Boots On The Ground

Thanks for checking in, hope YOUR week was good and productive – feel good about the accomplishments, there are always loose ends and leftovers and surprises. That’s life. But it’s an age full of talkers and if you’re out there mixing it up and pouring it into molds, good on you! Looks like effects from the flood on parts supplies will be minimal, I might be making one or two calls about parts substitutions but even with those I’m going to wait a bit and see what happens. Things could have been bad for us homestead and parts-supply-wise from the storm but it wasn’t and we’re grateful. We know we were spared because the storm stalled over the Houston area, which was devastating for them. The rain totals are just unbelievable. Our thoughts are with them all.

Our actions are as well – as we speak Jamie is boots-on-the-ground in a very hard hit area outside of Beaumont, TX where she grew up. She has set up a place to fund her direct assistance of these people who have lost everything, and it’s going from your hands to hers to theirs either in food & water, needed living supplies, or actual “Here – buy what you need” store gift cards. ALL who ever get anything out of my ramblings here or any communications on the side or the little wood & wire tools of creation from the workshop are REQUESTED TO KICK IN. I don't call in the Birdsong Army very often, but if you're in - be in. $5, $10, a buck, whatever - it all helps more than you know and it all adds up to one more meal, ten more meals, a pillow, having their few savable belongings safe & contained… stuff no matter how you or I may struggle we’re still a step or two away from. PLEASE drop something in the bucket: https://www.gofundme.com/PinewoodCleanUp

 

TO THAT EXTENT an extremely generous cat named Brandon Ysteboe (“Ist-a beau” for those who wish to say his name aloud in gratitude as I’ve been doing, wishing good to a good guy) has DONATED A REALLY COOL GUITAR to the fund. We made it easy, you’ll just pay Jamie's fund and it’ll be shipped from here to you. It’s one from the family, a funky blues machine former Wingfeather Workshop / Birdsong luthier Jake Goede put together for fun a few years back. I’m calling the value $500 “Plus whatever extra you’d like to give” – remember this isn’t a big organization, every buck goes from you to Jamie to DIRECT help (or the very HAND of) another person in distress through loss. If you want to be a hero and have a cool guitar to plunk on too, here’s your chance! CONTACT ME FIRST: scott@birdsongguitars.com, message my or the Birdsong Guitar page on Facebook, call (512) 395-5126 any hour any day.
(UPDATE 9/10: ***SOLD!!!***)

 

Speaking of cool instruments FOR SALE, a really cool client Jim has to put his “Full dress southwestern” Birdsong Cortobass up for sale – “Full dress” means it has exceptional looking Texas mesquite, real crushed turquoise, and solid silver plates made & hand engraved by Clint Orms Silversmith in Ingram TX… the REAL DEAL. It's in MINT condition, made in 2015. This is one I've been asked about since, it's in the pictures on the front page of this site, and Birdsong enthusiasts have been looking for it. Contact him for details at jim@xequals2.com


After hardship and tragedy, after it all comes apart, it re-seeds. The forest grows back, springtime comes again, flowers bud and bloom again. It’s nature’s way, and we’re a part of that. Here, in the bass guitar world, is a little fun & hopeful snippet to end on. Before all of this Hurricane Harvey stuff I had the chance to design a new bass and spec it out for limited small batch production. It’s one of the most fun parts of this whole process. And there are a couple of surprises with this one – first, it’s 34” scale! Second, it’s not for Birdsong (though I might just be tempted to make a couple), but for my friends up at Thin The Herd Guitars in Round Rock, TX. This will be our second collaboration – you saw the first here in the SHORT SCALE Tbass, something that brought short scale playability and Birdsong tone into a more traditional look that fit their line. That thing will absolutely SMOKE a Mustang bass... get one and find out! Now? On to bigger things. Birdsong is designing them a whole bass line and this sexy beast on the right comes next! The guys at Thin The Herd offer a value proposition all their own in the middle ground between standard inexpensive off-the-rack instruments and what high-end workshops like us do. They call it “World class for the working class” and I’m really excited to be working with them to bring great tone and boutique style (and some recipes & tricks) into value price ranges Birdsong could never reach. Stay tuned for more info. And stay tuned just in general, it helps the music happen. 

