So the demo is done. Almost. It's really really close, I swear ... just a couple things need to be cleaned up and it will be ready for public consumption. Ethan has done a damn fine job mixing it down, and as of our listen last night, it's sounding awesome ... and we think you will agree!

I'm going to turn the play-by-play over to Michael this week, and wrap up with Ethan's thoughts. Enjoy!! Remember, we'd love to hear your comments on the blog, and please refer us to your friends! Quick plug for our 5/20 house party Coffeehouse ... drop us a msg here or on peskyjnixon@gmail.com for the details!!

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(Editor's Note: I apologize for Michael's falsely-professed ignorance of the game of baseball. We have been drilling him on baserunning, clutch hitting and the infield fly rule. He really is getting it, I promise.)

Hey all, I'm gonna "make my bones" as real PJN'er; I'm going to a Sox game Friday night (thank you Rich Band for the tickets)! I can't wait to see the Sox face the Texas Rangers on the grid-iron... yes, I know that's not what they call the ice. Hey, laugh if you want, but I'll be there on the side line and you
won't!

After recording the demo (Ethan and I still have to do the final mix and
mastering), we sat down to play through the set. Ethan chose a more "electric" guitar sound on "Day By Day" and totally changed the sound of the song. Gives it a more driving feel, hence Dan's quote (see Quote section).

We shook the dust off the songs we haven't done since starting recording the demo. A few have more dust on them than others, but some good ideas were born, especially as we start work on "On Sunrise/ISOIA". This is one of Jake's older, more introspective songs (on the verses, with Ethan's lyrical work on the chorus). All I can say is that it's going in a different
direction than when Jake and I worked on it for our old a cappella group (shout out to 706!!)

Quote of the Week
Dan (after working stops into "Day By Day"): "Holy shit, we sound like a rock band!"
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Listening to: Utadas Sanctuary
written 4/25/06

This Wildflower song has finally been committed to paper. We're still working through it as a group, but the lyrics are penned and I have walked away. It is difficult finishing a song you half wrote while dating your high school sweetheart and half wrote eight years later after you heard through the grapevine that she was engaged. The final concoction owes more to a separate ex (coincidentally named after a flower). Again, coincidentally I received a letter from her yesterday. Now whether to tell her it was written about her. Hmm .... Probably shouldnt. Probably will.

Jumping back into songwriting after a six-year hiatus has been at times much easier and other times much harder than I had imagined. Co-writing with Jake and Dan is a pleasure. Jake is very good at presenting lyrics, I am not so bad at taking them and quickly giving the group a song structure for those lyrics ... at which point we all flesh it out. He gets the lyrics - I get the music. Very easy process. It is a forced humility exercise to write at home staring at an English degree (I was a double major!) and continually falling back on A/B/A/B and A/A/B/B rhyme schemes.

Coffeehouse in Mid-May (5/20 to be exact, come on out!!!) should be blast. It is a house party, but if youd like to come drop us a line and well get you the info. Demo should be fully put together by Memorial Day. I see Falcon Ridge Folk Festival as a bit of a testing ground for us. For one, it will the first band overnighter, which may not seem like much but it lets you know who you're in the trenches with a bit more than studio rehearsals. Two, it's three to four full days of us interacting together with other musicians, getting our names out a bit, and getting ideas on where we are heading.

Jake penned the lyrics for our first ballad, Testament. We co-wrote the music. I am quite jazzed about it's possibilities within the set. I have to jet, but next time Ill talk about PJN's two other contributory factors Michael, our sound expert, and Zach Root of 50 ways, our sometimes bassist.