Musical Fat Camp

I know I must be an immeasurably large loser, because I've been obsessing about the First Continental Congress of late. Well, to be more accurate, the entire era of American Independence. For some inexplicable reason, I've found myself endlessly fascinated by these ill-equipped, oppressed people who stood up to the might of the world's largest empire and won their freedom. I'm in the middle of watching the John Adams miniseries on DVD. I recently watched the director's cut of 1776. Both films are totally worth watching. However, be warned, one of them is a musical. I'll let you discover which one...

Though the films are as different as two films can be, both contain a similar scene following the vote for independence. Just after the vote is carried, John Adams (great-granddad as I call him) stands there in disbelief... unable to process all of what has just happened. He cannot grasp the fact that all of his efforts, all of his struggles, and all of his sacrifice has finally led to his ultimate goal: independence. He is awestruck. I can only assume that he must also have been thinking about what would happen next. Would Britain win the war? Would they hang all of Congress as traitors? Would America die before it is even born?

You're going to laugh when I say this, and you should, as it's utterly ridiculous, but a similar moment hit me this last week. What, he's started his own country? No. Not yet. Though this moment had NONE of the gravity or life-altering consequence of my ancestor's situation, I can tell you that it was a moment of genuine confunditude. Several boxes full of copies of my album arrived at my door... and I couldn't believe it. I still can't, really. I cannot wrap my brain around the idea that after more than a year, this work is complete. If I wanted to change anything now, I can't. It's done. Final. Complete. This is it.

Another moment of brain-freeze occurred during band rehearsal on Sunday. We were going over "Burnout Fireflies." We've re-worked it. It's tighter now. The chords fit better. It's like we sent it to fat camp, and it came back all sexy and 100 pounds lighter. That was pretty cool. But while we were playing the song, I thought "I actually have a BAND." A group of four other people come to my house every week and we play music together. And they're good at it. AND it's fun. AND they don't ask for money when they leave! (not much anyway...) I've waited YEARS for this. I can't believe it's happening!

It's really difficult to continue writing at this point, as my brain is fried from all of the "I can't believe it" moments. I suppose I could conclude by saying that you can take part in everything that's going on when we have a CD release party in the late Summer/early Fall. You could also come to any of the shows that we're having where we'll be playing the new songs, and a couple of oldies that we've reworked.

To commemorate the plethora of eurekas, I have given the website another facelift. Check it out at http://adamswilson.net/

PEACE to every one of you.

Adams