight deal at the crossroads.

Raices, meaning roots in Spanish, was one of the largest groups that The Hen House has recorded to date. Consisting of 14 members, Raices is a full ensemble with a Latin flavor. This extensive cast of musicians was lead by Miles Perlich.

Miles not only produced and arranged the tracks, he played the congas, coro, percussion and a bit of spoken word as well. He was accompanied by Ravi Carman on flute, baritone and tenor saxophone, Merlo on bass, Adam Topol on drums, timbales and itotele, Dixi Ipina on quito, bongos, clave and percussion, Luke Alberti on keyboards, Mark Bagasao on tenor saxophone, Adam Rundquist on trombone, Allan Valladares on trumpet, and David Gaeta on cuica, agogo, chekere, bata drum, and percussion. Miles also featured special guests Bobby Matos on lead vocals, Trevy on coro, Juliete Flores on spoken word, and last but not least, Michael Sanchez with party noises. This is Latin music played with a respect and honor for tradition. As musicians and fans, this group understands and loves the music they play. This talented band was assembled for a one time only chance to record something truly special. Enjoy this unique opportunity.

Sharon Farber recruited a handful of wonderful musicians to record the music for a movie soundtrack. The Hen House was pleased to do its very first soundtrack recording. Sharon Farber conducted and played keyboards. She was accompanied by longtime friends, David Lockertz on bass, Roy Friedman on keyboards and David Kontesz on drums. Ivishai Cohen played trumpet, Milton Nelson played keyboards and John Sullivan played upright bass. This group of musicians created some beautiful music together. Look out for this project in a theater near you.

Shotgun No Challenge is a young band with a lot of talent. Still in high school, these guys find time to practice and record their music even with homework and curfews. In fact, the drummer had to leave the Hen House early one night because his mother wanted him home. Shotgun No Challenge is lead by Andy Chen who sings and plays guitar. Ken Sugihara provides vocals and guitar. While Daniel Ogier plays bass and Joe Herrera is on the drums. They all rock hard. The drums kick, the bass bumps and the guitars slash. It’s plain to see that these young men love playing music. Westchester, LA based Shotgun No Challenge’s slogan is “westside softcore established 2001.” This band plans on taking their music to the top. Their next stop is the Sunset Strip.

Formed in Riverside, California in the early 80’s, The Skeletones have been entertaining crowds for almost twenty years now. Having played countless live shows,The Skeletones a well-known and well-respected band in Southern California. Their rise to “the top” is inevitable. They are that good. Catch them before the rest of the world does.

Swagger is a self-described pop-punk-emo-music band. The group consists of Daren on bass and lead vocals, Nick on guitar and lead vocals, Mark on the drums and Andy on guitar.

These teenage musicians find time to play and record their music while still in high school. Swagger has been together already four years now and they big plans for the future. This band is hungry and they’re just about ready for a record deal.

Swagger songs are about life experiences. You may laugh. You may cry. But you will always be nodding your head.

The Mynzeer is a very special group. It’s six members come from all over Los Angeles County. From Malibu to Redlands to Long Beach, this band travels many miles each week to play and rehearse. But these guys don’t mind because the music of The Mynzeer Ensemble is based on friendship, respect and expression. Self-described as “new-world music”, the group’s sound ranges from African to Indian to Jazz to Cuban and Western Classical.

The Mynzeer Ensemble is lead by Miles Shrewsbery on hand drums and percussion. J.P. Maramba accompanies him on acoustic bass, along with Brad Colton on hand drums and percussion, Patrick Richey on hand drums and percussion, Michael Birnbryer on tenor sax and flute and Matt Zebley on C horn and alto clarinet.

If you can imagine three guys jamming on hand drums, while two other guys blow melodic lines on horns and yet another guy playing thick bass notes, then you’ll have some idea of what The Mynzeer Ensemble sounds like. But to really understand, you’ll have to hear them play. So feed your curiosity and appetite for good music.

Trulio Disgracias, lead by Norwood Fisher of Fishbone, is an ever-changing, always evolving band from Los Angeles with more members than you can count on both hands.

This group of talented musicians comes together building their own parts, to create music that’s larger than life.

