Break Away II

Songwriting is one of those very ethereal, hard-to-explain phenomenons. All I know is that it sure feels good. I just wrote a blues tune the other day about an experience I had on Arizona Interstate Highway 17. I got one of those maddening photo radar tickets. You may already know how that feels. You don’t even realize you’re busted until the $181 ticket shows up in the mail with a picture of your vehicle and your mug in the driver’s seat. God, so infuriating!

However, the silver lining to it all is that this song poured out of me. It happened quickly, as if by Divine Intervention, and “Photo Radar Love” was born. I wrote it in 2 days, recorded it on my handy-dandy Canon Powershot video camera, and immediately uploaded it to YouTube (which means it automatically gets picked up by iLike (a MySpace video property), Google Reader, Twitter and Facebook. Talk about instant gratification!

Here are the lyrics:

PHOTO RADAR LOVE
by Grant Brad Gerver, 12-11-2009

I know I’m being watched, the Man’s a robot on the road
Better watch your speed, and roll with the flow
Going 5 over the limit, but no more than that
If you get careless, a photo stabs you right in the back

Heading down to Phoenix on I-17,
An innocent trip if you know what I mean
Goin’ to see Lynny at Sierra Agency
My foot got the best of me and I proceeded to speed

Photo Radar Love
Photo Radar Love
You’re gonna get caught

Got my baby with me, we throw caution to the wind
We’re gettin’ real close and it ends up skin to skin
Next thing I know, a flash of light crashes through
Snapped me bein’ naughty, what the hell can I do

The speed signs keep a’ changin’ so you better watch your step
Got to slow it down, cuz a photo’s comin’ next
Should I wear a mask, or use binoculars
I try to go the limit, but I tell you I am cursed

Photo Radar Love
Photo Radar Love
You’re gonna get caught

Round the next bend, with no more notice than a sign
Photo radar perches to nail my behind
Didn’t see it comin’ like I wished I would
No way to avert the coming photographic flood

I am law abiding, least I’m on the the right track
But boy it caught me good, red-handed to the max
Breaking the law just ain’t my thing
Now I’m a vehicular criminal caught in a sting

Photo Radar Love
Photo Radar Love
You’re gonna get caught

It’s highway robbery and a state-wide scam
You do your best to comply but one false move, then WHAM!
Cruise control is no sure bet, it can’t read signs
Just when you feel secure, you hit the radar land mine

The State thinks it’s hit the profit pot of gold
The citizens are sitting ducks along the road
I hope some State officials get their pictures taken too
See how they like it when one-eighty-one ($181) comes due

Photo Radar Love
Photo Radar Love
You’re gonna get caught

While I’ve been writing songs for many years, how they come about will always be a mystery to me. You could call songwriting a happy accident, or magic, or some other flaky term, but I try not to question or explain it much. It really just happens. I accept any song that comes my way, and most of all, I am very grateful for the gift that has been given me.

I admit to being a shameless self-promoter, but nothing feels better than when folks actually get to experience for themselves the songs you have written. I hope you’ll give it a listen yourself. With the mind-blowing technological playground in which we live available to us all 24/7, writing songs and having them “out there” for the whole world to hear is just too irresistible. I hope you will follow my lead and create whatever it is that turns you on, whether it be music, art, photography, writing, you name it. Then, display it for all the world to see. It is as rewarding as it is addictive.

Grant Brad Gerver is an entrepreneur and creative consultant for Filibi, a classified and online coupon advertising site and home business. He’s also a YouTube Channel blues singer-songwriter and guitar player with The Buzzard Brothers. Additionally, Grant writes political humor, thousands of bumper stickers, and humorous movie reviews. He has also worked with various companies as a product-naming specialist. He’s a retired elementary school teacher and published children’s author who works in the health care field.

“Da-da-da, my baby left me, da-da-da, ’bout the break of day, da-da-da, she ain’t comin’ back, da-da-da,  nothin’ more to say…”  This could certainly describe our economy these days, couldn’t it? Or, a lost relationship? How about a lost job, home, income, wife, husband, health insurance, etc?

Every human being on the face of the Earth has a right to sing the blues. No matter what your station in life, we all go through times of deep despair. Let me say right now that we also go through times of great happiness, too. But, the human condition is wrought with enough blues-singing material to fill a billion pages.

I’ve been a blues songwriter, singer and performer for years. I didn’t look for the blues. It found me. Turns out that after reading an Eric Clapton interview in the 80′s, I realized that the rock-solid thread running through all the music I liked best was THE BLUES. Thanks, EC! In that interview, Clapton turned me on to Muddy Waters (real name: McKinley Morganfield), and The Undisputed King of the Delta Blues: Robert Johnson.

