Texas Box Guitars

Maybe I'll call it "The Burqueño." How New Mexican of me. Ok, this is the COOLEST. Dan the Producer has had a Texas Box Guitar for at least over a year now, and I have been drooling over it because: a) it's a guitar b) it's got a license plate on it, which not only looks cool, but to me is a geographical reference, which I love (see also why I collect ceramic state truck stop pigs and hang maps on my wall for aesthetics). When I moved this summer for the 47th time in 4 years, I found my old New Mexico license plate in a stack of crap and pondered what I could do with it that would be cool because I wasn't going to get rid of my first ever license plate. Then the lightning bolt struck me, 2+2 came together (4), and I emailed Walter Morgan at Texas Box Guitars. Walter is the COOLEST, and he came by the music school to check on Dan's guitar (and Dan) and to show me the options for mine. We decided a black box would make the bright yellow stand out the most, and away Walter went to his magical guitar shop in Dripping Springs while I was driving around the country last month. Probably the 2nd email I sent when we were back in town this weekend was to Walter to see when I could pick it up. As opposed to most other guitar buying experiences I've had, which has either been in a music store or on Craigslist, this was super enjoyable. Where else do you go to pick up a guitar made just for you and get offered a Coke and chat with the maker (and Walter's awesome better half, Susan) at their kitchen table? So fun. It's a 4 string slide guitar, right now I've tuned it to open G, and Walter installs a pickup that sounds great. Love at first note! I'm going to have to study up on slide techniques this summer...I wish I knew someone who worked at a music school. Hm. I suggest you all go check out Texas Box Guitars' website...they are super reasonably priced and if you have a plate that's just hanging around your house, this is a great way to make use of it. The quote on TBG's website? "You can never have too many guitars." So true.

EP 2...Progress and Fancy People

Yesterday was the day to bring in reinforcements. I've done all my work, and so I got to sit back and watch other people prettify and grittify my album. Very cool. David Carroll added his bass skills with some electric on "Drive Around" and some upright on "Ritalin." So cool to hear how he makes notes become other notes and it all works out so well. That is why he is the pro. Then Susan came in to sing on "Drive Around" and "Switzerland," which was fun to see and hear..."Drive Around" really got its wings yesterday between the bass part and the background vocals. You never know what it needs until you do it. We ran over schedule yesterday so Katie and Emily still get to come in and sing a little...luckily they are the patient sort. THEN...then! I think we might be good!

Recording Days 5 and 6

SO. MUCH. FUN. So fun!

Recording EP 2: Day 4

Days off are expensive.

Since I spend so much time trying to get the exact right shot for documenting things, as evidenced by the photo above, I splurged today on our day off in Parker, Colorado. (Actually that shot is evidence that I drop stuff in the wheel well while driving and have to contort myself in my seat to get it...anyway). When we were in Missoula, Susan was interviewed for the Montanan. Editor Brianne and crew were great and they introduced me to the joys of the Flip video camera. They filmed the sit-down interview as well as a walk-around campus and I was enchanted by the tiny gadget. When I researched them and found out they have an HD model and they don't break the bank...well...let's just say the boss indulged me by letting me stop at Best Buy today. She's such a gadget enabler. Pretty excited to road test it! I'll get my chance because after one more day in Parker, we'll jet for a set of gigs in Cuchara CO, Taos NM, Lubbock, Amarillo, and San Antonio. And then this month of touring will be done. Not sure what my land legs will look like...probably wobbly.

Banjo Po

Well then. I didn't mean for this week's posting to consist of accounts of people I like a lot GIVING me stuff, but that's what happens and by gawd I'm ok with it. Y'all know I work at Red Leaf School of Music - which is, might I say humbly, the best music school in Austin with the coolest teachers on staff. I teach some guitar and office manage. It's a great thing that keeps my lights on and lets me laugh a lot because Dan and Geno are fun dudes to work for and with and I will not end this sentence with a preposition. Anyway, in true music school style, Geno and Dan presented me with a banjo yesterday. Apparently they want me around. Apparently I like them a lot because I have been stalking the Craigslist ads for months waiting for a banjo to come my way. How did they know? Nifty. Geek with a banjo.

Hello, Charleston

Ladies and gentlemen, if you are not aware, there is a GAS CRISIS. From Georgia to North Carolina to Tennessee to wherever the heck we are right now, pumps are covered in plastic bags and cars are lined up out onto the street when a gas station is actually open. It's kinda of creepy. We actually filled up in South Carolina today where diesel was cheaper than gas, and Susan paid the lowest diesel price she's paid since March. Meanwhile cars were lined up for gas at $4.09 a gallon. Weird. Luckily, I have my two souvenir piggy banks on the dash for good luck. I am transferring Susan's Outlook files from her PC onto her Mac...more nerdiness in the van. Might as well be comfortable doing it, right? Gig tonight in Charleston!! Might be the last one...Baton Rouge is a bit up in the air at the moment. We might be back in Texas sooner than we thought. It's still a long haul from South Carolina to Austin, though.

