I enjoy unpacking and organizing our music collection so much better after it’s already done. I mean, the unpacked, organized state is so nice; the process, not so much.
So, anyway, this time, I enlisted Lucas’ help a little bit. I didn’t insist, but he was pretty good at it while he lasted as helper. And even when he wasn’t there, his version of the ABC song, resonating in my head from countless renditions, kept me smiling.
To be completely upfront, this particular job only got half done at our last house. The CD’s and company made it onto shelves but never in any order. It’s extra-nice to have them back where we can find and listen easily.
So now they’re in order. Ahhh…
And the P’s won by quite a few CD’s, thanks to Kevin’s virtually-every-Pink-Floyd-recording collection … and that’s just the stacks, not even counting the huge “Shine On” box set. 😛
Wesley Holtsford & Laura Liem (with Danny Ricketts behind the camera)
Last Tuesday, my cousin Wesley Holtsford and his friend Laura Liem, both in from west Texas, played some bluegrass music with Kevin and his dad, Ryland Hawker.
Their impromptu jam convened at James Lynch’s house. He’s Wes’ great-grandfather and my dad’s sister’s husband. (You really wanted to know the details, I know. 😉
It was so awesome! The four of them really sounded great to have never played together before!
Kevin played guitar and sang most of the songs. Ryland, of course, played banjo. Wes played mandolin and fiddle. And Laura played fiddle.
(I sang some backup and one lead, I think, but was mostly on Kid Patrol. 😉
James was dancing and singing along. He invited his brother and his fiance over to listen, too.
Even Jo-Jo, James’ little poodle had fun … although he probably would’ve had more fun if Lucas and Atticus hadn’t wanted to play with him soooo much! (I wish I’d gotten pictures of that.)
And Wesley and Laura? Wow. They are really great musicians. And both sweet as can be. I wish they didn’t live so far away!!
6/18/11 UPDATE:
I’ve finally been able to sit down and figure out my file-transfer issue from phone to laptop. What a mess!
I used my Droid X’s (awesome!!!) TapeMachine app to record eight songs … and then my phone died.
I didn’t get the beginning of the first song or the end of the last, and I only got eight songs from the several hours of playing. (I wish I’d remembered to grab the H2 on the way out the door, but we only had about 15-minutes notice.)
I’ll come back later and post the individual songs, but here’s the whole of what I recorded, talking and laughing and all in between:
7/17/11 UPDATE:
Here, finally, are the individual songs that I recorded.
The Man Who Wrote ‘Home Sweet Home’ Never Was a Married Man:
I’ve been going through a lot of old newspaper clippings, pictures, and papers lately and ran across this old poster I made for a Flaming Blue Iguanas gig at the long-closed Ray’s Ribs. I’m not sure of the date, but it was likely 1996.
I’ve been playing around with a tool called Cinch this week.
It’s a website and a synced app that allow you to easily record audio, attach a message and image, and share with Twitter and Facebook followers and friends. You can also download, link, or embed the MP3 file.
You can see the widget I add over on the far right sidebar. It will play all of the “cinches” I’ve saved so far, once of which is our theme song, finally on our website:
Yay. Sounds pretty good considering it was recorded on the laptop at the Cinch site.
Every Second of Every Day
by Jo & Kevin Hawke
Everything I do, every word I say
Every second of every day
I give it all to you; I give it all away
Every second of every day
Everything I am, every little flaw,
is a canvas on which you can draw.
I give it all to you; I give it all away
Every second of every day
And in the morning when I look out on the day
I can say it is good 'cause it is yours
And in the evening when I look back on the day
I can say it was good 'cause it was yours
Everything I am, all the bad and good:
All my thoughts, all my feelings, all my beliefs
I give them all to you; I give them all today
Every second of every day
And when I feel like giving up
And when I take pride in what I've done,
It's a travesty of your majesty
And in the morning when I look out on the day
I can say it is good 'cause it is yours
And in the evening when I look back on the day
I can say it was good 'cause it was yours
Everything I do, every word I say
Every second of every day
I know you’re thinking that sounds like overkill. But trust me; if you’d been there, you’d just nod in agreement.
I’d never seen Neil in concert before, but I’ve loved his music for years and have heard and read so many different stories about his performances that I really didn’t know what to expect.
He started out on acoustic. After receiving a standing ovation for simply stepping onstage, he launched into a version of “My My, Hey Hey (Out Of The Blue)” that brought me to tears. Seriously. From the first strums of his guitar I was so choked up I had to grab a tissue.
Then, “Tell Me Why” and “Helpless.” Sweet! His voice was as crystal clear as ever.
Kevin: “That dude sings from a place most people have never visited.”
He moved to his black Les Paul and then to his white hollow-body Gretsch. And then, he was on upright piano and organ and back to Gibson and to the baby grand and back to acoustic. His classic dissonance and refined distortion. (His latest album is called Le Noise, after all. ;))
Neil seemed to swirl through his various musical personas, a big wooden Indian and on-and-off guitar techs his only companions onstage, all before an almost psychedelic set of four stage-height lighted window panes that altered and mixed colors based on the mood of the songs.
We could have stayed there all night listening to him perform his catalog … and it would’ve taken at least that long, as prolific as he is. I really wish I could’ve heard “Old Man” and “Heart of Gold,” especially, but he did play a whole lot of his classics, including a scalding version of “Cortez the Killer,” and all things must past…
On the way back to the parking garage, we stopped at his tour bus (above) to see whether he’d be coming around to sign autographs or speak. One of his tour guys allowed a handicapped young man to enter the bus door area, and Neil came down to meet with him. (Aww! We all applauded.)
We headed around the corner, and there he was! Tired, yes, but still smiling. And such kind eyes. 🙂
The picture’s terribly blurry, but given the lighting situation, the constant movement, and the other people moving about, it was the best I could do.
This is what I posted on Facebook late last night:
He was amazing!! It was just him and guitars and pianos and organ and harmonica and lights and feedback play … and sweet, sweet vocals … and vibrancy of all kinds.
I thought 20th row back was close to his genius. And then he was one foot away. I didn’t get to shake his hand, but he looked right at us when he waved goodnight, before he pulled himself up the stairs of his bus.
p.s. Thanks to the guy who gave us the picture out by the bus! So glad you got your print signed and thanks for letting me know I wasn’t the only one who cried through half the show. 🙂
UPDATE: Thrasher’s Wheat has a setlist, pictures, and info on the DPAC show and Twisted Road tour it opened.
We joined my parents for dinner at El Vallarta tonight, not knowing a mariachi band would be playing. Those guys are amazing! Great voices all around, and we heard them do everything from Freddie Fender (for my dad) to the Beatles to “Rocky Top.” Awesome night!!
Sooooo…..hoy, dos cuadros para el precio de uno…
Lucas and my dad tipping:
Atticus playing his own horn:
p.s. I recorded one of the songs they played. I’ll try to get it posted this weekend.
UPDATE: Here’s the audio of one of their songs; I’m not sure of the name. When they asked us which song to play, we told them to play their favorite song. This was it.
We were headed toward Washington Square Park, guitar in tow, ready to play some music for our favorite black squirrels.
Or at least we meant to be headed that way. Even after six NYC visits together (and two before that for me), we still find it quite easy to find things we never meant to see on the way to someplace we think we’re headed but really aren’t.
And then, we saw this awesome trio of murals, which were painted by Rico Fonseca, “the artist of Greenwich Village.” (It’s on West 3rd Street at MacDougal. Here’s a picture of the whole set.)
Kevin playing in Washington Square Park, July 22, 2010.
This was taken right after we got the turquoise and sterling Mr. Blue (and my amber ring). It was a gorgeous day: not too hot, a bit of breeze blowing, lots of people lounging on the grass.
Back in August, I went through a Dylan-song obsession of sorts.
The whole story is over at my education/teaching website, but to put it briefly, Kevin came home one day with a song on his mind that led us to think of other versions of that song that led me to a way of teaching a unit on the writer’s voice.
The song was “I Shall Be Released” and has always been one of my favorite Bob Dylan songs. But I really had no idea how many different versions of the song have been played and recorded. Seriously.
Well, it wasn’t long after that school started, and I was sucked into my workaholic alter-ego, and neither Kevin nor I remembered that we had actually recorded the song ourselves sometime in the course of those two or three days.
And then yesterday I was looking through some folders and serendipity!
It’s loud, with a lot of background hiss, since I recorded it on my laptop with the system’s basic voice-recording program. And my voice is feeding back a LOT. So you may want to turn your speakers down a bit before you hit play. 😉
