savin' water

Today our fine Governor (uuuuh...whasshis name?) proclaimed some great something or other about saving water. Hell, I’m doing my part! Me and all of the family are pitching in. We’re not even using water for our toilet. I’ve turned the shut off to the toilet completely off and we’re all just pissing right into the tank! Brilliant! We’re waiting until we fill it completely up and then we’ll flush it! It’s kinda tough on Grace but she’s a trouper man! Whatever it takes to save the world, ya know?

I knew the bride...

...and she really rocks and rolls!

 

The OakTeam, Sunday

 

the poonhounds

 

batons of Rock

We were thinking back on Sunday at The Pour House and what a phenomenal night of music that was. I really don’t wanna hurt anyone’s feelings that wasn’t there but DAMN! I swear to God, I felt like I was 30 (20 would have been better, but I’ll take it! ) years old and every band was on fire! I don’t know if the moon was in some “energy” position or what but everybody had it. Starting with The T’s, featuring the bride… Lutie Cain. She wore the veil on a golf hat which eventually got passed around to every band. Hmmm..’cept ours!? They are quickly gaining on The Ass’Kickin’ Team as Raleigh’s most ass-pounding band.
The groom’s band, The Poonhounds came up and kept the ball rolling. It was like that the whole night. It was like the 100 meter relay, passing the batons of Rock from one band to another. No stumbles with these guys. Big Daddy played drums with’m for the first time and you never would’s known it!
After them was the very swampy Bad Checks. They don’t play a mighty whole lot anymore but used to own Chapel Hill and western parts of Raleigh and mid-eastern Durham! Hunter is pretty much outta his mind on stage...no, literally…I saw his eyes roll back in his head more that once…or eighteen times.
Patty Hurst Shifter was on next and I needed a break (and to check on the World Series score), so I’m sorry to say I missed all but the last 2 songs of their show. I was getting my mind right for our show, ya know? I FELT them though as I re-approached the block.
We were next and it was decided that we would do songs about wedding shit. “Battleship Chains” and “Killin’ Down in Dillon” were first, followed by “I Love You Period”, “I Can Give You Everything”, ”Git Yo Ass Up The Road” and other great wedding classics. Short and sweet we gave it everything we had and ee tore the shit outta the last 2 songs, “T-Bird” and “Check Please” (which has really turned into a juggernaut!) and ran from the stage. Stupid Rockin’!! I swear, my boys got it going on!
The Bleeding Hearts were next but damnit! There’s HD baseball on back home..not only baseball , but game 4 of World Series Baseball. Sorry guys, I owe ya one!
Rock on BoSox!

high stress Monday

You can’t make this shit up people. Sometimes when it seems as though things can’t get any worse...they do. Like I referenced in a previous blog, my son Will and his band were working in the studio this weekend. His bass player, William spent the night Friday night after a gig they had at a church in Louisburg. They went for out for a walk to get a soda and were followed home by a kitten. Unbeknownst to me they were keeping her in the basement and just left her there when they went into the studio on Saturday. When my wife went down and found her she told Nathan about her and he fell in love with her, a big mistake. It ain’t gonna happen dude, no cats!

 

Anyway, to make a long story longer, yesterday morning (Mon.) Will was dropping William off with his girlfriend when ANOTHER one of his low profile (high aggravation) tires blew out. I’m getting out of the shower when I get the call. I throw my clothes on and run out the door to pick them up. When I get there I find out that when they walked up to the nearest store to use the phone (nooo don’t take the cell phone, you won’t need it!) they (he) also had locked the keys in the car along with all of William’s stuff and yes…the cat, who was on the way home with the skinny bass player. So we go the 5 miles back home to get the spare key but realize it’s in the place where EVERYONE puts their spare key…in the glove compartment of the car! Yeah! Great idea! So what now? We went to the Bunn Exxon and Ken, the owner let us borrow this thing that would slide in the window and pump up to make a hole big enough to slip a “jimmie” in. After poking around in there for about 5 minutes I finally got the door unlocked. The cat was fine and hiding in the floorboard. The tire was shredded. I took William and cat on to Raleigh where I was headed anyway to check on my Dad who was having a heart catheterization. He was doing great with no signs of any blockage in his arteries but I was worried. The way my luck was going this morning I was prepared for the worst.
I blow off work and go home. Then Nathan about 3:30 gets home and he says “Dad, I got some bad news” as he’s holding out a pair of broken glasses. Sheesh! Kids!

