We've been mixing and mixing.  My ears!  Geeze!  This process is enough for anyone to tear their clothes off and go running down the street screaming. 

Still, it sounds VERY close, and we're still looking at around Christmas or just after for the release.  I don't want to hurry it and mess it up just because of Christmas, either. 

I'm finding that the effort to produce a good, world class recording, booking shows, and trying to progress in the industry can eclipse the magic of making music, so I'm learning to enjoy the process so that I don't get bogged down.  The art is central, but I'm growing into the parts that I find difficult.  Particularly, I find marketing and the idea of being popular conflicting.  I can't imagine why there is a pressure to be fake friends with people for the sake of music hob-nobbing.  "In my life, why do I spend valuable time, with people who don't care if I life or die?"  Yeah.  Music is bigger than petty bs like fake friends.  Genuine friends and connections are valuable and should not be devalued in comparison.  Right?!  I thought you'd agree.  :)

We will be playing at the Midtown Center Office Park
3947 Boulevard Center Drive (just past the Atlantic and
Beach Boulevards Fork) from 4:30-6 tomorrow, Sunday, November 15, in Jacksonville, Florida.  Free entry.  Benefits Community Hospice and the Duval County School District Arts Programs.  See you there, bring your kidlets.

With affection,

Laurel Lee

We had a terrific rehearsal last night.  I'm actually too tired to write about it, but I can tell you this:  everyone should have a band.

Loves

When do I attack the gas man

Do I wait until my house explodes?

Should I walk over to his house and say, hey I'm not igniting this on purpose

But I think your solution solves naught

The neighbors nod with appreciation

A man on the phone sounds like a hillbilly and wants to swear

But I tell him I'm not an adversary

I don't think he knows that word and I know it

But that he can talk to me to solve problems

I find the human error over his assurances of no such thing

I remember the shallow pool

What a nice show, albiet fraught with technical problems.  The folks playing and listening were there to have fun, and it showed.  The other bands, members of The Takers and The Ones To Blame were genuine and kind, just the sort of folks you'd like to have over for dinner and then play music with until you're hoarse.  If it weren't for Gainesville, sometimes I think it would be a shame to continue to play music in this part of the world.  Jacksonville patrons are bound to music in a sincere way, there are just fewer of them per capita, I would say.  I love the response in each town, and I'm happy to be near many other towns within a short driving distance.  That was indeed a problem in Portland...  If you wanted to play out of town you needed to go quite far north or quite far south.  Can't go east or west, really.

Well, I had a lot of fun.  We're building something here, hope you're into it enough to let us know when and how we can roll your world into an alternative comfy blanket of Country love. 

I must say I'm exhausted!  Two sets, lots of folks, six other band members and up until 5am.  I couldn't sleep after all of that.  Mandy Joy and Johari shared an opening set, they were very good.  They were willing to play during and right after being pretty sick with the cold that's going around.  Poor Dolly (harmony singer) was sick too, but poor Chris Buck (drummer) was darn near yellow with the horrid cold.  I suppose I can catch it now, now that the show is over.

Good showing by family, friends and neighbors, I believe we sold a good chunk of CDs and T-shirts.  Thank you for your purchases if you bought one or more, this is a direct fund toward the next project and postage expenses to send the CD to radio stations, internet stations, and print media. 

I just wanted to say thank you, I had fun.  Thank you to Joey Kerr for his chunky, moody lead Telecaster, to John Mortensen and his heartbeat bass all funky in our country business, to Philip Pan for his fiddle finesse and being "game", to Scott Murray for the pedal steel barefootin', to Chris Buck for his mustache and his fine threads, to Dolly for a lovely mix on the harmony, to Mandy Joy and her powerful voice, to Johari for wearing black, to KC and Cid for being the merchandisers when they wanted to see the show, to Shantytown for their hospitality and general good vibes,  and to the many supporters that we rely on so much, especially that Peggy and the Kerrs.  We'll play more often, I just had to concentrate on getting this project out instead of trying to book shows.  We'd like to play in the region, and could use any assistance or information to book a tour of a large or small size.  I would NEED a trailer then, huh?  And a truck.  And a place to park them.  Geeze that just got complicated.

If you want a digital version or just a couple songs, or ringtones (teehee that still cracks me up, I mean really) or good old fashioned hard copies they will be available through CD Baby in a few days.  They take care of my first one, so I'm already in the system.

So nice, so tired.  It's lovely out but I am thinking of a nap.

Last night I arrived early to get a good seat at European Street.  It's the only place in town where musicians can play and be listened to.  It's quite nice.

But I wanted to be in just the right spot to see and hear this energetic, cute woman and her clever erstwhile rocker husband.  Though I'd heard her in recordings, I didn't know what to expect from her performance.  Her voice reminds me of Iris Dement and that voice from Portland's Laurelthirst and White Eagle, Lynn Connover.  She is an unrepentant mom of  boys in their 20's (one works there at ES!) and enjoys saying random thoughts in between songs.  She and Mark are a funny couple, he seems to be the people person, and she seems to be an open sore for sentiment.  Of course, that's why I went, I love the open sore. 

