It’s weird to learn that specific, intimate aspects of one’s own cultural history are making “comebacks”. Maybe 15-20 years ago, a certain American demographic started collecting and playing vinyl records again, for example. Out of nowhere this became trendy. Today, folks of all ages are still giddily sourcing records from Discogs and investing in turntables, after a 20-year respite. Last year, in the same vein, The Mumbles learned that cassette tapes are back in vogue after three decades away. Those confused by this development, or nostalgic for it, are invited to read more here.
TOPSHAM, Maine — Pocket Full of Mumbles, everyone’s favorite Simon & Garfunkel tribute band turned alt-country darlings, will return to the midway on Thursday, Aug. 7, when they play the Topsham Fair.
Exact show times are not yet posted, but The Mumbles will take the Area 3 stage to play the first of three, consecutive hour-long sets.
Regular admission is typically is $15, which includes an unlimited ride bracelet. Last yeaer, Pocket Full of Mumbles was pleased to share the Area 3 stage and others with a crew of fine musical acts including Ranger D Singing Cowboy, Murlyn Greenleaf, Always Sometimes, and As Friends. Expect a similarly star-studded line-up in 2025.
Maine carnivals generally celebrate local agriculture, its products & produce, but the farm community as well. The Topsham Fair is particularly ambitious. It includes these must-see attractions, among others:
• Youth Dairy and Beef Show
• Whoopi Pie Contest
• Multiple Goat Milking Demonstrations
• Princess and Superheroes Meet and Greet
• Pig Scrambles, Demolition Derbies, Ox and Horse Pulling, and Fireworks on Saturday night starting at 9:15 p.m.
The Mumbles, who made their public debut at the Litchfield Fair in 2017, are duly daunted but unbowed by the prospect of competing with this diverse lineup of stimuli. As such, the boys will be breaking out several new tunes — from Robert Plant/Alison Krauss, Liz Phair and Bob Mould — to go with a bunch of originals and healthy portions of S&G, Jackson Browne, Son Volt, Neil Young and Stephen Stills. See you in Topsham.
We often tell audiences that a particular tune we perform, “Wednesday Morning, 3 a.m.”, contains perhaps the most unlikely Paul Simon lyric ever written down. Give a listen and pay special attention to the third verse… The notion that effete, petit Paul Simon would ever knock over a liquor store, or commit a violent felony of any kind, is patently absurd. The same could be said of Art Garfunkel, who is taller but no less the sensitive, urbane sophisticate.
No one claims this or any S&G song is explicitly autobiographical, but this unlikely outlaw theme is one that Simon & Garfunkel must have fancied because they resurrect and amplify it on their very next album with the song, “Somewhere They Can’t Find Me”, which PFOM continues to perform as part a medley including “We’ve got a Groovy Thing Going, Baby” and “Angie”.
In an earlier blog post, we remark on the fact that S&G’s debut album, Wednesday Morning 3 a.m., was something of a dud. Indeed, Simon’s next batch of spare folk tunes didn’t thrill the executives at Columbia Records, and so he fucked off to England, with Kathy (she of the song), to concentrate on becoming the next Bob Dylan. It wasn’t until producer Tom Wilson rocked up the single, “Sounds of Silence” (in post production), that S&G would reform. Indeed, this new Byrds-inspired version would go straight to #1, which led Simon, Garfunkel and Wilson to affix more orchestration to many of the remaining songs on this second album, the now iconic Sounds of Silence.
One of those cuts, “Somewhere They Can’t Find Me”, doesn’t merely harken back to the criminal storyline detailed in “Wednesday,” the previous album’s title cut. It reprises nearly the entire lyric and updates the story.
In the wistful original, our antihero narrator has committed a crime, broken the law… In the middle of the night, his girlfriend asleep at his side, he wonders aloud (amid rich harmonies) what fate the dawn will bring.
