This is What I Saw: 100 Songs Recorded in 5 Days
“This Is What I Saw” is the refrain from my song Speculator, (Glockler/Genauer). Over the years it’s become a mantra — something between a reminder and a confession.The project itself started last year with a three-night residency in Boulder, Colorado — three nights, no repeats. As art tends to do, those shows caught the attention of fine artist Pete Nogas down in Georgia.. Pete and I became fast friends, though get this, we have never met to this day. We’ve talked a lot about how visual art and music are two sides of the same coin. Somewhere in there, he mentioned the 100-song poster the Grateful Dead commissioned after playing Madison Square Garden for the 100th time. Then he casually said, “We should do that for 100 of your songs.” and then he just did it (see below). When the framed poster showed up in my living room, I realized Pete had seen me in a way I had never seen myself. His reflection of my songs back to me was one story not 100s of little tales. So I did what any self respecting lunatic does and booked 5 days at my buddies studio in La Honda CA. I had to sell him on the idea but in the end he caved with enthusiasm and we captured 100 songs live in 5 days. Take aways:
I’ve written an unhealthy number of songs in G and E.
My titles cover every letter of the alphabet except four.
I should’ve listened to my own advice more often.
I’m about 20% better-looking with a guitar in hand.
I don’t expect anyone to listen to 100, but for me it was a milestone — a look back, a laugh, and a reclaiming of days to come. .
Nov 21-23 Fairfield CT. 3 Nights · 100 Songs · No Repeats
We’re launching This Is What I Saw with a three-night, no-repeat, acoustic gauntlet. One man, his trusted Martin D-35. 100 songs played stripped to their essence (clothing optional) my imaginings tended by yours and rendered by fine artist Pete Nogas. Pete had the idea to create who illustrated a pen andt 100 song poster and he did it. One day sitting in my living room I was struck that Pete captured me in a way that I’d never seen myself. The refection of my ambling and ramblings in one seen. So then and there I decided “I’m doing it” Recordings: that is. To be precise 100 songs over the course of five days in the redwoods of La Honda, a caffeine-fueled sprint that produced , a head-trip of a journey. Yes a few flubs but no overdubs, At the end of Novermber comes the kick off shows — a three nights residency at Fairfield Theatre Company, Nov 21–23. Together they’re a single story told verse by verse across — ink, sound, paper, and Michalob Ultra. It’s proof that after years of chasing songs, the songs boomarng back and start chasing you. It has to be the songs coming a lookin for me becaause they are definatley not coming for the Michelob Ultra.
100 Songs • Five Days • Sampler
100 Song Poster Created By Pete Nogas
Pete Nogas @psychodelicpete on IG, popped on to my radar recently. Can’t remember exactly when but he started sharing a painting he was making that illustrated on of my songs “Truck Farm”. One thing lead to another and we became modern day pen pals of sorts. I had either done or was making noise about the 3 show run - no repeats, that took place in Boulder CO. Drafting off of that Pete came up with the idea for the 100-song poster, I’d never actually counted how many songs I’d written. Not once I just made them and moved on — instinctually, like a lemming with a guitar. Writing songs for me has never been about tallying or cataloging. It’s more like fishing in murky water — something bites, you reel it in, squint at it, and decide: “16” Trout?” Great. Keep it and Move on. “Ugly-ass Catfish?” Back in the water. Unlike ugly ass Catfish Pete had a great idea “You remember the black and white 100 song poster the Grateful Dead made - we should do that” and he did he drew an icon or a landscape for 100 songs - somtmes inspired by a lyric, others by the title. Here’s the best part - I know Pete and yet we’ve never actually met…
Make it stand out
Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference.
How a Habit Becomes a Habitat #TruckFarm
Reid Genauer “Truck Farm” Live From La Honda CA
If you do anything enough times, you start to replace habit for habitat.. Then one day the acts you repeat become the place you live - for me I’t turnes out in many ways I live inside my songs - like a hanbitat. Speaking of ones habitat my close friend John Leccese, bassist, brother-in-arms, and long-suffering bandmate, called one day while half way through a ham sandwich (for me ham is habitat) coughed a little, mid swallow and said: “You know what you ought to do, is play your whole damn catalog. Three nights. No repeats.” #habitat. Nov 21-23 at the Fairfield Theater we ride again. Most people would’ve laughed and gone back to chewing, but with John’s encouragement, along with Scott Law and Annabel Lukins hippy roar I booked a three night run in Boulder, Colorado. I played the first set each night and Scott and John played the second set with me. I’m hoping John might find his way to Fairfield in November.
“This is What I Ate” - Feat. John Leccese & A Ham Sandwich.
Steve Jobs once said "The minute you understand that you can poke life, and that if you push something in, something will pop out the other side.” Well… That sandwich moment became the seed of something bigger — a 100 songs of a life thus far lead, a fly by night collection of songs, an idea for a show format and hand drawn100 song poster The recordings are live in studio, no overdubs, no polish. Just me a guitar and said and a questionable amount of Ham sandwiches. I gotta admit - I’m kinda scared - I’m poking the world folks and I suppose we’ll see what pops out on the flip side. My friend Brian Sagrafena opened the doors to his aptly named Sloth Mountain Studios, and with Jason Cirimele engineering, we got to work. Five days later, I crawled out with one hundred songs — some wild, some wobbling, but all al theml honest, especially in tis set up music cant lie..
There’s no finish line — just the next song. Always the next song. So when Pete’s poster arrived — this giant, psychedelic atlas of my entire s life — I was floored. I’d never seen the whole body of work at once. Never looked at it as a whole. For years I’d been living in my songs without even realizing it . The poster revealed myself to me?! Turns out I’m a tad obnoxipus but man am I a looker! This hand drawn artistic feat It’s packed with easter eggs, symbols, and probably at least one accidental sandwich crust. When I saw it, I realized Pete had done something I never had — he’d captured my musical universe in one frame. The recordings as such are the mirror image of the poster — art folding back on itself indefinitely and in Pete’s case indelibly. Let there be song…
Strangefolk and Assembly of Dust: The Axis of My Anthem
It would be an omission of epic proportion without naming the two forces that shaped me personally and musically
Strangefolk was where I learned to listen to the horizon — to follow a melody even when I had no idea where it was headed. It taught me that songs are living things — they grow, they change, and sometimes they raise you right back.
Assembly of Dust was where that wandering spirit found structure. It gave muscle to the meaning, rhythm to the reflection.
Together, they are the axis of this story — the magnetic pull of everything spins around. Strangefolk was the spark; Assembly of Dust was the forge. They have never just been bands. Regardless of the frequecy we gig they are part of the gears that make me tick the conective tissue so to speak. Love em or hate em they are experiments, extensions, communites, characters, landscapes and occasionally, group therapy with amplifiers. It’s impossible to say that which can’t be said but I guess the way I feel is these songs are for me the REAL REAL.
100 Songs Recorded in 5 Days. This is What I Saw Live From La Honda
This is What I Saw (So far) it not just an album or a show. It’s an invitation to step into a portrait that is both a reflection me and as such a relection of you— its a messy, come on it, to the fun, the fucked up, the calm to the outright crazy, Alls you got to do is look so that you might see. To that end - see yah soon hippies. More to come soon. In earnest and never ending blending and bending -build us a song to hold the sound damn it - Reid
Make it stand out
#ShellShock
From Left to right
Jason Cirimele
Reid Genauer
Brian Sagrafena