The Relic

I'm really getting into this new music we're working on, and I keep seeing images in my mind of me playing an old B-3 in the fantasy shows. I kept trying to find parallels in the south and southern old revival churches. There is something about this music that wants old gear and sweat.
I finally traveled to the place where they restore these old Hammond organs and once I took in all of these old beasts in varying stages of restoration, I knew it was true: This is what the music wants. I dreamed about it and am still trying to figure out how it would ever be worth all of the trouble.
I can think of a similar story in John Mellancamp, who has made a career of writing and performing songs about growing up and old in the midwest, living in small towns and farms. I've never had any part of that, but his music makes me understand it for a moment. Even though he was once referred to as the "poor man's Bruce Springsteen", he has kept true to his original design: the music is organic. Yes, there were old organs, violins, accordians, and I appreciated all of it.
I'm hoping we can bring that same recognition to the vanishing life of Florida, as the concrete pushes nature back until the animals have to make a living in parking lots. I'm also sure hoping that I can bring one of the old Hammonds to the experience...

The Sucker Punch

You're just walking along, happy with life in general, and it's always worse when it's like that. Things are good and the world seems to be singing, but then the interruption comes and it's something nasty out of the clear blue sky. A loved one, or a stranger, just starts with angry stuff that seems to be for no reason. You know the problem is inside them, and not with you, but that doesn't help. Your good vibe is gone and has been replaced with the feeling that you somehow deserved this by being happy for a moment.
Perhaps the solution is to grow a thick skin like we believe New Yorkers to have, where any encounter at all could be gruff. I don't know, to walk through life looking for trouble doesn't sound like what I want. However, I am exercising my mental abs in preparation for the next sucker punch...