A New Year and a forgotten blog

Hello you guys. Are you still with me? Thanks...

We're about 15 days until the 2011 FAWM season begins. February is indeed album writing month this time. I told you (I think) that my band, Country Grunge, broke up. That was way back in May of last year. I've been writing music sporadically and I participated in 2010 50/90 (failed only got about 6 songs this time).

Recently, I met a guy who's wife works with my wife, and lives on the next street over from us! His name is Cris and he's a purdy-good drummer with a lovely vintage Gretch kit. He's been out of the loop for a bit, but he's a total trooper, going along with recording weirdness from me. He has a little tiny studio, and access to an ADAT studio 40 minutes drive from here. Our first order of business was to record "Lyin' Eyes" by the Eagle. I'm still not quite sure why, but we did it and it sounds pretty good. I recorded the bass and guitar and lead parts before he got here. I had told him that I could only record two tracks simultaneously with my M-Audio Fastrack Pro. So we had two options: record the performance with one mic, and record each drum sound on a separate track; bass drum, snare, hi-hat, etc. - which is what we did. Sounds great! He will eventual get triggers for each piece so we can create midi files of his drum beats.

anyway.... It's not that I've forgotten this blog. I see the link for it everyday on my webpage and on my bookmarks toolbar. New years rez: I WILL write in my blog. (not that anyone reads this anyway, but whatevs....

Love and Rockets my friends.

A New Site? Hmmmm

I've created yet another site. This one a direct result of my daughter Chloe asking if I'd ever heard of Weebly.com. I had not. So I went there and saw it's a place where you can create a free website or pay a little for a little more functionality.

This is what I did. http://phylo.weebly.com/index.html

It was pretty easy, and I send Chloe a link to what I did. Then I just kept on going. That was fun.

Long Awaited Update?

Hello Kind Reader,

It's been quite a while (again) that I've written anything here. But, here's what's going on lately...

50/90 is currently on-going and I'm having great difficulties getting to the tasks of creating music. I think it's that I feel a little guilty being out of work. You know, "How can you put time into that when you have a job to find?". I'm trying to work out all the demons and get something written though. Check out my latest efforts here.

A couple of non-musical items:

My lovely daughter, Chelsea, flew off to New York City yesterday to pursue a career in stand-up comedy and acting. She had Trader Joe's transfer her to the new Manhattan store and has a temp. place to stay until she finds a room. Watch for her, she will successful!

My friend Grego got a job at Nike up in Oregon and left yesterday to start work and find a home to buy.

Everyone's leaving!

So here's what I'm thinking: I've been toying with the idea of starting voice acting classes and try to get into voice overs. I already have a studio and many connections in the entertainment biz, so this wouldn't be too much of a stretch. There is a ton of competition out there, but you never know. I'll let you know how it goes...

My QR Code

Hey there. Just scan this code with your smart phone and it'll take you right to my website.

Birthday Movie for my dad

This is a video I'm working on for my Step-dad's 80th birthday. The music is one of my instrumental tunes called 'Sunday Afternoon'. Thanks to all for the great pictures - and thanks to those who ignored our requests, but let me take what I wanted from your FB Pages.

Lucky Man

Every once in a while, I get these really lovely little inspirational stories from Derek Sivers, who is more and more becoming a hero of mine. He is probably best know as the founder of CD Baby. Lately, he just does what he wants in an entrepreneur kind of way. A music business folk hero.

All of his stories and ideas really gets me thinking of all the wonderful things that have happened to me when I decided to put some time into music. I am truly a lucky man.

It started for me way back in 1993. I was on the toilet reading the latest copy of Acoustic Guitar Magazine. There was a small ad near the back of the magazine for Bread and Roses, a small non-profit organization that provides live entertainment to folks in institutions. Up until then, I had just played guitar and sung for myself and family and friends. I felt that I needed to take things to the next level and getting a little gig with B+R might just do it. I answered the ad and got an audition. I couldn't believe it! On the day of the audition, I took the day off work - I wouldn't have been able to think. I was really nervous, but I practiced those cover tunes until my fingers hurt.

When I got to the Bread and Roses offices in Mill Valley, they put me in a conference room at a very large table. The two interviewers sat on one side, and I sat on the other. I played those tunes so well, but my nerves got the best of me and they could see it. So they said, "At this time, I don't think we can use you." My heart sank. Then, they said, "But your enthusiasm makes us want to use you in some way, would you be interested in 'hosting' other musicians at these shows".

So that's what I did for about 3 months - until they had a performer that canceled a show at the last minute. They called and asked if I'd step in, and that's how I started performing at hospital, day care centers, and psych wards around the Bay Area. That was 17 years ago. It was this ongoing gig that inspired me to start writing my own songs.

NOTE: I have been a very lucky man in many other ways as well, all due to my association with Bread and Roses. I have met some pretty amazing folks and been backstage with some notable musical luminaries. Really! Look for those stories next...

Getting Back in The Groove...

...in two ways. First, it's high time I write something on my blog here. I know that the three people who follow this are wondering if I'd ever write again! I have not put finger to key here since we came back from Hawaii. So here we go.

I have been contacted again by a guy that I've worked with before. He's a christian songwriter in North Carolina who seems to like my guitar playing enough to pay me to play on his projects. He's asked me to play a little acoustic lead and another pass with electric lead on a country gospel tune of his. I laid down a first couple takes and sent them along. There was a little noise on the electric track - probably from me standing to close to the computer monitor whilst recording. It's funny, I didn't hear it when I played it back. So I'll redo the electric part tonight. The acoustic part was okay, but I'm still going to redo the key change part of the song again. That was a little tricky. I'll send him a couple new files later on tonight.

I have recorded my two new songs, Earline and Politics By Other Means. Both songs from the last FAWM, I've re-written them and finally laid down some trackage for those. I'm not quite down with either of them yet, although Earline is on my webpage at the very bottom of the page. philbearce.com

That's it for now, kind blog follower. Namaste'