Another New Year

"Where do we go now?" - Guns 'N' Roses

2011 was the biggest year that I've ever had and that's largely due to the many of you who read this blog, buy my merchandise, come out to concerts and take lessons/workshops with me. Thank you. It's an honor, a privilege and a real joy. Happy New Year!

So, now what?

As you might've noticed, there was no huge rolling out of intent OR content on January 1st, 2012 from this camp and I'm just now getting around to posting the first blog of the new year. Going back in time to read past posts from the flipping of the calendar pages revealed the typical plans going forward, like here, here and here.

This time around, during the first week of the year, it's all about a little less talk and a lot more action: namely, those projects that have been brewing for awhile and some new ones that suddenly got ushered to the front of the velvet rope line. More than anything, this low-key approach to the beginning of 2012 is all about scoring precious time simply sitting with my instruments and working on the basics. If there's one thing I learned while on The RV Project Tour (besides how much people hate driving behind Winnebagos) it's that, despite all best intentions, not a whole lot gets done on the road. Practicing, writing, creating - it's all there in fits and spurts, enough to keep the plane leveled out and soaring, but most of my downtime in the spring, summer and fall last year was spent doing a whole lot of nothing. No thing.

That's not exactly true. There was visiting with folks in RV parks, campgrounds and festival parking lots. Many hours spent relaxing under the green canopy and red/orange sandstone and granite cliffs of our nation's state sanctuaries. Quite a lot of time madly pedaling my mountain bike on actual mountains. Soaking in the beauty of the United States of America and resting up before the next event. And sure - some recordings were made and some light administrative business was conducted but, for the most part, I came home in November to not only a huge glut of unfinished business but also to some tough choices that I had to make regarding activities in other areas of my career. Something like a total of two hours of video was shot on tour and that was by design. I wanted to live life as it happened. Not later while editing together Dulcimerica episodes. I had to pick and choose my battles last year in order to get through without imploding.

As the economy continues to take its nose dive, there has been a lot of evaluating going on here - looking at ways to work smarter and faster. Knowing when to step in and when to step out - sort of like a cosmic Hokey-Pokey because, you know, that is what it's really all about.

That's why no books were published and only a handful of videos were produced in 2011. I had to make some choices in order to move forward. Upon returning home from tour to find a deficit of registrations for the Key West Dulcimer Fest, there was a decision to make there too; not a popular decision in the least.

And after enjoying the holidays with Mrs. Futch, puttering around the house, getting caught up, re-oriented and blowing out my vice-ridden ya-ya's, I'm emerging, blinking, into the sunlight of a new year with some better plans. I'll let you in on a few of them before I get back to it.

Music

I've been producing "Dive!" now for almost four years and it's going to drop this year; period. If the Mayans are correct, then I've got 12 months before we're all turned to sheet rock or something. I will be a happier piece of sheet rock having birthed this bad boy, so it's priority number one.

Though "Storm's Sigh" and "Live At Old Songs!" have been available since the end of last year, the official release dates of both projects will be accomplished this month. (Mainly for digital distribution to pipelines such as iTunes, Spotify, Napster and more.)

As for Mohave, the trio (along with Roger Zimish and Tom Sharp) has been dead in the water since drummer Gil Oliver left town for the northeast. I've been busy on the road and with solo performances even as the guys have wondered aloud when we would get together next. Really, the next time needs to be magic in order for us all to pour the time and energy into it. It would take the right drummer and the right environment to make it work. That time may come this year and it mayn't. I know better than to make promises where there's more personality than just me involved, so stay tuned on that one.

I don't have as many festivals booked this year, but am still going to quite a few places for the first time including the Colorado Dulcimer Festival next month, Palestine Old Time Music and Dulcimer Festival in March, Augusta Spring Music Week in April and in May, the NGFDA Spring Thing and the Lone Star State Dulcimer Festival. Of course, I'll be back at Folkcraft headquarters for the Indiana Dulcimer Festival in July (with a return trip to teach ukulele in August at a brand new fest - stay tuned for details.) I haven't even begun to plan the in-between concerts and workshops but the idea is already to travel less across the country and more right here in my (now) home state of Florida.

Books

From no books in 2011 to at least three to be published this year, I'm right now working on some method books. Two of them concerning diatonic mountain dulcimer and one in support of the chromatic dulcimer. Before I get a load of ball-busting e-mails, yes - the oft-mentioned diatonic blues book will finally land. There may be more, but I kind of doubt it. I haven't knocked out more than four books in a year since 2010, I think, and I had a lot more time on my hands then.

Video

I officially got out of the video production biz (for hire) some time ago and realized last year that the state of the art was beginning to change without me. You know how it is with technology, right? First you need to upgrade the software. Then you've got to upgrade the hardware. Then you have to search for patches for the software because someone went "oops" at the hardware design phase. When it comes to media tech, especially video, which accounts for so much of our entertainment medium these days, it can be a full-time job just keeping the equipment happy and in working order so you can do what you do. The shift has slowly been tilting towards getting rid of tape altogether in favor of a fully digital format and I am very excited to embrace that. Once you shoot - you just move it onto the hard drive and you're in like Kevin Flynn. No more real time encoding and logging. It was largely the sheer amount of time that it took to produce individual episodes of Dulcimerica that kept me from doing more last year; just prohibitive in terms of actual hours in pre and post-production, especially during 19,000 miles on the road with only occasional whiffs of wi-fi. With a staff, I could make that work no problem. As the only elf in the shop, well - there I am picking and choosing battles again.