jac and lutie

I was quite the little socialite this weekend. I was like a bee buzzing from flower to flower or a butterfly splatting from one windshield to another or a bird pooping from car to car, I went from one conversation to the next. First, on Friday night I went with my wife and Nathan to Ali and Rock and Roll Johnny’s house to hang out and eat sushi. Then! I found out that Van Alston (from his retirement home in Honduras) was in town and hanging out up at his club that we sometimes play, Slim’s. So I drive and we get up there and then this cookie monster band starts to play on 11 so I have to wait outside. We go back to Ali’s (she pays the bills on the Guitartown chat and sometimes bitch site) and have a few more drinks before heading home. I was fine to drive, mind you.
Saturday, Will’s band was going into the DoubleNaught hit factory, the 411 Pod Studio at Jack’s house. The guys get a lot done and I’m very proud to say that they don’t have a cookie monster screamer dude in their band. About 2:30pm, Jack and I go to the wedding of soundman savant from The Pour House, Jac Cain and his bride to be, Lutie. It was VERY well planned out (although my dumbass couldn’t locate a trashcan for a while). Tres Chicas sang a beautiful song before the vows and I kept wondering if that damn loudass single engine plane pulling a Geico banner flying overhead was gonna ever go away. Just as the preacher (uhhh..bartender from Slim’s) commenced to preachin’ the stuff about love forever and all that, the plane (and all it’s noise) headed east, perfect timing. And speaking of perfect, you couldn’t have asked for a more beautiful day although it had been raining, thank you Jesus!, for the past few days and the ground was really...well, muddy. The ceremony was awesome, very sweet and afterwards the Countdown Quartet played classics from the 40’s and 50’s while people, Raleigh socialites like myself engaged in casual conversation. We had a few drinks as we counted how many bass players were in attendance (including the bride and groom) and thought about what a sorry state of affairs it would be if that Geico plane crashed there in the backyard and killed them all, and how wretchedly thin the “Raleigh sound” would become. And don’t you know that bastard flew over again just as Mikie pronounced them man and wife. Damn you Geico! I missed the best part! I’ll never sign up (and be late with almost every payment) with you!
We went back to our producin’(evidently T-bone Burnett does this too…he’ll be producing something and then just get up and leave) Will’s record. I sat outside, surfed the net and got cold feet...literally.
Sunday, was the rock reception for the Lutie/Jac wedding at The Pour House. Bands included Lutie’s, The T’s…who really REALLY rock like ass, Jac’s band The Poonhounds and damned if they didn’t rock too, shit! The Bad Checks played..ditto, everybody’s favorite Patty Hurst Shifter was after them, then us, The Olympic Ass-Kickin’ Team and of course we KILLED it! (Remember that Jerry Lee/Chuck Berry story?), and then The Bleeding Hearts.
So there ya go, here I sit…with my newfound hope for Rock.
Thanks to Jac and Lutie for a great weekend! And good luck on a long life together!
Pictures!

...and my hair was perfect!

 

Recording day 6

6, right? Hell, I’m already losing count. Damn, I’m ignunt! Anyhoo, on a very rainy (Thank God! This drought thing is getting scary bad. It’s dry as a popcorn fart around here!) Thursday night Jack, Jon and I sat twiddling our thumbs about what to do next recording-wise. I had too much to drink (again!) the night before and thought I was Steve Marriott for a while. I was jamming like hell on a thing and remembered it on the way up (it's really down) to Raleigh last night. So I wrote 4 stupid verses on my drive plus a chorus. That’s something that had kinda been missing from my/our records anyway. I told those guys that we needed something like a Humble Pie/(dare I say?) Foghat song and showed’m this diddy that I was calling "Going or Coming". Jack grabbed a bass and jumped right in. The arrangement fell into place after we stumbled through about 3 times and before I knew it (at 10pm) I was out there screaming those verses and choruses at the top of my 50 year old lungs. Jon did a few chops and created some holes for tension and damned if that thing wasn’t rocking our asses! Grown men got all silly, raising our hand and bobbing our heads like we were at an AC/DC concert. Can't wait to get Dickie and Grady in on it. This record is shaping up as something completely different…yet really cool.
Yeah, my MySpace thing got spammed again but I changed my password so it should be fine now. I’m sorry that other people are such assholes to create such a pain in my ass.
Will’s band is in the studio this weekend. They play great live so hopefully we’ll get a lot done.
Word to ya Mammy!

sorry, Outback..

