Mornings with the master
I first met tenor saxophone great Chuck Stentz at Yenney's Music. A store he worked at since the late 40's and eventually owned. I can't recall how many times I walked into Yenney's, my horn ailing in some way and Chuck would drop everything to root out and solve the problem. Rarely was I charged for this and always would he leave me with words of encouragement about my playing.
But Chuck Stentz is so much more than a business owner and saxophone repairman. Chuck Stentz is THE SOUND! He is the caretaker of that elusive quality that the greatest musicians seek. TONE! Every time Chuck blows into his saxophone, events beyond calculation take place that culminate in a sound so all encompassing that you are instantly transported from the mundane to the spiritual with little or no effort on your part. SERIOUSLY! What will follow in the next few posts will be my experiences with Chuck over the last 25 years or so. I will be focusing mostly on the days Chuck and I get together to play Telemann duets and exchange stories bout our cats. Chuck Stentz is a wonderful man whom I have cherished for many years as my idol, mentor, section mate and friend. New Music on the Way
Another beautiful day here in Olympia, Washington and a good time to catch up with our fans about recent happenings with Sour Owl. We just wrapped up 2 months of gigging and writing and now we are hard at work rehearsing new music for our upcoming CD. Lynn has 6 new tunes including a reworking of "More About Walls" in a bolero style, as suggested by our new keyboard player Joe Baque.
Skyler has 3 new tunes, along with "Gotta Get Home To You" which we have been playing and tightening up the past month or so. And we also have a couple of ideas to feature the "Hootin' Horns". We will most likely be recording a couple of tunes at a time which you will be able to preview here at Sour Owl.com in the next month or so. So, be sure to check in regularly here at Sour Owl.com to keep up with the latest happenings. Thanks for stopping by, enjoy your summer and we look forward to seeing you at our next gig. It's blog, It's blog, It's big, it's heavy, it's wood
I have been trying to figure out how to write a good blog page about Sour Owl without all the hype and self-aggrandizing that you get a lot of in the music world these days. To just tell the story of a band of musicians going about there business writing songs, rehearsing and then performing their music in bars, parks, grange halls et al, to people who have never heard of us. It should be an easy story to tell and hopefully that is what will come out on these pages. But, if I am to tell the complete story of Sour Owl and the men who comprise this acerbic strigidae, I will have to be diligent in my posts. Sour Owl IS an ever-evolving musical ensemble.and each writing session, rehearsal and gig has its own story that even we aren't quite sure where it will end up. So, we decided to start this blog for our fans and encourage you to comment and join in the experience.
And let me wrap up this first post with a big thank you to former Owl Ian Weintraub for joining us on guitar for the past few gigs. His tasty comping and groovin' solos have added a lot to our shows. We will post again soon and look forward to seeing you at Ben Moore's this Friday night, June 18th. 10:00p.m.  
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