yep! you're right....

I've been practicin'!!!

more smooth jazz...

Well, here it is Friday and I’m just getting around to discussing the events from Monday night. Another great night in Rock history, Dave, Jack and I laid down 2 MORE rhythm tracks for next OakTeam record, now with the working title; “More Smooth Jazz and Sweet Sweet Jams” (or “sweet sweet jams” for short). First I showed’m “Gambled and Lost”, a cross between an older Big Star feel and a Keef Richards solo record tune. It’s about not only how stupid gambling is but how none of us can really avoid it and how everything we do in our lives is a gamble from the time we git outta bed. It’s pretty rockin’ despite its quirky arrangement. Next we worked on “Your Sweetness is my Weakness” or “Sweetness” for short. This one has a Mats feel with even a little “hummy” part in it. It's cool going to the “4” for the Chorus too. So now what? With 17 rhythm tracks in hand, I guess its time to get down to bidness! Monday night, if things go as planned I’ll go over and sing a somewhat listenable “scratch vocal” on everything. Gregory (Bronco 2) has a lot of catching up to do with piano and organ stuff. Dave has tons of acoustic and electric guitar overdubs. Jack has bass parts to rethink and I have not only percussion to think about but lyrics to “doll up” and final vocals to do. Think about it, 17 songs. That could take a while. I’m not certain they’ll all make the final cut though, especially since I continue to write every day (like yesterday’s cool Beach Boys type thingy), and may want to drop one of these for something newer/better. It’s all part of the process that makes it so fun!

Rossie's driving

My maternal grandparents were the salt of the earth. They were the most honest, loving and forgiving people than I’ve ever known and I’m lucky to have spent as much time with them as I did. Must be where I got those awesome traits from! Ha!! Anyhoo…I can’t think of ONE bad thing to say about my Grandma Nellie (when she died, it destroyed me!) but if pressed about Rossie I’d have to say it was his driving. He had a ’62 Chevy (Carolina blue, of course!) that he was pretty proud of and didn’t want a scratch on. I made the mistake once of riding with him to the little town of Spring Hope. I was prolly 9 at the time. It wasn’t that he was a bad driver. It was that he was an excruciatingly SLOW driver! Spring Hope was only 10 miles away and it took us literally ALL DAY to go there and back, and he didn’t really have that much business there, maybe 30 minutes of shopping at the feed store. It was all spent getting there and back. If I had to guess, I’d put his personal speed limit at 15-20 mph. I could have literally gotten OUT of the car and ran along beside it. I could have stuck my head out the window and read the writing on the sides of the tires. I could have picked up litter as we went along. I could have gotten out and washed the windows. I could have gotten out, taken a break and ran to catch up later. Dogs CAUGHT the car! It was just brutal, and what does a 9 yr. old have to talk about with a 70 year old man? Who knows, but I’m sure fishing came up in the conversation. He LOVED fishing.
I guess cuz it was nice and S. L. O. W!

pic

 

...and that's a savings of...???

turkey day '09

I hope everyone had a Thanksgiving that was as joyful as mine. I wasn’t forced to leave the house to eat mush with rednecks or any of that. My family and I hung out right here and cooked all of our favorites. We hardly ever get to just sit down and break bread with the kids. Grace spent most of the morning putting things together while I sliced up the slab of salmon and marinated in Roscoe’s special secret marinade. The power went out for a while which moved back our “plating” time by about half an hour.
Meanwhile, I got the phone call that made me the most thankful of all. Our friend Kay, who has had the year and a half from hell with health issues, gave us a ring and she sounded great. She stays on our minds constantly and we worry for her and her family but the call eased some of the worry and made me thankful that she sounded so good. She was by David’s bedside every morning when I would visit him. She’s an angel and doesn’t deserve the suffering she’s been through.
Soon after talking to her, our friend from West Virginia, Ricky Loco stopped by. He lived in Bunn for a while and his son, Quito is the same age and was best friends with Nathan. As the name “Loco” implies, he IS a nut. He used to be a white water rafting guide in Costa Rica as well as his home state of West Virginia. He helped me take my Beemer apart for a while until he realized that he and Quito were supposed to be in Fuquay (an hour away) in about 5 minutes.
About 2pm we gathered at the marble top table and Will said the blessing and we all dove in. I was really hungry and put some serious dents in the bowls in front of me. What the hell, right? I’m almost 53, I ain’t gotta impress nobody with my sleek good looks. The salmon was grilled to perfection by yours truly and Grace did an amazing job on the dressing, mashed potatoes, green beans and made from scratch sweet potato pie. After a couple of plates of that I sat on the couch and headed down that slippery slope of needing a nap. I knew that I really needed to go see my dad so I refused the urges to fall over and crash. I got up and drove over to his place and of course, woke him up from HIS nap.
We sat around and mumbled at each other for a while before I headed back home. I’m really thankful for how good he’s doing. It was getting dark when I got home and you what that means, if it’s dark it must be Banrock time. Grace and I drove up to the only place open with the Banrock Cab, yep…Wal-Mart. There’s a new one in Louisburg about 10 miles away that I had yet to be depressed by so we drove over that way.
“Just a bunch of junk” I sang over and over to myself. I was ready to go when I got there and when we checked out I left Grace to do the dirty work as I went to retrieve the get-away car. I don’t know what it is about them places but I feel about 6 grade levels dumber just by going through the doors.

