Cats, Skype, And Readying For The Tour

Early in the day, looking outside at the lovely blue sky contrasting with the white snow on the ground...and realizing it's damn cold outside, and soon I'll be out in it. Well, there's worse fates. I've got work, a good place to live, wonderful wife, and cats all around. I'm not so sure about the cats, but everything else is cool. Oh, OK, I guess they're cool too. When they're not making me crazy.

Had my first Skype rehearsal with Mike Katon last night. That was interesting...I remember years ago thinking stuff like this would be possible and being very excited about it. Jamming with friends in Turkey and Senegal!! Streaming performances from multiple countries simultaneously to the world!! Well, I haven't done that yet, but it was very handy to be able to work on Mike's tunes without having to drive to Hell, where he lives. Not that it's that far from my house, but it does save me in time, gas and the hassle of shlepping my equipment in the snow. And we got a lot accomplished...I think with a regular few of those a week, and with a few times all together in the real world, we'll be ready to kick butt out on the road in Europe and the UK!! I'm looking forward to it.

I still haven't played with the drummer for the tour, Johnny Bee, but I've heard so many good things about him that I'm inclined to feel real good about it. Hopefully we'll have some time to work out grooves together in the next month...there was some uncertainty about whether we'd have a drummer for a while there!! Mike's original guy from the Netherlands had to bail, and there was a period where we thought we'd have to have two drummers, one playing the early part of the tour and one the later. NOT the ideal situation!! So I was very happy to hear that Bee is on for the duration. It doesn't take much time for me to lock into a drummer's groove, but shifting gears mid-tour sounded like a real problem at the time. Problem solved now though.

My next series of problems is just learning all Mike's new material!! He's just released two new albums, and of course wants to promote them at the shows, so many new songs to play with. Now that he's got an initial list, I can concentrate on those songs...and as I've said before, learn them inside out. They're fun songs, too! Really, this should be a great tour. Katon is in fine form and in great shape mentally and physically, and I'm feeling really good about doing it. I still have my reservations about leaving my Dad here, but he's got an awesome support group now and Cyn and my brothers will be around, so I think he'll be OK. Mike is in much the same boat with his Dad too, I think it's interesting that our lives have that parallel. But perhaps it's just that we are rockers of a certain age!

 

I STILL can't get this cat off my lap!!

I STILL can't get this cat off of my lap!! Oh well. There are worse fates than having little beings that think you are great hanging out with you. And it's pretty easy to make them very happy. Not a bad thing. Although when they're all growling at each other around midnight, I often think of making them into a coat. Or a series of hats.

I once again, through the press of busy work and Dad tending, have let the blog slip into disrepair. All I can say is, if you could see the state of the office (and no, I'm not taking a picture) you'd realize that the blog itself looks just fine. A lot of it is also of course the function of depression. I've had that going on a long time at a low level, like walking pneumonia. I can get up and get things done, but only that which I really need to...everything else just has to slide for a while. Unfortunately, with the office it's slid pretty far. As I seem to be on an upswing right now, I'll have to straighten out things while I can...and it should actually make me feel a bit better, too.

Cyn and I had a good Christmastime, against the odds too, this year. I managed to help Dad shop (he loved going out and rambling around stores for hours) and packed his presents...got the tree, hung the wreaths, cooked the dinner, poured the wine. We all seemed to have a reasonably good time! My brothers were both there and in good moods, and we made it through the day in a fairly festive manner, considering everything.

This first Xmas without my Mom was certainly the hardest, I'll admit. There's a huge hole in our family now, one that can't be filled. I spoke of her in a toast yesterday, but I don't know if anyone else would have mentioned what we were all feeling otherwise, which I find strange. But I know I'm a different kind of person than my brothers. Not that any of our feelings are less deep, but mine seem closer to the outside, as if my skin were too thin sometimes. I'm finding that grief is different than I anticipated it to be...somehow I thought I'd have a total breakdown, and then slowly recover. Now I'm seeing myself cruising along, apparently OK, and then bursting into tears when some trigger of memory or emotion hits me, at random times. Then it passes, a bit. Then later, something else sets it off. One thing I know I've inherited from Ma is a very emotional nature. Yeah, I know, not very manly, but such is life and the cards we are given. I'm proud to be her son, and happy to have any part of her character in me as well. I miss her more than I can possibly say.

After the Christmas dinner Cyn and I went to my friend Dave's place. He's battling cancer and just got out of the hospital yesterday (Christmas Day!). Still weak from the disease and the chemo, he was happy to see us...Cyn helped and fixed him up some food, since he didn't feel able to manage that himself, and we brought a pie, which I think he appreciated. He's fighting this as hard as he can, and I hope all goes well with him. After losing two good friends in two years (not including my Mom) I am somewhat alarmed when someone's as sick as this. We'll be over as much as we can, to lend moral support and more pie.

