December 2, 2022

HS23 - JR Tangled

My time in the band supported a heavy case of wander lust that continues to this day. We played all 50 states, Europe, and more in our 12 years on the road (and another 5+ or so doing fly dates). Suffice it to say that my work, along with a healthy curiosity for things that are foreign to me, has taken me all over the world, and still, there is so much to explore.

I’m now on a 14-hour flight back from a part of the universe I’d never seen before, and I'm reeling from everything I saw. Travel always ignites something for me, usually resulting in a new melody, whether I’m longing for home or grasping a new frontier.  

Most of the time, these travel songs, which I affectionately call my wilderness years songs, are about the people I met along the way. So often it's the taxi driver, the bartender, the stranger who inspire me; I'm drawn to the bare bones of love and joy and pain in the human experience.

I don't know why it works this way. Maybe the theme is that I gotta keep moving. Truthfully, that’s part of what I'm trying to figure out. I can’t tell if I’m a shark or a river, both keep moving. I’d much prefer to be the latter. Because it's never the same river twice, right?

Today’s offering is a tune called "Tangled" circa 1998 that I started in my home studio, then took to McKendree’s in Franklin, and then to NOLA, where I finished the demo with the help of my friend Spider Mike “Nappy” Napolitano at his apartment studio above Check Point Charlie. It’s a departure, I think, considering what we were doing as a band at the time. A river explored.

I’m just grateful there is so much unexplored territory out there waiting for me.

I'll make sure to send back some songs from out there. 

Yours,

JR