Extreme Pizza, and "Solace" on the youtubes

I gigged at Extreme Pizza in Wilmington the other night. Friday the thirteenth, to be exact. Extreme has been really snazzy - they've hosted a bunch of networking events for the inDEpendence musician network, and we had our FAWM meet and greet there. I enjoyed splitting the evening with friend and fellow songwriter Alyssa Regan. If her music is playing, it is never background music for me, because she's got the awesome intricate piano work which is coupled with some of the most awesome harmonic progressions.

I also posted a new video. I wrote "Solace" as part of 50-90 back in July or August. Most of what I wrote I didn't especially like, to be honest, but I got some keepers like "Sweet Life" and "Branded" and "Abandoned Bandana" and "Petal, Falling" (okay, maybe I liked more of them than I thought).

I'll be the first to admit that I like this song because it showcases a lot of fancy guitar things. I like it because of the tricky harmonic progressions that never quite go where you want them to. But that's not why I play it.

FAWM Blog #9: Showcase Showdown

For me, the FAWM season is now done. The songs have all been written, and the showcases have all been SMASHING.

The first, at the Newark Arts Alliance, was recorded entirely by Michael. You can watch the whole playlist on YouTube. (I had to scoot in after a contra dance, which is why I’m wearing my skirt and being barefoot.) The audience was very attentive and eager to interact. Which worked out awesomely on “Sea Song” - I had them humming along... it created a perfect ambiance. It was a great opportunity to play my uke and dulcimer stuff, which I felt would be too troublesome to bust out at other showcases.



The second, held at Extreme Pizza in Wilmington, was kickin’. This was a later showcase put together by our friend and fellow musician Jacopo de Nicola. Many thanks for his thoughtfulness and hard work. It was nice to have an evening showcase - and a Friday night, at that! Jacopo let me borrow his bass so I could play “Your Star.” It was well-received. (Especially by one of the waitstaff who I’m pretty sure was the one hollerin’ at me “I know that’s right” as soon as the bass licks started rollin’)

The third, at the World Cafe Live at the Queen. The staff treated us so well. The sound was great. The food was great. Our audience, attentive and sizable! Bam! And the “Stinkbug Song” finally made its stage debut.

Here’s a photo of us at the end, courtesy of James Simpson Photography:




And also a photo of Matt and myself playing “Let There Be Snow,” courtesy of Michael:



I gave out plenty of CD’s of my FAWM output and I’m thinking I will release the tracks to bandcamp. Just trying to decide whether to post just the 14 that are purely mine, or if I want to ask my collaborators if they’re cool with me putting their work up on my bandcamp. For free. Hmmmm.

Mostly I am proud. Of myself? Yeah, sure. I am. But I am primarily proud of our awesome little community. Three showcases. Many folks showed up at all three. Ten acts at least at each. Incredible talent. (As I frankly told one audience member, “the only difference between us and what’s on the radio is that we’re not on the radio.”)

But... incredible people, too. People whose talent wells up out of a naturalness of self. And the thing is that the selves involved are just beautiful and wonderful.

There was one FAWMer who approached me at a showcase, expressing gratitude towards Michael and me for all of our work promoting and organizing. There was a note of underlying worry. A kind of worry that says “it must have been such a burden for you.”

If you’d ask me, “Were there hard times?” I’d say yes, definitely. But I was blessed to be working alongside of some awesome people who shared them with me. “Did it stress you out?” At times. Life is busy, and enthusiasm is a poor guard against time constraints.

“Was it a burden?” A resounding and emphatic no. Because every step, good or bad, is part of the journey toward this end. I already know the outcome is good. I am already wholly convinced of that. If a difficult thing happens in the process, I can deal with it in its own moment without losing sight of the big vision.

It’s good, people!

Head for the Hills, Open Mic Adventuring, etc.

Welp.



Watch the video. Then, if you care to read on...!


Thursday: Open mic at Steel City in Phoenixville. Driving up 202/other PA routes in the rain at night was the most awful idea I've had in awhile. I really actually don't do well driving at night, which I made fun of in a (mostly) improvised thank-you song for Cara. Steel City is real snazzy. Unfortunately, we got mixed up on the sign-up time. Lesson learned: websites lie/get outdated. Call a human being. If you can. We still got to do one song each right at the very end, which is better than nothing for the 1.5 hour drive we made.

Michael said it first, and I agree: the place was full of talent. There was not a single "meh" performer up there. I'd definitely be interested in going again if I can get a good handle on when sign-up starts and get on the road sooner. I really love coffeehouse open mics. Bars are fine, but I feel more pressured to cater to the raucous bar audience with covers when I really want to be doing quieter originals.