 

...and that's a savings of...???

The wine hit the spot after “dinner”, which was only a piece of that sweet potato pie with whipped cream on top. We all (except for Nathan, who has to talk hours on end to his new girlfriend) settled in to watch them crazy storm chasers see how close they could get to the tornados without dying. It was addictive just watching so I can see the attraction for them.
I wake up today and its Black Friday and I have NO intentions of buying a damn thing! The Thanksgiving festivities continue over at Jack’s house tonight as he’s cooking all day for friends and families of both he and the band. I bought everything I needed last night at Wal-Mart, that wine and a box of hair dye!

we give thanks...

every day for our two beautiful children...
Will

 

...and Nathan

 

Rolling Stone Mag's top 100 drummers!

1. Terry Anderson (Olympic Ass-KIckin' Team)
2. John Bonham (Led Zeppelin)
3. Ginger Baker (Cream)
4. Keith Moon (The Who)
5. Terry Bozzio (Frank Zappa, Jeff Beck)
6. Bill Bruford (Yes)
7. Danny Carey (Tool)
8. Mike Portnoy (Dream Theatre)
9. Ian Paice (Deep Purple)
10. Carl Palmer (Emerson, Lake, & Palmer)
11. Stewart Copeland (The Police)
12. Dave Lombardo (Slayer)
13. Steve Gadd (Steely Dan)
14. Vinnie Colaiuta (Frank Zappa, Sting)
15. Carter Beauford (Dave Matthews Band)
16. Tim Alexander (Primus)
17. Simon Phillips (Toto, Jeff Beck)
18. Rod Morgenstein (Dixie Dregs, Winger)
19. Matt Cameron (Soundgarden)
20. Dennis Chambers (Santana)
21. Chad Wackerman (Frank Zappa)
22. Phil Collins (Genesis)
23. Mitch Mitchell (Jimi Hendrix Experience)
24. Virgil Donati (Planet X)
25. Max Weinberg (E Street Band)
26. Vinnie Paul (Pantera)
27. Ansley Dunbar (Jeff Beck, Whitesnake)
28. Mike Shrieve (Santana)
29. David Garibaldi (Tower of Power)
30. Steve Smith (Journey)
31. Josh Freese (A Perfect Circle)
32. Alex Van Halen (Van Halen)
33. Billy Cobham (Mahavishnu Orchestra)
34. Bill Ward (Black Sabbath)
35. Alan White (Yes)
36. Carmine Appice (Beck, Bogert & Appice, Vanilla Fudge)
37. Stanton Moore (Galactic)
38. Nicko McBrain (Iron Maiden)
39. Scott Rockenfield (Queensryche)
40. Hal Blaine (Elvis Presley, Beach Boys)
41. Joey Jordison (Slipknot)
42. Marco Minnemann (Weirdoz)
43. Cozy Powell (Rainbow)
44. Tommy Aldridge (Whitesnake)
45. Chester Thompson (Santana)
46. Morgan Agren (Frank Zappa)
47. Jeff Porcaro (Toto)
48. Dean Castronovo (Journey)
49. Mike Giles (King Crimson)
50. Jeff Campitelli (Joe Satriani)
51. Nick Mason (Pink Floyd)
52. Greg Bissonette (Joe Satriani, David Lee Roth)
53. Ralph Humphrey (Mothers of Invention)
54. Mike Bordin (Faith No More)
55. Ringo Starr (The Beatles)
56. Zak Starkey (The Who)
57. Jon Theodore (The Mars Volta)
58. Phil Ehart (Kansas)
59. Clive Bunker (Jethro Tull)
60. Jimmy Chamberlain (Smashing Pumpkins)
61. Charlie Watts (The Rolling Stones)
62. Lars Ulrich (Metallica)
63. Brian Mantia (Primus)
64. Mike Sus (Possessed)
65. Jason Rullo (Symphony X)
66. Dave Grohl (Nirvana, Scream)
67. Pat Mastelotto (King Crimson)
68. Mick Fleetwood (Fleetwood Mac)
69. Raymond Herrera (Fear Factory)
70. Brann Dailor (Mastodon)
71. Matt McDonough (Mudvayne)
72. Scott Travis (Judas Priest)
73. Jack Irons (Red Hot Chili Peppers, Pearl Jam)
74. Roger Taylor (Queen)
75. Jose Pasillas (Incubus)
76. Earl Palmer (session man)
77. BJ Wilson (Procol Harum)
78. Joey Kramer (Aerosmith)
79. Gene Holgan (Death)
80. Danny Seraphine (Chicago)
81. Igor Cavalera (Sepultura)
82. Brian Downey (Thin Lizzy)
83. Travis Barker (Blink 182)
84. Taylor Hawkins (Foo Fighters)
85. Nicholas Barker (Dimmu Borgir)
86. Paul Bostaph (Slayer)
87. Chad Smith (Red Hot Chili Peppers)
88. Brad Wilk (Rage Against The Machine)
89. Alan Gratzer (REO Speedwagon)
90. Matt Sorum (Guns N' Roses, Velvet Revolver)
91. John Dolmayan (System of a Down)
92. Chad Sexton (311)
93. Mark Zonder (Fate's Warning)
94. Gary Husband (Level 42)
95. John Densmore (The Doors)
96. Jon Fishman (Phish)
97. Al Jackson (MG's)
98. Jim Gordon (Derek & the Dominos)
99. Dave Abbruzzese (Pearl Jam)
100. Sean Kinney (Alice in Chains)

