OMG...It's gone! NOoooo....

OK, I'm kinda freaking out right now.

Over thew weekend I attended a music conference (The Children's Music Network) in the Chicago area. While I was there I interviewed many people for a new podcast I am launching soon (3 Answers with Kids Music Makers) and I did a recording session with one awesome multi instrumentalist from California, Wiley Rankin from Jump for Joy Music.

Wiley jammed some of the BEST harmonica ever for my attempt to turn the classic, CLASSIC, rock song FREEBIRD into a children's song.

I am in the studio today finishing off the CD, I leaded my session and the harmonica track...the ENTIRE SESSION is GONE!!!!!!!! NO!

We did it early in the morning...did I press the record button? Did I somehow delete it?  I have no fricken clue, this sucks.

Well, I did video the session on my iPhone. I will now attempt to lift the audio off the phone and drag it into Garageband and see if it is usable. Here I go, wish me luck!

OK...
Step 1-I converted the video into an MP3 with an app called Music Converter.
Step 2- opening Garageband and dragging the file in (went in just fine)
Step 3-OMG!!!! It sounds great! Really, nice and clean. Too bad Wiley wants me to "dirty it up" but I will.
Step 4-OK, the dirty sound is FANTASTIC! Wiley is a genius. I used a fuzz bass amp setting with extra compression...too cool. Sounds just like a "bullet" mic with a small Fender amp, very traditional.
Step 5-Don't freak out, make lemonade out of those lemons!

I will try to post the final song here tomorrow.

Here is the video we did and the actual audio you will hear in the final session. I highly recommend Wiley for harmonica, sax and flute sessions!

What are you doing today?

It's Sunday! what do you have planned?

Me? I am at the CMN (Children's Music Network) national conference in Zion, IL (near Chicago) with my kids Taelor and Wil.

I am attending a workshop about social media and blogging etc, so I decided to update my blog today.

Started the day at breakfast and networking with my fellow kids music makers. As a result of meeting up with so many friends I was able to find some wonderful people to interview for my new podcast (more about that later).

After breakfast I met up with Wiley Rankin from Jump for Joy Music and he recorded a WILD harmonica solo for my cover of the classic rock song, "Freebird".

Now I am sitting in a great workshop moderated by Liz Buchanan, with a wonderful group of people taking about social media, blogging, Twitter, FaceBook and more.

Porcupine Petting Zoo

My son and I do a lot of traveling together now that he is the main drummer for Mr. Billy. On these trips we listen to a lot of music, tell jokes, tell stories, record the silly song of the day and on the rare occasion write songs together.

This is the most recent song that we have written, it's called "the porcupine petting zoo".

We wrote the words together in the vans ever months ago and it's been sitting in my lap top until we got to North Carolina and worked up the music and melody. 

The best way to describe the song is that it's kind of like George Thorogood for kids. I don't do a lot of bluesy stuff but this one is pretty cool.
What do you think? Here it is, check out the lyrics at the bottom…comment and share please!


Porcupine Petting Zoo

(c) 2012 William Charles Grisack III & William Charles Grisack IV

There is a place that the children avoidAnd it gets all the animals there annoyedBecause all they really want to doIs look really cute, play and cuddle with you! Porcupine petting zooPorcupine petting zooPorcupine petting zooOoo, ooo, ooo....OUCH!

Down the road there is another place,
Where all the kids wear a happy face
They have little animals just like us,
I don't know why there's such a big fuss

Porcupine petting zoo
Porcupine petting zoo
Porcupine petting zoo
Ooo, ooo, ooo....OUCH!

But we don't understand and don't get the point
We tried everything to get the kids in our joint
We learn to dance and sing like the Beatles
But children are on the way when they see our needles

Led Zeppelin and Penguins

Do I have a stairway to happy feet? Let's find out...

Everybody loves penguins, kids love penguins, grown-ups love penguins and I am assuming penguins love penguins.

I see happy feet, the original not the second one, and start stop (I love that movie). I thought the penguin was one of Batman's best bad guys the TV show penguin, not the Tim Burton movie version.

Lots of people like Led Zeppelin too, me...not so much, I'm more of a Beatles and KISS guy. But the Led Zeppelin songs I like… I really like; songs like Kashmir, Stairway to Heaven and The Immigrant Song.

So what do penguins and Led Zeppelin have in common?

They are both inspirations for my new song "Penguin Waddle".

I got the idea for the song about five years ago, and I've written and rewritten and rewritten it over and over again. I knew I wanted to do a song about penguins, as I said I was a very popular especially with kids. And after seeing the Shrek movie where the princesses used the immigrant song I thought HEY! kids must date Led Zeppelin too! Cool.

So had an idea for a song inspired by the groove of the Led Zeppelin classic. But that's as far as it got for many years.

When I decided to do a CD all about animals, "Boogaloo Zoo", I thought it's time to finally finish this penguin song once and for all so I called my good friend and songwriting buddy Dave Kinnoin. And wouldn't you know it within 48 hours the song wizard sprinkled some magic dust on me and TA-DA! the song is done and now it's recorded too.

