Burlington:
     I had been living down in Raleigh for several years when I heard that Rachel Bissex was going to be playing at gig at The Hyphen in Fuquay-Varina.  Ana and I had played The Hyphen a few months before and the owner, Kurt Fortmeyer, is a great songwriter who has since moved to Nashville.  Anyway, I had known Rachel for several years and was thrilled to have the opportunity to hear her play.
     Near the end of Rachel's gig, she invited me up to play a few songs.  One of the songs I played was My Town.  As she came back up to take her guitar back to play a few more songs, she leaned in and said quietly in my ear, "you have got to write a nicer song about Burlington; that's just not okay."  I laughed her off and took my seat.  After the gig we were sitting around talking and she brought it up again; I told her I'd think about it.
    Months passed and I returned to Burlington a few times to visit family and friends.  I realized that I really did miss it, not enough to move back yet, but I did start to feel a certain nostalgia for the place.  I picked up my guitar and the song started to take shape.  I wasn't wanting to write the kind of song that can be used for the tourism council or anything, but as I made the city the backdrop for the fictional friend/romantic interaction of the song I discovered that I wanted to talk more about it.  I included more and more details and enjoyed name dropping and mentioning my favorite places.  Higher Ground has since moved from Winooski and into an old movie theater in South Burlington, but I prefer to remember it in its original location. 
     My favorite verse of the song is the one that took the longest.  The demo I gave the band had just chords for the second half of the second verse.  I write best when I'm doing other things and that summer I was working in a tomato greenhouse over near the Arboretum.  It was very hot and the work was pleasantly repetitive.  It was in the heat as I watered and pollinated the plants that I came up with the lines, I've been gone for awhile / but memories walk these streets like ghosts / and the little things that used to drive me nuts / are now the things I miss the most. 

     I had hoped to play the song for Rachel, or at least send her a copy of the album, but she passed away from cancer before I finished it.  She didn't know I had taken her request to heart, but I like to think that she would have approved of the result.

NEXT: Bad Dog
This backstory was requested, so I'll write about this song next...

My Town:
I wrote this song back in 1999.  At the time I was working as a para-professional aide at Champlain Valley Union High School.  I spent a great deal of time in English classes with my Special Education students and one of the teachers, Jeff Evans, liked to incorporate protest music into his poetry unit.  He approached me and asked if I had written any protest songs and if I’d be willing to bring my guitar to class..  I told him I hadn't, but I'd see what I could do.

    I had lived in the Burlington area for most of my life.  Burlington is a great place and I truly love it, but at the time I wasn’t able to see that anymore.  I needed a change and I wasn’t interested in moving to Boston like everyone else, or sticking around for much longer.  The whole song, and especially the first verse, is a not so subtle shot across the bow.
    At that time I was living in a classic Burlington apartment on lower Church St. with my then girlfriend.  I say classic Burlington apartment because, as I've explained before at many of my live shows, the large rather fancy house was converted into apartments.  These apartments were affordable and the building we lived in had 5 apartments created in it.  Our front door was up two flights of back stairs and around a sharp corner.  There were 2 apartments below us, one to front of the building and one above.  These houses were creative, funky, a bit run down, and totally lacking in anything resembling soundproofing.  Our upstairs neighbor at the time had recently acquired a djembe or some bongos of some sort and she and her friends felt the need to play them along with their reggae records at all hours of the day and night.  No amount of banging the ceiling, striking the pipes in our closet with a wrench, or loud cursing seemed to stop them.  And our landlord, who though charming was quite useless, would not do anything about it either.  It had started to get on my nerves.
That takes care of verse number two. 
    Finally, in addition to the apartment challenges, the city of Burlington had just announced that they were cutting the funding for the only ‘all ages’ music club in the city.  Although that did not impact me directly, I knew many people who were facing the possibility of having nowhere to go other than the bowling alley, the movies, Pizza Put, or Muddy Waters (the coffee house hangout of my youth) if they wanted to go out. 
    It was from these situations, and an overall feeling of dissatisfaction for my hometown and for my Queen City Brethren, that I wrote this song.