And in the meantime I have a tour to get ready for!! I'm out with Mike Katon again next month, rushing around all over the UK, Western Europe and Scandinavia. What a gas!! I haven't been working with Katon, with the exception of a few local gigs last year, in over a decade. I guess I better re-learn those tunes, huh? Actually, since last time I think he's done at least 4 new albums, so a lot of new tunes too. I really want to be as good as I can for this tour, and I've been getting started with an intensive practice and listening regime to get his material down. I find with music that there's several different levels of familiarity with a composition...there's the initial learning of it, and then the finding of little variations, alternate fingerings, etc., that give you more freedom...and then there's the taking it apart and observing it from all different angles, reshaping it, understanding it on a much different and more complete level, that allows you to REALLY play it. That's where I need to be!! I'm working on it. And music aside, I have to be physically ready for the rigors of the road. Christmas is over...I'm back to the gym, and a healthier diet (I really enjoyed the cookies and the Bailey's, but it's time for a change), and my yoga and meditation as well. I'm looking forward to it!! It should be a positive experience...and I'm currently collecting as many of those as I can.

Stumbling Along On The Path

A beautiful morning outside, coffee at my desk, cat on my lap (her normal fallback position, unless I dislodge her) and me trying to figure out what best to do with my time on this underemployed day. I've been seeing myself get overwhelmed with so much to do that I wind up doing very little...or I get so ADD that I do fragments of several tasks, which is actually the same thing. I have managed to accomplish a few chores this week that made a difference...Cyn and I got the floor in her studio installed, and very nice it looks, too. Took a lot more banging and cursing than the videos at the Pergo site though!! But still. And I've been getting out to Dad's and helping him out every day, which takes up a lot of time and emotional energy...and Pete and I managed to get a few more gigs happening for the band, thank God. But there's so much to do. 

I'm finding I have to use my old friend (sadly lost this year) Tom Bayer's approach..."Write down 30 things you have to do right now, and then get 3 of them done, and feel good about that"...to stay organized and in perspective. But writing about it here helps. Maybe knowing that few if any are reading this helps too!! Ah, one of these days someone will stumble upon these words, and they'll say..."What a wanker". But I have no evidence that this is much but private ramblings at this point.

 I guess I do have to sort out the studio again, that's one bit to do. I have my friends John and Sue coming in next weekend to start working on their new songs, and I should be sure that all is working and that I remember how the heck to run everything. Since the last PC meltdown I just haven't been up to getting any personal projects done...although I have finished up a Shelter Dogs album of live stuff that we did as a demo, and that worked out well (see out at www.theshelterdogs.com if you're out there and interested). My poor songs have been languishing in limbo for a long long time...maybe getting some of that stuff started would be a good warmup for the J&S sessions. And if it gets my ass moving on some recording for myself, that would be great. I've been staring at the floor way too long.

Technology Hates Me

I don't know why, but it seems sometimes that all my electronic devices start plotting against me. And then they all start going haywire at once! For no particular reason I can see, my PC decided to lose its operating system. I managed to reinstall it but much had been lost, of course. And now it refuses to recognize the adapter for the Internet router, despite hours of finding and reinstalling the drivers.  This laptop I'm borrowing keeps doing completely inexplicable things, the cursor leaps about from place to place for no reason and occasionally large sections of type get highlighted while I'm in the middle of typing, so that I'll inadvertently destroy whole paragraphs. I think I'll blame the Windows 8 Experience for that, though...at least for now. And my new old cars interior lights switch on and off intermittently, for no good reason. Oh, and my new coffemaker sucks, too. Ah well.

Good thing it's so beautiful outside! When technology fails, get outside if you can...that's gonna be my mantra for a while. Fall is a wonderful season for walking and reflecting, and though the events of this last year have left me more than sad, it's good to get to the real world and think about it all. If I can find any peace it'll be there, and maybe some of that quiet and insight can find its way into my guitar later on. It's been a strange time, and I still feel lost, but I'm lucky to have a little time to think.

And I WILL wind up triumphant against all this other stuff!! I just get feeling overwhelmed sometimes, that's all. There's always too much to do...but first things first. I'm feeding the cats, then taking a darn walk.

