Thoughts From The Townedgers-July

It has been a very cool and quiet July here.  With the floods of June pretty much taking up our time and effort, the new album had to wait till things got better around here.  I'm hoping for a interview from Diggy Kat on that when he gets his new net radio station going soon.  Thanks to Radical Radio for their promoting Just Enough Love, our second single from Forthcoming Trains.  Wolfie remains in regular rotation as well.

Sad to hear Dick Wagner passed away yesterday, he was 71 and remains one of the best guitar players in rock history.  You can hear him in his full glory on Rock And Roll Animal from Lou Reed and Welcome To My Nightmare by Alice Cooper.

Ian Anderson made a valid point that music today.  Basically the most influential stuff came out in the 60s and 70s but it has been slipping since the 90s ended and Nu Metal started up.  It has gotten much worse with Bro Country music.  I don't forsee a breakout band of the ages anymore, the PIG 3 major labels (good word for them)  has sucked the life blood out of many many start up bands and resort to rehashing the classics.  As a music lover and music maker, I continue to make albums for something for me to listen to. And I know that I can listen to my music and if I was a casual fan checking out The Townedgers for the first time I'd buy their albums.  Or download.  But let's face the facts: there's no money to be make with the music that I make.  For 30 plus years it's been a hobby of my idea of rock and roll.  And *sigh* I know I could have made a so so living being a bar band or playing hair metal or country but at my younger age, I rebelled against that. I never figured I last this long to continue to make new music, but since I'm not good at love or relationships and the only thing I know is record buying and playing music I ended up being that elusive loner. 

The songs of the past reflect the failures of love or life itself, of course but sometimes I could come up with a love song for the love interest at that time.  In some ways it kept their memory alive or remembering that cold November day on the river and Lisa wrapped me up in her coat and kept me wrong since I ended up wearing my old jacket and hat and that didn't do the trick.  And when she managed to brave 10 below temps at the end of 1990s to be with me in Dubuque to celebrate New Year's and the end of the century, that turned to be the highpoint of that time.  She got phenomena so bad that she was still was hacking and coughing when I visited her one last time in March of 2000. She found somebody much closer to home and was more financially stable than I was.  Like the song said, we were one but come the next day she'd be gone.

But we managed to continue to talk for another decade and a year before she decided that it was best we go different ways.  Looking back, Pawnshops For Olivia was the final note of what we had once and it remains a sad farewell all down to Beyond The Sun.  In other words if you read between the lines, the answer was we are never ever getting back together again.    Sometimes you have to let go, it's over and tomorrow's another day.  But then again I've been known to hang on longer than I should.

Forthcoming Trains, was done without a love interest and with any pressure on me whatsoever.  A lotta songs were done in one take, I decided to go wherever the music went and if I messed up or change the song mid stream, we went with it.  The question from Bob Lefsetz saying the album format is dead is not true. But with the aging of life, we simply don't have time to listen to subpar crap.  Today's artist is competing with just about everything that has been recorded and made to the internet. Infinite music but we don't have as much time as we did 20 or 30 years ago.  Signing up on Sound Cloud to promote the best songs hasn't been much either.  It's out there, the links are up and songs are available.  That's all I can do is get the word out and say it's there.  But I don't forsee much happening and basically Geoff Redding has his daughters growing up and they got their own band going and he's a proud dad to help them too.  They got their best years ahead, mine has passed.  I can still get on the stage and bash away on the drums and remain as radical as I did back in 1983.  Today's musicians have their work cut out for them, they have to work twice as hard to get paid twice as less.  You certainly have to be in it for the music and the love of music and interaction with the fans.  There's plenty of bedroom rockers out there, but like myself they'll never be discovered outside a few.

Whatever I had planned with Alex has fallen apart.  He went to days and didn't bother to keep in touch.  Doesn't look good either for anything with Mike or Russell.  Don't look for anything with Doug Bonesteel either.  The hard core Tea Bagging Guitar player and the left leaning Russ and Mike will not allow any more reunions outside of the Facebook get together in January.  Doug gets way too involved with FOX news even for me.

I think in September we'll release a third single from Forthcoming Trains.  Not sure what song it will be.