You can find my up-to-date FAWM page here:
http://fawm.org/fawmers/emkeev
Two (to three) more are up. With one in the works. ANTICIPATIONNNN
On Monday, I was supposed to jam with Matt, but I felt like crap. So that didn't happen. :( Sorry, Matt.
On Tuesday, I felt less crappy. So I hauled m'self up to Philly to jam with THE OTHER OTTER! (Which, incidentally, makes it sound like I am also an otter. I like band names like this. Local band My Friends also has this effect: "Hey, come listen to My Friends!")
The Other Otter, anyway, is a band/collective/group of awesome folk. Folks. Folk? People. HUMAN BEINGS! Bryan and Angela and Josh, who joined us a little later. We wrote a couple of songs... I'm excited about BOTH of them. In different ways. "A Song About Physics" (mp3) was created by means of a writing game; each person was supposed to write a one-line response to the last line written, then pass the paper on around the circle. Rules may have been bent, but it was in the name of awesome songwriting, so I think we will be forgiven. This was a very thoughtful and constructive process, which I enjoyed thoroughly.
And then Josh came home. Josh is the third of the otters. Otter. o.o He laid down some ideas involving chords and breaking glass, Bryan said something about downtown, there was some intense strumming and headbanging and... oh crap, it's not up yet. It'll be worth it. Promise. (EDIT: IT'S HERE!!) This process was really more... um, de-structive?? But TOTALLY EPIC. There was a whiteboard involved, though. And I am pretty sure I laughed from about 9:30 until forever. I'll be surprised if I made it through any of the takes without giggling.
Now we're up to Wednesday. Which ended up being, GUESS WHAT, another collaboration session. Rather impromptu. Shane and Stefan came over, tea was involved, songs were written. "The Errant Whistler" (mp3) came about thusly: Stefan said the penny whistle sounded totally sweet on the Christmas album, I picked it up, he played the guitar. We just made things up for ten minutes until we had that tune. Shane happened to walk in on the best take and started flippin' whistlin', not knowing we were actually recording... THANKS, buddy... but it sounded cool and so we kept it and named it appropriately. Which is kind of lucky, actually, because it's kinda hard to name instrumentals.
You will not find this one on my FAWM page, as I had just "won" by posting "The Errant Whistler," but Shane and Stefan marked this down as a collab: "Viva" (mp3), an instrumental/vocalized trio with 2 guitars and 1 bari uke (more or less baby guitar). I like how it came out. I do think we ought to do another recording - the whole night was so laid-back that we just kinda'... meh.
Yeah.
Um, so, I guess technically I won.
But it doesn't feel like I did. I only wrote 8 on my own.
I am therefore determined to finish writing 6 songs on my own, in addition to whatever further collabs may happen.
Also my birthday's coming up and I'm not sure I even care... I just want to write songs. Make music. I still have so many ideas. I still wanted to write more electronic stuff. Aggghhhh!
Work has noticed the effects of my songwriting. "You look tired." Yes, well, I am. But I love what I do.
For the record, though, I DO plan to sleep more than 4 hours tonight! Yippee!!
Showing posts with label shane. Show all posts
Showing posts with label shane. Show all posts
Thursday, February 23, 2012
Sunday, February 19, 2012
FAWM Blog #5: Collaboration nation.
You can find my up-to-date FAWM page here:
http://fawm.org/fawmers/emkeev
Song number 9: "White Kids." (mp3) A beatboxing improv generated by us five kids after we were done listening to last Sunday's production of Hometown Heroes. We won the Homie Award for Best Collab - for the Diner Club Christmas album! Then we were ridiculous. And beatboxed. Myself, Andrew, Shane, Erin, and Michael. And it was good. The end.
Song number 10: "Flowers Gotta Grow." (mp3) with Shane Palko. Just a happy little collab. I really like it... it seemed really simple at the time, but something about it is catchy and happy and pleasant on the ol' eardrums.
Song number 11: "Finding My Feet." (mp3) This one's another collab. Joining me are Erin Magnin and Matthew Halley. We wrote and recorded this in two and a half hours. It was really magical. It's a slow tune, employs three-part harmonies and a little guitar strummin' to tell a story about finding one's own feet after disconcerting circumstances.
