F A Qs

I hope you are able to get a better insight to what I do and what I am like as you read through these questions. Many thanks for taking the time to ask them and please don't hesitate to keep asking away … you are important to me. Must dash, the kettle is on ….and I need a cuppa!"

Moondani

gLeNn 

What was the first guitar you ever played?

"The first guitar I ever played was the one I saw standing up next to my dad's bedside table.  It was a Canora with nylon strings. I remember the feeling of the strings under my fingers because they felt like I was trying to hold down rail road tracks (Laughs) … to this day it still has the last set of strings I put on it…ON  IT!!!"

Were you forced to practice and play by your folks?

"Not really … Mum always tells her friends a story about me standing in the kitchen as a 3 year old with my blue tin guitar strumming on horrible metal strings singing at the top of my 3 year vocal chords to You Cant Do That by

The Beatles.  I just loved the idea of singing and playing right from the word GO…still do."

Do you play any other instruments?

"I have dabbled over the years and when I got married my wife bought her piano with her. I taught myself chords and even started writing songs on it once I knew my way around. I own a mandolin and tinker with that because it sounds so Appalachian, and I love bluegrass music. I played harmonic and a Jews Harp on the latest CD Coming Home that my Grandfather gave to me many years ago. He made it himself and it was kind of cool to record the jews harp just for him.

I can play bass guitar, electric guitar, banjo and my wife gave me this one string instrument from Vietnam that has a pick up in it, and I play that when the neighbors make too much noise … it sends them off the rails (Laughs)."

What is your favourite guitar to play…and why?

"I have one guitar that I love playing and that's the one I play on stage to this day. I have had so many that I have worn out over the years but I would have to say the Martin DX-1 (Dixie) is my fave. It's so nice everywhere on the neck and even when its not plugged into a PA system you can feel it on your stomach and it gives me the best feeling when its in tune and my fingers play the game and a song comes out  just so."

Who influenced you most in the early days?

"As a child I was at the mercy of whatever my parents listened to and Dad loved the blues and people like Ray Charles, The Rolling Stones, Jerry Lee Lewis and The Beatles.  When the sixties music kicked in with their lyrics speaking of better times  and that that life was changing, I loved Simon and Garfunkle, Cat Stevens, James Taylor and Jim Croce … I can still put any of their CDs on and have them play all day.  I found I was especially tuned it to acoustic musicians, my ears pricked up at the sound of strings being picked not strummed … and they still do."

How did you come to play different tunings?

   "I was sitting at home in front of the b&w TV and this lady came on who had long blond hair and a great voice and a guitar … that was all she had. I was about 6 or 7   and she played Big Yellow Taxi. Her name was Joni Mitchell.

Years later I tried to play the same song on my Canora guitar and just couldn't figure out why it didn't sound like hers.  It was then I heard Ry Cooder play and once again I marveled at the sounds he achieved and I liked it when he played slide guitar. So I bought some books (which were later sold by a girlfriend who said she wanted to learn guitar so I gave her my books and she traded all of them in to get some money) and that's how I learned about Open Tunings. Wow !!!!!!! A whole new set of chords opened (pardon pun) up to me, beause once you change the tuning you change the chords also. So I sat in my room till I figured out Open D and grabbed a vegemite jar that I could put over 3 fingers and I sat sliding up and down the neck till I found the notes I wanted."

Are they hard to learn?

"It's just a matter of committed practice and getting your finger memory happening then a whole new world opens up …( he he he he there's that pun again)."

If you could buy any guitar, what would you buy?

"Oh dear that's hard … in Dallas Texas I was able to play an Eric Clapton Signature Martin Acoustic Guitar and it was really sweet.  So I would love an old Martin Guitar … second hand, it would not matter. If it's old it may still have some real good tunes left in it I say." "

I have heard that people just need to hum a few bars and you can play anything…is that true?

"Well it has happened that people have done that while I am on stage and you run the risk of letting them down if you can't play it. You can get the odd person who asks for Pavorotti and the like and as much as I love his music and vocal talent I just can't replicate his style live. I would have to say 7 out of 10 times I can get it right or pretty close to it."

What about your repertoire…so many songs across all boundaries. How do you manage to please your audience?

"When I started to learn chords I found it easy to learn songs right away, so I got into the habit of filling my head with new chords and new songs right from the beginning. No matter how songs have changed over the years, I've been able to retain the memory of the lyrics I've learned. So my head is a bit like a computer and all I do is look at the age of the people sitting in front of me and feel my way into them by playing songs from the era when they may have been in their prime.  I was classically trained so if all else fails …play classical."

How do you pick a new song to play or sing?

"I usually buy the CD and listen to the song I love a gillion times over to get the chords right. Then I write the words out and that seems to help a lot. If it's one of my original songs or instrumentals, I just don't seem to have any problems with remembering them."

What or who inspires you to write songs? 

"That's a good question. I derive pleasure and inspiration to do this in many ways.  It could be a situation that pulls at my heart strings or a feeling that comes from a story told to me or something that has actually happened to me.

For example: The song Jigsaw from the Coming Home CD is about Adoption. I was not adopted so I tried to write a song from the perspective of someone who was. I did a little research into adopted people's thoughts and heart felt concerns then I pieced together my own words and made the music best befit a song with a meaning that is very special to someone who is adopted. It is a system of gentle construction."

What comes first, the words or the music?

"Some nights I wake up and write things down and it's almost in a frantic fashion because I know I will not remember them the next morning .. and I file them. Some days when I sit on my back balcony and practice I find a chord or pick, something a lil different, and a new melody unfolds. Then I will go at it and see what comes from a descent arrangement. Storm at 43 off the You & I CD was written in open D and it came together as I watched a huge storm roll over the Terranora Hills and into the Bilambil Valley where I live. It just happened … so glad it did, as I love that song."

What's the motivation behind your instruments

… they are all so different.

"It depends on the song entirely. With so many references and flavors of music that I love I try to draw from what I have heard and would like to incorporate into my music.

It could be Indian as with You & I, my first CD. It could be African, American Indian or Native Australian Aborigine as with Moondani -  second CD Embraced. It depends on what I want to convey and what might work to get the song across."

Your latest CD has so many different styles of music on it-do you have a favourite?

"I have always loved rock and roll and enjoy making the recording studio throb during and after a great session, but at the same time I love playing delicate acoustic guitar. As long as it has room for 6 strings and a grin I will relish all that I can do to the song. I can't say I have a fave.  I just love to give my all to any music … to play my heart out ."

How old where you when you wrote your first song?

"I was 13 and the song was called Those Eyes and here's the lyrics …

 You , you've got those eyes

 And everyone who see you stops and sighs

You, you've got my soul

And every part of me is full and whole

I don't know why we made it

 Just as far as we did

That's the way

 All lovers go

 And I really didn't think I'd like it

 Just as much as I did

That's the way

 All lovers show

You , you've got those eyes

 And everyone who see you stops and sighs

You, you've got my soul

And every part of me is full and whole

My dad heard me playing it in my room as he was about to go to work and when he got home he said he was singing it in his head all day, so I thought to myself … hmmmmmm, I can do this!"

What does Moondani mean … I love the song and I've heard you say it or use it as  sign-off on emails?

"The story behind the writing of that song and its name are very special to me … and I have some wonderful people who are now friends from all over the world as a result. I was speaking to a lady in the USA who was part Choctaw Indian and she told me about the Trail of Tears that killed thousands of Choctaw Indians and their struggle to regain lands taken from them … and I was moved. I then read about the African Natives who were forcibly taken from their homeland and brought across the sea to the USA. I also read up on our own Aborigine and what the early settlers did to these beautiful people and I thought I would try to help with some reconciliation of my own. 

I was about 13 when I thought of Embraced Music as the name for what I wanted to do and how I wanted to capture my own playing style so I looked up the Aboriginal word for embraced and it was Moondani.  I asked some local tribespeople if they could tell me more about the word and its meaning and they told me it meant "to be held and loved as family"…Perfect!

So I sat on my balcony, listened to the wind, and the song was born. I used percussion from Africa, American Indian and Australian Aborigine on the song as my way of saying sorry to the millions hurt by mans need to inhabit new countries and colonies of its natives. Moondani is the title track of my second CD. I love it and it still stirs me every time I play it!"

You are now also an author-why writing, why now?

"In 2004  I satisfied an urge to visit the USA and I kept a diary of all that happened to me while I was there.  It was not a real journal as such, just flashbacks from what I'd done that day that I'd write before I went to sleep each night. I played in Ozark at a music festival and visited Memphis and did a hell of a lot of driving in just 2 weeks.

When I came home I put the diary of 2 weeks worth of places and memories on my computer and laughed when I read it back in that format. Other people seemed to laugh a lot whenever I'd share a story or two … sooooooo I kept writing more and more chapters about some very funny life memories and treasured experiences … 23 extra chapters in all.  

I shall never forget the wonderful people I met while I was away and I seem to have found some even more treasured friends since coming home. You could say my creative bent took a bit step up and lead me to enjoy the art of writing a whole lot more. So much so that I feel like I could write another book right now … but that will have to wait for a while till I get all the plans I have for this year well and truly rolling.

Collette Glazebrook is the lady who single handedly edited Glenns first novel and is the inspiration for the song "Jigsaw", a song for any one who is adopted, on Glenn's Coming Home CD,  for further info on Collette, visit her MySpace site at this address.

My Comments From: Michael Canter 09 Jul 2007, 2:15 pm Excellent article.