I am excited to announce that my cd, Noone Lasses, is now for sale on CD Baby and iTunes. If you live in Portland and want to get a copy in person just should be an email. 

I am really excited with how the whole package turned out.  The tunes sound great, i really like the sequencing, the artwork is beautiful, and it all fits together so well as a whole. Thanks to Doug, Steve, Cass, and Mike for being a part of it. 

If you have bought or downloaded the album and have any comments, questions, or feedback feel free to post them to comments.  I am always happy to talk about music. 

Thanks,

Anton

There is a nice little article at www.sixtysevenmusic.com about my and my album.  SixtySeven Music is a local organization here in Portland that works to promote and support irish music in the Northwest.  They have a weekly podcast and radio show.

Article Link

It looks like i am playing at their one year anniversary party in April, and may be appearing on their radio show sometime soon. 

Thanks Sixty Seven music for the nice review.

Anton

They should be available for mail order from CDBaby.com in a week or two, and iTunes not long after that. I will be sure and post something up about that. If you are in Portland and would like to buy one from me in person just get in touch via email.

Anton

Check back here to see when its for sale, i imagine that will be a few weeks.  My plan is to sell physical CD's and downloads through CD Baby, as well as downloads through iTunes.

Anton 

So I finally got around to recording that version of Lord Mayo for clawhammer guitar mentioned a while back.  Sorry for the delay.  I had to order a Third Hand Capo to make it work.  The Third Hand Capo is pretty cool, it lets you capo only individual strings while leaving others open.

In my case i wanted to tune the guitar gGDGCD, with the sixth string one octave above the fifth.  So i took off the low sixth string, and replaced it with a .16 guage second string.  I tuned that to B, then put the Third Hand up on the 8th fret, bringing that string to G. That put the capo out of my way, since this arrangement doesnt go that high.  Since i only needed to capo that one outer string i removed the other rubber washers, as even in the up position the open strings would sometimes buzz against them. 

So essentially i tuned my guitar to the mountain minor banjo tuning, which is gDGCD, and stuck an extra string an octave lower after the 1st string.  This is nice because i can essentially play banjo tunes, and sometimes hit that 5th string and let it ring for contrast.  Another way to accomplish this tuning would be to put some railroad spikes in a second guitar.  I know Steve Baughman does this, but i dont really want to put them on my main nice guitar.  Perhaps later on i will devote a second guitar to it. 

Anyways, so here it is.  Its just a simple recording i made at home, so pardon the few mistakes. 

Lord Mayo - Audio

Let me know what you think.

Anton

Hopefully i should be able to ship the album off to the manufacturing facility in the next week or two.

I updated my reverb nation player with three tracks from the cd.

by Mike Losier

Advice for Musicians Making a Recording

As someone who has made a living essentially playing folk and "unpopular" music, I am inclined to listen to what he has to say.  Its interesting reading this stuff now that i have just finished making a recording. I definitely agree with the first tip, you have to figure out what you are, and what you are best at.  I love alot of different types of music, dabble in various styles, but have always felt my best music is arranging celtic tunes for guitar. Who knows what direction i may take in the future, but thats where i am for now.

I still need to do the high five guitar recording i mentioned below. I realized that to replace my sixth string with a high first string and tune it up to G i would need a super light string. It would be easier if i had a railroad spike or a Third Hand Capo that would allow me to capo a single string.  I think if i get a super light string, perhaps an electric guitar string, it should work.  I hope so, i would really like to record the tune for folks to hear. 

Anton 

Alternative content

I am currently borrowing a banjola from my friend Aaron O'Rourke for a few days.  Its pretty cool, a mix between a banjo and an octave mandolin.  This one has six strings, with the sixth string functioning as a high drone string.  Right now, its tuned gGDGCD.  You can frail it like a banjo, but also switch to fingerstyle guitar oriented things.  It has a more immediate attack than a guitar, with more sustain than a banjo.  

At the moment i am just exploring it as a clawhammer instrument, working up a version of the march Lord Mayo.  Perhaps I will get a chance to record it in a few days.

Anton