I wanted this image at the end but for some reason the peakd editor will not let me put it as the cover image so...
So after 6 months in India, studying Yoga, beginning my illustrious blogging career on steemit, and meeting a very special person among many other special people, I returned to the U.S. to work for the summer and prepare to go back to India. Which was a terrible decision but that will have to wait for the next installment.
Summer of Love
I hadn’t seen my folks much in the last 10 or so years and they invited me to stay in their RV while I worked to save up money so I accepted. The very special person I met in India came to stay with me and see the glories of the United Corporations of America, which was pretty awesome. I didn’t know the source of it at the time but she was going through some internal shit of her own and it made for a pretty intense summer. It was a small RV and we got to know each other a lot better.
Now that I had my full arsenal of instruments and gear at my disposal, I brought my Open Mic entries to the next level. First continuing with covers like “Blackbird” and then moving on to a combination of jazz standards and originals. The first standard I did is still one of my favorite recordings of mine. It’s called Blue Daniel, but I actually added some lyrics of my own to it which in Jazz we call vocalise.
The next tune I recorded and submitted was an original that I had actually written just before leaving for India 7 months earlier or so. It’s the first tune I had written in a while and I ended up making a live version as well as a live/multitracked version.
I followed these with a tune that I had written in India called Barely There. While I have been fortunate to meet a few people in life who are genuinely aware of themselves and the world around them, I had been disappointed over and over for years at that point by how most people seem to be so oblivious that it must be a choice to remain so. So a lot of the music I was writing was about that reflection and trying to bring awareness to that lack of awareness if you get me. Even awareness of what is keeping most people from self awareness would be a huge improvement. There are just so many layers of swirling silliness all blanketed over by a numb ignore-ance as a sort of ego self preservation mechanism...
Anyway, Barely There:
Then I threw in some more jazz standards just for fun, C’est Ci Bon and Fly Me to the Moon which I won’t embed here but you can check them out if you like. Those I did on bass and vocals instead of guitar.
The next tune I posted was another one I had written in India while beach bumming in Gokarna and missing my new friend who had returned to London. This was cool because I collaborated with a fellow Open Mic Musician who was pretty active on the platform for a while. Haven’t seen her around in quite a long time though. This one is called Absences:
The next 2 recording are both tunes that I actually wrote that summer. One I literally wrote that morning and recorded it all in a few hours in a really simple format, that one is called Springtime Chains and the other one is called Buried in Images. While I like both of these tunes a lot they are both a bit depressing to be honest, I guess I must have been going through a down time.
There was definitely a lot going on at the time. I had decided to go back to india as I had met some musicians there that had convinced me that I could do well playing jazz at weddings and corporate events in Delhi with some friends of theirs. At the time it all seemed so synchronistic and they were pretty cool people so I thought what the hell. Well I’ll tell you how that turned out next time but I will say that if you ever have to get involved with an international shipping company, be very careful about who you choose. Avoid the budget options if at all possible, record your conversations, don’t trust them. Yes, I had a really bad experience. It’s possible that it had to happen as part of my journey and learning experience. I may very well have ended up spending a much longer time in India the second time if things had happened differently with them, maybe I’d still be there now, who knows. Now that I think of it the next post in this series is going to be pretty ridiculous.
Anyway the last song I recorded in this time period was one I had written years ago while living in my car in Santa Cruz. So I’m sure you can guess why it’s called Parking Lot Blues... I also had just spent 4 years working as a valet in Los Angeles so I had a very intimate and colorful relationship with parking lots at that point.
Well, this post was more music than story. There wasn’t too much going on at this time for me besides working, making music, and hanging out with my lady. Long walks on the beach and all that. Though we did get to visit my uncle in Washington State which was really great. I find redwoods and the pacific northwest in particular to be really inspiring and healing. Here’s a little piece of that trip...
Thanks for checking out some of my music and hanging out for a little reminiscing. Here are the rest of the posts in this series:
“Takes a Village”
“Narcissus and the Goldmen” or “My Life as a Bloodbag”
“Groove Service” or “My Rebirth into Jazz”
“My Senior Recital” or “The End of an Era”
“And Then There Was Steemit” or “My Blocky Beginning”