Sometime this month, I'll be taking delivery on a fully digital means of recording HD video. It's an experiment and I hope it works, greatly reducing the amount of production time so that I can shoot, cut and post as quickly as possible. In the immortal words of Dr. Walter Gibbs (Barnard Hughes) from "Tron", "Won't that be grand?" He said something else, eerily predicting the future, right after that but I'll leave it to you to find that chestnut.

So, new Dulcimerica. Soon.

Back To It

Many of you came up to me last year while on the road, or e-mailed, saying that I sounded a little off my game in this post from April of 2011 and you couldn't have been kinder or more on the money. Everyone has their breaking point and something, many things, had brought me to the brink of it back then. Thankfully, the cri de coeur was a brief one, partially soothed by the outpouring of love that was The RV Project. Then, as now, I plan to be less visible (as opposed to Les Visible, for there can be only one) so I can get to work on all of this cool stuff that's brewing. My headspace is 180° from almost a year ago. If indeed this is the last year of civilization, then I'm going to continue living the dream, making the music and loving the life. Honestly, I think we're about to enter another age of enlightenment and this is no time to be cowering under hollowed-out spaces for fear of what "might get us." If there ever was a time to be alive, alert, awake and thrilled for each second we are blessed to live - this is it.

It.

And on that note. Thanks for reading. I appreciate you and hope that you are receiving something of value from me. If not: be kind enough to tell me so and I'll do my best to deliver.

Wishing you peace, joy and, most of all, love, in this new year. Let's all win together!

Sho na bish,

Bing

Dive!: The Update

As I posted here, the album Dive! is an ongoing work of raw passion that is serving as my personal psychotherapy. I hope it's enjoyable to listen to - at the same time that I'm not terribly concerned with that. The line between art and entertainment is very much intact with this one.

That said, it's taking quite a while to write and record for a number of reasons and I'm not going to rush it. Originally planned as a spring release, then a fall debut, now - I'm quite sure that it's going to drop when it damn well wants to, even though we're quickly approaching a usable number of tracks. It just doesn't feel complete yet - and until it does, work will continue. Some other recordings may surface before then - in fact, I've decided on a couple of concepts that will probably be out in time for Christmas, but we'll see. One will be called "xxx Days" and will reflect a stretch of recording whatever leaps into my mind for x number of days (be very scared of that one.) The other will be an instrumental album of lullabies. The first tune, "Dare To Dream" began to take form yesterday.

It's been a bit of a tug-of-war, recording Dive! As I've explained to a few people, it hearkens back the Castaway trilogy that I released in the late 80's - songs of such brutal honesty and vein-opening candor that I can't believe anyone actually bought the stuff. But that was the artistic outpouring of a young twenty-something still not quite sure what the deal in life was all about. Dive! is more reflective and, perhaps, still very restless. My biggest worry is that people will either be put off by the edge of it, or shocked by the admissions, or even still, convinced that everything they hear will be a statement of absolute fact and conviction. Some of this stuff will be fictional - and then again, some of it won't be. There's the danger - in trusting that people will know the difference.

Basically, I don't care.

To paraphrase Jesus in the Gospel of Thomas, what you've got in you, bring it forth and it will save you. What you've got in you, keep it hidden and it will kill you. Music is a pressure release, an avenue of emotion, and for so long, ever since those early records, I've kept myself just a little bit removed from the subject matter I sing. This summer, I began to take down the shields, open the curtains and once again let it all hang out. The response has been encouraging, and with that behind me - Dive! is once again chugging into balls-out territory.

Some of the songs I thought would be on the record are no longer passing muster, tunes like "April Fools" and "I Am An Artist". They've gone by the wayside in favor of fresher, more accurate tunes that will weave all of the album together into something that actually makes sense when listened to as a whole. The latest addition to the roster came about as kind of a surprise and basically wrote itself. Cobbled together and cannibalized out of a tune called "Your Dreams And You" which had lyrics written in October of 2006, the basic feel and chord changes came to me this morning while I was preparing to continue work on the lullaby waltz "Dare To Dream." Obeying the muse, and thanking her for returning this way, I leapt right into it, knowing that a chromatic dulcimer would be needed for the changes. Influenced by the great Sam Phillips and urged on by the recent work of She & Him, it's a deceptively perky tune about the falling away of scales, the healing of wounds through deliberate emotional self-mutilation; the retraining of a barren heart. This is "How To Cry":


How To Cry
Music and Lyrics by Bing Futch
© Copyright 2010 J.O.B. Entertainment Inc.

raindrops are falling from the sky
blue eyes have come to say goodbye
no reason to be upset
I've finally gotten used to it - since you taught me how to cry

I couldn't move and couldn't speak
back then I was such a freak
didn't know and sure didn't care if
the world reflected in my stare took notice - till you taught me how to cry

bridge -

every window shows a scene
close enough to touch, and when you do
fingers leave a smudge on the glass in between
your dreams and you

you came from miles and miles away,
didn't even know the time of day
found you sleeping in my yard
come, let's go stroll the boulevard - won't you teach me how to cry?

bridge -

raindrops are falling from the sky
this is where love comes to die
right here on the highest shelf
what's wrong, don't you recognize yourself - the one who taught me how to cry?
you're the one that taught me how to cry

You can hear a rough demo of this tune over at Reverbnation.

Now that things have slowed down a bit, I expect production to pick up on this album and the other projects. I've decided NOT to produce any more Mountain Dulcimer In The Band books until these recordings are finished. It's hard enough to focus without too many things going on at once.

