The road ends, but the journey continues...
Note: tonight’s update has been great fun for me to research. While tracking down more songs with cowbell (added to the list below), I veered off into the realm of cowbell as an instrument. As an added twist I am including two short videos on various ways percussionists play the cowbell.
Here’s the IN PROGRESS list so far. I listen to each entry to verify cowbell sounds. Often other percussive elements are mistaken for cowbell to the untrained ear! Continue reading
“I got a fever, and the only prescription is: More Cowbell!”*
Driving around town the other day, I noticed a rare out-of-state car with an even rarer bumper sticker espousing something other than local church affiliations. Simply stated it said: MORE COWBELL.
For the uninitiated, that bumper sticker and the title of this post mean nothing more than the sum of its words. For the rest of us in-the-know, it is a clever twofold twist on the April 8, 2000 SNL skit: ‘More Cowbell’ with Will Ferrell, featuring the music of The Blue Oyster Cult.
Not to appear standoffish, it should be noted that my own status changed from uninitiated to one-in-the-know a mere three years ago, when my hubby found a video clip on-line and set it up for me to see on my mini-computer one evening after a particularly hard day working retail. Continue reading
Track list:
1-In Search Of
2-Meet Me in Maui
3-On The Border (Al Stewart)
4-Welcome to the Milky Way
5-Working Up An Appetite (Tim Finn)
6-Timberline Tree
7-Child’s Play
8-Rhapsody in Blood
9-Imagine (John Lennon)
10-Brief Encounter
11-What a Difference a Day Makes
Tom’s a guitar bud from the days when back-to-back students, gigs, concerts, workshops and rehearsals left little time for socializing. It’s been over five years since we each rented studio space in the same building with other working musicians and the ‘Chocolate Lady’ in downtown Louisville, CO. Swapping stories and notes between late or ‘no show’ students, we forged a professional and personal camaraderie during our respective day-to-day teaching gigs.
While Tom has been performing, writing, recording and evolving with his group Perpetual Motion for years, Perfect Imperfection is his first solo recording. Several years in the making, the name is taken from his wife and band partner Josie’s view of life: Nothing is perfect, that is what makes life so perfect. Evidently, this wifely philosophy was the kick in the pants Tom needed to actually record a solo album. Continue reading
The dreaded drought season in the life of a working musician…while it can be excruciatingly hard to bear at the time, the good news is that it does not last forever. Also, during that period of seemingly non-productivity, the brain on music is constantly firing on some level or another. For myself, this period of non-performance, my ‘dry spell’ has been filled with more opportunities to compose, arrange, explore other instruments, actively research and listen to tons of music. Sifting through various genres, with piles of notes heaped high one on top of the other I have entered into a myriad of musical worlds; hence gaining insight into diverse approaches to the artistic need to create and express what is deep within…
That said, when fellow colleagues share audio clips, videos and good sources of musical material for listening and consideration, I eagerly attend to their suggestions. And, when a piece is presented to me by way of my son, I take even greater notice and engulf myself in its offerings.
Take a listen, folks.
Alex Mackenzie-Low: vocals, acoustic guitar
“Laughter is the sun that drives winter from the human face.” -Victor Hugo
My homemade cannoli
What better way to ease into another set of 2013 Reflections than with luscious references to food?
My homemade sourdough bread
This past year, I resumed my life as a ‘good cooker.’ This family badge of honor, proudly reactivated now that I have a kitchen at my disposal, has provided nourishment to both body and soul.
~ 4/13 The unfolding of my ‘horse gentler’ skills learned during our time of horse rescue being placed within a new context of use. While making a final pilgrimage to visit Terry’s Mother in Dallas (just a week before she passed away) our ‘nephew’ Jeremy helped with a fundraiser for the ‘Horses for Heroes’ project in nearby Rocky Top Ranch. Himself a Wounded Warrior, he opened my eyes to this realm of horse therapy for returning veterans and their families.
Shortly thereafter, to my delight, I discovered a local established horse therapy group beginning to implement a Wounded Warriors component into their program offerings. I immediately contacted them and not only signed on as an active volunteer, but got in on the ground floor as part of the initial group starting the WW program. In addition, I work regularly with the other students. While my primary role is in enabling the horse(s) to be their very best while in use during therapy, I enjoy the blessings of working with the various students and their families, other volunteers sharing my passion, the therapists and owners of the stable…
Gracie on Freckles, First Annual BTR Horse Show (I’m wearing orange)
We all worked hard to put on the First Annual Bethlehem Therapy Horse Show this past November.
Matt’s victory salute after his horse show debut
Really, really cool.
~ The many loved ones who passed on this year. Continue reading
Right now, this very moment, something normal, something comfortable, something so very ‘Family’ is happening: Dad is blowing his horn. After weeks of fooling around with re-organizing his music, the bane of us musicians which can become more procrastination than need, Dad’s got his groove on. He is blowing long tones on the mouth piece, testing out his own custom hand-shaved reeds, adjusting tension on the ligature; just about all the stuff a sax-man needs to get ready to start in on a serious practice session. Ahh, the riffs, the scales, the bits of favorite tunes, with squeaks here and there as attempts are made to blow those flashy odd harmonics, reachable only by a select and sacred few like my dad.
Dad in his new digs
Even with those super sax-man lungs he’s developed over the years, at age 90 Dad’s biggest hurdle at the moment is more with the stamina required to play a full set. And yet, I’d give it a couple weeks at the most for him to break through that temporary barrier.
Dad is my inspiration as a musician. Dealing with skin cancer on the top of his bald head, he loves to recount the story of how he got it in the first place…all my friends had to work days, but I got to lay out on the beach along Lake Michigan and sunbathe since I worked the clubs and joints at night. It’s almost a badge of professionalism for him, though he advises this generation to stay out of the sun.
A private moment
For the six years since Ma passed away, he put his sax down. While he kept up a semi-regular practice routine, his (he)art just wasn’t in it. In this difficult stage of his life, he laced up his dance shoes and began stepping to the music of others. An odd juxtaposition as the pull to play the music was ever nipping at his cha-cha heels.
Just two days moved into this Independent Living apartment and I get to listen to the sounds of my childhood, the background noises of everyday living in our home, the ever present music. Not from some recording or old radio show, but coming from the (he)art of our Family’s home: Dad’s horn.
© 2026 Laura Bruno Lilly
Theme by Anders Noren — Up ↑