Backdoor Santa, Crooked and Wide

Its been a while, sometimes life is what happens when you are waiting to do what you want to do…

I was on the Facebook wandering around and checked out a YouTube video posted by Steve Turner.  It is Clarence Carter doing “Backdoor Santa” which is totally worth laughing at.  The “Ho ho ho” kills me!  Santa only comes once a year…

Anyhow, seeing Steve’s mug shot reminded me that it was about 9 years ago this time of year that I got to live the dream for a while, assistant engineering on the Mudhoney record Since We’ve Become Translucent.  It is still making me smile now. 

Rewind another 9 years and I am at Duke University, hollering “Touch me I’m sick!!!!” at the top of my lungs in the little smoky on-air room at WXDU FM, knowing that my dorm-mates (I’m looking at you Lee and Dan) are listening, and will probably call in a request for Mr Bungle any minute. We listened to Sound Garden, we listened to Nirvana, we listened to Metallica, but Mudhoney is special.  Somehow it was the loudest sounding, the hardest, the energy just bursting out of the speakers. Like Iggy with the Stooges, or Black Flag it just made us want to destroy things and fight.  Usually we just drank more and fell down, but the possibility was always there. I lost my voice screaming along with Mark Arm a few times.

I have to insert a little side note here - There was a little short New Yorker named Ray who had the show before me, and he had educated me into the more obscure punk records (yes actual vinyl) in the WXDU library.  One of the bands he played for me (and I admit it was a struggle to get into) was Lubricated Goat.  Yeah.  Paddock of Love.  Yeah!

So jump forward again, and I am sitting in Gravelvoice studio with the Audio Wizard Scott Colburn.  Gravelvoice at the time was basically under the Aurora bridge, just down from the troll eating a Volkswagen in the center of the universe (otherwise known as Fremont).  You walked past the glass blowing guys place, into the studio and to your right was the bigger tracking room, straight ahead the smaller one, which you walked through and left to get to the control room.  Scott’s collection of weird shit everywhere.  On the wall was an archtop guitar, maybe it was a Kay?  It was completely unplayable, the strings were rusty, and if the word “action” describes how far from the fretboard strings are, these hovered above the neck so high, that the word “action” did not apply.  There were many eyeballs.  Residents fans anyone?

The mics are on, the band lays into the beginning of “Crooked and Wide” and through two walls, insulated walls, the bass punches me in the chest. Guy.  From Lubricated Goat.  Yeah!!  It was so loud.  I was cool though.  I might have been grinning like the Cheshire, and attempting to dislocate my own neck when Dan’s drums got going, but I don’t think anyone noticed...

Until Mark started doing vocals.  Luckily it was just me and Scott in the control room.  I was useless.  I just wanted to listen, and maybe cry.  That voice!  Scott, after the first take, calm and wise as always says - “Yeah, I think you could give that another try.”  Me in my head - “WHAT???”  Important to note we are tracking to analog tape here.  New take means old take is gone.  Forever.  So Mark simply says “OK” and blows his first take out of the water.  Me in my head – “Aaaaaaah!  Good thing I kept my mouth shut.” 

For some reason, during these sessions, and I can’t remember now who started it, we were eating large quantities of [brand name deleted] miniature orange chocolate chip cookies.  How’s that for punk rock?  Anyhow, we ran out.  Break!  We all leave, except for the Clarence Carter fan Steve.

9 minutes later, as we walk up to the door we hear this sweet ringing vibrato guitar.  Clear as a bell, bluesy, just gorgeous.  Mr Turner.  On the freakin Kay.

When you go listen to Steve Turner’s hands on Crooked and Wide here please ignore the picture.  Note Mark’s vibrato is pretty great too, but he’s playing through the Electric Mistress (that steely flange/chorus is so great!) so you can tell who’s who.

Merry Christmas folks, hopefully I’ll be writing a bit more again soon.

Too Early : Rusty Willoughby

“In this world I’ve come to realize, you don’t want to get there too early”

I was lucky enough to record and mix an in-studio performance from Rusty Willoughby at KEXP last weekend, and since then I’ve been unable to get this song out of my head.  That sounds a bit clichéd perhaps, but remember I mix a lot of songs, listening to them hundreds of times in a day, so its pretty rare that one breaks through that crowded part of my mind.

Rusty and the band – Barbara Hunter, Barrett Martin, Johnny Sangster, and Rachel Flotard were great to work with, funny and serious at the same time.  This is my favorite kind of people to work with, they can really play, the craft is there, but there is still fun to be had playing music with each other.  I had a blast just being in the room.

