(Truth be told I’m writing this because I hate the idea of that last post being the first thing people see when they happen upon this blog…it really wasn’t very inspired, and it’s been sitting there for months now.  That being said, I don’t really have a whole lot to say, but I figure anything is better than a list of things I’ve eaten recently or bought at Goodwill).

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We had previously decided that we’d record an EP for our next release, but now we’re thinking it’s going to be a full length album.  But it’s going to be a little schizophrenic, or maybe bi-polar is a better mental illness metaphor in this instance.

Since receiving my banjo for Christmas it’s become my instrument of choice for writing…and I have some very fun and folky songs in development.  Then there are other songs which were originally intended for a concept album – but I really can’t be bothered to sit on them much longer, or try to come up with a whole album’s worth of  material which fits into the constraints of this concept – it seems a little tiresome, although I have great respect for anyone who has the focus and can commit to such an endeavor.  Anyway, these concept album songs are much darker, and might end up having quite a bit of synth/electronic elements in them.  Then there are some in-between songs we want to record like “Where Have You Gone,” “No Love,” “Better Off,” and our cover of “Somewhere Over the Rainbow.”

So I guess we could put out two separate EPs, but that would mean doubling the duplication and promotional expenses, and quite frankly, I’d rather backpack around south east Asia…yeah, it costs that much.

Plus, I think good music is good music, whether it’s folk or indie rock.  The songs probably aren’t as different as I think they are, they all came from the same place, so how different can they be?

I am trying not to get frustrated with how slow this process is at the moment.  Although I am a lazy pot head I’m actually very results oriented – or maybe I’ve just learned from living in this world that the only things that matter are “results.”  But now that I just wrote that down, I realize how completely untrue that is, thank you WordPress!  These songs are awesome, writing them is awesome, playing them by myself, to myself, is mind-blowingly awesome – and is really the only thing that matters.  But I would love  you to hear them also.

Alright, guess I did have stuff to say!

I got a mass email from someone recommending that I go through this past year and acknowledge every accomplishment, usually I would be annoyed at being added to a mailing list without my permission, but I actually really like the idea.  This will probably make for a really dull blog entry, but if you watch “Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy” before reading this, it will seem like the most invigorating and exciting thing ever. (Seriously, I dare you to watch that movie).

So here goes –  2011: the good, the great and the awesome:

*Booked and embarked on a tour to Chicago and had an awesome time.

*Bought an Airstream.

*Played Falcon Ridge Folk Festival Emerging Artist Showcase, discovered a supportive and vibrant community of folk musicians and folk music lovers.

*Booked our longest tour to date and spent five weeks on the road playing shows in Pennsylvania, Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee and Ohio.

*Sold our furniture and left our apartment (hey, it’s an accomplishment!)

*Met John Platt from WFUV, got airplay and played in the studio.

*Played a Quad showcase at our first NERFA, met more awesome folk folks.

*Got a scholarship to attend out first Folk Alliance Conference in Memphis.

*Improved as a duo and gained confidence as a performer.

*Started designing websites (has nothing to do with music, but I’m adding it anyway).

*Got File Maker Pro (I told you this would be boring).

*Formed a jazz trio (Sadly, not called The Whispering Trio – we’re leaning towards “The Un Deux Trio”).

*Found some awesome pants at Goodwill last week.

*Decided I wanted to learn the banjo.

*Got a banjo!

*Discovered that you can order a vegan pizza from any pizza place – you just have to ask for no cheese…seems obvious now.

*Made a music video (I guess this should be closer to the top of the list, you can see where my priorities lie).

*Got a Kindle.

*Discovered that milk is not an ingredient in Green & Blacks 85% dark chocolate, even though its listed as an ingredient – it’s just processed on shared equipment!

*Watched 15 minutes of “Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy” and got my money back.

So, pretty great year!  I wholeheartedly recommend this exercise

I may have spoken too soon.

We’ve spent the past month formulating a Plan B.  When I say formulating, I mean swinging wildly back and forth between different options, then becoming dizzy and disheartened with all the swinging and deciding not to make any decision at all – hence the dead silence on the blog lately.

