The Week After Valentines Day

I recall quite well being younger and times when it almost felt good to be single and unattached during Valentines Day.

And then I recall also how it could be a very lonely holiday indeed; full of reminders of past loves gone wrong, or simply just gone. I also look back and reminisce about the joyous activities in my life and how glad I am to have someone with whom I have and can share those times. Of course there are things that are a pleasure to share, or a talisman of remembrance of trips together or romantic moments of the past. But so too it is hard sometimes to conjure up the urge to provide a romantic “thing” on cue.

When asked about Mother’s Day, my father used to say how he tried to make every day feel like Mother’s Day. In many ways I think about trying to make the feeling of Valentines Day extend out to be a lifelong habit. Of course it doesn’t always work out, but so too how often does the idea of a particular day being forced on you in a holiday like this coincide with your feeling perfectly romantic about a loved one?

I think the main point for me now is how Valentines Day feels different to me when compared to how it felt when I was younger, or compared to how it felt when I was single, etc. And so be prepared for how the way it feels for you will change too over time. Just what does it mean for you these days? … Think about it.

Liberal Versus Conservative II

After writing a blog about how labels can be needlessly divisive and/or polarizing and thus destructive to robust political debate; let me now proceed to pontificate about “liberals” versus “conservatives”.

First off, please know that I would label myself as a fiscal conservative with Judeo/Christian underpinnings and as such, I’m pretty well right of the political center if you believe there is one. Yet I have more than a few friends who are left of the center and healthy debate sometimes springs up between us. Unfortunately, unhealthy spitting at my opinions does sometimes occur from some left of the center, with generally some completely baseless attack on one moral lacking or another they feel must be the center of my motivations.

As I’ve gotten older, I watched several classmates or cohorts migrate from being very liberal in their politics while in undergraduate college, only then to become more conservative as they deal with the issues of marriage, business, parenting, death, and other aspects of (dare I say it) maturation. Similarly, I’ve noticed how few former conservatives migrate to become devout liberals. With obvious and sometimes bold exceptions, I still anecdotally observe how “liberalism” seems to speak most effectively to those who are young, and/or who have come into a large fortune suddenly and with little effort on their part to “earn” it. Sports celebrities, overnight Hollywood celebrities, or a Nouveau riche trust fund kid, all seem to help deal with their inner guilt at “unfairly” having something many deserving people want by embracing a liberal political agenda. It seems to be an emotional thing to them, as opposed to their conservative counterparts who often base their political beliefs more in an intellectual scrutiny of history’s examples.

I do not imply that there is a differing degree of intelligence involved in separating the two camps, rather the motivations draw majorly from emotion on the one hand and from history and experience on the other. Yet I’ve met many absolutely brilliant liberal defenders, and many brilliant conservative ones. Likewise, I’ve encountered more than a few painfully stupid ones in either camp as well. The difference between them is most certainly NOT one of intelligence, or even the desire to do a greater good in one versus the other. The main difference I can observe, once the name calling and attacks on character have died down, is a difference in the belief as to which will bring more prosperity for more people: government edict or freedom.

The balance between too much government and anarchy demands that both liberals and conservatives do their job, yet the balance is best when they are about equally unhappy and find compromise.

Serious success potential from a practical joke?

Serious success potential from a practical joke. Sometimes the fluff flies higher.

Serious success potential from a practical joke.

I sometimes have this nagging little fear of success striking my music as a result of the wrong song. As a songwriter I have my favorites which usually have some subtle musical innuendo or some sort of beautiful moment of complexity that I relish.

Whereas I also have written a song or two that stand as a farcical protest against complication. By that I mean that while it is an effort for me, I can actually force myself to write something banal, commonplace, and even boring. Lifting up the curiosity and possibility of some kind of serious success potential from a practical joke. And every now and then I do exactly that just as a silent rage against things I sometimes hear “out and about”.

Could there be serious success potential from a practical joke.

