Old Californio
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Old Californio

Pasadena, California, United States | INDIE

Pasadena, California, United States | INDIE
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"Mog Music Network - Old Californio Resounds at Grand Ole Echo"

Gary Numan asked, "Are friends electric?" I ask, "Was my weekend eclectic?" Short answer: Hell, yes!

Friday night during a soirée at a friend's home on the West side of Los Angeles, powerful operatic tenor Carlos De Antonis stood in the middle of the living room and sang "Nessun Dorma" from Puccini's "Turandot," moving some of the guests to tears - and even bringing a lump to the throat of this hard-hearted rocker. On Saturday night, it was off to the Echoplex in Echo Park for a visit to Bootie L.A. - the fab sister party to the long-running San Francisco mash-up event - where DJ Schmolli of the Bootie crew in Munich, Germany, brought a handful of his lederhosen-clad pals on stage to clomp around to such kinetic mixes as his monumental "Mash Me Amadeus," which rams together Falco, Nelly, Luniz, and a few other artists to jubilant effect.

Then came Sunday. I was back in Echo Park from the late afternoon to the early evening for the 2009 kickoff of the Grand Ole Echo alt-country/Americana/roots music concert series (complete with backyard barbecue). The venue was the Echo, which is the club located upstairs from the Echoplex. Or is the Echoplex the club located downstairs from the Echo? No matter. There was fun to be had with three tuneful, creative ensembles mining strains of country & western, folk, and rock music with very satisfying results. No clinkers here.

Old Californio, the middle band on the bill, was my favorite of the show, although their comrades - opener Whispering Pines and closer I See Hawks in L.A. - were just as adept and entertaining with their chiming/twanging/sliding guitars and hearty vocal harmonies. All three bands are descendants of Southern Cali forebears such as The Byrds, Buffalo Springfield, the Flying Burrito Brothers, Poco and the Eagles, with varying degrees of rock, roll, and rustic in their DNA. What a perfect way to spend an early spring twilight in the City of the Angels!

Because the members of Old Californio were celebrating the release of their sterling debut album Westering Again, they might have had a little more oomph to their set. They're the most rockin' of the three groups, leaning as much on the rough, raw, homespun sound of Neil Young & Crazy Horse and the R&B-influenced, but pop-wise British Invasion stalwarts The Who and Faces as on folk and country elements. And that especially shined through at the Echo as they showcased tracks from Westering Again, all of which were written by genial singer/guitarist Rich Dembowski.

On stage, the quintet's positivity - so evident in their rambling "Mother Road," as well as the more down-home "Just Like Joseph Campbell" - was infectious. There were hints of Grateful Dead-style filigree that flashed in the guitar work of Dembowski and Woody Aplanalp and the roiling sound of keyboardist Levi Nuñez. And the dynamic instrumental interplay between bassist Jason Chesney and drummer Justin Smith on the rumbling "Harmony" inspired memories of The Who's rhythm section John Entwistle and Keith Moon at full throttle.

Guitarist Paul Lacques of I See Hawks in L.A. added some whirlwind pedal-steel to a couple of songs at the end of Old Californio's set. The coup de grace was a scintillating cover of "Hey Grandma," the late '60s proto-country-rock shuffle-with-a-sting from San Francisco psychedelic trail-blazers Moby Grape.

I left the Echo after enjoying some fine tunes from I See Hawks in L.A. Amazingly, I was feeling refreshed after quite a long weekend. I was also sure I'd be revisiting Old Californio at the next opportunity.
- Mike The Knife


"Caught in the Carousel - ALBUM REVIEW - Old Californio Westering Again"