Thanks for taking the time, and before I sign off I want all of you in Florida & in the path of Irma to know you are in our thoughts too – please read last week’s blog on preparations (below), at this point just do what you can to hunker in, but more than anything keep each others’ spirits up and be strong. Don’t panic – help those around you. Unless they’re doing something really stupid, then you just help YOU. Be safe. Check in when you can, OK? We love you.
 

Listening to: Lots of jazz guitarist Doug Raney; Fleetwood Mac (Peter Green-era) Live in Boston; Neil Young Road Rock; Marvin Gaye What's Going On; audio documentaries on numbers stations (shortwave radio oddities I've been fascinated with forever). 

Peace Through Preparation

Not everyone has a small house and a north driveway that lines up with gulf hurricane-twisted north winds so you can just roll the step van in front of the house like a storm wall, but all of you are one forecast or event away from storm prep too. So just having over prepared for what actually hit us, let me share this as the least you should have on hand for what could happen. Because that’s what you prepare for, the worst. It’s on my mind and the best thing I have to share with you this week, and I share because I care. The good that came out of Harvey for us? I’d give myself a B on getting it together and having a plan, gear, and supplies. When you live rurally you’re generally a bit more prepared for adversity with those things than a city or suburban life would guide you into being. Out here everything’s 20 minutes away, there are no quick responders, and systems are more than switches or flush levers because much of the time you were out here before they were, put the pieces together, and spent enough time doing without them to have alternate ways of staying clean and cooking.

There is a basic principle that works whether it’s a business, garden, relationship, or an emergency… whatever comes or wherever you go, if you want it to go well you dramatically increase those odds by HELPING it to go well. The best way to do that is to be prepared for what of it you can prepare for; it’s that simple. “Well if it’s my time it’s my time”, cool. I get that. But don’t die because you left a few gallons of water, easy food and a working flashlight up to God, OK? That’s 15 bucks and 5 minutes to round up next time you’re at the store. Sucked into a twister? Yeah, not much you can do. Out of toilet paper when the storm hits? Really? That’s just ridiculous. Have a few rolls put back you don’t touch. Being prepared is rarely the wrong answer. So, here goes - please hang in with me. This matters. At least it matters to me to share with you...

There are people who beat each other up for the last gallon of Ozarka water at the local store the eve of the storm and there are others who have basic preparations on hand to make 24-48 hours an inconvenience instead of a full-panic crisis. It is your choice as to which you will be. No matter who or where you are, bad weather can happen and the power can go out. Being left helpless because of circumstance or unexpected scope of things, that is what it is. But to have been made aware of the potential of what’s coming and done nothing? That’s a life or death misjudgment. Especially if you have a family and any kind of testicles whatsoever - we know of a friend of friends, a grown-ass man who, convinced it "...wasn’t going to be that bad", left safety and took his family home to Houston. With children! They were rescued later in chest high water by small boat. Chest level and rising – hey, how tall are your kids jack? If I was the boat man by the time we got to high ground there wouldn’t be enough left of this guy’s man stature to pose for a bowling trophy. Noble warriors from the East have fallen on their own swords for less. 

So first in any kind of preparing – and in life – is to make peace with the fact you might face death. It's heavy, I know. It shadows the decisions in the lives of so many, though. Having your life affairs in order helps – will, life insurance, plans for your business. My bad event should not put 30 other lives into crisis when I could have made arrangements. Make peace. Talks, help, a happy pill, come to a place of acceptance with this and you can face life – and that moment whenever – with a little less fear and a bit more dignity. To that extent you should have a black sharpie for anything you might need to write on you or anything else as a last resort. Accept that black sharpie. Accept what it signifies. Once this is mentally out of the way then you can clearly get on with figuring out how to live, or at least survive a few days until things get better, which in most cases they will. Again, don’t die unless you have to. Don’t be helpless. Do what you can… but understand without water for a few days or food for a week, you won’t be able to do much except wait around for whatever good or bad comes next for you, thinking how easy it looks from there to have put a few simple preparations aside just in case. And certainly don’t be a schmuck and head into known danger unless you’re going in to save people. Life is dicey enough as it is just driving home from work every day.  

