testing testing.....

I am trying out some new stuff so pay no attention to this.

Save the Date

Good Things

So I went up to Adrian and Joell's pad yesterday to begin recording. Let me tell you, wow! This is going to be the most fun of any project I've ever done. We're experimenting with a new kind of recording method. Basically, we're recording hip percussive sounds and stringing them together in loops to create our drum kit. It's blowing my mind at how fun it's turning out. Our aim is to have ten tunes completely mixed, mastered, pressed and ready to sell by the end of September. That means I've got to get on the proverbial horse. Gotta go! Peace, hope and love- Nate

Just a Friendly reminder ;)

Elm Avenue Starbucks

Here are some pictures from our show last Saturday night at Elm Avenue Starbucks.  It was a great show, very relaxed environment, and a good crowd.  Plus free coffee for us!  Woohoo.  

I probably shouldn't say this but I tried their new smoothies called vivano or something like that and they aren't good.  Sorry Starbucks but it reminded me of a smoothie that I make and get disappointed because it doesn't have enough flavor.  Not what I expected.

Anyway here are a couple of photos of the good times that you missed.  Next time you shouldn't miss them.  For those of you who graced us with your presence, thanks!

Free Music... again!

If you have not heard Phil Wickham you should, and here is your chance to do that for free. On the release date of his latest live album, he will be giving it away for free. The catch is that you have to go to his blog on that day, not really a catch just a time and a place. Conveniently, you only need a computer and the internet, which if you are reading this you have access to both. So once again on 8/8/08 go here and get good free music. "Can life get any better? I submit that it cannot!"

P.S. You can hear a sample if you go there now!

Kyle and The Pump

When we were down in the California Central Valley a couple of months back, Kyle took out his gas-price-frustrations on the pump itself. Actually, he'd just forgotten to put the nozzle back when he'd finished pumping. It was pretty funny. Especially after the attendant told us, "it happens all the time."

- Nate

Open Mic Night

I completely forgot to mention that since we are home we will be hosting the open mic night at Basement Wines (Colfax, Ca) this and every Tuesday at 7:30.  So spread the word.  This is a good opportunity to grow your on stage talent, try out some new music, play because you love it, jam with fellow musicians, etc.  So we hope to see you out there.

Home

To answer a few emails all at once:  we are all finally home, safe and sound.  Thanks for those who were hoping and praying for safe journeys.  You will have to asked Nathan for his portion of the trip, perhaps I will even be able to convince him to share some of the trips more interesting moments.

We are excited to be back in the area playing shows, make sure to check out our calendar and swing by a live show.  Our first show will be this Saturday at Elm Avenue Starbucks (Auburn, Ca) with Walter Bere.  It is sure to be a good show, Walter is a very talented musician and I am looking forward to seeing him live. 

We are also extremely excited to begin aarecording our next project this week.  We are driving up to Adriene and Joelle's place and are going to try out some very organic ways of recording.  For those of you who don't know what I mean (don't worry I really don't either), instead of adding reverb or echo we are going to find places with natural reverb or echo and recording in that space.  That is the idea and I am sure that it will progress when we are there "playing around."  I will let you know how it goes, and will hopefully have a small sample that I can let you guys hear.

Until later...

Link Love

I must apologize.  We have had this blog for a little while now and I just realized that I have never really taken the time to link people who read this blog and/or people who link to us.  So if that is you.... send me a comment saying "hey, link me."  And in that comment sent me your address so I can link you.  I would love to read all of your blogs out there, but I can't do that if I don't know you are here.  So go forth and spread the link love.

Kyle Ray

What do you think?

Positive Post Tuesday

The people over at Cedar Grove Baptist Church are simply amazing.  We playing a show there last Wednesday night.  First of all everybody there made us feel completely loved and made us feel like the place was ours.  If there was something that we wanted to use that was fine.  Also, someone bought us all drinks from the coffee bar.  We didn't even ask for anything it was just given.  Then to top it all off, I just got a letter from someone at the church, it was unsigned, thanking us for coming out. Inside the envelope was $40 for gas money.  We were truly blessed by the warmth that was extended toward us, and I can imagine a new comer to church in general would truly feel the love of Christ when they walk through those doors.  Thanks to the folks over at Cedar Grove for extending that love to us.

