The tomatoes are huge, the size of small melons. The
organically grown peppers shine bright red in the morning sun next to them in
the stand at the La Jolla Open Aire Market on a brisk Sunday morning in early
February. Nearby, another stand offers mocha latt‚s, another handmade jewelry.
It is 9:30 a.m. and shoppers amble down the rows, glad that the rain of the
previous two days has moved to the East, listening to the harmonies of folk
singers Coco and Lafe echoing their sentiment with "Here Comes the Sun" from
beneath a canvas canopy. The stand across the row from the pair has two bearded
vendors under a large banner that says "Certified Organic Fruit," with neatly
stacked oranges and apples in boxes with free samples. In between songs, Lafe
Dutton peers from behind his frameless glasses and over his harp rack while
tuning his guitar, as Coco Kallis prepares to join him on harmonies for
"Cambridge Underground" from their new album Caf‚ Loco. Lafe tells the
onlookers that song was based on a fire experienced by Coco at age six, and
took only 20 minutes for the two to write together. The mix of Lafe's firm
tenor, deft finger-picking, and Coco's soft soprano paint a musical picture of
a moment frozen in time.
Several
young couples pass by; two stop at the same time from opposite directions. One
young woman has a pretty violet orchid bought at one of the stands, another a
large, colorful bouquet of cut flowers. They each shoot a glance at the others'
gift. It is a week until Valentine's Day, and Coco is starting to sing "Here
With Me," a hauntingly lovely song of loneliness, written in a Borders
bookstore.
"You people
are all wearing sweat shirts and jackets," the T-shirted Lafe says about the
high-50s weather . "We're from Vermont. This is great. I want to go swimming."
Lafe strums
the opening chords to Dylan's "I Shall Be Released," and his harmonica playing
captures the tune's soul. One of the bearded vendors, wearing a surf T-shirt,
from the booth across the row darts across and drops a $20 bill into the tip
box, making a folded-hand gesture as if in a prayer of thanks as he darts back.
The duo follows with Dylan's "It Takes a Lot to Laugh, It Takes a Train to
Cry," a musical way of saying "you're welcome."
A young boy
about three years old wearing a baseball hat is frozen in his tracks by the
couple and his mom is tapping her feet along as well. He inches forward as they
prepare for the next song, his blue eyes glued on Lafe. Coco asks if he'd like
to play along, and, unsure, he nods. Mom smiles as she hands him a small blue
maraca and takes one to play herself as they launch into "Paint Me Blue," a
bluesy original from Lafe's solo 2005 disc Am I Gone. The youngster starts
shaking it, and by halfway through he's on the beat every time. A percussionist
makes his debut.
As the
couple plays "Mr Bojangles," a few people hustle past, unmoved. More do so
slowly, many break a smile, and, if they stop, it is usually for at least until
the end of the song. If they stay more than one song, there's a good chance
they will buy at least one CD from the two they are offering, Caf‚ Loco and
2008's acoustic Dream Streets, an acoustic album featuring some early versions
of tunes on Caf‚ and choice covers of tunes by Dylan, John Prine, and other
artists.
Mike, a
senior gentleman from Michigan, is bargaining with Lafe after asking him about
his guitar and boasting about his Gibson acoustic, given to him 45 years ago.
"If you buy
two CDs, they're $20," Lafe tells him. "If you buy four, they're $30. If you
buy enough, they're free."
"He needs a
business manager," Mike laughs. He leaves with the new CD, while Coco is
selling both to the bearded vendor who is back for more.
Lafe sums
the duo up as "really just two back-porch songwriters.starting a new career as
budding senior citizens". Coco echoes this, and their enjoyment playing in
"friendly little parks" and farmer's markets. At the moment, Coco and Lafe are
relaxing with their pet beagle Lilla at Jungle Java in Ocean Beach.
The
baby-boomer pair, who split their time between Cambridge, Massachusetts, and
San Diego during the seasons (fall and winter here, spring and summer there),
come from diverse backgrounds. Coco was a former cast member in the Boston
production of Hair and a longtime member of the Lonesome Road Band, winning
awards for a 1976 hit composition "New England Song." More recently, she
contributed a song and backup vocals on folksinger Rebecca Pidgeon's Four Marys
CD, as well as recording a CD of music called Environmental songs for Children.
Lafe wrote
his first song at the age of 16, "but didn't have the voice then." He was in a
band and did odd jobs before landing in the business side of the music
industry. His positions included manager of an independent record label and
general sales manager jobs with lots of travel.
"I took my
guitar everywhere. I played on the road all those years," he says. "I would be
on the road for a week, at home for a week. My guitar was always with me."
The two
started performing together two years ago after Lafe had a solo gig and invited
Coco to sing a few songs with him.
"Instead of
practicing for the gig, we started writing new songs for it," he says. "Writing
together is just magic."
"That's our
love, that's our passion, the passion is the songs", adds Coco.
"We just
make stuff up when we're playing. We'll just make up lyrics as we go," says
Lafe. "We've gotten a lot of great stuff that way - new verses, new directions.
