New vid/Monty Sat.

OMG! Busier’n shit lately. Working my ass off all day long and then spendin’ the evening either singing or mixing new stuff. Tonight Jon and I worked on the new Christmas song, “Eggnogorant” and if I wasn’t so biased about it I’d have a hard time thinking it wasn’t a hit. (huh? I gotta think about that one…) Anyhoo...It turned out great and I can’t wait for folks to start listening to it 50-11 times like I did tonight on my way to practice with Monty. We got his CD release party this Saturday night at The Pour House and it’s gonna rock like ass! Rick Richards is coming to town to sit in and play a few tunes and if I have my way he’s gonna sing “Can’t Stand The Pain” and a song I really like that he made famous called “Battleship Chains”. I think you’re gonna dig the whole night (thass if you come of course!). The record kills and we’ll no doubt play our asses off!
The OakTeam is shooting a new video of a perfectly new song on June 19th. We’ve finally nailed the date down and the song(s) are ready to go. It’s for a song called “You Had me at Get Lost”, but other songs will be featured. It’s gonna be really cool. Our friend Steve Boyle, who shot a BUNCH of Country videos is doing it as a fan and as a favor…a true believer, that guy! It’s great to have those around. Good to know that you’re not the only one (besides wife and friends of course!) that thinks your existence is worth a shit! I think that by the end of the year we’ll have more than a few of those.

name that crab!

I watched a World War II style bi-plane overhead this morning when it started spitting and coughing. I got concerned and walked over to get a better view. Sure enough, it was headed face down towards the ground. It was in a perfect dive to the pilots deaths. I was a little freaked out and was headed inside to ask my wife what I should do when on the way in, I noticed something poking out of a hole in the ground in the ditch in my yard which is the result of water runoff from “downtown”. I’ve gone round and round with the town about some sort of deal that they need to git dey asses down here and clean this shit out or I’ll…I’ll…well whatever...but anyway two little mini-lobster claws were reaching from the hole in the ditch and trying to put the fear of God in me when I stopped in my tracks, forgetting about the plane and decided to go in and ask my wife if she’d ever seen an inland crab. Well no she hadn’t and was quite surprised when he made another jumping swipe at HER little toe. What on Earth would it be?
I grew up on Westchester Road in Raleigh and I used to walk over to N. King Charles Road to Randy Horn’s house. He had a “crick” that divided his back yard with his neighbor’s. In that crick was a big ‘ol bunch of crawfish that we would put on little boats that also had lit firecrackers on them. Now this was my deduction, it was a crawfish…not yet blowed up of course, but crawfish nonetheless. My wife’s deduction was that THIS is where they end up when you see them digging into those holes on the beach, real crabs digging to…Bunn. Uh Huh! Who knows, but that gets me thinking about them days playin’ in that crick. MAN! That was some good ‘ol times. I hear my best friend from those days on the radio every day on an ad for his concrete company. Once he was getting his ass beat after school (down at the bridge!) and I ran like hell to #1: get away from the ass beaters and to #2: catch my ride back home with his Mom.
She asks where her son is as I’m diving in the back seat. “Uhhhhh…he’s back there getting his ass whopped, I think” I explain. Her bright red hair catches even more on fire as she’s jumping out and running to the rescue, “Ahh… some friend YOU are!”
Some of us made it and some of us didn’t. There were 2 brothers from the neighborhood, Josh and Jeff Savage. Jeff was younger and only slightly less gross than Josh. Both were brilliant and had “Jackass” been a show back then they would have been the hosts. Though I never really forgave them for making that Special Ed kid do what they made him do, nor did I forgive Josh for not taking a bath and stinking up our basement for three and a half weeks but I DO have to thank them for turning me on to that Mountain “Climbing” record. Their Dad was this ascot wearing playboy and the mother was a neurotic, chain-smoking lunatic. Josh didn’t make it, infection of the heart.
We lived on a pretty steep hill so when there was snow our neighborhood was the place to be. My buddy came over and knocked all of his teeth out on one of those curbside manhole thingys at the end of his sled run…for the year.. That was right beside where we used to catch the bus to school, right where me and Randy Horn drank three tall Schiltz’s apiece before breakfast…before school...before getting on the bus.
Ahhh… the good ‘ol days!
Randy Horn moved to Florida and Emailed me out of the blue last year and I was really glad to hear from him and how well he was doing.
Oh! There’s that bi-plane again! It’s fine. Showoff!

