I was looking around the internet for detox/cleansing (too many holiday indulgences already!) and found this site that had images of water crystals after having different treatments applied to it in experiments conducted by Dr. Emoto (music, prayer, words, images, etc.) and was fascinated. It really brings to light that our bodies are composed of 55%-80% water. The Chemistry of Life is the Chemistry of Water. Through these images we can see very clearly how our actions, our surroundings, music, etc. really effect our bodies and well-being.

Dr. Emoto even used typed phrases and words taped on the bottles for some of these images- amazing.

***BTW, my link is a little weird because you have to scroll down to get to the Dr. Emoto Water stuff. (remember I was looking at purifying/detox stuff.)

Click here to see the images (then scroll down)

This made my day. Enjoy!

Whenever we tour, Jon always is designated to the bathroom for practice in the hotel rooms and I get the room. This is because the floors make my cello slip and usually the toilet seat is too close to the tub for my bow to not hit it. When we were on tour last week to Boston and NY, we stayed in a Hampton Inn that had a bathroom I could tell would work fine for me to practice in; so, I decided to be considerate and went in the bathroom to practice. How lucky I was!!! The acoustics were fantastic. I was surrounded by my cello's sound and it was a round full bodied sound. Not a weird pingy sound w/ lots of reverb like some bathrooms (Yes, even though the bathroom is usually Jon's territory- I am not a bathroom practicing virgin. I recorded many a demo tapes in bathrooms when I was in school and I have an ear for the finer points of bathroom acoustics.)
This Hampton Inn not only had those special comfy beds but also a great acoustic bathroom for me to practice in. :-)

I was practicing Bach that night and playing both the Bouree movement from the solo cello suite IV. and also the Prelude from Suite V. I love both of these movements from the solo cello suites in particular. The Prelude to Suite V. tunes the A string down to G to create a dark tone you cannot get with regular tuning. That prelude is very dramatic and dark like a Vampire movie. The Bouree movement to the IV Suite is made up of two sections. The first is a lighter one with sixteenths and a skipping along sort of feel. The second section is very special. Bach was such a master! It is like a reminiscence of something so nostalgic you can barely stand it but not a slow slurpy ballad type thing. It is still in the Bouree feel and plods along through the memory. The chords are wonderful in the second section and really remind me of the Prelude to the modern work for solo cello by Benjamin Britten. With Bach it is complex but yet beautifully simple. Everything has it's place. Everything has purpose and is going somewhere. It is obvious through his music that Bach was very spiritually in tune to the of creation on earth and he knew how to express that through his music- meaning the flower is perfect in it's symmetry, the sea shell's intricacy, etc. Bach's music reminds me of these wonderful aspects of our world like a perfect flower. Yet his music also reminds me of the Bumble Bee who's body shape and proportions are not supposed to be able to fly (according to our human calculations) but somehow the Bumble Bee does fly anyway.

Well, TV is evolving and I figured our live sound set-up should too. We started on this transition to digital a few months ago after my Boss RC-50 bit the dust before a gig. I ended up getting another one at the Guitar Center as a replacement. I knew after our trip to Russia though that digital was the way to go. If I could get all of my analog hardware in a software version, it certainly would make travel a lot easier. For Russia, we had to perform a sort of equipment triage, and ended up leaving a few pieces of gear behind. We fit the essentials into a suitcase and a rack case. It worked, but it was still heavy and hard to keep up with, especially for plane flights.

I have had my eye on Guitar Rig for a few years now. They started with modeling software. Amp sounds, effects and more that could live on your laptop. Recently they also came out with a version that featured a looper (which was the largest piece of analog gear that I had. I purchased Guitar Rig Kontrol edition and it worked great right out of the box. The only trouble is that the pedal is pretty noisy. it has the metal style buttons that make a loud click. Ok if your playing heavy metal, but not cool for music that uses instrument mics. The clicks were even picking up in the loops. After some more investigation I found the FCB 1010 (made by Behringer). The pedals are very quiet and the pedal is fully customize-able using the midi interface. There is also a sort of underground user community that has sprung up around this pedal. Reading the user groups and user videos on youtube really helped a lot as the Behringer manual sucks quite badly. Anyway, the pedal is amazingly functional.

