Wrote a new song recently. These are the lyrics:

“Don’t Look Now”
Words and Music by A. Walker

Keep it up
Like the highway keeps its white lines blurred
Your empty arms have left you hugging every turn

You scratched a pen
And drew a map of this decline
Just so you’d know where not to step so out of line

Wide-eyed on the run
Wide-eyed on the road
So many miles between the places that you’ve known

Let’s make a deal
Show your mother she was wrong
Show that re-po man what we’ve known all along

We’ll start and band
They’ll play us on the radio
Go get that tambourine and play it like you know

Come home quick
Close your eyes for once

Wide-eyed on the run
Wide-eyed on the road
Don’t look now
You’re almost home

About two years ago, wrote a blog here on tumblr about “Life of Pi” one of my favorite books that I’ve read over the last few years. As you may have noticed, they are now turning the book into a movie. I watched the trailer and it looks as though the film was well-made (the effects look pretty realistic).

As I mentioned on Facebook, I’m really looking forward to seeing it, but I have to say, I’m a little concerned/interested to see how this particular book, by Yann Martel, is going to translate to the screen. The main character, Pi, is put in a pretty impossible position. He adopts and practices three religions before this ordeal and a lot of the book is made up of things that are going on in his head. I’m wondering how that’s going to be conveyed since the majority of the movie is going to be a boy trapped on a lifeboat at sea with a bengal tiger.

I guess I’ll let you guys know what I think when it comes out.

Some things I learned during Superstorm Sandy when the power was out:

1. I prefer candle light to flashlights.  

2. I prefer no shower to a cold shower.

3. If all there is to eat is granola bars. I’d rather not eat.

4. Even after a few days without power, I will still flick light switches.

5. I have a tendency to write songs about storms/floods/acts of god (except during storms/floods/acts of god).

6. People love to drink during power outages.

7. Rutgers campus pizzarias will never close down. They all opened with no power as soon as the storm passed.

8. Rutgers students would starve if they ever did.

9. I’m really good at Scrabble.

This year I participated in a benefit podcast called “Banding Together: A Benefit for The Spondylitis Association of America.” This event was organized by my friend Lazlo, at blowupradio.com, whose wife suffers from the disease.

I recorded a 30 minute live set here at my apartment on a small hand-held, so there’s a bit of a low-fi element in there for sure, but I think it sounds cool. Kind of old sounding in a cool way.

There’s two chances to listen. Just go to blowupradio.com. My set will air at 6:40PM this evening, and will then re-air tomorrow morning at 8:55AM for you early birds.

Check out all the many acts that are a part of this as it will continue to air through tomorrow. You can see the full schedule and information about how to donate here: http://blowupradio.tripod.com/main.html

My setlist for the podcast is:

Once & For All
Sundowners
Call Me Custer
If I Go Down
Rocket Science
Do Right Woman (Dan Penn cover)
This City Won’t Sleep

In doing this, I am in no way condoning smoking owls.

The other day the band and I spent a rainy, pale Sunday afternoon in a familiar place.

We went on back to Retromedia Studios, where I made my last record, into their brand new recording studio (dubbed the B-room). It was cozy and appropriate for what we were doing. A bunch of guys sitting with each other and making a record.

It was fluid and comfortable. Felt a lot like sitting around a living room, except it was being taken in by what I would say is one of the very best studios in New Jersey.

I’m truely excited by putting out this single and equally excited about how this came about. I’ll use the term loosely, but we’re goin in tomorrow to pt on some finishing touches toning and then mixing and mastering it on the fly. There’s going to be somehing to hear soon!

Stay posted!

