Recent Articles
First Day
Aug 7, 2008 faith, sojourn Leave a comment
I just got done watching Larry King’s interview with the family of Steven Curtis Chapman. It’s been just over two months since their adopted daughter accidentally died in their driveway. I am grateful for their willingness to share the details of the tragedy, the journey since that day, and the faith that gives them strength to carry on.
I can’t imagine going through what they’ve experienced, I can only pray I never do. While the Chapman family’s faith is apparently strong, I wonder how they managed the first day after losing their little girl? I wonder how every reminder of her and that fateful day impact their every breath?
I saw Steven perform in early April, and even as far away as I was in the back of the venue, his joy, persona, and amazing talent was both inspiring and infectious. He said, very humbly, during the interview he now sings his songs more passionately and with deeper conviction, though just a few weeks ago he was unsure if he could ever perform again.
A woman called during the interview and shared a passage from Psalms about how before God created the first day he planned our very lives. I believe Steven and his family believe this, and their faith is so foundational that their openly sharing about the tragedy is bringing others to a place where they can better deal with grief or anger in their own lives.
Since the day I heard about the loss of their child, the Chapman family has been on my heart and in my prayers. To see them join Larry King and the world live to discuss their faith and encourage us all was a great blessing to me, and gives me reason to live out loud for what I believe. I don’t want to use the Gospel as a hammer, but a brush to paint the life I want others to see in and through me. Tomorrow is the first day of the rest of my journey… I need to be ready to make the most of it.
A-Musing
Jul 29, 2008 muse Leave a comment
Last week I was cleaning my studio/office, specifically my desk, glancing at notes I’ve been taking for months, and came across one piece of paper with some scratch about a song evaluation, so I saved it and went on clearing off my desk. See, I’d been reading about how clutter can inhibit creativity, and thought, hey the well has been pretty dry of late, the room’s in some disarray, why not?
Things came along nicely, got some new shelving put together, some dusting, tossed a bunch of stuff, yeah, this is looking pretty good! So, second pass through the pile of “maybe” stuff to keep or notes to transfer into a notebook, and I’m back to this piece of paper with the song notes, and I spot a chord progression I’d jotted down, along with a hook idea that read “I Don’t Like Secrets”.
As I messed around a bit with the chords, a melody popped out pretty quick. So, in an attempt to show a bit of discipline, I grabbed my pencil and notebook and headed away from guitar and studio and started writing. A few lines make the sheet, nothing that seemed all that promising, yet, these first few lines turned into the first verse, almost verbatim.
Within five days I have a complete song, run it through a feedback session on SongU, get a few good ideas for taking it to the next level with very minor tweaks to either lyric or music. This isn’t the norm, so as I think back over the last week and the amount of time I put into not only cleaning my room, but restructuring my approach to disciplining myself as a writer, listening and reading more, and not trying to write under formulaic constraints, and out comes a song that I not only really enjoyed writing, but enjoy playing and singing.
Needless to say, I’m taking this as a sign that more good songs are right around the corner, but it’s going to take even more persistence and drive to establish consistency in my writing and output — perhaps most importantly, I need to enjoy the process as much as I have over the last week.
Click here if you’d like to take a listen to “Secrets”… enjoy!
Bless Beyond
Jul 20, 2008 faith, muse Leave a comment
I finally got around to checking out Mosaic Church (Charlotte/Mallard Creek) this morning. I certainly can’t (and won’t) make any kind of assessment as to whether this would be the place to move our family, but I will say it was a refreshing approach, young congregation, in what appeared to be a non-pretentious environment. At minimum, I go to visit a church with my ears open, in hopes of picking up a seed I can chew on for a while to nourish my soul.
The pastor who spoke today was pretty young, and shared a message around the statement “A faith tested by fire is a faith that can be trusted.” He used Daniel 3 and the story of Shadrach, Meshac, and Abednego to encourage us to see how trials can strengthen our faith; that is, when we don’t try to compromise or rationalize around God’s truth and remain obedient to his commands instead living to meet worldly expectations.
I think of all the riches in my life, and how I shouldn’t have cares or worries, complaints or regrets, but, of course, I do. Somewhere in closing the service, the phrase “blessed beyond” caught my ear. I wrote it down and have been contemplating it ever since. All the goodness, grace, material possessions, beauty of the earth, on and on, are just what I can see and comprehend — but what God does is bless beyond all these riches by providing a hope that can’t be qualified or measured, far exceeding our imagination or comprehension. Sure, for people going through deep struggles and pain, these words and concepts get shattered by despair and anger, I’ve been there, Lord knows chances are I’ll be there again.
