I had the pleasure of playing lead guitar for Bobby Womack in a 1973 bus tour crossing America for over 30,000 miles. It followed the release of the film "Across 110th Street" with its title song by Bobby. At the time I was living in NYC on 110th Street at Broadway. This lo-fi track is from a cassette recording of our gig in Norfolk, Virginia.

Bobby Womack - Harry Hippy - Live 1973

From the album: Natural Layers by Sam Morrison.
In the fall of 1977 I got to play guitar on this album, along with some very good musicians. We recorded at Downtown Sound in lower Manhattan. This track is actually titled "Song of Landa (including Little One)" as this arrangement of Sam's "Song of Landa" contains T.M. Stevens' composition "Little One". During the recording of the album Sam's wife Yolanda gave birth to their daughter, inspiring Narada Michael Walden to bring in a beautiful piano composition, "Jenny", named after the newborn.

Sam Morrison, sax and flute; Marc Cohn, piano; Narada Michael Walden, drums; T.M. Stevens bass; Kevin Shrieve, guitar; Jeff Williams, congas
http://www.cdbaby.com/Artist/SamMorrison
http://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-listing/B00AD6XOAY/

Sam Morrison - Song Of Landa

From the 2006 album "Hydrogen Burning" by Dream Art Science.
Composed by my wife Beverly Chen Shrieve (pretty much transcribed from a dream she had) and myself. She did the vocal, and I played guitar and did the backup track.
https://soundcloud.com/dreamartscience

Dream Art Science - Wizard

This is a 4:22 edit of the 12:08 track from the 1984 album with the same title.

My brother and I visited Klaus Schulze, staying at his home studio in Germany, in the wizard's workshop in the woods in winter. The walls were lined with patch-cabled analog synths. It was kind of magical trying to draw out from him our favorite kinds of Klaus spaces.  

Back in NYC (where we were both living at the time) I wrote the TSB parts over a long spacey track called "Communiqué". I was kind of shocked that it had those parts in it, waiting to be found! Then in a NYC studio Mike and Will Lee locked in the groove, Hiram Bullock added a smooth chord part, and I played all the guitar melodies and overlaid the Wurly piano and some synth counter-melodies.

I'll always remember sitting right next to Will Lee while he laid down that groove with Mike, and the intensity of their concentration. It was deep, like a force field!

A while later, back in San Francisco at Stephen Hill's Hearts of Space studio, we rearranged TSB, cutting up the tape and moving the sections around. (no ProTools then!) Mike recently created this edit. 
https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/transfer-station-blue/id194910880

Michael Shrieve - Transfer Station Blue (edit)

I mourn the loss, a few weeks ago, of my dear friend Randy. He was a unique character with a very strong life force — kind, enthusiastic, curious, industrious, creative, bold. Our lives crossed paths many times, including (to name just a few) him hiring me multiple times to collaborate on varied endeavors of his, such as furniture making, book publishing, and developing software used in hospital NICUs, and me making use of his print production experience to oversee getting good quality on the 32-page color booklet for the Dream Art Science CD. He was a builder, a designer, an architect, and spent his last decades in a house he designed. It is hard to imagine never again being able to bounce ideas off him, or laugh at the lunacies of this world together.

I had met him soon after starting college in NYC in 1969. In 1974, while I was in San Francisco playing with bands, I cooked up this musical greeting to him and his housemates — Peggy and a guy named Rob Singer — and recorded it by bouncing tracks between 2 home reel-to-reel tape recorders. My friend and neighbor James Sanchez added the drum part.

The lyrics are kind of silly, in the spirit of Alice In Wonderland, ironically pushing the premise that he should grow up and become like everybody else, something he clearly never could, should, or would do. I re-listen to this recording, and share it, as a way of celebrating the special energy that I was moved to capture by creating the track.

Randy Stands Trial

Randy Stands Trial (1974)

I have so few recordings from the 1973 tour I made playing lead guitar in the Bobby Womack band that I am sharing this song despite the very bad audio quality. Like the Harry Hippy track it was recorded in Norfolk, Virginia.

Bobby Womack - Nobody Wants You - Live 1973

From the album "Natural Layers" by Sam Morrison, recorded 1977 in lower Manhattan, on which I got to play guitar along with some great musicians. It is Sam's composition, though I came up with the repetitive synth section starting at 3:15.

Sam Morrison, sax; Narada Michael Walden, drums; T.M. Stevens bass; Kevin Shrieve, guitar; Jeff Williams, congas
www.cdbaby.com/Artist/SamMorrison
www.amazon.com/gp/offer-listing/B00AD6XOAY/

Sam Morrison - Natural Layers

Let your love grow deep and strong
Like the roots of the oak tree
Let it be everything it can be
Let it spread far and wide and all around
Let it reach deep inside, into the ground

From the 2006 album "Hydrogen Burning" by Dream Art Science.
Composed by my wife Beverly Chen Shrieve and myself. She did the vocal, and I played guitar and did the backup track.
https://soundcloud.com/dreamartscience

Dream Art Science - Deep And Strong

From the 2006 album "Hydrogen Burning" by Dream Art Science.
Composed by my wife Beverly Chen Shrieve. She did the vocal, and I played guitar and did the backup track.
https://soundcloud.com/dreamartscience

Dream Art Science - Gates Of The Duat

From a bootleg recording at the Bottom Line in NYC during the 1977 American tour for Stomu Yamashta's Go Too album. On the tour I shared lead guitar duties with Doni Harvey (I got the solo on Man of Leo — at 5:10). It was incredibly fun touring with my brother Mike and performing with this unique band. Check out the great bass and drums on this track! 

