The Dance

Well, it's testament that you can't force the creative impulse. I sat down the other day to write lyrics to 'When' and instead ended up with lyrics to the 'Lament' instead. That's been the biggest development in my song-writing ability over the last several years -learning to let things flow as opposed to an intentional writing. I've definitely sat down to write something specific and written it, but there is a much higher chance for getting stuck.
The Dance

The Wind

Here's a new version of 'The Wind.' It's still a living-room recording, but I added sound effects to get an idea of how it might sound when it's done. It sounds like I'll be able to take some gear to Artichoke and record in the 'Back Gate' which has great acoustics and is further away from traffic than my stupid living room.
The Wind

Dos Meses (Two Months)

Alright, two months left before the trip to Central America. It's coming fast! I can't believe how much there is to do, and almost every minute until we leave is booked at this point. Holiday with family in AZ and a house concert at Mom's on New Year's. It's been several years since I've been back.

I still have a bit of new/revised music to upload:

I'm attempting a Christmas Uke song about the cat ruining Christmas, but it's difficult to write lyrics about a specific subject sometimes so it's only instrumental at this point.
Your Christmas Present

I wrote This Time last year, but I got a pretty decent version the other day when I was running through some tunes.
This Time



Artichoke Music had a party and fundraiser last Saturday, which was very succesful. We sampled some of our brew and it went over well.




I'm pretty well Booked solid on gigs in the meantime as well. In addition to several 'Recycleman' shows, I've got 2 shows at Gotham Tavern, I'm playing a Valentines Day set with Matt Meighan and Artichoke is throwing us a send-off party. Good times...

Even More From the Abyss...

Forgive the lousy performance and intonation of these two, the point was to just capture the general idea of the tunes, not create something CD quality. Another uke tune with no title other than 'E-Minor.' The second tune is called 'When' which will be one of my favorites when I can get the time to write some words for it. The lyrical idea is about what it will be like at some distant point in the future to look back on right now. I get very sentimental about the idea (more than usual), knowing that life is going to change so much down the road. It's just about the most bittersweet thing I can think of.

E-Minor

When

oh yea

here we go...
Our blog has taken on a new look. And we are heading in a new direction. Stay tuned for updates as we prepare to depart on a new adventure!

More From the Abyss...

I love the ukulele for so many different reasons. In this tune I made up a couple of weeks ago, I was treating the uke as a sort of soprano classical guitar. I'm glad I could remember it.
Lament in F-Minor

'Open' guitar tunings are really cool for achieving an 'open' sound in a tune. This is something I was playing around with after getting a device called a partial capo which allows me to achieve an open tuning without retuning the strings on the instrument.
Open E

From the Abyss...

I'm always getting behind on music. I've been writing so much that some of it gets lost in the shuffle. I'll have a half hour to play and come up with something that I won't remember later. I'm losing less than I used to though thanks to modern technology.

I'll spend some time posting tunes I managed to rescue from the abyss...

A little uke tune probably influenced by 30s Duke Ellington or Cab Calloway:
Raisin' Cain

A 7 minute guitar composition with 'dropped D' tuning, I've got some words for part of this:
Tin Roof

Recycleman's New Drummer

We've got a kick-butt new drummer for the Recycleman shows -Vince Adame. He stepped right in to the show on Tuesday for the first time, without a group rehearsal, and did phenomenally well. He anticipated the breaks, and had just the right energy for the audience. I am looking so forward to having Vince with us, especially because we've been using a stinking drum machine...

If you're in the Portland area and need to hire a drummer, he's got my wholehearted recommendation. Check out his website
www.vinceadame.com

Folk Music Lives!!!

I can't believe that it's already November 9th!
The 2nd through the 4th were the FAR-West conference. Folk music like crazy... Artichoke took me as an 'ambassador', and I would say that we did a good job representing. We had probably the most traffic at our table and the crowd at the post conference event at Artichoke's Back Gate Stage was great.

I would have to say that as a musician, it was the most rewarding experience of my life. Next year is in Phoenix, and I'm definitely going to be there. I put together an audio 'report' of my experience at the conference.
Artichoke Ambassador Report

I recorded my showcase session also, it's good to have the feedback.
Showcase

Several gigs filled the week since then, ending tonight with my live television debut performance at Ethos Music Center -a very cool non-profit dedicated to teaching kids music.
I was told that the show makes it into 440,000 living rooms. That means my odds are pretty good that at least somebody will see it.

I've got to find someone who can record the show on it's rebroadcast, otherwise I might have to wait months for a copy.

Promo for Folk Music Conference

Fallin' Apart

As I was walking out the door yesterday to my gig, I had a tune come into my head, and had to grab whatever random sheet of paper was laying around. I didn't have time to finish it until this afternoon, but managed to get it recorded...
Fallin Apart

Astronaut

I just woke up from a dream, and found the computer left on...

I'm an astronaut who has just returned from space. I'm in a tiny, sealed up, claustrophobic pod. I can't even turn around. As I try not to freak out, I hear people running around outside, attaching equipment that will open this coffin. I feel like I'm suffocating. Then I hear the man in charge say that he doesn't have the proper authorization paperwork and can't open the unit...

