Well, well, well!---It's been awhile since i've been here! Alot of it has been because my mother-in-law is moving down to florida and we are cleaning alot of our stuff out of our house so she canfit some of hers in! I didn't realize how much crap i had stored in this house!! Still boxing stuff up and sending it to the storage unit. Almost done though(i think!!)...

    Plus, i've been working on songs with my wife, getting her introduced to alot of my songs i have written...she knows i do this stuff, but doesn't really pay much attention to it, well, until now, that is! It's not that she's not interested because she is...it was her idea to start putting some stuff together and make a little money on the side playing at a few places here and there. We're not ready for that yet, but we are mulling over some tunes, looking through our large library of cd's(1,028!), and going over a few of my songs...one thing i noticed is she is really impressed with the songs i have come up with recently as opposed to those i wrote a long time ago. "(Gotta Keep Me From)Leaving You", was an old song i wrote and she just heard it recently and now wants to sing it...lol! I've been so used to singing it for years , it'll be weird to hear her try to do it...besides i wrote it for a tenor/baritone voice, and her voice is an alto on up to soprano....picture a Gordon Lightfoot voice, or someone in that range...that's how it's supposed to sound, although with Bud Buckley adding a harmonica to it, it sounds more like Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band......so it'll be interesting to hear her add her style to it...Heck, i like the song so much, i don't know if i wanna give it up!--lol!

           I recorded a couple of songs at Bud's friday.....one was the above mentioned song, and the other was "Disappear"....diane heard that one and has almost got that one down pat already...i actually wrote it for her to sing about a former co-worker of hers that was found to be a chronic liar and just plain nutso....so this is our story (and funny to us!) about them...see why she HAD to sing it? I am also trying to finish up a couple of tunes that were half written and i put aside and forgot about...diane heard a part of them and was quite impressed....i guess i never realized the difeerence in what i was writing, but diane has noticed a difference....she says my stuff today is more mature and the music is more versatile...she says i write with pretty much all kinds of styles in mind, whereas, years ago, i wrote most of my stuff like Greenday and real sad songs too...I still love to write slow, sad ballads but i'm getting an itch to write more Greenday stuff--lol!!....I still had the "kid" in me I guess! I'm going over stuff in my cd collection too....Bud is having the debut of his promotional video (for his music) at a party at his house this Sunday, and Diane, me and Bud are going to perform a Styx song (acoustic unplugged--lol) called, "Yes I Can" and who knows, maybe we'll do a couple of others if they want.

            So all in all, we're having alot of fun with the music and hope we can get more going and more recorded...and no, Sally, i haven't forgotten you---lol! Your song is being worked on too! Don't forget to go to the search bar at Myspace.com and type in my name and check out my music site! I will be adding Diane on there soon , and present us as a duo instead of just me.....but for now you are stuck with just me---oh i know...stop moanin' and groanin'....lol

Well, whatdaya know?--Jim has time to update!!

    I have been quite busy this past week! I had to do the dentist thing today and all i can say is thank God for keyboards! Much better to type stuff out than trying to talk with your face half paralyzed from novocaine!--lol! I also had to run to the doctors for a small blood test...after that i had to upgrade to a larger storage unit to put alot of stuff in. You see, my mother-in-law is moving down here at the end of March and she is moving in with us...oh, and her dog Gabrielle...that will make 3 dogs in my small house....thank God again i don't have any kids...except for...well....the dogs. Now don't get me wrong, i get along with my mom-in-law great. Better than my wife...lol...so i have no problem with this..it's just making room because our house is small..her mom lives by herself and she is a very young 62 years old..she loves to do all kinds of stuff and is very easy to get along with! Diane was an only child(a sister passed away before di was born), and spent most of her life from 9 years old to 19 with only her mom. So they are very close and are all they got(well and me too). Diane has not had a holiday with her mom in 20 years! So it's a very good situation. So getting rid of stuff, cleaning out closets and the garage has been top on the list lately. I am also working on alot of music and a new song too...

        I've also been at myspace alot lately, since i posted a couple of songs that i wrote. One is "Less", that was performed by someone else, and another, "Say Goodbye",which is a practice demo of me singing and playing the guitar. I have the music page as just me at the moment. I had talked to my wife about it and showed her what i had done so far, and she thought it was quite cool. My wife is an awesome singer and was the lead singer in a rock band i played drums for a ways back(that's kinda how we started going together).But when we moved to Florida, my job no longer allowed me the hours to perform in a band. But my wife's job didn't affect her chance to keep singing and she continued for quite awhile until "burnout" settled in. So for a few years now, she has been on a "performance hiatus".

