Well, the summer of 2021 is about halfway through, and things have been loosening up a bit around here lately. I played a couple of recent gigs with No Static (an outdoor private party in June and an outdoor gig at the American Legion Coastside Post 474), with a couple more on the horizon, and my duo with Scott Goldstone played indoors at The Coastal Vine in Moss Beach (formerly The Wine Room). A couple of the local jam sessions have restarted, though I have yet to attend any of them. My shelter-in-place recording project, alas, has not borne any new fruit since March, but I hope to have a few more of those completed soon.

My remote recording projects (see Project 1 and Project 2) continued into the new year but have hit something of a snag since March. Here’s what I’ve posted:

• “Affirmation” – an instrumental written by José Feliciano and recorded on his 1975 album Just Wanna Rock ‘n’ Roll, though a more well-known version of it was recorded by George Benson on his hit album Breezin’ from 1976. I posted this on 3 January 2021.

• “Povo” – an instrumental written by Freddie Hubbard that appeared originally on his Sky Dive album from 1972. Tom pointed us to a version performed by Lee Ritenour on his 2006 album Smoke ‘n’ Mirrors. We used that as our model, but ended up playing it at tempo closer to the original. I posted this on 4 February 2021.

• “Use Me” – You might think this is strictly an instrumental project, but every so often I open my yap and attempt to sing. Here’s us taking a hack at the classic Bill Withers hit song “Use Me” from his 1972 album Still Bill. Jeffrey Kamil on guitar (second solo), me (vocals and first guitar solo), C. Quenser on clavinet, Tom DeFiglio on drums, and Pat T on bass. Mix by Tom DeFiglio. Posted 16 February 2021.

• “Riviera Paradise” – an instrumental tune by Stevie Ray Vaughan from his 1989 album In Step. I played a “piano” solo using my guitar into the Jam Origin MIDI Guitar 2 plugin. Mix by Tom DeFiglio. I posted this on 27 April 2021.

• “Strange Brew” – this is not one of our remote collaborations, it was (mostly) recorded live at one of our masked get-togethers in Tom’s back yard in September of 2020. The vocal was too low in the mix and had lots of bad notes, so I decided to record a clean vocal track, which Tom mixed in with the live recording. It’s an old Cream song from their 1967 album Disraeli Gears. I posted this on 25 April 2021

My artists in residence buds and I have just posted another recording, our take on Kenny Burrell’s classic blues “Chitlins con Carne.“

We’re still living under the shadow of COVID-19 here in early October. There’s not many signs of things getting back to normal, although some places have started having some form of live music. Mostly outside, acoustic, distanced and masked, with smaller audiences, spread out and masked.

No Static has now had three rehearsals between the end of August and the end of September, and we are considering playing to a small audience in the back yard of bass player Tom’s home on Halloween.

The shelter-in-place project guys played a couple of sets in drummer Tom’s back yard on September 19th, and we’re going to do another in mid-October.

A month ago I posted a link to a recording from my pandemic shelter-in-place project #2 with Tom DeFiglio and Pat T. Recently, Tom’s friend John Casolary added an organ track to the mix, and I think it really adds to the song. I’m talking about “Boogie Stupid” from John Scofield’s 2013 album Überjam Deux. Joe-Bob sez check it out!

https://alanoehler.com/recordings/alan_and_tom/

This past weekend No Static had a socially-distanced rehearsal for the first time since March 1. Meanwhile, my other erstwhile group of playing buddies have decided to do something similar by scheduling a performance of sorts as an excuse for an afternoon socially-distanced backyard get-together for us and some of our family. We’ll be spread out in a large back yard and we’ll play some of the stuff we’ve recently recorded remotely, plus some of the other stuff we typically play. Like most musicians all of us are starving for the opportunity to be able to play together again. So we’ll stand far apart, no handshakes or hugs, masks on, and have a blast for a couple of hours. It’s set for Saturday, September 12.

The four of us decided to get together and run through some of our repertoire. Dennis has a big garage, so we left the garage door partially open, opened the back door to allow air to flow, wore masks and kept 10 feet or so way from each. We played for around two hours or so and it was not too shabby, considering we hadn’t played together since March 1. It was good for the heart and soul.

While we’re hacking away at the next couple of remote projects, our drummer Tom DeFiglio was going through some of the recordings we made at our music sessions over the last couple of years, and he found this one of us trying out Stevie Wonder’s “Superstition.” I really like my guitar tone and the vibe we had going, so I decided to put it out there. There’s a nice solo from the other guitarist, Jeffrey Kamil. No solo from me – I just play the melody (somewhat loosely and freely) and accompany Jeff, but I thought it was worth putting out there. Hope you enjoy it!

https://alanoehler.com/recordings/artists-in-residence/

Here’s another recording from my pandemic shelter-in-place project #2 with Tom DeFiglio and Pat T. This time it’s “Boogie Stupid” from John Scofield’s 2013 album Überjam Deux. Joe-Bob sez check it out!

https://alanoehler.com/recordings/alan_and_tom/

Five weeks into summer and still sheltering in place. Over the last month or so many places started to relax restrictions, only to find that the number of COVID-19 cases started to surge. On this past Thursday, Major League Baseball started a limited season of 60 games, with no fans in attendance… and today two games have been postponed because 14 members of the Florida Marlins team and staff tested positive. I’d hoped maybe No Static would be back to playing some outdoor gigs by now, but that’s clearly not going to happen for quite some time yet.

I’ve been continuing my remote recording projects. The first of them has four songs now posted, which can be found here. We’ve got several more in the works and I’ll add them as they come to fruition.

An offshoot of that project now has two completed tunes, which can be found here. Several more are in the pipeline.

I one more unfinished recording that I started in the summer 2012 with my son David playing drums, which soon will be complete. What’s done so far you can hear here (hear hear!), and the remaining one will follow soon.

Meanwhile, in between recording and trying to learn how to become better at mixing, I’ve been juggling some music educational pursuits – taking an online ear training course from Rick Beato, a guitar class from the terrific Mark Lettieri of Snarky Puppy fame, and a series of video lessons from another great guitarist, Chuck D’Aloia. I’m also working through some books I’ve only scratched the surface of in the past, notably Mick Goodrick’s The Advancing Guitarist and Ted Greene’s Chord Chemistry.