End Of Month Thoughts From The Townedger

A dull month of no gigs, no jams and a get together with Blues Rox.  On a positive note,  Belinda James tested negative for the Corona Virus, but she remains in the hospital due to other health issues. Pray for her to get better.

I managed to age about 10 years in five years time.  I am not a fan of growing older and looking at my mug I'm not about to get any better looking.  The song about Eternal Youth?  That was just a lie.

Working on the new album has been a chore upon itself.  Not much inspiration and half the time I come up with songs that don't go anywhere.  Geoff n Robbie has done their share to keep me interested and therefore will get music credit where due.   Once we finally get going on new songs, my voice gave out.  Sigh.

However I will continue to record whenever I get a moment of inspiration.  Things are slowly coming into place.  I attempted to do a run through of Gold Dust Woman without a woman singer and still can't get it sounding right.  My producer Terry Bainbridge asked me the other day why I haven't played the song with Julie singing it.  We haven't been together to sing it, at this point we may be in the past.  Wikipedia mentioned that Gold Dust Woman is basically a song about Cocaine, or perhaps of a abusive relationship.   I  hope that  she doesn't think of me that way on the latter when she sings it.

When I first messed around with G.D.W, Julie picked it up and it was the highlight of our musical partnership.  Maybe it still is, I haven't performed it with Julie since July of last year, all other times has been Kimberly Trevallion doing the honors. Without the acoustic jams, I have kinda lost the feel of that song.  The strange thing about being a musician is that I look at what songs I do and who I played with and analyze the pros n cons.  I tend to be self critical of myself most of the time when I compile my set list of songs played.  Kimberly has a powerhouse voice and adds a bit more of a harder rock sound to that song but Julie has always sang it the best.

A trivial note:  The last time Julie sang GDW with me was the last Checker's Acoustic Jam.

Somebody asked me if Dreams Of Arcadia will return. My guess is Julie and Ryan will bury the hatchet and try again.  Sooner than the Acoustic Crabbys for sure.  With the Corona Virus Epidemic, probably not till late 2020.  But that's not written in stone.

I am not a fan of Trump, and I would love nothing more to write the ultimate protest song about him.   But I'm not about to write a song with F bombs and no substance.  I have a lot of musician friends that are far left and far right and they spend countless hours attacking one another over stupid senseless shit.  Divide and conquer, and I'm seeing a whole lot of that too.

Working on new songs with Blues Rox, a genius idea came around for turning Wonderful Tonight from a slow paced Clapton snoozefest into a more rowdier number.  Kris was playing the song faster, and it sounded like Mrs Rita from The Gin Blossoms, so we did about four or five runthroughs.  Can't say I take full credit, it was a band effort.  We had a open air garage jam to which about ten folks from the block came to hear us play.  I think we're sick of being coup up due to the Corona Virus issues but since we were not sick, we thought why not.  Music is therapy.

I may not agree with Bob Dorr on everything, but I'll support him and his musical adventures as much as I can.   He doesn't bother me on my site with any comments.  I just return the favor.  As I mentioned in the past EOM thoughts, it's a tough time for the full time musician.  I'm sure Dan Johnson is also dealing with this too.   It boggles the mind to have a three time hall of famer like Bob and I make more money than he does.  But not by much.

There was a time that Richard (Dick) Budde was lobbying for the drummer's chair in Blues Rox.  He jammed with them a time or two but it was a clash of styles.  I didn't get the job by default, Miles Demarso would have been the best choice but he's going to college now but I do think at some time Miles might have a role in the future for Blues Rox.   Richard did back me up on drums and he did pretty good but then again, the way I play guitar is nothing more than doing a rhythm beat.   That said, I wasn't planning on getting with just any band, but rather a band that could improvise and have their own sound n vision.   With Paraphernalia, my own originality and songs were first.  36 years after that band's demise, I'm perfectly willing to put Blues Rox over The Townedgers.  It's cool to see how Kris is growing as guitar slinger and I'm just a stepping stone to provide the beats.   And I'm not about to give up the drum chair just quite yet for Miles or anybody else.

