Live Your Dreams

In May 2009, veteran recording artist Jules Riding helped me find a voice I didn't know I had.

Despite the past year of enforced rest from active music study, I've been learning new things about what I can do as a musician.

The recordings and videos you've heard from me thus far date 2-4 years prior to my studio debut, and Jules hasn't yet released the recording we made together. He assures me you will be wowed by it. It still wows me every time I listen to it. I can't figure out, with my body in such a sad state, from whence the sound comes.

I suppose that's tickled your curiosity. Would it be mean to leave you in silence? Okay, below is a sample from a midnight kitchen session coupled with a photo slideshow in my first exploration of Windows Movie Maker. If the clock and fridge don't get vocal, my kitchen has the best acoustics in the house, but Murphy's Law supplies a humming chorus from them on all the best takes.

Live Your Dreams, wherever you are.

Anzac Day Tragedy - Tribute Memorial

When I was 10 years old, I sang in the children's choir backing Barry McGuire in a TearFund concert. One of his solos was "Last Farewell" by Randy Sparks, fellow New Christy Minstrels musician. The song spoke so deeply to my heart that I remembered it and sang it to myself many times as I grew up.

Grown up and given the opportunity to perform in an Anzac Day concert, I chose "Last Farewell" as part of my program. Wanting to check that I'd remembered the lyrics correctly, I contacted Barry McGuire and he put me in touch with Randy Sparks.

Guys, here's a recording of that 2007 event rehearsal used as backing for a memorial tribute to the Anzac Day tragedy in New Zealand in 2010. I still love the song. One day I'll do an even better job with it, I promise.

LAST FAREWELL
by Randy Sparks

I’m going away at eventide
Across the wild and windy sea.
I bid you stay, stay here by my side
And share a last farewell with me.

Through snowclad mountains proud and tall
Or a thousand miles ‘cross the burning sand,
Our last farewell then will I recall
When I’m alone in a far off land.

A wandering song is all I know,
Yet I love you more, more than words can tell.
I hear the call and I’m bound to go.
I leave you now with a last farewell.

If you asked me why am I affected by this tragedy, why do I care about the deaths of people I didn't know, I would answer:

"No man is an Island, entire of it self; every man is a piece of the Continent, a part of the main; if a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe is the less, as well as if a promontory were, as well as if a manor of thy friends or of thine own were; any man's death diminishes me, because I am involved in Mankind; And therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee."
John Donne: Meditation XVII