The stars were truly in a weird alignment for two weeks
in August, shining down upon a series of unexpected and surprising events
that nobody could have foreseen. Local Denver musician Jonny Barber, the
super-talented and popular Velvet Elvis, rocked his gold suit at the final
public performance of Velvet Elvis on Saturday, August 14th. Jonny is one
of the absolute best Elvis performers anywhere and can play the King's entire
catalog. He has been performing for the last seven years, absorbing all
that was Elvis, both spiritually and musically, literally walking a mile
in his blue suede shoes. As the Velvet Elvis, Jonny has played in Sun Studios,
performed for Hugh Hefner in a pink cadillac, brought tons of happiness
to retirement homes and schools, and tore up the scene with his smokin'
live shows. Scotty Moore, Elvis' legendary guitarist in the early days,
even told Jonny Barber (after hearing one of his recorded singles) that
he has come the closest to capturing the famous Sun Studios "sound"!
In addition to the Velvet Elvis, Jonny also fronts a lethal rockabilly band
(the Living Deads) that kills any other band on the scene (and he brought
that same energy to his Elvis shows, too). For more info on the Velvet Elvis
click here and for info
on Jonny Barber click here.
I also recommend checking YouTube for Velvet Elvis and Jonny Barber videos.
I have always been a big fan of Jonny's since I am an incurable Elvis fanatic.
At my first show of his he tossed a pair of Elvis sunglasses out into the
audience and they flew right into my grateful hands. He told a story during
the show about how his mother got to see Elvis in Las Vegas at the Venus
Room of the New Frontier Hotel on May 6, 1956. It just so happened that
I had a perfect bootleg soundboard of that very same show so, needless to
say, Jonny and I quickly struck up a cool friendship. Anyway, Jonny turned
42 (the same age as Elvis when he left this earthly plane) and decided to
retire the Velvet Elvis on the same day as Elvis' death on August 16th.
How cool is that??? Jonny felt obligated to do so and wanted to focus more
on his rockabilly band, as well as another side projects. Jonny has a nice
recording studio set up in a small house, complete with stage, instruments,
recording gear, amps and such. It is called the Church of Rock & Roll
and he has recorded all his albums there. One of Jonny's side projects he
had been working on and off with was a band called MAMA. Mama is
a gelatinous collaboration between Jonny Barber and a creative, poetic,
somewhat warped, left out in the rain too long drifter named Jeff Leonetti
(aka Leonomadic). 
Jeff Leonetti never
stays in one place very long and loves the road, driftin' along like a tumbling
tumbleweed. He is intensely creative, constantly writing down his thoughts
and poems in a journal he always carries with him. Traveling with him is
a homemade slide guitar, a battery powered amp, and some harmonicas in a
Japanese World War II ammo case with the word "Ronin" carved out
in Japanese characters. Jeff's vocals are unique, powerful, and soulful,
sort of like a young Robert Plant or Zack de la Rocha of Rage Against The
Machine. He also can lay down a serious, delicate blues or ballad. His lyrics
are thoughtful, intense, and well written. In addition to that, he plays
a unique style of grungy, grinding-the-gears slide guitar and is a bad-ass
harp player. His style has been honed on the street and has its own kind
of tuning. Jeff writes lyrics and some song sketches and presents them to
Jonny Barber who fleshes them out musically and cobbles together other musicians
on drums and guitar. Jonny also writes songs for Mama. Jonny turned me on
to Mama after they had recorded an album's worth of tracks called "Bayoutopia"
back in 2008. The songs on it were written when Jeff Leonetti went down
to New Orleans to do volunteer work after Hurricane Katrina had hit there.
It is a great album and I highly recommend it (get it here
and find more info on Mama here).
Leonomadic had called Jonny Barber from a payphone in Utah, in a snowstorm,
and excitedly said he had a project finished called "Bayoutopia"
and wanted to get together and record tracks. Jonny told him to bring it
on and Jeff Leonetti immediately hitchhiked his way across Wyoming and down
to Denver. Renowned music producer Rick Rubin and guitarist Steve Vai heard
Mama's "Bayoutopia" and flipped! Rubin was interested in them
but Mama, as mentioned before, is a gelatinous non-band/band, depending
on whether Leonomadic is in town and who else is available, and whatever
the current financial situation might be, and other nebulous factors. All
of which have prevented Mama from coming together as a touring band (though
this situation is now being rectified). Rubin and others are only interested
if there is a band, but make no mistake about it, Mama is some serious music!
After Jonny Barber had retired his lucrative and popular Velvet Elvis band
on August 16th, he didn't have anything waiting in the wings to work on.
The next day, August 17th, I received an e-mail from Chris Duarte stating
he had been dropped from his booking agency (of course Murphy's Law made
sure that this happened just prior to his new album release) and that bassist
Matt Stallard had left the band and the drummer was leaving to go to school.
