Hey again out there in Internetland, on behalf of NCD it’s good to have you with us. If you’re reading this, it means the groundhogs ain’t delivering your mail yet. I heard a relative out in Kentucky say that once when asked how he was doing… “Well, the groundhawgs ain’t deliverin’ th’ mail yet”. Still alive. Get it? Anyway, it’s a good thing being on the right side of the grass. At least I hope it feels that way for you today. I’ve had days where I’d have taken a big ol’ dirt nap if given the choice (guess we always have the choice) but I’m glad I didn’t…can’t have the light without the darkness, yada yada yada.
Before we get into it, just wanted to say thanks to all the folks in recent weeks that have told me how much they enjoy reading Road Scholarship, that have encouraged me to keep up with this thing, and to those of you have subscribed to this humble little publication. Your verbal, financial and spiritual contributions have gone a long way in sustaining us out here so thanks for taking interest in what we’re into.
It’s August, which means at any given moment we’re either on stage, on the interstate, or in bed. We’re “doin’ the thing”, and it’s feeling pretty good, or at least feeling like I reckon it should at this juncture, although I don’t think Hank done it this way. The music is getting tighter, I feel like we’re settling into deeper grooves as it were, slowly chipping away at new ideas and I find myself striving to find that magical balance of hard work and letting shit go. We’re in the midst of the longest tour we’ve ever embarked on, about 10 weeks or so depending on how ya look at it. We’ve got a ton of shows and all kinds of fun stuff coming up, but I don’t like the idea of using this platform as a “promo” tool. So if you wanna see what we’re up to, buy some cool new merch or whatever please check out our new and improved website, which has links to all the socials and stuff. Also here’s a photo I thought was fun- we were hanging out, having a good time with photographer Julia Varga (@juliavargaphoto) at a show in Portland. We were in an airstream. It was hot as shit. We had cherries.
So I’ve been on a huge Rick Rubin kick recently- listening to all the stuff he produced, his amazing Broken Record podcast, his new book...if nothing else, this dude knows how to finish a project but also pretty much everything he makes is bitchin’. His thoughts and conversations on the process of songwriting, where the great ideas come from, the magic that happens in the studio when nobody takes control or credit, and forging new ground…Man. I guess I’m grateful to live on the planet at the same time as a guy like that and with a World Wide Web to spread the good word.
Rubin is an alchemist, he’s always had a knack at fusing the physical and the metaphysical. Of course I’ve been well aware of his work pretty much all of my life without knowing much about him or realizing as a wee lad that his fingerprints were all over my favorite records. What blows my mind about the guy is that it seems like he’s got a really scientific mind, and a rigorous process to what he’s doing, but he’s clearly guided by an inner light that differs from raw intellect and inquiry. I think that inner light part is really important.
I didn’t really think about music in spiritual terms until very recent times in my musical epoch. Took the long way around the barn, I suppose. Of course I’ve been “moved” by music my whole life and blown away by all sorts of musical experiences and bands and songs. My parents always have had great taste in music- I bet I could sing a Billy Gibbons or Mark Knopfler guitar solo before I could really form sentences. I was being moved by music as long as I can remember. But as a “musician”, I’ve been guided predominantly by study and mimicry; not necessarily by feelings or by following any autophysiopsychic terms like Yusef Lateef spent a lot of time writing about. I guess in recent years I’ve gotten really curious about the role that the spiritual plays in music- not just Gospel Music or Raga Music but ALL Music. This newfound curiosity is all very surreal to me still, I probably never even used the word “spiritual” non-sarcastically until like two or three years ago. Mushrooms. Heroic dose. More on that another time. The question of where the physical and nonphysical, where the material and the immaterial, harmonize is probably the singular thing with which I’m most obsessed. I think that space is where music originates, and probably a lot of other rad shit. It’s probably what we’re calling the Big Bang or a singularity. Where the hell DO those songs and sounds come from? How does one enter and behold a very real space where the greatest poetry and most beautiful music arise? Music is not just strings being plucked and air pressure waves creating vibrations inside hunks of metal and wood. It’s so much more than that. I’ve got ideas about where this stuff comes from, but I think sometimes that stuff’s really personal, some of it best kept to ourselves, and sounds crazy out loud. Ineffable. When I start to talk about this, even some of the closest people in my life look at me like I’m concussed. I will say that meditation (or “starving the heart-mind” as the ancient Chinese called it) and entheogens have informed a lot about what I think on the subject. ‘Nuff said.
