From Downtown Now -Springfield, MO. August 2006
Gray Matters
By Bill Glahn
"With a James Dean jacket
and a cigarette"
(opening line to Ghost in the House, by Mike Felten)
Mike Felten, a Chicago folk singer and
record store
owner, was in Lou Whitney's South Street studio in
early July recording tracks for his second album, the
follow-up
to 2003's Landfill. "Ghost in the House,"
with its invocation of the 50's foremost symbol for
rebellion, was the first
song up. After a few takes,
Whitney called Felten into the control booth to listen
to a playback.
"You know,
I had one of those," Whitney tells Felten.
It was a lucid moment. Between the sound engineer,
musician, and journalist,
there were more accumulated
years than some Mormon family reunions. Or so it
seemed.
It's not often that this
51-year-old music journalist
could be referred to as "the kid" in a work situation
especially when an interview involves
an artist
working on their debut or sophomore effort. But it is
becoming less uncommon.
Felten is not the first
AARP candidate to kick off a
recording career. Fat Possum blues artist Robert
Belfour worked construction for 35 years
before
releasing albums. Bob Frank, who was hailed as a
"southern Bob Dylan" when his 1972 album on Vanguard
was
released, took a 30-year sabbatical to work on
irrigation systems in California after friction
developed between he
and the record label. Rich
Capalbo and Andy Willis of The Amoreys, were both over
50 when they released their first
album, Tasty Frieze,
in 2000. None of the above are nostalgia acts. "I hate
nostalgia," says Willis.
As the sessions
for Felten's record progressed,
Whitney would offer suggestions. "Try it this time
with a little more 'ham.'" "Can you
drop the key one
notch?" Sometimes slight alterations in a song's
arrangement were made. Whitney commented to me about
the
ease in which Felten could adapt, the sign of a
seasoned musician who had worked at his craft for many
years. About
halfway through the first day of
recording, Whitney was marveling, "This is the best
batch of songs that have come through
this studio in
at least five years."
Mike Felten has been writing and stockpiling his songs
for around 35 years.
Bob Frank tells a similar tale.
"I never stopped writing songs while I was working a
union job and raising my family,"
Frank told me in a
2002 interview. "I've been refining them and writing
new ones all these years." Since Frank's release
of
Keep on Burning that year, he has retired from his
job, released 2 more critically acclaimed albums, and
now performs
at folk festivals around the country on a
regular basis.
What Felten and Frank share, as well as many other
gray-haired
"rookies," is they are incredibly talented
artists who have led a workaday existence. They have
used that experience
to craft songs that are rooted in
the way most of us live our lives. Both can be
political in their songs and there
is a maturity to
their politics, not often found in younger performers.
They know what they are for, as well as what
they are
against. And they are using their advanced years to
express themselves in a manner they have denied
themselves
in the past.
"I played in a lot of cover bands for the cash," says
Felten, "trying to keep a family and a store
afloat.
At one point I was playing seven days a week, four
hours a night and six hours on Sunday. I don't know if
I
would've
done it for 'exposure' or one of those other words
that just mean 'free' in the musician's lexicon. I got
paid
and folks heard 'Proud Mary' and 'Green Grass of
Home' instead of Landfill."
Felten downplays his natural ability.
"Nothing about
music ever came easy. As good or as bad as I am right
now, I worked hard to get here." Working hard included
opening
gigs for such folk luminaries as John Prine,
Bonnie Koloc and Steve Goodman in the early '70s and
later for Utah Phillips.
In the '90s he wound up with
a regular blues gig in a band called Bellyfull of
Soul. "It seemed like every major blues
artist sat in
with us at one time or another. Pinetop Perkins,
Lonnie Brooks, Dancing Perkins, Jimmie Lee Robinson,
Lindsey
Alexander, all the Maxwell Street guys."
For his second album, Felten chose Springfield's Lou
Whitney to record
the basic tracks. Felten explains
the decision this way, "I always loved the Morrells
and the Skeletons. It is always
great to work with
somebody that was coming out of the boom box when I
was digging potatoes in Michigan. He's done records
with
a lot of people who I like. Guys like the Bottle
Rockets and Dave Alvin. I had covers by both of those
guys on the list
for my last band project. There is a
shared perspective on what a positive end result would
be."
"I recorded
Landfill with Devin Davis, who has an
excellent, critically acclaimed album out. He is a
younger guy. I think the problem
we had was that
neither one of us knew our roles. I'm not an engineer
and at the outset, he thought that all he should
be
WAS an engineer. By the time, he was comfortable
enough with me to voice an opinion, the project was
just about
all in the can."
