I started having conversations for my podcast in December 2021. The last episode I released in 2022 was number 74.  Considering I started off with an "Episode ½" on 31st December, that's a total of 75 episodes over the last year.  

What have I enjoyed about having a podcast?  The best part is the conversations.  First of all, this is a way for me to do what my doctor instructed me to do.  Last year in November/December, I was in a pretty dark place from a mental health standpoint... darker than normal.  My doctor said that one of the things I should do is to have a meaningful conversation every day with someone who is NOT my wife.  Now, in the last few months, I've been awfully lax in getting my daily meaningful conversation in.  (If anyone wants to help with that, I'll take volunteers.)  That said, every time I record a conversation for the podcast, that totally counts. Second, it turns out that people are awfully interesting if you let them talk about something they are passionate about.  Just taking a moment to listen to people and ask appropriate questions is pretty cool.  Third, sometimes I feel like this is a useful endeavor for the community. I really miss Gem City Podcast and the fine work they did. I especially looked forward to the Wednesday episodes featuring a local musician or band. Now that they're gone, there's an empty space in the Dayton area for someone to talk to local musicians about their work. I've been making an attempt at filling that space, and hope that eventually, listeners will come to look forward to my conversations with Dayton artists the way I looked forward to Izzy Rock's conversations.

Of course, there are parts of the process I don't like.  Sometimes, the tools I use fail. I recorded a great conversation with Paul Monnin of Age Nowhere, and somehow the sound ended up completely distorted and garbled. If you listen really hard, you can figure out what is being said, but it sounds awful and grating, and I wouldn't foist that upon anyone. Also, editing the podcast... that's not so much fun. One might not realize how many times things like "uh", "um", "like", and "you know" are said during conversations, but there is a level at which using those terms over and over becomes distracting, so I tend to prune them out of conversations.  That's incredibly time-consuming.  After editing, I usually do another listen in order to glean ideas to write the Show Notes.  There was a time when I would consistently use time stamps in the Show Notes to mark highlights of the conversation.. that's even MORE time-consuming, so I haven't done that in awhile.  Hey, as a podcast listener, is that something you'd like to see more often?  I don't even really know whether putting in that extra work is adding value or not.  I've thought about hiring someone to handle that work for me, but I'm pretty sure I can't fairly pay the going rate for that work at the moment, so I'll keep on doing it myself.  At least that's another skill I can put on a resumé, right?

Of the 75 episodes, 30 of them include women.  That should be 50 percent of the episodes, and I didn't quite get there, so I'll try to do better in 2023.

Here are what I think are the most notable episodes of the last year:

The longest episode

The longest episode is also the most recent episode, number 74, featuring Juliet Fromholt and Taylor Ruckle. We're talking about our favorite albums from 2022, and the duration is one hour and forty-five minutes.

The most popular episode

More people listened to my Episode 7 conversation with Tod Weidner than any of my other episodes. It's clear that he means a great deal to the music community here in Dayton.  This one went up way back in February 2022, so it's about time I have him back to nerd out on songwriting and music some more.

The most important episode

You might think differently, but for me, the most important episode is number 30, with Brian "Z" Zisook. He is the cofounder and Senior Vice President of Operations at Audiomack. He's a professional journalist who now is now an executive helping to run a music streaming service. 

In his own words: This isn't a company created by and of silicon valley based tech bros... this company was founded by and employs a lot of creatives who come from backgrounds in the fine arts... these are people who understand the plight of the aspiring creative...

This episode is important for musicians who release music.  If you are one of these people, you should pay attention to how truly passionate Z is about music and the people who make it. He wants to see us succeed. He and the team over at Audiomack are building their platform in ways that allow listeners to directly support us financially. That's not the case with the other streaming services, where we are only a source of content. Z wants people to hear us. Educating us on how the business works and helping us to improve are also very important to him, and he is often handing out useful advice for free on his Twitter account.

This episode is important for music listeners.  The folks at Audiomack work on their algorithm to ensure that it serves you the music YOU want to hear, as opposed to giving heavy priority to whatever the most popular major-label song of the moment is due to labels having a stake in the service. Audiomack World is an excellent source of discovery, consistently providing editorial recommendations from actual real humans. If you are a listener who values the people who create the music you listen to, recognize it as hard work, and believe that one should generally be paid for one's work, Audiomack has a way for you to directly support an artist you believe in, if you choose to do so.

This episode also contains a direct message from me to my fellow musicians in Dayton.  Sure, I don't think anyone really paid attention to it, but I meant it at the time and I still mean it.  If you would like to know what that is, well, listen to this one.

The interesting stranger who I'd love to have a beer with episode

An excellent multi-national band called Jenny and the Mexicats were going to stop at Levitt Pavilion here in Dayton for a concert. I really wanted to see this show, but I was going to be out of town. I volunteer at Levitt Pavilion, and thought that I might be able to help to promote the show a little bit.  When I contacted the band, bassist Icho Van responded, and our conversation in English is Episode 52.

Icho has an interesting life story. He's a hard worker, doing the tasks that would normally be handled by a band's manager. He's out there living his dreams, playing music he believes in, touring the world, and finding delicious things to eat everywhere. His band has had the privilege of playing an NPR Tiny Desk show. Despite all of his success, he's quite normal. Icho is easy to talk to, friendly, and cool.  (Part of this might be because he plays bass.)  I'd love to grab a beer with him, and maybe watch a game where his beloved Buffalo Bills are playing.

El episodio con el desconocido con quién me gustaría tomar una chela

Una banda excelente llamada Jenny and the Mexicats tenía planeada dar un concierto aquí en Dayton, Ohio.  En su gira, iban a tocar en el Levitt Pavilion, y la entrada fue gratis. Quería mucho asistir a este concierto, pero tenía que viajar fuera de la ciudad. Sirvo de vez en cuando como voluntario en Levitt Pavilion, y pensé que por lo menos podía ayudar con promocionar el concierto un poco.  Cuando escribí al grupo, fue el bajista Icho Van quién me dio respuesta, y nuestra charla en español se halla en Episodio 51.

Icho tiene una historia bien interesante. Trabaja muy duro.  Hace las tareas que normalmente haría el gerente de una banda. Este señor está viviendo sus sueños, tocando una música feliz y energética, haciendo giras alrededor del mundo, y decubriendo bastantes comidas muy sabrosas. Tiene mucho éxito, y un nivel de fama, sobre todo en México. No obstante, es completamente normal. Icho es amable, muy buena en conversación, y uno se siente muy a gusto con él. (Sin lugar a dudas, una razón por eso es que toca el bajo.) Me encantaría tomar una o dos cervezas juntos, y quizás mirar un partido de fútbol.

The episode that changed my life

Even though Episode 9 aired in February, the conversation actually took place in December 2021.  My guest was Becca Wonka, a delightful and effervescent French musician who lives in Los Angeles. We talked for nearly three hours.  Yes, only one of those three hours was actually recorded for the podcast.  We hit it off.  The conversation meandered back and forth from French to English.  If you listen to the episode, I estimate that 70% of it is in French, but I put time markers in the show notes so you can skip around to the parts you are likely to understand. 

This is probably not a surprise to you, but it is extremely difficult to make a living as an independent musician.  It's not impossible, but there's a long path and a lot of work to get there. I am not remotely close to profitable as a musician yet.  When Becca and I had this conversation, I had recently left my corporate job.  Shortly after our conversation, her lovely husband introduced me to his industry, the business of adaptation. To shorten what would otherwise be a long story, that's now my gig that actually pays.  I owe a debt to Nico as a mentor that I will never be able to repay.  I owe the same debt to Becca for recognizing that this line of work is something that I can do, and for recommending me to her husband.

A great deal of the mental health progress I have made over the past year is attributable to being much MUCH less stressed out by work.  By no means am I "cured" or "well" - and I likely never will be - but I am in a better place now, and even occasionally feel slightly optimistic.

La conversation qui a changé ma vie

Bien qu'episode 9 est sortie en février 2022, la conversation entre Becca Wonka et moi avait lieu en Décembre 2021. Elle est française, d'origine nantaise, et habite maintenant à Los Angeles. Becca a une passion profonde pour la musique, et elle parle avec joie et enthousiasme. On a bavardé pendant trois heures, dont une heure est enregistré pour le podcast. Si vous en écoutiez, vous allez trouver aux "show notes"que j'ai mis quelques indices pour dire quand on a parlé en français et quand on a parlé en anglais.

J'imagine que vous savez déjà que c'est extrèmement difficile gagner la vie comme musicien independent aux Etats-Unis. C'est pas impossible, mais on doit bosser beaucoup et il faut être très patient. Je ne gagne pas encore ma vie comme musicien. Quand j'ai bavardé avec Becca, je venais de quitter un boulot d'entreprise. Quelques jours après qu'on a parlé, le mari de Becca m'a parlé pour m'inviter à apprendre le business d'adaptation. Actuellement, c'est ça ce que je fais pour ètre payé. Je dois un dette envers Nico que jamais je pourrais lui payer, et c'est pareil avec Becca pour comprendre que je puisse faire ce type de travaille et me recommander à son mari.

*****

No matter how long you've been listening to my podcast - whether a year, a month, a week, or a day - thank you very much for choosing to spend some time listening to me talk to interesting people. I sincerely hope that you have enjoyed sitting in on my conversations, and warmly invite you to keep on listening.  If you have something you are passionate about and would like to talk about it, contact me, and you could totally be a guest. 

In 2023, I'm planning to release a new music project that I poured so much of myself into, and when I start promoting it, I'll have podcast conversations with the wonderful and talented people who collaborated on this project with me. I can't wait for you to meet them and all of the other individuals who I'll be speaking with.

On the way back from the trip to celebrate our fifteenth wedding anniversary, we stopped at Heathrow for a layover. We landed there on the morning of 11th November. 

That particular day is called Remembrance Day in the United Kingdom. Throughout the morning, the PA in the airport made regular announcements that two-minutes of silence would be observed at eleven o'clock, to remember those who had died in service to their country. Shortly before the clock struck eleven, a poem was read by the recorded voice of a little girl.  There was a bugle melody played that I did not recognize. Then, the airport fell silent. 

I'm a little bit of a history nerd.  I like reading and learning about the past. I'm also fascinated by foreign (to me) people, cultures, food, and traditions. I say these things to assure you that I paid attention to this event, and took care to watch the people around me during these two minutes of silence. 

Many people stood, immediately upon hearing the music and/or poem.  I can't remember which of those two things happened first, but I remember seeing people stand up right away, something which felt Pavlovian to me. These people were mostly adults and the elderly.  They were also overwhelmingly of the, shall we say, non-melanated persuasion. You see, Heathrow is an international airport that connects many parts of the world, so there are folks of every imaginable culture around, and you hear a wonderful symphony of different languages being spoken when there isn't an observed silence. Seated individuals who were definitely not British - myself included - did not stand. People who were moving about, whether they were walking or shopping, tended to stop doing so... except there were plenty of individuals who did not.  I was somewhat amused to see a few youthful individuals who were in their late teens or early twenties look around at what was happening, and then eventually join the folks who were standing. It seemed to me that they joined in because of it being a socially suggested thing to do. When the period of silence had concluded, there was general applause from those who were on their feet. The older people applauded the most fervently, and a few of them wiped away tears.