That is the update - and I'm going back to working on this tune.

Dive! - Plow-Through

After getting "Mountain Dulcimer In The Band (Book 4)" published and shipped, and with the pressing deadlines of holiday releases now past, I settled back in to continue work on "Dive!" with a renewed vigor and different approach. Prior to this, I had settled on a basic list of tracks and was pretty close to finished with the selection. However, I'm now just bashing out tunes and will pick the best of the bunch after it seems that these pipes have been cleaned.

"Dive!" has always been planned as a personal record, one that plunges beneath the surface and works some exorcism magic. It's not looking to be a bummer or too serious; everything has been couched in imaginative arrangements and dances with the lyrical content in poetic fashion. There are some heavy themes, plain-spoken and cryptically suggested, that have already been demoed here and there are more to come.

Yesterday's offering came quickly and I'm honestly not sure if it will make the cut, but I'm going to work on making it as good as it can be. The tune, "I'll Be Alright On Payday", is a short and sweet little rocker with a Louisiana Southern rock shuffle beat, distorted dulcimer, rolling bass and one catchy chorus. This one might be more along the lines of something I perform live - but who knows, it may end up on the CD.

Part of this renewed recording push comes thanks to the arrival of Garageband '09, a huge upgrade to my DAW (Digital Audio Workstation) that contains some brilliant improvements (like region guides, song arranging for regions, guitar stomp boxes and frequency spectrum analyzer) along with a radically redesigned interface. It all works pretty great; except for the fact that my firewire interface, the PreSonus Firebox, has sort of turned out to be a piece of crap. Sound glitches, muted audio and general freakiness that requires me to toggle with settings in the Audio/Midi Set-up application has added hours to my recording time and removed years from my life. Okay, perhaps not that drastic, but I've been muttering lots of colorful evaluations at the screen this week.

There will probably not be a lot of demo recordings here as I plan to move forward at a pretty brisk clip, hoping to get this finalized before the end of the year. As I get into final selection and mixing, I'll post some of the best of the best.

Hope to see some of you at Dicey Reilly's on Saturday from 12:30 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. for the Halfway To St. Patty's Day event featuring a car show, live music, Irish dancers and the usual great food and drink. Next week, I head to Bennington, Oklahoma for the Winter Creek Reunion Dulcimer Festival.

Have a great weekend, whatever you may do. Me ke aloha and mahalo nui loa!

Dive: Recording Resumes

After a busy mid-summer season, I'm back behind the board working to complete "Dive!" The latest track is an older tune that's been performed live a handful of times and never been released. Entitled "Nine One One", I've been test-driving it on Blip.Fm to garner some early response; all parts were recorded yesterday.


http://blip.fm/profile/BingFutch/blip/19732030/Bing_Futch-Nine_One_One_Rough_Mix

Today, I'm working on finishing a tune called "Big Fish Little Pond", for which I've had the chorus for a number of years, but have never completed. It happens that way sometimes, I let a tune chase me around, demanding closure, before I feel compelled to follow through.

"We're Done" says Northwest

Kristine Brown, Assistant Manager of Luggage Service for Northwest/Delta, said "we're done" in regards to my compensation claim for the mountain dulcimer damaged on June 14th, 2009.

"The transport of musical instruments (as checked baggage) is at the customers' own risk, as our tariffs (the rules governing Luggage handling and claims) excludes liability for this type of property. As much as we wish we could guarantee that any fragile items can be transported without incident as checked luggage, our systems and the vastly differing aircraft types used to support our routes preclude this kind of guarantee."

United broke policy in offering compensation for Dave Carroll's guitar, she said, because there was evidence of mishandling (i.e. the eyewitnesses throwing guitar cases around.) My problem here is not so much the mishandling which caused the damage, but the fact that the carry-on bag had to be gate-checked when there was obviously room on board the plane for it.

In my history of flying Northwest, I've either encountered flight attendants who expressed doubt that the bag would fit, only to watch me slide it easily into the overhead compartment, or they've put up resistance, only to give in after I've politely told them that gate-checking was a dangerous proposition for an acoustic instrument in a soft case. Brown argues that their policy states there is no guarantee that carry-on luggage won't be subject to gate-checking should room become scarce on board the airplane.

I argue back that policy wasn't an issue with any of the numerous flight attendants on previous Northwest flights who allowed me to find available space for the dulcimer. A lack of consistency in their approach to policy gave me the knowledge that as long as I could find space on board a plane, I was good to go. So I've made a point to book seats in the rear of the aircraft, knowing that there is always overhead bin space back there. It's never been a problem; until now. With a flight attendant who clearly saw that there was space towards the front of the aircraft, I feel that it was whim, rather than policy, that dictated the fate of my instrument.

On behalf of Delta/Northwest, Brown said "we are concerned about your perception of this experience and as a gesture of our concern, I have issued you an Electronic Credit Voucher in the amount of $200." I suppose, in the corporate scheme of things, that meeting in the middle is as sure a victory for the little guy as anything, eh?

Northwest Breaks Dulcimers - the story continues

Dave Carroll shows online gripes can get results -- chicagotribune.com

Inspired by Carroll, Bing Futch said he wrote a song and crafted a video Friday about a dulcimer splintered by Northwest Airlines workers because he wanted to avoid a lengthy battle to be reimbursed.

Futch said he filed an online claim after the June 14 incident, but not within the 24 hours specified by the airline. "Since then I've gotten crickets," the Orlando-based musician said.

