On December 12^th, 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.”

So much love,

Doug

12/12/20

It’s May 13^th, my mom’s 89^th 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.         

Love and Light,

Doug

“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

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

  (Album Cover art by Jaine Rice) 

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Check out Starpeople Band’s new promo video on YouTube, filmed at the Nevada County Fair, August 2017: