Ep.7 – Doug Mahard

Doug Mahard is a singer-songwriter from Bantam, CT. Delivered with a voice that will remind you of Neil Young, his songs blend whimsy and thoughtfulness in a way that keeps you listening. He has released two albums, the latest of which is Fidel Castro's Favorite Band.

Transcript

Tempo: 120.0

SPEAKER_03 0:09

Hello and welcome to another episode of Acoustic Northeast, where we talk about the singers, songwriters, and acoustic music scene in the Northeast U.S. And we interview musicians who play live for us and for you here in studio. I'm co-host Dave Goldenberg.

SPEAKER_02 0:26

And I am co-host George Malice. We are brought to you by HearitThere.com, which is a website that you can go to to find out what's going on musically in the tri-state area, which is New York, New Jersey, Connecticut. And also, if you're a musician, you can post your gig on there for free. We also are brought to you by WBXO Internet Radio. And they are out of Hopewell Junction, New York.

SPEAKER_03 0:55

But they're everywhere. They are everywhere.

SPEAKER_02 0:58

And you can listen to them. I was going to say, David, at WBXO.com. And also, for you folk musicians, we are also sponsored by Hudson Harding Folk Radio Promoters. And you can get in touch with uh with them on Facebook. You can listen to our podcast wherever you get your podcasts. And also on YouTube, we have a uh what do we have? A website. We got a website, acousticnortheast.com. And again, you can hear us on WBXO.com. And to what's that? Go ahead. Don't forget to hit subscribe. Subscribe. Yes. And today in studio we have singer-songwriter, a Connecticut singer-songwriter, Doug Mahard.

SPEAKER_03 1:40

Doug is a Doug has um a wonderfully quirky style in his writing and his performance that I think really helps him stand out.

SPEAKER_02 1:49

Absolutely. Writes really nice stuff. So give us a listen. Enjoy. Good evening, everybody. Welcome to Acoustic Northeast, coming to you from the studios of WBXO Classic Rock in Hopewell Junction, New York. Our engineer is Hugh Curtin. And today we're going to bring you singer-songwriter Doug Mahard from Connecticut. Doug, welcome to the show. Thank you. Thank you very much. It's good to have you up here. Why don't you kick us off with a tune right away? Okay. Tell us what you're going to play. Intro it for us.

SPEAKER_04 2:30

This is called, well, I'll do it this way. I was listening to a radio show. It was a call-in show, and someone called in to talk about whatever they were talking about that day. And the host of the show said, Who's singing your song? in a way of like who's inspired you to call in and discuss this matter. And that one sentence, who's singing your song, just like I knew there was a whole song wrapped in that one sentence. And as soon as I got home, I started writing it. And uh the song's called You Are the Amazing One. But you'll understand once I start singing. It's my anthem to inspiration.

SPEAKER_05 3:31

Uninspired, unexpanded, all ideas seem second-handed, unrelenting, can't get started. Back to beauty. Once regarded, who's writing your book? Who's singing your song? Who's painting your masterpiece? You are the sun, you are the stars, you are the amazing one. Like the seeds in the wind, an endless flow of inspiration. One takes hold in your soul. The thoughts are water and let 'em flow. Start writing your book. Start singing your song. Start painting your masterpiece. You are the sun. You are the stars. You are the amazing one. Every spark pushes out a little farther. All the feeling in with it running. Don't ever think what you got don't matter. You are the amazing one. Paint your feet and hands. Untethered, uninhibited. When I see you, I'm elivided. I'm reading your book. I'm singing your song. I'm viewing your masterpiece. You are the sun, you are the stars, you are the amazing one. You are the amazing one.

SPEAKER_03 6:09

All right, that's great. That's Doug Mahard, and you're listening to um Acoustic Northeast. I'm Dave Goldenberg here with George Malice. And um, Doug, that's a first of all, that's that's a beautiful song, and I love that you say it came from a line that you heard. How much of your music just sort of is triggered by something that that happens in your life or something somebody says like that?

SPEAKER_04 6:34

Um most everything, I think. You know, most of my songs. Excuse me, I had to take a drink of water. Oh. So, like I said, in that and other times it's just some chord thing. For instance, I was jamming with some friends years ago, and I was just I had a C chord and I was just arpeggiating. Then I put the sus for under if I can do it. And I and as soon as I started rolling that, it was like, uh, that that's gonna be easy to finish that song. And I didn't know what it was gonna be about because it's just a chord, but it gave me a feeling of like how does this make me feel? And uh I'll play it. I'll yeah, give us a yeah, give us a you know, yeah, give us the whole thing if you want. It's called uh what's it called? I don't know what it's called. Well we'll give it as a trying to remember your own tunes. But I'll when I sing it, uh that'll be the the song title. It's called All I Want.