Head for the Hills was really fantastic. I'm not wanting to post a play-by-play, as it was really a jam-packed weekend. My favorite bits:

• Learning hambo! Hambo's a Swedish dance that's very tricky and can't be picked up like some dances. The workshop was well-done and it's not easy to teach, so it really speaks to the level of expertise of the instructors.
  
• Joining the pickup band in the middle of the dance floor, and onstage for three sets. It's incredible to be seated with 20-30 other talented musicians on one stage and just play dance music. I left my iPod in the cabin for most of Saturday, which I really regretted when I was playing in the pickup band. I would have liked to show a little of that.
  
• Campfires, impromptu communal singing, and late-night shenanigans. I regarded them as equal to any other workshop I participated in. :) 3 AM on Sunday found us 20-30somethings sitting on the floor in our dorm eating from a small cornucopia of variously contributed foods. By the end of the weekend, my sleep total was seven hours but my happiness percentage was seven thousand percent.
  

I think if I had to sum it up in one word, it'd be camaraderie. Sometime Saturday, people began to realize that I came by myself. They all assumed I had come up with this group or that group, and I think that just speaks to the true nature of it all. Just as you ask someone to dance, or as you would accept that invitation, you step into the community and take hands four and smile. This is a bunch of people who come together to dance, play music, eat food, try new things, teach old things. The give and take of the dance itself is echoed tenfold in everyone's collective heart. Give and take songs, new dance flourishes, encouragement, joy.

Tetris on Dulcimer

Here's me messing with the mountain dulcimer, playing the Tetris A Theme. I don't think you're supposed to hold the instrument that way, but I wanted to have fun, goshdarnit!

The dulcimer is actually a really beautiful instrument and I enjoy experimenting with it to see what it can do.

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Last night was Mojo Main with Shane. Here's a video of his performance, which went over really really well:



You can hear someone at the very end yelling "400 BABIES," which I loved. So. Much.

My own set was fantastic! We killed "Half-Decent." I think it was about 76% decent, in fact!!

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What can you be looking for in the near future from me? Hmm. Mostly I'm expecting to be real busy with work, and to be trying to recuperate from whatever illness is currently inhabiting my trachea, so, I don't know. You'll get a post about Peace, Love, and Horseshoe Crabs, for sure, and then it's hard to say. Sorry in advance for falling off the radar for a little while!

FAWM post #8: EPIC WIN (with Michael Natrin) and Valentine's Day

I just love this. I just love this. I can't say how much I freakin' love this. Yeah sure, it's not perfect and I botched a few things, but hey, who gives a crap when you have SO MUCH WIN.

(Hey, check out the rest of Michael's FAWM songs! They're awesome!)


A few short minutes after I saw this for the first time, I stopped spazzing out and headed over to Mojo Main for another fabulous open mic. I was betting on getting a spot near the beginning on account of it was Valentine's Day. It's probably Newark's best open mic. I don't really say things are great unless they really impress me, so rest assured: IT'S GREAT.

And I was right about getting a spot near the beginning, which was good. I thought to myself, hey, self! You could, like, go home if you wanted, and get some sleep!

And then I didn't leave 'till like 1 AM. I have this notion that being a singer-songwriter is pretty much not conducive to sleeping ever. And I am comfortable with this. Except for when it's 8 AM, at which point I am too busy telling myself what an idiot I am for staying out late again.

It's not about the size of the dog in the fight...

...but I bet it probably helps to be the bigger dog.

Kind of like how if you're a guitarist, you can rock any old guitar, but MAN. Life is so much better with the right equipment.

I started sinking funds into new equipment last year, when I realized I'd need a good-quality nylon-stringed guitar with a pickup in it. I'd played a Breedlove a year prior to that - but I declined to buy it, thinking, "this is just a hobby... I don't really need a guitar with a pickup in it."



But now I'm thinking of music as a business and a job, not a hobby. And yeah, you can mic a guitar. Is it awesomely awesome to mic a guitar? No, not really. I move around, so I either bang into the mic, or I'm too far away to be heard. Hence, the Breedlove and the new amp. Needless to say... I entered a radical new world. Guitars have STRAPS, and you can WALK AROUND while WEARING and PLAYING the guitar! And you can HEAR YOURSELF coming out of an AMP! Still while WALKING AROUND!

Wow, I thought. I am finally cool.

Now I'm exploring picks and capos. After my Breedlove arrived, I realized... it's nylon-stringed, but it's more closely a steel-string body. Which means that I needed a curved capo, instead of the flat ones that classicals use. And, bonus!, it happened to be bright red. Score.



