D. Lee Jackson

Words and Music

New Music Collaboration In The Works

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Agony logoA contest has just concluded over in Facebook involving the Bass Guitar player from the San Antonio-based Nü-metal band Agony and myself. The Bass Guitarist, Alan Wehrmann, would toss out a one-liner from Duke Nukem 3D (specifically from E1L1, “Hollywood Holocaust”), and then I would post a riddle to accompany it. The idea was to point people toward what the two of us were cooking up: a secret collaboration between his band and myself on a Nü-metal version of “Stalker,” the music from E1L1 of Duke Nukem 3D. We declared a winner early this morning.

So now, the cat is out of the bag. Agony and myself are cooking up something we hope will be worth listening to, at least if you are a fan of the heavier of the heavy metal genres. It’s going to be very loud, it’s going to be very crunchy, and it’s going to be very growly – very much unlike the original “Stalker.” I’m stoked.

The whole thing started off when I saw Alan post something about music on Doomworld in the “Everything Else” forum. I learned that he was with a band, listened to their music, and issued him and his band a friendly challenge: remake “Stalker” in his band’s style. Agony talked it over, and Alan told me they decided to go for it.

Right now, my role in the new version of the song has been limited to consulting from afar. Soon, however, I hope to attend a rehearsal with my MIDI setup and possibly contribute to the sound. Maybe. They may not need me – only time will tell. Regardless, this is going to be fun, and I hope you will enjoy it, too.

An Audio Silver Lining

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SoundCloud 300x300 CloudmarkFor the first time in quite some while, things have started getting musically busy around here. Since my last entry, I’ve finally started taking advantage of my long-neglected user account over on SoundCloud and have been busy posting some of my albums and other music over there. Three albums are up, although one (Derivations) is missing an Album Commentary track (the free SoundCloud account I have limits how much you can post by total time, and I hit the limit before I could get all of Derivations’ tracks up.).

Here are the links to the albums that are on SoundCloud:

I’ve also posted a couple of single pieces of music, although one of them is technically one track with four pieces of music in it. More on that later. The first single is a piece I did in 2002 for “Duke Nukem Forever,” and it’s called the Lenoman Theme. The piece is an intro to an in-game late-night talk show. If you play it, try playing it on loop a few times. I think you’ll like the results.

The other track isn’t an album or game track at all. Instead, it’s something from my history – 1984, to be precise. Back in that summer, I was a member of a Drum and Bugle Corps out of Houston, Texas called the Nighthawks. During a rehearsal stop at Hixon High School in Chattanooga, Tennessee, the mallet percussion section (bells (me), xylophone, marimba, vibraphone) recorded our repertoire for that year’s show. We played four pieces: “The Sinfonians” by Clifton Williams, “From Mighty Oaks,” a drum feature called “Classical Drag” by Vincent Paredes, and music from the motion picture “Somewhere in Time.” I wrote the mallet parts for the first piece and co-wrote the mallet parts for the second piece. You’ll also hear a couple of voices on the recording: mine is the first voice you’ll hear (the other is our xylophone player, Steve McDonald, speaking for his own tape recorder).

I invite you to listen to all of the pieces I’ve put online. If I can ever scrape together the money for their “Next Pro” annual subscription, which comes with more storage time, I’ll upload more works. If you want to contribute to that cause, either buy some of my music from my Bandcamp page or make a donation via my Paypal.me page. I would greatly appreciate either one. Thank you!

New – “Song of the Weekend” Archive Online

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There’s a new feature available here on my website – the Song of the Weekend Archive!

You see, starting back in 2019, I used to do what was called the Song of the Weekend over in the Lee Jackson Audio Community Discussion Group on Facebook. Every other week, I’d let the members vote on a group of three of the songs I’ve written to choose which one would be the Song of the Weekend. I would do a write-up on the winning song, including history, anecdotes, musical analysis (where possible), and any other information I could come up with. This went on until the Spring of 2022, when I started getting too sick to post it regularly.

Anyway, the write-ups from the Song of the Weekend winners are now available for reading in PDF form from my website! No need to dig through a Facebook thread anymore. Simply go the Song of the Weekend Archive top page and choose if you want to browse by date or alphabetical order. It’s not a complete discography of my works, but it’s a pretty big collection. Please take a look today!

Heart Issues Under Investigation

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Human HeartAmidst all of the health issues I’ve had to deal with in my life, I never thought I’d have to deal with one this potentially serious.

I’ve been diagnosed with something called “Heart Failure with preserved Ejection Fraction,” or HFpEF for short. I learned of this at a consultation with a cardiologist today, in which we followed up on an echocardiogram I’d had run earlier this month. That test showed I had the signs of HFpEF, one of which was an enlarged left atrium. The cardiologist said HFpEF is a form of heart failure where the heart “stiffens” while building up fluid, if my memory is correct.

Have I had a heart attack? Not that I know of. Most likely not. I have had chest discomfort and shortness of breath lasting several hours. Recently, I had some stinging sensations coming from the left side of my chest. I’m confused as to how to interpret them.

What lies ahead? Well, first up is a nuclear chemical stress test to see more clearly what’s going on. I’ll get that in a week or so, then I’ll have another follow-up with the cardiologist. I’m also going to have some more blood tests to check on my kidney functions and other things.

Some of this is, incidentally, leading up to another medical situation: the long-awaited repair surgery of the tear of my right shoulder’s rotator cuff. I’ve got to have cardiac and medical clearance in order to have the surgery done. Said surgery, tentatively scheduled for January 19th, is going to be tough, and is going to be hell from which to recover. Estimated physical therapy/recovery time is around a year, at least. Still, anything’s got to be better than sleeping upright in a chair and taking massive doses of painkillers every 4 hours. I really hope this surgery works. I really do.