Here’s a song I recorded back in the 2000s and have been playing live lately! This song was inspired by songs like Lightfoot’s “Song for a Winter Night” and poems like Frost’s “Stopping in the Woods on a Snowy Evening.” I am also heavily using Pachelbel’s “Canon” for the chord structure.It’s a Western Canadian Full-on Blizzard and the character in the song is feeling feelings that can only come at such a time. The street in North Edmonton where I grew up was wide and open with high street lights. When a blizzard would blow in, the street-view from my parents’ big, 60s-picture window was magical! The air would seem to come alive with the falling and blowing snow glowing and sparkling in the bright street lights. Thanks for listening, friends! Cheers!
The Prince of Cups is a card that indicates you are about to engage in something new, something good, and something big that will bring many benefits to your emotional life. But as always, it is up to you to act. Nothing like this will happen if you do nothing to engage in the life around you, and you do not travel onward with purpose, direction, and hope. Take care and have a great day! Card from The Millennium Thoth Tarot Deck
I hope your December 2021 is off to a great start! I have just released another single from my studio in Vernon. This song is called “Buffalo Skinner Redux.” As some of you may know I released a song called “Buffalo Skinner” back in 2008 on my CD Warm Summer Night. While I still love that version of this traditional folk song that I had recorded, a couple of years ago, I was inspired to rework the lyrics to be more accurate with the story I saw in my imagination rather than the more traditional lyrics that I had followed back in 2008. This recording, thus, is a re-working or re-visioning of this classic song.
“Buffalo Skinner” is a traditional song that has been recorded by many people and sung by even more for many years. As an old saying goes, “A great folk song should have hundreds of versions to sing it and keep it vital.” This is one more version of this great song about the Buffalo, Western Canadian Roots, Justice, and Fair Labour Practices.
It has been a busy month as far as releases and news go: since the market season ended for me, I have had more time to get a few things out there.
I am glad, for example, to have republished my book of poems, Wonder, as a ebook. It turned out really nice with the addition of many of my colour photos that I have taken and added to the book! Please see my new release pages for more information.
Also, my book on the Tarot: The Five-Card Pentagram Tarot, also finds itself in an ebook version as of this month.
I started a long-delayed video series on Marshall McLuhan media ecology as well as producing a few more videos about the Tarot. See my YouTube Channel.
I have been busy with my recording equipment, and plan to have a few more singles released before year’s end.
I can see a bit of snow on Okanagan Valley’s highest peak in the distance. Terrace Mountain. The locals have told me that this mountain is their season-change talisman. It’s not summer until all the snow has melted from its peak, so I guess this means that winter itself is on the way!
He says this book is designed to help people move forward with their lives
Book Cover
Marv Machura has released a new book on the Tarot: The Five-Card Pentagram Tarot.
The book is a guidebook to divining your future with the Tarot Cards. Machura’s book can be used by anyone to engage with the Tarot card deck. Machura says, “The Tarot deck is an amazing legacy handed down through the ages that provides a visual and iconic representation of the complex nature of our humanity.” He further says, “This book has the potential to help many people through its explanations and divinations of each card in the Tarot deck.”
The book focuses on the five-card pentacle layout which uses one card drawn from each part of the deck and arranged in a classic pentacle shape. This five-card pentacle layout speaks to the present and near‑future in an immediate and comprehensive way, giving readers advice on various aspects of their lives including their spirit (Trumps), energy (Wands), emotions (Cups), thoughts (Swords), and money (Pentacles).
The book shows you how to use the Tarot deck to give advice and direction for your life and also provides information on the Tarot deck and its use as a fortune-telling medium.
For more information and to get in touch with the author, please see www.marvmachura.com.
This book is currently available at all online booksellers, Expressions of Time (in Vernon), and in person or through Machura’s website.
I have been having a great time teaching for the College of New Caledonia over the past four months. It is a great college with a great faculty and staff. I have been teaching online English courses, but alas, the term will come to its conclusion today.
In between times since my last post, I have released a couple of songs and related videos. The first release is my song “On the Road to Toronto” and the next one is my song “South of the North Saskatchewan.”
I have also recently published an article in Canadian Teacher magazine: “Reflections on Student-Centred Teaching.”
My new book on the Tarot, is nearing completion!
I am looking forward to publishing it soon.
