we sold our pizzeria and I am now officially retired. The pizzeria was good to us financially, and for the first time in my life I have instruments that work and world class recording gear to capture SPONTOBEAT. Here are a couple I did tonight. Friday I got a warm audio MPX preamp. It is a recreation of the legendary Ampex 351 tape player preamp that were the cats meow in the 50's. Singing and playing harp through a AEA R84 ribbon mic which is a recreation of the legendary RCA Ribbon mic. Figuring out the sweet spots with the pre amp and mic combo.
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" life is a daring adventure or nothing at all" - helen keller
I never was a busy player, but the older I get the less notes I play on harp, guitar, sing. Simple grooves with nothing interrupting my thought has always been my goal. I am finally, after playing music for 60 years, not concerned with sounding like anyone. I always tried to just be me, but to be honest, voices creeped in my mind like "do that SBW II lick". I think getting away from playing with other musicians has really helped me get to where I have always wanted to be - a distraction/uncluttered flow of spontaneous consciousness. I have been doing pretty much nothing but the 1-man band set up for 25 years now. It is how I started out as a teen when I learned it from Wilbert Harrison, but I wanted my own real band. That was a great experience for many years but often I would get frustrated with confusing myself with trying to relate to the other musicians/audience while playing and my flow of consciousness got disconnected. I have finally realized music for me is a solo thing and with the drums on my feet, guitar, harp on the rack, I feel the good energy side of having a band, without having one, coupled with no distractions being by myself ?? Photo is from the Blue Heron Inn, in Duncan Mills CA. I played there every Friday night for a few years. It was an incredible gig. Old hippies from the 60's that found SF to be too uptight, moved deep into the dirt road mountains of Cazadero in the 70's. They would drive down single lane dirt roads for an hour to get to the club and slept in their vans for the weekend. The police never came as the club was sort in no man's land. Anything went and the energy and pay was incredible. There was a campground next to the club. We would park our bus there and spend the weekend on the Russian River with the dogs. It really was a special gig. Here is a link to my spontaneously created/played/recorded music and all with real instruments ?? ----------
" life is a daring adventure or nothing at all" - helen keller
Walter, have a great retirement! Thanks for posting that photo of TT Fingers and you. I never knew his name but a chance encounter with him changed my life. I was living in San Francisco, I sung and played harp but couldn’t find a guitarist who played the style of blues I liked. I happened upon TT playing on the streets and when I saw him with only two fingers playing dlide the way he did I thought, you have absolutely no excuse not to learn how to play guitar. 25 five years later and that’s how I make my living. Guitar, harp in a rack singing away
That is a great story Tom. TT had a good heart and was one of my closest musician friends. He took my wife Judy and I under his wing when we moved my band to Brussels. He had been there a few years and his wife Anita was French. Between them they helped in so many ways, but that alcohol destroyed him. I am not sure if he is even alive. ----------
" life is a daring adventure or nothing at all" - helen keller
