James Taylor on touring, 1991

"It's interesting, you know; if the tour lasts for two months, the rehearsals and the first three weeks of it will be the most rewarding time. Then there comes a point where you are feeling as though you're repeating it. It's such a large show--if it's for an average of 10,000 people a night, and carrying sound and lights and stuff that all need cues, and it's being given in an arena context, then you tend not to change it every night. You tend to want to set it into the form that that tour is going to be, and give them the best that you can every night rather than take a chance on it. If you're playing small clubs you can feel a little bit better about changing it up, but those big places tend to freeze the show. So after about three weeks of having it out, it starts to feel a bit like turning the crank."

From the book Rock Troubadours: Conversations on the Art and Craft of Songwriting.

Online recording feature and Chris Whitley review in Acoustic Guitar

The September issue of Acoustic Guitar includes my feature about online recording--a follow-up to my NPR story that gets into the nitty-gritty about hiring a session player online or playing long-distance sessions yourself. Read the story here.




The same issue includes my review of the great Chris Whitley and Jeff Lang CD, Dislocation Blues, also posted at the AG site.

Music festivals for families

My article on music fests that appeared in the June issue of Travel + Leisure Family is now posted online, with three additional festivals not covered in the print edition. The events included are Kerrville, Old Songs, Telluride Bluegrass, Strawberry, City Stages (Birmingham, Alabama), Vancouver Folk, Wheatland, and Merlefest, plus a few family-friendly summer music camps. Just typing these names brings back a lot of happy memories...

Check out the article here.

Resources for house concert performers and hosts

Here are a couple of good resources for people who want to play or host house concerts. (Read more about my own house concert experiences in this earlier post.)

House Concerts. Free, comprehensive guide to playing and hosting house concerts. (This is what I used to plan my first house concert, and it was right on the mark.)

Concerts in Your Home. Resources for house-concert performers and hosts.


For lots more links and info for musicians, see the Songwriting Toolbox, created for my book The Complete Singer-Songwriter.

Spins: Los Blancos

I caught this hardworking upstate NY band last night and loved their blend of blues, soul, zydeco--brought back happy memories of Little Feat and the Subdudes. Colin Aberdeen anchors Los Blancos with his soulful vocals and understated guitar, a plugged-in adaptation of acoustic blues fingerpicking. Add sweet accordion playing from Mark Nanni and the fine grooves of Steven T. Winston on bass and Mark Tiffault on drums... They've played countless shows and have totally meshed.

Los Blancos has a new CD called Just This Once. Check them out on MySpace and on their home page.

Home studio log: Audio-Technica microphones

A more techie note on recording gear...

I'm working in my home studio with a couple of Audio-Technica mics--especially the 3060, a large-diaphragm tube condenser. I've found that to be a great vocal mic, and I have also gotten good results with acoustic guitar and assorted percussion.

However...I was having a hum problem with this mic and spent a lot of time trying to isolate the source. I concluded it wasn't the mic cable, the fridge upstairs, the lights, computer noise, or an electrical issue...and finally called Audio-Technica for advice. I was pleasantly surprised to find myself quickly on the phone with a knowledgeable person in the service department who suggested checking the screws at the base of the mic--apparently loose set screws can cause hum. Some of the screws were, in fact, a little loose. I tightened them a bit and it seemed to help, but two of the screws seemed to be partially stripped and wouldn't tighten all the way. So when I called back she suggested sending the mic for service.

And here's the second pleasant surprise: She checked out the mic and wasn't able to reproduce the hum but confirmed the problem with loose screws. So she replaced the casing and shipped it back the day after it arrived. No charge, even though the mic is out of warranty.

I thought it might be nice--for a change--to share a tale of good customer service.

Now back to the music...