Fridy, Aug, 17:

It might be a good time to take a little trip to San Francisco (or to get out of the house if that's where you live). You will be able to purchase Guess Who This Is in record stores, Insound.com or twotonsanta.com (not quite up yet). Thanks to all who bought copies of the Dom CD; it will be a nice companion piece to the tribute album. Let me know if anyone has any questions and thanks for your attention.

Bestest,
Guy

Guess Who This Is - a tribute to Dom Leone

1) Guess Who This Is - The Buckets
2) Bad Memories - Granfaloon Bus
3) Coriander Eyes - Ida
4) The Letter - 86
5) The High Sign - Dom
6) Sit Them Old Ladies Down - TW Walsh
7) My Apartment - Music Night
8) Intentions - Milkweed
9) Spoken Word - 100 Watt Smile
10) Cheese Grater - Corey Porter
11) More Bad Times - Curtis Harvey
12) Buck Tempo - Bob & Guy
13) Scofflaw of Gravity - The Pee Wee Fist
14) Sweater - The Funny Bunnies
15) Spider - The Perth Amboy Society Tea Orchestra
16) My Friend Bob - Mark Kozelek
17) Leave Me Alone - Wig Wag
18) Trees - Dom
19) Mom - Spurs of the Moment
20) Song For Elise - Virginia Dare
21) Week Old the Chili - Unbunny
22) Drivin' on 9 - Calexico
23) Lighthouse - birddog
24) Swiss Chard - Orso
25) Other Trees - Dom
26) Song Nancy Hates - The Hot Tubs
27) Christmas in Vermont - Warm Wires

Liner Notes by Dan Leone

I have a bad memory. I donıt remember a lot of things, but this one sticks with me like the taste of raw onions: twelve years ago or so, back room of the Rat, Kenmore Square, Boston, with Dom, Carrie and Neno, Edıs Redeeming Qualities in its original form, doing an interview with someone from some local paper -- I remember talking about luck, how lucky Edıs was, all of our friends and most of our fans being better musicians than we were, weıd never even meant to be a band and here we were with our weekly show, Edıs Basement, hosting the likes of Robyn Hitchcock, River Phoenix, the Breeders -- there we were on the cover of the Bostton Phoenix, man, not even a year out of the gate and we were getting radio play on college and even one or two commercial stations in Boston. Without even a record! Lucky lucky lucky, I was saying. Later that week we found out that Dom had cancer, and within nine months he was gone. Since then Iıve paid a lot more attention to juju, welcomed good luck with wide open and slightly sideways eyes, learned to bite my tongue and spit three times over my left shoulder in addition to knocking on wood.

Just a week ago or so in a small, crowded bar here in San Francisco, I stood and watched with tingly reverence as Granfaloon Bus broke into their rocking rendition of "Bad Memories." These guys are friends of mine, but theyıd never met Dom. And all the smiley strangers bopping all their heads all around me, they'd never met Dom, probably never saw Edıs, certainly not in its original form, with Dom up front. Still, there he was, in a way, in the vibrations of the bass drum as well as the words -- my favorite songwriter in the world. In about two years he wrote about 25 songs, all or almost all of which are on this album. I have recordings of Dom doing them, and these conjure images of his laugh, what his eyes did when he laughed, and where his eyes went and how his mouth moved when he sang. I taste the great taste of onions. Hearing all these other great bands doing his great songs -- I donıt know, it makes me think all over again I guess about how damn lucky we all actually after all are, knock knock spit spit spit.

-Dan Leone

GUESS WHO DOM IS: ERQ TRIBUTE ALBUM

1) Coriander Eyes--------Ida
2) Drivin' on 9--------Calexico
3) My Apartment--------Country Night (w/ Dan Leone)
4) More Bad Times--------Curtis Harvey
5) Intentions--------Milkweed
6) Guess Who This is--------The Buckets
7) My Friend Bob--------Mark Kozelek
8) Scofflaw of Gravity--------Pee Wee Fist
9) Song Nancy Hates--------The Hot Tubs (w/ Neno Perrotta)
10) Lighthouse--------Birddog
11) Mom--------Spurs of the Moment
12) Buck Tempo--------The Guy Scramble
13) Bad Memories--------Granfalloon Bus
14) Sweater--------F*ck
15) Swiss Chard--------Orso
16) Cheese Grater--------Corey Porter
17) Sit Them Old Ladies Down--------Tim Walsh
18) Spider--------Jonah & Sally
19) Song For Elise--------Virginia Dare
20) The Letter--------86
21) Spoken Word--------100 Watt Smile (w/ Carrie Bradley)
22) Christmas in Vermont--------Warm Wires
23) Mrs. Price--------Jumbo Circus Peanuts
24) Week Old the Chili--------Unbunny
25) Leave Me Alone--------Wig Wag

There are also several artists contributing original drawings and paintings inspired by Dom's songs including, Joe Leone, Ad McCauley, Gordon Carlisle, Nathan Parsons, Dave Freemont, Yuri Ono, Brad Mossman, Dan Gillotte, Eric White, Dan Blakeslee and Bernie Jungle. I think it will well represent Dom's aesthetic and bring a wider audience to his wonderful music.

