Collected Music of Dave Cawthon
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-( fresh )-
9/16/09 - Classical Somerville
9/10/09 - Morning Star
9/8/09 - Blues Suite
9/6/09 - H - Organ Trio Medley
8/26/09 - Chock Full of Nuggets
8/17/09 - now play all songs under a heading by clicking the heading!
8/16/09 - Original Tunes (?) + Standard Tape
8/15/09 - 1/3/9x
8/14/09 - Dave in Pictures
8/9/09 - With Kyle - Basement Preserves & H - (self-titled)
8/9/09 - With Joe & Diane
8/5/09 - Master Covers & Electric Sam
8/2/09 - Ernie Tune with Sax
8/1/09 - Originals Mike & Jason
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My good friend is gone. Although I knew him for nearly 30 years, I've heard little of his music (he was slightly modest). Many of his fellow musicians have preserved the music and thus, Dave himself.
[ obit ] [ Vincent's Funeral Home Condolence Book ] [ Hartford Courant Guest Book (copy) ]
[ Dave's (posthumous) MySpace Page ] [ Dave in Pictures ]
This is a repository for memorabilia of all types, free from the encumbrances of FaceBook, MySpace, etcetera. No membership, no ads, no crap, just click and enjoy...
Great thanks to those that have shared. Please send additions & corrections to Kyle Accardi
Contributor's notes are in italics
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Submitted by Ken Lubinsky
Simsbury High School Talent Show 1985 (Simsbury, CT)
In our senior year of high school we played at the talent show in a band
we named UNFINISHED BUSINESS - which did win the best band
category. Dave actually played in 2 bands for the talent show but
I don't have the recording from the other band. As I recall there
was a bit of a "disagreement" when Dave's second band got shut down in
the middle of their set for going too far over their time limit...
You can hear Greg Anderson shouting "Bootlegger" from the audience just
before the band starts... And that was Chris Dreyden announcing
us.
1 I shot the Sheriff
Dave Cawthon - Lead Guitar & Vocals
Charles Umpleby - Bass
Ken Lubinsky - Drums
Paul Edgar - Rythm Guitar
Laura Watras - Keyboards
2 Crossroads
Dave Cawthon - Lead Guitar (solo #2) & Vocals
Charles Umpleby - Bass
Ken Lubinsky - Drums
Paul Edgar - Rythm/Lead Guitar (solo #1)
Laura Watras - Keyboards
3 Satisfaction Guaranteed
Dave Cawthon - Lead Guitar
Charles Umpleby - Bass
Ken Lubinsky - Drums & Vocals
Paul Edgar - Rythm Guitar
Laura Watras - Keyboards
4 Stonefree Again
Dave Cawthon - Guitar & Vocals
Charles Umpleby - Bass
Ken Lubinsky - Drums
Paul Edgar - Cowbell
Laura Watras - Tambourine
Chris Iriarte - Timbales (he was in the other band and decided he
wanted to jam with us so he came out on stage)
Berklee Ensemble Room Sessions approx. 1988-'90
The basic premise was that we simply felt like jamming together from time
to time. It became more of a regular thing to the point where we
began to learn some tunes and considered playing out live - never
happened. All tunes were recorded "live" in our ensemble room by
placing two microphones in opposite corners of the room.
Don't Want You No More - Allman Brothers.mp3
You Know What I Mean - Jeff Beck.mp3
Constipated Duck - Jeff Beck.mp3
Blues - Jerry Garcia and Merle Saunders.mp3
In Memory Of Elisabeth Reed - Allman Brothers.mp3
Un-named Original - Dave Cawthon.mp3
Dave Cawthon - Lead / Rythm guitars
Colin McCaffrey - Lead / Rythm Guitars
Ken Lubinsky - Drums
Dave Evans - Bass
Odds & Ends (covers band) approx. 1992-'93(??)
Dave was living in Somerville, MA with Jeff. He asked me if I wanted to play
drums in his covers band. We played one gig in Hartford, CT at some outdoor patio joint. Overall
not terribly successful but I had a good time playing none-the-less.
From time to time you may here some digital "skips" in some of these songs
due to the crappy computer I used to download these files onto.
01 Drive My Car
02 King Bee
03 The Apartment Song
04 I Must've Done Somebody Wrong
05 Slow Turning
06 Tell Me Darling
07 Don't Do It
08 Wait Until Tomorrow
09 (You're Gonna) Think About Me
10 The Shape I'm In
11 Me & My Monkey
12 Drive My Car (live)
13 Let Me Love You
14 The One After Nine O' Nine
15 Chain Gang
Tracks 1 - 6:
Recorded on a 4-track cassette player
Dave Cawthon - Guitars / Bass / Backup Vocals & Lead Vocals on #4 & #6.
