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The Sun Is Closer Than It Appears

Hey Soul Mates,
it was a brutally hot weekend in California. The beginning of the week has been filled with little relief. I've been suffering with some heat exhaustion. I can only hope it's a little cooler wherever you are.

The band had a great set of workouts this weekend. We rehearsed in 98 degree heat. For real. Working hard for you. Thank the Lord for swimming pools. The drive was long but good. Special thanks to Los Rayos and Sons who helped us fix a flat in the middle of nowhere Sunday night. Good Samaritans are out there. Good karma gone come back to you.

Along with going through the set for our next show, we also worked on some brand new material. One of the songs, a dead heavy piece of RHS funk pop (I Can't Cry For You) will be debuted at IPO LA on August 2. It's always fun to road test a new tune. Several other songs are taking shape, but they won't be completed in time for the IPO shows. I Can't Cry For You came from Bryan jamming at the studio in Wales. He and I worked out the dueling guitar/bass riff at the Bedford in London. I wrung the melody and words out of the chords the other day hanging around in Beverly Hills. It's a well-traveled song already.

I'll post the lyrics for the new song right before the show in case you want to know what I'm singing. But please don't ask me what the song's about. I've decided that it's best for the audience to bring their own message to a song. There's apparently some quandary about A Talent For Loving's meaning. Who cares? I would just dance to it. Because it really doesn't matter what the song means, it's your ears and mind processing it. I just hope you want to hear it repeatedly.

Another cool by-product of the journey was listening to lots of music (15 hours in a car will do that). I got a chance to check out the new Justin Timberlake single a couple times. I like it. SexyBack should be big. Bold move for JT to make his voice unrecognizable, although I'd rather hear more of him than producer Timbaland on the chorus. Timbaland is all over the charts right now. His recent work with Nelly Furtado is growing on me. Their performance on SNL was lackluster, but the production on the records is killer.

We also checked out
Bob Dylan's Theme Time Radio Hour. He's spinning some real rare gems on that show. It's actually Dylan's record collection and his crazy ass introducing the songs. One track in particular has got me on the ropes. It's a little piano rock number on the V-Tone label from 1961 by the Bobby Peterson Quintet called Mama Get The Hammer. We may have to cover this song. It's crazy. 1'56" of howling, violence, comedy and blues drama. It features stops and ends on an unresolved chord. How obscure is it? The All Music Guide has NO listing for the recording or the artist! Nor is it possible to purchase it anywhere I can tell. Now that's reason alone to bring it back. The fact that it's a fun number is icing. If the link works, check out this review of the TTRH from NY Times.

It's time to prep the evite for our August 2 show. So, if you are on the mailing list you should be getting the announcement sometime later today. Stay cool and thank the Lord for creating A/C.
Love, Power, Peace

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