Liner Notes To Nick Ciampi's "Ciampi"
Ciampi/The Onnest Band – Liner NotesBy: Brian J. Kenny 2/9/01
Listening to this album, I always feel as though I have been let in on some sort of cosmic secret. Where was this music when I was growing up? Where was I when this music was being made? Are the really good times really over? The answer to the last question is of course no. Nick is here to show us that there is still fun to be had in an age where fun is coming closer to being outlawed. Listen to Bones and see what I am saying.
Welcome to 2001, Dave. It looks like there will be maybe one or two more years of boy bands. Then maybe I’ll be able to turn on the radio without thinking that I am being thrust into one of those bad flashbacks they were promising me back in High School. Maybe singers, songwriters, and performers with talent will soon be able to make a living entertaining. Maybe the ears of the populace will begin to agree with mine. Maybe I’ll be able to turn on the TV without feeling like I have been living under a rock for too long. Maybe I am digressing form the point that this CD makes so evidently clear… Nick Ciampi is a musical force.
Listen to this album and you will hear it too. Something is happening here. I don’t want to analyze it, for I would prefer to relish it. To paraphrase Ciampi “It matters little.”
This collection would have sounded perfect pouring from the speakers of my parents’ circus green and yellow (with floral print curtains) VW van. I remember listening to Harry Chapin “Cat’s in the cradle” cruising over the Bay Bridge on the way out to the SF zoo. I was 4 years old and I was beginning to realize the importance of having an ever-evolving soundtrack for your life.
That was the summer of 1977. That was after this collection had been released. It makes sense now, that when I heard this collection for the first time I felt like I was discovering music again. I suddenly felt 4 years old again. The first time I listened to this album, the songs were all songs with titles, arranged in a very well-thought out pattern, After the fourth listening, I felt as though the album was a conversation, perhaps a monologue, but not in the proper Shakespearian sense. I felt as though the album was a conversation and the titles of the songs were more talking points than they were the names of individual artistic creations.
Suddenly the titles of the solo songs, which were released in 1977 on the LP Ciampi, became part of some prosaic expository statement:
Lynn, It Matters Little, (I’m going Back To California) it’s Nothing More than a milestone… Don’t think Less Of Me, just because I’ve Seen Plenty. This Is What I Really Look Like, I’m too tired of Being Sorry, just because I Lost It. Yes, Its True, A Long Time Ago, it Seems that women thought I was a Good Lover, way back in Coke Valley (I really miss it there) I should have seen The Writing On The Wall but I was Unsure Of Myself I was looking for my Friends out All Along The Avenue, I was coming to grips with my Bones.
At least that’s what I came up after one of my listening sessions. The band tunes were originally released in 1976. Nick had the Onnest Band back then. They were amazing. There is a palpable Onnest feel to these songs. Notice how Nick’s solo Lost It flows in to the band version. I am so struck by both the continuity and the variation of the four band songs. They must have been the On-est band around…
Thus, I keep asking myself, “Why has it taken me so long to hear this music.”
I have felt these songs before, a long time ago, perhaps only the emotions they convey, but I’m not so sure of that,,, They seem so familiar. They feel as though they are part of the tapestry of the cosmos. This is the only way I can explain how I feel about this collection…. It is fundamental to something that I cannot yet explain, in a way that I cannot yet explain.
Thank you, Nick, for making this music available to we the folks. This is Folk Music. If you ever find yourself in Redding on a Wednesday night around ‘bout 8:30pm with some free time come by Billy Bombay’s and see the open mic night. Nick is usually there, and when he is he is always On.
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posted by Brian J. Kenny @ 12:20 AM
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