Lindsay Fuller: The Last Light I See

“The good lord he giveth, and then walks away”

I was lucky enough to catch a fine set by Lindsay Fuller at Conor Byrne last Saturday.  She was accompanied by Jeff Fielder, on dobro and nylon string guitar, and Rebecca Young on bass.  I scored a CD, Fuller’s 6th – The Last Light I See, and I’m listening to it now.

Fuller manages to combine literacy with story telling in a way that avoids burying the songs in “clever.”  The lyrics are just better than yours - sorry.  They have the difficult-to-achieve quality of being readable as poetry, without feeling heavy-handed or verbose.  It takes an intrepid writer to take on Leonard Peltier’s incarceration (Big White Lie), to find a good rhyme for “Prometheus” (East Grand Exit), and to reference The Scarlet Letter (Trigger Happy).  I am in awe of the integration between intelligence and song-craft.

How does she do it?  It’s all in the delivery.  Lindsay Fuller fulfills the promise of the lyrics, in a voice that already feels classic to me.  There are hints of Lucinda Williams without the Texas, or Gillian Welch without the California, but really her voice is her own.  She is intense, hurt, lonesome, angry, hungry, but - most importantly - she is believable. 

The mood of the whole disc might be summed up by the quote above. 

“The good lord he giveth and then walks away.”  Beauty and love - the gifts of the gods perhaps - are here, but temporary.  Blood and bone, the limitations of a hurting human body are here to stay.  When you need them, these songs express the fight to survive, and the longing for joy inherent in our condition.

This record will be in heavy rotation here at the Farfetcher house.

About the players:

Along with Young and Fielder, Fuller is joined by Mark Pickerel on drums and Jason Staczek on keys.  Phil Peterson and Aubrea Alford provide cello, viola, and violin.  With production by Matt Brown and Jeff Fielder and a lush mix from Johnny Sangster, the disc has no fluff.  It is all straightforward folk rock and uncluttered arrangements.  Lindsay’s voice is front and center, and the focus is on the songs.

Mark Pickerel brings solidity and energy to the songs, whilst maintaining an orchestral approach.   His big low voice can be heard on tracks 3,5 and 6 of The Last Light I See.

Rebecca Young displays equal facility with electric or upright bass, and a no-nonsense style – you get the right note, at the right time.

Jeff Fielder is now clearly a first call session musician and accompanist here in Seattle.  His melodic approach, and multi-instrumental fluency complement Fuller’s voice, and add an emotional depth and color.

Jason Staczek is a composer and plays piano, Hammond organ and accordion.  I’m sure 7 years making records as owner of Chroma sound didn’t hurt his musicality, or his sense for space, both of which come through on the record.

Phil Peterson (House of Breaking Glass studio) I’m guessing is also the arranger for the string parts.  Together with Aubrea Alford on violin he provides a cinematic, wind-sweeping-over-the-plains depth.

Links:

http://www.lindsayfuller.com/home/

http://www.myspace.com/goodcountrypeople

Lindsay Fuller, The Holyfelds, The Starlings @ Conor Byrne

Last night Anne and I went down to Ballard to the old familiar Conor Byrne Pub.  I had a very pleasant surprise, and fell in love with the opening band – Lindsay Fuller.  I’ll blog a review of her new album very soon.

We were there to see the Starlings play.  Moe and Aimee (bass and drums, harmonica and vocals) are back from their bicycle tour and so it was a chance to see the starters in the game.  They sounded great, and it was a fun time.  The new CD will soon be out and you can check it out your own selves.  Highlights were Fallen Days (For the one on the run) and Apple Tree.  Anne and I had no choice but to shake a tail feather.

OK, so back to Lindsay Fuller.  The usual Conor Byrne racket made it hard to hear unless you were up front, and the usual no-one cares unless you are “famous” factor meant that a lot of people missed seeing two of Seattle’s finest musicians backing her up – Jeff Fielder on dobro and nylon string guitar, and Rebecca Young on electric bass.  Jeff also sang some well-blended background vocals.

There were obviously some people in the know, given the cluster-fuck of cameras and recorders.  Even with this indicator for the more astute beer drinkers, that strange semi-circular realm of death which no living person should enter still glared ominously at the crowd from just in front of the monitors.  I’ll admit Lindsay has been described as “intense” (thanks Mike), and perhaps that is why nobody wanted to get up there, or maybe like me they were trying to get in the cone of sound from the PA just to hear the music.  The music was great.

