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Date Description 9/8/08 STOMP GLIDE WOBBLE reviewed in SING OUT! NORTHSIDE SOUTHPAWS Stomp Glide Wobble Ruthless Rabbit 1967 This much anticipated, particularly among mandolin lovers, all-instrumental debut CD by the Northside Southpaws was well worth the wait. The nimble fingered, Chicago-based duo are both left-handed and totally resophonic, with John Hasbrouck on National eight-string mandolin and Matt Gandurski on guitar. Their debut, mostly covers, self-produced effort (only a close-to-the vest, brief version of Tom Waits` nostalgic "Johnsburg, Illinois" is credited, however) features the pair on a fascinating mixture of archaic ragtime and hillbilly, early jazz and blues, proto-grass and other string band material played with an unspoiled, back-porch fluency that skips the pyrotechnics and possesses an enthusiasm that`s bound to perk a listener`s ears. The Mississippi Mud Steppers, with famed mandolinist Charlie McCoy and guitarist Walter Vinson, were a 1930s recording off-shoot of the legendary Mississippi Sheiks and seem to be particular favorites of the team as they smartly revive, with some exceedingly intricate finger-picking elan, two of the Steppers classic stomps (dedicated, individually, to the southern cities of Jackson and Vicksburg) as well as their more languid, finesse filled "Morning Glory Waltz," where the pace is slowed considerably. Other old-timey bands the duo borrow from include Gid Tanner and the Skillet Lickers (with the kinetic "Tanner`s Rag"), the Three Stripped Gears (their marvelously astringent "Blackberry Rag") and the Scottsdale String Band with their popular, animated "Carbolic Rag." They also dip into waltz time for the charmingly restless "Rainbow Waltz," accelerate affairs nicely for the bluesy, up-tempo "Havana River Glide," conjure the tropics on a David Grisman-like "Kohala March" and head down Argentina way with a strings swinging redo of Angel Villoldo`s signature tango "El Choclo" among others. Hot tip: if you`re ever in the Windy City on a Friday night, you can catch the pair performing their magic in person at the Honky Tonk BBQ on 18th Street. Reviewed by Gary von Tersch for SING OUT! magazine 8/5/08 Gandurski now playing lead guitar for L. P. O. Matt Gandurski - widely unknown for his stellar resophonic guitar work with The Northside Southpaws - has been snared to play Telecaster for The Lawrence Peters Outfit. When asked to comment on his new duties as LPO`s lead guitarist, he replied, "Just make something up and attribute it to me." more... 4/10/08 STOMP GLIDE WOBBLE reviewed in Mandolin Magazine The Northside Southpaws "Stomp Glide Wobble" Reviewed in Mandolin Magazine, Spring 2008 How is it possible not to love a CD of resophonic mandolin and guitar that instructs the record shop to file it under "Obsolete Ragtime and Sentimental Song"? When it comes to the brilliant Northside Southpaws, the answer is that it`s simply impossible. Consisting of two lefties, John Hasbrouck on resonator mandolin and Matt Gandurski on resonator guitar, the Southpaws hail from the fertile fields of Chicagoland, where blues, ragtime, jazz, swing and old-time country intermingle insatiably and musicians find influences from Old Town to Evanston to the South Side. The result sounds a bit like Mike Compton and David Long doing their ruthlessly beautiful and authentic country blues duets, only featuring more urban roots sounds than Delta blues and deep hollow country (although the Southpaws have plenty of that in their bag of tricks, as well). Mandolinist John Hasbrouck is a true master of the exotic resophonic style of mandolin. If you still harbor delusions that the mechanically amplified version of the acoustic mandolin can sound only hard-edged and ragged to the bone, listen here with fresh ears. Hasbrouck`s wonderful touch and deft technique often left me thinking he`d switched a more conventional mandolin in on some of the cuts. Nope, it`s all done on a National Reso-Phonic Guitars Inc. eight-string mandolin, and I`m here to say it sounds just great on the material presented. The same goes for guitarist Matt Gandurski, who is so tasteful and understated he