For Better or Worse

Lookin back on the last twelve months I can see almost nothing that was business as usual. I text my sons if I wanna talk to them! My “touch screen” phone sends me email and tells me where I am currently and how cold it is and shows me pictures of places I won’t be today and where the nearest Starbucks can be found. Of course I don’t go there these days cause I don’t have the budget to cover a cup of coffee.

I’m a newlywed at Fifty Six! Raising two teenage daughters! Well I’m throwing money at the problems anyway. I wrote two books and had one published. My first acknowledgement that music might not be a sustainable compensation. My fingerprints are on file at the police station too. A true sign that I’m still not above the law and spiritual insights don’t always translate to appropriate behavior.

It feels like I’m changing horses in the middle of a stream. It’s uncomfortable sometimes but then there is a real sense of adventure again that I didn’t see coming.

I’m not sure the new Social Media circus I’ve joined is not corrupting my writing skills. The punch line has to come before the joke can be told. It comes with a realization that nobody pays attention to anything for more than a few seconds. I signed up for FaceBook and Twitter, posting everyday in hopes of rebuilding visibility for my work.

I tend to judge my worth by number of comments on my sites. Still lookin for validation in the wrong places perhaps. I read more books this year than ever but missed my goals by half.

I bought a car that I don’t drive. Lost all my back memory on Computer to a theft. “old things are passed away because I didn’t back it up”. I’ve tripled the list of co laborers I know by first and last name.

I book most of my own shows and handle my own travel. I write and produce and look for true synergy. I started a non profit public charity for Radio Rehab. I’ve gone from “Singer/songwriter” to “content provider” in a single year.

The good news is, no body I know well died this year! (though a couple of friends tried). I’m still reasonably functional too, still walkin which became a problem several months back. I’m old enough to worry about not recovering from a health set back. I only got sick once. which is still once more than usual for me. But I watched my dad suffer a stroke and fight with Alzheimer’s at the same time. A not too subtle message of preparation for what comes before eternal life!

Amazing Grace continues to be my favorite song. I’m discouraged about my sphere of influence though it might be greater in a tighter arena. Most of the things I worried about this year didn’t happen. I still live in a spectacular home even though it is rented. And that is something to thank God for in this world of foreclosures.

I hope that I appreciate what others do for me, more than I have in the past. That success truly does have many fathers. “It’s a Wonderful Life” continues to remind me that friends are where the real wealth is. And the strength of family should not be discounted. And it all comes as a result of sacrificial giving first and placing the needs of others above our own is the only true way to survive.

I’m old enough to dream dreams that I might not realize but young enough to crave a vision for what I still might do that is a contribution to sanity in this life.

Disaster’s have a way of clearing a path for a new way of seeing the world. Hardship really is the pathway to peace. Thank God for a little more time: A new year with a new agenda is on the horizon. Seize the moment.

What Am I Gonna Do Now?

I was reminded this weekend of a scene in Forrest Gump. Where leuitenant Dan is laying on the floor, his legs lost to the war. And he says “what am I gonna do now?”

I had a miraculous intervention this month in last minute gigs that made the difference in the outcome of Christmas for my family. I sang through the flu to make it happen. And God showed me the real celebration of Christmas. It’s the beginning of “Divine Intervention”.

“God often speaks to us directly through the circumstances we are in” I told the Jubalee crowd on sunday morning. “Sometimes God’s direction is seen as more of an inconvenience” at least in the way I react.

But in my ‘affirmities’ I felt a connection to all who are facing a different kind of Christmas this year. It seems everyone is facing a tighter budget and leaner times. But hardship has a way of sharpening our focus that I believe is unopposed by God himself. It is something of an unwanted opportunity for personal and spiritual growth.

And I opened my presentation with “what a wonderful world”! God has a plan. and we miss it because of the obstacles often. “I think to myself” has to come first in this song. It has to. I can see a wonderful world with a deeper thought process.

In the Serenity Prayer it adds, “accepting hardship as a pathway to peace” . Peace is easier sung about than posessed. Even on the advent of celebrating the birth of the Prince of Peace. I’d rather have it than sing about it for that matter.

And as I “Came home for Christmas ” this week I had that along with a wonderful gratitude for home and family and the satisfaction of making ends meet (with a little help from God’s friends and himself)
Merry Christmas to all I say… make the best of your circumstances and look for the gifts in the hardships. they are there… ‘wrapped beneath our tree’.

Nobody Falls Into The Christmas Spirit

I planned to take my motorcycle to Prescott, Az. for a christmas “recovery” show at the Heights Church.
That was until I discovered it was snowing there. I try to avoid the airports these days because of the incredible hassle as well as the cost in travel. But upon climbing into my truck, I discovered my windsheild wipers were not funtional! (we don’t use em much in Cali).

So I rented a little Cobalt to drive out. It’s a kid car really. you gotta hand lock all the doors! it was still bigger than row 36 on Delta! And I got to leave when I was ready! The Scenery through the desert is always fantastic. There’s a silence out there that is almost “deafening”.

It’s hard not to hear God’s voice in the wilderness when there are no distractable noises. I needed a little quiet time too. Life this year has been screaming at all of us I think. Somehow I thought when you got older trials would ‘level off’.

You see old people sittin on the porch in a rocker and they look so peaceful. Turns out they are just plain numb from living!

Prescott was the perfect gig to go to. Christmas at Celebrate Recovery! Nobody’s all that happy to be there! And Christmas seems a little ironic. At one point I was singing “and I think to myself… what a wonderful world”… and realized that it really is a point of reference in our thought life that makes the difference in Merry Christmas and “Misery” Christmas.

“No body falls into the Christmas spirit” I told the 12 stepper’s. But I was really talkin to myself on this gig. I’ve had to choose to see “whatsoever is good” … and “think on these things”. Only then can God fill in the holes we all know are there!

I passed alot of “Arizona Christmas Trees” on the way to my next gig near the boarder of Mexico in California. And I was aware of one thing…I was mostly at peace about my life, when it came down to just me and God. I wasn’t worryin about what I needed to get done or where the next check might come from.

For me this weekend? I think my prayer closet was a “Cobalt”, by Chevy.

All Biscuits and Gravy

Don’t know when my life changed exactly but this weekend was a fine example of a reversal of fortune. All my gigs were in the morning. It used to be that Friday and Saturday night went into the early morning but they started at night at least.

Saturday I had a blessed little biker blessing event to sing at. Sponsored by my own Black Sheep chapter. It was a bike blessing and they served a Biscuits and Gravy breakfast. I was drinking the cravy from a bowl after my presentation. It was that good.

I got the idea to bring my bike hauler and use it for a little stage. It was a perfect set up for a parking lot concert. My friend Derek Hughes set up a tight little p.a. system to and I parked a sweet Harley in front of the stage for effect.

Bikers are a flighty lot and I expected em to be rolling out quickly but as I played my most uptempo material, and added three Christmas blues tunes they mostly hung around til the very end.

I sold more NehoSoul Christmas CD’s than HOGWASH books which was a surprise.

What can I say this gig was all gravy for this old biscuit. I left thinking about bringin my own stage set up all the time and just playin in parking lots. At least there’s no line at the door!.

Sunday Morning I played the tiniest little church in Montclair “Church In The Oaks”. Inside was the most intimate of church settings. Felt like a glorified attic! with carpet and vaulted ceiling. It was remarkably comfortable. So sound proof that they needed little in the way of P.A.

This was a “partnering with pastors” service. Done in a conversation with the local pastor. It went so well conversationally that I only played five songs.

There has been a flow in my “content” on stage as a direct result of personal hardship that I can only attribute it to Divine design. The message is built around Psalm 119:71 “the sufferings you sent, were good for me”… I had a new story example for every song this morning. I included my feelings about my son leaving a Christmas card for me last year. and when I sang: “I would like to say.. just before I leave you”…. from “I love you with my life”. there were tears all around.

The moment was so powerful that I had to end with this song and let that moment linger. The whole message was about seeing difficult people as the ‘God sends’ that they are. Because usually its the same people close to you that bring you joy if you persevere.

I was done by noon. Driving home I thought about the things I’ve tried to make happen vs the things God surprised me with. and I can see that He is plowing a different field with me. One I have continually overlooked in my search for something “bigger”.

The Christmas Card Story

It was a wonderful Christmas despite the noticeably fewer gifts all around last year. My sons were over on Christmas night. Devin particularly is entertaining all by himself but I was aware with a call before he came over that he was embarrassed about not having any money to purchase gifts. It was to the point he was reluctant to join us in the opening of presents.

We’d cleaned up all the discarded wrapping and were wrapping up the evening. Devin was the last to leave. We walked him out to his car and said our goodbyes. When my wife and I came back in, I noticed an envelope lying on the floor beside the tree. Thinking I’d missed some trash I was headed to the waste paper basket when I realized it had been unopened.

There was no name on it. Inside it simply read: TO: Dad, Thanks for being so awesome. you’re such a talented person and I’m proud to say I’m your son. Sorry I didn’t have any real presents this year, …I may pick you up stuff once I get covered! I love you and thanks for everything.

He went on to write personal letters to my wife and her daughters pointing out simple thoughts and feelings about each of them. But he didn’t want to be there when we opened it probably thinking it would be dismissed as a “nice” gesture.

I wasn’t prepared for the wave of emotion that swept over me in that moment. Suddenly everything about Christmas changed. I never thought I could have such strong feelings for my kids and the gift they are all by themselves. Especially when they suddenly shine through the heart like that. It was just pure sincerity that topped all the gifts I don’t remember now.

Just words! ? unpoetical, nothing clever or humorous even…. just heart felt! And I have never seen him the same since. This Christmas I think I’ll just share my heartfelt words too. You can’t put a price on what sticks in your heart.

Nifty Noodles - Stryping The House

Monday night looked more like a Saturday night at Disneyland. House of Blues was packed, standing room only for the 25th anniversary of Christian Metal Band "Stryper". I made the 40 minute trip down. Not because I needed a douse of way back then. I'd never seen a Stryper show in their heyday as it was also my own. I too played every week and musically we weren't likely to find ourselves on the same stage ever.

But in the last six years I've met each of the band members in other situations. Tim Gaines even playin with the NehoSoul Band. Oz Fox lives in So. Cal. and Michael Sweet shared the stage with me as a presenter at the Dove Awards a few years ago. Robert has given me an in-depth conversation about the "art of visual time keeping".

Last night there were no pot bellied, balding Rock Stars on stage though. It was like a new and improved version. They came off strong, energetic and delivered a blistering set of their highlight metal meyhem, including an accurate cover of "Take A Look Around" by Boston.
The twin guitar leads we're unbelievably precise. I knew that Oz Fox could play but Michael Sweet too had fantastic musical delivery. Together they were two hammers on a white hot blade. And I begin to realize that these guys we're revelling in what they were born to do. They were cooking with no cobwebs in the kitchen!

I sat there thinking "these guys are gonna do this for 16 weeks on the road..nearing their 50'S !!!??? I was proud to know em all. And to have been a contemporary in Christian Music too, twenty five years ago.

Nifty Noodles - My "Community Services"

Two gigs this weekend and still home on sunday! I like it. I got to take my wife to the private Birthday party for a 50 year old fan of my music. Interesting too his name was Kieth Green!

it was a costume party and all the dead musicians were there! I felt a little uncomfortable coming dressed as “Myself”. it was also being held in a senior citizen’s facility!

Chris Henson put the party on and went out of his way to make this outrageous. And by nine oclock I was on a private date with my wife in Laguna Hills.

Saturday night came to early by five thirty it’s dark already this time of year. If one is going to the “Road House Biker Church” one must pull up on a motorcycle! at least that is my take.

I had to dawn full riding leather for this one. the ride home was in 53 degree weather! not cold for some of ya.. but real close to when I trade a bike in for a cage!.

Road House is an awesome little saloon feel meets little country church meets old fashioned tent revival. original wooden pews, swinging doors, and all fresh cut wood interior.. I think a saw dust floor what have taken me back to my early childhood.

It was great to get back to what I do best. after this week I might have forgotten that I actually do ‘community service” for free all the time! and I am more passionate about it now.

O.k. So ‘moving on’… bryan d

Nifty Noodles - On The Front Row of My Own Redemption

I’m still not sure why I felt compelled to air my mistakes on line. I’ve spent 40 years in a career where you hide the ugly stuff about yourself. And in the public world you deny any wrong doing and defend your position of righteousness. (and we all hate that too).

My label did a great job of it back in the nineties. And I was unhappy that I couldn’t be the person we were projecting to the public. Even now after 17 years of working recovery, I thought to myself, this can’t be happening to me, look who I am.

It’s a sign that denial still floats around in my own head. I am not the savior of the world nor do I have that capacity. In court yesterday, I was just another old white guy who attacked a sweet innocent minor. That too is a label we’re all comfortable with because we’ve all heard of too many outrageous abuses of minors and elders alike.

I have watched the kids in my neighborhood growing up over the past three years. They are often unsupervised and out running a muck. I work out of my home so I get a front row seat. And even as I talk of unconditional love that God has for everyone I would find myself struggling with what I cannot change in my own neighborhood.

Drug use is very high in this upscale neighborhood. I’ve found drug paraphernalia in my planters and beer cans and just loads of litter and cigarette butts. And I would resent what I could not do about it. I came home to find my doghouse on fire one time and my vacuum cleaner melted next to it. I never did get the whole story about that. Then there’s the patio furniture with the legs burned off and the broken glass on the driveway and things gone missing from my garage. No one knows anything about it of course.

And I begin to suspect every kid in the neighborhood, I’m feeling old and stupid and under personal attack. And suddenly the loud music coming from the next kid car rollin down the street is a personal offense. Kids, with that beligerant smirk as they pass you, knowing you can’t pin anything on em.

I finally called the police on one occasion showing them the drug materials that end up in my yard on the corner of the street. They gave me a card with tips on how to get along with my neighbors! There’s no way to get a conviction without proof of who’s committing the offense. Mean time I’m tryin to have a nice life without the interruptions.

In remarrying five months ago I instantly inherited two teenage girls. And suddenly I felt responsible to protect them from the hordes of guys that hang around. And to a 56 year old man with almost no personal experience in parenting (as I was continually on the road when my kids were growing up) I saw “vagrants!”, “trouble makers” with no jobs and dressed funny for the times, and listening to music I don’t get. One kid I talked to this year on my porch, was in an accident the next night in which one of the girls he had in his car was killed.

Suddenly I’m overwhelmed with the enormity of possible scenarios. And I felt absolutely powerless with my little songwriting career and music kids wouldn’t listen to if you forced it on em.

I’ve had several attempted conversations with a number of kids on my better days. Even taking the kid I grabbed on a motorcycle ride once cause he was into bikes. Offering to grease the chain on his little scooter once. Inviting them over for dinner. I’ve tried to get my head around the struggle that it is to be an adolescent. But relationships with teenagers is a wild ‘careening off of the guardrails” experience that I’m not at all accustomed to.

I spent my life performing my little ritual on stage and talking about the deeper things. Each song resolving in three to five minutes. And I felt like I had some control in my world.

The argument with the boy in question started over trash in my yard, I’m not sure he was even responsible for most of it. But his language in addressing me was not to my liking especially when he called me an “old man”. That lack of respect (that might not have been earned in the first place) at that moment, triggered a response in me that I wasn’t even aware was possible. I was personally trying to fight off my own powerlessness. I grabbed him at the shoulders in anger and held him for a few seconds until realizing that I was out of bounds in my own response. I let go and walked away. apologizing to him and his parents an hour later. I reported the incident to the police immediately following, knowing that to lay hands on a minor is against the law.

When the police arrived they talked with me and then the parents, who decided to file charges. It was their impression that I choked him. I don’t’ think my neighbors were even aware of how tough the law would come down on me. I believe they were surprised at the outcome. I certainly was.

I drove home from the courthouse in disbelief and astonishment. They didn’t know the whole story but then maybe I don’t either. I failed to see the accumulation of little offenses that led up to the bigger one. I stood on my front sidewalk talking to the very kid I engaged two months ago within an hour of getting home. I was almost in tears. Because this kid is struggling for his life much like I am. He was afraid to talk to me my daughter told me. So I went outside and called him over because I believe in redemption. I hold no intentional animosity toward him or his family but I do hold myself responsible for my actions that are wrong.

I talked with my wife about the whole disaster of a day when she got home. And on my back porch I’m just a man who’s tryin to figure out how to live in my own neighborhood and be a light somehow to the power of God’s redemption in me. And I am broken because that light is often unplugged. And I’m heartbroken at my example to a new generation that doesn’t hear me or see me for that matter.

It is easy for me to discount my own life’s work because of one wrong thing because truly that must be the tip of the iceberg in the resentments I ignore. What follows is a feeling of ” I can’t measure up” to the man I’m supposed to be. And I am angry with that! It is what put me in rehab 19 years ago!

But in driving home, considering the circumstances I find myself in, I felt God saying, “I have a plan in all of this”… “for Good and not for evil”!
“trust me”. “Great things will come of this.” This is what life is always about “overcoming your failures” “moving past your mistakes” and “promptly admitting when you are wrong”. It’s easier to spend your time defending your position with the good things you’ve done to offset the darkness. But I am reminded that “my primary purpose in life is to serve as a monument to God’s grace” according to Oswald Chambers. I’d rather look like the Hero in the story. But Jesus is the hero. I’m the one he rescues! I keep forgetting that.

I’m embarrassed that I am posting all this, but this is my story and I can’t deny that. I worry about how it will effect my career as are others. But for some reason I want this to be a statement of truth about who I really am. And why I need a savior not just once in my lifetime so that I can talk about the goodness of God. No, this is everyday life, where I need to resolve my resentments and anger about the sinful world that this is, and find serenity for what I cannot change and still find the courage to change the things I can! (mostly my own disposition).

I’m sure this sounds like a ‘tempest in a teapot” in the light of all that goes on in the world. I’m looking forward to the 16 weeks I will spend in Anger Management. The insights will be a contribution to my well being. The Sheriffs Dept was very accommodating to me in letting me come in one day a week to serve my sentence. and I look forward to the opportunity to serve the community even from this position.

I can only imagine whom God might place in my path to share my story with. It’s not the big stage and the spot light but that isn’t where real life is. Pontification is always the easy part but no redemption will come of that. It only comes with reflection about who I truly am and what I am capable of doing in the wrong direction. I may be on the front row of my own redemption for change.

“don’t sin by letting anger control you”…. Ephesians 4:26

thanks for letting me share…. bryan duncan

Nifty Noodles - Candy Bash On A Flatbed

It was Halloween weekend and my head was missing. I forgot my cell phone battery charger, lost the keys to my bike, had to park it in the sanctuary overnight cause I couldn’t lock it up. Forgot to bring the phone number to hook up with the CMA crew who met me at the Grapevine to ride the final two hours up the 99 north.

Eight bikers showed up to ride in. I had a great time with them. Made the four hour trip a lot shorter. Thanks to George Esparza.