A truly modern big band, Trulio Disgracias mixes improvisation with rehearsed material that ultimately will inspire thought and dance in all their listeners.

5/27/10  Show Description: Join Mende as talks to Ellyn Maybe Ellyn Maybe has performed her poetry all over the country, including Bumbershoot,the Poetry Project, the New School, Taos Poetry Circus, South by Southwest, Lollapalooza, Albuquerque Poetry Festival and Seattle Poetry Festival. She has also read in Europe at the Bristol Poetry Festival, on the BBC, and in poetry slams and readings in Munich, Frankfurt, Hamburg and Stuttgart. She opened the MTV Spoken Wurd Tour in Los Angeles. In addition, she has also read at USC, UCLA, CSUN and Cal State Fullerton, among other colleges. Writer’s Digest named her one of ten poets to watch in the new millennium. Her work has been included in many anthologies, including Word Warriors: 35 Women Leaders in the Spoken Word Revolution, Poetry Slam, Another City: Writing From Los Angeles, Poetry Nation, The Outlaw Bible of American Poetry and American Poetry: The Next Generation. She was on the 1998 and 1999 Venice Beach Slam teams. She was seen reading her work in Michael Radford’s (Il Postino) film Dancing at the Blue Iguana

Listen here!

Harlan Steinberger of Hen House Records wasn’t pursuing a reputation as one of the best poetry producers of the Los Angeles poetry and music scene, but today not only is he one of the best, he is also an innovator of a whole new budding genre in music.

Poetry’lectronica has been born – and the great news is, it’s pop music!

As the producer of Ellyn Maybe’s album of poetry and pop electronica, “RODEO FOR THE SHEEPISH”, Harlan Steinberger presents a clever and magical interpretation of a poet’s body of work. Steinberger has accomplished what not many others before him has ever done. He has produced a radio friendly showcase of poetry and pop- electronica in an album that, with most of it’s tracks might easily be played on pop radio.

The record is just about everything a pop record is. It’s got hooks, choruses and clever lyrics, it has a beat you really want to dance to. It has perfectly “out of the box” sound hooks that because of it’s sound – is catchy, just like a few pop hits in the past have had, such as the syncopated vocal musings that Michael Jackson innovated. It’s rhythmic and hip, easy to listen to, and once again, the best part is – it’s poetry! – and it’s pop!

Never before has anyone been able to conceptualize the spoken word so clearly and unaffectedly as Harlan. His compositions beneath the spoken word are produced with natural layers of sound symbiosis, occurring as easily as if it were simply a continuation of the initial creative process begun by the poet.

During Hen House Studios’ beginnings Harlan was involved in the recording of 150 bands in 5 years, due to Harlan’s desire to meet, work with, collaborate and shoot video with as many bands as he could. That way he could meet the stand out talent, and was able, as a producer and engineer, to choose which artists he might like to work with in the future.

The numerous different bands of Los Angeles, no doubt left sounds of many genres and music effects technologies with Harlan’s inner Pavlovian, which would later subconsciously or consciously, contribute to his now finely tuned 2nd nature of instincts that a good producer of music should have,

But beyond that, the early experience of producing and especially the engineering of one hundred and fifty LA bands in five years, became coupled through Harlan with a serendipitous entry into producing poetry and eventually laying it down with pop electronica,

Together, these two factors blended to create an even more unique flavor of music producing. And while it is said that Harlan Steinburger is a talented and very good music producer, beyond that, it can be safely said that Harlan Steinberger is one of the great producers of Poetry and Music, and perhaps the only producer of poetry’lectronica, a whole new brand of pop.

Still, just like his work, he comes off as natural and unaffected as his sound, yet still genuinely enthusiastic about a genre of music that has had minor hits but at most were presented as novelty pieces, such as Gil Scott Herron’s “The Revolution Will Not Be Televised”.

Harlan is not in a premeditated pursuance of poetry and pop music, but instead he has come to be who is becoming, much like a sidewalk vendor who might have one day rolled up a piece of salty beef, put it in a long roll of bread and invented, The Hot Dog.

“I haven’t really given it that much thought, I’m just doing it. The only thing I can say is that when I close my eyes and listen to spoken word, I imagine it’s a lot like people who score movies for a living, they’re basically looking at a visual, and maybe listening to the dialogue, I don’t know…. and they hear something in their head.

