Had a Plan, Had to Change It

RE-POD from August 28, 2005: Now that I have changed the subscription feed at podcast.penmachine.com, I’ll be mixing in some older tracks with the new ones, so you can get some of the music you might have missed if you haven’t been a long-term subscriber.

In the summer of 2005, employees of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation were on lockout pickets, where they started podcasting. The first episode of “Studio Zero” from Vancouver (23 Aug 2005) used three tracks from my podcast here on this site, and in thanks for the honour, I put together the blues instrumental “Had a Plan, Had to Change It” (MP3 file)—inspired by similar swingin' instrumental blues tunes from Freddie King, Jimmie Vaughan, and Colin James—to dedicate to the podcasting Vancouver CBC employees.

I didn't play drums on this track—I assembled the drum parts from loops and samples. Everything else—the three guitars and the bass—is me playing my Canadian-made Godin LG electric guitar and my Precision Bass straight into an eMac running GarageBand, augmented by the lovely phase-shifted warble of my MXR Phase 90 effects pedal in a few places. Oh, and the photo is of a T-shirt design by Tod Maffin, CBC host, longtime podcaster, and founder of the CBC Unplugged podcasts.