Getting used to using software is the tricky part. The best part of analog gear is that you have a knob for everything you need. If something doesn't sound right or you aren't getting the sound you want, just reach for the appropriate knob. With software, it isn't always as intuitive. I have had a few times where the system was muted or a routing wasn't right and the result was no sound! Scrolling through menus can be frustrating if you aren't sure what is wrong, especially in a gig situation. This has happened to me twice so far. I think the only solution is to know the software inside and out!!

So that is the only "con" I have come across so far. The "pro's" certainly outweigh that. One, I have reduced the weight of our equipment from a 90 pound pedalboard case to one Behringer FCB 1010 midi pedal. Number two, the sound signal to the house system is MUCH cleaner. With the analog gear, of course, you have multiple power supplies, each of which can cause humm or buzz in the system. Also you have much more cable to deal with as it goes from one effect pedal to the next. The result is much more noise in the final signal. Even the cleanest analog setup can have quite a bit of noise. The cool thing about digital effects is that they are perfectly clean. No wires to deal with.

Recently Ableton Live also came out with a version that uses a looper. I have been using the LE version for composing and cataloging ideas. I downloaded version 8 last night and had a lot of fun working with the looper. The effects sound great too. I think this will open up a lot more possibilities and we'll be able to travel MUCH lighter. We're ready for you Europe!!

PICS BELOW: THE BIG PEDAL BOARD (in the case) and the Behringer FCB 1010 (which controls various software effects and loopers)

Our thanks to all of the folks who have come out to the concerts over the last few weeks. Dahlonega..you rocked. We really want to thank YOU for coming out and for telling your friends. We really appreciate it and we are always humbled when people tell us that they heard about our music through a friend. It really is the highest compliment we could get!

Since we've been home we've been dealing with all sorts of fun stuff, including clearing rights for our new release. Also, some stressful legal claims (which are unfounded) I won't go into it now, but needless to say it doesn't exactly fill the soul with positive energy.. ha ha We would love to have a manager take over some of this stuff. Sometimes it can really bog down the creative side of things. We probably have at least an album of new ideas, but it is hard to get to the the development stages and recording etc.. with so many other things to keep up with. Anyway, that's another story...

We do have some ideas regarding releasing new music and would especially like to do something that our fans (mailing list subscribers and blog readers) could experience firsthand as we create it. One idea is this (please comment or email and let us know what you think):

1. We'd like to release a new song each month. Leading up to releasing the song we'll post on the blog our thoughts about the composing process, revision process and finally to recording and finishing up the song. We would probably include video from the recording sessions as well. Finally we'll post the song online for you. At the end of the year we'll have all of the tracks and release it as a complete album on itunes and as a physical CD.

We could release each track directly on our community page here.

It seems that the "old school" way of releasing music as finished project on a CD, every couple of years, is falling away. We'd love to know what you think about these types of new ideas and let us know if you have any ideas to add.

We've come home from our CA, UT, and CO tour just in time to see our Cherry Tree blooming. It's the beginning of Spring and I find this time of year incredibly exciting. Spring is Life. This simple fact is what makes Spring so awesome, so visceral. I know they are just plants, but when I see a plant in my garden springing into life, I feel a sense of pride at what amazing little beings they are- my heart actually speeds up and I am filled with joy to see them growing into a full plant. When I was thinking of words to describe the scene in my garden, I was first thinking of the words "the little plants are forcing their way into the world" but I realized that actually they are not struggling do this. Spring is Graceful. Plants grow and Trees bud with the greatest of ease into their fullest potential. Spring is an example for how Life is supposed to be.