Jenny Jeknavorian - Lead & some backing vocals.
Ken Lubinsky - Drums & Backing Vocals as well as "producing / engineering / mixing"
Tracks 6 - 15:
Recorded "live" to 2-track stereo
Dave Cawthon - Lead/Rythm Guitar / Backup Vocals / Some Lead Vocals
Jenny Jeknavorian - Lead Vocals / Rythm Guitar / Some Backing Vocals
Jeff Charland - Bass
Ken Lubinsky - Drums / Backing Vocals as well as "production"
Ken's Apartment
Both tunes were written by Dave. He came over one afternoon (maybe '93 or '94) and asked me to help him record these tunes. I did not offer any opinion on song form or arrangement as he had a very clear idea of what he wanted to do - just not how to get it all on a 4-track cassette player. To this day I feel like these two songs are some of the best constructed rock songs you'll ever hear (from arrangement to feel to chord changes) and we tried our best to capture it on limited equipment. Of course, at the time, they were just a couple of songs...
That's Alright (remix)
Dave - Guitars & Vocals
Ken - Drum programming / Keyboard Bass / Engineering
Going Down (remix)
Dave - Guitars / Bass / Lead & Backup Vocals
Ken - Drum Programming / Background Vocals / Engineering
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Submitted by Gary Huebner
Watchtower Experiments
Side A - Track 5 - Green Grass & High Tides
Side A - Misty Mountain Hop
Side A - Track 11
Side A - Track 12
H - Shrimp demos
Recorded on 4-22-94 at 'The Hole' rehearsal space, Jamaica Plain, MA
1/4" reel to reel
01 Hell On Wheels (Cawthon)
02 The Dog (Ziemba)
03 Shrimp (H)
04 The Six Panels (Ziemba)
05 H (theme)
06 Full Court Press (Cawthon)
07 Redneck Riviera (Cawthon)
08 Truk (Charlan)
09 Mice, Don't Slow Me Down (Ziemba)
Dave Cawthon - guitar, lap steel guitar
Jef Charland - bass
Glenn Ziemba - drums, thumb piano
Misc Experimental Mixes
Dave's tapes are generally unmarked but this tape is labeled 'experimental mixes reel to reel.'
H short take
That's Allright
The Visigoths Took My Hat (Jonathan Townes)
From an unmarked high speed tape, different mixes
01 drum track
02 All to Myself
03 Going Down
04 That's Allright
05 instrumental
This is a tune I'm guessing Dave wrote. This track is him putting the idea down for the band to learn. Later
in the tape is the same song with a band. That's good too but I like the demo style solo Dave, besides, the guitar is way too low in the mix
with the full band.
Side A, Part 1 - Invisible Heavy Metal Reggae Multitrack Theme
Audition Tape 1985
Tape is blank except for "Dave" and at the beginning, someone says, 'this is
the Dave Cawthon audition tape'. I'm wondering if this was part of his application to Berklee? He sounds great.
Ken Lubinsky adds: Yes - he did play Pork Pie for a scholarship audition tape (I believe it was a
scholarship since we weren't required to send an audition tape). I remember watching him record it in the band room at SHS [Simsbury High School].
He may have even asked me and Chuck to play on a version of it but I can't remember.
01 untitled 1
02 untitled 2
03 Goodbye Pork Pie Hat
04 untitled 4
Jen & Dave 1992
Label reads "master tape 3 songs 8/92 Jen + Dave"
01 track 1
02 track 2
03 track 3
04 track 4
05 track 5
Mike Connors in RI
This is an unmarked tape of a recording session at Mike Connors' in Rhode
Island (based on comments between takes). There is a woman musician -to be named later- and it starts off
with bass guitar and drums on the first tracks, then keys and sax parts, then vocals on the last track which
I think is called 'spaghetti veins.' Tucked into the tape case is a note in Dave's handwriting titled
'spag. veins (Mike's tune)' with number and verse notations.
01 untitled 1
02 untitled 2
03 untitled 3
04 untitled 4
Jason Brubaker adds: Spaghetti Veins was recorded in Dave's
basement...I'm almost certain it was the Winter of '88 going in to '89.
Dave wrote everything for this song - all instruments except for the drums. There are vocals on #3 -
that is Dave singing with Diane on backup. At the end of the song for the out part he said to me
"just do something jungle like" and that's what I came up with. We had an 8 track recorder with 2 microphones
on either side of the room - a classic Dave set up. I remember him and Joe were competing for who could have
the worse sounding "trade off" - if you listen to the song you will hear the two of them take turns playing 4 bar
riffs on their instruments going back and fourth. I remember they were trying to see who could sound worse and
they were laughing hysterically at it. There were other tunes we did for this session, including some covers.
