MY MIND'S EYE 02 - Rehearsal Tape

Preparing for VCA gig! Plus, gear geeking!

Here is a live rehearsal tape of “My Mind’s Eye.” It’s one of a handful of new songs we’re squeezing into the set for our sold-out show later this month at Vashon Center for the Arts. (Get on the waitlist here.)

Narrowing down the set was a bitch. So. Many. Songs. Not only did we have all of those album tracks to choose from, but we also have a couple dozen unreleased songs kicking around. Many of them I would love to play, but I know that folks don’t come to concerts hoping to hear a set full of songs they are unfamiliar with. So we loaded the list up with mostly songs fans will know. I think we struck a nice balance of old and new.

Now that I’ve shared this rehearsal tape and the demo from this post on January 11, “My Mind’s Eye” will be among those that some of you will be at least a bit familiar with.

The last time I played a full gig was the Summer of 2017 at the Chautauqua Music Festival, so there has been plenty of dust to blow off of the old live chops. I’ve been practicing every day. I’m getting my voice shaped up. And I’m working to get my guitar playing to a place where I don’t need to think about it. The goal is for it to become automatic. Let muscle memory kick in. When I’m on stage at VCA the last thing I want to cross my mind is what voicing to use for that upcoming D chord. I want to be focused on connecting with the song and delivering a heartfelt vocal.

GEAR GEEK ALERT: I’ve begun dialing in my guitar sound and getting used to having an amplified, direct sound under my fingers. I’ll be using a couple of Gibsons at the gig. A J-200 and a Hummingbird. For now the plan is to use the J-200 for standard tuning and the Hummingbird for open tunings. My dear friend and guitar tech Andy McCulla will be on hand to look after guitars so they’ll be in good hands.

Nothing fancy as far as pickups are concerned. Garden variety piezos will do the job. One day, I may explore some of the more modern fancy rigs available these days, but for now, I’m sticking with what I know.

I experimented with using my Carl Martin stomp box compressor but opted for the purity of an uncompressed sound. I am coloring the sound just slightly with my BELLE EPOCH from Caitlinbread. It emulates an old Echoplex tape echo. I’m using it to add just a touch of slap and to warm up the tone ever so slightly.

From the echo, I hit DIs, which in turn go to the left and right inputs of my Pendulum SPS-1. The parametric EQs in this unit are perfect for acoustic instruments. I’ve been futzing with these settings for days. A little wider bandwidth here. A bit more cut there. I will enlist front-of-house engineer Martin Feveyear to finalize the settings.

Martin wants me to try his in-ear monitoring rig. I’ll give it a try, but I’m skeptical. I have so many years of experience performing with old-school wedge monitors and don’t know how quickly I’ll be able to adapt to the experience of hearing everything right in my ear canal. I’ll try to stay open-minded and give it a shot. We’ll see.

Anyway… I’m not sure if any of this gear geeking is of interest to anyone. But there it is. Hopefully, some of you get a kick out of hearing about this stuff. For those who are bored to death by it, I hope you at least enjoyed the first half of this post and the rehearsal tape I shared.

Peace & Love Songs,

Pete