RockOm

By Trevor Harden, trevor@RockOm.net

"For we are gathered here to celebrate and explore the music of Winter,
the season of frosts and long dark nights."

So writes Sting in the liner notes to his latest recording, If on a Winter's Night..., a concept album centered on the darkest and most contemplative of the four seasons. What began as a suggestion to create a Christmas album has evolved into a collection of pensive songs - both original and borrowed - that survey that most spiritually reflective time of year.

Sting continues,

"Like all early creatures we seem pre-wired to recognize and respond to the polar archetypes of light and dark, of heat and cold as they are encoded in the rhythm of the days and nights and the perpetual cycle of the seasons."

And while most of Sting's popular work - if not lyrically, at least in tone - has rested more in the realm of light, If on a Winter's Night... plunges into the darkness and stays there for 50 frigid minutes, never budging from its stoic, frosty soundscape.

To get a sense of this album, one has only to look at the cover art: Sting walks alone in a snowy woods, accompanied only by his icy-whiskered companion named Compass. There is a silence that whispers from within the photo, only presumably broken by the sound of crunching snow collapsing beneath rubber soles. And this picture, in its simplicity, sums up the album perfectly, as if the audio from these 15 tracks had coalesced into a single image.  Both Sting and his marketing team have done a fantastic job "setting the stage" for this album, carrying out the concept and vision to its fullest potential: Pictures in the album's liner book include a heavily bearded and deep-eyed Sting, blustery landscapes, sweaters and coats, candle-lit living rooms and musicians in wistful meditation. Wintry words spill out from the pages of Sting's personal commentary such as mentions of "hot mugs of tea," scarves, ghosts and coal fires... he's certainly attempting to paint a picture. And he has, quite successfully.

PARALLEL STORIES

You could go so far as to say that a Winter-themed album that ignores the reality of Christmas would be in error, as the two have become so intertwined in Western culture. As the large portion of Sting's borrowed material stems from British and Scottish sources, it's no surprise that the album begins with a song singing the praises of Mary, the mother of Jesus. In fact the story of the "God-child come to earth" makes repeat appearances on If on a Winter's Night..., appearing also in the recordings of the 15th century German carol "Lo How a Rose E'er Blooming," the touching fable-song "Cherry Tree Carol," and beyond. Despite Sting's self-professed agnosticism, he shares that "the sacred symbolism of the church's art still exerts a powerful influence over [him]."

Don't for a minute believe this is a Christian-centric album, however. Alongside hymns singing the praises of "the root of Jesse" are hints of something more ancient, medieval, folksy, ritualistic, natural and even pagan. In his own words, Sting says that it was "important to draw parallels between the Christian story and the older traditions of the winter solstice."

Spiritually and metaphorically, Winter's Night draws you inward through sonic themes related to winter such as reflectiveness, introspection and stillness. In order to fully "get" this album and its overtly subtle tone, one almost needs to understand Sting's motivation:

"...there is something of the Winter that is primal, mysterious and utterly irreplaceable ... as if we somehow need the darkness of the winter months to replenish our inner spirits as much as we need the light, energy and warmth of summer."

He goes further, acknowledging that Resurrection and light are just around the bend as Winter soon makes way for Spring. In truth they are two sides of the same coin:

"We are reminded that there is light and life at the centre of the darkness that is Winter - or conversely that, no matter how comfortable we feel in the cradle, there is darkness and danger all around us."

THE SONGS

Those longing to hear a new offering supported by Sting's Fender P-bass, electric guitars, synthesizers and a trap set need look elsewhere for herein we experience the folk-inspired sounds of harp, classical guitar, Melodeon, cello, Northumbrian Pipes, and fiddle. Fans of the Sting who penned Brand New Day, Mercury Falling, Ten Summoner's Tales and the majority of the Police's material will have to be remarkably open to other styles of music in order to include this alongside their favorite of his albums. This is not because this latest release is less than his previous offerings, not at all, but rather that it is so extraordinarily different from them. If On a Winter's Night... was released on the Deutsche Grammophon label which is both appropriate and telling, for this collection of songs belongs more suitably alongside your classical CDs (or even his own 2006 album Songs from the Labyrinth) than it does next to your Peter Gabriel or Paul Simon discs.