I'm sure at least part of the dream came from something Dennis told me on the way back from our gig. His mother (in her 90s) was sent to the hospital because she wasn't feeling well. So, after sitting in the 'emergency' waiting room for 3 hours, she felt well enough to go home, but the ambulance ride wouldn't be covered by her insurance (and it's a $700 ride). But, there's a medical shuttle bus that's relatively cheap. So, the ambulance company won't send the shuttle without the hospital authorizing it and the hospital refuses to call them...who says we have the best medical system money can buy?

Saturday at Artichoke -John's Tune

I captured a recording of John Sabestinas on banjo and myself on the tenor uke at Artichoke yesterday. It's a tune of his called 'Stealin' Apples off the Tree.' He wasn't warmed up so he didn't want to sing the words.

Stealin' Apples

MP3 Player

I have yet to get a good player that opens in a new window, but I found this imbedded player that's at the top of the screen for the time being. Just click on the song you want to listen to. I realize it's not very aesthetically pleasing but oh well. I have at least a few tunes that are recorded alright...

2 Years and Running Pt. 8 -Memphis Blues

I used to struggle with finishing songs. I suppose I finished about 2 out of every 10 songs I started to write, but the last few years the problem has been keeping a hold of the songs I do write. I've probably forgotten as many tunes over the past 5 years as I remember. This journal is helping to some degree.

'Memphis Blues' is one that almost fell by the wayside -I found it in my journal and worked it up a bit after my show yesterday. My apologies to anyone who thinks the performance quality of the recording isn't up to snuff, but this weblog is more for me to keep track of my life than anything else.

Last year when I was on tour with Dark Skies, I got off the tour in Memphis with a cracked rib and some business issues back home. I wrote a bit about it back in April of '06 in a post called Tour End...

I sat in that waiting room for 8 or so hours, there was a horrible, apocalyptic storm going on outside and emergency news reports cut into the sitcoms on the TV bolted to the wall. At least 12 people got washed away by that storm, but judging from some of the people sitting around me waiting for hours in an 'emergency room' I couldn't help but find a slight comfort in the fact that someday everyone's suffering comes to an end...

I got some X-rays and went back to see the doctor in a room that was so disgusting I was afraid to touch anything (and the doctor wasn't touching anything either -including me thankfully). So after that I ended up waiting another 12 hours at the Memphis airport waiting for my flight out.

So, sleep deprived and in pain, I wrote this tune while sitting up on the second floor waiting for security to come and tell me not to play my harmonica. It's surprising how easy it is to write a blues tune when I'm in that state of mind.

Memphis

Albina Green

I hosted an open mic at a very cool cafe/restaurant tonight. Played a few tunes and met some nice people. I'll be back there again. If you're in north Portland (No-Po as it's often called) check it out. Live music most nights of the week, and I found out that Matt Meighan, a friend from Artichoke Music plays every Thursday night...(http://www.mattmeighan.com/).

I've got several Recycleman gigs this week. Pete, the shows creator, wants to make an addition to the water-show script to encourage eating less meat. HOw can we save water by eating less meat? It takes 2500 gallons of water to make 1 pound of beef, and only takes 250 gallons to make 1 pound of grain...

I've also been getting a lot of response about the deaths of the boys. Maybe an investigative journalist will want to jump on the case.

Were my three relatives murdered 16 years ago?

Back when I was in high-school my three nephews died in a fire. The question of murder came up, but was never answered.

I am signed up to a list-serve of Portland independent producers, as a way to sort of keep my finger on the pulse of a pretty vibrant filmmaking community. I just sent this off to the group, to see if I can generate interest in trying to find out what happened. Yesterday I emailed a Court TV address as well.

Many in my home town (Kingman Arizona) believe that my three nephews were murdered about 16 years ago. They were little kids and were staying with their estranged and abusive father, and were burned alive while trapped by a mattress blocking their bedroom door.

My stepfather (a building official) was involved in the investigation, and was in contact with the fire department which treated the fire as an arson. He believes there was adequate evidence for a conviction. For example: traces of a flammable substance were found on the remains of the walls, shortly before the fire, a neighbor witnessed the children's father back-up his truck away from the house, and he made no attempt to rescue them once he had escaped the blaze.

The city prosecutor at the time didn't prosecute, and the rumor was that it was due to political pressure from my uncle who seemed to be in denial that someone would be capable of something like murdering their own children.

I had hoped that at some point something would come of the investigation, but as of yet nothing has. It's been so long that I barely remember the boys or their father, but I have had this nagging feeling all these years that something needs to be done.

I don't have the resources to investigate for myself, but someone has to tell those boys' story, and maybe help justice to be served.

Who can help me get in touch with a producer who wants to tell this story?

2 Years and Running Pt. 7 -Dennis

Okay, so I realized that the photos don't show up from the IMDB site, but I found the photos that Dennis gave me a while back. Dennis with Patrick Stewart. Well the link that I put on the previous post has more pictures, including one of him as 'Deputy Ben' from the new film 'Cthulhu.'

2 Years and Running Pt. 7

Dennis (AKA Bruce Reduce), my partner in crime when I perform as Recycleman, has quite an illustrious history in entertainment. He lived in LA for a lot of his life and has a lot of stories (and I've seen many of the pictures that prove it). He's in his late 60s now, and here's a few of the things he's done:

His brother Doug (another cool guy) and he tried out for the Monkees when the band was being put together. And there was this unknown dude plucking his banjo while also waiting to try out named Richard Pryor!

