6/6/06 (666)

So Rachel called me last night and left a message on my voice mail: "It was 6/6/06 yesterday and the world didn't end..."

Ah, the short perspective of youth, lol. This is 18th or 19th time we've passed 6/6/06 since the Revelation was written, so why should this time be different?

Where do you suppose St. John the Madman got that number from? It's interesting because in magic (real magic, not the stage kind), 666 is the number of the sun. This arises from a natural mathematical correspondence in which each (astrological) planet is assigned a magic square. The sun's square is 6x6 - so it contains the numbers from 1 to 36. The sum of those numbers = 666 (The formula is sum(1 to n) = (n)(n+1)/2 if you'd like to check my calculation).

Were the early Christians afraid of the sun? One could make much of this if one wanted to accuse the Christians of being purveyors of darkness, lol... but it's probably simple politics.

There was a point in history where the Christians were vying with the followers of Mithra - a Persian Sun god - to become the state regilion of the Roman Empire... I suspect this lead to the demonification of the Sun.

Unfortunately for Christianity, they succeeded in becoming the state religion and consequently lost all spiritual legitimacy as any state religion must.

This Cat Coming Back (new CD)

Just in the time for the Huntsville CigarBox Guitar Extravaganza (May 20), I released a new CD, This Cat Coming Back. Like a CigarBox Guitar, it's homemade - burned on the laptop with a hand drawn/written label.

Now that I'm not hoarding my supply to sell at the show, you can get a copy too! Only $5 - I'll cover the shipping.

As it happens, I sent the first copy to self-proclaimed King of the CigarBox Guitar, Shane Speal... He had this to say about it:

I fell in love with the blues when I was in college. I would go to the campus library and check out old Smithsonian Folkways records so I could take them home and dub them to cassette. Being the ADD freak I am, I wouldn't take the time to jot down the song name or performer. I'd just record the album to tape and listen to the tapes endlessly.

There was always one performer who would immediately make me smile when I listened to him. His playing was laid back and happy and his voice was a melodic quiet whisper. I later found out that the cause of my magical smile was Mississippi John Hurt. His music just made me...happy.

I got the same feeling today while riding in my car and listening to the brand new Doctor Oakroot cd, This Cat Coming Back. Doc just makes me smile. His playing is amazing and song choice, impecable.

Doc is one of the few cigar box guitarists who have chosen nylon strings over steel, a choice that makes all the difference in his music. He plays amazing jazz chords on his homemade 6-string, and the nylon strings add a gentlebounce to the playing.

It's funny, but Doc's singing voice closely resembles nylon strings, too. He's got this rounded baritone that just soothes your eardrums when he sings. Perfectly matched for his instruments. Yes, he'll go slightly out of tune at times, but so does his homemade CBG. Perfectly matched.

This is one of the best CBG cds. It's miles apart from almost everyone else. While many of us are banging out gutbucket blues, ol Doc is wowing New England with primal snazzy jazzy. It's the stuff that induces the magic smile from me.

Buy this cd. Buy it. Don't wait. Email Doc and buy it. It's the perfect soundtrack for a lazy summer.

Thanks for the SN #1 disc, Doc. It's your best one yet.

shane