What You Fill Your Head With

I had a realization this evening (Sunday) that was brought home to me while watching something on TV.  When I fill my head with bad thoughts and ideas then I tend to act on those bad thoughts and ideas.  I've found this before, and it may be function of my age and place in life, but I really find that I inhabit a similar space in my head to what I involve myself in the world around me.  I've heard it said before that we create our own reality, and I think this is tied up with what we're reading and talking about and experiencing in our world.  So of late I've tried to fill my time with the music and reading material, entertainment and people that I want represented in my own thoughts and actions.  It works, and it also helps me understand other people better when I see meanness and cruelty. I know this is pretty simple, but I won't argue with success in my own life. Do you see this too?

So what am I up to this week?

Friday I'll be at Magpies 7-10, and I thought it might be fun to do some of my favorite songs from the 1930's. These are tunes that I grew up with, and many are very close to my heart. (I may do a few 1920's and 1940's as well.)  Of course I'll mix in other favorites, so everyone will hear something they like. I may even bring out the old archtop guitar to get the authentic sound of the era. So please come out if you can. 

That's it for this week. Be good to each other, and I hope to see you soon. 

Tom

Details this week:

Who:  Tom Munch

What:  playing & singing

Where:  Magpies, 229 S. Union, Pueblo.  719-542-5522

When:  Friday, April 4, 7-10 pm

Uncertainty of Tomorrow

Life is throwing me some curves again - nothing big, but I'm amazed at how those curves always throw me at first until I get some perspective.  I watch how everyone from friends to big companies and government entities deal with change.  We get this idea that things stay the same more than they change in life, but that really isn't so.  In the past few years we have had so many companies go under or come from nowhere to succeed, and we have had so many friends and loved ones move in and out of our lives or pass on, and somehow we forget these things very quickly.  I guess that's the way we protect ourselves from loss and uncertainty.  The truth is that we really don't know what tomorrow or even the rest of the day will bring.  At first that scares me, but then I see it as a tremendous release just knowing that the world is open to every possibility every single day.  Yes, we seem to live in patterns and habits that we think are set in stone, but the truth is that even these patterns and habits can and do change in very short time.  I actually kind of like the challenge of learning a new pattern or habit and the excitement that the unknown can bring.  I still believe that everything works out in the end - whether in this plane of existence or the next, so I'm never that afraid, and I always have to draw back from my instantaneous fears and remind myself of that.  I hope you do too!

So what does this week bring?

Tonight (Monday) I'm at the La Veta Inn 6-9 for St. Patrick's Day.  It should be a great time!  I'll have my green Fender Strat electric in tow as well as a fine acoustic guitar to accompany all the fun and beautiful Irish songs I know, and I'm wearin' the green, so I'm rarin' to go!  If you're in La Veta tonight please come out!

Friday I'm back at Magpies 7-10, and I'm hankering for John Denver tunes, so I'll be doing a bunch of favorites in my second set - like "Rocky Mountain High," "Country Roads," "Annie's Song," "Back Home Again," "Darcy Farrow," "Lady," "Poems, Prayers, and Promises," and gosh!  That's almost a whole set right there.  I'll sneak in any other favorites you and I might have.  John Denver's music was the first I learned on the guitar and played around the campfire, so I know a bunch!  It should be great fun, and I hope to see you there!

That's enough for this week.  I hope you all are well and happy.  I raise my glass and offer a hearty "Slainte!" (To your health!)

Tom

Details this week:

Who:  Tom Munch
What:  playing & singing
Where:  La Veta Inn, 103 W. Ryus Ave, La Veta.  719-742-3700
When:  Monday (St. Patrick's Day!), March 17, 6-9 pm

Who:  Tom Munch
What:  playing & singing
Where:  Magpies, 229 S. Union, Pueblo.  719-542-5522
When:  Friday, March 21, 7-10 pm

American Music!

I've been doing songs to celebrate Mardi Gras for the last couple of weeks, and it has me thinking about American music, and how much that music was influenced/created by the melting pot of New Orleans and the Mississippi Delta.  What was it about New Orleans that brought about such an exciting creativity?  Was it the mixture of so many cultures - French, Spanish, Indian, English, South American, African?  Undoubtedly, but there must also be something in the water and also the adventure that the river and the sea and the strangeness of that below-sea-level city oozed to make jazz, blues, and eventually country and rock music be either birthed or influenced by that region. Of course European and particularly British music also influenced American music, but you have to know that that fertile delta of the Mississippi made American music what it is today -  especially the African music that favored the blue notes that created blues and jazz.  You can spend a lifetime wrapped up in this music and never get enough of the sultry feeling that music from the region possesses.  It's wonderful!  I hope you can celebrate it too with a little music inspired or created in New Orleans and some cayenne-spiced victuals to round you off.  Laissez les bons temps rouler!  Let the good times roll!

And I'll be celebrating a bunch of wonderful Mardi Gras music at the La Veta Inn 6-9ish on Mardi Gras (Tuesday.)  They're throwing a little party, and I'm going to "bring it" with my best Mardi Gras and party songs.  It's going to be a blast!

Then Friday I'll be at Magpies 7-10 with a few Mardi Gras leftovers and a little Irish music to prime the pump for St. Patrick's Day.  In fact, lets feature Irish tunes for the middle set of the night.  Wow!  I love doing those!  Slainte!  Hope to see you there!

Tom

Details this week:

Who:  Tom Munch
What:  playing & singing for Mardi Gras!
Where:  La Veta Inn, 103 W. Ryus Ave, La Veta.  719-742-3700
When:  Tuesday, March 4, 6-9 pm

Who:  Tom Munch
What:  playing & singing
Where:  Magpies, 229 S. Union, Pueblo.  719-542-5522
When:  Friday, March 7, 7-10 pm