We live in troubled times, and I want to help, even if it's only in a small way. If you purchase one of my new songs "New Orleans," "Blacksburg," or "Still, Flowing Water" from my Myspace store, I will donate all proceeds to help alleviate a little suffering in this world.
All "New Orleans" proceeds will go to Acorn (Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now), which, among many other great things, is helping to rebuild New Orleans, a city that I love. See their website at Acorn.org .
All "Blacksburg" proceeds will go to the Hokie Spirit Memorial Fund established by Virginia Tech. See the website www.vt.edu/fund/index.php for more info.
"Blacksburg" was featured by the Roanoke Times in its April 20, 2007 webcast. See Tad Dickens' report at this link.
What I take in from sales of "Still, Flowing Water" will go to the support of Tri-State Dharma in Cincinnati. The song was inspired by the words of my teacher Mary Ellen Landolina and the great holy man Ajahn Chah. Thank you, Mary Ellen, for all you give to us!
Peace, love, and happiness,
Mike
Contrary to what the song says, I was not born in a bucket, nor in New Orleans. I was born and misspent much of my youth in a variety of small Southern Indiana towns (misspent in the sense that I devoted far less time to developing my musical skills than, in retrospect, I wish I had). My parents were good to me, and I grew to love any music that was real and genuine and full of feeling. When I discovered Bob Dylan, for a while almost nothing else mattered. I learned to play guitar singing those masterful Dylan tunes from the 60s, all of them.
I went to the Air Force Academy because I thought I wanted to go to the moon. But then I discovered the government really wanted me to bomb Vietnamese villages. Horrified, I promptly left the military, realizing that it might be better just to dream about the moon than to actually go.
In 1972, fate led me as a student to Harlaxton Manor in the heart of England, where I met Chuck Rolando, a far superior musician and songwriter. There I started writing songs in earnest--earnest, but awkward and fumbling and not very confidently. But, with Chuck's patient tutorials and encouragement, I kept at it and in a few years found a voice of sorts. I was married and had two sons and a teaching job at a branch campus of the University of Cincinnati, but I kept making music--for myself mostly. I experimented playing with other musicians, at one point joined a group called appropriately enough Last Ditch Effort, but the rest of the boys preferred to work on cover songs, while I really wanted to record originals. We parted ways on good terms.
In 1985 I had enough self-confidence or foolhardiness to record a solo LP in my basement on a Tascam 8-track reel-to-reel. I did it all myself and called it "Kangaroo." Contrary to popular belief, the title has nothing to do with my name, which, for the record, is pronounced Rose. The album is about how to survive this mad, bad, and sad world with the help of music, a little imagination, a kangaroo in your basement, a watersnake in your pocket, and a hole in your head. A great teacher taught me to reach on down into the quiet, and he said love is all about the imagination. He's right. I printed 200 copies of the record and gave most of them away. Needless to say, the album never made the Billboard Hot 100, but I do think some DJ on an independent Cincinnati station played a song or two one night at 2 a.m. Nevertheless, I'm not ashamed of the record. The songs hold up. It is what it is. You can hear some of those songs here.
I did some more home recording in 1990 when I spent a sabbatical from my teaching job in Tennessee and hung around Nashville for about six months. I played open mics at various spots around town on a regular basis, auditioned and was selected for a Sunday Night Songwriter Showcase at the Bluebird Cafe, on the small but hallowed stage where such kings as Steve Earle, Townes Van Zandt, and Guy Clark have played, both before and after me (not the same night sadly). That was a sweet evening though. Big Wedge Music publishing company picked up four of my songs from that period, but nothing ever came of it. I returned disheartened to Cincinnati to resume teaching and pay a string of debts--both personal and financial. In the 90s, my music lay fallow. I wrote an unpublished novel and played guitar rarely, wrote songs even less. I learned some things but wish I'd spent more time with my guitar.
I've been unlucky in love, but my luck has changed. I've found the real thing now, with the most beautiful, caring, and compassionate woman you'd ever want to meet. How do I deserve this good fortune? Now I do regard myself to be a very, very lucky guy. Perhaps for that reason I'm feeling the music once more, writing songs again and working harder at musicianship than ever before (because time is short). I'm still a long, long way away from where I'd like to be. In whatever time I have left on this earth, I'm not only trying to get better as a guitar player, but to learn as many new instruments as possible: banjo, mandolin, dobro, fiddle, mouth harp, bodhran, tin whistle, everything--all at once. You can laugh. Maybe it's more foolhardiness, but I'm giving it my best shot. Wish me luck. This space offers a chance to share what I've done and what I'm learning with anybody who cares to listen and to connect with like-minded souls. I can't say what all this is worth to you. You'll have to decide for yourself. To me, however, it's worth everything. I do it because I have to do it. Plain and simple. I love music--maybe too much--but that's the way it is. I believe now I'll be singing and playing as long as I have breath to breathe. You can join me for the ride if you like, and let me join you for yours. But if you don't, that's okay too.
To read Scott Henthorn's much too kind article about me in the Raymond Walters College student newspaper, follow this link . He was a student of mine at the time, and he was probably trying to suck up for a better grade when he wrote the article, but he's a good guy. Check out his myspace too at scotthenthorn . Like me, he's trying to swallow the earth whole in one bite. I like that about him.
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Here's a video of "Blacksburg."