Volunteer Tomatoes Posted: Jan 14, 2012
I've been playing on and off lately with Joe Bly and his daughter Brittany, and we've decided to formalize things a little and start performing around town - check out the upcoming dates in the events section. Joe is a fantastic mandolinist, and Brittany plays a mean guitar and fiddle. Both have remarkable voices that blend well with mine. We wasted a lot of time lately trying to come up with a name that might the fit the character of our songs, and that hasn't already been taken - no mean feat, it turns out. At one point I nearly gave up and decided we should just be Alphabetical Order... but that's already taken. Volunteer Tomatoes seems to catch a little bit of our nature - a little ad hoc and pleasantly surprising.
I also play with the Nodding Wild Onions, so a theme might be developing, but I'm not sure how Blue Monk fits....

Woolgathering Posted: Jan 7, 2012
1/7/12
So in the last month or so I recorded a few "whatever happens" songs - mostly unfiltered jams, and I'm deciding if I should turn any of them into real songs. Mostly I started with an "EZ drummer" drum track then added 1-3 tracks of guitar and a bass. Occasionally some vocals and miscellaneous other things.

November 30 - fun running melody in the guitar, fairly simple chords that could be fun to jam with other people. Good prospect for a "real song."

November 30 another one - syncopated guitar, some ahh's at the beginning probably unnecessary. Very noodly - woolgathering kind of song. Goes into some odd chromatic dissonance for a while, develops into a sort of jig by the end.

December 5, 2011 - fun, rhythmic, builds. May have been with a tuned down to G. I like the groove.

December 7, 2011 - Chunka chunka in C7 and F7 - fun. Good chromatic riff. Gets a little lost when it goes to something other than first two chords.

December 8, 2011 - Reiteration of December 7 C7, F7. Really engaging! This one's promising. Two parts, good opportunity for jamming.

December 8, 2011 Another one - slow, with keyboard flute that sounds surprisingly realistic. Melody is sort of predictable, could use a second part and a bridge. Keyboard is gone, so wouldn't be able to work on it anymore.

December 9, 2011 - Searching at the beginning is kind of fun, very conversational between the instruments. Simple drum rhythm holds things together. Hard to duplicate. Ends nicely.

December 11, 2011 - Simpler version of December 9. Mid-tempo, enjoyable riffs in first part allows to build, answered by second part - good prospect for a song.

December 12, 2011 - fast fingerpicking along with drums, sounds like could lead to a good background for a part of a film - repetition, meditative

December 13, 2011 - three part la, la, la - sounds like it could be a nice fade-out at the end of a song

Happy New Year! Posted: Jan 2, 2012
Lose 20 pounds.
Make something cool every day.
Sing like you mean it.
Save the world.