The need to create is like water or oxygen. Without it, there is no life.

A necessidade de criar e' como a agua ou o oxigenio. Sem elas nao ha' vida.

Me, as an artist

My technique is only mediocre. I play mainly keys and a little bit of guitar... but I'd never say that to a guitarist. Composing is what keeps me alive. All the rest, except God, wife and family has taken second place.

As you will see, I'm a blabber mouth and there's probably nothing here that is Pulitzer material. So, consider yourself forewarned, should you decide to read on!

Still Here?
OK.


My voice is a good one but it is aging - like the rest of me ;-). I can reach G (above middle C, I think it is?)and a little higher.
I'm vocalizing everyday to improve that range more and more.

I can only read and write music on the 2nd or third grade level. For all intents and purposes and I am an illiterate songwriter.

I tried to learn to read and but I was too creative and was always inserting extra notes here and there. I really didn't care what someone else had written - rebellious yute dat I was.

Also, whenever I was practicing scales a melody would pop out and that's so much more interesting....!!!!

So guess what happened to practicing scales... woodshedding was not for me when I was younger.

I practice more scales now... and I have learned that it's a good thing.

First, I keep on getting these melodies jumping out and interrupting my scale work.... aah - too bad!

Second, is that my technique has gotten better.

Piano or guitar, I still remain someone who is obviously more interested in the songs that in his technique!

As for vocal practice, this is one area that I have really honed in on. I don't want to be unable to sing a song that I, myself, have written. To do justice to the melody is paramount; a lousy vocal really can sink an otherwise beautiful work of art. I've seen it happen so many times when I was in my Let's-be-a-recording-engineer incarnation. OUCH

By the way, I have a home studio and am always forgetting how everything is plugged in - again, it's always been the song... but, the home studio revolution has been a boon to guys and gals like me. Still, many of the mixes that I do are only of Demo quality.

(so if the mix sounds off or the highs are low or the lows are too high - drop me an e-mail!!! - OK?

Musings about me

I'll be musing a bit and see where this all takes us.

This way you'll probably get an idea of what I am about.
I'll probably talk (type) too much, but I'll be careful.

I'll try not to wander to far, but this life is such an amazing thing!

Let's go?!

Who I Am

I am a follower of Meher Baba. I write words and melodies and many of these creations of mine speak of Divine Love.

It's one of the ways that I connect with my inner being,

And as you can imagine, in this strange world in which we live, this has become more and more important to my mental health and perhaps to yours, too.

It's becoming more and more obvious to me that all of us want to connect.

I hope that these words and melodies - these sounds that this heart has made, will help you in some small way to connect to that eternal Presence which is waiting within each one.

God Bless You

More on Who I Am

My name is not Oluon (in case you were wondering), but I like the ring of it. My Mom and Dad named me Ray, but I'll always stand by my Dad's words; "Call me anything, but late for supper"

That's who I say and think I am in this life. I believe that I've had many other lives and hopefully I am improving with agelessness???

No description of me would be complete without first stating that I follow Meher Baba and that I have accepted Him as my spiritual Master.

Who is Meher Baba?
There is a simple way to describe the indescribable and that is, He is beyond description !!!

Suffice it to say that He is the Awakener who has come to awaken us to the knowledge that we are all, in our heart of hearts, one and the same, one with each other , one with Him, one with God.

What does this mean?

It means that I am in love.

In Love?

Darwin Shaw once said, "(Meher Baba is) the eternal spring of imperishable sweetness." This is Real Love.

And what is Real Love?

The word love is so misused nowadays. It's mainly used in the most sophomoric and lewd fashion. So, to talk of Real Love raises eyebrows or engenders smirks and rolling of the eyes.

So, what's Real Love like?

The only way for love to be experienced is to fall in love with another person. The only way to experience Real Love is to be in the presence of a Realized Being.
Meher Baba is such a Being. So, I can only talk of Real Love through the example of Meher Baba's being.

Some people that have experienced this have stated that Baba was like and old familiar friend; that one felt comfortable to the extent that anything could be said.

Baba would ask some to tell jokes or perform amusing skits.

At the same time there was a sacredness around Him, which drew certain lines of acceptable behavior which no one would dream of crossing.

As for me, I had a more cosmic feeling of exposure to an infinite Presence that altered my being and is still altering it to this day.

And that, my dear reader who has stayed with this motor-mouth to the end - that is the only thing worth the price that living exacts from us.

God bless.
Ray