Typical Practice Day

What has more or less become my typical practice, I run through the following (in no particular order):

Guitar - I like playing "Goddamn Lonely Love" by Jason Isbell. It's probably my most polished song on guitar, and but for the interesting C minor chord (which sometimes doesn't hit just right), I can sing and play it well. I love playing the bridge--probably one of the finest lyrical masterpieces I know.

" Stop me if you've heard this one before
a man walks into a bar
and leaves before his ashes hit the floor.

Stop me if I ever get that far
the sun's a desperate star
that burns like every single one before."

lord, that's powerful.

Banjo - I'm working on a new song, it's in D and has an Em thrown in for good pleasure. No lyrics yet, but it feels like a love song. I guess I'm just waiting for that "love" inspiration, something I haven't felt since the divorce, so it might be a while before I finish that one. I also like to play an old song I wrote on the 405 freeway, and which took me ages to figure out was a banjo song. it just never sounded right on mandolin or guitar, but once I had a banjo, it all came together.

" Lovin' you has got me anxious baby
Lovin' you has got me up all night
My hair falls out and my teeth are achin'
or maybe it's cause my ponytail's too tight."

They say you can't write a sad song on the banjo. But I've certainly tried. One of my songs (which reminds people of Uncle Tupelo) is so sad I hardly sing it, but it is also inspirational to me.

" When I die I want to go to the mansion in the sky
and I pray to God it looks a lot like mine
with a lantern on the sill to guide the spirit home
till my true love comes to me in the by and by."

Mandolin - the mandolin has become more like a bridge between the guitar and the fiddle for me. I tend to play more rhythm on it, and not so much lead. when I do play lead, I like to practice Irish tunes. My favorite is O'Carolan's Concerto (which because I lost the music I now play with a made up ending). I try to practice restoring my singing voice with my version of In the Pines, but still struggle singing in D.

" The longest train I ever saw
came down the 49
the gold mule passed at 6 o' clock
and the quartz passed by at 9

I asked my Captain for the time of day
He said he'd thrown his watch away
In the river by the mine, said it stopped keeping time
and the sun tells him all he should know.

In the pines, in the pines
where the sun never shines
and we shiver when the cold wind blows.

My love, my love, what have I done?
You cause me to weep and moan.
You left without a word, and from you I've never heard
If you're alive or dead nobody knows.

In the pines, in the pines
where the sun never shines
and we shiver when the cold wind blows."
(c) 2006

Violin - I'm working on learning to play all the songs on Bob Dylan's album Desire. Fun and great ear training. I can play a song, then make a cup of tea in the middle of it, and come back and the song is still going. Bob's great for ear training because he repeats the same thing over and over and over again.

So that's the rundown as it typically goes. Now for that cup of tea.