In the middle was The Holyfelds who brought some danceable energy and searing harmonies to the stage.  They also brought an autoharp, which I must admit gives me the heebie jeebies, however given the aforementioned hullabaloo I couldn’t really hear it, or the dobro for that matter.  Ahhh bad sound, why do you haunt me?

http://www.lindsayfuller.com/home/

http://www.myspace.com/goodcountrypeople

Help me out with a link for the Holyfelds will ya?

BC Campbell, The Elderly, and Eric Claesson and the Scowlers @ Mars Bar

Back to the Mars Bar with BC Campbell, this time opening for The Elderly and Eric Claesson and the Scowlers.  Finally its was hot in a bar, this endless cool weather is really putting the blues into this city.  Settled in with a Manny’s and off we went. 

When you play out in a band that is still paying dues, you can end up on some funny bills.  There was the time when Pelusa played at the Old Peculiar doing country and folk songs and between sets the bartender was rocking the Pantera.  I also love the sets where the acoustic guitar duo has to play after the big drums rock band – NOT.  You would think the club or the bookers would figure it out.  Well I’m here to tell you that this time, someone did.  We had 3 bands with different styles, yet similar enough to be on an i-pod playlist.  The order went from quietest and smallest group to loudest and with drums.  Everyone was super to talk to and hang out with, and the music was great.  Thanks Mars Bar.

BC Campbell I’ve talked about before, suffice it to say that we are getting better every time and we had fun on stage.

The Elderly were new for me, and I enjoyed the set tremendously.  3 singers --- doing complex harmonies rather well considering the stage mix in there.  Guitar, percussion, banjo.  Unfortunately I don’t have a link for you, and describing music is difficult when the comparisons are not obvious.  This is why there are so many horrible one-sheets out there, and why the question “what kind of music do you play?” is something every band should practice the answer to.  I personally have no idea

Eric Claesson and the Scowlers brought some big reverb guitar and a low voice to some cool Americana songs, and even a David Bowie (Labrynth) cover!  Also, they wore suits, which I appreciate, especially when its hot in the club.  Comparisons we made while sitting there were to Nick Cave, Chris Isaac, Jon Spencer and argh BC will have to remind me the rest – comment it will ya? 

Same goes for anyone with a link to the Seattle elderly, not the Pittsburgh band that likes  DMB, or the Swedish guys (!).  Just comment the link please.

Softly Now @ the Rendezvous

Wednesday night, the Rendezvous Jewelbox Theatre, I’ll skip the  history this time as I covered it in an earlier post - reposted here.  Playing in order of appearance - BC Campbell, with yours truly on guitar, Sam Watts as “Ghosts I’ve Met”, and Alex Guy as “Led to Sea”.

This show was curated by Levi Fuller; as part of his “Softly Now” series, which you can go and see the first Wednesday of every month.  The show was early, which is great for a week-night event, we were on by 7:30 and the whole shebang was over by 10pm.  Perfect!  Get a little dinner, catch a show, still have time to chill before sleep and back to the grind on Thursday.  PS It was great to see Renata Almeida at the show – hooray!

Our set went well, BC is singing great, and the new songs are coming together nicely.  The sound was great- clear and loud without being too loud – sound guys love an “acoustic” night because its easier to make things sound good when the stage volume is lower – especially in smaller rooms.  We really hit it on “I Believe” and “Tell Me” –  there are recordings of both from the basement on BC’s myspace page linked below.

I had never heard Ghosts I’ve Met before, and I was pleasantly surprised – Sam has a quiet approachable voice and big sounding chords, with some really great lines in the lyrics.  It was nice to get a chance to listen to his Taylor after BC’s Martin – live comparison!  Still no clear decision, the Martin has more good mids, the Taylor is brighter by far, always will be a taste thing I think.  If I was moneybags guy I guess I’d have a Martin for plectrum stuff and the Taylor for fingerpicking.  Favorite song, “Payphone Patience.”

