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North Creek Rd
Tao Te Ching
"The Way" (Verses 1 to 8)
"Where We Are"(Verses 9 to 16)
"Next Stop" (Verses 17 to 24)
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Where is NORTH CREEK RD
Life is a journey from the cradle to the grave, that’s a fact ! It’s what happens in between these two points where life is. It’s a journey of understanding about life… about your own life, not someone else’s, although other people’s lives can be pretty interesting. In the end its about how you want to experience this time on earth.
Some people are very locked into a way of living, everything has to be this way or that way. Others just let life happen to them, sometimes it’s a good, other times it’s not so good. An old saying my mother would use “Let Go and Let God”. A balance between these two ways of living I feel is important, but how to get that balance correct.
Let me introduce you to Lao-Tzu, a wise man that lived some 2500 years ago around the time of Confucius. In fact it is believed that Confucius went to see Lao-Tzu on a number of occasions. Upon Confucius’s return to his students from these meetings, he didn’t speak for many days. His students grew concerned and asked their teacher what had happened. Confucius said:
“I know how a bird can fly. I know how a fish can swim. But I do not know how Lao Tzu could rise and fly like a sublime dragon riding on clouds in the sky.”
“Birds can fly but will fall at the hunter’s arrow. Fish can swim but will be caught by the fisherman. Beasts can run but will drop into people’s nets and traps. There is only one thing that is out of man’s reach. That is the legendary dragon. A dragon can fly into the sky, ride on clouds, dive into the ocean. A dragon is so powerful, yet so intangible to us.
Lao Tzu is a dragon, and I will never understand him.”
Lao-Tzu was a Chinese Philosopher born with the name of Er Li which was to mean “Old Venerable Master”. Also known as Laozi 老 he is believed to have had access to the Royal Library of Zhou so was able to study and read the great literatures of his time. Understood to be a great teacher, he went on to create a new philosophy which was written in the form of 81 verses of the Tao Te Ching. Transcribed from old Chinese to current day language gives us a new insight to a way of looking at this journey we are all traveling.
There are many interpretation of the Tao Te Ching all saying pretty much the same thing just in different ways. I have taken five different versions and written my own interpretation of these verses.
Back to getting a balance of life … I believe the Tao Te Ching is a great place to start. In fact I would go as far as to say,
if you really read and understand these 81 verses, all your answers could be found.
So... where is North Creek Rd... It's where you are standing right now. Your road ...
On this road it's all about how you treat yourself, and how your treat others also traveling the same road.
How you treat the environment and everything we share on this good Earth.
Do we lift up or put down, is it all about me or is it about community and relationship with others.
Do we forgive or condemn.
In the end... you must decide how to move forward.
Take each step carefully and with confidence.
"We must learn to hold onto the centre,
Listen more, speaking less, being still.
What is, is within.
Be Free (and you will find home)"
Lao Tzu
"I Am Here"
Verses 1 to 8 of the Tao Te Ching
"The Way "
Verse 1 of the Tao Te Ching
"Contenment"
Verse 3 of the Tao Te Ching
"Beyond Self"
Verse 7 of the Tao Te Ching
"Finding Oneness"
Verse 10 of the Tao Te Ching
"Tribute to Apollo "
51st Anniversary of Moon Landing
"Duplicity"
Verse 2 of the Tao Te Ching
"Endlessness"
Verse 4 of the Tao Te Ching
"Becoming Humble"
Verse 9 of the Tao Te Ching
"Emptiness"
Verse 11 of the Tao Te Ching
"Way to Divinity"
Verse 16 of the Tao Te Ching
"Letting Go"
Verse 20 of the Tao Te Ching
The Music
I’ve been a musician/producer for most of my life so I have been around the music industry for many years mainly assisting others with their own projects. Working mainly as an Audio Engineer with most genres of music…. I do compose a little but only for my own pleasure.
Driving out in the country where I had done so for many decades I came across a road sign I had never seen before …. North Creek Rd… I thought, “what an awesome band name!!”.
My father of 93 passed away later that month, it wasn’t a surprise, he had been ill for many years. Family gathered to send this strong willed and philosophical man. His favorite saying being
“The Inevitability of Gradualness”.
Dad had always taught us all to find my own truth and encouraged us all to find our path in life. Through many books he had given me like “Three Magic Words” and a few Wayne Dyer books and many twists and turns in life I ended up with finding so many wonderful truths in the TaoTe Ching. The verses just came alive every time I read them over and over… they made so much sense and were life changing when applied.
So … what this got to do with music ??
After Dad passed I kept hearing the saying in my head “Don’t die with the music still in you”, so I decided to try something completely different. I was always fearful of the fact any music I composed was either outdated and plain not interesting… I was always comparing myself to the many clients that came through my studio.
Through my reading of the Tao Te Ching I knew this was not the case. Everyone has something unique to bring forth in this world. I watch so many of my clients saying “I want it to sound like …. latest mix just released” (you can fill in the dots, I’d heard them all) The problem is we are all playing the comparison game (thanks to social media, radio and streaming etc…). This is where most people get stuck… and I had been there for years.
I made a pact with myself to start composing again, but this time I’d do it differently. No sitting in front of a blank page pen in hand, guitar and keyboard at the ready, trying to make it happen. This is what I did instead.
I’d fire up a recording session in the studio, turn to my keyboard or picked up my guitar and play a chord… then play another … then another… I have to use these chords then build from there ! And kept building and building, beat groove, drums, bass etc etc…. until I had a wall of sound. So it happened, something very different and a little unique. I call it ... Journey Music. or just "Journey" for short.
As I had a great passion for the Tao Te Ching and Lao-Tzu’s 81 verses I then decided that the best way I could help people hear and maybe mediate on these wise teachings was to incorporate them into the music.
So …. North Creek Rd is a journey into self … through a medium of a music, a genre I like to call
“Journey Music”
I started with the first 8 verses… so I suppose I have another 9 albums to go… Let’s see how I go !
Hope you enjoy the Tao Te Ching verses and the music…
If you feel these verses give you a new way of looking at your life, I encourage you to look further into all the verses.
“Contentment and Peace …. will be yours”. (Verse 8)
A special thank you to those that have supported me in the North Creek Rd project.
Omer Haber, Nathan Santamaria (Savi Studios), Erin Powell, thank you for taking the time to listen
and comment on my mixes.
I dont beleive I could have done this without your wonderful ears.
Also a special thanks to Josh Angrisano, John Duiker and Jason Hummel
who have encouraged me in my music.
The Recording Studio
Jump Sound Studio
s: +61 3 9799 9293
m: +61 410 513 582
Australia