Played on a flatbed outdoors for a candy bash. Came on after a really good progressive metal band. Guitar player and drummer were spectacular. Guitarist did a Joe Satrianni piece that was impressive.

It was candy night of course and I was full of it! Humor went over well too.

Sunday came an hour late but everyone was at church on time for a change. I brought an hour of the service. Ken Rasmussen might have trusted me too much!

Great and humble folks at Valley Life, and that sanctuary was the perfect music hall.

I ran into two hundred HOG members at the grapevine coming home and discovered that several had already read the HOGWASH book cover to cover!

Jezebel was in a great mood ridin home in the pale moonlight.

Nifty Noodles - Whirlwind In The Desert

I can see why Jesus spent so much time in the desert. Pretty much free of distraction! Doesn’t mean that the wind doesn’t kick up though. I heard a guy talkin about “raining mud’ in Arizona. “there’s so much dust in the air sometimes that when it rains it turns the dust into little mud drops before it hits the ground!

The ride from Riverside to Surprise Arizona for a friday night bike/recovery event at Radiant Church took ten hours! It’s still not close to “winter” in Az. and the heat has a way of draining the fluids out of your body without being noticed.

Dehydration is recognized in a delirious fuzziness and fatigue when you get off the bike. I was there by six p.m. as I pulled into a parking lot filled with motorcycles and music.

I struggled to sing but the air was so dry I found myself backing off the high notes just to insure I could get to the end of the set. It was a giddy experience and I was supposed to be offering my recovery testimony, but somehow it didn’t feel “safe” to be that honest.

I focused on pointing out that having a relationship with God does not keep you from addiction. Part of the process of redemption is overcoming your fears and sometimes in facing life we run! It doesn’t mean that God isn’t actively guiding us. (of course I just said that better now than then)

Saturday morning came too soon with a concert and Hogwash Book signing at the Harley Dealership in Chandler. The whole thing was put on by Tom Anthony of Black Sheep HDFC. From 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. I hung out talking to bikers and employees and old friends, including a resurrected Rich Davis and his wife, who manned the book table all afternoon.

I followed a biker band called HAWG WILD. They did great covers of classic biker approved tunes, including a killer version of “Mississippi Queen” . The singer was perfect for these cuts!

Following that was not a comfortable thought for me. Bringing unfamiliar tunes in a style that isn’t quite the norm for “call of the wild”. With the help of eucalyptus lozenges I was able to bring power vocals to “Papa Ain’t Gonna Quit” and “I love you so”. but the stage was set up facing the parking lot and everyone listening was behind me in on the patio in the shade!

I signed books around 3p.m. and we sold more books than music! Bikers are a shifty lot, and aren’t known to hang around long but this afternoon there was never less than a hundred people milling about even with several riding clubs coming and going throughout the day.

It was like singing at a drive thru frankly. I was continually distracted all day so much so that I later discovered that someone had handed me a “Gift card” worth 250. dollars for purchases at the local dealers. I didn’t check it till later thinking it was a business card and put it in a stack I’d recieved all day. Talk about looking a gift horse in the mouth. So really: thanks to whomever that was!

I bought some night riding glasses and a couple of things for Jezebel. I haven’t put so much as a refrigerator magnet on my bike in the last year. I spend most of my “Motorcycle money” keepin Jez running.

And thanks to the mechanic at Chandler Harley for stayin overtime to fix my friend James’ bike so we got ride home on sunday morning! We “sewed to the wind” so to speak and reaped the whirlwind on the way home. High winds had us changing lanes alot and stopping to tighten our chin straps.

Nifty Noodles - Singin In The Wildwood

Singin In The Wildwood…. East Moline, Ill.

I was a little confused this weekend. The hotel was in Iowa, the gig was in Illinois about ten minutes away. Wildwood Baptist Church is on the opposite bank of the Mississippi. I watched the sun come up on river sunday morning after seeing these great black and white photos in the lobby of Riverboats parked at this very landing over a hundred years ago.

For a moment just before sunrise it could have been 1867. “Someday I’ll be in a black and white photo in a lobby somewhere” I thought “probably a picture of me standing out front of a hotel waitin for a ride”

I didn’t think I made much of an impression at the sunday morning services after singing two songs. But at the concert that night I discovered that “Iowans are just really relaxed” even if they live in Illinois! You can see the real back bone of America here in the midwest. Great folks as soon as they start talkin. Polite and casually reserved in presenting themselves. Hence I was feeling like a bull in a china shop!

But when it got right down to it, I was reminded before going on to sing in the evening, something I read on twitter. “How you make someone feel might be remembered long after all you say and do is forgotten”. And I set out to make connections a little stronger by starting in the lobby shakin hands. I had a better sense of who I was singing too this weekend for that reason. And it felt like home even if there were cornfields next door. I shared a little more of my personal redemption than I usually do. I’m comfortable where I am in my own skin. I think it’s what makes me feel less like a stranger in new places too.

I saw parts of Iowa and southern Illinois I don’t recall making note of in the past. I look forward to a return visit.

Nifty Noodles - Father n Son Duet

My son Devin has been singin my songs along with me for most of his life. He sang "Short People" with me once on stage and I wrote a song with him in his early years on the guitar. But his music taste is far from my own and his approach vocally is quite different from mine.

I always saw myself as too "old school" for his interest but he surprised me two months ago in saying he goes back to my songs for "motivation" in his acting. "yer dad's songs cover all the emotions" he said someone told him. He's an entertainer for sure and passionate about lyrics and or scripts. He was playin me Jason Mraz tunes all the way down to the studio and singing every word.

He sang in the children's choir on "Christmas is Jesus" project some twenty years ago. But yesterday was a first in that he is featured in the opening verse! "the tape doesn't lie" I laughed with him as he heard is early pitch problems in the quick passes with the track. He didn't seem nervous at all but on the mic he struggled with the melodies and my particular phrasing.

So we let him sing along to my demo vocal track of the melody and he was spot on! it even sounded interesting to hear, in the first chorus, him in the foreground with his dad in the background singing unison. We kept it!

There were some moments where, as he sang the same notes with me, it sounded like the same voice in a remarkable doubling effect. You couldn't tell it was two people some 31 years apart in age.
The duet vocal parts in the song are not exact or perfectly streamlined but I kinda liked it being a little rough around the edges it feels right when you think of a father son relationship. On the harmonies in this song.. I'm just pushin everything hard and he's kinda floatin along! 8)... typical father son interaction.

His voice is softer and he doesn't hit notes with the kind of "aggression" his old man does. But it speaks to me of his comfort-ability with who he is. As I sang the "father's verse" and chorus there is a line that says "and I see as a father... the proudest father's son"... it took me three passes to sing it without choking up!

The song does not really reach the depth of emotions that I was feeling and that bothers me a lot. It might not be the song I would have written for my own experience with my sons! and I left with a heaviness about the regrets I have of being gone so much when my boys were young.

Devin was buoyant, if not almost indifferent after the five hours we put in. "I'm gonna make a hat and print on it" he smiled as I dropped him at his car.."today is a good day for humble pie!"
He won't need that hat when he hears the final production!

Nifty Noodles - Son Wants To Sing

My youngest son, Devin Alan, asked me, rather timidly, if he might sing with me on a duet that I wrote for the Imperials last year. (they never recorded it). I was flattered out of my mind! My kid wants to sing with his old man? I would be honored! I'm embarrassed that I never once thought of recording this song myself.

But now with my own father's health precarious, I'd like to do this for him and my own "offspring". Devin is a singer/songwriter/actor which means he's also working at the bowling alley between casting calls. 8) (I know the 'starving artist' thing pretty well myself).

Today I booked Jasmine Sound studio in San Clemente, Ca.. And I will meet my 25 year old halfway! He's comin from downtown L.A. and me? I'm in the Desert. I'll take pics and we'll see if we have something we want to offer to the public... or maybe just for family and friends!

Nifty Noodles - Icing on the Cake

Promoter/pastor/psychologist: Jesse Sena invited me back to Pueblo again but this time offered to fly my wife out for a little RnR. We took him up on it. My first “Fly Date” with my wife. She traveled better than I thought she would. Of course a three day trip requires an 80 lb. suitcase!

We got there a day early to find freezing temperatures and I was thinking maybe I should have packed a little heavier too. Still we strolled the Riverwalk and the antique side of town. Watched it snow a little, and spent time at a local spa. She was in heaven there.

Saturday, I stopped by the Outpost Harley Davidson Dealer. We tried to line up an official HOGWASH signing event but could not make that happen on short notice. So I dropped a book by the owners office and drooled on a few bikes. And I found some summer riding gloves “half off”. The place was packed mostly for the “heated suit” sale.

The icy cold weather might have been a deterrent for some. But the concert at the Performing Arts Center downtown came off in top flight fashion. Great concert venue and a very intimate setting. “I played em all the old stuff”. I threw in several new guitar driven tunes and finished with the latest from Still Dancin’. I talked alot too.. about the changes in my life and how amazing it is that God sometimes has to pull the rug out from under you to give you something better.

Concerts for me these days come with a great deal of personal insight. “I’m one of those who’ve been there and done that” I told someone back stage. There is an overall lack of a ‘need to impress’ now a days. Presentations feel more like an afterglow, talking about adjusting to new changes, and what God is like to me now. I see the audience more like a group of fellow survivors of hardships and misunderstandings of by gone days.

Gone is that hero worship, celebrity impression, and show off arrogance. The fact was Pueblo was a living room experience from top to bottom. The songs were the stories of my journey to date. And I met real people. I almost invited six of the singers with the opening band, on stage to sing with with me. (they were singing along anyway) the local talent was great!

Sunday morning I made a surprise visit to a local pentecostal flag waving church. The pastor, a transplant from Southern California, gave me most of the service after introducing me as part of his own testimony of salvation and discovery of music to live by. And the feeling was pretty much the same as the night before. Relaxed, insightful, surprising even to me. I offered an unassuming service to a local body of believers.

On the way to the airport in Colorado Springs we drove through the Garden of the Gods, a spectacular assortment of free standing other worldly rock formations. all the trees were tinseled with ice, giving it that almost Christmas feel.

The jokes on the way to the airport were non stop and the laughter never stopped. It was that healing kind of celebration that is so good for the soul. It never felt like work to me. How honored I am to still do what I have done for most of my life. Especially seeing the value from a higher perspective than ever before. I am truely grateful for the untold blessings of a life enriched with insight and perspective.

Nifty Noodles - Dear God...Book Update

I received the first drafts of the book cover for “Dear God.. Really?”. They were drastically different in approach than what I had in my mind.

Developing a cover that represents the content well, might be harder than writing the book! Sheila Cowley and Brett Eddy are pulling the ideas together, trying to make it appeal to the more fickle public.

But these are not the prayers of a younger person. They are the often ill informed and frustrated one sided ranting of an exhausted believer, all too familiar with the limitations of religion when it comes to a true intimate relationship with a personal friend in God. And though they are funny in a sarcastic way, they are filled with disappointment, anger and resentment for what the ‘speaker’ cannot change in life.. mostly “other people”.

The titles would suggest it in little 250 word “devotionals”, “Dear God… I need you to Kill someone”, or “My forgiveness isn’t working” and “I’ll be right back”… but also there are the lighter moments when you realize yer actually having conversations with an all knowing friend… “I suggest we do away with Mondays”.. and “You Fish?”… or “Do You Believe In Atheists?”… and a personal honesty you have with someone you know is safe to talk to… “When can it be about me?”.

This book reminds me of one of my favorite reads of all time, by Elizabeth Brown, “Living Successfully With Screwed Up People”. Her cover looks like a “goofy” humor book but really she is dead serious!

Dear God.. really was turned down by virtually every Christian publishing entity, though it had the interest of Random House and a couple others. I suggested to Brett that we put an “endorsement” comment on the back from the editor of New Christian Voices..” uuuh… I think we’re gonna pass on this one”.

I get that sarcasm is not a popular way to go when speaking to a sincere Christian public… without the tone of voice it can easily be misunderstood. I don’t know why I feel like I have to paddle against the flow of tried and true formulas but I am encouraged by other Authors like Donald Miller, Paul Young, Anne Jackson and Mike Foster, who are demonstrating a cutting edge in Christian thought.

Any way we’re looking at a cover idea involving a disheveled older guy struggling to talk into a can with a string on it!

I will post the final look when we have it! … stay tuned.

Nifty Noodles - So Santa Says To Jesus...

In a video clip during the service at Discovery Church in their “bank takeover” new building, Santa Claus is talkin to Jesus Christ.. “I’m alot like you” says Santa…”I give everybody gifts”… “I wouldn’t call that a miracle though, Jesus says ” I heal people and raise the dead”

Santa Claus “I can turn water into wine” … Jesus “no I don’t think you can”…

Santa Claus (looking rather sheepish) “No…but I want to”!

Welcome to “Discovery” church. first time a played here a decade ago… they were havin church in a theater, The Exorcist was playin next door!

Since then they’ve met in more locations than the early church in the days of persecution. “Discovery was really about finding the location” I said sunday. “I finally got a GPS just for this gig”.

Pastor JD Pearing was more relaxed than I’ve ever seen him. “I finally have a home base” he smiles. “everytime we have a grand opening for a new site we have Bryan Duncan” he tells the faithful. “He should probably be a member by now”.

“It’s a grand opening” he tells me “so try to do some happy songs”… “that narrows down my list by two thirds” I tell him… so I play the old standard happy singalong stuff mostly: Clap yo Hands, It gets Better, Still Dancin… and I close the service with Maybe I’m Amazed.

people coming early for the second service said I was singing that same song on the Christian Radio Station when they pulled up. Nice timing.

Two services sunday morning and I was driving the worlds smallest rental car back to Sacramento Airport to Go home. This is the way I like to roll frankly! Not alot of down time on the road anymore.

Nifty Noodles - Synopsis in a Bandshell

Imagine if you will the location for the filming of MTV’s Spring Break at Daytona Beach. Erase that weekend and replace it with “Recovery Month” put on by Stewart Marchmam Act. Now you have a picture of the “follow thru”. They should be put back to back perhaps.

SMA has been around for thirty years. The NehoSoul Band was invited to do a concert on the beach yards from the finish line of the very first Daytona 500 race.

The Daytona Beach Band Shell looks to be a relic from a lost civilization, only transplanted to the current “mardi Gras” looking surroundings of Daytona Beach.

Saturday night there were some 3000 people there to celebrate recovery. O.k. there were alot of onlookers from the bar too! and the balconies of the 16 floor hotel towering over the band shell.

The heat even at 7 p.m. when we started playin, was stifling. I found myself pouring cold water over my head during the performance. which included a spontaneous combustion, on my part, of off the charts dancin around during one of the blistering grooves the Neho Soul Band always lays down.

Dancing, for a 56 year old with bad knees,(while wearing motorcycle boots) is near suicide in normal weather. But Daytona has the humidity factor of an African Jungle.

The day after came with the kind of punishment that an old man deserves for tryin to live up to his past.

I was clearly finished physically after the three hour motorcycle run that was part of the event. Some 200 motorcycles rolled under escort from ten Motorcycle cops, stopping traffic at every intersection. I could get used to that.

The scenery was surprising in variation, I wasn’t aware some of it existed in Florida. That canopy of trees and Black Water swamp was like a New Orleans movie setting.

What was familiar was the flat land and the sandy roadsides, tall pines towering over lush tropical vegetation, and that humidity drawn from frequent rain showers serving up a deceiving momentary relief.

The recovery ride finished at the Band Shell. Bikers lined the sidewalk with their motorcycles next to the beach to watch two bands, a dance team, and a motorcycle stunt show.

The whole event brought large numbers of curious bystanders and tourists. It was the kind of set up that I always hope for in presenting music. An event that captures the ears of the unsuspecting. When you can stop someone on the sidewalk because of the presentation and hold them there without all the hype and marketing you know you have something special.

k so there’s that. in a band shell… bryan d

Nifty Noodles - Sailing Over The Grapevine

Six hours north of me and straight up the old 99 is the town of Madera. Forty minutes above Fresno (which still might not help you find it), is an outpost of the central California farming community. The Cornfields and the Cotton were ready for harvest. It’s mostly a boring run on a motorcycle especially when the ride is solo. California farming is not what you visualize when you think of the state. But there are miles of almond groves and orchards. Its the other kind of fruits and nuts that are cultivated in California. Add to that Vineyards, and Cattle for milk and Cheese, Asparagus, Beets, and Garlic, and you have the makings of nothing to take a picture of.

Madera is an old original whistle stop with the remnants of the wild west still standing between 7-11’s. The wooden water tower next to the rails looks like Knott”s Berry Farm. Quaint deco style gas stations have been converted to grease monkey hang outs and the place to get those cool rims for your low rider.

Roger Leach has been a frontier pastor here for 22 years. “my church is mostly third generation hispanic families. The grandchildren of migrant farm workers” the pastor shares at dinner saturday night. “Roger never made me feel like an outsider” says ex gang member and cholo Sam Cortez. “I hated white people” he says but I always loved Sam Cooke music and somebody gave me one of your records back in the day” he told me after the service.”Jesus spoke to me through this soul music from a white guy” he smiles. “Got me through some hard prison time too” he added tearfully. “don’t ever stop what yer doin man”.

Valley West Christian Center was a fresh spring on sunday morning. I read Oswald Chambers before riding through the little town to the church on the other end. “God will give us communion with people we have no natural affinity for” I read. The timeliness of the insight in devotions has always made me realize there are no coincidences.

I took Hogwash books with me too. Though I thought “no farmers are gonna buy this book”. But there were at least thirty bikers who rolled up in the parking lot. Again, God plans ahead and doesn’t tell me about it. I rode to the Black Bear Diner with em after church, all members of “CMA” Christian Motorcycle association. It felt like family.

In the scope of “Great things to do for God”, from an earthly perspective, Madera would not stand out on the poster of impressive places to play music. But God taps me on the shoulder as I’m riding home over “the grapevine” and says, “have you considered my servant Roger Leach?, there is no finer example of faithfulness”.

His church looks like so many others you might pass along the roadside. The usual clam shell at first glance. But here I found an absolute pearl inside!.

A Sneak Peak at the Caddie Show

A fan’s view of Bryan and the Caddies at The Gathering, in Lake Elsinore, CA on September 12, 2009.

Nifty Noodles - Connecting

As great as the Gathering gig was I was off the next morning with no time to revel. Rode my ride up the coast with my friend, James for an evening concert in Lompoc, Ca.. It was perfect weather for ridin. 70 degrees and overcast.

Riverview Church of God invited me up to share some music. Robert Key, gave a twenty minute history lesson on stuff I used to do and what it meant to him. I might have treated that unfairly in response. I was in a tired and giddy mood sunday night. Played some of the old stuff to a mostly new audience.

