Pills

I have really been digging this Americana and Alt/Country sound that has been coming up this last decade.  What I'm really glad to see is so many female artists being given the chance to be heard.  One such artist who I really dig is Sunny Sweeney.  Her album, "Trophy" is great.  It's all killer, no filler.

The standout track on the album is a song called, "Pills."  It was played on both our local station 88.5 WMNF and Sirius XM's Outlaw Country.  

Another great artist I follow is Sarah Borges and the Broken Singles.  I just bought her new album, "Love's Middle Name."  

As I was looking over her new album I noticed track number five.  "Are You Still Taking Those Pills?"  I thought, "It couldn't be the same song, could it?  Not so close to Sunny Sweeney's release?"  So I popped the CD in (yes, I still buy CD's,) and what do you know?  It was the same song, just performed in a different style.

So I started looking over the info on the CD.  It gave writing credits for the song to, "Brennen Leigh and Noel McKay."  So I had to look them up on YouTube.  And guess what I found?

It seems this little song has been getting around these last few years.  I suspect that it is going to be rerecorded a few more times.  It has "hit" written all over it.  I really hope someone can break through with it.  

Season of the Fireflies

I don't talk about my band on here much.  I know some guys talk about nothing but their bands, and it gets kind of old.  I want to avoid that, so I will keep it somewhat short.

Back in 2014 I released an album called, "This Divided Highway" by way of my band, "Possum Apple."  I think I have only sold ten copies so far, but hey, you have to start somewhere.  I quickly made two videos for the songs, "Buffalo" and "The Road."  I had always thought about making another video for a song off the album, but never got around to it.

I was inspired to write "Season of the Fireflies" when I was in West Virginia surrounded by fireflies.  So when I was back there this summer I took some film footage for a video.  So here it is.  I hope you enjoy it. 

I Am The Table

I was looking at my "On this day" feed on Facebook.  It's this neat feature where you can see your posts on this day from previous years.  I started on Facebook back in 2010 so I have five previous years I can view. 

One of my posts from 2011 confused me.  I was wondering if I was having one of those "Adrian" type moments that I am known for.  I mean, when I confuse even me I know I am out there.  I simply wrote:

Here's something for all my bourgeois headbangers, "I AM THE TABLE!!!!!!" For the rest of you, I'll explain later.

So what the hell was I thinking.  I then looked under the comments and found this:

Go to the 2:10 mark:

Then it hit me.  It's from the song "The View," by Lou Reed and Metallica.  James Hetfield just keeps repeating over and over that he is the table.  My thoughts on this back then were this:

 I couldn't do it. I just couldn't justify paying a total of $17 for the new Lou Reed/ Metallica album. James Hetfield may be the table, but I am not an idiot.

I then went on to say:

The songs I have heard sound like two albums playing at the same time. I just don't get it.

Also, why is James the table?

I would say that James owes us a heck of an explanation.  I suspect this would be his response.

I found this video and it made a lot of sense to me.  Watch it, and I think everything will be explained.

I got to thinking about it, and there are a few things that I am okay with James Hetfield being.

1.  The Master of Puppets.
2.  The Thing That Should Not Be.
3.  The Unforgiven.
4.  The Harvester of Sorrow.
5.  I would even settle for James being Some Kind of Monster.

But I just can not accept him being "The Table."

Now that it's four years later, I wonder if I can find "Lulu" in the 99 cent bin?  Then I might be able to give the entire album a proper listen.

Now that I have bitched about this song and album, I wonder what my next Metallica song that I bitch/blog about will be?

Here's a hint:

Luka

There are those times you look back in your life, and kind of laugh, but not really.  One memory that sticks out to me is the time my Dad really offended my Mom without aiming to do so.

The year was 1987, and a new artist by the name of Suzanne Vega had come out with a song called, "Luka."

My Mother had heard it before me, so the next time it came on the radio we were in her car.  She turned it up, and made sure I listened to all the words.  She wanted me to know it was about child abuse, and without saying it, I could tell this song meant a lot to her.

Now my Mother wasn't exactly treated well as a child.  It wasn't full on physical abuse, but that kind of mental abuse only a depressed parent can put on an entire family. 

Why this song really stuck out to my Mother was that, it was one of the first songs to deal with those kinds of social issues.  The 60's had plenty of social issue songs, but we are talking about 1987.  The week that "Luka" hit #8 on the Top 40 (August 1st, 1987,) it really stuck out in terms of being a social issue song.  Take for instance, some of the other songs on the top 10.  #1., Bob Segar with "Shakedown."  #2., U2 with "I still haven't found what I'm looking for."  #3., Heart with "Alone."  So you can see it was the strange (out there) song compared to the other songs that were hits that year. 

So, the next time the whole family was in the car, guess what song comes on the radio?  What I didn't know then was that, my Dad hated that song.  But the weird part was, he didn't know what it was about. 

So here's the first verse.

