It’s been a busy Spring ‘13 – I’m re-assembling Chateau Daveaux, getting her ready for mixing and a certain amount of tracking. The place has 13-foot ceilings like most of the grand old Louisiana colonial-style homes, and with enough knickknacks on shelves & oriental rugs I should get a decent amount of sound diffusion & reflection control & still take advantage of a good-sized space.  I’m still on the fence about ProTools I/O options – since I’m not trying to track more than four people at a time here or get into big drum situations it doesn’t make sense to drop thousands on an HD rig but it would be nice to have a good neutral-sounding “8 in/8 out” box with a/d-d/a conversion. Call it option anxiety, there’s just too much shit from which to choose.
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I finally had my old ’60’s Gretsch (Maxine) re-wired and given a little TLC from Jerome Garbutt here in NOLA. I forgot how much I loved that sound, there’s no guitar that sounds like her. Not a versatile instrument but when you need THAT SOUND, there it is. Here’s the test track:

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Been doing some shows with my friend and fellow Algerian Terry McDermott, which are fun & totally rock, although I suspect some of his core audence was expecting more balladry (he’s a rock artist in sheep’s clothing). This weekend we’ll do an opener for the mighty Terry Reid here in New Orleans, and I believe I’ll be sitting in with Mr. Reid’s band on guitar. A bit intimidating, that man is the master.

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(’To Be Treated Right’, from Terry Reid’s masterpiece Seed Of Memory)

No Comments | In: Life, New Orleans, Terry McDermott, gear, guitar, music, random shit, studio stuff, technology | | #

Wow, it went from a sleepy year to a frenzy of cool for me in about two weeks flat – while out with Mark Lanegan supporting Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds in Australia, I got the call to go from Sydney immediately to Austin to spend a couple of days rehearsing for the Afghan Whigs’ show Friday March 15 at The Fader Fort. If you can’t make it in person you can stream it on The Fade website – it’ll be worth it.

So, no sleep for me means your week in musical entertainment and possible enlightened thrills.  Plus, I get to go guitar gizmo shopping.

1 Comment | In: Afghan Whigs, Life, music, travel | | #

Been doing a ton of this-and-that since the beginning of the year; gigs with friends, demoing songs with Greg, playing with my trio some in the French Quarter and working on the Daveaux album joint… but mainly been enjoying New Orleans and the anti-winter we generally have here.

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I’m going to be playing with Mark Lanegan (as a duo) again, this time we’re going to Australia for a couple of weeks with Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds. Probably a lot like opening for Elvis in Graceland.  That two-man dynamic is fun as hell and so satisfying in a way that’s completely different from melting faces off in a band situation. The quieter you play, the harder people listen, and the message seems more deeply transmitted.

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Hopefully Moreton Bay bugs are in season, I’ve yet to get a proper education on that stuff but DAMN they are one of my favorite seafoods. And as far as i know there’s only ONE place to get ‘em, and it’s a 19-hour flight from here.

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Oh hell yes.  Then, home to finish assembling tracks for my thing & hopefully some work with Terry.

You can get his new track here:

1 Comment | In: Life, Mark Lanegan, Terry McDermott, musicians, travel | | #

Standard operation procedure

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Well, The Afhgan Whigs 2012 “End Times” tour is done, culminating in an extremely satisfying and emotional show on New Year’s Eve in Cincinnati, the city where the whole thing started. We came together last year, already an extended family of sorts, from different projects and different cities, a collection of intersecting Venn diagrams, all of us with a “Dulli number” of 1 (note to slef: investigate people’s Dulli Numbers. Must be relevant?), to really gel into more than just a band. ‘Twas somewhere between ensemble and pirate ship.
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The Afghan Whigs at Antone's in Austin

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I’ve since begun work on my record, started working on music with some other friends (some more familiar to you than others) and generally getting productive.