On a different note... when we are on tour, we are obviously riding in the car a lot and between the discussions on politics and religion, the mind wanders onto random and trivial thoughts and I wanted to share some of the weird questions that popped up this last tour:

1. Is buffalo mozzarella cheese actually made from buffalo's milk?

Answer on Wikipedia

2. What is a Quarter Horse? (yes, we actually saw a building labeled "the quarter horse society of america")

Answer on Wikipedia

3. If you can shrink your stomach by not eating a lot, what happens if you drink a ton of water? Can you stretch it out?

4. I've seen Chicken eggs, Quail eggs, and even Ostrich eggs on menus. What about Turkey eggs? I've never seen that, but why not?

Answer on the Straight Dope

This is hilarious and, yes, we're guilty too...

Some pics and videos from this tour. Random impressions.











Click here to see the full set

I just celebrated my birthday and I'm not going to tell you my age. I think this is definitely an indicator that I must be feeling older! I've been wondering about what makes a person young or old a lot recently with the impending turning another year older. Jon and I get to meet so many different people that I've observed the amazing differences that one 55 year old to the next has in their apparent youngness or oldness.
It seems to me that energy is key. Energy not only in having it to 'do' things, but also this fire we have inside of ourselves. We can never let that burn out or we definitely become old in an instant. People that might be way up there there age but have this fire and energy seem so young. I love that! I wonder how a person achieves this?
One thing my grandmother always said is that "the day you stop learning is the day you die". I don't think she meant it literally, of course, but more that the fire will die and you might as well be in the ground. I think this is one way to keep the fire kindled. What other ways are there? Seriously, I want to know.

Okay here is what I've come up with:
I think sex/sexuality must be up there. That's self-explanatory.
This idea leads to the need to keep the physical body in line through our aging. This is definitely an obvious one (and one of the hardest to keep up with, ugh!) Diet (salads, veggies, etc.), exercise, balance. Well, I think we all know to keep these up.
The idea of keeping the physical body in check leads to the need to keep the spiritual self in balance and nurtured as well. This is essential too. How we each can achieve our best spiritual self is difficult to know because of the so many different paths one could take. It seems to me that we are all in a constant flux of searching in our spirituality. Sometimes we feel really solid in our spiritual being, and other times we are searching. Regardless of our religious background or faiths. Maybe this is kind of like to never stop learning. If we stop seeking our fullest potential as spiritual beings, then we might as well be dead.
That's all I can think of for staying 'young'. Of course, that is besides the Hope in a Jar I smear all over my face nightly.

On the night before my birthday, I had the wildest dream about reaching my full spiritual potential. In the dream, I discovered that on my birthday I found out I had powers that allowed me to basically work tiny 'miracles'. I could change the color of someone's shoes and make them shiny. I could make someone ill to their stomach or make them feel good and healthy. I could do a lot of wild things. I found out that this was what had been eating me up inside my whole life and that was why I always had felt off. It was that I hadn't reached my potential and now that I knew about my 'powers' I could finally do it. The other part of the dream that was clear to me was that we all had these powers but we just didn't know it and didn't know how to use them. My mother was elated in the dream and congratulating me on my achievements, the way she used to congratulate me on winning a swimming race or making an A+. It was was so weird! Then at the end of the dream, I was like " oh, I think I can levitate..." then I woke up. Happy Birthday, Jenn.
Somehow, I don't think I'm going to levitate anytime soon, but I'm certainly going to try to stay 'young' and all that comes with it.

It's been a busy week. We've been learning...or re-learning some of our tunes for this run of shows. It's as much for ourselves as anything. It's is to fall into playing the same tunes, they're comfortable..like old shoes. There comes a time though when it's time for something new, in order to keep the passion alive for each performance. This has a been a good week of music making, but the hardest thing of being an independent musician is juggling it all. I just finished getting our DVD/CD ready for send to itunes. Organizing metadata..metadata!! WTF!! ..yes "metadata", that's the official nerd term for "information" (about the release). Then there's ISRC codes, like social security codes for every track. Meanwhile, Jenn's organizing details with the venues and press, hotel rooms etc etc.. etc... Anyway, I'm glad to get those things done and then getting ready for our California run next week. It's always nice to get back on the road and focus solely on your music, at least for two hours every night. That makes it worth it. We've been in touch with some friends and look forward to making some new connections while we're there. Tomorrow we're getting some new photos (in Athens).

