Iv'e been really busy between work and the baby, but I'm really trying to practice at least a little bit every day. This is the year I learn to read on guitar. So far so good...

Great news today - the radio talk show host Thom Hartmann sends a daily email with information about his show, current events, and some highlights from his website. Today he highlighted my song "Ain't No News On TV" in the Community Square section.

Go listen to the song and tell Thom how much you like it!
http://community.thomhartmann.com/_Aint-No-News-On-TV/audio/546773/93519.html

You may need to register, but it's worth it, I promise!

The hard drive died on our computer, and as a result I had to rebuy our website making software. This caused a few issues, so I hope everything is back to normal.

I've been looking at getting a new guitar. I've been playing a strat or tele for years now (with occasional forays to my Jackson for heavy metal pieces), but I don't have anything Gibson-like. I was thinking of maybe getting a Flying V, but I don't care for the super thick neck. I do like the thin 60s neck on the Les Paul Classic, though, so that's on my radar. I also checked out a PRS Mira at Sam Ash last week - it played really, really well and I liked the huge variety of tones. Any recommendations for Les Paul-style guitars? Shoot me an email.

I've had a bit of writer's block lately. While I've spent a lot of time practicing guitar, I can't seem to get words on the page. Not that I don't have ideas, though. I've been writing down lots of lines, even verses, but I can't seem to get that whole song out. I'm sure it'll come back, but it's frustrating. In the mean time I'm just going with the flow and making the most out of my guitar playing, and trying to get my chops as strong as possible.

I've been working a lot on my guitar technique this last week - sweep picking, arpeggios and hand position. A friend of mine got me on a metal kick, so I've been listening to a lot of Vai and Malmsteen. This balances out the Woody Guthrie kick I was on last week.

As far as songs go, I've rerecorded a great song titled Midnight Blues that I had done on our old ADAT a few years ago. It deserved a higher-fidelity treatment, and I want Stephanie's vocals on it. The ADAT has been retired, so I had to redo it all in Logic. The drums are a thousand times better now, and I really ripped the guitar solo at the end, so I think it turned out very well. This should be another strong song for the next Zeyer album.