Hank Wood

if you are reading this...

2012-06-09T18:58:00.000-07:00

you are either A: a subscriber from WAY back, B: you clicked the "next blog" button, or C: you found this from my facebook post. i would just like to say that i am still hank wood, just no longer the alcoholic, pain killer addict that i was when this blog was written. yes i know it encompasses multiple years. i was an alcoholic and addict for multiple years. i still am, technically, an alcoholic and addict, i just don't choose to live that way anymore. but i'm still the worst guitar player that ever got paid to play....

Yes sir!

2011-09-07T23:17:00.002-07:00

it's that time of year, y'all! yep. time i updated something around here. of course, finally getting internet access where i live might have helped a bit.

i know, my website is just a blank page. probably 'cause i didn't pay for hosting this year. or last year. (i am taking care of that by the way, i do sincerely apologise anthony)

so where have i been the last year? basicaly i have been hiding under a rock. but its a nice rock, right by a river with a great view and wonderful fishing.

and i still wear black socks.

back soon. as in before next year.

back soon?

2010-09-02T16:51:00.002-07:00

anyone who has followed this blog in years past knows that when i say i will be back soon that means either right away or in a month or so. well, this time it took a year. but man what a year it was! i am now back in my hometown of galena missouri, working as an indentured servant to my parents on the farm i grew up on before moving to montana 13 years ago. (yes, that means i live in my parents basement. and im 37years old. but im not gay((not that i think that is bad, because i dont)). at least, i dont think i am, but ive never kissed johnny depp, so maybe i am.)
the band i was in the last 5 years(Premonition) imploded, or exploded, depending on how you look at it, though some of them have carried on as a new band called Eclipse. i wish them the best of luck. turns out their first night playing in public was also my first night playing in public here, and as they say the show must go on. except now im playing lead guitar, which means im in need of a lot of prayer! back soon.....

i'm back!

2009-07-29T16:31:00.002-07:00

thanks to everyone for their letters, calls and emails, it's amazing the amount of encouragement i have received. i would have posted sooner, but figured it best to wait until i had some sober time behind me. six months later i am still clean, i rejoined the band a couple weeks ago, and things are going well. unfortunately i did end up getting divorced, but still get to spend time with hunter. he's been helping me sandblast parts for the mustang, and helped me get out from underneath my fourwheeler last week when he and i were out riding by the old train tunnels in the mountains here and i rolled it sideways down a bank. just normal for me. anyways, again thank you to all, i even got letters in rehab from people i didn't even know, who asked the rest of the band members where i was. that was just amazing! back soon....

Rehab

2009-02-08T09:44:00.001-07:00

I will be at the Rimrock Rehab facility until the 23^rd of February.
Hope to talk to every one then.

The Band?

2008-10-17T17:16:00.002-07:00

well, yes premonition was going to end, but now we are going to carry on for another year. alot went on the last few months, yes, no, maybe, to loosely quote phil collen from def leppard, life is full of difficult bastards, why not stick with the one's you know? or in my case, why not stick with the one's who put up with me being the worst guitarist that ever got paid to play?

i will get to more questions this weekend, and feel free to ask more, but to answer the question about leather pants? no, i have never worn them, but i have worn my wife's, which makes her very unhappy when i do.

but they fit so good!

15 From The Woodpile #3

2008-07-14T12:34:00.000-07:00

the second week of june uncle bill flew up and added some new mandolin parts to the 15FTW album, as well as going through the songs with me on other production issues. it is sounding much more like an album now, just got to get my bass parts down right. we decided we liked how his mandolin recorded in the vocal booth, so for 2 days straight we chatted with each other through headphones. him seated in the corner of the claustrophobic 3' by 3' foam padded vocal booth, and me relaxing at my partially finished recording desk.

here are some pics form that week:

the vocal booth

smokey bear

uncle bill, and bmmw, whose ibanez guitar i borrowed for one of the songs

mandolins don't float so well with those "f" holes in the face............

i like my shirt in this one

uncle bill sitting in the corner

bmmw listening in to us recording, with unkie howards gibson overseeing things behind her.

and this would be daryl the photographer, trying to keep up with the blistering lead uncle bill is layin' down!

makes sense!

2008-07-07T07:11:00.000-07:00

I just read an article on the dangers of heavy drinking....
Scared the shit out of me.
So that's it!
After today, no more reading.

