http://www.jbcmusic.com/NewsBlog/index.php Music, songwriting, sailing, personal stuff en brent@jbcmusic.com Copyright 2012 2012-01-11T03:05:27+00:00 http://www.jbcmusic.com/NewsBlog/./index.php/site/new_afton_show_-_february_12th_warehouse_live/ http://www.jbcmusic.com/NewsBlog/./index.php/site/new_afton_show_-_february_12th_warehouse_live/#When:03:05:27Z Afton show at Warehouse Live Studio Room, Feb. 12th I’ve accepted (and confirmed this time) another Afton show at Houston’s Warehouse Live, Studio Room, February 12th.  I’ll get time, ticket links, etc. posted in the next couple of days (feel more like practicing tonight than messing more with the computer).  SUPPORT LIVE MUSIC! Performance 2012-01-11T03:05:27+00:00 http://www.jbcmusic.com/NewsBlog/./index.php/site/blackwatch_progress_6/ http://www.jbcmusic.com/NewsBlog/./index.php/site/blackwatch_progress_6/#When:02:39:37Z Bowsprit, rigging, bottom job Over the Christmas holidays, I got about half of what I’d hoped to get done on Blackwatch #38.  I bolted on the bowsprit temporarily without caulk, later got “the boys” (son and son-in-law) to help me raise the mast.  Dave Autry’s mast-raising system mostly worked; I can see it getting easier the 2nd or 3rd time when I’ve got all the lengths of things figured out.  Quickly determined there’s a six-to-eight-inch “something” missing from the forestay built into the roller furling jib, but it appears that when I add that (probably a turnbuckle), the other wire lengths I have will turn out OK.  I still have to order some new shrouds and stays because of kinks and no backstay (used a temporary wire halyard when we raised the mast).  Meanwhile, I’ve started sanding the bottom to remove the old anti-fouling paint, was making good progress but have blown out 2 sanders - one ancient Sears one that’s survived two previous bottom jobs finally blew its bearings, and a fairly recent Black and Decker, still works, but the pad just disintegrated.  Still, though, I got about 2/3 of the bottom sanded before getting sick Sunday - either breathed a bit too much copper dust from the paint or just had a mild flu.  A few small dings and blisters to repair on the bottom, but that should go pretty quickly, then it will be 4 coats of epoxy and 3 to 4 of bottom paint.  Still have the interior wood in the garage, partially sanded, and still have to tear out rotted wood around the companionway step/icebox.  Also took parts of the old bent mast and made two crutches to hold the mast for travel. We took the bowsprit and mast back off when we returned the boat to storage, though.  Just didn’t like them sticking out that far in a pretty tight storage yard - that’s how the previous owner got the original mast bent, the wires kinked, and the bowsprit gone. Sailing 2012-01-11T02:39:37+00:00 http://www.jbcmusic.com/NewsBlog/./index.php/site/afton_show_not_coming_up_jan._22nd/ http://www.jbcmusic.com/NewsBlog/./index.php/site/afton_show_not_coming_up_jan._22nd/#When:19:15:13Z Afton show at Warehouse Live Studio Room Jan. 22 Before Christmas, I had tentatively accepted the chance to play another Afton show at Warehouse Live Jan. 22.  Guess I took too long confirming for sure, and all the slots got filled up, though.  So I’m not on the ticket for now,  but I’m truthfully thankful - downtown Houston’s a bit of a hassle for me, and I wasn’t that impressed with the Studio Room sound last time.  We’ll see - the last Afton show I played, the lineup changed almost daily up until showtime. Performance 2012-01-04T19:15:13+00:00 http://www.jbcmusic.com/NewsBlog/./index.php/site/split_personality/ http://www.jbcmusic.com/NewsBlog/./index.php/site/split_personality/#When:19:22:02Z I’ve split myself up on Reverb Nation I’ve split myself up on ReverbNation.  My bluesy, folk-pop, countryish singer/songwriter secular side is now at J.B. Clifton.  My Christian contemporary/praise and worship side is still at Brent Clifton.  Both sides still hang out together at my website and Bandizmo.com. I think the split was a good choice - I’ve already got 6 new fans on the J.B. Clifton page in the first 4 days .  I’m further convinced that Reverbnation’s song counts are off, though - how would I pick up 6 fans from only 3 song plays?  Wouldn’t most people listen to a song or two before hitting the “become a fan” button? Other stuff - Heard Sheila Marshall live at Winestyles (The Vintage) right down the road from home.  Great music, and very nice, low-key venue.  