Set 1

Down by the River

I am a Pilgrim

Let Me Know

All I have to do is Dream (new)

Seagull

Midnight Songs

Brown Eyed Girl (new)

Feeling Good, Feeling Fine

Light to my Path

World of Our Own

2nd set

So Good to Me

Hey good Lookin'

Busking on the Underground (new)

A Higher Plane

Leaving this Town

Urban Spaceman

Jambalya

Those were the Days

Work to Do

My Old Man's a Dustman (Encore....I'm trying to drop this but they insisted)

Higher Plane are

Mike Squire: 6 and 12 String guitars/Vocals/Harmonica/Kazoo

Janet Edsall: Vocals/Flute/Keyboard

slave dancing to banjo and tamborine

albert hoffman

shiva

"Oh, tear it down (bed, slats and all)
Oh, tear it down (bed, slats and all)
Oh, tear it down (bed, slats and all)
Oh, tear it down (bed, slats and all)
If you catch another mule kickin' in your stall
Man, you gotta tear it down " - OCMS

"The real owners are the big wealthy business interests that control things and make all the important decisions. Forget the politicians, they're an irrelevancy. The politicians are put there to give you the idea that you have freedom of choice. You don't. You have no choice. You have owners. They own you. They own everything. They own all the important land. They own and control the corporations. They've long since bought and paid for the Senate, the Congress, the statehouses, the city halls. They've got the judges in their back pockets. And they own all the big media companies, so that they control just about all of the news and information you hear. They've got you by the balls. They spend billions of dollars every year lobbying – lobbying to get what they want. Well, we know what they want; they want more for themselves and less for everybody else."

"But I'll tell you what they don't want. They don't want a population of citizens capable of critical thinking. They don't want well-informed, well-educated people capable of critical thinking. They're not interested in that. That doesn't help them. That's against their interests. They don't want people who are smart enough to sit around the kitchen table and figure out how badly they're getting fucked by a system that threw them overboard 30 fucking years ago. You know what they want? Obedient workers –- people who are just smart enough to run the machines and do the paperwork but just dumb enough to passively accept all these increasingly shittier jobs with the lower pay, the longer hours, reduced benefits, the end of overtime and the vanishing pension that disappears the minute you go to collect it. And, now, they're coming for your Social Security. They want your fucking retirement money. They want it back, so they can give it to their criminal friends on Wall Street. And you know something? They'll get it. They'll get it all, sooner or later, because they own this fucking place. It's a big club, and you ain't in it. You and I are not in the big club."

The current happy hour promotion: 2 pints of beer (Heineken OR Erdinger White) with a pizza (Four Cheese OR Salami and Olive) @ SGD$30 nett.

I ordered one Erdinger White pint (SGD$11) and Dreamer (SGD$10) during my first round. Had customised my pizza order (SGD$19) with half of it as Triple Mushroom and the other half as Roast Duck. The Roast Duck pizza basically won me over from the very first bite. :lol: During the next round, I took the promotion combo and chose the Salami and Olive pizza. The Roast Duck pizza was still clearly the winner. My take? (8/10) for all the oriental tongues out there. My next trip, I will be reviewing on their Seafood Pizza. Perhaps I'll savour the well loved pizzas here first before trying those at Timbre @ The Substation.

The live band was 53A performing for us. Both the guy and the gal have nice vocals and I personally got won over by the gal's vocals... Perhaps her voice resembles Corrine May? :P The best part is their fantastic coordination with their acoustic guitar skills. Coupled with their nice vocals... I can just sit there all night long, enjoying the music with occasional glancing over at the river with all the lights coming out alive at night.....

Relaxing is good for the soul.

Unusually, I was out on a Tuesday evening reviewing and actually had quite a good time of it. Long time MK Music member Mike Squire put together an evening of music that was certainly very well appreciated.

Picture ©2006 Steffi Lewis

Organised as part of the Stony Live Festival, Mike opened the evening with fellow musicians Janet on Vocals and Flute, and Phil on Banjo and Drums. They played a series of covers and orginal work, and I certainly found myself singing along to Major Tom, as did virtually everyone else watching.

But I think my favourite track of that part of the evening was a Skiffle version of Midnight Special, with Mike on guitar and vocals and Phil on Banjo! I was tapping my foot for the entire song.

Phil left the stage and Mike called up pipe player Ian to join him. Pipes are lovely, and with Mike putting rhythm guitar behind his wailing sound, well, it was almost hypnotic. I would have like to see a small drum keeping time with them ... maybe Phil should have jumped up there to join in on his congas but it was still a worthy fifteen minutes and I was sad when it ended.

To finish off the evening, Mike came back on stage with Janet and Phil again and played more songs, both original and covers, to entertain those present.

