Skip to main content

Day One Hundred Nineteen (Year Two)

Went to the Sonia Leigh in-store performance at work today before my shift.  I was expecting it to just be her and an acoustic guitar, but to our amazement, we got a 5 piece band!  It was Sonia and her acoustic guitar, her drummer, her bass player (with an acoustic bass), her lead guitarist (on acoustic), and an accordion player.  This is the second time I've watched accordion take lead phrases with an acoustic as the backup instrument (the other was at last year's Bastard Sons of Johnny Cash gig), and it was equally as amazing today as it was then.

The other cool thing to watch was the way that Sonia and her guitarist interacted & structured their acoustic arrangements.  Her guitar was almost always capoed up the neck, while his was almost never altered.  It was a mini-crash course in part layering, and a really cool way to make more noise with less instruments (something I can definitely use in recording).

As an added bonus, they played at least half of the new record.  As best as I can recall, here's what was on the setlist:

1) "A Poem From The Ocean Floor"
2) "Bar"
3) "Roaming"
4) "My Name Is Money"
5) "Ain't Dead Yet"

It was really cool to meet someone who seems to be on the way up.  Both Sonia and her band were extremely personable, and very glad to be there for the gig.  It was a definite highlight of working where I do and an awesome music moment in my year.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

DayOne Hundred Sixty Nine (Year Eight)

Today was another good day.  I spent all of it with my brother, which I needed a lot, even though I just saw him over Christmas. Tonight we finally got around to some music discussion.  He took a look at my list of goals for the year, and sees it as a really good set of steps to get me where I'd like to be from where I am.  I picked his brain about a few of the nagging questions I still had as I get started, and he was able to put my mind at ease. Having a chance to sit and chat with him is always good for my musical soul, because he constantly drives me to be a better, more well rounded player, and I'm pretty sure that I can never thank him enough for all of the advice, support, and encouragement he offers every time we chat.
Post a Comment
Read more

Day Two Hundred Six (Year Four)

Today was the first official day of the second half of my "album-in-a-month" challenge. As for today's goals, I wanted to see what I could get done in regards to track order, and get at least a little bit of a start on the lyric writing process. I spent more time working on the track order question than I did on the lyrics today, but as a result of that, I ended up with something that I think will work in terms of order. I did sit with the notebook for a few minutes at the very end of the day, and got a solid starting line of lyric and some other ideas that I hope will be jumping off points for lyrics. What I'm thinking I might do, however, is switch my focus from the lyric writing part of the process directly to the recording part of the process.  That way, if I can get the music recorded and burned onto a CD, I can take the music with me in the car, and listen and try to see what images and thoughts the music brings up.  It's a tactic that has worked for...
Post a Comment
Read more

Day One Hundred Thirty (Year Five)

I got more time in the studio today than I have in a long time.  It wasn't quite enough for me (as always), but it was a productive re-introduction, I thought, to my life in the studio.  I: 1) Got a bit of reading done in Songs & Solos 2) Dragged out the tab book for Recovering The Satellites in preparation for the Counting Crows shows that are coming this month.  Worked on a bit of "A Long December," and a bit of "Have You Seen Me Lately."  What struck me, in taking a closer look at the tab, were the fills and arpeggios that make up a lot of the non-vocal melody.  It's fun to play, and it comes as a teaching opportunity when it comes to songwriting. 3)  I decided on the Tom Waits Biography, Low Side Of The Road for my music reading this month. 4) I didn't get to as much of the lead guitar & fretboard work as I would have liked to, but that will give me something to focus on as the week goes along. All told, it was a really good day....
Post a Comment
Read more