My schedule for the fall is nearly finalized. I'll be mixing up the Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays this fall instead of doing the same slots each week. Every Wednesday is the Allen St. Grill, Thursdays I rotate from The Deli and Bar Bleu, Fridays is a mix of Rumors, The Autoport, and the Elks Club, and Kimballs (Williamsport), and Saturdays you will find me at The Cell Block (Williamsport), The Works, (Reading) or Kelly's. That's a lot of variety. I hope you can make it out for a bunch of gigs this fall and enjoy an evening of music with me.  As always, the current schedule is available on the schedule page.

Enjoy the day.
Domenick

In the last month I wrote a couple more songs that I'm very happy with.  I'll demo them soon and share them with the mailing list members. 

First is a song called "Wildfires," about a failing relationship that started out strong, but is quickly burning out.  The process of writing this one was a bit different than I usually do.  It was more of a brainstorming and just singing out of ideas while the record button was on, then going back and piecing it together.  Kind of a liberating process.

The second song is titled "The Next Thing," and this one's for my Dad.  One of the most important and memorable lessons that Dad taught me was to just do the next thing. And why worry, or why even wonder, because what good does it do? "Just do the next thing" is something that I'm sure Dad said at some time, but it's been expressed to me more through his actions and everyday way about life than through words, and it's been a sort of motto to me through my adult life. When I feel myself trying to do everything all at once and my mind and body start racing to get everything accomplished now, I try to think of Dad, pause, and do the next thing. So here's a song for you, Dad.

Enjoy the day.
Domenick

I'll be playing The Phyrst from 5-7 pm for the Friday of Arts Fest in State College (7/11/2008).  It's happy hour at the Phyrst and is guaranteed to be a great time ..... seriously.  I hope you can stop by.

Enjoy the day.
Domenick

Wrote a new song today called Seventeen Years.  Pretty upbeat musically, and a lot of fun to play.  It wrote very quickly.  Love it when that happens.

Enjoy the day.
Domenick

Well, I've been writing a lot lately and it's certainly been my main focus.  I still haven't demoed any of them except for the initial rough recordings so they aren't forgotten.  I do still plan to demo all the new songs sooner rather than later, and I'm looking forward to making them available to all the mailing list members.

A new song called "People Are Good" is about exactly that.  Sometimes I find it more difficult to write an upbeat, positive message song than to write the opposite.

Another one called "I Think It's You" seemed to write itself very quickly.  It has a pretty straight forward country feel to it, it's a little angry, and kinda fun.

Lastly, I finished a song today called "Carbon Man."  It has a similar theme to "Liar" from the "Afterlife" album and I spent a lot of time with the lyrics.

I've been playing all these new songs at my gigs so you can here them there.

I'm looking forward to getting them recorded so I can share them with all of you.

Enjoy the day.
Domenick.

Over the last week I wrote three new songs and I'm pretty happy about that. 

"Pick it Up" is an upbeat song about getting started, moving on, and the temptation of being content with the past.  I wrote about the same topic in "The Postage" many years back, and somehow it seems like a sequel to "The Great Divide."

Can't quite decide on a title yet for the second song, either "The Distance," or "Things Go Around."  Either way, it's a song about two people in love who aren't really good for one another.  This is the first time that I've really stepped outside of my own experiences to write from a different perspective, something I'd like to do a lot more often.  It has a feel somewhat similar to "Saturday," I think.

Lastly, I wrote a song titled "Unlock the Gates" yesterday.  I think it's a bit different from anything else I've written and I like it a lot.  I'll let you decide what it's about.

I'm going to demo these songs next week and I'll post the mp3s on the Mailing List Members page. 

Enjoy the day.
Domenick

Hello all:

As I've been preparing to shift focus to songwriting, I've spent a lot of time in the last few weeks learning a couple more covers as well. Some I learned by request and some of them I learned because I came across them again while revisiting some old favorites.

