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and yet another attempt at forcing the hand . . . lyrics.
the calm you call your own has broken but the hands that did it now lay dumb and the help you cried for has now spoken but the thing you needed didn't come it didn't come the facts are never near to answers those who claim to know are fools the world is full of fate and chances the beauty of a broken rule a broken rule better learn to suffer slowly better learn to love the lonely better learn to open up your heart better lay down with the lions better show them that you're trying better learn to open up your heart the distortion from overdriving the little computer microphone is a little less than pleasing. but what's done is done. OK. I know. I'm a little disappointed too. But it's just the beginning. If you stick with me, I'll stick with you, eh? Well, it was a busy weekend. I marched as a clown at the Honk fest in Boston on Sunday morning then drove to Shelburne Falls for a great show with Rusty Belle opening for Sonya Kitchell at Memorial Hall. Then worked some today at labor-ish tasks before playing a super late open-mic feature thang at the elevens. (talk about contrasting performances. yikes.) So here's my paltry offering. Ta-frickin-da. I don't actually feel bad this morning, but I've been there enough times to feel pretty intimate with the material.
OK. So here's what I'm going to try and do for maybe a month or so: I'm going to write a song a day and post it on this blog either in video or audio form. So from now on this blog will be called a song-a-day. We'll see how it goes.
Well it appears I have not written my monthly hoot in hell for many moons. But here I am, tapping away at the keyboard once again. At my grandparents' house on fire island it has been raining since late last night. I have become something of an expert at killing mosquitoes while half asleep. I usually leave them on the wall like trophies of the night's hunt. I've been here for almost a week with my main squeeze Christina. Most of this time was spent in the good raucous company of friends and family. We gathered what we could from the bay and ate it. Crabs, clams, whelk, sea bass, snappers, and even little baitfish shiners fried up whole all graced our table. Now it's quiet but for the ocean and its constant rolling wash. The fragmites grass is probably 12 feet tall and as high as it will get this year. It's a perfect day for tea, but we wanted coffee. All we could find was some Folger's coffee bags (like tea-bags, but with coffee, ya know? clever idea, I thought. Wrong. Not clever. Bad) some instant stuff and a can of old pre-ground espresso that actually smelled more like compost than coffee. We tried a little of each. A taste test. A cupping, as they call it in the biz. The Folger's actually tasted nothing like coffee at all. Kind of similar to lightly roasted cardboard, actually. Non-corrugated. The instant stuff, which I believe was Community Coffee with Chicory, smelled and tasted like instant oatmeal. Probably would have been very nice with cream and sugar, or a couple ounces of cheap whiskey. The espresso, an ancient batch of Medaglia D'Oro I think, was by far the winner but only because it actually tasted like coffee. However, it left a pretty unpleasant rancid filmy residue in the mouth. Now of all the places that rancid filmy residues occur, and there are of course many, the mouth is, in my opinion, the least acceptable. So we had tea. PG Tips. With honey. My favorite.
Well spring sprang and I been out in it. Soaking it up, bursting at the seams, seeming to sing with all of my being. I played a fun show with Chris Pureka down at the Middle East in Boston recently and had a hell of a hoot sitting in with Peter Mulvey and the Skinny Millionaires at the Rendezvous in Turners Falls last night. Covering the Tom Waits album RainDogs. Holyholy what an album! I brought bones, boxes, spoons and cans to bang on plus a homemade horn with a bottleneck mouthpiece and a coffeecan bell. And of course a Canophone which was given a sweet solo on tango til they're sore. (I actually played the one that was made for the raffle winner-just breaking it in Rose-making sure it whines well) It was so damn fun that I got roped into doing it again down at Atwoods Tavern in Boston this Saturday. Twist my arm, ya know? So the Suitcase Junket continues at a clip, ever grateful to Mr. Scelsa's attentiveness, and proud of the nice review in the local paper. But for now it is the new Rusty Belle cd that has my attention. We recorded it in February down at Signature Sounds and had a blast at the session with Goody Goodrich - producer extraordinaire- and Mark Thayer - engineer beyond compare. So now we are releasing it into the wild. The packaging for the first 200 copies are going to be handmade and well-loved. So our living room is being turned into a tiny sweatshop next week as we break out the sewing machines and get to work. My friend Ben and I are waiting with baited breath to hear about the Bird Bridge proposal in Northampton. We should know in a couple of weeks (gulp) whether our piece will be accepted and allowed to fly or not. Crossing fingers, toes, legs, eyes, arms, beams, etc. So right now I am sitting at the Jones Library near my house. A most beautiful library indeed. But the sun is beating down on my shoulders and begging me to come back outside and play. So, without further ado. . . Goodbye computer! May we meet again on some grey day without distraction!
Howdy out there. It's been a while since I've notated anything on this here thing thang so I figured I'd at least say hello. As soon as I got this website up and running my computer decided to eat it's own hardrive. Canibal Computer Suicide. That's my new electronic deathmetal band. So that's why these pages are languishing in stasis. But I've been keeping busy writing new tunes, playing the old ones out and about and working on a new family of birds that will be going up at the Moan and Dove for the month of April. In other birdy news, my good friend Ben Westbrook of BMW Ironworks and I submitted a proposal to build a large steel phoenix to adorn the railroad bridge over Rte 9 entering Northampton and made it to the final round! YeehAW! So it's us and 4 other artists who are making a more detailed proposal for the next boutof decision making. Really cool opportunity.
Also up there on the Neat-o-meter is that the Suitcase Junket has been getting some airtime on Vin Scelsa's radio shows. Both "Idiot's Delight" on Sirius XM and on FUV down in New York. Thanks to Vin I've been hitting the ears of people across the country without having to leave the comfort of my own little lair. Cheers Mr Scelsa! As for the near Future: , I've been doing some taping for my new show called "wrestling with Objects" which is exactly what it sounds like. Moronic and fun. So keep peeking at the site and you'll soon get some new surprises. Tonight I play at the Iron Horse Music Hall in NoHo which is always a good sounding room. Opening up for "That 1 Guy" who is hopefully better than his name. I hope to be better about writing with more frequency here but I know myself too well. Till Next Time. . . . |