Jim Cohen / Rondstat Review

Jack Stanton · Post by **Jack Stanton** » 17 Jul 2018 5:10 am

Was fortunate to have been invited by Jim to a private preview performance of his latest project, the Rondstat Review, a tribute to Linda Rondstat, and all I can say is WOW! It was as tight and musical as any performance I've ever seen. Every player in the band was just killer on their instrument, the three-part background harmonies were spot on, The lead singer, Gesenia, is a dead ringer for Linda vocally, and looks an awful lot like her. They did a great mix running the gambit of early and later (read Mexicali and jazz) material. They were playing in a very cool old converted barn in very tight quarters, with what looked like an average PA system ( I don't believe the instruments were miked) with no sound man to speak of, and the mix was right on. Truthfully, I shut my eyes and just listened during Heatwave, and it was pretty much indistinguishable from the recording.
As for Jimbeux, he covered Dan's iconic solo in Blue Bayou handily, nailed Sneeky's solo in Willing, played some tasty slide parts that had me checking if was the steel or the guitar player, and nailed all the organ parts.
He even jumped on the six-string for the harmony parts in When Will I Be Loved and You're No Good.

Don't know if they'll ever get to most of your'all neighborhoods, but I strongly urge anyone who has the opportunity to see them to go. They will show you how it's done!

Jim Cohen · Post by **Jim Cohen** » 17 Jul 2018 8:48 am

Thanks so much for your nice words, Jack. Very glad you could make it out for the concert. (We sure got lucky with the weather after all, didn't we?)

If anyone's interested to hear some of what Jack's talkin' about, please check out our video here: https://vimeo.com/247811475

Chris Templeton · Post by **Chris Templeton** » 17 Jul 2018 11:32 am

Jimbeaux, Very Nice. Great solo way up in Hughey land on "Silver Threads".
On another song, to be time appropriate, I don't think Linda recorded with a steel player that used the 1st string, F#-G# unison with the 3rd string lick. (smile)

Greg Lambert · Post by **Greg Lambert** » 17 Jul 2018 6:20 pm

Is that a Blues Jr your playing through , right behind you?

Jim Cohen · Post by **Jim Cohen** » 17 Jul 2018 6:33 pm

Chris Templeton wrote:Jimbeaux, Very Nice. Great solo way up in Hughey land on "Silver Threads".
On another song, to be time appropriate, I don't think Linda recorded with a steel player that used the 1st string, F#-G# unison with the 3rd string lick. (smile)

Thanks, Chris. Actually, I think Sneaky might have had that change on at least one of his guitars...

Jim Cohen · Post by **Jim Cohen** » 17 Jul 2018 6:34 pm

Greg Lambert wrote:Is that a Blues Jr your playing through , right behind you?

It's a Roland Cube 80

Tony Prior · Post by **Tony Prior** » 18 Jul 2018 12:11 am

really nice Jimbeaux ! Me and a few hundred others are jealous ! Great mix of tunes on the video, really good band. The gal is darn good !

Enjoy, wishing you all success.

t

Chris Templeton · Post by **Chris Templeton** » 18 Jul 2018 3:38 am

Regardless, very nice!

Jim Palenscar · Post by **Jim Palenscar** » 18 Jul 2018 6:30 am

Channeling Ed Black- nice job!

Greg Lambert · Post by **Greg Lambert** » 19 Jul 2018 5:28 pm

At 10:01 you play a beautiful part , what is your chord progression at that time ?

Jim Cohen · Post by **Jim Cohen** » 19 Jul 2018 5:50 pm

Greg Lambert wrote:At 10:01 you play a beautiful part , what is your chord progression at that time ?

Thanks, Greg. That was in "I've Got a Crush on You" and the basic chords for that line are:

DbMaj7 | Edim7 | Ebm7 | Ab7 |
DbMaj7 | Edim7 | Ebm7 | Ab7 |

I'm happy to say that this is one of the few occasions when I don't have to follow Ms. Ronstadt's original recording for the arrangement (since there was no steel in the Nelson Riddle arrangements), so I get to make up my own part.

Greg Lambert · Post by **Greg Lambert** » 19 Jul 2018 6:21 pm

Jim Cohen wrote:
Greg Lambert wrote:At 10:01 you play a beautiful part , what is your chord progression at that time ?
Thanks, Greg. That was in "I've Got a Crush on You" and the basic chords for that line are:

DbMaj7 | Edim7 | Ebm7 | Ab7 |
DbMaj7 | Edim7 | Ebm7 | Ab7 |

I'm happy to say that this is one of the few occasions when I don't have to follow Ms. Ronstadt's original recording for the arrangement (since there was no steel in the Nelson Riddle arrangements), so I get to make up my own part.

This was better than the original ...thanks Jim !!