http://www.caughtinthecarousel.com/reviews/oldCalifornio.php

ALBUM REVIEW
Old Californio
Westering Again
Californio Records

This album came out of nowhere and knocked me on my ass. I'd never heard of this band and I suppose, based on the name, I was expecting a lot of lap steel and twang and instead found it fresh and chock full of Byrdsy vocals, great lyrics, and top-notch musicianship. Recorded in a converted chicken coop in Pasadena (chicken coops in Pasadena?), Westering Again has a brand of musical synchronicity that you come across so rarely these days, where the album is the sum of its parts and leaves you with an overall feeling (or maybe an urge) to go look for the place that they're talking about, which in this case, I suppose is old California.
Rich Dembowski wrote all the songs and sings them too, his voice (which is a bit reminiscent of Jim Cuddy of Blue Rodeo) able to summon wide open spaces and clear blue skies. "Just Like Joseph Campbell" jumped out at me; lots of nice guitar work on this one, thanks again to Dembowski and guest player Dave Gleason (on loan from his own Wasted Days band), while "Riparian High" features some truly moving trumpet playing featuring Slim Zerling of Ben Vaughn's band. But the song that really grabbed me by the throat was "From The Mouths of Babes" featuring some very soulful accordion playing by Debrah Tala. This one really took me somewhere. I pressed repeat over and over. No surprise that this CD was produced by Alfonso Rodenas (Mark Olsen, Ben Vaughn).
This may not be one of those high profile CDs that flies off the shelves at Wal-Mart but it's one of those little gems that sneaks through the ranks by sheer word of mouth. And people should start talking about Westering Again—it's a great debut that deserves to be heard.
—The Vinyl Princess
- Yvonne Prinz


"Trotzky's Cranium - The Listening Room: Old Californio"

The Listening Room: Old Californio

Old Californio--Westering Again--Californio Records CD, 2009

OK, this is what I know:

1. Four days ago, this CD popped up in the mail. We were in the midst of our seventeenth straight week of cold rain and snow. I, in fact, have taken up building igloos to supplement my meager income. I put Westering Again in the CD player. Exactly 27 seconds into the first track--"Mother Road"--the clouds parted, the sun miraculously appeared, the snow and ice were no longer and happy cartoon birds were suddenly flying around the house. OK, the cartoon bird part is bullshit--but the rest of it is true. You can call it coincidence if you want but I'm telling you Old Californio has the power!

2. Old Californio is comprised of Rich Dembowski who plays guitar and sings, Jason Chesney on bass, drummer Justin Smith, and keyboardist Levi Nunez. Like the Psychedelic Cowboys, another great Americana outfit that Cranium has championed recently, these guys aren't afraid to embrace that great West Coast Sound of the late 60s and early 70s. Yeah, there's the requisite amount of twanginess to situate the band in that territory marked by Quicksilver Messenger Service, Kaleidoscope, and early Neil. But there is a much more clearly delineated pop sensibility at work here. A song like "Warmth of the Sun" would fit comfortably on The Beatles White Album. And on "Harmony," if Rich Dembowski isn't referencing George Harrison then my big floppy ears are playin' tricks on me. (Its happened before.) These guys are hillbillies alright but they're Muswell Hillbillies and those crazy complex melodies are pointing forward, away from the ghost of Gram Parsons, and towards a brave new world of their own making.

3. Joy. The record reeks of it. Maybe its the timbre of Dembowski's voice, or the tink, tink, tinkling of Levi Nunez's keyboards, but there are sounds here that will put a big fat grin on your face. And its weirdly smart--references to Steinbeck, Voltaire, St. Matthew, Joseph Campbell--and not in a "roll-yer-eyes-why-Lord-oh-why??" kind of way. Its like standing around at a great party having a conversation with a relatively intelligent friend. Its actually damned invigorating.

4. There's something cool happening in LA--a scene is blowing up. Do you want to be a part of it? Come on, ya know ya do! So follow my instructions--on Sunday April 5th the Grand Ole Echo is kicking off their Sunday BBQs--all ages, 5-9 p.m., so bring the kiddies--and guess who's playing? Yup--Old Californio along with I See Hawks in LA and the Whispering Pines. I know a bunch of you Cranium regulars are living in the LA area and I know from the emails that you've been checking out some of the shows. You know I'm right, I haven't steered you wrong yet--and this isn't going to be the exception. You've got to check these boys out.

5. Music is my crack cocaine and my friend Kim in LA is my new favorite dealer. ("Look at the shiny CD little man...look at it...Listen...It sounds sooo good.") Y'all need to get on her mailing list so you can keep up on the many cool things she and her cohorts in crime are doing. And if you swing past the Echo on April 5th, be sure you pay your respects. Tell her Mark In The Blue House says, "Howdy."