SPEAKER_05 8:02

All I want is to have a cake I need it to I'm sure hi, I'm sure September trouble, I'm so tired of the delegate hustle All the What is World Peace and the truth All the What is World Beast and the Truth I'm feeling, brother What is loving brother Here comes Katie from the start of us with the table cake and eat it too much?

SPEAKER_02 10:28

All right, there you have it, Doug Mahard here on Acoustic Northeast. Yeah. You have such a distinctive voice too. Um always loved that. But I wanted to talk, you talked about your writing process a little bit about just sitting down and taking that C chord. Do you sit down at times with a thought in mind, a subject in mind, or anything like that? Uh I do. I do, yeah. So and um give me an example if you if you can. Off the top of your head if you have one.

SPEAKER_04 11:01

Well, the first song I sang was one, but there's something new I'm working on. And um and I've had it was a phrase again, and it's like uh how do I weasel my way into solving this puzzle of the song that I hear around this phrase that's been haunting me for a couple years now. And it was something one of my customers said it it was something she was telling me about her two daughters that had predeceased her and her husband. And uh and it's a pretty sad story. And at the end of it she just said sometimes you just feel like running through a field naked screaming balls. And I've just I said, There's there's that's gotta be in a song. Right, right. So and like a month ago, I've I've I was up late one night just playing my guitar and like and I s I thought about that and I and I got the like the first verse. Whether that verse I have stays in the song at the end, I don't know. Because but it's at least at least it got me going. Yeah. And I I now know what how to like regurgitate that free. Uh you know. It sounds like it could be your chorus. What's that? It sounds like it could be your chorus.

SPEAKER_03 12:22

Yeah, well, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I like your uh your puzzle metaphor though, because you know, people think of writing a song as just a linear process of writing of you know the the music first or the lyrics first and then stringing it along. But the way you describe it is a puzzle. Talk a little bit more about that and how you kind of figure out a song.

SPEAKER_04 12:44

The I think the puzzle is a f perfect metaphor because you have these pieces, whether it's uh you know, a chorus or a verse, and you all of a sudden you have the guitar or your the piano to it, whatever instrument it is, and it's just and and you want to make it as good as possible, and you know when it's not finished. Even if it's just one bird, one word bugging the bejesus out of you. It's like what is the word I need there? It's not that word, but it's you know, yeah. You have to solve it. You can be that you can be that close, right? But the universe isn't letting you solve it until you're like, I think this is a pretty strong song, you know.

SPEAKER_02 13:24

I always I always find the um the bridge going for a bridge is like the puzz the real puzzle piece to put together to really change the song, um to change just your verse and your chorus, and then you're you know, um you go on different chord progression or you can go, you know, whatever you want to do.

SPEAKER_04 13:44

Yeah, I think you're right, and I think the puzzle analogy works really well too, because once you get to fig figuring out the bridge, it's like the 3D puzzle all of a sudden, because it's a little harder and you want to make it as strong as uh yeah as what you think you have up front, right? And uh it's the I think it's the best part of the puzzle though, because you're trying to take it somewhere comp completely different, but you gotta stay in the ballpark of what you're talking about.

SPEAKER_02 14:17

Yeah, yeah. You talked uh you said you mentioned the customer before. So um we know here that you know you're a piano tuner. Yeah. So I believe you you retired from piano tuning.

SPEAKER_04 14:30

I did back in January. Did you actually play piano? I do play piano.

SPEAKER_02 14:34

You do play piano because I don't think I've ever heard a piano song from you that I've that I've heard or seen you play. Have you written on the piano at all?

SPEAKER_04 14:42

Uh no, I have not, and that's one thing that I'll hopefully do before I kick the bucket.

SPEAKER_03 14:49

That's cool. How how has being a piano tuner affected your ear and the way you listen and the way you write?

SPEAKER_02 14:58

That's a tough one.

