bee better

did i spell sobatical correctly? i used to be the best speller. when i was at st. regis for K through 4th grade, i used to win all the spelling bees, and it would usually come down to me and my friend dustin. i still remember the school wide spelling bee, with all of best spellers from each class. i was in 3rd or 4th grade and we were competing with 8th graders and they were dropping like flies. i thought i had a chance... then the dreaded word came /fl-ah-wur/ and i did not ask for it in a sentence, i quickly reeled off the correct spelling for "flower." god dammit! fuck. she pulled a fast one on me... it was FLOUR. I hated our principle that day.

anyway... on to bigger and better days... i'm over it... somewhat...

i have been off the road for a few weeks now and am gearing up for the final shows of the "school" year. some good colleges, and i believe I have been to all of them before, last Fall, so thats a great omen... a couple specific ones I'm looking forward to are Marquette and Hamline to finish off the season of shows for me...

while i've been in MI, i've been scraping by and slinging food to hungry people at a couple of local establishments. but in the productive category, i've sent a couple of songs to a licensing agency out east to try to get some music from low carb lp placed in tv and film. we'll see what comes of that...

also the ball is officially rolling on a new album. it's been 4.5 years since i have put out a collection of new material. while in the meantime i have posted a variety of demos of new songs and recordings, this has just not done the songs justice... so i met a producer out east, and he's going to help me develop some of the many songs I have written over the past 5 years and we're going to see what comes of it... i get to meet with him and jam it out when I head out east next week, and am looking forward to it.

i've never worked with a producer before. i once was speaking with a local songwriter and singer from detroit sara celina at a bar and she told me how she hired a producer and it cost her a ton of money per song, and I said, "i could never do that" and i hope she didn't take it the wrong way, because i meant that i could never AFFORD that. i was thinking, how could she afford over $1000 per song, what about the studio time, what about other factors, expenses?? AHH, it all sounded so crazy. but in the end, i think there always comes a time when you have to come to terms with yourself as an artist and say, "self, i think someone else might be able to make this better. I've laid the foundation, and i need something to take it to another level. a level of unspecified territory... "

i'm real happy with my past recordings, given the circumstances and the timeframes involved with each of them... but today is a different day and now is the time to put something out there that I can hang my hat on.

and i don't yet have a hat rack...

in other news, i am happy to hear about how tristan prettyman is inspired again in regards to music. i was reading her blogs periodically and she writes some great blogs, and is so honest and true with her feelings and words, and with all she's been through with her major record label, and all that jive, i think she's coming out of hibernation... i once played a show with her before she was signed, at twiggs in SD, and she's really cool and laid back... anyway, she's a solid songwriter and seemed to be a little lost for a while... but i think she's back on her feet... if anyone has time to seek out new music, check out tristan prettyman here on myspace...

piece.

madness i tell you

madness i tell you
sorry for anyone hoping for a profound entry today... i am referring to march madnses. one of my favorite sports times of the year. i look forward to going onto espn.com and filling out my maximum available brackets and trying to best the competition of millions who do the same... iwo ke up today in wichita, ks. played at a school there yesterday afternoon. one time years ago, I was crusin through kansas, and didn't have anything going on that night... and i stopped at wichita state to use some internet in their library. (must have been pre-laptop) and i discovered just minutes later that they would have a big basketball home game going on, so I decided it can't be that hard to get a ticket. so I walked down to the arena, where the hords of people were headed. then to my surprise the game was sold out. so some guy sold me a ticket for like $5. So I went in. by my lonesome and just observed the game. the Shockers started off very strong against northern iowa this night. they were up 10 at halftime. it looked like I was going to witness a sure victory. the shockers sustained their lead well into the second half, but as most sports go, there has to be a comeback. northern iowa started surging and got within 2 points with under 3seconds remaining. but they had to inbound the ball from halfcourt. so as I started my descent from my nosebleed seats I ended up in the corridor area trying to beat the rush nad the place was buzzing. all of a sudden, I just heard complete silence, and masses of people filed quietly out of the various sections. northern iowa hit a miracle halfcourt 3 pointer to win the game by one. at the buzzer.

