Sometimes the sound of truth, of magic,
of wonder, can be found in an
Open Book --Richard Cuccaro
Was it ever like this? The sound of a woman's voice drifting over spinning molecules of air,
pushing, insinuating, colliding in waves, a wash of notes from a Stradivarius set of vocal cords
surging into a flood of ecstasy in my chest? Were they ever woven with the sound of a male
companion whose gentle strength and wisdom promised a path to peace of mind? Sure, somewhere…
but I can't remember where… quite like this.
There are stretches of time where nothing new seems to come along and I wait for the next big rush
of a surprise from an unexpected direction.
Then, there they were. The duo of Michele Rubin and Rick Gedney, calling themselves Open Book
arrived, combining their gifts. They join forces with Kaplansky, Eberhardt, Shindell, et. al., and offer
their music to a Brittany-battered, rap-bludgeoned public.
Michele: first steps
Michele must've been about four when she fell in love with the "B" side of a Herman's Hermits 45rpm
"Nobody Needs to Know," and played her little Magnus organ along with it. James Taylor was her first
inspiration to pick up a guitar. She got her first guitar at age 6 and wrote her first song at 7, using the
just the first string of the guitar. She's never stopped… it became a special place to go, with almost never
an audience. She had formal lessons for about two weeks when she was about 10; but the teacher caught
on to the fact that Michele was memorizing what she played and not practicing with the sheet music.
She continued to teach herself on the instrument and later fell in love with the sound of the 12-string
guitar which has become a part of her signature sound. Her father, a musician, left their home around
the time of that first song. Their bond was essentially musical and she occasionally recorded in his home
studio on reel-to reel. They eventually drifted apart but Michele credits a supportive mother and stepfather
for providing a continuing source of strength in all her pursuits. She would bring her songs to the foot of
her parents' bed and play for them. Michele's early influences include many of my personal favorites.
The singer/songwriters: Dan Fogelberg, Elton John(early), Cat Stevens, Jackson Browne, Karla Bonoff,
Bonnie Raitt, Rikki Lee Jones, Joni Mitchell, and Carol King. The groups: Traffic, Blind Faith, and The Band,
The Who and CSNY. Small wonder this author felt a sense of kinship. She played for friends in high school
and when she entered college, formed a short-lived band with some friends who were musicians. After college,
Michele continued writing by herself, fairly prolifically.
Rick: Beginnings & Buffalo Bill
Rick has a picture of his great grandfather from around the turn of the 19th Century, posing with an open
back 5 string banjo. His great aunt said he knew Buffalo Bill Cody and played 5string banjo in one of his
Wild West extravaganzas when it came to NY. After finding his old mandolin banjo at her house, he knew he
wanted to learn how to play it.
During his childhood, the portable radio on top of the refrigerator was tuned to WQXR where he heard a lot
of jazz and popular music and was influenced early on by Ella Fitzgerald, Duke Ellington, Louis Armstrong
and Big Bands like the Tommy Dorsey Orchestra. With the folk song revival of the late 50's, he was introduced
to a lot of roots music, initially "filtered" in the form of the Kingston Trio and others, but soon discovered the
originals, Pete Seeger being a big influence in introducing the music, but giving credit to the originators. So he
got into Ledbelly, Big Bill Broonzy, Jelly Roll Morton, Blind Lemon Jefferson, Woody Guthrie, Jimmy Rogers,
traditional spirituals and work songs along with early rock and roll.
His parents bought him a small, inexpensive guitar and he got a paper route to pay for some lessons. Those lasted
about 6 months. He wanted to play like Chuck Berry but they were teaching the Mel Bay method and he soon
ran out of patience. Rick started to learn the chords and rhythms to songs by ear from the radio, through friends,
records and his own 'noodlings'. His first real album bought with his paper route money was Peter, Paul, and
Mary's self-titled debut and he memorized all the songs. He then learned the songs of the Everly Bros, Buddy Holly,
Chuck Berry, Elvis, Little Richard, along with those of Mississippi John Hurt, Doc Watson, The Weavers, Ledbelly,
and Bob Dylan.
In the 60's he and some high-school friends started a rock band -- The Lonely Souls -- playing covers of Beatles,
Stones, Byrds, Lovin' Spoonful at High School dances and Church socials.
In College, he did solo gigs in local Pizza joints and college parties, and was influenced by the varied guitar styles
of Chet Atkins, Arlo Guthrie, James Taylor and Mississippi John Hurt.