Song number 12: "Damsel of Distress." A collab with Michael Natrin, which I mentioned in the last post, or the post before. Dulcimer and banjo and a humorous ballad-type thing, in which we switch meters and tempos and all kinds of fun stuff! Will Phil save the damsel, or what?...
Song number 13: "The Underground Spring." O HAI LOOK I WROTE A SONG BY MYSELF! Yeah... this one was tagged as the week three challenge, "big topic." It seems to be about the passage of time, but I'mma be honest with you. The metaphor is a vehicle for me to describe... oh, any number of things regarding God. Overcoming of death. His loving nature. His nourishment. His presence despite appearances. I really love it.
Whew. So I've been busy. But I don't think I'm nearly done writing, even though I'm so near the 14.5 song finish line.
http://fawm.org/fawmers/emkeev
Song number 9: "White Kids." (mp3) A beatboxing improv generated by us five kids after we were done listening to last Sunday's production of Hometown Heroes. We won the Homie Award for Best Collab - for the Diner Club Christmas album! Then we were ridiculous. And beatboxed. Myself, Andrew, Shane, Erin, and Michael. And it was good. The end.
Song number 10: "Flowers Gotta Grow." (mp3) with Shane Palko. Just a happy little collab. I really like it... it seemed really simple at the time, but something about it is catchy and happy and pleasant on the ol' eardrums.
Song number 11: "Finding My Feet." (mp3) This one's another collab. Joining me are Erin Magnin and Matthew Halley. We wrote and recorded this in two and a half hours. It was really magical. It's a slow tune, employs three-part harmonies and a little guitar strummin' to tell a story about finding one's own feet after disconcerting circumstances.
Song number 12: "Damsel of Distress." A collab with Michael Natrin, which I mentioned in the last post, or the post before. Dulcimer and banjo and a humorous ballad-type thing, in which we switch meters and tempos and all kinds of fun stuff! Will Phil save the damsel, or what?...
Song number 13: "The Underground Spring." O HAI LOOK I WROTE A SONG BY MYSELF! Yeah... this one was tagged as the week three challenge, "big topic." It seems to be about the passage of time, but I'mma be honest with you. The metaphor is a vehicle for me to describe... oh, any number of things regarding God. Overcoming of death. His loving nature. His nourishment. His presence despite appearances. I really love it.
Whew. So I've been busy. But I don't think I'm nearly done writing, even though I'm so near the 14.5 song finish line.
Monday, January 23, 2012
All-local iPod
A year ago, I got a new laptop. It was a total surprise - random birthday present - I'm not really one for material gifts, but you're not gonna look a macbook in the mouth, are you?
I never rebuilt my music library. My iPod, therefore, is still synced to the old laptop, where all the old music is.
The old music library has its issues, though. Over the years and transfers from machine to machine, things had been miscategorized or mislabeled. One of my favorite classical albums somehow got each track separated into its own album folder, making it impossible just to shuffle within the album. Plus, there were artists in there that I didn't really want - except for a few songs here and there, I generally skip past Rammstein and Nine Inch Nails. I'm not entirely sure how they got in there, honestly. Oh, and if you ever studied music history in college, you'll sympathize with this one: fractions of songs. I actually love to listen to the stuff I studied in college, but some of the packages contained CD's that split songs into segments of a minute or less. This made it easy to study, but man, if you want to just listen to the piece - good luck. It also means that when I put my iPod on shuffle, I might get just the middle section of the Introit of Mozart's Requiem (beautiful beautiful beautiful). Similiarly, folks who record short demos or song ideas also have such other fragments floating around their libraries.
Okay, so it's got problems. You get the picture.
Well, this presents me with a few options. I could just put up with it. But that's not really in keeping with my character. I could just go through the library and ditch the stuff I don't want, and try to re categorize everything.
OR... I could re-build. It would take time, and it might be a gradual process, but it would ensure a well-organized library.
I got to thinking, though. If I'm a supporter of local music community, shouldn't I put my money where my mouth is? There's plenty of awesome local musicians, most I've met, some I haven't. I have fond memories associated with these people and these albums. Let's rebuild only the local music.
So, that's my current task. And here's what I've got to work with:
Yeah, it's not a ton, but it's a start!
If you care to read on, I'll list what I've got:
Artist - Album
Ba-Durr! - Demo (Newark punk band, I love these guys!)