The short story is that despite our best efforts we just don’t really like living in a trailer.  If there weren’t several set backs in rapid succession we probably would have kept at it a little longer, but with the endless repairs and Elie being allergic to the trailer, the idea of continuing with this plan seems a little masochistic.  It was actually really comical the way in which everything went so terribly wrong – from the near truck collision on our first day and the broken lap top, to driving back to NY during a fluke October snow storm without a furnace, and our electrical plug (only source of heat) falling out while we were driving and being dragged along the road behind us until the prongs we’re all scraped up and bent.  We spent most of our time scrambling around trying to find our way out of one mess when another one would hit.

On top of all the mishaps, it also turns out that touring in a trailer is actually not cheaper than living in an apartment.  It would be cheap if we got a seasonal spot somewhere and didn’t move around too much, but then what’s the point?  We can’t even comfortably fit the keyboard in there – and even if we could, spending the winter at a trailer park, cramped inside a trailer  with our instruments at odd angles and Elie’s nose running uncontrollably doesn’t sound too inspiring to me right now.

On the bright side, we know what we don’t want – and we figured it out REALLY quickly  We also know what we DO want – but we’re just indecisive about the particulars (where, when, how).

Being the people we are,  we whole-heartedly committed to the No Plan B-ness of this whole situation and therefore have no furniture and no place to live at the moment.  Lucky for us we have generous friends and family to stay with for the time being.  I am REALLY looking forward to having a home again, at  the moment we’re leaning towards renting a place in the Hudson Valley…but I’m open to suggestions

Just got back from our first North East Regional Folk Alliance conference in upstate New York, and it was a truly inspiring and life affirming experience.  So many extraordinarily talented folk artists in one place – with performances throughout the day and into the wee hours of the morning – in big theatres and tiny hotel rooms.  Every morning I would wake up after four hours of sleep, and not because of my alarm, but because I had folk songs writing themselves in my head, and not Whispering Tree – style folk, but straight-up FOLK.  Very interesting, and very cool.  Thinking about songwriting in this style seems to have opened up a whole lot of new possibilities as far as subject matter and lyrics go.  I still haven’t taken the plunge and followed the many song trails to completion, but I feel like it’s still all working itself out in my head.

One of these folky songs which seems to be writing itself is about a story my aunt told me a few years ago, which I had never considered writing a song about before.  She was on a cruise ship with my grandfather, a Polish Jew who fled Poland during the war and joined the Royal Air Force when he was 17.  Anyway, they’re on this cruise ship eating dinner with a group of people they’d just met.  Somehow in conversation it comes out that one of the women at the table was from Germany and was in Dresden when the bombs were dropped, and my grandfather says something to the effect of, “I dropped the bombs on Dresden.”

My aunt said everyone else at the table was kind of stunned, but my grandfather and this woman were all very matter-of-fact about the whole thing…and there’s something so poignant about that scene for me.  Can’t quite wrap my mind around it, but hopefully I will be able to communicate it in song-form far more eloquently than I can with words alone.

Something about how the past really means nothing, no matter how traumatic, wide-spread or life altering it was.  Something about people of that generation reaching the end of their lives and how beautiful it is that they can look back without hatred or sadness.  Something about how so much falls under the blanket of “war,” about how no one is held responsible for what they do – because it’s WAR…and how, in a way, they really aren’t responsible for what they do, because THEY aren’t really  there.

I’m not sure if I’m conveying exactly what I’m trying to – let’s hope the song turns out better!

Another side effect of NERFA is that I’m dying to get into the studio again and put out some new(er) material.  We’ve got enough finished songs for an amazing EP – so I’m not sure of the logistics just yet, but I’m going to make that happen ASAP.

It’s been just over a month since we took to the road.  Still on the fence about the whole thing, but that’s really just because of all the unexpected repairs.  We’re coming up on the last leg of the first leg of our tour (meaning the point at which I got really bored with booking and stopped doing it).  Next week we’re heading back in the eastern direction with a radio show outside of Pittsburgh and a nice little run in upstate New York culminating in our showcase at The Northeast Regional Folk Alliance and a gig at Bar 4 in Brooklyn on 11/18…which brings me to our latest trailer drama:

Looks like we’ve got to replace the furnace.  We haven’t used it since the alarm went off, but luckily our brand new air conditioner has a “heat strip” in it which can keep you somewhat warm down to 38 degrees.  This wouldn’t be an issue if we weren ‘t going to be gigging in upstate New York and NYC through Thanksgiving – but if the temperatures drop too low our pipes might burst…and if that happens I might just turn on our furnace and fall asleep forever.

