This Divided Highway

The original post:  http://angjellockheart.blogspot.com/2011/02/divided-highway.html

The second post:  http://angjellockheart.blogspot.com/2011/02/divided-highway-part-2.html

Well the time has come for me to record my album with my band "Possum Apple."  After much thought I am going to name it, "This Divided Highway."  Today I recorded the guitar tracks for five of the songs with my friend Josh.  I look back at my post from over a year and a half ago, and see how my vision has progressed.  Some songs are still on my list, and others are going to be saved for another day.

Here's the songs that I have planned for the album (this time around.)

Part 1.

1.  Buffalo
2.  The Road
3.  Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough
4.  Who's Knocking?
5.  The Bride Wore Sneakers

Part 2.

6.  Good Cocaine
7.  The Midnight Special

Part 3.

8.  Crevasses and Glaciers
9.  Dark Horizons
10.  Season of the Fireflys
11.  Secret Path
12.  Everyday People

The first part is going to be Southern Rock/ Americana/ Alt. Country.  The second part is going to be old timey songs with a modern day twist.  Seriously, those two are pre-ASCAP.  And the third part is going to be more Coffeehouse style music.

I know exactly how I want the cover art to look for this album.  I want it to be a picture of me leaning against a divided highway sign.  I'll have my back to the camera, and you will be seeing me in my traveling coat and hat.  I want the picture to be in sepia or a faded type color.  I have a friend James,who loves to take pictures.  He's really, really good at it.  He offered to take the pictures for me, and I honestly feel great about that.  He was showing me what his camera could do, and I'll admit, it blew my mind.

The way I envisioned "Possum Apple" was that it was a roaming band of whoever decided to stop by.  Maybe someone would be a member for that night's performance, or maybe they would hang around for a while.  Here's an example, I have a relatively new friend in Chris.  She is a pretty good bass player, and I asked her to lay down the bass tracks.  She said she was more than happy to.

Josh has a friend who plays great leads, and thought about bringing him in to work on the tracks.  I'm all for it.  I need someone to take a different sort of look at my songs, and put down some lead tracks on it.

So the good news is a lot of what's in the planning stages is now being put into action.  I'm feeling really good about this.  I will update my blog as things progress.

No Cover Songs, and Good Cocaine, Part 2

The original post: http://angjellockheart.blogspot.com/2011/04/no-cover-songs-and-good-cocaine.html

It has been one year, and three weeks since I thought about covering Dick Justice's ole time rag, "Good Cocaine."  Yesterday I finally performed it at Sacred Grounds Coffee House.  It's not that I've been lazy, I've just had other things to do.  Like work and stuff.

But a few things actually held me back.  First, the song was recorded in a tuning other than standard E, and then on top of that a kapo was used.  So, the first thing I had to do was find the correct chords, and put them in E standard.  Then, I had to change them around to fit my voice.  Let's be honest, I don't have the best vocal range.

I also had to update the lyrics a bit.  It's a bit of a blues tradition that every player will change the song up a bit. Like I had said earlier in my previous post, I wanted to change up the part that refers to certain groups as "monkeys."

Like any performer will tell you, generally the first time you play a song live it doesn't go that well.  Well, it couldn't have gone any better.  I played it as the first song right off the bat, and it just killed.  I wished I had of recorded it.  I was also very thankful I had a friend Josh playing percussion for me that night.  All in all it was a great night.

And I think I would be remiss if I didn't post Dick Justice's version here.  It is a funny video.