Thunder in The Valley...

So... this past weekend was a tad bit noisy up here. You see, for the third year now a group of motorcycle enthusiasts have held an event in Cottonwood (just down in the bottom land of the Verde Valley below) called "Thunder Valley Rally". It's cool and all of that... they have local and regional music acts as well as a beauty pageant... all understandably geared towards the motorcycle crowd. But then all of those bikers see this inviting mountain with it two-lane winding road and... well... it tends to get a tad bit noisy!

An interesting thing happened recently... so I will tell you about it. I've been buying & replacing guitar strings for more than 50 years. Acoustic, electric, 6-string, 12-string, bass, ukulele, banjo ... you name it. I have never had a problem... until recently.

I changed the strings on my 1976 Washburn acoustic. Replaced the old set with a new set of the same strings I've been using for more than a year now. Brought everything up to pitch and discovered that my high E had a buzz! I checked the action... did not look like the string was hitting any frets. But the buzz was definitely there. I messed around with it for several days and finally decided to get hold of my luthier to have him take a look at it. He thought it might have something to do with the increased moisture in the air. So... the axe sat for a couple of days until I could get it to my guy.

In that time I bumped into a guitar playing buddy. We hadn't seen each other in some time so we pulled over to catch up with each other. I eventually got around to describing the problem with my Washburn. He looked at me and said, "Did you try replacing the string?"

I told him the thought never occurred to me and I asked him if that was a real thing. He looked at me as if to say "What? Are you new at this?".

I went home, replaced the string and, to my great joy, the buzz is gone!

After all these years... I guess it was my turn to have a bad new string!

Jammin' with the pros

There are those times when I really feel like doing something musical. There are those times when I really feel like doing something creative. Then there are those times when both of those things come together. Today wasn't one of those days... well, not the musical & creative at the same time kind of day.

So on days like today I will grab my bass, put on the head phones, open iTunes and find some cool stuff to jam with. Lately I've working with Fleetwood Mac (in my dreams). John McVie is one of my favorite bass players. There is just something about his musical choices that resonate with me.

Today was a bit different as I was totally without direction or inspiration. Today I did a little work with the Traveling Wilburys (which was fun as well as educational) and then I tried to hang with the Police (on some of their simpler stuff). It is all good excercise for both my hands and my ears. For those of you following along with me on my adventure to broaden my musical experience... I force myself to actually understand what notes I'm playing while doing this. I used to just find the pattern without learning the notes... although it works, it doesn't really stimulate my understanding of what is gong on!

If you haven't figured it out yet, I'm keeping my "Tales from Deception Gulch" reeled in close to home. There's just too much unbridled chaos floating around out there for me to even consider making a comment. So, for the time being anyhow, just stuff that is happening on the creative musical side of things.

Catch ya' later...

Who Knows Where The Time Goes?

Lately I've been enjoying some of the work by Joni Mitchell. Admittedly, it's partly a nostalgic thing but it is also a discovery of some aspects of her work that I have not been familiar with. Like... I did not realize that Joco Pastorious played so much with her (and I am constantly blown away by Joco)!

Getting back into "wood shedding" mode is always an interesting adventure! A friend of mine often says "If you're not working on your chops, you're losing them!" There is always something new to learn whether it is a finger-picking style or a different chord inversion or just trying to remember how to use my equipment... always something to keep the little grey cells busy!

I've been reading about Paul Simon's new album "In The Blue Light" and how he has been spending time revisiting some of his older tunes and in an attempt to get "fresh new takes" of them. I've been looking at my tunes and wondering what I would like to do with them (compared to just playing them the way I've always done). So far... I've been lead to only make changes if they actually add something to what I call the "core" of the tune.

As a song writer my goal has always been to deliver a message through the lyrics and supporting that message via the melody and chord structure. This method is partly due to my desire to keep the process simple, partly due to my limited education as a composer/arranger and partly due to my belief that it is more important to get a good message with a good tune out there than it is for me to create a "musically perfect" work.

When I started this recording project almost four years ago I remember that my goal was to get these songs of mine recorded and protected in a simple clean production capable of delivering the message. My hope was that some other performer would pick up on my tunes and want to put them out there with is or her own flavor. After all that I have been exposed to in the past couple of years in the studio... meaning all that is possible... I have come back to the original idea of keeping it simple and just deliver the message! Get that part done first and then see what happens after that.

So... that's where I seem to be these days. With all of the distractions that life has presented these past months I find myself finally getting back to the "practice & rehearsal" part of the gig. I do feel a bit relieved, I must say. It was getting far too technical in my mind and... nothing was really being accomplished!

But now... my fingers are sore and I have to get past that!

More to come...

T.F.O.T.H.