Kind Winters: The Games and the Dam

A little random Tuesday night update. Very unlike me to write words on a Tuesday night. Normally I'm locked in the tower on Tuesdays clipping spider webs and listening to Klipso hum through the castle. But so much is going on that I want to keep with the plan and put it into words... i think that matters. Thing about plans is, they change, so having a written journal week to week I find... well, it's like keeping your hand on the rudder. Steady she goes.

New Music: I've been busy tracking "Long is the Road” and it's coming out rather nicely. I probably will have some video clips with some music samples coming soon... like I did with Rivers End. I don't have much more to report other than Lord Ramsey sending me a few more tracks on the new music front. I've been whistling to some of that material while I work... there might be a song in there called "Day of the Witch" and "The Haunting", but who really knows... until I power up the microphone and scream a few syllables, I never really know. I'm hard at work manning the flood gates of new ideas... waiting for miracles on the wind with bloody knuckles and a tireless grasp at the ready. I'm a guitarist this week and probably next as I search for all the delicate threads and puzzle pieces on long is the road. Fitting title for the last push to complete this body of art. I'm tired of writing already, so ready for rehearsals. Thursday night we start tracking Bass with Johnny Heinz. Look for updated versions of the tracks for the Hadder record periodically as we go down the list of current songs in the player. I'll add updates to the news page as we go through the process. I should have a proper mix of Rivers End up up on the player soon as well.

The Hadder Novel: I see Master Zabble found Medlins letter... was wondering when that was going to happen. It's quite the little assortment of characters that are brewing in the evermore world. Something tells me that Mattix is a little more than a magic wooden cat... and that perhaps he might play a role in some larger twists and turns in the future. Sneaky little cat he iz... and I wonder why Medlin is so concerned with him "NOT" leaving the Library. hmmm we'll see. I'm sure we'll learn a great deal more once Zabble makes some tea and reads the 8th book on the 4th shelf. Meanwhile Diamonds Hadder is sleeping in the woods... in the future..... he's dreaming, and lord skynn can hear him in his sleep... lord Skynn seems very concerned about what Hadder is dreaming. He seems to be talking to someone or something in his sleep. We'll get to that in the coming months.

On a side note, I will be revamping the field notes page with larger graphic strips... similar to the way they appear in the "News" section when I release them... and how they appear on the front page. I also intend to narrate them myself with little audio clips that you can play... for those people who just want to sit back and listen to them. Maybe I'll add some keyboards to the narrations... we'll see. I'm excited about doing all that... I think it will be fun to listen to them in the way that I hear them.

Other little things: I wont lie, I'm a bit overwhelmed at the moment. The work is all so towering and I feel like I'm on the verge of cracking up. I actually kind of feel like welcoming such a thing into my world. A little crack just to ease the pressure of the dam. A simple reminder that Rome wasn't built in a day is a pleasant thought as I get ready for wildcard weekend. I do enjoy the games. I'm a bit sentimental you know. Somewhere in the Eastern Sierras, under the ice and snow.... in a quiet mountainside lake... there is a coin now... at the bottom of that dear and special place.. it's with the dream now.... guarded by the raven of the dead tree. Better him than a better me could be. I hope the winters are kind. Life imitates art and art imitates life. What a delicate and beautiful dance, huh. Oh yeh, almost forgot, I have a new throne... maybe you'll see it soon. Pretty little ornate sitting thing. I think maybe it found me, although it lets me believe I found it. An old throne holds the memory of it's master forever. I could use a few more ghosts in the tower.

The Stargazer Crew: Saturday is a tracking day for the new cover songs with the Stargazer Crew... with Lord Black and the boys. Will be a very busy and long day of tracking and filming. Perhaps a little photoshoot with Johnny and the Mystery Machine could take place that day, we'll see. A stargazer crew photo for the new releases might be nice as well. hmmm... I like that idea. We'll see.

I suppose that’s all for today… back to work.

-j

The Letter and the War

Field Notes from Diamonds Hadder: On the topic of Medlins Letter to Zabble.

(Soon after discovering Mattix inside of Medlins secret library.)

As Zabble descended the Ladder… and rejoined Skylark the knocking and clicking noise from mattix seemed to follow.. it jumped each shelf of books rather elegantly. Rubbing itself against the book casings and arching it’s back… pacing back and forth. It seemed to know its way around the shelves quite well. Zabble and Skylark couldn’t help but stare in amazement at it. Zabble turned to skylark… “meet Mattix” with a little grin he rubbed her head and turned for the only desk in the room.

