This flu was life altering stuff. I’m a shell of the man I used to be.

I was in the mood for some Van Morrison “Wild Nights” so I walked into a Best Buy on Pico. There’s a nice older gentleman who works there and happens to do some kind of music archiving on his own. He’s a wealth of knowledge. The last time I was there he saw me eying a Gram Parsons album and steered me towards The Byrds Sweetheart of the Rodeo and the Flying Burrito Bros.” Definitive Collection. “Dark End of the Street” is worth the price of admission on its own. I picked up Moondance. “Caravan” is a great song. I’m partial to it since Van jumps on stage to perform it with The Band in The Last Waltz.

Oddly enough while in Best Buy I ran into Mike of Koch Amps.  Koch’s TwinTone II is a great, super clean combo amp. Two of my good pals own em.  Their Classictone 4×10 combo is the closest, bestest thing I’ve come to matching my early 80’s Fender Concert 4×10. Then I ran into Dan of Couch Guitar Straps.  Their Racer X Stripe straps are some of the coolest guitar straps out there.  The two-tone colors complement a matching guitar really well. Plus they’re made right outside of LA. And they’re vegan/ not-animal-hide.

My pal and guitar hero Phil Hurley left me his Xotic Effects RC Booster before leaving for Nashville with Stonehoney. I’ve been tinkering with cleaner tone and lower volume and I think this pedal is going to get me there.  Adam had me use one in the studio through a Rivera Venus combo and it blew me away. I might try the RC Booster with a Keeley Compresser when we play for the folks at Myspace again this Thursday night.