Visit to Taos

Writing from Taos today (Monday, April 29). We're enjoying a couple days off and thought an overnight to Taos and the area would be a nice escape. I love seeing the country in the spring, although I have to tell you that it's very brown most places out here right now. I thought that we had gotten enough moisture recently to start greening things up, but that's not the case most of the places we've been. We still had fun walking around Taos and having some good food for lunch. Last evening we went to a CD-release for the duo Bittersweet Highway where my good friend Don Richmond was part of the band helping celebrate. It was a great time with some good music at the Taos Mesa Brewing Company. Taos has changed a bit since the last time I did the night life scene, but it's just as artsy and creative as ever. Today we're going through Eagle Nest and over to Cimarron where they've agreed to carry a couple of my CD's this year which we'll drop off at Philmont Scout Ranch. It should be a beautiful drive and a fun day. I'll write more tonight before I hit the pillow.

For any of you Philmont folks, my "Cowboy Americana" and "Songwriter" CD's will be carried by the Tooth of Time Trader's this year!

Back home again. We had a fun day hiking in the mountains a bit and eating at a historic hotel (The St. James in Cimarron) and then dropping off CD's before we headed back north to home.  It was great to get away, even if it was just overnight, and it makes you appreciate the simpler moments in life!

So on to the week ahead.

Friday I'm back at Magpies 7-10 for one last night before the summer season starts.  This is a bonus performance since I usually stop at Magpies in April, so I hope you'll all come "down under" to the Tap Room for some good food and friends and some of my music.  Maybe we'll do another theme night like we did last time for some different groups and artists.  I'm always up for an adventure!

Sunday I'm back at Shadow Hills for brunch 10-1 for a regular week before the big Mothers Day brunch the following week.  If you want to come out the week before the rush, then this is the week for you.  (In case you came out last week, there was no brunch due to a big wedding celebration on that Sunday.)  We always have fun enjoying the view and eating some good food.  The acoustics are good, to boot, so come on out if you can!

So that's it for me this week.  I hope to see you soon!

Tom

Details this week:

Who:  Tom Munch
What:  playing & singing
Where:  Magpies, 229 S. Union, Pueblo.  719-542-5522
When:  Friday, May 3, 7-10 pm

Who:  Tom Munch
What: playing and singing for brunch
Where:  Shadow Hills Golf Course, 1232 County Rd 143, Canon City.  719-275-0603
When:  Sunday, May 5, 10 am-1 pm

Directions to Shadow Hills:
(There's construction on the regular route, so you need to turn a couple blocks ahead of Elm on Cyanide and follow the Detour signs to get to Elm.) Go south on 9th Street from the main light in Cañon City to the bend in the road and turn right on Elm by the cemetery.  Then it's just one block on Elm before it veers/turns left and becomes Oak Creek Grade.  Twist through a few turns and come over a hill and you'll see the restaurant and club house on your left across the golf course. Then turn left into the drive at the Shadow Hills and The View sign and up to the main stucco two-story building.  The restaurant is up the stairs to your right or take the elevator straight ahead.

Summer plans and working with partial capos

I've been listening to some new music as I plan for the summer and also experimenting with some guitar gadgets that can make my sound more interesting.

The new music is mountain songs I'm learning for my gigs in La Veta, Cuchara, New Mexico, and beyond.  I get to play for a diverse mix of folks every year, and I always like to give them a flavor of Colorado and the mountains as much as I can.  I taught backpacking many years ago at Philmont Scout Ranch and spent a lot of time in the mountains, so they became very dear to me - as you might guess.  I don't get up in them as much as I used to, and sometimes I yearn for them.  Singing songs about the mountains can get me into them in my mind and heart, and so I like to learn new songs occasionally about the mountains.  And who knows, maybe I'll get farther up into them this year.

The guitar gadgets are partial capos that you may have seen me perform with.  My song "Ad #3" uses a partial capo, and if you've heard me play "Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald" you've heard what two partial capos making an open "C" tuning sounds like.  What is a partial capo?  It's a device that places a bar across some of the strings that changes the tuning of the guitar without having to retune the strings.  A regular capo goes across all 6 strings, but a partial one only covers a few strings like your fingers would.  A combination of these in different places can make the effect of having fingers placed on the strings in different places to form a chord.  It takes a lot of brainwork to calculate how the changes effect what tones are played on each of the strings, but the sound is a different open-ringing tone that really makes for interesting and beautiful accompaniment.  And that's the point - it makes the sound more interesting and very pretty or striking.  I'm not sure how quickly I'll incorporate these new partial capos into my sound, but I'm enjoying the journey!

And I have news about Magpies.  I had only scheduled through April at Magpies like we usually do, but I thought it might be nice to do one more into May before we break until fall since it's the only real chance I get to play for my Pueblo friends.  So we'll do the first Friday in May as well - the 3rd - if you'll all come out and make it a fun night.

