2018 in Review

I'm generally not one for taking stock, but as 2018 comes to an end, I thought I would take a look back at what has been a pretty eventful year. Doing so also gives me an opportunity to resurrect this somewhat dormant blog.

The year has been somewhat eventful where Christopher is concerned. He got a job, lost a job, and has begun looking for a job once again. The process itself seemed to take forever and could possibly do so again.

On the music front, we played 27 shows in 2018, not counting our participation in parties or the monthly forum of the Idaho Songwriters Association. Perhaps our biggest and best performance came at the end of June when we took part in an ISA Songwriter Showcase at the Riverside Hotel's Sandbar Lounge. The crowd is probably the largest one we have played for, and it was a blast.

We have one performance scheduled so far for 2019, though I am hopeful of perhaps doing as many as 30. As has been the case the last couple of years, farmers' markets will likely make up the bulk of those shows. Hopefully we will see you out at one of the markets. If so, stop by and say hello.

One of the biggest events for me personally was my decision to take a class in podcasting. That led to my launching Measured Voices, a podcast featuring conversation and music with area songwriters. Now 23 episodes in, I can say I enjoy doing the podcast as much as I do writing and singing my own songs. I am so thankful to everyone who has guested on the podcast and also for all of the positive feedback the podcast has received.

On the subject of music, it was a busy year on the writing front. I shared 92 original songs in 2018 on my songwriting blog, My Wordsmithing. Two of those were repeats of other songs shared in 2018, and two others were revisions of songs shared earlier in the year. In 2019, I hope to top the 300 post mark on the songwriting blog. (I have 33 posts to go.)

In 2018, I did something musically I had never done before - I played my guitar (badly) and performed one of my songs solo at a songwriting workshop. In 2019, I may try to play in front of an audience. I have a candidate or two in mind. Stay tuned.

We rounded out 2018 musically by doing some recording of acoustic guitar and vocals. The goal is to put together a new CD of original music in time for summer. It looks like we may also sign up for a subscription service so that we can sell downloads of individual songs.

This year was an eventful one on the relationship front. Teresa and I celebrated our 25th anniversary. We marked the occasion by opening our home for an anniversary party to both musician and non-musician friends and celebrated with food, drink, and, of course, music. We had such a good time, we are thinking about hosting a Second Annual 25th Anniversary party next year.

2018 saw us doing more music, less camping, and spending a lot more time with friends. Music has allowed up to connect with people and develop some meaningful friendships where we laugh and sing and share music, as well as sharing some good food and good wine and good conversation.

My 2019 wish is for more of the same for me and for you. Happy New Year!

#232 - Another Lap Around The Sun

Well, we've made it. We've reached the end of 2017 and are about to embark on the new 365-day journey we will know as 2018.

For many of us, 2017 has been quite a year. New words and non-words have entered the public consciousness (covfefe, anyone?), familiar faces have left us, while other familiar and not-so-familiar names and faces have been in the news for unexpected reasons.

There is a lot on my mind as I write this and much I could say about 2017 (and probably would with a bit more alcohol), but there are several words that come to mind as I think back over the past 365 days.

Eventful is the first word that comes to mind. 2017 has been an eventful year in many ways. Of course, we swore in a new President who has managed to get his name and face in the news every single day since. We've also had numerous events both at home and abroad that have filled the front pages of newspapers (remember those?) and the screens of newscasts everywhere.

Another word that comes to mind and which relates to my first word is busy. 2017 has been a very busy year, at least for us, and it certainly feels as if it has been busy for a great many other people as well.

We've had friends move, other friends sending off their children to college, relatives having children. In other words, life. Somehow, though, it seems as if life itself is getting busier. That could be due to the increased presence of social media, which allows me to stay in touch more easily with family and friends and to reconnect with long-lost friends (a positive) while also allowing people to spew hate speech and angry words at people they don't know simply because they disagree (a negative).

Life could also be busier simply because there are more of us on this planet and, therefore, more people to interact with, respond to, account for, be influenced by.

For us, 2017 was busier simply because we were doing more. Our son turned 21, so there was additional work trying to help him transition into adulthood. We also did more with music, performing some 30 gigs around town. And we managed to put together a CD of original music and write a number of new songs.

I'm sure 2018 will be its own share of challenges and adventures. For one, there will be the challenge and adventure of growing another year older. (I won't make any claim to getting wiser.) There will be much, no doubt, that will play out on the national and international stage. And, of course, there will be the usual cycle of life occurrences associated with living and dying.

When I was younger, I liked to make ten resolutions, all of which I would break over the course of the new year, usually before January ended. This year, I think I'll stick to one resolution, though it has several parts.