I like acoustic musicians. They’re not afraid to experiment and collaborate with other people and Mike, Janet and Phil worked very well together, mixing in wind, string and vocals to play out a pleasing set, creating an entertaining evening enjoyed by all present.

Written by Steffi Lewis

Re: Let’s Just Say I Was Skeptical


Well, Gus, I hadn't thought about it much but come to think of it, I was in the easy position…I had a pretty good idea of what the project 'could' be when I first approached you about it. If you had known the commitments it took in time and energy, do you think you still would have agreed to it not knowing how it could turn out?



Thankfully, while working on a tune, I usually don't hear it for what it is at that moment. I hear the potential in it. What's always surprising about that is when I play a work-in-progress for someone and at that moment 'hear' the song as he/she does...usually embarrassing and humbling! And that's the reason I almost always wait until a song is finished before playing it for anyone. I mention this because I know I played you rough versions of my songs that I sang on when we started all of this. Good thing you heard them for what they 'could' be and not for what they were.
joe
www.NeZrecords.com



Purchase Songs on iTunes

Saturday Morning was the annual FREE fishing day at the lake.  It was cancelled due to Spring River overflowing and flooding the park. Needless to say I had some disappointed kids.

 So as a dad, what can I do to make it up?  MONOPOLY!!!  Monopoly is not fishing, but we had a good time anyway.

MARKETPLACE MINISTRY with RED HEADS!!

ACOUSTIC MUSIC FESTIVAL   - Our little town has an annual Acoustic Music Festival on our town square.  It was a good time.  We took our lawn chairs and dinner and listened to the bluegrass and gospel music. Emily even got me out on the street to dance.

It has amazed me at the places I can run into marketplace ministers.  Let me introduce you to the Walker Family, REDHEAD EXPRESS.

THE WALKER FAMILY a.k.a. The RedHead Express are equally at home playing straight forward bluegrass as they are playing their own unique renditions of old timely and gospel . This wholesome family showcases their four young daughters’ beautiful harmonies, original songs, and increasing musical maturity while mom and dad add vocal depth, backup, and guidance to the ensemble. Three talented young boys at the end round out the family band. Audiences are wowed by the energy, maturity and skill level of this young family. It’s fun to watch instruments change hands, leads take turns, and just watching a family interact on stage is a rich, rewarding experience. The Walkers are doing what they love…together.

THEIR JOURNEY BEGAN in the fall of 2006, when they were first introduced to the world of bluegrass by their teacher and mentor, Jason Norris, of Bearfoot Band. With the help of Voice Coach/Producer, Kathy Chiavola, the Walkers have rapidly excelled and become a polished, professional bluegrass band. After spending about a year playing all over Alaska, the family unanimously agreed to rent out their new dream home for a bigger dream of following their love of music. They sold all their belongings, bought an RV, and headed south. Alaska is still home, but they yearn to learn and grow and share their music.

THEIR FIRST TOUR out during 2007/2008 was focused mostly on the south, where the heart of bluegrass is, with overwhelming success. They enjoyed showcasing in Virginia at Floyd’s Country Store and the Carter Family Museum; Leanna Bluegrass in Nashville; The Palatka Florida Bluegrass Festival; the historic John C. Campbell Folk School; Country Roots Radio Show for WCQS in Asheville, North Carolina; and countless Opry Houses for bluegrass organizations in Georgia, North and South Carolina, and Texas. The band also spent two months in Nashville, studying with Kathy Chiavola. Kathy also produced their latest Demo CD, which is the beginning of a new full length CD to be released Winter 2008. Expect to hear several new originals written by Kendra, the eldest daughter.

REDHEAD EXPRESS is excited to share their love of music and family! They can tailor their show to your needs, playing traditional bluegrass, old timey gospel, or a variety show. In the right venue, they’ll even get out on the floor and flat foot with the crowd! The Walker family is committed to sharing their love of traditional Appalachian and bluegrass music with children. They are members of IBMA and support the Bluegrass in the Schools program through their own workshops for children.

I had a chance to visit with Brett and Apryll Walker and find out more about their journey. They are truly an example of a marketplace ministry.  He asked me if I enjoyed the performance.  I told him that I loved it.  They mixed the bluegrass style with gospel.  It really was awesome.  I told him that I was editor of the Kingdom Business Journal and that we teach Kingdom Principles for success and ministry in the marketplace; and,  that he was a great example of it. Sharing the gospel through bluegrass music.  AWESOME!

I found it interesting that Brett also has a passion for buying and selling real estate.  As a way to help support his family of 9, he even has students who he teaches buying and selling techniques through telephone and on-line coaching.  I love an Entreprenuer. 

Only 2% minister behind a pulpit.  That leaves 98% of us to minister in the Marketplace.

