RPM Challenged

For those who DON'T know, the RPM Challenge is an internet thingie which challenges musicians to record and produce an album in the month of February. Record Production Month. Get it? I did, and this is my sixth year to participate. Some years I've done multiple albums, either under my RPM alias Kavin.s Acoustic Church, or as Breaking Light, or with friends in the Love Light Shine project one year, and so on. This year I had planned to do a BL album only and sit out KAC, but stuff happens, and it's never according to plan, as you know.

So here it is the tale end of February and I'm all done but the packaging and sending off, which I always seem to put off until the 28th (or 27th, if it's a leap year) anyway.

As far as the Breaking Light album, I had intended to take an ambient/dub tack, much inspired by Bill Laswell, and local defunct dubsters Sub Oslo (whose perf at the Electric Eyeball Experience at the Ridglea Theater several years ago threw my head for a loop, I tell ya), but that concept didn't retain it's steam it seems. Sure there are a coupla dub flavored tunes, but live loops, stacked looping and a lot of bass guitar lines permeate the album. So it's definitely a departure for the Light in that respect.

Breaking Light "Sculduddery"

As I mentioned previously, I had decided to give the Acoustic Church a break, after five years in the Challenge. But the last week in January, instrument-maker, artist/musician Terry Horn bestowed upon me a handmade cigar box guitar. Incidentally,Terry heads up the Hentai Improvising Orchestra and produces his solo music as The Owl and the Octopus.

On a whim, I sat down with it on the afternoon of February 10 and let the R10 handheld recorder roll (but I wasn't holding it, I was playing the cbg, of course). A twenty minute improv session later, I had some pretty raw, but pretty cool stuff, to my ears. Another session a few days later yielded a few more pieces.



In recent years, the Challenge hasn't been so much to see if I can produce an album in a month, because I know I can. The Challenge is really to produce something different, and at least interesting to my ears each year.

If your so inclined, and love music (I know you do!) go to the RPM site, play the stuff in the player. Go to the jukebox and hit some random albums. There's some really amazing stuff there. Really. And tell them I sent ya.

Buon Giorno 12/7/12

Been a long time...

I've had a week to sit back and process the BG gig with Kristina Morland, and it all seems like a cool little dream. Kristina did great, in spite of some jitters, naturally, since she hasn't performed in public for what seems like ages. Her new songs were great and hopefully I added some atmosphere in my accompaniment on a few of them. A good turnout too, it was great to see so many of her friends and fans come out to support her.

She opened with six songs, a few from her first album Pidgin Music, and a few new ones. Nice fingerpicked guitar work, that fragile childlike vocal and abstract but accessible lyricism. She let me take over after that and I did my thing for about half an hour, and she came back and we did a few more songs together, which was the highlight, for me. We blended rather nicely I thought, in spite of having virtually no rehearsal beforehand. I closed out with a BL set with Ross Reitzammer joining me on flute, which is always a pleasure. That segment can be heard in the player below.

I certainly hope this was the first of many more shows for Kristina!

Buon Giorno 5/25/12

Playing in coffee shops can be a thankless experience, believe you me, I've done a few. At it's worst it can be like performing in a morgue, to baristas who wish you weren't even there. At the other end, it was like last night, at Buon Giorno where they at least seem to give a care about having live music (house p.a., assistance, and something in the tip jar), and aforementioned staff who were friendly and helpful.

It's also great when folks actually turn out to listen, and I think an attendance record was broken, as far as BL shows go. Again, infinite thanks to you who did. Was it all the FB pestering I did? Sorry, I hope not. And Ross Retzammer kinda saved my ass. The first set was a bit tepid and uninspired, then he broke out his flute and got me back on my toes.

Open Streets

In what is apparently becoming a tradition, I took the BL rig down to Fort Worth's southside for the semi-annual Open Streets event (I did the one last fall too). As I described in my post for the fall event, I had the battery powered Roland amp in tow, full of freshly charged AA batteries. My fears of being not loud enough were assuaged, as a fellow from the yoga group down the street approached, and very tactfully and kindly asked me to turn it down! They had hired a musician, he said. The wrong one, I thought to myself. Well I didn't turn down, but turned the amp in the other direction, eastward down Magnolia, where my buddy Darrin Kobetich and a DJ were blasting their sounds. When you have an event called "Open Streets" this tends to happen, performance/sound zones bleed into each other and it becomes a bit of a mess. I love it.

Several people stopped and listened, showed appreciation, and moved on. I gave away a few cds. Some beautiful little kids came up and stared rapt, like they'd never seen a guitar. A game of musical peekaboo ensued.

After about an hour I broke down, and moved over to listen to Darrin, grabbed a taco from the truck and did some people watching. The ever-gracious DK invited me to jam with he and Harry (on harmonica) and some properly kozmic blooze ensued.