Merry Imbolc! We've made it this far through the winter with each our own personal struggles. In Gowan Ring's song for the seasonal holiday is the new single 'Private War'. I hope you'll have a chance to take a listen on your preferred listening outlet. 

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The song image is from a photograph I took at the Cimitero Monumental in Milan some years ago. 

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Best wishes for the changing season, save a thought for decay,

- B'ee 

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PRIVATE WAR 

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I've come along this trail again today 
I'll take some time in lonely hours 
and save a thought for decay 

Stones and mossy monuments, weather stained 
Sit a while and watch the patterns 
of the puddles in the rain 

It comes these days I wonder more and more 
Just where the lines are drawn 
in my private war 

Water shimmers, eyes blur as I pray 
While thoughts and images from the brigade 
fade away 

I've come along this trail again today 
I'll take some time in lonely hours 
and save a thought for decay 

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STREAMING: 

Bandcamp: https://ingowanring.bandcamp.com/.../moonlit-missive-14... 

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/album/5QmSpmdKOjt6DpY76YT8WC 

Apple Music: https://music.apple.com/.../moonlit-missive-14.../1607181198 

Tidal: https://store.tidal.com/us/album/214041927 

Pandora: https://www.pandora.com/.../moonlit.../ALthjwdZ655wckJ

Fable and song:  www.ingowanring.com/nightingale

"In olden times the Nightingale never sang at night—from spring through summer he rather sang from morning ‘til night, awakening noisily in the grey-blue dawn along with his friends, and frightening the cockchafers sleeping cozy under the lilac leaves."

My old friend Jacob ‘Sydian’ Olsen [Dec 12, 1975 - Aug 12, 2019] pictured here far left from an In Gowan Ring band photo circa 1996; I believe this is in a Seattle cemetery.  

In the short period of time he was in the band we traveled through the northwest, played some concerts (Paris theater et al.) and had many extended all night jams… 

There was the one summer we often frequented each other’s company in pursuit of the sublime and the beautiful, and we sometimes found it. 

I am so glad I had the opportunity to catch up the last two summers after 20 + years.  He had some surprising things to say about our short time together back then – and it was certainly a bit surreal to see him after all this time, since our youthful association was so intense and relatively brief. 

This is the only song of his I had a recording of.  We recorded and arranged it to use for “Pscikidilik Psyrkuz vol. 3 – Vaudeville in Viscous Veneration and Virtuous Villainage” ..that is still left unfinished since 1996.  The picture of him playing guitar in the bathtub was the one he gave me to use on the album notes (I don’t know who took it).  I’ve been carrying the recordings and pictures around with me in hopes to actually finish this sometime – I’m sorry he won’t get to hear it. 

I think he once posted something similar to this Carl Jung quote:  “No tree, it is said, can grow to heaven unless its roots reach down to hell.”  

Jacob had his share of both. 

Last year in my hasty exit from San Francisco I ended up leaving my Golden Key Guitar behind… This was not exactly premeditated, however in my blundering attempts at preparing for the future, I hadn’t procured the appropriate luggage requirements by the day of packing ,and… well, I was so unconvinced regarding my future trajectory, it seemed San Francisco Bay might be as good a place as any for him to hide out for a while, while I busied to the task of figuring life out. 

And so there he stayed, safe at the sQuAwK BOat™ where I had had a work residency and houseboat concert that summer. The long winter we were parted only to be reunited this last week in anticipation of working on Birch Book Vol. IV! 

You can see my disquisition detailing much of the process constructing the Golden Key Guitar over here: (STEPS IN ERRANT LUTHIERIE: A Journey from Wood to Sound in 13 Steps) https://www.ingowanring.com/steps-in-errant-luthierie 

BUT MORE TO THE POINT: You can help us both in recording the next album for Birch Book! Make a donation of any amount (starting $2) or check out all the EXCLUSIVE EDITIONS available only by preorder now through Aug 31st. : https://igg.me/at/BirchBook4 

Thank You all sooo much for the kind notes, love and support! 

merry rowing, 
 

 — in Sausalito Bay.

Ahoy friends and fellow travelers! 

This is B'ee from In Gowan Ring asking for your material assistance in creating a long awaited Album of musick: 

Birch Book Volume IV (working title: 'Wheel of Time'/'Way Back Home').  Crowdfund / Pre-order at: https://igg.me/at/BirchBook4 
  

Surely they’ve been haunting me these ten years, the old songs and the new songs coming... 

We left off at Volume III (‘A Hand Full of Days’) back in 2009 when I was toe-treading out on the West Coast, writing songs by the Columbia river, the beaches and oceansides of Oregon and California.   

It’s fitting somehow that I should be returning to north America as I resume this strain of music that I feel always was connected to the wild places of America and to my personal stories, history and ‘destiny’ as traveler, visioner and musician.     

So now after a good 8 years based in Germany I’m returning to the semi-nomadic life I used to know and in the moment I’m back in the West Coast USA, starting work on old projects once again.  

With your assistance, I’ll be equilibrizing my life trajectory in a non-local fashion with portable office which will include the basic tools required in order for me to continue work on the Birch Book from a rolling duffel bag—just add a desk and quiet room!  Though it may at times seem an intrepid, freewheeling way to go, at the moment it feels I'm free again - a kind of return to my ‘home without a house’ and I imagine to take at least a year before settling a base somewhere. 

The final release date for Birch Book IV is scheduled for Summer Solstice 2020.  Woven through many of these songs are themes revolving around the Sun – the love of sun, the mystery of Sun, the nurturing grace of Sun.  And I’ll have more to say about that in the coming weeks. 

Thank you for your continuing support – It helps me so much to know there are those with ears to hear, heart to feel, minds to travel.  I could not be pursuing this art in the way I do without you! 

BIRCH BOOK vol. IV 
Crowdfund / Pre-order: https://igg.me/at/BirchBook4 

Exclusive Materials and Custom Art Editions available only by crowdfund / pre-order through Aug 31st:   https://igg.me/at/BirchBook4