Sparks from the Fire

As I sit here this morning high up on the 38^th floor, I look out my window at New York City, 5:30 AM, just barely coming awake – the city that never sleeps.  From my perch here high up over the city I have a spectacular view all the way south from 42^nd street to the Statue of Liberty and beyond New York Harbor to Staten Island.  If you’re gonna live in NYC, live above it all if at all possible.

I’ve been fortunate.  I’ve watched the city grow and change from this perch for over 25 years.  I love NY.  It’s been a lifetime sittin’ on top of the world watchin’ 10 million people go by, but I’d leave now if I could.  40 years of concrete and glass can wear you out on certain levels and sometimes the Missus and I just want to take a walk in the woods.

But I can’t leave this wondrous city – at least not yet.  Most of it I’ve seen now and certainly experienced, but there’s one thing that still keeps me here. (more…)

Part 3 – As an artist:

Perhaps this sub-heading needs further explanation before we start.  On the Watchfire Music website an artist is someone or some group that makes records (CDs, songs).  In this case I’m using the larger meaning of the word.  In my case I am an artist with several hats.  Stick around while I try them on. (more…)

I’m in Los Angeles on Watchfire Music business, a wall-to-wall meeting blitz with my partner, Jim Birch and LA staff planning out the coming year.  While on the plane coming out I once again considered the possibility of death – something that I don’t do with much regularity, but have certainly done a lot more of lately.

No, I’m not about to die, I’m healthy and productive, but the CD project I’m producing and writing now has got me pretty focused on the inevitabilities of life on Planet Earth.  When I got on the plane, I had to chuckle at myself as I considered the danger of what I was about to do for a moment.  I was about to fly through the air – for 3000 miles and then come down at just the right place – smoothly.

The CD project is called Goin’ Home, A Gospel Cantata — Reflections on Crossing Over and Beyond.  It’s a joyous look at death and heaven through the eyes of a number of classic Gospel traditional songs and an equal number of originals.

As I sat on the plane as it taxied down the runway, I went through my usual protective prayers knowing with complete positivity that God was over, under around and throughout that airplane, my mind turned once again to my beloved project as I faced the same danger that millions of people face every day now.  The question, “Could this be it?” came to mind for one fleeting instant and then was drowned out in a rash of denials and better focused positive thought.

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New Beginnings - Inspirational Piano Music

To begin again.  What a great opportunity we all have as human beings!  To begin again…  and again, and again.  And even have a specially appointed time of year to do so.  The New Year.  This, to me, is the real Inspirational concept behind the whole idea of New Years Eve.

This past moment in time as the ball dropped and the Missus and I stood out on our terrace overlooking Times Square in the cold night air, it struck me, as the roar went up from the million or so below, that this was really a dumb thing to do and really meant nothing at all except, for most people, getting drunk and kissing your date at midnight.  A pretty hollow holiday.

But since, as I have been preparing Watchfire Music’s new CD, New Beginnings, for January release, I’ve begun to get inside the idea of having a starting point each year at this appointed time to leave the bad stuff behind and move forward with new life and hope. (more…)

As a composer and producer I’ve had a long-standing relationship with vocalist, Jenny Burton.  I’ve often found her erudite in her ability to describe her craft and art. In the following interview I find her no less prescient. Jenny is a singer blessed with an amazing instrument that can shake the heavens and seed the clouds. She also is a performer extraordinaire.  On top of all that, in the studio, she’s a totally experienced pro. I had the chance to interview her lately for Watchfire Music. – PL

Peter Link: Why have you chosen music as your instrument of communication?

Jenny Burton: Without managing to sound too unoriginal or sappy, I must say that it’s more that music chose me — was infused into my bones and my life this time around. I have had the great joy of “just waking up” to it and living in it for these many years. Music is an essential part of who I am. It feeds me on the deepest of levels. I know as well that singing and performing is an honor and affords me the chance to give something back from the highest, most unencumbered parts of my self.

What central idea is most important to you in your communication with your audience?

Truth and clarity are very important to me.  The closer I can get to these two aspects of life, the better.  There is much that can be accomplished with music that is transcending.  I believe one of the reasons “the musical” was conceived is because once the playwright/composer has said all he/she can with the written and spoken word, he then finds it imperative to lay those words atop a groove, give them rhythm, and then a melody.  The composer then gives this to a singer to take the scene the rest of the way home.

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Well, It happened again. It was bound to. It’s the way my life works. Last night I got into another discussion about God. This time my wife started it. It’s all her fault.

She’s fascinated with historical novels taking place on and around the time of Jesus’ life and was telling me how many divergent concepts about the meaning of the word “God” that she’s running into. We were laughing at some of the silliness of thought that some people bring to it, so many are stuck in this anthropomorphic concept of what I like to call God in man’s image as opposed to man in God’s image.

After a good laugh or two, we plunged right in. There I was, yet again, grasping at straws, trying to build a house to contain the unattainable. I went to bed with the unanswered on my mind and had to really concentrate on ‘things other than’ in order to get to sleep.

So I just woke up with the unanswered begging for attention.

On one hand I go much more these days towards the concept of God as ‘being’ – not “a being”, but rather just ‘being’. Perhaps intelligence… being. Or to get even more specific, perhaps God is the pure truth of the way it is. I like to think of God as Law, the law of spiritual life, not necessarily this mortal existence.

I try to un-humanize God as much as possible. I like the quantum physics approach where there is a connection running through all things (whatever ‘things’ are) – perhaps this connection, this allness is God. I try to un-see God as any kind of anthropomorphic being.

Michelangelo painted a beautiful picture on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel of God and man, but I like to think of that as a pretty old-fashioned and, in fact, ancient human misunderstanding – the result of some pretty limited thinking and perhaps the result of some pretty egotistical thinking – God in man’s image.

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A family pastor once said at a funeral. “Ed is like a cracked walnut, the shell is here and the nut is gone.”

I’m back to work on my new CD, Going Home, reflections on crossing over and beyond.

It’s a little tricky sometimes writing music about death. It’s a subject that I’m presently fascinated with, but I’m not looking at it in the usual ways – tragic, sad, devastating and final.

Rather, I’m trying to see the experience from different angles – trying to make some practical sense of it all.

I’m also trying to make the CD an inspiring piece about an experience that we all will face some day and probably don’t consider enough in our lives. Yes, there’s clearly a deep sadness attached to the experience. We usually don’t want to leave and hopefully, there are folks around us who don’t want us to go.

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Inspirational music for kids only
If you’re reading this you’re either under 14 years of age or still attached to the child inside.  Perhaps you’re just curious.  Perhaps you’re a voyeur – wanting to look back on that special innocence of childhood.  Perhaps you’re like me – a little weary of all the adult responsibilities in life and just wishing to be free of it all on this fall Saturday afternoon.

To go out and roll in the leaves.  Or play ball and sweat and not even think about it staining your shirt.

So you’re here for a little check-back.  Well, it’s OK to stay but just remember…

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