Martin Luther King Day

Memorials are not best built of stone, but in our lives.

Someone spoke of this during a Hospice memorial that was for my father and others who passed around the same time. It stopped me in my tracks then. And continues to inspire and prod me along my path.

It's easy to keep someone in our memory. It's much more difficult to live a memorial to those who inspire us.

Everyday, I see that Love is what is called of us. Every word I read points to compassion.

But what few realize about Love is that it is not passive. It is not weak. It's not just some big idea.

Love is action. Love is work. Love is difficult.

Perhaps what sticks us is that we don't really know what Love is. It's used in so many contexts, so often out of context. So often used to describe things that aren't really Love.

So, what is Love?

(baby dont hurt me, no more ... sorry, couldn't resist that reference ...)

Radical compassion. Radical compassion means we include all beings in our compassion. It means honestly living the golden rule.

Which isn't easy.

As we celebrate Dr King's teachings and legacy, I cannot help but think about his comment that the great evil of this time is not the people doing bad things, but the silence of the good people.

This is the difficult line to walk. A task that takes a lifetime to attempt.

And we will fail, sometimes. And we will fall silent.

But we must never let that stop us from speaking up again. Our voices could be ragged and tired, sore and soft, but they should always try to speak for compassion.

As we live in times where the Golden Rule is booed in public, we cannot allow any excuse to keep us from doing something.

Something.

Something.

You can start with yourself and your significant other or friends and family.

But start somewhere. And keep on going.

Best Of 2011

Lots of new inspirations came across my path this last year. New music, books, and movies always inspire me in so many ways.

So, I'd like to share my favorites of the year. Hopefully some of these inspire you too.

Music:
(So im not sure all of these were released this year, but I associate them with this year ...)
- Fitz and the Tantrums - Pickin Up the Pieces
I love this band and this record. Soulful. Funky. And passionate. Good for anytime, and it still makes me want to dance.

- The Head and the Heart - The Head and the Heart
Really nice harmonies, but a fuller sound than the Civil Wars.

- Augustana - Augustana
Kind of like the Killers. But like their good songs. Off their first record. And a little less synthy. Good songs. Good melodies.

- Neon Trees - Habits
The title track makes this record worth it alone. Great rock band.

- Blind Pilot - We Are the Tide
This Portland band really caught my ear with their single. But the whole record is good.

- Trevor Hall - Everything Everytime Everywhere
One of my favorite artists. Brand New Day is a great song. The whole record is good, though it took a little time to grow on me. But it's worth the investment.

-Peter Bradley Adams
Singer/songwriter record.

- Oh Land - Oh Land
Something different. And Sweedish...

- Young the Giant
Good rock/indie band. Infectious songs.

- Bon Iver
I love Bon Iver. This record is beautiful and haunting. Wow. It continues to grow on with each listen.

-Coldplay - Mylo Xyloto
I am a Coldplay fan. This is a strange record for them. Its much more of a pop record than previous ones, but it's still got some great catchy tunes.

- Peter Gabriel - New Blood
An interesting record done with strings and vocals. some cool versions of Gabriel classics)

- Donny Hathaway
I fell in love with his 1970 Everything is Everything record. Especially his live version of The Ghetto.

- Lissie
Great voice. Honest.

Fun is putting out a new record next month as well! This is on my list. Mumford and Sons is expected to have a new record this year, too.

Books:
(I doubt any of these came out this year, but I stumbled upon them this year)

- Three Men in A Boat
A classic. British. Hilarious. Brilliant.

- Hafiz - The Gift/ The Subject Tonight is Love/ I Hear God Laughing
I have not been so moved by any poetry. It is divine. Mind blowing. Beautiful.

- Mark Kurlansky - Nonviolence
One of my favorites that I have read on the subject. Very informative and readable, and yet inspiring!

-Tolstoy - the Forged Coupon
A great tale that winds itself around itself over and again.

- The Animal Manifesto
A wonderfully caring and compelling treatise on respecting animals. Very informative and inspiring (and this is coming from a very active vegan!)

- The Bhagavad Gita According to Gandhi
I go back to this book all the time. It is one of the books that would need to be with me on a desert island.

- Sri Sri Ravi Shankar - Celebrating Silence
There is so much brilliance in this book. It's a collection of sayings of Sri Sri. Each saying is worthy of a long meditation!

- MLK - Where Do We Go From Here? Chaos or Community
Amazing. Could have been written today.

- Daniel Pink -Drive
An interesting look at what motivates us.

- Chip and Dan Heath - Switch
A great look at how to accomplish change when change is hard, which is most times, i think.

