I’ve been putting this studio together over the past year and am now at the point where I’m able to start exploring its sonic character…working on a new tune called “The Creek” recorded through a pair of AKG c414s in a mid-side configuration.

3rd in what has apparently become a series of “Lullabies for Dogs”, here’s a new tune “Murray’s Lullaby”…I rarely write for open tunings but always love exploring them when I do. Two of my newer tunes are in this open Bb…this guitar is ready for a new set of strings.

I made this video of a road trip I took from North Carolina to Seattle a few summers ago to record some music with Seedsquatch at my buddy Kevin Bressler’s Whiney Cat Audio Studio. I loved the way the video came out and I put some acoustic guitar music that I recorded underneath it…since I released the acoustic guitar album through CD Baby, youtube’s algorithms put a copyright claim on the music and wouldn’t let me share the video…so I had to appeal the copyright dispute to CD Baby, since I own the copyright…and they recently released the claim, so here it is…ah the fun of the legal side of music distribution.

Working up another of my favorite Leo Kottke tunes..again, one that will be a decades long pursuit….”Airproofing”…I’m just through the very first bit of it, the easiest part, it goes all sorts of different ways after this…I must have listened to the “Leo Live” recording of this a zillion times…it’s just cooking, but my favorite part is that about 3/4 of the way through, you can hear somebody in the audience scream “Aaahhh!”…as if their head just exploded from what they’re witnessing him do….gets me every time. I’m working from the Stropes transcription.

I’ve been working on this tune, off and on, for twenty years. Seemed like a good time to document my progress. Hopefully I’ll have it right where I want it in another twenty years. It blew me away when I first heard it…the energy and joy…and the fact that it was only one person playing. I suppose it was appropriate that I busted a string practicing it the morning that I filmed this, this guitar is in drastic need of new strings anyway so the intonation is a little questionable. I think Leo used finger picks on the original recording then ditched them soon after. I never could stand them. I’d be shocked if this was anywhere near the actual arrangement as originally recorded, but here’s Leo Kottke’s “Busted Bicycle”.