Stronger
Monday, August 10th, 2009The lyrics were written by my friend, BJ Novack.
Flying
Monday, August 10th, 2009Bursting
Monday, August 10th, 2009Circumstances push me
Thursday, June 18th, 2009It can be really interesting how events fall into place sometimes. Here I have the opportunity to play a little gig in a big music festival and I can’t play the guitar. So I have to find people to help me. Again. You would think I would be good at accepting people’s help by now. I guess in some ways I am. But this is more complicated somehow.
I had no idea how much a part of me my practicing has been. How do I practice my musical processes without the guitar? OK. Well, I ask people to back me up. I seem to have a few people willing to help. I am really grateful for this. But people are busy in their schedules and I am still so hesitant: I ask for help tentatively. . . my voice isn’t very loud. So good people offer help, but they don’t understand my need. . . maybe I should talk louder. Maybe I am not clear. Maybe my expectations are too high.
You see, for so long I practiced for two or three hours a day. Not because I want to produce some outwardly pleasing product. Well, not mostly. Because I almost have to to remain clear. Like something has to come out. But now, I am hoping that other people can become my tools through which I can do the same thing. This is totally unrealistic.
I have to become clear in my own expectations and express myself in understandable language what I need. What a challenge for me. Life does that, doesn’t it?
I only have about six weeks left before I am supposed to perform, and I still don’t have much to show. I’ve got to get it together. I will keep trying to figure out how to communicate with those people who may be able to help me perform, but since it seems tough to touch base, I’d better learn a new way to play the guitar without using my left hand much. Like maybe slide with open chords?? I may just try that. But in the mean time, another call. . . maybe this time a practice session will work out.
De wielewaal
Tuesday, March 31st, 2009Kom me naar buiten allemaal
Dan zoeken wij de wielewaal
En vinden wij die muziekant
Dan is zomer weer in’t land!
Dudeldjo klinkt zijn lied
Dudeldjo klinkt zijn lied
Dudeldjo en anders neit.
Oh, it feels like Springtime inside and outside. . . the birds are singing, my heart is expanding out so far I feel like bursting!
Michael Franti
Sunday, December 28th, 2008Here is an interview with Michael Franti. What an inspiring human being he is!
The Wildflower Cafe Birthday Bash
Monday, October 13th, 2008Tonight is a birthday bash at the Wildflower celebrating both Bill’s and Michelle’s birthdays! Come on out to 316 South New Street in South Bethlehem, PA to join in the fun. Sign up for the open mike usually starts at 7:00, but this is a different deal tonight, so I guess the show itself may be central instead, starting probably at 8:00. I think I will go a little before that.
The Wildflower has had a lot to do with me feeling free to open up into all possibilities with my music. Both Bill and Michelle are instrumental in the openness at the Wildflower. There is a lot to celebrate here.
Back to the music
Tuesday, February 26th, 2008I’ve been talking mostly about the inner world of my emotions lately on this blog. Every day for quite a while I’ve been playing my music also for at least two or three hours a day. Sometimes I feel like I am being irresponsible in this respect. I should be concentrating on how I am going to pay the mortgage next month.
In any case, as I have been feeling a shift inside of myself as I go from emergency crisis mode back into a more stable outlook, (yet an outlook which has certainly been colored by my experiences), my music has been deepening and becoming more confident in its presentation. Strange how I can feel like I am falling apart in my emotional life and yet be anchoring myself in my music.
I really enjoyed playing last week at the Wildflower, being backed up by one of the most spontaneous, fun loving young guitarists that I know there. I hope to do more of this in the future.
I also really want to make some of my music available on the web site as soon as I can. There are a few technical issues I have to approach first. When it happens you will know!
My music these days
Saturday, January 19th, 2008So much of my life in the past couple of years has been in change. The process of change has made it necessary for things to be fluid. My music has been no exception. It has only been in the past couple of years that I have been playing the guitar and singing again. There was a twenty year gap when I did not create. I think the music I created a long time ago would be called folk music. Please forgive me, folks as I go along. I am an expert at nothing but my own present experience. I don’t know much about genres, I just have a general impression about things. In any case, my music has always been folky and acoustic. And I have pretty much stuck only to my own music and to my brother Billy’s music.
I self-pollinated for a long time. Actually in every sense. Not just music. But now I am reaching out. I want to learn about myself and the world. I’m done with being scared and not taking chances. So my music is following suit. It is changing. Much of it has been very fluid for a while. I am sort of afraid of committing to much structure. I feel that way generally about my life. I have been cast into a heavy mold for so long, I am afraid of being pinned down again. But my fear is lessening and form is surrounding the creative core. Yet in the process of traveling through parts of myself that I hadn’t allowed myself before, I am letting new kinds of expression out: still very fluid: grunts, shrieks, a language that seems to have a life of its own. But it is forming itself into something very new to me. And I am finding beauty in this new form.
I have found a wonderful place to perform my music, no matter how weird my music gets. The Wildflower Cafe in Bethlehem Pennsylvania is owned by a wonderful lady who has created this space where people can feel free to be themselves. It has attracted some amazing talents, and a lot of wonderful accepting people, where respect for each other is central. Come out on a Monday or Tuesday night to join in with the open mike. Sign up starts at 7:00 PM.
Hello world!
Saturday, December 15th, 2007And that is what it is all about for me. . . Hello World, but revised. . . This is how I am feeling these days. And much of this can be expressed and experienced through music. I think that a lot of people are feeling a sense of renewal these days. And I have great hope for all of us. What appears on the surface is not always to be relied upon. I think that we are emergent. The surface is sometimes just a hardened shell that will soon be cast aside. Like the shell of an egg. And what better way to bring along a birth but through the joy of music.
