Neue and olde dreams for america

In recent times near and far, one found himself amid precariously placed microphones and a small legion of stringed instruments. What resulted were two rapid-fire recordings: side A and B, if you will, of the following sideless song selection: 

Side A was written back in the autumn of twenty ought eight. Side B was written at the tail end of september in the current year. They both smell like olde spice and taste like early times. Enjoy, whippersnappers!

In other less 'hey-look-at-what-i-made' news: 

Hey, look at what our friends Biak and Sui made...

Hniangtha Khun was born today. 

She's 11 pounds. 

Way to go, Sui.

Goodnight nobody

At long last, another long-playing album of original song for the people to enjoy. We welcomed the new collection in to the world by performing songs from this and previous projects at the strange brew coffee house. Twas a magical evening in which friends and families were dazzled by sweaty howling and attempted guitar demolition. Our incredibly talented friend, scott hensley, also wowed us all with an opening set of majestic fingerpicking and poetry. What a treat. 

Get the new record here.

Now, here's kind of what the scene looked like from the crowd, courtesy of a rad guy who goes by the name derek arza:

Thanks, all.

Tracklisting

Five long years later

I call him dad

Do i blog about my pops enough? That's a ridiculous question. Of course i don't blog about my pops enough. I should blog about my pops some more. He's kind of a hero of mine. Don't tell him i said that though. I don't want things to be weird between the two of us. Take a look at that picture of him holding his grandson like a pro. Clearly, this is a guy who's no stranger to holding a baby.

Do you wanna know what else he's not a stranger to? Being rad. Oh yeah, and being ordained as a teaching elder, minister of the word and sacrament, and installed as associate pastor at southminster presbyterian church.

Anyhow, i'm super proud of my old man. So when he asked me if i would perform a song at his ordination ceremony, i was more than a little bit honoured by the invitation. Per his request, i revisited the interpretation of psalm 63 that i composed many moons ago. Here is that psalm as performed at my father's ordination on sunday, august 14...

Psalm 63 - 8-14-11

Eureka

I've been literally banging my head against the wall trying to find the right combination of thisses and thatsies to capture the sounds for this current batch of sing songs. Recording is oft a hodgepodge effort which produces a varying degree of listenable and unlistenable output alike. After days and weeks of playing and recording onto laptops and digital devices and magnetic tape, i have married together all these into a wired monstrosity which sort of looks like this:

And so, recording moves forward...

For now.

However, in the end it will all go horribly wrong after fire and pitchforks bring judgment down upon my glorious monster. This, as we all know, is how the story goes.

The continuing story of a quack who's gone to the dogs

Almost a year ago now, my bro from another mo moved clear out to NY with his lovely family. When i discovered that they would be back in the g-wood for a hot minute (aka two weeks) i begged and pleaded for a few hours of his precious time to hammer out some tracks in the mustard room. Always the gentleman, Dr. Bob obliged and we ended up spending two morning/afternoons constructing a couple tunes with nothing but some guitars, a hammond organ, a wash bucket, and our childlike optimism. We laid some healthy foundation for a few pieces of the new record we're finally getting around to making.

I only wish we had more time, but we bid Dr. Bob and his family a fond adieu as they trek back to the NY. I'm thrilled to death that we were able to get a couple of days playing and recording together. It was also a great delight to all of us (particularly baby jane) to have Dr. Bob's boy Jake hang with us during the first sesh. Our deepest gratitude goes out to the entire Dr. Bob family. Why not follow Dr. Bob on twitter @RS_Freeland?

Here we are rehearsing one of the tunes we spent some time on:

Olde friendse

This week we've spent some quality and not-so-quality time with some olde friends. Some of them have collected a bit of dust over the passing of time, yet we help them to their feet, dust off their hind parts and hold their hands as they learn to walk again. They will dance again. Oh, yes. They will indeed dance again. Today, we spent a couple hours in the lavatory with this dude...

Folk slinger

The more i listen to this, the more i feel that it will guide the direction of all future recording projects. Prepare to be dazzled.