But Felten doesn't exclude the possibility of working
with younger engineers in the future. "Age
difference
is a double edged sword. On one hand, a young guy
might not catch your short hand, but they aren't as
entrenched
in a style or the 'way things have to be
done'. From my varied background, I didn't know if I
should make a blues album
or a rock album or country
album or a folk album. In the end, I just wanted to
make a 'Mike' album. I think the edges
were a little
more jagged on Landfill than the one we are working on
now."
"Lou is still making music. He knows
what it is to be
a lifer. A lot of the wizards that we grew up with are
selling time shares. Making a living is important,
but
making music is paramount in our scheme of things.
Devin was great and I think he'll be where we are
thirty years
from now. I don't think he'd know what a
James Dean jacket was, but Lou did."
Despite their talent and experience,
demand for aging
artists by major record companies is almost nil. Radio
play is unheard of outside of non-profit community
stations.
To expose their music, these artists are
adapting the DIY philosophy of the punks from the
mid-70's. Both Felten and
Frank own their own record
labels. They both have websites and do their own
promotion. Frank has found a nitch market
at folk
festivals while Felten's left-leaning political tunes
have found an audience in Belgium, Northern France,
and
among striking Opel workers in Germany.
When it comes right down to it, though, mass
acceptance is not a motivating
factor. Life can make
you a realist and Felten knows the odds of having a
hit record are slim, even to those signed
to a major
label. He doesn't want to be a rock 'n' roll star. His
motivations are more humble than that.
"I'm
not trying to impress the girls and make them
sorry they spurned me. I've spent enough nights in
motels. In the mid
1980's when we were relatively at
peace, a woman by the name of Jan Maara got up and
sang Steve Goodman's anti-war song
'Penny Evans' at a
festival in Rhinelander, Wisconsin. Some of the
musicians that were there, said that they wished
to be
entertained and not preached to. Twenty odd years
later we are in
the same quagmire. I wonder if we all sang
'Penny
Evans' as much as we sang 'God Bless The USA' for the
past twenty years, if we'd been in the same situation.
We
should all stand in place and sing about who we are
and what things should be. Stardom or fame is just
another devil
that has to be confronted."
"Pete Seeger entitled his autobiography, 'How Can I
Keep From Singing?' _Expression
is not a choice but a
necessity. Music is the novel for the short attention
span. At the very least, my grandchildren
will be able
to listen to my stuff and know who I was."
There is a sense of mortality in that final sentence
that
comes with age. It's a sense that is instinctive
in most all of us that are nearer to the end of our
lives than the
beginning of it. There is an urgency to
strip away the bullshit and find the things in our
lives that are the most important
and to pass that
knowledge on to future generations.
Felten explains his opening line to "Ghost in the
House"
this way: "The verse is about the bad decisions
we make in our youth and ignorance where we sometimes
reject the pure
hand and heart."
The myth is that James Dean's jacket in "Rebel Without
A Cause" was red to signify anger. The truth
of the
matter is that Dean bought the jacket after he learned
the movie was going to be in color so he would stand
out
more.
What Felten is leaving his grandchildren is a lesson
on how to cut through the crap. And that's a valuable
lesson
to learn at any age.
|
Community Free Press Midweek
Read the entire article "Mixin It Up - Working Man Style" http://www.cfpmidweek.com/weeks/030304/showme.htm
Mike Felten “Save Her Old Man” Here's a heart-wrenching story about a man and his child following
a permanent layoff from a long-held job during a cold winter in Michigan . Everybody who worked at VF Jeans in Lebanon , Missouri
will relate. “Save Her Old Man” appears on Felten's Landfill album, a disc that any person that has ever broken
a sweat will appreciate. It's tough to find locally, but easily available on the net at http://www.mikefelten.com |
mike felten
by Wesley Willis
You can really rock it out.
mike felten is very special to me.
mike felten is excellent.
You really whoop a snow
lepoard's ass.
MIKE FELTEN!!!
MIKE FELTEN!!!
MIKE FELTEN!!!
MIKE FELTEN!!!
About 89300 people like
mike felten.
mike felten really whoops a camel's ass.
You can really rock it out.
You are a mike felten star.
MIKE
FELTEN!!!
MIKE FELTEN!!!
MIKE FELTEN!!!
MIKE FELTEN!!!
mike felten is excellent.
You are a mike felten
star.
mike felten is the best.
You can really rock it out.
Rock over London,
Rock on Chicago.
Rock & Rap Confidential
2-14-04
"Felten specializes in crossing up expectations: Is this
an angry John Prine? Lynyrd Skynyrd folk-rock? Roots rock with occasional cowbell? The songs are smart, funny and sound full
even when all that's going on is a couple of guitars and a little percussion."
