One of my Favorite Female Singers the Amazing Beth Hart

In the past 25 plus years, Beth Hart has established herself in the blues world and collaborated with some of the biggest rock performers.

Enjoy the full version of the song "I'd Rather Go Blind". Beth Hart with her guitarist Jon Nichols and the RocKwiz Orkestra at the Bluesfest which originally was screened on SBSONE HD June 23 2014.

Above Video Source YouTube: https://youtu.be/BeK9m4y73HY

Subscribers to RocKwizTV Channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/RocKwizTV/videos

Her uniquely powerful voice stirs more than the emotions. She is a vocal presence that paints pictures. You can sense a life lived that has allowed her to find harmony with real human emotion that's what Beth Hart is all about. Not only has she become known as a great blues singer, but her song writing skills have not gone unnoticed. Plus her collaboration with award-winning Joe Bonamassa a guitar wizard are a must listen to as well. Trust me you won’t be disappointed with this force-of-nature blues-rock vocalist Beth Hart and guitar hero Joe Bonamassa.

“I really needed that experience of getting together with a group of people that are older and have been around a long time and know how to just enjoy themselves and be grateful to be alive, be grateful to make some music”

Beth Hart blues singer. Photo by Mona Nordoy

Below I’ve included Beth and Joe’s rendition of "I'd Rather Go Blind".

Above Video Source YouTube: https://youtu.be/UEHwO_UEp7A

Subscribe to YouTube Channel: HartAndBonamassa - YouTube

Subscribe to Beth Hart Channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/BethHartMusic/videos

Beth Hart Discography

WATCH AND LISTEN TO THE AMAZING CREATIVE MUSICIAN REN GILL PERFORMING "HI REN"

Enjoy this outstanding artist Ren’s video.

Ren Gill known professionally as Ren, is a Welsh songwriter, musician, rapper, producer, and director.

Should you wish to support Ren, you can by joining his Patreon page renmakesmusic.

Below are the complete lyrics to this extraordinary, powerful video. Thanks to Ren for sharing.

Hi there Ren

It's been a little while,

Did you miss me?

You thought you’d buried me, didn't you? Risky…

Because I always come back

Deep down you know that…

Deep down you know I'm always in periphery

Ren aren't you pleased to see me? it's been weeks since we spoke bro, you know you need me

You’re the sheep, I'm the shepherd

Not your place to lead me

Not your place to be biting off the hand that feeds me

Hi Ren

I’ve been taking some time to be distant

I’ve been taking some time to be still

I've been taking some time to be by myself since my therapist told me I'm ill

I've been making some progress lately, and I've learnt some new coping skills

So I haven't really needed you much man

I think we need to just step back and chill

Ren, you sound more insane than I do

You think that those doctors are really there to guide you?

Been through this a million times

Your civilian mind is so perfect at always being lied to

Okay, take another pill boy

Drown yourself in the sound of white noise

Follow this 10 step program, rejoice!

All your problems will be gone! Fucking dumb boy

Nah mate, this time it's different man trust me

I feel like things might be falling in place

And my music's been kinda doing bits too

Like I actually might do something great

And when I'm gone maybe I'll be remembered

For doing something special with myself

That's why I don't think that we should talk man

Cause when your with me it never seems to help

You think that you can amputate me?

I am you, you are me, you are I, I am we

We are one, split in two that makes one so you see

You got to kill you if you wanna kill me.

I'm not left over dinner, I’m not scraps on the side, oh your music is thriving?

Delusional guy! Where's your top ten hit? Where's your interview with Oprah?

Where are your grammes Ren?

Nowhere!

Yeah but, my music's not commercial like that

I never chased numbers, statistics or stats

I Never write hooks for the radio, they never even play me so why would Iconcernn myself with that?

But my music is really connecting,

And the people who find it respect it ,

And for me that's enough ‘cause this life's been tough so it gives me a purpose I can rest in

Man you sound so pretentious !

Ren your music is so self centred,

No one wants to hear another song about how much you hate yourself… trust me

You should be so lucky having me inside you to guide you, remind you to manage expectations,

provide you perspective, that thing you neglected, I get it

You wana be a big deal… Next jimi hendrix? forget it

Man it's not like that

Man it's just like that I'm inside you you twat

Nah it's not man your wrong, when I write I belong

Let me break the fourth wall by acknowledging this song

Ren sits down,

Has a stroke of genius,

He wants to write a song that was not done previous

A battle with his subconscious…

Eminem did it

Played on guitar

Plan B did it

Man your not original you criminal, rip off artist, the pinnacle of your success is stealing other people's material

Ren mate we've heard it all before

Ohh "she sell sea shells on the sea shore"

Fuck you I don't need you, I don't need to hear this,

cause I'm fine by myself, I'm a genius!

and I will be great, and I will make waves, and ill shake up the whole world beneath us

That's right speak your truth, your fucking god complex leaks out of you

It's refreshing to actually hear you say it!