So the only option is to winterize the trailer until we can afford a new furnace and/or head back down south.  This entails flushing all the water systems out and filling them up with anti-freeze (or something like that)- which means that we won’t have any running water  BUT it would probably be too cold to shower anyway

Still, I’d rather be living in a broke down trailer than stuck in an apartment in NYC – not sure if that’s a reflection of how awesome trailer life is, or how terrible it is to live in the city… probably the latter.  There really is no better way to lower your expectations than spending a few years in New York City

So, Northeastern friends and family, we’ll be boondocking in your neighborhood soon!  See ya then!

To the three people who read this blog: I’m sorry to leave you hanging!

North Carolina was great.  I have another crazy story but I’m not sure if I’m allowed to share this publicly.  It involves a young man joining the armed forces straight out of high school after being assured that he was non-deployable, then realizing that there is no such thing as “non-deployable,” and the resulting ordeal involved in trying to get out of the army before being sent off to war.  Suffice it to say, it wasn’t easy but did make a very entertaining story.

After North Carolina we headed to Knoxville, TN…side note, did you know you could rent a two bedroom house in Knoxville for $500 a month? With a garden and a porch?  And Knoxville is a pretty awesome place – really small, but a TON of musicians there and music happening all over the place…and yes, vegan treats.

We played two great shows on WDVX, East-Tennessee’s public radio station based out of the visitor’s center in downtown Knoxville.  First, how cool is that?  Free, live music every day broadcast live from the visitor’s center!  I don’t know why more cities don’t adopt something like this; it’s great for tourism, great for local artists and great for attracting touring acts.  WDVX is so supportive of independent music AND they started out years ago in a travel trailer! You can check ‘em out here.

After four days in Knoxville we headed up to Ohio to visit our best friend, Ryan…and play a few shows.  Friday we were in Cincinnati and next Friday we’ll be heading to Athens for a show at one of our all time favorite venues, Donkey Coffee.

In trailer news, we got some new tires and our trailer started smelling like urine…probably unrelated.  I could really get used to this – not the urine part – but the living in a trailer.  Being on the road has a timeless quality to it, and I’ve lost all concept of time, which I actually really enjoy.

The other night our carbon monoxide alarm went off – we didn’t buy it, the previous owner just left it in there (pretty handy it turns out).  I wasn’t sure if it worked at all..usually there’s just a little green light that flashes sometimes – but the other night an alarm went off and the friendly green light switched to a red light.  This morning I realized that below the red light it says “move to fresh air.”  We didn’t move to fresh air, but we did open the roof vent and turn on the extractor fan and the air conditioner – to be honest, I was too tired to really care much about dying.  My only concern was that I would wake up next to Elie’s lifeless corpse, which I’m not sure I could deal with – but the thought didn’t keep me awake for too long…maybe it was the carbon monoxide.  So just in case we both die of carbon monoxide poisoning (because Elie will NOT be dying without me) take comfort in the fact that we died free and happy, and we do really enjoy our rest!

Well, this song is pretty self explanatory.

The riff is entirely Elie’s creation, I just came up with the melody and lyrics for this one.  In true slacker fashion, all I  did with this song was list objects I had lying around…one of my laziest songs

The song was definitely inspired by frequent moving.  Anyone who’s ever moved knows how overwhelming and indescribably frustrating it can be to take stock of all the THINGS you own…and to have to unearth them from their dusty corners, put them all in little boxes and then take them out of little boxes and find new corners for them to collect dust in -UGH!  I’m actually getting annoyed just thinking about it.

So, the inspiration:

In the summer of 2006 we moved from England to Mount Vernon, NY;  then in January 2007 we made the short trip from Mount Vernon to Pelham (to my parent’s basement, to be precise, which flooded every time it rained and was home to many gigantic basement bugs), then from Pelham to Macau in July 2007 (by then our things were dusty AND moldy), and Macau to NYC in March 2008.  So by the time I wrote the song, we were well acquainted with everything we owned…and even though we threw out a lot of stuff every time we moved, we still managed to accumulate more.

Now, I love cleanliness but I don’t love cleaning…and while I really do HATE getting dirt stuck to my feet when I walk around the house, I suppose I don’t hate it enough to sweep the floor on a regular basis.  I’m also not big on putting things away.  Clean clothes stay in the laundry bag, I pour them out on the bed every morning to find what I’m looking for, and then stuff them back in the bag at night rather than taking the time to fold them and place them in drawers.  But anyway,  every now and then I get really frustrated with all the clutter and hair balls everywhere and I go into a cleaning frenzy and throw out a bunch of stuff.

