Good morning Dreamwalkers Family and Friends,

The band rehearsed Monday evening, and I'm going to quote Debbie Stern, "Everyone is coming in to their own with creative ideas and what’s great is that we are all willing to listen to each other without attitudes.. that is true respect!" I agree with that sentiment. 

I wrote a song years ago about three concerts that changed my life. The song is called Music Is The Ride, and has the hook, "Life is an amusement park, Music is the Ride. I took my son, Dan, then 12 years old, to see his first concert, Bruce Springsteen in 2009. His exclamation, "I'M SO GLAD WE'RE HERE," and THIS IS AN AMUSEMENT PARK WHERE MUSIC IS THE RIDE." reminded me of two concerts that changed my life, The Beatles at Shea Stadium in Queens, and The Who at Fillmore East in New York City. The Springsteen concert in Tampa, brought me back to how great live music could be and how it is transformational in nature, at least for me. I wrote most of the song when we got back, and recorded at demo (thank you Wolfgang Kohler). I reworked the song years later, from the perspective of the child thinking back to his first concert and his father's love for the guitar and music, and added the final verse about returning home, changed forever. 

Yesterday, I presented the song to the band, and they surfed the 'Bo Diddley' style riff like they had been playing it forever. Tony Sheppard was a wonder, playing rock and roll leads in th style of Jimmy Page, but with his own fantastic twists on the sound. Dave Ross got the bass line right away, Debbie Stern took the harmonies, and our heartbeat, Daniel Polyak got the beat as if he wrote the song. I was enthralled. We are going to add it to our setlist and it will be on the album. It's the kind of magic rock and roll can provide, after all, "Life is an amusement park, Music is the Riiiiiiiiiiide."

Peace,

Dr Dreamwalker

This is a photo taken at the Springsteen concert. Dan was 12 and I looked a bit different myself. We both were wearing Rickenbacker t-shirts.