Nifty Noodles/ Blessings
West Coast Office..6/27/06

Sometimes I just gotta sit down and make a fun list of “blessings”… it sounds kinda trite when you hear it as advice … “count your blessings”!!! yea right.. it’s always handed to you when you can’t stand anything happy… but worked out on paper it can be quite a boost. I’ve been using the CYB tool to combat a deteriorating attitude. Some one sent me a quote from the big book of AA today.. that I’d heard in group sessions for years but somehow missed it lately… “We will intuitively know how to handle situations which used to baffle us. We will suddenly realize that God is doing for us what we could not do for ourselves.”

This is why you have to “keep coming back” …. To the simple truths you’ve heard time and again…it’s like positive self talk. I’ve lost the art over the summer … till now…

So anyway I got a call from a young fan in the Grand Caymen Islands… who wanted to meet me when she was in L.A. . After two failed attempts to get here… she has decided to find help where she lives… to bring me in for a concert! So I spent the day trying to figure out how to make a vacation out of the time and offer my services affordably! How fun… just dreaming of the Islands brings me back to “my carribean dream” a song I wrote several years ago.. based on nothing but pure excitement…

Of course the date may or may not happen but I found the ability to dream about the possibility just from a conversation with one rather young woman who has taken it upon herself to help 8). I suddenly found ways to bring myself to that table in a single afternoon.

It’s a matter of narrowing my focus on the details. Which by the way I don’t enjoy but that’s what gets things done! And as I looked over my calendar to see where I could fit this in… I realized in my funky stupor I’ve missed the facts about how wonderful this year has been for me in spite of everything. Starting with the fact that I’m half way through the third project with the nehosoul band!

I won’t list it all my blessings here but I’d like to point out that in my poverty 8) I still managed to take a motorcycle trip of my dreams for 25 years just a few months ago… and I rented a car and went on a travel trip through Colorado… and this week end I’m playing for the national Special Olympics in Iowa with Hootie and the Blowfish… you remember them! And then I leave for Europe with the NehoSoul Band to do two festival dates… and I’m home for four days before leaving on another motorcycle trip to Morrow Bay to play for the Western States Black Sheep motorcycle club rally on the coast of middle California.

Yesterday I sent one of the songs I just finished to Saddleback Church’s music director and he called me back the next day and booked me for a morning conference… the song? “Thank you for the second chances”…. And there is talk of a fall tour with Kevin Max (of D.C. Talk fame) and Michael Sweet (of stryper) that would include among other dates “Sunday Brunch” at several of the House of Blues venues.

That is not confirmed either but when I look around I see how Benevolent God has been even as I have struggled to see my own blessings. I hate to quote from the guy at the Crystal Cathedral but I’m seeing the “possibilities” in a new way… I can see why Robert Schuller gets that weird expression on his face that drives outsiders a little nuts! I’m amazed at how “Dreaming” can find a way around all sorts of obvious obstacles…I can focus on the disappointments or as my young fan this morning did… try to think of another way to get things accomplished.

Thanks for all your emails of encouragement btw… I will try to be more supportive of others too as you so often demonstrate to me!

O.k. so there’s that … Bryan D

Nifty Noodles/ Day Off
6/27/06 West Coast Office
Venice Beach has a way of letting you see how different people can be. Value systems are so “Sideways” on this boardwalk.

I felt very conservative! I lacked facial hair and tattoos and in my most comfortable clothes I was still over dressed. I got quiet too… overwhelmed at the shear numbers of people who are not at all like me… opposing beliefs in every direction.

I have a hard time relaxing in the world. I still carry the “guilt” of obligation to “Set everyone straight” about redemption. It comes from years of evangelistic endeavor. I lacked compassion in those days… and it was missing on this Sunday.. just a day off strolling the beach.

Musicians were everywhere playing on every corner. See I’m not the only one looking for work in my chosen field. I wanted to grab someone’s guitar and start playing. But then I’d be stealing their high point in life. “Nothing is as it seems” was a quote from a book I’m reading called “waking the dead”. It kept running through my mind. It’s hard for me to see the secret war that goes on when I’m in my own little world. I just feel the effect, like mortars going off around my head… can’t see the enemy.

