The Unexpected Guest

It’s SpinTunes time again and though I have not joined in as a competitor, I did offer up my services to the Boffo Yux Dudes, who have an ongoing tradition of carpet-bombing the last round of SpinTunes with ‘shadow’ songs (i.e. not official competitors, but meeting the requirements of the challenge). This time around I wanted to gain some more experience with my new bouzouki, so you’ll find its unique sound on two songs from the shadows. The first of these tracks started life as a set of lyrics from Scott Mercer (of the Dudes), brought to life on keyboard & vocals by Dave Leigh (of Dr. Lindyke) and embellished by my 8-strings (starting with a short instrumental section before accompanying the vocal).

The second track is a slick country-rock song by the Dudes, in which I sneak in a very short instrumental break about halfway through:

As I was pulling this post together, it occurred to me that that this is not the first time I’ve done this. Back in SpinTunes 5 I did something similar in the final round, that time adding improvised bass and guitar to a laid-back jazzy piece by Denise Hudson. The lyrics take the form of a spoken word recitation over the top of the music, seeming a bit out of place with the tone of the backing and yet at the same time oddly apt.

On the subject of guests, Katharina and I recently also appeared as guests on The Way of the Buffalo podcast, discussing Every Photo Tells… as well as Obscurities and other subjects. The podcast is well worth a listen and the host, Hugh J. O’Donnell has managed to pull together quite a list of interesting guests over the weeks.