PEACE. - Mark Huddle


"Maverick Magazine - Old Californio - WESTERING AGAIN"

Old Californio - WESTERING AGAIN
Californio Records ****1/2
A time and a place distilled into positive energy and good vibes
Sometimes sounds and energies can evoke a place with such utter specific conviction. Old Californio channel the sound, the energy, the vibe, the times, of California in all its chaparral-strewn fog-shrouded warm-winded idiosyncrasy. Sinking into new LP WESTERING AGAIN you can hear the resonance and the echoes of the Haight-Asbury scene, of the dusty sagebrush trails into the San Gabriels, of the Cosmic consciousness emergent. Moby Grape, the Dead, Quicksilver Messenger Service are all brought to vivid Technicolor life but so too are the Laurel Canyon folks, you can imagine Neil turning out something like this after a case of Cuervo. Even Gram’s ghost can be felt hovering about the periphery, blurry behind a morphine haze. It’s not just the musical aspect that is recalled, this record is far more textured than that. There’s something Steinbeckian about its mythic evocation of a sprawling bucolic and human landscape.
I’ve talked in pretty grand terms about a record that is at its heart laconic and laid-back, concerned more with high times than high art. And there are some high times to be had here, recalling with authenticity the sweetly drifting vibes of West Coast rock circa 1966. That’s not to suggest the record is retrogressive, just entirely absorbed in a sound and a musical notion that was always timeless in its universal sense of the human relationship with the Cosmos. Opener Mother Road is a euphoric romp through a landscape with a ‘pot of gold coast at the end of the rainbow,’ all crunching guitar chords and close harmonies, recalling Oakley Hall’s epic Hiway but even more good-natured, a goofy grin splashed across its face. Joseph Campbell is a sweet and driving ballad built around finger-picked electric guitar and ecstatic pedal steel, frantic banjo runs struggling to keep up with it all. And closing track California Goodness is just that; a tender acoustic ballad straight out of the Canyon that offers up the mission statement: ‘When I come to my senses/Gonna get me some California goodness/It blows through the trees and the fields like bein’ sunkissed.’
To anyone reading this: come to your senses, westering go and get you some of this goodness.

AlexC
- Alex C


"L.A. Record - OLD CALIFORNIO: WESTERING AGAIN"

Old Californio play the type of alt.-country that can be found on Uncle Tupelo and early Wilco records, but with a bit of a “summer of love” vibe. Their vocals and vocal-harmonies are pretty and they can really pick and play their instruments. The majority of this record is about life in the San Gabriels, pickin’ and singin’ on the front porch with wine and being a happy hippie in the sunshine. “Riparian High” features awesome mariachi trumpets and soothing background “oohs.” Another high point on the record is the closer “California Goodness,” a song that sounds like a rehearsal at the campfire. The vocals shine, but the real MVP is the pedal steel guitar that satisfies the alt-country hippie in all of us. But don’t worry—it isn’t all mellow. “Warmth Of The Sun” has a bit of swamp-stomp boogie that would make Creedence Clearwater Revival proud and “Harmony” ends with a bluesy little dust-up. This is a solid alt.-country record with great musicianship and fun melodies—a fine choice for the sunny summer afternoons now on the horizon. - Eric Claesson - L.A. Record


"Old Californio - "Westering Again" Review and Northern California tour this week!"

Some years ago, long before I was even a twinkle in my parent's eyes, California was home to some of the most influential and progressive country music acts the genre had to offer. We talk a lot about Buck Owens, Merle Haggard and the Bakersfield sound on this blog, but we are also big fans of the "cosmic", counter-culture music that poured out of this great state from bands like The Grateful Dead and Neil Young and Crazy Horse. We listen to so much music out of states like Texas, Tennessee and Florida, that we all too often forget that some of the best country music today is still being recorded in The Golden State. Old Californio is a band from the San Gabriel Mountains (that's Pasadena to the non-resident) that is absolutely carrying the flag for West Coast Country. If you ever get a chance to take that dusty drive from Bakersfield to Las Vegas in an old Cadillac convertible, I would suggest bringing a heavy dose of Gram Parsons and Old Californio's new record "Westering Again" along for the ride.