That changed quickly when Delta Air Lines, which acquired Northwest last fall, learned of his video, "Northwest Breaks Dulcimers," on Monday. "We've reached out to the customer and offered our apologies and compensation," said Susan Elliott, a Delta spokeswoman. She said his dulcimer was damaged, in part, because it was packaged in a soft-shell case. She urged passengers to carefully pack musical instruments.

The excerpt above is from the story published in today's Chicago Tribune. There were a couple of surprises included. One, I wasn't aware that Delta had acquired Northwest. Another surprise in the article was the paragraph beginning with "That changed quickly.." Shortly after my phone interview with Julie Johnsson, I received another phone call from Kristine Brown of Northwest Airlines. After talking through the situation, she did indeed make an offer of compensation. Since this situation is still developing, I'll leave it at that.

The article makes it appear as though I willy-nilly offered up my dulcimer as a sacrifice to the baggage handling gods. Suffice it to say that, even by Northwest/Delta's own carry-on allowances, my soft carry-on dulcimer bag was intended to go inside the plane and not in the cargo hold. Though there was space for the bag in a closet near the front of the plane, I was told to gate-check it by a Northwest flight attendant who ignored my protestations that it was an acoustic instrument in a soft case unfit for cargo transportation.

Notice that even Delta spokeswoman Susan Elliott stated that damage was sustained, "in part", due to the softness of the case. The part left unstated had to do with the actions of the flight attendant.

Only one time before have I been forced to gate-check an instrument and that was a Delta flight. Delta has a notorious history, known for their intolerance regarding musical instruments as carry-ons, to the point of a boycott against the airline instituted by the American Federation of Musicians.

The AFM also has been working with the airline industry to institute uniform carry on and storage policies in respect to instruments. While most airlines have shown sympathy toward musicians, Delta Airlines remains uncooperative and has created numerous problems for AFM members. In response, the AFM issued a boycott of Delta. Recently, the AFM has been informed that Delta is reviewing its policies.

The pressure worked and the boycott was called off, according to a press release dated April 26, 2007:

In addition to its carry-on policy, Delta also improved its checked baggage policy. Previously, Delta only accepted checked baggage that measured 80 linear inches or less with a weight limit of 80 pounds. Checked items can now measure up to 120 linear inches and weigh up to 100 pounds, good news for musicians traveling with large instruments.

While "Only A Northwest Song" hasn't gotten nearly the quantity of hits that "United Breaks Guitars" did, the rate of views has picked up considerably over the past 24 hours. In all of the 179 videos posted on my YouTube page, it is absolutely the fastest racker of hits.

Stay tuned.

United Breaks Guitars - Northwest Breaks Dulcimers (Song Only)

Here's the short form of the video with just "Only A Northwest Song."

Dulcimerica 125 - "Only A Northwest Song"

On June 14th, 2009 - Northwest Airlines baggage handlers damaged Bing's Folkcraft double-neck dulcimer on flight 2363 from Detroit, MI to Ft. Wayne, IN. Many people requested that Bing write a song about the situation, much like Tom Paxton did in his tune "Thank You Republic Airlines."

When Dave Carroll released the video for "United Breaks Guitars", Bing saw an opportunity for even more awareness in the area of baggage handling guidelines for airlines, not to mention perhaps an opportunity to have Northwest finally hear his story out and pay for the damages inflicted by their ground crew. "Only A Northwest Song" was written and recorded on Friday, July 10th. The video was partially shot on the day of and after the incident with editing taking place also on July 10th.

Dive! - Here comes another one

Though it was my intention to write every tune specifically for Dive!, I'm finding that in my unreleased song archive, there are a few tunes that have been waiting patiently for the right moment to get recorded and this sure as hell is one of them.

Written in 2004, "Drinking Out Loud" was originally going to be a tune for Mohave, since most of those songs stem from the fictional town of Nowhere, Nevada, where there's nothing to do but sit around, drink and count tumbleweeds. However, as I've long since discovered, Nowhere is not only a mythical dot on the map, but it's also a state of mind (if you're heard the tune "Nowhere, Nevada", you know what I'm talking about), one that I find myself frequently visiting. So, "Drinking Out Loud" is not so much a random tune that came out of a need for storytelling in the Tom Waits tradition. Rather, it's a hymn to self and to anyone else out there who likes to cozy up to a good stiff drink.

Drinking Out Loud
Music and lyrics by Bing Futch
© Copyright 2004 J.O.B. Entertainment Inc.

bartender, be a friend
no tonic, straight gin
I'm in a hurry and I want to get plowed
your compassion's why I'm here
so if you could please, lend an ear
because I came here for drinkin' out loud


a little booze-buzz on my brain
perhaps some liquid cocaine
will start me mendin'
and I'll blend in with the crowd
thank God I'm a local
cause you'll let me get vocal
just a yokel for drinkin' out loud


lord bless me full throttle
then pass me the bottle
cause you'll find that my mind's in a cloud
if it wasn't for drinkin'
I might still be thinkin'
about sitting here drinkin' out loud


bartender, you the man
to assist with my plan
I know that somewhere there's a momma who's proud
and somewhere else there's another
slightly less happy mother
who raised a son up for drinking out loud


right now this hell is heaven
and this heaven is hell
I can't remember who I was
or how far I fell
so keep my bar tab wide open
I'll leave when you close
because you win some, you lose some
that's just how it goes

Funnily enough - I wrote this song on piano and had never attempted to play it on the mountain dulcimer before this afternoon. Though the key of D can be quite challenging for both women and men, in the case of "Drinking Out Loud", it seems to work pretty well, as opposed to the key of G, which takes it into high lonesome territory (which means you sing so damn high that everyone leaves you quickly and then you're lonesome.) I may post an acoustic demo at some point. Been holding back on posting all of the demos 1), because I want some of the record to be a surprise and 2), there's nothing like having half-assed demos floating around the internet to build a case for first impressions. Right?

