Something new, as of 25 July 2010
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Something new, as of 25 July 2010 |
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Gigs: Recent and upcoming... for Jim & Warren and Keith & Warren and WA... 
17 Dec 2009: Jim & Warren back where they started out -- Tully's Coffee, Woodbridge. Thanks, Leah! Borders cafe 'residencies' Our Borders dates are now wired into the monthly program below. Keith & Warren and Jim & Warren take turns with the 2nd Saturdays at the Mission Viejo store... unless they cut loose to play outside somewhere... 
Gigs up next ...at the various on-planet locations...  After awhile, we noticed some formidable competition across Forest Ave., in front of the Fingerhut Gallery -- a brash young fellow hitting an acoustic guitar very hard, and belting out his favorite Bob Dylan and Beatles songs, including 'I Am the Walrus'(!). The sheer volumetric intensity of his program,`coupled with the, "I think you guys better turn up a little bit..." comment from a spectator, inspired us to jump straight to 'Locomotive Breath'.... and then to knock off, but not before pulling down some appreciative attention for 'Space Oddity', and 'Starman'. After Jim's departure for points south, this fellow set up on the stone bench opposite our spot, and I joined him for several bashed-out numbers, including a powerhouse 'LA Woman' (which stopped one 40-something guy and his family in their tracks). My guitar seemed to go entirely out of tune toward the end of that song -- every single string -- which was perplexing until I realized that he'd broken a string, causing his guitar to go entirely out of tune... and mine relative to his. I took this as my cue to disengage. He ID'd himself as Thomas, and assured me that he plays around here often... as if that was a good thing. Perhaps it is; it may just depend upon your 'pov'. Jim's daughter Sarah joined us again, for the two songs she did the other night, with me backing her up, and dad videotaping the proceedings. She had some trouble this time, keeping the chords to 'Honey Bee' straight, but her singing is very sweet, and it broke the ice with the crowd, which Jim and I were then able to ride on afterwards... like some kinda sonic slipstream... Song highlight: an unusually strong reading of Bowie's 'Space Oddity'. I braved playing my big blue Ibanez this time out... even though it must be much less discrete than the tiny black Nomad... but it's a much more versatile instrument, and sounds better. I ran it through my Maxon OD808 overdrive pedal this time, then into the Fishman EQ, and on into the Micro Cube. These three items give me 85% of what I'm 'looking for' in my guitar tone, so I'm able to leave all the other big and heavy hardware home. It makes the setup and tear-down very quick too. Song highlight: my 'Southwest Passage' guitar instrumental... sounding much more 'jelled' than heretofore. It has the potential to rock out, in a countrified manner of speaking... First up, my dear guitar student Tina Neukirch, who is having a great time learning just about every song she can think of, and learning them well. The Eagles' 'Already Gone' is a song we only checked into recently, but she managed to make it rock, with a little help from me and Jim -- who also layered some sweet Henley-esque vocal harmonies on top. It's a very straightforward three-chord number, except for the up-a-fourth key change for the final chorus, which makes it unsingable for me, but Tina managed it nicely (though I should query her opinion of that, next we meet...) 
Tina had strategically waited till Tully's was just about empty, at about 7pm, but by the time Jim's daughter Sarah appeared at 7:30 or so, there were quite a few people in the place again. Jim handed off his big Gibson Songwriter to Sarah, who graciously consented that I could play along, and then she launched into what I imagined to be a song of her own invention, but which turned out to be a cover of YouTube phenom Zee Avi's 'Honey Bee'. She made this song sound great, with a warm, full-bodied and pitch-perfect vocal, nicely negotiating the song's bluesy-chromatic turns. She managed the complicated chord progression very well too... never losing her place, wisely eschewing the examples of her dad and his pal... After a rousing hand from the crowd, Sarah did treat us to one of her very own songs, turning in another big and relaxed-sounding vocal performance. There were even more people inside by now, many of them obviously listening, and I'm sure that at least some of them came in because they heard Sarah through the open door, as they were strolling by. Tina, thankfully, recorded both of these songs for posterity, with my little camera. It was a tough act to follow... but Jim and I played a few more songs, including a very strong reading of 'Space Oddity' which seemed to really got people's attention, especially that beautiful dark-haired girl leaning against the condiments counter. We closed out with a rousing 'Starman', even though it had drifted a little past Leah's 8pm closing time (and the place, by now, was packed). Our pretty-good-for-us $10 in tips was surely partly on account of Sarah's contribution, so we cut her in on the take, as Jim instructed her to be sure to declare the entire $2 at her next 1040 opportunity... Tina also captured a pretty good run-through of Jim's hit instrumental 'Summer of Love' ( / 'If and When'), which I chopped down to just the best (final) pass and posted to YouTube... not quite sure why... except that I like this song a lot.
