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See Summer Vacation Get Away 2021, below.

PART ONE DOWN, PART TWO IN PROGRESS:

The weather people had been predicting rain for all of this week, numbers in the neighborhood of 40-80%. My big concern was The Wilds, where I had all those safari tours. I have plans for Old Man's Cave, other nature sites and some hiking, while in Hocking Hills, too. But I also have the cabin and my laptop and music equipment to work on various parts of the album project.

Rain finally found me, but just as I was getting in my car to leave The Wilds on Wednesday to head the two hours to the Hocking Hills area. And I literally mean as I was getting in my car to leave. It was not raining on me when I arrived at the Acorn Trail Cabin to spend four nights and five days, but by the time I was ready to build a fire and cook dinner on that fire, it was raining. Pretty much all day yesterday, too.

An opportunity to make lemonade, right? Hold up most of the day in the cabin, I spent the day working on various things that needed my attention on my laptop, and I worked on the album project, which was on the agenda, anyway.

Plus I took the opportunity to drive into Logan and have early dinner at The Pizza Crossing, which is a must for me when in Hocking Hills. I'm staying a half hour away, but it's far more than worth the drive.

Of course, I'll go into more detail with my post-vacation accounting of it all, but I'll give a Reader's Digest version here. At The Wilds, I went on two specialty tours, a regular Wildside tour, Tuesday morning, then a Secrets of the Zoo Wildside tour in the afternoon. For each the tourists are in the bed of a truck that seats about a half-dozen people.

For these Wildside tours, The guide goes off road in the pastures to get up close to the animals and in a couple cases we even got to feed then animals: the Asian one-horned rhino and the giraffes. The second Wildside tour featured a guide who is one of the Wilds staff who appears on the NatGeo TV show Secrets of the Zoo, Cody Cseplo. I must admit, I was about the only person in the truck who didn't know him from the show, that which I've never seen. He was a pretty nice guy and gave us a fun tour. Not that Kristin (last name unknown) didn't give us good tour in the morning, as well.

I did an open air tour in the bugger open air bus Wednesday morning, to cap my stay. That one doesn't take you off road but it's still a good tour. See a sampling of my the animal encounters in the pics below.

From The Wilds, after a stop at the Kroger in Logan, Ohio, near my next destination, I hit vacation spot number two, the Acorn Trail cabin in Hocking Hills. As I wrote above, it was raining a little when I pulled up and it rained harder later, spoiling my plans to start a fire pit and have fire roasted chicken and veggies, just as I had at John Bryan State Park two weeks back. So I made tuna salad and had a tuna sandwich, instead.

Then, yesterday, as I wrote above, I took a traditional trip into Logan for a loaded veggie pizza from the Pizza Crossing. I got the 11 inch. Should have got the 8 inch. Eh, what the hell. I was able to take some back to cabin. So, I'll have some cold pizza before I leave here. After the pizza dinner I stopped right around the corner at the Hocking Hills Frozen Yogurt Company and got desert. The first ice cream, of a sort, of the vacation, but highly likely not the last.

It rained virtually all day yesterday but I was able to have a fire pit last night, even if I didn't cook over it. It looked like the attempt might be futile. The rain had stopped by sundown, so I built the fire. Shortly after I got the fire pit burning the damned rain came back, but it mostly drizzled. It drizzled off and on the rest of the night, but the fire did not go out. Sometimes the rain picked up to a lighter rain, beyond drizzling; still the fire stayed burning.

Working on editing the "Just One Shadow" music video was the first agenda item, but, that did ot happen. However, I did get an idea for a new song, inspired by the tenacity of the camp fire that the rain did not extinguish. The workshop title for the beginnings of the lyrics, and the music started in my head, is "Fire Rain Song." I have a concept for chords that I'll tryout on the Giannini acoustic bass, quite possibly later today ‐‐ with the hope that I do some work on the music video, too.

My yurt on Nomad Ridge at The Wilds.	A little bit of the landscape at The Wilds.	Cody Cseplo in with the African Southern White Rhinos during the Secrets of the Zoo Wildside tour.
My next, and current abode, the Acorn Trail Cabin in Hocking Hills.	My LOADED veggie pizza at Pizza Crossing in Logan.	The evening fire pit at Acorn that the rain did not kill.

THE 20/21 SOPHOMORE PRODUCTION SEES ME BACK ON PRODUCTION STAFF:

I'll be in the second chair again for Margie Strader, as her AD for Women in Jeopardy, by Wendy MacLeod. This will be the second time I AD for her, and the third time I've been slated to do so.

I AD'd Steven Levenson's The Unavoidable Disappearance of Tom Durnin, with Margie at the helm.

I was supposed to be AD for her with This Random World, by Steven Dietz, but I booked a pro gig as an actor, Banned from Baseball, by Patricia O'hara, at The Human Race Theatre Company, so, you know, I had to bow out of TRW.

The auditions for Women in Jeopardy will be August 23 & 24. The specs will be out soon. The show will run October 8-24.

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SHADOW ON THE VERGE:

During the just-finished Summer Vacation Get Away 2021, I didn't spend as much time on music as I had anticipated that I would, but I did spend some time on music. The biggest thing being that during my stay at the Acorn Trail Cabin in Hocking Hills, I brought the edit of the music video for "Just One Shadow" to just about a 99.9% final cut, I just have to put the finishing touches on the ending of the DV movie.

Editing the music video for "Just One Shadow" in the yard at the Acorn cabin in Hocking Hills.

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Got home about noon on Saturday, in the pouring down rain. I must say that for the most part my two week's vacation was rain-free. It did rain some, but not much, and only once did rain come at an inopportune time. The other times it rained in the middle of the night or right after I got done doing something.

More details later.

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MOVING FULL-ON INTO "RECORDING ARTIST" MODE:

The "Just One Shadow" music video has reached what I am 99.99999% sure of as the final cut. It will not be made public until the single is released to the public, which I hope will be by mid to late August. However, I have uploaded the video to a private page at YouTube to give a few folk a pre-release preview of the video, and I have sent the info to those people, including those who contributed still photography to the video project. I've only gotten a few responses, but all have, so far, been positive.

Now in terms of the single, itself, my next step is to remix and remaster the virtual B-side of the single, i.e.: the extra song that I will release with "Just One Shadow." The song I have chosen is one I wrote and recorded about fourteen years ago as theme music for a DTG promocast. I think I'm going to add more music to the recording beyond simply remastering the old recording. Well, really, I'll be finally mastering it, because I can't say that the original recording has ever been technically mastered. I started the process last evening and it's the current thing at the front of the table.

Also on the short agenda is setting into motion the steps to get the single marketed on iTunes, etc. Plus I'll be looking to at least identifying a service to supply physical CDs of the single, then, of course, the album.

I also have to finish what I've started in terms of cover art for the single, both for the virtual and the physical formats.

Further on the immediate agenda is securing copyright registration from the U.S. Copyright Office, for the two songs on the single and the recordings themselves, as well as the packaging for the single.

Beyond that, it's time for me to move onto having a dedicated webpage for me as an artist ‐‐ all aspects of being an artist, performing, creating, etc. This blog has served a great purpose, but I need to graduate to a branded website, to where, most probably, the blog will be migrated.

Those who have read previous blog entries may know that I will be remastering, and very likely remixing the five finished songs: "Icebergs," "The Night Before the Night Before Christmas," "Into the Blue Dawn," "Medley: The Death of the..../Memories of the Times Before/Memories Endbit/The Death of the (reprise)," and "Astroterph." I'm not certain they'll all be on the album, but what doesn't make it on the album will be fodder for more virtual B-side material for the remaining singles off the album, of which there'll probably be at least two more. "Identity,"(Song #6), hasn't yet been mixed nor mastered since I haven't incorporated the lead guitar work into the recording as of yet. That's up soon, too.

I've already noted recently that the more I've listened to the current mix of "Chilled October Morning" the less happy I have been with the current lead vocal. So, I will be rerecording that vocal before it gets the new mixing and mastering. That, too, will be a high priority as this is a song that I absolutely want on the album. It's likely next after getting a finished master of that B-side.

Late last spring I started new music for the lyrics to "Utopia's Dystopia," and the plans are to get this one onto the album. I made a demo with the rewritten lyrics and the bare-bones beginnings of a melody line. I really will push to get this one to a finished and recorded composition. It has a spot on the album if it makes the deadline.

I've already stated that I dedicated less time to music during Summer Vacation Get Away 2021 than I had hoped, but I did not ignore music. Beyond almost finishing the music video, I also started a set of lyrics for one song and the lyrics and music for another. I can't say for certain that either will be on the album, but since I am hoping to record at least three or four more songs for the album, these two are potential contenders. And there's still the rocker that I started during Winter Vacation 2020 that's not off the table.

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SONG #8 & #10 ‐‐ THE SINGLE:

You few returning folk may remember that in the last blog post I wrote that the "Just One Shadow" music video had reached what I was "99.99999% sure of as the final cut?" Well, here's the 0.00001%: The video has closing credits that include the names of all the people who contributed Covid pandemic-related photos to the project. There was a slight error for one of the photo credits. I failed to indicate that the photographer's image was procured through a Creative Commons license. It's a quite slight error, but I fixed it anyway.

Also, one of those who saw the pre-release preview of the video suggested that I cut a photo from early in the video. It's a photo from my personal library, taken during Winter Vacation 2020 at the The Cozy Little Red Cottage, when I was first composing "Just One Shadow." It's a pic of me at the Legato piano, and it isn't exactly the most flattering image of me, which is a lot of the reason for the recommendation to nix it. My response was basically that vanity had already made me bothered by that particular photo, too. However, there were key visual elements that over-rode that. But, I went into my library and found a comparable photo to swap in. Had I not been able to find a comparable photo, the original would have stayed because the other elements are more important than my vanity consideration. It's not as if the new photo I've plugged in is going to suddenly make me a contender for People's sexiest man alive.

That virtual B-side for the single is a song titled "Roll the Dice." I wrote and recorded it fourteen years ago for an early promocast (before I had coined that term) for the 2007 Dayton Theatre Guild production of Paul Lucas' The Dice House, that mounting for which I was also the producer.

