About "Earthwind"...

This is a re-posting of an article from "Tom Hawk Revisited", dated March 4, 2011 (original posting: MySpace, March 3, 2009:

If you read another of my articles, you know that I do not hold "copies" of another person's music or style in high regard. For this reason, I feel a detailed account of the origin of "Earthwind" is in order. Although I love the tune and am immensely grateful that it came to me, it put me in a sort of philosophical bind, as I did not ever want to be considered (or see myself as) a "copycat". I briefly even considered suppressing the tune, but I could not bear that. It had to be made, whatever the consequences....

Where this tune came from can only be regarded as a mystery and I myself have no firm conclusions on the subject. But it is no more mysterious than other "inspirations", so I will only relay the facts and you can decide for yourself...Or else like me, let it remain a mystery.

It was several months after John Denver's passing that I had a dream. In this dream, I was in a gift shop in Vermont that I have been to often. There they have a machine with previews of the music on their nature CDs, you know, like wolves howling set to a musical background, loons with classical music, thunderstorms...things like that.

Anyway, in the dream I was looking at this machine that played these sample "snippets". And on it I noticed a John Denver song that I had never heard before...which is odd, since I have followed all his work, and now he was gone. Was it from an un-released album, I wondered...?

I pushed the switch...and out drifted the short little guitar intro, and then his clear voice came out of the speaker...

"Earthwind...Older than time...."

And the dream was over. I puzzled over this. Where could a song like this go? What was it's concept? It seemed like a dead end. He had already said all that with "Windsong" hadn't he?

At the time that this occured, I was no longer a songwriter so I didn't bother to note the date, though it was somewhere between Jan. and March of 1998. But why had this come to me? I had quit writing songs and didn't know what to do with it. But it was stuck in my head, and I treasured it because if nothing else it was a sort of farewell thought of him.

Fast forward to the spring of 1999. I was suddenly & unexpectedly a songwriter again & they were coming fast & furious. I was walking my dog in the woods one morning and turning that little phrase over in my head. It didn't seem to lead anywhere. It had no central concept.

A little while later on that walk, I came over the top of a little hill, looking down into a small hollow that has been kind of a special place to me. And just as I arrived there, the sun was coming over the hill and down into that hollow.

I heard in my mind, "...the light of the sun touched our Mother that morn..." WHAT WAS THAT?! It had come out of the beyond somewhere. And a few minutes later, as I walked..."In the warmth of his fire that being was born..."

I called up my dog and hurried home to write that down.

I did that, and was stumped. I was hearing music, too, so I grabbed up a guitar to work it out. I kept playing those chords and writing them down. But the song still had no center.

As I was working out what I had, another line came and another...but it wasn't like they were coming from me. I was baffled. I'd sit there and say "what next?" and a line would come, already complete. I'd write it down and say "what next?" again.

And that's how it was written. As though someone were standing there over my shoulder, telling me what to write. When I was done I had a complete song. All I had to do was fix a couple of "fuzzy" words, and put the verses in an order that made sense.

So, the song is not an intentional copying of anyone. Nor was it written as a "tribute" song. But the arrangement is all mine and in that, the tribute is intentional, complete with Lee Holdridge-style strings.

I would also like to add that while a number of people have me figured as a John Denver clone, I don't believe that holds up when looked at closely. "Earthwind" and "Images of Maine" sort of show similarities, but by and large the writing styles and phrasings of the vast sum of my tunes are quite different.

Much of what is counted in me as Mr. Denver's influence is mis-attributed. It's actually the fact that I bear certain similarities of artistic outlook to him that caused me to follow him & his career, and not so much for me to emulate his music. The similarites are what attracted and interested me in the first place.

We were both "inspired" writers. We both felt a strong bond with nature. We both sought a universal view for mankind. We both wrote of our soaring highs and low lows.

But there the simlarity ends. We were two very different individuals. And close scrutiny of our respective "musics" would bear this out. I believe this will become more evident if & when the rest of my catalog is revealed.


P.S. Here's another odd clue...when the tune first came to me, I dreamed it in the key of E, which would have been his key. Because the top of my range is a minor third lower than his, I lowered it. I tuned the guitar to an open D tuning.

I can't remember, but I may actually have recorded it with the guitar tuned to Db, which Paul Winter said is the key in which the Earth sings...

In Praise of "Happy Accidents"...

            It is amazing how when one begins to do something you've been away from a long time that many bits of knowledge seemingly forgotten come back to you. More than that, sometimes you are smarter and better than you were when you left. I don't know if anyone else experiences this phenomenon. I doubt that I'm alone in the universe.
          I used to call this "zen guitar". There have been times when demands of life have taken me from my instrument for long periods to where I really felt like I forgot how to play. And during my "not playing", I actually become better! More creative, etc....The muscles become rusty, but that is usually cured in a short time. I thought at first that it was just because I was returning with a "fresh" or "beginner's mind". But I've noticed that it amounts to more than that.
        It seems that as I have developed in knowledge & experience in the understanding of the nature of the universe, that it entails adding to some kind of universal skill that enhances me as a player...without studying, without practicing, etc....And it doesn't just work with guitar-playing.

       But that's not what I began to write about. I wanted to write about those "happy accidents" that occur during the recording process.
       No, I don't mean when you get so involved in the creative process that you forget to go to the restroom.
       I mean those unintended things that happen which somehow mesh with the creative process and end up enhancing the result. And odd flourish improvised, not on the chart that sounds great. Sometimes some stray noise on an instrument generated by creative exuberance or frustration, scheduled for erasure during editing, turns out to sound pretty darn good because of its timing or whatever, so you end up leaving it in.
       The Beatles knew all about this, and were open to using it to their advantage. They were great experimenters anyway, using instruments & equipment in ways far out of the norm. But they always had their ears tuned in for anything odd that might enhance a tune...sometimes this got started by a compressor or some other unit set wrong. Someone would start playing, and they'd think "Wow. What can we do with that?".

       Since I've gotten back to recording again, I've had a number of happy accidents...no jokes PLEASE!...The latest & greatest of these is not completely accidental. Some of it results from educated guesses and the "zen recording" phenomenon mentioned earlier.
      You must first understand that I began working on my current tune 4 YEARS AGO!...It's been one of those situations where life's demands have thrown a series of wooden shoes in my music-making. Working in widely separated spurts, it took the first 2 to make the basic tracks (rhythm section) and vocal for this tune...and then things got really interesting!
     But back before I began, I had a sound in my head for the lead guitar. And in my head I began designing a patch to get that sound. So I have been carrying this around like a grain of sand in an oyster, agitating me for at least 5 years!
     Finally it has come time to make that track. Yesterday I did some very basic settings on my equipment looking to produce that sound I've been aiming for. I worked on it maybe a half an hour, which in recording time, doesn't amount to much. I figured to do a lot more tweaking to get that elusive quality I was looking for...I recorded a test section to see what it might need to match my idea.

     Stunningly    Unbelievably    it needed      Nothing!!!