always seems to play just the right chord, lick or rhythm chop that Hasbrouck`s mandolin line was calling out for. The material is an amazing mix of familiar tunes like "Blackberry Rag" to a wealth of classic ragtime-era material like "Tanner`s Rag". No cut is longer than 3:25, so everything here glides by like a midnight freight highballing through the northern Illinois prairieland. "Stomp Glide Wobble" is to my ears one of the best mandolin CDs of the year, filled with an unspoiled sound and infectious enthusiasm that will win over fans from bluegrass, jazz and swing, blues and other styles. Highly recommended. Reviewed by David McCarty 4/3/08 STOMP GLIDE WOBBLE reviewed on goodsound.com A not unkind review. more... 3/31/08 STOMP GLIDE WOBBLE by The Northside Southpaws now available The debut, all-instrumental cd STOMP GLIDE WOBBLE by The Northside Southpaws - Chicago`s premier all-left-handed, all-resonator mandolin/guitar duo - is now available at Elderly Instruments, CDBaby, and the NSSP website. more... 9/18/07 John Hasbrouck interview on gearwire.com PART 2 Click below for part two of the gearwire.com interview. more... 9/18/07 John Hasbrouck interview on gearwire.com PART 1 In this two-part interview, I discuss my collection of mechanical effects for acoustic guitars. Click below for part one.. more... 7/26/07 Hasbrouck on Chicago Acoustic Underground Podcast I think this interview turned quite nicely. more... 7/25/07 The Northside Southpaws debut EP now available The Northside Southpaws - the world`s only all-left-handed, resophonic mandolin/guitar duo - is proud to announce the release of our debut 7-song EP on Ruthless Rabbit Records. Normally they`re 5 bucks, but if you send me an email that makes me smile, I send you a free CD. more... 7/2/07 Northside Southpaws to play Lollapalooza The Northside Southpaws, my all left-handed mandolin/guitar duo with Matt Gandurski, will be appearing at Lollapalooza for two performances on Friday, August 3rd and Saturday, August 4th, at 2:45pm on both days. Here`s the blurb: Unplugged on the Green` in Lollapalooza`s Green Street The goal for Unplugged on the Green is to create a musical attraction that pulls fans into the Green Street area while keeping in line with the green-friendly theme that the area stands for. By using music groups that play only acoustic instruments, we will have a music component that is literally and symbolically unplugged. The type of music envisioned for this area is meant to be a relaxing break from the 8 stages of rock. More chill, atmospheric music will create a calm environment while the instruments and performers provide visual stimuli that stand apart from the typical stage and amplifier setup. The musicians will play right in the grass. Fans can come right up and really engage in the show. Performance acts would require no stage, amplification or even lighting rigs. The beauty of this concept is in the metaphor it creates. The very departure from the big stage, amplified rock show plays right into what Green Street is all about. It`s about finding ways to use less energy, and have a good time doing it. more... 3/8/07 Any press is good press... Here`s a nice piece from the editors of soundstage.com more... 2/2/07 I`m finally on YouTube.com An excerpt from THE GOOD COFFEEHOUSE MUSIC PARLOR, a documentary directed by Joe Coppa about this fine venue in Brooklyn, features myself (introduced by Ian Zack) and Mike Dowling. more... 12/18/06 Hasbrouck Joining Bands Indiscriminately Firstly, you`ll want to know that I`ve made a New Year`s resolution to no longer refer to myself in the third person on this web site. This is the last time I`ll do it. That said, if you are reading this then are very likely one of those curious individuals who looks at my online schedule to see when and where I`m playing. So here`s the low-down on the groups with whom I`m playing: (To go to the web presence of any of the following acts - or at least those that HAVE a web presence - go to the EVENTS page and click on the event. It should probably work.) HARDSCRABBLE: My jugless jug band. Members: Lawrence Peters - washboard, kazoo, vocals; Josh Piet - upright bass; myself - guitar, kazoo, vocals. THE