I'm happy to be the featured artist for February's MFA on Zaadz Free Art Spotlight.

Currently with over 2,600 members and growing fast, MFA is an innovative marketing project designed to bring together creators and appreciators of high-consciousness art (defined liberally) through a new-paradigm, Aquarian, consortium model based on partnership, collaboration, teamwork, and mutual goodwill.

Thanks for listening!

I am happy to announce that Echo Root's Zen Junk: Volume 4 is in the bag!

Zen Junk: Volume 4 is the first of 50 planned Zen Junk albums for 2008. This volume includes 7 new songs composed and recorded between 1/1/08 and 1/6/08. Runtime approx. 37 min.

You can view the details and stream all the songs (for free) on my AP
releases page at: http://www.acidplanet.com/artist.asp?releases=450464&T=1798

All of the songs on this album are available for free download and are
covered by the Creative Commons Attribution Non-commercial Share Alike
3.0 (by-nc-sa) license. High quality (320 kbps) MP3s may be purchased
individually or as a full album from MoodRingMedia.com.

To download the free WMA files, you'll have to register with
AcidPlanet.com if you haven't already, which is quick, painless and
best of all FREE. Once you've registered, you'll be able to download
music, leave reviews and create your own playlists.

The cover art includes a slightly modified version of tanakawho's
"Melting" used under a Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic
license. More tanakawho can be found here: http://flickr.com/photos/28481088@N00/ .

Thanks for your support and for taking the time to listen. Stay tuned
for many more releases to come. :)

I strive for creative expression without self-editing during the actual creation process. This is how true innovation is born. I encourage artists (we're all creators) to let their music (or whatever) flow freely without second-guessing every note/word/stroke. This is what Zen Guitar and Crap Art and real Jazz is all about... clearing your mind and just creating in the moment.

I have no idea what others think of me... maybe I'm not paying attention.

I have found the concepts of Zen Guitar (pick it up, tune, play) and the Crap Art Album-a-Day concept to be quite synergistic. I finally released my first album based on the melding of these 2 concepts under the title "Zen Junk - Volume I."

The album contains one song and weighs in at just over 23 minutes. The album info and a link to the download can be found at http://www.acidplanet.com/artist.asp?stores=559860&T=3648 (the Buy Now link goes to the free download). You can also just play the track by clicking the arrow, and view the song info by clicking through on the song name.

Anyway, I plan on releasing many more albums this way. If you're musically inclined, I would highly recommend taking a day to make and release your own AAD.

The track Sludgehammer is in 5/4. The main theme was composed via a William Russo pitch limitation exercise, and the solo excursion followed from there. The improvisation moves through many different modes, all centered on E. The whole thing took about 3 and a half hours to complete.

Here's a re-cap of the "rules":

• It must be written, performed, recorded, post-produced, etc. all in one contiguous 24-hour period (preferably with no sleep break in there).
• It must be at least 20 minutes or 30 songs. (many short songs tend to work better than long songs which drag on forever, trust me.)
• Your band may have multiple participants, but they should not work on different songs simultaneously. (So just one song being worked on at a time.)
• No ideas from before the chosen day! This means covers or reinterpretations are not allowed.
• No out-takes! If you start a song, finish it and put it on the album.

( from http://crapart.spacebar.org/aad/ )

Take care,
Clif

The Rondo Brothers remix is ready and posted. I'm really happy with the way it turned out, especially the guitar solo. Check it out here.

I'm in it. :)

I have my own office with a door, so I can shut out the noise and reduce disturbances. I usually have music playing as well. Dual monitors is a must, as is a generally ergonomic setting, since I spend most of my day at the computer.

I played guitar for a couple of hours tonight and it felt great. I failed to pick up my guitar for the better part of the year for many reasons, but it's great to be playing and producing again.

I'm working on the guitar parts for a remix of the Rondo Brothers' song "Crazed." The deadline is Thursday, so hopefully I'll have it posted soon and can provide a link. I really dig the vocal melodies in this song and finally stumbled onto a cool vamp for the verses. I'm pretty sure the guitar will double the vocals in the chorus (I just love that deep rich sound of 2 instruments in unison). And I've been noodling over the changes for days, so I feel confident the solo will come together.

Stay tuned! :)

Practicing:

• November 2007 Guitar Techniques - Play Faster Now Ex. 1 and 2 (p. 18)

Goals for this week:

• Finish the Rondo Brothers Remix and start one for the Information Society's song "Baby Just Wants."
• Get a handle on the first 5 or so exercises of Play Faster Now and Phil Hilborne's One-Minute Lick from the same issue.
  
• Take a shot at knocking out an AAD this weekend.
  

My current one... my wife and I met in May of '98 and have been married for just over 9 years... and going strong. :)