Battleshy Youths - Grow (YES! Michael and the gang!)
Matt Brown - My Native Home (Great old-time folk musician, has since left for Chicago.)
Tina Colon - Taken Up (Met her at a young adult Christian conference in Mass, she is in NY.)
John (???) - some kind of a demo wrapped up in sheet music. His facebook page seems to be gone :( (johnsounds??)
Mark Engebretson - Where Does Love Go? (my composition prof at UNCG)
John Francis - The Better Angels Project (Saw him at a house show in Wilmington. I helped fund this CD and got a signed copy in the mail when it came out!)
Glad Hearts - The Oak and the Acorn (Actually have no idea where I got it. I think it was gifted to me by someone who thought of me when they saw their show.)
Matthew Halley - Birdsongs (Just met Matt a few months ago and we've had some awesome jam sessions. I'm so happy this album exists.)
Matthew Halley - some rough demos (this will be worth a fortune one day)
The Look Machine - Above this Clouded Mind (They're not together anymore. But I love this album. Shane was the drummer and he was kind enough to let me have a copy. Listen to a track here.)
Em McKeever - Demo (Graciously recorded by Shane Palko)
Em McKeever - Videogame music (written for Jed's videogame! I just put it on a CD so I could drive around and listen to it.)
Erik Mitchell - All These Words (got it at the Christmas show we played at the Queen!)
Shane Palko - Pretty Good Songs Volume VII (The first one.)
Shane Palko - Going Places (The second one. I think I attended the CD release show for this? It would have been very shortly after meeting him.)
Shane Palko - Songs from Pretoria (Shane's currently back in South Africa releasing his CD all over. And doing research. His blog's here.)
Rainy Day Cacophony - Dirty Words (Met at a Palko Basement show. Tim, I think? Cool guy, was glad to make his acquaintance.)
Jess Ray and the Rag Tag Army (Doesn't seem to have a title and I don't know where it came from! Possibly another gift.)
Rachel Schain - Happy Happy (Yeah, lady singer-songwriters!! Rachel is awesome.)
Victory Shoes (no idea??? I think I got it at a show, possibly Palko show.)
Windowview - Pine Island (Picked this up at an inDEpendence networking event, I believe actually the first one, from a bandmother. :)
Compilations:
A Diner Club Christmas (The Paper Janes, Battleshy Youths, Em McKeever and friends)
Christmas on the Block (WSTW/Graffiti Radio)
I actually don't yet have some of my favorite bands, like The Hundred Acre Woods and Bullbuckers, but I'll fix that soon enough!
I never rebuilt my music library. My iPod, therefore, is still synced to the old laptop, where all the old music is.
The old music library has its issues, though. Over the years and transfers from machine to machine, things had been miscategorized or mislabeled. One of my favorite classical albums somehow got each track separated into its own album folder, making it impossible just to shuffle within the album. Plus, there were artists in there that I didn't really want - except for a few songs here and there, I generally skip past Rammstein and Nine Inch Nails. I'm not entirely sure how they got in there, honestly. Oh, and if you ever studied music history in college, you'll sympathize with this one: fractions of songs. I actually love to listen to the stuff I studied in college, but some of the packages contained CD's that split songs into segments of a minute or less. This made it easy to study, but man, if you want to just listen to the piece - good luck. It also means that when I put my iPod on shuffle, I might get just the middle section of the Introit of Mozart's Requiem (beautiful beautiful beautiful). Similiarly, folks who record short demos or song ideas also have such other fragments floating around their libraries.
Okay, so it's got problems. You get the picture.
Well, this presents me with a few options. I could just put up with it. But that's not really in keeping with my character. I could just go through the library and ditch the stuff I don't want, and try to re categorize everything.
OR... I could re-build. It would take time, and it might be a gradual process, but it would ensure a well-organized library.
I got to thinking, though. If I'm a supporter of local music community, shouldn't I put my money where my mouth is? There's plenty of awesome local musicians, most I've met, some I haven't. I have fond memories associated with these people and these albums. Let's rebuild only the local music.
So, that's my current task. And here's what I've got to work with:
Yeah, it's not a ton, but it's a start!
If you care to read on, I'll list what I've got:
Artist - Album
Ba-Durr! - Demo (Newark punk band, I love these guys!)
Battleshy Youths - Grow (YES! Michael and the gang!)
