When my package arrived I immediately began to listen to the CD, called “Fresh Water In The Salton Sea”. First, I run through the CD beginning to end to get a feel for the overall sound of the artist. There was a delightful mixture of a little bluegrass, gospel, Tex-Mex, up tempo songs, ballads and a bit of a contemporary sound for a well balanced CD.
After the initial run through, I start listening to the lyrics, melodies, phrasing and other technical aspects of the music. Drew is an amazing story teller with a great ear for detail and melodies. I especially like the hauntingly beautiful melody on “I’ve Got Some Leaving To Do”. This is a great CD to listen to at the end of a hectic day, and definitely a great mood changer. So now that I have listened to and loved the music, I want to learn more about where the songs come from.
As I began reading the first chapter of the book, also called “Fresh Water In The Salton Sea”, I was blown away how gifted a writer Drew is. The story is about a man who dares to take a dream and turn it into a life of passion and creativity. It is about taking risks and walking outside the safe chosen path that has been laid out for you to pursue your dream of music and song writing. Throughout the journey there are moments that I like to call “unexpected gifts” which prompt the creation of a song that is on the CD. Over the years I have often wondered how an artist can have an innate ability to take a moment in life and capture its essence and emotion in lyrics and melody. Drew describes this process beautifully in the book by saying, “My own version of a dream is different. It involves making it on ideas that are born in my head, that come into being through my hands upon a guitar and my thoughts jotted down on a sheet of paper, the two eventually merged together with a melody sung from somewhere deep within my soul.” It is a gift, and Drew certainly has this gift.
The book is about a man who had the courage and faith in himself and his gifts to leave behind the safe path laid before him to pursue the unknown, unsecure world of music and all the challenges and “unexpected gifts” it provides. It is an uplifting and thought provoking book on how you view success and happiness. How many of us live our lives doing what others expect us to do? How many of us do not have the confidence in ourselves or our dreams to pursue what we truly want to do in our lives? How many of us are feeling trapped and afraid to make a change, especially now in this time of economic uncertainty, to give up our “safe” job to pursue our dream? So we put our dreams on a shelf and wait, for what? Wait for a better time; more money; more security; someone’s approval? At what cost?
This project is about how one man took that leap of faith and followed his heart. I am glad he did. It is an excellent and thought provoking book and the CD is the culmination of a man’s heart and soul that truly is an “unexpected gift” for all of us.
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