Home At Last!
Home for a few days, then back out for the US leg of the Josh Rouse Nashville Tour. I’ve been doing laundry, returning phone calls, trying to persuade my girlfriend not to leave me; the usual stuff that touring musicians do when they come home. Also, I’ve been trying to take back the portion of the house which has been threatened to be overtaken by cats. This in and of itself is a full-time job! Leslie and I went to see “Born Into Brothels” which you can read a complete synopsis of on my brother’s site. It was great! I found myself feeling unusually bouyant and effervescant after watching this film! I’ve also been reading the Malcolm Gladwell books, thinking I was very ahead of the world…on the cutting edge; only to find that “Blink” is number two on the bestseller list! I can’t ever do anything original anymore! I sent the Les Paul in to get re-fretted. It sounds like a sitar. Everytime I took a solo, the comments people made after the show were: “It was really cool how you went into that Indian-sounding stuff; making your guitar sound like a Sitar!” I thought: “What? Better get the frets replaced.”
But Richard Starky (no relation to Ringo) who does all of Paul Kennerley’s guitars, as well as Steve Miller said he could do it in a few days for me. This tour has been fun so far, and I hope the fun continues. I really want to get a guitar like that Nels Kline guy from wilco has. I think it’s a Jazzmaster? But it has these P-90 looking pickups in it. That guy is good. I saw him on the Austin City Limits show with Bright Eyes. He was playing all these cool notes; it made me re-think what I should play on the guitar. The songs (Wilco) are good, but the best part is when they go in to the jam sessions at the end. This makes me think of a film…maybe “The Verdict” with Paul Newman. Bright Eyes came to the last Josh Rouse show in New York, and I thought he was a very handsome and nice young man. On the Austin City Limits show, he seemed so full of vitriol, I didn’t know what to think…it made me uncomfortable to watch. I guess he’s good, but I don’t know for sure. I find it hard to trust my instinct anymore…I mean, there’s reasons why stuff should theoretically be good, but does that mean it is?