Tread

Hey, here's the next new song, 4 days early! Yes, I really did have a Big Wheel as a kid.

Tread!
Words and music (c) 2008 Mark Frey
backing vocal by marg

New Song: "Where I come from"

First Sunday of the month, hey? Ok, this one is fairly unfinished in terms of the writing; I think both the lyrics and the arrangement need some tinkering. But hopefully it'll be a fun listen anyway.

Where I come from (5.6 MB .mp3 file)

Awesome lead guitar on this one was played by my Nashvillian friend Russell Johnston.

And another thing I learned recently

Butterflies are beautiful. Butterflies are inspiring. 

Butterflies are also still as much flies as they are butter. 

In particular, they like to sit on (and presumably eat or get water from) horse poop.

Think about that the next time you see a butterfly tattoo.

Things I Have Learned Recently

In no particular order:

1. Fund-raising for a charity run is easier than you might expect; training for the run takes a lot more time than you might expect.
2. If there is no deadline over your head, it is waaaay easier to start a recording than finish it.
3. It is easy to procrastinate from writing your blog.

Ok, let's take care of #2 and 3. I'm going back to regular song postings, two per month. Let's say the first and third Sundays. Not promising it won't mostly be crap or test recordings of just me and one instrument, but it will be progress. 

For months with an extra Sunday, my good friend and accordion festival guru Jack has graciously offered to fill in on week #5 with readings of his anti-beat poetry.

See how easy that was? Heh.

That 'ol folk gig thang

I did some gigs this fall as one-third of "Ricko Donovan and the Lost & Found." Ricko is a hammered dulcimer player who does mostly Irish trad and folk songs with a little newer material thrown in to keep people off-balance. Here we are at The Yard, which is a coffee shop in Nashville that has this huge backyard garden (huge for in a big city, anyway) and stage. The stage is complete with light-up palm trees, one of which is growing out of Ricko's head in this photo from the Nashville Tennessean. That's me playing ham-fisted DADGAD backup, and Dave from NoLa on bass. Ricko is currently touring the southern U.S. with a solo show.

Well, how 'bout that?

I'm writing and posting this in the Charlotte, NC airport via their complimentary WiFi. Finally, an airport that gets it! Free WiFi=WAY less annoyed passengers.

Good thing too, since my flight is delayed all to heck. Boo!

Rockin' in the mountains

I went to a conference in Snowmass, CO two weeks ago for work. There's a bunch of musicians in the research community, and we put together a little band for the last-night party at the meeting. Seeing as we're all gut researchers, the name of the band was obvious. Ladies and germs, may I present: Andy, Chris, Jeff, Bugs, Cormac, Yours Truly, and the FASEB singers, a.k.a. GI DISTRESS!
Photography by Karen and Declan. Swanky banner by marg.