Over the weekend I edited together a four minute version from the original five-plus minute recording (with vocal), throwing in a couple spots for instrumental solos, from the instrumental version (rhythm track, minus vocals). Then I migrated that to onto my Tascam 24-Track, via a migration, first, into Logic Pro X. The original recording is only a drum track from my Yamaha PSR-180 keyboard, a bass line on my Giannini acoustic bass, a lead and one back-up vocal. I no longer have a multi-track master of the song, only the duel mono mix, which is what I migrated.

Sunday evening I worked out a simple chord progression on my Embassy Pro bass. I'll probably double that up, adding two rhythm chord parts. I'll also work out a couple simple instrumental solos, likely at least one, if not both, still on the Embassy Pro. I've considered laying another unison bass line on my Viola bass to enhance the original Giannini bass line. It's a simple bouncy blues-rock bass line, that's mostly straight-forward, but it's a free-forum performance so there are a few spots where I strayed from the repetitious line, so it would not be a straight-forward task to recreate the line on the Viola bass; I'd have to learn it to know here the anomalies are. I may start adding instrumentation tonight, if I feel up to it.

Again, as I've written before, "Roll the Dice" is not something that will appear on the album. It's a bonus track for the first single, a "virtual B-side." It's designated as Song #10, but that refers to its placement in the line-up of songs recorded for the project ‐‐ or, "the album sessions," if you will. It's a nice, fun little song, but it's not one that would fit on the album. I suspect that's what will happen to Song #5, aka: the rock instrumental, "Astroterph," originally recorded thirty-eight years ago, by the band SeazonWind in the upstairs bedroom of Rich Hisey on Harbine Avenue, on the east side of Dayton, Ohio (August, 1983) during a rehearsal for what would be the penultimate of the band's small handful of gigs.

FIRST FILM CONNECTIONS IN, HOW LONG?:

Tomorrow evening, for the first time in probably two years, or more, I will attend a Film Dayton Film Connections presentation (via a Zoom session). The guest will be Cincinnati-based Casting Director D. Lynn Meyers. The writeup says Meyers will "share insights into how [actors] can be considered for roles in upcoming films in the area." I think she mostly casts extras and day players. I would not have much interest in the former, but certainly would be interested in the latter.

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A SHADOWY B-SIDE:

The vertigo spell rendered Tuesday an unproductive day, all the way around. I had even planned to work remotely at home in the afternoon for the rent-payer. I awoke in the afternoon from a nap, feeling pretty good, I finished writing Tuesday's blog entry and was about to start on a work project when the vertigo started slipping back into my skull. So I watched, or should I say, listened to TV for the rest of the evening. And I added no tracks to "Roll the Dice."

*) As I've stated before, since I am only playing two simultaneous notes at the same time, technically they are not chords but a harmonic part, but I am calling them chords, anyway

But Wednesday night and last night I was on it. Wednesday night I added three chorded-bass* rhythm tracks, all on the Epiphone Embassy Pro. I used the Boss Overdrive/Distortion pedal for two of them, each with different settings both on the pedal and on the tone knobs on the axe.

I also learned and rehearsed a unison bass line to accompany the Giannini on the original recording, this time, again on the Embassy Pro. I say "learned" because, even though there is only one, one-measure bass riff that repeats through the whole song, there is an occasional alteration. I had to know when each alteration occurs so I could match the bass line as whole on the second bass. I did that, and got a few rehearsals in, but it was getting late, and I had to be at work early the next morning, so I called it a night. Last night I laid that track, as well as a third bass line (also unison) on the Viola bass.

The plan for tonight is to start working on some solo lines. I'm close to committed to doing at least one on the Embassy, and I may not manipulate this one to sound like a guitar as I did with the second solo in "Just One Shadow." It probably will be a bass taking the solo in both the two spaces for a solo, whether it's the Embassy both times, I'm not sure about. I'd thought about adding a piano, rhythm, solo, or both, but now I think not.

I'd like to have the thing mixed and mastered by the end of the weekend.

Then the next studio work will be re-recording the vocal for "Chilled October Morning."

Wednesday night, laying the three chorded-bass rhythm parts for "Roll the Dice."
A list of the "Roll the Dice" bass riff. Black numbers: intro & outro Green numbers: riffs with vocals Red numbers: riffs under solo instrumental Bold numbers with yellow background: anomalous riffs *There's also an error; Riff 16 is 6 beats, not 3	Last night, laying the "Roll the Dice" unison bass riff on the Embassy and the Viola basses.

LOCAL CASTING DIRECTOR AT FILM CONNECTIONS:

Ms. Meyers did mention that she has often seen an extra get a line, which upgrades them in status ‐‐ and paycheck ‐‐ but still overall the experience of being background does not interest me. It's probably mostly ego, but I also have read a few times that background work is of no relevance on an actor's résumé, and even heard an L.A. casting director advise the attendees at a workshop to not put extra work on our résumés because that can prejudice some CDs against us.

There were only three of us attendees there, a total of five people when including Ms. Meyers and Film Dayton Executive Director Lisa Grigsby. So it was ultimately a really good opportunity to connect with Lynn, whom several fellow actors (all professional) have recommended I connect with, for a while. So, despite that it was an electronic meeting, I was able to make a bit more of a personal connection, as were the other two participants.

A little time was spent discussing the new Actors' Equity Association rule that opens up membership into the union to almost everyone, and because of this, as an Equity Membership Candidate, I am automatically immediately eligible to join. I was already on the brink, one more Equity show would have likely given me the points to join if I chose to.

My take, for myself, is that I will not be seizing this opportunity. While I still have a full time "day job," being AEA in the Dayton area would mean even less time on stage that I get now, which is less than I'd like as it is. The ability to be on non-union stages, such as DTG and several other non-professional stages in the area (especially the FutureFest stage), is something I don't want to sacrifice until I have the ability to commit to union shows in Cincy, or Columbus, or Indianapolis, or hell, even further away. Were I AEA, the only practical opportunity I would have would be The Human Race Theatre stage, which is a good stage to be on, but that makes it once every several years, and that's just not a frequency that appeals to me.

A professional colleague has written on this issue that he wishes AEA would "allow waivers for [semi-professional and community] theaters so that [AEA] actors can continue staying 'in shape.'" Pretty much every Equity actor I know who has commented has expressed the thought that newer, greener actors would be wise to not join as of yet, or they'll find themselves shut out of a lot of work, and a lot of needed experience to get them to the point that they are ready for Equity work on big Equity stages. This was one of the things that Ms. Meyers also said, at least the latter part.

A couple other take-aways:

• One does not have to have an agent to work with Meyers.
• It's not a bad idea to have an actor's reel, but it's not really necessary and is likely to become less so as time moves on.
• Auditions, industry wide, are probably going to be online (Zoom, FaceTime, Skype, etc), or self-taped auditions for a while.
• Calls for gigs, especially for extras are quite frequently very last minute.
• The only substantial role, beyond day player, she mentioned booking was Bruce Cromer's role as Kim Burke in Dark Waters.

I'll be getting in contact with Ms. Meyers sometime in the near future, to submit myself as an actor, albeit with the caveat that I am not always going to be available.

DTG SEASON TICKETS AVAILABLE:

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SINGLE PROGRESS; ALBUM PROGRESS:

The plan had been to lay the solo instrumental performances for "Roll the Dice" on Friday evening. The plan had also been to play the solos on the Epiphone Embassy Pro. Lastly, I had a goal to have the song completely mixed and mastered by end of day on Sunday. None of that happened.

I ended up recording the solos on Saturday on the Epiphone Viola bass using the Boss Overdrive/Distortion pedal and the Boss OC-3 Dual Super Octave pedal. But before I laid the solos, I laid two tracks with the Embassy, parts that I have titled "riff enhancers." It's that basic bass riff only played an octave up on the neck, with the capo on the octave fret. These were only played during the solo sections and at the end of the song. I again used the Overdrive/Distortion and Super Octave pedals, and I also used the Boss SY-1 guitar synthesizer pedal for these two tracks.

As for the solos: Meh. They don't suck but they ain't amazing. I guess a musician who's really not what can be called an accomplished soloist can more or less move toward that status by attempting solos. The key phrase is "more or less." It took me a while to work out and record both solo sections, but I did finally get solos that work well enough to pass muster. And again I had the capo on the octave fret.

There was a problem with the solos that needed to be overcome. The audio signal, passing through the pedals, especially the overdrive/distortion pedal, then through the bass amp, where I also had the overdrive switched on and cranked a bit, was running pretty hot and powerful. It overwhelmed some of the other tracks, especially the rhythm bass tracks, also utilizing the overdrive/distortion, and it was cancelling them out to a large extent. Once I had the tracks migrated into Logic Pro I had to apply several FX plug-ins to counteract this problem. I had to use the compressor, the Limiter, the noise gate, and the EQ plug-ins to simmer the signal down to give the other signals passage while the solos are going.

Oh, and I also did bump the solos up an octave in Logic Pro, which I'd said I probably wouldn't do, i.e.: I wasn't going to "manipulate this one to sound like a guitar." But after loading it all in and listening to it, I decided it would sound better as faux guitar solo work. With all of these "faux guitar solos" I've done, and may do more of, if I ever put a band together, I'd give those solos to the actual guitar player and give him/her some freedom to embellish. Well. maybe not with the solos in "Just One Shadow," the guitarist would probably have to learn and play those parts as they are.

Another issue I ran into was that when I exported the individual tracks out of the Tascam 24-Track recorder and imported them into Logic Pro, the separate tracks were no longer in synch with each other, and I believe I know the cause. There is an option on the Tascam to delete all unused space, which I utilized. But what it appears that the function does is eliminate blank space on a track from being a part of the linear timeline of the track. In other words, if a track doesn't have performance until 1:11 into the song, the first 1:10 of the song is deleted from the sound file for the track. The playing will still start at 1:11 if the song is played on the Tascam, but when the file is migrated, that first 1:10 is gone. In the new environment the performance starts at 0:00. Thus, in Logic Pro, I had to synch the separate parts up, placing them where they belong in the song.

In the future I will not be deleting unused space on the Tascam. The purpose of that is to free up memory, but after I have finished with all recording for a song, I migrate the tracks onto my computer and can erase the tracks on Tascam. If I ever felt the need to add something to a song it would be easy enough to migrate whatever tracks are needed back onto the Tascam to play the new track(s) along with.