With no gigs coming up on May, I'll be scanning the archives for historical content.  Till then.

Stupid The Dog

Another recording session today and we worked on something called Stupid The Dog, the inspiration from Kevin's idiot dog that keeps barking at each and everything out there.  Plus we have two other neighbors that bought dogs and keep them chained up so they can bark all day long.

A full band credit of the song goes to Geoff and Robby.

It's been a full month since our last jam and two weeks removed from the Glass Tap Quarantine Live Sessions.  If there was a Whittier Acoustic Jam Saturday Night, David kept it to himself.  But with lousy weather and the Corona V 19 still around, I doubt if it went on.

Recording the new album hasn't been much fun, we are still trying to find songs that fit the groove but nothing is coming together very easy.  I figure if I can record bits and pieces here and there, it will keep my interest going.  I still have a feeling this will be the last Townedgers album that I will make. If nobody else is interested in new TE music why even try.  Our A and R person Diggy Kat would be happy most of all.  He hasn't exactly promoted the last album Logic And Lies much, but at least he's keeping the other albums alive tho' I'm sure we're the classic rockers of yesterday. 

And so it goes.

TE Recording Session 4

One song in the can.  A version of Willis Alan Ramsey's Satin Sheets but using lyrics from him and the other ones from the Bellamy Brothers who covered this song.  There were some attempts do other songs, couldn't find the the lyrics to Gold Dust Woman so I just ab libbed. You And Me, had lyrics and I attempted to make sense of it all, but got bored with it.

This is where I begin to add songs and then abort things if it doesn't come together.  I do not want to write any more angry love songs.  However, I lost the feel of writing anything other than angry love songs.   I don't want this album to be a covers album, but at the same thing I want to write new songs that will mean something.  That has not happened at all.

Satin Sheets took about five takes and the overdubs twice that many.   While I did printed to lyrics to Gold Dust Woman, I couldn't find them.  It's still better off having somebody else sing it, but if Waylon Jennings can sing it, why not me?    I don't think I have my heart into this new project, especially if I am redoing the same angry love songs with different lyrics. 

With everything shut down,  I cannot jam with others and work on songs in a live setting.  Whatever we had going for us has been taken away and I'm sure if I'll ever find that groove again.  With the fifth anniversary of my come back, all has been put on hold.  The springtime live dates are gone and chances are May might go by the way side.  Will things return back to normal again, I don't know. 

I'll continue to record songs and perhaps we'll find out if I will have enough good songs to make a listenable album.

The TE Recording Sessions Number 3

Songs:

Tomorrow's Girl (Smith/Redding)
Just To Satisfy You

Notes:

More revisiting the past and revamping a couple.  I was playing There's Always Something but found a different riff and read the lyrics from Tomorrow's Little Girl instead, with a couple revisions.   Just To Satisfy You is slowed down from our original attempt from 2015.  I ended the sessions when we had a thunderstorm go through.  I was seeing the thunderhead develop while recording. Once we got done, we had pea sized hail, In town, they had tennis balls sized hail and broke out a few car windows.  The storm finally went south and we eventually had the pink moon to brighten up the night and Venus too.

The TE Recordings Sessions-Day Two

Songs:

1)  Who Are You (Smith/Redding)
2)  Cheating Songs
3)  Willin' (Lowell George)

Who Are You was started last night, while I was writing lyrics and then picked up and finished it today.  Done in two takes but I left the mistakes in.  Geoff was given credit for some of the riff and the tag ending.  I'm not exactly thrilled with the end results but Terry Bainbridge, my co producer thought otherwise.

It's tough to start albums but once I start throwing ideals here and riffs there, it does open up a barrage of new material.  I Started Hating Cheating Songs Today, usually done in F, was reversed to a D G A and it seemed to work.  With no acoustic jams or gigs, I have to rely on reference copies of songs, so I added this to the master.   Willin' was finally completed, and was more toward the first version of the Little Feat song but sung with a lot of reservations to it.  I always thought the singer should approach this song with a sense of defeat, but yet with enough courage to keep going.  I think as the years go by, I am managing to sing songs with a bit of more grit and to squash that GD Southern Illinois Goth Vocal that has been a part of the albums that I have made over the years.

