There are times when all things seems to be what they really are, and you can live with a sense of security in knowing that what you know is probably shared by somebody else out there. And then there are other times when what you see is not what you get, and the photographs are blurred and the suffering seems to be one thing one instant and quite another a minute later. And those times you wonder what is real.
Those are the times when poetry, art, music become a real tangible thing. I had a conversation with a friend today, Frank Lee Drennen, a musician, and he said "take carpentry, you can show someone what you've built out of wood and tiles and they can see it say, "Oh I need that". but it's something else when it's music. "
When do we need music? When the carpentry fails. When Mike Mulligan and his Steam Shovel have cut the correct lines in the foundation and all things are squared off and right, but something is still wrong. That's when we need a Steam Shovel of the soul.
When I can open up my mind a crack and let the heavens fall in, I can hear music. Not the DJ that plays reruns of stuff I heard yesterday, but the music of Dante's Angels. A sonic society of the stars. All I have to do is keep the mind open a tiny crack and something might leak through. And it's blurry and hazy and nebulous until it falls on the right instrument, a vibraphone, a voice, a cello. And then it becomes a thing, something almost tangible.
Next month I will begin the process of making the new songs whole, fully realized arrangements. You've heard some of them straight out of the oven here on the blog, as I've written them (and posted them with little movies). It's been a good forum and now those songs get to grow up and become recordings.
Twenty years ago, when I met Paul he was a very keen supporter of my musical vision of that time, the music that was to become Garage Orchestra. He took me round to meet all kind of musicians-saints and angelic-helpers; Paul Rothchild (Doors), David Anderle (Brian Wilson's Smile), Van Dyke Parks....I called him my Vision Carrier. Paul also believed that artists need patrons, bards need kings, and techies need venture capitalists.
You, readers and friends, are my Vision Carriers now.
I can use your help. I hope you'll help me see this vision through.
In return I will send to you the early unmastered songs and later, the mastered songs, so please be sure to leave me an email address on your Paypal donation
In regards to fundraising websites, which many of you have suggested for this musical project, I may indeed end up over at one of those Kickstarter type templates. For now, I thought I'd try this without the middle man taking a cut and appealing to those of you that I have known.
(photos by Kirk Kelly at the Treehouse on Ave A and 2nd in NYC, the show was projected on a building across the street)
"A woman of Cindy Lee's capacity as a lyricist is unique.Her insight and raw ability to articulate the human dilemma and articulate it in short order is peerless. Somehow I get the impression she knows her legacy will outlive her."
-Van Dyke Parks
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