Matt Brown - My Native Home (Great old-time folk musician, has since left for Chicago.)
Tina Colon - Taken Up (Met her at a young adult Christian conference in Mass, she is in NY.)
John (???) - some kind of a demo wrapped up in sheet music. His facebook page seems to be gone :( (johnsounds??)
Mark Engebretson - Where Does Love Go? (my composition prof at UNCG)
John Francis - The Better Angels Project (Saw him at a house show in Wilmington. I helped fund this CD and got a signed copy in the mail when it came out!)
Glad Hearts - The Oak and the Acorn (Actually have no idea where I got it. I think it was gifted to me by someone who thought of me when they saw their show.)
Matthew Halley - Birdsongs (Just met Matt a few months ago and we've had some awesome jam sessions. I'm so happy this album exists.)
Matthew Halley - some rough demos (this will be worth a fortune one day)
The Look Machine - Above this Clouded Mind (They're not together anymore. But I love this album. Shane was the drummer and he was kind enough to let me have a copy. Listen to a track here.)
Em McKeever - Demo (Graciously recorded by Shane Palko)
Em McKeever - Videogame music (written for Jed's videogame! I just put it on a CD so I could drive around and listen to it.)
Erik Mitchell - All These Words (got it at the Christmas show we played at the Queen!)
Shane Palko - Pretty Good Songs Volume VII (The first one.)
Shane Palko - Going Places (The second one. I think I attended the CD release show for this? It would have been very shortly after meeting him.)
Shane Palko - Songs from Pretoria (Shane's currently back in South Africa releasing his CD all over. And doing research. His blog's here.)
Rainy Day Cacophony - Dirty Words (Met at a Palko Basement show. Tim, I think? Cool guy, was glad to make his acquaintance.)
Jess Ray and the Rag Tag Army (Doesn't seem to have a title and I don't know where it came from! Possibly another gift.)
Rachel Schain - Happy Happy (Yeah, lady singer-songwriters!! Rachel is awesome.)
Victory Shoes (no idea??? I think I got it at a show, possibly Palko show.)
Windowview - Pine Island (Picked this up at an inDEpendence networking event, I believe actually the first one, from a bandmother. :)
Compilations:
A Diner Club Christmas (The Paper Janes, Battleshy Youths, Em McKeever and friends)
Christmas on the Block (WSTW/Graffiti Radio)
I actually don't yet have some of my favorite bands, like The Hundred Acre Woods and Bullbuckers, but I'll fix that soon enough!
Friday, December 2, 2011
"A Diner Club Christmas": radio, album, shoshosho
I cram so much into my one little life. Certain aspects of this are admirable, then... others are stupid.
For example, the past week. Jam-packed each night of the week, including Sunday. Now when it's Friday night, everyone else is out and I'm home too tired to move from the space-heated recliner corner.
And I really don't mind that one bit. Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.
Anyway, there's this supergroup of us: the Paper Janes (Shane and Jess), Battleshy Youths (Michael, and Andrew, and Mitch) slash the Honey Badgers (Erin with Michael), and myself. We recorded the Christmas album "A Diner Club Christmas," which arrived on Monday, and we promptly began selling them to everyone we know, and will continue to do so awhile (please don't hesitate to comment or contact me if you want a copy!). I have already signed a few copies for co-workers. ^^
Okay. It's not like I've never played music with people before, and it's not like I'm opposed to it. I'm known to appear at many formal and informal jam sessions, as whim dictates. I fulfilled all my small ensemble requirements in college. To be blunt, though: I chose guitar so that I would not have to rely on anyone other than myself. I am my own one-woman band. I like the independence. (Which is probably why I am still single, and pretty happy being just that.)
Despite my hermit-like inclinations, playing with this group has been pretty delightful. Not that we have a name or anything.
Sunday we were on Hometown Heroes. I can't say enough good things about Mark Rogers, who invited us to be on the show. Hometown Heroes is run by WSTW out of Wilmington. Being in the studio is kind of magical. I've been in radio stations before, and the magic never really wears off. It's tingly, it gets under your skin, it tickles. You're stuck in an eternal grin. The half-hour in the studio really flew by, sadly, but there IS a podcast available!
For example, the past week. Jam-packed each night of the week, including Sunday. Now when it's Friday night, everyone else is out and I'm home too tired to move from the space-heated recliner corner.