letter to michael

First of all Mr. Michael Down Under, my wife sez "hey!", and at this time it seems that all of my projects are waiting for it to rain so-to-speak. Big Al just had knee surgery and is out of it for a bit. We can't go into Jan. w/o some kind of new record, some really cool songs are just sittin' there bustin' at the seams and we gotta find a way to make the cruise ship (Delbert's) thing pay off a little better than it does. It's usually a break even deal for me and in these times that just ain't gonna get it, time is money ya know?

The Woods thing is still waiting for our friend Mitch Easter to bake and dump our 2" tape to digital. I can't wait to start mixing that 2nd record. It's gonna be what all Woods fans have been waiting for. And if you see someone on Pollstar on tour under the same name they are not us but a "he", whoever HE is.

The Ass-Kickin' team is still my favorite band. They can play my songs flawlessly an feverishly in any situation. We are all masters of our domain and the Ass-Kickin' Team gives us that outlet to shine and blister. Really hope you got a chance to grab "When The OakTeam Comes to Town", it's a greatest hits done live.

Love to all in Aussieland, take care,

T

feeling gassy

Every morning I get in the van to go to work and look at the dashboard only for it to look right back and say “You got 20 bucks?” “If you ain’t got 20 bucks I ain’t takin’ yo ass no damn whur!” It’s a bitch ain’t it. I know folks that drive an hour to work and an hour back…or more! (well, it’s not more on the way back but…you know what I mean!) It’s actually getting kinda funny to me just wonderin’ how high it can go. 10 bucks might not be too far fetched. Hell, I had my son help me at work yesterday and I paid him with the gas in my van. He drove to Raleigh and back on it. He drove it again tonight and I know what’s gonna happen. I’m gonna get in it tomorrow morning and crank it up (if it ain’t in reverse)…and look down…and it’s gonna scream at me…”I told yo ass! If you ain’t got $20 dollahs then you better git your dumb ass outta here!”

Grace and I really wanted some scallops tonight, so we sliced up some not-dogs and dipped’m in tarter sauce. I looooooooooooooooooooooove being a redneck!

Thirsty Thursday

 

Due to the OakTeam’s light schedule this year, the band has not only been spending time together recording a new record and a Christmas song but also checking out minor league baseball parks around the state. In an Email I got last year that I never really understood, something called the “Commissioners of Baseball” was formed with us and a few of our friends. We not only get together to go to Bulls and Mudcats games (both only 30 minutes from Raleigh) but last week we drove the hour plus to Kinston to see a great pitchers duel (1-0) at the Advanced A ball Kinston Indians Park. That place was a hoot with all of the tobacco barns just beyond the outfield wall.
Let it be known also that our favorite night to go is Thursday, or referred to in most parks as “Thirsty Thursday”, or as we like to call it “Dollah beer night!” This was especially fun a few weeks back in Greensboro, home of the single A Grasshoppers. They had a great local microbrew featured, a buck for 12 ounces and 2 bucks for 20. You could get a pretty good buzz on for a 5 spot. The aggravating thing about that park though was the influx of literally thousands of college girls. They were EVERYWHERE! We couldn’t even watch the game, they were standing all in the way during play and we were REALLY getting annoyed by this. Well, kind of…annoyed…well…not really THAT annoyed…actually. Mudcats this Thursday, anyone?

pics gone, takes brain with...