The reason this observance happens at eleven o'clock on the eleventh day of the eleventh month is this is when the armistice that silenced the guns of The Great War came into effect. That particular conflict killed 6% of the adult male population of the United Kingdom, clearly leaving an impression on the collective psyche. As I looked at the delightfully diverse array of people around me, I wondered if this event is observed in their home countries. The Great War was fought in multiple places, but most of the slaughter happened in Europe. I wondered about the tragic irony of the colonized coming to the land of the colonizers to die in their war.

In the United States, this day is a federal holiday called Veterans Day. How many citizens of the United States could tell you why this particular observance is on 11th November or where it originates? Likely, very few.  The way we as humans remember, well, that's very different from place to place. It is perhaps affected more by the propaganda we grow up hearing than by what may have actually happened. 

artwork by Rob McCowan of Odd Hourz Creative

I don't often write happy songs.  I don't ever write songs about my wife.  The reason for both of these things is that my attempts generally turn out to be awful.  Low quality.  Banal.  My wife has come to accept that neither she nor our relationship are about to be subject matter for my art.  Surprise!  Here's a change of pace.

3rd November 2022 was our 15th wedding anniversary.  That's worth celebrating in a special way, so we're over in Mauritius not working and enjoying a vacation.  (Clearly, I'm writing this blog entry well in advance of our departure.)  I'm not great at anniversary presents.  I think the last decent one from me was a set of diamond earrings, but alas, I am no longer in the jewelry buying business.  However, I can manage to write a song as a present. That's the decision.  Misty gets a song.

I started by borrowing the chord progression from one of my favorite Radiohead songs.  Next I worked out a melodic structure, being careful to make sure the melody didn't sound anything like the song from which I took the chords.  (I challenge you to figure out which song the chords are from.)  I knew that I wanted the overall feel to be like an Elbow song.  Remember, we both love Elbow.  

Verse 1:

A gentle tremor wakes me, I look out the window of the train 
The golden hills of Burgundy, brighter in life than in paint 
Where white and red are pseudonyms for Meursault or Beaujolais 
This is better now that you are here

Those lyrics are about our visit to France's wine-producing region Bourgogne.  I had been there before when I was much much younger and single. Some time ago, we went as a couple.

Verse 2:

Market in the morning, shouting from the street in the night 
Cobblestones and Catalan, saffron threads and candlelight 
Sudden crushing sickness that I don’t have the energy to fight 
This is better because you are here

We went to Barcelona for our 5th anniversary.  I managed to get the worst food poisoning of my life on this trip.  That experience is now immortalized in song.

Verse 3:

A gentle tremor wakes me, I look out the window of the plane 
The takeoffs and the landings, cruising altitude, champagne 
Walking through the streets of Paris, Nouméa, Marseille 
This is better because you are here

My first version of this song did not have a third verse.  I remember discussing this with the kind gentleman who engineered the song, Rich Reuter.  He thought a third verse would be a good thing.  Also, I thought I'd get closer to feeling like an Elbow song with a third verse.  When it came time to do the vocals, Rich told me that my lyrics weren't good enough.  He was right.  I took a few minutes and re-wrote the third verse.  This is much better.  It even has a reference to an Elbow song or two, though I doubt it's enough to get me sued.  Like the rest of the song, it's one hundred percent based on reality.

Chorus:

Side by side never mind the where 
Up and down good and bad to share 
Having holding even when I break 
Losing you is more than I can bear                         
So don’t you disappear

There you have it.

I came to Rich with the song all structured out, and as we talked through it, there were some changes.  I knew I needed a bridge, but I wasn't sure how to go about it.  Rich wrote the instrumental bridge, and came up with the idea for the bass solo by noodling around on a guitar. I liked the notes he played, and figured that it would make more sense to have a bass solo in this song than a guitar solo.  Rich also ran with my idea of double tracking bass in the turnaround after the second chorus... we've got a nice bass harmony in there.  Due to the changes he made to the song, it's only fair that he gets an official songwriting credit.  His ability to understand the mood and feel I was going for led to excellent instrumental choices.

"For Misty" is very likely my best vocal performance thus far.  Previously, I think it was this song, or perhaps this one, but not anymore.  I'm the only vocalist here, and I'm proud of the harmonies.

Normally I would link to it here, but remember how I'm writing this blog entry in the past?  Well, this song is a surprise.  At the time of writing, Misty doesn't know that it's a thing.  Assuming I executed my plan correctly, she found out back on November 3rd, which was this past Thursday.  I encourage you, dear reader, to go listen to "For Misty" on the streaming service of your choice repeatedly and often.  If you'd like to give us an anniversary present, you can download a high quality version of the song over on my Bandcamp page for $15, or if you can wait a couple of weeks to give us that present, I'll have it up on my official website here when we get back from our trip.

Credits where credits are due:

Lyrics by Mike Bankhead 
Music by Mike Bankhead & Rich Reuter 

Mike Bankhead - bass, triangle, vocals 
Rich Reuter - guitar, keys 
Kyle Sweney - drums 

Engineered & Mixed by Rich Reuter at Homeway Studios in Dayton, Ohio 

Additional Engineering by Seth Canan & Chris Stewart at Trojan City Studios in Troy, Ohio 

Produced by Rich Reuter & Mike Bankhead 

Mastered by Tim Pritchard at Great Horned Audio in Dayton, Ohio 

Artwork by Rob McCowan at Odd Hourz Creative in Austin, Texas 

©℗ 2022 You Could Be My Aramis Music (BMI)

This song started as a voice memo, a brief line of lyrics and the slightest suggestion of melody sung to my phone. The line in question was this one:

tell your teacher I got some bright ideas

Admittedly, that's not much to build a song around. The concept of "bright ideas" stayed with me.  I live in the Greater Dayton area, and this is a place that has seen many inventors and creatives. I decided to build the song into a love letter of sorts to the Gem City and to the thinkers who called this place home. I also decided to try to write a Guided By Voices song.

The second thing I wrote was the riff for the outro. I did the writing on piano, but I knew from the beginning that I would want that hook played on guitar and also sung. I knew from the beginning that I didn't want to include a traditional "chorus" with the song, and that I wanted it to be short and punchy.

This is what it sounds like.

My thanks go out to Dr J at WUDR and Juliet Fromholt at WYSO for playing this song on the radio.

I am also thankful to the personnel who played on this single. Here are the credits:

released March 31, 2020 
Music & Lyrics by Mike Bankhead 

Bass, Vocals: Mike Bankhead 
Guitar, Vocals: Eric Cassidy 
Drums: Brian Hoeflich 
Vocals: Patrick Himes 

Produced by Patrick Himes & Mike Bankhead 

Engineered and Mixed by Patrick Himes at Reel Love Recording Company, Dayton, Ohio 

Mastered by Alex McCollough at True East Mastering, Nashville, Tennessee 

Art by Ashka RA 

©℗2020 You Could Be My Aramis Music (BMI)

***

"Bright Ideas" was taken down from global streaming services when I changed distributors, but it will be back TOMORROW, Tuesday 22nd March, 2022.

I'm not a journalist or professional writer, but I like to write, so my blog is a way to scratch that particular itch. To some extent, my Twitter feed also serves this purpose. I learned this year of a music writing exercise that is conveniently called "Music Writing Exercise", and is represented by the #MWE hashtag on Twitter. The idea is to listen to one album every day that you have never listened to before, then write some thoughts on it... but the thoughts need to be the length of exactly one tweet.  Now, I started the challenge a few days late, which required listening to multiple albums on some days this month, but I just now finished the Music Writing Exercise. I'd like to share with you the albums I listened to, and my thoughts on them, as written on Twitter.  Who knows, you might find something you like.

I'd link to all of these albums, but it would take me FOREVER to look up all of the appropriate links to websites and such, and besides, you know how to use Google, right? 

• #MWE1. Yep, late getting started. Ben Decca's 2021 album Dévotion is my first exposure to Makossa music. The songs in Ben's native language (I assume Douala), well, I don't understand, but dig the music. Some latin-sounding flavors, great vocals & harmonies, grooving bass.

• #MWE2. Carolyn Shulman's Grenadine & Kerosene, which came out in 2021. The title track is excellent. There are a couple of songs that lean a little close to country for my tastes, but overall, solid lyrics & well performed musically. Go get this one.
• #MWE3. Yes, still behind. California outfit The Sometimes Island has a new EP out called Beverly & Barbara. It's got a creative take an a 70s song, along with some tasty indie pop. Not too saccharine for me, care paid to songcraft and instrumental choices to properly deliver melody.

• #MWE4. Willie Nelson's ...And Then I Wrote. Well, it's noticeably derivative, with blues & gospel/soul music filtered through his vocal approach. Simple lyrics, going for obvious rhymes. Piano sprinkles are lovely, background singers lovely, album reminiscent of elevator music.
• #MWE5. Melissa Carper gives us a live tracked album with Daddy's Country Gold. A unique voice, & an interesting take on a mix of some very old types of music. Yes, the word "country" is in the title, but there are other sounds here, notably strong jazz influence. I think I dig.
• #MWE6. The Late Great Townes Van Zandt. "Great" is doing heavy lifting, as I disagree. My favorite song is "Snow Don't Fall", followed by "Poncho & Lefty", but there isn't much going on musically and the songs here don't speak to me. The strings are nice when they show up.
• #MWE7. Music City USA, by Charlie Crockett. I don't like this one. I think I liked three songs, maybe. I'm beginning to think that this genre might not be my thing.
• #MWE8. Still way behind schedule. I never heard anything from Betty Davis, and her recent death caused me to go check out her work. Her self-titled debut is funky, sultry, and will make you want to get up and dance.

• #MWE9. This is the first Zola Jesus album, The Spoils. Vocals mixed low & ALSO sound like they have a ton of reverb, which makes them sound distant & mostly unintelligible. There are some catchy instrumental hooks, & tasty shoegaze sounds, but I won't come back to this one.
• #MWE10. Back to Betty Davis for this one, her second album. It's just as funky and sultry and full of attitude as the first one.
• #MWE11. Shame on me for taking so long to get around to listening to a Bad Brains album front to back. This is their debut & it is chaotic & fast & loud, except for when they branch off into reggae, & then right back in to furious punk. As good as advertised.
• #MWE12. Adria Kain, When Flowers Bloom. An R&B album featuring what sounds like mostly in-the-box production, which really isn't my thing. I like "Melt Into You" best here, and the album is not bad, just not all that memorable. Really good vocals though.
• #MWE13. Jay Wheeler's latest El Amor y Yo. Good vocals. Heavy use of pitch correction for artistic reasons. I'm old, it's not my thing. Interesting variety of Spanish language urban music. Plenty of nice grooves, and one can dance to most of it.
• #MWE14. Wiki tells me that this Ricky Nelson album is rock and roll. It sounds like the kind of thing you would hear on an oldies station, the songs are quite slow, and use rudimentary chord progressions. The perfect soundtrack to a movie set in the 50s, but not for much else.

• #MWE15. More Betty Davis, more funk on Nasty Gal. Interesting how this sounds like the era it is from, but still somehow fresh. It's good. A song called "F.U.N.K." on it has Betty name dropping a bunch of her musical contemporaries, and I wonder if she was the first to do that.
• #MWE16. Introduced to Nija here on Twitter by @djboothEIC.  Lots of emotion carried in the lyrics on these tracks, notably for me "Rare" & "You Don't Love Her". That said, I think modern R&B with in-the-box production & heavily pitch shifted vocals isn't for me. That's ok.
• #MWE17. Revival, Rissi Palmer. I've followed @RissiPalmer #onhere for awhile, & finally got around to listening. This is as soulful as you'd expect given the album name, also meanders around country & americana sounds. Excellent album. Hello Hammond B3 on stompin' title track!

