The other night I saw the amazing sacred steel gospel band, the Campbell Brothers. I had seen them before and this time, like the last time, I was standing and clapping and waving my arms over my head for most of … Continued
Popping up all over my Facebook feed last week was a three-year old interview with Thomas Sudhof, who won (with Randy Schekman and James Rothman) this year’s Nobel Prize for medicine and physiology. The reason? This question and answer: Who … Continued
I’ve written about endings before. How do you end a never-ending story? But the word “ending” is so … so singular. The reality is, like any narrative, A Life’s Work has more than one ending. The film is broken into several … Continued
I’ll be honest, I wasn’t thrilled with my productivity at Ucross. This had nothing to do with Ucross, they provided an atmosphere that nurtured creativity and productivity. It was the headspace I brought with me from NYC. The best work … Continued
I’m fond of transforming hard rocking tunes into finger picking acoustic numbers. One such song is the Mr. Brightside by The Killers. There’s a clever verse in the song that always makes me smile. Now I’m falling asleep and she’s … Continued
I just finished reading Guitar Zero: The New Musician and the Science of Learning by Gary Marcus. In it, Marcus, a professor of psychology, writes about what it’s like to learn how to play guitar at the age of 40. … Continued
When I was at VCCA I made a couple of recordings of me playing some classical guitar music, one in the field on a beautiful summer-like day (listen to it here) and another in the silo. Its circular shape and … Continued
I asked Robert Darden, author of Nothing but Love in God’s Water: Volume I, Black Sacred Music from the Civil War to the Civil Rights Movement and People Get Ready!: A New History of Black Gospel Music and founder of the Black Gospel Music Restoration … Continued
It was unseasonably warm for the end of October, so I took my guitar and digital recorder into the field at VCCA. I sat on the bench part of Craig Pleasants‘ sculpture, Heliotrope, and played a minuet by Henry Purcell … Continued