this is of course a new age re-rub of 'success is on the far side of failure' by thomas j. watson (the founder of IBM) - you could have something to say about IBM's involvement in the third reich but horsemouth here looks at the garden, he looks at the buried. he's a bit of a sucker for new age exhortations.
horsemouth was listening to a documentary about jeff buckley (where it crops up) - he has a great voice, he's a pretty boy and he's a good guitarist too, you can hear the jimmy page influence. at one point, having been successful (because you want people to hear your music) he returned to playing secret gigs in folk clubs and coffee houses because he wanted to experiment and try something out.
"There was a time in my life not too long ago when I could show up in a cafe and simply do what I do, make music, learn from performing my music, explore what it means to me, i.e., have fun while I irritate and/or entertain an audience who don't know me or what I am about. In this situation I have that precious and irreplaceable luxury of failure, of risk, of surrender. I worked very hard to get this kind of thing together, this work forum. I loved it and then I missed it when it disappeared. All I am doing is reclaiming it."
he died in the wolf river near memphis, an accident they say, battling the second album, making demos on a 4-track.
horsemouth has an ugly voice, and he's old and ugly and his guitar playing is not what it once was (say it's not so people) - but there are still lessons horsemouth takes from buckley - one is good tune selection for your covers, find songs you can do something with, range widely, another is to work what you have, if lush chordage is your thing go for it, but keep developing it.
horsemouth can sing low and he can do that half speech/ half singing johnny cash thing, whilst harmonies are (currently) beyond him he can manage a creditable unison backing vocal in many registers. (frankly he should probably just go and get some lessons but he's probably not going to do that). on the plus side his choice of covers is exemplary (je te veux, blue crystal fire, silver raven, the werewolf, a luna yo mi voy), he writes (or co-writes) a nice wordy song (the devil song, gentleman john, all my dreams), his slide playing (whilst neither inventive or immaculate) gives good texture (golden one, dorothy) he should put a bit more effort into his arranging and picking, work an instrumental into the set.
a friend has pointed out that there isn't really an italian word for assertiveness (and so, it follows, that there is no equivalent of assertiveness training) - it's just what you are expected to do. horsemouth worries that he's not assertive enough when it comes to the things that matter to him.
horsemouth is reading the physics of finance (james owen weatherall - tales from the crypt - one quid fifty) about how probability distributions took over finance, the common people, byng's tours, his educational researches are on the backburner. the weather has gone rubbish. horsemouth is beginning to be bored. when he is bored enough he will do some work on his singing, his playing and his songs.
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