15 and counting...

Monday night was another night of Rock history. Jack, Dave and I got together again to put some more rhythm tracks down. I came in with one song that I had sung into my crappy Sony cassette player and two others on CDs that I had made better demos of. I was really excited about what was going on in my head with the song “He’s your girlfriend” and the guys didn’t disappoint. It’s just a cool little Pop song and not at all about anything uncomfortable that you might expect with a title like that. It’s a dance-able little ditty that could have gotten some play back in the day. One of my favorite lines is “he goes to movies with you, he took you to see U2”. In context, you’ll dig it too. Next, we ran down a BIG Rock number I had laying around for a while that I recently started writing different lyrics to. “I’m your radio” melds “Street Fightin’ Man” with The Foo Fighters. After goofing off for a while I showed them one other tune that I wasn’t sure about (I never know what reaction to expect from anyone!). “Little 318” has kinda the same feel as “About You” but instead of a girl it’s a love song to my car, my little BMW 318i. It’s currently, sadly in a state of disrepair and needs more work than I have money. But I just can’t let go of it, it’s the most amazing driving machine I’ve ever driven, much less owned. I wrote it riding around in it, back when she was feeling better. Maybe if we sell enough records I can get an ignition, get it tuned up and get a new convertible top for it.

more colors!

 

I may have jumped the gun a bit on posting pics of my Japanese maples, the colors have actually gotten much brighter in the last few days. Here's a web album of NEARLY all of them (minus 10 or 12 that were just bad pics or not very photogenic). Remember, the color is untouched:
http://picasaweb.google.com/terryandersonrocks/Maples09#

the real reason she didn't kiss you

You ever talk to somebody and they got something on their lip or eyebrow distracting you? Now thass a good ol’ time right there. Yesterday I was getting gas and as I said “$20 on #6” I looked at the portly girl and noticed some little white particle of doughnut or something. I did a double take and walked away. She prolly wondered what the double take was about. I wondered how long it had been on there and how much longer folks were gonna let her look like that. I wasn’t gonna say anything. I mean, what do you say? “Uhhhh…you got sumpin’ on your lip”, then run out. What about the next time you come get gas? Won’t she be a little embarrassed? She’d prolly never look at you again. Either that, or she’d wipe her lip every time she saw you coming. Still, I wonder if it stayed on her lip all day. I saw an interview with the President one time where he had one of them white “connector” particles on his lip. You know, the kind that stretches a little each time his lips would meet. Boy, I bet the interviewer was really distracted. You’d think that the President would have someone to come up and say “Uhhh…you got sumpin’ on your lip” and then run out, but evidently not. I’d be for him getting somebody like that.