This is how it used to work. A CD would show up at the house, I'd slip it from its envelope and give it an initial listen. Most of the time, the music would tell me what I should say. Many times, there would be multiple avenues to investigate. Some of this might take a few days (or even weeks) to come together.
Recently...nothing. If I hear the music (read: If I can even manage to open the package), then it ends right about there. No stories, no interconnected facts, no interesting parallels to check out. Nothing.
"Writer's block" doesn't really describe this phenomenon. I'm sure that there are people out there who can keep up their creativity level during times of trauma, but I don't appear to be one of them. Honest attempts at forcing the issue would result in several paragraphs of nothing. The sentences barely held together. It was like putting together a jigsaw puzzle that turned out to be all gray. At one point a little over a month ago, I decided to just leave it all on the table.
During all of the commotion (while the frighteningly large piles of review material continued to build...stacked on their edges, there are several feet of envelopes) I would get the occasional email, mostly from individual musicians: "Hi, I'm so and so....did you happen to receive my CD?...." Some of these I would let slip buy, mostly because I'd stopped responding to any emails at all. Once in a while I would say that, due to an illness in the family, I had gotten behind. I felt sort of bad unloading on a person like that.
Like yesterday, for instance. A while back I'd had some email with Tim Collins, who had played vibes on Sam Barsh's record, I Forgot What You Taught Me. He had his own album coming out and wondered if I'd be interested. Of course I was. The package was sent and ended up about 2 feet 7 inches from one end of my pile. So yesterday Tim sends me another email asking me if I'd ever received his CD.
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Article comments
1 - Pico
If Tim is responsible for getting you back into the game, then it's us faithful readers who should be thanking him, not you. Happy Fourth, Mark :&)
2 - Glen Boyd
I know this has been a tough time for you, but I'm glad to see that you're starting to come around. Sometimes it helps you get over a loss like this by just getting back in the game. At any rate, welcome back Mark.
-Glen
3 - Mat Brewster
Welcome back.
No worries though if the output isn't as often as it was. Take your time, I for one will still be around to read whenever you write.