It is often said that “Blues had a baby and named it ‘Rock and Roll’.” The Beatles had a strong blues foundation as did The Rolling Stones, Jimi Hendrix, Creedence Clearwater Revival, Jefferson Airplane, The Doors (the latter two actually played at my high school in 1968!), The Grateful Dead, Janis Joplin, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Canned Heat, Aretha Franklin, and hundreds of others. That’s what my music is all about.

Nothing feels better than singin’ the blues. It’s a cathartic release of a deep soulful nature. It’s a very spiritual feeling. I am never angry, frustrated or sick of playing the blues when I’m performing them. The fact that I’ve been able to write, record and perform my own compositions with my band, The Buzzard Brothers (of Flagstaff, AZ), is nothing short of miraculous. I could have never dreamed I’d be so fortunate. And, because of this amazing technological age we’re all a part of, I now have my songs on YouTube and iLike, which is a blessing, and a growing addiction (if you look up my name and include YouTube or iLike in a search, you will find me). Please forgive the shameless self-promotion.

I even have the high honor and good fortune to be able to perform at my job working with psychiatric patients at our local regional hospital. A good number of these patients are players themselves. So, we’ll sit and pass the guitar around at impromptu songwriter circles. They get much needed relief from playing our community guitar. It’s one of the most therapeutic tools we have, outside the obvious medical and psychiatric treatment they receive. I also used my guitar continually as a teaching tool during my 30-year career as an elementary school teacher.

For me, no song is worth anything unless somebody hears it. I suppose it validates the song itself. It brings closure. Many closet writers probably don’t need this type of gratification. But, I must confess, I do. The older I get, the more grateful I am to be able to play guitar and sing and lay it all on the line. It doesn’t get any better. It certainly never gets old.

And, while the songs come as if by magic, I never turn one down. If it’s there, I write it. I feel as though I’m compelled and honor-bound to do it. And now, I can throw it right up on YouTube easy as pie. The best investment I’ve ever made, save buying my gem of a guitar (it’s a Martin 00028EC Eric Clapton signature model acoustic), is my Canon Powershot SX10IS still-shot and video camera. What a blast. The kicker is: if I can do it, so can YOU!

The moral of the story is: we all have the blues residing inside us somewhere. If it’s yearning to be released, let it go and let it happen. You’ll never feel so good about feelin’ so bad.

Grant Brad Gerver is an entrepreneur and creative consultant for Filibi, a classified and online coupon advertising site and home business. He’s also a YouTube Channel blues singer-songwriter and guitar player with The Buzzard Brothers. Additionally, Grant writes political humor, thousands of bumper stickers, and humorous movie reviews. He has also worked with various companies as a product-naming specialist. He’s a retired elementary school teacher and published children’s author who works in the health care field.

Boz Scaggs is A Rock and Roll Legend

I have known about Boz Scaggs and admired his music since the days of the Fillmore East back in the 1960′s. His style is very eclectic, ranging from hard rock to blues, pop and country. But his most interesting performance to my ear is the song
With it’s easy going zydeco style beat and instrumentation, the touching lyrics and Boz’s emotional yet laid back vocals, I can listen to “Fly Like a Bird” over and over again.

If you enjoy a great voice, with wonderful songs from a wide range of popular music, then Boz Scaggs is the performer for you. I know of him since back in the sixties, when he opened for many acts such as the Jefferson Airplane, the Grateful Dead, Janis Joplin, as well as his own headliner appearances.

Here’s a collection of some of his finest albums:

Click Here

Did you know that Boz Scaggs knew Steve Miller since the late 1950′s? They were classmates at a private school in Dallas, and Skaggs learned how to play guitar when he was twelve years old. After a while in 1959, he joined Steve Miller’s first band. They parted ways but remained friends, and hooked up again in the psychedlic era, wher Boz sang on Steve’s first two albums.

Boz has had his ups and downs over the years, but not due to the quality of his music or his musicianship. He has a very loyal group of fans (including me!), and he is still touring at least once a year. All in all he is one of the greatest vocalists of popular music.

Zydeco It”s Origins and Influences

Zydeco is a style of music which originated with the African American people of Louisiana, who spoke Creole. It is accordion based, and really came to the fore in the late 1940′s. It is not Cajun music, but it was influenced by Cajun elements, and more recently, by rock n roll, rythym and blues and the blues. One of the earliest Zydeco hits was Clarence Garlow’s hit “Bon Ton Roula, which hit the air waves in 1949.