    So the reason I explained all that was because i all of a sudden had the idea that i wanted the two of US to get back together musically. It's been so long since we did this together and i missed it. Since i was never really a lead singer of any sort(my forte was harmonies), I realized alot of songs i wrote were probably intended for Diane to sing in the first place. So i'm planning on eventually changing my "solo" myspace page to a "duo" page instead, with the two of us. So, we chose the name of our little group to be "Duo-ver", as in "Do Over". In otherwords, all the bands we were ever in collectivly, always had all kinds of problems, musically and financially, break ups, etc....This time i told Diane we've waited long enough to get back together "musically". It's time to do this over! Thus, "Duo-ver" is born....lol! I have been recording some of my songs on tape just to get Diane started on learning the songs while my speakers are being fixed....yeah yeah yeah...the speakers are STILL being fixed...hope to have them this upcoming week. Then we'll get this ball rolling!!--so far my songs have had about 230 hits so far, with nothing but good comments. I appreciate all the kind words and positive feedback. When i get diane going, she'll be on there too...and it's about time cuz it's been a LONG time!!

Hello, i've seem to have found my way back to this blog.....it's been a couple of weeks since i updated!

      Well, i finally got the car back on the road and about $525 lighter in the wallet...lol...what am i saying? I don't ever have that much money in my wallet! That's what that little ATM card is for isn't it?

       I've been practicing on some of my tunes quite a bit lately, so i can add a couple more tunes to my "myspace" music page. Right now, my song "Less" is posted and a practice demo of "Say Goodbye", that Bud Buckley helped me with is also there. He manned the recording equipment while i played and sang. So i hit a couple bad notes and flubbed up a chord at the end of the song...lol...i hate getting almost all the way thru a song, then strike a sour note...ahhhh it's just practice....oh well, as they say in the movie business, "Take 2"! ......i would also give Bud a break and do some recording at home on my own(although not as good quality in my opinion), but good ol' me went and blew the tweeters on my speakers while trying to record the guitar track for my song, "Disappear", and now they sit at the local music shop getting repaired!  (well, actually my wife moved the equipment and didn't plug all the chords back in properly, but we're even now. I blew our friends' speakers when we first tested it out last year!-lol)So in the meantime, i'm stuck until i get those back. Hopefully it won't be much longer, since they've been there a week so far.

       Just go to myspace.com (you can click on it on the side of my blog in the links section), and type in my name, jim salhoff, in the search thingy....if it don't work, maybe you should sign up(it's free!) and you can listen to alot of FREE music and download some too....you can download my song Less for nothing too.See? "Less" evens COSTS less!--lol!  I didn't offer a download on the other song because it is not a "final version". But if you STILL can't get to it at myspace for some reason, let me know and i could e-mail it to you if you so request. Let me know what ya think.

      Got a few things coming up the next 2 weeks: The 80's group Foreigner is playing in town sunday, so i may go see that. We have the Italian festival coming up next week and they have a band called "Bandana" that i really like. The singer is a former member of the 60's group, "Sam The Sham and the Pharaohs". They are the ones who had the hits, "Lil Red Riding Hood" and "Wooly Bully".....also we got Valentines Day coming up and will be doing a dinner there with my beautiful wife. And then her birthday is 6 days after that and we'll be doing an all weekend celebration, singing out on friday, and family b-day party and dinner the next night and the Italian Fest. Oh, and the Medieval Faire is in town too, so that is a good possibilty too! Whew!!

     I was hoping to get to one of Bud's gigs too but not sure, if all that is going on. Oh and how could i forget? I'm going to have a crown put on at the dentist the friday after my wife's b-day! Fun, fun, fun!

        So a busy schedule is on the way which will hopefully give me alot to write about! Hope you all are doing ok and i am still popping in on everybody's blogs......i haven't tagged much lately but i AM reading!!......Message to darkangel: where have you been lately?...i no longer get notices when you update....i must go over now to see how we can fix that...lol.....Take care everyone! And let me know what you think of the tunes so far!

Well, once again , my car has found another way not to move forward (or backwards, for that matter)..lol...i get up at 3:30 AM to get ready for work, only to find when i get out to the car, it doesn't do anything....sigh....this car has really emptied my wallet on quite a few occassions over the last few years! When it's running great, (uh, when it's running period!), i LOVE this car.....but it's NOT running great...lol....We've had so much work done on this car, i think it's time to make 2006 it's FINAL year! I've had the fender replaced and repainted also after someone accidently backed into it......Not a bad looking car....i think it looks kinda sporty, don't ya think?  Well, lately, it has been driving something like this-------->.