So where am I this week?

Friday night I'll be at Magpies 7-10 for what I hope will be a fun night of good friends, good food, and good music.  Maybe I'll get a wild hair and do some theme hours of different bands and writers.  How would you feel about a Beatles hour or a Dan Fogelberg hour?  It could be fun!

Sunday I'm at Shadow Hills for brunch 10-1.  We had a slower week last week after a packed week the week before.  I have such an interesting crowd that I really enjoy.  Come be a part of it if you can!

That's it for this week.  Hope to see you sometime.

Tom

Details this week:

Who:  Tom Munch
What:  playing & singing
Where:  Magpies, 229 S. Union, Pueblo.  719-542-5522
When:  Friday, April 19, 7-10 pm

Who:  Tom Munch
What: playing and singing for brunch
Where:  Shadow Hills Golf Course, 1232 County Rd 143, Canon City.  719-275-0603
When:  Sunday, April 21, 10 am-1 pm

Directions to Shadow Hills:
(There's construction on the regular route, so you need to turn a couple blocks ahead of Elm on Cyanide and follow the Detour signs to get to Elm.) Go south on 9th Street from the main light in Cañon City to the bend in the road and turn right on Elm by the cemetery.  Then it's just one block on Elm before it veers/turns left and becomes Oak Creek Grade.  Twist through a few turns and come over a hill and you'll see the restaurant and club house on your left across the golf course. Then turn left into the drive at the Shadow Hills and The View sign and up to the main stucco two-story building.  The restaurant is up the stairs to your right or take the elevator straight ahead.

Fine tuning my sound and gear (and life!)

We're bracing for another blast of winter tonight and tomorrow with possible blizzard conditions.  It's hard to remember that we get snow in Colorado all the way into May most years.

But what I really want to write you about is fine tuning.  I was thinking about how much of my mind this occupies in my life and career.  I'm a 'detail' person, and everything I do tends to involve the tiniest adjustments and sensitive incremental changes.  This is important with the guitar and my voice.  The slightest change in touch on the strings with my fretting hand can make a string ring in a different way.  The use of my fingernails related to the amount of fingertip I use on my right hand makes a note be crisp or muted.  This is repeated in the timing and syncopation of the music as well.  Likewise there is an infinite amount of adjustment to a note and word when singing.  The stress in my chest and diaphragm and mouth when forming a word and a pitch is all thrown in there too.  I think about all this as I play and sing - mostly unconsciously, but sometimes very much at the forefront of my thought.  And it spills over into the way I drive and exercise and use my phone and even type on the computer keyboard.  I get a kick out of it although I know it's not everyone's cup of tea.  Being 'in the moment' is all related to this.  It's quite a trip to think about, but I think it's what makes some truly excel at their passion and others merely get by.  It's something to contemplate anyway.  Live life to the fullest!

But enough yacking on for today.  I have news to share.  I have agreed to almost weekly appearances at the La Veta Inn starting in late May.  You can find these on my website on the calendar page - http://tommunch.com/Tom_Munch/Calendar.html.  I'll have dates for the Yellow Pine up soon as well, so check them out!

And where am I this week?

Tuesday night I'll be playing an online concert from our living room at 7:00 mountain time on UStream - http://www.ustream.tv/channel/tom-munch-live.  Please come by if you're online then. You can listen and even sign into the chat and make requests and comments if you'd like.  It's a lot of fun and a great way for me to get to sing and play for friends and family who are far away.  The sound quality is usually very good even though the video can be sketchy at times.  Hopefully I'll get a fast connection this time for best quality.

I do have several nursing homes and Alzheimer facilities this week and every week.  I don't write much about these, but they are an important part of the way I serve my community, and occasionally I see some of you when you're visiting relatives and friends at these places.  They are always up on my calendar too, and you're welcome to check out a show if you happen to be in the area where I'm performing.  Some of these are locked facilities that you need to ring into and sign the visitor's book.  They are very gratifying gigs for me.

Saturday I have two private parties I'm playing that I can't say much about.  I just wanted you to know about them.

Sunday I'll be at Shadow Hills for brunch 10-1.  Last week was a really good crowd with lots of wonderful folks and fun music.

So that's it for this week.  Thank you for supporting me and my musical art!

