Hello, November
gig recaps, collabs, schedule
Hi all! I’ve been meaning to get around to this for a minute. I’ve been very blessed lately but those blessings have not included time so this comes to you very manically after thinking about doing it for a month-ish.
I’ve been elbow deep in wedding gigs on top of the day job and hits with the trio and being a family man and other random musical happenings. I’m here to catch you up on some of that.
Da Trio
I last filled everyone in at the beginning of September and I’ve been fairly busy since then! The trio had two hits at my local haunt Urban Cowboy (the downtown one). The one in September was really special because my wife and mother in law were both in attendance. My wife doesn’t get to see me play often and my mother in law has only ever seen me sit in with the band at our wedding so it was really great that they were both able to come see me do the thing. It was less great to get a $75 parking ticket but that’s how these things go. I’ve put up a few clips from that gig over on my YouTube Channel (like and subscribe please!) including this fun take of Stella by Starlight. These videos feature Kris Myers on drums and Patrick Atwater on bass!
I took Patrick and Ian Strobino up to Kentucky for the trio’s first out of town gig not long after that and we had an excellent time at the Mustang Club. We hope to be back sometime soon and also hope to get out of town more often in the future.
There isn’t a ton more in the books but over the next few months you can catch us a few times, with hopefully one or two more to come:
11/13 - Urban Cowboy Downtown with Ian Strobino and Thomas Altman
12/18 - The W Hotel with Ian Strobino and Patrick Atwater
We were booked to play on 11/7 at Lou/na but it’s since been canceled for a private event. Check out this flyer Dear Grace made!
Weddings
I’ve been fortunate to have been kept very busy during wedding band season this fall. I’ve spent a decent amount of time in Indiana, Kentucky, and Ohio with some really stellar musicians and vocalists helping people celebrate matrimony. It’s a beautiful thing, folks. I’ve been doubly fortunate to have been given the opportunity to band lead which means I get to tell dirty jokes on the band talk back microphone, skip songs on the setlist, and act as music director in the heat of the moment in exchange for dollars and bragging rights. I’ve been enjoying the extra responsibility that comes along with it and I’m grateful that I’m trusted with making the band sound good as well as the keys to the van from time to time. Another perk is occasionally seeing sensual depictions of indigenous Central Americans while eating Mexican food in empty restaurants in the Midwest/Appalachia.
I can feel the grind of that season start to slow down which means I’ll have a lot of time on my hands. I have a really cool show coming up in January that I’ll be announcing soon that will involve more original compositions and a really fun experimental augmented version of the trio that I’m really really really excited about. Part of the fun of having a group is being able to make my perverse musical visions come to life. This one has been years in the making and it looks like I’m going to pull it off.
I’ll be spending some time working on pulling off other people’s musical visions as well! I don’t really talk about the non-trio related gigs I do or people I work with often but this seems as good of a time as any to plug a few artists I’ve been working with.
Sam Mooney
I’ve been doing a few session this year with an artist from Mississippi named Sam Mooney! My pal Dan Davis who works at Southern Ground with some Nashville heavyweights that like their Chicken Fried brought me in to track some guitar on this tune and another that will be released at some point in the future. Or not! I had a great time playing a gorgeous Gibson 339 on this track, take a listen and follow Sam on the socials:
Dinzy
I’ve been writing and performing with my good pal Kristen Dinsmore aka Dinzy for about 7-8 years at this point and we have a solid cache of tunes ready to be released. It was actually the sessions for some of these tunes a few years ago where the trio started to take form as it gave me some extended time to kick it with Thomas Altman and ask him if he would be interested in a jazz project I was putting together.
Anyways - I’m stoked that some of these tunes that I started 3 computers and 100000 lifetimes ago are going to be seeing the light of day. I have a complex about being perceived as a Rock Guy but these are most definitely Rock Guy tunes that I’m quite proud of. Here’s one from the batch that was released a few years back:
Valerie Lynn
The last artist I wanted to mention is my friend Valerie Lynn! She’s an Angelino who moved back to Nashville a few years ago after an extended stint performing and doing life in the Czech Republic. Playing her gigs are super fun because her band is made up of some of the regulars from the wedding band scene which means we sound pretty good with minimal effort.
I tracked a new tune of hers called “Denver Without You” that features some musical heresy that would get me excommunicated from Nashville if the movers and shakers in this town read this newsletter - things like acoustic guitars tuned to Drop-B, mediocre slide guitar playing, and midi controlled sampled mandolin. Check out her newest single “Rhinestone Cowgirl” in which she brings back key changes in a big big way:
That’s all for now. Life has been good, I’m looking forward to it slowing down a bit so I can spend more time with my family, cook more great food, and listen to records. Speaking of - this Little Walter double LP has been kicking my ass.
I’m somewhat of a blues appreciator but I’ve never been much of a blues guitar guy. Give me this proto-British Invasion Chicago stuff all day every day.
I hope I see you (yes, you) at a gig soon! Thanks to everyone who continues to spin the tracks off of Hot Water and keeps the large bowls at my house filled with delicious pasta. Ciao - C
Glad to hear you've been keeping busy!