One beautiful part of friendship is the ease. The friend is vetted, trust is in place, and you’ve no need to put up a guard. This makes laughter rise to it’s rightful place all over your face. The greatest peril could be those times when you laugh so hard that you fear not to get enough breath : )

There are other times, really beautiful ones only possible behind that trust in friendship. I cherish them.Conversation takes on a musical quality because each exchange takes it’s familiar path to revelation about what in any other setting would be mundane.

Though it’s no substitute for friendship, I find similar qualities in the art-friendly music of my growing library of audio treasures.

There was a time early on when my young heart rejected music entirely. This was borne of ignorance because of inexperience. What I was learning was that some music works and much does not. When I paint or draw there are times in the progress of an art piece for silence in the studio, times for the informational radio shows, and times for music. Only carefully selected music.

The right music stimulates but doesn’t dominate. It pulls me the direction I need to go for the work on progress. It is a spectacular energizer.

The wrong music simply annoys. It gets in the way, it disrupts, and it must be shut down.

I tried Pandora and realized that their algorithm assumes that the likability of music is tied to metrics that can be used to gather similar tunes. But pandora is the equivelant of having casserole mixed with scraps from an unknown table. For me it does not work.

A favorite method of harvesting previously unknown gems has been to enter gibberish in youtube searches. This brought me the only song I enjoy from Anila Mimani, Eta Dishe Sa shum Te Dua which is so well designed and performed! I never tire of it.

That method also led me to some very good music from the Philipines including an Agi tune called Malasmas. From there I found excellent foreign voices that I thank my lucky stars to have. Some from Scandinavia and Russia I’ve been able to buy on Amazon. МАКSИМ – ЗНАЕШЬ ЛИ ТЫ , Лучшая ночь, and especially Чужой are such. So beautiful!

Kitaro had seriously strong compositions hard to tire of, especially those done in the seventies and eighties. I was introduced to his Silk Roads theme during a college test. It was supposed to be a calm background, but was so distracting that I had trouble concentrating.

I’d been prepared for his work by a local radio station that had a night time show called “lights out” which was shepherded by an enthusiastic fellow who had a knack for extracting the really good stuff. To this day, despite it’s objectionable final seconds, I love using Klause Schulze’s Timewind as theme music. I just wish it lasted longer.

That same show brought me the best of Tangerine Dream, such as the flip side of Ricochete and Meddle. And somewhere in my house is a lost cassette tape of a long music cut whose author and performer I never knew but which if I can ever find a good copy I will gladly buy. I’ve listened to it thousands of times. If I could find that tape, I’d make an mp3 and listen thousands more. Along the way, I’d search for the artist who made it, and maybe find other songs. That’s how I discovered Beautiful Child by Stevie Nicks. Wow!

I can not define the qualities of good music with much better success than those of a good friend. When it’s right you just know. A friend is a stranger that I’ve come to love, not for qualities from a list in advance – but which become apparent with knowing them. One doesn’t shop friends. You can be open to introductions and meet people, but really you can not shop them.

Good music for studio art is that way. Pandora wasn’t much good for discovering new stuff because it’s like having someone else order for you at the restaurant who knows you like your grandmother’s spaghetti, not knowing that her secret ingredient is some cinnamon. It could work. Maybe. Or not.

I’ve found the really good tunes both accidently and ‘accidently on purpose’. Accidently means someone was playing it, it was the life behind a commercial ad, or it showed up on a cd I explored. ‘Accidently on purpose’ means faking the accidental part by entering gibberish in a youtube search, which brought me Qi Xi and other Faye Wong delights.

On the domestic scene, there have been many very useable and wonderful songs and albums also. Thank goodness for the Brits! Hats off to the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band for House on Pooh Corner.

Like friendship, songs that connect are given a pass that allows them right in to the most intimate trusted part of soul and psyche. Then, inside, they enliven the heart. They energize the spirit. They affirm the joy. In so doing, they’re a valuable tool not to be underestimated when creating art.

I’d also point out that their overuse will stagnate a mind. We don’t wear out our friends if we have any sense at all. There is a point beyond which you’d be a nuisance if you went to them too often. Music is an invigorating spice, and a stimulant. These must not be used to excess.

But in it’s  proper place, music can certainly make painting all the more powerful an intoxication while improving the soul of the story I’m telling on canvas.