[Tweeted in a 140 character truncated form]
“Autumn. Cooler temperatures. The cloud-to-sun ratio is shifting.
More rain is in the forecast. That can only mean one thing: IT'S GIANT HOUSE SPIDER SEASON!”
At this time of year I become extra alert to any movement I detect in the corner of my eye, just out of my line of vision, and to those moments when the cat suddenly goes on alert. Tupperware stationed in every room.
Between lessons (the ones I didn’t forget), took my first exercise/walk in the rain of the season. Autumn seems to have dropped in with a vengeance.
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While walking, I had my “Blues Playlist” (4.8 days worth, according to iTunes) on shuffle. I enjoy this because pieces come up that I wouldn’t have necessarily gone out and listened to on my own. Always good for a surprise. I hit “skip” a lot, depending on my mood, but occasionally something pops that is a real gem. Today I got two gems in a row. The first one was a Little Milton piece called Walking in the Backstreets and Crying. Immediately saw that it was right down my alley, guitar-wise. Vocally it is in more or less the How Blue Can You Get? (without the comic relief) and Going Down Slow category – ranging from sonorous baritone to a shout. Challenging for me, but a direction I want to continue to work on.
As I was making a mental note to look into the Little Milton piece when I got home, I’m Gonna Miss You (Like The Devil) by Slim Harpo came on, and I got immediately happy. Always loved it. Hasn’t been on my radar lately. I have a kind of ambivalence to Slim; love him when I love him, and can’t hit “skip” fast enough the rest of the time. This tune has always tickled me. I don’t see myself trying to replicate his arrangement/style, and definitely not his airy falsetto, but I think it is very strong material that I could do something with. There is one word in the chorus that I have always heard differently from anyone else. Did a web search on the lyrics when I got home. The tune is obscure enough that there wasn’t much, and in true 21st century interweb fashion, what was available was clearly done by one person and cut-and-pasted by everyone else. They didn’t hear it the way I hear it. So I pulled out the big guns, and called on my lyric-whisperer, Mr Barry Stock. Sent him the recording and he did his magic, determining that the word everyone hears as “things”, but I hear as “pains”, Slim sings as “paings”. So we’re both right, I guess. I’ll just sing it the way I feel it.
Not entirely sure taking on new material is the most efficient thing to be devoting my time to, but it got my juices flowing so that can’t be all bad.
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Rain has gone from intermittent to slow and steady. This could last a while.
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