234. Walk With Me #1 (Sam McCormally, composer)

DAY TWO HUNDRED AND THIRTY-FOUR

Sam McCormally (Ugly Purple Sweater @ Bloombars, DC – April 2011 – Kristian Whipple)

There is a musician you need to have in your regular musical vernacular.  His name is Sam McCormally.  He is the voice of Ugly Purple Sweater (who have recently released a beautiful new album).  Sam and I have collaborated on the 365 many times, released a song on a Pearl and the Beard EP, and continue to admire and support each other’s work in the real world.

As the 365 is a journal of sorts of my musical life, I would be amiss if I did not include two beautiful pieces written by Sam McCormally (playing guitar and piano) on which he asked me to play cello.  He is not only a talented songwriter but scores for film as well.  These two compositions I’m posting for you were written for a film he was working on, but, like most film scoring, a piece is bound to not make it into the final score.  In this case, one of my favorites that didn’t actually make it into the film was recorded in a stranger’s house earlier this year.  I am going to post the first of his two compositions today, as he just sent me the final mixes yesterday afternoon.  I hadn’t heard them in months.

He and I played this live together, but the quality of the piano Sam recorded on didn’t quite capture the piece as he had envisioned.  However, it still stands as a great testament to Sam’s fine musical ear and talent for tone color.

At the time of this recording, I had been doing so much songwriting and improvising that coming together with another musician to play off of a score was so refreshing.  Every kind of activity uses different parts of the brain and body – this was muscle memory I had been neglecting.  I miss collaborating musically over a score in this way (like a classical trio or quartet might do) and working with Sam in this way was especially rewarding.

Walk With Me #1 (Piano & Cello)

Written by Sam McCormally

Sam McCormally, piano

Emily Hope Price, cello

232. Crazy (Willie Nelson cover)

DAY TWO-HUNDRED AND THIRTY TWO

Mr. Willie Nelson

It’s now 2:30 am, and it’s just late.  Late. Late.

It’s also technically tomorrow, but I’ll say that it is still today.   I have been singing this song all week, so I thought I might as well add it to the catalogue of last-minute cover songs for the 365.

Pearl and the Beard just finished our last tour with Ani DiFranco and her crew tonight.  It was bittersweet, and I’m sad, but so happy we got such an incredible experience.

I am so tired.  How fast can i put together a cover at 2:30 am?   Hmm… This fast.  So Super Fast:

Crazy (The Willie Nelson Cover)

Crazy, I’m crazy for feeling so lonely
I’m crazy, crazy for feeling so blue
I knew you’d love me as long as you wanted
And then someday you’d leave me for somebody new
Worry, why do I let myself worry?
Wond’ring what in the world did I do?
Crazy for thinking that my love could hold you
I’m crazy for trying and crazy for crying
And I’m crazy for loving you
Crazy for thinking that my love could hold you
I’m crazy for trying and crazy for crying
And I’m crazy for loving you.

227. Tiny (Improvisation – VIDEO)

SONG TWO-HUNDRED AND TWENTY-SEVEN

Tiny - Emily Hope Price, image - Harvey Robinson

Technology. Technology is allowing me to type this on my stupid cell phone in the middle of a show! AMAZING!

Today’s song is so special, it’s crazy. Tonight, we are in Asheville, NC. We drove here after a two-day stint in Greensboro helping out our friend Harvey Robinson. I mentioned him and his production company, Monkeywhale, in an earlier post. Well, last night during our Greensboro show, I busted my C string, the cello’s thickest string, right in the middle if the set. Today, as I was putting on a new string, Harvey came up and said, “Have you done your song of the day yet?” “No”, I said. “I want to film the song today!” “I haven’t started it yet,” I replied. “Just improvise it…”

Well, I did. And he filmed me doing it. Harvey has been awake for nearly 3 days now with only a few naps because of the 48 Hour Film Project – and he is still in a great mood! Thank you, Harvey for capturing a 365 song in such a beautiful way.

You’re the best, Harvey and Carolyn!

Tiny (Improvisation)

226. Disease

SONG TWO-HUNDRED AND TWENTY-SIX

Harvey Robinson

I missed yesterday… but would you believe me if I told you I actually worked on SEVERAL songs yesterday, just can’t show them to you… You should believe it because it’s true!

