Well hello there fellow Fan's, Musicians and friends!
This song 'Calling You' is a bit dramatic but so is life and like life the lyrics take you on a journey of a persons longing and desire...kinda centered around a man, after being away from the place he belongs...and away from the only other person in the world he wants to continue on through life with...captured in the spirit of the American Southwest...a place where personally my soul drifts to though I don't think realistically I could live there...never been one to like the extreme heat of the day.
This song was recorded in 2008-09 and featured a friend who I jammed with a few times who plays the Drums on this track live. credits to Ryan Rogers...who gave the feel to the way I layed down the rhythm guitar...and set up the motion and tone of the delivery...with many thanks to Ryan.
The title is a reference to that which you hear within you, the thing that drives you on and nothing else matters...your connection to the real world...the only world that matters.
Reply
"FreeBorne Update"
...so for the last week Iv'e been contemplating the song and kinda a hit a flat spot...after listening alot to the track as it sits right now I like what I hear and if I just push threw with the plan it could be done but...something is missing and I think I figured it out...but my dilemma is a bit more then 'Just doing it'...lots of excuses to not.
What I am going to do is record electric piano in the rhythm track...the song needs more melody and percussion and that will do just right, I am excited to bang on the keys...literilly it shoud make the song rock with alittle more authority...I'll keep Y'all posted.
Reply
...just wanted to share this older track I wrote and recorded in 1990...It was inspired by the fasination I had with 'Wishbone Ash' and their famous song "Blowin Free". Back in the old days me the the bandmates would play this song among many British Blues Rockers of the day...with great satisfaction. The whole point being nolsalgic Brit sound, double guitars, killer Bass and Drum delivery and a vocal that brought it all home. Of course in my recording there is one Lead guitar, I alway had the other one ready to go but at the time ran out of steam to add the second Lead but if you listen and close your eyes and listen to can hear it...I recorded this on an old school Fotex 8-Track Cassette recorder with a DBX and an Alesis effects and HR-16 drum machine just doin a loop track...If you get a chance to listen to this song "turn it up loud" it is Rock Music in case you didn't get the memo...Thanx for listening and please FaceBook 'Like' the track if you do...much appreciated! Peace.
Reply
UPDATE: for the new song I have been working on titled "FreeBorne"...well things are going well, since this weekend I have recorded the percussion ( Drums and Tamborine ) including vocals also have completed mutiple monitorings of the recorded materal...I think their keepers...whats coming next is a second Electric Guitar (Lead) and possably an acoustic slide guitar and an Andian Flute on the suprise ending...am excited to release it as soon as it is finished...stay tuned!
— feeling excited.
Reply
Welcome to the instant image of NorthernBandit...just finished recording the rythm guitar ( the basis of the song ) for "FreeBorne' that Iv'e been
talking about for a little while now...I recorded this track back in 1996 with mixed concerns over the initial recording...Great song but this needed to be done. First steps are always the hardest, I tried this a couple of weeks ago but the guitar sound wasn't right...finianlly realized after pulling my GT Strat out of the case in more than six months that that was the guitar I originally recorded the song with...it all fell into place. Only ran three takes to get it right, not bad eah? Will keep you posted! Peace.
4/28/2014 8:54:17 PM
Reply
...Kurt was a Rising Star, I liked his approach...like most of us we start out with a desire, you could tell he wanted to play guitar and sing...and write songs...like life and everything else sometimes reality or others who want things outside our true ambition throws up road blocks, confuses our efforts and our basic needs...we all handle pressures differently...he was a talient that should have been given more room to grow...I miss who he was...someone who had dreams.
If you get a chance give a song I wrote shortly after his passing a listen...not because it has any commercial intention but because it says what I was feeling at the time...a hope and chance for the future...RIP KC. The song is titled 'Nirvana'...you can hear is on the SoundCloud and on my Facebook page. Peace!
Reply
So…after practicing guitar for more than 40 years…I am still practicing. A good example of what I’m saying is a statement you normally hear from a doctor who might say”…at my Practice ” because like a doctor practicing medicine, it is an ongoing occurrence for me with music.
