SONG
"I Will Guide You Home"
The response to this song has been both staggering and humbling. I wrote the song and recorded it in 2007 at Rising Sun. I needed a song very early in the Audio CD (the guided visualization portion of Guided Passage) that pulled you towards The Magical Realm just before I actually took you there. Send the song along to others, with my blessing.
BOOK EXCERPT
Guided Passage: Become Who You Are
It was difficult to extract something from a book that is so tightly woven as a whole. As we attempt to explain-and fail because it must be experienced - Guided Passage isn't just a book and CD, or a program. We've included eight pages of the fourth chapter, cover/inside flaps/back cover, and all introductory pages. If you wish to jump directly to the chapter, just go to page 14 in your PDF Reader.
SONG
"There Is A Reason"
You'll notice that the lyrics are simple, if not redundant, but I sang them in every color of the spectrum because we didn't know where we'd use the song, or how much of it, in the movie.
On a Sunday afternoon, I had the pleasure of sitting down with Gary Allen Shay and his Eastwest/Quantum Leap software so I could PLAY the cello. The software took seven solid years of recording to capture every nuance of every single instrument in a full orchestra. I selected cello players and instruments, played the notes on a electronic piano keyboard, and controlled the bow strokes, pressure, direction of the bow (every nuance of sound) through the software. It was a wonderful day.
SONG
"If I Could Tell You Why"
The development of this song parallels "There Is A Reason" (directly above). I sang while playing my acoustic guitar and my voice was recorded by the undisputed, most-famous microphone ever: the Nuemann U47. (For those who care, it's the microphone that made the Beatles, Frank Sinatra, Ella Fitzgerald, Louis Armstrong, Bing Crosby and Tony Bennett.) I literally wrote this song to sing in this microphone. John Zumwalt Stephan's vintage U47 is one of best that still exists. If you listen, you'll hear that the U47 mic isn't picking up my singing, it's capturing the vibrations from my body and soul.
It's rare to mix vulnerability and strength in a single song, but somehow on that day we found it.
SONG
"I Feel Like Shit"
This song is a crusty-with a greasy nugget center-miraculous accident. But it's not really a song without the story . . .
On a Sunday morning, my wife, Jolan, and I got out of bed at about 10 AM. As is common, I immediately went to my music room to record an idea that had haunted me in my sleep. What is not as common is that I had a serious hangover. (Saturday was a beautiful night filled with many neighbors.) After recording the idea, and thinking I had turned off the recorder, I continued playing and singing.
What I began to sing is pretty dark stuff, but I was at the end of 18 months that created Guided Passage, and this web site, and dozens of creative offshoots, and I was, as I said, hung over. So, I'm singing with a pounding head. I wasn't simply burnt out, I was crispy burnt out. Without giving too much away, I decided not to let my mood and physical condition tell me how to feel.
Near the end of the song, you will hear Jolan stroll into the room, laughing at me and what I'm singing, and also surprising me. You'll also hear her begin singing through her laughter-hers is the voice of an angel. Later, you'll hear me giving our Pembroke Welsh Corgi, Emma, an invitation to sing along.
Somewhere during the song I put on my Steve-Martin-on-stage-with-banjo persona. (What's funny is you'll hear me finger picking at the back of the electric guitar's bridge that created a banjo-like sound . . . which I can't remember doing . . . Indeed, I have no memory of playing or singing anything, until Jolan came in, wearing her robe, laughing, dancing, and mocking me in her angelic manner.) Whatever I did, you will hear me go from pain to laughter in a few short minutes. I'm very proud to say that music and laughter are permanent residents in our home. The song reveals me kicking a hangover's ass. By the way, John Zumwalt Stephan has tenderly edited away about half of the track's original length (the part where Jolan comes in remains intact). It's now 3:45.
I have to let you know I'm just a bit hesitant to let you hear this. And that's as it should be. You will hear me singing quite off pitch and barely able to pronounce the simplest of words. You will be entering my private little world on a Sunday morning. But that is fair . . . I'm asking you to stand naked before me and your God. I must willingly do the same for you.
We invite you to become a friend of Bradley:
MySpace: myspace.com/bradleyfalk
Facebook: facebook.com
Twitter: twitter.com/ModernMerlin