I finally got the new songs(worker bees and my heart) mixed and loaded. it occured to me that i have become increasingly less technically driven and more artsy as time progresses. then it occured to me that no one else does that much any more. why is that? if you listen to older material(60s and 70s in particular) there is a lot more of what i now am refering to as "interperative" guitar. simply put, a certain amount of prowess is sacrificed to the overall sense of the music. the choice of notes and phrasing, where one cooses to put solos and supporting parts, choice of tones, etc. in the end everything tends to either add to or take away from the musical whole. this idea seems to have started with Bach's "doctrine of affections" but i think it was Wagner who took the idea that motifs and musical idioms could transcend words(lyrics) into the modern era. without this idea we could not have effective t v themes, movie soundtracks, etc. more on all this later. in the mean time, check out the new songs. the bees solos are meant to depict swarming and stings- the slide in my heart is depressed and a little alcoholically impaired. it is, of course,somewhat subtle-otherwise all you have is a characture. i believe idiomatic weaving is a neccesary component in the pursuit of the effective message song as well as being a generally useful musical device.what do you think?
Reply
This will be short one. I wrote a song 18 months ago (still unrecorded but in the live set) called HAND ME MY FIDDLE. Things, as people are beginning to see, are off the rails. Politics are not going to fix it-in fact the corruption of both parties has created what limbaugh calls "the ruling class". Succinctly put, corrupted power is never surrendered voluntarily. It feeds on itself-like cancer. When rome began what became a long series of falls, starting during the reign of Nero, the reference "fiddling while rome burns" was born. Nero didn't actually play the fiddle. He did (by most accounts) have parts of Rome set on fire himself as a diversion from his own political problems and set the Christians up to take the fall. Sound familiar? Nothing ever changes in the heart of man. While Rome was out of control on fire he had a drunken party. Once again-sound familiar? Sometime in the late 1780's, just prior to the beginning of what would be 26 years of the French Revolution, Marie Antionette coined the phrase"let them eat cake" as the French peasants were starving by the thousands. Cake, by the way, was the left-over grain scum from the bread baking ovens and was not considered edible. She and her useless husband, Louis xvi, were eventually overthrown and beheaded. The fighting didn't stop for good until 1815 when the final narcissistic tyrant(Napoleon) was put down for the last time and permanently exiled. In both instances there is extreme cynicism exhibited coupled with a total lack of regard for others. After all, these people, in their minds, are better than everyone else. The point of all this rambling? My Nero song has begun to manifest as a real mindset in America. Witness the Bell, Ca. debacle, where local government employees were paying themselves 5 or 10 times what would be considered reasonable for the performance of their respective duties. They were getting theirs while the getting was good-THEY WERE FIDDLING! If this trend takes hold we are done. Decline and fall always follows. The answer? Put others first. Don't buy into the lie that you "can't love others if you don't love yourself" people naturally love themselves (a lot). It is love for others that must be cultivated. This new paradigm of thought may not save the world. It will, however, go a long way toward saving you from the world. We may or not be able to keep America from burning at some point, but we don't have to contribute to it. Choose not to. Leave your untuned fiddle in the closet.
Reply
(originally posted january '09) twenty-one months ago i wrote a song "worker bees". the second verse is as follows: --went outside today / the sun was shining brightly. / looked across the way / the shades were drawn up tightly. / do you want to play / party lines are forming. / better find your way / the worker bees are swarming.-- it will be featured on or upcoming album due out in late '09. like most artists i shy away from overly explaining my work. i only do so now because it is important to understand where we are in america.
the hive is in the process of splitting. people can't wait, apparantly, to toss out the old and bring in the new. what will be the result? i never thought i would see such a complete abandonment of what used to be america in favor of the mish-mash of self-contradictory psycho-babble that is now what the public is seemingly embracing as our national culture. e pluribus unum (from many one),once a tribute to national unity formed in values that matter, has reversed itself. it was even translated "from one, many" by that world class idiot al gore in a political adress some years ago. the sad fact is he has become the prophet of decay.
we have lost our way. can we find it again? honestly i doubt it. we can, however, stand up for what is right and decry the corrupt selfishness that permeates life today. if it was wrong 50 years ago to steal, it is still wrong now. the same logic holds true for lying, cheating, covetousness, and general hatred and self-centeredness. we can't change the world. we can only uphold real virtue. there is power in that(the word "virtue" was originally translated as "power". if more people would adopt this philosophy, i have no doubt the world would change. at the very least one would be able to stand while everything is falling. that has become the choice. will you stand or fall.
the lines are forming and we are all going to play whether we like it or not. choose your teams and mates carefully. a lot is at stake.
