typeshow

a rare american 2nd act by tim byrnes

 

On October 15TH: Whattaya Know, We ARE the World!!!

     Like most revolutions, it started in the coffee shops. All across the world we've sat w/vague complaints abt the 'damn politicians' and 'the way things are' and how, given the chance, we'd bring a common sense to the table and  'fix things'.

     We now have that chance. From a man being slapped in the face in Tunisia (the sound of one hand clapping?) to the fall of Mubarak, from the Arab Spring to the Occupation of Zuccotii Park in NYC, we the people, the disenfranchised cannon fodder, the 99% have said 'Enough!!'

     And we are too big to fail.

     The simple fact is that our financial, tax and political systems have been bought by the wealthiest 1% of the wealthiest 1%, leaving the rest of us to struggle in an economy that is failing due to the criminal acts of a corrupt Financial system in collusion with a Congress that is bought, paid for and only interested in keeping their own jobs.

     While President Obama's Jobs Bill gets ignored by the Republican-controlled House in favor of reiterations of already standing bans on Federal funds for abortion, while Presidential candidates argue about who's 'really' a Christian, while Union rights, voting rights, civil rights and women's rights are under attack across this country it appears that the general consciousness of we the people has been awakened at last and has taken the form of the Occupy Movement, coalescing today in the October 15th World Wide Day of Protest.

(see page here: http://map.15october.net/main  )

     While the American middle class slowly disappears amid the chicanery of the Corporatocracy and it's purchased politicians, it is up to us to take a stand.

      What's needed is nothing less than  a new Constitutional Convention to get the Big Money out of elections in this country. Nothing can change as long as the reins of power are held by the few special interests that have purchased our Government. Campaign Finance Reform should be first on a long list of things in this country that simply need to be done another way. We need to rebuild America from the ground up. We need to take the power back (power is, after all, something you take) from the Corporations that control BOTH Parties.

     And it starts with you. And me. And all of us who have shook our heads and said that the fix is in and it's too big to change.

     Well, not with an attitude like THAT, it won't.

     But look at what's happening in the street.

     Occupy Earth!!! We are the ones too big to fail.

posted by: timbyrnes at 21:23 | link | comments |

9/11: Another View/His Life Was Saved By Rock and Roll

As America awakes to a day of solemn commemoration for the lives lost and the world that has changed as a result of the attacks of this day in 2001, there are those among us for whom the day also has other meaning. Today is somebody's wedding anniversary, somebody's birthday. Today someone heard that special someone say 'I love you' for the 1st time. Today somebody got a job after being unemployed for too long. And so on. While the madness and the abject sorrow of this day, ten years ago, should be, must be remembered; it's heroes honored and it's fallen mourned, time should also be taken to commemorate the little victories of the day.

     It was one year ago today I awoke to my first full day in Loveland, Colorado, having left my home and family and friends in the Arkansas Valley town of Fowler the night before. I pulled into Denver on a bus in the early evening and spent that 1st night at my friends' Carl and Marion's house (thanks guys!) That next morning, September 11th, 2010, I woke early enough to catch the sunrise over Lake Loveland as I stood in Carl's backyard, smoking a cigarette and wondering what was going to happen next.

     I had been able to put my life in a duffel bag and a shoulder pack and it was with these that I moved into my new place, a basement room in a boarding house, that morning. I spent much of that 1st day wandering around the streets of my new hometown, going back and forth to Grandma's Attic, a thrift store since closed, for my housekeeping (such as it is) neccessities. I found the nearest grocery store, a place to get cigarettes, the Job Service office, the laundramat, the Library and best of all the Mandolin Cafe.

     The Mandolin Cafe, apart from being the Hippest Coffee Shop in the World (pat. pending), was the only place I knew from prior visits. I had come to Loveland 3 times in the previous year to play my music there and it was the reception I got from the people there that convinced me to move here. So it became my home base as I settled into my new world and started looking for work. Every morning I'd get up and head to the Mandolin for coffee and to scout jobs online. Weeks passed and due to the economy, I guess, I wasn't finding work. Alex, the owner of the Mandolin, offered me a job cleaning and waxing his floors. I think he felt sorry for me. I guess I did a pretty good job because in the weeks that followed I started helping out on dishes when the place got busy. On Halloween, Alex and his wife Aryn asked me if I'd like to hand out candy to the trick or treaters who'd be coming in. "Sure", I said, "How hard could it be?"

     There were 3,500  trick or treaters.

     But I had the time of my life and, apparently Alex and Aryn thought I did a pretty good job handling the kids because shortly afterwards they asked me if I'd be interested in nannying their then 2 year-old son Hunter "for a week or so". I still have the honor of their trust, and Hunter's trust, to this day and I've never had a more rewarding job. Of course he can be a pain in the ass sometimes, he's 3, for Chrissakes, but he's given me the gift of seeing the world through the eyes of a child and a kind of loving acceptance I've never known before.

     As time went on I became more involved with the Mandolin, unloading the car after Sam's Club runs, setting up and monitoring Alex and Aryn's Ebay page, posting ads for shows on facebook, preparing the monthly flyers for printing and continuing to wash dishes and help where I could and before I knew it I was making enough money to live on. By January I had worked up the nerve to approach Alex with an idea for a Wednesday Night 'residency', hoping that repeated exposure would help me with my music and maybe bring more people into the Mandolin. Apparently it worked. I've written over 30 songs this year and recorded one full CD and Alex started webcasting the performances over the internet. Over the last 9 months of weekly performances, I've gotten better at what I do and have met an amazing array of friends and musicians who now comprise the Wednesday Night Hootenanny, where we gather to sing and play and be with each other and just enjoy. Little by little more people are showing up and becoming friends and what started as a 'career move' on my part has turned into a small community of like minded people who, if I'm not mistaken, would take bullets for each other.