We’ve had a pretty vicious viral takeover here at the DoubleNaught Bunn Headquarters. I’ve lost most of my pictures, some pretty good ones, ones that I had already written stories for but...oh well…anyway, found these hiding behind a rock and they looked stupid so…here: whatsleft
Someone wanted my comment on songwriting, Here it is:
The morning dew collects on rainbows in my mind and little unicorns splash about in the puddles around it as the sun rises and butterflies sing along waking up my hippie consciousness and making me immune to the world and it’s torture, finding the spirit of a small child within me and birthin’ a new experience beyond the realm of the today’s newest revelation.....or some shit.
Actually though, I’ve always thought of my songs as children. You nurture them and try to raise them right and some of’m get it and some of’m don’t. Some grow up to do well and make a lot of money and the others want just hang around the house and get on your nerves. At some point you gotta tell those to get the hell out and go live with dey Mama!
The ones that make it in the world you are very proud of.

favorite song?

here's a hint:

 

QUOTES FROM THE BEST SONGWRITERS

I weeded out what I thought was bullshit..which was a LOT! Here's the best of the rest...



QUOTES FROM THE BEST SONGWRITERS
Lone Wolf Sullivan

Irving Berlin: "Listen kid, take my advice, never hate a song that has sold half a million copies."

George Gershwin: "Out of my entire annual output of songs, perhaps two, or at the most three, came as a result of inspiration. We can never rely on inspiration. When we most want it, it does not come."

Cole Porter: "My sole inspiration is a telephone call from a director."

Richard Rodgers: "It took about as long to compose it as to play it." (said about "Oh, What a Beautiful Morning", the opening song in "Oklahoma!")

Oscar Hammerstein II: "I hand him a lyric and get out of his way."

Alan Jay Lerner: "You write a hit the same way you write a flop.”

Hal David: "I tended not to be concerned about whether a song was going to be a hit when I wrote it. Because it became evident that none of us knew what was a hit and what wasn't. So I thought if I just write what I like, why shouldn't people like what I like?"

Leonard Cohen: "I wish I were one of those people who wrote songs quickly. But I'm not. So it takes me a great deal of time to find out what the song is. I am working most of the time."

Hank Williams: "If a song can't be written in 20 minutes, it ain't worth writing."

Donovan: "With songwriting, it all comes out in one flash. Then you work it, then you craft it."

Willie Dixon: "People have been brainwashed into believing that it's got to be down or it wouldn't be blues. But it's not so. It's got to be a fact or it wouldn't be blues."

Dolly Parton: "Bob Dylan, Neil Young, Merle Haggard, Hank Williams...all of them are different styles, but those are the songs that make the times...they're the songs that last through time."

Johnny Cash: "I start a lot more songs than I finish, because I realize when I get into them, they're no good. I don't throw them away, I just put them away, store them, get them out of sight...When I record somebody else's song, I have to make it my own or it doesn't feel right. I'll say to myself, I wrote this and he doesn't know it."

Kris Kristofferson: "Johnny Cash's face belongs on Mount Rushmore...I don't write as much as I did back when I was writing songs every day. I've come to know when I've got a good one, although sometimes it takes the world awhile to catch up with me...If you're in it because you love it and you have to do it, that's the right reason. If you're in it because you want to get rich or famous, don't do it."

Sheryl Crow: "A song that sounds simple is just not that easy to write. One of the objectives of this record was to try and write melodies that continue to resonate...Everything that happens to you influences your writing...The writing process for me is pretty much always the same--it's a solitary experience...I have yet to write that one song that defines my career...Beck said he didn't believe in the theory of a song coming through you as if you were an open vessel. I agree with him to a certain extent."

Stevie Nicks: "It was my 16th birthday--my mom and dad gave me my Goya classical guitar that day. I sat down, wrote this song, and I just knew that that was the only thing I could ever really do--write songs and sing them to people."

Ozzy Osbourne: "I didn't think anything we did was spectacular. I remember we thought, 'Let's just write some scary music.'"

Paul Anka: "I had this talent for these stupid little teenage songs. I just couldn't get anyone to sing my songs, so I had to sing my own tunes."

Smokey Robinson: "I always try to write a song, I never just want to write a record. Originally I was not writing songs for myself. Songwriting is my gift from God."

Lamont Dozier: "I don't think about commercial concerns when I first come up with something. When I sit down at the piano, I try to come up with something that moves me."