So really, your first decision in pending event you know is coming and knowing your area will be at risk is to stay or go – and it’s a commitment. By the time you realize you’ve misjudged and “It won’t be that bad” really IS that bad, there are no roads and trees down and water rising where you didn’t think it could. It’s not like leaving a movie halfway in because it sucks. If high winds or flooding are expected there is only so much you can prepare for, but to not do that and decide to stay is foolish. It’s how people die. If you’re going to stay, and you’re going play fearless leader and have your family stay, you better know what the hell you’re doing or just pack the car, grab a couple of boxes of keepsakes, and get out as soon as that big twisting storm half the size of the country is rolling up its sleeves heading inland for you, or that wildfire is on the move, or that major snow storm is predicted. The boss can cope, school can deal, that meeting can wait. Let the other folks who decide to stay stay and let them think you’re crazy. Get up early, beat the traffic and be gone. That road goes somewhere; be there instead. The ones who rib you when it didn't happen? They'll get their chance to ride in the rescue boats of life sooner or later; leave them your spot.

If you stay, have a 24 hour bag ready so if the roof blows off or the evacuation becomes mandatory, if things turn dire, each family member can just instantly grab it and go and know they at least have what they’ll likely need. In mine is the following: 4 small drinking waters, 4 granola/protein bars, 1 roll of toilet paper in a sealed Ziploc bag, another with a travel size toothbrush and paste and deodorant and a little thing of mouthwash, a few toothpicks, a lighter, some matches, some cash in small bills, a couple of plastic grocery bags, a pair of socks and T-shirt, small canister of mace, reading glasses, multi-tool, big knife in sheath, flashlight, batteries, 1 cake of motel soap, small bottle of ibuprofen, a few no-doz pills, hair ties, the black sharpie, pens and a small notebook, 2 mini oil lamp lights (double sealed in plastic bags), and some inspirational reading. This all fits in a small backpack, weighs very little, and didn’t cost much. It’s a lot easier to say “Babe, anything happens, you grab the dog and I’ll grab the bags. Your truck.” And be done with plan C than to have to find these things or do without them for a couple of days when having them is SO EASY. Maggie the dog has hers too – 4 cans of food, 4 bottles of water, plastic bowl, spare leash, and chill-out pills. Near the bags – which stay together, and remain ready even when there’s no storm – in times of crisis keep all your essentials in one spot (license, keys, sneakers because you’ll have your boots on, passport, etc.) ready to grab and go. I did not have a simple first aid kit in each bag, or any sanitizing wipe packets, or some water purification tablets – my bad. No A for Scott. You do better.

In the house? Flashlights for everyone with spare batteries. Charge all phones and devices fully while you have power. Clear obstacles while there’s light – you’ve prepped so well, this is no time to break your ass faceplanting over the kitchen chair into the dog’s water bowl. Have a battery powered radio. Any self protection devices you deem appropriate given who and where you are and what exactly is going on. If you intend to communicate via internet, have a backup hot spot service for when your land-based fails or antenna comes down. Another principle is “Two is one, one is none.” What does that mean? I build guitars. If I have a chisel that’s absolutely essential, I have two – because if I have one and it breaks, I’m done. If I have a spare, I keep going. And it would be stupid to be sidelined by a frigging chisel! Or a simple dead phone battery when I needed to call for help or report myself safe. 

Water - I look at a gallon a day per person. I’ve done van road trips and washed, brushed, drank, cooked, and cleaned just fine off of that. Ideal? Not at all – but it’ll get you through. Food – if you’re in and the roof is on and you don’t flood and you still have power, you HAVE no problems. So where the hell is the extra bag of food you could have bought a hundred times in the last year? Good God, man! No power? Hunkered in the concrete shed? Stuck on the 2nd floor? Non-perishables. A box of protein energy bars, a case of beans in the can (with a few can openers handy), you’ll be fine for weeks. For what, $20? $50 worth? This should be in your pantry NOW. Not because you think the world is going to end, but because one good lightning bolt can take your power out for days. That big tree could fall across your driveway. Life is precarious, folks! Even a squirrel has extras tucked away. Buy gallons, put a date on them, and put them in your closet. Once a year, rotate the stuff out and replace it. You have insurance on your car, why not have insurance you’ll have water and food for a week with no worries? And any medicines, have some. And a better first aid kit and some way to filter water.

Having most of this, some good brie and a nice merlot by candlelight is a fine addition as well. I'm not kidding. If you’re well prepared you’re a lot less scared. And I can’t speak for you, but I was scared a whole lot as a kid – I’ll be damned if I’m going to be scared as a grown-ass adult in my own house living my own life. If that takes having a few extras and reading a few how-to books and working through some things, then buddy that’s what I’m going to do. People don’t make sound decisions when they’re scared and I want to make sound decisions for myself and to be of assistance to those around me. Nobody’s going to be strong for me; I have to do that myself. 

