Episode 8 – Mitch Katz

Mitch Katz is a singer-songwriter from Connecticut whose mix of crafty lyrics and compelling melodies bring sensitivity and humor to a mix of ballads and blues, with some political observation thrown in for good measure.

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SPEAKER_04 0:10

Welcome everybody to another edition of Acoustic Northeast, where we talk about the singer-songwriters and the acoustic music scene in the Northeast United States. We interview singer-songwriters, musicians who play live in the studio for you and for us. I am co-host George Malice.

SPEAKER_03 0:32

I am other co-host, Dave Goldenberg. And we are sponsored today by HearitThere.com, where you can go online and find out great stuff about who's performing, where, when, and um learn more about artists at HearitThere.com. Also by WBXO Internet Radio streaming uh classic rock and more from beautiful Hopewell Junction in New York. And Hodgson Harding folk radio promoters and you folk artists um give them a call.

SPEAKER_04 1:05

So you can listen to us in a lot of different places, obviously. For example, yeah, exactly. Wherever you are listening to podcasts. We also have a YouTube channel and also acousticnortheast.com. And also WBXO plays the segments as well. WBXO.com. And today in studio we have a Connecticut singer-songwriter by the name of Mitch Katz. Mitch has put out numerous albums. He plays guitar, he plays ukulele, he plays ukulele.

SPEAKER_03 1:40

Blue ukulele. Blue kalele, and he has that gritty voice that uh tells you he's been through some rough times. So give it a listen.

SPEAKER_04 1:49

Here it is.

SPEAKER_03 2:00

Welcome to Acoustic Northeast. I'm Dave Goldenberg, hosting along with George Malice. And in the booth, our engineer, the inimitable Hugh Curtin. Acoustic Northeast, if you haven't figured it out yet, is about acute the uh vibrant acoustic music scene in the Northeast, uh bringing to you songwriters you know, songwriters you don't know but should, and others we feel you should know about and whose stories should be told. It's it's such a vibrant scene. Um our guest today is Mitch Katz, a singer-songwriter, um, who lives in Roxbury, Connecticut. Rox beautiful Roxbury, Connecticut. Um and uh we're gonna be playing some cuts from a new album today. Uh why don't you introduce the first cut, Mitch?

SPEAKER_02 2:52

The first cut is called New Normal. Um I've been writing a lot with a good friend of mine, Bill Walston, and typically one of us comes to the table with an idea or a title or something, and he had New Normal, and we started kip kicking that around, and um, you know, I came up with a line and a follow-up line and just kind of went from there. So um this song was also on the Hudson Harding compilation called Folk Now, which came out in September, and my new CD with this song will be out hopefully by the end of the year. Very cool. Excellent.

SPEAKER_04 3:26

Here it is.

SPEAKER_02 3:27

Give it a listen.

SPEAKER_04 3:28

New normal, Mitch Katz.

SPEAKER_01 3:41

You can get anything you want the very next day. Didn't used to be that way. Main street stores with padlocked doors. That's the price we have to pay. Just got a raise and I'm barely getting money. Didn't used to be that way. Twenty-five for burger and fries. That's the price we have to pay. Lost a lifelong friend of politics. We have to pay.

SPEAKER_04 7:11

And that'll be on your new album as well, obviously. Correct. Cool. And tell us about the players on that one.

SPEAKER_02 7:17

Yeah, Mark Dan, uh who is the recording engineer and also bass player. Um Amy Susi on background vocals, and Sarah Milanovich on violin.

SPEAKER_03 7:26

Nice. So you you've been um writing music for quite a while, as uh several of us has. And I wonder what you think the the uh the benefit of age and experience brings to the songwriting process. Because we associate songwriters with young people getting out there and you know playing in clubs, but it's a very different thing to write songs when you're a little older.

SPEAKER_02 7:50

Interesting question. Um we certainly have a different perspective on life as as we're approaching 70 uh in my case. Um and I think there's also the ability to look past what's the obvious um you know, in this case you know, the obvious is you know, is yeah, I can go online and I can have this tomorrow. Yeah, great. You know, and how wonderful is that? Um but what does that do? You know, what does that do to our community? Um, you know, and it causes the you know, the mom and pop shops to no longer be able to survive. And I think as as a younger person that didn't bother me because I didn't give it much thought. You know, as a senior, you know, I'm more concerned about that. I'm more concerned about my community and you know, the people that I know and how how they get by on a day-to-day basis.

SPEAKER_04 8:42

Cool. You know, you we talked well, you talked about um writing co-writing. Yes. And you've been writing so you tell um with that song you wrote with Bill Wolston. Yes. So tell us a little bit about how that process uh kicked off. When how long ago did you meet Bill and um when did you guys start doing this together?

SPEAKER_02 9:04

Yeah, I met Bill at SummerSongs, a songwriting camp, which we'll we'll get into, I assume, a little bit later. And we were in a co-writing class with Dan Navarro, who was the instructor. And Dan grouped people up into either twos or threes, and he put me with Bill Walston and Len Seligman, and he gave us a prompt. And the prompt was if I could which we all looked at each other and said, Well, that's a shitty prompt. But um you know, we we went outside and we started writing. And you know, we had a couple of verses in a chorus, and the next day we came back and we finished the song, and it was really uh a great experience. Um there was no ego involved. We all just were working towards the same goal, making the song better. Was that your first co-writing experience? No, it wasn't the first time I had co-written. Um, but it led to Bill and I starting to write more often, and that happened during the pandemic. Um, you know, we were exchanging emails, and I suggested, you know, why don't we zoom and let's try writing together some more. And um, you know, we had a successful experience with it. And that's what we did. And uh to this day, you know, most weeks on Tuesday morning at nine o'clock, he and I are on Zoom writing. And sometimes um sometimes those sessions are just, you know, sharing with each other what's going on in our lives and nothing really gets done. Um but typically we do spend some time writing, and a song might take three or four sessions, sometimes longer. Some of the songs wind up in a folder and never to be seen again. And other songs like this one, which we both like enough to want to perform and and want to record.

SPEAKER_04 10:48

Do do one of you do more of the um lyrical stuff or the musical stuff, or is that all shared as well? Uh 50-50-ish?

SPEAKER_02 10:58

I would say it's it's fifty-fifty-ish. Um typically on any given song, one of us might be leading a little bit more than the other.

SPEAKER_04 11:06

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 11:06

Um with either lyric or music, but we're I would say it's fifty-fifty. That's cool.

SPEAKER_03 11:14

One thing I'm really interested about the um co-writing process is how does the dynamic work? I mean, um creators, artists are sensitive people. You know, we we don't always take criticism well. We don't always give criticism well. How do you how do you manage the give and take? How do you say that's a sucky idea to somebody that you're co- Well, or that's a great idea to somebody you're co-writing with?

SPEAKER_02 11:41

Well, the great idea is easy to say. The sucky idea is um something that you want to put a you know a lid on and and not use those kind of terms, obviously. But you know, I think we both come to the session and it was like this for us from the beginning, that you know, this is not about ego, this is not about, you know, it's about writing a song together that we both like and how do we make it a better song? And if you do that, you know, it's easy, you know, he says something and I'm not crazy about it. I you say, well, I don't know, I think maybe we can do better, or yeah, I'm not sure about that line, how about this? You know, and be kind to each other. Um and it it just works. And I don't know that it would work that way with everybody. Um, you know, I've paired up with other people and it wasn't such a great experience. I've had that happen too.

SPEAKER_04 12:30

Yeah. Um what was do you remember like the first time you co-wrote how long ago it was?

SPEAKER_02 12:38

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 12:42

I'm just trying to get an idea of how long you've been co-writing and the difference, of course. We all know the difference between co-writing and and writing on your own.