Far more people than I'd have guessed were out and about, including a young couple from Europe who applauded loudly for 'Wish You Were Here', making me wish we had another Floyd feather or two in our quiver. Perhaps we should have followed that with 'Space Oddity', or 'Starman'... We did have some musical competition from the loudspeakers arrayed at the perimeter of the ice cream shop itself, but found it quite possible to overwhelm it, without attracting notice of passing police cruisers, and without alarming the ice cream shop proprietors, apparently... Despite neglecting to bring along a tip jar, various people dropped off about $16, mostly on the trash can... surely more than we've ever pulled in playing on the street before, including across the street last year. I went with a minimal setup: Nomad into Fishman EQ, into the Micro Cube. This allowed me to carry everything on my back. I'd like try the Ibanez next time, at the risk of some officer of the law guessing correctly that verboten amplification is involved in my signal chain. One other missing link: an overdrive stompbox for 'Baby Blue', 'Side With the Seeds', 'Gently Weeps'... I'll just borrow the Maxon unit from the gigbag for now... Fortunately, Keith's cousin Vanessa and her family dropped by. This was a special event, since Keith hasn't seen her in several years. Keith's brother Roy showed up to visit with them, and also to request his favorite songs, including 'City of New Orleans'. Roy is one of Keith's biggest fans, understandably enough, and is especially appreciative of his little brother's efforts to learn up all his favorite songs. We took an (otherwise unheard-of) break to visit with the relatives, for half an hour, or more. When we 'remounted the stage' we found ourselves just about out of time, but managed to squeeze in two or three more songs, without, apparently, getting into any trouble with store mgmt (which we certainly have managed to do in the past). One of the highlights for me: a very good take of 'Let It Be', which I had, fortunately, run through earlier in the day. See Keith's good-quality multi-camera cross-fading video here...'Let It Be'. Outdoors is where it's at for me, though I did check into the new 'Security' student art installation at Akorn, at Jeff Horn's behest. One of the evening's pleasures was 'hanging out' with Jeff, as there seemed to be a lot to discuss, and Jeff graciously introduced me to everyone who stopped to say hello to him (every hipster in town, seemingly). Jim passed on this instance, which may have been just as well, since the sonic space of the 2nd St. 'zocalo' was pretty well wiped out by one guy, singing and playing acoustic gtr through a small PA. I almost suggested that he turn down, a lot, so there would be room for other people to play, but instead I set up on a bench behind him, close to Sycamore St., running the Nomad through the little Boss Loopstation, and into the Roland Mobile Cube, which worked pretty well... and then I spun through my current fixation -- 'Over the Rainbow' -- for awhile. This was mostly frustrating, but provided more valuable experience in using the Loopstation... not to mention learning to make this song sound even marginally listen-able... not there yet... When the rockabilly band (same one as last month) fired up around 8pm, I set up across the plaza from them, with the Nomad directly into the Mobile Cube (reverb maxed), and bashed out big chords 'behind' their one guitar player, especially when he was taking solos, on the likes of 'Honey Don't' and 'Folsom Prison Blues' (1955). I don't think the band even noticed me, but it was a very good workout for me, in terms of 1. guessing the chord progression from the sound of it, and 2. playing rhythm guitar in the groove -- still quite a challenge for me (lucky for me that Jim does this very well). Also, this clearly proved the viability of the Nomad / Mobile Cube combination. It gives me quite a good clean Fender-ish tone, with tons of headroom, and it completely eliminates the Nomad's internal feedback problem. [Currently, I'm running the Mobile Cube from a new RShack RC car battery, rubber-banded to the back panel, and with a power-cord splitter to also run the Loopstation. The Nomad could also be powered from this battery, though it would take some initiative to add a DC-in jack, and it might be awkward unless I'm sitting still... unless I stitched the power cord to the signal cord... Alternately, the Nomad could have its own dedicated big rechargeable battery, either attached below the power switch, or set into a cavity in the back... which I'd have to somehow create, without a router...In any event, I should probably consider using the Mobile Cube with the Nomad at the Drum Circles... awfully sandy, though... perhaps a Pignose, then... (which can also be powered from such a battery)...?] Finally, I joined in with the songster noted above, one Rob Chiavelli, on some of his chiming open-string-ambiguous instrumental pieces, and it was... wonderful. He was clearly appreciative, and as I tuned in carefully to his ebb and flow, I found myself playing at an unfamiliarly high level, tracing lines inside of a chord, and extending his chords with with 6s and 9s, which seemed to fit his implied open-string harmony. The relatively slow tempo and the simplicity of his chord progressions seemed to open things wide open for me, though I made a point of balancing my runs for the money with very simple and steady motifs, sometimes playing just a 1 or a 1-5 double-stop