Good day my friends...hoping your Hoilday is fresh with you and as aluring as it ever has been.
I am going to step out hear and just stretch my opinion and make a statement...it's personal to me, take it what ever way you must.
From time to time people have asked me..." Where did you get to be musical " actually more to the statement, where did your musical talent come from?
First of all musical talent or any talent for that matter comes from a lot of practice. Itis called hard work for a reason. It also comes from somethime inside you personally.
Now here is the rub...for what ever reason you do something that is inspiring to you...along will come a hundred ways to give you other inspriation too, that is if you are open to the ideas that come in your mind and from your center.
I had never thought of the idea that what I did was due because of my heritage, my family background, my DNA. It just never lit me up enough to make any connection to the idea.
I have from the very beginning loved music, in all it's forms but when I started leaning to play Bass Guitar back in the early 70's I was listening to people who where from the very places my paternal family was from...so yeah I levitated toward those sounds and found intrest in things from those that inspired me along with the fact I was but one person in the universe with ideas of my own as well.
I am an American, as obnoxious as that can sound to some my relating this to you only refers to those who might have come from far away lands to seak out and find a better place from where they came from...immigrants we are, all of us.
But the point here more than anything else is to answer the question I mentioned earlier in this story, Where did my love for music come from?
Knowing from many people saying so which I am in agreance with, music is our universal language, one that we all share but that is not my answer.
My answer comes from the understanding and feeling I have knowing from where my heritage originates for me, it is as with me I can imagine a wonderful connection to the richness of culture and heritage that we at some point come to understand as our point of origin, a true connection to the earth and the air we come from through our ancestors.
My European heritage is the reason I am, as others have ask me why this is so. It is the sum of all things even though there isn't for me at least a line of souls in my family before me that I could point to and say, that it was an uncle, or brother...mother or grandparent who sang or played any instrument at all but my very own destiny that places me here and why these things have come to be.
Simply from my Scottish and Irish Heritage, always from me to you
wishing you the best you could ever be.
It all starts when one decides to be who they really are and drop all the fluff.
Rock till you drop! It's all any of us has got.
My namr is Burt, NorthernBandit / Burt K. Arthur / Mississippi Fats
Happy Newe Year!
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NorthernBandit / Burt K. Arthur / Mississippi Fats / Blog
Who are you?
Good day my friends...hoping your Hoilday is fresh with you and as aluring as it ever has been.
I am going to step out hear and just stretch my opinion and make a statement...it's personal to me, take it what ever way you must.
From time to time people have asked me..." Where did you get to be musical " actually more to the statement, where did your musical talent come from?
First of all musical talent or any talent for that matter comes from a lot of practice. Itis called hard work for a reason. It also comes from somethime inside you personally.
Now here is the rub...for what ever reason you do something that is inspiring to you...along will come a hundred ways to give you other inspriation too, that is if you are open to the ideas that come in your mind and from your center.
I had never thought of the idea that what I did was due because of my heritage, my family background, my DNA. It just never lit me up enough to make any connection to the idea.
I have from the very beginning loved music, in all it's forms but when I started leaning to play Bass Guitar back in the early 70's I was listening to people who where from the very places my paternal family was from...so yeah I levitated toward those sounds and found intrest in things from those that inspired me along with the fact I was but one person in the universe with ideas of my own as well.
I am an American, as obnoxious as that can sound to some my relating this to you only refers to those who might have come from far away lands to seak out and find a better place from where they came from...immigrants we are, all of us.
But the point here more than anything else is to answer the question I mentioned earlier in this story, Where did my love for music come from?
Knowing from many people saying so which I am in agreance with, music is our universal language, one that we all share but that is not my answer.
My answer comes from the understanding and feeling I have knowing from where my heritage originates for me, it is as with me I can imagine a wonderful connection to the richness of culture and heritage that we at some point come to understand as our point of origin, a true connection to the earth and the air we come from through our ancestors.
My European heritage is the reason I am, as others have ask me why this is so. It is the sum of all things even though there isn't for me at least a line of souls in my family before me that I could point to and say, that it was an uncle, or brother...mother or grandparent who sang or played any instrument at all but my very own destiny that places me here and why these things have come to be.
Simply from my Scottish and Irish Heritage, always from me to you wishing you the best you could ever be.