As a journalism student he got to interview and hang out with Cheech and Chong (and maybe you can guess what else) when they were first making their mark. He's got an audio tape of that one.

He worked as a casting director for quite a while, and a transportation coordinator.

He spent 10 years working on Star Trek -The Next Generation, doing a few bit parts and a lot of stand in work -anytime you see the back of Captain Jean-Luc Picard's head that's Dennis. He gave me a promo photo of himself dressed as an alien on the show, but I can't seem to find it right now...

I was just checking out his Internet Movie Data Base page (http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0870509/) to get some photos to post and discovered that he was in one of my favorite childhood movies Under the Rainbow (1981) with Chevy Chase as the Job Clerk. I'm going to have to watch it again to see if I recognize him...

I also didn't realize that he played some bit parts in some other movies that I loved as a kid:
Dreamscape (1984) (stand-in) (uncredited)
The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension (1984) (stand-in) (uncredited)

And he is in a film that's making the film festival circuit right now with Tori Spelling :
Cthulhu (2007) .... Deputy Ben

Dennis is THE MAN!

Synchronicity...

Interesting coincidences keep happening with our trip to Central America. Last night we went to see Joe Mac's band 'Dark Skies' (See March and April '06) at Audiocinema, down in the warehouse district. Great show by the way.

Anyway, it had been several months since we've gotten together, so we did some catching up. It turns out that Joe's going to be in Costa Rica at the same time we're going to be there! We're going to meet up and spend a week or two traveling together. It's pretty strange... everything that happens seems to just reinforce the fact that this is exactly what we should be doing.

2 Years and Running -Pt. 6 Cinco Meses (5 months)

Less than 5 months to go before our big trip to Central America. It's been close to 6 months since we decided to go, and it's going by fast.

Why did we decide to go to Central America? A whole slew of reasons. It's relatively close, relatively cheap, and relatively safe. We want to learn Spanish, and what better way to do it? Willie is at the age right now where he needs to see more of the world than this little 2 mile square area of the city and whatever attractions there are on the freeway between Oregon and Arizona. We know that there are other, healthier ways of living (for ourselves and the planet) than we know right now, and we want to learn more about them. It turns out that there are many farms and eco-villages in Central America, that will let us stay with them for free in exchange for working on various projects.

Some people think we should be afraid of spending several months in Central America, that it's somehow risky. What a joke...I almost get hit on my bike by some dumb$%#@ on a daily basis, and I've talked to more people than I can count on my fingers and toes who've been down there, and not one of them has told me a horror story. The worst that people can come up with -'you have to be as careful in the cities as you would be in any major U.S. city.' The State Department says we should avoid college campuses...that's where the politically active people are...wouldn't want to go anywhere near that!

We'll be learning and helping out in green-building in Panama and Costa Rica, farming and teaching children in Nicaragua, checking out weaving communities in Guatemala (one of which makes guitar straps for Artichoke Music), visiting coffee plantations and artisan communities in El Salvador. We'll also be meeting Samantha's mother in Beliz and checking out Mayan ruins and getting involved with a former college geography instructor's non-profit. That's only a partial list. And I am making a project of audio recording musicians all along our journey. We're already wondering if the 3 months we had planned on will be enough time. Especially because most places want us to stay at least 2 weeks. And we're reserving the option of staying as long as we want. You never know, our skill set may be of much more value down there than where we are now -many places are specifically looking for musicians, artist and people who can build websites. And brewers!

The picture at the top is of a place we'll be staying in Costa Rica -'Verdenergia' (www.verdenergia.org). It turns out that some of the people who live there have a connection with Portland and are visiting right now! We're having dinner with them tonight, and are going to stay with them for probably close to a month, helping in the garden, building, brewing, teaching, learning...we might help them build their website as well.

A Little Jazz Theory?

I definitely don't consider myself a jazz player, but I do consider myself a serious musician (even if some might disagree), and I love jazz. I am confident that I know jazz theory pretty well even if I don't have the chops of a seasoned jazz player. After all, my goal was to be a songwriter, not a jazz guitarist.

I am volunteering as a mentor for a non-profit which puts less experienced players into bands in an 8 week session leading up to a performance. My group is doing jazz, and I felt as if they needed a bit of background on basic jazz theory. So -a disclaimer:

WARNING THE FOLLOWING CONTAINS THEORETICAL CONCEPTS WHICH MAY BE OF ABSOLUTELY NO INTEREST TO NON-MUSICALLY MINDED PEOPLE.

1st. A jazz song is just a song, any song can be a jazz song.
2nd. The thrust of the evolution of jazz has been primarily in two directions -chord extensions and chord substitutions.

