Nashville, Tennessee

Crazy week!  Yesterday I was back at Colemine Studio, working on vocals for our new song "Hollywood Beginning" (which has turned out great!).  Maybe because this song is so different from the rest of the tunes that we've cut, maybe because everyone's really excited about the way it's turned out, maybe because I like to freak myself out - for some reason, I had a hell of a time getting the vocal performance that I wanted.  I kept trying to change up the melody lines and do things that were just not working, and finally Randy just stopped the tape, pressed the talkback, and said "Go back and do what you were doing when we originally cut the thing."  And it worked!  I just had to relax into the song a bit and let go of whatever expectations I was trying to put on it.  I'm pretty sure this is one of my favorite takes on the record...

Gig With Kristen Cothron This Week
I'm playing with Kristen Cothron & Her Band on Wednesday this week - it's a free show at 3rd & Lindsley, and you should be there!  Kristen's debuting a bunch of new material (she's in the studio working on a new record this week), which means I'm learning a bunch of these songs as they're coming alive.  More rehearsals at Sharkbait tonight.

Gig in Memphis!
I'll be playing at The Flying Saucer in Downtown Memphis this Friday, March 15th.  It's BBQ Fest!  And if you've never had the pleasure of checking out some of the amazing offerings at BBQ Fest, you should totally make a point to scope it all out.  I truly believe I could eat barbeque at least 5 times a week.  Anyway, this is our first time out at the Memphis Saucer, and we're pumped!  This will mark our first show with our buddy Brook Sutton on bass, and it will also be the first time in almost a year that Lance Hoffman has been back with us on saxophone(s)!  Quoth the Lancelot: "I hear they serve beer there..."  Indeed :).  Check us out around 9:00pm...

Hope to see y'all soon! 

-j

Southern Funk 'n' Roll for all mankind...

Nashville, Tennessee

So last night I had a dream where I was sitting down with somebody who presumably had been in the business for a while. This guy was telling me this:

As long as you're telling the truth,
eventually someone will come along and pay attention to you.

I kept making him repeat it...

Back at The Colemine
We had a great weekend in the studio last week! On Saturday, Randy, Larry, and I retracked "Damn 19" in a new key - G (we kept Klingtone's awesome drum tracks). I'm so happy we made this switch - I had been playing this song in C since I wrote it, but G opens up the vocal and the dobro parts in ways that totally make the song. And I'm pretty happy with the new solo I did, too. HUGE improvement :).

Next we retracked keys for "Love You Like You Like" and "Guitar Player Boyfriend". I really feel like these songs are coming together as well - I still need to sing a keeper take on GPB, but the rest of the track is there. Shibby!

Tomorrow we head back to track a new song I've been working up. It's called "Hollywood Beginning"...

Give me another kiss
Like the one we had last night
I don't want to ride into the sunset
Unless we stop to watch the sunrise.

For too long I've been focused on tomorrow
Worried what the next will bring
But starting now, I'm taking a new turn
Let each moment with you be its own thing.

I'm excited to see what comes out - this will be the first time we've ever played this song together, so I'm pretty pumped :). Hopefully I'll be fully over this cold so I can get a keeper vocal or two!

More soon...

-j



Southern Funk 'n' Roll for all mankind...

What a great weekend!  Friday I got to meet up with one of my best friends from growing up in Memphis, and we stayed up 'til about 4am, catching up on old stories and everything that's happened in the 8 & 1/2 years since we've seen each other.  Saturday I went out to Yazoo Brewery and The Dynamites' show at Mercy Lounge, after which I got to briefly hang with my old friend Charles "Wigg" Walker.  Sunday I was back in the studio.  Ok, now I need a break to recover .