Well, the dust has settled on the bidding war for our Rock services on the night of Nov. 9th. Just like that, the date was filled and thankfully in a town where we rule. Yes, Lexington, KY. It’s you! And the venue is Lynagh’s. It should be good too because the other club, The Dame has a funk jam band booked that night so we will be the sole purveyors of the Rock in town. So here’s what it looks like:
Nov. 7 Fitzgerald’s Chicago
Nov. 8 Beachland Ballroom Cleveland
(listen that night at 8pm for an acoustic appearance on WRUW)
Nov. 9 Lynagh’s Lexington
Nov. 10 Patrick Sullivan’s Knoxville
Unfortunately, there won’t be time now for multi-margarita night
at Outback Steakhouse but we’ll be glad to have a Guinness or two with you
at the show. So call up ya buddies and take off work, you gotta make a Rock pilgrimage and catch one of these gigs. And don’t forget, on the 7th and 8th we’ll be playing with Sarah Borges. I can’t say enough how good her and her band are. See ya then!

Nov. Tour

WooHoo! It’s time for another long OakTeam trip. I’m really looking forward to playing again for intelligent lifeforms that are ready to rock. This time we’re heading back to Chicago and playing Fitzgerald’s. We’ll be opening the show for Sarah Borges, one of my favorite new singers and songwriters (notice how I avoided using the hated “singer/songwriter” together tag). That date is Nov. 7th. I’ve been wanting The OakTeam to play this place for a long time so we plan on making the best of it. Be there Chi-Towners!
On the next night, the 8th, we’re headlining The Beachland Ballroom..yes, the BALLROOM, in Cleveland so that should be a lot of fun. Opening the show for us will be the very beautiful and talented Sarah Borges. That worked out pretty good huh? Cleveland rocks!...even on Thursdays!
Friday night, the 9th is still up in the air. My vote was to find an Outback Steakhouse and eat a big salad and drink a lot of Margaritas but I’m having trouble getting the rest of the guys (except for Greg…I mean, Grady) to go for it. So if you have any ideas about a show we can play between Cleveland and Knoxville on that night then let me know. Maybe there’s a birthday party, bar mitzvah or backyard hoedown we can get in on. We had a show in Louisville, but the band we would have played with got scared and wouldn’t follow us. Chickens! Bwak bwak bwak!
Saturday night the 10th, we’re back at Patrick Sullivan’s in Knoxville. We’re really looking forward to climbing the 80 steps upstairs with all that gear. It’s worth it though.
The room and stage are awesome. It’ll be after a Tennessee Vols football game too so maybe we’ll get some spillover from that. There’s your update.
Don’t forget to get back with about that Friday night gig. Maybe we can rock your town.
Rock like Ass!
-T-50

