Bryan and NehoSoul on the Universal City - City Walk
Photo by Nigel Skeet
Nifty Noodles
Nifty Noodles/ Pumped Up!
Nifty Noodles/ Seekers Weekend
Nifty Noodles/ Weekend at BB's......
West Coast Office 1/30/07
January has been the busiest month in the last decade for me. Ten dates on the calendar so it’s taken me a while to get focused on the future. But the future is here now…
I sat last week end at Paul Zorich’s house in Cleveland for a feast of a dinner and we watched the “Making of Aja” .. a DVD about my favorite band Steely Dan’s effort to record their best record ever.. AJA . It made me wanna get out there and do something great… I’m going after the NehoSoul Project with a vengeance… I need two more songs really so I’m planning to write with my favorite tunesmiths, Bob Carlisle and Jon Gibson. Looking for one more Love song and something that’s just plain great to listen to…
I was encouraged to realize that even in a church setting “I love you so” actually comes off with a true passion that embraces my real faith in God.. as well so does the love song “don’t leave me in the dark”. I’m realizing that clubs aren’t the total answer to finding a new respect and a broader audience.. that I still have a resonance with other believers in “believer” settings… Recovery programs and yes churches… I’m on a quest for other’s best interest. And that doesn’t need a specific location.
I got the pictures back from the photo shoot with Nigel Skeet that we took at the City Walk before playing at BB Kings… there’s just enough great pictures for the packaging and posters to come! Nigel was great to work with and he captured a real “Downtown” street feel. Admittedly I had to get over my own shock of what the aging process is doing to my personal reality… but in the end after watching Steely Dan on video… realized… I’m no uglier than Donald Fagen and look how he’s doin! 8)….
Aah the dawning of personal external “dogginess” gives support to making things more about something besides myself! Lets turn people’s focus on a bigger picture… the talent of the NehoSoul Band for instance and other guest artists… Lets find great songs regardless of who wrote it… Do songs that make you wanna jump out of yer chair and start dancing around… lets lose the self awareness! Connect with the real power…recognize great things in the people around us… give em room to excel as they can and support that…
I’m back to riding Jezebel again after a few weeks of unbearable cold and she’s putting me in a great mood. Nothing like a V Twin to get me motivated! I’m planning in fact to do a photo shoot with Jezebel for some future promo pics for my solo shows…maybe her Chrome will distract folks from my wrinkles 8)…I’ve been reading a book on “leadership without a title”… and finding better ways to approach my concerts even after all these years!
O.k. so there’s THAT! Bryan d
1/29/07 West Coast Office
I’m back from the tour of Coffee houses, postponed from last month to this… first one was Friday just outside of Chicago. Great weekend cause it involved one simple flight per day… 25 minutes from ORD is a little converted church building in the suburbs barely visible from a main street. It’s “Jesus Alive Coffee House” in Bensonville, Ill. Very unassuming. I’m not sure you’d drop by if you weren’t invited here.. but it’s been a going concern for some eleven years with notable acts performing such as Bob Carlisle, Ashley Cleveland, Randy Stonehill and Skillet…small stage and nominal sound…coffee was unimpressive but the 100 or so folks gathered in a comfortable setting made for a good night.
I spoke off handed about the highlight of last weekend in an unexpected call to sing at a funeral. I was noting how God’s little surprises feel better than all my planned efforts! Well of all things one man in the audience had a friend at that very funeral.. how small is this world? I also met an interesting older woman of Norwegian decent who made it to the Country Music Hall of Fame with her twin sister… The Travers sisters was their name I think but now don’t remember for sure… she had a picture of them playing the Grand Ole Opry. “I’m hoping to come out next month for the “open mic” night” she said enthusiastically. She’s in her seventies looks like…See even if yer in the Hall of Some kind of Fame.. you still wanna play somewhere today!!! “Remember that”… I said to myself….. nothing that happened yesterday gives you the kind of joy that doin something today holds! Nice memories for sure… a sigh of relief that you accomplished something… but after all is said and done… it’s today that matters most!