In a practical sense there are only really 3 types of chords -major, minor, and dominant seventh. Now, these chords do begin to overlap and this is where chord substitutions come into play. For example: a C-major chord is spelled C-E-G, an A-minor chord is spelled A-C-E. Two of those notes are the same, no? So it is possible that an A-minor chord could potentially work in place of C-major. We extend chords just by adding thirds on top of the three note chord -the 'triad.' So C-major becomes C-major 7th when we spell it C-E-G-B. It become C-major 9th when we spell it C-E-G-B-D. We could continue this (11th &13th chords), or we could sharpen or flatten the 'natural' notes that would be in that chord -each time creating a different 'color' for the basic C-major chord. Experienced jazz players just have a lot more colors in their Crayola box than the rest of us..

But, no matter how much one extends or substitutes chords, the melody requires the basic tonalities to be present in order for it to sound like the song. The most common jazz arrangements go beyond the melody and underlying harmonic structure by adding in the arranger's chosen substitution/extended chords, which does a disservice to people who are interested in learning the basic song and playing it their own way.

2 Years and Running Pt. 5 -Country Mudd

Here are a couple more tunes from my latest country phase. It was sort of a mini classic-country phase in the larger country phase. I was hearing Hank Williams and Patsy Cline with these two.
Sorry
Wither

2 Years and Running pt. 5 -Country Mudd

Starting in late '06 I went through a country phase, writing close to an album's worth of country tunes in a few months. I think it was probably instigated by the fact that I was going to a lot song sessions with people from Nashville, but I was raised on country so it's in me anyway. 'Rollin' Away' was the first one of that phase and 'One Good Woman' was also written during that period.

If you're one who's spent a lot of time checking out tunes on mikemudd.net, you'll probably have heard 'Black Eye and a Broken Heart.' To me, it's the quintessential country-rock song, but I was told by a 'Nashville publisher' that I should do a complete re-write because these days the protagonist is never the drinker.

I'm not sure she knew what she was talking about because last month I did a country music focus group (always looking for a way to make an extra buck in my free time), and I heard numerous popular and up and coming songs where the singer talks about drinking in the 1st person. It was one of the running themes, and as everyone knows a mainstay of country. Hell, when I was in Texas last year the first song that came on the radio when we turned it on was 'Crack the Jack and Crank the Hank'...

I'm also not one to do more than minor editing to a song anyway. It's not that I think that my words are so profound, but that I'd rather spend the time writing a new song. That's the main reason why I don't go to too many songwriting workshops anymore. I'm more interested in what people like about a song than I am about what I should do to improve the current song.
Black Eye and a Broken Heart

Coffee Music

I have a couple of hours to kill after an early morning rehearsal, so I’m outside of a busy downtown neighborhood café sipping a mocha and lightly plucking the strings of my little tenor acoustic guitar. The streetcar rolls by. The couple at the table next to me laughs and jokes. An infant cries from one of the open apartment windows down the block. The heeled shoes of a businessman click on the pavement as he hurries up the block. The café door opens to the hiss of the espresso machine and a mellow Thelonius Monk. The deliciously dark and enticing aroma of today’s new blend from the mountains of Central America wafts out and I breathe deeply to draw it all in. Sure enough my semi-random plucking has transformed into a new and unexpected harmony, and the next thing I know that rich fountain of sensory stimulation has inspired a song. I take another sip of my mocha. What a way to kill a couple of hours…

Music exists in a space. It doesn't come out of a vacuum. The world around me is my inspiration. I create music by merely adding to the environment –mixing my own sounds with the music of the myriad other things happening all around me. Each new environment that I experience has it’s own ‘soundscape’ -its own unique rhythm and ambience, and inspires in its own unique way. That was my concept in creating my CD -M-.

Samantha and I met a couple a few weeks back when I was playing some tunes outside our local coffee house Cooper's. We were chatting about music (he plays and writes as well) and I gave him a promo of my CD. I was mentioning the concept behind the production. He had the idea, 'Well what if you applied this concept to the coffee house experience?' (something along those lines anyway). I thought it was a great idea so I wrote this up the other day and sent it to him.

Mike Mudd -The Logo

Here's my new logo - I never had much of one before. It turned out well, if I do say so myself. It gets the point across anyway.

Waste of Time

Well along the lines of the last depressing (and extremely long) post here's a new original uke tune that I wrote a couple of weeks ago. I was looking through a notebook and thought 'oh yea, I forgot about that one.' Samantha said it reminds her of Tom Waits -I guess there are worse comparisons.
Waste of Time

2 Years and Running - Pt. 4

I wrote this late one night a couple of months ago. Obviously at times 'It ain't easy livin' in the city...' Growing up with a lot of undeveloped land to stretch out on, it's easy to feel cooped up living in a small apartment with clomping footsteps above us all the time. Since we moved out of our beautiful house with the psycho (see post from Sept. 1st '05) two summers ago, we've been quite cooped up.

Sometimes you just feel like you have to change your life or you'll go crazy like those people you see on the street, or the lady who screams at you because you accidentally touched her. That's where this piece came from. It's a kind of pseudo-journal entry.

I suppose Samantha and I had both been thinking along the same lines, because the next day the idea came up to go to Central America.

Back when I was riding the bus a lot, I started to notice more and more people talking to themselves, more and more people who seemed completely cut off from the thousands of people around them. More and more dysfunctional. I believe that our society is becoming increasingly dysfunctional, and I could see it potentially happening to us.

