The Alchemist, March 16, 2010, Volume 3, Number 115
Vol. 3, No. 115
Pop Rock at the Troubadour: Marty Baggen Band
This Saturday, the 20th, is the second time this month you’ll have a chance to catch the talented act of Marty Baggen & Band. This four piece uncommon mix coming to the Troubadour Music Center is made up of musicians not looking to get signed, but rather just out to have a good time.
“You can never have enough keyboards,” Baggen started explaining the bands arrangement.
The band is uncommon both for instruments in, and not in, the group. Keyboards, for instance, make up half the foursome. Baggen plays rhythm guitar and sings, alongside Terry Takahashi on bass, Carolyn Krueger on back-up vocals and keyboards, and Bill Schwebke on keyboards. That’s right, two keyboards and no lead guitar or drums.
“You know how it is these days, everybody’s got real jobs,” Baggen added about the line-up.
The roots of this pop-rock band began in around the start of 2004, when Baggen and Takahashi began playing together. Takahashi, a professor, also plays bass in a funk-blues cover band and plays upright bass in a swing band.
“He’s an absolute chord crusher,” Baggen said, “You can describe a beat and he just does it.”
Two years later Krueger, a the sole Corvallis resident in the band and a cake-maker by trade, joined on keyboards to form the current band.
“She adds a tremendous amount,” Baggen told this reporter, “She learns so quickly.”
For a while the band had a drummer, but none of their usual venues were quite right for the style. The band played in a few various formations up to the near-present, when Schwebke joined as the second keyboardist.
“The most pure musician in the band,” Baggen said, “Bill added improvisation and soloing to the band.”
The new addition has certainly added a creative kick to the group which has no lead guitar and no stand-out solo instrument outside singing. Baggen and Band have been playing more since Schwebke joined in an effort to bring him more into the band. Usually the group averages about three shows in the valley per every two months, but after playing Fireworks at the start of March they are now on their second show in Corvallis for the month.
“The thing we’re excited about is getting Bill more used to us, more into the fold,” Baggen explained.
Part of the fun is the Schwebke and Takahashi combination; the two have already been playing together in the funk-blues band for some time now.
“They’ve really got a jazz influence,” Baggen said, “These guys start playing and you just want to sit back and listen.”
That’s not to say improvisation is all this band has. They may revel in it, but Baggen has about four albums worth of music to go off of as well.
“We do a couple of covers but mostly my stuff,” Baggen said.
You can listen to some of Baggen’s recordings on his Myspace page to check him out. To give yo ua better idea of their style, one of the bands usual covers is Space Oddity by David Bowie. Another cover, one Baggen doesn’t expect to play this time around, is the Nine Inch Nails song Hurt, played in the style with which the late Johnny Cash claimed the song.
“I’m going to have a compilation available at the Troubadour,” Baggen said.
Culled from his various albums, the music on the CD will be most of what is played at the show, however much of the recordings were done by guests that are spread about the country, none of whom play at the live shows.
The doesn’t mean the band or the audience is apt to have any less of a fun time.
“The big change from the past few years is much more freedom for improvisation,” Baggen said cheerfully.
The show is five bucks at the door and starts at 8 PM at the Troubadour on 2nd Street. After that the band will be playing off and on in Eugene throughout the spring.
~Robin Canfield
