When Jake Cinninger, lead guitarist of Umphrey's McGee was describing the progression of the Umphrey's tune in the documentary "A Day in the Dock," he said the phrase “less is more, always.” Those words for some reason hit close to home for me. Now if I find that I’m having a hard time doing something or if I feel that I’m not doing enough, I remind myself that less is more, always. And that perfectly sums up how jake has been taking on this quarantine. He’s done less in the eyes of the community but has come out swinging with so much more.
Jake has never been one to turn to social media during his down time from the ins and outs of his life touring with the band. Even now, in a time where one of the main constants in our lives is scrolling through Facebook or Twitter, he chooses to take an absence. But this doesn’t necessarily mean that he has been taking a break. Jake has really been quite busy in his home recording studio, known as Boondock Studio, in Niles, Michigan. Occasionally he drops little treats for us so we can see what he has been working on in quarantine. Jake has an enthralling mind and it’s exciting to get a peek into how he does what he does.
Jake took this unforeseen gift of time to pay even more attention to his music. Instead of creating a social media persona, he released a couple of enticing original pieces. “Easter in Quarantine” was the first to appear, having been released on April 10th. This melancholic song was written and recorded by Jake who sent it to Bayliss so he could layer some vocal tracks in. He broke out the saxophone, one instrument that he has never played for an Umphrey’s tune, for this recording. He also gave us a glimpse into some of his roots with a rather haunting piano piece called “Slate” which was released on May 22nd. This was a creative piece and kind of gave us a look into the maze that is Jake’s brain. This one is more of an experimental piece and has an amazingly beautiful and eerie energy to it. Almost that of a classical pianist. These original songs got his juices flowing and prompted him to provide us with more.
When the word got around that Jake was releasing a documentary of his days at Boondock Studio, there was no hiding the excitement steaming off the Jake lovers out there. This forty-five-minute documentary named “A Day in the Dock” was released through Vimeo on July 16th. The people who purchased this documentary were gifted a little preview of Jake playing the song “Romanza” by Mauro Malavasi on one of his acoustic guitars. This would give the viewers a little taste of what was to come in this film and once the documentary came out, the viewers were finally sucked into his everyday life in the studio.
The documentary started with Jake sitting in the front room of his studio which is, by now, a familiar place to the people of the umphreak community. He started with an original tune that he aptly named “COVID 5.” This song was soothing and reflected the teaser video of “Ramanza” from before. He laid down some piano tracks and a low key, tribal drumbeat beforehand that he played this ghostly Spanish guitar influenced song over it. Right away you got to see a great skill set of Jakes. You were given a look into various techniques he uses to make his guitar tell a story. The unpredictability of Jake’s progression skills was perfectly reflected here in this beginning tune.
Next, we got to watch the step by step process of how he would create a song. He started out on a small keyboard, playing a sneaky sounding tune that made you kind of sit back and think. The foundation that the keyboard was sitting on almost couldn't handle what Jake was doing while he was in pure creation mode. Then, almost like a chef adding ingredients to a dish, he moved onto the drums to add some spice to the song. His quirky style on the drums added a whole new flavor to the song but he wasn’t don’t with it just yet. He moved onto a 4003 Rickenbacker bass for the third overdub and to complete the song. The bass complimented the piano part that he laid out first perfectly and it flowed with such ease.
Another skill set was highlighted as Jake went over to his piano and started on this extremely chilling improvisational piano piece (but not before summoning the improvisational gods). He not only played the keys of the piano but also took his guitar pick to the strings of the piano as to create a whole new spooky level to the song. He was no doubt giving us some tender tunes to resemble the uneasiness of the world right now with these first couple of tunes.
You are then taken into the part of the studio where he does the non-instrument part of putting a song together. There he took us on a journey of the beginning parts of an Umphrey's song he had been working on. This appropriately song titled “COVID 10” is to have an “Anchor Drops” vibe. He takes us through what he has imagined for the song; the change up of the time signatures, what influences he wants for it and how he plans to build it further with the rest of the band. It was almost hard to keep up with the knowledge that he was puking out about where he wants this song to go. I’m sure I’m not alone when I say that I can’t wait to see where this one ends up. The documentary ends with Jake treating us all to a couple of classic Umphrey’s songs like “Women Wine and Song,” “Bad Poker” (which Jake claimed to be “a la Townes Van Zandt”), and a “raw dog” “40’s Theme,” with a tease of “Soul Food II” in the middle, to close out the film.