From Pete Smith - Country Music Round-up (UK) 9/24/2004
Mike Felten
“Landfill” (Landfill Records). This really is an album in two parts. The first four tracks are aggressive, sometimes
jaundiced views of life very reminiscent of an early Bob Dylan. From track six the urban poetry gives way to the blues. This
really is a great album. I love Felten’s voice and the way he attacks his acoustic guitar particularly on the early
part of the album and it is those five songs that appeal to me most. I am sold on “Abortion In Chinatown”, “Life
Goes To Hell”, Sister” and “Save Her Old Man”. The blues part of the programme kicks off in fine style
with “Margie Got A Boyfriend” and continues in the same vein with “Finntown Hearse”, “Talkin’
66 Summer School Blues” and “Stomp On The Terra”.
Review in RootsTown Music Free-zine 74 - 2003
Deurne, Belgium Quote(s):
“The last three weeks this cd hasn’t been out of the player and it will stay that way for weeks to come.
Mike Felten comes warmly recommended!”
Mike Felten /
Landfill / Landfill (www.recordemporium.com)
Tja, dat was
even zoeken. Zoeken om iets meer te weten te komen van ene Mike Felten, en dat viel niet mee. Mike wie? Mike Felten dus! Nu
komt het best vaker voor dat je ‘iets’ voor het eerst hoort of ziet, toch? Enige jaren geleden was ene Kevin Meisel
daar nog een mooi voorbeeld van. Maar van Mike Felten had ik dus echt nog nooit gehoord, ook niet via via. Nu lag daar opeens
een cd van deze beste man (die al vanaf midden jaren zestig muziek blijkt te maken en ook nog eens al ruim 20 jaar een ‘indie’
recordstore schijnt te bestieren) in m’n cd-speler, Landfill geheten. De eerste kennismaking deed mij in ieder
geval denken aan Tom Ovans en heel soms aan onze ‘eigen’ Michael de Jong. Anderen spreken dan weer over ‘John
Prine´s sadder and funnier brother’, doch één ding is mij diverse luisterbeurten later in elk geval heel erg duidelijk
geworden: Mike Felten is niet van deze wereld! En als ie dat wel is dan is deze kerel er al zo lang dat hij op de nodige levenservaring
kan bogen, ervaring met oog voor die zaken waar het werkelijk om gaat. Kan niet anders, want dan schrijf je niet zulke teksten
als Felten doet. Of zoals een vriend het, na hem dit schijfje te hebben uitgeleend, zo mooi weet te typeren: “…zomaar,
zonder te weten waarom, of nog erger: volkomen op mijn verkeerde been staande, zegt mijn wettige echtgenoot plotseling: “Acht.” Wat nou, acht, weet ik nog uit te kramen, maar echt verder kom ik ook niet. Mijn ‘Sweetheart Of The Rodeo’
spreekt dan de koninklijke toverformule uit om ons huisgezin te verlossen van een matte, enigszins lome staat van complete
reddeloosheid, welke sinds de intrede van een cd bij ons heeft postgevat, gelijk een dood vogeltje in de broekzak van de gelaarsde
kat. Zij zegt letterlijk: “Egypte heeft zeven verzoekingen van de Almachtige moeten ondergaan, maar de achtste heeft
de westerse muziekmaatschappij over zichzelf afgeroepen!” Die avond aan de dis zegt ze: “dat niemand ons ooit
iets heeft verteld over Mike Feltens cd Landfill, dat wij hem nog nooit tijdens Take Root in Assen hebben mogen aanschouwen,
nog nooit iets van hem op de radio hebben mogen vernemen, is al te gek voor woorden.” Sinds drie weken zit er één cd
in onze schijvenbabbelaar en voorlopig komt hij er niet meer uit! Mike Felten is dus een regelrechte aanrader! (LK)
(For those of you who aren't versed in the language of Belgium, we ran it through one
of those free translators you find on the internet. Here's what we got:
Translation
Tja, that was just as zoeken. To zoeken something
more to be possible come of one Mike Felten, and that did not turn out better than expected. Mike which? Mike Felten therefore!
