The ShadowMusic Web Community

Hello all:

A few you may remember me from years ago. Haven't been around for a while, but still playing this beautiful music with my dad in our band the Troubadours - in the US! Yes, there IS Shadow Music in America! We played two shows in the last several weeks, and some videos appeared from one of them - this one was held on 10th of September in the main square of downtown Oxford, OH (a college town where Miami University is located), and we were one of nine instrumental and surf bands that played throughout the day. Here are a few videos - hope you enjoy them! (If you want to see some more, including some older videos by the Troubadours, check out our playlist: http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL53B3F426A4F9CEEB













(BTW, I always use my Yamaha Magicstomp digital echo pedal loaded with Sounds Like the Shadows patches. Well, as luck would have it, I forgot it for this show, I think the first time that's ever happened. So, I had to fake it with my old Korg Dynamic Echo. I was really flying by the seat of my pants, as I haven't used that pedal for the Shadows stuff in many years, so I had to quickly try to figure out in between songs where to set the knobs. I think it mostly worked out OK. It figures that the time we're videotaped and on YouTube is the time I don't have my regular echo pedal with me!)

Hi, Ivan....great stuff.
Are you guys based in OH?

Walt

Well this is weird....I was thinking very recently about The Troubadours (prompting me to dig out my 'Evening In Nivram' CD) and wondering if you were still gigging, then my wife (Wendy) asked me whether I'd heard anything about the band, which is then followed by this post Ivan! How do you say Synchronicity?

A brief bit of history: The Troubadours played the first Shadowmania North America event in Toronto in 2001 (has it been 10 years already?) and followed that with the same event two years later. To say they didn't disappoint would be a massive understatement! A really excellent Shadows tribute band

Great videos Ivan and I'm delighted to see your talent is not going to waste - maybe we'll have to drag you back to Toronto at some point! :thumbs up:

All the best

Martin

Top quality playing.
Ron

Great stuff, great sound and great playing - I enjoyed that guys !
BTW, who owned the Fender beast at the back with the two JBL gleaming out at us?

Martin Payne wrote:Well this is weird....I was thinking very recently about The Troubadours (prompting me to dig out my 'Evening In Nivram' CD) and wondering if you were still gigging, then my wife (Wendy) asked me whether I'd heard anything about the band, which is then followed by this post Ivan! How do you say Synchronicity?

A brief bit of history: The Troubadours played the first Shadowmania North America event in Toronto in 2001 (has it been 10 years already?) and followed that with the same event two years later. To say they didn't disappoint would be a massive understatement! A really excellent Shadows tribute band

Great videos Ivan and I'm delighted to see your talent is not going to waste - maybe we'll have to drag you back to Toronto at some point! :thumbs up:

All the best

Martin

Yup, great band - saw them in Toronto in 2003.

Martin.

Hi Ivan, great to see you and your dad still playing together. I also enjoyed your Toronto shows and also meeting up with you and Abel at the surf club in California. Great videos. More people on this site should know about you guys.

Cheers

Nels

Hi all again!

Thanks SO VERY MUCH for all your very kind comments! We do appreciate them very much. And so good to see so many familiar names here again! Martin (Payne), that indeed is quite a coincidence! Even you wife was asking about us??? Wow. Some ESP going on there for sure... We've been playing through all these years, but not as much as before. We're on our bass player #3 in the past 10 years (they're to us what drummers were to Spinal Tap!), so we lost some momentum due to that. In fact, between '05 and '09, I don't think we played any gigs, and have gotten off to a slow start since then. It's really just for fun and for the love of the music. If you're interested in having us come back to Toronto, we'd definitely be interested, just let us know. The Shadowmania NA events in '01 and '03 are both among my favorite memories ever! What a wonderful time we had there.... Thanks for making all of that happen, I am very grateful.

Good to see Martin Page and Nels here again, too! Again, thanks so very much for your nice words.

Walt, we're not based in Ohio, but near by - all but me live in Indiana, and I live in Michigan, but only about 15 miles north of where Michigan, Indiana and Ohio come together. But there's always more than some driving involved when we do something.

Finally, Dave, the blonde beast in the back belongs to me. It's actually not a Fender but a modern boutique reproduction of an early '60s brownface dual Showman (with 2x15" JBLs), made by a California amp maker (Dario) Gomez. An incredible sounding amp, huge transformers, handwired, etc. The reason it's on stage is that playing immediately following the Troubadours was my surf band the Madeira (we also share the same drummer, Dane Carter), the band that's taken up most of my musical energies since '04. You can see us in action in the below videos.

Thanks so much again, all. Glad to be back here, and so nice to see all the great videos from Shadowmania! (I almost had to travel to Europe this past week, and if it happened, I was thinking a few months about flying through London on the way back so I could make Shadowmania. Such a shame it didn't work out...)

BTW, just to see that Bruce is LOVED even among surf musicians, check out this recent discussion of his new interview: http://surfguitar101.com/forums/topic/16372/ (make sure you go to the second page, too, some really nice words about him there)

Thanks!
Ivan

Here's a new track for us, a cover of an old tune written by Ernesto Lecuona, the author of The Breeze and I and Siboney, among many, MANY other great songs. This is our own arrangement, and the track will be appearing on our next album, out early next year (already in the can). Definitely took a bit from the Shads for this one (and of course, check out the matching fiesta red Fenders!):



Here's a bit more rocking one:



And here's a really rocking one, in the Dick Dale style:

Ivan....considering you missed Shadowmania, you should consider attending the Ventures 2011 Fan Jam that's being held in Philadelpha on 10/1. Both Bob Spalding and Leon Taylor of the Ventures will be in attendance and performing with the jammers.

Here's the link to the FJ 2011 Facebook page:

http://www.facebook.com/groups/125321800883885/

Hope to see you there.

Walt

Walt, thanks for letting me know. That does look like a blast! And my wífe's actually from Philly, and loves going back, too - alas, the Madeira has shows in Michigan on 9/30 and 10/1 (in fact, two on that day, one in the afternoon and one at night), so it's not going to be possible. Maybe next year? (It's a bit of a problem for me traveling that far at this time of the year, as I'm a teacher and can't take time off while the semester's in session.)

Have a great time! I got to see the Ventures play in Washington DC in October '08 (I was on a sabbatical, spending part of it there), with Nokie on lead, Don on rhythm, Bob Spalding on bass and lead, and Leon Taylor on drums. They were shockingly good! I saw them in '96 or '97, with Gerry McGee on lead, and I thought they were pretty dull - but three years ago, they sounded phenomenal. It was a great show. And Nokie's still a master.