Homegrown Radio 9/24/10

Happy Friday, everybody.  It’s the last Friday of the month, & so Scotty Houston’s last go-round on Homegrown Radio, which is sad—but some good news: we get a twofer today, as Scotty supplied two songs for his finale!  Let’s see what Mr Houston has to say about “Loveless Lake” & “Million Tiny Dollars.”

My first week on Homegrown was kind of a cheater since the recording was already a few months old. I had set myself a goal of getting four new ones to you, so this week is a twofer to catch me up.  Since this series is all about home recording it goes without saying that everything I've been sharing is a little rough, and these are no exception.

Loveless Lake has been sitting around for a couple years as just the chorus in a more or less finished state, but nothing I've tried has really has worked for the verses.  This is the latest attempt.  The Mighty Lynch-Pins are set for a re-gathering to play at the annual Murder Ballads Bash at the Starry Plough in Berkeley for Halloween, and time permitting I may persuade the band to tackle this one. 

The title is a take off on the sad places in old songs like Heartbreak Hotel and Lonesome Town. There's a little reference inserted after the bridge, kind of a cheat to grab the entirety of a story line from another song and insert it. Or at least to give you a chuckle.

Million Tiny Dollars has been facing my DEL key and it almost lost the battle before I sent it to you.  It's an attempt at a topical pop song, not usually a good idea, but one worth trying at least... shared here solely for the fun of the lap steel solo. 

Thanks you John for hosting me on your Friday morning drive-time slot and to everyone who took a few minutes to give a listen or to comment and say hello.  RFB is one of the coziest corners of the internet and it was fun dropping some content your way.

Time to get the four track off the kitchen table now...

Well, don’t take it too far off the table, Scotty!  By the way, I’m very excited to announce that next month’s Homegrown Radio artist will be singer-songwriter Joel Murach.  Joel was a member of one of my all-time favorite Bay Area bands, Paddlefoot, & he’s since gone on play in the  bands 86 & the Slow Rollers, as well issue three solo albums (working on a fourth!).  He’s a fine songwriter & a fine musician, so I’m looking forward to his stint on Robert Frost’s Banjo.  But speaking of “fine songwriters & a fine musicians,” here’s Scotty Houston!

Homegrown Radio 9/17/10

Happy Friday, everybody!  We’re here once again with Homegrown Radio featuring another fine song from Scotty Houston.  Let’s see what Scotty has to say aout this week’s song, “Love By Wire.”

I thought I'd try something different this week.  I'm usually pretty slow at both writing and recording, but this one was about two hours from idea to 4 track to mp3 (still pretty snailish for some folks I suppose, but that's about as sudden as I can get).

A simple uke lullabye sung to another song, so to speak.  Genuine Oakland traffic noise here and there.

Thanks, Scotty!  Hope you all enjoy this one (&, don’t forget, you can also listen to Scotty’s two earlier songs in the same mp3 player!)—& please don’t be shy about leaving Mr Houston a comment!

Homegrown Radio 9/10/10

Happy Friday, everybody!  Hope you’ve got your music ears on, because of course it’s time for another installment of Homegrown Radio with Scotty Houston.  Let’s see what Scotty has to say about this week’s song:

Believe it or not, I didn't hear Music From Big Pink until it had already been out for about 40 years.  Damn it.  It's nice to save dessert for last, but it breaks my heart that I missed out on that record for so long.  I wrote about 3/4 of this song last year and finished up this week (a deadline is a great motivator).  It's a crack at something in the style of The Band but of course it ends up sounding like me.  I really didn't want to have a title as lazy as "Roll On" but I would have no idea what else to call it.  Lyrically, it's less song about death than it is about rest after weariness.

Regarding the "homegrown" aspect of this week's recordings, the picture I sent last week tells the story:  super low-tech.  A Tascam DP-004 (the modern incarnation of the classic cassette four track) using only the built-in microphones, a cheapo effects box, and instruments.  Four tracks, some bouncing, no punch-ins, and just the mixing I can do manually on the four track. There's no computer schmiz except to send the mix to a file at the very end.

Thanks, Scotty!  Hope you enjoy the music—remember, you also can listen to last week’s song, “Next the Barometer” embedded in today’s DivShare player.

Homegrown Radio 9/3/10

It’s a real treat to bring Scotty Houston to Robert Frost’s Banjo as the September artist for our Homegrown Radio feature.  I’ve known Scotty since he moved west in the 1990s to play electric bass in Carrie Bradley’s band, 100 Watt Smile.  He’s a witty & down-to-earth guy who happens to be a fantastic musician—proficient not only on the bass, but also lap steel, guitar & baritone uke (see photo.)

Scotty has played in a number of bands in addition to 100 Watt Smile.  Most recently he was a member of Oakland’s The Mighty Lynch Pins, which disbanded not long ago.  Although Scott is currently without a band, a musician of his talents (especially a bass player!) won’t be so for long.  You can read more about Scotty Houston on his Robert Frost’s Banjo Musical Questions interview here.

In the meantime, we get to enjoy Scotty’s music as a soloist.  In fact, I should mention that Scotty gave me the idea for Homegrown Radio; on his Overjoyous blog, he posted a song a day during the month of May, & while I was enjoying those songs, I thought that home recordings could make a wonderful ongoing feature on Robert Frost’s Banjo.  You know the rest of the story—so let’s hear what Scotty has to say about his first song, “Next the Barometer:”

Thanks for hosting me on Homegrown Radio, John. I've been a fan of your blog for a long time and I've really enjoyed hearing Ray and Dani and Carrie over the summer.  They have been three of my favorite songwriters for the last 20+ years running so it has been a real treat to hear them.

Next The Barometer was recorded in May, and written in the Oceanic Hotel on Star Island last year during a storm last fall.  I picked this one because it's the most recent thing I have on hand, I've been working up some new songs for this month but so far my attempts at recording have been thwarted by technical difficulties.  The current status of my, um, home studio is documented in this photo: 

The room in the hotel was leaking from the ceiling and I had three or four coffee cups arranged on the floor collecting drips.  Weather and navigation.  I wondered where birds sheltered on such a tiny, craggy island.  Hope you like it.  I'll be back with a fresh song next week.

Thanks, Scotty!  Here’s the song: