Todd Clouser: Musings

Im just returning, physically though not yet mentally, to Los Cabos after a weekend in New Orleans for Jazzfest, which I celebrated in usual festive fashion. The festival was its predictable shades of incredible, offering me the opportunity to catch up on the heavy dose of live music Ive been cut from cold turkey here in Mexico. The first band I saw was the Lee Boys, at the reccomendation of my brother. Bumps shot from my skin and the blood went flush as I heard the pedal steel lead. Church of blues. Its inspiring to see music played in an inspired way, and that band was so visibly grateful for their opportunity to share their music with jazzfest, the energy was contagious and all positive.
I got to see and briefly meet The Bad Plus as well. Their composition and playing skills are nothing short of mastery. They were great guys as well. The tune "Physical Cities" was especially ridiculous in their set. The whole show kind of left the chin hanging.
Walking around the fairgrounds offers the opportunity to make use of some dumb luck and stumble across all sorts of greatness. Walking through the Saturday mud, I sloughed past a little stage with a collective called "The Pinstripe Brass Band". They killed it and I moved my limbs. Coming into the festival Saturday, there was some outrageous guitar mastery screaming over a standard blues at one of the larger stages on the ground, which turned out to be Henry Butler's band and his guitarist. I was only able to catch a couple tunes, but got to meet Henry briefly a little later and talk players with him, as he eagerly admitted wearing his purple suit and sunglasses, referring to his guitarist's skills "we only hire 'em if they're killers". Killers indeed.
Theres too much other good stuff to mention here and Im still processing it all as Im recovering from an evening of seeing Ivan Neville's Dumpstaphunk, who took to the stage at Tipitina's Uptown around 1 a.m.
New Orleans is such an incredibly culturally rich and inspiring place. Its all its own and we're lucky to have it to enjoy. Looking forward to getting back, hopefully one day with instrument in tow.
For now, we've got some shows coming up and all sorts of things for the summer, so stick around if you would.
Take Care

Just finally catching up on all the normal duties, one of those being this website, I neglected during our little run of shows with Benny Wenbeck, Adam Linz, and Greg Schutte. We played all throughout the Los Cabos area to healthy, though often not totally sober, audiences. The whole deal was highlighted by an afternoon show at Cerritos Surf Beach on the Pacific side and a Saturday night standing room only show at Havana's. A lot of our great Los Cabos musicians came down to check out the guys.... a cool deal for our community of players here. Thanks to everyone who helped, know who you are. Another humbling week and step in a positive direction.
We played a sampling of standards, some Crusaders style funk stuff, and a few of our new tunes both instrumental and otherwise. Those three guys are all such great players and cover a wide array of genres...something I like to do often to a fault, and can often frustrate other players. We've developed really well as a band despite being seperated by a decent majority of states in the union. Got to get back to playing some of the "BAJA" stuff with its rightful players, and sold some discs. We're about halfway through our first pressing of the album, which is far more than Ive sold of any other album Ive done....it sucks to think that way, but it offers a good nudge and pat on the back when the inevitable questions come up of continuing the process of creating and recording.
We're gonna be back in the studio this summer with Greg, Adam and Benny and Henry Weinbeck on a couple tunes as well. Just finishing up the charts. Next year's trip, perhaps in the fall, should be an album release run and there's talk of lanning some local events or festivals. Things have progressed a lot since we first met in the studio to record Baja, so we're all looking forward to getting some new stuff on the modern version of tape.
Gonna finish up some of rock/vocal tunes we did last year as well.
Hope everyone is well... enjoy the warming weather.

Another fun Wednesday last night. Thanks to everyone who has been returning each week. Feels like we've started to build a really unique night on Wednesdays. Nothing but good people.
Im busy writing some charts for next week when Benny Weinbeck, Adam Linz, and Greg Schutte come down for a week of shows. Im really looking forward to playing with those guys again. Im trying to make sure we do a really large helping of new original stuff yet to have been performed. Always makes things more exciting for me, even if there's a couple rough spots. We'll do some of Benny's new stuff as well, which I hear from Adam is better than ever. Cant wait to hear it.
Its going to be a marathon week of shows for me. Starting Tuesday with the guys at Club 96, then 2 shows Weds as we'll do Cerritos Beach Club Wednesday afternoon (empty beach, 'cept the little restaurant on the Pacific side), then I'll haul over that night to play with Jack at Havana. Thursday the rest of the crew will have a day off and Im doing a solo guitar deal at Pez Gordo Art Gallery in San Jose. 2 more shows Friday.... first at the Liga Mac Jazzfest dinner with Julio on bass and Luciano on drums, doing latin and BAJA stuff, then run over to Havana with Benny and the guys. We're back there Saturday to wrap up the week with what will most certainly be a deserved throwdown.
Anyway, gonna be long and fun, lots of music. Good life.