Played till my voice went out from fatigue. Yea it happens. I won’t see my voice again till maybe thursday. It felt relaxed and comfortable in Lompoc. I made remarks about Lompoc being the perfect location for the witness protection program! and asked the crowd to pretend like they knew my old songs if they didn’t . “think of the Beatles if you have too”.. “try to act like yer hearing yer favorite song live” I said. I finally got a great response!

My wife got home from New York City the day I left for Lompoc. I was singing “green acres is the place to be”.. She loves NYC! me? I love the countryside! But neither of us has been home for the last five days! and I just wanted to run to her. But safety on a motorcycle has to come first so I stayed the night to insure an attentiveness that would get me home.

Oh my!, I forget how gorgeous she is!. found myself staring at her in the kitchen. I gotta pinch myself to make sure this is all real sometimes! wow that’s my wife! (whats wrong with her eyesight) I thought. (i feel like she’s gonna come to her senses any day now and realize that she could have done alot better)

After five days apart there is a wall to work through in the way of connection in a relationship. Talking on the phone was more of a “To do” list on my part and Cassie was all distracted about the big city and so many things new to see! monday night I finally looked at her as we sat on the back porch, our favorite hang. “Hi Cassie” I say… “hi bryan” she returns “do I know you” I smiled… “yes, I would be your wife” she laughs.

There’s a distraction to our focus on each other that has a way of turning into a monster sometimes. it took the better part of a day to even recognize each other in our “real” souls. We both got home and started “cleaning” routines, and unpacking. There’s just more to do than we have time for. Let’s see should I unpack or sit on the porch with my wife first. I think I made the right decision.

Nifty Noodles - Sensational Gathering

I was euphoric in an exhausted kind of way. Leaving "The Gathering". What a sound system! and what an unbelievable line up of talent. I was caught off guard hearing One Nation, with a full horn section and percussion, keyboards and guitars. It truly was a "Santana" sounding outfit.

And I've never seen a more prolific guitarist than Doug Smith. He played one of the pieces from his work in the movie August Rush, and "Classical Gas", "Peter Gun" and several absolutely wonderful humor songs including "would you like to play the guitar". His wife joined him on vocals and flute. they covered "I got you babe" by Sonny and Cher" as well as a graceful version of "Somewhere over the rainbow". I've never sat through an entire set of music before I went on. It was like getting a free concert myself.

I invited him on stage to play with me after his set. "when you see talent like Doug Smith" I told the crowd "you have to have him join the band". He brought a rendition of "Love you with my life" that was closer to the quiet prayers project when I asked him to sit in with me.

The Sugar Caddies played with me on this one too. and the improvements were light years over our first gig. "Into Wishin" was a real highlight as well as "never lied to you" first time I've played the song with a band. We closed with a little rendition of "release yo self" by Graham Central Station that took the place apart!

The stage was set up like a little beach shack restaurant complete with tables close to the stage. the amphitheater audience was looking in on a small club like atmosphere that really came alive shortly after dark. Mike Gross, Guitarist for the Sugar Caddies tells me we have real footage of tonights gig so maybe you'll get to see what you should be slapped for missing! 8)

20 bucks was not too much money for this gig!

Nifty Noodles - This Ain't Prettyville

I wrote the song “this Ain’t Prettyville” with some friends and produced it for Chonda Pierce her DVD will be aired on CMT Sept. 15 tune in.

Nifty Noodles - Assembly For The Gathering

I think I might have rehearsed so hard that my voice will be gone for the show tonight. I forgot that I agreed to do this “meet and greet” mini concert at Temecula Valley Winery an hour and a half away from rehearsal yesterday. nearly drove by my house without stopping.

What I got for the effort though was a front row seat for Grammy Award Winning Guitarist Doug Smith. I’ve never seen anyone do what he could do with an accoustic guitar. I’ve been on tour with Phil Keaggy for cryin out loud. Doug has a unique approach and everything he did got standing ovations! between every song! btw.

No one was expecting him tonight least of all me. I sat Jaw dropped for his thirty minute montage of what you didn’t know you could do with a guitar.

He joined me on “I love you with my life”, which we will do together at “The Gathering” tomorrow. I played too much tonight, probably trying to recover the audience from what they got from Doug. worried about my voice now. But I’ve been really getting serious about presenting new and different songs in a guitar set mostly and I jumped at the opportunity to present a small set. of course there were die hard old fans who wanted to here Blue Skies and Maybe I’m Amazed.

I really didn’t wanna go to the piano but it still resonates as perhaps my high water mark in music.

These days I’d rather sing in lower keys… soft touch, warm vocal sound. I have two styles of song on guitar that leaves me feeling a little bi polar. half the songs are irritated smartalec presentations of dissasters. The other half are good feeling happy songs. from a marketing perspective I’m not sure where all that takes me.

Bryan Duncan Podcast Interview - 09/07/09

Just posted a new podcast interview with Bryan Duncan and David McLaughlin about what's going on currently in Bryan's life and career. Clocks in at 47:30.

Bryan Duncan Podcast

Right click and choose "Save Target As" and save to your computer. Then play from your favorite mp3 media player.

Nifty Noodles - Little Weekend

Homeland, Ca.

Just down highway 74 on the left is a little two year old church meeting in a 50 year old building. It’s 20 minutes from my house. I had agreed to come on a Sunday morning a month ago, and I completely forgot about it the day I was supposed to be there. So I made time to reschedule on my official calendar.

I wasn’t expecting too much. It was part of getting the word out about “The Gathering” coming up Sept. 12. There might have been 60 people there. But the presentation was maybe the best for me in years! Not because of new songs but rather the fresh thoughts I have had that went with the old songs.

“you all have at least one person in your life that you can call to mind” I said at midpoint in the set. “who asks you for favors all the time… but when you ask for a little of their time they don’t have it”. “well that is my relationship with God” I said flatly. My prayers are all about him helping me move my plans around and him doing things for me” but when he asks me to wait a little or follow his instructions, I really don’t want to! “

“I believe the ‘angels’ we entertain unaware might be the ugly people who irritate us most, the ones that force us to do what God asks”. I sang “you keep me coming back” with a whole different light on it.

There was a freshness about my attitude that I cannot explain except that I have been through enough uncomfortable places in my own relationships lately that I found a new insight and it poured forth from somewhere outside myself. it was as fresh a perspective as I might have ever had in my life, based on experiences in recent hours.

I told a joke about asking my mom to beat me cause when she stopped it just felt so good. And Sunday I felt that way. Really good after a fresh beating, the feelings of my own moral inventory left me “rotoruetered” to the point that maybe my soul was completely free of any sanctimonious rust and religious white wash.

I wish you could have been there to see that pillar of cloud by day. I wish I could manufacture that fresh manna so that I might parlay it into a lasting career of effectiveness too. But such will not happen and maybe never the same way again because that is the God I know. Never does the same thing twice the same way. I can’t imagine how it could have been better.

K So there’s that…. Bryan d

My First Speech

Bryan posted this text of a speech he gave last week at his website bryanduncan.com. I took the privilege of posting it on Noodles because it is some of the best and most honest writing I've ever read. I didn't want anyone to miss it.

dm
---------------------------------
Thank you for inviting me to be with you this morning I consider this a real honor.

I’d like to open with a letter I wrote to God, from a book I have coming out this year, called Dear God… Really? Prayers you won’t hear in church.

Dear God… Make me a success

I’m not sure what that means really, but my vision is to be independently wealthy, so I don’t need anybody. I’ll pay appropriate homage to you of course and act humble. I’ll give to those in need too, I just don’t want to be one of them. I’d like to be in control and look good to everyone around me.

I don’t know if you’ve noticed but I do look a lot more spiritual when I’m not lacking anything. It’s easier to tell others about you and how you made it all happen. It’s a win-win for both of us. As I see it, no body listens to poor people! Here’s where your plan for “spreading the gospel” might not be working. Most of your followers have very little influence in their communities. The Gospel is the “Good News” right? So what could be better than not being needy?

Thanks for letting me share… amen

My favorite read is Oswald Chambers.. mostly his devotional “my utmost for his highest”… I call him Ozzie… the one thing that has stuck out in the last year from his work is where he says “avoid posing as a profound person”…

So here I am accepting an opportunity to speak to you about some great insights into success. All I know is I’ve been in the music business for 40 years. I’m still here. So I guess I’m successful.

I relate most to a quote in the movie ‘As Good As It Gets. The Gay guy observes of the disgruntled novelist about his new attempt at a love life….“the one thing you have going for you is your willingness to humiliate yourself”.

This morning I’ve been asked to speak to you about “The cost of success and the Road To Redemption”. I don’t pretend to know that cost in actual figures. But I know I’m still making payments! and my interest rate is pretty high. In the movie the Awakening, a researcher, being interviewed for a new job says, “I’ve been studying the habits of worms for the last 20 years, to see if there was any chance of using worm feces for fertilizer”. ? “that would never work” the interviewer says. The researcher replies “Yes, I know that now” .

The cost of success is greatest in discovering what success is not! And these days it might be discovering what success is not anymore! We have a golden opportunity in these lean times to sharpen our focus on what is most productive. They say companies are run better with less waste when they can no longer afford to waste. In rehab, I recall a statement about climbing the ladder of success only to find the ladder was leaning against the wrong building. What I have learned recently is that Upward movement can be a deception. I have also learned in my own experience that if the ladder is not stable the climb will be a waste of time.

I had a reasonably stable ladder as a young man. My dad was a preacher, so was my mom for that matter. I could point out the defects of character in my parents that I might have inherited, but all in all I was given a good foundation. One thing I had to learn by myself however, is that having the answers before you know the questions does not help you work the problem. Put an arrogant big shot on a “stable” but skinny ladder and when he gets to the top his own weight distribution will definitely change the dynamic.

I believe maintaining a balanced EGO might be the first cost of success. Cause it gets fatter the closer to the top of the ladder you get. I found myself expecting more and delivering less.

I’ve always questioned Jesus’ words “if you want to lead learn to be the servant of all”. I chose to “delegate” my service requirements. To the point I had too much time on my hands. I was financially unworried for thirty years. But I was not content. My passion became a distant cousin in my little family business.

I wrote a song recently, that says “You gotta do what you love… and love what you get”. That’s really where I might have gone wrong to begin with. I was unhappy with the results of my passion, mostly it was because it was never enough!. Pretty soon it was “just business”. I ended up in Rehab at the top of my career, another disillusioned victim of addictions. I became my own biggest liability.

I know what that cost me. I lost a wife, and the fragile trust of many, my home, and at least half of my career. But God was gracious in that I was not the recipient of Public humiliation. I quietly checked into a Rehab In 1990 mostly for long term depression. I reached an early arrival at “gaining the world and losing my own soul”. Looking back I would say it was a matter of poorly defined parameters about what success is, always followed by unrealistic expectations. After all I was only looking for Universal acceptance and world wide domination.

I have always had well meaning intentions, but even my most noble of causes have been side lined by my own defects of character. Being something of a Rock Star, I was afforded the notion, that I was above the law and the rules did not apply to me. Simple ones, like the rules of consequence. My choices for self comfort were justified when my bank account was healthy, but I was growing spiritually bankrupt even as I wrote and sang the regurgitated messages of hope and salvation that paid the bills. I don’t lay out my list of addictions as I believe they are merely symptoms of a deeper affliction. Behaviors, you’ve all heard about time and again from celebrities who answer to no one, are so typical they become rather boring. What I’d like to say here is that Recovery works when you work it. I might add it stops when you stop.

I’ve been working a recovery program since 1990. I’d like to say I’ve had no problems since arriving at Step 12 but the truth is I am still powerless over my dependencies (starting with an unaligned Self Determination) and they are still capable of making my life unmanageable. I’ve heard the stories of those who’ve been miraculously and instantaneously transformed by the power of God. That has not been my experience. God delivers me daily, but he has never removed my power to choose between success and failure.

I could list the things I do that are constructive to rehabilitation too but it usually serves to place me in denial about what I’m still capable of doing in a direction that is not suitable for success in life. Jesus Christ is my higher power and supreme redeemer but I still discount his work in me, and ignore one principle while following another.

I’ve learned that Salvation can be quick but Redemption is a process. Recovery is for everyone eventually. It’s like I say on my radio rehab show on line: “if you have living relatives, you have something to recover from”. So don’t think you have to be a crack addict before you believe you need to find a way to overcome yourself as a liability.

Addiction is merely self will run amuck. It can be whatever makes your life unmanageable. It may be as subtle as self serving greed! If the consequences of giving in to temptations were immediate, we probably wouldn’t be tempted at all. The denial starts from the beginning that “just this once” I’ll go around the boundaries.

No one recalls the seven years I wrote and sang music without a contract or a budget. And no one will ever award you for the daily discipline it will take before success arrives either. They will only see the results of what pans out. I think of the leper who dipped seven times in the Jordan. He only came up once with pure skin.

If you are personally defective in some area of your life that only you might know, You have a lot of company so don’t stand alone. “Confess your faults one to another that you might be healed” it says in James chapter 5 verse 16. the recovery program adds: “to God, yourself and at least one other person, someone you trust”!

No one recovers alone… and success really does have many fathers. “Yes, I know that now!” I took much for granted of those who worked on my behalf. I have made and am still making amends for my thoughtlessness and unappreciative nature.

Today I would say that I am happier doing more with less. More than I have ever been! Because my passion has been restored above all else. It gives me a better attitude regardless of what the economy does or the circumstances I am in. I am successful because I can see the value in all the things I once took for granted. I used to get disappointed with God because he would never tell me the outcome of my efforts or give me a clear look at the future. What I realize now is that I was overlooking the joy of surprises.

I heard a statement in the movie “call of the wild”… speaking of a boy who left home and disconnected from his parents dysfunctional lives never to be heard from again. “They are not the same people” his sister says in a letter to him that he never read. “they are people softened by the forced reflection that comes with loss”. Gentleman that would be me! softened by the forced reflection that comes with loss.

I have started over from scratch. Redefining what is within reasonable boundaries for risk to achieve. I believe Jesus died for my sins but God surely lets me suffer the consequence of my own free will. Perhaps so that I may grow in wisdom so that in my old age I can say. God’s will is more than a suggestion for a good life. There is only one path that leads to success. It is through the denial of your own self satisfying desires. If your goal to be successful includes being “self satisfied” , You will not find true success at anything!

Someone told me that if you invest everything in one thing, you will be forever disappointed. Because there will be no surprises, only great expectations, and surely much disappointment.

I like something I heard from a friend in Recovery who said “what if your plan b was really God’s plan A all along. I have come to believe that Happiness is a by product of business until God surprises you with his plan A blessings. Something that cannot be worked for to achieve. It comes with the insight into how much we are already successful because Christ has redeemed us apart from any effort on our part. We are now free to pursue whatever is pure and noble and of good report.

I wish you all the insight into what makes you truely successful. thank you for letting me share.

Nifty Noodles - Hogwash Mini-Tour

Poulsbo, Wa. Aug. 21-25

How do you sell out the first printing of your first ever book? You tour till you puke! I did nine presentations in four days!

Cause I’m a newly wed and I never wanna be gone for longer than a week! So we crammed as much into a long weekend as we could.

Michael Forney and Brett Eddy of my new publishing company IGNITION GARAGE had my back to the point I was feeling a little spoiled. They have an acute synergy level I have not seen in my lifetime.

I was glad I saved one book to take home cause that’s all that was left after this tirade. It included Thursday night and Monday night at the Global Bean Coffee conspiracy where we recorded the shows for you tube consumption.

They had the biggest and best latte’s I’ve ever had. It came in a bowl bigger than the one I used for my morning breakfast of Capt. Crunch.

The Owner is also quite the virtuoso on guitar and he sat in on my mostly guitar driven new tunes, which included a surprise new hit… “it didn’t work out”. Designed as a call and response sing along with the crowd it was a favorite and I had to repeat it during the shows.

We also captured footage of an impromptu layout of “mr Bailey’s Daughter” that absolutely caught even me off guard.

The rest of the weekend included six hours signing books at the Downtown Harley Dealership in Renton, 3 full concerts, three morning services, and a speaking engagement to Christian Business folks. A first in my lifetime too, that went very well. I spoke on “The cost of success and the road to redemption”. … “I don’t know the full cost of success” I told them. “ I’m still making payments and my interest rate seems pretty high”.

I had a great opportunity to meet with a T.V. producer about being a guest on a developing show and maybe offer some music and scripting as well. (to be continued). It’s still a secret. We hit it off very well though as he is a veteran of the biker wars.

I left around 3 a.m. for the trip home on Tuesday morning. There is a kind of fatigue that doesn’t feel too bad. I was singing ‘it’s been a hard days night”! at 56… everything hurts right now. My lungs are blown out, I feel like there’s a knife between my shoulder blades, and my knees hurt. I’m losing my voice for the next couple of days as a result.

But selling out everything? Priceless.

K so… there’s that…. Bryan D

Sugar Caddies Videos

Enjoy these YouTube videos from Bryan's new local band the Sugar Caddies. Originally posted at bryanduncan.com.

Nifty Noodles - Sugar Caddie Picnic

The Benedict Castle summer concert series on the lawn was the coolest gig I've done in a year! First time ever to do a picnic on the lawn type of setting. "The crowd was double what we've ever had here" said Walter Kelly, the spokesman for Teen Challenge who sponsors the event.

It's blankets and camping chairs all over the lawn. Bring yer own crackers and cheese. The stage seemed to slope a little down hill to my left or maybe that was just me tryin to kick back. It was a long way from the blistering vocal delivery I've made a career out of . Mostly it was laid back tunes and easy vocals. And I absolutely loved it. No feeling of having to really grab the audience or impress them. No need to be the best band you've ever heard. No competition at all.

It was my first performance with the SUGAR CADDIES. The first song "Into Wishin'" was absolutely nerve racking though. One moitor mix for all. My keyboard was way out from of a drum kit that wasn't mic'd so Icould hear my own mistakes in stereo. We settled down after that though and there was something relaxing about just playin with the band.

The highlights were "Used Again" and "Lovin You". just really fun tunes with a solid groove. My Black Sheep friends from the Riverside Chapter turned out in force to line the side of the stage with motorcycles. My old friends from another life turned up in astonishing numbers too. Then there were the people who spoke to me about seeing the first Sweet Comfort band concert some 40 years ago.

It was a lot like a reunion of survivors I think. Nice setting for that. Out back of an old Castle. sponsored by a recovery organization. Teen Challenge staff and "inmates" have an easy going way about em. "we would like to have you back next year" another director said. "I'd like to make this a regular thing" I replied. I love the summer picnic on the lawn atmosphere. We'll have some video clips on my website as Steve Webb followed me around with a camera most of the night.

The Caddies had a reasonable start showing some real potential. The signature identity is the three part harmonies in a rock and soul groove. It's the real "SUGAR". We just need more opportunity to rehearse and play together and we have the makings of a solid band with a local following. Best of all the gig was done by 8 p.m. and I was home by 9!

k so ... ther's that....

