The Nautilus Studio M31 Files interview singer-songwriter Tracy Wiebeck (part 2)

Studio owners Mr Bill (Nautilus Studio) and Yves LF Giraud (Studio M31) interview singer-songwriter Tracy Wiebeck (part 2).

For more info on Tracy, please visit:
https://www.reverbnation.com/tracywiebeck

Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:20

Let's let's place flowers of the night gleaming from the moisture I was gonna say the the Vipers uh is a project real dear to my heart because the the guys I'm in it with we're you know we're like brothers we we love each other we we respect each other we don't really have a leader which may be a problem at times I don't know but it's a democratic setup and uh I really enjoy the music we're playing. It's uh you know uh Americana rock blues roots influenced kind of music, which is kind of my wheelhouse. Your wheelhouse, yeah. Okay. The original vipos. Yeah. If you have a time machine, come on down to the Mancos Brewery. We'll be there last week, January 10th on Saturday. All right. Be there, be there.

SPEAKER_03 1:16

So that'll be about last month for you whenever this comes out.

SPEAKER_02 1:21

It was a great gig. You should have been there.

SPEAKER_03 1:25

Uh I would love for you to do a song for us. Uh is it is that something we can get? Um an original, preferably, but absolutely. I'd be happy to do that. Awesome, awesome. And I know you brought your guitar, so let's set you up.

SPEAKER_02 1:39

Okay, sounds good. Uh some time ago, my wife and I we were living in Southern California in San Diego County, and we thought we'd go to Austin, Texas to check out what that was like. Maybe move there. So we spent three or four days in the area of Austin and uh decided not to move there, but on the way back, the drive back to California, the the lyric, the words for this, the first few lines of this song just popped into my head. So I took it from there. It's called Going Back to Texas. Love and door. Going back to Texas, going back to happen, going back to Texas, going back to you like a mother play. Only a myself to play. The closer I got, the farther it's seen. Like Jason something in a tree. On back to Texas. On back to have my fun. On back to Texas, on back behind the sun. I'm gonna have my fun. That didn't stop me from walking in your door. I've learned my lesson. I've learned it well. Truth rings clear just like a bell. Trying to ease the pain in my heart. Going back to Texas. Going back to have my fun. Going back to Texas, baby. Going back behind the sun. Going to have my fun. Have my fun. Have my fun. Going back to Texas, baby. All right, right. Thank you very much.

SPEAKER_04 6:00

Well, can we get any higher than we already are? That's the question. Let's try. Let's try.

SPEAKER_03 6:08

Are we talking altitude or uh stimulus? Attitude. All of the above. And the below. So, Tracy, thank you so much for that song, man. That's awesome. So you said you you uh came up with uh the song itself, uh coming back from Texas. Uh what were you going back to?

SPEAKER_02 6:30

We were driving back to Southern California, San Diego County where we lived at the time.

SPEAKER_03 6:36

Did you end up going back to Texas after all after that? No.

SPEAKER_02 6:40

No. No. No. Okay. Oh. So was we went to North Carolina instead. Oh, wow.

SPEAKER_04 6:46

That sounds like a James Taylor uh move from Carolina on my mind.

SPEAKER_02 6:53

He was from Chapel Hill. I I remember driving across a bridge called the James Taylor Bridge. Oh, really? Yeah. In the Chapel Hill area.

SPEAKER_04 7:01

Nice, nice.

SPEAKER_02 7:01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 7:02

Now, when you were in Southern Cal, uh you were in Oceanside for quite a while.

SPEAKER_02 7:08

Oceanside and Fallbrook. Fallbrook. Between those two, that was about 15 years.

SPEAKER_04 7:12

And in you did you know Don? Is that where you met uh Don?

SPEAKER_02 7:17

Don, Mr. Soul. No, uh Don, the bass player.

SPEAKER_04 7:21

Right, yeah, the bass player and Mr. Soul's bass player. Yeah, and that was Steve is uh my neighbor, and Steve Mr. Soul. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 7:30

Yeah, I met I met uh uh Don uh who had played bass with Steve for years uh when uh he was playing in a blues band, the Chris Fast band. Yes, Chris is a just uh just a great harmonica player, singer.

