Split Pea/ce: rare video of Cleveland's lyrical poetry revolution

Mike Marcellino and Abe Alvido as Split Pea/ce

(Video by John Burroughs)

Split Pea/ce rips poetry, electric guitar 
at  legendary Mac's Backs on Coventry


This is a rare, maybe the only known video recording of poet Mike Marcellino and guitarist Abe Olvido performing their lyrical poetry music.  Thanks to fellow poet and friend John Burroughs for being at the show and recording this video.


This show with Marcellino and multi-media artist Olvido as the band, Split Pea/ce, was recorded at the legendary Mac's Backs Bookstore on Coventry in Cleveland Heights, Ohio on October 8, 2008.  That was the year Mike started his musical poetry adventures after showing Abe one of his poems earlier that year.  He's not sure which one started it all.


In this video Split Pea/ce performs several of Mike's early songs: been down ta Las Cruces, Asterisks after innocence, Full moon Baltimore and West of the Pecos. 


In case you're not familiar, Coventry Village in Cleveland is a miniature Midwest version of Greenwich Village in New York City or Haight Ashbury in San Francisco - places where the Sixties still survives in spots.  Also, in case you wonder, looking at this rare video, Abe rarely faced the audience while creating his music.  


Mike now knows why he left the snows of Cleveland for the surf of St. Augustine as he looks rather peaked at the Mac's Backs show. His hair and beard are mostly blond now bleached by the tropical sun, salt spray and lemon juice.

Split Pea/ce performed many times in Cleveland in 2008 and 2009 from the East Side to the West Side and South.

The band's home base was the legendary Barking Spider Tavern on the campus of Case Western Reserve University, just down the road from Algebra Tea House on the old red brick Murray Hill Road in Little Italy where Mike and Abe met. 

Mike reads his poetry songs at International Human Rights Day in Cleveland as renowned reggae musician Carlos Jones jumps off stage.  (Photo by The Plain Dealer)

Some of the classic performances of Split Pea/ce included The Battle of the Bands at Peabody's where the crowds of teens and twenty somethings went wild, jumping up on stage and asking Mike to sign copies of his rip and read lyrics on perforated rolls of computer printing paper.

Split Pea/ce performs at Visible Voice Books in Cleveland

Mike Marcellino with noted poet and musician Ray McNiece at the Barking Spider Tavern

While Mike did talk with record company scouts, Split Pea/ce wasn't signed to a label. Another of the band's memorable shows was at Visible Voice Books in the Tremont neighborhood, just across the Cuyahoga River from downtown.

In September of 2009 Mike left Cleveland to bring his lyrical poetry to the cafes, art galleries and festivals of New York City from the Lower East Side to Greenwich Village and Williamsburg in Brooklyn. Now he surfs the beaches of St. Augustine, America's oldest city.  Mike performs and records with musicians Tomas Texino in St. Augustine, Florida and Randall Leddy in New York City.  

In the fall of 2010 to help promote his New York City shows, Mike and Texino produced a 6-song CD "Notebook Writer."  A few copies remain and can be had for a price.  Just comment on this bog if you're interested in this classic album. 

Mike Marcellino on ReverbNation

Mike Marcellino as Split Pea/ce on MySpace

Check back as Mike's out looking for the lyrics to these four songs to post up. 

Invite your friends to listen to our poetry music

Flatbush
a new lyrical poetry song

To listen click on the link to our music site -

Mike Marcellino's ReverbNation music site

Randall Leddy from Flatbush wrote the music and plays bass on the song joining Mike Marcellino, songwriter and vocalist.  The song was actually recorded in Flatbush.

Tomas Texino, wrote and composed the music for our other five songs.

Please share the link to our ReverbNation site with your friends on Facebook and other social networks. Help us grow our audience.   We have regular followers on ReverbNation from 17 states.  Our fans also come from Indonesia, New Zealand, Italy, India, UK, The Czech Republic, Germany, Mexico, and Australia.


Be a listener and fan on ReverbNation or Mike Marcellino's music page on Facebook (band profile).  To be a fan it's easy to register as a fan on ReverbNation and it's free.  There are also hundreds of thousands of talented musicians on the site.