At the moment, "Roll the Dice" is upward of 90% mixed. I should have it both mixed and mastered before I go to bed this evening.

The Saturday configuration of the bedroom recording studio.

Laying the "riff enhancer" bass parts.

Laying the solo work (the faux guitar solos)

The what's-next goal is to re-record the "Chilled October Morning" vocal tomorrow night, and then perhaps remix and re-master that one Thursday night.

I'm getting together with a colleague Friday evening and am playing all the album material that's done, plus maybe demos of other other stuff. It'd be great to have this one in it's album-ready state to play for him.

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B-SIDE COMPLETE:

I did get "Roll the Dice" mixed Tuesday night, as planned. I did not, however, finish mastering the track, though I got that started the same evening. Well, okay, in fact I also did not get the mixing finished Tuesday evening, I only thought I'd finished.

As I was mastering Wednesday evening I decided I needed to do more equalization on the original track, the original recording, because I needed to tweak the EQ on the vocal, which is part of that track. If you remember ‐‐ that is if you've visited this blog before and are in a position to remember ‐‐ the song was originally written and recorded as the music for a promotional video for a comedy play we did at The Guild, that I produced, called The Dice House.

The original recording was a mono recording consisting of a drum machine, the main bass line on my Giannini acoustic bass, one lead vocal, and one back vocal. I gave what we could call a "Free As a Bird"/Threetle treatment to it. Some of you five regulars may know that I did some assembly editing and recorded the addition of a lot of instrumentation on my three basses. I've ran into a little bit of a sonic problem while mixing and mastering. The song was was originally recorded in 2007 on my old Fostex Multitracker X-28 four-track cassette recorder and there is a certain amount of tape hiss I could not filter out without compromising too much of the dynamics. I already had lost a lot of vibrancy to the drum track so I've decided to live with what hiss that I've had to leave in. I did all sorts of compressing, limiting, low passing, etc., but just a certain amount had to stay in. Where's Geoff Emerick when you need him? But, I did go to bed Wednesday evening with a mixed-master of "Roll the Dice" that I am satisfied with.

There was also a pretty noticeable volume difference between the "A" and "B" sides so I normalized the volume between the two, bumping the overall volume of "Just One Shadow" up to meet "Roll the Dice."

So, now, for the single, the next steps are such things as finishing the artwork for the single, both the electronic and physical formats. I've got that artwork started but I need to complete it. I also am in the process of investigating getting the single on iTunes and (I hate to say it) Amazon. On that subject, and more, I am in contact with a music aggregator company who would provide the service of digital distribution to iTunes, Amazon,Apple Music streaming, Spotify, etc. They will also handle pressing CDs, though I don't think provide physical distribution service. Also, this company will also administer composer's royalties collection. Their commission for collecting both streaming fees and songwriter's royalties are quite reasonable, too. I haven't signed on yet, there are few more things I need to know, but the company looks pretty attractive at this point.

I've also emailed a staff person at my local public radio station, WYSO, in Yellow Springs, asking to whom I would send the releases (single and then album) for consideration for radio play. I have not received a reply as of yet. I'll be researching what other public radio stations are viable to send CDs to.

I will shortly be bracing myself for the tens of dollars that will cumulatively roll in.

Also next, and, actually the very next thing, is to re-record the vocal for "Chilled October Morning," which I wasn't able to get to during this past week as I had hoped. Today's a little full with other activities *(see below), but I should be able to get to it tomorrow, unless there's a thunderstorm or something outside, as I am not recording in a sound-proof environment. Who knows, there's some sort of chance I'll get the thing mixed and mastered tomorrow. Probably not a big one, but at least some measure of a chance.

And there's all that remixing and remastering in Logic Pro X of the other early recordings for the project to get to, too.....Sometime soon. And let's not talk about how I'd like to record at least two more songs for the album, either new material I've recently started or finished compositions from my youth, or a mix.

Tuesday night, working on mixing "Roll the Dice."		A screenshot, taken during mastering on Wednesday night, the Logic Pro Multipressor open on the desktop.

DAYTON THEATRE HALL OF FAME INDUCTIONS, TODAY:

The gathering is a picnic setting happening later today at Taylorsville Metropark. The picnic is scheduled for later in the day. I'd planned to head out early and get a hike in there before the festivities begin, but had to nix that notion.

The inducties will be 2020 inductee Hans Unser, who is primarily affiliated with Beavercreek Community Theatre -- there was no function last summer, for the obvious reason, so Hans couldn't be inducted last summer. The 2021 inductees will be Chuck Larkowski, who frequents many Dayton stages, including The Guild's, and Tina McPhearson, now mostly associated with Dayton Playhouse, but was once associated with the then Victoria Theatre Association, now known as Dayton Live.

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THE SINGLE DROPPING, THE ALBUM IN THE WORKS:

But things are in motion and here's how that has come about: In an email conversation with a friend, who is also in the music world, I mentioned that I needed to find a company where it would be practical to get some reasonable inventory of physical Cds of the single, then, of course, the album. One of the places he mentioned was Cd Baby. I also had looked at the requirements to get things up for sale at iTunes. For an indy musician, pretty much anyone who's not a record company, they have to go through a music aggregator. Cd Baby is one of their preferred suggestions.

I checked them out and they clearly seem like a great choice. After some communication, a few phone calls and some emails, I created an account. Of course, if you've read earlier entries of this blog you'll know that my plan, which is what is happening, is to put out a single a ways before the album releases, and that the single has a bonus, or extra, track, a song that will not be on the album. CD baby doesn't technically release singles, in any format, with two or more songs, only one, and only digitally, no CD discs. Thus, the Just One Shadow release is a two-song album, according to CD Baby. However, at least iTunes will consider it a single because anything with three songs or fewer that is a total of fewer than thirty minutes is designated as a single there. I am marketing the Just One Shadow collection as a single, featuring "Just One Shadow" with the bonus track "Roll the Dice."

CD Baby will be marketing the digital version to the digital sellers and the music streaming services, but I did not have them market the CD, because they can't set a wholesale price for an "album" that would be low enough. After markup it would be too high a price for a "CD single." Still, I want a CD single for a few reasons. I've been in contact with Juliet Fromholt, the music director from the Dayton area local public radio station, WYSO, and they would prefer a disc rather than a music file upload; I haven't heard from the other public radio stations, but I am betting most will want a disc. Plus there's other promotional purposes, most of which I haven't even identified, but I want the inventory handy when I do. And I'll probably sell some myself ‐‐ I have some ideas about that.

Their sibling company, Cd Baby Manufacturing, which presses for them, will also press for any other customer. I put in an order for a small number, probably too large a number, of CDs of the single. I may be gifting more copies than I currently plan to. They should arrive around the official release date and I will be sending discs to public radio stations and whatever other places I have come to learn are good places to send a promo copies.

Then there's the income, however meager it shall be, that might be due to me as the writer of the songs on the single and the album. CD Baby Pro Publishing will admin the collection of the both the performance royalties and the mechanical royalties, just as a traditional music publisher would, but without claiming any of the copyrights. They'll register me with either U.S. Performance Rights Organization (PRO), ASCAP or BMI as well as other PRO's in other countries. They'll also register me with the Harry Fox Agency or Mechanical Licensing Collective (MLC), those which collect mechanical royalties domestically and in many other countries, as other mechanical rights companies for other places. I'm not sure between Harry Fox or MLC, but I am goin with BMI, because they are a little better tailored for independent songwriters. Again, I'm not counting on buying a Lamborghini from my songwriting royalties, but, hell, let's be a professional. And five bucks is five bucks.

The new vocal for "Chilled October Morning" was laid Monday night. My voice was a little scratchy Sunday, when I'd planned to again attempt it, so I waited a day. Periodically during the day, Monday, I had a hot cup of Throat Coat tea, while at work at the rent-payer, as well as after I got home.

The raw tracks are on the eight-track recorder, and rather than migrate it all onto the 24-Track recorder, which I could have done, I suppose, I just re-recorded the vocal on the eight-track. Then, on my laptop I migrated the WAV files of the previously recorded tracks, save for the old vocal, and the WAV of the new vocal into a new song project in Logic Pro. Now "Chilled October Morning" is ready to be the first of the previous songs to be re-mixed and re-mastered. Remember that I had originally mixed and "mastered" (if you wanna call it that) this one, as well as the other earlier songs, in Final Cut Pro X, which is really not built to be a Digital Audio Workstation, but rather a digital video movie editor with decent sound mixing capabilities, but not as up to the task as an actual DAW.

The process has begun of getting individual tracks for each of the earlier songs from Final Cut Pro X into Logic Pro X. Of course, I'd already done it with "Chilled October Morning," but that was really dropping the migrated WAVs from the tape recorder into Logic Pro. All but the electric guitar solos (done by my nephew), Dave Bernard, for "Identity" are also the recorder WAVs being directly put into Logic Pro. What I'm talking about is rendering new WAVs from the individual parts in Final Cut, done with the resty of the early material.

The reason I'm doing it this way has to do with how I got them off the recorder and into Final Cut for those earlier songs and their original mixes. In my ignorance, on the first few songs, I did not migrate the WAV files from the recorder to my laptop. I ran audio cables from the recorder to the laptop and recorded playbacks of each tracks from the recorder into GarageBand; then I rendered each track from GarageBand to drop them into Final Cut Pro X. The biggest problem with that is that each individual track (part) for each song starts at a different point, so the different tracks for each song were not in synch and had to be synched, which was sometimes a real bitch.

Since, for these songs, I had everything lined up and synched up in the timelines in FCPX, I rendered each individual track from there as new WAVs, where every sound started precisely where it should. Such as, of the bass should start 10.9 seconds in, that is where it starts on the new WAV. Those new WAVs are what I have put into LPX for the final mixing and mastering.

With "Identity" I only had to do that with the electric guitar lead work, because for some reason the files I received weren't synched ‐‐ and that's odd because Dave had given me some chord work for the song a little while ago, that work was synched. But with the lead work I had to again render new WAVs with them placed correctly in the PCPX version of the multitrack master, and thusly, placed correctly on the new WAVs.

I am moving toward getting the rest of what has already been recorded into the final mix/mastered, release-ready condition. Now all I have to do is record, mix and master two to three more songs. And the window is getting tight. In a few weeks I'll be in rehearsal almost every week night as the AD for The Guild's production of Women in Jeopardy. I'm also on board as its sound designer, and I am designing sound for another production, the Franklin High School production of Treasure Island. So the schedule is about to get dicey. I really want the album out by end of September, but I am guessing the sometime in October, if not November, is more likely.