And I really don't mind that one bit. Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.
Anyway, there's this supergroup of us: the Paper Janes (Shane and Jess), Battleshy Youths (Michael, and Andrew, and Mitch) slash the Honey Badgers (Erin with Michael), and myself. We recorded the Christmas album "A Diner Club Christmas," which arrived on Monday, and we promptly began selling them to everyone we know, and will continue to do so awhile (please don't hesitate to comment or contact me if you want a copy!). I have already signed a few copies for co-workers. ^^
Okay. It's not like I've never played music with people before, and it's not like I'm opposed to it. I'm known to appear at many formal and informal jam sessions, as whim dictates. I fulfilled all my small ensemble requirements in college. To be blunt, though: I chose guitar so that I would not have to rely on anyone other than myself. I am my own one-woman band. I like the independence. (Which is probably why I am still single, and pretty happy being just that.)
Despite my hermit-like inclinations, playing with this group has been pretty delightful. Not that we have a name or anything.
Sunday we were on Hometown Heroes. I can't say enough good things about Mark Rogers, who invited us to be on the show. Hometown Heroes is run by WSTW out of Wilmington. Being in the studio is kind of magical. I've been in radio stations before, and the magic never really wears off. It's tingly, it gets under your skin, it tickles. You're stuck in an eternal grin. The half-hour in the studio really flew by, sadly, but there IS a podcast available!
Friday, May 27, 2011
So this is cool - I'm on a podcast?
Remember that set I said I kinda accidentally played last Thursday at Mojo Main?
Apparently you can listen to it here: GraffitiRadio.com
Normally I really don't enjoy listening to myself, but I'm a minute or two into the first song and... it just sounds like I'm having a great time. Yeah, I'm making mistakes because it's Michael's guitar and I don't normally play steel string and I couldn't adjust the strap because it was too difficult and unfortunately all my guitar-playing friends are giants compared to me and I was getting over a cold so my vox mess up but... FUN!!!
The setlist is comprised of:
5 Stages of Infatuation,
The Horseshoe Crab Song,
"the war song" (no good title),
Automatic Toilet Song,
and Half-Decent (with Shane on drums)
...and COFFAY!
Anyway, the reason you can listen to this recording is because Graffiti Radio set up the show and was broadcasting it live. So I guess when you can do that sort of thing, it makes sense to record what you're broadcasting and put it up as a podcast. Huge big shoutout to Graffiti Radio for letting me go on - you folks are completely awesome!!! And thanks to Michael for being the ninja go-between-suggestion-guy.
If you've got a couple seconds, also listen to the other sets - folks did a great job that night!
Apparently you can listen to it here: GraffitiRadio.com
Normally I really don't enjoy listening to myself, but I'm a minute or two into the first song and... it just sounds like I'm having a great time. Yeah, I'm making mistakes because it's Michael's guitar and I don't normally play steel string and I couldn't adjust the strap because it was too difficult and unfortunately all my guitar-playing friends are giants compared to me and I was getting over a cold so my vox mess up but... FUN!!!
The setlist is comprised of:
5 Stages of Infatuation,
The Horseshoe Crab Song,
"the war song" (no good title),
Automatic Toilet Song,
and Half-Decent (with Shane on drums)
...and COFFAY!
Anyway, the reason you can listen to this recording is because Graffiti Radio set up the show and was broadcasting it live. So I guess when you can do that sort of thing, it makes sense to record what you're broadcasting and put it up as a podcast. Huge big shoutout to Graffiti Radio for letting me go on - you folks are completely awesome!!! And thanks to Michael for being the ninja go-between-suggestion-guy.
If you've got a couple seconds, also listen to the other sets - folks did a great job that night!
Wednesday, May 25, 2011
Whoosh!
The last four days were a whirlwind. In fact, life from this point on until late August is going to be a complete cyclone.
(from toothpastefordinner.com)
A damselfly just landed next to me! So pretty. I'm outside enjoying my porch. It would be a much nicer porch if I had a couple beers and some friends over. Instead, I'm blogging and eating chocolate. Whatever.
Anyway, enough about domesticity. Back to the adventure! Because, as we all know, there is no adventure in domesticity. Which is something that has rather been affecting me in not a good way. Twice in the last week, I've had to truncate adventures due to my nice domestic lifestyle of having a job and a house to take care of.
