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I have some musically talented kids, and I wanted to give them a place to post their tunes for all the world to admire. So I made them an album page on this site called SkullToast, and we will post their songs as fast as they can finish them.

Where did the name “SkullToast” come from? Here’s Heinz Sander to explain:

“I was in German class, and I was doodling on my notes. I was drawing skulls. I noticed that some of them looked like pieces of toast, so I drew one that was shaped like a piece of toast, and I wrote “SKULLTOAST” above it in big letters. The teacher came along, and he wrote the German translation below that: Schädel Toast.”

So there it is. SkullToast. I think it’s a fantastic band name, certainly better than most.

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One of my kids is studying US history in school this year, and decided to write and record a folk song about the California gold rush of 1849 for a school assignment. Of course I helped him with it. The actual assignment was to make something about the Westward Expansion, and it could have been a poster, drawing, a class presentation, or rewriting the lyrics to a song. He really went the extra mile on this one, and I hope he gets extra credit. The  song is based on The Ballad of Sally Anne, a Mark O’ Conner recording on the album The New Nashville Cats.

This was a 100% Linux production: Ardour, Dragonfly Reverb, Calf Studio Gear, AVL Drumkits, and x42 Plugins, on Linux Mint 19.3. I did the guitars, bass, and mandolin, and he did the vocals, drums, and piano synth programming. He also did most of the mixing and mastering, with a little coaching.

I’m super proud of my little geek boy! (more…)