Laugh, Explore & Understand
I went to Memphis for the next music history of the US on my mission to visit all the cities where American music got it’s start.
Memphis had one of the most impactful days of my life thus far. That’s another story for another day. Thanks, Mary
Here is the muscian that gave me a tour of the city and played music on the bus. Amazing guy!
I was so excited when this wall art arrived. I had a vision that this would look cool.
This morning I picked up my Martin guitar and wrote this song in less than 20 minutes. It came to me in it’s completed form. I wrote it down as it arrived in my consciousness. Virtually no words were changed. No words were scratched out. I love the superconsciousness and my brain.
This was an amazing concert at the Carolina Theater with Jake Shimabukuro. I recently was turned on to his music and was inspired to buy a Ukulele. The first song I found on YT was Over the Rainbow. I was hooked. I will post my take some time. I am loving the Durham area for nightlife. Check out some of Jake’s latest material as he has been influenced by three years on the road with 160 concerts a year around the world. He is quite the spirit. Enjoy!
His FB is excellent. – Jake Shimabukuro
Thanks to Jake Shimabukuro. When he turns to heavy pedals, it really is like Jimi Hendrix on ukulele. Check out his latest material.
You know I love creating music in so many ways. One of my dreams has been to have a recording set-up just to create as the moment occurs. Well, check that off my list.
Let’s see: Guild acoustic, Martin electric acoustic, Ibanez hollow body for jazz, Yamaha twelve string for fun, Epiphone banjo – to
Let’s see: Guild acoustic, Martin electric acoustic, Ibanez hollow body for jazz, Yamaha twelve string for fun, Epiphone banjo – to learn a new instrument, Cubase for recording multiple tracks, mic for voice and instrument recording, headphones to listen to guitar track while recording voice overlay, interface to laptop, mini amp for space.
I have also begun creating electronic tracks of beats, cymbals, myriad sounds of all kinds. What wonderment of surprise as each new creation comes to life. From my ear to recording to ear.
Kids; There are many times in our lives that have meaning that can only be realized years later. Gary Bolstad is one of those people who may have little to no realization of just how important he was in my life.
It all started one summer night in downtown Berlin, Germany in 1968. I was getting off a bus near my Kudam apartment when I spotted a hitchhiker with a guitar case in one hand and his thumb pointing towards traffic. I noticed that he had a small American flag on the shoulder of his jean jacket. His hair was long, which signaled that he was not military. I found myself blurting out; hey, are you an American, living in Berlin. He quickly chirped, Ya! Without much thought, I said will you teach me how to play guitar? He said sure.
I invited him to my small, efficiency apt and we began a relationship that has spanned nearly 45 years. Gary, and later, his to-be wife, Kristie, came into my life at a most impressionable place and time. I was living in a foreign country for the first time in my life. By being in the military meant that I was experimenting and experiencing everything twice, just to make sure.
Gary helped me buy my first guitar in Berlin. He simultaneously helped me create an interest in photography. I bought my first Pentax in Berlin, cost $132 in 1969. The military base had a darkroom lab. I would go there many times to learn darkroom techniques from a very interesting Berliner who had been separated from his mother when the wall was erected.
When I moved from Virginia back to Ohio, Gary introduced me to Ralph Leesburg. Ralph, Gary, and I have remained long distant friends for many years.
Memorials and funerals are for the living, it is said. It is a time to remember loved ones as well to reflect on our own lack of immortality of existence. It is a time to review the impacts that person has had on our lives, to count our blessings, and yes to peer into the future as to our own demise. As I have grown older I have come to the conclusion that all of these events can be points of sadness or celebration. Attitude is really everything.As spirits on a human journey, we experience all of the human emotions, regardless of our want, to choose one over another as right or wrong, good or bad. We are all here as observers on behalf of the universal consciousness. Buddha speaks to this in much detail as well as the Tao Te Ching. Although it is vital to experience all emotions, we have the individual ability to concentrate our focus on those that will lead to a joyful spirit. In my humble experience, emotions reflecting love are the only ones that terminate in hope. Hope is what gives us life.
A very close friend sent me an email today which conveys much of my beliefs in a beautiful story. It also culminates all my emotions surrounding the passing of Pete Seeger today. Suffice it to say his path has had a strong impact on my life. His music and lyrics struck a strong chord, so to speak, in my early twenties.
I have always wanted to world to be a better place because I was here. Perhaps I have not been the activists that I could or should have been, and that may change going forward. I have always been a fighter for the working man and woman who have labored and toiled for what seems like meager existence, living lives of quiet desperation, as Henry David Thoreau said.
To those much has been given, much is required, the Bible says. Then it is up to each one of us to give as much as possible to those we love and those in need. Activism is simply standing up for what is right, for if we do not stand for something, we will fall for anything.
Kathy and I were like-minded spirits in the late 60’s and early 70’s. We married and spent great times in Germany, Washington DC, Fairfax, VA and Columbus, Ohio. We are to this day, kindred spirits and share many resonant beliefs. Her intuitive insight from the following experience with her mother regarding Pete Seeger is both brilliant and soul touching. It includes much of Pete Seeger’s philosophy, which embodies mine.
Thank you, Kathy!
As spirits on a human journey, we experience all of the human emotions, regardless of our want, to choose one over another as right or wrong, good or bad. We are all here as observers on behalf of the universal consciousness. Buddha speaks to this in much detail as well as the Tao Te Ching. Although it is vital to experience all emotions, we have the individual ability to concentrate our focus on those that will lead to a joyful spirit. In my humble experience, emotions reflecting love are the only ones that terminate in hope. Hope is what gives us life.A very close friend sent me an email today which conveys much of my beliefs in a beautiful story. It also culminates all my emotions surrounding the passing of Pete Seeger today. Suffice it to say his path has had a strong impact on my life. His music and lyrics struck a strong chord, so to speak, in my early twenties.
It has taken me some time to record some of my own guitar playing. This is one of the first songs I ever learned from Gary Bolstad in Berlin, Germany in 1968. It is a Bob Dylan song, “Just Like Tom Thumbs Blues”. The melody and lyrics mimic some of my melancholy side in music. Most importantly, I play it on a 12 string guitar. The octave strings add such a rich sound.
Music is the window to the soul. Tonight a good friend, Mary, took me to Duke University in Durham, NC. We experienced the Ciompi Quartet at the Baldwin Auditorium. It was exciting, entertaining and educational. If you ever get a chance to listen to live classical music, please do it. It will lift your soul and create another facet to your personality that cannot be removed. The memory is worth every effort.
Last night I was invited by a new friend, Ginny, to the most unusual venue I have ever attended for music. Prior to arriving I had little idea of the kind of music I was about to experience.
Here is an example of the group “Molasses Creek”
I was so inspired by their versatility and harmony that I made a decision to write two songs. One about my great, great grandfather, and a love song. Stay tuned.
One of the things that made the venue so unusual was that it was held in a home of a lovely couple in Raleigh, Bett and Bill. Here is the picture of their home, Little Lake Hill.
http://www.bettpadgett.com/
Here a not so good picture of the band, Molasses Creek.
It was a lot, lot, lot of fun. Thanks!
Here is their website;
http://www.molassescreek.com/band
Here is a love song they wrote that really touched my heart.