May 2008 Nifty Noodles

Nifty Noodles

May 2008

Nifty Noodles/Writting
Front office 5/30
Its hard to imagine that I have any time on my hands with all I’m tryin to accomplish but those blank times come where I have no one left to call and I’m waiting on production or mixing opportunities to unfold.. I hate it! But I found something to do with my off hours I started writing because I love putting words together. First I volunteered a few stories for CMCentral just for fun. Then came the Black Sheep Newsletter…followed by a submission that was accepted for Wheels of Grace Magazine.

I was thrilled at how much fun it was to sit and write simple dialog without music. Just putting words and thoughts together in an entertaining way. It’s like songswriting but easier. And again it is a way to work out the whirlwind in my head that starts when I wake up. And it costs nothing in the way of studio time!!!! I don’t have to hire twenty people to put it together either.

I actually got paid for an article I did for Christian Musician on “How to avoid irritating yer band mates”. Now this has spurred me to write rants about pursuing a career in music. And the world continues to turn as I follow my passion. I had written three more articles to submit for Christian Musician but they didn’t need em cause they are a bi monthly rag. So I sent em to Ricky as “Blog material” for our my space site...and they started getting a lot of hits!

Since then the articles on managers, booking agents, and big record company labels have raised some eyebrows on my writing techniques and insights. Indieheaven is a website that asked to place them on a featured page of their site. Now I was never sure how this stuff would tie into anything else frankly. I’m just doin something I enjoy immensely. And now I’m seeing how it benefits the marketing of our new project as well by providing free visibility.

It’s becoming a “gorilla marketing” for the neho soul band’s new album! We started the mixes this week btw. “I love you so” has been started. I found out two days ago that Phil, again, had lost part of the lead vocal tracks… (there’s a lot of material to store on a hard drive) so I had to go back and replace the bridge parts vocally. Cool thing is … it’s better than it was now! New ideas and improvements come every time I return to it.

Even as the project is being mixed we are scrambling to add parts we forgot or decided we needed. SO after three years we’re assembling the equivalent of a home made Buick! Making the parts by hand and now in the mix we are finding snags in putting it together. But at least the mixes have begun. Thank God.

Things have become tougher to accomplish as I have gotten farther away from the “Big Time” where everybody stands to profit from the investment. But there is a gratitude I’ve never had before in the hard work and patience to get a couple of plants to sprout. I’m still here! …. “Still Dancin”..

Found a new interest too in the writing of sit com’s … had a friend offer to introduce me to a couple of writers in Television! I felt suddenly like a fan! Wishin I could just sit in on something they were doin out of sheer fascintation.

O.k. so there’s that… bryan d

Nifty Noodles/Paramount Performance
5/23/08 Paramount, Ca / Emmanuel Reformed Church Celebrate Recovery
Almost everyone who came to this event in East L.A. spoke of gigs they’d seen me play many years ago. But I was determined to play new songs. I’m glad people remember the old stuff but “If memories were all I sang… I’d rather drive a truck”… O.k. probably not… but those songs don’t represent where I am so much now. “I’m sharing with you my experience, strength and hope… as a result of having had a spiritual experience” I told em.

The gig was almost euphoric for me. My resolve has been sharpened as a direct result of measuring my own pain and comin up short with coping skills! “annoying people in your life are God’s way of showing you your need for him” I laughed .. but it’s true! “Cause I’ve learned that I can’t fix you but I wish somebody would”.

I had a golden opportunity this week to learn some real forgiveness as a result of discovering some past betrayals that I’m only learning about now. It feels like it happened yesterday! The suffering it caused left me in a serious funk. I turned to God for a reprieve.

Offering someone forgiveness does not make it stop hurting. But it does give you the freedom to not make self destructive decisions in an attempt at revenge. Forgiveness can be achieved but it does not repair trust! … that’s why you work at not abusing forgiveness with others!

I mention this event only to show how I’m learning and when it came time to present my faith and experience on stage. It was like brand new to me because I’d been in a timely dialog with God this very week.

This concert was almost flawless in it’s natural flow and vertical resonance. And I think it is only because of the circumstances I face. When I sing the lyrics to “only for good” … I’m finding an ongoing understanding… God keeps saying… “I know what’s easy isn’t best for you”. and so I shall not regret my past nor wish to shut the door on my story… this is how I grow!. “accepting hardship as a pathway to peace”

O.K. so there’s that! Bryan d

Nifty Noodles/Oregon Flurry
Portland, OR. May 15- 19

I guess I forgot that “I’m not as quite as able as I used to be”… after seven shows in four days and driving over 1000 miles in a little sport utility. I returned home with no voice for the last two days… and a kind of satisfied bone weariness that I can’t remember ever. I sat on my back porch in an easy chair for about four hours and didn’t move when I got home.

