Finally!

Ok, so I’m a little rusty, and this isn’t the greatest thing since Gortho started banging a 4/4 rhythm on a hollow log back in cave man days, but I like it. It’s a song by David Olney that I heard fellow Mainer Slaid Cleaves perform.

Millionaire.mp3

Finally figured out what the hell was screwed up with the site after the hacker attack. What a PITA!!

Finally found my title…

“What I do and what all musicians do is easy. All we have to do is sit down for a couple hours a week and write a song or two. That simple task is all the world asks of me, so I do it. The other musicians who don’t are just lazy, because again, we aren’t being asked to tar rooftops or clean out dumpsters. We just have to write a couple songs!” – Ryan Adams

On the one hand, I agree with him. It’s not rocket science.

On the other hand, not everyone is Ryan Adams…

I’m fairly confident that most (if not all) the songs I’m writing for the new album will be character-based stories or laments. As I said earlier, “Eli the Barrow Boy” has become a model for me in this regard. It sounds like something that was written in the 19th century, not the 21st. I’m aspiring to do the same thing…to come up with characters from different historical eras and sing about their trials and tribulations. I’m not trying to turn into Colin Meloy. I still plan on making my own sounds to go with these stories. But, yeah, if I become a cheap Decemberists rip-off, there are worse things.

I know there aren’t a ton of you out there hanging on my every word, but I’d like to hear from those who are–especially if you’ve got ideas for characters or stories. I plan on doing ten-to-twelve songs, and (assuming I get rights for “Eli”) that means another nine-to-eleven that need writing or discovering from the public domain.

One of the most paralyzing things I do to myself is fret about not getting stuff done. So, this is the last you’ll hear about how I wasted the last two Saturdays.

On a positive note, I did finally record the slide guitar part for my brother. But it sucks, so I’m going to redo it again. See how positive I’m being?

Interrupted from all but the rambling thoughts bouncing in the echo chamber of my brain, I’m traveling this week.

Despite my utter failure to do anything that I planned on doing Saturday, I did manage to work on a few songs this weekend. One of the traps I’m falling into is running chord progressions on the acoustic (with maybe some harmonica riffs). That’s not necessarily “bad” but it leads to a lot of acoustic-y songs. Gotta remind myself to plug in the Les Paul, or this will be a decidedly folksy album.

On another musical front, I booked our plane tickets for Maine this summer and informed the guys. So, Revolver is primed for a reunion sometime between June 28 and July 7. I can’t remember when we played last, but I think it was a jam session in Jim’s garage in 2001? Should be fun.

I talked to someone who has attended the open mic at Rainforest Coffee. Sounds like it might be an ok fit for some acoustic stuff. We’ll probably try it out in a week or two (assuming they don’t close before then).

I have to face the fact that posting every day in this journal isn’t always going to contain shouts of joy, nuggets of wisdom, or announcements of progress. Some days just suck for writing, recording, or whatever. And I just had almost two days worth of it. Bleh.

Hopefully tonight I’ll get back on track to get that slide guitar part recorded for my brother, at least.

Got home from choir practice last night around 10:30 and started working out some chord progressions and harmonica riffs. I think I have the beginnings of a half dozen songs.

One of the things I’m working on leads nicely into a cover I did of the Decemberists’ Eli, the Barrow Boy. I think I’m going to include that track on the new album, and it’s kinda setting the tone for some of the other songs. We shall see.