Well ,with Ellyn (Maybe), she comes in and reads first to record the poetry, I tell her do a nice performance but this is not what’s going to end up on the record and then I sit there and listen to the poem over and over again and I get a sort of…. vision of a sound in my third eye.

I try to recreate those sounds by the sounds that are being inspired by the cadence, the timbre, the natural words…”

Today Hen House Records is a record label that has recorded, produced and distributed a variety of spoken word and music records. In the many serendipitous circumstances that have shaped Producer Harlan Steinbergers role in the LA Poetry & Music scene, many of the albums came by accident, but all of them have come nothing short of great.

Photo Credit: Joanne Qualey Baines

by Greil Marcus

(1) Ellyn Maybe: Rodeo for the Sheepish (Hen House Studios). I heard half of the long, quietly mesmerizing “City Streets” on the radio—what was this? A woman with a poem, with music and a sung chorus not behind her but circling her, and the poem neither exactly recited nor sung, but spoken with such a lilt, in a voice so full of miserabilist pride—at forty, a woman is still getting high-school insults tossed at her (“Hey Mars girl,” a man shouts on the street, “get off the Earth”)—that it’s music in and of itself. There is no bottom to Maybe’s inventiveness, to her adoption of Nirvana’s Oh well whatever never mind as an artistic tool, to a confidence that allows her to toss off a bedrock statement on the  American character (“There are people / who know the cuckoo is the state bird / of most states of mind”) in a throwaway voice so that its humor hits you not as a joke but as an echo. There is nothing like this album except for the real life it maps.

Buy the new issue of The Believer here!

April 24, 2:04 PMLA Poetry ExaminerYvonne de la Vega

“…whenever possible, always have someone sacred, like Ellyn Maybe open your show.”  -S.A. Griffin, “Rules of The Road”

LA Poet Ellyn Maybe is probably one of the most loved poets in Los Angeles. She is humble and witty, knows music and records and has the laugh that sounds like a school girl blushes. She’s also pretty darn funny and will charmingly laugh along with her listeners during a reading of one of her own poems. All humble charm and wit aside,

As a poet,  Ellyn  masterfully delivers a poets convictions  with a blend of sweetness and sarcasm, poetry with stories of hopes shattered by the callousness of a rude world, Often, she is  reciting forgiveness while standing alone in her charming solution of “Understanding is the key to happiness.”

Her current album of poetry and music, “Rodeo for The Sheepish“ is a perfect embodiment of Ellyn Maybe on vinyl, The music is a mirror of her very  being -  especially the music composed for “Two Girls…” (video, below), a beautifully written piece about the expectations of a girl and love and the realities of those expectations.

The music seems to be a direct interpretation of Ellyn’s unique voice and rare persona.  A  banjo over beats is of course, the natural backdrop beneath Ellyn’s poetry, the rhythm laid back and unpretentious.

“Ellyn Maybe is an irresistible force. To read or listen to her poetry is to be gently and completely crushed while simultaneously inspired and charmed. …Rodeo for the Sheepish has so many great moments. One of the stand out tracks on the album, “There Were Two Girls Who Looked A Lot The Same”, is a perfect example of why one becomes a fan of Ellyns immediately. Ellyn is a very gifted writer and a true gem.” -Henry Rollins

On the topic of poetry and music Ellyn Maybe states that “Thankfully the musicians are all very talented! for example,  I wrote a poem today and brought it in to rehearsal and they wrote it right there, you know -  they created the music for it with hooks and all! … it’s fun!

It’s a really interesting process, the collaboration… I’m learning, we’re learning a lot. On recording the album, with some of the poems, the music was written for the poem,  and then I would go back into the studio afterward, knowing more of what it would sound like, it turned out pretty good, really neat!”

Ellyn’s poetry in residency:  “Poetry Rodeo Thursdays Pier 212 in Venice Beach, is where she performs every Thursday night with her band  and it’s an inspiring and fun-filled evening of music that is a blend of pop-electronica.

At Poetry Rodeo Thursdays Pier 212, Ellyn invites a guest poet to share their poetry as she shares her band with them, in a 10 minute improvisational performance.  Audiences have commented enthusiastically about her shows, most all of them always promising to return.

