The Band

There's lots of band-related news. As I mentioned, our album "Hidin' Out with the Blues" is out on iTunes. And, we have a new band website: http://voodoohighwayband.com We are particularly excited about the "What People Are Saying" tab... And, in honor of Black Friday, we've posted our song "Walmart Killed Main Street" to YouTube. Shop local, if you still can!

Gigging: Thater Races and Communiversity Fest

I wanted to write about the gig we just did, a big block party downtown jointly sponsored by the community and the university (hence "Communiversity Fest"), but first I'm going to paste in a post I wrote almost a month ago and forgot to put up, about the Thater races, a big gig in the park that we also did last year and were very happy about doing again this year....

AUGUST 28: This was a great gig! Better turnout than last year; in fact, better turnout than we saw for any other band down there (ok, we only saw a few other bands—but still!). It was a very high-energy gig—lots of energy from the crowd, and plenty on stage as well. There was a problem with the guitar amp they provided, so Bob loaned the band before us his amp. This somehow got the set-up all a little off, so we were a little behind schedule when we were setting up, which was a tiny bit stressful. (With these types of gigs, when a whole bunch of bands are playing short sets one right after the other, a quick tear-down and set-up is key, and is insisted upon.) I’m glad it didn’t happen last year because it might have thrown me. But I was able to just let it go when it was time to play.

We opened with All Right Now, which started us off on a high note, and it just got better from there. Right off the bat there was a “tween” girl with a Nintendo DS up front taking pictures of us. Maybe she had just gotten the DS and was experimenting with taking pictures of anything, but still, I felt flattered! The crowd seemed to love Hidin’ Out with the Blues (one of our newest originals), which we played next, and Josie (after that) always goes over big. Next was Ramblin’ Man, and when the opening riff started, you could feel the mood lift in the crowd. They were totally into it, and boy was that fun! Why (one of my songs, that I've blogged about in the past) also went over huge. It was my favorite time playing it, ever. There were these young teen-aged girls off to my left who I noticed were completely digging the song, and digging me, so I gave them a little encouragement by singing some of the lines to them. Well, that’s all it took, and they were off and running. Singing along with each chorus, copping the appropriate attitude… (“when I’m the best that you ever had…”) I can’t tell you how much fun it was, getting that kind of reaction on a song I’d written. After that we hit ‘em with Black Magic Woman, and the crowd's energy seemed to increase again! What a rush. The group of girls started line dancing, and all across the park we could see people really loving it. At the end of that, I said, “All right! Let’s Rock and Roll!” And Donnie, the stage manager, who had come up to the top of the steps, said “Let’s Rock and Roll? How ‘bout let’s go home!!” and then he laughed and said “Ok, one more…” At that point we had planned to play Can’t You See, but I was thinking it was too long (plus I would’ve had to strap on my guitar)... and also I really wanted to keep the energy up. So I called out Mojo, and we ended with that. Of course it went over like hot cakes!

It was one of my favorite gigs. I was so excited and happy and having a ball the whole time. I was nervous beforehand, for much of the day, really. But once I got on stage I was in the comfort zone. It was a blast.

And I’m really glad that of our 3 big outdoor gigs that we have lined up for late summer, this one was first. I’m feeling ready to rock downtown!

Some pictures:

You can see the girl with the Nintendo DS in the foreground:

Love my blue congas!
Here are the line-dancing, chorus-singing, girl-power girls (Donnie dubbed them the "Sparkle Sisters"):
And here's our littlest fan, the precious Baby Ben:

And here are a few pictures from Blues on the Bridge, which I didn't write a separate blog post about. Here's Lindsey with Baby Ben--she watched him for the whole time (Laurie was out of town), and did a truly awesome job!:

I loved this stage. I especially loved that it was right over the foot bridge where Bob and I had a whole slew of wedding pictures taken, as it's not too far from the church where we married. But also it's just one of my favorite spots in Binghamton, right by the confluence of the Susquehanna and Chenango rivers.

