Sam Shaber's next appearance in Atlanta will be on Wednesday, November 12th at Smith's Olde Bar at 8:30pm, with full band in tow. James Salter and the Clay Cook Band are also on the bill. 1578 Piedmont Ave. www.smithsoldebar.com Price: $8.00 advance/$10.00 DOS doors at 8pm. (ADVANCE TICKETS AVAILABLE AT SMITH'S OLDE BAR ANY DAY AFTER 5PM OR ONLINE AT www.etix.com )

AL-RIGHT! Groovy man. It's finally October - the Mazda is juiced-up, oiled-up, equipped with fancy new windshield wipers, (so it WAS the wipers streaking all this time - I just thought rain was maybe stickier than it used to be...) and the trunk is loaded with copies of the new CD, the Martin, the borrowed Fender Strat, the new amp, (small but deadly,) and various stuffed animal friends and tzatchkis (did I spell that right? Any Yiddish aficionados out there? I know Chutzpah but Tzachkis I'm not so sure about...) to keep me company. It is going to be a truly groovy fall, man.

And I say "groovy" because I seem to have rediscovered disco lately - ever since a visit to the Downtown Record shop in Danville, VA in August, and a purchase of Diana Ross' Greatest Hits, Kool and the Gang Ladies Night, and two compilations, Disco Divas and Best of Disco, the little red Mazda has been pumping with the funky grooves of love. Oh yeah...

My main problem with rediscovering disco is that it takes quite a bit of investigative work since I think I was 6 or 7 when Studio 54 was already winding down from its heyday and I don't actually know who most of the artists are that perform my favorite songs of childhood. See I got this clock radio for my second grade birthday and it became the soundtrack of my life thanks to WKTU and their extensive boogie-til-you-drop playlist. But not ever having bought the albums, I had no idea who was singing what or even what they were singing half the time. But of course I was happy to make up my own versions, such as "Don't you know you/Put the gum in the bin/And we goed out" as sung by Stevie Wonder in Master Blaster (who of course is actually saying "Didn't know you would be jamming until the break of dawn...") but I still swear I can't make it out - even now that I have the CD and can read the lyrics.

Or one of my favorites, Too Hot by Kool and the Gang where they sing "Too hot/too hot baby/gotta cool the finger/on this mess that we made," which I now realize is "gotta cool this anger." Same thing really.

And of course the greatest misunderstood lyric of all disco history - "To won to wah/he's the greatest dancer/to won to wah/that I've ever seen..." To won to what the hell? And in this quest I have learned many things, such as that He's So Shy is actually sung by the Pointer Sisters, NOT by Diana Ross, and that If I Can't Have You is NOT by Abba but actually sung by a woman named Yvonne Elliman - not at all Swedish but does have some sort of accent nevertheless.

And when I listen to these songs, they take me back to a time when I wore my favorite giraffe dress to school sometimes, and assumed all grown ups wore sexy clothing and went to dark clubs every night where they danced on floors of flashing lights, and ladies drank free until midnight and a generally good, romantic, sexy time was had by all. I couldn't wait to be 18 when I would be a grown up (!) and could go dancing to Take Your Time Do it Right or Off the Wall and have some handsome, tan, slick, Loverman ask me to slow dance with him to How Deep is Your Love, while the spinning, colored strobey thing threw spots on us at the center of the floor.

Somehow when I was 6, I was actually taken to a disco once with my friend Trattie. Her mother took both of us to a club (I want to say it was (Thank God It's) Friday's but is that possible?) where we watched in awe as she and various other exotically-dressed people "got down" with their bad selves on the floor and champagne was poured over a pyramid of glasses, deftly filling each one. Too shy to shake our groove things in public, Trattie and I squatted down behind a sort of lattice-work fence thing enclosing one of the booths by the dance floor, (picture the Newlywed Game for this design concept,) and wiggled our hineys as hard as we could. Not sure why we were being taken to a disco at such a tender age, but it was very exciting!

