Hey Y'all this is NorthernBandit here, so...what is your fancy? I know me and before I was a Musician I was a Music Listener. There is something and it isn't one genre of music...that can catch you up and tap into that part of yourself that gets you grey cell hopping and you feet a tappin...something about the beat and rhythm wouldn't you say. So writing, or at least beginning to write a new composition I find myself today stuck. Partly because I am very conscience about not wanting to repeat myself and do something similar that I have done in the past. The other thing that effects the mood is things one has listened to most recently and I begin to question my own thinking...am I using someone elses creation? Well most of the worry one can pass on and let go, probably not a problem but I know like everyone else should too, you can bet your bottom dollar someone, somewhere has used a chord or progression your thinking of at some other time...no secret but...like I have found myself trying to do is to first let the song out, rough out the beginning, middle and end and play around with it...it is always going to be a mess before its perfected right? So I beat myself up a little today, feeling I wasn't worthy for some stupid reason because the ideas wern't that pleasing to me but you know something...it takes time, ain't going to happen in an hour, maybe not even in a week, depends on how much time you have to devote to the creation you are creating. I must admit I think I did fairly well, I have the lyrics somewhat and the rhythm guitar track well yeah, its there but needs some work, I played four different guitars today seeing if I could find one that would escalate my ambisions but as I mentioned this is a work in progress. So for now I'm ok with it...more work ahead and I haven't even turned on the 24 track yet so will see how things go for now...keep the faith, don't give up...Rock till you drop!
Reply
2020 was a weird arse year for everyone...
I was getting ready to go in for my third hand surgery to correct a Viking disease I inherited from my forefathers which made in some way a burdon on me playing one particular instrument The left hand Bass Guitar.
This song was the build up of frustration on many levels...we all had our far share of enough is enough!
Built on my favorite Keyboard players power, Jon Lord was always an influence in the lessons of HEAVY sound and it is was this track that, that was supposed to reflect, soulful power and a meloncholy so deep it could cause rifts in the fabric of the living during these times and for certain it had with me.
Sometimes the simplest of things can bring about such a dynamic that with the culmination of sound and vocal can raise an emotion...some would want to hear but turn away because of the memories it brings back into focus of such terrible conscience.
King Speed Corona is an oximoron...we all were living in mutiple universes all at the same time and at different intervals which begs the question why?
At times the men and women we want to be gets interupted by the ambision of other souls, those who impose upon us their values and their asperations which even for them and their own well being throw causion an common sense to the wind...failing to realize what they truely had done.
We suffer because of mistakes others make but it does not end there.
Their ill will allows humanity the opportunity to regain a balance which is all our work to perform.
This song, these lyrics hint at that possibility.
It is something I believe.
Because in the end it is not greed but LOve that will succeed.
https://www.reverbnation.com/northernbandit/song/31724732-king-speed-corona-copyright-april
Reply
Well hello again to you.
Heres a bit a dialog about this little ditty I played out back in 2015.
An up tempo'de Rock and Roller with a 3 minute and 25 second track time without a serious brake untill the very end.
Rock and Roll has always been a media that can allow any number of things to happen in regard to many different things...
...ranging from bubbly and fast moving or dragging slow and romantic.
In the 50's the music business had establish a format which as far as air play on the Radio was concerned delt with what was to deliver a short BLAST sound experience that didn't infringe of the commericals but left humans wanting more music. It worked.
Anyway enough of my history lesson about music, have a listen.
As Dick Clarke, I think it was on American BandStand used to ask...
" On a scale of 1 to 10 how dancable was this new song "
Hahaha, you don't have to answer but you will know what I am taliking about aye!
New Song Old Song now on ReverbNation featuring NorthernBandit.
Rock till you drop!
https://www.reverbnation.com/northernbandit/song/22843607-new-song-old-01292015-copyright
Reply
Well hello again from the depths of memory and the dream of a brighter future in Rock Music.
There is no amount of thinking anyone of us can do that can make Rock/Blues better aye?
I say this because as much as anyone of us might either agree or disigree the answer is the same...you gotta have a little bit soul to get through it and to be honest with what you do.
I have tried to be concise at times with my writing and recording but frankly it doesn't work out very well for me.
Tom Petty has said it and others too about what happens when one holds too tightly to a standard but of course we all know as well what can happen when it goes the other way, there is a balance like the way Bruce Lee once spoke, Be like Water. It is a figure of speech concerning the ebb and flow of energy.
I think some of my best work was probably not the best recorded material but in fact it may have been my best because of the soulfulness and honesty...of the material, the nuances of raw emotion in playing the instruments and singing the lyrics.
