Nifty Noodles/ Lifespring Podcast
7/21/08 Riverside, CA
Steve Webb looks like Dick Clark from American Bandstand… really. And he has a Podcast called Lifespring at http://www.lifespringmedia.com/ I granted him the first interview and debut of the soon to be released Still Dancin’ Project. Actually we did a video production first. Just talking about the project for a youtube presentation. Then we played the project in it’s entirety only we talked over the songs as they played… interjecting commentary about the band and meaning of certain lines.. talked about the solos and favorite music sections too. It was an interesting way to deliver the first look at the finished and mastered project.

The mastering process really changes the sound and power of an already great set of songs. Steve lives just a mile down the street so this was like running errands around town. Except that he had a full video set with lights and camera and all the equipment. Steve has been around Christian music for as many years as I have, working in radio and for Berean Bookstores and elsewhere.

He too is realizing the power of internet marketing and I jumped in with both feet here. I still need to decide where we’re gonna make this available for download sales. We’re getting the details of the credits done now and setting up an official page for the lyrics to the project on line. Not sure when the edits will be done on Steve’s video footage but I will announce it when it’s ready. I rode over to Steve’s on Jezebel and we took some pics of our bikes after the interview… we rode off down the street too just for fun. Did the whole interview on his back patio… kinda reminded me of “Songs from the porch” that I did a few years ago.

“Lifespring” was the first ever Christian podcast not based on “repurposed church sermons” with a download showing in the “millions”! I received a lot of response from the last interview I did on his show. The Video approach though is even new for Him. “you put stuff out in segments” he says of doing things on you tube. “the third segment gets the most hits”… he adds, “the shelf life is about five days”. Wow… the world is revolving fast!

Anyway here’s the need for timely marketing and the way we must look at “Still Dancin” visibility too… or as someone misread to me yesterday “Still Duncan”.

O.K. so there’s that…. Bryan D

Nifty Noodles/ Wa-Tah
Parowan, Utah.. closes up around six p.m. I think…. But there I was invited to play on a truck trailer bed sittin on the local horse track in front of a small stadium of the Christian minority in “Mormon country”. I finished just as the sun went down. Not sure it was a real winning presentation. Outdoor concerts are tough.. hard to keep people focused and the sound system really has to rock for lack of barrier to hold in that bass boost.

I was put up in a little bed and breakfast on Main street.. (which is about three blocks long). It felt like my grandmother’s house but I was fanning the two stations I could find on the t.v. before sound check and of course I saw some enormous concert for t.v. presentation with lights and sound… and it kinda put me in a ‘comparing’ mode for the concert.

Message and good songs really have to compensate for sound and lights anyway but I worry that the impression is lost. “all the people behind you at the ball park stayed long after the game cause they could hear your music over there”. I guess you never know who’s listening do ya. Or what the power of passion might overcome.

After a little tour of the local mountains I was back to an airport that isn’t as big as my house. And by six thirty on Saturday night I was in Seattle.

Tumwater, WA …. Leroy was right on time pickin me up and the drive to Tumwater was about fifty more minutes… we were pulled over by a lady cop who noticed that I wasn’t wearin a seat belt. First time ever I was given grace by a woman cop. SO let it be known. Mountain View Church of the Nazarene was where I played two full services on Sunday morning. The staff here was just a cut above the best folks I’ve ever met. Diligent, caring, and enthusiastic. I thought it was funny though when they handed me the “per diem” in an envelope. It said “lunch money”…8)… I felt like I was in the first grade again… probably a mom workin in the front office!

I was trusted with the entire service and I don’t take the honor lightly. This is new and it is rare. I delivered again the new “road to Redemption’ presentation.. with just one interjection from the pastor toward the end. Usually it’s set up to have a local leader talk between every song. But again with the help of Power Point lyrics this was a very well received support for the Celebrate Recovery program goin on in this church.

When I started the new NehoSoul Project.. I had anticipated a “Club” audience mostly. I figured maybe I’d been kicked out of church and ministry altogether… I never thought I’d be playin “Still Dancin” to a Sunday morning bunch of Nazarenes.. and finding them laughing and dancing at the close of the service. I’d also like to thank Jay Sweet.. of Sweet Chiropractic in Olympia who donated a much needed neck and back alignment on Saturday. I’m starting to really feel those airplane trips and sleeping sideways sittin up. “ I don’t know what you’ve done to your neck” Sweet said “but this is really not normal”… “Well Jay”.. “ with me that’s just the tip of the iceberg”…

o.k. so there’s that… Bryan D

P.S. just heard today that the release date for the new “Still Dancin’ project is Sept. 16… cross yer fingers here… and let’s roll.

Nifty Noodles/ Off The Grid
Glenwood Springs, CO
I disappeared for three days this week. I heard from my parents that they would be in Glenwood Springs for a little family gathering. It was kinda last minute in my world. But here is where you have to separate the “immediate” from the “Important”! I’ll always have “stuff to do”. But I just jumped on my bike and rode off in to the sunrise on Monday. I didn’t think too much about the 829 mile one way trip. Except that I was gonna be riding solo on a work week for every other biker.

“The longest journey starts with one step” I thought to myself. And this became my longest ever trip on a motorcycle. In this case it’s a three a.m. wake up call.. to get through the desert before it’s 120 degrees. I was dreamin about riding through Utah and Colorado to begin with and here’s my chance to blow the dust out of the folds in my brain. It was a fifteen hour first day ride! … there’s a lot of folds in my brain!

Hadn’t seen my folks in a year. They’re in their seventies now. Spending some time with em is pretty important. I dressed em up in ‘biker’ gear for a photo just for fun. Dad of course loved it.. for mom it was an endurance for a couple of minutes. Dad left all the stuff on for some time.. getting laughs from his in laws who were all there.

Bryan with his Mom and Dad

Glenwood Springs is a paradise in the Colorado mountains. I spent a lot of time on the western slope in my childhood. It’s my “mecca” return usually once a year.

I never get tired of the open spaces of Utah either. God lives there I’m sure. I was thinking of that scripture about how the very rocks will cry out if we do not worship him.

Personally I think the mountains of Utah have never been outdone in the Praise of God almighty!.


Amazing Scenery along the way

I spent too much time on the phone when I got in to Colorado though… soon as you ‘disappear’ suddenly every body needs you for something! My mom and her sisters sat around a new grand piano at my aunts house and sang all the old hymns from their early days. Joined by my dad and my uncle. they are both preachers but all these old folks were the “special music’ singers in church.

It was a trip down memory lane. I played em my new record………………………uh…. Couldn’t get em to pay much attention though… they just don’t get the funk/soul thing! 8).

I rode home next morning. By St. George Utah… it was pushing 115 degrees and I thought long and hard about “hell”. The heat is inescapable. on a bike in the desert is as close as I wanna get. By the time I was in Las Vegas it was a hundred and twenty!!! I was wrapped in soaked bandanas, head and face covered. The heat has a way of pinching the skin.

It took six hours to get home from Vegas… had to stop and drink water every fifty minutes to avoid the fatigue of dehydration. Even at nine thirty p.m. in Barstow, Ca. it was still hundred and ten degrees. A friend rode out to Vegas to meet me for some company home but the ride was a saddle soar sacrifice on his part as well. We were pouring water over our heads and clothes to keep cool. We’d be dry again in the first ten miles on the next leg of the trips.

In hindsight though these are the experiences you remember… away from the daily routines. I don’t regret the time spent and these are the experiences you draw from in the rut that becomes a paying of the bills. Jezebel was spectacular even in the heat she never sputtered or quit.

O.k. so there’s that… Bryan D

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