Take Care and come out and see the shows. We'll do our best to make it worth it.

Thought Id force out a post since its been some time. Crazy its spring already. After years in Mineesota and Boston, with their pronounced and manic seasons, a fall and winter passes here with only an early sunset to let you know its could as hell somewhere else.
Its been quite a tourist-season (no relation to aforementioned state of the Earth's tilt seasons) here for me. Ive been playing with some really wonderful musicians encompassing a variety of styles and for the first time in my life have actually been getting paid well for doing it.... maybe its unecessary or what not, but a little money in your pocket for doing what you do does indeed give things a little validation.
We had another great Wednesday last night. Did our first set with Julio on bass and keys, Geovanni on drums, and Gevonanni's brother Leo on percussion. A blood-related rhythm section is the way to go. Did tunes like "Aqui Como Alla" by Marc Ribot and "Phase Dance" by Pat Metheny.... some of my Baja and new stuff and ended with Billy Preston's "Will it Go Round in Circles". I love singing that one. Its got that intricate simplicity things go on.
Then Jack Sonni came up for the rest of the night and we ran through the tunes people have come to expect of Jack. His guitar came plugged in last night...lots of energy. And we were loud. I managed to sneak a few tunes Ivve been wanting to do with Jack into the set. "Tombstone Blues" by Dylan was exceptionally fun....its like reciting a brilliant man's stream of conscious poetry over swanky blues...actually thats exactly what it is. Theres a lot of words and I love every one of em... fun to sing. We also did "Level" by the Raconteurs. Ive wanted to play that song since the first time I heard it. Its one of those that just fits with my personality and what I ask for in rock music...its the song I would have played at all the parties in high school on repeat and no one else would get why I loved it so much.... just start rolling their eyes after Id had my first couple beers and was headed to the stereo with the disc. Anyhow, it was really fun. I love singing like that... actually I am just loving singing again these days.
Well my brother is in town and I took the week off school. Ive been surfing the days, teaching a couple lessons, and playing nights. Rough life down here. We're off to stand up on carved pieces of fiberglass while being nudged by crashing fluctuations in the tide of the sea.
Turns I didnt have to force this one at all.
Hopa.

Quite a week has passed. I turned 27 Sunday and I can say with honesty this past year was the best thus far. Minus the inconvenience of losing a not-so-vital organ, things were/are good.
Last Wednesday we were joined by Richie and Eren Cannata, Jack Sonni, and surprise guest NYC trumpet player Ingrid Jensen. Ingrid came up and did "Cold Duck Time" with us and sent mouths to their seats. A really incredible and classy player. Check her out. We ended up playing a few tunes with Ingrid on Thursday at Havana as well, after a quick private Valentines gig I did.
Richie joined us and Ingrid for "Cantelope Island" and another tune I cant seem to recall, forming the most formidable of horn line ups our little San Jose del Cabo has ever seen. For those of you who arent farmiliar with Richie, he played the solo on Billy Joel's original recording of "NY State of Mind", has toured with the biggest of stars to the grandest of venues, and is a monster player.
Eren Cannata jumped up afterwards and tore the place a new dance floor. An excellent singer and professional writer and producer, Eren ran through "Hard to Handle" and "I Feel Good" with us. It was all energy. IT felt great playing with these guys and taking in some of the energy. We ended up out late a couple nights jumping on stage with whatver band in whatever bar we could find, hijacking a guitar and microphone and smoking through a couple numbers. Fun time.
We did Jacks set last and it was off the chains as has come to be expected. Everyone got a long great and was very gracious. Things like that can esilay tur into a wank-fest if its not the right people. It was all right.
Tonight Roberto Blanco, a fine pianist, will sit in with us as we pump out some new tunes and some new stuff Ive been working on that requires a pianist of Roberto's abilities. Two gigs tomorrow night, the last being a fusion deal we're putting together with Randy Leach. Lots o guitar. Looking forward to it.
Take Care. Spring is coming.