No matter what your marketplace, you can minister there.

Lowell Lane  

SERIOUS guitarist looking for like-minded bandmates to make it big.
Date: 2008-05-12, 11:13AM EDT

Look here, Hudson Valley. I'm tired of answering ads on these pages only to find poseurs, geeks and acoustic folk acts who want me to change my unique playing style to match their style. It's time for a band that is as unique and forceful as I am, and I'm taking no prisoners.

This monumental effort will require the cooperation of a thunderous bass player with the mind and skills to keep this beast of a freight train on its tracks while a talented drummer will unleash an unrelenting hailstorm of destruction down upon his kingdom of percussion. The band will need to be as focused and driven as I am, willing to meet two, perhaps three times a week. When I host a practice session, I treat it like an Ultimate Fighter match, where nobody leaves until someone taps out. If you think you've got the endurance and fire to keep up, then bring your best, but be warned... I don't let up, and I don't want to share a stage with anyone who will.

As you can see from my picture, I wear chain mail to protect my body from the rigors of extreme playing. When you step up on stage with a true performer like myself, it's like stepping into battle, only instead of swords and arrows, we fight with 32nd notes and pinch harmonics. So in a way, the chain mail is largely symbolic, but my legions of fans have come to appreciate and expect it. You may don similar armor, but only if it fits the theme (no hockey masks or umpire's vests).

You are expected to have suitable gear. If you can see the top of your amplifier, don't bother answering this ad. It is expected that you will have a commitment to tone that approaches mine. (would be impossible to exceed, to be quite honest) I have a pedalboard that is ten feet long and would not dare sacrifice a single effect for the sake of portability. My pedals are alphabetized so that I can easily find them in the middle of "battle". Behringer up front, Zoom at the end. When you've been in the business as long as I have, you tend to come up with little time-saving tricks like that.

So that is my decree. I know that many of you will mock my demands and continue posting your offers and requests for lesser musicians. You may continue to carry on at your own leisurely pace, hoping for a shot at a coffee house or open mic night. I will not rest until we have our own stadium on the moon, with amplifiers pointed towards the sky's infinite expanses, so that we may truly rock the galaxy. I wish for you to join me on this epic quest.

Yours in rock
-^v-Riley-v^-

* Location: Poughkeepsie
* it's NOT ok to contact this poster with services or other commercial interests

PostingID: 677453250

Bob Dylan: He's got everything he needs, he's an artist, he don't look back

The legendary singer/songwriter has an art exhibition opening in London next week and loves to talk about it. But you risk his 1,000-yard stare if you touch on his personal life

Odense, Denmark, and the not-quite-grand hotel that for the next two nights will be a home away from home for Bob Dylan. He arrived here from Reykjavik, four days after his 67th birthday and in the first stages of a lengthy itinerary that will take him through Scandinavia, the Baltic states, Austria, Italy, France, Andorra, Spain and Portugal between now and mid-July. To his irritation, others long ago gave this ongoing schedule the title of The Never-Ending Tour (habitually, he plays upwards of 100 concerts each year, often considerably more). As he prefers to see it: “I'm just making my living by plying a trade.”

Achieving my promised audience with the legendary singer-songwriter and now exhibited painter proves to be a two-step process. First, his road manager takes me from the lobby to a darkened, sparsely furnished meeting room in which an orange-haired woman is sitting straight-backed and reading a novel. “If you could just wait here,” he begins, then disappears, his mobile clamped to his ear. Left alone, I introduce myself to the woman but she merely smiles enigmatically and continues with her book. Who is or was she? I still have no idea.

* Bob Dylan says Barack Obama is 'changin' America

Minutes later I am collected, taken up a flight of stairs and ushered towards a door that is ajar. As I approach it is opened by Dylan, who welcomes me inside with a soft handshake and a volley of courtesies: “How have you been?” [I have interviewed him twice before, in 1997 and 2001], “What's been going on in your life?” and “Are you OK with the dark [here in what appears to be his bedroom, all the curtains have been drawn]?”

My eyes adjusting to this premature twilight, I take in the fact that he is wearing boots, jeans and a loose sweatshirt, its sleeves pushed up above the elbows. That famous face is heavily lined and pale, but always warm and quick to smile. As we take seats at right angles to each other, he presses his fingertips into his grey-flecked curls and vigorously rubs his scalp, as if to do so will focus his mind.

I place on the low table between us the book that I have brought with me. “Heh, heh, heh!” Dylan chuckles, reaching out for it. “This is pretty handsome stuff.” He is looking at a straight-from-the-presses copy of The Drawn Blank Series, produced by the Halcyon Gallery to coincide with the exhibition of that name in Bruton Street, Mayfair. Will he visit the show itself? “I don't know,” he says, seemingly transfixed by the book's cover, his voice the familiar rasp that has inspired a million amateur impressionists. “I have all these dates to play. It might not be possible. I'd like to. We'll have to see.”

