Checklist, Checklist, 1, 2, 3

Six days from heading out on the Good Graces tour and the first show in Nashville.

This past weekend was spent closing out a number of "in-progress" items on my tour checklist. It feels like 90% of the logistics necessary to plan before we leave have been accomplished, and my checklist keeps getting shorter and shorter as I knock items off the list.

Excitement and bit of exhaustion are creeping in now that the cannon has been pointed and we're getting ready to light the fuse.

I'm a firm believer in lists. I would forget half of what I need without them.

Here's a sample of what mine looks like today:

Jim’s Running List of Things To Do 

Keyboard stand, case, and laptop extension- DONE, 88 key case- DONE

Notify work peeps- DONE
Notify other work peeps- DONE
Notify family - DONE
Notify Facebook, Different Skies, etc - DONE
Get sound replacement for June 13 folk show- DONE
Gear insurance - DONE
Stencils for cases - DONE
Pedal board - DONE
Dentist Appt- DONE
Get Sensitive Chaos CDs made- DONE
Make Sensitive Chaos signs for merch - DONE
Stage clothes - DONE
Get case for printer/supplies - DONE
Set up iPad - DONE
Road playlist - DONE
Reading material - DONE
Get Merch box together - DONE
Config Pelican Case - MOSTLY DONE
Set up road laptop - IN PROGRESS
Back up Kronos and copy into Dropbox too - DONE For Files. Still need samples.
Pack - IN PROGRESS
Cameras/Video
Decide what food/drink to bring with

Read the above as investment, both in time and money, into preparing for this tour.

Personal investment, ala time off from work, using vacation time, rehearsal time. 

Equipment investment in cases, keyboard file backups, and insurance to protect my gear, as well as a few items to make sure I sound good and can set things up/tear things down quickly and reliably for the now 16 performances we'll be playing. 

There's clothes investment to be comfortable and project the right image on stage.

I'm attempting to sell a few of my solo Sensitive Chaos CDs, so needed to press up a few and a case to demo and present. 

There's being able to communicate and accomplish business stuff on tour. And promote our progress to family and fans.

And there's lots of down time, so things to read, things to listen to, things to document all the places we're traveling to as well as the people we'll meet, and our own experiences performing, and what to snack on during the drives.

I was discussing all of this with a friend last Friday and her comment was "nobody knows this is what you have to do for this kind of touring." And each individual in the band has there own list. And Kim and Tracy's list is larger because they've been taking on the larger share of booking shows, booking hotels, booking vans, dealing with road managers and promotion people, etc.

We have no managers, no roadies, no equipment techs. So it's truly a very DIY experience, for better or for worse. Mostly for the better, but definitely for more work. And we own the outcome, the good, the bad, and the ugly. Which means it will be authentic if nothing else.

I'm glad I got started when I did. I think I'll just be able to check everything off my list before hitting the road.

Band As Community, Community As Band

As I mentioned in a previous post, the Good Graces are more of an evolving collective of great musicians, rather than a solid lineup of a few people. What I love about Atlanta is the community feel of the music scene and the mutual admiration and support a large group of musicians and bands give each other. Almost to the point of incestuousness.

A couple of recent events have highlighted this fact:

1) Thunderbox, one of the main rental rehearsal spaces in Atlanta, closed, a victim of in-town redevelopment activity. Bands in other rehearsal spaces reacted and reached out to help with everything from helping folks move their gear out, to temporary storage for displaced bands' equipment, to offers of rehearsal spaces.

2) Organizers of The Happenstance just announced there would be no 12th event. The collective musical shudder and sigh in the Atlanta area was palpable. The Happenstance was an 11-year holiday/charity/musical institution that for one day each year, created 6 new bands out of musicians who had never played together before, had them go off and create 3-4 new songs and learn a cover tune, then come back in the evening and perform to a standing room-only audience whose entry fees went to fund local charities. The connections and friendships formed through this event bound many of us from across musical genres together in ways that is hard to describe.

I participated in three Happenstances; 2006, 2011, and 2013. Kim Ware was a drummer in the 2006 event and, though we weren't paired in the same band, it was my introduction to her. She would shortly release her first Good Graces album and I would shortly join her collective.

On this tour, in addition to Kim, I will also share the stage with two other incredible musicians; John McNicholas (guitar, bass, vocals) and Tracy Clark (bass, guitar, glockenspiel, melodica, percussion, vocals).