Three interesting things about the song:

- For the first 6 months of performance, this song was one of the few songs I have written that contained profanity.  For those who own the green album, the first Sunday Rain Dog CD, you know I swear twice on that record (Shit both times). Originally, the second verse of My Town began with, My neighbors are playing their music too fucking loud / Their reggae and rap pulses through my place. 
However, three factors led to the change. 
    The uncomfortable squirming that Mr. Evans exhibited every time I dropped the F-Bomb in each of his 9th grade English and Creative Writing classes.
    The fact that I was playing mostly coffee shops, book stores, and restaurants; not a good place to casually swear into a microphone.
    My hope that when Some Things Never Change was released it would get played in many of these places in the months following my performances.  Once again, most places will decline to play your CD if it is not clean.  In fact it was often played and helped to sell more CDs and get a bit more name recognition.

- Some Things was recorded at Adam Rabin’s home studio.  Adam played a huge part in the recording and the sound of this CD.  I house sat for him for several weeks and Lyle King and I did much of the tracking during that time.  My Town was recorded at the end of a VERY long day in the studio.  Lyle and I sent cellist, Ana Jesse, to pick up food so she could take a break while Lyle and recorded the guitar part.  Lyle hit record and in the very first time through the chords I broke a string.  When she left, Ana had taken my car and all my extra strings were in the trunk.  We ended up sitting there and waiting for about an hour before we could do anything else.  Then she had to sit and wait while we recorded the part; It was extremely frustrating.  When Adam and I were mixing down the record he found the scratch track and thought it would be cool to add the broken string chord as an opening to the song, kind of a beatles-esque touch. 
So, the song starts with the string breaking chord and if you listen closely, you can hear me curse.

- I returned to Burlington a few years later and shared a gig with Lyle King at the very Juice Bar that I reference in one of the more memorable lines of the song.  Needless to say, I played this song at the gig.

NEXT: Burlington
These two songs are forever linked; and not just because they are both about Burlington, Vermont.  A certain performance of My Town lead directly to the writing of Burlington.  Stay Tuned...

So, as I'm sure I've stated in this blog before, I hate open-mics.  Now before you go thinking it's because I'm some sort of performance snob, let me explain.  My dislike for open-mics have nothing to do with any of the other performers. I love that people who may not perform on a regular basis have the guts to get up in front a group of people and perform; I can go to an open-mic and gladly listen for an entire evening. 
No, I hate performing at open-mics.  See, there are two things about open-mics that cause me trouble.  The first is the whole 'you're 4th on the list and you go onstage cold and try to win over a crowd in the 15 minutes you've been given.  Worse than that though is the feeling that just when you get comfortable up there; you're time is up and you have to stop. 

Generally, it takes me a song or two to get comfortable at any gig.  This is why I usually play one or two songs off a very short list to start a gig.  This list contains songs that I can play without really warming up, that provide a gradual warm up for both my voice and my guitar playing, and are songs I will usually not mess up.  By the time a song or two has been played, I'm feeling relaxed and my adrenaline and energy have steadied and evened out enough for me to start having fun and relax a bit. 

At an open-mic that's about the time that they kick you off the stage and call up the next act.  I stopped playing open-mics years ago and haven't played one, except as the featured act, in at least 3 years.

So, what was I doing at an open-mic last night?  Good Question.

Last night I showed up at Mac's Tavern to play my three (in this case four) songs because I was meeting Chris Dunbar, bassist extraordinaire.  As many of you know, Dunbar and I played together from 2001-2003 and he played bass on all of Moving Day.  Dunbar is currently playing bass for Bill West and The Truth, and Bill was hosts the Mac's Tavern Open Mic.

Dunbar and I haven't seen each other in quite some time and he suggested we get together for a drink and that he'd join me for a song or two if I wanted to play.  Chris and I haven't played on stage together since late summer of 2005, so I couldn't pass it up.  I sent him the changes for Driveway and he dug up the changes for Bad Dog and we figured we'd sort it out as we went along.

I got there right at sign-up time to put my name on the list.  Much like the sign-up for school presentations and giving blood, it is quite common for the first person to sign up in the number 3 or 4 spot and then have every subsequent person sign up below them so that number 3 or 4 is, in truth, number 1.  I decided to circumvent that whole dance and just signed up on the first line.  I figured that going first would provide the least amount of time to over think this whole thing.

Dunbar and I hung out with Bill and chatted while we waited for the time to start.  My creative writing self would love to describe the whole experience using the metaphor of hooking up with an ex-girlfriend in her new boyfriend's house, but Bill was extremely gracious and there was nothing awkward or weird about it.

It was decided that I would play two newer songs on my own and that Dunbar would join me for Bad Dog and Driveway.  I opened with my newest song, which has no name but for the moment is called, Kiss Me.  I had performed it once before at my rain soaked Driade gig, but never without the lyrics handy.  It went well and this song led to the highlight of the night for me. 

