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Believe it or not, I’m back!

That’s right just when you think it’s over, I’m back. It’s like I never left except for the year and a half or so that I haven’t posted here. Since my last post, I finished my Associate of Arts degree and last summer moved to scenic Rock River, Wyoming . It’s been a big change moving out of the suburbs to the spacious high plains of south central Wyoming. The landscape here is sort of a cross between the dark side of the moon and the bottom of the sea. In fact I think once upon a time, very long ago this was the bottom of the ocean. 150 years ago this year the transcontinental railroad made it’s way through this area. Nowadays the traffic mostly stays to the south on I-80 leaving this route to people looking to hunt or fish and trucks carrying oversize loads. My family and I have grown to love the open plains and the nature that inhabits it. The folks here have been helpful and kind and made us feel very welcome. From the plentiful stars at night to the enveloping quiet, this has been an inspiring place for art and music. The photo above is of the “Fossil Bone Cabin” a truly unique structure that lies about 10 miles from where I live, close to the town of Medicine Bow. Here’s a link for more info-
https://www.wyohistory.org/encyclopedia/fossil-cabin

The reason I mention this is that I will be appearing live at the Old West Bar in Medicine Bow on August 4 at 7 PM as part of a series of fundraisers to put together money for the purpose of relocating the cabin next to the museum in Medicine Bow. I hope that anyone interested will come on down for an evening of music and fun and to support this cause. I’ve been busy working on a couple of music projects since I moved here and both are getting close to completion. I thought I’d share a track from one of those projects with you here it’s called “The Great North Road”. I’ll be making an effort to bring you more music and news from this place in the months to come. Thanks as always for taking the time to visit my site. I hope all of you are having a happy and healthy summer and if you can, please come on by the Old West Bar on Saturday August 4th for music and more starting at 7 PM. It’s located on Route 287 on the North side of the street, not too hard to find but here’s a map and some info-

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Old-West-Bar/126906084325784

 

The Blah..Blah.. Blog Stops Here

 

New Year’s greetings to anyone reading this post. I see where it was April 2015 that I last updated this site with any new information. I have seen a direct relationship between how much writing I’ve been doing for school and my lack of interest in posting to my blog.

In addition to school I’ve been busy working on new music (Work Study Anthology Vol.1-4) a project that’s currently over halfway through with a total time of over 4 hours. The material consists of new and reworked tracks with an emphasis on guitar in a variety of styles. I’ve included a short piece “WSA#19” from these sessions with today’s blog to give you a glimpse of what I’ve been up to. I hope to be completing the project in the next couple of months.

Since my updates here have become sporadic to say the least, I’ve decided to call a halt to the blog aspect of this site at least until I finish school and possibly beyond. I’ll continue to make all the existing music here available and some new content also on occasion, but no commentary of consequence. Given how often I’ve been posting here lately, this cessation shouldn’t cause anybody any great concern. I’m hoping however to post music tracks more frequently as part of the ongoing effort here.

I want to thank all the folks who’ve taken the time to listen to the music collected on this site. Being a “hobbyist” who loves the studio but hates the stage, this is in all likelihood the only place most people will ever hear any of this music. I’m grateful for the opportunity to do this and again for your interest in my work. Best wishes to all of you in 2017.

Sincerest best wishes to one and all.

I hope that this new year of 2015 has been kind so far to you nice folks who visit my website. I wanted to let everybody know that I recently upgraded the workings at this site to optimize it for all current mobile applications. This should make it easy to check my stuff out wherever you happen to be, try it and see if it works. Speaking of works, I’ve been busy with lot’s of schoolwork and music work in the past year.

I’ll post an update on a current project soon, but here’s a rough mix of one new piece in the meantime. Again my best to everyone. The photo above is of a sandstone image of the Goddess Durga (made in India about 950 C.E.), part of the permanent collection of the Denver Art Museum.

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Fade to black indeed……

 

fadetoblackguitar2webBefore I manage to leave this year without updating you at least once again on my musical pursuits, here we go. It’s been a very busy and productive period, not without some unseen circumstances in the mix. While I was lucky enough to escape direct damage from the recent flood here (back in September) many other folks in this area were not so fortunate. It’s hard to describe the power of water and gravity in confluence. The aftermath is amazing and humbling to behold. I had an extra person and an extra cat in residence for a few weeks as a result. In addition to continuing to help the local food bank with picking up donations, I also donated a piece of artwork to an auction sponsored by a local brewery to benefit flood victims, featuring art utilizing their labels in construction (see above image). I’ve been getting out more to jam sessions in Boulder and Denver this year, playing with my friend Chris Filbin and a bunch of other great guys, good times always. Industrial Hemp is in seclusion but still active with Justin Fulford and myself as the core. We’re working on old and new stuff with a mind to reforming as a quartet in the near future (updating the web site soon). I’m also at the beginning phase of work on a soundtrack to a documentary being filmed locally. I’m teaming up with Michael DeLalla (Falling Mountain Music) to score this film in the months to come (my first project with him), and I’m really looking forward to a creative and vibrant process and it’s results. I’m hoping to make a more sincere effort in the New Year to post more frequent updates as to my musical activities. We’ll see what happens. Meanwhile “Dreamtime”the debut work from Scorched by the Sun (Dave Stafford and myself) is being well received. If you haven’t given it a listen, please do. It’s some nice ambiance for a winter’s day or night. I hope all of you who stop by this site have survived comfortably, this year that was, and also that you’ll have peaceful and prosperous times in the New Year to come. Thanks again for listening.

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New music for this new year….