i was never really into college basketball when I was at WMU. I did go to a few football games. and those were always fun... in retrospect i wish i would have been a better supporter of WMU sports and gone to more games. especially the D.1 hockey games. I played for the club team, and we got to play most of our games at lawson arena, but we didn't get much of the crowds.

side note: if you notice a ton of typos, it's not me, it's this wierd delay of the internet. I'm accessing my home computer remotely right now. anyway.

but i love watching all of these bball games, the NBA doesn't really do it for me, i love making brackets on two different websites, and getting into pools with my friends. (i don't have a workplace pool to enter, cos I don't really have an office).

after i get home asturday iw il lhave over a month off (of travelling) before i get back to my final string of shows in late april-early May. i'm thrilled to have a break from driving, but not thrilled to have a break from playing shows.

Also, in toher news. I may possibly be getting the ball rolling on a new CD. i know i have not put one out since '04, and it's about 3-4 years overdue. but i'm hoping i will be able to do it, and not only that, but do it with a producer for the first time... more news to come on that as things develop. but if you visit this page you will know that i have been putting up tons of songs over the years that are post-Low Carb. i probably have over 40 songs which i would have to narrow down and really put some thought into including on the next album, as I expect a new recording, with a producer to be epic.

also if you've seen a show in the past 2 -3 years you may have heard a bunch of the songs that may be included on the next future record. so i'm pretty psyched about the prospect, but much needs to be worked out in the meatine. m

see that last typo? crazy... that M was wayyy late...

all right, I'll be in des moines playing tomorrow, playing in hays, ks tonight and then back by the weekend...

rockin rolla coca-cola.

subjects (a sort of stream)

so i guess there's no real reason to post this blog, but i haven't posted since I was in maine. that week I performed i think 5 days in a row... i say days and not nights since one of them was an afternoon college show at good old JMU, thanks to Shari for getting me back in there. i left her a gift (parking ticket) upon my departure. someone remind me to change my license plate sometime between now and Fall...

well i've been keeping really busy here in the F just a block or two from the D... i have been slinging food at a couple of good establishments and gearing up for another great set of shows for March. a few colleges, some old, some new, and some great new places in alabama and in kansas. otherwise, you know I'm just about to start hitting up colleges for Fall shows.

this thing, you know it never ends...it's a somewhat tedious cycle. the payoff is what makes it all worth it. i never find myself hating what I do. ever. sometimes I need to stretch or take a lengthy break from like e-mailing the 1,000th person for the day. no lie though I send hundreds of e-mails some days... not spam y'all, like freakin e-mails and some cutting and pasting, but it's part of the gig. and like i said, once the shows come it's always worth it.

i changed the name on my page today and started a facebook for High May Music. High May is the name change. it's still me and my songs, my music, lyrics, shoddy singing and guitar-playing. but i just decided, like yesterday or today and was like "fook it" so it's High May now. I figure i'm well overdue on an album or two, and if I do end up doing a record this year it'll be as High May. and I've been writing down every good album title idea that I dream up from time to time.

i bought these little notebooks from barnes and noble, somewhere in MA i think earlier this month. their blank page, pocket style and i guess are based on what some people used to use in the old days. obviously it's hard to recreate things like that, but i used to have these journals, notebooks filled with scratchings, setlists, notes, phone numbers, addresses, names, lyrics, titles, and anything that I had to write down while on the road. i don't know what's happened to them. i think they're in a box somewhere in my basement. but i thought the pocket size might work out well here...

i was recently playing in PA at this music conference. i saw a great band called Vulgarrity www.myspace.com/vulgarrity and they are playing in detroit i just noticed.... but FUCK, I am in Maine that night playing at Thomas College... what the frick man... anyone reads this, check out their page and go see them. a brother and sister tandem, with electric guitar loops, drivng bass, rockin drums and most importantly, killer HARMONIES.... they both can sing! and their name is pretty sweet too...

my bro is having twins. i'm pretty excited to be an uncle. uncle jimmy i think i'll be called although my bro calls me james most of the time. they are going to be sick hockey players. the next henrik and frederick sedin. I think those are the names of the twins in the NHL on the canucks... can someone verify this for me?

