News from the library

Wow, what a great decision. Taking time to study, I mean. In the last week or so I've been going through Willie Brown's M&O Blues in painful detail. Painful. Detail.

Really, I should have done this years ago.

Someone recently hit me with 'but you'll be off everyone's radar screen!" So, what? I got started playing music years ago because I loved the music. Performing is secondary and I know I'll get back to it when the time is right. In the meantime I've got detail to mine in these old songs.

The fun part is translating the detail between guitars. Its great to be able to play this on an old resonator. It's even better knowing that I can take it to a gig on an electric guitar as well- potential band material down the line, or something to play along with my drum set. I like keeping my options open and knowing that the techniques, the nuances, all the detail and an even deeper level of understanding is adaptable as live moves forward.

Peace. Once more Willie Brown side and then it's off to Son House...

And so the Sabbatical begins

Man, I've been at this or 30 or more years without a break. Gigging constantly, and very little time to work on my own playing like I did back when I was a puppy- you know, playing for hours at a time, working on technique, etc.

And so, after agonizing about this, I'm formally taking a sabbatical. Starting today. For a full year.

I'll keep you posted how I do, but I'm going to focus on two very simple things the pre-war blues catalog and my acoustic lap steel playing.

Why the pre-war catalog? Because it's neglected, its music that I love, and it's not often played well. Sure there are players at festivals playing the songs, but the energy, the detail isn't there. Time to see how close to right I can get it.

And then, the acoustic lap steel playing? Yeah, because the pre-war stuff adapts pretty well. So it overlaps.

Goal? Mastery. Mastery of instruments, mastery of a genre. In a year. Oh, and I'm keeping notes that might end up in a book someday, or in the trash, depending.

This means you won't see me much on Facebook, or Myspace or whatever. I'm focused, full stop.

Off we go, time to get started, the first mountain to climb is Robert Johnson's 'Terraplane Blues'. yeah,I've got the basics, but the nuances ain't there....

Time to re-engage...

It's been a long few months I must admit, but dis-engaging from the world of social media has been good for me. Time to get back to it.

So, what did I learn?

Well, that I don't bounce anymore. After going too fast and riding a bike into the pavement, well, I've learned something that should have been obvious- it takes longer to heal up as you get older. So, my ribs are finally better, I can use that left hand again.

Lesson learned.

the view from my window

Been an interesting few months. Things may start changing a bit over the next few months, if only by a little.

As you know I've been on a much-needed break for the last several months to look after some family issues. Still more to come, but at least I'm at a point where the guitar is back out and getting some play-time on a regular basis.

Almost as a form of therapy I got my studio set up (well, some of it at least) so I could work on some steel guitar tracks for the new Bob Hall cd. It was good therapy sitting in the middle of this pile of junk and boxes and getting some tracks into the computer. Bob's reviewing some of the roughs right now. So that's close to done.

Next step? Well, stay tuned. I did say the studio was working, and I've got some dobro tracks to record for another cd. And, from the comfort of this studio chair I'm working on setting up a podcast.....