Dive! - This one's a keeper

Since this morning, I've been in the studio working the chords and dream-delivered melody into a framework that would say "yes" or "no" to some kind of lyrical structure. What I'm going to share with you now is pretty raw stuff, but I feel good enough about it to do so without reservation. No, I will not reveal what the song means - that would blow the fun, now wouldn't it?

First, a few notes on the creation of this demo:

1) After I had gotten the chord changes situated, I sat down and began improvising melody and phrases over the top. There was a general idea of subject matter and the intent was to be descriptive and vague all at once. A tune that would mean something to me, but could easily be claimed by anyone else emotionally. I took the route of doing a "half-chorus" between the first two verses, with the full chorus adding a second section after the second verse. The second verse introduces an element that really pulled the entire song together and gave it thematic heft.

2) Once the words were written (in the bathroom, no less - sorry, is that TMI?), I went back into the studio and made adjustments to the Band In A Box tracks and played through with dulcimer a few times. Once satisfied, I recorded the stereo backing tracks from my Roland Fantom into Garageband. These will be arranged (assigned different sounds) and mixed later, with additional tracks brought into the soundscape. What you're hearing is the very basic arrangement, including the dulcimer arpeggios and the Divine Melody, I guess I'll call it here. The dulcimer parts will all be re-recorded.

3) Finally, I made a scratch vocal run at all the parts to get an idea of how things would work altogether. Though I did some slight adjusting of volume and E.Q., these are raw first take vocals that are simply a placeholder for the actual performances later. They consist of the main vocal track, verse harmony and four tracks of the positioning refrain from the second verse. Of course, all vocal tracks will be re-recorded.

This is what we call a "first run" at it - and plenty will change between now and the time that the track is finished. (I've already changed one word of the tune - "think" became "speak".) But this sort of thumbnail sketch of the tune will get stored on my iPod and played ad infinitum until I feel that I've got a solid approach for finalizing the tune.

It's very rare that a tune blooms so quickly - it's usually an indication that something went right in the connective process between head, heart and spirit.

Icarus
Music and Lyrics by Bing Futch
Copyright © 2009 J.O.B. Entertainment Inc.

hazy eyes
colors blur and fade
who am I? who are they?

strange signals flashing "walk, don't walk
listen, don't hear
speak, don't talk"

CHORUS

how am I supposed to fly away now?
I can hardly stand without support
no-one ever said I'd get this close to dead on my own

breathe deeply
this is for your good
make the call, Icarus
take the fall, Icarus

screams and bloodshed
that was another life
before the angels, they came and put a stop to the game
what a miracle that you're alive

CHORUS

how am I supposed to fly away now?
I can hardly stand without support
no-one ever said I'd get this close to dead on my own

how am I supposed to face the future
when the past is fading in and out at will?
someone give a damn, tell me who I am today

make the call, Icarus
take the fall, Icarus
make the call, Icarus
take the fall, Icarus

Dive - the saga continues

Giving up recording the album? No, no, just trying to keep track of the recording and writing days is simply asinine, at least for someone like me who can't keep his sock drawer organized.

Since the last update on Dive!, I've recorded basic tracks for "How It Ends" and have already decided to shorten the almost-six-minute song by removing a musical interlude that separates the first and second verse. I've also revamped a ten-year old country tune called "April Fools" that was recorded yesterday and is awaiting detailed editing before final tracks are set.

So far, all but this last tune are brand new songs, written within the past month or so. Given that no-one's track record (pun intended) is perfect, I've taken a spaghetti approach to which tunes actually end up on the album. Basically, I'll begin spitting out songs left and right, more than CD space will allow, and throw them all against the recording studio wall; whatever "sticks" will be what ends up in the track-listing.

With that in mind, I began working with some chords last night on the mountain dulcimer:

Em - C - G - D
Em - C - A - C/E

The movement of the chords straddles the blur between light and darkness; it brought out some really great colors as I set an arrangement in Band In A Box and played arpeggios over and around and through the changes. Just chord shapes, mind you.

When I awoke this morning, this melody line, complete, was streaming through my head:



When this happens, I tend to either let it go and see if it will come back, or I pay close attention and get it down in stone. Such gifts are Divine and they may never pass your way again. When I set the melody to the chord changes, it all matched up perfectly.

For the moment, the tune is being called "Give You Back" and I'm not certain if it will be an instrumental or a vocal tune. There's a lot of emotion running through it and it may have the power to convey what I'm feeling without words. For you musicians reading this, how do you go about writing tunes? Do the words come first or do you come up with the tune before anything else? I'd be interested to hear the process from many different sources, especially those of dulcimer players.

Click on the image to get a bigger picture; try playing it! BTW - I'm registering copyrights as I proceed with the making of the record. If you think this stuff is good enough to steal, then you'd better be quick on the draw and file your paperwork. Then again, if you're reading these words, it's too late. If, however, you'd like to use any of my music, I'll more than likely grant you permission without charging you up the nose. I'm easy like that.

A word about copyright from Songwriter 101:

Q: How do I copyright my songs?

