Acoustic Pillage 2.0 - Burgendy Room, Bodega

Played the second Acoustic Pillage show this past Friday with:

Bill Hickman

Jak Stone

The Louis Baker trio

Was a really good night, I opened followed by the acts above. Everyone played well I thought, it was my first time hearing each of the other performers & I was impressed with the variety & level of playing on show. Particularly the Louis Baker trio who look like they're heading for big things. When I showed up for soundcheck earlier in the evening they were there setting up, they immediately introduced themselves & shook our hands. Good first impression, not at all the toff nosed jazz trio I was expecting. Once they soundchecked & I was immediately impressed & felt quite privileged to be sitting front & centre in the empty bar listening to them play.

My set went well, I played the exact set as the previous weeks acoustic lounge except transposing 'Portrait' & 'Like a dog';

I told you brother

Potrait

Like a dog with a bone

Trouble

Intro

Kia tatari mou

I hear the train a comin'

Poison tree

It's a good set but I need to start writing new material for solo shows as these songs are gonna get boring soon. Otherwise I enjoyed it, I love playing my slide & having an accapella song up my sleeve is fun. It's slightly nerve racking whenever I stand up to perform 'trouble' cause I'm not sure how people are gonna react to an accapella song but generally speaking I'm getting positive reactions. Friday night everyone started clapping along, which is the first time that's happened, it was a pretty cool, spontaneous occurance & it seemed to work. The rest of the set went well too, I'm getting more & more comfortable with the harmonica part in portrait so it's coming out cleaner & cleaner.

Overall a good show & happy with the way things turned out. Really getting a taste for these solo shows. : )

Acoustic Lounge - San Fran Bathhouse Thursday 17 June 2010

Played the bathhouse last Thursday night. It was an important gig to me seeing as my last show didn't go so well, I felt like I owed Pete a decent set. A guy approached me before I started playing & asked if he could record the show, apparantly he's training to be a cinematogropher so he set up two video camera's & one mic & recorded everything. It had a real providence feel to it, that he happened to be there to record that night. I guess only time will tell, I gave him my contact details & he said he'd forward on the raw data to me. I haven't heard from him yet so I hope he follows through.
The set:

I told you brother

Portrait

Like a dog with a bone

Trouble

Intro

Kia tatari mou

Hear the train a 'comin

Poison tree

It was the first time I sung 'I'll wait for you' in Te Reo, which was interesting. It came together ok, but will get better as I get more familiar with it. The set started well with a nice version of 'I told you brother'. 'Trouble' was another highlight for me, I was a bit trepidatious as I stood to sing it, acapella songs could go either way but that night it felt good & seemed to flow exactly as I want it to. The other high point was 'Poison tree' which is a really nice song to sing & play, although I always forget the first line of the second verse so I invarioubly end up singing the second line twice. Anyway, the whole set felt good & I'm pleased I could put on a better showing than last time. Unfortunately Pete left early in the set so he missed it anyway. Que sera, the life of the performer..

Lordy, Lordy, Lordy - Session 6

Went to Allan's last Monday & did guitar parts for 'In the meantime' & 'Only a fool'. These are two of the last four songs left so I'm stoked that things are coming along. I'll be pretty happy once all the recordings done & I have something to show for all the years I've been playing & writing. The plan at the moment is to get them pressed to vinyl and sent away to a few record companies & of course some select friends. I think it's gonna be a pretty good record from how it's coming together so far & has the potential to be even more than that if the universe is smiling on us & all the pieces fall into the right place. I can hear how good it can be & what I want it to represent so I'm just allowing the whole thing to come together how it's meant to & trying not to get too anal about the whole process. The professionalism's not important for this record, the idea is to capture the essence of the song & make it sound like a great record done on the cheap. I have a feeling that no matter what I or the band does in the future, this record will be a lot of people's favourite work of ours, because of the amatueurism. Anyway, the session went ok. I'm loving 'In the meantime', I forgot that Graeme actually started the song, it gives it some real anticipation, particularly when Mike brings the drums in then counts me in afer four bars, it's a pretty awesome beginning to the song. I'm going to try to convince Allan to ask his piano player to put some backing on it, I think it'll sound pretty sweet. 'Only a fool' didn't go so hot, in fact I may do the whole thing again. For the life of me I couldn't remember the right sequence for a major chord progression in the song. It's amazing how something so basic, that I've been playing for so long, can go completely haywire when you have to stop & think about how it's played. & I couldn't get the timing right for the opening chords. Mike counts me in & I play the first eight bars alone before they come in. I just couldn't stay in time with him, I was either too fast or too slow. So annoying!! & my stupid Vox pedal wasn't working so I couldn't use it, I have to get it sorted because it's crucial for 'Fallen' & 'Secret Garden', the final two tracks. That's Angie there taking selfies cause she got bored. : )

