Stop Calling Blog

I’m pleased to announce today’s debut of “Nathan Veshecco’s 5 Dubs,” a free iTunes podcast series where I discuss the “who, what, where, when, why and how” of songs from my first three albums. Episode 1 featuring “Therapy” from Alleys is now available for free download on iTunes. Please provide me with your valuable feedback about the show – what do you like, what do you wish was different? As always, thank you for tuning in and following the blog!

I love a musician who can do anything. I especially love it when the talent for most of that “anything” is revealed after the musician’s foot has already gotten in the door (we know I love this about John Mayer). This week I’m showing up almost 18 months late to the Lady Gaga party, but it’s not because of the songs on the radio. I understand the appeal of “Just Dance,” “I Gotta Feeling” and other recession-era hits that offer our weekend “economy tune-outs” a much needed soundtrack. And as far as booze-soaked party jams go, “Just Dance” is one of the best. But that still was never enough to hook me. It took tuning in to Gaga’s VMA performance of “Paparazzi” to get me curious, then I did my YouTube research and came across an acoustic version of “Poker Face” from Sessions @ AOL. If you haven’t seen this performance, you really should.

After seeing this, I was in. I’m willing to go out on a limb and promise you that I’ve seen maybe four performances in the 00s that have been this inspiring. This goes in the folder of things to aspire to. Just look at the confidence, the sense of humor, the way she invites you in with her hands and doesn’t miss a beat when she needs to adjust her old bluesman sunglasses. I always assumed Lady Gaga was just a wilder Christina Aguilera. But it seems she’s also Judy Garland, Barbara Streisand, Nina Simone and Jim Morrison. More importantly, she’s not too much like any of these characters – she holds onto her own identity in the performance. The song I covered this week on my mailing list, “Eh, Eh (Nothing I Can Say),” is technically right in the Spice Girls’ collective zone, but coming from Gaga it sounds like something unique and new, because it comes from her own strange perspective. Enough gushing, here’s the significance:
If Lady Gaga is allowed success while being this weird, then there’s no stopping me or you. Embrace your quirks. Don’t be intimidated into a genre – try a little bit of everything and see what sticks, what feels like home. You’ve officially been validated, weirdos. Now go out there and make your magic.

When Jack Nicholson first met director Alexander Payne to discuss the lead in About Schmidt, Payne said to the legendarily huge Hollywood persona, “Jack, I want you to play a small man.” I respect that. I enjoy seeing Big Picture artists tackle the occasional small wonder. But here’s the thing – John Mayer’s new lead-off single for Battle Studies, “Who Says,” dodges this anomaly. The song is deceptive. On the surface, it’s a quiet, broke-down bit of acoustic locomotion. Lyrically, it flirts with a recurring “why not?” message about, among other things, getting stoned. So you might cock your head at the choice of the song as a single, especially a first single on a much-anticipated fourth album. Think of not just the themes, but the expressions, of Mayer’s three previous “first singles” – from “I wanna run through the halls of my high school” to “someday I’ll fly, someday I’ll soar” and finally to “me and all my friends, we’re all misunderstood.” Pretty big ideas packed into anthemic, beautifully crafted studio pieces.

Now look at the ideas of “Who Says,” and you’ll see that it’s more than just “who says I can’t get stoned.” The song, while small in sound, has more going on emotionally than the previous three lead-offs combined. Why? Because it’s not about weed. It’s about freedom. Freedom of choice, freedom to exercise one’s right to be bold. And in assigning “Who Says” as the first knock on your front door from Battle Studies, Mayer dares to be a whole lot bolder than most artists today. That’s why the theme of this and future blog posts is “feats of musical bravery.” We need more artists with the confidence, the clarity, the inner narrative of honesty and strength that leads to truly inspiring art. It’s time to trade in the cool points and go for a happy heart instead. Small wonder, maybe, but I’ll take it.

Check out my cover of “Who Says” over at Tumblr.