Tom

Details this week:

Who:  Tom Munch
What:  playing and singing
Where:  online on UStream http://www.ustream.tv/channel/tom-munch-live
When:  Tuesday, April 9, 7-8 pm

Who:  Tom Munch
What: playing and singing for brunch
Where:  Shadow Hills Golf Course, 1232 County Rd 143, Canon City.  719-275-0603
When:  Sunday, April 14, 10 am-1 pm

Directions to Shadow Hills:
(There's construction on the regular route, so you need to turn a couple blocks ahead of Elm on Cyanide and follow the Detour signs to get to Elm.) Go south on 9th Street from the main light in Cañon City to the bend in the road and turn right on Elm by the cemetery.  Then it's just one block on Elm before it veers/turns left and becomes Oak Creek Grade.  Twist through a few turns and come over a hill and you'll see the restaurant and club house on your left across the golf course. Then turn left into the drive at the Shadow Hills and The View sign and up to the main stucco two-story building.  The restaurant is up the stairs to your right or take the elevator straight ahead.

What I wanna be when I grow up

I hope you are enjoying beautiful spring weather wherever you may be. It's in the 60's here today and sunny. We could use a little rain, but hopefully that will come. I'm sitting in the DMV renewing my license. Hopefully I won't be here more than an hour. (Turns out it took an hour and fifteen minutes.) It's definitely a bizarre mix of folks here - quite a slice of life in many ways.

I had an interesting conversation this morning when I told my accountant that I wasn't sure what I 'wanted to be when I grew up' in response to his, "How are you?" My one enduring desire in my career is to play music that matters for people who want to hear it. This has taken me into many different venues to play in front of a wide variety of folks. Of course I have to find a way to make a living at this too, so I have to charge for my service, sell some merchandise (albums for me), or ask for tips. I also either have to play for the same people repeatedly or else travel to where my audience is. I have opted to have a home life and stability and senility, and so I don't travel much which means I play for the same people repeatedly except for the summer when I play for people traveling to and through the area at tourist destinations and festivals. I also see a value in recording my music for posterity as well as to express and promote myself, and so I've made a dozen albums both solo and with others over the past 30+ years. I always think that I'd like to travel more, but the stack of bills and correspondence I return home to is daunting whenever I have, so I resist this. Plus, it's hard to be away from friends and family and all the routine of normal like.  Still I love to travel and try to work in some gigs when I can travel.   If I ever 'grew up' I suppose I always thought that I'd travel more and be some sort of folk-rock star.  As I age I think less and less about that though, although someday…

So enough wandering for now.  What am I up to in the near future?

I'm going to do a living room concert on UStream next week on Tuesday, the 9th of April at 7:00 pm mountain time.  It'll be at the same address where it always is - http://www.ustream.tv/channel/tom-munch-live.  I haven't decided what I'll play yet, but if you log in to the chat that night you can make a request.  These concerts are always a lot of fun, and it's the only chance I get to play for my friends who aren't nearby enough to come out to a venue where I'm playing.  I hope you can make it.  Just point your browser to the address above and join in.  You can also watch and listen on some phones and tablets - especially if you download the UStream app.

And I'm also booking what looks to be every week in the summer at the La Veta Inn.  We're not firm on dates yet, but I'll be posting them as soon as we are.

So what does this week hold?

Friday I'm at Magpies 7-10.  This is the last month of Magpies until next fall, so if you've been meaning to come out, you only have this Friday and the 19th to catch one until next October.  We always have a great time, and I always enjoy catching up with folks and putting on an interesting and engaging show.

Saturday some good friends are playing a Beatles tribute and fundraiser at 7:00 pm in La Veta at the Parkside Gallery on Ryus Ave. that I may make the journey for.  The show is a benefit to raise funds for the Citizens for Huerfano County.  The players are Ken Saydak and Willson and McKee, some good friends and marvelous musicians.  Maybe I'll see you there?

Sunday I'm at Shadow Hills for brunch 10-1.  Easter Sunday was a really nice time with lots of familiar and new faces.  It's so much fun to see all the families dressed up in their finery for the holiday.  This week will be a little more relaxed.  I hope you can make it if you'd like some good food, nice atmosphere, and my music.

I'd better sign off for now.  Thanks for your friendship and your ears!

Tom

Details this week:

Who:  Tom Munch
What:  playing & singing
Where:  Magpies, 229 S. Union, Pueblo.  719-542-5522
When:  Friday, April 5, 7-10 pm

Who:  Tom Munch
What: playing and singing for brunch
Where:  Shadow Hills Golf Course, 1232 County Rd 143, Canon City.  719-275-0603
When:  Sunday, April 7, 10 am-1 pm

Directions to Shadow Hills:
(There's construction on the regular route, so you need to turn a couple blocks ahead of Elm on Cyanide and follow the Detour signs to get to Elm.) Go south on 9th Street from the main light in Cañon City to the bend in the road and turn right on Elm by the cemetery.  Then it's just one block on Elm before it veers/turns left and becomes Oak Creek Grade.  Twist through a few turns and come over a hill and you'll see the restaurant and club house on your left across the golf course. Then turn left into the drive at the Shadow Hills and The View sign and up to the main stucco two-story building.  The restaurant is up the stairs to your right or take the elevator straight ahead.