Last night we met up at The Colemine to do some more vocalizing on the remaining tracks.  We started off with "The Optimist" and "To the Son-of-a-Bitch Who Stole My Car Stereo", two new songs we've only just started playing out.  Success!  I'm pretty pleased with everything we came up with, including Larry's wonderous bass harmonies on the breakdown section of "Otpimist" .  Next up, we took a bunch of passes on "Damn 19" - we've been playing this song live for about 2 years now, and we had an interesting revelation last night in the studio: the key's too damn low.  I hate having these sorts of revelations; well, actually I like the revelation, but the timing stinks.  Why couldn't we have decided this when we were originally tracking it?  Why couldn't I have realized this at some point over the past 2 years when we were performing it?  Why couldn't I have realized this when I wrote the damn thing?!?  Regardless, we made the decision to retrack the tune in a different key.  I'm going to play around a bit and see what's still comfortable on the resonator yet more "up" in my range.  So it kinda feels like one step forward, two steps back, but overall I think it'll be an important change.  Damn.

I came home around 12:15am, thinking I'd mess around with "Damn 19" a bit and play with doing it in G - damn the neighbors, right?  Right.  Upon turning the lights on in the kitchen, I found that the light cover had fallen down and was hanging by one side.  Hmm.  Oh, that's why - there's water everywhere that obviously leaked through the fixture.  Sweet.  Oh, and there it is, extending into the living room and coming through the ceiling fan.  Great.  Somehow the upstairs apartment had managed to start a leak that covered my kitchen, living room, and both bathrooms.  Fortunately nothing truly important was damaged - some bills floated away, but who needs them anyway, right?  So I walked around, finding new puddles and soaked carpet for a while before finally deciding it was time to start drinking.  Beer?  Check.  Now about that key change... 

Needless to say, I'm a bit frazzled still this morning (frazzled - is that a word?  It is today.), but I'm feeling like we did make a bit of progress even though we'll have to retrack "Damn 19".  The drum track is super solid, so we'll just redo everything else from there.  What the hell?  At least this way I won't be capo-ed at the 5th fret and lose half of the range of the guitar.   

j

Southern Funk 'n' Roll for all mankind...

Randy's made a new mandate that I must bring over a pizza from Sal's whenever we're working at The Colemine.  I have absolutely no problem with this .  Fortunately, I'm such an addict that I can pretty much eat pizza any time, and I've now saved the number for Sal's Pizza in my trusty phone so I can call ahead in situations such as these - you know, pizza emergencies.  Extra large pepperoni and two-liter Dr. Pepper, please.  Check.  Shibby...

We started off with a mission to up the intensity in the rhythm guitar track for the song "Right But Wrong" - for whatever reason, it was just sounding thin and blah.  I am happy to report that the whole track sounds huge now!  We cranked the hell out of my Vibrolux and ran straight in for what might be my favorite guitar tone on the record (now if I can only find a way to get that sound at lower volumes...).  Done and done.

Next up, we tracked vocals for a new song called "Love You Like You Like."  I decided to bump the key of this song up a full-step from where we'd been playing it a year ago, so I was a bit worried about how well I was going to be able to hit everything, but Larry and Randy did a fine job of nursing my fragile ego, and we came out with some really cool ideas!  I hadn't ever done much harmonizing with myself, but be prepared for the chorus of Justin in this song.  Ha!

We also took some time to look back over what all we've done so far and to sort of re-analyze where we stand with a few tunes we've been ignoring for a bit.  Here's the tally thus far:

• Right But Wrong - done?
  
• Soul Crushin' - done?
  
• Short Bus - done?
  
• Damn 19 - needs vocals & percussion
  
• Music?City - needs percussion
  
• Love You Like You Like - needs percussion, keys overdub
  
• To the Son-of-a-Bitch Who Stole My Car Stereo - needs vocals & percussion
  
• The Optimist - needs vocals & percussion
  
• Guitar Player Boyfriend - needs vocals, percussion, & keys overdub

I'm still toying with the idea of putting horns on everything, but I'm going to wait for the final call once everything else is in place.  In addition to these, we'd also tracked another version of "6 & 1/2" and a new song called "Don't Y'all Do Any Nice Songs", but we're going to hold those two for a bit.