Technically, your song is copyrighted as soon as you finish writing it. However, you’re going to want to register that copyright to protect yourself in case someone tries to use your song without your permission. You can download copyright registration forms from the Copyright Office at www.copyright.gov/forms, or you can call the Forms Hotline at 202-707-9100, or write to the Copyright Office, Library of Congress, 101 Independence Avenue, S.E., Washington, DC 20559-6000. The cost to file Form PA is $30.

Dive! - Day 5 through 8

I'm guessing at the days - it's been a blur. Basically, I got a trial version of Ozone 4 downloaded and have seven days to mess with it before it starts inserting periods of silence into the mixes. Can't afford to buy it at the moment, so I'm trying to learn as much about the program as possible. It's definitely a gem - but there's a steep learning curve here. So, I cheated a bit - uploaded a new file that overwrote the file from days 2 and 3, so if you didn't get to hear that - sorry. Progress is marching on.

The new version here is decidedly better, thanks to Ozone. I got the drums and bass sounding much more "in-the-front" - and re-recorded the vocals, though I will probably have at them again before it's all said and done. The mix is still rough, since I rebuilt it from scratch, but it's coming along nicely.

New Song

The third tune for the album, aside from "Dive!" and "Mia Cafe" is called "How It Ends" and I'm not sure what direction it might take, it's a mellower tune for certain. Here are the lyrics - and I'm working out an arrangement in 3/4 time:

"How It Ends"
Music and Lyrics by Bing Futch
Copyright © 2009 J.O.B. Entertainment Inc.

I need some time to clear my mind
hope you'll find the patience and faith
often when life pulls the lever
all you can do is wait - til' the wheel's stop spinnin'

you gamble hard and fall in love
not the holy kind, but that frail human stuff
and if the odds are in your favor
time to leave the machine and cash out your winnings

-interlude-

you say I'm naive, babe
for believing in miracles as if they exist
well, we got this far, didn't we?
what do you call this? of course, I might be dreaming

a paper boat, a plastic cup
let's pretend it's crystal and fill it halfway up
we'll drink to the bad times
and sail on

don't you know everything is an illusion?
so I must come now to this conclusion

CHORUS

this is our story - a real life movie
a tale of two lovers and friends
none of it made up, so what if we break up?
we get to say just how it ends

an open door, an empty hall
sometimes silence screams at the windows
we can talk about it or not at all
but when the wind blows, it speaks so clear

we do the dance and take a chance
go to our separate corners and assume the stance
take and break this heart of mine and I'll do the same for you
isn't that why we're here?

don't you know everything is an illusion?
so I must come now to this conclusion

CHORUS

this is our story - a real life movie
a tale of two lovers and friends
none of it made up, so what if we break up?
we get to say just how it ends

how it ends

======

I know - depressing, sort of, huh? Told you this album would be a return to some of my older material.

The Art of Moving Sound

Despite one of the band vehicles getting a flat tire on the way up to Eustis last Friday, it was a great night. It'd been a while since we played with Gil Oliver on drums and he's been performing this material almost as long as I have, so he was very much "in the pocket" and gave us a solid foundation upon which to dance (though not too hard, because the stage wobbled like a bowl of jello shots.) Mohave has been really grooving in the jam arena and we had a couple that were pretty wild, including one that connected "Big Alligator" with a massive space-jam with Native American flute, djembe and solos from everybody. Afterwards, people began asking where they could get that on CD. Very interesting.

When I got back home, I checked out some mastering techniques on "Dive!" by one of the MacJams.com members, Andrew Mackle. Over the past couple of years, I've studied the art of E.Q.; equalization of tracks that you've recorded. From there, I've basically slapped it onto a disc and have had pretty good results. Andrew pointed out to me that I was missing a key element in the process, which is the mastering of those very same tracks. He explained it like this:

"Mastering is a necessary step in the production process, and a lot of things that you are trying to fix during mixing should be left for the mastering."

This was literally music to my ears. It took a while to understand the science of mixing and it's still alien landscape, but I've got a pretty decent map (The E.Q. Bible.) However, knowing that there was an entire other step in mastering, I shuddered to think about what that all entailed, other than the obligatory matching of volume across an entire CD release. No sir, there's much more than that!

"When mastering on a stereo 2-track recording the only way to get separation is through time delay between the left and right speakers. This has to be applied to specific frequency bands so all the freqs don't get stereo separated, just the ones that you want. You use a multi-band stereo widener for that. That is what is giving it a "bigger" stereo effect.

I also used mastering reverb over the entire mix to place everything into the same sonic "room", instead of a bunch of tracks playing at once.

I used compression (again multi-band) to focus in on the drums and bottom end (bass) to bring it up in relation to everything else.

I used Harmonic Excitation (again multi-band) to give the entire song more sparkle. This works by dividing the song into four distinct frequency ranges and adding varying degrees of even harmonics up the audio band in different amounts depending on what is contained in each band.

Finally, I used a multi-band dynamic effect, which works close to a multi-band compressor to focus in and get the levels right, including the added harmonics.

These are all commonly available effects, and most are available and sold as 'mastering effects' by companies like Izotope (Ozone 4)."

I thanked him profusely for explaining in simple terms what it was that my efforts were missing and downloaded a trial version of Ozone 4 this morning; ten days to experiment. That should be enough time to re-visit "Dive!" as well as play around with the next track that comes out of this journey, something I'll start today and will post about shortly. Though I'd like to go ahead and purchase Ozone 4, I've already layed down money on another very important utility for moving sound this week, one that I had been sorely lacking for quite some time: a P.A. system.

