Thursday Links and "It's Odds and Ends" And Something Completely Different!
Some guitar heroes and I sing in microtones!
It’s all about the links today, and the usual other funny/not funny stuff I post on Thursdays. We have new subscribers!! My thanks and the traditional picture of my cat Mika doing something when we have new subscribers will be in tomorrow’s regular Friday post - you won’t want to miss that!
Disclaimer: This SubStack is free, always will be, and I receive no compensation or other benefit (except the unsolicited, occasional, and much appreciated shoutout from readers and other SubStackers!) from any of the people or companies I link to or write about.
Michael Acoustic
Today’s John Prine quote:
“If I can make myself laugh about something that I should be crying about, that’s pretty good.”
Some Links for today:
From Carvin Audio -
What’s “power factor correction”? Everything you want to know about it here:
Guitar tone? This article addresses electric guitars specifically, and doesn’t get to the important tonal differences in acoustic guitars that are influenced by the woods used (usually spruce for the top - Sitka or Adirondack and rosewood or maple for the body, but also more exotics like Koa) or the influence of the shape of the body - especially the “bouts” which are the curved parts (upper and lower). Still interesting and if you have electronics installed or use a soundhole pickup, topical.
While we’re discussing woods used in acoustic guitars, here’s an article from Fender guitars on that subject:
Really cool stuff from our friends at Acoustic Guitar Magazine -
James Taylor uses some cool fingerpicking techniques. Learn more here:
And my guitar hero because I think simple and elegant is really cool:
From Disc Makers:
Part 3 of the “How To Choose The Right Digital Distributor” YouTube series (we looked at parts 1 & 2 last week). This one is really good and sort of wraps the whole idea up neatly.
And there’s this, kinda long, but really interesting. In brief, microtones are musical notes heard “between” the 12 notes of the western scale that make up the root notes of the chords that make up a key. This article is particularly on point as it discusses the concept of “cents” - the 100 slight variations in tone that can be adjusted in your DAW. Other cultures use different notes than the western scale does, and in fact we hear microtones all the time, when we “bend” a chord or struggle a bit to “hit” a note in our vocals. I’m going to start thinking in terms of microtones when I’m singing: “It’s fine Michael, your vocals don’t suck that bad - just tell them you’re singing in microtones!” - yeah…
From Mr. Graham English - what if you have a title but no lyrics yet?:
My go-to answer would be to check out some artwork by someone such as Mr. Fabian Perez (See “Some Memes And Stuff” below ) - and build a narrative that turns into lyrics from the inspiration, your mileage may vary…
If you read the “Guitar Tone” and “Acoustic Guitar Woods” articles linked above, you may want to check out this article about how “the other guys” do it:
Hat tip to our friend Brad Kyle from the “Front Row And Backstage” Substack for forwarding the article. Check him out here: FR&B
Some memes and stuff:
You can open each image in the gallery separately in a new window by shift-clicking on it, though it may work differently on different devices:
Note the painting middle right. That’s by an artist named Fabian Perez entitled “Whiskey At Las Brujas VII” from a category he calls “Characters Of The Night”. I find his paintings really interesting - when I study the paintings of his that really catch my eye and imagination, I’m always intrigued by what the story might be behind the setting, the pose, what it conveys as a whole. I imagine Mr. Perez had some narrative in mind and I ask myself: Why is this well dressed, handsome, man here? Who is he looking at, why is he wearing a hat in the bar? We don’t know, but you might be able to come up with a hook, even an entire song’s lyrics by answering those questions for yourself….just sayin’.
Middle right photo credit: Fabian Perez, artist Link: FabianPerez.com Art
And now…. SOMETHING COMPLETELY DIFFERENT!:
Cats With Unusual Color Patterns
It’s Odds And Ends!
This week’s underrated or obscure band/performer:
Kevin Devine (born December 19, 1979) is an American songwriter and musician from Staten Island, New York City, who is known for his introspective and political themes. He is a contemporary member of the underground indie rock and indie folk musical scenes, and his influences range from older indie artists such as Neutral Milk Hotel, Elliott Smith and Pavement to more mainstream and well known acts such as Nirvana and Bob Dylan.[1] In 2013, Kevin Devine rejoined his previous band, Miracle of 86, for a series of reunion shows.[2]
Beginnings
Kevin Devine grew up in Brooklyn and Staten Island and has spent significant time in Manhattan and Queens. Devine graduated from Fordham University at Lincoln Center in 2001, majoring in journalism and writing for the school newspaper, TheFordham Observer.[3] He first played in the band Delusion, which later changed its name to Miracle of 86 (referring to the 1986 New York Mets). At Fordham he was able to hone his solo, acoustic style by playing at various open-mic and college events. Devine released his first solo album, entitled Circle Gets the Square, in 2002 under the record label Immigrant Sun Records, as well as being produced by Bill Manoudakis. During this time he also appeared in regular stints at the Wetlands Preserve venue in New York City.
Between the Concrete and Clouds (2010–2012)
Recording was completed on March 6, 2011. Between the Concrete and the Clouds is the first record made by Devine that is fully backed by a band, featuring musicians Brian Bonz (keyboard), Chris Bracco (a.k.a. Plosive) (bass, keyboard), Mike Fadem (drums, percussion), Russell Smith (electric guitar), and Mike Strandberg (guitar, mandolin). It was recorded in 10 days over a span of a month, produced by longtime collaborator Chris Bracco and mixed by Rob Schnapf.
Credit: Wikipedia Link: Kevin Devine
(Ed. Watch the strumming and flatpicking combinations along with the chord fingering to produce the “dawdle” notes)
Regular post tomorrow!
Cheers, and keep playing!
Michael Acoustic
Love the variety of info, Michael....nice! I enjoyed the Kevin Devine focus and video, plus the Fabian Perez painting! It's cool, too, that you offered the notion of using it as a songwriting prompt! If I was a songwriter (or even a guitarist!), I'd take advantage of that inspiration!