When I look at the varied playlist I've created through jams and solo excursions, I cannot help but feel a twinge of pride. Something between Alan Lomax and a flute-crazed soulist, I've managed to get out of my musical shell and engage with varied musicians, as I engage my tribal soul. Van Morrison eat your heart out.
To get beyond the bullshit that was the music industry I was exposed to (as a teenage listener) in the late 1980s, find meaning in the roughness of improvisatory questing. The tracks may not get a lot of hits, but they are there whenever I want to recall twists on my journey. Always finding time to create when the mood is right.
It is not easy as an amateur to get up on stage with seasoned professionals––but it seems more natural, the more you do it. People smile, listen, even clap.
I recently settled into the recording studio Alchemy for a few hours to record a proper version of "He Made His Way Through the City (Fly Away Home)," which I first introduced as an off-the-cuff a cappella thing within the Flute At Wild Lagoon joint.
Although I did write a slew of original songs on the acoustic years back (a couple are up on Soundcloud) this is the first fresh song that has come to me in a good long while.
I woke up humming "Fly Away Home" at the MNL Hostel in Makati one morning, thinking it was a Bob Marley tune. Conveying a need to get out of the city and back to somewhere with a few trees, gentle people.
It was only after careful evaluation that I found the song belonged to me. Working with a couple ace musicians I was able to convey the mood and tone of the song––think early 1970s reggae with Curtis Mayfield fills and some obligatory tribalism. We have apparently created an iTunes-ready hit single––if this was 40 years ago. Final mixing and instrumental overdubs to take place tomorrow.
#endurancewriter