There are times in life when the only person you can truly rely on is yourself. If you struggle with self love due to guilt, self loathing, never finding forgiveness for past mistakes, this struggle may seem impossible. Then, through music, all those negative feelings melt away leaving the light of your inner beauty to shine with an understanding of love for ones self. Not a narcissistic kind of love but a sincere, true of heart appreciation for yourself as a creation of God. Wow! That was deep.

This is my "Tower Records" baseball jacket I received as an employee at the original store at 16th & Broadway in Sacramento, CA. That was the year of "Hard Promises" & Bella Donna". Still looks pretty good for 26 Years! Thats me & Tower on my back. I received the jacket in 1981 once upon a time! picture taken 10/3/07.

My first guitar - My Goya Can you see him? My Goyal. Isn't that an incredible depiction of our classic image of an extraterrestrial being?This guitar was gift from Heaven to me. I had been trying out different ones. I wanted a nice acoustic to learn on but the physical limitations of my tiny hands thwarted my efforts. I was just on the edge giving up my guitar dreams. Then, in a very small town, in tiny dive bar, on a Monday morning trying to invade my weekend.I heard his bitter cry for help. He was an extremely attractive fellow in his mid 40's. He was drunk, disorderly, loud but most of all a BULLY! The handful of regular's were terrified of the loud mouth idiot. I got up from my stool & moved over 3 or 4 to sit on his left side. I asked this man..."Why would such an extremely attractive man taint his image by acting like such a ridiculas bully?" The bartender cringed as he heard my words. He was giving stop signals. "No, No, you can't talk to him like that." To make a long story short, he respected my question and he enjoyed my observations. He had been a professional musican who had to quit due to a loss of hearing in his right ear. He was bitter and greatly missed his "glory days". I told him of my quest for a guitar. He made me promise to wait for him to return and within 20 minutes he arrived with one guitar case and the Goya. He handed me the Goya and said "let me see what you can do." I only new 2 chords. Em & AM. So I strumed Em chung a chung chung, AM chung a chung chung chung. I'll never forget as long as I live and after death! He blurted out "Quit playing that Hippy Shit! Play the bass! This is your first guitar lesson and you better learn it. Don't just strum strum it, finger the notes, play the bass." I said something about tap dancing through the notes of the chords which I did. He plulled out this beautiful resonator acoustic and we played those two chords together and it was magic! He said he had been waiting to meet the next owner of this guitar. He was so happy, so sure, actually relieved to have finally placed this insturment in the hands that destiny had chosen. Then the bartender wanted to know how much it was worth. You see, his bar tab was almost $800.00. I had to decline, I didn't have much money. (Though that instrument was already worth way more that to me.) He told the bar tender that $100.00 was a fair price because he liked me. I believed it was too. I mean how much guitar can you get for $100.00 anyway! I didn't have it. He gave me the guitar in exchange for my promise that I would bring the bar $100.00 within one week. I wanted a case for it. He said he had one and would leave it for me at the bar. Two days later when I paid the bar, the case was not there. Two days after that I recieved a call from the bar that my case was waiting for me. Magic!

I have a great little "mini piano" It's a pretty ingenious design in that the harp is divided in two and over laped. This gives it a much fuller harmonic sound than other spinet type compact pianos. This little guy has been around. It was modified & raised with casters to move it somewhat easier than without. (He's heavy!) I find the most interesting thing about this piano is the manufacturer's name..."HARDMAN, PECK & CO" LOL!!! That's all we need is a hardman together with a peck to form a company! What were they thinking? Beautiful Music Together!?! Wilbury Writings