Music You Haven't Heard

So I am ripping this idea off of this guy.  But I think that it is a good idea to highlight some good music that is out there.  However, I don't have a lot of time to find tons of new music that is not main stream, but I will do my best.

Five O'clock People:  For a long time this band found there way into my CD player.  Several years ago they broke up and went a few different directions.  Well they are now back and I finally received their latest CD Temper Temper.  Once again they seem to be finding themselves in my CD player.

Derek Webb:  Caedmon's Call has long been one of my favorite bands.  When Derek Webb left I was excited to hear what he would be doing.  At first I loved his work, then he sort of went a bit out there.  Musically it was still good, but lyrically it was angry and I just couldn't get into it.  Thanks to this site, I was able to get "The Ringing Bell", and I love it.  

Coldplay:  I know that you have all heard of Coldplay, but I never been a huge fan.  I think that all of their music sounded exactly the same.  A good first CD but then they wrote the same song for the next two albums.  (I know boo, how could I think that).  Then they decided, we need to make a change to show that we are good musicians and good writers.  I my mind they proved just that with their latest album "Viva La Vida."  I spent much of my time listening to this album in Kentucky and loved the music.  I am going to pick up this album sometime soon.

Kyle Ray

Ophelia's Cup: The End

The show at Ophelia's Cup was a blast like we thought it would be.  We playing for about 2 hours, pulling out some songs we haven't played in a while (which at times was painfully obvious for me), and some new favorites.  The crowd was extremely friendly and engaging.  Plus as a bonus a good friend we met on our last trip to Olney drove around seven hours to see us play.  So we were able to spend a little time catching up.  On a sad note, Jay and Tracy are selling the coffee shop to move to where Tracy was raised.  We are hoping they decide to open another shop where ever they end up.  They are such great people I know they would be successful.  

After the show we loaded up the R.V. and drove a couple of hours into St. Louis, MO.  I was dropped off at a hotel so I could catch my flight today.  The others are going to be in total vacation mode for the rest of the trip, stopping by Yellowstone, Mount Rushmore, and family along the way home.  My trip is almost over I am an hour away from boarding my last flight into Sacramento.  I am looking forward to playing some local shows and really buckle down and complete our full length album.

Kyle Ray

Ophelia's Cup, Olney, IL

We just got to Ophelia's Cup in Olney, IL and it is good to see some old friends again.  The owners, Jay and Tracy, are great people and they run a great coffee shop.  Both Jay and Tracy are friendly and a bit spunky.  The last time we came through with Soapbox Symphony they were gracious enough to let us stay in their houses (they were in the middle of moving and had two at the time).  The walls of the coffee shop are covered with wonderful artwork and the bathrooms are painted with great quotes ranging from famous authors to folks around the town.  They serve some amazing food, I recommend the Rubidouix Wrap.  (I think I spelled that right).  So if you even happen to be in Olney, IL be sure to look up Ophelia's Cup and be sure to tell Jay and Tracy that we said hi.

Cedar Grove Baptist Church

A good buddy Daniel Wilson moved out to Kentucky for Seminary and is now working at a Baptist Church in Shepardsville as the Youth/Music/Missionary directory/pastor.  They are leaving for a two week mission trip to Brazil on Saturday and were having a concert as a last get together for the church before the group left.  All of the people we met we nice folks and Daniel's wife made us some amazing taco soup, corn bread, and brownies.  Thanks to all of the people for the warm welcome and food!

The show went great.  We had a 45 min. set and were followed on stage by a girl by the name of Rachel Hurt.  She grew up in the church but recently moved to Nashville to continue her music career.  She was accompanied by multi-intramentalist Josh Brown who played piano, accordian, and electric guitar.  They were absolutely wonderful.  Rachel had an amazing voice and is a great songwriter.  She is currently working on her Debut album, but did have a sample CD which she graciously gave us a copy of.  I have not heard the CD yet, but I did give a listen to her myspace and the songs are just as good recorded as they were live.  Josh was equally talented.  His piano/accordian/guitar work was all excellent.  He is also the music director at a church in Elizabethtown so hopefully next time we are in the area we will be able to play a show for the folks at his church.  All in all, a good time.