In stead of down play it…

“Oh the music Is all about the creative process and if people can find something to relate to within that the that's just a bonus”

Fuck you ima fucking kill you Ren

Well fucking kill me then

let's fucking have you Ren

I'm a do it, watch me prove it, who are you to doubt my music?

‘Cause I call the shots I choose if you die

Yeah I call the shots and so i who choose who survives

I'll tie you up in knots then I'll lock you inside

News flash…

I was created at the dawn of creation,

I am temptation

I am the snake in Eden,

I am the reason for treason

Beheading all Kings,

I am sin with no rhyme or reason,

Sun of the morning, Lucifer,

Antichrist, father of lies,

Mestophilies,

Truth in a blender,

Deceitful pretender,

The Banished avenger,

The righteous surrender

When standing in-front of my solar eclipse,

My name it is stitched to your lips so see

I won't bow to the will of a mortal, feeble and normal

You wana kill me? I'm enteral, immortal

I live in every decision that catalysed chaos

That causes division

I live inside death, the beginning of ends

I am you, you are me, I am you Ren

Hi Ren… I’ve been taking some time to be distant,

I’ve been taking some time to be still

I’ve been taking some time to be by myself and I've spent half my life ill

But just as sure as the tide start turning

Just as sure as the night has dawn

Just as sure as rain fall soon runs dry when you stand in the eye of the storm

I was made to be tested and twisted

I was made to be broken and beat

I was made by his hand, it's all part of the plan that I stand on my own two feet

And you know me my will is eternal

And you know me you've met Me before

Face to with a beast I will rise from the east and I'll settle on the ocean floor

And I go by many names also

Some people know me as hope

Some people know me as the voice that you hear when u loosen the noose on the rope

And you know how I know how I know that I'll prosper?

Because I stand here beside you today

I have stood in the flames that cremated my brain

And I didn't once flinch or shake

So cower at the man I've become

When I sing from the top of my lungs

That I won't retire I'll stand in your fire inspire the meek to be strong

And when I am gone I will rise

In the music that I left behind

Ferocious persistent, immortal like you

we’re a coin with two different sides

When I was 17 years old I shouted out into an empty room, into a blank canvas, that I would defeat the forces of evil,

and for the next 10 years of my life I suffered the consequences...

With Illness, autoimmunity and psychosis

As I got older I realised that there were no real winners or no real losers in physiological warfare

But there were victims and there were students

It wasn’t David verses Goliath, it's was a pendulum eternally swaying between the dark and the light,

and the brighter the light shone, the darker the shadow it cast

It was never a battle for me to win, it was an eternal dance,

and like a dance, the more rigid I became the harder it got

The more I cursed my clumsy footsteps the more i suffered

And so I got older and I learned to relax, and I learned to soften, and that dance got easier

It is this eternal waltz that separates human beings from angels, from demons, from gods

And I must not forget, we must not forget, that we are human beings.

Video Source: https://youtu.be/s_nc1IVoMxc

YouTube Channel: Ren’s Videos

And now as a bonus in his own words, Ren explains how he wrote these lyrics. You’ll be a witness here to the whole creative process of Ren’s artistic skill. ENJOY.

Up until I was 9 years old, I would intermittently hear a voice in my head that was not my own. The voice was distinctly different to mine, and always negative. It would self criticize or urge me to do things I knew to be morally wrong. The most peculiar thing about the voice was that it took no effort on my behalf to produce. My own thoughts always felt like there was a process that required effort to bring them to the forefront of my mind, this voice appeared as though it was spoken by another. The sentences felt predetermined like they had already been constructed. I remember very vividly at 9 years old, becoming very frustrated with the voice. I stood in my back yard, internally screaming at the voice to be silent again and again, and it did. In a flash there was silence, to the point where my head felt like an empty room. I wasn't used to the quiet and that voice never returned. It almost felt lonely in my head. When I got older, I had intermittent bouts with auditory hallucinations where I would hear perfect symphonies, usually at night when drifting off to sleep. They were so clear that they sounded like they were emanating from a radio in the corner of my room. I knew they weren't there, but for some reason they never came with the feeling of fear. I also recall sitting on a bus at the age of 15, and hearing the sound of a crowded room, with about 100 voices chattering away, I was the only person apart from the driver on the bus. These experiences were always very brief, and few and far between. My last hallucination was during an intense bout of psychosis in 2015 and was my first visual hallucination. I was walking down a pavement after jumping out my mums car in a crossroads in a moment of frustration and distress with my condition. I was trying to run from myself. What appeared to be a homeless man with a dark complexion approached me, and asked me what was wrong. I explained that I had been sick most my life, and I wasn't sure I had the strength to continue. He looked at me, and smiled and told me 'everything is going to be okay in the end Ren.' I had not told him my name. There was something so overpoweringly sincere about this very simple message, which brought with it an overwhelming feeling of inner peace, and in a flash, he vanished. My rational brain always linked these experiences to what the doctors have told me, that there are parts of my brain compromised by the autoimmunity in my body. That the myelin sheaths surrounding the complex electrical system that conduct my thoughts were damaged and compromised, causing these lucid experiences that I knew did not exist inside the physical world. The part of me that edges away from logical and rational thought always attributed these thoughts to some kind of otherworldly intervention, that made my thoughts the battleground of some spiritual tug of war. For a long time, I never really acknowledged this part of myself, for with it brought the danger and stigma of sounding like a crazy person. I decided with my latest release, to the best of my ability, to capture and express this chess match of thought.