        The starter went this time with the battery and now it is "surging" while i'm sitting still, like at a traffic light, etc....it wants to surge forward so i gotta really keep the brake pedal down....lol....sigh....I had to have AAA come and tow it out of my driveway to the auto shop.....

                           BUT, i must say, with being stuck in the house while i wait for the call that the auto place needs my bank account # so they can take over my savings, i'm getting a chance to work alot on my guitar studying and putting songs together. I even had to call Bud to let him know i wouldn't be doing lessons today. (We are doing that "theory" stuff---quite interesting and i think a must to have in your pocket of knowledge). But i want him to know, this car business is NOT going to mess up my practicing and songwriting!! I've been pulling out some tunes i haven't done in awhile and some "new to everyone else" (but old to me) songs.......Here's a list of the tunes i am really working hard on, most  of them have the lyrics already posted on this blog somewhere(lol), others i haven't posted yet but will soon......

1)Sometimes

2)Sally Won't Wait Forever

3)(Gotta Keep Me From) Leaving You

4)Lay Me Down To Sleep

5)Say Goodbye

6)You Always Forget Me

7)Love, Don't Lie To Me Again

8)Disappear

9)I Don't Get Along With You

10)I'm Hardly Famous

11)(You've Got To) Move On

12)(An Average Day) Living In Paradise

13)Mirror

14)She'll Get It Done

15)Love and Hate

                       Wow!--i didn't think there were THAT many until i wrote out this list!--lol! So these are the songs that are going to get first priority when it comes to recording (unless i find another OLD song i wanna do!) So as you can see, there's work to be done!

                       I also have been working on a music page at myspace.com. I've posted my song that i wrote,"Less" and have had about 55 plays so far and nothing but good comments too. I have to get back to getting all these songs down....i've got plenty of time today!!---Take care everyone!!! 

              Here are some tunes i would NOT want to hear while riding in the back of an ambulance:

Got any you can think of???

Seems like no one's been here for the last 3 days...and friends are dropping out of blogdome like flies....when u only average about 2-3 people a day and most of the hits come from me checking to see if anyone's been here, makes one wonder what to do...

Hey everyone!---sorry i haven't updated in a few days(like i haven't done that before!-lol!), but i have been messing with my recording equipment and checking out on how to do everything(i wish the picture above WAS my studio!-lol!)....so far, it's not bad! I need to get the proper types of cd-rw's(digital/audio) and they aren't easy to find...i was working on a couple of songs..well 3 actually, one being a new one called "Disappear". I already had the tune down a few weeks before, and i had written a couple of verses on little scraps of paper at work. I finally put it all together but i played it for the first time today, and noticed there are some changes that need to be made with the lyrics. I think my wife would love singing this song once she hears me record it, because it is actually a true song about someone she used to work with and the problems they caused before being "let go"--lol!

         Then i tried to record the guitar part for "Sally Won't Wait Forever". I screwed up the last verse and the final 2 lines of the chorus and i'll have to record it again. I played it back anyways and just sang along to it and i didn't know my wife had come home from work. She stayed outside the door and listened, then came in and said she thought the song was very nice. I think that is the first time she heard it. I also recorded both guitar and singing to my song "Sometimes". I played a little bit of it at guitar lessons last week, and Bud, (my teacher), said he had forgotten about that song and thinks it is a very pretty song....he wants me to come over early tomorrow(my normal lesson day), to get into doing some more recording. That will be lots of fun!

          But it's been just pretty cool to be able to tinker with the recordings at home too because i can experiment with alot of things and then i can make a true decision how i want each song to develope. I can see why it takes major recording artists so long to put a cd together and the hours of practice it takes. I have songs that i've been playing a certain way for years, and now all of a sudden, i see so much more potential to make them even better.....if you love creating art of any form, you can appreciate the pure enjoyment we get from experimenting and coming up with things we never thought we would ever come up with before. And the biggest reward is seeing the smile on someone's face when they tell you how much they love what you've done! After all, that's what it's all about, isn't it? Forget egos, competition(even though that is a way of life in the world of music that we are forced to deal with).....i do it for the passion of music.....if it sells, GREAT!...that tells me alot of people like it....but , if it doesn't(or i just choose not to sell it), it doesn't matter to me....what matters to me is how people react to it and hopefully it'll be all good!!! Well, can't wait to go over to Bud's to continue some more recording and hope i can send out some samples soon!!----Take Care!