The booths set up on the bridge over the Chenango, directly in front of the stage:

Linds and Baby Ben, after the gig. It might look like Ben's in the same onesie as he had on at the Thater, but that one has a big peace sign on it and this one says "Johnny Cash Folsom Prison" on it. Classic!

Ok, now onto talking about Communiversity Fest:

SEPTEMBER 24: This was the third in our series of 3 big outdoor gigs. Another short gig, which is perfect (so that I can stay for the whole thing but still not be gone from the baby for too long). The Thater Races and Blues on the Bridge were the first two. I loved how the Thater gig went, but I honestly felt just a little deflated after Blues on the Bridge—it went by so fast! I felt like I barely got going and then it was over. This was partly due to the way we had constructed the set list: for one thing, I didn’t sing until 4 songs in, and I didn’t realize how that would affect my feeling connected to the crowd and vice versa. Plus, we were also really bummed to discover that they put the wrong web address for us in the program—a MySpace page for another Voodoo Highway! Anyway, this gig wasn’t going to be much longer, but I liked the pacing of the set list that we’d come up with a lot better, and I was really looking forward to rocking downtown. And I was going to make sure I announced our website, so people could find us if they liked us and wanted to hear us again.

There was some pre-show drama. We all met at the Geers’ (our neighbors' house, where we practice), and were on our way downtown in two cars when Mike, our drummer, realized he’d left his drumsticks back in his car. So we dropped everyone off downtown to get started with the set up (the equipment was all in the Geers’ car), and Mike and I headed back to the Geers’ to get his sticks. When we were on our way back downtown, Bob called to say that although we’d been told there would be a drum kit provided, in fact, there was none, and we’d have to get Mike’s drums. WHAT?! So Mike and I turned around and headed back to the Geers’, and madly started dismantling his kit which was set up in their basement. It’s quite the production. But just when we had it just about all dismantled (but not all packed up), Bob called back and said the drummer in the band that had just finished said we could use his. Ok! So, back downtown….

It took us and the sound people a while to get us all set up. They had some a capella groups on in between bands, and they were quite good, but people weren’t really sticking around. When we had first arrived at this thing, at slightly before 8, there were a lot of people there, but by the time we were ready to go on, hardly anyone was left! All the vendors had packed up and gone home, and most of the crowd had as well.

Anyway, we were finishing up the sound check at about 8:35, so running late by about 5 minutes or so, and then Bob broke a string! So then we had to wait while he changed it, which took almost another 10 minutes.

I took the opportunity to talk up the band to the few people who were sticking around. Telling them our name, website, upcoming gigs… I was actually kind of having fun with it. I felt loose and “on”. And it was good practice for me. I still sometimes am so focused on the music that I forget to talk to the crowd. With no music to focus on just yet, it was easy to remember to talk!

Finally, at 8:45—15 minutes late—we were ready to go on. We busted out with Black Magic Woman. I was a little nervous that there weren’t any on-stage monitors; I was wondering how the heck we were going to be able to hear ourselves. But on both of the speaker stacks that were off to each side they had one speaker that was turned back around toward us and I could actually hear us just fine (though Mike, who was sitting 3 feet or so behind me, said he couldn’t hear at all). I did hear a bit of an echo sometimes, which can be really disconcerting, but it wasn’t too often. All in all, I could hear us just fine.

The crowd, such as it was, seemed to be loving it. And honestly, I will take a small crowd who’s totally into it over a larger crowd that just sits there any day! They were dancing and singing along and playing air guitar, etc., and were clearly enjoying it. It was a great vibe. I was having a blast.

Next came Gimme 3 Steps, which I sing, and I felt really good about it. I felt like we were hitting it just right and again, it was going over very well. I think Bob was a little thrown from the broken string thing, and he skipped ahead a bit in the middle part of the 3-part solo, but I don’t think anyone really noticed. We all just followed him ahead.

Next up was Ramblin’ Man, which I felt like we also nailed, and the crowd also seemed to love. Several groups of people walked by during the song, and everyone was looking like they were really into it.