*excerpt from an email sent to me

up next: photo's from the recording thrash with uncle bill. which will answer a couple of the questions i have had in the recent past about particular guitar and recording gear.

the band

2008-06-27T15:54:00.003-07:00

this weekend i get to go camping for the first time this year, the downside to being in a good band is you end up booked all summer with only a few weekends off. the link above is to the posters from last weekend when we played with black oak arkansas at a motorcycle rally. below is a few photo's, the bottom one has john, one of the sound and light guys in it. it was really fun playing a good stage with great sound guys, most of the people we end up dealing with are jerks who think they know everything there is to know. which would be fine if they were able to back it up. just normal. also, i took my digital recorder to the show and recorded 2 and 1/2 hours, so i will finally have some good quality songs to load on the website!

abandoned? nah.

2008-06-26T07:27:00.000-07:00

it's been a very hecktic last year, that's for sure. and unfortunately, the blogging has suffered. But, things are finally slowing down so that i can get back online. last week, uncle bill flew up to redo some mandolin parts on the 15 From the Woodpile album so that is coming along nicely. and Premonition has been busy, last weekend we played a motorcycle rally with Black Oak Arkansas. and about a month ago i hit 2 deer and rolled my jeep liberty, which sucked because i really liked that thing oh well. this first picture is a drawing one of my friends drew on the board of the wreck.

i've also been coaching hunter's little league baseball team, here are a couple pictures from that:

more pictures from the recording session later.

And, a happy belated birthday to Anita in denmark! hope you had alot of fun!

i know, it's been awhile.

2008-01-30T07:31:00.000-07:00

all is well, finally getting everything set up in the basement to get back to recording, and i have some pictures to post as soon as i get permission to use them. more later, including some interesting things i've learned after becoming a step-dad to an 8 year old who i can only outsmart when 8 pm rolls around and he has to go to bed.

new updates? oh yeah.

2007-11-19T21:04:00.000-07:00

unfortunately i haven't decided where to start yet. such a busy summer, so many stories. and so many photos. way too much proof of all i did wrong.

except for that barmaid who offered me a hamburger and so much more...................................

i declined. (the burger AND the so much more)

I'm MARRIED!

so see, i can do SOME things right!

more to come, Happy Thanksgiving................

first,

2007-10-09T07:59:00.000-07:00

i will answer a few emails i have received this summer:

are you dead?

nope

where did you go?

been busy, keep reading.

you used to be entertaining.

i still am, just haven't been good at writing about it.

the reason i've not been writing much this summer? several, most importantly though, i got MARRIED! which was first figured out by anita, who lives way over in denmark!

i also bought a bigger house, with a full basement for all the recording stuff to be set up and used properly instead of having my living room at the old house used as a recoding studio. which, of course, meant that my bedroom was also the living room. not exactly appealing to the ladies, you see?

so, first came love, then came a bigger house, then came marriage, but in no way is there going to be coming a baby carriage.

luckily, misti agree's with this, as she already has one little boy, (named hunter) and has figured out that she now has to raise me also, so she figures 2 bratty boys in the house is enough without adding to it. and the only time i can outsmart hunter is when i make him go to bed at 8. but life is still great, and now with much more room to work on my old cars and do the music thing. i even figured out how to keep misti happy with all my old cars . i bought her one too! it's also the first gm product i've owned with intent to fix up and keep, it's a '61 bel air 2 door sedan.

so as you see, i had plenty of reasons to be away from the computer(including having the internet disconnected for over a month while i moved) and i will get back to posting more, as things are finally settling down. and by settling down, i mean working all day, going to hunter's various sports activities every night, being gone all weekend with the band........................

dead? nah,

2007-08-31T15:59:00.000-07:00

just super busy and neglecting everyone! and it wasn't until this week that the broadband internet got hooked up at my new house, of which i have still not brought the computer over and hooked up. it's been a busy summer, and will only be busier, as misti has moved to town now and is trying to keep me out of trouble. which has worked for the most part. i got some more of the booklet done for the 15FTW album, just need to get back to the music, as that is the funnest part anyways.

last night we set up for playing tonight at the eagle's club, but didn't get to do a soundcheck as there was some event going on. we are all looking forward to playing there again, it's been a couple months i think since we did last, been playing everywhere else, and we play a wedding saturday night way out by the missouri river, in prime lewis and clark country. and no, i was not the one who tore the eye of the needle monument down. i'm too lazy to mess with rock formations. anyways, as i had some time since we couldn't do a sound check last night, i wandered down the street where i was yelled at by colie, the guy who's place i took in the premonition band, to come play bass with him and some other guys i know who were playing out i front of wick's guitar store. so of course, i was more than happy to sit down and prove to the fairly large crowd that i had no business playing any type of instrument in public. or private, for that matter. it all went well, actually, until someone requested a neil diamond song, of which i had never played before. for some reason, after taking a break, i wasn't asked to play anymore..............

geez

2007-07-10T12:34:00.000-07:00

a whole month since i last entertained you people! sorry about that, been a little busy, but finally got the internet working at home again so i can load pictures and such, so i will be back soon with an update!

