Had a gig last night at The Beachcomber, so that ate up most of the day, creatively; but I did get a couple entries into the CD cover contest already. Very promising.
Showing posts with label Greg Hawkes. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Greg Hawkes. Show all posts
Friday, February 12, 2010
FEBRUARY 12
Had a gig last night at The Beachcomber, so that ate up most of the day, creatively; but I did get a couple entries into the CD cover contest already. Very promising.
Thursday, February 11, 2010
FEBRUARY 11
Things are moving forward. Musicians and engineers are getting lined up. Former Stools Paul Santo and Bob Malatesta both agree to help out as time permits. There are a couple of songs that I really want to take over the top with the backing vocals, so I’ve reached out to a few ‘powerful’ voices to see if they can come in.
The only hitch in the giddy-up is, I haven’t heard back from Greg Hawkes yet. The Ukulele is now central to this song, in my mind; so I may have to go with a lesser option, which would be me learning to play the damn thing because I don’t know any other ukulele players…
I also worked on a new CD cover today and hate it, so I’m throwing the doors open. Why don’t see what other’s can come up with?
It’s a dream come true, really! You can design the CD cover. I keep trying to come up with something I like and it’s a big swing and a miss, so I’m throw it open to you. THE GREAT UNTRADITIONALLY HANDSOME CD COVER CONTEST!
Simple, there is one judge, me. Just design a cover using the band’s name (THE STOOLS) and the CD title (UNTRADITIONALLY HANDSOME) and anything else you desire. You can use a photo of the band, a photo of you, whatever floats your boat. The best one, as judged by me, will be used as the CD cover. There will be no cash prize for winning, but I’ll send you free copy of the CD when it’s done.
Of course, if they all suck I reserve the right to use one of my own, but I can not imagine that every single one of you couldn’t Photoshop up a better cover than the ones I’ve come up with. I’ll even post a bunch of band pictures in the photo section here to get you started. http://www.facebook.com/home.php#!/group.php?gid=288934592050&ref=ts
Don’t worry about the back of the CD, with the song titles and what not’s, just make up a JPG for the front cover and post it at the web site above. You can enter as often as you like. Offer void where prohibited. Sorry Tennessee Member FDIC.
We’re videoing a show tonight. Not only should it be interesting, it will cut way into any time I might have to work on the CD. It also might mean fast food for lunch. I’m hoping not.
The only hitch in the giddy-up is, I haven’t heard back from Greg Hawkes yet. The Ukulele is now central to this song, in my mind; so I may have to go with a lesser option, which would be me learning to play the damn thing because I don’t know any other ukulele players…
I also worked on a new CD cover today and hate it, so I’m throwing the doors open. Why don’t see what other’s can come up with?
It’s a dream come true, really! You can design the CD cover. I keep trying to come up with something I like and it’s a big swing and a miss, so I’m throw it open to you. THE GREAT UNTRADITIONALLY HANDSOME CD COVER CONTEST!
Simple, there is one judge, me. Just design a cover using the band’s name (THE STOOLS) and the CD title (UNTRADITIONALLY HANDSOME) and anything else you desire. You can use a photo of the band, a photo of you, whatever floats your boat. The best one, as judged by me, will be used as the CD cover. There will be no cash prize for winning, but I’ll send you free copy of the CD when it’s done.
Of course, if they all suck I reserve the right to use one of my own, but I can not imagine that every single one of you couldn’t Photoshop up a better cover than the ones I’ve come up with. I’ll even post a bunch of band pictures in the photo section here to get you started. http://www.facebook.com/home.php#!/group.php?gid=288934592050&ref=ts
Don’t worry about the back of the CD, with the song titles and what not’s, just make up a JPG for the front cover and post it at the web site above. You can enter as often as you like. Offer void where prohibited. Sorry Tennessee Member FDIC.
We’re videoing a show tonight. Not only should it be interesting, it will cut way into any time I might have to work on the CD. It also might mean fast food for lunch. I’m hoping not.
