Stave Magazine - Stave Magazine - Editor's Desk http://stavemagazine.com/blog.html Stave Magazine: Editor's Desk Jannis' PHPRss class - http://www.jannis.to/ Thu, 19 Aug 2010 14:02:13 -0700 May your songs fill the universe http://stavemagazine.com/blog.html/may_your_songs_fill_the_universe Today I learned of the passing of two incredible songwriters, so please send your good thoughts, prayers and love out to their loved ones and the musicians who loved them, too.

Jason Bryl - Austin songwriter and sideman died Monday, August 16, at the age of 41.  We'll miss how you were in love with love, Jason.  Your spirit is eternal.

Kenny Edwards - American legend.  Songwriter and sideman and pioneer of the folk-rock sound died Wednesday, August 18.  Kenny, you changed the way we create our music, and your spirit is eternal.

Neither to be forgotten.  Both to be lifted up to the great mystery and wonder that inspires us all.


We'll miss you in this earthbound world.

]]> http://stavemagazine.com/blog.html/may_your_songs_fill_the_universe Thu, 19 Aug 2010 14:02:13 -0700 Stave Magazine - Stave Magazine - Editor's Desk Peace from the Porch, Vol. 3 http://stavemagazine.com/blog.html/peace_from_the_porch_vol_3 I'm soliciting participants for "Peace from the Porch, Vol. 3."  Musician, writers, poets, painters, photographers, sculptors, textile artists, etc.  This installment will include a companion book to go with the compilation CD.  If you'd like to participate, drop me a line.  I'm ready to start vetting submissions.

This go round, we'll be raising money for non-profit hospices.  The money is getting scarce.  Medicare is reducing payments, and private donations are not as strong.  In general, our economy is not able to sustain community based healthcare the way it used to.  Many in the creative world don't even have health insurance.  Non-profit, community based medicine is where that medical care comes from.  Hospices provide more than medical care at the end of life.  They provide emotional and spiritual support.  Their mission is to make sure that every day is full of LIFE for patients and families.  It's really the only holistic care in the American healthcare model. 

It's not morbid.  Most hospice patients and families would be deeply offended that they were thought of as morbid.  They are the living.  However, their end is near.  They should have the opportunity to live strong and happily; just like you and me. 

I hope you'll give that some thought.
Don't send me morose songs and art and writings.  Send me uplifting and transcending creations.  I want to focus on the joy of transcendence.  That's how we open this dialogue and start to make people understand that life is about living. 


Artwork will simply be on loan to the project. Musicians and writers will give a copy of their work for reproduction in the CD and book.  This is not a genre specific project.  I welcome all styles.   My hope is that we'll produce exhibits that include this artwork for people to enjoy and explore.  Along with the art displays, we'll include a concert and maybe some live poetry or prose readings.  I want this to be multi-media, multi-dimensional. 


Take a good look at what you've created over the years.  You'll be surprised at what's in your catalog that would be good for this project.


Think about it.  Pass it along to others.  Don't assume that just because you don't like the subject and don't want to participate that others will feel the same.  Many of your compadres have experienced hospice and will want to be involved.  I hope you'll join them.

]]> http://stavemagazine.com/blog.html/peace_from_the_porch_vol_3 Wed, 18 Aug 2010 16:08:55 -0700 Stave Magazine - Stave Magazine - Editor's Desk The Power of Music to Heal http://stavemagazine.com/blog.html/the_power_of_music_to_heal The Power of Music to Heal

It's not secret that I have a life outside of music. It's called a day job.  I have one.  However, unlike many who think of the day job as an 8 hour sacrifice, mine is fluid with my music philosophy - the Peace from the Porch Project philosophy.

I manage a rural, non-profit hospice.

