The Regular Friday Post

Rando Lyrics: But I still love you baby Although my heart's sore

Last week’s rando lyrics: The lyric, “There's a silence that may be heard loud and clear” is from "The Flame In The Flood”, a song by singer/songwriter Chuck Ragan as Track 1 on the album “The Flame In The Flood”, released in 2016 as the music from a video game of the same name. The album was produced by Ragan and Todd Beene. Link: The Flame In The Flood

“Personally, I’m not a video game guy, in fact I couldn’t be more opposite,” said Ragan. “So at first, I’m going, ‘OK, well, I don’t know.’ A lot of times, when I think of video games I think of shoot ‘em up games, and I just wasn’t sure how I would connect with it until (Sinclair) started describing the concept of the game, and it was right up my alley. Right away, he was basically talking of images of drifting down a river, rowing a boat, camping, being in the outdoors, and I’m going, ‘Yeah, that’s exactly what I love to do.’ So, pretty much even in the first conversation it was clear to me, I thought, ‘I need to write a lot of this music out there, I need to get out there. I don’t need to be sitting in a studio or in a basement, I need to be on the bank of the river,’ and that’s what I did.”

Credit: app.com Link: Flame In The Flood Soundtrack

While this is an interesting song, and an even more interesting backstory, you may ask yourself: Is this my beautiful house? Or, more likely - video game soundtracks? Yeah, I guess someone does those… and (yes, I know) the soundtracks to games like “Halo” and “Doom” and many others are great - but is anyone making money off the soundtracks in album form, or just a percentage of royalties from the games themselves? - yeah, I dunno either…

(Ed. See late breaking stuff in the commercial section below - just before the Mika, the Cat section - maybe Berklee College of Music just answered the question….)

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Once Again: The “ME!” Section…..

What I’m Listening2: Just click the LINK»> Dirty Blues

I listen widely to songs across many genres - check out this playlist on Amazon Music - this feature doesn’t get much love, probably because I always leave it at the bottom of the page. Moved it up here today (Yes - AGAIN!). My conversation with Mika, The Cat is at the bottom today, yes again. 25 songs featuring music I like and it’s “public” so you should be able to access it even if you don’t subscribe to Amazon. Yes, it’s my petty little dig at Spotify for their perfidy in withholding royalties from artists like me, again….

Shameless Self Promotion Section:

My song is out! Link: “Long Road Back”click on link for streaming options, then scroll down for links (or just click on these links) to Amazon, Apple, Pandora, iTunes and even (boo, hiss) Spotify

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Welcome to The Regular Friday post!

For Today

Despite various attempts to placate all possible deities through numerous arcane rituals, performative art, overeating, meaningful sighs, prayers, ignoring it, etc - winter persists here in the Upper Left Corner and it’s so freaking annoying. Yes, I’m complaining about the weather and failing miserably at doing anything about it, thank you very much, Mr. Warner….

Something I can change is the lack of a blues-centric playlist. Click the “Dirty Blues” link above in the What I’m Listening 2 section for 25 blues classics that will have the contrarian effect of kinda cutting through the gloom of another damn winter day. Funny how that works -but the blues, especially from the “4 Kings” (check out the artists performing the first 4 selections on the list) have that effect…you’ll see.

Today’s “A Song To Play” is from Louisiana artist Tab Benoit, and it’s cool! I had the pleasure of seeing Mr. Benoit in concert a few years ago. He actually left the warmth of Louisiana to come here - the wilds of Eastern Washington (he admitted he had not been in this part of the country before and I seem to recall something about surprise at the lack of horse drawn carriages as the primary mode of transportation - or something like that…). I went with a friend (yes, guitarists can be friends with drummers, it’s OK….) and thoroughly enjoyed the show. Hope he comes back soon!

Anyway it’s a cool song and capoed on 2 should be a pretty easy song to play for anyone. Remember you can always take the capo off and just play it in G Major, but if you want to play and sing it in the original key, leave it on or transpose to the original key of A Major with the capo off. We should probably do a post on the whole transposing keys business soon, but a warning - it will involve a lot of, yes, MUSIC THEORY!

I’ll give you a heads up it’s coming so you can click on the post so I get the stat (which I adamantly don’t care about at all…) and then you can immediately close it. Win-win…

And if you don’t play - enjoy Mr. Benoit’s song on YouTube below anyway and if he comes to a venue near you - make sure and go!

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A Song To Play -

A couple of things to note - this is a 3/4 (waltz) time song - count it with that waltz feel: 1 2 3, or 1& 2& 3&, or 1 e & a 2 e & a 3 e & a. Quarter note still gets the beat, and it’s a pretty quick 130 BPM. The thing with 3/4 is that the one beat gets a bit more emphasis than with common time: ONE, Two, Three ONE, Two, Three…

Also for this song, adopting a kind of a “down on the bayou” outlook won’t hurt…

I moved your picture from my wall
And I replaced them baby, both large and small
And each new day oh finds me so blue
Because nothing, nothing takes the place of you
I read your letter, oh baby one by one
And I still love ya, ya know I do, when it's all said and done
And oh my darlin, oh I'm so blue
Because nothing, no nothing takes the place of you
And as, as I write this letter
Lord it's raining, raining on my windowpane
And as, as I feel baby in need of you
Cause without you, without you nothing seems the same
And so I'll wait, baby till your home
Oh and I'll love again, yes I will but right now I'm so all alone
And oh my darlin baby I'm so blue, because nothing, nothing take the place
Of you
Because nothing, no nothing takes the place of you

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“The news is blue (the news is blue)
It has its own way to get to you (ooh)” [Driver’s Seat”, 1978, Sniff ‘n’ The Tears, Paul Roberts]

The News….

