Here are two videos of a performance on November 27th at the Redroom in Baltimore, MD. The first video is my short solo performance in its entirety, containing my compositions The Heart Sutra, And I Await the Resurrection of the Pedal Steel Guitar, and Heart Sutra Closing Invocation. The second video is a shorter clip of the same performance with only "And I Await".
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rzP0vK0f62I
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uuwua261Pzo
I hope you enjoy the music.
From the liner notes of the album "And I Await":
The Heart Sutra
“Thus have I heard. Once the Blessed One was dwelling in Rajagrija at Vulture Peak Mountain . . .”
This opening piece is, for the most part, a monotone recitation of the Heart Sutra, the “Sutra of the Heart of Transcendent Wisdom” [as translated by the Padmakara Translation Group] delivered by the Buddha some 2,500 years ago on Vulture Peak Mountain. His message, in so many words, was that “Form is Emptiness” and “Emptiness also is Form”. All of our human conceptions, feelings, dreams, and every aspect of our physical reality is subsumed and therefore “contained” in emptiness. In this piece, the Buddha’s name is marked by a minor third, and points of emphasis are expressed in octaves. In this musical recitation with single unison notes, I tried to pay attention to the overtones produced and the subtle interplay of notes and vibrations that brought them to life. [this particular live version is an abbreviated and somewhat loose translation]
And I Await the Resurrection of the Pedal Steel Guitar
I remember very clearly the first time many years ago I heard Olivier Messiaen’s massive “Et Expecto Resurrectionum Mortuorum”. I was in my car driving down the freeway in Houston, Texas on my way to a country-western gig. To say I was overwhelmed would be an understatement. After two minutes or so I had to pull over to the side of the road until the music ended. It has been with me ever since, from the low octaves at the beginning to the gripping propulsive conclusion. So my song is in part an homage to this monumental work by Messiaen (with which it shares the first three notes), and also expresses my own feelings on the current state of the instrument I play, the pedal steel guitar, and my hopes for its future. In this piece I wanted the whole body of the instrument – the legs, the pedals, the wood, the strings, tuning keys, bridge and nut, and pickup – to tell its story. I know the time will someday come when the steel guitar will again sing its own song – a song with a sense of majesty, ecstasy, and beauty approaching that of Messiaen.