I'm sitting at the dining room table, with the drums and amps sitting behind me for an afternoon rehearsal with the band. I've finally struck all the recording mics on the drumset, pretty damn content with the basic tracks we've gotten for eleven new tunes. There'll still be a couple more that we'll need to record with a slightly different configuration, but for the time being, we need to see if we can play some tunes in a live show type setting, and a reduction of cables across the floor was looking to be a good idea.
I've got a few minutes before the band gets here, and I figured that I might have the time for doing them the favor of taking a shower, or I could see what I have to say on the blog. So this is the thanks they get...
I really can't say enough about the way they've been playing the new tunes and some of the takes we've gotten down. I seriously can't wait to get this album done. I'm almost irritated by the fact that we have to take time that could be spent recording and use it up for a rehearsal. Everything starts to sound different once it's been rehearsed.
But rehearse we must. Our first public peformance this summer will be on Denny Garcia's Midwest Music Makers radio show on 97.3 KGRR up in Dubuque. Thanks to Steve up at the station, we'll be cramming into the radio booth and filling the greater Dubuque area airwaves this weekend, and as of right now, we've yet to really get to work on any kind of harmonies and vocals and such for the whole band. So we've got some work to do.
I'm pretty sure we'll have a good time though, it's not like we're pitching hay. Work that allows you to have a drink of beer every three and a half minutes is not what you'd call hard labor. -I picked up some Monty Python's Holy 'ail this morning, I haven't sampled it yet but I have no qualms about giving money to people who produce a quality product, even if that product is not necessarily their beer...-
Speaking of beer, I was up at BJ's place on the evening of Saturday last for the event of Leon Kilburg stepping behind a microphone. Making the event all the more eventful was the arrival of my Uncle John McDermott. And he brought his gear. To warm up, BJ called out the tune and we set to jamming on the 'Dead's "Me & my Uncle" (oh, the irony) with John whipping out the steel. He made claims of being rusty, but we heard nothing of the sort.
I hadn't played with John for quite some time, and I probably wasn't yet an uncle myself the last time I saw his old pedal steel. It was great to hear and a blast for a couple McDermotts to play "Walkin' the Floor" with the Kilburgs and Haferbiers. With John And Leon both bieng alumni of the original Mooney Hollow scene, they were both familiar with a few tunes that were new to me, and probably even had Steve searching the nooks and crannies of his grey matter for a recollection of. So all in all, it was yet another learning experience for me in the basement floor of the Kilburg house.
Just like most nights, those few people with sense in their heads headed on home for some sleep at a reasonable hour, while the rest of us continued to put our tired throats and fingers to work. Three things in particular that struck me in the Sunday morning portion of Saturday night were: when Esme picked up the Martin and sang a bunch of her tunes, I got to play bass for her. I'll be the bass player in her band anytime. Then when BJ, Esme, Dan and Jesse backed me up on some of the new Silverhands stuff, it was all loosey-goosey and fabulous. I caught myself in the rare, but more recently common occurence of smiling while singing- not as "part of the show", and not just because I was having fun, but -much like my last Seattle show with Sam & Julian- because I simply couldn't help it. I wanted to put in about fifty solo breaks so we could keep coming back to the chorus again and again... And then later, when I was sitting near the big fire out front, Jesse picked up my guitar and played it through the PA for a half hour or so. I'd never heard my guitar in such capable finger-picking hands before and enjoyed being a spectator to its lovely tones.
Then I slept for roughly three and a half hours and got up to see my brother Eddie off on his voyage back to Seattle. It was good to have all my brothers back in the same place for a couple weeks, and good to be able to prove that I alone have supreme dominance over them all on the Go-Kart track. At least until next time.
As for me right now, I feel sort of like a scuba diver that just came up for a new tank of air. I'm really in my own world out here, and feeling quite a bit of distance from all things West-coast. I'll be seeing a few friends from back that way before the end of next week, but in the meantime, I need to catch up on some phone calls and hear some voices that I miss. We're closing in on the halfway point of the allotted time of this stay on the County Line road, so from this point out, I'll probably be in between "really finding my place out here" and "missing the shit out of my friends". I caught myself referring to King County as "back home" on several occasions. I am a man of two worlds....

Until a later date,
Mike.