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....
