Sparks from the Fire

Peyton Manning

This isn’t about football.  It’s about winning and losing.  Perhaps I could say it in another way.  It’s really about losing, but winning in the long run.

Sports are always one of my favorite models in life because they’re usually so black and white – one side wins; the other side loses, and in between are the complications.

In the past month I’ve watched two great Hall of Fame quarterbacks – gods of their sport – lose big games, huge games on the international stage because each of them threw an interception in the closing minutes of the game and caused their team to lose the game.  First, Brett Favre, then Peyton Manning.

ESPN’s summation of yesterday’s game said this: Read the rest of this entry »

As Creative Director of Watchfire Music, probably my favorite perk of the job is working with young artists.  “Young” is a word used here with great latitude.

One of my young artists I’m working with is a man who just turned 50, two are in their late 20s and one in her very early 20s.  Perhaps “young” here means simply ‘early in their development’.

Teaching has always been for me a necessity of life.  I taught Sunday School for 25 years, midi classes for 22 years, and an audition class for actors at the Neighborhood Playhouse School of the Theater here in NYC for another 20.  The ability to pass along what I’ve learned in all these years is most precious to me.

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Lady GaGa at the Grammys

Oh hum.

I’ve never been much of a fan of award shows.  In my position of Creative Director of Watchfire Music, I know I’m supposed to write about Inspirational Music, but…

If last night’s Grammys were at the top of your list then you’ll probably not be thrilled with this post.  On the other hand, perhaps you ought to read on to find out a few further truths about the whole parade of stars.

Award shows in general are all a bit much for me.  Rather than being a chance for performers to show their considerable talents, they all too often turn out to be displays of their giant egos.

Before I get grumpy, let me say that my favorite moment was definitely the Dave Matthews Band.  Real music without all the hoopla.  Of course it had a touch of the dramatic, bringing in all those moving stages of choirs and brass sections, etc., but that’s just rock n’ roll.

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As a teenager I discovered the cure for car-sickness.  Just drive.

I would drive down through the Ozark Mountains in Missouri to our lake cottage each weekend from St. Louis where I grew up.  I’d sit in the back seat and be fine until we got into the mountain curves and then that life-long problem would come rushing on.  Yuck.

I’d ask my dad to pull over and let me drive.  The minute I’d get my hands on the wheel sitting in the driver’s seat, my illness would clear up and immediately disappear.  I’d be fine from then on as long as I drove.

It got so that whenever we got to a certain little town, Dad would just automatically pull over and I would take over the driving.  I don’t remember the name of the town, but I do know that it was just before we got to the mountains.

Years later, when I was in my 30s, I found myself one afternoon on a mini vacation out at sea with some friends standing out on the bow of a pontoon sail boat hanging on to the mast enjoying the salt spray and the afternoon breeze.

We had gone pretty far out into the ocean and we could no longer see the land.  The boat was small and the swells were large; it was not at all a storm, but out little craft was kind of going up the side of one swell and down the other.

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The tools available to make good music have never been more prevalent.  Each month I read cover-to-cover 4-5 industry magazines like Electronic Musician, Mix, Keyboard and EQ.  I’ve done so for many years and find that it’s a good way to keep up with not only the trends in music, but also the incredible advancement of technology.

I’ll have to admit to being a bit of a technology freak myself and often take advantage of some of the latest and greatest gear out there.  More and more in these magazines I find myself skipping the articles and just perusing the ads looking for the new technology to make my musical way easier and more professional.

More and more I find that the advancement of technology is pointed to the amateur musician who doesn’t really have the skills to make good music and needs a little help.  This is a good thing and perhaps a not so good thing.

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Well there are definitely some strong perks to this job I’ve got at Watchfire Music.  As Creative Director, one of my tasks is to put together each month’s compilation offering from the Watchfire Music Collection.

Some job.  This means this month I have to listen to 40-50 love songs and find the 10-15 that work well together in one listening session.  There are tougher jobs to be found ‘round the world.

OK, I admit it’s a fun job, but it’s not an easy job.  There’s just too many good songs to choose from!  February means Valentine’s Day which means love songs.  And so what direction do I go with this huge topic?  Physical love, spiritual love, Valentine love, familial love, love for Jesus?

All of the above.  Why not a little something for everyone?  After all, we all experience all of the above.  Even if you’re a Buddhist, ya’ gotta love the adventures of that Christian guy.  Even if you’re a minister, Valentine love is some pretty sweet stuff.  Families are sometimes the bane of our existence, but in the end, ya’ gotta love ‘em.

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Yeah, it’s true, and I’m bustin’ my buttons with pride over our very own Watchfire Music artist Tom Tipton’s performance just this last weekend.  He sang the Star-Spangled Banner at the Minnesota Vikings/Dallas Cowboys playoff game in Minnesota before 70,000 people and knocked ‘em dead.

Tom’s 76 years young and still got the voice to fill a stadium – The Metrodome, in fact.

I spoke to Tom yesterday and he had not come down from his lofty heights just yet.  He raved about the day.  It seems that they gave him and his family and friends a catered suite at the stadium and all the trappings while they all watched the hometown Vikings beat the Cowboys and advance to the NFC championship against the New Orleans Saints.

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Sketch by Max

The great thing about blogging about Inspirational music and beyond is that every day I sit down to write, there’s something that’s just happened to talk about.

As many of you already know, my wife, Julia Wade, has been soloist at the Christian Science Center, the World Headquarters of that church for the past 5 years.  Since we live in New York City, that means that she leaves early every Saturday morning for rehearsals, takes the train to Boston and returns the same way very late each Sunday night.

It hasn’t meant exactly living the normal husband/wife weekends for these last years, but, hey, that’s show biz.

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