Artists will sometimes refer back to previous lyrics, dropping little references or inside jokes to the listener. But with “Somewhere” we find something quite different: Simon deploys the original “Wednesday Morning” lyric to create a brand new song. A newly inserted chorus spells out next steps: I’ve got to creep down the alleyway, fly down the highway…
These urgent new lyrics and tone reveal that our unlikely felon has resolved to go on the lam — Before they come and get me I’ll be gone! Somewhere, where they can’t find me…
It’s not clear, but it seems his girlfriend may have woken up in time to hear all this. One can imagine her surprise: That this poetic, nebbish (a nice Jewish boy?) has A) robbed a liquor store; and B) now intends to elude the long arm of justice like some turtle-necked, scarf-wearing Clyde Barrow. It’s all a bit grandiose but it does lead us to wonder (and further consult the S&G songbook) as to whatever happened to that guy…
NEW GLOUCESTER — Pocket Full of Mumbles, Maine’s favorite purveyors of eclectic, crowd-pleasing twang, will again play the annual Strawberry Moon Celebration here at Pineland Farms Friday, June 20. Show time is 4-7 p.m.
This three-day event, the ultimate yard party, takes place entirely within the Pineland Farms property at 752 Mayall Road in New Gloucester. Festivities include, music, PYO strawberries galore, food-truck fare, games, sunshine, farm equipment, dessert tables, horse-drawn carriage rides, special moonlit picking hours, and plenty of room for kids to run wild. The cost: Just $5 per person — but don’t forget to put your ticket price toward your PYO purchase at checkout. Children under 2: free.
The Mumbles will bring the musical ambience, next to the big tractor, from a proper flatbed stage. Food & drink vendors include Craft Curbside, Cruzin’ Slice, Shut up N’ Eat It, Cheese the Day, the Pink Waffle, and our very own Pineland Market strawberry shortcake station.
For more information, visit the Pineland Farms website or call the Farm at (207) 657-2877.
It’s a lot to absorb, but don’t overthink it: Just drop by, harvest a few quarts of delicious strawberries from the rich Maine soil, listen to the music, have a beverage, a bite to eat and, if you need more strawberries, come back the next day and do it all again.
AUBURN, Maine — Pocket Full of Mumbles, southern Maine’s favorite purveyors of smart, toe-tapping twang, return to Side By Each Brewing Co. on Friday Night, Nov. 15. That’s THIS Friday. Show time is 7 p.m.
All three sets will be thoroughly entertaining and completely apolitical. The band will debut several new tunes Friday night, among them “Please Read the Letter,” a song written by Jimmy Page and more recently recorded by Robert Plant & Alison Krauss. The Mumbles will also trot out “While My Guitar Gently Weeps,” from the Beatles’ White Album.
Neither song choice carries with it any hidden partisan meaning (we’re not even sure we’re spelling partisan correctly). But the Mumbles are of the mind that most live bands should make the effort to tackle at least one Beatles tune each time they play out. Other than that, look for the eclectic mix — originals, Son Volt, Simon & Garfunkel, Cracker, CSNY, Bob Mould, The Band and Jackson Browne — that folks across South-Central Maine have come to expect from these neon gods.
There will be time between sets, potentially, for gloating or handwringing of all kinds, but that should be done outside… Mind you, it’s going down below 40 degrees Farenheit this Friday night. What’s more, Side by Each is located at 1110 Minot Avenue, a fairly busy thoroughfare with two lanes traveling in either direction. Speed limit: 50 mph. The Mumbles strongly advise against wandering anywhere near the roadway on foot.
Best to stay inside, enjoy the music and tuck into some of the House Risotto, and maybe a pint of the Potential Spam Smoked Brown Ale, which recently earned the “Cheers to Independent U.S. Craft Breweries” (Level 82) badge.
That’s our new hero, second from left, on lead guitar, circa 1979.
While the prevailing pandemic has wrought considerable havoc with pretty much every nook and cranny of the music scene, nationwide, Pocket Full of Mumbles has managed to emerge all the stronger — and 50 percent bigger.
Founding members Mike Conant and Hal Phillips are pleased to have welcomed Tim Howie on pedal steel and Telecaster. He joined the band in April, when all musicians could do was practice. PFOM debuted the new three-piece lineup and its ever-evolving sound at a private party in Poland early in July.
That gig felt several worlds away from the dark, secluded months of March and April, when Conant and Phillips could do nothing but practice remotely via the online application Jamulus, a quite marvelous technology that allows musicians from the around the world to convene and play together via a specific, remote, third-party server. Conant and Phillips actually stretched the technology one step further, using Jamulus to access each other’s Internet servers directly.