I love what I do and at times feel depressed by my own expectations…but not to worry because I think of all the creative peoples in existence there is that finger of conscience that rather than taps you on the shoulder instead pokes you in the chest and throws doubt upon the reasons why you do what you do…
When I was young I struggled with drawing free hand and because I didn’t have a strong confidence it what I was doing…I would wad up and throw away those ideas that I thought weren’t worthy…well it takes a lot to be critical of your own creations and yet sometime the critique seems to come way to easy…
Accepting what you do be it good, bad or indifferent takes a lot of effort but one thing I have learned is you must follow what drives you to be who you are, influences by outside forces should not be primary to your final decision…now if you are prone to make bad decisions based on your history then good advise might be what you want to pay attention to but in the end you are the one who sets your destiny in motion.
We are human, we have developed to be together, to respond to each other and to be in proximity of each other…it is what makes us who we are. We may not always agree on everything and probably disagree on many things but that is the beauty of friendship and relationships…it may sound parasitic but actually it is platonic and is what is necessary for us to survive.
In my mind I am constantly searching, plotting and adjusting my thinking to arrive at a temporary conclusion to my Musical endeavors.
Sometimes I feel I am just replicating what has come before…
…that I am doing nothing more than‘ flogging the musical dog ’ I am trying to tame but you know that if that is truly what is happening than let it be so, it is my choosing.
The illusion is mine…and with great excitement I pursue and share this with as many of you that will listen. Even at this point in my life I still feel young and vibrant to do just that.
…and so as I “ Trudge across the tundra, mile after mile “ by the way that’s a Frank Zappa lyric quote, I still find myself wanting to be creative and play the guitar, create and compose songs and record.
I am very fortunate to have this gift if for no one other than me…
Peace to all of you and forever!
Rock and Roll!
BKA/NB 03/02/2014
Reply
Nothin but The Blues!
...So you want to talk about The Blues...as a subject for discussion about music it intails alot of fact, sometimes a little bit of fiction and a whole lot of embelishment over the trials and tribulations of our lifes. It can be watered downed to depress the the depression of a love gone bad...a battle won or the miraid of other things that afflict the human condition...
Playing guitar and singing the Blues to some seems to come as natural as breathing and to trying to attribute it to anything less then the talient of the indivigual is a bit defeating to it's glory because like most things in life if you work hard enough you can achieve almost anything but as in the case of the guitar, work won't alway serve you...the guitar has to become your voice, it has to take that internal sound that you may not move through your vocal cords and process it through your fingers and for those who are moved to sing out loud the human voice accompanied by the guitar can become an inspirational medium for displaying the depths of the soul and the hights of the heavens...
life experiences can and most usually effect the outcome of a Blues song...an Artist cannot fake the truths and emotions of The Blues...it is a humble and bolsterious form of expression and there are so many different levels of performing a Blues idea...from a single one man band strummin away singing with a heart felt growl to the escallation of a five piece Blues Rock Band blastin out loud...the message is simular but never the same...like Ricky Medlocke wrote in a lyric once..."You have to crawl before you can walk, you have to cry before you can talk...I've done me enough crawlin it made howl and moan...are you with me now"...Searchin! That my friends is a little bit about The Blues...from me to you! Peace.
Reply
Blacken fingers once again
The strings are the voices from my head
Oh how I wanted to play
And to bring out the energy the anger the rage
It’s not a negative but a stretch of the mind
To pull from the universe the rhythm and rhyme
To pick up and pluck downward to rock and to roll
Extract from the amplifier the Angels share
Driven and driving the power ebbs and flows
The attack of the Plectrum the volume gain grows
In the middle the essence of the power cords reign
The Rock Gods of yester years obvious fame
Attack, attack then bring on the calm
With a chiming like aura of Jazz cord gone wild
There is nothing finer then the ring of a note
In a progression of Blues, Rock and some Soul
Never too wary to pick up the tempo
Never too peaceful to turn up the volume
Statesboro Blues never left anyone lame
Except for me trying to play like DA
Reply
I have not shared this track with many, Not for a specific reason, just haven't...but in celebration of 'The Beatles 50th Aniversary' on the Ed Sullivan show...the beginning of my 'Life' both as a regular joe and a want to be me indivigual...at the point of my history playing music, by 1980 I had taught myself to play Bass Guitar right handed ( I was a lefty like Paul McCartney ) and had been in three or four different Bands from 1975 to 1979. Not a very deep history but I was fortunate to have had really great friends who were musicians and allowed me in their circle and to gain a great respect for them as well as for the music.