I have been practicing my craft for a while and as time goes by we all think we know what we are doing and to some extent we do but...even with all that tech we can have at our finger tips it is still the spirt and love of your craft that will pull you through.
Gawd if only my learning curve would have kicked in earlier...but thats just wishful thinking. It is what it is. I may have peaked and never realized it but then I was never really pushed by a Production Manager or Entertainment Management to do any better, it was only ever me ( well maybe not all the truth, my wife Frances was great at setting me straight when I might have gotten off track with and idea or two ) and was able to refocus.
So anyway, keep your chin up back to the wall and remember this, something I try to consider when approaching something new...we are only as good as we think we are so never give up or in and explore yourself beyond what you are used to.
The universe is quite full of ideas you haven't even dreamt of yet!
Rock till you drop!
Reply
The Drums of Change
Written By: Burt K. Arthur
Copyright: July 13th 2022
Nearly four hundred years has past
Yet still Dundee remains
From the highlands to the water's edge
The North sea calls out it's name
Men of simple beginnings
since time began
Found these shores these loches
This place they call home
Then to the southern route
Where good men died too
Edinburgh Castle on the hill
Nations struggled with their truths
Then and to the west
To Glasgow men came
They dreamt of a freedom
A better life and way
So across the Firth of Clyde
To Campbeltown they came
Still dreaming of a peace
And the life all men crave
When all the atrocities of others
Gather up a headwind
When the soul and spirit suffers
And the light shows dim
Men reach out looking for a way
Find a sound solution and another day
Ships and sails families too
Young and old suffering on their dying day
For promise for a future
If only one could imagine a way
Now on to those on westward shores
To a new beginning
A new colonial living
Still more struggle same as before
But the truth remains true
When a new nation is born
Giving hope and a way
Again for a brighter day
North American dreams
Fraught with despair
Push souls to move on
To chase the western sunset on
Aye men of like breeding
Of like brawn and like thought
Harken back some four hundred years
Destined never to give up
Reply
This is an interesting thought given how most Artists fancy the idea that we are always working on something, right? Well it is true and it isn't necessasarily about the main event but having to do with an a association to the idea we hold true every day we wake and begin our day. Surely a project, a song, a painting, a building...a relationship is worthy of this commitment that we hold so dear to our souls and from our hearts. Perhaps like in days of old as hunter gatherers preparing for days to come, even in these modern times still we prepare for what may come, those things of our dreams and aspiration. All that we could ever want or even hope for is all for not with out first seeing in as a reality in our mind. The work than becomes the love we have for living. Rock till we drop.
Reply
Greetings my friends...
If I started randomly or even in an organized manner ( I am a Musician, I count. )...to discribe any number of thing in my life that has helped me along the way but here is the simple truth.
Life is what brings us all to the table of decisions we make.
On a cold spring day I met a fellow who when I was introduced to him seemed quite peaceful and a fellow poet and writer. We talked small talk and delved into songwriting and I told him what I was doing as a songwriter which seemed to put a sparkle in his eye. He did not play any musical instrument that I remember but he asked me if I'd read the poem he wrote...wanted to know what I thought. The poem, was romantic, It was passionate, about someone who obviously was important to him but more than anything he wanted to hear the words to music and asked me if I could help.
This was in the spring of 1981, I was living in Traverse City Michigan and had just proposed over the phone to my wife, partner in life ( still to this day ).
My new found friends name was Kim Wesley Powell...his poem was the reason I wrote this song. I did edit his words...brought it to a concise equation in reference to timing, stanza's and verses but it is impotant to remember like many things in life...experiences are dictated by the things in your life, others, their emotional condition not deminishing my own input and surroundings.
It never was about taking his song and having it becoming something other than his wish but to be set to melody.
During the late 70's and early 80's I was listening to bands like REO Speedwagon, ELO, STYX...Blackfoot, The Who, the list is never ending but the one thing I have never forgot is the soul of words that Kim Wesley Powell shared with me om that cold spring day.
This song was and has always been for him.
https://www.reverbnation.com/northernbandit/song/24857058--on-my-mind-copyright-1981-by-burt
Reply
From the very beginning when I began playing music...I had always thought, I'll work hard, learn my craft.
That was always in the back ground while at the same times I was allowing my mentor's of Rock show me a bit of the way in how to do this this thing called Entertainment.
So much for a career in music, with health issues and a refocused vision how I could survive started off realizing there was a future with idea for me with many hopes and desires.
