Stoneville Pond

Here I am on New Years Eve posting a song for the Calendar Project. It's a really good feeling finishing a second year. It was a New Year's resolution, I need to write more songs. I feel I've delivered on that resolution. Last year I wasn't sure if I was going to continue for another year but going into '09 I have no doubt I'm doing another year. Not only did I continue to write and record a new song every month but I began writing and recording with friends this year outside of the audioblog. I learned what made last year stand apart from this years project. Collaboration. Working with other people gives you a fresh perspective on what your working on. I intend to keep the Calendar Project going next year with input from other people.

Working with Erik and Brian as Mob 3 is a great example of what collaboration can do for the writing process. Stoneville Pond isn't the same song I originally wrote. their influence and playing style shaped the song beyond the structure I came up with initially. After countless hours over several months Stoneville is the only audio representation of the work we've done as Mob 3. I feel this song is a nice segway into a collaborative Calendar Project next year. 2009 is when the doors open. Come on in friends and bring your guitar!

Mob 3:
Erik Brackett
Craig Morin
Brian Onish

Stoneville Pond

Fingerprints

November is a big month for the Calendar Project. Last year was "Om" which I feel to be one of my best songs. The pressure of following in my own foot steps one year later was getting to me. I had what I thought to be some throw away riffs. Mob 3 has been playing at a bar in Sturbridge and I made friends with the bartender on Myspace. Her "about me" section caught my attention:

"I am a married, Christian woman. My husband and my kids really are awesome! So blessed, really, truly thankful.. I love what I do for work, I bartend and waitress, good stuff!I love nature, I really can't understand how people can deny that God is real! Take a look around you, his fingerprints are all over everything! It blows my mind!!"

I loved her wording. It screams faith. I put some of those phrases to music and organically came up with a song I am proud to post. Jay suggested the piano. The best thing about this song is my backing vocalist. It's nice to finally have my wife's voice on the Calendar Project. Kate made it a special month. Maybe after eleven years I'll release all the Novembers in one collection and call it 11/11. Food for thought. Enjoy!

Fingerprints

(wake up) Sleepyhead

Lennon,
Riley
and
Virginia

You are the reason Mom and I get out of bed in the morning.
We love you.

(wake up) Sleepyhead

LeRoi

As I stated last month this song is a tribute to LeRoi Moore. He was the saxophonist for the Dave Matthews Band. I was really saddened when I found out about his death. He was one of the greats.
I had written the riff and had started referring to it as my "Dave Riff." I had the chorus down but didn't know what to sing in the versus. When I got word of LeRoi's passing it became obvious. I then started to put together the words. Every line in the versus and bridge references a title from a DMB song. The chorus is about striving for that level I believe LeRoi operated on. This is a memorial. I'll miss LeRoi's playing and contributions.
R.I.P.
LeRoi Holloway Moore
September 7, 1961-August 19, 2008
LeRoi

Believe It

Here I am last minute again. Cutting it pretty close this time. The month is up in fifteen minutes and I I've just finished recording. It's been an insane month. We've moved, have had 3 separate automotive events, and I've started a new barber. And of course it wouldn't be August if Riley wasn't splitting his head open. This year he was inspired by the Olympics and did a triple header back flip off the couch and caught it on the coffee table. Five Staples!
This song has a close relationship with chaos. I was involved in the reforming of my old band H.M.S. We we're all going to bring new tunes to the table so I found myself needing to come up with 3 songs above and beyond the calendar project. The timing was off but I ended up coming up with one and a half songs. The completed one was Believe it. In the midst of all the chaos this month every time I had a chance I picked up the acoustic at the shop and busted it out. I knew this month I already had believe it in the bank so I just needed time to lay it down. Here I am on the last day of the month getting it done. Perfect. It's in this song's blood to be done in a whirlwind. It's a straight up live take. I even brought the shop guitar to our new home to lay it down.
The other half song has since become "Leroi." It had already been referred to as my Dave Matthews riff (sometimes Rush?). When I heard Leroi Moore died it really hit me. The guy was awesome and his music and presence will be missed. More on that next month.
Two minutes to spare.

Believe It

Wedding Bells (I Do)

Last year my July song was very rushed. Even though I liked it nobody else did. I to this day think it was because the recording was hurried more than anything else. My only complaint was I forgot to say the word July last year. I tried to make it up in August but I guess I never recovered.
Having said that I felt a great deal of pressure for this year's to be better. This is actually one of my oldest tunes that I never could quite finish. One day I was jamming at the barbershop when I stumbled upon the missing pieces. It's the only song since the inception of the Calendar Project that is in an open tuning. I also thought it was fitting since Kate and I celebrated our 5th anniversary this month.
The recording was still done last minute but I think it's much better than last July. My only concern is that it will come across as a poor man's "Om". More Roots than Mercury. I had technical difficulties during the recording process but got the job done.
I'm proud of it. I hope you enjoy it too.

