Doing this
I was the principal partner in the Squirrels. I don’t really identify with “leader”. I wrote a lot of songs, taught the guys how to play them, put together our presentation, and had the final say. It was a really empowering project - to dream and maintain, but in the end it proved to much to sustain. I couldn’t handle the politics. There was a lot of joy being the “boss” creatively, having access to this blank slate. We all enjoyed that sense of discovery, but we couldn’t abide bossing each other. We had dreams, and we were generally confident that we could go for them, yet none of us knew exactly how to go about it, and it was in trying to make these decisions that we became ensnared. I simply wasn’t the fighting type.
The time seems ripe for me to take a look back. Once again I feel the rush of empowerment as I craft this work. My memory is not the best, but as the saying goes, if you don’t use it you’ll lose it. I truly treasure The Squirrels, and since I’ve moved away, I’ve missed the community of which we were part. Of course I’ve grown and traveled, and joined other communities I wouldn’t have dreamed about. None of them gave me that rush. Right now I’m in down-time, between jobs, but I’m putting solid workdays into this. It’s enriching for me, in many facets. From my stand point there is so much to do, and never enough time. That only incites me, spurs more creativity.
Soon I will break from working on this site, and get back to the music. But first we need to get the site up and beautiful, so we can invite the world. We’re looking to reproduce some of the old songs for a CD, the next phase of the retrospective. I did some demos myself last fall which really sparked me, and over the holidays we got together and did some basic tracks. More work that I need to find time for, that I can’t wait to take on.