Kyle Ray

Oscar's Piano Bar at Malones (Tuesday Night)

So I know that I promised you all that I would bring my camera and get some photos and maybe even some video.  I lied.  We got to jammin' and before I knew it, the show was over.  So there are no pictures or video, but I know that my literary expertise will paint the picture so well that actual photos will not be necessary.

Oscar's is basically an upscale bar with a grand piano in the corner that has a bar wrapped around the outside.  Pauly was at the piano with Nathan on his right and me on his left.  The night was filled with great people and mellow tunes.  The volumes on everything were just right, every instrument could be heard and nobody was overpoweringly loud.  The style was perfect for the venue.  

Overall the crowd was great.  People were very willing to tip us for the entertainment, and truly enjoyed listening to us play.  There was one couple that got into a little fight, which was a little awkward because they were sitting at the piano bar.  I will be blogging about that here.  Overall it has been one of the best shows on the tour.

After the show we went to The Waffle House, which is your typical greasy spoon diner.  We all got breakfast and agreed that the food hit the spot.  As well, it put me to sleep for the trip home.

Free Music

For those of you who read my blog, sorry this is going to be a bit redundant.  In fact I am just going to copy and paste the other post onto here...

This site was just launched today I believe, but it is a place to get music for free. Derek Webb has an album on there along with his wife and several other people that I have not heard of. But like I said the albums are free. You have two ways to do it...you can either tell three people about the album, by providing an email address, or you can pay what you want. There is a min of $1, but are you that cheap?  A very cool and cutting edge idea that you know you want to take part of.

Kyle Ray

Street Concert (Continued)

So I had the best of intentions of writing more about the street concert, then forgot and then was reminded, so here you go...

We played right after Nicki Gillis which was a tough act to follow.  There was a bit of a sound issue which was sort of frustrating because they wouldn't believe me that my cable and/or mandolin was not causes crazy amounts of static.  Eventually they realized that it couldn't be me causing the problem because I was not even plugged in.  Once that was figured out we got right to our set and in my opinion nailed it.  There is such great energy on stage in front of a few thousand people that everything seems to fall into place.  Maybe I just couldn't hear what we really sounded like, but we got some seemingly genuine great responses.  

Our set consisted of:  As Long As You Are With Me, A Great Fall, Cowboy Song, Love is a Dangerous Road, Walk the Line (a Johnny Cash cover), and Flagstaff Street Jam.  For flagstaff we invited Pauly's band up on stage with us.  They completely blew us away.  The song took on a completely different vibe, with Chris on guitar, Pete on drums, and Steven on bass.  Chris tore up a solo, which is to be expected, and Pete laid down quite the beat.  Steven is another one of those amazing musicians.  He throws down on a seven string bass and "had a bass solo that left everyone's jaw on the street."  We are truly blessed to be playing with such great talent.

Another artist I forgot to mention is Pat Kirtley.  Here is a little blurb about him that you can find on the Taylor guitar website

Selected as one of Acoustic Guitarmagazine's "30 essential new acoustic artists," Pat Kirtley is an important creator and interpreter of modern acoustic fingerstyle guitar. While Pat's original compositions and arrangements showcase the vitality of neo-traditional picking, he incorporates virtuosic technique, pop lyricism, deadpan wit, wistful balladry, and Irish/Celtic influences into a very contemporary-sounding repertoire. Pat has numerous well-received CD and video releases on Narada Media, Rounder, Vestapol Videos, and Mainstring Records. This National Fingerstyle Champion is currently touring and producing new guitar music, and presents workshops for selected Taylor dealers within his traveling schedule. 

Bearno's Pizza

The good folks at Bearno's Pizza in Bardstown, KY were generous to throw at after party for the street concert.  However, the street concert was over around 12:00 am so nobody was around or up for the party.  So on Monday night we decided to have the after party.  A small group of us went over and had some great pizza.  If you are ever near a Bearno's I suggest you stop in and get some pizza.  

After the "party" Pauly hosts an open mic night.  We stuck around for night of music, played several numbers and all together had a great time.  Sorry about lack of pictures or video, I brought Colette's little camera to use and forget to bring it every time we go somewhere worth taking photos.  Actually I just realized I am lying... I had the camera I just didn't realize it until right now.  oops.

Tonight we are heading out to Oscars Piano Bar in Lexington to do a little jamming with Pauly.   This time I will remember to take some photos and video.  I promise.