If you’re near trees you should have a chainsaw, tested and ready to run, and that includes a gallon of fresh pre-mixed fuel, bar oil, extra blade and any tools needed to service it. Something as small as extra little 50:1 oils for your neighbors to mix with fuel they can siphon from their car if they forgot could mean they can chainsaw their own way out. Or help you! You’re helping them help you – now that’s real preparation! Have it & share it. Good neighbors are great blessings. Since we’re talking neighbors, there will be others who cannot prepare adequately due to circumstances but are good folks. Have a little extra extra for them and your own plan Bs for them if they call. Know their limitations and factor in their needs. Friends rock.

One twister through a town or river flood and you don’t have electricity for weeks and your roads are gone. OK, if you’re supplied by a water pump and the toilet doesn’t flush when you lose power, you can use a bunch of water filling up the tank to flush it or have a camping toilet cleaned and ready, with supplies. We just heard the flooding in Beaumont caused a shutdown of their water plant. And just like that, those little levers don’t work anymore. Let me be real with you for a minute, if a touch crass - whatever life is at the moment having somewhere to poop and some TP to wipe makes it ALL a little easier! “This too shall pass.” 

I had a Yeti-style cooler with 2 bags of ice (lasted 3 days!) and 2 bags of ice in the freezer. Also had a cooler as storage for with individual small waters & small Gatorades.  Power out for a day or so? This can all be rearranged quickly with plenty of ice in coolers and we start eating all the most perishable food first. 

Other than the first option of getting you the hell out of Dodge, your vehicle is your last resort, not just as a means of transportation but as shelter and power source. Be sure the gas tank is topped off and you have a little kit in it with a phone charger, first aid kit, some small waters, a few protein bars, flashlight, and toilet paper. In fact, cram this stuff in a small backpack and just keep it in the trunk all the time. If there’s a road hazard or accident and you or someone else needs any of it, it’s better to have it than not. If you need to leave for whatever reason and the conditions make this possible, use the biggest sturdiest vehicle you have with plenty of ground clearance – you’ll be driving over debris from even 30 mph winds. Have it facing out of your driveway with a full tank of gas and the keys in the ignition (rural) or on you. If your best bet is to drive to the picnic area at the top of the hill and wait it out, waiting it out with some supplies just upped your odds a bit and your quality of life tremendously.  Especially buttpaper! 

So this is basic, entry level grade preparedness for peace of mind. And that’s why I’m sharing this. Aside from those caught by the unexpected scope and perimeter of the flooding, there are a bunch who were warned and stayed, and the preparations I’m describing here… is there any one of either of them this would not have helped? And what makes you certain your own version of these events is an if and not a when for you? I’m a lucky man. I do what I love for a living, I live a life of my own design and where I want to be. But my biggest blessing is to have some of what I share and do go out and be ripples into your world that do something good. Most of them music related, these days most of THAT in wood & wire; but since I have this podium and we just dodged a BIG bullet many we know did not, and I have the gift of your attention, I wanted to share something deep and strong and meaningful with YOU. You are my biggest blessing and I want you to be feeling good and at peace no matter what’s going on. Something in here WILL help you and if it really does someday, if it’s not your drenched kids in that boat, if you find yourself displaced but equipped, if you don’t ever have to use the black sharpie and do have that roll of toilet paper when it really counts, feel good and be hopeful and when things get better (and they usually do if you help), pass it along.

Thank you for your time and thoughts and by next week I’ll know how the mess in Houston will affect things here. Lots of my parts & supplies come from that area. But that can all be worked around – times like this really help us see what are priorities and what are details. I’m working on both and we’re all OK. Please keep those people affected by the storm in your thoughts & prayers. Here are a few words I posted to Facebook after we were clear for a couple of days:

There's something about being back in the workshop returning wood to life as instruments, with the doors all open and the sun shining and the Grateful Dead's "American Beauty" album filling the air, that fills one with the feeling that everything's alright. To feel this while knowing so many suffer is strange but life is full of those moments where all you can do is keep others in your heart as you bring your highest to what it is you do... now is not the time to be discouraged or stilled by the scope of what cannot be fixed by my hands. Now is the time to work them hard in doing what they do best.


