It’s December, and what better way to celebrate the holidays than to gift myself a new guitar? This month finds me taking a new vintage Vega (C-20 from 1938) out for a drive playing an old favorite from the All the Fixin’s songbook, Long Hitch. I love the way the C-20 rings out the harmonics (when I manage to hit them!). About All the Fixin’s, life in the early 90’s, and the song All the Fixin’s, for those who missed us during our brief run in the early 90’s, was Claude Pate exploring its Americana side. This was long before that movement had jelled into anything called Americana, in fact, bands like Uncle Tupelo, Gear Daddies, and the JayHawks were just starting to tour and play out. I’ll c
Alright, it's December and I'm finally writing about my November song, which is a beautiful tune I wrote with the help of my family back when we were all gathered for the annual creation of Pysanki eggs over spring break/Easter 2016. As the ladies melted wax and dyed elaborate designs on their eggs, they would yell out lyric suggestions, helping me as I tried to concoct a song that I could sing for my niece's wedding at the end of May. We didn't quite get it finished that day, and I didn't sing it at the wedding, but I did some woodshedding with the song recently, and it is now a fully formed neoclassical jazz pop confection that sounds lovely with simple acoustic archtop guitar accompanimen