I can be in a retail outlet somewhere and wind up listening to something that is wildly popular and equally inducing of a nearly uncontrollable urge in me to wretch. And after such an exposure, I smile to myself thinking how some record label somewhere is receiving a royalty payment for THAT.

And though I smile about it, and tell myself something like, “well, Ed, ya gotta love it… life is funny that way,” etc. I also sometimes find myself at the piano thumping out a dull lifeless 1,4,5 blot on the ears. I’ve even gone so far at times as to write an entire song around the idea of trying to make myself fit into kitsch like that.

Serious success potential from striking the most (non-serious) and most familiar chords?

I actually record one of em every now and then; and then comes the fear. Just my luck, or the sense of humor I know is in the Divine master up above, it will be one of those songs that somehow strikes a chord with an sudden windfall of notice. And then I would be trapped always having to play that one if I were out giving a performance.

In my fear, I take it a little further in my mind, just to be prepared. I see a coffee house performance one day, where I’m partway through playing my “As If You Said ‘Yes”” or “Abandoned and Forgotten” and someone interrupts to yell out “Play ??? – Come on man” (insert banal protest song – and I ain’t tellin’).

I suppose the alternative of no one ever noticing anything of mine, versus their noticing one of the “wrong songs” should make it tolerable. But still there is the last question: If a tree falls in the forest and no one hears it, did it matter if it was a beautiful tree or a crappy one?

Serious Success Potential in any of the simplicity?
Well, I guess we’ll see…

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Lyrics, Logic, and Lullabies are delivered from baby boomer singer songwriter Ed Verner. Weaving together lyrics from personal experiences and tales from a life of people watching, these Lyrics, Logic, and Lullabies present contemporary younger songs from a salty renaissance man.

For more information on Ed and his Lyrics, Logic and Lullabies, visit:
http://lyricslogicandlullabies.com/
https://twitter.com/Lyrics_Logic_an/
https://facebook.com/edvernermusic/
https://youtube.com/WindKetcher/
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Serious success potential from a practical joke?

Musical Pothole Filling. Romancing existing creativity

Musical Pothole filling. Romancing existing creativity.

An interesting little game to play happens sometimes when I mix and match instrumental music of mine with visual images and great film making work.

Musical pothole filling. for example…

If you follow this link to an instrumental piano work of mine at https://soundcloud.com/ed-verner/the-bone-in-her-teeth for the soundtrack, and then also follow this next link https://youtu.be/0XofM8S-kJo to the first 2:05 seconds of YouTube video of a fantastically beautiful modern interpretation of a classic vintage sailing gaff rigged schooner – mute the video sound and engage my audio song and waah laah – a music editor revisited.

Musical pothole filling…in reverse.

Sometimes this little game of mine plays out in reverse in that I see something beautiful or emotionally stirring for me in a film or a piece of photography and I find myself conjuring up a musical melody for it. And even more often I may witness a moment in a major film where something beautiful visually is accompanied by musical kitsch on the verge of being crap – and the irony of visual beauty in concert with auditory ear vomit can also drive me into a creative mode. Much like how I enjoy fixing things that are broken, or restoring things that have been abandoned I like to create music where the need for it is on full display in the contrary example.

There is something romantic in the musical creative art when it is put to the task of filling a void; or in some cases I would call it fixing a pothole in the road of life. Now it may not be the romance of lovers, or the back seat of a car at a drive in type of love-rut… but writing music in that frame of mind is indeed romantic.
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Lyrics Logic & Lullabies
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Lyrics, Logic, and Lullabies are delivered from baby boomer singer songwriter Ed Verner. Weaving together lyrics from personal experiences and tales from a life of people watching, these Lyrics, Logic, and Lullabies present contemporary younger songs from a salty renaissance man.
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For more information on Ed and his Lyrics, Logic and Lullabies, visit:
http://lyricslogicandlullabies.com/
https://instagram.com/lyrics_logic_and_lullabies/
https://twitter.com/Lyrics_Logic_an/
https://facebook.com/edvernermusic/
https://youtube.com/WindKetcher/
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Musical Pothole Filling. Romancing existing creativity

Balvenie DoubleWood 12 Year – A good Single Malt Scotch

Balvenie DoubleWood 12 Year – A good single Malt Scotch

I’ve met more than a few people over the years who have said, “Eck, I don’t like Scotch” and yet also readily admit they have never really tried a good one. Now I can certainly agree how Scotch, or alcohol for that matter, is not for everyone, but sometimes I feel, it should be sampled and given a chance.

