To All Dead Sailors; (and the warm fall)

a quiet fall day, warmer than one would imagine. i look at the books scattered on the floor of my studio, and wish that i had the time to read them all. i have felt somewhat ill the last few days though, and my mind seems to be working a bit more slowly than i would like. i keep looking out at the yard, (distracted)wishing to dig my hands into the soil and plant things. somehow, the immediacy of putting things in the earth and watching them grow larger (the tangibility of it) appeals to me. i find that the more i use the floating world of machines, the more i long for the earth. maybe i should bury a copy of my new disc (pictured above) as an offering to the dead sailors about whom we (christian kiefer and myself) sing.

exciting it is indeed, to have some new music in the world. i don't ever really stop or slow the process of writing and recording, but somehow in the last few years there seems to have been a bottleneck: songs and records and memories getting trapped in some narrow stretch of road. nevertheless, new sounds are here, and if i say so myself, beautiful ones. the photo on the front of the record and the recordings of the ocean therein, are of my beloved muir beach. i listen, and drift closer to that other coast which i think of so often. the one with steep cliffs and big trees. there is no ocean here in upstate new york, only sounds to carry me home. whatever i think of the record aside, you should hear it alone to hear the sea, however fleeting and brief. you should hear it to know kiefer's new songs. you should hear it for the old bones, drifting on the ocean floor.