02-28-05: Well, a second computer failure has brought my February Album Writing Month attempts to an unsatisfying end, at least for this year.
I got a few good songs out of it, I guess, but I'm disappointed I didn't hit the 14-song mark.
Tuesday is open mic at the Wildcat, and this Saturday I'm back at the Cabot Motor Inn & Motel. Saturday will be a solo show, and I'm looking forward to it quite a bit. It's the start of a
four-show stint over the course of a week, all solo. It's going to give me a good chance to play through all of my material, and probably add some new tunes too.
My brother Dan was a leap-year baby. There's no Leap Year Day this year, so I'll say it today -- happy birthday, bro! Hope things are well in Washington.
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02-24-05: I got my computer back last night. The good fellows at OnSite Computer Services were able to salvage most of the data from my old
hard drive, which is a big relief. Thanks guys! So now I'll be working on getting my sound setup reconstructed, and then I'm in hardcore catch-up mode for February Album Writing Month. As you can see over there
on the right bar, I've got four songs written, and just three recorded. But I've been under tighter deadlines than this before, I suppose.
My efforts will be interrupted by a show at the Cabot Motor Inn & Motel. Or maybe not; perhaps I can pen a song or two and record them there. I should try to go to the
Dutch Treat tonight and tell them that the song I recorded in their fine establishment was a SongFight winner.
Oh, and open mic night at the Lucky Dog was a Hell of a lot of fun. I'll be playing host again in late March. Some great musicians from the Conway area made the trip over last night, and they sounded fantastic. If you find yourself
in this neck of the woods, the bar has open mic night every Wednesday, and you should check it out. Good buffalo chicken, too.
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02-22-05: It's been a few days since my last update here. My home computer blew up. Well, not really, but the hard drive did something to render itself inoperable. I'll be getting it back
today with a squeaky clean new drive in it, which is nice, except for all the music and photos and whatnot that I lost. Let this be a lesson, people. Back up your stuff. Fortunately, I have a lot of mp3s stored online, and a few source files on disc,
so not quite all was lost.
In other news, I won a SongFight! My Naked On The Meach got the majority vote. Woo hoo! There were some good songs in
that fight, too. Jack Shite's was particularly good, as was Future Boy's. Check 'em all out if you haven't yet done so.
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02-17-05: I wrote another song for February Album Writing Month, but I haven't had time to record it. So I've posted the lyrics for now. If you're so inclined,
you can click the song link on the list over there, and it'll take you to the song's page on the FAWM site. The title is from a SongFight a while back that I never got around to participating in. I liked the idea I had though, so it's nice
to put it to use, I guess.
No Limitz is playing Saturday night at Goodfella's, so come on down! Or up, or what have you.
Today is my wife Celeste's birthday. I love you, dear.
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02-15-05: This week's SongFights are now up. Head on over and
check out FOUR fights of free music! There's four fights next week too. I'm kicking around an idea for one of the titles, Dog Boy Hits The Skids. We'll see what comes of it.
In other news, I'm picking up the second run of t-shirts after work today. These will be large navy/ash shirts, and they're ten bucks (including shipping) if you want one. Email me if you're interested, and I'll tell you the what, where, and how.
I'm off to Bartlett Village tonight, to co-host the open mic at the Wildcat Inn and Tavern. And it turns out I'll be back up in that area on Sunday; The Jeremy Dean Band is playing an afternoon show
at Wildcat Mountain. It's always fun playing with those guys.
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02-14-05: Happy Valentine's Day! After listening to the recordings of the Saturday performance at the Dutch Treat, I decided to assemble some of the better songs into a live album. "The Last Run" is
downloadable by clicking the links on the right hand side of this page. As I've done before with live recordings, I'll only be leaving these up for a week or so, so listen while you can.
The exception is Naked On The Meach, which will be available for longer. It came out about as good live as it did when I recorded it at home. I've submitted the live version to this week's SongFight. From the discussion on the boards this week, it sounds like
this particular song title is a popular one. I'm looking forward to hearing what other people come up with for it. I still don't know what 'meach' means.
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02-13-05: Apologies to anyone expecting to see the Red Hat Band at the Bridgewater Inn last night. It seems there was a scheduling discrepancy. I'm still getting the details, but it
sounds like our next couple shows there are also cancelled. Boo.