I first met John just after he arrived in Atlanta from Tampa, Florida. I was a co-host of the Atlanta Songwriters Series, then a weekly singer/songwriter event held at the Aurora Coffee location in Virginia-Highlands (moved later to Kavarna), and John performed one of his first Atlanta shows at our event. I instantly fell in love with his songs and guitar work. John joined several bands, including Mary O. Harrison's band the Tiny Tears that Kim Ware was the drummer.

John was one of the first to join the Good Graces when Kim was putting together a live group. He has been a constant presence in the Good Graces ever since, both live and on recordings. John has also contributed to one of my Sensitive Chaos tunes, Seeker After Pattern's "Simon Stilites Dreams of Rain." And I joined John's band, The Sunset District, for both live shows and recordings. John is also a Happenstance alum.

When I first started Sensitive Chaos, my idea was to make it a duo, in the mold of Yaz. Synth-pop electronics with vocals. The vocals part of the equation never got off the ground and until recently, Sensitive Chaos has been totally instrumental. But one of the people I spoke to about the idea (though she may not remember it) was Tracy Clark, bassist/multi-instrumentalist and singer for Silent Kids, the Blue Hour, Mary O's Tiny Tears/Virginia Plane, Chickens and Pigs, and The Preakness, among others. Tracy is also a Happenstance alum. And she has been one of the Good Graces collective for awhile.

So a band from the same community of friends. A group of friends from the same bands. So far so fun!

The Good Graces Open For The Indigo Girls

I'm reviving my blog. It's been dormant since after my last solo record, Sensitive Chaos Amerisynthecana, was released back in 2013. There is much musical activity going on right now, and I need a place to document it. I'll thank myself for it later.

Yes, there is a new Sensitive Chaos album in the works, with four songs mixed and ready, another handful of songs ready to be mixed, and two songs that need a few overdubs. More on that in a later post.

And yes, I've been having great fun performing out with several bands including the Good Graces, The Sunset District, and Blackfox. It is the Good Graces that is kicking me into action at the moment and will be the primary subject of this blog for the next month.

You see, the Good Graces have been invited to open for the Indigo Girls for five dates in June, and I have been invited to occupy the keyboard seat for the Good Graces for this two-week tour that will also include a mess of shows in and around the Indigo Girls dates, up and down the central part of the U.S.

So, we (Kim Ware, John McNicholas, Tracy Clark, and I) are two weeks away from hitting the road, and I'll be attempting to document all the activity that is going into preparing for our tour. Not only the logistical, but also the emotional and the technical aspects I have personally been going through. There have been lots of all of this so far, and I'm sure they'll be lots more before we're done.

Here's the announced tour schedule so far:

Sunday, June 14 – tGG, Nashville, TN, East Room (with Granville Automatic & Wyatt Espalin) 9pm

Tuesday, June 16 – tGG, Daytrotter.com, Rock Island, IL (day session), & Second Unitarian Church, Chicago, IL 7:00pm

Wednesday, June 17 – tGG opening for Indigo Girls, Grand Rapids, MI, Mejer Gardens 7pm

Thursday, June 18 – tGG, Kalamazoo, MI, Old Dog Tavern (with Valentiger) 9pm

Friday, June 19 – tGG, opening for Indigo Girls, Ann Arbor, MI, Summer Festival (Power Center) 8pm

Saturday, June 20 – tGG, Cleveland, OH, The Bevy in Birdtown (Lakewood area) 7pm

Sunday, June 21 – tGG, Indianapolis, IN, Melody Inn 9pm

Monday, June 22 – tGG, Knoxville, TN, Preservation Pub 10pm

Tuesday, June 23 – tGG opening for Indigo Girls, Asheville, NC, Orange Peel 8pm

Wednesday, June 24 – tGG opening for Indigo Girls, Chattanooga, TN, Track 29 8pm

Thursday, June 25 – tGG opening for Indigo Girls + Kristy Lee, Mobile, AL, Saenger Theater 8pm

