Here are some highlights of Around the World in Eighty Hours, which ran from July 29-31 during the Milwaukee Avenue Arts Festival. During the whole preparation process I kept telling myself “I’ll never put myself through this again,” but it ended up being so much fun that I’ll probably want to do it again next year.

First step was to write out the score on a staff. Guitar Pro is a good tool for that, because you can hear the melody as you’re writing it out.

The next step- transcribing the melody to the punch strip- was easy, because the punch strip looks like a mini musical score. I divided the strip into measures and marked it up with a pencil to match the score. Then I had to punch out holes over all the marks.

My mechanical music box is limited to two octaves of diatonic notes in C, but this limitation resulted in an entirely new arrangement. Here’s my first punch strip, a solo for an original tune, Mandarin Dragonet:

One of the highlights of today’s market was a whirlpool of children swirling around Julie Jurgens and banging on percussion instruments as she played children’s classics. Pictured here is John Bellows, who inadvertently demonstrated the dangers of musical self-instruction- playing the guitar on the wrong side.

I was flattered to be asked to join Erin Frisby’s temporary Cast of Characters band for her gig at Hog Head McDunna’s this Saturday, March 27 (opening for Stuart Chaseman’s record release). Though I’ll only be playing a couple of songs (doumbek and bodhran), it’s worth checking this show out to experience the descriptive imagery of Frisby’s lyrics, backed by her powerful voice and musical arrangements grounded deep in a wide range of roots music. If I wasn’t playing I’d be there anyway!

If you live in the area and are interested in attending future concerts in this monthly series, please contact me and I’ll put you in touch with Jack.

Then, I got to see Guy apply his rock-star voice and ornamental fingerstyle to a set of my own songs with his temporary band The Rob-Bots featuring his girlfriend Julie on fiddle and ‘00s rock legend Hoyne LeMoyne on percussion- and I can say I’ve never felt so honored to hear my songs played in Guy’s unique style. Thanks be to Chris Darby, a talented performer in his own right, for convening another unique and enjoyable songwriter night.

And here you can see some footage of the night.

This album spans a wide range of American and world genres with lyrics featuring an eclectic cast of characters such as a lightning strike survivor, an urban explorer, a young coin collector, a recently demoted planet, and a stray cougar.

The Principles of Crop Rotation