Yet again, this update is technically premature, due as it should be on the first of any given month and this only the 28th of August. If it makes you feel better to wait and open it after the turn, that’s fine, as I don’t believe it contains anything particularly time-sensitive.
Since last convening, we’ve played just a handful of shows, but we did get to finally road-test a full night of THE DIE YOUNGS with a stop at The Crowded House in Madisonville, KY. Kenny & I, along with Matt in tow to run sound and sit in for a few TGA numbers towards the end, loaded up our various acoustic implements…guitars, mandolin, cajon, shakers, tambourine, etc….and a few copies of our solo releases & the TDY record, let a very select few see and hear what two guys can do with said accoutrements and one rehearsal.
As it turns out, quite a bit apparently. We attempted a few things from our duo release that had never been played live, along with a trio from mine, some old fORMER tunes we hadn’t done in years, and even some material that’s as-yet unreleased. We switched up our usual cover fare, and swapped in some Elvis Costello, Prince, and Enuff Z’Nuff to keep things fresh, and just generally went where the tentatively-assembled set list took us. This is not to say there were no wrong turns…in fact, I literally forgot the first chords of one chorus, and; as the only guitarist, had no where to turn for a hint as to where I might wanna place my digits on the fretboard at that juncture…necessitating a full stop in a song ironically titled “Hard Stop”. I have since learned from this experience that F#(G# technically, as that tune is capo’d on the 2nd fret) is where I should be if I happen to find myself at the intersection of pre-chorus & chorus on that number in the future. Rest assured, I will not make this mistake again….on that song at least.
The sets looked something like(actually, EXACTLY like) this…..
From there, we threw Patrick back in the van, and returned to our regularly scheduled TGA programming for dates at Tidball’s in Bowling Green, KY, and Bokeh Lounge in Evansville, IN. We tried some more new material, as we have just about zeroed-in on the last few tracks we’re going to cut to round out the next LP. I think we even have an album title, and I’m about to start assembling the art for that concept…just as soon as a concept comes to me. In the meantime, we’ve been in and out of studios, adding the harmony vocals of Leslie Needleman to the mix, some Hammond B3 from Michael Webb, along with some more guitars from Patrick J. Miller and fretless bass from Dave Webb to get the stuff we’ve laid down so far about as close to release-ready as it’s gonna be until the back half of songs gets captured.
In other news, I taped an episode of the podcast DRUNK AT THE MOVIES with my buddy Dustin Wikoff over the weekend. An offshoot of his original show Drunken Lullabies, it centers around a handful of folks getting together to offer inebriated commentary on our host’s chosen “classic”. Dustin was in town for the inaugural RockNPod Expo, so I enlisted my compadres Tony Higbee of THE EAST SIDE GAMBLERS / TOM KEIFER BAND , and Stacy Hogan of SIN SHAKE SIN , to join us for libations and what basically amounted to free-form rambling with an ALMOST-silent flick in the background. A great many profound things were said I’m sure, but you, like myself and the other participants will have to wait until the episode airs(I’ll post it as soon as it appears online.), because none of us can really remember anything in particular about that specific hour and 40 minutes. I’m not quite sure what to attribute that to. Stacy might’ve slipped us something…he likes to do that.
OK then, here’s what’s on deck for September.
It looks like that’s about it for now. I’m gonna go edit a few things before we head back in to do a little singing later in the week, but we’ll hopefully see you soon. If you’re in Texas, please stay safe…everywhere else, just be good to one another as usual…all this hate b.s. is getting out of hand.
Peace,
D.