Pulse of Now

On my birthday in December, Christopher gifted me his new CD “ Gangster in the Bathtub”. I had attended his & Sara’s Prayer Circle for the first time, they were both very welcoming. I came home & put the CD in the player not knowing what all would be in store.

I was very, very pleasantly surprised and have listen to it numerous times. I find the period of the 80’s/90’s of indie music one of the most creative & exciting, Talking Heads, XTC, Laurie Anderson to name a few. Christopher’s reminded me so much of that creativity along with the evolution that music has made since then, World Beat, & Rap for example. My favorite guitarist since the 80’s is Adrian Belew & so many of the riffs on this album have the same power, expressiveness & lightheartedness.

I also was really taken by many of the lyrics, for me it evokes the Paradoxes of life & between our mind & spirit body. “Didn’t Get Here by Praying” & “Not On YouTube” especially does this. It is also a CD that makes me want to get up & do my own wild choreography with. Another track that really moved me was “Potato”. It reminded me of African Rhythms like another one of my favorite albums “The Rhythmtist” by Stewart Copeland. I really found the cut “Mattress Store” both funny & poignant with the recorded voice of the salesman along with the purchase representing a huge step in a commitment of a relationship.

On “Are You Having Fun” the line “God plays through us…” really struck a chord for me in that when we are open to the mystery of the Universe we are most open to our Muse of Creation. Even “Dishwashing” brought a laugh from me since I was doing that very thing when I first heard the song.

The list of other artists I thought of while listening to this album went on & on, from Danny Elfman, Crash Test Dummies, Bananarama, Tom Tom Club to Peter Gabriel & James. “Molten Lava” lyrics really brought to me how we feel when we meet someone we are really taken by, feeling like we are going to jump out of our skin with excitement: “I feel a pathway to you, rumbling with connection, tumbling with affection”!

One of the super side effects of listing to this CD is that it has re-stimulated my adventurous exploration of new music which has been mostly dormant in me. I started listening to a college radio station I use to listen to & with it’s wide diversity of genres, it has been an exciting smorgasbord of exciting discoveries. I am so very grateful for the multitude of gifts I was given in hearing “Gangster in the Bathtub”!

I’m a musician and very particular about what I listen to.  Chris has checked all the boxes with this CD-  the style is quite original- his own but I can hear King Crimson and David Bowie elements.

I must admit to having been skeptical of Christopher’s “Multimedia music with a message” tagline. I guess I feel like many writers feel, that art speaks its own language, and that the listener fills in their own meaning. That preaching is a form of aggression, as Ursula Leguin writes as quoted in this wonderfulpiece on this subject in Brain Pickings.

At least for me, my writing has grown to the extent I’ve been willing to let go of what I was trying to say. And, that is still the direction of my evolution: Away from having a “message.”

Yet: Several times in the past few months, I have found myself in deep places of painful growth. Even though I know, from experience, that I’ll emerge on the other side, my cowering, dying ego sees the ground rushing up and screams a primal scream is if there were no bungi cord.

In the midst of an emotional downpour, where all is sheets of wind and water and it’s difficult to breathe, Christopher’s lyrics have come to me then and I’ve felt I am not alone. Someone else has been just here, and here. It brings immeasurable comfort. So if this “Multimedia musician with a message” is instilling a trail of breadcrumbs in his songs to guide us home, I thank him. To have words emerge from within the layers of sound, vitality, pulse, and humor and connect with me just when I need them offers deep hope.

Thank you!

Gangster in the Bathtub: An original dance CD that I could not sit still to!  Christopher danced while creating this offering and you can feel it in every note. It has the vintage comfort of Brian Eno, Roxy Music and David Byrne mixed with cosmic stories that lift my feet off the ground.  It’s easy and works.  Pure fun.