Album Notes

"Ten Dollar Guitar" started as a couple of demos recorded in my car on a cheap guitar I bought in Flagstaff, Arizona. I was living in Glenwood Springs, Colorado at the time in a tiny little apartment and had no room to record in, so I'd take the car out on some dirt road and just run the gear off a little inverter in my cigarette lighter. I played the nylon string guitar on account of I shot my finger with a nail gun working in November and after not playing for a month or so, my hand was still too sensitive to play steel strings. It sort of became a theme in the car, as most of the songs I've written have to do with comings and goings, and over the years my car has become the prime personal space, so it all seemed appropriate to record there.

"Ten Dollar Guitar" continues in a short tradition of self-made recordings in non-studio settings: "Sandrock Hilton" was recorded in a log cabin, "Travelers Rest" in an empty farmhouse down the road. ("Trailer Tapes" was recorded by a friend in a mobile home along the interstatem outside of Ashland, Oregon.) Everything on "Ten Dollar Guitar" I did myself and was all played on the cheap guitar with no other instruments attendant other than a $20 snare drum on track 13.

"Ten Dollar Guitar" is the highest-fidelity recording to date, which isn't saying much, but kind of surprising. I didn't twiddle as many knobs as on "Traveler's Rest" and used only an inexpensive condenser microphone I set on the steering wheel.

Have a listen and tell me what you think.