In 2018, I resolve to continue working toward becoming more comfortable in my own skin and to becoming truer to my self and to my convictions, to determining what I truly believe and working to live up to those beliefs.

May the new year bring each of you joy and peace and music. You know what they say - a day without music is like a day without sunshine. Happy New Year!

#230 - Another Trip Around The Sun

"You load sixteen tons, what do you get / Another day older and deeper in debt"
- "Sixteen Tons" - Tennessee Ernie Ford

Another year of my life has come and gone. Today is my birthday, and I am embarking on another trip around the sun. Even though I am at a stage in my life when things are supposed to slow down, in some ways I am busier than ever.

Although, my activity on this blog has slowed, this past year has been pretty busy on other fronts. In addition to this blog, I have a second blog in which I share my creative writing efforts. You can check it out here: My Wordsmithing.

In addition to that blog, my wife and I have been pretty busy performing our original music and covering music of other artists we enjoy. We probably did at least a couple dozen gigs of two-hours or more in the past year. It isn't a living, but it is a nice hobby.

As a result, I have not spent as much time on this blog as I meant to. Of course, these gaps have occurred in the past, either because I didn't have anything to say or because I had too much to say and wasn't sure where to start.

This blog was always intended to share my random thoughts and opinions on various things. Fortunately or unfortunately, depending on your point of view, the world itself has become seemingly more random. As a result, my random thoughts and opinions no longer feel so random to me.

Because of that, this blog, while I have no intention of abandoning it, will likely become more infrequent simply because I feel like the My Wordsmithing blog allows me to express myself in the way I do best, musically.

This blog could turn into something more political in nature, or I may experiment with using this blog as a vehicle for podcasting, time permitting.

Before I go, I want to thank my wife Teresa for spending the past 25 birthdays with me. She has definitely made them more enjoyable, more worthwhile, and more worth sticking around for. I hope each of you has or finds someone to help make your birthdays more special.

#222 - Time Keeps On Slipping, Slipping, Slipping

"I felt the beat of my mind go drifting into time passages, years go falling in the fading light" - Al Stewart "Time Passages"

In December, I marked a milestone birthday. For those unaware, a milestone birthday is one of those occasions you are mostly happy to have reached. At the same time, a part of you laments that another such day has come and gone, leaving you to contemplate the fact of aging and, if you are morbidly inclined, think about your own mortality.

To mark the occasion, I wrote a song I simply titled "Time." (You can view the lyrics here.) It addresses and references, I think, the typical things one thinks about as one ages - lost opportunities, wasted time, life sort of sneaking up on you and then past - you know, cheerful stuff like that.

I don't know whether it has or can be scientifically proven, but anecdotal evidence, along with my own personal observation, suggests that it is in fact true that time passes more quickly as one ages.

It is as if, rather than proceeding along a straight line, time follows an arc. It seems to climb uphill (and thus pass more slowly) when one is younger. How many of us when we were young would blurt out to our parents or some other adult "I can't wait until I'm old enough to move out and live on my own" or words to that effect?

When we are young, time seems to drag in a sense. It is as if some unseen hand is holding the reins, slowing us down to keep us from rushing too fast into our future.

As we enter adulthood, time's arc seems to level out a bit. There is still a slight uphill climb as we establish our careers, perhaps marry and begin a family. We hit a sort of pinnacle where we are somewhat established professionally and personally while still young enough to pursue new goals and dreams.

Then we hit middle-age. The downhill portion of the arc begins. Our children, if we have them, seem to grow up overnight. Our careers, perhaps, no longer hold the allure they once did. Or other thoughts begin to compete for space - travel, retirement, grandchildren. We begin to lose friends and family to illness or age at a greater rate.

This is not to say that we all take to our rocking chairs and simply wait for the end to come. It does mean that we begin to recognize that there is an end point. Perhaps we try to cram in things we thought of doing when we were younger but never got around to for one reason or another.

In my case, that thing has been music. I've always enjoyed singing, and when I was younger, I thought I had a decent voice. So, I began taking voice lessons. For the last few years, with the help of my wife, I have been regularly singing around town.

For years, I wrote song lyrics as a way to express my emotions and dreams. As I've gotten older, those efforts have improved to the point that I wanted to share them with others. Again with my wife's help, I have been able to set a number of those lyrics to music. In December of 2015, we put some of those songs on a CD for friends and family. This summer, we hope to put out another CD.

Last fall, I also began taking guitar lessons. At this stage in life, I have no illusion or aspiration of becoming the next Chet Atkins, Mark Knoffler, or Carlos Santana. However, I hope to learn enough to be able to arrange some of my own songs and perhaps even accompany myself on occasion.