The haphazard process leading to the London show began nearly 20 years ago when he was approached by an editor at the American publishing company Random House. “They'd seen some of my sketches somewhere and asked if I'd like to do a whole book. Why not, you know? There was no predetermined brief. ‘Just deal with the material to hand, whatever that is. And do it however you want. You can be fussy, you can be slam-bang, it doesn't matter.' Then they gave me a drawing book, I took it away with me and turned it back in again, full three years later.”

Published in 1994 under the abbreviated title Drawn Blank, the resultant images had been executed both on the hoof while he was touring and in a more structured way in studios, using models (“Just anyone who'd be open to doing it”) and lights. What was going on in his life during that three-year period to inform or provide a back story to the work? “Just the usual,” Dylan shrugs, fixed in the hunkered-forward, hands-clasped position he will maintain for most of our time together. “I try to live as simply as is possible and was just drawing whatever I felt like drawing, whenever I felt like doing it. The idea was always to do it without affectation or self-reference, to provide some kind of panoramic view of the world as I was seeing it.”

Built up of work that is often contemplative, sometimes exuberant but consistently technically accomplished and engaging, that view is of train halts, diners and dockyards, barflies, dandies and uniformed drivers glimpsed in New Orleans or New York, Stockholm or South Dakota. And of women. We're left in no doubt that Dylan likes women. “They weren't actually there at the same time,” he notes quickly, pointing, when his page-turning reveals the painting Two Sisters, its subjects lounging, one clothed, the other naked but for her bra. “They posed separately and I put them together afterwards.”

There was little precedent within his own family for this talented eye, it seems. “Instead of playing cards, my maternal grandmother would do these little still lives, but I can't really say that had any influence on what I've done.” Art formed no part of his formal education and he recalls there being no public galleries in the Minnesotan communities (first Duluth, then Hibbing) of his youth. “I was in my teens before I started to see books of paintings in the school library - frescoes or the work of Michelangelo, that kind of thing. And I didn't really see the stuff that properly had an impact on me - Matisse, Derain, Monet, Gauguin - 'til later on, when I was in my twenties.”

By then, Dylan the university dropout and fledgeling folk performer had gravitated to New York, where he quickly discovered the Metropolitan Museum of Art. “It was overwhelming for me at the time, the immensity and sheer variety of stuff on display. The first exhibition I saw there was of Gauguin paintings and I found I could stand in front of any one of them for as long as I'd sit at the movies, yet not get tired on my feet. I'd lose all sense of time. It was an intriguing thing.” It was as his music career gathered pace that he found himself first trying his own hand at drawing. “Mostly when I was on a train or in a café, just to make sense of what was in my immediate world. I found it relaxed me. Some of the stuff I kept, some I didn't.”

It was sketches completed in this manner and spirit that, years later, came to the attention of Random House and led to that commission. However, little accord was given to the book on its eventual publication. “The critics didn't want to review it. The publisher told me they couldn't get past the idea of another singer who dabbled. You know, like, ‘David Bowie, Joni Mitchell, Paul McCartney...Everyone's doing it these days.' No one from the singing profession was going to be taken seriously by the art world, I was told, but that was OK. I wasn't expecting anything phenomenal to happen. It's not like the drawings were revolutionary. They weren't going to change anyone's way of thinking.”

But years later there came an approach from the Chemnitz City Art Gallery in Germany. Ingrid Mossinger, its director and a fan of the 1965 album Bringing it all Back Home, had felt it likely that someone as adept as Dylan in the use of metaphoric and abstract language might also draw or paint. Her research led her to the book Drawn Blank, in the preface of which Dylan wrote of hoping to “eventually complete” its collection of sketches. She encouraged him to do just that.

The method used to turn them into the paintings about to go on exhibition in London involved making digital scans of the original drawings and enlarging and then transferring them on to heavy paper ready for reworking. Dylan then experimented with treating individual images with a variety of colours. “And doing so subverted the light. Every picture spoke a different language to me as the various colours were applied.”

Attempts have been made to pin down and name his influences. When I mention this, Dylan wrongly takes it as a suggestion that the work is pastiche or somehow derivative. “I haven't trained in any academy where you learn how to do something in the style of Degas or Van Gogh, or how to copy Da Vinci,” he retorts. “I don't have that facility to copy note for note. Influenced by? If I had the ability to paint like any of those guys I might see the similarity, but I don't. If there is anything it's just by accident and instinctive.” Which is all that any critic was suggesting, after all. But, it seems, he is as uncomfortable at having his paintings deconstructed as he is his songs.