Here though it was downright obvious… how does the human race survive? What keeps it going… how is it that we haven’t quite self destructed after all this time? We all tend to hang out with “our own kind” for a reason… it’s unsettling to see the chaos in the open possibilities. Now you have to know that I’m not exactly a Baptist. I’m aware of my own faulty belief system and I wondered how God was gonna “speak” to all these people based on my belief that God gives everyone an opportunity to know him. I was overwhelmed some more… I felt lazy about my own passion. “I’m missing the moments to enjoy” I thought… here I am with a day off and all I can think off is “what should I be doing”?

Truth is… I’m assessing! Working on my perceptions! How do I sing about something that will even peak the interest of a multi ethnic crowd like this? How do I keep them from making outrageous assumptions about me based on the way I look and act too? Truth is I can’t relate to everyone. But somewhere there has to be a common denominator… something that reverberates with everyone… music though seems to specialize more than unite these days…I’m thinking about the four songs I’ve finished for the surprise project… and I haven’t made a final decision about what songs we’ll put with these… but I’m considering an official recording of “never lied to you”.

It seems to cut across the boundaries of age and music preference based on the lyric alone…. Now there’s a common thread! We’ve all lied to someone sometime… and we’ve all told ourselves some whoppers that set in motion a chain of catastrophe’s personally.

O.k. that’s what I learned on my weekend vacation… Bryan D

Nifty Noodles/ Last Minute
Riverside, CA 6/9/06
My plans for Friday all fell through so I took my motorcycle out for a spin. I was feeling very anxious about the slowing work I have this summer. I made calls in the morning looking for work and after my ride I sat down in my office in a blank stare. I didn’t really pray for work but I have this connection with my higher power knowing that he hears my thoughts continually. My communication with him is not formal. I don’t often think to ask God for my own needs mostly because … I’m not sure what my real needs are. Safety and comfort are a preference 8).

So I was absolutely astounded as I sat wondering what becomes of my dwindling career and my place in this world. When I get a call from the local shopping plaza! They had my name because I sat in one day at Coffee Depot on open mic night. They’d had a last minute cancellation and needed someone to sing… in an hour and a half from right now. Wow. They were willing to compensate me for the inconvenience of the last minute too. Well now … I guess I could be there.

Now I’ve always wondered how I would do singing for a totally unfamiliar crowd. I was nervous. I set up in the middle of the main street for their outdoor entertainment right across from the movie theaters. I played non stop from 7:30 until 10;oo p.m. . The first hour was horrifically humbling… it was mostly high school kids who wouldn’t act interested if I was God incarnate. One or two people would stop and listen for a song or two and move on. I felt invisible mostly and closed my eyes a lot. My music felt really out of date in my own mind… maybe because it is old to me. I took a break by accident … miscueing my tracks and I skipped over to my favorites list on my Ipod… instantly Average White Band starts playing so I let it play for two of their songs and told the locals I would be back in a minute… it was my only break!

But then at nine oclock… after dark and when things cooled off outside the crowd began to swell. Movies were letting out and people were leaving the restaurants. The man at the sound board just left me there for other chores. So I, having free access to the board… turned it up! And the sound became inspiring. I started over with my favorite songs including the four new tunes from the surprise project… of course they had my lead vocal on the track but in this case without any vocal affects live… it just sounded like a delay. My voice was twice as strong!. And the new songs grabbed people and they began to gather round. I also began to see old friends. Turned out I was being recognized by the local kids who were calling their parents on cell phones and by nine thirty I had several hundred people standing in front.