Zone Music Reporter Top 100 Airplay for July 2013 Lists Amerisynthecana at #22

Zone Music Reporter Top Recordings forJuly 2013       Title: Dancer And The Moon Artist: Blackmore's Night Label: Frontiers Records Score:  9.96 2 (--)  600 Years in a Moment - Fiona Joy Hawkins - Little Hartley Music 9.41 3 (34)  The Shimmering Land - Meg Bowles - Kumatone Records 9.20 4 (4)  Voyage - Takashi Suzuki - Self Released 9.00 5 (2)  Awakening - Stephen DeRuby - New Path Music 8.96 6 (--)  First Light: Solo Piano - Craig Urquhart - Heart Earth Music 7.27 7 (6)  Light of Aluna - Anima - Anima Sound Productions 6.72 8 (8)  Timeless - Jami Sieber - Out Front Music 6.37 9 (3)  Masako - Masako - Self Released 5.49 10 (13)  Waking the Muse - Michele McLaughlin - Self Released 4.87 Rank Prev. Title Artist Label Score 11 -- Bliss of Being The Pure Heart Ensemble RichHeart Music 4.83 12 1 The Blue Rose Al Conti Shadowside Music Publishing 4.55 13 16 Nature and the Constant Illusion Tom Caufield Bohemian Embassy 3.20 14 11 Hidden Journey Scott August Cedar Mesa Music 2.85 15 10 The Luminous Pearl Lia Scallon Sounds of Sirius 2.70 16 14 On Water (solo piano) Amy Lauren Self Released 2.65 17 9 hokulea AOMusic Arcturian Gate 2.42 18 19 Cristofori's Dream...Re-Envisioned David Lanz Moon Boy Music 2.41 19 44 Journey of Divine Instrumentation Craig Karolus Self Released 1.99 20 31 Emergence Shane Morris & Mystified Lotuspike - Spotted Peccary Music 1.92 21 5 Dragonfly Terra Guitarra Earthsign Records 1.73 22 15 Amerisynthecana Sensitive Chaos Subsequent Records 1.69 23 22 Prayer to Love Parijat New Earth Records 1.51 24 7 Intuition Dan Kennedy Mt. Pollux Music 1.49 25 63 AquaEssence Amberfern Real Music 1.45 26 12 River Flow: Sanctuary Catherine Marie Charlton River Dawn Productions 1.34 27 47 One DeeperNET O3Emusic - Spotted Peccary Music 1.20 28 17 Angels and Machines AeTopus 12Ton Productions 1.15 29 18 Lovéren David Arkenstone & Charlee Brooks QDV Recordings 1.13 30 46 Opus Four Tim Neumark Neumark Music 1.08 31 21 Ashokan Memories Peter Calandra Self Released 1.01 32 24 In a Time Lapse Ludovico Einaudi Ponderosa Music & Art 0.99 33 -- Images From A Parallel World Richard Bone AD Music 0.96 34 -- A Long Road Peter Janson EWM Records / Eastern Woods Music 0.87 34 71 Insects Soundician Self Released 0.87 36 -- Dusk Song Hearts in Notes Hearts in Notes 0.80 37 26 Paint the Sky Bradley Joseph Robbins Island Music 0.79 38 32 Awakening the Fire R. Carlos Nakai & Will Clipman Canyon Records 0.77 39 25 The Piano Guys 2 The Piano Guys Sony Music Entertainment (Sony Classical - Masterworks) 0.75 39 35 Meltdown Code Indigo AD Music 0.75 41 37 Ten Years: A Peaceful Solo Piano Retrospective Louis Landon Landon Creative, Inc 0.73 41 -- Deep Theta 2.0 Steven Halpern Inner Peace Music 0.73 43 26 Incarnation: Jim Wilson in Memoriam Jim Wilson New Earth Records 0.68 44 26 Future Memory Stephen Savage Danforth Music 0.65 45 57 A Coalescence of Dreams Timothy Wenzel Self Released 0.63 45 -- Dream Time Deuter New Earth Records 0.63 47 64 Himalayan Chakra Healing Paradiso & Suren Shrestha 5th Element Music 0.58 47 -- Music For Telecommuting: Volumes 1 & 2 - Early Morning / Late Morning Ken Elkinson August Son Productions 0.58 49 45 Inspiración Jim Stubblefield Natural