Another Serious Statement Of Intent

So I’ve gotta think here…this is a difficult time for me to get organized, but what time is a good one for that really? I’m mostly talking to myself this post, anybody else can skip it if you want. I know I’m mostly thinking in an autumnal fashion, appropriate to the weather outside…but I need to start working on my composition as if my time is limited, which it surely is. If I don’t die tomorrow my PC sure could! In fact, part of my inactivity is because of my studio computer’s motherboard going down last month. Another part is just laziness I guess.

What I can do is to get started finishing the few pieces that I did on my home system, which is still working at this point. If I can get the hard drives out of the other, and get them going (and I really hope I can) then I’ve got most of the new album done. But I have to be able to work faster, and to finish documenting stuff I’ve already written…which is a kind of big task. I do write a lot, and there’s a huge backlog of stuff that I still think is good that’s been sitting. But I think I can do it now. As I’m getting better with some of this amazing technology (Cubase, Band-In-A-Box, Acid Pro, etc.) I’m able to do things a lot quicker. And working with the bands as a singer has really helped my vocals, so I can get what I want there with fewer takes (although I’ll still sound like Tom Waits with a cold). Real singers don’t have anything to be afraid of, but I think I can get my point across better now.

I’m still writing new stuff quite a lot, but having this huge pool of older material that I haven’t done anything with is bugging me…it’s like having a room full of ghosts looking over your shoulder. And the only way to lay them down and set them free is to record them, play them and let them fly into the air. I’ll post up what I’m doing on my website and elsewhere, at this point I could care less about the “Standard Rich & Famous Contract” that nobody wants to give me anyway. Sure, if someone wants to shower me with shekels that would be great, but I’d just be happy if a few people heard some of these ghosts as they flew off, and I’d be even happier if a few people liked them.

The Return Of The Stolen Guitars

Well, my guitars that were stolen this Spring have finally been returned! Pretty amazing. They're sitting right here, with the "Evidence" tags still on 'em from the Police station. They all seem to be in perfect shape, although someone had retuned them really high for some reason...but that was easily fixed!

The story of the recovery and subsequent case, as I got from the very friendly and helpful Detective Neumann, revolved around an instrument I don't play at all...a cello. Seems that a very expensive ($30,000-$40,000) cello had been stolen in one of the areas West of Detroit. Later on, this guy (let's call him Mr. X right now) contacts a music store trying to sell it. Of course the music store personnel are aware of this missing cello and alert the police, who wind up raiding X's place. A HUGE amount of stuff ("That was obviously not his" said Neumann) was found in his house, including lots of jewelry, computers, TVs, guns...and guitars. As well as this cello.

The Detroit police made a photo CD of the goods and a lot of them wound up being from this area, where there have been quite a few break-ins this last year. They sent on the photos and descriptions to the other police departments in SE Michigan. I'd given a very detailed description of my lost instruments, which they'd had on file. Deputy Ken Smith emailed me some pictures, and there were my guitars! I was astounded. There were some delays since several of the officers were out for a few weeks, but Detective Neumann saw me today and got me back the guitars, and gave me the word.

It looks like the thing I feared most, that it was someone I knew or that it had something to do with my studio work, was not the case. Mr. X has been hitting areas around Ann Arbor, Westland, Livonia and other close-by towns randomly...but consistently. The fact that my Dad had left a convenient key in an easily-cracked combo lock was just gravy in this case. As Neumann helped me get my axes to the car (he really is a nice guy), he remarked "Do you know how rare this is, for someone to get their property back in this situation? It almost never happens". I know for sure I wasn't expecting to see these guitars again!

It seems surreal to me, but now they're back. It's been a strange time and parts of it very emotionally trying, but actually the experience has been very positive. The guitars are retrieved, and I have a new and much better appreciation of the police force and the work they do, as well as the opportunity for me to meet some of the great people who work in it. And even more importantly, the caring and the support of my friends and the community of musicians in town and around the world online has made me aware just how much I am blessed with the wonderful people around me. I'd like to thank Dave Budzinski especially for making me that Tele to substitute for mine (hey, Bud, I'll wrassle you for the new one!), to Cynthia for being such an amazing and supportive partner through all this, to my band for hanging in there with me, to Deputy Ken Smith, Officer Keith Dalton and Detective Mark Neumann, and very very sincerely to all of you who wrote and called me!! I appreciate it more than I can say. I'm a lucky guy!!!

Yet Another Video

Here's one more video, a photo collage with pictures from our last gig. It was a fun show!

And now, the video! I'm actually enjoying this Picasa stuff. Click on the box to watch, of course...

ANTI-GRAVITY KINGS AT THE TAP ROOM, JUNE 5 2010

We had a GREAT time at the Tap Room show last night! Click on the picture here to get to the online picture album.

