CHEWY CHOICE AWARD DINNER
Honoree: Patrik Tanner
Presenter: Tim Null
Entertainment: Patrik Tanner and the Faraway Men
Location: this befuddled universe
Date: 21 April 2007
PRESENTATION
Tim Null:
Welcome.
I hope you all enjoyed your dinner. Originally Chewy ordered everyone vegetarian. I told Chewy our guests of honor, Patrik Tanner, Michelle Tanner, and their friends, are from the Midwest, and it would be inappropriate to just assume they would enjoy a vegetarian dinner. Chewy reluctantly agreed.
For our gathering, I selected the following Midwestern delicacies: corn-fed beef, corn-fed chicken, farm raised corn-fed trout, and country raised corn-fed waitresses.
This is the second presentation of the Chewy Choice Award. As you know, tonight's award recipient is Patrik Tanner. The first Chewy Choice honoree was Lorna Bracewell. She received her recognition on 21 December 2006.
The Chewy Choice Award is given for exceptional lifetime achievement to independent musicians who are, as we like to say, still lively.
- One aim of the award is to boost an artist at an important point in his or her career.
- Another goal is to bring attention to a body of work, which may have been largely overlooked by the public.
- An additional purpose is to give us all an excuse to get together, and enjoy some damn good music.
On that note, I should mention that we will have the opportunity to hear Patrik Tanner and the Faraway Men, as soon as I quit blathering, so I am highly motivated to be brief.
Before I continue my discussion of Patrik's musical history, I would ask that you allow me time to make a brief personal announcement.
Mrs. Muddle has informed me that this upcoming spring and summer I will only be doing house and yard work.
I'm not sure if this change in jobs will be a promotion, a demotion, or just a lateral job move. My pay scale will remain the same, so I assume this job change would just be considered a lateral career move, although, I will admit to one thing, I am hoping for some improvements in my benefit package.
But that isn't why I brought up the subject of my job change.
I have had a crazy ride here at this befuddled universe writing about music, and, as I just said, I will be leaving for other endeavors in a few days. So I am grateful to have this opportunity to talk about Patrik Tanner's contribution to music before I go.
In The Beginning
I am told that Patrik's music career began at an early, early age.
Legend has it that Patrik was born with a hambone, and he popped right out playing it. It is said that even to this very day, Patrik never leaves home without his beloved little hambone.
As far as I can tell, Patrik hasn't talked much about himself in print. He tends to put his personal commentary in his lyrics, so I'm not too clear on his early years.
However, now that Patrik has released early photos of himself and Peter Jonsson, I believe I understand why Patrik doesn't talk about his early years. (See photo on the left. Patrik is on the left.)
On the other hand, I do occasionally hear a story or two from Michelle Tanner, Patrik's gorgeous wife. (Google Michelle Robb Tanner.)
Michelle told me this one story, but it's been awhile, since our conversation. I may remember the story all wrong. I may tell it all half-ass backwards. What with my advancing age, and all the psychomatic drugs the doctors got me on. But, what the heck, I'll give it a go. How badly could I possibly screw up a simple story?
Anyway, as I recall, Patrik was a teenage Swedish exchange student to the US, and for that one year he attended a high school in Minneapolis. And, I recollect, Patrik didn't live all that far from where Michelle lived. Of course, at this time, Michelle was just knee-high to a grasshopper. So, both Michelle and Patrik frequented the same 7-Eleven Store.
Now, it's not what you're thinking! Michelle and Patrik never met at that 7-Eleven store, but some magic did really happen there.
On the day in question Patrik stopped at this particular 7-Eleven store to look at some magazines. (I assume they were guitar magazines.) Well, when Patrik left the 7-Eleven, his pheromones were still lingering by the front door.
Shortly thereafter, the young, sweet, and innocent Michelle comes into the 7-Eleven for some red string licorice, and Michelle gets hit smack dab in the face with these mean, virile pheromones that Patrik carelessly left behind in a public place frequented by underage children.
What a tragedy this was! This innocent child was now imprinted for life. Michelle was now a ruined young girl. She would have to marry a rock singer. And to think, Michelle could have married a rich proctologist.
Production Credits
Patrik Tanner is well known and well respected as a producer in the Twin Cities area of Minnesota. For the sake of brevity I will quote directly from Patrik's Myspace page.
Patrik Tanners expertise as a producer stems from
a lifetime of
exposure to the music industry and steadfast commitment to the mastery
of rock-n-roll craft. He has a true appreciation for (and vast
knowledge of) modern musical history and is dedicated to carrying the
best aspects of it into every project he undertakes today. From thrifty
indie projects to large-scale ventures, and whether you are a
singer-songwriter or full band, Patrik can offer rock solid, honest
advice about your vision and your music and help you to work within
your budget.
