Terry made me think, again.

It is going to be hot this weekend. I’m not sure I am ready for the summer heat. Summer yes. Heat no. This has been a long few weeks. It seems when I get closer to a break in work and other obligations I find myself overworking to compensate for the time off. Kind of sucks because by the time I hit vacation I’m worn out.

I got an email this week from my buddy Terry about life, his dad, being a dad, essentially all those things we find our mind wandering to as we sit in traffic at the end of a long damn day. He is a far better writer than he realizes. He has a way of using truth like a knife. No bullshit, no fluff. When he writes you have no doubt what he is saying. In my mind, that is a pretty damn good writer. A couple of us responded about life with our dads and some of the lessons we’ve learned and some of the lessons we are still learning. Some of our dads have passed on in body so the bits of them we hold on to are poignant and more relevant now because dad’s not there to save our ass. 

Some of the things our dad’s said to us that have been embedded in our DNA.

If wishes were horses son, beggars would ride.


I was born at night, but not last night.


Character is defined by a handshake...both in grip and eye contact.


There was only one man in this world who was perfect, and they nailed him to a cross. The rest only wish they were Jewish carpenters.


That's why they call 'em kids.


The biggest hypocrites sit in the first four pews. Have your faith and leave the rest to God.


Proceed with caution when listening to a sermon. A wise person knows he's also a mortal.


It's an honor to pay taxes.


Here's what I'm saying. Once you've raised your voice to me, all bets are off.

I brought you into this world and I will take you out.
That is my wife you are talking to.
Your mom and I always had plan a, b, and c. In the end we pretty much did plan d.
What is the point of me having a wrong opinion.
Don't piss on my head and tell me it is raining.
I raised you by one basic premise. I did exactly the opposite of what my father did.
Yes I love you but that doesn't mean I have to like you.
Don't bullshit an old bullshitter.

I’m sure these were passed down from their dads and their dad’s dad and so on. The father son relationship is a complicated one. It is filled with love and tension. Belief and doubt. Independence and dependence. The bottom line in all of this is simple – a dad’s job is never done. Neither is a son’s job. At age 39 I’m still scratching my head thinking how in the hell did my dad do it?  Or even better – What the hell was he thinking?

In the end our wisest friend, Bobick, laid it out for us like only he can. He said, “I cannot convince him (my dad) he is wrong on some of his beliefs, however I can't let those differences drive a wedge between us. Life is to short.” That’s why we call him Switzerland. Damn smart guy.

And this week saw a few songs posted and I wanted to gather them in one place for easy access. Enjoy.

Brand New 64 Dodge by One of us is lying Living on a prayer by One of us is lying In Color by One of us is lying Oreo Girl by One of us is lying Northbound 35 by One of us is lying

Vibrant Stags and Oreo Girl

I recently put the words “Locals Only” on my guitar. After watching the Dogtown and Zboys documentary about 100 times the idea of “Locals Only” has started to sink in. Saint Louis has had a few musical success stories; you know those local boys make it big headlines. I love those stories but that is not what this is about. This discussion is really about celebrating the music you and I make. The modern day folk music, ie the music of us common folks, made in our bedrooms and basements for our own amusements. I know the folk music thing is probably throwing you off but for all practical purposes the singer songwriters I know are today’s modern folkie. We make music about the world we live in. That is a folkie. Pretty simple.

As I sat down and started recording songs for the Beekeeper’s sessions I picked a bunch of songs I love. As songs drifted in and out of my radio I knew I wanted to cover something local. There are a lot of great musicians I have the pleasure of knowing, either casually or intimately. And they have a lot of great songs you might ever get the chance to hear. That’s part of the reason I chose the song Oreo Girl by the group The Vibrant Stags. The songwriter of the group is Donny Besancenez. Donny is a pretty damn good songwriter. We seem to have crossed paths too many times in our lives and we have yet to sit down over a cup of coffee and actually talk about writing songs.  Kind of strange.  It is on my bucket list. 

Donny and the Stags played a handful of shows and I think I may have missed one or two. Always a good time at a Stags show. For the last 2-3 years we have shared a drummer - our favorite drummer boy Scott Snyder or as Donny refers to him as Big Daddy. That cracks my shit up when I hear Donny call him that because honesty I think Donny is the only one that can get away with calling him that.  The Stags have been working on an album for a while and I have yet to hear the finished product. Like mad scientists they have been chugging away in studios and basements cooking up a concoction of some pretty great music. This is where I come in… I have been waiting for them to finish the album for one reason – a song called Oreo Girl. I love the shit out of this song. Can I say that? I do love it. 