Here it is, the lyrics are below. Please please please comment and share, ROCK ON!

PENGUIN WADDLE

William Charles Grisack lll and Dave Kinnoin

Verse One:

The ice is  hard in my front yard

And the wind has a pleasant chill.

I just got in from the sea with a grin

'Cause my tummiy is full of krill.

My buds stop by with a look in their eye

Like they wanna do more than talk.

Our flippers start twitchin'

'Cause our feet are itchin'

To make this iceberg rock!

Chorus:

Penguin waddle...

Verse Two:

Our devotion to ocean motion

Inspires and drives each move.

We swirl and swish like we're cathin' fish,

And it fits right into the groove.

We're rollin' and strollin'--our salty team

Feels the surge, has an urge for a primal scream.

We're divin', jivin', jumpin', turnin'--

Holy squid, the dance floor's burnin'!

Ooo-wee,

Gotta love this frozen water!

Splash me!

This  berg's a teeter-totter

The current's gettin' hotter...

Taking my mandolin to the zoo

I'm working on the title track of my new CD called Boogaloo Zoo, recording this was very interesting…

Zoo animals like the song BOOGALOO ZOO by Billy on GoAnimate

Video Maker - Powered by GoAnimate.

We actually recorded the guitar bass and drums live on stage during our days off at a Day out with Thomas in North Carolina. The basic guitar was recorded in one take using my line 6 guitar, which can emulate a bass guitar and an acoustic guitar at the same time while my son Wil played the drums. We played directly into the BOSE sound system taking a line out of the total match digital mixer. It has a USB output we plugged directly into the MacBook.

It sounds pretty good… Today I added vocals, and acoustic guitar solo and I broke out the mandolin. And no idea why I used the mandolin, but it sure sounds great.

This will most likely be the first track on the CD, the recording has a lot of power (from the live basic tracks?) and what I think are some great hooks in the song.

What do you think? Here it is, BOOGALOO ZOO! (BTW my daughter Taylor came up with the title for the song and CD, I think it kicks butt).

I can do more than 12 CDs, right?

If I can record 12 CDs a year, why not 13?

That is probably what's going to happen if I reach my goal of recording and releasing 12 CDs in 2012. Why? Well, the last CD, CD number six was such a disaster that I actually had to record the entire CD, but it was only released once. That means if I do get 12 CDs done this year (which is looking a little bleak right now) I will actually going through the process of recording 13 CDs. But I can't think about that right now.

Today I need to think about CD number seven, "Boogaloo Zoo", the all animal CD.

Thanks little help from my friends and family I'm doing pretty good with this one.

Graham Sacks, an awesome guitarists from south Africa has done an entire track, all the instruments for me. It's a cover, ironically, of the Lion Sleeps Tonight. The track is pretty much done, but am hoping Graham will send me a cool jazz guitar solo to go with it. This man really is amazing, and he is going through some hard life challenges right now. If you can, please take the time to check out his new children's nursery rhyme CD, it's awesome and the best part… It's only five dollars, you can pay more if you want to, I did and it's worth every penny. You could check them out here…

AFRICAN TREEHOUSE

My son, Wil has helped me out a lot too. While we were on tour North Carolina will and I spend a lot of time on our days off recording drums guitar and bass tracks together. We did about a half dozen songs. All I have to do is add vocals, and some miscellaneous instruments.

My good songwriting buddy Dave Kinnoin has stepped in with two awesome songs of his own and helped me with a song about penguins I've been working on for five years, it's done now… And it is awesome.

I don't have any songs to play for you today, so why not check out Graham Sacks, okay?

Am I a Nerd?

Am I a nerd?

Let's see, I play with my iPad and my I phone all day long, I watch Star Trek… I even have a huge Star Trek collection of action figures books videos and models. My son and I hang out in comic bookstores together. My daughter and I hang out in record stores to buy… Real vinyl records. I love techie stuff, listen to podcasts and I am addicted to the Big Bang theory. Yes, I am a nerd.

One day while checking my Twitter feed I discovered the functional nerds podcast, actually I discovered John Anilleo and his sci-fi songs… That led me to the functional nerds podcast, I became addicted.

And today, drumroll please, I am a guest on the show!

I'm taking a short break from recording and gigging today to drive from North Carolina back to Wisconsin, I just heard the show and think it's pretty cool. So I decided to stop at a McDonald's on the way, tap into their Wi-Fi and write this blog post to let you know about the episode that features me.

Here is the link…

http://functionalnerds.com/2012/10/episode-120-mister-billy/

Of Hope you like the show, please share it reposted and most importantly leave a comment on the functional nerds podcast page it would mean a lot to me and will mean a lot to John and Patrick too.

BTW listen to the music playing before I start speaking, it is the world premiere of my new song angry bird space. It's the follow-up single to my single angry birds. It will go on sale worldwide next week, but you can hear it for free today.

Here it is, hope you enjoy it Rock On!