John Lennon: "I'd spent five hours that morning trying to write a song that was meaningful and good, and I finally gave up and lay down. Then, "Nowhere Man" came, words and music, the whole damn thing, as I lay down...Song writing is about getting the demon out of me. It's like being possessed. You try to go to sleep, but the song won't let you. So you have to get up and make it into something, and then you're allowed sleep. "

Paul McCartney: "Somebody said to me, But the Beatles were anti-materialistic. That's a huge myth. John and I literally used to sit down and say, Now, let's write a swimming pool."

George Harrison: "We worked the medley on side two of "Abbey Road" out carefully in advance. All of those mini songs were partly completed tunes; some were written while we were in India a year before. So there was just a bit of chorus here and a verse there. We welded them all together into a routine."

Stevie Wonder: “I really do seek to create music that is timeless, ... Each project takes on its own life, and the songs from "A Time To Love" are the most appropriate for the statement I wanted to make...The most important thing is, when I do give the music, I'm satisfied with it, that it speaks for what I want to do...It is a different kind of lyric; it's very picturesque. I can see everything that I'm writing, I can visualize all those things happening.”

Janis Ian: "I write a lot from instinct. But as you're writing out of instinct, once you reach a certain level as a songwriter, the craft is always there talking to you in the back of your head...that tells you when it's time to go to the chorus, when it's time to rhyme. Real basic craft... it's second nature."

Freddie Mercury: "People are always asking me what my lyrics mean. Does it mean this, does it mean that, that's all anybody wants to know. F**k them, darling. I say what any decent poet would say if you dared ask him to analyze his work: If you see it, dear, then it's there."

Johnny Mercer: "I could eat alphabet soup and s**t better lyrics." (musta been talking’ about Lenny Kravitz!)

James Brown: "I've outdone anyone you can name: Mozart, Beethoven, Bach, Strauss. Irving Berlin, he wrote 1,001 tunes. I wrote 5,500."

Van Morrison: "I write songs. Then I record them. And later, maybe I perform them on stage. That's what I do. That's my job. Simple. I don't feel comfortable doing interviews. My profession is music, and writing songs. I like to do it, but I hate to talk about it...Music is spiritual. The music business is not. Being famous was extremely disappointing for me. When I became famous it was a complete drag and it is still a complete drag.”

Billy Joel: "I consider myself to be an inept pianist, a bad singer, and a merely competent songwriter." (me too!)

Randy Newman: "If getting on the radio was a major motivation, I'd be one of the worst writers of all time. I admire people who do it, and I think it's a nice way to work, but I try to do the best I can and write what I like. I don't worry about it."

Harry Nilsson: "It happens so quickly it seems like it's coming from somewhere else. It's not. It just means that you're in sync with yourself. And whatever your goal is, in terms of hearing a melody or a lyric, the closer you get to it, the faster it comes out and the easier it is to "spit it out", as it were."

Little Richard: "I was washing dishes at the Greyhound bus station at the time and I said, 'Awap bop a lup bop a wop bam boom, take 'em out!'"

Tom Petty: "You're dealing in magic--it's this intangible thing that has to happen. And to seek it out too much might not be a good idea. Because, you know, it's very shy, too. But once you've got the essence of them, you can work songs and improve them. You see if there's a better word, or a better change."

Jimmy Buffet: "You know, as a writer, I'm more of a listener than a writer, cuz if I hear something I will write it down. And you find as a writer there are certain spots on the planet where you write better than others, and I believe in that. And New Orleans is one of them."

Angus Young: "I'm sick to death of people saying we've made 11 albums that sound exactly the same. In fact, we've made 12 albums that sound exactly the same!”

Pete Seeger: "I write a song because I want to. I think the moment you start writing it to make money, you're starting to kill yourself artistically."

Paul Simon: "It's very helpful to start with something that's true. If you start with something that's false, you're always covering your tracks. Something simple and true, that has a lot of possibilities, is a nice way to begin."