I learned Oreo Girl purely out of respect for the song and for Donny as a songwriter. I shot Donny an email last night and he was very gracious to allow me to post my cover of his song. Here’s Oreo Girl.  

Oreo Girl by One of us is lying

Living on a prayer

The last two weeks have been busy working on a new collection of songs I love. I've decided to call it the Beekeeper's Sessions. 20 songs in all. Today is song #2. Yesterday’s blog focused on a song by Greg Brown. Today I dip into my hair metal roots and the music of Bon Jovi.

My first concert was Bon Jovi and Cinderella during the Slippery When Wet tour. At the time Bon Jovi was everywhere. You couldn’t go through a grocery store without his face smiling up at you. It has been almost 30 years and he seems to have hit a level of stardom few reach.  He’s done a lot over the years, everything from acting to restaurants but I love him for his songwriting.

Jon Bon Jovi writes great songs. His career is full of them. His songs have become a part of our collective ethos. Whether you love him or hate him, you can’t deny his songwriting sensibilities are all over the radio today. I hear his influence on a lot of RNB songs. His ability to write an over the top chorus is pretty amazing.  I don’t think there is a better example of his ability to write “hooks” than Living on a prayer. Just by typing those words your brain has kicked in and the words and melody are playing in your head. It’s crazy how a great song can do that.

I remember seeing Jon and Richie Sambora do an acoustic version of Living on a prayer sometime in the late 80s. The memory stuck with me because it made a huge impression on me. I loved the idea of taking a song and breaking it down to its bare essentials – an acoustic guitar and a voice. It’s one thing to have a song amped with production but it is quite another to strip the pyrotechnics away and let the song breathe. When I heard Living on a prayer played on two acoustics I realized how great of a song it is.

Here is Living on  a prayer…

Living on a prayer by One of us is lying

A New Beginning

About every ten years my studio goes through massive changes. In the early 1990s I cut my teeth on a Fostex reel-to-reel recorder. Archaic and noisy it served me well for a handful of recordings. I would make cassettes as master recordings and be so enamored with layering sound upon sound. Later I moved on to ADATs and a Mackie board. Talk about miles of tape. I used those ADATs for everything. From my work with the daniels, through a whole gaggle of singer songwriters those ADATs served me well.

Eventually I had a few tapes get eaten and the buzz in the audio world kept tugging me to the elusive world of computers and music. Reluctantly I switched over to using computers for recording audio. I had a lot of fear when I began using a computer to make music. When I made the switch to computers the products were still in their infancy. Everything was expensive and every program had some kind of Achilles’ heel. I don’t think any of us at that stage really understood what we were doing. It took about a year before I finally put the ADATs in the closet and felt comfortable with the computer as the heart of my studio. 

The last three changes to my studio have been based on computer interfaces and audio programs. Things have changed so quickly that I have accepted the fact that making music with computers will be a constantly revolving process. I’m not going to stress on how long this current set up will work because the lifespan keeps getting shorter and the programs and computers keep getting more powerful. The real trick these days is in getting quality amps, guitars, mics, and a handful of “real” instruments.

As a kid I was fascinated with keyboards. I remember seeing ads in the backs of my comic books for Yamaha DX-7s and Roland JD-800s. My first real keyboard was a Korg O1WFD. I love that keyboard. It has given me over 20 years worth of music and fun but it is obsolete as hell. It is still in my studio out of respect more than anything. In this day and age any keyboard sound can be at your fingertips with a computer. It is silly to even think about buying a keyboard. A whole industry is on the verge of extinction. In the past 3-4 years Guitar Center’s keyboard section has gotten smaller and smaller. It’s kind of a joke now. 

These days I do my recording on a laptop. Sounds a little silly when I compare it to the whole room of electronic gear I accumulated over the years. And I have been through a lot of freakin’ gear. The laptop is capable of doing whatever I want it to do. It’s great because I am mobile and able to mix and record pretty much anywhere. As a result my approach to recording is changing as well. It’s about vibes and what gets the creative juices flowing now. I have found that capturing the moment is all that really matters. The rest is just navigation of an audio program. 

All this leads me to my work over the past 2 weeks. I decided to rearrange some things in the studio, try out some new software, and create a project that is a homage to my love of songwriters and the songs they have written. Over the next few weeks I will post a whole slew of songs that I just wrapped up recording. The songs were recorded over the course of 6 or 7 nights. I would work late in the evening after the kids were asleep and my wife had given up on me coming to bed. The songs all have relevance to me in one way or another. I will be sharing some stories as I post the songs.