Monday evening, recording the new vocal for "Chilled October Morning."

DAYTONY PICNIC & DAYTON THEATRE HALL OF FAME INDUCTIONS, LAST SATURDAY:

Saturday, July 31, the DayTony organization held the 2021 version of the annual gala: a picnic at Taylorsville Metropark. As I wrote before, there were no theatre awards this year, since there were barely any productions in 2020/2021, but there were three theatre folk inducted into the Dayton Theatre Hall of Fame:

• 2020 inductee Hans Unser, who is primarily affiliated with Beavercreek Community Theatre
• 2021 inductee Chuck Larkowski, who frequents many Dayton stages, including The Guild's
• 2021 inductee Tina McPhearson, now mostly associated with Dayton Playhouse, but was once associated with the then Victoria Theatre Association, now known as Dayton Live

On that note, I'd have to say the karaoke win of the event goes to Ms. Sarah Caplan for her rendition of "My Shot," from Hamilton.

The 2021 Art In The City event is happening tomorrow in downtown Dayton and several of us from the board are representing The Guild at a booth. Fellow member Scott Madding and I have the first shift.

CAST ADJUSTMENT:

Unfortunately, actor Dave Nickels has had to drop out of the cast of Morning's at Seven. The role of Thor Swanson has been taken over by David Williamson. The full cast is now:

CHARACTER		ACTOR
Theodore Swanson		David Williamson
Cora Swanson		Dorothy Michalski
Aaronetta Swanson		Tori Tuccillo
Ida Bolton		Cheryl Mellen
Carl Bolton		Richard Young
Homer Bolton		Jeff Sams
Myrtle Brown		Heather Atkinson
Esther Crampton		Barbara Jorgensen
David Crampton		Charles Larkowski

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The 2021 Art In The City event is happening today in downtown Dayton and several of us from the board are representing The Guild at a booth.

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MAKIN' STUFF OFFICIAL, AND OTHER ASSORTED PROGRESS:

The "Just One Shadow" single release is still on track for August 11, at least for the digital version. The physical CDs should be in my hands around the same date, give or take a few days. I have began a list of public and independent radio stations that are viable choices to send a CD copy, stations with formats which are or potentially are welcoming of the sort of retro indy pop/rock that my music probably is categorized as.

To be honest, I am not 100% sure, what overall genre I would put my music in, save for rock and pop. I suppose "progressive adult pop/rock," but I am not even sure that is exactly correct. On the Cd Baby submission forms for the "Just One Shadow" single ("album" to them), I had to give them genre information and I put a few things like rock, pop, alternative adult; I also had to put down who the songs sounded like and I wasn't sure what to put there, either. There is a little bit of a Beatles sound, because I am who I am; there's also, at least for the featured cut, a bit of a Genesis sound in there, too. But I can't say that either tag is terribly accurate, though neither is horribly off the mark. So, whatever.

Another music business thing I did over the weekend was join a Performance Rights Organization, as a songwriter. the two domestic choices are ASCAP (American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers) and BMI (Broadcast Music, Inc.). I did chose BMI, as I wrote earlier that I would; again, between the two, BMI is more suited for an indy recording artist like myself. This morning I received the email from BMI officially welcoming me as a member. So that's done. And I have to admit, despite that I am trying to keep my wits about me and not go shopping for a Gulfstream, it still was a thrill to get that email.

As for the mechanical royalties, I thought I would have a choice between The Harry Fox Agency and the MLC (Mechanical Licensing Collective), as the organization that tracks and collects those, but, as it turns out, CD Baby Publishing works with MLC, so that will be who I am with.

As of yet, I have not registered the copyrights for either song nor the recording with the U.S. Copyright Office leg of the Library of Congress, but I'll be doing that shortly, at least for the songs. I may hold off on the recordings until the CDs have arrived so I can send a physical copy to LOC. In fact, I may be required to. Guess I should read up on that.

Of course, for those of you who don't know, legally, the copyright of all the elements, the songs (music & lyrics), the recordings, and all associated artwork already belong to me, and have since each creation was put into any sort of fixed form, physical or digital. They remain mine until I willfully sell or otherwise give up any or all rights. I also already retain the power to grant exclusive or nonexclusive rights to any entity or artist, in perpetuity or for a set length of time.

A songwriter, or other sort of author, does not have to have their work registered with the Copyright Office to own and control the rights. However, going after copyright violations, infringements is much easier when the work is registered. It's just a more solid embracing of the ownership. Plus, it's the only way to sue for damages, at least in the U.S. Not that I ever think that would be an issue for me. I'm not seeing some young rapper sampling something by me, without permission, for their next hip-hop release, or other situations where damages would be a practical part of the equation.

The process of rendering new WAV files of the individual tracks form each song that was edited in Final Cut Pro X. The new WAVs are not all imported into Logic Pro X projects for their re-mixing and re-mastering, but they will be soon. There's only one song left to render into new WAVs: Song #4, "Medley: The Death of the..../Memories of the Times Before/Memories Endbit/The Death of the (reprise)."

Plus I still have those two or three more songs to record, mix and master for the album. I still am not sure what they will be, but I need to get on it. I have been looking backinto the songs of my youth to see if there's at least one there that is right for this project. There just may be.

PLAYWRIGHT WORK ‐‐ FINALLY, THE SECOND READING!:

There is officially a table reading of my play manuscript coming up. It's scheduled for Saturday, October 2. This will be the second reading, the one that was cancelled twice because of the pandemic ‐‐ and I am hoping won't meet the same fate, again, due to this damn Delta variant surge.

The same actors who were on board for the last reading that was cancelled are back on board, two of them from the first reading, one replacement, and someone coming on as the narrator; I had to take on that last role the first time, which was inconvenient, as the playwright should be able to just listen to the reading. It's all about me finding out what it sounds like.

click here to go to the index of the "Playwright Work" blog entries

DTG ART IN THE CITY:

This past Saturday, as you saw in previous posts, several of us Dayton Theatre Guild board members operated a booth at the Art in the City 2021 affair. It was Carol Finley, Rick Flynn, Scott Madden, Sarah Saunders, and myself. We were placed at Third & Main, and we did get traffic, but other locations had more traffic. But we still had a nice amount of visitors the associated fellowship and good will.

We brought a small wardrobe of costumes and put up our brand new selfie backdrop, which will find a spot on our lobby wall. The idea was for folk to have their picture taken in a costume. I was a skeptic. I didn't think many people were going to do it, not only because of CIVID, but just because I was being cynical. I was proven wrong. It was a hit. Early on all the takers were little kids. But, later, the grown-up kids had their turns. We brought an Elvis suit, the white Vegas suit, and that one was quite popular. There must have been four or five, or more, who posed in the Elvis suit.

We also gave away free chances to win two free tickets to any one of our 2021/2022 season shows. I believe five winners are to be picked, or possibly have been picked by now. If they have been, I don't have that information. Anyway, it was a good day and we spread a little bit of good word about the theatre.

The corner of Third & Main, where you could take a selfie in a theatre costume.		Three of the booth volunteers for the day, Rick Flynn, me, & Sarah Saunders.
Taking a pic of a friend in costume, with Carol Findley (in white) in the background.	Sarah shows some hats to a very discerning young girl.	A wider shot of the friends partaking in our costuming photo op.
Sarah was not about to not join in on the fun!		DTG's resident dork at his post.
I'm sorry to admit there are no pics of Scott, mostly because he and I were on the first shift and I was so preoccupied with how we were running the booth that photos slipped my mind until later.

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DTG MASK MANDATE:

MASK REQUIREMENT STATEMENT 08-09-2021 In order to help ensure the health and safety of all our audience members, cast & crew members, and volunteers, we are requiring masks to be worn inside our building at all times, except when actively consuming liquid or food. We further are closing ticket sales at 75 per performance to better accommodate the ability for audience members to distance themselves from others, not part of their group, while seated in the theatre. Please be safe, Dayton Theatre Guild Board of Directors

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WORKING ON ANOTHER SONG FOR THE ALBUM AND ON A NEW WEB PRESENCE:

Last night I worked on the rocker from last Christmas time, with the workshop title, "Winter Vacation Rocker," that which I started in the rented cottage in Dover, Ohio during Winter Vacation 2020. You know, almost eight months ago. I couldn't remember all the chords, and I failed to write them down back in December. Fortunately I'd shot video on my iPhone of me jamming out the chords back then. Last night, I was able to refresh my memory about all the chords and the changes by watching that.

As you can see, from the pics below, I was on the Embassy Pro bass, as I had been, eight months ago. I ran it through all three of the foot pedals, but after some experiment, I decided to only have the Overdrive/Distortion pedal engaged. That might change, later, but for the moment I'm just using that one signal processor. I want a distorted, yet rather clean sound, and the other two pedals, the Boss guitar synthesizer and the Super Octave pedal, were muddying it up. I might find settings later that counter that, but last night I didn't spend a lot of time playing around to see if I could.

After reminding myself what I'd been doing on the neck back when I started this one, I then played with the structure, though no structure had fully been set. I added new chords and a new chord progression section, and I think I'll cut a section from December. We'll see. I started a set of lyrics during Summer Vacation Get Away 2021, which might work with this music, maybe. I didn't try out what I have written of these lyrics last night, but, honestly, I'm a little skeptical I'm going to find the lyrics and this music a match. But, you never know.

It's not live yet, but I have both secured the domain name "KLStorer.com" (really, "klstorer.com"), and purchased server space for it. I'm mentioning it here, as Music Business, but the truth is that site will be dedicated to all my artistic endeavors: acting, music, playwright work, any other writing I might delve into, any future movie making, any other artistic ventures that may be on my horizon.

This blog, which currently is and has been housed under the umbrella of The WriteGallery Creative Writing Website, will be migrating to KLStorer.com. I can't say when, but it won't be too far off. I definitely want KLStorer.com to be live by the time the single drops on August 31, though, based on the amount of plates I have in the air, it will not be a fully developed site. But a decent presence will be on-line and that's a good start. The blog's move to there is going to be later, but again, not into the distant future.