• #MWE18. Hard Won by Lizzie No has lovely songs. Lizzie plays harp. HARP!!! Lizzie also plays guitar. Folk music here, well recorded. I dig it.
• #MWE19. I listened to this because Paul Monnin told me to. Other than the bass on "Do Right Woman", including a couple of sweet fills, I don't like it. Sorry, Paul. (Ok, I guess I dig the way the different vocals are panned as well.)

• #MWE20. Fellow Midwesterners Urge Overkill are back. Say "oui" to this album. If you remember and like this band, you'll like this album. If not, you might still like it, I certainly do. I dig Nash Kato's voice. The songwriting is good.

• #MWE21. I discovered Joslyn & The Sweet Compression because they are stopping by Dayton on tour. I have a ticket. Solid album here. Funky, with some characteristics of that classic 70s Dayton sound. Soulful. Dig it very much.
• #MWE22. Bubblegum, by Mark Lanegan. I really should have gotten to this earlier. Great songs. Having PJ Harvey on a couple of them certainly doesn't hurt. Mark's voice sounds broken in and familiar like old leather. Solid rock and roll album.
• #MWE23. Spoon's latest album is Lucifer on the Sofa, and is the first Spoon album I have listened to in its entirety. What took me so long? This is a rather solid rock album. I think my favorite song is "Satellite", but that may change with future listens.
• #MWE24. Built To Spill's album Keep It Like A Secret came out in 1999. I like all of this. Some of the guitar work is a bit more meandering than most of what I listen to, but the hooks are good, and there is some big rock and roll sound when there needs to be.
• #MWE25. Kären McCormick's EP Retro. It's pop country, not my thing at all. Well produced and executed, sure. Here's hoping more artists/songwriters of color bust through that glass ceiling in the Nashville part of the industry though.

• #MWE26. heard Momma's new single, which sounds exactly like Veruca Salt to me, so I went to check out their older work. That's not quite the feeling you get on Two Of Me, their 2020 album, it's much more subdued. That said, it's perfectly fine, but I'm ready for the next one.
• #MWE27. Eddie Vedder's latest solo album, Earthling, is much better than I expected, containing a variety of styles, sonic textures, and approaches to song construction. I need a few more listens before I throw too many superlatives at it, but my first take is it's quite solid.
• #MWE28. Pollen, the 2021 album from Superbloom, is my favorite album out of all the ones I listened to this month. It sounds like 90s rock, and I mean that as a compliment. I will probably be listening to this over and over and over again.

*****************************************************************************

This was an enjoyable exercise. I listened to several albums that I otherwise might not have listened to at all, or might have taken awhile to get around to. There ended up being a reasonably diverse group of genres represented, though it could be argued that I need more hip hop or pop music in this February collection.  Maybe I'll concentrate a bit harder on those areas next year.  (Though it could be said that discovering a new-to-me genre in Makossa more than makes up for that.) Yes, I definitely plan to do this exercise again.

You might remember that I have a song about a particularly unpleasant experience with the police, and that TINO had the kindness to feature on it. The story behind writing "Anecdote" is right over here, on a previous blog entry.

This is one of my five singles that have been removed from the world's most popular streaming services. It makes its triumphant return tomorrow, February 22nd.  Would you be so kind as to give it a listen tomorrow wherever you stream music?

If your restaurant is called Mofongos, it would be reasonable to expect a Puerto Rican restaurant with mofongo prominently featured among the culinary offerings. This spot in North Hollywood fulfilled and surpassed both of those expectations on my recent visit. I don't have a Puerto Rican restaurant near me, so when I saw Mofongos was within easy walking distance of my hotel during my recent trip to the Los Angeles area, I knew I had to drop by for a visit.  Mofongo, after all, is delicious.

The restaurant is small, and has the feel of a family-run establishment. The kitchen wasn't visible, so I don't know how many people were back there cooking, but when I arrived, one of the employees was heading out, and the remaining person seemed to be the only one responsible for the front of the house the rest of the evening.  If memory serves, his name is Ángel, and he kindly put up with my insistence on speaking in Spanish.  (It's a Puerto Rican restaurant, we should speak in Spanish, you know?) I knew better than to try out my imitation of a Puerto Rican accent... I'm not good enough to pull that off with a native speaker.

Let's start with the namesake dish. Have a look at this picture right here:

Isn't that a thing of beauty?  I opted for the Mofongo de Carne Frita, which means that those are delightfully crunchy morsels of fried pork on top. Tostones came on the side, because more platano is never a bad thing, right?  This was delicious.  The broth was perfect, the mofongo was perfect, the pork was perfect, the tostones were perfect.  Now, a sensible person wouldn't have gotten anything else to eat, but not only am I not remotely sensible, I have some nostalgia for arroz con gandules.

See, a very grandmotherly grandmother who I know in my area is Puerto Rican. In the before times, when there would be a gathering, she always brought arroz con gandules. She even personally taught me how to make it once. Of course, I have never at any point been able to make mine taste like hers, even though I am certain I followed her instructions perfectly... but yeah, I don't try anymore. It's been awhile since I ran into arroz con gandules, so I got some of that on the side. 

Did I finish this?  No, not close.  I did, however, eat enough of it to find the olive that was hiding in there.  (Just like Milta's!) The flavor was spot on.  This leads me to believe that Mofongos has a Puerto Rican grandmother in the kitchen doing the cooking.

As a history nerd, eating food like this always makes me think of where delicious things might come from. Does mofongo bear a resemblance to fufu?  Yes, yes it does. Now, the reasons for that are, of course, horrific. Same reason that you don't meet anyone who speaks Taíno anymore. That said and acknowledged, one small nice thing that comes out of cultural collision is delicious food.  Mofongo is one of those things. If you happen to have access to North Hollywood, I strongly recommend you swing by Mofongos and try theirs.

To begin, I'd like to make it clear right up front that Audiomack is not sponsoring me in any way, and I am not being paid to talk about them. All of the experiences I am going to relay to you in this post are one hundred percent true, although the empirical sabermetrician in me freely acknowledges that the sample size is small. Your results may vary, though I strongly doubt it. Hey, maybe try out some of these things on your own and talk about your experience?

One of the more popular music streaming services has been in the news lately, as a couple of well-known Canadian artists have had their music removed from the platform in the last week. In the musician social media circles I tend to read, there are individuals canceling their paid accounts with the popular platform in question. This particular blog post is not intended to discuss the controversy. This particular blog post is intended to offer an alternative to the most well-known streaming services, an alternative that is certainly a better choice for artists, and one that may also be a better choice for listeners. How did I arrive at that viewpoint?  Let me tell you a story.

Remember Greg Owens? This gentleman wrote a song with me. He's an Americana artist. He had a song out called "Love in the Rain". My wife listened to that particular song on the popular music streaming service that I have been clearly avoiding mentioning by name. That service followed up "Love in the Rain" with "WAP" by Cardi B and Megan Thee Stallion. This didn't make sense to us. Shouldn't the algorithm for this service take note of the song's genre and style, and then follow up the selection with something similar?  Why would it default to what was, at the time, the most streamed song in the United States? Cardi B, Megan Thee Stallion, and Atlantic Records really didn't need another stream of that hit to go with the millions of streams they already had, but an indie artist like Greg surely could have used a stream for one of his other songs. This did not sit right with me.  Interestingly, I later had an opportunity to ask an industry expert about it.

This industry insider has specific expertise in the streaming platform in question. I listened carefully as he described how their music algorithm works. I took away two main points from listening to him speak. The algorithm on this platform leans heavily toward genre. The algorithm looks at locations of listeners and likes to categorize by location. Based on those two criteria, "Love in the Rain" should have been followed by a song from an Ohio-based Americana artist. We have a few of those. "WAP", popular though it was, does not fit here in any way. When it came time for a question-and-answer session with the gentleman, I explained the situation above in detail, and asked how we can reconcile the platform's behavior with the explanation we were just given of how the platform is supposed to behave. The response that I got was telling.

At first, the gentleman used humor to deflect my question, stating that the platform was messing with me, then deadpanning that "WAP" is a great American classic that deserves to be heard over and over. Finally he said quite seriously that the component that I am leaving out of the equation is time.  In other words, since this was my wife's first visit to Spotify, the algorithm couldn't possibly look at her location or the genre she selected, and instead was obligated to serve the most streamed song on the platform until she had enough listens in order for it to make a better choice.  This, dear reader, is nonsense, and frankly, I found it insulting.  Does it sound true to you?

Do you remember Pandora? That's one of the older music streaming services. Do you know what the follow-up song is when you play an Americana song on Pandora? I leave you to try it if you wish, but let's just say that you won't get a chart-topping hip hop song next. Pandora somehow manages to figure out the genre you want to hear right from your first listen. This is how I knew that the explanation I was being given was absolutely untrue, I have experience with other platforms that don't behave like this.  Maybe the real answer was "I don't know".  More likely the real answer is "this platform has a vested interest in serving whatever major label artist is at the top of the charts right now, and that will always be the default behavior"... at any rate, the lack of a real answer kind of bummed me out.  

All told though, streaming music sure is convenient.  Even for people who still love listening to music on CD (like me) or vinyl, sometimes the convenience is difficult to pass up. And, for full disclosure, I host my podcast on a free platform that is very easy to use, and that platform happens to be owned by the very same service I am discussing above.

Audiomack is an option that I enjoy.  Here are my reasons:

Listener Experience

I tend to do most of my music streaming from the same location I am typing this blog... on a desktop PC. The website has a simple interface to use. It does not require installation of an app, but if you stream via a mobile device, that is absolutely an option. For you audiophiles out there, a subscription to their premium service gets you higher quality streams, along with equalizer controls, a lack of ads or banners, and the ability to download playlists. Like other popular platforms, Audiomack brings me a personalized feed of music that they think will suit my interests. The ability to playlist is here as well, of course, as I alluded to briefly. The Audiomack World page reminds me of the music journalism over on Bandcamp, it's a good place to discover new artists. In order to find what songs are most recently added, well, they have a Recently Added page that you can sort by genre.

Of course, does any streaming service actually CARE about their listeners? Aren't we all just numbers to them, a way to collect those advertising dollars? Well, I reached out to Brian Zisook, co-founder and Senior Vice President of Operations for Audiomack, to ask about what kind of experience they are hoping for listeners to take away from their platform. Brian says: "We want Audiomack users to find pleasure in leaning into artist discovery, rather than sitting back and letting an algorithm tell them what is popular. If you use Audiomack and frequent our Trending sections, by genre, or Audiomack World, our editorial arm, it's nearly impossible to not find your next favorite artist." 

What if you enjoy streaming music, but you know that musicians are getting paid mere fractions of a cent for those streams? Oh, sure, there are plenty of listeners who just don't care, but let's say you're not one of them.  Let's say that you recognize the amount of hard work that goes into writing music and getting it professionally recorded and produced in order to bring you quality art. Let's say you want to stream, but you also want to compensate the artists. Well, the Supporters feature on Audiomack is perfect for you!

My wife and I repeated the "Love in the Rain" experiment. Here's where that song lives on Audiomack. The next suggested song was by a completely different artist named Greg Owens. That is not the ideal result, but I can understand why that happened. I would like to have seen a recommendation in the same genre, but this brings me around to one drawback: rock and rock-adjacent genres are underrepresented on Audiomack. The platform is strong in hip hop, pop, EDM, rap, and afrobeats. This brings me to the part where I talk to other artists.