Sting begins with "Gabriel's Message," singing "Most highly favored lady, Gloria!" over the gentle instrumentation of a nylon-stringed guitar, muted horns and tight vocal harmonies.  From there the album slowly and intentionally bubbles forward like a frozen-over brook, presenting classical and folk pieces including a Celtic begging song, a folk tune from Sting's home of Newcastle, a number from Henry Purcell's King Arthur, a reference to Schubert's Winterreise and more; as well as two original pieces, the beautiful "Lullaby for an Anxious Child" and a new arrangement of the previously recorded "Hounds of Winter."

CONCLUSION

If on a Winter's Night... is almost "application music," or music for the purpose of introspection, mood setting, or direct listening. It most likely shouldn't be considered for enlivening your holiday party with yuletide cheer and may not even be - if I may be so bold - for entertainment. Like most music with depth, it requires a certain conscious presence to fully appreciate and experience, coming to grips with it over time like slowly warming beneath a freshly applied sweater.

There's a mystery in the dark of winter that is both unsettling and strangely comforting, as if everything remains unanswered and yet is perfect as it is; If on a Winter's Night... resides in that mystery. It isn't music for everyone, nor will there be any signature Sting hit singles emerging from it, and yet for those brave enough to look within and meditate on what lies in the heart of darkness, it is a welcome companion to the bleak seasons, both in nature and in the soul.

"If I have a spirituality at all, it's about music. I play and I listen to music as if it really matters to my soul, to my eternal being." [Sting]

Scott Valentine song of the week:

Week 20 - "The Greatest Message of Hope"


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“The story the Leavers have been enacting for the past three million years isn’t a story of conquest and rule. Enacting it doesn’t give them power. Enacting it gives them lives that are satisfying and meaningful to them. This is what you’ll find if you go among them. They’re not seething with discontent and rebellion, not incessantly wrangling over what should be allowed and what forbidden, not forever accusing each other of not living the right way, not living in terror of each other not going crazy because their lives seem empty and pointless, not having to stupefy themselves with drugs to get through the days, not having a new religion every week to give them something to hold on to, not forever searching for something to do or something to believe in that will make lives worth living. And – I repeat – this is not because they live close to nature or have no formal government or because they’re innately noble. This is simply because they’re enacting a story that works well for people – a story that worked well for three million years and that still works well where the Takers haven’t yet managed to stamp it out.” -Daniel Quinn

I first read Ishmael when I was nineteen years old and it changed my life forever. I could not go back to the way I was before I read it – quite simply it gave me a different perspective with which to view life and the world that surrounds it.

I wrote a letter to the author when I was 21 and mailed it to him when I was 22. Two months later he called me at home and invited me to join him in Houston, Texas where he lived with his wife Rennie. Stupefied with surreal delight I accepted his offer and one week later I had said my goodbyes in Victoria, uncertain when, if ever, I might return.

Of course I did return six months later, but the time spent talking with and learning from Daniel were the most formative experience of my life. I consider him one of the greatest minds there is – an extraordinary teacher whose way of seeing the story of the human species is unlike anyone else. When you read his books you feel comforted knowing that, somehow, someone has managed to take that disconcerted feeling in the bottom of your soul that tells you something is inherently wrong with the world in which we live and give it a name, a voice and an explanation for how things came to be this way. No amount of space in this blog post would be sufficient enough to express the experiences that have developed in my lifetime because of this book.

Last week I wrote about hearing the great minds of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr and Malcolm X for the first time in rap music when I was a teenager. It was a pivotal time because my own ideas were just then sprouting and to be nurtured along the way with such different perspectives was vital in shaping for myself an empathetic view of the experiences of others in this life.

With this week's Free Song, “The Greatest Message of Hope”, I laid down some hip-hop inspired beats and samples wanting to include some aspect of all of my musical influences on the Seasons album but I wondered what to do next. I certainly wasn’t in a creative space to throw down some mad rhymes… I thought back on the impact of hearing the inspiring teachers of those difficult times in that medium growing up and wanted desperately to perhaps bring some other great thinkers to light for new generations to consider and enjoy. I wanted to inspire and encourage a shifting paradigm for which mankind is not the enemy of life on earth but rather an educated and growing being, capable of realizing its dreams and aspirations with respect and integrity for this sacred earthly balance.