But the perks were off the charts! I learned that I still have die hard supporters (who were disappointed that I didn’t sing too many old songs) But they absolutely resonated with the new “road to redemption” concert theme. “You Keep Me Coming Back” and “only for good” were highlights every night. I sold everything I brought and got more emails for the delivery of the new project news than I have received in the last four months.

Highlights were: Road trip in Medford on Motorcycles with six of the Southern Oregon Black Sheep, Being the “Dance D.J.” at the Oregon state AA convention, the concert halls at Rolling Hills, Trail Christian Fellowship and New Hope.

Details… Flew to Portland on Thursday and rented a little roller skate. I drove to McMinnville for a Thursday night CR meeting. People roll in really last minute at “rolling hills” especially for a recovery meeting. I opened with three “sing along” numbers and by the time we started the ‘road to redemption’ set there were a couple hundred folks from surrounding CR programs.

Bryan and Ken (Badger) Brigham

Five a.m. I was up to drive five hours to Medford. So I would have time to ride four hours on a motorcycle with Ken Brigham and friends from Black Sheep Harley Davidsons for Christ. They had a sweet ride waiting for me, an immaculate o3 Road King (donated by Robin Shaw) and six of us road out along the Rogue River and had lunch at a little riverside saloon. We were back in time for a great concert at Trail Christian Fellowship. Maybe six hundred folks there that night. I was a little stiff on the delivery, I could feel the allergies challenging my voice but managed to get most of the high notes anyway.

Bryan riding Robin Shaw's beautiful bike!

Five a.m. again drive to Albany to ‘speak’ at a noon meeting with the Oregon AA leadership. I was nervous really… as a “speaker” felt like I needed to really show what I know… which is pretty pathetic really. I played the guitar songs first and added some other things talked about “Replacing defects of Character”. AA’rs seem really quiet for the most part but then they’ve already sat through too many meetings! 8)

Nine P.m. same night launched into a “dance music set” for an hour and a half. Nearly blew my voice out. It took an hour to get most out of their seats for dancing. They really came alive to “papa ain’t gonna quit”… first time I’ve done this new song live… and they really hit the floor. Other “Dance tunes” … “if you wanna be lonely”.. “I love you so”… ‘If only I” and slow dance tunes were a big hit too… “don’t leave me in the dark”… and “You keep me coming back” went over great. I ran out of songs though and they were just crankin things up… so I just played my favorite list from my I pod… which included Average White Band songs, Amy Winehouse’s “Rehab” tune… and I sang over John Meyer’s “Home Life” … sounded really great actually… as did James Brown, Eric Clapton, and Marvin Gaye! I actually had fun. One woman requested a song I didn’t know… “I don’t know how to dance sober” she said… she only had 60 days alcohol free. I played “ain’t that peculiar” … for her and she danced with her friends in a new way. 8). I finished up after midnight.

Again with the five a.m. thing.. actually is was closer to six a.m. left and drove an hour to Portland for two morning services at New Hope, a very large church. They entrusted most of the service musically… six songs per service! “I know we usually sing directly to God as an act of worship” I said… “ but I’d like to sing a song as an act of worship to God, about how you keep me coming back to a relationship with Him”… is how I think I put it… and the new song went over so well in acknowledging that the very people in our lives’ that make for difficult relationships often cause us to strengthen our relationship with God! One woman was in tears afterward as she told me how much the song encouraged her.

Finally the ending concert of this week. A real presentation for only the second time where I share the stage with a local pastor (David Boots) in this case who shared recovery themed scriptures and commentary between my songs. It went very well. Like a “Songwriter in the round” performance… just talking about what the songs mean. Lasted about an hour and a half and the comments were good about how different it was to hear the stories with the songs and see the meanings from scripture.

O.K. so driving back I cracked the windshield of the rental driving behind a gravel truck. I picked a bad time to wave that insurance policy off on the agreement.

O.k. again … so there’s that! …. Bryan D.

Nifty Noodles/Not Again..............
Front office 5/12/08
Sorry to hear of Dottie Rambo’s death this weekend… I met her for the first time on the Dino T.V. showed we taped a few months ago. She was on the show with us. I was aware of her abilities as a song writer long ago. “he looked beyond my fault and saw my need”.. I remember singin that one for church in my teen years.

Her health was failing when I met her and still she seemed like a Matriarch of sorts. She was a Mother of Christian songwriting. She was embracing the new generations around her too. This brings to Five the number of my contemporaries to die within the last seven months.

I’ve been reading the book of Job last couple of days. And I have recalled how he continued to praise God through hardship. God never explained what was happening to Job or why it was happening. Ours is to trust that he is in control even when we don’t understand the circumstances.

A bus crash seems a harsh way to take a distinguished 74 year old woman home. My prayer is for those of us who will never know that exact moment God stepped in though, I like to think he might have just taken her spirit before impact somehow. I’ll take a moment today to honor her time here and commit myself to continuing to stay faithful to my calling as she did.

