Believe it or not, I was in the classes for smart kids when I was in school, but what really proves that I am a genius is the fact that I didn't check to see if my new used laptop was able to connect to the internet via wifi until I was on tour and over 1,000 miles from the folks I bought it from.

(Cue "Budwiser's Real Men Of Genius" music)

This means that I get to keep my title as world's worst blogger a little longer.

I will post some of the blogs that I intnded to post while on tour and I'll even try and remember the dates that I intended to post them, but I am pretty sure that breaks some international blogging rules.

 If I could afford it, I would live in NYC for a few months out of every year. I could stand doing it do year around, but we're fantasizing here and in this fantasy I also have a place in New Zealand and to tour internationally six months out of the year. There's only so much time. I've got to be realistic. There are many perks to living in NYC, but one of my favorites is the ability to be without a car and yet not have it hinder your day to day travels one bit. I grew up not too far from NYC. My …

40 may be the new 30, green may be the new black, but admitting you like '80s music is definitely the new gay. I used to play regularly with a trio and back in the day when 40 minutes of music was more than we had, we were trying to come up with some covers to play. I listen to a ton of music and while like almost every genre of music, but I am super picky when it comes to performing other people's music. My criteria is that I must love the song, can see a way that I can do it that would be different …

I've spent a lot of time during this tour trying to refine and reevaluate what I want and what is possible. With the incredible reach of the internet, you might think that it would be easy to get good music to enough people to keep someone in the position of making enough money to keep making and performing good music without having to get a "real" job. You'd be wrong. I am actually part of a collaborative of musicians here in Denver that, among other things, is trying to "break the …

Maybe I have a lot of cds.

Maybe I have a problem with buying too many cds.

Maybe I am even in a group for people who buy too many cds.

Maybe I even justify buying too many cds by telling myself that they are for my musical education and that I have spent nowhere near what college would cost.

Maybe the last time I was allowed in a record store I bought these:

Duke Ellington
Leonard Cohen
Paula Cole
Natalie Merchant
Glenn Miller
KD Lang
Louis Armstrong
Martin Sexton

You'll never really know.

Over the last couple of years I've made my peace with the fact that I really like country music. Unfortunately just writing that still send shivers up my spine and makes me feel a bit embarrassed. That's because what usually comes to mind for most people is the stuff that has music videos on TNN. Kind of like the Jonas Brothers with a twang. Which means you're judging me right now. Quite harshly. I understand, but let me explain. I like country music like Lyle Lovett, Gillian Welch, Willie Nelson, Johnny …

Up until June 25th I had never been to Brooklyn. Now as much as I sometimes hate to admit it, I grew up on Long Island, NY. I have lived in Nassau and Suffolk counties, spent a bunch of time in Queens, enough time in the Bronx to be scared of going there, and regularly visited NYC aka The City. Somehow I just never went to Brooklyn. No real reason. I just always took the Cross Island instead of the Belt Parkway. I mean I like the Beastie Boys and Jewish people. Go figure. Well somehow I booked a gig at …

That's what my 9 month old nephew's bib said. After a couple of days of staying with my mom I was thinking, "where can I get one of those in my size?"

Enough said.

I really shouldn't have.

I mean I know better.

It was certainly avoidable.

In hindsight, it wouldn't have taken much effort to avoid it.

There's really no excuse and now I just feel dumb.

I drove all the way through Missouri and didn't stop for BBQ. I lived in Kansas City for a year and know my chaances of getting any BBQ that is even in the same league any where else would be out of the question, but I was overcome with "have to get there" fever.

A very poor choice.

Now I will be haunted by the billboard promising "Hot Tasty Butts" until my next trip to the Show Me State.


PS Considering that Missouri has more billboards advertizing strip clubs, it is no small miricle that the "Hot Tasty Butts" was referring to BBQ burnt ends.

Well it's been 3 months since my last blog and that one hardly qualifies as writing, but I am planning on getting on a schedule of sorts and writing a bit more regularly. For now, here's the dates for my summer tour. Hope you can make it to a show. According to the six degrees of separation theory you already know everyone in the towns I'll be playing in even if you've never been there, so please tell your friends. * Thu, June 17, 2010 * 7:00 pm * The Blind Pig * New York NY * Thu, June 24, 2010 * 7:00 …

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.

In an effort to diversify and make some extra cash I am thinking about framing, showing, and selling some of these.

Any suggestions?

Any buyers?

Collide

this love
that we're making

these knives
we find in our backs

it's all muscle and motion
perpetual distance
falling down

we push and we pry
against our own resistance
it's not enough

chorus
we shine
like the light of a falling star
burning , yearning through the night
to where the truth hits who we are

collide

these smiles
on these faces

whispers of
all we can be

it's the kindness of stangers
memories of the past
follow me

joys quiet reaching
and love that truly last
shine on me

chorus

chorus

©2009 George Christiansen

Waiting On Sunshine

today's aspirations
coffee and cigarettes

no motivation
just haunted by happiness

and these days
go by
so slowly

waiting on sunshine

grey clouds and dark thoughts
since you've been gone away

alone with my sad heart
and whispers of memory

and these days
go by
so slowly

waiting on sunshine

and these days
go by
so slowly

can't reach my bootstraps
lost with no alibi

no sign of the old map
or i'd be headed for blue skies

but these days
go by
so slowly

waiting on sunshine

and these days
go by
so slowly

waiting on sunshine

©2009 George Christiansen

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 …

Ok.
 
The audio is kind of rough.

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 …