May try to get myself playing there. Got close to having new audio of “About You Blue” ready to post, but having a few technical difficulties with the home-studio setup (as in, remembering what settings work and don’t sound like I’m singing in the bottom of a well).  Pretty much a “live” take (okay, the 5th or 6th live take); sounds great through the monitors from Garage Band, but the mp3 comes out muddy.  I may be able to fix what I have or will just record it again - it’s a pretty easy song to get through without mistakes (at least the 5th or 6th time).  Hope to have some new recordings posted on both the secular and Christian sides “sometime” this winter, though.  Real soon now. Uh-huh.  I mean it.  Promise. Performance, Songwriting 2011-12-02T19:22:02+00:00 http://www.jbcmusic.com/NewsBlog/./index.php/site/song_statistics_at_2_years/ http://www.jbcmusic.com/NewsBlog/./index.php/site/song_statistics_at_2_years/#When:18:56:17Z Bandizmo skunks ReverbNation (still) X 10! I started uploading songs to Bandizmo, then ReverbNation a little over 2 years ago.  As reported on this blog in the past, even though ReverbNation is the slicker website, either their song-play statistics are just plain wrong, or Bandizmo just totally trounces, skunks, whips, rolls over ReverbNation when it comes to song plays, at least for non-commercial, non-famous artists like me.  My Bandizmo plays passed ReverbX10 a couple of months ago; I now have 5 of 12 songs on Bandizmo that individually have more song plays than all 11 songs posted on ReverbNation, and the others are not far behind.  Plus my ReverbNation count was absolutely flat for the last half of 2010, so I’m pretty sure their song count was broken for a while - there’s usually at least a small increment.  The songs were all basically uploaded the same time, except I put “Start it Out Here in Bethlehem” on Bandizmo and not on Reverb.  Here’s some details- Bandizmo - Total 1844 song plays, most popular- “Little Man”, followed by “Freeway Song”, “A Child of Yours” very close behind.  Fastest recent climber - “In the Presence of God”, but “Start it Out Here in Bethlehem” has been the fastest climber since it was uploaded (surprising me, since it’s not that great a recording). ReverbNation - Total 164 song plays, most popular- “Clap Your Hands and Sing (Jehovah Rises)”, then “Little Man”, third is a secular country-ish song, “Empty Air” (which I think is my best home-studio work so far).  Fastest recent climber - “Little Man”, but “Empty Air” has been the fastest climber since it was uploaded. Bottom line - I like how you can add shows (and look for local shows) on ReverbNation, and RN’s tracking of who’s listening to and liking your songs and communication with those people is much better, but if you just simply want your songs listened to, between these two, it’s BANDIZMO! Audio/Recording, Songwriting 2011-10-17T18:56:17+00:00 http://www.jbcmusic.com/NewsBlog/./index.php/site/blackwatch_progress_5/ http://www.jbcmusic.com/NewsBlog/./index.php/site/blackwatch_progress_5/#When:14:56:31Z Creating a Ruckus, slowly We’ve decided on a name for the Blackwatch! - “Ruckus.”  Our daughter Laurel’s got the equipment to produce the vinyl lettering, so we’re excited to see what she’ll come up with. After nearly a month without bringing the boat home from storage, working on the woodwork in the garage and the mast in the back yard instead, got it backed in the driveway last Saturday, got the wood re-installed around the companionway, then had rain all day Sunday - not complaining, we needed it!  So we just left it in the drive for a week, which means we’ll probably be getting a letter from the homeowners shortly, but I did get some things done this weekend - plugged all the screw-holes in what I’d installed the week before, which nearly drove me crazy - they kept breaking off below the surface when I tried to chisel them off, put some in 4-5 times - but I finally got them all done and got a couple of coats of varnish over the top of them.  I installed a traveller across the stern above the tiller notch in the cockpit, didn’t turn out as neat as I’d hoped - should have bent the track to shape first instead of depending on bending it into place.  Then I got the seat drains in the cockpit working - the bronze elbows below deck had corroded away, and someone had put a rubber tape with a butyl rubber adhesive over the holes on deck.  That took an hour scrubbing with Interlux 216 solvent to get that stuff off.  