NOVELIST, LAWYER, MUSICIAN

Aram is the author of four novels, which you can find below. He is a pioneer in the new art of podcasting fiction. After studying writing for the theater with Stephen Sondheim and flamenco guitar with Carlos Montoya, he was a founding member and the lyricist of Ten Wheel Drive, a rock group which was active in the late 60's-early 70's, and produced disco hits for D.C. Larue and Whirlwind in the mid 70's, BBG (before Bee Gees). A graduate of Columbia College and Harvard Law School, he practices law in Rhode Island, Massachusetts and Florida and lives in Wellington, Florida with his wife, two dogs, four cats and three polo ponies.


Wednesday, January 16, 2008

FOUND ANOTHER REVIEW OF CONSTRUCTION #1


Ten Wheel Drive was a band that formed after Genya Ravan's all-female band Goldie and the Gingerbreads broke up. Around the same time Michael Zager and Aram Schefrin were also looking for a band as well. After being introduced to each other by their managers and also after filling the entire brass section Ten Wheel Drive was officially born. The thing about Zager, Schefrin, and Ravan is that they all came from a different musical background, so they all had to find a way to mix and match these to create the best possible formula for Ten Wheel Drive, and they did an amazing job.

Their first big show was in 1969 at the Fillmore East in New York where halfway through the show Genya Ravan decided that her voice and the music behind it wasn't quite enough for the crowd so she decided to take off her vest and perform the last half of the show topless.

Ten Wheel Drive is some very, very intense psychedelic-afro funk/blues/soul music that is seemingly way ahead of its time. Genya Ravan's voice bears an uncanny resemblance to Janis Joplin's voice, but the band backing Genya makes this album so much more heavy than any of Joplin's records. The only time Joplin's music even came close to resembling this was at Woodstock when she had Kozmic Blues backing her, but the thing about that is that Ten Wheel Drive had already done that so to anyone who knew anything about would have known that it really wasn't that revolutionary. There is just so many different backing instruments playing that the music just becomes so intricate and elaborate that it fully separates itself from any genre or band of that time . Genya's voice can go from so soothing and smooth to just a "sharp as razor blades" screech that just makes you feel the soul in every single song. The brass and rhythm section backing also adds to the overall funk/soul sound of this album. You get this big-band-ish , psychedelic, funky, soul sound out of every song and you can sense each individual musicians different musical background as the ball all of them up to create an amazing album. There is just not a bad song on this album. Every song carries the same amount of absolute soul and this unique sound that you just can't find anywhere else.

Prove me wrong. Don't forget to comment.

Enjoy.

Here's the link.


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BRIEF REPLIES - TEN WHEEL DRIVE



This one, too.

I'M A RIDA - 50 CENT



50 Cent sampled some TWD tune - can't remember which, 'cause I hate what he did with it - for "I'm A Rida" which he used on the soundtrack of his video game Bulletproof.

That one we got paid for. Sort of.