Movies:
I dont get a lot of time to see films, but these are what I saw and really liked.

-The Way
By far, one of the best movies I have seen in a very long time. Inspiring. It's a change your life sort of movie.Ive seen it twice now, and Im sure Ill buy it when it comes to DVD.

- Beginners
Touching film. Ewan McGregor is great.

- King's Speech
Great film. Worthy of the acclaim

-The Muppets
Just fun. Really fun.

- Paranormal Activity
The first one. Yeah, i just saw it this year. Creepy. Creepy. Creepy. Would sleep with a light on, but Im not sure that'd help!

- Got the Facts on Milk
Well done documentary. Informative and yet entertaining.

- One Peace at a Time
Such an inspiring movie. Movies about the problems of the world are seldom inspiring and uplifting!

Concerts:
Edward Shapre & the Magnetic Zeros - Amazing!! Wow.
Fitz & the Tantrums - dance party!
U2 - really good show. Better than I anticipated.

What are your favorites?

Namaste.
Zach

2011 Wrap Up

2011.

A year of highs and lows. But since my glass is always half full, I want to focus on the highlights.

As 2011 kicked off, my band, the Bright Lights, went into the studio and began recording what turned into my 14th CD, Luminosity. The sessions were fun and organic, much of the recording was live, and yet we had some fun experimenting with vocals, and sounds, and things like the electric glockenspiel.

Was asked back to the 30A Songwriter Festival in Seaside, FLA. So much fun with Augustine, Carmel Mikol, Blake Gutherie, Effron White, and more.

In May, I turned a milestone in my life, 30.

And immediately left town.

For Wyoming.

A great summer Mountains and Meadows tour ensued. Great news folks and house concerts. The heavy and long winter kept a lot of my favorite mountain trails too snowy for me, so I found a few new trails, which became some of my new favorites! Lots of great communings with bears.

A young Grizz walked right in front of my car. A couple times.

On a back road, a mother Grizz with 3 young cubs stepped out of the woods. And she stood on her hind legs! I've never before seen a bear do this for real, not on TV! Incredible!

Some great shows back in Ohio. Painseville Party in the Park. Burning River Fest. The CD Release Show in the Gothic Building.

Rocked the Rathskeller in Indianapolis!

Peace Week grew bigger and better. A film series was started. Lots of yoga and meditation events, a living yoga peace sign, the windows and mirrors Afghanistan art exhibit, and a drum circle! The Civic Theatre hosted a Love Initiative performance. the Bright Lights rocked and we had the whole audience dancing and moving, spiritually and physically. We helped to bring the Human Values Awards to NE Ohio. A very moving ceremony of music, poetry, and recognizing the great members of our community, including Suzie Graham, Julie Costell, Happy Trails, Stewart's Caring Place, and the Akron Peacemakers.

I traveled to Buffalo and Covington KY for NACA conferences. In Buffalo, my friend, Maurice martin (of the band Winslow), met the man who gave us the 10 steps to being successful musicians (1. be humble. 2. dont have an ego. 3. be humble. 4. practice... that was all we got...). Met some great other musicians there too: The Other Mark Miller, and The Bergamot.

Crossed the country to Oregon for the Folk Alliance conference. Got to stand on a 1500 year old lava flow. (Swung thru Wyoming and got to hike my favorite canyon, Cascade Canyon, with no other people!! So amazing!!) Met some great folks there too. Mother Hen, The Whiskey Poets, Woody Moran, Kress Cole, Tatam Reeves, Kerry Patrick Clark, the Blackberry Brushes String Band (http://theblackberrybushes.com/).

Spent some time in Portland, OR. Great all around. Good food! Good people! Powell's Books!

Music Millennium. 

Finished off the year with the Winter West Coast Tour. Several great shows with my friend Randi Driscoll. Some great house concerts, including the Cal Tech one, where I met folks who worked on the Mars Rover, the guy who de-planet-ed Pluto, and other crazy smart folks. Had a moving experience at the Self- Realization Fellowship in Encinitas. Debuted at the wonderful Zoey's in Ventura with Mimi Gilbert. Got to hike in the San Romero Canyon, where a coyote led us down the trail quite a bit, and we looked out over Santa Monica pier at sunset. Traveled over to Channel Islands National Park (Santa Cruz Island). Looked over picturesque cliffs and the blue and turquoise ocean. Saw pelicans, sea lions and seals, and dolphins. I family pod of Orcas crossed the boat's path. They all came right up to the boat, including the 2 young calves. They communicated and spoke to us. Then the adults mated. 