Reply
Change is coming. We've been promised "change we can believe in." We'll see. There have been grandiose promises from every incoming administration in memory. Most are never kept and we all just move on to the next bunch of "saviors." So where are we now? At least one thing seems certain. Things will likely not proceed as they have in the past. With the intensifying collective knee-jerk reaction to each new crisis-real or imagined-guess what...global warming is a myth-there is no chance, in my view, that America will escape cataclysm in the near future. The inmates are running the asylum and soon only rational people will appear insane-if they don't already. It's surely a recipe for destruction. Times are changing like Dylan said. However, with a nearly universally flawed assessment of what is driving this change there is little hope of avoiding unfortunate resulting consequenses. Politics is never the answer during times like these. The problems and challenges are profoundly larger than can be dealt with solely through human interaction. Sometimes it looks to me like we are becoming the "borg" from Star Trek. What a future! One hundred years from now who is going to care if you drove a Hugo or an Escalade. Regardless of what the Al Gores of the world tell us, the correct answer is resoundingly NOBODY!! THE PROPHETS HAVE SPOKEN was written many years ago. It could have been written last week. It speaks of maintaining perspective in a world that is carried away by emotionally driven societal insanity. Please don't be part of this escalating problem. Keep some perspective and avoid being caught up in it all. Give the song a listen and see if you agree with its premise. If not, just listen to the guitar parts. They're pretty good.
Reply
THE SIGN
.
It was prominently displayed at the busiest intersection in town. Silently, yet with constant urgency, it pleaded. "It" was a 4' x 8' sign. Mostly black, there were red and yellow flames rising from the bottom. In large letters (quite unavoidable from the highway) was written the simple message: Repent Now America.
In 1973, the man, not much more than a boy then, had received a vision. It was on a moonlit summer night. While gazing up into the not so dark sky, the man observed- almost out of nowhere- the clouds had formed into what looked like a map of the 48 states. It remained for a few seconds and then just as quickly dissipated into clear sky. A voice was heard. It said simply: "And thus shall it be". The meaning was not immediately clear. Over time it would become more so.
In 1996 a word came. "Ichabod". That was it. Translated into English it means "The glory of the Lord is removed".
In 1998 a word came: "The axe is laid to the root" According to the man this began a period of reckoning: Judgment would eventually follow. Over the next few years a number of observations were made and conclusions drawn. Occasionally there would be a "marker" event. These events seemed to signal a gradually closing window of opportunity to delay coming judgment. The more prominent ones (the lesser mostly went unnoticed) were consistently explained in totally political terms. Apparently no one was making the connection.
In 2006 the sign went up. The man thought people should be told of what he knew. Hopefully the sign would also be a conversation starter. It failed on both counts. The sign made people suspicious. Parents wouldn't let their children play with his. All the "good" people in town were offended. How dare someone who regularly drinks beer and smokes cigars suggest that anyone except himself should repent! Eventually it was simply ignored.
In 2008 the sign came down- it is stacked with the others that have outlived their usefulness in a storage area in back of the building. It has truly become a metaphor for itself. Still in its blazing, no-nonsense glory-but with absolutely no one listening. What does it all mean? You tell me.
Reply
I need help. (ask anyone!) Though not the kind friends and family think. I need help to escape the wasteland of musical obscurity.
I dropped out of the North Texas jazz studies graduate program in 1987 to marry the best person I know. We planned for me to go back but the longer I was away, the more apparent one fact became. A degree in jazz is like a degree in baseball. If you can play it, it doesn't matter. If you can't play it, it doesn't matter. In the words of Little Big Man, "that was the end of my academic period".
I had a power trio. We originally decided to do mostly instrumentals ala Jeff Beck, Mahavishnu Orchestra, Dixie Dregs. Some of that is still in evidence but over time I wanted to be able to say more things to more people. We started the album CALM BEFORE THE STORM in 1992 (songs currently on myspace).
My dad died in December 1992. I was still grieving when in March of '93 I was bitten by an infected animal and nearly died. At least that's what they told me. I was very sick for fourteen months. I recovered somewhat, but it was a little like being a zombie.
We finished the album in late 1995 with the title cut CALM BEFORE THE STORM about a coming attack and the aftermath. It was published in early 1996 by a small firm in Nashville called Markee Music. At the same time, in an attempt to improve my health, I pulled a Doc Holiday and we moved to Texas. Markee shopped the album for a year but got no takers.