I spent a lot of time talking to the opening act here too… Nubies to the music thing…good band… young and already aware of the politics of the business and ministry…thing is I asked em twice what the name of the band was and I still don’t remember.. o.k. that’s not good. I gave em grandfatherly sounding advice about how I don’t have any real constructive advice… “everythings different now but somehow it’s the same thing over again”… all about yer own motivations and making sound decisions…I was still embarrassed for my lack of enthusiasm about my insights…
Saturday, found myself in Cleveland with snow flurries. It was winter drab… the only way I’ve ever seen Cleveland come to think about it… but Seeker’s Coffee house on the south side is still a highlight event… very nice hang out with a very good P.A. system and facility. It’s always full and I always do two shows… and it’s always snowing outside! This year though the crowd was a little thin because Steven Curtis Chapman was in with a half dozen other Christian artists at a thing called “Winterfest”. There was a thinning of the herd… but for me… it just didn’t matter… this gig was great. I played all the new songs I have finished for the Surprise project and the second set played songs all the way back to “Last Time I was here”…”mr bailey’s daughter” and “don’t ya wanna Rapp”…
One man requested “Don’t look away” a song that meant something to him in his life struggle… he went to the effort of pulling the lyrics off my website so that I might do the song live. I also called a lady on the phone who is in a nursing facility with severe health problems from Diabetes… I left the phone on for the first song of the second set and let her hear… “I love you so”… had the crowd say HI to her before I hung up… here’s a new way to get people to the show 8)… have everyone call someone on their cell and double the audience! Had I thought about it .. I coulda called Steven Curtis Chapman for that matter… had him sing something over the phone! 8)…
The best news.. Paul Zorich the “Head Seeker”…is talking about doing a Neho Soul band date here in May… hey.. maybe it won’t be snowing… speaking of snow… got a phone call upon arriving in Cleveland that the NehoSoul Christmas project charted number one in sales for the first half of November in Christian Retailing top 100 music!... lets all sing “walkin in a winter wonderland”
O.k. so there’s that… Bryan D
Los Angeles, Ca 1/19-21/07
The NehoSoul Band was descending on L.A. for a couple of gigs of our own making and I got a call on Thursday night from a biker I’d met at the local dealership. “my friends mom died and I wondered if you would sing a song at her wake… It’s tomorrow night”… it was a distraction from my purpose this weekend but then again.. maybe this is my purpose…to be available to people in need and sometimes the needs of others superimpose themselves on our plans!
“I have to make it quick” I said ..”I have to pick up my band members at LAX late tomorrow night”. So, at five thirty on Friday, I was driving in the opposite direction from LAX to sing at someone’s mother’s funeral. I arrived in Perris, Ca. after dark and pulled into an already packed parking lot. It is 100% Hispanic neighborhood. I was introduced to a completely different culture. The wake has lasted most of the day… and friends and family just literally hang around all day and night together… no real agenda…they showed me to the front of the mortuary… the keyboard is a 32 key Casio! .. no P.A. system and no microphone.”we’d like you to say a few words and sing three or four songs” they said… “man, I’m not prepared to do much in the way of “Wake” material” I said (especially with the equipment provided)…
The atmosphere was very informal… people sitting quietly mostly but just “waiting”… I was introduced as if I’d walked into a living room.. and I pecked out “If you pray for me”…and sung into the air… it was awful and powerful in a stark sort of way… and the response was electric. The people were soft hearted and comfortable with each other! This mother was a matriarch and the crowd was a flock of her own sheep sitting in stunned disbelief at her passing… yet connected to a relationship with the God of her faith.
I played on one mans guitar after the first song… “already in heaven” .. and “lovin you” and I returned to the piano to sing “I love you with my life”. The response was completely unexpected.. I assumed I would be “background” music for their grief but I found myself being “loved on” like a velveteen rabbit! I couldn’t get out of the parking lot! Literally I was blocked in by other vehicles but as I waited for people to move cars I was surrounded by men mostly who were asking for CD’s of “I love you with my life”… I sold product out of my truck that I had with me for BB Kings tomorrow night… emptied a full box!