Sound moves naturally through the air when you're playing an acoustic instrument like a mountain dulcimer - but that's only for those in the immediate vicinity when the music is sent without processing. That's why when you start plugging the instrument in to record it, specific tools are necessary to get the right sound, as contrary as that seems. Likewise, when playing your instrument for 50 to 100 people at a time, amplification of the sound is required - but improper signal processing can make your nice, authentic, acoustic tone turn into an electronic garble that no-one wants to listen to. Anyone who has played through a bad P.A. or listened to an artist through one can attest to this. You just want to run and cover your ears.

I've been fortunate enough to know people who own quality P.A. systems, but it finally became obvious that my own little system was needed for the upcoming spring and summer tour. P.A.s for small use are quite affordable, and I was fixated on getting something that the whole band could use. Heavy lifting comes with a heavy price (and the gear is usually, well, heavy.)

So, off to eBay I went and after talking with Full Sail instructor and friend Jerry Waller, came to the conclusion that the Fender PD-150 would be the right system for the job. It's light (44 pounds), has 150 watts of power and a four-input mixer that includes a CD player, so you can pipe in music in between sets. On-board effects like reverb and delay are independent of each channel and there are two other nifty technologies that will certainly come in handy. One is the VIP (Vocal Input Priority) system which automatically lowers the background music when you speak into the mic. The other is feedback rejection circuitry, so that the speakers can be placed behind you (usually a no-no, as the microphone is pointing at the speakers, which can cause ear-drum shattering feedback) without any squealing or the need for monitors. This is key to hearing what the audience is hearing and allowing you to adjust the sound accordingly.

Suffice it to say that I'm pretty stoked and really looking forward to how this will "plus" the quality of my solo shows. I just booked the first of a series of house concerts for the spring/summer tour (in beautiful South Carolina) and will be posting details soon. In the meantime, recording continues on "Dive!" and a new world of exploration accordingly opens up.

Dive! - Days 2 and 3

The next phase of working with this track involved some more re-recording and also wrestling with the sound levels. Vocals were getting buried under the wall of sound I was creating, yet the "punch" still wasn't quite there. Much E.Q. futzing and tweaking took place before I finally arrived with a mix that I could live with.

Next, the addition of a screaming dulcimer solo in the section that I left especially for that purpose. One of the challenges of writing in the studio is that you're not as familiar with a piece as you'd like to be - you truly have to pull the music out of thin air. After several runs at it, I laid out a solo that captured the mood of the track.

Finally, a few bits of atmosphere - a distorted dulcimer buzz at the beginning and doubling of the main riff and pre-chorus half-steps. I separated the "Dive!" call and response sections and put them on channels E.Q.'ed to have an AM radio voice effect, like the commander of a submarine. Finally, to punch home the whole visual, I found a pretty cool sub klaxon and split them into left and right channels with some delay. When this tune kicks off - it's a sonic assault, giving you a taste of the intensity to follow.

Now, I'll let it sit and simmer while I wait for the bassist to learn the part and then I'll be adding real bass into the mix. In the meantime, I've started working out the chords for the next tune - and will probably get around to recording sometime this weekend.

Tonight

For now, though - it's off to Downtown Eustis for the First Friday Street Festival with Mohave (featuring said bassist, Tom Sharp.) Three stages of bands, lots of food, drinks and fireworks on up until 10 pm tonight. If you're in the central Florida region, we hope you'll come out and join the party!

Dive - Day 1 (the next step)

If you haven't listened to the 1:50 snippet of the six-track "Dive", check out the post before this one. There, I had a finished drum track, though not mixed, and every other track was a "scratch track", or placeholder for parts. Doing this helps me to work with the drums and get them exactly where I want them for fills, accents, pushes and other dynamics.

The version above is still a rough mix, but the difference in the tune is night and day; you can hear the finished product beginning to emerge. I re-tracked the dulcimer twice - two separate performances with slightly different amp settings - and panned them slightly to the left and right for a fuller sound. I re-tracked the lead vocals and made a few passes before deciding to keep the first take. I then layered the harmony parts, four in all, and then doubled those tracks like I did the dulcimer - so I sang the same parts on a different track.

I then began the process of mixing, even though I've got a few more elements that I'd like to fit into the song. Mixing is the most laborious part of the process and it's nice to chip away at it slowly, adjusting levels and equalizing frequencies as you go. Then, once everything's in place, the final mix is not too far around the bend.

The harmonies are still too low in the mix, the vocals too "hot", the bass still needs to be tracked by a real bassist. I've got some "opening up" of the drums to do and there's a lack of definition in the repeated "Dive" chorus. That's going to take some fine tuning, 'cause I'm not going to re-record anything besides the bass. One of the things about the process - you capture the moment and the more times you do it, the more the original moment slips away. Sure, I just wrote this tune today, and will be more familiar with its possibilities somewhere down the road. That's when it begins to become a morphing musical organism in the live stage show. Right now, it's raw, honest, in-your-face, and I like it. Hope you do too!

Dive - Day 1 (a sample)

Here's a rough mix of "Dive" at the early stage. What you're hearing are the drums, bass, one track of dulcimer and four tracks of vocals. Everything but the drums is a "scratch track", which means it's just there as a placemarker and will be re-recorded.

