Free Your Mind: Living and Loving in The Second Age with Zepparella
That time I workshop why I want to have my own personal "Almost Famous", be a rock music writer, and interview Clementine Moss, Anna Kristina, Gretchen Menn, and Holly West of Zepparella.
Hello Dear Readers.
It’s been a while. I had some things planned for the first anniversary of The Jukebox at The Diner’s first chapter, but while I was working on that in early July the world lost a true artist. When Michael Corcoran passed away, it reminded me of why this Substack even exists. What I found myself doing was writing a tribute to Michael, and it ended up being a pitch for my screenwriting class. It went over better than expected. The material is solid gold. There was just one problem. Imposter syndrome.
Who am I to tell ANY part of Michael’s story? We chatted once or twice online, and I bought his first two books. That’s about it. Oh, I did write about him in The Art of The Billy Fish... I know eventually his son Jack will work with the publishers to get Michael’s last two books out, which aren’t far from being ready based on Michael’s last updates about them, and if you asked me, I think it should be Jack who tells his father’s story. That’s not what I was presenting though. It was an idea for a “Mockumentary”. Think Spinal Tap meets Porklips Now! if you’re my age or older and would be based on some of the more over-the-top posts published on his Substack “Overserved”. It would most likely be directed by Alan Smithee.
“How did I get here?”
*Shoutout to Johnny Goudie’s amazing podcast. His interview with Michael in 2013 was the main source for my pitch
If you’ve been reading my Substack long enough, you’ll know that I dove seriously into writing last year to improve my skills as a storyteller. This all began while watching Daisy Jones & The Six and realizing I wanted to tell my friend Maddisun’s story, and that I wasn’t the writer I needed to be.
I had no idea I would write three volumes of The Jukebox at The Diner, with a prequel and epilogue thrown in, and oh yeah, inside that story is a whole other literary universe, The Margaret Apple Mysteries…
I’ve made some progress, but the story remains the same. Am I ready? So I decided I just might as well go and do it. I bought my ticket to see Zepparella, with the intent that I would approach them about an interview. There was only one question I had the night of the show, and I’ll pose it at the end.
Zepparella opens their show by killing the lights and blasting this while they come to the stage.
I love this portrait of Zepparella, who I just saw on the 19th of July at SLO Brew Live in San Luis Obispo, California. I took some photos and videos at the show, however, they don’t paint the picture this story wants to tell, but Amelie’s drawings do. She’s a fan of Zepparella if you can’t tell.
I’ve seen Zepparella four times. I’ve known about them for quite a while now. I remember hearing about them for the first time when Angeline Saris joined the band in 2011. I learned about “Angel Funk” through Narada Michael Walden.
When I finally saw them in 2022 for the first time (I have been to every show they have played at SLO Brew since) I wore a Madam Radar shirt, and a Jocelyn and Chris Arndt shirt the second. I bought a Zepparella jersey at the third one and wore it over my Mingo Fishtrap shirt that night. I wore my new Maddisun shirt for Friday’s show. I didn’t wear my Zepparella jersey. It is so comfy that I sleep in it and has replaced the Van Darien shirt I wore for 2 years. They are both equally comfortable, I just decided it was finally safe to take my Van Darien shirt out in public.
I knew beforehand that I was going to approach this show a little differently. I need to be honest and upfront, however.
This won’t be about Led Zeppelin.
A few Sundays ago in my Screenwriting As A Pro group taught by my friend, mentor, rockstar poet, author, and screenwriter James Dalessandro (Citizen Jane, Bohemian Heart, 1906), I shared the pitch I’d written based on Michael Corcoran’s “Overserved” Substack. “Be Like Mike”, I humorously titled it. I started this Substack in late 2021, having been inspired by my trip to Austin to see Noelle Hampton’s The Belle Sounds, and having brought Michael’s books along. Reading his stories, and reprinted articles he’d written for the Austin Statesman or Chronicle, and being excited that I got to see Lisa Pancratz play drums two nights in a row ( for The Derailers and Whitney Rose) had led me to a new journey, back into music.
By early 2023 I knew what I wanted to do. I wanted to be a music writer. Like Michael. It was a moment during the second episode of Daisy Jones & The Six. In the end, after Daisy performs (aka Margaret… that’s an Easter Egg for fans of The Jukebox at The Diner) “By Myself”, she walks down the street to the soundtrack of Carole King’s “I Feel The Earth Move…" I realized then what kind of story I wanted to write. Think “Almost Famous” blended with Kerouac’s “On The Road”.
Taking some advice I’ve heard from writers over the years, if you want to be a writer. Write. Well, write I did.
Three (.2) volumes later, while writing the pitch for a mockumentary based on Michael’s Substack, I realized there was one small problem.
I hadn’t made my bones. While I have self-published several pieces about my amazingly talented and inspiring musician friend Maddisun here, I suddenly felt the need to be published. In a rock magazine. So, no, this piece on Voyage Austin doesn’t count. #IYKYK.
In the next Sunday’s screenwriting group, I presented a new pitch. The idea? Interview each member of Zepparella, and then join the band for a few dates. One in the Bay Area, their next visit here to San Luis Obispo, and then a show in Los Angeles.
I started writing a bit of a preview of the piece I wanted to write, and then decided I should just wait and let the interviews and the shows determine the story. Would I love to have my very own “Almost Famous” published in a rock magazine?
YES!