SPEAKER_02 12:50

Yeah. I I wrote a song with a woman at a songwriting workshop, same thing, they paired us up. I can't remember her name off the top of my head, but she was a professional singer. She sang with a a well-known Irish band. And we sat down together, and um that morning I I knew that we were going to get paired up. Um Steve Gillette was running the workshop, and he, you know, he gave us a heads up about this. And I was out walking with some people in the morning, and I looked up this long driveway as we were starting to turn down it, and I realized it was a driveway, and I said, Oh, this is the private situation. And the light went off, and you know, oh, there's the title to the song. Wow. And she and I went on to write that song. Um, you know, over the course of I think over two days, you know, two sessions together, we wrote that song.

SPEAKER_04 13:41

It's it's amazing how many people write while they're going out walking. It's it's really um, I mean, when we interviewed, I think Eric uh no, we interviewed Chris Mahoney, uh, and he was talking about he's a guitarist. He's not a he's not a lyricist at all. And he walks like eight to ten miles a day, and all these ideas, and he uses his phone or whatever, and so many other singer-songwriters that I've spoken to, it comes at them when they're walking or running or doing or driving in my case.

SPEAKER_03 14:14

I there's a lot of times that you know something would be triggered by something I see, and I'll I'll start singing a song, and then of course I gotta reach for my phone to get the uh the voice memo. It's very cool.

SPEAKER_02 14:24

I've had that experience many times, and and the other thing that would happen with me is I have a song and I would memorize it while I was out running. You know, I would just be singing it in my head, or you know, and I'd come to a part and I couldn't remember that particular part of the song, and I'd come up with something else, and I get home, and sometimes that was better than what I had. Oh, but um definitely the movement, the the running, the walking just definitely for me has been helpful in in creativity.

SPEAKER_04 14:54

I think I think it it's because you're kind of like doing something that's kind of mindless. You know, you're just walking or running, you're not really, and you're just you're you're open, is what I mean. You're open to the universe or or whatever is gonna flow into your to your head at that time.

SPEAKER_02 15:08

Yeah, and I don't listen to music when I'm running. It's just you know, that's my meditative time. If I'm walking or running, I'm not if I'm outdoors, I'm not not listening to anything else. So I think you're open for that. You know, your mind is open to see what's out there.

SPEAKER_04 15:23

I agree. I think we I think we're time for another song. Yeah, you mentioned If I could.

SPEAKER_02 15:27

So uh Yeah, if I could was the song I just spoke about that was written at Summer Songs Camp on a prompt.

SPEAKER_04 15:33

Cool. Here it is, Mitch Katz.

SPEAKER_01 15:51

If I could forgive you, if I could forget all the ways you've knocked me down, I'm just not there yet. I know about your demons, I know about your past. I hope we can make it work, but it ain't gonna happen fast. If I could, surely would If I could I would if I could make it good. If I could I would but I can't if I could go back in time, if I could hold you close, maybe we could find a way to chase away these ghosts. I know I played a part in this, I know it isn't fair, it would not hurt this much if I didn't care, if I could, surely would If I could I would if I could I'd make it good if I could I would but I can Here I am swallowed by my rage I know it would be better if I could learn to turn the page If I could surely would If I could I would if I could I'd make it good If I could I wouldn't I wouldn't have to be able to do that's if I could from Mitch Katz off the new album.

SPEAKER_03 18:57

Mitch, where can they hear your music?

SPEAKER_02 19:00

I'm on all of these streaming platforms. I have a website, Mitch Katz.com, as well. And uh how many albums have you released to date?

SPEAKER_03 19:09

You released a few. I've released three, the upcoming one for. Excellent.

SPEAKER_02 19:14

And uh where where are you recording the new album? Recording it with Mark Dan, the Mark Dan Studios in Woodstock, New York. Ah, the Mecca. Yeah, who I've worked with several times and he's great. Just love working with Mark.

