Bob...

TO MY FRIEND BOB
Thanks and thanks again to you, Bob Gardner!
You and I have always been brother spirits - now more than ever.
My gratitude goes out to you for all those wonderful late nights/early mornings around the San Francisco Bay at places like the Hotel Utah Saloon and Bobby G's; for your chauffeuring and logistics and unfailing enthusiasm; for the restful berth aboard your flagship the "Plumb Crazy" at Embarcadero Cove; for all your jokes and laughter and yes, even occasional grumpiness.
50 years, my friend! And we're still doing what we always did.
How could we be any luckier?
Love to you from
Michael

California Update

Dear Friend,

One of the delights of my sojourn in California-land has been re-connecting with family and friends in the context of music. Here I'm pictured with my niece, Carlee Rasmussen, on stage just after my recent gig at the B Street Bistro in Hayward, California.  Carlee has chosen to work within the California State Education System as an advocate for kids with behavioural issues. She is a vital, passionate committed human being and I am a very proud uncle! 

My producer and multi-instrumentalist Mr Heath Cullen is back in Australia doing final mixes for the 10 tracks we recorded last month at Heritage Recording Company in Burbank. I’m pleased to announce that my new album, Not The Express, will be pressed and ready to go by early October 2015. Not The Express will carry forward the ethos of my debut album, Clean Exit, but with an expanded palette of musical colours and powered by the stellar rhythm section of Matt Nightingale (Hoddle, Black Mountain String Band, Heath Cullen) on double bass and Jim Keltner (The Travelling Wilburys, Lucinda Williams, Crosby Stills & Nash) on percussion. 

So - in short - I’m looking homeward toward Australia, anticipating new musical adventures following my return in late July, but with a heart filled with gratitude to my family and to friends both old and new who have so enriched my time here in this place I once called home.

All best wishes to you,

Michael

 

 

14.IV.2015

14.IV.2015

Groundlessness! What an unattractive proposition. I resist the notion, heart and soul, even as I see the truth in it. Give me some kind of insurance policy, please! Some guarantee that where I’m standing today (or where I stood yesterday) will be where I’m standing tomorrow. But I have never heard of anyone selling a policy like that.

Some lyrics from one of my latest songs:

The stuff I had to offer

Was goin’ out the door in buckets

They were clapping, they were cheering,

Seemed like finally I had struck it

They were lined up in the streets

And every card that I was playin’

Was an ace

But then a trap door opened

And I was tumblin’

Toward an unfamiliar place.

 

Chogyam Trungpa offers this perspective:

The bad news is, you’re hurtling through space and your parachute won’t open.

The good news is that there is no ground.

Could it be that we might come to enjoy this kind of ride? Since the possibility exists that this is the sort of ride we’re taking, without being aware of it?

Like I said, an unattractive proposition.

Maybe.

The Laughing Heart by Charles Bukowski

your life is your life
don't let it be clubbed into dank submission.
be on the watch.
there are ways out.
there is a light somewhere.
it may not be much light but
it beats the darkness.
be on the watch.
the gods will offer you chances.
know them.
take them.
you can't beat death but
you can beat death in life, sometimes.
and the more often you learn to do it,
the more light there will be.
your life is your life.
know it while you have it.
you are marvelous
the gods wait to delight
in you. 

Charles Bukowski