Wednesday, February 10, 2010
FEBRUARY 10
Not hearing back from anyone, which sucks; but my wife cheered me up with French bread pizza. Actually, that’s not true. I did hear back from some people, I just played up the ‘not hearing from anyone, I’m bummed’ angle to get her to make the pizza…
The tuba player is out, due to illness, but I think I may the Voodoo Doctors as backing for a song or two, which would bring a nice Cajun flavor to the mix. I also reached out to this band called The Hankaholics, a classic country cover band. I’ve only heard their MP3’s on their myspace page, but they sounded pretty good. I’m going to check them out next Monday night. It would make life so much easier for them to play backing on a couple of songs too.
I had a couple of options for whom I wanted behind the board working the pro-tools, but these guys, along with Greg Hawkes, aren’t answering my emails.
Working out an arrangement for one of the songs, I started hearing Jon Butcher’s guitar in my head. I didn’t know whether to take it as a sign, or if it’s just because my neighbor was blasting “Ocean In Motion”, but I send an email off to Jon as well. Hey, it can’t hurt to ask. I know I’m up for playing any time anyone asks me, and I’m not busy… It’s just that no one ever asks…
Spent the rest of the day getting is fist fights with housewives over the last bag of white bread at the Shaw’s. A blizzard is rearing it’s head on the horizon and people are already in their ‘I just saw a snow flake, I don’t know how to handle this shit’ mode.
Hopefully I hear from some more people today, ’cause there‘s only 18 days to go. If you need me, I’ll be hording the peanut butter in the corner over here.
The tuba player is out, due to illness, but I think I may the Voodoo Doctors as backing for a song or two, which would bring a nice Cajun flavor to the mix. I also reached out to this band called The Hankaholics, a classic country cover band. I’ve only heard their MP3’s on their myspace page, but they sounded pretty good. I’m going to check them out next Monday night. It would make life so much easier for them to play backing on a couple of songs too.
I had a couple of options for whom I wanted behind the board working the pro-tools, but these guys, along with Greg Hawkes, aren’t answering my emails.
Working out an arrangement for one of the songs, I started hearing Jon Butcher’s guitar in my head. I didn’t know whether to take it as a sign, or if it’s just because my neighbor was blasting “Ocean In Motion”, but I send an email off to Jon as well. Hey, it can’t hurt to ask. I know I’m up for playing any time anyone asks me, and I’m not busy… It’s just that no one ever asks…
Spent the rest of the day getting is fist fights with housewives over the last bag of white bread at the Shaw’s. A blizzard is rearing it’s head on the horizon and people are already in their ‘I just saw a snow flake, I don’t know how to handle this shit’ mode.
Hopefully I hear from some more people today, ’cause there‘s only 18 days to go. If you need me, I’ll be hording the peanut butter in the corner over here.
Tuesday, February 9, 2010
FEBRUARY 9
Slow day today because I had to rehearse the live show with the band, 30 songs, over half of the are brand new. Thursday’s show should be interesting…
I haven’t heard back from Greg Hawkes yet, someone said they thought he was touring with The Turtles. I wonder if Flo and Eddie are touring with The Turtles? I wish I could care enough to be bothered to search for the answers on the net, but no.
I did extend a couple of other invitations to musicians that I thought could lend a little something special to some of the songs, we’ll see how that goes. I don’t mind people saying ‘no’, it’s not a paying gig after all; but when they don’t respond at all… well, let’s just say Jerome David Salinger didn’t respond to one of my emails once and where is he now? Dead, that’s where. Just saying…
I haven’t heard back from Greg Hawkes yet, someone said they thought he was touring with The Turtles. I wonder if Flo and Eddie are touring with The Turtles? I wish I could care enough to be bothered to search for the answers on the net, but no.
I did extend a couple of other invitations to musicians that I thought could lend a little something special to some of the songs, we’ll see how that goes. I don’t mind people saying ‘no’, it’s not a paying gig after all; but when they don’t respond at all… well, let’s just say Jerome David Salinger didn’t respond to one of my emails once and where is he now? Dead, that’s where. Just saying…
Monday, February 8, 2010
FEBRUARY 8
Good day all around Sunday. The dog ass Colt’s got pistol whipped. We had Nachos Grande for lunch and Andy Pratt agreed to put at least one day into the project.