Of the latter process, he said on our last meeting: “These so-called connoisseurs of Bob Dylan music? I don't feel they know a thing or have an inkling of who I am and what I'm about. That such people have spent so much time thinking about who? Me? Get a life, please.”

Today he expresses similar impatience with the critics who have read into his art a variety of underlying feelings - anonymity, transience, rootlessness, even loneliness. Reaching again for the Halcyon book. “Let's have a look, shall we [the pages fall open at Woman in Red Lion Pub, her dress executed in a vivid yellow]? Do you see loneliness in that? Or that [Six Women]? I don't. And this one's just a pastoral scene [Sunday Afternoon]. What's rootless, transient and lonely about that? It's a mystery why anybody would say or think such a thing.”

And the idea that, in framing various images with windows and doors, he is revealing himself as a perennial outsider, forced by his name and status to observe the world rather than connect directly with it? Dylan rolls his eyes. “I just find it to be less satisfying to have the ends [by which he means the edges of the image] being endless, so I'll put a window there or block it in some way. It just looks better to me that way.” So he would prefer a purely emotional, instinctive response to the work rather than any searching for themes and insights? “If it pleases the eye of the beholder...There's no more to it than that, to my mind. Or even if it repels the eye. Either one is fine.”

On both our previous meetings, Dylan voiced his disdain for those completists who wish to see every scrap of paper he has written on or hear every studio out-take that he has rejected. With that in mind, I ask if it was a big deal for him to sign his name on each of the Drawn Blank paintings. “Yes!” he exclaims, laughing. “I finally grew into it, but yes, it was.” And did he perhaps practise his signature in advance? “I did, because it's tricky getting it just right. Finally you think, ‘Oh, to hell...' and just go for it, like you're writing a cheque or something.” He has, he says, no particular favourite among the images. “It's the same as with the early songs...In the Sixties, by the time they came out we were way past the recorded versions and were saying, ‘No, don't release that. We are playing it this way now.' So it is with the art. I find myself thinking, ‘I could have done this or that to make it better'. In the end, though, you've just got to let the work go and hope you'll know to do better next time.”

When I ask if he finds the art establishment preferable to the one he is more used to, Dylan grins and pulls a face of mock disgust. “The music world's a made-up bunch of hypocritical rubbish. I know from publishing a memoir [2004's Chronicles Volume One] that the book people are a whole lot saner. And the art world? From the small steps I've taken in it, I'd say, yeah, the people are honest, upfront and deliver what they say. Basically, they are who they say they are. They don't pretend. And having been in the music world most of my life [he laughs again], I can tell you it's not that way. Let's just say it's less...dignified.”

He tells me that he continued to draw for his pleasure after the Random House commission was fulfilled. “Not as intensely but yes, I have sketchbooks from the years since then. Of course, what I release to the public and what I keep for myself are two different things.”

He has had proposals for two future series of paintings, the first of which would involve having celebrities sit for him. “I could pick the names but don't want to. I'd rather be given a list and have someone else contact the people to find out if they're up for it. So I'm waiting to see who they might be thinking of. I assume it's movers and shakers. You know, inventors, mathematicians, scientists, business people, actors...We'll see.

“But what interests me more is the idea of a collection based on historically romantic figures. Napoleon and Josephine, Dante and Beatrice, Captain John Smith and Pocahontas, Brad and Angelina [here he laughs]... I could use my own imagination for that. It wouldn't have to be the actual people, obviously.” But the latter two might be delighted to sit for him, no? Dylan chuckles at the possibility. “Maybe. Who knows? All I'll say is that I'm intrigued by the basic idea. Whether or not it comes to fruition, time will tell. This [The Drawn Blank Series] was easy to do because it didn't clash with any other commitments. If something does, then I simply cannot do it.”

By commitments, one presumes Dylan means not just his touring schedule but also his personal and familial relationships. Only the bald facts are known in this regard. He has four grown-up children (Jesse, Anna Lea, Samuel and rock singer Jakob) from a ten-year marriage to former model Sara Lowndes that ended in divorce in 1977. And in 2001 it was revealed by a biographer that he was married from 1986 to 1992 to one of his former backing singers, Carol Dennis, and has another daughter, Desiree, also now an adult, from the union.

But inquiries about his non-work life causes him to shut down. Not even a fact as basic as that of where he lives (his main home is believed to be a mansion on the coast beyond Los Angeles) receives ready validation, and when I ask if he has a studio in which he worked on the paintings, he will offer only, “Well, there are spaces in some of the properties where I can do just about any old thing”, before looking off into the middle distance, awaiting the next question.

