distributing Going Away in Brazil

It being my music. I brought a bunch of copies of Going Away with me and I've been giving them to some of the people I meet here, both gringos and Brazilians. It seems weird to say "hey, want to buy my album" to people I just met. It didn't cost much to make the copies and this helps get the music out there. I'll be more hard-nosed about charging for them when I start gigging back in NC. Some people have been very excited by the CD and others less so. I'm just happy to share it with some of the new friends I've made.

BBC

Does anyone else find that listening to BBC news makes you want to get bloody smashed, curl up in bed and not get up until noon?

(no, mom, I'm not going to actually do it).

Time to tune it out and listen to some positive (but not sappy) music. Eric Bibb comes to mind.

death of Utah Phillips

When I read the news I almost cried. I listened to the two albums he did with Ani and bought We Have Fed You for a Thousand Years (which I'd listened to before) on iTunes. I know he'd have preferred I pirated it, but I wanted it right then and like supporting Philo (the label).

I disagree with on a number of things, but I appreciate his dedication to the good fight and his wit often succinctly laid bear truths about politics you'll not find in the pages of most political science journals.

Lisa has a post here. Democracy Now! has an interview here.

I saw him in 2001 as part of Winterfolk I think the festival was called. I also saw David Carter and Tracy Grammer play: he died of a heart attack the following year.

I think the first time I ever heard the song "Joe Hil"l was Utah's recording. It's about how Joe lives on in song and struggle. The same is of course true of Utah. As another great folk-signer/agitator said "take it easy but take it."

free Jonathan Byrd recording

He's a local singer-songwriter I really like. You can download a 5-song live recording for free on his site. It's good--I've been listening to it pretty regularly lately, partly from getting some of the songs stuck in my head.

Only 1049 copies left!

My CD came today. I sold one to Amanda next door. Wow. So I have all these people I'm supposed to mail them to. The site for the album isn't up--I need to do some work on that. Since people are leaving town I'm thinking the actually release party will be in the fall, and I'll just pre-release it to people now. Or maybe I need to call it something else if the CD is already out. Anyhow, it looks really good and I'm very happy with it. I officially get my MA on Sunday (I won't be walking since I'm not actually going anywhere), so it has been a season of finally getting things done.

Billy Bragg = amazing

I've had his Reaching the Converted for years, as well as the Mermaid Avenue albums and some odds and ends, but I recently downloaded Must I Paint You A Picture: The Essential Billy Bragg (which cost me under $10.00 on emusic.com--omitting things I already had--instead of over $30 on iTunes...).

So I've had a few of his songs stuck in my head, one being New England. All the lyrics are amazing as is the earnest minimalist delivery with just moderately distorted electric guitar backing him up, but this verse has stuck with me the most:

I saw two shooting stars last night
I wished on them but they were only satellites
Is it wrong to wish on space hardware?
I wish, I wish, I wish you'd care

Album in hand May 6

Just got a call that the order is shipped and I should have 1050 copies delivered to me on May 6. I've always said Tuesdays are special. Need to see if I can squeeze in a release party before people leave for the summer or if I should wait until fall but sell them to friends before then... Probably better off doing the latter.

in hindsight it was inevitable...

I just dropped my pick into the whole of my guitar while playing "Stuck in my Head Like A Pick in My Guitar." Probably won't be the last time, either...

UPDATE 4/16/08: To be clear, this post is to be read in the most literal fashion. As in, I dropped my plastic pick in my guitar while playing the song, not as some funky simile (which, of course, the song was).

How many songs does that make?

I've been at 30-something for some time, but I've lost count of how many songs I've written. So here it goes.