One song in particular, Richard Thompson's "Vincent Black Lightning 1952" I decide to try to learn again after failing a couple of other times. Occasionally, I'll try to learn a song and it just doesn't happen because I can't seem to find my own way of doing it or I just don't have the skills on guitar. This was one of those songs. Richard Thompson finger picks the whole song and I tried to learn it that way a couple of other times, and then gave up. But after developing some hybrid picking techniques in the last year or so, I had the idea to try to flat pick "Vincent Black Lightning 1952" with a bit of hybrid picking thrown in. While it’s not like Richard Thompson, the results aren’t bad, and it’s a heck of a lot of fun to play. He wrote a nearly perfect song that just has one of those indescribable feelings to it. If you’re interested to see Richard play it, here’s a link.

I reworked a medley that I used to do with Dylan’s “All Along the Watchtower” and “Hurricane,” and added three great Barenaked Ladies songs that I always wished I knew: “When I Fall,” “Same Thing,” and “The Flag,” which are all beautiful examples of tight songwriting with big melodies.

Pearl Jam’s “Off He Goes,” was one that I always knew pieces of so I filled in the blanks and learned the rest, and I reworked Oasis’s “Champagne Supernova” with some harmonica and some looping.

Also, I added Neil Diamond’s “Solitary Man,” “Rocky Raccoon” from The Beatles, U2’s “Stuck in a Moment,” Matt Nathanson’s “Car Crash,” Jimi Hendrix's "Castles Made of Sand," and Ben Harper's "Diamonds on the Inside" at the request of some friends.

I really love learning great songs because it’s always a lesson in songwriting. Every song I’ve ever learned has taught me something and given me new ideas.

Hope to see you soon at a gig. Let me know, and I’ll play some of these for you.

Enjoy the day.
Domenick

As I've discussed with many of you, one of my goals this year is to write a lot of songs.  I've always written in waves and waited for inspiration, but I would like to become a more consistent writer and I'd like to write a lot more songs.  I'm pretty serious about the music goals that I set for myself and once I get started writing again, I hope to keep up a pretty good pace.  I've been setting about the task of organizing all of the song ideas that I've come up with through the years both on paper and in recorded format and that's almost finished.

I'm very much a one-thing-at-a-time sort of person and once I get a few other musical things lined up and out of the way I'll be writing again.  I plan to demo most of the new songs pretty quickly once they're written, and I may share some of them with the mailing list members. 

Enjoy the day.
Domenick

I'm suprised that so many people have noticed that I've been playing on a new guitar these days.  In December, I bought a Martin HD-28.  I shopped around for it a while, and played many until I found this one, which just sort of felt right to me.  I played on a Gibson CL-30 for about 6 years so that instrument felt like it was almost part of me.  It didn't take long, though, for me to really start feeling connected to this Martin.  It does sound and play noticably different and I'm really loving the clarity and punch it has.  Nice.

Enjoy the day.
Domenick

Hey, I'll be at The Cell Block in Williamsport for a New Years Eve celebration.  I'll be playing upstairs in the Pub from about 9:30 till midnight.  There will be a lot going on at the Cell Block that night, and it's sure to be a good time.  Wherever you are, enjoy yourself.  Love the one you're with.

With four gigs a week in State College (sometimes five) it's been a good Fall so far, even if the weather feels like  a long, extended summer.  I'm having a great time getting to know so many of you, and I thank you for coming back so often.  It's nice to have your support. 

So if you haven't been out for a while, stop by the Skeller, Allen Street Grill, Deli, or Kelly's and say "hi."  We always have a good time.  Grab a song list and throw some requests at me.  There's quite a few new songs that I've added to the list, and a new set of originals is on the way too.

Enjoy the day.
Domenick

After requests from many friends,  my first album, Greytime, is now on iTunes.   The Afterlife album will follow in a couple of months.  So now you can download songs directly from my website in the downloads section or you can snag a song, or the whole album, the next time you are on iTunes.

Enjoy the day.