[_Journalized_11.16.2011_]

After a bit of break, here is the next in a series of live recordings from my days as a performing singer/songwriter. I write "performing" because I do not do that very much at all, anymore. I do still mess around with the writing part, sometimes.

There's not a dramatic story behind the reason for the end to the performance phase of my life, or some behind-the-music moment. I just stopped wanting to live in precisely that way, and I started wanting to live a more powerful creative life than the one I thought I was living.

I write "thought I was living" because one never knows, once enough time has passed. Maybe things were as powerful in their own way, nine years ago when this recording was made, as they are now. What I know now, and this is something that I could not understand then, is that one must never view one's work as inherently able to survive undo outside influence.

Make your own art. Make it ugly if you have to, but never try to pretty it up for any purposes. The "purposes" are all too often someone else's dreams and needs, and not yours. There are reasons for this, but they are particular to me, as they would/will be particular to you. I don't see that comparing reasons would be useful. I do emphasis the probable universality of the advice that I offer. It is true, as far as I know what is true in this world. And so it is given in that spirit.

This song is pure me. More than any other, perhaps. It's called "Speak Clearly" and this is probably my favorite recording of it. Enjoy.

[CLICK HERE] to listen.