Recording in Nashville

So we booked some time and recorded today. Well, we booked our hotel room...and made it a studio. Susan has some new tunes that she wants demo'd, so we spent a good chunk of today messing with mics and cables and figuring out the best acoustics. Of course, in the bathroom. Tonight Susan and I are both going to play at a writer's night, thanks to Susan's very cool and fun publicist, Brandy. WRITER'S NIGHT. NASHVILLE. Heck yeah. Can't make this stuff up.

I want a banjo.

This song makes me want to buy a banjo. I almost snagged one off Craigslist but it didn't work out. If you have a banjo in your attic let me know! Also, Abigail Washburn is awesome. She has lived in China and is also steeped in Appalachian folk music...and somehow the two combine into...Appalachinese? Something like that. Go read her bio, it's impressive.

Tracking EP 1

That title sounds like we released the EP into the bush in Africa and we're hunting it with tranquilizers. "There it is! Grab it!" Hehheh. Much is done. I am about to meet Dan to listen to what we have, whereupon Dan will employ his very Zen, very swift editing skillz. Dan says that we are "90% done which means we're halfway there." It's true. We might be done with the tracking part (maybe), but then there's rough mixing and listening and mixing and mastering and who knows. All good! In case anyone was wondering, because I kind of wonder who made the standard...Wikipedia says this about EPs: "Extended play (EP) is the name typically given to vinyl or CDs which contain more music than a single, but are too short to qualify as albums. Usually, an EP has around 10–35 minutes of music, a single has up to 10 minutes and an album has 35–80 minutes." Now you know. I got to bring out the long-owned and underused Martin Backpacker, a little funky shaped travel guitar (my roommates in college called it "The Stick"). It's signed by John Jennings, who is one of my very favorite guitarists ever...he plays one onstage with Mary Chapin sometimes. Mine has been solely an at-home instrument until today. It was probably thrilled to get out of the house. We re-listened to a tune called "Fortunate" that we recorded last night (and with which Dan showed the human side of being a good producer -- it's not all ProTools shortcuts! -- and talked me through doubling the vocals with harmony. My confidence in singing harmony was, shall we say...lacking. But I did it. Woot!). I think the vibe of "Fortunate" matches what it's all about and works really well. Dig. Then we set to finishing "Blonde on Blue." A little banjo, a little piano, a little Backpacker, a little bass. All of the sudden you have a bunch of sounds to play with. Kids in a sandbox. Now we listen to what we have for a week or two and see where it leads.

Rock-n-Roll Singer's Survival Manual

I'm reading a book by Mark Baxter, Dan's former voice guru, and it's quite the good read. He approaches singing like we're approaching this whole folk music grad school thing...on a holistic level. Chapter one is all about general care-taking...it could probably stand to be the first chapter in a lot of "how-to" books. Basically, you sing what you are, so you should take good care of yourself. Points Baxter makes... - I should quit smoking. Oh wait. I don't smoke, hehheh. But the description of burning your throat is enough of a permanent deterrent for me, I think. - No dairy, not much meat, very little red meat. Well that's handy, too. I have had a year full of indecision, but I haven't eaten meat since I don't know when and I take extra care to be vegan in my food choices (still cannot turn down Mom's rhubarb pie, though!) It does make a difference, I think. So far, knock on wood, I have not gotten my usual winter cold (which could just have to do with the fact that it's not really winter in Austin, just mildly cloudy and 55 degrees. Brr.) But I also don't get phlegm in my throat anymore. Dairy makes phlegm. Veganism and throat health seem to co-exist in harmony. - Stress. We all know stress takes a toll on your body. It takes a toll on your voice, too. Handling it makes for good singing, which I think makes for less stress. When I figure that one out, I'll let you know. If I ever let you know, it'll probably be from a small island and a beach chair. The most interesting point is that most musicians are really obsessive about their instruments and the environments they live in. I won't leave my guitar in a car, I hate playing outdoors when it's reallyreally hot or reallyreally cold, I humidify if it's dry, I keep it in the case when I'm not using it (hanging your guitar on the wall is bad for it! Stop that!). But your voice IS an instrument, and the throat gets some pretty bad treatment sometimes. Even just standing near a street and inhaling a big cloud of smog will knock you out for a while. Would you stick your guitar in a BBQ grill? I type this as I drink a Coke, which is...well, nothing natural. Clearly I've not mastered the treatment of my voice, but it's good to be thinking about these things.