     On one of those early nights Alex handed me a note that  read "Congratulate Shelley on finishing her novel." Not knowing her by name I had to ask who Shelley was. She was heading for the door with Zoey, her 2 year old, 9 pound, long haired miniature dachsund that had repeatedly tore across the Mandolin floor to my table over the preceding months, giving me a chance to get some puppy love (I had left my dog and best friend Buster back in Fowler and missed my puppy love) and to exchange small talk with Shelley, even though we had yet to formally introduce ourselves. I yelled something romantic like "SHELLEY, HOLD IT!!!!" and congratulated her on camera, waving her up towards the mic so she could get in the camera shot.

     It was then I first noticed how pretty her smile was.

     As Winter turned to Spring and Spring to Summer I continued to host the Hootenanny and began spending more and more time with Shelley and Zoey at the sidewalk table outside the Mandolin. People passing by stop to pet Zoey, who loves the attention. As the weeks and months went by Shelley and I got to know each other better and little by little I found myself falling in love with her. I eventually worked up the nerve to ask her out and amazingly she said 'yes' and since then we've spent time together nearly every day. Being with her is the joy of my life and our nightly dog walks through the park by the Library are the highlight of my day. Shelley, if you're reading this, I love you.


      As setting up the house p.a. system for bands became part of my duties I got to hear some of the best live music in town, meeting an incredible amount of good musicians and making amazing friends. One of whom, Marcy Stonecipher, has become a collaborator as well as a  friend. We played a double bill at a local park about a month ago and are planning to work together more extensively in the future. I'm hoping to record my new songs with her and to play on her songs and eventually put a band together. Over the course of this last year I've made contacts with a number of clubs where we can play and can see nothing but progress in the days ahead. I feel the joy of acceptance and the comfort of community and an overall sense of a job well done.

    And it all started on September 11th, a date that I refuse to cede to terror, a day that will stand forever in my memory as the beginning of it all. To all my loved ones, both old and new, I thank you for your trust and loving friendships. You've made me what I am today. Happy.

tb 9/11/11

posted by: timbyrnes at 16:49 | link | comments |

a ballad for being born:1-21-10/1-21-11

     I don't know enough about new music anymore, THAT's why I didn't write a "Year in Review" thing. I kinda petered out around xmastime as far as writing went. But I have spent the last few weeks looking back. Today, January 21st, 2011, marks the one year anniversary of my waking up from a self-imposed personal exile from the entire freaking world and the day I dared to start living again.

     Rebooting from the kind of social/emotional shutdown I had been in for about a decade took time, to be sure, the seeds of the reinvention were surely planted by the Tension Envelope reunion show of 2009, when 2 great friends crossed years and miles to join me in the middle of nowhere to sing the old songs like they mattered.

     I started thinking that, maybe they did.

     My friend and conscience (well, he tries, bless him) Carl Simmons invited me to his house, his freaking house, in Loveland to open a "living room" show for Christian rock (semi) legend and certified crank Mike Roe. I played a few new songs and some "old favorites" and did not get laughed off the st. . . er, out of the living room. I have video evidence of this on a DVD I called "Lightning Over Loveland" like it was a real concert film or something.

     I started thinking, maybe it was.

     That was October 2009, I believe. I've been continually screwing these dates up. I'm old and forgetful, OK? Anyway, one thing led to another and Carl eventually introduced me to Alex Zoll, his wife Aryn and his dad Mike, who own and run the Mandolinj Cafe in Carl's hometown of Loveland, Colorado. I played my first solo acoustic "coffee house"gig there in early January of 2010. The crowd was sparse, but the people who were there did me the honor of listening and appreciating what I was trying to do. I was, of course, horrible, screwing up words and actually was incapable of playing a particular song because the person I wrote it for was there and my nerves got the better of me.  (By which I mean I turned into Jerry Lewis and wound up closing the night with the worst version of "Folsom Prison Blues" ever inflicted upon people drinkng coffee). But I got through the terror through sheer nerve and lack of sense and had booked another gig by the end of the night.

     About a week later I wrote a song called "Innocent Bystander High School" and the sound that followed was my universe clicking into another place and taking another direction . This song wasn't yet another snide and cleverly worded refutation of the divine or even the Republican.Rather  "High School" was and is an open song of longing for something better, something good and the, for me, startling admission/revelation that "the heart wants what the heart wants and it does what it will do."  Cynicism, I find as I get older,  is little more than a failed suit of armor for the soul too scared to play. Hope is within reach if you only take the chance to grasp for it.

     So I decidedone year ago tonight  to reach far beyond my grasp, to admit to a feeling I'd denied for years, to go out on an emotional limb and engage a world I felt was out of my league. I had decided, for once, to act like a real person and put my self, my heart and my soul, through words and music on the line.

     Within 6 months I had shed myself of a great bar band that had sadly outlived themselves, gathered up the colony of cats I both loved and felt trapped by, moved them to my ex-wife's house (Hi, Lynn!) where I hopefully mended some fences from the bad old days, got out of the small town apartment and downward spiral I'd been in for far too long ultimately getting off the bus in Loveland some 4 months ago in an act of faith and self-liberation equal parts terrifying and exhilirating.