repetitively, when he would run a closely-packed chord sequence. The Nomad has never sounded as good as it did then, through the Mobile Cube -- with the knob spun from 'reverb' into the 'delay' range -- providing a tight low end, allowing me to support him with big bass lines. He invited me to join him in the open mic nights he runs in Costa Mesa, and (if he can agree to leave out his praise-songs) I may be up for it. One highlight: After we meandered (but soulfully) through a little two-chord accidental jam incident, friendly barista Monica asked us what that song was and said, "I really liked it...!" I did too, actually, and I'm pretty sure Jim did too... There's a special opp for us in this sort of exploration-and-discovery playing... it certainly takes us places we would otherwise never get to. Gigs like this make me want to get out and play even more, because it makes it so plain how furthering it is... something beyond simple accumulation... more like interest compounding... not that I know anything about that. Despite the strong wind and 60-ish temp, there were 60-70 drummers having at it, rather vigorously, along with the girl sax player who joined us back in January. She confirmed that her sister had indeed had her baby later that night in January, and then pointed out the baby bundled up in a basket in the sand. The sax-girl was playing in E minor this time, so I tuned to her, but soon shifted to shooting photographs, since that seems to now be a standard part of my program for these drum circles. -56.jpg "April Full Moon Drum Circle") 'Rooster' was shooting pics too, so we commiserated about that for awhile, which was my pleasure, partly because her 'personal space' requirements seem to be negligable. Soon she tossed off some useless clothing and jumped into the inner bonfire circle for some serious dancing about, which seemed to break some other lovely dancers loose, and soon four or five of them were inspiring the drummers to lay right into it. Ukulele Adrian had earlier suggested that we hang around afterwards to jam -- as we did last month, and he told me how much he really appreciated the way I had settled right into his songs and played all sorts of "psychedelic surf" stuff. It was not to be, however, as a police cruiser showed up promptly at 10:30pm and announced that the beach was now closed, and that everyone should now leave... and then stuck around to make sure that everyone did so. I really hope that doesn't happen every time. Adrian and I have since made some attempt to hook up for a jam session. We kicked it off by not kicking it off at all, but rather by wandering into an extended jam based on a simple figure Jim pulled out of a cowboy C major chord... I found this quite absorbing, somehow, and found any number of ways to play lines that sounded peculiar while never (intentionally) stepping out of the C major scale... I can't say how, though it probably has to do with unconsciously emphasizing non-chordal scale tones. This effort was met by silence, understandably, from the our small and bookish scattering of people in the cafe. Still reluctant to break out a 'real song', apparently, Jim got my attention again, by artfully knitting together nothing more than G, D7 and C. We abandoned ourselves to blissful rhythmic and melodic spelunking for another 5 minutes or so, before fading out... but this time to a startling round of applause from the cafe-goers -- now, apparently, our audience, and now slowly increasing in size... From then on we had happy and demonstrative listeners throughout the evening. They also managed to stuff $10 into our tip jar... which is still very good for us. After one song ('Something'?) I suggested that it must have been our best-ever rendition, even though it wasn't necessarily a best-ever performance for me. The song just sounded so well knitted-together -- as if it was just one richly-textured part, rather than four completely distinct parts -- two guitars, and two vocals. Somehow, we've learned how to do that, and without specifically attempting to do so. I should rather say: "we've learned to do that", since we have no idea "how", really. We've just accidentally melded our four parts together into one, as if by simple gravitational attraction -- which I suspect is a fitting analogy... gravitational attraction toward a center which is somewhere 'between us', and which is unknown until we reach it... or rather, until we hear it. And as for "accidentally melded"... even though the end result is a pleasant surprise... we are deliberately attempting something (so to speak)... we are, at the very least, listening to each other, and trying to play cooperatively. That's surely a big part of what makes this project worthwhile, and what most distinguishes it from other projects. [Remarkable pre-gig activity: book-signing event for Nick Schou's Orange Sunshine, at Latitude 33 bookstore in Laguna Beach. Afterwards, surviving (though wheelchair-bound) protagonist Robert 'Stubby' Tierney kindly identified the precise location of the fabled Mystic Arts World head shop on my satellite photo... and assured me that not only John Griggs but also the notorious John Gale "...was good people"... while acknowledging the eventual subversion of the Brotherhood's original benevolent intentions. He also noted that he was personally responsible for arranging with the Weather Underground to smuggle Timothy Leary to Europe and then Algeria in 1970, after Leary managed to slip out of a minimum security prison in 1970...] 
