My 51st birthday is tomorrow March 18th; I am thinking about music.

When I was a kid all I wanted in music was to be able to pick up a guitar and play lead solos like Ace Frehley or Merle Haggard or Don Rich on Hee Haw.  That was the first sound I fell for, the lead guitar.

It didn’t work out that way.  I was nearly thirty when I picked up a guitar to find some purpose in it.

I may have waited too long.  I wish I would have started sooner.  Regardless, I did get around to it and I learned my musical plot in a hurry.  I am a songwriter first and foremost.  I can live with that.  My voice allows me to pull the songs off and I am glad of that.

It is a mysterious thing, songwriting.  I don’t spend time analyzing  it.  Usually, the song comes to me.  I don’t go looking for it.  That is where the mystery is.  No matter, I just thank the Good Lord He gave me an ear for it.  When I write a song the words and the music are there together as one.  I don’t write words and then wonder what they sound like.

As I look forward to having a third CD of songs, 15 again, properly pressed, I have spent some time revisiting my back catalog.  In more of the songs than not, there is an ethereal presence that moves the words and music to better places, be they bright places or melancholy places.  That constant presence is the keyboard work of one Rod Wurtele.

You may know  him as one of The Wulfe Brothers.  Their musical performances have been putting smiles on faces and creating feet to tap and hips to move for a while now.  Still, they seem timeless.  That is what you want from your music.  Justin Hayward said it best, “People want to hang on to the music of their youth.”  Groups like The Wulfe Brothers have that kind of quality.  They bring a youthful optimism.  They are positive, fun, and just plain sound good.  Those are youthful things, right?

So I have had the good fortune to be blessed with a keyboard whiz like Rod Wurtele to play on my songs.

Last Sunday, I reminded him that we started doing this in 2001.  That is the first time I went into Jeff Carpenter’s Al Fresco’s Place Recording Studio to make a proper recording.  Rod helped with that.  He made it better.  And when I say that I don’t just mean it sounded better.  What Rod brings is more than a pressing of the right key here or there.  He listens intently and takes a pride in delicately forcing something out that gives a song so much more light and shade and breeze.  Rod’s playing does that for a song.

Often it is subtle and in the background, but the mood is truly enhanced.  Other times it is quite different and most entertaining.

On one song we did last week, I had to glance over a few times in between banging on my acoustic guitar trying to keep the pace whilst wondering if Rod’s keyboard had stated smoking.  He was getting it!

I know of one song we recorded in 2004.  He played the most beautiful line that melted me.  In the original mix, his keyboard was much more dominant that the final product after some other instruments were added.  Now and again, I still take out that original track out of mothballs and give it a go.  I love it.

In 2016, Rod and my English teaching mentor, Millard Dunn, and I recorded a love song called Thanks for Loving Me.  I wrote it for my dear wife, Carrie.  It will be on the new CD forthcoming.  It is not the most polished of songs.  I say that on my end, not Rod’s.  His playing is spot on.  What makes this song so special is that it was a work in progress when we came together that day.  I planned it that way on purpose.  I wanted to share some creative moments with Dr. Dunn and Rod.  It worked out.  The coolest thing is that the recording on the CD is the one and only time the song was ever played and sung from start to finish.  What you hear on the CD happened once and no other time.

Rod, Dr. Dunn, and myself working through the song.

Best of all, Rod Wurtele is a good guy.  That is one thing I can say about all the recording I have done with Jeff Carpenter.  Save one little run in I had with someone I have not played with in years, making music with the guys has been nothing but a pleasure.  I want to believe it is a compliment to my songwriting.  I doubt that it is.  These guys are just that awesome to play with.

Thank you, Rod.  You are one of the keys to whatever musical success I have found.

God Bless You and Yours!

Speaking the rights…

Danny Johnson

Wow.  Last Sunday afternoon I was at Alfresco Place Recording Studio in Louisville surrounded by surreal talent on both sides of the glass.  I can’t thank the guys enough.  It was a blessing and a pleasure to listen as songs that started in my head and then were written on a piece of paper and played out in original form with simple chords and melodies that forged themselves into a song.

We recorded a song called Long Way Home.  I wrote that one recently.  The first line of the song hit me and I repeated it over and over.  I knew I had touched on something and I ran downstairs and grabbed a pen and a piece of paper.  The final recorded result is as close to what started in my head as anything I have ever recorded.

Songs change and take on a life of their own when you get four or five or, in our case Sunday, six guys playing instruments at once.  Some songs are unrecognizable to their origins and sometimes that is a-okay.  We recorded one of those Sunday too and it worked out fine.  Dan Trisko heard something in a slow, lonely sad ballad that I would have never considered cos I did not hear it.  He took that song and we made it into an uptempo number.  The contrast of the dark lyrics with the peppy tune is awesome.  I thank him.