15FTW update!

2007-06-07T07:58:00.000-07:00

though it has been a while since i took time to post, i havn't screwed off the WHOLE time. just most of it. last weekend i went camping and fishing with the chickipoo and her kid, (and all my friends who decided to just drop by), and the weekend before that me and misti went to virginia city, an old west town in the mountains of southwest montana. those were the only weekends i had off until the end of august from the band, so i figured i better do it right.

but i also worked on the 15FTW album, as i had promised! while it started out to be 15 songs by my 2 uncles and myself from one recording session, it has evolved into 3 cd's worth of material from multiple sessions.

there will be the album with 13 or so songs that will be released to the general public by Knah Records and available to order from CDBABY.com and here, a second album of outtakes, as in the songs that didn't make the original album for family and friends who want it, (and pretty much anyone else who really wants one), and a third cd from the last recording session with all the chatting in between songs to give to the family, as this was the last recordings from my uncle howard before he died. pretty much all the songs will be on either the released album or the outtakes cd. so as it stands after the last couple weeks, the third cd is done, the second is mostly done, just have to finish all the tracks being considered for the album, then put those not used on the outtakes cd. so see, i got alot done!

also, here is the picture to be used on the album cover, there will be additional text and graphics added for the final cover.

this is a picture from '75 or '76 of my dad and his 4 brothers. i'd have a contest to see who could figure out which was my dad, but so far everyone has picked my uncle chet on the left. sitting on the bike next to him in the dorky hat is my dad, sitting in front is my uncle bill, standing in the back is my uncle hoss, and on the right is uncle howard.

here is a picture from last fall of bill and howard playing with some of bill's friends, they are on the left.

and finally, a couple pics while working on the album last night.

though you can't see the front of my shirt in this picture, i hoped unki in heaven wasn't offended by me wearing a pink floyd shirt while editing the music he was so proud to play on his old gibson. and though our styles of music may have been different for the most part, the firm belief in gibson guitars has done well for both of us!

all those notes are the edit times and actions for just 1 song!

and since this is an album update, i guess there is no better time to give up one last nugget of media to the public. the first 2 links have been posted here before, the first is the only full length finished song to be made public so far (used at unki's funeral) and the second is the bluegrass breakfast movie clip. the third is a partial song snippet that i think is one of the funniest moments in the whole recording process. well, except for when everyone in the room was debating whether i would look good in a dress or not. (and they all voted yes, in case you were wondering) so, check out the links, the last will load the fastest, and for everything else you will just have to wait until the album is finished! you will need apple's quicktime7 to view the video clip. (it's a free download)

I am a pilgrim

Breakfast of bluegrass

oops!

last weekend

2007-05-23T18:27:00.000-07:00

got an update coming about playing last weekend inluding photo's, a short video, and the story of me totally hosing up a skynyrd song. good thing most of them guys are dead, or they would be looking to kick my nuggets. more info on the 15FTW album coming too.

it's come down to this

2007-05-14T20:06:00.000-07:00

i said something tonight i thought i would never say. " after last weekend, i may end up playing my fender this friday." though i had an idea i might mention this someday, i never thought it would be so soon. there are 2 things any long time readers of this blog may recall, (both of you)(well, one, now that unk died. and i do miss you, ya country lovin' doink) those 2 things? mr brians wicks is a stallion guitar builder, and fenders suck. i have no hate for any one or anything in this world, but i really do not like fender guitar necks. they are fat and round, and i have these little carny-midget hands that fit so much better on a skinny gibson neck than any fender i've picked up. in fact, my favorite saying is that a fender guitar is a waste of perfectly good fire wood. even funnier is the fact that one of my friends from college, who i remember as a les paul and nothing but peavey 5150 and crate tube amp lover, switched to the fender dark side, and just today, mentioned something about that in this post. (here is his myspace page)

anyways, the reason for this rant: to answer a question emailed to me recently about what guitars i use, to announce that i would actually play my fender strat now that the above mentioned guitar builder reshaped the neck into something besides a fence post with strings on it, and to whine and cry about having really good stuff, set up professionally, and yet i still manage to break them without even trying. some days you just have to be good.