Still, I can not keep any surfaces in my house clear.  If there’s a surface, there’s something on it.  I put things in their respective places every now and then, or try to make neat little piles…but it doesn’t last long – and it seems like such a useless endeavor.  Keeping things clean and clear is a never ending battle which I’m just not up to fighting.

I don’t think it matters how much space I have – if there was more space I would probably just find more things to fill it with.  I’ve noticed that no matter the size of our living area, the amount of clutter tends to remain the same – it’s some kind of universal law.  We’re not hoarders or anything, we probably own far fewer “things” than most Americans in our general demographic – but other people seem to have picked up grown-up habits, and organizational skills somewhere along the way which we never bothered to learn.  But again, I don’t really care enough to make the trip to “The Container Store”…and even if I did I would then have to utilize these containers in some kind of organized fashion, and remember to put all these things back in their correct container after taking them out – SEE? It’s all so tiresome!!! So many things to think about, SO MANY THINGS!!!

In conclusion, it’s really nice to have stuff, but lugging it around and being invested in the ownership and preservation of this stuff can be more of a pain in the ass than it’s really worth.

We’re going to be moving again pretty soon – into a MUCH smaller space (a 24 foot trailer to be exact) so I’m curious to see what that transition will be like.  I’m pretty optimistic since there will be far less space to have to clean

This year, we got selected again to play at the Emerging Artists Showcase at the FRFF (main stage!) The previous and first time we did was 4 years ago, just before we were preparing for a 6 months trip to China. I remember this well, it was a hectic period for us! Packing for 6 months is no small task. We had to organize a small curb sale for all our stuff (so many things – our recurrent life theme!), pack, put things in storage AND at the same time, organize our band for the gig. I’m mentioning this because we had to practically beg our drummer at the time and find an replacement guitar player at the last minute!

This year however, we knew better! And with only the two of us and a guitar to worry about, things were quite a bit smoother.

So we had an idea of how things would be once at the festival, having played there once before. The one thing we didn’t know though, was that the second experience was going to be so much richer than the first one! Back in 2007, we went and played, and pretty much spent all our time going to swim at a nearby lake, chilling in a field with our friends, and occasionally listening to some of the acts playing on the main stage.

This year, we decided to mingle a little more with the crowd and I am glad we did! On the first night, after all the shows were over (except the dance stage, where they never seem to stop!), we participated in the nite owl song swap. Imagine a circle of people, all sitting around a fire, everyone is welcome to join in and play or listen… So you sit, and listen to the other people playing, some of them originals, some of them covers, all from the heart – no pretense here. Then comes your turn – the mood is set, the moon is slowly rising -, and as has happened with the other performers, people listen, respectfully, letting you express the music you decided to offer the circle. What a treat!

And then, it’s late, we don’t want to camp as we know the next day is gonna be scorching, and we’re not quite ready for it. So we drive home… (which by the way is another story; almost ran out of gas, met a van driver signalling to us on the side of the road who had run out of gas, so we gave them a ride, and filled up our tank as well!)

But the next day, still pumped up about the previous day, we decide to drive back! (it’s a 2 hr drive from our home to Dodd’s farm).

And so unfolds the second day, we sit in front of main stage, enjoying the evening with the Saturday night’s headliners (it’ll be us one day!) Then show’s over, we decide to go check out another circle; there seem to be many! We stop at the Front Porch where there’s already a bit of a crowd and sit. Then people start playing, and unlike the night before, the atmosphere here is a little different. People play and everybody else picks up their instrument and accompany them, picking up the chords and lyrics as they go along, a bass player joins in, a strum stick player starts strumming, people improvise harmonies, guitar players take solos at the command of the performer whose turn it is. Such a collaborative approach! And don’t be mistaken, these people may not be on main stage but they can play! This truly was an awesome experience, a true testimony to folk and I’d say even more, to Music.

This year, I feel like we lived the festival as it’s supposed to be, full of interesting encounters, of music and of collaborations. The kind of weekend that reminds us (in case we need it!) why we play music. I am now eager to go back to Falcon Ridge, and hopefully have such a great time again (and maybe see you there if you’re going too and want to say hi!)