This song lyricly couldn't be any simplier then it appears...on purpose I must admitt, my talient as a writer was imerging slowly...as for the idea behind the song...The Beatles 'All My Love'n' and I want to 'Hold your Hand' probably jump out more significantly..all ther songs had a mortal affect on me...I had just met this lovely girl named Frances, I knew she was out there, hopefully for me...I believed that and thats where this song goes...
I have never been good at protraiting others in music, but in this particular case it was all I wanted to do. I had inlisted a group of life long friends and bandmates who honored me with there playing on this my first ever Studio recording...Craig Thornburg on backing vocals,( a major Ringo Fan ) Drums, Tubular Bells and Gong, David Bailey on Rythym Guitar and backing vocals ( leader of the first band I was ever in with him called 'Jesse Blue', Robert 'Bob' Perry on Backing vocals, second Rythym and Lead Guitar, and me singing lead, Bass Guitar
( Rickenbacher 4001 Stereo ) and Tamborine. Recorded By: Rich Granum in Port Angeles, Washington.
I was sick with a severe sinus infection which attributes to the high nasally sound of my voice...anyway this song was what I felt and was trying to portrait given the way I felt about 'The Beatles'.
To all of The Beatles and to all of us who love them still to this day...I share this Song with you! Thank You, Peace!
Reply
NorthernBandit / Burt K. Arthur / Mississippi Fats / Blog
"Calling You" a brief discription
Well hello there fellow Fan's, Musicians and friends! This song 'Calling You' is a bit dramatic but so is life and like life the lyrics take you on a journey of a persons longing and desire...kinda centered around a man, after being away from the place he belongs...and away from the only other person in the world he wants to continue on through life with...captured in the spirit of the American Southwest...a place where personally my soul drifts to though I don't think realistically I could live there...never been one to like the extreme heat of the day. This song was recorded in 2008-09 and featured a friend who I jammed with a few times who plays the Drums on this track live. credits to Ryan Rogers...who gave the feel to the way I layed down the rhythm guitar...and set up the motion and tone of the delivery...with many thanks to Ryan. The title is a reference to that which you hear within you, the thing that drives you on and nothing else matters...your connection to the real world...the only world that matters.
Reply
...more thought
"FreeBorne Update" ...so for the last week Iv'e been contemplating the song and kinda a hit a flat spot...after listening alot to the track as it sits right now I like what I hear and if I just push threw with the plan it could be done but...something is missing and I think I figured it out...but my dilemma is a bit more then 'Just doing it'...lots of excuses to not. What I am going to do is record electric piano in the rhythm track...the song needs more melody and percussion and that will do just right, I am excited to bang on the keys...literilly it shoud make the song rock with alittle more authority...I'll keep Y'all posted.
Reply
Song Titled "Blown Clear"
...just wanted to share this older track I wrote and recorded in 1990...It was inspired by the fasination I had with 'Wishbone Ash' and their famous song "Blowin Free". Back in the old days me the the bandmates would play this song among many British Blues Rockers of the day...with great satisfaction. The whole point being nolsalgic Brit sound, double guitars, killer Bass and Drum delivery and a vocal that brought it all home. Of course in my recording there is one Lead guitar, I alway had the other one ready to go but at the time ran out of steam to add the second Lead but if you listen and close your eyes and listen to can hear it...I recorded this on an old school Fotex 8-Track Cassette recorder with a DBX and an Alesis effects and HR-16 drum machine just doin a loop track...If you get a chance to listen to this song "turn it up loud" it is Rock Music in case you didn't get the memo...Thanx for listening and please FaceBook 'Like' the track if you do...much appreciated! Peace.
