Thursday Links and "It's Odds and Ends" And Something Completely Different!
A not-so-subtle plea for help (but not money!) in the "It's Odds and Ends" section...
Bunches of links today, along with a must-read Substack post by another author, and a (most likely) unpopular opinion about a particular streaming series you may be a fan of, which stars a country singer’s song I like a lot.
(Ed. Also for new subscribers: Mika The Cat welcomes and thanks you all in tomorrow’s post!)
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. Note some images and other material may be copyrighted by the original author or composer and appear here under the “Fair Use” doctrine. Link: Fair Use
Michael Acoustic
Today’s John Prine quote:
“My sense of humor has saved me more than a couple of times in my life.”
Some Links for today:
Acoustic Guitar Magazine has been ¡en fuego! recently; check these links out!
If you’re performing (or considering performing) at a venue where it’s just you and an acoustic guitar, or even more than one of you with only acoustic guitars, these next three links are “must reads” if you need some percussion/bass/other instrumentation backing you up:
Effects Pedals For Acoustic Guitars
Looper Pedals With Acoustic Guitars
Other great links from AG:
Practice Techniques: Overcoming Tough Sections
With the recent Ed Sheeran/Marvin Gaye heirs litigation outcome at the trial court level (not precedent, but a good outcome, IMHO), this next link is important while we’re waiting to see if there’s an appeal. Appellate court decisions do set legal precedent, and the farther the appeal is taken (to higher appellate courts) the more precedence weight is given to decisions, so we’ll see.
From Songtown:
From Mr. Griff Hamlin at Blues Guitar Unleashed:
Six String Sunday(link) is a Substack I follow; it’s heavy on great links. Here’s a couple of my recent favorites - I highly recommend subscribing:
We’ve talked about “gain staging” as a recording technique - here’s how you can “pre-load” your recordings for the effect (note you’ll probably still need a gain plugin, but you can get a bit ahead on that):
We talked a bit about “sus” (suspended) chords recently, here’s more:
From Disc Makers:
Ed. Yes, you seriously need to read this next article whether you’re a musician, singer/songwriter, or otherwise creative person of any type or genre:
(Ed. I’m aware that I linked to a post at “Talking Guitar” by Mr. Obrecht last week. He’s just that good…and for those of you who are musicians primarily and don’t really intend to interview other musicians, I include the link to this post because someday you may be the person on the interviewee end of the deal. Might be a good idea to have some knowledge of how that might/should go….just sayin’.)
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 - they may appear as a gallery or top to bottom.
Shameless Self Promotion Section:
My song “Long Road Back” (click on link for streaming options) is out!
Looking Ahead: I’ll be writing more about the song, it’s inception, writing it, the pretty simple chord progressions, the recording process with the guitarist and drummer, and finally mastering it in a studio and releasing it in my Regular Friday Post tomorrow and maybe a bit of a follow up next week - then we’re on to new stuff, both mine and others! Last week’s “What It Is, What It Was, Part 2” post was the second in the series.
It’s Odds And Ends (with a bit of a plea)!
(Ed. I keep a list of performers, bands artists, singer/songwriters (especially!) who are maybe a little out of the mainstream, underrated, obscure, maybe didn’t get a break they needed. I usually stay a bit ahead of the list, often finding some interesting bands/artists on other social media. At the moment I’m really busy recording and otherwise preparing for the release of my second single and I’ll admit to not being able to listen/read as widely as I normally do lately. There are several “underrated” playlists on Spotify that I could draw from, but I’d much rather hear my readers’ suggestions for underrated or obscure artists who deserve attention. Please don’t be shy about leaving a note in the comments, or on Substack Notes!! Thanks!)
Today’s underrated or obscure artist:
Okay, for you “Yellowstone” fans out there, I get Luke Grimes is neither underrated nor obscure. For the rest of us (yes, I know how popular it is, and I watched the first episode or two - I’m certain it’s compelling and addictive - there’s just a certain practice, apparently important to the narrative, that’s engaged in that ended my viewing - just my personal opinion, please continue to enjoy the series), he’s also a pretty good country artist and I’m not sure how well known he is for that. I just happen to like the song (it’s sort of an earworm):
“The Mercury Nashville / Range Music recording artist paired up with coveted songwriter Brent Cobb to capture the outlaw essence, honing in on the kind of person who chooses to roam the world on an open path with nothing in his way.
“This song was my first co-write with the very talented Bent Cobb and I realized pretty quickly that he was going to be a big part of my musical journey,” said Grimes shared in a press release.” Credit: countrynow.com Luke Grimes (Link)
Cheers, and keep playing!
Michael Acoustic
“It’s never really final - you just run out of things you can bear to change…”
Also: I can’t imagine a happy world without sus4.
I absolutely love, love, love Emma Peters. Listen to the song Dimanche.