"Westering Again" is the Sophomore release from this California band and was recorded in the band's chicken coop garage-turned recording studio earlier this year. The five-piece invited friends (Slim Zwerling - trumpet / Debra Tala - accordion, among others) to play on the record and it was a real thrill to see site favorite Dave Gleason as a guitar player on the album. Songwriter and frontman Rich Dembowski writes songs that fit as the perfect background to Saturday night bbq's or a daytime drive along the Northern California Coast.

What I like most about Old Californio is that "cosmic" element of their sound I described earlier. Many of our favorite bands like Lucero or Ryan Bingham's "Dead Horses" have an element of "gruff" to them. Sometimes we listen to a record here at The Porch and if it doesn't include whiskey-throat vocals with a dark element of twang, we pass it off as "soft" and "poppy." We forget that our favorite records by The Flying Burrito Brothers or Moby Grape, the very foundation of our musical taste, were almost more psychedelic than raspy records by Texas Troubadours. "Westering Again" is an earthy record; one that feels just as much at home on the ground as it does among the desert stars.

If you're in Northern California this week, be sure to check the band out. They will be playing the following dates...From what we're told, the group can really bring it live and play some extended jams and some of the best California twang there is.

Thursday - Jan 7
10 PM at The Starry Plough in Berkeley

Friday - Jan 8
9 PM at The Fox and The Goose in Sacramento

Saturday - Jan 9
7 PM at Evangeline's Cafe in Colfax - Front Porch Musings


"Ickmusic - Mother Road [instant fave]"

March 17th, 2009, by Pete

We all have those friends who decry the state of new music today. “All new music sucks!”, they say. Of course, some of these people think Creed was the best thing since sliced bread. Well, every time I hear these people, I now have another band to fire back with: Old Californio.
Last Friday, I opened up my snail mail to find their forthcoming CD, ‘Westering Again‘, inside. Instead of tossing it on the stack of CD’s I need to listen to, it went right into my car CD player. I don’t know exactly why. Cover art? Cool band name? Fate? How ’bout all of the above.
Less than 30 seconds into the opening track, a spiritual experience ensued. The song is “Mother Road”, and it’s easily the best tune I’ve heard all year. Rootsy, earthy, homegrown, purely American rock n roll - a perfect blend of inspiring, get-out-on-the-road lyrics, unforgettable riffs, great chord changes, and a harmonious sing-along chorus. If the Traveling Wilburys sprung back to life, this could easily lead off their third album.
“You got to get on the mother road
just like a river reflectin’ everything it’s told
You got to get on
Get your story told.”
You’ll understand after you’ve hit the repeat button 5 times and you’re singing along.
Old Californio is singer/songwriter/guitarist Rich Dembowski, Jason Chesny (bass), Levi Nuñez (keys, including some great B3), and Justin Smith (drums). The album was produced by the band along with Alfonso Rodeñas (Mark Olson, Los Tigres Del Norte), and recorded in their old chicken coop garage turned studio in Pasadena, California. There’s clearly a West Coast / southwest-y feel throughout the album. I hear shades of Dylan (”From the Mouths of Babes”), Calexico (the horns on “Riparian High”), and the Grateful Dead (during “Warmth of the Sun”, you’d swear that late 70’s-era Dead were morphing into “Not Fade Away”).
I’m an upbeat person by nature, and maybe that’s why this album connects with me so easily. Among the Californian soundscapes, the reverence for the great outdoors and the escapism, there is an undercurrent of positive energy - an “It’s good to be alive” vibe. I can get behind that.
Old Californio - Mother Road (mp3)
Westering Again will be released on April 7th. I’ll post a links to buy when available. For now, keep these guys on your radar.
- Pete Icke


"Farce the Music Sells Out #3"

Old Californio - Westering Again

Westering Again is a killer country rock album with something for nearly everyone who reads this blog. There is an obvious Beatles influence in many of the melodies and harmonies. There's also sweet jangle pop reminiscent of the Jayhawks going on with some Calexico-esque mariachi spicing things up. In the mellower moments, some of the same dusty landscapes of Richmond Fontaine's story songs are visited here, but the mood rarely gets that somber. Can't help but hear a little Gram Parsons every now and then as well.