Wednesdays at Havana are becoming really great nights. Its been busy regularly and all the locals seem to be returning each week for the music, which is exciting and humbling. There's a lot of great players in town, but not a lot of great and fun gigs, mostly dinner and hotel stuff that we all do, so our Wednesdays are kind of filling that void I think. We've been doing a few standards, a bunch of instrumental arrangements of pop tunes, "In my Life", "Satisfaction", "Misty Mountain Hop", "Come Together", etc, some of my original stuff, some New Orleans things, etc....... this week Pablo Cervera sat in on guitar. He's an excellent player from Argentina. Check him out if you're in town. His brother Pedro is a drummer and he played a couple tunes as well last night. Dude kills it.
Next week we'll do our fusion trio set, then have Richie Cannata, of Billy Joel fame, and his son Eren, s NYC singer/songwriter sit in, then a set with Jack Sonni of Dire Straits (yep thats his full name... like George of the Jungle or Ashton from The Woods). This town one day shall shed its label as a fishing and drinking town and christen itself a music town. Little Mexican New Orleans. We're getting there.


Take Care

I left Havana`s sweating last night. We did a set with the fusion quartet and then played the rest of the night with Jack Sonni. It was great playing rock again, taking long solos, guitar hero stuff. Looking forward to doing it again.
Back to quiet, responsible solo guitar tonight. I feel a chameleon.
In a couple weeks, Richie and Eren Cannata are gonna be in town and Im looking forward to doing a night with them. You can check out their sites at www.richiecannata.com and www.erencannata.com.... then of course we look forward to Benny Weinbeck, Adam Linz, and Greg Schutte in March. Winter never comes down here. Shades of summer. Fun.

Take Care

I got lucky Friday night. I walked into Havana's to indulge in a Pacifico and put a really quiet gig Thursday night behind me, and Jack Sonni, former Dire Straits guitarist, was playing with the same cats, Los Perrritos del Amor, that I play with Wednesdays and Saturday at Havana. He had stopped in Wednesday to watch my group play and I had a chance to meet him briefly. Anyhow, he asked me if I had my guitar and such with me. Luckily, in my haste when returning home from the previous night's gig, I negelected to unpack my little amp and axe. I brought my stuff up during their first setbreak and figured I'd just sit in for a tune or two. Jack started "Red Corvette" and I noodled around on it a bit. A couple tunes into it I was ready to step back to my barstool but Jack insisted I not, and the next hour and a half of music were as fun as any I've ever played. I lost my head and fell into an energetic guitar-hero blissathon free of any inkling of the inhibitions I often carry with me. We did a Who tune and Jack spoke about meeting Pete Townshend and Live Aid. Dude's done done it. Word is we're going to do it again next Friday. Only in America. Wait.......... I never would have ended up playing with cats like Jack had I squirmed my way through the vice of the American music industry.
Thanks to Jack for having me and Julio C de la Cruz for running ship as always. He is the epitomy of the musician's musician.
Our regular Havana nights, with the freshly christened Los Perritos del Amor, Julio and Geovanni, and our new percussionist Fernando, are getting hot. We've got a nice repertoire of original tunes and fusion stuff. Ive been singing some as well, which feels fun. But really Im loving playing guitar again these days. My inspiration waxes and wanes generally without an identifiable cause, but its working right now. Being around the right people. I played a small wedding at a home on the beach this afternoon. Im actually making a living doing this stuff which is quite ridiculous. We become cynical so quick, especially us musicians, when things don't work as we envisioned. It begins to fell strange and unexpected when things actually do work.
Hope all is well and thanks for coming by

