News

 


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              3/16/05…converting to Weblog at http://www.xanga.com/kjross/

 

                      1/13/05—Happy New Year everybody!  My gift to you is a handful of posts that I hadn’t gotten around to posting.  The new year

                   may bring a little more focus…and maybe that will lead to greater things coming your way!  Anyhow, away with the self-promotion

                   and on with the news.

                             I just put up a Photos page.  You can access it from the front, or click here.  Many of the pictures can be found in other spots

                   on this site, but I thought it would be nice to have them all together in one place for easy viewing.

                             Will Play For Money has been more or less in rebuilding mode for the past few months.  Doug and I have been bringing new

                   material to practice, and we’ve been trying to go in a slightly different direction.  I’ve been tossing in more alt-country, and Doug

                   has been bringing a few different old rock ‘n’ roll tracks that have been a welcome change.  I’ve been playing less bass of late, too,

                   while we’ve been in this “new songs” mode.  We’ve been playing the same material for way too long.  The new tunes have been a

         refresher.  We’ve also been doing some recording.  Some of the songs had been in our repertoire for a while, but others were newer

         material that we just felt the need to get down.   Last Friday, we played our first gig in about three months, at the Front Street

         Presbyterian Church.  Their usual Friday night crowd was unusually large and responsive, which worked to our advantage.  Everything

         seemed to go together fairly well.

                             I’ve been working on the new material a bit, although that has taken a back burner lately.  I’m trying to get some gigs together,

                   so I’ve been more focused on improving my older material and getting the music into more people’s ears to get ideas.  A few more

                   songs have worked their way into the “half-finished” category, so I need to do some catch-up work on that front too!

                             By the way, I am scheduled to play the Music Café at the Fitton Center in Hamilton on Tuesday March 22 at 7:00 p.m.  I’m

                   scheduled to do it solo, although that may change.  Stay tuned for updates on that.

 

 

 

                          11/10/04---Back to the ol’ farm to stick up an update.  Things have been fairly slow.  WPFM had a drummer for one day a couple weeks

                   ago, and then his work schedule got fixed so he can’t play with us.  I think we’ve only had one practice as a full four-piece (me, Doug,

                   Tom, and P.J.) in the last six weeks, and it honestly seems like things are slowing down.  Doug and I are both trying to find the right

                   direction for this band, and that has meant trying new songs, writing songs, and trying old things a few different ways.  I’ve been listening

                   to a lot of different music of late…John Hiatt, The Clash, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Lyle Lovett, and this British jazz guy named Jamie Cullum.

                   Sometimes I think this musical jumping just makes things more confusing.  I sit down at the piano more often, but I still get frustrated

                   somewhat quickly due to my lack of knowledge.

                             Back to the new stuff…one song is called “Love A Little More” and is about my grandpa.  That’s probably the most complete of

                   my recent works.   There are several half-finished pieces, with working titles like “All Come Together”, “Smoke”, “Darkness”, “It’s Good
                   To Be Back Again,” “Fender Stab Wound,” “Two Cars Parked On The Overpass,” and “Burned”.  I also have a ton of stuff in the

                   catalogue that I need to polish up or just get recorded.  Tom and I have jammed a little bit on a tune called “Rain (The Way It Goes)” that

                   I wrote a couple years ago.  It’s kinda swampy, but it works pretty well when we get the slide guitar going on it.

                             On the past news front, I didn’t do Midpoint…no open-mic nights.  The Presbyterian Church went reasonably well, although I

                   forgot most of the words I was singing.  Doug and I played the church two weeks earlier, and it went quite well…more relaxed than I

                   thought we could get.  I’m also starting to figure out that I need to do some voice work and figure out how to improve my singing.  We’ll
                   see how that goes!

