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| Hello and welcome. Here is where I get to ramble
a little. Click on the links below to hear my pearls of wisdom on
a variety of subjects.
September 11 and a New Perspective September 11 and a New Pespective If ever there was a time to re-examine your life and priorities, the events of September 11, 2001 and their implications should have done it for you. For my part, it will be quite a while before I can think about making music in any joyful kind of way. The country and the world will be undergoing huge changes that none of us can fully forsee. The story will unfold over the coming years and I pray that we come out of this as a more united and compassionate nation. There are certainly eloquent analysts out there that will describe in detail the news as it unravels, so I will not attempt to add my voice to that discussion. In my very small and insignificant corner of the world, September 11 has made me realize how incredibly lucky I am to have lived the cozy and safe life that I have lived up to this point. There are so many people in the country and in the world that are doing brave and noble deeds and there are others that are in need of just basic services. To that end, I will no longer pocket any profits received from any recording I have made or will make in the future. All sales of "Dreaming of Home", "Night Visions" and any future recordings will be donated to charitable, rescue or relief organizations. See Music/Ordering. My recordings are made for the love of making music and would be considered an outrageous indulgence in most corners of the world. For my part, I have received plenty of blessings and comfort and I am now committed and will remain focused on giving back to the world what I can. Thoughts
on Independent Music
Music originates in the unknown. Those fortunate
enough to pluck a song out of the air know that the music they create is
not totally their own. Musicians are the vehicles that translate
and give structure to a greater mystery."
The quote above was taken from the liner notes of my first
CD and explains in a nutshell my feelings about the origins of all music.
There are so many great musicians in the world today,
that it was somewhat of a bold move to expose my musical soul to be bashed
or embraced when I made the plunge to record and release an album of acoustical
guitar instrumentals. This music is personal, yet everyone was encouraging
me to let more than a few friends and family hear it. As I got more
into the project of recording Night
Visions, I began to discover more and more incredible music by
"unknown" artists. It really began to be apparent that most of what
is played on the radio is controlled by a relatively small handful of marketing
people from large record companies who think that they know what you, the
public, want to hear. There is so much music available in the world
today, that even if a radio station never repeated one song, they would
never present all the glorious music that exists all over the world today.
So why do we hear the same songs being repeated repeated repeated repeated
on the radio? I won't insult your intelligence here because I think that
you know the answer to that.
To combat the big record companies, the world of the "Indie"
(independent) has evolved and represents a subculture that is thriving
artistically, if not financially. Many of these independents play
and perform music for the sheer pleasure of it without following popular
trends and without being molded by a record company to play this or that
kind of music. Most independents do not expect to get rich from their
music and so are not caught in the entrapments that some popular acts find
themselves in. In this way, I think, the music of independents is
more honest and embodies the true spirit of musical creation - which is
freedom!
(Kind
of a coincidence that independents and independence sound exactly the same.)
Of course there is also quality and non-quality independent
music, just as there is quality and non-quality "popular" music.
Check out some worthy independents in the Links
section of this web site.
Thoughts
on Amazon.com
Amazon is pretty slick. I came very close to adding
a link from my site to the mighty and growing beast that is Amazon,
but decided that the incentive that they offered (a percentage of their
sales that they receive and can claim came from a direct link from your
site) was nothing more than a technique to expand their exposure on the
Web (do they really need more? Hello, monopoly!). One of the deals
attached to their offer is that your percentage of sales must be at least
$100 before they will bother sending you a check. My guess is that
tons of struggling web sites will buy into their scheme because it sounds
initially like a deal that can only help to benefit the sponsoring site.
My suggestion for sites thinking about adding the Amazon
link is to forget it and buy stock in their company instead - you will
make more money and you won't clutter up your website. The only drawback
is that you will still be supporting and helping a monopoly to grow.
Sure, there is Borders Books and Barnes and Noble, but they don't have
the web presence that Amazon has.
By the way, not only is Amazon taking over the sales of
books on the web, but they will soon (if not already) bethe major
force in the internet sales of CDs also. They already have a massive list
of CDs that will only continue to grow because, well, after all, most artists
would love to have a small corner on the biggest site on the web.
Well, that should be the death-blow for any kind of future
marketing thoughts for my own personal CD sales with the World's Biggest
Bookstore. But, I'm not in this to get rich. See Thoughts
on Independent Music, and September 11, above.
Ten-Finger
Guitar Playing
A guitar playing technique worth exploring. The 5 Stages of Guitaritis
If you play guitar, you are somewhere in here. More blubbery from yours truly in an interview by Dan
McAvinchey.
Bush-Wacked
What is it with this guy? He is untouchable. A good way for a President to not get impeached is to start and stay in a war, I guess. That strategy seems to be working very well. Question: Which are more impeachable offenses: Is it any mystery why Congress has less than a 25% approval rating? Rambling to be continued... |
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