Took a three day break from guitar, recording….music in general.  Not bad…… (getting the feeling back in my finger tips again…).  Had a nice trip out to Cape Breton.  Saw where I used to live in 1978, went to Fort Louisbourg…..I’ll have to sift through some pictures. 

Today back at it….going to do some drum tracks.

spent today working on a song called Blue to Black.  Got the acoustic beds done…and went downstairs to do some laundry….started singing another song…. thought it sounded familar.  noticed that two of my songs have pretty much the exact same chorus…  I mean, different words, but same chords and melody. 

so…after a quick erase and rewrite…. started over.  At least I was at least ripping off one of my own songs, because that really would have sucked if it was a Beatles tune or something….and to be honest, I’m enjoying the reworked chorus of this one, and it forced me to make a new into, which was more interesting that the one from before.

I also can’t get too into recording tonight, because I have to remember to pick up Lynn at the airport.  I’m hoping for no construction or traffic, but I think I better leave early just to be safe.

ok.. a couple more tracks, and I’m out of here.

ok. 

I will admit to this….but I don’t want to.

so today I started to record another song. …. and to be honest, it didn’t sound right. 

let me back up.  I had a gig yesterday…I needed an extra XLR cable…and grabbed one from the studio.

ok. so I put everything back together this morning..and started recording…. and something sounded…odd to me.

ok..maybe i’m missing something…. the weather, I moved the mic…I don’t know.

anyway.. just a little bit more ‘room’ in the sound.   Fine…it souns fine…let’s not over thing all this.

7 acoustic tracks later I realize the mic has somehow gotten turned around…..

so… at least I know what I want to play….. as I record them over again.

I had bought a bottle of wine for Lynn and I when she gets home….

….. it’s being opened.

sonofabitch.

but..oddly…….funny.

ok…. let’s get back at it.

bored and drawing….

The house is empty….got some stuff done today.  I actually have a run till….next wed.   No one here….

I wrote this song (Just Like Sleeping) back in 2007…. while on a cruise ship gig…. deck 4, where I went to relax, read and write.  I wrote it with no guitar… which I normally don’t do. 

anyway….finally found a guitar part that I liked for it.  Did some work on it today….

my bed tracks have about 7 acoustic tracks on them…not sure if that’s excessive…but it doesn’t sound bad….  (lot’s of doubling….)

anyway… things are coming along. 

on a none studio tip… (…..can I say ‘tip’?  doesn’t feel natural…   I think they (they being the tv..people), should make a new show kind of copying a 60’s or 50’s show.  (leave it to beaver meets dick van dyke meets i dream of genie. )  … it should be placed in modern times, but with the same vibe…

ok..so if that happens…maybe I can get some bread….

anyway…. looking forward to adding the fun guitar stuff on.  (let’s face it, I’m not really an acoustic guy for the most part…. )

Mike is in town for a few days…so we’ve been having fun doing some touristy things, and just kicking around. I did a gig yesterday and Mike came along…. played ‘A Day In The Life’ and got to use Mike for the last big piano chord at the end….. made all the difference in the world.

Feeling a little guilty that I was too tired last night to head out to the Black Pearl with him…. so I sent my guest out to a bar at 11:30…..

now I think I know what my parents feel like when I stay out late.

Right now I’m watching a show on Johnny Cash….. goes without saying, he’s so amazing.

And it works out great I get to put my name, Mike’s name, and Mr. Cash’s all in the same tag lines.

I was just reading one of Derek Siver’s blogs (http://sivers.org/freedom), and it got me asking myself some questions and thinking. The question that stuck in my mind….well, the final one I sort of landed on after a bit of thinking.  (One thought or question, leading to another one, and another one, and another one….and not really thinking too hard on one question or another…). 

Anyway….I stopped sort of short when I came to this one:

“What do I want to do then?”

And….I’m not sure I have a real answer anymore.  Or a realistic one is maybe a better way to say it?  It feels like when I was a kid, and someone would ask you what you wanted to be, and you’d say things like cowboy, astronaut, rock star…. and the older you get, the more absurd those things sound coming out of your mouth. (Unless you really want to be a cowboy and look into going to work on a farm…..sort of thing)

…I really have to say, I’m not sure if this is going to make any sense.