Artist Experience

Hey there, fellow artists and musicians. We all want people to find our work and listen to us. The emphasis here is on people... actual real human beings with emotions and soul, not bots. I think that Audiomack has the potential to be the best platform for us, but it won't be if it doesn't grow its listener base, and it won't grow its listener base unless more artists put their music over there. Do you see the dilemma?  Let me tell you about what I like about Audiomack from the perspective of an artist.

You can upload your music there on your own, without the need for a distributor. For the majority of the other streaming services, we have to go through a distribution company to get our music onto their platform.  This is not the case with Audiomack.  Sure, you can use a distributor to get your music to Audiomack if you wish, they work with a few of them.  However, this is not a requirement.  You can absolutely build your profile and upload your songs all on your own without a distributor.

The process to get music to an official Audiomack playlist is transparent.  There isn't a great deal of mystery about it.  In fact, there are specific places on Audiomack where you can submit your newly uploaded songs directly to the curators of the "trending" lists, and if they like your song, it goes up there.  This, of course, gets you a bump in the amount of plays you get. I know this can be done, because I have done it. If you're an artist who makes music in a rock-adjacent genre, well, there is less competition for listeners than other genres on Audiomack at the moment, there's an opportunity here.

They believe in artist education at Audiomack.  There is a specific section of Audiomack World that is for artists. This section contains simple explanations of the inner workings of the music industry... glancing at that page right now, I see articles explaining the role of a booking agent, what a manager is supposed to do, how publishing works, how to protect oneself as an artist, how to deal with the MLC, and all sorts of other useful business advice. This page is free, but the advice here is useful. 

Despite there being fewer users of this platform than other platforms, I tend to get more listens on Audiomack than I do elsewhere.  I also have FAR more monthly listeners on Audiomack than elsewhere, and again, this is in spite of the fact that their subscriber base is lower than a certain other service that I have touched on before. Growth in listens on this platform feels organic. I come away with the feeling that when I get a stream on Audiomack, there is an actual person on the other end listening, and I don't always get that feeling on some other services. Ok, I'll admit it... I can't quantify that in any way.  That's a feeling.  You need something tangible.  You need some evidence that Audiomack is trying to support artists.  Well, here comes your evidence.

Audiomack recently launched a Supporters feature.  Insider dot com wrote about it here. Simply put, this feature gives an opportunity to artists that I haven't seen anywhere else. A listener who truly loves one of our songs or one of our albums can monetarily support that piece of art via this feature, and that money goes directly to us. Money from the listener to the artist for streaming our music.  Other services are not doing that.  Our listeners may be paying for subscriptions to one or more services, but as artists, we know that we are never seeing any of those funds.  This is different. It has the potential to be a game-changer. If you want to know what Audiomack says about it, I recommend reading this article here.

I asked Brian Zisook what this new feature would bring to artists.  This is what he said: "Supporters not only provides Audiomack creators with the opportunity to generate more revenue for their songs and albums, which in the current streaming ecosystem is of vast importance, but it also allows them to earmark and filter through their superfans. We bolstered this direct connection by giving creators the ability to send thank you messaging and offer their fans perks or freebies, strengthening the fan-artist union and removing the feeling of it being purely transactional."

Did you get that?  If a listener loves our music enough to support us financially, we'll be able to thank them personally.  We'll be able to offer them perks for being there for us.  We'll be able to bring them into our world. That's a pretty great idea.

Summary

I am just one songwriter who plays bass. I don't have "clout".  I'm probably not going to change many minds. That said, I've noticed a shift in the direction of the streaming winds so to speak, and if that ends up being an actual thing, well, here is a streaming platform that I think deserves more attention. How many users will Audiomack really be able to take away from the established giants in this space? That remains to be seen. From the standpoint of an artist, this is definitely a service worth investigating. If you see the same potential there that I do, why not give your listeners a gentle nudge in this direction? 

My page on Audiomack is here.

I invite you to have a look.  I invite you to listen.  I invite you to click around and listen to some other artists on this platform.  If perchance you wish to support me, well, I would be most pleased if you would make use of the new Supporters feature. Really though, what I am looking for - and what musicians in general are looking for - is a person to listen to us with whom we can make a connection. That is a challenge on streaming services in general.  Audiomack makes that a little easier for us, and simply put, that's the key takeaway.

What's your favorite music streaming service?  There are many to choose from.  The most popular ones are Amazon Music, Apple Music, Deezer, Napster, Pandora, Spotify, Tidal, and YouTube Music, depending on where you might be from.  There are dozens of other streaming services. 

Have you ever wondered how a musician gets their music onto these streaming services?

Well, we can't upload our songs to these services on our own. We must use a distribution company to do so.  There are several different companies that do this.  They all charge us money of course, which is rather disappointing, as the amount of money that we pay to send our music to streaming services doesn't exactly come back to us because streaming services make a habit of not paying artists.  Let's table that for a moment, and come back to the distribution companies.  They all kind of do the same job, but how they do so is slightly different, and they have different types of services and customer support experiences, and that sort of thing.  

I have recently decided to change distributors for five of my singles.  The five singles are as follows:

"Anecdote (featuring TINO)"
"Baile Conmigo"
"Bright Ideas"
"Little Light"
"Won't Love You Anymore" 

Since I am changing distributors, these five songs are not currently available on global streaming services.  Now, I'm not a popular enough artist that anyone would have noticed this, but it's true.  Feel free to have a look.  You can't stream them right now.  Of course, these songs are still available right here on my official website, over on my Bandcamp page, and on my Audiomack page, as they do not require a distributor in order to add music.  However, since there are plenty of folks out there who prefer to listen to music on Apple or Pandora or Spotify, I will once again distribute the above five singles to streaming services.  Which single should be re-released first?

I posed that question to the wonderful people on my mailing list, and let them choose via a poll.  (I would very much like it if you joined my mailing list.) They selected "Won't Love You Anymore".

As an artist who very much wishes to please, "Won't Love You Anymore" will return to streaming services tomorrow, Tuesday 25th January. If you really miss this song, and would like to hear it now, you can find it on my website at the link above, at this Bandcamp link, or at this Audiomack link.

Do you have any thoughts on which song I should re-release next?  Feel free to comment on this blog post with your suggestions.

I think today is a good day to tell you about my in-progress EP.  Let's pretend I'm a journalist and use the 5 W questions, shall we?

Photo by Joshua Chan

WHY?

I wrote a great deal of songs during the pandemic.  Most of these, you'll never hear.  They're not all winners, you know.  As I kept writing, several of the songs ended up being about Black experiences. As they say, write what you know.  Now, I've written about this sort of thing before. After all, writing songs is how I process emotions and try to deal with my anxiety and depression and life in general. Eventually, I had written enough songs that I thought were good enough to not discard. I'd like to share them.  That's what songwriters do, you know, we generally prefer to share what we write. Instead of staggering these songs across multiple releases, I decided to collect them all into one project.

WHO?

The songs on this project are all very much about Black experiences. That being the case, I thought that the best way to approach recording them would be to enlist the assistance of people who would most be able to personally relate to the subject matter.  The artistic aesthetic for this project is that all personnel are Black. This includes musicians, engineer, mixer, mastering engineer, photographer, videographer, and graphic design. If you've read my blog or heard me talk about music, you know that I consider collaboration to be a highly valuable and important part of making art. This is an opportunity for me to work with some very talented people who I've never worked with before. I feel like the enthusiasm they are bringing to this project can only enhance the final product.

WHERE?

I am recoding at The Dreamcatchers Recording Studio in Reynoldsburg, Ohio. Rizo is the gentleman at the controls.

WHAT?

This is going to be an EP.  In addition to the detail about the personnel above, it will be different from my past work in two major ways.

First, every single song on this project is told from my point of view. By saying that, I don't mean that I've never written a song from my own point of view before.  "North of Sixteen", from Echo in the Crevices, is very much a first person story, and it's a very clear narrative. "Goodbye", from Anxious Inventions & Fictions, is another example of me being the voice speaking in the song. This certainly isn't the case all of the time. Songs like "I Am a Number" and "Your Anthem" are observational.  Songs like "Little Light" , "Le Soldat", and "She Speaks in Metaphor" are purely fiction, but plausible. My most recent single, "Wapakoneta", consists of a kernel of true memories buried in a fabricated story. This new project however... this is extremely personal. I am the voice on all of the songs. I am open, I am vulnerable, and I am speaking the truth. Note that you won't find any instances of me pushing for social or political causes or changes on this EP. (If you're looking for my thoughts in those areas, feel free to reach out to me in person.) I am saying things that are true, and then saying how I feel about them. The listener is free to draw their own conclusion. Being this open is scary.

Second, every song on this EP is in a different genre. Usually, piano is my tool of choice for writing songs. Piano provides a blank slate. There are a nearly unlimited amount of choices one can make as far as arrangement and instrumentation when starting with piano. As I arranged the songs, I tried to put together arrangements that would best serve each song. After I got three songs into the project, I noticed that they were all different genres. At that point, I decided to lean into it. Yes, each song is a different genre, but they all sound like me.

There is another detail about this project that I'll keep secret, but it is a secret that I have shared with the lovely people who subscribe to my mailing list. They are the first to know what I am up to, and I share inside information with them that I won't share elsewhere. If you'd like to join them and step into my world, please sign up here.

In a nod to Jimi Hendrix, the name of the EP will be I Am Experienced.

WHEN?

This blog post is going up on Monday January 17th, 2022.  In the United States, that is a federal holiday called Martin Luther King Jr. Day.  Some people in the United States might spend a few minutes on this day thinking about topics such as racism, prejudice, and equality. Some people might spend a few minutes thinking about how to not be partial in one's individual interactions with other humans, or what the world might be like if everyone had an altruistic love for their fellow person. Many people ask themselves when, if ever, anything will improve. Those are all valid thoughts, and I'm not going to address them here. I will say that I have made some art in which I talk about my feelings, I am working hard to get it professionally recorded, and I will share it with you as soon as I possibly can.

The name of this restaurant describes exactly what they do and exactly what they are.  This is a cart with wheels, also known as a wagon.  They make and sell hamburgers.  That's it, that's the description.

Here is their website.

I've been hearing about this spot for years, and it's considered a local classic. They have been in business since the Great Dayton Flood. In fact, they owe their existence to the Great Dayton Flood.  I'll let you read about that history on their website, it's a fascinating story. What I am here to tell you about is my experience.

My wife and I headed to Miamisburg on a sweltering summer day around lunch time. There is a steady stream of customers at this spot, it's clearly beloved.  Some folks would come up and order 50 hamburgers, clearly planning to take them back to work and feed the entire office.  There were only two people inside the wagon on the day we visited.  One person handles the cooking.  The other person seasons and assembles the burgers with one gloved hand, and handles money with the other hand... these hands never touch each other, the money hand doesn't touch the food, and the food hand doesn't touch the money.

That's right, I said money.  Hamburger Wagon only accepts cash.