Remember too to pray for those on the bus who will endure a long recovery process I’m sure.

Respectfully.. Bryan Duncan

Nifty Noodles/Closing In
Front Office ..May 11, O8
I finished the finishing touches on a new lead vocal for the song Still Dancin! After replacing three of the four lost vocals… the old vocal tracks were found! But the ones I did this last week have more energy and enthusiasm so I’m gonna keep em instead. I’ll leave the original on “I love you so” though.

I started to notice that a lot of my screams and “banter” in the background were the same things… I was getting a little bored screamin “come on” .. and “oh yea” and “alright”…. This is what the lead singer does when the band is playin and he has nothing to do really! 8)

“Still Dancin’ “ had a rather lethargic intro for a dance tune I thought… a nominal attempt, “Clap your hands” is about all I say in the two intro measures and half hearted sounding. I decided to bring some fire to it!. So I open with a short grunting little scream and say “move over James.. gimme some room”… “let me show you sumphm” and then you can hear me screamin the back ground and workin on some moves. It was just a little thing but suddenly the energy of the song changes.

Meanwhile Phil Curry and Sam Mathews got together in Seattle with Steve Smith to replace the synth pad drum kit with a real kit to bring more air movement to the bottom end of the tracks. Steve is the engineer who’s gonna remix everything on the project. Sam called after three days of redoing all the drum tracks… He was elated! He was tired but triumphant at the improvements.

This project is starting to take on the feel of discovering a new vein of gold that yer tryin to keep a secret until you can get it mined!

O.k. so there’s that… Bryan D

Nifty Noodles/Bereavement
Front office 5/5/08
Shari Gillaspie died last week. I was shocked. I got the news very late as I have been away from my email. I knew she had some health problems but you never think the worst. She was a backup singer at several of the NehoSoul Band dates in the Northwest part of the country and even booked the band for an event in Portland area. It is heartbreaking. I was told there were two services for her. Both were standing room only. I can only offer my condolences to her family and prayers for their courage to live here a while longer without her.

Bryan D

Nifty Noodles/Hardship and Peace

Front Office May 6 2008
I was thinking about a football penalty that reminds me of the slavery of the determination of my “Own Will”…the penalty is called “half the distance to the goal”… No matter how close you are… mathematically, yer never gonna arrive!

I’ve been so distracted by details that I almost forgot about the noodles or answering email. But God’s been ‘takin’ me to school’ ! “the sufferings you sent were good for me.. they caused me to consider your principles”.. Psalm 119: 71 .

Been reading the Bible a lot lately… mostly out of shear panic. All my effort and wisdom and insight comes to nothing on any given day. “life is not a puzzle to be figured out” I read in my Recovery Bible… from Ecclesiastes. I’ve been lookin at the Old Testament and realizing how little we’ve improved since then. Still slaves to our own will all the time. I have this defect of Character, where I say to myself “ if I just work hard enough and define my trouble I can overcome alone!

I read step eleven the other day from the 12 steps. At the end of “improving my conscious contact with God through prayer and meditation”… it says something I missed for twenty years!. “prayin only for his will and the power to carry that out”… oops… I forgot that part. I just keep prayin “my will be done”…no wonder I’m depressed at unanswered prayer!

After the photo shoot I had to go back to the studio to replace four lead vocals I recorded nearly three years ago cause in that much time we lost the tracks somewhere. It was all I could do to find a decent attitude about it. I couldn’t imagine bringing anything better to those tracks. But I discovered that maybe there’s a reason things happen as they do.

I revisited the first four songs of redemption. “Second Chances”… “If Only I” … “I’m still Dancin”… and “I love you so”…I felt completely different about them, singing them anew… I am in a different place since they were written. Maybe not even a better place.. just different…. I felt them differently. What happened though was a marvelous edginess about my delivery that just seemed to make the tracks sparkle in a new way. I changed some things that I thought were pretty good and the songs have become more interesting.

Where I’ve been last several months is what I call “careening off the guardrails” . Not sure who’s in control here but it ain’t me. I’ve talked a lot over the years about leaving room for God to “surprise me”. But then he still has to do everything with me the hard way, cause I don’t like leaving things to chance. I’m a control freak! I finally broke again this week… “I just can’t do this anymore” I said under my breath in prayer…. “finally” was my answer…and God surprised me with his endorsement of HIS will over mine. Wow that keeps takin too long! When do I ever learn?

“Trust in the Lord with all your heart.. AND LEAN NOT ON YOUR OWN UNDERSTANDING… and God will direct your path”… the path God takes me down… is a road less traveled! NOTHING LOOKS FAMILIAR! So I get a little nervous.

O.k. so there’s that! But wait till you hear the revised versions! 8) Bryan D