Wanted to drop in and let you all know that today i got my first mosquito bite of the season. Summer must not be far off. I am spending most of the summer recording a couple new discs. The more ambitious project is a collage/ random disc of environmental sounds and tunes. I want to capture what it is like to do what I do where I do it. So expect some variety, and a lot of sounds from my neighborhood. Already in place are Jake the faker {a church cat}, squeaky whirlybirds, jams, answering machine messages, and more! But first, I have to make a couple new bows, and make time for a nap...

Just a quick shout to say hello to all of you. This fall has been a blurrr, to be sure. We're just finishing this years' Medicine Wheel installation. no pics up yet, but you can always check in at my flickr pages to see what's new. Just in is the first installment of "the Witch", which is a storybook that my friend Ana & I are making. Check it out:
the W I T C H !

Anyway, this years' Wheel was wonderful. The peacefulness and serenity, sadness & joy, all in the middle of this city of ours. There was lots of great offerings. The Metal & Glass Ensemble hit at 3 am with a fleet of tuned glasses that surpassed even our own aspirations. It was to date our largest glass performance!
Today is also Annie & John's bdays. Happy wishes to them both! I'm staying under the radar for the rest of the year to get the M&G disc off of my hard drive, and onto your stereo. Also I plan to learn, maybe even write, some new songs for ol' Uncle Shoe {!}. Not to mention 500 images from Medicine Wheel to weed through and get up on Flickr. So, drop a line if you want, I'm mostly around....

First of all, I would like to thank Emily for sharing her music with me, and Heather for the goats' milk cheese from Norway. But more to the point- all the hollerin' outside must mean that the Sox did it again. This may be the only place to say that I could not care less, except to say that it made so many neighbors happy. But I am writing to say that my new catalogue of recordings is well on it's way. They will be available at shows and by request online, under the banner of 'Half Round Discs'. All one-writes, all b&w, all home made. And all the more proud as a result. There is the legendary CEFG, recorded on the parish house Noak two stop organ, live BMM performances from Church of the Advent, photographic agitator tray documentation, live improv, youthful cassette transfers, and more. two for $5. Find one you like, and take another, for the price of 1 beer in a Boston pub.. That can't be SO BAD, can it?

I am also writing to explain that I will be 'refining' my friends' list. Some of you post so many daily bulletins that I have to weed through for what I am interested in. But also I can't deny that I really hate the "animated" friend icons. They are all going to be deleted. Nothing personal- we just appeal to myspace for different things. It's part of the beauty of it all.

hoping for peace

Uncle Shoe

Hey everybody- my new CD, Same Old Moon, is out. It's a collection of Tin Pan Alley tunes from the turn of the century. Lots of silly word play, love songs, and topical matter of the day. I was lucky to have several of my friends help out taking solos, playing bass, etc. Not to mention the Corn-fed Chorale. Did I mention them? Anyway, let me know if you want a copy- I'll get one to you......


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Hey everybody

First of all, THANKS to all of you who came down last Friday, or sent in an mp3. The song is coming along nicely, and I'll have the pictures back soon. {yes, I still shoot film}. I can't wait to see who else chimes in on this tune! Please send me your trax by month's end. I have a posted a rough mix, with all the voices so far:

http://mattsamolis.com/mp3s/Crazyboutcornfed.mp3

this link will be replaced from time to time as subsequent mixes are made.

Uncle Shoe's Corn-fed Chorale is a randomly assembled choral project. For this project I need as many voices as possible to sing out the chorus of this one song, "I'm Just Crazy 'Bout You". It was published in 1904. Ours may be the first recording of this song, so get ready.

Here's how it works:
If you live nearby, Come down to Uncle Shoe's place on February 2, Groundhog's Day, and it's also Emmett Miller's birthday! if you need directions, just let me know. We'll have a mellow bash, complete with refreshments and corn fritters, corn pones, corn dogs, corn flakes, corn chowder, etc. We'll record on the spot, either solo, or in groups. It does not have to be terribly accurate or in tune, so don't worry much about any of that. You don't have to be a great singer to participate in this project. In fact, I'd prefer that you were not a great singer for this project. You can view the original sheetmusic online at:

http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?ammem/aasm:@field(NUMBER+@band(rpbaasm+1309))

The song is already recorded. This is what you'll be singing along to:

http://mattsamolis.com/mp3s/CrazyBoutYou.mp3

If you can't make the recording date, You can participate by sending a high quality mp3 or AIFF/WAV file of your best take to me by the end of February. It's that simple. Please sing along with the recording on headphones, so that it will synch easily.

Then when it's all done, it will be included on my next CD, Same Old Moon!

Can't wait to hear it!

Shoe

Well, I'm getting awfully close to finishing my CD, Same Old Moon! The title track really says it all. As soon as Mr Norton puts the bass clarinet track on it, I will post for you all to hear. There are so many great tunes on this subject that I literally ran out of time on the CD! I had to drop a few tunes, and even take out a couple solos. I hope to have it out before your taxes are due, but be patient. I am toying with the idea of starting a little label {Half Round}, just so I can locate and catalogue some of the recordings I have made with friends over the years. We'll see.....

The apartment building where I work has mice. It also has some grain moths lately. I have been going through all the storage and kitchen cupboards, but noplace can I find where they are coming from. But yesterday a random housewife implored me to stuff rat bait into every little spot in her apartment where the mice would find it, and when i went to get the brick of poison, VOILA! The grain moths had been living in the rat bait all along. Apparently moths are bloodess little creaturtes. The poison kills you by messing up your blood. Even I know that. So, shoe's advice for the day is to keep your rat poison in a sealed container, {and labeled}, and freeze overnight any grains when you first bring them into the house. That will kill any dormant larvae that is in whatever you buy at the store...

Man, I hope nobody ever holds my horn charts against me. I had no idea how hard it is to write good sounding horn charts! If this disc ever gets done {it has to be done by christmas, because I spent all my $ on the record and I can't buy anything else to give as presents}, I hope at least it makes people laugh. At least I gave my friends something to do instead of playing scales all afternoon....

Last night I had this kind of dream where I was in an old town that was unfamiliar, and from a certain vantage point where I stopped to try and get my bearings, I saw the most interesting thing. They were raising the flag up a pole on the roof of some municipal building nearby. It was going up on a long rope. but what also unfolded was a succession of large floating puppets who were also ascending and circling the flag, like some kind of ceremony in the sky. The whole thing lasted about a half hour and was carried out in silence. When it was through, I climbed to higher ground where I could see if any people were around the building. But the grounds were filled with birch trees instead of people.