I eventually became too sick to play music and dropped out of the scene altogether. I managed to go day to day but that was about it. Then, in 2003, I had a relapse and was pronounced terminal.
But then- a miracle happened. In 2005. My wife found a nutritional product that's made in the Dallas area and I began to take it everyday. My recovery was remarkable. By 2007 I had completely recovered from my 13 year illness .
And a wonderful thing had happened. I could play again! I mean really play!! I have been on a "binge", as my friend Milton Swing (a great player) used to say, ever since.
We have a new album ready to be recorded and I promise if you like what we did before, you're going to LOVE this. We can deliver!! All the pieces are in place except one- we need management that can deliver. We are ready w/ 60 days notice to tour (I am also available as a solo lead guitarist at any time), but have no way to financially make it happen. If there is someone out there who believes that we have "IT" who wants to invest in this endeavor and help us get our music out there, please contact me. I need HELP!
Reply
I predict that we are, as a society, going to become much less mobile as the energy costs continue to soar. Bands can't afford to tour (unless you have major financial backing). People are moving more and more towards at-home entertainment. Technology steps in and brings that entertainment to your home more efficiently. People still like to hang out with their friends and party and listen to good music. Music aficionados like to try and figure out their favorite artist's hot licks and compositions. Pay per view events have proven that people will pay for at-home entertainment. People can now put their own music collections together without spending money on tracks that are just plain not good. Digital downloads (audio or video) are cost effective ways to get your music. Cheap for the consumer, cheaper for the artist to produce. A win for the consumer because artists won't get away with one or two good songs and then crap for filler in an album. I predict that with the new technology that allows for the sell of, or rental (pay per view) of digital video that can be viewed on your HD home entertainment theater (TV), single favorite songs done by your favorite band, concerts (some can be live-streamed) and the occasional well-produced rock opera will open up a whole new venue for consumer and artists alike. DO YOU AGREE? IF NOT, WHY?
Update-I'm more convinced that music video will be a wave of the future. Artists are already downloading single songs for $1.99-$3.99 a song. I think live-streamed concerts @ pay per view price can't be long in coming. The new technology to download video straight to your tv screen or mobile video phone makes it too convenient for consumers not to go in this direction.
Reply
Tioga Dan / Blog
interperative guitar
I finally got the new songs(worker bees and my heart) mixed and loaded. it occured to me that i have become increasingly less technically driven and more artsy as time progresses. then it occured to me that no one else does that much any more. why is that? if you listen to older material(60s and 70s in particular) there is a lot more of what i now am refering to as "interperative" guitar. simply put, a certain amount of prowess is sacrificed to the overall sense of the music. the choice of notes and phrasing, where one cooses to put solos and supporting parts, choice of tones, etc. in the end everything tends to either add to or take away from the musical whole. this idea seems to have started with Bach's "doctrine of affections" but i think it was Wagner who took the idea that motifs and musical idioms could transcend words(lyrics) into the modern era. without this idea we could not have effective t v themes, movie soundtracks, etc. more on all this later. in the mean time, check out the new songs. the bees solos are meant to depict swarming and stings- the slide in my heart is depressed and a little alcoholically impaired. it is, of course,somewhat subtle-otherwise all you have is a characture. i believe idiomatic weaving is a neccesary component in the pursuit of the effective message song as well as being a generally useful musical device.what do you think?
Reply
Tune it up Nero!
This will be short one. I wrote a song 18 months ago (still unrecorded but in the live set) called HAND ME MY FIDDLE. Things, as people are beginning to see, are off the rails. Politics are not going to fix it-in fact the corruption of both parties has created what limbaugh calls "the ruling class". Succinctly put, corrupted power is never surrendered voluntarily. It feeds on itself-like cancer. When rome began what became a long series of falls, starting during the reign of Nero, the reference "fiddling while rome burns" was born. Nero didn't actually play the fiddle. He did (by most accounts) have parts of Rome set on fire himself as a diversion from his own political problems and set the Christians up to take the fall. Sound familiar? Nothing ever changes in the heart of man. While Rome was out of control on fire he had a drunken party. Once again-sound familiar? Sometime in the late 1780's, just prior to the beginning of what would be 26 years of the French Revolution, Marie Antionette coined the phrase"let them eat cake" as the French peasants were starving by the thousands. Cake, by the way, was the left-over grain scum from the bread baking ovens and was not considered edible. She and her useless husband, Louis xvi, were eventually overthrown and beheaded. The fighting didn't stop for good until 1815 when the final narcissistic tyrant(Napoleon) was put down for the last time and permanently exiled. In both instances there is extreme cynicism exhibited coupled with a total lack of regard for others. After all, these people, in their minds, are better than everyone else. The point of all this rambling? My Nero song has begun to manifest as a real mindset in America. Witness the Bell, Ca. debacle, where local government employees were paying themselves 5 or 10 times what would be considered reasonable for the performance of their respective duties. They were getting theirs while the getting was good-THEY WERE FIDDLING! If this trend takes hold we are done. Decline and fall always follows. The answer? Put others first. Don't buy into the lie that you "can't love others if you don't love yourself" people naturally love themselves (a lot). It is love for others that must be cultivated. This new paradigm of thought may not save the world. It will, however, go a long way toward saving you from the world. We may or not be able to keep America from burning at some point, but we don't have to contribute to it. Choose not to. Leave your untuned fiddle in the closet.