and the vacuum bell - Tully's Coffee - Woodbridge  This will never happen again, I'm fairly sure, but I'm very glad it happened this one time. Jeremy and Jessi of I Hate You Just Kidding kindly accepted our invitation to join this J&W gig for one song, which we then expanded to several songs. We also drafted in mutual pal Will Morrison of The Vacuum Bell -- who played with J&W at Tully's last month. Just a few alienated space-age cowpokes and a few more spaced-out pokey space-aliens showed up for the show, but it was a big relief to me that it went off without any serious malfunctions. maa managed to catch video all of IHYJK's and Will's two songs. Suzanne, close friend of Will, made us a lovely poster, based a time-lapse photo she shot. I couldn't resist crafting another poster [above], after the fact, based on the space-cowboy image I used for the Facebook event notice. The OC Arts and Culture Weekend Update once again highlighted our show. 
It was a pleasure to back up Jeremy and Jessi's gentle and sometimes enigmatic songs. I used my Strat for lighter and brighter alt.chords, and lines, with a main objective of not getting in the way of the songs, which sometimes dropped to a near-whisper, with the notable exception of the powerful 'Good Times'.Will's directive, on the other hand, was "Let's rock this joint, guys!", and we proceeded to do very nearly that, with Will bashing out huge chords, and singing even bigger, with Jim smacking the little Laptop snare drum with brushes, and me switched over to the big AFS-75 hollow-body, overdriven and loud. One of Will's strengths, as Jim pointed out, is his sense of rhythm. so were all able to really lean into his songs without confusion, and without getting in Will's way, by all indications. It seemed almost too much for this soft-spoken little cafe, but after listening to the video, I'm fairly sure that it must have just sounded very appealing to everyone there. In addition to Will's 'I Know Why #2', we played his new 'Adelaida', with its huge outro, for which I'd found something big just earlier in the day, and it seemed to work very well. Will threatened to take us on the road with him afterward... among other things... so I do believe he had a good time of it. We sure did. Jim & Warren then manfully finished out the evening on their own, leaning toward countrified songs like 'The Weight' and 'Hickory Wind' (featuring gorgeous new harmonies from Jim), but closing with long-standing favorite 'Four Seasons in One Day'. So we just did it... even though we'd played the night before at Borders SCP, and even though I had to get up at the unthinkably early hour of 8am, and even though Jim had to drive something like 50 miles from Dana Point, and even though the OC Music Awards were that same evening... and even though it was for three hours... (I was passing out from hunger halfway through). Jim's fingertips were sore. I've been practicing so much that it didn't bother me, but my right-hand fingertips were very tender, from all the hybrid-picking I do these days... so I had a great cross-picking workout. Regional Mgr Charles L. seemed to love us, and lavished us with coffee, muffins, scones and liter bottles of water. We played quite well, I thing... coming off several recent gigs... and we goofed off by extending intros and outros to a few songs into meandering 10 minute jam sessions... and when we took a coffee and muffins break, barista Joon chatted us up, and asked Jim if he could check out his lovely Gibson Songwriter... which he then played to great effect, including a very coherent set of open chords in E that got me very much involved, at the expense of my scone... Even the tip jar was happy, somehow collecting $20, which is still quite a lot for us. We received a very kind thank-you msg from Regional Mgr Charles L. the next day. If he asks again, though... it's going to coast him more than bread and water.  