MP3 coming forward - FOLK: Modern Folk

"This is a collection of surreptitious night wanderings" is how I once described it. It's homegrown, late night, solitary, acoustic guitar.

23 MP3 Songs
FOLK: Modern Folk, WORLD: Western European



Details:
This is not a polished product, but it is a complete one. It began as a musical notebook, a way to record my musical thoughts so I wouldn't forget them. Tracks 1-8 go back to 1980 and were originally captured on reel to reel, then transferred to cassette and now to the present format. Tracks 9-16 were recorded 1988 on cassette which likewise were transferred to this format. The remainder were recent compositions and recorded digitally this year at the Coal Chute Studios in Denver. All together I play on three different guitars, maybe four, two of which I made.

My playing has always been sporadic with three or four months at a time going by without picking up the guitar, followed by three or four where I did. That was the norm till in 1984 when a chicken sized brain tumor made itself known and from which I was subsequently separated. By the latter 80s I was playing regularly again, but after being told in the early 1990s that I had Parkinson's, I let another dozen years go by without picking up an instrument. Obviously I am playing again, but following the diagnosis I had told myself (and I believed it) that I was not able to. All of that simply to say 'be careful what you tell yourself' and to 'question the source'.

I am self taught, playing classicals. I like their sound and wide string spacing and play in an attempted classical way. It was a classical that was left behind as my oldest brother went off to school, becoming what I learned on (a beautiful little Goya), and classicals that I was interested in learning how to build. The instrument used on #s 17-23 is a flamenco-esque instrument, very light, Spanish Cypress back and sides, built in 1982. Its' sound is much throatier, favoring the bottom range, as can be heard going from track 16 to 17.

My notebook idea never really worked because I play more visually, seeing and remembering patterns on the fingerboard. Videotaping would have been more useful. As a result, I can only play tracks 17-23 from this CD, though I am having some small successes figuring out some of the others. The bottom line is that I realized this stuff is worth being heard and until my recent return to my senses and my playing, it was in danger of no one but myself ever hearing it.

The title 'Coming Forward' refers to a sense of myself that I've had since I was about ten. It was a sense of what and where I'd be at fifty. I'm now fifty.

Tracks 17-23 are related to my parents and uncle passing away in the recent past and collectively have the title 'Skipping Rocks, Stepping Stones, Excursions out to Sea'.


David Walter

There are two tracks with 'singing' that can be difficult to make out. Here are the lyrics:

track 16 begins with "I knew you had done time when I first met you, but my heart could not refuse to understand".

On the 'Dad based blues' the words are from Psalm 133 (King James)"Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for bretheren to dwell together in unity. It is as the precious ointment upon the head, that ran down upon the beard, even Aaron's beard, that went down to the skirts of his garments." The melody for this little verse is the oldest thing on this CD, back when I was in 11th grade and went to church regularly.

Some of my influences. I have a sister who is a folk singer/guiitar player, a brother who is a singer/songwriter, a brother who is a jazz guitarist, another brother in theater/musicals, and last a brother who does a mean kazoo.