Kumbahya

When I wrote most my songs, it was in 1985 - 1987 (then, and up to around 1997, and, I still compose to this day), those were the days when computers (other than Macs) didn't have very good music capabilities, and I didn't have the technology to "get the songs out there". The first song I composed was on a Casio keyboard, called "On The Ride" but it's long past gone, and I have no copies of the recording, oh well. The second song I wrote, was called "Scat - A Beginning" and only had a voice track and the "kinda cheesy Casio sound" but I was very fond of it. ( - and so were a few of my friends at Perkins ) I kept it on cassette for awhile and when I was playing around at a store in Watertown, I came up with some very wild compositions that I called collectively "The Forest of Dreams". A lot of my friends at the time kept encouraging me to put them "out there", but I was afraid of losing my rights to the music. Since I was in between living situations, I only made a very few copies just for my friends, and kept it "only in the family", until I learned that maybe it wouldn't be such a bad idea to "spread the love around". About 6 months after I composed that first version of "A Beginning", I got my hands on a 4 track reel-to-reel and dubbed my voice over on that first song and created what I thought was a "nice ride to weirdness". Just before I left Watertown, and before a sad break-up with a young woman I was dating, her and I wrote a song together called "There Is Love All Around". ( - I wish she could hear it again, but sadly, that might not happen ) I treasure that song as much as I treasured the time we spent together. Thank you, Roberta, you were swell. :) I was 23 and 25 then. Fast forward to 1997 when I finally got a decent computer, and a rather nice keyboard, a Roland E15, and in 1998, a computer with a CD burner. I was 35 then, but still didn't have my music in wide circulation. During the latter period of the 90s, I discovered the mp3 format, so I decided to encode some of my songs and "start editing my music into something that resembled albums and themes". I also made a few more friends from Onlive Traveler that year. :) I also "debuted" one of my songs on WVRR, "Virtual Reality Radio", an internet radio station devoted to the Outerworlds Community. That song was called "A Future With No Past" - it's one of my favorites! I got a very good reception to that song, and due to the urging of several of my friends there, I created an account on mp3 dot com and uploaded a large collection of most of my songs to that site. I also had some CD art created and had a few CDs made of the collection and I was still largely an "unknown" then. This was around the year 1999 to 2000. I met another friend, thru a friend (whew) and we composed the song that you hear now - "The Rain Song", and I told him, "I think that's one of our best so far!" and I am sure that can't be too far from the truth! Sadly, I wasn't able to release it to mp3 dot com, because it was composed near the end of their "existance", and I had to "hold onto it" until I found a new place to put my music. Well, as things usually go, mp3 dot com didn't last long, due to some lawsuits that were brought against them, and they were taken over by new owners. Many artists, including myself, had to find "new homes" as the new policies and new owners weren't very receptive of most of us, and decided they wanted their "own people", rather than the independent groups that made up a large part of the musicians that were there at the time. I was 40 years old in August 2002. Here it is, 2007, I will be 45 this year, and if you typed in "kumbahya" into a Google search, almost the whole first page is something of mine, or a page that I've posted, at Cyber Societies, or any of my other pages on verious sites around the net. I'm also at Garageband, among other places. Yep, I started late, but I am not anywhere near "finished" yet! Yes, I might have one foot in the grave, but I also have the other planted on solid ground, and the word of my music is slowly spreading. I don't plan on getting famous, or rich, but I hope to eventually give the world back something, while I am here. That's why my music is free and for the time being, will stay that way. If you choose to stop by and listen, I would appreciate a comment or two. (Please be mindful of the age of the material, the lack of "professional recording equipment", and the semi-haphazard editing on a couple tracks.) It's not perfect, but I did my best to preserve what I had at the time. Many of us "over 35s" aren't all "washed up". Some of us are just getting started. Please hang in there!

I was close to having a shot at doing a live show, and I wanted to perform "The Rain Song", but the venue "didn't want any use of drum sounds" (the subway) so I canceled that gig and have been rather sketchy on "getting out there" without any decent equipment to play on.

I'll fill this in soon. :)

I'll fill this in soon. :)

Soon as I have more material, I'll fill this in.