Former New York guitarist Joe Caro debuts ‘Friday Night Live’
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With an extensive resume that includes playing with a host of legendary musicians from Aretha Franklin and the Eagles to James Taylor and Mick Fleetwood, guitarist Joe Caro will present a special "Friday Night Live" show Aug. 29 at Mulligans on the Blue.
A veteran New York session musician who moved to Maui in 2006, he explained the show's concept: "Opposed to doing a night of me as an artist playing my music, the idea is to find a fun place for everybody to come and hang out. In New York, there was always one place where everybody went to hang out. There was a club called Mikell's where a band called Stuff used to play four nights a week with Steve Gadd, Richard Tee, Cornell Dupree, and Eric Gale. They did all cover tunes. As much as you'd go there to hear them play, you'd go there to meet your friends and make new friends."
Accompanying Caro at Mulligan's are bassist Jay Molina, Mark Johnstone from the Mick Fleetwood Blues Band on keyboards, and drummer Marty Fera, who has played with the Eagles' Glenn Frey, Joe Walsh and Dave Mason.
"I met Marty while he was still working with Glenn Frey," said Caro. "He was on the road with him and he met Dave Mason here and goes on the road with Dave."
The music director for Fleetwood's House of Rumors band, Caro enjoys coming up with unique interpretations of familiar songs. "I have three albums out of my own, and on one of my records, I have the Hendrix tune, 'Fire,' and I do it nothing like he does. With Mick I used to do the Animals' tune, 'We Gotta Get Out of This Place,' but do it kind of like the Police would do it. I usually do an arrangement of (the Beatles') 'Strawberry Fields.' I'm not going to do a cover band thing where all I do is the same thing that everybody else does."
Raised in Queens, New York, he got his first guitar at the age of 8 after seeing the Beatles on TV.
"Ricky Nelson was the first time I ever saw anybody hold a guitar," he recalled. "I got to meet McCartney once in New York. I thanked him for a career. I told him in the beginning I had no idea he played the bass. I thought it was the guitar. So, I took up the guitar. The guy is so gracious and upbeat. I said to him, 'I have two kids, and they're like 6 and 8, and they sing Beatles songs every day.' He's just like, 'Thanks, man.' He makes you feel like it's the first time you ever heard it, and he really cares. Truly one of the most amazing individuals I've met."
Besides playing and touring with a host of artists, Caro performed on "The Late Show with David Letterman" and "Saturday Night Live." "I was in the (SNL) pit band quite a few times," he said. "I was the sub in the pit band. I did the last show that (Dan) Ackroyd and (John) Belushi did."
A longtime friend of Paul Schaffer, who directed the Letterman band, "I did that many times also," he said. "Paul and I were tight way before he got the gig and I was the guy who last minute, 'we need somebody.'"
More recently he played with Schaffer on tours with symphony orchestras. "He hired an orchestra arranger in Belgium to write all of these orchestral arrangements for a 60-piece orchestra of songs that you would never hear live like Barry White's 'Love's Theme,' The Righteous Brothers, Phil Spector, The Beatles 'A Day in the Life,' Motown songs, all with strings, horns, singers, all of that stuff. We would go to Winnipeg, or Los Angeles, or Pittsburgh and do a one-day rehearsal with the orchestra there. The next day he would do a show."
Some of his memorable gigs included various "New York Nights" shows with Michael McDonald, Steely Dan's Donald Fagen and guitarist Pat Metheny, where, "I'd put the band together and basically run the whole thing," he said.
Caro has fond memories of the 10 years he spent with New Orleans legend Dr. John.
"He has his own vernacular," Caro noted. "He purposely mispronounced words. Things like you go into the studio, 'I'll go get the parking ticket violated.' Or, 'man, just last week I had corporate tunnel syndrome,' or 'that cat was bipolar bear.' If you found a way to say it right, he would find a way to say it wrong."
One of the highlights was the night he joined the Eagles.
"Paul Schaffer would get these gigs to organize big benefits," he said. "One was at Radio City Music Hall, and we ended up backing Lenny Kravitz, Sheryl Crow, the Eagles, and Crosby, Stills and Nash. I did a duet with Jon Bon Jovi, just he and I. The Eagles and Crosby, Stills and Nash did 'Teach Your Children.' Then they did 'Peaceful Easy Feeling.' It was Glenn Frey, Tim Schmit and Don Henley. Joe Walsh wasn't there, and I got to play the guitar solo. I jokingly said to Timothy Schmit, I've always wanted to play with the Eagles. He said, 'Welcome to the Eagles, man.'"
"Joe Caro's Friday Night Live" debuts at 7:30 p.m. Aug. 29 at Mulligans on the Blue. Admission is $10.