Mike Check...One, Two...

Last Friday, I drove up to Big Sky Studios in Ann Arbor where I had the opportunity to catch Mike Doughty record a session for Acoustic Cafe. The host, Rob Reinhart sits down with musicians to discuss their latest projects while they offer up "acoustic" versions of tunes. Sometimes the simplified songs help you appreciate their basic beauty. Mike Doughty was no exception. He and his bass player, Andrew "Scrap" Livingston offered up some new material that will be featured on Golden Delicious, Doughty's next album which is scheduled for release in February 2008. Doughty is on a promotional tour for a few weeks doing "Question Jar Shows". The deal is the audience gets to put questions in a jar and Mike answer's them between songs. No question too weird, no topic taboo. If you missed this mini-tour, not to worry...Doughty plans to do a proper tour when the album comes out next year. In the meantime, you can stream a few of the new songs on his Myspace page, which he mentioned he checks regularly. And he also has a blog that is worth checking out...including the recent entry of him getting anew tattoo.

According to Mike, the guiding principle on his new album "was something we called "dude theory," which meant that it should sound like a bunch of visualize-able dudes; a band, in other words. It was a way of keeping the music spacious."

If it picks up where Haughty Melodic, the last release, left off, everyone is in for a treat. Haughty was truly a great album. Mike and Scrap played 27 Jennifers, Girl in the Blue Dress, Fort Hood & Navigating. Fort Hood was especially interesting, as Mike described it as an anti-war song that recalls his days growing up in a military family with a father who was a Vietnam vet. He talked at length about how war damaged & continues to damage so many people and how they carry around their pain. Apparently, Fort Hood has had more casualties from the Iraq war than any other base. Heavy stuff. Don't miss the chance to see these guys live...always entertaining.

Here is a video someone posted from Mike's performance of Busting Up a Starbucks last week at Schuba's in Chicago.