I’ll start off tonight with one of the recordings. The song is by a singer-songwriter named Greg Brown. Greg Brown is known in the songwriting circles but few people outside of that world have any clue who he is. I fell in love with his song Brand New 64 Dodge. It is from his album called The Poet Game.  It is a brief snapshot of a ride home from church in November of 1963. The song stuck with me the first time I heard it many years ago. It reminded me of the many rides home from church late on those Sunday mornings. It captures the boy in the back seat watching the world wide eyed. 

Brand New 64 Dodge by One of us is lying

"Brand New '64 Dodge"

Money comes out of Dad's billfold.

Hankies come out of Mom's purse.

The engine hardly makes a sound even when you put it in reverse.

It's got a push-button transmission, hardtop convertible, 4-door.

It's November of '63 and the brand new Dodge is a '64. 

And we're rolling slow down Main Street - the asphalt and gravel crunch.

Church is finally over and we're going to have our Sunday lunch.

And then I will play football with my buddies down in park.

Later I'll dream about my girlfriend, as I lie alone in the dark. 

She's got short red hair and blue eyes and her swimsuits also blue and her little brother is retarded, but Jesus loves him, too.

And Jesus loves our president, even though he is a Catholic.

There's a lot for a boy to think about as he walks along the railroad tracks. 

And my sister won't get carsick 'cause we're going only half a mile and the car still has that new car smell and dad looks like he might smile and the world is big and full of Autumn and I'm hungry as can be and we're in our brand new '64 Dodge November of '63

The daniels revisited

It has been almost 15 years since the daniels disbanded and I began my wandering as a singer songwriter. The daniels was my band. It was a musical endeavor I started and was lucky enough to get two guys to follow my musings. Aaron and Mark were far more seasoned as musicians than I was. They gave me some lessons I still use to this day. Mark got me into recording music. Under his guidance I spent every last dime on musical gear and to this day I have a sizeable collection of instruments and gear because of him.

My life has had a series of people who stumbled into my path at just the right time and place. Mark and Aaron were the guides and confidence builders at a time when I was finding my voice as a songwriter and performer. It was during our time together that the speed and frequency of my writing took off. It was not uncommon for me to bring one or two new songs to each practice. Being the great musicians they are, they quickly picked up on what I was trying to do and breathed life into the skeleton of my song ideas.

Mark and I spent a lot of money on gathering a working studio between Aaron’s house and wherever we could find space. We juggled mixing boards, Alesis Quardaverbs, Adats, and miles of cords and cables. The setup always seemed to be held together by Velcro and Duct tape. Mark and I finished the first daniels’ cd with the help of a whole cast of characters but the second batch of songs centered around Mark, Aaron, and me. By the time we started recording I had enough material for 2 distinctly different albums. One album showed my love of pop and the other showed my darker side. 

For the last fifteen years I have been carting around a box of Adat tapes with all of the recordings we never finished. From time to time I’d bounce the old recordings into the computer and mess with them. It was not until recently that I started to get serious about the old recordings. About a year ago Mark set up a studio in his house and we began to bounce recordings back and forth. There is a fondness for these songs and the hours we spent together in Aaron’s basement practicing and recording. I think this is where most bands miss out. When you don’t get to record your songs you forget the magic you made. When I pull up the faders on the board and I hear what we did on our song Grasshopper, I remember the smell of Aaron’s basement and where the capo went on the strat I had. Mark half asleep behind the drums with sips of Arizona Black Tea between songs. I was in my twenties working in a music store, going to university, and playing in a band. Life was pretty damn good. 

Last week I got an email from Aaron. He asked about a few recordings and such. About every six months we get a chance to email updates about our lives and what we are doing musically. I still talk to Mark on a regular basis but these days technology does most of the work. Mark has been chugging away adding new drum tracks to our old songs. I am adding new vocals and guitar parts and as I told Aaron: the only thing we kept from the old recordings is Aaron’s bass parts. Around these bass tracks we are essentially rebuilding songs like they rebuilt the 6 million dollar man. It is nowhere near a quick process. Mark and I have busy lives and anytime I open our dropbox and there are drums tracks I am tickled.

In talking with Aaron and Mark I realized I had misplaced some of our original tracks from our recording sessions. On Monday I spent most of the day going through piles of Adat tapes looking for three songs. Finally about two hours into my search I found the missing tracks for Witness, Christy, and Grasshopper. I did a quick mix and decided I would post these before I begin posting the updated mixes. There’s some good stuff here. I hope you enjoy the songs. 

Witness (daniels) by One of us is lying Grasshopper (daniels) by One of us is lying Christy (acoustic) by One of us is lying

Before the Papers and After the Goldrush

I am drowning in projects for school at the moment. When that happens I find all kinds of creative endeavors I prefer to do rather than work on academics. It is a strange world for academics. There is always something to read, write, and digest. I never really considered myself an academic but come December I will have completed a doctoral degree and for all practical purposes I guess that makes me an academic. It is funny for me because the more school I complete the more I realize just how much I do not know. My wife has said, “Enough is enough.” This came at the heels of a conversation with her about me possibly looking at law school after I finish up my doctoral program. Am I nuts? Maybe.

