The Musician From open-mic to concert stage and beyond, if you have ever performed and know what it is like, or have been in the audience and wondered........ this album is for you
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About The Music
Travel the blue hiways of America, "city lights and small town summer nights" (from "Move it on down the Road") and you will hear the music of America from musicians playing in every imaginable venue.
MIDNITE -- EMPTY HIGHWAY. Desert plains and more stars than you ever thought possible. In the middle of nowhere you pull off at a small tavern proclaiming, "Beer and Eats". As your brain de-fogs you begin to note in a corner of shadows the sound of a guitar, and see, in the half-light, an old man running licks -- blues, classical, jazz, folk -- woven together in a carefully considered stream of consciousness. You wonder: where did he come from and how is he come here? What is the story of The Musician?
Travel the blue hiways of America, "city lights and small town summer nights" (from "Move it on down the Road") and you will find America.
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Track 1&2 -- "Introduction" and "Move It On Down The Road"
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The job of being a musician is to get the music to the people. As both a singer-songwriter folk guitarist and solo instrumental guitarist, I have played a variety of venues -- concert halls, state and county fairs, fine dining restaurants, bars and nightclubs, private engagements (weddings and the like), small bistros, business meetings and conventions, and yes even street music. Have guitar -- will travel. The life and lifestyle of The Musician is an on-going journey with an unknown destination -- since the destination is shrouded in mist, it is the journey that counts.
"There is an 'all or nothing' view of music as a profession, amoungst musicians and non-musicians. Either you are an A-List celeb, or you have a local amateur status at the open mic at a local tavern whicle holding down a 'real' job that has nothing to do with music. But somewhere in between being an A-List Celeb and being a Has-Been-Before-You-Was, there is a middle ground. Within that middle ground is the freelance journeyman musician." (from "The Musician Music/Songbook, Introductory essay, p 1, by Richard Hannemann).
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"The Fountain" The splash of a fountain, the running of a stream, the steady fall of rain ............. this is the music of "The Fountain"
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"Listen to the world around you" (from Segue 7 - Source on the album) The Fountain is a favorite of audiences and my students usually choose this as the first piece they commit to long term memory. It has been played on Channel 2 News, Chicago on a rainy day. I wrote this while performing at Bruno's Ristorante in Mar Vista California -- it was a slow day and as I got to listening to the fountain in their Roman-style Garden I just started to play along with it. Most people, without knowing the title, hear moving water; either a stream, or a rainstorm, or a fountain.
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Track 23 & 24: "Where and Beyond" and "The Musician"
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Travel the blue highways of America -- the old US routes and the State and County roads -- and you will find America. In particular you will find "little restaurants and dinky little cafes" (from "Please Tip The Musician") that are family owned and operated which serve up great food, friendly conversation, and are always happy to hear the tunes of a wandering musician.
I have a particular fondness for places where a friendly waitress who calls you "darling" gives you the choice of the blue plate special or the special blue plate or the blue special plate. And the biscuits and sausage gravy, for which I have a particular weakness, is always guaranteed to stick to the ribs and add miles to the journey. And while enjoying the blue plate I have met folks from all walks of life...........and they have always been good company. Small town or large, these places are to be sought out and savored.
After several years and tens of thousands of miles by car, by bus, and by Vespa (yes) I couldn't possibly list all of my favorites -- because they are all my favorites.
Travel the blue hiways of America, "city lights and small town summer nites (from "Move it on down the Road") and you will find America -- the milieu of the singer-songwriter folk guitarist.
Where and Beyond and The Musician are the perfect close to the album -- an ending which implies a beginning................
Some where, out there, is an elderly musician in his Winnebago driving around the country doing pick-up gigs. He's about as "retired" as any musician ever gets. He's done the concert stages, the studio gigs, the teaching stint, the album or two, the professiona and the biz, and the Winnebago is paid for. So now he's come full circle. When he was a youngster, it was playing for tips in little bars and diners, traveling America, getting the music to the people, and life was a lark. Now, he's playing little bars and diners, traveling America, getting the music to the people, and life is a somewhat more comfortable lark. Up ahead is a highway paved with music, joy, variety, and magic................
And the soft sound of Euterpe singing.
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To purchase direct send check or money order for $15 per copy to
Hannemann Music 2311 - A - 36 street Los Alamos NM 87544
(make certain to send note telling me what you are purchasing and how many )
To purchase by credit card see below :
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To Purchase the physical cd
click here:
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Review -- Albuquerque Journal
by David Steinberg
Richard Hannemann's charmingly quirky CD presents the musician as a man of many instruments and a composer in many engaging stlyles. He is most proficient as a fingerpicker on a classical guitar, but he also is competent accompanying his story-songs as a flat-picker on the 12 string and the banjo-mandolin.
The album shows off Hannemann portraying a growly-voiced humorist-philosopher in some of his improvisatory "Segue" cuts (though his singing voice is a clear lyric baritone).
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