Every year I try to take stock, reflect and count my blessings. When I think of how frustrated and insecure I was as a kid, how low my self esteem was, how many dates I never had and how many hours I filled sitting in my lonely teen room playing guitar out of an intense need to fill the space in my heart, I have to say it was the best schooling I could have had, and my life is so full of color because of it.
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Backing Terry McDermott at the NFC playoffs in Houston

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My musical life is rich and diverse, and what started out as a career intent on being a “gun for hire guitarist” has turned into parterships and friendships in ART that transcend business or pleasure, the whole thing mixed together in a satisfying roux. In the last few months I’ve toured the world, done gigs as varied as matinees in tiny clubs in the French Quarter, studio guitar and engineering work for hire, played to 70,000 NFL fans at a halftime show, played in a live karaoke band, power trio gigs for fun with friends, and writing and arranging. Mostly withnFRIENDS… Schizoid, but satisfying. I can’t believe it actually worked out this way.
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NOLA's own Eric Bolivar smearing bacon grease on my songs at Rick Nelson's studio, 12/12

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So, I guess the moral is, make good friends with good people, and say ‘yes’ to good things and ‘no’ to bad things. For the most part it’ll all work out (knock on Mayan wood). And you can’t do it all yourself. People need people, and the friends you make in life are the ones that see you through the times when your Mom can’t be there. Which is most of the time.
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Thanks to everyone who came to see me, offered support, traveled with me and shared the stage last year  - it ain’t the parties in yer life, it’s the life in yer parties!

6 Comments | In: Afghan Whigs, Greg Dulli, Life, Terry McDermott | | #

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2011 was a bang-up year for all of us (well, me) here at Chateau Daveaux. Touring & recording with dear friends, rock & roll, hiphop, new friends, reunions, disaster, recordings, national TV (a coupla times), new dog, loss, … now time for assessment & resetting the hammer (ok, I should’ve assessed & reset the hammer a few months back, but you know me, slow on the uptake. Measure twice/cut once).
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In 2012 I’d like to do more mixing and remixing – I’ve been making the Chateau more mix-friendly, & hopefully will have a decent place to track drums soon, although not a priority. I’ve been getting into beats & more programming-oriented stuff as of late, and am working on some more electronic textural-oriented stuff, although there’s an instrumental guitar-themed collection in the works.

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I’m assuming that the networks will be rammed and bandwidth used up at midnight, so I’ll wish everyone now a Happy New Year and many happy returns for the upcoming 365. May the universe rise to meet you.
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xx
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D

No Comments | In: Life, music, random shit | | #

Did you know there’s also a Dave-o Facebook page where I post scheduling, links, photos, etc.?

You can see it here.

No Comments | In: Art, Life, photography, random shit, technology | | #

in no particular order…

wash/oregon sunset

Chinatown in Philly

Ben's in DC

Biggus Riggus in TN

Nashvegas

DC

Wiz & Scott help celebrate Greg's bday in Philly

annapolis - pretty.

rollin' secure on lower east side nyc

nyc (obviously)

Wrigleyville

North Dakota

5 Comments | In: Life, random shit, travel, twilight singers | | #

Wenceslaus Square in Prague

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Prague is always fun.  I met some dear old friends and made a couple of new ones.  Seeing our NOLA friends made me a little homesick, but of course there was enough booze to temporarily wipe that…

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We arrived in Warsaw today after a grueling 12-hour drive… Today was the anniversary of the air tragedy that took the lives of President Lech Kaczynski, his wife and 93 other officials and security officers last year. We didn’t know WHAT to expect from the crowd given the emotionally intense week,  but to our surprise the packed show was a cathartic, joyous event.  We ended up doing and encore, and added a couple more songs than were originally on the setlist as well.  They deserved it, and were a fantastic group of folks.  Much love to Poland!

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© 2011 http://www.rafalnowakowski.com/

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Tomorrow we fly to Helsinki – back into the snow one last time before hitting the sun full on – Thessaloniki,  Athens and Tel Aviv. A vast array of weather perspectives.

2 Comments | In: Life, travel, twilight singers | | #

In Italy we were joined by AfterHours’ frontman and dear friend Manuel Agnelli, and on two of those dates Lomobroso’s/former AH violinist Dario Ciffo sat in as well (at the Milan show our violinist Rick Nelson switched to viola, and the two of them together made an astounding difference in the sound).  Manuel is a fucking rock star – the addition of his guitar turned us from a band into a rock orchestra. When he moved to the piano it freed Rick to add violin to songs that otherwise wouldn’t have had it – awesome. Sounded huge.

photo by RobBlind

Our friend Jorge from Madrid came and jumped on the bus for a couple of days and, for a rare moment, we were spared the homesickness that begins to set in at this point in a tour.  It really felt great to be surrounded by such a loving group of friends.  In Milan the rest of the AfterHours group came out and, for a minute, it was like 2006 all over again.  A great time.

Me & Manuel on the bus

No Comments | In: Life, musicians, travel, twilight singers | tags: AfterHours. | #

As you might guess, it’s going rather well.

Why is it so hard to find blood sausage in the States?

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