LAWRENCE PETERS OUTFIT: Hardscrabble`s Honky Tonk alter-ego, fronted by Lawrence, who sings lead and plays snare drum and washboard. Other members: Steve Doyle - lead guitar; Josh Piet - upright bass; myself - rhythm guitar and background vocals. THE NORTHSIDE SOUTHPAWS: My mandolin/guitar duet with songwriter Matt Gandurski. In this duet we both play left-handed, wood-body National Reso-Phonic instruments - Matt on guitar and me on mando - which is a combination that is, to the best of my knowledge, unprecedented in the history of the world. We both sing. MADDOX & HASBROUCK: I can`t call my project with master musician Colby Maddox a mandolin/guitar duet, because sometimes it`s mando/guitar, sometimes it`s 2 guitars, or guitar/violin, or 12-string plus mando, or two mandos, or whatever. In any case, we like to litter the stage with instruments and play whatever we feel like playing at any given moment. MAJORS JUNCTION: This fine countrified band has been calling me lately to play lead guitar on some gigs that I have enjoyed immensely. Fronted by songwriter Mike Mulcahy, the band is made up of some extremely friendly folks whose names I intend to spell correctly when I update this news item. And yes, I have a myspace page and yes I still do the occasional solo gig. more... 6/3/06 New HARDSCRABBLE website now live You`ll want to visit hardscrabblemusic.com immediately. more... 3/31/06 Chicago Tribune - Local Heroes LOCAL HEROES: A WEEKLY COLUMN ON MUSICIANS AND HAPPENINGS IN THE CHICAGO AREA MUSIC SCENE Hardscrabble`s Hasbrouck a walking musical archive Andy Downing Published March 31, 2006 "I`ve been into [John Fahey`s] music for 25 years now and I still cannot articulate what it is about him. He`s one of those guitar players who completely redefined ... something," explains John Hasbrouck, the longtime Chicago guitarist and driving force behind the self-described "jugless jug band," Hardscrabble. "He`s up there with Charlie Christian, Jimi Hendrix and Michael Hedges," Hasbrouck says. "He sounded huge. He sounded like an Old Testament prophet playing guitar." When Hasbrouck made this musical discovery more than two decades ago as a Northern Illinois University student, it jolted his approach to an instrument he`d played since buying his first guitar with money he earned working at an ice cream parlor as a teen. Even in the midst of a chaotic West Loop restaurant during March Madness, Hasbrouck`s admiration for Fahey is easy to see. He speaks of the guitarist being "one of those gods you have to kill" to find an identity on the instrument. It`s a bridge the Chicago native crossed on his 2002 solo debut, "Ice Cream" (Ruthless Rabbit). Though the disc incorporates a lifetime of intensive study into music history and classic technique, nothing on the album sounds dry or academic. Hasbrouck`s finger-picking style is cerebral, yet playful, the guitarist working his way through a mix of traditional tunes and cleverly titled originals ("Kerouac Dies Alone In Des Moines, 1947"). The home recording is so intimate that one can hear a soft buzz as his fingers glide nimbly over the strings. "When I did that first album I brought everything that I`d learned into the recording," says Hasbrouck. "My CDs are extremely personal statements. Some of the songs I recorded had been gestating for more than 20 years." In those 20-odd years Hasbrouck strummed along to old ragtime and blues recordings from the 1920s and searching out music by the likes of Blind Blake, the Carter Family and Blind Boy Fuller. "[Hasbrouck] is a true historian, especially when it comes to music," says Joel Paterson, who has known Hasbrouck since the mid-1980s and plays guitar for Devil in a Woodpile. "I can recall being in Madison [Wis.] as a 15-year-old and seeing John out there playing old blues standards in the streets." It was in Madison, under the tutelage of street busker Catfish Stephenson, that Hasbrouck refined his craft, learning how to translate his memory bank of guitar licks into tunes that would make audiences sit up and take notice. "I knew all of these techniques, but I didn`t know what to do with them," he says. "Nobody cared if you could play licks from historic