Beyond Words

Introducing “Beyond Words” my first solo album in 40 years.

While I have played as part of other bands, contributed arrangements or songs, been a co-writer as a member of other groups or artists, this is my first foray into my own compositions.

I chose an instrumental album at the encouragement of my wife, Tonya, simply because of the volume of snippets and rough outlines on my voice memos. In the next few weeks I will describe what inspired the title of each piece and how it speaks to me. Most of them flowed from a session of just relaxing with my instrument—thus the more quiet sound. Each song came about as a result of how I felt at the time.

Below is a my site where there are links to iTunes, YouTube, and other music downloading websites:

https://jonathanvarnell.my.canva.site

The Mother of Invention

Necessity is said to be the mother of invention.

I listened to a program the other day on NPR Science Friday which addressed alternate fuels.  It seems that now that we have all this need to find an alternate source to fossil people are discovering all sorts of means to keep the wheels ‘a rollin’.  But it takes crisis or sheer need to make people get off their butts and come up with some other means of doing a common task.

Yet that’s not the whole of it.  Now Europe is in a crisis because of all the bio-fuels, we’re seeing a food shortage as well as pollution.  I just heard this last week that Germany is suffering from pollution as bad or worse as fossil fuels from the bio-fuel they’ve been using.  Though the answer’s out there, we’ve got to be real about all this stuff.

Every time there’s been a great innovation or change in social structure upheaval brings about the needed conditions.  People starving find a way to survive despite their circumstances, those struggling to build, harvest or do business of any sort must get creative in those times.

We’re at a crossroads and now the reality of our situation is sinking in.  No matter whether global warming is a cyclic thing for the earth or we caused it, we have to come up with non-polluting power, travel and energy for heat in our homes or cooling for the hotter climes.

Necessity breeds invention, inspires it and almost, in my view, requires it.

The Passion

For years I have ate, slept, talked and lived music.  My life seemed to be center around two things basically and that was my commitment to Jesus and music.  Playing the guitar isn’t just the issue, it’s the construction, the technical aspects and the sheer sound of it.

Once the leader of my band came to me and spoke with me about my antisocial behavior–meaning that I spent a lot of time in the practice building by myself.  I found it strange he would confront me at all since I wrote about 2/3 of the material for that year.  I found myself wondering why this was so important that I watch TV instead of reading, writing or hanging out at the pool.  At the time I had sworn off entertainment as means of fasting (went through a phase), so I wasn’t interested in TV shows.  I also lived in South Africa at the time where the shows were half in Afrikaans and the others were American or British.  The entertainment wasn’t what anyone but those used to it would call actually entertaining.

Now I have a regular job, a three year old son and the Nintindo Wii to compete with writing arranging and recording/performing.  The passion burned low for a while during the last five years, but is now being stoked from the coals of earlier fuel.  To be honest, I think art is more real when it meets with regular life than those who live an untouchable existence on the road.  For now, I would rather be where I am and still create than a touring artist speaking about human realities that don’t touch me.

Life is in the details of life.  Art is how we live as much as what we create in response to it.