Crazy happy-accident gig with one of my favorite up-and-coming OC bands: Canvas. I headed down to Laguna, late afternoon, to practice for my weekend gigs, before the 7pm Canvas show -- part of the OsCene 2010 program, which includes a 'listening wall' of iPods loaded with songs of the nominees of the 2010 OC Music Awards. So I had the workhouse Nomad guitar strapped to my back when I trudged toward the museum... wondering if I should hike all the way back to the car just to ditch it, or if it really didn't matter... finally concluding that with the guitar a musical opportunity would at least not be completely out of the question... just extremely unlikely. Canvas had not quite launched into their first song, as I strolled in, and when guitar player George saw me, he mimed strumming his guitar, and said, "Hey... are you gonna play with us?!". I'm pretty sure that he was at least 87% joking, but why second-guess it? "Sure thing!" I yelped, scooting over to the side of their tiny stage... and we were off. The first song, luckily, offered a lot for me to catch hold of, and when singer Doll looked over and smiled at something I did, I know it would be alright. As the set progressed, I just faded back a bit when it wasn't entirely clear how to proceed, and then leaned back in as things assumed familiar shapes and textures. With the Nomad 90%-fully cranked, I think I was able to match levels with them pretty well, though only rarely did I edge toward the foreground of their rich soundscape. 
Lots of hugs and high-fives afterward, so I guess it worked out alright for them. For me, though, it was another happening adventure in musical community.Canvas is George Bernal, Doll Knight, Michelle 'Piper' Rosabal, and Keila Morris, and they are all over the place. Check into their FB fan page. It was really just a large handful of people that turned out for us -- Will M., Suzanne W., Lamia L., Allison A., Caleb & Karen C., Keith M., Tommy O. and consort -- but combined with people who just happened to drop in for a caffeine fix, the place stayed jam-packed all evening long. It's certainly the most people we've ever played for there, and it was reflected in an overflowing tip jar... tons of ones... and two solicitations for guitar lessons... It was not exactly an artistic triumph, though Jim actually sounded very good, but everything seemed more difficult than usual to me, and nothing sounded quite right, especially my guitar [do not change the string the night before a 'big' gig], though I felt better after awhile. The hardest part was not being able to sing very well, especially on my own 'Was Not There', thought it wasn't so bad on other songs, and especially on 'Four Seasons', which we closed with. I did have some good gtr playing stretches too, including in 'Gently Weeps' (George's birthday) when I was able to just relax and lean into the song... ...and we even had a special guest. When local singer-songwriter Will Morrison responded Yes to our event notice, I conferred with Jim and then asked Will if he'd care to join us, on my favorite song of his 'I Know Why #2' He said Sure Thing, so I sat down with his track the night before and sorted out a sixths-and-fifths part for it, which I was able to remember because I'm getting so familiar with those patterns (and because the song's in G major). We called Will up once his best friend Suzanne showed up. Jim handed over his big Gibson Songwriter, and shifting to bundle-sticks against pant legs ["Note to self: Playing bundle-sticks on your legs is much more painful than playing then on drums."]. Will blasted off without hesitation and just knocked it out of the park, slamming Jim's guitar much harder than I'd expected, and singing louder than me and Jim put together, and very expressively. I kicked in compression, overdrive, delay, reverb... everything I could find... and had a very musical experience surfing his melodious wave. We should probably do that again, and catch a good lo-fi video... Now if we could just get Luke to join in... and Sarah...! Afterwards, Lamia shocked our monkeys by revealing that she'd placed us in her OC Arts and Culture Weekly Update -- and since our gig is on Thursday, that conveniently put us at the very top of the list, ahead of all the actual local indie rock stars playing that night (The New Limb, We Are the Pilots...). She also dropped a little Facebook update for us -- a bit late to boost attendance, but much appreciated nonetheless...!  