Watched a little bit of Rush in concert on YouTube, (i.e.: Geddy Lee on bass), before I settled down to work on the song, thus, ended up feeling both inspired and intimidated!	Not tuning a piano, not tunafish, probably that tuna casserole, again.	Working on "Winter Vacation Rocker."
More pics from last night, working on "Winter Vacation Rocker."
"What the heck were them chords I was playing, way back in December?" Or: "The value of a video-recording of jammin' out a new song you're writing, for later reference." Yes, I could have written it down, in my non-music-theory-based, yet effective, personal system. But, I did not.

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OFFICIALLY THE NEXT SONG, & AN EXCEL DOCUMENT:

Note that the first photo in yesterday's blog post is a pic of a Rush live video from YouTube, on my laptop. I watched that and a few other videos, some of other Rush performances, right before I got down to work at refreshing myself on "Winter Vacation Rocker." Note also that I stated that "I added new chords and a new chord progression section." The chords and chord changes in that new section are more than simply reminiscent of what Rush might do, it's so obviously directly influenced by them. It's also designated as the verse chord progression, so as I write lyrics and compose the melody, I think I am going to consciously attempt to remove both from the Rush sonic neighborhood. Likewise, I'll try to avoid Neal-Peart-style lyrics. The bass part, on the other hand, just might be my pale imitation of Geddy Lee's work; did I say "pale imitation?" I meant: "faded-almost-to-the-point-of-white pale imitation." In other words, it'll probably be in the spirit of his style but definitely without his skill level.

Though I haven't done it yet, I need to sit down and create an Excel workbook with spreadsheets to cover expenses and income from the music venture as well as acting and any other artistic activity that might come up. And, who knows? Some others just might come up. Though I must admit, I more than anticipate that the expenses entries are going to far outweigh the income entries, both in numbers of, and in values. If I clear a profit ‐‐ *(IF)* -- it won't be financing that Lamborghini or a summer house in the Caribbean.

I didn't point it out yesterday, but I've done a slight reconfiguration of the little corner space that becomes my "bedroom studio." It really just amounts to a reposition of there the little table where I place whichever multi-track recorder I'm using, plus the correlating reposition of where my chair is in the space.

I decided I might want to write down the chords, the chord progressions, and the sections of the song.

More actual rehearsal of Song #11.

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T-MINUS THIRTEEN DAYS UNTIL THE SINGLE; AND THE WINTER VACATION ROCKER IS ROCKIN':

"Just One Shadow" releases two weeks from yesterday, on August 31. As of yesterday, there is a promotional web page up and running, at HearNow, powered by Cd Baby. It plays about a thirty-second clip of each of the two songs. So, if you've been curious as to what either or both of these songs sound like:

klstorer.hearnow.com.

It also has the following copy about the "A-side":

"Just One Shadow," the first single from K.L.Storer, speaks to the isolation, the separateness of family and community people all over the world have experienced because of the COVID pandemic , and it speaks to the hope for an ending to it all.

There'll be some modifications to the page. Right now I have links to my facebook, instagram, and YouTube accounts. After the single drops, I'll add links to it from iTunes, Amazon, Apple Music, Spotify, Pandora, etc., after I know what those links will be. As soon as I have it up-and-running, I'll be linking to klstorer.com, too, for general info as well as most probably as the place to purchase a physical copy of the CD single, and later, the album.

I recorded a demo version of the "Winter Vacation Rocker" on my eight-track recorder, a basic rhythm track with a basic drum rhythm and the chorded bass part. I have started the lyrics, though I'm not far along. I have the first verse and first line of the second verse. But I have no chorus lyrics, and I have no idea what the actual title of the song will be. In the last blog entry I stated how I wanted to be careful not to mimic Rush too closely in either the lyrical style or the vocal melody, since the chord progression of the verses has a Rush feel to it, and the chorus section isn't far off.

But, in my mind, there is similarity in style to what Rush's lyricist Neal Peart, rest his soul, might have written, but I'm happy with the direction they are going, so: too bad ‐‐ plus, my seeing a correlation with Peart's style might jus be my own delusion.

Musically, the structure is set. There's an instrumental intro that runs almost a minute, with two separate chord progression parts, then two verses, then the chorus. Next is verse number three, that will lead into the instrumental solo section, a reprise of the intro music with slight variations. After the solo section, will be one more verse and the chorus again, which will lead to the ending with a reprise of a little rocker chord part that also appears right before the solo section. The whole song is "rocker chord parts," but I'm using the term simply to identify that little section. The song runs six-and-a-half minutes.

I want to get on finishing this one and I admit I'm feeling a bit of anxiety about it. I'll probably start the process of recording the instrumentation before the lyrics and the vocal melody are finished and ready, since I have strong ideas about the instrumentation. I've done it before. I may get started on that tonight, programming the drumkit in GarageBand, if nothing else. The official recording will, of course, happen on the 24-Track recorder.

My hand-written record of the chords and chord progressions for Song #11, aka: "Winter Vacation Rocker"

Listening to playback of the Song #11 demo.

Rehearsing Song #11, so that when it's time for the bone fide recording, I don't have to do 195 takes before I get it right.

ONE FLYING, SPINNING DISH THAT NEEDS ATTENDED TO:

Recently, on my facebook page, I posted the following:

Right now, there are lots of things needing my attention, but one that's at the front of the line is getting klstorer.com up and running. I'm going to build and maintain the site using WordPress via GoDaddy, and at this point I know al,most nothing about using Wordpress. I want to at least get a barebones up before the single drops, with at least the ability to sell the physical copies of the single from there ‐‐ though I suspect I'll be selling them with lower than cost price tag.

Of course, klstorer.com will be the hub for all my artistic ventures, as I think I have written before. And, as I know I've said before, at some point soon, I plan on this blog migrating there. I think there's a chance that at sometime before the end of this year or 2022, at the latest, The WriteGallery Creative Writing Website may finally gasp its death-null breath, after having no new material added for years, save for some occasional things from me.

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CALLING RINGO STARR, STEWART COPELAND, OR....RICH HISEY*:

Yesterday, I made several attempts to program the drumkit part for "Winter Vacation Rocker" in GarageBand, but found none of several different drum-style choices to work.

I had first sat down and figured out the exact chord structure of the song, including and especially the number of measures for each section or part of a section. Plus I made sure I was correctly identifying the chords; I used my Giannini acoustic bass to be sure I was getting the correct spelling. That was Wednesday night.

Last night, as I programmed, I also played along on my Embassy Pro, with the volume low on the Ampeg bass amp (to neither bother nor notify the neighbors) while I played back each GarageBand drum part on my laptop. I didn't like anything I came up with. Most were based on the foundation of the drum track loop I used when first writing the song, then recording the demo, but as I've been altering that basic drum part, what I have been getting doesn't work. But, I don't want the reiteration of the original loop for six-and-a-half minutes; there needs to be some variety between the different sections; there needs to be drum fills, and some variety to those, too. I'll start over from scratch today, or maybe tomorrow, but I hope, today.

*Rich Hisey: my musical collaborator from my late-teens into my early 30s, and the drummer in the several different configurations of bands we put together. He also was on keyboards and occasional guitar, with one of several other musicians (depending on the band lineup) filling in on drumkit during songs where he played keys or guitar.

Using the acoustic bass to reference "Winter Vacation Rocker" chords to correctly write them down.

My "drummer" for most songs in the album project ‐‐ aka: GarageBand.

Listening to what ultimately became a rejected programed drum part for "Winter Vacation Rocker."

Click here for the promocast of the show

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"WINTER VACATION ROCKER" RECORDING HAS BEGUN:

Saturday I got the drum part for "Winter Vacation Rocker" programmed into GarageBand. I wanted to at least get a start on officially recording on Saturday, but that didn't happen. I had a few hours of one of my occasional, self-diagnosed bouts of cloaked dysthymia. After a bit of a nap I took a nice long shower, letting the hot-as-I-can-stand-it water become the cold-as-I-can-stand-it water, and I was ready to get down to business. But enough of the day was gone that all I got done was the programming and a few play-alongs to adjust the programming to end up with a complete drum part for the song, one that works well for the song ‐‐ much better than the failed attempts earlier in the week.

Yesterday was productive though it might have been a little more productive had I not had to waste an hour of my day driving back to and from The Guild, which I had visited earlier to deal with some business, and where I'd left my phone in the booth. Still, I managed to lay a nice chunk of rhythm tracking down on the Tascam 24-Track.

Rather than importing the rendered GarageBand drum part onto the Tascam, I ran a stereo sound cord from my MacBook Pro into the recorder and recorded playback of the drum part onto the stereo 13/14 channels on the recorder. I also recorded three separate chorded rhythm bass tracks, all the same part. Two of them have the exact same settings on the Boss Overdrive/Distortion pedal, the third has less distortion and overdrive. In the stereo pan, the first two will each be full right or full left, respectively. The third will sit in the middle.

Though it's not ready to be recorded yet, I have started working out the bone fide bass line for the song. All I have down right now is the basics of the song, the root notes for the chords and chord progressions. After I have a strong handle on that, I'll start composing the bass line, adding counter-melody, fills, and flourishes. I'm not sure how long this will take. My goal is to add new tricks. As I was dropping a few fills in yesterday, it was the same ol', same ol' from what I consider my limited bass player's arsenal. The aim here is to do something, or some things, new, and some things that I have to push myself to be a better musician to play. I actually took most of the day off today to get at least some hours in working on this bass line. My evening is spoken for as AD for Women in Jeopardy at The Guild, where we have auditions tonight and tomorrow night.

As for "Winter Vacation Rocker," I'm pretty much thinking this will have another of those "faux lead guitar solos," where I bump the octave of a bass solo up, maybe even two octaves this time, during the mixing process in Logic Pro.

There still has been no final title for the song jump out of what lyrics are written. I have made a small amount of progress on the lyrics, having added a couple lines to verse two in the last few days. But, a title has not yet presented itself. My suspicion is that it'll manifest from the lyrics in the chorus, that which I have not written, yet. I suppose I could jump ahead and give starting the chorus lyrics a try, but, I only need two more lines to the second verse before I get to the chorus, so I'm inclined to wait, unless the Muse whispers in my ear.

