Girly-Blog

Hello all -

If you're reading this, then you must be subscribing to the RSS feed for the Girlyman Blog. We've changed the website a little bit, and decided to retire the blog. There is now a similar section entitled "News" that you can subscribe to.

The RSS feed for it is:
http://girlyman.com/news/rss.php

You can still get a more personal "blog" like feel from following us on Twitter or Facebook:
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Hope all is good with you!

love,
Girlyman

I'm writing this update from Brooklyn, NY, where just this morning I had breakfast with friends and then made my seasonal pilgrimage to Gorilla Coffee, where I stocked up on their sublime dark roast beans. This was after rolling into town fresh off the ferry from Fire Island, where I ate lobster rolls and drank pints of Blue Moon after long afternoons of lying in the sand with my feet in the frigid Atlantic. You might say that this sounds relaxing.

The truth is, it really, really is. We've had a blast over the past six months or so, but we've also been incredibly busy (hence the long stretch in between blog posts). There's been a lot of road time, interspersed with writing, recording, mixing, and manufacturing our new CD, 'Everything's Easy." We just mailed out the pre-orders last week and are getting excited for the official release parties, starting with a big bash in Atlanta on August 1, where we're playing TWO shows and are featuring a guest so special we can't even use her name in our announcements. Imagine being that special! (See showdates for details.)

In between all this we've also started a new website called Girlyman Live, where we're offering full-length, high quality, unedited recordings of our live shows. We've got a few up there now and are hoping to make more available soon.

What an incredible year it's been so far! We've had an amazing festival season and are about to head up to Hillsdale, NY for the Falcon Ridge Folk Festival, one of our absolute favorites. In the fall we'll be doing TWO tours with our new best friends, Canadian supergroup Po' Girl - one in Canada and one on the east coast of the U.S. Stay tuned for updates about that.

Speaking of updates, if you want to be alerted that we're playing near you, go ahead and sign up on our mailing list using the handy little box on our home page. I write the updates my own self, and usually there is at least one thing in them that makes Doris laugh. And they're extremely informative.

We've had so much support from so many people in our latest CD-making journey - from the folks who contributed to our microphone fund so that we could buy the perfect mic (the Brauner VMA!), to the thousand-plus folks who pre-ordered the CD, to our many angels who just seem to know exactly when to swoop in with exactly the right kind of help at the perfect moment. We are so very blessed and we hope that you enjoy the fruits of our labor. Everything's easy, indeed!

Hello, and greetings from the road. We're currently driving from Atlanta to Massachusetts - hopefully tonight we'll stop somewhere halfway. I thought I'd take a moment of this quiet and rainy Appalachian drive to write about something we've been up to for the past couple months - recording.

Aside from a brief jaunt through the Caribbean on the Cayamo cruise, we've spent the last two months working basically non-stop on our next CD. For those of you who don't know, we've decided to record this CD ourselves in a home studio (my home), and we've decided to produce it ourselves - a creatively risky, yet very exciting concept. We co-produced our first three studio albums with Bob Harris, an excellent producer and musician in Bridgewater, NJ. Now we all live in Atlanta, so we thought we'd try producing it ourselves.

For those not versed in the terminology of music recording, "producing" means taking songs and arranging them with instruments, voices, and a general vibe. A music producer is much like a movie director in terms of what they actually do in the studio. Some producers take the bare bones of a song - the lyrics, melody, and chords - and add drums, strings, guitar solos, and background vocals with little input from the artist. Others work carefully with the artist to find a way that they both like to build upon the bare bones. Others have intentionally produced recordings with nothing but the bare bones (such as Johnny Cash's American Recordings, produced by Rick Rubin).

Working with Bob was a happy collaboration - we came into the studio with songs that we'd been playing live, so they were already arranged by us to some extent. Of course, an arrangement that works live doesn't always translate well to a recording. Sometimes it just needed an extra guitar or pedal steel to fill out the sound (like in "Viola" ), and sometimes it needed a full percussion ensemble ( "Fall Stories" ) to bring it to life. In any case, nothing went on the album if we didn't all agree.

