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Skip Heller: Mean Things Happening In This Land
by Chris M. Slawecki
Skip Heller seems like a pretty fun-loving guy. But this new release, from its opening cover of XTC's anti-prayer “Dear God through its concluding folk song about the closing of a Georgia mill, presents his own scathing commentary on current social, economic and political landscapes. Working with David White on drums and percussion and Chris Spies on organ, clavinet, electric piano and a “Radio Shack synth we found in his trailer, Heller sounds particularly enraged about the government's response in ...
Continue ReadingThe Skip Heller Trio: Mean Things Happening In This Land
by Jeff Dayton-Johnson
It's increasingly difficult to tell when someone is being ironic or sincere. Skip Heller, more than a little manic and an unquestionably gifted guitarist, might not be able to tell us himself where the sincerity ends and the irony begins on this record.
Start with the music. It's an energetic guitar/organ trio date, driven by the ingenious and heavily rock-inflected drumming of David White. The musical cues are not unexpected for an organ trio, especially a definite late-'60s soul jazz ...
Continue ReadingThe Skip Heller Trio: Mean Things Happening In This Land
by Rex Butters
Like a man possessed, Skip Heller continues his prolific creative flow. His latest trio reconvenes the band which appeared on his last release, Liberal Dose: Chris Spies (organ) and David White (drums, percussion). In addition to the originals, Heller plucks four extremely unlikely covers with wonderful results. While his encyclopedic knowledge of music has provided some inspired song choices from older material, here he culls three eighties classics, two flat-out punk rock.
X's “Motel Room In My Bed goes from ...
Continue ReadingSkip Heller Trio at Ortlieb's Jazzhaus in Philadelphia
by Edward Zucker
Skip Heller Ortlieb's Jazzhaus Philadelphia, PA May 12, 2006
What do Frank Sinatra, The Dead Milkmen, Nat Adderley, Ani DiFranco, Gustav Mahler, and Shirley Scott have in common? You can find the answer in a night of music with guitarist Skip Heller's organ trio, such as the night that Heller, organist Lucas Brown, and drummer Jim Miller played at Ortlieb's Jazzhaus in Philadelphia on May 12, 2006.
In his liner notes to his ...
Continue ReadingGlamour Profession: The Ongoing Skip Heller
by R.J. DeLuke
Glamour Profession: The Ongoing Skip Heller Skip Heller 74 pages; DVD included SkipHeller.com 2006
Skip Heller, a gifted guitarist and one of the more intriguing figures flying under the radar of the American music scene he loves so well, has been up to many things. Writing music for cartoons has been among them. Writing different kinds of music, with different musical influences and aggregations has been another. Touring around playing with organ ...
Continue ReadingSkip Heller: Liberal Dose
by Rex Butters
One imagines Skip Heller with an enormous rolodex of nothing but undersung organists. It seems like each new Heller release introduces a different organist from a different region, bringing new flavors and delights to the guitarist's evolving organ trio format. On Liberal Dose, Heller teams with players--Alabaman Chris Spies behind the Hammond and David White on drums--whose immersion in Gulf State/New Orleans culture gives them the kind of living jukebox range that matches his own transcendently encyclopedic musical vocabulary.
Recorded ...
Continue ReadingSkip Heller: Liberal Dose: Live at the Flying Monkey, Huntsville, AL
by C. Michael Bailey
A polymath is a person of great and varied learning. The German writer Goethe was a polymath; his IQ has been estimated at 210, which would have been the highest ever recorded.
Fred Steven “Skip Heller is also a polymath. Musically omnivorous and pan-culturally aware, Skip Heller speaks with equal authority and enthusiasm on subjects as disparate as all of American music, baseball, women's professional basketball, culture, politics, poetics... just whatever catches his fancy and convinces him to ...
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