Last night I played 4 songs at Tractorgrease Café for the Music Business 101 thing that I've been talking about. I was happy to have a chance to redeem myself after my cold-infused vocal performance was so weak on the otherwise excellent video they made. I think I did OK, although certain problems with my live show still shine bright and clear. 

I played 4 songs. I played sloppily; I didn't forget many words; my loops were generally effective.

The other performers played much, much better than I did. Or at least they were a lot more polished in their delivery.

I made a little compilation video of some of the more sane moments of the performance. My family took this video on my partner's iPhone.

After I made the little compilation video there above, I took the time to make a couple vodeos for a couple other performances that my family captured on camera:

• September 22, 2007 at The Blue Moose in Hope, BC (for the Once and Over Again CD release party)
• July 20, 2008 at the Gazebo in the middle of Centennial park in Hope, BC.

I might write a little more about each of those performances at a later date.

I see a bit of a difference between "albums that influenced me" vs. "favorite albums." I hope to post a few discussions of my distinctions.

INFLUENTIAL ALBUMS are the records I desire to emulate in one way or another, such as: 

• The Cars' Panorama
  
• Eric Clapton's Pilgrim
  
• Big Sugar's Heated
  
• Lyle Lovett's The Road to Ensenada
  
• LSU's Cash In Chaos World Tour
  

FAVORITE ALBUMS are the records I like to listen to, even if I don't think I'd ever bother to try to emulate any aspect of them. These include:

• Les Claypool and the Frog Brigade's Purple Onion
  
• Lifesavers' Huntington Beach
  
• Warren Zevon's Excitable Boy
  
• Peter Gabriel's So
  
• The Complete Jimmie Rodgers.
  

Writing about music has never been my forté, but I'd like to share a little about why all these records, and more, are so important to me. They may not necessarily be the best records from each of these artists, but I think they're important.

So I broke down and joined Twitter. Follow me at @jeffnords.

So I put a few tracks—one rock, one ballad, one pop—through LANDR and this is how they turned out:

My video I talked about month ago got posted a couple weeks ago. I've been reluctant to post about it, but I'll suck it up and say "here it is."

It's not pretty. I had a sore throat and it shows; my voice is rough and inconsistent. I should have chosen an easier song or made the song easier to sing by downtuning the guitar a whole tone or so.

But it's not hideous either. The guitarwork worked. I came up with a few creative riffs and they sounded great.

So there's a silver lining.

But my vocals sucked.