And I also embrace with gusto how there is a reason that we have chocolate AND vanilla flavored ice cream. I.E. different strokes for different folks. But so too I think one should not turn away from an entire buffet just because they tried a tiny taste of the first item. And there are a robust variety of flavors inside the category of “Scotch” whiskey.

Balvenie DoubleWood 12 Year. The first aroma.

Speaking (actually I’m writing) for myself and my wife, we have both come to appreciate the kind first aroma and lingering gentle approach found in the Balvenie DoubleWood 12 Year – aged partly in traditional oak whiskey casks, and finished off in first run European oak sherry casks. The result is a soft, sweet aroma wafting around a genuine Speyside Scotch experience. And many a scoffing former Scotch critic has had to eat their words of derision when given a chance at this gentle invader.

Balvenie DoubleWood 12 Year – After the recording session.

After a good recording session has been accomplished, and particularly if friend Dan Gallagher is in the room to celebrate with us, I enjoy pulling out a Balvenie Doublewood 12 and celebrating a toast to the muse, the producer, and the joy of being a recording artist.
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Lyrics Logic & Lullabies
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Lyrics, Logic, and Lullabies are delivered from baby boomer singer songwriter Ed Verner. Weaving together lyrics from personal experiences and tales from a life of people watching, these Lyrics, Logic, and Lullabies present contemporary younger songs from a salty renaissance man.
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For more information on Ed and his Lyrics, Logic and Lullabies, visit:
http://lyricslogicandlullabies.com/
https://instagram.com/lyrics_logic_and_lullabies/
https://twitter.com/Lyrics_Logic_an/
https://facebook.com/edvernermusic/
https://youtube.com/WindKetcher/
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Balvenie DoubleWood 12 Year – A good Single Malt Scotch

Mutiny on the Bounty or in the recording studio

Mutiny on the Bounty or in the recording studio – Metaphorically speaking of course…

Mutiny on the Bounty or in the studio…

Now not long ago, I posted a thought attacking the glorifying of pirates. And now I learn that today is the anniversary of the Mutiny on the Bounty. While not an act of piracy, mutiny is another nautical event that can occur metaphorically inside the music studio.

Mutiny on the Bounty: Captain Bligh… not the nicest guy?

Several film adaptations of the story regarding the Bounty have been made over the years, and historians have disagreed over time as to whether or not Captain Bligh was a cruel tyrant who deserved being cast off of his command or not. So too, there has been debate as to whether or not the acting Lieutenant Fletcher Christian who seized command was justified. But there is little disagreement how, in the end, it was a miserable affair for all concerned.

Mutiny on the Bounty or mutiny in the studio…comparisons.

Now while one might argue that making music is not near so serious as captaining and piloting a 90 foot long 230 ton armed full rigged ship with a crew of 45 across the oceans, but one would be wrong… bah hah. But indeed making music is VERY serious to the one who wrote it, and generally very serious to those involved in bringing it to life in a studio. As a singer songwriter there must be a bit of the captain in me when I take a song into a studio, and yet some of the best work on my songs comes out because of the producer, and/or due to the talent of someone totally unexpected. Conversely, if I am a butt-wipe with a bad attitude any one of those people who have something brilliant to contribute might simply “mutiny” by withholding their idea or by simply packing up their instrument and telling me to piss off.

In a recording studio the price for mutiny is not hanging, and the stakes may not be life and death, but for the unborn song or the song taken to partial term, the results may indeed be the same as those of the poor Bounty and her crew; loss of the ship, division and suffering of the crew, casting aside of the merchandise so carefully gathered and stored before the disagreement exploded, and other sad losses are still a shame.