It all starts when one decides to be who they really are and drop all the fluff.
Rock till you drop! It's all any of us has got.
My namr is Burt, NorthernBandit / Burt K. Arthur / Mississippi Fats
Happy Newe Year!
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Tis the season...
Aye my friends, it is quite something to be an American, our ancestors being carried through us into this new age we all somehow survive allowing us to be and yet we are to some degree like slumbering children wrapped in our winter bedding fast asleep unaware of that, that had come before with but the exception of those ancient attributes of those in our veins from so long ago. We are what we have become and so much more. Tis the season to find the magic and to try to see the past with new eyes, traditions, lore and beliefs. Not so much to revive any of it but to speak of it and understand the reasons why as we travel through our daily tasks those feelings that arrise in us when we see and hear things that stur our souls so deep. To be living for today yet cherish our memories and bring back through learning of the old ways, the character and the depth of love of life that through our families family got us to these places and time. A season to be joyous that we are who we are. Aye...our life is not empty, it is just a matter of choice, that of what you choose to see, feel and hear. Merry Chritmas to you all and for all that means to you this holiday season.
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The way a Singer makes a song!
Aye Mates...what are you thinking about the way your music is going? I'm about as far from a professional musician as I can be but if there is anything I have learned over the decades is this, you have to have a direction.
One of the things I have tried to focus on at least in construct of my ideas is to having the energy that is evident carry the song...a long time ago people used to say dynamics, it still applies.
Roger Daltry of The Who has always been a mentor to me mostly because of his command over what he creates and I really like the style of his approach...character within the song either by power of voice, tempo and of course having the ability to use the Bands drive to accomplish these things.
The swagger of the lyric, the sound of the drums and bass, the tone and expression of the guitar, all these things add up to the "dynamic" I am speaking of and of course the subject of the words being sang bring it together so well.
When the 'Pocket' is right whether playing live or recording in the studio, the energy one produces should be what comes out in the mix.
Hopefully we all find the magic aye, it's what it's that which I strive for. I hope you might agree and have a listen to my song track titled " Come What May ".
Turn it up, Rock till you drop. You are in NorthernBandit Territoy now on ReverbNation!
Thank Y'all for your support! https://www.reverbnation.com/northernbandit/song/23565824-come-what-may-copyright-12-2015
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About time.
The Holiday is upon us and I am hoping the spirit will evoke on me some effort and kick me in the arse and record my new song. Aye, it is a small thing to ask but a monumental task. I am ready! It is early yet but to delay makes no sense so I will wish everyone a Merry Christmas and a most Happy New Year!
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A time to remember...
From where all of my family comes from a truly Great day to remember to be thankful for our Heritage and the rememberence of those who came before us to start there new life experences as those on the Mayflower here in the USA and those on the Annabella in 1770 who broke shore on St Johns Island where later on that night a storm wreaked the ship with near all their belongings going to the depths. If not for the local french settlers and the native peoples there...my family along with near 60 other families who crossed the Atlantic in those fateful times may not have survived but they did and I am proof of that! HAPPY THANKSGIVING to y'all!
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Three things of a good Rock and roll song!
https://www.reverbnation.com/northernbandit/song/23433552-inside-looking-outoutside-incoptright Happy Friday evening y'all, this is your ol buddy NorthernBandit comin to you right here out of the ReverbNation Studio's featuring this oldie from back in 2015. One of the main themes of a great song is about cars, guitars and girls and I'm no different than the rest. Written well after the fact the very essence of the lyric is about the love of my life, the girl who I have been happily married to for 40 some years now but the feeling is still the same but better then I could ever have dreamt of. I am not shy about Rock and Roll and neither am I about love so... Que the track up, turn it and and cruise down the hyway with me. Rock till you drop my friends you are in NorthernBandit Territory right now on ReverbNation USA.
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REMEMBER!
Aye...way back in 2012 actually before that this was the first track I had ever posted to my newly accepted membership to ReverbNation which I must admit I ignored for some time only because of my lack of understanding of how important this channel would become to me.
Like Bono said once...maybe more than a few times " Rock and Roll saved his life " and for me as well it was what awakened me as well back in 1964.
I first recognized whar RN might be capable of for me when way back then I had read a statement by Robbie Robertson about Reverb and looked into the details...well, and here I am.