Pearl and the Beard is in Greensboro, North Carolina working with Harvey Robinson/Monkeywhale Productions on his 48 Hour Film. If you’ve never heard of the 48 Film Festival, you can research it here and be enthused and blown away.  It’s an amazing feat of artistry that must be completed in 48 hours.  For more about the festival click HERE.

Well, we were recruited by dear friend Harvey to help on the soundtrack to his film this year.  We showed up yesterday at noon, ate lunch and headed to the studio where Ben Singer, Wayne Reich, and Matty Sheetz were there waiting for us to arrive.  Truthfully, I was worried this was going to be a painful experience.  I’ve done soundtracks to film, and it can be as slow as tar, tedious and frustrating.  But I was welcomed with the warming arms of organization: these guys were amazing.  They were ready with ideas they had recorded before we got there, and, though they hadn’t seen the footage to what they were scoring, they had ideas and were moving on them.  Wayne is a wonderful violinist, and we were able to do some free improvisation together as a violin/cello duet, which I haven’t done in such a long time.  Free-improvisation is so… well… freeing.  If you have the inclination to do it with anyone using any instrument, I highly encourage you to find a friend and just play!

Rule #1 to Free Improvisation: 

There are NO WRONG NOTES. There are NO mistakes.

That’s it.

A personal guideline I have when doing free improv is to listen.  Listen to what your partner is doing.  React.  Remember you are not playing by yourself.  Space is also a great tool, especially when recording a free-improv.  With including space in a performance you can cut sections and move them around where necessary.

We finished around 9:30 pm.  Late last night we were able to hear a rough mix of what we had done during the day.  I wish I could post the duet for you to hear: what a cool moment!  We did several takes of it, each one different in its own way.

Speaking of improv – done in only a few minutes, the song today is improvised everything.  Sometimes things just come to you and you can craft them into something wonderful.  You feel the movement forward and you pat yourself on the back a little.  But sometimes, there is the hugest brick slamming over and over into your brain prohibiting any ideas from coming forth.  This is where I am.  This is where I have been for several months.  The best way out?  Just do it.  Keep doing it.  Keep working through it.  So, here is an improvised, one-take song, Disease.

Disease

222. Between Two Trees – Lady Lamb the Beekeeper Cover

SONG TWO-HUNDRED AND TWENTY-TWO

So, my 365 project turned into more of a song project.  I keep telling people, “I’m going to finish it! I will!”  Well, the words slipped out of my mouth and into the air, and after a while I didn’t believe it anymore.  Months and months would pass, and I always find an excuse.

No more. I’m sitting here at this computer dreading even logging into my wordpress account, feeling my own damning inner disappointment.  I talked to Brian Speaker, the friend who inspired the 365 Project through his own (totally completed) 365 Project called Spiral Notebook.  His advice? “The 365 Project is what you want it to be.  If you’re done at day 200, you’re done.  You set the rules, and no one can say any different.”

I started the 365 with an All-Or-Nothing mentality.  I did just fine, with only a few missed days, until 214.  I remind myself that that number is huge, and I’m not a disappointment even though I didn’t finish by January 4.  I remember when that day came and went.  I was rushing to finish the movie score I had picked up months earlier, and now, I have 214 songs and an entire soundtrack behind me.  Not so bad, and now I’m telling myself: finish.  I miss the 365.  And really, even though I’m not sure exactly how many are listening out there - I miss you.

Between Two Trees – Lady Lamb the Beekeeper Cover

Lady Lamb the Beekeeper has been heard at least twice here at the 365.  Her voice is unmistakable and unforgettable.  I recently saw her open for Beruit  in a magical-only-Aly-Spaltro-could-command-that-big-of-an-audience-all-by-herself kind of performance.  She played this song that night, and I recalled when I first heard it.  Pearl and the Beard was in Maine doing a show in Portland on a mini-tour.  The evening consisted of Dylan Metrano from Tiger Saw and Lady Lamb the Beekeeper.

I am posting a video of my cover of this song as shot by incredible photographer Josh Maready in a subway tunnel in New York City.  It was almost 2 am by the time we finished.  Trains were about 5-10 minutes apart and the song is somewhere in between there in length, so we had a hard time finding a quiet spell.  This take was the only one not interrupted by an arriving subway train, until, serendipitously, one arrived right at the end of it like a period on a sentence, taking the sound away and out.  I suspect Rick Gribenas might be a little pleased, wherever he is.  It worked great, but it was the only take where I forgot lyrics…sacrifice for the greater good I suppose.

