#16: Heaven's Song (April 17, 2011)

This week's tune is "Heaven's Song". This song has been with with me for a very long time, it's older than all of my children. I really can't remember when I first wrote it, but it deals with one of my constant themes: the imperfection of human communication, in this instance between a man and woman. It's often a fumbling, imperfect, even embarrassing thing, but we cannot avoid the attempt: we are compelled to try and cross the void that separates us. And here's something: I doubt you'll hear the phrase "fuzzy aberrations" in many songs :). 

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#17: Heraclitan Boogie (April 24, 2011)

This week's tune is "Heraclitan Boogie". It's not a new song, I wrote it a couple decades ago. It is, however, the only song I'm aware of that deals with the teachings of a pre-Socratic philosopher, and if that doesn't whet your appetite to hear this tune, I can't imagine what would. But then, I have a somewhat limited imagination. Oh, and Heraclitus is the author of the excellent advice, "Fool! Keep thy hand from beans." Cautionary wisdom from a man who believed the universe was made of Fire.

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#18: Saved Again (May 1, 2011)

This week's tune is "Saved Again". This song is a pretty distinct change of pace from the tunes posted so far. When I started the project, I promised songs from lots of genres, and I think that's been largely borne out. One genre missing a representative however is "song from a musical", but "Saved Again" rectifies that omission. I will admit that circumstances somewhat forced my hand: Among the many 1000's of homes in Alabama that were without power after the tornados of April 27th was my home. In fact, I was working on production of the week's video when the power went out. Then all hell broke loose all over the state, and I never finished. I retrieved "Saved Again" from the DVD of our production of "Space Rangers and the Viper Menace", the science fiction musical from which it comes. In the song, the cast sings the praises of the hero, Strat Lancaster (yes, it's that kind of science fiction musical), a man who annually manages to single-handedly save the Galactic Federation from destruction. In the play, the Federation is under attack from the Viper Menace, a fleet of... well, check out the play for more details.

#19 Ol' Macneal (May 8, 2011)

This week's tune is "Ol' MacNeal". When I was back there in seminary school, there was a man there who put forth the proposition that life is something to be lived, to the hilt, every second, every day. Actually, Mike MacNeal and me predate college. He was, and is, though I've not seen him in decades, a seriously unique individual. Drove an Italian Harley (a Motoguzzi, for the uninitiated) back in the day. He never stopped keeing on, and he was a legend to our running crowd, a bunch of Deadheads and extemists, and we took many lessons from his extravagance. When I say "extravagance", I do not mean it in any perjorative sense, but as the finest compliment: "when a man must go, he oughta go in style." We all lived brighter in those days, all burned our candles at both ends, expecting no particular tomorrow, and Mike MacNeal burned the brightest of us all. I guess we all thought of him as our own Neal Cassidy, and we were all On the Road together. This song is an old song, it's been with me, and the people I play music with, for many, many years, but I don't think MacNeal has ever actually heard it. If any of you know how to get in touch with him, please point him to this. The roads have all diverged in the intervening years, we all become other than what we were. But we still keep the sometimes great notions, and there is none greater than living life on the very edge, where the air is sharp and clean, and the cuts are deep and mean so much.

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#20: Never Tried (May 15, 2011)

This week's tune is "Never Tried", a brand new song, performed by myself, Clark Williams (drums) and Jason Morgan (bass), all of us singing. It's one of those kinds of songs I like a lot, lyrics that have a sort of slanting, slippery meaning, with tangential literary allusions. But mainly because it's a lot of fun to play and sing. There's also a Celtic-rock middle section that's especially fun.

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