Led to Sea (a Stranger genius nominee for those in Seattle) is viola player and singer Alex Guy, with an assortment of effects pedals and loopers.  She sings in the post Tori Amos school, and I clearly hear the connection to Mirah, and Laura Veirs.  Her solo show is impressive, she will win some fans on tour this summer.  The music is arranged beautifully, and she plays “out” enough to keep the listener on alert.  Fans of Andrew Bird, 2 Foot Yard or maybe even Maya Beiser will find a new record to love with “Into The Darkening Sky”.  Locals in the scene – Paul Kikuchi on percussion is a stunning player, and Lori Goldston (the Kevin Bacon of Seattle musicians I swear she knows everyone) played some cello, and Jherek Bishoff on bass is a player too. 

Here’s your links:

http://myspace.com/bccampbell

http://www.myspace.com/softlynow

http://www.myspace.com/ghostsivemet

http://www.myspace.com/ledtosea

http://lineout.thestranger.com/lineout/archives/2010/06/02/led-to-sea-at-the-rendezvous-tonight

Catherine Cabeen @ Seattle Changing Room

It’s a strange thing to blog about a different kind of Farfetcher endeavor. But here I go…

May 21^st through 23^rd Catherine Cabeen put on a dance concert at the Seattle Changing Room. It was a great success, selling out every night, and last night (Sunday) there was a standing ovation that Catherine could not stop even as she tried to get attention to thank the audience and announce the post show q&a session. I was lucky enough to be involved not only for technical support – I also composed the music for the third piece performed “Composites.”

My good friend Jay McAleer, who used to work at On The Boards theatre with me as the technical director and master electrician was responsible for getting this project started, and for including me. I was honored to be asked; we had talked about working on a project together, but it was still a surprise to actually get down to doing it for real.

Jay approached Catherine about creating a piece, using a text he wrote. The intention was to sidestep the ways that text has been used before in dance, by avoiding literal references, and instead focusing on the syntax and rhythm of the words. Catherine took this perhaps too literally (haha) and began devising a phonetic movement vocabulary, with the intention of actually translating the words into a new language, word by word, even syllable by syllable! This turned out to be an amazing way to create dance abstracted from the meaning of the words, but still directly related to the text. At the same time though, it proved to be a very slow and difficult way to choreograph a piece. The 1^st, 5^th, and 12^th (last) sections used this method, but in the other sections Catherine returned to a less prolix method.

Jay and Catherine met once a week for rehearsals, in which he would read his words aloud as she worked through the movement she developed in her own practice earlier in the week. Jay and I also met up a few times and talked through the kind of music that would work, and in the spirit of not recreating the ways we had seen text used before, I suggested recording him reading, but then running his voice through synthesizers and processing to obscure the actual text while retaining the musical delivery of the words, the timing, and the rhythm. After our recording session I put together a first draft basically using every trick I had in the bag. We all met up at one of the Saturday afternoon sessions, and listened and discussed, eliminating some of the (ahem) bad ideas, and choosing the cooler stuff.

Back to the Farfetcher basement. The first section of the text refers to the “fife and drum” and to the fiddle, and here I was semi-literal myself! I pulled up samples of actually flute, African drums, and a pizzicato violin section.

In this vein I also dug into the sound effects library for these quotes:

Some sailing sounds - “If you must know, I was thinking of myself as sailed into Athens”

A train whistle - “During the 1870s, railroad companies in the United States maintained 50 different time zones”

Some rain – “All day long with the rain on the window, and the cracked teacup by the phone”

Jay meanwhile was adamantly stopping Catherine from being too literal in the dance, and he stayed the course with me too, reminding me to abstract more, to go for the moods, meter and feel of the text. I was being too…anti-metaphorical. Overall, the words we decided captured the overall vibe of the text were “the thick residue of experience,” and so everything got a bit darker. (I know I keep quoting from a text you don’t have – but you will have to buy the chapbook from Catherine’s site to get it, at least until Jay publishes it in another form.)

We added a typewriter sound (recorded with the laptop off and me beating away on the keyboard) and I reprised that sound later by playing snare drum samples on my midi keyboard as if I was typing. I used the flute to indicate the spaces between sentences for Catherine to cue off, since she was dancing to Jay reading, and now we were erasing huge sections of text from the mix. A few musical themes emerged, the characteristic flute punctuation, a pizzicato violin part, and a syncopated finger-picking pattern on my trusty Les Paul Special. I don’t know why, but the music turned up all basically in E though it drifts between major and minor. Catherine loved a rhythmic gated effect from the trial draft, but we moved it to a different section and I “technofied” it with an electronica snare roll and a dance style syncopated bass line.