We've now up to #44 among the Top Folk Artists on ReverbNation's New York City Charts.  Help us get to the Top 10!

There's also a music player at the top of this blog.


Here's an example of what people are saying about our songs -

"Incredible work! Love it! So creative and artistic...so thoughtful and deep and engaging...with perfect music for each piece... Just went through all the tracks and shared"
- Joe Gande, singer songwriter, New York City

Thanks,

Mike, Randall and Tomas

Alphabet Coffeehouse, a new song

"It's wonderful! Thank you for telling me about it! It reminds me very much of the East Village and that day."

– Rebecca Turner, New Jersey singer songwriter, after listening to Alphabet Coffeehouse.


Alphabet Coffeehouse

Lyrics and vocal 
by Mike Marcellino

Music by Tomas Texino

Alphabet Coffeehouse,

“Where can it be?”

Wandering streets,

A to Z

the East Side,

New York City

aimlessly,

late afternoon, after a show.

Red, white and blue

chipped, cracked lettered

no name circle concrete park,

bed of violet flowers

in the middle,

back lit

crimson eyed Susan’s

no name circle concrete park.

Alphabet Coffeehouse,

“Where can it be?”

sundown of existence,

A to Z

the East Side,

New York City,

10^th and C.

Only a clue,

whisper,

unknown friend, fellow traveler

searchin’ for the

Alphabet Coffeehouse

9^th and C,

‘round the corner from Banjo Jim’s.

“It’s nothing,” the young man replied,

aimlessly.

“Everything is nothing here,” he said again,

“nothing” about

Alphabet Coffeehouse

“Where can it be?”

A to Z,

red, white and blue

no name circle concrete park,

flag pole,

no colors up.

“Everything is nothing here,”

echoed across

the East Side,

New York City’s

middle a projects

brick, white window sills

houses of thirteen stories.

Jump rope,

rapping voices,

rollerblades,

bikes

black and brown

German Sheppard

walkin'

over a freeway

crooked overpass -

bottom of 10^th,

East River Park.

Softball diamonds,

a dog like Sally with her master,

cars speeding, either way.

Banjo Jim’s open.

“Listen,”

the LA country girl sings,

Rebecca Turner,

no cover.

Alphabet Coffeehouse, copyright by Mike Marcellino 2009

Photos of Banjo Jim's in East Village, New York City from www.banjojims.com and Rebecca Turner, singer songwriter, from her bio on www.rebeccaturner.net

The making of music

A band of brothers
by Mike Marcellino

Eight weeks ago, a writing and musical journey began when I again hooked up with an old Army buddy, Tomas Texino.  We served in the Vietnam War together.  Tomas makes a mandolin sing, plays guitar, writes fascinating and funny stories about bluegrass music and whatever else he feels like, like stuff about Rozz Savage rowing around the world and playin' a one-on-one game of basketball against his buddy Bill Monroe shootin' at a hoop that comes outa the trunk of Bill's Cadillac.

My friend played in a cool bluegrass band, "Salt Run," for many years out of St. Augustine, Florida. Never forget our time together as far up in he mountains in Virginia as you can get, for the Carter Family Memorial Concert years ago.

This September, I found Tomas once again after a 10 year absence and we began to see what we could do with some of the poetry songs I'd written.

Well, out came "Amelia Earhart, soft silver wings" about the fearless aviator, just in time for the release of "Amelia," starring Hilary Swank.  I didn't know about the film, but got a MySpace message from her cousin, saying she liked the piece and that she isn't biased and thinks Hilary will win another Academy Award.

Haven't seen "Amelia" yet.  Was waiting for my special invite to a private screening.  The film kinda got ripped up by most critics, but then that's why they call them critics.

Tomas played mandolin on the song, composed it, threw in a bass. Singer songwriter David Dowling was on his guitar for the recording at a house in St. Augustine.  We had dinner together; it was a beautiful night overlooking America's oldest city the Spanish settled in the 1600s.  That recording night was priceless.

Along the way I got back to my first love - surfing.  Body surfed nearly every day for five weeks.  Caught one four foot wave and shot right out the curl.

