Rock List

 I am doing some serious thinking about a visit to the music store. I know that many of the songs that I am now playing would sound so much better if I were in a band and playing on an electric guitar versus the acoustic/electric that I now have.

I am trying to organize a catalog for the ROCK tunes that I am playing, and a catalog for the COUNTRY tunes that I am now playing. Admittedly, I don't have them all down pat, but getting close.

Here is my partial ROCK LIST:

#    Song Title    Artist
1    After the Thrill is Gone    Eagles
2    And I Love Her    Beatles
3    As Tears Go By    Rolling Stones
4    Brown Eyed Girl    Van Morrison
5    Bye Bye  Love    Everly Brothers
6    Come Monday    Jimmy Buffet
7    Domino    Van Morrison
8    Down on the Corner    CCR
9    End of the Line    Traveling Wilburys
10    Forever Young    Rod Stewart
11    Full Force Gale    Van Morrison
12    Get Together    Youngbloods
13    Handle With Care    Traveling Wilburys
14    Have You Ever Seen the Rain    CCR
15    Headed for a Fall    Firefall
16    If You Could Read My Mind    Gordon Lightfoot
17    In My Life    Beatles
18    It Ain’t Me Babe  
19    Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door    Bob Dylan
20    Lyin’ Eyes    Eagles
21    Margaritaville    Jimmy Buffet
22    More Than I Can Say    Leo Sayer
23    Mother and Child Reunion    Paul Simon
24    No One To Run With    Allman Brothers Band
25    Play With Fire    Rolling Stones
26    Please Don’t Let Me Be Misunderstood    Animals
27    Promises    Eric Clapton
28    Sea of Heartbreak    Johnny Cash
29    Dock of the Bay    Otis Redding
30    Solitary Man    Neil Diamond
31    Some Guys Have All the Luck    Rod Stewart
32    Southern Cross    Crosby, Stills and Nash
33    Summer Wine    Nancy Sinatra
34    Sundown    Gordon Lightfoot
35    Teach Your Children    Crosby, Stills and Nash
36    The Best of My Love    Eagles
37    Try and Love Again    Eagles
38    Young Love    Sonny James
39    Young Turks    Rod Stewart
40    Your Only Lonely    J.D. Souther, Eagles
41    Well, Alright    Buddy Holly
42    When Will I Be Loved    Everly Brothers
43    Wild Night    Van Morrison
44    Blowin’ In The Wind    Bob Dylan
45    Bring It On Home To Me    Animals
46    Garden Party    Ricky Nelson
47    Everyday    Buddy Holly
48    Bad Moon Rising    CCR
49    Who’ll Stop the Rain    CCR
50    Reason To Believe    Rod Stewart
51    Streets of Philadelphia    Bruce Springsteen
52    So Far Away    Dire Straits
53    Lonely People    America
54    Lodi    CCR
55    Lay Lady Lay    Bob Dylan
56    Imagine    John Lennon
57    If I Were A Carpenter    Tim Hardin
58    Homeward Bound    Paul Simon
59    Blue, Blue Day    Don Gibson
60    Love Hurts    Everly Brothers
61    The Sound of Silence    Paul Simon
62    El Condor Pasa (If I Could)    Paul Simon
63    Signs    Electric 5 Man Band
64    Midnight Special    CCR
65    Here Comes the Sun    George Harrison
66    Ramlin’ Man    Allman Brothers Band
67    Ooh La La    Rod Stewart/Faces
68    Simple Man    Lynyrd Skynyrd

Songwriting - How to Practice Writing Melodies

Kick Start My Future

OPINIONS NEEDED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!:

I am not asking you for money. I just need your opinions. I am considering asking for crowd funding that will enable me to start making money (even if it is just a little) from both my music and my photography . I am asking that you please read the following information, and tell me if you think asking for crowd funding in this case is a good idea.

Retirement Sucks!!!

I want out of retirement. It was forced on me almost 3 years ago to begin with. But, I am healthier now than I have been in the last 25 years.

I am a self-taught photographer of some minor successes in event, travel, industrial, and nature photography. But, my primary photographic goal is to produce photographs for my own projects such as e-books, books, calendars, and my web sites. When you visit my blogs you will get an idea of what I want to accomplish.

In retirement I have also become a fair to good (singer, songwriter, guitarist) musician. The only thing that stops me from becoming great is time and a very mistreated body. My fingers do not always cooperate with my mind. But, I do not seek to be a star, only a player. My goals are to travel, photograph, play music as a busker (street entertainer), and pay my way in this world. And, I would not turn down an offer to play a scheduled gig. I cannot do that on my Social Security disability check. It would please me immensely to turn that check over to the Wounded Warriors Project, or other organizations that I would like to help, on a monthly basis.

My Plans.

Travel, photograph, play music, post and sell. I want to turn my personal blogs into commercial projects. I want to take the time to visit the people and places that I had to pass by as a trucker. I want to photograph the people, places and things that I see, and post stories, reviews and articles about them on MadDadKeith, my travel and photography blog. I want to photograph trucks and truckers at work. Trucking was my profession for 35 years. This will be my payback to the profession that I love in spite of all of it’s faults. I want to meet, photograph and tell the stories of the street entertainers that I will search for wherever I go. And, I want to post their stories on Tunesmith Tavern. And, I want to try my hand at busking (street entertainer) as a guitarist/singer.

