A fun video of working with some new drummers in a workshop. Three bars of the beat and the fourth bar is a PHIL!
Music
Rhythm and Flow Drum Workshop
Burning Bowl Drumming 2023
It has become a yearly tradition that the Unity in Albany Burning Bowl service start out with a bang, of drums and whatever other percussion is handy. This is 1 of 2 from 2023 where we found some funk in the old faithful samba. It’s hard not to get right up and dance to this one – unless you’re sitting and playing drums.
Keep My Head
The phrase and first line of “Keep My Head” are a bit of a nod to John Mayer’s Gravity lyrics which ask, “Just keep me where the light is.” I’m asking the inspiration within me and around me to help me be the best version of myself, with a rhythm that suggests we don’t always have to take that process so seriously.
We can always ‘Stand up 8 times and live to love another day.’
This Island Earth
This song is about the big, beautiful sphere on which we live, taking care of it, and is an ode its majesty. It showcases some drone video of New York’s Thacher Park and some magical moments of the performance of a song that we loved learning and looked forward to doing again.
Burning Bowl Drumming 2022
Unity in Albany’s first New Year’s Eve back with people needed some celebration to start it off!
We collaborated on a fun drum piece that echoes in our ears still!
Listen
I was inspired by the lyrics from Pink Floyd’s Echos, which observes, “Strangers passing in the street / by chance two separate glances meet / and I am you and what I see is me,” this song speaks to the sameness of our fellow humans.
I felt moved to speak to both our common struggles and to “the power that we’re learning to reclaim.”
And It Will Be
At the time I wrote this, many of my songs had been about struggle and discover meaning in those dark nights. But I had grown tired of songs about ‘the struggle’ and the cliché that good art comes only from struggle. It didn’t represent the way I felt about life. I don’t believe we have to live in perpetual angst, even if I value the wisdom that comes from those angsty periods.
I claim, for myself, that we “create a new planet with every wound we pass through.”
Green Eyes
Coldplay Cover from the album, “A Rush of Blood to the Head.”
I used to love playing this at open mics and you might notice that I didn’t record this one yesterday – but only because of the video’s graininess, right?!