from LIGHTFALL: POEMS

Bluets below

Broadwings above

The journey flowing

southeast with wind in spruce

and coltsfoot open

mud-flecked gold

my prayer flag.

-Kevin Macneil Brown

from LIGHTFALL: POEMS:

http://www.amazon.com/Lightfall-poems-Kevin-Macneil-Brown/dp/1483981436/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1366542286&sr=8-1&keywords=LIGHTFALL+POEMS

Mountains, Sky, Water; Early Spring.

                
Mountains, Sky, Water--Early Spring-   Painting by Kevin Macneil Brown,
                   watercolor on paper, 2013.

Here is my first painting for this spring. My thoughts and energies have been spending a lot of time in the season's marge--contrast, color, shadow, light.

Sonic Tenebrae

     
   Photograph by  kmb.

Secret Shadowed Geographies of the Triple-neck Steel Guitar.

February has been a good month for exploring the joys of playing triple-neck steel guitar, using all three necks-- in C6, A6, and E13 tunings.
The two pieces here could not be further apart in mood and style, yet were made using the same instrument,  recorded only days apart.
I have found it exciting to feel the harmonic possibilites of all three necks-- extended chords and lovely dissonances.
This first piece is an improvisation recorded in one pass, and then mixed and sound-smeared right away, to keep a unity of mood and intent:

This next is a straight-forward tribute to my favorite western swing steel player, Noel Boggs, who played with Bob Wills, Space Cooley, and others in the 40s and 50s: As you can hear, the steel guitar has many sounds and moods to express! -KMB

Black River, White Pines, Winter 1974 : Improv. for Dobro and Nashville-tuned guitar.

This early-morning improv. for Dobro and Nashville-tuned acoustic guitar was made in one take. It stirred up the memory of a certain time and place, the story and mood that was there...

And then we were awake...

 

And then we were awake in a world that was, if not new, certainly noticeably changed.

We began to notice the elegant symmetries of shapes and shadows in the motions of water, sky, and landforms. We heard all around us, as the sky filled, the music of migration, its massive vibration.

 In our hearts we began to know just how everything pulsed in waves of delight-- crest and trough, crest and trough; That every locus of change was pure opportunity:  for reflection, communion, renewal, and light.

                                                                -Kevin Macneil Brown

 

My Last Song for 2012

Started this in August, finished it today. Voice, guitar, dobro-- my last song for 2012.

-KMB