Nifty Noodles - Affair-y Tale

I read a comment or two this week on a question about why a man would sacrifice his career for an affair. It was in response to yet another politician, who's public persona was one of integrity and conservative values. I was unnerved by the lack of insight into such disasters. First of all "no temptation has taken you except what is common to man". And yet people are horrified that someone who has built the house of cards that all of our public persona tends to be, could possibly still suffer from a choice of insanity.

There's a story of a frog placed in a pot of boiling water. He jumps out immediately but when left in a comfortable pot of water turning the heat up just a little the frog stays put until he is cooked! Affairs don't happen in an instant. A man is vulnerable most when he is tired, hungry, hurt or lonely. That is pretty much an ongoing reality. It doesn't matter how much time you've logged in as a saint. Temptations to feed your own endorphins run very deep.

Throw in lust as an addiction and the prevalence of pornography at just a mouse click away, and the media blitz that sex with several partners is just a matter of personal choice and you have the makings of a fire under any comfortable pot.

God placed a strong sex drive within humanity maybe to insure the survival of the species. It also is a power not easily controlled even when there is no fear of extinction. One cannot be in denial that our sex drive can become stronger than our commitments of love. And a conservative man with a huge career and public image is not exempt.

An affair starts with a slow and simple "transfer of affection". "This woman is around all the time". Maybe my significant other is not. "We're just having coffee"... "we had to work late"...most people think yer being too prudish to question moments alone with the opposite sex. Or maybe even 'harmless' conversations on the internet. I ride a motorcycle and I know at certain speeds if I'm following too close I will not be able to stop as fast as the car in front of me. Same thing.

The trouble with men is, we always think we can handle things. And so we leave the door open just a crack. Why? because, like women, we enjoy being flattered! There's a validation we're all looking for that creates an endorphin rush. At several points in a deeper relationship there will be times where you are "not getting your needs met". You can count on that too. Cause no one person can keep up with your schedule of personal needs. The danger is, there is always plenty of feel good attention coming from elsewhere! It's never in the same place either so the desire to "jump ship" could still come in the middle of reading scripture.

We are all vulnerable to the fatigue of always doing the right thing. We all have a desire to 'escape' our responsibilities no matter how conservative you might be. It's why Las Vegas is the fastest growing city in America! The collateral damage is never realized till it happens usually. If the consequences were immediate we would probably be less tempted.

Generally no man wants to follow someone else's rules. It might be built in to a mans character to quickly become a defect. Riding herd on our own mind is a full time occupation!

I read once something I cannot recall who wrote but it stuck with me over the years. "The man who marries his mistress ...leaves the postition open". The big mistake for men is too believe that a "transfer of affection" is not deadly. "Consummation" is not necessary to destroy trust. Suspicion needs no proof either. The damage is done. I invite you to visit Radio Rehab on line at www.radiorehab.com for encouragement to stay on the Road To Redemption.

Nifty Noodles - God Answers His Own Prayers

8/6/09 front office. 2:15 a.m.

I can’t sleep tonight. My prayers are for hope and strength to trust God with what I cannot see. Lately there’s a fog about the future so close to my face that it has slowed my pace to a crawl. Afraid of a misstep, I become slow to respond to opportunities. There are cracks in the foundation of my optimism. I encourage myself, read words of wisdom and look for insight. But all around me are the flares in the darkness from others who are ahead of me on the road. Gone are they who say, take courage. The words have changed to: “be careful, be prudent” and now from so many: “brace yourself for impact”.

Laughter is dwindling to silence. Fear stirs from somewhere I’ve never been in my own soul. It flushes me with weakness. My heart is racing. I have a sense that I have forgotten something most important. It feels like a realization that I am poorly prepared for some impending situation. “you cannot work hard enough to save yourself” said a friend to me two days ago.

My striving is not to save myself but to stay my fears until God somehow intervenes. And all I hear is “not yet”. And no answer then again to “If not now when?” . How long oh lord? I ask. And it is as though I’ve just begun the initiation. I tremble at the thought of what I cannot believe with all my strength. I have nothing that God did not give me and still has he left me feeling ill equipped.

A friend and I had a discussion about DL Moody deciding he wanted to know what it felt like to “surrender all to Jesus”.

“I don’t know how you’d do that in a single decision” I said “even once made is quickly rescinded”. “I think there must be desperation of soul to make a decision of that kind” I said with the wave of my hand. That decision has seldom been made by those who love any aspect of life. Could it be that my love could make me lost? Is love being too soft? Could those feelings of love make me choose the less difficult way? Thinking all along it was right? Denial is a deception one cannot lead himself out of.

“Fewer on this planet believe in the existence of Satan” he responded. “Then perhaps Satan himself is doing a fine job” I suggested. “I don’t spend my time looking for evil” I thought out loud “evil knows right where I am, just as much as God himself does”. I survive one day at a time with the words of the serenity prayer: But “The things I cannot change” tend to remove my courage to “change the things I can”. Even my prayers fall short of strength. Where am I? I often wonder. Are these my declining years? Then how is it that the road is so steep?

Six times I have dipped myself in this muddy water and the leprosy is not at all gone. I feel ridiculous! I am labeled as some fossilized mind because I’ve been here too long.

“Your father knows what things you have need of before you ask”…Scripture says.. “IF we pray because we want answers we will get huffed with God” Oswald Chambers says “we are not here to prove God answers prayer; We are here to be living monuments of God’s grace” he adds. And then I’m reminded of a comment I heard about the change someone observed of their parents. “People softened by the forced reflection that comes with loss”. God answers his own prayers on our behalf!

…Bryan Duncan

Nifty Noodles - HOGWASH is Coming

Front Office…8/03/09

I’ve spent most of the summer working on two books. Hogwash is due any minute. I know cause I’m feeling the labor pains! Actually I’m having a great time talking over the illustrations for the book. There are three characters represented:

Snoutly Rudescooter, Spamela Anderson, and Tiny Hogwaller. The book is a collection of sarcastic lists of biker observations. The characters are mainly to decorate the pages. But in dialing up the imagination I was being asked by the publishers and artist to give background on these imaginary pigs.

I was surprised that there was a wealth of information in my head about all three pigs! Snoutly is my Alter Ego of course. Smaller and pudgier than he wishes he were. A wanna be biker, but a little undereducated and rather new to the do.

Spamela is Snoutly’s fantasy girlfriend. Oh she’s a real “babe” but not committed to him really. I on the other hand finally married my version in real life! 8).

Tiny is three times bigger than anybody around him. He’s big but he’s not dumb! Been around bikers his whole life, doesn’t say much but doesn’t have to.

He owns a bar apparently!

I was asked to name the bar! … my wife suggested: “The Notorious P.I. G.” might keep that one. Spamela wants to compete with Betty Boop in t shirt world for lady HOG riders. So we’re working on making that work.

We’re in the final stretch for this book to be presented on line for sale at http://www.hogwashhumor.com/ I hope to have personal copies as well. I’ll be passing out a few to Harley Dealers I visit first .. and hopefully sell at my concerts next month. I’ll be in Seattle from Aug. 20-24 to do some marketing for the book.

One things for sure, down economy can light a fire under you to go do things you’ve only thought about for years. Hardship has a way of adding motivation! 8)….

Ksotheres that! Bryan d

Nifty Noodles - I'm a Twitt-erer

Front Office….

I’ve joined twitter! I’m inviting you to my little nest of bird brains… on line www.twitter.com/bryan_duncan be sure you put that space in their bryan_duncan

We’re rebuilding the bryanduncan website as well as Radio Rehab currently to make em more user friendly for me!

I’m waiting for T mobile to offer me that free upgrade so I can start sending stuff in via the phone. This it the new tech version of “publish or parish” I think… I finally enlisted for the web revolution.. kicking and screaming of course!

O.K. so there’s that…. Bryan D

Nifty Noodles - This Week

Front Office. 7/29/09

Monday I met in the desert with Mike and Juan and Preston to develop a band for local concert dates. Specifically club gigs where we can do original material. We had planned to call it the “Sliders” but there’s a band in the U.K. with that name…

I got another Idea but I’ll wait to see before I say. Derek Wayne Hughes has been the man to put all this together. He was there with Mike’s wife who plans to do booking for this entity. They were both doin back flips at rehearsal as the addition of “pockets”, P Funk, Preston on drums has really made this three piece band come together.

This band is great!... same quality as NehoSoul but all living here within an hour of my house. The bad news is I’m the only keyboard guy…. The good news is I’ve got two great singers backing me up in this group. The arrangements of some of the NehoSoul stuff is shorter and more streamlined. To sound strong without keyboards and horn stacks. It’s more guitar driven as I too will be playing several songs with acoustic guitar.

This band will also contribute material for the live concerts. We have interest from three clubs in Orange county and one in Montclair. I hope to use this band for some local solo gigs of my own as well.

Tuesday I was in the studio with Steve Webb producing an ‘audio book’ format for HOGWASH… and we will record my reading of Dear God…Really as well.

Translating a humor book into something funny on tape has come with some real hurdles. I decided on a format with a “Host” for the read that I could share the material with and get comments and laughter at the right places.

I finished a great article for Christian Musician magazine “the curriculum of adversity”…to be out in a couple of months.

Wednesday I’m catching up on stuff that’s falling through the cracks as of late IE: booking dates, bank accounts and bill paying chores. And the Rebuilding of Radio Rehab and Bryan Duncan websites which will include an upgrade on my email server to accommodate a cell phone that isn’t a dinosaur, a Gmail account so that I can start weeding through email before I get home from gigs.

I signed up for “Twitter” but the “nest” has been so rapidly dilapidating I’ve had no time for Tweeting. A new phone might help. And I’m gonna have to get over my irritation with texting! (even my laptop thinks this is a misspelling of “testing”) So obviously my computer technology is in the dark ages as well.

I am constantly scrambling to see how we might stay alive in this economy. Spoke with another entity who wants to book me specifically as an author/humorist today.

We’ll see what happens there. With the disaster of marketing for Still Dancin’ .. I have had to move ahead with other endeavors out of necessity. With the possibility of running out of music product by the end of the year and no funding to reproduce another printing I’m counting heavily on the books I’ve been working on and doing local dates that let me be home the same night.

O.k. … they say it’s a new world… I just hope its’ better than the last one!

8)///// bryan D

Nifty Noodles - CCMRadio

Front Office Tuesday 7/21/09

I rode my Motorcycle down with a friend to Huntington Beach Tuesday night to record an interview on CCM Radio. They are recording interviews with Classic Christian Music artists of the past. “The ones who pioneered and shaped the Christian music scene”. On the list? Jon Gibson, Darrell Mansfield, Bryan Duncan, Kevin Max of D.C. Talk, Randy Stone Hill, Ginny Owens Oden Fong, Greg X. Volz of Petra, Phil Keaggy, “and many others”.

I guess it’s an honor. I don’t particularly like talking about the olden days these days but it’s nice that somebody remembers. I’m trying to move new things forward. But the three wise guy” hosts of this show allowed me to share something about where I am now. (rehab, Motorcycles, newly wed, producer and author of new books). I still had to listen to my old recordings and look at cassette tapes! Relics of another dynasty. I played some goofy songs on the guitar. “probably love you Delilah” and “used again”.

The show has the easy to listen to “morning show” vibe. It’s not hard to cut up in the studio. I got to read a small portion from both of my books due out by summer’s end. I just finished Dear God… Really today! We plan to do an “audio version” of this book with me actually reading in my tone of voice. The humor is communicated better that way I think. I also plan to dedicate the book to my grandmother Anna Forney. Who’s long gone from this life but I miss her on weekly occasions.

If you’d like to here the radio show I did this week:

The shows are available for download or streaming at the site

http://ccmradio.podbean.com/about/kenny-metcalf

Nifty Noodles - HOGWASH Release

Front office 7/22/09

I’ve been working relentlessly on two books at the same time. The first release is just weeks away. We are sweating the details on the cover this week. Below you will find the first of my excerpts from the book HOGWASH, it’s one biker’s humorous observations of Motorcycle Madness. There are six chapters prefaced by my own story of getting involved with Bikes. The book reads like “top ten lists” …with titles like “how a biker knows he’s getting old”.. “how you know yer too fat for your fatboy”… “not so successful biker charities” … and “things you won’t find at the Harley dealership”. It’s an attention deficit friendly read! We follow the character of my alter ego: “Snoutly RudeScooter”…

Froom the book:

Chapter one

Snoutly Buys A Scooter…

The first time I walked into a Harley dealer. I don’t recall seeing any people. The place was busy but I was hypnotized by a line of gleaming motorcycles. I felt like a six year old on Christmas day. It’s was probably obvious I was a newbie to biker world. All I could see was a ticket to a heaven that I’d fallen short of for over a decade. I wasn’t even sure what to ask about except the price. The wounds of my divorce were still fresh. I was looking for a new passion and a chance to get away from a nine hundred square foot apartment. I’d dreamed about motorcycles since childhood. Rode other peoples loaners over the years but life had come with one too many deadlines.

There’s no doubt Snoutly Rudescooter is my alter ego. He’s a domestic pig who dreams of being a wild boar. I had to start slow. I took that safety riding course and bought a second hand Yamaha!, a V-Star 1100 and dubbed her “Matilda”. She was smaller than a Harley but weighted low and I felt like at least I wouldn’t fall off. It was one year and 50 thousand miles before I could take the plunge, and step up to “Jezebel”, my 03 Heritage Softail. I call her my “Harlot Davidson”. She wasn’t brand new either but then neither am I, we were both low on loving attention.

They say a brand new Harley is really just a starter kit anyway. But then the fun never ends. Personally I think the story of Forrest Gump would have been better had he lit off his front porch on a Street Glide!

Embarrassing moments with a bike

-Riding off with kickstand down
-Getting off with kickstand up
-Running into car in front of you while snarling at the guy next to you
-Hitting kill switch while adjusting mirror on the highway
-Dropping bike in front of school children
-Asking Lady To Help You pick up bike dropped in the parking lot
-Catching pant leg in dismount and falling off at the Harley Dealer
-Assuming yer in neutral when starting engine, “re-parking” front tire up on curb
-Engine dies when trying to make an impressive exit from bike show
-Accidentally pinning yourself between bike and garage wall unable to reach cell phone for help

Nifty Noodles - The Best of Times

Pismo Beach, Ca. july 17th Friday night

This was one of those weekends where everything I love came together for maybe the best concert I’ve done in many years! First of all I rode my motorcycle to the gigs. I went Coastal, took the 101 to the top of the state. Met seven bikers in Santa Barbara to take a side rode to the first gig too. Most were involved in recovery work as well.

Pismo Beach gig was absolutely perfect. From the tri tip bbq for Celebrate Recovery to the entire set concert, everything was seamless! A rare find in this world.

It was one of those nights where the songs seemed perfectly aligned with the stars and the planets. Everything was funny and timely. There were no wasted words or poor thought process followed by “what did I just say?” anxiety.

Loma Rica, Ca. July 18 Saturday night

LR is a little town nextled in the foothills of N. Cal. 247 miles north of Pismo. The ride was great until we headed inland to Sacramento and the temperature climbed to over a hundred. I think I might have been under a sun stroke at this gig. I could not find a presence of mind about anything. I struggled with every song and connecting to the audience was a real fight. I was distracted, feeling quite unprepared too. But I met some great folks who remember my songs from twenty years back. Resonating with much of the lyrics mostly, they were very understanding with the concert. I talked way more and read several sections of my new “Dear God… Really” book. They liked that a lot too. But I wasn’t feeling the music this night. My passions were elsewhere. Sometimes I don’t wanna talk about who I used to be. It seems like a long time ago.

“I don’t write those tear jerker songs anymore” I told one woman who loves “a Heart Like Mine”. “I’m just not sad these days”

July 19 sunday

Riverside, Ca. is home and it was some 800 miles away. My friend James and I were up at six for the longest day ride I’ve done this year. It was 12 hours home through more temperature changes than I could imagine. We rode through Atascadero around noon and there was forty minutes of 117 degree heat before we dropped slowly to the coast where it was closer to 75. There was a Forty degree difference in a 100 miles or less.

I felt great by the time I got home. Non stop riding, going through 2 gallons of water and snacking on granola bars. I effectively ‘cleansed my body of impurities”.

So there’s that. Bryan D

Nifty Noodles - Headed South

Front office 7/15/09

My wife, whom I’m still calling by her old last name when I phone her at work, went down with me Tuesday night in Santa Monica for my youngest son Devin’s graduation from a prestigious acting school. We listened to speeches from Mickey Rourke, Paul Servino, and film producer Oliver Stone. It was enjoyable. My favorite comment came from one of the educators though: “a good actor must have a willingness to remain honest to his true feelings under imaginary circumstances” I almost fell out of my chair laughing. I have that now! … I just can’t tell the imaginary ones from reality!

Servino was good. Speaking about “Stick to it iveness” .. “I wasn’t any good from the start but I had a determination”… Yes… that’s really it… work hard and keep showing up.. next thing you know you’ve made a career out of it! .

Played in San Diego Wednesday night at Maranatha Chapel. Haven’t been there in over a year. Don’t know why I always get giddy on stage here. Felt a little confused for five songs. I started with “can’t imagine” .. brought my own guitar with that “special tuning”. Lost my voice on the second song. It just dried up! Found water on the stage though and pressed on. Talked about how God gives me things to do so I feel like I have a calling but he shows up after my mudpie with Black Forrest Cake.

All the good stuff this year came in the least expected ways as surprises. Nothing I have done deliberately has really panned out. The blessings seem to be coming on the peripheral edge of my own busy ness. When I came back to sing the next song I had inadvertently hit the hold button I think. Couldn’t get it to play for several minutes and I filled that time in with really going nowhere dialog. Finished two more songs and closed with “Still Dancin”. This is a stretch for a Wednesday night bible study crowd but my thinking was “lets stretch” before the talking really begins.

It all kinda worked but it goes back to the mudpie analogy I started with… 8)

I opened a twitter account that will be part of the new stuff on the website updates.. but so far I’ve gone on there maybe three times. Writing these books is taking ALL of my time lately … I’m almost done with Dear God… Really which is where I’m going after this email.

O.k. So there’s that… bryan D

Nifty Noodles - New World

Front Office… 7/10/09

We’re working on bringing the bryan d website into the future. Plan to make noodles’ more accessible and add video’s and such…

I signed up for twitter finally. Lot of Bryan Duncan’s out there… so mine is Bryan_Duncan if you’d like to hop on my mindless entry list …

http://twitter.com/bryan_duncan

Nifty Noodles - 07/04/09 Spearfish

Spearfish, S.D. July 4th weekend.

The Nehosoul Band Joined Phil Keaggy and Randy Stonehill in S.D. to play the Black Hills Amphitheater in Spearfish. It’s about a beautiful hour from Rapid City. Motorcycle paradise and we’re driving an SUV. We stayed at a resort hotel so far up in the canyons and away from any city lights, we were joking about running into BIG FOOT.

