"I have left some small footprints in the snow above BOK, there they will lay frozen till the spring, if you find them… tread softly for they are deep and heavy holes… but thawing each day in the evening sun… like a cold and bitter heart."
-William Shakespear
Image Info: An image I took wearing Medlins Cloak while collecting rocks for an empty castle.
It’s Friday in Late October. I’ll be carving something up very soon but first I’m tracking a storm over BOK. The white stuff. Nothing would please me more than to stay cozy in my lower tower and continue down the rivers end, but I have a very important meeting with some very old friends in the hills that can not wait.
A few little updates:
The Novel. It was nice to put up a few pages this week… Klipso and Europa certainly came to life from a highway thought to a reality of sorts. So many ideas came from my recent pilgrimage. I connected a lot of dots for the novel during my time in the white forest. Soon you’ll hear about Master Medlin Kilwaughter and his Face Shifting Cloak, a rather genius piece of hardware, that may or may not come in handy for Mr Hadder. I'll say May. We’ll see what my time on white mountain will reveal. I’ve added the field notes page now and it's nice to see it all there… it’s taking shape. A story for the ages. I’m actually rather excited myself to see what happens next. A good sign that your answering the call, I find anyway.
Stargazer Music Video: The Music Video is now on the front page. It’s unlisted for now, but I’ll be working with a promotional company to give it some wings, so to say, in the coming weeks and months… to me personally it's just a tiny puzzle piece in a much bigger picture and goal that I see coming into focus... I don't have much expectation attached to the release of it... especially in this world of fake everything... I'm a realist, you don't plunge into the work on a cover song to arguably one of the best obscurely cult classic 9 minute heavy metal songs in 2021 without having realistic expectations.... and without doing it for reasons far beyond expectations.. once the art is done I tend to move on to new art... for now a simple doorway to it is on the Hadder front page. It might change a little in time… but it’s alive and free now for the eyes of the world. A pointy needle in a new England farm yard haystack with a single doorway to it for now. Back to the pile of odd puzzle pieces I go.
Music: I’m yet to get a vocal session in for “Hell Fall” since my return from the white forest. I’m guessing just one or 2 vocal days should close that track out as it’s like 90% complete. I’ll post it as soon as it’s done. The stargazer took a bit longer than I anticipated due to some electrical storms in the city. "Rivers End" is now in full recording mode, all vocals and keys and harmonies are completed, just writing the music now… which tends to happen quickly once I sit with my fender. If I could guess I would say 3 weeks based on what I learned from City Of Fire.… yeh, that sounds good all things considered. And of course, I’ll be releasing things on my way down that river. Lord skinny, you’ll like that one. The Rock king is waiting till one of these two tracks is completed. That’s enough work to keep me busy till turkey day. Zabble is planning a big gathering this year. How fun.
Website: It’s not final yet, but I’m seriously considering keeping all things Hadder related only on www.diamondshadder.com, rather than putting things on this site and that site and here and there…. It seems like building floors and rafters on my own foundation just makes way more sense to me, rather than spending fruitless time directing people to other places. After all, it’s not hard to find me if you’re really looking. We’ll see how that starts taking shape in the coming months. I’m still thinking about how that will play out. Lastly, the new search function is working quite well on the website. Try it out… amazing how that works. My dear Mrs Soundcloud was first on my list to be deleted... it felt really good to do that last night. My music feels home now... and my home is here.
Finally, it’s great to be back and it’s nice to see my dreams becoming a reality. A justice league gathering of sorts is just on the horizon now, with a complete list of characters all tapping on the wooden doorway as of late to a dream beyond a dream. Room #408. That’s the number on the door, I saw it 5 years ago in a dream, thanks… Mr evermore. Now I know. Happy holidays to all and to all a good October night.
-j
I just thought I would share the lyrics to Rivers End today, a new song which is up on the board this late October and should be released in the coming weeks along with a carved pumpkin or two. I often have visions of a waterway... and a boat... and so it comes through in various forms of art that I create. There were a lot of puzzles to solve in this poem and I recall a few major breakthroughs, both on the word side of things and the vocal tracking side of things. Sometimes it looks like things come together quickly, but really some things are years in the making and I carry those images and memories with me... so is a dream... I wish you all could see what I see when I hear this but maybe you can draw your own images as it goes by and imagine your own boat and destination in time. Maybe it will inspire you to draw the picture of your dreams on whatever canvas you like. That's all I really hope for, as I was inspired myself to do such things so long ago.. to paint.. and to sail my own ship.
I don't expect to see a completed version of this before the "Hell Fall" track is done and released, but it's up on the board and I've already started writing guitars to it while sitting by the fire. One more update tomorrow before I take a short leave for some white mountain adventures where I hope to shoot some video and talk to some old friends. Sail away.
Video Info: Some vocals and keys from the opening sequence of "Rivers End" played along to some random video footage I liked. The beginning was intended to have guitars playing the musical movement under the vocals but I did some piano a few nights ago and kind of liked the idea... we'll see how it plays out once the heavy stuff is done. I've written some guitars to this passage as well, but who knows, time will tell.
Did you find a touch of heaven out beyond the silver line?
Is it really what you dreamed of?
or was it only in your mind?
Did you hide away from glory?
Just because you need a friend.
Do you believe there’s something magic… in the end?
It’s hard to believe we’re forever
It’s sad think you know it all
what a shame we play the game at all
oh somewhere past the end it all begins again
Go see the man..
At the rivers end
On a slave ship, sailing off the edge
Cast away as if, you’ll soon forget
But it’s a long way, past the tree that marks the final turn
Oh what a mystery this is
without an answer to the call
Another lie without a why
Are we really here at all
Make it worth the fear!
Oh what a tale they tell us all
As we ride blindly into the falls
I know it’s hard to believe we’re forever
It’s sad to think you know it all
it’s a gift we play the game at all
Oh somewhere past the end it all begins again
Go when you can…
DOWN!!!!
Dive Dive Dive
Into the holy waters
Run Run Run
As fast as you can.. away from here
Maybe you’ve seen the end of the stream.. and heard the voices in the falls
And met the witch at the only mountain rising up from it all
Oh somewhere down at the rivers end
I can show you where it all began
Oh down at the rivers end!!!
Down!
Dive Dive Dive
Just leave it behind
Ride Ride Ride
The wind to the falls
Maybe you’ve seen the end of the stream.. and heard the voices in the falls
And met the witch at the only mountain rising up from it all
Oh somewhere down at the rivers end
I can show you where it all began
Oh down at the rivers end!!!
-evermore