What an odd turn of events…I thought as I drove out to LAX late… I felt like the recipient of love reserved for an angel of light… “it was like you had a halo around you” one woman told me in the parking lot…. “I think it’s just that I was the only blond in the room” I said nervously…one thing is for sure in looking back after this weekend… nothing to happen in my plans was better than this last minute addition to my schedule. I drove away almost bussing with the power of “purpose”.
1/20/07 … the plane was late and so was I… it was 12 a.m. as I pulled up to LAX… my cell phone battery died and there I was circling the airport in my truck waiting for Phil Curry and Walter Finch to emerge from baggage claim. It was nearly 3 am by the time I’d dropped em off at My friend James’s house. By nine thirty I was back to run through some song ideas for a couple new tunes on the current project. Sam Mathews had showed up earlier last night as well….Ricky had lost his cell phone and no body knew where he was. 8)
We left together for BB Kings at 3p.m. as I had scheduled a photo shoot for the new project . I needed an updated photo of me for my solo gigs too as my hair has exceeded the standard “Christian/ Republican” length by some four inches. It was cold and windy at the Universal City walk when we met Nigel Skeet, a Hollywood “musician” photographer, who’s photos have included Stryper, Kiss, and Van Halen…. I wanted a grittier look to the band for the new project and I wanted a less “prepared” setting… natural street scene approach. The city walk has a “china town” busy-ness about it that is a perfect backdrop for candid photo’s.
Nifty Noodles/ Prison Break......
Nifty Noodles/ Long way from the Limo
Nifty Noodles/ Mid Week
Nifty Noodles/ No Rock Stars in Little Rock
Copyright © 2000, 2007 All Rights Reserved, BryanD.com & Bryan Duncan
Tehachapi State Prison / Tuesday 1/16/07
I had hoped to make a motorcycle run out of this volunteer effort to play for Celebrate Recovery in the California prison system. But it was 29 degrees outside by the time I got up there (in my truck)… O.k. I’m just not ‘die hard” biker material… I don’t have enough leather to keep that kind of cold out. The temperature drops ten degrees just moving through the open air on a bike.
Tehachapi is 140 miles north of my house and it’s all uphill goin out. The prison is the main going concern out there… no place to escape to I guess. I’ve been here before!
The prison, I mean… they were on “Lock Down” all week until a few hours before I came to play… I was postponed once last time because of “trouble on the yard” (a Riot).
Anyway the place was packed… extra chairs set up in every available cranny … guys were happy to be goin anywhere.
They played some cool “James Brown” kinda worship tunes…found myself singin along for a change on a tune called ” trouble don’t stay”. There’s an enthusiasm about reaching out to God here… like when yer stuck somewhere with very few options! We should all do time just for the shock value of what freedom really feels like. I played 14 songs.. all the new tunes… started with “South of a Jail cell in Mississippi…” I had their attention. “Chains come in every shape and size”… “don’t hardly feel em after while” .
I even had some new insights as I spoke from prison…about “mixed messages”… “like when someone tells you they love you and then proceed to slap you upside the head” … “kinda gives you a bad impression of what love feels like!” I said before singing “don’t leave me in the dark”…I ended with “Clap your hands” and everyone was on their feet.
It was a cold night in my soul going home for other reasons. But I was glad to have given of my time to encourage someone else. All the men are very grateful to have anyone come to visit. Shook hands with almost everyone there. “I’ve been in here for eleven years” one guys said .. “I don’t know how an I POD works” he told me.. “never seen one”… I thought about how prison stunts your growth in ways you don’t think about often. You miss a lot of progress on the outside.