Im sitting here enjoying a magically chilled Pacifico after a productive and positive day....may have something to do with the events of last evening, which have me wondering if I should strip the ex from my ex-pat-ness. Not to get ahead of myself....which I do well.... a good evening sweat and surf took care of that urge anyhow.
I got the masters from Benny Weinbeck today of the sessions we did last June. They sound really nice. Problem is, Ive done what I always seem to do, recorded 14 songs that could be by 3 different bands. There's no album here. Parts of 2 albums. So we'll fix that this spring when I get a chance to record with those guys again, track another good helping I have backed up inside and then look at things. Its that getting ahead of myself deal... I always want to get things down and out way to quickly... budget has partly to do with it as well... more takes, more mixes, more songs recorded means more money... and it adds up fast. Baja being the exception, where I decided I wouldnt listen to a lick of it once I walked out the door of the studio. I didnt until I got the masters a few months later, and I thought "shit, this aint bad, but had I been listening and fretting over it the past few months before it was done, Id hate it right now". For now though, it feels good. Im proud of these tunes. Im happy Im still doing this. Im not great, I dont really think many of us are, but I like my songs, and Im told theyve touched some people. Really though none of that is important, I just have to do it. I get sick with shame and guilt if Im not writing.
Im back writing for the small magazine down here that comes out annually. This year they asked me to do a poem as well as the bulk of their articles, which Im excited about. For those of you in Los Cabos that read this, please do come check out our jazz fusion trio on Wednesdays at Havana's. We'll be playing Saturdays as well in a couple weeks. Im playing with a couple excellent players and its quite fun and growing.
On top of that, Benny and posse are coming down for shows in March and we're gonna do some recording after that to finish up our song stuff and get cracking on an instrumental album... Ive got most of the writing done.
Thanks for coming by. Best wishes for a great year. Mozeltov.

Its the last day of school before the Christmas break and Im parked at my teacher's desk on a little blue chair surrounded by 5th graders. Its 85 degrees, there's cacti outside the classroom window, and the desert is sporting enough holiday cheer to keep everyone dancing to the "Motown's Greatest Hits" CD we're pumping through our tiny little boombox-for-a-stereo.
A student just asked me if I believed in Santa Claus. "Of Course", I replied. "Yea Todd, because how else do all those presents get under the tree when your parents are sleeping?" "Exactly man", I told him. "And," he continued, "If you write Santa Claus a letter, he responds within two days." ..... seems Santa is the only one who can efficiently negotiate the Mexican postal service. The rest of us have to wait months for our letters to arrive, but Santa, lucky fool, is tended to with all the resources one would expect from a first class shipping operation.

This year is ending and it was better than the last, a trend I expect to continue until the years stop coming.

I've been neglecting this website recently. Everything has grown to be quite busy here as the holidays roll around. Ive been playing out 4 times a week and trying to get everything setup at school for the international Christmas kid blowout magical soul party, 2008 edition. Its all going good.
A few weeks back I met a guy who just moved down here by chance through a mutual friend of a landlord. I was told this cat was a great singer and writer. People say that a lot, but this time twas very true. We ended up getting together and playing a bit and now we're doing Wednesday nights together at Havana. An excellent singer indeed. Ill be doing some of my greatest hits and misses as well. Its fun doing pop stuff with John and songs I never would have taken the time to learn. We're playing with a bass player from Havana, Cuba and a drummer from La Paz, Mexico. Julio, aforementioned cuban bass stylist, and Guillermo, aforementioned Mexican drummer, and I, namesake of this website, are also playing as a trio doing jazz and fusion stuff. Les Mccann, Scofield, Metheny, Ribot, Latin standards, my Baja and new stuff. That I enjoy more than anything. Latin blood means bangin rhythm and they make a great rhythm section. We're looking forward to doing more regular nights. The feedback has been great thus far. Everything is so catered to tourists and the vacation mindset down here that it will be fun try to get something going down here for locals and of original quality and integrity...... that being said, I played a wedding today..... and I played Brown Eyed Girl once last week at a gig. A little part of me died when I played the intro.... and Im not sure Ill be able to buy that piece back for what I was paid to do it.... and I shouldnt be telling you this.....But we're in the business of transparency here, kind of. Im also playing at Club 96, one of the premier dining spots and private clubs here in Los Cabos, doing jazz guitar and some arrangements of pop songs Ive done... some of my Baja stuff as well.
Anyway, here's a list of popular songs that Ive done some jazz guitar arrangements of that people seem to like.
Heard it through the Grapevine, Hey Jude, Get Back, Your Song, Amoreena, Dont Know Why, Salt Peanuts

I swear this album of songs is actually gonna get finished up one day. Its back in MN being mastered and Im down here so its tough to get people to get it done from such a distance... but Im remember being very happy with hos it went. Its a lot different than anything Ive been doing recently.

Hope everything is well. Thanks for reading.