Here are Jenn's notes about the song Canyon Breeze. It's also this quarter's free download. I remember hearing Jenn playing the main melody a few years ago. We were waiting backstage in Sutter Creek, CA. I said what's that? ..thinking that it must have been a melody from a classsical piece or something. It was so beautiful! I added the first chords to it there. It has always stayed a very simple and meditative piece (only two chords...). It's one of my favorites.

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Jenn's description:

Jon and I had a trip planned to the Grand Canyon w/ his parents. It was their first time and our second time visiting the canyon and so, we wanted it to be very special for them. We planned the trip the same time of year that Jon and I had gone the year before (the 1st week of May), and we expected to have beautiful sunny weather. Well, it snowed!
Now, snow is not such a bad thing (in fact, it can be quite lovely) but what happened this time was that mist from the snow came in and filled up the whole Grand Canyon! You could stand on the edge and peer out and not even see that there was the Grand Canyon there at all. We were disappointed to say the least, but determined to have the Grand Canyon experience.
So, of course, we went to the IMAX movie- ha! The IMAX doesn't hold a candle to the actual canyon, but it did touch on some interesting things that got us thinking. The movie went through the history of the people of the canyon w/ the ancient cultures that had lived there, then explorers, and up to us as visitors and tourists. From this we started thinking about all these people, through all these different times coming to the canyon and standing in the same spot peering into the canyon. By having this shared experience, we are all connected by this place through time. Who knows how many people have come to the canyon before us and who knows how many more after us? In a romantic sense, visiting the Grand Canyon is like visiting a little piece of eternity right here on earth.

The melody for Canyon Breeze had been floating around in my head after our first trip to the canyon, and after that second snowy visit, we were inspired to make this song. It reminds me of the ebb & flow of the wind and water that carved out the canyon and of the people that have passed through it.
We always start w/ the original melody, but then let the spirit move us and we play it differently every time.

Here is the download: Download Canyon Breeze - http://tinyurl.com/an9dsf

This post is about self-doubt. That is reason that I don't blog more often (btw, this is Jenn not Jon. he's very good at blogging!) I concern myself too much with what all the far superior bloggers and blog readers will think about my entry. Is it possible that anything I could write is going to interest someone enough to read it? Well, I guess that is the beautiful thing about blogs they are personal and the blogger can abandon those negative thoughts...go for it. I'm going to try at least.
Now, to my real thoughts recently about self-doubt and even to the extreme of self-loathing: I think that this must be the way that we strive to become better human beings (or at least I hope it leads there). I really have been going through some serious self-examination of my weaknesses and trying to come to grips with the repeated mistakes they create in my life. If we don't ever realize how flawed we are, then how can we ever lead a fulfilled life with hope for a more enlightened way of being? Maybe this is fuel for the argument of reincarnation. I can't seem to stop being flawed and sometimes it seems that I will certainly need a few more lifetimes to fix it. I'm really troubled by my inability to behave with more love and kindness- this is my main weakness. Why am I realizing these things about myself so late in my life? Maybe people that realize their weaknesses earlier are the people like Jimmy Carter, Mother Teresa, and President Obama. Extremely successful and impactful people. One of my greatest fears is that I will die before my life counts for something and that this whole thing will be a waste. I hope that by trying to overcome my weaknesses, I can lead a more impactful life. I know for sure that I am not alone in this battle and my request to everyone that reads this is to forgive others for their mistakes and to forgive yourself for your own.
Good luck and good thoughts to you for your personal journey and please wish me well for mine!
-Jenn

Who needs gas, biofuels or hydrogen..when you have air??!! Check it out:

We were recently contacted by Justin St. Vincent. He has started a site which asks one simple question?

