This is my new, and possibly final, album. I consider it the best work I've ever done and if I never make another album I would be happy to say that it all ended on this particular note.

Though I obviously have my own distinct sound and musical identity, I would say that major inspirations during my recording of this album would be David Bowie's Blackstar, Peter Gabriel's UP and Kate Bush's Ariel...at least in terms of all of those albums being eclectic studies in contrast and juxtaposition. Like those albums, each song has its own set of feelings and meanings and imagery...and I only hope that this album hits anywhere NEAR the level of artistry of those works. My goal is always to take the listener on a journey through dynamic peaks and valleys and leave them feeling well-traveled by the end of the experience. I want the experience to be impacting on deep emotional, intellectual and spiritual levels, and not just be aural wallpaper to serve as a mere backdrop.

I hope I have accomplished that goal, and I hope that people will take the time to actually LISTEN to this album...but that DOES take a certain level of commitment and an actual interest in music as art. If you have that, you may find this work gratifying. Many have said that it takes a couple listens to “get” what I do...and you may find that to be true as well.

I have made this album available on YouTube as a full album video with lyrics for free listening, as a free download on Noisetrade (link in comment below), and as a paid download on Bandcamp (also in comment below). I had planned on making some videos for some of these songs and to roll it out in a more commercial way, but given the times it seems wrong to me to do so. Above all else, I would would like my work to be heard and remembered. If something happens to me, I would like to know that people listened to and enjoyed my work on some level.

With the exception of Wild is the Wind, all titles are written by John Ludi...who also sang, played, engineered and produced the whole album with the exception of percussion on Whisper in the Wind by Mitchell Hopkins and background vocals (and comic vocalizations) on Mistakes Have Been Made and Everybody Here's Getting Stupider by Em Elle.  Also, I snagged a mandolin part from another project that was played by David Burch.

Wild is the Wind: By Dimitri Tiomkin and Ned Washington
Copyright Patti Washington Music, Shapiro Bernstein o/b/o Catharine Hinen Music, and Chappell, and Co.

Buy on Bandcamp

Mistakes Have Been Made

I'm under the ice, trapped within your frozen soul
The quiet voice of your spirit pure and whole
I'm eternity laughing at your minor mortal role
The twist of fate that shutters all your tiny goals.

Daylight daylight...throw off your chains and step out
Outside outside...the warm summer rains quell your drought
Rise up rise up...constraints are all of the mind
Waken waken...this illusion where all are confined

In your core are stars, down where the frost can't grow.
The ageless spark, those embers still do glow.
Below all the weight and the ever-mounting toll,
Waiting for sunrise to escape this sorry hole.

Daylight daylight...throw off your chains and step out
Outside outside...the warm summer rains quell your drought
Rise up rise up...constraints are all of the mind
Waken waken...this illusion where all are confined

To the sleepers in their nests, to the slumbering soulful best
in the breaking of the day, another path, a clearer way.

To those silent amidst the din, to those who never join in
to the ritual puppet's dance, the contrived consensual trance

To the ones who watch and doubt as the many revel and shout
in praise of their conditioning and their owner's positioning.

Frozen Souls

05 - Frozen Souls

So it's come down to this apocalyptic abyss,
where sentience of any kind can barely exist.
And we find ourselves led by hearts that are dead...
for the suffering they cause, not one tear do they shed.
Their addiction to greed, pushing perpetual need:
the base desires of stunted minds where vultures do feed.
It's all led to a hell of buy and sell, buy and sell,
where everyone's reduced to a pale broken shell.

The dead eyes of the young whose futures are hung
upon the endless lies of a million forked tongues.
On their flickering screens, visions sick and obscene
forge their souls into something small, dark and mean.
And the hearts of the old, once adventurous and bold
slowly molder in the remnants of the principals they've sold.
For once you give in an avalanche will begin,
and then you'll find that YOU are why those pricks always win.

Take back your brave new world and book me a flight to Jupiter...
'cause I don't wanna be human no more: everybody here's gettin' stupider.