It is my greatest belief that the future of our kind depends on embracing new ways of viewing our place in this world and that we, particularly in this age of information, are capable of adapting and blossoming towards a greater, more evolved state of consciousness for ourselves. Certainly, in my opinion, a man like Daniel Quinn is helping to shape the ideas of the future and I hope you will seriously consider reading Ishmael and The Story of B for yourselves if you haven’t already so that we can embark on a deeper, more meaningful journey together on this shared path full of rich and inspiring dialogue.

After all, the greatest message of hope is the idea we share that a better day lies ahead.

From Here To There,

Scott Valentine

This song and post are part of Scott Valentine's song a week presentation entitled Seasons. Click here for more information.

Scott Valentine song of the week:

Week 18 - "Satyagraha"


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“In the application of Satyagraha, I discovered, in the earliest stages, that pursuit of Truth did not admit of violence being inflicted on one's opponent, but that he must be weaned from error by patience and sympathy. For, what appears to be truth to the one may appear to be error to the other. And patience means self-suffering. So the doctrine came to mean vindication of Truth, not by infliction of suffering on the opponent but one's own self.”
- Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi

When I was in high-school, my obsession with The Beatles shifted towards a new form of musical expression that was making its first real impressions in white suburbia: rap/hip hop. This genre was much more than a thumping drumbeat with record scratches and lyrical bravado – it was a look into the heart of an experience shared amongst the new youth of America. The struggles of the generation before through segregation and civil rights left a resounding impression on the children who grew up in the world beneath the inspiring words of promise and hope delivered with impassioned power by the heroes of the times. While much had changed since the Jim Crow days of the earlier part of the century, much still remained the same.

Many minority communities continued to struggle; money was scarce while the influx of drugs created a surge of violence that debilitated families and community ties at increasingly alarming rates. The opportunities for the children of this generation to express frustration at the disillusionment of being left out of “The American Dream” were slim to none. The voices of the streets were being drowned out by a rising cacophony of partying baby boomers too busily reaping the benefits of the economic boom times of the 1980’s to heed their inner city concerns. These frustrations gave rise to a poetic swagger, rich with the experience of life on these challenging city streets and full of pointed observations as to the current and future state of the people who lived there. For some it was an expression of that frustration and resentment while for others, it became the lifeline with which they could pull themselves out from the wreckage to be heard above the din – a new voice for a new generation.

It was precisely this aspect of rap music that drew me in so closely. I grew up with very little in the way of real life drama in my secluded little neighbourhood of Langford. As a teenager, I never faced the challenges of discrimination nor witnessed firsthand the effects of drug-obsessed violence. Yet the raw-emotional delivery and poignant lyrical rhythms with their unpredictable twists introduced me to a whole other world of the human experience. I could feel the heartbreak and inspiration behind those voices and I began to trust what it was they were trying to teach me. And they were trying to teach me.

I realize a lot has changed within the rap/hip hop genre since I was younger but so many great teachers still remain along with a new generation of great artists who help carry forth the torch of change, hope and growth. Their voices must continue to be heard for their frustrations and concerns are genuine and the hope that their insights can offer now connects right to the heart of thousands of communities across the world. Without the words of these cultural leaders whose art and politics transcend borders and racial divides, the hope that we can see on the distant horizon would not be possible. Their real-life stories and cultural criticisms helped to encourage young men and women to question the authority of the old regime whilst, at the same time, sought to help them to understand, accept and respect the beauty of their own unique cultural selves. This cultural transformation, much like the one that preceded the times of King and Kennedy, paved the way for a man named Barack Obama to be given the opportunity to accept the nomination of president of The United States of America.

Without such incredibly articulate artists as Chuck D of Public Enemy or KRS-One of Boogie Down Productions, I couldn’t have been given the opportunity to hear the speeches and soak in the words of great men like Martin Luther King, Jr. Without the piercing lyrical maelstrom of albums like Public Enemy's “It Takes A Nation Of Millions To Hold Us Back” or Ice Cube's "AmeriKKKa's Most Wanted" I might not have been introduced to the challenges and struggles being faced by people of different races and without these influences, I might not have developed such an empathetic spirit. I might not have understood the passion that it takes to fight for love and peace and hope. I might not have been given the voice with which to stand up amongst a crowd and express my own frustration and disillusionment.

