"Words are only words but we turn them into gifts... then we seem confused as their meaning slowly shifts"

My next album reaches a milestone

Beneath A Flagless Moon - my next release - is almost ready to go into mass production.

It's a good old fashioned double album. Remember those? Two CDs with 9 songs on each.

The final mixing and mastering were done by Grammy-Award-winning sound engineer Rob Eaton. And I'm absolutely thrilled with the results.

As the title suggests - hopefully - there is something a little nostalgic about the songs on this album. Not that they all deal with the past, the nostalgia seems to come from the sound, from the songs themselves. Although I did notice that the one word that crops up in the lyrics more than any other is indeed "past". This is how it turned into a 2 CD set. I knew if these songs were not released now, and together, they'd probably never see the light of day. The songs for the album after this are already written and mark a return to the rockier songs of my last one, Raised In Vain.

I am working towards a release date for Beneath A Flagless Moon of 1/2/12. I'll probably not be writing about it again until I can tell you it's available. But I wanted to mark this milestone and recognize the invaluable contributions made by Rob and the other musicians. The album features Deborah Domanski (a name familiar to any Opera fan) on backing vocals - but proving her non-operatic voice is as beautiful as her opera voice is powerful! My good friends Peter Farrell on keyboards and Craig Snyder on guitar. My new Santa Fe friends Jim Oliver on keyboards, Michael Stearns on keyboards, shaker and Hopi flute, and Sharon Gilchrist on mandolin.

I play guitar, dobro, banjo, dulcimer and ukulele. Many of them for the first time on record. These parts plus my vocals were all recorded in my own openDmusic Studios here in Santa Fe - so this album marks many milestones of a personal nature too. I'm proud of it and I hope you will enjoy it when you finally get to hear it. Not long now.

 

Addendum:

Not that it will mean much before you can hear the words and music, but here's the track lists:

Disc 1.

LIFE ON HOLD

CITY OF GHOSTS

MERCIFUL RELEASE

SANTA FE

SEE WHAT TIME HAS DONE (for Dennis Hopper)

THIS CRAZY WORLD

EVERY WORD YOU WRITE (for J.J.Cale)

GOING HOME

I'LL BE THERE FOR YOU

Disc 2.

ON BRIGHTON BEACH

FADE TO BLACK

MORE THAN ENOUGH

SOMETIMES

ANY MINUTE NOW

HARVESTING LIGHT

WAITING FOR MY HEART

UNDESERVING

THE ROAD TO NEVER MIND

 

The album title comes from the first verse of City Of Ghosts...

"Love and youth are sisters

And both were ending soon

As we held on to each other

Beneath a flagless moon."

 

 

 

 

Even as we exit Iraq, Republicans criticize Obama

Okay, so it's only the opinion of close to 30,000 people and it's probably biased by the fact that the poll was taken at msnbc.com. But that said, you'd have to hunt pretty hard to find many people in America right now who truly think the Iraq war was worth the price we paid in dollars and lives.

Why do I raise this? Because the same percentage of us that say no, the cost was not worth it, should remember it was a Republican administration that sent us there in the first place and vote Democratic next year. The current crop of Republicans would happily start another Iraq if they thought it would give them even a modicum of control over Middle East oil. They are bought and paid for by the oil industry and Wall Street after all. And they would do again what Bush and Cheney did before. They are already criticizing President Obama even as he announces the US will be out of Iraq by the end of this year. But then they are also giving total credit (ignoring the US contribution) to the UK and France for ousting Gadhafi!

All of this is worth remembering when it comes time to decide which direction this country will go in next November. 

Is saying Rush Limbaugh is a fool tautological?

Rush just went to look up tautological!

Don't be fooled by Mr 999

“The poor would pay more while the rich would have their taxes cut, with no guarantee that economic growth will increase and good reason to believe that the budget deficit will increase. Even allowing for the poorly thought-through promises routinely made on the campaign trail, Mr. Cain’s tax plan stands out as exceptionally ill conceived."

That assessment comes from Bruce Bartlett, a senior official in the Reagan and George H.W. Bush administrations, who described the plan as a “distributional monstrosity.”

Well, close.

A once in a lifetime photograph

Amateur photographer Tommy Eliassen took this shot in Ifjord, Finnmark, Norway. He managed to capture a meteor, the Milky Way and the Northern Lights all in one frame. Amazing.

This is a landmark to me...even if it's blah-blah to Lady Gaga

7000

In certain contexts not a huge number. But when it's the number of people who have bothered to click a button that says "I'm a fan" on Jango Internet radio, and the music they are listening to is mine...that's huge.

I reached this landmark today. And the nicest thing is that 60% of my listeners are here in the USA but 40% are scattered across almost every country in the world. I now have hundreds of wonderful email messages from all the major countries and from some where I have to look on the map to see where they are!

Jango also provides what they call a Fan Overlap Report. These are the artists that the people who like my music also listen to:

So I'd say I'm keeping some pretty good company!

This would seem as good a time as any to remind you to remind all your friends (I know regular readers have bought one of every item already, right?) that my music and books are now available direct from davetutin.com. Because I don't have amazon.com keeping 55% of the sale price, I can keep prices low and shipping even lower.

Support Independent Artists! 

And thanks to those 7000 people who have made it seem worthwhile to keep putting the music out there...I hope to have a new album available around the end of the year. More on that later.

 

We've come to this...

Absolute stupidity.

