2007 Memorial Day ride in Riverside
Photo by Bryan Duncan
Nifty Noodles
Nifty Noodles/ Pressing On
West coast office 5/29/07
May is almost over already… I had two paying dates in concert. Maybe one of the slowest months of all time in my career! And I wondered what I would do with my time.
Worried how I would generate the necessary coverage of my monthly expenses. And God has surprised me. This is something that never happens when you are financially stable!
God has no room to surprise you!
I have my passions like Radio Rehab… and when I’m not on the road I bury myself in writing scripts.. I’ve done four shows this month. This of course still qualifies as a hobby except for the satisfaction of discovering insights into my own recovery process.
May was a month of surprises. In the way of unexpected work! I’ve been doing vocal sessions in the studio for a number of projects down in San Clemente as a result of touching base with my friend John Schreiner.
I just returned this evening from doing four songs for Apple Computer Company… background vocals on a variation of song styles… sound alike tunes to match “Counting Crows”, Depech Mode, and Offspring, were three that I recognized. And in the past month I’ve sung on a local worship project being produced, and some six songs on a country rock project that Joe Sabolic is doing with John.,,,,, Sabolic is known for the huge song in Christendom “come just as you are”.. now the most recorded song in Christian music he tells me.
I was also paid as a singer and a writing consultant to a songwriter, who’s doing his own private project. A haunting little tune called “Down To Sumona Cay”.
Man is life changing for me… I”m singing phrasing that I’m not used to right at a time when I’m trying to find new melodies for my own songs… maybe not a bad thing really..
And Radio Rehab research has connected me to a lot of new songs and styles. Not that I use stuff I don’t like but I hear a lot of stuff in genre’s I would not have listened too before.
I’m sure this will give me a fresh perspective. But so far it just leave’s me disappointed in my own creativity… that song I had finished that I talked about in the last noodle?
Well it just wasn’t working … through out most of the verses because the melody is too busy and it overpowers the chorus! This is where songwriting gets a little depressing when it sounds good in your head but doesn’t record well… this is the second such song in a row for me. I’m feeling a little lost in finding fresh melodies lately. Everything sounds like something else.. “with much knowledge comes much sorrow”…bible says… I’m too aware of other people’s music now to be content with any melody I come up with. 8)
I’m reasonably happy though making ends meet. I don’t miss the airport at all! 8) the NehoSoul Surprise project has been stalled by distractions in both my camp and all those who are contributing… at least this month it is so… We will continue to press on though…
I got my first ever speeding ticket on Saturday. I was out all day on Jezebel and I tried a “short cut” home.. that took me on a “three hour tour”! the last hour I was just trying to get home… had a little visit from a Highway Patrolman in Hemet. He was nice.. commenting on the name of my bike and asking me where I rode to… I had him laughing about the “short cut”. he still wrote me a ticket .. but knocked down the speed I was going by about… well.. I’ll leave that alone…so traffic school is in my future again.
I volunteered this weekend for traffic and trash duty with the Riverside Black Sheep on Memorial Day. We were supporting our local Harley Davidson Owner’s group chapter for the West Coast Thunder event. I arrived at five a.m. ….I directed traffic for four hours at the head water intersection for the motorcycle ride to the second largest military cemetery in the country just 15 miles or so from my place. 6000 motorcycles rolled past me as I directed them to specific lanes on Indiana Ave in front of Skips Harley Davidson dealer.
Nifty Noodles/ Obsessed
Nifty Noodles/ 360
Nifty Noodles/ Joined The Army
Nifty Noodles/ Close Encounter
Nifty Noodles/ I Can't Believe it........
Nifty Noodles/ Slowin Down?
Copyright © 2000, 2007 All Rights Reserved, BryanD.com & Bryan Duncan
West Coast Office 5/24/07 Thursday…
I just finished two more Radio Rehab shows… I’ve been a man on a mission lately with this… loving the writing and it’s been burnin up inside me… that makes four shows this month finished… still gotta record two of em…spent two whole days writing this week.. I would look up upon starting around 9 a.m. and it would be six p.m. .. wow I didn’t even take a break.
Wednesday I took Jezebel down to San Clemente to write with John Schreiner again… being asked to write a power ballad for The Surprise project… song came together faster than I would have expected.. but not sure how it will be received… it’s a “Macy Gray” approach to a ballad… and the verses are not what you’d hear from my old stuff.. wordier with more rhythm and flow.
Music has a hint of “Simply Red” old school to it as well… I spent the whole day writing the lyrics and finished the song!!!! There’s another “Surprise”… writing seems to be a hot streak for me as of late.
