This day begins similar to any typical winter’s morning here, the Palouse region of north-central Idaho, dim, gray, and what most would term as, other than warm. Looking out the window seems to bring memories of the pandemic into focus, as I sit in the same chair, in the same location, on the day when I wrote "Another Day In Lonleysville," even-though; that occurrence was in the midst of summer. The changes I felt then, remain quite forceful to my outlook, a condition that remains ever present in the back of my mind. At least I don’t have to live within those conditions while sitting here, safe inside this isolated space away from those potential threats, allowing my continuance to express these things I hold dear that remain as a passion and focus. The music I have written is expressing much of my own story, sometimes showing the deep inner feelings that shape my own understandings of living the human condition, reflections of some admired musical influences, while other instances are purely fictional presentations. My musical expression has been an underlying force or drive if you will, since the Christmas of 1971, having been gifted an acoustic guitar. It wasn’t a great guitar, but it was playable, providing a condition that I had never felt prior.
The above is a fact, one that provided a condition I retain. It has gradually transformed into a life force over time as other foci fell away based in increased disabilities. Presently, my days are near always shaped toward music in some way, thinking it, playing it, reviewing it, and listening to what others have created. Having written and composed many songs previously, the year 2000 came along as a transition through technology. I purchased a replacement computer and digital audio recording software to go with it,, having a belief that the purchase would fulfill a dream of many years. It turns out that this allowed only a starting point in learning about this kind of technology, although; both the software and my abilities to use it, combined as very limiting. I didn’t understand the additional hardware requirements at that time, further complicating the limitations of the hardware I then possessed. These details are provided as facts that can but barely define the journey taken, since the days of cassette recordings and semi-professional recording experiences designed for the purpose of my self expression in musical form. Phase next began after becoming disillusioned with the highly commercialized market in computer operating systems where it interfaced with my own financial status. Its software becoming a cash cow rather than a system designed to assist the betterment of humanity. Its potential being lost for the sake of personal financial gain of the few, rather than of the general population. Somewhere, I heard about the Linux operating system which sounded much more appealing to my nature. It was 2008 when I purchased my next replacement computer (cash cow inputs) with the intent of shifting to this "other" kind of computer operating system. My own ignorance, lack of education in computer language I found to be a huge barrier in fulfilling this desire to escape the mainstream capitalistic cash cow that could allow my progression toward recording my music. Gradually I was able to learn enough about computers to escape the big cash cow of software. That first expensive piece of digital audio software, had become obsolete so quickly and would not function with a (then) modern computer system, and I lacked the funds to purchase it again! Again just the facts that let me arrive at the conditions which shaped what is now possible. More years and a steady focus allowed for the gain in how I am now able to record the works of my lifetime for the purpose of self expression, my art, in the form of music, to be taken in by anyone whom chooses to observe its content, freely.
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