9 November - Fun

A month ago we would have called this evening band practice. Fun, yes. But work. Now that we've retired from public performances, tonight it's just three friends playing music together. You know, for fun.

28 October - Goodbye

Here's a photo of the trio taken at our farewell show by Emily Dines, daughter of drummer Nick. Not exactly an action shot, but it proves we were there. I appear to be addressing the crowd. Yes, we had a crowd, but everyone (apart from whoever owns the feet on the left) was behind Emily as she took the pic. It was a fun night.

19 October - The Group DeVille Years

All our old albums are out of print (and never likely to have new pressings), but some of the songs the band recorded can be heard (and downloaded) over on my Bandcamp page. CLICK HERE and go have a listen if you like. 

18 October - Success

Our farewell concert was beyond wonderful. Seriously, it was one of the best shows we have ever played. The band was tight as could be, the crowd was great and ended up being larger than we had hoped for. We played two sets, got a standing ovation, and were asked back up for an encore. It was the perfect ending to a 25 year career.

For those of you who keep track of such things, below is the set list from last night. The songs in parentheses are cover songs, and we did not have an encore planned, so it wasn't on the printed lists onstage. I'm just adding it now to make things easy for future archivists.

Holiday Road

Come to Call
Downtown Ladies

Gentle Rains

(Treat Her Right)

Shuffle Those Cards

Forgotten How to Cry

Scene of the Crime

Finally Home

(CC Rider)

Damage is Done

Caledonia Goodbye

I'll Be / No Use Pretending

Tell Me About It

(No Other Baby)

Encore: The Swamp is On Fire

10 October - So Long, Folks!

Here's some promo from Studio 30 for our upcoming gig. If you're in the 413, and would like to see and hear us one last time, this is it. Our retirement party. CLICK HERE to reserve your seat in the audience.

7 October - Words & Music

Words:

I just updated the new EP over on Bandcamp to include lyrics for each song, which is something I've never bothered with on previous releases, but probably should have. Not only is it convenient for the many journalists who want to quote them accurately, it's also a way for my countless fans to learn the proper words so they can sing along at my next sold-out arena concert.

Music:

I have also confirmed a booking for a solo show. I'll be performing Thursday, December 17th at Sip 413 in Florence, Massachusetts. Having attended a couple of friends' gigs there, I'm really looking forward to playing the venue myself. It's a great room.

2 October - New Release

I am pleased to announce that Over The Water is now available over on my Bandcamp page. As with all my previous releases, it is listed as "name your price." This means the music can be yours for no cost at all, but you also have the option of throwing some legal tender in the virtual tip jar if you have the inclination.

20 September - EP News

Mastering is complete, and we are on schedule for the October release. All that remains now is uploading the files to Bandcamp, finishing the artwork, and sending the files off again to have a short run of promo CDs pressed (burned, duplicated, whatever the kids are calling it these days). And then getting in touch with various bloggers, fans, followers, and reviewers, here and overseas. Okay, so yeah. The work is never really done.

19 September - Counting Down

The trio has a practice session this coming Monday evening. As mentioned in a previous post, our final public performance will be Saturday, October 17th. So we'll get together this week, and then again on the Monday and Friday right before the show. That'll do. We've been playing these songs for well over twenty years, and it's not like we need to learn how they go. We're just gonna polish things up a bit before putting them on display one last time.

13 September - EP Update

As of today, the recording is done and I am ridiculously happy. Did the final two guitar bits and some mixing earlier today, took a break and then reviewed all five mixes. Pretty sure we're set to bounce them down and move on to mastering.

9 September - Pedalboard Update

Here's one of the boards. Pretty self-explanatory. My main intent with this board was to make it useful for both electric and acoustic-electric shows. And although the gain pedal on this board can provide a bit of crunch, it was designed to function as a clean boost, so it works really well in a plugged-in acoustic setting for adding more signal strength when required.

There's a little extra space between the tuner and the other pedals so I am less likely to embarrass myself onstage by activating the tuner's MUTE function with the edge of my shoe when going for the pedal to its left. Yes, this has happened. Yes, this works. 

6 September - More Vocals

Recorded all the vocals to another song yesterday, and am very pleased with how everything sounds. Just need to add the fancy guitar bits, and this one will be ready to mix. The first three have been, so we're comfortably on schedule to finish the project in time for an October 2nd release.

3 September - October Set List

After a considerable amount of thought (factoring in the amount of stage time we'll have and which songs would best represent the cream of our vast repertoire within that period), I have come up with a damn fine set list for our Studio 30 show on October 17th. I have sent it to my bandmates for their approval.

What? Hell no, I'm not posting it in here. Come to the show.

30 August - Challenge Accepted

It has come to my attention that this October's Bandcamp Friday falls on my birthday, so I have decided to aim for that being the release date for the new EP.

29 August - Three

That's right, finished another song today. And yes, this is a short post. Just taking note of the date to make things easy for future historians.

26 August - Two Down

Two out of the five songs now have all of their tracks completed. Unless of course I decide that something needs to change. Part of the recording game is second guessing yourself once something is "done." Oh, the fun we have.

22 August - Spoiler Alert

Posted this on my Bluesky page a couple of days ago:

Bigger, more famous bands than ours have taken several "farewell tours" before making it stick, so we're not alone in having had a bit of trouble with calling it quits permanently. But we are pretty confident that we really mean it this time. 

11 August - The Title

Why yes, I do have a title chosen for the EP. It will be called "Over The Water," but I'm not going to explain why until it drops and I'm in the frenzied throes of the initial promotion for it.

10 August - The Words

The "keeper" lead and background vocals have been added to three of the five songs going on this next release. After I get the others recorded, it'll be time to put down the lead guitar fills and solo passages. And that'll be it. The thing will be ready to mix once the fancy guitar stuff is done. There are some simple keyboard bits that have already been taken care of, but there really isn't much embellishment on any of these numbers. Guitars, bass, drums, and the words. It's enough.

Anyway, progress. Thanks for listening.

26 July - Minty Fresh

Traded some stuff yesterday, and came home with a new Les Paul. New to me, that is. It's one from the Muse series by Epiphone. Lighter in weight and with a few modern features like coil-splitting and a phase switch. Alnico pickups, Grover tuners, top-shelf hardware and wiring. It's in ridiculously excellent shape, almost like it had never been played before I took it down off the hanger. Well, it's gonna get played now.