To Submit or Not to Submit

Tis the season of many things, holidays, political mayhem, and for those of us aching for recognition, opportunities to have our music, that indelible product of our souls and psyches, reviewed or offered for prizes in contests at the low low price of $35 a pop. In and of itself that's not a grand fee but if you  want more than one song considered, it adds up quick. A typical album would be $300 or $400 smackaroos! Not exactly chump change even for those of us who can afford it. And there are any number of different organizations putting on these contests, noting the industry and artistic talent doing the judging; it's all very exciting.

Unlike the lottery, however, they don't state the odds.

Despite the tone, I'm not necessarily against such things, so long as one is wide-eyed about the actual possible outcomes and what you expect those outcomes to be. The fee is, as they say, for administrative purposes and whether you receive any notice of how your music was received is dependent on whether those administrative costs cover an actual response. Then there's the reason they put on the contests to begin with. We all believe ourselves to be budding superstars, but stars rarely align and there's that whole image and age thing that blows most of us out of the water. There's also the genera of what sells and what does not, irrespective of its artistic quality, which is the bane of all artists!

The result then is a calculated evaluation, or just plain old hope, that what I've submitted meets a particular need given the general condition of the market to which my hopes and prayers depend. The upside is someone will love the song and want to buy it for, as it is delicately put, a known talent that can maximize its monetary value. Whether you profit by that is a matter of the contract you sign, but let's not get ahead of ourselves just yet.

I allow myself two per year, beginning this year and no more...as an experiment, of course, in primal reduction.

In other news, this week's song is Let Her Dance, from the recently released album, Whispers (From a Forgotten Memory). 

The lyrical theme of the song came to me at a concert last year as I watched a number of women, and I've seen this many times before and it is always women, dancing by and for themselves in the isles completely oblivious to those around them, most notably the men who brought them; lost to the music and where it takes them. The song then revolves around the monotony of life's routines and relationships, and how hearing a song from a time earlier when we thought life had more promise transports us back with that rush of memory and feeling. This also explains people grooving to a tune at the grocery store.

You can hear it at mrprimitivemusic.com, or at Spotify or any other fine streaming service.

Lyrical invention and the Inevitable Need to Move On

The inevitable high of finishing a project, of actually getting everything done and getting it out there is at some point followed by the thud on the head that it is most likely to go no further. There will be no worldwide promotion or tour. No ads during sporting events or on buses to support what desperately needs to sell or we're all out on the street. And much as it sounds like a great time, no mega-ego to sooth and massage. Nor will I be the subject of speculation on where the new songs fit into the constellation of my most recent romantic adventures.

No, unlike Taylor, the only path, save for a performance here and there, is to move on to the next project.
On the plus side, there's much to do on that end and to those of us not destined for international fame and fortune, it is the rites of creation that are the thing, the muse, the reason to exist!

So it's on to the Primitive Desires and Winter projects.

However, since Whispers (From a Forgotten Memory) is still a fresh and vital work, I thought it would be interesting to expound on what the hell I was thinking when I wrote a particular lyric, which in this case is from The World Won't Let Me Go, a song of memory and time and the foundational song in the song cycle that is Whispers. You can hear the song at mrprimitivemusic, it's this week's song.

The premise of the lyric revolves around the image of an old man in the place of his birth, of the place where his most formative memories were created. It begins:

Free me from this troubled longing
That drives the hunger in my soul
Take the light that shine all above me
Save me from the darkness down below

The lyric starts with the idea of loss, from outliving those you knew and loved; of not wanting to remember yet not wanting to let those memories die; of tiring of life, but fearing the destruction of memory by letting go.

All the houses now are empty
All those lives have come and gone
Ghosts, they stop and share their stories
Of a time when they belonged

The second verse is the echoed past, the sights and sounds that you hear in your head when you revisit those places that inhabited your past. I think it's inevitable that when you find yourself back on familiar ground there is the call of all the memories you have from having been there before. You see it both as what it was and what it has become as well as what you were and what you have become.