Trip to Bizarro World

The following story contains the characters, “Grady” as played by Greg Rice on keyboards, “Dickie” as played by Dave Bartholomew on guitar and drums, “Josh” as played by Jack Cornell on bass and “Teddy” as played by my very own self personally, Terry Anderson on drums and guitar.
After calling down and advancing the gig for this past weekend, it was decided that the “hotel” next to the club would be much more convenient yet much more expensive so maybe we should just stay the one night there and hang out at the beach on Saturday before rocking again on Saturday night. We would then hop back in the van for the 2 and a half hour trip back home and crawl into our own beds in the wee-wee hours of Sunday morning. Boy, were we glad about that decision after the treatment we got this weekend.
I left my van in Goldsboro at Grady’s sweet, sweet girlfriend’s parent’s house on Friday afternoon so as to not have to ride all the way to Raleigh and then have to drive, backtracking back towards Bunn on the way back. Those guys were stuck in traffic so I was about 30 minutes ahead them and was lucky enough to get to sit in the fancy sitting room and visit with the beautiful Miss Eleanor, her parents and her Grandma. It was not as painful as you might think since I’m not far removed from the ages of her parents and her Grandma was quite entertaining.
We arrived at the club an hour later than we had told them but still about 2 hours earlier than we needed to be there. After an “OK” soundcheck we went back and checked into the “hotel”. I really needed a shower since the water in all of Franklin County, back home, was compromised due to a water main break. There were some words between Grady and the “lady” at the desk initially about the price but everyone was still civil at that point. We were disappointed in the rooms’ cleanliness but we got our showers and went back to the club, ready for anything.
“It’s a late crowd” in the club business is code for “No one EVER comes here!” So we got that story and were told to wait a bit before going on. The bartenders were nice while still charging us for waters and beer. I guess they had to make their money somewhere, being that at show time there were still only about 8 people in attendance. So we’re rocking like ass up there and never giving the folks a chance to breathe, you know, like we do and backs start turning toward us, no tappy feet, nothing. It’s like we’re not up there. At this point it becomes a paid rehearsal. Well, we’re hoping we get paid as sketchy as the place looks! The guy that booked the gig is there and we later learn that he’s helping himself to our tab. A tab, mind you, that we didn’t know we had! They were supposed to give us a case of beer which, not only never showed up but we were charged full price for everything we drank and it was taken out of the guarantee when we WERE paid on Saturday night! Of course, there was no late crowd and we continued on into the second set just like the pros that we are and played like there were 3 thousand people there. We had a few cocktails afterwards and headed back to the “hotel”.
It was a beautiful night Saturday morning so we sat out in the corridor in front of our rooms and talked quietly about the situation and looked over some pics that our friend Monty Warren had taken, plus a few of my own:
http://picasaweb.google.com/terryandersonrocks/TheDive
The next morning came rudely in the voice of the 80 year old “hotel” owner asking us to make sure we were out by 11 o’clock sharp. “All of the rooms are booked for tonight and we need to get in there and clean up!” he spouted, refusing to allow our presence nary a minute past bewitching hour. This did not sit well with any of us, especially Dickie. Josh and I hurriedly gathered our things and stood out in the blazing sun while Grady settled the stupid high $160 bill for the one night stay. We ALWAYS do Priceline.com and hardly ever pay over $40 a night for a room but it wasn’t available in this resort area of North Carolina. Well, in the exchange Grady happened to let it slip as to what we thought of their “hotel” and the word “shitty” was mentioned. Well, THAT didn’t sit well with the dried up prune faced great-granny owner “lady” at all. “This is a Christian operation!”
We got the hell out and beeped the horn as we drove off, nothing more. As we were heading towards the Sheraton to meet with Monty and Michele for lunch, Dickie couldn’t get over how we had just been dumped to the curb by this obviously Christian establishment. Was there really “no room in the Inn?” “What’s that number, Grady?” he yells to the back of the van. So he dials it and the old codger with the oxygen mask at the desk answers. “Ah yes, do you have rooms available for this evening?” kindly asks Dickie. The old man responds “why yes, we certainly do”. “Well, why did you just tell me the whole place was booked up for the night when I was just in there?” Click.
We had lunch at The Sanitary Fish Market in Morehead City which is quite proud of it’s fried fish. Dickie’s bill was over $18 just for flounder and shrimp, for lunch! Jeez! We hung out on the beach for a while, throwing the Frisbee the wrong way (really funny and a lot of fun!) and walking in the chilly ocean water. It was pretty hot out and especially for October so we headed back towards the club. This was at about 3:30. A nap was in order so we were headed back towards the skanky dressing room couches when club owner dude grabbed my ear. As nicely as he could he put it to me that there were complaints from the “hotel” about our behavior and that if he found out that any of it was true that we could just pack our shit and get the hell out right then. I said that would be fine with me but that he should ask Grady and Dickie about the accusations. The fine Christian “lady” said that we “tore the rooms up, there were busted bottles everywhere, we cussed at them and when we left we blew the horn and flipped them off”. They assured Al that the “lady’s” account of the situation was wildly exaggerated but Grady said he would go back and make nice with the ”lady” if that would help. So when he gets there this fine Christian “lady” says to him “The best thing for you to do is to turn right around and go play your little music, or kick ass or whatever you do!” obviously having none of it. “We have you in the computer and you will NEVER stay here again!” uhhh….no kidding “lady”.
So the gig Saturday night IS attended better as promised by our “booking agent”, there are 9 people there instead of 8. We played great though after having a night of rehearsal under our belts. We had toes a tapping, pool cue air guitarists and even a few dancers. At the end of the night, right at 1:30 we shut it the hell down and were packed up and loaded in about 20 minutes. We’re sitting in the van waiting when Dickie comes running out the door with the cash, minus $60 worth of Miller Lite tab (unforgivable). We screech out of the parking lot and head towards Raleigh. We stop in Goldsboro and get my van and I pull into my driveway dazed and confused at exactly 4:17am and wondering what has happened to world of playing Rock and Roll live and having fun with crowds of intelligent people. You know, the ones that know what’s going on up there and don’t come up and ask you to play Merle Haggard and David Alan Coe or Happy Birthday (like they did tonight)?
I guess maybe they DO know what’s going on though. Just like the music inside club, the current American music mess is made up of either Country or Rap. And just like in the club, Rock and Roll is dead.