So the reason for the brief is to say this...even if there is a thing called accomplishment, as good as anyone can get and acheive their goals there is something that can not be forgotten, it's is the feeling you had in the brginning that made you work so hard to love what you do.
I never had a producer to tell me I suck at songwriting, I had myself, my own worst enemy but even so the one thing I have come to understand is this...
...if a garage Band is my sound no amount of polish will change the beauty of the music in it's basic form.
So I suppose the only thing then to do is let the love of creating music take it's course.
Remember your roots and never give up!
Reply
I have been around long enough to drop a few names from the past, remembering in the 60's and the 70's people in America and in different places around the world who suffered and brought out to me the importance of understanding and knowing what being free truley means.
Not because I could just do what ever I wanted...that is not what Freedom is about, it's is however about the the suffering each one of us endures for others who don't have a Social System behind them or friends and family to help when they are in dispair. It is about love of each other regardless if the other person disagree's with what we believe in but has the respect of allowing the coexsistence of many ideas to flourish and still be kind to one another.
I am a simple man, always have been and so on this 4th of July I am letting my Hippy Freak Flag Fly and share this song with you that I composed and record quit a few years ago.
It's titled from the Land...I hope you might enjoy.
It's is about Independence, for you and for me.
A reason if any to celebrate this nation and the world.
Peace!
https://www.reverbnation.com/northernbandit/song/18982931-from-land-copyright-372012-bynorthernbandit
Reply
...I have had plenty of people over the years tell me no for various reasons, not all bad responses to things I may have personally done that people were offended by. Sometimes we don't always see eye to eye.
Interestingly enough thats usually the time I think about my surroundings and think maybe it's time to readjust the way I am approaching things.
Music is part of who I have always been...does not denote any level of professionalism, just my commitment to the ideals I hold true to my Heart.
What that means for me now is to refocus my intensions...do you do that too? Well maybe not understanding we are all different, right!
So if there is an answer to this riddle it's this, be free from the things that trap you, stop trying and just do, drop the limitations placed on living your life and Let It Be.
It is not an easy thing to accomplish, but stopping the thought processes and be aware of the surrounding that give you the inspiration to create and have fun...
I'm heading down that road myself, hope to see you along the way my friends.
Rock till you Drop!
Reply
NorthernBandit / Burt K. Arthur / Mississippi Fats / Blog
What is your fancy...
Hey Y'all this is NorthernBandit here, so...what is your fancy? I know me and before I was a Musician I was a Music Listener. There is something and it isn't one genre of music...that can catch you up and tap into that part of yourself that gets you grey cell hopping and you feet a tappin...something about the beat and rhythm wouldn't you say. So writing, or at least beginning to write a new composition I find myself today stuck. Partly because I am very conscience about not wanting to repeat myself and do something similar that I have done in the past. The other thing that effects the mood is things one has listened to most recently and I begin to question my own thinking...am I using someone elses creation? Well most of the worry one can pass on and let go, probably not a problem but I know like everyone else should too, you can bet your bottom dollar someone, somewhere has used a chord or progression your thinking of at some other time...no secret but...like I have found myself trying to do is to first let the song out, rough out the beginning, middle and end and play around with it...it is always going to be a mess before its perfected right? So I beat myself up a little today, feeling I wasn't worthy for some stupid reason because the ideas wern't that pleasing to me but you know something...it takes time, ain't going to happen in an hour, maybe not even in a week, depends on how much time you have to devote to the creation you are creating. I must admit I think I did fairly well, I have the lyrics somewhat and the rhythm guitar track well yeah, its there but needs some work, I played four different guitars today seeing if I could find one that would escalate my ambisions but as I mentioned this is a work in progress. So for now I'm ok with it...more work ahead and I haven't even turned on the 24 track yet so will see how things go for now...keep the faith, don't give up...Rock till you drop!
Reply
Corona
2020 was a weird arse year for everyone... I was getting ready to go in for my third hand surgery to correct a Viking disease I inherited from my forefathers which made in some way a burdon on me playing one particular instrument The left hand Bass Guitar.
This song was the build up of frustration on many levels...we all had our far share of enough is enough!
Built on my favorite Keyboard players power, Jon Lord was always an influence in the lessons of HEAVY sound and it is was this track that, that was supposed to reflect, soulful power and a meloncholy so deep it could cause rifts in the fabric of the living during these times and for certain it had with me.
Sometimes the simplest of things can bring about such a dynamic that with the culmination of sound and vocal can raise an emotion...some would want to hear but turn away because of the memories it brings back into focus of such terrible conscience.
