More car trouble.

A few hours before my show at The William Tell, smoke started pouring from the front driver-side wheel well. I limped the car to the shop, where they told me it's probably a caliper, and they can't do anything until Monday. With a bit of good luck (and an extremely generous friend) I was able to borrow a car, get the gear switched over, and get to my show on time.

The show went well, actually. A little tough to focus at first, but once I got into it, it was business as usual. Lots of Billy Joel and Elton John. It was well-attended too, and I was able to fill the gas tank of the Blazer I borrowed with tip jar money. Good thing; these car repairs have set me back a bit, and the next few months are looking pretty lean as it is.

Anyway, after my show I stopped by The Lucky Dog to see the Stema/Spyboy reunion show. It was seriously like walking into a room and finding myself back in 1990. The bands were spot-on, and the crowd was full of so many distantly familiar faces. The whole experience was a gift from the past. Just what I needed at the end of this day.

Back at it.

Looks like it's gonna be a rainy weekend. I don't know about you, but I'm spending it at the bar. Tonight I'm playing a solo show at Shooter's Tavern in Belmont, NH. The show starts at 8pm, and goes until about 11. I've got sheets for a lot of new songs to try out tonight. I'm gonna give a few of them the ol' test run today, and we'll see what I can get away with.

Tomorrow (Saturday) I'll be at The William Tell in Thornton from 6pm to 9pm, and then I think I'm stopping in at The Lucky Dog in Plymouth to see the Stema and Spyboy reunion show. Lots of old friends coming into town for that one.

Nathaniel's song.

I did a cover of Nathaniel's Song (by the band For Squirrels) recently. It's part of a project over at TheSixtyOne.com, where a bunch of us are covering the whole For Squirrels repertoire as a show of support for a guy there who goes by the name of Supergrover. You can check out the story (and the song) right here.

In other news, the open mic went pretty well last night. It was fairly well attended by drinkers, but only one other musician showed up. So, as usual, I played a lot. I got to try out some new stuff, and I hit on a couple songs that went better than expected, so that was nice.

No shows for me until this coming Friday. I'm hoping to get back in the studio this week; I feel like I've finally got the setup dialed in, and now I wanna play with it. :)

A night on the road.

I took full advantage of my Friday night off, and stopped in at a bunch of venues between Plymouth and the seacoast. My travels took me to Dover, where Johnny Doogan was playing the Dover Brick House. A band called When Geeks Unite opened the show, and I dug 'em. Johnny Doogan was fantastic. I recorded their set. They closed with Godzilla. Awesome. A band called Saluting The Rockies closed the show, and I didn't get to hang around for their full set, but they were super tight and loud and good.

Long ride home. Some unlucky driver hit an unlucky moose on Route 4. I got in around 3am. Rock 'n Roll!

Back at it today, though: at 2pm the trio is playing the Cancer Walk, and tonight is a solo show at Shooter's Tavern in Belmont.

Busy little night.

I ended up on three different stages last night. The show at The Country Cow was pretty good, if sparsely attended. Thursdays are hit-or-miss over there, and this one just happened to be a quiet one. That's a great room though. I'll be back there on October 30. And the buffalo chicken was as good as it always is. Sweet potato fries, too. Mmm.

After the show I went out to Bullwinkle's in Ashland to meet up with Steve Hinchey, the guitarist from No Limitz. He and his crew were doing some karaoke, and I hung around for a while. I like karaoke. The bar patrons weren't really into my Offspring cover, but whatever.

Then it was off to the open mic at The Common Man, where Jay Moskowicz and Jim McHugh were finishing up a set. There were no other musicians lined up, so they asked me to play for a while. I love that room. They're always interested in the original stuff, which is a nice break from the Margaritaville bit.

Tonight is my first Friday night off since the 13th of June. I'm gonna go check out a few venues down south, I think. There's a couple bands playing tonight that I've wanted to see.

Back to business.

It was a much better night in the studio. I came out of there (way later than expected) with the best-sounding tracks I've recorded yet. I felt like laying down some funk because I recently listened to the first Commodores album (Machine Gun, I think it was called) and I was really impressed. I don't have lyrics for this new piece, but the music came out pretty good.

But enough messing around with that; I've got a show to play. Tonight I'll be at The Country Cow right here in Campton, playing from 7pm to 10pm or thereabouts. It's not too early to start the weekend, is it?

Another night in the studio.

I do love the new studio space. Can I still call it new? My six-month lease is almost up. I'll be re-upping on that for sure. For one thing, I don't know where I'd put everything if I decided to move.

But man, I gotta put some work into the monitors. They're apparently placed all wrong, because what sounds good in the studio does NOT translate well to other sound systems.

Right now I'm working on a cover of a song by the band For Squirrels. It's for a project over at TheSixtyOne. I'm happy enough with the takes I recorded, but the mixdown is still a problem. So it looks like I'm going back tonight to give it another try, after I move the furniture around a bit.

If I can get my flat tire fixed in time, that is. I ran over someone's muffler in the road on the way home last night, and I woke up to a flat. The car was in the shop all day yesterday, too. Grr.

UPDATE: Man that was expensive. The tire couldn't be saved, so the whole thing ended up being over 200 bucks, with road service figured in. Ouch. Anyone need a musician tonight?