Such reticence has earned him a reputation as rock's grumpy old man, a curmudgeon who refuses to appear grateful that he is revered and adored. But whether or not he intends it to do so, such determined self-protection merely enhances the myth and mystery. Today and after spending much of the 1980s through to the mid-1990s out in the critical cold, Dylan's star is higher than at any time since the 1960s, the decade with which he is most closely associated (erroneously in his view). Honours, awards and citations all but rain down upon him these days: it is as if we have all awoken to the fact that we will not see his like again. Not that anyone doubts that he has a long life still to live. “Well, thank you for that!” he notes with a laugh.

For any further insights into his private world we must wait to see if any crumbs are thrown in the next instalment of the intended three-book Chronicles (“I could do more. It wouldn't be a problem in terms of material”), at which he is already at work. Yes, he allows, he was gratified by the critical and commercial success of Volume One. “Especially given the effort that went into it. Writing any kind of book is a lonely thing. You cut yourself off from friends and family to find that necessarily quiet place in your mind. You have to disassociate and detach yourself from just about everything and everybody. I didn't like that part of it at all.

“It took me maybe two years in total. I was touring so much in the beginning, on days off or on a bus, I'd write my thoughts out in longhand or on a typewriter. It was the transcribing of the stuff, the rereading and retelling of it, that was time-consuming and I came to figure that there had to be a better way. I know what that is now. You need a full-time secretary so that you can get the ideas down immediately, then deal with them later.”

Meanwhile, there is the continuing delight that is his own radio show (he smiles at the mention of it), Theme Time Radio Hour with your Host Bob Dylan, the brainchild of America's XM Satellite Radio and now broadcast weekly here on Radio 2. And later this year he will release a further volume within the ongoing Bob Dylan Bootleg Series, featuring previously unreleased or rare material alongside alternative versions of existing tracks recorded between 1989 and 2006.

Coming on top of the recent award to him of a special Pulitzer prize recognising “his profound impact on popular music and American culture, marked by lyrical compositions of extraordinary poetic power” (“I hope they don't ask for it back!”), all of this would suggest that he has arrived at a very creative but also contented period within his life.

“I've always felt that,” he says. “It's just sometimes I've got more going on than at other times.” But life is good? “To me, it's never been otherwise.”

My time with Dylan is up and we stand in preparation for my leaving the room. As a last aside, I ask for his take on the US political situation in the run-up to November's presidential election.

“Well, you know right now America is in a state of upheaval,” he says. “Poverty is demoralising. You can't expect people to have the virtue of purity when they are poor. But we've got this guy out there now who is redefining the nature of politics from the ground up...Barack Obama. He's redefining what a politician is, so we'll have to see how things play out. Am I hopeful? Yes, I'm hopeful that things might change. Some things are going to have to.” He offers a parting handshake. “You should always take the best from the past, leave the worst back there and go forward into the future,” he notes as the door closes between us.

The Drawn Blank Series exhibition opens on June 14 at The Halcyon Gallery, Bruton Street W1.

Wednesday, June 25 at 7:00 PM in the Fireplace Room

Bill & Jimmie & Critter live at Hasbeans Eureka on 2nd St. down from the courthouse Friday and Saturday 4 til 6 PM.   Acoustic folk/country/rock/pop.  Well we try;

Enjoy.

Free Democracy.

Come down and sign the Eureka Fair Compensation Act to raise the minimum wage in Eureka to $10.00 an hour, and/or sign the Youth Protection Act intitiative that would ban military recruitment of children under 18 in Eureka.

Enjoy

Two Dollar Coffee!

Enjoy

Help for Eureka's Working Poor:

http://eurekaworkers.org

[googlevideo=http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=7714231601059968478&hl=en]

It's very low key. I was over at EW and some of the respondents said it had that 80s flavor. Honestly it reminds me of some of Whitney's earlier work. No synthesizers or drum machines, nothing but that authentic acoustic flavor. Some say it is reminiscent of Alicia Key's 'No One', well, it shares the same piano but that's about it. 'No One' is definitely an anthem, more of a calculated, deliberate song this one seems more accidental and organic. Alicia's classical training is still ever present in her music, and fans can't seem to get quite enough of it.

But back to Jennifer Hudson, I don't know if we'll get an entire album like this, but I wouldn't mind it as an artistic statement. It may be time for a different, albeit, retro era in r&b music and Jennifer Hudson may be the one to usher it in. Everything else seems to played out and overdone these days ...

Hello again, so this is another one of these blog esque creations and hopefully you will all love reading it and make a desperate scramble to jump over to
www.L-mo.co.uk to check out more of the happenings of L-mo.

Okay so these are uncensored and unrevised spouts of mine and I think this one should be on MOTIVATION.

