Chagall Guevara: Revolutionary Art, Halcyon Days, & Long-Play Redemption

John Thompson July 19, 2022

The musical highways and byways of this great land are littered with the bedazzled corpses of countless, failed, one-shot rock bands. How many of them, though, would be able to enlist the support of thousands of fans three decades after their demise and raise over $140,000 to mix and master a long-lost live recording – and – release a new studio album – and – celebrate it all with a blistering live show at none other than Music City’s hallowed Ryman Auditorium? That’s what Nashville’s Chagall Guevara just did. True Tunes’ John J. Thompson was invited to the band’s secret Music City rehearsal lair for an extended conversation about everything from their origin in the late 80s to their unlikely resurrection during a global pandemic. Steve Taylor, Dave Perkins, Mike Mead, and Lynn Nichols are our guests on this episode of the True Tunes Podcast as we contemplate Halcyon Days, memory, and just how amazing “failure” can sound in the right hands.

On the Jukebox, we take a listen to Taylor’s long-lost Squint Entertainment label and how he channeled his artistic frustration and lessons learned into an artist development story that launched one of the biggest global hits of the 90s; (Sixpence None The Richer’s “Kiss Me,”) as well as Burlap To Cashmere, LA Symphony, Chevelle, and more. (Full music list and more can be found on the SHOW NOTES PAGE at TrueTunes.com/halcyon.)

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Check out Brian Quincy Newcomb’s REVIEW of Chagall Guevara’s Ryman concert with Over The Rhine HERE.

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MUSIC LIST:

Opening

Phil Keaggy & Rex Paul – Full Circle (podcast theme)

Chagall Guevara – Candy Guru; Play God; I Need Somebody; Can You Feel the Chains?; Violent Blue; I Still Know Your Number By Heart; Take Me Back to Love Canal

Steve Taylor – The Lament of Desmond R.G. Underwood-Frederick IV

Set One

Chagall Guevara – The Wrong George; I, Madness; Clampdown; Halcyon Days; Escher’s World

Dave Perkins – Orbit

Leslie Phillips – Libera Me

Phil Keaggy – I Always Do

Sam Phillips – Remorse

Steve Taylor – A Principled Man

iDEōLA – Is It Any Wonder

Set Two

Chagall Guevara – The Rub of Love; Love is a Dead Language; Violent Blue; Working for MCA; Tale O’ The Twister; If It All Comes True; Murder in the Big House

JUKEBOX

Steve Taylor – The Moshing Floor

Sixpence None the Richer – Love; Kiss Me (1998 live version); The Ground You Shook; Kiss Me (1999 live version)

Burlap to Cashmere – Digee Dime; Basic Instructions (live version)

Chevelle – Blank Earth; Point #1

Waterdeep – he Will Come

L.A. Symphony – Very Expensive; Broken Tape Decks

Pigeon John – Gotta Good Feeling (Live)

The Insyderz – Mourning Into Dancing

Ashley Cleveland & Michael Tait – Salt and Light

Ladysmith Black Mambazo and Charlie Peacock – ‘Akehlulek’ Ubaba (With God Everything Is Possible)

PRF – Falling (Live); Gone

Set Three

Chagall Guevara – I Still Know Your Number By Heart; A Bullet’s Worth a Thousand Words; Resurrection #9; Goldfingers; I, Madness; Treasure of the Broken Land; Surrender; Finest Worksong; Got Any Change?; Tale O’ The Twister (Cornerstone ’91 version)

Soapbox

Sivion & Jon Corbin – Blinders (Remix Instrumental)