     I have made some small strides in establishing myself here, thanks to new friends like Alex, Aryn and Mike at the Mandolin Cafe, Carl and Marion, Doug and  the gang at Chiler's Open Mike, Zoe and Jana, Ben and Bekka at the Ft Collins Cork Open Mic and the people I meet everyday as I sit in the Mandolin uploading the few freelance writing jobs I've scored by trawling the internet and freelance.com.

     I've recently conned Alex into letting me play every Wednesday afternoon for a while and am, I hope, getting better at what I do with every opportunity given me. I thank all those mentioned above and always, always, all thanks go to the Muse, that small sweet voice that informs my creativity and outlook in ways new, strange and wonderful.

     One year ago tonight I gave myself a shot at life and have never been happier with a decision in my life. Sometimes being scared to death of doing something is reason enough to do it.  Here's to a wonderful year, and hope, yes, hope for many more to come.


     like a tree,
tb 1-21-11

    

    

posted by: timbyrnes at 01:48 | link | comments |

Gunfight at the Mandolin Cafe: TB Solo Set 12/17/10

     The gunfight, thankfully, was between myself and my own worst instincts and luckily I won.

     Here's what happened. Opening for Bill Mallonee was a great opportunity for me to be seen by more people at one time than any gig I've played in Loveland to date and, as such, was very important. And since it was so important the little demons of my imagination (and reality, let's be honest, not all my demons are imaginary) went to work overtime to sow the seeds of doubt that so  often have caused me to sabotage any situation where I might be, Lester forbid! successful.

     It all started abt a week before when I received an email stating that the telemarketing job I'd applied for was NOT forthcoming due to the present state of the economy. The joint just isn't hiring but the voices of self-loathing immediately came a-calling.

     "See," they said, sounding distinctly like they knew what they were talking abt, " Ya can't even get a telemarketing job! Homeless people w/speech impediments get telemarketing jobs every day! Yr too damn old!! You don't know where next month's rent's coming from, ya can't get a goddamn telemarketing job yet you think yr a freaking poet or something! Expect people to sit still while you caterwaul yr lousy songs, then expect them to shell out 5 bucks for CDs that sound like they were recorded by deaf mutes on an answering machine!!! Get real, idiot! Cut yr losses, bail on this potential embarrassment, get back to Fowler and shut up and play country music!!!"

     I have particularly articulate demon voices it seems.

     Combine this particular train of thought with my usual "I Hate Christmas" crap and I was boiling over into the type full metal hissy fit that has scuttled many a good thing in my past. This time, though, I'd like to think I was smart enough to talk about the feelings behind it all, instead of just giving it full rein and run w/the mindless rage like it deserved the light of day on it's own terms.

     So I'd like to thank, and apologize to, everyone who took time from their night, to help me get through the dark time. If it hadn't been for yr kind attention (Carl, Marion, Amy, Meagan, Alex, Aryn, etc.) I would have blown the whole night off.

     As it was, I may have blown the whole night anyway. The recording of the set was indeed lost when my digital recorder crashed so I have no idea how it went. I only know that I was so caught up in anger at myself and convinced that it was gonna suck that I THREW myself into every song like I was battling something off. Cause I was. I was battling off the urge to give up, to deny what progress I might have made these last 3 months towards credibility as a PERSON, let alone an artist. As a result of this, I was out of breath by the 3rd song and am pretty sure my voice was weaker than usual. Which is pretty damn weak to begin with. But seeing how no one walked out or threw anything at me while I was playing, Ima gone guess I did alright.

     After the set, which for inexplicable reasons I was trying to CONVINCE myself sucked, A number of people said some very nice things. Bill Mallonee even made a nice comment abt my lyrics and I did VERY well w/CD sales and tips.

     Even with all that, the feeling of self-doubt and unfocused anger didn't truly dissipate until later the next day. These feelings come to me the way other people catch the flu. It's a mental dis-ease that manifests itself physically with a tightness in the chest, and an allover feeling of 'not right' that feels like my skin is suddenly 2 sizes too small. These occurences used to stretch out for weeks, so I consider myself lucky (among other reasons) that this one only lasted thye day and a half it did.

     So, to all who came to the show: I promise I'll be better next time and thanks for not throwing anything!

posted by: timbyrnes at 21:16 | link | comments |

The War on Christmas: Part 1. "Screamin' Jimmy Christ"

        Got a facebook post from an in-law this morning stating, and unequivocally hardly covers it, that "Jesus is the reason for the season" and, while one might try to "deny it", "be offended by it" or (my favorite!) "hide from it" one was "never going to change it!".

     Of course you know, this means war.

     Jesus is the reason for Christianity. WINTER is the reason for the season. Winter is just a word we wrap around time which is just a word we wrap around our experience. Christianity is just a word for Folk Tales run amok. What started, 2,000 years ago I might add, as an admittedly pretty cool guy talking well intentioned nonsense has turned into a corrupt World Power w/no conscience and access to Weapons of Mass Destruction.

     And yes, I know that Christianity is expressed on a daily basis in the form of charity and compassionate understanding, giving comfort to and sustaining decent people in lives well-lived. As ever it's not the concept itself that is altogether evil, only what some will do in the name of the concept. But it is a concept. God. Jesus. Heaven. Mohammed. Krishnah. Allah. All concepts. Beliefs that believers are convinced are facts. Not "likely to be true", as I hold my belief that man created God and not the other way around to be, but "absolutely true". And while I do respect the Individual's Right to Believe As They Believe, I share no such respect for the belief itself.