Reply
worker bees-what does it mean?
(originally posted january '09) twenty-one months ago i wrote a song "worker bees". the second verse is as follows: --went outside today / the sun was shining brightly. / looked across the way / the shades were drawn up tightly. / do you want to play / party lines are forming. / better find your way / the worker bees are swarming.-- it will be featured on or upcoming album due out in late '09. like most artists i shy away from overly explaining my work. i only do so now because it is important to understand where we are in america.
the hive is in the process of splitting. people can't wait, apparantly, to toss out the old and bring in the new. what will be the result? i never thought i would see such a complete abandonment of what used to be america in favor of the mish-mash of self-contradictory psycho-babble that is now what the public is seemingly embracing as our national culture. e pluribus unum (from many one),once a tribute to national unity formed in values that matter, has reversed itself. it was even translated "from one, many" by that world class idiot al gore in a political adress some years ago. the sad fact is he has become the prophet of decay.
we have lost our way. can we find it again? honestly i doubt it. we can, however, stand up for what is right and decry the corrupt selfishness that permeates life today. if it was wrong 50 years ago to steal, it is still wrong now. the same logic holds true for lying, cheating, covetousness, and general hatred and self-centeredness. we can't change the world. we can only uphold real virtue. there is power in that(the word "virtue" was originally translated as "power". if more people would adopt this philosophy, i have no doubt the world would change. at the very least one would be able to stand while everything is falling. that has become the choice. will you stand or fall.
the lines are forming and we are all going to play whether we like it or not. choose your teams and mates carefully. a lot is at stake.
Reply
CHANGE IS COMING
Change is coming. We've been promised "change we can believe in." We'll see. There have been grandiose promises from every incoming administration in memory. Most are never kept and we all just move on to the next bunch of "saviors." So where are we now? At least one thing seems certain. Things will likely not proceed as they have in the past. With the intensifying collective knee-jerk reaction to each new crisis-real or imagined-guess what...global warming is a myth-there is no chance, in my view, that America will escape cataclysm in the near future. The inmates are running the asylum and soon only rational people will appear insane-if they don't already. It's surely a recipe for destruction. Times are changing like Dylan said. However, with a nearly universally flawed assessment of what is driving this change there is little hope of avoiding unfortunate resulting consequenses. Politics is never the answer during times like these. The problems and challenges are profoundly larger than can be dealt with solely through human interaction. Sometimes it looks to me like we are becoming the "borg" from Star Trek. What a future! One hundred years from now who is going to care if you drove a Hugo or an Escalade. Regardless of what the Al Gores of the world tell us, the correct answer is resoundingly NOBODY!! THE PROPHETS HAVE SPOKEN was written many years ago. It could have been written last week. It speaks of maintaining perspective in a world that is carried away by emotionally driven societal insanity. Please don't be part of this escalating problem. Keep some perspective and avoid being caught up in it all. Give the song a listen and see if you agree with its premise. If not, just listen to the guitar parts. They're pretty good.
