Tag: Music

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My New Single: You’re Not Going Anywhere

https://dynamic.production.hearnow-cdn.com/images/hralb02002895/large.jpg

During this insane quarantine time we are all stuck in the middle of, I started working on a new album that, unlike my last one, won’t be in the electronica realm. Now that I’ve finally built somewhat of a home studio where I can play instruments and be loud without the need to channel everything through headphones, my options are much more inspiring.

That, coupled with this deep, intense angst that many of us are feeling as we are trapped at home under this new but hopefully temporary way of living, led to the following track that I hope you enjoy.

It is available on iTunes, Spotify, Amazon, and all the usual places, but you can also listen to it here:

https://willchatham.hearnow.com/

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Ska City at The Odditorium

We played our second show recently, and the good George Hodges produced a fine live recording of it for everyone to hear.

The Internet Archive, the same people who bring you the Wayback Machine, is a great place where live music recording enthusiasts are posting all kinds of great stuff for free listening. Not only is the Ska City show there, but there are millions of other things you can get lost in listening to as well.

Here’s the Ska City show:

https://archive.org/details/SC2019-12-11.m1280.24

And here’s the page you can start on to choose your own musical adventure:

https://archive.org/details/audio

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Merle – Lost Recordings

Merle, circa 1992, in Schaefer Dormitory at Warren Wilson College.

Way back in the good years of 1992-1993 or so I was in a band called Merle, based at Warren Wilson College. As a three-piece, we produced some insane sounds, surrounded ourselves with more insane antics, and had a hell of a time doing it.

Merle went on to become The Merle when Morgan Geer joined the band, and our notoriety in Asheville and beyond started to grow. Eventually, I left the band (I was the only one still in school at that point), but The Merle continued on and became an Asheville legend.

An old pal from Warren Wilson (Richard Stowe) recently dug up a tape of a live recordings and some demos that Merle had done from 1992 or 1993. Another old pal (George Hodges) cleaned up the tape, remastered it, and put it out there for you all to enjoy!

Beware: there are vulgarities at certain points, where we asked friends to join us on stage.

Check it out here!

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Music Updates

It’s been a while since I posted any musical updates here, and I don’t have a ton to share, but I did get a surprise email from the venerable Jason Lowenstein the other day, with a remastered set of Crain’s studio appearance on WMBR in Boston back in 1991 that he had made.

The previous version of this, mastered by Bob Weston, who initially recorded it in the studio late that evening way back when, is still here on my Music downloads page, and it is great, but I thought I’d add Jason’s version for you to download in one fell swoop.

Grab it here.

Enjoy it, and let me know what you think!

http://web.archive.org/web/20131220092546im_/http://crainspeed.com/images/crain2.jpg
Crain, circa 1991. Photo by John Kampschaefer.

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Music Updates

I just updated my My Music page, which was long overdue. There’s not a lot of new stuff to report just yet, but I am in a ska band that is practicing and trying to determine a name. Stay tuned for more about that.

Here is a Spotify playlist featuring my songs, or songs I played on over the years:

And here’s an open directory from which you can download a lot of these goodies:

https://www.willchatham.com/songs/

Lastly, here’s a crappy video I made of me playing with myself the other day:

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Reno Style Banjo

My banjo buddy Jason Skinner, a phenomenal Don Reno-style picker, has made some updates to his YouTube channel. I’ve had the pleasure of learning from Jason in person over the last few years, and I’m glad to see he’s back at it online. I’ll be hitting the woodshed for the winter to study and learn. If you don’t see me until next spring, you will know why.

https://www.youtube.com/user/renoman

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Will’s Musical News and Events

It’s been a while since I wrote about my musical endeavors here, so I thought I’d post a quick update.

My main band for the last two years has been The Night Trotters, a traditional bluegrass outfit with some top-notch musicians kind enough to join me. We’ve been playing around Asheville a bit, and we just finished an EP entitled Thoroughbred Bluegrass Music. You can listen to the songs from the EP on our website, and you can buy the whole thing for a very cheap price from CDBaby. It’s also available on iTunes, Amazon, and Google Play.

Needless to say, I’ve been playing banjo with The Night Trotters, but I haven’t forgotten about the drums.

My old pal (Chris) Morgan Geer asked me to play some gigs on drums with Drunken Prayer on a few upcoming dates to help promote the release of his new CD, House of Morgan. Some of the tunes from that album are reworked versions of songs he and I recorded way back in the days of 1995 (or so) at WWC. These tunes have been taken and integrated into new ways of hearing them thanks to the marvel of modern electronics.

So, we will be playing some of those old tunes, in addition to some new ones, at these fine establishments:

  • Nov 21 at The Double Crown (CD release show)
  • December 13 at Static Age Records
  • December 27 – to be announced soon.

Maybe I’ll see you there…

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