Indeed this word is used a lot, but people really seem to miss how useful its implementation can actually be. I have recently been in a really motivated period of my life, I have lots to do and actually really love doing it all and get excited about adding more things to do to my list. Although it seems like people are largely unmotivated or motivated for the wrong reasons, they are motivated to do things so they can make money to buy stuff or go out and get wasted,fair enough if you do, but it just seems like after a while this motivation shows itself for its true shallow worth and those people are left with nothing but resent. I do however think this is better than the unmotivated people who simply do the bare minimum to get by and have no desire to do anything other than watch TV (throw the idiot box away) These people wont be reading this because they are busy watching something short and easily digestible on the idiot box or on the net. OH well.

I am reading a book called the 4 hour work week which I think is a major reason that Im writing on this topic. In the book it talks about being motivated to actually figure out what you truly want to do with your life and highlights that this will achieve a long lasting and enjoyable life as opposed to motivated to make money to allow yourself to retire only to then retire and not know what to do with yourself.

So I urge anyone out there who is not sure why they are doing stuff in their life to take a serious re appraisal of things and spend some time investigating what they would do if they could take a year out of their job right now, if you could be anything at all. Dont let doubt get in your way to begin with, just get it straight in your mind and take it from there. It really is this easy to form your own life and tailor the universe to exactly what you want.

All you need is the motivation!!!

Check out Rhonda Byrne "The Secret" available as a DVD or Book (I haven't watched the DVD yet but am on my second reading of the book) This book will change your life in ways you couldn't imagine

Robert Forster or Alexander Turnquist?  Bedlam or Heaven-pods?

Goliath or MacAdams?

Here's a goofy clip I found on YouTube of Harry Smith rolling a fatty while discussing synchronicity, spiritualism and mediumship. He concludes by threatening to burn a witch.

I wish I could find this in some kind of context...

I know you know that it's Bob Dylan's 67th birthday Saturday, May 24th.

Everyone is invited to the Six Steps Down Bookstore/Bookstore on West 25th Saturday, May 24th from 1:00 to 3:00 and then to the Barking Spider Tavern from 4:30 to 7:00 for a celebration of the great man and his music.

Don't miss this one. See you there!!
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My good friend Jim Schafer sent me this one. I think it applies to folk musicians too...

Why I Love Jazz Musicians (from the perspective of a club owner)

Jazz Musicians - love to play, and love to talk about their art, but thank goodness, like most artists are very independent thinkers and never talk to each other about worldly things, like what we pay them. Somehow they think that this is demeaning to the music - the music being a high art and all. What they fail to understand is that we don't care a rats ass about their art.

Jazz Musicians think that union scale is a MAXIMUM.

Jazz Musicians are afraid to turn down ANY job.

Jazz Musicians - invest thousands of dollars of their own money in CDs and other learning materials and in instruments, and the maintenance of these instruments.

- invest thousands of dollars paying for an education in their art form.
- invest thousands of of hours learning how to play.
- spend hundreds of hours applying for government grants to pay for travel expenses to go work for local pay thereby subsidizing us, the club owners. This also has the benefit of undercutting the local scene, making jobs even more scarce for local players.
- continue to practice hours a day to maintain their skills and improve, and have no sense that this is valuable to us.
- spend no time and no money on learning anything about business.

Jazz Musicians - For or all their investments of time and money, expect very little in return.

Jazz Musicians - invest thousands of dollars to put out recordings that they know will not earn them any money, unless they sell them off the stage. Therefore, they are happy to play for less money than they should, with the hope that they'll sell a few of the CDs that are taking up room in the small hovels they live in. It then becomes rational for them to beg a room to give them a 'job' that really doesn't pay, (they play for the door!) As a result, we get free music! With no risk.

Not only that, but the musician will often pay for the cost of any publicity, and for the rental of a piano, maybe even paying for a sound man! THEY'RE KNOCKING DOWN THE DOORS! I love jazz musicians.

Media outlets are struggling to find good content, yet jazz musicians will provide content to media outlets for no wages just for 'exposure', and seem to have no concept that media need content.

Jazz Musicians - have no sense of their own worth, and how their experience makes them more valuable as players and performers.

- have no sense that as they improve they may even have a following and and fan base and that their value (to us) has increased. Here's why. In large part, the fact that musicians are always struggling to be better, demands that they must maintain a modest self-critical mindset. They must convince themselves that they are just not good enough. They measure the difference from where they want to be and where they're at, and conclude they're deficient. This colors their self value in the 'real' world. The modesty that improvement demands makes musicians weak negotiators.

Jazz Musicians - are in the moment! That's their musical modus operandi. However, this same improvisational approach means that they have little sense of their place in the community of musicians, and how their actions and attitudes affect their fellow musicians, the future of the music and their own prospects and playing conditions and life. Hell, they're just trying to remember where the bridge goes! Often musicians never demand a fee, and even more amazing (but not surprising due to their lack of business intelligence) don't even ask what we intend to pay them! (This is to our advantage). Also, Jazz Musicians often accept jobs from other musicians without even asking what the job pays. No other business is like this.