SPEAKER_03 19:27

Where what's this scene up there? Have you gotten to know some of the local uh performers and writers?

SPEAKER_02 19:33

You know, only the people that he brings into the studio. Um my first CD that I did with Mark, um, I wanted harmonica and I wanted John Sebastian to play. Oh and he lives in Woodstock, and Mark said he tried to get him, and and I asked him several times. So finally I just wrote an email on John Sebastian's website and said, Hi John, my name is Mitch, blah, blah, blah. I'm recording a CD in Woodstock, would love to have you come play a few tunes. And and then I wrote, Hey, you never know. Wow. And he wrote me back the next day, and he said, $300 will do it. That's all he said. I wrote him back, gave him an address, we picked a date, he showed up at the studio, we recorded the three songs, we sat and jammed for a while, and it was just a great experience. So yeah, Woodstock's got more than your money's worth on that one out. Woods the Woodstock has its benefits.

SPEAKER_04 20:26

That's really cool. Yeah, I really like that a lot. That's something. So um so you play guitar, you play you also. I know we wanted to talk about the youke. When did you start playing you?

SPEAKER_02 20:42

When did probably eight or ten years ago? Um we had gone on a vacation to Hawaii, and my wife um at the resort we were staying, they were doing ukulele lessons, and I went and sat in with them, and my wife said, You really should buy a you while we're here. So I looked around, but I couldn't find anything that worked for me. So when I got home, I got online, did a deep dive, as I'm prone to as I'm prone to do, and bought a you. And I played with it for a while, and you know, it was fun, but I wasn't really getting it. And then one day I figured out that the ukulele is the guitar, but on Cape 05, and get rid of the top two strings. And then it was like, oh, I'm playing guitar, just missing a couple of strings, and and that was it. After that, it was easy. And I found writing on the ukulele um opened the door for just diff very different voicings. That's what I was gonna ask you. Yeah, you know, I wrote different songs, I've written different songs on the ukulele than I would ever write on the guitar. And occasionally I'll have a song that I've written on the guitar that I'll play on the ukulele and I like it better that way. Or the vice versa, or I'll, you know, write it on the uk and then I'll start playing it on guitar. And it just opens up more doors. It's an you know, another tool in the toolboxes, the saying goes.

SPEAKER_03 21:55

Yeah, but when when did ukuleles become cool though? They used to be kind of, you know, Don Ho. An embarrassment.

SPEAKER_02 22:02

Tiny Tim, who was a fabulous ukulele player, but his whole shtick was, you know, uh sent the ukulele back many years ago.

SPEAKER_03 22:10

Well, I when I was a teenager around that time, a young teenager, I asked my parents for a guitar. I was, you know, I wanted to be Bob Dylan. And um my dad came home with a ukulele and I said, This is a ukulele, I want a guitar. And he said, Well, when you can handle four strings, then we'll think about six.

SPEAKER_02 22:34

Smart men. You know, I I've said numerous times, you know, to kids who want to learn how to play the guitar, ukulele is much easier. You know, it's and if you learn to play the ukulele or ukulele as they say, you can transpose that to guitar very easily. It's a great starting method. I could teach anybody to play a song. I can teach them three chords in ten minutes. You can do a lot of chords with one finger. You know, just one fret. Um so it's it's a great instrument.

SPEAKER_04 23:04

Subject matter going from you to guitar. Do you find that you that you're going to a different subject matter just because of the difference in sound on the two?

SPEAKER_02 23:16

Yeah. You're happy. It's a happy sounding instrument. I should try it. George That and Medication might work for you. I definitely needed it. Um, the ukulele just tends lends itself to that, you know, to to write happier, more upbeat because of the way it sounds. Yeah. But I also like playing blues on the ukulele, you know, which is not what typically is done, but it works for me.

