A Classic

The Perfect Trainwreck has been on a steady course for the past few days. We actually got together, well minus short dawg who couldn’t make it, for a go at some new tunes. Jed and Jeff created some great parts to some new material I have been working on as well as some old stuff that never really took flight. Sessions like these really keep us alive and leave no doubt in my mind that the next project will be sick! I just got the cover art for the upcoming PT album, done by Sarah Beth Wiley and am very pleased. The mastering is so close and is sounding just like those three days at Levons studio this past fall. So it is only natural for us to get going with the next recording.
Short Dawg caught up with us at a gig at the Langdon St. café in Montpelier on Saturday and we whipped of a couple of set to a great crowd, it was our first time there and we will be back. Prior to that was my son’s first little league game, and I got to tell you it was pretty much a religious experience for me. As a kid I sucked at little league I was the smallest kid on the team and I hardly ever got on base, unless I got beamed by a wild pitch, I have a vivid image of this asshole jock named Terry Mcdongha laughing after he imprinted the stiching of the ball on my left elbow. But here is Rye also the smallest kid on the team but his passion and attitude about the game were light years from mine. Yeah he struck out at one of his turns at bat, but he went out swinging. The kid does have a good cut that his teammates acknowledged, instead of the “nice work Thayer” that I would have received. Anyway his next time up he was walked and this is when he found his nitch, he stole 2nd then 3rd and then home on a wild pitch, there are a lot of wild pitches in little league and he found out how to use em’. He had another shinning moment when playing the infield and he leaped for a throw from the catcher and picked off some one trying to steal 3rd, the same trick he had just pulled off. I could see him beaming as everyone cheered and then he was right back in the game and I couldn’t have been prouder. I got to thank the kid for letting me have the experience (albeit vicariously through him) I was denied when I was his age. In addition to that it rekindled the love I once had with the game. I may have had a bad time with little league back in 1976 but I have fond memories of pick up games with the rat pack in my neighborhood and that classic feeling that sneaks into life once and a while. Whether it is in shiny new uniform or ragged Tough skins it is still classic and they’re to be tapped into and I couldn’t help but see the similarities between a good game and say a good song. You can always strive for one but it rarely or never happens on demand so you better recognize it when it does. I guess it is like having an eye for magic, I don’t know if I have one but I can’t help but thinking that by hanging out with my kid or going to more little league games I will be a lot more closer to getting one.

4-30 Burlington VT

We had a great time this past Saturday playing with Railroad Earth at the Higher Ground Ballroom. I must admit those opening slots on big stages can always be a bit dicey but, I think we pulled it off, or at least introduced ourselves to the Burlington jam scene and scared a few hippies. Thanks to everyone who bought merch, and to Railroad Earth (who are exceptional pickers and are a friendly bunch) and the staff at Higher Ground for being helpful and providing the backstage libations. And a big thanks to Tony at WBKM for having us on his show.

Sticks and stones

Blog/ 4/22/2008
Sticks and stones

Spent earth day picking rocks out of the ditch up on Stoney Brook rd. I suppose you’re supposed to pick up garbage, but we didn’t find any, I did see a deer carcass picked entirely clean though. My dog Libby ran off after something and we had to spend a good half hour running around calling for her and that kind of pissed me off but I did find a really cool swimming hole in the process.
I finally got the rafters up on my timber frame thanks to help of Jeff Berlin, Jeff and Susan Mocas, Mike Phiel, and Don Carbino, who provided the staging and tackle we needed. I must say it looks pretty slick, almost a shame to close in. Which is fine cause the bank wouldn’t give me the loan to do so, so it may just sit like it is for a while.

Mixin' Blues

As the snow finally recedes round these parts it reveals all the unfinished business from the times when there was no snow. Like my project of building stonewall all over the place in hopes my property does not slid of the side of the freaking mountain. So for the last few years I have been hauling stone from wherever I find em’and mixing all mortar by hand. So in hopers in getting this project done before I am in my late nineties I am succumbing to modern times and borrowing a cement mixer. I asked my friend Don if he was using his anytime soon, his reply; “ Good, god, I hope not.” So I lugged his mixer over and it got about six rotations in before the pin holding the drive shaft broke, so Lori and I were back to hand mixing. So my friend Brent comes by and says why aren’t you using that old mixer, and I told him mixers are for pansies, but can I use yours? So now I got Brent’s mixer. Then we ran out of Portland cement, no problem I got to go to the supply store to get a sheer pin for Don’s mixer any way, maybe we will find some more stones along the way.

Boston 4/9

Took the bus down to Boston met my dad at south station and did a quick session at Mad Oak studios in Allston with him playing trumpet on Honeywood to finish up the debut Perfect Trainwreck album. Started mastering on Thursday 4/10 at Peerless with Jeff Lipton and had a swell time playing at Atwoods in Cambridge later that night. Friday had us doing a show on Joan Hathaway's Three-Ring Circus on WMBR in Cambridge. A surprisingly smooth couple of days, I got to remember when shit goes right for when shit goes wrong.

Driftwood 2 out

Lets get this blog train rolling with the release of The Driftwood Periodicals vol. 2. Played to a full house at The Middle Earth Music Hall last Fri, accompanied by Mr. Pete Weiss on the Moog Synthesizer, Thanks Pete. The next day had us rolling up to Stowe Vt. to play with some other bands in the make shift Spruce Peak Lodge. Jeff's car blew a tie rod or something and they had to turn around en route, but thanks to Chad Hollister and his band we switched set times, and Jeff and Short Dog were able to make the gig in the dog's wagon. Nothing's easy. Good to see some old friends and play with the Dejas again.