Taking it in as I go.

One thing strikes me as especially humorous: the business card.

Today I attended a digital music conference filled to the brim with brilliant people. To be specific, brilliant people with business cards. So, despite any number of umpteen-million social networking services; twitter, linkedin, plaxo, facebook, myspace, SMS, laptop computers and smart phones, the business card is still the contact recipe of choice.

My only problem is, starting with this new life, of only two months old, what exactly do I put on the card? I feel like a baby learning to recognize his own name.

My favorite part of these get-togethers has always been near the end of the night, where a small group of survivors would gather in his studio to pour our hearts out musically with whatever we could come up with.. the results were always mixed. Inventive and often sloppy tapestries spattered with everyone’s original blend of herbs and spices. Reflecting on it, I realize that the lack of pretense is what really cinched the whole deal for everyone.

I’m really going to miss these nights now that I’m moving to Amsterdam… I’m going to miss my wonderful friends in Florida.

At our last get together, after a handful of 5-hour energy shots and just a bit too much vodka, the evening found me, rock-drummer/keymaster/vocalist Robb, and producer extraordinaire Jered trading ideas off a pretty simple fingerpicked guitar riff. The whole thing got out of hand pretty quickly!
Here’s the result.

I’m really hoping that I can organize an event like this in Holland. An all-night music recording romp!
Steim has plenty of studio space.. hopefully Amsterdam has enough 5-hour energy shots to go ’round.

Unfortunately, my last minidisc-driven field recording setup broke down on the way back from a trip to South Korea in 2007. I was so upset.. having caught some amazing audio moments, not the least of which was a group of old women (”ajuma”) sing/chanting Korean folk songs.

Today I finally broke down and bought a new MD walkman.. and I can’t believe some of the stuff I’m finding on these piles of old mini discs.

Here’s one from ‘06 with my friend Elena …

..it gets really cool around 1:47, I wonder what other gems I’ll find.

PS. Korean folk songs coming soon.

PS. I miss Michael Jackson already

Happy as a clam in heat, I hooked up the sustain pedal to my Axiom 49 and fired up Virtual Grand’s stand-alone player to get into some juicy, pillowy piano goodness. Played a few notes.. and I do mean a few notes before.. silence. Not enough ram.

I’m now charged with the task of learning to rock a piano where the max polyphony is 25 notes..
Here’s my first attempt:

I’ve been lucky to witness a lot of great performances recently. On the 5th I saw Old Crow Medicine Show. Did you know that they started as a group of buskers who by a chance encounter with Doc Watson found themselves playing at the grand ole opry? The lead singer (if you can say there exists such a thing with these guys) Ketch Secor certainly has the demeanor of a busker, somewhere between a circus ringleader and a used car salesman.

Even if it’s not true, it makes a great story over a bottle of Kentucky bourbon.

These guys really know how to give it to an audience. They played an exhausting 2 1/2 hour set of knee-slapping goodness, to the point where they looked like they were going to keel over.

Now it’s easy to make comparisons between OCMS and Bob Dylan, the influence of the latter on the former is undeniable. But one notable talent shared by OCSM and Dylan is their treatment of cover songs. Yeah, that’s right, cover songs again.

Like I mentioned in one of my older posts, I think the art of covering songs is dying. OCMS is one of the groups that seems to be bucking that trend, makes sense with their old-time American folk roots. Check out the cover of Bob Marley’s Soul Rebel in the video below - it’s got the original’s essence, but a different shade of it (rather than a cheaper shade).

Some more videos from the show…

Down Home Girl (Rolling Stones)

Ketch Secor old-time shuffle

Methamphetamine (new song)

Fire on the Mountain (Traditional)

Goodbye Booze