Another great weekend of music out at the Westside Arabica with Terry Writz and our special guest Mary Clare. Mary Clare added some very tasty flute playing to the evenings song selections - and played a few songs of her own as well! Thanks Mary for contributing your talent! Once again, as has been the case, the crowd was very good, basically a 'full house' - the room is relatively small, so it only takes about 20 bodies to make the place seem happening. There was a nice consistent flow of patrons into and out of the place with most people hanging around at the tables with lattes and muffins for at least a couple or few songs. Terry played only a small sampling of his original tunes, including a song I had not heard before about getting stuck, sick, in a Russian hospital - Terry has respectable breadth of experience and a really long list of unique and original songs that reflect that experience so the next time you get a chance to come out and hear him play, you should do so!

Had a great weekend, went on Friday to meet a few new musician friends and we had a good jam session together - the gang were gracious enough to supply a sweeeeeet bass guitar for me to play - an old Gibson Artist series, maybe a Destiny or something like that? It was sweet, real nice to play with the action setup so very low that until the instrument warmed up the high G string was buzzing against the frets, after the beauty warmed up a bit it was just as nice to play as she could be! And what a great goup of people to jam with too! See, awhile back (abut a week ago) I had walked up to Ohio City to get my haircut at the barber college (only 4 dollars) only to find it closed - sigh - so I parked myself a Great Lakes for a beer and then went around the corner to the Glass Bubble Project and wow what a sweet space with nice hot glass kilns and two really cool guys Chris (the main operator fellow) and another guy Adam - they were gracious hosts, offering a beer and inviting me to play the House Guitar - very cool people. So, no sooner had we broken the ice than Chris was suggesting that he knew of a group of guys who were seeking a bass player - well, my interest was piqued and I was on the phone with Jason Richardson and invited to the very jam I am writing about here - and was it ever fun, Drew is a guitar player singer songwriter and Jennifer is a great violin player. Matt the drummer was real nice to play with the whole gang was great fun and I hope to see them again soon

The home recording project has escalated - in addition to the web site and the MP3 site, I am putting together a CD Booklet Concept in an effort to create a real DIY multi-media experience with drawings and song lyrics. I had initially considered my little portable black and white inkjet printer limiting, and still thinking about buying a color InkJet, currently working within the B/W paradigm, so the first couple of CD jewel case designs are black and white. More later -

DEMO/HOME RECORDING:

This weekend I made a relatively quick demo recording of "Time for Getting Stoned". I am sure some of you have heard me play this song more than a few times, it's one of my favorites, written by my friend Mitch Fraas (Portland OR). It was time well spent at the PC, I had fun and managed to nail some 'real good' 3 part harmony voice tracks. Also played three entirely separate acoustic lead tracks, mixing em up in the post production. It turns out the three entirely seperate lead tracks sound real good mixed up together! It's very strange. Will be submitting the song to the MP3 site this week and it should turn up by next week.

GOOD, BETTER, AND BEST
I am trying to determine which of the 17 or so 'home recordings' that I have put together so far sound, uhm you know, 'the best' and I think I have narrowed the feild down to about 7 or 8 tunes that will go onto the 'OFFICIAL STEVE2 DEMO DISK' - if you have one of the recent 'experimental' limited edition test burns (there were only five (5) CD's with the custom one of a kind hand colored Steve2 graphics that included the Tim Fry/Steve2 recordings) then you have heard most of the stuff that has been recorded so far at Studio 501. I figure no more than 7 or 8 songs will go on the REALLY REAL OFFICIAL STEVE2 DEMO DISK and so far the real standouts, you know, are the recordings with the best vocal performances. The nice vocal performances and simple guitar work good together.

At any rate, I have submitted the current demo disk (with waaaay to many songs on it) to a few folks for consideration in an effort to get some live shows around town (one went to the Enclave and the other went to the Arabica out on the West Side).

A REALLY REAL LIVE SHOW
I don't have a band or even a real consistent duo or trio thing yet. So the question in regards to a live show is 'how to create more sound and more excitement?'. Though the recordings are simple enough, there are still multiple parts - lots of lead guitar stuff - I am hoping that I can get a few of my associates out to some gigs - once I secure some dates - to fill out the sound a little. No practice sessions are planned at this time.

I LOVE THE PHOENIX TUESDAY NIGHT OPEN MIC

Yup, Steve2 is a HUGE fan of the PHO Tues. night scene - it's a happening event no question about it. This past Tues. was no exception and I hope that it stays that way.

Heard Terry Writz play a couple few songs, and its most obvious (after a few listenings) that Terry is UNQUESTIONABLY an accomplished and mature song writer. Originaly from New York City, Terry is writing and singing intimate intricate songscapes that sound 'folkish' while possesing some kind of unrealized poetic psychodelic undercurrent - this listner is not sure yet what Terry really has hidden up his sleave, but he is talking about doing some recordings so we might get a much better look at Terry's songs in the very near future.