I was excited to sing Why next, and was trying to decide if I was going to announce ahead of time that it’s one of our songs or wait until it was over to say that… however, when we ended Ramblin’ Man one of the organizers headed over to the stage and told us that was it! Time was up—the sound people were only on until 9, and it was 9.

So, all that work to play 3 songs in front of probably 30 people! But you know what? I loved it. Standing there on Court Street, under the street lights and the traffic signal that kept changing from green-to-yellow-to-red and back again, playing songs I love for people who were digging it… I was really happy.

I do still feel like any experience is good experience at this point. And who knows? Maybe we made a few new fans who will come out and hear us again next time.

Sorry the formatting is a bit messed up on this post. I really should learn HTML. I'll put that on my to-do list. Ha.

Back out there with the Band

It was great to be back out gigging again, especially for such a fun and appreciative audience as the firemen turned out to be! And Baby Ben survived it just fine (and my pal who watched him survived his fussy time--whew).

The funniest thing that happened at this gig was when a guy came up to me during the break and asked me if I'd slap him. What?? For real? Yes. He didn't seem like a total creep or anything--in fact, he seemed like a very nice young fireman--so I said ok, and gave him a good ole slap across the face. It was kinda fun actually. (Is that wrong?!) He thanked me and walked away.

Very soon after that a slightly older fireman came up and said to me, "What did my son say to you??!" I just laughed and said something like, "Well, I don't really want to repeat it, but let's just say we're even now." He apologized profusely for his son's rudeness, and then walked away. A little while later I was at the bar getting a refill on my water (I get very thirsty when I sing!), and the young guy, the son, came up to me and thanked me again, both for slapping him and for not giving him away when his dad asked me about it. It turns out that he had made a bet with his friends. He told them that he wanted to come up and talk to me, and they said they didn't think he had the guts (I *told* you it was an appreciative audience!). He then upped the ante and told them what he planned on saying to me, which he didn't repeat to me, but was obviously something quite bold. They said he wouldn't dare say that! And he said oh-yes-he-would, and walked up to me... and you know the rest. Anyway, I guess this mama's still got it ;-)

The Baby and the Band

We have a bunch of gigs lined up for the second half of the summer, starting with one today, so I've been back in full swing with band practice. It has not been entirely smooth! But we're working it out, and it feels great to be back.

Our first gig is perfect to start out with, because it is short--two one-hour sets, with a short break in between. We've worked it out so that I won't be needed for the second half of the second set, so I can leave early. I'll be leaving Ben at home with my best pal (who is also one of his godmothers) and plenty of pumped milk and instructions re. what to do if he gets fussy (dip in the hot tub followed by time in his swing). I'm actually feeling ok about leaving him for this short amount of time, with someone I completely trust, and am hopeful about how it will go.

I've participated in two full practices so far, to get ready for this gig. For the first one, we had George watch Ben (just right upstairs from us!), which did not go so very well, I'm afraid. The problem is that practice happens to be right at Ben's fussy time. Ben was fine when I left him to go downstairs, but before long he was screaming his head off. George was so frustrated and felt so bad that he was powerless to help his little brother that he soon joined Ben in the tear-shedding department. Fortunately, our sound guy (Les, who is also one of Ben's godfathers) came to the rescue, putting Ben in the "football hold" while walking him around, and getting him to sleep right away. At that point their daughter who was home from college stepped in and held Ben for the rest of practice.

So this week we thought we'd try having my stepdaughter Lindsey watch Ben during practice, because she is really incredible with him. In fact, sometimes she can calm him down even when Bob and I can't! We call her the junior mommy, which she loves. She's only 9, and I wouldn't even think of leaving her truly alone with him, but I figured she could handle being upstairs from us. Practice lasts only about an hour and a half, and she watches him all the time at home--including during his fussy time. But in fact it was a bit rough on her! I came up in between songs at a certain point and her eyes were welling up with tears as she told me that it was too hard! He wasn't actually crying with Lindsey--he's sooo comfortable with her--but he was wiggling all over the place and she just didn't know what to do to settle him. I put him in the stroller and walked him around the living room and dining room until they really needed me downstairs again, at which point Les once again came to the rescue, getting Ben calm enough to where he fell out hard next to Lindsey on the couch. Probably what we need to do is just bring the swing to band practice with us, because that works pretty much every time. I'm also contemplating getting some noise-canceling headphones for him, so he could even be downstairs with us while we play.