I first wanted to get the drums situated with the right amount of push and emotion (they're Garageband Loops, but played by a real person on a real drum set.) Then I laid down the dulcimer track to get an idea of how the two would work together. From that combo came the "feel" for the lyrics and laying down of lead and harmony parts. This may not be the way it all ends up down the road, some parts may change. In fact, the bass is a software instrument in GB triggered by my playing of the Roland Fantom keyboard. To get the right feel, I will probably call in an actual bass player to do the track. You'll hear a little shimmering audio artifact with some of the higher frequencies (like cymbals), which is due to the type of MP3 compression that I used.

This is as raw as it gets and it's just a half-day's work, but it will give you an idea of the first steps towards taking an idea and bringing it around to a full-blown recording.

Dive - Day 1

It's pure coincidence that I've begun recording my next record on the same day that U2 releases its long-awaited "No Line On The Horizon." The plan all along, after the release of "Christmas Each Day" in late 2008, was to write, record and publish two new instructional book/CD combos to take on the road for spring 2009 festival season. "Mountain Dulcimer In The Band" books 1 and 2, along with 4 accompanying CDs, are now available and I feel like that work is done for now. It's been about two years since "Dulcimer Rock", an album that was composed of songs both old and new; relatively safe for the ears of dulcimer festival audiences and edgy enough to have found fans in all other areas of music fandom.

"Kokopelli Rising" was an intensely personal album, albeit one to showcase the Native American flute and mountain dulcimer, so there were parameters in place from the start. With a boiling need to purge some of life's residue and internal conflict somewhat relieved, the path towards making this new record was paved lightly with musical markers tied around trees.

And I've listened to the new U2 album twice through now; there are a couple of standout tunes that caught my ear and my breath like the shiny "Magnificent" and the confessional "Moment Of Surrender." Emotionally, there were peaks that I wanted to match in this new endeavor - a lot has happened since the last time a musical vein was opened in this studio, and that went mostly unheard for production quality reasons (the album was 1998's "Die Caught Ah Me!", which I've rifled, plundered and looted for material ever since.)

There's one song recorded prior to this day that might end up on the album (the world-beat romp "Mia Cafe", written for an Australia art exhibition), but everything else is being composed on the spot in the studio, attempting to capture the emotions and energy of the Now. The aim is to get below the surface of spirit and pare away some of the shadows; a scary thing to do - introspect in retrospect. For many years, I avoided listening to other people's music as I concentrated on developing my own unique style. Once that seemed secure, the soaking up of the many wondrous influences around the world has opened up a universe of tastes and styles, colors and textures. Not only that, but ideas about storytelling and song presentation - framing of ideas and feelings; bringing truth to the surface where it can once again itch and burn.

Likening the entire record to a plunge into dark waters, it's tentatively being titled "Dive."

The title track has been written and I'm now in the process of fleshing it out - what I'll be doing through this blog is shedding some light on the creative process and what it takes to bring an album from idea to reality.

Say It With Style

What came first, the chicken or the egg? The lady or the tiger? The music or the lyrics? In the case of "Dive", I wanted a balls-to-the-wall, three-chord rock assault to couch the lyrics that would introduce the theme for the album. Swore to God I wouldn't write this thing in sequence, but we'll see how that goes.

I ended up grabbing the Greibhaus solidbody and injecting it into a well-distorted amp, eventually crunching out a looping, insistent phrase that modulated between E5 - G5 and A5. I knew I wanted to make that the foundation for both the verse and chorus to keep the thing rockin', so breaks would have to be taken from that for dynamic's sake.

Though the punkiness of the music hearkens back to my Crazed Bunnyz days (that's me on guitar with Marc Plainguet on bass synth circa 1986), the album will bear lots of cross-genre touches, including classical orchestrations that come from my work as a film composer - so though some of the changes would seem standard, the idea here was to also throw in some cinematic elements that could either be recalled later or arranged for maximum effect. The pre-chorus bridge carries this weight, with a modulation between B5 and C5 with a flat 6th chiming back and forth, which really gives it a sort of sinister and dangerous feel. Maintaining tension - I break up the main riff (shared by the bass) with a wide open G chord that never resolves to the A. That comes later.

That's the nuts and bolts of it - it times in around the 3 minute mark and when I've got a demo ready, it'll be posted here. But for now, here are the lyrics to "Dive":

DIVE
music and lyrics by Bing Futch
Copyright © 2009 J.O.B. Entertainment Inc.

floating on my back in the sunshine
gazing at the clear blue sky
thinkin' 'bout the time
before I lost my mind
and how sweet it was to live a lie

ah

the weather here is always amazing
no-one rains on your parade
center of the earth
another virgin birth
Jesus Christ, you really got it made

when the sky turned black and the water chilled
and the hired guns arrive
looking for the killer of the man you killed
hold your breath, it's time to dive

dive

it's murky in the deep blue under
forgotten memories, buried in the sand
wish I had a map
to relocate the crap
that I tossed down here from on the land

when the sky turned black and the water chilled
and the hired guns arrive
looking for the killer of the man you killed
hold your breath, it's time to dive

solo

=====

As you can tell simply from the lyrics - it's much darker than anything on "Dulcimer Rock" and certainly edgier. Much of the later Mohave material floated in this realm, tunes like "Planet Earth" and "All For One" with the difference being they were tunes generally sung in the third person; a safe place to be as a commentator or Greek chorus. When a tune comes out of a confessional place, the risk is huge.

I can't honestly tell you which direction this album is going, other than to say it's going to be "without limits." Though there is a lot of darkness to parse through, there is also much light and I do expect that there will be balance. But you know what they say (and *they* are usually right, I've found):

it's always darkest before the dawn.