This looks like it would be a little fun! Now this is my type of room! Now that the new year is already about a week old, I feel the need to get rolling on some recording and writing more songs. Of course, my recordings at home are basically going to be for fun and honing the skills that i acquire at guitar lessons. Right now, i have no clue what kind of sounds i can get out of my equipment. I haven't really tested it yet. I did play a verse's worth of a song on my acoustic/electric, and it sounded nice....but i know it can sound better. So, alot of experimenting will need to be done. My goal is to create a song(s) that has me playing most or all instruments,(including keyboards, a touch of percussion and whatever else i can find laying around the house!). Heck, i do have a kazoo---lol!....and i need a drum machine. That will be my next toy i think i'll buy! I have my own drumset but it'll be tough to get the sound right on the equipment i have. Of course, i'll need Bud, my teacher, to critique and give me ideas for improvement, etc. Then hopefully, that'll be the groundwork to do a more advanced recording later. I want to get a few rough drafts down on cd, so i can add to them, experiment with other sounds, etc. Then i could e-mail a few of them out and get some of my dear friends'  honest opinions. Every little bit helps!

I actually almost wrote a whole song at work today. That's the first time in a long while that I had words flying at me like crazy....i tried to put my pen and paper down in between what i was doing, but it was to no avail. I was writing a new line down almost every 30 seconds. I need one more line for the end of my chorus and a last verse. I already have the music memorized! So maybe i'll get that done tonight or tomorrow after lessons. I'm really excited to see what i can do with the equipment, even though i'm lacking more "toys"! Just when you think you got all that you need, you realize you need more--lol! And i'm looking forward to asking a couple of people to play or sing on some of my stuff if they have time. We'll see!!! Hope everyone had a safe New Years and now it's time to make a whole lotta music!!!!

Happy New Years everyone! Here's hoping you all start 2006 in a great way and it leads to even better things to come! I have 2 dogs but no, this isn't one of them....but he's cute don't ya think?....

Yesterday i had a couple of posts up here that are now gone....the reason being was for some reason, blogdrive wouldn't show the pictures i put on here(both of me trying to sing with a mic in my hand). They were pics i had saved on my computer, and even tho they showed up while i was typing my blog out, the final publishing only showed a little white box with a red "x" in the upper lefthand corner....i couldn't get the pics to show up so i ended up deleting them. Maybe i'll try again soon.

Can't believe we're headed to the year 2006 already. I remember like it was yesterday, that we were in awe of the year changing to 2000, the century changing to the 21st....and it's already 6 years after! Have you made your resolutions yet? You know....the ones we never keep?--lol!....of course, there is the famous, "i must lose weight"....maybe there's the one about going to church more often....or learning to be a more giving, caring person....(if you're not already, that is!)...but whatever they are, i hope we all stick to them and achieve the goals we want......

I'm anxious to get my recorder going and start working on my songs....i can get them all practiced up on my system and maybe i'll get Bud, my guitar teacher, when he has a chance(when does this busy guy ever get a chance-lol!) to do the final work on it. We finally worked my song, "Sally Won't Wait Forever"(music co-written by Bud), to about as far as we can take it, so i'm going to now have to practice it to death to get it just right. Next song we're going for is, "(Gotta Keep Me From) Leaving You", an oldie i wrote before even moving to Florida. It'll be nice to revive it after all this time.Any songs i mention on this blog, the lyrics are located here somewhere along with many others....you just got to scroll through the earlier entries to find them....i'm always looking for reviews and reactions on them, good or bad.....of course, i always hope you LOVE them---lol!

I FINALLY hit the 1000 mark on cd's.....my 1000th came in the mail yesterday, and i'm waiting on 3 more....i STILL have about 250 old vinyl albums to replace, so i guess my next goal is 1200..... I have a large dresser with 5 drawers in it that is filled from top to bottom....i had to pull each one out this morning to add cd's i have received lately. Because i have so many cd's, i have kinda put them in alphabetical order. Not really perfect order....just the "A's" altogether, the "B's" together, and so forth.....easier to find what i want to play....my wife thinks i'm just plain nuts--lol!....My mistake was pulling all the drawers out, setting them on the floor, and then, after i was done, try picking them up again! They felt like they weighed 100lbs or so-lol!....i already had herniated a couple of discs in my back a few years ago. So, like a dummy, i had to lift them up by myself....i didn't get hurt, but my back is stiff, my neck and forehead are aching(probably from the tension). I practically gave myself a hernia and an anuerism at the same time. You can laugh now, but it could have happened and the fact i have heart problems to begin with(atrial fibrilation-or however you spell it). Sometime i just do dumb "MAN" stuff!

Well, we're going to do just a dinner tonite and come back home and see the New Year in!.....Relaxing this year....It has really been a hectic year overall, and we're hoping to start off fresh, and have alot of good things happen this year!!! Hope you all have a fantastic night tonight and PLEASE!!!!.....BE SAFE!!!----Love yas All!