-I can’t remember how long it’s been since we’ve been out here on our own, it seems like forever. In another life we lived in the city, we rode the bus or the light rail, or rode our bikes and competed with traffic. I remember we complained about the smell of the car exhaust and how insensitive and downright hostile drivers often were. We never escaped the sound of traffic, even in the dead of night. Semi trucks rolling by, the freeway in the distance like a river only without the soothing qualities.

It seems like someone else’s life, like a movie that we watched that stuck with me, the characters seeming like real people, but not us. People trying to figure out who they are and what they want to get out of life, what the meaning is. People running around in circles, both literally and figuratively. Working hard to try and save money to get a larger place with more room to do more of what they think might help to bring more meaning to their lives. All the while losing more of what it is that makes them who they are.


It’s the kind of movie that we would refer to as a ‘frustration film’ because as an observer you can see what the people in the movie can’t see: that they are making all the wrong decisions and slowly spiraling down the drain. The people in the movie slowly go insane as their connection with the world around them deteriorates. The dreams they had of getting away from it all are slowly forgotten. They lose any sense that they have some control over their environment, the old broken record cliché with no one to give the needle a bump to get things moving again.

They lose any sense of passion they once had. They forget what the feeling of love is, the feeling of sexual pleasure, any feeling at all other than a quiet desperation. They forget how to have relationships with people, everyone in their lives becomes too busy to have the time for others. No one has the energy to do much of anything for fun. They try to lose themselves in television like other, ‘normal’ people. To push that drive for meaning down somewhere where they don’t have to think about it anymore, but it just keeps coming out in bizarre ways. They develop new nervous habits and old ones become more extreme.
He used to find himself playing with a single, long strand of hair wrapped around his two fingers, spinning it in a figure of eight pattern. Never quite knowing where the hair came from, it just having almost magically appeared. Now in addition, he has one wrapped around his tongue and spins that one around inside his mouth as well.
She slowly, methodically picks at a scab on the back of her arm as she watches the people around her. Eventually she peels it off again and begins working on another. She feels around back there for the little imperfections on her skin –the zits or eczema bumps or whatever they are and she tears them off. It takes several months for them to heal because she never leaves them alone.

Everyday they notice more and more people acting erratically, but it only registers in a distant sort of way, the world somehow seems less and less real. In another world it might have some affect on them; to see so many of the people around them talking and laughing and screaming to themselves or jerking their heads or their hands around like they have Turret’s syndrome, but they don’t seem to notice.

The media which is so prominent in their lives with stories of death and destruction, suicide bombings, civilian casualties of endless wars, school and workplace shootings, doesn’t seem to register at all. Those daily stories of tragedy, the lifeblood of the ‘news industry,’ and impossible to avoid hearing, once made their hearts feel like they were breaking over and over again every single day. Now they have become nothing but a sort of background static, there is no affect anymore. When he passes the little old homeless lady he doesn’t think about how she reminds him of his grandma anymore. She puts on the necklace with the little bear track pendant every morning without ever thinking of her tall, handsome grandfather who gave her the necklace.

Alcohol, and prescription drugs provide a sort of permanent dizziness, at times seeming to bring comfort, but really just sort of removing the context. Providing a not quite blissful confusion. The attempt at an artificially induced ignorance only resulting in furthering the distance between their conscious mind and that elusive sense of meaning that they once knew is what is needed to make their lives worth living. Rather than the search for that meaning, the search becomes to find a better distraction from consciousness itself. To find a way to go to work and come home and eat and sleep and do the housework without ever really thinking about anything bigger.

I don’t even remember coming out here, how we got here. I can’t even remember what to call this place other than ‘home.’ It’s as if this is nowhere at all and that’s just the way we like it. A mud hut, a dirt floor, a thatch roof, no glass in the windows.

Bones Groove

Three performances last week and three again this week. I'm volunteering as a mentor for the non-profit 'Make Music Portland' which puts groups of hobby musicians together to experience playing in a group setting. Working, running around, rehearsing, an occasional jam session. Not much time to relax. Is that anything new?

Here's an old tune that goes back at least 10 years -but I changed it up over the last couple of weeks. I learned it on the uke and added some Cab Calloway inspired lyrics. Here are the two versions of the tune:
Bones Groove -old
Bones Groove -new

2 Years and Running Pt. 3 -Artichoke

I realized last year that I needed to try harder to get connected in the music community.
Knowing that what I do is probably the closest match to Portland's historic music center -Artichoke Music, I began offering to volunteer for shows and auctions.
Artichoke Music

It turns out that Kate and Steve (the owners for most of the 30 years the place has been open) were selling, and the new owners Richard and Jim are a couple of the coolest people on the planet. Now everything but the retail shop is operating as a non-profit.

So I've been spending a lot of my time (and money) over there. Which has been a great way to get to know a lot of great people. It's become one of my favorite places to play. Last night I sat in on one of Richard's and helped run the soundboard, and I'm playing a half hour set this coming Friday.

You never quite know what's going to happen when you're there.
A couple of weeks back we had a Japanese television crew come in who are working on a 'travel America' series. So we grabbed some ukes and sang 'Come to Oregon, come to Oregon.' They said they'd get us copies of the edited footage whenever it's broadcast.
Then on Saturday this trashed guy calling himself 'The Chief' came in saying he was close personal friends of Merle Haggard, George Straight, and Willie Nelson...