In the meantime, in an effort to generate funds for the project, I am offering a CD-R of Dom singing the above songs with some of his artwork and full lyrics. It is $5 and you can contact me at:

Guy Capecelatro III
P.O. Box 1332
Portsmouth, NH 03802
pamandguy@mediaone.net

Please feel free to get in touch with me if you have any questions regarding the project.

PAPER PLATE: DAN'S CHEAP FOOD BOOK

HOME PLATE: JONAH'S BASEBALL BOOK

REUNION REPORT

"Ten minutes before the show, Dan and I were still running over a couple things, and it seemed clear that the whole thing could be disasterous... but we hit the stage and it all kicked in, and it was one of those strange and wonderful, quiet but... edgy? raucous? Ed's nights... we played twenty songs and probably more than exhausted everyone's appetite for Ed's revisited, but we had a great time and I think played really well.

"For Lawn Dart -- feeling the need to do something different with our Freebird -- we cued up a tape of it that we recorded at soundcheck, turned on the disco ball, and sat down at a little table and ate hotdogs. I don't know if anyone recorded it... I know two seasoned live collectors, one of whom I saw and one of whom I didn't but she may have been there (Diana Senechal; is she in the chat group for your site?). I'll look into it.

"Ah, it was a good night. Hope all's well."

ERQ REUNION AUGUST 21, 1999

"However, he's out here right now, which brings me to the reason for busting out of the grind -- we're playing another gosh-darn reunion show on Saturday, August 21, at the Bottom of the Hill here in SF. Not that I expect people to fly in from everywhere (like those amazing women last time!!), but they can tell their friends and stuff..."

ED'S REDEEMING QUALITIES REUNITE, REISSUE ON SLOW RIVER RECORDS

4/23/98 -- San Francisco will be vibrant with the joyous and eclectic sound of ED'S REDEEMING QUALITIES for one final evening at Slim's in San Francisco on April 23, 1998. Renowned both in SF and in their original stomping ground of New Hampshire for their highly literate, absurdist vignettes and ingenuous homemade instrumentation, ERQ made four great albums (and a smattering of singles and homebrew tapes) before calling it quits in late 1996. The band, at the time of its demise, consisted of Dan Leone (ukulele, guitar), Carrie Bradley (violin, guitar), and Jonah Winter (miscellany).

Ed's Redeeming Qualities, then composed of cousins Dan and Dom Leone, Bradley, and percussionist Neno Perrotta, formed in 1987 under the auspices of UNH's graduate fiction program. The band self-released a 7- inch on local indie Aurora, entitled Ed's Day, in this incarnation. They also won over a cynical Boston audience with their variety show, "Ed's Basement," hosted at the late punk-rock mainstay the Rathskeller. The weekly show was home to a variety of eclectic pop icons, from Robyn Hitchcock to River Phoenix, and hosted the debut of a little indie band named the Breeders. Shortly thereafter, ERQ stole the annual "Best Folk Act" award from the prestigious weekly, the Boston Phoenix, and the buzz began to spread throughout the region.

After Dom Leone's death from cancer in 1989, ERQ pulled up stakes and relocated to San Francisco, remaining a trio and recording two albums for Flying Fish between 1990 and 1992. Winter, another writer, joined the fray shortly thereafter, and ERQ became a member of the Slow River family at the behest of long-time fan and label owner George Howard. An ERQ-related side project, the Buckets, subsequently issued a 7" and an eponymous album on Slow River.

The trio split at the end of 1996, following a farewell tour. Carrie Bradley explains, "It was partly to retire gracefully before minor cultdom got silly," also noting that Dan and Jonah were intent on careers in writing. (Leone's work is primarily fiction; Jonah writes children's books to supplement his poetic aspirations.) Bradley herself, after several false starts, formed 100 Watt Smile, a new outfit which is headlining the reunion show and who have a debut CD due out on Germany's Trocadero Records in May. Of the band, Carrie explains, "My goal is to bring symphonic principles and dynamics to songs in a way that makes them interesting, more complex, but still hooky and, you know... rocking."

Coinciding with the reunion date, ERQ's two Slow River albums, Big Grapefruit Clean-Up Job and At The Fish And Game Club, are being reissued under the recent manufacturing/distribution agreement between Slow River and Rykodisc, making them not merely available, but perhaps widely available for the first time ever.

Grapefruit was recorded live in front of a wildly enthusiastic San Francisco audience, and features many of their finest songs in inventive new arrangements. Fish And Game, the quartet's final album, brought them into the modern recording realm, painlessly adding overdubs to their homespun sound.

"It seemed high time to have an Ed's day," Bradley explains. "We miss it a lot, and as it always felt more like a labor of love and a prolonged happy accident than a musical career. I imagine we'll always want to return to it and our wonderful fans whenever circumstances allow."

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