It was 1979 during my Freshman year at U.C. Berkeley that I went to a campus guitar concert
and fell in love with a very new sound coming from the hearts and guitars of
Alex de Grassi,
(the late)
Robbie Basho
and Will Ackerman.
I was enchanted and completely captivated that
evening.
I met Robbie Basho that first year while at Cal and began studying with him for the next
several years. Robbie was a dear and gentle man and he reminded me of a Scottish Santa Claus.
Robbie had the longest finger nails I have ever seen (man or woman) and he had a
kind of sweet fumbliness about him that made you want to take care of him.
I learned from Robbie so much about deeply seeing and feeling music.
When Robbie would teach a song, or when he would introduce a song in concert, he would often
poetically describe in very visual terms the song's story that was about to unfold:
maybe horses running through a stream or a lover calling for a lost mate or a dove flying into
an open church window.
Music started to become much more visual for me, which I really enjoy.
One of the most memorable times at Cal was when I played a duet with Robbie in a local concert.
Around this same time I met Alex de Grassi backstage at a concert in San Francisco.
I was fortunate enough to have a few lessons with Alex here and there,
all the while studying regularly with Robbie.
As I recall, I didn't tell Robbie about these lessons for a while...I didn't want
him to feel that I was "studying behind his back". Robbie absolutely adored Alex's
music and had once told me the following: "John Fahey added a horse to the cart and
got it rolling, Robbie added wings to the horse so it could fly, Alex came along,
left the horse and took the wings."
I've always enjoyed the imagery and the respect within those words.
Alex's music for me was rich with colors and mystery, intricacy and delicacy.
I wanted to crawl inside of it and try to understand how and why it touched me so.
Many years passed since studying with Robbie and Alex and it was in 1996 that I
began to feel a musical deepening within me.
I met my dear friend
Fred Carlson
who let me borrow his amazing
Sympitar
and I was in love. Fred built Zephyr for me, and a few years later
Kali.
Twilight's Path was soon born out of my dance with these two wood beings.
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The year 2000 offered a wonderful gift for me: I met my friend and spiritual brother,
Moon. Our friendship began with our mutual
love for spirituality and music. Moon has helped me to remember more of
who I truly am and I knew early on that we would be creating music together.
I've since come to know of our deeper connections from other lifetimes,
and it was out of the love I feel for our friendship, and the love I feel for my
own spiritual traditions and spiritual ancestry that I allowed the music for
Primal Path to emerge.
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My desire in sharing my music with the public is truly my desire to share my Self.
And hopefully my truest Self.
Namasté,
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