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Greg Robertson's WAKE / Blog

show at Zeppelin's Music Hall

Well . . . . . when I was contacted for this I was told what time I would play and for how long. But never did anyone tell me that there was a charge for the show; it was presented as a 'partay' to help them celebrate their being there so I promoted it to everyone I saw, maybe a few hundred, over that two week period as a free concert! Then when it came time for the show I arrived about 20 minutes early with the girl who drove me and the girl who is acting as my agent. Since I've just recently been stricken with this epilepsy or whatever, I'd been given Dr's orders not to drive so I thought it wise to have her drive me. Likewise, Ann, who's my acting manager right now came along to make an announcement about the upcoming benefit that she's planning for me. As I was doing my sound check, therefore busy and kinda 'in the zone', I noticed that both Ann and my driver and the children who had accompanied them leaving. Among the children was my 3-yr-old Godson who's been wanting to see me play forever. Being sound checking I really couldn't get away so i figured I'd find out what happened later . .(after I walked home!) . .well .. there was a $3 cover and they kicked out my entourage for lack of paying that!! They didn't consult or tell me about it in any way . . at the very least I could have paid that out of my pocket . . so . . . .they suck!!

Greg's epilepsy (?)

On May 21, early in the morning, Greg suffered what appears to be an epileptic seizure, fit or convulsion of some sort. Mouth to mouth was tried to no avail and the 911 operator talked Ann (that's Ann Duffy, who is Greg's godson's mother with whose family he resides ) through CPR which revived him somewhat though by the time the ambulance had delivered him to the emergency room he had 'flat-lined' again. After a day or two things began to come back to him, like his name and so forth. He has very spotty memories, mostly 'snapshots' of his visitors, of the next few days. Wednesday , after being able to describe where he lived and what his name and #'s were, he was released from the hospital and is currently undergoing care from the MSU School of Neurology.

E-mail sent to the venue's members. Pretty cool, huh?:

Thu, April 14, 2011 2:56:05 PMClub Alley welcomes Greg Robertson From: Art Alley View Contact To: Greg -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Club Alley presents Greg Robertson Greg Robertson is a 2nd generation Folk/Rock artist (parents V. Glen and Kay D. Washburn & The Fretters) just completing his second album, 'Unfulfilled Legacy'. In 2001 Greg, along with noted spiritualist, Angela Chapko, released 'Douglas Cole', a private release album (now re-released on line) dedicated to a friend who had recently passed from cancer. The entire local pressing was donated to a fundraiser for the local hospice. Greg began work on ' . . . Legacy' in '07 but suffered a heart attack and had to have open heart surgery. Since then, he has 'retired' from his 'day job' and is a full time musician, playing a handful of shows last year (the year he meant to take off!). He is well'known as a local Lansing Street Musician. Greg plays a balanced selection including many songs from both his albums and a few that are un-released (so far) as well as his own unique acoustic arrangements of many 'classic rock' and folk/rock favorites. www.reverbnation.com/gregrobertsonswake www.youtbe.com/user/gregerobertson Tuesday, April 19 7:30pm $10 admission / $5 for students www.reoartalley.com view email in browser | unsubscribe | update your profile | forward to a friend You are receiving this email because you signed the guest book at Art Alley or have asked to be alerted when events are happening at Art Alley. Art Alley 1133 S. Washington Ave. Lansing, Michigan 48910 Add us to your address book Copyright (C) 2011 Art Alley All rights reserved.