My favorite cool trick may have been putting a gate on a wind sound, and then using Jay’s voice as a side chain, so that it came in only when he was speaking. I had a lot of fun with panning, delays and a truly massive reverb on the guitar. The “bro” turned up for the penultimate section (dobro I mean) – it’s a Gold Tone, tuned in bluegrass open G if you were wondering J

In the final section, Catherine spoke part of the text aloud in the room, which was then repeated by the recorded Jay. Remembering this sonic moment and its 3 dimensional performance reminds me that the piece is really all the parts, you have to see the dance, hear the text, and hear the music to really connect to this. Perhaps the video will be a viable approximation, and I promise to alert you when it turns up, until then – hopefully this tunepak (below) will work (or you can go to my reverb nation profile here). I had to break up the music into sections because of space limitations - anybody with a good free podcasting host please comment! Actually – all comments welcome, no-one has reviewed the show yet, so be critical and say what you feel. (I will delete spam and useless profanity though)

Thanks to Catherine and Jay for being incredibly fun to collaborate with! Thanks to Scott, Jay, BC, Tom & Joy, Rich and especially to my lady Anne for getting me through my art music debut!

The music is here: http://www.reverbnation.com/tunepak/2671983

Other links :

http://www.catherinecabeen.com/dancer.html

http://o.seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/thearts/2011913599_cabeen21.html

Sanchez & Hammer @ Café Racer - Hammer's Guest Blog!

Guest blog! Julian wasn’t able to be at the Sanchez/Hammer Tuesday Night Shindig’s 6th round (the last before a summer hiatus) until the end, so he offered it up to his lovely lady, Anne, and me to submit. I do not know what my co-bloggist will report. I look forward to our friendly collusion.

The 6th round, from an insider’s point of view, was a great way to end the current series and say hello to summer. The sun, or at least the brightness of it, streamed in the corner windows where we arrange the would-be stage. Tom and I arrived at 7pm to set up and settle in. Café Racer has been an accommodating venue for this fledgling series, not the usual haunt a la Ballard’s pubs and clubs. There’s a nice neighborhood vibe, almost Portland-ish, and the walks of life can be a little rougher around the edges. With framed, strange art covering the walls, a shiny mosaic scooter, an impossibly difficult Ms. Pac-Man game, and an adjacent barbershop dubbed “Café Razor”, the funky character of the place is welcoming.

As we set up, Shasta Bree breezed in with a lovely smile on her face, which would later prove to be a perfect complement to her lovely, crystalline voice. Shasta heads up The Scarlett Hearts here in town, a band that this blog’s creator is a member of, with his awesome, red Gibson guitar. Sanchez arrived to help complete set up, lugging in 3 stools to make less lonely the one in the corner. He likes an even-steven height of stools for the shindig, and it’s a quality that speaks to his style as a performer. If you’re going to do it, do it with style. And stools are stylish.

Michael Vermillion was the fourth to roll in. He has spent much of the winter on sabbatical in Austin, and though I don’t know him well, he seemed better for it. Calm and cool like cucumber. The shindig set off into the first long set, which has been the pattern. It was a nice audience in the room, some familiar faces , and a few new ones. It doesn’t take a lot to make the room feel populated, one of the advantages to this intimate affair. Sanchez kicked off the show with a request from the lovely couple who has made it to EVERY shindig thus far! He played the first cut from his Silverhands CD, a tune called “When You Weren’t Drinking.” Vermillion followed with a song I’ll bet has “Moses” in the title. He writes great tunes that are often streaked with a brooding, folk-noir sound, not far from a Tom Waits reference. The first time I heard him, it was live on KEXP, and I imagined an older, wizened man fresh off riding the rods. Which reminds me of a great old union song/poem called The Bum on the Rods.

Shasta Bree and I ended out the round, and Shasta sang a pretty song that reminded me of the sepia-toned sounds of Kate Wolf and Alela Diane. (insert note: it’s hard not to equate voices/styles with recognizable references, and I do so with the understanding that not all musicians like to be corralled into a comparison to identify their sound, at least not all the time. Including myself J ) Shasta’s gentle guitar-picking and mournful tune inspired me to play “Aloysius” which we released on The Starlings 2008 EP “Gravity” and will be including on our summer LP release as well. (this July!)

And so it went. Strong songwriting and distinctive vocal styles all around. The shindig always seems to warm up nicely around the 3^rd and 4^th rounds. More stories and anecdotes and one-liners seep in. Having been part of it for each round, I have to say how refreshing it is to be able to song-swap in a casual, open setting. The line-up is always different, so it creates its own flow each time. It’s never disappointing, and I always learn a lot by watching songwriters sing their own naked tunes. In a very true way, it’s what it all comes down to for me – the singer and the song. It’s the fundamental wellspring from where I started. The head waters.