Jim Cohen · Post by **Jim Cohen** » 19 Jul 2018 6:26 pm

Greg Lambert wrote: This was better than the original ...thanks Jim !!

Thanks, Greg. There's a funny story about how that part came about. Our keyboardist had to miss the first two rehearsals on which we were working that tune up so, to fill in the space where the string part that he was eventually supposed play would normally go, I started playing a C6 steel solo on the fly. By the time he showed up a few weeks later, our singer, Gesenia, had grown attached to my steel solo and didn't want to give it up. So, we ended up with me playing the first part, then passing to the keys for the 2nd part of the solo.

The Moral of the Story: Sometimes just showing up is half the battle...

Bob Bestor · Post by **Bob Bestor** » 19 Jul 2018 6:37 pm

Impressive stuff. Superb musicianship all around. Thanks for sharing.

Craig Stock · Post by **Craig Stock** » 20 Jul 2018 7:32 am

Jim, you usually do more than just show up

Larry Schoppe · Post by **Larry Schoppe** » 20 Jul 2018 7:49 am

Fantastic! I wish it would play in my area so I could see it.

Barry Blackwood · Post by **Barry Blackwood** » 20 Jul 2018 8:23 am

Do you have a set list for this concert? I was curious if it was just the "greatest hits" or if there were some obscure gems in there e.g. "Someone To Lay Down Beside Me" etc.

Jim Cohen · Post by **Jim Cohen** » 22 Jul 2018 8:14 am

Barry Blackwood wrote:Do you have a set list for this concert? I was curious if it was just the "greatest hits" or if there were some obscure gems in there e.g. "Someone To Lay Down Beside Me" etc.

Barry, we have a partial song list at our website here: https://ronstadtrevue.com/song-list/

We do indeed do "Someone to Lay Down Beside Me" and several other more obscure gems, including Mariachi tunes, and several from the Great American Songbook recordings she did with Nelson Riddle. It's a pretty complete "revue".

If you have a Facebook account, you may be able to see this video of a portion of "Someone to Lay Down...":
https://www.facebook.com/cindy.capasso. ... 14043/?t=0

Barry Blackwood · Post by **Barry Blackwood** » 22 Jul 2018 7:07 pm

Thanks, Jim. Impressive list indeed!

Joe Goldmark · Post by **Joe Goldmark** » 23 Jul 2018 9:22 pm

Jim is the perfect guy for this band. It's a great counter balance to his fine C6 jazz playing (I know he does some here also), and will undoubtedly improve his great overall playing as well. Jim loves this era of country rock, and it shows.

Joe

Paul Norman (RIP) · Post by **Paul Norman (RIP)** » 24 Jul 2018 7:24 am

I hope it comes out on dvd later so I can buy it.

John Brabant · Post by **John Brabant** » 24 Jul 2018 3:27 pm

Jim was kind enough to send me a link some months ago to view a video of this band. Really great stuff. Would love to catch a show when they hit the road. Make sure you let us know when and where you will be Jim. I will road trip down with Jim Pitman and some other buds.

John Brabant · Post by **John Brabant** » 24 Jul 2018 3:50 pm

Wow just watched the video. It was the same Jim sent me this past winter. So amazing and even better watching it for the second time. Who knew Jim doubled on tele? Awesome bunch for sure.

Jim Cohen · Post by **Jim Cohen** » 24 Jul 2018 7:16 pm

John Brabant wrote:Wow just watched the video. It was the same Jim sent me this past winter. So amazing and even better watching it for the second time. Who knew Jim doubled on tele? Awesome bunch for sure.

Thanks, John! I appreciate you taking the time to watch it again and your nice post.

As for "who knew Jim doubled on tele?", well I certainly didn't know when I started with the project. I had been studying jazz guitar for several years but didn't have any real rock guitar chops or technique to speak of. But when I saw and heard that a few of the tunes require twin lead guitars, well, I offered my services and they accepted. THAT's when I bought a tele and, with a little help from our "real" lead guitarist, Dave Lenat, I set about learning my parts! LOL.

Joe Goldmark wrote: Jim is the perfect guy for this band. It's a great counter balance to his fine C6 jazz playing (I know he does some here also), and will undoubtedly improve his great overall playing as well. Jim loves this era of country rock, and it shows.

Thanks Joe! Yes, as I said in the video, I feel like this is the gig I've been practicing for for over 30 years (well really over 40 but I didn't want to sound too old on the video!;)) But, I started out on steel playing Poco, New Riders, and Ronstadt so this really is another case of "Home, James" for me.

Paul Norman wrote:I hope it comes out on dvd later so I can buy it.

Me too!

We have a new booking agency so hopefully we'll start moving around the country soon. I'll definitely let y'all know when we have a tour schedule worked out. Hope to see many of you down the road!

Thanks again for all the nice comments.

Jim

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