So last night was the first time I played a full slot by myself, armed only with my cello. I don’t quite have 1 hour of material yet, and I’m still struggling with my sound, but overall I felt good about it. There were 4 bands following me, but a couple people actually showed up for my 7 o’clock show. I’m absolutely thrilled if even one person comes, and it made my day. Also, no one threw anything at me, which is very encouraging to me at this early stage.

I find it difficult to keep people interested in what I’m doing on the stage for a full hour, especially when I’m playing solo. The problem with trying to play the cello in a guitar style is that you can’t really strum chords and fill out the sound the way you can on the guitar. It’s more akin to going up there and singing with a bass. So I’m trying to come up with different picking patterns and rhythms for each song, and also I feel that since all my songs are covers, I should acknowledge their authors and their history a bit…especially the more American primitive folk songs. It breaks up the show a bit, and hopefully is interesting info for the audience. I’ve noticed Leo Kottke does this to the point where his shows are almost a cross between a standup routine and a musical show. It seems to work for him, but that’s probably because he’s a true original on the guitar, and also happens to be really funny. He’s sort of like Garrison Keillor, but with a guitar. In the end, I don’t like to be at a show for more than an hour…even for my favorite artists. In fact, I usually get bored after just 3 or 4 songs. So I’m planning to just get a few more songs to add to my current pathetic 40 minutes of repertoire, then start rotating them as I learn them.

As far as my sound on stage, I have yet to be able to reproduce the deep, twisted reverberating low-end sound on the recordings I make in my room. For some reason my cello frequently runs the risk of sounding like a friggin’ ukulele on stage. Not that there’s anything wrong with ukulele…it’s just that I chose to start using the cello so I could get more of a deep, evil sound than I could with my guitar. Otherwise I may as well stick with the guitar. True, I could use effects on a guitar and get what I’m looking for, but I started playing around with the cello one day and it just naturally sounded like what I had always wanted my guitar to sound like. Also, I felt more at home with it due to the countless hours my parents forced me to practice as a child. Anyways, on stage I just haven’t been able to successfully amplify what I hear in my room by myself. I’m looking into preamps now. If anyone has any ideas, let me know…

I’ll be playing in a show called “An Evening of Doom Folk” on January 4th, at Cafe Nomad, in Norway, ME. These shows are a side project that Tim Ouillette, of Moss Mountain Project, and I started a little while back. Peter Hill (bass player for MMP), will be joining in on mandolin, and Laurent Brondel with guitar.
You can find out more about these “evenings” at http://myspace.com/aneveningofdoomfolk.

I’ll be playing a solo show tomorrow at All Asia at 7PM. I’m on first, opening for Rusty Belle, Mike G. and the Associates, Changing Modes and Necrowafers. This will be the first time I play a complete slot with just my cello, without sharing the stage. The show just fell on my lap, and I’m not ready…but we’ll see how it goes. The way I see it, a little alcohol should smooth out the rough spots in my playing. Also, my cello is broken in many places, which in my opinion makes it ripe for a nice, gritty, buzz saw effect.

Happy holidays, and hope to see you there,
-Josiah

Hello everyone,

www.josiahaltschuler.com is dead, and in its ashes rises “The Bus King.” This new site is an experiment to see if I can support myself by busking over the internet. You can download the songs from my Music page, and if you want, you can let me know I’ve done something right in the universe by using one of the tip jars (PayPal or Amazon). If you have any questions or comments, shoot me an email, myspace message, or comment on my blog. I hope you enjoy the music.

cyber busking \SIGH-burrr BUS-king\:
1. the practice of performing on public web sites to entertain people, usually to solicit donations and tips. Those engaging in this practice are called cyber buskers. Busking is a British term used in many areas of the English-speaking world. In the United States they are more often called street performers or street musicians.

Genius? Possibly. Stupid? Most probably. Chance for success? Almost zero. Anxiety attacks at night? Most definitely.

Any feedback you can give me regarding improvements would be much appreciated. I haven’t seen anyone doing this on the web yet. I’ve seen some free music here and there, and actually saw some half-attempts at doing some “cyber busking” (some dude out there beat me by like a month). I might not be the actual first cyber busker, but definitely top 5, and I am definitely the first cyber “Bus King.”…I still can’t believe this domain name was not taken…

Happy new year, and I hope you are all doing well,
Josiah