REVIEW OF GREENBOY FEARLESS F112

I drove out to Dave Homer's Gigmaster Soundworks (a little Northwest of Battle Creek, MI) and picked up my Greenboy designed Fearless F112. Dave had taken a little longer than projected for the build, since his day job schedule had gone crazy, but it wasn't that much of a delay. The build looked beautiful...I'd gone for black with red highlights, and he'd gone a bit darker than I had anticipated, but with much classier looking results. We tested it and one of his F115 cabs out on his deck, and initally I was quite pleased...the F115s are really nice as well, by the way. And Dave is a great guy, very knowledgeable and laid-back, a very easy person to do business with! It was a long drive but worth it.

When I was first testing the cab at home I had some doubts about its handling capacity, it sounded to me like the speakers were "bottoming out" on the low notes, especially with the electric bass. I took it to a couple of gigs and felt the same way, which made me kind of anxious...had I made a mistake? Was it too small after all? I have a fairly aggressive right-hand attack sometimes, and I wasn't sure what was going on. I wound up calling Dave "Greenboy" Green who designed the cabinets, just to see what might be up. He and I talked for a while about musicians, amps, basses, and the kinds of tones we liked...he too is a very good guy, very easy to talk to about any problems. He suggested that the distortion might be coming from the amp itself (a GK 400RB), and that it might be underpowered for the job with a setup like this. I'd been coupling it with a 4/10 cabinet, and I hadn't noticed any real problems, but I went to my good friend Doug Wolgat, who offered his GK 1001RB for a comparison.

Well, Dave was right! We ran the F112 through the 1001RB, and it cleaned right up. We played Doug's Fender Precision and Jazz Basses through it and it sounded clear, with the dark creamy Fender tones shining through like a champ, even on the low notes at substantial volume. Next weekend he loaned the amp to me again for a gig at a medium-sized club, and it kicked ass with the trio! I was using a Kawai FB2 (the "Poor man's Alembic") and a Diamond Series 5-string Schecter, and they both sounded amazing. While my band The Shelter Dogs aren’t super ultra loud, our drummer can get enthused and isn’t shy about the volume on a Bo Diddley number or two, and I had no trouble keeping up with him. We never mic drums or bass on gigs like this. While  I'd brought the 4/10 cab along just in case, it never got used. These F112 cabs seem very transparent, and give out pretty much what you put into them.  Which may mean rethinking your amp and eq settings! Apparently the distortion in my amp, which was undetectable with my old cabinets, was really noticeable with the F112. I did the last set at the gig with the 400RB, Doug having gone home with the 1001RB. I found that if I backed off the Master some (I’d been using it dimed for years), and compensated with the Gain, I could use the amp without any distortion at all. I DID have to change the eq settings…the 400RB has a pretty distinctive midrange hump (which I actually like) that was a bit over pronounced with this cabinet. But if I backed the mids off a bit and added a little bass, I was back to the target tone I wanted.

I haven’t done an upright gig since these last experiments, but at home today it seems to be confirming what I initially thought when I played through the F112. It’s really really nice! With the 40s Kay Swingmaster and a Rev Solo direct into the 400RB, it’s not hard to get a very natural “like the upright but louder” thing happening. It’s not only really clean and clear, but it seems more resistant to feedback…I’m not sure why this should be, but here in the practice room it sure is. I'm sure with a larger amp like the 1001RB for more headroom (I gotta get one of those, by the way!) the results would be even better. I tried the Fishman Pro Plat with it as well, but it just seems to magnify the shortcomings of that preamp…I’ll play with it further, but it doesn’t seem to be helping much. It really doesn’t seem to need it. I’ll be playing the upright out onstage this weekend, and I’ll write more then.

As it is I’m feeling really positive about this cabinet!! The tone (now that I’ve figured out what’s up and dialed it in) is exceptional, the loudness is very impressive, and the folks who stand behind it are excellent. Did I mention that it’s beautiful and weighs only about 33 pounds? Pretty cool stuff. I’ll admit that I was skeptical at first, but now I’ve gotta say that if you’re looking to upgrade your rig to another level (and cut size and weight down considerably!), you should really look at these babys. You’ll like ‘em, I think.

Back On The Horse In The Infinite Quest

I've been noticing that recently I haven't been playing my instruments around the house all that much...something I've learned over the years to associate with depressive legs of my Bipolar cycle. Well, I do pick up a guitar or bass and doodle around late at night while watching TV, and that's certainly better than nothing (also, kinda fun), but to get back to where I want to be I need to get back to a regular practice routine. Especially if I'm gonna be leaping over some of the hurdles that I see coming up soon...new recording, touring, doing some free clinics, maybe some web stuff. So I'm back on the horse!!