This was better than planning a concert and trying to promote it. Go where the people are I’ve been saying to myself. In order to do that though you have to give up every thought of being “special”. Check the “rock star” at the door. I’d rather sing than have the façade anyway. Of course I would love it if everyone got the music. With the younger crowd I felt incredibly out of date musically. But what er ya gonna do … I know the music I like… and I kept thinking… these kids would walk by disinterested if Steely Dan were playing or Anita Baker…music is a preference to… like my desire to be appreciated! 8)

I stayed pretty much with non religious sounding songs… didn’t do “I’ll always have Jesus” or “Clap your hands” . I wanted to be subtle. But I surprised myself in my own freedom to just be a singer…. I launched into “if You Pray for me”… and “Don’t help the devil”…. “I never lied to you” had a real impact as well… and I finished the night with “I love you with my life”.

Three people wanted me to play for their private parties 8)… hey it’s a slow summer… I might be doing birthday parties next. One thing is for sure I wanna be out there among real people with no understandable agenda… it feels … well REAL. I’m gonna join the human race one way or another… and make friends that don’t believe the same things I do and see just how well my faith stands up before others.

I also booked a little Tuesday night gig at Back Street… a restaurant three blocks from my house. The scripture talks about going out locally and then abroad… well now I’m going from “abroad to local” in a reversal of fortune. The good thing about being local is I’m home thirty minutes after the gig.. and I like that!

O.k. so….. Bryan Duncan

Nifty Noodles/ New World
6/7/06 Toms Farm, Lake Elsinor, CA
After several motorcycle trips and hangs with various club members I’ve found myself longing to be singing at motorcycle events.

It seems like the perfect direction for me given my enthusiasm for bikes over the last year. So after consideration and a few months I decided to call around. My first call was to my particular preference in “Christian” biker clubs: Black Sheep. I’d met some members at a concert in San Bernardino and I liked the name immediately… it suggested “ a believer who knows they’re not the most correct image of a believer”. That’s me… just alittle on the outside of the “poster” of what a believer might be.

Of course this is a Harley Davidson club and one of the requirements is to own “an AMERICAN made V-Twin motorcycle. 8)

I’ve got the V-twin part but Matilda is Oriental 8)…so once again… I still don’t quite fit into the flock even of outsiders 8).

Never the less I met with Marty “Slow Dog” Edwards. President and founder of Black Sheep rides a fine Black Harley and it’s tricked out like something a president should ride all the bells and whistles and lights. Marty himself is short, heavy set, shaved headed, goatee, tattoo wearing former Nazarene preacher who quit that officially to found an outreach mainly to Harley Davidson members. “I’m doing more ministry and lovin life more now than I ever did as an official pastor” he said.

ITold him on the phone that I thought the music at motorcycle events was a pretty sad performance in my estimation and I’d like to fix that a little. it turns out he was at my very first solo concert in Atascadero, Ca. “Bikers can smell a fake a mile off” he said at one point suggesting that maybe I might not be a serious enough biker and that maybe I was just looking for a gig. “I don’t have a trailer for my bike…. I don’t even want one”… I told him. “but yes I am looking for a gig… because mainly I love what I do as much as what I ride”.

So over breakfast I played him the new Nehosoul mixes. And he told me what the Black Sheep club was about. In a nutshell it’s about “being there” and putting your faith into action rather than words by acts of service to others without expectation or hidden agenda.

The example he gave first was a boot polishing stand they set up. Cleaning bikers boots for free and not passing out anything. He also told me of visitations to hospitals to see accident victims and looking out for families involved. Offering counsel to bikers with kids on drugs.

When I told him of my radio rehab website… he said “probably 68 percent of my club have been through recovery programs”. It confirmed to me that all the time I’ve spent in recovery since 1990 has led me to this next step in the progress of God’s plan for me. It may be a less prominent place in music but I feel that my music will be celebrated in this environment.

I was elated about the possibilities of finally playing to the general public in a “real” environment without the expectation of the religious content. It’s what the NehoSoul Surprise project is about! Aimed at the general public. Marty booked me immediately for the first of what I hope will be many opportunities to sing (and ride my bike to the gig).

