Happy birthday from me

I haven’t taken the guitar(s) off the wall a half-dozen times since we moved into our new house a year and a half ago, and as I marked the end of my 61st cycle of seasons Saturday morning, I found myself listening to the homemade recordings I’ve made through the years with those guitars.

Once I fancied myself an up-and-coming singer-songwriter, but there’s something about being a musician that I never quite mastered, summed up by the observation that if you’re not living it and practicing hard every day, you’re talking about a hobby, not a vocation.

Every so often the passion would catch me, and I’d write some songs, then sit down with a tape recorder (or, in recent years, a computer) and make an “album.” I’ve made a couple of dozen of these albums since the fever first hit around 1973, although just four in the last 20 years. Most recently, after a burst of musical creativity in 2009, I put 12 new songs together and actually put the album, Ten Thousand Days, out for sale, with mixed results. Rightfully mixed: It’s a homemade album. Professional musicians would call these demos. Music is a hobby for me.

But I like some of these songs and albums, and I just enjoy sharing them and saying, “Hey, listen to this.” So here they are, or at least two of my favorites and a “greatest hits” collection. Buy my books and stories and newspapers; these are for fun and my gift to you.

The Will to Fly: A w.p. bluhm collection
Or find the individual tracks here

Ten Thousand Days (2010)

Watershed (1985)
Liner notes and some individual tracks here.

Stop Looking Back

I spend way too much time in the mode I was in Monday, fretting about what I have not done in the past. I wrote the book A Scream of Consciousness to remind us all (including me) that all we have is the present and the only way to avoid fretting about the past is to do something now.

I wrote this song for much the same reason.

Stop Looking Back

When I was an old man, I wanted wealth and fame.
Now that I’m a young man, I only want to sing.
Stop looking back, that’s yesterday.
Stop looking back, this is today.
When I was a wise man, I needed to play the game.
Now that I’m a foolish man, I don’t need anything.
Stop looking back, it doesn’t pay.
Stop looking back, this is today.

Go on, get up and straighten your head.
Great tapestries start with one single thread.

When I was a rich man, the streets were paved with gold.
Now that I’m a poor man, I walk with good, true friends.
Stop looking back, that’s not the way.
When I was a dead man, I was afraid of getting old.
Now that I’m a live man, I know how the story ends.
Stop looking back, that’s yesterday.
Stop looking back, this is today.
This is today — stop looking back!

April 11, 2009 (Concept and some words 2004)

A scream of consciousness

I have no doubt God has a sense of humor. Here is a case in point.

Ten Thousand Days is ready

Download my new album Ten Thousand Days at CD Baby or iTunes today!