I took January off house projects to write songs. When it warms up I’ll take to stripping paint on the 1st floor. For now, Seth is adding drum tracks to the August 2010 session Maggie & Greg played on & we’re tracking some new ones.

So far I’d like to arrange these 14:
Big Guns
Aliens
Pile of Beans
Clear As A Bell (rewrite of 2006 Bside from Selected Short Works)
Night From Day (released on Essays In Pop)
TV With
Before I’ve Had 3 (rewrite of “Better Person When I Drink” from the Old North EP)
Except You
Don’t Go Away (rewrite from the Dynamite Sessions)
Climb The Walls
I Miss You
Buddy Miller
I Wish I Hadn’t Told Her So

Andy Malkus is going to lend a hand with BGVs & some guitar work. Listen to it here.

Best,
-Joe

3 months into the latest rehab projects, I signed onto MySpace & it says I haven’t earned any badges. Boo hoo. I’m hoping to write again this winter now that the boiler works & we have running water that only runs when you turn the faucet on. That’s the best way to run, really. Best, -Joe

St Louis summer is well underway. Last week I turned the next batch of tunes over to Maggie Clements to put some BGVs on. It’s just a half dozen songs ready, so I’m going to put together another set before calling it a record. This first batch is leaning more folk than pop with no drums & mostly acoustic instruments. I like the Lowrey Teenie Genie sound from Let You Down but I’ve also been using an organ stop from the Yamaha keyboard for bass parts. My brother Max found the Lowrey in an alley maybe 8 years back. If you want one too, they often show up on Craig’s List on the free page. I got out the lap steel but couldn’t get it to stop sounding Hawaiian so I used banjo on a couple songs. I’ll make the call to Greg MacNair when Maggie’s done for some violin.

-Joe

OK, the audio for “Water Finds Level” is done, mastered by Patrick Hunt it turns out. There are 9 tracks & I’m working on the art work now.

I was listening to a lot of Gurf Morlix, Buddy Miller, & James McMurtry when I wrote these songs in August & September. Patrick & I had only intended to do 4 or 5 acoustic songs, but it kind of snowballed. Half way through the recording, I wrote a half dozen even better songs & we even had time to bring in some guest musicians. Greg MacNair, Maggie Clements & Jeff Thompson all play with local band & friends Barefoot Jones. They each came by for a couple hours & it gave us a little more depth & variety to have the help. Another help was the keyboard factor. We used a keyboard on almost every single song, including a Rhodes, an Apollo baby grand, a Lowrey Teenie Genie & a more traditional Yamaha synthesizer. They were each tuned differently so we had to decide which we were using before we put down the guitar so we could tune accordingly. I’ll put a few up soon on MySpace & the whole album on Last.Fm
Best,
-Joe

We’re looking for a good title for this next record. We don’t have final mixes yet but I think the tracks will include

In The Red
Just A House
Let You Down
Lord Have Mercy
Sweet Love Song
Sad At Me
Why’s She Cry
Son of Cain
The Bed I Made

Maybe the record should be called “Those Three Words” or “Three More Words” since I see that all the song titles have three words in them, except one.

Patrick did good work. We thought we’d do 4 or 5 songs acoustically but it snowballed & we ended up calling up in BGVs, violins, & even drums for a couple tunes.

Best,
-Joe

Patrick is in town & I’ve been writing again.  I’ll try to post some new songs in October.

Best, -Joe

After finishing The Pedal Steel EP, Joe is taking a break from stage.  The EP & other records are available for free on the website Last.FM.