"I know I cannot paint a flower. I cannot paint the sun on the desert on a bright summer morning, but maybe in terms of paint color I can convey to you my experience of the flower or the experience that makes the flower of significance to me at that particular time." - Georgia O'Keeffe
Perhaps my favorite thing to do in Santa Fe is visit the Georgia O'Keeffe Museum. I'm no art critic, and I often don't know what I should be doing or looking at in an art museum...but O'Keeffe's work has always gotten under my skin. Maybe it's because she sought out New Mexico as her artistic home. Maybe it's her ability to paint something I recognize while making me see it for the first time and differently each time after that. Maybe it's just because she's brilliant.
The Museum itself is not large at all; you can get through it in 15 minutes if you don't look too closely, or you can take all afternoon. A lot of times there's no glass separating the viewer from O'Keeffe's broad strokes on the canvas. The paint looks fresh.
One of the security guards even showed us O'Keeffe's fingerprint hidden in a tiny watercolor of a windmill. He had to shine his flashlight on the glass so we could pick it out; we felt like we were being let in on a secret.
While I was looking at the exhibition yesterday, I decided I want to be able to write songs and make records the way O'Keeffe painted. Bold strokes without hesitation. Making life's minutiae important and beautiful. Shedding light on the colors and scenes already surrounding us. Georgia didn't make the mountain she painted multiple times, but she definitely made it her own.
I have to say thanks to my buddy Scott, a guitarist, songwriter, producer, and gear guru for the use of his condenser mic for this EP. All I know is that he told me to set all the switches to the right, so when I was setting it up I hummed a little tune I like to call..."To the Right!" (That's not political folks, not on this blog).
So...Thanks, Scott! You're a gem. Not even one of the lame gems, like topaz. You're a diamond, or maybe a ruby if you like red. :)
Check out Scott and his band Primitive Noise here...they're recording a new album, too. I think they're ahead...cuz I just made this a race, hehheh.
While the neighbors are on vacation, I got permission to borrow their banjo. Little do they know, they might never get it back, hehheh. What a sweet tone! No "Dueling Banjos" stereotypes here...just plain fun. I've been playing "New Mexico Boy" repeatedly with some banjo embellishments. Addictive.
You had better believe we're putting banjo on the new record.
Well, I'd like to think I'm frugal. Except when it comes to gear and CDs. I figure it's all professional development, right? I am a firm believer that to make good music you have to listen to it. Songwriting, for most, does not occur in a vacuum. Hence...I buy music. Here's what I discovered this year that I like a lot.
I started off the year with a Patty show at Gruene Hall, where she debuted a lot of these tunes. It was freezing inside Gruene Hall; we all wore winter jackets and hats and gloves. The place was packed. The music was awesome. Then, in March Josh and I saw Patty play at Waterloo Records and I got to meet her. I think I said something lame, but it was PATTY. This album is just as amazing as all of her others...none of them are alike, so you can't even pick a favorite. That's what great about Ms. Griffin. Also, this video captures what this whole "thing" of music and writing and performing is about, I think.
I still don't know a whole lot about Adrienne, I just know that I have 3 of her albums and they are all sublime. Slightly traditional, but still current and relevant. So relevant, in fact, that partial proceeds from this CD will go to a seed fund to "which will provide non-genetically modified seeds and support for urban and community gardens throughout the United States and Canada." Heck yeah. Josh and I aim to do the same when we are a full-fledged record label...give a bunch of it back. Cheers to Adrienne because that's a cool way to do it.
ARE WE SURPRISED? No. But this album has seriously been spinning on the 'pod since June, and it's not old yet. It's nice to see Terri on other people's "best of" lists, too. It's like rooting for the hometown team, here around Austin. Robert Plant & Alison Krauss - Raising Sand (Buy It)
I was suspicious. Random collaborations like this can either rock or fail miserably. This one rocks. Both of them have very haunting voices in different ways, and you can tell both artists are stepping outside the box for this record. That makes them the best kind of artist, I think...do what they do well and then switch it up...and STILL do it well.
Not Surprised No. 2. What can I say? It's Chapin. She's smart. She's poetic. She is one of America's best working songwriters. I'll stand up to that statement in a Nerf ball war any day. "On With the Song," written for the Dixie Chicks, is awesome. No one else uses "jingoistic" and "camel jockey" in a song and gets away with it. The title track, "The Calling," rings especially true at this point in my life, too. Score.
Dan introduced me to these two and this record is a class act all the way through. It's sweet but not sappy, bold but not offensive, and they recorded it all themselves in a house in California. Home grown records, kids. Buy them.
I was late to jump on the Tori bandwagon because she gets stereotyped and stuck in a box a lot, which is ironic because her music is anything but boxed. This album has the interesting twist of being sung from the perspective of different women/characters...of course all of them are ultimately Tori embodying these different personalities. That must have been a cool way to write. I listened to "Bouncing Off Clouds" 45 times straight through when I first got this record, I think. John Jennings - More Noise From Nowhere (Buy It)
JJ is pretty much my guitar guru and he writes great songs, too. When he's not touring with Mary Chapin, he finds time to produce a lot as well and write and record his own albums. He plays just about every instrument on them, too. A definite inspiration and guide for what we are going to do with EP No. 1 this year.