Dreamtime-Scorched by the Sun

….comes in the form a new recording. It’s titled “Dreamtime” and it’s the work of myself and Dave Stafford as the duet Scorched by the Sun. It’s a fifty minute musical excursion into dark ambiance of a cinematic and textural nature which I think many folks will enjoy if they give it a chance. It’s now exclusively available as a download at the following location:

http://scorchedbythesun.bandcamp.com/

I have been working with Dave since 1988 and I believe this project is our best recording so far. I look forward to our next effort and encourage you to check out our new release if you enjoy the ambient/electronic genre of music. In other music news- I’m working on recording demos currently with Industrial Hemp and I’m also working on a solo project which will be done later in the year. In addition to that I’m back in school for some global music studies which I’m enjoying greatly. My best wishes in this new year for all you folks who have taken the time to read and listen to my stuff. I’ll try and be more regular in my updates here while staying busy making and learning about music. In the meantime, please take care and if you get a chance, do check out “Dreamtime” I think you’ll like it.

 

Yes… just when you thought old Rip Van Winkle…

would never wake up and return to the land of Blog,  he does. A very sincere greeting to all who read this new post. After almost exactly a year of absence from this blogging stuff, I’m back with news of some of what’s been going on in my musical neck of the woods and some other stuff to boot. Picking up the story last fall…

I began jamming with a local bass/stick player by the name of Mihaell Baev,  a very talented and creative guy who I ran into at the local community college and accosted because he had a King Crimson t-shirt on. We played pretty regular for a few months and started working with another guy named Justin Fulford a 7 string guitarist who’s a friend of mine, and a drummer named Mike who was an old friend of Mihaell’s.

Anyway the holidays put the brake on time for such activities and the new year began with the news that my father had experienced a severe heart attack and was very near death. I returned to Ohio to see him in the hospital,  he rebounded somewhat over the next several months, but never recovered due to the severity of his condition.

When I returned home in January, the next day I started back to college for the first time in 35 years and found myself  in a very different mindset about what I wanted to accomplish musically in my life, due to some new perspectives. I took an introductory guitar course from an excellent player and instructor by the name of Matt Dorris, who was very tolerant of all my ingrained bad playing habits and archaic musical references. Matt is the only person other than Robert Fripp that I’ve ever sought guitar instruction from (so far this lifetime), they should both get a medal.

At the same time as this I was still rethinking the dynamic of playing music. I played a 3 hour live gig with my friend Chris Filbin on bass for an art gallery opening in February that was well received.  We call ourselves “No Evil” a kind of ambient/ space/jazz thing …if you will.  Chris is a very sympathetic and inventive player and a wonderful guy who you might recall added some great bass tracks to some lapsteel work of mine a couple years back. Chris has some health issues, which makes me all the more grateful when he chooses to spend some of his time and energy playing music with me.  Unfortunately for Mihaell he was also was not feeling as well as he might and the resultant lull in jamming  produced the seed that became… Industrial Hemp.

IH consists of myself on 6 string guitar/loops/effects , Justin Fulford on 7 string guitar/effects and his brother William Fulford on laptop/beats/samples. So far it’s a trip-hop adventure with a metal bouquet and experimental undertones that has no real boundaries…just fine by me.  We’re working on our first set  (about an hour and a half clicks so far)and hoping to record a CD of the best of that material in the fall.

At the same time as this is happening my old musical partner Dave Stafford has finished adding his tracks to what will be Scorched by the Sun’s debut effort “Dreamtime” a wonderfully dark ambient work from both of us, that he’s now currently mixing down at his home in Scotland (I’ll let you know when it’s available). So the year marched on with school and much music happening until May when the semester was over. At the end of the month I got word that my father’s condition had taken a turn for the worse and that a visit was in order now, rather than later. I drove back with my wife and our youngest son, visited many times with my parents and saw friends that I hadn’t seen in over 25 years. We had a family get together on Father’s Day and returned to Colorado. My father passed away five days later on the 22nd of June, at home with my Mom in attendance. He had felt so miserable over the last 6 months that he was glad to go, and for his sake I was happy to see him stop suffering.  I ventured back in July for a celebration of my father’s life that drew about a hundred friends and relatives and stayed a couple of days with my Mom, looking through objects and photos, crying and talking about many things. Before I left for that though I had surgery to repair a hernia, which went very well and I now feel better than I have in years.

So as you can tell perhaps it’s been a busy year so far and…school starts on Monday, so it seemed a good time to return to the blog and let you all know what had been going on. On that note I will dedicate myself to regular communications online to keep you up to date on whats going on. For some free tunes and info check out   www.industrial-hemp.com   we’ll be updating stuff there soon. I hope this summer has been kind to you, if not… I do understand. Thanks for reading and listening,  please have fun and be careful and I’ll check back in with you soon.  Photo of me by Sarajane taken at her Mom’s place in the Ohio countryside circa June 2012.

 

It’s a beautiful day….

47 Lincoln Zephyr

Here on the front range of Colorado,  August is in full swing and it’s cooled off a few degrees from yesterday which is pleasant. Just had a wonderful time this past week seeing a couple of very dear friends of ours, who were in from out Oregon way and whom we had not seen in far too long. A loving reminder of the succinct beauty of having true friends in this world. I hope everyone else is having a good summer wherever you might be in this big world of ours. I recently checked in on Facebook to catch a glimpse of some of the people who’ve chosen to follow my blog and was surprised to see over 2400 folks and their smiling (mostly) faces there. My continued thanks to everyone who has taken the time to read and listen here.

Speaking of listening….the musical selection for this entry is a little mandolin number titled “Five Finger Folly” recorded on a slightly defunct 6 string mandolin that has since been converted to sculpture of an unusual nature. Anyway this is it’s swan song of sorts, but hopefully not mine. I’m busy working on several projects at the moment which I hope to share some examples from soon here. In the meantime please enjoy this tune and another image from my recent trip to the museum. Best wishes to all of you, more soon.

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