Guiro! Guiro! Guiro!

That's a guiro. I'm learning a little more about percussion these days. Mayhaps I hear a guiro on the EP...we did throw a little in during last night's recording session. Let me say it made me really appreciate people who devote their lives to being the percussion and thus the backbone of a band...it's work and concentration and flow. Whew. Props, drummers! Those are not my hands. That's a really awkward photo. I understand now why there are people who are employed to be hand models. I don't think they used one, haha.

Update: It's an Escopetarra!

Cesar Lopez, a musician and peace activist from Colombia, is the inventor of the escopetarra. Here's a Seattle Times article about it. Photo taken from Oxfam.org.

More borrowing of gear.

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.

New Toy.

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. EP 2 gets a dobro, haha.

Gear: Going Loopy

I've been jonesing for a looping pedal for a while because of what KT Tunstall does with it in her live version of Black Horse and a Cherry Tree. I mentioned this to Professor Dan, who happened to share the same jonesing...so we did some research this week (Dan did his from the VAN on TOUR with his iPHONE, because he's more technologically advanced than Steve Jobs. I bet Steve doesn't loop things). It was down to a couple of models, and then out of nowhere comes the Boss Loop Station. Look at it. It's a thing of beauty. So now I'm a proud owner and have read the manual (it's the RC-20XL if you want to be precise)...and it's going to take a bit to turn into KT. Ok, maybe like 7 years, if I forego bathing and sleep. But...I am excited because I think when I do get proficient at looping, it'll up my live show in terms of musicality and variety. I'm not shooting for a canned one-girl-band kinda thing, but being able to riff over a nice chunka-chunka beat is going to be cool. Yeah.

Makin' a Record: The Gear

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. :)

Picking a Partner

I bought my Martin OM-15 when I graduated from high school. I am pretty sure I stashed away for quite a while and added a pile of graduation cash to buy the thing, and I still had to get a loan from my mom to cover it all. The 15 series is on the cheap end of the Martin line, but for an 18 year old it was still a big investment. I bought it from Grandma's Music in Albuquerque, because my friend Ben worked there (who was to be my future duo partner! Yay!) and because it was down the street from my house. I had done my research and knew that for the money I had, the 15 series was probably going to be my best bet...but when you get to Grandma's and a whole wall of mahogany is staring at you in various sizes and shapes...you get a little freaked out. So I played the D-15 and the 000-15 and the 00-15 and the OM-15, and I played 2-3 of each kind...and I A-B'd them against each other and I checked all over for scratches and dents. I went back at least 4 times over a couple of weeks, and while I thought I wanted a plain old D-15...the OM was it. It was warm, it had depth, and it played really nicely. Strange how guitars from the same factory made of the same wood can vary so much. So I traded in my Sigma classical guitar that I had started lessons on when I was 11 (I kind of regret doing that but I totally needed that steel string) and took the OM-15 home. I will probably "upgrade" at some point for gigging purposes, but I won't make the mistake of trading this one in. I don't even think Martin makes this particular model anymore. This one has been across the country and at almost every gig of mine, so we'd kind of bound for life now.

Tools of the Trade: no more guitars?

I managed this shot with hours of set up. Actually, it was an accident, but we like it. The New York Times just published an article about guitar makers and how it is increasingly difficult for them to find wood to make the instruments so many of us rely on to make our way in the world. (Link: Saving Trees Is Music To Guitar Makers' Ears) Both C.F. Martin and Bob Taylor are interviewed...and since I play a Martin and a Taylor (one day I'll post about how certain enthusiasts would have me beaten for doing so), I am of course proud that these two luthiers are congnizant of the issue and making moves to improve the situation before we're all plunking around on wash tubs with broom handles (not that there's anything wrong with that). Even more interestingly, they've been talking to Greenpeace to try and raise awareness and find solutions. Totally better than just hoarding Brazilian rosewood in the basement until the nuclear winter is over, much like I am doing with Red Velvet Bingles. (Don't come knocking on my door when there's a Bingles shortage and you can't even get them at the Sack 'n Pack!) Here's a podcast my business partner J was part of during his time on a Greenpeace mission in Europe...they did all kinds of cool stuff, including see U2 in Amsterdam. J would tell you he did all kinds of ACTUAL useful, environment-saving stuff, which is great...but he saw frickin' U2 in AMSTERDAM. That is kick butt. Podcast Part One Podcast Part Two