SPEAKER_04 14:59

I mean, no, that's you hear those intervals different. That is a tough one, but n not for me because of my personal experience and I've asked other tuners um who I know a lot of uh in the state, and uh about about my experience and because it was like this is unusual. Or you guys experience the same thing. And the experience is I started tuning like a little over thirty years ago, and every now and then you wake up in the morning and you go to your first tuning, and something is totally different from your experience the next day tuning and in a better way. And it's like I'm hearing stuff that I didn't hear before. And you know it's making you a better tuner too. So I I've had that experience five times in my 30-year career. And all the tuners I've asked about are I don't know what you're talking about. And and so the but the last two were so powerful that it was like I haven't even been tuning in pianos before this, I don't think. I mean that's how powerful it was. And I'm I'm not trying to brag here, I'm not bragging, I'm just telling you my experience. But it it's uh it's been it's been a joy to like you know, you don't and you don't know it's gonna hit you until you get to that first piano that day, and it's just like wow, what is happening now?

SPEAKER_02 16:24

Very cool.

SPEAKER_04 16:25

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 16:26

Now we know that your wife, Nancy McMillan, is a piano teacher. Right. Have you ever tried to work with her as far as writing a song goes? She helps.

SPEAKER_04 16:38

She's the she's the first editor of any song I started working on that I think I need to show her. She's a writer also. Yeah, yeah. And she's she's been a great uh uh editor and and we've worked, you know, she's written some lyrics in there that I was like, okay, that's great. Yeah, perfect.

SPEAKER_03 17:00

That's great to have. The New Morning Songwriter series. Yeah. It was a great, great series above the New Morning, what's this? The New Morning The Market.

SPEAKER_04 17:13

Yeah, thank you.

SPEAKER_03 17:14

Um it was a wonderful series in the round. I I played it twice. I know George, you played it a few times.

SPEAKER_02 17:20

I played it once.

SPEAKER_03 17:22

Um how did that come about and is there any news on it?

SPEAKER_04 17:26

There is. It came about because of this man sitting behind me who's up after me, Mitch Katz. He came to me and said, I'm thinking about doing this. We need to find a venue if you want in on it. And I said, Yeah, well, definitely I want it in. So I think we hunted around for about a year, Mitch?

unknown 17:43

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 17:44

Yeah. And uh finally there was like the New Morning Market, which had this huge upstairs space right in front of our face for all that year. We'd go in there and shop. It's a great natural food store. In Woodbury, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 17:57

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 17:58

And uh and we went up and asked John Patari, the proprietor of the store. And he this is something he was looking for because he called that big upstairs space a community room. And we ran that for seven years and it was SRO most of the time.

SPEAKER_03 18:18

Yeah, I remember you were booking a year ahead at one point.

SPEAKER_04 18:20

Right, yeah. And we never charged uh anybody to come in. We always played the performers. We passed the basket around for free donations, and uh and uh the people were very generous that supported that place. And we were able to pay our performers a nice little tidy sum for playing five songs in one night with three other new friends or old friends. And um and John actually fed the performers before the show too. So that was really nice for Mitch and I and Mark and George when he was helping us to sit down with the performers during the dinner before the show actually started and just like get to know our performers if we didn't really know 'em that well. And it was pretty cool.

SPEAKER_02 19:05

Yeah, very, very special series in uh for the people who know what they do at the Bluebird down in uh Nashville, right? It's it's basically the same type of setup. You know, and it's really uh and then the the really nice thing that you guys came up with was I mean, everybody would play three songs at first and then you'd ask the audience to get up and when they came back after the break that they all had to sit in a different spot, which gave them a different perspective, also gave the performers a different perspective of who of the faces that they're playing to. Yeah. Which was really really cool.

SPEAKER_04 19:52

Right, yeah. And the performers were facing each other in the middle of the room, four chairs, and uh they were probably about six feet apart, five feet apart, and uh you really got some good interactions sometimes between the performers that didn't even know each other, and and whether it'd be uh jovial conversation or uh somebody just decides to jump in on their song and play play something.

SPEAKER_02 20:18

Yeah, you never knew what you were gonna get. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 20:21

So we're cranking it back up. January 24th, Saturday is the first uh new morning songwriter series, and George and I and Mark Dalton are in on it. Mitch hasn't decided yet. I we're all getting old, so it's like Mitch, I think as soon as you walk into our room, you'll be Well, Mitch is gonna play. Yeah, Mitch is Mitch is in on the first play on the first gig because we're honoring him for being the initial spark to set this whole thing in motion.

SPEAKER_02 20:53

The rest of the lineup we're not sure about yet. Yeah. We're working on it.

SPEAKER_03 20:56

Yeah. But it'll be the same format? Yeah, same. And how would people find out about it?

