Archive for the 'music' category

Shatner sings FU

Mar 24 2011 Published by under life, music

Not bad for an 80-year-old. Shatner was on Lopez the other night performing a song by Cee Lo Green. The funny in this video is not only Shatner’s performance, it’s the backup singers. Not only are they dressed as characters from Shatner’s acting career, they also sing “Shatner” at about 1:15 in the video. If you need help, the one on the left is wearing the vest from Shatner’s current show, $#*! My Dad Says. The one in the middle is rocking the classic Star Trek uniform. The one on the right is – you guessed it – TJ Hooker.

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A decade in Manhattan

Dec 09 2010 Published by under life, music

Manhattan and "KS Hill" in 2005
Image via Wikipedia

It came and went. I realized sometime this year that last fall marked a decade of my tenure in the Little Apple of Manhattan, Kansas. I’m not sure when I realized it, but it was much less a sharp realization than it was a dull acknowledgement.

Manhattan has been good to me and bad to me. It gave me an education and a wife. It took from me 10 years.

It’s been a fun fall since the wedding. We lit up the calendar with shows, and it was the first time I had 10 shows on the calendar simultaneously – and the first four-in-a-row mini-tour – in several years.

I’m headed to Sharon tomorrow after work to hunt with my in-laws. I hear we’ll be getting up early on Saturday so I can take them to find deer and be cold. Hopefully we’ll find some time on Saturday to look for places in Pratt to live before heading out to Buster’s Smokehouse in Sun City Saturday night to relax.

We head to the studio on Monday to begin recording the CD I’ve been promising myself I’d finish since high school. It’s finally going to come together.

Hope you dig the new looks.

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April

Mar 16 2010 Published by under music

What….a productive day. Nothing like throwing up three shows to the calendar with the possibility of a fourth in April alone.

Putting ducks in a row in preparation for my yearly week-long excursion to Bloomington, Indiana. Headed to Indiana University on Saturday for auctioneer education as I have every March for the last five years. Then it’s back to focus on music – it’s going to be an exciting April full of shows, both acoustic and with the band.

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Saturday's show

Jun 02 2009 Published by under music, shows

rfl_logo

Proceeds from Saturday's Junefest show will benefit Relay for Life

The details have solidified for Saturday’s Junefest show. The show will start at 8 p.m. at the Peace Treaty Pageant Grounds east of Medicine Lodge on Highway 160, south of the golf course. The tickets – available at the show – will be $5 and will directly benefit Relay for Life.

The show will feature special guest Anthony Farrar. Anthony opened our last show at Mike’s in Medicine Lodge and demonstrated that he’s a very solid performer with some good originals.

On an unrelated matter, as I was investigating the exact layout of the pageant grounds, I checked and was surprised to find that Google Maps is now sporting high resolution satellite imagery of Barber County. I started looking for our fields and as I was panning towards Sharon, I found the following image.

sharon

Now I’m not criticizing – I’m sure the farmer (a friend) had good reason for random-looking patterns. He was most likely preventing the dirt from blowing or trying to find a place that wasn’t too wet to work. The point is that no longer is the way we work fields a private matter. Google’s incorporation of this kind of imagery means that our farming habits are now available for all to see.

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Still in Fayetteville

May 16 2009 Published by under life, music

Played a good show last night at the Perk in Fayetteville
Not a huge crowd
Not a drinking crowd
Sometimes these shows are fun
You can play 100% originals
No drunk guy asking for Carney Man
Or worse…Luke Bryan…Eric Church…

Reese Neal played last night with us at the show
Very talented songwriter with a completely different style
A master of his falsetto
He’s a vocal dead-ringer for Ryan Adams
He gave me his CD
I’m looking forward to actually listening to it on the drive home

G and I are off to find some breakfast
Then it’s studio time at East Hall Recording Studio
Saw the proprietor playing bass in Hot Shot Karate
Last night at the Boom Boom Room here in Fayetteville
Probably not going to start recording before noon

Here’s a video for today
Thanks to Dream Not of Today for the Twitter-tip on this one

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Arkansas and Jenny's song

May 15 2009 Published by under life, music

Loading for Fayetteville
More studio time
Hoping to finish a few songs

Playing a show tonight
With people I’ve never met
Guess I’ll be playing defence again

Here’s a video for the weekend
Posted to the Amateur Scientist today
Pretty cute lyrics with a great point

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Classical Gas

Apr 27 2009 Published by under music

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New music weekend

Apr 18 2009 Published by under music

Aaron Traffas and Trevor Burgess

Aaron Traffas and Trevor Burgess, live at Bobby T's in Manhattan, Kansas, on Valentines Day, 2009

New music now available from the Valentines Day show at Bobby T’s with Trevor Burgess. Enter: The Wind has been available for some time, but today I’ve posted the rest of the originals from the show. They’re listed in the order they were played.

Archipelago
Fence Post
Singularity
What’s Wrong With Me
Enter: The Wind
Patronizing Smile
Red Dirt Farm
Getting Over You Again
Republican
24 Feet
200 Miles Away

Remember that you can find the lyrics, guitar chords and other information about each song in the songs section of this website. These songs and others can be found in the downloads section. Pictures from this show and others can be found in the pictures section.

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Shows this weekend

Feb 13 2009 Published by under music

We’ve got some exciting shows on the books, including two this weekend. You won’t want to miss them, as I’ll be breaking out a brand new song called “Enter: the Wind”. We’ll be posting the lyrics on the site in the songs section after this weekend, along with some recordings of it.

We’re going to try streaming the audio and video of the shows this weekend live on the website, so if you can’t make it to Aggieville tonight or Bobby T’s on Saturday, you can tune in to www.aarontraffas.com after 9 p.m. each night to view the feed. We’re going to be counting on a Sprint USB stick to deliver our 1s and 0s, so say a prayer for CDMA EVDO in Manhattan.

Tonight is the first Aaron and Lucas show at Pat’s in Aggieville. Tomorrow is the first Aaron and Trevor Burgess show since December 2005 – AND it’s on Valentine’s Day. All bets are officially off. Bring your girl, we’ll take care of the rest.

See the complete calendar at http://www.aarontraffas.com/shows

I hope to see you tonight at Pat’s or tomorrow at Bobby T’s.

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Walking Douglass

Jan 24 2009 Published by under music

I bought a guitar amplifier today. It’s a little Vox practice amp. I realized that I never, ever perform without running the amp through a microphone and, indeed, spend most of the time trying to figure out how to keep the performers on stage – including myself – from hearing the amp rather than the guitar signal in the ear monitors. With this regard, the purchase of the little – some would mistakenly say cute – amp made perfect sense for portability and price. Now I have to learn how to use it.

I purchased the device from Phil Uhlik Music in Wichita. I was distributing flyers for an upcoming auction of guitars, folk instruments and other like-kind items. I entered and was waiting to talk to Nick Uhlik when Phil walked out from the back. It was very good to see him – I hadn’t in the last several years. He’s always remembered my name since I started buying instruments and equipment from them over 10 years ago in high school, and it always felt good to be called by name when I walked into a store in the big city, even if it was by a guy who has a freakish ability to remember names. His kindness and friendly nature more often than not served to cause me to buy something more or something better.

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