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.