The other two shows I played this weekend went very well, though. Large, attentive crowds at both places, and I think everyone had a good time. I got a live recording of my upcoming SongFight entry, but I
haven't listened to it yet, so I don't know if it's useable. Bode Miller happened to be taking a ski run on the television at the time, and he's a hometown hero up here, so the audience was oohing and aahing at seemingly random times.
We'll see how it came out, I guess.
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02-10-05: As expected, Rosa Flamingo's was a cool place. Thanks to everyone who braved the impending bad weather to come up and see the show. It's snowing pretty hard
out there right now, but I'm hoping it'll finish up by the time I start my weekend schedule. I'm mighty busy this weekend, as you can see above.
In other news, I had spoken last month of an opportunity that might keep me busy through the summer. It's taking steps toward becoming a reality. I should know by the middle of
next week, and I really hope it goes through. I'll give you more info as soon as I can.
I had toyed with the idea of going to the open mic at the Dutch Treat tonight, but I think it's a bit unsafe to drive up there in these conditions. So maybe I'll try to pen another piece for
February Album Writing Month. I'm behind schedule, but I think we'll get 14 songs done by the 28th.
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02-08-05: There are FOUR titles to choose from in the upcoming SongFight. I was up beligerently early this morning, so I put together a piece
for the upcoming Black fight, 'Naked On The Meach'. You can't hear it yet, of course; I'll wait to post it until the fight officially starts. Plus, I may get a chance to record it live at
one of my shows this week, which would be a pretty cool way to do it.
In the meantime, maybe I'll put the pen to the paper and try to come up with some lyrics for another one of the titles. I did that once, for a fight called Here Comes My Dragon.
I posted the lyrics to the discussion thread, and another fighter (Officer Jackdaw and the Worthwhile Chainsaws) put the words to music in an amusing and unexpected way.
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02-07-05: The time of my show this Wednesday at Rosa Flamingo's was adjusted slightly. I'm now playing from 8pm to 11pm. Much nicer for those who have to work
the next day (and I'm one of them). I'm looking forward to checking out Rosa's; it's one of those places I hear a lot about but never seem to get to.
In other news, that was a pretty good Superbowl. I'll enjoy re-watching it; it was a good interesting game the whole way through. Not the best-played game in history, of course. But it was anyone's game
right to the end, and that's all you can ask for. Well, you could ask for more depending on which team you favor, I suppose. I'm a Saints fan, so I had no strong personal investment in
the game, but it's always nice to see the home team do well too. They're on quite a roll.
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02-06-05: I just finished my second piece for February Album Writing Month
. It's a sassy little wank called Salsa Con Queso.
Now it's off to my neighbor's house for his annual Superbowl party. Me and some buddies always show up real early and hook a PS2 up to his widescreen TV. Big video games, hooray!
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02-04-05: My first piece for February Album Writing Month
is up. You can check them all out as the month goes on by clicking the links on the rightmost column of this page.
For more information regarding this first song, click here.
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My mid-life Chrysler
02-03-05: I finally braved the morning cold and took a picture of my new wheels. It's not as fuel-efficient as the Saturn I traded in, but the Saturn was really on
its last legs, and registration month was coming up, and I got a pretty good deal on this one. All excuses aside, I really really wanted one. Now all I have to do
is pay for it, right?
Well, I've got enough shows booked to feel fairly confident that it'll be no problem. And hey, if times get tough, it's probably roomy enough for
a family of four to live out of, don't you think?
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02-02-05: Happy Groundhog Day. That little #$^^#@ better not see his shadow, or I'm driving down to Punxatawney with a bat. It's cold up here.
I've got a full week off before my next show, a solo engagement at Rosa Flamingo's in Bethlehem, NH. It's been a while since I did a solo gig; it'll be nice to
get back into that.
As for this week, maybe I'll actually find time to do some recording. We'll see. Oh yeah, I've been meaning to post a photo of my new car, but it's too cold to go out and take one, and the poor thing's
covered in road salt anyway. Soon, though.
EDIT: Johnny Cashpoint just directed my attention to February Album Writing Month. Sounds like just the thing. 14 songs in 28 days is a
cakewalk, compared to the grueling rigors of last year's Marathon Songs project (of which J$ is also a veteran). I'm already behind, but there's plenty of time to get going on it. Anyone with song ideas is
urged to contribute them by emailing me.
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Earlier Ramblings
February 2005 • January 2005 • December 2004 • November 2004 • October 2004 • September 2004 • August 2004 • July 2004
