Bullets and Bandages

Here is an instrumental I did. It's a bit unfinished. I think I could have developed this more. Hope you enjoy it.

I'm a Sinner

Here's a tune I just finished. It's another collaboration with Greg Michael. What a crooner!

Corn Mash

Here's a recent collaboration by Greg Michael that I played a couple leads on and mixed. It's a fun blues-rock romp. Rough, but buckets of fun to do and another successful long distance collaboration with Reaper!

Safari

Another songwriter's roundtable submission for your enjoyment. The topic is 'beats'.
 Here's the criteria:

Be creative with this one. Write lyrics about rythym, show off your beatbox skills, have a nasty drum solo, or just record 90 minutes of a bass kick and cowbell.

This one was a little bit of a departure for me, but I am pretty excited about the overall results. No lyrics on this one, just music and beat. Hope you enjoy!

Irish Bouzouki: Thick as a brick

Here's an enjoyable bouzouki tune you may recognize...
Irish Bouzouki: Thick as a brick: "Wow, a Jethro Tull cover played on the Irish Bouzouki. Love this one!"

Beyond

This is a song I wrote for the NASA Space Rock contest. I hope you like it.

Thanks goes out to Greg Michael for singing lead vocals. This was a long distance collaboration that was very successful. I am looking forward to working more with him in the future.

Enjoy!

The Stand

Here's another song I wrote a while back and have reposted here linked back to the bandcamp website. Enjoy!

Party of One

The latest Old Distillery submission is a christmas stocking stuffer with a few criteria. There had to be a fictional/historical character or you can invent one...I did both. The line "colder than a..." has to be included in the lyrics and the song is supposed to be limited to 90 seconds or less. Ok, so I got two out of three! Anyway, I was going to pass this time, but I threw this together at the last minute. I hope you enjoy it.

Cursed

Here's my latest songwriter's roundtable submission for the topic of superstition. It's called Cursed and is about black cats and some of the superstitions that surround them.

Irish Bouzouki

At FenCon this year, I got my fingers on an irish bouzouki for the first time and think I may have to add one to the stable. My friend Floyd brought two to the convention and we played around for a bit and I really enjoyed it. Anyway, I found this blog and wanted to share it with everyone.

Ever wanted to be part of the space program?

NASA 's Space Rock

Here's your chance to be a part of NASA history! NASA is accepting entries of original songs, two of which will be selected to be played as wake up songs on one of the final missions of the space shuttle program. How cool is that? Submissions are due no later than January 10, 2011. The only logical course of action would be to get cracking and rock the shuttle! Good luck!

Not a song writer? You can also vote on your favorite song from their list of 40 previously played wake up songs.

SUBMIT!

(photo by Sophia)

This is my latest submission to our songwriter's roundtable group. The general topic is the French Revolution.

The title is "Liberty!" and it's about oppressed people and their right to be free from tyranny.

Enjoy!

Sustained Recovery Underway in Forty-Six States

Sustained Recovery Underway in Forty-Six States Construction Industry News Reed Construction Data

Here's an article about the recovery from the recession trudging along with a perspective from the States' points of view. Acording to the story, econominc activity for the individual states varies from 2% to 10% with Texas coming in with one of the smallest growth gaps amoung larger states (considered to be above average).
There is also an interesting bit about the census jobs and how most of the 400,000 people hired will finish their work by sometime in July and be out looking again.
Check out the article for more.

Ooo, la-la!

I've really been having a great time with my latest guitar. It has fantastic tone! I installed a fantastic new Allen RS-2 Nickel tailpiece for it from Allen Guitars & Luthier Supplies that really opened up the sound.

Rock on!


2001 Gibson Dobro DM-33


The back...

Scientist Creates Life. That's a Good Thing, Right?

Here's some interesting food for debate...
Would something like this be beneficial for, say, cleaning up environmental disasters like the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico or are the prospects of 'what could go wrong' to horrible to imagine? Read on and you decide.

Scientist Creates Life. That's a Good Thing, Right?

Updates below

My main man, Retronym, has some new work and it is really nice.  Be sure to scroll down to see his lovely subject...no, it's not a shoe.

Strapping!

 

My new guitar strap.

 

Judy's stamp.

 

I picked up my new leather guitar strap at guitar group last night.  It is custom made from a design Judy and I came up with.  Judy makes leather guitar strap with some customization available. She will do tooling, braiding, add conchos, padding and offers several stain color options.  Everything is hand made and each one she makes looks better than the last. She is putting together a website and the prices are quite reasonable.  Thanks, Judy!

Guit-autograph

 

Labor of Love

I posted this in takingitforaspin, but I wanted to post a higher resolution image here for your enjoyment.  There are a few notable signatures here including Al DiMeola, Graham Nash, Junior Brown, James Cotton and Willie "Big Eyes" Smith.

The Blues

 

I been framed!

I wanted to share this with you.  This is a piece in my studio done by a long time friend of mine, Mike.  It depicts the blues and history of performers. Looking closer, you can see the names of many great and influential blues musicians.

 

Close up view.

Also take notice of the meticulous detail in Mike's style used to create the blue and back bands around the body of the guitar.  Many hours went into this work and I am proud to have it hanging in my studio.

Blissful Brilliant Beauty Blankets El Dorado Park!

View down my street

Striking trees!

Incredible trees!

View of the alleyway

Waking up this morning with no power, I took to the outdoors with my camera for some old fashioned entertainment.  The views were all spectactular!  I probably took around 75 pictures of my neighbourhood and was hard pressed to pick just 4 from them all to post and share.  The temperature was just at or above the freezing mark by now and the falling snow had tapered off to a few stray flurries, leaving us with between 10 and 12 inches of wet, gloppy snow. I hope you enjoy these images as much as I did taking them.