     Religion is clearly one of the most divisive forces in the world today. Another one is money. Both of which combine into the main engines of this mass market defoliation of our spirits AND our pocketbooks; this Christmas! The Saviour of the World was born on December 25th!! So was the pre-Christian Babolonyian legend Mitra. Of a virgin. And he was crucified. And he rose from the dead 3 days later. We're not only being sold a story, people, we're being sold one that was plaugurized.

     One that the historical Jesus might well have been aware of. I'm guessing (as are all biblical scholars) that Jesus was also aware of any number of 'false messiah' stories and maybe, just maybe, he thought he'd get in on it. Like "I do Mitra better than anybody! Watch me turn into Mitra before yr very eyes!" and he went out preaching some VERY hip ideas and ideals regarding treatment of the poor and loving one another and being fair etc., mixing it up w/the whole "Kingdom of Heaven" stuff to dazzle the crowds and give them what they wanted. Of course the apologists jump in right abt here and say "Why would Jesus allow himself to be crucified if he wasn't TRULY the Son of God??!!!"

     Maybe Jesus was nuts.

     It's called a "Messiah Complex", remember? Maybe Jesus suffered from delusions, quite common among the paranoid schizophrenic and  other factions of the mentally ill, of some Divine connectedness, if not outright Divinty. In my colorful travels through the streets and mental institutions of this fine country I have met a number of people who thought they were Jesus. Maybe Jesus thought he was Mitra. Again, I'm just saying and I COULD BE WRONG, but there's supposed documentation that Jesus' brother James (famous Sinai Delta bluesman "Screamin' Jimmy Christ", at least that's one of MY delusions!) thought Jesus mad. Of course they have him "come around" by the end of the Book the way any decent editoral staff would, but the theory is still part of the Story.
   
     And maybe THAT's the absolute truth!

     So once again we dress up our inconsistencies and basic human failings in red and green and fatuous nods to reconciliation and boundless love for our fellow man for a fortnight in the dead of Winter, content in a self manufactured and barely sustainable warm and fuzzy cocoon of denial of the simple truth that if we truly loved our neighbor we wouldn't let him starve to death 25,000 times a day. We wouldn't be killing him on battlefields or from predator drones. We wouldn't be abusing his children. We wouldn't be denying him human rights. We wouldn't be doing a lot of things.

     War is over if you want it. Wake up!

posted by: timbyrnes at 21:09 | link | comments |

Self Promotion in an Imperfect World

Tim Byrnes: The Strolling Crone Interview
by Speedy Firbank

      All across America, hell all across the world, hidden in bedroom studios and empty coffeehouses, being politely ignored by the punters at open mics are the great lost voices of rock and roll. Well, I've found one. Tim Byrnes, rail thin and 55, sits on a couch at the Mandolin Cafe in Loveland, Colorado, what might have once been called a quaint hamlet a couple of stone throws from Denver, where he'll shortly be playing a set as the opening act for Christian folk artist Bill Mallonee. Unnaturally tall and twitchy, Byrnes is all arms, legs and big eyed nervousness as we sit down to talk. He never lets go of his cell phone.

     Having blown his one shot at the rock and roll big time with Tension Envelopes, the anarchically and artfully beautiful mess of a rock and roll band he shared with Rick Neblung on guitar, Carl Simmon on bass and the late Mike Hegger on drums back in New York/New Jersey from 1979 to roughly 1983 , through the 'Behind the Music' double cliche whammy of  alcoholism AND mental illness, Byrnes has spent the last 30 plus years writing, recording and lately performing a body of work that at times approaches greatness and is, at worst, rarely less than interesting.

     Recording on various different cassette and later digital 4 and 8 track recorders, he's amassed some 30 to 40 "albums" where he, through the magic of overdubbing, plays guitar, bass, drum machines and keyboards and in the tradition of that other rock and roll saint and lunatic Daniel Johnton, basically just gave them to friends. After what he calls " a spiritual conversion to commited Humanism" in early 2009, when he and fellow Envelopes Neblung and Simmons regrouped for a one off concert in an almost empty theater in the small town of Fowler, Colorado, where he'd been living for 16 years, he got serious. Writing 10 songs of a piece, he recorded them live as a solo acoustic set in that same, and still almost empty, theater a year later. He called the resulting CD "My Bloody Hootenanny" and, while still giving it to friends, he also put it on the Internet for free and for sale and started playing solo acoustic gigs in Loveland. He let the songs out into the world for the first time.

     Since the 'release' of 'Hootenanny' in April of this year Byrnes has recorded 2 CDs of quirky yet somehow solid material. August's 'Boy Genius Alert', a mixed and poorly recorded batch of loud profoundity and November's 'The Panicking of Animals' (after moving from Fowler to Loveland), a far tighter group of thoughtful poptunes recorded in one 5 hour sitting.  He also compiled a 'greatest  hits' of sorts, the 16 track 'To Give You Love', which is collected from recordings made roughly( in both the time frame and audio quality senses) from 2000 through 2009. Remind you of anyone? (Hint: Prince.) And rumors abound of the egnimatic and possibly imminent 'Sarah Gets Her Gun', reportedly a concept album about Mrs. Palin and a return to Byrnes' so called punk rock roots.

