What happened to the list?
As the CCJ transitions to a
model better geared to leverage social networks, we are
moving away from our past use of email notification
services. If you would like to be added to our internal
email distribution, please send your request to
Rick@RARWRITER.com.
You can also follow us on
Facebook and
Twitter, which we will use to keep you notified of new
features and news articles.
ABOUT RAR: For those of
you new to this site, "RAR" is Rick Alan Rice, the publisher
of the RARWRITER Publishing Group websites.
Use this link to visit the
RAR music page, which features original music
compositions and other.
Use this link
to visit Rick Alan Rice's publications page, which
features excerpts from novels and other.
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Use the RARADIO link to go to
our radio page, where you will hear songs you are not likely
to hear elsewhere.
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MUSIC LINKS
"Music Hot Spots"
INTERNATIONAL LINKS
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ATWOOD - "A Toiler's Weird Odyssey of Deliverance" -AVAILABLE
NOW FOR KINDLE (INCLUDING KINDLE COMPUTER APPS) FROM
AMAZON.COM. Use
this link.
CCJ Publisher Rick Alan Rice dissects
the building of America in a trilogy of novels
collectively called ATWOOD. Book One explores
the development of the American West through the
lens of public policy, land planning, municipal
development, and governance as it played out in one
of the new counties of Kansas in the latter half of
the 19th Century. The novel focuses on the religious
and cultural traditions that imbued the American
Midwest with a special character that continues to
have a profound effect on American politics to this
day. Book One creates an understanding about
America's cultural foundations that is further
explored in books two and three that further trace
the historical-cultural-spiritual development of one
isolated county on the Great Plains that stands as
an icon in the development of a certain brand of
American character. That's the serious stuff viewed
from high altitude. The story itself gets down and
dirty with the supernatural, which in ATWOOD
- A Toiler's Weird Odyssey of Deliverance is the
outfall of misfires in human interactions, from the
monumental to the sublime. The
book features the epic poem "The
Toiler" as
well as artwork by New Mexico artist Richard
Padilla.
Elmore Leonard
Meets Larry McMurtry
Western Crime
Novel
I am offering another
novel through Amazon's Kindle Direct Publishing service.
Cooksin is the story of a criminal syndicate that sets its
sights on a ranching/farming community in Weld County, Colorado,
1950. The perpetrators of the criminal enterprise steal farm
equipment, slaughter cattle, and rob the personal property of
individuals whose assets have been inventoried in advance and
distributed through a vast system of illegal commerce.
It is a ripping good yarn, filled
with suspense and intrigue. This was designed intentionally to
pay homage to the type of creative works being produced in 1950,
when the story is set. Richard Padilla
has done his usually brilliant work in capturing the look and feel of
a certain type of crime fiction being produced in that era. The
whole thing has the feel of those black & white films you see on
Turner Movie Classics, and the writing will remind you a little
of Elmore Leonard, whose earliest works were westerns.
Use this link.
EXPLORE THE KINDLE
BOOK LIBRARY
If you have not explored the books
available from Amazon.com's Kindle Publishing
division you would do yourself a favor to do so. You
will find classic literature there, as well as tons
of privately published books of every kind. A lot of
it is awful, like a lot of traditionally published
books are awful, but some are truly classics. You
can get the entire collection of Shakespeare's works
for two bucks.
You do not need to buy a Kindle to
take advantage of this low-cost library. Use
this link to go to an Amazon.com page from which you
can download for free a Kindle App for
your computer, tablet, or phone.
Amazon is the largest,
but far from the only digital publisher. You can
find similar treasure troves at
NOOK
Press (the
Barnes & Noble site), Lulu,
and others. |
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MUSIC
by RAR
Favorites
I write a lot of songs, and this
page is meant to provide a sampler of some of those that stand as favorites
among my older "children". This will change as new songs are added to the larger
library. There is an expanded library
here of my original tunes.
The RAR Music pages are divided over several sections:
Music by
RAR Originals
Music by
RAR Favorites
Music by RAR
Covers
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Donald's House came
into being as an exercise in chord substitution, ala the kind of thing
that Donald Fagen does with his "fake jazz" (his words). The song
"Donald's House" is nothing like a Steely Dan or Donald Fagen song, it's
just that I think of the compositional technique as being "in Donald's
house".
And while I was there I thought I would steal some stuff. As a song,
"Donald's House" turns out to be about social mobility, or lack thereof,
unobtainable dreams, and grand larceny. Pop Jazz |
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"Dark Matter"
"Dark Matter" re-envisions the Apollo moon
landing as an end of life voyage culminating in the touch down at Tranquility
Base.
Rock |
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Yours truly is offering up a little
Jazz-Pop confection, with all admiration for the ancient Romans, like
the playwright Plautus, who inspired the tile below and knew a thing or
two about winging it philosophically and comically.
Pop Jazz |
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This is one of those songs
that started as a guitar exercise a little along the lines of "Little
Wing" and then just kept morphing into something bigger, more operatic
in structure, if not vocal arrangement. I have no idea where the song
came from or why this particular one made it this far. I write 10,
record a couple, and this one moved quickly from idea to finished demo.
It is derivative, to be sure, referencing everyone from Pink Floyd to
The Beatles to Tears for Fears and Tom Petty. In that, it breaks a
cardinal rule against imitation. On the other hand, I feel this tune
personally so it can't be all bad.
Blues-Rock |
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I can't seem to get my country roots out of my system
- I hear Marty Robbins in my sleep - and yet can't do a country tune
without turning it into a joke. I love those sappy background vocals of
1950s-era classic country and I tried to replicate some of that with
this tune, which, by the way, I love. I hope you do too.
Classic Country |
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Sometimes songs just arrive unannounced and this is one that did so with
great impact for me. The whole feeling of the piece is helped along by the great
photo above, the photographer of which I am trying to find. Click on the
picture (left) to hear the RAR original, "The Clues," a new personal
favorite.
Alternative Folk |
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More silliness with sound clips from "Sexy
Spanish" and some other source I need to re-find and properly
credit. I'll get back to you with this info.
Alternative Pop |
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"Porn International" is a tune of mine
from the ’80s previously known as "If We Get Buzz." I recently revisioned it around some of the great sound samples available at
freesound.com. I grabbed a variety of sounds and mixed them, hopefully to
humorous effect, to create the appropriate ambience for my tale of
temptation, pornography and free market capitalism. I felt compelled to
rename the song because the voices in the freesound samples seemed
obviously Asian, so my bump on the American porn industry morphed into a
riff on porn international. I don’t really know anything about the porn
industry, but I like this tale of this older guy who gets into the company
of impressionable nubiles, "understands" and ultimately exploits
them.
Pop Rock
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Remember back to
having a soul? (My Bechtel song): This one is resurrected from five years
back, a good election cycle offering, an opus of the common man.
Pop Rock
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Pain at the pump.
"RATZ" is a personal favorite about a
vulnerable older man who does things he shouldn’t and whithers in the
blast of youth.
Rock
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ARE ON THE RAR MUSIC - FAVORITE ORIGINALS
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