Weekly Update - June 28th - July 4th

This past week was musically rich and more enjoyable because of it.  Taught a lesson on Monday and found some time in the evening for more one man band rehearsal.  After work on Tuesday I started work with Michelle Lynn on the mixing of her fourth album, Twisted Logic, which was followed by a rehearsal.

Wednesday, Blake Auler-Murphy (aka Hyphon) was at Ghost in My House Studio for a morning session cutting vocals for work with another producer.  The beat was really cool and Blake did a fine job of laying down his vocal performances.  Blake and I also still have a collaborative track in the works, which may see the light of day later this year.

Matthew and Nick from Neon were over at noon and we were able to finalize a majority of the guitar parts for their debut record.  Progress has been good and we all hope to begin the initial mixing in the next couple of weeks.  Wednesday evening, Joe and Evan were over for a Moth Mountain rehearsal.  The four songs that we have been focusing on at the last few practices are really starting to gel and Joe delivered a couple of inspiring new ideas.  We are hoping to have a short set of material ready for a potential debut show this Fall.

Thursday was spent at work, although I did find time to experiment with some new one man band equipment that arrived.  The riser unit, made by Drum Workshop provides a stable base to attach a kick drum pedal too as well as support legs to hold a variety of drum types, it took some adjusting but I think I got it set up well to hold a snare drum.  However, it seems balancing the volume of the snare with my miniature kick drum may take some creative ideas.  I was also able to confirm an exciting show for September 3rd at JB's Speakeasy in La Crosse, WI.  The show will serve as a warm up for Rearview Mirror's headlining set at Recession Fest in Decorah, IA on September 25th.  The JB's show will also feature performances from Brahman Shaman, Wiggle Puppy and Michelle Lynn & The Bad Passengers and I am really excited to have the opportunity to play a different role in each of those bands all in one night!

Friday morning was spent in the garage working practicing the one man band, got the snare dialed in a bit better utilizing some paper towel and painters tape on the snare/beater contact point to get the level more even with the miniature kick drum.  Gralyn and Nick from Neon were over around noon and Gralyn finalized his drum parts for the album and Nick had enough time to begin work on the final lead vocals.  After a very warm lawn mowing experience I spent the rest of the evening enjoying the company of the visiting Jason Ptacek.

Saturday was sort of a musical break day, but did find some time to jam the drums with Jason on some new material he has been working on, we had a lot of fun in a limited amount of time and are hoping to have the opportunity to work on his new material again soon.

Sunday was mostly spent assembling baby furniture and relaxing but still found ample time to rearrange the one man band rehearsal space in the garage to include some of my thrift store P.A. components which will allow me to get more used to one man banding with a microphone and amplified guitar.  While some songs give me more trouble than others I think I should have a decent set of material ready for the Brahman Shaman - One Man Band debut at Midwest Music Festival in Winona, MN at the end of July.

Weekly Update - June 21-27th - Progress

Another pretty standard musical week.  Taught a lesson on Monday after work, continued working on new material and the one man band project on Monday night.  Tuesday, had a very warm but enjoyable rehearsal with Michelle and Adam.

Wednesday, spent the morning hours working on new material and practicing more one man band.  Theo and Nick from Neon were over around noon and we got all the bass parts recorded and finalized the piano sections in all of the songs as well.  Jaran was over Wednesday night and we spent some time trying out some new material that I have been working as I am hoping to start performing some of it in the near future to get an idea of how it goes over in a live setting.

Thursday was spent working although I did get a chance to see my friend Patrick Longmire Jr. to congratulate him and wish him well on his impending move to Austin, TX to play bass for the Eric Tessmer band.  Pat is a super talented guy and I am happy to see him get the opportunity to evolve his musical career.

Friday morning was spent working on new songs and one man band practicing.  Also did some experimenting with electric guitar/one man band combination which works better for some songs than it does others.  Gralyn and Nick from Neon were over around noon and we spent the next 5 hours getting a majority of the drum parts recorded.  It is fun to hear the album coming together and I think after a few more days of tracking we should be on to the mixing stage.

A close friend of Lish and I's was visiting, so we spent most of the rest of the weekend bumming around La Crosse and doing some much needed relaxing.  However, I did get the chance to put in some good time toiling away on music in the garage and had an especially enjoyable time letting loose during the storm on Friday night as I figured the neighbors wouldn't be able to hear me over the thunder.

Until next week..