Lordy, lordy, lordy. Session 5

Went to Allan's last Monday night to add vocals to 'City Streets' & 'I'm your lover'. Ended up putting a shaker onto 'portrait' which adds a really nice country feel to the track. It's amazing what one instrument can do to change the sound of a song. Allan suggested it might be an idea putting subtle bongo's on it as well, which I gotta admit did appeal a little but I'm conscious of overdoing things. I don't want it to sound like I've thrown the kitchen sink at it, I'd rather it sound as minimalist as possible. After that I did a vocal take for 'Lover', which sounded really thin, it had no grunt to it at all. In order to beef it up I did a second one & also a second cabasa. It lends some substance to the vocal which is needed as the riff of the song is one of the strongest on the album. I want this track to open the record so it's important it's done right. I've now got two guitars, bass, drums, two main vocals & two cabasa's. The second guitar only comes in for the main riff on the chorus, which is to emphasise the riff itself. I want it to really explode when someone puts this record on for the first time, when the guitar kicks in they've gotta know that that they're listening to something with substance. It's crucial for holding their attention for the full 10 songs. I think I'm done with the track now, it's all gonna come down to editing when we're mixing it down.. Next up is the electric guitar tracks, 'Only a fool', 'Secret Garden', 'In the meantime' & 'Fallen'. 'In the meantime' & 'Fallen' particularly are gonna be difficult, not least because the timing is so weird when we drop out & come back in. There's no particular spot where it happens so it's gonna be a hit & hope! I'm hoping to put piano on 'In the meantime', it'll really help to bring out the rock'n'roll in the song if I can find someone to do it.
Speaking of piano, I'd love to play a 'Oh my' on piano at our next gig. Bonnie's looking at doing another Tugboat show, but Mike's not keen so I'm gonna do it solo. Having a piano track up my sleeve will really open up the possibilities for the show. The whole thing with playing solo sets is having variety in your songs. Harmonica, slide, accapela, piano, anything different is gonna help hold people's attention when you're solo, rather than just playing guitar song after song.
With Mike pulling out it definately emphasises how important a solo career is as well as a band. I can't allow my future to be put in other people's hands so the more solo show's I can play the better which emphasises how important it is I get myself a uke & piano. I have to start learning diverse instruments to have the ability to play 90 minute solo sets. Exciting! : )

Ruby lounge open mic

As it's been a couple of months since the Welsh dragon gig & no upcoming shows on the horizon, I went along to the Ruby lounge open mic night just to keep the rust away. It's only a three song set, an open mic standard, but it was still good to perform:

Trouble
Like a dog with a bone
Hear the train a'comin

I rushed through the songs abit, but overall it was good to play. Bonnie's talking about organising another acoustic pillage at the Tugboat, so it'll be interesting to see if that eventuates & if I can get Pisces together to perform. I know Mike's looking at slowing down his performing now that he's got a family so will have to see how that pans out.
Watched "It might get loud" last night. It was interesting to see the three guitarist's talk about their passion for playing and how their personalties affected their styles. I'd say Jack White left the biggest impression. He has an interesting attitude, "start a fight with your guitar & make sure you win" he told his 9yr old son, Jack jr. He spoke a lot about conflict & the need for dissruption in the creative process. I generally work in the opposite manner, I write easier when I'm stimulated & creatively inspired, not when I'm conflicted. I always thought that was a bit of a myth that creative types had fallen into believing, that you've got to be depressed in order to create. We need some new rolemodels. Incredible performer & player though, that man just oozes authenticity, it'll be interesting to see what type of legacy he has in 20, 30 years & how he's remembered.

I've decided that the answer to what to do with the first Pisces ep is Vinyl. I'm gonna print 20, it's only about $200, & create my own record cover. It's a good option I think, if people want to download it they can have it for free but the vinyl will be charged. I'll update more on that later.

I've updated all my tracks & live performances on my apra site, I'm not sure how it works but I think they pay you royakties for performing your tunes. It'll be interesting to see how that all works.

Lordy, Lordy, Lordy Session 4

Caught up with Allan yesterday & did guitar, cabasa & vocal for "I'm your lover" & guitar & tamba for "City streets". Really liking the way the albums coming together, it was completely by chance that Lover ended up being the first song we recorded. It was always my intention to have "look at the sun (fall again)" as the opening track on L,L,L but due to time constraints on the first day of recording I cut both that track & "broken promises". We got straight into recording & did Lover cause it's so familiar. Mike did a nice little drum intro & G brought in his bass after 4 bars with the guitar following 8 later. It's a really nice introduction to the record & hopefully we can get it right with the recording cause it's a fantastic oppurtunity to have some real explosiveness at the beginning of the album. As an introduction to us to a lot of potential new listeners it's important we grab them straight away & this track will do this if done right. I recorded a second guitar track on the main riff to give it more emphasis, the drum, bass & cabasa do a nice job of bringing the listener in but it's the riff that'll really grab them so I want it emphasised. For that reason I'm panning the second guitar to the left channel to give it some seperation from the first guitar & putting the cabasa through the right. It'll hopefully allow the listener to be brought in slowly then held by the riff.
I did a couple of takes on the vocal for it, getting it pretty right the second time out with the only problem being that I was quite tentative with the first line. Seeing that it's going to be the first the listener hears vocals I didn't want it to be a tentative start so I re-recorded the first verse. Unfortunately because it's quite a gutsy song I wrecked my vocal on those two takes so when I tried again my voice started breaking. Shit. I left it & will do the first verse another day.
That's the difference between a trained & untrained singer.... : )
"City streets" sounds good, I did the guitar on Allan's Gretsch just to give it more spark. Something was missing though so I tried putting it through the left channel & the original guide guitar I did earlier through the right. It worked so I put a tamba on just to emphasise the rhthym of the song & I think it sounds great. I'll do a vocal next time up.. Things going well!

lordy, lordy, lordy: Recording 3

Went up to Allan's for our third session on Sunday. I did vocal & guitar on 'I'll wait for you' & 'Hope', & also tambarine for 'Jimmy Jones'. He was kind enough to put them on CD for me to take away so I've been listening to them alot since. Really happy with the way they're sounding, I think we're capturing the essence of the songs which is the most important thing. It's never going to be a professional studio level quality so I'm going more for feel, just trying to capture the heart of the songs & in this sense it's coming along well. That's four tracks down six to go, two more acoustic, 'Lover' & 'City Streets' then the difficult electric tracks, 'Only a fool', 'In the meantime', 'Fallen' & Secret Garden'. Hopefully the final recording has an amateurish sound but with exciting songs that cut through the recording (with all due respect to Allan & his studio). That would be a worthy first record to me.