In a nutshell ~ this is the story of a an ordinary gnome and the extraordinary adventure he took. Try it. You’ll like it. I promise.
I thought I’d do something a little different with this one. I’ve been going through lots of old photos and organizing them as part of our coronavirus stay at home isolation and found this series of pictures which I’d kind of forgotten about. I won’t ruin the story, as today’s offering tells it, but this felt good to turn music and pictures into a story and it because something more through the creation process.
For more info about this whole series, why don’t’cha visit:
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Original Music Release A Day #16 ~ The Meaning of Life
Part of the Small Craft Advisory collection of spoken word pieces
This piece has an interesting history ~ I distinctly remember writing the words as follow up from a particularly profound meditation, but I have absolutely no memory at all of playing and recording the music and then setting the words down as well into their sonic bed.
One of the themes that runs through many of these spoken word pieces is chosen nobility, or walking one’s path in life as upright and meaningfully as possible. By upright I don’t mean being straight and narrow, no, life is too short for that. I mean holding one’s head high and being able to look one another in the eye, taking responsibility for one’s self, and taking the time to appreciate and create beauty whenever possible. We can totally be noble and full of shenanigans, no worries there.
The Meaning of Life is offered as a meditation in the creation of meaning within one’s life, and a reminder of all the places where we encounter it. In this particular moment in time when we are all slowing down and taking stock of what’s important and what isn’t, it is my hope that we emerge from this time more aligned with our deeper selves and truly connected with friends and family.
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Part of The Small Craft Advisory collection of spoken word pieces.
In honor of the US District Court decision handed down yesterday in favor of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe of North Dakota, I humbly offer this spoken word prayer.
When the NODAPL protests began in August of 2016 I was aghast as it became increasingly clear that corporate interests were being represented by military force in the face of non-violent protests. As the protests grew, and the militarized police forces grew, it became clear that not much has changed in the generations since Wounded Knee ~ Americans take what they want, regardless of who or what is in the way, especially when it comes to people of color.
I was grateful this was getting the attention it got both nationally and internationally though it didn’t seem to faze the weaponized forces arrayed against unarmed men, woman, and children who were standing up for some basic and theoretically Constitutionally protected rights. But most importantly of all, First Peoples from all over the continent traveled to stand alongside the Standing Rock residents, and the long-prophesied Healing of the Nations began to be nurtured under the banners of Water is Life and NODAPL. From a historical and spiritual perspective, this is beyond significant.
On one of the particularly violent days, with images of high-pressure water cannons being fired directly at human beings during sub-freezing temperatures, this poem and setting it to music erupted through me in a matter of hours. I look at my editing logs and this piece emerged intact in a matter of an afternoon. That to me says this is the work of Spirit.
There is no arguing that Water is Life ~ it is fact no matter how you approach it.
I am releasing this piece in solidarity with everyone who stood up for their rights, for due process of law, and for the protection of clean water. This one goes out to Earth Warriors wherever you are, standing up for what is right, and never backing down.
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I’m choosing to go with a cover song today mainly because it’s so much fun and we need up energy right now.
In the months leading up to our wedding almost five (!) years ago I kept myself grounded and balanced by recording a series of big band and swing tunes. It was a wonderful project and totally served to keep me from getting too wrapped up in the stress of wedding planning.
The origins of this song are kind of murky, with earliest references to it around 1914. According to wikipedia: “Credit for the most popular version of the song, though, is given to Ray Henderson for the music, and Sam M. Lewis and Joseph Widow Young for the lyrics. It was this version that was recorded by The California Ramblers in 1925.”
I’m fond of my version with it’s ukulele rhythmic foundation, a solid bass line, and playful lead guitar work ~ it was a hell of a good time to record this one!
And yes, I recognize the irony of using this picture of my wife in that dress alongside the lyrics to this song…
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There are times in life where after climbing to the top of a mountain you just want to raise your voice and holler I AM HERE! It’s a celebratory thing. A declaration of presence. I’ve made it this far. Whew. But there’s no-one else around, you’re in the wilderness, so it’s really all just for you.
This piece of music was born in sheer freaky joy, the celebration of a flow state having discovered what I still think to this day is a truly unique lead guitar sound. There’s not much more to it than that. I think that is every guitarists dream, to find a unique voice that is distinctly theirs, and this is decidedly one of mine. It’s murky yet distinct, just like many passages in my life.
Yes, it’s a canned drum track. Sorry about that. At the time it wasn’t meant to be anything more than a glorified metronome, but it ended up in this one-take-recording so it’s there for whatever it’s worth and there’s nothing I can do about that. This is definitely a flow vibe that I want to do more with in a better rhythmic context, but it’s still one of my fav pieces from over the years.
