Kevin Blair's 2nd Channel

Footage of Panama and or Costa Rica and the high seas, by Henry Stirling Blair, 1930s; with musical accompaniment by Kevin Blair.

Too many quashed expectations and let-downs inspired this song. Life's a road to hoe with hard breaks, if any. They eek out the cracks so easy to fall into. So many quashed expectations and let-downs inspired this song. Life's a road to hoe with hard breaks, if any. They eek out the cracks so easy to fall into. - Kevin Blair "Pipe Dream" Here comes another pipe dream It's caught me in my life stream From early into late stream It's just another pipe dream What a fool I am to scheme Away my life in dreams But the pipes are always clean They never wind up in one's corrupt dreams Someday it's going to be real Without raining a schpeel I'll get all my ducks in a row From all the seeds I sow A smoking pipe dream comes Off someone else's thumbs And the mundane world succumbs Off the tracks of all the papers The impossible dream labors And the train it caters To everything favored: The impossible smoke dream comes Someday I'm going to do things That are up my alley But my alley has to run into The City of God I want my dreams to come true I need God's dreams fused with mine

Wrote this several years ago. A sequencer is used in the rhythm and beat. Experimentation has been much of what I've done in music, with technique, arrangement and composition. This instrumental is no exception! Theirs so much a mind can devise with what's been available over the years in modern technology with synthesizers. And they are fun! Synthesizers are constructed originally to replicate real sounds, and to be an extension of the human brain as any instrument. As technology advances this becomes more a reality and very scary, as artificial intelligence gains more ground in all electronics. I've found it a very enjoyable pastime taking forays into improves and "sundry jamming", as I record. But Its also easy to find oneself alone in an isolated studio, and you have to be careful to not let the creative process drive you too much. Inspiration is better when it leads, rather than when it drives. The world drives you, but what leads and beckons comes from above! And I know that I need to be careful as I proceed. Art of any genre or application should always strive pointing to something greater than oneself. As life becomes more demanding of everyone's time, I find myself alone. There's much less opportunity therefore, to get together and share acquired tastes, talents and abilities, with real love, empathy, and community. Strange now that we have more ability to communicate, humanity is much more isolated from itself. Communication is fumbled so much of the time by malfunctioning cell phones, and messages don't come though. Much of the time, cluttered information needs to be deleted from the device so it can function. But it also seems that malfunction could be intentional by tech-handlers, AI or otherwise worse, to keep communities in the dark with little personal contact and interaction, Preventing discussion and assembly. It's known fact that our conversations are monitored. Could it be more than just monitoring and why? Interesting times we live in! Singing sounded intrusive to this piece as an instrumental, so I reserved the lyric and voice for another recording with the same basic melody, meditating on the Goodness of God and His forgiveness. -Kevin Blair

The Summer Bride: This song's about the death of Princess Diana of Wales. It was written back when she was laid to rest on September 6th, 1991. Its my sentiments on her life and character. I was moved by her beauty, her wedding, and the long train of her gown. She cared about people in a genuine way and left the world better than she found it, along with her ministry and the Diana Trust, and much more. Diana had a very giving spirit, and outshined all the rest of the royal house of Windsor. It was a long, hot summer day in July 1981, travelling through New Mexico when I watched the royal wedding on a drugstore TV. Something about Diana's gown grabbed me. Visuals easily effect me. I'm not usually taken to any royalty, but princess Diana had that wonderful, rare fairy tale mystique of a royal woman that wanted to run away and purposely get lost in order to escape the drudgery of protocols; the imprisonment of extravagance, wealth and fame and boring formalities; and finding true romance outside a forced marriage. Can't find anything about a storyline like that of depth and quality on this wretched internet! I know its out there somewhere on a rare bookshelf. I remember reading it, but the title eludes me. The internet has been ruined by the handlers, for whenever I try to pinpoint something, like a bored princess for example, it can't be found! So very much can't be seen online anymore! One gets mostly revisioned material. And the libraries have sold those old books away. To those who wonder what my expression "the rainbow no longer waits for her shadow" means, I offer this: When we're out watering our garden, we'll see a rainbow in the water mist; right? And our shadow is in front of it. The rainbow is everywhere that sunlight shines. It just takes a water spray to be seen. The spectrum of light is everywhere, even in moonlight (moonbows). Even though we don't see a rainbow, it's still there. Hence, "the rainbow no longer waits for her (or any other deceased person's) shadow". Once, I was riding up the street on my bicycle one day, and I saw a rainbow before me, as though seen in water spray from a hose, but much fainter. It was low humidity that day, and no mist was drifting off the farm fields, for no sprinklers were turned on. The sunlight was behind me, and I, and my shadow were riding toward the rainbow. It was a beautifully strange experience. God is good! So, I hope you all get something good out of the song. - Kevin Blair

High Flying Ball: This is about the excitement and thrill of baseball. I wrote the words when my children were in little league. Baseball was a sort of prism I saw the future life accomplishments of my children through. A bright future. Oh the deep blue sky and the leather-stitched ball's whistle- flight! The New York Yankees! The Los Angeles Dodgers! San Diego Padres! And the humble little town's baseball team! The game exudes an optimism no other sport has. My father almost wound up in major league baseball before World War Two, but the turn of events ceded in his deportment to Europe with the armed forces. He had a bigger fate in protecting this country, and the world, from the greatest tyranny since Napoleon at that time (1944-45). RIP Dad! It'd be wonderful if the criteria of war could be recalibrated somehow, into agreed-upon baseball games, with good sportsmanship driving and overseeing it. It'd be the bees knees! Providence has better ideas and plans. - Kevin Blair