song-a-week

i have an extensive, tho largely unheard, catalogue. many bands, many genres. what to do with all this music in the attic which has never seen the light of day?

a friend put it like this:

'finding nemo & 2 million listeners'.

here's the riff:

im gonna set it up so that a new or old-days song will be posted on my front page once a week for you t download. i'm also going to small-blog about the tune to give you a sense of what it meant to me when i wrote it, where it came from, who it was for or about, etc.

i invite you to share this with your friends, to send me your thoughts about it +, if yr feeling creative, shoot a video, post it on YouTube (so i can link your video from my site).

anything goes.

look. i love my songs. they're my kids + once they leave the nest, i sometimes don't recognize them. 'i wrote that?!' still, when i hear em, years later, i return to that place they lived in my heart, in the heart of those they were written for, or, if 'true', for example, a love song once written for someone way back, becomes real, has meaning for the new person i'm loving today (learned that from Nick Cave).

we all have insecurities - about self, life, job, art, lovers, loving, improvements made or unmade - for sure i do, but as far as song writing goes i'm confident that:

a) i can write a good song that can mean something t someone i don't even know

and

b) i've been hugely lucky to play/record with phenomenal, empathetic, talented musicians again + again over the years. over MANY years.

hopefully, as these tunes show up on my page, you'll see what i mean.

a friend once said that every artist deserves to be seen/heard in the big top arena, under full sail, with his work presented in an optimum state. to be given a chance, thumbs up or thumbs down before the widest possible audience. an artist can not be relevant in a vacuum. he needs to be seen/heard/read. many friends + fans of mine, over the years, wish the best for me. they imagine a larger audience who could appreciate what it is about my work they love. this is my musical version of gandhi's spinning wheel, of the 100 monkey phenomenon, of finding my tipping point.

hope ya like it.

and, if ya read this far, there's this:

getting older seems to lessen any concerns I might have had about how others see me. r who they might think I am. I also seem to love (slightly) less obsessively, more for The Other than The Self. (tho there still r remnants of old patterns.) i find most people + most situations funny, unless they cause undue pain. i would hate to be unable to do stuff - art for the day. i do therefore i am to some extent. i am less judgemental, tho more ironic? as a perpetual waiter I see so much in faces, in the short play played out where i wait tables. oddly this has made me more + not less tolerant. i loathe Only My Way sorts of thinking that exclude room for difference, for self choice, that demand one creed trumping another. i'm ok, on most days, with just about anything, and I am consistanly amazed by the humor, courage + outlandish approach anyone takes to their lives, loves, jobs, art. i forget a lot. it doesn't bother me. i'm on time with a vengence. i'm up late + get up late. i remember every intimate moment with everyone i have loved.

with love,

rick