Demo tracks from the musical -The Wilderness

 

The Wilderness - Demo Tracks

These are tracks from my new, original musical -working title The Wilderness. I just started writing the script after realizing that what I thought was a typical song-cycle, was working its way into a much larger story. 

Typically, I'll go through periods where I'm writing songs with a similar theme or emotional standpoint, but after looking back at my songwriting over the past several months, I realized that a large portion were dealing with fairy tales, witches, and that type of thing. Then I realized that some of the songs I've been writing over the past several years are also written from the same fictional character's point of view. So, here I go headfirst into another large project...


Imagine falling asleep under a tree and waking up in a Grimm fairy tale. 

Initially, I believe this story should be told with a shadow puppet theater, live music, narration, and ambient sound.      

I Don't Have to Dream -New Song

I've written a lot of tunes over the years with Samantha in mind, but this is only the second time I've written one as a gift. This one is for our 18th wedding anniversary, which means we've been together for 20 years! Holy crap 20 years?! Wow! Time flies...

The song is called I Don't Have to Dream. That's right "It may be hard to believe, but you're right here in front of me. Nah, it ain't so hard to see, that I've got everything I ne-ee-ee-eed. I don't have to dream..." You know I love you baby!

The ukulele is pretty obvious, but the rhythm is with a hairbrush and a stick on a wooden washboard. I like alternative percussion.

New Projects

Well, we've been back for a while and have been hard at work on two new projects. During our trip to Central America we fell in love with the Costa Rican community of Lanas and Verdenergia. It is our goal to get back there and do what we can to help the local community as well as promote some great opportunities for musicians, artists, activists, and like minded people.
To do this we've implemented two programs. First of all we are actively seeking donations of musical instruments, laptop computers, school supplies, and money to create educational programs for the local communities in and around Lanas. The people there are living in poverty and do not have access to most of the things we take for granted here. Many children don't even have the means to get an education past the 5th grade. We want to do what we can to enrich these children's lives by offering classes and equipment to teach workshops in music, science, computer, art, and more.
You can find out more about this and what you can do to help at http://www.muddandbones.com/outreach.html

Our second project is a songwriters retreat program. We will be offering a two week retreat in February and March of '09. We will be having guest musicians, workshops, classes, performances, and more. These retreats will be a great opportunity for musicians who want to get away for a bit and focus on songwriting, while learning and interacting with a great group of people. In addition to paid retreats we are giving away at least one, and hopefully two, scholarships to musicians who don't have the resources and money to make it down on their own. These will include free airfare, room & board, and access to all retreat activities.
You can learn about and register for our retreats at http://www.verdenergia.org/retreat.html

You can apply for the retreat scholarship at sonicbids
or contact us for more information.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.

'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'

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

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.

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