September 10th “Making a Living Making Music”

I’m a day late posting this song because we got up early yesterday morning to film an interview and perform on “Your Carolina with Jack and Kimberly” on WSPA CBS – Greenville.  We had a blast, jammed out and Jack and Kimberly were awesome as usual.  They are great talk show hosts that rival anybody on TV.   We played “Crazy or Crazy in Love”, on of my 365 songs.

Then, the full Chris Cates and the Master Plan band met up and performed at Greenville’s Main Street Friday night.   We had a really good show and probably played to close to eight hundred people throughout the night.    Anyway, today’s song is about my new dedication to make music my sole source of making a living again.   I get caught up and life and forget that this is my true purpose which is very easy to do.   Thanks for listening!

lyrics

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June 10th “Some of that Something Something”

What a week.   I’m finally back home after an entire week out of town.  Needless to say today is catch up day on the song a day project.  I’ve actually had them written and some partially recorded, so I should be posting three more songs today.

This week is worth noting I guess (since this blog thing is supposed to be somewhat personal).  I started out with three heavy days recycling in Morganton (55 miles away), then after work Wednesday, my band performed at a grand opening for Audubon Place apartment complex in Arden, Thursday night we performed on the Morganton square for the Young Professionals then went across town and guest hosted at Momma Sarah’s a new venue, Friday I played in a golf tournament with my brother (shot 65 2-man captions choice) then played a show at Yianni’s,  Saturday we teed off early at Quaker Meadows (shot 66 2-man best ball) and lost by a stroke,  I then went to Mimosa Hills Golf course and performed for their Member Guest, finished and ran out of there to step on stage 15 minutes later at Momma  Sarah’s for a 4 hour Chris Cates & the Master Plan show.   It was a lot of fun actually and besides a few yelled profanities at Quaker, I had a pretty good week.

“Some of that Something Something” is another funky one.   I seem to be trending that way lately.

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April 1st “Mad Crossover in D”

I’m starting out the month of April rocking it out on the piano.  This is a song I’ve messed with for a while but never sat down and finished it.  Today, on the first day of a new month, I felt like getting it done and putting it out for posterity.

I love that about this song a day thing, I get to finish a few old scores with songs (no pun intended) and actually put them to bed and of my brain space.   Believe me, I need as much brain space as I can get.

This song started back in my rap producer days.   As you can see instead of rapping them I turned it around completely and played and sang solo on the piano.   Thanks for listening!

 lyrics

March 18 “Six Second Delay”

I had a good time recording some friends of mine today.   Wicked Addiction, a heavy metal band out of Hickory also features my bass player Chris Singleton on drums.   He rocks it too.   It was fun wearing my engineer hat again for the weekend.

Somehow I managed to get up early and write this one.   I just got a new analog synthesizer for Chris Cates & the Master Plan live performances and I got to use it on this.   I’m now going to be doing synth solos live along with the harmonica and guitar solos.   For you techies, I got a Akai  MINIAK and I’m liking it so far.

“Six Second Delay” is my Coldplay inspired song for the month.   It’s got surreal imagery about the vagueness of life.

Read the lyrics @ chriscates.com/march18.html

Feb 13 “Sooner or Later”

Snowed in again today.   The snow this year has been massive.   I hate it for all my friends in the golf industry.

Reem’s Creek, the course I play a lot has been closed for months.

Anyway, that has nothing to do with today’s song.  I actually wrote music for four songs, playing the drum parts and everything but this is the one I ended up putting words to.

“Sooner or Later” ended up being an old soul sounding song about getting someone who’s had their heart-broken, back out to meet people again.

lyrics

Feb 4 “Hot Sauce on a Sweet Potato”

It must be time to get funky again because that’s what I’m doing.   It’s so funny when I started doing the song a day thing, I envisioned recording a lot of acoustic songs because it is so much easier and faster to record.  But in general, I have produced full band 16 to 24 track songs instead.    I’m addicted to hearing a song develop with the extra instruments.

I rarely listen to any of the takes I do, so that when I hear the final thing, it’s like I’m hearing it for the first time.

Today’s funky song reminds me of a groove that my buddy Will Clay in Rabun, Georgia used to kick with his band Field Trip.   The lyrics of the song are random ‘party lyrics’ that are based on my current habit of putting Louisiana Hot Sauce on everything (including sweet potatoes).  What can I say I’m gourmet all the way.       Thanks for listening!!!

lyrics

Feb 3 “Geometrically in Perfect Touch”

Success!!  I’ve now finished all of the rhythm guitar for the Chris Cates & the Master Plan “Follow the Feeling” album.  It’s been tough working it in with the song a day thing and my other projects.   It’s kind of wierd spending lots of time on a song, like I need to do with the Master Plan album, after doing these one a days as fast as I can.   That album is for the big market so it has to be perfect.   These songs can be a little loose and can also be any sound I want.

I’ve fallen in love with this way of writing and recording because I’m not held back by normal conventions.

Anyway, “Geometrically in Perfect Touch” let me play a little bit of the Euro beat on the drums and it turned out to sound a little bit like The Sea and Cake, a band I really like a lot.  The words build on a parallel between love and mathematics (a subject through school I didn’t pay much attention to).

This song is one of my favorites that I’ve ever done.    Thanks for listening!!

lyrics

Jan 27 “Hot, Cold & Out of Control”

I can’t believe this is what came out today after an intense work day and the two hour commute.   I even thought I was getting the flu this afternoon and by the time I sat down in front of the computer to start  the song for the day I was not feeling real energetic.

I resisted the urge to go lay down which may have been for the night and grabbed the bass and started the song.  I still don’t have my amp so I’m having to do things a little differently, luckily I like different.  Now I’m feeling better but I am definitely ready for bed and was hoping to have come back out to the studio to finish the vocals way earlier.

I did manage to recruit Adair, PJ’s, Snuggie and all to come lend me some old school motown sounding backing vocals.

I’ve really been digging the dance stuff I’ve been doing so I continued that trend.

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Jan 1st “2010″

This is my ambitious blog experiment for 2010.

In 2010, starting today, Jan. 1st, I am going to write a song each day and post it here and write about the experience in this popular “blog” format which I am still weary of with my Gen X DNA.

My criteria will be

1.  The song has to be around a minute long minimum

2. It has to be from good effort (I can’t phone it in,  however, I can record it on my iPhone)

3.With lyrics is a plus but I can contribute instrumentals  (I do love my Triton keyboard)

4. I can collaborate (making music is fun with other folks )

So here it goes.  Today I decided to write a cheesy feel good anthem about getting things kick started for 2010.   I’m very optimistic about this year and this song is a little pep talk.

WordPress is not making it easy to upgrade their services to play mp3’s,  so I will have to redirect to my main website to play the song.    In the future I hope to be displaying the mp3’s for people to upload free directly from this blog.

Read the lyrics @ chriscates.com/jan1.html