Anthony

It’s been a few years since I’ve gotten involved with any Fantasy Football, but decided to jump back in the mix this year and start a team. I didn’t do a live draft, just an auto-pick thing because I hate drafts and they take too much time… and I’m not even sure how much I’ll keep up with this, but I’m feeling pretty good about my team…

Anthony Walker presents…. THE ISOTOPES (named after the baseball team from “The Simpsons”):

QB: Drew Brees (NO), Matt Schaub (Hou)

WR: Brandon Marshall (Chi), Miles Austin (Dal), Eric Decker (Den), Titus Young (Det), Anquan Boldin (Bal)

RB: Matt Forte (Chi), Trent Richardson (Cle), Frank Gore (SF)

TE: Jason Witten (Dal), Owen Daniels (Hou)

K: Robbie Gould (Chi), Neil Rakers (Was)

DEF: San Fransico

Looking very much forward to tomorrow night!

If you haven’t heard, I’m opening up for Mikael Jorgensen at The Saint tomorrow, which is a special show for me. Let me explain…

For the last ten years I’ve spent countless hours with Wilco’s records. They were a band that I was first starting to discover and fall in love with at a pretty pivotal moment in my life. I was starting to pick the guitar up, and for the first time writing songs. Being knee-deep in Wilco at the time, I feel like they very much shaped the songwriter I’ve become. Kind of like the duckling that hatches to first see a dog and think the dog is it’s mother. I’ve followed Wilco’s music similarly for the last ten years. And as they continue to put on great shows and make great records, I find the inspiration I’ve gotten from them has been consistently renewed.

So to be opening up for a member of the band, in the club that gave me my first gig as a high school student back in that early infancy, feels profound to me. I’ve been really geeking-out over this if you can’t tell!  

If my opinion counts for anything, Wilco is a group of people that plays music better than just about anyone on the planet. Jeff Tweedy is a long-time hero of mine, as both a songwriter, and founder of one of my all-time favorite bands. These guys are responsible for what I consider to be some of the best albums of my lifetime.

I should also mention that I’m excited to be playing with my friend Alex Brumel, who will be playing lead guitar and singing with me tomorrow night. It will just be the two of us, so this will be a slightly different format than any of us are used to, although we’re going to be playing songs from all three of my records. We’ve been getting together and working things out and it’s really come together. I’m so excited to do this.

Hopefully if you’re from the area and are free tomorrow night, you’ll be able to join us. This is easily one of the coolest things I’ve ever been a part of, so it be great to share it with friends..

Thanks for tuning in guys! Catch you soon…

Ant

One year ago, I put a record out called “This City Won’t Sleep” that was the biggest musical project I’ve been a part of… probably the biggest undertaking of my life… other than maybe college (Like, all four years of college).

In a kind of observance of this little first fittingly, semi-sleepless anniversary, I started thinking about this record – both the “making of” it and the time that’s gone by since.

I’ve talked a hell of a lot about the making and writing of this record here on the blog (check out the “Song Spotlight” blogs previous to this), on the Kickstarter site, and elsewhere. So, to avoid repeating myself about any of that, I’d like to recap a little about the album’s reception.

If you read about the state of the music industry, a lot of people will tell you that the art of the “album” is dead. With iTunes allowing you to buy only select songs, the file sharing, on and on and on, etc. etc. when you read these dumb, boring things.

I feel like the art of the “album” is certainly not dead. I think it’s actually coming back to life if anything (Look at the rise in vinyl over just the last couple years).

When you put a record out as an artist, people are going to give you feedback. After all is said and done with the making of my record, its release, and its reception, I can confidently and unbiasedly say something about it.

From the feedback I’ve gotten, this record has absolutely been seen, appreciated, and enjoyed AS AN ALBUM by the people who like it. And that’s something I’m really proud of about this record.

That being said, people will always tell you what their favorite song on the record is. I can say that I’ve had at least a couple people tell me that every song on this record was their favorite song.

If people keep listening to it as a whole… If every song on the record is someone’s favorite song on the record… That kind of makes me feel like we did our job making it.

I really hope that people listen to and discover this record for a long time. For that reason, it’s available for download right now, for a limited time. You don’t really have to even pay for it. Name your own price… Check out the link below..

