The Holiday Meaning

There’s something for everyone during the holiday season that unites us and brings us joy. For some, it might be the lights and colors. For others, Christmas carols, holiday cards from friends and family, special foods and traditions, or spending time with family is the centerpiece of the season. Others focus on giving gifts – either of themselves, or actual presents.

Whether you say Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukah, Happy Kwanza, or Happy Winter Solstice - there is one common theme throughout these holidays. It’s not about the commercialism or shopping online. Nor, is it about religion. The holidays are simply a nice diversion from the everyday reality and mundane chores of daily living. 

The holidays bring us all the joy of renewal, a re-birth of humanity. It’s about finding our own creator within and starting the New Year with a fresh perspective. So, no matter who you are, or what traditions you practice, may the holidays bring you a fresh perspective and spiritual renewal. The Dreamer’s Brigade hopes you celebrate the season however you chose and find your own joy in your personal dreams.

Get Ready to Vote…It’s Your American Right!

By the time November, 2016 rolls around, we will be incredibly tired of hearing about the candidates who are running for President of the United States. Already, the media is overdoing coverage of the candidates and analyzing who is serious about running, who is a fly by night candidate and who is not in the race that should be in the race. 

What we have to remember is that we are incredibly blessed to be able to be a part of the process just like our forefathers designed. We are allowed to cast our vote to determine who our nation’s leader will be. In fact, the candidates do everything they can to get voters out to cast a ballot on election-day. America is not like other countries – we do not have to face danger to get to the place we vote; we are not threatened if we do not vote for a particular candidate; and, we are allowed to vote.

Additionally, once the election has come and gone, there is no violence as one leadership team leaves office and another takes over.  It’s a smooth transition forward.

It’s important that we vote and have our voice heard. It’s one of our freedoms as Americans.

Summers of Yesterday

Remember when you were a kid? School just got out and you felt like you had all the freedom in the world. You’d go to baseball in the morning, grab something from the refrigerator for lunch (we never worried about getting a balanced meal if mom wasn’t home), and head out with your friends. There weren’t any cell phones, so you had to stop at people's house to see if they could come out to play. If your friend’s house was far enough away, you could always take your banana seat bike with the high handlebars and ride over there. And, if you were really cool, your bike had a playing card clothes-pinned in the spokes, so it made that motor sound. The really privileged kids had streamers hanging from their handle grips that flew in the breeze when they went really fast. Some girls even had white baskets on the front of their bikes with large daisies stuck in the front of the baskets. 

There was always that family in the neighborhood that had a big yard where all the kids would gather to play pick-up games with whoever was around. Kickball, hide and seek, freeze-tag, hide and tag, and ante eye over were just a few of the games. It was there that you learned about picking teams and not wanting to be “it”. You even learned how great it felt to finally be picked first for the team and how to rig the “einy, meiny, miney, moe” count so you didn’t have to be “it”.

Parents didn’t worry about their kids, knowing that when they got hungry, they would show up to eat.  And, it seemed like everyone in the neighborhood had supper at the same time because one mom would call and all the kids would scramble in the direction of their own house for supper. In June, the days were long and allowed you to sleep in, because, if you were old enough, you got to stay out after the street lights came on. Night games of hide and seek were the best, especially when all of a sudden you noticed that the neighbor girl was cuter than you remembered her last summer.

It seemed that summer was best before the Fourth of July. Not long after the fireworks faded, the yard games didn’t hold the same appeal when the sun was high in the sky. Biking the alleys and sidewalks became monotonous and it seemed like your favorite friend was always at his cabin. You started waking up early and nagged your mom with talk of being bored. All she would tell you was to mow the lawn, wash the car, or do some other chore you didn’t really want to do.

And, when the sun started setting earlier again, you couldn’t quite remember the excitement you felt for school to be over because you were so anxious for it to begin again. Ahh, nostalgia.

Independence Day: The Fourth of July

As little kids, we never really knew what we were celebrating on the Fourth of July. We went to the parade hoping for the good candy to be thrown our direction. We waved sparklers the minute it turned dark, and if we were lucky enough, we watched fireworks that lasted fifteen minutes. But, if you think about it, the picnics with your family, the watermelon seed-spitting contests, and the three-legged races with your cousins was really like a mid-summer day off of your usual summer doldrums. I was probably nine before I recall having a vague understanding of why we wore red, white, and blue and waved American flags on the Fourth of July.

