question:suggestion

i've been working almost every day on those two songs that i "excerpted" the other day. i've changed a verse here, a chorus there, i might have even changed an entire lyrical and melodic structure (i'm not saying).

well, they're almost done. close enough for government work. if these songs were wars with certain foreign countries, we'd declare mission accomplished and move on.

but it's not government work and it isn't, as far as i can tell, costing tax payers money so, if i'm still undecided on this word or that, should i begin playing them live yet?

i'm dying to play them...what do you think?

~~

by the way, this guy's cd is officially out. yours truly plays drums on 2 tracks, added some cowriting on another track and clapped his pretty little hands off on a couple more. i've heard some of this stuff in one form or another for longer than either of us will publiclly admit to. trust me when i say: it's wicked good. go buy it. in fact, buy it from the man yourself (more on that later).

his debut show, with his bad-ass band, was late nite at the basement. women were wooed, men were jealous, vows may or may not have been compromised. he's doing it again, this time on the lineup with me, at 3rd and lindsley, on monday, june 12th. it's a free show and is guaranteed to be better than anything else you would normally do on a monday nite. mark your calendars. it's been a while since we've done a show together. we're both going to bring the goods (see why i want to get these songs out?), and we're both gonna make sure that all in attendance get their fair share.

ready? set? rock.

review: t bone burnett & jakob dylan

after waiting ninety minutes past the scheduled start time for the show to start (apparently it's much harder to move an event from the ryman to city hall than you might think), young mr. dylan took the stage with what appeared to be a pre-war martin guitar and a keyboard accompaniest for the opening set. we'd seen the wallflowers a few times before and were very excited to be seeing jakob play solo, not knowing if he'd do wallflowers' tunes or if he had a bunch of new solo material. (as far as i could tell he did all wallflowers songs, so don't go thinking the wallflowers are busted up.)

i have two complaints about his set:
1) i know that jakob likes using an sm57 live. thing is, he kills the plosives from time to time and it kinda sounded like amateur nite when he did it. maybe switch to a 58...
2) he really played an "opening" set. 35 minutes max. i would've thought he would've done an hour and was disappointed to only hear what i heard.

now on to what i liked about it: everything else. it was great. the songs still had weight to them minus the full band arrangements and it was nice to hear them so stripped down. dylan was personable bordering on funny at times between songs. the setlist included here he comes (confessions of a drunken marionette), everything i need, babylon (my fave 'flowers tune), beautiful side of somewhere, how far you've come (i think.) and a few others that are escaping me right now. again, coulda been longer, coulda used a better vocal mic, other than that was stellar.

on with the show...after a quick change over tbone burnett took the stage with bad-ass band in tow. i have never heard a t bone song, only what he's produced or played on, so i had no idea what to expect. if you've been reading this week, however, you know that little fact had not diminished my excitement.

let me just tell you now. t bone burnett is incredible. the songs ranged from texas country shuffle type songs to bizarre avant garde adventures and almost all stops in between. the small band (stand up bass, keys/multi-inst., drums, rhythm and lead guitars) covered all the sonic bases - screamy, wail-y, weepy, strutty, you name it. i wish i could tell you what he played. i can't. all i can tell you is that i enjoyed every damn note of it. i can also tell you that jim keltner is quite possibly the most bestest and versatile drummers to ever apply stick to skin. words cannot describe all the things he on the drum kit. hell, words can't describe the way his drum kit is set up. seriously, look it up.

it's a shame that the promoters of the show did such a poor job promoting that the event was: a) moved to a smaller venue and b) still half full. if i was mr. burnett or mr. dylan i would be pissed off to a level never achieved by anyone other than eric cartman at great big shows, the company in charge of putting butts in seats.

the performers get an a+.
the venue gets an a.
the bar in city hall and bar twenty3 both get a's.
the promoter gets a d-. try harder next time, folks.

You have new Picture Mail!

jim MOTHERFUCKING keltner is playing drums!!!!!!!!!! if you don't know, look it up!

You have new Picture Mail!

t bone teaching school.