Anyway the song is called “only for good”… and comes from Jeremiah 29:11 .. the verse everyone seems to quote these days…”I know the plans I have for you”… but the story is about captivity of God’s people and the fact they are gonna be there for a while… “70 years” is what it says… so… Bloom where yer planted is the theme I picked up on… don’t think yer getting off the hook with God’s plans either..
Favorite line today was: first verse:
At your level best…still gave yer heart away…
Had to watch you lose with nothing left to say…
I planned to let you choose what you started…
Letting you abuse what I wanted…
And the last verse:
Captive as you are I love you everyday
Don’t believe in dreams where there’s no price to pay
You’re learning and my plans are not fading…
Your will and mine are plans I’m not trading
I cried a few times while singin it through .. it does have a tear factor when it gets to the bridge.. cause it’s about finding redemption after a long time in captivity.. I guess I can relate… my redemption is drawing nigh!
I hope this song works…. Bryan D
Friday May 18 Bakersfield, CA
It’s been a while since I played in Bakersfield….It has the reputation of a truck stop on a desert highway. It’s home to truckers and transients and passers through. Oh… and lots of bikers!
I rode my bike up from Riverside with one of my friends from the Riverside Black Sheep Chapter.. it was a first ride through Tehachapi on two wheels. It’s a bout 180 miles one way to the gig. It was near perfect weather to ride through Mojave desert, and the scenery in Tehachapi is reminiscent of “little house on the prairie”. Mike Juillerat is good company on a long ride. He has the look and disposition of Kevin Costner in Dances’ with Wolves… except for the Biker helmet and glasses that make him look like a cut throat “one percenter”. But he waves at the kids in passing cars! 8) and I noticed how often regular folks would stroll up to talk to him at road stops… I think it’s cause he wears that “Jesus Is Lord” rocker on the back of his leather.
We called ahead to notify the Bakersfield Black Sheep Chapter that we would be doin a concert at University Baptist Church. Then “warned” the “performing arts” director at the church, John Payne, that Bikes would be coming! .. he was thrilled actually. And the front of the church was lined with motorcycles for the night.
The name of the church suggests a college presence which was really not the case…at least not at my concert… many were Students though with “life degrees” clearly. The age group was seriously diverse. Pastor Chris Bennett and his wife arrived early to present me with a Bakersfield Harley Davidson t shirt and the enthusiasm for what they were doing here was evident.
We met “Jimbo” , “Hollywood” and “Tiny”, from Bakersfield Black Sheep, before the concert. The back two rows were mostly bikers. I was in a great mood for the gig… No airports to deal with!!! No baggage to check and nobody to wait on to get picked up and hustled around. The perfect work day where the trip to work is as much a part of the adventure as the work itself!
The concert was a side show of sorts… a continuing “rehearsal” of all the elements that make a list of songs turn into a real delivery of a bigger picture… insights from my immediate prospective seem to turn every song in a new light these days… but the real joy was in the conversations with people I met. In the long run, that’s really what makes me realize I have a purpose.
Afterward we took a back road over the “hill” on a wonderful summer night to Starbucks of course. It was a procession of some twenty bikes and the overview of the city made me forget it was Bakersfield.. city lights on a dark night erase the scars of the daytime landscape and for a minute it might have been heaven!
5/14/07 West coast Office…
Capt Van Young asked me to join the army this weekend. The Salvation Army, has a “rehabilitation” program simply called ARC.
Once again .. I can’t remember the exact words for the letters. It was a “revival” retreat. A gathering of the entire SCSA ARC! I rode Jezebel out to Calabasas, Ca. on the back side of Malibu Canyon!
I went MIA looking for the sign for the campground. (camp is on the right and the tiny sign was on the left). It was a good miss though cause around the corner is Pepperdine University on the Coast Highway …with a killer view of the Pacific!. I was out of gas by the time I reached the coast… 4.oo a gallon in Malibu!. This is why I don’t live here 8).
What a difference from Wednesday singin for all women in prison in Chino… three days later I’m singin for mostly all men!.
Same kind of worship though… it just sounds like “gorilla worship” when a bunch of rough cut men start singing. The enthusiasm was that of new believers and it tends to rub off on the bystanders.
Breakin the ice with this group though took a little longer. But once again “I’m Still Dancin” took off and guys were comin forward to display their best dance steps. It was like tryin to herd buffalo! Great big guys too.. dancing and laughin. I’m convinced that laughter and dancing is sorely missed in church… it might be why people don’t go often. I think it is a real healing balm. Here’s where I gotta accept that my Pentecostal roots are grounded in SOME good fertilizer. I just get a little nervous when there’s not a balance. The pep rally has to convert to points on the board in the game!
I closed with “I love you with my life”… man… I’m never gonna out write that song. It’s just the best focal point. After the gig Kenny and I rode out into the darkness and Home by two thirty in the morning. One thing for sure.. traffic thins out on the freeways a little in L.A. around that time.