University has been good to me. I can’t complain. The others in my doctoral program are good folks and for the last 2 years we’ve been together on Tuesday nights and a few evenings in between. There are some pretty smart cookies in the group and I am sure within the next 10 years they will be running the education show here in Missouri. Good folks with great ideas and we all seem to have a passion for doing what is right with kids and communities. I’m pretty excited about the future. 

This evening instead of working on my papers I decided to work in the studio. I have been jonesing to work on a Neil Young song for a while and I settled on After the Goldrush. I love that song. I have no clue what the song is about but every time I hear it I can’t help but get hung up on that verse where he talks about being in a burned out basement. It is such a hauntingly beautiful image. That makes the whole song for me. It is the reason I love music. That verse with Neil’s high voice and the pounding piano doesn’t seem like it should work. It is all the wrong pieces but when it comes together there is magic. Neil Young is the king of simple guitar and piano lines with lyrics that punch through the psyche. And what I really love is the fact that he keeps chugging along as a songwriter. Not everything Neil does is good or even ok but he takes risks like no other. When it does work, well I’ve already pointed out that there’s magic in those songs. Here is After the Goldrush. 

After the Goldrush by One of us is lying

A little Strong Braus, a little My Brother Jack

I love and hate social media. I recently deactivated my facebook account for the 3^rd or 4^th time. I’m tired of it. My wife thinks I’m crazy. I may come back to facebook but for the time being I am content hiding here.

I’ve been fighting to get time in the studio for the last few weeks. Finally my dad is home from the hospital and our lives are kind of returning to normal. Can I mention how much I hate hospitals and the word “cancer”?  I keep telling folks I would like to go a year without hearing either word.

The Strong Braus had their first rehearsal since 2011 a few weeks back. I’d say we are getting back into the flow of playing together. Injuries and schedules are allowing us to do what we love again and I am thankful for that. Prior to our first performance at Herm’s Bluesfest I recorded a practice on ADAT. Yes those big hunky digital recorders from the 90s still have a presence in my studio. For recording bands live, it is the best bit of gear I have. We set it up, leave it alone, and go about our business playing. Afterwards I take the ADAT tapes and throw them in the computer and edit out all the bad words we say to each other. There are also stories we tell during practice that should never, and I mean never, be repeated. I’m sure Led Zep didn’t want the story of the shark and the groupie out. We prefer to make sure and remove all evidence of our shark and groupie stories.

This time around I have posted Heartbreaker into Living, loving maid. It is such a good time playing these Zep tunes and I think this recording really shines. You can tell we are having fun. Source’s playing on this is pretty damn good. The solo in Heartbreaker is a measure by which all others can be compared. The first time I heard Source pull off the solo in practice I secretly wanted to kill him. It is pretty impressive to see what he does. Here’s Heartbreaker / Living, Loving Maid.

Heartbreaker Living Loving Maid by One of us is lying

My other band, My Brother Jack, never seems to take a break. I have drop boxes set up for different projects and everyday there are tracks and songs to download. Our standard practice is to Skype on the 3^rd Sunday of the month to go over songs, wishes, technology, etc. for the next month. We have a long list of songs we have worked through and my job is to pull it together, mix, and post. The others in the group are working musicians with other side projects. My Brother Jack is their version of Sudoku. The songs are little math puzzles they do in between sessions and gigs. I view it as a chance to work on a bunch of songs and learn from these guys.

Last week I got tracks for the Beatles’ Eight Days a Week and Billy Joel’s Just the way you are. What’s funny about this is that during our Skype session last month I mentioned doing Just the way you are and while we all agreed we did not clarify what song we were referring to. I was trying to do Bruno Mars’ Just the way you are but I didn’t specify that version. The others in the group thought I was referring to Billy Joel’s song Just the way you are. When I sat down last night and pulled up the tracks I started laughing because Bruno Mars was nowhere to be found on this track. Billy Joel’s song is still a good one but I had my mind set on the Bruno Mars’ song. Eight Days a Week was a suggestion from our drummer, Kelly. She had an arrangement she put together for a trio and wanted to get it down to tape. I love what she came up with. It is great breathing new life into these old songs. Eight Days a Week is over 50 years old. That’s just crazy. Here’s My Brother Jack with Eight Days a Week and Just the way you are.

Eight days a week by One of us is lying Just the way you are by One of us is lying