Jazz Musicians will play for a wage that will not increase for 10-15 years, a wage that seems to have no relationship to their level of experience. When Business is bad they're our partners, when Business is good they're our employees.

In spite of their own experience to the contrary, Jazz Musicians believe us, when we start a new venue or music policy, and tell them that the initial low wage we intend to pay is merely introductory, but if things go well the wage will increase. How gullible! They buy the concept that when business is bad we need them as our 'partners', and must work for reduced fees. They have no expectation that when business is good we will share our good fortune with them, and are happy to be treated as employees, not partners. Even if they expect to be more fairly compensated they don't get to see our 'books'! Perfect. As a result, Musicians allow us to build a business on their backs, allow us to keep it running for years using their cheap labor with this illusory 'partnership' arrangement. But when we sell our business, we do not have to share any of the capital that we've built with our musical 'partners'.

OUR FUTURE IS IN GOOD HANDS

Experienced Jazz Musicians are thrilled to pass the art of playing jazz on to younger players, but at same time play for the same wages as a kid who just came to them for a lesson!

Because of their terrible earning power as musicians, jazz musicians need to teach to make a living. This provides us with an infinite talent pool of motivated, energetic, youthful, hip, cheap labor. Only the best of these students will be the ones who survive the inevitable cull, and if history is any indication, will continue to play for hardly any money and follow in the fine tradition that has been passed down to them by their elders.

The future is rosy for us because even though most parents know that if they tell their kids not to do something they inevitably will; Jazz Musicians strongly discourage their children from pursuing a living in music.

This one is for Leah. She knows all about the waves.

In The Waves
[audio http://www.filefreak.com/pfiles/52602/May%2008/In%20The%20Waves%20-%20David%20Archer.mp3]

In The Waves - (3:57) - 05/2008

David Archer

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In The Waves

Don't carry it with you
Let it go, let it go
Don't carry it with you
Let it go, let it go

Sometimes, there's nothing you can do
Just let the waves caress you
Close your eyes, look inside and
Let the waves caress you
Close your eyes, look inside and
Let the waves caress you.... waves caress you...

Pic courtesy Free-Slideshow.com

The home page offers a menu of four categories: Originals, Covers, Humor and Lessons. The format includes text previews of featured performances along with the YouTube videos. I give it high marks for offering a variety of styles and artists in a format that’s easy to surf and sample. One of the headaches, or should I say ear-aches, of surfing music performances on YouTube is that there’s usually no way of telling if a video is going to be of listenable quality until you invest at least 30 seconds in it. More often than not, even videos of well-known artists turn out to be crap shot on a fan’s cell phone.

One of the great things about The Acoustic Version is that they’ve addressed the crap problem by being an old-fashioned gatekeeper. They’ve done us the great favor of weeding out the crap. The quality of the videos I sampled were perfectly adequate, which passes for excellent by Internet standards. The Goggle ads are relevant to musicians. Even the guitar lesson on how to play George Harrison’s arrangement of “While My Guitar Gently Weeps” was good instruction that even beginners could follow.

The podcast part of this package consists entirely of the music performances, and, alas, the audio of these do not appear to be downloadable for obvious copyright challenges, since many of the videos are covers of published songs. Which raises the question: does podcast audio have to be transferable to a device other than my computer for the content to be technically be a podcast?

On the last track we edited I decided to add a one note organ to the end of the song. After doing that I realised I was on a track with the amazing Rod Clements from Lindisfarne. Now I can add Rod to the superstar artists I have played with :-)

On Saturday I went on location to Ratho Village Hall with 2 mics, a Yamaha mixer and a DAT machine to record a group of around 25 kids just to record the chorus of the song. Today the final 2 kids, who didn't make it to the last studio session, will be at the studio to record their parts and then it will be time to mix and master the track.

The track we worked on recently was entitled 'The Mystery Of Life And Death' and it's a truly epic piece of guitar music with Cello by Ron Shaw and Acoustic slide guitar by Rod Clements. I added just a wee bit of sampled strings, not so you would notice though as it's well meshed in with the real parts. This album has been in the making now for nearly four years, it's took this long mostly because of huge gaps in between recording not because it's taken that long to do really. Now that we are getting relatively near the end I'm really enjoying the music. It's just evolved recently into a seriously classic album in my opinion. An album I am really going to enjoy listening to for a long time to come..... I love it!! If I hadn't produced it I would definitely buy it :-)

Allie is a really great guitar player and composer. She's also a very good singer but on this record she's concentrated on instrumentals and the potential for sound tracks here is huge.

Sad Song