You have new Picture Mail!

the younger mr dylan.

pretty. excited.

happy wednesday! you'll hvae to pardon the typos today...between climbing 3 days a week and wrestling with my guitar (and those lyrics) every nite for the past 4-5 days, my fingers are more than a little bit sore. i'm also more than a little tired from 4-5 days straight of drywalling, climbing, writing, yardwork, writing, climbing...so forgive me if i wander here...

it's 10 minutes past 10 and i'm already ready to leave work for the day. why? because me and bwe have tickets to the t bone burnett/jakob dylan concert tonite at city hall. i've never been more excited to see a band/artist that i've never listened to than i am tonite to see burnett. the records he's produced have, in no small part, influenced my tastes and my writing. i'm also really excited to see jakob dylan, another guy who i think is criminally overlooked and who has been an influence on my music. i'll try to have a report for you tomorrow.

note: today's subject line contains two seperate items. the first, excited, is discussed just above. here's the second: pretty.

i'm wearing a brand new tshirt today. it's quite pretty. it's charcoal grey with a yellow-ish sillhouette of a muscle car on the front. it fits like a dream and was made right here in nashville by my friends at myhotelromeo. if you haven't heard of them, don't be surprised. if you have heard of them and haven't bought anything, shame on you. they have some great gear, they're local and (AND!) they support indie & local music. they even have a shirt just for you. yes, you. so go check them out and buy a shirt (i highly recommend the baby clothes. the term modern classic comes to mind...)

like cameo said, word up.

finally! (with notes)

after a gestation period that seems to have lasted as long as that of a whale, i picked up my guitar last nite and managed to write something that wasn't immediately tossed into the "worthless pile of horse crap" bin.

it's funny: i used to force myself to finish a song in the same "sitting" that i started it, and i'd never rework it. never. i guess you could say i wrote in pen (i always write in pen, but you get the metaphor, right?). at the time, i chalked it up to wanting to write while i was "in the moment" and that, in 2 weeks or whenever, i would no longer be in the moment. for those of you looking for songwriting advice, grab a pen and pad. DON'T WRITE THIS WAY.

here's a couple of bits from the two (TWO!!!) new songs. both are as of yet unfinished and as of yet untitled.

