Mbanj -- banjo and harmonica instrumental

I built this film from some footage I shot down in the Barataria Preserve last May. I provided food for a good number of mosquitoes that day, I can tell you.

I don't actually remember recording the banjo part; it's just something I did while noodling around one day, but I apparently thought enough of it to save it. I found it the other day while organizing source material and ideas for our next cd and thought it might have some potential as the basis for a more complete work. Troy and I recorded the drums and harmonica the next day and we unleashed Joel and his bass on it a week later. It turned out to be a nice little "interlude" type of piece.

This song is featured on our Mojo Fix album

Michael Futreal

banjo, harmonica

Joel Boultinghouse

bass

Troy Messina

drums

Kyle Canyon Road -- acoustic mountain dulcimer and harmonica

From our Mojo Fix album, here's an acoustic recording of a piece for DAA-tuned Appalachian dulcimer and harmonica. Typically, DAA dulcimer is utilized to do Ionian in D, but here I'm using it to do a mix of D Lydian and F# Aeolian/A Ionian.

The title of the song is taken from the road outside of Las Vegas that leads to Mt. Charleston. This, like many of our pieces, conjures images of driving through a landscape. In spite of the "Appalachian" roots of our music, I find I often imagine desert mountain landscapes.

Michael Futreal

dulcimer, harmonica

Joel Boultinghouse

bass, guitar

Troy Messina

cajon

You can also check an earlier solo version of this tune, Crossing Thistledown, performed on a GDD-tuned dulcimer. The earlier version lacks the Lydian outro, but has it's own peppy rock groove with some tasty electric guitar.

How Moxley Rolls -- a blues for a new CD

We've recently gotten underway with recording sessions for a new CD. Here's an early mix... an original jazzy blues called "How Moxley Rolls."

Moxley is Joel's spazzy dog! He was extremely hard to capture on video, he moves so fast. But that's just how Moxley rolls.

We do this one live with just the two guitars and drums, but thanks to the magic of multitrack, we've augmented this version with some bass, banjo, and harmonica.

You can also check out my original solo demo for this song.