Nifty Noodles/ Dissappearing
4/29/06 West Coast Office…
I’m going on a “walk about”… only I’m takin a convertible!... I’ve made plans to drive back to Grand Junction, Colorado tomorrow.. I need a car anyway when I get there… and I thought “I’ll just use the airfare money to drive out.. I picked the music and burned copies of my favorite “cruising” tunes.. Marvin Gaye, Steely Dan, Nora Jones, Eric Clapton, Joss Stone, Temptations, Eddie Floyd and Average White Band… I’m packed… I could leave today.. but the deal on the car is a week.

I’m going out to say good bye to my childhood memories of my grandmother and her house there. I’ll see my parents too for the first time in some time… a lot of my cousins and relatives are gonna make the trip to the family mecca. The house will be bulldozed to make way for the new owner. It’s gonna be a moment to mark the passing of time.

I’ll take some pictures of my little solo excursion it will involve a drive across my home state of Utah and some magnificent scenery and too I’ll leave Grand Junction for Mesa Arizona for concerts next week. That means a 500 mile drive through the back roads of western Colorado. I told some friends that I’d call in from time to time so I don’t completely disappear but I’ve discovered that old age isn’t sneakin up on me any more it’s here!! and I need to take advantage of the time I have to do the enjoyable things that I always plan to do “when I have time”… the time is now. I’m gonna leave all the deadlines to themselves and let the meaningless details of life fall through the cracks.

My brother was gonna go with me but alas like everyone else.. “I have stuff to do”…. Well nothing seems all that important to me right now… you can only clean your house so much and maintain the little details with people on the phone for so long and then you think… “none of this will matter in the long run”.

I’m also planning that Motorcycle trip back to Utah to with my friend James… end of the month I’m gonna ride Matilda through Zion… and Bryce Canyon.. and over the Grand Staircase at Escalante Nat’l Monument… then over Brian’s Head to Cedar City… and do a Sunday concert there and ride home. It’s time! I’ve never felt the need like I have lately to “live like I’m dying”… go do the things you want to experience before it’s too late! It’s not panic… it’s deliberation… Jesus spent time alone in the desert too… think I’ll go be Christlike! 8) maybe I’ll meet him there.

O.k. so there’s that! Bryan d

Nifty Noodles/Recording Duets
4/27/06 West Coast Office…
In the past week I’ve had a rash of invitations to sing on other artists projects… first of the week I recorded in Huntington Beach with my old sound man Paul Dexter who had a band called Mayfair Laundry. He married Kim .. their lead singer and now is doing a record with her. So I sang some parts on a very catchy little tune that I oddly enough don’t remember the name of right now 8).

The reason may be that I’ve spent the last two days in Riverside at Patrona Studio, run by Patty Cabrerra a former Word records label mate. You might remember her… back before Jackie Velasquez. Patty has moved into production level work and runs her own place and writes songs with other writers and runs a great little studio ten minutes from my house and two minutes from a Starbucks… is this heaven… yes!

Anyway I laid down a vocal for a duet with Alan Asbury “the new voice of the church” ..Billboard Mag says.. for “timeless treasury” a collection of the 25 most inspiring songs of the last 25 years of Gospel Music. .. a project my friend Dan Posthuma of Doxology records is involved with. Dan produced most of my successful album projects starting with the Lunatic album and then Mercy and Slow Revival and Blue Skies.. and Quiet Prayers … he too has moved into the bizness side of music somewhat. Running things at …………

The song is called “I’m Forgivin” and I’m sure I’ve heard Russ Taff sing this tune before.. they’re bringing in Russ Taff and the Imperials and Bonnie Keen to name a few singers on this project. It’ll probably see more than all of my records combined.

I left Patrona’s today euphoric from having worked again in a real studio close to home. Patty played me some of her new guitar driven ballads and I was awestruck. One song in particular called “She”… that I want to learn and play on the guitar myself … that’s how good it is! Not at all like the NehoSoul stuff I’m doing right now but still made me wanna go play other styles in the future and add one more tune to my “guitar” set for coffeehouse consumption.

So this week has been a reconnection of sorts with friends from my past. It is so good to find survivors of sorts who still have all the good stuff with em! Seeing them has shown me how I’ve changed myself. Happier I’d say… I found myself gushing with the joy of new discoveries about the meaning of life and what the real rewards are. Something good sometimes comes in running into people you knew back when.. gives you a chance to see how your own perspective has changed… I celebrated the victories of getting through the disappointments of my own expectations today…and found gratitude for the life I have right this minute…made me wanna go hug my Motorcycle and a few unsuspecting friends 8).

In the next few weeks I’ll be singing another duet with Heather Powers … more of a new friend who has a soulful ballad… “little bit of heaven” I think is that title… but seems like I’m coming along side of a lot of other artists lately…

O.K. so there’s that Bryan D

Nifty Noodles/Love Wins
4/23/06 Moorepark, CA
Played at a new church “plant” in Moorepark, CA with pastor Dave Page. He gets the prize for most creative church name in recent years… the church is called “Love Wins”.

This was maybe the second week for them. They meet in a middle school auditorium. Upscale neighborhoods with names like Fox Run and Shadow Lands. One thing’s never missing in California church plants… musicians! There seems to be an abundance of talent at most of these upstarts. Love Wins had a good band and I enjoyed the music for a change.

Dave Page has been a friend for nearly a decade… I used to play at his church in Auburn, CA.......... Sonrise. I also sang at his daughters funeral a few years back and today without realizing it I played the same song I played then… “Strollin on the Water”. Dave was obviously moved by the memories. And mentioned it before going into his discourse on temptation… he had a completely different take on Temptation than I would have ever expected…. Talking about how we are attacked by the questioning of our identity… ”and you call yourself a Christian” “yer not worthy”… kind of comments that strike at the core of who we are and what we’re worth… tempted also to give up because we don’t look like the “Poster child” for a follower of Jesus. Pointing out that even Jesus showed his anger and frustrations while living here… “tempted” as every man.

Dave is always good right down to the way he names things… I picked some older songs for this one morning service… Blue Skies, After This Day Is Gone, and Everything In the Garden…. “you sound like Stevie Wonder meets Billy Joel” one guy said as these folks were completely new to my songs… “no Elton John” said another guy… that’ll give you the age group in attendance right there I think 8). It was a short and sweet event and I wanted to ride Matilda out there but it was raining this morning when I left. Seems like every weekend I can ride my motorcycle… it rains… of course on the way home I counted more than three hundred motorcycles on the freeway in the overcast weather… so maybe I’m just a wimp…

O.K. so there’s that. …. Bryan D

Nifty Noodles/Back in the Saddle
4/21/06 Palm Springs…Celebrate Recovery at Southwest Community church
I was happy to be happy again. After being sidelined with whatever “bug” is going around this month. Never realized how wonderful it is to just be conscious and aware. 8)

I was callin people and talking about nothing, singing and quoting lyrics and movies and crackin jokes all day as I have revived. It felt good to be alive. Once again… you never know what you’ve got until it’s gone…the joy of simple things put me in a euphoria.. even the excitement of yelling at other drivers for going too slow put a smile on my face. I am my old cranky self!!! 8)

I took James with me to do a little ‘volunteer work” at a CR program celebrating their first year of recovery ministry. The concert was effortless and the songs were all new to me… again. What a grand privilege it is to do what I get to do. No big deal, just me singing to a couple hundred folks like me.. struggling to find sanity and health. And I was in heaven in the celebration of living to tell the story!

“you’re uncle Ed’s idol” two brothers told me before the show… “let’s get him on the phone” I said…he’s in North Carolina… I asked him if I could use the line for future introductions at my shows! 8) “ladies and gentlemen please welcome… UNCLE ED”S IDOL”….. of course he never believed it was me talking to him. His brothers took a picture of me on the phone for proof. I felt the appreciation for things I don’t deserve. I’ve been given righteous credit where none is really due. It’s not faithfulness on my part really … it’s just God keeps finding me, and I keep noticing that he is around me everyday no matter what.

He is around me, in the people I meet. Like Ozzie said the other day April 21st from “My Utmost…” “we look for God to manifest himself TO his children: God only manifests himself IN his children!”

Palm Springs this time of year is incredible… the night was clear and warm and the sun goes down beautifully over the desert… I can see why Jesus spent a lot of time here.