Anyway... playing our old songs again (covers, as opposed to our own music which we've been playing exclusively since mid-February) has been a lot of fun. I have absolutely been loving the recording process, but getting back to our standard set list has also felt great--like putting on a pair of really comfy-but-cute shoes and stepping out to dance the night away!

The gig is a party put on by the firemen in a nearby town. Since it's relatively short, we'll be playing only songs that are our very favorites, including the debut of two songs that we've recorded but have never before performed in public.

Wish me luck!

"Bad Girl": Song #3

The third song we recorded was actually the first song I wrote. I mean, the first song I wrote to sing with the band, because I actually wrote another one before that, but that's another story for another time.

I wrote Bad Girl before I had even joined the band. It is semi-autobiographical. But the initial inspiration actually came from a TV show called Redemption Song, about these women with troubled pasts competing to win a recording contract. As I was watching it, I was just sort of thinking how there's a little "bad girl" in us all, in some way or other, and I was thinking about how it would be funny to write a song about that, to play with that concept a little bit. About how I'm so bad because I don't always keep up with my dishes, or balance my checkbook, or remember to shut the back door even in the winter (hey, I'm from California!)... that sort of thing. But how none of that matters to Bob--it's all good with him.

I say it's "semi-"autobiographical because a couple of things in the song are not based on me. I'm actually pretty good about RSVPing. In fact, I throw a lot of parties myself, and it's kind of a pet peeve of mine when friends don't bother to RSVP. (You know who you are, people!!! LOL). Also, my mom doesn't really think I'm a jerk. Plus, I would never leave the cap off the toothpaste. The rest of it's all me, though!

I wrote the words in the late fall of 2008. I think I was already singing a couple of songs with the band, and had been coming to practices, but I hadn't officially joined. Bob and I were married but weren't living together yet (we were taking it slow! Ha!); we were at his house and he picked up his guitar and we came up with a melody together. I remember we were rushing at the end because we had to drive back here for band practice. I'm pretty sure we were putting the finishing touches on the song in the car-ride back here. When we got to practice we told everyone we'd written a song, and we worked it up with the band right then.

We debuted the song in May 2009, at the first gig we did with me as a full-fledged band member, at a neat little cafe (that has since closed, unfortunately) called the River Muse. It got a great reaction from the crowd (most of whom were our friends); I was totally thrilled.

It got a slightly different reaction when we played it at a party where I didn't know any of the guests. It was clear that they hadn't really been listening to the lyrics during the verse, because when we got to the chorus ("I'm a bad, bad girl, now, Baby/What they say is pretty much true/I'm a very, very bad girl/but I'm oh so good... with you"), everyone looked sort of shocked and some people even looked a little uncomfortable. A few of the women even left the dance floor. I wanted to stop the song and tell them to listen more carefully to the lyrics! That I'm a bad girl because I don't balance my checkbook! Because I eat too much chocolate! I mean, yes, the song is definitely meant to have a sexy edge to it. But it's not a song about sleeping around.

After that I was careful to introduce the song properly--either by saying something along the lines of, "Before I sing this song I want to state for the record that I am a fine, upstanding member of this community" or by asking the crowd if there are any rebels out there, and then saying this song is for you. Or sometimes Sue, our keyboard player, will joke around before we start about how she has no idea why such a nice girl like me would write a song like this. Any one of those seems to do the trick! Because apart from that one time, this song has pretty much always scored big with the crowd....

So, all you rebels out there... give it a listen. I hope you like it.

