Having a Blast, Kids

Thanks to Winker for the photo! My callouses are AWESOME right now. Thought I would share. I've been cramming and Susan and I have been rehearsing over the past few weeks so that I can play a full gig of her tunes and make them sound decent. So far, it's working. Now, Gibson over there throws in a lot of nuanced little tricks that deceive the casual observer but when you try and play them yourself you realize...Susan is a really awesome guitarist. So I've been picking up some tricks and some I'm just leaving there to lay in the road until her arm is back to strumming because, she does crazy cool stuff and only she can do it. So bow down to the guitarista in a blue cast, please. You can't keep a guitar nerd down, so Suz has been fingerpicking on a Gibson hollowbody electric and it's been super fun. We're all going to come out of this with a lot more music theory in our heads. I love it. My car is now officially the FolkMobile. So over the past few weeks I've gotten to be the right arm on a ton of cool stages with a ton of cool players. When you'd ask what are the venerable venues here in Texas to play, no doubt the names Gruene Hall, Luckenbach, and Saxon Pub would come up. We've played them all this week. When you ask who are some of the coolest, most reputable musicians in Texas these days, you'd probably see Terri Hendrix, Michael O'Connor, Adam Carroll, Mark Jungers, David Carroll, and The Mystiqueros on the list. We've played with them all over the past few weeks, too. Hot dang. Everyone's been so cool and supportive, the gigs have flown by. Except the last half hour in Marble Falls when the temperature dropped about 20 degrees and we all started shivering. But that was fun, too. Thanks to my buddy Havilah for playing with us and selling the merch, too. I haven't figured out how to strum and sell a CD yet. With The Mystiqueros at the Saxon. Terri soundchecking for the Sunday afternoon songswap at Luckenbach. Susan picks with Adam Carroll and Mark Jungers at Gruene Hall. And with all of that, Dan and I still managed to meet to mix some of EP 2. Which is coming along quite nicely and probably in the 80% done zone, not to jinx myself. So fun! That's that...we have a week off or so. I have more songs to learn. The weather is nice. Something called SXSW is happening this week. I might just nap.

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Hope Diamond

UniTunes in Houston

Ok, so I've been in a cave prepping for the big gig on Saturday night, whereupon it was Susan's return to the stage, cast in tow, and I was playing guitar for her. Which is a big deal because she is one of my favorite musicians on the planet. We shared the show with Terri Hendrix and Lloyd Maines. Who, as most of you know, are two of my other favorite musicians on the planet. Eek. Except by the time we were driving to the gig we had prepared up the wazoo and I wasn't nervous because when you do your homework you don't have to be. So there was that. We started off with our musical theater number, a 3 handed, 2 personed, 1 guitarred version of "Perfect World." After that we sailed through the set. Susan is a champ and picked up some harmonica prowess and also got good with a shaker. I imagine by the time she gets her cast off she'll be proficient at about 14 new instruments because she's good like that. Terri joined us for "Lovely When You Cry" and my own "For and Against" which was NIFTY... and then Lloyd came onstage too and we had a grand time finishing out the set. And then we got up to sing with Terri on her set for "Hole In My Pocket" and "Wind Me Up." And then it was over. And I was glad I did my homework. Thanks to Susan for the shot as her guitar player. Dang. Dan the Producer once told me about a basketball coach who would make his team run laps after they won games, because the best reward for a job done well is to keep working on what you do. So it's back to the geetar and charts today. More shows this weekend! Tomball, Marble Falls, and Luckenbach oh my!

March Madness!

Hmmm. Best laid plans to blog more have gone awry, for a little bit. It's March! Hooray! This week I have spent some time with an electric guitar and a loud amp, figuring out all the Mary Chapin Carpenter solos I used to be able to play in high school and college. I could probably compile a comprehensive songbook of her entire catalog if I tried. The good news is practicing because it's fun is back in style in my world. Rock. Excited for the gig in Houston on Saturday. Maybe I'll sell some t-shirts. The first round has gone out to all the pre-orderers, and if people send me their photo wearing a Jpo shirt, I'll make sure they are famous. Just like... HEATHER! Aka Lyrical Venus! She's live every Tuesday on KRUU-FM in Fairfield, IA. Check it: