Thanks for joining my new MySpace page. In response to those who want to experience my music I am in the midst of recording my songs. When I have something that I think is worth your time I'll post them here, so stay tuned...and in tune. --MOT
Previous post (edited) from the old site:
A hearty hello to all my friends out there, new and old! I mean, new, old and middle-aged! I mean--well you know what I mean. Anyway I thought I'd post a few comments here, hopefully of some use to you.
What the hell is a Creetisvan???
First off, apologies if this MySpace name (stevehowemusic) is confusing--I originally obtained it at Steve Howe's request, but as you might know the Steve Howe Guitar Rondo MySpace site is the official MySpace site for Steve (credit goes to Mike Shermer for handling that site's design and day-to-day maintenance). So stevehowemusic really isn't needed for Steve anymore, and continuing to use that name doesn't make sense. And when I tried to register a MySpace for my own name I found it was taken by a young man of the same name (I once did a Internet search on my name and found that there are a lot of Mike Tianos out there--whodathunk).
So apologies to all my friends but I've created my own MySpace account titled Creetisvan. Don't bother looking that word up in the dictionary--it's one that's unique to my own history. When I was a young budding cartoonist it was the title of a series of a drawings I had done. They were somewhat risque and may violate MySpace TOS, but you might get to see a sample one day. And Creetisvan is also the title of the solo album I hope to have completed at some point.
CIRCA: Well it's about...
Thanks for the nice comments about the CIRCA: interview, and my work with YW/NFTE in general. Watch http://nfte.org for part 2 of the CIRCA: conversation, coming soon! Thanks to Billy, Tony, Jimmy, and Alan for continuing to make great music; the naysayers (including those who think projects like CIRCA: are somehow preventing Yes from reuniting--huh???) are missing out on some good stuff. Check out the Circa MySpace site if you haven't already.
One of the best rock albums you never heard
On a personal note please visit the official site for Chas Sandford, my good friend as well as a songwriter and guitarist extraordinaire. Be forewarned that Chas' music is not prog, though he discovered Yes long before I did (as mentioned in my essay in Rhino's Yes live collection THE WORD IS LIVE). Though you might not know his name you probably know the songs he's written, among them "You Can Talk to Me" for Stevie Nicks (I believe that's his voice singing the "tear" repetition towards the end) and "Missing You" for John Waite (recently rereleased as a duet with Waite and Alison Krauss).
Chas is one of my oldest friends (I've known him since high school, and later was his roadie for the Bette Midler movie Divine Madness), and he recorded a wonderful album of Beatle-esque rock in the early 1980s titled Parallax View. It's one of my favorite albums--and hopefully you can trust that I wouldn't say that unless I was honestly passionate about it, Chas' friendship aside. For me it's really that good. Unfortunately It's out of print--it was possibly one of WEA's last vinyl-only releases before the advent of CDs--but Chas is working to get it rereleased. I hope he does, including some great raw guitar-driven demos of which I'm fortunate enough to have a copy.
Chas also has a MySpace site with samples of some of his newer music--if you request an add from him make sure to let him know MOT sent you, Speaking of old friends a shout out to my oldest friend, Michael Byrd--for almost 40 years!--and to John Shannon, another high school chum who was listening to jazz and prog before any of us were--I recall that John told me about a new band called Emerson Lake and Palmer, whose first album I bought without having heard it first, solely on his recommendation.
Isn't he finished yet???
That's all for now--probably too much for some of you but I guess more than ever I've given you a glimpse into MOT beyond Yes. Remember not to post comments here--go to Creetisvan and party away.
MOT