It was also Trattie who set me straight on pregnancy. When I was 6, I thought you could just wake up one day and be pregnant - like catching a cold or the chicken pox but much more serious. But Trattie told me that I could avoid getting pregnant by praying. I became the most religious 6-year-old in history. Trattie also told me, on a visit to her grandparents house in the country, that the little red sparks that fly up from the fire in the fireplace could burn a hole right through you, so best to watch out for those.

A fountain of knowledge was Trattie. We lost touch after about second grade but if you meet her please tell her I say hello and that I am still staying away from fires and not pregnant but would love to go to a disco with her again someday.

Perhaps the greatest disco song of all time is September by Earth, Wind and Fire. ("Ahh-y-ah suddenly remember/Ahh-y-ah dancing in September...") It just feels GOOD, you know? Unfortunately some clothing company (the Gap maybe?) has also figured that out as they've grabbed it for their new commercial so now I picture emaciated models in stretch khakis when I hear it, but it used to generate great feelings of joy and boogie in me. From that first riff to the last falsetto male voice, it is a masterpiece of good times and gettin' down, ladies and cats.

OK so back to the year 2003, October is going to be a ton of fun, with my buddy Wendy Woo joining me from Denver for a bunch of east coast shows, and also return visits to one of my fave house concerts in Baltimore, Molly's Wings Pub at Wellesley, Jittery's at Smith, the Coffeehaus at Sarah Lawrence, Noyes and RPCC at Cornell, Benjamin Mays Center at Bates College - it's my collegiate month! The great thing for you, the peeps, is that these shows are usually FREE to come down and shake your groove thing so come join me and we can compare bell-bottoms together.

The month winds down with a full band show at the cozy and red-lit disco Lizard Lounge in Cambridge and two hometown gigs - my first foray into the new Living Room on the lower east side with groovy buddies Jennie Devoe, Wendy Woo and Ellis to share the night with me, and also Wendy and I play on Halloween - what could be better? - a show at the Postcrypt in the basement of St. Paul's Chapel on the Columbia University campus. Candle-lit, no sound system, stone-walled catacomby-like decor, and brownies, popcorn, and beer. This is going to be a great Halloween! Come in costume, come eat candy! Wendy and I are trying to figure out if we have the b**ls to wear costumes. My main problem is that I'm not sure, dressed like say, a chicken or a bunch of grapes, I could deliver songs like Rain and Sunshine and Simon Says with a straight face... The wonderful Andrew Kerr is also on this night and it's always a party with him so don't miss it!

Other great shows to point out are a benefit for Stephen Pirrello on Oct 8 in West Nyack, NY, Oct 15 at the fabulous Barns at Wolftrap in Vienna, VA, and the first show of the month, this Friday, at Just Joan's in Lewiston, ME. This show sold out last time so get your reservations in!

And many CONGRATS to Joy Deloney who is now the proud owner of my Takamine guitar! She was our highest eBay bidder and she can now write her own Eldorados and All of Thises - let us know when you book a gig Joy! Congrats!

Also thanks to those of you who have written to say you heard my songs played on the radio and in various and sundry public places. Apparently there is a Quiznos Subs in Georgia that has a penchant for All of This and an outlet mall in Woodbury as well. Now THAT is fame people! The new single, Eldorado is in the mail and on its way so call and request when you can.

And that's it for me right now, as I twist and shout to Isn't She Lovely by Stevie Wonder. I will mention one more thing which is that, although I did discover the true performers of He's So Shy, I don't yet own it, because all I could find in Danville's Downtown Records for the Pointer Sisters was their greatest hits album which also came with Neutron Dance and I just couldn't support that. So if you see it out there without that companion song, please let me know! He's So Shy was the soundtrack for many a young crush for me - from Teddy Frischling to Danny Zorn to Steven Kay - I was always convinced that they were just too shy and that's why they never spoke to me or wanted to be my second grade boyfriends. Of course no other option ever occurred to me - like that maybe they didn't like me back or maybe they just thought girls were gross in general at the time.

Okay, see you out there!
-Sam

www.samshaber.com
www.smgrecords.com