Like the magnetic power of a waxing moon, this springtime buzz has been slowly seeping into everything. Ready. Steady. Goforth. Walkin' on the balls of my feet again and smilin' for no particular reason. Has Spring got a hold of you yet?
It's so good to smell the earth - to sense its unfurling underneath you, sending waves of brown and green scents to dance and flirt with the air, lovely for the allergic and asthmatic, it's true, but what a great pain to have, huh?
The songbook is almost finished and while I continue to knock out pages for that, I'm simultaneously working up charts for the songs that Mohave will play at the Central Florida Fair on April 29th. It's their 95th year. I think it's our seventh. It's one of our favorite shows to play each year (how can you beat milling about between sets eating polish sausage sandwiches and grilled corn on the cob? or riding something puke-inspiring?) and we've got a great line-up assembled for this outing. Kristi Kief, who just recorded "Music" with us, will be on drums and steel pans. Mark Kring will perform bass guitar - I had the opportunity to share a jam with Mark and local guitar hero Roger Zimish not too long ago; he's a magnificent bassist. Our man-on-the-harp Charles Stansell will be there and I'm still looking to rustle up another utility performer - I've got a phone number that's got the dreaded tri-tone "the number you have reached has ceased to exist" message.
Did you get that "Music" rough demo? If not, it's gone. Been replaced by this.
The raw Pro Tools tracks arrived from Full Sail last weekend, so I imported the 648MB of filework into Garageband and did a quick mix. There were 24 tracks! In configurations that only the talented students of Group 16 and their intrepid instructor Paul Harlyn could possibly know, I guessed at some of the microphone placement to recreate the room ambience that they'd built so beautifully in the studio. With the multimillion dollar toys in every direction, it's no surprise to notice the incredible quality in the sound as compared to the tracks that I record here at the studio.
While I'm dishing out music, here's one that I wrote to be in the songbook. It's called "Seminole Solstice." Just mountain dulcimer and Native American drums (with a few cinematic effects).
Podcasting Stuff
Stephen Seifert played "Positive Vibes" by Mohave to open show #11 of his Mountain Dulcimer Folk Podcast. If you know about Stephen, then he needs no introduction. If you aren't sure who he is, visit his page and let it hit you slowly. Stephen stands out in the mountain dulcimer worldwide community as a tremendous talent and teacher who explores the boundaries of space as often as he kicks back in the groove of terra-firma tradition. And the boy smokes some dulcimer, sho' nuff. Burn it to the ground.
Also, thanks to everyone who has been subscribing to The Dulcimerica Video Podcast and downloading episodes. The response has been fantastic and it's been a lot of fun. Road-trips are going to be especially fun.
But mostly - thanks to you "Nowhere" blog readers. You know who you are.
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