“For the host, the delay was negligible because the server is right there next to him,” Conant explained. “For the visitor, there was a latency of 40-60 milliseconds, which can feel like quite a lot. Try playing in a field with someone standing 25 feet away. But like anything else, you can account for that delay with practice. And if the connection is good, it starts to feel quite natural.
“One thing’s for certain: It was great practice for us — especially all our close-harmony singing. After doing that remotely, singing together in the same room is a great luxury. It also sounds great because to us, it feels almost effortless.”
Conant has continued to play via Jamulus with dozens of strangers spanning the globe. He and Howie were no strangers, however. For several years they have played together as contributors to the free-form, practice-averse jammers known especially to Grateful Dead mavens across southern Maine as the Kennebunk River Band.
“Acquiring the twang of pedal steel has always been part of the plan for Pocket Full of Mumbles,” Phillips says, “mainly on account of all the Son Volt and Jackson Browne tunes we do. And those tunes really sound great with Tim on board.
“What we hadn’t expected was just how great the pedal sounds — along with his occasionally ripping electric guitar — on the Simon & Garfunkel songs we play, and our originals. A classic folky tune like Wednesday Morning 3 a.m. is completely transformed. I don’t think it’s a stretch to say Tim has totally changed the sound of PFOM, for the better.”
Howie is a multi-instrumentalist from way back, having played trumpet, drums and guitar with a succession of “rock ‘n roll bands” while still in his teens.
“I picked up the banjo when I was in Texas, playing with a country band,” says Howie, who, in addition to playing with Kennebunk River Band, did a recent stint playing with Maine’s own Rock Bottom Band. “But when I was relocated to northern Maine, in 1984, that’s when I picked up pedal steel guitar and played with different bands in Aroostook County. I’ve stuck with guitar and pedal ever since, when my family relocated to the central Missouri area, and after we returned here to southern Maine.”
Pocket Full of Mumbles returns to Portland’s Allagash Brewery on Saturday night, Dec. 21, and fear not — the boys will come prepared to celebrate the season.
Oh sure, starting at 5 p.m., patrons can expect only the finest collection of Simon & Garfunkel homage (including a new medley of tunes from the Sound of Silence LP), not to mention several originals and selections from Jackson Browne, alt-country darlings Son Volt, Tom Petty, Neil Young and Stephen Stills.
But Pocket Full of Mumbles will show up on Riverside — four days before Christmas — withan eclectic set of Christmas songs in tow, some of them requiring no instrumentation whatsoever. These a cappella selections include:
While Shepherds Watched their Flocks, a venerable English hymn (dating to the 16thcentury) that describes the “Annunciation to the Shepherds” who, having watched the angels gatheron high (and the wise men roll in from the East), rightly wondered what exactly was going down in their sleepy little town (of Bethlehem). Some folks may recognize this song but even they may not realize just how popular this carol used to be. In fact, it was the only Christmas-specific hymn authorized to be sung by the Anglican Church prior to 1700, along with the Psalms of David.
Away in a Manger, another standby (but not quite so old) that boasts a curiously international backstory. Legend routinely ascribed the lyrics to Protestant reformer Martin Luther; many went so far as to call it “Luther’s Cradle Song” or “Luther’s Cradle Hymn”, arguing that its English lyrics had been translated from Luther’s German. It is in fact wholly American in origin, the work of two late 19th century hymnsmiths, William Kirkpatrick and James Ramsey Murray. For whatever reason, it remains extraordinarily popular in England, where a 1996 Gallup poll ranked it joint second among all Christmas carols.
Comfort and Joy, Simon & Garfunkel’s spare but compelling take on God Rest Ye Merry Gentlementhat appeared on the 1997 anthology, Old Friends. It was recorded in 1967.
Mike and Hal are keeping their options open prior to the Allagash gig; there may well be more seasonal additions to the set list.
But one thing’s for certain: On Dec. 21, the duo will perform Santa Bring My Baby Back to Me, a tune written by Aaron Schroeder and Claude Demetrius but made famous by the one and only Elvis Presley. This song first appeared in 1957, as part of an RCA Victor 45 EP, Elvis’ Christmas Album, along with Santa Claus is Back in Town, Blue Christmas, and I’ll Be Home for Christmas. Not surprisingly, the album would eventually reach#1 on the Billboard EP chart.
