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DISPATCH

February 16th, 2006

I noticed that I started off the last dispatch pronouncing boldly that I’d saved some money and would begin work on the new CD. My long silence in these dispatches is attributable in part to the fact that I did finally complete the CD. So these last two dispatches are bookends for what has been a somewhat epic personal struggle—how to focus enough to get a record done given a day job, helping raise a toddler, acute depression over the state of the world, personal bouts of disinterest in the project, self-doubt, and just outright sloth.   

A year and half later, I emerge covered in soot clutching a new CD named Tumbling. 22 songs got paired down to 14. What started off as a core band project with one studio grew into collaboration with 14 musicians and 3 studios, including one in New York. Yes, we got a little carried away. Somewhere along the way, Adrian our violin player decided to jump ship. We are now a trio and are enjoying the tightness and sparseness of that arrangement.  I am playing a lot more guitar these days as a result.

Tumbling (Notice I managed to secret the word "bling" into the title of a mainly acoustic album). The album does have bling by golly. You’ll see. This record picks up where Sunlight Loping left off but very quickly breaks new ground. I think lyrically, its my best to date. And I gotta say there are absolutely no filler songs—I promise. Since I had a large number to choose from, I was able to be very discerning when it came to the final cut. But on the down side, I don’t think there is no one stand-out "single." If you told me to play the best song on the record, I’d be stumped. It would depend on my mood that day.

We have been playing live very little lately as the final touches and mixing got worked out, but I have finally gotten myself back in booking mode and will averaging one or two good shows a month, as opposed to the once-a-week schedule we had been on for a while. You can’t play once a week in the same 50 sq. mile area and expect good crowds. Some mini tours are also in the works, NW, NE, and hopefully a brief solo stint in Belgium and Holland. There is an underground Americana scene in the "low countries" and they have embraced Sunlight Loping with airplay and some good reviews. (at least I think they are good, but I don’t read Flemish).

By the way have you ever used Google translator. Well it doesn’t really work very well but produces some interesting results if you translate a passage into from English into another language and then back again.

Here’s an example:
English:
How strange.  I met my unborn child in a dream last nightæbut she didn’t pay much attention to me. She was too busy playing with her friends, engaged in some surreal game that only a dream would produce. But at one point, I remembered her looking up while I stood in the window watching her. In one glance managed to convey mild embarrassment, ask for approval, deny needing it, and tell me she was glad I there. I felt such love for this beautiful, dark, serious child. It was like nothing I’ve felt before.

Italian retranslation back to English courtesy of google.

Disowned how much.  I have come to contact of my child of the unborn in last night--but of dream she pays of didn’t the much attention me.  It was the game too much occupied with its friends, couples to you in a sure game surreal that only a dream would produce.  But to a point, if they are remembered it to observe in on while they are levato to me in feet in the window that I watch it.  In a glance it is successful to transport the delicate embarrassment, to ask approval, to deny to have it need and to say me to was the happy one here.  I have thought such love for this beautiful, dark, serious child.  I’ve thought before was like nothing.

But I digress….Look for the new album soon. Its being manufactured and it should be available in about 3 weeks. I’ll shortly send out an announcement of CD release shows and how to get yourself a copy. Thanks for your support and patience.

September 1st, 2004

Okay peeps, I've got a little lucre saved and I'm going to start my next CD.

Its going to be the best one yet. I'm almost shaking with excitement to start working on it. If you listen closely, you will hear a faint shaking in the first few tracks...my knees

My advice to songwriters beginning their recording careers....start with your second or third record.

Well anyway, I am starting now and not sure how long it will take, but until November 2nd (or whenever supercilious tuesday is this year) the election will also be a partial focus for me.

Speaking of elections, I listened to a snippet of the Republican Convention tonight and it suddenly hit me: al-Qaida is a lot smarter than I previously thought. If they intend to bring American to its knees, it won't be by crashing planes into building, dirty bombs, or blowing up subways- or even the timeless terrorist tactic of simply spreading the fear of the possibility of such an event . No, Its all too much work and far too dangerous now that we've set up the largest federal agency in the country's history (while Bush campaigned on the promise of small government???) whose sole mission is to protect us.

Al-Qaida's ultimate strategy is to ensure that the U.S. enters a perpetual, unwinnable, undefinable war against a decentralized enemy. Realizing our penchant for selecting incumbents in a time of "war," Al Queda aims to keep Bush and his ultra-conservative team in power. ( explains why the 9/11 events occurred once we were comfortably beyond any possibility that Gore might prevail in his legal battle.) Their tactic is simple and brilliant. Give chicken-hawks like Ridge, Wolfowitz, and Rumsfeld pulpits and the podiums, conventions and conferences and let them spread the fear on their own--voter to voter--which legitimizes and institutionalizes it. The neo-republicans see a binary world of ones and zeros, good and evil, free and tyrannized. In doing so, they inadvertently become the mouthpiece for al-Qaida, spreading fear on Fox and MSNBC, only without the the sinister beards and dreary backdrops. Takes terrorism to a whole new level, doesn't it?

