The CD is finally done and I am just waiting for copies of it to get to my house so I can start pushing them at local venues. I also rereleased In Transit. I decided to go back to the original format of just 5 studio songs and the 3 live songs from a radio appearance on KYGT in Idaho Springs. Two of the other songs from In transit are now on Photosynthesis and there are two others that are just going to have to wait and see if I can find them a home on a future CD. The decision to rearrange the track …
I originally thought that I would be done with the new CD by now, but I have actually decided to rerecord all of the parts, except the drums.
I made a couple of technical mistakes recording the first time around which are going to limit what I can do in the mixing and mastering phase of things. It is just easier to do the parts over. I did get the arrangements down and came up with some decent bass parts, so it was not a total waste of effort.
I took a little over a week off from playing around the holidays, which means that I spent last week and am planning on spending this week getting back up to speed. I hope to get all the parts recorded next week and then get the mixing and mastering done the week after.
If all goes well the CD should be available by February 1st.
The new album is coming along nicely. I have the drums recorded for all of the tracks and the guitars are done for almost all of them. The new drum program I have is about a million times easier to use than the one I had used on some earlier versions of songs and they all sound about a million times better as well. It's not as good as playing with Anthony, but he's busy recording with his band . I am also using a different program for mixing, plugins, and EQs. So far it is …
This year has been tough for a lot of people. Finances are tight. Tensions are high. Things at the Christiansen house have been pretty tight, but fortunately I haven't had to prostitute myself on Colfax Ave.....yet. I'll be turning the ominous red light on anyway. The next two months will involve a bunch of recording. I am reformatting "In Transit" back to it's original EP version, plus a few live songs that were recorded @ WKYGT in Idaho Springs, CO right after the EP was finished. There's a …
Hi -----, Thanks for getting back to me so quickly. I didn't realize that this would be an exposure only type of gig. There are no lack of opportunities for musicians who just want a chance to be heard, but if you want quality music that actually draws people to your venue, you need to have a certain skill level of musicians with quality equipment. I would be happy to perform for you guys, but I cannot play for free. Good live music is a draw for a restaurant and both out of necessity and on principle, I …
With rare exceptions, I usually write songs starting with the music. I have some lyrics and song ideas lying around which I will sometimes be able to use, but generally I'll just mess around with vocal melodies until I "figure out" what the song is about. Then it is just a process of figuring out how to say it .
I had been playing the music for this song for a few weeks trying to decide where it should go lyricly. All of a sudden, after a day or two of just scatting the vocal melody, the whole song came out. Unfortunately for me it was a song Michael Jackson had already written.
There was no way I was going to get his lyrics out of my head, so I just surrendered to the fact that I will likely be playing this Michael Jackson cover for a while.
Sunshine Full Of Day whispering daylight calls my name "get out of the bed get rid of lead; on your way" opportunity knocking down my door door wide open sunshine full of day start with a kiss, imagining this that girl's got a crush on me so i'm making like a verb to work up the nerve to just be me serendipity shining down on me heart wide open sunshine full of day could it be that I'm falling could it be that I'm falling could it be that I'm falling got to admit, this could be it this hope's …
When I started getting paying gigs around town a few years ago, a lot of them were 3 hours shows. The thing was that I didn't have 3 hours worth of songs to play and I didn't know a whole lot of other people's songs. I listen to and like a lot of other peoples' music, so it was not coming from some attitude of thinking I am too good to be playing covers. In fact when I used to play only bass I knew a lot of covers. Almost all the songs I played were covers, but when I started playing guitar I pretty much …
I need to get a mic for the camera or an adapter to make on of mine work....
.....and yes I should probably not where that shirt in public. It was hot that day. Sorry
I'll have much better videos up soon, but I figured I'd let you in on the figuring out what I'm doing stage. After all, that is what everything on this site has been anyway.
Found a drummer. Looking for a bassist. Here's the ad we put up: "We are a singer/songwriter/guitarist and a drummer/singer who are looking for a bassist who is interested in getting in on what we are doing. I (singer/songwriter/guitarist) have played with bands in the past, but have been playing mostly solo for the last year or so. I have been playing and performing seriously since I moved to Denver about 5 years ago (doing it here and there for much longer) and the drummer has been playing drums …
We have to move from our friends house in Firestone, CO (without whom there would have been no way to afford this tour) to our new apartment in Arvada, CO.
Katherine goes back to work on the 13th at which point I get to be Mr. Mom during the day.
In the midst of this, I am going to try and break into the college market, keep booking two shows a week in the region, record my second Cd next month, and give the trio thing a try....again.
I've got some links on this site that I obviously think are worth you checking out and I thought maybe I should give a little bit of explanation of what they are and why I put them up here. The first two are charities that Katherine and I give a little bit of cash to when we can. "The Free Burma Rangers (FBR) mission is to provide hope, help and love to internally displaced people inside Burma, regardless of ethnicity or religion. Using a network of indigenous field teams, FBR reports on human …
People in Wisconsin tend to be so nice they scare me.
I am not kidding.
I could never live there.
I need a little cynicism and gruff treament in my life or I start getting nervous; I find myself trying to firgure out their angle. What do they REALLY want?
Maybe that's just the curse of being raised in NY.
Yet two of the three venues that I played there tried to stiff me out of money we had agreed upon.
My thoughts while setting up my tent on Moscow Mountain bounced between wishing that I had never seen "The Blair Witch Project" and telling myself that bigfoot was just a myth.
There was no campsites, but Moscow Mountain is about 12 miles from town and about 3 miles from the nearest house. It is mostly logging company property, so technically it was probably illegal for me to camp there. The guys at the bike store told me it would be fine. Obviously they had not considered the possibility of witches or big foots.
I was standing on the rocky shore of Lake Cascade in Idaho playing my guitar as the park ranger truck pulled up. My initial thought was something along the lines of "Oh crap, what did I do now". Maybe it is just me, but a conversations with someone with a badge just tend to head that direction. Not to many friendly hellos in my memory. Out of the truck stepped ranger Meagan, who at a different phase in my life would be pretty high on my list of people to be cuffed by. I imagine there have been …
If you are feeling good about societyand our progress, there is always one place that will almost never fail to supply a little reality check: the public restroom.
What does it say about us that we have to have motion sensored toilets to make sure they actually get flushed after being used?
Thank God for the creator of baby wipes. You are my hero.
As I drive through various places I often wonder how people there do life. I've been through Wyoming quite a few times and often wonder how life works for those people who choose to live out side of the few decent sized towns. They have houses and families and very, very large distances between themselves and their neighbors. I can appreciate alone time and the thought of dropping off the grid temps me now and then, but how do these people do this mix of solitude and yet even find a spouse or do business …
While In New England I played at both Blue in Portland, ME and Radio Bean in Burlington VT. I really like both of those towns, but unfortunately both places had poor turnouts the nights that I played. They are both located at great spots in town. They both have live music most nights. They both had really good websites. There was a Greek festival going on a couple of blocks away from Blue and I really wonder if I would have shown up myself if I knew there was Bakliva and what ever that blue stuff is that …