Most common symptoms that will lead to the Mutiny on the bounty scenario.

Any mutiny, be it aboard a ship, or in a music studio is ultimately a fatal disease whose symptoms of bad communication, inappropriate loyalty and inappropriate leadership in concert, and poorly handled anxiety have been ignored one moment too long.

Final Note:

“Dancing With The Wind” is the perfect backdrop to listen to while at work and wasting time looking up the Mutiny on the Bounty story on the internet instead of doing your real job. Just sayin…
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Lyrics Logic & Lullabies
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Lyrics, Logic, and Lullabies are delivered from baby boomer singer songwriter Ed Verner. Weaving together lyrics from personal experiences and tales from a life of people watching, these Lyrics, Logic, and Lullabies present contemporary younger songs from a salty renaissance man.
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For more information on Ed and his Lyrics, Logic and Lullabies, visit:
http://lyricslogicandlullabies.com/
https://instagram.com/lyrics_logic_and_lullabies/
https://twitter.com/Lyrics_Logic_an/
https://facebook.com/edvernermusic/
https://youtube.com/WindKetcher/
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Mutiny on the Bounty or in the recording studio

Earth Day with my take and logic. No Lyrics or Lullabies here.

Earth Day – Hmm what a catchy title.

I’m not exactly sure how I feel about “Earth Day”. It has an Orwellian ring to it.

Earth Day and the footprints we leave.

As someone who used to enjoy backpacking, I’m all in favor of being conscious of your ‘footprint’ when enjoying nature (the old pack out what you take in sense of personal responsibility). And I believe in certain materials being recycled, such as most metals, and glass. And I applaud the urge to recycle when the energy gained is greater than the energy expended to accomplish it. But when I hear that “Earth Day” has become the world’s largest ‘secular’ celebration, the hair on my neck stands up just a tad. And then sometimes when I encounter certain believers in Global Warming, or its predecessor Global Ice Age, etc., and hear of technical data tampering to further an agenda of power or a move towards global governance, I cringe again.

Earth Day and the righteousness

I am a big believer in thoughtful righteous stewardship of the land and the animals that live on it and make up frequent ingredients in the diet that sustains me. But sometimes I encounter illogical people who wear T-shirts manufactured in China (one of the worlds worst polluters) that espouse some “save the planet” mantra of the new age and as I read and hear about “Earth Day” I sort of feel like it might have more than the average infestation of well-meaning, but illogical and irrational people clinging to it.

What does Earth day have to do with my music?

Absolutely nothing. God Bless.

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Lyrics Logic & Lullabies
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Lyrics, Logic, and Lullabies are delivered from baby boomer singer songwriter Ed Verner. Weaving together lyrics from personal experiences and tales from a life of people watching, these Lyrics, Logic, and Lullabies present contemporary younger songs from a salty renaissance man.
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For more information on Ed and his Lyrics, Logic and Lullabies, visit:
http://lyricslogicandlullabies.com/
https://instagram.com/lyrics_logic_and_lullabies/
https://twitter.com/Lyrics_Logic_an/
https://facebook.com/edvernermusic/
https://youtube.com/WindKetcher/
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Earth Day with my take and logic. No Lyrics or Lullabies here.

Celebrity Bullying & Broken Promises. My take on it.

Celebrity bullying & broken promises. My take on it.

Now some notable celebrities are canceling concerts to call attention to their preferences regarding human “rights” or political issues. And yet these same celebrities are often quoted as saying how they are against bullying. They fail to see or have any acknowledgement of the similarities between an elementary school bully and their own behaviors. This seems like celebrity bullying to me. Basically their pitch is something along the lines of, “Do as I say, now, and believe as I believe now, or I will punish you.” Or “bring your opinion to bear on this subject in agreement with me, or I will punish you.”

Celebrity Bullying with aggressive opinions.

