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new book
Far Way to Even in which
Eastern
philosophy meets Western science,
hence 'quantum Zen'. Shawn
Phillips is also a subject in the book!
buy
Far
Way to Even
Boleyn is
a spiritual renegade, delivering a plot sustained by brilliant flashes of
insight and laugh-out-loud humor where nothing is sacred and no one is
spared. Pondering the mystery of existence with deceptively funny yet dead
serious confrontations of what plagues humanity, the velvet gloves of golf
come off as Boleyn deftly picks chastity's lock on the gates to Augusta with
ease. Women members of Augusta National? Parallel realities merge in this
hilarious tale of two penniless musicians on their way to play the world
stage with their heroes as a riveting golf match between Eve and Father Time
at the fabulous Fair Way to Heaven Golfing Links, inhabited by such
luminaries as Bob Hope, Jackie Gleason and Jack Lemmon, along with all the
Great Spirits of golf, decides the ultimate fate of Earth, and Augusta
National Golf Club, for the ‘new and improved age of enlightenment.’ On one
level it’s a heart tugging adventure story; on another it brings the Big
Picture into unexpected focus, but perhaps more than anything, Far Way to
Even is a rousing celebration of life, music and the time-honored game
of golf.
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"When asked by
Suz to write a few words about Shawn I silently laughed as I read the
e-mail. Not because it wouldn't be fun to share a few insights with you,
other than what is already offered in the book, but never in my wildest
dreams had I ever imagined writing about one of my heroes, who today, I am
very proud to say is my friend. Educated thought in music today resembles a
smoggy metropolis of Babylon. Space-time questing through music is a
spiritual adventure, a pure meditation and prayer, and Shawn Phillips will
always be one of its shining pioneers. As a young songwriter starting out
during the early seventies, by far my most complex and dramatic category of
influence in musical storytelling ability were those who spoke of radical
transformation in the structure of the world and man's mode of being. A
paradisiacal age had returned and the most common motif of myth about the
rupture between heaven and earth, (the message that failed) was full-blown
in the form of artists such as The Moody Blues, Bob Dylan, Joni Mitchell,
Led Zeppelin, Cream, and most importantly to me, Shawn Phillips. Often a
solemn recitation of ideological cosmology, he was and still is an exemplary
model of the mystic in search of the divine within us all: Christ
consciousness shifting origins of being from feeding the multitudes to
teaching us how to fish. If this sounds too complex, consider how Shawn
Phillips has been teaching us how to feed ourselves enlightenment for nearly
four decades. As a seeker himself, he refuses to ram it down our throats. He
much prefers to dangle it in front of our noses with precision timing until
we take the bait ourselves. Make no mistake, he is a radical in the truest
sense of the word and I bless him as a kindred spirit. His message spoken
around the world in a thousand different ways is one word, and that legacy,
above all others, shall always be... Love."
"The
night before our 15-year anniversary concert together in 1995, Shawn and I
sat talking together around acampfire in the backyard of my home in the high
desert of Arizona. It was a beautiful clear December night, the air crisp
and cool. I had taken a moment to thank him for the opportunity he had given
me 15 years earlier to tour with him and how much I was looking forward to
our show. "Some things are just meant to be. It's a matter of destiny and
destiny is connected to principles of the soul," Shawn said, as the moon
went suddenly pale and small animals scurried to conceal themselves. "And
when you know it you know it." At that exact moment a flaming meteor
appeared overhead hurtling out of the night sky. Bright flashes and loud
crackles of yellow and red came screaming down not five miles away followed
by an iridescent tail of brilliant blues and greens shifting in lucid
colors. "You mean like that?" I replied, as the meteor disappeared behind
the mountains with a loud bang. "Exactly! Now that was far out J.R." All I
could say was, "No shit." Hey, the guy's got strings that reach all the way
to heaven. Maybe it was meant to be."
J.R. Boleyn
March, 2006
Visit the
Boleyn Photo Gallery!
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