As for the menu, they make hamburgers.  They sell bagged chips.  They sell bottled drinks.  As a customer, you're getting your own drinks from the cooler and chips from the rack.  If you want a cheeseburger, well, too bad.  This is Hamburger Wagon, not "Cheeseburger Wagon."  By default, the hamburger comes with freshly sliced onion, a pickle, salt, and pepper.  If you do not like one or more of these things, you can ask for them to be omitted.  You are not getting anything else.  You are not getting ketchup, mustard, mayonnaise, aioli, chutney, gochujang, hoisin, ranch, blue cheese, thousand island, barbecue sauce, peanut butter, jelly, lettuce, tomato, bacon, avocado, etc.  This is a simple hamburger with freshly sliced onion, pickle, salt, and pepper.  It is small.  You'll probably want more than one of them.

The hamburgers are cooked in what appears to be a large cast iron receptacle at the back of the wagon, in a great deal of boiling liquid fat.  They are coming out all sorts of well done, with some char and crunch around the edges.  This is what they do.  If you do not like this, do not visit Hamburger Wagon.

I loved my experience.  Though simple, the burgers are well seasoned, crunchy, and delicious.  It's probably not the healthiest thing to eat every day, but every once in awhile, it makes for a nice lunch.  I understand why it's so popular and beloved.  They figured out how to do one thing well, and they've done it the same way for over 100 years. Again, it's simple.  Good things don't need to be complicated.  If you happen to be carnivorous and also in the Dayton area, this is a place you should definitely try at least once.

If you are on Twitter, you know that, like all social media tools, it can sometimes be useful and sometimes be awful.  If you are not on Twitter, you'll have to take my word on that. My new podcast is a result of one of the useful things. I follow an artist consultant over there on Twitter.  Not only is he tastefully named, he also routinely gives useful advice for independent musicians on his feed. One day his advice centered around remixes.  He said that if an artist has commissioned remixes for one of their songs, they should have a podcast conversation with the person who did the remix.  This provides a useful behind-the-scenes look at the artistic process, and is also valuable content.  You know, "#content".

It turns out, dear reader, that I have a single coming out on March 15th called "Hold the Wick".  If you are currently subscribed to my mailing list, well, you received an email this morning that gives you an early listen to the new single.  (If you are not currently subscribed to my mailing list, I warmly invite you to click the link earlier in this sentence and sign up. That way, you'll be the first to know what I'm working on.)  I commissioned seven remixes of "Hold the Wick".  They come in a variety of flavors. I decided to follow that free advice I picked up on Twitter, and interview the remixers for a podcast. Shortly after I decided to do that, I decided to not stop there.

You really don't want to listen to a podcast if the only thing that will happen is self-promotion, right? I figure that this is the case because I wouldn't listen to a podcast if that was the only thing happening, either.  Ok, my new podcast will definitely NOT be all about self-promotion. I have plenty of interests... sports, travel, languages, history, food, art (outside of music), science fiction, board games... these are just some of them.  There are plenty of people who share some or all of those interests, and I would enjoy talking to them.  I think you would enjoy listening to those conversations.  That's what my podcast is going to be about.  It's called the You Could Be My Aramis Podcast, which you might recognize as the name of my publishing company and LLC.

Those of you in Dayton might remember the Gem City Podcast. Those folks brought us entertaining and enlightening conversations for several years. They covered all sorts of topics, but my favorite episodes were the Wednesday episodes with Terry "IzzyRock" Martin.  If you were a Dayton artist and were releasing a new album or had an important show coming up, you went on Gem City Podcast to talk about the hard work you put into your art, the songwriting process, your gear (the rig rundown), what your childhood smelled like, and any other topic that came up in the conversation. Alas, that podcast is no longer with us. Obviously I do not have their experience or track record, but I would like to make a humble attempt to fill that void in Dayton podcasting. If you are a Dayton artist with a new album coming, and you'd like to talk about it with someone who is ready to listen, well, I'm ready to listen. I am certainly not saying that I can replace Terry and Libby and their fine work, but perhaps I can follow in their footsteps just a little.

What are some of the things you can expect to hear on my new podcast?  Well, it is true that I'll spend the occasional episode talking to the talented people who remixed "Hold the Wick"... we will learn about their approach to remixing, but we'll also learn about their creative process for their own music.  I talk to a musician from the Dallas area and a musician from Chicago during episodes that have absolutely zero to do with self-promotion.  I'll be promoting them. Episode 2 is a wide-ranging conversation with a local doer who has his hands in a few different businesses, and whose face should certainly be familiar to Dayton musicians. The above episodes are all scheduled for release in January.  The first episode to be released in February is a chat with a gentleman who was a fixture in our music community for over 25 years, who remains one of my favorite living songwriters, and who speaks as passionately and eloquently about music as anyone I have ever met.

You should be able to find the You Could Be My Aramis Podcast on whatever platform you normally use to listen to podcasts. Just so that you don't have to search, you can find it right here.  The show notes will live on my official site, just click the navigation menu at the top of the page where it says "Podcast".  That failing, the link is https://mikebankheadmusic.com/podcast. Feel free to subscribe on the platform of your choice.  Please listen.  If you enjoy what you hear, perhaps consider leaving a review?

Episode 1 is coming your way two days from now, on Wednesday January 5th, 2022.

There are several "first" experiences in my life that happened on the beautiful island of Sri Lanka.  Most of these things are educational and positive experiences. It was the first place that I saw the sun set over the Indian Ocean. It was the first place I toured a tea plantation.  It was my first time feeding and riding an elephant.  (That last one scared me out of my mind.)  I had my first delicious encounter with Singapore Chili Crab, a dish that is popular where you might expect based on its name, but the crabs are imported from Sri Lanka.  I tried kankun for the first time. I saw a water monitor crossing the road. I smelled a cinnamon plant that was right next to the street, as common as any deciduous tree would be here. Several foods that were unfamiliar to me at the time found their way onto my personal list of favorite things to eat; barramundi, sprats, pol sambol, hoppers, string hoppers, lamprais... everything but sweets, essentially.  Arrack was also a nice discovery for me. I learned the Sinhalese greeting "ayubowan".

There were also, however, some "first" experiences that were not quite as happy or pleasant.  Colombo was the first city I have visited where the army was deployed to the streets around the city.  I had my first experiences with military checkpoints. It was my first time being completely and utterly lost in a country where I could not speak the language. 

The sum of my experiences - both positive and negative - are the backdrop for the song "A Morning Like Yours".  Before I get into the details of the song, I'd like to share some photos based on the memories I mention above.

That right there is a Sri Lankan lagoon crab as the featured star of the Singapore Chili Crab dish.

Here's a typical Sri Lankan breakfast for me: Egg hopper, red string hoppers, coconut sambol, another sambol that tasted like burning, mutton curry.

This will likely never happen again.  I am not a small human being, right?  I look downright tiny on top of this kind and gentle and somewhat elderly elephant. Yeah, interacting with creatures that are larger than me, it's not my thing.

Oh, hello there Galle Face Green and World Trade Center.

The first time I set foot in Colombo was 2010. Unlike well-known traveler Anthony Bourdain, I didn't visit during the war.  In fact, while I was there the first time, the Sri Lankan government was planning a parade and a celebration to commemorate the one year anniversary of the war ending... there were roads blocked off, warships gathering off the West coast of the island, and the occasional tank... and then it poured rain for a couple of days, and the celebration didn't happen.  (A Google search tells me that the parade was held the following month.) The war was over, but the army was still in the streets. That was a somewhat frightening experience for me, as I had never been in a place with active military members on patrol. When I would walk around the neighborhood, I would see the soldiers - all of whom looked impossibly young - and hope that I wasn't going to give any of them reason to point those large weapons they carried in my general direction.

As I continued to visit over the years, the military presence diminished.  The checkpoints went away.  I felt safe, which is, of course, a mirage, as there isn't really any such thing as a place that is "safe".  

I stayed in four different hotels across my visits to Sri Lanka: Cinnamon Grand, Cinnamon Lakeside, and The Kingsbury in Columbo, and Mount Lavinia Hotel in Mount Lavinia.  These are all luxury hotels with varying degrees of opulence in the region, but due to exchange rates and the world economy, the cost per night is about the same as your average Marriott here in my home state of Ohio. No, it's definitely not fair, and it's one of those things I would try not to think too deeply about when I visited.  I was there to work, and it was rather nice that accommodations with that level of comfort were an acceptable price for my company to pay.  I would have breakfast in a hotel restaurant specifically open for that purpose every day, then head off to work...  after breakfast on the weekends, I might stroll around the neighborhood, go out on a touristy-type visit, spend time in the hotel gym, play tennis with the designated hotel staff member for that, walk around an air-conditioned mall... you know, that sort of thing.

I reference those normal activities with the lyrics of the opening verse to  "A Morning Like Yours".

Take my coffee by the window
Looking at your ocean 
Text my wife a little hello 
Put the day in motion 
Get a smile from the hopper station with my dal and sambol 
Just a morning like yours 
Just a morning like yours

The time zone difference between Sri Lanka and the United States is such that my mornings corresponded to late evening over here. Sometimes Misty was awake, sometimes she was not... at any rate, my mornings were never the time for conversation outside of a brief text or two.  The lyric about the hopper station... well, I certainly don't know how to make egg hoppers, so the hotels would all have a staff member assigned to handle that during breakfast. These people were at work, so maybe they weren't really feeling cheerful, but they always smiled and said "good morning" when I would ask them to please cook me an egg hopper.

Take a walk around Colombo
Looking at your ocean 
Heavy traffic from the get-go 
Bustle and commotion 
Get a smile from the hopper station with my dal and sambol 
Just a morning like yours 
Just a morning like yours

Colombo is a densely populated city with common large city afflictions.  There are a lot of cars.  There are traffic jams.  There are people everywhere.  That said, from three of the four hotels I have had the pleasure to stay in whilst on the island, the ocean is a short stroll away. Depending on which side of the building your room is located, you can even see the ocean from the windows at The Kingsbury and Mount Lavinia Hotel.  Here in Ohio, I don't have an ocean to look at, so this was a nice treat for me.

A terrible thing happened on April 21, 2019.

Be honest.  Do you even remember this happening?  I'm not sure if it is the case in your particular city, state, or country, dear reader, but where I live, most people tend to be poorly informed of world events, of different cultures, and even of horrible evil like the bomb attacks on 21st April 2019.  I would like to think that this is something that would make me angry and sad no matter where it happened, however, I am certainly more deeply emotionally affected by this event because I've spent time in Colombo. There are folks who I was proud to call colleagues in Sri Lanka. I've had rewarding conversations with regular every day people in Sri Lanka. These are people who had to deal with a lengthy civil war in the not-too-distant past, and after that ended, surely it felt as if things were headed in a positive direction... and then this.  There isn't any such thing as a place that is "safe".

Two of the locations that were bombed are restaurants where I would sit for breakfast every day... the one at The Kingsbury on the third floor (I do not remember what it is called), and Taprobane at Cinnamon Grand, down on the lower level. On this particular Sunday, these restaurants were filled with regular people going about their lives; families on vacation, business travelers who were on multi-week trips, local folks who felt like having a special breakfast.  These restaurants, of course, were also filled with hard-working employees and fellow citizens of the people who carried out the attacks. Lives ended or permanently changed by being in the wrong place at the wrong time. On another day, that could have been me. These thoughts inspired the last part of the song.

Take your tea by the same window 
Looking at your ocean 
Just an ordinary Sunday 
Until the explosion 
Get a smile from the hopper station when the shrapnel hit you 
Just a morning like mine 
Just a morning like mine 
Wrong place and wrong time 
Just a morning like mine

I don't think this song is good enough to take to a recording studio.  Maybe I'll change my mind about that someday, but right now, that's where it stands.  That said, it accurately sums up how I feel, which is kind of the point of songwriting.  As a wise man once said, "time and chance happen to all".