So after talking to Gretchen a little after the show and then having a short chat about it in my screenwriting class, I’m going to send this piece along to the band and see if we can work something out. I’ll probably be in Los Angeles in late October, where I could potentially interview Holly West, and find a time for a trip to the Bay Area to interview Clementine, at someplace significant, like 19 Broadway or Peri’s in Fairfax.
To start to wrap this up, just a note from me to y’all, ever since I got to spend time talking with T. Moran, who played drums for Daniel Castro back in the late ‘90’s early 2000s, I’ve found I connect with drummers easily, and if I’m running live shows or engineering in the studio, mixing drums is one of my very favorite things.
That’s why it was such an honor that Narada Michael Walden’s drumset is on the EPs I produced (Amber Estrada, Shay Fox) for my indie label Shoestring Angel Records at Tarpan Studios back in 2004. (Ricky Carter played them while Andre Moran, Kevin T. White, and Mike Emerson completed the band for my artists). Oh, that was kinda name droppy.
*shrug emoji*
Jim Reitzel engineered and mastered the EPs.
So of course, anytime I get a chance to experience Clementine Moss playing drums and feel that groove while watching her and the rest of the band perform, I’m already in Heaven, no stairway required.
Seeing that smile of hers through her hair, arms and sticks flying, gives me such joy. Not because she’s playing Bonham, but because she’s sharing that groove with Holly West, who’s playing John Paul Jones parts, next to Anna Kristina who’s singing her heart out to Robert Plant’s lyrics, while next to Gretchen Menn, who’s face-melting guitar playing and strokes of bow pierce my soul with tiny sonic particle arrows.
Four supremely talented master craftswomen. In harmony. Deep in the groove of the spirit of music.
That’s the story I want to tell.
So I’m posting this and sending it along to the band.
If you’d like to know more about the members of Zepparella, here’s a quote from each of them with links to their websites.
I couldn’t find a quote I liked for Holly, but I did find something to write about.
Clementine Moss, Founder of Zepparella.
“I look for ways to move as I’m playing that will help me translate the feel. In the Levee, for instance, my hi-hat hand has to swing in and out in a particular way to get that swing and those subtle accents. In Kashmir, I imagine my arms moving in a piston sort of way, very machine-like. In certain transitions, like out of The Lemon Song solo, out of the Dazed and Confused solo, in parts of When The Levee Breaks, where Bonham falls way back behind the beat after pushing it through the guitar solo, there’s a moment when I feel like I’m frozen in mid-air, and time expands and slides backward for a moment as I fall into the One. I love these moments. They’re my favorite parts of the set.”
Anna Kristina, Vocals
“Taking on Plant's vocal range, energy, and dynamics lets me open up and explore an array of different areas in my voice and performance. Tones, styles, sounds, high notes, low notes, soft, loud…no limits. And all of these are on top of gripping, infectious grooves, and deep moving riffs that can't help but make me move. I never get tired of hearing this music and I never get tired of singing it. Zeppelin doesn't just appeal to my head but gets me deep in my soul and body every time. It's authentic, raw, and searing with pure emotion. And even though it's hard-pushing rock, so many of the lyrics are about love and coming together. At the heart, the lyrics are uplifting and bring you into a magical world. They are beautiful stories to tell.”
Gretchen Menn, Guitar
“Led Zeppelin is a guitar player’s amusement park. I get to play aggressive, heavy riffs, beautiful acoustic pieces, slide, and abuse a Les Paul with a violin bow. The song structures are anything but predictable, with odd times and left turns everywhere. Page often incorporates interesting chords and chord voicings, and uses modes outside standard, blues-based rock playing.
Plus, Led Zeppelin improvised extensively, so even within iconic songs, there is space — and the Zeppelin precedent — to have moments of pure spontaneity every time we get on stage. I have learned so much diving into Jimmy Page’s catalog.”
That guitar in the drawing and photo above is Gretchen’s Ernie Ball Silhouette Special. Ernie Ball makes their guitars right here in San Luis Obispo. A little over 10 years ago I spent a few days there sort of “interning”. I sanded the bodies of a few new John Petrucci models being built. I always wondered who ended up with those. That being said I would love to interview Gretchen here in SLO at Ernie Ball’s facility. I bet they still have that massive amp wall practice area.
Do you want to know a secret? Here is how I know this is the right journey. While I was looking for a very “Samantha” photo of Zepparella’s bassist Holly West, (I had just written what’s below this photo) I stumbled upon this gem. The Universe has certainly been a one-stop candy shop when it comes to little signs along the way, like this photo of Holly West. In a diner. That was the moment I knew I should be writing this.
Holly West, Bass (photo credit: Jack Lue)
If you’re a subscriber, or casual visitor and have read the drafts of my series of novels “The Jukebox at The Diner” here on my Substack, you may be wondering who, if anyone, inspired the character of Samantha.
This is what your mind expects me to tell you.
Free your mind from that expectation.
Finally, the first question I have for Zepparella?
What magazine do you want to be on the cover of? I’ll tailor it for their audience like a Jimmy Page stage costume. Shall we go Dragon or Poppy?
=j
PS: If you want the full “Samantha” experience, I suppose Volume Four’s first chapter is the best place to start, but keep in mind, that Samantha is a fictional character, and in no way resembles anyone I’ve mentioned in this story. It’s also an interesting introduction to my friend Maddisun. Check it out here:
The ladies of Zepparella makin’ it do what it do. (slang credit: Ray Prim)