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Stuck out thumb and started playing in the street for change in 80's. Got a job in a factory in Chicago and practiced in the boiler room or on the loading dock during lunch break. Got a band together where I jumped around like a maniac and shrieked Motown influenced songs off key with the veins sticking out of my neck. Band broke up. Played a solo show at a nice club in Chicago opening for a friends band. Got yanked off the stage either because the songs were too much of a downer, they weren't selling enough booze or I sucked. Assumed it was the latter and spent the next 5 years practicing. Got coaxed into playing open mic's at The Earl of Old Town. Was roundly ignored. Started drinking heavily among other things. Continued to play on the street on occasion. Joined International Socialist Organization. Began dividing my time between music and organizing. Got coaxed by the inimitable Vernon Tonges to open for him at the Lower Links in Chicago. Managed not to humiliate myself entirely. Cops dragged me off the factory job where I had become shop steward after a confrontation developed when I refused to train a fellow worker for the job I was doing unless they gave him a raise. Went to LA and lived in a garage and played in the street for change at Venice Beach. Had a small part in a movie where I got hit on the head with a baseball bat. Moved back to Chicago. Quit drinking. Friends organized a 'Dump the Lump" benefit concert at the Czar Bar so I could get the enormous disfiguring cyst cut off of my jaw. I played a set that went over pretty well. Started working as a painter after bakery I helped organize a union in shut down. Got a drive-away car to San Francisco so I could work for a friend. Hit a herd of deer in Missouri. Managed to limp the car into California where it died. Finally made my way to SF. Played on the street and at open mics around the town while working series of painting/baking jobs. Recorded a tape with the help of local legend Kurt Stevenson, Keith Challberg, Kate Maher and Bob Asprinio. Put posters up around town looking for a guitar player/back-up singer. Sue Sandlin, currently of the Stairwell Sisters; answered the ad and we began playing shows as Turpentine. Keith joined band in short order. Gave tape to Mike Coykendall then of the seminal folk group The Old Joe Clarks. and currently of M Ward and She and Him. Got a chance to open some shows for them. Some enthusiasm for what we were doing developed. Shared the stage with Richard Bucker, Calexico, Mark Eitzel, Tarnation, Cake, Train, and a host of others at the Bottom of the Hill, Hotel Utah, the Make Out Room and a bunch of clubs that have long since closed. Got disgusted with music business and started having trouble with my hands due to years of manual labor and obsessive practicing. Decided to devote my time to organizing instead. Didn’t play in public for 10 years but wrote a song or three or four. Started dragging my accordion, mandolin, and dobro out into the street and playing for change to make ends meet when I was forced out of my rent controlled apartment. Was coaxed into the studio by Mike Coykendall when I went up to visit him and Jill McClelland Coykendall for Christmas.a couple of times. Much to my surprise I put out the CD “Lucky Me” that combines songs from those sessions with earlier Turpentine recordings. Started playing in the cafés and clubs again. Martin Rapalski over at the Make Out Room was nice enough to have me over for a CD release party and Mike and Jill came down from Portland and reunited the Old Joe Clarks for a show. Had a blast playing with them. Been playing pretty regularly on the street and less regularly indoors since. Michael Hoffman has been helping me out on accordion case drum kit at the inside shows and major leaguers Erik Pearson and Kenny Annis have been platooning on bass depending on who’s available. When he can Kurt Stevenson joins us on guitar, lap steel and whatever else he wants to drag along and I’m sure happy when he does. Wrote some more songs and ran up to Portland with Michael for another Christmas with Mike and Jill. We had a high old time talking, laughing eating , playing music and sitting on the porch. Should have another CD out anytime now and… Hey has it stopped raining? I’m off to find an empty street corner to play on then. See you out there.
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CDs availible:
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Brian Belknap - Cradle to Grave
http://hellovegetables.com/?p=7743
Best Of 2010:
Brian Belknap – Cradle To Grave
by Kevin Vegetables on August 16, 2010
You already know what a fan I am of Brian Belknap’s songs, so it should be no surprise I think his latest release, Cradle To Grave, is one of 2010′s must-listens.
I’m stoked to have him back in action, with twelve more songs of romantic realism: broken hearts, lost souls, and how that little patch of blue is nothing but a dirty fuckin’ lie.
Bonus points for combining the protest song with the love song to create what might be the first lost-love lament set in the world of social activism, and is certainly the first love song with the lyric “Occupation equals genocide.”
We’re fortunate to have him in town, so go show some love – Brian plays his album-release show August 22 at the Make-Out Room.
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Brian Belknap - Lucky Me
http://tinyurl.com/HVTurpentine I Got Enough For Some Beer If You’ll Cover The Gas: The Songs Of Brian Belknap And Turpentine by Kevin Vegetables on April 21, 2010
The mid-90s was a good time for folk, bluegrass, and country in San Francisco, but for my money it didn’t get any better than Turpentine.
Brian Belknap’s songs weren’t nostalgic recreations of the folk of the past, but honest, unromanticized visions of contemporary working-class life, the bitter and the sweet.
And long after you sold your car with the tape deck and could no longer listen to their cassettes, the songs stuck with you. Like this one, maybe the best union song since the 70s:
Honest to God, I’d put these songs up against anybody’s.
Backed by the bass of Keith Challberg and the guitar & crush-inducing backing vocals of Sue Sandlin (now of the Stairwell Sisters), Turpentine was the whole blessed package.
I chose the songs I posted because they’re current favorites, but there are 18 songs on those three albums, and I give you the HV No-Clunker Guarantee.
Brian’s been kind enough to allow me to post the Turpentine albums for download (ripped from cassette — thanks Crazyfoot!), so snap em up before some label gets wise:
Brian Belknap is back after a 10-year performing hiatus with new songs and an album, Lucky Me, that features those songs alongside Turpentine recordings. Lucky Me is available at CD Baby.
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