Listening to: Billy Squier Don’t Say No; Grateful Dead American Beauty; Jerry Cantrell Boggy Depot; Jerry Garcia Garcia.
 

The View From Here

I just do my part in helping the wood become part tool & part talisman; the greatest work is done before and after by other hands.

The before hands, that could be metaphorical to some and literal to others. Any way you look at it I didn’t do it; setting something like a tree up in a tiny seed is way beyond my meager skills. I just live in a place where things like this happen, on a giant blue ball suspended in infinite space. Just that alone should be enough to shut mouths and open minds, pondered for even a moment. So here I am in this amazing place where things just grow, and here is this fantastic material to work with, and get this… it was alive too! It felt and knew and breathed and experienced in its own way on its own mostly stationary experience of life here. 

Now I take this presence and help it to become a tool by which, in other hands, it is helped to vibrate in harmony and rhythm with others; another creation process, another alchemy… the tools assisting that sort of thing between the players; the players AND the tools assisting that sort of thing between them and the listeners, whether live or recorded. The medicine is strong and the gift keeps on giving!

And here I, a complex being just trying to be a simple man and tend to the gardens inside and out by doing work of meaning I somehow have been guided to do with this person I have somehow become, live immersed in this process of transformation; it, ironically, is my constant! I live in a perpetual springtime of becoming and first notes. It could almost be said the tree has become these other metaphorical seeds, flat and edged square, which I then pencil on and start cutting and shaping and fitting together once they are planted here within the walls of the workshop, into THIS fertile ground. These new roots don’t grow down, they grow outward intangibly. Drawing its force to become from our skills here, it blooms again; and sustaining from what it helps to draw out of the player and through itself, and again outward into the music of others’ moments, it lives.

And through helping this, by being its servant, I live. From situation to soul I am fed by this. It still blows my mind where they turn up. I live in a bubble of "nexts" so after 20 years of this it shouldn't be a surprise, they're all over! But it's like hearing your song on the radio. It never gets old and it's never less than amazing how any of it happened in the first place.

Play on and make some beauty happen,

Listening to: Mahavishnu Orchestra Birds of Fire; Grateful Dead Workingman’s Dead, Mars Hotel; David Coverdale White Snake (the 1st solo album from waaaay back in the '70s, very Bad Company-esque); Billy Squier Don’t Say No (I love this album so much); The Butterfield Blues Band The Resurrection of Pigboy Crabshaw; Leon Parker Resurrection (fantastic very unusual jazz album), and some very weird early '70s German LSD commune music called Cosmic Jokers. 
 

Music is Medicine

There are albums that put a soul back in alignment with life.

Yeah, Viva Terlingua would get the nod to start, and I might just keep playing it through 'til dawn. It's just something that's been special to me since I bought it out of the dollar bin of beat up albums at Sundance Records in San Marcos when I was about 19 years old, full of dreams and fresh into Texas. It's sure got a feel to it. Like a loyal old truck and the right worn out shoes. 

The road ahead is never clearer than with its right soundtrack. It's one of those albums like Creedence Clearwater Revival's "Chronicle" best-of that, by the time you're done listening to it, no matter how you walked into the room, it sends you back out into life's ring with a bit of the fire back in you. Looking back, my life can be clearly marked in chapters; each mark a moment in some parking lot in a van, listening to Chronicle, with what has been behind me and what’s next somewhere down the road to find. 

When I feel myself drift a little too far off the spiritual coast into this churning ocean of tasks and time, always a challenge when you do what you love for a living and thus put up no fight against being completely absorbed by it, in goes John Coltrane’s A Love Supreme. Crank it up and it’s a soul stirring cleanse-by-force of one’s spirit when music is the medicine. Need a dose of the beauty of life injected into your head & heart ear-first? Miles Davis, Kind of Blue. You listen to that all the way through intently with no distractions and it just REVIVES whatever it touches, whatever is allowed the moment to vibrate with it. 

Music has always been the medicine for me; it’s why now, so many miles down the highway, I’m so reverent about the creation of its tools. Music came into the life of a kid headed nowhere, lost and being overtaken by the waves of life’s challenges. It immediately became my buoyancy long before it showed me I had wings. 

From an unpublished book for those feeling called to a life in the arts:
“Ah, this is who I will be. This I will follow. Part attraction, sure – but mostly epiphany. Somewhere deep inside of me, some dormant force inside the seed found its sun and locked on to its true north.” 