to answer the question, the guitars i use 99.9 percent of the time are Epiphone
G400 SG's made from korina mahogany wood. i have 2 of them set up exactly the same, the only way i can tell them apart is the serial numbers, and even that i would have to look up to see which one i bought first, though one does have a different sticker on it right now. gibson only made a korina sg one year, they look funny, and are very hard to find, so my only choice was to go with the supposed "gibson authorized" epiphone g4oo. as they are now, the only thing left of the original guitars are the wood bodies, all the electronics, wiring, volume/tone pots, and tuners have all been changed out to what i found i liked from trial and error during the first 2 years i played with premonition. gotoh tuners, the pickups are gibson's: '57 classics in the neck position, and '57 burst buckers in the bridge position. the whining and crying part of this post, and the reason i said i may play my fender this friday night, is that BOTH the sg's are at brians being worked on. one seems to have caught a cold and the intonation is out on one string for some reason. and the other, well, i think it's mad at me. it's the one i bought second, and is the one i had all the custom work done to first, so it was my primary guitar the first 2 years in the band. then while experimenting with different pickups on the bridge of the first guitar, that's when i i tried the burst bucker and decided i like it alot better than '57 classic plus that was in the second one i had been using up until then, so i switched which one i primarily used. and i think that made it mad, as i've had constant problems with it since. if we were playing a laid back gig, i just grabbed whichever guitar case was close without even looking to see which one it was, but if it was a more rock gig i wanted the one with the burst bucker, as the other hadn't been changed to that yet. so first, the selector switch died, then a few weeks later a volume pot died. and these had already been updated to gibson hardware. next, it suddenly became very susceptable to changes in humidity, which would make the b string fret out on the first fret. then, the bridge pickup developed a short inside it, so that had to be changed. and now, it's back to the humidity causing it to fret out again, which is why it's back at brians. so i don't know, maybe it's time to build a third one just like the other 2, so that i won't have to fall back on the fender.

now, about the fender. i've hated that thing for years. it's one of the early "american standard" models that i bought new in 97 or 98, before they all came with humbuckers at the bridge. so i put a seymor duncan hotrail in the single coil spot, and i do like the sound of it. there is a really big tone difference switching from the fender lace's at the neck and middle postion to that hot rail, which is nice to have that diversity, i just hated the "feel" of how the thing played. so it has only been played live once, and that was for a birthday party that it was requested just becasue of the way it looks. it's a realy deep blue/purple, and when i first bought it i had a polished aluminum diamondplate pick guard cut for it. (not that i was the first to do this, but it wasn't until the last couple years before this became popular) so in general it was a sweet looking, sweet sounding guitar, that i totally hated playing. in fact, last year when the guys that run the drag strip here in town wanted me to record the star spangled banner "jimi hendrix style" for them to use before each race, i tried using it since that is what he played, but that only lasted one take before going back to the sg. now though, my perspective of the guitar has changed drastically. and no, my fingers didn't grow longer, that stallion guitar builder i mentioned reshaped the neck into something that has a very good feel to it. so while i still don't like the way the control knobs are so close to the strings, and the string height of the body is taller where i plant my little pinkie occasionally, it is now a very playable guitar.

but i'd still rather play my sg's, so my whole point of this epic tale is that i really hope he gets one of my korina baby's feeling better by friday!

ok, i'm back.

2007-05-07T07:30:00.000-07:00

not that i actually left, but it felt like it for a couple weeks. between actually having to spend 40 hours a week at work, (what's up with that?) and headaches from my allergies being annoying, i have not done much of anything. but i managed to get most of my bass parts figured out for the rest of the songs on the 15FTW album, (here is a related video clip to check out of my uncle howard) and got the camper and fourwheelers ready for the summer.

we played last weekend way out on the montana prairie, and while being the most scenic in terms of women who didn't resemble farm animals, it was also the worst night i've had to play with a headache so far. my only goal during the set was to not puke behind the amps. (mainly because the bass and guitar amps on my side of the stage are both mine. and i didn't have the energy to walk to carl's side) in between sets, i went straight to the jeep and took a nap until time to go back on. the owners were great, and had really good food there that we all enjoyed. unfortunately i was only able to enjoy mine for about 10 minutes before it departed and left me with only a memory, but man what a memory.......

anyways, i will get my site updated this week, we are booked almost every weekend of june and july, with several dates during the week too.

update

2007-04-18T18:29:00.000-07:00

update coming soon, thanks to everyone for the birthday wishes, and in the meantime check out the new comment to one of my previous posts: Legacy

normal?