So now what... crawl back in the foxhole to lick wounds... or try to acclimate to the challenge of something approximating public performances...? Let's try doing both, and in that order... Our previous outing at Borders MV seemed just OK to me, so I'm dazed and confused that this gig seemed so very much better. An independent observer might be hard pressed to tell the difference, but it was night and day to my own little perception collection machinery. Mgr Leah was on it for us, relocating furniture, shutting down the UNIX-driven TV, dispensing cups of coffee and mocha, and generally letting us know how very welcome we are to be there. What an incredible contrast to how it used to be to play at this venue. Lot's of people in and out all evening, as many speaking Farsi as English, and many of them quite responsive... $9 in tips -- quite good for us... As we relaxed into the show, we got slightly carried away, and perhaps a little bit loud here and there, especially my guitar... so I asked Leah about that afterward.... and she assured us that it was never a problem... which makes me feel like this is just about the perfect place for us to play. Program highlights for me... 'Baby Blue', 'Heart Full of Soul', 'The Edmund and the Lucy', 'Hey Jude'... and the wacky little jam session we fell into early on... -group-49.jpg "Full Moon Drum Circle, 30 Jan 2010 ('Rooster')")
A relatively small (90?) but very lively group -- with no discernible rowdines. The drumming was spirited and it held together well, most of the time -- thanks to very helpful direction from leader Marcus.Before I had a chance to attempt to tune the Nomad guitar to the circle (whatever that means), I heard the moan of an alto sax, gently but confidently blown by a 20-ish woman... so I just tuned to her. Since she was playing in, roughly, Bb minor, I tuned a half step high, so that her Bb could be an A for me. This turned out to be a good move, as she played almost continuously, aside from a brief conversation break with me (she told me that her sister, sitting next to her, was going to have a baby tonight, and was having contractions already). The only other key she played in was F minor (E minor for me, conveniently). I stuck close to her, so I could hear her well, and found that she was somewhat responsive to my playing too, perhaps unconsciously... leading us into a few dynamic call-and-response exchanges. I'm not sure why, but even when she wasn't playing, my impression was that the drum circle was centered at Bb (my A), so it worked out all the way around. Lots of dancers this time... many of them gorgeous and/or graceful. For extra credit, two were decked out in full belly-dance array, complete with bananas [?!]. Jim made it, with only a pair of claves, which he later reported worked very well. He feared that they'd be too loud, but like me, soon discovered just how incredibly loud a group of about a hundred drummers can be. He said he had quite a lot of fun. We may well be both in for the next one. Our attendance was facilitated by having recently joined The Orange County Drum Circle Meetup Group, which I highly recommend, since it's a portal to other drum circles, and is a good way to interact with other enthusiasts. I'd hoped that there might be some more intimate drumming opportunity after the circle officially shut down, but not this time either. Just one fellow dithered away on a big hand drum at the fireside. I sputtered out a few Hijaz Kar / Byzantine riffs with him for awhile, but it was not really happening. Perhaps some other time... perhaps Jim should bring along some sort of a drum, in addition to claves... Highlights for me: 'Side With the Seeds', 'World Inside the World', 'Into the Mystic', 'Starman', 'Baby Blue'... The staff continues their campaign of kindness... "We love having you here.", said Leah, with a straight face. She must have meant it because she then gave us each a free sandwich! A massive $46 in tips... thanks to the Christmas spirit, apparently. That's probably a record for this store. This was my last gig for 2009, as far as I can predict. Apparently, the year 2010 is arriving soon, if year-numbers can possibly go that high... If we want to blow our minds, however, we could number the years starting with the emergence of human life, or the formation of the planet, or the Big Bang itself (which went off, quite possibly, to the tune of 'Imagine'). Much improved sound this time out, thanks to slightly reorienting the StageMate speaker (set up on a chair near the door) to face the back wall, which angeled its sonic beam somewhat more than 90 degrees to us, spilling some direct sound in our general vicinity. Last time out, we were hearing only sound reflected off the windows and walls, which just doesn't work well, especially for me. This time I could actually hear myself sing, and my mic wasn't feeding back nearly so badly... though we can hardly guess why that would be. My guitars (I brought the Squire Strat along too) never sounded quite right, but I acclimated, somewhat, after awhile. 