The last verse contains the lines Still not sure that I believe in Fate / Start to voice my doubt then hesitate / 'Cause Hubris is what brings the wrath of Gods.  It was one of the early lines that I wrote and I love it, as well as the lines that precede it in the final verse.  Initially, I worried that the references were too much, but assuaged my concerns by telling myself that Glenn Phillips of Toad The Wet Sprocket would have totally used that and made it work.  Regardless, after the set, a women came up to our table, expressed how much she enjoyed the set, and asked me if Hubris meant excessive Pride?  It made my night; not only was she actually paying attention to the lyrics, but she got the meaning right as well.  Now if I can only get my 10 graders to remember that...

My co-worker Kristen came out to the open-mic, so in honor of having another English teacher in the house, I decided to play Kerosene; my newish song that was inspired by Bradbury's novel, Fahrenheit 451 .  After that, Dunbar came up for our two songs together.  It wasn't perfect, I messed up the final run in Bad Dog when my hand mysteriously cramped up after too many bar chords, but we had fun, sounded pretty darn tight for not playing in 4 years, and I like to think we set the bar pretty high for the rest of the night. 

Regardless, a good time was had by all and I plan to return to this open mic in a couple weeks.  The other musicians were great and I stayed several hours longer than I planned to.

It's a great Open Mic, Bill has created an excellent vibe and the crowd is polite, supportive and attentive.  The space is great too; it takes place in an outdoor courtyard that has excellent natural acoustics.

I recommend it to anyone who is looking for something to do on a Wednesday night; Whether you want to play or to listen.

So, I seem to be on a tiny bit of a roll and wrote another new song last week.  I have been talking about the possibility of heading back into the studio for a while now, and although I'm not ready to book studio time, I now have 9 songs that I would tentatively put on a new album. 
Here are the songs that are on the current short list:

Strong Cup of Coffee
Less Than Two Weeks
Kerosene
Shot in the Arm (Lyle King Song)
This Summer Sucks (Titchner/Lawrence)
Away From You (Titchner/Barnhart)
No Easy Way Out
With You (current title)
Kiss Me For A While (current title)

I'm actually pretty pleased with this list.  The song styles are quite varied and offer some very interesting arrangement possibilities.

I'm hoping to write another song or two before the end of August and then I'm thinking of starting to look at studios and producers and all that.  In some ways these songs offer too many possible directions to go.  I'll have to figure that out.

Regardless, it's been a good songwriting summer thus far and I'm finally feeling like a new record, or at least a new trip into the studio is on the horizon.  I hope to record guitar/vocal demos of many of these songs and will be posting them either here or over at the Facebook fan page. 

Keep checking back.  

Yeah, Yeah... '3 times a week,' he says, 'come back and check more often,' he says.  I will do this; I will post on a consistent basis, dammit.

Anyway, so I played Caffe Driade in Chapel Hill on Saturday night.  Driade has a special place in my heart because it's the venue that I've been playing at the longest since I moved down here to North Carolina.  Saturday night was the 9th summer that I performed on the Driade outdoor stage.  For longtime readers of this blog, you know that gigs at Driade can be a bit dicey.  The summer weather in North Carolina is somewhat unpredictable, and the venue itself is not a typical music venue.

Caffe Driade is set off a main road in Chapel Hill, but feels like it's in the woods.  The building is tiny, cement, and sports a copper or tin roof.  There are about seven 2 person tables inside and all the rest of the seating is outside the front or the back of the building.
Driade's clientele are various Chapel Hill hipsters, and the widely varied groups intermingle and mix quite well.
The stage is a 6 inch raised deck that is otherwise used for more seating.  There are no standing lights other than a string of lights along the lip of the deck so that people don't fall and injure themselves in the dark.
Performance stage lighting consists of 2 ancient light boxes that each contain 2 colored lights in them.  Some might call the space 'Spartan', but I would call it 'rustic'.  You set up your PA, balance the light boxes at jaunty angles on chairs and get rocking.

So, Saturday night was pretty perfect.  It was warm, but not too hot by NC standards.  The forecast called for rain on Sunday, but Saturday night was going to be clear.

