Musicians Featured:

• Mike Baggetta - acoustic & electric guitars, live processing

• Jim Keltner - drums & percussion

• Mike Watt - electric bass

Album Artwork:

• Cover Art by Michael J. Hentz

• Back Cover Photography by Chris Schlarb

• Layout by David J. Woodruff

Press:

“Wall of Flowers will explore all kinds of musical directions for this group, delving into surf rock, ballads, and all sorts of improvisations that are definitely worth some rumination. “ — Guitar Moderne Interview

Also reviewed in Jazz Trail, Jazz Times, and Next Bop.

Liner Notes by Peter Margasak:

Mike Baggetta has never seen himself as a mere jazz guitarist. He’s a sharp improviser with a voracious musical appetite, and he’d been dreaming of something elusive, something broader. Working closely with LA producer Chris Schlarb, Baggetta has delivered the most succinct and immediate recording of his prolific career. He chose to pursue a desire to work with a rhythm section that had “the deepest, snakiest, most off-kilter grooves I could imagine and to lean heavily towards improvising throughout the session.” For most of the album he’s joined by the unlikely dream team of bassist ‪Mike Watt and drummer ‪Jim Keltner, the wildly prolific session ace well-known for his work with ‪Ry Cooder, ‪John Hiatt, and ‪Bob Dylan, among countless others—both musicians he’d long admired but had never met. Thanks to Schlarb, they all came together in the late spring of 2017.
Together Watt and Keltner craft a massive, strolling pocket for the guitarist’s gorgeous, surf-infused “Hospital Song" driving Baggetta to unspool liquid lines of crystalline purity, without a wasted gesture; a brief, solo prelude of the same theme sets the tone. There’s an echo of ‪David Bowie’s “Space Oddity” in the melody of the title track, but the rhythm section’s elastic conception of time and the guitar solo’s leapfrogging, breath-defying patterns push things definitively into what he calls post-genre turf. In between are a pair lava-thick excursions into free composition that bring out the instinctual genius of his collaborators. They’re surrounded by a fragile solo exploration aglow in atmosphere and two disparate navigations of ‪Bobby Vinton’s “Blue Velvet”—one a tender and harmonics-spiked solo, the other a delicately woozy duet with Keltner. As Baggetta says of the meeting, “Sometimes the best thing to do is not say very much at all and trust.”

Liner Notes by Mike Watt:

getting the invite from chris schlarb to join mike baggetta and jim keltner in a one-day only throw down in his big ego studio had me a little freaked out... not out of my mind like it was some kind of burden unless that "burden" meant making sure I didn't let anyone down. though I've worked a bunch for chris and have always dug it much, it was my first time w/mike and jim. first off, they both got real nice spirits and was a joy to be around as people. as musicians, whoa, they brought out in me stuff that other sitch's usually don't prove - I'm very much indebted to them for having me aboard. I was so scared of what came out that it took some while to get the nerve up to listen... then I dug it so much, I must've played it all the way through like eight straight times as I heard it in the boat (my my ford e350 econoline) while rolling through my pedro town. "whoa!" I thought, "I got to be a part of this? crimony!" mike baggetta in my opinion is a very lyrical and emotional player, much feeling and deep-down coming out of his guitar for me... so glad to be there for him especially knowing inside how scared shitless I was, even trembling though I tried hard not to show that. now getting to be a rhythm section w/jim keltner, man... total mindblow! he is the man w/the beat in his hand. he's also carving out landscapes, using vocabulary to make the percussion definitely a discussion - much respect! sometimes chris had us follow mike's charts, sometimes he wanted us to just let the freak flag fly - chris schlarb performed his "man outside the van" work w/the knobs and the navigational spiel in the most essential aiding and abetting to make this trio actually a four piece in so many ways. what an unforgettable afternoon for me in north long beach. I am eternally grateful to these fine gentlemen to be part of this album!