I put in bigger plastic scuppers but still had to neck them down to the 1” existing pipe, replaced all the plastic tubing clamps below deck with 1 stainless steel and one plastic at each connection.  All-in-all, the scuppers turned into quite a job, so I didn’t get to other things I’d hoped to, like starting on the electrical system. The weeks before that, I’ve painted the mast and got most of the hardware on it, except the masthead is different and I still have to figure out how to attach the forestay and backstay - the existing tangs don’t fit.  I considered installing the original Blackwatch masthead by cutting a sleeve from the old mast to fit inside the new, slightly bigger mast, but it really looked jury-rigged.  Besides, the new masthead is set up for internal halyards, and I’ve already set the exit sheaves into the bottom of the mast. In the meantime, Deb’s got the interior cushions finished and started polishing the hull.  A real disappointment with the gelcoat I sprayed over the repairs, though - I had the color matched perfectly, but after sitting in the sun a couple of weeks, the yellow faded out and the repairs took on a pinkish hue against the ivory hull - roughly back to where I was before I did the last color-matching.  I told Deb to just go ahead and polish over them anyway - who knows what color they’ll be in another month!  Maybe we’ll sail the boat a couple of years, then re-gelcoat the whole topsides if it’s looking bad - not that much to it.  Right now, we just-want-to-get-sailing! Sailing 2011-10-17T14:56:31+00:00 http://www.jbcmusic.com/NewsBlog/./index.php/site/afton_warehouse_live_show_thanks/ http://www.jbcmusic.com/NewsBlog/./index.php/site/afton_warehouse_live_show_thanks/#When:02:49:39Z OK show, good response THANKS SO MUCH to everyone who came out to the Warehouse Live on Sunday, to the few who bought tickets but couldn’t make it out in the end, and for the TIPS collected through the ticket site.  The show went pretty well, all-in-all, at least through my part.  In the 20 or so minutes alloted to me, I managed to squeeze in “Beulah Lynn,” “Lord, Don’t Float My House Away,” “80 MPH Blues,” then slowed it down for the end with “Tropical Breezes.”  From what I could tell through the over-amped stage monitors, I thought I sounded pretty good - only made a couple of keyboard bobbles that only my dear wife, who’s heard the songs a thousand times, would even catch. I’d give the show overall an “OK,” mainly because the acoustics and sound setup in the Studio Room aren’t that great - set up more for pure volume for the rock bands than for clarity in the music.  People said it sounded good right in front of the control booth, otherwise the room’s acoustics pretty much muddy the sound up.  Still, I enjoyed playing and people seemed to enjoy all the songs, even the younger crowd there for the later bands,  I played second; the first band was a sibling-and-others group called Richard Kelly & Chased Faces that I would have really enjoyed with better acoustics, especially their originals.  The band after me, I didn’t care for, didn’t bother getting their name - a grunge-rock screamer group that got the 13-to-16-year olds on their feet moshing, but basically chased all the adults out of the room to head either home or to the bar across the street to finish out the evening.  So sadly, I don’t know what the remaining bands for the evening sounded like. THANKS AGAIN to the small crowd from work who made it out, and especially to my groupie Deb and my roadie Jeff, and to Amy and Chris from the Afton group for putting on the show.  It was fun, we’ll do it again, maybe not the same place (it’s geared toward a younger crowd), but someplace.  For the next two months or so, though, I’ve got a sailboat restoration project to finish up, ready to get back on the water, or what’s left of it in our lakes down here.  I’ll still try and keep practiced up for an occasional open mic or whatever gig pops up.  THANKS. Performance 2011-09-27T02:49:39+00:00 http://www.jbcmusic.com/NewsBlog/./index.php/site/the_dangers_of_googling_your_own_name/ http://www.jbcmusic.com/NewsBlog/./index.php/site/the_dangers_of_googling_your_own_name/#When:18:06:22Z Neither in jail nor dead! Googling your own name may turn up some scary stuff: Not ME!:   Definitely NOT ME!: If you do a video search on “Brent Clifton” on Google, none of those are me.  Nobody I hang around with much owns a video camera (or am I just too boring to film?) And I do live in the Spring, Texas, area but I’m not Brent Clifton the owner of Crux Studios in Spring.  