“Harlan Steinberger, he plays the computer. Robbie Fitzsimmons plays the keyboard,… it varies on Thursday nights, sometimes it’s (the musician line-up) different.” It’s a really fun night!”

If there is any thing worth experiencing in Los Angeles in regard to the LA Poetry & Music scene, Ellyn Maybe as a first choice… would be a wise one. Check out the Poetry Rodeo line-up of guests for the rest of National Poetry Month and keep checking as she promises some heavy hitters as enthusiastic guests for May.

“The Signature of All Things” serves as a passionate ode to the artist, documenting a magical night of tribute to the genius of Kenneth Rexroth on the 100th anniversary of his birth.  Held at Beyond Baroque, the notoriously avant-garde Literary Arts Center in Venice Beach, this standing-room-only celebration attracted an eclectic and eccentric roster of participants extolling Rexroth’s impact on an art form.

By turns exuberant and bitter-sweet, this film memorializes Rexroth with wild recitations and wry reminiscences from the assorted friends, family members, former students, writers, music archivists, performers and poets who knew him best.  This documentary expresses, in its unassuming artistry, a lasting impression of an American original.

Pre-order your copy with us today!

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Poetry readings have always been a blast for S.A. Griffin, but the tour that the venerable Los Angeles poet plans this spring may be his most explosive.

This time the author of such collections as “Unborn Again” and “One Long Naked Dance” will be packing his poems inside of a Cold War-era bomb and taking them on the road. The idea is to create the constructive from the destructive.

“I’m taking one of the most iconic images of destruction of the 20th century and turning it into something positive,” says the strapping Griffin, who at 6-foot-3 is nonetheless dwarfed by the gun-metal gray performance-art companion that rises more than 7 feet tall when tilted on end. He found the dummy bomb, which contains no explosives, on the Internet and bought it for $100.

His plan: bring the bomb to a city near you, dropping rhymes and free verse by the hundreds on audiences everywhere from Atlanta to Montana, Oregon to North Carolina and points in between. His aim is to get people to wake up to poetry.

“What I’m really doing here is like publishing poetry in a journal,” says Griffin, who is also coeditor of the 1999 journal “The Outlaw Bible of American Poetry,” a sprawling opus of 720 pages that contains the works of everyone from the beats’ Allen Ginsberg and Gregory Corso to modern-day writers like Luis J. Rodriguez and Jimmy Santiago Baca.

“But when you publish poetry in a journal, usually the only people who pay any attention to it are other poets,” adds Griffin, 55, a member of the so-called outlaw generation of American poets that followed Ginsberg, Corso and the other beats of the 1950s.

Oregon-based poet Scott Wannberg, who has sent along a submission inspired by the bomb, agrees it’s likely to get more attention than any of the work he’s had published in nine volumes over the years.

“What’s more devastating, a good poem or a good bomb?” Wannberg asks with a laugh.

Griffin has spent decades attempting to bring poetry to the masses, placing poems on the sides of buses, on billboards, in beer bottles. Several times he’s crisscrossed the country in a vintage Cadillac convertible with a loose-knit group of fellow poets called The Carma Bums, giving readings at coffee houses and small theaters around the country.

He plans to go on the road for five weeks beginning in April, making more than a dozen stops around the country, but with just the bomb in tow this time.

He has collected more than 100 poems so far, many penned especially for the tour. They range from Wannberg’s whimsical “Sorry About That Bomb Falling On Your Head” to Ellyn Maybe’s gentle anti-war lament, “Someday Our Peace Will Come” with these opening lines: “One day poetry dropped from the sky/and the animals grew iambic pentameter tails/and the people breathed in stars.”

“I think it’s inspired, a really beautiful idea to transform something like that into something poetic,” said Maybe, cited by Writers Digest as one of 10 poets of the millennium to watch.

Anyone, poet or otherwise, can send Griffin a poem and it will be included. He plans to take poems from the bomb and read them to people along the way.

All submissions must be delivered by snail mail, not computer — “I want to see that people made an effort” — and be no larger than 8½ by 11 inches.