RARGH
But anyway. I truly am grateful for what I have. Which is chocolate. And a blog.
OKAY, musics!
Thursday, I grabbed a five-song set at Mojo Main, rather accidentally, by which I mean, I didn't mean to. By which I mean, I showed up to hear the Paper Janes and Battleshy Youths and all of a sudden I'm onstage killing time until Glen shows up to drum for the Janes. Thanks to Michael for sneaking that in, all ninja-like, and for letting me borrer his guitar.
Friday, I show back up at Mojo to much suspicion. "Weren't you here last night??" "Yeah, I stayed overnight and ate something I found on the floor for breakfast." Anyway, that was fun. I like matinees at Mojo Main. This time, there were even some people there! Afterward, I got to scootch down Main Street to hear the Paper Janes play in the dark at Central Perk. ^^ Seriously, more shows should be played during power outages, just sayin'.
Saturday, down to the Dupont Nature Center for Peace, Love, and Horseshoe Crabs 2011. Shane was gracious enough to accompany me on the djembe. (He also helped to put a dent in the buffet table, which I think was much appreciated since they had WAY TOO MUCH!.) I missed the daytime portion of the festivities, but I had an awesome time singin' and playin' and carryin' on at the silent auction/dinner/benefit portion. The assistant superintendent of Lums Pond drafted a team of backup singers & dancers for the Horseshoe Crab song. ^^
Sunday, I actually didn't play anywhere, believe it or not.
Monday was Mojo Main's open mic, again, the best open mic in Newark, DE... I busted out a few songs that I don't ordinarily play. In fact, one I've hardly played at all since I wrote it for FAWM 2010.
And Tuesday was a lovely Palk Basement Show, where Michael and I played a pretty-good rendition of "Peter." I love that song. I really do. I honestly didn't practice at all before we went up. I should consider doing that sometimes. Unfortunately, I had to miss the last band 'cause I was basically a hot mess between feeling miserable in the stomach region, and therefore not having eaten, and then all the other life that was happening and me feeling bad and guilty for things, and I just felt like it would be a better idea for me to go home at that point.
So that's what I've been doing. This is actually my last week of teaching lessons for a month... work is promising to get really rough in the next month, and I'm just taking a little breather so I can focus and do things like... sleep. I do like teaching guitar. I only like teaching under certain circumstances... I've never been enamored with public schools. The idea of bringing homework to grade is so repulsive to me. I'd probably be the best teacher ever, actually.
Work is going just fine. I JUST got the summer concert series ALL booked up as of this week, so I'll start promoting that soon.
I gotta give a shoutout to the community of folks I've got around me right now. There are just a lot of musicians around me with really good spirits. I really am looking forward to seeing what is going to come out of this, 'cause I don't think we're in Kansas anymore.
(from toothpastefordinner.com)
A damselfly just landed next to me! So pretty. I'm outside enjoying my porch. It would be a much nicer porch if I had a couple beers and some friends over. Instead, I'm blogging and eating chocolate. Whatever.
Anyway, enough about domesticity. Back to the adventure! Because, as we all know, there is no adventure in domesticity. Which is something that has rather been affecting me in not a good way. Twice in the last week, I've had to truncate adventures due to my nice domestic lifestyle of having a job and a house to take care of.
RARGH
But anyway. I truly am grateful for what I have. Which is chocolate. And a blog.
OKAY, musics!
Thursday, I grabbed a five-song set at Mojo Main, rather accidentally, by which I mean, I didn't mean to. By which I mean, I showed up to hear the Paper Janes and Battleshy Youths and all of a sudden I'm onstage killing time until Glen shows up to drum for the Janes. Thanks to Michael for sneaking that in, all ninja-like, and for letting me borrer his guitar.
Friday, I show back up at Mojo to much suspicion. "Weren't you here last night??" "Yeah, I stayed overnight and ate something I found on the floor for breakfast." Anyway, that was fun. I like matinees at Mojo Main. This time, there were even some people there! Afterward, I got to scootch down Main Street to hear the Paper Janes play in the dark at Central Perk. ^^ Seriously, more shows should be played during power outages, just sayin'.