I don't have any copies anywhere of this stuff.
05 Spaghetti Veins 1
06 Spaghetti Veins 2
07 Spaghetti Veins 3
Dave Cawthon - guitar
Diane F. - bass
Joe M. - sax
Jason Brubaker - drums
Me Jam In Maine
All this stuff lately is from a box of early tapes, this one says only "Me
Jam In Maine" and it's acoustic guitars with an unknown friend. I think the first eight tracks were recorded
in Maine, maybe around the 4th of July (hear track 3), then there is a goofy bit of improvisation by Tim Nyberg
(might be a different occasion). Track 10 sounds like something Dave did later on his own, a tune he was working
on, my favorite on this tape.
01 track 1
02 track 2
03 track 3
04 track 4
05 track 5
06 track 6
07 track 7
08 track 8
09 track 9 (Tim Nyberg solo take 2)
10 track 10
Originals Mike & Jason
Jason Brubaker explains: #1 thru #7 were probably recorded at the same time--I'm
thinking the winter of '86--when Dave was on break from his first year at Berklee. Mike and I were still in HS
at the time.
#1 This was totally based on the opening drum beat...from a Hendrix tune that I am blanking
on right now. I used to warm up with it. When I played it the first time, Dave immediately started playing to it
and it developed into this. I think Mike came up with the opening key riff. All of our stuff was very free form...we
basically just let it fly.
#2 thru #5 are the same song with #5 being the most "complete" of the batch. I am so happy you found this one
as I feel that this is some of Dave's best playing. It's also the closest to a complete "song" that we ever recorded.
I'm pretty sure Mike came up with the chords and minor arrangement and Dave was off and running. It's very Hendrix--Band
Of Gypsy's type stuff. Love the solo on this one. In my opinion this really gives a good taste of what
Dave was all about with respect to playing straight rock.
#6 and #7 are the same song--this was a Dave original. I really like this. Dark, yet bright and free. Very cool.
#8 This sounds like it is from the "shawdow jam" sessions, which were recorded in Pete Jesick's basement. Probably
the summer of '86. Dave used to turn all the lights off...and see what we could come up with
without having the benefit of our vision. I also remember there was quite a bit of experimenting going on that did not
involve music that night--you can hear that in the music as well. This was called "shadow jam".
The thing that strikes me the most about listening to all of these recordings now is how generous Dave was. I mean, he had
all kinds of other drummers in town (Ken Lubinsky, Chris Irarte) or elsewhere that that were so much better at the drums than
I was at the time. Ultimately though, I feel very fortunate to have had the playing time I had with him.
[The thing that strikes me is that this kicks f*ing ass! -ka]
01 track 1
02 track 2
03 track 3
04 track 4
05 track 5
06 track 6
07 track 7
08 track 8
Dave Cawthon - guitar
Mike McConnell - keys
Jason Brubaker - drums
Ernie Tune with Sax
[The first track] sounds like Barrett era Floyd!
01 track 1
02 track 2
03 track 3
04 track 4
05 track 5
This is a much better quality version of track 1 on the Ernie's Tune tape,
hence the obvious if not the actual title. Hard to understand why we never got to hear this when it was recorded; it's fantastic.
01 Electric Sam
Master Covers
tape case reads: "master - walk away I thank you manic mechanic don't take
me alive original" which I condensed to 'master covers tape' This sounds to
me like some of the first stuff Dave did after getting his first 4 track
machine. Dave actually does the lyrics for manic mechanic on track 5!
01 Walk Away (instr)
02 Walk Away
03 I Thank You
04 Manic Mechanic (instr)
05 Manic Mechanic
06 Don't Take Me Alive
07 Don't Take Me Alive
08 Don't Take Me Alive
09 Don't Take Me Alive
10 Don't Take Me Alive (w/vocals)
11 original
With Joe & Diane
01 track 1
02 track 2
03 I'm Your Doctor
04 track 4
05 track 5
06 track 6
1/3/9x
Great quality jazz recording, will have to ask Jef Charland for details ...
Jeff, Dave, Nick, Jerry, Mike. I'm not sure if the year was '97 or '91.
01 track 1
02 track 2
03 track 3
04 track 4
05 track 5
Original Tunes (?) + Standard Tape
Name taken verbatim from the tape case, and as usual, that's it for info. Track 4
is a great acoustic solo guitar piece.
01 track 1
02 track 2
03 track 3
04 track 4
05 track 5
06 track 6
07 track 7
Chock Full of Nuggets
Gary collected these and called them this.