Okay enough ranting for a dispatch that started off on a positive note. I'll just say, we've got two months to drag this country back on track. It seems like its too late doesn't it? Its not. Maybe Kerry does not do it for you?, Hey well we've been knee-capped and we need to learn to walk again. We'll have to make small steps at first, get the country out from under the spell of these bandits and corporate con-men, just a bit back on track. Then maybe in 2008 or 2012 we'll even see a truly progressive candidate (though hopefully Nader will have lost interest in the job and will have renewed vigor for things like airbags, seatbelts, warning labels- I really do want him to be happy and fulfilled) . Most importantly, we need to help Bush find an appropriate job. From each according to his ability: I personally think he'd make a great manager for a small western wear franchise on the outskirts of town-you know the ones out on Industrial Blvd. Give him a pine panelled office, a desk he can comfortably put his boots on and let him snooze without someone bursting in wanting something signed, wiping the dung off the blotter. Let him be happy for once.

Here's a great way to help Bush find self-fulfillment (and save our bedraggled country) ala Moveon.org:

"Just because you live outside the battleground states doesn’t mean you have to sit this election out. The best way you can help is by adopting a battleground-state neighborhood as a Precinct Partner. You can call swing state voters to talk about the issues, take day trips there to knock on doors, even spend Election Day in one of the key neighborhoods where the race will be decided, getting Kerry voters to the polls. No matter where you live, you have an important role to play. Just click here to sign up."

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January 25th, 2004
Thoughts on Performing

April 1st, 2003

Where have I been for the last year? huumm...I've never been a
regular keeper of journals. In a sense, making CDs every few years in
some way replaces my need for documenting the day to day minutiae. If
I make a CD every 2 years, I'll have a record of what I was thinking
about, the ideas, melodies that lodged in my head over
that span. I'm happy with that level of chronicling.

With that preamble, I am happy to say that as I write this, the CD is
finished and is being manufactured. It's quite a jumble of assorted
tunes, spanning different genres. There is some gritty electric
guitar and quiet bossa nova, some jazzy numbers, and some
finger-style folk-blues. I like to think its not a schizophrenic
record, that somehow a larger coherency emerges from within the variation.

I was going to call it "Global Village Idiot Savant," but decided on
the more subdued "Sunlight Loping" (also the name of the one of my
favorite songs on the record) which is illustrative of the overall
mood of the record-kind of upbeat and playful.

The record was finished and "in the can" (a phrase derived from the
film industry where finished product is put in those circular cans)
by the time our foreign policy took its ugly turn for the worse. So I
am no longer feeling at all playful and upbeat. My writing these days
is taking an inevitable turn towards the quasi political. With my bad timing,
I'll release a record of spitting, vicious manifestos just at the time of the great
regime change and long emerging Pax Americana (yeah right)

With the new record in hand, we are going on tour up the coast from
April 15-19 with shows in Santa Rosa, Ukiah, Ashland, Eugene, and
Portland.

Would you like a copy of the new record? Send me an email.

One more thought... I'd been quite bottled up about the wholesale slaughter
that's been going on in the name of "liberating" the
Iragi people (how can they even say that with a straight face?)

Strangely enough, the dam burst for me the other day when I saw a young mother
smack her kid extremely hard in the face for some ridiculously small offense.
The kid burst into tears and a few minutes later I was finally able to shed some
tears for the victims of this war: the Iraqi civilians, the impromtpu solidiers and the
dead American and British kids that were sent to do this.

I don't know why it took that slapping event to unbottle me. It seemed that maybe
I was witnessing the beginning of it all right there. If war is the 200 mile-wide mouth
of the Amazon, the kids tears were like the drops of snow melt high up in the Andes.
State-sponsored violence is a grand collection of our individual fears and shortcomings --
only these collected rivulets could form such a rage as this.

Well, here's to better times

Alexis

April 16th, 2002

We had a grand ole time in Boston, despite our all having bitter colds. Our hotel room was a den of cough syrup, lozenges, and herb tea. Very rock n roll. At one point, Aaron had a Ricola stuck to his chin and we almost had to call a medic, but he removed it safely. we did manage quite a good set, though.

March 25th, 2002

I am busy these days writing new songs for a second CD. Since I left my job, IŒve been writing a new song every few days. It¹s an amazing time for me, musically. I feel like I need to always be close to a tape machine. The process of culling out and refining 12-14 songs should be a challenging one. I plan on recording about 6 or 8 solo acoustic tunes and do another 6 or 8 with my crack band, Mini-Plenty, which features Randy Weaver on standup electric bass, Aaron Brinkerhoff on drums, Zach Pitt-Smith on Woodwinds. I will also likely enlist the services of my buddy Leo Servin (Earth Wind and Fire) on Percussion.

Am I making a living off of my music? No way. Far from it. But I¹ve never felt better. To pay the bills, I am doing freelance writing work, mainly for environmental groups. Good work if you can get it. What elseŠ we¹ve been invited to perform a showcase at NEMO, the yearly music industry conference in Boston. Miniplenty will perfom a half hour set in the middle of the conference hall on Saturday, April 12 Check out our live web concert from Ex¹pressions studio in Emeryville. April 9th at 6:00pm. www.xnewmedia.com. Lots of shows coming up in early summer, check schedule.

You should invite me over to your house for a concert. I¹ll play my butt off for you and your friends, slum it with afterwards, and I¹ll be gone by morning.

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