If you are looking for some new music, especially some to make the new Bon Iver album sound a little better, check out my new CD. You can listen on Spotify or get it on iTunes.
There are only 8 tracks, but I feel it is a good album considering my amateur status. Honestly, it is better than the first two.
So this fall/winter, when you are sitting down with your favorite cold or warm beverage and searching for inspiration while staring at the naked hook clamped in your vise, try playing this CD in the background. If nothing else, you won’t be sitting in silence.
About 2 years ago I made a CD and put it on the internet (follow this link to see it on iTunes).
After I put out that album, I kept writing songs. Over the past few months, I was finally able to record them in our basement. Sometime next month, I’m hoping to get the album available online (maybe a Christmas release with a November pre-order option?). Sara helped me put together the new album cover. The back of the album really won’t be on anything since I’m not making any hard copies, but it is still fun to make have.
I’ll once again put the album on CDbaby, but it will also be available on spottify and iTunes.
So, do remember that person in college or high school who would always grab the guitar as the night was fading? You thought, “Oh great. This guy again. Maybe I can refill my drink or find somewhere else to be for the next 10 minutes.” They might play a couple bad versions of “Wonderwall,” Bon Jovi, or Jack Johnson, eyes closed, looking way too serious. You could sing along a bit but then they’d play an awkward “original” and you’d be stuck, on the sunken couch, too afraid to just get up and walk away.
Well, guess what? I was that whiney guy with the guitar, but, I whine a little less these days. I started playing during high school and got pretty into it for while. I’ve written probably close to 100 songs. Heck, I wrote one for the Owl Jones Rise fishing contest back in 2011, the contest that got me into making fly fishing videos. Thank you, Owl, by the way. (See the whiney song here).
This year, for my 30th birthday, my wife encouraged me to record some of my better songs “just for fun.” Mostly she wanted me to record a song called “I Love July” that I wrote for her early in our relationship and played at our wedding. We had some friends visit this fall and one of them brought some recording equipment. We turned the living room into a studio, and the Dormroom Sessions was born.
On the CD, you’ll find original songs, all written and preformed by me. I personally feel tracks 4, 5 and 6 are the strongest, “Little Red Squirrel” being the one that turned out best, but feel free to prove me wrong.
I hope two things come of this. One, I hope my friends and family and you all enjoy the music. I’ve enjoyed playing and writing for years, and it has been great fun for me. Secondly, I hope this album gets huge in Eastern Europe or Asia and 2014 is the year of the Dormroom Sessions and I become famous like Jake Bugg or Psy (oops, looks like I dropped a few names there… I might have to pick those up before this page gets associated with those more popular search terms…. or I might just leave them).
That’s right, I acknowledge that it is not Friday, but I just stumbled upon such an awesome video that I had to make an exception.
I give you “Three White Horses” by Andrew Bird.
Reasons I like this video/song:
1. Andrew Bird has a cool voice. 2. Andrew Brid can play the violin and sing at the same time. That takes coordination. 3. The change in tempo at 2:15 is nifty. 4. Andrew Bird has a nice scarf.
5. Bald bass player has a nice sweatshirt.
6. Guitarist has a nice plaid shirt like the one I got for Christmas.
7. I like songs that express melancholy in a fast-paced manner.
It occurred to me that I grew up next to some very musically talented people. So, for this edition of Rest Easy, Friday Night, I thought I would share some music from my “neighbors.” I’m using neighbors loosely. I went to high school with each of these people and we lived less than 5-10 miles apart.
Bret and I go back to little league baseball. He is a wonderful writer and has a sense of humor to rival Andy Samberg. I used to grab a mid-run glass of water from his house on those humid Minnesota summer days.
Second: Enter Jeramiah Nelson, also here, and here. A prolific troubadour who plays with many midwestern musicians including Brad Hoshaw (RE,FN: Vol 3). A year ahead of me in school, we took the bus home together in 5/6th grade. He was a bit of a rebel even then.
There is also Mark Noseworthy of Pink and Noseworthy who lived a mile or so away from us. He was in my brother’s grade as well. Great guitarist. To be honest, I don’t know his stuff as well. But the link is there if you are interested.
So ends the Neighborhood Edition of Rest Easy, Friday Night. That’s a lot of music.
I first saw/heard Brad Hoshaw and the Seven Dead Lies at the Joslyn Art Museum in Omaha, Ne. We listened for about 45 minutes and I bought their self-titled CD. It is outstanding. Here is his newest project. It is the “rough draft” of his upcoming CD. He will put the sales money from this rough album towards a fully produced studio album.
A slower sound. A step away from the light hearted. Calming and refreshing.
He also dose a pretty decent version of a Ke-(money sign)-ha song.
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On a separate note, here is a paragraph from yesterday’s Writer’s Almanac, a daily email/radio short by Garrison Keillor on Minnesota Public Radio. The segments include a daily poem and noteable events in history that occurred on the day.
This blows my mind. It amazes me to think what this man has seen and heard.