The opening track, "Mother Road," is a great, uh, road song (too obvious?) that taps the toe and fills the soul with sunshine. Cheesy description - great song. "From the Mouth of Babes" sounds like Oasis by way of Dylan and features an earworm of a chorus. The only real misstep is "Warmth of the Sun," an over-thought rocker whose mid-tempo groove finally resolves itself into an unfulfilling coda. Fortunately, Westering Again brings it home with three great songs including the epic (in scope not scale) "Lazy Old San Gabriels" and the thoughtful but lilting "California Goodness."

Despite the fact that I played "spot the influences" and "name the similar sounding artists" with this review, Old Californio has its own vibrant personality and fills out this record as a fully realized artist, not just a mockingbird of a "genericana" band. Well worth the purchase. Even fans of more mainstream music would find a lot to love here - this is a very accessible listen.
- Farce The Music


"Americana UK - Old Californio "Westering Again""

Old Californio "Westering Again" (Independent, 2009)


Nuggets from the Golden State...

With a name like Old Californio and an album title like 'Westering Again', you fear that somebody might be trying just a little too hard to conjure the spirit of West Coast rock. It is certainly pleasing to find a band happy to invoke names such as Moby Grape, Quicksilver Messenger Service and Spirit in their promotional material, as such influences remain criminally unfashionable, but is it possible to truly capture a sound and ethos so irrevocably rooted in a certain time and place? Thankfully, whilst Old Californio can never truly match such illustrious predecessors, they do a fine job of furthering their legacy.

Familiar tropes are immediately identifiable. The roots influences, warm harmonies, bright guitars, dynamic shifts and a pastoral feel are all present and correct, whilst the riff from opener 'Mother Road' could have been lifted straight from a Grateful Dead show in 1971. Unlike many revivalists, Old Californio also seem to understand that jamming was a fundamental component of the sound and whilst they don't quite provide a psychedelic maelstrom, there are tantalising hints on songs such as 'Warmth of the Sun' or 'Lazy Old San Gabriels'.

But preventing them from being mere revivalists, is the songwriting of Rich Dembowksi, who brings a classic pop sensibility to the country-folk underpinning. His vocals come sometimes be a little anonymous but this does not detract greatly from his facility with melody, which provides some quite original and innovative progressions on 'Harmony' and 'California Goodness'. This latter track closes the album and seems to sum it up perfectly, offering a lyrical celebration of California which ably assimilates its musical traditions whilst simultaneously channelling them in new directions.
- Kai Roberts for Americana UK


"Twangville"

Old Californio – Westering Again by Kelly Dearmore

There are only a few regions around the great 48 that seem to have their own sound or musical vibe that serves as an identifiable tag of sorts to the rest of the country. I can’t help but think of Texas when I listen to Willie’s Red Headed Stranger or anything from Joe Ely, for that matter. Those greats sound like Texas should sound to me. California, and the canyons that surround Los Angeles, to be specific, possess the same locational-vibe-identification. Listen to works from early-day Eagles and Buffalo Springfield or even latter-day canyon dwellers such as Jenny Lewis and her latest, Acid Tongue, to see what I am getting at here.
Westering Again by San Gabriel Mountains-area quintet Old Californio is a great example of what I am talking about when I look to define how California sounds. I can’t help but get the impression that they are shooting for this, given their band name and many of the titles of various californi-centric tracks. “California Goodness” and “Lazy Old San Gabriels” show off that sunny, almost Brian Wilsonian vibe that we have come to expect from songs about the Golden State (well, it would be more so if Brian Wilson wasnt so freaking concerned with catching waves, but just hangin’ and catchin a decent buzz in a cabin somewhere that was a safe distance from the water). “City Lines” displays yet another great sonic style that has unique origins, Bakersfield Honky-Tonk. The song’s intro twangs with a sense of urgency that brings to mind the great Buck Owens instrumental, “Buckaroo” or the appropriately titled, “Streets of Bakersfield”.
While there may be albums or bands that sound very “Delaware” or very “South Dakota” (no offense to those states, they’re quite lovely), there is something about the imagery of the wacky state to the west that seems to inspire artists generation after generation. Old Californio has mined the fertile territory of their California mountain home to create what might be there state tourism office’s greatest commercial.
- Kelly Dearmore for Twangville