I took video clips of the band at sound check. I had planned to video some of the show too but during the concert I realized I was at 4000 foot elevation in a dry climate. It was all I could do to keep my voice coming through. At least I had something to blame the struggle on.

Phil Curry couldn’t make the gig but the Band played on with Dwight Goodman on keyboards. He talks and laughs a lot more than Phil, and he plays well. I still missed Phil but nothing felt missing in the music presentation tonight except Rich Davis and the BGV’s. It was a smooth flowing presentation with just enough audience interaction.

Still Dancin’ is always a crowd pleaser especially when Walter Finch and I demonstrate the old guy dance moves. We played an hour set and promptly went out to watch Phil Keaggy and Randy Stonehill together with Phil’s original players from Glass Harp. The harmony’s they brought were enough to make me jealous. And their sound was a wonderful blend… I would call it the “Everly Beatles”.

There were no fireworks here in Spearfish. I guess the local rules don’t allow it. But this is the first time in several years that I have worked on the Fourth of July so maybe things are picking up finally. I missed celebrating the weekend with my new wife though and I had to familiarize myself with a payphone again as there was absolutely no cell phone service where we were staying. I saw a lot of commercials on t.v. about the “Crowd” of people standing behind you on the phone. I guess it doesn’t apply in South Dakota though.

Nifty Noodles - 07/02/09 Full Slate

Front Office 7/2/09

Been married for two months, It’s dawning on me that I now have 4 kids! .. my two sons and now two daughters. I paid fifty seven hundred dollars for a hug this week.

Brianna is 18 and graduated from high school with a President’s Educational Achievement award. So what comes next? We gotta get her a car so she can find a job and so forth. I found a little red VW Jetta and when it was clear this was gonna be her car… I got a hug! … only the second one ever from her. I’m still an “Unknown Quotient” to Cassie’s daughters. Trust is earned I suppose. I am finding a new sense of purpose in my own life as I invest in younger people though.

But it’s been a little dicey in these sometimes icy waters. I’m sure this is just a down payment on the expenses I will soon accrue. Man I gotta go back to work.

I’m leaving for South Dakota this weekend to do a NehoSoul Band date at an outdoor festival with Phil Keaggy and Randy Stonehill. It must be old home week. Yesterday I met Mike Gross, he’s a local guitarist and he’s gonna work with me on putting another band together for local “unplugged” gigs as I cannot afford to bring the NeoSoul Band from two states together for small stuff.

It turns out there’s a really good drummer living a block down the street from me that everybody here knows. And the Bass player from Ben Harper’s band wants to sit in as well. We’re gearing up for some local winery engagements and club dates in a more guitar driven format. There’s been some real interest in my original “songs from the porch” off the DVD we put out: including “Delilah” , “Lovin’ You”, “Used Again”, “Already In Heaven”, all songs I play on guitar. I’m learning a new tune too on guitar that I wrote with Ricky B and Steve Cabales called “In To Wishin’ “ , it’s a song about a guy that sits in a bar every night waiting for one woman to come in.. but doesn’t have the nerve to talk to her. It could be a really strong tune for club dates. My hope is that I can stay busy and still go home at night what with being a new family man for a second time.

Still thinking about giving the unplugged band a name too… cause we’re gonna be doing two summer concerts, one in Riverside at Benedict Castle ( I’m still paying off the wedding reception). And I plan to use my local musician friends for “The Gathering” in Lake Ellsinore. Thought about calling the band “The Sliders”, it reminds me of the smaller version of a hamburger. Cheaper, greasy, and they go down fast. 8). Mike is a funk guitarist and really knows his chord structure. He teaches in Riverside and so I’m gonna learn more guitar work, at least enough to strum while I’m singing.

He sat in with me at a sound check at that Route 66 parking lot gig I did a few weeks back. He’s half my age and I think I could use some young blood to bring me out of the old school rules I’ve been following. He’s also worked up unplugged versions of “Chains” “Keep me coming Back” “papa ain’t gonna quit”, “Don’t leave me in the dark” and “If Only I”. It’ll be hard to get used to not hearing all the horn section stuff. But hey it’s a whole new world.

I’m still putting the final touches on my second book Dear God… Really… it might be out as early as September. HOGWASH is being pushed for release this month as it’s motorcycle heaven right now and a good time to get this humor book in front of real riders.

There’s a lot of stuff happenin I can’t tell you about yet… but I’m tired! The pace of my life went from zero to 75 in the last year… not sure I need all of it but stuff keeps coming up. Stay tuned.

Nifty Noodles - The Reception

Benedict Castle, Riverside, Ca. June 20th…

After being married for almost two months, Cassie and I have found the time to address our family and friends with the kind of focus they deserve. We held a “sand ceremony” and showed a video of our honeymoon time on Maui. We also re read our vows to each other in a kind of informal atmosphere. I added commentary to the 20 minute video of our wedding pictures and beach videos.

For those of you not familiar to a sand ceremony, ours was on a larger scale than I have seen at weddings. The ceremony originated in Hawaii I believe. Two separate colors of sand was used to represent our separate lives and past experiences. I used Black Sand from a Hawaiian beach and Cassie brought White sand from the Grand Cayman Islands. We took turns pouring sand together into a larger glass vase the sand blending together in such a way as to never be completely separated ever again. Such is the point and we leave with a container of swirling sand to remind us of our blending of life.

It was perfect! We dressed again in our wedding attire, and the 50 people in attendance, mostly close friends and family seemed very impressed with the light but meaningful ritual. I, of course managed to spill some on the table, scooping it with my hands and dumping it in the vase. It brought a relaxed laugh from everyone. All the while the music we chose played in the back ground. The Perfect music… “what a beautiful mess this is”…. Is being sung in the song “here we are” by Jason Mraz

We finished with laughter and kisses, it was delightful to “DO” something creative together while our friends look in on the “creativity”.

Many had never seen this ceremony but it is growing in popularity I’m told.. I saw it done at a biker wedding as a small portion of the whole wedding. But we made it an art class! 8)….

Afterward we served an outrageously good wedding cake: Angel food cake and white frosting with a raspberry filling.

Benedict Castle is a best kept secret in Riverside. Astonishingly quaint and relaxing, the courtyard of the castle framed a lightly clouded sky above and brought a sense of other world longevity to the late afternoon. And at the same time gave us the kind of first class memory that we’ll retrieve in a thousand pictures years from now.

O.k. so there’s that,…. Bryan D

We will add pictures and videos to the wedding footage we put together.

Nifty Noodles - 06/18/09 Who Am I Now?

Front office

It’s odd sometimes how we tend to define ourselves by what we did yesterday and the day before that. In the past I have had plenty of definition to draw upon. An entire marketing plan from a record company kept it clearly visible. But this week especially I can see no description of my former life.

I’ve spent the entire week away from any real career routine. I found some “movie making” software on my laptop and I began to assemble my wedding footage along with pictures and music. Saturday I will present this to my friends and family and new in laws. It’s jr high quality production I imagine but I was amazed at how easy it is to get started. It’s the details that consume thousands of hours. I looked up and a week had gone by. “life as an editor” was a new experience. As “the producer” I had to realize that I was out of time and would have to let go of some perfection to get the movie done.

During the breaks in editing I learned something else I’ve never done, I found myself doing major overhaul house cleaning! The kind of spring cleaning that seems unending tearing the whole place apart to eradicate the buildup of gathering dust.

I’m not used to this “housewife” kind of physical labor. I rented a carpet cleaning machine and learned how to do that myself. Wow this is a long way from stage antics. Work is relentless and then you look up and the ten hours have gone by without a word. And a week has gone by this month without a phone call.

This marriage has been more like a progressive dinner. The wedding here.. the honeymoon there and a month later the reception over here. I have to plan most of it myself, and I’m seeing what people have done for me over the years in the way of managing, scheduling, and organizing and follow through. I don’t recognize myself. There is no “label” for this kind of work.

Saturday afternoon I will have a reception at Benedict Castle for seventy of our closest friends and family. (that’s all we could feed or we’d have invited others).

I just hope I’m awake for the sand ceremony after this week. I can’t imagine how we would have pulled off a local wedding and reception altogether. “Eloping” was a great way to soak up the moments together first and then embrace the community when we were focused.

I gotta say, I remembered a time where I asked God what he wanted me to do, cause I was sitting on the curb in front of my house feeling off the grid. Lately I haven’t found time to ask God for anything but more hours in the day. I can see why God sanctioned marriage and family… it keeps a man too busy to find trouble! Don’t know who said it but I recalled this from a movie I saw lately… “if you can’t give a man a vision.. then give him hope for one… and if he can’t find hope … then give him something to do! 8)

Well I’ve inherited an entire family all at once. With a full time working mom and I may have bitten off more than I can chew.

K so there’s that. Bryan

Pictures From The Wedding

Nifty Noodles - 6/12/09 Bound to Happen

Front office 6/12/09

I’ve been married for the last month and a few days. I still catch myself referring to Cassie as my girlfriend. We had our first really good fight last night. And all the fears of married life sweep in. I’m worried about the fine print of commitment, the things I’ve lost before come to mind and there is a different feeling about where ugly things can take you. We’re over aware of how you can build a case out of a little unforgiveness. The truth is still hard to embrace after all these years.

I sat this morning, giving up on all my pressing needs for some forty minutes. I had a little talk with Jesus. And he reminded me of some little things that made the hardships worth enduring. Joy comes in the morning. I have a purpose in the lives of a handful of people that may be more important than all of my writing and singing. A fifteen year old who referred to me as “Dad” for the first time. An eighteen year old graduating senior who laughed at something I said for the first time. I heard my own son tell me on the phone yesterday that he listens to my music for a point of reference to emotional states that he must act out in his acting classes.

I called my aging parents, who feel their work is done with nothing left to give and I told them I still hear their words in my head and feel their prayers for my life and I know that they’re still there. I found myself praying for a lot of people and suddenly I wasn’t so self involved!

But living in a house full of women comes with a steep learning curve. I feel like I’m on a new job and I haven’t found the routine yet. I have to stay up later than I want to, making sure that “the boys go home”. Teenage girls attract boys like a swarm of bees! I’m short on bug spray this week. My wife is a working mother and I’m cleaning the house between rewrites of book entries and deleting spam in my incoming email. I get my appliances mixed up… calling the dishwasher a washing machine.

And I’m talking of getting cream rinse for the clothes, when I mean fabric softener. You can clean the kitchen counters and put away all the dishes from the microwave.

Only to reload the dang thing two minutes later and find the kitchen in ruins cause the girls just walked in.

I’m dreaming of a clean house without a staircase to climb a hundred times a day. I’m too old for this I say. Doing guard duty at midnight cause schools out for the summer. I’m the mean man in charge. What the… who am I… what happened to my rockstar life? Someone handed me reading glasses at breakfast yesterday. They all laughed when I was stunned at how clear everything became. I was reading stuff I never saw before. Like right now.

There’s something wonderful though about a new old life and simple everyday things that don’t really speak to you of what’s really happening at the same time.

This is what relationships are made of. And how I find satisfaction in it is still a mystery to me but satisfaction is there in a sense of purpose in the lives of others.

Thanks for letting me share! Bryan D

Nifty Noodles - 06/08/09 Check The Mailbox Stupid

Front Office 6/8/09

After all the work we did to get Radio Rehab qualified as a tax deductible charity in Feb. followed by set up for on line donations and bank account, routing numbers and pay pal account, I had forgotten about the PO box that I opened in Feb.

Assuming no one could remember the long address, I never checked in on it.

So here it is June and I finally discover two keys on my key ring had fallen free from the clasp. They were handed to me as I nearly walked away from them. And suddenly I remembered! So I stopped by the mailbox just to make sure they were the right keys. And low and behold… it was stuffed with mail! … who knew?

I was thinking about how RR was never gonna get off the ground with donation money after nothing had come in on the internet. We have received nearly 1000. since March! I had to call on the checks as I have completely dropped the ball on this end.

The checks are good and the letters are encouraging about the significance of Radio Rehab in a few lives anyway. This first money will go to printing costs for the brochures we’re printing up.

I thought “how typical”… I’m praying and asking God what he wants me to do next and I don’t bother to check the mailbox for an answer! 8)

o.K. so there’s That… amen

Nifty Noodles - 06/06/09 - Sold Out At The Rock

6/06/09 Anaheim, Ca. The Rock

I sang two songs at three 2 hour long services this weekend… first one on Saturday night and then two on Sunday.

The Rock is a forward moving and quickly growing body of believers. They are moving at a dizzying pace to grow in the knowledge of Christ. I felt like I showed up for Gym class without my workout clothes!

I was however well received. And many remembered my earlier days. (except for maybe the mistakes I talked about)

“I was one of those who did lose heart” I told pastor Jerry Dirmann in a little impromptu interview before my songs. I was referring to a verse of scripture in Galatians he had quoted before the offering about reaping the rewards if you don’t lose heart.

I was backed by a full house production on the two songs. “only for good” was a great fit to their worship sound I think.

(Which included drums, percussion, bass, Hammond B 3, two keyboard players and three guitarists, not to mention a fifty voice choir and eight highlight vocalists).

David Dirmann is the pastor’s brother and leads the music brigade. He was the one who brought me in as a guest. And I believe it’s a rare thing for them to have musical guests. ( with all they have on hand you can see why ). And the worship music was clearly a cut above the norm.

I heard from several people, throughout the weekend, the phrase “your music got me through some real tough patches”. I got the impression though that no body here was having that currently! 8)…maybe cause we really can’t say that when it’s happening. There was the kind of intensity among the believers here at the Rock that I don’t see everywhere. The services are twice as long as the average and no body is leaving early.

I was addressed a couple of times by parishioners who showed more knowledge than discernment. One lady, alarmed at a joke I made about having an aneurism trying to hit the high notes, was suggesting it to be a “negative confession” in her mind… “wow” I thought to myself “find a sense of humor” ! One other guy was particularly intrusive with his simplistic approach and a desire to fix all that had gone wrong in my life by studying harder, like I’m not over thinking the program now.

By and Large, people were kind hearted and warm. A surprisingly large number of folks wanted pictures with me. I felt a little like Santa at the Mall between services!

And I sold out completely of all the product I had left in my warehouse. It was a nine hour work day by the time I got home. I was exhausted. But I came home to a gorgeous woman who claims to be my wife! …8)… and suddenly I’m singing again! 8)

O.k. so there’s that! … bryan D

Nifty Noodles - 06/02/09 - State of the Union

Front Office 6/2/9

Just four days away from being married to Cassie for a month. I’m still calling her my girlfriend by mistake. I’ve known her for seven years and dated her for nearly five. And suddenly we sign a document and the world has turned! She’s euphoric…. a lot!

But she came out to the porch yesterday weeping cause she thought she’d lost her wedding ring. This is a woman who said she’d never marry again. Wanted no part of that paperwork. “Wife” was a four letter word! The implication was a second class citizen or something.

Me? I’m thrilled…I’m getting loved on! 8)… but I’m nervous about keeping a relationship right. I messed up the one relationship I had with a woman. And God has turned around and given me three women to work with now! (she has two daughters). I don’t know where to start. Nikki is 15 and Brianna is 18 in a month. I don’t get any of their behaviors! Oh, and by the way our little dog is a female too! Sugar Baby! She’s a caramel colored Shitzu who likes to bring tree bark in from outdoors and chew it up on the white carpet.

I’m confused, feeling like I should be in charge of something but finding myself at the back of the decisions saying “yes, I guess, if you say so”.

There are fifteen boys on my porch on any given afternoon after school. I’ve had to run em off a lot. I’m gonna start setting land mines in the yard. I’m practicing my “mean old dad” look in the mirror. I’m thinking about adding a rifle with a high powered scope to the wedding registry for our reception. We didn’t have a cake at our wedding so we’re gonna recreate a few wedding “standards” at Benedict Castle this month.

I found myself staring at a spoon yesterday for several minutes. It was one of a whole set we received for an early wedding gift. This thing is cool! You cannot bend it! It’s like a real piece of work. I can actually leave it in a bowl of cheerio’s and it won’t get soggy with the milk. I was thanking God for a really cool spoon. Here look, I have it on my desk next to my laptop. It weighs in at about a pound. It’s a pound of spoon!

On top of that we got a coffeemaker too.. it’s so cool that it took me an hour to read the instructions. Starts all by itself! Takes the chlorine out of the water before it makes coffee and calls yer name when it’s done. And I can use my new spoon to load up the coffee grounds. This is not the “Big Lots” amenities that I have been living with for the last five years! I’m feeling very spoon fed.

K so there’s that… Bryan D

Nifty Noodles 06/02/09 - The Outskirts of Big D

Dallas Tx and outskirts 5/30/09

I told myself I can’t go charging around the country like I used to here my new old age. So this weekend I did two full concerts Sunday morning and Sunday night in Neighboring Texas towns: Ennis at Refiner’s Fire, and Carrolton at a Celebrate Recovery sponsored by the Covenant Church of Carrolton.

It was three hours of music in one day on four hours of sleep too. And I wonder why my body aches. But oh boy was it worth the trip. The southern drawl was deep but I felt like I’d stepped under the shower head of God’s new blessings. I have never felt so free to just sing my songs and say what I have convictions about.

And there is a “resonance” about the road to redemption as I have walked it. I am feeling a sense of quiet strength on stage without the anxieties of performance that I have carried over a life time. I met a lot of long long long time fans of my songs. And the gratitude expressed to me was almost stupefying. I haven’t been “loved on” like this in the last ten years.

I also found some future interest in a concert in West Africa of all places. I met a woman who couldn’t make my concert nine years ago because she had terminal cancer. She said “you called and sang to me over the phone”. Well she was healed she tells me and was there to see my concert this evening. And I sang her favorite song “all my life”. It was a great moment. I added several old songs and simply sang the material without a lot of deep commentary on my mistakes. The music came with just a sincere connection that was felt.

A young band called King’s Fall opened in Carrolton. The 23 year old lead singer told me he grew up on my songs. He was dedicated to “a childs love” and he won a talent contest to another of my songs.. I don’t recall which one he said.

Anyway I was flabbergasted by his vocal abilities and the bands tight arrangements and strong hooks.

Sometimes, after a long walk, God has a way of whispering to you of past significance. Right when you’ve given up any notion that your life mattered for anything. It is heartening to feel validated, but even that doesn’t matter in the same way it used to. I spent the day with a friend I knew in Jr. High before we had any life agenda. And I realized the significance of a soul, not in what he does but in who he is. The fact that I KNOW this man was reason enough for Joy.

I also got to see how my life has been weaved into the lives of people I only just met. Maybe that’s rare, but it brings another sense of God’s purposes in using us as we are not as we had hoped to be.

K so… there’s that… bryan d

CCM Podcast Interview

I will be on CCM-Radio this tuesday 8pm PST on www.blogtalkradio.com/CCM-Radio

Nifty Noodles 05/30/09 - One Musketeer

Thursday, May 28th Benedict Castle, Riverside Ca.

