Stuffed, and full of thanks

Local musicians list the many things they're grateful for

Members of Three Day Threshold (above) and Muck and the Mires (below) say they're thankful they could tour this year.

Thanksgiving is an important holiday. Loading up on carbs, calories, and tryptophan are all crucial components to hibernation in the winter months - and let's face it, the latter, nap-inducing property found in turkey has proved essential to our ability to get through a four-hour dinner with extended family members.

Thanksgiving is also a time to take stock; to appreciate what we've got. In that spirit, we asked some Boston-area musicians what they're thankful for, and who or what has inspired them this year. Many were kind enough to take time out from gorging themselves unconscious on stove-top stuffing (or maybe that's just us) and e-mail us back. Here's some of what they had to say.

"(I'm) thankful for the friends and strangers I encounter in the cracks of free time, at work, online, whose stories, doubts, frustrations, and emotions transfuse like blood into the teeth of a vampire. These are their songs as much as they are mine. I'm thankful for the 'Be Here To Love Me' documentary about Townes Van Zandt. It killed me. I realized how much further I had to go in my own work to cut as close to the bone as he."

RICK BERLIN

"Aside from the obvious shift in national leadership, I'm super-thankful for an odd epiphany: I realized I've always been interested in photography and should pursue it creatively. I have been snapping away ever since. This new hobby has made me use my eyes and, unexpectedly, my ears in a new way."

PETE WEISS, The Weisstronauts

"Paul Kolderie (Camp Street Studios' co-owner) called a meeting with me and asked if I'd be interested in recording a solo album on the house for their Camp Street Studios label. We had a boatload of fun and everyone contributed stellar musical ideas. I'm super-thankful to all my gracious, talented friends and comrades in the Boston music community."

JOHN POWHIDA

"Three Day Threshold was really grateful for being able to do so much traveling this year. We did a tour of Europe this spring, and this summer we toured American military bases in Central America. Now, with a new live CD we recorded in Belgium called 'Lost in Belgium' coming out, we have another European tour booked this winter."

KIER BYRNES, Three Day Threshold

"I'm thankful to the guys in Cassavettes for nurturing my newfound appreciation for Neil Young. I never thought I liked any of his music, as I was only familiar with the same three songs I had been hearing my whole life. But the guys insisted I take a hard listen to his work, and I'm better off for it."

MATT SNOW, Cassavettes

"Given the current economic situation, I am thankful that our shows are still well-attended and that we are still able to tour!"

EVAN SHORE, Muck and the Mires

"This year I was befriended by photographer/musician Steve Gullick, who plays in the bands Bender and Tenebrous Liar. I've never heard anything like Tenebrous Liar and am now a hardcore fan and friend. They are all about tone and are quite minimal, with occasional noisy chaotic bursts. This year I also became friends with Dave Catching and the Queens of the Stone Age crew and will be heading out to Palm Desert next year to cut my new record at his place. In other words, I'm always thankful to make new friends. Especially when we are on the same page creatively."

MONIQUE ORTIZ, Bourbon Princess

"I am thankful for our fellow Boston band Cassavettes! Not only do we share a practice space with them, but they don't scold us when we leave the door open for weekends at a time or get angry when they find unexplained tissues all over the floor. (Also), Ray LaMontagne's new album, 'Gossip in the Grain.' Just flat-out beautiful music."

WARD HAYDEN,Girls Guns & Glory

"Touring all over the US, surviving blizzards on the road in Northern California, seeing my aunt in Arizona one last time before she took off on a new adventure, a tiny fire on the beach at night, the curious ghost in the passenger seat of the van, the town of spiders and cats forever spinning and purring where we recorded our next record in the sweaty days of end-of-summer thunderstorms. But most of all we are so, so thankful for Mr. Obama."

SARAH CRONIN, Drug Rug

"I've been thankful to record an entire album in a studio for the first time in my life, that I know will come out on a great label (Misra Records) and have a good chance of being heard by a whole lot of ears. I'm thankful for (filmmaker) David Lynch and (musician) Tom Waits giving the world hope that artists can continue to be relevant and powerful well past the age of 50. (It) lets me know I'm still in the infant stages of creativity. I'm also thankful for all of the writing (novelist) David Foster Wallace published in his short life. I will miss his voice immensely."

RYAN WALSH, Hallelujah the Hills