SPEAKER_04 21:01

Well, uh good question, because I'm not on Facebook and I don't intend to be on Facebook.

SPEAKER_03 21:07

So uh Will there be a website or no, there will be no website.

SPEAKER_02 21:11

There'll be some social media.

SPEAKER_04 21:12

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 21:13

There will be. And I'll I'll help on the Facebook stuff and everything.

SPEAKER_04 21:16

But Mitch might still play some role in it somehow. Well, he's playing, he has to put it out. I I put him on.

SPEAKER_03 21:24

And George, we'll we'll post it on our show website when we have one.

SPEAKER_02 21:27

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_04 21:28

Yeah, yeah, we'll do when we have one. But uh so the the the voices, which is the local paper that services uh seven or eight different towns in the area, maybe even more, um they always ran an article with pictures of the performers. They were good to us and uh I hope that continues.

SPEAKER_02 21:48

Yeah. Well you guys built it up to the point where it was I mean, it was a standard to have eighty people in there. Yeah, easily.

SPEAKER_04 21:58

Yeah, and that was the fire limit too. I think. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 22:01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 22:01

It was SRO every time. It was great.

SPEAKER_02 22:04

And people were always generous. You know. I th I think people are more generous when you pass the hat or pass the basket than when you you know, and they have to come in with a ticket or whatever.

SPEAKER_03 22:14

Yeah. And I think those kinds of venues which are not, you know, formal or official venues with restaurants, those are to me, those are the lifeblood of the music scene up here because it attracts people who are truly passionate about hearing regional and local musicians whose talent often r rivals the, you know, nationally touring musicians. And it's a place where you can not just listen to them but meet them and hang out with them and it's great.

SPEAKER_02 22:43

Yeah, and and people really want to play that series. Yeah, we had no problem getting people at the end. And it was people with recording contracts and everything who just wanted to get in there and and play.

SPEAKER_04 22:55

Yeah, it was a nice room, really good vibe. So I told you this story is yours and Dave. So when I was looking for a winner spot for our lunches that we have uh have, I I I said, Well, why not John, the community room, you know? And uh so I went walked up in that room. When I walked in that room, these emotions started coming back. I'm tearing up talking about it. And uh be because it was like, Wow, we heard so much of good music and it was so much fun those nights, even though we complained about how much work it was. It was just like this it would be cool to give it one more try, you know.

SPEAKER_02 23:36

You know, and and that's that's one of the things that I love about you and what I love about Mitch and and is you you gotta give back to the community musically. We're we're singer-songwriters. You you've we should all do something to give back to the singer-songwriter community. Yeah, you know, there's less venues to play today. It's harder to get out there, and anything that that we can do, you know, like I try to do some house concerts now, hosting house concerts, and anything that we can do is good. In fact, Dave Goldenberg's gonna be playing a house concert at my house November 9th, which is in Brewster, New York, and he's gonna share a bill with Eric Robaska, who uh we interviewed also. So yeah, those are what day is November 9th? It's a Sunday. It's a Sunday in in Brewster, New York, and uh we're actually it's gonna be we're gonna do like a chili cook-off too. So but we're gonna we're gonna have people eat the chili afterwards. Good, good. So that people on the ride home suffer. But uh why don't you give us another tune? I know what I want to hear, but I don't even know. What do you want to hear? I want to hear uh what the hell is it? Uh Big City of Love. Big planet of love. Big planet of love. Oh. Yeah, thanks. I couldn't even get that right. Yeah. Are you up to playing that one? Yeah, definitely. It's because that's way up in your vocal range, too, I know. Prayer for the planet.

SPEAKER_03 24:59

Yeah, oh yeah.

SPEAKER_02 25:00

Are you uh you're not a tenor, are you? Yeah, I am a tenor. You are a tenor? Because I'm a tenor. Are you a tenor, Dave?

SPEAKER_03 25:06

No, I'm uh it's called non-specified. Whatever I ate for breakfast determines my vocal range.

SPEAKER_04 25:13

I'm very vocal.

SPEAKER_03 25:14

But you you're a real high tenor.

SPEAKER_04 25:16

You got a great upper register. Yeah, my mom was a soloist in the congregational churches throughout Connecticut for a while for a long time. And uh so I hear her warm up every morning as I was waking up on Sunday mornings. Do you warm up before you sing? I like to, but I didn't today. You didn't today.

SPEAKER_02 25:35

No.