SPEAKER_04 7:47

I got to sit in with those guys. Did you? Yeah, uh and it was because of uh uh Steve to Don connection, and I was uh visiting uh San Diego area there. Oh, okay, and uh Don had invited me and uh I got to get to play with those guys and that was fun.

unknown 8:04

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 8:04

I I had the pleasure of subbing for Don a bunch of times with that band, and that's how I got to.

SPEAKER_04 8:10

Oh, that would have been a fun band to play with. Oh, it was. That guy could play guitar and blow.

SPEAKER_02 8:16

Yeah. Yeah. When I learned he could play guitar.

SPEAKER_04 8:19

Yeah, he's a good guitar, good great guitar player, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 8:22

And he, you know, he I guess he played with Rod Piazza early on, who is another world famous uh blues guy, a harmonica player and singer. And uh I got I got a chance to play with Piazza a few times uh doing sub gigs. Um but yeah, uh Chris Fast uh he's he's right up there with me with uh I I was real impressed.

SPEAKER_04 8:47

I I got a C D of his uh uh that that I think might have been kind of a rough recording, but it it showed what he could do.

SPEAKER_02 8:56

So I I did I played a lot of blues in uh San Diego County and uh which was great because that's that's kind of my wheelhouse, you know. Um I got into the folk stuff a bit later after the after I was uh correct captured by the blues, I guess. And uh it was great for a bass player because I did so many it was like interchangeable rhythm sections in blues bands in San Diego. And you could throw a rock and hit a blues band. You know, there were so many of them and really good ones too. Yeah. It was pretty amazing. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 9:34

You mentioned quickly talking about somebody else. Um CDs. Do you do you have do you have albums? Do you have something recorded?

SPEAKER_02 9:41

Uh I have some I have some recordings. I I don't have anything that I sell. Um I don't I'm I'm not good at marketing. But uh who I do. I I've got uh I've got a site uh page, I guess, on uh Reverb Nation. Okay. Uh it's reverbnation.com forward slash forward for the camera. Um uh Tracy Weeback W-I-E-B-E-Z-K. And I've I've got a handful of songs up on that site.

SPEAKER_03 10:15

Cool. I'll I'll put I'll put it on the and plus you just said it, so fully people caught it. You can pause. There's no prize, but uh um Tracy, any anything happening, maybe? I know we talked about trying to do this early enough for for you to mention um the few gigs you're gonna mention now. You might as well. You never know. But I don't know that I'll be able to get this in time.

SPEAKER_02 10:46

I actually wrote them down so I wouldn't forget. Okay, cool. Because I've got a involved in a few things going on. Um yeah, it's probably too late to mention the vi the original vipers at Mankus Brewing on January 10th. It's probably too late to say that. If you have a time machine.

SPEAKER_04 11:07

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 11:08

Uh Tracy January 16th, I'll be solo at Wild Edge, Wild Edge Brewing Collective in uh Cortez. Awesome. January 16th, 6 30 to 8 30. And then um I participated in the Tom Petty night at the at the zoo gallery. And that was really fun. That was my first chance to get to play there. And uh I'm doing another night there. Um was that? February. I forget. I didn't write down the date. I think it's the 21st. I think it's the weekend after uh you turned that bell. I don't know. It's the weekend after the U. The Heartbreakers thing, I believe.

SPEAKER_04 11:53

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 11:54

Uh anyway.

SPEAKER_04 11:55

The Heartbreakers thing, but I'm playing with Mo and those kinds of things.

SPEAKER_02 11:59

Yeah, it's the Saturday after that. Okay. Uh is the duet night. Yeah. It's a Saturday. That's a good one. Yeah, we're gonna do that. And uh uh Jody came up with the idea to put together duos that don't or haven't performed together. Right. And uh I I got a hold of Bobby Wintringham and he said, Yeah, I'd love to do it. So do you know about what we don't know? He's uh he's the mandolin player in Goathead.

SPEAKER_04 12:26

Oh yeah, okay, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 12:27

He also manufactures. Yeah, Winteringham, yeah. Of San Juan mandolins, he makes those mandolins too. So he and I are gonna do like a half hour set um along with some other folks that night. And then uh March seventh, I'll be playing bass with uh Genuine Cowhide, which is Dale Allen's band um at Mixed in Mancas. March 7th. Mixed in Mancas.