 

 

                           9/11/04—You know, sometimes things actually go right!  No, today wasn’t perfect, but it was closer.  The Cozy Café was quite cozy…a
                   little bit too much so for the four of us, but we managed.  We didn’t have enough room for the P.A. system AND my keyboard, so my
                   keyboard ended up back in the Jeep.  The sound wasn’t that great, but we ended up with our best overall performance yet.  It was pretty
                   much the tried-and-true set list, although we did throw a few things in.  I did “Refugee” for the first time on stage in about a year, Tom and
                   I pulled off “Bell Bottom Blues” and the Jayhawks’ “Blue” for the first time on stage, and Doug did “Moonshadow” on his own.  We still
                   need to work on getting on the same page on a few songs, and Doug and I both need to work on remembering the words to our own songs!
                   It was a quiet audience, but quite receptive.  We are working out more of our kinks every time, or it may be that we are accepting those kinks
                   and learning to deal with them.

                   We’ve now done three gigs in the course of three weeks.  We HAVE improved, although, like I said, part of that is probably that we’re
                   not trying to force changes upon each other.  Honestly, we haven’t had time to.  We don’t have anything again for two more weeks, and
                   we’ll probably do something similar to the Cozy Café set list.  Once we do, though, it may be time to hide away for a couple months and
                   get some new material going.  We have this stuff down as much as we probably ever will.  This would give us a chance to weed out the
                   material we don’t do quite so well and replace it with fresher material that suits us a bit more.

                   I’ve also got a solo performance set up at the Presbyterian Church for October 8th, but we’ll see what happens there.  I’ve been trying to
                   get a vacation in all year, but it hasn’t happened.  It may happen some time around that point.  But the church gig will happen at some
                   point.  Those are good for me.  I get to try out more of my own material, and play some of my favorite covers that WPFM just won’t
                   get around to (my alt-country leanings and Bruce Springsteen’s “Thunder Road”, for instance).  I’m also looking at trying to find an
                   open-mic night during the upcoming Midpoint Music Festival in Cincinnati.  That might be a way to get a few more solo gigs.  That’s
                   something I’ve been missing.

           

                            9/4/04—Well, I’ve just returned from (what turned out to be) the Butler County Antique Tractor Show, where Will Play For Money was
                   the first performance group of the day.  I must say, though, that this turned out mostly better than I’ve been used to lately.  We had plenty
                   of time to get set up, and we didn’t have a lot of equipment to mess with.  Our sound turned out pretty well aside from a few little issues
                   here and there…nothing to stop us from treading onward.  We had our problems, but we seemed to manage alright.  A one-hour set
                   where we did one song twice (“Ashes”) and started another twice (“Stoned”—Tom fell off the stage about 30 seconds in!!!).   The
                   recording from Little Chicago came in handy because it allowed us to see what we had done best.  Using that, we streamlined the set a
                   little and ended up with generally better performances, although we’ve still got some fixing up to do.  I recorded this gig as well, and the
                   sound on it is beautiful.  Well, the sound QUALITY—not the quality of the sound we made! ;)  Anyway, it’s off to prepare for the Cozy
                   Café and whatever else may be coming.

    8/26/04—Having promised to keep this more updated, I’m back.  It’s just been two nights since the gig at the Little Chicago Blues Company.  I’ll try to be calm about it!

 

They have a stage for the major bands that come in to play.  We did not get that stage.  We got the floor out in the dining area.  That would have been fine if we’d been going with a small setup.  But we had four or five guitars, my keyboard, and my bass along with the mics and the sound system.  It just wasn’t enough space to operate.  If we play there in the future, I’m not taking the keyboard…I just need a few inches to breathe!  The place was friendly enough, so I can’t complain too much on that front.  And we got paid too…so three cheers for that!

