Michael Jerling
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Backup Musicians
 Michael at Caffè Lena. From left: Tony Markellis, Bob Warren, Michael, Teresina Huxtable Photo by Ed Burke |
Photo by AndrzejPilarczyk
TONY MARKELLIS
Tony has been my friend, bassist, and record producer for over twenty years.
His bass playing has been the foundation for most of my recordings, and hundreds of my live performances. Tony's style is no-frills, rock solid and yet sensitive to the ways of the quirky and sometimes tempo challenged singer/songwriter. His fretless playing is particularly fine. He knows his stuff.
Tony is a native of Helena, Montana, spent his high school years in western New York State, and went to school at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, where his professional musical career began. He was soon touring and recording with the David Bromberg Band.
In addition to performing with acoustic singer/songwriters too numerous to mention, but including the likes Rosanne Raneri, Bob Warren, Rosalie Sorrels and Paul Siebel, Tony is a musical icon in his musical second home of Burlington, Vermont. His work there with the jazz fusion group Kilimanjaro, and with the Unknown Blues Band featuring Big Joe Burrell, has taken him on tours around the U.S. and across Europe. His many nights working in the college town clubs of Burlington also brought him to his most recent musical accomplishment.
The band Phish came out of the Burlington music scene and has since gone on to be one of the most popular touring bands in the nation. Having known and admired Tony's playing as a young, up and coming guitar player, Trey Anastasio grabbed the chance to work with Tony and drummer Russell Lawton when he decided to put together a side project during one of Phish's rare breaks from touring. That U.S. tour led to Trey including two songs he co-wrote with Tony and Russell on Phish's most recent CD, and Tony's name again shows up in the credits on Trey's new self-titled solo CD just released on April 30, 2002.
Still I can't think of Tony without thinking of what must be his first musical home, Caffè Lena, here in Saratoga Springs, NY. Tony has performed on the Caffè stage hundreds of times over the years, and has always been a great friend of the Caffè, adding his considerable graphic arts talents to creating and maintaining the Caffè's calendar/newsletter.
Find out more at www.tonymarkellis.com
BOB WARREN
Bob and I have worked together off and on for many years - backing each other up, playing in bands, on each other's recordings, and lately doing occasional duo shows together.
First of all, Bob is a fine songwriter and performer in his own right, and his decision to pursue music full-time again will give you more opportunities to hear his wonderful music. His first album, Partners, contains some of my favorite Bob Warren songs including "Oh Darlin", and "Someone Like You", which Bob still performs.
Unfortunately, Partners is only available on LP, but some of Bob's music is available on tape: his live Bob Warren & His Band at Caffè Lena is a good sample of Bob's band backed live shows. His 1999 CD," Love Walked In", is available by following the link to Bob's web page, and "Clear Connection", from 2002, is available in my Fool's Hill Music Record Store. Beautiful songs, beautifully recorded with production help from Tony Markellis. You've got to get one! I am proud to say that we recorded many of the tracks for "Clear Connection" in my home studio.
Finally, his latest CD - to be released later this month (October 2010) - can be pre-ordered from my Fool's Hill Music Record Store, and is expected to be in stock on October 28th.
On the occasions that I get to work with Bob it is my particular pleasure to sing with him. He has a flair for harmony singing and vocal arranging, and there are some songs I only do when Bob is there to sing the harmony. It just makes the song for me! In addition, Bob is a fine guitar player and is quickly developing his skills on mandolin and harmonica.
You can find Bob Warren performing in his native Greenwich, NY (that's pronounced "green-witch" by the way), Saratoga Springs, and all around the Northeast.
Find out more at www.bob-warren.com.
Photo by Andrzej Pilarczyk
TERESINA HUXTABLE
Teresina's musical style is intimately tied to her childhood love for the hymns of the Presbyterian church, her years of piano lessons, and her discovery of folk music, first through such popular folk performers as the Kingston Trio and Joan Baez. She still particularly prizes her collection of sixties era Sing Out! Magazines, where she was exposed to a wider world of American and world folk music.
When she left her hometown of Little Falls, New York to attend Skidmore College in Saratoga Springs she was ready for the amazing collection of folk performers who came through Lena Spencer's Caffè Lena. That funky second floor room (which is still going strong after forty years) was a magnet for college students, would-be and real Bohemians, actors, poets and folk singers.
It wasn't long before Teresina met and started singing with her longtime musical partners and friends - Liz Hood and Carol Christensen. Their college dormitory harmonizing soon led to more formal performances as Huxtable, Christensen,& Hood. The trio appears annually at Caffè Lena in Saratoga Springs.
Their lovely vocal arrangements, and amazing range of material from Renaissance, traditional folk, and American pop classics to Teresina's finely crafted original songs, brought them to the attention of Philo Records, who released their now-classic debut album, Wallflowers, produced by Roma Baran. They later released a fine second album, Melancholy Babies, on Front Hall Records. Wallflowers is regrettably difficult to find, but well worth the search, and Melancholy Babies is available on CD from the trio's web page at: hchmusic.com via my Fool's Hill Music Record Store.
Terri makes her living as a career special education teacher, and when we get the opportunity she joins me onstage with her skills on piano, an ancient portable reed organ, accordion, and assorted percussion devices.
By the way, I'm proud to say we've been married since 1985.
MJ