2007-04-04T18:21:00.000-07:00

last week was fun. i had the flu for 3 days, then played both friday and saturday night. there is nothing on the history, discovery and national geographic channels that i have not seen. i don't know how many channels i get, but those are the only ones i watch.

we play again this weekend, and i know, i need to get the schedule updated on my website as several of you whined to me about. last week i had forgot about playing completely until carl told me we were setting up and doing sound check that night. oops. it's a good thing i never plan anything more than about 2 hours in advance, and it's also a good thing that everyone knows that my memory sucks and so they remind me constantly of what i'm supposed to do next.

i did finally manage to get all my recording and mastering equipment set up and working again so that i can get back to finishing the bluegrass album. playing through the demo mix's i have to practice to proved that i had forgot how to play half of them. the problem now is that i don't have unk to call to tell me what to play, so i will have to rely on my uncle bill, who plays mandolin on the album, and some of uncle howards friends he played with to get everything sounding right. there is also a post uncle howard was working on before he passed away about playing at the blugrass festival in winfield kansas last fall that my uncle bill is going to finish as he was there also, so that will be up soon.

i'll be back later to answer some questions.

more randomness

2007-03-20T07:11:00.000-07:00

these first pictures are from my sister april's
wedding reception at the college of the ozarks,
november, 2006

wedding cake, YUM!

my sister april and my mum

my dad's brothers and sisters
(from the left)
aunt jane, my dad henry, aunt annabelle,
aunt francis, uncle howard, and uncle bill.

uncle allen and uncle chet had already
passed away previous to this photo,
and uncle howard passed away soon after.
way too soon after.

my mom's sister darlene
(hippie cousin's mom)

mom's sister annie, my nephew zach,
annie's husband j.r., and my dad

i don't know which of my cousin's kid this is,
but she sure is cute!

april and her new husband noel

noel, april, nephew's zach and charlie,
and their mom pam, my brother's wife.

my brother les, me, noel, april, my mom and dad

my mom and dad on the right started this whole mess
of kids and grandkids.

after the reception, we all went to my parents house
and did some playing and recording together.
this picture is my uncle bill on the left, and toddler's dad
bob on the right playing bass.

bob and my uncle howard

me pretending i know how to record stuff

my pop's

me trying to play a puke-a-lele

a very rare sight, me playing an acoustic guitar.

another very rare sight, uncle howard playing
something BESIDES an acoustic guitar

i'm not sure what song he's trying to play, i'm just glad
i picked the orange ukelele as that yellow one would have
totally clashed with my shirt.
and being the style icon that i am, we just can't have a clash!

the birthday bash

2007-03-14T18:13:00.000-07:00

today is rangersis's birthday and a couple days ago was my youngest nephew zach's, so happy birthday to everyone else having one! and since anita from denmark (go check out her website, link is to the right) asked when my birthday is, it is april 9th. (i'll be 34, but don't tell anyone.)

legacy

2007-03-09T18:10:00.000-07:00

these 2 articles are from the college of the ozark's alumni news letter. and yes, i did graduate, in 4 years, and my major was not leisure activities. this first one mentions arthur cahill, who was on the board of elders for the school, and i worked for him doing landscaping and outdoor maintenace almost every evening for the four years i was in college. he was a great guy, always a gentleman and he had a twisted sense of humor like i do. he passed away a few years ago, and would have been 100 this year. he was born on the 7th day of the 7th month of the 7th year. remind me to tell you the story about catching a little bird in a sack at his house and letting it go in the theatre at the college during a play. (click the articles to zoom and read them if you like)

this next article is about one of my favorite teachers. she tried to get me to change my major to business since i took so many classes with her and was actually good at them. another fond memory i have from her class involves sitting next to one of my friends, and during one of her lectures i look over and he is sniffing one of the pockets in his wallet, then wants me to take a sniff. so i did. the pocket was empty, but had a very distinct smell, of which i won't reveal what it was, but he can if he likes, as i recently got back in touch with him after 12 years! his name is gregg, and he was the only influence other than my uncle's in me wanting to play guitar, as he is very good and actually played in the pep band for the college sports teams. which is basically unheard of in a pep band . anyways, he lives in texas and playes for the band legacy.

we also worked in the same department for the college, and have many fond memories of that too. well, some are not so fond, but are definitely classics! remind me to tell you some of those stories some day too. just don't believe anything he says i did, as i'm sure his memory is incorrect as i would NEVER do the stuff he says i did. i swear!
well, it's off to diner and practice a bit before heading out to the eagle's to play tonight. we learned some new songs this week, so it should be a fun night. have a great weekend everyone!

i promise!

2007-03-07T18:21:00.000-07:00

that i will post tomorrow, i have a bunch of random pictures waiting to go up, but right now i am off to band practice, as we are playing this weekend also, i just didn't get the dates put up on my website.