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Day Three Hundred Twenty Four

R. & I saw Warren Haynes tonight at Simon Estes Amphitheater. Weather got nice just in time. Perfect night for a show, although it got a bit cold near the end, but hey, who's keeping score? What an amazing venue! Right along the river, downtown in the background, awesome scene. Haynes and the band were smoking, fresh off of their set at Bonnaroo. They did at least 5 tracks off of his new record, a few Mule tunes ("Beautifully Broken," and "Soulshine," which closed the show), and one song for sure off of his first solo record. I can't wait to find the setlist online. I really don't have enough Gov't Mule. That will change in the not too distant future. There will likely be more on the show tomorrow, but other stuff to discuss, plus I'm starting to fade a bit here.

Spent 3-4 hours Skypeing with B. today, catching her up on what has happened this week. She was (as I expected) wildly jealous that I got to hear stuff with drums last night. It's looking like she'll only have to wait 'til Tuesday night to hear everything for herself, though. Both she and I are off, and J. will be available in the evening. Glad we've finally got our first full meeting scheduled. B's worried that we'll sound too much like Evanescence. That would've worried me about 5 years ago. It worries me less now, simply because they haven't been around much for a long time, and there are so many other bands out there floating in that territory. Right now, I'm more concerned with us sounding like us eventually, and getting the right songs written for the record. Because, as I told B., if the songs are right, it won't matter if we sound a little bit like Evanescence in places, because the music will hold its own. Besides, every hard rock band fronted by a female vocalist that has come after them owes/sounds a little bit like them.

We spent the last hour of the session writing a bit, or rather, making sure we both had the right chord progressions for the songs on the list. She's planning on spending the next couple of days working out what it was we played all those years ago. I'm going to do the same. Hopefully, between the two of us, we'll get it all sqaured away. She told me she wants a few songs on the record that aren't in minor keys, and I just about fell out of my chair. For 5 years now, she's rejected song ideas because they "weren't dark enough," and now she wants a few happier things. I'm totally down with that idea, have been for a long time actually, it'll give the record more movement and flow. That said, she really liked all of the progressions that I've been messing around with lately. She also admitted that she struggles with the fact that, every time she sits down with the guitar, she writes something new. I welcomed her to my world, and told her the truth: that I do the same thing, and that I'd rather have too many songs to pick from than not have enough options. It'll take some different approaches, but it looks as if we'll be able to write over Skype. My next project is going to be tracking all of the new ideas, so that B. can have a concrete idea of what they sound like in my head.

One last thing for tonight: R. dropped off "Z" by My Morning Jacket tonight when we left for the show, and I realized much later (after I got home) that I forgot to give her "Magic Potion" by the Black Keys in exchange. Oh well, perhaps I'll drop it off Tuesday when I'm off.

Great day today!

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