One year ago today: September 13, 2022, hot water tank anniversary, ha!
Five years ago today: September 13, 2018, what’s a mantle?
Nine years ago today: September 13, 2014, the musical vagabond.
Random years ago today: September 13, 2009, like being married.
Liberty, the safe company, just did a Bud Light. They destroyed a century of goodwill by giving the police the combination to a safe. Liberty then tried to lie their way out by saying the police had a search warrant, but the law is quite clear. The warrant is to be served on the suspect. Liberty went on line saying it was one-time and they’ll never do it again, blah-blah. Even with a warrant, in America you do not have to give the police the combination or password. (But don’t say that, say you forgot it.)
I took Gigrac into the workshed for a clean up. Years of use have got some dust settling but otherwise looking good. It has one idiosyncrasy with the fancy chrome bolts that hold it into the casing. When stored long enough, they come loose and fall inside the lid. Must be some bimetal contraction physics at work. Bryne writes from Texas, he is moving into Linden, a small town. Maybe he’ll have better luck with small towns (pop. 1988) than I ever did. Don Henley is from Linden, I’ve flown over it a few times.
Cedar shingle shapes.
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The afternoon was gone by the time I finished building two small shelves in the workshed, mostly to hold paint cans. That was an afternoon I deserved fifty years ago, but according to the millennial class, back then you just wathe Boomer’s grand scheme to wreck the country for all the follow-on generations who, we are told, were the whiz-kids who knew everything because they knew which icons meant what. This had me moving around the yard as the shelves are all built from cull lumber. A small forest has taken over my southeast corner, I’ll have to do some brush cutting.
It’s a well-known secret I can play guitar well enough to put on a show, but am not at all happy with the results. In this rehearsal, we went over each of the tunes on the list that had a distinctive guitar strum. Bit by bit, noting why and how the accents changed and covering some stage techniques. This is completely new material for the Prez, who mentions he has never considered presentation as part of the show. Ha, to me it is the largest single factor. I tried to fake you a sound recording by making it into a movie sound track, but Blogspot just ignores the file.
We got “Tell Me Momma” to sound like a blues tune and kind of adopted “Sea of Hearbreak” with that Bm13 chord I’ve never heard in any other recording in history. We had to haul out both guitars and “rassle” with that chord since I did not have the keyboard and could not hear the notes. We finally settled on a Bm and kept going. The songs are finally starting to take on their individual personalities, an important step in a new band. I’m very pleased with progress, I’m still looking at the 24th for a first stage appearance
Musically, this show will not win any awards. The bluegrass influence is still present in every song, including where it doesn’t belong. But every group has such spots, it is more important to get the band going and not spin any tires over sound issues. There are other approaches to all this, but few of them make it very far. I’ve had bands break up because one guy did not like the chosen name. I have a default band name for times when “Name & I” doesn’t work. It’s my old standby from 30 years ago, “Not Half Bad”. Good evening folks, this band is not half bad. But nothing beats Richard Frost in Denver, “I’m the only Dick on stage.”
And just you watch, I can tell you right away the band will do as he describes. He’ll just never admit that is because he’s joining an established group with a fixed song list and the majority of battles have already been fought and won.
Before I forget, this is a journal and I get to mention the past few days and fence posts have caught up with me. It’s not bad, though. A few stiff muscles and tiredness, that’s all, but it is directly the shoulders and such parts used in working a posthole digger, so I’m taking tomorrow off.
I had to keep thinking of my cardiologist who basically said those days were over, but in very couched terms. Then again, I’m not supposed to still be here since 15 years ago. I owe it all to clean living and fancy footwork, and playing bass 1 to 2 hours per day. And coffee. Plus, making your own muffins and writing letters when not reading good books. You know, the usual.
