The new focus of this blog is to document me writing and eventually recording a new album. I am attempting to write in a "style" but I don't know quite what it is. I am going for classic soul with my own unique stamp. Some artists I look after are referenced in the blog, let me know what ya think. No matter what it is it's gotta be "me", so that is the goal, hope you join me in the journey!
I can be an over-analyzer I admit it but being a musician you kind of have to be some times. I think a lot about the career I have chosen because it's hard to find your way sometimes. It's also one of those jobs where for me I am alone a lot. I rehearse with people, I gig with others, I hang out in bars/venues, but when those things aren't happening it's a lot of alone time. Practice alone, work on booking alone, write alone (if not co-writing of course), etc. so it leaves time for thinking. If you don't choose some kind of path in music you can really get lost and I see this with a lot of people I know. You can really get into a pattern of playing lots of gigs to make money but then five years down the road you realize you are chasing the dollar and not a dream anymore. Connecting a bunch of "gigs" just to pay the bills is not what I want. I want to make an impact on people with my original music and find people I truly connect with. Long story short this new song is about that very thing and just the struggle with it.
I really enjoy the groove to this song which is inspired by Sam Cooke and classic soul and gospel. The lyrics so far (not all represented in this clip) are:
I want to be the proof
I want you to see the truth
I don't want to fake it I just want to make it on my own
Aint asking for much these days
I just need a little bitty raise
Just a little bit longer if I can only keep my head up
I want to be the proof that you can make a living doing something you actually like. I want people to see the true me, and I don't want to fake it by playing other people's songs or be this fake person in a cover band that I hate. The next verse is kinda self explanatory I'd say. 2013 is about getting to that next level for me. Please let me know what you think of the song.
I wrote this post in December but realized today I never published it so here goes:
So this blog started out as me talking about my playing experiences around town. It morphed into talking about my new project and going from writing to recording. Well, I wanted to make kind of a side bar back to the first intention of the blog. I have lots of experiences with different musicians and still want to talk about those from time to time so here goes.
Shaw Brothers and Andy Shaw Band my two main gigging projects have been playing as always but not as much for the past month or so. This has allowed me to stretch out a little bit and play with some other projects. Phillip Fox Band has me sit in once in a while and I even recorded some fiddle on their latest ep which sounds great by the way. These guys invited me to do a video shoot at the Lazy Chameleon about a week ago which was fun. All the music was going through the board and being recorded and there was a live video crew there lead by Nathan William who did The Columbus Songwriter Sessions promos in 2010. It was a live show setting so the guys invited some friends to come out and be the audience...overall a great time. I love working with these guys because they are super professional and they work really hard. I like working with these kinds of people because often they have a pretty precise vision and they work toward that final goal. There is no "well...let's figure it out" "if all else fails.." or "umm....what?" It's just really fun to see the progression PFB in particular has made in such a short time. (Update: here is that live video)
I played Wexner Center with Mike Wojniak opening up for Patrick Watson. (Check this video out...amazing live show!)
Patrick is a Canadian songwriter I had never heard of before and I am ashamed to say that after seeing him perform. The video is just what the show was like at Wexner, really cool use of projectors. Mike is a great songwriter whom I met during our South By Southwest trip two years ago and he was gracious enough to A: have me on his album B: let me play with him live even though I've said no a few other times due to ASB or SB gigs or something C: let me play with just one rehearsal! The show went really well and if you have not been to the Wexner Center Black Box performance space please check out a show. Everything I have seen at Wexner (which I admit is not a lot) has been amazing! (Update: I just found this video online someone took of the Wexner show..nice! Unfortunately it cuts off in the end but oh well.)
This Saturday I am guest spotting on violin at the McConnell Arts Center in Worthington with Jared Mahone. He does a show every year I believe which is more acoustic than his normal full band shows and I believe it's holiday themed...somewhat. He really brings the funk but the two songs we are playing are more chill folky/pop arrangements. One is an original and one is Away In The Manger. Jared has worked up a really cool version of this song and I'm excited to play with him finally at a show. Jared performed at The Columbus Songwriter Sessions just a few weeks ago at Shadowbox.
Speaking of the Songwriter Sessions...well it happened. Phillip Fox, Andy Shaw (brosef), and I came up with this event a few years ago to spotlight some local talent. We wanted an environment that was listening, classy, and that people could really HEAR the music. So this year was a great great night full of amazing performers. It had been 2 years really since we had done the last one so we hoped people would get the word about it. Good news is, everyone that WAS there had a great time and next time we do it it will be even better. Aaron Tasjan stole the night just killing an acoustic set. I am a huge fan of his and have been for a while and the audience was just blown away you could tell by the reaction. RJ Cowdery and Jared Mahone killed it as well. It looks like we may be sticking around Shadowbox for this event too and more CSS concerts coming soon so look out for that.
I just finished up my fiddle group for this session at Wellington School today. I teach 5th-8th graders fiddle tunes by ear and we have a little concert for the parents afterward. The kids were great this session and I can't wait to get back in for another session. We even learned "Move It On Over" by Hank Williams and I had the kids shout out the refrain. I love seeing the kids have some fun with music. Often times at least in my experience you are encouraged to read off the page and get all the notes but the "fun" part is for some reason not encouraged. Music should be fun....period.
That's about it for now, leave some comments let me know what's up!