1998

1. Alone

1999

2. Quiet Desperation
3. A Snowball's Chance in Hell
4. An Incredibly Bitter Song
5. Agnostic Prophet
6. Log in Your Eye
7. Crappy Protest Song about Clinton [new title]
8. The That Girl's Got a Boyfriend Blues

2000

9. Natalie Portman*

[those, minus quiet desperation, make the first CD I put together]

10. Amazing Girl
11. Rambl'n' On*
12. Bagel
13. Here's Number Three
14. Liberty Street*

[Ecuador]
15. Los Niños de la Calle
16. Birthday
17. Weird Random Song Whose Title I Forget
18. 419
19. Election Blues
20. Angry White Man
21. Back to the States*
22. Mostly I'm Just Lonely*
23. The That Girl's Got a Boyfriend Blues II
24. Song For My Generation

2001

25. Untitled
26. Untitled Love Song #2
27. T.S.G.F.M.*
28. Going Away*
29. Tonight I Wish I'd Never Met You
30. A Tuesday in September*

2002

31. September 10, 2001 [about being shot down by someone I liked, not politics]
32. Happy Thought

2003

33. Unprepared
34. Drunken Fratboy*
35. Bon House

2004

36. Ballad of Ben Linder*
37. Toy Aisle*
38. Bad for Me

2005

39. Sith Lov'n'
40. Aunt Sally

2006

41. Katie*

2007

42. Why Does it Have to Be So Hard?

2008

43. By The Way
44. Stuck in My Mind Like A Pick Stuck in My Guitar
45. Even Dook Passed the DSP

Wow, so I guess if we include the bad ones I've passed the 40-mark. But there's about half a dozen I wouldn't mind never seeing the light of day again. Still, I clearly already have enough material for my second CD, even without including any covers. But I'm getting ahead of myself...

*= On the CD that's about to come out.

EDIT 3/7/08: Forgot two songs so I added them and renumbered.

EDIT 5/1/08: Remembered the last Ecuador song, and added the song I just finished.

Stuck in My Mind Like a Pick in My Guitar

Wrote it Saturday morning. 12-bar blues, up-tempo. The night before Ben was trying to get the pick out of my guitar and the idea came to me.

Chorus: Stuck in my mind like a pick in my guitar
I toss and turn but still there you are
Stuck in my mind like a pick in my guitar

I ask myself, "Russ what for?"
When it comes to picks, you got plenty more
I ask myself, "Russ what for?"

For all I know the pick might be wrong
Not what I need to play my song
For all I know the pick might be wrong

I guess I just can't take the sound
Of you all rattl'n' round
Yeah, I guess I just can't take the sound

One of these days the damn thing's gonna fall out
Crossed off my list of things to worry about
One of these days the damn thing's gonna fall out

Wait too long and you're gonna find
That you're so far from my mind
Wait too long, that's what you'll find

Facebook group

Katie was kind enough to create a Facebook group Going Away to promote the album, since I deactivated my account a while back (I made a new account with no friends for accessing content or looking up contact information). If you're on Facebook it'd be lovely if you'd join.

CD cover!

Here it is!

misc musical things

I'm listening to Back Porch Music while making the required changes to my thesis two months after my defense. The problem was it's a small amount of work so I kept putting it off but no more. Anyhow, they had a caller x gets free tickets, and I won them to this show. Who should I take?

I just put two more songs from the album up on my MySpace page (myspace.com/rbt1979). I dedicate the virtual single to Jamie Moshin, since it's the two songs he always requested at Willamette: "Natalie Portman" and "Mostly I'm Just Lonely."

I think my wrist is slowly getting better since I injured it (repetitive motion injury from checking groceries) almost 7 years ago. I'd largely given up playing finger style, but was playing Bob Dylan's "Boots of Spanish Leather" recently and noticed that if I concentrate on keeping my wrist straight instead of letting it collapse toward the guitar it does okay. I certainly wouldn't be able to do a whole set of finger style, but the occasional song with most songs flat picked may be doable. Exciting. I really love finger picking with the steady drone of the alternating thumb. I've also noticed that certain finger patterns wear me out more than others.

I took down the old music page. Juan-Pablo, who designed the album cover and CD label is working on a website with the same theme. It'll have extensive liner notes, including lyrics and stories about each song. I'll post the link when it's up. I hope to be getting it duplicated in the next couple weeks (!). I'm also going to make a new page for self recorded demos of songs not on the album. I'll keep you posted about all of this.

