Trying To Stay Awake

Night #2 with Planet Roy introduced several new songs into the loop. We re-rehearsed all of the songs from the previous week in order to get a better recording mix down. Those five songs feel pretty good, although we're still tweaking things around a little. As for the new songs... they were a little trickier.

Jesse Cripps (John Frum) - electric guitar
Gary Fitch (Planet Roy, Running Erin, Skillet Lickers) - electric guitar
Erin Foster (Planet Roy, Running Erin) - vocals
D.J. Jones (Planet Roy, the Spurs) - bass guitar
Dave Rayburn (Buddy, Garage Salesmen) - vocals
Miguel Zuleta (Planet Roy, Shattered Glass) - drums

Songs (in order of appearance):
"It's Your Turn Anyway" (Gomez/Rayburn) - We jumped right back into this one... pretty much where we had taken it to last week. Jesse kicks ass!
"Broken" (Rayburn) - A new one for the bunch to learn. Gary originally wanted this to be a surf-esque tune, but after a couple run-throughs, it mellowed into a nice groove. At one point, it had a nice little Jane Wiedlin "Tangled"-jangle to it. Then, it managed to grab onto a Mountain Goats "Palmcorder Yajna" feel.
"Outside" (Rayburn) - This may possibly be my current favorite song that we've been bashing around. It just rocks!
"Set Me Free" (Rayburn) - The new soft arrangement reminds me a little of Cat Stevens' "The First Cut Is The Deepest"... but I won't sell nearly as many copies. This one is starting to light up.
"Just Another Reason" (Rayburn) - Without the guys telling me that I ripped off Lynyrd Skynyrd, it was apparent that something needed to be changed. Eventually, the song pulled in a Derek & the Dominos aura (which would be perfect if I could get Bobby Whitlock to play B3 on this)!
"Small Midwestern Town" (Moore/Rayburn) - Feeling more and more like home.
"In Peace (Dogstar)" (Rayburn) - Start with some "Southern Man"... sprinkle in a little "Down By The River"... and top it with some "Mr. Soul"... and you've got the picture.
"Awake" (Rayburn) - This one started out very pretty... and then the accusation started flying that we were mocking Smokey Robinson's "Tracks Of My Tears". It was at that point (after several more Motown-ish attempts) that we opted to wrap things up for the night.

Good times. More songs in the cannon. And, a relentless display of Miguel's talking Napoleon Dynamite doll. Thank you Miguel for hosting another fine session! One of these days we'll take you to get your pancakes at Norm's at two in the morning! Vote for Pedro.