salamandir, Sketch, Hobbit & Thadd

This photo was shot by John Cornicello in the little “backstage studio” that the Moisture Festival had set up at Hale’s Palladium. It’s our new PR shot. We’re pretty stoked.

Pilgrim Street Band, Cafe Racer, Seattle, 4-21-2012

The first one was for a birthday party. It was held at the Cafe Racer on Roosevelt. Sketch came and picked me up and we arrived quite early—we weren’t scheduled to start until 10pm and we were there before 9. Before we even get in we hear the guys in the photo to your left playing.

Our jaws hit the floor. Cuz the cats could blow!

The guy with the sax is a man named Ham Carson. He’s well into his seventies and has the most wonderful and liquid style. Also, if he’s lost some of his chops due to advanced age, seeing him in his prime may well have killed folk.

The Seattle Times had this to say about Ham:

“Quite simply, the best swing clarinetist in town…one of Seattle’s jazz treasures”

…and indeed, that’s what he was playing when we arrived.

I’m looking at Sketch and saying, “Right. You distract the other two and I’ll steal the old cat on the licorice stick.”

As they were packing up I asked if they were going to stick around for any of our set(s). They all said, “yeah” and I asked Ham if he’d keep the clarinet handy. He’d be happy to, and he did.

Now, I’ve mentioned my personal fantasy™ a number of times here. (If you’ve somehow missed that, read all about it here.) Having a legend like Ham sitting in with the band is one of those occasions where the personal fantasy™ and real life match. Awesome is a horribly over-used word. In this case, it’s merely accurate.

Ham has a regular gig at the New Orleans Cafe in Pioneer Square. You should go and check him out.

Maizie and her mini-fez

Also, shortly after we arrived this gal showed up and made me regret not wearing one of my fezzes.

To your right is a picture of Maizie. Amongst other things, Maizie is a Steampunk Jewelry fabricator. She’s also a hoot and loads of fun to hang around with.

At one point she was introducing me to one of her friends and she says how she thinks she and I are the same… we’re both cartoons.

Well… yes.

I blew her mind by bringing out my phone and showing her and her friend the lovely cartoon that Joe Heredia recently drew of me.
Have I mentioned how much I dig having talented friends?
No?
Well… I really dig having talented friends. They’re among the bestest things in life.

Meanwhile… I took a trip into the bathroom at Cafe Racer and discovered some… ahem… interesting graffiti on the mirror.

Objects in mirror are less attractive than they appear

Having just recently gotten my first smart phone—as it turns out, it was the ‘droid I was looking for—I couldn’t resist taking this pic and tweeting it out to the world.

Other than having to deal with a sound system whose board was in a dark pit that you had to kneel to get access to and the fact that my recently purchased (at nearly $300) microphone seems to be having trouble, this was an extremely fun gig.

Now we come to Sunday’s gig.

It was fun too, but it started out like a catastrophe.

In the 48 hours (or so) previous to the gig, I’d managed, for one reason or the other, to only get nine hours of sleep.

When I was 18 or thereabouts (somewhere just prior to the white man arriving from over the great water) this would have been no problem.

At nearly 54… well…

Me and my Fallen Angel had gone out for a late lunch—or early dinner… you decide—and I had arrived back home shortly after 4pm with a belly full of chicken teriyaki. My last clear memory was of Yuri, our “senior” cat, coming up to me on the couch for to get some scritches.

Next thing I know, I’m being woken by the FA asking me when I was supposed to be at the gig. The answer was… about 20 minutes ago.

And here am I, still dressed in my “I’m just riding my bicycle and don’t care how I look” clothes.

Well fuck.

After a rather panic-stricken interlude we managed to get down to the fabulous Can Can with enough time to get sound-checked and start (on time by jeebus!) our show.

Alas, I wasn’t actually finished reeling from all this until the second set. Luckily, I play with some extremely talented gentlemen and we almost always get good-natured audiences.

But even with all that, and after having run back upstairs for my video cameras, I completely spaced out actually using them.

Is there a moral to this story? Of course there is.

The moral is… “Shit happens. But the show must go on.” (Or something like that.)

Also it’s time to put some “process” in place to make sure that things like regular recordings/videos happen. Every gig would be good for that. And either getting enough sleep for my tired old bones, or at least setting a damn alarm on my bits of portable high tech, is a fine plan.

Welcome to the “glamorous” show-biz life I lead.

I wouldn’t change it for the world.

There was supposed to be a Snake Suspenderz rehearsal today but, alas, salamandir the tubist was feeling poorly and we had to call it off. However, by that time Sketch the drummer was most of the way to my place to pick me up.

