Nearing completion of the Mazes and Monsters CD for the planned March release. Just a few more tracks to lay down and it will be off to the presses. Hoping, just in time for the Irish Fling here in Newberry. Many of the songs have serious spiritual significance across the board - Songs from the Blithe, Aestatis, Passage, and Fountainhead days with new, funkier spins as well as some more recent tunes that haven't been released.
This album is the story of my life thus far as a microcosm - with the ending being a new beginning...a very delicate time. Many of these songs were written or are performed with specific friends, lovers, enlightenments and experiences in mind.
Some tune notes:
Ocean's Child - Written with Aelacia Duke in Aestatis, there is an idealic view of love this song presents, an ideal that typically doesn't last forever.
Don't Cry - Written during the Aestatis period... it is a plea for the inevitable to not happen.
2thaC - From the Aestatis and Passage, this song calls into reflection the dicotomy of the natural world versus technology and the longing to be free and devoid of civilization.
Constellation - Written for Aelacia, this song came in a Saturday morning brainstorm around a drop double D tuning with a Capo on the fifth fret over the top four strings (I thought it looked cool) This love ballad asks the eternal question about love in perception - how do you know that what you feel is what I feel...
Unity - From the Blithe days, Unity is a dreaming song - chasing your dreams, planning on how it will be someday, and yet it runs around in circles. It reminds me of the freedom one experiences in a new relationship, when all else seems less radiant because of the brightness of the light of the heart.
Annabelle Lee - This classic Poe poem relates a tragic story that anyone who has lost love can relate to. The kingdom by the sea could be analgous to the deep subconcious domain we hold inside ourselves and consider home, yet even within our darkest corners the winds and angels of change are in pursuit.
Racecar - Lyrics by Buffy Summer, this tune was written in the Fountainhead project. How timid we all are to love once we've been hurt, but we all need others in our lives. A person needs new experiences.... otherwise something sleeps deep within us and seldom awakens.
Drivin and Cryin - Lyrics and music from the Fountainhead era, Drivin and Cryin was written on the last retreat to the mountains. Its theme of time - future versus past - and how we must deal with experiences and feelings we can't plan for is a reminder to be aware of the ever present opportunities we all have everyday to change our perspective and our lives.
Monkeys - Written on the first Fountainhead retreat, Monkeys is about running the rat race, the day to day feelings of being dragged around by circumstances of work, relationships, education, and the demands others place upon us.
Come into Me - Written during the Blithe days for Ashley Crout, Come into Me is a longing song that presents the perspective of jealousy. The need to possess the one person is depressive because it considers any extra-cirricular relationship, which might be needed in the other person's life journey, to be a betrayl of trust.
Greed Disease - Written after viewing Michael Moore's Farenheight 911, this "political" song more tries to address the current war from a perspective of your average American - hurt and abused by a money system they didn't create or necessarily support. Common sense - greed is the root of all evil.
Stuart - Written while possessed with the spirit of one of my most intelligent and talented guitar students... Stuart Leslie. I was driving back from my lesson with Robert Newton in Columbia and a line came into my head, "We are one, us and we - whats good for you isn't good for me." When I arrived at the store, Bridgett Wease told me Stuart was gone - he had passed away. That night I stayed up late and couldn't stop writting this song (Stuart was with me). I only wish for the time that escaped us....
Tango de Bird Roja - Written for tango dancer and Argentian writer Clara Mengolini, who was the best of friends in one of the best of times.
Follow the Leaves - Written in Cafe Espresso in Columbia, this song flowed out of me effortlessly about the same time my high school drama teacher Steve McCutcheon passed away. I burned the original lyrics over his tombstone in Rosemont Cemetery, and although I didn't have a chance to play it for him, to me its always Steve's song. Your deeds have been done, your time it has come, to follow the leaves as they fall.
A' Helen on a Saturday Morning - Obviously written on a Saturday morning for my first valentine, Helen Pope. I originally scored it for piano and string quartet, but absolutely love this revamped technofied version.
Plans within plans. I see fifteen tracks of music that doesn't really sound like anything but Munson Music.
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