Satyagraha is the principle and practice of non-violence created by “Mahatma” Gandhi that has inspired tremendous change in the face of adversity over the past 100 years. The first time I heard the voice of Dr. King (whose campaigns were also heavily influenced by this philosophy) was in a rap song. Although I can’t for the life of me remember now which song it was, the indelible impression that it left upon me cannot be overstated. It was for this reason and because of the great inspiration that it sparked within my own spirit that I decided to include samples of speeches by two of my other favorite teachers of the times. One is the song “Satyagraha” which features quite a lengthy but beautifully expressed impression of the nature of being in a speech entitled “Spiritual Message To The World”, given to the BBC on October 17th, 1931. The second, features author Daniel Quinn and will be featured in next weeks Free Song newsletter.

I wanted my album Seasons to be an expression of all the inspiration that helped me to find my own voice in this world through all of the changes and growth that I had experienced up to that point. By including these great minds and exploring the musical styles and influences of my past, I hoped I might be given the opportunity to return the favour given to me so many years ago. I hoped, and hope still, that some boy or girl out there might find these teachers through one of my songs and be inspired to discover the strength and passion of their own unique voice.

From Here To There,

Scott Valentine

This song and post are part of Scott Valentine's song a week presentation entitled Seasons. Click here for more information.

Scott Valentine songs of the week:

Week 11 - "Big City Welcome" and "Hang On"

"Big City Welcome"

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"Hang On"

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“The system of nature, of which man is a part, tends to be self-balancing, self-adjusting, self-cleansing. Not so with technology.” - E. F. Schumacher

Every generation faces a unique set of circumstances and challenges. Our grandparents experienced the bleak economic realities of The Great Depression and the unimaginable destruction of The Second World War while our parents grew up amidst the constant fear of nuclear fallout and the struggle to obtain equal civil rights. There were of course a myriad of other struggles to be endured by both but you get the idea – we all have a social burden to bear in order to live as citizens of this planet.

There is no reasonable attempt to be made however, towards measuring which generation faced a tougher set of challenges yet all are connected by one solid unifying fact – every single one of those challenges was created by Man.

People often rail against the divinity of the universe (God, Allah, Buddha, etc) when they are forced to endure such horrendous atrocities but it is not the hand of the gods that have brought torture, slavery, poverty, starvation, genocide and war upon the lives of men, women and children for the past thousand generations. It is only within the hearts and minds of Man that such wicked wills are forged.

I look back upon the actions of yesteryear and see a line of consequences; I’m sure you do too. It’s not too hard to recognize the cause and effect of our way of life. It’s not impossible to relate the starvation of a child in Africa with the greed of the world market. It’s not too far a stretch to draw a line that runs from the once segregated schools of the American south to the current ban on same-sex marriage. After all, frustration, fear and violence have been the calling cards of our culture since it first appeared nearly ten-thousand years ago and we have been paying the price of those consequences ever since. We have a way of life that has created deep furrows of stress upon our collective brow and we must still toil and fight each and every day to survive even though there is more than enough of everything to go around.

This week’s freebie, “Hang On”, is a heartfelt attempt to connect our generation with those who have passed before us. Most of us try to do the best with what we have to work with; if given reasonable information we will, in my estimation, behave reasonably. Our forefathers have made incredibly heinous mistakes no doubt, but we can’t leave them to bear the unforgiving burden of history alone. We can’t point the finger at our ancestors without blaming ourselves for continuing to live without truly recognizing and reconciling the everlasting effects of those mistakes.

Indeed, our generation faces yet another set of distinct challenges with its own unique set of stresses. We are given a much greater view of our world through improvements in science, technology and the ever-increasing speed with which information can be exchanged through the Internet. With all of these improvements we can now recognize, more quickly and certainly than ever before, the impact of our lifestyle choices. Still a fundamentally puzzling question still remains. With a capacity for intelligence and creative adaptability so revered by its members, will our human species continue to embrace a cultural vision of such near-sighted haste and ego-centric ruthlessness or will we come to learn the importance of our beautiful differences whilst, at the same time, respecting the consequences of our lifestyle choices in order to adapt towards a balanced, less stressful and dare I suggest, more peaceful experience?