The last development is really cool because not only does Andy have a great voice (you may remember his huge hit in the 70’s AVENGING ANNIE), but his Great-Grand Father, or one of them back there in his past, started Exxon with John D. Rockefeller, so he’s an obvious choice to play on the TOO RICH TO BITCH BLUES. The fact that he’s a good musician is just gravy.
Alright, the Nachos Grande were pretty cool too, ‘cause they were homemade, with none of that guacamole crap, but I still, come on, how cool is Andy Pratt?
I’d been meaning to write a Talking Blues for some time now, after talking about the song form with Dan Margarita and his parody of Dylan’s talking blues in his early period. Of course, that was the whole point of the Talking Blues back in the 20’s. They were more comic monologs than the issue-hammering preaching that Woody Guthrie (and by extension, Bob Dylan) turned them into.
Christopher Allen Bouchillon, the mandolin playing third of the Bouchillon Trio, reportedly had such a horrid singing voice, he was asked to speak rather than sing his songs in the studio back in 1927 and thus his trademark and a new style were born.
Of course, I didn’t follow the traditional Talking Blues format of each verse being two couplets and the fifth line being an irregular, unrhymed tag, just to piss off those cat brushing, festival holding, stinking hippies out there that might get pissed off at something like that.
I’d been making a lot of sport of Ernie Boch, Jr. lately, partly out of jealousy, but mainly because, what the hell business does a billionaire (yes, billion with a ‘b’) have with playing the blues? There really are enough pedestrian white boy blues out there as it is, without Ernie and his “Oh, Yeah, I Remember Him” All-Stars throwing their hat’s into the ring.
Musically, Martin Mull had pretty much written the final word on rich people singing the blues back in 1973, with his Ukulele Blues. But amazingly, that was 37 years ago and sadly most people now remember Mull as ‘that gay guy from the Roseanne Show’ rather than the musical comedy giant of the 70’s. So, I figured it was time to revisit the subject.
Getting Andy to play on the recording was an inspired choice, given his family background.
THE NAME IS TWIGGLY TOPPER MIDDLE-BOTTOM I’M GLAD TO MEET YA
I’M JUST A LITTLE PUT OFF BECAUSE DOMINOES RAN OUT OF TROUT PIZZA
WE’LL HAVE TO MAKE DO WITH W/THE BUFFALO AND BRIE
IF IT DOESN’T GET HERE IN FIVE MORE MINUTES, AT LEAST IT IS FREE
WE HAD TO GIVE THE COOK THE LONG WEEKEND FOR MARTIN SOMEONE DAY
ALL SHE LEFT US WAS ABOUT A DOZEN FINGER SANDWICHES AND SOME CANAPÉ
WE’LL MAKE IT THROUGH TO TUESDAY IF WE DON’T RUN OUT OF BOOZE
THE TOO RICH TO BITCH BLUE
CH.
TOO RICH TO BITCH BLUES
I GOT THE BLUES
BUT I CAN’T BITCH
I SLIPPED A GIRL A ROOFIE AND CALLED IT SEDUCTION
I PAID HER OFF WITH SOME IMPLANTS AND HER BROTHER’S BREAST REDUCTION
I TALK LIKE I’M STREET BUT I DRIVE A SUBURBAN
I DRINK MY SCOTCH NEAT AND PRETEND THAT IT’S BOURBON
MY FARTS DON’T STINK AND MY BLOOD COULDN’T BE PURER
I’LL BLOW A 3.8 QUICKER THAN MY LAWYER CAN BLOW A JUROR
I’VE WRECKED MORE BEAMERS AND PUKED ON MORE SHOES
THE TOO RICH TO BITCH BLUES
CH.
