Read And Listen Widely, My Friends!!
Gazing At Shoes….
Last week’s Bonus Round:
The song “Painkillers” by Brian Fallon (formerly of Gaslight Anthem) is from his album of the same name. Fun song to play: in CMaj with some quick chord changes.
“Album by Brian Fallon
Painkillers is the debut studio album by Brian Fallon, singer/guitarist of American rock band The Gaslight Anthem, released on March 11, 2016, through Island Records.” Credit Wikipedia
Brian Fallon is kind of an icon to me, having overcome some of life’s hardships to succeed with his music, but also because my youngest son and his friend, both big fans of Gaslight Anthem, were invited on board the tour bus before a show while longboarding through the parking lot outside the venue. Mr. Fallon and the entire band were very kind to spend a few minutes talking with them. Pretty cool!
What I’m listening to: I write this newsletter on my iPhone, mostly extemporaneously, but with kind of an outline in my head every Thursday and Friday. I usually have something on the stereo or streaming. Today it’s Dire Straits’ “Love Over Gold” album:
“Love Over Gold is the fourth studio album by British rock band Dire Straits, released on 24 September 1982 by Vertigo Records internationally and by Warner Bros. Records in the United States.”” Credit Wikipedia
And now I have to go actually flip the vinyl over to side 2!!
I mention this (though I may start including it as a regular feature on Thursdays) for a couple of reasons. I think it’s important for musicians to “listen widely”, and outside of their usual “genre”. Along those lines, it’s important to read (or listen if you prefer podcasts) to lots of voices, both in and out of the theme of music.
Here’s a SubStack I have a free subscription to. Interesting subject and I like the approach taken in the writing:
Since it appears spring may actually have arrived in the country’s Upper Left Corner, I’m off to mow what we call the “lower 40”, an especially aggressively growing portion of the lawn (it’s not acres - 40 of some other measurement - cubits or rods or something).
Some links:
DI (Direct Inject) boxes Recording and gigging musicians use these to “balance” the signals within the chain from source to interface or PA system
a-ha new album I loved this band and their groundbreaking video “Take On Me” back in the MTV golden era. Cool to see they’re still at it. Also, the MTV unplugged acoustic version of “Take On Me” is a pretty easy song to learn. Wish I had just a little of Mr. Harket’s still impressive vocal range!
Copyright Tony Van Veen, CEO of Disc Makers, on copyright, and why you should. He talks a little about US Copyright Office pricing. I’m going to expand on that tomorrow.
Your spine! This is important to avoid this:
Bonus Round: This “star” is a dreamer…
See you tomorrow!!
Cheers and keep playing!!
Michael Acoustic
I always love seeing bands/musicians replaying songs in such a different format. We all hear/see the “fun” in the original format the record companies preferred them to be in, but it puts so much more into the true meaning of songs when they perform them in a format such as this. Thanks for putting this out there!
I always love seeing bands/musicians replaying songs in such a different format. We all hear/see the “fun” in the original format the record companies preferred them to be in, but it puts so much more into the true meaning of songs when they perform them in a format such as this. Thanks for putting this out there!