You are currently browsing the category archive for the ‘Uncategorized’ category.
In case there are people that actually read this…
I’ve been going through a dry spell of late – musically things haven’t been quite coming together. But, the New Year is on the horizon and I suspect some resolutions are in order. I’ve decided if it’s possible to Band, then I will, if not, then solo gigging will have to do – even though there’s only so much one can do with that. But, it’s better than nothing.
I do have several new tunes completed, or in the works, and look forward to getting them out to you. Also, I’ll be consolidating everything onto one site (here) so you don’t have to be redirected to MySpace in order to listen. Thanks for checking up and for God’s sake, if you read this, listen to the tunes and like what you see/hear, leave a comment. I’d like to keep up with you.
-J
It’s been eating away at me lately: To band, or not to band? On the one hand, there’s guys out there like me who have lives apart from their music who hold down bands and play regularly. On the other hand…it’s a hell of a lot of work and time – and I don’t expect to be in ‘ol O-Town past September of next year. But, listening to the tunes I have recorded – they need something. Like, percussion, bass, some lead…percussion is needed BAD. In fact, the songs are begging for it. I tend to think it’d be worth it in the interim. I have several months to have some fun with giggin’ with a band.
I’ve also been listening to the songs posted online…yea, I’ll be re-recording them all soon. There’s been some changes that need to be addressed. As well as some new tunes that might catch your interest. Or not. Now that I don’t have an amp, my plan of micing it for guitar and vocals ain’t gonna happen. Going to have to be fine with the one mic rig for acoustic and vocal.
So much for my Acoustasonic. I spoke with the store I purchased it from, and where I bought an extended service warranty for it (where they will pay for repairs), and apparently whatever is wrong is more expensive for them to fix than the amp is worth. My options are to trade the amp in and get something else, or the group that underwrote the warranty will issue me a check for the full amount – basically I’d get a full refund for the purchase price. Good deal gone bad I suppose. But, o well. I could always choose to pay for the repairs myself, but I’m not in love with the thing, so that’s not an option. Who knows what will become of it. Maybe the guys that are working on it will fix it and sell it from their store. Back to square one for finding an amp, though. Most of the ones I looked at were at or over $400. Can’t really afford that now. Maybe I’ll get another acoustic guitar. It’d be nice to have two, one in standard tuning and the other for the open tunings.
I recently listened to a lecture given by the CEO of CNL, a real estate development company headquartered here in Orlando. Jim Seneff’s lecture was given back in April as a key note address to a group of students and parents at The Geneva School – a classical Christian school. The subject of his lecture was regarding the American Economy and current recession, reasons for the recession, and the due vigilance necessary of its citizens to understand why such recessions occur – primarily regarding the natural undulations of economic and political cycles. Such dispassionate observations, grounded in history and philosophical thought, are invaluable to me, as such conversation does not exist at any level in media – at least on television or in popular internet news sources (with a few exceptions). It was a refreshingly rational view on the current situation, given by man whose company’s books sees billions of revenue each year. Not to mention the fact that his industry, real estate, has been the hardest hit by the downturn, on the front lines.
Among the many interesting points Mr. Seneff made, a couple stuck in mind my mind as worth remembering. First, something Mr. Seneff said as a prelude to his definitions of Capitalism and Socialism:
Simplicity on the far side of complexity is brilliance. Simplicity on the near side of complexity is simple mindedness.
That is to say that if one understands the complexity of a situation, yet arrives at a simple conclusion, is displaying true brilliance. While one who does not understand, or refuses to understand, the complexity of a situation, and arrives at a simple conclusion is showing forth a simple mind. For example, Albert Einstein’s famous equation of E = MC2 (I realize that’s supposed to be a superscript for “squared”…don’t have the formatting here apparently). An elegantly simple equation for an infinitely complex problem – energy, mass and the speed of light.
Secondly, was Mr. Seneff’s definitions of Capitalism vs. Socialism:
Capitalism is when the economic processes are entrusted to the private sector. Socialism is when the economic processes are entrusted to the public sector, that is, the Government.
Elegant, simple. Something I can get behind.
What I want to focus on for the purpose of this blog, though, is his former statement regarding simplicity, as it can be generalized to anything. I have often found myself intuitively thinking the same thing, although not articulating it in such a way, especially in regards to music. What I have realized over the passing of time is that there are fundamental principles to just about anything one desires to accomplish. Mastery, in my view, is returning to where one started – returning to the simplicity of the start of the journey, yet having come through the hardships of it. This may echo a bit of Easter philosophy, which is not at all incompatible with my Christian world-view (the origination of the belief being rooted in Near Easter thought after all). The foundations of this idea ring true in a myriad of endeavors – the most brilliant minds are also the most simple, elegant and lucid in their articulation.
Coming back to the starting place with an enlightened mind and returning to simplicity, in my experience, occurs on an unconscious level. The advent of the journey, getting into the thick of it, struggling with difficult concepts, techniques, practices, then at some point in the future, years even, possessing an unconscious knowledge of how something works – the mind processes it automatically, as an instinct. This is true mastery. There is also the fact that not all masters are good teachers, but good teachers are able to articulate the unconscious ideas into a cultural format – Western systematics or Easter circular thought, or somewhere in between.