Now occurs best more often that you hear ' something ' for the first
time
or see, nevertheless? Some years was suffered one Kevin Meisel of it still a beautiful
example. But of Mike Felten I had never heard therefore real, also not indirectly. Now there suddenly a cd of this
best man (who appears already as from
in the middle of years sixty
musics and also once more already wide 20
make years ' indie ' govern
recordstore seems) in my cd-speler lay, Landfill been called. The first familiarisation did think me in any case to TOMs Ovans
and
very sometimes to our ' own ' Michael the young. Others contradict
then concerning ' John Prine's sadder and funnier
brother ', yet one
thing me several lustre turns have become later anyway
complete very
clear: Mike Felten are not of this world! And if ie that, however, then is this kerel is there already this way
long that he is possible arcs on the necessary life experience, experience with eye
for that matter where it concerns really. Do not be possible differently, because then you do not write such texts such as
Felten do. Or such as a friend it, after him this disc to have lent, this way beautiful weet to typify: "...zomaar, without
for knowing why, or still more terrible: completely my leg found oneself on standing, my legitimate spouse says suddenly:
Considers.What nou, consider, weet I still from at kramen, but really further bowl I also not. My ' Sweetheart or The rodeo
' speak then the royal toverformule from
to release our house family
of frosted, slightly heavy state of complete reddeloosheid, which since the entrance of a cd at us mail has had, right dead
vogeltje in the trousers pocket of the gelaarsde cat. She says litterally: Egypt seven verzoekingen of omnipotent have had
undergo, but the eighth has called the Western music society concerning itself!That evening to the dis says them: that nobody
us ever something concerning Mike Feltens to cd has told
Landfill,
that we him never during Take Root in Assen have been possible
contemplate,
never something of him on the radio have been possible learn, is already too crazy for words.Since three weeks have been sitting
there one cd in our
schijvenbabbelaar and provisionally has been coming
he no longer! Mike Felten are therefore a straight must! (LK)
So
to all of you a hearty "zomaar". Stop standing on one leg with your 'legitimate spouse" a good screwdriver will get
my piece of 'reddeloosheid' out of your 'schijvenbabbelaar'. Haven't figured out the part about the 'trousers pocket of the
gelaarsde' cat yet. Ah, there is no ignorance like American ignorance! And yes, I know that ignorance was spelled wrong in
one spot and not one of the three or four people that read this told me about it.
From Radio Atl "Roots Revival" - Bree, Belgium
"I will
give your disc regular airplay in my radio show because you 're damn good..." - Ray Swennen.
From Michael Leahy - KDVS - University of California - Davis
"I played the track Abortion in Chinatown and will play Landfill next week. Thanks again...great work"
Alternative Culture Guide > Husgow
Record Guide > July 10, 2003
Mike Felten could
be John Prine's sadder and funnier brother. A record store owner by trade, Felten will have you weeping one minute ("Save
Her Old Man") and in stitches the next ("You Could Have Had This"). And his songs work best when they mix both tragedy and
humor, such as on "Talkin' 66 Summer School Blues" which invokes both Columbine and Eddie Cochran ("Mama Papa told me, Son,
you got to make some money if you want to use a gun or go shooting next Sunday. Well, I called my Congressman and he said,
quote, 'Fuck off you little bastard, you're too young to vote.") Somewhere on the twilight side of 50, Felten has written
a set of songs that speak more about survival than great expectations. And anyone who can make a living as an indie record
shop owner for over 20 years is most certainly a survivor. So, kid, if you wanna get by in this mean, old world, you better
get a sense of humor. Grade: B+, an A with better production
**
Mike has been making music since 1965 and he's been an owner &
operator
of an independant music store for the last 24 years - so
he's certainly
no newbie to the biz-niz - here's an honest, heartfelt
release for
a change; no agenda for world domination, nothing of the
sort - just
pure Americana from a man who's been doing this for years.
Cool singer/songwriter
stuff ala JOHN PRINE/BOB DYLAN..
Dig the blurb on the back about indie
stores! - Southern Records
**…Long time Indie store
owner and 60's/70's folkie released an album by
popular demand. Shared
the stages w/ JOHN PRINE and STEVE GOODMAN
during the chicago folk
explosion AND sold their records at his
store…..Elements of
country, folk, blues, and rock. Definite streaks of JOHN PRINE, STEVE EARLE, JOHNNY DOWD, and JIM WHITE. Not convinced? Check
out www.recordemporium.com and click on WEASELWORLD….Some of the best industry commentary! - Choke Records
(*The Cheah boys in Singapore have more integrity in their reviews than the majority
of their U.S. counterparts. This isn't glowing, but you can bet it is honest. Read them. They will send you a weekly e-mail
if you ask singbigo@singnet.com.sg Tell 'em Mike sent you.)
'In a moment of sincere self-deprecation, singer-songwriter Mike Felten sent his new CD, Landfill, together with a
roll of toilet paper. In his liner notes, Felten says: "What you have here isn't perfect, by any means. Life is flawed and
uneven, I'm just trying to get after the truth." And yes, Landfill is flawed. It isn't musically stunning and isn't lyrically
breathtaking. But it achieves what Felten has aimed for, getting to grips with stories about ordinary people and their worries
of domestic violence (Sister), unemployment (Save Her Old Man) and dashed hopes (Life Goes to Hell). Still, there are at least
two worthy tracks, the catchy Talking 66 Summer School Blues, where Felten outlines his generation against that of Columbine.
And the beautiful title track, Landfill, which unlike most of the other songs, is written powerfully and succinctly: "Landfill,
landfill/Bustin' tail, paying bills/ Landfill, landfill/ On this earth by force of will." (5) - Philip Cheah'
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