UPDATE 3/25: You can hear some Punch Brothers songs on their MySpace page. I guess they describe themselves as acoustic/bluegrass/classical.

ready to master!

I recorded at the Rubber Room over a year ago (see this post). Adjusting the volume, cutting out silences, putting in fade-in and fade-outs, and typing up the lyrics was only a few hours work, but I managed to drag it out over a year (I may actually need to type up lyrics to one more song). It comes to 11 songs, at 37.8 minutes. I've long said albums should be at least 40 minutes long (especially given that a CD will hold twice that) and now I have to eat my words.

Now I need to figure out what order to put the songs in. I'll play with it for a little while.

I have a good lead on someone to do the design and Stephan gave me a couple suggestions about duplication, so it should actually be out soon. If you want to pre-order please send me an email.

"I'd like to check you for ticks"

That just may be the least sexy line I've ever heard in a song, or at least one that gets radio play.

The things I run across in my futile effort to better understand white working class culture... Now I change the station when that one comes on.

The song is by Brad Paisley, in case anyone wants to rush out and buy the CD.

Slow Progress on CD

Working on minor editing to the songs I recorded in September. Just cutting out some silence at the start and end and making the volume fade a bit at the end. Doesn't take that much time, but I keep putting it off and doing one here and there. I'm about halfway through. Annie is going to help with the liner notes, once I get her some text. I'd like to do a CD release gig when everything is put together. I need to look into the place I want to do it (Skylight Exchange). I have a place that can duplicate them for a good price. I should probably start getting pre-orders. Email me if you want to be on the list.

As for a title of the album, I was thinking of making it self-titled. I still have a bit of a complex about it not being perfect, like it's still not quite a "real" CD, but maybe I should just get over that.

Best Western!

So, we figured we'd have no trouble finding a place a little past Mobile, Alabama (and thus passed up the first set of motels right out of town because they were more expensive chains). Bad assumption. We were on Interstate 65 and I (the driver) was fading quickly. Each of the blue signs with lodging for the next exit were empty. I was starting to think of the song The Next Best Western by Richard Shindell (by the way, I heard he'll be paying in Carrboro this spring). And then we came to Monroeville which had a Best Western right of the exit with an inexpensive, clean room (with internet even!). Life is good.

New Orleans and the conference were good. I'll have pictures up eventually.

my new MySpace page

I've uploaded two songs to my new MySpace page to provide a sneak peek at my new CD (out early 2007). The "A-side" is T.S.G.F.M. (That Sexy Girl From Mississippi). The "B-side" is "Away." I associate these songs with each other because I wrote them at the same time--summer 2001 when I was staying with my dad in Alaska.

Per mom's request I've brought back the links to my other blogs in the upper right hand corner of the sidebar. I've also added links to my other web locations, most of which I've mentioned in previous posts. I may do a post detailing what each of these sites is, but I've had enough computer for the moment.

Revolution Rock at Wendy's

I was eating lunch at the Wendy's in downtown Carrboro today (and, yes, I should know better) when The Clash's "Revolution Rock" came over their system. The absurdity struck me but also how few people would notice or care. It reminded me of this experience from earlier this year.

Tower Records goes out of business

Good web only piece on The Nation here. People blame digital music and the iPod, but it's not that simple:

...the CD isn't really dead. In fact, in the first half of 2006, CD sales still accounted for nearly three-quarters of all retail music sales, out-earning digital sales better than six to one. And despite the growing popularity of online music sellers like Amazon.com, nine out of every ten CDs purchased so far this year were sold in brick-and-mortar stores. Just not Tower stores.

Over the last decade, big-box retailers like Target, Best Buy and especially Wal-Mart have accounted for a steadily increasing share of CD sales, and by 2003 Wal-Mart had become the largest music seller in the world. David Porter, who oversees music merchandise for Wal-Mart's American stores, estimates that the company today controls roughly one-quarter of the US market. Succeeding where Tower has failed in recent years, Wal-Mart and its ilk have extended their low-cost business model to music retailing, using their clout to bully record labels and selling CDs that would go for $15 to $18 at Tower for less than $10. Wal-Mart has even established an online presence, undercutting iTunes at 88 cents per song for digital downloads.

