Wednesday

Yesterday was a very full day. I put over 140 miles on the car. I
started out by going to the music store to buy a set of guitar strings
for my acoustic. Elixirs are expensive but they’ll outlast everything
else. I tried extra lights to see how they feel and sound.

Then I drove out to Alburtis for a mixing session at Karl’s. While
waiting for Greg Jones to show up, I strung my guitar with the new
strings. It plays real nice but sounds a little light in the bottom end.
Since my D-18 is a dreadnaught, that actually balances out the sound...
perhaps a little too thin but it’s OK.

Greg arrived and we set to the task of making fixes from the notes we
took at Star City the day before. Great results and we are pleased with
what we’re hearing. I had to leave early so I trusted the last few songs
to Greg and Karl.

I crossed the Valley and went to LA’s house. I loaded my guitar into his
car and he drove us to the Crayola factory. We played a two hour gig
that started at 3:30. It was a teachers’ gathering of some sort. We saw
a type of blizzard; a ???? dragon it was called. It was fun doing a
relaxed gig, playing simple acoustic guitar and fiddle arrangements
instead of the complex stuff we do in Emerald City.

LA drove us back to his home and I got into my car, remembering that I
forgot to grab the neck strap out of my alto saxophone case. I’ve been
sharing one strap between my alto and tenor. So I stopped at West End
Music and bought a cheapie strap. On to Topton and a Pulse rehearsal in
Bill Fenstermacher’s garage. Bob and Rod couldn’t make it so Greg Van
Allen, Bill, and I worked with Rob Stewart. It was Rob’s first rehearsal
with us. We mostly worked on songs where Rob will be playing acoustic
guitar. He has a D-28 "second" that looks and sounds great. It was a
very productive rehearsal. I think that Bob and Rob will be pleasantly
surprised next week when we all get together. The extra guitar and vocal
will be a great boost to the band’s sound. Rob played Greg's "Sticky"
guitar (an electric that Greg put together from a kit) on Brain
Damage/Eclipse, the only song we worked on that Rob wasn't playing acoustic.

Back home, I did a little email and wrote this blog entry. I didn't
upload it until now...