Wedding Bells(I Do)

Chew Your Food Good

Chew Your Food Good
This month I was working on a riff one day while the kids where eating their lunch. Riley has a tendency to shove allot of food in his mouth @ once so I started to play something completely different. I started singing "chew your food good" and it was one of those moments where the song only took as long to write as it did to play. The kids liked it so I knew I had something. This is a sincere effort in writing something they would enjoy. I also like how a kids' song is not something I've done with the Calendar Project yet.
Recording it was fun. I got the kids to sing and even play a little percussion. That's them shaking the summer squash out of the tambourines. Their little voices kill me. They are just too cute. Ginny watched on while Lennon and Riley helped Dad express the importance of Chewing Your Food Good.

Each year, more than 17,000 infants and children are treated in hospital emergency departments for choking-related incidents, and more than 80 percent of these occur in children aged four years and younger. Airway obstruction death and injury are especially prevalent in children under age four due to anatomy (small airway), natural curiosity and tendency to put objects in their mouths, and incomplete chewing. According to statistics from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, choking in 2001 was highest in infants. (taken from http://www.answers.com/topic/choking?cat=health)
So please Chew Your Food Good!

My Fathers Day was made good by spending it with the three best kids in the world, making music. Thanks Lennon, Riley, and Ginny.
Happy Fathers Day all you dads out there!

Chew Your Food Good

Bigger Things

Last month's song wasn't received the way I had hoped. I considered it a political satire. It would more accurately be described as long. This is the song I had intended to put up last month. I wrote it in April but then I got excited about "W." I should have maybe stuck with the song I meant to post and allowed myself time to digest the notion of venturing into politics. Regardless both songs found there way to the audioblog and I like how dated April will sound because it is a "calendar project."
I think this song is a better offering. When I shared it with my friend Russ he said that he liked how lyrically it starts sounding like it will be a downer but the message actually comes through as pretty optimistic. I honestly didn't think about it. I just needed words that fit the meter.

This month is dedicated to Erlinda Boyles Espiritu and her family.
Bigger Things

-W-

-W-
Oh George you've hurt us so
But it will soon be time for you to go
You may have let your people down
At least you made your money while in town
So even if the country suffered
At least you know your ass is covered.
just wait and see cause i surely bet ya
the hand of karma is gonna getchya

W

ShamRock

Well I think this month I have one of the strongest riffs of any Calendar Project song. The problem is I never made a song out of it. It's pretty solid musically so I had a hard time trying to write words that didn't follow it exactly or a solo that really worked. I ended up getting pretty sick so that ate a week as well. All in all I like it but the project as a whole is going to need to start getting a little more interesting. April was a turning point last year so lets see what next month brings.

ShamRock

Friction

Today is leap day and I have to say I was a little upset I didn't do many haircuts until I relized that this day didn't exist last year so every cut I did just goes into the void. That's how I feel about this months song. I could have a little fun and write about "friction" because when all is said and done...this song was done on a day that next year doesn't exist. It's like a free pass. A lost weekend done in a day. It's a good day to do something a little unlike yourself. No one can be blamed for taking a leap on leap day.

Friction

Open Mondays

Well lets get started.
There will be differences. I'm getting rid of all the arbitrary rules I put on myself except one. I don't need to say the name of month. In fact I don't need to say anything. I won't worry about dating my music with birthdays. The only rule I intend to keep is one song a month. Good bad or indifferent. I just want to continue my musical journal a little while longer. I have plenty of good news to report.
This song is called "Open Mondays" because I intended to record it my first Monday at the barbershop. Hung out with friends all day at work instead so I ended up recording it on Tuesday. It's an instrumental which the rules would not have allowed last year. I like it. Just a little progression I recorded with a crappy little microphone. Then I soloed over it. Just two tracks, Two acoustic guitars and the spirit of a slow Monday (on a Tuesday).

Open Mondays

The Calendar Project 2008

I had allot of ambitious ideas for projects to come after last years calender project. I felt relief when I finished December because it was like a completed thought. If I did another song for January I would be starting all over again and wouldn't be able to quit until next year. That's an overwhelming responsibility now that I know the work involved. That's when I began coming up with other ideas like a Willy Dixon research paper inspired cover album. I thought about doing one Beatles song a day until I've done all of them. I thought about doing one live performance a month and recording a new song for the blog at each show. By the time I racked my brain for almost a month I realized I had this nice little progression that I liked and nothing to do with it. That's when it hit that whether I noticed or not, I had already started the Calender Project 2008.
I'm excited because most of my other ideas didn't involve writing. I do feel after last year the flood gates are open. Life right now is too good not to write about. The shops doing well, new baby, Pats headed for the Super Bowl, and Lost returning to ABC on Thursday nights. What's not to enjoy.
It's going to be a great year.