Greetings again my friends, we’re all on the other side of another week of things that got done, things that we learned, and things that came up. Hopefully however it all happened in your world, you can take the best bits and start piecing them together – I like to see life as a living and evolving entity, and you feed those right and amazing results happen. So feed your gardens inside and outside those best bits of this week and walk on into next week with it nourished.
Meanwhile, we’ve got now – which when this is posted will hopefully be Friday – and the immediate next to be had is the weekend! I know life is a bit different for so many these days – but claim some time for yourself, with what refills and replenishes you. For me right now that’s the woods and playing jazzy stuff on the guitar. In other times maybe old machines and gatherings of car folks or camping at a small drag racing strip, or a good jam (or jelly, for that matter) or some ridiculous road trip long enough to where I know there will be adventurous moments and challenges, or cooking pots of food and watching documentaries. Or if you feel it’s time, you know, shake things up a bit. Move. Move on. Move a mountain in your life if that’s what helps you live and not just exist.
What’s it to you – I mean, not in the ever-elusive perfect time, or the dream, or what was or whatever – but right now? What fills your core right now? If you’re tuned into it and not treating it like a pack mule, your body will tell you what it needs, what it’s lacking in… your essence, your spirit, the life in you (whatever you want to call it) will do the same when not ignored. Cultivate that part like a garden and it will tell you what it thirsts for. Nourish that. Do it.
In just about all of these moments, in my life at least, there’s music in some way. Not always the same stuff either – different soundtracks for different scenes. I’m not going to listen to Meat Loaf’s Bat Out Of Hell while carving on a bass guitar in a workshop in the woods because it feels ridiculous. Staring down the hood of a ‘70s car as it eats the interstate with its headlights, shitting highway out the rear view on a deserted stretch at one or two in the morning, a few ticks above cruising speed with the wind from the windows blowing your hair back and your left arm up on the opening? Oh man – there IS no better soundtrack! OK, maybe Boston’s first album. Or some Seger. So context is important. But the point is, MUSIC is there. Music is the medicine. Music carries the magic. And in my still-to-me-unbelievable scenario here 23 years since my last job that wasn’t in the biz in some way, music is the MEANS. I make guitars & basses for a living; I never take that for granted. I remind myself of it every day. I nourish my attitude with the reminder of how my life is fed.
But even if my path and present had been very different, even if all it is to you is something that fills the air on your way into the office or soothes you on the way home – it’s magic, it’s medicine. DOSE. DOSE! Put the music everywhere in your world and let it do its thing, whatever that is for you in your context.
Here’s a cool shot from this week of the six in assembly. Five now have their pickups in, and the sixth will get its pair next week. All are waiting for one part or another just due to the nutty times we’re in and its ripples into the parts supply chain. See the tags? We adapt. We keep rolling. We keep moving forward. The good part of this, though, is that as these parts DO trickle in and show up, they’re ON and they’re GONE. By the end of next week, everything that can be done on all six without the part or two will be done. And… it’s going to be glue-up time on some special Blisses I’ve been meaning to get to. Blisses? Blii? I like that better. “Stay tuned for the Blii!”
In inventory, not only are a handful of Shortbasses in process and unclaimed (now’s your chance), but every so often an instrument does come back. The client loved this bass and was one of the coolest cats to work for – but it just wasn’t a match for how he plays or the hand troubles he’s having. So… on the block goes this spectacular Cbass, super lightweight, “plays like buttah”, NEW except for the try-out time and slight scratches around the E hole on the black bridge from trying different strings. You’re saving $200 on that and you’re saving a year wait to BUY it now. Full warranty, it’s a new bass. Grab it. (No substitutions with this one, it has to be sold. Thanks.)
As always, thanks SO much for being with us, for reading my words, for supporting those who make music and craft its tools. May some of this help you in some way. Stay cool!
Listening to: Earl Chinna Smith, Sticky Fingers (reggae guitar); some live Pat Metheney; Dean Martin Sings Italian Inspired Songs; Bill Frisell plays John Lennon (LaVilette Jazz Festival 2012).