It's 2006 and the California-bred, ukulele-playing, punk-folk-singer-songwriter-storyteller-performance-artist Carmaig de Forest can be found thriving in Baltimore's creative underground, Canada's eclectic festival circuit, popping up on stages just about anywhere, and on the CD players of discriminating listeners everywhere.
Philadelphia, PA...Baltimore
& DC
Yes, Carmaig recently left his native California for the streets of Baltimore,
Washington, and now Philadelphia, though he continues to perform all over the
place. He still puts on "spellbinding" [Willamette Week]* one-man shows,
but he's also enjoying a recklessly experimental streak of performing with other
musicians -- from a revamped DeathGrooveLoveParty (see "The Backstory" below),
to duets with multi-instrumentalist Brian
Ritchie, to an all-acoustic tuba, drums, uke and accordion combo. On the
local front, Baltimore's vital creative underground has found Carmaig working
with such kindred spirits as The
Diana Froley 3, Radiant
Pig, and The
Tinklers .
A Boy and his Ukulele
While he'd be the first to admit that he came to the ukulele by default more
than design, Carmaig's unique way with the little four-string instrument has
found him new fans among a growing community of ukulele aficionados, thanks
in part to Carmaig's appearance in Willian Preston Robertson and Sean Anderson's
documentary Rock That
Uke!
Canada
Carmaig's Canadian adventures date back to a wild, weeklong residency at Vacouver's
legendary Railway Club
in 1987 and the relationship between Carmaig and Canada has been growing ever
since. Carmaig's "gleeful sense of adventure and genuine love of the human story"
[RayGun Magazine]* are a natural fit with a Canadian sense of folk music
as the extraordinary tellings of the stories of ordinary people and the relationship
has created a wonderful cycle in which 1) Carmaig performs in Canada a great
deal more than your typical underground American indy artist, 2) Carmaig finds
himself collaborating with, and influenced by, some interesting Canadian artists
whom most Americans don't have access to, and back to 1) Carmaig performs in
Canada even more... and interacts with even more Canadian talent...
Most recently, Carmaig spent three weeks in producer Bob Hamilton's Old Crow Studios in Whitehorse, Yukon working on a new album with co-producer (and banjo player) Kim Barlow and a host of Whitehorse's finest pitching in their musical talents. Direct paths and are rare in Carmaig's career, but here's hoping the new album finds release soon. Other underground Canadian inspirations and conspirators include Geoff Berner, whose new CD We Shall Not Flag Or Fail, We Shall Go On To The End contains a stinging cover of Carmaig's apocolypic saga "In the Year 2020", and Bob Wiseman who produced Carmaig's most recent CD...
El Camino Real
Carmaig took a break from DeathGrooveLoveParty in the mid '90s. He began work
on a series of songs about California and performing these strange and intimate
tales as a one-man show -- alternating between electric guitar and his trademark
uke for accompaniment. Taken with this new work, micro-label St. Francis Records
sent Carmaig to Toronto (see above for more on the Canadian connection) to record
with longtime fan and touring partner, Bob
Wiseman. With Mr. Wiseman providing a different sort of strange and intimate
aural landscape for Carmaig's tales, the fruit of the sessions is the CD, El
Camino Real.
The Backstory
In 1982, a young Carmaig -- fresh out of UC Santa Cruz's experimental Theater
Arts program -- began wandering between San Francisco and Los Angeles with an
amplified ukulele and a set of vitriolic anthems. The post-punk scene took notice
and word spread. The Violent
Femmes took him out on the road. Alex
Chilton took him into the studio with a crackerjack rhythm section (with
Chilton himself playing guitar) to produce I Shall Be Released Carmaig's
1987 debut album (jointly released by Good Foot and New Rose Records).
With an LP to promote, Carmaig formed DeathGrooveLoveParty-a loose-knit combo of L.A., New York, and Bay Area musicians assembled in various configurations for various tours. Mr. Chilton's arrangements soon melded with the punk and other underground rock sounds that have long been an inspiration. Carmaig began to teach himself how to play guitar and new songs arose. (For an overview of this period, check out the 1994 Knitting Factory Works CD Carmaig de Forest's DeathGrooveLoveParty, a compilation of various DGLP recordings from 1988-1993**.) By then Carmaig had settled in the San Francisco Bay area where he began working on the material that was to become El Camino Real (see above).
"Get to Know Carmaig!"
Artist-producer Ben Vaughn
says Carmaig's songs are "like Raymond
Carver stories set to music."* Early mentor Spalding
Gray once said, "He could have been another John Hinckley, instead he became
an artist."* Or, as Gordon
Gano says, "Get to know Carmaig!"* It's an acquaintance worth making.
* Actual quotes (honest)
** Other (now out-of-print) recordings from this period include a live EP on the French New Rose label and the 1992 election-year single "George Bush Lies" on Bob Mould's Singles Only Label.
*** photo by Jefferson Jackson Steele
Carmaig Reviews