Sometimes people of great fame have also taken to threatening to leave their country of origin unless a certain outcome occurs… really? How patriotic of you. If the country by and large doesn’t agree with your SOLITARY opinion and/or a majority opposes you then you won’t consider their view or consider the fact that YOU may be wrong, but rather you will pick up your toys and go “home” to another location?

Now don’t get me wrong, I applaud people who have strong convictions and who are willing to alter their life to stand up for something they believe. I applaud people who are willing to attempt to foster positive change and/or to shine a light upon an issue – I even applaud those convictions and actions when I may personally disagree because at least the person is willing to sacrifice a portion of their fame to amplify their message.

Celebrity bullying through concert cancellations?

BUT – to cancel a concert for all of your fans in an area is to break a promise you made to them – it is to breach a trust they placed in you regarding your art and your ability to entertain or bring joy, and to replace it instead with political discourse and a broken promise. Forgetting for the moment the arrogance and pride-gone-awry at the source of the breach, just focus on the fact of a broken promise.

To be an artist is to desire to have your art create a bridge between you and someone out there (unknowable to you) and the bridge requires trust (sometimes misplaced indeed). Don’t burn that bridge! If you are lucky enough to have a fan base of any kind based on music or the arts and you choose to bully them with withdrawal, I hope you get what bullies on the playground deserve.

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Lyrics Logic & Lullabies
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Lyrics, Logic, and Lullabies are delivered from baby boomer singer songwriter Ed Verner. Weaving together lyrics from personal experiences and tales from a life of people watching, these Lyrics, Logic, and Lullabies present contemporary younger songs from a salty renaissance man.
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For more information on Ed and his Lyrics, Logic and Lullabies, visit:
http://lyricslogicandlullabies.com/
https://instagram.com/lyrics_logic_and_lullabies/
https://twitter.com/Lyrics_Logic_an/
https://facebook.com/edvernermusic/
https://youtube.com/WindKetcher/
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Celebrity Bullying & Broken Promises. My take on it.

Beauty and warmth of Bass. How it adds magic to music.

Beauty and warmth of Bass. The magic, the musicality and the depth.

Beauty and warmth of Bass. The Cello Neighbor.

The 3^rd instrument I ever learned to play was the cello – and I loved it. The tonal range and the position of the cello generally in front of the double-bass players in an orchestra allowed me to wallow in the lower tones from an early age. And that swimming in the deep end feeling of the music down there immediately translated into my piano playing and style; taking my hands an octave lower to find a sweet spot in my music there.

Beauty and warmth of Bass. A different approach than drums.

Now recently I wrote on the subject of drummers and percussion and my respect for how they add unexpected and wonderful things to many of my singer-songwriter style songs. So much better too in how it actually changes a creation sometimes. And while this may be true as regards bass and really good bass players, for me what these players more often do to a song is sometimes to give it EXACTLY what I expected. I say that not because a good bass player doesn’t create something fresh and talented in ways that I don’t or can’t, but rather in how good bass playing in a singer-songwriter song is like blood in a mammal.

It just is – and to a point, the more the better. When bass gets added to a song of mine, it frequently just adds balls, power, and subliminal rhythms which are already ghost notes in the ear of a listener. Frequently it feels like the song was just coming through an old tiny battery powered transistor AM radio and suddenly after the bass is added it sounds like it is live players 12 feet away in a nice wooden room.

Beauty and warmth of bass… and those rare moments…

Now the contrary is rare, but every now and then it happens that a bass player botches it and brings not the guts and ghost notes, but rather jams a bookend not on the end of the books in line, but rather between them and thus makes a hell of a mess on the bookshelf.

But this is rare.

Most times, the bass is like the curve of a beautiful woman’s hind end. Yeah she may have a beautiful face, nice smile, long hair, and a lovely sleeveless dress, but the picture may be incomplete if it doesn’t end well (smile). So too a good song that lacks good work from a bass player and possible bad choices, that is not fully ready for the spotlight.
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Lyrics Logic & Lullabies
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Lyrics, Logic, and Lullabies are delivered from baby boomer singer songwriter Ed Verner. Weaving together lyrics from personal experiences and tales from a life of people watching, these Lyrics, Logic, and Lullabies present contemporary younger songs from a salty renaissance man.
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For more information on Ed and his Lyrics, Logic and Lullabies, visit:
http://lyricslogicandlullabies.com/
https://instagram.com/lyrics_logic_and_lullabies/
https://twitter.com/Lyrics_Logic_an/
https://facebook.com/edvernermusic/
https://youtube.com/WindKetcher/
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Beauty and warmth of Bass. How it adds magic to music.