And still it has to come down to what you see in things… beautiful as this place is… meth- amphetamine is the great escape in the desert communities. Spoke to a woman with three kids who lost her husband in February to overdose. And a nineteen year old who said “I had three separate lives… church, school, and drug addiction. He was a good little rich kid he said and he looked good on Sunday… talked of God and had his own plans for removing boredom.

“God can know you and you him but he always gives you the freedom of choice” I said in the few words I offered tonight. I wanted to sing mostly and squeeze every song I could into the short gig. I was outta there by nine oclock.. stopped through Jack in the Box for some “entitlement tacos” for the hour drive home. I was aware acutely that singing and sharing my life with other people is the real joy of living for me even without the big time trappings of rock stardom, big halls and lights and sound…. Is this heaven? No … it’s Palm Springs.

O.K. so there’s that… Bryan D

Nifty Noodles/Once a Year
4/17/06 West Coast Office….
I appreciate the prayers I’ve received lately but I got sick because I would not lay down… need for rest is a fact of life that I like to ignore and I get away with it most of the time… I went down to a yearly bug last week and slept for a day and felt better so I jumped right back into the fray too soon perhaps… after this weekend… that bug has come back with a vengeance… throat infection that I fought with all weekend… my Friday concert at the shopping center local was cancelled at sound check as it was outdoors and we got dumped on… I flew to Sacramento and rented a car the next day and drove to Elk Grove where I did three morning services on Easter… they were great but by the third service I was drinking coffee between every verse just to get any sound to come out of my mouth…still you wouldn’t know I was sick really the songs went great… did the same set and stayed with the same theme all three gigs… a rare thing in my endeavors…

The sermon was great by the way… JD Pearing is a reader and he uses lots of quotes and stories as he delivers at Discovery Church (now meeting at the holiday inn)

The most entertaining quote was from comedian Emo Philips …as the sermon was on forgiveness… “when I was a kid’ Emo says “I used to pray every night for a new bicycle. Then I realized that the Lord doesn’t work that way so I stole one and asked him to forgive me” 8)…. I think I’ve worked that way myself….

Anyway yer gonna have to forgive me now too cause I gotta stop and recover once again from a persistent infection… once a year maybe twice I get sick but I might as well face it…

O.k. so theres that… Bryan D

Nifty Noodles/aaaahhh!
4/11/06 West Coast Office….
I’m as irritated as I’ve ever been…. Gone for eight days… fly home from Nashville and GMA…. Home for less than 24 hours and then I left for Oklahoma for one day and then fly back to California and drive immediately to Simi Valley… two hours from my house to play Saturday night and Sunday morning.

When I get back to the WCO… my mail is stuffed in the little box and it’s been raining for most of the week here… so all of it has been reduced to pulp. Spent all day washing clothes, doing the catch up work and rebuilding my domestic existence. I can’t find two minutes for sanity. Everything piles up while I’m gone.

I’m just ready to scream. O.k. I’ll be fine really… I wanted to reflect on GMA but I’ve done three shows since then. I read a fan’s notes on the show at GMA and it felt weird seeing how I’m seen. Distracted, flighty, A.D.D. basically. I’m not always like that you know… I couldn’t write reflective songs if that was my whole life. Nashville just spins me out of control. I get home and I can’t find my friends and I’m too tired to talk to em anyway. My voice was thrashed after two days of recording and three days of talking over the band’s in the clubs. And then too singing four more shows as well. When it rains it pours.

O.k. so after Nashville I eventually wind up in Broken Arrow, Oklahoma for a very quick concert. I met some really great folks there… transplants from California with a cutting edge style of ministry. The show was packed… maybe 600 people and the facility was a reconstructed department store… lights, stage, … very intimate setting. I had a great time talking more than usual and singing everything… the guitar stuff .. the unplugged piano stuff and of course all the oldies on tracks. Sold all the records I brought. Included enough product for the shows the next two days and it was all gone at the first show.

So now I’m flying back to California with a layover in Denver… I’m on the phone to a friend talking him into breaking into my garage and restocking for the Simi Valley gigs… I plan for him to meet me at the airport in Ontario, Ca. when I arrive. Suddenly I’m interrupted by a guy who asks me if I’m … well ME. Yes I think so but I’m exhausted and I’m not sure.