WHEN THE STOCK MARKET TANKED I LOST A FEW MILLION
HAD TO SLUM IT ALL SUMMER, HANGING OUT WITH PARIS HILTON
THINGS GOT SO TIGHT MY UNCLE, TWIGGLY TOPPER MIDDLE-BOTTOM III JR.
JUST LAST WEEK HAD TO LAY OFF A COUPLE OF HIS SENATORS
NOW HE’S ASHAMED TO SHOW HIS FACE AROUND GEORGETOWN
THANK GOD ALL YA’LL VOTED FOR GOOD OLD SCOTT BROWN
HE SAID HE’D BAIL ME OUT ‘CAUSE I USED TO BANG HIS COUSIN AT SYRACUSE
TOO RICH TO BITCH BLUES
CH.
I GOT MADRAS UNDERWEAR AND WHALES ON MY BELT
TOO BAD IZOD STOPPED MAKING SHIRTS OUT OF UNBORN SEAL PELT
THE PRESIDENTIAL SUITE AT THE W WAS BOOKED BY A SAUDI PRINCE
WE HAD’A RENT A HOUSE FOR THE WEEKEND THAT WAS OWNED BY GEORGE WENDT
MY GRANDFATHER’S FATHER WAS THE LAST MIDDLE-BOTTOM THAT HAD’A WORK
MY ARROGANCE IS CHARMING, IF I WERE POOR I’D JUST BE A USED CAR SELLING JERK
DON’T WANNA, BUT I OWE IT TO HUMANITY TO REPRODUCE
THE TOO RICH TO BITCH BLUES
CH,
CH. (AIN’T THAT RICH?)
Thinking of the old Martin Mull song got me thinking of the ukulele itself and how I had a couple of songs planned for this CD that might benefit from some ukulele. You can’t really think of the ukulele without thinking of the great George Harrison, but he’s dead, so I thought of the next best thing, Greg Hawkes. Yeah, that Greg Hawkes, the keyboard player for the Cars.
Hawkes is also a greatly under-appreciated ukulele player and he was in Martin Mull’s stage band, The Fabulous Furniture, back in the day. So, I fired off an email too him to see if we could wrangle him into the fold as well.
I may also have a tuba and a couple of other ace’s up my sleeve, so stay tuned. Oh yeah, it was great seeing Payton crying on the side-lines last night, wasn’t it?
The last development is really cool because not only does Andy have a great voice (you may remember his huge hit in the 70’s AVENGING ANNIE), but his Great-Grand Father, or one of them back there in his past, started Exxon with John D. Rockefeller, so he’s an obvious choice to play on the TOO RICH TO BITCH BLUES. The fact that he’s a good musician is just gravy.
Alright, the Nachos Grande were pretty cool too, ‘cause they were homemade, with none of that guacamole crap, but I still, come on, how cool is Andy Pratt?
I’d been meaning to write a Talking Blues for some time now, after talking about the song form with Dan Margarita and his parody of Dylan’s talking blues in his early period. Of course, that was the whole point of the Talking Blues back in the 20’s. They were more comic monologs than the issue-hammering preaching that Woody Guthrie (and by extension, Bob Dylan) turned them into.
Christopher Allen Bouchillon, the mandolin playing third of the Bouchillon Trio, reportedly had such a horrid singing voice, he was asked to speak rather than sing his songs in the studio back in 1927 and thus his trademark and a new style were born.
Of course, I didn’t follow the traditional Talking Blues format of each verse being two couplets and the fifth line being an irregular, unrhymed tag, just to piss off those cat brushing, festival holding, stinking hippies out there that might get pissed off at something like that.
I’d been making a lot of sport of Ernie Boch, Jr. lately, partly out of jealousy, but mainly because, what the hell business does a billionaire (yes, billion with a ‘b’) have with playing the blues? There really are enough pedestrian white boy blues out there as it is, without Ernie and his “Oh, Yeah, I Remember Him” All-Stars throwing their hat’s into the ring.