Discography

Sundrunk Angels - (March 2011 release - Parasol Records)

Westering Again -2009 (Californio Rex/ Parasol Records)

Along The Cosmic Grass - 2006 (Independent)

Streaming:
http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/oldcalifornio

Photos

Bio

For show schedule and video footage please visit:
www.oldcalifornio.com

A few years ago, Old Californio self-released their debut album, Along The Cosmic Grass. It was an effortlessly charming album, clearly grounded in a quintessentially West Coast California musical tradition that combines the very best in folk and rock and country. Alas, too few actually got the chance to hear that album, even as the band were drawing relatively large crowds to their frequent L.A. area gigs. Sometimes the best things just go unheard, unless you're lucky enough to stumble across it.

Well, that was then, and this is now, and Old Californio have returned with their sophomore effort, although there's certainly nothing sophomoric about Westering Again, if you'll pardon the obviousness of such an overused rock cliché.

You may already be a fan of some of the bands Old Californio might likely name as influences -- particularly the counter-culture Bay Area bands like Moby Grape, the Grateful Dead, Quicksilver Messenger Service... or a handful of the smokier Topanga Canyon bands further down south, like Canned Heat, Neil Young & Crazy Horse, and Spirit -- and yet...well, they don't really sound like any of these bands if you want to know the truth.

Like many of the best bands who released LPs some forty years ago, this new album, (and like Along The Cosmic Grass before it), finds its roots in sounds that once gave California it's own identity at a converging time and place, the late sixties and early-to-mid-seventies. Try to imagine a musical interstate stretching and twisting like overgrown Napa grapevine, snaking along the foggy Bay Area coastline to the golden San Gabriel Mountains, all the way down to the sparse desert of the Inland Empire.

Now imagine that interstate leads right to Westering Again.

What we're talking about here is bright guitar-driven melodies with complicated and earthy arrangements, mixed in with a little down-home country twang and dovetailing instrumental jams, providing ample evidence that they also have a tacit understanding of what made those great classic rock outfits of yore so exhilarating and memorable in the first place.

What we're talking about here are really great songs (remember those?). There's no real dross or dead weight on this ambitious work. It's a melodically complex and accomplished effort, hard set with a blast-furnace production that reveals the considerable talents of the band's membership.

Speaking of membership, at the focused core of these efforts you'll find the very talented Rich Dembowski, who plays guitar and sings with a heartfelt voice that might remind some of the Band's Richard Manuel. His lyrics are inspired, to say the least, evoking winsome images of riparian vistas and wine stained front porches. These are songs with thoughtful lyrics that fill the air.

In the same breath we should also mention the two other orbiting full-time members of the band -- drummer Justin Smith and bassist Jason Chesney -- who combine both explosive drumming and propulsive bass elements that expose the kind of prowess that few bands seem to have these days. And we would be remiss if we didn’t mention Levi Nunez, who adds wonderful sparkling keyboards when they're needed to flesh out the proceedings.

This is spirited music, friends, and the perfect soundtrack for the interregnum, this wonderful shared experience of renewed hope and peace that seems to be sweeping across the country right now. Westering Again is liable to stir up something inside you, and to my ears, it sounds like music that could have only been created in Southern California.

Remember how the great Raymond Chandler once described the warm Santa Ana, coursing along the mountain passes and drifting across the chaparral, whining through the eucalyptus windbreaks. Chandler said this oven-hot red wind was the kind that could "curl your hair and make your nerves jump and your skin itch."

Well what I'm saying is that the music Old Californio makes stirs up a presence you can actually feel, just like Chandler's red winds, a kind of palpable sensation, like the warmth of the sun on your face. It won't actually make you jumpy and itchy, you understand, unless you're naturally prone to that type of response, that is.

There's three ways you can get up to speed with Old Californio: 1) Go see 'em live when they come to your town, 2) Buy their new album, Westering Again - released: April 7, 2009 or 3) Read about 'em later in someone's MySpace blog or Facebook page and find yourself wishing you'd done numbers 1& 2 first.

-Bryan Thomas, February 2009
Rhino Records