James Taylor: "I started being a songwriter pretending I could do it, and it turned out I could...To be a musician, especially a singer/songwriter--well, you don't do that if you have a thriving social life. You do it because there's an element of alienation in your life...I wish I could say, 'Oh, that would be great to write a song about.' But what I'm doing is assembling and minimally directing what is sort of unconsciously coming out. It's not something I can direct or control. I just end up being the first person to hear these songs. That's what it feels like...that I don't feel as though I write them. Then there's a phase when you button it up and finish it. But it all starts with a lightning strike. A melody will suggest itself in the context of whatever I'm playing, and then the cadence will suggest words. And those words don't come from a conscious place. I typically will work on a lyric in a three-ring binder. On the right side, I'll write the lyric, and on the left side, I put in alternate things."

Tracy Chapman: "Songwriting is a very mysterious process. It feels like creating something from nothing. It's something I don't feel like I really control."

Peter Townshend: "What I took back, because of my exposure to the Jewish music of the 30s and the 40s in my upbringing with my father, was that kind of theatrical songwriting. It was always a part of my character. This desire to make people laugh...Songwriting is best. It's the hardest--finest--tightest. It also requires the most discipline."

Todd Rundgren: "I don't have the same restrictions that other people do because I never painted myself into a corner. I've always done things that didn't necessarily fit the form. I've never felt limited in that respect in terms of songwriting."

Brian Wilson: "The idea of taking a song, envisioning the overall sound in my head and then bringing the arrangement to life in the studio...well, that gives me satisfaction like nothing else...My state of being has been elevated, because I've been exercising, writing songs...No masterpiece ever came overnight. A person's masterpiece is something that you nurture along."

Cab Calloway: "You don't think it was because a white man wrote it, a black man wrote it, a green man wrote it. What--doesn't make a difference!"

Carole King: "I'm a songwriter first...In my career I have never felt that my being a woman was an obstacle or an advantage. I guess I've been oblivious...Sensitive, humbug. Everybody thinks I'm sensitive...There is a downside to having one of the biggest-selling albums ever."

Willie Nelson: "I like myself better when I'm writing regularly...I was influenced a lot by those around me--there was a lot of singing that went on in the cotton fields."

Prince: "I try not to repeat myself. It's the hardest thing in the world to do--there are only so many notes one human being can master...One of the reasons we’re going out on the road and why we’re titling this tour as "Musicology" is because we want to bring that back. We want to teach the kids and musicians of the future the art of song writing, the art of real musicianship.”

John Prine: “I just tried to come up with some honest songs. What I was writing about was real plain stuff that I wasn't sure was going to be interesting to other people. But I guess it was...I've never had any discipline whatsoever. I just wait on a song like I was waiting for lightning to strike. And eventually--usually sometime around 3 in the morning--I'll have a good idea. By the time the sun comes up, hopefully, I'll have a decent song.”

Neil Young: "I don't force it. If you don't have an idea and you don't hear anything going over and over in your head, don't sit down and try to write a song. You know, go mow the lawn...My songs speak for themselves."

Boudleaux Bryant: "As far as my creative urge is concerned, I do sit down and write my own music...I'll tell you a writer who I think is a genius: Ray Stevens. He comes up with some of the most fantastic novelty ideas. Dolly Parton also writes well. I like a lot of songs, a lot of writers."

Chrissie Hynde: "I've done lots of songs for film soundtracks and things like that--stuff I'm not ashamed of, but that doesn't represent my legacy with the Pretenders...I think domesticity certainly doesn't make it easy to write, you know, because you've got a lot of distractions and I think a writer is always looking for distractions."

Steve Earle: "Townes van Zandt is the best songwriter in the whole world and I'll stand on Bob Dylan's coffee table in my cowboy boots and say that."

Townes Van Zandt: "I don't think you can ever do your best. Doing your best is a process of trying to do your best."

Loretta Lynn: "I don't know what it's like for a book writer or a doctor or a teacher as they work to get established in their jobs. But for a singer, you've got to continue to grow or else you're just like last night's cornbread--stale and dry."

Jimmy Webb: "I usually know what kind of song I'm after. I know what I'm trying to do when I start. I don't always get there. But I try to visualize what it's actually going to be."

Kid Rock: "I've just really been into melody and lyrics and songwriting. Writing a rap, to me, is easy. I could write a rap like that. But writing songs and melodies and s**t that's hopefully going to stick around for 30, 40 years is f**king hard...If you have good songs and you're talented, people will eventually come to your shows, people will buy your music."

