I’m sitting in with a band at Famous Dave’s in Calhoun Square on Friday night, November 21.  I don’t get out to play live that much, mainly because I’ve become more picky about schlepping my gear around.  Luckily,  Famous Dave’s has a piano and a Hammond Organ, so all I have to do is show up and for-Chrissakes not ruin anything.  I assume that won’t be a problem.  I’ll try to post some pictures of the gig…assuming the pictures don’t make me look like The Grinch.  Feel free to stop out, enjoy some BBQ and hear some great music from a bunch of young go-getters with hearts as big as the world. (Who writes this stuff?)

Since I’m such a moody guy, I’m posting a fairly moody piece this week.  It is part of an upcoming project and runs 0:52m.  I call it “Ruminosity,” because apparently I make up words at 3AM now.

Like most people I know, I spent Tuesday night glued to the TV watching the election returns.  I fully expected to be there all night wondering who our next president would be.  I’m an Obama supporter, but I didn’t really believe he’d won until I saw McCain’s gracious concession speech.   Thank God I can finally get back to watching all that sex & violence on TV without those horrible attack ads getting in the way.

This week’s piece is called “Eventide” and it runs 1:34, with surprisingly little nudity.

One of the nice things about writing for a variety of projects is that I’m occasionally asked to come up with something in a specific style. (“Hey, can you write a 50′s Rock & Roll song?” or “Can you do a Dixieland style?” or “Do you have to keep laughing hysterically when someone mentions the word ‘maverick’?”) Um, that last one has nothing to do with anything.

This week’s piece is actually part of a cool project I participated in recently.  I was asked to come up with an “80′s power ballad” to accompany some lyrics.  I didn’t want to do something over-the-top, but I needed to come up with something with an 80′s sound.  I ashamed to say that it wasn’t really all that hard to do.  This one is called “Pretty in Puce” and it runs 1:08m.  I hope you like it…or don’t like it; either way is cool.

Maybe its the time of the year, or maybe I’m so tired from the election coverage that I could just spit (in anger!) but I had a hell of a time coming up with something this week.  Luckily, part of the reason is that I’m also working on a project involving Zombies.  Um, that would be a film involving Zombies, not actual Zombies or the popular 60′s band, The Zombies.

OK, now that I’ve said “Zombies” too many damn times, I can tell you about this week’s non-Zombie-related music.  This is just a simple piano-based 12-bar blues piece with a New Orleans feel. It runs 2:16m and is called “Sea Manic Confusion,” which is a play on words.  Unfortunately, I forget which ones. Enjoy!

Sorry this is a little late, but I’ve been trying to get my plumber, Joe on the phone.  Apparently, he’s rich now.  OK, I just finished watching the third Presidential debate and…God, is this thing over yet? I mean, who are we voting for again?  McGovern?  Is it McGovern?  It’s McGovern, right?

All right, enough of that.  This week’s Music Thing actually started with a bass line…and a simple bass line at that.  I later started playing around with some string patches and found a combination that didn’t annoy the crap out of me.  With any luck, it won’t annoy the crap out of you either.  (I might need to work on my sales technique)  I like the way it turned out and I don’t really know how to categorize it; it’s not Classical, or Jazz, or Funk, and I don’t know about you, but I’m sure as hell not dancing to it.  Wait, maybe I am.

Anyway, it’s called “Dark as Night” and it runs 2:08m.  Listen with someone you love.

I planned to have a more (hopefully) interesting piece this week, but time honestly got away from me.  A good friend of mine is in the hospital, so that kinda cuts into the whole “let’s write something with a boatload of instruments” thing.

OK, all odd ramblings aside, this week’s piece is simple, like, really simple.  OK, it’s just me at the piano.  But hey, that’s how I got started.  I call this one “Secondhand” and it runs 1:39m. 

Geez, you’d think with all of the cool gear I have at my disposal, I wouldn’t use the Rhodes Keyboard, like, every other week.  But it just sounds so nice; plus, the kids loves the Rhodes (every part of this sentence was intentional.)

I totally improvised the keyboard part of this track, which basically means that I left in the mistakes.  It’s very tempting to go back and re-record a part this isn’t quite right, but you risk losing a lot of the spontaneity that you like about the track in the first place.  Or I’m just lazy.  Um, I’ll choose that first reason; it makes me sound more “artsy.” I also threw in a little bit of Clavinet for seasoning (It’s that “plucky”-sounding keyboard.)

This week’s piece is called “Whole Mess o’ Wrong,” and it runs a whopping 2:26m. Hell yeah.[powerpress]

OK, before I get to this week’s Weekly Thing of the week (I bought this sentence from the Department of Redundancy Department,) I need to mention a unusual article I read online. Apparently the comedians at PETA want Ben & Jerry’s Ice Cream to start using human breast milk in their products.  You can view the article here.  PETA actually sent a letter to Ben…and Jerry! I think it would be great if Ben & Jerry sent a response to PETA thanking them for their “joke letter” and complimenting them on their “great sense of humor,” in spite of their well-known reputation as being a bunch of “freaky-ass whack-jobs.”Oh, and there is no way in hell I am trying “Ben & Jerry’s Soylent Cream!”Anyway, on a subject completely unrelated to breast milk, I wrote a piece of music this week, or something.  I decided to give my vintage Wurlitzer 200a Electric Piano some recording time.  I call this piece “Looking Ahead” and it runs 1:46m.  Hope you like it.[powerpress]