Kevin Gilbert Rolls In His Grave

Oh, just fine. All we need now is Sheryl Crow chiming in on how to be good environmental stewards. Makes me think of Kevin Gilbert's finest song, Goodness Gracious...

Goodness Gracious!
My gramma used to say
The world's a scary place now
Things were different in her day
What horrors will be commonplace
When my hair starts to gray?

Maybe Sheryl should just keep making her sucky ass songs without Kevin. Compared to her sense of how to help the environment, lame songwriting might be her calling after all.

Happy Birthday, G-ma

To "celebrate" my grandmother's birthday (she would have been 96 this year) I would like to quote my hero Kevin Gilbert who predicted our present dilemma in a number of songs, but most notably in Goodness Gracious. This little bit ends the song after a litany of things that sound like they are plucked out of modern day newspapers, and that hint at the dissolution of society. He released it in 1994, but may have written it sometime before that, knowing his working method and restless perfectionism.

Goodness gracious, my gramma used to say
The worlds a scary place now
Things were different in her day
What horrors will be commonplace
When my hair starts to gray?

The entire song:

Goodness gracious is there nothing left to say?
When the ones that get to keep looking
are the ones that look away?
It's pabulum for the sleepers
in the cult of brighter days

Goodness gracious at the mercy of the crooks
We're broke and stroking vegetables
and there's way too many cooks
In every pot a pink slip, In every mouth a hook

Goodness gracious I'm not listening anymore
Cause the spooks are in the White House
and they've justified a war
So wake me when they notify
we're gonna fight some more

Goodness gracious not many people care
Concern is getting scarcer
true compassion really rare
I can see it on our faces. I can feel it in the air
Goodness gracious me

Goodness gracious my generation's lost
They burned down all our bridges
before we had a chance to cross
Is it the winter of our discontent or just an early frost?

Goodness gracious of apathy I sing
The baby boomers had it all and wasted everything
Now recess is almost over
and they won't get off the swing

Goodness gracious we came in at the end
No sex that isn't dangerous, no money left to spend
We're the cleanup crew for parties
we were too young to attend
Goodness gracious me

Goodness gracious, my gramma used to say
The world's a scary place now
Things were different in her day
What horrors will be commonplace
When my hair starts to gray?

Dammit

Kevin Gilbert was a prophet. I miss that dude.

You Say It's Your Birthday?

My birthday was on the 12th, and apparently I lived to tell about it, or something. I had a few dudes over to play—Brandon Arnieri and Paul Horn make up the trio I am playing with right now. In addition to Paul and Brandon, we had Whit Harrington and Dom Piscopo who made up the trio I played with earlier in the year—we did the tunes Return To Zero and All Things Frippy.

Over the course of the eve, we played in a whole bunch of different combos. I know I played drums and bass, Dom is mostly a guitarist, but probably played some bass, ditto Brandon, who is a better bass player than he'd let on to. Whit provided powerhouse drumming, and Paul provided some of the more jazzy stuff. At one point, Whit and Paul traded in the middle of a jam. I got it all on Pro Tools, but don't expect much—the alcohol was flowing that night, and I'm not sure that all the levels came in right from one trio jam to another. A lot of stuff was played, but not recorded, for, er, uh, whatever reason. But we all had some fun.

In addition to the music geeks in attendance, we also had some other folks: Dom's lady Kate, Brando's lady Merrily, Doug Robinson, Kelli and her friend Suzanne. Missing were the Brothers Thaxton, who came last year, but I'm sure Mike had a very good reason for not showing up ;^)

On a half related note, for the prog and art rock minded, be sure to check out the big two day show on the second weekend of November that will feed your hunger for some challenging and interesting music—Progwest. My buddy Mike Thaxton is the webmaster and a key organizer, and I am the stage manager. The show headliner is the Mike Keneally/Nick D'virgilio band doing a live rendition of Kevin Gilbert's posthumous masterpiece, The Shaming of the True. Go to his site and read up about the history behind the album. It's a major triumph, and one of my favorite albums of all time.

Aside from that, I have to say I am digging the Pro Tools set up, and the studio control room is getting some attention. I will put some pix up soon of the new lean and mean rig. Some audio hopefully will be soon to come.