King Speed Corona is an oximoron...we all were living in mutiple universes all at the same time and at different intervals which begs the question why?
At times the men and women we want to be gets interupted by the ambision of other souls, those who impose upon us their values and their asperations which even for them and their own well being throw causion an common sense to the wind...failing to realize what they truely had done.
We suffer because of mistakes others make but it does not end there. Their ill will allows humanity the opportunity to regain a balance which is all our work to perform.
This song, these lyrics hint at that possibility.
It is something I believe.
Because in the end it is not greed but LOve that will succeed. https://www.reverbnation.com/northernbandit/song/31724732-king-speed-corona-copyright-april
Reply
New song, old song
Well hello again to you. Heres a bit a dialog about this little ditty I played out back in 2015. An up tempo'de Rock and Roller with a 3 minute and 25 second track time without a serious brake untill the very end. Rock and Roll has always been a media that can allow any number of things to happen in regard to many different things... ...ranging from bubbly and fast moving or dragging slow and romantic. In the 50's the music business had establish a format which as far as air play on the Radio was concerned delt with what was to deliver a short BLAST sound experience that didn't infringe of the commericals but left humans wanting more music. It worked. Anyway enough of my history lesson about music, have a listen. As Dick Clarke, I think it was on American BandStand used to ask... " On a scale of 1 to 10 how dancable was this new song " Hahaha, you don't have to answer but you will know what I am taliking about aye! New Song Old Song now on ReverbNation featuring NorthernBandit. Rock till you drop! https://www.reverbnation.com/northernbandit/song/22843607-new-song-old-01292015-copyright
Reply
A matter of how the energy flows...with in you and out of you!
Well hello again from the depths of memory and the dream of a brighter future in Rock Music. There is no amount of thinking anyone of us can do that can make Rock/Blues better aye? I say this because as much as anyone of us might either agree or disigree the answer is the same...you gotta have a little bit soul to get through it and to be honest with what you do. I have tried to be concise at times with my writing and recording but frankly it doesn't work out very well for me. Tom Petty has said it and others too about what happens when one holds too tightly to a standard but of course we all know as well what can happen when it goes the other way, there is a balance like the way Bruce Lee once spoke, Be like Water. It is a figure of speech concerning the ebb and flow of energy. I think some of my best work was probably not the best recorded material but in fact it may have been my best because of the soulfulness and honesty...of the material, the nuances of raw emotion in playing the instruments and singing the lyrics. I have been practicing my craft for a while and as time goes by we all think we know what we are doing and to some extent we do but...even with all that tech we can have at our finger tips it is still the spirt and love of your craft that will pull you through. Gawd if only my learning curve would have kicked in earlier...but thats just wishful thinking. It is what it is. I may have peaked and never realized it but then I was never really pushed by a Production Manager or Entertainment Management to do any better, it was only ever me ( well maybe not all the truth, my wife Frances was great at setting me straight when I might have gotten off track with and idea or two ) and was able to refocus. So anyway, keep your chin up back to the wall and remember this, something I try to consider when approaching something new...we are only as good as we think we are so never give up or in and explore yourself beyond what you are used to. The universe is quite full of ideas you haven't even dreamt of yet! Rock till you drop!
Reply
A new Poem my Scottish Heritage.
The Drums of Change
Written By: Burt K. Arthur Copyright: July 13th 2022
Nearly four hundred years has past Yet still Dundee remains From the highlands to the water's edge The North sea calls out it's name
Men of simple beginnings since time began Found these shores these loches This place they call home
Then to the southern route Where good men died too Edinburgh Castle on the hill Nations struggled with their truths
Then and to the west To Glasgow men came They dreamt of a freedom A better life and way
So across the Firth of Clyde To Campbeltown they came Still dreaming of a peace And the life all men crave
When all the atrocities of others Gather up a headwind When the soul and spirit suffers And the light shows dim Men reach out looking for a way Find a sound solution and another day
Ships and sails families too Young and old suffering on their dying day For promise for a future If only one could imagine a way
Now on to those on westward shores To a new beginning A new colonial living Still more struggle same as before
But the truth remains true When a new nation is born Giving hope and a way Again for a brighter day
North American dreams Fraught with despair Push souls to move on To chase the western sunset on
Aye men of like breeding Of like brawn and like thought Harken back some four hundred years Destined never to give up
Reply
What to do...or nothing!