The Path to "Open Book"
After college, Michele lived in the city and played infrequently at a small bar, doing covers and some of her own material.
She later married and had a daughter. Her focus shifted to being a mother and she stopped playing, figuring she'd be able
to pick it back up whenever she decided it was time.
Fateful Break When her daughter was six, they were ice skating together and Michele fell, breaking her wrist.
The realization suddenly struck her that the ability to play music might be in jeopardy. An incorrect setting of her wrist left her
unable to turn her hand to reach the neck of the guitar. She chose to have it reset surgically and a painful recovery ensued.
As soon as she was able to really play again, she ventured out to the open mikes in local venues. She states: "I started to
meet a lot of very talented people and my writing really took off." She was turned on to WFUV radio by a friend and was
amazed and inspired by their format, discovering many new artists. She started playing at local small clubs and met Rick
at an open mike.
After college, Rick married and taught guitar and banjo in Indiana where he had gone to school. He formed a rock-a-billy
bluegrass band with some friends playing mandolin, banjo, and guitar at local festivals and restaurants. He later moved back
to New York and found a job as a teller in a bank.
All Seriousness Aside He played a short-lived gig as a bass player for a disco wedding band, but decided that it just wasn't
for him. It ended, for a time, any desires to do music professionally. So it was just he and his guitar for many years at home,
and at family/friend gatherings, raising 2 daughters. In the 90's a friend, who was involved in a group called The White Plains
Coalition for Racial and Cultural Harmony, asked him to back their chorus on guitar, which got him back into performing locally.
He also became an avid WFUV listener where he was re-introduced to the new singer/songwriter scene.
The Gift For his birthday, family and friends gave him a gift of recording studio time with a band, and from there he started g
oing to open mikes around the area where he met Michele and other singer/songwriters and re-learned how to perform as a solo
and back-up musician, and began to learn to write his own music.
'The thing that I think sets us apart is that we write independently
but around each other's natural instincts and abilities.'
- Michele
Rick and Michele originally met at The Common Sense Cafe open mic in Portchester, owned by musician C.J. Masters.
The two later met his brother, Billy Masters, a brilliant lead guitarist and producer of OPEN BOOK'S debut CD. The atmosphere
at The Common Sense was laid-back and supportive. The cafe later closed. Rick and Michele began to frequent open mics like
those held at The Acoustic Café and The Towne Crier, where they honed and polished their skills. They found a home at
The Towne Crier, where owner Phil Ciganer, provided them with encouragement and booked them to open for a number of
notable headliners including Lucy Kaplansky and Buddy and Julie Miller. Rick and Michele recently held the release party for
their stunning debut CD, "Out of Time" at the Towne Crier.
'Sometimes we help each other out on chord changes and various other structures of a song,
but mostly to provide a trusting ear and to keep the lyrical content honest.'
-Rick
Michele and Rick work independently on songs, but then play them for each other at various stages.
Most times, 95% of the song is worked out by the time they play it for each other. Rick's spirituality
takes precedence over "making it" in the music business… reflected in certain songs like "Say a Prayer,"
which asks God for guidance and "Falling" which asks for comfort and support from a good friend.
He says, "That spirituality originally attracted me to Michele's songwriting. There is a searching for answers
in her songs, but always with a sense of hope."
Rick and Michele have made an auspicious beginning. Last month I reviewed their CD (It's on the Acoustic Live website
in the "CD Review Rack"). I stated that the forthright nature of their writing is a descriptive example of their name.
There is a continuous pattern of getting to the heart of the feelings passing from one caring person to another.
If it wasn't so cornball, they could even have called themselves "Open Heart. That cd, Out of Time, will be available
soon through cdbaby, cdnow, and amazon.com.
For upcoming gigs and other info, Open Book can be e-mailed at harmonysing@yahoo.com until their website is
up and running.
This month, Open Book gigs include:
June 15 Redding Garden House Concert (CT)
June 16 Hammond House Concerts in Valhalla, NY
See our listings for complete information.
Little Toby Walker, King of the Long Island Delta --Richard Cuccaro
Oh God said to Abraham, "Kill me a son" Abe says, "Man, you must be puttin' me on" God say, "No." Abe say, "What?"
God say, "You can do what you want Abe, but The next time you see me comin' you better run." Well Abe says,
"Where do you want this killin' done?" God says, "Out on Highway 61."