If you'd like to hear the song, my home demo is attached to this blog entry.

I left my corporate job earlier this month.  I had been employed at the same place for 17 years, which is a not-insignificant portion of my life.  In the culture here, it is difficult to not be defined by what you do, rather than who you are... and that is true of how others see us as well as how we might see ourselves.  For the first few days after leaving employment, I struggled a bit to determine what exactly I am supposed to do with myself now.

I've written about my struggles with anxiety and depression before. It's not like I'm hiding it, and it's an ongoing fight, and the corporate job was not contributing to my healing, so I figured that the best choice for my health at the moment was to step away.  There is some irony that health is a concern here, since not being employed by a corporation means I am losing my health insurance.  (For my friends who do not live in the United States, one's health care in this country is often tied to one's employment.)  

There was some fantastic life experiences over those 17 years.  Quite a bit of travel was involved for awhile, and my job took me to Mexico, El Salvador, England a few times, India many times, Sri Lanka many times, China, Hong Kong, and Sweden. How horizon-broadening it was to experience so many different cities, cultures, and cuisines!  I was able to interact with colleagues from all over the United States and from all over the world. Long after the memories of the stress and the bitter times fade, I'll keep pleasant memories of lovely people. I thought I might share just a couple of those here.

That's me with the team I was sent to train on my first ever trip to Sri Lanka.  It's a beautiful island, with lovely beaches (if that's your thing), urban hustle and bustle (if that's your thing), dense jungle (if that's your thing), and great food.

Here are some of the folks who were in El Salvador while I was there.  

This is what a day of training would look like in Bangalore.

Ok, onward.  What's next?  Is that what you're wondering?

Well, that's what I'm wondering as well.  For the moment, I'm going to keep taking my medication and try to find a therapist with whom I am comfortable.  It might be some time before I'm ready to get back into corporate work.  

I'm still writing songs.  As I've written before, songwriting is cathartic for me. I also have a few recording projects in various stages of completion.  If you'd like to support me, my online store is here, I have a page over on Ko-Fi (even though I don't exactly know how it works yet), and of course, my music is on whatever tool you use to stream music.  

You know I love music.  For some reason that I fail to understand, there exists a subset of artistic people - whether musical or otherwise - that have some kind of strange aversion to sport in general, and really love to make their disdain known. Fear not, I'm not one of those people whose interests are so limited. I enjoy all sorts of different stuff, and some of that stuff, well, that includes many forms of sport.  I happen to especially love baseball. I've written here about baseball before.  No, really, I have.  Last year, I ranked my favorite ballparks.  (Click here to read.) I love going to games.  I love watching games on television.  I love reading about baseball.  I love playing fantasy baseball.  It's fair to say that I have a deeper emotional connection to baseball than any other sport.  Why is that?

Part of that surely goes back to childhood.  I remember swinging plastic bats at plastic balls thrown by my grandfather and my father.  Playing catch with one's father is somewhat of a male American cliché, but it's cliché because it's true... I played catch with my dad for countless hours over many years. Baseball is a place where being left-handed is an advantage.

Consider this quote from the well-known 1989 motion picture Field of Dreams, said by a character played by James Earl Jones:

The one constant through all the years, Ray, has been baseball. 

America has rolled by like an army of steamrollers. It's been erased like a blackboard, rebuilt, and erased again. But baseball has marked the time.

Now, I am completely uninterested in nostalgia as a tool of patriotism, and there is no part of me that yearns for past times when people who looked like me were publicly executed with impunity.  Wait, that still happens, let me rephrase... there is no part of me that yeans for a past when the greatest baseball player of all time was not allowed to play in Major League Baseball. That said, despite how much the game has changed, the basic tenets remain.  To quote another baseball film, "It's a simple game... You throw the ball, catch the ball, hit the ball.  Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose, sometimes it rains."  I find that simplicity to be beautiful.

Despite the big picture simplicity, if you look closely, baseball has a certain level of complexity and is filled with infinite possibilities.  For example, there are nine (9!) ways that a batter can safely reach base.  Not all of them involve actually hitting the ball.  There are deep cat/mouse games between batters and pitchers. There are well-coordinated movements by the defenders for who backs up which base (I love watching catchers running down to back up first in their gear), for who the cut off man will be on a given play, whether a throw should even be cut in the first place, who covers second on a steal attempt, and the intricate dance of a run down play.

I don't quite remember what year it was when my parents decided to get cable, but I absolutely remember that TBS was one of the channels that we had.  The gentleman who owned that television channel also owned a baseball team, and did plenty of cross promotion with these holdings.  This meant that just about every evening, there was a baseball game on TV, and it was always the same team.  I watched a lot of games.  I became a supporter of this team.  The broadcasters who I listened to night after night - Skip Caray, Ernie Johnson, Pete Van Wieren, Don Sutton - they became my friends.  My favorite players were Murphy and Horner, Rafael Ramirez and Oberkfell and Hubbard... then Blauser and Andrés Thomas and Zane Smith... then Smoltz and Glavine and Avery and Gant and Justice and Pendleton. (As someone once said, at the end of the day, we support laundry.)  I watched so many games, that as an elementary school kid, I memorized the disclaimer that would be read on the air each game.  These days, I don't quite remember whether they would read it in the 3rd inning or the 4th inning, but I still remember every single word.  

This telecast is authorized under broadcasting rights granted by the Atlanta National League Baseball Club and is intended solely for the entertainment of our audience. Any rebroadcast, retransmission, or other use of the pictures, descriptions, or accounts of this game without the express written consent of the Atlanta National League Baseball Club is prohibited.

The Atlanta National League Baseball Club won the World Series this week, on Tuesday 2nd November. They are champions.  CHAMPIONS. The last time this happened was my senior year of high school.  This made me happy, albeit briefly.  I don't really do happy... but I freely admit that I am deeply emotionally connected to the Atlanta National League Baseball Club.  When I was young, they were horrid. They lost 106 games in 1988.  They very nearly lost 100 games again in 1989.  I watched the games anyway.  They unexpectedly won the pennant in 1991, going from last place to first place in a year, and lost a very exciting World Series in 7 Games to the Twins.  (I still haven't forgiven Hrbek.)  They were pretty good throughout all of the 90s, but only managed to win that one championship.  That is a championship I will never forget, in part because their opposition was a team from Ohio, but I think I'll remember this one for longer.

Of course, part of that is recency bias. Part of it is how this team managed to win.  Their best player blew out his knee halfway through the season.  One of their other major contributors turned out to be a terrible human being and domestic abuser, and was away from the team for that reason. There were several other injuries.  Of all the teams that made the playoffs in baseball this year, Atlanta was near-unanimously declared to be the worst of them.  Strange things can happen in small sample sizes, however, and baseball is decidedly odd that way.  Of course, you can never really know how all of these professionals are as people, but this group of players comes across as eminently likeable, and they never quit.  I kind of like how the article I link to in the previous paragraph puts it:

Atlanta completed a mathematically improbable journey to Tuesday’s champagne bath. The NL East champs didn’t have a winning record until Aug. 6, and they had the lowest win total of any team to reach MLB’s postseason this year, including the Wild Card clubs. The Braves are just the eighth sub-90-win team to win a World Series in a non-shortened season.

Improbable.  But the improbable happens fairly often in baseball, in ever-changing ways.  That's probably another reason I love baseball so much.

Kyleen Downes is a true professional. She plays, she writes, she sings, she teaches... and radiates joy when making music.  Every time I go see Kyleen play a show, I end up less grumpy when the show is over than I was before it started.  The community of musicians in the greater Dayton area is better for having her be a part it. 

This is her official music page. I have everything here on compact disc, and I assure you, it's all good.  Why not get yourself a copy of her latest album, Come On Sit Down, on vinyl or CD?

How about we get to know Kyleen a little better?  After the photo, I amplify her voice.

Photo by Jennifer Taylor

1.  Let's hear the elevator pitch for your skill set and genre. 

The best one I’ve come up with is my music sounds like if Tom Petty and Sheryl Crow were raised on TRL. 

2.  You have a Bachelor's degree in Music.  For musicians who are not formally educated in music, but wish to improve, what's a simple piece of advice you could give? 

While I was getting my degree I was inundated with so much information, I was discouraged that I wasn’t retaining what I was learning. But as the years have gone by, many concepts have clicked. So my advice would be, don’t feel like you need to know it all, incorporate what you do know (value it!) and more will come as you go. 

3.  What was the first album you can remember buying with your own money? 

I made two album purchases that day with my own money: The Men In Black soundtrack and Weird Al Yankovic Bad Hair Day.

4.  Tell me about the last concert you saw. 

I saw Cat Power, Garbage and Alanis Morissette at Riverbend in September. A friend invited me and had 3rd row seats, I’ve never been that close before! Cat Power’s performance was gorgeous and humble. Then Garbage performed and they damn near killed me with the bass, but it was awesome. Shirley Manson now has a place on my badass women list. Halfway through one of her songs she called someone out in the audience and said “Hey Kelly” then proceeded to finish the song. Afterwards, she proclaimed how amazing the universe is that in a sea of people she saw their server from the night before, Kelly. She then told the audience that Kelly was in a band called Flying Underground and that she checked them out on the Instagram and said their stuff was great! SO fun! Finally Alanis Morissette came out with her stellar band and washed us all in her unbelievable voice and energy. The concert was incredibly uplifting and an experience that I got to have with two of my closest friends. 

5.  When did you start playing guitar?  Why did you choose guitar as your instrument? 

I started playing guitar when I was 12 years old after my parents gave me one for Christmas. I wish I knew why I chose guitar because it has become such a huge part of my life. As a kid I did love singing musical and Disney songs, and I also played clarinet, but I really don’t know why I chose guitar. I asked my mom once why they got me a guitar for Christmas and she said, “I guess you must have asked for it.” Makes sense Mom, haha! 

6.  You're a solo artist, even though you write full band compositions.  I can relate.  When you finish a song and are thinking about heading to the studio with it, how do you approach making choices for arrangement and instrumentation? 

The songs I take to the band, I work out structure and instruments parts with them. The songs I’ve worked out on my own will often take shape in the studio. I may have an idea of trying something on a particular instrument but won’t know until I try it. I now have an interface and some GarageBand skills to try out more arranging beforehand, I’m excited to see how it works out! 

7. Can you name three influences on your songwriting and sound, along with some details on how you incorporate those influences? 

I’m influenced by whoever I am listening to or perhaps learning to play on guitar. I developed one song on guitar when I was pretending to be Jimi Hendrix in my basement. It sounds nothing like Jimi Hendrix but who does!? It was more how he moves his fingers on the neck that I was trying to imitate. That song I co-wrote with Emma Woodruff for her album Longing for Something I Ain’t Got and it’s called "Yellow Springs Thing". 

A song of mine, not yet released, called "Tell Me What I Want to Hear" was influenced by Prince. I was hearing something in my head that sounded sexy and staccato, so I developed the song with his aesthetic in mind. 

A local influence came out when I was writing my song "Big Top" and that’s the duo Biscuits and Gravy. The acoustic punch of Harold Hensley and the sassiness of Cassandra Barker really drove the tone of that song. 

8.  So... when do we get more new music from Kyleen Downes? 

2022! No specific details but I’ve got new songs written and will be recording soon. They each have very distinct voices so I plan to release them as singles throughout the year.