I’m pretty sure I’ll go back for another visit, who knows maybe this is where God would have us for the next season of our lives. If not, I am blessed by the Word today, and pray God’s continued blessings on this congregation, its pastors and leaders, and all who give of themselves to serve the body of Christ.
Quiet Craze
Jul 18, 2008 DIY, muse Leave a comment
It’s been over a week now since Karen and the kids made it to FL, first Winter Springs, then N. Ft. Myers, our old stomping grounds. Things have been pretty quiet, lots of time to think. I’m enjoying the opportunity to work from home more than normal, which I can’t do during summer while the kids are out of school. I’ve had time to explore photography and blogs and think about creativity, and though I’ve worked minimally on songwriting, I think the blow has been good.
Interestingly enough, Brian Hartzog and I got to catch up over lunch yesterday. He’s one of the most well rounded indie guys I know, from writing to business to craft. Per usual, I sequestered the first part of the conversation, once Brian opened the door with… “so, how’s everything going?” I ranted about work, home life, etc., the usual stuff, and the fact that it just seems like I’m in a slump again, but don’t really know why. So when I turned the talking stick over to him, I almost lost the tofu I was gnawing on when he started telling me about his new plan for writing and producing his music. Not so much the plan, but the reason he came to this decision point. Seems he was accomplishing getting things scheduled and going through the motions, but at times on tasks that really didn’t have a good ROI for time invested, or in his strategy for accomplishing his musical goals, though initially these things all seemed like great ideas. Hmm, I can relate, and double-hmm I’m giving Brian’s format a whirl, though likely in modified form.
It goes something like this… instead of mixing and matching writing, recording, business and marketing tasks done whenever something specific needs to be done, designate one day per week for a focused discipline. Maybe Monday for lyric writing, Tuesday for tracking, Wednesday for business and marketing, Thursday for mixing and producing, etc. If a specific item doesn’t get done the day it’s in scope to be done, it has to carry to the next week unless all tasks for another focal point get done and there’s time to spare — BRILLIANT!
This makes a world of sense to me, so last night I began laying out my week. I’ll likely limit my schedule to three days, at least to start, just so I can setup realistic goals in the grand scheme. Of course now it’s the weekend, gig tomorrow night at the Pewter Rose with Rick and the 4-Oh, need to hit the music store ahead of time to re-stock bass and guitar strings. We plan to meet at the Rose around 6:00 for dinner and setup, so it’ll be a pretty quick day.
So, my goal for Saturday morning is to clean my studio/office and setup for creativity. Then, I’ll work on my goals for the week, including further planning of my fresh approach to being more focused at writing and playing music. All this while doing some laundry, and hopefully catching up on some reading, and maybe even setup a couple of shots around the house (that’s pictures with a camera, this will be way before happy hour).
I was headed out to catch some music tonight, I think I’ll pass and hang with a couple of neighbors, keep it within walking distance and call it an early night home… back to the quiet craze.
Wall Mounts
Jul 16, 2008 photography Leave a comment
Thanks to Laurie Koster for sharing this shot from a recent Spreitzer gig at Pura Vida. I love the colors and individual animation that’s going on. Rick didn’t make the shot, but we all know he was there!
Edge-y
Jul 13, 2008 happenings, muse Leave a comment
Saturday night, backyard porch of Summit Coffee, Davidson, NC… jamming with Spreitzer and Co., the crowd is picking up, we’re opening for Dustin Edge. Upstairs Attila the Honey is jamming, too. Plenty of music to go around for all who like to listen to independent artists play at what’s become the mainstay venue for indie writers/performers north of I-85 in Charlotte.
So we get done, I pack up and wipe down the sweat, grab a cold beverage and sit back for Dustin, of whom I’ve never even heard — was I in for a killer surprise!
Immediately drawn in by his style, attitude, and performance, Dustin, formerly of Cast Iron Filter, spun out some 15-18 songs in the next hour plus time frame, ending totally unplugged in the midst of those closest to the stage. Dustin’s headed for NY to pursue the next level of the dream.