I took the stage at 8:00 with my iced mocha, the coffee at Driade is excellent, and kicked the night off with Burlington.   On Saturdays, the music runs from 8:00-11:00, and the real crowd usually shows up after 9:00, so I played a few covers and some of my less show-stopper tunes.  The crowd wasn't that great, but I was doing okay.  Just after 9:00, I decided to take a break and pulled out Bad Dog  to close out the first set.  I was halfway through the song and making a mental note to readjust the light boxes so I could actually see where the frets were on my guitar, when I heard a strange rumbling/train noise rushing in our direction.  The sitting to my right threw up their hands and looked at the sky before toppling their chairs backwards and hurrying for cover.

THEN THE RAINS CAME.

This was no summer shower or passing sprinkle, this was a cascade of water out of the heavens.  It was like God's housekeeper opened up the back door to heaven and dumped out the mop water she'd been using to clean the kitchen floor.  It took me about 5 seconds to realize what was going on.  I continued to play for several measures before my brain was able to clearly tell me, 'Dude, your in the pouring rain with your Martin Guitar and you're hooked up to several electrical devices and surrounded by standing water and 25 year old light boxes.  Get the hell out here!'.

I turned and flipped the power on my amp, pulled my guitar close, grabbed my case and headed for dryer ground.  I was suddenly joined by both Baristas, Skyler (I think) and Josh, and several kind souls who faced the rain and helped me unplug and drag my gear (in total darkness) out of the flood and under the small covered area by the front door to the shop.

It was on my second trip as I was unplugging power strips and waiting to die, that I discovered my tuner and Ipod Touch that I had placed on a table to the left of the microphone stand.  Both were rather wet and probably a little disgruntled.

The rain only lasted 10 minutes, but it was unsafe to return to the stage with my sodden equipment and very wet power source.  However, I refused to be driven off.  I placed my gear in my car and returned with just my guitar and played a final 90 minute set to the folks who huddled under the small roofed area.

It was a very intimate show, and since my set list had been washed clean, an improv'd one.  But I must say, that it was a really important show too.  I must admit that the gigs I've been playing of late have left me a little cold and discouraged.  The crowds have been smaller and the people quicker to ignore and tune out.  After I got washed off the stage I chose to keep playing.  I played because I wanted to; because I had prepared for a 3 hour show and I was going to play as close to 3 hours as I could. 

It was still a small crowd, but I didn't care.  I was playing for them, but I was mostly playing for me.  I pulled out all my new songs, including one I just finished the day before.  I played covers I had never learned not because I had have ever planned to perform them, but because I had wanted to play them in my living room or with my friends.  The rain had managed to wash away all the negative feelings that had been clinging to me and to my music. 

I'm not saying that I won't be discouraged after then next mediocre gig, or that I am reborn or baptized.  However, for at least one night, I was reminded why I do this.l  Why I go up on stage in front of several hundred people or two people.  Why I play to crowds who are listening so closely that I fear even the slightest finger stutter and to the crowds who are looking past me at the Michael Jackson funeral coverage or are talking so loud at the table right in front of me that I can hear every word over my own playing and singing. 

It was nice.

Now I just have to wait a few more days to plug in my gear and see what survived and what needs to be replaced.   

Well, I must say that things have been going a bit better around here as far as songwriting goes.  I have completed another strong candidate for the next album.  At the moment this song is called With You, but we'll see if the name sticks.
I have played it for some friends, a song circle or two, and debuted it at Nosh last week.  The crowd ignored it much like the song before it and the one after it, so I think we have a winner.

I have a few upcoming local shows for the month of July.  Check out the gigs page here on myspace or travel over to my renamed Fan Page on Facebook. 

The page can now be found at www.facebook.com/christitchnermusic.  Please consider becoming a fan.  In the coming months I will be posting new demos and some unreleased material on that page and I have also started a forum which will include Tabs/Chords, Suggestions from you for venues, a place to share your favorite song (of mine), and other things.

Enough said, head over there and check it out.
www.facebook.com/christitchnermusic

P.S. I've decided to start writing blogs on here at least 3 times a week for the rest of the summer, so check back more often and stalk me.

Hey folks,
So summer is when I usually book mini-tours up the East Coast or venues West.  However, this year I don't have any tour planned.  Instead I am going to play a bunch of gigs all around the Triangle.  So, if you've been wanting to come out to a gig and haven't for a while, here is your chance to come to a show and to not even have to venture beyond your own city borders.