For this new album, we've been trying a different approach. Some of the songs have been arranged beforehand, but some haven't even finished being written. Starting the recording process with only the "bare bones" of a song (if even that) allows us a tremendous amount of freedom in deciding how a song will ultimately sound, but it also carries a lot of weight.

Wonderful musicians sometimes make bad producers - there's a tendency to try to pile on more instruments and other sounds until you have the Vienna Boys Choir singing backup over a rhythm section of Brazilian samba and 1970's James Brown drum loops with distorted guitars dueling with Tuvan throat singers. In such an arrangement, most songs are swallowed up, and their emotional energy is lost.

So what have we done? We're trying to take each song on its own and find the arrangement that best supports its musical and emotional core. "Everything's Easy" lived up to its name - we recorded a perfect version in an afternoon, and it seems to only call for a quiet organ in the background. For "Storms Were Mine," we recorded drums, electric guitars, and other instruments - only to come back later and take many of them out because they got in the way of the emotion Doris put into the song, rather than supporting it.

And singing - every song presents a different challenge. For some songs, our voices sound best right next to the microphone at an almost-whispering volume. For others, I have to emote so much, I feel like I'm Dana Carvey in the Saturday Night Live sketch where he's singing about "choppin' broccoli."

We've learned a lot, and recording has taken longer than we thought. Still, we've never had a chance to make a album like this - taking our time, coming back to songs, trying new ideas. I'm not sure that the final product will be any better than our earlier CDs, but in a lot of ways, it feels better to me. It's tremendously satisfying to take time with each song (an advantage of recording at home is that we don't have to pay extra money to go back and do more work on a song).

Oh, and when will the CD be done? Stay tuned to our website, and (if you haven't already) sign up on our mailing list. We'll probably have a definitive date in the next month or so, and we'll let you know as soon as we do.

The nice people at Cayamo asked us to make a video blog about the 2009 Cayamo Cruise: Journey Through Song. We're so proud of (and perhaps appalled by) the result, we had to share it with you.

Our YouTube channel:
http://www.youtube.com/girlymanvideos

See this video blog as a video podcast:
Click here for iTunes.
Click here for Miro.
Click here for RSS.

This morning on my way out of the hotel, i glanced at the requisite stack of USA Todays on the front desk and read a quick survey: Since Obama's victory, 67% of Americans feel "optimistic," "proud," or "excited." Only something like 23% feel pessimistic and about 17% feel "scared." For the umpteenth time in under a week, I teared up.

From the ecstasy of Tuesday night to the giddiness of Wednesday's morning-after astonishment to the apparent continuing reality of President-elect Obama, I, like everyone else, have been fascinated by what it all means. I went for a run in Prospect Park Wednesday morning and looked at every passerby for signs of some new shared reality - who are we now? Riding the subway, I was dying to know what everyone was thinking.

As the initial euphoria of the election begins to wear off, I've noticed that some people are beginning to add just a little edge of self-protective cynicism back into their voices. Not wanting to be disappointed by what will doubtlessly be an imperfect presidency, people are checking their excitement. "Well, we'll see what he actually does." "Well, this won't cure racism." Or as my mom's partner, who is African-American, said to me last night, "Yeah, but I still can't get a cab in D.C."

Obviously Obama's election is not going to change everything overnight. It remains to be seen what kind of an administration his will be, and how it will or won't change the way that we as Americans relate to each other and to the world. Still, I want to make the case for why our celebration and optimism are founded, regardless of what Obama ends up doing with his power; why we don't need to temper our joy with pessimism (more commonly called "realism" these days); and why this election truly is about us.

We create our leaders. They are us, in condensed form. Just as George W. Bush was the perfect reflection of our national apathy and appealed to our worst selves at exactly the time we as a nation embodied that spirit, Obama came forth out of our collective sense of what we could be, perhaps in direct contrast to what came before. En masse, we wore out the model of cynicism; we took it as far as we wanted it to go. McCain/Palin tried to take it further, using all the same techniques of the past eight years, and we finally said no.