I thank all of them.  I am so blessed.

Of course I have mentioned Jeff Carpenter here before.  He is a gem.  He gives us enough rope to hang our musical selves and pulls it back when he knows we are in trouble.  He is an musician’s engineer.  He knows what he is doing.  They all do.  And , after twenty years of doing this, I think I have finally found my musical way home.  It has been a long way home.

It starts and ends right here under the careful watch and ear of Jefferson Carpenter, my dear friend.

For me, this is my most comfortable space in the studio.  My Seagull at hand, a music stand full of songs, and mic to sing away.  I feel right at home in this space.

Playing through a tune for Dan Trisko, the one he changed the course of.

Keeping this lot together, Gene Wickliffe on drums.  Solid as a rock.

Gene, Dan on guitar, and Jason Sturgill on bass.

Play it once for Jason Sturgill and you have money.  An awesome bass player. Thank you, Jason.

Dan Trisko did great guitar work and help produce the tunes to give them a distinct flavor to add to the whole album.

Jeff Guernsey and me in the background.

This is the third album I have made.  Rod Wurtele on keyboard and Jeff Guernsey on fiddle and guitar have been on all of them.  First recording with them was 2001.  They have only gotten better.

If you think you can find a better fiddle player than Jeff Guernsey, I will shake my head as you walk away.  He is the best.

And so it goes.  We are working on the finished product.  I am proud of this work.  I could not have accomplished it without these guys, along with the other gents who worked the 2016 sessions John Burgard, Barry King, and John Hayes.  I wrote about those sessions too.

Thank you, once more, Jefferson Carpenter.  Without you, I don’t have a chance to talk to these guys let alone have them bring my songs to better life.  You’re the man.

Speaking the rights…

Danny Johnson

I can’t believe it is March 2019.  How does this happen?  Day after day, I suppose.

Last year as I turned 50 years old, I wrote 50 posts in 50 days leading up to March 18th.  No such luck for 51.  I need to get to this spot more often.

Recently I took a few memorable photographs.

Caught the sunset on the way to school on the Tunnel Hill bridge.  I pulled over and took a photo in a hole between the chain length fence.When the light is right, this can be a nice scene for sure.

I took this photo today.  Down the hill is the Blue River and Crawford County in the other side.  I took this from a basement room where I exercise and watch Moody Blues videos!

Above, the main hallway of the high school is much brighter than it was.  Part of a building and renovation project, this place looks much different from the exterior.  The old gym and this hallway are the only things that resemble the old place.  I have no complaints.

The Seagull and the Godin A6 (center and right) got some new strings thanks to my dear friend Danners Goins.  Saw Danners twice in four days this week.  That was refreshing for sure.  The Fender 12 string is a good piece too.  The Seagull and the A6 have been with me most of my musical journey.  They are like old friends too.

I took this as I did some walking last week. There is something about a high school gym in Indiana.  This is one seats 3000.  Indiana has a love affair with their high school gyms.  I know I have said it here before.  Nine of the ten largest high school gyms are in the Hoosier state.

Got a burger at a place called Grind Burger Kitchen in Louisville.  It was our first venture there.  My dear wife, Carrie, and I both had quality vittles.  I had fries with my burger.  She had some doctored up brussel sprouts that were great too.  I give high marks!

On Thursday, I attended the funeral of Patty Hall.  Her husband passed in 2007.  I went to Mr. Hall’s funeral too.  These are the parents of my dear friend, Barry Hall.

This was Barry and me in November before a Regional game in Evansville.

This was Barry walking across the field before the Brownstown Central-North Harrison game in September.

A life-long friend, that is what I call Barry Hall.  Those are not easy to come by.  I am fortunate enough to have a few of these folks in my life and I am blessed for it.

Barry played football for my Dad at BCHS in the 1970’s.  Dad and I drove up to Clearspring for Mrs. Hall’s funeral.  It was a celebration of a full and wonderful life.  You know those when you are there.  No doubts in the air.  Just plenty of love and respect and some sadness of course.  Sadness does not discriminate.

Patty Hall was always wonderful to me.  Whether she was working the front desk of the elementary school I went to in Brownstown, or taking up tickets at a BC ball game, or telling me and Jerry Brown to straighten up if we needed as 5th graders, or asking me how my folks were doing as she was catching me up on her wonderful family.

Patty Hall had a kind and distinct voice.  I am glad the musician in me allows me to remember all sorts of cherish sounds.  In that, I am blessed.

Speaking the rights…

Danny Johnson