We've already got a big chunk of the next album written. We'll start putting
them into sets now. We've already got studio time here booked." The plan is to
record an album in the same studio in San Diego as Caf‚ Loco, in October and
November.
"So far, we've
been avoiding all the standard folk clubs, all the conventions. We don't go to
any of them," says Lafe. "We don't enter songwriting contests." The duo
intentionally has a goal to "find our own niche and remove ourselves from the
competition."
"Nobody's
ever done a national tour of farmer's markets to our knowledge, and we're going
to do it twice in less than six months. Our market is really house concerts and
farmer's markets."
"Not that
we wouldn't play clubs,"
says Coco.
"We'd be
happy, anytime we have an audience that sits down, we'll do it,"
says Lafe.
"We've met
some great people playing markets and playing in the street," says Coco, "some
phenomenal people from all over the world."
Though they
are impressed with the momentum they have developed in the San Diego area and
the friends they have made here, they plan to return to Boston and Cambridge in
April. Their favorite venues there include Irish Famine Park and Copley Square
Farmer's Market.
"Other
musicians fight to get gigs; at least in Boston, we have one anytime we want,
which is five days a week," says Lafe.
Coco starts
the second set solo with a rousing version of Stephen Foster's "Hard Times." As
she sings, a tall, burly man in a windbreaker passes, drops several bills into
the tip box, and gives her a "thumbs up" as he nods and walks past. The two
launch into the spirited duet "Let's Get Away" from the new album and the funny
lyrics draw smiles from the listeners, who nod their approval as the pair sing,
"Let's sell the kids and fly away".
A young
woman stops after Coco finishes "Snow," a New England-inspired ballad from the
new disc, introduces herself as Sherl, and asks Lafe where they are playing.
Soon she is recommending UCSD and some clubs that cater to students and feature
organic foods. Meanwhile, a senior gentleman is telling Coco about a huge
farmer's market in Lincoln, Nebraska, that would love to have them play.
Business cards are going fast from the stack next to their CDs and tip box.
After
Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah," a tall man with dark glasses approaches Lafe to
say he's been trying to track the song down. After Lafe gives him a full
rundown the history of the song and its best-known covering artists, it comes
to light that the visitor is also an East Coaster who spends his winter months
in San Diego and the rest of the year in New England.ÿ
A little
girl about the age of the maraca player earlier in the morning has given daddy
her Daffy Duck stretch balloon toy and it's clear she wants to dance. At Lafe's
urging, she stays to dance to the brisk "River Boat Song," and her initial
shyness disappears as she sways back and forth in the aisle, lost in the music
while mom and dad watch. Lafe breaks into the words to say, "I wish we were
videotaping this," as the pretty young dancer moves up and down her stage.
Lafe counts
Dylan, John Prine, and Tom Waits as influences, the last two apparent in his
solo album songs and some of the imagery of the lyrics on the new album, in
such songs as "Leaving Town," "Ocean Beach," and "Reservation Billboards." He
draws on experiences like hitchhiking across the country and a period of
homelessness in his youth. Coco's musical influences are "all over the place,"
from opera to '60s folk. She loves Mary Gauthier, and describes herself as a
"sucker for the minor keys." She feels that Lafe is a big influence on her
writing, a "great editor" who helps her "look for the metaphor."
For Caf‚
Loco, Coco said, they decided to expand their sound to a fully produced CD with
a full band, though some songs were recorded with a single mike, like their
live show. After an exhaustive search, looking for a "third artist" to bring
their songs to life, they found local producer Chuck Schiele.
"We had
some ideas, but he just took it and ran with it," says Coco. "He was so
creative and added these little touches and flairs. Plus he
kept us in stitches the entire time we were recording." Among touches
he added were a mariachi band for a cut called "Bandido" and
New Orleans-style horns on "Leaving Town" and "Introduce Myself to You."
Early
returns seem to show that the approach is working. Their stated mission is to
eat well (Lafe is a gourmet cook), write and perform songs, and make a living
at it.
His
experience and connections in the music biz have made themselves apparent in
the group's website (cocolafe.com), a slick press kit, and radio presence. They
sent their new disc to numerous radio stations and have a spreadsheet that
tracks which songs are played on the over 40 stations now playing songs from
their album, especially "Cambridge Underground" and "Let's Get Away."
Highlights in this area include the spotlight in a "Midnight Special" show by
Rich Warren in Chicago, and having the disc picked as Best of Music of 2009 by
a station in Princeton, New Jersey. Though the disc was released January 15, a
CD release party is planned for late March (a location has yet to be
determined).
It's the
final set and Coco is singing Woody Guthrie's "Roll On, Columbia, Roll On."
Some of the passers by are singing along with the chorus. She smiles and says
while singing, "I love it when people going by are singing along. Never be
afraid to sing along."
Woody would
approve.
For more info and where Coco and Lafe are playing this
month, visit www.cocolafe,com Their new CD, Caf‚ Loco, is reviewed in this
issue.