Restarting the Music

I played with another musician this weekend for the first time in far too many years. Jason played drums while I switched back and forth between bass and guitar and sang. There were plenty of rough spots between us, many of them because I knew how to sing the songs and how to play them, but hadn't practiced enough at doing both of those things at the same time. It's clear that I have a lot of work to do.

I also spoke with Bob, the singer in two of my old bands, about getting together, and we made tentative plans to meet in a couple of weeks and see what we can still do together. We'll eventually get more than two people together at a time, but this is fine for a start.

I'm still way too excited about getting involved in music again. In addition to actually playing music, I plowed through Ron Wood's biography (guitarist with the Rolling Stones and the Faces, for those who don't immediately recognize the name) this past week. I don't have anything especially noteworthy to say about the book, other than that he seems like an interesting guy, being involved as much in art, breeding horses, and other things as in music, even though he came from about as humble a background as you can imagine.

I also picked up a book called "Sit Down and Shut Up" by Brad Warner, famous for being a Buddhist monk, punk rock bassist, and extra in the Ultraman series. I wanted to find his book "Hardcore Zen", but they didn't have it at the time. This one still looks good, though. I'm interested in seeing how he brings together these apparently very different worlds. I skimmed a couple of sections and he has an unsurprisingly direct way of expressing himself. Good stuff.