I do not know exactly where on time's arc I currently reside. I know I am on the downhill portion of the arc (unless our average lifespan suddenly increases to 150 years or more). I also know there is still plenty I want to do, some of it an attempt to make up for lost and wasted time.

Some people say it is never too late to pursue your dreams. Well, technically, at some point it is too late. (Death comes to mind.) However, I have not yet reached that point. So, I keep on dreaming, and I keep on chasing.

"Buy me a ticket on the last train home tonight." - Al Stewart

#206 - Wow, Has It Really Been A Month?

I knew it had been a while since I last posted anything, but I looked and found out it has been just over a month since my last entry. Much too long.

I suppose one reason for the gap in posts is that I haven't really felt I had anything to say. Every time I thought about making an entry, I shied away. Why? Because the two topics that kept coming to mind, religion and politics, were not something I felt like trying to write about.

It isn't that I don't have strong positions on both subjects; I do. However, I also know that my views in each area put me at odds with, I suspect, most of my family and friends. Not that that alone would stop me. On the other hand, it could be argued that if one is making a noise simply to make a noise, what is the point.

I suppose that also holds for saying something simply to say something, although it could be argued that is exactly what I am doing here. Point taken. So I have chosen not to compound things by adding politics or religion to the mix.

Music or musical tastes might be an equally dangerous topic, but here goes. Last night, the family went to see Elvis Costello and opening act Larkin Poe at the Egyptian Theater, a wonderful art deco style theater in the heart of downtown Boise.

Our son has been exposed to Costello's music off and on throughout his life, but last night was his first live exposure to the man. My wife and I had been lucky enough to see him eleven years previous, and I was interested to see how this show compared aside from the much higher ticket prices.

Both shows were equally good in my mind, yet were night and day to one another. The first show, in 2005, took place in a smaller club and was mainly standing room only. The concert itself was electric and everyone in the crowd, aged 15 to 50 or so, seemed a part of that excitement.

One other thing I remember about that first concert is that Elvis himself did not interact that much with the crowd. He would do three or four songs in a row and not say anything in-between. Not that he was different or impersonal. It was just that the show was completely about the music.

Part of that may also have been due to the fact that he had been briefly hospitalized a few weeks earlier for an illness that had already caused him to postpone this show and led to cancellation of a few other dates. (One thing making the two shows somewhat similar is the fact that Elvis seemed to be fighting a bit of a cold last night.)

Fast forward to 2016. Elvis could now be seen as an elder statesman of rock (he turns 62 this year) and is certainly known and respected by many music lovers for his encyclopedia knowledge of musical styles and artists unknown to casual listeners but who were influential to many performers, including Costello himself.

The 2016 show, even though it took place in a slightly larger venue, was much more intimate in feel. Part of that was no doubt due to the fact that we all had places to sit, helping to make the event feel as if we had all been invited to an informal gathering of friends to laugh and sing a bit.

Also bumping up the intimacy factor was the interspersing of personal stories, anecdotes, and jokes between songs. These drew upon and were an extension of the stories related in last year's wonderful memoir Unfaithful Music & Disappearing Ink. The stories themselves were punctuated by various pictures and graphics displayed behind Elvis on a giant box made to look like a television set from the 1960s.

The third aspect of last night's show that made it seem and feel more intimate is that, aside from the final 30 minutes or so when he performed with his opening act Larkin Poe, the show was a musical monologue, just Elvis and his guitar (or one of the ten or so he had on stage to choose from, most of them acoustic) or piano.

In addition to the pictures of his parents and from his childhood on display, the piano added emphasized the more familial feel of this show, as it belonged to his wife, noted jazz singer and pianist Diana Krall.

Elvis mixed older and newer songs together, giving each a slightly different feel from the original to keep it fresh yet maintaining enough of the original version to make it familiar. On stage, he seemed relaxed and both content and comfortable with his musical legacy (even performing a number from Goodbye Cruel World, an album I believe he once referred to as his worst), a man perhaps finally comfortable in his own skin.

Others may mention that other Elvis, Presley, but to me, this Elvis is still king. Long may he reign.

#199 - One To Go

The title of this entry has a dual meaning. The first, perhaps more obvious meaning. refers to the fact that I write this on the last day of 2015. Hence the "one to go."

The other meaning refers to the number given this entry and the fact that I need one more post to reach 200 on this blog. Given that I began this blog in 2009, that is not a great deal of entries, especially when I intended several times to post more frequently.

However, those intentions never came to pass, either because I didn't have anything to say or because I didn't feel like it or I was simply too lazy. I've no illusions that will suddenly change in the coming year, but you never know.