Reply
'FreeBorne' Update...
UPDATE: for the new song I have been working on titled "FreeBorne"...well things are going well, since this weekend I have recorded the percussion ( Drums and Tamborine ) including vocals also have completed mutiple monitorings of the recorded materal...I think their keepers...whats coming next is a second Electric Guitar (Lead) and possably an acoustic slide guitar and an Andian Flute on the suprise ending...am excited to release it as soon as it is finished...stay tuned! — feeling excited.
Reply
My own Thang...
Welcome to the instant image of NorthernBandit...just finished recording the rythm guitar ( the basis of the song ) for "FreeBorne' that Iv'e been talking about for a little while now...I recorded this track back in 1996 with mixed concerns over the initial recording...Great song but this needed to be done. First steps are always the hardest, I tried this a couple of weeks ago but the guitar sound wasn't right...finianlly realized after pulling my GT Strat out of the case in more than six months that that was the guitar I originally recorded the song with...it all fell into place. Only ran three takes to get it right, not bad eah? Will keep you posted! Peace. 4/28/2014 8:54:17 PM
Reply
In Honor of Kurt Cobain today.
...Kurt was a Rising Star, I liked his approach...like most of us we start out with a desire, you could tell he wanted to play guitar and sing...and write songs...like life and everything else sometimes reality or others who want things outside our true ambition throws up road blocks, confuses our efforts and our basic needs...we all handle pressures differently...he was a talient that should have been given more room to grow...I miss who he was...someone who had dreams. If you get a chance give a song I wrote shortly after his passing a listen...not because it has any commercial intention but because it says what I was feeling at the time...a hope and chance for the future...RIP KC. The song is titled 'Nirvana'...you can hear is on the SoundCloud and on my Facebook page. Peace!
Reply
...Revised and Edited...just a pratt of a child going off about it's self!
So…after practicing guitar for more than 40 years…I am still practicing. A good example of what I’m saying is a statement you normally hear from a doctor who might say”…at my Practice ” because like a doctor practicing medicine, it is an ongoing occurrence for me with music. I love what I do and at times feel depressed by my own expectations…but not to worry because I think of all the creative peoples in existence there is that finger of conscience that rather than taps you on the shoulder instead pokes you in the chest and throws doubt upon the reasons why you do what you do… When I was young I struggled with drawing free hand and because I didn’t have a strong confidence it what I was doing…I would wad up and throw away those ideas that I thought weren’t worthy…well it takes a lot to be critical of your own creations and yet sometime the critique seems to come way to easy… Accepting what you do be it good, bad or indifferent takes a lot of effort but one thing I have learned is you must follow what drives you to be who you are, influences by outside forces should not be primary to your final decision…now if you are prone to make bad decisions based on your history then good advise might be what you want to pay attention to but in the end you are the one who sets your destiny in motion. We are human, we have developed to be together, to respond to each other and to be in proximity of each other…it is what makes us who we are. We may not always agree on everything and probably disagree on many things but that is the beauty of friendship and relationships…it may sound parasitic but actually it is platonic and is what is necessary for us to survive. In my mind I am constantly searching, plotting and adjusting my thinking to arrive at a temporary conclusion to my Musical endeavors. Sometimes I feel I am just replicating what has come before… …that I am doing nothing more than‘ flogging the musical dog ’ I am trying to tame but you know that if that is truly what is happening than let it be so, it is my choosing. The illusion is mine…and with great excitement I pursue and share this with as many of you that will listen. Even at this point in my life I still feel young and vibrant to do just that. …and so as I “ Trudge across the tundra, mile after mile “ by the way that’s a Frank Zappa lyric quote, I still find myself wanting to be creative and play the guitar, create and compose songs and record. I am very fortunate to have this gift if for no one other than me… Peace to all of you and forever! Rock and Roll! BKA/NB 03/02/2014
Reply
Nothin but The Blues
Nothin but The Blues!