Highlights for me included Vermillion’s cover of Blaze Foley’s “Clay Pigeons,” which is such a beautiful tune. Sanchez played a song about all the Tom’s he knows (assumed title: “I Once Knew a Fella Named Tom”) that I really hope makes it to an album someday. Such wordplay, such well-done humor, such effective cadence. Shasta’s dusted-off original from the past about that blasted unrequited love stuff. She has a way of hitting what I call “glass notes” that seem made out of, you know, glass. And for me, my personal highlight was my new-old Gibson guitar! It’s the second time I’ve played it at the shindig. It makes me play guitar differently, this late 30’s/early 40’s era acoustic archtop. It’s going to be a main instrument on my solo album that I’ll be tackling this fall, methinks. It compelled me to pull out a newbie song at the end of the evening, one that is slated for the solo record. I knew it would be shaky, most first-time presentations of new songs usually are. But I felt the boldness of the moment. Hopefully subsequent renditions will be doubly strong.

I’ll look forward to re-igniting the shindig this fall, when all summer feet have been re-sheathed, Sanchez returns from his own sabbatical in Espana, The Starlings return from an autumn tour, and the seasonal hunkering down begins.

Shasta Bree http://www.myspace.com/scarletthearts

Michael Vermillion http://www.myspace.com/michaelvermillion

http://www.myspace.com/silverhandsmusic

http://www.myspace.com/thestarlings

I'm looking for, a song I heard today

Last night, Farfetcher, as promised went down to the Conor Byrne pub, and played a little Willie. Nelson that is – and sadly I must report the Willie jokes were of only lower caliber than the above hobbling horse. The evening was long (it was a tribute night) so I’ll forgo the usual listing of all the bands, and skip to the good (slightly better) bits.

First of all – Ballard Ave is now just about as bad as Capitol Hill on a Friday – there is nowhere to park, at all. Ride a bike people, take a bus. Oh right, the buses stop running too early and you can’t get home without dropping 30 bones on a cab. Fair enough, but would you mind trading in for a smaller car?

Anyways, Anne and I were traveling light, she in her tall and shiny boots, me tall, and shiny due to the western shirt Mike (Silverhands) gave me, not sequined but sort of shiny polka dotted. I had a capo, a guitar cable, and a set list.

Mike, Tom Parker (Starlings), and I used to get together every Tuesday, back before the infamous 6 month Starlings tour began, and play old country songs and folkie bits whilst consuming fifths of Jameson, Powers, or if someone was feeling rich we’d switch nations and share in the Aberlour. We call this grouping the ‘Pennylifters’ which is an Iowan term for ‘underwear thieves’, in the same way that what you may call a “Banana Hammock” is known as a “Budgie Smuggler” in Australia. This fine evening we were joined by BC Campbell on piano (a Pennylifters debut!) and Greg from Zoe Muth’s Lost High Rollers on the skins. The usual 3 guitar attack thus could be altered, meaning I was playing Tom’s Martin acoustic, Mike on the Fender Bass, and Tom on Hohner harps. A freakin band man!

We got up on stage, and said hello to Country Dave who was emcee. He managed to wait through all our faffing about as we got settled in, and then begin to rattle of ‘Willie Facts’ once we were ready to go. He figured it out eventually and off we went.

The sound out front was supposedly pretty good, but on stage it was actually funny how bad it was. I was grinning at Tom as I broke into “Mr Record Man” – my current favorite Willie Nelson song, and realized I could not hear myself at all. The fear in this situation of course is that you are sounding like a person singing along too loudly with headphones on – think Eddie Murphy doing “Roxanne” in what was that ‘The Golden Child’? At the same time, something was ringing in the monitors low, giving the impression of a windstorm on stage. Now I can truly say I understand why what you might call “Feedback” the British engineers call “Howlaround.”

We turned that crowd on anyways! ‘To All the Girls I’ve Loved Before’ got the dancers back up out of their seats, then ‘Good Hearted Woman’ had the sing along going. “Gone Gone Gone”, I have no idea if I played that lick right, but I was beating hell out of that guitar. Great fun, back slaps and handshakes as we climbed back down. Here’s a link:

http://www.myspace.com/pennylifters