 Tracklist: 1. Secret Words 2. The Knockdown 3. King Of Fools 4. Fooling 5. Lowdown 6. Already Gone 7. Highway Signs 8. I Will Show You Mine 9. Shimmer 10. Oh Paige I found a large box of unmarked cassettes going back quite a few years. When I began listening to them, I found a number of finished products – songs that for some reason I has failed to put on records – I got a machine to transfer the cassettes to CDs and I transferred CDs to my machine at my studio and mastered them. When finished I had a 10 song record What is a Lodestone? A Lodestone is a natural magnet, containing 'magnetite', and lodestones were held in great regard in the ancient world and used as magical amulets. The ancient Chinese invented the compass using Lodestones, by chipping off a small off piece to float on the surface tension of water, thereby freeing it to align itself with the magnetic North and South Poles of the Earth. Lodestones -- chunks of naturally magnetic iron ore -- are prized in folk-magic for their "drawing" power. They are a vital ingredient in African-American hoodoo practice, and that has in turn influenced Latin American "budu" magic, in which they are known as "piedra iman." One of my records was dedicated to "The Lodestone" ( Field of Fire), as Lodestones have a special meaning for me. According to certain esoteric concepts, a man who possesses a lodestone obtains an extraordinarily powerful freedom from many constraining laws. Since the possession of the lodestone guarantees a man perfect knowledge of direction, he can do exactly as he likes and has become his own law – his own book. He may look crazy or mad or break all the laws which a given society has placed as moral and ethical restraints, because a man in possession of the lodestone has direct access to his own conscience and lives in full consciousness of his actions. So I have called this collection of songs "LODESTONES – Nuggets from the Vault", as each song represents a a certain degree of freedom. Writing a song involves both craft and grace – a song cannot come into being without the visitation of insight – which the material world resists. Then a man has to conquer the apathy and inertia of the material world in order to record his inspiration so that it can manifest on this lower level. Otherwise, the creative urge remains in the realm of daydream. Bringing an artistic or musical vision to fruition is work, requires both freedom of action as well as concerted effort. Without a lodestone secreted in his possession, a man can easily lose his bearings and become irretrievably lost. This then, is the secret of the lodestone. |
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