Top three phases of drummers. Most commonly seen drumming styles.

Top three phases of drummers. Yes, I am going there.

As a singer-songwriter of generally mellow story telling songs, I have come to greatly appreciate the art and rarity inside great drumming. When it comes to drummers, I have had three distinct phases of past experiences:

Top Three phases of Drummers: Phase 1

The High School Phase – This is where teenage boys attempt to relieve their frustration and try to prove their “manhood” by beating wildly and savagely on their tortured and poor quality drum set (failing miserably at both). This phase for me was marked by my gaining a real appreciation as to how much noise and songwriting arrest drums are capable of making. Also in this phase one can observe how drummers work very hard, often creating a sheen of sweat which is strangely and inexplicably attractive to certain females.

Top Three phases of Drummers: Phase 2

The Young Adult Phase – This period is marked by an increase in the player’s skill and a rise in instrument quality, combined unfortunately with an overwhelming urge to be recognized and identified with both. In this phase, any song to receive “the treatment” becomes a magic carpet upon which the drums can rise to the top “where it belongs”. Amplifiers become a necessity for every other instrument and the vocals. Even a concert grand piano, capable of going toe to toe with a full orchestra and brass, needs to be amplified now to remind anyone in the audience that the song has a melody.

Top three phases of Drummers: Phase 3

The Artist Phase – This is the high altitude rare air of high orbit wherein a truly gifted, mature, and artistic drummer/percussionist adds something to any song that very often people remain unaware of through their first 10 or more listens. After a while, a song that people truly love gets heard enough to where they find themselves doing the drum part on their dashboards, or air-drumming with glee to the one or two signature licks that define the rhythm which now they cannot live without.

Now all joking aside…

I must admit to how I’ve grown to appreciate a very nearly identical track of progress in gifted piano players I admire; or in saxophone, or guitar, or just about any melodic instrument of difficulty. And I’ve occasionally caught myself playing “too much” of the song on my piano when I am going to take it from my coffee-house original incarnation into a studio cut, etc.

But one of the wonderful things I’ve grown to appreciate about drums in a singer-songwriter production is how now I am eager now to hear what a drummer (an artistic and gifted one) will bring to something I’m at a loss to conjure in my own head. And I’ve come to appreciate how really “drums” is very much a plural thing. Talk about multi-tasking; cymbals, toms, snare drums, hi hat, and then the gamut of percussion instruments really can make your head spin. And of course judicious use of cymbals and the fine line between noise and juicy emotion you can’t explain is an art unto itself. I’ve enjoyed having an already “full” song actually sound less crowded after 10 tracks of drumming and percussion are ADDED to it and that dynamic is a strange and beautiful irony to behold.

And while I personally pick number 3 of the top three phases of drummers, I am happy to say that even in the simplest ballad I create now, I long for and appreciate a good drummer that is an artist, aware and understanding of my music.

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Lyrics Logic & Lullabies
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Lyrics, Logic, and Lullabies are delivered from baby boomer singer songwriter Ed Verner. Weaving together lyrics from personal experiences and tales from a life of people watching, these Lyrics, Logic, and Lullabies present contemporary younger songs from a salty renaissance man.
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For more information on Ed and his Lyrics, Logic and Lullabies, visit:
http://lyricslogicandlullabies.com/
https://instagram.com/lyrics_logic_and_lullabies/
https://twitter.com/Lyrics_Logic_an/
https://facebook.com/edvernermusic/
https://youtube.com/WindKetcher/
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Top three phases of drummers. Most commonly seen drumming styles.