HB Monty!/The Dive

 

Happy Birthday Monty! Seen here at last night's rave up performance at Sadlack's Heroes, on Hillsborough St. in beautiful Raleigh, North Carolina! I sat in on a couple of tunes but most of the night was held down on drums by my friend Barry Herndon. It was a really great show with a lot of Monty classics (soon to come out on DoubleNaught Records) plus some really cool covers!
Speaking of shows, I think I failed to mention that The OakTeam is playing tonight, tomorrow afternoon and tomorrow night at The Dive. It's technically, or postally (is that a word?) considered to be in Swansboro but I think it's closer to Emerald Isle. Who knows, But I DO know it's down that way somewhere in the Crystal Coast region of NC and that they fiddin' to get an ASS-KICKIN'! Come on down!

Git yo ass back to NC, boy!

Got this update from longtime friend Bob Davis. He's travelling the world as tour accountant for Josh Grobin..

Now they're saying 6 dead and over 80 injured. Seems the explosion occurred inside the Guess store, where Janet and I had been shopping on Tuesday around the same time of day. As we all began to gather downstairs in our holding corral, I snuck away and walked over to the Outback, because I had promised April and Hazel that I would come say goodbye. They were closed (like everything else near the explosion), so I went a block further to get to where the bomb went off. Police and medical personnel everywhere still and I could only get so close. Gave up and headed back.
Our entourage pulled away from the hotel at 6 sharp. Party A (artist) in a 15p van, Party B (band & yours truly) in a 18p bus, and Party C (crew) in another 18p bus. We also had 2 SUV's of armed security, and 5 motorcycle cops. Each 18p bus had 3 security guys in them, as did the Party A van. Tripping me out.
I'm at the airport now, in the lounge. They oversold business class, so I got bumped to first class. As long as the terrorists don't blow up the plane, I'm outta here...

BD

now at Notlame

Our new live record is available now at notlame.com.
They sure say a lot of nice things about us, I think they like it..

TERRY ANDERSON - Live

A kick-butt live album from Terry Anderson & Olympic Ass Kickin' Team! This is what REAL rock 'n roll is all about. All the flying shrapnel of 4 guys tearing it up and having a lot of fun and not taking themselves too seriously other than the responsibility of making sure their audience is right there alongside them in the journey. "If a flying saucer landed on our lawn tomorrow and the little green men asked, 'What's rock-and-roll?', we'd hand them this disc. Terry Anderson doesn't try to reinvent the music, he just distills it to its glorious essence - fast, loud and, above all, fun - and he does it with an uproarious, hick-happy brilliance. This live set serves up many of Anderson's greatest hits, or what should have been hits. He can do straight-up and melodic in winning fashion - see the likes of 'Weather or Not' and 'Sunday Dress.' But most of the time the North Carolinian and his mighty OAKTeam are gleefully tearing up pea patches like 'Daddy Had a Wreck' and 'I Feel a Drunk Comin' On.' The influences are obvious - NRBQ, Faces, Chuck Berry, etc. - but it's also clear how smartly and colorfully Anderson twists them to create his own indelible rock-and-roll personality!" - PhillyInquirer. So the best way to fill you in what is behind "Live!" is Terry Anderson's own recollections of the night: TERRY ANDERSON: " At 8:30pm on December 5th, 2006 in front of a "studio" audience we yelled to the back of the house at our favorite engineer, "Hey Jon, you ready?" and following his undecipherable response we kicked into the first song and never looked back until the last one was done. Hell yeah!....Magic! "Was that ALL of'm?" The hour went by so fast, and in the dust 18 songs were left wondering what had just hit'm. A quick switchover for our encore put Dave behind the kit and me on guitar. When all was said and done we had recorded 20 great tracks for your enjoyment in less than an hour and a half. ".
"Rock 'n' roll isn't brain surgery. It's not even a wart removal procedure. Rock 'n' roll is a ruckus. It's joyful noise, a yowl at the moon. It's adrenaline bottled for the ears. It's sex in the afternoon. It's--how you say?--fun. Terry Anderson has wanted to be in the middle of that kind of fun ever since he was a teenager."-Independent Weekly.