Of course I’m on the outside and I’m still missing a lot of progress! 8)
O.K. so there’s that…. Bryan D
1/12/07 Downey, CA
I pulled out of the Madison Park address on the way to a short run event in Downey for another new Celebrate Recovery program… I left early cause traffic is bad on Fridays in So Cal.. no wait that is everyday around 4:30 p.m. . But something was wrong… my truck died as I pulled across the middle of street and I held up traffic both directions. But Like all men.. I re-fired the engine and said to myself… “there’s nothing wrong… I’ll pretend like that didn’t happen” cause I got a job to do…8)… well I made it to the next freeway exit before the fuel pump was completely shut down.
This is why I always leave a little lee way in the travel plans… I called triple A…. who said they couldn’t have anyone there for forty five minutes… “Yea but I’m blocking traffic at a signal here”… I told em. Here's where the “leadership” and “responsibility” factors have to kick in… I need to get this done now… I called my long time friend and mechanic Skip Virag just miles away and to my surprise upon asking for help… I got it … from a friend… he sent one of his guys to check the problem and he sent his daughter with his “Pick up parts” truck for me to drive to the gig in.
I was back on the road in 20 minutes! O.K. so I arrived at the gig in fashion… pulling up in an old Toyota with no hubcaps and a crumpled fender… which I think really speaks to the need for recovery!!! 8)… but all the way down I thought of how great it was to have someone to call in a pinch and have the kind of relationship with them that they would drop everything that quickly to come to the rescue… I’ve known skip since before I was married… before his daughter, who delivered a truck to me, was delivered!
I don’t see him all the time but there is a shared experience in life where we never abandoned each other in the worst of things going on…just around the daily grind in the same neighborhood. By the way I also had help from some strangers too… a couple of guys recognized the dilemma of a truck hood up in the middle of the road.. “want some help pushin her out of the way” they said… they looked like the usual out of work guys that stand on the corner near my house that I don’t pay much attention to.. and here they are coming to my aid!. .. never underestimate a guy standing on the corner… Thank God for people… even the ones you don’t know and the ones you may never see again in this lifetime…I was truly grateful for the “angels” god has around here… (looking for work) 8)….
I take care of my truck… I really do… but even the best maintenance can’t predict surprising failures… last time my truck engine light actually went on.. the engine was already blown… “oh those aren’t warning lights”… skip told me… “those are congratulation lights” he laughed… the damage is already done!...
I was never in a better mood for a gig… cause I was seeing the answers to problems instead of the problem… I didn’t waste a lot of time cursing why this has happened at such an inopportune moment… I just dealt with the need. I was nearly giddy at the show… happy to be there.. happy to meet people… most were “newbie’s” to recovery.. didn’t get my jokes on the subject but I think they saw the results of a life recovering!
O.K. so there’s that! Bryan D
1/9/07 San Bernardino, CA
This might go down as the busiest January’s on record for me. Mid week things are rare in my work even on tours. San Bernardino is the sister city of Riverside and not even a gnats eyebrow away… really you never leave town. Northpark Community church is kicking off a Celebrate Recovery program and I volunteered to pitch in. The sanctuary is a seventies style old school church facility but the faces are new. Largely of Hispanic decent I would say but earnest in their desire to pursue a picture that is bigger than themselves.
San Bernardino has been the focal point of much recent news about the escalating gang killings that have spread through the “Inland Empire”. Rekindled old hatreds and a good place to look for recovery! A Couple of Black Sheep members rode out with me to sing this event. I’m absolutely thrilled with Jezebel… everything I could want from a motorcycle. On the way to the gig I stopped to hook up with James for the ride over at Starbucks and met a member of Knights of the Cross a small local club in Corona.. he recognized Jezebel as once belonging to his friends father! Wow small world… I love motorcycles for the way they open doors with people. As much commentary as there is about bikers and that “bad Boy” image, what I find mostly are people who feel comfortable enough to walk up and strike up a conversation about almost anything as they assume you to be another free spirit!