Reply
THE SIGN
THE SIGN . It was prominently displayed at the busiest intersection in town. Silently, yet with constant urgency, it pleaded. "It" was a 4' x 8' sign. Mostly black, there were red and yellow flames rising from the bottom. In large letters (quite unavoidable from the highway) was written the simple message: Repent Now America. In 1973, the man, not much more than a boy then, had received a vision. It was on a moonlit summer night. While gazing up into the not so dark sky, the man observed- almost out of nowhere- the clouds had formed into what looked like a map of the 48 states. It remained for a few seconds and then just as quickly dissipated into clear sky. A voice was heard. It said simply: "And thus shall it be". The meaning was not immediately clear. Over time it would become more so. In 1996 a word came. "Ichabod". That was it. Translated into English it means "The glory of the Lord is removed". In 1998 a word came: "The axe is laid to the root" According to the man this began a period of reckoning: Judgment would eventually follow. Over the next few years a number of observations were made and conclusions drawn. Occasionally there would be a "marker" event. These events seemed to signal a gradually closing window of opportunity to delay coming judgment. The more prominent ones (the lesser mostly went unnoticed) were consistently explained in totally political terms. Apparently no one was making the connection. In 2006 the sign went up. The man thought people should be told of what he knew. Hopefully the sign would also be a conversation starter. It failed on both counts. The sign made people suspicious. Parents wouldn't let their children play with his. All the "good" people in town were offended. How dare someone who regularly drinks beer and smokes cigars suggest that anyone except himself should repent! Eventually it was simply ignored. In 2008 the sign came down- it is stacked with the others that have outlived their usefulness in a storage area in back of the building. It has truly become a metaphor for itself. Still in its blazing, no-nonsense glory-but with absolutely no one listening. What does it all mean? You tell me.
Reply
DO YOU WANT TO HELP GET OUR MUSIC OUT THERE?
I need help. (ask anyone!) Though not the kind friends and family think. I need help to escape the wasteland of musical obscurity. I dropped out of the North Texas jazz studies graduate program in 1987 to marry the best person I know. We planned for me to go back but the longer I was away, the more apparent one fact became. A degree in jazz is like a degree in baseball. If you can play it, it doesn't matter. If you can't play it, it doesn't matter. In the words of Little Big Man, "that was the end of my academic period". I had a power trio. We originally decided to do mostly instrumentals ala Jeff Beck, Mahavishnu Orchestra, Dixie Dregs. Some of that is still in evidence but over time I wanted to be able to say more things to more people. We started the album CALM BEFORE THE STORM in 1992 (songs currently on myspace). My dad died in December 1992. I was still grieving when in March of '93 I was bitten by an infected animal and nearly died. At least that's what they told me. I was very sick for fourteen months. I recovered somewhat, but it was a little like being a zombie. We finished the album in late 1995 with the title cut CALM BEFORE THE STORM about a coming attack and the aftermath. It was published in early 1996 by a small firm in Nashville called Markee Music. At the same time, in an attempt to improve my health, I pulled a Doc Holiday and we moved to Texas. Markee shopped the album for a year but got no takers. I eventually became too sick to play music and dropped out of the scene altogether. I managed to go day to day but that was about it. Then, in 2003, I had a relapse and was pronounced terminal. But then- a miracle happened. In 2005. My wife found a nutritional product that's made in the Dallas area and I began to take it everyday. My recovery was remarkable. By 2007 I had completely recovered from my 13 year illness . And a wonderful thing had happened. I could play again! I mean really play!! I have been on a "binge", as my friend Milton Swing (a great player) used to say, ever since. We have a new album ready to be recorded and I promise if you like what we did before, you're going to LOVE this. We can deliver!! All the pieces are in place except one- we need management that can deliver. We are ready w/ 60 days notice to tour (I am also available as a solo lead guitarist at any time), but have no way to financially make it happen. If there is someone out there who believes that we have "IT" who wants to invest in this endeavor and help us get our music out there, please contact me. I need HELP!
Reply
NEW MUSIC VENUE PREDICTION
I predict that we are, as a society, going to become much less mobile as the energy costs continue to soar. Bands can't afford to tour (unless you have major financial backing). People are moving more and more towards at-home entertainment. Technology steps in and brings that entertainment to your home more efficiently. People still like to hang out with their friends and party and listen to good music. Music aficionados like to try and figure out their favorite artist's hot licks and compositions. Pay per view events have proven that people will pay for at-home entertainment. People can now put their own music collections together without spending money on tracks that are just plain not good. Digital downloads (audio or video) are cost effective ways to get your music. Cheap for the consumer, cheaper for the artist to produce. A win for the consumer because artists won't get away with one or two good songs and then crap for filler in an album. I predict that with the new technology that allows for the sell of, or rental (pay per view) of digital video that can be viewed on your HD home entertainment theater (TV), single favorite songs done by your favorite band, concerts (some can be live-streamed) and the occasional well-produced rock opera will open up a whole new venue for consumer and artists alike. DO YOU AGREE? IF NOT, WHY? Update-I'm more convinced that music video will be a wave of the future. Artists are already downloading single songs for $1.99-$3.99 a song. I think live-streamed concerts @ pay per view price can't be long in coming. The new technology to download video straight to your tv screen or mobile video phone makes it too convenient for consumers not to go in this direction.
Reply