Then Tomas and I did another piece, "Las Cruces," about living on a tiny horse ranch in the desert hills in southeast New Mexico, near the border.  It brought me back to wandering the streets of Juarez, Mexico, just a few months after getting out of Vietnam and the Army.  I had served as a combat correspondent and photojournalist and met Tomas as he worked helping refugees build a new life and a new village.  They called it "civic action" back then.  I think we need a lot more "civic action" and a lot less killing in places like Afghanistan, Iraq and the streets and Army bases in America.

To record "Flatbush" with musician Randall Leddy I left the surf and  hopped a train to New York City.  Randall's father served in the Special Forces in the U.S. Army.   "Flatbush" is about a writer's view of life in the West Indian neighborhood in Brooklyn.  Special thanks goes to Randall's wife, Stacy Rock, a very talented, emerging singer songwriter.  Yes, that's her read name and she comes from a small  town in the middle of Montana.  Now she's making passionate, music in New York, mixing her classical background with pop,, rock  and folk.

On the way to Brooklyn, I had sort of a homecoming in Baltimore were I was "born and early raised" (a phrase from a song I wrote, "Full moon Baltimore" recorded by my first band, Split Pea/ce in Cleveland).  I performed a solo gig without music at the Baltimore Hostel for a poetry series, "Last Sunday, Last Rights," put on by Pat King, the go to guy for Outsider Writers, a writers' cooperative I've been a part of the past couple of years.  After all these years, I discovered the original "Washington Monument" isn't in DC but in Baltimore.

When I got back down to Florida, limping as my left calf kept freezing up, Tomas and I finished work on our band's fourth song, the hardest one to do - "The Walls of Fire."

In "The Walls of Fire" I traced the sacrifice and courage of American soldiers from the Civil War through World War II, Korea, Vietnam  Iraq and Afghanistan.  We started on it before my trip to New York City but it sounded just too sad.

Tomas figured that Irish tin whistles were just the sound to turn horror into a band of brothers tackling anything and everything thrown at them.  Mandolin and a drum are also in the piece.

Now, I'm wonderin' just what's going on.  In eight weeks, the Mike Marcellino Band has reached 64 among the Top Folk Artist in New York City on the ReverbNation charts.  Not sure what that means, except there are 400,000 bands on that music site and we also rose to 654 in the United States and 965 in the world.

We reached a milestone today, recording the 9000th play on our MySpace music site.

We appreciate people listening and reading the lyrics.

We released "The Walls of Fire" on Veterans Day.  It's an important piece to us, taking us back to 1968 when we served together in Vietnam.  Not sure how we survived; just lucky.  Many of our brothers in arms didn't.

Looking down the road, we hope to put out our first CD, play some paid gigs. No matter what happens with the band, I'll be getting a surf board by spring.

A national award winning newspaper reporter and congressional and mayor aide, I now have my sights set on being a rock star.  Trouble is my eyesight is fading.

We do appreciate people listening to our music and especially their comments.  We hope you'll continue, some day buy a CD or pay a few bucks to hear us play.

After the release of "The Walls of Fire" on Veterans Day I was surprised to get a comment on ReverbNation from a musician, Destination Dawn from Ocala, Florida.

Later I found that "DD" is the Top Alternative Artists in the world on ReverbNation with tens of thousands of fans.  She wrote this about our band -


("Flatbush") Cool spoken word!!!Great music and interesting revelations!!! 


("The Walls of Fire") has great background music and effects that befit the deep revealing words. You have an intriguing style. 


Wishing you all the best and much continued success with all your endeavors!!!
Much Love, 
DD


Hope DD doesn't mind that I included her last sentence.  Her comments are both very sweet and quite encouraging.  


Didn't ask her if she makes any money from her music though.


By the way, thanks to the modern techie miracles I finally figured out, you may listen to Mike Marcellino  right on the ReverbNation Widget on my Networked Blog, "The Point of the Whole Thing."  


Here I thought a "widget" had something to do with croquet.

Band of brothers, by Mike Marcellino, copyright 2009