The Weblog of Daniel Tashian

Another day to do battle with the muse, mano i mano. No co-writes, just me and a guitar. Worked on a couple ideas I had going, but didn’t get really far on anything. Leslie came over to get some bills and she took Posh for the day. It was weird not having a dog. I could go places and not think about having to be home at a certain time. So I went to the bank and cashed a check, then I took it to Grimey’s and got some cds. I got Richard Hawley’s new record, and The Best of The Pogues, and 3 Pretenders records. I thought about going shoe shopping, but that was enough driving around, so home and took a short nap, then it was time for dinner so Leslie dropped Posh off and I took her to Hopkins, and we went to Carraba’s. It was pretty good. I had soup and salad. Home and Posh, I realized, was super stinky. Maybe she got into something in Leslie’s yard. I decided I couldn’t take it any longer, so I tossed her into the tub. She was really not in the mood for a bath, but you can’t live under that kind of tyranny. Then Liz came back and we went to PM and I had a beer and Layng was going to meet us there but he came and didn’t see us and left again so we went home. Imported some of my new tunes into itunes, and something’s changed with the new version. It’s more selective about importing things. All the CDs I bought were Warner Brothers and they did not want to import. ?? To bed at 12.

Well it was supposed to maybe rain, and the sky was a bit pink-ish in the morning, but it held off all day. Walked and did some computer work. Worked on a new song: “Unsentimental” and it had some funny lines. But the whole song, I’m not sure if it works. Went to lunch at PM with Layng and had the Bento Box and a Red Bull. He has a new space that he wants me come check out. Tom Littlefield came over to learn ukulele songs, and we will be performing at Grimey’s outdoor sale on Saturday. Went to Troy’s building and we worked on a new song, a Christmas song, but we couldn’t get the lyrics right, so we will have to work on it next week. But the melody is solid. We took it from a bit of opera. Went to the church supper, and then home and watched “The War” on PBS.

Went to Larry Gottlieb’s and he has a nice studio. He bought me sushi for lunch and we talked and worked on a song: “Supernatural High” and it came out pretty cool. He wrote the jingle for “Subway, Your Way!” and it was 4 chords and 4 notes, and he made like several hundred thousand on that. He loves the Beatles and so do I, and he said John Lennon hated the word “just” in songs, but he still couldn’t avoid using it. Matt Maher called and said the AT&T thing was still a possibility and that would be great $, but you can’t count on it because so many things can happen. They want to use a song (maybe) that I wrote with Nini Camps called “Everywhere is Home” and it would be perfect for them and I hope they use it. I’ve come so close to so many huge things, but so far, the massive payday has been elusive. But it’s early. It’s early in the season. Larry and I worked til about 3, then I went home and I was going to go to the Basement for New Faces, but I chickened out and watched some TV and went to bed.

Watching “The War” on PBS and man that thing is serious. It haunts me and I can’t stop thinking about Guadalcanal and the death marches and these things. Leigh Nash came over, and she brought a Gretsch guitar and a good song idea called “This Is How I Got Lost” and we wrote the chorus of it, then went to PM and I had a Red Bull and a bowl of soup. That’s my new thing I guess, when I can: a Red Bull with lunch. I should switch to sugar free probably, but I love the taste of the regular. Back to the house and we finished the song and made a work tape of it. I got some kind of less than amazing drum sounds, but the song is definitely cool. We went to the Taproom, and Kate York came, and I had a couple beers and some Tacos. Home and watched “The War” and thought about going to the Mercy, but went to bed early. Reading “39 Steps”.

Walked early then went back to bed. To El Mariachi and everyone was sitting outside and it was like 90 degrees and I was sort of, well, I wanted to go inside. Leslie was there, and she said she was maybe going to travel around with a friend for a while. Grimey said he had a new nickname for Mindy: “Charley” and I still couldn’t really understand why. Leslie told the embarrassing story about her mom and her brother overhearing a “private” conversation because she forgot to mention I was on speaker-phone. I had 2 margaritas and some Shrimp of the Devil. Home, and took a major league nap, then tidied up a bit. Went to the Basement, and Layng met me over there. We watched Mitch Easter, and he was good. All the guitars were Rickenbackers, and the songs were cool. Bill Lloyd was there, and Brad Jones. Home about 11.

