aries fire

we’re firmly in spring now in the northern hemisphere with aries leading the way until april 20th, as my fire sign, for better or for worse, charging along with sometimes reckless passion and abandon. and i wouldn’t have it any other way. life continues as a great adventure and i feel fortunate and blessed.

with summer just around the corner, i’m working with donna to prepare the farm for music and magic and we’ve been inundated with requests to perform from a fantastic group of artists new and returning. it’s shaping up to be a wonderful music season. i will announce one date here- saturday june 26th- with Grand Theft Audio and the van Gogh Brothers. music will start at 1:00PM. more dates to come!

i feel the calling of the road again and with a trip to new orleans this month, i’ve whet my appetite for more. i miss the desert and malibu, and i miss england in particular. with old friends in la and new friends in london, 2021 is threatening to pick up where 2020’s pandemic left off. i can’t resist, of course, and i’m packing my bag which until last year stayed ever-partially packed.

the song fairy has been good so far this year and i’ve continued my tried and true daily writing regimen which allows me to write my way to a good song every now and then. it takes about 30 “mediocre” songs for every “good” one for me. i suppose in that way it’s math, but the quality is definitely magic, i show up for the songs so that i’m ready when they appear, and, by some miracle, they show up for me. i understand most writers don’t write “this way,” and some see it as mechanical, but it works for me. it’s a laborious method and it can be frustrating sometimes after many “mediocre” songs in a row, but there is a honing process to it— lyrically and melodically— that occurs which is no different, i suppose, than working on the same song for 30 revisions— and it satisfies my masochistic protestant work ethic.

we return to recording in late april and we continue our preproduction at my carriage house studio in newton. paul recently showed up with an acoustic guitar, which inspired clayton to start thinking about a stand-up bass. i’m incredibly inspired by this. the last time something like this occurred was in the early 2000’s when paul got his harmony rocket and clayton got his first kay bass- events which defined a pivot in our sound as a band. what could be next? another adventure!

I hope you are well and i look forward to reconnecting in the months ahead as we learn to navigate the pandemic in safety, God willing. until then…

love,

jc