The flowers won't spare the grieving
The only thing I care to know
Please don't tell me you love me
When the world won't let me go

The chorus speaks of two things, the power of grief and the need to grieve for what is lost and of being left with only memory. Tokens such as flowers do not relieve the grief anymore than pronouncements of love.

Buried down inside these canyons
Rolling up along the hills
All these memories long forgotten
Yearn that they might be remembered still

The third verse is about those forgotten moments that capture you when you least expect it. I grew up in the burbs of Denver and for a very long time I rarely returned, so that when I did I found myself grappling with images and memories that I had forgotten and I was surprised by the power of some of them.

Children stare at me in wonder
They put their hands upon my clothes
They won't follow as I leave them
To a place they'll never know

The final verse is in some ways about the malleability of memory. The children are the original moments forever locked in their time. The idea of the verse is that you will change and that in that change they cannot go with you, that your younger self will be fascinated by the self you've become, whether for better or worse. That and the older self must reconcile himself to what he once was, hence the grieving.

Perhaps the more interesting aspect of my lyrical approach is that I don't analyze them till much later; in other words I didn't actually think these thoughts as I was writing the lyrics down. The lyric was writing fairly quickly then left to simmer on low. Usually the most immediate concern is do they work with the chords and melody I hear in my head. rarely do I write lyrics with a guitar in hand. I do consider the premise and the symmetry as I construct the lyric but not so much the meaning which is implicit to me because I already know the general theme.

Fun huh!

The Creative Process, Two Examples

With a new album coming out, I thought it would be fun to use 2 songs as examples of how I come up with this stuff. the 2 songs are The Day and The Eyes That I See, both from Whispers (From a Forgotten Memory). 

The songs can be heard here, mrprimitivemusic.com, just click on the This Week's Song ( yeah, I know, there's nothing like a little self-promotion).

The first song, The Day, came about while I was goofing on a descending A-minor chord. I've always liked finger picked songs even if I didn't do many if at all in the past, but when I picked up the guitar again back in 2010 I decided to mix it up a bit. I don't have an actual explanation or reason for any particular chord progression I hit upon other than I think it works, or to my ear, sounds good. Chord-wise, it's pretty simple, Am, E7, F#, G, D, and A. The lyrics came one day as the song was playing in my head and I thought it would be fun to have to verses that could be cross-sung at the end. Throw in a couple of bridges and there you have it. I know how that sounds but after all this time doing this that's really what happens.
The lyrics are meant to evoke a sense of endings and renewals; of the cycles that govern life and death; you know, upbeat stuff.
The production is also fairly simple. Two guitars, left and right, one through a chorus pedal, the other through a delay. On the workstation, which is a fancy term for a keyboard that does lots of different sounds and rhythms, I added a cello and vibes. For the intro and outro, a bright steel stringed acoustic guitar. On the vocals, I sing on the right and Nancy on the left; during the bridges, I used both of Nancy's recorded tracks to give us stereo Nancy.
The overall production was meant, as does the whole album, to be an homage to the sounds I loved from the 60's and 70's; think sensitive singer-songwriters.


The Eyes That I See, was a product of an impulse buy, a Seagull dulcimer.

I thought wouldn't it be fun to have one of those!

I didn't have an actual need for it and had no idea how to play it.
The dulcimer is tuned to D (DAD high to low with the high D double stringed). Playing it reminded me of Celtic music and after a while the melody that would become the song presented itself to me. I was intrigue by the idea of doing a song with a spritely melody and anguished lyrics. At this point, I knew that the album's theme was memory and how it interweaves itself into our daily lives. In this instance, and because I had the idea that Celtic music could be about a love promised that ends too soon. What I ended up with is a song of regret and longing for a lost love.
The production, like The Day, is fairly simple; the dulcimer, a Dobro left and right (also tuned to D), synth bass, and a Cajon, tambourine, and floor tom for the percussion. Vocals are a single voice as lead vocal and a building chorus as the song progresses with a new voice added following each of the verses and adding to the bridges. It starts with the beat, the Cajon, that represents the beating heart, then the Dulcimer, then a single voice, then the Dobros, the tambourine; always insistent. The chorus represents a building sense of loss and finality till at the end they are just an echo of lost promises and lost lives. It builds till there is nothing left but remorse.

I really liked how the songs turned out.


Whispers (From a Forgotten Memory) will be released on Nov. 10th, 2017.

Because Tom Petty is Dead!

The question that aligns with the answer above is:

Why am I doing this?

Two days before he died, Tom Petty gave his last interview to the LA Times. In it he detailed the many projects and activities he was looking forward to. Instead, his heart gave out and whatever those plans entailed went with him. On the plus side there is his catalog of music with the Heartbreakers, Traveling Wilburys and his solo work; not to mention production and other projects. The downside is we'll never get to hear what was in his head. That's where it all starts and until you get it out no one hears it but you.

That's why I'm doing this; to get it out.

I may not be in Petty's league, but I am a recording artist with a catalog I'm proud of. And I want that catalog to be there for people to hear. That won't happen if I sit on my hands or let it rot in a box in a crawlspace. Because you never know what'll happen tomorrow or the day after that. Tom Petty was only 8 years older than I am so I'm feeling just a little more mortal these days. I know we think the people we've listened to and admired for so long will live forever, but like us their time will come and that time seems much closer than it did before with Petty's death, not long after Walter Becker's, and let's not go too deep with the loss of Prince, etc!

In some sense all an artist leaves behind that matters is the art. I suppose I could put out a bunch of outlines listing the ideas I have, but seriously....

So there's an urgency that I didn't have all those years ago when I was going to live forever; don't waste time, don't let days go by without doing something, don't believe there will always be more time, because you don't know.

The new album, Whispers (From a Forgotten Memory) will be released on November 10th. We'll be having a release party for the album on the 11th here at the house.

The Creative Process

Inevitably, the question comes up, how do you come up with this stuff, and not just the tunes but the production which is the song as completed for your listening pleasure.

Good Question,

And I don't actually know.

Well, in any premeditative kind of way.

I do know how I begin, which has been my M.O. from day one when I was 15; start playing whatever and at some point something will happen. And that's the truth. It is also a tad glib. The process is, much as it has been these many years, for me, to start with a chord, either on the guitar, synth, or piano, and see where that goes, or I might create a drum rhythm on any number of devices or apps. From there I go over it again and again to both set the parameters and structure of the song as well as decide if I like the riff at all. I then put it away for a day or so to see if I still like it or not; I don't try to make anything 'meh' better, it doesn't happen.

But if it does, I then move on to what else the song needs, verse, chorus, bridge; is it a 'traditional' style pop song, or does it lend itself more to a Jazz feel or a groove that doesn't need say a consistent pop structure. It's also at this point where I figure out if the song needs lyrics, not all do. I like instrumentals and often include them on albums as bridges between songs or to set the mood of the album.

In the early days, the lyrics came not long after the basic song was finished, but as I got more and more into recording, the lyrics were the last things to be finished to the point where I was writing the lyrics to the nearly completed recording. The recording process starts in my head. As I write the song, I begin to hear it orchestrally in my head and I think of how, or in what style I might try, meaning does it lend itself more towards rock, country, jazz, pop, or none of the above.

That's where the fun is; finding what turns out from that sound in my head. Often, while trying one sound, I find another I like better, or I'll know I want a keyboard sound and goof through whatever I have until something goes pop. That doesn't mean everything falls in place right away, as I record I listen and listen, over and over, and if I have doubts it means I need to find something I like better. That's also why I have my own studio, apart from not being independently wealthy which is what you'd have to be to do recording this way in a standard professional studio.

This week's song, Traces of You, from the new album, Whispers (From a Forgotten Memory) is emblematic of this approach. It started with the groove. From there I built the main guitar part then added the bass and the electric piano. Next was the lyrics and the background vocals. Last were the lead guitar and piano. Mix and master and listen and redo till you consider it done.

You can hear it here: www.mrprimitivemusic.com

Yeah, You Gotta Do That Too!

Alright, the album, the record, the song cycle, the grouping of songs thrown together; however you wish to define them, are finished!
Complete.
Done.
And if that's all you want, congratulations. But, if you want more, say for people to hear them or buy them or stream them, then, as the song says; you've only just begun.
There's the artwork, creating the album cover, the disc cover, setup any distribution you might have in mind, get the word out through social media, the Mr Primitive website and blog, friends, associations. Issue a press release, initiate a row with some other important figure in the business; have your people get the ball rolling.
Unfortunately, I'm my people so it's all up to me.
And there's the not so insignificant fact that as a very well known unknown, I must juggle the expense against the no so insignificant return on that expense; I'm not so well off to be throwing money away.
So, the album covers are done, thanks in large part to the wonderful art created by Yuji Pearce, and they've been sent in to Disc Makers to be produced  and to CD Baby for distribution to Spotify and Apple Music and the like. I've registered the album with the gubmint for copyright protection and set a release date of November 10th.

Please mark your calendars.

And, just because it sounds like fun, I'm going to have a release party at the house because that's what big stars like me do.

Will it push me over the top? Will I be an even bigger sensation that Taylor Swift who decided to release her new album on the very same day?

Only time will tell.

I'll confess that I don't find all of this particularly exciting, I'd rather be jumping right into making a decent recording of Winter, an album I made a demo of many years ago and never finished. But that's not how the game works and if no one knows about the new album, Whispers (From a Forgotten Memory), then there's a good chance they'll never hear it, and that's a shame because it turned out to be quite wonderful, if I may say so myself.

You do what you gotta do.

Check out this week's song from the new album, Stills, at http://www.mrprimitivemusic.com/home

Thoughts on Steely Dan and Walter Becker

The three biggest influences on me and the music I make are Peter Gabriel, Lindsay Buckingham, and Steely Dan. The irony is I didn't see (or hear) that while making most of the music I had, but as time has given me the distance I need to understand that, their influences are clear to me.

All are iconoclastic in their approaches and all are instantly recognizable in their work. And I think they were deeply aware of this even if the press, and it's very interesting to go back and read the articles from music mags and the like to see the incomprehensibility of their music to a certain type of writer regardless of whether the publication was hip or not.

The big difference with Steely Dan, something they shared with the post '66 Beatles no less, was that unlike Gabriel and Buckingham, they stopped touring and through their most productive period from '74 to '77 were essentially recording artists and that was what they wanted to be. Beginning with Katy Lied through to Gaucho, their interest was in creating, as perfect as they could make them, records.

These weren't made to get butts in the seats when they toured, or to keep them in the public eye; they were notorious for making life difficult for the press, they were made to be listened to and appreciated as works, essentially, of musical art; something, I believe, they shared with Gabriel and Buckingham. They put an incredible amount of time, money and energy into their songs and it shows. The musicianship is outstanding as is the recording; even Katy Lied, whose masters were damaged by the Dolby unit they were using at the time (makes you wonder what the original must have sounded like).

Their genius, in my view, was that their records worked on many levels; song diversity, the initial dichotomy of a smooth seemingly straight forward pop tune, that was in fact exquisitely layered throughout and a listener rewarded each time the song played. They used any number of styles and genres; pop, rock, jazz, R&B to great effect. Their albums, whether planned or not; they would slyly say they created the songs independent of theme, but I'm not so sure; Aja and Gaucho are seeped in late '70's California.

Then there are the lyrics. Perhaps the most common thread in commentary about Steely Dan involved their lyrics; the problem being the supposed inscrutability within them, but that's a sham; all great artists have written lyrics that make no sense or are written such that the meaning, assuming there is one, is not clear to the listener. The difference with Steely Dan was simply that there was no sure connection with the artists themselves, Walter Becker, who died recently, and Donald Fagan. Whether the Beatles, Stones, Zeppelin, Gabriel, just to name a few, and no matter how diffuse the lyric, the common belief was that the lyrics reflected on the band and their lives. That could not be said of Becker and Fagan, and they knew this and reveled in it.

Not every writer feels the need to put themselves out there whatever the form. They may be in the minority, but they are not unknown. Steely Dan created a legacy of recorded material about their time, but not necessarily about them.

I think that's genius in a business that is so deeply naval-gazing.

More on Taylor and Mr Primitive and the need to create buzz

With the enormous glut of music sloshing around the world at any given moment, even the big stars need to get the word out. It is in this context that my present fascination with Taylor Swift continues. As most people with any music interest know, Ms Swift and her PR machine, team, group; apply any term you feel is appropriate, are getting us all exciting about the new album coming out in November.

Now if the hype is to be believed, the date has symbolic value and well as a means for a personal dig by Ms. Swift. That may or may not be true but it gets our attention. And it has paid off in the number of eyes and ears that have checked out her new song and its accompanying video-apparently they still make those-upon which a few dollars were spent.

So, what does this have to do with Mr Primitive, you ask? Well, not much beyond my personal fascination. Perhaps it's too bad I don't, or perhaps more importantly, Ms. Swift does not have a personal beef with me. I could use the attention more than she, but there no guarantee that I would garner anything from it other than spam from her pissed off legion of fans.

And who wants that?
Other than someone desperate for attention...you may assume as you like on that...

Still, it remarks on our times that such blandishments are required given Ms. Swift's stature; she is not as desperate for some worldwide PR as yours truly, and this may be the rose colored glasses talking, but the news that a new Beatles album didn't necessitate the need to bring up any manufactured feud with the Stones! Just the fact that new music was coming was enough, but such is life or how I choose to remember it.

The other intersection of the famous, or infamous for those of you who have a poor opinion of Ms. Swift, and the not so famous, that would be me, is that my new album, Whispers (From a Forgotten Memory), and hers are both due out in early November. Will I be riding her coattails, or will she be riding mine? Only time will tell.

Of course, for perfectly understandable reasons, I did not spend a small fortune on my album, or any videos, or in preparation for a long worldwide tour, so I don't have nearly the same level of investment riding on the outcome of the album's success as Ms. Swift and her team does. Nor do I need the same level of promotion, however acquired, to ensure that the money rolls in.

But I still want my album to be successful, by whatever metric I find supporting, and it is interesting that even the mega-famous must work the machine and feed the beast.

Isn't it terrible that Taylor Swift is more famous than you?

Well, no. And before I tear into my soliloquy I should probably throw out a few qualifiers:

One, I had never actually listened to any Taylor Swift songs or albums. That wasn't for any particular reason other than I can't imagine being in her target audience when she began as a young country Ingenue in 2006, or as she progressed toward being the megastar she is now in popular music. But, as a service to those who will read this, I did go to Spotify, now that she's back, and listened to 2 songs per album as well as the new song that was released last week, You Made Me Do It. 

Two, for those of us not in the business of being both a celebrity and an actual producer/creator-immaterial from we or others may think of your work-it is a kind of macabre fascination into everything that seems to go into being a pop star nowadays.

So is it terrible that I'm not as well known as Taylor Swift? Yes, it's terrible, but...

As a go it alone, work at my own pace, do what I want kind of artist, it is more to my suiting. How? For starters, I don't have a small army dependent on my success to maintain their financial well-being. Of course, they may work for any number of performers, but since Ms. Swift is at the top of the pile, I assume she comes first, and being at the top of the pile requires a whole other level of commitment because...

You're only one dismal record or song or controversy from becoming a B-list celebrity/performer/creator to then finding yourself on the nostalgia circuit or Dancing With The Stars!

That's not necessarily a bad thing, times change, you have to adapt. And she is an attractive woman who I imagine could easily transition in to TV/film, etc.

Sounds like more work than I'm up for (which the snarks would point out is why I'm living in nowheresville, man!).

BUT...the one thing I find most fascinating about Taylor Swift is the feuds, the bad boyfriends, the snark, the victimhood-manufactured or otherwise-it is evidently part and parcel to fame these days. Whatever it is works because everyone is talking and writing about it.

That's the point right? In this age of all that's out there, you have to rise above the noise (sadly that might include me) and be heard. I would think that just by being Taylor Swift whatever your next project would automatically be news in and of itself because you're Taylor Swift? Like the Beatles, right? It's the music, man!

I could be wrong.

The other question is whether this is par for the course when it come to women entertainers of a certain level? Maybe not Adele, but I don't know that for a fact, mainly because I don't care even if some think I should. Instead, I'm the type who thinks the work is what's most important and we know what happens to those types-think noise.

It seems though that to pierce through the fog or shine that bright light is a requirement that I don't think I'm up to even if I had the look, the hook, and the story compelling enough to warrant the scrutiny or interest.

That, however, would require a completely separate post.

More on The Popular Tune

The myth of the hit single is the idea that it can happen to anyone who has a great song. This is not true. Yes, having a great tune is a good thing, but it may have no actual connection to the song's probability of becoming a hit single.

That, as it has always been, requires the right people with the right connections. This is true nationally and locally, although one wonders in this day and age if there is anything intrinsically local anymore that can then be moved nationally.

For instance:

Were I to produce a fabulous recording that all the world had to hear, just how would I go about getting them to hear it? Radio? Well who exactly controls what is heard on the radio? The big radio conglomerates, like the big record labels, are interested in that which will sell and make them money. Do I fit within the categorical imperatives they would require in order for them to promote the song? And without promotion, the song goes nowhere, period.

Simple facts of the game.

And the song is merely a component of the product which is the entertainer. Songwriters are a dime a dozen, and if it takes a dozen, along with as many producers and engineers to create the songs to project an up and coming entertainer into the mainstream stratosphere above the rest of the grasping masses, then if the bet is a good one; the bet is made.

If, on the other hand, you do not meet the necessary demographic, or cultural, or aesthetic (read physical) appeal that research tells us that a song, let's say the song you have written and recorded, will be targeted to, then it is highly likely, no matter how wonderful the song, that anyone will care-beyond telling you, assuming they even took a moment to listen to it, you're not a god fit.

Is this discouraging? It sure is.

And it gets worse! On the very off chance that hard work and perseverance, as well as the fact that you are photogenic and young (this is far more important than you might think for reasons you might not-think contracts), a hit must then be followed by more and any and all appearances must promote the brand in order to justify the burgeoning support foundation you will need to succeed- and those people don't work for free. In fact, most are failed performers who came to the realization that there is good money to be made in the industry behind the camera, if you will, than struggling to be in front.

You have to be able to maintain that infrastructure. many don't.

All for a hit song.

That's not the same as finding your audience. Or your musical calling. It is why I demure when offered unsolicited advice on what I need to do to write a hit song. It may all be good advice, and it may help you write a better song; it may...but a hit single?

Hit, Hits, Hits!

It's got to be the hits, man!

Ok, I get that, but in truth, hits, or hit songs, are for the vast majority of songwriters, out of reach. The basics require a lot of legwork, networking; preferably in the hometown of the genre, think Nashville or LA, and, foremost, songs that are being looked for. Music publishers, agents, and the like, are the gatekeepers between you and your targeted star and the thrill of hearing or watching said star playing your song. And no matter how brilliant, fun, hauntingly beautiful your song may be, if it's not what they're looking for, it's just another song in a sea of millions.

But take heart, there's a beavy of folks out there ready willing and able, for a small fee, to get you to the golden land. I know, I get they're emails all the time. And I don't begrudge them for taking a moment of my time, but I went through this years ago.

At some point you have to decide what you want and how far you're willing to go to get it, and, and this is a big and which a lot of people don't like to own up to, are you or do you have the esthetics, which is a fancy term for the look, to present to your target audience wha they expect to see?

That's big.

And it buries a lot of performers and bands.

But we're talking about the hits! Bands without hits go nowhere, no matter the talent level. Every town has talent, players who will take you to the cleaners; that's life, but their bands never made it or only made it to a certain level, say local versus national. Some may have been one hit wonders. I remember that back in the 80's, the guitarist playing with Jill Sobule had been the guitarist for Sugarloaf (Green Eyed Lady), Bob Webber. And that's not a knock on Bob, he's had far more success than most of us ever will, but anyone who has been in this business knows, life turns quick and you do something different.

In my case I just wanted to make my music without a lot of direction, change, and most of all, a lot of debt. I did it my way and because of that, and a lot of obstinacy, I am an unknown, but I'm ok with that. And I don't mind writing songs for people and I try to give them what they want, but what they get is a Mr Primitive tune...something not too many others have (wink, wink, nudge, nudge).

Looks like I went off-track

As everyone will tell you; don't try to write a hit. Write what you write and go from there.
You never know.

So, what kind of music do you make?

One of the incredibly delightful parts of getting back into the music biz is describing and defining your sound; what kind of music do you make?

Well, what is my Sound?

Not that long ago I'd of just said Rock music, and those who grew up in the age of Rock would probably understand because Rock was a fairly expansive category in popular music, and it was popular. And at the time that's what it was. Now it still is, but not like it was and it now needs further categorization. Is it soft rock, or hard rock, or heavy metal, which in this day and age; assuming you listen to metal at all, is an archaic term, or is it something else?

Hmmm, something else...

When I listen to the albums I've produced, pre-release, and go over the many sub-genres available to label these older albums, all of which were recorded in the early to mid-80's, I inevitably slam into the same wall because to me it's just Rock music. Not Southern Rock, a term that started with the Allman Brother's Band, (who, incidentally, didn't care for the label, it was, as they stated many times just rock n roll), or progressive Rock, or glam, or Rockabilly, or...you get the drift.

Perhaps Rock was the wrong term to begin with, but I don't exactly know. To me, it's simply modern music based on the popular esthetic I was brought up with. But at the time I was growing up all kinds of music was waffling through the air, Rock, Pop, Swing, Jazz, Classical, Country; mostly on their own stations, but quite often there were crossover hits and on TV, back in the three network universe, you were exposed to any number of different acts; just check out the old Ed Sullivan or Dean Martin variety shows of the 60's to see what I mean. All of these influences infused my music. As did the fact that I was in bands, mostly school bands and orchestras, for all of my formative years. I listened to and played a lot of different music.

So how does that answer the question? It doesn't, but I think it aids anyone listening to what I've produced over the years, and this is more true of the music I'm producing now. Once I got into my own little groove and my own little DIY world, the music I've made is basically popular music driven by whatever influence the song found in me, be it Rock or Jazz or Country, whatever. And the albums themselves began taking on themes through which the songs worked. The idea and focus was that the music was a journey, basically 45 minutes long-the product of the limitations of what you could legitimately put on a vinyl record-and meant to be listened to from beginning to end. The time limit has ben amended given what digital recording affords, but I've stuck to that premise whether that's how people listen to it or not.

Did I answer the question? Probably not. Here's my evasive answer; it's just music. And to be fair, I don't really label or categorize the music I listen to beyond basic genres; it's either pop, or rock, or jazz, or country or classical, and I'll stick with that even if it's a bit blurry.

If you still need a better definition, here it is: Mood music flavored with the stylings of pop-rock-country-jazz.

Works for me.

What the hell happened to Rock 'n Roll?

I've noticed a lot of teeth gnashing of late over the perceived demise of Rock 'n Roll music. You know, the stuff we listened to growing up; lots of loud overdriven and distorted guitars, bass, drums, possibly keys, and a strutting frontman with flowing locks and a high pitched wail.

Think Foghat.

Now, in truth, if you were to peruse the artists at say CD Baby or on Soundcloud (I assume some are there), or any other bands sites and looked for such artists, you'd find them along with all their mutant brothers and sisters, for R&R had morphed into a thousand different genres and a thousand different variants. Like Jazz and Classical before it, R&R has grown old, or if you prefer, mature. And if the kids are digging the scene, then as far as new stuff goes, they're on their own because Radio, land of the dinosaurs, continues the time honored custom of regurgitating the 60's, 70's, and 80's, and parts of the 90's, such as Grunge. New bands? Come on?

Is some of this is the fault of the speedsters; the fleet fingered types who arpeggiate the fretboard at blinding speeds as well as those that tune down and jackhammer metal, in all its sub-genres? Is metal even R&R? Maybe. Like BeBop before it, the very virtuosity that draws some, deters others who find it mind-numbingly pedantic. Pentatonic Blues rifters are also plying their wares, as they have for as long as the Blues has existed, but like Jazz it has it's adherents and the rest ignore it. Wannabe guitar heroes play to the stereotypes they grew up with; some costumed; some not, but as with the rest of the R&R lexicon, much of it is been there, done that.

