” i know a guy who can do that…”

The latest spring I have witnessed, and now I am out!

Mississippi River, at Mounds Park, Last thursday of March.

HOw many snow drifts   covering the garden of dreams?

How many students fit into the  teacher’s  dreams when summer starts?

How many coughs grow into a cold?

How many hairs grow up in a field?

HOw many bison hiding in those hairs?

How many times will I look out this window and see trees and leaves and no leaves and snow and swirling crows and Minneapolis and garbage trucks in the alley and plastic bags stuck in trees?

https://www.yousendit.com/download/UVJpQmtSZ1BOMUI3czlVag

the

It is great pleasure to drink verbal tea  with your buddies, eating chips and naming things, even yourself.  But it is also kind of exhausting.  If the name is too clever, too cute, too whimsical, then it detracts from the music.

And face it.  I am  not planning on breaking open the popular music market.   An acquaintance ( our daughters were friends) tried to convince  me to write “ just one popular song…. Then you can go back to  doing what you want)    I don’t think it is that easy.   I already make compromises when I work. It’s necessary.

The purpose of music ( for me)  is not to get rich from it.  I want to be enriched.   That’s the difference.   If  my music starts to pay for itself, that is a good start!

So names.  I love the idea of being “ the Pirates of Possibilities”  It is a name that  my friend Juliann, ( the school social worker/belly dancer) gave me years ago, to defend my randomness.   It worked for a while.. But my guys, were a bit restless with it.  I thought about it too.  My music is not just whimsical- it is not dirge music, but perhaps a different kind of name would be better.

“ let’s think of another name!  “ I thought.

They had suggested “ the Todd Harper trio”….. but hey!  I am not Bill Evans. Nor so many others.

It couldn’t be “ my” trio.  They are completely original,  independent musicians themselves.

I generated a bunch of ideas…. Todd  Harper & the…. Tip ups: March Wind: Hope: Randoms: catch & release; geometric poets: sharp hooks; Anglers: Kinickinic: wild trout: troustongs: wind: birdwalk: and on and on.  A look on line saw many of these names already taken: there is at least one site devoted as a “ random band name generator”.   I balked at that.

So we decided on the simplest:    the HARPER, LEGGETT,FOREMAN  trio.

We are going to name the  recording “ the Pirates of  Possibilities”.  I am proud to have my name with these very good, pure-hearted friends.  Peter Leggett and Andrew Foreman are the poster boys for an ideal rhythm section:  they like my tunes, have ear chops as well as technical chops.  Their lives are not clouded by darkness and bitterness, and they know how to use tools.  I am so fortunate to be playing with them

It is a big sense of relief not to have to live up to a name: we can  just focus on the music, and catching people’s attention so they can hear it.  But most of all, enjoying the music as many moments as possible, which really means enjoying our lives.    Have a great week, and catch the Harper, Leggett, Foreman trio at the Black Dog, this Friday, and  the next ( March 1) , at 5:30-7:15.  We will record in August!c,