Happy New year!

I hope you all had a swell holiday and are settling back into normal life. Im writing this in the wee hours of a Saturday that promises a snowstorm and an excuse to kick back, do some writing and practicing. I hope to finish up some ongoing writing projects.. Snot Rocket , Don't leave me all alone, Reasons revisited, along with music that has yet to be titled.

We got the band together for a show at Family Piano. It was a great time and we even got some video! Big thanks to Jan Ledgerwood !! We had'nt ALL played together fo a while. Me, Larry, Rick Ledgerwood and Mike Hasty. It was surprisingly effortless. So... we have some video and a lot of nice photos too. AND... we are still contemplating a band name. Some say you aren't really a band until you've changed your name at least 3 times.

On a personal note, I have built myself a " Bill Liggett Musician / Band " Facebook page. My goal there is to finish recording the back catalog and start putting out solo CD's . I intend to do a considerable amount of promotion because...why not?

I have also started putting out some " Solo Videos " on my personal FB page and now on my musician FB page. I hope to do this regularly. Most of the songs I write have a nice message and are probably good to calm the raging sea that is FB. I started doing this because, reluctantly I use FB as a diversion at the very beginning and end of my day. I had been inwardly complaining about some of the negative messages and politics I see and just thought that instead of complaining, why not forward my message in response to it.

Along with the writing, I haver a batch of covers i'm working on. Big Hard Sun ( the Eddie Vedder version ), Help me Make it through the night ( Chris Cristofferson ), A Blues version of " What condition my condition was in "  LOL  ( From the Big Lebowski ). Lets see.. there is a version of " Scarlett Town " ( Gillian Welch tune ), Cool Water ( Joni Mitchell version of an old cowboy song )...and a few others I can think of right now. 

We  ( Me and the band ) are booking shows.. looks like we have another appearance at Taste Of Wisconsin, a nice show coming up at a wonderful little venue in Waukegan called " Win Win ". Joyce and I stopped in to meet and talk and had dinner there. Food was amazing. There is also another local place " Fanellas " that has quite a few opening for us on Friday nights. 

Well, it's 6:15 Saturday morning and i'm waiting for the snow to start. What better time to start on all of the above?

 

Thanks for listening, watching, reading and just being there!

 

Bill

 Or is it a musician who also works?

 I think the term working musician applies to one who does music only as a means for income. And when you do something as a means for income, isn't that .. uhh.. work? Or is it business? I think no matter what, a person who goes out to perform for pay in public is "working". I hope that clears that up .. for me.
 
 Ok , so , June will be busy!  I think we have three or four shows in June which is a lot for musicians who also work..  (Please understand, Im not complaining) However , July is pretty much wide open save for a gig at the end of the month. We are talking about heading back into the studio to record our next " Record ".. I don't like the modern term CD.. for some reason. It makes it seem too.. digital.. 

 I have a list of new titles to work on. It is taped to the wall in my workshop. It is an odd looking thing. Just song titles.  One of them is " Don't Tell Rita "..  ( Rita  if you're reading this.. the answer is  yes ) various odd ideas that come to me while working. The titles come with a general " Vibe" or an idea for a chord progression that fits a mood or idea i'm trying to express. Why? Good question.

 Last Saturday's show at Bragi raised that question in my mind privately. Why....  The evening included a smallish , but very attentive crowd. They seemed to be into the slower tunes that evening. Usually our show remains up beat with a few slow tunes thrown in. But that night was different. A conversation between sets with an attendee went to the subject of slower tunes. I tried to explain how much harder those are to perform. Tempo , timing and trying to maintain them, takes more concentration. This reminded me of a lot of slower " moody " pieces I have written but never perform publicly. So the next set started with a few of these. "Don't be sad " " Pretty Please ".. gloomy but effective musical ideas. Two others as well.. but when I got to the fourth one I just decided to speed it up.. Things were getting out of hand. :{) Folks were enjoying the tunes but the mood they project was dragging ME down LOL.

 Anyhow.. recording.. yes, It should be easy enough. I think we will record another batch of our mainstays for one of our typical shows. A bunch of toe tapping songs that cannot be classified as either Blues , Folk or Jazz.

 Next shows are Lake Villa Art in the park followed by an evening show at Three Cellars. That'll be a good day.

Here's to fine weather !

Bill

 We are winding down in 2015.. forgive the cliche. :{)   Anyhow , what can be said , it was a good year for us musically. We did a pretty decent job of " Getting out there " and gained a lot of great experience and met a lot of totally cool and creative people. I personally made quite a few new friends and I can honestly say i'm not the hermit of days past. ( is that good or bad ? ) 

One highlight for us in 2015 was getting some play time on Wisconsin Public Radio's show "Simply Folk" that airs every Sunday evening. Not surprisingly, they chose to play the song "North on 51" -- the title cut from the CD we released. 
 
With all the live shows we played , consequently , my writing production has dropped way off. However , some new songs  did make it to the set list... I'd have to pause a moment to recollect exactly which ones.. but  there is a list of song titles ( with all musical ideas mentally noted ) on my office wall at the shop ( the place where I now write and record ) and I fer sure will get to them soon enough !
 
Next on the list of musical stuff to do.. I want to finish some new tunes and polish some oldies from the archives which have never been done live. In addition, I really want to add some enhancement /sound production, to the live show. This is going to require lots of experimenting and rehearsal time , yes ... time  ..a thing that has been in short supply due to my work schedule. I have begun this recently. Im particularly looking forward to implementing the " Looper Pedal " I picked up last summer ( Have yet to take it out of the box )

 As for recording.. boy oh boy.. there is so much I need to record. This is probably my number one bucket list item. I might try to record and self produce some of this due to " Budgetary Constraints ". The live CD we put out was a charm. It has made it easier to book gigs and from the feedback we have gotten so far it is an entertaining listen. One thing is sure , the next CD will be a studio effort . we will take more time with production and mixing.

 We are booking new shows now after a break and have a few new ones posted at this writing. 

 Well... its Monday night.. Joycie's on the way home with pizza.. Monday night is usually pizza and movie night. I hope for good things for all in the New Year !

 Talk again soon... Bill