Vine(yl) Club #3 - Satchel "Heartache and Honey"
This is my love letter to Shawn Smith as much as it is a description of your third installment of the Sleight of Hand VINE(YL) Club, the final album from Satchel called “Heartache and Honey”. This album has never seen release on vinyl format, so to say that I was excited to offer this album to our club is an understatement. I really hope you find yourself going back to this album again and again, discovering how amazing Shawn was and is. Sit back, this is a long one.
Close your eyes and imagine it’s 1992. I was living in Seattle then, and let me tell you, it was a special place to be. Listening to the plethora of amazing music coming out of the PNW during those cold, wet, and gray days felt…natural. Surrounded by a sea of flannel and Doc Martens, billowing cigarette smoke outside while waiting to get into RCKNDY or The Off Ramp, while inside, the floor, sticky from the gallons of Rainier beer sloshing out of the cups while the sea of humanity moshed in unison to the music, not in a violent manner, but as a collective. Crowd surfing, knowing that the people holding you up had your back. It was a fleeting moment, one that was taken over by corporate record labels searching for the “next big thing” and copycat bands from around the globe, imitating (poorly) the sound that made Seattle famous. Hell, even the fashion world got in on the gig and co-opted the flannel and Docs, bringing “grunge” to the masses in Vogue and Cosmo. Puke.
The thing is, the bands that were making music up here didn’t give 2 f*cks about any of that “press”. For every Pearl Jam and Nirvana breaking the charts, you had 10 other bands still toiling away in the clubs for their friends. And they weren’t doing it to be rich and famous. If they got paid with free beer and cigarettes, they were good. It was a great time to be alive, to say the least. And the impact that the Seattle music community made on me was life changing.
My love affair with Pearl Jam led me to Shawn Smith. I was made aware of another project that Pearl Jam’s guitarist Stone Gossard was involved in, and the band was called “Brad”. Naturally, I had to have it. That was my first introduction to the magic of Shawn Smith. Their first album, called “Shame”, is a top 5 album for me (go grab it). I followed Shawn’s career from that moment forward and went to see him play live on many occasions, whether it was with Brad, Satchel, or solo. And on the rare occasion, I was able to nervously introduce myself to him and let him know how much his music meant to me.
Shawn’s voice is what separates him from his peers. Unlike Kurt (raw and angry) or Eddie (powerful and guttural), Shawn’s voice is pure “soul”. Not in the “Motown” soul way, it’s just soulful. I can’t think of any other way to describe it. He can hit the falsettos as well as the low notes. He rocks as hard as anyone on certain songs (Listen to track 1 -“The Return Of…” from this album or “Some More Trouble” from Satchel’s second album, “The Family”) and minutes later, he’s sitting at a piano belting out the most beautiful ballad you’ve ever heard (“Old Spirit” and “Scold Me” on this release or “Buttercup” from Brad’s debut). He could also be as funky as George Clinton (“20th Century” from Brad’s debut). But above all, Shawn was simply the kindest soul. He was quiet and reserved in a room full of strangers. But his friends will tell you that he’d give the shirt off his back, even if it was his only shirt.
Tragically, in 2019, Shawn passed away from a heart condition unexpectedly. It was a huge loss to the Seattle music community as well as those that loved Shawn from across the globe. I remember hearing the news that morning from my best friend Dave Place, one of Shawn’s friends. I sat there numb, knowing that I wouldn’t be seeing Shawn on stage someplace, warming the hearts and souls of so many others that loved him. This past weekend, Holly and I visited Shawn Smith’s unofficial memorial at Discovery Park in Seattle. It was a cathartic release being there on what was a beautiful Spring day in Seattle. I could feel Shawn’s presence, and I could hear him singing “The Day Brings”:
“So gather around
And see what the day brings
See what makes you laugh
And see what makes you sing
And never, nevermind
The things that people say
You’ll never go away”
I really hope you enjoy this VERY limited pressing, and that you explore more of Shawn’s work through his many projects. As a bonus, I reached out to the drummer for Satchel (and Brad), Regan Hagar. I have gotten to know Regan over the years, and he helped me out tremendously getting this record in my hands (and now YOUR hands). I asked him a few questions about the recording process of this album, and he was kind enough to oblige.
Interview with Regan Hagar
Why the huge gap between The Family and Heartache and Honey? 14 years is a long time! How did the reunion happen, who was responsible, etc?
The band disbanded shortly after John Hoags departure from Satchel during our final tour in whatever year that was. Sam Bligh had a local label he started that was helping some bands, 959, Lonnie Marshall, and Satchel. His label was called Triple Props and he released three great albums during that time. Sam had asked Shawn to do a Satchel album and they agreed to reach out to John and I. We first went to a local studio to jam and see if we could play together again and it felt right. Mike Berg had exited the group and was not up for the recording so we knew we would be doing the bass ourselves and with friends. We had Lonnie Marshall fly up from LA to record some bass, but his parts were later replaced when we meet Jeff Fielder. Fielder was brought to the studio to play some slide guitar, but we soon realized his incredible musicianship and had him take a stab at bass… which he did brilliantly. We ended up with one old recording with Mike making the final cut for the record and one song with Lonnie on bass.
What was it like jumping back into the studio with Shawn? And tell me about the songwriting process for this album in particular. Was there an overall theme to the album and the lyrics?
Recording and or playing with Shawn was second nature for John and I. We had many years playing together and that part was very easy to slide into. The writing process was like always with Satchel, each player had a couple song ideas and the rest was improvisational. Satchel often enjoyed being somewhat improv..even to older tunes if you went to a live show you know.
The lineup changed around a bit, adding Jeff Fielder in the mix on some of the songs playing bass, and Mike Berg only contributes one song on the album. Did Berg not want to play on the entire album, or was that a conscious decision that y’all made?
Mike had left the band and had moved away from Seattle. He had exited Brad as well, so we did not reach out to him for this record. We initially felt that we three, Shawn. John and I would be playing a lot of the bass parts initially. We had a blast with both Lonnie and Jeff coming into the sessions and ended up using mostly all Jeff on bass.
Finally, tell me about the re-boot of Loosegroove Records and what you have on the horizon for both Loosegroove and Made in Ballard?
Loosegroove is now back at it and we are having a good time helping friends get music out. We really are doing it for fun essentially, Stone Gossard had a new band Painted Shield, which included some amazing players, so we needed an outlet. We have releases now for two members from the group as well, Brittany Davis and Mason Jennings.
Made In Ballard was set up for re-issues of our old records on vinyl. We are sort of combining these at the moment due to scarcity of manufacturing plants.
Looking forward to getting a lot of music out if we can!
Cheers!
Trey, Jerry, Keith, and the entire team from Sleight of Hand Cellars