Five Years in the Making "RESIST" An Incredible Song by Janis Ian

Legendary singer-songwriter Janis Ian has received honors and served as an inspiration for many upcoming musicians over the course of her illustrious career.

She is as direct, honest, and courageous as her music and emanates the kind of assurance that comes from years of dismantling barriers and expressing her thoughts, even when the establishment tried to silence her.

Janis Ian - The Light at The End of The Line photo by Lloyd Baggs

Photo by - Lloyd Baggs

Below is the marvelous song “Resist” that took five years to complete due to Janis Ian’s perfectionism to get not only the lyrics but the video to work in harmony with her vision.

Video Source: YouTube

Here Janis Ian announces her tour date cancellations due to a voice threating infection.

Lyrics Below: “RESIST” - (Janis Ian)

She is. She is. She is.

She is. She is. She is

She is. She is. She is

Too short too fat too skinny

Too tall too plain too pretty

Too hot too wet too sticky

Too… picky

Oh, what an ugly girl.

Oh, what an ugly girl.

Put her in high heels, so she can’t run

Carve out between her legs so she can’t come

Get her a dress, for easy access

Tell everybody that she’s just like all the rest

How long?

How long, how long, how long

How long?

How long, how long, how long

Tell me I’m ugly so I’ll buy your crap

Tell me you want me ‘cause I don’t talk back

Tell me I carry the original sin

Tell me I’m holy when I cover up my skin

Tell me that my body bears a permanent stain

Tell me we can marry if I give up my name

Call me your baby so I never grow up

Tell me you love me when you only want to fu-fu-fu

Funny how I whisper, and you think it’s a roar

You ask me to the table then you seat me on the floor

You want me to be sexy. You want me to be pure.

I cannot be your virgin and I will not be your whore.

Resist.

Resist resist resist.

Resist.

Resist resist resist.

It’s a funny kind of thing, when you sing a little song

and you get a couple people to sing along

It’s the power of community.

Authenticity changes your reality

I know it’s hard to believe when they’re yelling in your ear

and it’s the only voice you’re able to hear

But you raise up your fist and you learn to resist

and you say “I will not disappear”

I will not disappear.

I will not disappear

I will not disappear

I will not disappear

Resist.

Resist resist resist.

Resist.

Resist resist resist.

Resist, resist, resist.

Resist, resist, resist.

Resist

HOMAGE - ROVER THOMAS - #1, #2

Having lived in Canada for fifteen years, one of the first artworks I wanted to see, on my return, were the works of Aboriginal/Indigenous artists. I wanted to know what they were painting and, most importantly, what colours were being used.

Of course, first were works of the great influential artist, Albert Namatjira, then the astounding Emily Kame Kngwarreye, Gloria Petyarre, Clifford Possum Tjapaltjarri, Dorothy Napangardi, Naata Nungurrayi and many more.

But it was Rover Thomas who I was drawn to. Why?

Simply, his artwork “appeared” to lean towards modernism, a form of visual language where stories of ‘country’, present and past, are a counterpoint to his direct observation of the landscape and identifiable locations.

The deceptively simple yet powerful imagery of his paintings unequivocally stamps his work as a form of sophisticated, modernist abstraction of universal appeal. SOURCE

Below, respectfully, honoring his comparatively brief but intense creative life is my homage to this fine artist.

HOMAGE ROVER THOMAS - #1

HOMAGE ROVER THOMAS - #2

When I read about his painting titled “Bedford Downs Massacre”, the work above is my interpretation of this despicable period in our Australian history. The painting by Rover Thomas (see work below of his painting) depicted the site of a massacre that happened around the time Rover Thomas was born. White settlers perpetrated several massacres in the East Kimberley region. This period is called the ‘killing times’ by local Aboriginal communities. Throughout his career Thomas depicted several massacre sites in his artwork.