Elements Records 0.55 50 29 Future Flows Steve Roach Projekt 0.52 51 56 Travel Light (Solo Piano) Mark Pinkus Self Released 0.51 52 -- Lantern Dan Kennedy 0.49 53 -- Primordial Sonics David Vito Gregoli Dharmapala Records 0.48 53 -- Rumbadoodle Arun Shenoy Arun Shenoy Music Publishing 0.48 53 60 Concert in Athens Eleni Karaindrou ECM Records 0.48 56 -- What Just Happened? Mike Dawes CandyRat Records 0.46 56 60 Hope Resides Greg Maroney 0.46 56 -- When the Earth is Far Away Craig Padilla / Zero Ohms Lotuspike 0.46 59 -- Burning Igloo Saul Stokes DiN DDL 0.45 59 -- A Comforting Thought S7ven Quark Records 0.45 61 -- Around The Globe In A Lullaby Volume 1 Ken Elkinson August Son Productions 0.42 61 -- Soul Tones Steve Roach Timeroom Editions 0.42 63 30 Shadowlands Klaus Schulze SPV Recordings 0.41 63 -- Flutter and Flow cyberCHUMP Internal Combustion 0.41 65 54 Chimes of the Spirit Acoustic Ocean Acoustic Ocean Music 0.39 66 42 Light Body Peter Kater Mysterium Music 0.38 67 64 Songs to the Goddess Annette Cantor Source Being Productions 0.37 67 55 Dunrobin Place Mattheu Watson Seer Records 0.37 69 49 Spherical Dan Pound Pound Sounds 0.34 69 39 The Maiden of Stonehenge Michael Brant DeMaria Ontos Music 0.34 71 -- A Native American-Jazz Tribute Pamela Sklar Self Released 0.32 71 51 Healthy Music In Large Doses Spirits Burning & Clearlight Gonzo Multimedia 0.32 71 96 Jane 1-11 Harold Budd Darla 0.32 71 -- Water Rocks David Homan Self Released 0.32 75 -- Transformation Sherry Finzer & Darin Mahoney Heart Dance Records 0.31 75 -- Big Sur Bill Frisell Okeh 0.31 75 64 Path Of The Divine Rajendra Teredesai Real Music 0.31 78 38 When Dreams Come True Curtis Macdonald CMMP 0.30 79 32 Attuning to Oneness: The Harmonic Ascension Paradiso & Rasamayi 5th Element Music 0.28 79 -- The Ocean Inside Max Corbacho ad21 Music 0.28 79 -- Nada Terma Byron Metcalf, Mark Seelig and Steve Roach Projekt 0.28 79 -- Hollow 36 3six Recordings 0.28 79 -- A Time for Healing Mike Wall Open Ear Studios 0.28 79 75 Keeper of the Dreams Red Feather Woman Red Elk Enterprises 0.28 79 75 Instrumental Songs of Good Cheer Lisa Lynne & Elfin Love Tribe 0.28 79 -- The Sidereal Cycle 3 Altus 0.28 79 -- Uncovered Queens of the Stone Age Olivier Libaux Music for Music Lovers 0.28 79 -- Jama Ko Bassekou Kouyaté & Ngoni ba Out Here Records 0.28 79 75 City of Broken Dreams Giovanni Guidi Trio ECM Records 0.28 79 -- Desire Lines Camera Obscura 4AD 0.28 79 -- Meditation Ragas Chinmaya Dunster New Earth Records 0.28 79 75 Stoic Tha Tribe Canyon Records 0.28 79 -- Finger Painting Steve Hawkins Self Released 0.28 79 -- Raise Four Bill Goodwin Quartet VectorDisc 0.28 95 -- Three's Not A Crowd Andy Laverne Steeple Chase 0.27 95 75 Volume 3 She & Him Self Released 0.27 95 96 Jamaica: Island In The Sun V/A Universal music/Starbucks 0.27 95 -- Anomic Jah Wobble & Marconi Union 30 Hertz Records 0.27 95 -- The Sidereal Cycle 2 Altus 0.27 95 -- Nightmare Ending Eluvium Temporary Residence 0.27 95 -- Cornerstone Celtic Spring Woodpile Records 0.27 95 -- Halo Redshift A Distant Sun Production 0.27 95 -- Dreams of the Forest Marc Enfroy Dream Score Music 0.27 95 96 Loose Goose Raycurt Johnson Self Released 0.27 95 -- Medusazoa Dan Pound 0.27 95 -- A Long Way to Fall Ulrich Schnauss Domino 0.27