Listening To My First Album

In honor of its 30th anniversary, my very first recorded album, ACOUSTIC GUITAR, released in 1979, is now available for download.

ACOUSTIC GUITAR contains ten original tunes and was a self-produced and self-financed project. There were only a thousand (vinyl) copies pressed. It has been out of print for decades.

A lot has happened between then and now (including the digital revolution and the invention of the cd)...but listening to it again I have to say, without intending any self-praise, that there is some very good stuff on my first record.

It was reviewed by GUITAR PLAYER MAGAZINE at the time, calling it "exceptionally fine...composional diversity and guitaristic brilliance".

I was very into 6 and 12-string fingerpicking back then...and influenced by Leo Kottke, John Fahey, and Jorma Kaukonen...but the album also contains jazz and classical-influenced compositions, as well as the roots of my later percussive sound.

A few facts:

-- I recorded the album with two acoustic guitars, a Martin D-28 six-string and a Martin D-28 12-string, at a studio in South Glastonbury (near Hartford), Connecticut.

-- Most of the tunes on the album were written while I was living on the corner of Bush and Steiner Streets in San Francisco between 1974 and 1977.

-- I had originally intended to make the album a mix of solo and ensemble material. Financial constraints made me change to a solo format. The album does, however, contain a duet with guitarist Jeff Pevar...an up-tempo jazz tune called "It's Not Just Your Face".

-- Out of the ten tunes on the record, five were named after women...and three of those were named Barbara: one a Barbara, one a Barbara whom I had nick-named "Boo Boo", and one a Barbara who had changed her name to "Jesse" before I knew her.

-- The tune "Bush Street Beehive" was written when I was living on Bush Street in San Francisco. The melodic idea for the second part of the tune was borrowed from a Larry Coryell tune.

-- The chromatically ascending bassline in the tune "Kristy" was inspired by Jimi Hendrix.

ACOUSTIC GUITAR marked the beginning of my recording career. It is a snapshot of who I was in 1979 at age twenty-four. It also offers clues to what I was to become as a guitarist and composer. Through the next thirty years and fifteen albums my music and playing have evolved much...but this record still sounds good to me.

My Experience with U.K. Healthcare

In light of the current debate about universal healthcare in the the U.S., I would like to share an experience I had with the healthcare system in the U.K.

A few years ago I slipped on my kitchen floor and injured my knee badly.

As an American living abroad I was worried about going to the local emergency room (called the A&E over here).

I think I was concerned about the quality of care I would receive within a system of socialized (i.e. not for profit) medecine.

Strange as it sounds, my inner fear was...why would they give me quality care if there is no insurance company to bill and they aren't going to make any money out of it?

My fear turned out to be just that: a baseless fear.

The care I received at every step of the recovery process...from emergency room to x-rays to knee brace, crutches etc. to doctor consultations to physiotherapy...was expert and excellent.

I especially remember the physiotherapist. He was passionate about his work, had an infectiously gung-ho attitude, and taught me fascinating things about joint injuries.

My knee recovered completely.

I believe the care I received was as good or better than I would have received...very expensively...in the U.S.

And it cost me no more than the quarterly £28 (about $60) I pay to my National Insurance.

At one point an MRI scan was being considered (I didn't need one it turned out). Speaking out of an embarrassing naivete I didn't realize I possessed, I actually asked the doctor if high-tech medical equipment here in the U.K. was as "good" as it was in the U.S.

He smiled and said, "We have all the same equipment here...we just don't try to sell it to you."

Power Napping and Creativity

In Australia you see billboards along the highways urging you to pull over and take a power nap if you feel tired.

As a touring musician I learned to take power naps (aka cat naps) long ago.

It started with early morning flights. I would try to catch up on the sleep I missed by dozing in my seat on the plane.

I would wake up confused and check my watch, only to discover that I had been asleep for less than ten minutes...yet I felt utterly transformed...refreshed...as if I had slept a whole night.

Last weekend I played an afternoon show at a festival in the south of England and then drove 457 miles to my home in Scotland.

I was extra-tired during the drive so I took two ten-minute power naps at motorway services along the way.

I arrived home at midnight feeling great.

Power naps enable you to leave everything behind for a brief moment in time, release stress, and recover perspective.

They give you energy.

The power nap is not only a useful tool for traveling (it's the best way to catch up with a new time zone, for example) and safe driving, but an important creative tool as well.

These days I take a power nap whenever I need to solve a creative problem. I always emerge refreshed, focused, and with a new point of view.

I compare it to re-booting a computer. You just run better.

Is it lazy, self-indulgent etc., to stop what you're doing and take a power nap?

Absolutely not.

It might be a difficult thing to get away with socially, as in an office environment...but if you run your own business and/or have the flexibility to set your own schedule, it can improve the quality of your work and increase your productivity.

Whatever you do, a power nap can help you do it more creatively and efficiently.

Mistakes Can Be Opportunities

A few weeks ago I went hill-walking on the outskirts of the Scottish town where I live. My goal was to climb to the top of a well-known hill forming part of the coastal headlands that overlook the town.

I had climbed this hill in the past...but this time I was approaching it from a different side.

I headed up a steep dirt road, through a forest, and into hillside sheep and cattle pastures.

Somehow I missed the turn I had been told to take.

Instead I continued up the road until it ended. I knew something wasn't right...but I was fascinated by what might be at the top of the next slope.

I headed into a field, up a steep slope, into another field, up another steep slope, and eventually found myself at the top of a hill...a higher one, it turned out, than the one I meant to climb...with an even more amazing view of the sea and countryside.

I had made a mistake, but benefited from the result.

When I play my tune "Love In The Old Country" in my concerts, I tell the story of the "mistake" that lead to a new tune.

We all make mistakes. What's important is to make full use of them.

My Blue Tractor

I bought a blue toy tractor the other day. Something about it spoke to me from the shop window. I now realize it is my metaphor for this album project...and my creative process.

Tractors are about tilling, seeding, cultivating, harvesting...and hard work. And this tractor is blue...like the blues that are my musical roots.

I've made something like sixteen albums of original solo guitar music, yet I always forget just how challenging it is to create new music until I am back in the tractor seat.

There are always ideas. That's never the problem.

There is always my enjoyment of playing guitar. That's never a problem either.

The problem, always, is finding something new to say...new to me...something not quite like anything I've said before.

When I achieve this, there's nothing more satisfying. That's the joy that I get out of making music.