"Don't Go Lookin' for Trouble" and "Why": Songs #1 and #2

We finally have some recordings ready! A whole bunch of them at once, actually. I'm going to write about them one or two at a time, but if you click on any one of the band links in the sidebar (under "Voodoo Highway Links") you can listen to all 5 of them anytime. These are actually working drafts of the songs; we're still adding and re-doing parts. But we were eager to get at least something up on sites....

The first two we recorded, back in late February/early March, were "Don't Go Lookin' for Trouble" and "Why", which were both written last summer. Bob and I have co-written pretty much all of the songs, but the process hasn't been the same for each one. As for the lyrics: for some songs I've written most of the words and for some he has; sometimes we'll really contribute equally. As for the tunes, same thing. Sometimes for the lyrics I've written I'll have a tune in mind and he'll help me hammer it out on the guitar; sometimes I won't have any idea for a tune and he'll noodle around until we find something we're both feeling; sometimes he'll have a fully formed tune or set of riffs that we'll match up with some lyrics.

"Don't Go Lookin' for Trouble" was one of the songs where I wrote the lyrics, and we collaborated on the music. I say I wrote the lyrics, but they practically wrote themselves (I *love* it when that happens). In fact, I got the idea for the song when I was walking to my car from my office. By the time I got to my car in the parking lot I had the chorus written. On the 10-minute ride home I wrote two of the verses, and when I got home I raced upstairs to my laptop to write it all down before I forgot any of it, and then promptly wrote the third verse as well.

It's the second of two songs that are about a big fight Bob and I had! Just about a year ago or so. Now, listen, Bob and I hardly *ever* fight. Really. We get along so well that it's almost freaky. But every once in a great while, of course, we put on the boxing gloves, as it were, and go at it. It's usually all his fault. Ha. Kidding. Sort of. What happens when we have a disagreement is he's the one who generally gets more angry and reactive, and I just sort of give him some space until he cools down (and comes to his senses :-). While I was giving him that space during this particular fight, I decided that instead of just sitting around waiting and being annoyed I'd pass the time by writing a song about it. That song was "Why". I left the lyrics in the chorus vague enough that they could apply to any number of situations where your partner slips up or lets you down. It was actually a really fun and empowering experience to write about a fight, and I told Bob to go ahead and be a jerk whenever he wants. LOL

Anyway, Bob loved the lyrics and was happy I'd written them--we had at that point written I think 4 songs which we were performing regularly with the band, and he was very glad to have another one to work on. We didn't write the music right way, but set the lyrics aside, waiting for inspiration to hit.

Not long after that, I was at work, and found out about a situation where some people were gossiping about me. I didn't let it get to me too much, but of course I was not thrilled about it. And on my way to the car that afternoon when I was leaving, I started thinking about how some people just thrive on conflict and drama, and they really enjoy stirring up trouble. I've known people like that my whole life, as I'm sure we all have. They're just always looking for something to stir up. And I was asking myself what makes them that way, and the only thing I could come up with was that maybe it was something from their childhood. And that got me thinking about my mom, and how she used to tell me that you should always pay close attention to what you're looking for because whatever it is, you're bound to find it. So better to be on the lookout for happiness than for trouble. Which then led me back to thinking about the fight Bob and I had recently had (even though it was completely resolved by then), and about how it seemed to me that he had just been sort of looking for a fight with me, and how he'd eventually gotten what he was looking for.... And thus was another song written. The lyrics anyway.

When I called Bob on the phone to tell him about the new song, I prefaced it by saying that it wasn't about him or our fight, really, that it was just in general about people who stand in the way of their own happiness. But he laughed as I read him the lyrics, because we both knew that wasn't exactly the case! Good thing he's so good-natured and has such a great sense of humor, even about himself :-)

Ok, so fast-forward to early August, when we took a trip to Squam Lake, NH, where my sister rents a house on a tiny island every summer and sometimes invites me. It's really beautiful, and also really rustic, with no electricity. We decided to bring the (acoustic) guitars, because we thought it might be nice to play or even write a little music while we were there. Well, it ended up being an incredibly prolific few days for us. We spent much of the time in the lovely gazebo at one end of the island (see several pics below) and wrote a whole slew of songs there, including the music to these two.