Then Play On,


Listening to: Bob Seger The Distance; Jerry Jeff Walker Viva Terlingua; Leon Parker Awakening; and a shitload of Lightnin’ Hopkins. You think I’m kidding?

The Moments Music Makes...

Music fills moments until they weave together into the tapestry of a life. Here, a sampling from the past couple of weeks. But FIRST two Birdsong SALE notices! The cool & colorful short scale Birdsong spec’d out for Thin The Herd Guitars is ON SALE, we injected our tonal magic into a T-style bass that’s a HUGE bargain and right now even more so! www.thintheherdguitars.com. AND over on the exotic end of things, authorized Birdsong dealer www.hdcustomguitars.com has the doubleneck fretted/fretless bass up for sale, fresh off our workbenches and ready for the player who only thought they had everything… now they can! HD Custom is a friend of ours and they will treat you right. Watch their listings for Birdsongs you won’t find anywhere else.

A good friend showed up for breakfast tacos with a bag of CDs he was letting go of and I’ve been grooving on them all week. My favorite so far? Wayne Shorter Juju which is spectacular small combo jazz engineered by Rudy Van Gelder so the fidelity is unreal for something recorded over half a century ago. But there’s so much more in this pile. I’m trying to savor this stack like new sippings over ice and not treat it like an all you can eat buffet. Music is such a wonderful gift. Thanks Les!

And not so much wonderful but definitely an honor, I was able to bring music back to an older friend transitioning into the local nursing home. To plug in the “music machine” and put on Willie Nelson’s Stardust CD and see him close his eyes and start softly singing along with a smile, that’s what music can do. That’s why I do what I do, to be some small part of something like that somewhere for someone. This vibrant, laughing, genius who knew more about music than I will ever understand – things are very different now. He came to me 16 years ago for guitar lessons to actually apply in simple playing what he understood of the vast math of music. Quickly making him MY guru for an hour a week, I helped as he wished but absorbed what I could. Anything jazz flavored in my guitar playing comes directly from this. Like "Uncle" Johnny’s tools, the bits I hold of Wyly's understandings are now in my hands to carry on and make something happen with, and I will. And my friend will fade peacefully to a beautiful soundtrack in his head instead of loose pieces of what he can’t remember. “…nothing but blue skies, from now on…”

Meanwhile down the road a ways as the crow flies, a younger friend survived a friggin' heart transplant! His family is very important to me and his father is the reason I am in Texas and was a huge influence in my life. The hour of the big cut I decided I’d play some music to help tether the soul and beacon the spirit as either was needed, things I know he loves. So I wasn’t there, but while Sterling got an engine swap Jerry Jeff Walker’s Viva Terlingua album spun on old scratchy vinyl out deep in the Texas Hill Country as an offering. This is an album that, listened front to back like an album is meant to be, will realign the spirit. No matter how you straggle into the room, a dose of VT and you walk out a bit cleared – part bender, part exorcism perhaps – but the sun is shining through the clouds and it’s so damn good to be alive whatever scars it has taken. 

Speaking of sipping, Cutty on the rocks listening to my buddy Mike’s band Shakedown was fantastic. They’re the best Dead tribute band you’ll see short of the almost real thing, and he streamed their gig to Facebook (it’s linked on the Birdsong Guitars Facebook page). I’ve known Mike since we were kids and he was 14 singing Motley Crue songs. If I can find a picture of us I’ll post it below. Now decades later he’s a guitar player and let me tell you, that Bob Weir style of rhythm playing is neither simple nor easy and he rocks it. AND he rocked it on his custom Birdsong guitar. AND I didn’t have to leave the woods. I just kicked back and mellowed out to great live music from a good old friend on a guitar that somehow came through me on its way to groove those good people in the crowd. Massive. The medicine is strong.

Speaking of which, Birdsong player TD Towers from Edensong sent some good quality footage of his Talisman bass in action! Crank up the low end on THIS my friends. Those twin DiMarzio Model Ones (“Models Wi?”) just slab it out down in lower Hertz-land. And that’s a tight band. 
CHECK IT OUT HERE!

