My mom took the kids to get their portraits taken.  This place was actually nice enough to give us a CD with all the photos on it.  After all, my mother is a kid in a candy store when it comes to photos so, it's not like she didn't spend some nice coin in there.  Click the thumbnails for larger versions.

Corey Winkles was an old friend.  We played together in Mother McCree's Garden.  He was lead guitar, I was drums.  From what I understand, he suffocated in his sleep last night.  He had a spinal birth defect that kinda scrunched up his organs and he had been suffering with numerous bouts of pneumonia lately.  He was supposed to use a breathing machine at night, but the stubborn fucker wasn't much for listening.  He did tell me people with his particular spinal condition rarely made it to their thirties so...

Last time I saw him was election night.  I had blogged about it.  No use repeating myself.

Here's one of his songs, called Wishing Well.  Again, he's on lead guitar, I'm on drums.  See ya, man.

In the realm of cooking, real chefs know that their trade is based on those who had to make do with less. If you have a prime cut of beef, it's easy to prepare and very little thinking (creativity) is required.

On the other hand, those who had to make do with the scraps, had to come up with novel and creative ways to make it palatable. Rancid cuts were caked with spices. Surplus was preserved with salt, smoke, etc. Tough cuts were marinated. Combinations of ingredients were used to make small portions stretch for more people.

Cats like me, who are on a budget, have to be creative. My MIM solution has worked out very well. My amp solution came from UPS today.

I found a solid state amp where the clean channel is wonderful. The drive channels are...well....solid state. If you are only going to play clean, a tube amp is not only unnecessary, but in many ways, bad. Solid state is better for everything in terms of reliability, it's just that the efficiency of the switch creates "harsh clipping" instead of the nice "tube warmness".  (More info.)

But, since I can't afford a many of the better tube amps (Fenders/Marshalls/etc.), I got my Crate solid state with nice clean channel (and built in tuner and DSP effects board which is so-so, but the only effect I really use is my CryBaby) and purchased a Blackstar HT-DRIVE tube overdrive pedal.

Will many people accept this rig I mentioned above as equal to a Fender or Marshall?  Doubtful. But the for the money I'm paying? You can't believe just how good it CAN sound.  After all, the guys at Blackstar are ex-Marshall guys who started their own company and the valve in this pedal (ECC83 / 12AX7) is the same in all Marshall pre-amps. 

Now for a little more cash, if I get my Keeley Compressor and ISP Decimator (noise gate), my MIM Strat and solid state rig will be able to blow the doors off many a rig that cost two or three times as much.

Well when I originally bought my Fender Stratocaster, I noticed there was about a $600 difference between the 2007 Standards (made in Mexico) and the 2007 American Standards (made in the USA).  The main difference between the two was the pickups.  However, the cost to upgrade the MIM Strat pickups to something better than the American was much less than that.  Which is exactly what I just did.

I just got my guitar back from the shop where I had them install a set of Fender Hot Noiseless Pickups, supposedly designed by Fender for Jeff Beck.  (I also bought new knobs, switch cover, and tremolo arm tip to match the pickup's cover color.)

The sound upgrade is NOT negligible!  The guitar sounds even more amazing than it already did.  It's actually kind of hard to believe just how good it sounds.  I absolutely LOVE it!  :)

Charlie's First Birthday party was very nice.  Most importantly, he seemed to enjoy it.  Photos are now online.

Well, I wrote a new song Tuesday and played it out at Purple Tuesday that night.  I wasn't thriled with my performace of it (it was ok, but the vocals were lacking) so I decided last night to just set up a mic and record it at home.  I ended up recording 6 tracks.

On this recording I'm playing slide guitar, bass, congas, maracas and singing all the vocals.  It's kind of a "rough draft".

"What I Really Am" - 2:50 - (lyrics)

Download MP3  or Download FLAC (right click, save file as...)

Well, today I officially began new studio work.  All my music and studio gear is in place and ready, so today I began creating click tracks for a couple of songs.  Boring, but necessary.  All studio blog enties will be made under this new topic.