So, I have been working on another song that I started to lay down some tracks for.  I have to give my brother some credit for this one as he is the one who introduced me to the original Woody Guthrie tune and a recent cover by Billy Bragg and Wilco.  I like folk music, it is always fun to play.  I wish I had the chance to play this song over the summer with my brother, but he never made it up to camp.  He wanted to play it too, so maybe sometime in the future.

The song is “Way Over Yonder in the Minor Key” and it is a great, simple folk melody.  Here is my current recording, hopefully if time permits I will be able to add a little more depth to it.  Right now all the tracks are me, I played guitar and did all the vocal tracks.  nothing fancy, just some help from Garage Band.  So, let me know what you think, I am always open to comments and criticism.

That is yours truly in the chilly waters of Maine at "Two Lights" on Cape Elizabeth.

Yes friends, that is how I spent my day off today.  After a week of hot and sweaty weather, Ruth an I jumped in the truck and headed for Cape Elizabeth for some scuba diving.  This is certainly the way to beat the heat, with the water temperature dropping as low as 55˚F at our deepest depth of 32 feet.  It is a little chilly at first, then you get used to it, and then later on you start to feel cold, but it sure was better than being out in the hot and muggy weather!

We had a very successful dive day today.  We visited a different dive shop than where we went last week and they were much nicer and friendlier.  We will probably visit them again for our future diving needs while we are here in Maine.  The whole experience in their shop was better and I think that it set a much better tone for the rest of the day.

When we got to the dive site we saw another pair of divers who were just coming back in.  One of them was dragging what appeared to be a pretty old boat anchor crusted in barnacles and such.  It was actually pretty impressive that this guy had lugged it all the way back from wherever he found it.  It could not have been easy since it looked pretty heavy!  They told us the conditions were pretty good and we gave them a hand getting back up the beach to their car before we suited up to dive.

Everything about our dive day went really smoothly.  We got in and acclimated to the water, swam out and really had no issues getting down, equalized and on our way.  We saw a whole bunch of crabs of various varieties, a couple fish including what we thing was a flounder, but we didn’t see any lobster.  We saw lobster traps, but no lobster.  I suppose that leaves us something to look forward to on our next dive.

After returning the gear and returning to camp we pretty much did an about-face and headed off to dinner.  This was the first time this season that I went to the 302 for dinner and it was good.  We met up with some of the other staff there and then went to see Livingston Taylor in concert.  That was a lot of fun, he is a great performer.  I actually sang with him back in high-school at some concert in Newton.  It was fun to see him again years later!

So, a pretty good day off, very fun and very successful!

Yep, there were a million things that I could have been doing yesterday and I didn’t really do any of them.  Well, that is probably not true, but I could certainly have been more productive.  I did meet the new neighbors, well one of them anyway.  I don’t remember her name (not that I would post it), but I believe that she is a student at one of the schools here in Salt Lake, and she is either married or is living with her boyfriend.  To me, she seemed young to be married, but this is Utah after all.

What I really did yesterday was fiddle around with making a recording of me playing guitar and singing.  I am not really sure what inspired me other than it was a nice day and my mother woke me up with a phone call to tell me that it was National Hamburger Day, whatever that means.  I don’t think the phone call was really inspiration other than getting me out of bed.  I am sure the neighbors would have accomplished that though with the moving in and such.

So, what song did I work on?  The great traditional folk tune, Shenandoah.  I laid down two guitar parts, one on 6-string played capo-five and one on the 12-string played open.  I also laid down a “drum” track by just banging away on the back side of the 12-string.  It was actually pretty effective.  On top of that I laid in a few vocal tracks and played around with all the effects that Garage Band has built in.  It was pretty cool.  I think that I even came out with something that I like.  It is no professional recording, but it is nice.

There are a couple little mistakes that I made, but I felt like they were small enough to just leave in.  I did make a whole bunch of takes on both guitar tracks to get where I am and, to be honest, I just didn’t feel like going back again.  Last summer my brother, a camper, and I performed an arrangement of this song.  Maybe I can get them to lay in the parts that they played, specifically mandolin and harmonica.  On top of that I have a friend who plays and makes indian flutes who might be interested in collaborating.

In any event, I am looking forward to the summer and playing and singing a lot again.  I am sure that I have mentioned that before on my blog.  It is a lot of fun to do.  As always, comments and critiques are always welcome!

It has been a while since I have done a music post on Monday.  Last night I pulled out my guitar to play for a while as I was feeling inspired by the nice weather.  I like playing the guitar, and I am looking forward to the summer and being back at camp and doing a bunch of playing.  There is definitely something about the nice weather of the summer that makes me want to do more playing.

Last summer, my brother and I played together at camp.  Unfortunately he won’t be there this summer as he finally has got a “real” job.  Last year we tried to do a tour of 90′s music every week at campfire.  Though we did throw in a couple other folk songs like “Shenandoah.”  I also brought back some favorites of the kids and staff like “Freshmen” by the Verve Pipe.  Hey, does anyone else remember that song?  I have always been surprised by how many of the kids who were born well after that song was recorded know it and ask for it!

So this year I need new music to bring to camp.  I am always up for some classic rock and I have a couple songs that I had started working out last summer but never played.  I also thought that maybe I could bring some newer music to the summer.  I am pretty sure that I will find the opportunity to play “Fireflies” by Owl City.  I bet that the kids will know it and be able to sing along.  I like getting the kids involved.  I am also sure that I will be asked to learn a bunch of songs on short notice to play for services at FA.  I like doing that as I get a few newer songs in my repertoire.

This summer I also have the added bonus of heading off to camp with Ruth, who also likes to sing.  I know that she has some ideas for songs to do which means that I will have some new material there.  She keeps telling me that we should learn some Nora Jones.  I can do that, we just need to pick some songs to focus on.  I am looking forward to a music filled summer!

So, if anyone has some suggestions of songs to learn for the summer, please, let me know!

Finally, after quite a long week at the theatre I got to have a day off today.  I got to sleep in!  Today I just got to relax and it was pretty amazing.  Sure, tomorrow I have to go back to the wind and grind for what will be a very long week, but that makes having a great day off all the better.

The irony of my day off is that I still managed to go to the theatre.  I didn’t go to my theatre, but I went to a show by the University Theatre Department.  The show, Thaed, was really great.  It was a very interesting and moving exploration of a troubled mind.  The cast did a great job with the material and the book was pretty good.  It was written by one of the students and directed by a student as well.  I think that the book needs a little bit of work to tighten up the themes and flesh out some of the characters, but overall, I thought it was very good.

Of course, today was also a beautiful day.  I was really surprised at how warm it was outside.  It is kinda of fun to be able to have some time to have even a little time to enjoy that.  After having dinner with Ruth before her show I came home and was pretty darn happy.  Just in a good mood.  The neighbor (who I have mentioned before) was plucking away on the guitar which inspired me.  I pulled out my guitar and started playing as well.  I think that the fact that I can actually play annoyed him.  I sorta hate to say it, but that was kinda what I was aiming for.  It was fun too.  I should play more in general.

So, time off, huzzah!  Spring is here, awesome.  That’s about all I’ve got for today.