O.k. so there’s that! Bryan d
5/11/07 Chino, Ca / women’s Correctional facility
Here’s where something marvelous happened!... right when I least expected.. a surprise intervention of God’s unbelievable presence. I would call it a “visitation” cause, two days later.. I haven’t come down from that sense that I’m right where I’m supposed to be.. and all is right with the world. It was reminiscent of my childhood days in the Pentecostal tent meetings… unsolicited tears and overwhelming feelings of inner healing… I know… I sound like a fanatic here but I’m just reporting the facts as I see em.
I was scheduled to sing for the first time at Chino Women’s Prison…not sure of the real name… but I’m sure it’s not “prison” any more.. it’s “correctional facility”…
I arrived at six p.m. with my friend James. We rode in on our motorcycles. I was cranky and distracted from the days details frankly and fighting the evening traffic on a motorcycle isn’t what bikes were made for.
After clearing “customs”, we walked with Ron Zaucha (sounds like Gotcha) and a couple of his volunteers to a small building on a massive facility. It looked like a class room. “we couldn’t get a keyboard.. and the guy who has the guitar isn’t here this week” Ron said. “the sound guy should be here any time but the equipment board is over there in the corner”.
This is looking like a real last minute set up… I fumbled with the lines tryin to figure out the set up to get sound up… twenty women had already shown up for the weekly bible study as I worked to get a sound check. It was routine fundamentals of my life’s career really. No fanfare and as methodical and mundane as any thing I’ve done. I had no idea what to say to these women and I wasn’t getting much support in the presentation.
My first ‘correction” of attitude came with the polite responses I was getting from the ladies on the inside. I was surprised that they didn’t seem at all “hardened”. Hurt? Yes.. Broken? Definitely…but they were “open”. I was irritated trying to make sense of the little p.a. system. After several minutes of fumbling I found and disengaged the “Mute” buttons on the two channels to my Ipod tracks… by then the third song of my playlist was playing and boom! instead funk music burst forth… it was the song “It Get’s Better”!!!! and I stepped to the mic next to a little wooden podium and began to sing… “it get’s better closer to the love of my life”…and immediately in surprised response the ladies began to sing with it and clap and dance.. and this was just a sound check.
Two minutes later the official “service” began. Ron introduced a black woman to speak, she looked like Whoopi Goldberg to me and sounded like a female radio preacher on a two watt station. My first impression was that she seemed almost annoyed in her delivery. And then I discovered that I have my own ‘code words” for acceptability and trust. She said,
“I’m not there yet”… “ God is not finished with me”. Suddenly I was receptive! And I put my judgments on hold. And she astonished me with a comparison of church to a Laundromat! “you don’t take clean clothes to the Laundromat” she opened … “and when you get there.. you’ll find none of the machines on the same cycle!...some be tumbling and dryin out… just like church folks... some are in the rinse cycle.. and you know some are in the “agitation” cycle!”.. wow… she just described my church abuse in a nutshell…I had to laugh just then…
Found myself “open” as well…
Don’t remember all the songs I did but I just hit the play button and let the songs run their course and I was suddenly aware of the impact the songs alone have. The response was unbelievably electric.. happiness and exuberance burst forth in unpretentious joy from the now full house of maybe a hundred inmates. They especially liked… “Everything in the Garden”…”maybe I’m Amazed”… “mr Bailey’s daughter”…and “I’m still dancing”… and they danced too.. the ”little dog/ big dog” is becoming a real high point. I taught em some dance moves that they can do when their just workin .. like “ washin the windows” “step on a bug” “wipe some mud” “rub yer elbow” “push back yer hair”…and of course “Drivin the bus”… they were transporting themselves before my eyes.. and laughing!... I finished with “Thank you for the second chances”.. and the women were visibly moved.
But the real change in disposition came when Ron, a former Chino Men’s prison inmate got up… and began to weep… “I didn’t know how much I needed this”.. . he said.. “I forgot how good it feels to laugh”… and the emotion transported the room and it filled with tears.. they were passing out Kleenex through his confessions… “ I came to bring you ladies something… and you have given more to me than I had”… by now I was getting the same feelings. A tapping in to what I believe is the heart of God… gratitude and peace in the knowledge of sadness.
Riding home at night on Jezebel.. it was a perfect seventy degrees and the lights of the surrounding city seemed like the coals of a distant fire. The breeze on my face was a washing away of all the trouble in life…and I felt “healed”. All the next day there was a continuing feeling of “all is well with my soul”! even as I continued to hear the complaints and struggles of my friends and loved ones’ .. I felt somehow removed from the burden of our common circumstances.