We're back in on Sunday, hopefully doing a little more percussion work with Chris Nelsen.  The tracking phase is so close to being finished!  Yeah, I'm a bit excited.  Hopefully we'll have something to show off soon...

It's time to celebrate another weekend!  My friend Charles Walker is playing with The Dynamites at Mercy Lounge on Saturday - step on by if you're in the mood for some solid funk/soul glory :)...
 

j

Southern Funk 'n' Roll for all mankind...

Last night my dear friend Alberta took Kristen Cothron, Sam, and me out to see Rocco Deluca at Exit In.  What a great night!  We were going to get started at Mad Platter in Germantown, but they were completely booked up, so we ended up settling on Gerst Haus (which was fine with me 'cause you can never get enough giant beer and sausages, right?  Right.).  So after a few fishbowls of Gerst, hamrolls, and Bavarian pizza, we headed on over to Exit In to get our spots.

The show was great, although it was quite different from what I had expected.  I was thoroughly intrigued by the opening act, HoneyHoney - there's something captivating about a female lead singer/banjo player...  This marked the third time I have seen Rocco Deluca live - Alberta and I met a few years back at Rocco's show at 3rd (she's a Rocco-nut) - but this time he had actually stripped his setup to include only his drummer.  This surprised the hell out of me.  By the last time I'd seen him, his show and all of his promotional kit was including his new 5-piece setup, and his music is definitely more refined than your typical 2-man, Black Keys/White Stripes vibe.  But this two-piece approach really worked for him: the dynamics were more dramatic, and there was no room for clutter in the arrangements.  It was great!  I'm amazed that my vision for my band keeps getting bigger, though :).  Hmm...

Studio Time
We'll be back at the Colemine tonight.  I think I may take another pass at the rhythm track for "Right But Wrong" - the guitar tone just doesn't sound as big as I'd like it to be.  And we can't have that!  And we'll get back on track with some more vocal takes, too, hopefully rounding everything out for the next percussion overdubs on Sunday...

Show Time
We've got some really cool shows that I'm working on, too!  In June, we'll be back at Windows Off the Cumberland (Saturday, June 20th), and two of my favorite bands, The 5am 5tones and Hambone will be joining us.  Save the date!

There are never enough hours in the day.  Hope you all are doing well - let's all rock a happy hour soon...
 

j
 

Southern Funk 'n' Roll for all mankind...

I stopped by my favorite pizza joint (Sal's) on the way to the studio and picked up an extra large pepperoni, half of which I promptly devoured upon arrival at the Colemine.  Damn, that's good stuff.  Yeppers, I'm going to have to check into some Cheese Addiction counseling pretty soon.

Chris Nelsen is the man!  We tracked percussion last night for "Short Bus", "Soul Crushin'", and "Right But Wrong".  What an awesome night!  Chris has been a brilliant addition to our sound lately, and I'm so looking forward to having him around more .  You can never have too much vibraslap, right?  Right.  He brings so much extra ___ to the rhythm section, and he's freakin' hysterical in that dry, out-of-nowhere kinda way.  I love sessions where I spend just as much time laughing my ass off as I do concentrating on finding the right take.  This was just so...

Hopefully we'll throw down on the remaining tracks next weekend, and then we'll do some hard listening to decide what horns/where horns on everything.  Then we're off to mix!  I'm so excited to think about getting some of this actually DONE.  I hate that we're all so busy with other projects right now; it'd be wonderful to just finish it out and have a fresh product now.  All in due time...

I'm headed home to Memphis to hang this weekend.  No gigs, just time with my parents :).  My mom's birthday is today, and I'm glad I'll get to just relax and focus on what's going on with my family (whatever that might be!).  We all get so caught up in our individual worlds, it'll be great to see what's actually happening. 

j
 

Southern Funk 'n' Roll for all mankind...