For, since her own father… who, when he seemed about to
recover, suddenly felt the icy hand of death upon him,…

With apologies to Michael Palin.

People who came into this saga of career-ending injury in the middle of the show have asked me to comment as to what exactly are the current symptoms that prevent me from blazing new trails on the six string. I call it ‘the icy hand of death‘. Basically, it comes down to the fact that my thumb has a short span of attention.

The good news is that, with a lot of practice (and hand lotion), I was able to get pretty much all the twiddling capacity back in my thumb. However, what happens now is that, after about five minutes of continuous twiddling, either with the up/down motion of a pick or via fingerpicking, my thumb seizes. I mean it just stops moving. And it refuses to re-start without a good twenty minutes of rest. If you’ve ever lifted weights, you […]

This is an update on what I’m doing to try to get back to play for you. It’s also a comment on the music biz. A couple of old saws come to mind:

You meet the same people on the way up as on the way down.

…and…

People never really grow up.

(That second one is mine, by the way.)

Bass Player/Vocalist

I have to say that re-purposing myself to sing and play bass is turning out to be not only a challenge, but something of a drag. First there is the issue of playing the bass. Yeah, I can play, but not this much. Were basses always this heavy? 😀

And secondly, there’s the problem of actually…er… singing and playing (rubs tummy and head at same time to demonstrate.) Frankly, I dunno how guys like Sting do it. I know that I took the Frank Zappa approach; ie. I consciously arranged the tunes to make it as easy as possible for me to play guitar and sing. And much of the time that meant not […]

I woke up dis moanin’… W-o-o-o-h and I felt so low I had to play dat bass

Tom Waits had a great song called ‘Step Right Up’ about marketing pitches. There’s a line in there

Change your shorts. Change your life. Change yourself into a nine year old Hindu boy.

That’s how I kinda feel after 2.75 years fighting the tide. Like the great Irish warrior Cuchualain. Or maybe it’s more like one of those Labrador Retrievers that try to retrieve a brick thrown into the ocean.

But I am now officially a bass player, first and guitar player third. The reason is simple: after meeting with three hand surgeons and five physical therapists it’s clear that my thumb will never return to proper form. It works for about five minutes at a time, but after that? The stamina ends. And that makes playing full shows, either for myself or anyone else, pretty much impossible.

But after much experimentation, I’ve found that the skills one needs to play electric and upright bass are still intact. […]

Can you say Septoplasty?

Sure. I knew you could. I can’t right now.

But I’m thinking about little else right now having had the surgery a couple o’ days ago. How does it feel? Like I got punched in the nose, then left with straws stuck up me nose.

I’ve had nothing but problems with my snooter since I can remember. Chronic sinus infections; pneumonia; constant runny nose; even a drop in my vocal range of about 2-3 semi-tones. All these because I broke my nose a bunch o’ times in my misspent youth.

I shoulda had this done 30 years ago but frankly, when they described the ‘old’ procedure and outlined it’s 3-4 week recovery time, I just said, ‘Thanks but… er… uh… no thanks, Saddam!’ The current procedure should have me out of these straws in about a week–which is just about all I think I’ll be able to take.

The upsides?
No more chronic infections!
No more drip, drip, drip from November through May!
I may actually be able to breathe!
My singing may […]

A bit of an update on the state of my right hand, which has driven so much of my life the past two years.

I’ve recently had a hand surgery that involved sucking the juice out of each of my knuckles and then replacing it with a something like KY Jelly. Apparently it was, in the words of The Great Dictator Hynkel ‘far from perfect’.

Now this week I’m going into see a specialist and schedule a follow-up procedure. Since sucking didn’t work, the next step is to try cutting out the bad tissue.

I’ve had people look at me with absolute horror for why I’m allowing more invasive stuff to be done to me but the thing is: ya gotta try something. The cysts in my knuckles constrain my range of motion–making finger-picking almost impossible. Also they just plain hurt. Brushing up against anything makes me wince and putting my hand in a bucket of cold water? It doesn’t just me run for the bathroom. It makes me scream liking […]