Birdsong better half Jamie’s Aunt drove through and spent a day or so with us at the homestead. She is a boisterous lady full of humor, which is good because I believe I referred to the outdoor temperature (at that time 104 degrees) as “Hotter than Satan’s taint.” Anyhow, it came up that I can do incredible, spot-on imitations of various family members, who are all still “East coast” no matter where they have scattered to. Somehow this led to the Archie &  Edith Bunker impressions (most legendary around these parts for a stunning rendition en Edithia of Bob Seger’s “Toin the Paeeege” at a local bar gig years back on a dare for a big tip) and before anyone knew what was happening, right there in our kitchen, the entire All In The Family theme song was given a rousing group a capella version as if it were Kumbaya. Fantastic. 

It is 2:22 AM as I begin sketching this communication out. I am installing pickups in a bass – not always just a “screw in” job here, as our use of P-style pickups is without a surrounding pickguard to hide a big ol’ cavity underneath; we have to rout the pickup pockets tight & precise, then – because router bits are round and these pickups have corners - by hand shape the corners so the pickup fits in nicely. There’s more to all of this than meets the eye… part of the work that is hidden while in plain sight inherent in something crafted.

Play on,

Listening to: Don Felder autobiography audiobook (muttering “Really? You really thought you were worth as much as Don friggin’ Henley to an Eagles reunion by the time it happened? GFY…”); Wayne Shorter Juju; Jerry Jeff Walker Viva Terlingua; some Grateful Dead, Billy Joe Shaver, Wynton Marsalis.
 

The Way

There was an article on the Austin band Fastball recently, and the story behind their song “The Way.” One of my absolute favorite tunes of its era, it was inspired by an elderly couple showing signs of Alzheimer’s just taking off together one day and, well, off into their sunset they went. I have a huge “die free” streak in me. A cow outside the gate? “Run! Run! Better a day on the run than a life in line for THAT trailer!” I see reports of missing teens and my perspective is a bit different having known some of the teens I knew and what their home lives were like. I just feel a big ol’ “Go! Go somewhere, find shelter, and struggle your way onto your feet! You can do it! You got out!” welling up inside. I don’t know why that’s in there but it is. An elderly man escaping from a nursing home? That would be me and I tell you this - it would take one hell of a mortician to pop my face back out of that smile. The blaze of glory is real. I don’t mean to make light of anyone’s situation and I don’t think I am. It’s serious. Life is serious. Safety is serious. But I loved that song, it really tugged at me, at some vital kind of true north in my core. I thought the band was great, and must have taught “The Way” to a hundred guitar students ready for barre chords and songwriting 101. 

I think about those bands of that time that had one or two hits – the whole album Feeling Strangely Fine by Semisonic is fantastic front to back. They had a great tune called “Closing Time”, and there were others like “Counting Blue Cars” by Dishwalla, probably the worst named band in history after Bowling For Soup. But hey, who am I to talk - at 16 I was writing punk tunes about couch springs poking me in the ass as Johnny Vomit. Where am I going with all of this? I have no idea. But I had a good conversation the other day with an old friend about music and points in time where clear influences became something completely different vs. obvious developments along a musical DNA strain. For example, you had improvisational jazz, you had folk, you had bluegrass, you had the blues-into-50s-rock. Then all of a sudden you have The Grateful Dead and the color palette of music is now mixed a bit differently. That’s one example. One for the DNA strain of music would be this – listen to Muddy Waters, then the Rolling Stones around ’69 to ’72, then Aerosmith’s first few albums, then Guns ‘n Roses Appetite For Destruction. That’s as direct a lineage as it gets.

I remember in the '90s when Radiohead hit. Yeah, we’d had trippy bands from across the pond already. Sure people were like “That’s just Pink Floyd with gadgets.” But those are not critical listeners. Those were the people who say your new pickup looks just like their cousin’s because they’re both some shade of blue and have four wheels. Like Hendrix, like the Dead, like The Beatles… there were aspects of what happened that existed, and then all of a sudden here’s this NEW thing using the tools in fresh ways and that music is changed. There was “Before OK Computer” and “After OK Computer”… I remember being absolutely blown away and I’ve been hearing Radiohead DNA in music since. Fastball didn’t achieve anything close to that, but I know for sure at the very least there are ripples from that one song in the formative playing years of a lot of people, and that song meant something to far more than just me... and in that, as it does, art and music’s vibrations spread out and find their needs to fill, their ways to color life, their fertile grounds to seed.   

Listening to: SomaFM.com; John Scofield Trio live at Leverkusen Germany; Aerosmith Rocks; Pat Metheney Group Quartet.