It has taken this author far too long to recognize the significance of Bob Dylan's choice of locale for his song, "Highway 61 Revisited."
The trail of the blues and its exponents has been known by many for a long, long time.
Pulitzer prize-winning author Rick Bragg wrote in the New York Times recently: "Highway 61 - and parts of Highway 49 - is called
the blues trail because, for one, it cuts through the very heart of the Mississippi Delta where so many blues musicians were born and
reared and perfected their skills, and it is also the route north that many of them took on the first leg of their journey to Chicago and
other cities."
Toby Walker, by day a Wantagh, Long Island mailman, bluesman the rest of the time, learned about the trail of the blues a long time
ago. He made many trips down Highway 61 to find obscure blues players, underdogs, or ''guys who missed the boat.'' People like
Etta Baker, R. L. Burnside (who's catching the boat this time around) and Eugene Powell, a 1930's bluesman, to stand at the doorstep
of one of his heroes, James Son Thomas, a guitarist, sculptor and gravedigger, in Leland, Mississippi. "My heart stopped when I saw him,'"
he recalled. "I just said, 'Can I listen to you play?' He invited me in, and I learned and watched and listened for two days."
A man possessed, he's also visited various notable locations, from prisons to museums, researching the genre throughout the country.
"Talking to those people and visiting those places has augmented things I've read," Mr. Walker said, ''and put everything into focus.''
You can hear it in the way he handles the business end of a bottleneck slide.
Listening to his CD, Little Toby Walker, we can hear the power of the Mississippi Delta reaching all the way to Wantagh through his
rough-hewn vocals.
"Hear the wind coming / I believe it's gonna blow / sounds just like my baby / she's getting ready to go."
His devotion to the blues can be traced to a seminal experience in Walker's mid-teens:
"One summer when I was 15,'' he said, ''I was carrying my guitar down the street, and this guy, working on a car in his front yard,
yelled out, 'Hey, what do you play?' I said, 'Blues.' I thought I did, but I didn't know what I was talking about. I tried to sound cool. '
So who do you play?' he asked me. He got me there."
"He took me to his basement and showed me more blues albums than I've ever seen: Buddy Guy, Otis Rush, Robert Johnson.
I just absolutely flipped out, and I spent a better part of that summer in that basement."
For a number of years, Walker worked strictly as a musician, and, with a family to support, had to play just about every style of
music to make a living: country to rock and roll, classical, reggae." Blues was pretty much a sideline. Four years ago, he says he
decided that if he got a "real job" - in particular one with the Post Office - he could erase any guilt about spending time and money
indulging himself in the music he truly loved. During his vacations, he would be able to take those "field trips" down South to the
spiritual centers of the blues.
In addition to the aforementioned CD, Little Toby Walker he has a new CD called Cool Hand and it's available at www.audiokingdom.com
Toby's web site is at www.littletobywalker.com and it has a lot more information about Toby's local appearances including those on cable TV.
There are reviews that contain the details of his story only touched upon here plus a treasure trove of links to sites about guitar and blues.
One of the most fascinating links there is the one containing the stories of his trips down Highway 61 with individual profiles and photos
of the bluesmen he's met.
Like any great acoustic act, Toby should be seen live. Some upcoming gigs include:
• June 1st, 7pm Huntington Folk Music Society Main Concert with Mike DiGeronimo
• June 5th, Nawlin's Grill 44 Willis Ave, Mineola 516 747 8488 7 to 11pm with Mike DiGeronimo on snare
• June 26th, 8:30pm w/Roy Bookbinder The Brokerage, Merrick Rd, Bellmore
• June 27th, 9:00pm Long Island Music Coalition Acoustic Showcase North Shore Cafe 36 Glen Head Rd.
Glen Head, N.Y. 516-676-9839
• July 3rd, Nawlin's Grill 7 to 11pm with Mike DiGeronimo on snare.
• July 17th, 7:30 pm The Electric Cafe Summer Series Presents Little Toby Walker at: Bay Shore's Main Street
Gazebo with Mike DiGeronimo on snare. 631 969 1770
• July 20th, Riverhead Blues Festival -- Headlining the Acoustic Stage with Mike DiGeronimo on snare
• July 21st, NY State Rhythm & Blues Festival with: Otis Rush, Kenny Neal, Jimmie Vaughn, Robert Junior Lockwood,
Sonny Landreth, Little Toby Walker and many more. Syracuse, NY