Weekly Update - June 14th-20th - Routine

This past week was pretty routine in the musical sense.  Taught a lesson Monday.  Rehearsed with Michelle and Adam on Tuesday. Continued work on Neon's debut album and rehearsed with Joe & Jaran on Wednesday.  Thursday was mostly spent working.  Friday, the work on Neon's debut album continued.  The basic guitar tracks and the scratch vocals for all the songs are nearly complete and we are hoping to tackle some bass and drums in the upcoming week.

I also spent time during the week adding drums, bass and a guitar solo to a charity project I am recording.  I have been trying to spend 45-90 minutes a night rehearsing as a one man band and writing new songs in the garage each night.  I think I am going to have to push back the goal of having a set of one man band material ready in the next month a bit as it is proving more difficult than I thought it would and I want to spend more time working on new material.

This past week I realized that I tend to go a little insane and get hyper-focused on musical projects and end up creating artificial time tables that really don't do anything but increase my stress level.  So this week I hope to spend a little more time outside in contemplation and get better work done because of it, we shall see I guess.  In other news the upstairs flooring project is pretty much complete, which is good because I am spending my days off focused on the Neon project.

Until next week!

Weekly Update - June 7th - 13th - Neon/Bandit/Moth/Charity

This past week was a busy one.  After work Monday I taught a lesson to my Decorah student, who continues to make good progress on his second original tune.  After the lesson I had a quick rehearsal with Michelle and Adam in preparation for our performance at the Bandit County Fair on Saturday.  I managed to catch Neon at a private party at the Root Note on my way home Monday night.  I enjoyed their short acoustic duo set and it was good to see them live before starting production on their debut album on Wednesday at Ghost in My House Studio.  I did get a video of their last song recorded on my iPhone, you can check out by clicking here.

I had Tuesday off and spent a good portion of the day continuing to rehearse being a one man band.  This has been both fun and very difficult but I am nothing if not determined and I am confident I can work up a decent set of material with a month or so of daily practice.  The purchased the glass jar at the right to facilitate some sun-charged water but the the lid does not fit as tightly as I hoped and some gnats met their doom inside of the luke-warm cauldron calling the water's drink-ability into question.

I had Wednesday off as well and after spending the morning in more one man band rehearsal I was excited to get started working on the production of Neon's debut album.  Matthew, Nick and Theo arrived around noon and proceeded to lay down nearly all the tracks for their song Nobody's There in about 3 hours.  I was impressed with their musical skills and professionalism and was even more excited about how the recording was sounding.  I am definitely looking forward to continuing work on this project on my days off for the next couple of months.

Wednesday night Joe and Evan were over for the 2nd official Moth Mountain rehearsal and we are all slowly getting more comfortable with the tunes but I wouldn't expect a live performance to late Summer or early Fall.

I worked both Thursday and Friday and did not get a lot accomplished musically besides more fun/frustrating one man band rehearsing in a very hot garage.  However, all the heat and humidity has done wonders for the container garden and I hope to begin enjoying the fruits of my gardening labor in the not to distant future.

Saturday morning I packed up the car and headed over to the Bandit County Fair to play drums for Michelle Lynn as one the Bad Passengers with Adam on Bass.  It turned out to be a beautiful day and I only wished I had been able to stay and camp at the festival all weekend as a ton of great musicians were performing.  The show went well and it was fun to play while being amplified by a real big P.A.

Sunday was mostly spent cleaning and running errands but local musician/songwriter/journalist Randy Erickson was over to Ghost In My House Studio for a couple of hours in the afternoon to lay down guitar tracks and vocals for a song he penned for a local charity.  I will be laying down drums, bass and potentially some lead guitar on the track this week and will have more details available on the tune soon.

Until next week!

Weekly Update - May 31st - June 6th - One Man Band

Because of the extended holiday weekend this past week was slightly abbreviated.  After work Tuesday I taught a lesson to my Decorah student who is making great progress on his second original song.  After the lesson I had a rehearsal with Michelle Lynn and The Bad Passengers.  Our next gig is this coming Saturday, June 12th at The Bandit County Fair in DeSoto, WI at 1pm.  Click here for more info.

Wednesday I had the day off and spent the morning continuing to work on new songs.  I have also been trying to spend a little more time with the guitar than I have been in the past couple years and use that as starting point for the writing of new songs.  Wednesday eve Joe and Jaran were over for a split Brahman Shaman / Wigglepuppy rehearsal and we continue to get more comfortable with each projects material.

