next up: "i am... i said," by Neil Diamond.

this old Silvertone baritone ukulele is super fun to play. here it is plonking out a certified Neil classic. emily is NOT A FAN. 😃

*and i am not a fan of our neighbor who seems to think he needs to mow 5 times a week. GOOD JOB, WEIRDO.

ok! don't forget to MASH THAT SUBSCRIBE BUTTON for further musical adventures of:
#SongsThatEmilyDoesNotLikeOrEverWantToHearAgain
youtube.com/@joshuawaynehensley

wax doll, for Brendan

this Robyn Hitchcock gem has been stuck in my head this week (sorry, emily). Brendan used to play it all the time, i think mainly because he liked the 3rd verse (which i have omitted. eww.). but also it was catchy as hell, and that was his jam. he would have been 49 this year. miss you, B.

12 years of Carp Rock

12 year anniversary of the first rutabega show with Garth on the drums (at Birdy's in Indianapolis w/ The Loom, Jared from Morrow, and Eric Radoux). it was a Tuesday evening and the room was way too big, but we had a blast and knew that we wanted to keep on making music together. hasn't always been smooth sailing, but i'm grateful to still be on this little boat together. 

Leading Up To in stores // Kreative Kontrol with Vish Khanna

Exciting update from Comedy Minus One:

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Available digitally since the fall, today The Rutabega’s acclaimed album “Leading Up To” arrives in stores worldwide.

Featuring nine gorgeous new songs encased in a jacket with equally beautiful Jay Ryan artwork, “Leading Up To” is distributed around the globe by Redeye.

But a few of the international shops stocking this gem include Rough Trade (USA), Bull Moose (USA), Proper (UK), Juno (UK), Saturn (Germany), Schoolkids (USA), Plan 9 (USA) and Big Dipper (Norway).

If you’re more comfortable ordering direct from us, try our store for either orange or black vinyl variants. Compact discs and cassettes you can snag through Bandcamp.

For more on “Leading Up To,” this conversation between Josh & Garth from The Rutabega and Vish Khanna on the podcast Kreative Kontrol is highly recommended.
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XO

photo: Donny Stancato

Lulu Belle & Scotty/ G.Autry > Van/ R.Stewart

 a Lulu Belle and Scotty classic, for my darling (i know, i know). written by Scotty Wiseman, this version is probably closer to Gene Autry's. 

pellets

got to hang out with the kiddos (urp, young adults!) yesterday evening. i am so proud of the kind, creative, compassionate, beautiful people they have grown to be. wild how life can suddenly grab you and pull things into focus.

Pac-Man came up randomly when we were catching up around the fire, and it reminded me of the song "pellets" that i wrote for Sage around 2005. we had gotten one of those plug-n-play deals that had a few Atari games loaded and Pac-Man was one of the only video games i was actually decent at playing. little Sage was excited to watch me play, but also kinda freaked out and anxious about the ghosts - especially when they would speed up and the music would *intensify*. we figured out how to make it less scary.

this world can be so frightening and intense. i hope we can continue to make it a less scary place. for all of us.

music as time machine

i've been thinking a lot lately about how music can act as a time machine of sorts - taking us back to specific moments, pulling us into focus in the present, and carrying us forward in ways we may not fully understand. 

some thoughts from Jason P. Woodbury on this very thing. and don't sleep on the JPW Aquarium Drunkard's Transmissions podcast or his beautiful album Something Happening / Always Happening. 

also...

"songs are pieces of architecture in time that you can instantiate by turning them on, & then you can come back to them again & again..."

from David Berman's 2019 conversation with Vish Khanna on Kreative Kontrol. 

and...

"Songs build little rooms in time
And housed within the song's design
Is the ghost the host has left behind
To greet and sweep the guest inside
Stoke the fire and sing his lines"

from Purple Mountains "Snow is Falling in Manhattan"

lastly...