Griffin isn’t sure what the Poetry Bomb Tour will cost him. He says he’s raised about $3,000 in contributions over the Internet so far, but spent $6,000 just for the 1995 Ford Econoline van he plans to travel with the bomb in. He may sell the van when he returns home.

“If I break even, I figure I’ll have come out ahead,” he says.

Over the years, Griffin has supplemented his poetic life with work as a character actor, appearing in scores of films and TV shows as everything from a cop to a drag queen. He was the hoodlum Arnold Schwarzenegger beat up in “Twins,” the Marine war hero whose wife Patrick Dempsey’s young Lothario romanced in “In the Mood” and one of the evil cowboys Clint Eastwood killed in “Pale Rider.”

The bomb’s previous owner, Robert Demott of Huntington Beach, acquired it nine years ago from a Hollywood movie prop house that was going out of business. For years he kept it in his front yard, in L.A.’s bohemian beach-front Venice neighborhood, just to shake up people.

Its provenance before the studio got hold of it isn’t known, but Demott likes to think it could have been stolen from a military base where dummy bombs are dropped for target practice. It appears to have been an old MK series “dumb bomb” that was popular with the U.S. military during the Korean and Vietnam wars.

By the time Griffin is done customizing it, the bomb won’t look all that deadly. He plans to paint it a flashy color (he hasn’t decided which one yet), pinstripe it like you would a classic car and install a portal with a window under its nose.

“If I get pulled over by the cops I want them to be able to stick their heads in there, look around and be able to see just what it is, an art object.”

Already, he has drawn some concerned reactions, particularly when people have ignored his instructions and mailed their poems to his post office box with the words “The Poetry Bomb” on the envelopes.

When he showed up to collect a stack of poems at the post office, an angry postal worker told him they “don’t like stuff with the word bomb on it.”

“After I told him what it was, he was cool with it,” Griffin said. “He laughed.”

///This video was a contribution to Ellyn’s online zine www.rodeowrite.com …please visit and contribute your own work to the Rodeo!

Reviewer: JoSelle Vanderhooft

Of all the things I review for Pedestal, spoken word CDs are my favorite, both because of their rarity (few poets, after all, have the resources to put one together) and the ingenuity with which they blend visual art, music, and, of course, poetry read aloud. The best of these CDs blend all of these disparate elements to make something that is neither music nor poetry but which uses the common roots of each to create something bold, new, and frequently difficult to categorize, save for the term “performance.” Indeed, the successful spoken word poet is one who does not just read his or her work, but performs it as if it were a stand-up routine, a monologue, part of a “Happening,” or simply as something meant to live beyond the confines of the page.

Ellyn Maybe is a poet who knows how to do just that. Not only a strong poet on paper, she is also a consummate performer with a warm, full voice that is as friendly and inviting as it is delightfully quirky. Few poets—indeed, few performers of any stripe—have the personality, honesty and, yes, unabashed geekiness which Maybe displays in her readings of the ten poems on Rodeo for the Sheepish. Her voice is not only entrancing but unforgettable; indeed, I would very much like to hear her perform live someday.

Happily, Maybe’s poems are not only uniformly strong, but also lend themselves to being spoken so readily that they appear to have been written with performance in mind. Maybe begins the CD strongly with “All My Life I’ve Wanted a Great Love,” in which she enumerates ideal qualities for a lover that are just as unusual as her voice: “Someone who cries at least once a year,” and “Someone whose eyes are not remembered by color, but by every film he’s ever loved.” Maybe then caps this inventive lift with a line that is every bit as wistful as it is funny and ultimately heartbreaking: “Ever since junior high, I thought this person existed. Now I believe more in cows jumping over the moon.”

Maybe skillfully and wittily dissects the struggles and joys of her profession in “Being an Artist” and pays a touching, illuminating, and off-beat tribute to Sylvia Plath in a long poem named for her, and in which Maybe tackles not only the horror of Plath’s treatment at the hands of a sexist culture, but also the importance of her work to young artists, whom she still touches “through tin can lines we walk through.” But my favorite pieces on Rodeo for the Sheepish were the three in which Maybe speaks of women whom U.S. society frequently casts aside or overlooks because they are overweight (“Picasso”), quirky and intelligent (“There Were Two Girls Who Looked a Lot the Same”), or, as with the subject of “City Street,” just lonely, socially awkward, and perhaps depressive. While the poem is best read and listened to in its entirety, these stanzas are some good highlights (rendered in prose-poem format):

She dreams in psychedelic colors, fuschia and periwinkle. When she sleeps, the voices stop. Her voices are loud today. It’s the you’re not normal alto blended with the you’ll never find love baritone. This is her morning coffee. This is what wakes her up.