SPEAKER_04 13:01

What's that about?

SPEAKER_02 13:02

That's the they've hired they have three bands and they each do a full set, like an hour set or something, and then they will pick maybe three to four songs from each band, and that the everybody's recorded while you're playing, and then they'll make a compilation.

SPEAKER_03 13:23

Do you know what uh venue, what place that was?

SPEAKER_02 13:26

Yes, at the opera house. The opera house. Okay, and that's March 7th? That's March 7th. Um the first band is um Sonny Gables band um Meen Irene. And then the middle band is um Stillhouse Junkies out of Durango. And then Genuine Cowhide. All right. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 13:48

It'll be fun. All right, cool. March 7th. Um Tracy, anything that we didn't ask you that you want to reveal on camera? Maybe uh you work for the CIA, you know, I don't know, something interesting.

SPEAKER_02 14:03

Well, I I've seen a few of uh of your episodes that I don't know if that's the right word, yeah of the of this video series. Escapage. Escapade. And uh I always enjoyed uh when you'd uh you asked the person, you know, any any particular gigs or shows stand out for one reason or another. I have a few, yeah, yeah. So the first one was uh uh at this uh famous at the time uh folk blues club called the Ash Grove in uh Los Angeles.

SPEAKER_03 14:39

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 14:39

And um I was playing there with the Ice House blues band, fronted by James Harmon, and we opened the show and then we uh backed up Big Joe Turner. Oh boy, pretty famous blues shouter from uh Kansas City. And that was great enough in and of itself.

SPEAKER_01 15:00

I was like, wow, can't believe we're doing this. This is really awesome.

SPEAKER_02 15:04

You know, I mean I was a blues freak then, and this this is like the pinnacle of it. So we're backing up Joe Turner, and um Freddie King, the guitar player, happened to be there. So he asked our guitarist if he could borrow his guitar and sit in. So, okay, yeah. So there I'm playing bass behind Joe Turner and um Freddie King, and then I look over to the left at somebody just slid onto the upright piano or the console piano. It was T-Bone Walker. Oh, no way, absolutely playing piano. And then I'm like going, my god, is this a dream? Is this unreal?

SPEAKER_04 15:49

This is.

SPEAKER_02 15:49

Did you pinch yourself? Yeah, because these, you know, some of my heroes, and then the the coup de ras was the baseball showed up and two feel baseball. Big Mama Thornton came up to the stage with a pitcher of beer and a bunch of mugs, empty mugs, and she said, I'll never forget what she said. What did she say? Um she said, I got a mug of beer and some shot glasses for y'all. Those guys are serious drinkers, that's it. Yes, yeah. So that was that was quite special. Yeah. Um, and then uh a few years What was the venue?

SPEAKER_03 16:27

I'm sorry.

SPEAKER_02 16:28

It was called the Ash Grove. The Ash Grove. It was a pretty famous uh folk and blues club in LA. Started in like the mid-60s, maybe. Um and um it eventually went out of business, and I believe it turned into the very first improv comedy club. Same building. Interesting. Um and so that was in like 72, winter of 72, 73. And then a few years later, uh I had I'd gotten into a country rock bluegrass band called Pickens and Reed and the Boys with the Noise. And we were all about a good time. We were all about doing goofy shit in front of people and making them laugh or get get up and dance and having a great time. Anyway, um, we were on the gong show. I don't know if you are familiar with the gong show.

SPEAKER_03 17:25

No, but I felt that from somebody, Tom did Tom mention the gong show? He might have. Yeah, he might have. Yeah, from somebody.

SPEAKER_02 17:34

It was a network show, it was on five days a week in the mid-70s. And so in 1977, it was Valentine's Week actually, we got on the Gong Show, and uh we played a song called uh Mule Skinner Blues, an old old country standard, you know. Uh we had a the singer was playing rhythm guitar, we had a great harmonica player, a great banjo player, uh the drummer in the band was playing a washboard, and we had to be all acoustic, so I was playing a gut bucket or a washed-up bass. Oh, you know, with the one string. Which was challenging. Anyway, we got on the gong show and we got the top score.