The blind rage that you feel. The “Art of the Deal”.
The inexorable turning of a big f**kin' wheel.
And the strong eat the weak, the wise grow flaccid and meek,
and the rich feast on all the fruits of the power they seek.
If there's a future at all (after all of this falls)
it will not be if we heed the same darkness that calls.
The human heart it yearns for the path that does turn
towards the place where all good virtues bake, boil and burn.

Everybody Here's Getting Stupider

04 - Everybody Here's Getting Stupider

This is my new, and possibly final, album. I consider it the best work I've ever done and if I never make another album I would be happy to say that it all ended on this particular note.

Though I obviously have my own distinct sound and musical identity, I would say that major inspirations during my recording of this album would be David Bowie's Blackstar, Peter Gabriel's UP and Kate Bush's Ariel...at least in terms of all of those albums being eclectic studies in contrast and juxtaposition. Like those albums, each song has its own set of feelings and meanings and imagery...and I only hope that this album hits anywhere NEAR the level of artistry of those works. My goal is always to take the listener on a journey through dynamic peaks and valleys and leave them feeling well-traveled by the end of the experience. I want the experience to be impacting on deep emotional, intellectual and spiritual levels, and not just be aural wallpaper to serve as a mere backdrop.

I hope I have accomplished that goal, and I hope that people will take the time to actually LISTEN to this album...but that DOES take a certain level of commitment and an actual interest in music as art. If you have that, you may find this work gratifying. Many have said that it takes a couple listens to “get” what I do...and you may find that to be true as well.

I have made this album available on YouTube as a full album video with lyrics for free listening, as a free download on Noisetrade (link in comment below), and as a paid download on Bandcamp (also in comment below). I had planned on making some videos for some of these songs and to roll it out in a more commercial way, but given the times it seems wrong to me to do so. Above all else, I would would like my work to be heard and remembered. If something happens to me, I would like to know that people listened to and enjoyed my work on some level.

Wild is the Wind

03 - Wild Is The Wind

Your spirit whispers like a draft in a moldering tomb.
You eye the dusty suitcase lying in the corner of your room.
To don your wings once more and pretend you are free,
as Autumn's wind again compels you to flee.

The parade of novelty for now keeps you engaged,
but the night leaves you pacing an empty stage.
Though the faces may change, the motivations remain the same.
All the traveling you do takes you to the same old place.

It's like thousands of writers coming up with the same old play:
the dream's consistent though the food has a different taste.
After a while you outpace even your favorite regrets...
you're a wandering ghost in a world of marionettes.

Every time you think you've found a home
it's just a place to fly away from.

The Traveler

02 - The Traveler

We thank you for your contribution,
but the time is due for a new solution.
Your reward for services rendered?
Your needs ignored and a system dismembered.

You stumble around barely conscious
while we aim for the stars.
So we'll just replace you all
with robots and self-driving cars.

(Chorus)
Pulling the plug. Yanking the rug.
Cleaning you bugs out of the whole damn thing.
Cleansing with fire, the widening gyre...
you filth that aspire to be like us, the Kings.

Wise and free (you really are neither).
You peasantry, we've filled you with either
despair or hate (and fake populism).
Now take the bait of the call to fascism.

Useless eaters bred as slaves,
unaware of your captivity.
Dumbed-down and disaffected
and mired in disunity.

Kings (The Depopulation Song)

01 - Kings - The Depopulation Song

MUSIC FOR THE THINKING FEW.

(NOTE: I only repost songs I like or show some level of competence or promise...and they usually don't involve an 808, misogyny, Autotune or singing off key over a prerecorded track...and at my age I'm FAR more interested in quality connections with listeners than going "viral". ALSO: mostly an aging rock/folk/prog/indie guy...can't really judge or really relate to Hip-Hop, Auto-Tune and other more modern styles...sorry.)

John Ludi is a musician/singer-songwriter/cultural relic with a diverse and "arty" array of influences and lyrical interests who was "Indie" before the term even existed. Working outside of the music industry by choice has given Ludi the ability to release songs of a level of lyrical depth that are anathema to the current culture.  Ludi lives off-grid in a yurt in the woods of WI and finds the materialistic priorities of our civilization incredibly wrong and destructive.