     I say  'so called punk rock roots' because, for all his strident self identification with that camp (he went so far as to call his now defunct record review/Lester Bangs imitation of a blog 'punk rock blues') Byrnes is too conversant, if not always deft, with too many pop/rock forms to be limited to Loud Fast Rules and No Future. Songs skate from Bowiesque melodrama to Bert Lahrer burlesques (Lahrer played the Cowardly Lion in The Wizard of Oz and, personally, I'd pay serious money to hear Byrnes take on 'If I Were the King of the Forest'!) Sometimes IN THE SAME SONG. From one to three chord vamps that could entrance John Lee Hooker, ending in the kind of mondo distorto feedback/noise guitar fests that evoke Lou Reed giving birth to Sonic Youth in the back of a car (that's on fire) to muted cries of just plain lonesome swaddled in warming blankets of synthesizers  that reverberate and pulse into a lighter shade of fragility. And between those extremes are literally hundreds of songs; rockers and ballads, show tunes and weird ass blues. Springsteenian street opera and  hopped up rockabilly shoot outs between the animal urge to rock out and the burning ambition to write The Great American Novel. From mop topped Merseybeat poptopias to sleek and  psychedelic lollipops and what can only be called Vampire Gospel. It's ALL here.

     Combine this almost Zelig like technical ability to approximate just about any style from rock and roll's first 50 years, the, shall we say, picturesque quality of his life's experience and what can only be called a SERIOUS way w/words and you have the potential for really good, if not great, rock and roll. And if there's one out there. then there's more out there and we should all stop carping about the death of rock and roll and get out there and START LOOKING!!!

Speedy Firbank, December, 2010

Speedy Firbank:  'So, why 'My Bloody Hootenanny'?

Tim Byrnes: 'Do you mean why the title or why was that the first one I let out the house?'

SF: '(Laughs) Well, let's  go with both.'

TB: 'Well the short answer on the title is it came from combining 'My Bloody Valentine', one of my favorite bands and 'Hootenanny' by the Replacements, one of my favorite albums. Scratch the surface and it's meant to be descriptive. Like what I expected my 'solo acoustic' self to sound like after years of playing full band rock and roll, either with other people or in recording-only, 'invisible bands' where I overdubbed all the instruments myself. Go a little deeper, 'cause I think too much, and it's a 'statement of ownership', like, 'I play like this 'cause it's MY bloody hootenanny, dammit!''

SF: 'It's interesting you say that you think too much. It's actually a refrain on 'Radio Death' from the 'Panicking' CD. Do you think that you think too much? And what do you think too much about?'

TB: 'I don't know. Let me think about it. (Snickers) I think if you can think about things, whatever; personal responsibility or yr place in the world or the world situation or the dreaded human condition and can think things through to, if not a solution, then at least to a place where you can live w/yrself, then that's effective, maybe even productive, thinking and you can never have too much of that. Unfortunately my thinking, like a lot of people's, is rarely effective or very productive and tends to . . .(searches for the word) . . .  gather around what's wrong, primarily, and has a hard time moving past that into making it right. And, yeah, I get stuck there too much. I'll give you that.
     'But back to the second part of yr first question. Why did I put 'Hootenanny' out into the world after years of 'audio seculsion', as it were? That's easy. To get chicks.'

SF: (Laughs) 'And how's that working out for you?'

TB: (Waves arm towards the empty room) 'As you can see, I am inundated w/the honeys. Play yr cards right and I'll let you be my wingman. You can have what bounces off. No, seriously, the Tension Envelopes 'reunion' in 2009 changed my thinking. I mean two guys, two great friends, came, in one case over 2000 miles and, all of us, across almost 30 years just to play some old songs I wrote when I was drunk. This made me think that maybe those songs, and maybe the songs I'd written since and, maybe by extension even I myself deserved more respect than I'd been giving them. And me. (feigns irritation) You know what I mean.
     'At the same time I had started writing on the 'net more and more and  CDs got to friends of friends and I started hearing from various people who I did NOT know who responded favorably to my stuff. People took it, and me, seriously and through what was like a spiritual conversion to commited Humanism, that is, a renewed belief in my own value, both as an artist and a person,I started to engage w/the world more and more and 'Hootenanny' was like my 'coming out' party. But never minimize the importance and sanctity of wanting to impress a pretty girl.'

SF: 'In yr work you seem pretty conflicted about spiritual matters, calling God a liar at one point in 'Good and Evil Rockin' Tonight', for example and then turning around and declaring your work itself the 'soul of a man' in the song of the same title. I get that you don't believe in God, but do you believe in the Human Soul? And, if you do, aren't both beliefs kind of mutually exclusive?'

TB: 'Uh . . . I use medium gauge strings and 2.00 millimeter Purple Dunlop picks, Speedy. What kinda question is that?!! Would you ask DONOVAN that question??!! (Laughs). No, it's OK. I'll take Spiritual Conundrums for 400, Alex. I'll play. Again, the short answer is that I think God was created by Man, not the other way around. I think God is just good misspelled. That there is good and evil in the world and many if not most times, one man's good is another man's evil. The example I like to use is the war in Iraq. Brilliant, right? Religion AND Politics. That's why I have the career I enjoy today! But think about it, the War in Iraq. Taking a dictator out of power, that's good, right? Well, how good was it for the soldier killed in battle or the Iraqi child caught in a crossfire?. How good is the invasion of a soverign nation under false pretenses by a country that advertises itself as the Greatest Nation on Earth? Hypocrisy at that level might get mistaken for evil in some quarters.
     'So, my thinking - and this is only my opinion, I could be wrong, which is something you rarely hear from the truly pious - is that if the concept of 'good' is that malleable, then so is the concept of 'God', and while I respect the concept of God as maybe a goal to aspire to be close to, I don't believe in an old White Man w/a box full of lightning bolts who can either 'save' me or consign me to a burning eternity because I drop f-bombs or think that gay people should have human rights. It all, the whole neverending battle between good and evil thing, it all comes from the mind. Even the most fervently held fundametal and Fundamentalist religious beliefs are just thoughts. You think yr right, you think that what you believe - and how you act on those beliefs - will either get you into heaven or at least cover yr ass in this world.
     'And in closing,' (laughs), 'Yes, I believe in the Human Soul, but I define it as the sum total of individual experience and what we think to do with it. Everyone is unique, which leads to the paradox that when everyone's unique then no one is unique, which sounds all Zen and profound like, but is really just the sound of one man guessing. Like all religion.'