recordings when they were just walking by on a Friday night. That`s what I learned [from Stephenson]; it`s the song and the rhythm that are most important. It has to move." To that end, all five tracks on Hardscrabble`s self-titled debut have a natural swing. The trio of Hasbrouck (guitar), Lawrence Peters (washboard) and Casey Stockdon (upright bass)--who first played together in 2002 during a record release show for "Ice Cream"--seems to have an innate chemistry. Its sound, a throwback to the Prohibition era, relies on this seamless interplay--a connection that exists despite the Allen Iverson-like practice habits of the band members (which is to say, they don`t rehearse much). "We used to do gigs with no rehearsals whatsoever," says Hasbrouck. "But that`s one of the things exciting about the band. We`re always right on the edge of the cliff." Hardscrabble, 10 p.m. Friday. The Charleston, 2076 N. Hoyne Ave. Free Admission; 773-489-4757. ---------- localheroes@gmail.com Copyright ? 2006, Chicago Tribune 2/13/06 JH signs distribution deal with CandyRat Records JH has signed a distribution deal with CandyRat Records, an independent label which specializes in, among others things, solo fingerstyle guitar. Artists on CandyRat include Don Ross, Michael Manring, Goran Ivanovic, Andy McKee, and many others. more... 1/18/06 HARDSCRABBLE debut CD in the can Hardscrabble - Chicago`s jugless jug band featuring John Hasbrouck, Lawrence Peters, and Casey Stockdon - recorded their entire debut CD live to ADAT last Sunday in a makeshift studio in River North. The 5-song EP will be out in time for a dionysian CD release party at The Hideout (of course) on March 17. more... 12/26/05 JH playing bass with Cracklin Moth JH seems to think that just because he bought an electric bass guitar he can call himself a bassist, and apparently Cracklin Moth agrees, because they`ve asked him to play it with them at Schuba`s on January 20. more... 7/18/05 SOME THESE DAYS reviewed... SOME THESE DAYS has been reviewed by Green Man Review... more... 5/21/05 JH to play at The Cavern Club in Liverpool w/ Suzy Brack & The New Jack Lords JH will be performing at the International Pop Overthrow on May 27 at Liverpool`s legendary Cavern Club with Chicago`s own Suzy Brack & The New Jack Lords. John met Suzy and her husband/manager Rob Gillis at the Folk Alliance Conference in Jacksonville, Florida in 2002. After hearing John perform some of his bottleneck punk gospel in a hotel room at 3am, Rob asked him to perform at the 30 Bands in 60 Minutes concert at the Metro in Chicago later that year. Rob has known that John has been playing lots of electric guitar lately, so when NJL`s guitarist couldn`t do the Cavern Club show, Rob called him up. more... 3/25/05 HARDSCRABBLE is picking up steam JH`s jugless jug band, HARDSCRABBLE - which features Lawrence Peters (of Western Standard Time) and Casey Stockdon (of The Gin Palace Jesters) - has been rehearsing and recording. Click on the link to hear the demo recorded with a Rode NT4 stereo mic in the basement. more... 2/1/05 SOME THESE DAYS reviewed... SOME THESE DAYS has been reviewed in the February 2005 issue of the Illinois Entertainer. more... 8/15/04 SOME THESE DAYS reviewed... SOME THESE DAYS has been reviewed by minor7th.com... more... 8/1/04 SOME THESE DAYS reviewed... SOME THESE DAYS has been reviewed by Guitar Nine. more... 7/30/04 SOME THESE DAYS cited by WBEZ radio SOME THESE DAYS was cited as one of the TOP 25 ALBUMS OF JUNE 2004 by Niles Frantz, host of the COMIN` HOME blues program on WBEZ/Chicago Public Radio. more... 7/6/04 SOME THESE DAYS CD RELEASE PARTY AT GUNTHER MURPHY`S 7/9 The Big Event is upon us! This Friday, July 9, at Gunther Murphy`s in Chicago John Hasbrouck will throw a huge bash to celebrate the release of his new cd, SOME THESE DAYS. Warming up the show will be Devil-In-A-Woodpile, featuring Rick Sherry and Joel Paterson. John will join them and then play host and bandleader as a huge number of Chicago`s finest musicians come on stage for special guest appearances. The line-up includes (in no particular order): Lawrence Peters, Twang Bang, The Ellen Rosner Band, Duenow, Steve Doyle, Edgar Gabriel, Catfish