Watch Lady Lamb the Beekeeper’s video of her song shot by the always amazing photographer Shervin Lainez.

221. Worm (Murder Ballads)

DAY TWO-HUNDRED AND TWENTY-ONE

My hero: Edward Gorey

Good-evening my dear friend…

Oh Boy… I am once again tour-ridden, but this time, I am completely without computer to post or record, though I tried before I left to track down means of doing it more remotely, I settled on simply waiting to post and record when I can.  LIFE!

This is a song I did with Guy Capecelatro for yet another one of his great RPM projects like I did with him last year.  (RPM is a yearly project that many musicians take part in all over the world.  You must write and record all new material through the month of February.  You can submit it online where people can hear it.)  The subject was Murder Ballads, and this was my personal contribution to the 10-track album we did together.  I have been so busy getting ready for tour and finishing up more last minute movie stuff, that I ended up finishing 8 arrangements for 8 different murder songs the night before I left for tour.  I will post those songs up soon…

Today, I’m treating you to a very demo-like version of Worm.  I wanted to write a murder ballad from the point of view of a worm living inside of a corpse who had been murdered…. and so you will hear the story unfold.  You will hear the cello part sounds a bit like The Easy Way from last winter in the 365 – completely unintentional.  I recorded the cello and vocals at Anna Vogelzang’s house while in Madison. The vocals, I would like to say, came out surprisingly well – I’m very happy with them!

I sent the cello track and the main vocal to Guy in Portsmouth, Maine, who worked his weird magics with them, adding some sound samples and beautiful harmony vocals.  This is unmixed, but you get the dirty, gruesome, murderous idea… right?

Worm

 

I will crawl inside this brain on fire

Until her heart will beat no longer

A careful host a bride to be, a willing soul, a home for me

I saw his hand a massive thing

Arrange her hair with gold and string

Her body limp but still with grace

He raised her up to meet his face

 

I will see you in my sleep

This secret buried deep

Stained my shoes with kind relief

Take this my love, my bride, my sweet

 

Buried deep within a tomb

Her pretty face he did exhume

And here I am upon my host

She loves me best, she loves me whole

I’ve cared for her much more than he

For years and years he’s lost at sea

His secret slaughter cracked and blistered

With body gone, the mind has festered

 

I will see you in sleep

This secret buried deep

Stained my shoes with kind relief

Take this my love, my bride, my sweet

 

Returned from freedoms’s choking grasp

The memory relived at last

But here am I, she waits with me

She is my love, my bride to be

 

I will see you in sleep

This secret buried deep

Stained my shoes with kind relief

Take this my love, my bride, my sweet

218. Happy Valentine’s Day!

DAY TWO-HUNDRED AND EIGHTEEN

Decided to do something different for the 365 project today.  Instead of a song, why not a Valentine’s Day movie? I’m the throes of several projects before I leave on a 5 week tour with Pearl and the Beard, one of which involves the ever musical Guy Capecelatro (who is absolutely out-writing me for sure). So, instead of writing just a song, Jonathan, as a kind of Valentine’s Day present to me, suggested we do a a movie for Valentine’s Day.  It might not sound like much to the average Valentine’s Day recipient, but we really have fun doing it – NERD ALERT.  We have previously done a small scene from Star Wars with PUPPETS (which I may post later), but for V-Day we decided on, what else, The Notebook starring Rachel McAdams and Ryan Gosling.  Here’s what the scene from the movie looks like:

If you haven’t seen it – this is what you’ve been missing.  If you have seen it, you’ll know exactly where this falls in the movie, and if you don’t remember, well – then you obviously didn’t need to rewind it over and over again, memorizing every slur and pout that came out of Ryan Gosling’s mouth.

The music from the first half of the scene is from a piece I wrote called Odiorne and the Sea and put on a collaboration for Burst and Bloom Records called Seasonal Disorder – Winter.  It’s a gathering of several artists who have all submitted tracks about Winter.  The outtakes half of the scene is a a brand new piece you’ll hear later in an undisclosed location…hmm…

So, HAPPY VALENTINE’S DAY to you!

