The Music Blog

I have taken the entire 2009 off from touring and performing live. After doing hundreds of concerts, and driving thousands of miles to do those concerts, and making a living for many years as a musician, it has been very nice having a mainstream job for awhile. I have enjoyed the reclusive nature of my playing this year, and writing new songs. I have postponed my next acoustic album (which all the material is written, just need to go to the studio), as well as my next ambient CD (which is 80% complete) until 2010. I will also lift my live performance embargo somewhat…..

Living right next to one of the most powerful energy spots I have been to, which is a few hundred yards from the ocean, puts one in a wonderful state of mind. I have been working on several new songs that will go into my next album. I won’t ponder a guess of when it will be completed, as with every album I have done so far I try and approach each new one differently than the last one.

While all the writing and arranging is going on, I am also working on updating all my equipment to start working on more “New Music”, or at least what it was called in the 70’s. (ie: Electronic and organic sounds mixed together in an ambient atmospheric style). Most of these new ambient type albums by others seem to incorporate the sound of the ocean. Since I hear it every day, that is one thing I may try and avoid and to try new things, sounds that most do not hear or pay attention to. (ie: the sound of a hummingbird wing, etc.)

Stay tuned for info as it comes….

It has been wonderful taking a break from performing this past year. In all the years I have played out and performed I never thought I would say this. I was telling this to another musician I had just met a few weeks ago, and his comment was “you got to play out all the time”; but then I could guess with sure accuracy, that he didn’t play out much.

Between 2004-2007 I did an average of 250-300 gigs per year. In many cases, 2 gigs in the same day and some for as long as 7 hours non stop (like the Skokie Art fair) in brutal heat. The things that you discover when you tour and perform that much are things that seem to escape the usual musician you encounter who has a day job and says you should “play out all the time”. Some of the things that I discovered were:

1. How poorly mic stands are made - if it says “heavy duty” it means it will break twice as fast.
2. Never purchase “professional” PA stands, mic stand equipment from Guitar Center as most of their stuff is junk
3. How many dings, nicks and scratches that hit your expensive guitar are finally enough?
4. Always bring extra everything (batteries, cables, etc..)
5. I set the record for breaking clocks/watches (there seems to never be a clock in the stage area even of coffee houses) and the ones I brought with always had strange batteries
6. People who are over 40 years old very rarely ever purchase a CD at a concert
7. Close friends that come to a concert always leave the smallest, (if any) tips, and its the person who doesn’t know you at all that give you the biggest tips
8. Always bring a very long extension cord as even festivals with a fully built stage may not have any electricity wired up anywhere near the stage.
9. The majority of places that pay for you concert, make it almost a mystery as to who you get your paycheck from at the end of the gig.
10. When someone see’s you play a martin guitar and they own a lower end one (like a D35, etc.) they never can identify a top of the line martin.
11. In the midwest, on 75% of the performances (I did), someone will actually try and carry on a conversation with you while you are performing in front of an audience and don’t understand why your not talking back in the middle of your song while an audience is watching
12. 98% of the people who write their email address down on your newsletter list, couldn’t read what they wrote down either
13. Playing for “exposure” really means - “we don’t want to pay you anything, but we want you to feel like we are doing you a favor by “allowing you” to play for free at our place”
14. Most of touring consists of driving and driving and driving and very little playing.
15. When performing live for a TV show, the sound technician usually knows less than you about sound and amplification
16. When performing live for both radio and TV there is no such thing as reverb or EQ.
17. One Art Festival gig is worth 20 cafe gigs

The best concert I played at was “Art in Air” in Webster Groves MO, which was right across the street from my old Jr. High school I attended. I performed in front of thousands of people and the stage manager and the setup was very impressive. The worst gig was at a Pot Belly Sandwich works shop when a bee stung my left thumb during the last song of my gig.

Due to all of the happenings of going thru equipment, cables, etc.. I have decided to refocus everything. The year of 2008 has been one of change, working what most would call a normal job type thing, and living in a really cool place next to the beach. I am writing songs and am working on ideas for another batch of albums, both electronic and acoustic.

Once 2009 gets here I will start focusing on performing live again; but first I am working on some changes on my performing equipment.

What it looks like so far is the following stage setup:

Crate Limo battery operated amp (PA) with a large tripod
Monitor: TC Helicon VSM-300Xt
Pedal Board: Boss AD8 acoustic guitar processor, Boss EQ20 twin pedal, Boss Stereo Chorus
Digitech Vocalist performer
Freehand Musicpad Pro (new item)

I am still sorting thru the guitar portion, I may get a less expensive martin to do gigs with that

For the new Age ambient albums I want to work on I need to get a host of upgrades that I have fallen behind on, so that will take awhile (ie: Digital Performer 6, Reason, MachFive, Autura Moog Modular V, etc..)

Hopefully when I am ready to hit the road again I will have a new perspective and some new creations worthy of this year break I have had….

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I have more or less decided to take the rest of 2008 off as far as performances go while I work up more material for another spread of new CD’s that I hope to release in 2009 sometime.
Its been great living next to the ocean and am so glad the midwest saga has been closed forever.

I decided to slow down a little for my next album, which will be all acoustic material again. This album will be a little different than the others which I felt I had to get a lot out of my system. This next album will be my more spiritual side so although I have written enough material for a new CD, I am going to be more selective as to what goes on this one. In order to get in touch with this I have been visiting a lot of my power spots while I reflect and write, while living in Pacifica, CA very close to the ocean. I have stopped all performances for the time being to focus on playing and writing as in the last 10 years I have done over 2000 live performances.

More news to follow…

I am currently writing new songs for my next album, while I am on my California 3 month music/kung fu tour. It will be another acoustic album, and hopefully the songs will be quite different than anything I have written before. I have been using different tunings, strange capo’s and visiting many different places for potential inspiration. I even drove by Neil Young’s Ranch up off of skyline drive to see if any of his old acoustic energy’s were floating around. While up there I kept thinking about Jim Stephen’s and our high school trip to Colorado while we listened to Harvest by Neil Young, an album that changed my life.
One of my most favorite places on this earth which is not too far from his ranch is Moss Beach which is just north of Half Moon Bay. I have visited there a lot and when I am there I seem to be taken over by the nature, the old cyprus tree’s and the tide pools. I have meditated many times in the tree’s there. While I am there I feel completely content, a feeling that usually eludes me generally in life.

Hopefully I will have my new album ready to record in another month….

Most of my performances are still on hold while I work on several projects. My current estimate for the next CD to be released (#10) will be in January 2008. This will be an all acoustic guitar with voice CD. Shortly there after (Perhaps Feb/March 2008) I hope to release a rock CD that I am also currently working on.

Stay tuned!