Finally, the year ended up in Wyoming, where there was some snow, but a surprisingly little amount. Snowshoed. Cross country skied for the first time. Communed with Bald Eagles, Trumpeter Swans, Mule Deer, Elk, Moose, Bison, Porcupine, River Otters and Coyotes. Had a licked-clean car wash by 3 Big Horn Sheep. 

Stopped in Omaha on the way back to Ohio, and had a black bean burger at the largest restaurant Ive ever seen, the brewing company in Omaha. Then had dinner in Chicago with the Bodhis.

A lot of cool stuff happened this year!

May 2012 be even cooler.

Namaste. 

   

Thoughts from a Mountain in the Moonlight

There are societies that measure time not by the sun but by the moon.




I like this better.



The moon is a creature of passions. Something about that strata of light appeals to our curiosity, to our imagination, to the better parts of our intuition. Maybe something remotely dangerous.



Especially here.



There are places where the starts do not shine - they dance! They cover the sky like neon ivy. Here there are no streetlights. Here the lights are only from the sky, having nothing to do with man.



Here the crickets hold philharmonic concerts. The owls guess all night. The coyotes and wolves mark the hours. The wind plays millions of leaf maracas.



All under the quite of darkness. Not city darkness. No. Real darkness. The meaning of the word. Where light is absent.



But not all light.



On most nights, the moon and stars spread a soft angelic silvery blue over the land. A colour in dreams and distant memories. The colour of the fog of age. On a clear night, the moon shines as bright as the sun, just in its own spectrum. A spectrum of full energy.



Isnt the blue flame the hottest? The most full of energy?



Would not the same hold of the blue light of night?



Something in human DNA calls us to intrigue with the moon and the moonlight.



It's the thing of romance. Its the thing of fairy tales. Its the thing of inspiration.



Although, to be fair, everything is a thing of inspiration. Especially here.



In a different time, there were stories reaching the cities about deadly, but beautiful beyond compare, but deadly mountains, capped with snow eight months of the year. Where flowers grew like weeds, and wild beasts covered the land. Where the rivers flowed from Heaven itself, and from Hell as well. A place not bound by society, not bound by the city. Not bound by the normal expectations of civilized man.



There were drawings and whispers. Stories told at dusk and in pubs. Stories not even the moon would dare disturb.



And some people, upon hearing these tales, recoiling in terror. They clutched their cross. They hugged their comforts. They drove their roots in deeper.



Some people were intrigued by the possibilities, and the chance for land, a new life, gold, perhaps.



And some people. Well, they heard this as a call home.



A call to a different life, where what was possible was whatever happened. A place where man was not the king of the world, just a life within it.



They heard not the "deadlys," the "terrible," the risk of "life and limb." For there was no choice for these souls. Life and limb was being risked day in and day out where they lived already. If not physically, then within the soul.



So they climbed onward.



It snowed here today. And several times last week.



I dont mind.



Its 90 degrees where I live.



I dont mind.



To be surrounded in Mystery is worth the cold.



To be encompassed in Beauty is worth the winter.



I stand here, upon a mountain jutting out of the valley with the grace a ballerina only can aspire to. The snow tucks in the majority of the surrounding mountains. In the distance, the grunts of the bison herd drift along. Grunts deeper than time itself.



My shoes are rimmed in mud, soaked, as are my pants. My hands are sunburned. Vitamin D is ragging in my cells. Breath fills my body with pure air. Breathed directly from God before. Or at least from the den of a forest that knows little of man.



Here I stand. An explorer and a prodigal son, both. My heart light as Times Square. But full. And genuine.



I feel the land smile.



Our souls embrace, long and deeply.



Mystery is where we find it. Maybe where we bring it. But its definition is peculiar to each of us. I have stood in the center of 5 million people. People with lives and cars and jobs and ... yes, there was mystery. Shallow and restless mystery. Mystery that flickered in the neon buzz. That hung around stench of the sidewalk and alleyways. A mystery that did not call my name. A ghost that four meddling kids and their dog unmasked as just the jealous banker across the hall.



But I do hear my voice. Sailing on the wind. In the raindrops. Sown into the melting snowflake. It's written in the lupin, or in the yellow timbre of the arrowroot. Its spelled out by the squirrels and marmots in pine cones and blow down. Its hummed by the stones rolling down the river. Its in the eye of a bear, foraging alone in a field.



It says, "We are Home."



Home is wherever Im with you.



And I wonder how long I will ignore their voices. How long will I turn my soul from itself. How long, how long?



A wise man said there are no problems. Problems are only there when we are looking for solutions. Once we accept there is not a solution, it ceases to be a problem. It is a fact.



