19 March - Equinox & Isolation

Spring has arrived here in the Northern Hemisphere as of today. I do like the simplicity of the "meteorological" seasons, but there's something more official about the actual equinoxes and solstices, the days that mark four precise points along the orbit of this tilt-a-whirl globe of ours.

At my daytime place of work, we began our COVID-19 quarantine protocol on Tuesday, which means the only entry in this week's commute list will be the disc I listened to on Monday. For the next couple of weeks, I will be doing the self-isolation thing at home, so the list of my commute music will also be on hiatus. We're scheduled to return to the office on April 6th, barring further steps being taken (by the state, for example) to extend the quarantine.

I encourage you all to distance yourselves from as much real-life contact outside your home as possible. I'm impressed at all the creative efforts folks are making to stay in touch, whether through social media or all the other modern-day methods we've got. These are strange days, but we are a delightfully resilient species.

And it's fun to joke about what songs to scrub to, but really: wash your hands thoroughly and often. Don't give those tiny viral bastards a surface to cling to. Be smart, be well, be of good cheer. We'll get through this together.

This Week's Commute:
M: Led Zeppelin - III

13 March - Cancellation

This past Saturday, some wag on Twitter pointed out that this was going to be an odd week. Daylight savings on Sunday, a full moon on Monday, and then Friday the 13th. And while such an alignment can be amusing, simply throw in the threat of COVID-19, and we have even more weight behind the weird.

Speaking of which, tonight's gig (The Prestons and Jim K at the Friday Night Cafe) has been cancelled by the venue/organizers thanks to Coronavirus concerns. And although we're disappointed about not playing, it was the right choice.

Stay home, stay healthy. We'll see you when we can.

This Week's Commute:

M: Aerosmith - Pump

T: Dire Straits - On Every Street

W: The Replacements - Hootenanny 

F: Bangles - September Gurls

This Week's Commute.

Last year, I started posting a "This Week's Commute" list over on Facebook each Friday. The lists were of the CDs I listened to in my car on the drives to and from work that week. And as I pointed out on Twitter recently, yes, I have a day job. You can't expect me to maintain this level of comfortable obscurity on music alone. Granted, my day job is still somewhat in the music business; I work for a vacuum tube supplier. Vacuum tubes are those little bottles full of emptiness that we put electrons through to make our amplifiers go. 

I've cut back on my involvement with Facebook, and so have decided to post these lists in here instead, beginning today. I'm thinking this might be a good way to update this page more often, and this way I can simply post links to the lists on whatever social media I'm not angry with that week. Or you could even bookmark this place and check in regularly.

Oh, and by the way: I have a four day workweek now, so it's only going to be four albums from now on. Thursdays are my mid-weekday off, so you'll have to guess what what was playing in the house that day.

And so (drum roll), here's the first list for 2020:

This Week's Commute:
M: The Beatles - One

T: XTC - Drums & Wires

W: Ramones - It's Alive

F: REM - Green

Gig Poster.

Looking Forward to LATE Winter.

I still stand by the sentiment of my November post, but at this point Spring will definitely be welcome when it arrives. In the days between that last post and this one, I've been toying with the repertoire, working on new material, and ironing out how the next album will actually go. It looks like my schedule will allow it to be completed this year, and I'm now pretty certain which songs will be on it.

Today I started work on the promo art for the first show of the year. This will be a Prestons gig, and it falls on Friday, March 13th (hence this post's title nod to Late Winter), when we're booked to play a double bill at the Friday Night Café in Cummington. We'll be sharing the night with a true Valley legend, songwriter/guitarist Jim Kaminski.

In fact, you can probably expect the next post in here to be titled Gig Poster. That seems to be what I do. In the meantime, stay warm.

Looking Forward to Winter.

You heard me. I know, this is completely out of character. But this time feels different. Our house is all battened down for the cold weather, we had the heating system serviced a couple of months ago, and we've taken the winter clothing and boots out of seasonal storage. We've still got a handful of things to do, but we're basically ready. And I'm ready mentally, for a change.

I'd planned to have more work done on the next album by now, but I don't, and I don't care. There's no deadline, so there's no hurry. In the meantime, I've written a few more songs, and am feeling no pressure to lay down tracks in any kind of order. Perhaps the next record will have the songs on it I'd originally planned, but who knows? I take comfort knowing that nothing needs to be decided anytime soon.

I suppose this is the best way to approach the cold part of the year: to know that even though everything we'd planned for this past year might not have gotten done, it's okay. It'll wait. It's time right now for us to prepare not only ourselves and our shelters, but to also prepare a welcome for the time itself. To understand that the pace of life should slow, like a slumbering heartbeat, until the sun awakens us again.

Gig Poster.

Gig Poster.

20th Anniversary Gig Poster.

Gig Poster.

Artist photo by Jason Mazzotta