Stephen PickeringMy latest single just dropped on Spotify, Apple Music, Youtube Music, Amazon Music, really every streaming platform on Earth by way of Distrokid. It’s also on regular old Youtube.
It’s called “Just for a Moment,” and the B-Side is “Union Street (Hold On).” Give me a listen, like, and follow if you’re a fan.
As a teen I romanticized it. Now, I realize that’s the same as mythologizing something. Of course the reality of the experience was anything but. Unless you were having a good trip, as it were. As a young teen in the early eighties, maybe from my older sister’s record collection, I was into CSNY, Dylan, Clapton, Beatles, Stones, etc. This was odd for 1983 I suppose. Even though MTV fascinated me in and of itself, I always “hate-watched” the content thinking it was so superficial compared to my beloved 60’s.
But enough about my thoughts on this now. I’ll add to them later including a whole chapter from my novel “The Horizon’s Blue Chance” which is all about a re-enactment of Woodstock at a college party in 1988. (the Chapter that is, not the whole novel. It’s the next to last one in the book, so it serves a prominent purpose to the story as a whole, at least psychologically and spiritually, a sort of “belly of the whale” experience.”)
I saw an article in today’s New York Times entitled “Woodstock Was the Birthplace of Festival Fashion” and like so much of my blog I just wanted to create a repository for media concerning topics I’m interested in.
You capo the 4th fret to play these chords. Here’s a diagram of the chord voicings in this photo to the right. I included, at the bottom of the page, a video of him playing it live where I was able to catch the chords. For whatever reason, I couldn’t get them right by ear, and you’d almost think the video below wouldn’t help you because 90% of the time either it’s just a shot of Josh’s head or some audience dude’s head’s in the way! And really, now that I watch it again, it’s only towards the end, at about the 2:00 minute mark, after the solo, that you can get a decent look at his left hand, and that’s where I picked it up. Here’s a link to a PDF you can download:
| Ebm It’s cold in San Francisco Ab Abm It’s California gray. Ebm One night on Telegraph Hill, Ab Abm we kept the wolves at bay. F# I wrote you a long letter Abm Some things you can’t explain B Ebm Julie, come out of the rain Abm It’s cold and I can’t wait forever B Ebm Julie, if you want me to stay Abm Why don’t you show it? Ebm I called a taxi for ya’. Ab Abm Your raincoat it was blue. Ebm Outside the wind was talkin’ Ab Abm of how I fell for you. F# You left your cigarettes and Abm a dozen other things B Ebm Julie, come out of the rain Abm It’s cold and I can’t wait forever B Ebm Julie, if you want me to stay Abm Why don’t you show it? F# Abm Gimme a smile and say, A#m B Everything’s ok. |
Ebm Abm Oh, oh, it’s California gray Ebm B Oh, oh, it’s California gray.. (Musical interlude over the chords of the previous Chorus) Ebm It’s cold in San Francisco. Ab Abm It’s California gray. Ebm One night on Telegraph Hill, Ab Abm we kept the wolves at bay. B Ebm Julie, come out of the rain Abm It’s cold and I can’t wait forever. B Ebm Julie, if you want me to stay Abm Why don’t you show it? F# Abm Gimme a smile and say, A#m B Everything’s ok. F# Abm Look in my eyes and say A#m B Everything’s ok… Ebm Abm Oh, oh, it’s California gray Ebm B Oh, oh, it’s California gray.. |
Here’s a cover version I did a couple weeks ago. Maybe I should have just aimed the camera at the fretboard, but I think you can probably see the chords pretty well as it is:
I recently made two different covers of the Josh Rouse song, “Michigan.” The first I made on the iPad with Garageband. I played the Spanish guitar and sang into the the little pinhole microphone. Then I added some “smart” instruments, bass, drums. So this one is done basically in “click” time, but I still think it came out sounding pretty good, considering the circumstances.
The second was done with more Professional mics and into Logic Pro on an iMac. I basically just played a steel acoustic and sang at the same time, no overdubs or click track. So it’s live and more natural.
So, two different sounds with the same song, but I kind of like them both for different reasons.
Now, if I could only do some of my own songs!
Cover of the Josh Rouse tune “Suburban Sweetheart” I did on logic.
“Suburban Sweeheart” Lyrics by Josh Rouse
Got a gift, hesitate
Never make the same mistakes
If you could only see the person
If you could only reach the man yeah
We could move back to the suburbs
Rent a house, change our name
If you could only find a purpose
If you could only stay the same yeah
Sweetheart
Sweetheart
Sweetheart
I could help you open and unfurl
Shut up and listen
Shut up, you talk too much
You’re my source for inspiration
You’re my hopes for retire
I plan a trip, get away
Never make the same mistakes
If you could only be a person
If I could only be a man
Sweetheart
Sweetheart
Sweetheart
I could help you open and unfurl
And unfurl
And unfurl