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I wasn’t planning on visiting any covers for quite some time, but when I was looking through a hard-drive for something else to post today I encountered this video from the Philadelphia Folk Festival in 2014 and just have to pass this one along. The smile this brought to my face is just too good to not want to share. I’ll be back to the original compositions tomorrow but this is just too much fun to pass by.
Written by Ray Henderson with lyrics by Sam Lewis & Joe Young in 1925.
I would love to see the looks on all of their faces if they could see a circus aerialist singing their song while performing aloft.
I have to say I’m particularly proud of my kazoo break.
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Mid March 2020 ~ cooped up by the corononvirus stay at home protocols, I’ve set myself the challenge to release a piece of music a day for the foreseeable future, and have realized I need a central location to track it all. So here it is, a chronological list of each release and its direct link. For more detail about the project, visit the blog entry that started it all.
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So here’s the thing. I’ve got a lot up my sleeve, but none of this is planned out. I’m really flying by the seat of my pants having set myself up to do this release a day thing, and am taking it day by day and just trying to be open to what will be the best choices. I am feeling drawn to another upbeat and celebratory piece today for some reason, perhaps because yesterday’s piece was so well received, and lord knows I’ve got my fair share of intense and heavy pieces as well to share in the days and weeks to come.
New Beginnings was born a couple of years ago when moving into a new house and there was great acoustics in a very large room. I loved how this piece rang out and the waltz timing feels so fluid. It makes my wife smile every time she hears it, so I like it for that reason alone.
It’s also a great example of so much music that comes through me, where I sense that there is so much more going on in the composition than what I can actually play myself. I’ve tried to approximate what I hear with the strings, but approximate is the operative word. It’s what 90 minutes of creativity has afforded me today, and I’m happy enough with it to share, though it still feels like a sketch.
I hope it brings a smile to your face as well.
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I moved into a room once when I was in my mid 20’s and found an old banjo in the closet. It needed a lot of love, but of course I was intrigued. I nursed it into playing shape, bought new strings for it, asked a friend carve me a new bridge for it, and it became playable. I’ll never forget the first clear note that rang out from it, and that moment shaped my relationship with the banjo ever since. It made me think of so many other things than a banjo, and I resolved then and there to discover how to coax new life from this wild creature, figuring that there were enough banjo players in the world already, I wanted to do something different.
I’ve spent years exploring that path, and rarely have I ventured into territory where my banjo sounds like a bluegrass instrument, and I really like it that way.
This piece was born in the summer of 2019 in the backwoods of the Adirondacks of NY while on retreat with my family. I instantly fell in love with the vibe as I feel it captures the essence of a peaceful summer day.
On this first day of spring 2020 I thought I would offer something more in the spirit of the day as we welcome an uncertain spring with so much turmoil and challenge. I hope that this serves as a reminder of pleasant days both past and those to come. Perhaps this is my prayer for healthier days down the road for all of us…
Our Story is the poem that sparked my explorations with spoken word expression set to music and started this whole Small Craft Advisory trajectory. It’s birth in 2016 is a remarkable example of a piece of creativity “coming through” as it was hand-written in one sitting with over three pages and there are no cross-outs. It just exploded into being in one fell swoosh, and my wife laughs about this because I had been telling her for at least a month prior to writing Our Story that I was feeling pent up and felt that I needed to be doing “something” in relation to global issues though I had no idea what.
Since then I’ve changed the phrasing of only one line as I feel it delivers better, and I still marvel at the process that brought this thing through. I shot the video in 2017, and though I was generally aware of climate issues, I wasn’t aware yet of the full extent of the problem and my general enthusiasm for the human story and our possible futures was still pretty high at the time. You can see that enthusiasm especially at the end with my “and I can’t wait to see what we’ll write next…” conclusion to the piece. I suspect if I was writing this now it would have a much different tone. However I am choosing to keep it intact as it was written because even though courage has rapidly replaced hope as the operative M.O. for woke folk, I do believe that the sheer amount of variables, especially regarding potential human responses, keeps an extremely cautious optimism in play though it is certainly not dominant.
Regardless, thinking about our story as a common thread binding humanity has a lot of power to it, and in this day and age the more connections we recognize and nurture between individuals, communities, and species, the greater the odds that we will have something of a fighting chance to not go down with the ship.
If this resonates anything with you, please share, send the link to friends and family, tweet it, whatever. I just love the conversation that this piece sparks and hope you explore it too.
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