This is an interesting thought given how most Artists fancy the idea that we are always working on something, right? Well it is true and it isn't necessasarily about the main event but having to do with an a association to the idea we hold true every day we wake and begin our day. Surely a project, a song, a painting, a building...a relationship is worthy of this commitment that we hold so dear to our souls and from our hearts. Perhaps like in days of old as hunter gatherers preparing for days to come, even in these modern times still we prepare for what may come, those things of our dreams and aspiration. All that we could ever want or even hope for is all for not with out first seeing in as a reality in our mind. The work than becomes the love we have for living. Rock till we drop.
Reply
Things that inspire us.
Greetings my friends... If I started randomly or even in an organized manner ( I am a Musician, I count. )...to discribe any number of thing in my life that has helped me along the way but here is the simple truth.
Life is what brings us all to the table of decisions we make.
On a cold spring day I met a fellow who when I was introduced to him seemed quite peaceful and a fellow poet and writer. We talked small talk and delved into songwriting and I told him what I was doing as a songwriter which seemed to put a sparkle in his eye. He did not play any musical instrument that I remember but he asked me if I'd read the poem he wrote...wanted to know what I thought. The poem, was romantic, It was passionate, about someone who obviously was important to him but more than anything he wanted to hear the words to music and asked me if I could help.
This was in the spring of 1981, I was living in Traverse City Michigan and had just proposed over the phone to my wife, partner in life ( still to this day ).
My new found friends name was Kim Wesley Powell...his poem was the reason I wrote this song. I did edit his words...brought it to a concise equation in reference to timing, stanza's and verses but it is impotant to remember like many things in life...experiences are dictated by the things in your life, others, their emotional condition not deminishing my own input and surroundings. It never was about taking his song and having it becoming something other than his wish but to be set to melody.
During the late 70's and early 80's I was listening to bands like REO Speedwagon, ELO, STYX...Blackfoot, The Who, the list is never ending but the one thing I have never forgot is the soul of words that Kim Wesley Powell shared with me om that cold spring day.
This song was and has always been for him. https://www.reverbnation.com/northernbandit/song/24857058--on-my-mind-copyright-1981-by-burt
Reply
Remember your roots and never give up!
From the very beginning when I began playing music...I had always thought, I'll work hard, learn my craft. That was always in the back ground while at the same times I was allowing my mentor's of Rock show me a bit of the way in how to do this this thing called Entertainment.
So much for a career in music, with health issues and a refocused vision how I could survive started off realizing there was a future with idea for me with many hopes and desires.
So the reason for the brief is to say this...even if there is a thing called accomplishment, as good as anyone can get and acheive their goals there is something that can not be forgotten, it's is the feeling you had in the brginning that made you work so hard to love what you do.
I never had a producer to tell me I suck at songwriting, I had myself, my own worst enemy but even so the one thing I have come to understand is this...
...if a garage Band is my sound no amount of polish will change the beauty of the music in it's basic form.
So I suppose the only thing then to do is let the love of creating music take it's course.
Remember your roots and never give up!
Reply
Happy 4th of July!
I have been around long enough to drop a few names from the past, remembering in the 60's and the 70's people in America and in different places around the world who suffered and brought out to me the importance of understanding and knowing what being free truley means. Not because I could just do what ever I wanted...that is not what Freedom is about, it's is however about the the suffering each one of us endures for others who don't have a Social System behind them or friends and family to help when they are in dispair. It is about love of each other regardless if the other person disagree's with what we believe in but has the respect of allowing the coexsistence of many ideas to flourish and still be kind to one another. I am a simple man, always have been and so on this 4th of July I am letting my Hippy Freak Flag Fly and share this song with you that I composed and record quit a few years ago. It's titled from the Land...I hope you might enjoy. It's is about Independence, for you and for me. A reason if any to celebrate this nation and the world. Peace! https://www.reverbnation.com/northernbandit/song/18982931-from-land-copyright-372012-bynorthernbandit
Reply
Stop doing that!
...I have had plenty of people over the years tell me no for various reasons, not all bad responses to things I may have personally done that people were offended by. Sometimes we don't always see eye to eye.
Interestingly enough thats usually the time I think about my surroundings and think maybe it's time to readjust the way I am approaching things.
Music is part of who I have always been...does not denote any level of professionalism, just my commitment to the ideals I hold true to my Heart.
What that means for me now is to refocus my intensions...do you do that too? Well maybe not understanding we are all different, right!
So if there is an answer to this riddle it's this, be free from the things that trap you, stop trying and just do, drop the limitations placed on living your life and Let It Be.
It is not an easy thing to accomplish, but stopping the thought processes and be aware of the surrounding that give you the inspiration to create and have fun...
I'm heading down that road myself, hope to see you along the way my friends.
Rock till you Drop!
Reply