Photo By Bobby Aazami of ourfavoriteday.com

I travel a lot and find myself playing in solo or duo formats much of the time, so it’s no surprise that the acoustic side of my material has plenty of chance to blossom over the last few years. A lot of people have asked me why I don’t have a recording of some of these songs, so as I make the transition from studio rat to performer, an EP of stripped-down acoustic tracks seemed to be a natural place to start. I’m proud to give you my first recording as an artist – ‘Sparks.‘

The EP consists of three songs of my own and three covers, performed with acoustic guitar, vocals, bass and drums – and a few other subtle elements thrown in. The musicians were members of my longtime band that gigged around LA for years as Heliotrope, so the musical chemistry between us was as relaxed and intuitive as ever.

THE SONGS

‘Unseen Hand,’ (endearingly referred to as ‘Unsigned Band’ by a fellow band mate) is a song I wrote back in 1997 as I made the first steps to getting off the road as a sideman and focusing on my songwriting career. I’ve never gotten tired of this one, because it came from a real place in my life… I was going through a huge transition and the song seemed to help me through it. Whenever I sing it during my shows it seems to strike a similar chord with the audience.

‘One Of These Days’ is a song I wrote with KC Porter and Carlos Santana for the 2002 Santana album ‘Shaman.‘ It’s a cool story – I was in a deep Nigerian Afro-beat phase at the time, and I noticed Carlos had every Fela Kuti album on vinyl. So rather than try to write Carlos the proverbial pop hit, we went for something much more raw, political, and in line with the Afro-beat feel. We even had the guys from Ozomatli come down and lay down the bass, percussion and horn parts, which created a pretty monstrous sound. Our song was a bid for a large 6-minute chunk of real estate for a commercial Santana album… and the record company hated it! The only reason it made it onto Shaman was that Carlos loved it so much he went to bat for us, dug in his heels and insisted it stay on the album – with my vocals! So for this EP it only seemed fitting to re-imagine it and come up with an acoustic version which I could perform on my own (sans 12 Piece Afro-Latin Band). It definitely acquired a unique vibe through the process of acoustification… I hope Carlos digs it…

‘Here Comes The Rain Again’ is one of my favorite songs of the 1980′s, which while I admit to being my least favorite decade of all time musically and otherwise, still had some great songs. So when this bluesy groove came out of my guitar one night, I figured it was time to let the healing begin. Obviously nobody can mess with Annie Lennox, but I think I snuck through by being a guitar player… and a dude. Girl, you know it’s true.

‘May This Be Love,’ usually known as ‘Waterfall,’ is from the first Jimi Hendrix Experience album. There are a lot of versions out there, and as a HUGE Hendrix fan, I’m always glad to see Jimi get his due as a songwriter (in addition to being the Greatest Guitarist Ever). It’s a gorgeous song that is about daydreaming, or love, or spirituality or whatever that ‘waterfall’ may be. My version is inspired by Brazilian guitar music — through my Euro-Canadian hands, of course.

‘New Creation’ is a recent song that comes straight from the overwhelming feeling I get when I contemplate the Unknowable Creator of Everything Ever (including quasars, blue whales, the Grand Canyon etc.). I’ve always had a hard time imagining myself being transformed by Divine forces, but… that’s the whole point of life, right? Anyone who’s ever stopped to try and deal with that, especially as a flawed, floundering human being, might relate to this tune. (Anyone else can imagine it’s about cooking.)

Lastly, my take on the old Johnny Mercer tune made famous by Frank Sinatra: ‘Summer Wind.’ I first heard it as a teenager in the movie ‘The Pope Of Greenwich Village,’ and it’s been in my head ever since. I wanted my version to carry a sort of haunting feeling to it so I married the lyrics to these dark, romantic chords that remind me of a faraway place… it’s one of those songs I wish I’d written. So I did the next best thing!

Next Episode: The Sessions…

My take on the election has been hard to put into words, but this article (reprinted from the Adbusters website) is the most sober, balanced thing I’ve read so far. It really resonated with me, so here it is:

THE END OF APATHY: Generation O Reveals Its Revolutionary Potential

There were supposed to be fireworks in Grant Park on November 4 but, at the last minute, Obama pulled the plug. His bid for the presidency could have culminated in an explosion of phosphor against the dark Chicago sky. Instead, he offered us these simple words: “Today we begin the earnest work of making sure that the world we leave our children is just a little bit better than the one we inhabit today.”

It was a sober denouement to an ecstatic experiment in possibility. It was also a warning. With his restrained rhetoric and almost somber demeanor, Obama was sending a clear message to his emotive base – this whole thing is about to getseriously unsexy. Now that an inspired generation of voters has exuberantly elected Obama president, we are forever separated from him by the yawning expanse of legislative structure. The symbiotic relationship we have enjoyed with him is over. Obama is now the president-elect of the United States of America; he no longer feeds on our fervor. Instead, he will engage in the slow, tectonic grind of policy change. And we, having reached the apex of our democratic abilities, will have to sit on the sidelines. Our level of direct participation has officially peaked.

But that doesn’t mean that we’re done, only that our role has changed. Having pledged to tackle climate change, the economy, the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, and America’s increasingly villainous role on the world stage, Obama represents the most realistic hope for change since Kennedy. But he is still a politician and, as such, Obama is operating within an immovable power structure infinitely stronger than any one man. As he begins the business of governing – a banal blend of appeasement, compromise and concession – Obama will be unable to maintain his status as a revolutionary figurehead. Sustaining the sense of hopeful rebellion that swept such an improbable candidate into the White House falls squarely on the shoulders of the people who put him there: “Generation O.”

The question hanging in the air is this: does our generation have the revolutionary spirit to keep this thing going? Now that the election is over, the results of any collective efforts to bring about real change in America are going to be decidedly less tangible, quantifiable and visceral. Political shifts of such magnitude – building a green economy, instituting universal healthcare, reining in a capitalist system run amok – are going to require more than a willing president. If these changes are to manifest, they will be the result of a vigilant, engaged and youthful populace that never stops pushing. That means our generation, the one described in Adbusters’ now infamous hipster article as a “lost generation, a defeated generation,” representative of a culture that is “so detached and disconnected that it has stopped giving birth to anything new,” will have to be the engine powering this revolution. That’s why it’s essential that we temper our post-election euphoria with a serious dose of realism. It’s also why Obama canceled the fireworks.

This is the beginning of the battle, not the end. And if there’s one critique of this generation to which I’m willing to lend credence, it’s that we are seriously hooked on immediacy. If we fail to resign ourselves to the fact that change is a process, not an event, then I fear we’ll be sent spiralling headlong into a dangerous new cynicism at the first disappointment dealt to us by Obama.

Disappointment is inevitable. We’ve elected a good man to office but we are years away from tearing down the broken system within which he must operate. So now you have to ask yourself, how much fight have you got in you?

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“Luminous beings are we… not this crude matter!”

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