Saturday night (or technically, early Sunday morning), playing along with the new GarageBand drums for "Winter Vacation Rocker."		Setting up the 24-track for the drum part ‐‐ assigning audio inputs to channels.
Recording the drum part from my Mac onto the Tascam.	Recording the chorded rhythm bass part.	Working on the bass line.

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THE HEALTH OF A HAND & THE TURNS OF SOME PHRASES:

The "Winter Vacation Rocker" bass line is pretty much composed. I havent yet worked out that fill that I haven't done before, the one that I'll have to practice to be good enough to play ‐‐ or the multiple fills that meet that description. Before I record the bass line, I do want to have at least one of those. Two or three would be better, but incorporating at least one would make me happy.

You can see by the photos below that I decided to switch from the Embassy Pro to the Viola bass for the bass line. I had thought about going for a very Chris Squire/Geddy Lee, punchy, steel, trebly bass tone for that bass line, which would call for the Embassy and its roundwound strings, because this song is pretty much a prog rock song, albeit not with any of the usual virtuoso instrumentation going on, even if I master that fill or two that will push my skill further.

I'd pulled the Viola out for an idea I had to run two unison bass lines for the song, the Viola and the Embassy, probably with the more bassy Viola favoring one side of the stereo pan, and the more punchy, trebly Embassy on the other side. Then I was going to use the Embassy for a featured bass solo in the instrumental intro to the song, that last thing which may still happen. But I used the Viola to finish composing the song's base line, and even with the mellower flatwound strings I decided that the tone I was getting works by itself for the song as the bass line. With the tone adjustments both on the guitar and on my Ampeg bass amp I got a nice punchy tone ‐‐ actually a bit like the tone for song #7, "Chilled October Night," also mostly prog rock, and also played on the Viola bass.

I finished working the bass line out, save for those un-composed fills mentioned above, Monday, then rehearsed it a bit, both to practice what is worked out, including some small sections which I can do but need to practice for better finesse, and of course, I was rehearsing to get to those new fills, currently beyond my skill. But I had to take yesterday off because parts of what I'm doing was straining my left hand, my fretting hand. Either I've been using improper technique, in a manner that might cause damage to my hand, especially in one particular section (one of those parts I need to rehearse to finesse), or, there are a lot of little muscles in my hand that aren't tuned up enough to escape quick fatigued ‐‐ maybe both. I must admit I am not practicing on a regular basis, which calls into question my level of commitment as a "musician," doesn't it?

My fret hand suffered a good amount of fatigue and started to ache quite a bit. My right hand did a bit, too, but not nearly as bad. It was clear that, yesterday, I needed to give my left hand a rest, that even if my fretting technique was not improper, I might still push myself to some real damage, which I have no desire to do. I am going to work on the bass line tonight and I'll be trying a new approach to fretting technique for those particular trouble sections.

There's barely been any progress on the lyrics for song #11. Last night I finished off a line, the third in the second verse, but that's the only gain since the last time I worked on the words. There's still no official title. I'm also starting to wonder if I don't want to put the lyrics I've started for this aside and start over with something new. That may just be a fleeting bout of doubt that will disipate before long. With the current lyrics, I'm trying to be vivid and poetic and whenever I do that with lyrics I become concerned that I'm pushing into the pretension zone. There is a lot of metaphor in what I've written thus far, in fact it's virtually all metaphorical, which also brings to point my being in the neighborhood of Neal-Peart/Rush style lyrics, which, as I've written before about this song, I'd rather avoid since the song has at least some bit of a Rush feel to the music. I had already recognized this Peart similarity and had decided to live with it, but, now, in the second-thought phase, I'm questioning that. My guess is I won't throw out the these lyrics, but, we'll see. I plan to work on the lyrics at least a little bit today, too.

The switch to the Epiphone Viola Bass.

Donut & hot chocolate break.

Getting the bass line closer to ready.

AUDITIONS DOWN:

We had a decent turn out resulting in some good choices for all the roles -- there will be actors not cast who could easily have been successfully cast in the show. The final cast list is pending, as Margie mulls over her choices, but should be made public sometime in the next few days.

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ANNOUNCING THE CAST:

The show is officially fully cast and the table reading is tonight. Here is the cast of the show:

CHARACTER		ACTOR
Mary		Cassandra Engber
Jo		Peggy McDonald Allen
Liz		Heidi A. Porter
Amanda		Valkyrie Williams
Trenner		Jimmy Fritchman
Jackson/Kirk		Alex Carmichal

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VIOLA'S OUT, EMBASSY'S IN:

I mixed together a rhythm section demo of "Winter Vacation Rocker" with the tracks thus far officially finished for the song ‐‐ the drums, the three chorded rhythm bass parts on the Embassy Pro, and also a trail bass line on my Viola bass. The composition of that bass line is mostly finished but I still have some things to work out, such as those fills that I've written of above. But overall, the bass line is created.

As I listened to this new demo I decided that using the Viola bass for that bass line doesen't work, after all. There's a bit of a punch, but for this song that Geddy Lee/Chris Squire punchy, metalic sound isn't present enough using the Viola with the Paul McCartney-esque roundwound strings, regardless of how much I push the treble tones and subdue the bassy tones. I simply didn't get the weighty steel tone and feel that the progressive rock nature of this song requires.

When I got home from the first rehearsal (the read-through) of The Guild show I'm AD-ing, I pulled out the Embassy and the 24-Track, set everything up and auditioned the bass line on the Embassy, playing along with the finished rhythm track instrumentation. It's a go with the Embassy and its roundwound strings. My hope is that I can nail down the fills and garnishes on the bass line and get it officially recorded before the weekend is over. Tonight would be lovely, but that may not be a realistic goal.

Truthfully, I'd like to have not only the bass line, but several other parts of the song laid down in the multi-track master before the end of weekend. I have an idea to enhance the harmonics of the lower chords on the bass, which, by the shear nature of their lower tones, are a little muddy. I also plan to add piano. I doubt I'd get to the place where I would be ready to lay down the faux guitar solo, but I can at least start working on that. It'd be lovely to have the vocal recorded by end of the weekend, but I don't even have the lyrics done yet. I have the chorus lyrics and two verses left to write, as well as the last line of the second verse to finish.

And I'd like to record at least two more songs for the project. November is looking far more realistic as album-release-date territory than is October.

The Tascam 24-Track Digital Portastudio DP-24SD, Wednesday evening. The two mirrored chorded rhythm bass parts on tracks #1 & #2; the third chorded rhythm bass part on track #3 (those three played on the Epiphone Embassy Pro); the trail bass line on track #4 (on the Epiphone Viola Bass); and the GarageBand programmed drum kit part on stereo tracks #13/14.
My usual set-up for recording the bass (regardless of type of part or which Epiphone is used). I plug a cord with a 35mm male input into the 35mm headphones jack on the Ampeg BA-210 bass amplifier, and for adequate length, patch that cord into another that, with a quarter-inch adaptor, runs into the guitar input on the back of the Tascam 24-track recorder. This way I have the extra amplification and tone control from the amp. But by using the headphones jack I circumvent sending the signal to the amp's speakers, thus neither annoying my neighbors in adjoining apartments, nor notifying them that there is musical equipment in my home to be stolen. *Until I get a working sound pick-up system for the Giannini acoustic/electric bass, I have to record that one using a microphone.
The beginning of tracks in Logic Pro X for what is, at the moment, still "Winter Vacation Rocker."	The switch back to the Epiphone Embassy Pro Bass.	Running the "Winter Vacation Rocker" bass line back on the Embassy.

THE JEOPARDY BEGINS:

I've been in contact with Playwright Wendy MacLeod and she has granted us clearance to use dialogue in the promotional trailer for the show. I have referred to our promotional DV movies for a good ten years as the "promocasts," a hybrid term that merged "promotional" with "podcast," but I've decided to retire that term. I'm now producing much shorter DV movies, using much less material from the plays, and there haven't been interviews or commentary for a few seasons now, so it seems much more appropriate, or accurate, to call them "trailers" now. And we have permission to use dialogue from the script with our trailer for Women in Jeopardy. Now all that is needed is to find the best 30-60 second moment from the show to use.

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RELEASED TODAY!

• iTunes & Apple Music
• Amazon
• Spotify
• Pandora
• Deezer

The physical CDs arrived yesterday, too. I will have them available for sale directly from me, shortly. In the meantime, I;ve sent off copies to six public radio stations the have, or appear to have, programming that will welcome the musical style of the song, one, of course, being our Dayton-area local, WYSO.

And here is the music video:

*) Dec 1, 2022 addendum: you may note that the video says it's "remastered"e; ‐‐ this is the remastered version that released with the album, over a year after this post, and the video was rereleased with the new audio

THE BASS LINE ‐‐ PROGRESS BUT DEFINITELY NOT PERFECTION;
& THE LYRICS ‐‐ PROGRESS, AND IF I KEEP THEM, I MAY HAVE A TITLE:

The bass line for "Winter Vacation Rocker" is coming along, but I haven't yet perfected it to the point that I'm ready to record it. It was a wise choice to move it to the Embassy Pro and get that Chris Squire/Geddy Lee progressive-rock texturing. It is too bad the skill level of this bass work won't match that of these two great players, but, you know: I do the best I can.

I've been frustrating myself, again getting in touch with my particular lower skill level, by constantly flubbing what ought to be an easy little fill to play. It's part of the hold up to laying the part in the multi-track master. I also have one other, extended, more elaborate fill that I haven't completely composed as of yet. Patience is a virtue, or so I'm told.

A little more wordage has been added to the lyrics. I finished the second verse and have a couple lines of the chorus written. I may have stumbled upon the final title for the song, too. The first line of the chorus has a candidate, an interesting turn of phrase. But I'll hold off on a decision until more words have been committed to the song.

Rehearsing "Winter Vacation Rocker" over the last few days.
The CD of the "Just One Shadow" single. I have to admit, it was pretty cool to hold one, open it and have it look, you know, not amateur.		The "Just One Shadow" page at Amazon.
The "Just One Shadow" page at iTunes.

A NEW WEB PRESENCE:

It's quite bare bones at the moment but klstorer.com is officially launched and on the internet.

An elder statesman of the Dayton theatre community has left us. Jim Lockwood passed away yesterday. There have already been many outpourings of fond tributes to Jim, and I doubt I can rival any of them. But let me give my feeble attempt.

