"let's go somewhere" recording

*UPDATE* 5-2-12

i edited more drums.  i'm bound and determined to get a record done this year.

 may, 2 2012

*UPDATE* 5-1-12

i edited drums.  still a long way to go.  i'm not cut out for engineering.

 may, 1 2012


*UPDATE* 10-19-11

between working on my website, booking shows, rehearsing, writing, and traveling, i found some time to record some vocals on this song. i'm in no way proud of it just yet, but i did make a commitment to this blog. and i was just sick of hearing nothing but instrumentals. i am trying to figure out my recording environment at home. i'm not comfortable with it as of yet and i haven't quite figured out how to get what i want out of my equipment. but this is a demo so it will work for at least this post.

i also finished writing the lyrics to this song earlier this week. i'm much more proud of that. they're posted below.

october, 19 2011

Home sweet home
Home enough to call your own
Sweet enough for anyone
Defined by the population sign

There's a statue on the courthouse square
Steeple crosses in the air
That try to keep you satisfied
If you forget the questions in your mind

Sometimes you close your eyes and do nothing more
Find just what you're looking for
Make believe you're flying

I think it's time I focus my rearview mirror
Watch this place disappear
Hit the gas and go somewhere

I get it
At least I get the gist of it
Do just what my father did
Or perhaps a little more

Find a girl and settle down
Maybe buy a great big house
Where I sleep away my cares
But somewhere there's something else, I swear

Sometimes you close your eyes and do nothing more
Find just what you're looking for
Make believe you're flying

I think it's time I focus my rearview mirror
Watch this place disappear
Hit the gas, let's go somewhere

Every single road I find
Takes me to a place I thought I left behind
Guess I'll never know
The end of this road

So help me find
Somewhere else to run and hide
Something that I haven't tried
I'm running out of time
Or just as well from myself tonight

Sometimes you close your eyes and do nothing more
Find just what you're looking for
Make believe you're flying

I think it's time I focus my rearview mirror
Watch this place disappear
Hit the gas, let's go somewhere





*UPDATE* 9-15-11

look at the date. this is long overdue. my apologies.

matt price came over last week. we did a bunch of guitar work. and both of us only had a couple hours to work with. so we made some significant progress, right? then i had to run off to a meeting. i left him downstairs in front of the computer and i went upstairs to iron a shirt. long story short, my house can't handle that much power on one circuit or something electrical that prevents me from having my studio, window a/c unit, and a clothes iron running the same time. no, i didn't save our work up until that point and half the house lost power the minute i plugged my iron in. i was pissed.

so matt price cleared his schedule for a couple hours and we got some more work done today without any interruptions. i'm pleased with the results.

note: matt price works way too much and gets paid way too little. enjoy.

september, 15 2011

if you're not familiar with the song, i'm sorry. i don't think i have a good live recording of it on youtube or anything. but if you find one, let me know!

so those of you who have never heard it, i hope you follow this blog and watch (listen) to a song develop right in front of your eyes (ears)! nate and i stayed up until 8 am getting familiar with logic 9 (my recording software) and working on this song. basically, we have some piano, some drums, and some bass guitar. not even close to being finished, mind you. but here you go...

july 31, 2011

may the recording begin...

i'm finally starting the new record. not much to say other than that. i've been working on my computer for a week now making sure i have everything i need. the journey begins tomorrow. i'll keep you posted.

i haven't shown you everything a man can do - billy joel (3x divorced)

i waited for hours for you where the auglaize and the maumee come together. you were never there. i wanted to be able to express to you how i felt even before i met you there... that's, i suppose, an unfair expectation, but i can't help it. i'm 30 now and aging quicker than ever. you never came. i'm losing faith in you. no. i've lost faith in you. i'm forever at that paramount. you'll never get there cos you listened to what your parents told you. it's fine. i guess i can only hope for old age. it isn't what i had in mind, but unless i somehow end it before i grow old, i'm getting used to sleeping alone. empty beds. big empty beds.

gambling

you throw in what you know you know you can wager. and then you just ride it after a certain point because there are other gamblers at the table. and, yeah, they know you're not good at this. and they look down on you. it's also telling, though... cos some of them wanna help... and they take the time, show some mercy, and despite what the rest of the table and the dealer thinks of you, they attempt to help... in the end though, they are in it for a piece of what you have. you wind up losing it, ultimately though. cos you don't know how to play. is this a metaphor? yeah. "the gambler" by kenny rogers? probably. it's probably just "the gambler" by kenny rogers... only with more words. more telling words... more revelation... more vulnerability, i suppose... but it doesn't change the fact that i'm taking my latest fascination - gambling. we all do it whether we know it or not. i just happen to be aware of it. i have a faint suspicion i'm gonna wind up broke... but then again, that's what one gets by gambling his heart and years away. and make no mistake, i definitely gambled.