Two Years and Running Pt. 2 -Homebrew!

Alright forget what I said before about filling in gaping holes...it's just not going to happen. I think it's always going to be playing catchup, but I'll try to at least give a few of the missing highlights:

Samantha and I have been making beer at home. We've made ginger beer at home numerous times. Not the soda-pop kind but the unexpectedly powerful 7-8% alcohol kind. She's more a beer drinker than me (maybe two pints on a Friday night as opposed to my 1/2 - one) and so I got her a homebrew kit for her birthday.

We've made more than a dozen batches of beer beer now. We've got a nut-brown ale bubbling away in the cupboard right now. It's at least as much fun making and bottling it as it is drinking it. You can't help but feel like your brewing up some magical potion -boiling up herbs, and grains, and extracts in a steaming black cauldron. We thought about making some kind of brewing robes, so we could feel even more like witches. And the way it smells when it cooks is like nothing else, it's like a weird sort of caramel.

Then we get to share our creations with people. We made a couple of batches when Kris was here, and he said the nut-brown was his favorite beer ever. I'm reserving judgment but man it's yummy. How about 'Mudd and Bones Brewery'? I like the sound of that...

In Over My Head -Two Years and Running pt. 1

I just realized that I've been keeping this journal for 2 years last August. And looking back, I can see a lot of gaping holes, so I'm going to spend some time trying to fill in some of them. Sort of a 2 year retrospective or something like that.

I'm also going to have to try to catch up on the present as well, for example the family and I are going to tour Central-America for several months in the spring! But I don't have any time to write right now.

One Good Woman

I've been telling my mom that I would post a recording of this tune for months now, but haven't managed to do it until now. I had been so busy writing and doing other things that it fell by the wayside. I believe I wrote 4 tunes that week. Then I kind of forgot how it went and had to relearn it. So here it is Mom...
One Good Woman

Some of my tunes are autobiographical and others appear that way but aren't. This is a tune that is. It's pretty self-explanatory.

Grateful

In high school I went to a lot of Grateful Dead shows. That was an interesting era.

Backstage

It's pretty rare for local crew to get backstage passes these days. The newest one of these goes back a few years. Wristbands and extra large T-shirts are the typical 'swag' these days. It's always extra large and I wear medium...

My friend Pete was the guy who got me into the line of work. He got me on my first crew in Phoenix. I believe my first rock show was a band with the members of Menudo minus Ricky Martin. I worked one of his shows during the 'Vida Loca' tour. it was definitely the most impressive show I've worked from a production standpoint -conveyor belts and dancers attached to harnesses dancing horizontally up and down the giant 'jumbotron' video screen.

My last rock show was the Rolling Stones last year. It will be my last -it just about killed me. It's pretty exciting to be backstage though, I worked shows of my childhood idols. Hell, Hulk Hogan accidentally dumped my dinner on the floor! I watched drunk and belligerent middle-aged women get the boot from a Rod Stewart show. I heard 20,000 10-14 year old girls scream so loudly that I couldn't hear the music coming from the wall of speaker cabinets at a Spice Girls show. Good times...

but it's hard work and my body isn't what it was when I was 12 (when I started working construction). I just can't do that kind of work anymore.

Haircut

I realized that I never posted a video Samantha and I made for 'Leeches On My Mind.' So I started going through our highly unorganized backed-up data. I have yet to find the leeches video but I did find some other stuff... A few years back, Samantha and I were taking a lot of video classes. And this was a video assignment to only use 'in-camera' edits. I decided it was time for a haircut...

Haircut

After having hair down to my waist for a decade I went through a period of not knowing how I wanted my hair, so I'd shave it, let it grow, get sick of it, shave it, etc.

Found Photos

We found some pictures in a folder on the computer that we didn't know we still had. They're from one day when we were wandering around downtown.













The ones of me seem to reflect how I feel some of the time -sort of stretched out all over the place like a bizarre conglomeration of emotion, experiences, hopes and fears; with no real cohesion. The comforting thought is that I know many people who feel the same way -probably half of the planet.

'My Baby Gave Me a Kiss' Artichoke -Friday Night

Well, I guess this is going to be a good month in terms of journaling what I'm up to. I write an average of 1-2 new tunes a week and I think I've only managed to get 3 recorded in some way in the past several months. And I promised my mom I'd get back to a song that I mentioned to her a couple months ago, but haven't yet. Oh well -too many songs not enough time. And not enough tendons...ouch. Did I mention that the pain in my arms is keeping me off the computer ?

I guess I also hadn't done more than mention that I've taken up the ukulele (that's oo-koo-le-le to Hawaiians). A lot of the old pop tunes I used to play about 10 years ago translate pretty easily, so it's been a lot of fun getting back into that style of music.

I managed to write this song and finish it and play it tonight. It was definitely a crowd pleaser at Artichoke. I love playing for them, it's such a great crowd. I only wish that I had installed the pickup in my Uke better, well maybe I can pretend it's the sound of an old record player...
My Baby Gave Me a Kiss

Kris and I had a lot of fun playing this Robert Johnson tune when he was in town (that's him on vocals).
They're Red Hot

New Tunes

I haven't slowed down with writing new material, but the spontaneous process of song-writing doesn't necessarily translate into this format, so a small percentage actually makes it onto this page.