The Castle ‘living room’ was packed with the recover-ee’s from Teen Challenge. Two hundred men were staring quietly at me in the beginning of a routine Thursday night gathering for them. I am in the throws of a euphoria that I can’t explain. Yes there’s a residual enthusiasm from my recent wedding three weeks ago. But returning from the honeymoon, I was greeted by the same realities magnified. I’ve inherited more responsibilities. I now have two teenage daughters to provide for.

I had received a call from my youngest son before the concert here. It was a rare time that he was asking for money to cover his rent. “such as I have, give I thee” came to mind as I tell him I’ll find it. Now that doesn’t seem to be something to be euphoric about. But I felt empowered by my own commitments to my family. I realized a purpose I might have missed all these years, supporting the next generation. if only an immediate four of them.

“worship music this evening” I told the men, “is gonna be a little more challenging”. And I launched into “I love you so”.

Followed by “papa ain’t gonna quit”. And I felt like I was leading the charge of a masculine tribute to God’s empowering strength for purpose. I sang, non stop for some thirty minutes and I could feel a new sense of direction. I am right where I am supposed to be. Just a little short of my own ability to provide.

I could really feel a sense of gratitude in the second chance that God has given to me after maybe seven years of drought and a muddling sense of direction. This gig is not a “pay date”. It is the beginning of maybe four months of “trade labor” so that I may afford a reception on these grounds so that my new family members can meet my older ones.

Benedict Castle has a Three Musketeers movie setting quality to it. And it makes for a great place to re- recite the vows of commitment I made a month ago, alone with Casandra on a beach in Maui. We will recreate some of our ceremony in the presence of our friends and loved ones. Only this ceremony will come without the anxiety. I don’t recall anything the minister said on the beach last month. I only have pictures that prove I was there! I have a picture of me looking at my bride with a look I’ve never seen on my face in all the pictures I’ve seen of me!

Sure there is the expected dumb struck love sick look. But with it, I see sadness for all the mistakes I’ve made before. A knowledge that another opportunity for happiness comes with an absolute dependence on God that I ignored and took for granted as I pursued my own “career”. And I share my heart breaks with the men at Teen Challenge in that knowledge. “walk through this valley of the shadow of death” I tell them. “because God is coming to you with your second chance, and it will break upon you like a new dawn, and you will find a joy you never thought would come”… I finished with “Second Chances” from the Still Dancin’ project.

There was an electric sense of direction this evening that was so much bigger than my little presentation. I felt like Samson between the pillars with the new energy to bring down house. Not in the self destructive ending of his story though. It was like the sun just came up on a granting by God of an old gift of Passion that I once had stained with arrogance. I can see in the faces of other men here a desire for hope that I recognize in myself. except that I am in a different place, seeing the future with a different perspective. One that needs to be shown to those perhaps just behind me on the Road To Redemption.

Nifty Noodles 05/18/09 - Schmoozing

Monday May 18.09 Penchanga Resort, Temecula, Ca.

I got home from Ohio around 1 a.m. Monday morning but I agreed to play in a Celebrity Golf tournament on Monday … tee off was ten a.m.! I’m glad I went!. Played golf with retired baseball great, Dave Justice, also met scores of other former players and hall of fame greats. I talked longer to Ron Brown, gold medalist in the Summer Olympics and former NFL star. The guest list included Magic Johnson former LA Laker… (he never made the gig)...there were many others I recognized but couldn’t put a name with the faces.

Bottom line, this was a chocolate covered “fund raisin” event for Project T.O.U.C.H. (Together Our Unity Conquers Homelessness)… a homeless rescue operation in Southern California.

I came to sing one song. “Maybe I’m Amazed”. I was amazed at the influential people I met who lived in the area. Participants in the tournament included big business names, several ministries, owners of franchises and so forth and some just plain first rate golfers.

I was intimidated. I haven’t played golf more than twice since 2004! And I’ve been nursing a bad knee for nearly a month. Good news though. It was a “best ball” event. That’s where you take each of the best hits from four players in your group. With no pressure I managed to have some good shots early on. Enough to make my foursome believe I might be a good golfer.

My ‘crew’ included two Pentecostal preachers and a “Preachin’ Deacon”. None of them knew me from Adam… but then I was the resident white guy I think! 8) When I finally got to sing a song at the awards ceremony. Their eyes got wider than ..well golf balls. Anyway I probably have a few gigs coming from their local churches as I made some good friends by the end of 18 holes.

My one song was a perfect fit for this fund raiser and I guess I surprised all the folks there. Most had never heard me before. I got a standing ovation! And several invitations to sing at private parties, and future fund raisers, and interest from the local triple A baseball team the Lake Elsinore Storm who want to bring my whole band in at a game.

I also gave my phone number out to several types of Promoters in the business world, who were talking the kind of money that would allow me to bring the NehoSoul Band in mass including the horn players and maybe some back up singers! 8)

I was exhausted after ten holes of golf and the last eight holes I ended up “chopping wood”. But what I thought was merely an offering of charity on my part became a real contact list for new work. God is good.

And Derek Wayne Hughes is my new favorite cheer leader for optimism. It was he, who suggested coming to the event. He’s taken to setting up an entire system for my small local gigs to bring the “quality of the gig” back to a measurable impression.

He is also introducing me to some local musicians to do some local club work with for the short fall.. to bring a more “unplugged” version of my music to Southern California. He’s also leading the charge for an annual festival date in September, called “The Gathering”. NO body has told him what he can’t do! 8)… he has recently found some new freedom and he’s makin up for lost time I imagine. But I’m getting on his wagon. I don’t care how tired I am.

It’s been a while since I saw the kind of enthusiasm Wayne has. And I see my own tiredness as I listen to him. But I’m beginning to think he is God’s new messenger to me! To get off my back side and pursue a vision…… He also said he could get me some brand new Golf Shoes … for the future “celebrity tournaments” in the area. “so practice yer swing buddy” he said as he dropped me at my truck.

O.k. so there’s that! Bryan D.

Nifty Noodles 05/19/09 - Riding Ohio

5/19/09 Upper Sandusky, Oh

Thanks to Thiels Wheels, the local Harley Davidson dealer I had the chance to ride middle Ohio on a Black Beauty of a Heritage Softail. Two years newer than my own but I felt right at home. I was in “US,O” for a bike blessing with Trinity Evangelical Church. Mike Brown brought me in for Celebrate Recovery as well and took me on a thrilling farm country outing that included the Parker covered bridge.

Saturday I picked up a little concert about 70 miles away near Lima, Ohio. The coolest little white church in the cornfields. It started raining as soon as I headed out for that gig and it rained for 45 minutes of the trip. (which was only 50 minutes long). I played the concert in my socks. A new pair of dry ones… all my leather including my boots were soaked.

But the gig? An absolute surprise in the middle of nowhere on Alantown road. The song “little country church on the edge of town” from LOVESONG comes to mind. This was a packed house with electric enthusiasm. You’d just never know from the outside. Neil Whitney is a non conformist in ministry there and his crew is young and vibrant. I have never felt more welcome and at home. I can see why they’re packing the place.

The sun was setting on the ride back to U.S. and the pink reflection in my rearview mirrors from the sunset as we headed east into the twilight left me with a satisfied kinda feeling. I saw 8 deer in the newly cut corn fields of Ohio. Just needed the tiny red sleigh and I would turn into Santa.

Back at Trinity on Sunday morning came a surprising turn out of motorcycles for the bike blessing, which included an hour and a half ride through the immediate countryside, another covered bridge from the 1700’s and an old Mill with a water wheel. I sung for the two services at the church that morning and after finishing the great ride, a full concert outdoors at the Spring picnic.

After turning in the bike, I was driven to the airport and I left for home by nine p.m. completely satisfied and tapped out!

O.k. So there’s that Bryan D

Nifty Noodles 05/13/09 - Back From The Wedding

May 13.09 After a week on Maui,

Nearing sunset on Wednesday of last week, Cassie and I dressed for our wedding. She wore a jaw dropping, skin tight, white satin finished gown. I nearly drove off the road several times looking at her as we followed the wedding planner to tiny Makena Cove about three miles from the Hale Pua Hana Resort. That’s where we spent seven nights and eight days, just 150 feet from the ocean waves. Upon seeing Cassie in her wedding dress, I felt underdressed! with a white button down Hawaiian shirt lightly embroidered and sand colored slacks. No Shoes! We picked the sandy beach so I could make a small sand pile to stand on in order to be a little taller than she was 8).

The night before the wedding, we met the neighbors staying in the condo next to us: Jim and Diana Richards from Arizona. They were celebrating there 41st wedding anniversary and they attended our wedding and signed our certificate as “witnesses”. It was one of those unplanned surprises, maybe God showing us a “Second marriage” that has lasted. They also gave us our first official wedding gift, a pair of resort coffee cups!

To say that I was nervous is an enormous understatement. We both had written vows to each other… changed a thousand times. Upon arrival the Hawaiian pastor gave us instructions and the photographer suggested photo positions for the best pics… I didn’t hear a word of it!. The entire ceremony was a blur. I couldn’t see anyone but Cassie and that Maui ocean sunset: a brilliant display of sunrays through pink and grey clouds. It was all absolutely spectacular. I cried through my little scribbles as I read them to Cassie. And I had to read hers again later to hear what she actually said! She was beautiful and way more stable than I was.

On the advice of the Richards, we had dinner on the other side of the Island at a little place called Mamma’s Fish House. It is a beach restaurant decorated in “tiki lounge” fashion with tiki torches on the beach and near open air seating at a table next to the sand. It couldn’t have worked out better. The food was outrageously good and the biggest expense of the week. We were on a budget and we planned to stay mostly at the condo, doing our own cooking and BBQ’s on the beach. We never missed a sunset all week nor the sunrises… as we were on California time. The company of our new friends on a couple nights around the BBQ just made things feels like home.

We spent most of our honeymoon just outside the bungalow, on the lanai overlooking the ocean. Went snorkeling at least twice a day on our own beach, seeing every fish listed on the diver’s card! (And a few that weren’t). The highlights were the Sea Turtles, the Dolphins, and on one occasion a Manta Ray with a six foot wing span.

We did venture to Lahianna a few miles away for souvenirs. Visited the top of the local volcano for one morning’s sunrise and saw some local musicians play in the evenings within blocks of our suite. The final day we took the famous Road To Hana before flying out late night.

Basking in the sun with no real agenda was a new experience for me. And second only to the “Consummation” time! 8) was Coffee in the morning light and reading to Cassie from Ozzie and the local history pages.

I’m sporting a new wedding band today, a dark silver platinum ring with three diamonds. They signify a relationship with my new wife Casandra and her two daughters Nicollet and Brianna. I’ve “inherited” two teenage daughters as well as a wife. So I was sure to get rings for all three girls, to insure that they are included in my growing family. Cassie’s rings are diamonds and platinum as well and I found “wave” rings, hand made by Maui local artist Jack Hamilton for her daughters. They are hammered silver with “Sun” and “Moon” significations. Nikki wears the “Sun”… as she is the intense one at soon to be 15. Brianna is the “Moon” and more like her mother and at 18 she is a rather “Nocturnal” creature… stays out later than I can stay up.

“This has been the best week of my life”… my new wife said to me as we headed for the airport. It was her first time to Maui and she was euphoric at every new discovery. It was hard for me to keep up… but seeing her face lit up at every turn rekindled a fire in me to continue to pursue all that is good in life and these precious moments we have together. There’s less time to waste in my perception…. And God has granted me a second chance to strive for that elusive happiness that is always a by product of harder work. Seeing my brides’ passion for discovery kindled a new fire of my own for the future. “Old things are passed away”… and “behold all things have become new”. I’m so grateful for the grace God has given me “replacing the years that the locust have eaten” as I read in the old testament this week. 8)

K so there’s that with us!..... bryan D

Nifty Noodles 05/03/09 - Getting Mauie-ed

Maui, Hawaii 5/3/09

Tomorrow I leave California and travel to the end of the earth, specifically, the Island of Maui. I’m taking Casandra, my long time sweetheart. On Wednesday at Mokena Cove, a small beach nestled between lava rock we will exchange vows to each other at sunset.

I’ve known Cassie for seven years now. And I proposed to her two years ago and again last Christmas. But a second marriage for both of us is not something we have considered lightly. Expectations and definitions of our relationship had to be addressed and sometimes it was deeply painful.

For me a new life comes with Joy only when I let go of my past. Not only do I regret my mistakes but I fear I will carry them into the future. Cassie has been the primary reason I have continued to consider and pursue God’s will. In the last few years, we have dismissed each other, tried to run away from each other, but in the end there has been a transfixed direction for us that I believe is God, saying this is where you belong now.

We are not in the throws of wild rebound after disappointing heartaches. The way of a committed relationship is truly understood and feared. God must be respected and trusted above ourselves. After two years of working things out we’ve found a remarkable satisfaction with each other. It’s in the time spent sitting alone together mostly. Not the doing of things and the going of places.

With her there is a quiet strength and a sense of peace (most of the time 8) ). She is remarkably direct in her communication. She is quick to be responsible for her side of a disagreement even when she is 90% right! She’s soft spoken, insightful, and tolerant of me in a patient way. Like Graduation, Marriage to me is an acknowledgement of something that has already happened!.

I read to her… she finishes my sentences for me. I recognize subtle changes in her expressions and body language, She insists that I wear a seat belt in the car.

I find all the knots in her back after a stress filled day.. she forces me to take pills that don’t appear to do anything! (Vitamins, cholesterol lowering whatever that don’t contribute to an immediate sense of well being. We laugh in the kitchen, making dinners as I learn to cut tomatoes and “season” things.. and we dance together while we wait for the food to cook.

We find ourselves laughing in the middle of a heated conversation because it’s not even a good enough argument to waste time on. She switches gears in the middle of a bad mood… “this day doesn’t count”… she says “lets move on”. She doesn’t stew about little irritations or nurse bad feelings. She pushes me to stay “in the moment” and live one day at a time. I love her!

And when the sun goes down on the sand of Maui, we will say good bye to the past and wake up together to a new dawn. I will be her husband and she will be my wife. A relationship we’ve poorly defined before. I have broken promises to recover from and Forgiveness is an absolute necessity, and a willingness to change for the benefit of the other takes a sacrificial courage neither of us have found easy. But after the ‘Disasters” comes a unique feeling of strength that we can and will overcome together. Because we know that we will need a power greater than ourselves to love unconditionally… we have invited Christ to be our witness and we acknowledge that his divine will is paramount to any success we might find.

We will keep our friends by the way… and hold a reception hopefully sometime in June where we will have a “Sand” ceremony and have the time to greet all of you who know us and would like to share our joy and the acknowledgement of hard fought for changes. When it comes to Cassie… “I do”.

Bryan Duncan

Nifty Noodles 04/28/09 - Road Queen

April 24 2009 Seattle, Wa.

I needed to meet with the Level Seven Partners in person to “close the book” on my new book. The first draft is done on “RIDE SMILIN’ it Makes people nervous”

We’re hoping to have it available on line by late June. It’s the beginning of a new writing career hopefully. Additional income is the driving force but I’ve dreamed about being an author for the last decade.

So here we are. Ironic that the first book to be published is called “Hogwash” (the series name). I wouldn’t have thought I’d be writing Motorcycle Humor as part of my calling but I also never saw recovery and motorcycles being compatible to my concert efforts either. This is where you pray and follow your heart. And that’s when the surprises come.

I met with Michael Forney and Brett Eddy on the pier at Seattle’s Public Market. I Got to see the first marketing work in a Hog Sticker, A picture of “Snoutly Rudescooter” my flying pig character. You can see him at http://www.hogwashhumor.com/ . Anyway we wandered around the public market to take pictures of me with pigs. I don’t know why there are statues of pigs in the fish market but such is the case. We also listened to local talent on the sidewalk and got a picture in front of the very first Starbucks Coffee Co. I was dressed in a black suit and sunglasses and I guess Mike and Brett looked like my body guards. People were asking who I was while we took pics. I guess I wasn’t exactly blending in to the Northwest too well.

The plan is to find an artist to do the cartoon characters for each chapter as well as a ‘Flip book’ series for each page. So if you know anyone who’s interested in illustrating my book. Have them contact us at http://www.hogwashhumor.com/ . plan to send us some basic work you’ve done as we need to get on this right away.

April 25, 2009 Anacortes, Wa

Michael Juillerat is a biker friend of mine from southern Cal who moved to Washington maybe a year ago. I stayed with him and his wife for the next two days. I needed to pay for my flight to Washington and he helped me come up with some “Drive by” gigs. He also landed me a borrowed motorcycle. Mark And Pam Reeves are a couple of HOG members and they loaned me A Harley Davidson Road King. Actually it was Pam’s bike.

Now I’m not sure if it was an intentional gag but Pam’s bike has little flowers all over it! Even the tail lights look like Daisies! We rode to the biker church on Saturday morning to sing and then on to the Harley Dealer in Renton, an hour and a half away before some bikers pointed out that my bike actually says: “ROAD QUEEN”.

Well now I’m catching all kinds of “who haas” about that.

Saturday night I did a two hour concert at Cedar Park Church. The sound was so good that I just couldn’t stop singing. It was a great turn out too for last minute.
”I said something this morning that I’ve never said before in my life” I told em. The bike weather in Washington is a lot colder than SO Cal. And Mark had given me a riding suit that heats up so you can ride comfortable. It has a little wire that connects to a wire on the bike to take a current. I nearly froze in the morning ride to Rushing Wind Church and hour away because as I said to my friend at the off ramp of the freeway….”I forgot to plug in my pants”!!! now there’s something I’ve never said before! Not in 56 years.

By the time we did the Sunday morning service in Kings Mountain they were already talking about that in the lobby when we arrived.

April 26 Somewhere near the Canadian Border ….

I left with several friends around 11 p.m. last night after the Cedar Park gig and rode an hour and a half back to Anacortes. Even with my pants plugged in it felt like maybe 20 degrees outside. I felt like a popsicle by the time we got in. and the cold left me stiff and my voice nearly gone for Sunday morning here. But somehow I got through a 30 minute set and presented a message worthy of the time.

I’d love to fill you in on the spiritual insights I’ve had this week but this is already a long noodle. Needless to say I have been unbelievably “Blessed” for lack of a better word. I spent time with some great down to earth people. Had several of my own relatives come to the concert at Cedar Park. Cousins’ and their grandkids I’ve never seen.

By Sunday night I was back to the airport with no voice to speak of and completely spent. I rode “Daisy May” the Road Queen at least 400 miles I think. What spectacular views they have on the coastline of Washington State. When the sun is shining it is as close to heaven as I can imagine.

O.k. So there’s that… Bryan D

Nifty Noodles 04/20/09 - About Rich Davis

Front Office. 4/20/09

I was asked via email today why I haven’t said much about my long time friend and webmaster for Bryan Duncan website: Rich Davis. Since fall of last year Rich has been in the struggle for his life. In and out of the hospital including ICU and including several months lost to a coma.

