In 2005, I faced some serious decisions regarding treatment after learning that my Hodgkin’s Lymphoma had come back. It was hard to know what to do, because whichever option I chose came with some consequences. Ultimately I chose to undergo a stem cell transplant, which was a nasty affair with a tremendous affect on my emotional state as well as my body. Now a few years later and cancer free, this song seems to have creeped into my consciousness again. I decided to finally record a demo version this past Monday.

Along with the piano and voice parts, I recorded some background melodica and some kazoo parts reverb-ified.

Listen to “Happens In Stages”

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Happens in stages
Dog-eared pages
Two roads at your feet

Heaven and Earth
Or what it’s worth
You could take chances or time

Also recorded on Monday was a song called Little Black Boxes, inspired by The American Widow Project.

While setting up some mics with the piano lid open, I accidentally dropped the end of the mic cable on the soundboard. It wound up being the inspiration for this song.

I used a carpenter’s hammer against one of the bass strings, then plucked the upper melody with my fingers. The sustain pedal has to be held down, of course. Then I put some water in a wine glass and clanked it with a paint stirrer… and then of course there were tambourines and egg shakers… and then the singing of four part harmonies.

Listen to “Salt”

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When all the walls that you had built
Could not protect you from the guilt
The secrets hid behind the eyes
Were darker than your safest lies

And when they come, they pull you down
They crush the peace you thought you’d found

But we’re deciding who’s at fault
We stand the breeze and taste the salt
We’re deciding who’s at fault
We stand the breeze and taste the salt

When Ethan visited Western Mass. back in October, we spent a couple of days recording two short songs and one not as short song…

You Were A Cynic (1:56)

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Other States (1:12) with Ethan on melodica

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Fight Or Flight (3:14)

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The new State Shirt cd, This Is Old was released just last month. Ethan has been busy promoting that and also scheming up some shows for himself. He and I are trying to get some sort of Matthew Larsen / State Shirt / ??? tour happening in late Spring…

Kristen and I get food from El Guanaco Salvadorian & Mexican Food quite often since it’s delicious and within a close proximity to our house in Holyoke. Over the past couple years, we’ve seen it grow and have enjoyed their food while doing so. Last night, Kristen noticed an “Under New Management” sign, and picked up their recently revised menu.

I never understood why restaurants want to advertise that they’re under new management. Those signs don’t really affect my decision either way. As long as you’re advertising, why not a banner that says “New Menu Items!” or something related to the delicious food that they make?

Anyway, it’s awesome that El Guanaco has been able to thrive despite its somewhat odd location in South Hadley Falls. It goes to show you that people ARE willing to seek you out if the food is good enough. With that in mind, I hope the same success formula rings true for La Casita Azteca in Easthampton, MA.

This Friday, I have the opportunity to open for Western Massachusetts singer/songwriter, Mark Schwaber. I’ve known Mark for a long time now as most musicians in the valley do, having common friends and acquaintances. Mark writes a great music blog called Feedback for MassLive (where I work), he ran Night Owl Records in Easthampton where I purchased many a cd, and over the twenty or some odd years we’ve both been making music in the valley, we’ve been on the same bill a few times and attended many of the same shows. Aside from my normal appreciation that Mark is a ‘valley musician’, I can honestly say that Mark Schwaber is one of my favorite musicians anywhere. There are some of his songs that just absolutely floor me every time I hear them… ‘Dignity in Death’ for example.

Mark has been performing with Sara Gomes lately, and from what I hear, it’s nothing short of magic. Sara Gomes is the wife of Tom Gomes, who who used to play drums in a band called Killswitch Engage (and now owns his own drum company). The main guitar dudes in Killswitch are Adam Dutkiewicz and Joel Stroetzel.

Adam and I got together when Killswitch was still in its infancy to record the Smokejumpers album. (more…)

I was looking at my site one day and began to realize how seemingly quickly things become out of date and never get updated. It happens to everyone, and I suppose I could tell you that it won’t happen here since I have a fancy new blog setup so it makes it easier for me to post things. I suppose I could pledge to keep this updated as frequently as possible, not acknowledging the inevitable slackage that will creep up from time to time.

Instead I’ll just post about how I’m kind of excited about the whole blog setup. Ever since I started working at MassLive, and since meeting my lovely fiancee Kristen, I’ve been keen to the idea of starting one, but just didn’t have the time to explore it. Finally, I did.

So here we are. As I get into the swing of things, I hope some of these posts aren’t total snoozers.