So is Rock dead?

A bit of this teeth gnashing is by the the very lions of Rock; Gene Simmons of Kiss comes to mind, who lament their lack of recognizable offspring, yet again; what will they do that you have not already done? And if you're a binder or alchemist of sounds that have R&R elements but are not exactly R&R, then are you R&R, or are you merely an appropriator? Will it be a hip new sound or an abomination to the heart of our R&R nation? Is there a ECM/Rock amalgamation that will stir the nation, a blend of Hip-hop-rock? Again, maybe. Of course, there's always New Country if you're pining for a kind of R&R nostalgia.

The truth is times change- don't you hate hearing that! What was once new is now old, and while R&R has had a very long run, it's foolish to think it won't fade as its predecessors have. That doesn't mean that people won't be rocking away, it just means it ain't no big thang.

If, however, you're longing for the next Zeppelin....

So what exactly do you do again?

It has been impressed upon me that I've got to market myself, promote the brand, etc. It makes sense and it's the world we live in. The question then becomes how? Generally, you're young when you start down this path and your audience is young too, but the idea that I can still market myself to the young is both counter-productive and to be honest, a little creepy.

The other route is based on the idea that you should market to those who share a love of the music of known artists that you sound like or emulate. That seems reasonable except that the groups and artists I like or whose music I've drawn inspiration from, their fans are probably not that into artists they've never heard of and aren't interested in hearing something that sounds like their favorite music when they can just go back and listen to the tracks from their favorite bands catalog. Why should I listen to someone who sounds like the Beatles when I can just listen to the Beatles?

The third option is the genre route; meaning which genre do I fit into. The problem there is the music I make is basically pop-rock stuff with some country and americana thrown in when I go acoustic. And pop-rock has fractured into literally a minefield of sub-genres from the genera of pop and rock, not to mention country, folk, americana, jazz, ECM, hip-hop, rap, and bluegrass. Somehow I have to decide where I fit in in this miasma of choices.

It makes my head hurt.

But that's the nature of music today. Mostly it's just music played on guitars, keyboards, and drums. I like to throw in dream-pop, electric folk, indie rock; I play a lot of different stuff, but I do have my own sound, which is important; sometimes more important than a particular description.

Still, we march on; we figure it out; we have day jobs.

Maybe I should focus on tee shirts?

Year Two of Mr Primitive's Revival

I survived my first year back in the world of music. I suppose if the first period of my work had been more widely experienced things might be different, but in truth I had no interest in that at that time. My only interest was in creating the music. My fascination was in seeing what I could come up with and once I was satisfied with it; it was done and it was time to move on to the next song. I disappointed Brian in not including him more and I was stubborn in wanting the songs to be a certain way. And once I began feeling like I had nothing new to say; that I was repeating myself, going over the same ground, I stopped.

The question of why bring it back, of why begin again, is in the idea of the worth of the material; are the songs any good? It took me a long time to believe that they are; that there is merit in the work. It's odd to come to terms with something like that. You would think that once something is done, that once it is finished-and you did this-it's good. I don't have any unfinished music from that period. If I liked something, I finished it. If I didn't, I erased it; this was all back in the pre-digital age for me.

I haven't the slightest idea what 2017 will bring or how much more money I'll need to spend to become the legend I was meant to be. I do know that more of the Seattle period will be released, as well as the Denver period, the early stuff from 1980 to 1984. There will be new stuff, for me, for everyone else it's all new. Maybe I should have been more proactive in the 80's, but what I did in the 80's wasn't quite 80's pop or rock, oddly more in line with later pop and rock idioms, and therefore problematic when it comes to marketing etc.

It may still be problematic today in that there is much to swim through, but I'm there on Spotify and Pandora and the other streaming services and maybe some will take a chance and listen. I plan on continuing to perform and put out music and I'll do what I can to get the word out, but I'm still some sorta old dude now and that matters. But you never know. You write, you record, you preform; it works out. Someday I leave my family my catalog and they look at it and wonder:

What do we do with this?