Oades Hidden Camel show

Sat.Feb.29,2011 Oades Hidden Camel ; REO-Town, Lansing. I began with my medley of three of my favorite classic rock songs: Uriah Heep's The Wizard, Pink Floyd's Time and Robin Trower's Bridge of Sighs. I began with a drop-tuning on the low E down to a D and brought it back up 'on the fly' during the shift between the two parts of Time. The I played songs from the new album. I started with "Nothing's Wrong", the TS Baker folk song that she gave me permission to perform and record. I stepped back to the first album for "Sweet River", which is about my mother, since it offers a good prelude to "Apples, Oranges and Pears", the song my mother wrote. Then I gave my voice a break for the instrumental, "Tune It Up", so called because I kinda 'wrote' it while tuning Angie's guitar. "Emancipation", my song about freedom from oppression, was next followed by "Pack Back". For some reason, I felt like departing from the album and I did a verion of The Stones, "Sympathy for The Devil" and then "Bad Luck", a true story about a local dope dealer. Then I came back to the album for "Benden White" which finished the show. I played for just under an hour and was followed by the band, Choas and Confusion, who are my good friends. Although this was a benefit for a birthday party, the sound guy handed me a twenty on the way out. I was happy.

Unfulfilled Legacy

RESOUND . . .everything we feel is an echo; a resonance from those who have gone before us. . . NOTHING'S WRONG . . . we look around us and see through the sarcastic title; there is indeed much wrong . . . 118 . . to understand one's calling and place is important; in the personal sense, this instrumental sybolizes this musical mission . . . APPLES,ORANGES,AND PEARS . . drawing from the past to help guide us through the future; this is my mother's song; her gift from her generation to ours and our children's . . MY BLUES .. in the personal sense, my specific answer to my mother's song; equally pointing to the 'blues' we all go through from time to time . . . . .Faith is a very important aspect, not even necessarily religious faith but faith in and idea or a concept or a moral; recognizing something greater than self builds self-confidence . . AMAZING GRACE and 117 are a hymn and a worship song, symbolizing this aspect of existance. SOLACE is the comfort one feels through the excercise of their faith. . . TUNE IT UP roughly corresponds to the honing of whatever skill we would possess to accomplish our craft. . .once we are in tune we can practe and perfect. . . BACK IN MY LIFE is a love song simply because everybody does better with love that thy can make work. . . PACK BACK; a silly little song about a hippy and his ruck-sack, reminds us that there comes a time when we load up our figurative 'pack back' with everything we need to overcome what obstacles we may encounter . . EMANCIPATION is a song of freedom; we need to free ourselves of anything we are bound to that hinders us. this is the cry for freedom that eminates from the bosm of everyone who's been oppressed. . . BENDEN WHITE, a song of a beautifully musical place, cements the imagery of the musical metaphor of the entire concept [ personal note: the formulation of the concept of Unfulfilled Legacy, which means striving for the heritage I had been left, occurred several weeks be fore the internet re-united me with my father after 50 yrs. and my daughter after 20]

Tequila Kiss

This is another song from the first album. We are streaming these songs as we get them so you can listen. . . we'd like you to buy them, since they are cheap and good and really easy to do. As we get sent more o the songs rom the first album, we will put them up to stream.

117

This song is a gospel rock song very loosely adapted from Psalm 117, hence the title. The choral intro was reverbed to match the reverb patterns of Notre Dame Cathedral. This song, like most of my songs on this site, is a work in progress; there are no drums as yet and the song has not been mastered. . I will probably do abit more with the intro; add a few more voices, perhaps. I think I may 'ghost' the intro over the chorus throughout the song. Anyway, let me know what you think of this song and we'll see if it can make it on the album.

. . . on the guitar parts of the studio version of Benden White. .

. . .this was brought to my attention by some reminiscing and youtubing but the guitar, I mean the super phased electric on the studio version of Benden White uncannily resembles that of Caleb Quaye on Elton John's Where To Now St Peter from Tumbleweed connection. This was totally an accidental thing but I have compared them and it is similar. . .

Sept. '09

It was a busy summer; and the results are up here now and elsewhere. I finished up some stuff at my other studio and am going to try to get the album together by , well, soon. . .I have more songs than I need on album so I have to choose prob'ly ten songs of these cuz a couple of 'em are loooong! As more time passes since my surgery, I'm getting healthier and stronger. I really feel I will be ready soon to assemble a band and do some ensemble shows. In the meantime, I'll continue with my acoustic work; I try to hit Get Wired on 1 & 2 Thursdays(now) and at least twice a week I put on stret shows, usually some where 'round East Lansing. . .