i recently got back in touch with an OLD friend from my hockey youth through facebook. i started my page a few weeks ago amidst a ton of peer pressure and general ridicule. most of which I can take, but when I went to sign up and was finished signing up in 3 minutes, i thought this can't be THAT bad. reconnecting is cool, and I get to choose who to reconnect with, and its not just me trying to compile as many "friends" as i can. i started a High May facebook page just to keep things separate. you know even though i don't have a personal myspace page, i changed the name because i kinda want this to be mainly used for music. music is what I live for, and what i am very proud of. and now that i have this fucking facebook page, people I know can write me little stupid messages, and i can use myspace for music shite.

i'm going down to ATL this weekend to play the eddies attic open mic. i also am hopefully going to catch up with at least one of 3 friends who live down there whom i have not seen in years and also whom I would really love to catch up with... they are all very good people and the type of people i value while not really being that close with... i put value on people. i value many people in my life differently. sometimes I put more value on someone I haven't seen in 5-10 years than someone i see on the regular. but on the flipside, maybe i don't choose to see that someone i see on the regular, and am thrown into it, so you get my drift?

i have been sleeping in my sweatpants all winter. i don't like to turn my heat up too high and sometimes wear sweatshirts too. when I wear socks to bed, I always have dreams... my socks are like dream catchers. it's wierd. i awoke this morning to sunlight and thought I had vastly overslept when I saw brightness, but it was still an hour before my alarm was set to go off, so naturally i went back to sleep but was kind of shocked. spring is coming and I am excited. i also awoke this morning with a couple of random names in my head and immediately e-mailed my brother to tell him that these must have been possible names for his soon to be twin boys. the names are damon (or daman / damen) and denny. i think denny sounds cool only because ben folds has a son names Louie. and those names sound really similar and equally cool to me, even though these names probably only came to me because I kept my socks on last night.

i work hard. and i hate when people imply that I am a lazy musician or that i "don't have a job" I always leave the room when someone says something like that even if I know that they are joking.

i have a newfound respect for some of my friends upon reading things that they disclose about themselves on the facebook. just things I never knew even though I thought I was tight with them. i like to support local businesses but always consider myself too broke to support nearly as many as i would like. i love sleeping. i should be sleeping right now but i consider myself to be on a bit of a roll right now. tomorrow I get to jam with one of my best friends whom i seldom see even though he lives only about 20 minutes away, and who gave my my first guitar and is the reason I have a myspace music page right now. i'm excited for that. i hate the fact that some people i know are fighting to keep their jobs and they hate the grind of the corporate world. i wish i could help them.

in college i took on a position to help raise money for children's miracle network. i only ended up raising a few thousand dollars but found it very rewarding and even though I felt I was sabotaged sometimes by the people around me. i still intend to be a philanthropist one day, but for some reason I can only see myself doing it on a GRANDE scale. i don't know why. i will seldom, if ever, hesitate to donate my time, especially for music, for a good cause. i still play free shows on the road every once in a while even though I can't afford to.

i do believe i'm gonna hit the hay right now.

this brings me back

i remember back when i was in college. about 6-9 years ago and i had homework... well i'd like to share with you something that was shared with me. a nice young lady named sarah was nice enough to speak with me and ask me a bunch of questions after I played at Marquette Univ. back a couple months ago. this was her final project and I like it... maybe i just like attentions... yeah that's it...

here's the link: (it's her blog for today, December 9th)

Read her project here

enjoy...

rat-a-tat-tat

I know I know I got back from NC a week ago... sue me... the final show at warren wilson was very interesting... I rolled up to this campus kind of in the middle of nowhere, though only a matter of miles from a major highway. I was psyched cos it was the last show of the year for me... not because I didn't want to play anymore shows, but because I was just happy that there were shows this year and that I got to play them and that I was in NC.