Dr. Shaw recently tipped me off that the nearby Tully's is having an "open mic" night, so I dropped by to ask about that, and met most gracious store manager Leah, who advised that she was really just signing up whoever was interested in playing for Thursday evenings. It turned out that all Thursdays from now through January are wide open, so we jumped right in. It certainly is more cozy in this little cafe than outdoors, as the mercury flirts with the low 50s. Leah and barista Elise made us very much at home, while tending to a nearly full-house, including the tall bearded guy we see frequently at N. Lake. They had cleared the carpeted area away for us, and we set Jim's StageMate near the door, pointing toward the big plate-glass windows -- a very different arrangement to what we're used to at Borders, where I set it (or one of the house spkrs) off to my right shoulder... which allows me to hear my guitar very well, and maybe even my voice. The sound was so different with this setup, that it made it very difficult for me to sing, and my guitar just sounded all wrong. Next time we'll try facing the StageMate straight toward the back of the store (as another msg reveals that we used to do there), and perhaps we'll try using my new Roland Mobile Cube as a monitor, since it has line inputs that should mate well to the StageMate's effects send. J&W have made some progress since 2004, apparently, at least in terms of song accumulation. Here's a proposed Tully's set list from an email msg dated Jan 2004: Jim... Look about right? I'm actually only reasonably confident down to 'Never Ending'. I'll keep working on 'Miss Misery' and 'Angelyne', and if you're comfortable with 'Perfect Day', I'll be able to play something along with it. Love Hurts | Four Seasons | World Inside the World | Peace, Love and Understanding | Cruel to Be Kind | Never Ending Song of Love | Miss Misery | Angelyne | Perfect Day | - WA Most of those songs are very much part of our current sets... but there's quite a stack of others, including newest addition 'Handle with Care' (Traveling Wilburys) The big crowd slowly melted away as the evening progressed, and toward the end of the line we were playing to ourselves, but it was still much more of an audience than we'd have at a typical North Lake outing. When we finally said goodnight to Leah, she said "You guys sounded great... you can play here anytime!"... and then she made us take some sandwiches home with us. OK... we're off to a good start...! Late in the program, Erin appeared and delivered what we took to be a tribute to our musicianship. "I have an announcement: It's almost 10 o'clock and the store is still full of people. ...I think it's you guys." Upon careful reflection... I suppose she may have meant it more as a sad commentary upon our inability to quit on time. In this particular case, however, I'm blaming it upon the Store Hours sign on the front door, stating 11pm as the Friday closing time, rather than the customary 10pm. This sign, Erin assures us, is wrong. One highlight for me: Lou Reed's 'Perfect Day', with its newly-condensed outro -- which still leaves us lots of time to have some kind of a wild rave-up... It must be a relief for Keith that the Regulars program seems to have dried up entirely, unless it's just been swapped out for the group that joined us for the latter half of this evening -- an equally large and decidedly more rambunctious troupe of young developmentally not-quite-all-there adults, and their handlers. We were no match for them, but they certainly were fascinating to observe, especially during the impromptu game of 'footsie' between the girl-who-could-hardly-speak and the little guy rocking out to his iPod. There but for fortune... but I'm fairly sure that they were having more fun than either of us were. After much head-scratching, I reverted to the Forest & PCH intersection, and commandeered a section of concrete bench directly facing the ice cream shop. There's a big trash receptacle at left that sets it back slightly from the intense foot-traffic. Tentative solo Loop Station efforts proceeded unchallenged, so when Jim arrived we stood there, and launched in, at which time I turned up some, and then a fair bit... Miraculously, we remained unmolested -- except at some point the quiet music from inside the ice cream shop got a lot louder -- as if to say "Thank you so much for your music, and here's some of ours for you!" Little do they know, it's actually quite annoying... which might be the point, I suppose, except that their music is often (always?) very loud in the evenings. 
First shakedown of my new Roland Mobile Cube, which is quite a nice little rig, and which looks more like a boombox than a guitar amp (one of the reasons for selecting it), and which even has a separate mic channel... it wasn't obvious how to get it to sound Right this afternoon, though. It seemed to need some encouragement from my overdrive pedal, though part of the reason for buying it was to have a more pristine clean sound than the Pignose could ever serve up...[?] The acoustics at this spot are also very different than in our little alcove across the street.So where to play next time..?! I guess we just don't know. There's always The Alley up by Bouchard's Pharmacy, though it's generally well occupied, and we'd probably be displacing Richard, at least... and it seems too far away from The Center of the Action. There's also the other alley right off PCH, where we used to play... probably worth a shot again. Lots of people do stream by there, and there may be no one to complain, but we did get shut down there by the boys in blue, two years ago, for the same reason...
