Thursday Links and "It's Odds and Ends" And Something Completely Different!

I hate it when mom and dad fight….

Today’s Thursday format is a bit different because I want to talk about a new feature on SubStack, but also editorialize a bit on where this might be (or not) going. Thanks for indulging me.

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You may have already discovered SubStack’s new thing: “Notes”. Some are making the argument that Notes is in competition with Twitter as “short form” social media. I dunno. I’m inclined to say, “Why not both?”, but there’s apparently money at stake. So.

Anyway, there’s this:

“Notes is a new space on Substack for us to share links, short posts, quotes, photos, and more. I plan to use it for things that don’t fit in the newsletter, like work-in-progress or quick questions.”

Actually, that paragraph is suggested boilerplate from SubStack for authors to send out to subscribers. I don’t know what I’m going to use Notes for, or even if I’m going to use it much at all. I’m open to suggestions, and if you have questions or comments you don’t want to put in the comments below, I’ll respond there. Since Notes are as public as SubStack comments or Twitter tweets, I’m not sure there’s an advantage there, but we’ll see, though I will say it appears to be a good place to attract new subscribers.

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Seems like a good place for this:

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

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I avoid political commentary on here, so I’ll just convey my feelings about the Twitter/SubStack kerfluffle musically:

But, y’all don’t pay me just to make wry social media commentary! Kidding, nobody’s paying me to do this….

So - Brian Fallon is one of my very favorite singer/songwriters and performing artists. This song is one of my favorites of his and I’ll share some “how to play it”. This is essentially the process I use if I want to learn a new song by somebody.

Here’s a link to an Ultimate Guitar (which I’m abbreviating as “UG” in the rest of this post) chord chart:

Nobody Wins (UG)

This may be behind a paywall, not sure. Kinda like a Joe Walsh paraphrase….

”I have accountants credit cards pay for it all”

Anyway - here’s a screenshot of the chords from the UG chart linked above. Keep in mind UG content is all user created, and we can have a conversation about how some of the chord diagrams portray “a” way to play a chord, but not necessarily the only or best way - let me know if this is something you would like me to discuss:

I prefer when folks include score information like Key, Time Signature and Tempo (BPM), but I also understand when they don’t - the contributor of this chord chart is “gift29”, BTW. In any event, this one’s pretty easy to figure out: it just about has to be the key of GMaj, with the GMaj chord as the I (root chord), CMaj the IV chord (don’t let the “add9” mislead you - that’s just a Major chord with an extension - in this case a D replacing the C on the B string - the C on the 3rd fret of the A string is the root note - the CMaj triad is C-E-G and all of those notes are played on the A, D, and G strings already), and the DMaj (also with an inversion D/F# and a suspended Dsus4 - same thing, those are just the Major chord with some alterations) is the V chord. That leaves the Em7 as the vi-, so it all fits. Note: Some may argue the point, but a 7th chord pretty much counts as a basic chord, even though it’s more than a triad.

A quick check on Chordify confirms this:

So, yeah - it’s GMaj (one sharp - always check the Circle Of Fifths to confirm - because it could actually be the relative minor key of E minor, but in this case probably not) and also gives us the time signature. Note that the “C” centered on the signature area score lines is a symbol for “Common Time”, which is 4/4, so it’s the Time Signature, not the Key Signature. The key is designated by the absence of, or numbers of sharps or flats in the signature (again the Circle Of Fifths is our friend!). The tempo is shown as a quarter note equals a beat, and the beat is a relatively quick 125 Beats Per Minute (BPM). Note the Chordify score .pdf doesn’t list the chord extensions/alterations - Chordify uses an algorithm to produce the chords and .pdf - it may be that the original song by Brian Fallon doesn’t actually have all the chord extensions shown in the UG chart (because UG content is all user generated it’s someone’s interpretation - in this case “gift29”s) and that’s just the way the person interpreted the song. On the other hand, it could be that the Chordify algorithm isn’t great at detecting altered/extended/suspended chords. The UG chart looked interesting, so that’s the way I play it, but feel free to play it any way you want.

Here’s the really not, but kinda mysterious looking, Circle of Fifths:

I realize this is stuff we’ve already covered, but we have more than just a few new subscribers (I’ll be thanking you in the regular Friday post tomorrow with the traditional picture of my cat - she’s singing in the pic, you won’t want to miss that!!). For new folks, if the above is confusing, I covered all of this previously and you can find those posts in the Archive or just ask me in the comments here or on Notes and I’ll do my best to give you some answers (mostly correct ones, too!).

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Ok, this is supposed to be a “Links” post, so let’s get to some of those:

Some Links for today:

Our friend Brad Kyle at the Front Row And Backstage SubStack often references “The Wrecking Crew”, a group of session players that backed some of the most famous and popular performers of the day:

The Wrecking Crew

"Hired Guns" is a documentary about the often unsung session players, such as the members of The Wrecking Crew

I’m affiliated with ASCAP, but there are at least a couple of other Performing Rights Organizations (PROs) that musicians can affiliate with, such as BMI and SESAC. Your mileage may vary, but if you’re releasing songs that artists/bands may cover in a live performance, these organizations collect royalties for your registered songs (but don’t neglect to copyright them as well!).

YouTube Royalties

From the folks at Carvin Audio, thoughts on ordering songs on your album or EP:

Album Song Order

From the DIY Blog at CD Baby:

5 Livestreaming Artist Tips

From Guitar.com:

Improve Your Guitar Tone

I’ve been into lots of different genres and bands over the years, I was a big fan of Flock Of Seagulls (note this may be paywalled):

Where Are They Now?

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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:

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Today’s John Prine quote:

“I guess I just process death differently than some folks. Realizing you’re not going to see that person again is always the most difficult part about it. But that feeling settles, and then you are glad you had that person in your life, and then the happiness and the sadness get all swirled up inside you.”

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And now….

SOMETHING COMPLETELY DIFFERENT!:

Every guy after grocery shopping

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It’s Odds And Ends!

This week’s underrated or obscure band (and please send me your suggestions for your favorite obscure/underrated bands in the comments or on Notes):

“Keats were a short-lived British rock band, which produced one eponymous album in 1984. It was an Alan Parsons Project offshoot. Its members were Colin Blunstone (vocals), Ian Bairnson(guitars), Pete Bardens (keyboards), David Paton (bass and backing vocals) and Stuart Elliott (drums and percussion). Richard Cottle also provided additional keyboard parts, as well as saxophone and synthesizers.^[1]

Origin: United Kingdom Genres: Progressive rock, soft rock

Years active: 1983–1984 Past members:

Colin Blunstone
Ian Bairnson
Pete Bardens
David Paton
Stuart Elliott

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Regular post tomorrow!

Cheers, and keep playing!

Michael Acoustic