Another day in Paradise

Waking up to a fantastic looking day! I've got a million things to do but one more cup of coffee watching the birds won't hurt anything I think. Work to do everywhere...house, yard, day job, and 4 bands that need a little attention (with gigs coming up for all of them in the next 3 weeks!), I'm getting a little unfocused but I should be OK. Those birds are having a jam session outside my window right now. Actually, I'm gonna play hooky for a half hour and walk in the woods...that should recharge my drained batteries. All the best to all of you...

Someone Stole My Guitars!

Hey, Everybody,The news today is kinda sad. My studio got broken into the other night and three of my guitars were stolen! What a drag. So I'm trying to get the word out to everybody, just in case someone sees one of them. Here's the descriptions:

Fender Squier Telecaster: White Pearescent Pickguard, Black Finish, Maple Fingerboard, Graphite Nut, Pickup Switch is a Pearescent Tuning Machine, Budzguitar Pickups

Fender Fretless Jazz Bass Style (Made from parts): Chandler Neck w/maple strips as fret indicators inlaid on rosewood fingerboard, Blonde Natural Wood Body by Warmouth, Cream Dimarzio PickupsChrome Volume/Tone assembly, No Pickguard

Agile AL 2500 Les Paul Style Guitar: Body is completely covered in White Pearescent material, Pickups are GFS Dream 180s, also finished in White Pearescent, Some scarring on side of guitar near lower strap button, Tiny hole right by the bridge on top of guitar ...

Well, that's it. If you hear anything at all, please call K. Dalton at the Washtenaw County Sherrif's Office at 734-971-8400, ext. 67396. It's in reference to complaint 10-15493. It'd be nice to see them again, although I don't hold out great hopes. Thanks, Todd

New Song

SOMEWHERE, ANYWHERE

Sing a song of sixpence, bottle full of rye
Tryin’ to get away from what’s behind my eyes
Like a bent casino cheating on a bet
Lookin’ for the jackpot, hasn’t happened yet

Out of ready answers, staring into space
I look in the mirror, see a stranger’s face
Need to get away, how long I don’t know
Might just take a day off, or a couple years or more

Somewhere, anywhere
Anyplace long as it’s not here
Somewhere, anywhere
Like a traveling bird in the autumn air
Somewhere, anywhere
Anyplace long as it’s not here
Somewhere, anywhere
Set my feet on the road now, I don’t care

Wonder if you’ll miss me when I have to go
Will you wonder where I am, or will you even know
I’ll take my troubles with me? We’ll just have to see
Maybe at the least they’ll get a change of scene

Somewhere, anywhere
Anyplace long as it’s not here
Somewhere, anywhere
Like a traveling bird in the autumn air
Somewhere, anywhere
Anyplace long as it’s not here
Somewhere, anywhere
Set my feet on the road now, I don’t care

Cheapy Slides

Recently I've been playing a lot more slide guitar...I'm starting to feel more confident on it and it's really great fun. Only real challenge (besides the various factors of playing) for me has been finding the right slide. If you've played guitar with a slide I'm sure you know what I'm talking about. Some are too light, some too heavy. Different glass and metal slides feel very different and sound different too...and tone quality is a big deal when you're playing in that style. Some slides I've tried are just too big for my fingers, like the Fathead slide and the Coricidin bottles. I have a few brass slides I like OK, but my fave is a little prescription bottle that Cyn found in a rubbish tip in the woods a few years ago. Right weight, right size, great tone, just felt very comfortable. Problem was that I didn't want to take it anywhere and maybe lose it, or break it, or something! And since they now issue prescriptions in those unfortunate little plastic bottles I wasn't sure what to do. Once again I thank the Internet and my search engine...turns out that 5 dram glass vials are easily available online, and for cheap too! I just got in 12 of them for 8 bucks. Can't even buy one single slide in a music store for that. They seem identical to my favorite slide, and now I'm back in business. May play a little slide at the Jam Session tomorrow...

Spring Stream

The Spring stream comes running down, shining refracted light off the snow around it as the water moves along the hillside, its music blending with the new birdsong, creating a composition that signals the end of a long Winter. From tiny tributaries in the frozen fields, the stream gathers its forces, multiplying, growing as the snow gives up its hold on the countryside. A glistening channel through a white and brown palette, reflecting off the earth, the sky. A hand put to the water there would quickly numb and freeze...this is liquid newly converted from its more solid form, still half in its old element. The rippling sound of the water's running is joined by a strange cracking as the ice weakens and starts to break up. The scents of loam and moisture send a heady rush, a sense of the potential growth hiding just under the surface of the soil. The sun shines down out of the blue sky, turning the cycle over out of the darkness and into the light, as in the soon-to-bud trees, oceans of birds sing songs of courtship, joy and of Spring.