SF: 'Uh . . . the purple 2.00 millimeters, you say, huh? Is that the Delrin . . .?'

TB: 'No, no,  I use the Tortex kind, w/the light powder coating on them so they don't slip out of my fingers. I know, I throw a lotta heavy stuff on three chords and a five note vocal range. I'll never figure it out, whatever 'it' is, but I have a lot of fun trying. The weird thing is, a LOT of the people who've thus far responded favorably to my music are Christians, and quite active Christians at that, but in their own lives, not 'militant'. I guess they can see past any perceived blaspheny on my part and maybe appreciate my honest doubt and maybe even appreciate the fact that I'm willing to struggle w/my own perceptions. Or maybe it's the trousers.'

SF: 'Shifting gears, you cover a lot of stylistic ground on your recordings, who would you say are your biggest influences as a songwriter?'

TB:  'Finally a rock critic question!', (Stops and, what else?, thinks), 'Uh . . . Lou Reed, both in the Velvet Underground, for the wonderful I-IV chord progressions and the skreedillydeeek guitar noise and solo for his literary sensibility. Uh, Bowie for his melodicism and theatricality. Randy Newman for his cynicism. Lennon for his innocence and sheer nerve. Dylan, just for setting the bar so damn high. Bugs Bunny for the smartass. You know, the usual suspects.'

SF: 'What about instrumentally. Any guitar heroes?'

TB: 'Well, as mentioned, Lou Reed. I love Jeff Beck's playing as far as 'virtuoso' guitarists go, he just gets things out of his guitar that sound impossible, without having to resort to Yngwie Malmsteen-like 'weedwhacking' shred stuff. Richard Thompson's another great player who keeps getting better and just doesn'r play cliches. I like 'parts' players. You know, it may not be technically brilliant but it just fits. Guys like Mick Ronson or Phil Manzanera from Roxy Music. Neil Young is the classic 'say it all w/one bent note' guy. Love him, too. I appreciate any guitar player that has his or her own voice, really, from Chet Atkins to, say, Kevin Shields from My Bloody Valentine.'

SF: 'I'm surprised a player of your advanced age didn't mention Jimi Hendrix.'

TB: 'I'm not gonna say Hendrix wasn't a gifted guitarist 'cause I got in all sorts of trouble last time I did, online, but he never really spoke to me like Lou Reed. Or Robert Quine for that matter.'

SF: 'So where would you like to see your career go from here? What's your artistic or professional goal, if there is one?'

TB: 'That's a good question.'

SF: 'Thank you.'

TB: 'Yr welcome.', (laughs), 'Of course I want to rule the world, but hope to just keep playing, maybe making better recorded records as I go. I hope to continue to write songs that ask questions I can't answer, but'll maybe help me think. Maybe make other people think, too.'

SF: 'That's like career suicide, you realize that, right?'

TB: 'Yeah, Britney and Kanye can sleep well tonight, I'm no threat to them. Yet.'

copywrite 2010 Speedy Firbank Ltd (a division of wearblack intergalactic)

posted by: timbyrnes at 17:28 | link | comments |

Renegades Goin' Rougue: Americana 2010 Part Two

     The arc of images and music suggests nothing less than an amazing sunrise and, sure enough, mid-way through the vague, off-screen narration Sarah Palin crows that "this is our morning in America" over a shot of that lucky old sun shining on a city. On  a hill.

     Welcome to the 2012 Presidential election.

      Although by the looks of her campaign ad (and I don't care WHAT she calls it, it's a campaign ad) w/it's evocation of, and outright swipe from, the sainted Ronald Reagan, Madam Palin wishes it was 1980. If not 1955. But that's OK, because she is P.T. Barnum, ladies and gentlemen, selling the dream and then moving on in the night w/your money. The woman is the Hood Ornament of the Conservative Movement and has as much chance of being elected President as I do. But I so do hope she runs 'cause it'll be fun to watch.

     Yes, Democrats and the Progressive Movement took quite the 'shellacking' the other day and I'm still trying to get my mind around the words "Senator Rand Paul", and that's OK. The Tea Party's influence and presence on and in this election was profound. And this is a good sign or, rather could be and surely should be. Diversity and honest, open minded debate on the business of governing America with all viewpoints represented is what America's about, right? Honorable adversaries, not opponents, working together to get things done in a spirit of compromise.

     Sounded real good up until the "C" word, didn't it?

