12-31-09 Kiss Me On The Lips

And thus, we come to the end of the year.

This is the part where I say something meaningful. It seems like a lot of pressure to wrap up an experience like this in a few paragraphs, though. This pressure is also compounded by the fact that my wife might start going in to active labor at any point now. So, I'll keep it short. Thanks, everyone for listening. I hope you've enjoyed the ride. I certainly have.

Stay tuned for more posts soon about the future of these songs. I'll be making them available for mass download in a tidy bundle as soon as I can figure out how to do that. In the meantime, enjoy a little New Year's cheer with this, the last song of the year.

12-30-09 Ummm...

Kind of speaks for itself. Link.

12-29-09 My Life In Show Biz

I have Evan to thank for the title. "Awesome" was doing a three-day stint for Winterfest at Seattle Center, playing in - you guessed it - the food court. Although it ended up being a surprisingly fun and loose set of shows, it was definitely one of the weirdest places we've played.



The song turned out pretty good, and has the distinction of having one of the saddest kazoo solos ever recorded.

12-28-09 The Girl Made Of Glass

This is my favorite song about a girl made of glass. Link.

12-27-09 When The Wind Blows

Windy day and everything is a kite. Link.

12-26-09 Great White Shark

Nice riff, moody song. Nothing much else to say about this one. Link.

12-25-09 Another Christmas Song

Merry Christmas, o tens of readers! Link.

12-24-09 For What

This one almost perfectly skirts that knife edge of truthfulness and artfulness, in my opinion. It's a really simple song about what I was doing and thinking at the time, but I think it manages to be compelling to listen to without sounding whiny. And in this song, I think the answer is in the question.

12-23-09 Three Rivers

a sprightly guitar instrumental. Link.

12-22-09 Four Rivers

Sheer absurdity. The title came from an internet pattern identification game to which Sarah and I are addicted. The song has nothing to do with the game. Link.

12-21-09 Stupid Stupid Fear

This one's pretty bleak. They can't all be happy and shiny. Link.

12-20-09 See The Only One You Can Find

Back in Seattle after holidays with the family. Interesting how the tone of the pieces changes from jovial to melancholic for this period.

The vocal line was a melody that had been brewing for some time. The lyrics were pretty much just placeholders, although I like their obfuscatory nature listening back to them now. Link.

12-19-09 Chili Dump

This day last year was our early Christmas celebration with the Ackermann family. Instead of a traditional turkey dinner, the family does what is affectionately known as the Chili Dump - everyone brings in a pot of chili. Because what's better than chili for dinner? Three different kinds of chili, that's what.

My nephew Shane (who was in 8th grade when this was recorded) is the co-writer and co-performer on this one. With a song title like 'Chili Dump', it would be a crime if the song didn't have a hot trombone solo in it. Thanks, Shane!

Shane and Snuggie.

12-18-09 Beer & Bowling

It's a night out for the Ackermann clan, Milwaukee-style: brewery tour, TGI Friday's, bowling, and karaoke. An epic night. Everything in this song is true.

12-17-09 Chicken Foot

...And we move from Cribbage on to dominoes. We played this slightly maddening variation on traditional dominoes called Chicken Tracks. You can build off of other dominoes in groups of three to make patterns that look like - you guessed it - chicken tracks.



The reason it's maddening is that the tracks can be built off of any other domino, so that by the end of the game the table is a chaotic mess of dominoes pointing in all directions. Not unlike what real chicken tracks must look like. So the song is just a little bit maddening, too. I really love the way it turned out, though, especially the messy splats of high notes played on the wrong side of the bridge of the mandolin. Here it is!

12-16-09 Summer Bees

Some nice imagery in this one. Channeling Dear Prudence a bit. I've never tried out fingerstyle picking on the mandolin before; it makes for nice textures. Link.

12-15-09 Living In A Glass Box

I like that this song is fragile. The kind of song that someone actually in a glass box might sing, with lots of icy and pristine mandolin parts reverberating off of smooth walls.

And now, a Philip Glass Box:

12-14-09 Play It As It Lays

A song about getting along. Link.

12-13-09 Cribbage, Baby

I can't remember a time in my life when I didn't know how to play cribbage. It's in my blood. So whenever I go home for the holidays, the board is always out. So this song is my feeble attempt to sex up an ostensibly geeky card game. Those of you who have never played cribbage before, ignore the weird game references and just make sweet love to this groove. (Sweet lovin' groove courtesy of Garageband; all other sounds programmed by me.)

12-12-09 Why I'm Doing This

A reaffirmation of why it's important to me to do the song a day project, and to try to touch people with music in the first place. Link.