For picks, classical guitarists grow out their fingernails. This is great for classical pieces. The tone is wonderful and you have absolute control. If I wanna rock out, though, I have to use a pick. Primarily because, even on nylon strings, I tear my nails to shreds. After years of conditioning, I cannot break myself of caring for my nails. (Also, I could never grow strong nails. All the guys in the guitar studio had nails as thick and shiny as a hardwood floor... mine sucked.)

So I decided to try some out...



My honest preference is the thumb pick. It transitions easily between picking and strumming, plus it's actually attached to your finger. I wish I had a metal one, though.

Also, I made a short video of me using those aLaska Piks, the strange tan ones in the photo. They've got potential, especially as a backup for a broken nail... they fit snugly on my finger and I can file them into the right shape. I think the plastic also recreates the tone of a fingernail quite well.

Enjoy!

Jammin' at the dance

Of the past 24 hours, I have spent 6 dancing. That's a quarter of my whole day. My body's pleasantly tired and my heart's full of joy. There are probably better feelings than this, but I'd be hard-pressed to tell you where to find them.

The memory of my first contra dance is pretty hazy. It ought to have occurred somewhere in Greensboro, North Carolina, about 5 or 6 years ago, but it seems like it's always been a part of me. When asked to describe contra dance, I usually say, "it's a little like square dancing -- the moves, anyway, but it's done a lot like English country dancing -- like in Pride and Prejudice," which I reference though I don't think I've managed to sit through it yet.

However, this simplified description doesn't capture the essence of the dance; it tells you only about the dance itself. When I go to a contra dance... I go because I want to be surrounded by people who are full of joy, who are smiling at you and having a good time and are ever so pleased that you are dancing with them. It is a celebration of joy and other really simple, basic pleasures.

And it is a community, with lots of different roles filled by lots of different people by lots of different places. Organizers. Musicians. Dancers. Callers. Workshop leaders. The folks with the audio equipment who do the soundboard. They come from miles around... for most regular contra dancers, an hour or less of travel time is relatively close.

Contra dancing has never been anything other than an interest or a hobby for me, but I still consider it to be an area where I'm active musically -- even if it's just a jam session, like this one, after the Arden contra dance this evening. These folks are from the Baltimore Open Band and SPUDS from Philadelphia (collectively known as the Mason-Dixon Contra Dance Orchestra), as well as a few musically-inclined dancers (like myself).



Many contra tunes are known throughout the community of musicians -- certain tunes, standards, anyway. This makes it pretty easy to jam. Essentially we were just going around the circle and naming tunes we knew. The folks that knew them played along, the few folks that didn't would just listen, or try to play as best they could.

It's sort of funny because... I love it so much, but I haven't really actively tried to learn the music. Why not? Well, here's the notion... and it's completely stupid, but I know you will understand because you, too, have thought stupid things like this...

I think that it would be easy, so I've never tried.

I have to laugh at the audacity of that statement. How would I know it's easy if I've never tried it? That's pride, and I know it, and God knows it. He's like, "well, if it's so dang easy, why don't you do it? Go pick up the banjo, guitar, recorder, whatever, and go play the darn stuff. The sheet music's up on the Lancaster contra dance page, and you know it."

And I'm all, "WELL, MAYBE I WILL." And I haven't, yet... but I love finding out where I have pride and then trying to break it down. Learning the stuff would be a great way of doing just that. I have no intention of being a pretentious jerk, so while it's disappointing to uncover a piece of pretentious jerk in me, it's awesomely fun to destroy it.

There's no life where there's pride. There's life in the humble and the simple things, and that's where I'm tryin' to go.

Christmas shenanigans

Last week kept me on my toes. It was Christmas week, which is a pretty musically busy time. Somehow, I not only got through it -- I aced it with flying colors, and have videos to prove it.

Here's one of the videos of my choir performing at our Adoration service.



We had two performances. They did really, really well. I had so many people tell me how it touched them, how beautiful it was. It's just another way for God to show how beautiful His love is, to give us music and art that touches us in ways we cannot explain.

When I showed up to warm up the choir, I was approached by my pastor -- "do you play bass?" I really have no actual experience playing the bass, but... it's just a jumbo guitar without the top two strings. So I ended up playing a few carols along with the worship team. Honestly, I do enjoy having a little odd challenge thrown my way. Something that takes me out of my comfort zone. You don't get very far by staying within that particular zone.


Annnnnnd here's the video of my arrangement of 23 carols mushed into 4 minutes.



I threw this together on a Thursday, Shane's show was Saturday, and I recorded this the following Wednesday. I would have done it a little differently with more time, but it was a fun little project, anyway. And it turns out, my camera takes half-decent videos, which might lead to more videos in the future...