and i could use a little sunshine now
i could use a little silver cloud
won't you be my rainbow beam?
won't you be my pretty little thing?
(not that it'll help much, but this is one of those semisweet, midtempo-y songs that i seem to write a bunch of.)
~~~~
i cut my gums
trying to brush the salt
from your skin
off my tongue
i miss the smell of the sheets
i miss your busted smile
and the way you say good morning sunshine
(i guess you'd call this one upbeat. a rocker even. stop the presses...)

progress report

the pictures of today's blown out hands are brought to you by climb nashville's bouldering problems b5 and b7.

did i mention how much i'm enjoying climbing right now? anyone else out there climbing?

i oughta be in pictures

kids, i feel like roscoe p coltrane this morning. no, not because those damned dukes pulled one over on me again, but because i feel like rubbing flash's ears and saying, "good news! good news!" (i also wouldn't mind giving that dipstick a piece of my mind.)

on friday evening i read for a part in fireflies and roman candles, a film by josh raby, a clarksville filmmaker who found me after poring through apparently loads of myspace profiles. the film centers around the unnamed "boy", a young man dealing with obsessive compulsive disorder, and his relationship with the also nameless "girl", who happens to be bulimic.

the part that i read for is that of bell, boy's pretensious indie-rocker brother (i know that's a stretch). i guess i did a pretty okay job, since they offered me the part. filming is supposed to begin in late june or early july (i forget which); rehearsals i guess will be ongoing until then.

i have no idea what i'm doing and, from what josh tells me, he's cool with that. i have no desire to be a "real" actor, mostly it just seems like a pretty cool experience and that it might help me tap into something different in my songwriting (it all comes back to that, doesn't it?).

i'm sure that, over the next few weeks, i'll have more thoughts and stories to share about my new artistic endeavor. for now, i've got to get back to working for the man...

sign of the apocalypse

whilst driving to work this morning, the person behind the wheel of the infiniti behemoth suv next to me swerved to avoid running over an itty bitty tree limb. it was slightly larger than an olive branch, slightly smaller than a potted plant.

no one, including the tree limb, was injured.

you're driving a gargantumobile why exactly?

cirque du AWESOME

we had a great time (for the most part) at cirque du soleil last nite. first a story, then a review.

the story:
i met the bwe at qdoba in brentwood around 6 for a quick bite before heading downtown. we'd never been there before, but had heard good things. i give it a "meh" review at best. as in, "meh. i guess we can go there since it's close." we then stopped in the cold stone creamery next door for some lt. dan time ("lieutenant dan. ice cream!"). it gets the same review. maggie moos and ben and jerry's are definitely better, no doubt.

cut to downtown.

we got free parking on gateway blvd (sweet) and had no problem getting the tickets from the the gec's new will call "atm" machines. we even got upgraded from the 200's to the 100's because of an obstruction in our original section (supersweet). we found our seats and quickly settled in. that's where things started going downhill faster than a pinebox derby car with lead in the floorboard.

dinner started disagreeing with me. the people sitting next to us (we were seats 3&4, they had 1&2) seemed less than thrilled to have to stand up to let us in, nevermind having to get up to let me out 5 minutes later. when i say less than thrilled i mean the guy looked punch-me-in-the-mouth unhappy. i missed all of the opener and had to hang out in the concourse for the intermission, just to make sure i wasn't gonna barf or pass out. i really felt like warm dogshit. anyway. when we walk back in, as politely as i could, i told the "happy" people that i wasn't feeling well, might have to get up a few times during the show, didn't want to impose on them by making them stand up repeatedly, and asked if they minded swapping seats with us (remember...we're talking about 2 seats). the blank stares on their faces quickly told me that their answer was "no." luckily there were some open seats, albeit with a slightly obstructed view, a few rows up, above the entrance to our section. they gave me good aisle access, so the bwe suggested we move there. i really thought about going down and barfing in the dude's lap at some point, just because i thought he was pretty rude and inconsiderate, but decided to hold my dinner...on with the show.

the show:

in a word: badass. i'm glad that i was thinking i'd be disappointed, because it made the show all the more enjoyable (barfy feelings notwithstanding). i couldn't tell you the first thing about the story (at least in a way that would make sense). what i can tell you is that it was the most amazing (non musical and non sports) live production i've ever been to. it definitely lived up to the hype that a cds show generates. one of the main characters spent 95% of the show on stilts that must've been 10 feet tall. another character, brian, spent the majority of the show suspended above the stage hanging from a balloon.

acrobats spun from hoops and ropes and balanced on each other and on platforms the size of saucers. dancers and musicians filled the stage. lights and multimedia images bounced off the side screens and the translucent curtains that moved back and forth across the stage. singers floated above the stage. a hula hoop dancer spun hoops off anything she could get it around (at one point i counted 5 - 2 on the hips, one on a knee, one on a foot held above her head and one on her wrist). it was an amazing production and, even without being able to recount the storyline, a fantastic story.

i wish i could see it a few more times to more completely soak it in. i'm sure there are things i missed and there are definitely things i would like to see again. if you're free tonite and have a little extra coin, i would highly recommend taking in this show.

let's get delirium

pardoning the stretchy reference to the prince classic, i'm ready to get delirium tonite! bwe and i are heading down to the gec, not to watch hockey (unfortunately), but for our maiden cirque du soleil voyage.

all reports that i've read say that this show is less freakshow circus and more arena rock concert sideshow. i'm kinda disappointed, since i spent half a kidney for the tickets thinking it was going to be a "traditional" cds show, but i'm hoping that all my preconceived notions will prove to be nothing but delirium (thanks, i'll be here all week) and that i'll be pleasantly surprised.

update and review tomorrow...

tshirt slogan of the day.

"if running were easy, it would be your mom."

picksher from a partee

its jill's party, but they got a springsteen concert on the tv. just like heaven...

the last time this happened i wrote a song...

the a/c in sammy the shaggin' wagon has gone kaput. just in time for "sweating through your shirt" season. BADASS!!!

okay, it's not officially kaput. i just need to put more cold stuff in it. and i'm hoping that i can find my cold stuff kit before my ass melts into the driver's seat.

jill's in town for a few days for girl jag's wedding. gonna get to hang out with her and her 8gamillion friends tonite at a smart little shindig she's put together. she said cocktails...