I’m sure I’ll go back again to Chino Women’s prison soon…but mostly for the things they brought to me! . … I’m not sure the next time will be at all like this time but this is as close to a close encounter with God as I’ve had in the last twenty years!... “when I was in prison you visited me”.. it’s step 12 of the twelve steps.. and oh my how it works..!
O.k. so there’s THAT…. Bryan D… Black Sheep/ Soul Viking
5/7/07 West Coast Office.....
It's only Monday I thought but I need to start another show for
Radio Rehab as we're getting intense interest lately. Now from a new
podcast
network! Called www.realityradio.net . they are talking to me with
enthusiasm about finding real sponsor's for the radio rehab/ the road to
redemption.
That makes three new points of contact in the last month or so!
Wow after six years of doing this... help has been pouring in. so
anyway I started doing shows again starting from show 43 just a few weeks
back.. it usually takes some 25 hours to write a script and find the music
to fit... but today... I sat down with my next show idea on the
Responsibilities of Happiness... on my notes, next in line to address was
"I
am responsible to set limits and boundaries"... oooh noooo.. I thought... I
don't even wanna look at this myself... I started at nine a.m. this morning
with a few thoughts about boundaries... and never realized the insights
lurking in the corners of my own mind.. or maybe it was God talking to
me!...
But by five thirty p.m. without a break... I have finished show
#46!!!!!! Unbelieveable.. and thanks to Itunes... I found songs I liked
that fit in a whirlwind of web searching
The songs: Keb Mo/ a better man... Joss Stone/ less is more...Jason Mraz/
on
love, in sadness...Michael Bowers/ point of no return
Take Six/ you can make it-go on ... and a really funky cut from Doug
Williams/ overwhelmed...
The line that really opened the door came from my early thoughts in
preparation for the script... a surprising insight..
"Welcome to radio rehab ...and Boundaries! yea that's been a word I used
mostly to protect myself from you... trouble is.. I have been my own worst
enemy! Livin in my little crock pot of isolation .. there's a difference
between boundaries and walls... "
I never thought of setting boundaries for my own behavior.. always saw them
as a hedge of protection to keep other people from hurting me>>>
You'll have to hear everything in context but wow... a great show in
a single day... new record I believe..
O.K. so there's that... bryan d
5/1/07 West Coast Office…
April was a whirlwind of activity wasn’t it.. it’s May and GMA and every weekend concerts are over for a few weeks. I’m focusing this week on Show number 45 for Radio Rehab/ the Road To Redemption…it’s on the Responsibilities of Happiness/ Refuse to see myself by someone else’s definitions!
Got some great songs lined up already… No Love to Be Found by Michael Mcdonald / I choose by India Arie / John Meyer’s “Daughters” / Paul Thorn has a powerful tune called “Things left undone” that is captivating by itself…and a version of a Sly Stone tune done by the Williams Brothers… called “thank you for letting me be myself”….
Road To Redemption was honored by the Marine Aviation Logistics Squadron 29 headquartered in Al Anbar Province, Al Asad Airbase, Iraq last month … they sent me the American flag that was flown over the airbase in April and with it a certificate to the Honor of “Road TO Redemption” ! I had color copies made and sent to those most deeply involved in this outreach: David Rowe/ Producer, James Bowles/ webmaster, Rich Davis/ facilitator to Iraq, and volunteers Katie Allen and Beverly Oulette who have done much of the daily promotion needs.. flyers, cards, brochures, and posters! as well as upkeep on the website… Thank you all for your investment in all this…
Now that things have slowed down on the road…It’s back to the grind of recording the new project for NehoSoul Band.. Surprise! has been a slow endeavor just to get the right songs and cover em correctly…
This week we’re working on getting a key change at the end of “YOU KEEP ME COMING BACK”..so I can do a keeper lead vocal… next we plan to track a new song again in a new more accommodating key as well.. key of C works best for me! 8)…songs called THINGS YOU BRING TO ME….
We’ve got background vocals to do on several songs still besides the two already mentioned.. still need BGV’s on CHAINS, DON”T LEAVE ME IN THE DARK, PAPA AIN”T GONNA QUIT,
In Nashville I played the song “MAKE IT WORK” to my nehosoul brothers.. recorded years ago by Vince Ebo and we are considering covering this song as it fits well with the material we are presenting. Also looking at adding the duet I did with Heather Powers called “LITTLE BIT OF HEAVEN” that Phil Curry Produced for her project. After singing it live in Nashville, I realized it was a very strong song and would also fit as a bonus track on our project!
I’ve gotten a lot of commentary from friends about doing another “power vocal ballad” as it has been a signature of success in my longer career… ie: I love you with my life
… so I’m tryin to find that to add to a list of eleven songs for “SURPRISE!” .. have the right idea I think but need the right music…
O.k. so there’s that… hope to finish this record this year… BRYAN D