A year ago, being tugged along by mortality, I decided to get back into that music thing. I had finished the first new recordings in nearly 30 years and felt that it was now or never if I was to ever get them out into the public sphere. So I had the masters copy-written, art work commissioned, and journeyed out among the stars. I have released 2 honest to God albums, one, Apologia, from my Seattle period, 1985 to 1991, and the latest, We Three, from the present, which I refer to as the apocryphal period because it sounds fun. From those who listened I got plenty of likes, which I expected because the music is actually quite good. That may seem big headed, but I'm no rube and after more than 50 years of listening to just about everything I know good from mediocre and bad, and, as they say; if you don't believe in your work; who will.
I started performing again, mostly at open mics, to test the waters and find out if I could breath under water; all in all it was a lot of fun and I found that there a lot of my material I'd like to perform. I also realized that I'm not quite like the other performers and songwriters as far as material goes. That's not to say that their work was somehow lesser; to the contrary, I found it very interesting and enjoyable, just different. I'm not really a story teller as a songwriter. I think a better description is poet/emotionalist; a deeply pretentious way to say I sing to my own heart and and any others that wants to come along for the ride.
That then brings me to the direction of the upcoming year. I have a new group of songs I'm recording, and a whole slew of earlier recordings I desire to foist upon an unsuspecting public. The always percolating question is: where is this all going? If I were younger and had stars in my eyes, the answer might be to become famous and loved and wealthy beyond my wildest imagining, but I'm to jaundiced to buy into that. Yes, I went to Hollywood for the ASCAP conference and had a great time and hung around with all the other artistic types longing for the succor of recognition and acknowledgement, but I learned long ago that I was an uncompromising non-conventionalist in a business that has no time for that because there's no money in it.
At least not anymore. It came and went with the 60's.
I do though have a hunger to be represented in my art, whether in music or word, and without a presence that representation doesn't exist. So I have my website, mrprimitivemusic, as a repository of my work and a deep catalog which I will continue to add to because it's what I am. The problem is the catalog because it is ready to be heard, but there's a lot of stuff there, 8 completed albums, one that needs to be re-recorded, and the new songs; all waiting for me to get to it. There is also the rather daunting task of how or whether to get the word out, and not just a few folks out there would be happy to help for a small fee; results to be determined. Is the shell out worth the price? Will it make any difference? Perhaps we'll see.
The more important point is that there is a place for people to go if they so choose. At some point that's all I can ask, because i know if you go, you will dig it.
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