This is sooo cool:

Lost Guitar Solo In "Here Comes The Sun" While going through the master for George Harrison’s song, “Here Comes The Sun”, a guitar solo that did not become a part of the release was discovered - hadn’t been heard since 1969 - check it out at the link!

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The YouTube video below is a composite of artists attending the NAMM (National Association of Music Merchants) trade show answering a great question (and yes, it ends up being a pitch for a course you can take, but it’s still pretty cool):

This is very cool:

'Going Home (Theme From Local Hero)', in aid of Teenage Cancer Trust and Teen Cancer America, as premiered today at Newcastle United FC. Out March 15th. Pre-order the track here: LINK> PreOrder "Going Home"

See more here: LINK> Mark Knopfler

Note: If you saw the news item about Mr. Knopfler’s recent record setting auction of some of his guitars at Christie’s, you may recall that a significant portion of the proceeds were donated to charities and the Teen Cancer charities were major recipients.

Ed. Also - if the movie “Local Hero” isn’t one you’re familiar with - do yourself a favor and rent it off Amazon or someplace - it’s a very quirky, oddball movie that is so cool - the story, the cinematography, the beautiful setting, Burt Lancaster, Mr. Knopfler’s score - all combine for great film.

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Other Voices:

Seriously, if you’re not reading Adam Nathan's “100 Stories” series, what are you even thinking? Are you still here? Go. (Ed. - scroll down and look at Mika, the Cat first. Then go…)

Adam Nathan

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Disclaimer Section

This Substack is free, I receive no compensation of any kind from companies or products I mention. Some linked or quoted material may be copyrighted by others, and I credit them. I rely on the “Fair Use” doctrine for educational purposes (Link: Fair Use). *I do not use AI, things I link to might though. -Michael Acoustic

*Exception: For the next few weeks at least I’ll be testing out a beta feature offered on Substack that produces an AI image based on a text input - the image of the week can be seen in the upper left corner of this post… (it’s not me in the pic, just sayin…)

Thanks for reading! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support this newsletter.

*Note: I want to make clear that I have no association with and receive no benefit of any kind from the company whose product I’m going to recommend here: I’ve been using Boveda humidity packs and holders for a couple of years. As I’ve mentioned I live in a somewhat mountainous region at an altitude of around 2000 ft ASL. Not Denver league, but not lowland either. Humidity is low most of the time and fluctuates a lot. So keeping my guitars healthy is important. I’ve used various humidity solutions in the past, these seem to work for me. FWIW

I’ll probably run this little blurb for a couple more weeks. One reason is I’m sold on this as a way of protecting my guitars from humidity fluctuations that can result in cracked guitar tops, sides, bottoms and maybe even necks. Also - I recently bought a guitar off of Reverb and it shipped with a Boveda humidity pack in the case, and my favorite local guitar shop has them in all of the acoustic guitars hanging on the walls, even the ones that are customer guitars in for repairs. Again, I’m receiving no compensation, recognition or anything from the company and I’ll readily admit I think they’re pretty pricey. But they work, so… cheaper than a cracked top at the soundhole (shudder) repair…

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Some Links for today (a number of these are commercial in nature and essentially advertisements. None are beneficial to me in any way, and I’m not endorsing any of them, but some of my readers may find them interesting):

From Blues Guitar Unleashed: BGU is just a great site for guitarists. Mr. Hamlin’s main fare is electric guitar and especially blues/jazz, but every guitarist will learn something…

Process For Learning Difficult Licks - yes, break it down into chunks - here’s how

Blues Turnaround - A “turnaround” is what happens at the end of blues series - might be 4, 8, or 12 bars, but at the end of the sequence, you play something a little different that takes you “back to the top” where you play the sequence again. That transitional sequence is called a turnaround, and there are lots of examples - here’s one.

Angus Young Turnaround - here’s another, Angus Young style

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From Speed Songwriting:

Structure Songwriting - Okay, yes there is a loooong commercial bit between Part 1 and Part 2 (I can’t fault Mr. English for pitching his stuff, it’s how he makes some $$), but this is still interesting.

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From Disc Makers:

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A couple of purely commercial links, but kinda interesting:

"Magnet Thing" So, this is a thing that temporarily attaches to your fretboard and then holds your smartphone so you can record your picking across the strings - either with a plectrum (that’s British for”pick”) or fingerstyle so you can visualize and maybe improve your technique…

Berklee College Of Music Online Some online classes offered by the premier college of music - yeah it’s a big deal, doesn’t seem too expensive. It’s not like you could legit claim you “went to” Berklee, but you’ll probably learn stuff….

Aaaaaand - as I was writing this post, right on time, this shows up:

so….

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Thank You To Our New Subscribers!! This Week’s Conversation With Mika, the Cat:

Mika: “These aren’t warm anymore. Can you put them back in the dryer and then refold them for me?”

Me: “No”

Ed. - now go check out Mr. Nathan’s Substack….

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Cheers and keep playing!!

Michael Acoustic

“It’s never really final - you just run out of things you can bear to change…”