Tonight, I was going over some music for a fundraising event in October.  The event supports a rural cancer resource agency.  It's really kind of hokey, small town fun.  The other non-secret is that the small town is the one I grew up in.  My hospice cares for people in that town.  So, imagine how much of an out-of-body experience it is for me to admit one of my school mates' parents to my service.  I have learned to take on a bizarre protective layer that keeps me cool, distant and professional.  It's like window shopping compassion for the family.  They can see me, but they do not ever really touch me.  It works for me in reverse, too.

Yet, I'm a musician, so I am usually the musical part of any memorial or honorary event that involves community members.  For this particular October event, I scheduled myself to start thinking and working on it in May, so I started the song review process to decide what would be best to perform.  I know I need fun, inspirational and cathartic.  Sometimes they weave into one tune.  When that happens, I usually find my self suddenly crying.  It's not just an emotional dump.  I usually unwittingly visualize one of the "moms" from my childhood, that has been in my team's care, and then I start to cry.  I just did that tonight.  I was reviewing "Affirmation" from "Peace from the Porch, Vol. 1" and this particular lady came into my head because, like the song, she never surrendered or backed down.  She lived every day that she could fully.  In fact, more fully than many of you healthy folks reading this!  It was a sad inspirational kind of cry.  The kind that is healthy for a person like me to have.  One cannot carry hundreds of deaths around and not let some of it out through tears.  It's the human emotional pressure valve, and in my line of work, everybody has to use it or go crazy.

So here's the question or request I pose to you:  In the comment section, tell me about a healing moment you've had with music.  If you know much about me, you might be a facebook friend, or you might know this lyric from one of my songs (which I openly admit I stole from a David Hare play) - "There is a place at the corner of the universe where the babble of the world is kept."

Babble away, my friends...

]]> http://stavemagazine.com/blog.html/the_power_of_music_to_heal Tue, 04 May 2010 19:58:17 -0700 Stave Magazine - Stave Magazine - Editor's Desk The Future Happened Yesterday http://stavemagazine.com/blog.html/the_future_happened_yesterday In last month’s edition, I commented on what felt like the fading of my generation of songwriters.  After attending a songwriters’ meeting, I became concerned that I wasn’t the only one in a slump.  Many great artists were right there with me.  Some (maybe more who are unwilling to admit it) clubs and house concert series are beginning to wane if not disappear altogether.  I had a conversation with my friend Stacy about my observations and concerns.  A few weeks later, she traveled to San Antonio to attend a house concert that was hosting Natalia Zukerman.  Zukerman is one of the best examples of  a young songwriter who is gently moving Americana in a new direction with her mixture of jazz, folk, country, roots and rock. 
Check her out. Here's a little footage from my series, Bear Creek Concerts (that ghosty side player she keeps looking at outside the video frame is Erika Luckett):








However, Stacy told me that the average age of the house concert guest, in San Antonio, was 50.

Younger people are not attending or presenting as much as we old warriors would like to see.  So I lamented about, “why not?”  How do we get these young music supporters to step up and carry on?  We talked about economics.  Younger people don’t have the homes or money to pull it off.  They’re not so settled as we are.  So Stacy and I discussed the possibility of us older fans backing younger efforts financially.  We continued our idea swap over a few beers at Jovita’s in South Austin.  I waved my hand around the room and said, “Look at this crowd.  The music is folk and Americana.  The purpose of this gathering is to support the liberal press, yet we’re probably the youngest people here at forty and forty five.”  Then I decided it was about networking.  Making friends.  Making people want to come to our shows (because I read that in on a discussion board somewhere).

It took a few days for the truth to sink in.  None of my earlier thoughts were valid.  My generation had been left behind.  All I had to do was read the Austin American Statesman and see all the buzz about SXSW Interactive and how that was just about to surpass the famed music part of the festival.  There it was.  The next generation was already presenting via technology.  

A great, big “duh.”

iTunes
Pandora
YouTube
iLike
The Music Genome Project
Anything Derrick Sivers lays his hands on
Music placement in television and film
A million other concepts, products and events I have yet to discover because I’m so damned old school.