Worked with Jessica on our song “If it doesn’t kill us…” and it’s really good. I mean, if you listen to the stuff we were doing when she first came to town, in like, 2002, it’s so much better, and so much more emotional. I like Keane a lot for that reason, and the Waterboys. It’s very emotional music. Went to McDonald’s for lunch, and I got the Asian chicken salad with grilled chicken. I love that salad. Then I went to dinner at Hopkins and Carl and Karl were heading for the highway in the morning, so it was sort of a dinner in their honor. Then down to the Exit Inn to see “The Jane Shermans,”  Angelo and Eulene’s new band. Angelo wanted me to video it, so Jessica and I went down there. Barbara and Roger Moutenot were there. Bob and Christine Orral and who else? That guy from Mona that I met at Athens with Grimey was there. The Jane Shermans were great and they’ve really been practicing. Eulene was playing a Gibson Explorer bass and looked super cool. Angelo’s tone was great. I thought I did a good job with the video, but my arm was hurting after like 2 songs. Went to PM with Jessica, Liz, Ang, Eulene and Gordy’s girlfriend, Helen. She said her daughter was really into knock-knock jokes. I had water and a Miso and a salad. Home about 2.

Went to East Nashville to Eric Fritch’s studio. Recorded a song with Greta Gaines called “Say Grace.” The drummer was Steve Bowman, the original drummer of the Counting Crows (and subsequently kind of a hero of mine) and Millard Powers on bass (currently with C.C. and also a hero) so there were no weak links in the chain. The song was cool and I thought it came out well. We tried to do the slice and dice thing and make a loop on the MPC but it was a big time-waster, so we just played the song live. Eric’s studio is really nice and home-y, in a barn. At one point, Eric’s son Oliver came in and started tearing the foam padding out of one of my flight cases. I said “chh..ch…” and wagged my finger. He had this look like “No one ever lets me have any fun destructively!”  It’s weird when all of a sudden you realize now you’re the grumpy old bastard that you hated as kid! We worked a good long 8 hour day, then I went home and read a bit, then crashed.

Helena Johanssen came over. The last song we wrote was kind of country, and I told her when we went up to the studio that I hadn’t been doing much country writing lately. I have this fantasy that the Silver Seas will sort of take off, in some limited sort of way, and this will prevent me from trying to get people (who I don’t really want to write with anyway) to write with me. Or get someone to return a phone call. This is a funny thing, because it’s weird when someone doesn’t call you back. I saw one person that I left a message for, saying “let’s finish this song we started…” and we sort of recognized each other, then made a mutual unspoken decision to avoid one another. But still, it hurts the ego a bit that someone doesn’t even think it’s worth the time to return the call. But the thing I have to remember is not to call people who are currently having hit songs on the charts. Those people are being called by writers every five minutes and they just feel…what’s the word? Besieged. They feel besieged. So, that makes me feel a little better, but the strange thing is that I don’t even want to write with them anyway! I just call them because I feel like I should! So maybe I am getting my Karmic comeuppance. At any rate. What can you do? There will always be people who wake up in the morning and say: “Today would be a better day if I didn’t have anything to do with Daniel Tashian today, either phone-wise or otherwise.” and once they have decided that, what can you do? So Helena had a good title, and I was thinking kind of Ron Sexsmith-ish as far as music, and we came up with a cool song called “It’s Time Again.” Then I went to meet Susan Nadler and Evelyn  of George Jones’ label, to pitch them the idea of me producing George, and (another fantasy) getting him to sing “Boulevard of Broken Dreams” by Green Day. I think he would sound great doing that. But they said he’s very set in his ways, and he wouldn’t work with me as a producer. He’s somewhat ornery, apparently, and not open to new ideas. Well, anyway I tried. But I went to Susan’s car after the meeting, and listened to some un-released George Jones recordings from 1995: Smokin! Man. He does a duet with Keith Richards on “Burn Your Playhouse Down” that is just incendiary! Long day, took it easy for a bit and watched the Pretenders on YouTube.

Jessica came over and we worked on our song “This Is The Life” and we made a demo of it. It came out good, but after she left I figured out that the bass part was too busy and so I replaced it. To Hopkins for dinner. Hung out a bit with Carl and Karl.