A while back, a dear friend made a suggestion to Cath that I consider doing an instrumental album. When Cath relayed the suggestion to me, I chuckled. “I’d be more likely to do a book of poetry than an instrumental album,” I responded. Still, a seed had been planted. This new album turns out to be a combination of both. Recited poems are alternated with instrumental interludes. The poetry, freed of lyrical parameters, is more expansive in its expression. The music, released of its responsibility to provide a setting to the lyrics, can be more complex in its content, and intricate in its arrangement and textures. On several occasions, the voice is included in the musical interludes, and functions as another instrument in the orchestration. This approach has been unique in my experience. I know of no other album taking such an approach. It has been quite an adventure, and now that it is complete, I am satisfied beyond imagination of expectancy. Hope you find the listen an enjoyable adventure as well.
On December 12th, I completed the recording process for this album, “Hold the Vision.” The creative process began in June, so the entire album has come into being during this amazing and most unusual pandemic year.
A time of lock-down and isolation, it has also been an inward journey of great deepening. A time of letting go of many details that seemed important to the life flow, and in the space that resulted, a new experience of what is really most important to this life journey. The other side of letting go is stepping into new life.
“Hold the Vision” is the freest and deepest expression to come through so far, and I’m excited to see where the Muse Dance takes me next. Even as this physical temple shows signs of aging, I am nevertheless at the top of my game, and inspired to explore any and all new musical territory that Muse still has in store. Thanks to you, whoever might be reading this, for sharing this journey with me. Your connection with the music completes a creative circuit, and sparks the continuation of a creative adventure that is “beyond imagination of expectancy.”
Click on the image to watch the documentary Doug’s sister Jaine created, inspired by Josh Rice’s wonderful video footage taken on Doug’s 60th birthday concert weekend in May of 2016.
The night before the concert Doug’s family presented him with a birthday book, which chronicles a rich swath of Doug’s musical journey from childhood to Rainbowland Man. Doug and Jaine collaborated on the historical record of the film as well as the final production. The video will give you a sense of the abundant and extraordinary musical life Doug continues to weave.
It’s May 13th, my mom’s 89th birthday—coming down the home stretch of this new album that began on January 1, the first day of the new decade. Simultaneously, we began a global dance with a virus. The world is a different place, and life itself is in the balance…or so it seems. The opening words of this new project are a paraphrasing of Emerson: “What is coming and what has been, are but small details for the light awakening within.” These words have been very much with me as we traverse this strange time. Strange, yes…and also deeply inward, rich with space and insight.
My previous album, Notes from the Bus Stop, explored “forever in the fleeting,” the magic and transcendence of the life right under my nose. Muse in Love reaches for the vibration of the place the Bus will take us. The projector is smiling.
If you’re reading this, you must be a good friend. Thank you. Enjoy the dance with the Muse as she comes to you.
Now available in the video section of this site is a collection of concert clips from Doug’s 60th Birthday. It’s a 22-minute sampling of the spectacular show he performed for friends and family at Rainbowland on May 21st, 2016. Click on the photo above for a direct link.
“Notes from the Bus Stop” was conceived and composed across the months of January through April 2019. It is an articulation of my deepest explorations and understandings of this life experience, during this time window, as I turned 63.
The poetry and musical ideas were collected separately, and then paired together. The lyrics were written during my daily walks out Rice’s Crossing Road. My beloved gave me a small, hardbound notebook. It is engraved with a guitar, and fits in the back pocket of my jeans.
The journey of this album, composing, orchestrating, and now enjoying, has been the deepest satisfaction for me. I am complete, and ready for more… the abundance of enough… ever new joy.
The bus stop is a meadow, with a cottage and a rainbow. The bus stop is a heaven of my own reflection.
And the bus is coming to a moment just like this one.
So much love….
~D
Early in 2018, I read an interview with Ron Wood of the Rolling Stones. At age 72, he had recently overcome an aggressive cancer, his girlfriend gave birth to twins; he had an art gallery showing of his paintings, wrote a book, and was about to head out on tour with the Stones. When asked how he copes with this-that-and-the-other, his response was: “I just let it all go, man. Just let it flow…let it all go.”—A seeming cliché that never the less spoke to me like hearing it for the first time.
The exploration of “letting go” became the heart and inspiration of this album, and touching back into the lyrics continues to be my polestar in this world of madness. “Inner Light” is offered in gratitude to the Music Muse. God may very well be a sadistic tyrant, but the Muse is an independent spirit and does as she pleases. She laughs at his folly, and any time I turn to her, she comes. Thank Dog for music, the only sanity.
Special thanks to my buddy, Nelson, for his inspiration and keyboard performance on “Black Belt.” Nelson IS the black belt.
With the help of my beloved sister/webmaster, Jaine, we have uploaded my new album to the website. It is called “Heart Whale: the Wail of the Heart.”
The concept “Heart Whale: the Wail of the Heart” came first. It was born of a deep place of despair for the rudderless state of amerika and humanity in general, at a time when the sand in the hourglass is running out to reverse the impending environmental train wreck. It is a lyrical album, though almost all the musical ideas came before any lyrics. For me, what is most compelling about the album is its atmosphere. There is an emotional tenor that colors the whole, while the music itself explores a wide range of textures. It was as if the music was reaching for the heart whale wail before any words gave voice to those textures. As with my previous album, “The Unobstructed Light”, this new album seeks to find a new and deeper ground of being. It follows a road that passes through the experience of sorrow, to discover that place of transcendent benevolence and joy that is the infinite container of the pendulum-swinging world story. It is my personal journey of new awakening and discovery. I hope it is a story that has resonance for you. Love and Light! Doug 11/11/17