Hey ya....
Im gonna put up a link that does me right on a daily basis. Creations of quality..... of course deemed so by my masterful knowledge, experience, and unwavering dedication to "quality". Just kidding, its awful subjective, but I'll put up a link or little something that rocks me daily in the guestbook and archive them here in the musings.... hope you enjoy and feel free to do the same on the guestbook. There`s loads of access to loads of good stuff here on the inta-net... of course loads of crap too, but... anyhow, on from the rambling, here you have it :

Oct 28, 2007
Here's today's:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M9ofyYkK0uI
Its the abridged version to cater to our modern attention spans, but if you can't feel it, something might be wrong. Check out the audience voices of exasperation as he goes on.

Oct 29, 2007
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=08FmobXwSvU
Its worth making it all the way through.

Oct 30, 2007
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vgnec1r9YuU
Dirty fingernails mean lots of thinking.

Nov 1, 2007
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8rb1rse0fKs

This song was written for this man to sing. Its all kinds of honest.

I played last night at Havana jazz club here, my first regular night in quite a while.
It went great. I got to play some of my own material, some old stuff, standards, whatever I want. It was hot and felt all kinds of good. Its nice to be back playing, working, learning new songs, etc. The owners of Havana are really great people and I'll be back often.
My life is off the chains. Its sunny, I get to play music to people at night, teach excitable children during the day, and soak in the Sea of Cortez in my down time.
Its fun and rewarding when things actually work out. Its easy to become accustomed and accepting of cynicism as all the junk gets thrown around nowadays. I done done it, but things are working nicely these days.
Hope everyone is well.

I went to teach Tuesday morning sporting a healthy cough and heavy head, not feeling great. Its actually due to all the air conditioning Ive been sleeping in these days, September being our hottest month. Its not uncommon to be in the mid 80s through the night. Room air conditioners blow out cool air hot sick with all kinds of dust accumulated around town and other junk. Some of the open air restaurants here have been shut down recently by the health police due to the dust.
Anyway, teaching my first class was like going to a doctor well schooled in the trade of head cold exorcism. As soon as my 4th grade class busted in to Lean On Me, adorned in their endearing accents, I felt like a beacon of health. Never ceases to bring a smile. We did some songwrtiting afterwards, the school still operating music sans-instruments, and the tunes the kids come up with are all kinds of wonderful.

Well as Ive mentioned here before, Ive been practicing my guitar more than ever before, spending a minimum of a few hours a day learning new tunes and studying. Its been really rewarding, in that I now have 3 weekly gigs and will be able to make playing and teaching my living. Something I never truly imagined could have happened.

Some of my favorites to be playing these days
- Billie's Bounce
- I did an instrumental arrangement for Blowin in the Wind and Bird on a Wire that are really nice to play
- Anything by Bill Frisell, its bordering on obsession, but some of his playing lends itself really well to solo guitar and is catered to all tastes without making concessions or being lowest common demoninator, honest quality, cant say enough
- Beck's Lost Cause
- Dear Prudence
- I have a song called Born by the Night that I like. Itll be on our next disc.

Thanks for reading. Take Care and hope all is well.

check out the new "Floratone" album. Im loving it.

Standing in front of an arrival/departure screen at a large European airport … Istanbul, Dubai, Bangkok, Rome, St. Petersburg, Mexico City ….. offers a nice slap upside the ambitious and inquisitive optimist gone lazy and resting inside. That guy that used to drive the bus of us, the first and most instinctual to follow, the most enjoyable and memorable, the guy people speak of when they refer to ¨the best years of their life¨, that guy. he ages quicker than the rest of the guys inside us, all arthritic and crippled by our mid 20´s, then dragged out and expected to be functional in our 60´s after far too long a nap, but what he lacks in persistence he clearly compensates for in his generosity and rewarding spirit.
The feeling of uncertainty, mobility, wonder is one that he relishes. They say familiarity breeds resentment, and escape brings shame, emotions
he holes up under awaiting the dirt to be shoveled atop.

Without the impression that tomorrow, or next year, could bring something entirely new and engaging, he hangs up his boots. Thats not to say he confuses comfort with complacency, comfort is nice.
Comfort comes in ones ability to approach, endure, and manage themselves in the world around them, not the ability to protect themselves from it. It’s the get your feet wet cliché. Somewhere between running and responsibility, confrontation and conformation, sleep and hope, is opportunity. And that’s what we´ve got, opportunity to do what we may with. It comes in big and small sizes, and it never learned about fairness, but its ours, and its not going to come running back if we sleep with someone else.