Doubtful I could even begin to articulate the breadth of his songs or style. I qualified him early on as Jeff Buckley meets Elvis Costello. My encouragement to anyone who reads this post, take time to go listen, more than once, peel back the songs, let them get under your skin.
Best to Dustin and his wife as they head to NY, I’ll be looking for the next opportunity to catch him perform in the Charlotte area.
Spring’stiles
Jul 12, 2008 happenings Leave a comment
Good night in NoDa tonight… First I met Rick, Stacey and Kevin for a bite at Cabo Fish Taco, very enjoyable way to kick off the evening. Then it was off the Evening Muse to serve as the music sandwich between Sally Spring and The Turnstiles.
Lots of activity for the gallery crawl postponed a week (normally on the first Friday of the month) to keep from competing with generic 4th of July happenings. NoDa was crawling with people, and the Dog Bar was packed with people and dogs. It’s an outdoor scenario where the human to canine ratio is about 2:1. The NoDa neighborhood Jam Band filled the night air out behind the Smelly Cat, where ice cream cones/cups and coffee drinks were selling as fast as they could be made.
Looking forward to the Summit tomorrow night, but I really enjoyed hearing some new music and seeing lots of new faces I’ll likely never see again.
Possibilities
Jul 5, 2008 muse, sojourn Leave a comment
San Diego was great, what a beautiful city, and as technical/business conferences go (the reason I headed west), this one (Burton Group) was about as good as it gets. I’ve been back a week, and hoped the refresh would have led to a song by now, but I’ve been a busy catching up both at home and work, and have barely scratched through a few old songs and fondled a few new ideas. With my family readying to make the annual trek to FL to spend time with grandparents and break up their summer, I’m hopeful that while they are gone the muse will spring out of the closet and sit in my lap for a while.
I’ve got a pretty good list of things to do around the house while it’s empty, time to make a reasonable one to match for the writing/music side of things. First, I plan to make contact, and potentially a short road trip to meet with a musician/producer about getting an EP done by end of the year. I plan to spend some time out on the deck early mornings and evenings with notebook and beverage of the hour just brainstorming through some ideas, as well as cutting some guitar/vocal tracks for rewrites of established material. Lastly, I’ve made initial contact with a writer in Nashville who’s asked to co-write, and possibly help me market material, so I’ll be seriously and fervently working this angle. I’ll stop here, because if these goals materialize, the rest of the summer will be a real success.
Since the 4th of July didn’t necessarily pan out as we’d hoped, the baseball game we planned to go to was a wash, and while we saw bunches of fireworks in and around the neighborhood, things were on the quiet side due to the fairly unexpected, yet much needed, rain. Now it’s the 5th of July, and I’ll get up and watch the ladies final at Wimbledon in a few hours, tear through some errands and before long it’ll be Monday and back to work.
So, my immediate goal is to look hard at the possibilities for the next couple of weeks. To immerse myself in music every chance I get, to read, play, run, workout and clean up my diet, write and practice, be good at what I’m working at and expect the best from my efforts. To take chances and forget about the vanity in industrial strength opinions. If there’s one thing I can be it’s emotional. Question is, can I get these bad boys off my sleeve and into the next songs I write, and when/if heard, will these emotions stir or be filtered?
New month, new quarter, new season, endless possibilities [+]
Suppose…
Jun 28, 2008 muse, ramblings Leave a comment
On my way to San Diego for a work related conference, I started reading “Blue Like Jazz” by Donald Miller, non-religious thoughts on spiritual Christianity. Right out of the gate I was captivated by a statement about jazz being a product of the first generation of post slavery Negroes. I studied Jazz in college, and though I played the genre for many years, never became an accomplished jazz musician. For all my time within these circles I’d never heard this fact about the purveyors of the only true American art form.
So I started thinking about how this mindset has impacted my life. That is, where has conflict played itself out in ways I could not have expected and enabled me to either prosper or go in a direction that compelled me to explore creative or spiritual channels I otherwise might not have considered. No need to for excruciating detail, but there was a season I managed to invite trouble in various shapes and forms into my life, and with fairly regular consistency. I managed to lose my driving privileges, and had to work within reasonable distance from my apartment. So while working as a waiter at a vegetarian restaurant located about a 10 minute bicycle ride away, I overheard a fellow waiter’s mother, a local public service celebrity, having a conversation about an opportunity that led to a junior college music scholarship, which I can honestly say I likely wasn’t qualified for. But I worked my tail off and actually got through my first level of formal music education, including my first taste of various flavors of jazz.