The moons have drifted on. I have watched the flight of other birds. The feathers on my arms and back have filled in.



The ground is further than ever. But the moon is on my side. She smiles and sends confidence into each cell of my body.



My voice echos in my head.



And calls back from Here. From beyond the trees. Beyond the mountains. But Here, where the soul pervades even places. Even within the energy of rocks.



Dreams are just wishes. And wishes are dreams youve wished to come true.



I believe in dreams. They create our lives. What some might call reality. (Though i despise that term. Reality is subjective to each person and each moment, and there is no over-reaching out there reality.) Dreams. The soul has dreamed this and called it into existence.



How can I deny the voice of the soul?



So here I sit. In a moonbeam. Breathing. And knowing that the past has passed, the future is always tomorrow, and that now, the coyotes sing.



I know this song.



This song has been given to me by the moonlight when I was a child.



So I too sing.



When you hear your song, you'll know it. All you have to do is sing along.

New Record!

The band and I are still working heavily on the new recordings. Yes, it will be a full length CD, album, etc. We're in the mixing stage, and working with our good friend Lesley Katzenmeyer on the CD graphics.

The music on this record is very exciting and the soul of the songs and the players is captured better than any record in the past. Im pretty sure you're gonna love this record . It has been stretching us and allowing some new creativity and new directions.

This is a record dedicated to inspiration.

We hope to have some new measures on the website and social media sites to keep you connected with this new music, and the band.

Excitement is building! 

Stand for Something

Art is something that creates itself. It forces itself into being. Through our souls. Through our hands. Our eyes. Our ears. Our breath.

Since is is birthed out of intention, we, as artists, need to have a passionate and larger intention. This path is not for everyone - I do think that real artists are actually called to pursue this path. And it frequently doesnt lead to fame, or even sustainability for that matter.

But that doesn't matter. We dont make art to live. We live to make art. It is in our very essence. Our very existence. I speak with seasoned musicians that tell me they would much rather have done something else, but they couldnt. This was what they had to do. And I can relate. (Though I wouldnt trade this for anything in the world - save maybe world peace and global compassionate consciousness).

We all need to stand for something. And artists even moreso.

Northside Last Night

There is something about the Northside.

I'm not sure what it is, but there is something there. I've always liked the club, from the first time i walked through the door almost a decade ago.

Its dark, intimate atmosphere and narrow space carries a spark. Something in the air.

Perhaps it's the Luigis that struggles in. That delicious dough and marinara.

Perhaps it's the ghosts.

They hold the refrains from the thousands of songs sung there. They hold the residue of the hundreds of artists' dreams and creations. They dance in the silence. They sing in the hum of the lights and in the pauses in conversation.

Or maybe I just project these feelings on the room.

Maybe I just want a space in Akron where there is some magical aspect. Some little place that is my own personal Greenwich Village.

Whatever it is, once my feet touch the stage, Im transported to the peace of comfort, yet inspiration. Even on those nights where 7 of us are in that room.

My Northside nights are a space where anything goes. Old songs not sung in years may be dusted off. New songs may be sung for the first time. Any song might be altered or re imagined. And of course, any cover that might inspire me in the moment might arise.

Last night, I opened with Coming Home, which i havent played in years. It was a song I sang for my dad's funeral, and always reminds me of him, though it's not about him. The version was special, and felt quite inspiring as it was leaving my mouth and fingertips. A full version of If was rolled out too. Affinity made an appearance as well. The Traveller made its second venture out ever. I really like this tune. It's potential grows everyday.

About an hour in, Cameron joined me, rocking the beat box. And the goal is always to make Cam laugh at some point & bust up the beat boxing. It's an inside joke i think. But it's fun!

Shortly after that, Courtney joined us for Mountainside, Must Be & Home. Home is always awesome. One of the most fun songs to sing, even though I had no hand in writing it.

 The night drew to a close with a magnificent Life that included a full fledged dance-a-thon in front of the stage. Possibly even a dance off between Cameron and Sarah. Then, it medlied into Kieshka, and I ran around the building. 

But it was the encore that really got some response. I only like to do covers that I feel I have an attachment to and that I can bring something to. Covers that lots of folks have done, or that have a "quintessential" version, I like to steer clear of as much as possible. But I'd had Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah" on my mind this week. So it asked if I would sing it. And i did. It was magical. By far the best version I'd ever done of the song. Lots of passion. The room grew totally silent, and I could actually see goosebumps developing on everyone! What a feeling.

Maybe it'll ask to be sung again sometime.

Until next time!