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Posts Tagged ‘Bob Dylan’

Other Cool Birds

Posted in Biographical, Music, Neat Stuff, tagged , , , , , , , , on March 2, 2014| 6 Comments »

GC Myers- The Mind Ponders“If you were born without wings, do nothing to prevent them from growing.”

– Coco Chanel

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There is a new website, Other Cool Birds, out there in the inter-tubes that has all forms of artwork– visual, musical, performance and literary–that features a bird as its central theme.  It is a unique labor of love from multi-talented writer Lafayette Wattles, who also maintains an eponymous and entertaining website devoted to his own writings.  There is also a character always hovering around Lafayette named Dave DeGolyer who I first came in contact with a year or two back when he interviewed me for another website.  Lafayette took parts of my interview and has put it to good use as he has graciously selected me to be the first Featured Artist on the Other Cool Birds site, an honor for which I am highly appreciative.

I urge you to visit this site and the Lafayette Wattles site.  Both are entertaining and informative, plus if you are (or aren’t) an artist, writer, photographer, dancer or musician of any sort, Lafayette is always looking for another cool bird to include in his gallery.  Let your wings show!

I’ve gotten accustomed to having some music on Sunday mornings so here’s one of my favorites from the bluegrass kings, Flatt & Scruggs.  I just finished watching the film  Bonnie and Clyde after waking way too early and the strains of their Foggy Mountain Breakdown had me digging for a version of a Bob Dylan song they covered years ago, Down In the Flood.     I probably have a soft spot for Flatt & Scruggs because of their appearances on The Beverly Hillbillies but this is a great version and shows off the versatility and willingness to venture outside their own neighborhood.

Hey, have a great Sunday!

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Iconic Moment/ Everything is Broken

Posted in Music, Recent Paintings, tagged , on September 7, 2013| Leave a Comment »

GC Myers-Iconic Moment smI am in Alexandria today for my Gallery Talk at the Principle Gallery and to drop off some new work there.  That  includes the piece shown here, Iconic Moment, a 12″ by 24″ piece with copper leaf on masonite.  I thought I’d have a little road music here today.  It’s a great version of Bob Dylan‘s Everything is Broken by bluesman RL Burnside.  Great rhythm for the road.

Have a great Saturday and if you’re in the Alexandria area stop in and say hello.

 

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Hey Joe

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , on July 15, 2012| 4 Comments »

Early Sunday morning.  The West End Gallery show is delivered and with the studio feeling almost empty now, I take a small breath of relief.  Outside, it’s dark and shadowy as a soft rain falls, bringing the parched earth that same breath of relief.  Kind of a hazy, unfocused morning.  I think I’ll take this time to relax just a bit before plunging back into the  new work that waits for me.

For a gray morning, here’s a song, Hey Joe,  that is best known for the version done by the inimitable Jimi Hendrix.  I thought I would try to take the morning in a brighter direction so I’ll show it as done in a more upbeat  bluegrassy fashion by Tim O’Brien.  He has a way of  giving songs a different twist that I find appealing.  His version of Bob Dylan’s  Subterranean Homesick Blues is a great example with it’s mandolin and hambone handslaps.  On Hey Joe, O’Brien is joined by Jerry Douglas, the  master of the dobro.  Together, they make a dark song seem less ominous.

Good way to start a dark Sunday.

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Thinking of Levon

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , , , , , on April 18, 2012| 5 Comments »

It was announced yesterday that Levon Helm in is the “final stages” of the battle he has waged with throat cancer since 1996. Levon is best known as the drummer/vocalist for the legendary group that started in the eary 60’s as the backing band, The Hawks, for early rockabilly star Ronnie Hawkins and later came to fame as The Band behind Bob Dylan as he made the sometimes rocky transition from folk to rock.  On their own, The Band had a number of songs that have become classics over the years– The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down, Up On Cripple Creek, The Weight, The Shape I’m In and so on.  Levon , guitarist Robbie Robertson  and organist Garth Hudson are the only remaining living  members of  The Band.

Levon Helm has also been acclaimed as an actor, best known for playing the father of Loretta Lynn in the movie Coal Miner’s Daughter.  His coal miner portrayal in the film had a dead-eyed authenticity that , for me, really made the entire movie seem alive.  It’s the same authenticity that he seems to bring to everything.  I always feel like I’m seeing the real person when I see Levon Helm, even when he’s a character in a film.

The Band-- Levon is 2nd from left.