***

The video for "Give Up the Ghost" is great, and you should watch it.  I've already linked to the official home of Kyleen Downes on the Internet, but here's her website again.  You can find her music there, as well as on all of your normal streaming services.  You can also find Kyleen on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.

I am absolutely thrilled that Kyleen is willing to play with me THIS WEEK, when I play live on WYSO.  Again, she is a true professional.  Rehearsals have been solid, and I warmly invite you all to tune in on WYSO dot org Wednesday 13th October at 8 PM Eastern, and you'll hear Kyleen's fine guitar work and harmony vocals.

Welcome to Concert Memories May!  All of my Monday blog entries this month will be about memorable concerts.

This time we're going to party like it's 1999... well, because this show happened in 1999.

The third Local H album was Pack Up the Cats, and even though it was released in 1998, the band was still on tour to support it in 1999.  Local H had a massive radio hit single from their previous album, and I had seen them before when they were on the road touring with that one.  They opened for Stone Temple Pilots on an arena tour, and I caught them at the Nutter Center in Dayton.  This show though, instead of being in an arena, was in a properly sized venue for a rock and roll show.

Normally at the Newport Music Hall, there is a crowd control barrier in front of the stage.  This serves to give a space of a few feet between the crowd and the stage, and this space is populated with security staff and professional photographers for the more crowded shows.  Immediately upon entering the big room for this particular show, my group and I noticed that the barrier was gone.  Indeed, we could lean right up on the stage, giving the show a much more intimate feel.  We were actually able to talk to the musicians during the show, as we were close enough to be heard. I swear that I could even feel the air being pushed by Joe Daniels' kick drum.

If you're not familiar with Pack Up the Cats, well, it's a concept album about playing in a rock and roll band.  The band leaned into the album, opening the concert by playing the first 9 songs from it in order.  For a group who wrote a self-deprecating song about not being a very good live act, they brought the frenetic, high-energy performance they were known for.  These guys have been road warriors for years, both before AND after this date in 1999, going out and earning it night after night in town after town.  In fact, Local H are still at it. 

One of my favorite lyrics from the album - and from this show - is from the song "Hit the Skids"... .
I'm in love with rock and roll / but that'll change eventually

I related to those lyrics when I was 22, and well, it hasn't changed yet... but maybe eventually.

Welcome to Concert Memories May!  All of my Monday blog entries this month will be about memorable concerts.

Oh look, what do we have here?

That's right, a superstar Canadian band, who were accustomed to playing arenas and stadiums in their home country, played back-to-back nights at a dance club in Dayton, Ohio for SEVEN DOLLARS each night.  How in the world did that happen?  

These shows happened just after a creative crossroads with the band.  Guitarist Mike Turner had left the band, and there was an open audition process for the job.  Once the position was filled, the band finished up Gravity, which was their fifth album.  When a superstar band releases a new album, they generally go on tour to support it... at least, this is how things used to work.  Of course, they would probably have to play the singles and crowd favorites from their earlier work, and gel properly with the new team member in front of an audience.  If you were part of a superstar Canadian band, and you wanted to put in some work in front of a live audience whilst remaining somewhat off the radar, where would you play the show?  Our Lady Peace chose to play in Dayton, Ohio.  These two shows were the first shows that new guitarist Steve Mazur would play with them.

I remember being a massive fan of this band since their first album Naveed came out while I was in high school.  They didn't get to popularity in the United States until their second album Clumsy showed up in 1997 with hit singles "Superman's Dead", "Clumsy", and "4am".  Their third and fourth albums weren't remotely as popular here if memory serves, but strangely enough, I liked them both even better.  I am pretty sure that several of my friends agree with me on this... and we jumped at the chance to catch an act like this in a small venue in our home state.

I fondly remember waiting in line outside for the doors to open, and hearing the soundcheck happening inside the venue.  This surely doubled as extra rehearsal, as one of the songs we could hear was "The Story of 100 Aisles", and they didn't play that one during either night's show.  I also remember having a nice conversation with some folks who drove all the way from Toronto to catch both shows.

The shows themselves featured plenty of songs from Gravity, which hadn't been released yet.  The lead single had hit radio and MTV, so that one was familiar.  Our Lady Peace were definitely working out the kinds for their upcoming tour.  It was interesting to see professionals like these gentleman have some bumps and stumbles along the way during the two shows, it made them seem more human.  (The younger version of me who went to these shows was even more inept at playing his instrument than the current version of me, and was easily awed by rock stars.)  We could tell they were shaking off a bit of rust at times. Raine completely forgot the words to the verses in "One Man Army", but it was ok, because the audience gleefully sang them. They made sure to "play the hits", and a coupe of other favorites from their older albums, making for consecutive excellent nights of rock and roll.

One last thing that I'll add, on brand for me as a bass player.  I always quite enjoyed Duncan Coutts' work, but I found his live performance extra inspiring.

I had this bass line in D major around for awhile.  It was fun enough to play through that it deserved to have a song written around it, even though I don't generally write in major keys.  The bass line best lent itself to Latin-influenced music... cumbia, salsa, rumba, merengue, bachata... something like that... the problem is that I don't know how to write any of that music.  Where would I begin?

I began with research.  I listened to a handful of songs from each of the above mentioned genres.  This part of the process probably deserved a lot more time than I dedicated to it... but it was a decent start.  Next, I asked a few friends who I know listened to Latin music if they could tell me more about it.  That didn't work.  The general answer there was that they have it around to dance to, but they couldn't really tell me anything about it.  (Note to self:  do NOT ask non-musicians about music.)  On to the Internet!

For some reason, salsa became the genre of choice here.  Any article or commentary I could find online about salsa music history and structure, well, I devoured it.  I learned that the traditional structure for this genre doesn't even remotely resemble the way that I understand songwriting... then decided that if I attempted to be "authentic" and write a salsa song by traditional structure without truly understanding it, well, that's not very authentic at all, is it?  The solution?  I ended up writing a pop/rock song in the normal pop/rock tradition, but with Latin influences.  Of course, the lyrics had to be in Spanish, there was never any doubt about that.

The result is "Baile Conmigo".  Here are the lyrics.

Baile conmigo 
Baile conmigo 

Oye hermosa 
Pareces muy sola 
Charlar contigo 
No hay quien osa 

¿Por qué? 
¿Por qué? 

Oye hermosa 
Tanta guapeza 
Hace una persona 
Muy muy nerviosa 

No soy metido 
Te hablo, te pido 
Te hablo, te pido 
Baile conmigo

This is what the artwork for it looks like.

As usual with my songs, I had a several very talented folks help out with this recording.  Here are the song credits:

Mike Bankhead - bass, piano, vocals 
Khrys Blank - claves, shakers, all sorts of percussion 
Brian Hoeflich - drums 
Phillip Bradley-Hutchinson - trumpet 
Erich Reith - congas, all sorts of percussion 
Rich Reuter - guitar 

Produced by Patrick Himes & Mike Bankhead 

Engineered & Mixed by Patrick Himes at Reel Love Recording Company, Dayton, Ohio

***

Percussive power couple Khrys and Erich were kind enough to do their usual moving and shaking all over the recording, supporting Brian Hoeflich's steady drumming.  (I asked him if he could give me a salsa beat, and he gave me a salsa beat.)  Phillip Bradley-Hutchinson's trumpet is a perfect addition.  Rich Reuter deftly brings lead guitar licks that sing ever so smoothly over all of it.  Finally, as usual, Patrick Himes and engineering and mixing skills present the best version of my work... and he didn't even blink when the indie rock guy showed up with a decidedly non-indie rock song.

This song was recorded amongst the songs that ended up on Anxious Inventions & Fictions, but doesn't really fit in with those songs, so it stands on its own as a single.

You'll be able to listen to "Baile Conmigo" this Friday April 2nd.  It will be available right here on my website, and also over on my Bandcamp page. You'll be able to download on Bandcamp for "pay what you wish" pricing, even if what you wish happens to be zero.  If you do decide to offer some small measure of compensation for the download on Bandcamp, well, since April 2nd is Bandcamp Friday, 100% of all funds will come straight to me, as the kind folks at Bandcamp are waiving their customary fees that day.

Here's another concert that, if it were a human being, would be of legal drinking age in the United States.  In case you are wondering, yes, this makes me feel old.  Here's how long ago this show was:

That's right, almost exactly 22 years ago.  Also, I understand that inflation is totally a thing, so maybe I shouldn't gaze too terribly long in wonder at three bands for $15... but the Internet tells me that the value of that in today's dollars is $23.55, and that's still pretty great for a show of this quality.

The openers were a band from Missouri called Flick.  I had never heard of them before.  I loved them from the first ten seconds of their set, their sound was pretty much dead center on my musical interests at the time.  After their set, I wandered on out to the lobby area to meet them... and that was difficult, because a LOT of people were doing the same thing.  I made sure to speak to their bass player, whose name is Eve.  This might not have been a good idea, because I had a couple of very large beers before the show and during their set... on an empty stomach... and this was just a few months after I was old enough to purchase alcohol, so I was a rather inexperienced imbiber... I remember not making any sense while trying to talk to Eve, and possibly slurring words just a touch.  She was kind enough to sign my ticket stub as you see above.  I didn't have another drop of alcohol the rest of the evening.

I don't remember if I bought the Flick CD that evening, or if I picked it up at Best Buy or something the following week.  I still have that CD, and I still like these songs, even though I don't think I've ever met anyone else who has heard of this band.

Placebo were next.  They were on tour in support of the Without You I'm Nothing album.  I had already been playing that album, and if memory serves, I had gone out to get their previous album as well before the show.  Shows where you know the songs are a different level of enjoyment.  Placebo were outstanding.  I'm glad I got the chance to see them on this tour... I had no idea they were going to have the level of success that they ended up having.  After their set, I headed back down to the lobby to talk to them.  It was impossible to get anywhere remotely near Brian Molko.  As is my custom, I was sure to talk to the bass player, whose name is Stefan.  I expressed how much I enjoyed their set and the album... he commented that he could see me rather clearly in the audience (I'm taller and blacker than most everyone at rock shows), and then tried flirting with me a little.  

The headliners for this one were Stabbing Westward.  They were still touring for Darkest Days. This band was my first significant exposure to "industrial" music, if you don't count Nine Inch  Nails... but I had never considered going to check out NIN in concert.  

Stabbing Westward brought fog machines and an interesting light show.  I don't think I really "got" all of that extra stuff back then, I remember wondering why they didn't just bring the rock.  These days, I think I am more understanding of some of the other artistic things that can come with the rock show.  Also, there was certainly some kind of drum programming, loops, and/or synth happening with these songs, but I also didn't think very deeply about that at the time.  I gave Wither Blister Burn & Peel and Darkest Days a cursory listen to go with this blog post... trying to remember what I liked about this band back then.  Not all of the songs still hold up for me... also, the music is a great deal angrier than most of what I listen to these days.  I clearly understand why 21 year old me dug this though.

This was definitely a memorable show, and I certainly got my $15 worth of value.

Got a gun, fact I got two
That's ok man, 'cause I love God
Glorified version of a pellet gun
Feels so manly when armed

Double think, dumb is strength
Never shot at a living thing
Glorified version of a pellet gun
Feels so manly when armed

***

This post isn't 100% an excuse to post a fantastic Pearl Jam song, but I couldn't resist the opportunity.

This past week, I go visit the optometrist.  This is the first time I had actually set foot outside of my home in several weeks.  It's dangerous out there, what with a killer virus and killer human beings running around, you know?  I am at the counter settling up, and preparing to leave - masked of course - and a gentleman approaches with a gun in a holster on his hip.