Stomu Yamashta (percussion); Jess Roden (vocals); Ava Cherry (vocals); Michael Shrieve (drums); Paul Jackson (bass); Kevin Shrieve (guitar); Doni Harvey (guitar); Patrick Gleeson (E-Mu Modulator synth); Brother James (percussion); Peter Robinson (keyboards)

Stomu Yamashta - Man Of Leo - Live 1977

Written by my friend, Chi Hy Son TRAN, soon after the birth of his daughter. Our mutual friend, Paris-based woodwinds player Philippe Gobinet, played sax. I sang, played guitar, and produced the arrangement.

To My Heart You Belong
by Chi Hy Son TRAN

Un Samedi tu es venue. 
Comme une princesse tu m'as conquis. 
Comme un rêveur je tombe des nues. 
J'ai sursauté, tremblé, tant pis.
J'ai si mal, voilà tes premiers pleurs,
J'ai si peur, serais-je à la hauteur. 

CHORUS:
When you came suddenly into my life, 
When you smile at me my sky is bright. 
When you say Daddy, I can feel so strong. 
I love you, and to my heart you belong.
 
Des nuits entières je veille sur toi.
ô ma chérie tu m'as choisi.
Mon doux chaton j'oublie que parfois
ce temps qui passe t'arrache à moi.
T'en vas pas, ne laisse pas mes bras vides.
Grandis pas, ne t'envole pas si vite.

REPEAT CHORUS

Bien avant toi, je ne crains rien.
A ta naissance, je doute de tout.
Belle est ma vie, elle renforce nos liens
même si parfois y'a des remous.
Ecris moi, quand les hommes te déçoivent.
Protège toi, quand l'amour n'est plus suave.

REPEAT CHORUS

I love you, and to my heart you belong.


------------

One Saturday you came.
Like a princess you conquered me.
Like a dreamer I fall from the clouds.
I jumped, trembled, too bad.
I hurt so much, here are your first tears,
I'm so afraid, would I be up to the challenge?

CHORUS:
When you came suddenly into my life,
When you smile at me my sky is bright.
When you say Daddy, I can feel so strong.
I love you, and to my heart you belong.

Entire nights I watch over you.
Oh my darling you chose me.
My sweet kitten I forget that sometimes
this time that passes tears you away from me.
Don't go away, don't leave my arms empty.
Don't grow up, don't fly away so quickly.

REPEAT CHORUS

Long before you, I fear nothing.
When you were born, I doubt everything.
My life is beautiful, it strengthens our bonds
even if sometimes there is turmoil.
Write to me, when men disappoint you.
Protect yourself, when love is no longer sweet.

REPEAT CHORUS

I love you, and to my heart you belong.

To My Heart You Belong

Written and sung by Alex Kash: https://www.facebook.com/alex.kashevaroff 
Recorded in 1976 (at Wally Heiders, in SF). Our band Cheshire had just parted ways with our drummer (off-screen left in the picture), so my brother Michael Shrieve played drums. Other players (left-to-right in the picture): Kevin Shrieve - lead guitar, low harmonies; Brian Godula - bass, high harmonies; Alex Kash - lead vocal, rhythm guitar.

Cheshire

Cheshire - Solar Flowers

On June 9, 1978 I played with some great players backing Sam Morrison for 3 sets at Eric's in NYC. Sam Morrison - sax; Michael Shrieve - drums; Luico Hopper - bass; Steve Gaboury - synthesizer, Fender Rhodes piano; Phil Clendeninn - RMI Keyboard Computer; Roger Squitero - percussion; Kevin Shrieve - guitar

Here's a playlist of the whole album: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_k8JnHd3k1WoRS3uiREneHKDQaCOy89Iw0

Live at Eric's NYC

Moonrise on the Hudson - Live 1978

After my brother and I visited Klaus Schulze in 1978, staying at his home studio in Germany, we took the tracks back to NYC and worked with them to create the Michael Shrieve album Transfer Station Blue. Klaus used some of the tracks on his own 1981 album Tonwelle (released under his pseudonym Richard Wahnfried), and put on his track "Druck" my guitar overdubs that we had not used, crediting them to "Karl Wahnfried". I guess I am Richard's brother as well as Michael's!

As I recall, my brother suggested I use Concerto de Aranjuez as inspiration, so I improvised with that in mind before wandering off. I had switched to All Fourths tuning by that time, so my guitar was set up E-A-D-G-C-F, and I can hear myself having fun with the beautiful shapes that become available up and down the fretboard when the intervals between strings are uniform. I'm pretty sure Klaus had just recently received his Yamaha CS-80, as he was enthralled by the airy tones he made such good use of in that track. A beautiful space!

Kevin Shrieve

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