"What do you believe is the spiritual significance of music?"
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I believe art and music are a chance to speak truth. It is the common language of souls around the world and binds us all regardless of religious traditions or upbringing or intellectual understanding. As a composer, music is a personal revelation. A revelation of choice, and love and something in the universe greater than self.

I am especially drawn the power of instrumental music. It frees us from the world of duplicity. Words and concepts. It allows a brief chance to venture beyond intellect. Music is present in the now. In the act of it's creation and performance, the moment is savored. Tomorrow is unimportant.

Music is a gift.

-Jonathan - Montana Skies

Overall, I have been really happy with the switch over to using software based effects for looping and other effects.  Everything worked great on our mini-tour last weekend.  The main problem is with the Guitar Rig Kontrol pedal.  It clicks.  Loudly.  It uses the silver button style switches.  I have had these on other pedals where the click was not as noticeable. Unfortunately the switches on the Guitar Rig foot control make very loud click when they engage.  When using this louder songs it's not a problem.  For softer songs though, it is very distracting. An audience member even mentioned it after our gig in Gulfport.  I have come up with a temporary workaround using the Boss FS-5u footswitch as an external pedal option for controlling the start of loops.  I think I will give the Behringer FCB-1010 pedal a try.  It works via midi and I have read several good reviews in regards to using it with the Guitar Rig software.

Jenn and I had ear molds made this morning. I was a little nervous to have the impressions based on my experiences with dental impressions. I absolutely hate getting those. Gag. Anyway, my apprehension was unfounded because the ear impressions were completely painless and discomfort free. It's a little hard to believe all that goo fits in your head though.

Our molds were for getting some new in-ear monitors (earbuds). We've been using the Shure earbud style monitors that are a universal fit. We were recommended to try the molded earbuds though, as they really improve the quality of the sound dramatically, especially in the the bass ranges. We'll be sending our molds off to Livewires soon. Can't wait to get them back and try them out.

Here are some random video clips from our trip to Russia (taken on a Kodak easy share camera). Finally got around to uploading these to Flickr!

Red Square sometime after midnight.



Musicians played music just off the square in St. Petersburg, as we walked through. They really wanted their tip and weren't afraid to ask for it! :) We didn't have any Russian money at the time, so Dimitri covered the tip/toll!!



Outside the entrance to Red Square.



Riding around in Moscow. I think this was right after we arrived in Moscow. The music playing is from a traditional choir that Dmitri (the driver and agent) had booked.



Cab ride in St. Petersburg, RU. This one was pretty tame, but there were stretches where the cabbies drove like a bat out of hell. Like 90mph in traffic. This really freaked us both out. Seriously.



This is at soundcheck the day we arrived in Moscow. We had been up for a long time and were pretty tired by this point.



This was from a bit of our performance in Moscow. Unfortunately the mic on the camera doesn't sound very good. The movie in the background is of the Skoda Sedan.

We've been working hard to put the finishing touches on our DVD, which is our latest project. We have been approving the final design work and other final details to get the ball rolling. We should be shipping off to the production plant any day now. The "official" release has been moved to April 28th, but we will be posting a 30 minute preview to our updated website soon and taking pre-orders from mailing list subscribers. We are also going pick a few tracks for a "Live EP". Stay tuned!!

It was nice to be back after some time off.  To be honest in mid November we were getting close to burn out.  We needed the break.  After Jenn's surgery and Buddy's passing and the business pressures of the music "business", we really needed the time to decompress and reorganize and even try to find some time to be creative and compose some new music.  By January though, we were itching to perform and were looking forward to this run of gigs.  

Cotton fields heading into Americus:  It's also near Jimmy Carter's home of Plains, GA

Stayed in the Windsor Hotel. The historic architecture is beautiful. Our room this time smelled like mothballs.  I have to say, I didn't see one single moth though.