Otis Blackwell: "I'd hate to be a songwriter starting a career today...Al Stanton walked in one day and said, 'Otis, I've got an idea. Why don't you write a song called "All Shook Up"?' Two days later I brought the song in and said, 'Look, man, I did something with it.'"
Peter Tosh: "I don't have to say I'm going to make a song. A song is always there. I just have to open my mouth and a song comes out."

John Mellencamp: "It's my responsibility as a singer/songwriter to report the news."

Bono: "I have never tried to write this thing called a song that's played on radios all around the world, that window-cleaners hum, that people listen to in traffic jams. I was never interested in song: U2 came about through a sound."

Sting: "Songwriting is a kind of therapy for both the writer and the listener if you choose to use it that way. When you see that stuff help other people that's great and wonderful confirmation that you're doing the right thing."

Bruce Springsteen: "I didn't know if it would be a successful one, or what the stages would be, but I always saw myself as a lifetime musician and songwriter...I was always concerned with writing to my age at a particular moment. That was the way I would keep faith with the audience that supported me as I went along...I'm a synthesist. I'm always making music. And I make a lot of different kinds of music all the time. Some of it gets finished and some of it doesn't...The best music is essentially there to provide you something to face the world with."
Jim Morrison: "Listen, real poetry doesn't say anything; it just ticks off the possibilities. Opens all doors. You can walk through any one that suits you...I believe in a long, prolonged, derangement of the senses in order to obtain the unknown...I like any reaction I can get with my music. Just anything to get people to think."

Mick Jagger: "A lot of times songs are very much of a moment, that you just encapsulate. They come to you, you write them, you feel good that day, or bad that day."

Keith Richards: "I don't think rock n' roll songwriters should worry about art. I don't think it comes into it...as far as I'm concerned, Art is just short for Arthur..."... I don't like to go into the studio with all the songs worked out and planned before hand...you've got to give the band something to use its imagination on as well."

Billy Gibbons: "My discussion with Keith Richards about the creative process led me to believe that there's an invisible presence of a stream of ever-flowing creativity that we overhear--all you have to do is pull up the antenna and dial it in. This presence allows you to maintain your sense of origin and move forward."

Jimi Hendrix: "Imagination is the key to my lyrics. The rest is painted with a little science fiction...All I'm writing is just what I feel, that's all. I just keep it almost naked. And probably the words are so bland...I just hate to be in one corner. I hate to be put as only a guitar player, or either only as a songwriter, or only as a tap dancer. I like to move around...Music doesn't lie. If there is something to be changed in this world, then it can only happen through music."

Eric Clapton: "The writing of the song is the therapy. The toughness is doing nothing. It's very dependent on your state of mind. And your emotional state as well. And a lot of it comes pouring out, you don't really have that much control with it. I've felt that the only way to survive was with dignity, pride and courage."

Bob Dylan: "My best songs were written very quickly. Just about as much time as it takes to write it down is about as long as it takes to write it...In writing songs I've learned as much from Cezanne as I have from Woody Guthrie...It's not me, it's the songs. I'm just the postman, I deliver the songs...I consider myself a poet first and a musician second. I live like a poet and I'll die like a poet."

Chuck Berry: "For many years I've been reluctant to make new songs. There has been a great laziness in my soul...All those m- words and f- words, don't blame me for that. I'd rather hear Tommy Dorsey or Artie Shaw any day...Look, I ain't no big s**t, all right? My music, it is very simple stuff. I told you all this before. I wanted to play blues. But I wasn't blue enough. I wasn't like Muddy Waters...I was in Australia, and I found out they wouldn't even let a black man become a citizen there. That's why I wrote that song. You know 'Back in the USA,' don't you?" don't you?"

"Eggnog-orant"

Props to the OAKteam boys for showing up and delivering on our new bootscootin’ Christmas shag, “Eggnog-orant”. It’s a stupid little number that should liven up a few holiday bashes this December. Thanks to Jon for showing up and being brilliant again behind the board.