When I wrote this song I was looking out the window of my apartment on the lower eastside of Vancouver and this is what occurred to me: if this is the best life we can possibly hope to experience for ourselves then we had all better hang on with every last bit of strength we can muster because we’re in for an even more tumultuous ride and even more rude awakening. But once again, upon further reflection, I can appreciate it now more as a passionate plea for change rather than a dirge of dread and spiritual dismay. Thankfully, I can always seem to find the light at the end of the path.

Whether or not you have found out this truth about me yet, I hope you might soon come to find through my music that I sincerely do believe that the human species will adapt to a much more rewarding lifestyle for itself. Quite simply, we must. Still, it is plainly obvious to anyone who dares to look at the true heart of mankind that there is deep and rich spirit that yearns to create and experience the beauty of this crazy life with others. We have a divine beauty within each of us, uniquely exquisite but no better or worse than any other being that has come to experience life upon this earth. We want something more and we need something more but it is not more of the same that we so desperately and urgently seek. It’s something entirely different and new – something both exciting and inspiring.

From Here To There,

Scott Valentine

PS- It is my sincere hope that you might visit my site each Tuesday to experience the new weekly video I have produced. It contains a unique live performance of the weekly "Free Song" as well as a fun little outro sequence which I really enjoy putting together for you. Also, for those of you who have only recently signed up to receive the weekly release and would like to experience the previous weeks songs, you will find the downloads available by visiting the archive page of my website: www.scottvalentinepresents.com

This song and post are part of Scott Valentine's song a week presentation entitled Seasons. Click here for more information.

Scott Valentine song of the week - Week 10: "Where Do We Belong?"

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“The world does not belong to man. Man belongs to the world.”
(Ishmael, by Daniel Quinn)

When I conceived the storyline for the film that would ultimately accompany my album Seasons, I visualized each of the four seasons representing the major stages of man’s spiritual experience on this earth.

The “Spring” record would be the fresh-faced and inspired perspective full of youthful energy, naïveté and idealistic optimism - much like myself around the time I graduated from high school and headed off for college. I emerged from my youthful cocoon to find the world in front of me like an open canvas, a blank slate of endless possibilities upon which I might freely and liberally paint all of my future hopes and dreams. It wasn’t until I turned 19 and my Mom took me for a “spiritual reading” that I recognized that I indeed had a uniquely powerful and beautiful energy emanating from deep within me. It was during this brief period of mental clarity and heightened inspiration that I began to hear the song of my own soul as it emerged, filled with the words and stories whose lessons my spirit was so desperately trying to share with me.

As incredibly joyous as this stage of my life experience was, it didn’t last long. Soon enough the stressful realities and pressures of the outside world seeped their way into my spiritual village and began to spread their polluted perspectives into my pristine mental health. I was young, confused and utterly defenseless to resist the overload of its sensory advances. Inspiration and joy suddenly disappeared from view, abandoning the last bastions of hope along the way in favour of primeval self-preservation. I was devastated.

The “Summer” record represents this transition from the crushing defeat of youthful idealism into the harsh realities of the grown-up world that lay ahead. The songs reflect the emotional state of my attitude and confusion during those years. I had spent a lot of time – the whole of my twenties in fact – embroiled in alternating and varying degrees of anger, resentment, disdain, anxiety, disbelief and activism all amidst a disproportional amount of soapbox pontificating.

There is a biting criticism underlying all but one of the songs on this particular record – a lyrical diatribe lambasting the narrow-minded and near-sighted vision of our culture. I had lots of ideas about what we were doing wrong and wanted nothing – and I mean absolutely nothing more than to inspire the world to pull its collective head out of its ass in time to make real change possible for future generations. I had become utterly consumed by all of the turmoil that thundered down upon my spirit once I began to realize the impact that our lifestyle was having on the community of life. Sickened beyond belief and obsessed by my newfound mission to “save the world”, I poured myself into writing as many different songs as I could while at the same time touching upon the same themes over and over again in each. I knew I couldn’t get everyone to like my music but became convinced that if I spread the message into as many styles of music as I could then I would at the very least have a greater possibility of reaching a wider audience.

Before I began to record “Summer” I decided I would write, create and produce the songs to the greatest abilities of my imagination – meaning I wouldn’t limit myself to what I may or may not be able to recreate with a live performance. I wanted to see how far I could go by exploring and pushing the hot-blooded and cheeky sass of those troubled twenties while, at the same time, maintaining the sincerity and earnestness that I knew would be the key to ultimately tying the whole Seasons album together come the end of “Winter.” I don’t know if I succeeded with this “Summer” record but, in the end, I desperately needed to get all of those pent-up frustrations off my chest and chose synthesizers, electric drums, sampled heroes and layered backups to best help me voice the emotions of those years with which I had struggled so fiercely. This week’s free song, “Where Do We Belong?” still maintains some of the sexual and emotional chemistry from the “Spring” record but, as the title and musical production would suggest, makes a sharp turn into uncharted territory.

I arrived at the “summer” of my life with a singular goal in mind, “Who am I and what is my purpose?” My Mom had always told me that the twenties were for answering that question and endlessly supported and encouraged me as I struggled to shed some light on the matter for myself.

As I struggled, consumed by anxiety and stubborn sense of self, I nonetheless still longed for someone to share my experience with. I wanted to reach out into the world and rally my spirit alongside the inspiring thoughts and designs of the other people in this world whose passions had helped to ignite my own. I wanted a different story to live in but had no idea whatsoever where such a place existed let alone how in the hell I would ever find the means to get there on my own. But the deeper I began to dig, the further I came towards reaching that goal. Slowly I found others who were willing to stand beside me and put the will of their own passions towards creating something new.

Once again, after reflecting one these songs nearly three years after the fact, I can see that in order to understand where I belonged I had to first learn to appreciate where I was. I couldn’t do that so well at the time – I was too stubbornly trying to figure it all out on my own. But I can honestly say that, while I’m not there entirely yet, perhaps the biggest realization that has come from this song is the recognition that we, human beings, belong together.

However our species got to this point, we adapted and evolved because we had other people to fight for survival with. In so doing, we found comfort in companionship and formed impenetrable bonds of loyalty and friendship. We could not have made it into the 21st Century without having those tribes to belong to. Can we possibly survive in the 22nd Century without them?

From Here To There,

Scott Valentine

PS- It is my sincere hope that you might visit my site each Tuesday to experience the new weekly video I have produced. It contains a unique live performance of the weekly "Free Song" as well as a fun little outro sequence which I really enjoy putting together for you. Also, for those of you who have only recently signed up to receive the weekly release and would like to experience the previous weeks songs, you will find the downloads available by visiting the archive page of my website: www.scottvalentinepresents.com

This song and post are part of Scott Valentine's song a week presentation entitled Seasons. Click here for more information.

Scott Valentine song of the week - Week 7: "Believe In This"

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“I believe that love cannot be bought except with love.” ~John Steinbeck

When inspiration touches us in such a way that our spirit is compelled to change the trajectory of its path so that it might remain in close contact with the source of its muse, then we have indeed found love. After introducing our mind to the possibilities that change can bring into this life and by forgiving ourselves of both past regret and future expectation, we can begin to feel the comforting warm embrace of love wrap its knowing arms around our heart and, in this moment, life is complete.

When I first set out to write [my album] Seasons I created a vision of what I imagined spring, summer, autumn and winter might each look, sound and feel like. With spring, I saw new life emerging from its sleepy depths. I thought of a vibrant array of colours and the optimistic promise of youth. I dreamt of love without bounds; a love so richly inspiring that even the changing seasons of mood and emotions could not affect the strength of its promise. I looked towards the final chords of a yet unwritten winter album and saw a glimpse of the man I could become if only I could find the courage to put my belief in the promise of that love into action.

Throughout the scope of developing the concepts of this album I never once thought that I would actually be experiencing anything that remotely resembled the kind of love I had so busily been imagining. Despite the extremely personal and intimate nature of these songs, I had convinced myself that the story I would be narrating was only loosely based on my own life. After all, I was living without true love when I started spring and although I firmly believed in the possibility of its arrival, I had no way of knowing that art and life would be so intimately imitating one another throughout the course of Seasons.

“Believe In This” is a stark look at the mind games I was playing with myself after meeting and falling head over heels for Ames. As I expected, many of the same old evil spirits returned to haunt my thoughts and spook me full of doubt, only this time I was better equipped to resist their advances. I knew they would come and I had a new home studio with which to deflect, dissect and destroy them with. I had my own extensive list of reasons why she and I should have avoided one another. There was an endless cycle of worry that crept into my sleep knowing that we would spend countless periods of extended time apart and have to endure struggle after struggle in order to stay together. But what could I do? Once you invite love into your house you had better be damned well prepared for it to stick around and that is exactly what happened to me with this song. At the precise moment I turned my belief in the strength of love into self-empowering action, along walked Ames into my life and I knew things would never be the same again.

I start the song with a description about being alone and desperate and, in fact, the song was originally titled “Sad Lonely Bachelor” - but love changed all of that. Where I began by detailing who I had been, by the middle I have begun to realize who I am and what I want. By song’s end I can see all that I might still become and although I close the song by asking “do you believe in this?” I already know the answer.

Of course she believes in this. And so do I.

From Here To There,

Scott Valentine

This song and post are part of Scott Valentine's song a week presentation entitled Seasons. Click here for more information.

Scott Valentine song of the week - Week 4: "Jukebox"

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Love is in the air - this is what I love about spring! There’s a twinkle in the eye and a mischievous little smile caught on the lips of men and women throughout the world when this rhythm of life comes rolling into town.

When I set out to make this album (Seasons, of which this week's song "Jukebox" is a part) I did not have love in my life; the walls might have been crumbling and in disrepair but they still screamed “Stay Out! Danger! Do Not Enter!” to anyone who might have wanted to poke their head in and have a curious look about. I didn’t really know what the “Spring” record was going to sound like or how it was going to feel and I most certainly didn’t think that I would be falling in love myself while I wrote and recorded it but that was exactly what ended up happening. I met an incredible young woman I had been working with at a restaurant in Vancouver and tumbled head over heels for her even though, in my mind, I thought it was far too risky and difficult a relationship to explore.

But that’s the wonder and power of love – you don’t get to decide with your mind who or when or why or where or how it’s going to happen; it just hits you like a bolt of lightning and leaves you trembling helpless in your boots. It weaves and winds its way through your heart, dragging you up the highest of mountains before pulling you down through the lowest of the lowest valleys. Love races you along through moments of life at breakneck speeds one minute before slamming on the brakes, inching nearly motionless through time until you’re so sick from waiting that you cannot take it any longer at which point it forces you to wait even longer in hopes that it might teach you the patience needed to find your strength and focus your will for another harrowing adventure of passion and pain that’s sure to lay on the road ahead. Yes indeed, love is a crazy and powerful muse.

I didn’t want to fall in love with Ames because I knew she was from England and would be leaving Canada soon and keep trying to convince myself that an arrangement like that could/would never work. But by that point it was way, way out of my control. It was only by accepting the fact that love cannot be controlled that finally enabled me to step out from behind my walls and let love truly find my heart and penetrate my soul; and I’m so glad that I did. I’m grateful every day that from that moment our eyes first met a seed was planted deep within the heart of the universe; a new life born with a destiny to grow and flourish in the world despite the odds and despite any attempts by us or anyone else to extinguish the force of its mission. I also don’t regret that I tried my best at the time to fight it because I can see that the force I was so busy resisting then is the same force that now keeps us drawn so closely together; a tool of the gods used to remind us of the respect and admiration we share for one another during the times we’ve had to endure the agony of excruciatingly extended times apart.

Certainly it’s not always smooth sailing across these waters – we all know life only works like that in movies and sappy love songs ;). However, I have learned these past two years that the only real fight worth fighting for is the Battle of The Lovers – an epic journey to nurture and protect the sacred force that draws a positive light around two souls and tirelessly seeks to unite them together.

The only fight worth watching is the fight on earth for love.

From Here To There,

Scott Valentine

This song and post are part of Scott Valentine's song a week presentation entitled Seasons. Click here for more information.

Scott Valentine Presents: "Freak In You"


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Saturday night at Ma Miller's was my first real live performance since completing Seasons on July 5th 2008. A lot has transpired in that time and, as I mentioned in one of my previous blogs, I had come very close to putting the album under the stairs and forgetting about it. Thankfully, the gods intervened and sent me some very strong message that forced me to reevaluate my outlook on life as an artist.