The usual crew was in.  Geoff on other guitar and vocal, Robert Knowles on Bass, Terry Bainbridge, production. 

Kris from Blues Rox asked about helping out on the album.  When it comes to the Townedgers  I tend to favor Geoff or our previous band members.  I don't feel that the songs that I sing and play are not made for Blues Rox, it's a not a put down, rather, I'm trying to see if any of these songs would be good enough for them to play.   I'd rather have songs better suited for Blues Rox but Who Are You or Buckingham Nicks are not the right songs for them.  I have my inner demons of life going on and when I put them to music, they are lot more personal. 

I tend to suffer for my art, while revisiting past times and past loves.  It's always been to write out my feelings and put them to music.  There were songs that I did ripped into my past relations, I don't play those any more.   The guys in the band tend to feel the brunt of my despair when I go back to the past and sing about the girl that got away, or Janice for that matter or Jeanette.  Ya think 40 years down the road they wouldn't matter, but for every romance that ends for me, I tend to go back to those times.  I've been made promises to go to high school dance with a couple and get stood up or they found other guys.  I have blind dates to which the girl would write a dear john note and canceling out.  I've gone back to my high school sweetheart twice and found out that I couldn't return back to those days   It turns out that she knew my habits better than me.  She knew I couldn't give up the records, the music and change myself for her.  So she married her high school sweetheart years later.   I saw the girl in my Public Relations class at Kitty's in 1984 and sat across from me for an hour waiting for me to come over and say hi.  When I didn't, she left in tears.  I tried to find her the next day trying to explain my actions, I was shy beyond belief and couldn't believe she find anything interesting with me.   36 years later, I'm still haven't found her and never will.  When Irene Leeson passed away, that would have been my last great chance to see Jeanette, tho I doubt she would have made the funeral.  I could never pick the right one, the one that could put up with my music and crazy record collecting.  The one that I could write music and play songs for her and make her smile. 

The ones I remember most: Amy.  Met her at the arcade at Show Biz Pizza and had a three week rebound relationship, her boyfriend was in love with his monster truck and I guess she was lonely and the first person she saw was me playing QBert and cussing out the machine.  My mom didn't care much for her, nor did the guys in the band.  Had a chance to make out with her, I passed.  We held hands and called it a night.  She called a couple times and then faded from view.  I did call her a year later and was told she moved out.  She did get back to her boyfriend and had a couple of daughters when I ran into them at some concert downtown Cedar Rapids.  No need to thank me for getting them back together, I'm always the other guy.

And I write that in songs.  I guess it's my most inner strength.  And Geoffrey has been the best to translate my feelings into riffs when I can't come up with them.  But it's a emotional struggle, like Logic N Lies, things overcome me.  Somehow, the records ends on a positive note.  There's no guarantee that this recording will have the same results.

After two days, I think the record is going as planned.  But I need to find some uplifting songs to get me through this depressive state of revisiting past feelings to get songs finished.   I'm hoping by May, we can finally get back out into playing again.  By then, I'll be back helping out Blues Rox, Kris n Brian remain my future, not the Townedgers, nor Acoustic Adventures or Acoustic Crabbies.  But maybe for shits and giggles I'll try to learn Unchained Melody and see where that leads.

The TE 2020 Recording Sessions-Day One

For the first time in three years, we're working on the new album.  Can't go anywhere due to the Corona Virus and don't wanna get nailed with this crap.

Day One:  Hoarder House Of Hits-Springville IA

Production: Terry Bainbridge n Rodney Smith

Songs

Buckingham Nicks (Smith)

With Geoff Redding and Robby Knowles in tow.

Took four hours to finally compile and write this song.  In between we would jammed on other numbers.  A couple of run through of Willin but not too impressed.  But I spent most time writing out Buckingham Nicks.

The process of writing new music and albums is slow paced, but with three weeks of being stuck at home, I'm certain I can finally get the record done.  Julie will not be a part of this album.  perhaps she can write  a couple lyrics for me to put into music.