Martin Newell on songwriting

Just thought I'd post this excellent bit by one of my great heros Martin Newell (and if you haven't got The Greatest Living Englishman in your CD collection yet, what the HELL is the matter with you? Seriously, one of the great albums of the last century) discussing one of the things he knows a bit about.

Martin on songwriting...
A good way of starting a song is with a title, especially one that's been misheard. "I had too much to dream last night" (Electric Prunes)How could you not be onto a winner with such a title? "Eight Days A Week" Fantastic.You need a chorus. It's got to be your best idea. But then make it into the verse and try to write something even stronger. Try to make your songs about 3 minutes long. Nearly every piece of music that anyone ever remembers, including classical favourites are usually about three minutes long..the salient bits of Bach and Vivaldi for instance.When you have a tried and trusted chord sequence, deliberately go and throw an unmatching chord in there, instead of one of the regulation ones and see if anything good happens.When I was 17 a kindly A and R man called Fritz Fryer told me that if a song is any good, it will usually work with just one voice and one instrument.Does your song stand this test?It is much harder to write a fast cheerful song which makes people want to dance, than it is to write a slow and soulful slowie. This is a fact.When the great Kimberley Rew for instance, wrote Walking On Sunshine for Katrina and the Waves, he was holding pure gold in his hands from the minute he found the first chorus.There's something to be said for well-plumbed misery too, however, or Len Cohen would still merely be a great Canadian poet.You have to be a songwriter because you want to write songs...even if they never discover you.Sonmeone, either Vaughan Williams or Vivian Ellis once said, "Only write the tunes that won't go away."Do make sketches of songs...but don't go making demos of everything. If a tune's really good, it refuses to leave your head and will even crop up years later on another instrument.Great songs often possess holes somewhere in our collective consciousness (If I may be so esoteric)which they wait to be placed in even before they are written. Paul McCartney's "Yesterday" is a prime example of this. When he found the tune, he went around hunmming it to people and asking who'd written it. This is because it already existed in the future somewhere. Both he and the public already knew it. It was just waiting for him to execute the formality of writing it. This converges with a Socratic principle of learning which borders on the occult...that is to say, we already know everything, but we need to relearn it.A really great song, like some really great babies just come out in one pop..a painless delivery...some, however require a long labour and caesarian.Conversely, my title song The Greatest Living Englishman took about 12 years.I wrote the verse part in 1980 on the piano and left it lying around the workshop because I couldn't find anything to go with it. The chorus came to me in 1992. After that I simply constructed a bridge to weld them together and hey presto, another great non-hit was born.When you begin to write a song, ask yourself about its general atmosphere. What season are you in, for instance. Is it summer? Is it autumn? This is an established element of Haiku poetry (not my favourite thing but I admire some of its principles) A good haiku nearly always has some allusion to or sense of its season.If I were to write the title "An Autumn Flower." it would be okay. "An Autumn Tower" would be less pretty and more of a challenge and might tax my imagination more, too.Sometimes though, a common catchphrase will do the job.. Queen's "We Are The Champions." Still sung by drunk boneheads at football matches and business convention parties all over the world.I guess the only rules are that there are very few rules. Just don't confuse a hit record with a great song, though.

The Mirror

Last night, in the mirror, I saw the devil.
I tried to stare him down, but my eyes fell,
Avoiding the level gaze of that prince of evil
Where he left off and I began I could not tell.

- William David Perkins

I started this post with a poem by my Dad, which seems to relate to some of my feelings recently. It's been a long time since I've done any writing really, certainly since my last blog. I think a lot of it's because for me writing is a way to see into myself, a mirror if you will, and lately I haven't wanted to look in that mirror too much. Many of my deeper feelings have been so dark that I haven't wanted to fess up to them, even to me. Maybe especially to me. Staring into the glass...man, I don't know...I don't know if I want to see what I've become.

A lot of this is of course colored by my ongoing work helping to take care of my folks, and the continuing frustration and despair as I watch those good souls struggling to keep their lives together against the various slings and arrows shot them by time and entropy. Some of it is related to Cyn and I, and our struggles with life and finance and our difficult lifestyle choices...and some of it is just me fighting my many personal demons. Hey, I'm a bucket of fun, eh? But some days are harder than others, and it seems like I've just had a few months of 'em all together.

All bathos aside, it seems like I'm turning another corner. I've been writing again, and actually spending time in the studio (I literally had to dust off the console!), and playing music for fun a lot more. That last has been really important, and I have to thank my friends who've been playing with me for getting me back into it again. Playing music just to play is something I haven't been doing in a long time.

So am I really ready to look in the mirror again? Hell, I don't know. Will I see Satan there staring back at me? Most probably, along with other faces I'm probably gonna be uncomfortable with. But at least there's signs of life in my reflection...and perhaps another and better world on the other side of the glass.