The first tune was from last week; I call it Whole New World. It's kind of a sing along about hope. I may not always show it, but hope is something I have a lot of.
'Whole New World'


The second tune I'm calling What it Means. Picture a cowboy on the range back in the old west. Back when they'd ride the trail for months on end. They had a lot of time to think out there. Well this cowboy is all alone on the trail and the worst part of it is that he's in love.
'What It Means'

'Ukulalien'

I took up uke in june and it's been very addictive. So many tunes easily translate to the instrument. Plus it goes anywhere. The only problem is that I've given myself tendonitis playing so much, so I've had to cut back.

End of Summer

Looking back it has been a great summer. We finally managed to get Kris up here for a good chunk of time -about six weeks. We had a lot of fun hanging out and played several gigs, including getting out of town for a few of them. I'm sure if we had a full time combo, it would sound great.

We managed to get several tunes recorded, most of which sound pretty good. Samantha did a few gesture drawings of our performances (these are done looking only at the subject not at the page! They're often used to capture motion and mood) .


I liked what Kris was doing for backup on this tune.

'Soon'

We got a couple of decent recordings of other originals as well.

'Since I Lost My Mind'
'Free Man'
'Never Get Away'

Here We Go...

A lot of shows coming up this next week with Kris. The Artichoke show is especially going to be a blast! We rehearsed with Wild Thyme this afternoon and are rehearsing Moondance with Dean this evening. We got together with Dennis and Doug day before yesterday and had a little jam session.

A few changes to our itinerary mean we'll be staying a little closer to home this month, Olympia Eugene, Salem, and a bunch of local shows for neighborhood stuff.

We're doing a show for the kids at the 1st annual Artichoke Folk Festival on the 30th as well. Kris does beatnik Shel Silverstein, and we've got some great kids songs to play.

Update

Well, my friend Dean mentioned to me that it's been a while since I posted anything...It would be nice if I could keep up on these things. I suppose I have trouble with the idea that other people might actually read this thing. I mean, if I keep the journal for myself I'd much rather just spend my time playing and writing songs.

So anyway, I've got a lot going on. I just got off from working on lighting the dead bodies for the 'Body Worlds' exhibit that's opening at the science museum in a couple of days. A bunch of sliced up and plasticized corpses and body parts displayed in 'artistic' ways. I'd prefer to have my bones made into flutes or something like that instead.

Anyway my good friend Kris from 'The Zone' is up and we're playing several shows. I just booked a cafe in Salem yesterday for the 6th of July, but I'm really looking forward to the gig at Artichoke on the 16th. It appears that a lot of people from the community are eagerly awaiting it. Another desert dweller Leila Lopez (www.leilalopezsongs.com) is passing through on tour and we're playing three shows with her.

The gig at Urban Rhythms last Saturday night was great, there were a lot of people enjoying themselves in a parklike setting called 'The Round.' Kris had a contraption kit of sorts -a snare, a djembe, and a tamborine on his foot. It is so cool to have a great drummer like Kris to perform with. Maybe he'll decide to move to Portland.

That's enough -my damned knuckle is starting to hurt.

9 Muses -April 5th -Explicit Lyrics

Lots of fun at the 9 Muses Thursday! My friends Dean McCrea and Dennis Tracy came and sat in on a couple of tunes. I need to learn how to promote my gigs, so that I can pack them, but even though there weren't a bunch of people it was a great show. I'm putting up links to several of the tunes .

I played a brand new tune written two days before called 'I Love You Baby.' The tune sort of wrote itself after Samantha had been listening to the band Ween a lot after discovering them on Rhapsody (a kind of choose your own artist internet radio station). Anyway, one of their nasty folk songs got stuck in my head and a couple weeks later this tune popped out. Hey, ya gotta write the tune that comes out...so consult your local laws on wether or not it is legal to listen to a tune with explicit lyrics.
I love You Baby

Dean played lead guitar on Van Morisson's Moondance and we played his tune Thanksgiving Day.
Moondance
Thanksgiving Day

I really liked the way I performed Insane that night:
Insane

My friend Bob requested me to play 'Below.' I put the capo on the wrong fret of the guitar so it was in too high of a key, but I like the way it sounded for the most part.
Below

I played a Cheech tune that I loved when I was younger.
Me and My Own Lady

New Player

My friend Pete is helping me make an MP3 player for my site. That should help to clean it up and make it so that people can browse the site and listen to tunes at the same time. I spent the last couple of days working on making the player, now I'm gonna hand it off to him and he's gonna write the code.
He's got a lot of skills. I would love to have him produce an album for me, maybe he wants to be my manager as well...he he he.