Stephenson, Christine Costanzo, Al Rose, Blake Thomas, Doug Alan, Urban Djin, Steve Lindsey, Jenny Beinemann, Barb Silverman, Adam Ollendorff, Rob Steffen, Tyler Wilson, Hardscrabble and Casey Stockdon. Don`t miss this insane party!!! more... 5/29/04 SOME THESE DAYS now available John Hasbrouck`s new cd, SOME THESE DAYS, is now available. Click MUSIC to hear it. Click BUY CD to buy it. Working with Steve Albini at Electrical Audio in Chicago, Hasbrouck recorded and designed the follow-up to his critically-acclaimed debut, ICE CREAM, over 12 weeks in late 2003 and early 2004. SOME THESE DAYS is rootsy and hard-edged, featuring tons of Hasbrouck`s trademark 12-string bottleneck playing and his best vocal work to date. The cd packaging is an elaborate, 8-panel, eco-friendly production and, like ICE CREAM, is entirely designed by Hasbrouck. 7/16/03 JH to teach ACOUSTIC INTENSIVE at NGW in July John Hasbrouck will be teaching a week-long ACOUSTIC INTENSIVE class at the first midwest session of the National Guitar Workshop to be held at Judson College in Elgin, Illinois, from July 21-27. For more info, call 1-800-234-6479. more... 6/12/03 ICE CREAM reviewed at splendidezine.com J. Berk reviews ICE CREAM at splendidezine.com more... 6/12/03 ICE CREAM reviewed at Music Matters Review Mark Gresser reviews ICE CREAM at Music Matters Review more... 6/12/03 ICE CREAM reviewed at minor7th.com Patrick Grant reviews ICE CREAM at minor7th.com more... 2/3/03 ICE CREAM reviewed at allaboutjazz.com C. Michael Bailey reviews ICE CREAM at allaboutjazz.com more... 11/18/02 ICE CREAM makes "Top CDs of 2002" in ACOUSTIC GUITAR JH`s debut cd, ICE CREAM, has made Acoustic Guitar magazine`s "Top CDs of 2002" list in the January 2003 issue. Contributor Ian Zack calls ICE CREAM a "whimsical gem, melding Delta blues with John Fahey- and Michael Hedges-style picking and wicked sense of humor." 10/9/02 ICE CREAM reviewed in CHICAGO ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT Chicago writer Paul Barile reviews ICE CREAM for CHICAGO ARTS& ENTERTAINMENT more... 10/9/02 ICE CREAM CD Release Party reviewed Click on the link to read a nice write-up by Windy City Times music critic Vern Hester. more... 9/6/02 ICE CREAM reviewed in MADISON ISTHMUS Click on the link to read a review by Isthmus music critic Tom Laskin. more... 8/1/02 ICE CREAM reviewed in ILLINOIS ENTERTAINER Patrick Conlan reviews ICE CREAM in the ILLINOIS ENTERTAINER more... 7/8/02 ICE CREAM reviewed in ACOUSTIC GUITAR ACOUSTIC GUITAR, August 2002 JOHN HASBROUCK, ICE CREAM. John Hasbrouck, a fingerstyle and bottleneck guitarist and longtime fixture of the Chicago music scene, spent 25 years honing his skills before releasing his first CD. The result, ICE CREAM, is well worth the wait. Hasbrouck`s playing on the eight originals and dozen covers here is exceptional, fusing the Delta blues of Charley Patton with modern influences like John Fahey and Michael Hedges. On the vocal tracks, he projects a postmodern whimsy, sounding at times like a cross between Kelly Joe Phelps and Lou Reed. His choice of songs is eclectic, ranging from the old folk blues "Keep It Clean" to "As Time Goes By" and a wonderfully loopy take on "House of the Rising Sun." - Ian Zack 3/8/02 JH gets cool write-up CITYLINK, Chicago`s west side neighborhood newspaper CITYLINK, Chicago, 3/1/02 ARTIST PROFILE -- JOHN HASBROUCK by Leah Pietrusiak From playing in a punk band to roadtripping with a reggae/ska group to studying classical guitar - playing on the streets, quitting his job and rediscovering what it`s like to be a professional musician again - John Hasbrouck has been there and back. And now he`s here, out with his first album Ice Cream - after a good 25 years of mastering the art of guitar. John has 20 of them - guitars, that is. Of all shapes and sizes. Nine of which he uses on the album. It`s these distinctive instruments mixed with John`s style of playing that gives his sound a bit of an edge, a unique twang. He plays resonators (acoustic guitars made out of metal), which were invented in the 1920s make up for poor amplification technology - they`re really loud, but have a beautiful sound, he says. As well as your "standard