Dan and I saw Josh play in November, and the show was transcendent. Few people put as much joy into their live performance that Josh does. And this record is chock full of lines that make me wish I had written them. Plus I'm a history nerd, so it's even better. Looking forward to in '08:
Susan Gibson...is putting out a new one! Hurrah! This calls for a Red Bull.
Shedaisy...is about due, too. I have a love for intelligently crafted country-pop. And there's not a lot of country-pop that can call itself intelligent these days. I have said it before and I will say it again; Kristyn Osborn is one of Nashville's best writers.
Kathleen Edwards - this one is supposed to be coming fairly soon. Kathleen's first two records made my "Perfect Albums" list...I'm sure No. 3 will be just as good.
EP No. 1 - Oh yeah, that thing I'm working on. :) ProTools is ready to go and I am recording quick demos to give us something to listen to and work on. We have more songs than we need...which is a RELIEF and a good position to be in for this type of thing.
But I'll keep on writing because I'll keep on listening.
Rolling Stone has a little blip about the best album covers...and points out that some of that is going away due to digital distribution and all that.
On one hand that makes me happy because I have a shelf full of plastic cases I have to move everytime I relocate. Pain. But more so, I DO enjoy the artwork and flipping through the lyrics and following along with a new CD. Seems like the thing to do, right?
Rolling Stone's List (click the link for visuals): Wilco, Yankee Hotel Foxtrot Sonic Youth, Goo Pink Floyd, Animals Nirvana, Nevermind Prince, Purple Rain
Of course I got thinking about mine. I don't know if I have excellent taste in album artwork, but I know what makes me happy. Some of it is probably nostalgia. I still remember the day MCC's "A Place in the World" came out (1998, baby!), and I sat on the couch for hours absorbing and dissecting it. So I probably attach a lot of baggage to some of these covers ("A Place in the World" not being on the list. Sorry).
Here are mine, off the top of my head.
Mary Chapin Carpenter - Stones in the Road: Oh of course there's a Chapin entry. I always thought this cover was cool. It says, "Yes, I play my own guitar on my album." I think it holds up pretty well for being 13 years old.
Patty Griffin - Flaming Red: I keep thinking about what I want my record cover to look like, and I always think, "Reds. Fiery and warm reds and oranges." And then I think, "Oh. Patty Griffin already did that." This cover fits the sound of the album so well.
Alison Krauss - New Favorite: This one always caught me. It's like a snapshot of dinner with Union Station. And Alison is all..."what?" Except it's not goofy, or corny, it's just a photograph. That happens to contain the whole band, but not standing around in some posed weirdness like so many band covers do. Good job, AKUS.
Imogen Heap - Speak for Yourself: It's so...colorful. Except white. It's simple and yet gets across Imogen's personality, I think. Not like we hang out. Yet.
Amanda Marshall: She's on a nice looking chair. On some sand. Totally natural like. And the look on Amanda's face says, "I am SO rock star enough to be on this upholstered chair on the beach, jerks."
Terri Hendrix - The Spiritual Kind: I realize I have a lot of photo shots and not so many art covers. Here's your art. And everything on this CD cover relates to something on the album. I think that's neato.
Kasey Chambers - Barricades and Brick Walls: I always thought this cover was rather Dylanesque, in a good way. It's got a bunch of my favorite components in it: red, black+white, a guitar, and a road. Brill.
What are YOUR favorite covers? Post 'em in the the comments!
Well. I just happened upon a stellar deal of a Digidesign mBox2Pro. Slightly and barely used, it's what I needed for this project we call The Record. It comes with ProTools, which is the program to have for recording. Well, one of them...but it's kind of the industry standard. I'll be pitch-shifting my voice into robot-like Cher Land in no time. Just kidding.
What the mBox2 does, for those who are not gear nerds and heaven help those who are, is act as the gobetween between your guitar or microphone or bass or whatever and the computer. You can't plug a condenser mic into a computer, hence you need the interface. It makes things work.
And these days, anyone can make a record at home with only a few simple pieces of gear. It's pretty fabulous.
Now I just have to learn...how to use it all. Check in on me in about 3 years. :)
- I'm trying to re-design the website. This could take 3 days or 3 years. Haha. I'm aiming for maybe a month. Ample time for inspiration and execution.
So ideally, I will be laboring on labor day...but in a laid back, end of summer kind of day. Everyone drink a beer in my honor. Or a root beer. Even better.
Today I plan on getting up earlyish and walking over to Central Market, whereupon they will have bins of green chile waiting for me (I am technically posting this Friday night...hence I have not woken up yet in Blog Land? Weird). Then I will bring them home and roast them in my firepit. I mean, oven. I eat these suckers plain and unadorned, but they go well with just about anything besides my morning cereal. Not for lack of trying. Ask my college roommate.
Anyway...I've been thinking about the new record and what it's going to BE. What is this piece of musical expression going to do for the world? Why will it matter that it exists instead of me making perhaps...a pie? Or a sweater? What is the theme?
I don't know what all the songs are about yet because some of them haven't been born, but I decided today, in traffic, listening to NPR, that I want it to be a Moment Album. I want each song to capture a specific place and time and scene and moment. I want you all to be able to breathe that in, without it feeling foreign to you. I want you to have it seem so familiar that it was like you wrote the song, even with all its specificity. I'm not sure how we're going to to do that, but it's nice to have a plan, hm?
