Creation is often a very messy thing.

Last weekend was Farmhouse Just-West-of-Frederick-MD Fest where The Get-Up was the sole band on the bill (with the exception of a few solo meanderings from Alan Schwartz, Bill O’Driscoll and David Husted – and an unaccompanied bass [pedal] solo by Mr. Edward “Rutherford” Bejzak). It was a weekend of craft beer, painstakingly prepared food and all-out “jammination” for all those who partook. After run-through of the set-list on Saturday, the house lights were brought down (ok, we lost power). This led (not 100% sure that it shouldn’t be “lead” – even after consulting the “interwebs”) to chili dinner – then on to port, my yearly cigar and some wonderful discussions on, but not about, the farmhouse’s front porch.

So[lo], I unpacked the gear I had lugged up to Jefferson, MD and set everything up to work on Regular Folk. I had the idea of adding some off-beat instrumentation with the thought of using my Cannonball Gourd Thumb Piano (pictured up top & called a “kalimba, mbira, mbila, or marímbula depending on the region in which it’s played” according to the Uncommon Goods website – from where, I think, my wife, Liz, purchased it for me as a Christmas gift), my clarinet and my accordion/concertina. After playing some acoustic guitar along to the Folklore rhythm on my piano (of which only the guitar got recorded – not on purpose), I started with the thumb piano and then thought of my didgeridoo. I was able to get a bit of the “drone” going and mixed it all up after adding a vocal track and left it at that. Here’s the mess that I’ve dubbed Regular Folk, Sketch 2.

Acoustically,

-The Ed-Up