His life after The Band has had ups and downs.  Following his initial battle with cancer, he found himself in dire financial straits with the weight of huge medical bills pulling him down.  He started hosting a series of concerts, called Midnight Rambles,  at his home/studio in Woodstock, NY in order to raise money to pay his bills.  Because of the damage done to his throat he relied on a series of high profile guests to sing until his voice was strong enough to begin to sing once more, which was several years later in 2004.  This series of concerts revitalized his career and led to his last three albums, Dirt Farmer, Electric Dirt and  Ramble at the Ryman, a live set recorded at the legendary Ryman Auditorium in Nashville.  Both Electric Dirt and Ramble at the Ryman won Grammy Awards in the Americana category.

As I said above, I always had the feeling that what you saw with Levon Helm was what you got. Natural, without artifice.  This world is going to miss the loss of  a real person, maybe the highest compliment of which I can conceive.  Good travels, Levon.

  Here’s one of my favorites from The Band, The Weight, shot in 1970 during the fabled Festival Express.

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Tangled Up In Blue

Posted in Favorite Things, Music, Painting, Recent Paintings, Technique/History, Video, tagged , on January 14, 2012| 2 Comments »

I’ve been pretty busy in the studio lately.  That’s not unusual at this point of the year because it is when I’m gearing up for upcoming exhibitions but  in past years  this is when I have often  felt a bit blocked and far removed from the point where I wanted my work to be .   But thus far this year, things have been flowing easily and I feel as though I am near that sometimes elusive groove where the act of painting becomes more  instinctual than cerebral.  When I feel myself in this groove, I start to trust these instincts, this pushing back of conscious decision making.  As a result, there’s no dwelling over decisions at the table or the easel.  I just make the mark and move on from there.

And each piece brings an inspiration and desire for the next painting with ideas gushing forward.  I often find myself making quick little sketches on scraps of paper, little rough stick drawings really.  Just enough of the thought to be able to rekindle the idea later.  Often, I don’t make the sketch and the idea floats away and is sometimes fortuitously recalled at a much later date or is gone forever.  I sometimes think my best thoughts have taken this fleeting route.

The piece shown here is from this recent burst, a smallish canvas, only 6″ by 18″ that I call Tangled Up In Blue.  The title is, of course, taken from the old Bob Dylan song.  This is a simple composition, very typical of much of my work, but it’s carried strongly forward by it’s colors and contrasts.  It has a dramatic edge to it.  I think the red of the mound really highlights this feeling of high emotion.  I try to envision it in other, more natural colors and the result is less potent, more understated.  This feels to me like the tangled trees are two lovers springing from the same red bleeding heart.  The intensity of the red mound and the trees is a sharp contrast to the cooler blues of the water and sky, even though they still have their own intensity.

But the piece is probably brought to completion by the break of pale yellow in the sky, the light that comes through creating chasms in the blue night wall.  This break sets off all the other color and creates a sense of moment in this small, simple piece.  The result is that the result is greater than the sum of its parts.

Or at least I think so.

Here’s a little music.  I bet you thought it would be Tangled Up In Blue.  It was going to be but I came across this version of  a different Dylan song, Love Sick.  I really like this film and performance of a song that has been a favorite since it first came out in 1997 and decided to share it instead.  Enjoy.

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A Little Nickel

Posted in Video, tagged , on January 27, 2011| 2 Comments »

I am running way behind this morning, the internal stopwatch with which I compete with myself  having not started on time .  Having no one to answer to in the studio but myself,  I can do what I do on my own time schedule but I have always been a stickler for trying to get as much done as possible early in the day so that when my natural indolence sets in I will have at least accomplished a few things for the day. 

So, today I need a kick of energy, something to rev the engine.  I think this might be a good morning to feature some upbeat music from the progressive bluegrass trio Nickel Creek featuring Chris Thile, the wunderkind on mandolin.  This is a rousing version of The Fox that has a jam band feel and there’s a nice little piece of Dylan’s Subterranean Homesick Blues thrown in as well.

Enjoy and have a great day!

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Thunder on the Mountain

Posted in Technique/History, Video, tagged on February 20, 2010| Leave a Comment »

It’s a Saturday morning and I feel like I’m starting slowly to reach a rhythm with my recent painting where it’s just coming easily, not feeling forced.  This rhythm, this feeling lets me know I’m going in a direction that is desirable to me.  It’s a feeling that, like many things, that is hard to put in definable or measurable terms. 

It’s just a feeling.