My name is Luka
I live on the second floor
I live upstairs from you
Yes, I think you've seen me before

So my Dad sings,

My name is Luka
I sing a stupid song

And that's when my Mom came unglued.  "This songs about child abuse!!!  Why would you say that?"  Dad was like, "What???"  Mom then went on to let him know that it was all about child abuse, and that the song meant a lot to her.  She did this while fighting back tears that whole time. 

I will say this.  Dad let her have her say, and he kind of kept quiet the rest of the time.  Think of my weird family's interaction the next time you are on the 80's station, and "Luka" comes on.

Adrian: Zero Dollar Budget Director

I don't tend to talk too much about my band on here.  I tend to reserve my blog for my oddball thoughts.  However, a few things have happened which happen to make a very good blog, so I thought I would talk about them here.

First off, my band is an Americana band called, Possum Apple.  Here's the Reverbnation link:

http://www.reverbnation.com/possumapple

So I was just recently in West Virginia for vacation.  This was my inspiration for the song, "The Road."  Basically, the short story is that I was driving to West Virginia for my Grandfather's funeral, and as I was driving around a curve in the road at two in the morning there was a beagle lying right smack in the middle of the road.

Looking back, it was kind of funny, or the look he gave me was kind of funny.  It was like, "No one comes through here at two in the morning.  I should be allowed to lie here in the middle of the road without you coming through with your high beams on."

So I decided to make a video for my song, "The Road."  I'll let you watch it, and then I will comment on it.

Here's the direct link as Youtube and Blogger are giving me crap about putting in a direct video.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ipu-7MR2R0

So this is what I had to work with.

1.  A zero dollar budget.
2.  A camera that also records video.  Note:  I bought this for a good deal off Ebay.
3.  Having Dad drive around Lincoln County, West Virginia, and me shoot footage of the roads.
4.  A "borrowed" beagle.

Seriously, I was at the 4 Mile Church, and this beagle comes up to me out of nowhere.  I wanted a beagle for the video, but didn't have one.  I guess when you need something, the Goddess provides.  Anyway, she was a good beagle.  She knew a few tricks which made for awesome footage. 

For a first try for a video it came out pretty good.  I wasn't expecting anything too over the top, but I think I made it entertaining enough.

So most people tell me is the best song off of the album is, "Buffalo."  I wanted to do a video for it, but wasn't sure where I was going to get footage of buffalos in Florida.  Then it occurred to me what I should do.  A friend of mine made a video for a song of his strictly from public domain footage.  This was great for me.  Namely, I needed nature footage and old cowboy footage, and there is plenty of it in the public domain.  There was so much in fact, I really had to narrow it down since the song is only a bit over two minutes.

So I found some nature footage, but I also found some really funny old Western footage.  I'm really proud of what I came up with.

Again, the direct link to Youtube:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AcP8KjIjIBo

My Dad got a kick out of it since he had seen all of the scenes from those old Westerns.  It brought back some old, funny memories.

Anyhow, I hope to make a few more once inspiration comes to me.  I've only got time right?

Stickin In My Eye

Back in the early 90's we had a pretty cool public access station here in the Tampa Bay area.  There were a lot of music shows where guys would not only talk about national bands, but local bands as well.  You also had a lot of underground bands get shown.  You could find both videos and live performances getting played.

It just so happened I was flipping through when I saw this great song/video.  It wasn't high quality at all.  It was pretty low rent to be honest.  But the song and video were pretty funny in a punk rock way.  I had no idea who performed the song, only that it was about him having something in his eye.

I'd thought about that song over the years, even though I'd only heard it once.  Well, it occurred to me just the other day to check Youtube.  Even if it was a local band they're stuff gets posted on there as well. 

So I type in, "I've got something in my eye."  The first thing to pop up is NOFX's "Stickin In My Eye."  I thought, "NOFX?"  It couldn't have been them.  But you know what.  It was.

I remember the wild gang of fans singing in a chorus like fashion about them having something in their eye.  I'm just amazed that 20 years later I found this with help from the internet.  I'm going to have to think of other things I wondered about so many years ago.  Thanks internet.

Guitar Project #7, The Rosewood Telecaster, Part 3

For Part 1:  http://angjellockheart.blogspot.com/2012/05/guitar-project-7-rosewood-telecaster.html

For Part 2:  http://angjellockheart.blogspot.com/2012/05/guitar-project-7-rosewood-telecaster_26.html

So to make a long story short, I finally completed the Rosewood Telecaster.  I'll explain how I did it while posting pictures of my work.

First off, here's the body after routing and shaping.  I got it nice and sanded down.

Next I used Z-poxy to fill the grain.  This really helped one place on the back that had a hallow place in it.

Then I sanded down the Z-poxy.  Sidenote:  It really sands down nicely.

Then I put on the Tru Oil.

After sanding and buffing I had this:

Next, it was time to assemble the guitar. 

I had to use a different bridge pickup than I would have liked, but I will change this one out later.

Here's the shot of the back.

Overall not too bad.  There's a couple of places that I could have done better.  I am going to change the one pickup out when I have the chance/money.  Oh, I also need a strap as I have locking tuners.  So it's playable, but not completely done yet.  But I guess it's close enough for jazz.

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.