A little more than a year after getting married to my precious wife, Karen, things in the local music scene were getting rocky. My wife sees an add in a newspaper for military musicians, specifically the Navy. I call the number and talk to someone who invites me to audition. So the day of the audition, I call and ask for the person I’d originally spoken with and they were not expecting me. Seems most folks that get these type interviews are brought in by recruiters or some other “reputable” source. I’m pretty sure the smirks were real as I passed through a rehearsal room to “jam” with a rhythm section. I was a pretty scraggly, long haired presentation, not military looking whatsoever… they accepted me just the same.
Just ten months later, having gone through boot camp and six months of military music training, I checked into my first Navy band in Newport, RI. A year later, in the midst yet another tempest created by my own selfishness and inability to recognize and cling to grace, our first son was born. By God’s mercy my wife endured this season of turmoil and we headed back to FL a couple of years later. It was the end of my enlistment and I somehow had come to the conclusion the Navy wasn’t my career path, though I’d been offered the bass instructor gig at the school of music where I learned how to be a military musician. End Part A of my second level of formal music education.
Suppose my wife had left me, suppose I decided to re-up and go to another band, or take the bass instructor position? Well, I didn’t, which led to a series life changing events over the next couple of years. I heard some intriguing music that totally drew me in, on a contemporary Christian station. I got a job that was supposed to be for a woman at a communications shop where three guys evangelized me. Suppose I’d changed the station and never went back to it, or wasn’t forced to take a administrative assistant job I really needed, suppose I didn’t respond to the message of the Gospel?
As it were, I ended up in a great blues band by night and working as a graphics, data, network guy for a day job. I was struggling in many ways just to make ends meet for our family now of two boys, as well as the notion of being a new Christian, which I really had little grasp on, and ended up back in the Navy Music Program for another couple of years — all this being Part B of my second level of music education.
After leaving the Navy, and the routine of working a day job and playing whatever gigs I could get, I chose to play music only in church, leading to yet another set of circumstances that otherwise would not have happened. At a Saturday morning rehearsal, one of the worship vocalists ask for a few minutes to share a lyric for the sake of having someone put it music. A bit to my surprise, no one jumped in… I’d done this once before in college, so I took the challenge. I guess I’d always been a sort of a songwriter, but this one event helped me realize I could get back to music outside the context of such structured musical vehicles like the Navy or church. Suddenly the chips began to fall such that I met with a friend from a previous job who is an indie artist that invites me to a meeting held by a local chapter of Nashville based songwriting association… suppose I’d not listened to the voice of encouragement at that Saturday morning rehearsal.
For the last five or so years I’ve been honing a new set of musical skills, while adding the fundamentals of being a writer. But having a full-time day job makes being a serious writer difficult. I do mentally draining work all day long, and though I try to spend time on a song or playing music in some form or fashion just about every day, it’s easy to get discouraged about chasing a dream at this stage in my life.
As long as there’s breath, there will be conflict and resolution — risk and reward — faith and hope. Challenges can bring pain, but without them there’s no refinement of my being. I want to grow as a person, father, husband, writer, and musician… by past grace I’ve made it this far, by future grace I will run this race to the end. I’m pretty sure if I had never found the blog that led me to “Blue Like Jazz” I’d still have these perspectives, I suppose just not in the same light.
Every Man
Jun 14, 2008 ramblings, sojourn Leave a comment
It’s not easy to write about someone I don’t personally know. Though every time I’ve seen and listened to Tim Russert, he made me feel as if I did know him. His approach to journalism as personal as it gets, whether president or military leader, he never pulled punches. But as deep as his questions got, he was not harsh, demeaning, or biased. Tim Russert was a man for every man.
He probed to make us think, and in turn, make us more effective people and Americans. The pending campaigns and elections need Tim’s centered, balanced approach to the issues, who will fill this gap? In the grand scheme of God’s sovereignty, it sure seems like the most interesting of timing for Tim’s passing.
How do I miss someone I didn’t really know? Not sure, but I’m fairly certain, the impact of his death will have far reaching implications in a political climate where trust is all but completely eroded. Let every man take note, we can do better, and it starts with taking Mr. Russert’s lead — seek truth with dignity and respect and settle for nothing less.