Production credits include Martin Zellar &
the Hardways, Tina &
the B-Side Movement, Ali
Gray, Scott
Laurent, The
Billy's, justincase
and Jessica
Harp.
And the Bands Play on...
A good overview of Patrik Tanner's rock n roll history can be seen in the table below (starting at the bottom). The table runs from 1979 to the present. (The table does not include Patrik's production credits.)
Allow me to quote from the bio-statement that appears on Patrik's Myspace page.
``Born and raised in Sweden (itself a stronghold of pop perfectionism), Patrik grew up with a unique, outside-looking-in perspective on the expanses of American songwriting, and immersed himself in it early on. By thirteen, hed already become something of a teen star, releasing bona-fide punk records on both Scandinavian and U.K. labels. At eighteen, Tanner moved to the U.S., and, soon thereafter, released two solo albums with his Los Angeles-based band.
Patrik Tanner & Peter Jonsson
Peter Jonsson and Patrik reformed a group in 2006 called the Paperback Boys. They have released three singles (with B-sides, six songs total). These are lovely gems, and truly irresistible at $0.99 per song on iTunes.
And while you are on iTunes, I suggest you take a good look at these other Patrik Tanner treasures (see photos below). I own a personal copy of all the songs on the albums pictured below, plus the upcoming Full Auto Shut-Off album, and the three Paperback Boys' singles. They're all worthy additions to any music library.
One of Patrik's major contributions has been his work with the band Patrik Tanner and the Faraway Men. The following is quoted from their website.
`` `I always liked the image in my mind of the Irish ending up in East Texas and being so damned lonely that country music came out of them,' says Tanner.
â¦the band was a perfect vehicle for Tanner to express his fondness for great songsmith-storytellers like Gram Parsons, George Jones and Elvis Costello while spinning his own unique tales of love-gone-bad with both swagger and soul.
...the band actually sought to take a more reverential approach to classic C&W roots... As PULSE of the Twin Cities exclaimed, `if this is country, then country just got unbelievably cool.'
On 2001âs Allsorts, The Faraway Men took a sharp stylistic turn, offering up a guitar rock concept album rich with 1970s-style international pop ballad overtones.
With the recent addition of fellow wunderkind guitarist Jon James, Patrik and company continue down a similarly twisted interstate, daring to cross that line separating radio nirvana from fiery auto wreck.
Whichever way the wheel may turn, within the glorious confines of their basement rehearsal space, Minnesotaâs best-kept rock-n-roll secret remain patiently waiting to spontaneously combust.
After Ten Years the Faraway Men are Far Out!
Patrik Tanner and the Faraway Men have a new Album titled Full Auto Shut-Off. An intimate release party is planned for 25 May 2007 at Acadia Café in Minneapolis, MN. Special guests that evening will include Sam Keenan, Ali Gray and Rock the Cure.
It is clear from the progress of the group's last three albums that the group has been evolving away from country music.
So where have Patrik and the Men ended up with this latest album?
I have no problem calling it either pop or rock. But whatever you want to call it, it's certainly not the pop or rock any of us grew up with.
With Full Auto Shut-Off, Patrik Tanner has taken pop music out of high school and has given it a contemporary intellect with a modern sensibility along with a hard jagged edge.
This music will blast through your facade and tear away your pretensions. One must have a strong heart, and a brilliant mind to withstand the challenge that this music presents. The weak and feeble minded should seek their music elsewhere.
We're lucky in the rock/pop music world that every few years there will be someone who can reinvent the way the whole thing looks, and sounds, and tastes, and vibrates, and makes you think. But in the end, they all make you feel the same way. They all make you feel like there is hope for the human race. For that I thank Patrik, and all the rockers who have gone before him.
Two more words...
At this time I would like Patrik Tanner to stand and accept well earned applause. Michelle, you may need to assist Patrick. I'm not positive our insurance coverage extends beyond midnight.
We will now excuse Patrik and Michelle, so they can join their other band members; Jon James and Brandon Fjetland.
The bar is now open. Let's party!
CLICK on the player below to hear Patrik Tanner and the Faraway Men perform at the Chewy Choice lifetime achievement award dinner honoring Patrik Tanner. They perform "Never Tell" and "The Unseen".
Patrik Tanner & the Faraway Men are pleased to announce that 50% of all the sales of Full Auto Shut-Off will be donated to Rock the Cure. (www.rockthecure.org) This is a special organization for Patrik as Full Auto Shut-Off was written and recorded during his mother's struggle and untimely death due to breast and bone cancer.
Rock the Cure's mission is to eradicate women's cancers, specifically but not limited to breast cancer, through fund raising efforts, then distribute these funds to organizations that provide for treatment, education and prevention of cancers. Their fund raisers are music-themed events, celebrations of the strength of women who have fought and continue to fight cancer.