“Today is the 98th birthday of Joseph Medicine Crow-High Bird, best known as Joseph Medicine Crow, who was born in 1913 into the Apsaalooke people — the children of the large-beaked bird — near Lodge Grass on the Crow reservation in southern Montana. Joseph Crow is the oldest living man of the Crow tribe and the last traditional Crow chief. As a writer, he has produced seminal works on Native American history and reservation life. But it is for Medicine Crow’s writings on the victory of the Cheyenne and Lakota warriors led by Crazy Horse and Chief Gall over the U.S. Cavalry and George Armstrong Custer that he is best known.
Joseph was the first member of his tribe to attend college and was in the middle of graduate studies in anthropology when World War II began and he joined the Army as an infantry scout. He’d learned from his grandfather that a warrior must have the strength and intelligence to carry out four traditional military acts, a process called “counting-coup,” in order to qualify as a chief, and Medicine Crow completed all four during the war. One highly prestigious act was to make physical contact with an enemy and escape unharmed, and on one occasion, he fought and grappled with a German soldier whose life he then spared when the man screamed out for his mother. On another, Medicine Crow led a war party to steal 50 Nazi SS horses from a German camp, singing a Crow song of honor as they rode away. After the war, Medicine Crow returned to Montana where he was appointed his tribe’s historian and anthropologist. He began writing academic works, collections of Crow stories and the Crow creation cycle, nonfiction books for children, and his memoirs, to mention just a few. Medicine Crow’s step-grandfather had been a scout for George Armstrong Custer and an eyewitness to Custer’s Last Stand along the Little Big Horn River, and as a boy Joseph had heard many stories of the battle; today, Medicine Crow is the last living person to have received direct oral testimony from a participant of Little Bighorn, which he has written about in Keep the Last Bullet for Yourself (The True Story of Custer’s Last Stand) and other works. Medicine Crow has been awarded the American Bronze Star as well as the French Legion of Honor. A White House press release naming Medicine Crow as a recipient of the 2009 Presidential Medal of Freedom praised him for his “contributions to the preservation of the culture and history of the First Americans,” saying that those achievements are only matched by “his importance as a role model to young Native Americans across the country.” 10/27/11 Writer’s Almanac
Back in January of 2009, this blog was a place called “Every Now and Then.” It was a a place for me to post poetry, well, every now and then. Two and a half years later, we are now fly fishing, reviewing equipment, showcasing music and beer, and speaking in the third person.
Tonight, for my 150th post, I am proud to show you my first official fly tying bench.
Ta-DA!!!!
A couple of things to clear up. Yes, that is a door I’m using as a bench (see the door knob on the right?). And, yes, the upside down 5-gal bucket is my stool. Additionally, that is my car sneaking into the photo.
How happy am I? Immensely 🙂
Let’s have some music to end the post and the evening.
On several occasions this week, I’ve thought about a few possible posts, but haven’t found the time to get anything written down. So today, I’ve got a hodgepodge of topics for you all to consider.
1.Big Horn River Fly Box
With my April trip to the Big Horn quickly approaching, I’ve been trying to conservatively fill my fly box with some standard flies that will give me a head start. As I’ve never been out there before and also never fished for trout on a bigger river like this, I’m looking forward to using new techniques and learning a lot. I also realize my lack of experience (out there or anywhere) means I could easily fill my fly box with useless flies (for this trip). That is why I’m only tying a few of each.
Anyway, I’ve added a couple attempts at a Ray Charles as wells a few different San Juan Worms. Hopefully they’ll get wet. (The camera batteries were dead so I used my phone. That means poorer res. Sorry.)
2.Learning how trout think.
I followed the ways of the Winona Fly Factory and purchased a pretty sweet book on half.comfor about $8 after s&h. The book is called The Mind of the Trout by Thomas C. Grubb, Jr. Great name for a guy who likes fish. This is essentially a review of countless studies investigating the way fish, mostly salmonoid species process information or “think” and how that relates to their behavior. With many corollaries to fishing, this stuff is great for the angler who wants to understand why may decide to take or pass up your fly, or simple how they vision and memory work at a physiological level. It isn’t a long book, but it is dense with thought provoking questions and proposals with next steps in research to understand more about trout behavior. About 170 pages. I’m plowing through it.
The tips I learned last night (more importantly, I learned why): older/bigger trout have better vision, so stalk carefully.
3. Rediscovering some music.
I’ve always been really into music. Whether it is listening or playing. I started on classic rock and contemporary tunes. I really got into Jimi Hendrix and Eric Clapton for a while. It wasn’t until middle school that I had my first infatuation with a band. Dave Matthews Band. For probably about 7 years, he was about all I listened to. I attended several concerts, found bootlegs performances, learned to play his songs, and on and on.
Then I started to explore other musicians, Damien Rice, The Streets, Franz Ferdinand, Regina Spektor, Neil Young, yada yada yada. I’ve been aware of his last few releases, but really haven’t pursued them. I guess I needed time to explore some other sounds.
Well, thanks to my local public library with their sweet music selection, I stumbled across a Dave Matthews and Time Reynolds live at Radio City Music Hall album. It was like I was re-discovering my old DMB crush. I’ve had a lot of fun driving around listening and singing to the cds probably looking quite silly.