Anyway it is like a family reunion when my bike friends show up in support of something I’m doing. Northpark was a small gathering as they are starting something new here. I sang all the new recorded NehoSoul stuff as well as the “Singalong friendly” Clap your hands and It gets better and don’t help the devil and the huddled masses joined in with enthusiasm… but the highlight was “I’m still dancin” seems everyone has a body move that is just alittle awkward! 8)
I hung around afterward and I’m sure I took pictures with everyone there at least twice… I was treated alittle too special for a recovery event frankly… but I offered all my product for ten bucks cause I could tell it wasn’t a financially secure crowd… cause when you talk about your on line recovery show and how easy it is to get to on your computer… and people are looking at you like… aaah I don’t have a computer! Oh…. Well then never mind… did you see the records in the back? I sold everything is what I’m saying here and I don’t think there’ll be a lot of hits on the website from San Bernardino 8).
I was given a gift from the staff at Northpark after my concert… it was what I call a “man purse”.. a little leather bag that attaches to yer motorcycle for keys and gloves and stuff… hopefully not eyebrow pencils 8)…The pastor here is a motorcycle enthusiast and owner as well and he rides with Black Sheep and Bikers For Christ when he has time.
I’d like to say something here about the new year… I looked back over my “business” yesterday…. the accounting numbers were officially down and yet I found myself remarkably upbeat with the news… because I’m seeing a new future… not as a big time rock star or award winning anything… I am finding real relationships! I know more people’s last names in the last year than I can ever recall previously… I’m optimistic about the future because I’m seeing people instead of numbers as a way of looking at success. Everyday has an opportunity to give someone something in the way of encouragement and affirmation and if I’m successful at that I can die happy… people are picking me up even as I think I’m doing something for them. I say don’t make a resolution to lose weight this year!....make a resolution to gain friends!!! (and the ‘weight” of your problems will be lighter) My purpose this year will be first to recognize what I like in other people and stop complaining about how awful the Human Race has become. Like a phrase I remember about mountain biking… “don’t look where you don’t wanna go”! 8)
Bryan D
1/8/07 Little Rock, Arkansas
Here’s why its good to keep a journal. Last week I can read about the feelings I had and realize they weren’t permanent! I played this weekend at two Celebrate Recovery events that brought me back to “forward thinking”! Little Rock was a breath of fresh air from the sound check forward! What a fantastic sound system and sound man. When “the music is pumpin the people be bumpin” like Tower of Power puts it.
The new songs were absolutely driven with purpose and I could feel it comin up through the floor. I hung around with people who “get it” too… the recovery people… I think they are closer to God than they know. Just the recognition factor of the personal need for help beyond ourselves may be the most glorious place to be in life! Just standing around at this celebrate recovery was rejuvenating. I’d met the leader here at Saddleback years ago… it’s interesting to watch the seeds float away on the wind of God and fall on fertile soil somewhere else.
And for me to be trusted to bring just a little water to a growing plant was the honor no one has to vote on. I was the winner! I felt my soul purpose in flight on the power of driving funk and soul music… and here in Arkansas… famous for Walmarts everywhere…in a land with more shotguns and pickup trucks than you can shake a stick at… I found some soul music lovers!
After the Friday night gig in Little Rock I drove three hours north to a sister church with two services on Saturday. They presented “Celebrate Recovery” to the regular attendees… I was given 35 minutes of each service to present my “testimony in music”. Don’t know exactly what people were hearing in all of my comments about recovery but both services came with a standing ovation at my last song. Maybe it was just refreshing to them to hear that someone in ministry had made huge mistakes, lost my marriage because of my own poor behavior even as a believer, and acknowledged that I had found creative ways to lie to everyone even as I lied to myself… I finished with one humorous comment… “my horns are holding up my halo” which was received quite well.
I was in an almost giddy mood even talking about my failures… because I can see right now at least that that is just the old news and it doesn’t have to stay that way. Singing has always been good news for me! Presenting my thoughts to melody has a way of giving me my own optimistic overview of life. When I find people who resonate with the experience I’m healed just a little bit more. I felt a freedom in my own calling this weekend that I often forget… like the tractor in the barn… doesn’t feel like it’s doing anything… I’ve gone from “Dear John” to “John Deere” in the field… I remembered what I was born to do no matter where I am. Made the trip home not so exhausting.
O.K. So there’s that! Bryan D