Life is good, and I hope all is well with you and yours. Let’s keep hoping and praying that our world will stay peaceful and open up again with all the wonderful things we have been missing during the past year with COVID restricting so much of our way of life and our basic freedoms and human needs.
Marv Machura Releases New Christmas Single and Video
In Time for Christmas 2020
Marv Machura has released a video to follow-up his recently produced Christmas single: “First Christmas Without You.” The video is available on his YouTube Channel.
The song, written, produced, and performed by Machura, is somewhat appropriate for this lockdown Christmas 2020 where many people are not being able to see friends and family, unlike any other Christmas.
Machura says that he did not write the song specifically for this year, but he admits that its theme is timely. “I wrote the song while on a Christmas Eve walk a few years ago in Penticton. It was a quiet and beautiful night with the snow falling and no traffic.”
Machura says, the song is about getting through and carrying on in spite of heart-break and loss. It is a theme that runs through many of Machura’s songs. “I always write songs that have rays of light and hope in them.” Machura says, “If this song helps your spirit get through the tough time that a lonely Christmas can be, then my job is done.”
Although Machura is mainly known for his neo-folk songs rooted in Western Canadian experience and history, he has written many more-mainstream, popular music that follows in the singer-songwriter traditions of artists such as Gordon Lightfoot, Ian Tyson, and John Denver. He has published over 20 songs in Nashville, released 4 albums, and is soon set to release his fifth early in 2021.
Machura is also known as “singing guitarist” who continues to entertain audiences across the Okanagan Valley where he lives. He is, like all of us, looking forward to a return to normal. He says, “I miss playing live! I can’t wait to be back out there.”
The new song and video can be viewed on Marv Machura’s YouTube Channel. For more information, please contact Marv directly at [email protected] or visit his website at www.marvmachura.com
Marv Machura releases a new single: “On This Beautiful Night”
Produced by Ken Hartfield
December 9, 2020
Marv Machura has released a new single from his upcoming album: “On this Beautiful Night.” This song, written by Marv Machura, was produced by Ken Hartfield.
Machura met Hartfield last year when Machura approached him after hearing Hartfield’s work with the Symphonic Rock Evolution, a symphonic rock band out of Kelowna. Hartfield’s band is a sprawling, ambitious, and successful project that features six vocalists performing with a large orchestrated band performing Hartfield-penned arrangements of classic rock songs.
Machura was looking for someone to produce some of his songs with bigger, more involved production and arrangements. Machura explains, “I love that sound of well-produced, orchestrated music such as The Carpenters and Neil Diamond from the 1970s. Ken is one of those rare people who has that ability to put it all together.”
They quickly began a project that has now come together and is released. The song, “On this Beautiful Night” is a romantic ballad written and performed by Machura who is known as Western Canadian Roots singer-songwriter.
Although Machura’s singer-songwriter reputation largely stems from his repertoire of neo-folk songs, he has been writing songs for many years, publishing over 20 in Nashville and releasing four full-length albums over his career. He says, “This song is just a beautiful piece that I wrote, and I wanted to give it a great treatment before I released it. I am thrilled with how it turned out, and I hope to work with Ken on more music in the near future!”
The song can be found on all of Machura’s online music channels including Spotify, Apple Music, and YouTube Music. Music video release TBA.
See www.marvmachura.com for more information and links to his music channels and YouTube video releases. Call 250-307-1505. Click on the image to access Marv Machura’s YouTube Music Channel.
The work of following through to completion on a project will not be as exciting as it seemed in the beginning when we started the project.
Sometimes the future can seem like a locked iron gate that we cannot either open or break through. This feeling can stem from our reluctance to follow through with our plans of manifesting our will. Follow through is typically difficult. Follow through does not have the excitement of first steps of initiating a project or the celebration of the present when a project starts to take shape and fit nicely in our lives. Follow through also does not have the self-growth of our recent past that we may look back on in satisfaction.
When it seems dark and the sun is dim, it is up to us to shine more brightly. Dig in. Follow through.
This can be illustrated by renovation projects I have done on my home. There comes a point in the renovation where most of the big stuff is done and I can sit back in satisfaction looking at those newly hung closet doors, for example. But, the project is not yet finished. There are still transitions to install on the floor, baseboards perhaps to put in, or other stuff that needs doing before the project is officially done. This is the follow through. The toughest mile, so to speak.