The Ft. Walton Coastline:

Mississippi National Seashore:

One of the things that is ever changing for us, is technology. That is, the tools we use are ever changing. A few years ago when we had the idea to begin looping. We started with the Boss RC-20. Back then the sampling rates were fairly low and quality definitely suffered. Also, the loop times were lower. Gradually the sampling rates increased along with the loop time. Our last looper was the Boss RC-50. As we added effects our pedal board and gear grew. Not a problem when traveling by car, but when we had to go by plane we either ended up shipping the gear. Or if we went overseas we had to pack it in with our suitcases, which as you can imagine, is MAJOR pain in ye olde keister.

Recently, I re-descovered "Guitar Rig". It's a guitar effects software program that is coupled with a hardware pedal. I heard about this a few years ago, but didn't seem to be a fit for our purposes. Well in the third generation incarnation, they have added a looping effect as well as other goodies. Also, the reviews indicate that the software is very stable now. I have to say, it works great. This weeks gigs will be the first time to use it in concert and I am looking forward to seeing how it goes.  The only drawback so far is the the selector buttons make a noticeable click, so I may have to get those replaced at some point.

The best thing about it is that we have downsized from a 90lb pedalboard (with case) to a small pedal that can fit in a very small case.  The "Guitar Rig" Pedal doesn't even have a power adapter because it is powered by USB.  Super cool.

History will have to record that the greatest tragedy of this period of social transition was not the strident clamor of the bad people, but the appalling silence of the good people.
-Martin Luther King, Jr.

Human progress is neither automatic nor inevitable... Every step toward the goal of justice requires sacrifice, suffering, and struggle; the tireless exertions and passionate concern of dedicated individuals.
-Martin Luther King, Jr.

Human salvation lies in the hands of the creatively maladjusted.
-Martin Luther King, Jr.

I am not interested in power for power's sake, but I'm interested in power that is moral, that is right and that is good.
-Martin Luther King, Jr.

I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word in reality. This is why right, temporarily defeated, is stronger than evil triumphant.
-Martin Luther King, Jr.

I've been renting a whole slew of French films from Netflix over the last few holiday weeks. I've got "The Widow of St. Pierre" for tonight, a Juliet Binoche movie- I've got a thing for her. I loved the film "Blue" from the trio of films called "Three Colors Trilogy: "Blue", "White" and "Red" from director Krzysztof Kieślowski. Each one is in the tone of that color; so, you can imagine how "Blue" is a darker, sad film. It's about a woman who is in a terrible car crash with her composer husband and young daughter. Both of them are killed in the crash and Juliet's character must try to go on in her life. During the course of the film you see that she was composing the music with her husband (and sometimes for him) that had made him so famous. She has this music going through her head the whole film and it's totally dramatic and just sits in that blue feeling the whole film for you to enjoy the Blue.

Well, tonight's film is going to be lighter, I'm sure (as most of my films have been recently - "Priceless" w/ Audrey Tatou, "Jet Lag" another Juliet film, "Solider on the Roof" Juliet Binoche, to name a few). I'll be enjoying some Brie cheese, French bread, and Red wine with the films- yummy! Probably not on my healthy New Year's resolution to eat more salads for dinner. Oh well, it's sooo worth it. Gotta go and get to my French film fest w/ Brie-j'ai faim.. Au revoir! Jenn

Happy New Year! After a break of several weeks our batteries are charged and we are ready to get back on the road to do what we love. We are also putting the finishing touches on our DVD this week. We added an interview segment over the holidays to go with the live concert footage. Unfortunately some of the audio from the concert, which was supposed to be recorded from the vocal mics was not picked up and recorded properly. We decided rather than just leave out the info. (that we normally talk a little about in the concert) we decided to do a separate segment and cover some of that. We covered a bit about technical aspects of what we do with six string electric cello and looping and also how we fit that into the more traditional approach to our music.

If you are not on our mailing list yet, sign up here for a sneak peak. The official release will be March 31st.