What to do? Well…

We drove back to Sketch’s place, swapped his drums for his doghouse bass–I just loves working with these multi-talented folk!–and came back to my place to shoot a video.

After the appropriate amount of futzing about with the cameras, lighting and audio gear and with a few rehearsals and only 5 takes, we got a video recorded.

And here it is:

Good Golly (the Porno Popup Song)

The songsheet for this is already up on the Free Uke Songsheets page.

Leave a comment if you like it. Or subscribe to my YouTube channel. Or both!

Enjoy!

I opened it up—briefly—because of Black March, which is a month where you’re encouraged to buy nothing from the major labels and, in fact, you shouldn’t even download one of their tunes, legally or not. Instead you’re invited to support the indie musicians (somewhat like me).

This means that there’s only one week left for the rest of y’all to check out a sample of what goes on in the Fans Only section and get a chance to download my new album, Standards Issue, containing a baker’s dozen jazz standards on solo ukulele and voice, for the mere pittance of… well, pay what you think it’s worth. Or you could order a physical copy for only $10 plus a bit for shipping/handling.

Check out the section soon. Maybe you’ll buy my music. Maybe you’ll even decide to sign up to receive my newsletter, Hobbit Howls so you can continue to watch the selection of fans only stuff grow (like the Lost Videos or some very limited recordings or…). Or maybe you’ll just download the music for free and share it with friends.

I like all of those options.

And be sure to let me know what you think of the tunes. I loves me some feedback.

(cross-posted to Ukulele & All That Jazz)

Within the next couple days I’m hoping to have the physical CDs out with me when I’m busking or otherwise performing publicly.

The CD is $10 (plus shipping if you’re not buying it from me at a show) and the downloads, which are solely available in the fans only area, are pay what you want.

Feel free to send me feedback on the recording too!

I’m pretty tired so may bag that “one more tune” plan, but there is a chicken in the oven, so I have to stay awake anyways. hmmmm…

I’m using three of my ukuleles on this recording. On a couple of the tunes I’m playing T.R. (my Ohana sopranino) and the rest are split half-and-half between Scarface (the Ohana cedar-faced soprano that’s my main busking uke) and Little Kahuna (my Glyph soprano). So far there’s one done with T.R., two with Scarface and three with Kahuna.

Thanks to all the folk that have been signing up for my mailing list. I hope you are enjoying the mp3 of the first cut from this upcoming CD. I haven’t heard anything back from anyone though… you like it? It sucks? Write me at fanletters@howlinhobbit.com and tell me what you think of it, or just leave a comment here.

I’m also considering putting up another “preview” track in the fans only area. You wanna hear it? Just let me know…

The Fans Only Area will contain special stuff, like recordings, videos, special merchandise offers or discounts, etc. that are either not available to the general public or are, at the very least, available first in the fans area (before being “released into the wild”). And yes, there’s something there already.

“So,” you could be asking right about now, “how come I can’t get in there even though I’m a genuine Howlin’ Hobbit Fan-Type-Person™?”

The answer is simple. I had to have some sort of delineation between “nice folks who check me out sometimes” and “true blue Howlin’ Hobbit Fan-Type-Persons™” and I chose “folks on my mailing list” for it. In fine, if you’re receiving the Hobbit Howls newsletter you’re “on the list” already.

Since I have just sent out the February issue of the Howls, there are already people who possess the password and are happily—I hope!—downloading the first of the treats behind the password wall, because it’s in the Howls that I announce the password. (It changes periodically, as does the content behind the wall.)

But do not for to panic. I have made a Solemn Vow™ to personally email the current password to anyone who signs up to receive the Howls. They don’t even have to wait until the next issue of the Howls comes out. How’s that for service, eh?

So if you want to get in on all the goodies, go on and sign up for my mailing list. You’re not going to get spammed. My writing style is gosh darn amusing. You get treats. Since it comes on 100% recycled electrons, it’s even good for the environment.

Whatcha waiting for?

The song is Teddy Bears Picnic, nearly 100 years old now and still popular enough that my video of the tune is approaching 12,000 views. I usually only make songsheets for my own tunes, but this one is well and truly into the Public Domain and is one I really enjoy, so I thought I’d share it with you.

The story behind the songsheet is in the songsheet itself, so I won’t repeat it here. You can download it by right clicking its title (above) and saving it to your computer. Or you can visit my free ukulele songsheets page to download it and a number of other tunes.

Let me know what you think of it in the comments!

Enjoy…