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.