The Dinkies don't care!

It’s a damn shame to be making such great music and the world’s radios are rotting away from the shit they play. (Hey! That rhymed!) First, Monday night we had the whole Hee-Haw gang over at Jack’s taking turns on putting their parts onto our new big hit (that nobody knows about yet) called “You had me at Get Lost”. Dave came up with the perfect solo, and re-played his previous acoustic part with an electric, Telecaster… of course. Greg’s solo also fit the bill, a la Terry Adams. Man, them real drums on top of the looped ones rocks pretty damn OK. It actually has kind of a sing along drum part. Everybody and their brother will soon be going “BAP! BAP!” 17 year olds in muscle cars have been waiting for this song for a loooong time.
Tuesday, I finished up a painting job, working late and feeling like crap anyway from forgetting coffee. “Huh?” You say! “No coffee?!” Hard for me to believe I did the whole day without it. I just had so much to do to get this job done that’s all I could think of until it was too late! Ugh! Headache. Couple o’ Advils, couple of bottles of wine when I got home…Good Morning…
Today I had get up and bust ass cleaning up and getting ready for Big Al to show up to write. It’s been a while and it’s always an adventure. Writing with Al is sometimes the most fun you can imagine as a musician. I mean pure inspiration, and he came with it today. He tuned down to “A” and heard a really great melody in what I considered kind of an “X” chord. Of course, I carried my load too. I brought some delicious samplings (Song titles and tunes) from my kitchen also and together we’ve already got the beginnings of what could turn out to be a rock FEAST! Today we wrote two great songs, “Top Dollar” and “Never Living You Down” (BAD Assssssssss!)and one super sing-a-long Dinkies classic. In fact, it’s the Dinkies theme song. It’s called “The Dinkies Don’t Care”. It’s about the stupidest damn thing that you ever heard. (Well, other than Miss Teen South Carolina’s pageant answer) That’s why I love it! Back at I tomorrow, and we’re hoping to knock out about 3 more and then we may go out for dinner and then go see our friend, Monty Warren playing at Sadlack’s on Hillsborough Street. Join us won’t you?
Or don’t. Hell, The Dinkies don’t care!

Rock Monument Day 5

Day 5 was yet again slowly productive. We just look at it as chipping away at our tiny little monument to Rock, so any progress is good progress. I’m counting the days only because I didn’t have the blog to look back on while making the last studio thing and it would have really been interesting to see how much time we put into it. That thing took over 3 years and at times seemed destined to fade away. We had an issue with the recording system last time too though. Jack was storing a Pro Tools rig for a friend at his house, so we (at the time Jack, ROGER and I) decided to put it to use while we had it. But then halfway through it got confiscated for a year or more and we were unable to keep up the momentum. Meanwhile we changed the band around, thankfully getting the true missing pieces on board with Big Daddy Dave and Greg Rice. Hopefully, this record won’t be so much like pulling teeth now that Jack owns his own rig and so far it hasn’t.
Also, let it be noted that when I say “day” that it only usually means 4 to 6 hours of work depending on how much time we all have to spare.
I got to the 411 Pod studio a little after 6pm and Jonathan and Jack already had the song of choice for the evening “You Had Me at Get Lost” up and ready for me to re-sing, this time for real. The scratch vocals on there were entertaining since I was a bit tipsy while performing them, but they were also a bit sketchy in pitch. This time I had to hit the notes. Yikes! The new Logic Pro 8 system just installed this week made the vocal comp thing about 50 times easier than the previous program so this was a breeze. I just sang it about 4 times and Jon went through each separate take of each line on repeat and picked the best one. The best take was selected to the master vocal track. The total time for “comping” the entire song was about 10 minutes, stupid quick. We worked on drums and percussion for a while and I set up a little “noise station” and we put 2 Russian microphones up and let it rip.

