Artistic suicide or new horizon? I wasn't sure about doing an entire set of new and unreleased songs. I did it anyway. On Sunday, December 21, 2008, I played two sets of acoustic music at Deep South the Bar in Raleigh, NC. I greatly enjoyed the venue. It was clean, cool, and all about the music. I like it when venues are about music.

I drew mainly from my "morning pages" writings, a collection of songs that I wrote beginning back in September of 2008. The idea was to write without agenda and just see what happened. Often, the writing was bad. Sometimes, it was quite good. The first set I played was:

Come Alive
The Morning Bird
Home Again
3308
Holes in the Sky
Nightmares
The Door
Shine On
Goodbye
Roller Coaster
Wicked Light
Where There's a Door

Half of the "new" material was taken from the pages. The other half was from demos, projects, fodder, etc, that hasn't been used as of yet, but probably needs to get a fair shake. I still can't figure out why "Nightmares" never made it on to anything yet. It was written just months after "October" and feels like it maybe should have had a similar resonance in my life. I guess some songs make it...some don't. I'm hoping to give that song a good spot on spring.

The second set was an all-request set. It was about two hours long. The only songs I brought to the table were "Automatic" and "On My Way." The others were all by request from anyone who was there. There was at least one song requested from each of my records. "Dirty Wake" and "4 1/2 Days Ago" were memorable requests.

The show was a lot of fun. I hope everyone had a good time.

It was a great weekend of shows. I'll start by recapping the first of the two.

Mark and I played an opening set at the Blind Tiger on December, 20, 2008. We opened for Cravin' Melon, a band who used to play quite a bit around the south east during the mid to late 90's, much like Athenaeum did. It was an honor to be asked to be a part of this show.

We did a bunch of new songs. A cover song (which we will eventually nail down) eluded us at sound check. We're excited about bringing that song to the set.

Our set was:

Last Night
Hey, Angel
I'm Still Waiting
Baby, I'm Your Man
Two Shadows
The Best Is Yet To Come
Automatic
Walking on Broadway
October
Sad Songs
Another Day in Paradise
Telling You I Love You

For those who missed us, we'll be playing on January 17th, 2009 at Local 506 in Chapel Hill, NC opening for Longwave. See you there!

Like the poster says, I'll be doing a solo show on December 21st of this month. I'll be playing at Deep South the Bar in Raleigh, NC at 8 pm on that Sunday night.

I hope to play two sets of material. The first set will be all new songs. The second set will be older, familiar songs; the ones that most people want to hear. I'm looking forward to it.

The night before, on December 20th, Mark and I will be doing an acoustic duo set at the Blind Tiger. We'll be opening for Cravin' Melon. If Bubs and Z hadn't already used the name, wouldn't Two-O-Duo be a great name for an acoustic duo? Giving credit where credit is due, I'm obviously a Homestar Runner fan.

Tonight, of course, is Joe's Cover band explosion. I'll be taking the stage with some new friends to pay tribute to one of the greatest bands of the 80's, The Cult. I have a bizarre dual role as Astbury and Duffy. I am certain pictures will follow. That show is, too, at the Blind Tiger in Greensboro, NC.

Here's "Rusted Radio."

The other day I had a musical dilemma. I had a song in my head. And, I couldn't figure out what it was.

There are lots of great resources out there to help with this kind of thing. There are lyric search engines, message boards, and even a Yahoo! Answers page that allows anyone who might know an answer to an otherwise daunting question to chime in with two cents.

My problem was that the song I had in my head had some middle-eastern style chanting as the hook. I couldn't remember any other lyrics. I found, more times than I liked, that just saying "hey, does anybody know what song it is if there's a cool chant and a lot of guitars?" Not as specific enough for help to emerge.

I turned to Jedipan from the message board. If anyone knew the answer, he would. Within 24 hours of asking, he offered a "shot in the dark" answer that happened to be exactly what I was looking for.

It turned out the song was "Touched" by VAST. I heard the song in the trailer for The Beach. That might have been nine years ago. And, here I am, with it rising to the top of my consciousness. Go figure. Great song! I downloaded it on iTunes. Check it out.

So, maybe I'm a little late on getting in the Youtube thing. I thought I'd start by uploading a video from the Evening Muse, "Oceans." Let me know what you think. Post here.

Also, the video could use a review or a rating to help it in the search engines. Thanks!

Songwriting is best done as a daily practice. Or, one should write as frequently as possible. I once took a history class taught by a successful writer of historical fiction. He once joked "We're always writing." As I get further away from that class, it seems he wasn't joking.

Since September, I've been on a writing journey. Like any period of time in life, some days are better than others. Some songs are better than others. You gotta have bad songs to have good ones. All that stuff.

