Allen Bruce Ray: Blog

Well, it's been a lo-o-o-o-ong while, hasn't it? So sorry that my blogging has been so depressingly infrequent, but it's something I'm now aiming to do weekly, so don't abandon me just yet! Let me do my best to bring everything up-to-date by bringing you this multi-part blog.
The biggest bit of news is that I did my *first live show* on December 17, 2011 at a small cafe in the city of Wonju, S. Korea where I've been living since early February 2011. It was a fun & informative experience, to be sure! I'll explain the details of the show itself in part 2, but first, here's a little background about the venue. It's called Cafe Namu ("tree" in Korean), and it's at the entrance of a mountain hiking trail for Baek-eun-san, or Mt. Baek-eun. The charming Korean couple who own the cafe are very interested in old-growth trees, so they regularly host weekend expeditions to seek out & photograph choice specimens in the area. The resulting shots are then posted on a wall inside the cafe. As [...]

Yes, it's true... Believe it or not, I'm actually doing a live concert... in front of PEOPLE! The location is at Cafe Namu near the entrance of Baekeun-san (Mt. Baekeun) in Panbu-myeon, Wonju, S. Korea. Of course, I realize that most of those who would be reading this blog don't reside in or even near South Korea & so wouldn't be able to attend. Truth be told, even *I* wasn't certain until just yesterday that this event would happen due to possible conflicts with finishing up my end-of-semester work at school, hence the 11th hour announcement. However, now it appears that the show will go forward. The owners of Cafe Namu are quite keen on having musical events in their establishment, and this has built for them a small but dedicated local following of folks who enjoy hearing live music in an intimate setting. From my experience as a ticket holder at a recent Cafe Namu musical event, I'd say around 30 people can get in to listen. That's perfect for a show centered around the Native American [...]

Yes, a box of CD's arrived at my apartment door yesterday (9/26)... and there was much rejoicing! To remind: Elegant Simplicity is 2 CD's... 42 tracks.... 2 hours 15 minutes of 100% solo Native American-style flute music played on 32 different flutes. CD Baby will have it in a week or so, but if you would like a copy now, for a limited time, you can get one directly from me. It's $15.00 for the 2-CD set, & I'll ship it anywhere in the world for free. I use PayPal, & my address there is nativeflutes@gmail.com. Purchase a copy, & I'll gladly send you a link to download the mp3 version of it as well. Get your copy today!

Wow, it's been far too long since I last wrote something here, hasn't it? Life has a way of pulling us in different directions, and for me it has just been a matter of re-adjusting to life in Korea, a new workplace, a new diet, new colleagues, new faces in new classes to teach, and on top of that just an overall bout of plain old lethargy. I think I can legitimately lay some degree of blame on age. I do seem to do things more slowly in general now that I've hit 50. Then again, this could all just amount to my making a host of excuses! After all, my mom will be 78 in a few short weeks, but she has the energy of someone 30 years younger!
It wasn't all low energy / lethargy, though. I was actually busy doing a number of different duties: some school-related, and others flute-related. As for the latter, I'd been adding tunes to the seemingly endlessly expanding "Elegant Simplicity" project since last year in November. I had a make-shift recording set-up in my room back in Freedom, Ohio, and [...]