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| 2010 at the Red Willow Coffee House |
November
2012 is in it’s last days as I write this and December is closing in
quickly. The recording of the BoodAbooM collection of songs is moving
along slowly, but as my brother Gerry use to say, “slow movement is
better than no movement at all”. Mixing and listening, deciding what
stays and what goes, what sequence of songs tells the best story, this
has been the focus. Music always evolves in the studio, a certain
metamorphosis take place as the songs begin to have a life of their own.
It is interesting to observe from the songwriter standpoint, a little
like watching children grow and flourish into adulthood. Just like the
rest of life one never really knows what is coming around the corner and
all we know for certain is that changes are coming. I, along with
countless songwriters, have alluded to the feeling of being a conduit
for the music that comes forth rather than the genius expressionary
artist who is the creator. Although the ideas have filtered down through
my experiences, my consciousness, my mind and hands playing the
instrument as the songs come into being, all things are connected and
have lead us to this moment. So I feel I am not alone in the creation of
this music that springs from my soul. It looks like it will be in the early part of 2013 before the BoodAbooM project will be ready for release. I have a show booked for the Red Willow Coffee house on February 8th of 2013 in Nanaimo and hopefully the CD’s, download cards and a few other items will be ready for public consumption. Still undecided as to if the show will be solo or duo. If you think the February show might be something you’ll attend, send me an email as to your preference, a solo performance or duo? Maybe I’ll go crazy and show up with a trio! Send your suggestions to boodaboomband@gmail.com
I should mention that I am absolutely thrilled with the results coming from our recording sessions. It’s been “goosebump city” with my arm hair standing on end, so am very excited about presenting this collection of songs and following up with string of performances ranging from solo to the full band. I’m hoping to do some video shoots as well so be sure to check out my YouTube channel from time to time.
Speaking of my videos, I have recently compiled, edited and posted a few new ones. “Start a Revolution” has a video that includes a little live footage of a concert performance, but mostly images of the “Occupy Movement Canada”. I got the images from Occupy Canada and permission to assemble this. I’m proud to have done this as I am a believer in the power of peaceful resistance. It is time to reevaluate the way things are done and perhaps level the playing field. Another recent add to the YouTube channel is a video set to the title song from my previous album “Choices”. In this video I used images that have been collected over the past few years (mostly) of people I have share the joy of music with and places I have been. Not all of the folks and not all of the places, it was intended to be a video not a feature length movie.
I’d like to close out with a couple of wonderful examples of "random acts of kindness” that thanks to the Internet I found out about. I love the way that some stories rise to the surface on their own in this day and age of digital image capturing and Internet. These two stories surfaced on the same day for me and I found them very inspiring. One takes place in New York where a police officer was seen giving a pair of all weather boots and socks to a barefoot homeless man in the middle of a cold spell. The officer felt compelled to reach out and help someone less fortunate and was unaware that he was being observed. Nearly the same thing happen north of the border here in Canada when a bus driver in Winnipeg stopped his bus, took off his shoes and handed them to a less fortunate young man who was in tattered clothes and walking in bare feet. Inspiring stories partly because they were on the spot decisions made to reach out to someone who is obviously having a harder time than they themselves were. My hat goes off to those of that mindset of loving kindness.
As Christmas draws near many think about the less fortunate and while I agree that it should be thought about throughout the year, if it takes a certain season to make us aware of our personal blessing, so be it. Better than not stopping to be thankful for what and where life has brought us. No matter where you are in the scheme of things there is always someone who is better off than you and always someone who is facing greater hardships than you. Be thankful for what you’ve got and give to those with less.
This will likely be the last blog for this year, how west coast of me. I will post a new blog with updates as to the BoodabooM project and any new shows that are booked in January. That is if the Mayan’s merely got tired of carving the stone calendar and said “that’s enough”. Only later thanks to the Internet did anybody say.... “It’s a sign of the end!!!!”. Exactly right! The end of the documented calendar they created. Bouncing Buddha! They had to stop somewhere.
Wishing you all peace and blessing through this season and all seasons.
Brother T