My first stage experience as an adult was landing the role of Johnny Pat in the DTG production of The Cripple of Inishmaan. I had actually gone to auditions with the role of Dr. McSherry in mind. It wasn't a big role, the doc had like three or four scenes. That role was won by some fellow named Jim.

A few different things I learned early about Jim. He was a consummate professional when it came to his stage work, he had a delightfully corny sense of humor ‐‐ he left no pun unspoken ‐‐ and he was a really helluva nice man.

Unless my memory is failing me, I don't believe we ever shared a production again, in any capacities. But, you couldn't be a part of Dayton area theatre without frequently encountering Jim, on stage, as a director, or as an enthusiastic audience member.

Jim is a legend in Dayton theatre, and a long-respected member of this theatre community who left an indelible legacy. And, did I mention what a nice, lovely, kind man he was?

Rest in peace, Jim. We miss you.

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THE JEOPARDY CONTINUES:

We'll start to have at least the skeleton of our set at Tuesday's rehearsal, with the Morning's at Seven set having been struck the previous Sunday (i.e.: today).

So far, my participation as AD has been mostly as a fly in the wall. I've thrown in a couple minor suggestions on blocking, but not many. Since we have a stage manager I haven't had to record the blocking in the prompt book, either.

Directed by Rick Flynn Produced by Christina Tomazinis This 1939 comedy tells the story of four aging sisters who live in a small mid-western town, and their long-standing sibling rivalries. Three of them ‐‐ Ida, Cora and Arry ‐‐ have lived next door to each other for fifty years, and Esther, the eldest, lives only a few blocks away. We quickly learn that living so close to one another has taken its toll. Some start to question their lives and decide to make some changes before it's too late. In 1980, Morning's At Seven was nominated for the Tony award for Best Revival of a Play. Showing weekends Aug 20-Sep 5, 2021 Tickets:

The Cast of Morning's at Seven

CHARACTER		ACTOR
Theodore Swanson		David Williamson
Cora Swanson		Dorothy Michalski
Aaronetta Swanson		Tori Tuccillo
Ida Bolton		Cheryl Mellen
Carl Bolton		Richard Young
Homer Bolton		Jeff Sams
Myrtle Brown		Heather Atkinson
Esther Crampton		Barbara Jorgensen
David Crampton		Charles Larkowski

BACK IN THE THEATRE SEAT AGAIN:

Over the weekend I finally was back in main stage spaces witnessing live theatre again. Friday evening I saw >Morning's at Seven, by Paul Osborn, at The Guild, the the next evening I saw It's Only a Play, by Terrence McNally, at Beavercreek Community Theatre. Both were season openings that were the first casualties of the pandemic shutdowns in the spring of 2020 at the two respective theatres. The Guild show was about to enter into its Tech Week when our board made the difficult but inevitable decision to pull the plug, and not too long later the state shut down all live performances, anyway.

Some readers may know that I was originally in the cast of BCT's It's Only a Play in the role of Ira Drew, which was successfully taken over by some new kid named Saul Caplan. We were still in blocking rehearsals when this one was shut down. But some of us were going to drop out, anyway. I am a heart attack survivor with hypertension, so I am on the COVID-19 vulnerable list, which was especially germaine at that time since I was not vaccinated as of yet, no one was.

But, both shows came back, with some cast replacements for various reasons. I didn't revive my role because of my album project. I simply did not want to be in rehearsals rather than in my little home studio, or otherwise giving time and energy to the music work. It's Only a Play did not suffer from the loss of me on the boards, and Morning's at Seven faired quite well with its cast changes. Both were very fine productions that were lovely ways to reintroduce myself to the theatre audience seat ‐‐ even if I did have to wear a mask to be there.

The looming question is, however, will any of our theatres make it to the end of this current season without another shutdown?

On a related note, I and several hundred other theatre folk spent Saturday afternoon at the Dayton Playhouse celebrating the life of the late Jim Lockwood, one of our theatre community's beloved elder statesmen. I think everyone who attended would agree that Jim would have approved. There was applause, the was laughter, and, of course, there were tears. I've already had my say about the passing of this lovely man, I'm not going to reiterate it here. And I'm not going the recount the several wonderful perfomances of things that were special to Jim's heart. But, I will say, that the standing ovation Jim was given at the end of the official event was overwhelmingly heart-warming and beautiful.

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THE BASS, THE WORDS, THE BIZZ:

It's good that I compose parts that are a bitch for me to perform. Once I can play the part, I've improved my musicianship, even if just a little. It'd be better if I played every damn day instead of just when there is a song in the works. That would take some smarter time management and a level of discipline that I don't seem to have committed to. That last point is mostly because of the other passions that draw me in: theatre and such.

I've spent several days rehearsing and attempting to perfect the bass line I've composed for "Winter Vacation Rocker," and meeting up with some decent amount of frustration. There's one particular fill, which I believe I've made mention of, already, that I am flubbing far more than I'm executing satisfactorily. Honestly, it's not exactly an impossible fill, either. It ought to not be so hard for me to nail consistently. But, it is. I think ‐‐ I know ‐‐ this is because I am not woodshedding on my bass the way I should, going back to that not playing every damn day, and not spending time practicing exactly the kind of fingering and hand positioning that this particular fill requires.

However, last night I did have a recording session to lay the bass line down in the multi-track master recording. I was not successful. I did thirty takes; none of them worked. That particular fill wasn't always the issue, either. in fact, in many of the takes, I didn't make it to that point in the song.

Actually, a lot of the time I wasn't flubbing a note, but rather getting the wrong sound from the bass. As mentioned before, this song is, for all intents and purposes, a progressive rocker and I'm going for that harsher, metalic sound to the bass, that Geddy Lee/Chris Squire sound. That means I'm on the Embassy Pro bass with its roundwound strings, those strings giving the more punchy, steel sound to the bass notes. And in this song I am pushing the treble tone settings, and keeping the bass tone settings lower or off, on both the guitar and the amp. When you do that, especially with roundwound strings, how you pluck the strings becomes a sensitive matter. A slight difference in the pressure I use, or even the exact part of my finger I use, or which finger I use, makes a noticeable difference in the harshness, the tenor, and the punch of each note. The part or finger, or finger used, quite literally has to do with the size and density of the calluses on the fingers.

I also have an exact arrangement for this bass line, with particular fills in particular spots, that I am adamant is performed for the song. With most of what I've recorded already there's been a bit of a free-forum approach, with a litte arsenal of similar fills for a song that I've pulled from, each take being slight different in terms of what exact fill was played at what moment. This time, for whatever reason, I am being rigid about what is where.

So, some errors that blew a take were performance flubs, where I missed a fret and played a note out of key or I missed the beat (or some such thing), some were blowing the execution of a fill, especially that one fill, but often it was because what I played, though it worked perfectly fine, was being played in the wrong moment ‐‐ I lost my place. The last being those errors that, where it being performed live, I'd be likely the only one who knows or cares, and clearly I'd just move on. There was also an execution issue at times, where I played the right thing, but I felt the attack was either too weak or too punchy.

I suppose this points to some bit of perfectionism. Oh well. I'd argue it more speaks to a striving for excellence, which I think is a pretty damn good direction.

Also, I changed one note of the bass line, which gave me a clearer, cleaner moment that works perfectly for that section in the song (actually, sections)

The goal was to have significantly more of the instrumentation recorded for this song than I have done. I still have, at least, another bit of bass work to do ‐‐ just some filler work to enhance the high-notes on some bass chords in part of the chorus section where, because of the lowness of the notes, it's a little muddy and undefined ‐‐ a danger of bass chording. And, to further help define the chords, overall, I'm going to add the Legato III piano, though it's possible that I use the organ voice rather than a piano voice.

This afternoon: takes number 31, plus....

There's been little gain on the lyrics, in terms of adding lines. I believe I added one line to the chorus. But, I have tweaked all the lines in the two verses that are already written. Essentially I trimmed words to get more conciseness, and, quite frankly, to have less syllables in each verse so I'll be finished with each line before the bass fills at the end of the chord progressions.

That last point has everything to do with thinking ahead to when and if I ever perform this live and am playing bass and singing at the same time. I try to not make that a consideration, because I don't want the performance on the recording to be influenced, or compromised, by such an issue, but this time, I did consider it. Mostly the editing was done to tighten the lyrics up for the the sake of that, itself, however.

Honestly, if I every did get a band together to play these songs live, I'd have to re-learn virtually every song again, anyway. I worked out these parts on these songs close to recording them, then recorded them, then never have played them again, thus they never got burned into me. I listen to some of the mixes I have right now and I think, What the hell am I dong there? How the hell did I play that?

I'm still not ready to commit to move on from the workshop title, though I suspect that the first few words of the chorus lyrics will end up the title; I'm still holding off to see if something else pops up that it better.

Last week I mailed out more CDs of the single to public radio stations, two in Chicago. I mailed one to my sister, too, 'cause, you know, because. I literally could have dropped it off since I was going to spend a couple evenings in Dayton, relatively close to her home, but I don't know, her getting it in the mail just seemed cool.

I'll be piecemealing the mailing of the CD to public radio stations. It takes a little research to find likely candidates, plus I need to staggar paying the postage. I've thus far sent them first-class; I may resort to media-class postage in the future.

There are a lot of business admin details needing addressed. I need to fully hook up with artist accounts on the download and streaming platforms. I'm in the midst right now of clearing up some confusion I have about my associations with Sound Exchange and BMI, specifically in relationship to my connection with CD Baby music publishing admin. I also need to officially register the songs on, and the phonograph recording of, the single with the U.S. Copyright Office.

Discovering and taking advantage of other avenues of promotion is not a bad idea, either. Klstorer.com is up and running, though it needs more content and a more sophisticated design at some point. And I've been doing promotion on social media. It's also been suggested that I start an artist's page on facebook. Although, I have to admit, that last point feels like I'd be creating a fan page before there is a fan base. And, will there ever be numbers that could realistically constitute "fan-base" status? I do have a big ego, but even my ego doesn't find that scenario plausible.

Still, though I don't foresee anything close to hundreds-of-thousands of downloads or millions of YouTube hits, Still, I need to get better versed at the marketing/promotional stuff. Why not make my music available and in the awareness of as many people as possible?