216. Cursive

DAY TWO-HUNDRED AND SIXTEEN

Good evening!

Getting right to it: This was recorded by James Frazee some weeks ago as a demo.  It’s actually an old song, but, in an attempt to recommend a song for the movie – which once again didn’t make it in – we adjusted some tiny, tiny little spots and re recorded it.  This is that recording.  True, true: it technically doesn’t pass 365 rules, but I’d really like to finally get it in here before it’s too late…I have attempted several “officially recorded” versions of this song, but it just seems to fail.  So, I’m just going to have you hear the most recent demo of it, because that’s just what I want to do.

This is one of those songs that came very quickly but took forever to finesse.  Bashfully I will tell you that when I finished it and performed it for myself for the first time, I cried…I felt so silly, but they just came rolling out from the little holes in our head that we call eyes.  I figure it’s because it comes from a very personal place that existed a very long time ago. (James kindly chimes in at the end… and then I reference another 365 song: You Don’t Know What You’re Doing)

Until tomorrow! More, more, more to come!

Cursive

Someday I’ll write you
Someday I’ll write you in cursive, that day’s today
One day I’ll wrong you
One day I’ll wrong you and that day is today
Don’t have to keep it, just have to read it I wrote it with you in mind
For all that I know
For all that I know
You could be bleeding at the side of the road
You kept me waiting
You kept me waiting i don’t blame you I would, too
She sure was pretty you sure were lucky, it’s a memory I’d love to
I sent out my soul, a way to occupy your mind
I hope you’re kind, I hope you’re kind, please be kind
The stars are so bright, they’ve nearly occupied these pair of eyes
Before this lady dies
Just want to say, just had to say, you’ve been on my mind
Wish I was pretty you always thought so, I guess it must be true
How could you break me I came in pieces I’m in 10 more now that you’re gone
I was so silent how could you stand it your absence speaks more than truth
With arms open wide come back to me my soul
The starts are so bright they’ve nearly occupied these pair of eyes
Before this lady dies
Just want to say, just had to say, you’ve been on my mind

206. I Don’t Like Your Tone

DAY TWO-HUNDRED AND SIX

I Don’t Like Your Tone

Have you ever written an email and the reply you get is: “I don’t like your tone.”?  Perhaps unsurprisingly, this has happened to me much more than once, and I usually, absolutely do not see it coming.   It happened again today.  So, again, unsurprisingly, I used it as fodder as the 365 today.

What is tone?  (Taken from the online dictionary!)

1.

any sound considered with reference to its quality, pitch, strength, source, etc.: shrill tones.

2.

quality or character of sound.

3.

vocal sound; the sound made by vibrating muscular bands in the larynx.

4.

a particular quality, way of sounding, modulation, or intonation of the voice as expressive of some meaning, feeling, spirit, etc.: a tone of command.

5.

an accent peculiar to a person, people, locality, etc., or a characteristic mode of sounding words in speech.

6.

stress of voice on a syllable of a word.

This is 8 cello tracks staggered and starting on f#, e, c…etc.  The notes themselves are bent to each other just a little, adjusted to micro tones as they’re played.  Sometimes the sound is made “unlikable” by rougher strokes (changing the weight or speed of the bow on the string) and intonation, and a bit more “likable” by being more kind in general.  I find it very hypnotic, but I didn’t run it for very long.  I wanted you to hear the whole thing.

Pearl and the Beard arrived back in New York yesterday, and I have been arranging ever since. I’ve got a few recording projects outside the 365 that needed attending to, and they’re still not finished.  But not to worry!  I’m posting my brains out for the 365!

200. Machines

DAY TWO-HUNDRED!

MOOOOOOVING!  Stuff is e v e r y w h e r e.

(In the meantime, I have missed a few days…)

200!

I wrote and recorded this at 7:30 this morning (bet my neighbors are so happy that I’m leaving.)  Cello track is the first take reworked from a quick improvisation.  Bells took quite a bit longer, trying not to over play them and trying to find out the best compromise.  Then lyrics!  (Taking a page from Yeah Yeah Yeahs a little in the repeated “chorus”.  Karen O!)

MACHINES

We fight, we fight again

Machines have holes within

Repair the outerskin

Like me, like me, like me

All white from black again

All white and new again

All white and white and new again

All white and white and new again

We fight

We fight

We fight machines, machines, machines