Thank You...

Thank You

Thank you for your love of music. And thank you for your continued support of art and music. It’s certainly made my life of musical practice possible. And it makes the music we all love possible.

And so here you are. A few words about the launch of this redesigned and relocated website may be in order. After twentysomething years I’ve had to move the site to a new server. This has required a new design and offers some new possibilities as well. Looking back, I’m struck by the ways in which promotion has changed in the music business. It used to be that artist promotion was something handled by agents and companies. With the rise of independent (often musician based) record labels in the eighties and nineties artists began taking promotion into their own hands. With the rise of the internet artists realized a degree of control over this process that most had never enjoyed before. And for a number of years, at least in my opinion, this worked great. The internet seemed to be a way to help folks connect, produce concerts and book tours. In other words, it was a great assist in folks getting together, making things happen and fostering real experiences.

Then bandwidth increased to the point that we could share large files, meaning music. And over time desktop computers gave way to handheld mobile devices. Listening to music has largely changed from being a communal experience into an increasingly more casual thing to do on our phones, something to do while doing other things at the same time. And even when doing something in the “real world” (like going to a concert or art gallery) our phone use has largely become a distraction from the experience of being there, an interruption of our shared communal experiences with each other.

So now what does it mean to have a website? For me that’s changed, along with the changes we’ve all experienced around this. Over time promotion has become self-promotion. In the earlier days that seemed a good thing. Today, I’m not so sure. I have to look at it in a larger context than my personal needs as an individual musician. Getting you to spend more time on your phone or computer is not my aim. After all, I am a musician. But I do realize that after forty plus years of doing music there is a perspective in looking back. So this site may serve as something of an archive, certainly with respect to the music that is posted here, going back to 1987. It represents a life’s work and that feels important to present and maintain.

And it’s always been all about the music. What “the music” is is not an idea. It’s not a thing. You have to experience it. You have to show up. Fully be where you are and share that with the people around you. Showing up can take many forms in life. At the same time, it’s not just about music. There are political challenges, environmental challenges, social challenges. Not to mention all of the personal day to day issues we each experience in our own ways. There are many ways to do what you do. I’m simply suggesting that whatever we do, we can do it in real time. Call it music, call it spiritual, call it life. Call it what you want.

So again…thank you…hope to see you out there…and much love…