Thursday I left work early to go to an ultrasound appointment with my wife. We are happy to announce that we are expecting our first child, a baby girl this Fall.  We are very excited and although I may take a break from any live performing for a few months around the birth I think all the changes the new baby will bring to my life will be nothing but positive.

Friday I worked and also mailed out DEMO packages to a number of my favorite independent labels.  Not expecting much, but little feedback would be nice.  Friday night I constructed my make-shift one man band equipment with a miniature bass drum and a tom drum modified to have  snare sound and to be played with a bass drum pedal.  Special thanks to Adam and Michelle for loaning me a couple of these components to test out the concept.  Once I got the two drum kit assembled I soon realized how difficult it is to play a drum beat with two feet while singing and playing guitar, but practice makes improvement and I am excited to work up a whole set of material utilizing this set-up, check out a video of my progress on Why oh Why using this one man band setup below.



Saturday I gave a lesson to my La Crosse student and it is good to see all his hard work paying off.  The rest of the weekend was spent doing errands, chores, working on the home improvement projects and continuing practice as the one man band.

Until next time...

Weekly Update - May 24th - 30th - Midlake

I worked Monday and taught a lesson on my way home.  We started work on my student's second original song and I am encouraging the young songsmith to take the reigns more on this one and he is doing a great job.  After work on Tuesday I headed up to Minneapolis with my close friend and RVM bassist, Jason Ptacek, to see Midlake's show at the Cedar Cultural Center.  The Cedar is one of my favorite venues because it sounds amazing and you can literally stand at the foot of the stage with no one pushing on you etc...  The show was really good and I was impressed by the tightness of the 7 member group who often had 4 guitars going at once.  The drummer was also very impressive and seemed to play a larger role in the live situation than he does on the records.

I had the day off Wednesday and continued working on new songs as well as the seemingly never-ending laminate floor project.  Wednesday night was a Moth Mountain practice sans Evan who was otherwise engaged.  Joe and I worked through the 4 finished songs a few times each and were starting to feel more comfortable with the material again by the end of the night.

Thursday night I headed down to Del's bar in La Crosse, WI to drum for Michelle Lynn with Adam on bass.  The show was a lot of fun as our weekly rehearsals have continued to increase the amount of material we are comfortable performing together.  Driftless Music founder Adam Wiltgen has been kind enough to tape some of these performances, check out Black Hole from our set at the Acadia Cafe last week below:



Friday was spent doing work around the house.  I was also able to make it down to the Root Note to catch a portion of the Adam Without Eve CD release party where I watched 3/5 of Mouse Pocket deliver a quality set followed by good sets from a collection of local rhyme slayers including Hyphon and Efftupp.  I spent the rest of the holiday weekend relaxing around the house doing cleaning, laundry and playing some music when I could.

I am taking the month of June off from playing any Brahman Shaman shows to focus on recording a talented local band, Neon.  More soon...

Weekly Update - May 17th - 23rd - City

This past week ended up being fairly busy music wise.  Taught a lesson on Monday afternoon. Did a rehearsal with Michelle Lynn on Tuesday evening after a nice long walk with her and Adam as we awaited the closure of the retail store below their apartment.  Wednesday I spent the morning enjoying the outdoors while working on the arrangements for some new in progress songs.  Spent most of the rest of the morning being frustrated by baseboard trim installation in the house.  Got the yard mowed before it got too hot and had a good Shaman rehearsal with Jaran and Joe in the evening.

I also had Thursday off and again spent the morning working on songs and the most of the rest of the day being frustrated by baseboard trim, alas a carpenter I am not.  Friday, Joe, Jaran and I headed up to the Acadia Cafe in Minneapolis to play at a Driftless Music showcase put on by Adam Wiltgen.  Unfortunately the sound man for the show decided not to show and left the bands to sort of figure out on our own which we did with varying degree's of success.  Had a lot of fun drumming for Michelle Lynn during her set and also had a fun electric Shaman set, however, the late night drive home was about 3 hours longer than I would have liked.

After unsuccessfully trying to catchup on missed sleep Saturday morning I headed down to Iowa for another Rearview Mirror rehearsal with the original lineup.  Practice went well and it is always fun to hang out with Jason, TJ and Adam all in one place.

Made it back in time Sunday to teach a quick lesson and unload and set gear back up in the studio.  After getting most of a large branch which had fallen cut up I retreated to the air-conditioning for a lazy end to the day.

Will be drumming this Thursday at Del's bar in La Crosse, WI for Michelle Lynn and with the other Bad Passenger, Adam Ptacek at 10pm.