 

Let’s see…we didn’t get Doug’s guitar to make any sound until the break between our two sets.  My guitar didn’t do much better until then either, and my bass and keyboard just overloaded the system while not putting out much volume.  Needless to say, the first set doesn’t sound that good on the recording I made.  The second set sounds better, although we still need to work on our endings and solo breaks.  Doug’s brother Mike joined us onstage for a few songs of unrehearsed trumpet wailing.  He sounded pretty good when I wasn’t busy paying attention to what different chords Doug was wandering to!  I got to sing “Rainy Day” and “Follow”, although I really hadn’t rehearsed the latter since the May performance.  I got all the words right, though!  (It’s one of those that I’ve never been real crazy about playing out, because it needs more than solo instrumentation and I threw a lot of words into it.)

I’ve realized many times that I am the perfectionist of the group.  I wish I wasn’t, but I keep feeling this need to point out every little flaw.  (By the way, I screw up too!)  The recording showed a lot of flaws…there were just a few songs out of the 23 we played that we got right all the way through.  We have one or two practices now before the tractor pull, and I’m still not completely sure how that one will go.  We may be looking forward to our least receptive crowd yet at this gig.  So far, the crowds have mostly been made up of family and friends, and just generally non-critical types.  These people won’t be coming for us, and we won’t know them at all.  This may give us our first “true” gauge of how we’re doing.

 

I feel like I’m somewhat in stasis with this group.  We do two songs that I’ve brought to the group, and it’s equivalent to brain surgery sometimes to figure out exactly what it takes to get a new song accepted into the collection.  I keep trying to push the band in all my screwy directions, and Doug can’t keep up with that, so we end up back on the tried-and-true material.  He mentioned that the Little Chicago gig may turn into a semi-regular gig depending on how it went.  If they liked it, and we end up playing there more, we’ll need to develop a much larger repertoire than what we currently do.

How do I sound?  If nothing else, I’d say I’ve probably made enough sound out of this for now!  I’ve got some songs and CD burning to work on instead of all this griping. J

 

    8/21/04---Okay, so I’ve never been the best at keeping my web site updated!  I know I must deal with that, and the first step is, of course

to admit that you have a problem.  So, there you go!

 

For those of you who are still reading this, or maybe new, here’s the latest.  I am still performing with Will Play For Money.  We have gigs set up for September 4th at 12 noon (a tractor pull in Trenton), September 11th from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. in Hamilton (Cozy Café, High St.), and then a free gig September 24th at the Presbyterian church on Front St. at 6 p.m.  I am getting more cemented in my role in the band, which is to say I’m playing more different instruments.  Mostly, though, I am sticking with bass.  I’m having fun with it and it adds something to the band that wasn’t there before.  Right now, I am singing lead on a song by the Jayhawks called “Save It For A Rainy Day”, which I played at the Music Café in January.  Will Play For Money did a Music Café gig in May, and that went fairly well.  I played “I Will Follow” as my original.  You can see the set list in the Performances section.  Right now, we’re still playing about the same mix of music we were before...a lot of actually IS the same stuff!

 

We also did a couple gigs in July.  We played Camp America at Hueston Woods on the July 4th weekend.  I don’t have that one up on the set lists because I don’t remember the set list that well, and there was only an audience of four.  Oh well…we did get paid out of it though, so I can’t complain too much!

 

I’ve been giving a few people a demo CD lately, trying to get some feedback and gauge responses for more possible performances.  It’s got “Waiting To Fall”, “Wings”, “Looking For A Friend,” and about eight others.  It’s about time I started doing something with all this music I’m writing.  So far, responses have been good.

 

I’ve been jamming with my WPFM buddy Tom occasionally too.  We’ve fleshed out a few ideas on some of my unrecorded stuff, so those songs may be getting better treatment soon.  I’m also writing new material.  Most of it is very unfinished at this point, with no more than a verse or two and/or a chorus.  Hopefully, I can say a little more about those soon.

 

I also went to a concert a week ago.  It was Barenaked Ladies with Alanis Morrissette.  Alanis was decent, although nowhere near as good as BNL.  This was my second BNL show (1st in 1998 on the Stunt tour).  The opening act was good, too.  His name is Mark McAdam.  You can buy his stuff on iTunes…I did, and have already enjoyed it a few times.