There are times when newscasters add all kinds of commentary to the latest ‘disaster’ and the latest tragedy or appalling situation. And then there was the day the Twin Towers fell. There were huge moments of silence on t.v.!

Well that’s what this feels like. I have not spent much time “noodling” the conditions of Rich Davis. I can’t pronounce half the stuff they’ve diagnosed. It leaves me numb with the realities he has faced since September. I too have tried to fill his shoes on the website and explain to people why “customer service” has been lacking. Everyday I see where Rich is missing. I talk to him on the phone when he can take a call. And I talk to his wife sparingly as they have much to deal with in this struggle.

I last saw Rich in person last year when he came with his wife Veronica to a gig in Prescott, Arizona. He was struggling then and left early because of a blood clot in his leg. Next time I rode out to see him at the hospital to bring him a “Still Dancin” award. But we never got to see him because of all the tests they were running.

There is hollowness about ministry these days and what all our activities really accomplish in the light of when those closest to you begin to fall under in the quality of health. It is not something I find easy to comment on… it’s just bigger than I have words for. I just pray… and shut up… cause this is serious stuff.

Oswald talks about being still and silent in the dark times… not taking it to the whole world or looking to the left or the right but being still. I am there! … and not just with Rich, there are others close to me in my own family who are possibly standing on the brink of eternity. Life is currently breath taking! I have even considered not writing the noodle’s at all in the last month. It feels trivial.

Some things can’t be shared with everybody! … that’s been hard for me to learn. This is not “newsletter” material. It is personal. I can only pray for God’s will here and speak to him of my wishful thinking.

Rich is my friend and co laborer, I love him like a brother, his contribution to my life is not calculable … named on the last project I might ever record as my “off road Manager”. I believe those who are the friends of Rich have been kept informed of all the procedures and the mind numbing swings for better and for worse. I trust that you have your own prayers for Rich even as I do. This is a time where God’s will doesn’t include my personal requests or questions.

Out of consideration for Rich and Veronica and their family I have allowed them to spend their precious time together as they would see fit. I will honor the true priorities God has laid out for us all.

Keep coming back… bryan D

Nifty Noodles 04/18/09-Little Help From My Friends

Front Office….4/20/09

Now that Radio Rehab is a non profit and donations are Tax deductible. I need anyone who’s listened to the shows over the last decade to send in a personal endorsement of the content of Radio Rehab, The Road To Redemption that we might use in our proposals for grant money.

If you or any of your iron force have benefited from this effort… let us know via email… or by mail

At::
Radio Rehab PMB 475
231 E. Alessandro Blvd. Suite A
Riverside, Ca. 92508-6039

All shows have been a matter of donated time and money contributed will be going to raise the awareness of this encouragement for those in recovery. Thanks….

Bryan D

Also check out the new addition of PodCasting.. a talk show style with Steve Webb and myself.. go to www.lifeoutofstep.com

Nifty Noodles 04/15/09 - Lobbying

Irvine, Ca 4/14/09

I spent the day in the lobby of the Hyatt Hotel in Irvine. Standing a booth for the Hacienda Men’s Facility and promoting a huge amphitheater fund raiser called “The Gathering”. It is an event coming to Lake Ellsinore on September 12th that I will be headlining. Derek Wayne Hughes, whom I call “DWI”.. because of his enthusiasm for going after things, asked me to come down to meet some of the 1500 pastors of the local Assemblies Of God Churches in Southern California. We will be pushing to sell 2200 tickets for this gig. And the funding for this event is incredible. Lights and sound and the ambiance of a perfect amphitheater with the river trees lit up. The stage will be designed to look like a small café. Complete with real patrons eating real food served by real waiters. The larger audience will be looking in on a club date!

This is a very ambitious and creative undertaking. And not like anything I’ve seen in music for the last decade!

I was willing to lobby because I’m looking for work these days too. Looking to reconnect somewhere with an audience that might resonate with my experience on the road to redemption. The AoG is an ironic fit. I was raised in this denomination. My Dad is a retired AoG preacher. And I was officially blacklisted for years not because of my sins but rather that I was a “big time” Christian Artist and one who charged ‘too much money”. Preachers are trained to be suspect and it is often that decisions are made against “progress” simply because it is unfamiliar! Therefore considered to be un -Spiritual.

This is an aging denomination like all. But I sat in on a session and for 20 minutes they showed a slide presentation of all the men who have died in the last year. Noting their years in ministry… 30, 50, 60 years, summed up in a single screen. It was sobering. That clock is ticking loudly in my own mind and I walked out wondering what do I do with the 20 years I might still have to do something that matters. I thought about how tired I already am. Wayne’s enthusiasm alone makes me feel that.

I had at least three different “Brochures” at the table on who I am and where I’m going. “Partnering with Pastors” was popular. Radio Rehab was met with a moment of pause, and the local boy concert offering was treated with standard brochure acceptance like stuff every booth is passing out on their ministry. But I knew a lot of these people, many who’ve had me in before. And they were surprised to see me “Unannounced” and standing in the lobby. I felt like the prodigal returning. Derek was working the lobby like he was on a mission. He talked me in to playing a few songs during a session break while he herded people over to the corner where I was. It was an odd feeling, like playing on the sidewalk outside of the real event.

Some, he said, wouldn’t believe I was over there. Assuming I would be a notable name at the convention and endorsed via the poster! This was the equivalent of crashing the party. I played the three or four songs that I still know on the piano. And talked to some worship leaders and even sang a duet with one on “I love you with my life”. It opened the door to some local gigs for sure… at least four or five.

On the way home I talked with Derek about doing an unplugged version of some of the Still Dancin’ tunes using local musicians and writing new songs in a more “Currently” acceptable style ala “Maroon 5” and “John Mayer”. He has some players here willing to do local stuff in some clubs and winery’s where I could get back into some financial liquidity. I sat silent mostly thinking about what this all says about my efforts in the last three years. Red Road and the NehoSoul Project have not brought much attention. It’s hard to admit that even now. My enthusiasm even for music has been sliding for the last few years as I have pushed hard to publish a book.

I like writing at home. And even now I was anticipating my back porch as if it were heaven. I wondered about the motorcycle world too and the how the use of tracks doesn’t work at a biker event outdoors. I have always pushed to bring in my band but the price of flights makes it unreasonable in this economy. Anyway in the shortfall I will find a way to keep making a living.

Hogwash is two pages from being a finished book. And I meet next week with Level Seven Partners in Seattle to talk of publishing and marketing. I’m also doing three churches in the area. My hope is still to present the best with NehoSoul Band. But currently I will be writing some guitar driven songs with simpler hooks and a heart felt message. It seems that is what I have missed in recent years. Connecting with the hearts of people somehow in all my cleverness, I too must embrace more changes than I have been ready for.

O.k. so there’s that! Bryan D

p.s. today I will meet again with Steve Webb my co host for a ‘talk show’ series podcast called “life out of step”.. it’s another new inspiring approach to finding an audience.

Three shows are up at www.lifeoutofstep.com and Steve is the perfect “Straight man” to my sarcasm.

Nifty Noodles 04/13/09

Livermore, Ca. 4/11/09

I committed to Ride my motorcycle to the gig in Livermore which is 50 min. east of San Francisco. This is too great an opportunity to pass up. I haven’t taken Jezebel farther north than Morrow Bay really, so it was time. Trouble is it was a 60% chance of rain over the weekend and we left Riverside in 100% of a downpour. Rain, and I’m not talking “Drizzle’ here, make a bike more complicated.

Cold Rain makes it almost impossible. The streets are wet and slick… the bike is soggy you’ve got five layers of gear on under a rain suit. Yer fingers are still wet and too fat to wrap around the handlebars. We Roll out, goggles fogging in the first 30 seconds. Several stops in the first 20 minutes to “adjust” load and cover things on the bike. If it had rained all the way up it might have been a real disaster.

Thirty minutes out it stopped and we never saw another drop even though the clouds remained ominous and it never got above 62 degrees. IT was like stepping into the Red Sea and suddenly the waters parted. And behold we rode into the promised land on dry ground. (about ten hours later).

There is nothing like a Hot Shower to give you true sense of gratitude and worship for what God has allowed plumbers to do!

Saturday we rode with a collection of local bikers: Black Sheep, CMA, and Sober Riders. We took the San Mateo Bridge over into San Francisco and came back on the Golden Gate bridge. It was spectacular. The sun was out but not working too hard. Still got a sunburn.

Saturday night was a near full house and a ticketed event at “Christian World”… no really that’s the name… sounds like a theme park a little doesn’t it! 8). I sang an hour and a half concert. I stuck mostly to the tracked material. The keyboard was one of the first models kurzweil ever put out I think .. and to save me I couldn’t figure out how to get sounds on it. I don’t think anyone missed the unplugged stuff. I talked a lot … that’s the only downside. But in the end everyone was Washing the big dog on the way out the door.

We left out at seven a.m. easter Sunday to take the coast highway back. No traffic whatsoever before noon anyway. It was magnificent in most every way.

O.k. so there’s that. Bryan D

Life Out of Step

LifeOutOfStep.com is online.

We’re going to take segments from Bryan’s “The Road To Redemption: Radio Rehab” show, mostly the smart aleck stuff, the rants, and the prayers from different shows in that series. We give you tools to work with in recovery. “My favorite part is the whinyness…where I’m filling in for your complaints,” says Duncan.

Life Out Of Step will be a weekly show, so be sure to subscribe (FREE) in order to have each new show downloaded automagically to your computer!

Nifty Noodles 04/09/09

Franklin, Tn, March 27

NehoSoul Band descended upon Franklin Tn, Club Sol. ….well half the band anyway. Phil Curry and Sam Mathews couldn’t swing the gig. They were replaced by Jason Palmer on Drums and Steve Cabales on Keyboards. Tim Coleman showed up with sax in hand, and regular back up singer Irene Kelly joined us as well.

Sol is a little down town restaurant with a very deep stage. It was a chance to run the set list for the next night at the Indie Heaven Summit we were scheduled to play for.

We played from 8 to midnight. And “jam session” was the key element. We invited most of the audience to sing or play at some point. Nashville area is chuck full of musicians and singers. It was all pretty impromptu but the opening set sounded like the real deal and we rolled through the songs from Still Dancin like we’d been on tour the whole time. By 11:30 however I was aware that my vocal strength was not limitless.

I attempted to present several guitar songs solo to fill some time. You can really hear people not paying attention when there’s no volume coming off the stage. It was the first time to play a new song on guitar called “I can’t imagine”. It was a little clunky and unfamiliar but with the vocal stack live it resonated well. I saw a lot of old friends in the crowd and a few familiar faces of fans, some who drove from as far away as St. Louis to hear the band. And they heard every song I could remember!

Playin all night at a club is more work than I’m used to. I can see how musicians get glazed over after a few hours. It started to feel like a marathon. By the time I left I wasn’t sure if I’d have a voice for the “bigger show” next night.

Nashville, Tn.

We arrived at the “Foundry” on the seedy side of music city. First person I saw was an old biker sitting on the porch of a mission facility. I had to get a picture with him after talking for a while. “Father Norman” was his name… a former “OUTLAW” with a 1948 Indian motorcycle that he can’t ride anymore because of his brain cancer. He was my favorite “Meet” on this trip.

Indie Heaven is the new world in music. I would imagine it will be a growing concern in the music business as technology continues to erode the status quo. I hung around the mini convention for a mind numbing nine hours, listening to business forecasts and how to get your music ministry off the ground. I concluded that no body knows what they’re talking about frankly.

I sat outside a lot talking to survivors. Did an interview with one guy, took a few pictures with newbie’s, all the while feeling a fog about the future. I was singing to myself, a song from Steely Dan… “The rules have changed, it’s not the same, it’s all new players in a whole new ball game” .

By the time we came on to play I’d at least formed an attitude of embracing what I don’t know. I set out to encourage other musicians at least in the trust of a God who has a plan. I felt a great strength singing “papa ain’t gonna quit”.. and I talked about all the years where people told me I needed to sound more like someone else! In the early days it was “BJ Thomas”.. then later Sweet Comfort Band needed to sound more like “MEN AT WORK”… “and if one more person tells me I need to be more like John Mayer, I’m gonna throw up” I told em.

Yea, it’s a risk being who you are and playin what you like. It’s disappointing when people don’t get it. But I’ve had a lot of success too. “I’m in the odd place of once being on a major label and now I’m back as an independent musician/ writer”. I added between songs. “the playing field has just been leveled”. “I’m too old to punt on fourth down” I told one guy back stage. No one was asking me for advice at this event. But I think I managed to encourage a few folks with my insights on “Determination”.

Now if I can just remember that myself!

O.k. so there’s that! Bryan D

Nifty Noodles 04/08/09

Front Office? 4/8/09

These days I’m waking up almost alarmed about what isn’t real anymore. I spend my days writing like crazy and working on a new vision. And it hits me how much of my life is spent assuming that things are the way they’ve always been. It’s been a matter of going through familiar routines, maybe subconsciously, pretending that the world hasn’t changed. Defining myself by who I used to be!.

I talk to my father who is recovering from a stroke and dealing with Alzheimer’s. He talks to me but makes no sense.. and I listen to him because I knew him once. I knew who he used to be.

I notice too that more of my work falls through the cracks these days because my co laborers are struggling with their own health or the health of their parents. And I continue to go through the motions of a career I once had. I do this because this is what I do. But it is turning into a “mime” . There is nothing in my hands. I’m a sidewalk persona performing from imagination.

I’m not depressed here by the way. I’m simply acknowledging the apparition. My Dad is still my Dad. I’m still me too and moving ahead but I smell the fumes of a fuel already burned.

I played a wonderful little gig out in Sun City, Ca. this weekend. Sun City is a retirement town… actually it “used to be”. But I talked to a number of aging citizens there and I stood in the parking lot between morning services thinking about how I used to joke about touring retirement homes. Well I have arrived! 8) Most don’t know who I used to be.. or maybe they just don’t remember! I wanted to use that line I laughed at from rehab “don’t you know who I think I am?”

I think we are all aware of the drastic shift in our personal lives and the economy. Global paradigms are changing. Old ways don’t work anymore and it’s hard to find a new approach with an old brain. The Grooves are worn deep. I’ve grown weary of trivial pursuits or maybe just the sound of a bigger picture without the substance? I’m not sure “Less is more”, but I surely know a scattered focus is not helpful.

I’m casting new seeds in every direction and just short of throwing out the bathtub at least with the bathwater. 8)

O.K. so there’s That…. Bryan D

Nifty Noodles 03/22/09 - Nu Pics

Riverside, Ca 3/22/09 the weekend…

I finally broke down and did a new photo shoot for my solo concerts. Derek Hughes is a promoter who’s doing an outdoor amphitheater festival with me and a few other artists, on September 12th of this year. He was complaining about the lack of current pics (as were a few others) He provided the photographer. We shot out door photo’s at “The Castle” in Riverside, The Lambs Fellowship Amphitheater in Lake Ellsinore and “Old Town” in Temecula.

I took several pics with my bike as well that I hope to use for the back of my soon to be released book of humor on Motorcycle world to be found first at www.hogwashhumor.com the first book of a hopeful series is called “Ride Smilin”. We already have orders on line for the t shirt as well.

I plan to have more specific pictures for the widening variety of gig’s I’ve been doing. Which will include new pictures for “Partnering with Pastors” concerts. We’ve developed for a conversational presentation of music and scripture that allows interplay with local leaders.

What I’ve seen of the photos so far is unbelievably good. Yea I’m still old. But Lynette Siler captured some great shots especially in outdoor lighting. She works like a National Geographic Photographer!, taking pics on the run and from a distance with high powered scope.

I got a cleaned up haircut for the event. It’s not quite as short as by gone days but I removed myself from the grungy biker thing. Best shots though were “all black outfits” with a buckskin colored sport jacket …(I look skinnier) and a few Black On Black looks with a muslin embroidered Black Vest (compliments of Derek Hughes) that looks and feels so cool I plan to wear it in concert a lot regardless of the type of gig. I also over laid Black Levi’s and button down Black Shirt with a pinstriped black sport Jacket.

I interrupted a meeting of Missionary Builders… their conference was being held at the Teen Challenge facilities we call “the Castle” here in Riverside. So I sang a quick song for em before taking pics inside the Castle where the Original “Frankenstein” movie was filmed. I was told the drummer from Iron Butterfly lives in the upstairs loft to this day!!

We took some shots with my bike at the Amphitheater in Lake Elsinore, as Derek described how the place will look for the festival which includes lighting the trees in the Riverbed behind the stage, and setting the whole stage to look like a small café.. complete with real people, tables and real waiters serving real food. The audience off stage will be looking in on a club date! Very original thinking from Mr Hughes, who never stops talking and who’s voice goes up on the phone when he’s doin business. He’s raising money for the Hacienda Men’s Facility and is raising eyebrows with his enthusiasm and determination to bring music out of the land of Mediocrity. He’s found his own financial backing for this planned annual event called “The Gathering” and secured some $15,000.00 start up money for the first event. He’s flying in the face of many a naysayer, looking at the impossible in this economy. “people will find at least one good thing to go to this year.. it just has to be the best” He almost shouts.

Moving on here…Takin pics at “Old Town” on a Saturday is to include hundreds of bikes lining the streets where horses once stood. The hang time was awesome. I was telling bikers about the new book and the name of the pig on the website. “HOG CHOP” is his nick name. But after researching all the famous pigs and their names on line I thought mine was pretty creative. “Snoutly Rootascooter”!.. He never leaves a bike the way it was!

O.K. so there’ll be updates in the future on: The Gathering (sept 12 amphitheater gig), The Hogwash chronicles, PWP concerts, And of course you’ll see the pic’s we pic’d

Thanks for reading: Bryan D

Nifty Noodles 03/16/09

Bakersfield, Ca 3/14/08 Forgive the longer read.. just read the bullet points if yer busy….

Two hundred bikers walked out on my music this weekend….

What I learned about Motorcycle ministry:

- Someone has to be in control of an open mic, allocating the time.
- You can’t hold bikers in a room for more than two hours unless yer feeding them or handing out prizes.
- Bikers come to ride mostly. Not to listen to long diatribes.
- People’s time needs to be respected. (the mind cannot absorb what the seat cannot endure)
- Apparently Music is for an IPOD when yer alone on yer bike.
- One song IS a presentation.
- Bikers want a V twin NOT a “rambler”
- Riding with one other biker is where ministry comes to life
- Unfortunately, Prayer signifies the END of a meeting!


I was introduced and to my horror everyone started filing out while I sung my first song. Assuming that prayer signifies the end of the event, I became music to leave the building by. I tried to hang on to my sense of dignity (but I had expectations). After two songs there were maybe 10 people left in the room. I was deeply offended!. “Thanks for coming” I said and promptly stopped and packed up my stuff and headed for my bike. By the time I was ready to roll I was so angry and insulted I could not see straight.

