My Gear: Presented by Robin Williams!

Today I'd like to talk about some of the equipment that I use when I play live. By no means do I think my stuff is the better than other gear and I could be wrong, but this is what I've found works for me. And like I always say...How can something so wrong make me feel so right!

First up, The Fishman Loudbox Mini. I've been using this little guy for about two years now. I take it to every gig. I usually run my guitar and vocals through it and use the direct out straight into the PA. It works well as a floor monitor. Some gigs I only have to take this amp and those gigs are easy peasy lemon sqeezey. It can easily fill up a coffee house or lounge with sound.

Secondly, The LR Baggs Para DI. I've had this thing for close to ten years and it has never let me down. I'd say I've used it at about 400 shows so far and it's still kicking. Super silent, simple, and it matches my amp. Brown is so sexy.

LR Baggs M1: I use these pickups on all of my acoustic guitars. In my experience they feedback way less than piezo under-saddle pickups. They have epic bass sound which helps fill out the room at my gigs. I usually cut the mids and I'm good to go. I can tap the guitar to get a drum sound really easy with this pickup too. You see these things being used by freaking every band on TV lately. There's a reason for that. I go through phases where I obsess about what pickups I should be using. It's a sickness that I'm working on. I ALWAYS end up coming back to these! Like Mr. Williams they make me feel all warm and fuzzy.

And lastly, The MXR Carbon Copy Analog Delay. I'm an acoustic musician so I'm not sure if this is cheating or not but I freaking love this pedal.
How I use it:
1) To give me a slight delay for lead sections
2) For reverb/boost for fingerpicking/ballads
3) To get that slapback rockabilly sound
4) To perform magic

I was playing a gig at a real classy place last year and some sweetheart of a lady spilled beer this pedal. It actually was fine but the light on the front stopped working so I gave it to my cousin. He says it still sounds great. I quickly replaced mine with another one.

License Plate Guitar Pt. 2 - Dirty Details Done at Home Depot

Here are some of those dirty details I promised in the last blog. I hope you enjoy them. Guitar/Hardware nerds rejoice!

Thanks again Jay Patton for all these specs.

The top of this guitar is my old license plate from 2004ish.

The bridge is a nut and bolt.

The volume knob is a valve stem cap (like on your car’s tire)

The body is made out of ¾” cedar plank.

We have 3 lil soundholes at the top so I can hear every damned mistake I make.

The construction is neck-through with a 24.75” (Gibson) scale. Does that qualify it as a Gibson Guitar....Sure!

The pickups are 2 piezo disks wired in parallel with a 250k volume pot.

The tail piece is a metal exhaust hanger/bracket

The back of the guitar is sheet metal.

The nut is cow bone

  The tuners are plain ol’ open gear tuners with pearloid keys

The fret dots are nail heads.

The neck is oak with a ¼” oak fretless fretboard (the wings on the headstock are maple)

For more music head over to http://www.sincerelyiris.com/

License Plate Guitar - Keep it in the Family

Today I'd like to blog about a new friend of mine. I received this little monster for Christmas two years ago and it's slowly but surely creeped its way into live shows and in the near future will be on my license plate album. This guitar was built by Mr. Jay Patton. Jay is a guitar player, slide guitarist, singer, car enthusiast, electronics whiz and....cousin. He's my go to guy for all things music, plus he has to answer my questions because we're related. For a previous blog about the pedals he built for me, go HERE

Here's a tasty little sample of his slide playing:

Learn how to make a free Electronic Press Kit

Of course I would be dead meat if I didn't mention that this gift was my mom's idea. Thanks mom! On our next episode, I'll dive into some of the dirty details about this guitar (with pics!) 

Writing Better Lyrics to Avoid Satan: Songwriting Books Part 2

Today's post is definitely a book for the Songwriter's Songwriter. I'm sure there are tons of musicians who have read this book already. Pat Pattison dives DEEP into how lyrics work and how to make your lyrics have greater effect.  Metaphors, similes, rhyme schemes and many more things that I had forgot about since I graduated high school are talked about. The exciting thing for me is how you can use all of these tricks in writing songs. With an introduction by the amazing Gillian Welch, you can't really go wrong. With songs like "Time (The Revelator)" and "I Dreamed a Highway" I always thought that Gillian and David Rawlings had sold their souls to the devil. It's good to know that Pat helped them a little too.

This book was especially helpful to me because I almost always start with music, then come up with lyrics. This book taught me how to use your lyrics to guide the rhythm and direction of the song.