I live in Ohio.  The law in Ohio says that it is perfectly ok to carry a gun that you legally possess openly in public.  I know this.  This knowledge does not prevent me from feeling anxious and glancing around for all of the available exits.  How do I know that this person will not draw the weapon and start shooting at every moving thing he sees?  I don't have any way to know that.  

I don't want to stare at this person.  He is on the phone just outside of the doors.  (Due to safe distancing practices, they do not open the doors unless you are a customer, you have an appointment, and you have called to tell them you have arrived.)  The doors are not opening, so he is not yet on the phone with the establishment.  I take a second glance at his direction, and right next to his gun - on his belt - I notice an oval badge, golden in color, inset in blue.  This appears to be a law enforcement officer.  He isn't in uniform.  Neither one of these facts make me feel any more safe.  Law enforcement officers in my home state of Ohio have a well documented tradition of killing people who look like me without any valid reason to do so.

Eventually, he is granted entry to the office, and heads over to the waiting area behind me to have a seat.  I try to stay calm.  I keep my hands out of my pockets, you know, just in case he gets ideas.  I do not turn behind me to look at him.  I silently urge the very nice employee in front of me to finish with the paperwork so I can exit as quickly as possible.

You know how this ends.  Nothing happened.  I went about my day.  It would appear that the only effect is to my mental health and general sense of well-being.  

Here are the lyrics:

Baby can you find my earplugs
They keep the city sounds away
I need to take a syrup shot, it's all I've got
To finally find a quiet place

Go to sleep

Baby can you see the monsters
Their chatter keeps me up all night
This one lost a job and that one had a kid
At least we're getting on all right

Go to sleep

Why can't I ever feel this good?
What's it like to be understood?
Who are we and where is peace?
And how mortality?
When do I go to sleep?

I don't know where I am
Halfway between cold and home
I need to take a syrup shot, it's all I've got
To finally find a quiet place

Go to sleep

***

It was my honor to be the first guest on the brand new songwriting podcast, DUET OR DON'T.  Tune in, and listen to Baby Molly and me write our way through this song.

Way back in April 2020, I began an interview series here on the blog.  I call it "Amplified" because my intent is to make the voices of artists louder.  We musician types desperately wish to be heard, and although I don't exactly have a mammoth readership, I figured I'd try to get some additional ears to the work of folks I respect.  After all, I'd love for someone to do that for me, and am grateful for every single listener.  Here's a brief summary of a very diverse group of people who agreed to participate this year:

Lauren Light - pop/soul singer/songwriter, podcaster, owner of a licensing company

Nina Pelligra - a capella looper artist, songwriter, engineer

Sarah Rudy - guitarist, songwriter

Dirty Doc - guitarist, songwriter

Shannon Söderlund - bassist, guitarist, songwriter

TINO - rapper, songwriter, performer

Greg Owens - guitarist, singer/songwriter

Treneti - vocalist, bassist, songwriter, producer

Megan Fiely - abstract artist, recovering musician

OriSoaring - multi-instrumentalist classically trained on saxophone, songwriter

If you missed any of these, I encourage you to revisit the interviews at the links.  Listen to the music, look at the artwork, connect with the artists on social media.

If you don't feel like reading the story, but are curious to hear the song, please scroll WAY down to the end of this entry, and there will be a link for you.

The Who & Why & What

Some very dear friends were going to move away.  This wasn't the kind of move where the prospect of never seeing them for the rest of my life was a possibility (although in the midst of a pandemic now, who knows), but this move was far enough away that visits would be few and far between.  So, as one does, I was considering a gift.  Here's the problem... gift giving is hard for me, more so in a situation where distance is involved.  Food/drink gifts, while delicious, don't last very long.  I don't have the wherewithal to come up with practical household gifts, and besides, they were already settled in a home, they were just going to a different home and ostensibly bringing their stuff with them.  Not being able to turn my brain off at night is a nearly quotidian issue for me, and many nights the question of what kind of gift to give was the source of my insomnia.  What could I - a generally useless and insignificant being - possibly give someone without it being hackneyed or trite?  Hey, I write songs.  How about a bespoke song?  That's unique and that's sincere, which means the proper sentiment gets across no matter how awful it ends up being.  Ok, problem solved, now to work...

The Where

I knew the destination of the move.  That being the case, I did more reading about the location than I'd like to admit, looking for extra details that I might be able to shoehorn into a song.  Relevant lyrics from the song:

Say hello to the Badlands
Prairie dogs and Minuteman
Needles in the Black Hills
Porcupines with their quills

Say hello to the Big Bird

I'm not going to spell the place out to you, I'm going to depend on your profound knowledge of geography and history - or conversely, your Google skills - to tell you The Where.

The How

Brainstorming sessions. Writing text.  Editing text into lyrics.  

Deciding on a mood.  Well, it's somewhat melancholy, but hey, they're not dying - at least not any faster than the rest of us are - and we very well might cross paths again.  Ok then, minor key for the verse, then have a pre-chorus that modulates from minor to major, then major key in the chorus in order to give that optimistic and hopeful feeling.  Settled.  Pick the chords.  No, not that one.  Yes, that one.  Ok.  Chords.... find a melody.  Agonize over the piano at finding a melody.  Have a look at those lyrics.  Oh, that's not good enough, and that won't work with the melody.  Edit the lyrics again.  Gently massage the lyrics and the melody until they are able to combine.

Back to the lyrics.  How do I say "I love you and I will miss you" without explicitly saying those words?  We're writing songs here, need to be artistic and just a tiny bit oblique.  Ok, well, the general purpose of the song is as a goodbye present, how about making that the theme?  Enter my interest in etymology.  (If you think that word should contain an "n", well, that really bugs me.)  The word "Goodbye" literally means "God be with you"... over the centuries English has shortened that four word farewell into one seven letter word.  Ok now I have my chorus hook.

Goodbye means God be with you
God be with you as you go
Goodbye is temporary
Just until the next hello

The When

There is more than one When.

The first... well, there was a moving day.  I wanted to have the song finished, recorded, and gifted by moving day.  I finished the song probably a week before the departure, as far as the final first draft.... then spent time messing around with the arrangement or the lyrics, not liking the edits, revising back to the original idea, pruning here and there again... yeah, it's a process.  By no means am I an engineer, but I recorded the song at home the way I do all of my demos... I even threw on some vocal harmonies.  I bounced it to mp3, and emailed it to my friends on the day they left.  Mission accomplished.

The other When.

I was putting songs together to take to Patrick Himes at Reel Love Recording Company in February 2019, in preparation for tracking on my second solo album.  "Goodbye", well, I didn't hate it.  It kept growing on me.  I thought it had potential given the right instrumentation and production.  I brought it with me, along with a bunch of other songs on pre-production day.  It survived the initial cut down... and as tracking started on a few songs and an album began to take shape, I ended up thinking that this one absolutely HAD to be on it.

There were obstacles.  I wrote this song on piano, but I do not have the piano chops to do it justice.  Patrick plays piano - because Patrick plays everything - but he had done that previously on "Convalesce" (from Defacing the Moon), was already playing acoustic guitar and pump organ on this one, and I wanted the chance to work with another talented musician who I admire.  I decided to ask Nathan Peters.  You might know him from such bands as Vinyl Dies,  Lioness, TV Queens, and the legendary Captain Of Industry. Nathan so kindly said yes, and between the chord chart and my very very low quality home recording, was able to figure out what the song needed from the piano part.

Ah, the bass part.  Well, I wrote the song on piano, and was unable to come up with an accompanying bass part that I thought was good enough.  I reached out to Eric Cassidy for ideas.  He had a great idea, and was kind enough to record a video of himself playing the idea slowly enough that I could learn it.  One problem, it involved a quick note change that required holding a chord shape for the change... this type of thing is baby easy for guitarists - and for bass players that are much more talented than me - but I don't often play chords, and when I do, I certainly don't slide around from chord to chord.  Great idea, how to execute cleanly?  It turns out that I couldn't execute it cleanly.  Every time I would play it, I'd either mess up the chord shape on the slide, or make too much fret noise, or not have all of the notes held well enough so that one of them wouldn't sound muddy.  Here's where the studio magic comes in... I played the root note of the chords, then we used overdubs for the harmony notes.  I'm not ashamed to admit it, I'm just not good enough to do it another way, it is what it is.  We got the sound we needed to get.

The vocals.  Take after take after take.  When flat, try again.  When sharp, try again.  My verse harmonies worked out ok.  Patrick had a fantastic idea for an additional harmony in the verse that I hadn't considered... after he sang it for me a few times so I could get it, I went and recorded that as well.  What we have now are really nice harmonies in the verse with three parts, and all of the parts are me.

(I feel I should mention and thank community drummer Brian Hoeflich here, but make clear that there was no obstacle whatsoever as far as his part is concerned.  He did - as per usual - excellent work.)

The Summary

"Goodbye" is track 3 on Anxious Inventions & Fictions.  (If you have the Deluxe Version on CD, it is track 11.)  I am proud of it.  I said what I needed to say, which is the main point of writing songs.  The recording sounds clean, and makes me seem like a much more talented musician than I actually am.  Sure, I didn't actually HAVE to professionally record this song... but I thought the song was good enough to deserve it, and the folks I gifted it to deserve to hear it at its full potential instead of only the horrible version I did at home.

Click here to listen to "Goodbye" on the platform of your choice.

Normally I schedule my blog post topics a few weeks out, and even write them as far in advance as I can... but that didn't work out recently.  My mental health issues - which I have written about before - are giving me quite the pummeling recently, and my ability to be focused and remotely organized is suffering.  Here are some current random thoughts.

•  I'm watching baseball tonight.  My favorite baseball team is in the National League Championship Series for the first time in a long time.  The last time they actually won a World Series was my senior year of high school.  Yes, I'm that old.  The responsibility for my love of just about every single possible sport belongs squarely to my late father, though, with the exception of Ohio State, I was never a fan of his favorite teams.  (This is a good thing, because he was a lifelong Browns fan, and that's a thing that brought him no small amount of anguish over the years.)  Baseball has a special place in my heart, and is my favorite sport to watch in person.\

• Not sleeping well is causing me to be in a near-constant state of exhaustion, which is surely leading me to an early death.  Last night, I turned in at a very reasonable hour, and actually fell asleep... only to wake up after a couple of hours.  By the time I managed to look at the clock, it was around 1:40, but my wife says she noticed me being awake and disturbed around 12:30.  I was awake most of the rest of the night, which was no good, because I had a morning online training session for my corporate job (indie rock does not pay the bills), and I kind of needed to be able to think clearly and focus for that.  No bueno.  If there is any bright side here, I managed to write a song between the hours of 3 and 4 in the morning, and I don't hate it yet.

• I might write a series of musings on love at some point, much like I did this year with a series on dreams.  I tend to develop a certain amount of affection for anyone with whom I have ever had a particularly meaning conversation, and for the people I have known the longest, that tends to run deeper.  Of course, there are people who one loves because one decides to, and people who one no longer loves because one decides not to, but for me, most of all that isn't very voluntary.  I've been thinking about this more recently because some of my classmates from way way back in my youth have been dealing with assorted types of life adversity, and one of the decent things about social media is the ability for us to know some of these things.  I've recently been feeling a mix of being heartbroken for them while also in awe of their resilient spirit and perseverance.