Last night's gig, April 9

Last night at the Heathman was pretty awesome. The room was packed, the tunes were fun, and the vibe was great.

The ensemble was an interesting mix of old and new players:

On drums was Ken Ollis, and he was rock steady as always. He really gets my music and I feel so comfortable when he’s supporting me at the drum set. Just last night we remembered our first gig – back in May 2008 at Bauman Auditorium. Almost 2 years of gigging! He’s a great drummer, and he doesn’t mind when I pepper him with questions about the music industry. Plus, his original compositions are brilliant. I keep bugging him to do another performance of some poetry he set to music. I forget the name of it, but he performed it with his wife (she was the singer) last summer, and I’d love to hear it again, plus invite all my music-minded friends that would really appreciate his style.

On bass was Willy Barber, and I just met him last night. Usually people are surprised to find out that jazz groups often don’t rehearse before gigs, even when someone is totally new to the group. That’s just the way it goes in jazz sometimes. Willy brought his electric bass, which was a unique change to the usual line-up, but I thought it sounded great. And when he took solos, his fingers really flew. I wished I could have watched him play, but I had to face the piano. Well, at least I got to be the closest person to his amp.

Our guest artist was Lucia Conrad, on violin. She is a classical player, so she had taken some time to prepare some really nice solos over the chord changes. She also threw in some double-stops and trills. I have always felt that jazz violin is such a great fit for our group. It was truly a pleasure to have her in the ensemble.

In attendance were the loyal regulars (you know who you are) and a bunch of new faces. Plus, a friend I knew in high school was there with her husband (thanks to good ol’ Facebook). I hadn’t seen her since high school, which is unbelievably half my lifetime ago. Sigh. It was fun to reconnect.

Thanks to everyone who came out to hear us, it was a great night. I hope to see you at our next gig, May 14 at the Heathman.

And.... I'm laughing at myself

So today’s meeting with producer Dean Baskerville was fantastic. We listened to all the tunes on the demo, listened to some tracks by my “influence” artists (Madeleine Peyroux, Norah Jones, Sarah Bareilles, and dare I say… Colbie Caillat?), and did some dreaming for each song. We talked about possible instrumentation, changing keys in some songs, players we could use, and just an overall feel and approach to the project. I can already tell that working with Dean is going to take my songs to the next level.

For example, he mentioned a studio drummer that has something like 15 different snare drums, so he can create just the right sound for a particular song. What? I thought a snare was a snare.

And, he was gutsy enough to give me some constructive criticism on my singing – which I appreciate probably more than he realizes. He has a great ear, great ideas, and is honestly just a nice person to work with.

So… why am I laughing at myself? Well, as we were listening to Madeliene Peyroux and commenting on her warm, laid-back guitar style, Dean asked me if I played guitar. I said, “Well, yeah, nothing fancy, but the basics.” He asked me to try some guitar playing on the tracks, so he could see what he has to work with. So tonight, I busted out ye old guitar.

I did some playing around on the guitar with my songs, but it sounded pretty campy. I get stuck when any chord with a flat in it comes up. What the heck was I thinking when I told him I could play guitar? I am a retired Young Life song leader, so I’m pretty good at songs like “One Tin Soldier” and “Closer to Fine”. I can even play a decent “More than words”, the rock band Extreme’s hit from 1990 – complete with the little knock-knock on the guitar body.

Even though I wasn’t all that pleased with what I was coming up with, I figured I could try at least one song. I fired up Garage Band on the MacBook and attempted my first guitar track on “Words or not”. I say attempted because I couldn’t make it through the whole song. My fingers hurt too much from the strings and my lack of guitar-playing callouses. Then I listened to it with my piano track muted, with just the partial guitar track and my vocal track playing….

And…. I’m laughing at myself. It sounds like a pretty good singer with a drunk guitar player. The rhythm is all uneven, there are these weird twangs and twongs when I pluck strings too hard, and this AWFUL sliding sound when I move my fingers up and down the fretboard. Plus, you can hear the guitarist laughing at herself in the track as she misses note after note.

So I don’t really think the idea of me playing guitar on the record is going to go anywhere. I know what I’d like to hear from a guitar, I just don’t know how to do it myself. Good thing there are plenty of talented guitarists I can hire, because if it were up to me, this project would be sunk.

Sheesh, laughing at yourself sounding absolutely ridiculous on a guitar is some good fun.

A young-ish mom's journey through CD production

The journey continues towards FINALLY getting the new CD done. It took me awhile to finish the first task: a demo recording of all the songs to be included. I was able to do this at home on my trusty little Mac book with Garage band. Which is why it took so long to complete! Although it was only a demo, I didn’t think the squeals of my 2 year old or the crashes of my 4 year old’s race cars would be all that helpful in the background. So on the occasional evenings that I would have enough energy left over to be creative after chasing them around all day, I worked on the demo. And it is done and in the hands of an official CD producer – Dean Baskerville.

This is my first time working with a producer. Dean has come highly recommended to me by many Portland jazz greats. (And he was a recording engineer for 5 of Sheryl Crow’s songs, including the song “Soak Up the Sun”, how awesome is that!) He has listened to the tracks, and we’re all set to meet this week to discuss the next step, whatever that is. I really have no idea.

So… you may be wondering, why do I consider myself a “young-ish” mom? Well, I think I’m still fairly young (in my early-ish 30s… hmm, I’m sure using “ish” a lot – a great way to be vague), but I read recently in a music industry book that artists in their mid-30s may be too old to capture much attention in the music industry. Which was crazy to me, because as far as I’ve heard, musicians only get better at their craft as they grow older. Maybe the youth-oriented focus applies mostly to the teenage pop genre. I sure hope so.

Besides, my little kiddos keep me young – they bring out the kid in me! But why does motherhood also seem to cause gray hairs to poke out my head from time to time? Well, at least blonde highlights are good at hiding those.

So the journey continues. Now that the production of this CD is out of my house and in recording studios, the pace should pick up. That is, unless a 2-year old squeal becomes a necessary effect in one of the tracks.