Besotted young men have for centuries been composing love songs for/about the objects of their affection. When it comes to qualitative productivity, however, it’s tough to match Stephen Stills’ preoccupation with Judy Collins.
They met in 1967, when Stills was immediately post Buffalo Springfield and pre CSN — a tremendously productive songwriting period for the young Canadians. She’d just released “Wildflowers”, the highest charting album of her career (wherein she covered Both Sides Now, the work of another young Canadian, Joni Mitchell). Apparently, Stills spied Collins in the audience at West Hollywood’s Whisky a Go Go and the rest is history.
The resulting 18-month relationship would move Stills to write three Judy-centric tunes: Suite: Judy Blue Eyes and Helplessly Hoping both showed up two years later on CSN’s eponymous, much-heralded debut album. Another ode to Judy — So Begins the Task, wherein Stills addresses the difficulties in accepting her rejection — didn’t make the cut. It wouldn’t be recorded until 1972, when it appeared on Still’s solo album, Manassas.
Nevertheless, Pocket Full of Mumbles will cover it (along with the epic, 8.5-minute Suite) this Friday, June 28 at the Allagash Brewery in Portland.
Reproducing CSN’s 3- and 4-part harmonies is no small matter, especially for a duo, but it can be done. PFOM proves it (see the Video/Audio tab for evidence). Collins and Stills themselves further this argument: Their 2017 album, “Everybody Knows”, featured an attractive mix of new songs, catalogue selections and CSN covers. Indeed, another PFOM tune on tap Friday night, You Don’t Have To Cry, was a staple of the tour Collins and Stills undertook in support of “Everybody Knows”.
That album and tour may not have transpired had David Crosby, Graham Nash and Stills made plain, in 2016, that they’d finally had enough of one another. Each has indicated they will never perform with the others again — a sentiment Neil Young made plain (but kept reneging on) starting in 1974. Prior to her 50th anniversary tour with Stills, Collins was dismissive of the idea that she was ever some sort of stand-in.
“I’m the original girl,” she told The Guardian in 2017. “I was there before any of them.”
Pocket Full of Mumbles returns to the stage April 5, for an 8-10 p.m. set
at everyone’s favorite oversized, burrito-serving, craft beer-pulling living
room, the She Doesn’t Like Guthrie’s
Restaurant & Café, in Lewiston.
The duo comprising Pocket Full of Mumbles (PFOM), Mike
Conant and Hal Phillips, formed in 2017 as an acoustic homage to the harmonies
and hyper-literate songwriting of Simon & Garfunkel. Twenty-eighteen saw
PFOM expand the brief to include the similarly stellar talents of Jay Farrar,
Jackson Browne, Tom Petty, Neil Young and, at the risk of paled comparisons,
Conant and Phillips themselves. Expect a sampling of all this on April 5.
If the primary inspirations for
PFOM were Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel, its secondary influence has been the
seminal alt-country band Uncle Tupelo,
the fertile collaboration of Farrar and Jeff Tweedy. Indeed, PFOM nearly named
themselves The Belleville Boys, after
these two native sons Belleville, Illinois, where, incidentally, Conant was also
born (his father had been based at nearby Scott Air Force Base).
The long-term goal of PFOM is to present
a complete evening of live music: a two-man acoustic set followed by a second
featuring full-band treatment of like material — to further demonstrate the
remarkable versatility and power of top-drawer songwriting. Re-animating the Uncle Tupelo sound is PFOM’s hope for
Set II.
Farrar and Tweedy would dissolve Uncle Tupelo amid not insignificant
rancor in 1994, almost immediately following this
club show in St. Louis. It’s an amazing performance at the peak of their
powers when apparently — according to an oral history recently published
in Rolling Stone — the two band principals were not speaking to each other.
Farrar would soon form his own band, Son Volt, further advancing the alt-country genre; the landmark album Trace (1996) at first gave the impression that perhaps he was the true genius behind Uncle Tupelo. Tweedy quickly complicated that assessment with the album Being There (1996), the second effort from what would become the prolific, indie super-group Wilco.