I hoped to have 30 songs finished by the end of the year. As of today, I've added 22 songs to a folder in my iTunes library. I'd say maybe 8 or 9 of them are ones that I like. The rest are either failed experiments or bad ideas. All of them are valuable to me for the perspective they've afforded.

For better or for worse, there have been a few essential items I've had with me everyday. These have helped keep the muse speaking, so to speak. I don't think these things would be necessarily helpful for everyone who reads this. These things have been helpful to me, though.

1. Yellow Legal Pads - I don't know what's up with these things, but I tend to write best when I have a yellow legal pad upon which to scratch out ideas. I tried switching to a note pad that had clouds on it. I didn't like that. I also tried a bound journal. That was a bit constricting. I like to be able to rip out the lyric sheet at the end of the day and either throw it away or put it in the file cabinet. I also use yellow legal paper to write my "morning pages," a process advocated by Julia Cameron in her masterpiece The Artist's Way. I recommend this book to anyone who wants to be more creative.

2. A Stereo Recorder - Ideas strike me differently. Often, I'll be sitting around without a guitar, or maybe (as in the picture above) playing a bass. Then, bam, I get a melody or idea for a song. A decent stereo recorder is great for putting down ideas. Even if you don't come back to it for a few days, weeks, or months, sometimes, things just aren't the same as you remember them.

3. A Variety of Instruments - Playing the same guitar, the same beat box, or the same scenario over and over lacks an element of surprise. Even if you only have access to one instrument (as of now, I only have one decent acoustic guitar), it's often a good idea to find a piano, a dulcimer, or a tuba--anything that will allow you to try out a melody from a different perspective. In college, I used to take a song idea to a piano in a practice room in between classes. Similarly, if you're brave enough, jamming on a new idea with a friend can open up new perspectives to a work-in-progress.

4. A Rhyming Dictionary - I get stuck looking for a word all the time. A rhyming dictionary helps introduce an idea that will rhyme. It never does well to depend on this for all of your end words, but having knowledge of every word that rhymes with a given word will help you avoid the obvious. I like to have at least the title of the song and most of a chorus mapped out before consulting a rhyming dictionary.

5. An Avatar - I like to have an inanimate object in my corner. Murray, the artist's mannequin, is by my side for every song. Having a symbol of your artistic self placed in a prominent place in your creative space does wonders. He's even come to life for me, in some ways.

Only eight more to go...Whew. Not so bad. I'll be playing a set of all new material at my acoustic set at Deep South on December 21st. Also, a new demo recording will appear on every new podcast.

The most popular topic on the message board is guitar tone. Fans of this site tend to discuss the in's and out's of the mechanics of guitar sounds. I like that.

Recently, in a recording session, I was asked to replay some guitar tracks I recorded back in 2005. The song was being re-recorded for a new album; the old version was a mere demo...a well-liked demo by all involved. The task was simple: replace the old tone with a tone that matches the scope of the album while maintaining the feel of the original.

As to not do any work that isn't necessary (a thing I try to do most days) I attempted to use the old guitar track on top of the new rhythm section. It sounded fair, but not as accurate as it needed to be. Other noticable defects of the original tone were erratic buzzing and some polarity issues (due most likely to the amp needing either a bias job or a re-tube). Such is the sound of a mid-70's Marshall. Yet, I searched for a better option.

I was curious to compare the Line 6 emulation of a mid-70s Marshall to my own recorded tone. I was surprised at how similar the Line 6 tone sounded. It a lot of ways, it outperformed the original amp. There was very little buzzing on the track. (That may have been due to the extensive wiring I did in my studio, but I'm willing to give credit if credit is due). Also, the tube (emulation) had no problems that my amp had. It was a near perfect replication. And, I even had the option of switching mic position on the amp. It was a little scary how good it sounded.

Needless to say, rather than pulling out my old rig, re-biasing the amp, & replacing the tubes, the Line 6 emulation got the job done. While a recovering skeptic with emulators, the Line 6 stuff really delivers, especially in a studio situation like the one described.

In the interest of getting this Blog more happening again, I thought I'd just post what's going on in the studio this week.

Monday - Closed
Tuesday - Background vocal recording for Airial Down (Raleigh, NC), Podcast Recording, Rehearsal for The Cult tribute band
Wednesday - Co-writing with Convergence (Chicago, IL), Mix Review for Serotonen
Thursday - Private Writing Session, Rehearsal
Friday - Electric Guitar recording for Emmaus Way (Durham, NC)
Saturday - Private Show (Pittsboro, NC)

Albums in heavy rotation: Day & Age by The Killers, Chinese Democracy by Guns N' Roses, & Zen Pause by Thierry David