“yer the only thing on the bill” ‘Hollywood’ said to me when he booked me for a biker breakfast in Bakersfield. It was a “unity breakfast” to bring together the many Christian bike clubs and ministries in the area. And it was effective. At least 26 affiliations were in attendance. Black Sheep, BFC, Prayer Warriors, Chariots of Light, Soldiers For Jesus, Dragon Slayers, Christians, Tribe of Judah were the patches I remember at first glance.

I rode up the day before to be there on time for a morning event. I’d had a conversation about other disasters in bike outreaches where someone had talked the crowd to sleep. And was assured this would not be the case here.

Breakfast started at 8 a.m.. I had my sound check and set up done quickly. They provided a keyboard and guitar and p.a. system. All was ready. But following the breakfast came 20 minutes of announcements and commentary. Following that, there was a local invited guest pastor who spoke for Another 40 minutes. He closed his portion with a prayer. It was assumed the gig was over. No wait… the gig WAS OVER.

It was a three and a half hour ride home and I stood my bike on the back tire in an angry display of “Screw this”. Thinking about the stories in scripture of “Shaking the dust off your feet”, “pearls before swine”. I could not pray. “God is not blessing my efforts in this direction” I thought to myself. “Maybe I should quit tryin to do music at all” I continued. “I’m straining the dregs of a dead career”. But this was not my fault nor anyone in particular, It was however simple ineptness. I have this visual of standing on the curb as a bus passes by, hitting a mud puddle and throwing it all over you.

Thank God for the ride home. By Tehachapi I had taken some side roads to blow off the awful thought process. I had held out hope that somehow bike ministry would be different from the thirty years of “insensitivies” I’ve experienced in every ministry to date. Trouble is, ministry is still about people. I don’t mind ministering to someone who has been hurt or deeply discounted. I just hadn’t planned to be one of them!

So I’m riding home alone, wondering where I truly belong. I was disappointed and angry, I came to give for free and I had no takers.. After two hours of dodging dragonflies in the desert, some exploding into yellow paintballs on my windshield. I began to think about what I needed to learn. It’s humbling to realize that you might not know everything you need to know. You might be building on the wrong foundation. Assuming what God’s plans are for your life. One thing I remembered from the pastor who “stole the show”, was insightful though “I’ve done a lot of things for Jesus that he had no part in! “

I assumed that because I rode a bike, I would find a new resonance in bike ministry. I think I was wrong. I might have hoped there was some redemption for my career in this but I clearly don’t know what God’s plan is. I read Oswald Chambers this morning for some insight and found this: “The thing that tells in the long run for God and for men is the steady persevering work in the unseen and the only way to keep the life uncrushed is to live looking to God. Ask God to keep the eyes of your spirit open to the Risen Christ, and it will be impossible for drudgery to damp you. Continually get away from pettiness and paltriness of mind…”

I thought I was finished with “college”. The Good news is that some education comes for free. No tuition needed!

I sat at home for a long time upon returning from the “gig”, exhausted mostly. And then I found my way out of some of my own disappointment. By thinking about the men (and a few women) I met this weekend.

- “Hollywood” one of the first Black Sheep members I think, to wear his colors to a Hell’s Angels Meeting with his old friends. A biker who gets up at four in the morning to serve breakfast to others
- Hollywood’s Wife “Jennifer and a couple of other women who made three hundred hamburgers by hand for a HOG bbq after the unity breakfast as well as morning food.
- “Tiny” a good natured giant of a man with a soft hearted demeanor, and willingness to “ride the night” with a guest from out of town and help set things up.
- “Jimbo” , willing to ride out with an angry man to slow him down. Pay for breakfast to talk things out. Recalling his own “angry ride” of a week earlier.
- “Prayer Warriors” younger fast growing club of men pitching in, parking bikes and quietly open hearted
- “Sal” Biker’s For Christ member and pastor who left late to ride up to Bakersfield with me and proceeded on to his own destination in Fresno

This is where the real ministry in bike world is… and I shall not forget that…

O.k. So there’s THAT! Bryan d

Nifty Noodles 03/13/09

Front Office Riverside, Ca 3/13/09

Who says Friday the 13th is bad luck. I started a column for submission to the HOG Magazine and Black Sheep Newsletter yesterday. But I had a writing frenzy on this light humor piece and came up with a better name for it. I wrote 12 pieces in a matter of hours. Suddenly I thought, this should be a little book of humor. So I called Level Seven Partners and read a couple to Michael Forney who put me on speakerphone immediately. His executives flipped out to the point of saying “we can get the money to publish this without going through a publisher. Suddenly hope appears like a shining star here.

I simply mentioned a few figures on how many biker enthusiasts there are in the country. It’s odd that I could not even get the Christian community interested in my spiritual angles. It now looks like my first book might be a “Humor” piece that will set up the book I’ve been working on: Dear God… Really? (now the working title changed for the fifth time). Anyway I have half the book written in first draft in just a matter of two days! Simple is sometimes better I guess.

On another front I’ve been booked for a gig locally in Claremont headlining with Ben Harper. I first heard his music at Starbucks. Song called “fight for your mind” was so cool I put it on Radio Rehab!

The last year has been a rather scattered attempt at finding passion and redefining purposes that also pay the bills. I was starting to think that maybe I’d lost any real focus going in so many directions. Rehab, podcasts, motorcycles’, book proposals, songwriting, and concerts were all feeling like dead ends. My attitude was losing altitude! I was wondering if God might be mad at me. But my motto has been “keep knocking, Keep seeking, Keep asking”… I feel like Jacob getting his but kicked by an angel, soundly beaten he says “I won’t let go of you until you bless me”. Or Peter saying to Jesus.. “Hey where else am I gonna go? You have the words of life”

I’ll be celebrating my 56th birthday this weekend. IF I can get 56 people to give me a nickel I can get a TALL latte at Starbucks. I’ll take it off the price of my first book! 8)

O.K. So….bryan d

Nifty Noodles 03/09/09

Front office 3/9/09 Banquets and Birthday parties.

I rolled out on Jezebel for three events this weekend, all within 50 miles of my home. The Hacienda Ride, an outreach to a recovery facility twenty minutes south from my house. I’m doing this monthly now.. first Friday of the month. Last month twenty motorcycles rolled with me. This week was cold and threatening rain. Two riders joined me. Granted the Black Sheep National convention was doing something the same night 40 minutes away. I attended two days of that last week. I handed out Radio Rehab cards and announced the new non profit effort.

Saturday afternoon was perfect bike weather and I played at a pastor’s 46th birthday party in somebody’s back yard in East Los Angeles! This is becoming a regular event too… doing birthday parties. I discovered “Still Dancin” and “Papa ain’t gonna quit” make perfect birthday celebration material.

Sunday I joined John Schreiner at a big banquet that he was doing with a collection of church choirs. I sang one of the tunes on his record and came down to join in the sing along worship set. Worship music has not sounded this good in a long time I would say. His musical presentation of some of Solomon’s “Ode’s” came out astonishingly good. When worship music is so good that you find yourself speechless before God, I think the point has been made. His event was done with a full band and choir and orchestra.

Monday I’ve spent writing a new set of Dear God Letters for a promising book. I also started a comic column called “Buckle Down” for a biker newsletter. Titles so far are: “how you know yer at a biker wedding”, “How a biker knows there’s a down turn in the economy” and “requirements for a biker band”, this is all a follow up to one I wrote last year “how to know yer at a biker church”…

Tuesday, I’m on the phone looking for work. Times are tough and budgets are tight. I’m also starting “Life Out Of Step” as a podcast version of the new Radio Rehab.

It will be a shorter ten to fifteen minute talk show style thing with an excerpt from the shows on the Radio Rehab website www.radiorehab.com taken from the segment “life out of step” and including the “Dear God” prayer at the end.

Wednesday I’ll be the first guest on Darryl Mansfield’s new t.v. show. Aptly called the Darryl Mansfield show! I’m not sure where this is being broadcast yet. But the taping is at Safeworld Studio in Irvine.

The coming weekend I’ll be riding to Bakersfield for a Saturday morning Black Sheep Breakfast and playing Sunday morning and evening at the Soul Factory!, My new favorite name for a church.

O.k. So there’s that! Bryan Duncan

Nifty Noodles 03/04/09

Front Office 3/04/09

Radio Rehab is now a non profit public charity with an official mail box as well.

Radio Rehab
PMB 475
231 E. Alessandro Blvd, Suite A
Riverside, Ca. 92508-6039

The address is a little annoying but I lost my old p.o. box cause I didn’t get to that side of town to check it enough.. missed the renewal notice.

o.k. so it takes an extra ten seconds to announce correspondence and a half inch more space on the flyer’s…

Gifts will be more deliberate when you have to write all this on an envelope… maybe we have to manufacture the envelopes!

Any way donations are now tax deductible!!

Red Road Records was the first donation btw… $100. to open the bank account.

Followed by 178. check from Red Road to pay for the first 15 months of the new mail box.

The first expense was $8. for a domain name to be used as a podcast … “Life Out of Step”.

We are now working on the official Letterhead for the acknowledgement of contributions.

I think it’s interesting that today is “March Fourth” …

O.K. so there’s that…. Bryan D

Nifty Noodles 02/21/09

Front Office/ Riverside, Ca

I motorcycled in to another recovery gig in the local desert community of Beaumont, Ca. . It was the second of an experimental outreach where I have been incorporating Denver Cooley in my presentation. He’s pastor of a biker church called Rushing Wind Church, in Colton.

This gig took on a poker run kind of feel. I met two bikers in Riverside and rode to the “secret hideout” in Colton where Biker’s for Christ and Black Sheep members often meet. (it’s a Starbucks) 8).

We met another 12 bikers there and rode to “Buckles and Belts” (a leather shop and meeting place in Calimesa) where 10 members of Armor Bearers were waiting. Talk about an entourage we rode from there to the Gathering Place, a small church in Beaumont, with about 30 bikes.

The regulars attending Celebrate Recovery were wide eyed at the sights and sounds of a thundering heard of motorcyclists rolling in to the church parking lot. There was a $2. spaghetti dinner, followed by the recovery twelve step reading with Biblical principles and scriptures. I then performed a mini concert and introduced Denver, who absolutely wowed the packed house with his humorous story of salvation and recovery. Denver is the most refreshing discovery of my recent travels. Honest, down to earth and 100% Biker dude. He’s easy to hang with and very unassuming.

This year I feel like everything is completely new and even though many of the folks that came to this gig showed up with entire collections of my earlier recordings, I felt like I was someone else completely at this point. I sang IF YOU WANNA BE LONELY and THINGS YOU BRING, I LOVE YOU SO, and CHAINS from the NehoSoul Project. And it went over like any great worship music might. Although it was announced as a Bryan Duncan concert that’s not the way it felt. I was contributing to a bigger picture where everyone had something to offer.

It may be that in the coming year I am starting over from scratch. whatever you might have thought about my past endeavors… don’t come expecting to recognize anything about the approach. It’s good to have a box that you can think outside of eventually. I am clearly outside any boundaries now that I ever assumed were there in the past.

Nifty Noodles 02/06/09

Front Office, 2/06/09
NehoSoul Headquarters, Riverside, Ca. …

I was describing to my Bass Player Ricky B, over the phone, how the current situation is for me. The music biz as we know it has completely disappeared.

I told him laughing only a little “It’s like I used to put seeds in the ground and watch em grow. But now the soil needs to be plowed before I can plant. But I need to build a plow and buy a mule first. I feel like I’ve got a raise the mule too, from birth and feed him on top of that!

This year has already come with letters from the government, questioning every aspect of my taxes. I’m joining the millions of baby boomers who are finding a new role in the care of their parents in their failing health. I’m growing quiet in the realization that everything is changing. There are more responsibilities and less compensation!

The good news in all this is I have found passions for writing like I’ve never had!, everything from songs to articles for magazines and book proposals. I have less time to complain, self pity is just a waste of time. I’ve set out to read a book a week this year. Of course I’m falling behind a little. I’m reading encouragement books mostly and at least three times a day. I’m reading “Starting Over” by Bob Gass, “Word For Today” by Bob Gass, “Laughing Matters, finding humor when life stinks” by Phil Calloway for starters. This keeps me in a proper frame of mind. I finished “Good News For those Trying Harder” by Alan Craft and “At First Sight” by Nicolas Sparks. I’m almost finished with “The Reader” by Bernard Schlink.

I believe to write well I must read much. But I’m looking for insights as well, on survival of attitude. This is coming from a guy who didn’t read a whole book all the way through High School! … I faked my book reports the whole 12 years!. (what an idiot). “Starting Over” is the best read… I read every chapter at least twice because he is talking about overcoming and seeing failure as a matter of ‘Creativity” rather than defeat!

Ricky and I have agreed that music has returned to the 60’s when it was all about “singles”. Gone are the days of CD’s at this point. Individual songs are downloaded and airplay is being redefined as well. I am overwhelmed with the need to learn new processes in computer technology just to communicate effectively. Copyrights, non profit status filing, registrations, pay pal accounts, on line banking, web management, podcasting and recording over the internet are all things I’ve had to face in just the last year really.

I’m trying to keep up but I’m getting outrun at the moment. Even so I feel more driven than ever in my life, with maybe less to show for the effort. I find myself on some days actually euphoric. If there’s gonna be a future I’m gonna have to invent it for myself I think. Still I wake up every morning wondering how to define my passions for writing and music. There is an alarming understanding that nothing in business from the old models is valid. Except maybe getting people to hear it!

Good news is we’re recording new songs today and the process of songwriting and recording still comes with the joy of creating. We’re tracking two songs this morning “Wanna Take my Harley To Heaven” and “I can’t imagine”. The Harley song is already being requested as a website opener for “Bikers For Christ”.

O.k., So there’s that… Bryan D.

Part 2 of Voyage Radio 2.0 Interview Posted

Part 2 of Bryan's interview at the Voyage Radio 2.0 podcast is now online.

dm

Nifty Noodles 01/28/09

Front Office 1/28/08

February and Forward Progress

When I started to “redefine” my music and purpose at the outset of the NehoSoul Band and Red Road Records, I saw it as a one time adjustment. It was primarily one of attitude. But with those adjustments came a reality check that nothing in the music industry is as it was!

Releasing the Still Dancin’ project was hardly a blip on the radar screen. Sales were quick and short lived for the most part. Given the economy and the new Technology it’s hard to rate the enthusiasm for soul music. But there’s no looking back time allowed at this point.

I continue to make Motorcycles and Recovery programs “collide” in my solo performances. Also including Denver Cooley, pastor of Rushing Wind church in Colton and President of Bikers For Christ/ inland empire chapter. We’ve taken to riding with whole posse’s of Bikes to events, sharing the stage in one form or another.

I have discovered a real need for a more energetic form of Church Music in the biker world and so at this point I’m writing songs with Bass Player Ricky B. from the NehoSoul Band that would be sing able for the audience. Bikers seem to resonate more with an old school style of Rock and Roll… ie: Areosmith, AC DC, Doobie Brothers, and the Eagles. So with that in mind we’re trying to bring that sound into the future with inspiration from younger artists like John Meyer, Jason Mraz, India Arie and others.

I’ve written four songs toward a new “biker church” project. Including “Wanna take my Harley to Heaven”, “I can’t imagine” (what I would do with out) “I choose” and “I C U” …thinking about having other lead singers on this as well to keep it from sounding like I’m changing music styles personally.

I’ve also decided that I like writing and staying home best of all these days. So with that has come a working relationship with Level Seven Partners, who are helping me with book proposals to Random House and Hachette Press, as well as possible Christian publishers.

In the marketing and visibility dept. we continue to build the Still Dancin awards concept. And a You tube production called “Duncan’s Diatribes”… doing a video version of my rants on the music business currently published in Christian Musician Magazine and Indieheaven on line mag.

I’ve also started a new relationship with “Final Word T.V.” a developing internet t.v. network in hopes of finding a new voice and audience. We are considering a video form of Radio Rehab for t.v. …. We’ll see. Just dreaming about how to play the cards we’re dealt.

O.k. so there’s that…. Bryan D.

Nifty Noodles 01/08/09

Front Office, 1/08/09
NehoSoul Headquarters, Riverside, Ca. …

So far I haven’t written the wrong date on a check! Usually happens at least once in the first month of a new year.

Lot of Irons in the fire with 09: Books/ reading and writing/ marketing music/ handing out awards/ looking for concert work/ ministry/ radio show/ motorcycle fellowship/ financing and funding.

I ordered a devotional from Bob Gass done much like Oswald of Old. I think it’s fascinating that this guy is a pastor… “pastor Gass”…. ? I’m sure he’s never heard any derogatory comments about that little nuance.

Anyway he quoted Steven Covey of all people, talking about seeing the end of your life first, as a way of getting a focus for where you are going. Last year I accomplished a lot and had a few disappointments as well.

Top of my new years list of directions? “I want to be a published author!!!” I’ve really struggled with book proposals for several months but two concepts are surfacing. My favorite is the “Dear God Diatribes” (not the real title) but it is becoming a compilation of my own letters to God… very smart alec really and it raises eyebrows when I read something like “dear God, I need you to kill someone”… but hasn’t every body thought about that at least once 8), And with more than one person in their life? Well it was rejected once last year by “NEW CHRISTIAN VOICES” . OF course I submitted it as a “devotional” series! 8)

The other proposal for a book is starting to turn into four things at once: 1) book idea 2) articles for Christian musician Magazine 3) U tube delivery in person in front of a camera! 4) marketing attention for Still Dancin . We’d talked about Utube being a way to gain visibility to promote Still Dancin” the new NehoSoul Project. I found myself laying out a script for video production that will start next week.

Like all my enthusiasms.. they are running together like the Rehab and Biker connections… doing both at the same time.

I just finished sending 25 pages of Bylaws for Radio Rehab to the IRS… applying for a non Profit corporation status… it is currently under review.

If it comes through I will be the “EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR”. With four other board members. This was hard work for a “Right brained” musician/ creative type like me. I don’t think in business terms. But should this materialize I will include PODCASTING with one of my chosen “Directors” who does a live Podcast called Lifesprings, one of the largest of it’s kind on line.

If it comes through I will probably reinvent Radio Rehab to include a more conversational style with humor on the issues and maybe even a guest or two!

Once again it’s a new year and there are many “door handles” to jiggle!

Surprise of the year so far is the opportunity to talk personally to William P. Young on the phone. He’s the author of “THE SHACK”

O.k. … KYOO…. (keep your options open) Bryan D

Bryan Interviewed at Voyage Radio 2.0 Podcast

You can listen to Part 1 of the Voyage Radio 2.0 podcast interview with Bryan Duncan at the Voyage Radio 2.0 site.

dm

New Blog

Hello All!

My name is David McLaughlin. I am a huge BD fan. I have volunteered to post Bryan's Noodles from his website to this blog so those of you who use rss/atom/other feeds can get them that way.

Bryan will be sending me the posts as he writes them and I will be uploading them.

As Bryan says...so there's that!

dm