Seizing the moment, Obama bet everything on the idea that our sense of optimism and hope, no matter how sublimated, was actually deep down who we are, our deepest instinct - deeper even than fear. Maybe the reason we are feeling so astonished right now is because he dared us to take that chance on ourselves, against the backdrop of perhaps the most cynical time in American history, in an atmosphere of such utter doom and gloom that we either had to agree to give up on ourselves and our world, probably for once and for all - or, simply argue for our own worth. That we chose the latter is nothing short of a triumph of the human spirit.

To me, the fact that 67% of Americans feel optimistic, proud, or excited right now means that change has *already* happened, on a national (and probably a global), internal, scale. And what we create in the world always starts internally, with ideas, and ideas come out of a sense of what is possible.

So - what is possible? Obama is willing to even go beyond "hope" to a true understanding of the nature of reality: as he said in his acceptance speech, "Anything is possible." Those of us who are in the business of uplifting others feel a great sense of relief that he is willing to go out on a limb and say the thing that we've staked our entire existence on. It feels like finally having external backup from a world that we've seen mostly laugh at us, or at best call us dreamers.

But don't take my word for it; take it from Malcolm Mitchell, a fifth grader at the Sojourner Truth School in Harlem, who I just read about on CNN.com. He said "[Obama] kinda motivated me because looking at the past, people say 'black men can't do this, black men can't do that'...you know, he's changing time, little by little. Women can vote now, and he's the first black president."

Because we argued against our own limitations, worlds have opened up for Malcolm Mitchell, and for all of us, on whatever level. That is already change. It will manifest in ways we can't predict. And *that* is exciting.

I had a whole week off after our last tour, and here's what I did:

1) Bought pumpkins and plan to carve them tonight. (Halloween is by far my favorite b-grade holiday).

2) Went to see Red Molly at Eddie's. Even though I've known a couple members of this awesome trio for years, I hadn't gotten a chance to see them live. They rock! Three women singing traditional and original songs in tight 3-part harmonies, standing around one microphone like in the old days. Guitar, banjo, acoustic bass, and one dobro played superbly by Abbie Gardner. Go see them if you get a chance: www.redmolly.com

3) Got called for jury duty. Wah wah wah waaaaah! I postponed it once and couldn't get out of it this time. So, this morning, I reluctantly woke up at 7am, rode my scooter downtown, sat with a bunch of similarly reluctant-looking people in a big auditorium, viewed an instructional video on how to be a juror (there should be an Oscar category for civic instructional videos), then immediately was told we had a 15-minute break. I bought a biscuit and a cup of coffee, returned, ate breakfast, and then the entire congregation was (as I had fervently hoped and diligently visualized) dismissed! A huge roar of approval went up in the room. (You're welcome, everyone!) Now that's the kind of civic morning I can get behind!

4) And as if that weren't enough democracy for you, I walked across the street from superior court and voted! A while back I sent away for an absentee ballot, but felt let down by the forlorn piece of paper and the thought of mailing it in. So impersonal! And who knows if it would even be counted? I much preferred the idea of going to the polls and waiting in line, all flush with the excitement of the moment, surrounded by other giddy people eager to cast their ballot, and triumphantly pulling a lever, or at least, you know, touching a touchscreen. Early voting gave me my wish!

5) Um, does the fact that all the machines said "DIEBOLD" mean I should still be worried that my vote won't count?

Just wanted to say a huge thanks to everyone who came out to a show on our latest swing through the country. Everywhere we went we met such incredible people. Thanks to the folks who stood for 3 hours at jam-packed Schubas in Chicago, to the sea of smiling faces filling the Birchmere last night for our first headliner there, to everyone who told us they drove three, five, or eight hours to see us. Thanks for laughing along, singing along, saying hi after the show, and being so uplifting.

