new guitar

Bought the new Eastman E1OM. Unbelievable value, in my opinion. $459, and it sounds and plays like a much more expensive instrument. I like is so much I put an anthem SL pickup in it, which costs, like 40% the price of the actual guitar. That’s how much I like the guitar.

This is through a little Yamaha thr10, all recorded with he laptop mic. BTW, this is wiith D’Addario 80/20 bronze custom light strings. Maybe counterintuitive to do use bright strings on a bright guitar, but I kind of like it. Anyway, this gauge of strings works for me. Easy to play, plenty of volume and workable enough to get some vibrato here and there.

I do recommend trying this guitar if you’re looking for an orchestra sized guitar, all solid. I can find no fault with this thing other than I wish it had a hard case instead of a gig bag, but that’s just because I want to keep it happily humidified because I plan on keeping it.

New Track: A Good Man to Ride the River With


I wrote a song, as therapy. It’s from a note Johnny Cash wrote to Tom Petty, one which Mr. Petty mentioned with pride more than once. It read: “You’re a good man to ride the river with,” which, apparently, is an expression from the South or maybe Texas specifically. I have to admit I violated the Heartbreaker rule of “Don’t bore us, get to the chorus.” I’m sure my record company will complain. It fades in, so give it a second to get going.

Guest guitarist Sporky Snakeskin, recluse brother of Sparky Snakeskin, was pretty down through most of the session, and not just because his arthritis was flaring up. This track is updated Oct. 31, 2017. It should be in stores and with streaming providers soon. If you listen, thanks! And if you listened and liked it, please share it with someone who might feel similarly. Thanks. In case the embed above doesn’t work, here’s a link.
Update: Bandcamp lets you revise your audio file, so the newest mixes are there. The last was Nov. 27th.

Fun stuff to learn from strangers

Not sure my thumbs and wrists are up to it, but this sure looks fun.

Audio source missing

New guitar and a new cover

I bought a new arch top guitar, a Loar LH 300 or so, and I wanted to see how it was to record with, so I did a cover of deep cut Petty tune called “You can Still Change your Mind.” There are two tracks of this guitar panned left and right and an octave mandolin centered. Weirdly, all those strings created a moment about 45 seconds in that sounds like disco strings. Fortunately, it only happened once. Maybe I’ll put this in the podcast, if I ever get to episode 2.