A few people have asked about my songwriting process so I decided to go through Go Call the Captain and our previous EP song by song, describing the process/inspiration for each one as best I can.

Generally it goes something like this:
Inspiration hits and out comes a little snippet of some combination of melody/lyric/chord progression.  Then the initial inspiration fizzles out and the “work” begins.  I’m not much for work, so this part takes awhile.
In the best circumstances, when the  inspiration hits it produces something that doesn’t even feel like mine, something that feels like it came from some universal translator or wavelength that I just happened to tune into for a minute.  If all goes smoothly, I can tap back into that wavelength when I revisit the snippet, and more will flow.  If not, the snippet sits around for months or years, while I scramble around trying to make the rest of the song sound as natural and effortless as the inspired part.  I can’t tell you how many awesome snippets I have lying around, just waiting to be finished.  On a side note, I wish I had a better word than “snippet,” it’s starting to sound really weird to me.

I’ll start with “By the Side of the Road,” the first track on Go Call the Captain.  I actually wrote a blog about this one a while back, explaining my interpretation of the song.  I say “my interpretation” because despite the fact that I own the copyright and technically wrote the song, I don’t feel like I own it.  I feel like I was just transcribing something which came from somewhere else.  So whatever you feel, or don’t feel, in response to the song is as valid as anything I could ramble on about

Here’s what happened:

Back in the Spring of 2007 I was riding my bike  home from the YMCA.  I passed a golf course in my home town of Pelham, NY, called Mt. Tom.  Near the road there was a small mound of dirt, like a child-sized grave.  As soon as I saw it, the first verse and melody popped into my head.

“They buried me by the side of the road, my mind grew distant, my body got old, so they dressed me up in my favorite clothes and they buried me there, by the side of the road.”

and I thought “holy shit, this is fucking awesome,” (modesty is so overrated) and proceeded to sing it the rest of the way home.

As I imagined the song unfolding and the arrangement, what came to mind was a didgeridoo and tribal drumming, maybe a little Paul Simon-ish.  What you hear on the album is not what I had originally envisioned for the song, but  we didn’t have the time to really record it the way we wanted – I would love to record another arrangement at some point in the future.

So after the initial verse came into my head I  let the idea and lyrics marinate a little while, coming back to them from time to time.

The chorus and rest of the verses seemed to flow really effortlessly as well, I was in the zone for this song.  This was one situation where having a limited musical vocabulary was actually helpful, the few chords I can play on the guitar fit perfectly with the initial melody and helped inspire the chorus.

I find that being in awe of what comes out, holding onto the pure excitement of creating something without worrying about what to do next, is the best way to go forward.  As soon as I start stressing out about where to go with the song, or feeling incapable of completing it, I am pinched off from the inspiration and the song is dead in the water.

I think I completed the song while we were in Macau in 2007/2008…it always reminds me of that specific period of time.  I first played it to a bunch of fellow performers in a grimy Best Western in Taipa.

You can check out the lyrics here

Since our last post we drove to Pittsburgh and had the pleasure of meeting and playing with Joy Ike, who is a full time touring musician and who happens to write a blog I read called Grassrootsy, small world!  She was playing beautiful arrangements with cellist, Eleanor Graham, and a double bass player, you should definitely check her out and go catch a show.

Then we headed over to DC for a show  at Ebenezers, which is an incredible venue/coffee shop.  You really never know what to expect from a venue the first time around, it could go either way, but Ebenezers was a real treat.  They have a whole separate performance space downstairs, a GREAT sound system, a sound guy who knows his stuff, even full-on lighting.  We also got to share the bill with Joe Rathbone and his band, great songs and really nice people.  His bass player, Paul Brown, actually spent a year living in an RV so we got some great tips from him, such as ‘don’t poop where you sleep,’ a real gem.

Now we’re back home for a bit, our next show is this Sunday in Ithaca.  It’s nice to sleep in our own bed, but a little sad to not be playing every night.  On the upside, this is going to be our last few months in our apartment and I am more excited than ever to begin our airstream adventures.  Being on tour, meeting so many great people, talking to fellow musicians and hearing their music and stories was really inspiring.  I love being a part of this huge community of indie, DIY musicians and I can NOT WAIT to be on the road full time.

A HUGE thank you to everyone along the way who came out to support us, let us crash in their homes, shared the stage and overall made this tour worthwhile!