Saturday, down to the Dupont Nature Center for Peace, Love, and Horseshoe Crabs 2011. Shane was gracious enough to accompany me on the djembe. (He also helped to put a dent in the buffet table, which I think was much appreciated since they had WAY TOO MUCH!.) I missed the daytime portion of the festivities, but I had an awesome time singin' and playin' and carryin' on at the silent auction/dinner/benefit portion. The assistant superintendent of Lums Pond drafted a team of backup singers & dancers for the Horseshoe Crab song. ^^
Sunday, I actually didn't play anywhere, believe it or not.
Monday was Mojo Main's open mic, again, the best open mic in Newark, DE... I busted out a few songs that I don't ordinarily play. In fact, one I've hardly played at all since I wrote it for FAWM 2010.
And Tuesday was a lovely Palk Basement Show, where Michael and I played a pretty-good rendition of "Peter." I love that song. I really do. I honestly didn't practice at all before we went up. I should consider doing that sometimes. Unfortunately, I had to miss the last band 'cause I was basically a hot mess between feeling miserable in the stomach region, and therefore not having eaten, and then all the other life that was happening and me feeling bad and guilty for things, and I just felt like it would be a better idea for me to go home at that point.
So that's what I've been doing. This is actually my last week of teaching lessons for a month... work is promising to get really rough in the next month, and I'm just taking a little breather so I can focus and do things like... sleep. I do like teaching guitar. I only like teaching under certain circumstances... I've never been enamored with public schools. The idea of bringing homework to grade is so repulsive to me. I'd probably be the best teacher ever, actually.
Work is going just fine. I JUST got the summer concert series ALL booked up as of this week, so I'll start promoting that soon.
I gotta give a shoutout to the community of folks I've got around me right now. There are just a lot of musicians around me with really good spirits. I really am looking forward to seeing what is going to come out of this, 'cause I don't think we're in Kansas anymore.
Tuesday, May 17, 2011
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.
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!!
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!
Saturday, May 14, 2011
Little updates...
-Got a microphone, finally! Haven't even had time to get it out of the box and set it up for the first time, but... it's here. Not something I ever would have imagined myself doing, intentionally purchasing equipment for the purpose of amplifying my own voice...
-Spoke at an environmental journalism class at UD today. Always, always, always wonderful to share about why I'm doing what I'm doing (even if I don't know exactly what I'm doing). Played a couple of my nature tunes for the group with Shane, which I think makes him the first person ever to rehearse and perform my own original tunes alongside me. Thanks, Shane!
-Been doing worship here and there, which still feels kinda new to me. The plan is to set up my own binder of worship tunes... tho really, I'll end up pretty much memorizing them all since they're all of 3-5 chords each... there's only 1-2 worship tunes I have ever had to look up in order to play correctly... (sounds like I'm bragging, but I'm allowed to do that since it is A) one of God's gifts to me and B) something I've spent years and plenty of my parents' money developing)
-Peace, Love, and Horseshoe Crabs coming up Saturday, May 21!
-I'm taking June off from teaching guitar. My job goes bananas in June and I'd like to focus. I've had so many inquiries from potential students in just the last month... which is wonderful! But summer is, unfortunately, the busy time at work, and I'm learning a little bit these days about the wonders of getting sleep and spending time at home just weeding the garden...
-Spoke at an environmental journalism class at UD today. Always, always, always wonderful to share about why I'm doing what I'm doing (even if I don't know exactly what I'm doing). Played a couple of my nature tunes for the group with Shane, which I think makes him the first person ever to rehearse and perform my own original tunes alongside me. Thanks, Shane!
-Been doing worship here and there, which still feels kinda new to me. The plan is to set up my own binder of worship tunes... tho really, I'll end up pretty much memorizing them all since they're all of 3-5 chords each... there's only 1-2 worship tunes I have ever had to look up in order to play correctly... (sounds like I'm bragging, but I'm allowed to do that since it is A) one of God's gifts to me and B) something I've spent years and plenty of my parents' money developing)
-Peace, Love, and Horseshoe Crabs coming up Saturday, May 21!
-I'm taking June off from teaching guitar. My job goes bananas in June and I'd like to focus. I've had so many inquiries from potential students in just the last month... which is wonderful! But summer is, unfortunately, the busy time at work, and I'm learning a little bit these days about the wonders of getting sleep and spending time at home just weeding the garden...
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