So in the end, Im standing at this airport screen in Prague, next to a line of asian people carrying briefcases, buying a train ticket to Munich, sipping on a Budvar. Its my romance. Its long black dresses swaying in brushstroke wind to the music of Chopin, its Sunday newspapers, and its living.



Here´s some of my favorite cities, an admittedly presumptious list given the many I´ve yet to visit.
I´ve also included my favorite bar in their respective cities. I drink about a quarter of what I used to, but I still love bars. The stools and the stories, all of it. Some people relax in front of a television or on a summer lake boat ride. I´ll take the bar, just a couple hours. If you want to find the character of a city, get a stool and start talking.


San Jose Del Cabo, Mexico

After work I have decisions like, should I go surfing, do some writing, enjoy a few cheap tacos accompanied by appropriately hot salsas, sit at the beach and watch people laugh and splash repeatedly, play my guitar, or take an evening trip up an empty desert highway bordered by mountains falling to the Pacific ocean?
And people know how to live, eat, and laugh.
My favorite bar in san Jose is EL MORO Bar. Its dark, the music is loud, and you´ll know everyone in a few hours. You can sit between an American real estate agent and a Mexican surf champion, and talk about anything you want. Everyone who walks in seems to be a personal friend of the bartenders. And they serve you beer accompanied by a cup of limes, not just the obligatory one hanging over the bottle´s mouthpiece.


Interlaken, Switzerland
Interlaken is no secret any longer, well Id guess for the past decade or so, but its natural beauty and opportunities to make use of it give good reason to its popularity. Jumping off waterfalls, bridges, mountains in a parachute, rafting, etc. make days go fast. The cold water that makes its way down from the glaciers is best felt after a 20 meter jump off the wall of a crooked gorge. When I was there I went canyoning in the morning, rented a bike where I was dropped off, biked the city up to the mountain where they´ll take you paragliding, jumped off the mountain with a guy that really looked like Uli Kunkel from the beaver pictures, and then fed some ducks with a friend while having a cold beer.
My favorite bar in Interlaken is POSITIV EINFACH, where I walked in to find a jazz band playing in town on an off night from France. I sat in with them and we drank pints of german beer on tap. Beware of the hostel bars there, its depressing and will make you want to never go back to the US or Australia.


Prague, Czech Republic

Prague is simultaneously lavish and seedy, a dichotomy it cant work out and I hope never does. You can climb cobblestone streets to the perfectly silhouetted castle, drink a beer on the Charles Bridge, and then watch all the Brits trip in and out of the town´s seedier joints, accompanied by beautiful eastern European women. In the morning you can walk your way through the immaculate square, air adorned by the sounds of a military orchestra, all dressed good and proper, and then make your way to the city´s train station on your way out of town, perhaps the least asthetically pleasing in all of western Europe, thought its full of action inside.

My favorite bar in Prague is Rudolfa. Its small, down a small set of stairs, and everyone there seems to have seen better days. You sit at picnic tables and will undoubtdeldy accompany/be accompanied by other bar-goers. The stories you´ll get are great, if you can get through the heavy accents and heavy beer-breathed slurs. Its actually quite an endearing place.

London, England
Everyone knows, but I most enjoy it these days as it offers an experience quite contrary to life here in San Jose del Cabo; orderly (people actually do stand on the right side of the escalators and walk on the left), well dressed, sick full with art and alternative lifestyle, and the cops mean business.


My favorite bar in London is just off the Earl´s Court tube station, take a left, go a block, you´re there. Its not fancy, just a big shared space where I found a young Brit playing original songs and Beatles covers one night, with no mic, no amp, just a guitar sitting a bar stool… and he was great. I met a hippy Australian lady who had just traveled India and Sri Lanka on one side of me, and a Kuwaiti businessman in town to visit his sick mother at an area hospital. That was before the drunken Danish pair came in and cleared the place out with their stumblings. Got me home early.

