Five years of hard living and this dog has finally run its last race. A mic stand beating, mic stand flipping, 3 re-glues, a couple screws, thousands of cataloged miles, countless performances (planned and spontaneous), beatings by children, and more… I tried one final unsuccessful gluing of the headstock last week. When that didn’t work, I called it quits, cut it open to salvage the pickup, and called it goodbye. You’ll be happy to know the pickup is still alive and well in Tom Rooney’s mandolin, thanks to the insanely skilled and accommodating luthier Aaron Andrews. Note that I did the damage to the mandolin. Aaron’s work is much more clean.

0 Comments | Posted by Michael Spaly in Random Info

I’m proud to announce some great news. While in Boston, I was privileged enough to play with the band Kingsley Flood. The week before my departure we finished tracking on their debut release, Dust Windows. The album received lots of great feedback and I also got to return to the R-less city to play the release party.

Anyway, Kingsley Flood has since won the Boston Phoenix’s 2010 Boston Music Poll’s Best Roots Act in Boston award! Here’s KF’s take on the award. And here’s a snippet of the writeup: “Their roots cred owes to the masterful fiddle and mandolin playin’ and the whiff of Appalachia found on their debut, Dust Windows, but the music’s sheer exuberance is beyond time or genre.” Now that’s the kind of music I want to make and listen to :)

Though immensely sad to not be playing with these guys anymore, I am extremely ecstatic for the good press they are receiving. Nicest folks you would ever want to meet and the talent pouring out of those guys (and gal) is ridiculous. Here’s a video from the CD release party:

By the way, this is what happens when you get on the Flood’s bad side…

0 Comments | Posted by Michael Spaly in Random Info

A terrific night of music at Pies and Pints. Tom decided to make the night a KBCS fund raiser in support of the local radio station’s weekly show, “Bluegrass Ramble“. With Johnny out of town, Brad Carter joined in on Banjo, with Matt Heron again sitting in on Fiddle. Brad and Matt play together quite a bit, and their presence immediately doubled or tripled our song list. Later in the evening, Spoonshine’s Jacob Navarro showed up. In town for a recording session, he joined us on the last set, adding some hot geetar. Pandi, of the Gloria Darlings, finished off the night with a couple solo tunes.

All in all some really hot music and we made a good amount of cash that will be donated to KBCS. KBCS does a great job of supporting local music and we’re proud to put in our 2 cents.

Our hearts and thoughts are with the Pies and Pints staff.

0 Comments | Posted by Michael Spaly in Shows

Another Sunday, another song laid down for Creeping Time’s upcoming album. Ken was in charge of this tune and came in with some ideas for the sound he wanted to achieve – ‘chicken pickin‘. Usually, our order of operations is drums/acoustic guitar/bass tracking, followed by a vocal scratch track, then Kjell’s fiddle parts, and, if time permits, a pass at some electric guitars. What usually happens is my finding myself having to rush my guitar parts because time did not permit. This time, however, we tracked the electric guitars before the fiddles, leaving me in the hot seat. It was really great to take the extra time to explore various intro/outro/solo options and really nail the rhythm parts. Unfortunately, this left Kjell sitting around for the session and only getting a few passes at his violin sections. Though, even with just that little time, Ken had a  good point that Kjell’s parts really put the “CT” stamp on the song.

0 Comments | Posted by Michael Spaly in Recording Studio

Once a semi-monthly gig for Creeping Time, June 11 was only our second show at Conor Byrne in 2010. With busy schedules and time spent focusing on our recording, our live schedule has been pretty sleepy. While we’re hitting new strides in the studio,coming up with some really cool arrangements of our tunes, we have not had a regular rehearsal space for some time. Though it was a lot of fun to play and it’s always great to play together, but it may be time to hit the woodshed and re-tighten the screws on our live show.

Opening up the night was Tim Cowan, a Portland based singer-songwriter who focuses on nashville-style country. Really nice melodies and those fun country plays-on-words. Anacortes’ Spoonshine followed. I was excited to see their new lineup with core members Jacob Navarro and Bill Cook adding rhythm guitar and a full-on rock drummer. All in all a really great direction for these guys. Definitely keep your eyes peeled as they’ll be hitting bigger markets soon enough…

0 Comments | Posted by Michael Spaly in Shows