Well, folks, yet again I've been lax in my duties as designated updater of this here info conduit, and I hereby apologize for my negligence. That said, it HAS in fact been a busy month behind the scenes, so I have quite a bit to talk about here.
First, let me mention that Joshua Ketchmark & I sat down with Tommy Edwards, (who operates under the uber-clever pseudonym Thomas to protect his identity and privacy) to listen through; front to back, his new record, which I co-produced(well, I said things like "more reverb" and "turn that low harmony down") with Mr. Ketchmark. This LP consists of 5 completely remixed and, in some cases, re-tracked and rearranged tunes from his "Dirty On The Stereo" EP alongside 6 new songs. Alternate versions of a couple of these appeared on The Die Youngs release last year, and the rest are either things I co-wrote with Tommy or Joshua for the project or leftover numbers that didn't seem fit for The Great Affairs' repertoire. In other words, they had too many bells & whistles in them for us to pull off live, and Thomas(the band) has 6 men on deck to cover those bases, so the qualified team gets the job of recreating them now. I DID get to play a whole bunch of guitar and keys on the stuff, even bass on one track, and barely had to sing but a few notes, so that was a nice change of pace, and a much-needed stretch of my chops, reminding me that maybe I might wanna spend a little more time with a guitar in my hand instead of a paint brush.
photo stolen from Philip Kelly
The same day we all signed off on that record and cleared it for mastering(pending the label's approval, of course…fingers crossed), I boarded a time machine to play a sold-out(??….sure looked like it) show with The Beauty School Dropouts at Marathon Music Works, supporting Framing Hanley's final performance. Bittersweet as it may have been for those guys, it was more of trip for me personally to see so many folks out and about that I hadn't laid eyes on in what amounts to forever(or the average lifespan of one or two bands, at least) in this business. Sadly, it made me a little misty for the Nashville "rock scene" of yore, a community long since rendered extinct by a combination of advanced aging, general malaise, evolution, child-rearing responsibilities, and a dearth of quality excuses to work around any or all of these things(among others) to get out and discover something musical with a "sell by" date later than 2009. It lives and breathes, folks, and you can too….just 'sayin'. Shake it while shakin' it is still a voluntary action. We can all watch TV at the rest home down the road a piece, and I'll pretend not to notice that you have your underpants on over your slacks. Deal?
That's all the preaching I have in me for today. You're welcome.
One other bit of news, for those who missed it, and something to do for folks looking to kill an hour or so of commute time with the soothing sound of my speaking voice, here's the link to the Decibel Geek Podcast I guested on last month. It was KISSmas In July, and we weren't there to discuss lawn care. Check it out…and download a few others while you're there(they're free). Good guys, those two.
Alrighty then, here's the big scoop…we signed with a new booking agency, and by "new" I mean A booking agency, one that isn't essentially Kenny or I masquerading as our own agent. Nope, this is a legit entity, independent of the band, that will be handling the majority of our engagements henceforth, effective immediately. We'll still be handling our regular stops, but the guys at NAHPRO Entertainment have been charged with expanding our travel radius and getting us out on the regular to see the country and sing for our supper. This has brought about a few other significant changes that we'll talk about later, once the proverbial dust has settled and that famous ink is dry.
For now, anyone wondering why we've been relatively inactive, and absent on the local front, there are answers to that question in every one of the preceding paragraphs. We're sorry. If you've missed us, rest assured we've missed you too. If you haven't, well, you're probably the kind of person who takes phone calls in a movie theater anyway, so feel free to eat from the mystery bag.
Cheers,
Denny
p.s. Here's some of what we have on deck for August & September>>
Friday, August 14th TN Taproom(full band acoustic show) 6-7PM Nashville, TN
Friday, August 21st Third Street Dive 9PM Louisville, KY
Saturday, August 22nd MVP Sports Bar & Grille 9PM Cincinnati, OH
Friday, September 11th Clarksville RiverFest 7PM Clarksville, TN
Saturday, September 26th Hub Fest Marion, IL