I'm just excited for what '09 has to bring. i don't tend to look ahead often, but its only about a month ahead at this point so screw it.anyway this place, warren wilson college... very unique place. part of campus seems almost like a campground. 1 its freezing last friday, and as I'm driving, trying to find the building in the dark, i see a bunch of kids out there with fire pits, and like fold up chairs drinking and just hanging out in various little spots on campus. 2, there was a lot of laughing from these kids on campus. maybe somethings in the water. very positive vibe, I mean like way more laughing than you would expect. I was sitting in this room at the "st. clair guest house" (another unique place" and looking out my window and just seeing tons of kids walkin around all day and laughing it up.



the guest house... geez, it was this really old-fashioned b&b type place, and I'll tell you what, I've never been to a bed & breakfast, but i'm guessing if I had been to one, this is what it would be like. really old fashioned. no tvs in the room or anywhere else in sight. there was a common room with some couches, and then a couple bathrooms on either end of the 2nd floor, where I was. I had a nice little bed, and a desk and a dresser. it was perfect for my purpose, which was to hopefully find internet and a cell phone signal and get some booking work done. I did arrive pretty early.



so the sage cafe is a seemingly student-run coffeehouse/cafe, and the kids there, just as a first impression, were a little rough around the edges. like i said, this place is hard to explain, eccentric isn't the word... but this place is unique. the people are unique, and it was really just a one of a kind show. they set me up, i rocked it the best I could, and i finished off my tea which had turned into just juice by the end and it was a really good time. this show was also the debut of my tattoo...



i'm sure my dad and mom will find out pretty soon, but hopefully not til spring...





By the way, it's on my arm, not calf... and it's still healing which explains all the irritation, which is pale in comparison to the irritation of having the tattoo applied. it's completely normal. must keep applying lotion...

..I got it from Danny Reed at Empire Tattoo in downtown Asheville. I'm quite happy with it. the place is a little pricier than most, but they did a stellar job...





hope everyone had a great givingthanks and are snapping out your food coma like I already have... back in the cold detroit. keeping very busy... guitar center has a big sale today... so I'm off...

throw out the flip flops I guess

Asheville, NC

you know how people sometimes say, "seemed like a good idea at the time?"

Well my idea to drive down to Boone, NC the other day and leave MI around 10-11pm for a 10 hour drive never really seemed like a good idea at any point. my old habits of nodding off at the wheel had been contained in the recent touring this season. but i knew i had such a small window for sleep and knew I had to get pretty far before actually taking a small nap (2 hours max) in order to make it to Appalachian State Univ for a noon time show yesterday.

Well I got to where I wanted. i got to Kentucky, it was about 3am. I was in rough shape at this point and knew I had max 2 hours to sleep and with no real alarm. somehow I awoke right before 5am, shined up the teeth, got some food and was off again. it took forever for the sun to come up. and I was still pretty tired, but once that sun came up my body adjusted and I was cruisin toward boone. I thought I was closer however, than I really was. I got on a road which stated I was only 30 miles from boone, but what I didn't realize was that this was a slow and winding road which takes forever to get through. I arrived 15 minutes prior to showtime, and set up quickly and was off.

everything went on without a hitch and the show was great as I played to a bunch of lunch-eaters in their student center. afterward I gave away a bunch of discs and played an additional song unplugged for a couple of nice girls who only hear my last song or two and wanted a little more.

so I was unshowered, and on 2 hours sleep. I decided to get a room in boone for the day/night and the bonus was... that BJ Novak (ryan from "the office") was doing stand up on campus this same evening, so I got a ticket. but not before a nice nap and shower at the High Country Inn in boone.

BJ Novak was pretty funny. he was a little late but they had an a capella group sing for about an hour until he got there and ready to make everyone laugh. had some great material and even took questions about the office afterward which was pretty cool. I raised my hand but he didn't see me. I wanted to ask him: What kind of research did you to to protray your character when he was addicted to blow and a criminal?

alas, the question went un-asked. you like that word, un-asked?

anyway... when I left MI i packed my flip flops and some shorts, thinking, this is carolina, it's got to be nice warm weather... upon arrival. just as cold or even colder than MI. WTF?

but thanks to Randy at APP State for bringing me in and he also took a long time out of his busy day after I performed to talk with me about the industry and some of the things he's been through in the 30+ years of him buying entertainment nationally. he told me about how he booked john mayer for $1,500 before he was JOHN MAYER. and just gave me tons of insight.