Not too darn much to begin with, maybe a couple of hours a day if I can squeeze that in, and some on upright, some on electric. I'll leave the guitar for the late-night doodlefest and the jam sessions for now. I've got a lot to get together as it is. But I think I can do this!! There's plenty to work on. Hopefully I can augment my upright work with some lessons from Janet Cannon, who I was working with last year before everything kind of hit the fan. She's a classical bassist and really knows her stuff! Those lessons helped my upright playing in a major way, and I'm still just getting started. Music is one of the infinite quests...you're never done, there's always something to find just over the horizon. And that's why it's so cool. Wish me luck getting started back up!

Esmerelda And The Vampire

In the interest of alternating between serious deep issues and their polar opposites (well, I AM bipolar, after all) I'm posting this bit that I found while cleaning up the other day. I can't remember when I wrote this, but it was some years back...it's not a song, and not a poem really either. A bit of doggerel perhaps, but appropriate for the upcoming Halloween season. Vampires have been done to death, but they hadn't been when I put this down, so there, hah.

ESMERELDA AND THE VAMPIRE

Her full name was Esmerelda La Conchita De La Crown

And she was the most beautiful girl in parts ‘round here, hands down

When she walked by the boys and men and everyone would stare

And it was generally agreed, “She’s fairest of the fair”

Her lover’s name was Sandor, no last name was ever known

And Esmerelda loved him as a poet loves a poem

No one ever doubted that they were the perfect pair

When people saw their flashing eyes and long black wavy hair

The trouble all began when Sandor just dropped out of sight

And Esmerelda cried for him from dusk until the light

Until one night she heard a tapping at her windowpane

She looked outside and saw at last...Sandor What’s-His-Name.

“Dear Sandor, I can see that you’ve become a Vampire now”

“Well, actually, I have, but Baby, how did you guess, how?”

“You’re tapping on my window in the middle of the night...

And, well, I have no balcony, and I live up three flights.”

“My dearest Esmerelda, come and fly away with me

I’ll give your neck a nip and then a Vampire you shall be!”

“Well actually, my Sandor, that does sound pretty nice,

But then we’d have to kill folks, and we’d both be cold as ice.”

“But Honey, if you leave me then my Vampire heart will break

You might as well just finish the job, and through it drive a stake!”

“Oh, Sandor, you will always be my sweetheart Vampire man

But don’t despair, my clever brain has hatched a clever plan!”

Now San and Esmerelda run a Blood Bank in St. Clair

And if a pint goes missing no one either knows or cares

They come home to a heated casket big enough for two

And since they’re Vampires now, they’re probably happier than you

 

Once More Into The Breach, Dear Friends, Once More

So, after over a years layoff, I return to write in my blog...wandering into the place, dusting off the cobwebs, scaring off random rodents, and opening the windows to let the Autumn light filter in. It's as hard starting again as it is resuming an exercise routine (which I'm also starting to do). The joints are creaky, it kind of hurts to bend this way or that, I get tired way too easily, and I'm dismayed at the shape I've gotten into! But the only way to go is forward really. We are creatures bound in the traces of linear time, after all.

The reasons for giving up writing were pretty normal...I had a hellish few years, is all. Finding my friend Tom dead in his house was very bad, and still haunts me. But after that, the roller coaster seemed to pick up and Cyn and I were swept up in the craziness. My Mom breaking her back, and her subsequent surgery and recovery, then my Dad breaking his NECK, and his very traumatic time in the hospital and later at home, that was tough. But the sudden emergence of my Mom's hidden heart condition, the desperate three months in the hospital, and her death were what smashed me to earth. I'm still trying to cope with that, and to spend time with my Dad, who's even more devastated than I am. As I said, a pretty hellish time. So for a while, writing and sharing my thoughts online just wasn't on, except for short notes on Facebook and such, which was as much as I could manage.

But now, as I have a minute to draw back and think, I realize that perhaps getting some of this out on this virtual paper may not only be good for me, but perhaps might strike a chord in some of you folks who are going through your own losses and traumas, and maybe even do a little good. Some things that we must go through are universal, we're all on the bus together...even though for most of us, the route it's taking is sometimes puzzling. And if you'd like to discuss any of the issues I write about please feel free...it could help us all, maybe. There have been great, wonderful moments interspersed with the pain, and I want to look at how it all weaves together, and if the patterns in the fabric imply some meaning.

Don't think I'm gonna just be writing dark poetry on black paper with black ink in an unlit room, though!! As most of you who know me are well aware, I have a rather goofy and hopeful side, and it's often to the fore. I'll be writing about my musical endeavors, hijinks with my crazy and creative friends, family hoohah and hanging on the farm with the cats and the chickens. As well as whatever ridiculous observations about Life, Nature, Sex and Art spring into my somewhat twisted brain. And you're welcome to read or not, and respond if you feel like it. I'll try to shoot off some stupid thing or other every day if I can! Till next time, Peace and Love,

Todd