Today might be different. She whispers words of encouragement but because her ear is bruised from this lifetime, instead of hearing love she hears of and instead of hope it’s nope.

The girl looks at her finger. There was a diamond. She got it when she was 6. Her grandma said no matter what the world thought of her, she deserved beautiful things.

Someone shouted hey baby. It momentarily distracted her from the symphony of lonely conductors playing in her brain.

…

When asked where she’s going she says the library. Her friend smirks and says you need to get out more…books can’t give you an orgasm.

She responds you aren’t pressing right then. Books have a double life. Just like readers.

While I don’t want to spoil the experience for listeners, the poem does end with a sort of transformation for the subject which is at once moving and exhilarating. Suffice it to say, then, that this poem spoke directly to me as someone who has often felt alone and several steps behind the pacing and concerns of the world around me. I dare say the poem will resonate with several women who have felt the same—whom I assume to be the silent majority of women.

Maybe’s choice of subject matter is not the only thing that makes her poetry sing. She is also profoundly skilled with language. Note above the succinctness and muscle of her lines and her tight control over them (“Her grandma said no matter what the world thought of her, she deserved beautiful things.”). Note also that the poetry in this excerpt uses such tools as metaphor and simile sparingly. Instead, Maybe gives her poetry force through pithy dialogue (“Books have a double life. Just like readers.”) and through powerful, unexpected imagery (“the symphony of lonely conductors playing in her brain.”) This succinct quality makes her poetry ideal for speaking aloud and also beautifully conversational and down-to-earth, two qualities which also make it enormously accessible and relatable—not in the sense that Maybe “dumbs down” any of her subjects, but that she manages to tap into such truly universal feelings as social awkwardness and isolation.

For the most part, a spoken word CD is made or broken by its musical accompaniment. Here, Maybe is extremely fortunate to have found ideal partners in Harlan Steinberger (who also produced Rodeo for the Sheepish) and Tommy Jordan (who doubled as art director for the CD booklet’s striking black and white photographs). Steinberger and Jordan’s instrumentals—of saxophone, drums, guitar and amplifier, to name but a few— complement Maybe’s voice, underscoring rather than overwhelming her words in such a way as to bolster the poems’ themes and ambiances. The trombone, drum licks, and harp of “City Streets,” for example, give the poem an even more awkward and unusual feel, which helps evoke its strange, sad protagonist. The steel guitars in “Sylvia Plath” likewise evoke the sorrow of the poem, just as the electric guitar wails and drum beats in “Picasso” evoke a mood of sexiness, appropriate for a poem about the beauty of large women’s bodies. Interestingly, sometimes Jordan (who provides the tracks’ vocals) will sing a line from the poem during intervals between words or a refrain that, while extraneous to the text, nevertheless complements it well, as the refrain “City streets criss-cross inside me” does in “City Streets.” Together, poetry and music create a unique experience that neither could achieve by itself. While the most obvious name for this experience would be theater, for some reason I find it much closer to visual art, if only because the mental images evoked for me by the words and music of Rodeo for the Sheepish were so bright and vibrant.

Fans of spoken word CDs and lovers of slam poetry with a nerd-girl edge should seek this CD out as soon as they finish reading this review, as should anyone curious to see the highs to which this blended art form can aspire. I cannot recommend Rodeo for the Sheepish enough.

Henry Rollins writes “Ellyn Maybe is an irresistible force. To read or listen to her poetry is to be gently and completely crushed while simultaneously inspired and charmed. The honesty with which she so exquisitely reveals her vulnerabilities, desires and pain is beautiful and rare.

Rodeo for the Sheepish has so many great moments. The first time I listened to it, I was reminded of when I first met her many years ago and how much I liked her and her poetry. One of the stand out tracks on the album, There Were Two Girls Who Looked A Lot The Same, is a perfect example of why one becomes a fan of Ellyns immediately. I cant understand how anyone could not find an aspect of themselves in that piece. This is what Ellyn does so well and so often in her work and on this album.