My current schedule is as follows:
Saturday, June 13th  8:00 pm - Via Cappuccino - 3002 Sunset Ave. Rocky Mount, NC
Friday, June 19th - 6:30 pm - Whole Foods - 3540 Wade Ave. Raleigh, NC
Friday, June 26th - 6:30 pm - Nosh - 2812 Erwin Rd. Suite 101, Durham, NC
Friday, July 3rd - 8:00 pm - Port City Java - 234 Fayetteville St. Mall, Raleigh, NC
Saturday, July 11th - 8:00 pm - Caffe Driade - 1215-A E. Franklin St., Chapel Hill, NC

More to follow,
Come out to a gig; support local music.
Chris.
 

Well, the last week or two have been refreshingly creative for me.  I have been struggling writing as of late and the stuff I have been writing in the last six months or so have been satisfying, but not performance or album worthy.  I mentioned in my last post that I was feeling pretty good about the song, No Easy Way Out and I'm pleased to report that the song is finished.  This is a song that I started back when I was writing songs for Moving Day, but couldn't get it to work the way that felt right. 
Well, since that time I changed the chorus chords, wrote a bridge, and struggled with finding a third verse.  I liked the song and played an incomplete version at a couple of gigs, but had pretty much relegated the song to the Island of Lost Songs. 
Now, several weeks ago, I discovered that my Martin was making a strange rattle and the back seam seemed to be separating; not a good thing.  So, for that reason I took out my Seagull and had been playing that around the house and keeping the Martin in the case except for gigs.  (On a side note, took the Martin to my certified guitar guru last week and discovered it has several braces that have come loose and need to be repaired, which is not a big deal.  A much better and far less serious problem than what I worried about.) 
Anyway, playing the old song on my old guitar seemed to be the kind of change I needed and the final verse came pretty easy.  I took about 24 hours to change the last few lines and switch Verse 2 and Verse 3 again, but I think I've got it. 

I'm taking the next few weeks off from gigs while I take a breather and wait for my guitar to return from the shop, but I plan to debut the song at my next Nosh gig on April 24th.

On another note, I made some progress on my other partly finished song that I think is promising.  The song was missing 1/2 a verse and a bridge, and after taking to a song circle and getting some feedback, I approached the bridge from another direction and think I've made some real progress.  I'm trying to stay relaxed and see if I can get this verse to surface on its own.  I'll keep you posted.  Both songs are strong album contenders, so I'm slowly making the progress I've been hoping for.

Ahh, Spring is arriving here in North Carolina and 2009 is in full swing. 
I've been moderately busy with life and haven't had much time to write, but that's going to change.  Soon you will be able to check this blog a few times a week and see my ramblings, musings, and updates.

I played First Friday last night at Port City Java on Fayetteville St. in downtown Raleigh.  The weather was beautiful all day and although the evening was very windy, the night was good gig weather.

Port City Java is not located near the main gallery areas downtown, so they have yet to really enjoy the First Friday rush, but there were a few people out and about who came in to listen and I had about a dozen friends and fans come out as well throughout the evening.  It's a nice space and I hope to be back.

Album Update:  Well, I had hoped to be in the prerecording phase of the new record at this point, but I'm not there yet.  I'm currently working on finishing several songs that are still works in progress, and I would like to write a handful more so that I can choose the ones I really want.  Right now there are only 3 or 4 definite songs and a bunch of probables and maybes.  This is pretty normal for me and until I get the demos recorded the song list will fluctuate a bit. 
The other big issue of course is financing the album.  I recently saw an article about Jill Sobule getting $75,000 in donations from fans to record her new record.  She offered many perks, including a guest duet spot, to those who were willing give big.  Truth be told, I don't even know how to spend that kind of money on an album (maybe I could deaden the bass drum with $100 bills).  Regardless, I am not asking for money I just found the article fascinating.  I'm not sure I'd be willing to have a rich stranger come in and sing on a song simply because they gave me money.  But it seems to have worked for her, and I'm glad she was able to make her record.

Other than that, I'm currently on the home stretch of a song called "No Easy Way Out".  I'm still messing with the last two lines and playing with verse order, but I hope to start playing it at gigs by the end of the month or in early May.  I also have another song I'm very excited about that is lacking a verse and bridge.  That one has real album potential depending how it turns out.

Not sure at this point about summer touring, the economy has made money tight around here and gigging less lucrative.  However, I plan to be playing around North Carolina regardless and hope to see you out at a gig.

Chris.

So,
I've been spending more time over at Facebook than I have here at Myspace and I wanted to make everyone was aware that I have a Fan page over at that other site.

Check it out, listen to more music, comment on the wall, contribute to a discussion, become a fan.

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Chris-Titchner/23301208782

It's just getting started, but give it some time; I hope it will take off.