So I’ll be playing four songs on two nights July 14 and 15 at the “Western States Black Sheep Rally” in Morrow Bay, Ca. . Eventually I hope to set up full band concerts at other bike rally’s as a way of promoting this new R&B based music that’s never gonna be widely accepted in church settings. There’s a reason why God puts a particular passion in your soul. Even if he doesn’t tell you what he’s gonna do with it. To me it feels like I’m building an Ark with no rain in sight. Old School soul sounds are not heard much in Christian music and even on the secular side.. I’m in an iffy position as a white guy doing Soul school. But when a door opens that you knock on, answered so quickly, there’s a moment of shear excitement… like when yer parachute opens after a long fall.

O.k. SO there’s that…. Bryan D

Nifty Noodles/ On the River Walk
6/4/06 Pueblo Colo.
I recognized some changes, however brief they might stay, in my attitude this weekend. I played the first NehoSoul Band date this year finally… as we’ve been focused mostly on getting the new project started. I did a lot of my own leg work in getting this gig to come together. That included booking it, rearranging the flights for the band and planning transportation. It’s a new world for this once “hood ornament on the Pontiac” rock star. My expectations were that we would make a spectacular impression. To say the least the work to get one gig to happen has been a real education in gratitude for those who have worked thanklessly for me over the years. I have been arrogant and ungrateful for things performed on my behalf for a long time obviously.

I flew in a day early to take in the Colorado scenery by Harley Davidson rental. I rode for the first time a Harley Deluxe soft tail… cobalt blue. I was joined by two local biker enthusiast’s Ed, and Roman. One a recently returning to the faith believer with many acquaintances in outlaw biker clubs. The other is a renegade minister who just sold his own bike to make room for other priorities in his family. They were both leery about riding with a “Christian singer”. The assumption was that I would be all self righteous and hard to relate to. Neither of them knew anything about my career.

We rode out to lake Isabel and into the national forrest south of Pueblo,and later on to Royal Gorge, 45 miles north. The scenery was great but the highlight was meeting the concert promoters staff at a little breakfast stop at lake Isabel. It was an informal meeting of strangers to each other and “transient believers”. They’ve all had there questions about the realities of organized religion in one form or another.. and like the bikers I rode with weren’t too sure they wanted to be counted among the Christians on my “party platform”.

I guess I set the tone with a small testimony of my last thirty years, closing the comments with “I’m just plain tired of trying to appear to be in a better place than I am”. With that the nods were readily available. I would call it genuine fellowship with a helping of pure honesty. There was a collective sigh of relief in our faces as we realized that our struggles were similar and yet there was still this compelling identification with a God we recognized by the same names.

This was the beginning of a train of thought that I shall reveal in a moment. But lets move on. The night before the motorcycle run, I played last minute at the local Fellowship of Christian athletes in Pueblo. Sang a couple of my guitar tunes and cracked a few jokes. But the highlight here was the caterer!! The food was so good I decided to compliment the man in charge of the food. Tony. He was a local restaurateur. And I spent thirty minutes laughing outside with him after the banquet. He’d seen some of my recovery paraphernalia hanging around my neck and instantly recognized someone he might have something in common with. At the end we exchanged phone numbers and he invited me to be a guest at his local steak house.

The day of the concert at the Riverwalk amphitheater started for me at six a.m. as I had to drive back to Denver to pick up the band members coming from Nashville and Seattle. Picked up Ricky B first and went and rented a van for the equipment. Then picked up the other guys and drove 100 miles back to pueblo. We ate, we rehearsed and we hung out for hours until eight p.m when we were supposed to get a sound check and set up for the show at eight thirty. As always at a festival date … nothing was running smoothly. It was a quarter to nine before we were even setting up the instruments… the mosquito’s were thick in the front of the stage and the crowd sat on the other side of the water in complete darkness… hard to tell how many were there. We had to cut maybe five songs from the set because it was after nine before we started. And it was a rough start.. doing sound check in front of the crowd. Every distraction in the world was thrown at us throughout the set and I had to just trust the music… I could not form a full sentence in any direction. We ended the show and I could feel the frustration building. My product table sat in the dark in the park and no one obviously found it. I was told we sold 24 records total.

The Riverwalk Amphitheater in Pueblo Colorado