 

I pretty much nailed it in one take, not using drumsticks but a jingle stick (thanks Roscoe!) and a maraca instead. Adding this track gave it a really loose feel and listening back you would almost swear that Jim Keltner was in the house.
Then we stepped into some uncharted and VERY deep water. Oh yes, the world of orchestra loops! At the risk of coming off sounding like 50Cent, we dabbled in using strings as a bed for this really cool falsetto part in the song. The #8 version has literally millions of variations of orchestral noises that you can select. You just tell it what key you’re in and pick from only piano to full philharmonic. It is freakin’ wild and you can easily see how lost you can get in THAT world. But I think cooler heads will prevail in he end and we’ll just turn the guitars up really loud..just like we always do.
Onward and upward on Monday night!

day4/sarah/SCvNC

Inching along slowly last night we ran into a few technical bumps in the road that were eventually sussed out by our man Jonathan. With the new Logic Pro 8 program now locked and loaded there were a few things that were different about our recording set up, but all for the better mind you. Jon really loves how they made things much easier to get to and perform now. Maybe it’s just us but we all swear it sounds better too. Anyhoo, we got some real drums down over the loops and I sang a scratch vocal on a song and that was about it other than some arrangement chops that Jon did early on. But it’s getting’ there folks! Afterwards I was lucky enough to walk in on the first song by Sarah Borges and her band. Oh my God! There were great! You know what she’s got that most artists these days don’t? Well, 2 things really, songs and pipes. The songs were hooky and very melodic, exactly what I, my very own self personally, am looking for first when I wanna pop a song into the stereo. Number 2, the girl has pipes. I’m serious; there were times that I wondered if she was singing through one of them “J-Lo” pitch corrector boxes. She let it rip and never missed note that I could tell. Her website is www.sarahborges.com. I came home and looked it up because there’s a rumor that The OakTeam will be doing a couple of shows with her in Chicago and Cleveland on Nov. 7 & 8, at Fitzgerald’s and Beachland Ballroom respectively. It wasn’t on her site yet but should be up soon. Regardless, catch her whenever you can. She and her band were great.
So today is the big border skirmish between North and South Carolina. You know how I feel about that state below us don’t you? I mean, we’re above them in every category, well, except maybe football..but who knows we might eek one out. Ya know, we could have saved a LOT of lives and the rest of the country a lot trouble if in 1860 when SC declared they were seceding from the Union we (the rest of the states) would have all collectively just laughed and said, “Hell yeah! Don’t let the door hit you in the ass on the way out!” Awww, but then we would have those thoughtful and intelligent quotes from Miss Teen South Carolina to laugh at. Go TarHeels!

?'s from the mailbag

Tom in Chicago writes:

"What were your favorite records to practice to or play along with growing up?"
After telling him to piss off I later thought better of my behaviour and gave in with the following response:

J. Geils Band "Full House" & "Bloodshot"
The Who "Quadrophenia"
Mott the Hoople "Mott"
Led Zep "Houses of the Holy"
Humble Pie "Live at the Fillmore"
Stones "Goat's Head Soup"

hi def

 

We got us one of them new High Defication TV hookups and MAN! is it rockin’!
It is worth every damn penny. Hell, I’m gonna call DirecTV and ask if I can pay even MORE every month! Jesus! It reminds me of being in the third grade and getting glasses. All of a sudden, I could read the chalkboard! Wow! How in the hell, much like my glasses, did I live without it? I’ve had this 53”HD TV for about 3 years now and finally got around to getting the HD feed. Hell, NASCAR even looks great. I watched the last 6 laps of the race this past weekend just because it was beautiful to look at. Some things are dumb though. I mean who the hell needs to watch poker (period!) in HD or “Dog the bounty hunter” in HD? Sports, which is about all I watch, look amazing though, my favorite being golf. I can hardly wait for The Masters now.

recordin' day 3/ HB Will!