Does that mean the intimate experience is gone?  No.  It just has competition.  How does it get real again?  Or does it?  Am I too set in my ways to embrace technology that can keep me at the cutting edge of musical discovery?  And if I do catch up, will anyone under the age of 40 even listen to what I have to say or consider what I have to offer?

I can only try, so in a feeble attempt to catch up, I’m dotting the April issue with videos (don't forget to turn off the Stave Player before you watch, but remember to turn it back on and listen to the music there, too).

What I need from you are links to music technology; whether it be cool new sites, or apps for my iPhone, or video you think I should post.  That might mean that the April issue of Stave will change daily or capriciously as I post new and information.  Think of it as a crash course on contemporary music presentation for old folkies like me.  The comment section is ready and waiting for your suggestions, so share away.

]]> http://stavemagazine.com/blog.html/the_future_happened_yesterday Fri, 19 Mar 2010 17:36:21 -0700 Stave Magazine - Stave Magazine - Editor's Desk Celebrate who you are http://stavemagazine.com/blog.html/celebrate_who_you_are Celebrate who you are

Tell me a musical biography of yourself.  We all come from some musical heritage that makes us the musician or fan that we are today.  Sometimes it's about rushing away from something we felt was oppressive only to find that, indeed, we are good at what we do as musicians because of that very thing.  I'll give you an example. 

My friend Stacy is a product of the Church of Christ where musical accompaniment is not allowed.  No guitars or pianos lead the hymns.  It is strictly voice.  
"Well, that's no fun," many say.
Stacy is a good guitar player today.
She is open and accepting. She isn't preaching the exclusivity of entry into "heaven."  She's not a church goer.
But let me tell what she couldn't shake from her musical past.
Harmonies.
You need a good harmonizer or someone to score vocal parts for you?
Stacy's your girl.
Part of my family are also Church of Christ.  We have Preachers in my family!! 
We don't go to their churches.  My immediate family doesn't believe that way, so we don't go there except for funerals, and my mother - in her slyly irreverent way - will tell you that she always looks forward to the singing at one of those funerals. 
"The harmonies are amazing," she says.

My personal musical heritage is, of course, the bread and butter of South Texas 1960's & 1970's style. 
Country.
My first live music memory is sitting on the courthouse lawn, in Edna, Texas, waiting excitedly for Faron Young to headline the street dance at Texana Days.  Unfortunately he never made it out of the performer's trailer before I had to go home and go to bed.  All I knew was the famous man who told me to "Take a powder!  A BC Powder!" on t.v. was gonna sing so that I could dance with my six year old suitor, Allen Berryhill.  I didn't really understand my mother's explanation of why Faron Young wouldn't play before my bedtime because I didn't know who Candybar was.  I didn't even know about John F. Kennedy or Jack Ruby!  So all of that was of no importance to me.  I just wanted to see a famous Country singer.

Worn out Johnny Cash and Tammy Wynette albums follow me around today.  I still have those childhood records, and I occasionally play the tracks that my sister and I didn't completely destroy from slamming the needle down for the millionth time. 

My aunt was younger and hipper (as if my 26 year old mother wasn't young...), and she had Sgt. Pepper and Simon and Garfunkel.  So mix that all up and I have a musical heritage I absolutely cannot break.  It doesn't matter that jazz, new wave, rock, classical, alternative played huge roles in my young adulthood.  It's my childhood influences that mold me as a songwriter.  It's the place I always go back to.  I can't harmonize like Stacy, but I can play a country rhythm guitar and do a vocal slide into tune as good as any Country queen without even thinking about it. 

After years of denial and a permanent inability to actually listen to country radio, I no longer try to deny where my musical influence comes from. 
I celebrate it.


How about you?
Leave me your story in the comments section.  I can't wait to meet your six year old self.

]]> http://stavemagazine.com/blog.html/celebrate_who_you_are Sat, 27 Feb 2010 10:57:16 -0800 Stave Magazine - Stave Magazine - Editor's Desk