For about two months, my calendar for June 28 was marked “Martin Sexton at the LL Bean Summer Music Festival.” As the date approached and I had no volunteers to accompany me and gas prices rose, it started to look like I would spend another Saturday night at home. But one day driving home from work, I was listening to my favorite radio station, The River (92.5), when a commercial came on for a band called The Mystix. The grittiness of the lead singer’s voice and the driving guitar had me turning up the volume. I discovered that they were playing in the neighboring town of Londonderry, NH at a little venue called the Tupelo Music Hall. Interest piqued, I went home and checked out the band’s website, and immediately visited the Tupelo website to purchase tickets.

While this review is about The Mystix, I would be remiss not to talk a bit about Tupelo.  Housed in unassuming old white farmhouse, it would be easy to just drive by.  I had heard from friends that it was an intimate setting and a great place to get up close and personal with the music. What they didn’t tell me was that there is an absolute musical gem right in my backyard. Once inside, the atmosphere is warm and inviting. The night I visited, the venue was set up with about 30 tables for four lit with candles. They sell non-alcoholic beverages and food items and you can BYOB, paying $3 for each person who will be drinking. The one big surprise about the venue was the quality of the sound, which was amazingly crisp and clear. It did not overwhelm the small room but still allowed you to really feel the music. Owner Scott Hayward should be complimented on the full package he has put together here. It was recently announced that Hayward would build a new Tupelo in the neighboring town of Derry. After experiencing Tupelo, I hope he works to maintain this amazing quality in a new, larger venue.

Jo Lily, front man for The Mystix, said he visited Tupelo three years ago to see Jonathan Edwards and has been itching to play the room ever since. His itch was finally scratched on a cool New England summer night, when Lily and his band brought some hot, sultry, juke joint sounds to that small New Hampshire room.

The Mystix are an all-star band of sorts, comprised of journeymen musicians from the Boston/New York music scene. With roots in blues, rock, and country, their most recent CD, Blue Morning, has become a fixture on roots and country playlists around the country.

The evening’s entertainment started with a four song instrumental set, which included a playful, driving version of Duke Ellington’s Caravan, by three members of The Mystix – guitarist Bobby Keyes, drummer Marty Richards, and bassist Marty Ballou.  Keyes is clearly the standout here. A longtime studio player at the legendary Fame Studios in Muscle Shoals, Keyes has played with everyone from Jerry Lee Lewis and Ben E. King, to New Kids on the Block and most recently, Lil Wayne and Robin Thicke. Keyes is also an accomplished songwriter, writing four songs for Thicke’s recent CD and co-writing with Lily for The Mystix. But it’s his guitar playing that’s on display here - he is a six string virtuoso. His play is inspired, passionate, and clean. His guitar comes alive under his gentle touch. This description, from a CD Baby review, hits the nail on the head. 

He can switch from “Surf-style-spaghetti-western” to Django Reinhardt-style hot jazz to kiss-ass rock riffs in the blink of an eye and never break a sweat.

The trio was later joined on stage by keyboard player Tom West, and lead singer and guitarist Lily. Lily’s gravely, passionate vocals grabbed hold of the audience with Let’s Get Started and didn’t let go throughout their 14 song set. Some highlights included: the jumpin’ juke joint inspired Keyes/Lily original, Yolanda; the rocking Bourbon Street rhythms of New Orleans; and the Traveling Wilbury’s tune Rattled.

A taste of Yolanda at the Lizard Lounge in Cambridge, Massachusetts, 2007.

I’ve read that they are a much tighter band since this performance - changing their drummer and adding a keyboard player.

Their country side was on display with their George Jones inspired original What Side of Heartache, which has risen to the top of the playlist on XM Country, and a cover of Porter Wagoner’s Nothing Between. They gave a couple of interesting nods to their interest in roots music. The first, Almost Down to the Shore was written by Jimmy Struthers, a blind axe murderer whose music was recorded at a penitentiary in VA by the Dust-to-Digital project. And the second, the encore, a song that they had never before performed live, Stephen Foster’s Hard Times Come Again No More. Yes, Stephen Foster - the “father of American music,” composer of Oh! Susanna, Camptown Races, and Beautiful Dreamer. Lily mentioned being asked to record this song by Keyes for a movie project, and how he was intimidated because it had been performed so perfectly by Bob Dylan. Having experienced Lily’s performance and watching Dylan’s performance, I’d take Lily’s version, hands down.

The Mystix are currently in studio working on their third CD which, according to Lily, will be more focused on roots music. If you get a chance to see the Mystix, I would highly recommend that you do, and you too will believe that the south has indeed moved to New England.

You can find The Mystix CD’s on CDBaby and iTunes online, and at Newbury Comics and Dyno Records in Newburyport, MA.

Welcome back to my hit tutorial! In our last installment, I covered hit dance songs. Today, I’m covering the other major genre of hits, the mid-tempo ballad.

The best way to illustrate the hit ballad is to examine the songwriting successes of Diane Warren. I cannot stand her songs, or her personally, but she has had more hit songs than any other songwriter in the 20th/21st centuries, so where better to start?  Artists to look at are Mariah Carey and Celine Dion.

With dance songs, we built from the bottom (the beat) up. With ballads, we move in the other direction, starting with the lyrics. Lyrics should be about love, or miracles, or other inspirational things, or occasionally about lost love. Think of your average American Idol “coronation” song — you want a song that conveys both grandiosity and happiness.  (There actually used to be a random word generator on the Internet that would create a random AI song.  If anyone still has the link, please let me know!)  Use a lot of words, too, especially in your verses, and make sure to have a bridge. The bridge will come in handy later when you get to the chord and key changes. When you write the chorus, make sure to include lots of open vowels — oohs, ohs, and ahs. Avoid ee’s, because they sound screechy when held and hiccupy when Mariah goes into melisma (a/k/a “runs”).

Which brings us to the melody. Long, sweeping phrases and an opportunity for the eventual singer to show off his or her vocal range and breath control are key. (Unless you know you’re writing for someone with no vocal range or breath control, like Madonna or Britney.) Don’t write too many notes, as a basic outline is fine. The singer will have their own style for filling in the blanks, honed over years of impressing Star Search judges. The singer’s style will also serve as a reminder of the genre they have been pigeonholed into: a country singer will be more yodely and a pop singer will be more punchy. Also, your chord progressions will provide them with a guide.

So what’s all this about chord progressions and key changes?  Read the rest of this entry �