He proceeds to tell me how his life has fallen apart in recent months.. former youth pastor … losing his wife and child and really struggling. He’s been singing an old song of mine.. “love takes time”… hasn’t listened to me in years and this song pops into his head in the last week. And now he runs into me at the airport. Interesting timing… great talk about realities and expectations of God and life…

“God hasn’t left you my friend… his plans might not look like what you had in mind” I told him. It’s that “ plan A ..plan B” scenario that I’ve lived myself. Once again here is where the real “ministry” is… it happens while yer making your “other plans”.

By four oclock the same day I’m in Simi Valley with my friend James in tow… we’ve got product and we’re on time… enough to pick the least worn clothes from the past week … including a bitchin cowboy shirt I bought in Nashville for the t.v. show I did… a black and brown number with an upside down guitar on the front. Thank God for levi’s they always look the same no matter how long you’ve been wearing em. Saturday night was a church birthday celebration but as I talked with people before the gig I got the distinct impression that this was a growing church full of really broken individuals… the church itself has had it’s relationship struggles. So I played and spoke much of my own losses in relationship and although most of the songs were fun… “I never lied to you” went in the middle of the set and sure enough there were many in tears as the disillusion of how much we can lie to ourselves hit’s home.

Best thing I said tonight I think… “it’s hard enough offering forgiveness to those who have hurt us… but it’s even harder to let go of our pride enough to make amends to those WE’ve hurt”. Never said that before now.

Sunday morning was a repeat with a different crowd and I couldn’t quite find the same pulse as the night before. It was rather routine. Sometimes you just have to trust the songs. By now my voice is on overdrive and I’m physically toast. I trust that it was a good effort but I just don’t know. “don’t make evaluations when yer tired… it won’t look good”…I’ve worked all day into the night on Monday… still haven’t been able to sit down for a minute… except to pay bills and I’m not sure that counts.

I’d like to reflect on the GMA experience still but maybe later this week… it’s nearly one in the morning and this is email number 234. I told my former producer Dan Posthuma that I would produce a vocal for a song on a project he’s doing this week but man I just don’t know if that’s gonna happen… this next week is Easter and I’ve got three more days of gigs and travel to do… and nothing to wear 8)….

I’m not even gonna re read this… so if I spelled something wrong… hey tough… OKSTT! Bryan d

Nifty Noodles/Oh By the way

4/6/06 Nashville, TN
I need a vacation….gospel music week just ended for me again… every year for the last 25.. this for me has been the proverbial “trip to mecca”.

So let’s just skip the small talk and I’ll give you the highlights:

1) finished four lead vocals at Randy Thomas’s studio Radio Ranch for the new NehoSoul Record.
2) Sat in with the legendary “pope of funk”… Waldo Weathers and the Mix at BB Kings… and sang “standin on shaky ground”
3) Met old friend Scott Sheriff music director with Steven Curtiss Chapman but also now doing “12 against nature” tribute band to Steely Dan’s career.
4) Played catch with Randy’s three legged dog “Jake” on breaks at Radio Ranch
5) Hung with Ricky B and Eric around Nashville visiting all the watering holes in town… lookin for the best music in town…
6) Best music in town: Bourbon Street Blues Club after ten p.m.
7) NehoSoul Band delivers on stage at NV … a tiny club on 2nd street.
8) Spent hours talking to old friends in the lobby… celebrating a shared story of survival
9) Standing on stage at the Dove Awards with Michael Sweet of Stryper and Andre Crouch to present the “Milestones in Christian Music” acknowedgements to Petra, 4 Him, and Out of Eden.
10) Hearing a two minute standing ovation mostly for Andre Crouch.. a wonderful acknowledgement to Andre’s contributions to Christian Music.
11) Hearing all the compliments back stage from people about my own career…
12) Meeting the guys in Switchfoot
13) Attending an anti Dove awards party at a Tattoo parlour on 4th and Broadway… they were doing free tattoos… thought about it… but … no….
14) Sleeping in on Thursday morning
15) Leaving town for home!!!!
Talk more when I finish the weekend of concerts…. O.K. so there’s That… Bryan Duncan

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