Repaying Those Who Invest In Me.

I am taking this project one step at a time. If this project is approved helping me get this van will help me Kick Start extended projects in music and photography. Currently, I am asking for small investments that can be “made by you” and “repaid by me” through the simple purchase of my stock photography. Essentially, I am sticking with my lifelong motto: Keep it simple. Keep it fun. Get it done. I am in the process of rebuilding my SmugMug photography website to match the directions of the plans I am describing here. Through crowd funding my first photographic publication will be a calendar of street entertainers from Las Vegas. More info on this calendar will be posted very soon, along with the minimum amount of investment needed to get the calendar. When my web site goes back up you will be able to get immediate repayment by purchasing special offers from my photography site. I will furnish a link to my site where you can “immediately” download different sizes of my photographs for possible personal or commercial use. It will take far more work and time to get e-books and books ready for market.

What I have, and what I need.

I need something similar to a conversion van. I have a 2002 Acura (in good shape) that I will sell ($6,000 or best offer) to help me buy the van ($8,000 to $12,000 minimum) that I need. I can live in a decently equipped van, but not a car. I lived in the sleeper of a truck for 35 years, so I know exactly what I am in for. I do not need a fancy or new van, but it needs to be a mechanically sound van. And, it needs to be equipped with an “Auxiliary Power Unit” to keep me warm or cool without the need to run my van. The APU will also run my electronics for music, computer and photography. I can install the rest of what I want or need, or I can do without it.

I have most of the photo equipment that I would need to do any project that would interest me. Like every other photographer I know of, there is always something I want. But, for now, it is not necessary. I shoot with Nikon equipment.

I have a Fender CD140 accoustic/electric guitar, a Fender Acoustisonic Junior amp, and a Roland Micro Cube buskers amp. If my busking starts making money I would love to purchase a Fender Strat and a Tele, a Gibson Les Paul, and a higher quality acoustic guitar. First I need to find out if people are willing to “tip” me as a busker.

A Typical Road Tour for Me.

I am not soliciting for money to travel on. What I am asking for is help to get the “motel on wheels” transportation that would enable me to keep my expensed down to a minimum. The following would most likely be my first trip.

I would plan to spend about a month at a time on the road with the possible exception of favoring (perhaps) Las Vegas for my busking work, and travel only as a photographer. An typical extended (photographic)  trip would take me north out of Albuquerque, New Mexico, into what is known as Little Switzerland in Southern Colorado.  I would work my way through southern Colorado into Utah visiting and photographing historic and natural landmarks before dropping down into Nevada to photograph Las Vegas, concentrating on street entertainers. Eventually I would wind up busking in Las Vegas. When I leave Las Vegas to return home I would travel back across I-40 with side trips do photography work in the Sedona and Grand Canyon areas.

A side note: I am currently in discussions with a long time friend of mine who lives in Las Vegas. He is shopping to buy a hope there. I am discussing a relocation to Las Vegas to try to build a reputation as a permanent street entertainer in that city. My only hesitation about doing this is the current financial crises this city faces.

And, if this works?

Much will depend on the response to my music. I look on the photography as a source of revenue to look forward to receiving in future sales. Busking, if my music is accepted, will create immediate travel expense money where I can continue to work as a busker and a photographer. What I am hoping is to find that Las Vegas can be my central location. I have lived there before. I do not gamble. It is the energy that the city creates that attracts me. Future road trips would depend on acceptance of my music, photography sales, and my health.

Future trips would include both busking and photography. My photographic specialties would remain travel (including the R.V. lifestyle), event, industrial, and nature photography. All of these specialties would fit well with my travels. My music covers rock and country from the 1950’s through to today’s hits, some songs that I have written, and songs that are primarily enjoyed by people in the trucking industry.  I concentrate on music that sounds good as a solo guitarist/singer.

Why Are You Mad at Your Government

This should anger every Democrat, Republican, Independent, liberal, conservative, and progressive in the United States of America. We need to realize that we are being pitted against each other, citizen against citizen, by our government for the simple purposes of political power and greed. After we repair our broken government it will be easy to repair our economy.

What part of our original Declaration of Independence is applicable to todays Judicial, Legislative, and Executive branches of our government. Below are the points of our Declaration of Independence that carried us into the Revolutionary War. Copy and paste this into your own document. Highlight in red what you know that today's government is doing that the King of Great Britain did to cause enough anger for the colonies to vote. Now, post it on your site, and let others copy, paste, highlight and send to their friends.

I have highlighted in red (it will not show up on Facebook) 10 of the reasons that caused our first revolution. I am sure you feel there are some that I have missed.

 To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.

    He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.

    He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.

    He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.
    He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.
    He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.
    He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected; whereby the Legislative powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.
    He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.
    He has obstructed the Administration of Justice, by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary powers.
    He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.
    He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harrass our people, and eat out their substance.
    He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.
    He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil power.
    He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:
    For Quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:
    For protecting them, by a mock Trial, from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:
    For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:
    For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:
    For depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of Trial by Jury:
    For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences
    For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies:
    For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws, and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:
    For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.
    He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.
    He has plundered our seas, ravaged our Coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.
    He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.
    He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.
    He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages, whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.



Now, do you think the time for a new revolution is at hand?

Femto Photography - Amazing Stuff

 

Imagine a camera that records the speed of light. Imagine a camera that can see around corners. It is here.