Songwriting Books: Part 1

I'm firing up the ol blog engine and I figure the best way to get the sparks flying is by writing about how I write. Firstly and foremostly, it's a mess. I'm specifically talking about my songwriting. It's a jumbled word vomiting mess of ideas. I used to think that I was more inspired when I was a teenager, but when I go back and look at that material it is generally terrible and made no sense at all. I had no idea what I was doing and I was WAY too judgemental of everything that I wrote.
One book that helped me with brainstorming and not judging myself is Lynda Barry's book "What It Is." I recommend this book to any writer, painter, or really anyone else who is looking to get some ideas out. One way her methods are different is that they are all based on images and memories. I swear that some of her exercises have me recalling very specific details that I had no idea I still had in my brain at all. Of all of the books I'll be talking about in my next few blogs, Lynda's is the most fun. It's like a grown up comic book. Every page is jammed packed with drawings and ideas. But you don't have to take my word for it!

On a side note "What It Is" can actually be seen in one my videos. In the first few seconds of my video for "Leave It All Behind" the actors can be seen reading it on the couch. On the video shoot that day they were all talking about how cool it was. Can you say product placement!

Bootlegs (Part 1)

Hi Friends,

Last month I was playing a show at The Flip Flop Bar in Savannah, GA. A gentleman came up and asked if he could record me playing. I said yes and he stayed and watched for about 45 mins. Well last week I played at that same spot and Lo and Behold Larry Sammons showed up with a burned cd of the entire show that he had taped on 12/2/2011. Pretty rad if you ask me.(Yes, I'm bringing "rad" back).

Anywho, I thought I'd share those songs with you (totally free). I hope you like them. There is a Josh Ritter and a Black Keys cover in this in this set. Special thanks to Larry for recording this show.

Lillian, Egypt(Josh Ritter) 12-2-11
Don't Let The Man Get You Down 12-2-11
Waiting Blues 12-2-11
My Next Girl(Black Keys) 12-2-11
She Moves Me 12-2-11
Right Click and "Save Target As" for the quickest download.

She Moves Me

This song is written about Bonnie Raitt. I have a soft spot for great female blues and jazz singers. On my last album there was a song called I Can Never Know that was my tribute to Joni Mitchell, Billie Holiday and Nina Simone.

The sound of this song was influenced greatly by Gregory Alan Isakov. His album This Empty Northern Hemisphere was in our car's CD player for seriously a year straight. It is a perfect album. I don't know that I've listened to any album that consistently since Jeff Buckley and Rufus Wainwright.
I first saw Gregory at a small show in Fort Collins, Colorado about 6 years ago with probably 5 people there. I checked out his show because all of the local musicians in town were all in agreement that he was better than they were lol. I recently saw him play in Evanston, IL and the place was packed and silent. Check out his music.

Because of his influence I was planning on making my album very mellow. However, slowly but surely my own personality took over the writing process. I guess I can only be myself whether I like it or not.

Golden Days

I recorded this song in my closet in Chicago. I always envisioned the chorus of this song being sang/sung/singded/(not sure) by an old circus announcer of some sort. The little dude who stands in the middle of the tent with a megaphone.
The lyric about "swinging on the willow tree" in the chorus, is one of my earliest memories in life. When I was young I remember two little girls swinging on the branches of their willow tree wearing church dresses. I think they were my neighbors. It just always stuck with me, so I decided to put it in the song....Although, with the way memories work I may have stolen that scene from Fried Green Tomatoes, or Forrest Gump. Oh well. It's my memory now!
This song is fun to listen to with headphones because the guitars pan left to right at the beginning. For a time I was thinking the whole album may turn into a little jazzy swing thing in the style of Golden Days because I like that style of music so much, but my writing tendencies were too scatterbrained for that to happen....Maybe someday.

Gone Now

I've decided to give a little insight into each individual track on "The Great Unknown." I'm going to do this in chronological order just for the fun of it. Today's track is Gone Now. Let's get to the oldies!
This song was originally released about 5 years ago on an out of print album of mine called "My Memories and Me." This is an ex-girlfriend song in all it's splendor.
I added new vocals, backwards guitar, claps and foot stomps to the new version.

The opening riff is highly, HIGHLY, influenced by Edith Piaf. The initial idea was to combine the sweetness of a French song with the intensity of the alternative/folk/indie/nonsense that I do. The guitar is tuned low to high DADGBbD. I think the tuning came when I was trying to figure out the Edith arrangement that had violin, horns, and whatever else those crazy French people play. Stay tuned for more!

-Todd

The Great Unknown

New stuff on the horizon!!! My new album "The Great Unknown" is coming out very very soon. I just ordered the cd's a few days ago. Here is a nice review from Connect Savannah Magazine. Just click here to view it:
Connect Article
Here is a pic of the album cover: