Featured Blog Posts – March 2010 Archive (36)

After the wells collapsed and my family moved from the ranch in southern New Mexico, we lived outside of Pagosa Springs, Colorado. It's nestled high in the Rocky Mountains, in the southwestern region of the state. We moved there just in time for me to enter second grade.



"Pagosa" is a Ute word meaning either "stinking" or "healing". There is a hot springs in the town with a strong, sulfurous odor.



When we moved there, the lumber mill was still in operation. It has long since… Continue

I am posting this to see how this portrait compares to other parts of the country. This is not predominant here but we don't have to go too far to see it.

“Dirty Town”

copyright 2010 by Rick Reiley

(in A minor of course- what else…

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The nice has run out.
Razor blades and broken glass.
I can't handle it.

Drive kids to doctors,
Drive to Houston, drive back here.
My new home: on wheels.

Pain and endorphins.
Sweat and exhilaration.
Inline skates and me.

Those of you in Philly probably knew or heard of Dan Kleiman. He was an amazing keyboardist, composer, and arranger. He was in a group called Siora, with Phyllis Chapell as the vocalist.

He had recently been given a commission to compose a choral piece to be performed at the Vatican. Many commissions were coming to him.

He also played on and arranged my CD and the Christmas song I had posted here.

I could go on and on....but Dan passed away on Feb 22nd....one day before…

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I can see clearly
Just what we are together.
Glasses for my heart.

After an aborted show in Beaumont, where the manager of the place double booked and Ed Starkey and I wasted gas and time driving over there and then darn near killed ourselves with bad food at a waffle house on the way back, I left Houston for Georgetown, Texas. None the worse for the wear, having made some new friends, and with a little money in my pocket.



Georgetown is just north of Austin, a handsome town with a quaint square and well kept shops and houses. My buddy Rick Dinsmore… Continue

Changed some things around.
It looks different in here.
Rearranged my heart.

The next night was at a different restaurant. Same chain. If you can get a couple of money gigs in a row, it will start to foster the illusion that you are actually making a real living. Hey, you will be... for a couple of nights. Kenneth booked the next weekend as well, at the same places. And a show at the Taqueria el Patron in between.



"The Tock", as it is known, is a local family owned humble yet nice eatery in a Houston strip mall where the plans of Flyin' Dog Records, with whom I… Continue

'The Kansas Painter'

They made love in the Eiffel tower

Back in 1959

He was pushin' 80

When he told us of that time

We were young why shouldn't we…

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Where do I go now?
Where did everybody go?
Adrift in the fog.

When my middle child-a mama’s girl- started kindergarten, she clung to my waist like lichen on stone. The separation for us was painful, me leaving her, crocodile tears in her eyes, a little waif dressed in tiny jeans and a yellow shirt sprinkled with daisies. I’d done my best to prepare her. She’d been… Continue

I left but came back
Not knowing where else to go
Without my compass.

Texas is a big state. I know that's stating the obvious. But seriously. It is. Though it's not that tall. Having grown up in the Rocky Mountains, I assure you Texas is not very tall relative to some of its neighbors. But it has tremendous girth. And one tends to feel a bit swallowed up by it.



West Texas has some mountains. Lots of dirt, too. Cattle ranches and such. After a good long while, you pass through that region of girth, and enter the hill country part. Gently rolling hills,… Continue

Last night, the full moon appeared like a flamboyant floodlight. It seemed to echo, "Is anyone alive down there...down there...down there? It is I, floodlight moon." It appeared close but was actually 238,857 miles away! Our eyes can play tricks on us.



Even so, they are rich visual collectors. Two blue, brown, hazel or green mini artists, taking in life portraits, freeze framing them into memory… Continue