Jake also started to offer online lessons back in the beginning of quarantine with Live Lesson Masters (which has since been changed to Lively). He even added the option to do a twenty-minute hangout session with him. On April 22nd I had a zoom hangout with Jake. After just twenty minutes with Jake, I was overflowing with information from him. He spit out so much knowledge to me that I had to quickly write it all down right after so I wouldn’t forget it. Jake not only does lessons and hangouts online but in the middle of the summer he started to offer some private shows.
On July 31st a group of very dedicated umphreaks gathered around their devices to witness the very first private show that Jake would perform. Sara Jachimiak had the brilliant idea of a private jake show for her birthday. This extremely personal experience reaches up to ten households, so you and all your favorite umphreaks can enjoy this socially distant show together. The total was $1,500 which, yes, it is a lot of money to shell out, but the moment that Jake said, “hi guys!” I knew that it was worth it. All my COVID nightmares melted away and my soul felt right for the first time since February. And funny enough, this just happened to fall on my 6th year umph anniversary, and I couldn’t have been happier than to spend it like this. We even got the treat of having Jim Leep accompany Jake on some songs.
Everyone attending this private show slowly trickled in as “Money Pit” from Ali Baba’s Tahini’s new album Bottom Feeders played through my computer's speakers. Both Jake and Jim wanted to start right away because there was no time to waste with all the wonderful music that they had planned for us. After all, we were the first group to do this with him, or his “Guinea pigs” as he claimed us to be. He explained his process of laying down drum beats and bass lines for the show beforehand. Sort of like a one-man band thing. He held a kid in a candy shop way about him as he settled into this new way of sharing his music with us.
The night started out with “Birthday” by The Beatles with Jim Leep on backup vocals. And right away, smiles spread across the faces on my screen and I was home. I would be lying to you guys if I said I didn’t cry because after he played the first riff of that song, the first tears of the night crept their way into my eyes.
The rest of the set list for the night was:
“Great American” (Umphrey’s Mcgee)
“Fearless” (Pink Floyd, **with a slowed down tempo)
“Baker Street” (Gerry Rafferty)
“They Love Each Other”(Grateful Dead, **with a slowed down tempo and Jim Leep on Back up vocals)
“Enjoy the Silence” (Depeche Mode)
“A Day in the Life” (The Beatles)
“So Far Away” (Dire Straits)
“Eye in the sky” (Allan Parsons' Project)
“Red Room Disco” (Umphrey’s McGee, with a “5 Dollar Foot Long” tease. And yes, Jake knows who wrote that jingle, insert name here lol)
“Soul Food”> “Soul Food II” (Umphrey’s McGee, with Jim Leep on background dancing and with a special Sara J shoutout!)
“Moonlight Mile” (The Rolling Stones)
“Doctor My Eyes” (Jackson Brown, with a Lynard Skynards “Swamp Music” tease before)
As quickly as it had began, it was over. Even though it was through a screen, it felt so good to be dancing with my friends again. It was the boogie session that my soul needed. He was very thankful for us supporting him doing this. It was such a cool experience to see him play all his favorite songs that has been “haunting his ear worms” since he was a child. It was also awesome to hear up close and personal stories about his life, his kids and his discovery of the songs that he played for us. Just his musical knowledge alone is enough to set any sane mind spinning into space. Reluctantly, he signed off by saying that he loved us (insert fan girl cry here). I highly recommend doing one of these because even though there were a few technical difficulties (yes, even Jake has them) this was a night that I won't ever forget.
With a couple of live streams, drive in shows, and new technological skills under his belt, there just may be no stopping this man when it comes to the future of music production. Jake has turned an unfortunate happening to the world into something that has touched each and every one of our lives. Umphrey's McGee may not be as active as they once were, but we have gotten to appreciate them in a different light through things like what Jake has been doing. We have gotten to appreciate each musician individually and now we all can wildly appreciate this band. Because of each individual members activities such as Jakes I, as well as everyone in the community, am thrilled to see what comes next.
"A Day in the Dock": https://vimeo.com/ondemand/adayinthedock/425990402
DATC Podcast Episode 113- about “A Day in the Dock“ and the private jake show: https://droppedamongthiscrowdpod.simplecast.com/episodes/day-in-the-dock-recap-a-rundown-about-private-birthday-show-with-jake-cinninger
Jake Lessons: https://golive.ly/host/jake-cinninger
A huge thank you to Skip Martin (AKA Skype Murteen for all you tweeting umphreaks) for having this picture for me to use!
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