2015 turned out to be a more eventful and event-filled years than someone of my advancing years might have any right or reason to expect. The year was a watershed for me musically as I got the opportunity to perform my songs publicly for the first time anywhere ouside of a couple of weddings more than 20 years earlier.

That came about thanks to the help of my talented wife Teresa, without whom my songs would simply be bad poems. With her help, I also recorded my first CD to send out to friends and family. (I say that as if there will be many more instead of it being perhaps my only CD, but who knows?) I still have roughly 50 copies if anyone wants to buy one.

In 2015, we also bought our first motorhome, a 2005 model that quickly became a home on wheels for us and something we hope to use even more in the coming year. Once the weather warms, that is.

Perhaps the biggest event of 2015 was our trip to Washington, DC with our son to celebrate his recognition as one of eight national winners of a playwriting competition sponsored by a division of the Kennedy Center. It was a whirlwind weekend that yielded material for a couple of songs, a couple of proud parents, and a lifetime of memories.

One of my Facebooks friends (and a former colleague/boss from my television days) shared a post that 2016 is going to be an amazing year. I hope it is, but it will have to go some to come close to, let alone top the amazing year that was 2015.

#185 - The Dog Days of Summer Come Early

I know the so-called dog days of summer don't really hit until August, and summer doesn't officially start for another two weeks, but I think I'm justified in saying that this summer has been a real dog so far. Literally.

This past week, I took our ten-year old Beagle to the vet to have what was apparently a harmless growth on his back left leg removed. I say apparently harmless because the rate at which it grew in the previous seven day would have made the growth a prime target for the upcoming NBA draft.

The situation with our dog was only the latest in what has already been an expensive summer. In the last two-plus weeks we've had the air conditioner on our fifth-wheel replaced, the rear differential fluid and one of the two batteries on our F-350 truck replaced, and we are now waiting for the motor on the black tank valve to be replaced.

This latter repair, the cost of which is still unknown, caused me to cancel a planned two-week trip to Utah with my son to go visit a friend I haven't seen in six years. So the cost has not been simply financial. Hopefully I can make the trip next year.

On the bright side, Teresa and I will have more time to practice for what I hope will be another performance at this month's Idaho Songwriters Association forum. However, I won't find out if we're guaranteed a slot until the middle of the month. Fingers crossed!

At this stage of my life, I have no illusions of anything approaching stardom, but it is fun to get some of my music out there and to have it well received. I would be able to do neither without Teresa's help and encouragement. I guess she can add arranger and accompanist to her resume.

One thing I think I am learning is that, while dreams may have to change or be reshaped a bit, growing older does not mean an end to dreams or to dreaming. Nor does it mean one has to completely abandon the dreams of youth. My musical dreams began when I was 18, but I lacked the confidence, the courage, and probably the ability to pursue them at that time. 40 years later, those dreams have been modified a bit, but they are coming true. So keep dreaming!

Warmer Weather and Other Random Thoughts

It's been a couple of months since my last post. So it is high time I updated this blog.

My last post had to do with our then new to the family Beagle, Oliver, and the impact he has had on me. That impact continues to grow, emotionally and, sadly, financially. This past week I had to take him back to the vet for another ear infections - $200, Ouch! My wife refers to Oliver as the "grand" dog because that's how much we have spent on him so far.

Now that the weather is starting to warm up around here we are dealing with another issue, shedding. So far, Oliver has left us enough hair to knit a fair-sized area rug.

On the plus side, the warmer weather is giving us a chance to find out how much fun camping with a dog can be. We made one trip out April 17-19 and hope to get out again soon, maybe this weekend. I think Oliver made the trip a much more memorable experience for all of us.

Since the last post, I hosted a dinner party for friends at our house. I think we ended up with ten or 11 people in all, and I know I had a great time cooking for everyone. I think they all had a good time eating as well. I hope to do something similar sometime in the fall. I love cooking for others and having the chance to get together with friends and hopefully get to know them better.

In the meantime, I continue the journey to know myself better. It has now been almost five months since I started seeing a therapist, and I feel I have come quite a ways although I am still most definitely a work in progress. I can say, though, that I feel like I am starting to cut away some of the scar tissue left by the events of my childhood.

I'm writing lyrics again, something I did quite frequently in my teens and 20s. I stopped when I got married because I thought I no longer needed to do that. These days, I find perhaps more than ever that writing lyrics allows me to get to some of the emotions long buried in me and to also express what for me are new emotions. Look for samples in future posts.

I could keep going, but I guess I'll save something for the next post. Until then, be well. Be happy.