As he approached the desk, he noticed a little silver ball laying in a sliver dish of sorts… it looked like metal with strange markings carved into it.. as he walked closer to it… it moved a little as if sensing his presence. He could make out some of the etchings and they appeared to resemble a fire spell of some sort… it didn’t seem to be a menacing code so he decided to reach for the ball. As his hand came closer to the ball it started to hover directly over the disc until it was an inch or so in the air. Zabbles eyes seemed to sparkle as he reached for the ball… being a student and master of the arts, anything related to magic and wonder seemed to turn Zabble into a little child.. as if playing with blocks for the first time. Zabble grinned, understanding what was happening… as though he was unwinding the magic as it was activating… or at least following along with the dance of the spell. Finally, he smiled, turned to skylark, and tapped the ball… and boom… magically all the candles in the library suddenly were lit. Skylark jumped back as it happened. “hmmm… well that’s an elaborate little trick” he whispered under his breath…. Giving a glance to Medlins portrait which hung rather ominously behind the desk… The room was much brighter now and Zabble decided to sit in Medlins Chair a moment. He imagined Medlin sitting there each night… working on things in the wee hours of the night and it gave him a warm feeling. He reached for the orb and tapped it…. And all the candles went out in a poof… skylark jumped again as if the world stopped and she glared at Mattix as though it was all its doing as she prepared herself for an attack… the candles then lit and unlit and lit again… as Zabble chuckled at his desk. Finally, skylark realized what was happening and simply laid down on the floor in a disgruntled sigh. Mattix on the other hand was busy inspecting holes and crevasses in the bookshelves and that was enough entertainment for skylark who let out a groan and grunt every so often as if to say, “Come Down here and play with me”. Zabble noticed a little drawer directly on the front of the desk, it was slightly pulled open with the edge of an envelope barely visible sticking out of the drawer. As he pulled the drawer open… a little dust flew into the air and sparkled like little electric fireflies in the room... and the letter fell into the drawer. It said Zabble on it. Hmmm… he turned a moment to the portrait, paused, and then reached for the letter and opened it.

Dear Zabble,

I see you’ve found my desk. Thank you for being a great student, an inquisitive wizard and my trusted friend. I never imagined I would have a child on this earth as I couldn’t stand the idea of such a messy thing, but you were the closest thing to a son I’ve ever had. I will say at times you made me regret my decisions to avoid such matters of the heart. I thank you for that. What I’m about to share with you is very important. I’ve pondered my own passing for some time… knowing all along that you would become the Keeper some day. I’ve secretly done my best to prepare you for this day. Welcome to the library. In my younger days Zabble, which I don’t speak of often, I was a traveler. A wandering mage…. thirsty for knowledge and hell bent on being the greatest wizard the Bokonian Sekt did ever see. This was long before you were born. On that path and over the hills… I stumbled upon things you wouldn’t believe…… and these things I soon realized needed a place to be remembered… and so I started collecting books and writing a few of my own…… writings gathered from the ends of the earth… soon the pile of knowledge became too large to carry in my sack or keep in my head or to hide in the forest. And so I built Kilwaghter and this hidden library. Most of the secrets of this world are on these shelves now… things you have no idea about. A hidden magic and the story of places and people and things you know nothing about. The task of keeping this story and knowledge safe and perhaps writing a few books of your own.. is in your hands now. Regarding these books… Inside every version of a story there is a single truth. The truth happened. Inside every word, is a code that defines the letter and that is connected to an action in the natural world. This secret room holds the world together, for without the words that are on these pages the world itself could be lost. Regardless of all that, we are the keepers of this word… and there are some things, some words, that must find you so that you might make a difference when the time comes.

Zabble, listen closely my friend, there is a greater war at play… even in a time a peace it is happening… in secret places and quiet corners of the earth, there is a balance of life itself that is ongoing, a war like no other… a forever war… not led by men but by unseen forces that control men for unknown reasons…. As simple as it might sound… light and dark are in constant conflict…… it’s a battle each day… our sun is a physical thing that could die… without it, the dark would be forever. We are the light Lord Zabble in some way, we survive because if it… we embody it… everything that is good is born from light… therefore light is life inside Evermore.. and the dark is rooted in evil thoughts and death and the destruction of all things and the end. Its relentless. Knowledge is the key Master Zabble.. knowledge is our ally... consider this, we can place rocks along a doomed riverbank to change its direction and keep it flowing but understanding the river and it’s reasons and it’s rhymes are needed to help you place those rocks in time. Therefore, the word is sacred... a sharpening stone for an otherwise dull and useless axe. I’m sure this all seems a bit confusing and overwhelming as it did to me so long ago… perhaps I placed a few rocks in the river myself many years ago…… perhaps Johnn Hadder defeated the king single handedly or perhaps he was aided mysteriously by unseen forces… hmmm.. you have a lot of reading to do. I’ll help if I can when I can if the time comes for such a thing. For now…. On the 4th shelf… the 08th book from left to right… is where you must begin. The winter moons are close. Remember your promise to me.