Ma Miller's is a historic pub nestled in the heart of the small community on the outskirts of Victoria know as Goldstream, or as we fondly refer to it "The Village." It's located across the road from Goldstream Provincial Campground where me, my brother Paul and so many other kids from the neighbourhood used to explore, roaming endlessly through the forested paths that wound along the riverbank. When we were kids, hitting "the local watering hole" meant leaping from one of the many cliffs that surrounded the river or dangling a rod in the flushing currents in hopes of snaring a crayfish. Ma's was always an iconic landmark in the community full of power and mystery; a place where our parents gathered and whose rooms very few of us ever caught sight of before our nineteenth birthday.

My good friends Shane and Missy had spent many a beer on a Friday night since my return home to "The Village" encouraging me to perform there on an upcoming Saturday. Karaoke had ruled the roost for many years at the pub and although it had its regulars, Missy was hoping that reintroducing a live music element into the mix might encourage a wider range of folks to make the trek out into the heart of Langford.

The last room I played wasn't a live music venue and the lack of an adequate sound system coupled with my trepidation at performing the massive catalogue I had created with Seasons made me less-than-inspired to commit to another live performance at first. However, after receiving my letter from Kate and beginning to work with Brian on our Free Song A Week For One Year campaign, I began to open up to the notion that if I could allow myself to relinquish the need to control everything and allow life to unfold at its own pace that my songs would find an audience willing to explore and connect with them.

So I agreed to do the show and couldn't have felt more blessed by the encouragement and kind words of support I received that night. I saw familiar faces and reconnected with other friendly faces I'd once known. My past and my future were gloriously intermingling and I felt very fortunate that my love Amy was able to be there to share the experience with me. My friends Kate and Ted were also in from Calgary and I know it was beyond coincidence that my gig landed at the end of their West Coast visit.

Being that we are just two weeks in spring, it was an obvious choice to play all nine songs from that disc for my first set. It was unfortunate (and rather embarrassing) that I busted a string on the first chorus of the second song of the night but hey, that shit happens and I didn't panic or allow myself to be thrown too far off course as I might have done in the past. I smiled and laughed and speedily put on a new string before gliding smoothly through the rest of the set.

The "Spring" record, or The Love Record as I occasionally refer to it, is the shortest of the records that make up Seasons and so for the second set I had to select an eclectic variety of songs from the other 3 records. This led to a much more disjointed flow but I was pleased to be able to test the waters with that material, many songs of which I had never performed live before. It was also quite an interesting experience for me to see whether the "Spring" tunes might be accepted by an audience experiencing that correlating time of year. Having never really played Seasons before live it was thrilling to feel it sitting comfortably with the audience as I had previously only been able to imagine whether or not the songs I had written would somewhat represent the emotion, vibe and mood of spring when I initially conceived of the album.

I am looking forward to playing more and more shows as the weeks and months progress and to performing the songs of "Summer", "Autumn" and "Winter"as complete sets once those seasons come around. I hope that when I do I will be welcomed with such warmth and acceptance as I was by the fine folks who visited the legendary "watering hole" Ma Miller's last Saturday night.

This week's release is "Freak In You" and you can catch my reflections on the inspiration behind this love song by subscribing to receive my Free Song A Week weekly newsletter.

From Here To There,

Scott Valentine
www.scottvalentinepresents.com

On Tuesday, March 24, 2009 Scott Valentine Presents launched a never-before-seen marketing campaign, giving away one song a week as a free download on his website, continuing every week for a full year, with 57 free songs in total. Seasons consists of 4 CDs (one disc each for Spring, Summer, Autumn and Winter) and 1 DVD (Seasons: A Film Journey). 57 songs span across the four seasons, representing a young man's expanding consciousness through his journey of mortality.

Scott Valentine is a 33 year-old singer/songwriter from Vancouver Island, Canada. His debut album, Seasons, is a truly unique undertaking. Scott wrote, performed, recorded, produced, designed and printed the album entirely on his own over a two year period. It's a culmination of the pains and heartaches of his past and his hopes and dreams for the future; a document of the peaks and valleys of human drama, as seen through his own life experiences.

RockOm, together with Scott Valentine Presents and Thorny Bleeder Records, have teamed to bring you each weekly release every Wednesday for the next year. See the new panel (in the right column) on the RockOm homepage to hear each week's song and learn about Scott's inspiration behind the tracks.

In addition, please visit Scott's record label, Thorny Bleeder Records to learn about Scott and other fine artists.