...So you want to talk about The Blues...as a subject for discussion about music it intails alot of fact, sometimes a little bit of fiction and a whole lot of embelishment over the trials and tribulations of our lifes. It can be watered downed to depress the the depression of a love gone bad...a battle won or the miraid of other things that afflict the human condition... Playing guitar and singing the Blues to some seems to come as natural as breathing and to trying to attribute it to anything less then the talient of the indivigual is a bit defeating to it's glory because like most things in life if you work hard enough you can achieve almost anything but as in the case of the guitar, work won't alway serve you...the guitar has to become your voice, it has to take that internal sound that you may not move through your vocal cords and process it through your fingers and for those who are moved to sing out loud the human voice accompanied by the guitar can become an inspirational medium for displaying the depths of the soul and the hights of the heavens... life experiences can and most usually effect the outcome of a Blues song...an Artist cannot fake the truths and emotions of The Blues...it is a humble and bolsterious form of expression and there are so many different levels of performing a Blues idea...from a single one man band strummin away singing with a heart felt growl to the escallation of a five piece Blues Rock Band blastin out loud...the message is simular but never the same...like Ricky Medlocke wrote in a lyric once..."You have to crawl before you can walk, you have to cry before you can talk...I've done me enough crawlin it made howl and moan...are you with me now"...Searchin! That my friends is a little bit about The Blues...from me to you! Peace.
Reply
Rock Poetry...Players Lament
Blacken fingers once again The strings are the voices from my head Oh how I wanted to play And to bring out the energy the anger the rage It’s not a negative but a stretch of the mind To pull from the universe the rhythm and rhyme To pick up and pluck downward to rock and to roll Extract from the amplifier the Angels share Driven and driving the power ebbs and flows The attack of the Plectrum the volume gain grows In the middle the essence of the power cords reign The Rock Gods of yester years obvious fame Attack, attack then bring on the calm With a chiming like aura of Jazz cord gone wild There is nothing finer then the ring of a note In a progression of Blues, Rock and some Soul
Never too wary to pick up the tempo Never too peaceful to turn up the volume Statesboro Blues never left anyone lame Except for me trying to play like DA
Reply
Searching The Sky's For You....
I have not shared this track with many, Not for a specific reason, just haven't...but in celebration of 'The Beatles 50th Aniversary' on the Ed Sullivan show...the beginning of my 'Life' both as a regular joe and a want to be me indivigual...at the point of my history playing music, by 1980 I had taught myself to play Bass Guitar right handed ( I was a lefty like Paul McCartney ) and had been in three or four different Bands from 1975 to 1979. Not a very deep history but I was fortunate to have had really great friends who were musicians and allowed me in their circle and to gain a great respect for them as well as for the music. This song lyricly couldn't be any simplier then it appears...on purpose I must admitt, my talient as a writer was imerging slowly...as for the idea behind the song...The Beatles 'All My Love'n' and I want to 'Hold your Hand' probably jump out more significantly..all ther songs had a mortal affect on me...I had just met this lovely girl named Frances, I knew she was out there, hopefully for me...I believed that and thats where this song goes... I have never been good at protraiting others in music, but in this particular case it was all I wanted to do. I had inlisted a group of life long friends and bandmates who honored me with there playing on this my first ever Studio recording...Craig Thornburg on backing vocals,( a major Ringo Fan ) Drums, Tubular Bells and Gong, David Bailey on Rythym Guitar and backing vocals ( leader of the first band I was ever in with him called 'Jesse Blue', Robert 'Bob' Perry on Backing vocals, second Rythym and Lead Guitar, and me singing lead, Bass Guitar ( Rickenbacher 4001 Stereo ) and Tamborine. Recorded By: Rich Granum in Port Angeles, Washington. I was sick with a severe sinus infection which attributes to the high nasally sound of my voice...anyway this song was what I felt and was trying to portrait given the way I felt about 'The Beatles'. To all of The Beatles and to all of us who love them still to this day...I share this Song with you! Thank You, Peace!
Reply