Okavango delta, Botswana
Its not a city and it doesn’t have a bar, but its place here is secured by the forthcoming story. I was in 4x4 with family and a Botswanan guide named Molemi, an incredible person, when we pulled on to a little island where there was said to be a leopard quite close. I looked to my left, being in the front passenger seat of the Brit style, wheel on the right, cars, and there the little guy was. Pretty like the pictures, but bigger nails on the paws. We made eye contact. Im not certain, but Im pretty sure he meant to tell me with his eyes “ïf you don’t reverse out of your little parking spot and let me crawl to where I was going after this wonderful nap, I am going to jump up on the car, where my nails would first land on your back, take a little bite of your ear, and then hop to the other side so I can get on my way.” I considered that friendly, given the animal carcass or two left by leopards I had seen up to this point. Molemi called on his little radio to see what we should do when a leopard is “about half a meter away”, then whispered to me, careful not to disturb the leopard´s fixated stare at my white face, “this is the closest Ive ever been.” Awesome, you´re a safari guide nearing 30 years old who grew up on a farm in Botswana, and this is the closest you´ve ever been to a leopeard and I am in between you and that same leopard. In any case, after a few more minutes of anxiousness, all of which seems wonderfully pleasing in retrospect, we did manage to back out problem-free.
We saw the same leopard a day or two later (there were three in the area, just the one male). He was napping on a tree, but woke to the snapping branches and bushes under our automobile as we neared. He saw me, smirked and licked his lips.



Cites and Bars To Be Continued

Living here in Mexico has been great for me on many accounts, the most recent of which I am most happy with. In preparing everything for the tourist season down here, Ive found that this year I'll be able to make a living as a professional musician. Thats something Ive been after for a few years with widely varying degrees of lack of success, weathering occasional bouts with most states of up and down I could imagine. Anyhow, its all worked now to the point that by teaching music and weekly gigs here, I'll be able to support myself. That feels nice.
Its a frighteningly lonely task to find a place in the dense, historied, and often backwards place music holds to all of us. Being away from the states has allowed me to slowly ween my thoughts from the traditional music industry and the expectations and compromises living inside it create. Some people can live up there and just do their own thing, seemingly unaffected by the climate of modern music, its identity and scene-ness. I was never one of them. Its too dissapointing for me.
So Im fortunate to have found a place where I can play to a room of vacation-minded diners under a palapa roof backed by the occasional breaking of ocean waves, climbing my way through "cold duck time" sporting the odd muscular contortions that seem to make their way onto my face. Its not Red Rocks, but its nice, and its music, and its mine, and I get to pay my rent with it.

I was at our local town bar the other night, where I enjoy a number of Pacificos on a select night or three of the week, conversing with an American teacher livinng and teaching high school science here. He went on reminiscing about the days when he was 21, telling me those were the best of his life. Im living 'em. No reservations about saying so, these are them, and thats the way its gonna go from here on out.

Thanks for reading.

Im on website vacation. We'll do a big update when the season begins here, about the 2nd week of October. Hope things are well as the weather turns its back on you in the states. Seasons here just feel like various shades of summer to me. I found an ice scraper in one of my packed away bags I drove down here with as I was moving apartments the other day. I felt like a Mongolian man looking at a hot dog. Huh?

I love when people write on the guestbook here. A lot. I think a lot. It can be an issue, but often my thinking runs its way over people and friends I have known. I have a soft heart for people I have shared time and experience with. A lot of good people. The opportunity to keep in touch while keeping in motion keeps me updating this website regularly. So thanks for writing anything there.
We just had Henriette fight her way directly through our town of San Jose del Cabo. She was about 6 foot, missing her two front teeth, and pissed off. Everybody survived her rumblings, about 8 inches of rain and 100 mph wind, though the towns streets, electricity, and a helping of its trees were not among those spared. The eye of the storm came right over town, and I had Neil Young's "Like a Hurricane" on repeat in my head. There is indeed calm in the eye of a hurricane... after all that the song does indeed make sense. huh. Nice song Mr. Young.

The hurricane has closed school for a few days, so Im just hanging out, practicing guitar and trying to finish "What is the What". Ive done enough real practicing in the past few months, maybe for the first time since college, that I believe when things get gong in this town in mid October, my guitar is going to explode into a fierce firestorm of miraculous notes and screaming solos. A lot of bottled up time will spit its cap off and sing. Looking forward to that.
Thanks for coming by. And dont be shy on the guestbook. You know who you are.