 

Well, I must go do some work now.  I’ll try and do a little better about this next time!  I promise it won’t be six months before the next update. J

 

 

     2/9/04—I know it’s been a VERY long time since I updated this, so I guess it’s time to fix it up and bring people to the site.  A lot has been going on since the last news update, so here goes…

 

I am now in a band called Will Play For Money (sadly, the name was my idea!).  We have played here and there around this small town, and the crowds have been warm and welcoming.  Check out the 9/23/03 listing under Performances to take a look at us in one incarnation.  There are three of us who have been together for about 14 months now, and a rotating crew comes in to back us up.  On stage, I have played bass, harmonica, guitar (electric and acoustic), mandolin, and a lead vocal every now and then.  I’ve played some keyboard in practice, but we’ll have to wait to pull that out in public.  We play mostly oldies right now, along with a few originals the lead singer has written.

 

The band has recorded a handful of rough tracks, and we’re trying to get a few shows with them.  Wish us luck!

 

I just got done playing another Music Café show about two weeks ago.  It went amazingly.  Thanks to everyone who showed up.  I pulled out a few new songs for the crowd, and I’ve got a whole bunch waiting in the wings at this moment.  I’m starting to put a few pieces together on my multi-tracker to see what I can do with them.  If you hear me play, look for new songs like “Looking For A Friend” and “I’m On My Way” mixed in with the old standards.

 

I’ve added my new performances to the list, along with a picture for each of them, as well as the August 2002 gig.  Supposedly, there is video for my most recent gig, so we will see what I can pull from that when I get a copy of it.

 

At this point, I’m still looking for more places to play.  I jam with another guitar player once in a while, and we’ve got a few old songs put together in practice.  Maybe we’ll do something with that.  And I’d love to get more originals out there.  It’s been almost two years since “Footsteps.”  I’ve only given out about five or six new songs to a couple people since that point.  I need to find out which new ones are good and which ones are lousy!

 

Well, that’s the line for now.  It’s the middle of February, so I need to thaw out. J

 

 


    8/28/02--Thank you very much to all of those who came out to the Music Cafe in Oxford 8/27!  I had a great time out there.  There wasn't a big crowd, but it was very enthusiastic, and that was the important part.  I hope to have some pictures at some point from the show.  The set list is now posted in the "Performances" section of this page.  I got a very enthusiastic response to the new song that I debuted there, "That's What I'd Do."  Eventually, it will be recorded and given some wider exposure.  Hopefully, that will include more shows.  Stay tuned here for updates.

    4/21/02--Well, the CD burner is now back in functioning order (though not completely), and I can now say that we're ready to go back here.  I've got all the tracks put together, and while it has its share of warts, it is still something I believe I can be proud of.  So with this, I am announcing the release of my 2nd "official" disc, titled "Footsteps."  13 songs have been prepared for your listening enjoyment, or agony if that's how you prefer it!  I will slowly be getting the first copies of the album out in public.  I may forget some people along the way, so if you're interested in a copy, let me know, and I'll try to make it happen.  Meanwhile, check out the "Footsteps" web page for a look at what to expect, along with a preview of the track "Somewhere Up The Road" in RealAudio.  Look for more as time progresses, as I plan to do a little "Storytellers"-type of talking about the new album.

    For those who have not yet heard my Honors Thesis, I have now posted two song clips on the album's web page.  Listen to bits of "Waiting To Fall" and "Need You Now" from the comfort of your computer and judge them for yourself.

    Throughout all the coming months, expect me to keep working on recording and writing.  At this point, I still have enough songs to do another full album without any more writing.  So, if you see me perform and you hear a song you don't recognize, it is probably one of those slated for the next release.  Don't hold your breath, though...we'll see how long it takes!

    Otherwise, life is still pretty quiet.  But I look forward to kicking it into gear once again.  Keep checking back for more news.  Until later!!
 

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