I need to take a moment to thank you, fleeting muse that flew into my apartment tonight at 1 a.m. You shed some light on an idea that clearly demanded your touch as the final in a list of strange ingredients – a walk into unknown neighborhoods of Berkeley on Saturday evening, a video of John Frusciante playing his melancholy two-note chords, a couple Advil and the headache they couldn’t relieve. Everything in the pot, and I’ve got the best song I’ve written in three years. Thank you for visiting me when I needed you. Thank you for reminding me that sight reading, Slowhand fingers and pretty boy good looks be damned, I can still write to save my life, to make my life.

Big changes are on the way, and I’m cautious but happy. And after spending nearly a decade as a songwriter, I’m finally in a place where I’m unwaveringly, defiantly confident. This is going to happen. No more rest stops along the way. I’m all peed out.

NV

Dear Betsy –

Someday, baby, it’ll be just us two. I know I haven’t been home in awhile, and when I am, it’s never for long. But I’m home now, and while I’m here, I want to tell you what I learned this summer on the road.

I learned that I’m almost ready to take that next step – to grow up a little more, the right way. I’ve still got some kid left in me, and I still chase that elusive idea of cool. But I will grow up. I’ll grow up on my terms, and that means it takes a little bit longer because my brain moves slower than that of some folks. My fingers, though – they’re faster than ever. Let me show you what I can do now. Let me show you that I can treat you better, give you a better version of myself. You know the George Harrison – “Got My Mind Set On You”? Well, I do, but George is right – it’s gonna take still more time and still more money.

I know you’re worried about all this time apart. I know you fear I’ll be lazy, irresponsible and careless. The time on the road with Sam was long, long, long, and soon I’ll have to go back. Here we go again. But when I’m with you, I’m home. And I’ve got a brand new slide and a brand new blues just waiting for the time when it’s finally…FINALLY…finally, finally, finally just me and you. We’ve both got some cracks and bruises now. We’re not that young anymore. But someday, when we look at each other and think of how old we are, I know we’ll laugh – just for a moment, and then back to making our beautiful, private music.

Until then, electrically yours,

Nathan

Betsy is a Hohner Countryman acoustic guitar – my first ever, given to me by Keith Veshecco in 1997.

Betsy & I with the first check, circa 2004

A peek into my life the past month:

The Mountain Goats – “No Children”

Neil Young – “A Man Needs A Maid”

The Wallflowers – “Invisible City”

Thom Yorke – “Harrowdown Hill”

Shearwater – “The Snow Leopard”

Ryan Adams – “Hotel Chelsea Nights”

Passion Pit – “Moth’s Wings”

The Manchester Orchestra – “The River”

Please continue to follow NV’s summer tour. He might hit your town, but only if you’ve got foamy, cheap mugs of ginger ale (seriously – mugs only, please) waiting on ice.

Lots of folks are mourning Michael Jackson for his role as the musical light of so many a childhood. I think I’ve learned more from MJ since I’ve grown up, musically and actually. I’ve taken some profound adult lessons in my twentysomething songwriter’s love for the King’s catalogue. Here are just a few:

- Shower the hate with love, and you deprive that hate of its target. It becomes homeless and aimless.

- Never feel that you’re too old for a good cry.

- Do what you love in your own way and in your own time. Retirement is the other guy’s bag. So is irrelevance.

- It’s ok to have only two chords in a song.

- Stories about stalkers can, in fact, have commercial potential.

- Growing up occurs in about 85 different ways, and only three or four of them are worth allowing to occur. Take some serious time to find and seize those three or four ways, and remain a child in spite of all the others.

- Quincy Jones and Rod Temperton will always be the aces in the hole, but the best songs will spring from your own unique experience and outlook – yours alone.

- Just take it slow, cuz we’ve got so far to go. When you feel that heat (and we’re gonna ride the boogie), share that beat of love. And when that groove is dead and gone, you know that love survives, so we can rock forever.

Love you, MJ.

More dates to come! Sign up for the Stop Calling Records mailing list to receive tour updates and free music: just send a blank e-mail to contact@stopcallingrecords.com