today was another afternoon show at UNC-Asheville. I especially was looking forward to this one... why? because this show (while being 2nd to last of the year for me) was the 1st show booked/confirmed for the entire tour. I was still tossing around notions and anxiety back in Feb-March of this year: "what if no one books me?" "what if I can't get any other shows in NC?" etc...

but andrew got me early and worked it out and it was at that point several months ago that gave me confidence that other shows would come, and they did, and they mostly went well. very consistent around this country. all the shows had low turnouts but high response. so it's very positive for me going into '09 with booking...

I played at this place called the Glasshouse, which if you're wondering IS an actual glasshouse. apparently today on campus a water main got busted and left the entire campus without water... bummer for them but I'm sure it's sorted out by now. so when andrew asked me if I needed any water, I promptly said, "bottled, please..." with a smile...

it was a fun time, and I brought up a guy named BEN, to play the (what has become) traditional djiembe on "pile of gold" which so many strangers have played these past couple months... and he was awesome... ranking up there with the guy from Rhode Island. he said, "i'm not much of a djiembe-ist" but he was pretty awesome. and I told him next time I come to play at UNC-A he is hired to join me and I'll send him some more music to learn! we'll see if that pans out...

so i'm in asheville now for the night. have spent the last 3 hours or so, working on booking, catching up on e-mails, haven't had any access in the past couple days since I left, but no one really contacts me too much. i just needed time to research the latest pornographic spam e-mails that I've received in order to rank them in order of quality 1st and value 2nd. and I'm almost done... but am getting the wierdest looks from people in the coffeeshop here...

i also might visit empire tattoo here for a consultation... on a recommendation from the male coffee guy here...

off we go... last show of the college schedule tomorrow night!

the most beautiful of days (lost entry)

*Big news on the Ingrid update: Ingrid did NOT write today...

I don't know if anyone can relate. but i am just having a great day. I just got back into town a couple days ago from a great set of shows... I met Citizen Cope, and got a chance to talk a little music with him. Amazing, inspiring performance from him, and I come home... and to cap it all off.... as if I haven't had a great enough couple of weeks... my roommate moved out today.

I didn't want to speak too soon, for fear that I would curse the act and that something might happen and she would somehow stay, but now, all of the unecesssary garbage and junk, and clutter and dirt is gone... It's unfortunate, that for the last year I had my worst roommate situation ever. as many partnerships, they have the honeymoon phase, and this one didn't last long. and I knew it wouldn't change no matter what. so I stuck it out. bit my lip, and finally this glorious day has come.

The best part is, i'm told she moved across the country, to a place where people like her fit in, because things aren't really real there... and the further the better. Without going into too much detail about my joy and the ridiculous happenings of the past year, I'll just list some adjectives off the top of my head which describe her:

Selfish, inconsiderate, rude, careless, irresponsible, unrealistic, emotional, impulsive, close-minded, immature... and that was just my stream of consciousness list..

ahhhhhhhhhhh (huge sigh of relief)

I've just eliminated the most worthless person that was in my life, and what a feeling. To anyone who may read. I've met a few people in my life that share some of the above characteristics and personality and character flaws. My advice when in this situation is just to sever all ties. I never have to worry about hearing from this person again, and to actually live with someone like this is really rough because when you don't have any sort of a grasp on reality, it's tough to communicate and understand these types of people...

I had to live in a pile of garbage, wrappers, junk strewn all over the place for at least the last 10 months, with no effort whatsoever to change it. Now, that all of her belongings are gone, this place looks like an actual home again, and I intend to make it so.

If you ever know someone who doesn't know what to do when the toilet is running (jiggle the handle??) or who throws actual garbage into a shower drain or flushes trash down the toilet, you know you are involved with someone who doesn't know how to live...

A waiver should be noted, don't worry, we were never an item or anything, it wasn't like a breakup. But as you can see I have tons of resentment for the ridiculous actions that have taken place by someone who, in my estimation, at times didn't even realize she had a roommate...

Good riddance.

Back to reality!