SPEAKER_04 23:44

So on the new album that you're gonna have coming out, how many how many you have you have a bunch of you songs or just a couple?

SPEAKER_02 23:50

No, actually I don't know that there's any uh you songs. Um there might be some Uke music, you know, as part of tracks. Okay. Well I'll have you. In fact, the next song that we're gonna play, I haven't finished all the parts to that, and the I'm gonna be adding a you part to that. It just has a to build on the the track. But no, this time around it wasn't a lot of it wasn't a lot of you songs. Um well th I shouldn't say that, the one we heard just now, if I could. Right. That's me playing, but it's not a t standard you, it's a um a long scale baritone you. It's it's even longer than a baritone, so it's got a little more depth to it. Okay.

SPEAKER_04 24:31

Do you ever find yourself like going out of like your style and like going like more like have you ever like written like any like more rockish stuff or stuff like that? Or is that I don't know. Maybe it's a stupid question. I don't know.

SPEAKER_02 24:47

I'm just no, it's a good question, and it's something I'd like to be doing more of. You know, it's easy to get caught up in playing songs in the same keys and you know, same same uh tempos, and um so it it's a great idea. In fact, instead of playing the song we said we were gonna play, um why don't we switch over to driverless car? We can do it. Which is on the you know, we have all be on the next CD. Um it's not a completed track, but you'll get the idea. It's a little more of a rock song than I normally do.

SPEAKER_03 25:20

Yeah. All right, Driverless Car by Mitch Katz.

SPEAKER_01 25:45

Just me and the radio, never too far from home. That was so long ago. Now I put my faith in you. You've taken me this far. I love everything you do. Driverless car. No need to keep my eyes on the road, no need to keep my hands on the wheel. You always know just where we are. Driverless car. Now when I go out for a ride, know you've got my back. I read the news and take a nap. Like traveling on Amtrak. You always get me there on time. You even know how to park. Look, my no hands, no hands, driverless car. Need to keep my eyes on the road. Need to keep my hands on the wheel. You always know just where we are. Driverless car sometimes I yearn to drive again, to sit behind the wheel, step on the gas, go real fast, listen to the tires squeal. You do a much better job. You really are a store. No fender benders, no rear-enders, driverless car. Need to keep my eyes on the road, need to keep my hands on the wheel. You always know just where we are. Driverless car. You always know just where we are. Driverless carz.

SPEAKER_03 28:43

That's Mitch Katz Driverless Car from the soon-to-be-released album. Um So, Mitch, I know your professional career, you were involved with with cars a lot, and there's a long tradition of cars music. I love car songs personally. What are what are some of your favorite car songs? I was afraid you were going to ask me that question.

SPEAKER_02 29:04

You know, I'm nothing's really coming to mind. I used to love listening to click and clack, though. Oh, remember those guys.

SPEAKER_03 29:10

Um Peter Wolf, he had that song was at the wheel. I think it's one of the best, one of the best car songs around. Anyway, um New Morning Songwriter series. We heard it's coming back. That's great news. It's a it's a terrific series. Everybody should make an effort to get out there and um talk a little bit about where the idea came from and now that it's coming back, um what you have in store for us.