Reading Ellyns poems from the page is one thing but hearing her read them just the way she meant them to be heard is something else altogether. Ellyn has a great sense of humor and reads wonderfully. The musical accompaniment on the album is not mere background filler but a true collaborative effort between Ellyn and the musicians that really works.

Ellyn is a very gifted writer and a true gem.”

Song “There Were Two Girls Who Looked A Lot the Same” is from the CD “Rodeo For The Sheepish”.

Video by Veronika Bauer

Veronika was born in Krems, Austria and is a writer, actress, photographer, poet, and graphic designer. She came across Ellyn’s poetry on the internet, instantly loved it, and met Ellyn later in Los Angeles.

She has written and directed two short films, “The Window Across the Street”(2006) and “The Blue Door”(2008) and acts in short films and theater. She has also written two novels, several screenplays, several short stories and loves to take photos. Multi-talented and multi-lingual she literally lives Ellyn’s poem “Being An Artist.”

About.com Guide

(Hen House Studios, 2009) Ellyn Maybe got her moniker because she was too shy to commit when she signed up for the open mic list—“Ellyn,” she’d write, “maybe.” She’s an LA phenomenon, published by Henry Rollins, the lovechild of Gertrude Stein and Allen Ginsberg, a lyrical poet in hippie couture, a one-of-a-kind. Now, with Rodeo for the Sheepish, she shows she’s ready for Las Vegas. Brilliant settings by producer Harlan Steinberger, superlative vocal backtracks by Tommy Jordan—all of a sudden, she’s gone Motown and you can hear the sheer force of Poetry vs. Pop music in an arena the size of Radio City Poetry Hall. Humor, poignancy, universality, individuality—like all great artists, how she does it is a mystery, but Ellyn Maybe is for real.

Michael C Ford was born on the Illinois side of Lake Michigan and is a Grammy/Pulitzer Prizepoet . His debut spoken word vinyl {on SST} LANGUAGE COMMANDO earned a Grammy nomination in 1986. His book of Selected Poems EMERGENCY EXITS was honored by a 1998 Pulitzer Prize nomination.

His last CD FIRE ESCAPES was bankrolled in 1995 by New Alliance: produced at Sonora by Michael Campagna who also composed and orchestrated most of the charts.

He concluded a recording project: a verbal rhapsody which pays an important tribute to both the art and the history of percussion; collaborating with DOORS cofounder John Densmore at the drum kit.

MCF has participated in keeping THE DOORS open by occasionally being in the company of keyboardist Ray Manzarek. Since their milestone appearances at McCabe’s (1986-1989) they’ve been collaborating on several voice and piano recording dates {the most recent being a specially conceived track titled EXTREME UNCTION FOR JAMES DOUGLAS MORRISON for Hen House Studios anthology Vol. 4}.

Besides publishing music journalism, essays and assays on other aspects of American cultural history, he’s served as judge and panelist for literary arts organizations and publishers.

Michael C Ford was born on the Illinois side of Lake Michigan and is a Grammy/Pulitzer Prizepoet . His debut spoken word vinyl {on SST} LANGUAGE COMMANDO earned a Grammy nomination in 1986. His book of Selected Poems EMERGENCY EXITS was honored by a 1998 Pulitzer Prize nomination.

His last CD FIRE ESCAPES was bankrolled in 1995 by New Alliance: produced at Sonora by Michael Campagna who also composed and orchestrated most of the charts.

He concluded a recording project: a verbal rhapsody which pays an important tribute to both the art and the history of percussion; collaborating with DOORS cofounder John Densmore at the drum kit.

MCF has participated in keeping THE DOORS open by occasionally being in the company of keyboardist Ray Manzarek. Since their milestone appearances at McCabe’s (1986-1989) they’ve been collaborating on several voice and piano recording dates {the most recent being a specially conceived track titled EXTREME UNCTION FOR JAMES DOUGLAS MORRISON for Hen House Studios anthology Vol. 4}.

Besides publishing music journalism, essays and assays on other aspects of American cultural history, he’s served as judge and panelist for literary arts organizations and publishers.