Well I just got in from another pretty dang rockin’ night of recordin’ and I gotta say weez really startin’ to have some fun. When everyone was there we decided to jump on in on another song instead of adding to what we had, although before they were there I did add pretty cool vocal thing to “Had me at Get Lost”. The first thing we did as a band was “Willy Mays”, a song I wrote about Barry Bonds and it rocks like the proverbial ass.
Thanks to quick learner Big Daddy Dave, who led the band with the arrangement as I played drums, we had that thing knocked out in about 3 takes. Next Greg grabbed the drumsticks and laid down the prefect groove for “Gone in a Cool Breeze”. No, not the Chuck thing, it’s my song about a cool breeze on a hot summer day blowing someone’s memory from your mind. It’s got a great New Orleans feel not unlike something The Band or Little Feat (the 30 years ago version, not today’s..sheesh!) would do and Greg had it going on so I gave up my seat to him. Hell, I had kinda thought about not playing drums at all on this record. That would be a little kooky though, I reckon. We put some organ tracks on some earlier stuff and called it a night, nary a drop taken by me in the process.
Hey! Today the 9th is Will’s 18th birthday! Y’all feel free to send him your Happy Birthday wishes. The more the merrier. Send’m to:
willplaysdrums@gmail.com

Columbus Day rockin''

Y'all need a good 'ol Columbus Day rockin'? check it out..
youtube.com/watch?v=YvC2_nsVJv0
Thanks Ace!

recording day 2

We got it on again Thursday night for more of “making Rock History”, as we like to call it. We laid down another new one of mine called “You Had me at Get Lost”. It’s a brilliant title, I know, cause I stole it from my eleven year old Mr.Geniusman son. The song is gonna be pretty damn rockin’ when it’s done and not unlike something you would hear on a Keef Richards record. There’s a long way to go on this record as we’d like to have about 20 tunes recorded before we start deciding which ones to actually dress up for public consumption. Back at it Monday night and then Rinkie Dinkie (Big Al) is in town on Wednesday and we’ll start writing songs for The Dinkies record. We have Friday night and next Saturday penciled in for recording those.
Man, my neck has been KILLING me lately! For three weeks I’ve been in severe pain, especially when I wake up in the morning. I went to my chiropractor Thursday and it helped a little. He’s gone kinda crazy though. He sold out of his other practice and had to not work in the area for three years as per the agreement of the sale. So what does he do? He goes to Peru and becomes a full blown shaman. We talked about it. Casting out evil spirits is on special this week. He had just done an exorcism on a little girl that morning. Hmmmm…I’ve got a little boy he might need to talk to….

angel eggs

Well, I wasn’t quite as lucky at getting out of going to church as I was last Sunday. My Dad stopped by while I was at my sister’s house and invited us both to go and well…ya can’t say no to your Dad. Your wife, if you have a good one like I do, will let you wiggle out of a promise every once in a while but ya gotta pretty much do what ya Dad wants ya to do, even at 50 years old.
So we get there and I have Nathan in tow since wifey had gone to the beach. I don’t know who dreaded it more, me or him. Not only did I dread getting yelled at by a preacher but I dreaded what kind of ignunce I would have to put up with from my 11 year old. He did the usual talking too much at first, mostly about the old guy behind us who’d had surgery for jaw cancer and had half of his face cut out. I think he was kinda freaked out by him.
But he settled in and pretty much behaved himself until he had to excuse himself “to go poot”. Then he got the giggles.
After the preacher was done yellin’ we all gathered in the mess hall and lined up for some good ‘ol cold country cookin’! Yeehaw! There was lots of cold collard greens, cold butter beans, cold string beans along with the stuff that was supposed to be cold, you know like tater salad and deviled eggs or as my sister pointed out, they are called “angel eggs” in church. Sheesh! Gimme a break!
I’d rather watch a whole hockey scrum than go to church. Wait…let me think about that one for a while….nah…I’ll take church, at least that’s only an hour wasted.

far away eyes

Y’all will have to excuse my far away eyes these days. In the past few weeks I’ve been in extreme songwriter mode and I may not have spoken to you if you have spoken to me. Sorry, but you might need to include the area code when we talk, my mind is somewhere else. Them little hamsters are up in there moving lyrics around, (“should it be AND or BUT there?”), writing bridges and melodies and whutnot. I’m talking to myself about the story line and writing verses. And in some cases I’m re-remembering songs and what they are about and what approach to take, not only lyrically but sonically. “Should it be acoustics there? Hey, perfect place in the song for tambourine!” Shit like that worries the hell outta us sonrwriter dudes, sometimes putting the buggie way before the horse.
I also think about “should I work on this song or just let Big Al help me finish it when he comes next week? This one sounds like him..”
It’s a lot to think about, brutha…a lot to think about.