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Jim & Warren's set list (26 Feb 2006)
New and unheard of!
Jim & Warren's pretty good cover of Rhett Miller's
There is a World Inside the World -- SC Plaza Borders, 3 March 2006
New and over quickly!
39 seconds of
Jim & Warren romping through Jim's
instrumental composition Gone -- SC Plaza Borders, 3 March 2006
Video clip... Keith & Warren playing Chris Isaak's Blue Spanish Sky -- Mission Viejo Borders, 12 Nov 2005 (loads slowly).
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Free song one
:: Jim & Warren's medium-fi recording of the late Buffalo Springfield classic I Am a Child :: WA: lead vocal, guitar, tambourine. :: Jim: harmony vocal, guitar, harmonica. Recorded at JR's Flippen Way studio/den, 31 May 2004. WA's transcription of this song. |
Free song two
:: Keith & Warren's medium-fi recording of the traditional song The Water Is Wide :: Keith: vocal, Ovation acoustic guitar. :: WA: Ibanez electric blue guitar. Recorded at JR's Flippen Way studio/den, 17 Apr 2004. |
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Free song three
:: Jim & Warren's lo-fi live recording of the Jim's poststructural space age instrumental Orbit :: Jim: rhythm guitar (Gibson Songwriter). :: WA: melody guitar (Ibanez AFS-75). Recorded while pretending to be a jam band at the La Habra Borders Cafe, 6 Nov 2004. |
Free song four
:: Jim & Warren's lo-fi live recording of Jim's blues-fringed and well-rusticated instrumental Gone :: Jim: rhythm guitar (Gibson Songwriter). :: WA: melody (slide) guitar (AFS-75). Recorded under duress at the La Habra Borders cafe, 6 Nov 2004. |
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Free song five
:: Keith & Warren's medium-fi recording of the Michael Carr & Jimmy Kennedy classic South of the Border :: Keith: vocal, acoustic guitar. :: WA: electric guitar, harmonica. Recorded at JR's Flippen Way studio/den, 31 May 2004. |
Free song six
:: Keith & Warren's medium-fi recording of the Chris Isaak song Forever Blue :: Keith: vocal, acoustic guitar. :: WA: electric guitar. Recorded at JR's Flippen Way studio/den, 31 May 2004. |
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Free song seven
:: Jim & Warren's lo-fi live recording of Nick Lowe's classic (What's so Funny About) Peace, Love and Understanding :: Jim: 1st vocal, acoustical guitar. :: WA: 2nd vocal, electrical guitar, harmonica. Recorded dead or alive at the La Habra Borders cafe, 6 Nov 2004. |
Free song eight
:: Jim & Warren's lo-fi live recording of (Buddy and) Julie Miller's lovely Holding Up the Sky :: Jim: lead vocal, acoustical guitar. :: WA: harmony vocal, Ibanez AFS-75 electrical guitar, harmonica. Recorded on the spot at the La Habra Borders cafe, 6 Nov 2004. |
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Free song nine
:: Jim & Warren's lo-fi live recording of the Jayhawks' Angelyne :: Jim: lead vocal, acoustical guitar. :: WA: harmony vocal, electrical guitar. Recorded anxiously at the La Habra Borders cafe, 6 Nov 2004. |
Free song ten
:: Jim & Warren's lo-fi live recording of Lou Reed's scary Perfect Day :: Jim: lead vocal, acoustical guitar. :: WA: harmony vocal, electrical guitar. :: Cathy: additional vocals ("...do do do..."). Recorded deleriously at the La Habra Borders cafe, 6 Nov 2004. |
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Free song eleven
:: Keith & Warren's medium-fi recording of the Eagle's
Desperado :: Keith: vocal, acoustic guitar. :: WA: electric guitar. Recorded at Rancho Santa Margarita Borders cafe, 11 Nov 2005 (from PA's monitor out). |
Free song twelve
:: Keith & Warren's medium-fi recording of Five O'clock World, more or less as recorded by Hal Ketchum :: Keith: vocal, acoustic guitar. :: WA: electric guitar. Recorded at Mission Viejo Borders cafe, 12 Nov 2005 (from PA's monitor out). |
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Tumbling 
toward 
abstraction 
...A few essential early 20th Century paintings
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