Eggnog-orant

Well it starts out innocent and so nice
And then you add some liquor and some spice
Eggnog-orant
You get Eggnog-orant

If you wanna get stupid and you wanna get dumb
Just pour in a little bit too much rum
Eggnog-orant
Ya get Eggnog-orant

Well it ain’t a Christmas party, ain’t a holiday bash
Unless everybody is holding up a glass
Eggnog-orant
We’re getting’ Eggnog-orant
Eggnog-orant
We’re so Eggnog-orant

Well Mama likes to drink it
When she’s cooking all that food
Nothing like some Christmas spirits
To get her in the mood

So go a head and have you a real good time
Just make sure you don’t drink it and drive
Eggnog-orant
That would be Eggnog-orant

TA c2008

normandy

Well I’m back from the war. My opponent was fierce and put up a good fight but I think I finally prevailed. We’ll see in a few months. You see, I just got back from the beach (for 5 days) where I was locked in a townhouse with 6 gallons of the worst paint ever sold to mankind. Sold at Lowe’s (I know, first mistake. But it wasn’t my fault! I usually only use Benny Moore!), this shit is called Olympic Interior Satin and it is so bad that the WHITE wouldn’t even cover over the existing white! So I had to put two coats on everything and needless to say I was busier than a one legged man at an Ass-Kickin’ concert. Wednesday I worked 16 hours and it only got slightly better from there the rest of the week. The other mindnumbing task I was given included taking wallpaper off of 2 bathrooms and painting them. This is always questionable as you never know who or how it was put up and unfortunately whoever did these (no doubt, the builder) didn’t take the time or effort to paint or size the walls first, so no matter how much I soaked the backing paper it was taking much of the top paper off of the sheetrock. Now THAT leaves a purty mess!

 

From there you apply an oil primer, sand that and then patch the divots left with joint compound, sand that and then three coats of shitty Olympic Satin. Just kill me.
I did take about 30 minutes each day between 7:30 and 8pm to take some pics of the sunsets. Mostly to remind myself that a LOT of folks have it worse than me, even though I found it really hard to believe at the time.

 

 

 

OakTeam in the studio tonight to record a new Christmas song.

heavy beat outfit

danny: solid

TA: flailing

chip: wailing

greg: punishes

dave: burnin'

Sadlacks

 

The show at Sadlacks was blast. It was better attended than the night before and The Heavy Beat Outfit kicked just as much ass. Afterwards I had the pleasure of meeting "Sho Nuff"!

 

 

show for Drew

 

 

It was a disappointing turnout but nonetheless rockin' as Chip Robinson and The Heavy Beat Outfit played new songs from his next record that he and Roscoe (doing an awesome job as usual!) are working on in New York. I was embarrassed that more folks didn't show up to see what I have to admit was an incredible show for an even more incredible cause, benefiting the family of Drew Glackin. There was video being shot so maybe you'll get a taste of it one day.
We're doing it again today at Sadlack's. The festivities begin early so get on down there. The HBO set is about 5:45, don't miss it! It might be your last chance for a while!

looking up

I haven't been able to share my crappy week with everyone because well...that's part of it, our computer shit the bed. It started Monday morning in the pouring rain when I was driving along and my van's fuel pump conked out. With TWO painting jobs to get to there was only one thing to do. So I called the Bunn Exxon and got towed in and ran home and got in my old reliable '92 Dodge Dakota and hightailed it to work. Found out later it was only gonna be $500, yippee!!! Spent the rest of the week working my ass off before going to rehearsals 3 or those nights, with a gig in Winston-Salem (awesome fun, with a great crowd no less!) mixed in last night. At least I was painting ceilings all week so things were looking up!
Playing with Chip Robinson and the Heavy Beat Outfit tonight at the Pour House for a tribute/benifit for our friend Drew from The Silos. Should be a great night.
Just hoping I don't end up in the new local rag called "The Slammer. It's awesome! It's made up solely of mug shots of locals who were arrested this week, DWI's, sex offenders, you name it. Jack took a look at the thing yesterday and saw someone he works with. Hmmm...no wonder he'd been absent lately....