While making music, a trance state ensues, subtly exposing unexplored potential for closer examination. Sonics channel, form sensuous, sinuous propagation paths, surrounding and soothing from skin to core–surging and subsiding electric sensations sans unpleasant harshness. Mood movie (moodvie) fragments flicker in minds eye, arriving with soundtrack already playing at whatever stage of composition. The subconscious mind starts generating visuals, light and color, then adds f

Just over half a century ago my father came home carrying a 5-string banjo. I totally flipped out over it. He had apparently noticed my reaction to watching players like Earl Scruggs, Roy Clark and Larry McNeely when they occasionally appeared on TV variety shows and televised concerts. What he couldn't see were the tingling sensations racing up and down my spine whenever I was able to listen to them playing. It was just a cheap Japanese-made Prairie brand banjo but it played

I've completed every official form and procedure necessary to establish qualification with FEMA to receive compensation via S.4186 for excess losses incurred beyond insured assets as a result of the Hermit's Peak/Calf Canyon Fire. It's not a given that bill will ever actually be enacted into law and its programs fully funded, due to politics, but it's best to at least be prepared to quickly move forward if it is. Too much has been lost to languish in grief and simply go bell

Having lost everything of material value several times now in this lifetime has instilled a delightfully persistent sense of surreality in every endeavor committed to between occurrances of such unexpected privation. This surreality isn't derived so much from impact severity of loss as from wildly exhilarating expansion of possibilities afterward. Always open-minded and adventuresome, taking risks and enjoying outcomes during these subsequent periods of renewal seems as natur

Most of the tunes I compose are less than 150 bars so their tracks are manageable even on a 12.9-inch tablet which lets me see about 45 bars at once on its screen. But sometimes a recording project screams for screen real estate far beyond that and for years I've dreamed of getting an ultra wide monitor which would let me see all 150 bars without having to scroll horizontally at all. I finally got my hands on a 49-inch Samsung C49HG90 QLED curved monitor which allows me to se

The devastation of the Hermits Peak Fire is so extensive and has so deeply wounded the forestland I can't see it being a healthy place to live for decades. Too much ash. Too much risk of flooding and landslides the first time monsoon rains persist for consecutive days or weeks as they have occasionally in the past. FEMA is consuming precious time and testing my patience as they force me to jump through hoops too numerous and meaningless to keep track of. They want to send an

"I'm not a software engineer. I've never written a single line of code in my life." "Ah, but you have," Lasmé declared before taking a sip of tea while it was still hot. "What? I'm telling you no, never. I don't even own a computer beyond this blasted thing," I said, presenting my overpriced smartphone as evidence of the fact, "and all I do with it is use software other people have written." "Your music compositions are your works of software engineering, and they are some of

Started trying to record original tunes and songs in the late 70s using tape decks. Never could get a sound I liked until affordable digital recording rigs became available on the market. A VS-880 with VS-CDR finally did the trick for producing anything worth listening to. To date since then I've cranked out about eighty digitally recorded tracks I can stand to listen to now and again. A very few random listeners in the world have communicated that they too enjoy listening to

It has been decades since I've anticipated something as much as I have this delightful guitar. It's a Canis Minor Pegasus built by Jon Kammerer of Keokuk, Iowa and the story behind development of this musical instrument is as intriguing as its innovative design is. Detailed in an episode of CPB's Illinois Stories hosted by Mark McDonald (on YouTube, in case the link rots), I won't repeat that story here except to say that it's an admirable example of inventive perseverance

This is not an endorsement. I do not accept payment for showing and discussing the tools I use, although I am very opinionated about them. For example, Apple products over Microsoft products. Having spent about three decades struggling with jinky Microsoft hackjobs with little personal joy to show for it, a decade ago I stopped that cycle of madness and switched to using Apple products and have experienced significant levels of mounting pleasure ever since. Likewise occurred

In spring 1963 I was exposed for the first time to bluegrass music by way of an episode of The Andy Griffith Show titled The Darlings...

I walked into the first concert hall of my life in Houston, Texas. It had just been constructed and it blew my mind, inside and out. A huge hanging sculpture called "The Gemini II" soared above us as we entered and ascended the staircase, paying homage to the city's role in space exploration. The auditorium inside was state-of-the-art at that time with floors and walls that could be reconfigured at will mechanically to fit many performance requirements. My 6th grade class we

In my younger days just after graduating from high school, I made treks from the dusty red prairies and breaks of southwestern Oklahoma eastward just over one hundred thirty five miles one way to the OU campus in Norman to see a lot of shows at The Lloyd Noble Center. It had just opened and was an amazing sight to see and a great place to see performances by artists like Arlo Guthrie, Electric Light Orchestra, Bachman Turner Overdrive, Jefferson Starship, Black Oak Arkansas,

In spring 1988, my middle brother and I walked across from my apartment in Irving to Texas Stadium to watch Pink Floyd during their Momentary Lapse of Reason Tour. I had just graduated from college and had just started working my first professional job in Dallas a few miles away. It was a beautiful, cool late-April evening as we walked downhill the block and a half over to the stadium and the thing looked very much like a spacecraft which had just touched down with all of its

In the late 90's, my youngest brother invited me to see Loudon Wainwright III perform at Caravan of Dreams in Fort Worth. It was a good show and Mr. Wainwright really seemed to enjoy performing that night, waggling his tongue frequently between lyric phrases as he sang. It might have been 1999 because I recall he sang Y2K. I sat there enjoying everything about the performance, the venue and the company I was with, but wondered at that crazy tongue action. Was it a primal aut

Another time my youngest brother invited me to an excellent show was in the winter of 2000 to see The Flatlanders at Bass Hall in Fort Worth. Joe Ely, Butch Hancock, Jimmie Dale Gilmore and the rest of their band gave a hell of a good performance, but another memorable part of that night was a couple sitting nearby so enthused by the performance that they could not resist commenting exuberantly throughout the show with complements like " Better than Jello Pudding ". Surround

Since moving to New Mexico, my music performance venue of choice is The Lensic Theater in Santa Fe. I seen several shows there including...

~ In Memory of Ralph Conkey - High Country Hunter & Wilderness Guide Extraordinaire ~ A couple of decades ago I trekked into the...

I used to go to a lot of folk and bluegrass music festivals. One of my favorites was the Silverton Jubilee Folk Festival in Sivlerton, Colorado. Loved the high, rare atmosphere, the mountain scenery, the people, the food (especially at the Wyman Hotel), the whistle of the steam engine arriving from and departing to Durango. Festival organizers booked some amazing professional performers for the festival shows but best of all for me were Impromptu jam sessions which sprang to