But the good deals come at a price. Although stock size can vary by store, a typical Tower carries somewhere in the neighborhood of 60,000 CD titles (the larger ones can stock up to 40,000 more); while an average Wal-Mart, for which CDs make up only a tiny fraction of overall sales, carries 5,000 or fewer. Greater size means greater diversity as well--one industry executive estimates that Tower sells as many as 100,000 titles that cannot be found in the stores of any other chain....

For fans who enjoy rifling through Tower's inexhaustible collection, the prospect of a Wal-Mart-style makeover for the music industry is daunting; for smaller record labels--particularly those that specialize in "niche" genres like classical, jazz or roots music--the loss of Tower's combination of size and diversity is something even more dire. Tower's market share in specialty genres approaches 50 percent, and in some cases Tower can account for as much as 25 percent of an independent label's overall business.

So the divide is not just between digital and CDs, but also big vs. small and corporate vs. independent.

Back to MySpace?

On campus waiting for articles to print. The printer needed to warm up because all sane people are taking the day off.

I used to have a MySpace page with my music on it and I deleted it because MySpace annoys me. I currently manage a MySpace page for my folk singer friend Stephan Smith. I go on every Friday to approve people who've added him as a friend, reply to messages, etc. It seems as though every musician is on there. So, as I've been mixing the songs for my new CD (see this post) I've been wondering if I should create a new page to help promote it. I could use it to distribute a free "single" with two songs--the "A-side" and the "B-side."

Thoughts?

More on digital music

A few days ago I wrote a post comparing the costs and advantages of buying a CD vs. buying an album on iTunes. A few things I neglected to mention:

• For most people CD's are more convenient. You can play them on any stereo in the house without any additional technology. This isn't a problem for me since my place is 500 sq. feet and my only stereo is attached to my iBook, but it is for other people. Also, playing mp3's in the car requires and iPod and an iTrip or adapter.
• Plus if people don't back up their data they can lose all their music with a hard drive crash. It's appalling how bad people are about backing up their data, but that's another topic entirely.
• You can buy digital music even cheaper than iTunes. I just signed up for eMusic again. You have to sign up for a plan, but it comes out to around $.25 per song. The basic plan is 40 songs a month for $9.99--but hurry because they're changing the plans on the 21st (Tuesday) and the basic plan will only be 30/month. That's still cheap, but if you sign up now you'll be locked in. You can try it for free with 25 free downloads, and if you like it you'll be locked in. If you don't you can quit without spending anything. They tend to mostly have independent music. There's some overlap with iTunes. For example, I could have gotten the Dan Bern album from them. I look at it this way: For the price of that one CD I can download six ten-song albums...

Three times is harm

I love Back Porch Music (out-of-town folks can stream online Friday and Saturday 8-12, Sunday 8-11 Eastern Time). It's one of the main reasons I'm a member of NPR. But it drives me crazy when the DJ does that thing where he plays three versions of the same folk song in a row. Yes, it's neat how many different ways people can interpret a song, but at some level it's still playing the same song three times in a row and it drives me batty.

OK, time to write a paper responding to Fighting for American Manhood by Kristin L. Hoganson. The subtitle is "How Gender Politics Provoked the Spanish-American and Philippine-American Wars." It's nice to see this stuff is getting let off the Women's Studies reservation and into general course work (it comes up quite a bit in the welfare states class, oddly enough, as well as in Intro to European Politics, which I TA).

Dan Bern's New Album

So I picked it up the other day. It's called Breathe. It's good, but I like Fleeting Days, New American Language and his self-titled albums better. Someone wrote it takes time to grow on you, so I'll have to give it some more listens before my final verdict.

I decided to support my local CD store (School Kids Records) and it came to $16.04 with tax. I imported it into iTunes and will listen to it via my computer (plugged into my stereo) as I do with all my music.