I’d heard Neil Young talk on an old episode of Charlie Rose’s show (and more recently on Rick Rubin’s podcast) about capturing those musical ideas as soon as they strike. Neil I guess is kinda renowned for just walking away from a conversation or the dinner table or wherever if an idea happens to strike. He and Rick (and I) agree that these ideas, these songseeds are immaterial creations- they don’t originate in the brain. A lot of folks feel that way about thoughts and the Mind itself. Songs are not just things borne of biochemical or electrical signals arising in the brain, traveling via a cortex through language centers and hearing organs to be finally computed and made sense of, filed away. I’m not a neuroscientist so I don’t understand most of that stuff anyway. I have spent a pretty sizable chunk of my life in lecture halls, labs, and working in biotech facilities on college campuses all over the place. I love Science, with a capital S. I love seeing the progress and breakthroughs that Scientific minds have afforded Humankind, and I think the scientific process was a pretty cool revelation for inquiring into what and where we are. But none of my education or professional experience or life experience helps me to frame what music is or what songs are, or where any of this comes from. What’s weirder is that it really doesn’t feel like the song lyrics or harmonic choices I make are mine. It does not appear to me that I’m generating these things. That’s not a very scientific thing to say. Sounds pretty damned hippie, honestly, as I sit here reading it back.
I really don’t think science and spirituality are at odds. I think they’re both pointing at the same exact thing. Truth. Einstein said “science without religion is lame, religion without science is blind”. I agree. Einstein was the Man. He wasn’t religious in any sort of doctrinal sense, but he was spiritual. I guess nowadays we’d call him a Humanist if I may be so bold as to label one of the greatest minds of our time. I was introduced to Christianity at a fairly young age but how young I really can’t remember. My parents dabbled in the varied and more progressive branches of the Christian family tree (post Luther only, thanks)- we were never really super devout or pious as far as I can tell, I stopped going as soon as I was old enough to decide for myself. My folks’ views and beliefs have evolved, but I’d rather not speak on their behalf. I just know they were happy, smart, well adjusted Humanists looking for community full of ostensibly good and compassionate people, like themselves. We met a lot of really great friends just by being at the same place as some other folks every Sunday. Church was more than right and wrong as far as I could tell. Vonnegut said, “People don’t come to church for preachments of course, but to daydream about God”. He wrote a lot of great stuff on the subject. So yeah, as a kid I’d daydream and try to sit still through these services and kinda tune in and out but mostly out. My mind would wander far and wide but I guess at some point one of the more interesting thoughts (at least to me anyway) that I’d landed on was this…if there was any such thing as sin, then about the most sinful thing I could think of was ignoring cool idea or flash of insight given to me by this God dude. If he’s making everything including my thoughts then ignoring ideas would be ignoring my creator.
The feeling of letting a poem in my head or chord progression escape my grasp, missing an opportunity to listen to or play music, or say something I think is funny…It’s often felt like ignoring a creative spark or not seeing an idea through would be the most sinful thing I could do. I’m no preacher. I don’t ascribe to any religion in particular, nor do I disparage the bulk of it (did you hear the one about the pulp fiction writer turned prophet?). The afterlife, if there is one, doesn’t concern me. And leveraging science to explain all the mysteries of the cosmos doesn’t necessarily excite me. What concerns and excites me is the here and now, and the mystery itself. What concerns me is: Who is this muse and how should I greet her when she arrives? I think Rick Rubin knows. I think Neil Young knows. I think Vonnegut knew, and Einstein too.
By no means do I place myself in that pantheon, but I echo what I think I’ve heard from these folks. In my own personal experience the muse pretty much always shows up unexpectedly outta nowhere. It’s not something I can channel or capture. In fact, if I invite her, or hope for a visit (“Man, I ain’t written a song in awhile”) I’ll be wholly ignored because I’ve got intentions and intentions are always flawed. A clear mind with no motives seems to be a prerequisite to preparing the space for the muse to enter. The fewer ideas the better. A meditative type “tuning-in” is possible with practice (a practice for which I had greater discipline). When the muse does show up, it’s usually a pretty short visit so I’d best just really shut up and try hear as much as I can. Try to get it down on the banjo, write it, sing it, hum it, record it or whatever it takes to get as much of it as I can as clearly as possible. I bet it’s the same for a painter or author. It’s like our job is really stenography. I give the spark some room to breathe, and generally when I revisit it, rarely will any of it ever be a complete, coherent thought or even sound much like what I remember it sounding like at all. Now that the muse has left the building, I’m simply left with an unfinished idea. And I loathe sin, as you recall, so I gotta finish. The job becomes way more like that of an engineer or architect a Principal Investigator in a well funded Neuroscience lab. I’m investigating systems using my limited intellect and intuition to gain insights into the nature of Truth. It’s science AND it’s spirituality.
Alright, that’s probably enough. I can’t let Road Scholarship devolve into the disheveled incoherent ramblings of a madman just yet. I love thinking and talking about this stuff as you can tell, and I’m guessing if you’ve made it this far you do too, or you’re extremely bored and bereft of options. Thanks for hangin’, and as always…
Thank You For Being a Friend,
-NCD
Hi Joe, It's been quite awhile since I had lessons from you in my garden. Realy enjoyed that. I was on a cancer side trip and have gotten away from the guitar, but maybe more is waiting of that enjoyment in the future. Just wanted to say I really resonated with all you wrote on this post. There's something unusual you bring that has to do with love and this post explains that a bit. I hear about you from my dear friend Tim Murphy. Hope tp see you again!
Joan Meyerhoff