Thoughts at 5:30 in the morning getting ready to leave Norman, OK to drive back home to Atlanta: what an incredibly fun tour we had, and so good to see so many familiar faces along the way! And how good we ate on this go-around. Usually we are resigned to the constraints of road food, the occasional Cracker Barrel, Pizza Hut, McDonald's, Waffle House, (but not IHOP. We've determined that their food is, well, inedible. Kind of like this truck we passed on the highway that looked like it carried a boatload of gasoline or something, but on the back it read: INEDIBLE, NOT FOR HUMAN USE. PORK PLASMA ONLY. Anyone know the significance of this alien phrase? Doesn't that seem to imply that some Thing is drinking our nation's supply of pork plasma? And what do we do about it?) but this tour uniquely gourmet. In Iowa City, IA, we met Kim and Kurt Friese, members of the Slow Food board and owners of the restaurant, Devotay, just blocks from where we played. (They just released a fantastic book called "Slow Food in the Heartland" that y'all should check out) Kim said she was a real big fan and wanted to repay us for what we've given her by cooking for us. Are you kidding me?? We arrived 5 minutes early at her restaurant the next day!

The meal was tapas-style, and we started off with a light chicken salad with green apples, nuts, and celery accompanied by a freshly baked olive flatbread. Then came a plate of bacon-wrapped figs, sizzling hot, sweet and salty with a homemade tomato barbecue sauce, some expertly grilled sweet shrimp with lemon. Then a platter of sliced yellow tomatoes (picked that morning from Kim's garden) arrived, topped with a basil chiffonade and some balsamic vinegar and olive oil, with a sprinkling of cheese on top, followed by some locally raised bison meatballs with a homemade spicy marinara sauce that rocked my little Girlyman tummy. But wait, there's more! A quesadilla landed on the table stuffed with fresh asparagus, zucchini, and mushrooms, and their version of an empanada, which consisted of fresh peas, asparagus, tomatoes, zucchini, and onions, topped with a soft corn cake that was dusted with hot smoky paprika rounded out the meal. For dessert we tasted some mighty fine bread pudding, with a patchwork of cinnamon and spices, and a slice of a rich, chocolate ganache-like cake with a raspberry reduction sauce. So very delicious, and we give the restaurant a Girlyman thumbs up.

We also ate (and played at) the All Good Cafe in Dallas, TX. This is the cutest cafe, with letterpress-printed posters of various artists, vintage plates and knick knacks on the stage, and cheery Christmas lights adorning the windows. Mike, the owner, couldn't be nicer, and we ate generous portions of spice-rubbed pork chops and crispy chicken fried steak and gravy with buttery mashed potatoes, green beans, spicy black-eyed peas, grilled corn salad, and amazing apple pie a la mode. In fact, it was so delicious that it has renewed my interest in baking pies again.

At our last show in Norman, OK, our friend Suzy, who put on the show at the Norman Institute for the Performing Arts with her husband, Frank, provided us with an unforgettable homecooked meal of tender beef short ribs braised with carrots, onions, celery, Chimay, bourbon, and pomegranate juice (cooked for hours, with the meat just falling off the bones), a beautiful salad of arugula, mesclun greens, green apples, celery, toasted pecans, green onions, crumbled blue cheese, with a light dijon vinaigrette holding it all together. Her friend made some killer mashed potatoes with gorgonzola cheese to accompany the beef, and we chowed down like there was no tomorrow.

Thank you to all the folks who showed up on this tour and thanks for the memorable food!

Ty shows off her new guitar and Doris displays impressive lip syncing abilities.


Our YouTube channel:
http://www.youtube.com/girlymanvideos

Our Vimeo Channel (better quality video):
http://www.vimeo.com/girlyman

See this video blog as a video podcast:
Click here for iTunes.
Click here for Miro.
Click here for RSS.

Look at us - we've gone and started a video Blog.

You can check out this and other videos at our YouTube channel:
http://www.youtube.com/girlymanvideos

If you want to watch in high quality video, you can try Vimeo:
http://www.vimeo.com/girlyman

And if you want to turn the video blog into a video podcast,
you can subscribe to the following podcast URL in iTunes:
http://girlyman.blip.tv/rss/itunes