SPEAKER_02 29:38

I had the opportunity to perform at a series called the John Street Jam in Sogarties, New York. And they would put four people in the middle of the room, and it was patterned after the bluebird, as George had mentioned another time. And um but it was like an hour and forty-minute drive for me to go there to listen to music if I wasn't playing. And I wanted to have something like that in my backyard. And I didn't want to take it on alone. I had done that in the past, and it was a lot of work. Um and I, you know, started talking with Doug Mahart about it, and he decided he was willing to, you know, participate. So we spent some time looking for a room, we found New Morning, and really was a perfect fit. And that's where the idea came from. And New Morning was a a great uh space for us. Not only um were they very accommodating and would feed the musicians before the show, but they kind of had a built-in audience. Um a lot of the people who shopped there at a as a natural food store were into this kind of community and into this kind of music and they started to come. And seniors in the area from Southbury, the next town over, would come because we were passing the hat around and not charging a fee. So they could put in whatever they could afford, as well as families with kids. It was family friendly. Um, you know, a couple could come with their two or three kids and they didn't have to pay ten or twenty dollars each. They could put it to pay a minimum for food and drink. Right. They could put whatever they wanted in and it was fine. You know, we were happy to have them there. Um and it just uh you know grew and developed into a real nice community gathering. Well, I'm happy to hear that's coming back. And uh you're gonna be playing it, we understand. I'll be playing at the opening night of the first of the second reincarnation of the new morning songwriter series on January twenty-fourth. January twenty-fourth. And how can people find out about it? Well, there will be some PR done. Um some it'll be on social media, there'll be some press releases sent out. Do you have a website where people can find out about it? I have a website, but I'm not always good about updating my own gigs on my own website. But um on Facebook there is a New Morning Songwriters series um page that actually, Dave, you set up for us. Hasn't been used in a few years since we shut down during the pandemic. And I don't know what kind of cleanup is involved at this point, but uh we can try to revive that as well. Yeah, that's a good idea.

SPEAKER_00 32:08

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 32:09

Am I being volunteered for that again? No, I didn't say that.

SPEAKER_02 32:14

You didn't even remember that you set it up, did you? I didn't either until he just now. Dave. You didn't didn't either I had no idea.

SPEAKER_04 32:24

That's that's great. And again, that'll be January 24th in Woodbury, Connecticut. It and you know what? It's it's the new morning market. But even if it wasn't the new morning market, it's just a good name for a songwriter series. The new morning singer songwriter series. It's just it's just good. The Yacme Market songwriting series may not be a good thing. You wouldn't quite have to have an an Anvil and a uh um and and what was the cartoon?

SPEAKER_03 32:50

Roadrunner.

SPEAKER_04 32:50

Yeah, the Roadrunner. You'd have to have an Anvil.

SPEAKER_03 32:53

Well, and I I remember as I said, uh another time, uh I've played there, George has played there, and one thing I've noticed is that people come to the market early, grab something to eat, and then come upstairs for the show. So I I wish you guys all of the success in the world this time around, because it's a w wonderful series, and it's great to have it back.

SPEAKER_04 33:11

Thank you.

SPEAKER_03 33:12

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_04 33:13

So I think we can we can you can go out with a song. I think we're gonna play um bucket list. Should we do bucket list for to take us out, or you want to play something else? Yeah, bucket list is good. Okay. Thank you. Thanks for having me, guys. Thank you for being with us. Thanks for being here, and uh, we appreciate you coming up and uh until next time, and we'll definitely see you in January.

SPEAKER_01 33:52

It looked to me like you'd hardly aged. I sent a message and went for a walk. Said I would love it if we could talk. You wrote me back and said, Hey there Tom, we haven't spoken since I seen you prom Can I call you tomorrow night? Eight o'clock your time, that's alright. My pocket list is filled with dreams I wanna share with you. Tell me yours, I'll tell you mine. We might be old, but we're not through Let's talk about when we were kids, the crazy things that we did I think about you all the time How you went your way and I went mine You went to Europe as a graduation gift, London, Prague, Paris, French boy that you kissed. I drove cross-country with my best buddy Gus Ten, miles in a Volkswagen bus. My bucket list is filled with dreams I wanna share with you. Tell me yours, I'll tell you mine. We might be old, but we're not through So much more for me and you. So much more to do I'd love to jump from a plane in the sky, but I'm way too old for that kind of flight. How about we travel the world on a ship? Discover new places, skinny dip My bucket list is filled with dreams I wanna share with you Tell me yours, I'll tell you mine. We might be old, but we're not through Tell me yours, I'll tell you mine. We might be old, but we're not through.