wooden guitar" - and even your nonstandard wooden guitar like his handmade "mini" guitar that`s 18 inches long and carved out of a single piece of wood. Needless to say, he`s "really into the different tonal qualities of different kinds of guitars." John plays 12-string as well, coming from Leo Kottke`s school of playing - and a 12-string resonator guitar at that, which very few people are doing, he says, as they have only come on the market in the last couple of years. His is a 1931 vintage body retrofitted with a 12-string neck. "And to make it even more interesting - I play bottleneck (slide)." His style of playing is known as "fingerstyle guitar" - that is, he doesn`t use a flat pic. "There`s a very, very long, rich tradition in American music of fingerstyle guitar - I`m really devoted to the study of American guitar recordings from the 1920s to 1930s," he said. "I always go back to that." This devotion to the tradition of fingerstyle means a devotion to all different genres of music. "I`m not a blues guitarist, yet much of my music is blues-based. I`m not a ragtime guitarist - yet I use a lot of syncopation. Fingerstyle includes all these other styles - it`s all-encompassing." This stew of styles influenced by the fingerstyle tradition has led John to label his music (subject to change) "Acoustic Americana." "You can really take these traditional styles a long way - you can really sound contemporary using traditional styles," he said. "So in a literal sense, it is part of Americana." It was actually while he was roadtripping that he started playing fingerstyle guitar. Before heading on the road he was studying classical guitar at Northern Illinois University, having shifted from his punk tendencies, and "having a weird experience in doing so." He soon took off on tour with the reggae/ska band, and discovered the music of John Fahey (a Leo Kottke type who didn`t go mainstream). After the road got old, he quit the music business completely at the age of 23, and went back to school at the University of Wisconsin-Madison to study graphic design. John soon met the infamous Catfish Stephenson of Madison as Catfish was "busking" in the street - playing guitar for quarters. It wasn`t long before John was back on the music track, having found one of his greatest teachers. "We spent hundreds of hours playing in the streets of Madison - we played ragtime. Endless ragtime. It was a great education - playing in the streets." In 1988, John moved to Chicago, became immersed in his graphics profession and stopped playing guitar as much. But by the early 90s, he started performing solo shows in Chicago cafes, from the Local Grind and Phyllis` Musical in Wicker Park to local Borders bookstores. By the mid-90s, he started playing more and more. In 1999, he played over 120 shows. And he decided to rethink his music career. "At that point, I was like, `What am I doing, why am I doing this.` Was I playing just to play - or did I have some bigger picture." In 2001, he decided to "dive into the deep end" and quit his job. He decided to be a professional musician again for the first time in 16 years. "But of course, this time - it was different." He started his own record label, Ruthless Rabbit Records, and recorded his debut CD "which was basically twenty-some years in the making." His graphics background came in handy when it came to the design work, which he did all himself. The title, ICE CREAM, is symbolic in a couple noteworthy ways. When John was in junior high school he worked in an ice cream parlor where a co-worker introduced him to the likes of Led Zeppelin and Jimi Hendrix. "Ice Cream is kind of a remembrance - if it wasn`t for this guy opening up ears to music at such an impressionable age - I probably wouldn`t have learned to play guitar." Ice cream is also something that makes people smile, John says. "I`m having fun on this record. Playing guitar is a lot of fun - that`s why I play guitar. I think the title gives it a fun quality." There are 20 tracks total on the CD, with a pretty wide range of songs: a Hank Williams tune, some original bottleneck tunes, and even a track influenced by an East Indian slide guitarist. copyright 2002 Leah Pietrusiak