Despite the difficulties of songwriting, learning new styles, new instruments, live performance, etc, I have decided that there are fundamental principles to all of these. If I can learn the fundamentals, then the rest comes by itself and there is something to build on.
Getting to that far side is where I aim, even if it sometimes feels like a slog to get there…
Several posts ago I copied some thoughts of mine regarding Cormac McCarthy’s nihilistic Blood Meridian. This is meant to continue that discussion…
McCarthy has been getting a lot of attention lately, mostly due to the imagining of his fiction in the eyes of the Cohen brothers’ No Country For Old Men, and now more recently with Vigo Mortensen leading in The Road. My interest in McCarthy, however, began as a suggestion from my father, who is a voracious reader, and who described Blood Meridian and the most violent, disturbing novel he had ever read. At the time, I didn’t realize McCarthy’s influence in recent cinema, nor could I have guessed what I was truly in for.
But, my real fascination with McCarthy lay in the fact that he sets many of his novels in the Southwest, and in the case of No Country and Blood Meridian, much of it takes place in the Chihuahuan desert…where I grew up. The Southwest, and particularly West Texas, rarely gets the attention it deserves, so being partial to it, I am bent to explore those nuances of the Humanities which seek to illuminate its heritage. That is not to say that McCarthy’s novels are necessarily historical in nature, although they are to a certain degree, especially Blood Meridian, but more to the point, the geography of West Texas, Northern Mexico, Southern Arizona, make for exceptionally interesting settings.
In addition to this, I found in Blood Meridian a gut wrenching literary tale that undoes any notion of the mythological Western Frontier. There is no romance in the novel that harkens to those 19th century pioneers and sun worn warriors, which we sometimes carelessly project our own fantasy’s and day dreams – perhaps even believing a bit too much the early to mid 20th century’s depictions of this era in film and literature. The reality was much more bleak, more depraved, more violent than we care to imagine. And, the taming of the West remains one of the most interesting topics I have yet to explore in depth.
In many ways, we still feel the repercussions of the actions taken by Anglo, Mexican and Native. The resentment is palpable to those who care to pay attention to it, especially on the border towns. Racism is still very much alive. But there is something else that we civilized people tend to ignore to the point of absurdity, that is the marginalizing of the Native to the fringes of society. All it takes is a drive from El Paso to Santa Fe, crossing the Indian Reservations along the way, to be witness to the hopelessness and despair that exist in the tribes presently. Is it any wonder that alcoholism and drug abuse are rampant among these populations when in the span of 100 short years their way of life was stolen out from under them?
I appreciate McCarthy for his candor, because it is easy to fall into the trap of the “White Man” perpetrating all kinds of evils at the expense of the poor natives. I do not hold to this presupposition, and I do not believe McCarthy does either. At least, I do not see that in Blood Meridian, and there are solid historical evidences to believe that the Natives were in fact more brutal than the Anglos and Mexicans in every way. What I do see, though, is depraved white “Christians”, and I would use that term more than loosely, and even more depraved Native “pagans” killing each other in horrible ways. Everybody hates everybody else, and fear is the driving force for much of the violence – fear and greed. I do not doubt that, during this time in history, these types of evils were perpetrated by all sides.
There is no point in trying to point the finger and blame someone for the hardships now experienced by those who were displaced. What’s done is done and “Manifest Destiny” has run its tired course. As a musician, I feel compelled to capture this time in history in a way that can speak to the imagination in the way only music can. That is the reason I wrote …And The Horses Were Screaming, and is the reason why I hopefully will have the opportunity to work on a full-scale project, using McCarthy’s book, along with some other historical and literary texts and inspiration. Who knows…perhaps McCarthy would endorse such a project.
My very good friend was confirmed with Multiple Myeloma yesterday evening, the day after his bone marrow biopsy. It’s hard to put into words my sadness. Sometimes I wish sackcloth and ashes were still common practice for mourning and sorrow, so that the profound depths of this reality could be appropriately expressed.
Harmony is one of those musical attributes that I liken to infinitely complex mathematical equations. Maybe that’s not the right analogy, but there is no question that musical harmonic structures and rules are more mathematical than they are artistic. That’s not to say that it cannot be used in an artistic way – that is the whole point. The structures are simply the tools by which musical artists can create their sonic landscapes. In some genres, the rules are simpler than in others, like in folk compared to jazz.
It was during my study of music theory at community college when I realized that my tendency to think with 100% of my right brain did nothing for me when trying to stay within the boundaries of the discipline. The harmonies under study were those of the Common Practice period, roughly from the Baroque to late Classical composers – Bach to Beethoven respectively, with some overlap into the early Romantic period. I enjoyed much more the late compositions by Beethoven and any Romantic composer – Chopin, Liszt – than I did Bach or Mozart. Not that I didn’t find them interesting and brilliant, I simply preferred to listen to the free-flowing, sometimes erratic nature of the Romantics, than to its very structured predecessors.