SPEAKER_04 25:36

What's your warm-up? What do you do? Uh I just s sing up sing some songs and uh you know if if if if I'm really if my throat is really hurting, you know what really helps me is the lion post in yoga where you're on all fours and you pick your head up and you open your mouth and stick your tongue up out of your mouth and make a make a line. He's doing it and doing it right here in the middle of the room. And then what you do is bend the bend the bend the head down, stick your tongue out, down out of your mouth, and and go, mmm. So it's like you should do that on the city. But it really strengthens it strengthens my vocal cords, and it's like, wow, this is like really good. And it clears your sinuses out if you do it.

SPEAKER_02 26:22

Cool. So we should video that, and we could put it up on our website.

SPEAKER_03 26:26

Well, what's your warm up, George?

SPEAKER_02 26:27

Yeah, my warm-up is my warm-up, you know, now I had I had taken uh voice lessons at Westchester Conservatory, a woman by the name of uh Lucy Joffey, who was a opera singer, and she told me to do what Pavarotti did, which was go out and walk or run and to clear out your lungs and then do some, you know, starting low, you should never start high in your register, and you just do, you know, you would just do that way, and then just bring yourself up to the point where you're ready to sing. I do the the Tom Waits warm-up.

SPEAKER_03 27:02

I just gargle with bourbon and that's it. Smoke a few cigarettes. Yeah, and I'm ready to go.

SPEAKER_04 27:08

Well, I've started also bringing hot water with lemon and uh honey in it, and that really helps to loosen things up and keep things smooth. How are we doing for time?

SPEAKER_02 27:18

Well, before you do your last song, I want to I want to talk about um also the Bethlehem Land Trust series. Another good series that you're doing too. And we talked about giving back. You did that this year, didn't you? Did you guys do the Bethlehem?

SPEAKER_04 27:32

Mitch played. Mitch played, good.

SPEAKER_03 27:35

Beautiful outdoors venue.

SPEAKER_04 27:36

And we have the dates already set. So uh can can I uh give my email address out over. Yeah. If somebody's listening and wants to play this series, you can get in touch with me at my name Doug Mahard D-O-U-G-M-A-H-A-R-D at Yahoo.com. And just drop me an email and let me know if you're interested. It takes place in Bethlehem, Connecticut. We provide the sound unless you're a band and you gotta do your own thing. And a manger. And a manger, right? It's uh you're playing in front of a chicken coop in a uh run-in shed. But it creates some nice sound, it's a nice venue, it's outdoors in the evening. Yeah, it's beautiful. So and it starts in June and ends in August.

SPEAKER_02 28:23

So give us uh Big Planet of Love to take us out, yeah. Take us out with that one.

SPEAKER_04 28:28

So one more songwriting for anybody listening out there, is I highly recommend going to a songwriting camp uh because it'll stimulate your uh uh imagination and you'll garner a lot of new friends who have similar tastes in you know whatever. Have you written from a prompt? Uh no, other than what I've heard on the radio or whatever. Okay. Or he finds organic prompts. Right. Right. But Mitch uh is heavily involved in the uh summer songs. Okay. Well we're gonna we're gonna talk to him uh in the next show. I went to Ellis Paul Summer Camp right here in Connecticut. They picked this song as best song of the weekend. Oh, I think it's called Big Planet of Love. Yeah, we go.

SPEAKER_05 29:52

Too many precious things at stake Big Planet love, big planet love Where are we gonna? When are we gonna rise above Big Planet love? Big planet love Where are we gonna? When are we gonna Rise of Umany people in refugee camps? Too many men beating drums of war Too many kids with guns in their hands too many times we've seen it all before Big Planet love, big planet love Where are we gonna? Where are we gonna rise up? Big planet love Big Blanetta Where are we gonna? Where are we gonna? Rise of Too many people feeling desperate, too many getting too little too late, too many children being abused. Too many times I gotta reiterate Big Blain, big blend in love, when are we gonna? When are we gonna? Big blend in love Big Blain When are we gonna? When are we gonna? Where's the buzz?

SPEAKER_02 32:29

Why the buzzing, that's Doug Mahard, and you can listen to Doug Mahard's music on all the streaming platforms. It's other it's Doug Mahard, M-A-H-A-R-D. Doug, thanks for coming up onto the show. George, David, thank you very much. Pleasure. It's good to see you.

SPEAKER_04 33:02

It's a lot of fun. Keep writing. Yeah, I I gotta finish the ball song.

SPEAKER_00 33:08

That's right.