Both good and bad were the forays into the audience.  I enjoyed the closeness of the sound, the hollow warm guitars and their vocal harmonies.  She's got a lot of quiet variation in her voice and to hear her close up was better than when amplified.  Acoustic sound is not lost to them.  She did a long number within the audience about the intuition of a mother which included a very long piece that she admittedly threw in the trash, it wasn't clear if it was an anti-war song, I couldn't hear the words, so I didn't get it.  Still, I imagine she walks the line between trying to be supportive of her son who enlisted and her worries about a child leaving the world with the mother to be left suffering.   

It's funny, the atmosphere at ES is so supportive, but there is still the egotistical tendenancy for the audience to assert themselves anyway.  I speak of the clapper.  Don't!  One guy clapping through most of one song and it's obvious they were trying to record.  Geeze. 

I enjoyed talking with Mark afterwards, I bought a CD, and watched the parade of thin hip young guys in their son's band come up and say hi.  Cool!  (They're called Evergreen Terrace.)

What a relief to hear live music.  What a relief.  I'm playing tonight, I feel a little more energized.  Love, Laurel Lee

Last Thursday
Frustrating morning sent away
They said I didn't turn it in
But I know I did and "that's Florida"
Frustrating afternoon brought into
A meeting I wasn't to attend
It was a day off, but yet two hours stolen
An endearing evening
And the gift of a road trip to see a legend
Set in front of me like a plate of fruit
A ticket, unexpected, and it's not my birthday
The drive with my love
The warm ocean air through the window

I saw the small old man in the big hat
His bolo tie, his Winston lights
I knew that was the guy
But there was no way I could approach
Lookeehere a legend, Johnny was affected by them
George affected by them
Would there be the Everlys without the Louvins?  Really?
And my love chided me for my shyness
But I could hardly look at him
I saw the ghost of Ira
Signing CDs and photos with him
The merch table a social hub for the dead
Awkward how I shook his hand and said
I was pleased to meet him
I didn't meet him, I just shook his hand
And then I wanted to hide in the darkness
And I wished so I hadn't shook his hand
That was so stupid, I'm so stupid
How embarrassing
What should I get out of a handshake?

A smallish room for a big name on a small man
A Nashville band
Singing harmonies of songs we all knew
And songs we didn't but would chew on
I sang in my chair quietly
An incongruent punk rock girl sat next to me
I loved that she was there
But I didn't want to ruin the show for her
ARE YOU READY FOR THAT GREAT ATOMIC POWER?
Goddamn I cried
Mountain harmonies kill me

We sat outside later, my love and I
I felt sated and the air felt good
The band chatted with well wishers
Many gray haired, bermuda shorted folk
Buying CDs of music they already owned
Sweet young women kissing on Mr. Louvin
Oh he loved that, what attention
For a happily married man of 58 years
A month before his 80th birthday

My sweet got to chatting with the band
I couldn't, they actually make Nashville Music
I felt like if I kissed up to me I would be shamed inside
As a fraud and a marketer
When I came as an appreciator, a listener, a folding chair participant
The Tele player came up to me and told me he looked forward
To getting my CD the mail
The drummer came up to me and told me he looked forward
To getting my CD in the mail
Wow crap, I was talking music all of a sudden
I told Casey I wanted to go to Nashville someday
And wouldn't it be great to go during the
Four day birthday celebration for Charlie?
We looked at the calendar, Ernest Tubb's Record Store
Aaah. 
The Grand Ole Opry
Stop, hand to heart
Wouldn't you know it
It was suggested I come to visit
I'd get a tour of the Opry
(I want to meet Tom T. Hall, too)
And cards were given, phone numbers
Email addresses, myspace stuff.

I work with sweet old men every day
I'm an Activities Director
I hug these old men and love them
And I went back and gave Mr. Louvin a hug
For the music of Ira and Charlie Louvin
Are part of me
It was more important that I hug him
Than take notice of my hick shyness

I did a lot of funny dance moves to the car
And drove under the blue moon back home

March 13-19, 2007  Folio Weekly (Jacksonville's version of the Willamette Week)
written by Claire Clark themail@folioweekly.com

So nice to play last night.  We played in the parking lot of the new health food store in five points, Grassroots Natural Foods.  Very nice guys, the brothers who own it.  But the show went so well.  I could hear myself, our stand in drummer kept time and he's friendly, it wasn't really freakishly cold, and we got to play an hour and a half of original music without a break. I think it gave us a chance to keep falling deeper into what was happening.  We didn't know when it would rain, you know?  I heard it blustering pretty loudly around midnight.

Otherwise, what a neat way to meet people.  During the day we went to the Tangerine Festival at Memorial Park where I shamelessly whored my flyers, and some of them actually came, even with the threat of rain and cold.  There were bicyclists who happened by and listened for a song or so. 

I wanted to say thank you if you were a new listener who came out to share in the grand opening and our music.  We appreciate it!