That's all I can call it when I read an article that claims that Chief Executive Officers of American companies are concerned about...

"...stagnant wage gains for consumers."

Consumers? Consumers??? You morons...BEFORE they can be consumers, they are employees! And you are the reason for the stagnant wages. You are "concerned" about yourselves!!!

Good grief. I'm not even linking to the piece on msnbc, it's not worth reading. I'm tired of listening to the so-called leaders of industry complain about shit that they created. 

True Capitalism explained...by Cheeseheads

I think this is great. Because it explains complex economic concepts in a way everyone can understand. Everyone that is except the jerks currently running the investment banks and the Republican party. Sorry about the ad at the beginning!

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

 

 

Why Romney will never be president

"Islam and Mormonism both originate in the Abrahamic traditions. Both believe that Christianity as originally established by Jesus Christ was a true religion, but that it subsequently became deformed to the point that it was beyond simple reformation. Hence, each religion sees its founder (Muhammad for Islam, and Joseph Smith for Mormonism) as being a true prophet of God, called to re-establish the true faith. In addition, Both prophets received visits from an angel, leading to additional books of scripture."

Now don't get me wrong, I'm an atheist and I think this is all a load of nonsense. But can you see this country ever voting for a president who adheres to a religion so closely aligned with Islam? I don't think so. Trust me, as the GOP race heats up, this will become even more of an issue and will go from the rather benign references to Mormonism as a "cult" to the more damaging comparison to Islam. 

This is why I believe in only one thing where religion is concerned: the separation of church and state. But I'm happy to see GOP presidential contenders beating each other up over non-political issues. Not one of them is in any way presidential. 

 

I'll be buying his book

"Here in America, we seem to be more interested in finishing first than we are in figuring out what race we ought to be in." - David J. Rothkopf

This is, without question, one of the smartest, informative articles I've read in a long time. I strongly suggest you read it, regardless of your political leanings. It just makes sense. And it does so by comparing this country with other's in the world in a way that many Americans are unwilling or unable to do. It explains many of our current problems - or rather our inability to fix our problems. We are chasing the wrong dream.

Today's New York Times.

71 today...wherever he is

"You're just left with yourself all the time, whatever you do anyway. You've got to get down to your own God in your own temple. It's all down to you, mate." - John Lennon

Sitting at my iMac...

...I cannot help thinking how different my world would be without Apple and Steve Jobs. I will find out in the coming years what life is like without Steve. Hopefully Apple will continue to change the world.

"You can't just ask customers what they want and then try to give that to them," Steve Jobs once said. "By the time you get it built, they'll want something new."

That's the little-appreciated key to business success right there, for anyone smart enough to see it. Which, sadly, does not include many US companies. I know from my days in advertising that they almost all look to the customer for insights. Steve Jobs knew we seldom have any. And acted accordingly.

Knowing he was a Buddhist, I'll mark his passing with these words from the Buddha:

"An idea that is developed and put into action is more important than an idea that exists only as an idea."

Here's To The Crazy Ones: A Steve Jobs Tribute - Watch MoreFunny Videos 

Farewell to Bert Jansch

One of the all time great guitarist/singer/songwriters is gone. Lung cancer claimed Bert Jansch yesterday. I wish I could say he was an early influence of mine - in many ways he was - but I could never, and still can't, play guitar like Bert. I'm happy to say I met him years and years ago. He was a lovely, generous man.

 

If you don't have at least some Bert in your collection, get his first album simply titled Bert Jansch, from which this tune, Angie, is taken. It was written by another great player named Davy Graham. We all twisted our fingers for months trying to play this. Thanks Bert.

Wisdom

As someone once said...

"Poetry is thoughts that breathe, and words that burn."  - Thomas Gray

Have we lost our collective minds...or is this just the Fairmont future?

There's so much that goes on today that makes absolutely no sense to me. I'd go so far as to say it makes sense to nobody other than those who are somehow making money from these weird arrangements.

What am I talking about? This..

It's a high-end development here in Santa Fe. It's a "club" that offers "fractional ownership" which I am assuming is a new way of saying timeshares.

Here's the weird part. It is branded "Fairmont", you know, the hotel people. It carries the Fairmont logo and their advertising even uses a headline that refers to "A Fairmont just for you."

Well, that's not the weird part, this is. When you read the small print at the bottom of the ad it discloses that Fairmont is NOT the owner or developer or even manager of this project. The true owners of this project simply license the Fairmont name and logo.

But if you go to the website for this development, it's all Fairmont again. With the ultimate weasel used to cover themselves. They say "Fairmont is owned by FRHI Holdings Limited". Well that's true. The rights to the Fairmont name and logo etc are indeed owned by that Holding Company. But it is also clear that they know that "Fairmont" in this case will be read as an abbreviation of "Fairmont Heritage Place" the full name of this development of which Fairmont is NOT the owner, developer or operator.

It's exactly the same kind of deal that tripped up Donald Trump recently - where he'd licensded the use of his name to a development he had absolutely nothing to do with.

The use of the Fairmont name is solely to justify premium prices, to give a sense of safety and of stability for investors in this project while completely masking the truth. If our business regulations and advertising standards openly permit this kind of lying, where are we headed?

 

Unwelcome guest

As happy as he seemed under our dining table, he left without too much argument!

It's a bullsnake - they are not venomous but you still don't want one biting you, so I'm told. Given that they grow up to six feet or more this one, at about three feet, was not ready to fight like a man!