St. Patrick's Day

My gig at Dan and Louis' was a lot of fun. I got a chance to play a bunch of Irish drinking songs, a few bawdy folk songs and of course some originals. Obviously bars aren't the best places for having an attentive audience, but it was packed, actually alternately loud and then quiet (maybe when people were slurping down their oysters), and everyone was having fun including me. And it was non-smoking... and they pay.
Here are four of the tunes I played: Three Irish drinking songs and one original blues.
Finnegan's Wake
You Wouldn't Know The Blues
Wild Rover

I almost forgot, this one is kind of suggestive...hey, these are Irish pub songs right? PARENTAL ADVISORY...
All for Me Grog

I've spent many hours this week working on design for various things. I put together this one-sheet to send to reviewers etc... I got a request for a review CD from a U.K. Magazine called Leicester Bangs the other day and realized that I needed something written specific to the disc. Here's how it turned out. If I say so myself, my design skills are improving.

Soon

Going to seminars and hearing 'professional' songwriters talk, I hear I should be writing 100 songs a year. 2 a week. Well, it looks like I'll get a little more than half of that. At this rate I don't think it's going to be hard to do more than 50, but I seriously doubt I'll make it to 100.

Considering how much there is to do in life, it's a wonder I'm able to write as many songs as I've been able to, chalk it up to lack of sleep. It's possible that my sleep deprivation actually helps the songwriting process...it definitely alters my perception, breaks down the mental blockages. It's probably not good for my health though.

I wrote this yesterday afternoon after attempting to take a nap -finished it about 2am this morning. It's sort of a surreal song from the point of view of a guy who just met a girl the night before, she almost chokes to death, now it's the next night and he's hoping that things will work out. I call it Soon. Trying to get these songs recorded as I write them is a challenge too, but I think this one turned out descent all things considered...
Play tune

This Recycleman rock show is pretty funny. I never had visions of being a rock star, but I sure do get treated like one by the kids that I perform for. Yesterday after the show there was practically a stampede when I said 'I have 3 extra guitar picks.' A kid ended up getting knocked onto the floor. I was arguing that 4th and 5th graders were too old for the show, but we had 5th and 6th grades!

Parents warn their kids about rock concerts, we bring the rock concert to them.

Anyway I still haven't had much time to relax and I don't see the opportunity any time soon if I want to get the things done that I want to. CDBaby.com has gotten my CDs and of course the scan they mad of Samantha's beautiful artwork doesn't do it justice. You can't even tell what it is. I've been posting my stuff all over the place like mp3.com and Skratch magazine, and Garageband.com, who knows if it's gonna pay off any time soon.

9 Muses Songwriter Night

Well, I made it back to the 9 Muses Tavern on Monday, and had a great time.

I've never had someone tell me that my tunes give them goose-bumps before, but that's exactly what the bartender told me. I blew the place away with an angry rendition of Free Man (here's a link to an old live version of it). Luckily it was the last song I played because I blew out my throat belting it out. They booked me on the spot for April 5th with another songwriter opening for me.

Free Man

I was skeptical of the place at first, because they booked me when they first opened last year and when I got there the place wasn't even open yet... I imagine it's pretty difficult to make everything happen on schedule when you're just starting out.

The great thing about the place is that they only want original acoustic material. It's the perfect place for someone like me. A great audience and staff, non-smoking (though there's some bleed through from the upstairs smoking room, very supportive, and they're trying to do something for the musicians that do well. They've got radio tie-ins and they pay their performers, etc. My friend Dan Rhiger does the sound over there and as part of their twice a year songwriter competetion He's giving away 10 hours free studio time at his excellent studio Medicine Whistle. And they give away $1000 bucks twice a year to lucky (and talented) performers. Their last 'winner' has got a spot on the famous syndicated radio show River City Folk, and I guess just signed a record contract.

All I've Got is a Lousy Dime

I've been playing lots of gigs as Recycleman, today was a show with 400 kids... very fun. We're gonna get some new promo material with me in the pictures, that'll be helpful. There's a good chance that I'll have an extra 100 gigs next year.
Hey I'm gonna make a living yet at this music thing...

I'm going to be booking some kind of tour soon, I swear it! I believe I'm going to see what Europe's all about. I hear they are pretty singer-songwriter friendly.

I wrote this tune after I got home this afternoon. I've been playing and listening to old country like Hank Williams and 'mountain music' lately and this one came out pretty quick. I guess it's a Mike Mudd take on Goin' Down the Road Feelin' Bad.

I started using my goats hooves again, if you listen you can hear it in the background.

All I've Got is a Lousy Dime

I wish I had the time to post for every tune I write. I've written several new tunes over the past month or so, but have only had time to write a couple of posts...oh well.

Muddville on the web...

The new home of Mike Mudd on the web is finally online!

mikemudd.net


Hey now us starving musicians and writers finally have a cheap and easy way to get our material out there to the world. I only wish it was as cheap to get full studio recordings. I mean I may call myself the basement troubadour, but basements and apartment living rooms aren't conducive to great recordings, and I'm tired of trying to make it happen. Though if I say so myself some of the tunes that I'll be putting up on the web sound great.

Here's the music index
www.mikemudd.net/music

Now I just need to work on attracting people to the site (among a million other things).

I've got a live practice recording of Rollin' Away last week, along with a bunch of other tunes -new and otherwise.

I've decided to keep going with -M- ...I'll use the first hundred as a limited release with Samantha's artwork on each cover and continue for an LP instead of just an EP. I'm also going to see if I can get the funding for someone with a lot of experience to do the mastering.

Here's Rollin' Away and Hello -these two will be on the finished LP.
Rollin' Away
Hello