A couple of weeks later it was our 1-year wedding anniversary, and we planned a Woodstock-themed celebration (it was also the 40th anniversary of Woodstock). We planned to go first to the town and then the concert venue, spending a day in between at a beautiful inn on a lake. Again we took the guitars with us.

At the inn we sat out on the dock at cocktail hour and ran through all of our new songs, editing/making several adjustments to most of them as we went. When we first got out there the dock was empty, but people began filling the tables during the time we were there. It's really not our style to force our music onto people, so we played quietly, but we also kinda figured if they were choosing to sit down near us they must not hate it! And in fact we got some very nice compliments (and inquiries about the band), which made us feel pretty good.

The next day we went to the Woodstock concert venue, and decided we'd play each of our new songs there as well, to absorb the Woodstock mojo. We sat down on the lawn right in front of where the stage was and started playing and singing, and sort of out of nowhere this really cool hippie appeared with a set of bongos, asking if he could join in with us. He said he'd been waiting there all weekend for someone to come play some music, but that no one else had come. We were more than happy to have him join us, of course. And it was a really neat experience sitting there on that summer day, playing our songs, soaking up the spirit of the place.

A little more on "Don't Go Lookin' for Trouble": my mom really did always used to tell me all of those things, when I was growing up. I wasn't always sure I agreed with her, but now that I'm older and wiser... I do think she's right that we generally find what we look for and get what we wish for, and all that (the law of attraction, before it became so in vogue!). One story she told me from her own youth to illustrate the "be careful what you wish for" thing made a pretty big impression on me. She said that in high school this boy had asked her to a dance and she had said yes, even though she didn't really want to go with him. From the time she agreed to go she started wishing that something would happen so that she wouldn't have to go. Well, on the day of the dance he actually got in an accident and broke his leg! So she got her wish, but felt pretty bad about it.

But I think the funniest part of the story of these two songs is how much our kids love them. When we're driving around town all together in the minivan the kids will often specifically request these songs, and they sing along with every word. Bob rolls his eyes and says, "Great; now I have to listen to my kids sing about what a jerk I am!" But of course I know he secretly loves it ;-)

The gazebo at Squam Lake, where we wrote a whole bunch of songs

Bob hard at work

Another shot of the gazebo... Don'tcha wish you were there right now?!

Ok, this really had nothing to do with the writing of these songs. I just liked the picture. Oh, yeah ;-)

The whole crew at Squam, in front of whom we debuted the songs. (They all joined in on percussion with pots, pans, and wooden spoons.)

Our day in Woodstock, the town. We had our guitars and were going to play our songs on a street corner but decided it was just too darn hot out. It's not that we were chicken or anything.

On the dock at the Chestnut Inn, where we edited the songs and played them for the first time in front of people we weren't related to.

Me on the dock at the inn.... What a fun anniversary weekend this was!

The Woodstock concert venue. The grey area down the hill off to my right was the site of the original stage.

At the front edge of where the stage was, looking up at where the masses were.

My turn to feel like a mega star of 1969

This guy came out of nowhere, almost as if we'd hallucinated him. But we have this picture, so it obviously was *not* the brown acid. LOL

Band Practice: Recording

Had an *awesome* band practice tonight.

We haven't been performing since about mid-February, but the timing of this break has worked out perfectly to record our CD, since Bob and I have been on a songwriting spree. We had been playing about 7 of our own songs along with all of our classic rock and blues covers as a band at our gigs, but Bob and I have written about 13 more songs in addition to those, and have been working on them a bit, and were ready to start recording them (along with the 7 we have been playing) with the band. So that's what we've been doing with our Wednesday nights since the end of February.

My plan was to write in here about each song as we finished it, to post something about the circumstances under which it was written, etc., and also provide a link to that song. But we've been continuing to tweak each one, so we don't really have any of them totally ready yet. And I'm getting tired of not writing about them, because I'm so excited about it all!