Practice, practice, practice! Rehearsing "Winter Vacation Rocker," last Wednesday evening.....
....Practice, practice, practice! Rehearsing "Winter Vacation Rocker," last Thursday evening.... I also rehearsed it Friday and Saturday, but no photos were snapped.
Yesterday's futile attempt to lay the bass line down in the multi-track master.

Today would have been my father's one-hundred-second birthday. HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAD George A. Storer 1919-1995

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THE LAST WEEK OF WORK ON THE SONG THAT NOW HAS ITS REAL NAME:

The main bass line for what is now "Embracing the Palpable," that bass part with my attempt at Chris Squire/Geddy Lee sounding bass work, is FINALLY done. I laid it last Tuesday night after two separate recording sessions that day, one before the Women in Jeopardy rehearsal and one after. Between the two Tuesday sessions I did forty-three more takes.

Let me repeat that:

Between the two Tuesday sessions I did forty-three more takes.

For those keeping score, though I doubt anyone besides me is, including the unsuccessful Monday evening recording session, that's a total of seventy-three takes. But, like I wrote last entry, not all of the takes were full takes where I played through the entire 6:50 song. For many, the majority, really, I didn't get too far in before something unacceptable happened. And, again, as a carryover from that first, unsuccessful recording session on Monday:

...some errors that blew a take were performance flubs, where I missed a fret and played a note out of key or I missed the beat (or some such thing), some were blowing the execution of a fill, especially that one fill, but often it was because what I played, though it worked perfectly fine, was being played in the wrong moment -- I lost my place....

Am I just that much of a perfectionist, or, just that unaccomplished as a musician? It's probably a bit of both. To be fair to myself, I don't believe I'm a terrible musician, I'm just not as accomplished as I want to be. I suspect that will always be the case, no matter how much better I get. I hate to repeat myself but that doesn't bother me as a bad thing. It seems to me a certain amount of dissatisfaction with one's own work keeps an artist in reality about their skill level and motivates them to improve. I can both be satisfied with what I've done, be it musically, theatrically, or literarily, and still point out a myriad of flaws in that work. That, I think, is a good thing. And I think one should have standards that must be met. In this case, that standard resulted in seventy-three takes.

A few of the takes, toward the end were punch in/out takes where I replaced a section. What I really needed to replace was a little mini-bass solo at the end of the solo section, but I didn't want to use the Tascam foot switch for the punch in, which would have facilitated the ability to punch in at the very pont where that little solo begins. But that whole solo section is separated on both ends by a few beats of rests, where it is easy to hit the Record button, then the Stop button on either side. So I did that and played the whole section which leads up to that little solo at the end of the section.

It took me a while, but I finally got the whole bass line down to suit me.

Wednesday evening I laid a track that was much simpler: two takes. I used the Viola bass to enhance the high notes to the bass chords in the chorus section. Again, as I wrote in the last blog entry, the low tones of the bass chords in the chorus section cause the harmonics of the chords to get a little lost. The raw chords sound a bit muddy and the high notes are not distinguished very well. So, I played just the high notes on the Viola bass, to help bump them up in the mix, I ran the bass through the Overdrive/Distortion pedal, with just a tad of distortion, to help this addition blend in with the bass chording on the other tracks. This helps define those chords, significantly.

Listening to the playback, after adding the bass garnish, if we can call it that, I have to say I was so far most happy with the rhythm track as it was shaping up.

Friday, I sat down at the Legato III piano and worked out the piano part for the song. As per usual, nothing fancy going on, no Elton John style piano work happening, since I'm not anywhere close to that league. I did what I always do, I played what I call "rhythm piano." The piano won't be prominent in this piece, it's there to help create the base of the song and also to help enhance the harmonics of the chords ‐‐ as discussed above, the bass chords muddy the harmonics a bit and the piano will help accentuate the melodic tones of the whole chord structure.

Saturday was a non-music day but Sunday I laid the piano track, and it only took four takes. I also worked out and recorded an organ track, using the organ voice on the Legato. That one was a few more takes, twenty total. At least it wasn't seventy-three! The organ plays that same shoring-up-the-harmonics purpose as the piano.

With the exception of the lead work during the solo section, I don't think I'll add any more instrumentation to this one. I think after I've composed and recorded the solo, which at this point I planned to do on the Viola bass, ran through the SY-1 guitar synthesizer pedal, the only thing left will be the vocal. At this point I think it'll be just a lead vocal, no back-up vocals, no harmony vocals.

I haven't done a mixdown of all this instrumentation in Logic Pro, yet, but I have listened to playback, crudely mixed in the 24-Track recorder, and the song is rockin'!

You can see from the title of this section that the song now has its official title, the workshop title it has bore for nine months, "Winter Vacation Rocker," is now retired. The chorus lyrics are done and I have taken the title from where I expected I would, the first few words of the first line of the chorus. As you read above, the title is now: "Embracing the Palpable."

The title is actually derived from a tweak of that line. Originally it would have been "Stroking the Palpable," but I changed the verb during a revision fest where I went through everything already written and tightened, tweaked, and otherwise altered. There is still have half of the third verse and all of the fourth verse to be written, and I need to do that ASAP because I'd like the vocal recorded by the end of this coming weekend.

I'm going with a very heavy metaphoric motif, which always worries me. I'm looking for this to be quite poetic, but I'm always concerned when I do this that if I am not actually being pretentious, that it will still come off that way. It also doesn't help steer me away from the song being too derivative of Rush. There already is an element of that in the music, and adding on poetic turns of phrases that might remind of Neil Peart's lyrics, further takes it down that rabbit hole. But I like the lyrics, so I'll just have to risk being accused of doing an imitation of Rush, be it a good imitation or a mediocre one.

During the Tuesday, September 7, 2021 sessions to record the main bass line for "Embracing the Palpable."		30+43=73 F######G TAKES!
Wednesday evening, adding the bass garnish to underscore the melodic high notes of the bass chords in the chorus section.
Friday night/early Saturday morning working out the piano part for "Embracing the Palpable."
Recording the "Embracing the Palpable" piano yesterday. The organ part was recorded next.
Keeping track of the keyboard takes.	The Williams set on Organ.	The organ, recorded on track 6.

RUNNING REHEARSAL:

Rehearsals are coming along. We have a cast that is pushing themselves to be off-book early, which is always encouraging to see. This week, Director Marjorie Strader is out of town, so I',m running the rehearsals. Only two rehearsals this week, last night and tomorrow night. it was good to see all the attempts at being off-book and it was good to see the character development that is going on across the board.

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THE EMBRACED PALPABLE IS NOW A BURNING BRIDGE, BUT ONE THAT'S BEING BUILT UPON:

Yesterday, I finished all the verses, so, at least for the moment, the lyrics are done ‐‐ that is, until I decide to revise something or some things. I sat down and played the interim mixed-master of the rhythm section yesterday, before the lyrics were finished. I tried out the vocal melody ideas I'd been mulling around. At first I wasn't finding anything that I liked, and I came close to nixing these lyrics as a match for this music, but I eventually came upon a melody and vocal performance that makes the words and music a fit.

I hope to record the vocal within the next few days.

For the purpose of having an instrumental demo to sing along with to compose the melody, as well as to have something to listen to while finishing the words (which turned out to not be necessary), and just to start the mixing and mastering of the song, I mixed and mastered the rhythm tracks between an engineering session Friday night and Saturday night. I had to go back to my courses on the subject at Udemy, where I have enrolled in several Logic Pro X production classes. I needed the refresher, because I had forgotten how to get to some functions and set-ups in the software.

The interim master that I have of "Burning Bridge" has some elements that don't please me, so there will be significant tweaks for the final master version of the song. There will be some tweaks to the mix, as well.

After finishing the lyrics, yesterday, I pulled out the Epiphone Viola Bass and began composing the faux guitar solo for the middle of the song. I'm using my Boss SY-1 guitar synthesizer pedal. I also put the Boss OC-3 Dual Super Octave pedal into the daisy chain, but turned it off during the experimentation. As of yet I haven't pulled it from the network because I am not convinced I won't come back and find it useful before I start recording. You'll note in the photos below that I was in the livingroom, if you want to call it that, rather the bedroom, where the Ampeg BA-210 bass amplifier is. This time I elected to run directly from the pedals into the Tascam 24-Track Digital Portastudio, bypassing the amp, just to have a different approach, more than for any other reason. Thusly, for another change of pace, I set up in the "livingroom."

At the end of the evening, I'd say I was maybe 80-90% done composing the main solo, and maybe 50% done composing the solo work at the end of the song. I'm taking off early from the rent-payer Monday through Thursday of this week, since I have rehearsals for Women in Jeopardy these evenings and I want to be able to spend at least a little time each day on the album project. So, my hope is to also have this solo work laid down in the multi-track master in the next several days, as well as the vocal.

Refreshing myself on the mastering course from Udemy, Friday night.	Yesterday, working out the faux guitar solo for "Burning Bridge."

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TWO DAYS BLOWN!:

On a project-related note, I have a new feature page at my official artist's website called "On-Liner Notes." It's focused commentary on my music that will, in some ways, overlap with what gets written here, but will be markedly different, more in the area of analysis, though not exactly. It'll be quite like the prose of the liner notes that one could find on LP jackets back in the day, and still on occasion in CD booklets. Besides an introduction, the first entry is about the album, in general: "The Album Project: Virtually Approximate Subterfuge ‐‐ How the Thing Came Together."

IT COULD HAVE BEEN WORSE!:

Like I wrote above, last night I missed rehearsal because my car decided to quite, not but a few minutes after I left for the theatre. I thought, when I was stuck on the road, not really "stranded" because it was less than a ten-minute walk to my apartment, that I was going to have to take all or most of the day off from work today to have my car worked on.

But the AAA guy, who finally showed up two hours after I had used the app, rather than tow my car to the local shop where I would have had it worked on, was able to fix the problem, on the spot, in about ten minutes. I thought it was the starter. It was a bad cable connection to the battery. And rather than a $100-plus bill from the mechanic, it was free service from a guy who I am kicking myself for not having asked where he worked. It was a AAA tow truck that didn't have the garage name.

Well, my evening got screwed. And it was kind of a drag sitting in my car for a couple hours when my home was a stone's throw away. For one thing, I could have actually done some that work on the song "Burning Bridge" that I didn't get done earlier ‐‐ or the day before. But, all things considered, it could all have worked out much worse than it did.