black lab live, 1998

hey all, here’s a great way to support black lab:

big sky songwriters festival

hey peeps,

just wanted to make you aware of a little activity I’ll be participating in this summer as I thought a few of you might be interested.

I’m signed up to do this thing called Big Sky Songwriters Festival just up the road from me in Big Sky, Montana. it’s a pretty incredible venue, and I’ll be involved in panels, roundtable discussions of songwriting, as well as one-on-one work, solo and group performances.

this isn’t the kind of thing I usually go in for but Dave, the founder, is a buddy of mine and he talked me into it. I’m thinking it might be really fun as well. often I’m just in my little hole here, or writing with Andy, so it should be cool to get out a bit and maybe interact with other writers.

anyway, it’s probably a pricey proposition, but if you’re in the area or want to do some serious surgery on your songwriting, it would be great to have some black lab fans out for this thing. we can get a drink at Chet’s and shoot the shizzle.

hope to see you there.

info:

Festival site:
www.bigskysongwritersfestival.com

Facebook page:
www.facebook.com/pages/Big-Sky-Songwriters-Festival/253849644711236

Facebook event page:
www.facebook.com/events/273022516125956

how the light gets in

Kristian Anderson was a good friend of ours, a hard worker who always had time to help us out in one way or another. over the last ten years we have schemed about how to get Andy and I down to Australia where Kris could shoot a live acoustic performance for a DVD package.

this September, sick with cancer but still relentlessly cheerful and positive, Kris made the trip to LA with his new red epic camera to shoot us in the studio working on the new album. it was the realization of a longstanding goal for both of us — to meet each other face to face and to get some wicked footage.

before he passed at the beginning of this year, Kris managed to do a rough cut of some footage for one of the songs. I’m not sure what will happen to the rest of the stuff he shot, but I wanted to make this available as a tribute to Kris, his gifts, his passion for music and video, and his example to all of us to get off our asses and go for it, all the way to the end.

I’m also making the audio for this track the Free Mp3 of the Month, since I kind of like it better than the album take from Unplugged. just click above to get it. you can check out Kris’ blog here and his posthumous book right here.

thanks, Kris. we owe you one.

maguchi is playing with a full house

happiness. new free mp3 of the month

k, I’m getting serious about these free mp3 of the month things. and by that I mean that I’m gonna get off my ass and actually make them happen, like, every month.

I’ve got tons of stuff lying around. much of it (like this month’s special) is the kind of half-assed sketch that makes for either 1) random, disposable nonsense, 2) great starter fertilizer for something that might, with a bunch o’ work, be cool, or 3) demo brilliance, needing just a tweak and a polish before it’s ready for prime time.

still not sure where ‘happiness’ falls in this. it was such a happy vibe & riff I thought I’d actually not ruin it and give it a lyric that fit. usually I like to inflict my existential torment on you all (you know you love it), but in this case I thought I’d just get my sugar tooth on and cop an indie-pop vibe. it’s easy. and fun!

it doesn’t necessarily get us any closer to having a new black lab album done, but you all know I’m too ADD when it comes to genre to be held down to any one (or five). anyhoo, let us know what you think — and let your friends know too, send ‘em a link.

free music. on the internet! who knew?!