Anyway….rockstar, the idea of that say, even into my 20’s was a ridiculous thing to think.  It wasn’t solid. So I started thinking…. working musician….ok, that made more sense.   Even then….. That is a broad type of thing.  “working musician”.  

It’s late…I’m not sure I know what I’m talking about here.

What do I want to do?

What I started thinking was….I should really start thinking about this, call it meditating, call it creative visualization…. something.  I have a foggy view of the whole thing.  It’s become more than musician.  That in a way, is an easy goal… (That is to say…it’s easy to sort of visualize, if that makes sense.)  But I’m not sure I want to be just a musician.  (Not ‘just’ a musician…..maybe I mean, solely and only a musician.)

And here’s another part of it.  It’s kind of terrifying…  this sort of, jumping into life, and thinking or maintaining that yah, I don’t want to have a ‘job’.  (Not that I don’t want to work….I just don’t want to really work for someone else.)   But even that’s not totally true….I’m done with companies……or perhaps the greed.  The never ending want. 

I think it’s that greed and want that makes me sort of doubt what I want to do now.  It’s hard to just live your life simply when everything around you, and almost all of your upbringing tells you that you have to make as much money as possible, smell like this, dress like that, buy this…buy that…. just buy stuff. 

A lot of the musicians I know don’t seem interested in actually playing their music to people…. but more concerned with where they’re playing their music, and on what day and how much money their making. 

Don’t get me wrong….I like making money, and I like buying stuff… (Ask my girlfriend…she will tell you that I like buying stuff…much to her dismay.)

So getting back to the what do I want to do….?  I don’t seem to have a single sort of simple answer to give anymore.  And I don’t think I want one either.  Maybe that’s it….  Q: What do you want to do?  A: a LOT of things. 

I started writing a lot of creative things….but I think I would put in a lot of interesting things. 

Interesting to me I guess anyways.

So anyway…right now, what I have is this fuzzy sort of image of what I want to be doing….and it’s driving me nuts trying to clear it up and get there.

cleaning up around here…… organizing all the blank cds I have around….. found one with songs on it… a mixed tape, if you will… not sure around what time I made it..but this is what’s on it.

we’ve only just begun
sheeps go to heaven
going the distance
erase and rewind
short skirt long jacket
chet atkins type thing
let me down easy
linus and lucy
maybelline
sci fi wasabi
cruisin
crush
Dave Brubeck
un ho down
dave matthews doing ain’t it funny how time slips away
major tom
dido
train
what I am
i got you (split endz)
are you going to be my girl

 …..weird mix ?  

going to get back to recording next week…. looking forward to it.  time is kind of running out, cuz I’m most likely going on to play on a cruise ship in january for 5 months…..  would like it done by then.  I have a feeling there will be an out pour of music after this album…..  like…my censor hat will be taken off after this one….

feeling productive…. I have maybe…..5 out of the 18 potential tunes pretty much done. …. that doesn’t sound too productive, but I’m still enjoying it and it doesn’t feel rused or pressured.  After almost 10 years between my first and second album…..there is some pressure to get this thing done.  But I don’t want to just call it in, or rush it…or just put something that I’m not really happy with on ‘tape’. 

There is a thing too about thinking too much…which I was guilty of the first time around……. it’s bad, I’ve learned…to over think.  Basically….right now, it’s about getting  a pretty good tempo for the song….the rest comes if I don’t push it too hard…and let my mind……..not wander, but…..explore might be a better word.

so, track count so far….

Breath
I don’t think that i’ll fall in love again
Make my way back home
long way home
losing interest
sing this one for you
Till I found you

hmm…I guess that’s 7. 

Other than that…the fall is shaping up nicely for gigs…. (check out http://shawnhebb.com for a list of shows…) .  And then as far as I know, I’m going to head out on a cruise ship for 4 or 5 months in january…then back here for the summer….hopefully some more festivals..that kind of thing.  Maybe make up for the 5 years in between cds and put out a cd really fast..guess it depends on what I can actually get written.

oh..also finally caught some fish…….

Ok, album, coming along…………….and I figured out how to put a picture on the blog.  (ok..that in itself wasn’t a big deal…..but I wasn’t sure for a moment.

Till I Found You bedtracks are done….working on Long Way Home…..that should be done today.