When I discovered Jazz, my world of harmonic complexities became exponentially more complex. If I thought that trying to stay within the rules of Common Practice was difficult when composing 4 voice choral pieces, I truly had no idea what to think of a style that seemed to have no rules, while at the same time having more rules. A paradox to be sure.
I have always thought that Jazz harmonic structures are infinitely more interesting than any other genre of music…but not necessarily as beautiful. That is to say that I find a simple bluegrass melody with 4th and 5th interval harmonization many times more beautiful than a complex Jazz harmony and melody – but both are compelling to me in different ways. Folk melodies and harmonies for my heart, Jazz melodies and harmonies for my head.
With that said, I have discovered that I need to expand my harmonic base and understanding. It has been too long since I’ve studied harmonic structures and I would like to vary my songwriting a bit with some more complex chords. Not that I want to sound Jazzy, just that I feel like my world needs to be colored a bit like Jazz to be completely whole. One thing about Jazz is that much of it can be generalized to other genres and it would be interesting to combine certain Jazz practices into the songwriting of folk music. Plus, there is the added benefit of it making me a better musician, something that can never be adverse. Even if I don’t pepper my music with Jazz influences, it still would be nice to be able to PLAY it and read it – since it, along with classical, is perhaps one of the most difficult styles to master.
A world colored with a bit of Jazz ain’t a bad place to live at all…
I renamed the song mentioned below, Empty, to Waiting, and the lyrics are now posted. Music along with Four Dead in Five coming this week…
I don’t know what I ate last night, but my dreams were just wacky. Like a hybrid of The 13th Warrior and The Omen. I distinctly remember being a part of a band of warriors who were going underground to a hideout of evil walrus men. Literally, they stood on two legs, but their faces were walrus faces. There were huge walrus skulls around the perimeter of this underground lake that were dripping with the blood of the evil walrus men’s conquered foes. The walrus men would swim in and out of this lake and our job was to swim through it without being eaten. Our protection was a cardboard box, which was painted with children’s drawings on the inside. We had to turn the box upside down and swim inside it, and that kept us safe from the walrus men. Then, we quickly jumped out of the pool and raced onwards – the dream then turned to being part of an adventure race. I guess section one was making it alive through walrus hell.
After a few other random encounters, I ended up in an area that I thought was the Swiss Alps. I was with several other adventurers and rock climbers and we were being shown the awesome climbing by a local guide who spoke very broken english. As he was running us around saying “Eez ‘dis not vonderful? Zees iz da best! Look at deez cliffs!”, we all of a sudden heard the wailing cries of a newborn baby. I remember one of the guys shouting and I sprinted back down to where the sound was coming from. I stopped suddenly upon seeing all the guys staring into a small entrance into a cave on the side of one of the hills. The crying was coming from inside. I remember looking around for our guide, but he was nowhere to be found.
Then I woke up.
Ever have those dreams where you try imagining what would have happened had you not awoken? Even though I was scared out of my mind, I tried going back to sleep to finish it. I think it ended with me wielding a samurai sword and taking out all of the crazy Occult maniacs who had surrounded us as we were baffled by the crying baby inside the cave. I ain’t no ones sacrifice today!
maybe I need to stop eating so much cereal before I go to bed…
I’ve been putting the finishing touches on a couple of new songs that I’ll be getting out to the world soon. One is about being frustrated, the other is about the Four Dead In Five gunfight that I wrote about earlier. Kinda different subject matters…
I was inspired to write the former song, that I’m calling Empty, after a conversation with my cousin. I couldn’t get it out of my mind, so as soon as I got back in town from Dallas, I picked up my guitar and came up with the tune and melody. Hopefully, the spiritual overtones come out in the lyrics. One thing I love about my faith is the fact that it allows for emotional authenticity. It’s ok to feel frustrated, confused, angry, etc., because on the flip side there is nothing like knowing the freedom found in the purchase of our salvation by Christ. But, that knowledge, that joy, is often times overshadowed by the immediate concerns of life. If scripture is any guide, we see the Psalms exploring the depths of human depression and heights of ecstasy, and everything in between. So, we are free to express those feelings, as long as there is a purpose.
I didn’t want to write an angst filled song for its own sake, but to highlight the fact that there are times when frustration and anger to abound in life. That’s just a fact. We can’t see over the horizon in many cases, and all that matters is the disease, the loneliness, the financial hardships, the broken relationships, so on and on. The song is not macrocosm in scope, it is an anecdote, speaking to those seasons when God seems silent and far off. It alludes to a resolution, but never quite gets there.
Speaking of resolution, last week I was weeping for my friend, yesterday he had me in tears, but for a different reason. He called me, to my surprise, and asked if I wanted to go have a few beers. Of course, I accepted. So we hung out at Beef O’Brady’s for a few hours and his spirits couldn’t have been higher. Not because he doesn’t have cancer, that diagnosis is still 90% certain, but because of things regarding his mission work that I won’t be able to post here. But, when he told me, I was in awe – I still am actually. And, he told me a story that had me laughing for a good 5 minutes. What a difference a week makes.
There’s a song there too…just have to find it.
From Saw Palmetto to Ocotillo 