America actually declared independence from Great Britain on July 2, 1776. But, it wasn’t until July 4, 1776 that the document justifying this action was ready for publication. It appears that the document supersedes the act in terms of which we celebrate. However, declaring independence and actually having it were two different things. It took six more years of fighting, 25,000 Revolutionary soldier’s deaths, and 25,000 wounds before Great Britain finally agreed to let America be independent. And, it wasn’t until 1788 that the actual US Constitution was adopted and the new independent government was formed.

Coincidentally, two of the founding fathers died on July 4, 1826 – 40 years after the Declaration of Independence was completed. Thomas Jefferson, our third president and the one given credit for authoring the Declaration, died within a few hours of our second president, John Adams. James Monroe, another signer of the Declaration and our fifth president also died on July 4, 1831.

As flags wave on the Independence Day this year, I will think about what our forefathers risked by declaring independence from Great Britain and, be thankful that I was Born in America.

A World of Possibilities

The month of May brings graduations – from college, from high school, from kindergarten. After all the awards are handed out, where will these grads end up? It all makes you stop and wonder what kind of future these young people will have, doesn't it? How will they define their lives? Do they take the high road, or the easy way out? Will they find meaning and purpose in their lives? They set out to make a difference, but will they, really? 

What is the meaning, the value, and purpose of each individual in the world? This is the time for dreamers. They can set goals and achieve them, or, they may find that their lives can take different paths that are just as fulfilling. And, with a lens turned ten degrees to the left, the view ahead can look even brighter. Today’s science and math winners at the eighth grade graduation might be tomorrow’s neuroscientists that will cure incurable diseases. 

Today’s musical master will be topping Billboard’s list in ten years. The possibilities are endless. Passion, confidence, and commitment is all it takes.

This month, as graduates move onto their next life chapter, the future is wide open to them. All the world’s a stage and the script has not yet been written. 

Congratulations graduates! Make us proud.

What's in a Name? A Guitar Name, That Is...

There are plenty of famous guitars out there that have names… Well, actually - the people are famous and they have named their guitars.

Neil Giraldo (Spyder), married to Pat Benetar, has “Pain” - his current favorite guitar. Willie Nelson’s guitar, “Trigger” is a road-worn acoustic Martin guitar that has holes in in from Willie’s picking. How cool is that? Eric Clapton has a black Stratocaster, named (quite appropriately), “Blackie”.  Blackie was made from three other guitars, part of a lot of six that he purchased from a store in Nashville.  The story goes that he gave the three others to his friends – Steve Winwood, George Harrison, and Pete Townsend.

The Dreamer’s Brigade is no different. We have a history, a story. The first guitar ever purchased became Anabelle. She’s a custom neck, 12 string acoustic beauty and sings like an angel. The story behind the name has been lost with the years, but Anabelle started a string of names for subsequent guitars. 

Next there was Analee. She is a six string Yamaha. Her sound is clean and used daily for practice and recording. Anabelle and Analee are the go-to acoustics for the Dreamer’s Brigade. The electric guitar, a black Stratocaster, is used regularly for solos and any kind of electric guitar work. Her name is Anarex because of her thinness. Other assorted guitars are part of the collection as well, but for some reason, they do not have names. Maybe someday, they will graduate to naming status. Only time will tell.

If you want to read more about famous guitars, their owners and the stories behind the names, click here.

The Anatomy of a Song

People ask all the time how to write a song.  To a songwriter, it’s hard to describe because it’s somewhat like breathing. Every musician does it differently. Some artists, like Elton John, who don’t write lyrics, receive the words from people Bernie Taupin, and then Elton composes melody to what Bernie hands him.

For me, the spark of a new song seems to come from nowhere. Then, with some work, you develop it further until it’s a full-blown melody. From there, you find the hook, or the thing that grabs your ear and keeps your attention.  Of course, you need to create a “middle eight” - the eight bars of the song than makes it different enough to keep the song from being monotonous. 

At that point, the music suggests the title. And by then, the melody dictates a style – country, a ballad, rock, etc. What’s nice about being a producer in addition to being the writer is that you can figure out the style in the writing process. Sometimes this can be a contentious battle between producers and writers.  The artist thinks the song should be one style and the producer hears something else.

The last step of writing the music is deciding on the structure: is it going to be a two verses and a chorus, or a verse, a chorus, a verse, a solo? Songs require structure or they are just an endless string of melodic notes.  Finally this is the time when the lyrics start to come to fit the title, structure and phrasing of the song.

Sometimes a song has to be re-written during the recording process. In a recent recording session, we went to record a song and discovered that it was missing an “entry”.  Every song needs a beginning, middle, and an end, or it becomes repetitious. Although we thought the song was complete for years, it became apparent while recording that it needed additional work.

That’s the way the Dreamer’s Brigade music usually gets written!