The iTunes music store has it for $9.90. So I paid an extra $6.14, for which I got the following additional benefits:

• Access to the album at full CD quality (even though I import it at the same bitrate as iTMS downloads I could play the CD or import it at a better bitrate)
• The physical CD--I can play it in my car without burning it
• The CD case, art, liner notes, etc.
• Support for a local business
• Support for local government services via sales tax
• Possibly having Dan Bern collect more in royalties. I don't know. I bought him a beer once, so I feel that supplements any royalties he's collected from my purchases of his CDs...
  

Is all that worth paying 62% more for an album? Why don't I just get it on iTunes and donate a little bit of money to the local government, etc.?

The internet saves me again

Wanting to put up a shelf in my dining area for kitchen-related stuff. I lost the directions. It only took me 10 minutes to find them online, even though I didn't know the brand going into it.

I Don't Understand Willie Nelson

I like his music and his politics (environmentalism, campaigned for Kucinich, Farm Aid). His song What Ever Happened to Peace on Earth? is great. Worth reading the entire thing, but here's a segment:

So I guess it'’s just
Do unto others before they do it to you
Let'’s just kill 'em all and let God sort em’ out
Is this what God wants us to do

(Repeat Bridge)
And the bewildered herd is still believing
Everything we'’ve been told from our birth
Hell they won'’t lie to me
Not on my own damn TV
But how much is a liar's word worth
And whatever happened to peace on earth

Now you probably won't hear this on your radio
Probably not on your local TV
But if there's a time, and if you're ever so inclined
You can always hear it from me
How much is one picker'’s word worth
And whatever happened to peace on earth?

When I heard about him getting an award for Beer for My Horses a few years ago, which he recorded with Toby Keith that seemed weird to me given Toby Keith's politics. In Courtesy of the Red, White and Blue he sings:

Oh, justice will be served and the battle will rage:
This big dog will fight when you rattle his cage.
An' you'll be sorry that you messed with the U.S. of A.
'Cos we'll put a boot in your ass, it's the American way.

Hey, Uncle Sam put your name at the top of his list,
And the Statue of Liberty started shaking her fist.
And the eagle will fly and it's gonna be hell,
When you hear Mother Freedom start ringing her bell.
And it'll feel like the whole wide world is raining down on you.
Ah, brought to you, courtesy of the red, white and blue.

I recently quoted this as the introduction to a paper I gave in my graduate history seminar on the (mistitled) Spanish-American War. I compared it to jingoistic songs from that era (the assignment was to analyze the lyrics from a stack of sheet music from around 1898).

Last night I was driving and the local country station played Beer for My Horses. I'd never heard it before. The title sounds like maybe it's a nice gentle song. So I was surprised to hear this:

Grandpappy told my pappy, back in my day, son
A man had to answer for the wicked that he done
Take all the rope in Texas
Find a tall oak tree, round up all of them bad boys
Hang them high in the street for all the people to see that

(Chorus)
Justice is the one thing you should always find
You got to saddle up your boys
You got to draw a hard line
When the gun smoke settles we'll sing a victory tune
We'll all meet back at the local saloon
We'll raise up our glasses against evil forces
Singing whiskey for my men, beer for my horses

We got too many gangsters doing dirty deeds
We've got too much corruption, too much crime in the streets
It's time the long arm of the law put a few more in the ground
Send 'em all to their maker and he'll settle 'em down
You can bet he'll set 'em down 'cause

Kucinich voters for capital punishment and frontier justice?

Sometime I'll write about why I listen to the country station.

my Last.fm page

Visit to see what I've been listening to. You can sign up and have it do the same thing for what you listen to. You can tag music, meet people with similar taste in music, and have it play you a personalized web radio station. All for free. For more info see

www.last.fm

I found out about this through an article in MacWorld.

Carrboro Music Festival

I went to this today and it was awesome. So glad I live in Carrboro.

Recorded Today

Recorded 9 songs and the quality is awesome. Together with the live track I'm putting on it should be about 35 mintues.

I recoreded:

TSGFM
Ballad of Ben Linder
Back to the States
Going Away
A Tuesday in September
Natlie Portman
Toy Aisle
A Snowball's Chance in Hell
Rambl'n' On

Need to edit them a little to cut off fat, fade out, etc. Then I'll have a real CD!