I originally recording this track with no Drums...and this is how you hear it today. I never went back to add any percussion, the essence it's there I always thought...it breathes ROCK AND ROLL.
So here it is titled Money Down. About a young mans beginning and infatuation for it's time. All I can say is...
REMEMBER!
You are in NorthernBandit Land my friends...Rock till ya drop! https://www.reverbnation.com/northernbandit/song/14817021-money-down
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The cycle
Well I suppose enough time has past...never really thought about the path I was on, I remember Bands like the Who and the Kinks when they hit their 10 year cycle ( not how long they had been playing together ). It mostly comes about from the time of one profiency if I can call it that. From the time you begin writing and either performing your own material or the cycle when you begin your recordings that seem to make some impact on what you accomplish with any vigor. If I plot it out without any acuracy I began seeing some positive effort around 1997 but really it wasn't untill 2012 that things got more interesting up and to the currentt state of affairs but then again there are many influences that drive an Artist as such to produce their desires. Be it emotion, relationships, politics or other peoples music and art, musical instruments do have a way of also effecting the degree of inspiration at least it has been that way for me my friends. It does come down to what one has to say if anything. I however have found that it is not that the well has dried up but that it;s seems more important to pay attention more to the things you truely love and don't fret so much about the world. Always care but focus on those things closest to you...some how Rock and Roll will take care of it's self and the world, well now it's been here a very long time, I think we all need to start saying and doing some great things letting it know we all care. Thank Y'all for hanging out...Rock till you drop. This is NorthernBandit aka.Burt K. Arthur on ReverbNation.
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Reasons beyond faith...
Faith in ability, in equiptment, in design...Faith is a word served carefully in a converstion about anything one does in life. Music is as well a conversation that invovles an equal part of one soul in order for it to arrive and in a moment can crumble without any reson but a faith one might have in mathematics and perseverance. Eiither stepping on to a stage to perform or into a studio to record an idea relies on a multitude of thing to happen right and I think not one of them could occur without some form of a faith working in the background. Many have said " let faith be your guide " and as a matter of truth faith can deliver a result but it is about balance of all things like taking the first step as a child to turning the key on in your very first automobile. Likewise, for myself...faith is something that in the sense of music sets me on a path but it is because of the past that these things occur, not merely from the whimisical ideas that come to mind from certain nonsense of action like a practicle joke though I suppose it could depending on ones commitment. What I am speaking of more than anything is about commitment to an idea that grows and is part of who you are. There are musicians who make me awe struck by there mere exercise of ability...soloists who command everything through one instrument. In some ways I envy those who shine as they do and on the other hand I also appreceate those who can compose and create monumental depth in a multi-instrumental composition to a degree that literely stops me in my tracks and asks the question of myself ' why even try ' but there again as in life one is met to the challenge of the question with an answer to an effort needing to be made. As much as I have been driven by wanting to be a soloist, I was give the ability to hear more than one instrument and as a result rather that a singular sound, The band for lack of a better explaination is where my focus comes to rest. For you see if one heres a symphomy or simple an acousic guitar the effect is somewhat the same especially when a creation becomes sound. It is a dance between your thoughts and the means you have to create your ideas that faith works in the background of your effort and in tandom helps you to complete your goals. To say that without faith you would accomplish nothing is only part of the sum of what humans do. It is a manner of all things put together that faith gives us it's support and if it comes at the end that we learn the true meaning of why we play, and great music at all, it is because of the love we have for life that makes everthing worth while.
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A long dry dusty road.
Ello my friends... We are in the beginning of our Fall weather here in the Great Olympic Northwest and the signs are all around us.
The beauty of our Fall days are the reflection of things we have seen before with the dream of new challenges yet to unfold.
This particular song I wrote back in 1996 came from this time of year, when we sometimes as Musicians and Writers burrow down and get cozy in our homes as I mentioned earlier reflect of this hopefully with an uplifted spirit.
The Blues take on many faces and even the laughs and smiles we see can be in a reflection of emotion from the Blues we all experience however it is a matter of how we try to deal with the blues that sets the course of the changes we have in this life.
As the line in the lyric say's...A long dry dusty road.
Have a listen, you are now in NorthernBandit Territory my friends here on ReverbNation! https://www.reverbnation.com/northernbandit/song/22775136-1996-morn-copyright-burt-k-arthur
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