He was down I could tell and was wondering to himself what he was going
to do. The next day after that, on August 18th, Jeff Leonetti suddenly pops
into Denver and is knocking on Jonny Barber's door at midnight. 
They hadn't spoke in over 8 months and Leonetti had another bunch
of songs written that he wanted to record for a project called "Toxikinesis".
On the cover of Jeff Leonetti's journal of poems and writings is a poisonous
frog from the Amazon jungle. It gets poisonous by eating poisonous insects,
a process called Toxikinesis. I believe Leonetti said that the songs were
about his effect on women. I have always dug Mama's aggresive blues-based
music and how it really seems to fit the times we are living in. Suddenly
I thought, "Wow, wouldn't it be cool if Chris Duarte might be interested
in recording with Mama?" I mentioned it to Jonny and Leonomadic and
they were totally psyched about the possibility (both are big fans of Chris
Duarte). Chris Duarte had never heard of Mama until I sent him some sound
files and their first cd "Bayoutopia" on August 20th. Jeff Leonetti
was only going to be in Denver for a week and then was going to blaze on
down the road to Wyoming. We all expected that if any collaboration happened
it would maybe be some solos sent as e-mail attachments (Chris Duarte had
done this with Bluestone for their first album together). Chris Duarte instantly
liked what he heard and completely blew us all away when he said he was
flying out to Denver!!!! Chris would be in town from August 26th through
August 28th and wanted to record with Mama. Jonny told him he could stay
in a guest room there at the Church of Rock & Roll. Bob Johnson and
myself picked Chris up at the airport and took him to Jonny Barber's house
where the guys would just hang and jam awhile to get to
know each other. Chris arrived with nothing more than a guitar.
Jonny and Jeff couldn't believe it was all happening, but they all were
immediately comfortable with each other and there was a definite, instant
chemistry. They jammed for 80 minutes, playing spontaneous jams with improvised
lyrics, as well as some blues standards. It was a bit rough around the edges
with moments of brilliance. It was a real thrill to be a fly on the wall
and watch this all go down. After the jam, Jonny played Chris some of the
vocal/slide tracks he had recorded the day before with Leonetti. Chris was
real impressed and couldn't wait to get familiar with the material. I swung
by the Church the next afternoon and watched them record tracks and try
out new ideas. Jonny was laying down some simple drum and bass tracks and
Chris Duarte did a variety of guitar parts. Jeff Leonetti recorded vocals,
slide guitar, and harmonica. The atmosphere was real friendly and laidback.
Chris was having a great time and had a lot in common with Jonny and Jeff.
His playing was real relaxed and different than his live shows and you could
tell he was trying to put his own stamp on the Mama songs. 
It was a wonderful fit and Chris melded perfectly with Jeff's vocal
style. I kept telling myself that these guys could really be something powerful
given a week of rehearsal time! It was all over too quick, but everybody
had a blast. Jonny's bassist from Velvet Elvis, Ian Gilchrist, came in and
sprinkled his special magic dust on three of the tracks, mixing them down
to warm, wicked, final mixes. 
Lucky for you, these
three tracks of Chris Duarte with Mama are available on a new fanclub cd
called "This, That and The Other". The songs, "Red Desert",
"Black River", and "Drinkin' Free", are part of a compilation
cd of Chris Duarte music (see details below). I think there is enormous
potential with Mama and, after hearing the three recorded tracks they did
together, I think you will agree! The guys talked of someday doing a tour
together. I seriously hope it happens, as well as more recording sessions
together. I really enjoyed watching them come together and creating some
great music in such a short period of time.
This, That,
and The Other
A new rib-crackin' compilation from the CDG band archives! For all serious Chris Duarte fans, this cd has lots of stuff you've never heard. Stuff that will curl your toes and rattle your skull! Stuff like outtakes from the albums "Only One" and "Tailspin Headwhack", home demos, radio appearances, live cuts, and three unreleased studio tracks of Chris Duarte with the band Mama.
Songs include Siempre Mi Amor / Senor
Duarte
Cold Cold Day / Cross My Heart / Floating Bridge
Tropic Joy / Well, You Needn't / Azul Ezell
Last Night / Violence / The Only Thing
Red Desert / Black River / Drinkin' Free
This is a factory-pressed made-in-the-U.S.A. silver disc and is a limited run of only 1,000 (all previous fan club releases are out of print). So hurry, before supplies last! For U.S. residents of the United States, this cd is recessionally-priced at a mere $13.00 if using Paypal or $12.00 by mail (shipping is included). Foreign orders outside of the United States are $15.00 if using PayPal or $14.00 by mail (in U.S. dollars only and shipping is included).