I hope you all feel this record is as much yours as it is mine…

http://anthonywalker.bandcamp.com/

AW

It’s been an interesting week.

I’ve been known to go through little bouts of sleepwalking here and there. I might have talked about it on here before. Sometimes this leads to some bizarre night-time behavior. This is my latest late-night phase…

It all started last weekend. I was staying with friends after a party and woke up to find a couch cushion in the kitchen sink. I put the cushion back in its rightful place thinking, “What asshole would put this in the kitchen sink?”

Turns out, I’m that asshole…. Though I didn’t realize it until the next morning when I woke up at home to find my bed pillows missing. I walked into the kitchen to find them in the recycling bin.

That’s when I knew that the sleepwalking switch had flipped back on. The following morning I found some blankets and sheets in the bathtub and the following night I went to bed and woke up on the couch… 

After all of this… I’m just kind of curious of why I immediately decided to dispose of bedding materials in my sleep all of a sudden… This is almost as bad as the sleepwalking hand-washing episodes of 2009.

So, yeah, that’s what’s been happening in my apartment in the middle of the night. Literally, never a dull moment.

Ant

Good morning!

It’s been a great St. Patty’s Day weekend! I hope you all had a great time celebrating and this little message finds you well. There’s a couple things coming up I want to let you good folks know about…

This Saturday, March 24, The Medicine Chest and I will be returning to The Saint (one of our favorite digs) as a part of Lightning Jar’s Album Release Show! The boys in L.J. have invited the band and I, as well as Frank Lombardi, to be a part of their big night as they release their beautiful debut album, “So Long Traveler.”  It was a very flattering offer and we are so excited to be playing this weekend alongside a couple of our favorite local artists! Like I said, this all goes down at The Saint in Asbury Park this Saturday. Check out www.thesaintnj.com for more information about the show… and more importantly, it’d be great of you to come pay all of us a visit!

The following Thursday, March 29, I’m very proud to announce that I will be taking part in an event brought to you by “Move On, MS” a charity working to raise money for Multiple Sclerosis. It will be taking place at American Trash in uptown NYC. I believe the show has been sold out, but if anyone is interested in attending, or participating in some way to this great cause, please get in touch with me anyway and we can figure something out.

Cheers!

AW

Hello again!

I thought I’d check in here since it’s been a while.

As you may have noticed, my weekly video series “Walker-Vision” has kind of “gone off the air” the last couple of weeks. I hope you haven’t been missing it too much, but I figured this deserved some explanation, albeit a little after the fact.

For the last 80+ Wednesdays in a row, I have posted a video every week. Although this has been a lot of fun, and it makes me feel good when you guys enjoy the videos, whether they be of me playing a song or making a fool of myself (or both), I decided to pull the plug on Walker-Vision (at least for the time being).

In the meantime, I plan on working out some new music, fleshing out some new ideas, and using some of the extra time to get going on some new projects…… as well as working on my tan. This is all in the effort to give me some more time to work on new things, and improve the whole idea of Walker-Vision, so that when it does come back, it’s a little different and a little better. For you guys, and for me too. 

Walker-Vision has been a big part of what I do on a weekly a basis for almost two years. I never thought that it would have lasted this long. But I never want anything having to do with my music to be routine. So a break is in order, and it’ll be back, because I really do enjoy making these videos. Think of everything that has happened so far as “Season 1.” “Season 2” is yet to come. In the meantime, enjoy the “reruns” and I’ll be seeing you here!

Ant

This is such a crazy good version of this song. I’ve been on a big Ryan Adams kick the last couple weeks. I really like most of his newest record and that’s kind of sent me on a look back through his catalog. Lots of records in my collection and some that I must have passed over, through the years. Gotta say Ryan Adams can be a little bit hit or miss for me, but when he’s on, I think he’s one of the best songwriters out there. Check this out!