SPEAKER_04 18:22

Yeah, didn't gong you?

SPEAKER_02 18:23

They didn't gong you, that's why they called it the gong show.

SPEAKER_03 18:26

Yeah, if you if you were really amazing. Oh, they sucked.

SPEAKER_02 18:30

If if you sucked or they didn't like you, or that they go enough of this, they boom one of the three um uh it's almost like American Idol.

SPEAKER_03 18:40

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 18:42

So they had celebrity, three celebrity panelists, and if they didn't like you, one of them didn't, they'd hit the gong and you were done. And some people would would go on the show purposely just to get gong being bad because you got a prize for the worst act of the week. That makes sense. Yeah. So we got we anyway, we got the top score, and it and so did two other acts. It was a three-way tie.

SPEAKER_04 19:06

Oh boy.

SPEAKER_02 19:07

Um, and we didn't win.

SPEAKER_04 19:09

Yeah, but that was televised.

SPEAKER_02 19:10

That was televised, and there is video of it on YouTube. You can find it on YouTube. How old were you then? Pardon me?

SPEAKER_03 19:19

How how old do you think you were back then?

SPEAKER_02 19:20

I was uh February 27. I was 26.

SPEAKER_03 19:25

Yeah, the thing is 26.

SPEAKER_02 19:26

26. So, you know, Valentine's is coming up again, so I think I'll post it on Facebook. Might as well, yeah. Yeah, yeah. I every once in a while I post it and people haven't seen it get a kick out of it. So that was that was a real hoot. Yeah um God, was there anything else that really oh one other thing stands out in uh 90 the mid-90s, it was like maybe 95. Um I was living in uh uh uh San Diego County at the time. And uh and playing in a blues band with some old friends I'd played with. We were playing uh a middle of the week gig, a Wednesday night, I think it was, in uh Garden Grove. It's right in the middle of Orange County, you know, asphalt, glass, and steel for miles, you know, everywhere. So we're playing we're playing on a Wednesday night, nobody in the joint. It was a pretty depressing night, and then I looked up, and this guy walks in the door wearing a cowboy hat and he's leading a horse by the reins into the bar. He walks into the bar with a horse. With a horse. That sounds like a joke. It's not I swear, and we're all like, yeah. What the right immediate and he he he ties the horse up on this pole and goes to get a drink, and the bartender, of course, tells him we can see him animatedly telling the guy, get that horse out of here. So he the guy, a cowboy, takes the horse outside. I think he took him back around behind the building. And so on the break, of course, we went over and started talking with him, and he he said, We go, man, what's the deal with the horse? And he goes, Well, uh, the woman I love left me, and I'm determined to ride my horse up north into the Sierras, maybe Tahoe, I can't remember, and win back her heart. And we're all going, Wow, that's freaking awesome! What a great romantic story, you know? What does the horse have to do? That that that's that I didn't know. I was like, Don't you have a car? Of a truck. Anyway, I'm riding my horse up there. Okay. And so, you know, we chatted with him a little more and went back up and fit and finished the night. And the next day in the in the Orange County Register, the big paper of the air newspaper of the area, there was a story about a guy who got arrested in Garden Grove riding a horse down the middle of the street in the wee hours of the morning, and the horse was a stolen horse.

SPEAKER_03 22:32

Horse thieves, they they shoot those guys. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, that's serious stuff. Yeah. Well, not the ones in law. Those guys. I mean, I'll never forget that. Yeah, what a character.

SPEAKER_02 22:45

Quite a sight. Yeah. And you know, it was downhill from there, I guess, with just regular gigs playing music. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 22:53

Which is better than watching TV at home, right?

SPEAKER_03 22:56

It still is, right? No matter what your living moment each moment. Hey, Tracy. Thank you so much for being here, brother. My pleasure, Eve. Very interesting. Thank you. Live story, and uh hopefully we'll have you again. Um thank you for the song, and uh I I will put a couple of links down there. Good to see you again there. Yeah, man. Uh find Tracy. And hear more about your life and story.

SPEAKER_04 23:23

All right. Another adventure of the Nautilus M thirty one.

SPEAKER_00 23:44

Flowers of the night gleaming from the moisture and the mood.