Heartland

As most of you know, Cindy and I relocated to southern Indiana. That’s an area that is known as The Heartland. This is John Mellencamp territory; in fact, he was born on Seymour, about 20 miles from where we live.

My wife (aka: friend/muse) suggested that I do an album with a “rural” theme. The actual word she used was Agricultural, but I decided to broaden it a bit. So, I started to look around the area to see what there was in the way of inspiration.

In my universe, if you go looking for inspiration, you WILL find. It’s there; you just have to spot it and be open to it. There was the wind farm right around Lafayette; there’s the Muscatatuck River which runs less than 2 miles from our house; there’s the Blue River and the Wabash, both of which have historical connections. Of course, the green fields of corn and soy abound and stretch for miles and miles. There was a lot of beauty, a lot of heritage to draw from.

Then came the writing. With the help of a lot of photos and video footage, I was able to capture, not only the essence but the motion of many of these places and things. Working instrumentally meant that I could use a wide variety of musical colors from the sonic palette; it also gave me an opportunity to incorporate my two steel string guitars: a 1971 Martin 12-string with the “high” strings removed, and a 1950 Harmony Archtop that I got at an auction just before we left New York State.

When the recording was done, I sent the mixes to my good friend, and former recording partner, Scott B. Adams to be mastered. The result is a lovely sounding tonal picture of the amazing variety of the landscape of Middle America.

Should you be interested in sampling (or purchasing) any of this new music, check out CDBaby .

And to watch the video of “Wind Farm” go to Windfarm .

It’s almost like a ballet with wind mills.

One more thing: there is a new opportunity for anyone who feels led to support me as an independent musician. Patreon.com is best described as a Kickstarter-style campaign, but it’s ongoing. For more information on how it works, go toPatreon .

Wrong or write

Someone* said that the art of writing is actually the art of re-writing. As a composer, I can vouch for this. Once I have an idea for a song, I try to get a sense of where the lyrics (if any) want to go. Then I write on instinct. When I get a piece to the point where I can see it is a complete song, I usually set it aside for a short time: 24 – 48 hours, generally. Then I go back and start the re-write process.

Even in my recordings, I will put in all sorts of instruments, some of which will not make it through the editing. Each part must have its own place in the mix, and no one part can get in the way of another part. This requires some intense listening. The best way I know to accomplish this is to listen as though it was someone else’s song.

In the end, I hope that I create music that musicians will want to perform more than once, and that people will want to listen to more than once. If you haven’t sampled any of my music, you can do so on iTunes or Rhapsody, or any number of music download sites.

*Might have been Kathy Mattea. She said "You have to write badly to write at all. If it`s crappy, I will rewrite it later. But it will be mine. You can hear the resonance of an artist who goes into herself."

Chicken Pickings

Welcome!

Hi, I'm Tom Rasely, Musician in the Middle of Nowhere. I'm a professional guitarist, composer, and church musician pursuing my music in upstate New York.

Living in a county whose bovine population exceeds it's people count has its share of challenges for someone trying to survive as a musician. In this blog and on my Facebook page http://www.facebook.com/trasely, we'll explore the pleasures and pitfalls of living far from the madding crowd!

I welcome your comments and would love to hear your stories-- whether you live somewhere or nowhere, play music or not, we're all on this journey together.

Rasely