A few months ago, when I was reaching the point of finally finishing the new albums, I started setting aside time to more intentionally practice playing more full sets of songs, in part because in the midst of working on recording for so long, I felt I'd lost a bit of the ability to play "live," and in part because I realized that because I'd worked on songs mostly piecemeal throughout the writing, recording, and producing process, which meant that while I had about fifty new songs, at any given time I only really knew how to play about ten of them.
I started posting the setlists and some photos from these practice sessions on Instagram and my personal Facebook, more to keep myself accountable to The Internet And Society more than anything else, but I almost immediately got feedback from a number of you who wanted to see the sessions as they were happening. This was really exciting, and I immediately wanted to stream randomly from my phone over Instagram to see if anyone would show up...but, I also wanted the sessions to sound and look good, which they would not have had I used the first ad hoc solution that occurred to me.
So, while continuing the practice sessions, I've put a lot of time in over the last two months to revamp the look and layout of my studio space (which, for the sake of these sessions, I'm calling "The Guest Room," because that's literally what it used to be), and have created a whole new audio and video recording setup that's semi-autonomous: I'm at the point now, where I can walk into the room, plug my phone into the tripod, hit record, pick up and a guitar, and play, and know that the recording is going to come out looking and sounding if not perfect, then definitely better than any live recording I've ever done before. It's pretty exciting!
The next steps are, of course, figuring out how to livestream and figuring out how and where to play live again, but as I'm facing pretty significant obstacles on both of those fronts (technological logistics and a global pandemic, respectively), "Live From The Guest Room" is the next best thing, and will be an ongoing series for the foreseeable future.
I've already recorded and produced two sessions, one from 7/26 and one from 7/27. They're up on the website, both as videos and as audio recordings (tracked, tagged, and with cover art!). I've also made a few video clips from each session available as "Clips From The Guest Room," for anyone who is interested but doesn't necessarily want to sink an hour into watching.
Even though I've recently added my new albums (and some older stuff!) to Bandcamp, "Guest Room" content will be website-only. This is really just a practical decision, since Bandcamp is prickly about you uploading cover songs, and cover songs have always been a part of my live sets, and I didn't see any reason to stop now.
All the video and audio from these sessions will be free for stream (and download, with the audio), with the option to pay what you want for the audio in case you want to throw me a tip.
Below is the setlist info for both sessions. I'll be working on more sessions here shortly, since we're all trapped inside by the smoke right now here in the PNW, and I'm hoping to have a new one up within a week or two! Enjoy!
Guest Room Sessions #1
7/26/21
Recorded Live in the Guest Room
Audio by The Ghost Pines
Video by The Ghost Pines
Mixing and Mastering by The Ghost Pines
Audio Source: 2 MXL Condenser 990 Mics > Behringer Eurorack UB1202 > HP Lappy Soundcard
Video Source: Pixel 3 Video Camera (1080p) on a tripod
Lineage: Audacity 2.3.3 > WAV > FLAC > Ultra Quality VBR MP3
7/26/21 SETLIST:
01 Intro
02 Running*
03 Sunshine* -> Bright Lights -> Sunshine*
04 I Still Miss Someone (Johnny Cash)^$
05 Note To Self^
06 Montana# ->
07 Molly ->
08 Friend of the Devil (Grateful Dead)% ->
09 Montana#
10 Blackbird Girl
11 Monster Ballads
12 Friend of the Devil@ ->
13 Generals
14 Technical Difficulties Banter
15 Neal, Joan, and Me >
16 Quinn The Eskimo (The Mighty Quinn) (Bob Dylan)
* w/ harmonica
^ slow version
$ w/ "Kurzweil Transmissions" and "Palace" teases
# w/ "Molly" teases
% bridge and final version only
@ first three verses only, "completing" the version from earlier in the set
Guest Room Sessions #2
7/27/21
Recorded Live in the Guest Room
Audio by The Ghost Pines
Video by The Ghost Pines
Mixing and Mastering by The Ghost Pines
Audio Source: 2 MXL Condenser 990 Mics > Behringer Eurorack UB1202 > HP Lappy Soundcard
Video Source: Pixel 3 Video Camera (1080p) on a tripod
Lineage: Audacity 2.3.3 > WAV > FLAC > Ultra Quality VBR MP3
7/27/21 SETLIST:
01 Intro
02 The Melody
03 The Light >
04 Machine of the Universe
05 Please Don't Let Me Go
06 Acteon's Groove >
07 Idyll
08 Time (The Revelator) (Gillian Welch)
09 Palace ->
10 Jam ->
11 Prince Caspian (Phish) ->
12 Palace
13 The Gambler (Kenny Rogers)*
14 Hand In Hand^
15 Maps
16 Jezebel
* slow version
^ w/ "Acteon's Groove" ending