For me, when the everpresent knot in my stomach fades away as I’m working I know I’m in the vicinity.  It used to bother me when the knot would return and I seemed a bit out of rhythm in my work, as though it might never return.  But through the years I have come to know that by simply pushing forward, working hard to the point that all the extraneous distractions melt away, this rhythm will return.  In fact, it never leaves.  It just gets pushed aside at times.

Anyway, let’s have a little music on this fine Saturday.  Here’s Bob Dylan’s Thunder on the Mountain.  Enjoy…

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Must Be Santa

Posted in Favorite Things, Neat Stuff, Video, tagged , on December 22, 2009| Leave a Comment »

Just a few days before Christmas and I can’t get a particular Christmas song out of my head.  Infectious.

It’s Must Be Santa and it’s from Bob Dylan.

Yep, Bob Dylan.

He has a new CD of Christmas songs, all done in his own way.  Some are old chestnuts that work better than others but the one that shines for me is Must be Santa.  It’s a fast polka with a klezmer feel complete with accordions.  Lots of fun.

My new favorite Christmas song.

And Bob dances in the video.

What more can one ask for Christmas?

Enjoy!

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Vade Mecum

Posted in Recent Paintings, Video, tagged , , , on June 6, 2009| Leave a Comment »

Vade MecumWell, it’s Saturday and I’m on the road to Virginia, Alexandria specifically, to deliver the body of work for my show that opens next Friday, June 12th.  It’s a trip I don’t mind making since it marks the end of a hectic period where there just doesn’t seem to be enough time to get everything done.  

My trip is relatively easy, as easy as any  day with ten or eleven hours of driving can be.  Traffic is usually very light on Saturday mornings, especially in the early hours in which prefer to leave, so it gives me a chance to just glide along and let my mind wander a bit.  

One piece that will be keeping me company on my ride is above, called Vade Mecum, which translates from the Latin as “Go with me” and is usually meant today as a reference manual or something that is carried to instruct one.  I liked either definition and felt that both the literal translation and the object that is carried with you fit this piece.  I really like the depth that goes into this picture and get the feeling that it speaks of a journey and those intangibles which we carry with us as we travel along.  Thus, vade mecum…

I’m gonna leave you with some classic Bob Dylan that was one of my favorite singles as a little kid growing up.  Thank god for my sister and the influence her musical choices had on a 7 or 8 old year kid.  I feel so fortunate that I was weaned on this kind of stuff and feel a little bad for today’s kids and the inane kid music that is everywhere– the Wiggles and such.  They may never know what they’re missing.  Anyway, here’s “Positively 4th Street”…

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Paradise

Posted in Favorite Things, Video, tagged , , , on April 17, 2009| Leave a Comment »

Total FreedomI came across a snippet of an interview with Bob Dylan where he was asked about his favorite songwriters.  It was a short list with some interesting choices that might surprise some.  He mentioned the late Warren Zevon and Jimmy Buffett, two artists who were more or less pigeon-holed by the success of their best known hits.  For Zevon it was Werewolves of London and for Buffett, Margaritaville.  But when you look deeper into their work you find a treasure chest of beautifully written, poignant songs.  For instance, in the years before he became a caricature as the leader of the parrotheads (and vastly wealthy as a result) Buffett wrote several powerful albums.  Living and Dying in 3/4 Time is a beautiful album.  

But he also mentioned John Prine.  

I don’t know how well known he is among the general public but for me he has been a giant for about 35 years, writing simple songs that mix wit, wisdom and raw emotions.  His wordplay is wonderful and his melodies have deep hooks that instantly catch in my head.  His first album, John Prine, is packed with classics.  Angel From Montgomery, Sam Stone, Donald and Lydia, Six O’Clock News, Spanish Pipedream and on and on.  But my favorite is Paradise, a song wistfully recalling a young boy going with his parents to visit relatives in western Kentucky.

It brought to mind how the idea of paradise changes as we grow older, hopefully gaining wisdom.  When we’re young paradise is defined by place.  Where to find paradise.  For some, it might be a beach in the sun or a mountain in the snow.  For others, it’s being in the midst of a big city with everything at their fingertips.  We run to these places hoping to find what we define as a paradise.

But as we grow, we come to realize that paradise is not place.  You can be in the perfect place and still not be happy or fulfilled.  Paradise is an inside thing.  You have to find it in yourself to really find it.  Much like the kid in the Prine song.  Doing simple things in less than glamorous environments but feeling happy, safe and secure.  Kids can find paradise everywhere.

Anyway, I wanted to show this song.  There are other versions out there but I like this one from many years ago.  A much younger John Prine sings from his backyard.  Enjoy the paradise…

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