Updates

This entry is going to be my reactions to seeing guitarist Eric Johnson in concert yesterday; if you want to know what's going on with the "In Another Life" project, see the previous Update (list with links at the bottom of this page).

This concert was in Birmingham, AL, and I live in Atlanta, GA, so I had a 2-1/2 hour drive. My girlfriend advised me to leave early to avoid rush-hour traffic, so I looked up Birmingham attractions and decided to hit the art museum, which is supposed to be a good one. I wasn't disappointed, and to top things off, I ran across a painting by James Carroll Beckwith. Beckwith was the past-life incarnation of Capt. Robert Snow. It was a painting of his I'd never seen before, so I made a note of the information and e-mailed it to Capt. Snow this morning. I had just been corresponding with him, because an astrologer has asked me for birth and death information on comparative past-life cases, and I'm trying to give him the ones I feel have been verified the most solidly (Snows certainly fits into this category).

So I thought that was a touch of synchronicity. The museum closed at 5:00 and the concert was at 8:00--actually, I had gained an hour across time zones, which I figured out later, so it was even earlier--and I decided to get something to eat. I drove toward what I hoped was the college, and indeed, I found myself in the student area of "Five Points." I gravitated toward a New Age/yoga establishment called (as I recall) the "Golden Temple," and hung out there. I noticed they had books and photos of a number of genuine saints and spiritual masters--their percentage was pretty high, which tells me it's an above-average spiritual hub of that type. Anyway, an employee in the back of the store had told me what types of restaurants were in the area, including a vegetarian place down the street to the left, and a couple pizza places to the right. I was about to leave, up near the register, still undecided, when another clerk was taking a call from "a band from Austin, TX that wanted to know where there was a vegetarian restaurant." I told her, "Oh, that's Eric Johnson." She wanted to know where they were playing, and I told her the venue's name, and presumably she advised them. So at that point I figured I'd better not go to the vegetarian place, because it would be tacky to go there in hopes of bumping into the band. I went right and got an overly-large pizza and killed some time, feeling as though I'd stepped back into the hippy era--because the albums decorating the walls were things I and everybody else used to have sitting on those shelves made from plain boards stacked on concrete cinder blocks. It never occurred to us that someday they'd be used as quaint restaurant decorations...

When they let us into the venue, I expected to see an auditorium. Instead, the WorkPlay Theatre is a small eat-drink-and-listen establishment with tables ranged around the perimeter, and a small concrete dance or standing area in front of a stage. At no point are you more than 50 feet from the stage, as I would measure it in retrospect. So this was going to be like seeing one of the world's best guitarists play for you and your friends in your livingroom. But first, a fellow named Lucas Reynolds strolled up to the mic with acoustic guitar in hand, to open. From the opening chords I knew this was a spiritual energy. This fellow, who told us he had been living in a tent and working out of a very small studio in a small town in Connecticut, was one of the most emotionally honest performers I've ever seen. He just put himself out there, his real heart, and I guess you could trash it or cherish it as you saw fit. But the audience loved him and it was a very nice back and forth wave of communion between him and his audience. The fellow next to me remarked as to how "vulnerable" he was. I just know I love honesty, and this guy had taken honesty to the next level in his art. I was so pleased to see that Eric had invited someone like this to open, and I got the feeling that this was going to be a much more intimate show overall.

Now, some of the people drawn to Eric's performances are guitarists; and I suspect that some of them are drawn by his spirituality. You will see young rockers awed by his technique; and you will see middle-aged people, old hippies, presumably, who are there for the energy and his gentle personality. Some of these old hippies bring their kids, knowing, I suppose, that the best of rock music was an expression of the spiritual idealism of the 60's and 70's, not just a way to rebel or get high, and wanting to pass that legacy on to their children. So, all these types of people were there, and Eric graciously accommodated them all. He is like the perfect host, but instead of serving drinks and food, he is serving his music, and he wants to leave no-one dissatisifed. So much so, that, seeing him up close, I felt concerned that he is giving too much of himself. He puts 1,000% into everything he does. I sensed a tremendous energy, coupled with self-discipline; and I also sensed a tiredness, as though giving like that night after night is rough on him. I am reminded of Edgar Cayce whose compassion would not allow him to stop giving readings to people desperate to know of their loved ones during WWII. The crowd at his concerts typically calls for encore after encore, and Eric obliges; but nobody is thinking about what they're asking of him. So I participated in the first encore call; stayed for the second; and decided, rather reluctantly, to leave before the third, on principle.

I felt this was Eric at his technical best. I am not a guitarist, but as a musical layman, I have never seen him play better. His band consisted of his partners from years past, and they were obviously having a reunion while we were enjoying the spark of that additional energy. I won't try to go on about it. This is just something you have to experience for yourself, which is why I say, if you have the chance to attend one of these concerts, just don't pass it up. You will regret having had the opportunity, as we regret so many opportunities, I suppose.

What about the spirituality I've talked about in Eric's lyrics and music? Well, it was there, and it was veiled, as I've said. When he played the Neil Diamond tune (also made popular by the Monkees), "A Little Bit Me, A Little Bit You," (warning, that link has major popups, but it's the only reference I could find) did anyone in the audience realize that he was setting forth a basic principle of mysticism? Hegel stole it, as near as I can tell, from the East, and labeled his version of it as his "dialectic." It says that there is some degree of the one, supra-rational Truth reflected in each viewpoint. That each of the opposites carries part of the Truth--that, as Rumi puts it in his Masnavi, the bird of knowledge must fly with both wings.* I'm quite sure that's why Eric chose to include that tune in his repertoire. I may or may not have been the only person in the audience who "went there" with it. I could sense Eric's depth of spiritual understanding, but he keeps most of it under wraps, and perhaps that's best. I am more like his opening act, Lucas Reynolds--I put it out there, which probably hasn't helped my career much, so Eric may be smart to play it as he does.

As for my gut feeling, turned articulate speculation, that Eric could be the reincarnation of George Frideric Handel, I suppose people probably key in on that and make a big deal of it, including ridiculing my entire presentation because I have now descended into the shady realm of famous-person cases. I just kept feeling it, like a nudge or prompting from within, for months, whenever I'd write about him, and finally to get it off my chest I said it and tried to explore it a bit. What do I think now, having seen him perform from close range? Part of me thinks it's very likely; and part of me simply doesn't know, because I have no solid evidence like there is for a handful of other such cases. The part of me that thinks it's likely is the intuitive part--because I sense the energy-signature in the music and it matches Handel's like no other music I've ever heard. Another reason I think it's plausible is what I understand of karmic life patterns. It's consistent on quite a number of points. What I'm seeing when I watch Eric perform, in short, is exactly what I would expect to see. This is exactly where someone who wrote Handel's music would be going with it in the 21st century. In other words, this is what someone like Handel would secretly wish they could be doing with music. It's the fuller expression of what he was trying to do as Handel. People don't understand this because they have Handel pegged as the penultimate traditional Christian composer. But he wasn't, not from what I've seen in the history. He simply got famous that way. It would be parallel with Eric Johnson being known by posterity as a virtuoso rock guitarist. The irony that I see is, everybody knows Handel as a religious composer, as a spiritual composer. They don't know that he played violin extremely well, and also keyboard. They don't know that he delved into non-Christian themes. Now, this same soul, if my speculation is correct, is known for his virtuosity and exploration of non-Christian themes. But he is not known so much for his spirituality. So his reputation, his legacy, will be exactly the reverse of Handel's. And this is one of the karmic patterns I referenced.

So, I'd suggest, don't get too caught up in that issue. I really don't know, as said, I was just getting off my chest and exploring something that kept nagging at the back of my mind for months. I think, aside from the stellar, indescribable performance, I'll reiterate that the key impression I was left with was how gracious Eric was. He was a superbly gracious host to this odd assemblage of rabid guitarists, old hippies, and middle-agers with their kids. He had something for each of them. He signed someone's guitar, put his whole heart and talent into tune after tune for this small audience, spoke with them as friends, and I have no idea how many encores he played after I left.

It reminds me of when I saw Ali Akbar Khan play the sarode for an audience of about 40 people on the Emory University campus. I mean, this is the sort of thing you feel guilty for experiencing, and yet, if anybody knew about it, you couldn't have the experience. So it's just as well people think I'm blowing smoke about this. I should be taking a clue from the Oregonians, who make Oregon out to be a miserable, dripping wet place you shouldn't bother to visit, so the population won't increase and ruin it. Did I say that if you have the opportunity to see Eric Johnson perform, you should do anything you need to, in order to go? Nevermind, forget that. If you listen to me, we can't see Eric perform like this, with his friends for his friends, in small venues. Selfish of me, isn't it?

p.s. Perhaps you've wandered into the poem by Klaus Luthardt linked from the home page, and still-less likely, perhaps you've clicked on the link for a second poem of his at the bottom of that page, entitled "True Priests." Klaus is a long-time friend of my sister's, who is employed in a regular governmental job. He's also a poetic genius who avoids publicity. I tried to get him to give me a few more of his poems to present on this website, and he never did send them. In any case, when I was thinking about this Update and Eric Johnson, that poem came to mind...

*"Little is known by anyone but the spiritual man,
Who has in his heart a touchstone of vital truth.
The others, hovering between two opinions,
Fly towards their nest on a single wing.
Knowledge has two wings, opinion only one wing;
Opinion is weak and lopsided in its flight.
The bird having only but one wing quickly drops down,
And again flies on two steps or more.
This bird of opinion goes on rising and falling
On one wing, in hope to reach his nest.
When he escapes from opinion and knowledge is seen,
This bird gains two wings and spreads both of them.
Afterwards he 'goes upright on a straight path,
Not grovelling on his face or creeping.'
He flies up on two wings even as the angel Gabriel,
Free of opinion, of duplicity, and of vain talk."
--Rumi

Music opening this page: "High Landrons," Eric Johnson (Ah Via Musicom album)
All I can say is, if you have a chance to see Eric in concert, don't pass it up...
sell the car and hitch to the concert if you have to.