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Howdy Folks.

I had a heck of a day, in a strange kind of good way. Sort of.

I dinged my car on the way to the show last night. My bad. Low speed, but still. Apols to Tony.

Luckily, the car was driveable and the only thing injured was my pride and I had to scoot up to the central coast, as the now wounded car was filled with bits of PA gear. 

I was a bit more shook up than I realised, so I needed a little bit of help getting stuff together.

Luckily Alan was there to give me a hand.

As we finished the last part of the setup the fold back PA made a 'flerrrrrpppfff' nosie and all bottom end dropped out.

Yay.

Very helpfully, at least three off duty muso's in the crowd cheerfully reported that they had backup gear.

At home.

Far away.

Some days.

During the setup, at least three people came over to ask me various song requests, questions about the equipment, random things. No I wont sing a Meatloaf Song. yes we have a lot of gear. Yes those are a lot of harmonicas. yes I use them all. Yes I think those new desks with the USB output are really good, no we don't have one, yes I wish we did, no our soundo wasn't available tonight so that's why I'm setting up the PA with this old style desk, yes we've played here before, yes we'll go hard mate.

All this whilst I turn dials, flick switches and keep trying to work out which bit of the foldback has gone kerfplooie and find a work around.

The fourth guy to come up asked if he could use the microphone.

Now all you fellow road warriors know that this can be:

A: Happy Birthday (INSERT NAME)

B: I sing a song too

C: 

Nonetheless, it's an Australian custom for the band to provide Public Address for community purposes. Fairly asked, fairly answered. "Ok mate, no worries'

Casey went on to explain he wanted to ask his partner to marry him.

AWWWWWWWWWW

It took me a while to get the PA happening, thanks to Alan for all his help.

Casey was on tenterhooks, waiting, waiting.

He followed me outside where I had to go for a mental health break as it was all getting too much and he patiently waited whilst the Lunatic Sound Engineer (me) got his sh-t together and got the PA sorted. As I practised breathing exercises and wallowed in my own inner turmoil I was reminded this guy was waiting to do something really important.

Note to self

DO NOT F--- THIS UP.

So.

Summon your inner reserves, breathe, and get your mission accomplished.

Now Casey, I'd like to point out that this is not the first hookup/relationship resulting from a Stormcellar encounter. Theo's Niece married the pub manager at one of the venues we played at.

I am also in possession of reliable anecdotes and witness statements about certain other hookups from our shows and even the occasional birth.

That makes me happy and should appear prominently in

Reasons To Hire Stormcellar/Reasons to Go To A Stormcellar Show

1. People hook up

2. People get laid

3. A new generation of Humanity may be spawned, that will save us from our eventual doom (true)

4. You will feel good

but now, a new first for the 'cellar.

5. You might even get married

I was hanging on the result there. Brave dude, in public, OMG. She didn't know what was going on. 

Congratulations to Donna and Casey. A moment of happiness and a new beginning, and a bit of love. Sure does help to refocus on the stuff that's important.

That was a big night for a variety of reasons. Theo worked his butt off despite needing a rest with a gammy arm, working through the pain. Luckily we have some downtime so he can rest up. Bravo sir. 

Also our thanks to Will and Ken from Air Clectik and Alan on mixing. Mentioned in despatches, gentlemen. 

We were very pleased to see so many friends of the band last night. Steve and Bernie, Steve and Karen, Harvs' and his mum! (who was offended when I apologised for playing Louder Stuff later in the night, bring it on was more or less the command) and our South African contingent who drove all the way up from Sydney to see us, and all the other folks who came out to support live music.

Keep going out to your local, keep going out to see live bands.

A night at a local show could be one of the most important of your life :-)

Howdy folks.

I hadn't considered how hard Rosies part was in this acoustic song until i relooked at this pic.

Whilst we were doing a short vocal idea for Better Off Without You, I had the bright idea of having a shot at a Crosby Stills Nash tune.

Jo and I have been singing 'helplessly hoping' at gigs and it's one of the great singing joys of my life.Ok. that read a bit awkward. So be it.

But it is.

I've heard Vika and Linda Bull 'live', ditto the Staple singers, and maybe even back in the day The Spinners, so I've heard good harmony. I'm lucky Jo's good at it. I gotta work harder.

We decided to record the three of us in the same room at the same time. Multitracking is far safer, but this song has a tempo kept only by the singers and the guitar. We tried versions with Theo keeping time and, well, no. 

I'm not sure that we got 'the' take. We might have to try a few times.

It's hard. There's nowhere to hide. We just have to get it alltogether right, all together.

I'm not sure I liked the vocals, shall we do another take Rosie?

Howdy Folks. An update form Holmesy. He's halfway through the mixes for KC Underground. 

I wasnt expecting this album so soon. I figured maybe next year.

I'm not going to bet on a release date yet. There's still potential for significant variability, however, Holmesy is on a mission.

So far we're looking at:

Hey Child (stormcellar)

We The People (with Danny Cox)

Don't you know who I am ? (Stormcellar)

Day By Day (Ron Teamer original with Stormcellar backing and Jo singing duet)

Last Man Standing (with Millage Gilbert)

Nobody Knows Better (with Max Groove)

Chalk Angels (Stormcellar)

+ 3 Millage Gilbert songs, inc a couple of Millage originals.

There's no guarantee that all of these songs will make release stage. There's also the chance of last minute change, even though we're now 6000 miles from Holmesys Underground Lair.

Meanwhile...

Today we're going off to record an overlay vocal for Better Off Without You. When we recorded it on tour, Mr Wizard proposed a melody in the middle 8 and we all rubbished the idea.

About a week later I became convinced he was right. Bugger. We fix.

Also, where is this song going? It's not for 'everywhere feels like home'.

It's not for the KC Underground - I mean that album will have a unique sonic characteristic. I wouldn't go mixing it with tracks recorded elsewhere.

When I pointed out that this is a ridiculous rate of release Mr Wizard just replied 'meh'. We're taking inspiration from the Japanese scene he's into. Make it, release it, move on.

I'm fairly sure that this is contrary to commonly held beliefs regarding how to release albums or is it simply that the Future Has Arrived. 

I mean, you, dear reader, are here. But how did you hear about us? What makes you come here? How do we interact? How do I get you to send me $5?

OBEY THE HYPNOTOAD

These questions perplex me.

For EFLH we still have 1 version of bloomington scheduled for recording, and if I can't round'em up I'm going with the live take from the townie.

There are also a few instrumental pieces I wouldn't mind adding..but. I have been listening to an Album Order for EFLH and I'm good to push the Mastering Button.

Yikes. Gotta get one off the tracks before the next train rolls through.

Yay we're getting ready to do some last fixes for the song we recorded at the Static Shack in Indiana.

This week will see the return to recording as we do some vocal additions for Jo.

Meanwhile, Everywhere Feels Like Home is still circling waiting for permission to land and KC Underground is in mixing.

And yet we want to record yet more stuff.

Meanhwile I have vids and blogs from the tour, plus recent footage. Crikey.

:-) Busy times. Stay tuned for some output.

UPDATE LZB have shifted our booking to the 20th Nov.

We're at The Coast on Sat night