     The Republican party will NOT compromise. It has said so. Loudly and repeatedly. And, decent human being that he is, though I suspect he's a little woozy from breathing all that thin air they got up there on the high road, our President stands chastened and offers up yet another olive branch to the Republican party. Who have been rewarded for their defiantly "do nothing" strategy w/this wave of victories. Who have, again loudy and repeatedly, trumpeted their refusal to compromise and that their main goal is to limit the Obama administration to one term. Not to mention promising up and down to repeal the Health Care Bill, which they cannot do. Repeal would never get past the Senate, and all the Republicans who ran on it know this and knew it at the time they were running. They're gonna do nothing again until they, assumedly, due to that "do nothing and get elected' reward paradigm, take the White House in 2012 and, don't you worry, cousin, we'll repeal it THEN!!

     Welcome to the 2012 Presidential election.

     Looks like the Republic is ripe for a 3rd party. And if, as many think, the Tea Party is the 3rd Party, well, then we need a 4th Party. At least. It's my hope that the more extreme of the  Tea Party coalesce into one big Crazy Ass White People's Party that may be more entertaining than enlightening, but acts as a valuable release valve for some and a convenient whipping boy for some others, but in either event having negligible impact on the electoral process. At  the same time I hope that the core Tea Party priciples of fiscal conservatism and libertarianism are brought into the national debate by serious people.

     We also need a Crazy Ass Guilty White People's Party for Tragically Left extremists. Fair is fair, and lord knows God put loonies everywhere, and that kind of non-productive, ill informed, kneejerk and lying ass water sinks to it's own level on both sides of the equation. So let's keep 'em where we can keep an eye on 'em.  Eventually air debates on both the Speed Channel and PBS simutaneously! What's more small 'd 'democratic than that? Can you imagine the dream tickets? Tom Tancredo vs. Jeremiah Wright. Christine O'Donnell vs a tree.

     And of course, also the hope is that in leaving the insane to their asylum, a serious, thoughtful and, most importantly, an aggressive Progressive voice can also be brought into the conversation.  Perhaps a meeting of the serious Left and Serious Right, and by that I mean people w/opinions that are well thought out, well informed and well spoken, could result in the type of forward motion in America that neither the Democrats or Republicans seem to be able to provide.

Gore Vidal and Rachel Maddow vs. Michael Bloomberg and Chris Christie, anyone?

Vidal/Maddow in 2012!!!
tb

posted by: timbyrnes at 22:26 | link | comments (1) |

americana 2010

 Tomorrow is Election Day and I'm like a kid at the World Series on Christmas Eve. Mixed in, of course, w/my excitement is an undeniable sense of dread that too many House, Senate and Gubernatorial races will end in victories of style over substance. And by that I mean Republican victories in general and Sharon Angle specifically. I can vehently disagree w/a candidate's views, like in the case of, say, Ken Buck - who's  position on abortion rights I personally find appalling, but at least I know where he stands - while Sharon Angle's would-be-funny-were-it-not-so-insulting refusal to answer questions "until (I'm) a Senator" stonewalling leaves me w/no sense of her policy or platform, but instead strands me w/little else than my impression of the woman.

     For the record, I think she's an amateur politician, a pinup for an isidious Far Right and financed by Karl Rove. She's a face to put on the highly inflated fear and anger of White America, while all the time ratcheting it up w/multimillion dollar ads that purport to make her  credible, thus "mainstream". Of course these ads do little to disguise her extremism and the candidate herself shoots herself in the foot when, charged w/racism for the depiction of Latino's in an anti illegal-immigration spot, she demurs that " I don't know that they were all Latino . . . some of them look Asian . . . some of you could be Asian . . . I myself have been mistaken for an Asian . . .".

     Yet, this woman is likely to win her Senate seat tomorrow. Hope she has some answers then.

     Thankfully there's little danger of a Christine McDonnel victory. The Crazy-Ass White People's Party ain't THAT crazy yet. "I'm not a witch." No, yr an idiot.

     But a popular idiot, much like a junior version of that incredibly popular idiot Sarah Palin. And yes she is, too, an idiot. But she's no fool. She's taken the psuedo-populist mojo of the "the guy you'd most like to have a beer with' paradigm that put W. in the White House and made it sexy. And is making millions doing it. Palin, Angle and McDonnell are, to varying degrees of success,  riding this electoral model to the bank, perhaps the Senate and perhaps, come 2012, the White House.

     I am not so glib a Left Leaning Liberal to discount the possibiliy of a Palin Presidency out of hand. I am, however, glibly Liberal enough to oppose one. But her viability - to win mind you, not govern competently let alone effectively - cannot be denied and should not be ignored. She speaks, albeit vaguely and in mixed metaphor, for a lot of people. People who feel that they are "losing their country" and " want it back", or more ominously will "take it back". She speaks, albeit vaguely and in mixed metaphor, to those people who respond to the idea of "2nd Amendment remedies", to quote Angle, if they don't get their way at  the polls. She speaks, abeit vaguely and in mixed metaphor, to the people who claim to "want their children to grow up in the same America I did."

     And right there is the central flaw of the Tea Party. Have ANY of us grown up in the same America our parents did, or they the America of our grandparents? Of course not. America as a society has always been evolving, refining what defines us as a nation. Confronting and resolving the contradictions inherent in any noble experiment where the words "We believe these truths to be self evident. That all men are created equal . . ." are written by a slave owner, and, no, I'm NEVER letting that go. But my point is America grows. The political force known as the Tea Party, and they're Republican ilk, have gone down on record, when they're not avoiding the press entirely, as saying they will 'roll back' America to the policies of the GWBush administration. That they will NOT compromise and that their agenda is to make Barack Obama a "one term President. Not " fix the economy" or "create jobs" or "end the wars in Iraq/Afghanistan/Pakistan", but only to defeat our American President 2 years from now. This Junior High, governance by the Law of Cooties, is not only shameful, but is guaranteed to slow, if not stop, our National Evolution.