The recording process is something that was completely new to me. Bob and I got a recorder off of eBay, and fortunately our drummer, Mike, had a good mixing program on his computer. (I guess you can do the mixing right on the recorder, but then you'd have to completely finish each song before you started the next one, and as I said, we've been continuing to edit and redo parts all along.)

The first step is to record a scrap track for the song we're going to work on. It's a track that doesn't have to be perfect (once you get enough of the real parts down, you "scrap" it), but it does have to be perfectly in time. We found it works best if it's just Mike's drums, Bob's guitar, and my singing, but all together on one track. Once we have that down, Mike re-records his drums as an isolated track, while listening (and keeping time with) the scrap track. Then Bob usually lays down the rhythm guitar part (again, on his own isolated track, but while listening to the scrap track). At that point, either Ryan (our bass player) or Sue (our keyboardist) will lay down their parts, again separately and again while listening to the scrap track. Usually I do my vocals last, and I do not do it while listening to the scrap track because it would throw me off to sing along to my own voice. But it doesn't matter, because we have all the parts recorded separately by then anyway, so I just listen and sing to that. In fact, sometimes I've done my vocals earlier on, with just the rhythm guitar and drum tracks down, which also works just fine. Oh yeah, and somewhere along the line Bob records his guitar solo parts.

Then Mike transfers all of the separate tracks to his laptop, and gets to work on mixing them to get the right levels, which is quite tricky. There are several tricky things about this, but one of them is that he might get it mixed in a way that it sounds just right on his stereo, but then when we play it back on someone else's stereo the bass is too booming or the vocals are muffled etc. etc. So it takes a long time and a lot of experimenting to get it just right.

We have recorded 5 almost complete songs at this point: Don't Go Lookin' For Trouble, Why, Bad Girl, Mental Health Day, and I Land on My Feet. The first four of those are part of our regular set list, and we've played them out at gigs many times. The last one we've never played out but had gone over it a few times in practice--we just hadn't yet gotten around to polishing it.

Tonight we started on the first brand new song. It's called "Been a Long Time, Baby". It was one of those songs that practically wrote itself--it's almost like it showed up in my mind as a song I already knew. Music and lyrics. I was hearing it as a rock song in the vein of The Doors. We hadn't worked it up yet with the guitar, though we'd been talking about it, and had even been listening to some Doors so that Bob could start to get a feel for the kind of sound I was talking about. Well, he was taking a nap one day next to me and must have been dreaming about the song or something because out of the blue (almost seemingly without waking up) he asked me what I would think about making it a reggae song. I loved it!

I have more that I've written already about how the song was written, but I'll post that later, when the song is ready. I really just wanted to write about the great feeling I had tonight, down in our neighbors' basement (where we practice), hearing this song come to life. This song that I've had in my head since last July (it first came to me when I was on a boat ride on a lake in New Hampshire)... now here it was no longer just inside of my head, but all around me, being played by these really, really good musicians, and sounding awesome! If I do say so! It came together so quickly; we were able to have everyone learn it and lay down the scrap track just like that. Bob was totally grooving on his guitar, and everyone else was sounding so good, and it just made me so happy. It really was quite the high. I can't wait until all these songs are really done!

So, if the baby keeps hanging in there through next week, we should get all the individual tracks for this song done next Wednesday evening. After that, I'm pretty sure the baby will be born, and they'll go on recording without me for at least several weeks, working on the songs that Bob sings and that I have only minimal parts on that can be added later. I'm pretty happy that it looks like we will have gotten 6 songs that I sing done before I take my baby break. Bob has at least 4 more that are ready to go, and that will be enough for an album, even though we still have 10 more on top of those....

Here are some pics I took tonight:

That's my rockin' husband! I just noticed he's wearing his t-shirt from Squam Lake, which is the lake we were on when the song first came to me.

Mike, amazing us all with his reggae skills...