Word is Benny is going to master the songs we did a few months back this week. Im looking forward to getting going on the artwork and maybe try to release this in a mostly digital format, with some art and writing attached to each song. I think you'll enjoy it. There's some familiar songs on there re-worked and played by ringers, and a handful of new songs.
Ive been removed from it for a while and have been at work writing tunes for a new instrumental album. Im really excited about the writing thus far. Im writing and playing in a more relaxed way these days, and with more confidence. I ve learned a lot this past year from playing with Benny and doing the Baja stuff, so Im excited to feel like we're getting towards a good spot.
Things are quiet in Los Cabos right now, but as the town begins to see some action in October I'll post the events Im doing on the calendar here.
Thanks as always for coming by.

As many of you know who read here, I was fortunate to have the opportunity to travel this past
summer. Im having trouble getting started with this, knowing what I want, need, to write about my experience without seeming presumptious or overambitious, but what I want to get at is perspective. Inside me is this persistent necessity to write about things, encapsulate them, find reason. Sometimes I think I may be better off to just sit quietly and ponder experience over a sunset. I guess this is the only way I can rest, to feel Im digging at truth. Theres that and the idea that my feet have the problem of never affording me the opportunity to stand in one spot and debate, a problem for which I am eternally grateful and forever lucky.

I also want to say that I am writing with the knowledge that, though I feel my experiences to be nourishing and learning, they are but a tiny piece of a giant place, and felt from the distance of a person knowing he will return to the comfort he has been afforded. I also concede that I write as a mere observer, a lay man, whose knowledge of socio-economics and international politics is limited and backed up only by a desire to learn and feel... and a music degree. That being said, I feel its a story worth telling. Its one that ends in hope and the triumphant nature of humanity, should we allow ourselves, or be allowed, to act according to such.

The idea, hardly novel unless you actually consider it, is that there is so very little that separates us as people.

I want to bring up the USA, only as a tool in discussion, given that the US serves as the country from which most of our perspective is born (apologies to non-American readers)... which I know will have many of us flipping the page or clicking the red x of the close box. Despite my cynicism towards current American government and what I feel to be its misguided direction, there are indeed a wealth of aspects America holds that make it "great"... its favorite adjective. It is built on smart discourse and dissent; its foundation appearing to have strength enough to withstand even the most direct attacks upon its mechanics. We are a nation largely afforded the opportunity to change our situation within our lifetimes, an opportunity we must protect. In my brief experience in South Africa, I saw that the years of apartheid have so completely defeated the economic, education, and social standing of a group of people that it will take generations to recover.... to begin the process of proper education, of necessities like water, toilets, etc. In Zimbabwe, their national currency is worth little more than an acorn, due to government mismanagement, and the recovery of that nation will have to take place witha fraction of its current population. On a large scale, we dont have to deal with these things. Is it luck, or is it our own participation in the system that allows us to live outside these desperate circumstances? I dont know. Why these examples?
My thoughts are as follows; America's "greatness" will only be determined by its ability to afford, within its own power, the OPPORTUNITY for the greatness of others. Solely the opportunity. This is not a handout, or a world policing. I believe it translates to a personal level as well. Now this becomes a slippery slope.... one we can dig through on our own.

The idea is that there is so very little that separates us as people. From our basic needs to the joy we find in art to our social desires, we are almost impossibly similar. In my experience, this holds true in cultures that have developed largely independent of each other.... of which now, in a globalized world, we have but remnants and educators to show of.

Im sure its obvious I haven't reasoned this all out yet. And the "yet" is awfully generous.
I get deep into these things and to a degree they become circular, though humanity, our tending to ourselves and each other, and the prospect of hope and progress, feel as the endpoints of the discourse.

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On a more observational note:
There is a distinctly American phobia of foreigners. We believe we are hated, that we are in danger wherever we go. I experienced none of this. I was always regarded on my merits as a person in my travels, for better or worse.
I also have felt a general sense of apathy and cynicism growing within the people I spoke with in the US. There is a feeling of powerlessness. Nowhere in the world is that less true. In countries where a daily wage is 6 dollars, or education is a privilege, or you are driven to work standing upright in the bed of a pick up truck huddled in a group of 20 some men, people still have hope. That is another thing that can make the US great... our standards and ideals. We do not accept corruption and abuse as a fact of government business.

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Well I am tired of running through all this and feeling like I cant get to a thesis or something like that... what I can say is that the more I see, the more positive I become.

It is all said much, much better in Bob Dylan's poem "Last Thoughts on Woody Guthrie". Its all there, and told with the wisdom and clarity I could only HOPE to achieve. "you need hope kid, and you need it bad".....
Im getting it Bob.