ROVER THOMAS’ ACCOUNT OF THE MASSACRE

During 1924, the manager of Bedford Downs distributed strychnine-laced rations to the workers on the station. As they were dying they were shot. Wood collected earlier was used to cremate the dead and it is understood that only one man escaped. The station manager on Bedford Downs Station instructed some of his Aboriginal workers to gather loads of firewood using a dray. This wood was then distributed in piles throughout the ration camp. The manager also gave out provisions of beef, bread and ham laced with strychnine. Managers from adjacent stations also congregated there and helped to shoot and kill the victims, who were incapacitated and suffering from excruciating pain. Later they used the piles of firewood which the workers had collected earlier to cremate them. Only one man escaped by fleeing to a high hill where horseman cannot follow. Source

When the “Bedford Downs Massacre” painting was displayed at Venice, the exhibition catalogue referred to it only as Bedford Downs, leaving out the violent historical reference. Many felt that this significantly altered the cultural importance of the works, and in doing so silenced the retelling of a disturbing part of Australia’s history

Rover Thomas’ work has been widely exhibited and collected and he is recognised as one of the most significant Aboriginal artists of the late 20th century. Thomas sadly died in 1998 aged around 72.

Rover Thomas, Bedford Downs Massacre, 1985 - earth pigments and natural binders on canvas 95.7 x 179.7 x 4.2cm.

Rover Thomas, Bedford Downs Massacre, 1985 - earth pigments and natural binders on canvas 95.7 x 179.7 x 4.2cm.

Before I go any further I ask that readers should be aware that this post contains references to members of the Indigenous community who have passed away.

Photography Source: ROVER (Julama) THOMAS 1986 Martin van der Wal

Photography Source: ROVER (Julama) THOMAS 1986 Martin van der Wal

I loved when Rover spotted a Mark Rothko masterpiece he asked, “Who’s that bugger? He paints like me!”

Lisadell Country by Rover THOMAS - Medium/Material ochre on composition board.

ASYLUM OF THE BIRDS – ROGER BALLEN ARTIST, PHOTOGRAPHER

WARNING… some images maybe disturbing.

Roger Ballen is best recognized for his photography, although his artistic output goes much beyond that. He is a fantastic filmmaker and installation designer. Still, photography is his real passion.

Saw exhibition of Ballen’s twice when shown at the Museum of Old and New Art - 7 DECEMBER 2013–28 JULY 2014. Visited MONA fifteen plus times since they’ve opened and this exhibition was one of my favorite shows. Also, The Museum of Everything was also very memorable.

Roger Ballen is what you'd call a 'wound opener'.

To mark the publication of his long-awaited new monograph Asylum of the Birds, photographer Roger Ballen, with director Ben Crossman, has produced this psychologically powerful, unforgettable film that follows Roger into a world synonymous with his photographs, as never before seen on film.

My purpose in taking photographs over the past forty years has ultimately been about defining myself. It has been fundamentally a psychological and existential journey.

His images have a very powerful visual undercurrent of psychological darkness through chaotic layers of objects, figures, and the constant presence of birds.

Written and Supervised by Roger Ballen
Directed/Filmed/Edited: Ben Jay Crossman
Artistic Director: Marguerite Rossouw
Sound Recording: Wilma Bees Sound Design/
Final Mix: Darryl Torr & Stefan Durant from Open Room Production

A special thanks for the inhabitants of the Asylum of the Birds House

In the video below Roger Ballen discusses the series Asylum of the Birds, in this interview from Paris Photo 2014. Interview of Roger Ballen for the 2013 FNB Johannesburg Art Fair.

Again WARNING… some images in this video maybe disturbing.

More information about the book: http://www.asylumofthebirds.com/

“I’ve been doing photography, one way or another, since the late 1960s. My mother worked at Magnum and started one of the first photo galleries in the United States. So, I got to know some of the most famous photographers as a young boy, from Cartier-Bresson, Bruce Davidson, Elliot Erwitt and many others. I’ve been involved in this quite intricately. It’s been a passion and obsession for me since my teens. It’s been a part of my life. It’s been hard work, dedication, and frustration, like anything else.”

Source: Incredible Life and Works of Roger Ballen

You’ve got to be committed and work hard. You’ve got to feel passionate. You can’t expect instant success; it’s a lifelong process. It’s not likely to happen for you overnight.

Roger Ballen Foundation <<<

Roger Ballen’s WEBSITE <<< and >>> see more Videos and Films

Video Source YouTube: https://youtu.be/Mv-E6S51VCo and https://youtu.be/2umQ7BSCZzQ

'I FINK U FREEKY' by DIE ANTWOORD (Official)

Listen and follow on Spotify: https://spoti.fi/2XbSvcs

Directed by: Roger Ballen & NINJA

Director of Photography: Melle Van Essen

Source: https://youtu.be/8Uee_mcxvrw?si=lPAXlOeNU2KHHdNc

Take Off - 2012 photo by Roger Ballen

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