Musically, Martin Mull had pretty much written the final word on rich people singing the blues back in 1973, with his Ukulele Blues. But amazingly, that was 37 years ago and sadly most people now remember Mull as ‘that gay guy from the Roseanne Show’ rather than the musical comedy giant of the 70’s. So, I figured it was time to revisit the subject.
Getting Andy to play on the recording was an inspired choice, given his family background.
TOO RICH TO BITCH BLUES
THE NAME IS TWIGGLY TOPPER MIDDLE-BOTTOM I’M GLAD TO MEET YA
I’M JUST A LITTLE PUT OFF BECAUSE DOMINOES RAN OUT OF TROUT PIZZA
WE’LL HAVE TO MAKE DO WITH W/THE BUFFALO AND BRIE
IF IT DOESN’T GET HERE IN FIVE MORE MINUTES, AT LEAST IT IS FREE
WE HAD TO GIVE THE COOK THE LONG WEEKEND FOR MARTIN SOMEONE DAY
ALL SHE LEFT US WAS ABOUT A DOZEN FINGER SANDWICHES AND SOME CANAPÉ
WE’LL MAKE IT THROUGH TO TUESDAY IF WE DON’T RUN OUT OF BOOZE
THE TOO RICH TO BITCH BLUE
CH.
TOO RICH TO BITCH BLUES
I GOT THE BLUES
BUT I CAN’T BITCH
I SLIPPED A GIRL A ROOFIE AND CALLED IT SEDUCTION
I PAID HER OFF WITH SOME IMPLANTS AND HER BROTHER’S BREAST REDUCTION
I TALK LIKE I’M STREET BUT I DRIVE A SUBURBAN
I DRINK MY SCOTCH NEAT AND PRETEND THAT IT’S BOURBON
MY FARTS DON’T STINK AND MY BLOOD COULDN’T BE PURER
I’LL BLOW A 3.8 QUICKER THAN MY LAWYER CAN BLOW A JUROR
I’VE WRECKED MORE BEAMERS AND PUKED ON MORE SHOES
THE TOO RICH TO BITCH BLUES
CH.
WHEN THE STOCK MARKET TANKED I LOST A FEW MILLION
HAD TO SLUM IT ALL SUMMER, HANGING OUT WITH PARIS HILTON
THINGS GOT SO TIGHT MY UNCLE, TWIGGLY TOPPER MIDDLE-BOTTOM III JR.
JUST LAST WEEK HAD TO LAY OFF A COUPLE OF HIS SENATORS
NOW HE’S ASHAMED TO SHOW HIS FACE AROUND GEORGETOWN
THANK GOD ALL YA’LL VOTED FOR GOOD OLD SCOTT BROWN
HE SAID HE’D BAIL ME OUT ‘CAUSE I USED TO BANG HIS COUSIN AT SYRACUSE
TOO RICH TO BITCH BLUES
CH.
I GOT MADRAS UNDERWEAR AND WHALES ON MY BELT
TOO BAD IZOD STOPPED MAKING SHIRTS OUT OF UNBORN SEAL PELT
THE PRESIDENTIAL SUITE AT THE W WAS BOOKED BY A SAUDI PRINCE
WE HAD’A RENT A HOUSE FOR THE WEEKEND THAT WAS OWNED BY GEORGE WENDT
MY GRANDFATHER’S FATHER WAS THE LAST MIDDLE-BOTTOM THAT HAD’A WORK
MY ARROGANCE IS CHARMING, IF I WERE POOR I’D JUST BE A USED CAR SELLING JERK
DON’T WANNA, BUT I OWE IT TO HUMANITY TO REPRODUCE
THE TOO RICH TO BITCH BLUES
CH,
CH. (AIN’T THAT RICH?)
Written by Lance Norris @2010 Dutchco Music (BMI)
Hawkes is also a greatly under-appreciated ukulele player and he was in Martin Mull’s stage band, The Fabulous Furniture, back in the day. So, I fired off an email too him to see if we could wrangle him into the fold as well.
I may also have a tuba and a couple of other ace’s up my sleeve, so stay tuned. Oh yeah, it was great seeing Payton crying on the side-lines last night, wasn’t it?
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