01 track 1
02 Kitchen Song
03 track 3
04 track 4
05 Couldn't Be Any Worse
06 track 6
07 track 7
08 track 8
09 track 9
10 track 10
11 track 11
12 track 12
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Submitted by Kyle Accardi
With Kyle - Basement Preserves
August 1994. Dave was coming to visit me in Portland, OR and asked if he should bring an
electric or acoustic guitar. Told him whichever one he hasn't played in a while. Showed up with a Yamaha six string acoustic.
I had access to some electrified kalimbas (thumb pianos) but posessed no talent for playing them. That never stopped me before.
I do believe this was the first time Dave had seen one and he bought one from my friend who makes them and was used on his later 'H'
recordings.
Do wish I could extract my horrid contribution that rained down crap, but try and get past that and listen to Dave's
wonderful playing. Recorded on 1/4" reel-to-reel with an SM57 mic on Dave, Roland digital delay and a Biamp spring reverb unit and
a Makie 1202 mixer.
I also misapply an OmniChord which is like an electronic auto-harp with percussion sounds.
Just heard this tape yesterday since it was recorded, made up the titles 10 minutes ago.
01 Hit Two Notes
02 Marchness Monster
03 Shoot the Kalimba Player
04 Slow Decay
05 Sound-on-Sound Interlude
06 Headbang Concrete
07 What Are You Doing?
08 Roadside Buzzalizer
09 All Thumbs
10 Landfill Toboggan
11 Strumboli
H - (self-titled)
This is a cassette commercial release put out by the band 'H' in 1995 (going by the copyright).
Note Dave listing himself as Davis.
01 Maurice
02 Bo Jackson
03 D major
04 ATF
05 Planarian
06 2001 (A Space Odyssey)
07 Sending It Off
08 Tutankhamen
09 Pond
10 Eastern Dudes
Davis Cawthon - guitar
Jef Charland - bass
Glenn Ziemba - drums, percussion, electric thumb piano
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Submitted by Jef Charland
H - Organ Trio Medley
This group of tunes came out of the fact that Dave bought a pedal called the Rotovibe,
which simulated the sound of a Leslie speaker used with B3 organs. We whipped them up pretty fast one day. We used to
play some of them at gigs (especially Tiger Sauce). Tiger Sauce was the name of a hot sauce I was using at the time.
I think Glenn titled "Side Walk Swing", "Goodbye (Pork Fried Hat)" and "Lime Ricky" while Dave named "Coup D' Etat" and "Fatty". (1995-6)
01 Side Walk Swing
02 Coup D' Etat
03 Tiger Sauce
04 Goodbye (Pork Fried Hat)
05 Lime Ricky
06 Fatty
Dave Cawthon - guitar
Jef Charland - bass
Glenn Ziemba - drums
These charts are in Dave's handwriting. The sequence is slightly different from the recording.
Page 1,
Page 2
Blues Suite
This is a duo recording of Dave and me done one evening in the 35 Princeton St. apartment. I think it was recorded on his famous boombox
(the small rectangular one with the cover missing). He is playing the Les Paul and I am playing the Kay acoustic I bought (probably)
not long before. We came up with something and recorded a take then came up with something else and so on. There were no
titles (nothing was written down). He called it "Blues Suite" on the original cassette. (1994-5)
No. 1
No. 2
No. 3
No. 4
No. 5
Dave Cawthon - guitar
Jef Charland - bass
Morning Star
Recorded in the basement of Mike's family's home in RI. I think Dave is particularly amazing on this recording, which was done with his boombox.
He played things which sounded like a well thought out composition, and made it up on the fly.
The 1st track is an improvised piece, the only instruction was Dave asking "in G?".
The 2nd is also an improvised piece, but it doesn't sound improvised.
The 3rd track is Dave's composition called Q. It is a beautiful slow number, and again Dave is super spectacular.
The 4th and 5th piece are improvs. We rotated on the instruments, and even these came out sounding composed, especially
the one with Mike on guitar.
Improv in G
Improv
Q (Cawthon)
Improv
Improv (Mike's Song)
Dave Cawthon - guitar, drums-4, bass-5
Jef Charland - bass, guitar-4, drums-5
Mike Connors - drums, bass-4, guitar-5
Classical Somerville
Recordings done in Somerville with the boombox. The first three piano pieces are by the composer Francis Poulenc
and the last is by Claude Debussy. Dave had the sheet music, and played the right hand part. I played the left hand, and Glenn made up his part.
Mouvement Perpetuel No. 1 (Poulenc)
Mouvement Perpetuel No. 2 (Poulenc)
Mouvement Perpetuel No. 3 (Poulenc)
Golliwog's Cakewalk (Debussy)
Dave Cawthon - guitar
Jef Charland - bass
Glenn Ziemba - drums
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