Never stop learning Master Zabble, or worse yet, thinking there is nothing left to learn. I trust you’ll do the right thing. Please keep my portraits clean.. and hanging.. an give skylark a hug for me. And don’t let Mattix out of the Library, he doesn’t get along with other small cats.

I’ll be watching.

Master Medlin

Zabble sat quiet a moment… just the flickering candles could be heard in the room and a slight snore from Skylark who seemed to have passed out while Zabble was reading. His eyes moved through the room to the 4th shelf. “hmmm… he muttered under his breath… I really should make some tea.”

#diamondshadder #fieldnotes #mattix #zabble #theletter #skylark #408 #thewar

A world surrounded by pens.

A first little update of 2022 as I’ve been warming the lower tower and moving things around again.

New Music: I’m in the process of tracking “Long is the Road”, hey what do you know… a shorter song. I’m enjoying that notion. I hope that translates into the track being completed in a few weeks. I still have snowy mountains in my brain… but last night I blew the dust of the board and connected myself to the digital spike. I’m alive again. “Rivers End” will get a mixing day coming up here this January, I’ll probably do it during a rest day from new tracking’s. A mix generally takes about 5 hours or so… depending on the song. Looking forward to adding that track to the player. I’m super excited about the “River End” graphic of me on the boat riding into the falls with the ravens overhead… it’s a great representation of the lyric and how I feel at times… that graphic has been in my head for years. Other than that, a few days work on “The Crying Game” and ‘Dead Rabbit” and I should be able to sit back and listen to the first rough draft of Record #1. Wish me luck. I’ll post lyrics to “Long is the Road” in the coming days. Very cool track.

The Hadder Novel: I’m writing the next field note, I won’t give away the title just yet… but Zabble and Skylark are still in the newly discovered “Master Medlins” secret library… now that the mysterious knocking noise has been all sorted out, Zabble is sure to discover a few new clues as to why medlin was hiding all these secrets. Meanwhile, in the not too distant future, Diamonds Hadder and Lord Skynn are still on route the Gates of Europa and Diamonds first meeting with his mother. I decided that I had a few things that needed to be told before I returned to that part of the story, but I’m almost there. A few little books and coins and waterfall tales to go before I return to Europa and the people in Hadders dreams.

Other little things: My ideas were always so much grander than simple notions… always larger than what I could create… I’ve always felt like I was composing something so much larger than what other people could see or cared to see…. For that reason I never felt a need to try to explain it….. I just went ahead and proceeded to do what I could and hoped I would get a chance to complete the visions before I lost control of the ship..… I wasn’t upset about that, I’ve just always seen things in odd storyteller ways… and didn’t expect others to understand things that they didn’t need to understand… being a singer was something but it wasn’t the end all for me, it was just an incredible tool, brush or color on the palate..… the words I wrote always had other thing attached to them, visions, places, people, it was never just a song to me. Vocals were simply a string running through a dense landscape of paper dolls and puppet hands. There was always so much more to the delicate fabrics I was crafting than a simple string. Perhaps it was a curse that I couldn’t simply sing a song and be done with it… or perhaps it was a blessing…I suppose time will tell. Regarding words and stories… I’ve written many songs that seem like Novels and I’ve written conceptual records before… but this is my first attempt at a complete novel… the task is a bit daunting. I’m noticing that when the ideas come you really must stop and listen and make note of them instantly, otherwise they simply move on. More come of course, but best to grab each one quickly… they are all so important. I suppose this is true for all things in life, all dreams are ideas on the wind… and weather or not you carry a pen with you, well, that’s your call my friend. I live in a word surrounded by pens and I’ve methodically placed them everywhere that I roam. Look around you… what do you see?

The Stargazer Crew: As I stated last year, the stargazer crew was scheduled to record some new “Classic” cover songs, similar to our Stargazer cover. Studio time was pushed back till this year and now I’ve received word that Jan 15th is the new tracking day in LA. From what I understand we will be tracking ‘Headless Cross” and ‘Rainbow in the Dark”… and we’ll prob shoot videos for them as well. I’m hoping we can get Johnny Heinz on the tracks as well, but we’ll see.. I’m not really sure if someone else is slotted to do the bass tracks. I’ll be filming a lot of the process and releasing little clips along the way, so that should be a lot of fun and a nice little side project as I put the icing on the Hadder record and live show and start rehearsals here in the early part of 2022.

I suppose that’s all for today… I’m still feeling the effects of mountain withdrawals.. have a great first week of 2022. What a great year this could be, bring a pen.

-j