Confused? But do check out these lyrics or the recorded song. Home and such, Website 2011-08-25T18:06:22+00:00 http://www.jbcmusic.com/NewsBlog/./index.php/site/brents_got_a_gig/ http://www.jbcmusic.com/NewsBlog/./index.php/site/brents_got_a_gig/#When:20:40:15Z Warehouse Live, Sunday, September 25, 6:30 PM Hey! I’ll be playing in a show September 25th, Houston’s Warehouse Live!  In the Studio Room, 6:30 PM.  As I mentioned a couple of blogs ago, I was contacted by this group out of Oregon, Afton, www.aftonshows.com, a promo group started by musicians who focus on getting local “unknown” artists on stage.  From what I’ve seen, they seem to do a pretty good job of it, and this will be my first PAID gig instead of playing for free coffee, beer, nice smiles, or “exposure.” Details:  OK, so it’s not “my” show; I’ll be one of seven acts performing from 6:30 to around 11:30.  My part will be 20-30 minutes, and the exact time slot won’t be set until closer to the date (I’ve asked for earlier rather than later).  This will be one of my “secular” sets (which doesn’t necessarily mean you won’t hear the words “Lord,” “God,” or “Jesus,” just that it won’t be what I’d consider praise and worship or “church” music).  Expect 2 or 3 songs I’ve got posted here on the site, on ReverbNation, and on Bandizmo and 2 or 3 you’ve never heard (unless you live with me or have been hiding in my closet).  Here’s the rub:  even though it is at a venue that serves alcohol, Afton likes to put on “all-ages” shows, which this will be.  So instead of a free show relying on big alcohol sales, they sell TICKETS to the show.  $10* - not bad for a 5-hour show with up to 7 different bands and musicians.  *Update - EARLY ticket sales discounts are EXPIRED - sorry! So here’s what I need from you:  BUY MY TICKETS!  Here’s the link:  www.aftonshows.com/BrentClifton.  Or I do have the option of handing you a physical ticket for $10 cash.  It’s IMPORTANT that you buy tickets beforehand because (a) you’re more likely to show up, (b) I get PAID for the show based on my pre-sold tickets, (c) I’m more likely to be invited to play more shows based on ticket sales and (d) it’ll cost you 2 bucks more at the door.  Use the 2 bucks toward a drink instead.  PLEASE help make this a success and come on out! Here’s the LINKS: MY Afton ticket site; (BE SURE to buy your ticket HERE so I get the credit)   All Afton shows;   Afton info for artists; Warehouse Live, STUDIO ROOM, 6:30 PM Sunday, September 25th. 813 St. Emanuel Street (South of Minute Maid Park across Hwy 59 ) Houston, TX 77003 ~All Ages~ & Bar w/ID Performance 2011-08-14T20:40:15+00:00 http://www.jbcmusic.com/NewsBlog/./index.php/site/blackwatch_progress_4/ http://www.jbcmusic.com/NewsBlog/./index.php/site/blackwatch_progress_4/#When:20:15:55Z Varnish, maybe some RAIN! Progress - slow, just too darned hot to work much.  But still, I’ve managed to get 5-6 coats of varnish on the first batch of wood I took off.  I’m using Sikkens Cetol, which everyone claims is the best for longevity, but I really hate working with it - it’s like trying to paint with honey.  I just simply can’t get it on smooth, have just been concentrating on getting it on thick instead, so it’ll take some wet-sanding before the final 1 or 2 coats.  I’ve removed the second batch of exterior wood, al the pieces around the companionway, replaced them with pine and cedar I had laying around the garage so I can still close the boat up.  I have all that and the hatch boards sanded down, on the 3rd or 4th coat of varnish.  I have all the interior wood out (except for the mast post, which I’ll have to finish in place), haven’t bothered sanding it down because I figure I can finish that after the boat’s sailing. I got the gel-coat matched very well finally, and re-sprayed all the repaired spots. The spray I got from my airbrush is a bit rough, because I hated to thin the stuff too much, but finally did thin it out a lot anyway so the last 2-3 spots I sprayed came out a lot smoother.  Most of the rest needed some sanding; got some of them wet-sanded, polished out and blended in pretty well, still have some left to go. I was hoping to start on the mast this afternoon, have to cut it to length, drill holes, and plan on painting it white.  But as I was starting to set up, it started thundering!  Yay!  First time I’ve heard that in months! Lord, we need the rain! - but I don’t need to be working with an aluminum mast with potential lightning around.  Maybe next week. Sailing 2011-08-14T20:15:55+00:00