|
Read about it here. |
|
|
|
Artie's alive and well and still playing and writing music. You can email Artie at: artiekeglermusic@iwon.com |
|
Now that Steve Litt is boycotting commercial music CD's after the drafting of SSSCA, he's turned to Artie and musicians like him for musical entertainment. |
Email Steve Litt with Artie Kegler information or requests.
We followed him everywhere and endlessly. His music was phenominal, and it
was free. You could see the world's best music playing in the basement of
Bernies Bagels. Artie Kegler. He was this tall, thin guy, rather unremarkable
and unpowerful.
Til he picked up his guitar.
He had a 12 string guitar with a trademark bandana hanging off the end of the neck. He'd take a wide, powerful stance, and begin to play. And take us on a magic carpet ride. His expert use of a flanger on his 12 string created a swooping, ethereal mood. And just when you thought ethereal was all he could do, he'd get so percussive you thought he had a drummer stashed in the background. He didn't -- he did it with a 12 string. Don't ask me how.
The best song I ever heard, any place, any time, live or recorded, was Kegler's "White Horse Dreams". The ultimate 4 minute out of body experience. Artie wrote it himself. Another Kegler original was "A Married Woman", just slightly less astounding than "White Horse Dreams". You might think Artie got his power from his original music. That is, until you heard him do "California Dreaming" in a way that made you forever forget there was a group called Mamas and Papas.
I talked to Artie once, when he was doing tech work for a local gong show one summer when work brought me to Columbus. I was that guy that was in every gong show, got gonged every time, and then went out and played his guitar on the white wall in front of the Ohio Stater Inn :-). As I remember, Artie told me he wanted to go to California to persue his music. I moved back to Chicago and then to Los Angeles. I perused the entertainment ads and the Internet for Artie -- nothing! How could that be? Was Artie even alive? How could anyone that good disappear. But make no mistake, he disappeared. Until...
2000: A web search found a website called ""No One Lives Forever" - Submitted Music", apparently done as a joint effort of Fox Interactive and Indiespace.Com, contained a downloadable MP3 of an Artie Kegler work I'd never heard of. Titled "Stark Raving Mad", it sounds quite a bit like Iggy Pop. Artie's traded in his 12 string for a 6 string, swapped the flanger for a fuzztone so distored it sounds like a bad recording. You can't hear most of the words. And even now, 20 years later, the magic carpet ride is still there. Listening to "Stark Raving Mad", you swoop, you float, you crash, you soar. It's another Kegler masterpiece. A modern one. Artie Kegler lives!
You can download the MP3 of "Stark Raving Mad" at http://kspace.com/fox/samples.phtml.
The Future: Let this site serve as a focal point for those interested in Artie, and in getting his music. Ever since that Columbus summer I've wanted a CD containing "White Horse Dreams", "A Married Woman", and "California Dreaming". If there are a few thousand more of you out there in Internet Land, we just might get our wish.
Steve Litt
10/22/2000
2004: Artie's
on the radio! One of the best things about driving through the
southeast is the radio station called The River. The River
is WOKI in Knoxville, TN. You hear their great music in Kentucky, all through
Tennessee, all the way to northern Georgia. Now there's another reason
to listen to The River: They play Artie.
From 10 to 11PM on Sunday nights, Joe Stutler plays local Knoxville artists
recorded at The Preservation Pub in Market Square, downtown Knoxville. It
was there that the accoustic rendition of Artie's "A Question of Time" was
recorded and subsequently played.
So if you like Artie as much as I do, listen to The River to show your
support for the station that supports Artie.