Did I mention?

Did I mention to anyone that I was playing a show last month?

Not on this blog, I didn't. Writing here is starting to become a semi-annual affair. Things have been insane in these shrinking days of late summer... School has started, and now we're up to 3 kids in the mix. This means a dearth of "back-to-school" and "meet-the-teacher" and sundry other "time-consuming" and "overly-hyphenated" engagements.

We're not big on over-commitment (dang! there's another one!) around here. In fact, we have a rule that each kid only gets to do one thing (band, scouts, ballet, baseball, etc...). This year, everybody has a thing, but I don't think the dizzying pace will continue once we get all this other "first-of-the-year" stuff out of the way.

Did I mention Matthew was in band? Well, he is. He opted out of scouts. He wanted to play the drums (and I was totally psyched, because I felt that this was going to be the final nail in the coffin of justification that would allow me to buy a drum kit).. but it turns out you can't play percussion unless you've had two years of piano. :-p Stupid rules... So instead, he's playing trumpet. And really, I'm just as pleased. I think I'm probably going to end up learning to play the trumpet, too. : ]]

In addition to their "one thing," the boys have just started "bible bowl." Now, I realize that "one thing" plus "one other thing" is two things.. my math really isn't that bad.. but this is one thing that I've made them participate in, so it doesn't count.

Bible Bowl, for those readers too cool to know, is like Quiz Bowl. Except your only text is the bible.

Did I mention my kids are going to end up stuffed in a locker?

Ha! I kid! I know it sounds like a one-way ticket to Stuffville, but it really isn't. I should know, I did it from 7th grade to 12th, and never once spent time on the inside. Of course, I also spent 4 years on the wresting team. But maybe that can be their "one thing" later on. : )

Busy or not, I think Band 'n' Bowl are going to make for a good year. Obviously, I love the band stuff--I think I was almost as excited as Matthew about getting the trumpet. We're going to have a good time with that. And I'm glad to have the opportunity to dig through the bible with the boys. There's a lot in there that I want to share with them, and I'm not a huge fan of "Dr. Goodbody's 10 Step Devotions for the Young Man in All of Us" or whatever. Jesus said some cool stuff. Best to let him.

Phew! I'm going to stop now. There's plenty more, but if I keep mentioning one more thing, this will become a semi-annual novella, instead of a blog. Emma started ballet again.. Deb is chewing her way into the last year of college.. Hunting season has begun.. Work is still good.. Opening a furniture store within the month.. and if you want more details on that show I played, you can find them here.

Joseph

There's another tune up on my music page. This one is a live recording from the "ROCK FOR TURKEY!!" event I played for a few months ago.

Note: The name of the event was not at all "ROCK FOR TURKEY!!" It was "Turkish Delight: A Benefit Concert." But I will persist in calling it "ROCK FOR TURKEY!!" until the day I die.

***DANGER! TECHNICAL DETAILS ENSUE!! WOOOP!! WOOOP!! WOOOP!!***

Just FYI, it's a mono board mix. Which means that it is the recording directly from the mixing board--which is not at all intended for sharing--and that it is not a stereo recording, which means it is a little "dead" sounding.

I'm really talkin' it up, aren't I? You want to go there and listen RIGHT NOW, don't you!?

I cut this song out of a much larger .wav file, put it in GarageBand and added a little seasoning to make it more palatable, then converted it to an .mp3 file. I probably could've made it sound a little better, perhaps somehow compensating for the huge room reverb that appears suddenly about halfway through (it was our second song, and Jeremy was still tweaking the sound). But I think it's pretty good for what it is, and I see no point in spending the next hour of my life working on it to make it almost sound like what it is not.

***END TECHNICAL DETAILS. RE-ESTABLISHING ENJOYABLE BLOG CONTENT***

The full title of this song is "The Ballad of Joseph." I wrote it, if memory serves, back in the winter of 2000--about 6 months after leaving Nashville--in a tiny little bedroom of our tiny little rental house, on my grandpa's old archtop guitar.

In this performance I am playing electric guitar and singing the lead. Rachel Newell is singing harmony. Byron Grimes is on fiddle, Henry Kappler on bass, and Dan Anderson on drums. I seem to be singing kinda shakily--not sure why. Probably too much turning around to see what Dan & Henry were doing, I guess. After listening to the recording a couple times through, Matthew said, "Dad. You'd make a pretty good second Elvis. (pause) You know.. in a good way."

Lyrics are as follows.

V1
Joseph sat there on the stool / with nothin left in life to prove
and talked to me with cigarette-stained breath
With grizzled chin and waterin eyes / he told the story of his life
of better days when he had been his best

And I told him of my secret plan / my dream to be both boy and man
the reason I had made my homeward trek
I'd been away far too long / but flatland roots are oh so strong
so I decided I could make it stretch

Pre-chorus
He looked me sadly in the eye / hurt so deep you'd wanna cry
said "Son you're only foolin' yourself."
And he said, "Dreams are born and die here but they do all their living someplace else."

Ch
Nah-nah.. etc

V2
"I once was young and beautiful / Son, my cup was always full
No concern for life or worldly wealth
But time and tide caught up to me / and tipped me over endlessly
now nothin's left for drinkin to my health

Pre-chor
I once was young and beautiful / but now I'm old and cynical
jaded, feelin sorry for my self
And I say dreams are born and die here but they do all their livin someplace else."

Chor
Nah-nah.. etc

V3
Well now those dreams are laid to rest / with nothin bad as second best
I've closed that book and put it on the shelf
And when the young man comes to me / to tell me of his happy dream
I'll draw my breath and think of someone else

Pre-chor
I'll look him sadly in the eye / I hope to God that I don't cry
say, "Son, you're only foolin' yourself."
And I'll say, "Dreams are born and die here but they do all their livin someplace else."

Bridge
Dreams do their livin someplace else (although they may be born here)
Dreams do their livin someplace else
Dreams do their livin someplace else (though they may come to die here)
Dreams do their livin someplace / Dreams do their livin someplace
Dreams do their livin someplace else

Ch-out
Nah-nah.. etc..

update: June 16, 2007

You know you're in for a snoozer of a blog post when you can't even come up with a title.

"Here's a guy," you might say to yourself, "who has absolutely nothing to say."

You wouldn't be too far off. But hey, I like talking to you, so sue me, okay?

I'm putting some new/old tunes up on the myspace page right now. I've GOT to make some new recordings. They don't have to be awesome, but I should at least sit down w/ a guitar and rip a few off, just so I can stop rotating scraplettes of would-be music that I recorded on cassettes in my basement ten years ago. I understand I'm not trying to break into the Billboard "hot 100" or anything, but come on..

Oh, and on a related note, I might get to play a little show in August. Details have yet to solidify, but I'm poking my musically-inclined friends to see if I can like up another iteration of The Eclectic Mix band that played with me last time out. I've also got one lined up for June 2008--so now it's sort of just a challenge to see how many I can squeeze into the next 12 months w/out upsetting the apple cart too much.

Kids are playing in the basement. Deb's working on homework and I'm on standby to help (thus the stupid amount of online time, playing myspace). I'd better go start pushing people through the tub soon, too--it's bath day! They will react like drowning kittens. What's up with that, anyway?

And that's all for now.