Sue, who not only plays great keyboard parts but also feeds us dinner every Wednesday beforehand...
Ryan, kicking @$$ as usual...
Les, our sound guy...
Whoah, Mama! Yep, that's me. There was actually another picture where I looked EVEN BIGGER, but I decided I looked plenty big in this one!

Rockin' Out

Weird, weird gig last night.

It was at a bar called The Country Pines, kind of out in the boonies. It is a huge place. The owner actually called us a few days ago to say he was thinking of cancelling the gig and closing up the bar for the weekend, because the place had really been empty--January and February were traditionally his worst months, but with the economy the way it is, they've been truly abysmal for him. We had told him we didn't mind playing to an empty house and would rather not cancel, and didn't mind if we didn't make any money (we had an arrangement for payment that was based on what kind of business he did that night, an arrangement that has worked out nicely for us in the past at other places). Besides, we had invited a lot of people, and even though we always invite way more than we get, we were pretty sure that several people were coming.

So the show was to go on.

When we got there, the place was empty. Completely. The owner wasn't even there yet! But he came soon. By the time we were set up and ready to start, several people had in fact shown up, and at one point there were probably 25 people. Which would be a nice little crowd in some of the places we've played in, but as I said, this place is HUGE.

Not that we mind a small crowd--in fact, what they lacked in numbers they more than made up for in enthusiasm. The problem was, the place was so big (and had wood floors and only a bit of wood furniture, and not much on the walls), that it was like singing in an echo chamber.

Have you ever tried to sing in an echo chamber? Well, me neither, but I now feel like I have. When I started singing my first song (Gimme 3 Steps), my voice came bouncing back to me from all over the place, and it was so completely disorienting. I felt like I had nothing to latch onto with the music. It sounded horrible to me, and I couldn't believe people weren't running for the hills, or at least the bathroom, to escape.

Around somewhere during the second verse, I realized that trying to listen to myself wasn't working, and I had to just let go and hope for the best. Focus in on Bob's guitar and try to block out everything else, including myself, and just go for it. Doing this took a great deal of concentration, and was not really conducive to a fun, high-energy performance, however. In fact, it was *quite* stressful.

I wondered if my bandmates were having similar issues, because it seemed like everyone's concentration was just a bit off. We weren't quite clicking. It almost felt as though we were playing underwater, like everything was kind of a struggle and we weren't as honed in on each other as we normally are.

But, we forged onward. And during about my third song, something came over me--the realization that this was our second-to-last gig before we take my "maternity break". It hit me that it will be awhile before I'm doing this regularly again, and I felt really wistful about it! I decided that I was going to milk this experience for all it was worth. That I was going to have a ball, echo chamber or not. Grating vocals or not. Seventh month of pregnancy or not. And you know what? It worked. I had the time of my life up there. I loved it. Loved it. And no one was leaving, so I was thinking maybe it didn't sound as bad as I had been fearing.

There are a few songs that I don't need to play on, that have been serving as built-in breaks for me during the sets. When I came down off the stage a little over halfway through the first set, I thought we actually sounded pretty decent. Though of course I could not hear my own vocals then! But it gave me hope that the whole thing was sounding better than it did up on stage.

By 11:15 or so the crowd had thinned out, and we had agreed in advance with the owner that we would end early if there weren't a lot of people there. I was actually having so much fun I wanted to keep going, but I went with the flow.

I'm not much help packing up the equipment these days, so I left early... but Bob told me that as they were packing up a new group of people came in to hear us play, and were really disappointed that we had ended early! Of course we love it when our friends come out to hear the band, for *sure*... but it also always feels great when people you don't know have heard about you and come to see you.

Even better than that, Bob reported, the bar owner LOVED us. He told Bob that we were the best band he'd heard in awhile, and that he does a lot of catering/private parties, and that we were going to be the number one band he recommends from now on to people who ask him. We were kinda shocked (since we truly did not feel we'd put our best foot forward), and thrilled.

So, one more gig, next week, and then it's at least three months off for me. But I will definitely be back. Definitely!