     You DO believe in Evolution, don't you?

     Whatever you want to call them, the Tea Party or the Conservative Base, they represent a faction of America that is steeped in a useless nostalgia for an America of memory that only exists IN that idealized memory and are clinging, bitterly one might say, to their illusions, to the Devil They Know.

     Sarah Palin in a red dress. With an American flag and a shotgun. Death by sexy. Don't believe the hype. Please, don't believe the hype.

     Hype is what now drives our elections. The polarization of America, while real, has had it's flames fanned hard and with direction by the media, especially the Cable News folks. A regular viewer of MSNBC, such as my Liberal-ass self, cannot FATHOM how ANYONE can be buying this FOX News CRAP!!!!!! Just as a regular FOX News viewer, such as the fine-ass Palin, cannot FATHOM how ANYONE can be buying this MSNBC CRAP!!!!!!! And the twain tries to meet on CNN but kinda doesn't. Us versus Them has never been so clearly defined, but it's a cartoon fight.

     One one side Bill O'Reilly, who makes my blood boil. On the other, Keith Olberman, who I find delightfully snarky and over the top, but I'm more than willing to forgive him, and watch nightly, because we fundamentally agree. Many people find him anti-American and offensive. I find Rush Limbaugh anti-American and offensive. From our own unique perspectives we are both right. We wouldn't think the way we do if we didn't THINK it was right. Right?

     The bottom line is we want to be entertained while we're being informed, if we want to be informed at all. If America really wanted an unvarnished look at the working of Congress then we'd all be watching CSPAN, now wouldn't we? It's easy to blame the media for our so-called polarization, hell I just did, but we need to keep in mind the principle of supply and demand here. Don't kill the messenger you created simply by being a market.

     And amidst all this self-perpetuating conflict-by-design comes the Voice of Reason in the unlikely shape of Jon Stewart. His speech reinforcing the reality that "we work together and get things done every damn day." at his Restore Sanity Rally in D.C. this weekend was the most constructive thing to come out of my laptop in months. I applaud his attempt to tamp down the rhetorical flames. I don't expect it to be very successful, but I applaud the attempt.

     Tomorrow is Election Day and I am filled w/dread. Don't forget to vote.

posted by: timbyrnes at 00:40 | link | comments |

Into the Fray: No, Not THAT Fray

Greetings, poetry lovers. Apparently I have (somewhat) conquered my technical deficiencies (and bad spelling) to actually post for sale Hootenanny and Genius and a compilation CD of tunes past and kinda present at my reverb page. See 'tim's reverb store' link that SHOULD appear under 'links'.

It's not surprising, at least not to me, that I took so long in getting this done. Y'see now that I actually have product in cyberspace and am asking strangers (and any and all friends PUH-LEEEEEEZE!!!!!!) to actually buy my stuff I'm dealing w/2 bete noires.

Bete #1: Who do I think I am? Do I really expect folks to PAY for my crap??? (This sentence runs through my head, oddly enough, in my father's voice) and Bete #2: What am I gonna do when nobody buys it????

Confidence never being one of my strong suits I am more surprised than anybody that I finally bit the bullet and took the plunge (what can I say, when I'm nervouse I resort to cliche?)

Hey that rhymed!!!!! Maybe  I am a songwriter after all!!!!

In other, less self pitying news, I've been continuing to hit he Open Mic circuit here in Loveland and submitting reviews of local acts to the local arts paper and applying for jobs and sending resumes etc. While I've barely been here 3 1/2 weeks as of this writing, I feel like I've been here for months and am perhaps a little nervous in my newness. But nervous is just a pessimistic (and badly spelled) way of saying 'excited' so, for the moment I'm gonna go w/excited and continue to post and play and SELL! SELL! SELL!

If only for the good of the economy.
 

posted by: timbyrnes at 16:13 | link | comments (1) |

testing the waters (and technology)

<iframe width='705' height='750' src='http://www.reverbnation.com/store_iframe/index/artist_762687'/>


Ok, I just pasted some kinda 'code' (no kidding! lately it feels like it's ALL in some kinda code.) above, that purports to be a link, or ad or some kinda cyberpathway to my reverbnation page where I'm currently (and hopefully) uploading a 'compilation CD' (also available as downloads and, unbelieveably to an old luddite like me, ringtones!). If it turns out that I actually succeeded in getting all the tech stuff straight (stop laughing, EVERYBODY!!!) then I'll do the same w/full copies of both 'My Bloody Hootenanny' and 'Boy Genius Alert'.

In other news,  the open mics continue and I'm meeting more people and submitting reviews to local arts paper and looking for work and just enjoying the hell out of life in general.

Now to push 'post' and see if I blew up the Kremlin.

Again.


(pushes 'post')


hmmmm...... nothing blew up but that don't look like an ad to me. Let's see what happens when I paste code into 'tags' (whatever THAT means...)


(pastes code into 'tags')

OK, when I did that an ad for page appeared in 'tag' window, but nothing on page. Gonna publish (or perish) anyway and see what develops!  See ya soon and btw, PLEASE COME TO MY PAGE AND BUY SOMETHING!!!!!! They don't call us 'starving artists' for nothing. (No, they call us 'good for nothing'.) WHO SAID THAT??!!!!

posted by: timbyrnes at 16:38 | link | comments (1) |