OK, well finally I return from wherever I really was for the past 6 months or more. Pretty sad, really, that I couldn't get my act together for a blog post. I have remained relatively active (for me) on Twitter, but this seemed more than I could manage for some reason.
Nevertheless, here I am again. I'll keep this post to a quick update on everything, and hopefully follow up with more detailed discussion of a few specific subjects soon.
My Music
In brief, I've recorded virtually nothing in the past year. The major renovation of our house was completed at the end of the summer 2011, and I should have been able to take over the new music room with gusto. I kind of did that, but without getting around to recording in it. That said, there's lots of music going on, whether it be noodling around on whatever guitar is handy, or getting together with friends for informal musical exchanges on a near-weekly basis.
I think I now have the setup I need to record all the instruments in the arsenal, and it's time to sit down and do just that. There's always something new flowing from my fingers, though taming it to the point of a decent recording is more challenging. I've actually been writing some lyrics in the past 6 months, which is almost a first for me.
I am significantly influenced (encouraged) by the musical interactions with my friends who come by weekly to share musical ideas. Whether it's an attempt on a cover tune of some sort, or exploring originals from the guys, it's always interesting and pushes and pulls me to move forward. I was sad to see a key member of our posse say goodbye at the end of 2011 and return home to England... his influence is still felt in the room, but sadly his great fingerstyle guitar playing is missed. We've added a new face as a result, though, which pushes some new influences into play. Always for me it's a good time when sharing music with others.
My Instruments
As is my nature, and my luck, I tend to find myself with new instruments every now and then. Although I think of myself primarily as a guitarist, I'm by no means particular about it. I welcome any instrument into my home. And we have a couple of weird ones, which I suppose I should discuss at some point in the future.
Since last summer, there are a few new items of note. For the most part, I tend towards quite affordable instruments (quantity over quality, perhaps):
- 1/2-scale Applause AA12 (by Ovation) steel string guitar
- Korg O1/Wfd Synthesizer (early 90's synth... quite used)
- Behringer Ultratone K1800FX Keyboard Amplifier
- Johnson JB110 5-string Banjo
- 10-string Electric Guitar (shown at right)
My Consumption of Music
;)
The best concert I've seen in a long while was Joe Bonamassa, who I managed to see twice last December. I drove to Seattle for the first show with two buddies, and had a really great guys evening out road trip. Seats were way up high and off to one side of the auditorium, but the sound was great after the first few songs. Two nights later, I saw Joe again with my wife, sitting in row 6 at the Orpheum theater in Vancouver. The show was definitely better from close up, but the sound was pretty similar in both settings, and the sets were virtually identical. I was sad not to see my favourite of his songs, though: Stop! Ah, well, we can't have everything.
I have purchased a few albums over the past months (as usual), and this latest batch includes:
- Dream Theater -- A Dramatic Turn of Events **** [out of 5*... I think only Kinda Blue gets that score]
- Van Halen -- A Different Kind of Truth ***1/2
- Steve Lukather -- All's Well that Ends Well ***1/2
- Garrett -- Seventh Star ***1/2
- Five Alarm Funk -- Anything is Possible **1/2
- Corea, Clarke & White -- Return to Forever IV ****
- Chickenfoot -- Chickenfoot III ***
- Barry Greenfield -- The Early Years (1973 & 1975) [too dated to fairly rate: has some good material]
- Beth Hart & Joe Bonamassa -- Don't Explain ****
- Marcus Miller -- Marcus ***1/2
You can see that most of these have been pretty solid. The one I have liked the most, and played a LOT is the Dream Theater album. I wasn't previously a fan, but have found this to be enduringly enjoyable.
My Reading
In the area of music, I have enjoyed the following over the past months:
- When Giants Walked the Earth (Led Zeppelin) -- Mick Wall ****
- Guitar Boy -- M. J. Auch ***
- Guitar -- Tim Brookes *****
I also have enjoyed a number of other books, though I often find business inspiration from the music industry stories as well. On the business side:
- What EveryBODY is Saying -- Joe Navarro, Marvin Karlins [Recently started as Audio book. Narrator is quite poor]
- Taking People With You -- David Novak ****
- The Steve Jobs Way (iLeadership) -- Jay Elliot, William L. Simon
- In the Plex (the Google Story) -- Steven Levy ****
- iWoz -- Steve Wozniak, Gina Smith ****
Novels:
- Freedom (TM) -- Daniel Suarez *****
- Locked On -- Tom Clancy, Mark Greaney ***1/2
- Against All Enemies -- Tom Clancy, Peter Telep ****
Well, as usual it's past bedtime, so off I go. Thanks for reading. Let me know what you're reading or listening to that i should have a look at.
Cheers
Dave