Here I am sitting in my house sweater, grinning and chatting with you here on my electronic web-log. Let’s have some tea. I’ll catch you up to speed on the gossip.
My, what a year! Should I tell you a little about the Ribbons of Song?
This is their blog, right?
Well, let’s see… It kinda feels like I’ve been lifting and tugging at this big recording project, trying to make it miraculously lift off the ground and take flight. Slow going. Can’t wait to hear what the whole mess sounds like for real!
We’ve had the summer from HEAVEN this year, plugging in and getting psyched on folk jams everywhere in town — from the Thunderdome in the basement of Bartertown Diner, to basking in the sun with a tub of free Faygo at our feet while playing at the Frederik Meijer Gardens Outdoor Amphitheatre. But enough is enough; it’s time to take a break and play songs just for ourselves in the living room for a while.
While the live band rests on its little laurels the next few months, I’ll be dragging a pedal steel player into the studio to juice up the New Album with slippery licks and teetering tremolo hums. If all goes well, I’ll be harnessing the talents of a concert violinist, sexy singers, an accordionist, and maybe a saxophonist? Is that too much? We need a time out to find out. We’ve run the gamut, so to speak.
But here’s the tea. What’s been new with you? Did you see ArtPrize stuff? Have you been out to the beach much yourself this summer? Yeah, I went quite a bit, too. Sam showed me The Bowl for the first time. Hiked up the backside. Wow, that place is amazing. Can’t imagine doing it at night!
What’s been on your mind? What have you been listening to? Been playing a lot of Lucinda Williams and Richard Buckner in the car. I won’t admit to my obsessive Counting Crows addiction in a public forum such as this, but if you want to talk about local acts, I’ve been getting pretty hooked on a couple tunes from Valentiger, Cloudbusting, Jes Kramer, and Radiator Hospital this year. Listening to Zoe Keating on headphones right now. She’s not from around here, no. But, wow, gorgeous layered ‘cello. Which is an Arthur Russell specialty, too, and his music’s been a special addition to my listening library this year.
Oh! And I keep forgetting to mention that my brother Jonathan is working up some bizarre electronic remixes from our album, Pocket Dream. He’s a composer of sorts, and he’s been changing the chord progressions to our songs and AutoTuning the vocals. How wild and different my voice can sound when I’m inserted into his creations! Really looking forward to putting out the remixes sometime before the New Album drops next year.
My last official show for 2011 is this Tuesday at Calvin College. I’ll be playing a set without the band, backed up by Jeffrey Niemeier on violin, and Jessie Brenner on guest vocals. I’m so incredibly lucky to have such talented friends! Both of them will be on the New Album, and for that I’m so grateful.
I’m grateful for you, too. Thanks for coming over. Maybe we should go for a walk and turn off this buzzing stack of plastic that’s rotting our eyeballs?