I just recorded Crow Jane last Friday. It was recorded into an M-Audio Microtrack and then mixed in Garageband on my Mac. Since the Microtrack only records one track at a time, I do the cello first, transfer it to my Mac, then sing the vocals in the Microtrack again while listening to the cello track in Garageband. Pretty simple. The Microtrack is just a pocket-size digital recorder, and has been really handy for making quick recordings of ideas, and for these finished recordings that I’ve been putting on my website.

This song took me a while to finally record because it’s a bit difficult to stay in tune with the particular chord barring technique I’m using. Normally the cello is played with the left hand pushing down one string at a time, but for this song I’m making chords across all four strings throughout the whole song. After a few minutes, I can’t even push the strings down accurately anymore. It’s still not perfectly in tune, but I think this is as close as I am going to get. I’ve been trying to record it on and off for weeks when I’ve had spare time, and I finally got it close enough. Anyways, I kind of like a little bit of atonality and sliding around along he fretboard.

The song itself is traditional, and I couldn’t find much info on it. I learned it from this remarkable Skip James version on youtube below. If you have a spare minute, it’s worth listening to:

I’m being played on the latest podcast from MichiganFolkLive. They put up my “Country Blues” recording. Go ahead and check it out. It’s a good podcast with some sweet music to listen to. My death chant comes on at 23:51.

Bicycle Cello Banjo, Bicycle Cello Banjo, Bicycle Cello Banjo, Bicycle Cello Banjo, Bicycle Cello Banjo, Bicycle Cello Banjo, Bicycle Cello Banjo, Bicycle Cello Banjo, Bicycle Cello Banjo, Bicycle Cello Banjo,

Supposedly this new software called Direct Note Access can extract individual notes from recorded chords. I have to see it to believe it, but if it works I’m guessing it would be the best thing since sliced bread. For example, you could use it on a piano recording and automatically transcribe the music to guitar tablature, and vice versa. It would also give sound engineers the ability to single out notes in a recording and manipulate them independently. Check out their web site, where they claim to “make the impossible possible.”

I’ll be looking for the torrent file soon.

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I found this beautiful video demonstrating major media’s marginalization of Ron Paul right before our eyes. There seems to be an enormous discrepancy between Ron Paul’s popularity on the media’s biased polls, and his true popularity over the other candidates on the internet. See for yourself what this guy is trying to show. You can actually observe evidence of how the media decides our favorite candidates for us:

ScienceNOW Daily News - 16 April 2008

I found this interesting article: “Music Builds Bridges in the Brain.” Studies at Harvard Medical School are showing that children who practice a musical instrument over 2.5 hours a week have a much higher growth rate of their corpora callosa than those that don’t. The corpus callosum is the “information superhighway” connecting the right and left side of the brain - a bundle of axons connecting movement-planning regions on the two sides.

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Well my show in Manchester was ok. I give myself a C+. The One Longfellow and Toad shows were a lot better. I was a bit down on the drive home, but couldn’t help but feel better about my shoddy performance after hearing the ABC Clinton/Obama debate….did anyone watch this fiasco last night? It’s being blogged about everywhere that the journalism machine has reached a new low. Just two examples: The Washington Post, and The Huffington Post. I think the truth is that every single one of the debates has been a joke. None of the real issues are addressed unless Ron Paul is talking. Sometimes it seems you can get more sincerity on issues from South Park than you can from the candidates. But this debate in particular may have been even more frivolous and gossip-driven than the ones before.

Here’s a clip of the two snakes, Charlie Gibson and George Stephanopolous, recoiling in fear as the audience heckles them off camera. Gibson’s actually raising his claws up in the air defensively as he says the following: “The crowd is turning on me, the crowd is turning on me.” How embarrassing for a journalist to have to say that at a presidential debate. Anyways here it is…

Does anyone recall anything like this ever happening before on a televised presidential debate?

Hi, just a quick post about my show for National Library Week coming up at Manchester Public Library, NH, this Thursday the 17th. Here’s the link to the info. Show starts at 7PM.

There probably won’t be this much snow.

http://www.physorg.com/news127137136.html

Imagine being able to take a step back in time and walk through the streets of ancient Pompeii hours before the eruption of Vesuvius. In April 2008, European researchers will demonstrate that walking through virtual environments is set to be a reality.

Yeah

Well Friday at One Longfellow Square went fantastic. First of all, thanks to those who came. I really enjoyed this show. The venue is really great, and the director there, Tom Rota, is very professional, making everyone feel comfortable. Up until now my solo shows have been primarily in bars and cafes, with the bigger shows at performing arts centers mostly being with Emil. But I’ve been working on my solo repertoire and tweaking it so that I can present more of a “concert” in these bigger centers and concert series on my own. I had gotten comfortable in the cafe/bar environment, and wanted to make sure I could step it up, so this place was exactly what I was looking for. I’d like to go more in the solo recital direction, so I think this was a bit of a turning point for me in that respect. I was waiting to see how this one went in order to decide what my next move would be. I had a general idea that I had a decent enough show prepared, but you never know until you’re actually on the stage by yourself and playing for people…everyone is a rock star when they are by performing by themselves in their own room.

I think what I’d like to do is to include some classical pieces I’ve been working on that I think can mix in well with the folk stuff. One is Bagatelle No. 2, by William Walton. Another possibility is some of the “Masada Guitars” music by John Zorn. And I’m also looking at Asturias.

Next show is in Manchester, NH, at Manchester Public Library. I’m going to try to just do what I did at One Longfellow and see what happens.