Skylands Summer Music 2007

Blue, Blue Summer

by Mary Jasch

If you're looking for a fun or romantic evening of music -- usually free -- grab a blanket and head to the nearest park or garden. Camaraderie pervades when music lovers gather before an open stage. "The energy at an event like that is always so exciting when the people get inspired by the music. It's just sheer joy," say Melissa Martin of the Mighty Rhythm Kings. Three outdoor concerts ar presented here.

Melissa Martin and The Mighty Rhythm Kings

Audiences will jump to their feet when Melissa Martin and The Mighty Rhythm Kings hit the stage at Hunterdon County's Music Under the Stars on July 12 from 7-9. The series is held every Thursday from June 21 through August 16 at Deer Path Park.

Martin and band cater their show to the audience – from bluesy, hard-edged tunes to swing. Their songs appeal to everyone from older folks, who sing along, to dancing kids. They keep the music danceable with a Jump Blues style. "There was a time during World War II when it got too expensive to take 13-piece orchestras out on the road. Louis Jordan coined the phrase, "Jump Blues,” when he took out a five-piece group instead and made the same kind of music, but more raw, with a lot less instrumentation,” explains Martin.

The Mighty Rhythm Kings, together for 13 years, evolved from playing nightclubs and bars to swing dance clubs and concerts. Martin loves playing outdoors despite the challenges. "I love it when the county director springs for a sound designer. That way you have an expert that makes sure the mix is just right. Outdoors opens up a different collection of issues. There are no walls to bounce sound off. Sound can go straight up and out. It depends on the setting so when there's an expert there, it's wonderful. Theyre prepared for every scenario.”

Wearing a dress that stays fresh is also important to Martin, who wears dresses because outdoor concerts are formal for her group, who often play for swing dancers in wing tips and crinolines. When the GAP commercial hit with the tune, Jump, Jive, and Wail, "All of a sudden, swing dancing became the craze, and all of a sudden wow! these kids really embraced our music. There's a certain refinement to that style.”

Melissa Martin's voice ranges from angel light to the growling Janis Joplin-like depths. For this she is grateful to her parents who encouraged and gave her voice lessons at a time when parents opted for piano lessons. But then, it's not every child whose grandmother was a nightclub singer.

Although Martin studied musical theater in college, her voice teachers pushed her to sing their favorite European arias so she also received a classical music background. "That's the best thing that happened to me growing up musically. It was always classically-based. You can't teach someone proper breathing when they're singing in the style of American Idol. I truly think, as fabulous as it is, if you learn to sing in the style of pop you can do a lot of damage if you don't know how to breathe properly and sing from the right spot. And you don't have the long career you would have if you have proper placement.”

In blues music, all bets are off a little bit more, she says. In pop there is more artistic license. But she insists learning to breathe from the diaphragm and singing with a supported sound is necessary for a long career. At the Hunterdon concert, Martin will perform with six band members, all of whom sing. "Three guys now give me a little rest. I tell them they bought me another decade in my career. They're wonderful, too.”

Martin is always surprised by the concert director who asks what her show is. "I laugh and say, ‘this is your show. Whatever you want.' The fact of the matter is, we love it so much. Now that I found the right group of performers, it's so much fun. I just love it.”

Rob Cannillo

Rob Canillo. Photo by Dan Meehan

A little cooler, laid-back time awaits concert-goers at Sussex County Community College's Thursdays on the Green starting June 21 at 6:45.

Smoky voice, sultry sax, and a jazz-sparked blend of bluesy folk-rock stories of truth define the music of singer-songwriter, Rob Cannillo. His songs of love gone bad, paradise lost and sometimes gained are written from the heart and, one suspects, personal experience.

But Cannillo, an Orange County resident, says he's not a love song or sappy song writer. "I write a lot of stories about life – the good times, the bad times. Ever since I could pick up a guitar it was never to learn somebody else's song. It was just to be able to put music to the stories I had in my head.” To those of us bewitched by that thing called love, Cannillo's songs offer a kind of solace in the universality of their themes.

Cannillo wrote lyrics as a kid, but began playing guitar at age 25. For 12 years he played in his living room, doing a few open-mics. Then, five years ago, two operations pushed him and his wife to sell most of their business so he could chase his dream. "I said to myself, ‘What am I waiting for? What's the big deal? Get out there and get in the arena.' I was a reluctant singer but I said somebody's got to sing these songs and it might as well be me.” Now, with help from his wife, who is his greatest supporter and also books his gigs, he's a full-time musician, performing solo and with a band, Rob & Friends.

The band does about 80% originals and their own arrangements of covers by The Band, Buffalo Springfield, BB King, Clapton, and the Allmann Brothers. Cannillo's two independently released CDs contain original songs except for a rockin' rendition of the Allman Brothers' Southbound and a jazzy BB King's The Thrill is Gone, both reworked with a sinfully delicious sax. Cannillo plays house concerts, wineries, clubs, and outdoors summer concerts. "I love outdoors,” he says. "I'm comfortable in that setting. The vibe is nice; people are having a good time. That's just where I like to be.”

Jimmy Thackery & The Drivers

On August 12, Jimmy Thackery & The Drivers will entertain audiences at Somerset County Park Commission's "Summer Concert Series” at Duke Island Park from 7-8:30. Concerts run from June 24 through August 26.

Jimmy Thackery has been making music for 40 years. "I started as a blues player. I don't know where I am right now. What's on my newest album is anything but blues. I went through the blues genre as long as I could. At some point you just start writing stuff that means something to you instead of trying to rewrite the next Muddy Waters song. I just started writing stuff from my own head and heart and I'm not sure what you call it. It's certainly roots-oriented.”

Other than the acoustic set his wife, a promoter, asks him to do for a blues festival where they live in Arkansas, Thackery plays strictly electric. He recorded one acoustic album "Sideways from Paradise,” in 1985 with John Mooney. "That's as close to me playing acoustic as you're going to get,” he says. "It's very much coming from Delta blues.”

He began honing his chops in 1966 and began playing professionally in '68 when he was just 12 years old. Girls got him interested, he says. "In '68 I started playing gigs for very small amounts of money. Anything that came down the pike.” Thackery has spent most of his career on the road. Now at 54, he cut his schedule from 300 nights a year to 150. And that suits him fine. He enjoys spending more time at home and having a life and the club business is not what it used to be, he says. Where there were once six or so clubs in every major city, now there are none or maybe one. He's played them all a dozen times over anyway. "I'm interested in playing concerts, festivals, and special events so I said ‘All-right, I'll back off on that and play some big events, concerts, and festivals and a few honky tonks here and there and let that be it.' I'm not up here doing a Napoleonic death march across America in every honky tonk that ever put up a marquee sign. I figure about 30 years at 300 nights a year is plenty.”

Summer concerts are where he wants to be. "When the weather's with you and the people are with you, there's nothing better. Sometimes the planets all line up and the worst possible situations turn into the best days of music. Sometimes in the ultimate perfect situation four strings break at the same time and your amp catches on fire … in 40 years, everything's happened. You just wing it.”

Since Thackery reduced his club dates and got a life, he wants readers to know he's a really good cook. "I love to cook and make gourmet food, ethnic foods of all kinds. That's what I do in my spare time. Most of the great cooks that I know happen to be musicians. I don't know why that is-maybe it is an adverse reaction to eating at Denny's too much. We're looking forward to seeing everybody out there and we'll be up there as soon as we can!”