The Birth of the Seeds of Song

Being between jobs can be both frightening and liberating. I am a songwriter / guitarist / harmonica player and I am creating this blog in order to help promote myself and others in the North Metro Atlanta area who love to make music and perform. Until yesterday I was working for a media company in downtown Atlanta - yesterday I was fired. I will be getting a month's severance pay and unemployment compensation. Between this and about a year's worth of savings, I hopefully will have some time to step back and really think about what I'd like to do next. I will try to find some freelance web design and graphic design work and also give this whole blogging thing a shot. Maybe it will be a way to help keep me sane and upbeat - in any case, I hope you the reader will feel that you can be part of this journey.

A little about my own journey... I have always loved music, especially rock and folk. Back in the 1980's I taught myself how to play guitar, and got started playing blues harmonica while I was in college by taking a mini-course on blues harmonica. Me and some of my college friends at the University of Wisconsin, Madison started jamming together and formed our band "The Dharma Bums", named after the Jack Karouac novel. I played harmonica and handled lead vocals; Jim Wunderlich was lead Guitarist; Tim Krause the rhythm guitarist; Steve Fischer on bass; and Joe on Drums (first there was Bob then Joe - sorry Joe, can't remember your last name it started with a T but it wasn't an easy name to remember like, say, Joe Smith). We had fun playing at co-op parties, open mikes, and actually at some bars brave enough to take a chance on us. But as most these things go, in couple years people went there separate ways and that was that. Jim is still quite a good guitarist and has his own studio in Hamilton NY. Steve was part of a successful touring band for a while. Jim is the only one of the above I have kept in loose contact with.

Many years that have passed since those days. I had joined the 9 to 5 crowd but always wanted to get back to making music. I have continued to write songs over the years, and sometimes I was fortunate enough to attend a jam session or two.

I am excited about this Saturday night. Randy Owens of the Owens Brothers in Cartersville is having the first meetup of his new songwriters-exchange. So it is time to practice up! I need to perform a song or two to my fellow songwriters and hopefully not mangle it too badly. I'll be back, dear diary with updates.