So it's been a long, long time since I posted something here. There are a few reasons for that, most of which aren't that compelling to people who aren't me. But suffice it to say that I was a bit worn out by the end of 2006, and needed something of a break. I intended to use some of that time to kind of reevaluate my musical direction and whether I wanted to keep pursuing this whole solo artist thing, but instead what I ended up doing is spending most of my free time playing Obsidian Entertainment's excellent Duingeons & Dragons computer role-playing game, Neverwinter Nights 2. And while my bard, Croaker, is surely a force to be reckoned with, it occurred to me the other day that the best thing I could probably do is at least start trying to get back on the old musical horse so that I can start building some momentum for the rest of 2007.

And so, Monday night, I started work on recording "A Long, Slow March to the Sea," which is one of my favorite songs of mine, but which I've never played in anything but the bare-bonesiest of settings. I knocked the primary acoustic guitar track out on Monday, and then part of that night and a couple hours last night were spent in drum programming. This is good, in that it justified at least one Christmas present I received - the Studio Brush Kit MIDI drum sounds that came with the percussion-based plug-in pack make a much better accompaniment for the song than anything that was in the standard GarageBand arsenal. I've made it through my initial round of programming, so now it's just a matter of going back and making sure all the beats are as close to the right place as I can make them, as well as possibly adding some effects to make the drums sound as hollow and spooky as I can.

My big regret on this side of things is that my drum vocabulary is kind of limited right now. I've been taking lessons every other week or so for a while, but I'm still at a fairly basic level. There's probably an opportunity to do something really nifty here, but I lack the tools to grasp it. Ah, well.

The thing is, don't think "Long, Slow March" would be served all that well by the addition of a lot of instrumentation. It's always had this melancholy to it that I really like, and I think that keeping it sparse is the way to go. Once I get the drums the way I want them, I think it's just a matter of adding some sustained bass notes ("footballs," as my friend David Silverman called them), vocals, and a harmonica solo over the bridge. Voila. My goal is to have the whole thing, in basic form, finished by the end of this coming weekend.

Of course, there's a part of my brain that won't shut up about how there's an opportunity to mess around with this song and REALLY fuck it up, experimental-style. I may go down that road at some point, just to see what happens. But for now, it'll be good to at least have another straight-ahead demo completed.

The good news is that I didn't waste all of my time over the past couple months. I'm in the process of learning to play the piano and read music, which is, to put it mildly, an interesting challenge. I've been at it for almost two months, now, and I'm pretty much at the point of being able to play "On Top of Old Smokey." Sweet. Next stop, Mozart.

Anyway, the sum total of this is that, hopefully, I'll be a more versatile and capable musician in 2007 than I was in 2006. Unfortunately, I'm in a more uncertain position than I was last year. With CB's Gallery gone, I've lost my home base, and have to seek out new places to play in the city, where I'll have to establish myself all over again. It's nothing to complain about, really - that's the nature of the biz, and all - but it certainly won't be as easy as calling Micheline at CB's and just booking something instantaneously. On top of that, I feel like an important next step is actually getting something professionally recorded, but I lack the funds to do that. I guess it's either a bank heist or going back to selling my organs on the open market. Spleen, anyone?

So, onward and upward, as it were. Hopefully, I'll have a lot more reason to write, here, in the near future. In the meantime, it's back into the woodshed I go.