i miss nashville

i played this little place right outside nashville a couple times. i don't wanna mention the name. it doesn't matter. i played it a couple times. it was a roadhouse. not only was "roadhouse" in their name but it was also a legitimate roadhouse. if you went there during the day, i hear they serve a mean shredded chicken sandwich. i never experienced that. i always got there around 7pm. i played around 9pm each time in the basement beneath the diner. the scene there was something to behold. nothing to tell my mom or grandma v. about because it wasn't the grand ole opry... but then again, nothing is. it was just a basement with a basement sound and a small p.a. it had some cables and chords along the concrete walls and a small bar in the corner. it was big enough to fit about 30 people. intimate? yeah. intimate. you would say it was an intimate setting, but then again, for the amount of venues set up per capita in nashville, every venue is "intimate." it was something other than intimate, honestly.... cos it was in the woods and away from the streets and high rises and even music row, for that matter. it was a road house. the owner served up some very nice orange moonshine. ohio, don't even try to find anything comparable within your borders. please. it's not something you're supposed to be able to offer.

i played my songs there. original songs. that's what people came there for. the people came there for the people who had stories to sing about. not the people you'd know on radio though, because the dj's don't talk about them and they never play their cuts. oh, but they matter. will klmbrough, tommy womack, rodney crowell. they matter. they matter cos the stars you know sing their songs. cos the stars you know have nothing much to say about their own lives... they want to, but they can't express it with their pens the way some of the writers can. and those writers came to that roadhouse with their guitars. rarely did they bring a band. they may have brought some of their other writer friends, but they mostly just brought a guitar and set up a stool beside them to hold their drink of choice. they also brought their handful of fans.

i managed a retail music store in berry hill too. the stresses and pressure of retail is overwhelming enough to know to appreciate little dive bars playing old western music that never gets played on jukeboxes north of the ohio river and west of the mississippi. i won't mention the name of that bar either, but perhaps i should cos they would probably appreciate your business if you're ever in the nashville area. nonetheless, it was a place to unwind. it was a place to reflect with some of my friends. some of the only friends i had left. i bumped into colleagues and musicians and associates there... but i also ran into some of my secret idols. remember garth brooks' "low places"? of course you do. met the writer there. in the corner. playing the digital game thing. drunk. i didn't know it was him, because after all, in my world growing up, garth brooks did that song. :) no no no, he did not. he didn't do that song. the exploited the genius of that song, at best. love garth brooks, but come on, that song is epic and he didn't pen it. anyhow... met the dude. and he was drunk. and behold, he was in that dive bar living out the lyrics of his song. i immediately beheld him as something or someone i should probably never forget about, alone, in the corner, no one around, drunk. i don't think i envied someone so pitiful in my life. in that moment, i understood where he was. not mercy or sympathy, no... just understanding. i don't think it's a bad way to fade away at all. i don't even know what game he was playing... but i imagine he probably wasn't winning. and that's ok.

that old roadhouse has had so many more stars than i can name. a stage i'd rather be on than any other besides the tonight show's. it held the pain and struggle of those who fought the fates in order to get what they wanted and ultimately failed. i know that pain and i understand it even if i never went thru exactly what they went thru... i know how hard it is go thru a thing that is so incredibly big to express thru some kind of standard conversation... a pain so insurmountable... so indescribable, the only way you can attempt tp express it is thru something so much bigger than you... with chords and melody... ideas and emotions that are strictly singable, not conversational... at this point... if i die... that little basement at the roadhouse playing in front of people who care is my heaven... or perhaps in front of a digital poker game i keep feeding with my wallet... with someone across the bar playing pool who sees my back thru the fog of smoke and understands that there's no place i'd rather be... because after all, i expressed it all when i released that song... or that other song... and that's all that matters.

great lakes christmas ale

http://www.greatlakesbrewing.com/beer/an-exceptional-family-of-beers/seasonal/christmas-ale

it's award winning and it should be. you should drink it ice cold but it reminds you of something warm. i don't know what it is about winter ales and lagers, but they help me long for this season. perhaps it's the heavy clothing they remind me of and allow me to be anonymous. perhaps it's the heavy, stout flavor. i don't even like the cold. you know the natives? the people who were here before us? they imagined their hell was cold. that tends to make a whole lot more sense to me than the christian hell... beings the christian hell is basically founded on traditions not backed up by biblical scripture or evidence... more or less founded upon paranoia and imagery quite akin to scenes from "dante's inferno." everyone i know in ohio wants to get out... "somewhere warmer" seems to be the consensus. i get it. not unlike hell. but i bet they'll still be saying "I-O" after someone in the distance yells "O-H."

nonetheless, great lakes in cleveland made something fantastic they call christmas ale. i don't know how they did it, but they bottled an adult sort of nostalgia... that makes you wanna be a kid again and see a lot of lights and gifts marked to you and less alcoholic things. anyway... it ushers in all the trappings of this season in a glass. i don't know how you do it, great lakes, but you did. kudos to you. i'm a couple glasses/bottles in, but i think i'll have another. i'll also hang a stocking and hope for that jolly old elf to stuff it. i might even pray that he will! neither of those things will happen, though... but look what you did, christmas ale! you made me wish i was younger and a bit more naive! good work, great lakes. :)

merry christmas. cheers.

-a

rumple minze

i am gonna do shots of rumple minze with my coffee tomorrow.

that feels like a blog to me.

it also feels right.

night!

-a