Even the middle period of transformation has more natural motivation to our minds than those important final stages.
We know it is going to be difficult and take time, but the difficulty is all in our minds in the present moment. After all, in the present, we have not even stepped forward to challenge that boarded up or locked up future, or final days of renovating, as the case may be. We are still in the present moment and mostly like in a good place with lots of reasons to feel good about ourselves and our work.
When it comes to big changes in our lives, such as starting a new business or career, we can get to a point where the future looks gruelling and scary, and we may want to stop the forward motion needed to see the project to completion. We may want to stay in the present or perhaps live in the past that has been full of reward and growth that has gotten us to this follow through point.
We should celebrate when things are coming together for us and savour these moments.
As a teacher, I have seen this fear of follow through in action. At the end of the term when my students are so close to graduating, there are always a few who drop out and do not finish the course. It is a fear of those future risks and potentially scary new worlds that will open for them once they graduate and also the worry of all the work that is still yet to be done! The irony is that after putting in so much effort to get to this final point, the remaining work is not that daunting as we may make it so in our heads.
I remember when finishing one of my CDs a few years back. I received the final mixes and was not happy with them. I was emotionally and financially drained from the project. In my mind, the thought of going back into the studio to fix things and get this record closer to how I had envisioned it seemed impossible. How could I do it? How could I afford it? Was it good enough? I knew it was wrong when I signed off on the mixes, but my mind had convinced me that I was done, over. Time to move on. I quit before the last mile was complete. I have been kicking myself for this mistake ever since.
Stay at your post; stay the course; follow through with your work. Others may stop you temporarily but only you can stop yourself permanently
I should have realized that all the barriers were in my head. I needed to step back into the studio and just kept going until it was as good as I could get it. It likely would not have taken too long or cost that much. Yet, like many of us, we fail when our mind creates these barriers for us that seem, but are not, impenetrable. Especially when we have come so far along the path forward already! By this time (when the follow through period arrives) we have already proven ourselves as powerful and capable. That mental barrier needs to go down as we step forward into the future we have created for ourselves. As the saying goes, others can stop us temporarily, but only we can stop us permanently. And it is doubly sad when we stop ourselves so close to that finishing line that will lead on to many other finishing lines down the road. So, follow through in that last, toughest, and perhaps bleak mile. Remember that the hardest struggle before we get going is all in our heads! Make those heels move. Follow through.
“The last mile is the hardest.” This is true because our minds make it so. The last mile is just another mile, no different that the previous mile in reality.
Just waiting for Marv to come take me for a walk…Cherie.
I find myself sometimes waiting for things to start happening. I find myself checking my email way too many times waiting for that response from some prospect or future deal/gig that I have initiated in the recent past. This is not good. Instead, I should keep my focus on the future and what I want to see in it. The future will not manifest itself unless we act in the present moment.
Let the fire burn!
It does not pay to wait for that deal, person, or gig that may or may not come down transom into our life. Life is just like that sometime. Time keeps its own time. Instead of anxiously waiting, all that life-force energy could be focused on manifesting the future. Now is the time to put in an extra phone call and email or do something that will plant seeds of potential future engagement.
These times can be a period to envision the future, perhaps even re-envisioning it to better suit our spiritual quest and divine purpose. For me, sometimes I will pick up a new book to read or some totally different google search to see what rises out of the water. The point is to get away from “the wait” or the “weight” as it may metaphorically feel during these times.
Above the Columbia River, BC.
“Take a load off Fanny, Take a load for free” is how Robbie Robertson envisioned the “weight” or the “wait” as the principal character in this song is someone just hanging around waiting for the weight to be taken off—and literally go someplace new and exciting where life is happening. He sings, “Catch a Cannonball to take me down the line, my bag is sinking low, and I do believe it’s time” in the final verse of his song. After all the verses of spinning his wheels, “just looking for a place to hide,” he realizes that it’s best to not be “waiting for the judgement day.” It is time to take the load off and catch that Cannonball down the road.
Robbie Robertson performing in The Last Waltz. Photo origin unknown
Miss Fanny is there down the road. She can be seen as a manifestation of what the narrator is looking or searching for. And just waiting for her to come to him or just show up in Nazareth is not going to cut it. He needs to catch that Cannonball and pick up his bags creating his future in the present and letting go of the weight—stop waiting and get going.
